Buttermilk Grosses Me Out

Cucumberpocalypse

2011-07-14T10:32:00.005-05:00

I have this motto: "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing to the point of excess and near annoyance." Okay, that's not really my motto, but I am kind of feeling like I may have taken a simple comment from The Captain ("I really like it when you make pickles") and run a little to far with it. I just did the math and it appears that I planted 48 cucumber plants. For 2 people. Now add that to the cucumbers that I am getting in a farm share and we have a downright cucumber situation on our hands.

Here's one of my cute little cucumber trellises. The cucumber plants are so thick on it that it's like going into the jungle when I go in to search for cukes.

The trellises are loaded with cucumber flowers and cucumbers in various stages of development.

The crisper in the fridge with some of the cucumbers I picked yesterday (and a couple of farm share cukes.) Every day I attempt to find a way to use these thing up. Here's what I have been doing.

Of course, I have been making batches of the old standby: the cucumber salad. I'm getting lazy in my old age and have been using bottled dressing instead of making my own.

Pickles! The only good way I know to preserve cucumbers. So far I am at 7 quarts and 14 pints. I'm getting pretty good at knocking out a batch of pickles in record time.

Cucumber-mint water. Oh so hydrating.

Cucumber soda. I pureed 3 cucumbers, 2 limes (with peel and pith removed), a couple sprigs of mint and some honey in the food processor. After straining it overnight, I mixed it with some ice and seltzer water. Surprisingly good. (Based on a recipe out of Everyday Food. I don't remember which month. I'm totally behind in my magazines.)

And ta da: batches of cucumber infused tequila and gin. Based on the advice from the guys at work, I let the cut up cucumbers sit in the spirits for 36 hours, strained and rebottled them.

What to do with cucumber infused tequila? I made Matt Seiter's recipe for Summer's Blush which was Imbibe Magazine's Drink of the Week last summer. A little bit of tequila, St. Germain, some lime juice, rose water and Peychaud's bitters. It's sublime.

I also threw some of that cucumber booze in some watermelon juice (from a pureed and strained watermelon) and some lemonade and made boozy rocket pops. Lemon on the outside with a watermelon center.

It's worth noting that I gave a neighbor a couple of cucumbers and he ended up dropping off a four pack of home brewed stout. Yay for cucumbers!

My goal is to not let any of these babies go to waste. Anybody out there have any must try cucumber recipes?

Caramel Popcorn with Lots of Peanuts

2010-08-23T16:46:00.005-05:00

You know what sucks about Cracker Jacks? Ha, see that was a trick question. Nothing sucks about Cracker Jacks. They are a nearly perfect food with their mix of sweet-salty-buttery crunch. If they weren't nearly perfect, we wouldn't sing about them while watching our national pastime. That said, what I have always wished for my Cracker Jacks was that they had more peanuts. I came upon a chance to make that wish a reality with the Fine Cooking Tailgating magazine I got over the weekend. Here's the recipe:

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/caramel-popcorn.aspx
I used some of the popcorn that I get from Scott that I absolutely love. I think it's grown in Hillsboro.

Heat the oil with one kernel in there and once that pops, drop the rest.

After a couple minutes, I had a lovely bowl of popped corn.

Then I added a bunch of nuts. Actually more than were called for in the recipe.

Here's me pretending I am a pastry chef, brushing down the walls of the pan so that I don't get sugar crystals in my caramel.

This is what it looked like when I started.

And here's where I dropped in the baking soda.

Dump and mix.

Then spread on a foil lined baking sheet. When cool, break into bite sized pieces.

I was gonna say that the hardest part of making caramel corn is not eating the popcorn while waiting for the caramel to cook, but that was what I thought before I saw the hardened caramel on my pan and bowls. Yikes. But totally worth it.

The Egg Recall

2010-08-23T10:07:00.003-05:00

This is not normally a blog where I talk about food politics, but I find this story on stltoday.com so offensive (I think I am past the point where I am disturbed by this stuff) that I thought I would share a couple of my thoughts on it. http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_ad03a310-c68c-5853-b8c9-0c93ef9c5f8d.html

First: (well, this really isn't my thought, I stole it from Michael Ruhlman and he stole if from someone else.) If you are worried about the egg recall, you are buying your eggs from the wrong place. I didn't need a recall to tell me something was wrong with grocery store eggs. Their yolks are a really pale, sickly yellow color. Even if you buy the more expensive organic or the vegetarian fed or the free range varieties, they still look wrong when you crack them open.

Second: The article calls the guy who owns the companies responsible for the eggs "Businessman Austin 'Jack' DeCoster. I guess salmonella is what happens when the bulk of the eggs consumed in this country come from businessmen instead of farmers.

So this evening, to celebrate the fact that I know where my eggs come from, and I know the folks who raise the chickens who make them, I will be eating some nearly raw eggs in the form of a carbonara.

If you don't know a farmer, here's where you can get some locally raised farm eggs:
Family Harvest Mercantile (Kirkwood, members only)
City Greens (Forest Park Southeast, members only)
Tower Grove Farmers Market (Tower Grove Park, everyone)
Maplewood Farmers Market (Bottleworks parking lot, everyone)
Local Harvest Grocery Store (Morgan Ford, everyone)
Soulard Farmers Market (Soulard, everyone)

I Learn Something New Every Day

2010-08-13T09:50:00.004-05:00

You'll never guess where I got this bowl full of exciting and sexy summer squash. Grocery store? Nope. My garden? Not this year. Farmers Market? Not my typical spots.

I picked these guys up at City Greens, a market in the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood (I call the neighborhood The Grove). Catholic Charities operates a market at their Midtown Center. You've got to be a member to shop, but memberships are free to those who make less than $30,000 a year and around $5 a week to those who make more. What's great about this place is that it offers locally grown products, at discounted prices, to a community that is under served by the grocery stores. (And by under served, I mean totally ignored.)

I hung out there for a bit on Thursday and met some really interesting people. The place is staffed by some cool ladies who live in the neighborhood and volunteer their time. We chatted a little bit about cooking. When the talk turned to turnip greens, I made the mistake of saying that I usually just throw mine in the compost pile. Upon hearing this, a volunteer named Bobbi told me that if I kept coming back, they'd eventually teach me how to cook. She wasn't just talking either. The ladies there take what's on hand and show you how to use it. Yesterday it was a lasagna that used sliced zucchini in place of the noodles. The week before it was peach pie. They won't let you turn down a sample. (And by sample I mean plateful.) I love it!

Anyway, the produce available there is absolutely gorgeous. I saw peaches, tomatoes, carrots, corn, squash, cucumbers, and melons. And not just your run of the mill produce. Interesting varieties: the stuff you'd find at a good farmers market. Also available: eggs, bread, jams/jellies/honey and flour (who knew they were making flour in Ste Genevieve?)

City Greens is open Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 6 and the first Saturday of every month from 8:30 to 11:30

http://www.ccstl.org/component/content/article/42/373-city-greens-open.html

Popcorn Ice Cream with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce

2010-08-10T11:50:00.005-05:00

Nope, this isn't my recipe. I found it here:

http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2010/06/popcorn-ice-cream-with-salted-butter.html

And it is amazing.

I didn't really think I was a huge fan of popcorn. The thought of it sends me back a few years to back to when I worked in an office and at least once a week someone would burn a bag of microwave popcorn and the stink of scorched corn would linger in the air for the rest of the day. Recently, I've taken to making it on the stove, with old fashioned loose corn. I'd forgotten how good it can be.

The recipe is good enough that making conversions from metric to whatever our system is called that isn't metric, in hindsight, wasn't all that annoying. Also, the recipes aren't exactly matched. I ended up with WAY too much sauce. But if my biggest problem in my life right now is that I have too much salted butter caramel sauce, I'm not gonna feel TOO bad for myself.

Smothered Pork Chops

2010-08-09T08:28:00.003-05:00

I picked up some of the huge pork chops from Family Harvest. I wanted to try to recreate the smothered pork chops that The Captain and I had at Farmhaus earlier in the spring, except with thicker, meatier chops. Here's what I came up with:

Smothered Pork Chops
1/2 cup flour (I used a white whole wheat)
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (I used Penzey's Tuscan Sunset)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
olive oil
medium onion, diced
10 mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken stock (I used a home made roasted chicken stock)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flour and spices together.

Reserve a couple of tablespoons of the flour/spice mixture.

Prep the vegetables.

Put a saute pan on medium heat. Pat the pork chops with paper towels and place them in flour mixture. Get them coated and shake off excess.

Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and cook chops on the first side for about 5 minutes or until the crust is nice and crispy and releases from the bottom of the pan without leaving its crusty deliciousness behind. Cook for 5 minutes on the second side and remove chops to a paper towel lined plate.

Add onions, mushrooms and garlic to the chop pan and cook for a couple of minutes. If you need additional oil, add some. Add 1 tablespoon plain flour and 2 tablespoons of the reserved seasoned flour to the pan. Cook until the flour browns and forms a crust on the bottom of the pan. Whisk in chicken stock.

Put chops back in the pan and cover with the mushrooms, onions and gravy. Cover pan and place in heated oven for 30 minutes.

I served it with mashed potatoes and asparagus. I realize asparagus season ended long ago here in MO, but I was craving a green veg. My green beans don't seem to want to produce in the 100 degree weather, and the green beans at the store didn't look too hot, so yes, I bought some asparagus that has probably travelled more extensively than I have this year, but DON'T JUDGE ME. :)

Look at the size of the chop on my plate!

A glamour shot:

The meat was incredibly tender. You would think that me and The Captain would have had some leftovers because of the size of these things, but they were so good we ate it all. Mmmm gravy!

Martin Rice

2010-08-02T22:16:00.003-05:00

I'm not trying to push an agenda here. I honestly don't care what you buy or who you buy it from. (You will notice there are no google ads on the side of this blog.) But every once in a while I come across a product that is so ridiculously good that I feel the need to share the name brand with you. I cooked Martin rice for the first time last week and thought to myself "damn, that is good rice", then all of a sudden, it seems like everyone is talking about Martin rice. Local Harvest tweeted that they had it. My boss came in and was telling me about this amazing rice that she drove into the middle of nowhere to get. (She was like "yeah that's it!" when I showed her a picture of my bag.) The cooks in the kitchen were talking about it being the best rice they ever had. Josh Galliano (of Monarch) was tweeting today about MO (Martin) rice.

If you find yourself with access to Martin rice, by all means - buy it. It's fantastic.

God, it's gorgeous. Funny thing is, I have a hard time with white rice. I make it gloopy or burn it. This is the easiest thing going.

Made a little pilaf type thing with it tonight and The Captain was like, "this rice is amazing!" No kidding. Try it if you can. So yummy.

http://www.martinrice.com/index.html

Aloo Gobhi (Cauliflower and Potatoes)

2010-08-02T14:13:00.008-05:00

Speaking of Jamie Oliver, my sister loaned me her Jamie's Food Revolution cookbook. I was not a fan of Jamie back in his Naked Chef days. There was something distracting about the way he talked to the cameraman and not the camera. And he threw too many parties. It was like I wanted to sit him down and tell him something like, "Jamie, you know that people will still like you even if you aren't cooking for them all the time and letting them crash at your place." I turned a corner with him when the Jamie at Home series starting airing on Food Network. Maybe marriage and kids were good for him. All I know is that I really began to identify with the way he cooked. Simple fresh stuff from the garden.

Anyway the forward of the Food Revolution book is pretty cool. The British version of the book is called Ministry of Food and refers back to World War II, when food was rationed and people were planting Victory Gardens. Britain established a Ministry of Food and sent women across the country to teach people about nutrition and to show them how to properly use their food rations. These women helped to keep the country healthy during lean times. I like that for the Americanized version of the book they changed the name to Food Revolution. A) We (collectively) have no point of reference of the Ministry of Food and B) We Americans identify with being revolutionary. So I think the name is brilliant.

I really felt like making a curry and I found a recipe that sounded good and for which I had all the necessary ingredients.

Aloo Gohbi (adapted from Jamie's recipe)
1 onion
3 chiles
a knob of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
a head of cauliflower
4 medium potatoes
olive oil
butter
1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin
salt & pepper
1 lemon cut into wedges

Preheat oven to 425. Dice onion, slice chiles, mince garlic and ginger.

Throw into an ovenproof pan over medium high heat that has been melting the butter/heating the oil. Break down cauliflower into florets and peel/dice potatoes. (If you aren't fast, you might want to do this before you put the onions and stuff in the pot.) Add the spice and a little bit of salt and pepper. Cook for another minute or so.

Add cauliflower and potatoes and 2 cups of water.

Cover and cook until vegetables are soft. (Took me about 20 minutes.) Place in the oven for another 20 minutes.

While this guy is in the oven, prepare some rice.

Serve with rice and garnish with basil and lemon wedge.

I really enjoyed this, but will probably cut the amount of potatoes in half next time I make this recipe.

Bruschetta with Summer Vegetables

2010-08-02T12:09:00.006-05:00

So I have a whole bunch of peppers. Sweet and hot. I've already frozen a bunch of them and The Captain has been eating them raw on salads, but still we are overloaded. And as if The Cooking Channel knew what I was thinking, they aired a Jamie at Home episode with peppers as the highlighted food. He made a pepper bruschetta that looked great. I decided to borrow that idea, using the stuff we had around here. I would link the original recipe, but I can't seem to find it on Jamie Oliver's website.

My Version of Jamie Oliver's Bruschetta recipe
3 sweet peppers
3 chiles
1 tomato
eggplant (I only used a quarter of this one, cause it was kind of big)
thyme
2 cloves of garlic
3 slice of bacon, cut in half
lime juice
salt & pepper
olive oil

(Yeah, there is basil in that pic, but I decided I didn't want to use it when I was finished, so pretend it's not there.)Half the sweet peppers, creating little pepper boats. Season with salt and pepper.

Chop the tomato, the eggplant, the chiles and the garlic. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Add the juice on 1/2 lime. Stuff the mixture into the pepper halves.

Place in a grill proof container (I used a huge aluminum bread pan). I put a little bit of olive oil in the pan before adding to peppers to prevent sticking.

Top each pepper half with a half slice of bacon. Cover with aluminum foil and grill over low heat (I was running around 350 degrees) for about 20 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 20 minutes.

While the peppers are roasting, grill up 6 slices of a sturdy, rustic bread.

Place the cooked pepper halves on top of the bread. At this point, Jamie takes a knife and pokes little holes in the pepper so the juice can soak through to the bread. I took a couple spoonfuls of what was left in the pan and spooned it over as well. Good stuff. Really loved it. Had to eat with a knife and fork though cause they're a little drippy.

For Beet Lovers Only (Beet Risotto)

2010-07-20T10:57:00.004-05:00

Disclaimer: Seriously if you are not a fan of beets, you might want to skip this recipe. There's a macabre like quality to the finished product that might be a little too much for those unfamiliar with the aesthetic effect that beets and beet juice can have on things. That said, this would be a great dish to make for a Halloween party.

Things get a little dicey around here right before we leave to go out of town. I like to play a little game with myself where I try to get the fridge down to empty and use up all the perishables without going to the grocery store and buying any more stuff. Of this desire to not be wasteful is born my beet risotto.

