i like food and so do you

Homemade Mozzarella

2010-09-03T05:45:00.000-04:00

So here's how it happened. The first time I made this it worked beautifully. My curds weren't ever so firm that I could cut them with a knife, like the instructions said, but it worked well.

The second time I tried to make it with 1% milk and accidentally added 1 c. water for some insane reason. BAD. I ended up with boiling milk all over my arms and no cheese.

The third time it worked pretty well. I experimented with a whole bunch of things and sort of figured things out.

The fourth time I had six other women watching me and I was extremely nervous. Fortunately, it worked. And I think I've figured it out. I really really hope you all try this, because it is SO COOL to see it actually working! Cheese! In your kitchen! In half an hour!!! It's like the pinnacle of domestic awesomeness.

Things to know before you start:

The milk available in most grocery stores is probably not going to give you a cuttable curd. It will, however, give you a curd that you can dip out with a slotted spoon (and then pour the rest into a strainer to separate the curds from the whey).
The longer you let it sit, the firmer your curds. Some recipes say 3-5 minutes, some say 1-2 hours. I've found that about 10 minutes is a pretty good compromise.
Knead for several minutes--I found that it takes at least 3-4 minutes of kneading to get the silky consistency out of the chunky little curdy lumps.

Homemade Mozzarella

Ingredients: 1 gallon whole milk
1.5 t. citric acid (available at ethnic grocers [Swad brand] or health-food stores)

1/2 tablet Junket Rennet (grocery store near the Jell-O)

Approx. 30 minutes from start to finish

1. Sprinkle 1 1/2 t. citric acid over 1 gallon whole milk (in a large non-reactive pot); gently heat to 90 degrees F, stirring occasionally. I do this on medium-high heat.

2. As the milk is heating, dissolve 1/2 rennet tablet in 1/4 c. cool water.

3. When the milk reaches 90, add the rennet water and continue to stir occasionally until the milk reaches 105 degrees.

4. Turn off the heat and let the milk sit 7-10 minutes, or until large curds have separated themselves from the whey. Supposedly if you let it sit 1-2 hours it will really firm up, but it works at the shorter time too. I really wish I'd taken a picture at this stage, but the curds are probably between dime and quarter-sized and still quite soft. The real giveaway is that the surrounding liquid is no longer really milky-looking; it's sort of greenish-yellow thin whey.

5. Dip curds out of the whey and into a large glass bowl (microwaveable). I dipped out as much curd as I could, then poured the rest into a strainer. If you want to make ricotta (with the Junket Rennet tablets instructions), save the whey.

6. With your hand, press out as much whey from the curd as you can.

7. Microwave the curds for 1 minute. Press the whey from the curd again, then knead the hot mozzarella with your hands until it is cool to the touch (at which point it will be harder to knead).

8. Microwave the curds again for 35 seconds, draining the whey and kneading the curd. Add about 1 t. salt as you're kneading.

9. Microwave again for 35 seconds (3rd time in the microwave, 2nd time for 35 seconds), draining the whey and kneading the curd.

10. Stretch the cheese between your hands like taffy. Continue stretching and folding until it begins to break a bit (or until you think it's done!)--just a couple of minutes. Shape the cheese into balls--you're done!!

11. To save for later, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Here's a website that you may find helpful--it has a bunch of pictures of the different stages. Please note that I don't follow those instructions exactly, since I've gotten a better curd by continuing to heat the milk to 105 after adding the rennet; the instructions on the other site are better suited to raw milk, I think.

Zucchini and tomato tian with parmesan bread crumbs

2010-08-27T05:45:00.002-04:00

As we were sitting down to eat this, my mom said, "Don't you want to take a picture?"

"No," I said, a little grumpily. "I just want to eat."

So...this is what it looks like before the breadcrumbs and the baking.

This recipe is from Fresh, Fast, & Green; the author says that the key to a really delicious tian is letting it bake a little longer than usual so that the juices have time to carmelize. I can attest to this being completely and utterly delicious; much to my dismay, there were zero leftovers.

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 T. finely chopped fresh mint (I used 1 t. dried)
1 T. fresh orange juice
1 t. balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
12 oz zucchini (about 2 small)
1 1/2 lb small ripe tomatoes (about 5)
2 medium onions
1/2 c. fresh coarse bread crumbs (I threw one slice of bread in the blender)
3/4 c. finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 T. chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a shallow 2-quart gratin dish with olive oil.

Whisk together the mint, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, 1 T. oilive oil, and 1/4 t. salt. Slice the zucchini thinly (1/8 and 1/4 inch) and slightly on the diagonal. Add to the bowl and toss well. Core and slice the tomatoes crosswise a little thicker than the zucchini; arrange them on a large plate, and sprinkle with 1/4 t. salt. Let both zucchini and tomatoes sit while the onions are cooking, or at least 15 minutes. Toss the zucchini in the marinade every so often.

Meanwhile, heat 2 T. olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and 1/4 t. salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent and turn golden brown, 10-12 minutes. Transfer to the gratin dish and spread in a single layer.

Combine the bread crumbs, 2 t. olive oil, 2 T. Parmigiano, parsley, and a pinch of salt.

Drain the juices from the zucchini and tomatoes. Arrange the vegetables in rows with the slices slightly overlapping each other. Sprinkle a bit of the Parmiagiano over the zucuchini as you go. Press gently to make sure the rows are level; sprinkle any leftover Parmigiano over the vegetables and drizzle the remaining 2 T. oilive oil over them. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top, letting the vegetables peek out a bit.

Bake until well browned all over and the juices have reduced considerably, 60 to 70 minutes (the edges of the gratin will be very dark. Cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Zucchini stir-fry with coconut and basil

2010-07-09T05:55:00.000-04:00

This dish was designed to use up one of those monster zucchini--so don't hesitate if you've got one lurking on your counter! Young, tender zucchini would work equally well, but I am forever forgetting to pick zucchini when they're lovely and petite.

1 yellow onion, cut in half, then both halves chopped thinly into half-rings
1 yellow pepper, chopped into thin slices (I like the look of the longer slices rather than dices)
1 T. garlic
1 large zucchini, diced (or at least 2 smaller ones)
1 medium yellow squash, diced
1 handful fresh basil, chiffonaded
2/3 c. coconut milk
1 can diced pineapple, drained, juice reserved
shredded coconut for garnish
**I also used 2 T. jarred pad thai sauce for a hint of heat--I would tell you the brand but it's in Chinese so I have no clue.

extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper to taste

Heat olive oil, then saute the zucchini and yellow squash in batches, adding salt to taste (I also added balsamic vinegar at this stage but couldn't taste it later). Remove zucchini and squash when tender, then saute the garlic for thirty seconds (I had to add more oil). Add onion and cook for 3-4 minutes, then add peppers. Continue to cook another 3-4 minutes until the peppers have begun to soften slightly. Add coconut milk and some of the pineapple juice (maybe 1/4 c.?); let sauce reduce slightly. Add diced pineapple, heat through. Serve with chiffonaded basil and coconut as garnish (although the basil really adds a lot of flavor, so don't skimp!)

Serve with brown rice (2 c. water to 1 c.rice; plan on cooking for about 40 minutes) and some delicious fruit!

Panini with grilled zucchini and mushroom-chive mayonnaise

2010-06-11T05:45:00.003-04:00

A note on panini breads: you can buy or make foccacia or ciabatta rolls, which are the traditional choices for panini. We have also had great success with sourdough, light rye, and--believe it or not--thinly sliced bagels (pictured). If you don't have a panini press, seriously consider acquiring one, as they're fairly inexpensive--I use mine constantly. My children (even the mushroom-hater) love this sandwich, so that's a definite plus for any quick meal!

This recipe comes from the book Panini Express--which I love.
Mushroom mayonnaise
8 oz white button mushrooms, wiped clean and finely minced
1 t. chopped fresh chives
3 T. mayonnaise
2 t. lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

For the sandwich
2 zucchini (you could also add in an eggplant; treat it exactly as you would the zucchini--I love grilled eggplant and I save the leftovers to use on pizza)
White cheese (we've used provolone, Swiss, mozzarella, Monterey Jack, and Gouda with equal enjoyment on this particular sandwich. Gouda is pictured.)

Saute the mushrooms in olive oil until they begin to release their juices (2 minutes). Sprinkle with the lemon juice and continue to cook another 3-4 minutes until they're brown (brown as in cooked down, not brown as in getting crunchy and burned). Remove from pan and let cool, then mix in mayonnaise, chives, and salt/pepper.

Slice zucchini (or eggplant) lengthwise in 1/4 inch thick strips. Brush each side with olive oil (I simply use spray olive oil from a can--less mess!) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill on a panini press until browned and softened, approximately 5 minutes.

Compose the sandwich by spreading mushroom mayonnaise on one slice of bread, layering in the zucchini, then topping with the cheese and another slice of bread. Grill on the press until browned and golden, approximately 3-5 minutes, depending on your press.

Dad's whole-wheat bread

2010-06-04T05:55:00.001-04:00

Confession: it took me about three years to get this bread just right (including lots of hovering while my dad was baking). I've found that success really depends on several things: a) the fineness of your flour b) the amount of time you knead and c) your altitude (I had to finesse it all over again when we left Utah). So if you're just beginning to bake bread and it doesn't work the first time--or the second--or the tenth--just keep trying. Bread is my very favorite thing to make, even though I've had way more bread failures than any other "genre" in the kitchen. There's just something so satisfying about turning flour and yeast and water into something so warm and welcoming, so redolent of safety and love. When I bite into a slice of bread, I can close my eyes and I'm six years old, it's Saturday night, and Dad's just pulling another loaf pan out of the oven.

