November Blues

Well, it's November 2 and we finally had to dismantle our garden last week. We had our first freeze, and I had gotten the tomatoes off a few days before. They are sitting in two bowls: one red, one green. I don't eat them anymore the way I did in August, sliced with salt, savoring every bite. This year, we had such a good yield that for the first time I decided to cook some of them (I found that to be a sacrilege before this year).

So, we will have the last of our red tomatoes this week in a pasta recipe with sausage, tomatoes, spinich and cream. I'll only simmer the tomatoes in the cream long enough to make the sauce pink.

And maybe I'll put aside one last tomato to slice and eat raw with salt. It's going to be a long wait til next August.

Slow cooked lentil stew with ham

This year we joined a meat CSA (locally raised meat) and occasionally find ourselves with cuts of meat we're not quite sure how to cook. (Each month we get 10 lbs. of different cuts of pork, beef, lamb and chicken.) This past month, we received a very thick ham steak with big wads of fat at the edges, which didn't quite excite me. I'm not a huge ham fan and didn't like the idea of grilling it and eating it hot off the press. Instead, we cut it up leaving the fat intact and threw it into our slow cooker with a bunch of vegetables and lentils. The result was a delicious lentil ham stew -- perfect for a cool fall evening or for a work lunch. It reminded me of the lentil soup Mom used to make us.

Here's what I threw into our 5 qt. slow cooker for 10 hours:

1 thick ham steak cut up (Bacon is also a good substitute.)
3-4 red potatoes
2 medium onions
3 stalks of celery
1 green pepper
2 cups of rinsed green lentils
6 cups of water
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
thyme

Put everything together in the SC and cook for 10 hours on low.

The slow cooker is my new favorite kitchen appliance. It's a great way for a busy family to make a healthy, delicious dinner during the week.

Vietnamese Style Fajitas

I make this for Rachel and Mike when they come over because they flatter me with rave reviews for it, and I usually forget about it otherwise. We will be seeing them tonight, so Orion and Maia helped me mix up a batch of the dressing. This is from Cooking Under Wraps, and it's a great recipe as is, but here it is w/my changes:

Chile Dressing:

grated zest and juice of one lime
3 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 jalepeno
fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp. garlic

Make dressing ahead if possible and let it sit.

Chicken, pork or steak
2 bell peppers
1 large onion

Grill these. Blacken peppers, steam in paper bag and peel. Slice meat, onion and peppers fajita style and toss with the sauce. Serve on warmed tortillas with any or all of the following:

lettuce
mint
cilantro
tomatoes
avocado
sour cream
shredded cheese

I usually keep these separate since I have a couple people at my house with very particular tastes, but pre-kids I used to throw the lettuce, tomatoes and herbs in there with everything else.

Early Girl

Our first early girl tomato! I picked this after it got pretty red on the vine on July 30th, which was 66 days after transplanting (on May 25th). Also featured are some red cherry tomatoes and some sungolds, both of which we've been getting since July 19th or 20th. Our second early girl will be ready today or tomorrow.

Here's how all our garden plants are faring (this is more an inventory for me than anything else):

Early Girl (from local nursery): healthy
Mountain Fresh: (nursery): healthy and prolific

Sungold: (heirloom from farmer's market): a little scrawny and sparse, but tall with a fair amount of fruit

Green Zebra: (farmer's market heirloom): beautifully healthy and bushy, lots of flowers but no fruit....I'll be very bummed if this one doesn't pan out.

Better Boy (nursery) and Striped German (farmer's market): These are both in a location that turned out to be too shady. They are small (but healthy), with only a few fruits.

Cherry Tomato (in pot): Initially the best plant (got HOT in the full sun on our patio), it got attacked by aphids and it is now a sad, spindly plant.

And the 2 surprises: a plant that got crushed by a lattice that I threw in the flower garden, and is overcrowded but healthy and producing some fruit, and an insanely healthy volunteer cherry tomato plant that is growing like wild out of our compost bin.