Beet Risotto
5 medium beets
3 small to medium onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup arborio rice
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
several sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
salt and pepper
I clean and peel the beets, onions and garlic and cut them into pieces that will fit through the tube of the food processor.

I let the food processor do the work on this one. Attempting to grate beets by hand would be a huge mistake. Unless you are into the crime scene look for your kitchen.

Once all the vegetables are shredded, I add them into a pan with the olive oil, butter, thyme and some salt and pepper. I cook on a medium high heat for about 5 minutes or so.

Then I add the arborio and cook for another 5 minutes or so.

Add the wine, and stir til absorbed. Add stock a half cup at a time, stirring until absorbed after each addition.

After about 30 minutes, the stock should be gone and the rice should be cooked, but firm. Remove from heat and add cheese and parsley.

Despite its odd appearance, it's pretty yummy, and a little on the sweet side.

Another Gardening Story

2010-07-20T09:52:00.002-05:00

I try to keep things organic in the garden. I think I like the challenge of fighting nature with nature. It's a fair fight. There's a huge infestation of cucumber beetles on my plants this year. They're all over my cukes, tomatoes, beans, and basil. So I'm trying to clean up some basil plants that have been eaten and pooped on and I say to The Captain, "What (besides humans) eats herbs? I thought only people ate herbs" and I notice that my hands (and plants) are dripping with these guys. Now I'm not saying that the cucumber beetles are the guys that are eating and pooping on my basil, but it was kind of like a wake up call to finally rid myself of these pests.

So I make myself a hot pepper smoothie. I throw a couple habeneros, a couple Caribbean reds, a couple jalapenos and a couple tabascos in the blender with some water. I strain it out, add some rubbing alcohol and put it in a spray bottle. I'm out in the garden spraying like a crazy person. What I have failed to consider, until it is too late, is that I have created a pepper spray. And I have surrounded myself in a cloud of it. That was fun. An exercise for my lungs. But not the end of my homemade pepper spray adventure.

Flash forward about an hour and a half later. I have changed out of my shorts and flip flops into work out gear. I'm at the gym and after about 20 minutes on the treadmill, I notice the tops of my feet are beginning to tingle. At the 55 minute mark the capsaicin burn on the tops of my feet is so intense that I have to abandon the treadmill and Judge Judy to seek relief. Apparently a fair amount of pepper juice landed on them during the spraying and the friction from running/walking activated the heat.

I love learning new things that are most likely totally obvious to the rest of the world.

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup

2010-07-19T23:11:00.005-05:00

I've often said (when looking at flower arrangements) that we can't have nice things. We have cats. Three of them. And because I deprive them of the joy of living dangerously and experiencing the great outdoors, whenever I bring something inside that would occur in nature outside, the cats freak out. And chew. And knock over. For example: last year, my friend Andy ordered a bunch of cool heirloom tomato seeds. He gave me some of them. I went to Lowes and picked up a kit to grow them in and sprouted little tomatoes on my kitchen counter. One night, while I was sleeping, one (or all) of the cats decided that the torture was too much and consumed the tops of my new plants. Hearing my tale of woe, Andy was kind enough to give me twelve of his seedlings. I grew some absolutely gorgeous tomatoes last year. I was dealing with several bowls full of tomatoes when one afternoon, Tyler Florence was on the Food Network suggesting that I make a Roasted Tomato Soup out of my late summer bounty. BRILLIANT. The first time around, I followed his recipe. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/roasted-tomato-soup-recipe/index.html
Of course now I just make roasted tomato soup like I made any vegetable soup. Simple, simple.(Although reviewing his recipe made me realize I could have used a bay leaf or two in this batch.)

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup (<-Liar there are hybrids in here too!)
10 decently sized tomatoes
3-4 decently sized sweet onions
olive oil
several stems of fresh oregano
several stems of fresh thyme
salt & pepper
4 cups of chicken stock
fresh basil (to taste)
parmigiano reggiano (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut tomatoes and onions into uniform sizes (think big). Add several stems of thyme (no need to remove leaves from stems) and oregano (go ahead and remove those leave from the stems.) I used the oregano flowers too. I think they look cool. They taste just like the leaves anyway. Throw a couple of healthy pinches of sea salt into the mix and several grinds of pepper. Add about 1/4 of a cup of olive oil over the top and mix it all together. I put it all into an enamelized pan and roast for 1 hour.
After an hour, I remove from the oven and let it sit for a minute. Now if I weren't cheap, I would spring for a food mill, but because I am cheap, I instead use a fork and some tongs to remove the skins and ooky seed chunks from the tomatoes. Also any stems from the herbs.

I put the pan on the stove between a couple of burners and turn them both on. I add four cups of chicken stock and let it cook down for about 30 minutes.

Then I puree it with an immersion blender. I taste and adjust salt and pepper. It ALWAYS needs more pepper.

To serve, I tear up some fresh basil and stir it in. A little sprinkle of parmigiano reggiano makes it absolutely heavenly.

My Version of the BLT

2010-07-19T14:06:00.003-05:00

When I start getting tomatoes, my mind immediately goes to BLTs. Unfortunately, when my T's start producing, my L's are long gone. L doesn't like the heat that that T's like. Anyway, to keep it all fresh and homemade-y, I use basil from the garden instead of lettuce from the store. Gives it a nice Italian feel. Come to think of it, I should grab some pancetta and make PBTs next time.

Herb Crusted Chicken

2010-07-16T10:30:00.009-05:00

Hippies make delicious mustard. Well, actually, I probably shouldn't make generalized statements like that. The hippies at Sandhill Farm make delicious mustard. And honestly, I don't know that the people at Sandhill Farm are really hippies, but statements like the following, found on their website http://www.sandhill.org/ make me think they might be:

" Sandhill emphasizes work that members enjoy; if something isn't getting done we either change our attitude or stop doing it. We operate without work quotas and with few schedules. Instead, we talk regularly about what needs doing and ask for help when we need it."

All I can say for certain is that I hope the members of Sandhill Farm enjoy making mustard. Because as long as they are selling, I'll be buying.

When I think of summer, I think of grilling. And summer grilling is so much better with fresh herbs from the garden. I've become somwhat addicted to grilled chicken that's been slathered with grainy mustard and herbs. I just kind of pick whatever looks good (in this case, clockwise from the top, oregano/rosemary/sage/thyme) and then I do the following:

Smoosh the herbs into a ball and finely chop. Add some freshly cracked pepper and sea salt.

Put a couple tablespoons of mustard in a prep bowl so you don't get chicken fingers all over the jar. One the slathering of the chicken begins, things might get a little messy.

Butterfly the chicken to maximize surface space, then spread the mustard over both sides of the chicken.

Divide the herbs amongst the breasts and press them into the mustard.

Grill on a medium high for about 5 minutes a side or until the chicken is cooked throughout.

The flavor on this one is amazing. The mustard/herb crust works well with pork too.

Pasta with Early Summer Vegetables

2010-07-09T09:50:00.006-05:00

I find myself making this recipe when the fridge is getting too full. It's a great way to clear out space when you know another box of vegetables is coming in. Or to make myself feel less bad for buying a bunch of Swiss chard at Soulard when I already have vegetable coming out the wazoo. (I love Swiss chard.) The thing about the recipe is that you can use pretty much whatever you have.

Pasta with Early Summer Vegetables

half a box of penne rigate
zucchini, quartered and sliced
bunch of Swiss chard, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 onions, bottoms chopped, tops sliced and reserved (I grew those!)
1 purple pepper, julienned (that one's from my garden too)
1 tabasco pepper, chopped (yep, I grew it)
1 14.5 ounce can of whole tomatoes with juice
handful of basil (mine too)
couple sprigs of oregano (this plant is 3 years old!)
olive oil
salt and pepper
parmigiano reggiano

I chop all my veggies while waiting for my pasta water to boil. Once I drop the pasta, I add the onions, garlic, zucchini, peppers and oregano (stripped from the stem) to a pan that's been heated to medium high with a little bit of olive oil in it. I season with salt and pepper. Sometimes I also add the chopped stems of the chard, but the chard stems were dirty after I rinsed and spun it, and I was lazy and didn't feel like doing a detailed recleaning.

After about 5 minutes, I add the tomatoes with juice. I am not a huge fan of the stem parts, so I remove them and crush the tomatoes before I add them to the vegetables. I add a little more salt for the tomatoes and crank up the heat to high to reduce.

After 3 minutes have passed, there should be about 2 minutes left on the cooking time left for the pasta, I add the Swiss chard to the pasta water. Cook til the pasta is al dente (about 3 more minutes).

When the pasta is almost done, I add torn basil to my sauce.

Drain pasta and Swiss chard. Grab a big bowl.

Add pasta. Top with vegetables. Garnish with parmigiano reggiano, cracked black pepper, the onion tops, and more fresh basil.

This is one of my favorite foods. And it's even good heated up in the microwave the next day.

Stole This One from Martha

2010-07-09T09:21:00.003-05:00

I was reading Everyday Food the other morning and saw this terribly cute idea. Ice cubes made with fruit juices, or fruit purees that had berries and mint suspended in them. The idea is that ice cubes made of tasty things won't melt and dilute your drink. They'll only make it tastier.

Berries? Check. Mint? Check. Lemonade? Check. This one's easy.

Wash and dry some berries and mint.

Place in ice cube trays and fill with lemonade. Freeze.

The hardest part of this recipe is finding ice cube trays. I put my cubes in iced tea this morning.

Smashed and Fried Potatoes

2010-07-08T09:46:00.004-05:00

I love tiny potatoes. (Well, to be fair, I love big potatoes and medium sized potatoes too.) At Family Harvest this week, I picked out the smallest potatoes I could find so I could make this recipe. Although it's not really a recipe. More of a technique.

Smashed and Fried Potatoes
Tiny Potatoes (as many as you want to eat)
Olive Oil
Fresh Rosemary
Salt & Pepper

I place the potatoes in a pan of cold water and bring to a boil. I boil them for about 10 minutes or until easily pierce with a knife.

Drain and place on a towel to dry/cool.

After they have dried and slightly cooled, smash them with a flat bottomed glass. The Microfest glass worked nicely for me today.

Don't smash them into oblivion. Just a nice, even, gentle smoosh.

Place potatoes in a medium high non-stick pan that has been coated with a thin layer of olive oil. Fry until the edges start browing (around 3-5 minutes). Flip and add a generous amount of fresh rosemary. Fry for another 3-5 minutes or until browned.

Work in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan and steaming the potatoes.

Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Fried rosemary has an unbelievable flavor. Good luck getting these to your plate. We normally stand around them and snack on them while the subsequent batches are frying up.

Shandy!

2010-06-22T19:46:00.003-05:00

Today was a busy day. I spent a lot of time in the garden pulling lettuce that had turned bitter, replanting the lettuce real estate, and fertilizing (fish emulsion - gross). Then I came inside and stood over a boiling pot of water while I canned pickles. I decided to relax at the pool (oh my God it was hot) afterwards. When I got home, I looked into a fridge that was stocked with Schlafly Summer Lager and Simply Lemonade and decided the time was right to make a shandy.

Shandy
lager beer
lemonade
lemon wedge

This one's pretty easy. Take an ice filled glass. Fill halfway with lemonade. Top with lager. Stir. Garnish. Sip. Relax.

Man oh man this is refreshing.

A Gifted Gardener

2010-06-22T17:44:00.004-05:00

I am not one. It's kind of funny, cause I have a decent sized garden for someone who lives in an urban area and I am out there all the time and I am constantly doing things that would make the casual observer think that I am a really good gardener. It doesn't hurt that (not to brag), our little slice of heaven is really good looking. And every once in a while we get lucky and get a bumper crop of something, but as far as I can tell, it's only luck.

Case in point: today, I am tending to my cucumbers. I put up a trellis last week and every few days, as they grow, I kind of train them to follow the trellis. We are starting to get little baby fruits (yeah I know we are behind everyone else) and today I noticed some odd looking cucumbers.

Hmm. That doesn't look like a cucumber.

Neither does this one.

Oh wait, it's because they aren't cucumbers. Somehow I managed to plant a couple of cantaloupe plants smack dab in the middle of my cucumber patch. And I even put the little tag from the starters down next to them. Way to pay attention to what I am doing!

Seriously, it's a miracle that anything grows out there for me. On the upside, I'm kind of excited about growing cantaloupe now!

Cucumber Salad

2010-06-20T09:55:00.006-05:00

When cucumber season hits, I find that we experience a little shift away from lettuce salads towards cucumber salads. I try to keep it interesting by mixing up the ingredients a little bit and giving the cucumber slight variations in texture by changing the way I prep it. Last night I used the peeler to create little ribbons of cukes.

Cucumber Salad
1 cucumber
salt
ground pepper
half of a hot pepper, minced
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
dash of soy sauce
several mint leaves
spring onion, sliced

I slice up the cucumber using the vegetable peeler. I got this cuke from the farm share, so I don't mind leaving the skin on. If I got it from the grocery store, I would remove the waxy skin.

I keep peeling until I reach the seeds. I don't eat the seeds. This part goes to the compost.

Once I have all my ribbons, I toss them with a pinch of salt and let them sit in a strainer for about 10 minutes to drain out extra moisture.

In the meantime, I mix the ground pepper, hot pepper, lime juice, vinegar, olive oil and soy sauce until I have a nice emulsion.

Add drained cucumbers to dressing, top with chiffonade of mint and onion, and toss.

At this point, the salad can be eaten or refrigerated overnight to let the flavors deepen. Best served super cold with bbq'd pork steaks.

Ozark Mountain Blueberries

2010-06-14T21:16:00.002-05:00

If you are looking for proof in a loving, benevolent God, look no further than the humble blueberry. They are loaded with fiber, antioxidants and vitamins while being low in calories and filled with flavor. I love these little blue guys. And I loved them even more when I met Paul Lais last year at Soulard Farmers Market.

One Saturday last summer, I was looking for some local blueberries. There were none at Tower Grove. So I headed to Soulard, where I had heard there lots of them. I had nearly walked around the whole market and only seen little blueberries packaged in plastic clamshells that were clearly not from around these parts, when, like an oasis, I came upon the Ozark Mountain stand. Blueberries everywhere. The guy said that he grew them down in Springfield, MO and suggested I sample one. Tart and sweet at the same time. Amazing. I bought a bunch of them. Then, every Saturday after, I went back and bought more. I remember the last time I talked to Paul. I said, "Next weekend is the 4th of July. Are you gonna be here?" He said he would be.

Well, it was raining cats and dogs on the 4th of July. I got up, got dressed and headed to Soulard. By the time I parked and got in, I was soaked. I made my way over the the Ozark Mountain stand and it was empty. No blueberries. No Paul. And that was the last time I ever saw either one of them.

Luckily I had the foresight to stockpile and freeze. I think we finally ran out of our stored berries back in February. The happy ending to the story? It's blueberry season right now and Paul and his berries are back in Soulard. I bought a gallon last Saturday and God willing, I will buy another gallon next Saturday.

Frozen blueberries are great in muffins, pancakes, cobblers, and pies. In fact, you name it and you can probably substitute frozen for fresh. Don't thaw them, just add them as they are. Here's how I freeze mine for future use.

Step 1: Rinse and spread on a towel. Pick through for stems and funky berries.