Dad's recipe:
2 T. yeast
2 1/2 c. warm water (about 110 F)
2 T. sugar
2 T. oil
2 t. salt
5 c. flour (1 c. white, 4 c. whole-wheat, or you can leave out the white and use gluten--but it rises better with a little white)

Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the sugar and oil, then set aside yeast mixture until it foams up. Add flour and salt. Knead--I highly recommend using a stand mixer (I have a KitchenAid) for this. The trick is really letting it knead for a long time--longer than you'd think. I typically add 2 cups of wheat flour, let it knead for about three minutes, then add a cup of white, knead for another couple of minutes, then add the rest of the flour and let it knead for another 5-10 minutes. Bread dough made with whole-wheat will be stickier than doughs made with white flour, so don't keep adding flour until it's totally balled up on the hook like you would for a white-flour dough. HOWEVER, it should not be a wet slush. As you get more experienced, you'll develop more of an eye and a feel for how the dough should look/feel when it's finished.
Let rise to double (about 45 minutes if you're using instant yeast). Knead again, form into longish ovals and put into greased and floured loaf pans. Let rise again (about twenty minutes), then bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Immediately remove from pans, let cool on rack until cool enough to serve (if you cut it too soon, it will crumble apart--but if you wait too long, it won't melt butter. You decide where you want to cut on this continuum! I usually wait about five minutes and figure if it crumbles, it crumbles).

A couple of other notes:

If you let the dough rise too long, it will fall and look a little deflated. This means your final loaf won't rise as well.
On that note, there's a little thing called "oven spring" which means your dough will continue to rise slightly once you put it in the oven. I let my second rise go until the dough is peeking over the top of the loaf pan, then put it in.
My dad's recipe is formulated for smaller loaf pans than they sell now. What I generally do (for one loaf of bread) is adjust this recipe so I'm making (roughly) a 3/4 amount. This is just right for my pans to get one good-sized loaf. So I use 1 3/4 c. water, 1 3/4 T. yeast, etc.
I have an Ultramill, which is the kind of mill that grinds a #10 can of wheat into flour in about two minutes. Super fast, but a coarser grind than my dad's stone mill. This also impacts rise. Again, this is part of why I plan to make more dough per pan.
For a whole-wheat dough, use cool water on your hands rather than flour (as you would for a white-flour dough) as you're shaping the dough into a loaf.
If you don't like whole-wheat bread, this also works really beautifully with all white flour.

PLEASE feel free to ask questions!! This is something that's a little difficult to convey without a nice lump of dough in my hand and you standing next to me at the counter. :-)

Grilled lemon artichokes with spinach and fettucine

2010-05-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

I used fresh artichokes to make this recipe because that's what I had on hand; you could also use canned artichoke hearts to shorten the prep time, but they won't have the smoky depth of flavor that you get from grilling fresh artichokes. For more information about preparing the artichokes for cooking, go here. Basically, you need to get rid of all the poky parts; you'll know if you missed any because you'll stab your fingers and it will hurt way out of proportion.

1 lb baby artichokes, trimmed and stemmed, with outer petals removed
5 oz fresh spinach
8 oz fettucine noodles
fresh Parmesan cheese

Dressing:
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. olive oil
1 T. Dijon mustard

Heat up your grill (I used my panini press so I wouldn't lose any artichokes through the barbeque grill grate, since they sort of fell apart as I was preparing them. You could also use a George Foreman or other countertop grill. But seriously--I love my panini press and I use it to grill constantly, not just for paninis...so think about getting one. :-)

Boil prepared artichokes until fork-tender, approximately 10 minutes. Drain artichokes and immerse immediately in cold water to prevent further cooking. Drain again once they've cooled; toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper (I use a Ziploc bag for this and just dump everything in together so I can be sure things are evenly coated). Grill artichokes for about five minutes or until they're visibly browned.

Start cooking your pasta.

Toss the artichokes with the dressing and let sit for half an hour or so, if possible (or you can just eat right away). Toss with cooked pasta, several generous handfuls of torn-up spinach, and another generous handful or two of fresh Parmesan. Voila!

Roast Garlic Soup

2010-05-14T05:45:00.000-04:00

This soup comes from Martha Stewart Living. Despite the large quantity of garlic, this soup is a mellow velvety broth (picky eater-approved!). It makes an elegant first course for a fancy meal; alternately, pair it with a loaf of crusty bread and a green salad for a weeknight meal that requires only minutes of prep time. I like to snip fresh chives over the top to give it a little extra pizazz.

Roast Garlic Soup
serves 4

2 garlic bulbs, cloves separated (about 40)
1 large russet potato (12 oz), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large yellow onion (12 oz), trimmed, peeled, and cut into wedges
1 1/2 t. ground sage
1 T. olive oil
1 1/2 t. coarse salt
freshly ground pepper
1/3 c. apple juice (or sherry if you prefer)
3 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
1 t. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400. Toss whole garlic cloves, potato, onion, sage, oil, 1 t. salt, and a pinch of pepper in a large ovenproof skillet or dish. Cover and transfer to oven. Roast, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. (I use a Corningware baking dish for the oven step and then transfer to a stockpot for the stovetop steps.)

Remove pan from oven; stir in 1/3 c. water. Cover, return to oven, and roast until potato is deep gold brown and garlic and onion are very soft (about 30 minutes). Transfer garlic cloves to a plate, let cool slightly. Squeeze garlic from skins into skillet; discard skins.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add sherry or juice and cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits (this is where the flavor is!) about 1 minute. Add stock and 1/2 c. water, bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Puree soup in a blender in batches, or use an immersion blender in the dish itself (my preferred method). Heat over low heat; stir in lemon juice and remaining 1/2 t. salt, and 1/4 t. pepper.

artisanal-style pizza

2010-05-07T06:00:00.003-04:00

This is honestly the best pizza I've ever had in my life. The original recipe comes from Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix via May 2009's Martha Stewart Living. This recipe has a delicate crumb and a perfectly crunchy crust--use a preheated baking stone for best results. And I'll be honest with you--you need toppings that are worthy of this crust! We have also found that this works very well if you refrigerate it after the first rise, making a perfect choice if you have afternoon church--just divide, cover with plastic wrap, and stick in the fridge, then take it out when you get home while the oven heats up.

Dough (makes 4 12-inch pizzas)
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast
2 c. warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
5 to 5 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 t. fine sea salt
Extra-virgin olive oil, for greasing bowl
**scroll down for topping suggestions**

Dissolve yeast in warm water, let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in 3 c. flour and the salt, stirring until smooth. Stir in additional 2 c. flour, adding flour (up to 1/2 c.) 1 T. at a time, stirring until dough comes away from bowl but is still sticky (I use my KitchenAid stand mixer for all this).

Turn dough out of bowl and onto a lightly floured surface, kneading with floured hands. Fold the dough back over itself, repeating until it's easily to handle and less sticky, about ten times. Knead normally until dough is smooth, elastic, and soft, but still a little tacky, about 10 minutes.

Shape dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl; turn to coat. Cover with plastic, let rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume (2-3 hours; when pressed with finger the indent should remain).

Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 500 for an hour. Scrape dough out of bowl onto floured surface, cut into 4 pieces, and shape into balls. Dust with flour, and cover with plastic. Let rest 20-30 minutes until dough relaxes and almost doubles. Turn over a baking sheet (we like jelly roll pans) and cover it liberally with cornmeal.

Holding top edge of 1 dough ball in both hands, let bottom edge touch work surface. Carefully move hands around edge to form a circle, as if turning a wheel. Hold dough on back of your hand, letting its weight stretch into a 12-inch round (Neil likes to toss it at this point, but I always ruin it, so if he's not home I just stretch it).

Transfer dough to inverted baking sheet (on cornmeal side). Arrange toppings, then carefully slide the dough off the baking sheet and onto the hot stone. We find that this generally requires two people with metal spatulas (see picture). Bake pizza for 12 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden brown; remove from oven with peel and serve hot!

Toppings:

Our favorite combination (pictured) is pesto, grilled eggplant (brush cut eggplant with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, grill on panini press or George Foreman-style grill for 4-5 minutes or until done), red onion rings, shaved Parmesan, and black olives. In summer, we add thick slices of heirloom tomatoes (Brandywine is our favorite). We also make one with olives, peppers, onions, and mushrooms for the kids, who aren't crazy about eggplant. Our favorite jarred sauce is Classico Traditional Sweet Basil.

other suggestions from the MS Living article:

tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil
tomato sauce, oregano, garlic
tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, gaeta olives, salami
fresh mozzarella, ricotta, parmigiano-reggiano, arugula
parmigiano-reggiano, red onion, rosemary, pistachios
smoked mozzarella, fennel sausage, oven-roasted onion
fresh mozzarella, mortadella, garlic
heirloom tomatoes, pecorino, dried oregano, pancetta

Dijon Fruited Salad

2010-04-23T10:09:00.000-04:00

The original recipe comes from my sister Ruth's mother-in-law, Adrienne. She served it at Ruth's bridal shower and I ate three plates of this salad (I think everyone else at my table did as well!) It was SO good. Adrienne says that the salad was originally made without chicken; the recipe that I have includes 2 lbs of cooked diced chicken, which I generally leave out, but if you're a meat-eater and you want this to be more substantial, I would recommend baking a couple of chicken breasts (350 for 35 minutes), then dicing and adding to the salad after the chicken has been chilled.

Dijon Fruited Salad

Dressing (prepare and refrigerate overnight; I toss everything in a pint jar and shake vigorously):
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. lemon juice
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. poppy seeds
3/4 c. oil
1/2 t. salt
2 T. finely chopped red onion

Salad:
2 heads chopped romaine lettuce
2 unpeeled diced red apples
2 unpeeled diced pears (rinse diced fruit in lemon juice to prevent browning)
1 1/2 c. cashews
1 c. dried cranberries
1 c. shredded mozzarella (I generally leave this out these days...but it's really tasty. :-)
**2-3 diced avocadoes
**1 lb sliced strawberries

**not in original recipe but extremely tasty additions!!

Whole Wheat Waffles

2010-04-16T06:00:00.000-04:00

image
Every Saturday morning, my dad makes whole-wheat waffles for breakfast--accompanied by Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (also known in our family as "the waffle song"). They are the best waffles I have ever had in my life. This was such a fixture of my childhood and adolescence that it's probably one of the things my friends remember most about Friday night sleepovers at our house--you could always count on a breakfast table heaped with delicious hot waffles. (In fact, much of the enthusiasm our friends had for going to our house was based on my parents' cooking.)

My dad's recipe (like many of his recipes!) is without cut-and-dried measurements. I've never tried to measure quantities; every time I make the waffles I find myself silently reciting his measurements because that's just the way you make it. The great thing about this is that the recipe is based on per-person amounts, so it's super-easy to adjust for one person or for a crowd.

