Slow Food, Lazy Family

Apple Pie

2008-11-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

I made this recipe with the vodka pie crust last weekend, and thought it was the best apple pie I've ever made. I think that's party due to the variety of apples I used, which were all picked at my grandma's house. They are mainly old-fashioned varieties, and I couldn't name any of them for you. America's Test Kitchen suggests using a mix of Granny Smith and Macintosh. Macintosh are my favorite apples, but they can be very hard to find in most grocery stores (I think they must not travel well, as they are very thin-skinned); use whatever good baking apples you can find in your neck of the woods.

The allspice in this recipe is an unusual touch. I liked it a lot, but if you don't care for it or want a more traditional flavor, you can omit or reduce. Mary actually ground the allspice in our mortar and pestle, which made it stronger than the average stuff in a jar. (I know! We are like the freakin' Ingalls here!). It is correct that the recipe contains no thickener or gluten, which adds to the fresh flavor. It holds together well, as long as you are together enough and patient enough to bake it early in the day and wait at least four hours to slice it.

Apple Pie
(America's Test Kitchen, from the original The Best Recipe book, no longer in print)

*4 lbs apples (preferably half each Granny Smith and Macintosh, about 8 medium total. As I mentioned above, I used a mix, and a couple more than 8)
*3/4 cup sugar
*1 1/2 tbs juice and 1 tsp zest from one lemon
*1/4 tsp salt
*1/4 tsp nutmeg
*1/4 tsp cinnamon
*1/4 tsp allspice

-Prepare your dough (obviously!)and refrigerate
-Remove one piece of dough from refrigerator. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 425.
-Roll out one disc of dough on floured surface into a 12" circlish shape (I can never manage a perfect circle). Fold dough into quarters, place dough point in center of your deep dish or regular pie plate (Pyrex is best) and unfold. Ease gently into sides of pan, leaving overhang. Put back into fridge.
-Peel and core apples and slice into 1/2" or so slices, larger than you might normally do. Toss with remaining ingredients. Turn into the pie shell, making sure all the juices make it in, mounding in center.
-Roll out second dough disc and place on top. Trim edges to 1/2" overhang, tuck under themselves, and crimp. Slice an "A" into the top crust with a sharp knife.
-Bake until top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 375, and bake until juices bubble through slits in crust and crust is deep golden brown, about 30-35 minutes longer.
-Cool on rack, at least 4 hours.

Vodka Pie Crust

2008-11-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

The folks at America's Test Kitchen recently said this was their most ground-breaking recipe, or something to that effect. After trying it, I might agree with them.

Don't get too excited, though, if what you are hoping for is some sort of drunken pie (at a core level, I know that is what we are all searching for). The vodka in this recipe brings nothing boozy at all to the finished product. Instead, it magically creates a product that is very workable and forgiving in the dough stage, and incredibly flaky once baked. I made this, in an apple pie, last weekend for a University of Oregon football party at Jeff's Sports Bar (Nan and Jeff's garage, that is) and it was a hit. I think I'll try it again at Thanksgiving.

This is a generous amount for a double-crust pie. I had quite a bit left, probably enough for a third crust (so you could, for instance, do a pumpkin pie and an apple pie with one recipe). Stash the extra in your freezer in a flattened, well-wrapped disc.

The ATK folks say "vodka is essential to this recipe...do not substitute. The dough will be more supple and flexible than most standard pie doughs and will require more flour to roll out, up to 1/4 cup".

And here's how these things go in my house: Get invited to a football party, with a theme of Thanksgiving Dinner. Promise to make pie, knowing I was almost out of vodka but had an emergency bottle stashed in the freezer. Get the dry ingredients mixed, then pull said bottle out of freezer and realize it's wasabi vodka. Search liquor cabinet. Find a tiny remaining bit of Absolut Citron. Shrug, and use it, though add an extra tablespoon of water as don't have quite enough. The lemon taste was undetectable, and the crust was perfect, so there you go. My lack of planning and procrastination is once again reinforced.

Vodka Pie Crust

*2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
*1 tsp salt
*2 TBS sugar
*12 TBS cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" slices
*1/2 cup solid cold shortening, cut into big pieces
*1/4 cup cold vodka
*1/4 cup cold water

-Process 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the sugar, and the salt in the food processor just until combined. Add butter and shortening and process until dough starts to collect in lumps, resemble cottage cheese, and all flour is coated (about 15 seconds). Scrape processor bowl with spatula and redistribute dough around blade. Add remaining flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed and the mass has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into bowl.
-Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. Use rubber spatula to fold and mix, pressing down on dough until it is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide into two balls, wrapping each in plastic wrap and pressing into 4"discs. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes, or up to 2 days. You can also freeze for a shorter amount of time, if you were in a hurry. Theoretically.

Use plenty of flour when rolling out; don't worry as much as you would with typical dough that using too much flour will make it tough. It will be fine. Don't worry if it's really moist.