Aren't they perfect looking? I'm obsessed with these berries! (Blueberry fun fact: blueberries contain the same compound that cranberries contain that help prevent and eliminate urinary tract infections.)

Step 2: Spread in a single layer on a waxed paper lined baking sheet.

Step 3: Place in freezer until they are frozen solid. (I guess an hour would probably work. I usually put them in there and forget about them for a few hours.)

Step 4: Measure out 2 cup portions, bag in vacuum bags and suck all the air out. I label with date and origin as well.

During the winter, I find that our frozen Springfield berries taste better than the fresh ones available in the supermarket.

Cinnamon Bread Pudding with Drunken Blueberries and a Sailor Jerry Rum Sauce

2010-06-10T07:21:00.003-05:00

More tales of leftover bread. I bought an amazing cinnamon brioche at Companion and have been eating it for toast. I've also got a half a loaf of some french, over a half of a loaf of plain brioche, a fresh stock of croutons and a tub of breadcrumbs in the freezer, so I figured I better get to the business of using this bread before it becomes a nice breakfast for the birds over in Lafayette Park. Brioche, if you're not familiar, is a rich, eggy, buttery tasting bread. Bread pudding is the obvious answer.

I didn't have any half and half so I had to run to the store. I also didn't have any rum or whiskey to make a sauce so I figured I would pick that up at the grocery store as well. Well, I don't normally buy booze at the grocery store. Randall's liquor warehouse is just a couple of streets away from me and that's where I typically buy our beer and wine. The people who work there are really nice to me and we tend to chit chat for a bit when I am in there. I had just been to Randall's a couple of days before buying some wine and made some comment to the girl who was checking me out about the frequency of my wine purchasing habits (I'm there a couple times a week) and she said something like, "You're just buying wine. It's not like you're drinking a bottle of the hard stuff every day." So who should I see at the grocery store when I have a bottle of 94 proof booze in my cart and not much else? My girl from Randall's. So I hid from her. That's totally normal and healthy.

Cinnamon Bread Pudding with Drunken Blueberries
1/2 to 1/3 of a loaf of cinnamon brioche cut into cubes (a few days old)
4 eggs
2 cups half and half
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dried blueberries
Sailor Jerry spiced rum for soaking (a half cup of so)
butter for pan

Sailor Jerry Rum Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup half and half
4 tablespoons Sailor Jerry spiced rum

I call them drunken blueberries because I give them a little bath in some Sailor Jerry. After they've been soaking for about 20 minutes, I begin to assemble the pudding.

Whisk four eggs together.

Add half and half, sugar and vanilla.

Add the cubed cinnamon brioche. (I actually cut the cubes earlier in the day to give them a chance to dry out even further.)

Then add the drained, soaked blueberries. Mix by folding gently. Place in buttered pie dish.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for an hour. The bread pudding will rise in the oven and then deflate as it cools.

Make the sauce while the bread pudding cools by melting the butter, then adding the sugar and the cornstarch and whisking until incorporated. Add half and half and cook until it boils. Add rum and boil for another 10 minutes until the sauce is thickened and the alcohol taste burns off. Don't stand over this while it's cooking. The smell of the alcohol is strong in this one.

Spoon out a little slab of pudding and drizzle with sauce.

The Captain describes the taste as "Sailor Jerry berry". That about sums it up.

Home Made Croutons

2010-06-08T21:03:00.003-05:00

I've been making my own croutons for a while now for several reasons. (Wow, this sounds like the beginning of every essay I wrote in grade school.)

1. I have an excess of bread due to overpurchasing at the Companion factory. (It's a sickness and I can't and won't help it.)
2. Having looked at the ingredients in a bag of croutons, I have decided that I'm not really interested in eating all those chemicals.
3. (Kind of tied to #2) I don't find a lot of value in a bag of crouton. They are way overpriced for what they are.
4. They are really simple to make.

Home Made Croutons
left over bread
olive oil (a couple tablespoons, it really depends on how much bread you are using)
Italian seasoning (see olive oil)
fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take whatever left over bread you have and cut it into crouton sized pieces.

Drizzle with a little olive oil and season with Italian seasoning and pepper. I have a couple of different brands of Italian seasoning that I like to use. Manzo's (http://www.manzoimporting.com/newmanzoimporting/Welcome.html) makes a great bread dipping spice that I like to use, but it's a little on the garlicky/salty side, so I cut it with Penzey's Tuscan Sunset (http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeystuscan.html). I find a mix works for me. Both spices are a blend of basil, oregano, garlic, red pepper and some other stuff. Add spices with a gentle hand; they are easy to overspice.

I bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, stir and bake again for another 10. Once they are crispy, they are done. I let them cool then place in a resealable plastic container for future use. They are so much more delicious than the store bought croutons.

Greens with Roasted Beets

2010-06-07T16:45:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I totally stole the idea for this recipe from my sister. I was returning home from my afternoon at the food club and saw that I missed a couple of calls from her. She had picked up her half share earlier in the afternoon, so I had recently seen her. She says, "I roasted the beets and put them on a bed of the greens and topped it with the goat cheese and some white balsamic vinaigrette." I think to myself, "Hmm. That sounds like a good idea." So I copycatted her. Here's what I did:

Greens with Roasted Beets and Balsamic Vinaigrette
greens
2 beets
1 scallion
a few radishes
handful of oregano
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil + more for roasting
crumbled goat cheese
chopped pecans
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean, trim and dry beets. Splash with a bit of olive oil, and enclosed in aluminum foil. Roast for 20 minutes. Turn off oven and leave beets in there while you go sign up for a pool pass at the new Y. (You can skip the sign up for a pool pass part, but turn off the oven and leave them in there for about 30 minutes or until a knife pierces them easily.)

Mmm. Tender roasted beets.

Using a paper towel, rub the skin until it comes off. Use a paring knife to remove any stubborn sections of skin. Refrigerate until chilled. I gave them a few hours.

Rinse and dry the leaves from a couple sprigs of oregano. Give them a rough chop.

Add oregano, vinegar, oil and some salt and pepper to a glass jar. Shake and taste. Adjust seasoning.

Dice cooled beets. Assemble salad of greens, sliced radishes, beets, sliced green onion, and a bit of goat cheese and pecans. Top with a couple tablespoons of dressing.

Grilled Rustic French with Basil

2010-06-06T19:58:00.004-05:00

Mmmm. Fresh basil.

I love it when my fresh herbs start going crazy and I am always looking for ways to use them. This one is a nice snack to nibble on while grilling outside. Grab a date, a glass of wine, and chill on the patio while grilling with this snack.

Grilled Rustic French with Basil
several thin slices of rustic french bread
olive oil
parmigiano reggiano
pepper
chiffonade of basil

While my chicken cooks on the east side of the grill, I place my sliced french on the west side (which is turned off.) The residual heat gives it a nice toast. Toast on each side for a minute or two.

Remove toasted bread to a plate.

Drizzle some good olive oil on bread. Add freshly ground pepper. Shave some fresh parmigiano reggiano on top.

Top with chiffonade of basil. Try not to eat it all at one time.

Chicken Breast with Garlic Scapes and Scallion

2010-06-06T19:27:00.006-05:00

Got some scapes in the farm share this week. Scapes are the part of the garlic plant that grows above ground. Farmers typically cut the top off of the plant to encourage the growth of the bulb. I googled "scapes" and it appears that pickling and pesto are the two top uses of this unusual vegetable (is it a vegetable?) I thought I would try something else.

Chicken Breast with Scapes and Scallion
2 bone in/skin on chicken breasts
2 scallions (spring onions)
4 scapes
juice of half a lemon
zest of half a lemon
1 inch of grated ginger
spash of fruity white wine
salt & pepper

Here's what the scapes look like:

Chop the scapes and the scallions, add grated ginger, lemon juice, lemon zest, S&P, and spash of wine.

I put some extra S&P and olive oil in a couple of prep bowls. It saves me from having to wash my hands a bunch of times.

Loosen the skin from the breast. Take half the mixture and stuff underneath the skin of each breast.

Rub each breast with olive oil, S&P.

Place breasts, skin side down, on preheated medium grill. Cook, turning frequently for 20 minutes.

Reduce heat to low, and cook for another 20 minutes or until juices run clear.

When about 5 minutes from being done, I throw some snap peas (some home grown, some farm share) on the grill in a heavy duty pan. I put a little butter, olive oi, fresh thyme and S&P in the pan. Heat until warmed, but still crispy.

I garnish with some parsley, not because I dig 1980's style garnish, but because I firmly believe that parsley is packed with nutritional value.

Yum. It's like springtime on a plate.

Mint Lemonade

2010-06-04T12:28:00.003-05:00

Mint has been in the CSA box for the last couple of weeks and I love it. I think mint adds a really cool refreshing quality to beverages. I've been adding it to my tea water and doing my absolute favorite mint trick: adding it to lemonade. If you've never had mint in your citrus beverages, you've been missing out.

I muddle the mint (you can use a wooden spoon to beat it up a bit).

I add a wedge of lemon for good measure.

Add, ice then lemonade. Either make your own, or use Simply Lemonade which is made with water, lemons and sugar. Garnish if you are feeling fancy.

Creme Brulee

2010-06-01T11:30:00.006-05:00

This week I found myself in possession of some ridiculously high quality eggs and cream. Again I thought that the best way to showcase the goodness/freshness of these things was to prepare something simple. Creme Brulee. I have loved it since I first tasted its eggy goodness in Paris back in the mid 90's. I don't remember having any experience with it before that, but once I discovered it, I noticed it on dessert menus everywhere. A great thing about creme brulee is that it appears to be a complicated thing to make, but it's not. Friends and roommates will think you are brilliant when you pull these out. Creme Brulee 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped 2 cups of heavy cream 1/3 cup vanilla sugar (+ more for firing the tops) 5 medium egg yolks Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bring 2 quarts of water to a simmer on the stove. Using a sharp knife, split vanilla bean lengthwise. Run the tip of the knife down the inside of the bean to scrape out the vanilla specks.

Throw specks and the scraped bean into 2 cups of heavy cream and bring to a boil on the stove. Once boiling, remove from heat and allow to cool for approximately 10 minutes.

In the meantime, whisk 1/3 cup of sugar with 5 yolks. Look at how bright orange these yolks are!

I know Penzey's sells vanilla sugar, but I just use stuff that I make at my own house by combining used vanilla bean pods with plain sugar. If you don't have vanilla sugar, you can use plain white sugar.

Stop whisking when the yolks and sugar begin to lighten in color. Remove the vanilla bean pod and slowly whisk the slightly cooled cream into the egg mixture.

Strain combined ingredients into a clean bowl.

Remove any air bubbles that have formed on the surface with a spoon.

At this point, the custard mixture should be smooth and silky looking.

Divide mixture between 4 ramekins, place inside a pyrex pan, and fill pyrex with simmering water until the water reaches a level that is about half way up the ramekins.

Bake in the hot water bath for about 40 minutes, until the custard is set, but still jiggly in the middle. Cool the ramekins in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Once cold, prepare for serving by sprinkling the tops with sugar (I use my vanilla sugar again) and fire the tops with a kitchen blow torch until the sugar melts. I understand that this can also be done under a broiler, but I have owned a kitchen blow torch ever since I can remember and have never tried it any other way.

Melting the sugar with a blow torch is awfully fun. A long, long time ago, I used to brulee the tops of jello pudding cups when I was feeling fancy.

Breaking the shell of the burnt sugar is another one of those awfully satisfying things to do.

I love the combination of shards of burnt sugar shell with the cool rich vanilla-y custard underneath. It's kind of unbelievable that 4 ingredients can turn out such a sophisticated dessert.

Turnips!

2010-05-29T12:26:00.005-05:00

Thursday was the first week of the 2010 farm share. Things are a little different this year. Scott and Tricia (the farmers who grow the food we eat) opened up a mercantile in Kirkwood where members, in addition to picking up their farm share there, can purchase additional locally grown and humanely raised beef, pork, chickens, dairy products, baked goods, and other pantry staples.

The reason I mention this is because I am helping them out a little bit. I'm manning the store on Thursday afternoons and it was really interesting to interact with all of the other people who were picking up their shares. Anyway, as one member picked up her share she said something like, "I have never had a turnip. I don't know what to do with those." I told her that they were great mashed (like potatoes) or roasted. She told me that she didn't know how to roast. So I thought I would share my roasting technique for those who have never learned how. I'm also throwing in a similar recipe for grilled spring onions.

Roasted Turnips
turnips
olive oil
salt & pepper
thyme

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub turmips. (I don't peel the turnips from the farm share. There's no weird wax coating on them.) Cut turnip into uniform pieces. Drizzle with olive oil, a little S&P and fresh thyme. Toss to coat. Roast for 20 minutes, flipping them around the 10 minute mark.

Grilled Spring Onions

spring onions

olive oil

salt & pepper

Rinse and trim onions. Drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper. Toss to coat.

Place them on a hot grill over direct heat for about a minute. Flip and grill another minute.

I garnish the turnips with a little bit of fresh parsley. Roasting gives them a nice chewy outside while keeping the inside tender.

Some nice char marks on the onions.

The nice thing about super fresh vegetables is that they don't require a ton of herbs and spices or fancy preparation. This is my favorite time of the year. When I can enjoy the taste of fresh, simply prepared ingredients straight from Missouri farms.

Companion Early Bird Outlet

2010-05-29T11:51:00.002-05:00

I love bread. I especially love Companion Bread. Their products are made here in St. Louis and aren't loaded down with a bunch of preservatives and junk. Most of the breads contain flour, water, salt and yeast. "That's it" as their bags say. I don't remember why or how, but for some reason I ended up following Companion on Twitter. A couple of months ago, they tweeted that they were opening up the factory on the weekends and selling their products themselves at a discount. A deep discount. Breads go for $2 a pound and sweets go for $3.50 a pound.

I'm not great with numbers or measurements, but to give you an idea of what that looks like, I bought all this for $11 yesterday. That's a loaf of rustic french, a loaf of ciabatta, 4 sandwich rolls, 2 croissants, 2 blueberry bagels, 2 Morning Spice muffins and 2 blueberry muffins.

These aren't day old breads or anything. They are just whatever the bakers felt like making the night before.

Did I tell you I got a free canvas bag for mentioning that I follow them on Twitter? How cute is that? I know people are gonna be jealous at the farmers markets.

The Early Bird Outlet is held Friday-Sunday from 7-12 at 4555 Gustine.

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

2010-05-07T10:12:00.005-05:00

I am not a flawless person. In fact, springtime is the time when one of my biggest faults comes to light. I am a berry hoarder. I am the jerk in line in front of you at the farmers markets who buys the last 6 pints of berries from the last guy who has them. I've got some kind of insatiable desire for local berries. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. You name it; I want it.

Anyway, this salad is a great way to use what is currently for sale at the markets. Unfortunately, I can't really print a recipe because it's kind of just a mishmash of things.

Spinach and Strawberry Salad
Spinach
Strawberries
Spring Onions
Lemon Juice
Olive Oil
Honey
Poppy Seeds

I got the spinach from Maplewood. Super fresh and tender. Rinsed, spun dry, and picked for big stems.

I bought 6 pints of strawberries at Thies Farm out in North County. They had tons of berries! I grabbed a few and sliced them.