Whole-Wheat Waffles
1 egg per person, yolks and whites separated
3/4 c. to 1 c. whole-wheat flour per person
A nickel-sized pile of salt, measured in your hand
A dollop or two of oil
Enough milk

After separating eggs, add yolks to the main batter bowl, but whip whites to meringue quality in a KitchenAid or other stand mixer (or with a whisk, or with a fork, depending on where you are--I've seen Dad beating them with a fork, but I'm not that tough). Mix yolks, flour, salt, and oil, then add enough milk until the batter runs smoothly off a spoon (see picture). It should be neither runny nor chunky--just smoothly running. If I had to guess how much milk to use, I would say in fairly even proportion to the amount of flour used--maybe about a 1:1 ratio?

When the batter is fully mixed, gently fold in the beaten egg whites. This creates a super-light, fluffy, beautiful batter with all the goodness of whole wheat and none of the dense heaviness. Bake according to your waffle iron's specifications.

We like to top this with homemade maple or orange syrup (for a regular morning), or if we're feeling fancy (or eating this as dinner rather than breakfast), fresh fruit--blueberries, strawberries, peaches, etc. And whipped cream. YUM! This is, in fact, my standard have-the-missionaries over dinner--their eyes always light up when they see the table. (Ditto for the kids, who can easily pack away three or four waffles each.)

Oven-roasted vegetables

2010-04-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

This is a dish that usually makes a weekly appearance at our house. It varies depending on what I have on hand and what's in season (it's an excellent use-it-up recipe as well!) I usually make more than I think we'll eat and use the leftovers in other dishes later; for instance, you could layer the roasted vegetables in a lasagna, toss with pasta, etc.

**Ingredients may vary--use what you like! The following recipe is what's pictured and what I had that day. All ingredients, except when otherwise noted, should be cut into bite-sized pieces

1 lb asparagus
3 medium-sized red potatoes
1 eggplant
1 large onion, cut in wedges
3 carrots, peeled
3/4 lb mushrooms

**other favorite ingredients: summer squashes/parsnips/garlic/peppers/winter squashes would probably be good, but I haven't tried them--sweet potatoes would probably work well too!

Toss chopped vegetables together in a large bowl with extra-virgin olive oil to taste (the more you put in, the better it will be; I never measure so I'm guessing I usually put in 1/4 cup? Or maybe just a couple of tablespoons?) Season with salt and pepper to taste. I also like to add rosemary.

Preheat oven to 425; divide vegetables evenly between rimmed baking sheets in a single layer. Roast for 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Waldorf-style tuna sandwich on cranberry seeded bread

2010-04-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Take ten minutes to assemble this sandwich for a simple dinner when you've made Dakota bread earlier in the day. The dried cranberries, nuts, and seeds in the bread are echoed in the salad itself, elevating this from a plain tuna sandwich to an elegant little bistro number. I like to serve this with baby spinach and/or alfalfa sprouts; it goes well into a tortilla as well. Even if tuna isn't usually your thing, give this a try!

Waldorf-style tuna salad
The salad is adapted from a recipe from Stephanie Nielson of NieNie Dialogues; she has since taken down her cooking blog (although when I emailed her wondering if it was permanent she said that she was planning to put it back up when her surgeries finished) so I'm listing the recipe here as I make it, rather than linking back and noting my modifications.

Dressing:
1/3 c. plain yogurt or mayonnaise
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 T. chili sauce
1/4 t. salt, freshly ground pepper
Salad:

3 cans tuna in water, drained
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/3 c. chopped red onion
1/3 c. chopped celery
3/4 c. chopped red apple
1/3 c. chopped toasted nuts

Red onion dressing

2010-03-26T14:23:00.001-04:00

My most-used dressing; this has a fruity component with a delicious tang that makes it the perfect companion for spinach-type salads!

1/2 red onion
1 C sugar
2 T dry mustard
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C red wine vinegar
1/2 C oil

Blend all ingredients together--the spiciness of the dressing will depend on the strength of the onion, so adjust the amount of onion included accordingly (I recommend tasting the onion as you're chopping!)

Roasted portobello mushrooms

2010-03-26T14:20:00.000-04:00

These thick, meaty mushrooms are divine sandwiched between slices of focaccia with a bit of avocado and red onion dressing. If I'm serving this alongside a spinach salad (the one picture here also includes oranges, pecans, dried cranberries, and avocado), I'll often put some salad in with the mushroom. Alternatively, you could slice the mushroom and serve it atop the salad!

This recipe comes straight from Veganomicon.

Marinade:
1/2 c. cooking wine (I use white grape or apple juice)
1 T. olive oil
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large or up to 4 small portobello caps.

Combine all ingredients in a glass pie plate. Place the mushrooms caps-up in the marinade and spoon marinade liberally into each cap to form a small pool. Marinate for 20 minutes; cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, flip the caps over, and cook, uncovered, for another 10 minutes.

Focaccia

2010-03-26T14:05:00.000-04:00

This recipe is adapted from Williams-Sonoma Breads. It tastes best hot from the oven; I like to split it in half for sandwiches.

2 1/4 t. quick-rise yeast
1 1/4 c. lukewarm water
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil, plus a bit of extra
2 t. regular salt (I use sea salt)
3-3 1/2 c. unbleached bread flour (occasionally I'll substitute a cup of WW)
coarse salt for top of loaf
crumbled dried rosemary
**1 egg white

Dissolve the yeast into the water, stir in 2 T. oil and 2 t. regular salt. Gradually stir in 3 c of flour to make a soft dough that holds its shape. Knead by hand or with the dough hook of a mixer, adding flour as necessary. Knead until smooth and elastic (10 minutes by hand or about 6 with the dough hook).

Form the dough into a ball and place in a clean, greased bowl, turning to grease all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 45-60 minutes.

Grease a heavy rimmed baking sheet (I use my jelly roll pans) with olive oil. Knead dough a few times on lightly floured surface, form into a ball and let rest on baking sheet for five minutes. Stretch or roll out the dough until it covers the bottom of the pan. Cover with a towel and let rise until puffy, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Uncover the dough. Using your fingertips, make a pattern of dimples at 2-inch intervals over the entire surface. Brush with olive oil and lightly sprinkle with coarse salt. OR, if you're adding rosemary and you'd like it to stick, brush the surface with egg white, then add rosemary and coarse salt.

Bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Best when served warm!

Apple, peach, cranberry crisp with fennel topping

2010-03-08T20:00:00.000-05:00

The topping in this recipe was inspired by the strawberry-plum crisp from Veganomicon, although I've jazzed it up a bit. The filling is a modification of a standard apple pie, with a few little additions to spice things up and make it a tasty little treat rather than a ho-hum standby. If you're nervous about the fennel, go ahead and give it a try--it's what really elevates this dish. The original recipe calls for anise seed, so you could substitute 1.5 t. of that instead.

Topping:
3/4 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. whole-wheat flour
1/4 c. sugar
2 t. fennel seeds
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
pinch of salt
4 T. canola oil

Process in a stand mixer until thoroughly combined and crumbly.

Filling
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
1 quart drained home-canned peaches (this is what I happened to have on hand; if you're using fresh, probably 3. Don't use store-canned peaches, as they're flavorless and too syrupy). If you're using home-canned peaches, drain out as much liquid as you can, but don't get too particular.
1 generous handful dried cranberries
3/4 c. sugar
2 T. white flour
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/8 t. ground nutmeg

Stir together dry filling ingredients, then add fruit; stir to combine. Spoon filling into a deep-dish pie dish or a 9x9 glass pan; bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes or until the topping is browned and the juices are bubbling. Watch to make sure it doesn't burn!!

White bean soup with zucchini, rosemary, and kale

2010-03-08T19:44:00.001-05:00

I originally posted about this several months ago; I received lots of requests for the recipe, but hadn't really noted things mentally as we cooked. When I prepared this soup on Friday evening, I paid more attention, and here you have it. This is a lovely light-tasting and hearty soup; all three of my children love it and eat it without complaining (which is the ultimate accolade). Unfortunately, we never have leftovers, so next time I'll double it

1 head kale, stems removed, cut into smallish pieces
2 15-oz cans navy or cannelloni beans, rinsed and drained
1 onion, diced
2-3 t. garlic, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 c. light-tasting broth (vegetable or chicken)
1 zucchini, washed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2 t. rosemary
1-2 t. lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper, and rosemary as needed

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the garlic and rosemary, saute for one minute, then add the onions and a scant teaspoon of salt and cook until tender. Add the carrots and celery and cook a few minutes more. Add the broth, bring to a boil, then add the beans and the zucchini. Simmer until the vegetables are tender but not falling apart (15-20 minutes). Add the lemon juice and a few grinds of pepper, taste, and correct the seasoning as needed. Stir in the kale until wilted into the soup, then serve with a crusty loaf of fresh bread and salad.

**Note: the broth will thicken somewhat with the addition of the beans.

Dakota Bread

2009-12-14T20:59:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite breads. Everyone who eats it loves it too, so I have never actually gotten a picture of the finished product. It's gone that fast. So here it is on the dough hook, although this actually is a little drier than I usually make it (as in the sides of the bowl are usually not that clean, since it is a moderately sticky dough with all the whole-wheat flour. just a heads-up if you don't work a lot with whole wheat flour--your finished dough will be a lot stickier than a white flour dough).

Anyway. This bread is called Dakota Bread, and it is SO good. It's a really flavorful bread with a great texture and crumb, plus it is studded with all kinds of goodies so it has a very artisanal feel. And like I said before, total crowd-pleaser (in fact, I'm posting it here by request).

Credit for this bread goes to Gena Petersen, a friend of my mom's.

Dakota Bread

2 c. warm water
1/3 c. honey
3 T. walnut or sesame oil (I just use extra virgin olive)
4 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1/3 c. dry milk
1 t. salt
2 T. yeast
1/2 c. each sunflower seeds, chopped walnuts, pepetas (pumpkin seeds)
1/2 c. (at least! I like more) dried cherries or Craisins
1 T. each millet, poppyseed, flax, sesame seeds

Mix water and honey. Sprinkle yeast over water and allow to proof. Add oil to water. Stir milk, flour, and salt into water (I like to add all the wheat flour first and let it knead for awhile to really work the gluten). Add nuts, seeds, and fruit to dough and knead 10 minutes (or just until it looks "right"). Allow to rise until double; punch down, shape into round loaf. Let rise on greased baking sheet. Bake 30-40 minutes (35 in my oven) at 350.

