A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two on the Drapes and Spinach Artichoke Dip with Garlic Pizza Bread

I’m feeling lazy.  Yesterday my other half was gone with two of our grandsons watching their soccer games. I took the opportunity to tear the house apart and do a deep cleaning, a process which drives him to the netherparts of the house when he’s in the vicinity.  This type of compulsive cleaning marathon usually signals the transition from one season to another for me.  A need to get my house in order before the weather changes, I would suppose.

One grandchild, Lauren, didn’t sign up for a sport this year so asked if she could come and help me clean the garage.  A financial crisis in her young life had arisen. It seems she purchased two small finches from a neighbor the weekend prior.  Retrieving a cage used for a previous lovebird now of the deceased variety, she placed the wee birds inside. The finches, being a much smaller species of bird, simply flew back out through the bars and perched on the curtain rods.  This is a logistic problem that perhaps should have been addressed prior to buying the birds, but most of life’s lessons are learned by screwing up first and figuring out how to unscrew it afterwards.  Just ask any politician currently holding office.

At any rate, the deal is sealed for the birds, the cage is too big, and Miss Lauren needs to earn some ready cash to buy them a new one.  It seemed her calculation for a replacement cost was around $15.00.  This made me smile.  When you’re young you have no concept of cost.  If you’re fortunate, bread is in the cupboard, milk in the refrigerator, shoes, clothes, sports equipment and toys are purchased by those from whose loins you emerged.  Children don’t think when they consume an entire bag of chips that bag cost their parents $3.95.  They think that now they’re out of chips.

So, a deal was struck.  Three hours work for a fair wage.  Being somewhat of a gregarious magpie of a girl, I put an amendment to the work contract stating that as much as I enjoy her machine-gun pattern of conversing, I needed less talk and more elbow grease if the job is to be finished before the first snowfall.  All good.

I keep two shelving units in the garage for storing staples and extra cleaning supplies and paper goods.  Her first order of business was to straighten the shelves and organize them, then sweep the garage and empty the trash.  I offered some ideas for how to tackle the organization and reminded her of something my grandmother always said to me.  “If you’re not planning on doing a good job, than it’s pointless to start the job in the first place, because someone else will have to finish it for you.”  After laying out a  plan, I left her to her own devices and tackled the inside of the house.

I turned on my favorite Heart CD, I’m old what can I say.  Magic Man gets my motor running and the house was starting to show vast improvement within an hour.  Stopping to brew a cup of tea, I went out to check on my Cinderella toiling with her whisk and dustpan for her supper in the garage.

I’ve spent most of my life learning from the people around me.  As a little girl, my mother and grandparents filled some of the available spots in my brain and as an adult those closest to me added to the wrinkles along with the rest of the universe.  Since I could open a book and feel the excitement of comprehending the words written there, I’ve had an innate curiosity about the earth and all it brings to the table.

It occurred to me that I had in some ways now become the teacher.  They assume I have gleaned something during my travels through life.  If they were old enough to fully understand my life they might take their questions to someone else, but for now I represent a person that has some serious life experience behind them and might have picked a helpful tip or two along the way.

My maternal grandmother was slight, somewhat serious of a nature, but loving and generous with herself. Growing up in her house she imbued a love of nature and all things food and kitchen related in me.  The hours I spent with her as a child in her kitchen had everything to do with the hours I now spend in mine.  Holding her hand over mine while I sliced a juicy ripe tomato, or showing me how to slowly cook a rich egg custard in the double boiler until creamy and delicious were all gifts she left with me after she was gone.

On my father’s side, his mother was fluffier of build with an ample chest that regularly heaved up and down with laughter.  Not as refined in her bearing as my mother’s mother, and quicker to let you know if you’d touched her last nerve, when she hugged you you stayed hugged and her laughter was unreined and heard often when she was in a room.  Raising three sons and a daughter on a country farm in northern Ontario, her food lent itself more to good old country fare like thick bubbly stews with cloudlike dumplings floating on top, or whole salmon with white sauce and sliced hard-boiled eggs.  On each birthday she would send me patterns to choose from and knit me a sweater with the pattern of my choice, each which I treasured long after she was gone.  At seven, she gave me the needles myself and taught me how to weave in and out to create the stitches as her mother had taught her.  Over the years my blankets have kept many of my grandchildren warm during the winter.

Lauren learned the rewards of doing a good job and the gratification of knowing she worked to solve her problem herself.  Grandparents leave a legacy, hopefully, for those generations who follow. The world changes so much from generation to generation, and with technology as advanced as it is today probably many of the skills we needed to survive in years past will be left behind.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup compressed fresh spinach leaves
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped fine
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 cup half and half
1 cup Monterey jack pepper cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/3 cup Asiago Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, chopped and drained reserving liquid
2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 slices crisp bacon, crumbled
1 Roma tomato, diced

Garlic Pizza Bread

1 Boboli (or any brand) thin pizza crust
Olive oil for brushing
Lawry’s garlic salt
Paresan cheese

Dip:

In small skillet melt butter. Add onions and saute until transparent. Whisk in flour, salt and cayenne and stir until sauce is thick and bubbly but not browned.

Add half and half slowly stirring constantly. Add Parmesan cheese, cream cheese, Monterey pepper jack, 1/4 cup mozzarella and artichoke hearts. Stir until all cheese is melted and mixture is creamy.

Add lemon juice and 1/4 cup reserved artichoke juice to mixture. Stir until well mixed.

Add spinach and bacon crumbles. Stir well. Heat over med. heat until mixture begins to bubble lightly. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place dip in sprayed shallow casserole dish. Top with remainder of mozzarella cheese. Bake for 15-20 mins. Top with chopped tomato. Serve with garlic pizza bread.

Garlic Pizza Bread

1 Boboli (or any brand) thin pizza crust
Olive oil for brushing
1/2 tsp. dried crushed rosemary
Lawry’s garlic salt
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush pizza crust liberally with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt, rosemary, and Parmesan cheese. Place in oven for 8-10 mins. watching carefully. Remove when crust is lightly browned and crunchy.

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