I figured some candied pecans would be nice on the salad, so I grabbed some that we got at the farmers market in San Antonio. These were Al's Nuts port wine pecans. They got roughly chopped.

I mixed one part lemon juice to 3 parts olive oil, a splash of water, around a teaspoon of poppy seeds, some pepper, and a little squeeze of honey in a jar and shook it up.

I topped the spinach, berries, and nuts with a little sliced green onion, a couple tablespoons of dressing and some more fresh cracked pepper.

One of my absolute favorite salads because it uses all of my springtime favorites and reminds me that winter is over.

Ginger Lemon Martini

2010-04-23T11:30:00.003-05:00

I feel like I am on the backside of a trend because I keep seeing this Domaine de Canton at all the restaurants around town and I keep meaning to try it, but I never do. Not wanting to have this cool new booze trend completely pass me by, I seized the opportunity to try it at a Thai restaurant in Charleston, SC. We had just bellied up to the bar (after putting our name on a waitlist - they didn't accept reservations) and I spied the familiar bottle that I kept meaning to try. I asked the bartender to make me some kind of cocktail with it, his choice. Of course I didn't see exactly what brand of sake or what amounts he put in, but this is my home version of what he made:

Ginger Lemon Martini (makes 2)

4.5 ounces of Domaine de Canton

4.5 ounces of dry sake

juice of one lemon

Chill two martini glasses with ice and water.

In a shaker, mix Canton, sake and lemon juice. Give it 20 shakes.

(Knowing nothing about sake, I totally guessed at Randall's. My guess was good!)

Strain into chilled glasses and garnish with a twist.

With its ginger lemon goodness, it's a perfect cocktail for summer. Beware though. It's almost all booze and it'll sneak up on you.

Canton is also delicious mixed with green tea on the rocks and when used to fortify an unoaked white like a nice Sauvignon Blanc.

Coke Addict (Iced Green Tea)

2010-04-23T10:41:00.003-05:00

I am by no means a heath nut. Never have been, and most likely never will be. I do, however, object to eating highly processed foods. Luckily, I've got the time and inclination to cook from scratch. The one notable exception to this "no highly processed food" rule that is a daily struggle for me is Coca-Cola. I love it. I REALLY love it. Put a cold six pack in front of me and I can't chug down a couple mindlessly. And easily finish the rest of the 6 throughout the course of the day.

About a year ago, I made the switch over to Mexican Coke, which is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Mex Coke comes in a real glass bottle, in a smaller serving than it's American bottled counterpart, and is more expensive than regular Coke. It's so delicious. There's something special about it that makes me want to savor every sip. I've been able to cut back to about one Coke a day since the switch to Mex. I've also become a snob. I'm no longer interested in drinking the overly fake sweet tasting regular Coca-Cola anymore.

So The Captain and I go on a couple of trips - right in a row. I don't have access to Mexican Coke in either location, so I just don't drink any soda at all. Which is completely crazy for me. My soda is the first thing I drink the the morning. No coffee for me. Soda is my caffeine delivery system.

Anyhoo, one of the cities that we travelled to was Charleston, South Carolina. While there, we visited the only domestic tea plantation. Now, The Captain and I aren't tea drinkers, but since I was visiting the ONLY place in the US that actually grows tea, I figured I would pick up a souvenir box of green tea.

When I got home, I realized that it had been a couple of weeks since I had consumed a Coke. I decided to see how long I could go without drinking one. I would need another source of caffeine. A freshly unpacked box souvenir box of green tea was starting at me from the counter top. Hello, green tea. Nice to meet you.

Iced Green Tea

6 cups of water

3 bags of caffeinated green tea

1 inch knob of ginger

1 citrus fruit (lime, lemon, or orange)

honey

I have to make this in batches because we don't own a tea pot. I peel the knob of ginger and slice it. Add it to the water and bring it just barely to a boil. Add the tea bags and let steep for about 6 minutes.

In the meantime, add some ice to a pitcher. Slice citrus and add. After the tea has steeped, add honey to taste. (I only add a little, I don't want it super sweet.) Pour tea into pitcher.

Serve over ice.

Now, in addition to replacing some absolutely empty calories, there are health benefits associated with ginger tea and green tea. Ginger tea (which is just ginger steeped in water) aids in digestion and has been traditionally used to ward off colds and flu. And green tea studies show that it has the potential to fight cancer and heart disease. I don't know about all that, but I do know it has the ability to fight addiction.

Hey, speaking of ginger...

This Granola Tastes Like Blueberry Pancakes

2010-04-20T18:29:00.005-05:00

I'm beginning to think I am losing my mind. Ever since I have discovered that I love oatmeal, I have been looking for ways to use it in my cooking. I could have sworn that I read a granola recipe in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living, but when I went back to look it up to actually make the recipe, it was nowhere to be found. I hope this isn't some strange side effect of my new daily oatmeal habit.

Anyhoo, I googled some recipes for granola and put together my own recipe. Who needs Martha anyway? (Just kidding. I do! I do!)

Blueberry Granola

4 cups thick cut rolled oats

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1 cup dried blueberries

2 heaping tablespoons ground flax seed

salt

cinnamon

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)

1/2 cup brown sugar

vanilla extract

Preheat over to 325F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lightly coat foil with some vegetable oil. Mix oats, nuts, berries, flax seed, a dash of salt and a few healthy dashes of cinnamon in a bowl.

Combine oil, syrup, and sugar in small pan. Cook over medium heat until it boils. Remove from heat and add a little vanilla.

Mix the liquids with the oat mixture until thoroughly combined. Spread on baking sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until the house smells fantastic and the oats are brown. Remove foil to cooling rack.

Seriously, yum. Tastes like blueberry pancakes.

I Make A Really Good Margarita (Blood Orange Margaritas)

2010-03-31T09:48:00.006-05:00

The other day Oprah had a show on aging gracefully. Just before commercial breaks she had little mini Q&A segments with older women. One of the questions was something like "What do you know?" Were Oprah to ask me that question, I would say, "Oprah, I know how to make a killer margarita." In this day of bottled premixed margs, it is a skill of which I am most proud.

Blood Orange Margaritas
1 cup sugar
4 limes (more for garnish)
3 lemons
1 blood orange
Sauza Hornitos
Grand Marnier

I begin by making a sweet and sour mix. Start with the simple syrup. In a sauce pan, mix 1 cup of sugar with 2 cups of water and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Juice the limes and lemons. Mix the juice, the simple syrup and 4 cups of water in a pitcher. Taste and adjust. It should taste like a nice tart lemon/limeade. (If you want to skip this step, Simply Limeade is a perfectly reasonable substitute. I use it all of the time. I don't really care for any other sour mix though.)

Next, juice a blood orange. Reserve.

This is an optional step. If you have a fancy freezer that crushes ice for you, you don't need to do this. Otherwise, here's how I crush mine. Ice goes into a plastic bag.

I cover it with a towel, and beat beat beat it with my muddler. (Rolling pins work too.)

After a minute or so, I end up with some lovely crushed ice.

Fill a couple tall glasses with ice. Add an ounce and a half of Sauza Hornitos and an ounce and a half of Grand Marnier (uh, these are gonna be strong)to each. Not to be picky here, but no substitutions on the booze. I use Cuervo in margs sometimes, but I think it gives a dirty after taste. Sauza Hornitos is a nice middle of the road tequila that isn't super expensive, but isn't rot gut either. It tastes clean. And Grand Marnier is the trick to making any margarita taste like a Top Shelf marg. Add sweet and sour leaving a little bit of room for the blood orange.

Top each with the reserved blood orange juice.

Garnish with a lime wedge or wheel, stir and consume.

These margaritas are also perfectly delicious without the blood orange juice.

Homemade Hummus (Chickpea Dip)

2010-03-30T13:53:00.004-05:00

Well, this post is long overdue. My parents gave me a really nice food processor for Christmas and I haven't featured it in this blog yet. I've made bread in it and used it to slice potatoes for gratins and chips, but for some reason, I'm not taking pics and posting recipes. Today that changes.

I've never understood why the little tubs of hummus at the grocery store are so pricey. It's easy to make at home for about a dollar. And you know exactly what's in it when you make it yourself.

Hummus
1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
3 cloves of garlic (more to taste)
olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt & pepper

The chickpeas and garlic go into the food processor.
Add a little bit of salt and pepper. I whirl it a bit to get everything chopped up, then add...

...this....

...and this....

I usually bowl it up and top it off with more olive oil and black pepper. We eat hummus with celery or carrots like a dip.

And also on toasted bread or pita.

The great thing about hummus is that it has a nice creamy kind of fat feeling texture while packing quite a nutritional punch. Chickpeas contain lots of fiber, protein, and iron.

A San Francisco Treat (Not Rice A Roni)

2010-03-29T12:59:00.012-05:00

I mentioned to my friend Erica that I would be travelling out to San Francisco this fall. Erica lives in SF and said, "I'm gonna send you something to get you excited for your trip out here." A few days later the FedEx man arrived with a rather large box. Inside was this <-. Unbelievable. I'm am getting completely inspired by this bag of goodies and we are working our way through tasting everything. For the curious, the box contained the following:

A really awesomely sized bag perfect for a trip to the farmers market
Maps of San Francisco and Napa Sonoma (really nice laminated maps)
San Francisco Magazine (saving it for the plane ride to San Antonio)
Susan Rice truffled popcorn
Far West Fungi Dried Wild Mushrooms
Humphry Slocumbe Duck Fat Pecan Pie
Humphry Slocumbe Pork Fat Caramels
Eatwell Farms Thyme Salt
Stonehouse California Olive Oil
Recchiuti Burnt Caramel Sauce
Recchiuti S'Mores (those are long gone)
Casina Rossa Truffle & Salt, Porcini & Salt, and Fennel & Salt
Marshall's Farm Marin Wildflower Honey
Humphry Slocumbe Bacon Peanut Brittle
Gianna's Chick Cookies
Botanical Interests seeds for Delicata Squash, Lemon Cucumber, and Catnip
Boccalone Orange and Wild Fennel Salame
Range Brothers Smoked and Seasoned Pork Strips (think pork candy)
Sweet and Spicy Beef Jerky (I don't have the brand on that cause it all got eaten and the bag got thrown away)

An incredible gift. I felt like a kid at Christmas opening everything up. Thanks, Erica!

New Favorite Thing (Steel Cut Oats)

2010-03-29T10:42:00.003-05:00

So after I made my mushroom veggie burgers, I had a lot of oats left over. One morning I was looking at the bag and thought "I should have some oatmeal for breakfast." Now, when I was a kid, I tried the packets of instant flavored oatmeal and found that I didn't really care for the texture or taste. But I popped a 1/2 cup of those rolled oats in the microwave with a cup of water. After two minutes, I added a little salt, a little butter, some cinnamon, a spoonful of brown sugar and some banana. And those oats were magnificent.

I decided to look up the nutritional info on my new favorite breakfast treat and was shocked at how good oats are for you. They have iron, protein and about 20% of the daily RDA of fiber. The soluble fiber helps prevent your body from absorbing cholesterol. I personally found that a bowl of oatmeal keeps me filling full all morning long.

Anyhoo, after spreading the oatmeal love to some friends, someone suggested that I try steel cut oats. They take about 20 minutes to cook on the stove top, so I put them on, made the bed, emptied the dishwasher and fed and watered the cats. By the time I was ready, so were my oats. And now I am a steel cut convert. These oats have a nuttier texture with more bite. The oats pictured above are steel cut, with a pat of butter, some salt, a half of a banana, a few walnuts and some Marin County Honey that a friend sent from San Francisco. Which reminds me....

My Grandmother's Scandalous Slaw Recipe

2010-03-25T10:53:00.008-05:00

I am reluctant to call this recipe "my grandmother's scandalous slaw recipe" because I know I will get hits from freaks googling "scandalous grandmothers", but the fact is that this recipe has a bit of a family scandal behind it. I won't get into the details, but one family member claimed this to be her recipe. Then someone else decided to bottle it and sell it. Now what makes this funny is that all the people involved were about 80+ years old. What makes it extra funny is that if you google "refrigerator slaw" you will find tons of versions of the recipe. I don't think it was ever only one person's recipe. It appears to belong to everyone of German descent. Regardless, it is the best slaw you will ever try.

Refrigerator Slaw (my version)

1 head cabbage, shredded

2 medium onions, grated

half a jalepeno, diced

half a pepper, diced

1 cup vinegar

1 cup oil

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon dried ground mustard seed

2 tablespoons celery seed

Mix a cup of vinegar, a cup of vegetable oil and a cup of sugar in a sauce pan. As my sister reminds me, "make sure your exhaust fan is on."

Add salt, mustard seed, and celery seed.

I had some frozen peppers left over from last summer's farm share, so I chopped them up and put them in a bowl.

With some frozen jalepeno a friend had given us last summer.

Most people shred the cabbage in a food processor, but I find cutting it with a knife by hand to be soothing.

Chop chop chop chop and...

Shred the two onions with a box grater (this is a seriously painful step, but I prefer the grated onions to chunks.)

Throw everything into a bowl and wait for the dressing.

After the dressing has simmered for 5 minutes, place it in the fridge to cool. After it has cooled, toss about half of it with the cabbage mixture. Save the other half for the next batch (or cut the dressing mixture in half.)

Voila! I really love this stuff. It's sweet, tangy, and kind of spicy.

Italian Fried Potatoes

2010-02-27T09:52:00.004-06:00

Back when I was a kid, when we went out to dinner, we usually ended up at The Pasta House. Remember that old one that used to be at the end of the strip mall in front of the Target in Ballwin? This was back before they brightened the place up to appeal to the chain restaurant crowd. The restaurant was small, kind of dingy, and if I recall correctly, had a brick floor, so your table and chairs were always wobbly. We loved that place. What I remember about the food was that my dad always ordered the tortellini (we called it "tartellini" in the same way others called highway 44, "highway farty far") and my mom and I always got an order of Italian Fried Potatoes. These weren't just any old french fries. They were garlicky and had onions and some kind of strange olives (didn't taste like the canned olives we ate at Christmas) and were best when they were cooked until they were super crispy. I had tried a few times when I was younger to recreate those potatoes with no success. When I was 20, I befriended someone with some insider information about the restaurant. He told me the secret to the Italian Fried Potatoes. A small, but important detail. 17 years later, I share that secret with you.

Italian Fried Potatoes (my version - this isn't the Pasta House recipe)
4 russet potatoes
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of kalamata olives
olive oil
butter
parsley

Scrub and dry 4 russet potatoes.

Now here comes the big secret: they use baked potatoes to make the IFP's. (In hindsight, I kind of feel dumb for not having figured that out.) So stab the taters with a fork to prepare for microwaving.

And microwave until cooked. These guys took about 9 minutes. I rolled them over several times during the process.

In the meantime, prepare the onions, garlic and olives.

I slice the onion, chop the garlic, and halve the olives. (The picture shows more garlic than we used for the potatoes. Something else I was cooking required garlic, so I chopped it all at once.)

Once the potatoes are cooked, let the cool off for a bit.

After they have cooled, slice into wedges. The thinner you slice, the crispier the final product. Be careful though, they will fall apart if you slice em too thin.

In a small pan, saute onions and garlic on medium low heat with some olive oil, a little bit of butter and some salt and pepper.