The seeds, nuts, and fruit in the recipe are just guidelines--add whatever you have on hand or sounds tasty to you! I make this differently every time. In the loaves I made this evening for a party, I used sunflower seeds, pepitas, Craisins, millet, and flax, and I used probably a quarter-cup each of millet and flax rather than just a tablespoon, because a tablespoon really gets lost between two loaves. The best place to buy sunflower seeds, pepitas, millet, flax, etc. is probably your local health food store, where you can buy in bulk rather than teeny little boxes.

Stuffed Mushrooms

2009-11-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens. It's tasty, but I also really like the one from Veganomicon (which doesn't use cheese or butter). Anyway.

24 large fresh mushrooms, 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter

1/4 c. sliced green onions (2)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 c. butter

2/3 c. fine dry bread crumbs

1/2 c. shredded cheddar, smoked Gouda, or crumbled blue cheese (2 oz) **note: I've had this with Gouda and feta, both were excellent**

Rinse and drain mushrooms. Remove stems; reserve caps. Chop enough stems to make 1 c.

In a medium saucepan cook the chopped stems, green onions, and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in bread crumbs and cheese. Spoon crumb mixture into mushroom caps. Arrange stuffed mushrooms on baking sheet; bake in a 425-degree oven 8 to 10 minutes or until heated through.

Ratatouille

2009-09-14T12:55:00.000-04:00

This recipe is from The New Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas. It makes a lot, but it's so heavenly that I wouldn't cut it in half! And while it isn't the most attractive dish in terms of color or firm texture, it is seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten. It makes me want to move to Provence right this second.

2 lbs young, firm eggplants

salt to taste

2 lbs zucchini

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3 large onions, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1.5 lbs red and green peppers, seeded and cut in 1/2 inch dice

2 c. Summer Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)

2 T. olive oil

handful chopped fresh parsley

handful chopped fresh basil

1 T. balasamic vinegar

fresh-ground black pepper to taste

3 large, red tomatoes, cut in 1-inch pieces

Peel the eggplants and cut them in 1/2 inch dice. Toss the cut eggplants with a generous amount of salt and drain in colander for at least 45 minutes. Trim the zucchini and cut into similar-sized pieces, toss with salt, and put in another colander to drain.

While the eggplant and squash drain, prep the other vegetables and/or sauce.

Heat the olive oil in a large stew or stock pot. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add the chopped onion and a dash of salt, then cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and just beginning to color.

Rinse the eggplant and swuash in cold water, pressing gently against the colander to squeeze out excess moisture. Add the eggplant and zucchini to the onions with a scant teaspoon of salt and saute, stirring frequently, for 6-7 minutes. Stir in the peppers and tomato sauce, cover, reduce the flame, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Uncover the pan and stir. If it looks too soup, simmer uncovered, stirring often, until it is a thick stew. Add the chopped herbs, the balsamic, more salt if needed, and a generous grating of black pepper. Stir in the cut-up tomatoes and simmer for 2 minutes to heat through.

**I use about 1 lb peppers, no parsley, and extra basil. I also like to serve this with crumbled feta, dark purple grape juice, and lots of good-quality French bread.**

Summer Tomato Sauce

3 lbs ripe tomatoes
1 T. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Blanch tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute to loosen skins. Remove skins, cut out cores, and process to a rough texture in a blender.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the garlic. Saute for a minute, then pour in tomatoes. Add basil and a little salt and pepper, then cook on medium flame for about half an hour, or until reduced by about a third (I cook it longer so it's a really thick and pungent sauce).

Use at once or keep in the 'fridge for several days.

Gulab Jamuns

2009-03-15T13:40:00.000-04:00

Syrup:
3 c. sugar
4 1/2 c. water
6 cardomom pods, cracked

Gulab Jamuns:
1 c. self-rising flour
2 c. Carnation powdered milk
3/4 c. whipping cream

Mix sugar and water in large pot and add seeds from cracked cardomom pods. Bring to boil. Lower heat to medium, and boil for 7 min.
Mix flour and powdered milk in medium-sized bowl. Add whipping cream slowly while stirring until dough is somewhat stiff and not sticky. Form dough into 1" balls.
In a separate pot, heat 2-3 cups vegetable oil until 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Fry dough balls slowly (should take 4-5 minutes) until golden, remove, and drain on paper towels.
When all balls are fried, place in a separate container and pour the syrup over them (do this just before serving). Serve hot. If balls are fried too quickly, they will not be done on the inside. If balls wait too long before serving, they will be soggy and mushy.

Fattoush (Lebanese salad)

2009-03-15T13:38:00.000-04:00

**I usually double this--this version is cut down for 2-4 people or for a meal where lots of other things are being served.

1 head romaine lettuce
1 cucumber, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
pita bread, cut into bite-sized squares, toasted or fried (add just before serving)

Dressing:
2 t. chopped dried mint
2 t. chopped dried parsley
1/8 c. olive oil
1/8 c. lemon juice
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 ½ t. sumac powder
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper

Naan

2009-03-15T13:37:00.000-04:00

2 c. white flour
½ t. salt
1 T. yeast
4 T. lukewarm milk
1 T. vegetable oil
2 T. plain yogurt
1 egg

Sift flour and salt together in large bowl. In smaller bowl, combine yeast with milk and set aside for 15 minutes.
Add yeast mixture, oil, yogurt and egg to flour and mix to soft dough.
Knead dough until smooth (I use the KitchenAid, then knead on counter for about 2 minutes). Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise in warm place until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to highest setting, at least 450.
Turn dough back onto floured surface and knead for 2 minutes.
Divide into 3 equal pieces, roll each out into teardrop shape about 10 in. long, 5 in. wide, and ¼ in. thick
Bake naan for 3-4 minutes, or until puffed up.Brush naan with butter/sprinkle of cilantro and place under broiler for about a minute until browned.

Chicken Tikka Masala

2009-03-15T13:32:00.002-04:00

**recipe from My Kitchen Cafe**

Marinade:
2 chicken breasts*
1 c. plain yogurt
1 T. lemon juice
2 t. cumin
1 t. cinnamon
2 t. black pepper
1 T. minced ginger
1 t. salt
1 t. cayenne
1 t. paprika

Marinate chicken for 1 hr, then grill or fry chicken.**

Sauce
1 T. butter
1 clove minced garlic
1 chopped jalapeno
2 t. cumin
2 t. paprika
½ t. salt
8 oz tomato sauce
1 c. cream
¼ c. chopped cilantro

Melt butter, then sauté garlic and jalapeno for 1-2 minutes.
Add cumin, paprika, salt, fry for a minute.
Add tomato sauce and cream.
Simmer over low heat until thickened (about 20 minutes).
Add chicken and simmer 10 minutes, add cilantro before serving.

*I cut my chicken into strips about ¾ in. thick before marinating, then cut it into bite-sized pieces after cooking.
**I like to broil the chicken—5 minutes on the first side, 4 minutes on the other.

Masala Channa

2009-03-15T13:32:00.001-04:00

1 ½ cans chickpeas
1 T. tamarind concentrate
3 T. oil
½ t. cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 in. fresh ginger root, grated
1 fresh green chili, finely chopped
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. ground coriander
¼ t. ground turmeric
½ t. salt
8 oz tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped (I use canned)
½ t. garam masala

Heat oil in wok and fry cumin seeds until they begin to splutter (2 min.) Add chopped onion, garlic, ginger, chili and fry for 5 minutes.
Add cumin, coriander, turmeric and salt and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes and tamarind. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add chickpeas and garam masala, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Note: original recipe calls for dried chickpeas and tamarind pulp; I used canned chickpeas and tamarind concentrate to save time. I use all the tomato juice.

Chicken Saag

2009-03-15T13:30:00.000-04:00

10 oz frozen spinach, defrosted
1 in. fresh ginger root, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 fresh green chili, chopped
Scant 1 c. water
2 T. oil
2 bay leaves
¼ t. black peppercorns
1 onion, finely chopped
14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 t. curry powder
1 t. salt
1 t. chili powder
3 T. plain yogurt
2 chicken breasts, chopped

Put the spinach, ginger, garlic, and chili with ¼ c. water into food processor and puree.
Heat oil, add bay leaves and peppercorns and fry for 2 minutes. Add onion and fry 6-8 minutes more.
Add tomatoes to pan and simmer 5 minutes. Add curry powder, salt, chili powder and stir well. Cook for 2 more minutes.
Add spinach puree and remaining water to pan; simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir in yogurt, 1 T. at a time, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add chicken. Cover and cook for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is tender. Serve with warm naan, drizzle with plain yogurt and dust lightly with chili powder.

Note: original recipe calls for fresh spinach, fresh tomatoes, and chicken thighs. I use all the tomato juice in place of some of the water.

Hummus (my mom's recipe)

2009-03-03T13:41:00.000-05:00

1 can chickpeas, partially drained

1 T. tahini (sesame seed paste)

3 T. lemon juice

1 T. olive oil

1/2 t. salt

2-3 cloves smashed garlic (I use a couple more)

Blend up ingredients in food processor (I use my immersion blender). Drizzle with olive oil, if you like, and dust with paprika.

**If you're a local, the best source for tahini is the Asian market (called "Asia") on Yeager catty-corner from the BP. The tahini is downstairs on the wall opposite all the vegetables. It's a tasty variety and quite inexpensive.

Dad's granola

2008-12-09T14:03:00.000-05:00

Finding a few canisters of this delicious granola sitting in the pantry always makes Neil declare that I'm the best wife ever (thanks to my dad, who originated the recipe!)

Ingredients:

Granola base
1 canister rolled oats
1 1/2 c. sugar
6-8 eggs
2 t. each cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
cooking oil to moisten (about 1/2 c.)

Other good stuff
Raisins, dates, sweetened flaked coconut, chopped nuts, Rice Krispies, corn flakes, bran flakes

Mix everything in the "granola base" section but oats together, then add mixture to oats and mix thoroughly. Preheat oven to 350 and spread mixture onto baking sheets (I use two). Bake for 20 minutes, stir, then bake another 10 minutes until browned (depending on your oven and preferences, you may want to bake it another 5-10 minutes). Note: you are NOT cooking the "other good stuff."