Preserving Summer

2008-09-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

I didn't make good use of my early summer, and failed to take advantage of one of the main advantages of living in Oregon's Willamette Valley: cheap and amazingly local produce (especially if you u-pick, which we normally do). Still, I have a bumper crop of late tomatoes, and have been preserving as fast as I can the last week or so, as we're clearly headed towards an early freeze this year. I may just start throwing tomatoes into freezer bags whole, and call it good.

I was up until 1:00 in the morning yesterday canning. Here's how it went:
-7:00 or so, come home from riding. Stop and buy 36 ears of corn from the little farmstand on Bodenhammer Road near my house. It's supposed to be $12 for the corn (corn is expensive this year. Yay, biofuels) but I realize later she only charged me $6. Also buy peaches and plums (only $1 a pound).
-8:00 Finally serve dinner-BLTs with avocado and basil mayonnaise. Insanely good.
-9:00 Mary shucks the corn for me and girls and husband head to bed.
-10:00 I realize how late it is. I also realize that I have to get the corn dealt with tonight, now that it's huskless. Start cutting it off the cobs. Think "Since it will take the corn an hour to roast anyway, I might as well can the apple butter that I made, while I'm waiting". Then think "If I have to heat up the canning kettle anyway, I might as well make a quick batch of peach jam, so don't have to do it tomorrow and heat the water twice. I'll be done by 11:00." I am pleased by my brilliance.
-10:45 Finally get the corn in the oven. Am realizing that my 11:00 prediction may have been overly optimistic. Set up the laptop in the kitchen and start watching "It's Always Sunny in Philadephia" on hulu.com. Start heating jars and lids.
-11:15 Finally get apple butter in the boiling water bath and start making peach jam. Things are getting progressively stickier. Morning and my hour long commute to work look too damn close.
-12:45 Finished.

But there isn't anything quite as satisfying as knowing that your shelves and freezer are full of good food. As hearing the "pop" of sealing jar lids as you set the jars on a towel to cool. As those satisfyingly flat quart bags of frozen sauces and vegetables that join the bean soups and stews in the freezer already. We're doing our modern-day version of hunkering down for winter.

Here's what I have so far:
*4 pints of fabulous Ginger Apple Butter, made in the crockpot. I've never thought of myself as an apple butter fan, but this was an easy way to use up the bag of apples I picked at my grandma's house a few weeks back. The girls both love this, and would eat it by the bowl. I would never stoop so low. Ha.
*4 pints of basic freezer strawberry jam. Nothing exciting, but the girls love it and it's going fast. I didn't u-pick any berries this year, but am finally using up the bunches I have in the freezer from past, more productive summers.
*4 1/2 pints of peach jam. Made from the indispensable Ball Blue Book, and my first attempt at jam without pectin. Jelled up very well, but the flavor isn't fabulous. Good, but not fabulous.
*6 quarts of Roasted Freezer Corn. Also good beyond belief.*
*4 pints of Tomato Basil Preserves. Good, but not great. Sweet, with a little tang from the tomato and lemon. I'd add some spicy peppers next time. The author says to serve with cream cheese; goat cheese was better because it added some tang. Great to bring as an easy appetizer to a party.
*4 pints of Pinot Noir Jelly. Designed, like the above, to be served with cream cheese and crackers. Again, I'd like it best with goat cheese instead. It does make a fabulous grilled cheese sandwich: sharp Tillamook white cheddar, whole wheat bread, a touch of this here jelly, and some Dijon. It's a great use for bottles of mediocre wine you might have around, and it's also very easy; one of those things you can do to help make it worth the bother of getting the canning kettle boiling and the jars sterilized.
*2 1/2 quarts of plain canned tomatoes. Not exciting, but I'll appreciate them later, I am sure.
*A couple of frozen quart bags of roasted tomatoes.
*3 quart bags of frozen tomato pasta sauce with shredded zucchini.
*3 quarts of puttanesca sauce, made in a crock pot.

Still to come:
-More jam, another batch of strawberry and some blackberry, I hope.
-Blueberry vanilla bean syrup, from the berries in my freezer.
-Infused vodkas! Definitely concord grape-maybe ginger?
-Dried apples and fruit leather
-Apple cider making at Grandma's house. Our first year without Grandma, and probably the last year of cider. It will be precious this year (and it's a fabulous year for apples here)
-more apple butter
-shredded zucchini in the freezer for later baking
-and something to use up all these damn tomatoes

Miscellaneous Update

2008-09-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

Watching now:
The Fringe. Hadn't heard anything about it until someone in my sci fi book club (mock if you must! you know you're really jealous) mentioned. Thanks to hulu.com, we caught it last night. Pretty darn good, in the tradition of X Files and Lost. And..

Almost done with disc two; sadly enough it turns out, that's all there is. I do have a genius for falling in love with shows that have long-since been canceled (see also Firefly, Veronica Mars, Buffy).

Reading:

Yeah, I'm definitely in a science fiction theme right now. This book is a fabulous read.

Missing:

Spent a fabulous three nights at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego last weekend, courtesy of Debi, who was there for a manager's convention for Trader Joe's.