Cook until tender and sweet, then remove from heat.

In a large non-stick pan, over medium high heat, add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
Cook potatoes in batches. Make sure the potatoes aren't crowded in the pan.

Cook them, turning carefully, until golden brown and crispy. Keep the first batch in 350 degree oven until second batch is done.

After the second batch is brown, add olives to the pan and cook for a minute.

Add potatoes from the oven, and onion and garlic mixture. Toss in pan until everything is heated.

Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with parsley, salt and pepper.

Ok, not healthy or good for you in anyway, but these potatoes are so delicious. And the leftovers are good cold right out of the fridge.

Taco Tuesday!

2010-02-24T09:14:00.002-06:00

Made tacos last night, but wasn't planning on documenting them here, but I wound up creating some kind of weird condiment that I thought I would share.

Cleaning out the fridge (a usual theme), I had the heart of the celery left from an older package. This is the pale, leafy part that I like to use in stocks and soups. Not planning on making any stocks or soups, I decide to cut up the heart, leaves and all, into little pieces to make a celery salad to go with our tacos. A little celery heart, some shredded carrots, some green onion, a little bit of Caribbean red pepper, a little salt and pepper, and some olive oil and lime juice.

Now I had put out some shredded lettuce, sliced green onions and black olives for the tacos, but I was feeling crazy, so I put some of my celery salad on my taco. (The tacos were made with chicken that had been marinated in olive oil, lime juice, vinegar, cumin, garlic, Caribbean red pepper and salt and pepper.) Since there was some repetition in the flavors, I thought they might complement each other.

They were really tasty this way. Kind of sweet, smoky, and spicy all in one.

Homemade Veggie Burgers

2010-02-23T08:47:00.006-06:00

Here's a fact about me. I don't like to eat ground meat. There are notable exceptions. Every once in a while I like a Steak n Shake single steakburger with mustard, onions, pickles and ketchup. And during baseball season, I will sometimes enjoy a bratwurst at Busch Stadium (but ONLY after I have consumed at least 2 beers.) So where most people would enjoy a hamburger, I opt for the veggie burger. One of the few seriously over-processed foods that we keep in the house at most times is a box of Garden Burgers. The Captain and I have talked about making our own veggie burgers and yesterday, for the first time, I did. And they were awesome. I got the recipe here:

http://americanfood.about.com/od/vegetarian/r/Mushroom_Burger.htm

3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lb mushrooms, roughly chopped (combination of crimini, shiitake, and Portobello)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
6 cloves minced garlic
2/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

I started with a mix of white button mushrooms and baby bellos (aren't those really just criminis?) Probably the most complicated part of the recipe was cleaning and dicing the mushrooms.

A couple of tablespoons of oil, the mushrooms, onions and garlic go into the pan. I seasoned everything with a little salt (French grey - thanks, Jeanne) and pepper.

It takes about 10 minutes to evaporate all the liquid off of the mushrooms.

I removed the mushrooms from the heat to cool and got to preparing the rest of the ingredients. Place oats, bread crumbs, parmegiano reggiano, herbs, more salt and pepper and red pepper flakes (not in the recipe, but added of course) in a large bowl.

Mix with two beaten eggs.

After mushrooms have cooled a bit, add them to the oat/breadcrumb mixture, combine and let them all sit for about 15 minutes. (The Captain thinks it looks like dog food at this point -yay!)

Form into 4 - 6 patties.

Cook the patties over medium heat in a non-stick skillet with a little bit of oil.

They held up in the pan surprising well and got a nice little crust on them.

I served em on a toasted bun, with lettuce, pickles, mustard and ketchup. Because it's not my recipe I can say this without feeling like I am bragging: these were fantasically good. I sense the reign of Garden Burgers in this home coming to a fast end.

Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash

2010-02-20T11:19:00.005-06:00

I'm always on the look out for interesting recipes that contain winter squash. Sometimes, winter squash just seems like a one trick pony to me. It's delicious roasted, but you never really see much done outside of that. So I am playing around with the epicurious app on my (relatively) new phone and I find a recipe for Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard. I've actually got everything on hand, except the swiss chard, so I decided to attempt this squash recipe that is vastly different from any squash recipe I have ever seen.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-Bean-Chili-with-Butternut-Squash-and-Swiss-Chard-234146

Here are the substitutions I made:

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 small onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons chili powder (plus a little bit more)
2 tablespoons ground cumin (plus a little bit more)
1 1/2 cup dried black beans, soaked
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 14 1/2-ounce can whole tomatoes in juice, diced

I've got a ton of dried black beans that I bought at the Mexican grocery store, so I'm substituting those for the canned beans in the original recipe. That means I have to start out a day before. I soak a cup and a half of dried black beans 24 hours in advance of making the recipe.

After the beans have soaked for 24 hour, we are good to go. I saute 3 small onions with 4 cloves of garlic. After a few minutes, I add the butternut squash and let that cook for another 5 minutes or so. Then I add the cumin and the chili powder. Let that cook for another couple of minutes.

Drain the beans, and add them to the pot along with the 2 and 1/2 cups of vegetable broth and the can of tomatoes. I added some black pepper and some french grey salt that my sister gave me.

Then I let it simmer on the stove for an hour. I tasted it, and added more cumin and chili powder. The crazy thing about this vegan chili is that it is incredibly meaty. It tastes just like regular chili.

Spaghetti with Bacon and Asparagus

2010-02-16T12:30:00.008-06:00

Last night, around 4 am, I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. Instead of counting sheep to lull myself back into slumber, I decided to play "Think Up Dumb Names That Rachael Ray Would Call What We Had for Dinner Last Night". The name would have to be annoying, and at the same time, not contain any information about what actually is in the recipe. I came up with "Kitchen Sink Pasta", "Odds and Ends Pasta", and "Clean Out The Refrigerator Pasta" before I gave up and fell back asleep.

So the whole point of this is that last night, I wanted to see what kind of dinner I could make with what we had in the fridge. I wanted to combine all the leftover bits from meals we had had previously and some of the staples that I always keep on hand. I came up with the following:
Spaghetti with Bacon and Asparagus
Enough for 4 people

3 slices of bacon, cut into little pieces (Use more if you have it)
1 handful of asparagus
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 half of a box of spaghetti
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream (Do not use half and half - the salt will make it curdle)
1 cup of parmigiano-reggiano
1 tsp of red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper

Here are some glamour shots of the stars of the dish.

Add bacon to hot pan.

Render the fat. When bacon is crispy, pour off excess bacon grease.

Add garlic and saute for about a minute.

Add heavy cream, scraping the browned bits from the pan. Keep pan on medium heat while cream reduces.

While the cream is reducing, blanch the asparagus in the pasta water for about a minute. Let the water return to a rolling boil and...

...add the spaghetti.

After the pasta has been cooking for about 5 minutes, add the parm and the red pepper flakes to the cream sauce. Salt and pepper after tasting.

Cook for another few minutes, add the asparagus and heat for another minute.

Drain the pasta, mix with the sauce, top with more parm and some green onions, and serve with toasted bread.

This Blog's Not Dead...

2010-01-21T13:18:00.002-06:00

...but it's spitting blood.

Actually, I think about it all the time, but circumstances have made it difficult for me to update lately. Here's the scoop if you are wondering where I have been.

A) I got a new job. So, I am working part-time in the afternoons and evenings. Which means I make dinner (the recipe I usually document) about half as frequently as I used to.

B) I got the flu. And that sucked bad. The flu caused me to lose my appetite. My sense of taste still seems off to me. Things just don't taste right yet.

C) And this one's the big one: We have been eating a lot of frozen food for the past few months. Not the kind that you buy in the freezer section of the store, but stuff that I froze during the growing season. And frankly, pulling frozen bags of vegetables and sauces that I made a few months ago just isn't glamorous enough for a blog entry. Frozen foods definitely lack sex appeal.

So I sit here, staring out the window at the patch of ground where my garden grows, patiently waiting for spring. When there will be gardening, and CSA boxes, and farmers markets. In the meantime, if I do something exciting in the kitchen, you'll be the first to know.

More Treats and Things

2009-12-12T10:45:00.006-06:00

I love me some Cap'n Crunch. I am not a cereal eater though. I'm more of a white toast for breakfast kind of person, so Christmas is the one time of the year when I get my fix of the Cap'n. I make rice krispy treats, but substitute Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries for the Rice Krispies. The recipe is on the back of the mini marshmallow package. I cut them small so that they are just a bite or two. I like to leave 'em wanting more.

Now on to some real cookies. I was babysitting my nephew one day and my mom suggested that I bake cookies with him. I must have expressed that I didn't think he would be interested in the process because my mom said something like "you don't have to make them from scratch, she's got cookie dough in the freezer." So I checked out the freezer and there it was. A box of pre-formed cookies. You just take the amount that you want, pop them in the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Yummy homemade cookies.

I thought about this frozen cookie dough idea and how genius it was. Me and The Captain (not Crunch) cannot eat a full batch of cookies. Try as we might, we either get bored with them, or they get too dry after they have been sitting around for a couple of weeks. I thought I could freeze cookies like I freeze berries during the summer. So I tried it. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and portioned it out on waxed paper. Then I put the cookie sheets in the freezer overnight.

The next day I had frozen cookie balls. I portioned them out into little bags. 12 cookie balls per bag. Then I tossed them into the freezer.

I then baked some to see if I needed to make any adjustment because they were frozen. I wanted mini-cookies, so I cut the frozen balls in half, put them on a sheet pan, and put them in the oven as soon as it was preheated. I cooked them for about 8 minutes at 375 degrees. They took less time than regular cookies because they were smaller.

Here's the finished product. I didn't notice any difference in taste due to the freezing.

Yay to having fresh cookies whenever I want in just 8 short minutes.

The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts (Chocolate Coated Heath Encrusted Pretzels)

2009-12-03T15:40:00.005-06:00

I was watching last night's Top Chef and one of the judges said "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" about one of Kevin's dishes. I was thinking, "I know a recipe like that" which is actually timely because this is one of The Captains holiday cookies. If you invite him over to your house during the holidays, chances are good that he will bring you a cellophane bag of full these bad boys. I remember the first year we were together baking cookies for the holidays, thinking that these were a little to plebeian for my taste, as I tend to like my recipes complicated. But these guys, for all of their store-bought-assembled-cheap-ingredientness, are really good. Like can't stop eating them good. And simple to make.

Melt a half of a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Nuke em for about a minute, give em a stir, and give them another 30 seconds or so.

Then take mini pretzels, hold them by one of the top loops...

...dip them in the melted chocolate...

...then put the chocolate side into a bowl of Heath bits (available in the baking section by the chocolate chips)...

...and lay them on some foil or parchment paper until the chocolate hardens back up.

The funny thing is, is that I am not really a Heath person either. But when you mix all of these guys together, you get some kind of salty, sweet, buttery, yeasty creation that is seriously hard to resist.

Bacon Wrapped Herb Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2009-11-23T11:41:00.004-06:00

This is another one of those use up what I got around the house/garden recipes. I started by grabbing some sage, green onion, and parsley out of the garden. I chopped it up with some garlic.Then I took a couple of chicken breasts, and sliced them horizontally from the thick middle to the outside (both sides, not going all the way through) to open them up like a french doors. Then I covered them with plastic wrap, and pounded them flat(ter) with a piece of marble. I don't have a mallet. I should lie and say I used a mallet for the sake of simplicity. Who pounds chicken with a marble sample?

Anyway, once they were flattened out a bit, I seasoned them with some salt and pepper...

and put some butter and my chopped herbs in the center.

Then I folded them up like a burrito, wrapped them each in a couple strips of bacon, and toothpicked them up to hold them together. I put them in a hot pan that had a little bit of olive oil in it to start the cooking.

I browned on all four sides, to give the bacon a head start on crispiness and then put the pan in the oven for about 20 minutes to finish cooking.

Here's what they looked like, just out of the oven.

After a few minutes of resting time, I sliced them up.

I have to say that they were pretty good, except for the fact that they garlic still had a raw taste to it when I ate it. I have since made it again and used roasted garlic for the herb stuffing (didn't take pics that time, sorry) and it was much more tasty with the roasted stuff.

Grandma Nancy's Sweet Potatoes

2009-11-21T16:21:00.003-06:00

This Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for the fact that I still have both of my maternal grandparents. I am also thankful that my maternal grandmother doesn't have access to the Internet. Here's her super awesome sweet potato recipe. It's sweetened mashed sweet potatoes topped with a brown sugar/nut crust. They are fantastic. Just don't tell her that I gave you the recipe.

(As you can see from the pic, I truly intended on making some of these to photograph for the blog. I just ran out of time. The potatoes are from Chartrand Farms -they have a sign "Sweet Potatoes with Dirt". I love it.)

Anyway, here it is:

Sweet Potatoes:

2 lbs sweet potatoes

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 t salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 t vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

2 t cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

Boil potatoes. Drain and mash with butter. Add sugar, salt eggs, milk and vanilla. Pour into a greased 9 inch baking dish. Mix remaining ingredients except pecans. Stir in nuts. Spread on top and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

I Got Some Oil

2009-11-21T09:51:00.003-06:00

Well, I finally ran out of olive oil, so I went up to DiGregorio's to investigate the propane exchange-like oil thing they got going on. I decided upon the 32 ounce version. So for $16.99, I got the bottle you see on the left. Refills are only $11.99. As you can see, I've already used some and I think it's really good. Definately better quality than the stuff I normally buy (which is usually whatever is on sale.) It's really fruity. If I had three thumbs, I would give it an enthusiastic three thumbs up. One for the nice flavor, another for the value, and a third for its recycle-y nature.

Yikes I Didn't Realize Thanksgiving Is Next Week

2009-11-18T09:58:00.009-06:00

So I need to share a couple of our special Turkey Day recipes with you. Today its the cranberry sauce. Hands down, the best cranberry sauce you will ever taste. My grandmother apparently plucked it from the pages of Better Homes and Gardens back in 1994 and tweaked it. It is awesome and it will make a cranberry eater out of anyone.

Cranberry Conserve

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

2 tsp vinegar
1 large onion, chopped

1 12oz bag of cranberries

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 1/2 cups sugar
1 jalepeno pepper, chopped

In skillet: Combine brown sugar, butter and vinegar over medium heat stirring constantly - 2 minutes. Add onion and cook on low until tender. Remove from heat. In large pot: Combine all other ingredients and bring to a boil for 5 - 7 minutes stirring contantly. Add skillet contents and cook on low heat. Let cool and chill for 24 hours.

Double-Chocolate Cranberry Cookies: Chocolate Overload

2009-11-16T17:12:00.005-06:00

I made the most amazing cookies today. So amazing that when I was adding the last of the ingredients to the bowl, I was overwhelmed with the smell of chocolate-y goodness and said "Oh my God!" (out loud, but to myself) which prompted The Captain to yell "are you okay?" from the other room and also caused him to come to the kitchen to make sure I was all right. When he got to the kitchen and saw and smelled the dough, his response was to utter an "Oh my God" as well. I was like "yeah, right?" and we both marvelled at the fantastic-ness that was before us. These guys are RICH though, and not for the weak. I got the recipe from Everyday Food magazine. The recipe isn't online yet. I hope Martha doesn't sue me.