When the oats have finished cooking, add raisins, dates, sweetened flaked coconut, nuts, rice krispies, bran flakes, etc. to stretch out the granola mixture. I generally add enough of these so that I end up with about 2 and a half canisters of granola (with 1 canister of that being the original oats--so you're adding another 2 and a half canisters' worth).

Making this is also a good excuse to buy really huge bowls if you don't already own some. Check with restaurant supply stores for inexpensive yet tough stainless bowls--Neil picked up mine at a supply store in Salt Lake and I love them dearly (also excellent for popcorn!!) This particular bowl holds all 2.5 canisters worth.

Chocolate-chip pumpkin muffins

2008-10-30T13:35:00.000-04:00

These muffins are one of my very favorite "signs of fall." The recipe is my mom's; if you don't know her personally, rest assured that she is a fantastic cook. She does cool things like persuade ethnic grocers to give her cooking lessons; then we all reap the benefits (not that these are ethnic grocery muffins, but you get the idea). The point is, while I usually only post recipes here that I've made up or adjusted, these muffins are just dandy the way they are.

So here you go.

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. oil (I substitute applesauce)

2 eggs

3/4 c. canned pumpkin (about half of a 15-oz can, although I generally use leftover sugar pumpkin puree)

1/4 c. water

1 1/2 c. flour (I do 1/2 c. whole wheat, 1 c. white)

3/4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. ground cloves

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. chocolate chips

Combine wet ingredients, then add dry, then add chocolate chips. If you care about perfect;y rounded muffin tops, don't overmix; I prefer knowing that everything is well mixed, and (as you can see in the picture), I really don't care about peaked muffins. Except that one time when I was seven or eight and I had to make about four batches of muffins for the state fair in order to get twelve that were perfectly rounded. I think that's why peaks are fine with me now.

Spoon into muffin tins (I just grease the muffin tins and don't bother with wrappers, since I don't want to lose any goodness that's stuck on a wrapper) and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.

Whipped sweet potatoes

2008-10-08T13:29:00.000-04:00

Oooh, I just LOVE sweet potatoes. They're so redolent of the holidays! But I hate them with marshmallows on top, because I want to feel justified in eating them all the time (plus I really only like marshmallows in s'mores).

The recipe below is one I found in MS Living. I usually make it without the cream and with about 1/3 stick of butter rather than half a stick, and I add a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of nutmeg. Sometimes I just leave out the butter entirely. I also usually don't do the apple topping (because I like it to be a make-ahead thing that doesn't need attention while it's cooking). In the past I've cooked it without a topping entirely, or with a little bit of brown sugar sprinkled under flaked coconut, or with brown sugar underneath very thin sliced rings of apple. All are equally delicious. Whatever you do, just don't leave out the ginger--that's what elevates this to something really tasty and a little bit surprising (in a good way).

Anyway, here you go!

Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Carmelized Apples
from November 2006 Martha Stewart Living. Serves 6.

4 large sweet potatoes (yams), pierced with the tines of a fork
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 T. heavy cream
1/2 c. applesauce, preferably homemade
2 t. grated fresh peeled ginger
1 t. coarse salt freshly ground pepper

2 apples (1 lb) peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 T. sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. Arrange potatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment (I use tin foil, but make sure you do this so you avoid sticky goo all over the oven).Bake until tender, 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let stand until cool enough to handle.

2) Cut each potato lengthwise. Scoop flesh into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; discard skins. Add 2 T. butter and the cream; mix on medium speed until smooth. Mix in applesauce and ginger, season with salt and pepper.

3) Transfer potato mixture to an oven-proof dish. Bake until heated through, about 10 minutes.

4) Meanwhile, toss apples with sugar in a bowl. Melt remaining 2 T. butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apple mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are golden and carmelized, about 10 minutes. (I ended up adding about 2 t. brown sugar while the apples were cooking.)

5) Remove potato mixture from oven, top with carmelized apples, and serve.

Fresh strawberry pie

2008-06-16T21:25:00.000-04:00

No time for witty comments; all you need to know is that this is quite possibly the best pie I've ever had in my life. I love the fact that the berries are unbaked, so they're still at that ecstatically fresh peak of heavenly taste.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Baked pie crust
1 1/2 quarts strawberries
1 c. sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 c. water
3 oz. cream cheese, softened

Prepare pie crust and bake as directed. Mash enough strawberries to measure 1 cup. Mix sugar and cornstarch in saucepan, gradually stir in water and mashed berries. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir one minute; cool.

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Spread in pie shell, and fill shell with remaining berries. Pour cooked strawberry mixture over top. Refrigerate about 3 hours or until set (refrigerate any remaining pie).

Oh, I sprinkled powdered sugar over the top, just to give it a bit more depth.

Marie, the baguettes! (name that movie)

2008-05-31T21:20:00.001-04:00

I don't know anyone who doesn't love baguettes (and if you don't, just be quiet about it). Honestly, that crisp crackly crust and meltingly soft insides--especially if you have some nice sharp cheese to go with it...just doesn't get any better than that. Plus there's only four ingredients, and there's something very magical about that. Flour, salt, yeast, and water. Alchemy, I tell you.

I've tried a number of baguette recipes, and this one (my own hodge-podge between Julia Child and Williams-Sonoma Breads) is a winner. You can have fresh baguettes in about 2 hours with a minimum of steps (and let me tell you, it takes all day to make it the way Julia describes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, although she cut it down considerably in subsequent years. Trust me, I've done it all). Although I recommend MTAOFC's description of how to fold and roll the dough (more on that later).

In theory, you should have baguette pans. But if you don't--like me--it works just fine. So I'm giving non-baguette pan instructions, which also means you don't have towels getting floury. Oh, and we're not going to hang them in floured sacks either. Or even use a rolling pin! And I'm assuming you're using an electric stand mixer (like a KitchenAid, and if you don't have one, it's worth the money. And I'm not just saying that because Neil interned there--although he did build ours himself on an intern field trip. Cool, eh?)

And yes, I know this is long, but Julia Child takes like 25 pages to explain it (I'm not exaggerating) so I think you're getting off easy, okay?

Ingredients (for four loaves. Can easily be cut in half)

5-5 1/2 c. flour

2 t. salt

2 1/4 t. quick-rise yeast

2 c. lukewarm water (110 F)
cornmeal

1 egg white beaten with pinch of salt, for glaze

In the mixer bowl, combine four cups of the flour with the salt, yeast, and water. Stir until blended, and allow dough to knead in the mixer for about ten minutes. Add flour as needed so that the end dough is elastic and doesn't stick to the sides, although it will still be soft.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for one minute. Form into a ball, and transfer into a clean (I use Pyrex so it doesn't flavor the dough) bowl. At this stage, I also lightly grease the bowl so the dough doesn't adhere. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled (45-60 minutes).

Turn dough onto a well-floured surface and knead briefly (about 30 seconds). Return to bowl for second rise, 20-30 minutes (until doubled). Cover again with plastic wrap.

Punch dough down and divide into equal parts (4 for the whole recipe, 2 if you halved it). Roll into balls and let rest for five minutes. Grease a nonstick cookie sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.

On your floured surface, take each ball of dough and flatten it into a rectangle. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Fold into thirds like a letter, and begin rolling the dough into a long rope about 16 inches long. Okay, now here's where Julia Child really comes in! Most cookbooks will just rope the dough at this stage, but I like to work it a bit more to really get some good gluten and bubble action going. In fact, as you flatten the dough you should be hearing teeny bubbles pop. In any case, as I am rolling the dough into a rope, I find that it tends to flatten out. This is good! Simply pinch up the sides, folding it over back into a rope. Continually flattening and then smashing back into a rope incorporates air back into the dough, which is really important for the formation of a light, airy interior. I find that as I am transitioning the dough from the "letter" to the "rope" I fold and smash about 3 times.

Once the dough is in a 16-inch snake, place it on the cookie sheet. Allow to rise for about 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 450 F. When the oven is preheated, take your sharpest knife and make three 1/4 inch deep diagonal cuts on the top of the bread, allowing the dough to puff out from its gluten cloak as it bakes.

At this point, WS says to put a pan of boiling water on the floor of the preheated oven under the bread. This sounds dangerous to me, since I can imagine myself spilling boiling water everywhere, so I go with a modified Julia Child approach--I put the baguettes in, then quickly throw 1/4 c. of steaming water into the bottom of the oven, then slam the door shut. LEAVE THE DOOR SHUT while the bread bakes for about 20 minutes.

And then enjoy.

I'm going back to the kitchen. There's a baguette waiting for me. And some cheese. And grapes.

Cranapple Pie

2008-05-06T11:48:00.000-04:00

I'm kind of failing on the Recipe Week front, especially in the area of balanced menus. However, I do have a fantastically delicious pie to share!

This was going to be an apple pie, until I realized I didn't have enough apples. It's a bit improvised, therefore, and could probably stand some more fine-tuning and improvisation. But if you don't feel comfortable playing around, this pie is pretty darn tasty--and fairly easy--as it is.

Pie Crust

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening, chilled
8 - 10 Tbsp ice cold water

Instructions

Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Gently cut in shortening with a pastry blender or two knives until pea-sized. Sprinkle 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) of the cold water over flour mixture, tossing lightly with a fork. Add the remaining water 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork, and press to the side of the bowl until all is moistened.

Divide dough in half, and gently pat into 2 lightly flattened balls. (Don't overwork your dough at this point!) Place in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Filling

Ingredients

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
6 cups baking apples (around 5 apples)
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries
2 Tbsp margarine or butter, cut up

2-3 Tbsp milk
sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°F. Peel, core, and thinly slice apples.

In a mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Add apples and toss to coat. Transfer apple mixture to a large pot over medium heat; simmer, stirring often, for 3 to 5 minutes, until apples are softening. Add granulated sugar and cranberries and mix thoroughly. Pre-cooking the filling will ensure that the filling and crust don't separate as the pie cooks.

Assembly

On a lightly floured surface, roll one ball of pastry from the center ot the edges, to form a 12" circle. Fold in half or roll the pastry around the rolling pin. Unfold or unroll it over a 9" pie plate. Ease the pastry into the plate, and, using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, trim even with the rim.