Missing even more:
Free hotel stay + frequent flier ticket = extra money to use on a spontaneous trip to Disneyland with her that Friday. The trip was fabulous; no children, no crowds, and lots of pants-wetting fun. Is it creepy that I woke her up at 6:00 am standing over her side of the bed in the dark hotel room whispering "disneyland disneyland disneyland"?

Craving:

Fabulous. In a close race with the Toasted Sesame Brittle flavor. Must try again to try and decide.

Feels Like Fall-Roasted tomatoes and more

2008-09-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

Even though it's approaching 90 right now, it's obvious we're nearing the end of summer. The nights are getting chilly, the trees are (barely) turning, kids are back in school, and I feel like canning. Raised in a family with the motto "Better make two batches for the potluck or we might all die because there won't be enough food", I feel driven to freeze and preserve food (which I then leave in the freezer or the jar all winter, waiting for the perfect occasion to eat it, which never arrives, especially as winter approaches.

More recipes will follow later, as I see how things work out. I'm contemplating wine jelly, tomato basil preserves (I picked 15 pounds of tomatoes yesterday alone), blueberry vanilla bean syrup, and frozen creamed corn.

Here's the basic roasted tomato technique I tried yesterday. I made two batches, each consisting of two 9x13" pans (about five pounds of tomatoes per batch). It's one of the simplest ways to preserve tomatoes I've found, short of just throwing them whole in ziploc bags in the freezer. It does ensure you get a rich tomato flavor in your finished product; I think sometimes freezing tomatoes damages their flavor in the same way refrigerating them is guaranteed to do. I used three or four big cloves of garlic per pan, just a little rosemary (because I had very little; more would've been good), olive oil, salt and pepper.

But, to be honest, I don't fully love the finished product. David pointed out that it tastes similar to sun-dried tomatoes, something neither of us really love. I made one batch with romas, that I froze, and then a batch with some unknown Beefsteak-like variety, that we pureed into sauce and ate with pasta last night. I added a bunch of fresh oregano and basil, then tossed with noodles and cubes of parmesan. I also added a little sugar, as this batch was very, very tart. I'm not sure if it was the variety or the recipe, and will do some more experimentation. And if I was going to make the recipe again for sauce, I'd throw some chunks of onion in to roast with the tomatoes, as tomato sauce without onion is just plain wrong.

The Omnivore's One Hundred

2008-08-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

From British food blogger Andrew Wheeler's blog, Very Good Taste, a challenge:

"Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results."

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (I had to look; a pungent cheese from France)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (My absolute favorite gelato flavor)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (waiting impatiently for some to ripen in our yard now, actually)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl(a staple on the Oregon coast)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear (if you count a prickly pear margarita last week in Sedona)
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips (to my eternal regret)
61. S’mores (made 'em from scratch once, marshmallows, graham crackers, and all. In my days of dessert escalation, cooking for my weekly Stitch'n'Bitch group).
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (all of the above, love beignets the most)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost (A very odd man I knew in my early 20s, who came several times to our family Thanksgiving dinner, brought this one year as his odd contribution to the meal. Another year he just brought a bag of arugula).
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict (embarassingly for my friends, I love this dish, but order it without the eggs)
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse (and no..I just can't).
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I scored a decent 52...

Ellie Krieger's Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Sauce

2008-07-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

Trying to get back on to the blogging horse here, and will start with just posting a quick link to a fabulous recipe we tried tonight. My sister introduced me to Ellie Krieger's recipes; I've never seen her show, but you can access her recipes, which manage to be both tasty and healthy, on foodnetwork.com. I started with her Nutty Sweet Potato Soup, which is very rich and flavorful, and moved on to this recipe tonight.

Follow the link for the recipe; I made it largely as written, though didn't have shallots and substituted green curry paste for red. Served over brown rice cooked in broth and a little light coconut milk. Oh, didn't have the energy to fire up the grill, so cut the chicken into chunks to marinate and sauteed in a little vegetable oil. Thinned the peanut sauce with a little more coconut milk (the one drawback I found to the recipe was that it only used 1/2 a cup of coconut milk, leaving most the can. I've had good luck freezing it in the past but didn't really want to bother tonight). Also sauteed a bunch of lettuce with some soy sauce and sesame oil and sesame seeds; a good way to get rid of the lettuce we have exploding out of our garden.

We loved this recipe-David couldn't get enough of it. It tastes very rich, especially since it's calculated to be only 250 calories a serving.

Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Day 8 of My Captivity

2008-02-12T21:55:00.001-08:00

And my captor shows no sign of letting me go. Her random punishments strike suddenly (vomiting everything we've coaxed her to eat over the last 18 hours, shrieking "My Outside!") and leave me cowed, flinching, and hyper-vigilant. Attempted to escape to the office yesterday. She allowed me to get about 10 miles from home, then, when I could sense freedom, she threw up all over the car seat, forcing me to turn back for home. Don't know how much longer I can go on.

Yesterday, all she had to eat for the first half of the day was ketchup. I am not exaggerating.