Potato Leek Soup

I just got back from Chicago and we had no food in the house. I was hoping to go to a farmer's market but the ones near me were not happening for four more days so I went to the grocery store and bought any vegetable that I thought looked good and figured when I got home I could figure out what to make with them. I am hoping to do the same thing next week but with farmer's market veggies.

This week I made couscous salad with onion, tomatoes from the garden, green pepper, chick peas, and lime. It was missing something so next time I will look up a recipe and see what I could add...any suggestions? We did add curry but it was still a little dry.

Then I used the same veggies and added black beans and corn the next night making a salsa salad with some quesadillas.

I had leeks, onions and potatoes so I am currently making soup. Here is the recipe I found. I will let you know if it is good. http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/03/19/a-hearty-potato-leek-soup-recipe-for-the-last-days-of-winter/ Yes, out of season but at least I am headed in the right direction.

I am currently reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" that Mia and Jill both liked. It is eye opening and inspiring. I hope to apply much of what I am learning to our family table.

JC

Janet's More or Less Chicken

Here is my favorite thing to make when we have friends over. It is really easy and everyone loves it. You serve it in a big pot on the table and give each person a big piece of crunchy bread. I usually use some sort of French bread. Not the really skinny kind, more the type you could put some of the chicken into and make a sandwich.


More or Less Chicken


½ Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Oregano
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
3 crushed garlic cloves

8 Chicken Breasts (you can use fewer without altering the rest of recipe)

1 Large Can Whole Tomatoes w/ juice
1 ½ Cups White Wine
1 cup Kalamata Olives (buy ones with no pits)
¾ cup Raisins
½ cup Pine Nuts

One Bunch of Scallions cut into 2 inch long pieces


1. Sizzle the first 4 ingredients together in a large pan for one minute.
2. Add whole chicken breasts and brown on each side. (You can use the chicken strips if you want to)
3. Add the next 5 ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes.
4. Add the scallions and cook 5 more minutes
5. Enjoy!

Shortcut to Heaven

This is an abbreviated approach to an authentic pizza crust from Adam's awesome mother starter, with yeast he alchemically captured from the air. By abbreviated, I mean it still takes 3 days, but without as much fussing on day 3. It's so freakin' worth it.

Making Starter

1. Measure out ¼ cup of mother starter into big bowl.
2. Fill ¼ measuring cup 2/3 full of water. Dissolve starter into it.
3. Add ¼ cup flour. Stir until combined.
4. Leave on counter all day or overnight. (Now feed the mother: add 1/8 cup flour and a tad less water. Leave on counter for 1-2 hours.
5. Stir down new starter and repeat steps 2-4.

Making Pizza

1.5 cups flour

1 tsp. Sugar

¾ tsp. Salt

3 T. olive oil

Scant ½ cup water

1. Pulse dry ingredients in food processor.
2. Add oil and scant ½ cup water. Process until dough forms sticky ball.
3. Knead dough until smooth, adding more flour if necessary.
4. Put in oiled bowl; turn dough in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Use or refrigerate. Punch down dough when ready, and prepare pizza.

Healthy Pancake Make-Ahead Mix

Why use Bisquik (loaded with trans-fat) when you can quickly whip up a batch of dry mix on your own? I have tinkered with this quite a bit, and have upped the milk from 1/2 to a whole cup (I like my pancakes a little on the thin side). Here 'tis:

Healthy Pancake Dry Mix and Recipe

Dry Mix

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup wheat flour

¼ cup flaxseed

6 tsp. baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

1 ½ tsp. Salt

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. If it won’t all be used within about a week, store in fridge because flaxseed spoils quickly.