Pour filling into the prepared pie crust. Cut margarine into small pieces and dot filling with margarine bits.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the second ball of pastry from center to edges, to form a 12" circle. Place the top crust on the filling, and cut slits or shapes to allow steam to escape. Using kitchen shears, trim the pastry 1/4" beyond the rim. Fold the top edge over the trimmed bottom edge, and flute the edge to seal.

Brush the top crust with milk, and sprinkle with sugar.

Fold a 12" square of aluminum foil into quarters. Cut out the center section, making a 7 1/2" circle. Unfold the foil and place the square section over the pie. Loosely mold the foil over the edges to protect them from burning.

Bake for 35 minutes in the center rack of the oven, with a cookie sheet underneath to catch spills. Remove foil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly.

Let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours and up to 4 hours before eating with a generous serving of vanilla ice cream on the side.

Oven Fries

2008-05-05T13:15:00.000-04:00

I love fries. Oh, how I love them. So does Abigail. So when I found this recipe in Cook's Illustrated (which btw is amazing--someday I'll get a subscription!!!) two years ago...oh joy. And seriously, these are amazing. Perfectly crisp on the outside, perfectly melt-in-your-mouth on the inside. And not nearly as much cruddy fat as you're going to get at a fast-food joint, especially because there's no deep fryer and you're only putting 5 T. of oil in for the whole thing (I generally use even less).

I've found the most important component to getting these just right is to use a baking sheet that is uniformly flat. In other words, one that you don't use much. If I use my regular cookie sheets, which have become somewhat bowed in the middle from years of use, the fries cook unevenly. If, however, I use a metal 9x13 pan (which I never use because I prefer glass)...you get perfection.

Oven Fries

3 russet potatoes (8 oz each), peeled, each potato cut lengthwise into 10-12 evenly sized wedges
5 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil (don’t substitute olive oil)
Salt and ground black pepper

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat to 475. Place potatoes in large bowl and cover with hot tap water; soak 10 minutes. (Don't be tempted to skip soaking, as this is what will give you the crisp crust and soft innards.) Meanwhile, coat 18 x 12 heavy-duty baking sheet with 4 T oil and sprinkle evening with ¾ t. salt and ¼ t. pepper.

Drain potatoes and thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. Toss potatoes in dry bowl with 1 T oil. Arrange potatoes in single layer on baking sheet, cover tightly with foil (I just use a cookie sheet) and bake 5 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to bake until bottoms of potatoes are spotty golden brown (15-20 min), rotating the pan in the oven after 10 minutes. Using metal spatula and tongs, flip potatoes to other side, keeping in single layer. Continue baking another 5-15 minutes until fries are golden and crisp, rotating pan as needed for even browning.

Strawberry Shortcake

2008-05-01T11:59:00.000-04:00

Given that strawberries are just coming into season (you can get a carton for $0.98 at Wal-Mart!) I thought I'd start off my contributions to Recipe Week, and to this blog, with a summer favorite: Strawberry Shortcake! Unfortunately, unlike Rachael, I am not a great improvisor. This recipe comes from "The All-American Dessert Book", by Nancy Baggett, but I've modified it slightly here.

Want this?

Try this:

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little more for shaping dough
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Generous 1/2 teaspoon salt

5 1/2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

Generous 1 cup buttermilk, plus more if desired. (You can make a substitute by pouring 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup, then pouring in enough milk to make 1 cup.)

1 carton strawberries (at least 3 cups, sliced)

at least 1/2 cup sugar

1 pint whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Wash and slice the strawberries. Toss with sugar until all the sugar is absorbed; refrigerate for at least 1 hour, to allow juices to combine.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Generously grease an 8 to 8 1/2 inch round baking dish.

In a large bowl (I used the Kitchenaid) thoroughly stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sprinkle the butter over the flour mixture and cut in until the butter is incorporated in very fine bits; scrape up the flour underneath to be sure it is evenly incorporated.

Being very careful not to overmix, gently stir the buttermilk into the flour-butter mixture until the dough just comes together. Add more buttermilk, if necessary, to produce a soft, moist dough. Sprinkle evenly with 1 1/2 tablespoons flour. Knead in the bowl 5 or 6 times to form a smooth mass, adding a little more flour to prevent stickiness, if necessary (I ended up adding about 2 more tablespoons). Let stand for 1 minute. With flour-dusted hands, shape and smooth the dough into a 6-inch disk. Brush any excess flour from the top. Place the disk in the pan. Press and pat out into an evenly thick round. If necessary, dust your hands with flour or lightly dust the dough with flour to prevent sticking.

Bake for 17 to 22 minutes, or until the top is puffy and browned. Let cool to warm, then tip out of the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

When biscuit is almost completely cool, whip the cream, adding vanilla and sugar when the cream forms soft peaks. Using a large serrated knife, split the biscuit round in half horizontally. Center the bottom half cut side up on a serving plate and top with half the strawberries and juice, and a generous half of the whipped cream. Top with the second round, cut side down. Spread with the remaining whipped cream, and then add the remaining berries and juice.

Cut into wedges and serve.

Enjoy with a glass of milk, and with plenty of friends or family around to share!

Mushroom and Chile Carbonara

2008-04-30T19:37:00.000-04:00

Continuing the parade of favorites...I have been known to make this more than once in the same week. Mmm, mmm. You really can't beat mushrooms cooked with chile flakes in a cream sauce.

One of the sad days of my life was when I realized that whipping cream isn't very good for you. But some days, like today, I just pretend I don't know that and run an extra few miles to compensate.

I admit, these pictures aren't the most attractive. Trust me, it tastes better than the poorly lit shot would seem to indicate.

Also, I sort of had to stop taking pictures because Abigail was eating Parmesan cheese straight out of the thingie (but I didn't stop until I'd taken a picture of her. Go figure).

Oh, and yes, I use canned Parmesan, because Neil shakes his head at me when I look pleadingly towards the $$$$$/lb chunks of real Parmesan at the grocery store. He's a wise and prudent man...what more can I say?

Mushroom and Chile Carbonara

8 oz thin spaghetti Parmesan cheese
2 T. butter 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed 1 t. dried oregano
8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced 1 t. dried parsley
1 t. dried red pepper flakes 1 t. dried chives
2 eggs 1 t. dried basil
1 ¼ c. light cream Salt and ground black pepper

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions, drain and rinse.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add the cream and herbs, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Chop the tomatoes and set them aside.

In a large saucepan heat the butter and oil together and lightly sauté the garlic for half a minute. Add the mushrooms and chile flakes to the pan of garlic and stir well so everything cooks evenly. The original recipe tells me to only cook the mushrooms for two minutes, but we like them to be more well-done, so cook them until you're happy.

At this point, theoretically you should add about half a cup of water. However, because I generally use half and half rather than cream (unless I've run about a hundred miles the preceding week, or more honestly, if cream was on sale), I skip the water.

Turn the cooked spaghetti into the mushroom sauce and then toss in the eggs and cream. Reheat the mixture, WITHOUT BOILING. Add the tomatoes, toss, and sprinkle each portion liberally with Parmesan to taste.

Abigail's favorites

2008-04-30T19:23:00.000-04:00

Sweet potatoes--they're not just for Thanksgiving!!

We eat them a lot. Mostly because both Abigail and Juliet absolutely adore anything with sweet potatoes in them, like this soup:

which Abigail gobbled down in about two seconds.

But our hands-down favorite is the classic sweet potato casserole, except because we eat it so much we try to make it a little healthier. And simpler, so that it can be thrown together in about five minutes (not counting the roasting time).

Sweet Potato and Applesauce Casserole

3 lbs sweet potatoes
3-4 cups applesauce (I just use the stuff we canned in fall; if you buy it from the store make sure it's unsweetened)
1-2 t. each of ginger, cinnamon
sprinkle of nutmeg
brown sugar
sweetened flaked coconut
1/4 c. butter, if you're feeling wild and crazy

Wash the sweet potatoes and pierce them with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until soft. Peel, then combine (I use my stand mixer) with applesauce and spices (add the butter at this point if you so desire). Spoon into a casserole dish and top LIGHTLY with brown sugar, then with flaked coconut. At this point you can refrigerate it for dinner later, or pop back in the oven to brown the coconut. If you refrigerate it, plan on warming again at 350 degrees until it's warmed through (20-30 minutes).

When combined with broccoli, and grilled dill-and-lemon salmon, this is Abigail's absolute favorite dinner in the world--it's one where she requests thirds (and getting her to finish her first serving is usually an enormous battle on a regular night).

Thai-almost-takeout

2008-04-29T10:54:00.000-04:00

Sundays are always a really hard dinner day. We start church at 1 pm and get out at 4 (which means we get home around 4:30) and there are two tiny people who didn't nap, didn't really eat much lunch, and are now ravenous and want to EAT RIGHT NOW.

When we first switched to the afternoon block, we experimented for a few weeks with putting things in the oven and programming the oven to switch on. Except it didn't. Oh, it would switch on just fine when we programmed it and sat there watching it, but if we left the house...nada.
We'd come home to room-temperature lasagnas that were likely harboring pathogens by this point.

Four months into afternoon church, I'm starting to run out of crock pot and oven-for-three-hour recipes. So I'm cheating and making things that mostly come out of cans and jars and packets and can be on the table in about twenty minutes (which is how long it takes the girls to run around the house like crazy, be persuaded to change out of their dresses and finally find something else to wear).

Anyway. Now that I've gotten that whole not-cooking-from-scratch thing off my chest...let us proceed. But not before noting that I'm ashamed of my cans-and-packets dinner and I can't believe I'm posting this, but for the sake of truth...oh, and yeah, it's really tasty. Which is why I'm posting it.

Green Curry Chicken with Hot and Sour Soup

1-3 T. green curry paste, depending on how adventurous you are (I use the Thai Kitchen brand)

chicken, diced into bite-size pieces (I used two boneless skinless breasts, about a pound)

1 14-oz can light coconut milk

green peas

1 can bamboo shoots

2 T. oyster sauce (the recipe on the curry paste jar says fish sauce, which I think stinks too much to eat)

1/3 c. chicken stock

Jasmine rice

1 packet Sunbird hot and sour soup mix

1 egg

Start rice--generally I cook 1 c. dry rice with 1.5 c. water on the stove. It needs about 15-20 minutes; then let it sit for about 10 minutes off the heat.