She has been sick for eight days, and can't have dairy until things are much more stable (unless I want to be peeling twelve hour digested dairy off my work clothes again). She weighs less than 24 pounds, when healthy, and will be two in less than a month. She's starving, but nothing sounds good.

Here's how things are going:

"Food, pease (vigorously rubbing chest in sign for "please", making winning smile".
"Ok! Do you want some toast?"
"No, food pease!!"
"Toast IS food. Do you want some cereal?"
"NO! Food PEEEASE!!!!"
"Cereal IS food (growing increasingly desperate). How about an apple? Banana? Jello? Popsicle? Tortilla? Raisin? Baloney? Carrot? Potato? Oatmeal?"
"NO!! FOOD!!"
By this time, one of us is lying on the floor crying.

Then I just open the fridge door and let her stare, hoping she'll find something she'll eat. Maybe I should just get honest and buy one of the Republicans' "My Carbon Footprint is Bigger Than Yours" bumperstickers.

I love to eat and cook food that tastes good, that is made of high quality and flavorful ingredients, that's locally grown when possible. But it's hard to be a slow food advocate when you'd give anything if your toddler would just swallow some freaking blue jello already.

Orange Vanilla (Cornstarch) Ice Cream, Bittman Style

2008-01-27T00:27:00.001-08:00

I know! I know! I've been horrible about posting. No excuse, but it's the new year, and we're back from traveling to Hawaii and to the mountains, and I'm ready to settle in and cook.

And really, we're working on cooking healthier meals, after the obvious holiday indulgence. I'll post later about creamy low fat vegetable soups, thanks to the new immersion blender I'm loving. I also have thoughts about the local food movement, and the dilemmas I've been occasionally encountering around eating well, eating organic food, or eating locally. Also a post for another day.

Today is ice cream. It's pouring, and 38 degrees, but we still wanted ice cream. I always want ice cream. My mom gave me a new countertop freezer for my birthday, the kind with an insert that you keep in the freezer, and I wanted to give it a try. I'd been hearing about Mark Bittman's cornstarch variation of the traditional egg-based custard recipes, and that had me very curious.

You can read the full article Bittman wrote about this recipe. In short, cornstarch is cooked with milk or cream and sugar, then flavorings are added, the mixture is chilled and then frozen. Since there are no eggs, the ice cream is lower calorie, and the flavor is theoretically cleaner, less "eggy".

My favorite homemade ice cream ever is the Orange Cream Deam from the Ben and Jerry's recipe book, which is a vanilla ice cream with orange juice concentrate blended in. I thought we'd try something similar here, and it worked very well. This ice cream is unbelievable smooth and creamy, without the normal graininess that you expect with homemade ice cream. I actually think I prefer the more textured traditional recipe, but this is pretty damn fantastic (and only about 20 minutes of hands on work).

Orange Vanilla Ice Cream

*2 1/2 cups milk, cream or half-and-half (I used about 1 cup cream, the rest milk); divided
*1/2 cup sugar
*pinch of salt
*3 TBS corn starch
*1 tsp vanilla
*about 1/4 c. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (more or less to taste) but cold .

-Mix 2 cups of the milk/cream, the sugar, and the salt in a saucepan. Heat over medium low heat, stirring frequently, until mixture begins to steam.
-Meanwhile, mix the remaining milk/cream and the corn starch with a fork until no lumps remain.
-Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the saucepan, increase heat to medium, and heat until it barely boils, stirring constantly. As soon as it begins to boil, turn heat all the way down and continue stirring for another five minutes or so, until nice and thick.
-Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
-Leave in sauce pan and place pan in a bowl filled with ice and water (make sure, of course, that your water isn't so deep that it overflows into the custard). Let it chill, stirring frequently, until it's cold all the way through. If you have more time, you can chill in the fridge, but don't forget to stir often or a skin will form.
-When chilled, stir in the thawed but cold orange concentrate. Start with just a couple of tablespoons and taste as you go.
-Pour into your freezer and chill per instructions.

Navy Bean Soup

2007-10-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

I've made a couple of runs at this soup, as it's one of David's favorites, but hadn't found a recipe we really loved until this one. And hey, it was the simplest one I tried! It's also very adaptable, fitting well with our goal of cooking for the next week with only what we already have in the house. It'd be a good Crockpot recipe, but was too much to fit in mine, so it simmered on the stove all through this cold afternoon. We had a few hours of October sunshine today, but the afternoon ended dark and drizzling, so soup and corn bead and applesauce were perfect. Mary wasn't here for dinner, but Else, now a year and a half, devoured it.

Notes: I had no celery or carrot, but added a little celery seed. I like the addition of the chopped spinach quite a bit, but you could omit. We used 3 smoked bratwurst and the flavor was fabulous. If doing in a Crockpot, I'd soak the beans on the stove, then add with tomatoes to the Crockpot and put on high while sauteing the vegetables, then add everything to the Crockpot. I'd suggest cooking for a few hours on high then turning down to low, but you might want to cook part of the time with the lid off so it cooks down a bit. You probably wouldn't add the entire 3 cups of water, either, if going this route. Like most bean soups, this should freeze very well. It makes a really large amount, easily enough for a meal for six.

