The Laughing Matriarch Moves into a Tiny House...

How can it be three years since I last posted? 

What the HELL have I been doing with myself?

Well, moving here and there and everywhere. 
Helping relatives deal and win their battles with cancer.
Healing and helping our first- born get her life back.

Coping with other family issues (as if we don't all have them.)

Traveling and creating new adventures...

And buying and moving into a 30-foot, 32-year-old recreational vehicle.

As you do.

Holy crap, my house is so tiny...I ain't got room to change my mind. My house is so small..when I drop a Kleenex I have wall to wall carpet. (Thanks- I'll be here all week.)

Anyway, I do love my RV (hipsters call it a tiny house...seriously? It's an RV.) I have my own bedroom (sigh,we both can't fit in the same bed.) My bathroom with a shower has everything I need including room for all my lotions and potions, but it's my kitchen that I love the most.

Can YOU sit at your dinning room table and reach over to check if your cake is done in the oven without getting up?

I didn't think so.

After owning two wonderful homes with nice kitchens and renting other great houses with, honestly, better kitchens, than the homes we owned...this is my favorite kitchen.

The small size forces me to wash the dishes immediately, and I don't waste much food because there is no such thing as leftovers, because I've finally taught myself to downsize my recipes. Oh, and I have a tiny fridge.

When I tell young folks I live in an RV, they treat me like a hero and gush that they've" always wanted to live in an RV." 

All 24 years of their lives.

So anyway, I am back and I want to share my travels and recipes with you, so don't change the channel- I'll be right back after station identification.

"Finishing food is about the tiny touches. In the last seconds you can change everything." Mario Batali





 

Food for Comfort and Comfort for Food; Part I

As the Laughing Matriarch, I laugh through about 98% of my life, but recently cancer made an uninvited and unexpected visited to my immediate family. Even a smile is hard to come by these days.

After a few weeks of tears and anger and confusion, I felt the need to try and wash away some of the sadness by going back into the kitchen full-force.

 

This isn't to say that the next few weeks/months won't be filled with tears, but I will do my damnedest to at least smile in the face of pain and confusion- and fucking cancer. 

 Once an optimist...

Of course, I still don’t have my own kitchen (next week I will!) but this lovely temporary one provided by my favorite female cousin will do just fine.

With the air conditioner cranked and an iced espresso with Bailey’s at my side, I will start this important/positive week off by cooking up the best potato salad recipe I’ve ever tasted- courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. (I will mention my slight adjustments.)

This is the real deal.

Screw the Costco Bucket O' Crap and don’t you dare bring potato salad from Vons to a gathering.

Mon dueu! (I still love France.)

Ask your hostess if you can bring something else if you can’t boil potatoes and eggs. I mean, really? You can't boil potatoes and eggs?

Anyway, here we go.

" Perfect Potato Salad for 20 or So." For the full-on recipe go to: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/fourth-of-july-week-perfect-potato-salad/

(I tripled this recipe for our Labor Day family gathering.)

 

Simple ingredients.

There is a reason it's called 'potato salad.'

Smash & mash. (But don't use the ricer- yuck!)

 

 

Sweet baby dills & green onions. Your greens.

 

If you don't have one of these things go buy one now. RUN! (Thank you, Cissy.)

Perfect potato salad for 20. (I fought the urge to add bacon- but you might not be as strong.)

 

Next up: Strawberry cheesecake.

Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.- Hippocrates