Simmer curry paste and coconut milk together for about five minutes. Add chicken and simmer for another seven minutes, then add bamboo, peas, oyster sauce, and chicken stock.

Using egg, make soup according to package directions.

Spanakopita (spinach and feta phyllo triangles)

2008-01-07T12:50:00.000-05:00

These are my very favorite appetizers in the world. My family ravenously consumes mounds of these at our annual New Year's Eve appetizer extravaganza. In fact, when I was looking for the recipe, I found it not in the appetizer section of our family cookbook, but in the main dishes section. Hmm...

In any case, this is a super yummy appetizer that takes a bit of work, but is quite impressive and aesthetically pleasing. You'll need the following ingredients:

3 pkgs 10-oz frozen chopped spinach
¼ cup olive oil
4 eggs, beaten
¼ cup bread crumbs
½ lb feta cheese, crumbled
½ lb cottage cheese (we substitute another 1/2 feta)
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped (use 2/3 less if using dried)
1 tsp dried dill weed
1 med. onion, chopped fine
1 cup butter, melted
½ lb phyllo pastry (one box)

I did have pictures of the intermediate steps, but they somehow disappeared, along with all our Christmas pictures and those sort of things. I'm extremely upset at my camera over this. Anyway.

Step 1: Choppin'

Thaw (microwave is fine), drain, and squeeze dry the spinach. If it's too chunky, chop it up so it will mix nicely.

Chop your onion finely. You want it to sort of meld into the rest of the flavors.

Step 2: Cookin'

Saute the onion in olive oil. When it's nicely yellowed and translucent, add the spinach and cook until the moisture is gone (be careful not to burn it!) Remove from heat.

Step 3: Mixin'

Beat the eggs, then add them to the spinach and onion. At this point, you'll need a fairly large bowl to make sure everything gets well mixed. (I'm not sure how many quarts the ideal bowl is--I just use one of the ones that's big enough to bathe a newborn baby. How's that for a standard of measurement?) Add cheeses, parsley, dill, and bread crumbs.

Step 4: Trianglin'

Here comes the exciting part. This is easiest to do if you have either a) a friend or b) a wet towel. Depending on the friend, they might be equivalent. Heh heh. In any case, you need to work quickly enough so that the phyllo dough doesn't dry out, hence the friend. If you're doing it by yourself, then place a damp towel over the dough to prevent drying.

Before you unroll the dough, brush a 9x13 pan with melted butter. Don't skimp.

Phyllo dough is tricky. Be VERY careful when you unroll it. It will probably be sticky.

You may have to use a sharp knife (very gently) or your fingernails to separate the sheets of dough from the plastic wrapper. Don't worry, after the initial separation it's easy.

Oh yeah! I actually recruited three friends (well, relatives: my mom, Elise, and Mary Beth) for this, because phyllo dough scares me sometimes. Okay, that's not true. The real story is that my sisters and I had this idea to make a cooking show out of it. We made up a dorky theme song that we sang and we followed each other around with a camera demonstrating chopping, dicing, choux-making (for the cream puffs), etc. We thought it was really cool. Actually, my sisters got kind of mad at me because we set everything up in tiny little ingredients bowls of pre-diced ingredients and then I forgot and dumped everything in and cooked it up while my sister was putting new batteries in the camera. Oops.

Back to the recipe. Look at that sneer on my face. I'm totally whipping the phyllo dough into shape.

Gently lift up one sheet of phyllo dough and place it on the buttered pan. Don't be put off by the fact that the dough may or may not resemble a tattered shroud.

Once you've plopped it on the buttered pan, liberally butter the dough. Basically, you want to butter it until it's translucent. Yum.

Repeat the process with another sheet of dough--lift, layer, and butter. Now that you have two sheets of butter-coated dough, it's time for my favorite part.

Cut the dough layers into five or six (depending on how big you want your little triangles) long strips (make the cuts running vertically where the top/bottom are the short sides of the cookie sheet).

Now plop about a tablespoon and a half (or more) of filling down on each little strip at the top.

Fold the dough in a sort of triangle over the filling. Fold it up exactly as if you were folding a flag.

See this picture here? This shows the right and wrong way to do it. The top example is a FLAG. The bottom example is a TRIANGLE. TRIANGLE BAD. FLAG GOOD.

Mary Beth had a little trouble grasping this concept. Fortunately, Elise was there to straighten her out and make fun of her lack of flag-folding skills. What a good pal.

When you get to the end, fold up the corners of your flag. Not a triangle, remember?

When you get a whole cookie sheet full of these little beauties, pop them in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Oh yum.

Then you might want to go for a good long run, and come back hungry, cause we're making chicken wontons next.

EASIER NO-FOLD METHOD: Layer 7-10 layers of phyllo in pan, brushing each layer with butter. Spread spinach mix over phyllo and add another 7-10 layers of phyllo, butter each layer. Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Quiche a la Julia Child

2007-12-07T23:42:00.000-05:00

In matters of eggs and custard-y things, I defer to Julia Child. I don't even try to mess around.

Ok, that's not true.

I defer to Julia Child on egg-to-milk proportions. But I do mess around with everything else.

For instance, I don't think Julia Child would ever tell you to use a storebought crust, but seriously, if I have to make the crust, I'd rather just not make quiche. I tried making it without the crust, but Neil revolted. And I don't like making crusts because it adds a good 40 minutes to prep time, and why do that, I say, when crusts are on sale at the grocery store for $1.50 a pair?

So buy a crust.

And these too:

3 "large" eggs

Cream (says Julia)/Milk (says I)

Meat (crispy bacon, sliced ham, turkey, etc.)

Salt

Pepper

Onions

Cheese (Swiss is sort of the accepted quiche cheese because of its propensity to not make everything really wet, but Neil likes the taste of Cheddar better)

Parsley, oregano, basil, chives

Other things in the fridge that need to be eaten (last time I grated in some carrots)

**If you want spinach quiche, blend in 1 c. cooked spinach into the custard.

Ok, so I just realized that the Julia Child version only calls for eggs, cream, bacon, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, so this really isn't quiche according to Julia Child, it's messed-up-Julia-based-quiche. But I still think it's good.

Here's what's important when making quiche:

"Any quiche can be made with either heavy or light cream or with milk. The proportions are always 1 egg in a measuring cup plus milk or cream to the 1/2 cup level; 2 eggs and milk or cream to the 1-cup level; 3 eggs and milk or cream to the 1 1/2 cup level; and so forth."

--Julia Child

I prefer to use milk because a) cream is expensive and b) cream is fattening. I'm sure it tastes delicious, however, but I'll go on in my skim-milk ignorance, so please don't tell me if you use cream and it's just out of this world.

Ok, the actual makings:

Step 1:

Preheat oven to 450.

Step 2:

Arrange pie crust in dish, put in either pie weights or dried beans/rice to prevent crust from puffing up (a Julia trick), and bake for 10-15 minutes. The crust should be set but still soft. now turn your oven down to 375.

Step 3:

Grate your cheese, slice your onions, and cut up your meat things. Put in however much you feel like putting in. I usually put in half to three-quarters of an onion, a couple of ounces of chopped meat, and enough grated cheese so that it covers the onion and meat but doesn't obscure them completely from sight. I think the Julia rule is 2 T. (which doesn't seem like much. I definitely do more). Dump all your cut-up things into the bottom of the shell.

Step 4:

Mix up your custard. I usually go for the 3 eggs variant and then end up adding another egg and another slog of milk. It depends on how big your pie dish is and how much "good stuff" you already put in. I then add about a teaspoon each of parsley, basil, chives, and oregano, with about a half teaspoon of salt and a couple grinds of pepper.

Step 5:

Pour the custard over the yummy things already in the pie crust.

Step 6:

Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes. The quiche is done when it's puffed up and brown (it should not jiggle wildly when you take it out of the oven. That is egg soup and it's nasty, so put it back in the oven until it turns into quiche.)

We like to eat our quiche warm or cold as either breakfast or lunch, depending on how early I got up that day to make it. Yum.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

2007-12-07T23:25:00.003-05:00

**no soup picture because ravenous family devoured it too fast

I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago with some of the leftover canned pumpkin filling my pantry. It was pretty hurried, and I was a bit unsure of how it would turn out, since I was smashing together several different recipes and adding in my own ideas.

So I was watching anxiously when Neil took his first bite. He rolled the soup around in his mouth. His eyes widened, and he started gulping that soup down.

We both decided it was a winner. Oh yum. I'm looking at the pumpkin-besmeared scrap of paper I jotted my measurements down on and getting hungry all over again.

The nice thing about this soup is that it requires very little time both in preparation and in cooking. You're only chopping one thing! (or two if you don't buy pre-minced garlic, which I highly recommend).

Anyway, here's what you'll need:

1 onion, chopped
1/4 c. butter

3 t. minced garlic

4 c. milk

3 t. chicken bouillion

1 15oz can pumpkin

1 t. curry

1 t. salt

1-2 bay leaves

Heat the butter over medium high heat until it's melted. Just as it starts to sizzle and pop, add the garlic and bay leaves for 30 seconds, then add the onions and cook 3-4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients.

Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Puree the soup (an immersion blender works really well for this! It's a nifty little gadget that I dearly love).

Dad's molasses cookies

2007-11-07T20:08:00.000-05:00

Do you like cookies?

We sure do.

These are my absolute favorites: my dad's molasses cookies. Oh...they're just good. So good.

Molasses Cookies

½ c. oil
1 cup sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2 cup flour (I like whole wheat best)
1 tsp soda
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt

Mix oil, sugar, molasses, egg. Add dry ingredients. Roll into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Bake 8 minutes at 375 degrees.

Take them off the pans right away and transfer to a cooling rack to preserve the deliciously chewy-ness of these cookies!!

Savory Lentil Soup

2007-11-01T13:32:00.000-04:00

About six months ago, I tried a recipe from Martha Stewart Living for French lentil soup. I don't know what happened, but it was horrendous. We ate a bowl each, and then froze the rest to eat later. Neil started referring to it as "that nasty stuff" for the duration of its freezer life, as in "I know you had a really crazy day today--why don't you just defrost that nasty stuff for dinner?"