Navy Bean Soup
*1 lb. of dried Navy beans, rinsed
*6 cups of water
*1 TBS Better than Bouillon, Chicken, OR a couple bouillon cubes
(OR sub 3 cups of chicken broth for 3 cups of the water)
*1 TBS olive oil
*1 onion, chopped
*2 stalks celery, chopped
*2 carrots, chopped
*3 cloves garlic, minced
*1/2 lb ham, chopped OR 3 smoked bratwurst, sliced into thin rounds OR 6 slices bacon, chopped
*1 14.5 oz can chopped tomatoes, with juice
*2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
*1 bay leaf
*3 more cups of water
*Chopped fresh parsley, 2 TBS or so
*Chopped baby spinach, a cup or two, or one small container frozen chopped spinach
*lots of black pepper, salt to taste

-Cover beans with a generous amount of water; bring to a boil then let them sit and soak for an hour. Drain.
-Towards the end of that hour, heat olive oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add chopped onions, celery, carrot and your choice of meat. Saute until the onions are golden. Add garlic and saute a few minutes more, watching closely to make sure the garlic doesn't burn.
-Add beans to pot, along with tomatoes, Worcestershire, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer and simmer, covered, for 2 hours.
-Remove lid from pot and add 3 more cups water. Bring back to a simmer and simmer, uncovered, for another two hours.
-During the last few minutes, add chopped parsley and spinach. Add pepper to taste. Don't salt it until you've tasted it, as this will be pretty salty already with the Worcestershire and ham.

Blueberry Vanilla Syrup

2007-10-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

Just a brief post today-I had to write this recipe out anyway to post on discussion of canning and putting food by on Chowhound.com, so thought I'd cut and paste it here.

We love blueberries. We are blessed to live in Oregon, with an abundance of local, amazingly good, inexpensive produce available to us six months out of the year. It's actually a fairly painful blessing sometimes, as the produce pours in and it's very challenging to keep up with it all. I have wanted to cry, some days, coming home from work, standing in the kitchen with a toddler hanging from my leg, looking at ten pounds of cucumbers that must be made into pickles tonight or they'll go bad. I love the results of canning: the jars lined up on the counter, the feeling of concrete satisfaction, the smugness of being prepared when the next Depression hits (something everyone in my family seems to worry about subconsciously: will there be enough food? We might all die!). I just sometimes don't like the actual work of canning: the endless wait for the water to boil, then come back to a boil; the sticky disaster the kitchen becomes; the jars that slip back into the boiling water and splash.

This recipe is a welcome break from all that. You get the satisfaction of canning with much less work. First, you start with blueberries. Blueberries are the best U-Pik fruit, because you can throw them into the freezer without doing anything else. When you're ready to use them, rinse the frost, pick out a few stems and you're good to go. We have a great organic farm a few minutes from our house, so the whole family can eat as many as we want while picking (though have to make a side note here and say the blueberry farm was being run by the Blueberry Nazi this year, which put a bit of a damper on our experience: You don't park there! No kids in the trees! No kids in the bathrooms! Don't pick there! No soup for you! You come back one year!). Back to the recipe. The other great thing about it is you don't have to process it once the jars are filled, thus eliminating the whole boiling water heating time sink. The downside of that is that you must keep the finished product refrigerated, but that's not a big deal as you'll probably only keep one or two jars for yourself and give the rest away. As good as it is, there's only so much syrup you can go through on your own.

Find your vanilla beans in bulk if you can. The ones sold in a jar at the supermarket are insanely expensive.

This recipe is a modification of a Sheila Lukins recipe from the fabulous U.S.A. Cookbook.

1 1/2 lbs blueberries
3 c sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3/4 c. water
2 TBS fresh lemon juice

Combine blueberries (rinsed) and sugar in a large heavy saucepan. Toss gently with a rubber spatula. Stick vanilla bean in center. Let stand for an hour (you can start w/frozen berries-just prolong this step).

Add water and lemon juice and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, skimming foam, until it starts to thicken. It will take 15 minutes or so. It will continue to thicken as it cools so don't cook too long.

Remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve. Cool (taste when cool-if too sweet, add a little more lemon juice) and funnel into sterilized bottles. Although she says it will keep up to two months, I've found that it keeps indefinitely, refrigerated.

Unlike most canning recipes, you can double this one. Everything will take longer, but it works fine.

It's a gorgeous deep blue color-very pretty to give in nice stoppered bottles (the kind with a wire cage and rubber gasket-this is insanely messy stuff, so don't give it in a bottle with a cork). As mentioned previously, it's beautiful on ice cream, delicious on waffles, and my brother-in-law has had great success basting salmon with it when grilling.

Grilled Chicken, Red Onion, and Mint Kebabs

2007-09-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the only break I took to show me that it was summer time was to completely stop updating my blog. (Man, that was pathetic, and completely untrue. Although I didn't take much time off this summer, we still had a very languid summer-as much as one can have with a job and two children). Still, it seemed a waste to spend any precious summer minutes in front of the computer, and so, though we cooked and ate some really wonderful food this summer, I didn't write about it. Since my main purpose with this blog is to keep track of my favorite recipes, I need to start searching my brain and remembering the new dishes that we loved.