Double-Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
16 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup AP flour
3 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
1 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP coarse salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 TSP vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cranberries
I got everything ready at first. 350 degree oven. Melted 10 ounces of chocolate in the microwave for about a minute and a half.

Mixed my flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

Got my butter and sugars together.

Chopped up another 6 ounces of chocolate. (I threw some milk chocolate in there cause it was already unwrapped.)

Mmmm. Chocolate and cranberries. I kept stealing little nibbles of cranberries when I was getting everything else together.

So I creamed the butter and sugar.

Added a couple eggs and the vanilla.

Then added the melted chocolate.

And the flour mixture.

And when that was all mixed together, I added the chopped chocolates and the cranberries. (This was the OMG stage.)

The dough gets really stiff. Everyday Food recommends making 14 really big cookies 1/4 cup of batter at a time. I made regular sized cookies. About a heaping tablespoon of dough per cookie.

I baked them for about 10 minutes and let them cool on the pan before transferring them to a wire rack.

They are nothing short of amazing. Rich and chocolaty with little bits of tart cranberry.

Delicata Squash and Sage Pizza

2009-11-16T09:15:00.002-06:00

I feel like we haven't had pizza in forever, so I made some pizza dough using Giada's recipe, but substituting whole wheat flour for half of the AP flour. This recipe makes two crusts, so you know there's gonna be a potato pizza. I eye up the delicata squash that I got a few weeks ago in the farm share and hatch a plan. Squash + fresh sage + parmigiano reggiano + hot pepper flakes + cracked black pepper = awesomeness for pizza. Just slice the squash super thin and it will cook up in the same amount of time that it takes for the dough to cook.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pizza-Dough-237338

White Wine Braised Chicken

2009-11-15T09:44:00.006-06:00

So I had this bowl full of herbs and a box of wine, and I wasn't inclined to run to the grocery store. Sometimes I just like to look around, see what I have and try to create something fantastic for dinner with whats here. Its self serving, really. Its fun, and also, it saves me moolah. If I step foot in a grocery store, I will spend $50. Its a fact. I hate that about myself, so I try to limit my exposure.

First, I would like to say that I am thankful that its the middle of November and my herbs are still surviving outside. Sadly, they aren't growing back when I cut them. But I've got piles of sage and parsley still. I use them recklessly. I'm a little more conservative with the rosemary, oregano and thyme. They are getting dangerously nubby. The green onions are a bonus, as I thought all the onions had been picked, cured and stored a long time ago. Where was I going? Oh, I'm gonna make a braised chicken, using up some of these herbs and other things that I've got around the house.
I started by browning a couple of chicken breasts (that had been salted and peppered) skin side down first, in a little bit of olive oil and butter.

Flip and brown the other side.

While the chicken was browning, I peeled about 8 garlic cloves, and diced a small onion. I gave a rough chop to some sage, oregano, and rosemary, after I freed them from any thick or woodsy stems.

After the chicken was browned, I added about 2 cups of dry white wine, and the garlic, onions, and herbs.

Plus a little dijon mustard. The grainy kind. I love it.

Then I covered the chickens and let them cook on low heat for about an hour, flipping them over in the braising liquid every now and again.

After about an hour, I removed the chicken from the liquid and cover it with foil. Then I added a cup of chicken stock to the wine/garlic/onion/herb mixture and pureed it with an immersion blender to thicken it up. Now, must people would just strain the stuff out of it, but I wanted it kind of chunky and rustic. It wasn't quite as thick as I would have liked, so I whisked in a little corn starch mixture to thicken it up more.

While the sauce was simmering, I chopped some parsley and green onion. I put down a little bit of mashed parsnips and turnips, pulled the chicken off the bone, ladled on a little sauce, and topped it with the fresh parsley and onion. For a brief moment, I felt a little French. And a little country. It was magical and delicious. ;)

(Oddly, while I was cooking this, the house started to smell like someone was cooking Thanksgiving dinner, which was all right with me.)

Mashed Turnips and Parsnips (An Alternative to Mashed Potatoes)

2009-11-15T09:02:00.005-06:00

I was talking to my dad the other day and he mentioned that he was somewhere far out west (well, west St. Louis) and someone had offered him a bag of turnips. He declined the bag telling the guy "I only know one person who likes turnips." Wait, what? This can't be true. Me and the Captain like them. We get them in the farmshare. I see them at Soulard. People are eating turnips, right? So, Dad, we were thinking about you when we ate these turnips and parsnips last night.

It gets dark so early now that me and The Captain had to dig out the parsnips by flashlight. It looked really covert, like we were digging for buried treasure or something.
Here's a bowl of things that got picked in the dark last night. A stray dead leaf of two made it into the mix. The herbs will appear in a later entry.

First I cleaned and peeled a few parsnips and a big turnip.

I cut them into 1 inch pieces, and covered them in cold water. Then boiled until tender (about 20 minutes.)

I drained them, then returned them to the pan and put them back on the stove.

I give the vegetables a couple of minutes on the stove, without water, to dry them up a bit before I mash them.

When they appear to be dry, I add some salt & pepper and about 3 tablespoons of butter and...

...mash 'em up.

They end up looking like mashed potatoes, but have a sweeter and nuttier flavor. Definitely one of my favorite foods.

Mashed and Baked Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup and Walnuts

2009-11-13T09:10:00.003-06:00

I was a captive audience for one of Bobby Flay's show yesterday and it occurred to me that for someone I usually don't watch, me and Bobby sure like to use a lot of the same things. Every time I catch him he's making something with limes, green onions, fresh herb vinaigrettes, hot peppers and sweet potatoes. I'm always cooking with those things too. So last night, in honor of Bobby Flay, I cooked some sweet potatoes to go along with the pork steaks I was grilling. (Okay, I really didn't cook anything in honor of BF, but I needed to go somewhere with that story.)

Anyway, I took one sweet potato, peeled it and cut it into 1 1/2 inch pieces.

I steamed the potatoes for about 15 minutes (until they were tender.)

While they were steaming, I buttered an oven-proof dish and assembled the rest of my ingredients which included...

...maple syrup. Allow me a moment to say that if you maple syrup comes in a plastic jug with a handle on it, you are buying the wrong stuff. We are lucky here in Missouri that we have some locals who boil down the real deal. I've found this stuff at Farmers Markets in Fredericktown and in Soulard. Its about $6 a jar. Which is WAY cheaper than the little tins of real Vermont maple syrup in the grocery stores. Its fantastic and not loaded up with things that don't occur in nature.

When the potatoes are tender, dump the water from the bottom of the steamer, put the potatoes in that pan, and return them to the burner to dry them up a bit. When they have dried, remove them from the heat and add about 3 tablespoons of butter, salt & pepper, some red pepper flakes, and a little bit of maple syrup.

Mash em up.

Place them in the buttered dish and top with some walnuts. (Honestly, I should have toasted the walnuts, but didn't.) Put a little more butter on the top.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. (I think I just did this to keep the stuff warm while I finished the rest of dinner. Had everything else been ready, and had I toasted the walnuts, I would have skipped this step.)

With the syrup and the walnuts, these were very treat like.

Sauteed Kale

2009-11-13T08:28:00.004-06:00

I was trying to come up with some life changing, ground breaking, super cool recipe for this super food, but it was not meant to be. Kale has such a distinct texture and flavor that its hard to just add it to a recipe and not have it be overwhelmed with kaleness. So I just made some sauteed kale to go along with the pork steaks that I barbecued last night. If you can cook spinach, you can cook kale. I started with two bunches of kale. Stemmed it, cleaned it, spun it dry, and cut it into bite sized pieces.

I sliced up a few cloves of garlic.

To give it a little pork flavor, I'm going to season it with some leftover bacon grease. Not terribly healthy, but it makes all the difference flavorwise.

I put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a pan with one tablespoon of bacon fat.

Add my sliced garlic.

Then top that will the cleaned and stemmed kale. Add a cup of water, give it a toss, and put a lid on it.

I let it steam for about 5 minutes.

Remove the lid, add some red pepper flakes, salt & pepper, and a couple of dashes of white wine vinegar.

Like spinach, when you apply heat to kale, it cooks WAY down. Unlike spinach, its really hearty and filling. For lack of a better word, kale is a really meaty vegetable.

I Found the Perfect French Fry (The Bleeding Deacon)

2009-11-11T10:27:00.004-06:00

My mother was afraid that with the new job and all, my blog would suffer. And the truth is, between training and The Captain being in and out of town, the most action my kitchen has seen is when I walk through it on the way to the basement to fill kitty bowls. The good news is that I have been letting others cook for me. In the past couple of days, I have enjoyed pizza from Joanie's, a ribeye from The Iron Barley, and, just last night, the most heavenly veggie burger and french fries from a little tavern in South St. Louis - The Bleeding Deacon.

Now, typically this blog isn't about other people's food. But I enjoyed this veggie burger so much, that I felt it was my civic duty to share this information with you.

Let's get this out of the way: a "Bleeding Deacon" as I interpret is someone who has given up the bottle (with the help of AA) but still hangs out at the bar, judging everyone. I'm not sure that this the correct meaning, or what the owners were looking for, but I like it so I will stick with it. A google search was no help in confirming this. There are lots of meanings out there.

Anyway, it was 9:30 on a Tuesday night and I was hungry, and The Captain had just returned from a work dinner, and I was tired, and had little hope of finding something to eat that wouldn't be served to me in a bag with plastic ketchup packets. At the insistance of Urban Spoon, we decided to check out The Bleeding Deacon. My first impression upon seeing that sandwich board was that the people there couldn't spell. The place was pretty packed and the bartender was rocking some skinny jeans and some old skool Nikes. We sat at the only open bar seats right in front of the tap. There was a nice selection of beers. I ordered a Delirium and The Captain got a Stag. I looked around and we were surrounded by cheap beer drinking hipster punk rockers who were at least 10 years younger than me. Then someone broke the silence and played the jukebox. And they played The Smiths. It was like it was meant to be.

There was a regular menu and a seasonal menu. The seasonal menu had some kind of pork tenderloin medallion dish that was soaked in Schlafly APA and wrapped in bacon and I was >< this close to getting it, but when I asked the bartender what he had eaten that night, he mentioned the veggie burger. The Veggie "Boudin" Burger, a burger made with white beans and rice. After a discussion about how neither one of us like remoulade or mayo, I decided that this guys taste was aligned with mine, so I ordered it with some french fries.

The burger came out with these amazing french fries that looked like McDonald's fries. They were hot and crispy and lightly salted. The burger itself was definitely house made and had a nice crust on the outside and packed some spicy heat. It was served on a whole wheat roll that was nice and sturdy and held everything together pretty well. I told the bartender that it was the best veggie burger I had ever eaten and he told me that The Riverfront Times agrees with me. So much for blazing new paths. This guy was already in "The Best of" edition. Oh well.

Things of note: the ketchup and mustard came out in little metal ramekins and were nice and cold, just the way I like them. Bar condiments can be pretty gross. All indications were that there were well taken care of. Also, the punk rocker hipsters were a friendly bunch. Despite the fact that we didn't look like we fit in, they were friendly and we enjoyed a rousing discussion about where to get good veggie burgers. There was a chalkboard wall full of beer options. (The website says 40 are available.) The food was inexpensive. I think that pork tenderloin special was the most expensive thing at a whopping $10. My burger was $7 I think. So was my beer. If I had cheaper taste in alcohol, I could have been a pretty cheap date last night.

For more about The Bleeding Deacon go to: http://www.thebleedingdeaconpublichouse.com/Home.html
(Unfortunately the menu is not available online. Crazy!)

Del's Lemonade Cocktail

2009-11-07T17:42:00.003-06:00

The warm weather today made me think a frozen cocktail would be nice for my happy hour beverage. I think I got inspired when I was at Soulard today and walked past the Slush Puppy stand. I wasn't particularly in the mood to drink vodka at 1 pm today. Or drink whatever it is that they put in the Slush Puppy mix. But it got my brain working.

When I was in Providence this summer, I developed a slight addiction to this frozen lemonade that they sell out of carts on the street. Del's. Oh God. It's fantastic. There are little chunks of lemon zest in its tart frozen goodness. Anyway, one of the Italian grocers on Federal Hill had a bucket of the mix for sale. So I bought it for home consumption. Its not as good as the stuff out of the cart, but, heck, its still good.

So the genesis of my Del's cocktail came from me talking to one of the cart guys in Providence. We were talking about which liquor would be the best add in to the Del's frozen lemonade. He tells me "It's rum, believe me, I've experimented." I had just a little bit of rum left in the bottle, so I believe it was meant to be.
Take one packet of Del's lemonade mix, add that to 2 cups of ice, whatever was left in the bottom of the rum bottle (picture taken after I put it in the blender), and a little less than a cup of water.

Blend.

Add some cut up lemons and enjoy on an oddly hot fall day. This makes enough for two drinks.

For more information about Del's, check out their website at http://www.dels.com/

Soulard Farmer's Market: A Love-Hate Relationship

2009-11-07T16:33:00.004-06:00

One of my absolute favorite things to do on a Saturday morning is head over to the Soulard Farmer's Market. It is hands down the most interesting venue in St. Louis and a must see for tourists. That said, I have a love-hate relationship with the place.

Let's start with the love. Here are some cool things about Soulard Farmers Market:

The land on which it is located was a gift to the city, from a woman. Julia Cerre Soulard donated the land on the condition that it be used as a market, in perpetuity. Should the land cease to house a market, the land (and that's some good location) is supposed to revert back to her heirs.
Soulard will give you a real feel for the people who populate this city. I always look forward to seeing Tom at Julia's Market cafe. He's a hoot.
You're halfway indoors and halfway outdoors. Its an all weather venue.
Live music.
You can get a slush puppy with vodka in in. Or a beer, or bloody mary or margarita. First thing in the morning. And no one will judge you.
It will make you feel popular. If you don't run into someone you know, you don't get out enough.
Mini-Doughnuts.
Soulard is open year round, Wednesday through Saturday.
The growers. The actual farmers.
It is the only place I know who you can buy Ozark Mountain Orchard Blueberries. Sweet sweet Ozark Mountain Orchard Blueberries.
For years, Soulard was one of the only places in the downtown area to provide produce at a cheap price, while there was no grocery presence in the area.

Now here are the things that I think could improve at Soulard:

There are way more brokers than growers. (People reselling stuff from Produce Row, not actual farmers.)
Items that are deceptively packaged. Apples, lettuce and other produce that are moved from the wholesale boxes into little baskets to make them appear as if they are from a farmer. Apples don't grow with stickers on them.
I think some brokers (not all) false pack. I have purchased produce at Soulard only to have it be rotten the next day. (False packing is when you put the pretty stuff on top, with the bad stuff underneath.)
I can't stand the amount of trinkets and junk sold there. I will give a pass to those selling St. Louis themed items but I don't like all the knock off sold there.
That nasty pet store (sorry, pet store people, but selling pigeons and stray kittens is a little creepy.)

All things considered, I love it. And it is the funnest place on a sunny Saturday morning.

Caribbean Red Peppers aka I Have Been Warned

2009-11-05T13:24:00.003-06:00

There was one lonely grower amongst the brokers today at Soulard. I walked up to his stand just in time to hear some lady yell "you're crazy" in an angry tone and walk away. So I laid on the sweetness extra thick cause I don't like it when people are mean to farmers. Anyhoo, I got some kale, some beets, some turnips, and these guys to the left. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: What's a "Carribbean Red?"