This is much, much better. It's based on my mom's recipe for lentil soup, but it has a few variations (I try not to post anything on here that you could find in another cookbook or something, because then why bother reading this blog? This is only my made-up or adapted recipes).

Here's what you'll need:

One 16-oz bag green lentils
Large onion
Two or three carrots, peeled and chopped
Three or four stalks of celery, diced
1 1/2 t. ground cumin
Olive oil
1 t. Salt
1/4 to 1/2 t. ground red pepper
Chicken broth or bouillion (enough for about 7 cups of water)
3 cloves garlic, minced
Sausage, if desired

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. When it's hot, dump in the garlic and the cumin and let them saute for about thirty seconds, then add the onion. Cook the onion for about three minutes until it begins to soften, then add the carrots and celery and cook for another two minutes.

Add chicken broth (I use bouillion and 7 c. water because I'm cheap; if you use chicken broth I would use about 4 cups of broth and 3 of water), then stir in the lentils. Add salt and a couple of shakes of red pepper (depending on how much spice you like).

Bring it back up to a boil, then turn down to simmer for about half an hour. I like to stop the simmering process before the lentils turn into mush--I prefer them soft, but still retaining their individual shapes.

If you want to add sausage, add it at the end. I prefer to use kielbasa or smoked sausage because it retains its shape and can be microwaved rather than requiring another pot. DO NOT add the sausage at the beginning--it will taste all woody and lentily and not like sausage at all. Just chop it up and microwave it.

I am particularly fond of the smoked sausage breakfast links for this--they are very small and nicely compact. I use about 5 oz, chopped in small pieces.

And if you do not have cumin, which you should, because it's very good and very important, then I suggest that rather than buying it at the grocery store you seek out an ethnic foods store, because they will probably sell it in very cheap packets where it's like 99 cents for a huge bag instead of being $4 an ounce at the grocery store. In fact, I highly recommend that you check your ethnic foods store for all the spices you use regularly--I think you'll be surprised.

For instance, at the one I frequent (down by the WL library parking garage, for you locals!), I can buy a big packet of nutmeg for less than a dollar. Love it!

Just make sure you save random containers, so that you have containers in your pantry instead of baggies. This is what my "cool spices" shelf of my spice cupboard looks like. Super attractive, eh?

Make-a-Meal-Out-of-It Spaghetti

2007-10-17T12:26:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you, but I really like spaghetti. For instance, I used to ask for it on my birthday. And when we did "spotlight books" in Primary, they glued dried strands of spaghetti in mine on the "favorite foods" page. In fact, I like spaghetti so much that I secretly ate all the dried pieces of spaghetti after carefully peeling them off the glue.

Now, you don't have to be a spaghetti fiend like I am to like this recipe, but my gripe with spaghetti is that it seems to be a last-minute "I'm really tired and it's late...let's just have spaghetti" kind of dish. So you get out your canned sauce (which if you're cheap like I am probably isn't anything too special, and it's full of preservatives, which I personally have no problem with but I'll complain about to strengthen my case, even though I like my food to last until I want to eat it) and you dump some spaghetti in some water and in ten minutes you have dinner. It sort of fills you up, but hey, at least you ate something.

Those noodles deserve something more. They deserve a real sauce that requires a bit of chewing. And they also deserve a bit more healthiness themselves, so give whole wheat spaghetti a try. I think you'll be surprised at how yummy it is.

This isn't a dish that I typically buy special ingredients for--I just use what I have on hand. Of course, it also depends what you typically have kicking around. I'm fortunate enough to have most of what I need growing in my garden, so you may need to add a few items to your shopping list.

Here's the lineup:

Whole wheat spaghetti noodles, mushrooms, green pepper, carrots, celery, onions, garlic (I buy the pre-minced kind), fresh roma tomatoes (you could probably use canned diced tomatoes without losing much flavor), sun-dried tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce or tomato paste (depending on how thick you like your sauce) extra virgin olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper, red pepper flakes, parsley, oregano, and rosemary. I'm not giving measurements because this is really a to-taste thing and also depends on ingredient quantities and the number of people you're cooking for. Sorry, you'll just have to eyeball it!

Start off with everything chopped--it'll take a bit, but this cooks pretty quickly once you get going.

Before you begin chopping, you'll need to reconstitute your sun-dried tomatoes if they're fully dried (if they're oil-packed, you can just go ahead and chop them up).

Put your tomatoes in a small bowl, just barely cover them with very hot water, put a lid on the bowl, and let them sit for about twenty minutes. Save the water afterwards to add to your sauce later.

When you're about five minutes from the end of your chopping, start a pot of salted water boiling (the salt will help it to boil faster). As soon as it reaches its boiling pot, drop in your spaghetti (make sure you stir it so the noodles don't stick together. Adding a few drops of olive oil will also prevent sticking). Set a timer on your pasta.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat and add some olive oil. As soon as the skillet's hot enough that the olive oil glides easily over the pan when you pick it up and turn it, throw in your garlic and a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes. Neil likes lots of garlic, so I put in four or five teaspoons.

Let that cook for about thirty seconds, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, then add about a teaspoon each of rosemary and oregano (and parsley if you want it). Give it another fifteen seconds, then throw in your salt and pepper.

After another fifteen seconds, add your onions. Cook them for about three minutes until they're starting to turn a bit translucent, then add the mushrooms and cook for two minutes, then add the peppers and cook those for a couple of minutes. Typically you'd cook all of these for much longer to reach a fullness of flavor, but I'm kind of still in the spaghetti-hurry mode, so it's your call.

Add the carrots and celery and let the whole pile cook for another minute or two, then add in your sun-dried tomato soaking liquid. If you didn't do sun-dried tomatoes, just move ahead. In any case, let everything boil for a bit to get some of the water out with the flavor left behind, then add in the chopped tomatoes and chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Give it a minute or two, then add in your tomato sauce or paste, plus water to get it to your desired sauce consistency.

And voila! You have a nice hearty sauce. Now drain your pasta and mix the two up together and eat your dinner, feeling virtuous about your whole-wheat pasta and all those yummy veggies you're consuming.

Pesto-mozzarella-tomato grilled deliciousness

2007-10-14T20:59:00.000-04:00

There's this really cool little restaurant a couple of miles from our house called Baja Peninsula. It's sort of a California cuisine-type place (at least, that's what they say. I didn't know California had its own cuisine, but whatever it is, it's good).

A couple months back, my parents took us to lunch there and my dad ordered a sandwich that was the genesis of this one.

A disclaimer before I begin: I'm no Pioneer Woman, who has the most mouth-wateringly delectable food blog ever, but there are some pretty good eats 'round here, and I really love cooking, so the idea of a food blog is fun. Maybe I'll even graduate to step by step pictures, but for now, since this is a posting-after-making-due-to-requests, I have only a picture of the end product.

So here's what you need:

Homemade pesto (scroll down for the recipe)
Hearty bread that will stand up to being grilled--I like to use sourdough or rye. Panera makes a fabulous sourdough, Wal-mart's California Sourdough isn't too bad, or I've listed a downright tasty rye recipe...keep scrolling.
Mozzarella cheese (fresh is best, but the other stuff is still delicious. I've even used string cheese in a pinch)
Fresh tomatoes, preferably beefsteak, and preferably straight from the garden
Butter, or your hydrogenated oil spread of choice
Skillet or griddle

Step 1:

Turn your cooking implement of choice to whatever temperature your stove does best for grilled cheese. We have a countertop electric griddle that is just lovely for this; it's an excellent purchase if you've got some money to throw around in the kitchen.

Step 2:

While that's heating up, butter one side of each piece of bread, slice a nice little pile of cheese, and slice up your tomato. Shoot for slices that are about a quarter-inch thick, and don't skimp on the butter. You don't want anything to burn.

Step 3:

Turn each pair of slices butter-side-in, so they're oozing butter on each other rather than on your clean counter or plate or whatever. Spread pesto on the top non-buttered side of each pair of slices.

Step 4:

When your surface is nicely heated, place one of the slides on it buttered-side-down and quickly assemble the rest of the sandwich. Neil prefers to have the pesto next to the tomatoes, I don't really care one way or the other. In any case, you should have one layer of cheese and a layer of tomato.

Step 5:

Grill to whatever doneness you prefer (just please let the cheese melt!), slice in half for easy consumption, and let this baby slide down your throat (which it will, due to your refusal to skimp on butter, right?). Sooo good.

Rye bread

2007-10-14T20:53:00.000-04:00

4 to 4 1/2 c. flour
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 c. warm water (120 to 130 F)
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
2 T cooking oil
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c. rye flour
1 T. caraway seeds
cornmeal
milk

Mix 3 c. flour and the yeast; add warm water, brown sugar, oil, and salt. Beat with an electric mixer on a low speed for about 30 seconds until roughly blended, then beat on high for 3 min. Stir in caraway, rye, and as much flour as the dough will take.

Sprinkle flour on a flat surface, then turn out the dough and knead for 6-8 minutes. This is where you'll want to smoosh in the rest of your flour that you didn't use previously. When you've finished, leave the floury mess out on your surface; you'll use it again later.

Plop your dough into a lightly greased bowl (I use shortening on a paper towel) and then flip it over so the greased side is up. Cover and let it rise until it's doubled (about an hour).

Punch the dough down, divide it in half, and turn it out onto aforesaid floury mess surface. Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes. While it's "resting," lightly grease a baking sheet and sprinkle it liberally with cornmeal.

Shape each half of dough into a ball and place on the cookie sheet. Cover again and let rise AGAIN until doubled (30-45 min).

Brush the top of each loaf with milk. Bake at 375 for about 30-35 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.

Homemade Pesto

2007-10-14T20:49:00.000-04:00

1/4 c. olive oil (or cooking oil)
1/2 c. chopped nuts (walnut, almonds, or pine nuts)
2 c. firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 c. grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
1/4 t. salt
black pepper

If using a food processor, combine oil, nuts, basil, cheese, garlic, pepper and salt, processing until nearly smooth. If you're using a blender, it will be easiest to first chop the basil and nuts before adding them to the mixture.

See? It's that easy.

I like to make a huge batch and freeze individual portions. Pesto's optimal life in the freezer is 3 months.