This one is easy to remember and to tell you about, since I'm just going to link directly to the epicurious.com recipe. It's an astonishingly simple dish that is one of the best things I've made in a long time. The mint and red onions are both essential: the mint leaves get wonderfully crispy, the red onion all charred and sweet. I finish with just a squeeze of lemon juice over the kebabs, rather than basting with olive oil and lemon juice. Both ways would be fantastic; mine has a few less calories; their's is probably a little moister (do be careful not to overcook your chicken). We love this with brown rice or pita, tzatziki, and a greek salad (recipes for the latter two to follow one of these days).

Add this to the category of food you will eat in spite of the fact that it's healthy, not to be virtuous.

Oh, and funny thing-my sister was up recently from Arizona, and we wanted to cook dinner for our folks' anniversary. Guess what she suggested? Yep....apparently excruciatingly good taste DOES run in our family.

Grilled Chicken, Red Onion, and Mint Kebabs.

Filbert Crusted Baked Salmon

2007-06-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

My dad is learning to cook now that he's retired, and seems to really be enjoying it. He's always done some cooking: barbecuing, of course;a phase of baking a lot of bread when I was a child. His anadama bread (a dark bread with molasses, great with butter and honey) was very, very good. Another bread, that didn't rise, we joked should be used as weights in the back of the pickup.

I grew up thinking of these nuts as filberts, though they are more commonly called by their upper class name of hazelnuts. My Grandpa Delbert raised filberts, and I thought that Filbert was actually his name at one point in my childhood.

The girls and I went to my folks' house for the weekend a few weeks back, to celebrate Dad's birthday and a belated Mother's Day. Dad made the following dish, from a recipe in The Oregonian. He modified it slightly by accident, adding the filberts with the mustard instead of sprinkling them on later as directed in the original recipe. I made the recipe at home the next week and made it as originally directed, but have to say I like Dad's version better (though both were very good). This is great with a salad and twice baked potatoes or brown rice pilaf and steamed asparagus. I found wild caught, Alaskan salmon fillets at Trader Joe's for about $6.00 a pound, enough for our family, though the recipe calls for two pounds. Don't use farm raised salmon; it'd be better to substitute a different fish.

*1 tsp sea salt
*2 cloves garlic, minced
*2 tsp herbes de provence (I used that recipe as a guide and made something close to it with what I had on had, as I didn't want to go to the store)
*2 TBS whole grained or Dijon mustard (I used Dijon)
*3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
*1 tsp fresh lemon juice
*1 2 lb fillet of wild salmon
*3-4 TBS finely chopped filberts (hazelnuts) (Note: subbed cashews one day, and they worked very well, too).

-In a small bowl, combine salt, garlic, herbes, mustard, olive oil and lemon juice, mixing with a fork til emulsified. If you'd like, stir in the filberts now.
-Place salmon on a rimmed baking sheet that you've sprayed with Pam or lightly oiled. Spread the mustard mixture thickly over the top and sides of the fillet. Refrigerate for an hour.
-Preheat oven to 350. Bake salmon, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, then sprinkle the nuts over and lightly press them into the coating if you didn't add them earlier. Return to oven and bake up to another 15 minutes, until salmon flakes when tested with a fork (note: our salmon finished much earlier than recipe suggested it would, so test early as you don't want it to dry out).

Pesto!

2007-06-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Although it's raining and not even 60 degrees here right now, it has largely been beautiful so far this early summer. We are not very skilled gardeners, but we are determined to do better this year, and to this end we have dug out an additional bed in our front yard, the sunniest part of our lot. With new soil, free plants from neighbors and relatives, and enthusiastic watering, this small patch is exploding beautifully. We have a lot of spinach, several beet plants (using both of those to make a regular side dish of sauteed greens with pinenuts and garlic), several artichoke plants, peas twining over anything else, spring onions, herbs, and eight or so tomato plants.

We have basil in the ground, but it's nowhere near being ready to harvest in significant quantities (and saving it from the snails and slugs is a constant battle here), so we picked some up at the farmer's market last weekend and made this amazingly flavorful and pungent pesto, that we try to make in huge quantities every year. Two bunches were about enough for two batches. Normally, we'll make two or three batches at a time and freeze at least one of them, but this time we've been eating it over several days. To freeze, spoon into an icecube tray you reserve for such uses, pour a little olive oil on top, and then transfer to a freezer bags or boxes when solid.

Serving ideas: great as is, on pasta or vegetables. We like to brush a thick layer on salmon then bake or barbecue. This week, we've been enjoying it mixed half and half with ricotta, then tossed with spaghetti. I think that mellows the flavor out a little for kids and it adds a little more nutrition (and helps your pesto last a little longer). Both my girls love this-Mary just ate two servings for lunch, and the baby will eat as much as we feed her. Cooks Illustrated suggests mixing a batch of this with 1/4 cup pasta cooking water until smooth, then tossing with a pound of cooked spaghetti.