Nice Farmer: You probably don't want to be messing with those if you don't know what they are.

Me: I eat habeneros.

Nice Farmer: You really don't want to buy those if you've never had them.

Me: I'll take a box.

Nice Farmer: Well, you're just gonna do what you want, aren't you?

(For the record, I usually find it a good idea to take the suggestions of the farmers. I mean, they know their produce better than anyone else. But me, I'm a pepper junkie, always chasing that capsaicin dragon.)

An Internet search is showing a scoville heat unit range of between 350,000 and 445,000. For reference a jalapeno runs between 3000 and 6000 shu. We'll see how that goes. I can say with certainty, I will be wearing gloves for this.

Huh?

2009-11-05T10:48:00.004-06:00

As you know, my hobby during the summer is to garden, hang out at the farmers markets, and hang around places where I am likely to get something supremely fresh and grown around these parts. Because I cannot hibernate for the winter, I freeze some of what I get and use it throughout the winter. I usually put the date, what it is (if its not obvious), and sometimes the place of origin on the bag. I have no idea what this says. What I do know is that its some kind of hot pepper. Its driving me absolutely nuts to not be able to read my own handwriting.

Tried Something New With My Beets, Turnips and Sweet Potatoes

2009-11-05T09:29:00.003-06:00

I feel like every time I eat a beet or a turnip its either roasted, mashed or pureed, so I thought I would switch it up and try something new. I'll give you some nutritional info on the aforementioned roots, but honestly, I fried them. And I'm not gonna pretend like that was the healthy thing to do.

Beets - I tried them for the first time last year, and wasn't a huge fan right off the bat. Plus I think they give off an odd odor when they cook. For some reason, I am quite over that this year and I kind of like them. It could be because the antioxidants in beets are great protection against cancers and heart disease. Or it could be because we started getting chiogga beets in our farm share and I find these little striped beets too cute to resist.

Turnips - I have been in love with the turnip since I first started substituting mashed turnips and parsnips for mashed potatoes. Turnips contain a compound that had been shown to prevent cataracts and cardiovascular disease. And turnips, as well as beets, are a good source of fiber.

Sweet Potatoes - I don't understand the people that pass on the sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving. Maybe later on I'll share my Grandma Nancy's sweet potato recipe with you. Its killer and its the recipe that people always want. When we give it to people we always warn them "Don't tell Grandma Nancy I gave it to you." Anyway, sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamins A and C. That's good for heart health and colon cancer. The anti-inflammatory properties of these vitamins are good for asthma and arthritis.

So I peeled them all up and cut them into a dice. Then I threw them into a non-stick pan with a little bit of olive oil over medium high heat for about 30 minutes.

They got all crispy on the outside, but tender and sweet on the inside. A nice way to switch up fried potatoes.

Schnucks Olive Bar Containers

2009-11-04T10:01:00.003-06:00

We eat A LOT of olives around here. In fact, some weeks, we spend more on olives than we do on meat. We love the little buggers. That means I have lots of the olive bar containers around here. Sure I could pitch them, or toss them in the recycle bin, but as luck would have it, these containers are the perfect size. Holding 2 1/2 cups worth of liquid, they are just right for freezing a couple of servings of soup.

I love soup. I eat it nearly every day. Good news too is that I like to make soup. It relaxes me. So, when I get a bumper crop of tomatoes, squash, corn or you name it vegetable, I'll make soup and freeze it in these pefect family sized containers. I like to have a variety available in the freezer. When I want a bowl, I'll pop the container in the microwave for a couple of minutes, to unfreeze it a little, then dump the rest of the contents in a sauce pan and let it simmer on the stove for a few minutes. As an added bonus, these containers don't melt in the dishwasher.

Let's see, in here now we have tomato soup, chili, some red beans (as in red beans and rice - I don't freeze the rice, I just cook a fresh batch) and some french onion soup. I'll probably make some vegetable soups in the next couple of days to round out the collection.

French Onion Soup

2009-11-03T21:17:00.006-06:00

I've got French food on the brain and I'm runing dangerously low on frozen soup, so I decide to make a little batch of French Onion Soup (which I haven't made in ages.) Of course, this is another one of those things that I typically always have the ingredients around the house. The only thing required that I don't usually have is a lot of patience.

Start with four onions. I use run of the mill yellow, whatever is on sale at the grocery store onions. Peel and slice.

It looks like a lot of onions, but this is gonna make just four servings of soup.

On low heat (I kept it around a 3 on my gas stove) melt a couple tablespoons of butter and a little bit of olive oil.

Add onions, 3 cloves of garlic, some diced hot pepper and some salt and pepper.

Add some fresh thyme (I throw the whole thing in, not bothering to strip it from the stem), some sage, and couple of bay leaves. Now, just wait, stirring occationally. It takes me about an hour to get the onions nice and sweet and brown.

Check the onions every few minutes and stir.

Stir some more.

The onions are starting to leave crusty brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Scrape them up with a wooden spoon and incorporate them back into the onion mixture. The moisture the onions are releasing will make this relatively easy to do.

Keep stirring and be patient.

At this point, most of the thyme leaves will have fallen off the stems. Go ahead and fish the stems out.

At this point, while the onions are getting close to being done, I gather the liquids I need for the soup. Some cognac (Hennessy), some white white (fancy Italian boxed variety), and some beef stock I reconstituted (Better Than Bullion).

When the onions are completely brown, I add just a splash of Hennessy and let it cook down. (It could be a bad idea to pour directly from the bottle, so most people recommend pouring the amount you are going to use into a glass and then dumping the glass into the pan, just fyi.)

Once that cooks down/evaporates. I add about a 3/4 of a cup of white wine. And let that cook/reduce for a while.

Then I add a couple tablespoons of flour and let it cook for a few minutes until it turns brown and sticks to the bottom of the pan.

Then, I add 4 cups of beef broth slowly, while constantly stirring. Now its time for my secret ingredients. A couple dashes of Worcestershire...

And a heaping teaspoon of whole grain Dijon moutarde. Oui, oui this makes it tres francais. As always, I taste and adjust the seasonings.

I then toasted a little bit of country style sour dough. I used a vegetable peeler to shave some parm on the toasted bread and put in under the broiler til it melted. I seriously doubt any of my bowls are broiler safe, so I do this all on a baking sheet, then transfer the crouton to the waiting bowl of soup. Garnish with parsley et voila! The long amount of time cooking the onions down, combined with the hint of flavors from the cognac, the Worcestershire, and the Dijon give this a complex savory flavor.

Acorn Squash Manicotti

2009-11-02T07:56:00.007-06:00

So last week Top Chef had a vegetarian challenge. All the chefs are excited about working in a steak house, they're checking out the proteins in the walk ins, and here comes Natalie Portman announcing that she doesn't eat meat. They all end up making weird dishes that don't look very satisfying (boiled leeks? Come on!) I'm wondering why hardly anyone makes anything that resembles a main course. Is a squash manicotti too safe? Oh well, I like being safe.Clean, seed, and oil an acorn squash. Roast at 350 for about 30 minutes. Peel skin, and transfer the squash flesh to a plate to cool.

Start the bechamel. Over low heat, melt 4 tablespoons of butter with a couple of cloves of garlic and some salt and pepper. Low heat. Just want to gently cook the garlic. Heat 2 cups of milk in a small sauce pan.

Add a couple of tablespoons of flour to the butter and cook until sandy brown.

Slowly whisk in the warm milk until all the milk is incorporated. Grate in a little nutmeg. Keep on a superlow heat, stirring occasionally.

In a large bowl, mix squash, a half pound of ricotta, an egg, a handful of parmigiano reggiano, some fresh sage and parsley, nutmeg and some salt and pepper.

Just mix til incorporated. Don't pulverize it. Squash chunks are nice.

Get the no boil shells out and ready to fill.

Fill a pastry bag (or a ziplock with the end cut off) with squash/cheese mixture.

Pipe mixture into shells.

Action shot!

Place shells in an oiled dish that has been coated with about a cup of the bechamel.

Cover the stuffed pasta with remaining bechamel. Top with some parmigiano reggiano. Sprinkle with more sage, parsley and pepper.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Safe? Probably. But also savory, creamy, rich and delicious.

Marconi and Daggett

2009-11-01T10:46:00.003-06:00

Even if you've never been to Marconi and Daggett, if you're in St. Louis, there's a good chance you've enjoyed products or services that have originated from this quiet intersection on The Hill. Two business that I consider crucial to my cooking are located there. Bertarelli Cutlery and Di Gregorio's Market. These guys supply and service lots of restaurants around town, and luckily, are open to the public as well.

I didn't buy a good knife until about 7 years ago. I don't know what took me so long, but I know back then I didn't enjoy cooking (well specifically prepping) nearly as much as I do now. Having the proper tool has made all the difference. In addition to selling an awesome selection of knives at competitive prices, Bertarelli can sharpen them as well. Usually while you wait. But waiting can be dangerous. They sell other things too. Like enameled cast iron lasagna pans and juicers, and the coolest cutting boards, and pans, and clear ice makers for the counter top, and Viking Mixers. Nice things without the crazy sales ladies that make you feel like a bad homemaker (Williams Sonoma, I'm looking at you.) These guys are busy sharpening knives. If you need help, they'll stop and help you. Otherwise, you're free to take your time and look around without any pressure.

The Bertarelli's sharpen the knives of lots of restaurants around town, and on top of that, they are just cool guys. (Maybe there's just something inherently cool about people who sharpen knives, I don't know.) They are a local, family owned business. There's more info about them at http://www.bertarellicutlery.com/Default.aspx

I don't know where to start when want to talk about Di Gregorio's. I love this place. Their selection of olive oil and balsamic vinegars is unparalleled in St. Louis. It is the only place where I buy parmigiano reggiano (where it is surprisingly cheaper than in grocery stores.) If you want imported tomatoes, they've got more than just one brand. Each variety with a prettier can than the last. They look like works of art to me. Seriously. Let see, imported, domestic and locally made cheeses, meats and pastas. Gnocchi paddles and pickle pickers. Tuaca. Bread. Spices. If its Italian, and you want it, chances are Di Gregorio's has it. They also supply lots of local restaurants. More info about them here: http://www.digregoriofoods.com/

(As a side note, when I was in Di Gregorio's the other day, I noticed a huge metal tank with a spigot behind the deli counter. It was a vat of olive oil. They've got a system set up kind of like propane exchange. The first time you buy the bottle and the oil. On successive visits, you bring back the bottle and they fill you up at a discount. A super efficient form of recycling and food mixed together? You know I love that. I plan on taking advantage of that program when I finish with my current bottle of oil.)

La Tropicana Market in South St. Louis

2009-10-29T09:49:00.004-05:00

I love carbohydrates. Bread, tortillas, pitas, crostini, croutons, crackers, biscuits. You name it, and if its carb, I want to eat it. And some carbs are infinitely better than others. Which brings me to La Tropicana Market in South St. Louis.

I came across La Tropicana while on a hunt for Mexican Coke (they do carry it!) It is tucked back in a quiet, typically south side looking neighborhood near Kingshwighway and Chippewa. While I was there, I checked out the rest of the store. La Tropicana carries great looking raw ingredients as well as prepared food. You need plantains? They have them. And chiles. And bags of frozen mangoes, papayas, guavas, and tamarind. There are spices you have never heard of and gritty (that's a good thing) Mexican style chocolates. Bags of homemade tamales. A cooler filled with cold Mexican fruit sodas.

Equally cool is that La Tropicana's prepared foods counter is the only place in town where I have ever seen Cuban food.

Anyway, in order to satiate my undying need for carbs, when I eat salads (all the time), I like to wrap them in a flour tortilla and eat them like a burrito. Seriously, its a problem like that. La Tropicana has a refrigerator filled with flour and corn tortillas in a variety of sizes, including tortillas that are big enough to easily wrap a salad. They are tender and not at all doughy or chewy. I like to imagine that a nice abuelita rolled them out especially for me. Way better than grocery store tortillas.

La Tropicana Market is located at 5001 Lindenwood in beautiful South St. Louis.

Kale with Bucatini

2009-10-28T11:28:00.005-05:00

Kale is an interesting vegetable, but one it seems you never hear about. I don't think I knew it was even edible until I got some in the farm share a few weeks back. The only time I'd ever seen it used was as a garnish at Grandma's house at Easter. Here's the 411 on kale.

Kale is actually a cabbage and related to broccoli and cauliflower. Its been around since ancient times. During World War II, the British were encourage to grow it in their Victory Gardens to counter rationing because it was easy to grow and loaded with nutrients. Kale is off the charts when it comes to vitamins A, C, and K. It is also a good source of calcium and fiber.

That said, this recipe is really most likely suited for people who really like their greens. Kale is not a delicate vegetable. But I love vegetables and I am always looking for vegetarian dishes (I'm not a vegetarian, though) where we won't notice that we are not eating meat or feel like something is missing. This was was definitely hearty. Additionally, it was cheap. I was thinking about it after we ate and I don't think I spent more than $4 to put together dinner that would have easily fed four people.

So I cleaned and dried a bunch of kale. Then I removed the tough stems. I don't want to eat those. Then I gave it a rough chop.

Here's the pasta that I have chosen to go along with my kale. Its bucatini, a wide, but hollow spaghetti. I love bucatini. Its one of my favorites when it comes to pasta.

I sliced and onion and diced up some habenero and a few cloves of garlic.

Then I got my tomatoes ready. These are how I like them when I buy them canned. Whole. I pick though them, removing the stems with my fingers and kind of squish them up.

Here's what that looks like. I guess they are packaging tomatoes in smaller cans now. I initially prepped one can, but when I got into cooking realized I was gonna need two.

Then I sauteed the onion with a little bit of olive oil in a pan until they were soft. I added the kale and covered it.

It takes a little while for the kale to wilt because it is a sturdy vegetable.

When it has wilted a bit, I add the garlic, habenero and the tomatoes.

Stir, salt and pepper.

Let it simmer while the pasta cooks.

When the pasta is nearly done, I take a couple of ladles full of the starchy water and put it into the sauce. Then I drain the pasta, and mix the sauce and pasta together with some parmigiano reggiano.

Bowl it up, and top with more cheese.

Not terribly gorgeous, but easy to throw together and (except for the kale) all of the ingredients are things that I always have around the house. This is probably not something that I would make for company or special occasions or anything, but I would definitely make it for us again.

Peach Crumble

2009-10-27T21:50:00.004-05:00

I needed a little bit of sunshine in this rainy week, so I decided to bust out some of the peaches I froze over the summer. The Captain and I both looked at the date on this bag and both decided that we clearly labeled the bag wrong. It must have been 8/29 because we weren't freezing peaches less than a month ago. No way. No how. Anyway, I decided a nice crumble would make us feel less schmoopy.

This is about as simple as dessert gets. Take one defrosted bag of peaches. I think there were 3 peaches in here. (Yay me and my precise methods of freezing in quantity!)

Dump contents of bag into bowl. Squeeze a half of a lemon. (Well, I would have used a lemon if I had one, but I didn't. So I used a lime.)