Pancake Recipe:

1 cup dry mix

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp. Oil

Because of the oil in the pancakes, you don’t really need any in the pan. These pancakes have such a nice flavor that when you have regular old pancakes again, they will seem bland and boring!

green cooking site

I'm on a posting frenzy today. Found a neat website, especially the recipe section:

http://www.thedailygreen.com/

asparagus, orange and fennel oh my!

a link to the salad I made for easter:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/238012

Focaccia

I can only imagine how much better this would be with Adam's starter dough, but for a QUICK, EASY hard-to-mess-up recipe (because I've made it 4 or 5 times and it's come out good each time despite my playing fast and loose with the recipe), this is pretty good. It's posted as I found it on allrecipes, but I now sprinkle herbs on top instead of adding them into the dough. I also sometimes substitute out 3/4 cup of white flour and use 1/2 cup wheat flour and 1/4 cup flaxseed meal. Comes out good both ways.

FOCACCIA

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. white sugar
1 packet dry yeast
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp.. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried basil
pinch black pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. grated parmesan
1 cup mozzerella

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

1. In a food processor, stir together the flour, salt, surgar, yeast, herbs and pepper. Add oil and water, and mix until a ball is formed, about 20 seconds. Dough should be sticky, smoothe and elastic.
2. Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl and coat with oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
3. Punch dough down, place on greased baking sheet. Pull into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with parmesan and mozzerella.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Beans, Beans...you know the rest (Lentil Salad with Feta)

I've been looking for recipes using beans and whole grains. The kinds that come in a bag for about 50 cents, because they're economical, tasty, filling and very healthy. Not to mention the fun of having gas.

I used to think lentils HAD to go with ham or bacon to give them flavor and make them palatable. Not so! Some lemon juice and garlic does just fine, and the lentils actually have a flavor all on their own that I happen to really like.

I made this for lunch today; it rocked. My only substitution was sundried tomatoes for cherry tomatoes. The lentils did get a bit mushy with all the tossing at the end. I don't know if this is just the nature of lentils, or if I cooked them a bit too long. Anyway:

Lentil Salad with Feta

1 1/4 cups dried lentils
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups quartered cherry tomatoes
1 cup diced cucumber
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup thinly sliced celery

Place lentils in a large saucepan; cover with water to 2 inches above lentils, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until tender. Drain well, and set aside.

Combine lemon juice and next 5 ingredients (lemon juice through garlic) in a medium bowl; stir with a wire whisk until blended.

Add lentils, tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, and celery to lemon juice mixture; toss gently to coat.

Serves 4.

Warm chocolate chip, walnut banana bread with vanilla ice cream

I adapted this recipe from my Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I've noted where I've made my additions and changes.

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons softened butter

2 large eggs
1 cup or 2 mashed ripe bananas (the riper, the better)
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
3/4 cup chocolate chips (Mia's tip)
1/3 cup of milk (Mia's tip)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 x 5 pan with butter. Combine dry ingredients flour, baking soda and salt, and mix thoroughly. In mixer, combine butter, eggs, sugar and milk until well blended. Then mix both the wet and dry ingredients.

Then add bananas and fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.

Cook for 45 minutes so it's slightly underdone.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and whip cream if you want. They'll be begging for more!

The Wonder of Flaxseed

Loaded with Omega-3's! Mix it into a smoothie! Add it to pancake mix! or Cornbread! It's tasty and super good for you.

Honey Cornbread

This cornbread recipe has NO sugar, and substitutes honey, which makes it a little more moist.

Honey Cornbread

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 400*F (205*C). Grease an 8-inch square baking pan; set aside.
2. Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Blend together eggs, milk, butter and honey; add to the dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened.
3. Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until tested done if center springs back after being pressed lightly.
   Serve warm.

Makes 8 servings.

JC's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter (1/2 lb), softened but still firm

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

3 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Adjust oven racks to low and middle positions; heat oven to 350.

Beat eggs until creamy.

Add sugars; beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Beat in eggs one at a time.

In separate bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg together, then stir it into butter-sugar mixture with with wooden spoon or large rubber spatula.

Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Form dough into 16 to 20 2-inch balls, placing each dough round onto one of two parchment paper--

and then just wing it from there. -p

JC's 1-1-1 Chicken

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

1 lb boneless chicken, chopped

1 lg onion, sliced thin

1 lg pepper, sliced thin

1 can chickpeas, drained

minced garlic or garlic powder

salt & pepper

herbs au provence

Saute chicken in olive oil until browned. Remove from pan.

Add a bit more oil and saute onions and peppers about 8 minutes until soft.

Return chicken to pan and sprinkle with garlic, herbs, salt & pepper.

Add undrained tomatoes and drained chickpeas.

Cook about 1 hour--longer tastes better.

Squash in the Pot

So it turns out you can cook winter squash WHOLE in the crock pot! This was great news to me, because I love the way butternut and acorn squash taste, but hate hacking them up, and never seem to get them quite right in the oven. So you just wash them well, and stick them in the pot with 2 tablespoons of water, and let them go on LOW for 4-9 hours, or until you can stick a fork all the way through. I have to admit it didn't smell terrific during cook time, but they scooped out like a dream and I just reheated them with some curry, brown sugar and butter. Delicious!

Provencal Chicken and Fennel

We had our neighbors over for supper tonight, and I wanted to make something that the kids would eat (not too spicy or exotic), and found this recipe from the Mayo Clinic cookbook. It came out really good. You know you have a winner when the kids and the grown-ups like it. I modified it from the cookbook by reducing the amount of fennel and adding red pepper and switching in broth for white wine.

Provencal Chicken and Fennel

• 1 fennel bulb, chopped into wedges
• 1 red pepper, cut into strips
  
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/4 cup broth
• 2 Tbsp orange juice
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 6 bone-in chicken breasts or thighs
• 2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley

1. In dutch oven or large frying pan, combine tomatoes, broth, o.j., garlic and vinegar. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium-low.

2. Arrange chicken, fennel and red pepper over tomato mixture, spooning some sauce over chicken. Cover and cook until chicken reads 180, approx. 45 min. Using a slotted spoon, transfer chicken and vegetables to a platter.

3. Increase heat to high and cook until sauce has thickened slightly. I added some flour also, and it made a slammin' gravy. Spoon over chicken or serve on the side. Sprinkle dish with parsley.

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

I've made this several times, and it always comes out good, even though I never really measure anything out.

• 2 Tbsp (1/4 stick) butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 small celery stalks, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 5 cups)
• 4 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth (use vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
• 1 tsp curry
• ¼ tsp ginger

1 Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add chopped celery stalks, sauté about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 2 minutes.

2 Add sweet potatoes, chicken stock, curry and ginger; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

3 Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to pot. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.

Travels in Foodland

Food is always on my mind. Whether I’m rationalizing my next handful of frozen dark chocolate chips from the freezer, or hiding wheat germ in my kids’ pancakes, or searching for the perfect cornbread recipe online (found it!), it seems I’m always either thinking about, researching or experimenting with food. (Or dealing with the more mundane reality of shopping for and cleaning up from meals). Food is a journey for me, a fascinating and often surprising one, and my family’s diet is constantly evolving.

One of the major epiphanies I had when I stopped working full-time is that I could make many things from scratch, and that this would be healthier, cheaper and tastier than buying packaged food (and as I would soon find out, much more time consuming as well). It was a joy to eat food that was real, homemade and free of preservatives. So far I’ve learned to make pie crust, homemade pizza dough, a killer chicken broth, and am learning to use a slow cooker. I have found a great recipe for homemade hamburger helper and for homemade pancake mix.

So this blog is a way for me to chronicle my kitchen experiments, food-related reading, and confessions (my kids still eat chicken nuggets, no matter how many times I’ve tried to quit them), and also to file recipes that have worked for my family. I love sharing recipes, and would love to sign on anyone interested as an author or recipe contributer.