Recipe a slight modification from the version in Cooks' Illustrated: The New Best Recipe. Toasting the nuts beforehand is essential. We added parsley for the first time with this batch and it was great-added a nice, fresh taste. We also did half walnuts and half pinenuts, and they were good, though I'd suggest toasting them separately as the pinenuts cook much faster.

*1/4 cu pine nutes, walnuts, or almonds
*3 medium garlic cloves, unpeeled
*2 packed cups of fresh basil leaves
*2 TBS fresh parsley leaves (optional)
*6 TBS olive oil (1/4 cup+ 2 TBS)
*1 tsp salt

-Toast the nuts in a small, dry skillet over medium heat, stirring-PutFREQUENTLY, 4-5 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Transfer to a small bowl.
-Toast garlic in empty skillet until fragrant slightly colored, about 7 minutes. Cool, then peel.
-Place basil and parsley in a heavy duty ziploc bag and bang on them with a rolling pin or heavy small skillet until the leaves are all dark and bruised. If you happen to have a mortar and pestle, use that by all means.
-Place all ingredients in a food processor. Whirl, scraping as necessary, until smooth.
*1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Banana Pudding

2007-06-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

I've been craving banana pudding for days now; oddly enough, I don't think I've ever eaten the classic 'Nilla wafer banana pudding before. Yet I craved it. I'd purchased a box of the aforementioned wafers on sale recently and have been amazed by how good they are-not fancy, not complicated, but full of vanilla flavor and delicious. I think that lead me into a journey that ended last night with this recipe, a hit with everyone in the family, even Mary, who dislikes bananas. The pudding takes over a rich banana flavor after being poured over the fruit while still warm. The cookies soften, and the whole dessert is reminiscent of a trifle (in fact, I found myself wondering whether it would be possible to brush the wafers with rum *while layering). It is rich and indulgent and comforting.

The recipe is modified from one in Cooking Light Magazine. I normally will only cook the "light" version of a recipe if it tastes as good as the regular version, and this one qualifies. Although the original recipe called for meringue, I substituted whipped cream instead, which I before, and which I knew would keep better for the inevitable leftovers. If you choose to use meringue, I'll throw the directions in at the end. It does save you from wasting the two egg whites you'll have left from the yolk, and it is healthier than the whipping cream.

*1/3 cup all-purpose flour
*1/8 tsp salt
*2 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk
*1 (14-ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
*2 large egg yolks (save the whites if you want to do meringue)
*2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*3-4 ripe bananas, sliced (divided); about 3 cups
*45 vanilla wafers(divided)-low fat is fine

If topping with whipped cream:
*1/4 c whipping cream
*1/4 tsp vanilla
*1 TBS powdered sugar

If topping with meringue:
*4 large egg whites (at room temperature)
*1/4 cup sugar

*If using meringue, preheat oven to 325.
*Stir flour and salt in medium saucepan. Gradually add milk and condensed milk and yolks, whisking constantly to keep from getting lumpy.
*Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly (or else the milk will burn), until very thick-this will take anywhere form 8-15 minutes. Make your kid take turns whisking while you find the right dish, slice bananas, etc.
*When nice and thick (should coat the back of a spoon and leave a track when you draw your finger through the coating on said spoon), remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
*Arrange a cup of the banana slices on the bottom of a 2 Qt casserole dish. Ladle a third of pudding on top. Arrange 15 vanilla wafers on top. Repeat twice more. On final layer, poke wafers around the sides of the dish and down into the pudding.

Then, either:
*Whip cream, vanilla and powdered sugar together until firm and spread over top.
OR
*Beat egg whites at high speed until foamy; gradually add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over top of pudding, sealing to edges. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

In either case, let sit 30 minutes before eating or it will be really soupy.

Marshmallows, part 1: Vanilla With Egg Whites

2007-04-02T23:04:00.001-07:00

Vanilla Marshmallow w-egg whites, 1, originally uploaded by stankey.

Years ago, when my oldest daughter was a baby, a group of friends and I would meet regularly for Stitch'n'Bitch nights: quilting or knitting, with gossip and wine, hopefully away from the kids. The hostess was responsible for making dessert, and this gradually became a bit of an escalating competition. I think my finest, or most pathetic, hour was when I made s'mores from scratch: homemade graham crackers, marshmallows, fudge sauce and all. I love s'mores when camping, but am not a big fan of marshmallow otherwise; however, these were pretty darn good.

Spin forward 9 years, and that baby is now old enough to help me try again. I spent a bit of time researching recipes, and ended up with a variation of one from Gourmet. Recipes can be divided into with and without eggwhites; this one is with. I'll attempt one later without, and I'd also like to experiment with the variations suggested by fellow Eugene food blogger Brownie Points, who suggest techniques for strawberry marshmallows, among others.

These marshmallows are satisfyingly light and fluffy, with a good vanilla flavor. They melt into hot chocolate in a very satisfying way, and are orgasmic in hot fudge sauce. A huge improvement over JetPuffed, and they sell for more than a buck each at Williams-Sonoma, so you can pretend you've saved lots of money by making them.