Add some freshly grated nutmeg, some cinnamon, and a little tiny bit of flour. Stir until incorporated. Butter 4 ramekins. Use real butter.

Divide contents of bowl evenly between 4 ramekins. Don't get excited and overload them or they will make a mess of the oven. Squeeze a little bit of honey over the top of the fruit mixture.

For the topping, I take a 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup of AP flour, 1/2 of oats (I use 1 minute), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter cut into pieces. Easy to remember. A half cup of everything. Oh and a pinch of salt.

Work it with your fingers until it gets a crumbly consistency. If you are rich and have a food processor, I guess you could use that too. :)

Cover the fruit with the topping, keeping it loose, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Peachalicious!

Disclaimer: I had enough topping for about 4 more of these guys, but hadn't defrosted enough fruit. (And frankly, didn't need 8 of these around the house - they don't keep that well.) So I packaged up half topping in a container and put it in the freezer for future use. I've got a freezer full of blueberries, blackberries, black raspberries and raspberries so I am sure I'll use it up soon.

Disclaimer #2: These are much better with vanilla ice cream (I recommend Haagen Daz Five -drool-) but as good of a cook as I am, I am a horrible organizer and we were out of ice cream when I went to the freezer. The Horror!

Check These Out!

2009-10-27T16:21:00.003-05:00

These were green tomatoes that I picked forever ago and let ripen on the windowsill. Not as good as vine ripened, but I'll take homegrown tomatoes during the last week of October!

Charleville Vineyard

2009-10-27T14:27:00.006-05:00

We went to our friends' farm this weekend with the intent of doing a winery tour on Saturday. The weather has been absolutely crappy the last few days and Friday night was no exception. Things weren't looking good for Saturday. Somehow, miraculously, we had the most gorgeous day on Saturday, and as I sit here watching the rain fall outside the window, I thought I would share some of the pictures from that sunny-around-64-degree day.

We actually went to 4 places on Saturday, but my favorite was a relatively new winery. A place called Charleville Vineyard. I'm not a huge winery person (sorry, MO wine just isn't my thing), but, unbeknownst to me, this place was also a brewery.

http://www.charlevillevineyard.com/

Here's the greeter that met us when we got out of the car. She walked right up to us, I said "hi kitty" and she flipped over on her belly for me to scratch. I'm thinking I'm gonna like this place.

Right next to the parking area is the building where they sell beer, wine, snacks and gifts.

This is a closer look at the right side of the building where a cat was snoozing in the sunshine. Too adorable, really.

Hey, I recognize some of those beers! They sell Charleville at The Stable in St. Louis. I have consumed at least a couple of these beers already.

I decided upon the seasonal beer the Witches Brew'mm. They gave me a sample first (which I wasn't expecting. Also, Charleville was the only winery that didn't charge us to sample. But, I don't really need to sample good draft beer. I pretty much like it all. Still, that was nice.)

It was less pumpkin-y than OFallon, and not as spicy as Schlafly. I liked it. Come to find out, I was not the only one. I set my beer down at our table and went exploring. This is the bed and breakfast located at the vineyard. I love the front porch with all the rocking chairs. They were nice enough to let us take a self guided tour. The upstairs is two bedrooms and a bath, and the downstairs is a breakfast/siting area. The whole place smelled like maple syrup. Yum.

When I returned to my beer, I found this guy in it. I still drank it anyway; bees don't gross me out. Then I went off adventuring again.

Butterflies were out en masse on Saturday. I thought this one was particularly cool.

When I returned to my beer, this lady beetle was floating around in my beer, so I fished her out. That was enough buggy guys in one drink, so I dumped it and went to get another.

This time, the Hoptimistic IPA, which was hoppy and delightful. Perfect on a mild fall day.

Anyhoo, out of all the places we went, Charleville was hands down my favorite. The scenery was great. The people hanging out there weren't freaks. The music (one acoustic guy with a guitar, a harmonica, and a tambourine rigged to his foot) was the most appropriate for the laid back setting, and the staff was the most friendly.

Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes)

2009-10-26T18:27:00.004-05:00

Sorry its been a while, but I was out of town, and didn't think the little cooking that I have been doing was worthy of writing about. Today, I am back on track, and I made the sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes) that were in the farm share last week. They are a root vegetable (well, more specifically the tuber of a sunflower plant) that kind of resemble ginger. They are a good source of potassium and iron. I think the term sunchoke is becoming the preferred way of referring to these guys. Here's what they look like out of the farm share box.

It seemed like there were two popular ways to cook them. Roasting or pureeing. Initially I was gonna puree until I figured I wouldn't have to peel em if I roasted em. Here's what they look like scrubbed down with a potato brush.

I then cut them into small pieces and put them in a bowl of water as they were oxidizing quickly on me. After they were cut, I scrubbed them again, as the smaller pieces exposed more dirt that I couldn't reach in the initial scrub down.

Once cleaned, I dried them thoroughly with a towel and placed them in a roasting pan with salt & pepper and some olive oil. I mixed them around to make sure they were all covered, then roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes. (All of the recipes said 5-7 minutes, but they were not ready for me until 25.)

They didn't look so hot when they came out of the oven. The skins got darker and almost burnt looking. They were good though. Crusty on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. Kind of like a roasted potato but not as starchy. And I get the artichoke nickname. They did have kind of a delicate artichoke flavor. The Captain really liked them.

That said, I kind of didn't tell him the whole story about these guys. Apparently the carbohydrate in them isn't digested well by everyone. Here's a fun quote that I took from wikipedia, "which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men." English planter John Goodyer said that back in 1621. We will see how that works out tonight I guess.

Blueberry Muffins

2009-10-20T16:40:00.006-05:00

My adorable and charming niece and nephew (Hello Caitlin and William!) and I enjoy a fine cupcake every now and again. So, a couple of weeks ago when we met for dinner, my sister and her kids gave me some cute cupcake wrappers. I was really trying to figure out a way to use them that would do them justice. Today, I made some delicious blueberry muffins in some of the bright blue wrappers. I used a Martha recipe, naturally.
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/favorite-blueberry-muffins
The nicest part about these wrappers is that they allowed me to skip the "butter and flour the pan" step.

Here are the blueberries I am using. I bought them at the farmers market from a farm called Ozark Mountain Orchard back in July. I IQF'd em, bagged em, and sucked all the air out of em. They have been waiting patiently in the downstairs freezer.

Instead of using 2 cups of AP flour, I used a cup of AP and a cup of whole wheat. That makes me feel less bad about scarfing down a bunch of these muffins. Then I whisked all the dry ingredients together (flour, baking powder, and salt).

I get everything ready, so that once I start, I don't have to stop. I put a stick of room temperature butter and a cup of sugar in a big bowl.

I mixed my eggs and vanilla together.

When I open the bag, the frozen berries look fantastic. Almost fresh looking. Well, fresh with some ice attached.

I put some of the flour mixture on the berries so that they "float" in the batter better.

Shake em around until they are all lightly coated.

And get started. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time. Add flour mixture and milk. Mix until just moistened.

Fold in blueberries and some lemon zest.

Resist the temptation to overmix.

Combine a 1/4 of a cup of sugar and some freshly ground nutmeg.

Scoop the batter into muffin tins and top with sugar mixture. The recipe says it will make 12 muffins, but I ended up with about 20. Seriously. That's got to be a misprint.

Yum.

I took one while it was still super hot from the oven and cracked it open so everyone could see the quantity of blueberries in these. The Captain recommended against using this picture, he thought it made the muffins look like they fall apart. I think it makes the muffins look delicious.

The Last Week of the 2009 Farm Share

2009-10-20T15:40:00.002-05:00

I can't believe after the weather we have been having that there were still vegetables for us. I'm really going to miss these potatoes. They were really fantastic this year.

In other news, we got Jerusalem artichokes. Another vegetable that I have never tried. So thats pretty exciting.

Good bye CSA box. I will miss you and think of you often as I pull your vegetables out of the freezer this winter. I look forward to our reunion in the spring of 2010.

The contents this week are:

• Red Potatoes
• Bell and/or Italian Pepper
• Delicata Squash
• Jerusalem Artichoke
• Lettuce
• Sweet Potato
• Beets
• Turnips

BSC Part 2: Crazy Jar Lady

2009-10-19T16:51:00.005-05:00

This is another moment when I realize what I am about to type will most likely come off as completely crazy, but I feel compelled to share this with everyone anyway.

I'll spare you all the exciting details of why and how I recycle. Its not that interesting to be honest. But I will tell you that last spring I made an announcement to The Captain. I said, "Remember this day. 40 years from now, when they are digging me and my 80 cats out of the trash heap that has become my home, know that today was the day it all started." That was the day I started collecting jars. Well, not really collecting jars, but stripping the labels off them with mineral spirits, washing them, and saving them to use for other purposes. I figure reusing pefectly good jars will keep me from using some disposable plastics - keeping those plastics out of the landfills, the oceans, and little birds' bellies. My Grandma Millie would be so proud. :)

Anyhoo this pickle jar is a nice place to store some m&m's from a bag that I really was not trying to open.

This peanut butter jar makes a nice home for bacon grease. (I wait until its cool before I add it to the glass jar.)

I love this little guy for making salad dressings.

An old pepperoncini jar (I have LOTS of these) is a great vessel for beans that I use when I blind bake pie crusts.

Hmm. Seems like a lot of my jars are used to hold candy. That's all right by me.

(Really, its not as scary as it seems, we don't buy a lot of things that come in jars. The jars I do have are neatly bagged up in the basement. The Captains OCD is a nice balance for my insanity.)

Parsnip Soup

2009-10-19T15:40:00.004-05:00

Parsnips are (except for the herbs) the absolute last man standing in the garden. The cool thing about them is that you can keep them in the ground all winter long, and just harvest them as you need them. In fact, the cold of the winter converts the starches in the roots to sugars and makes them especially delicious as the winter progresses. For those not familiar with the parsnip, its a white root vegetable that resembles the carrot. It tastes and functions more like a potato though. I LOVE them mashed or roasted. Parsnips are chock full of potassium and fiber. I'm making a little soup for lunch.

I felt like "Miss Parsnip America" with a bouquet of lovely parsnips instead of roses as I was bringing these in from the garden. The tops on my parsnips are HUGE.

I cleaned, peeled (when applicable) and diced 4 of my parsnips, half of an apple, half of an onion, and a stalk of celery. I diced a couple huge cloves of garlic too. I didn't end up using all of the garlic.

Saute in a large pan with a little butter and olive oil. I threw in some thyme from the garden.
I threw in a little habenero too. And salt & pepper of course too.

When the onions get translucent, I add 3 cups of chicken stock, and one cup of water and let it simmer for a while.

While that's simmering, I chop a little parsley for garnish. Parsley is a close relative to the parsnip. I thought I was clever for creating a little family reunion in a bowl.

After about 15 minutes, I puree with an immersion blender, taste and adjust seasonings. We loved this soup.

Vanilla Sugar

2009-10-18T10:52:00.003-05:00

Every once in a while, I will have a recipe that calls for a whole vanilla bean. After I split it and remove the seeds, I toss the spent pod into a little plastic container where I keep some sugar. The pod infuses the sugar with a warm vanilla goodness. When the sugar runs low, I just add some more. Those spent pods are like a gift that keeps on giving. The Captain LOVES the vanilla sugar in his morning coffee.

Chicken and Artichoke Pizza

2009-10-18T10:10:00.003-05:00

When I lived in Brentwood, I used to order chicken and artichoke pizza from Corwin's every Monday night and chow down while watching The Real World Road Rules Challenge. I no longer live in Brentwood, Corwin's moved and eventually closed, and I wouldn't recognize anyone from The RW/RR Challenge, but that doesn't mean I can no longer enjoy the best pizza combination to ever exist on the planet. Chicken and artichoke.

I won't bore you with the details as I have already done the "how I make a pizza" thing on here, but I will tell you that I put some of my green tomatoes on a window ledge and slowly but surely they are turning red (or yellow). I had enough tomatoes to make some sauce, a leftover chicken breast, and a can of artichoke hearts that were quartered and packed in water. Throw on some fresh mozzarella, a little parmigiano reggiano, some red pepper flakes and a little pepper and...Voila!...that is one delicious pizza.

Chicken and Dumplings

2009-10-17T10:18:00.016-05:00

So with the weather being as dreadful as it has been the last few days, I keep thinking about how good chicken and dumplings would be. It would make the house smell all chicken soup-y and would be warm and satisfying. So here's my short-cut version.

I am not planning on making my own stock, or cooking this for a long time, so my plan is to add flavor at every possible moment. To that end, I am going to roast a couple of chicken breasts. I chop some parsley, sage, oregano and garlic and zest a lemon.

I find the easiest way to chop herbs is to roll them up in a tight little package and then chop.

So I mix all the herbs together, add a little habenero, some salt & pepper and some olive oil. There was some left over green onion from the other day so I threw that in as well.

Loosen the chicken skin and tuck a good portion of the herb mixture underneath. Then coat the outside with some of the mixture as well. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the juices run clear.

While the chicken is roasting, chop a couple of celery stalks (I like the ones with the leaves on them), a couple of carrots, and a medium onion.

Chicken looks done. Pull it out of the oven and allow it to cool for a moment. Get started on the broth.

I grab a large pan and saute the celery, onions, and carrots with some butter and olive oil. I add some garlic, salt & pepper, a lil bit of habenero, and a bay leaf. While that cooks, I pull some chicken.

I wear rubber gloves when I pull chicken because I cannot stand chicken grease on my hands. This is the meat off of one breast. That's actually enough, so I wrap up the other and refrigerate it for tomorrow. I like a nice balance of meat to vegetables and don't want to overwhelm it with pieces of chicken everywhere.

When the onion turns translucent, add a couple tablespoons of flour and cook for a few minutes.

Whisk in 4 cups of broth and the chicken juices that were in the bottom of the roasting pan. (I also put a little stock in the bottom of the roasting pan and scrape up the crunchy bits to get all the chicken-y goodness out.)

Add the shredded chicken. Taste. Adjust seasonings. I added a little bit more sage and pepper. Now for the dumpling dough. I used a cut down version of a Tyler Florence recipe which was 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tbs baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 egg, and 1 cup of buttermilk.

Add dumpling batter one tablespoon at a time (use 2 spoons to slide it into the broth). Don't overcrowd them, cause they grow. Poach the dumplings for another 10 minutes or so, turning them gently every once in a while.

Bowl it up, and garnish with more parsley and pepper.

I'm not trying to say that I am all great of anything, but this chicken and dumplings really hit the spot yesterday. Quite awesome. Really rich and flavorful and I wasn't tied to the stove all day tending to it.

Yellow Squash and Swiss Chard Pizza

2009-10-16T13:42:00.004-05:00

Decided to mix things up a bit on the pizza front and do some thinly sliced yellow squash with some sauteed swiss chard, a little parmigiano reggiano, fresh thyme, garlic, a little s&p, and (of course) some habenero and red pepper flakes.

A close up of a delicate little sprig of thyme. I love it with squash.

Honestly, I think the chard overwhelmed the squash and the pizza probably would have been better off without it. The crust might have been a tad crispier had a given in some time in the over alone with itself before I added the toppings. Ah well, everyday is a learning experience. And it was still delicious.