You really need to have a standing mixer, like a KitchenAid, for this recipe. It can burn out hand mixers. You'll also need a candy thermometer.

This is an easy recipe for kids to help with-especially older children who can be careful with hot syrup. Mary was really delighted to have made something this cool, though she was pretty sullen through the whole process. She'd like to try rolling them in colored sugar next time.

*about 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
*2 large egg whites
*3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
*1/2 cup cold water
*2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
*5/8 cup hot water (about 115°F.)
*1/4 teaspoon salt
*3 tsp vanilla
*cornstarch

*Spray bottom and side of 9x13 inch pan with Pam. Powder with powdered sugar, tapping out excess.
*Beat egg whites until they barely hold stiff peaks. Scrape into another bowl, and rinse mixer beaters and bowl.
*Pour cold water into mixer bowl, and sprinkle gelatin over the top. Set aside so gelatin can soften.
*In medium saucepan, over low heat, stir granulated sugar, hot water, and salt until sugar has dissolved. Increase heat til boiling, and boil, without stirring, until mixture reaches 240 on candy thermometer, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir into gelatin mixture until gelatin is dissolved.
*Beat mixture at high speed (WARNING! Increase heat slowly to high and use those pouring shields if you have them-you don't want this napalm spinning all over your kitchen) until snow-white and tripled in volume, a good six minutes.
*Slowly beat whites and vanilla into this mixture just until combined.
*Scrape into pan, smoothing top, sift 1/4 cup powdered sugar over top, and refrigerate at least three hours until firm.
*Spread a piece of wax paper on counter and loosen edges of marshmallow with a sharp knife. Turn pan upside down and kind of pry on one corner until mixture plops onto wax paper. Cut into whatever size you like with a pizza cutter.
*Mix remaining sugar with an equal amount of cornstarch and sift over, getting all sticky sides covered. Keeps, airtight, at least a week. Modified from Epicurious

Pepperoncini Pork

2007-04-02T22:42:00.001-07:00

Pepperoncini Pork Taco, originally uploaded by stankey.

This is the simplest, and one of the most satisfying, recipes I know. My friend Rick shared it with me-it apparently was his go-to recipe for cooking food at home to impress a date. They really shouldn't've been impressed enough to sleep with him-the recipe is that easy, but I'm guessing it worked. Sometimes. At least frequently enough for him to keep cooking.

We made this recently when my friend Crit was visiting from Australia with her American sweetheart, Jay. They arrived after a long, exhausting trip, and we wanted to fix them something easy, that could be eaten whenever they got here, and that could fulfill a craving someone might have after being out of the States for awhile. Whatever failings there might be about food in America, we do have access to Mexican food, and Mexican ingredients, that is not available in much of the world. Jay and Crit report that you can get flour tortillas and basic salsa in Australia, but not much that's really authentic.

Throw the pork for this recipe in the crockpot in the morning on low. Head to your local Mexican market and pick up good corn tortillas, fresh green salsa, cilantro, cotija cheese, avocado, and some Negro Modelo. Good refried beans are fantastic, too. The pork tastes spicy and vinegary and is incredibly tender. It makes a lot-leftovers freeze well.

*1 pork roast, boneless, about 2-3 pounds. Nothing expensive.
*1 jar, 16 oz or so, pepperoncini.

-Place pork roast in crock pot.
-Pour pepperoncini over.
-Cook on low all day, til pork falls apart when shredded with two forks.
-Remove pork from pot and shred with aforementioned two forks.
-Let people make their own tacos with above ingredients.

Orange and Avocado Salad

2007-03-14T18:04:00.001-07:00

This is another item on the sadly short list of things so amazingly good I'd eat them even if they weren't healthy. Others honorees includ mangoes, roasted garlic and green beans, really good hummus, fresh pineapple, and red wine.

This salad is simple, delicious, and we could eat it every night of the week. Play it by ear-no rules here.
*An orange, or two, peel sliced off, sliced crosswise into thin rounds.
*An avocado, or two, sliced into thin crescents.
*Black pepper
*Balsamic vinegar
*Goat cheese (optional)
*Olive oil (optional).

-Arrange the avocado and orange slices in circles on a plate, overlapping each other.
-Grind pepper over all.
-Crumble some goat cheese on top, if you'd like.
-Either drizzle with balsamic vinegar, or mix 1 Tbs balsamic to 3 Tbs olive oil (shake in a small jar) to make our standard, everyday vinaigrette.
-Enjoy. It's wonderful if your oranges were cold-chilly deliciousness. Another great variation is to toss the fruits with some nice salad greens, and dress after that.

Yum!

Rachel's Spicy Pasta Salad

2007-02-24T14:42:00.000-08:00

My sister sent me this recipe more than a year ago, and then made it for us on her trip here for our wedding in September of 2005, (which was potluck and the best wedding food we've ever had). The salad is really good and very easy, and the leftovers were fantastic. It was great to be able to munch on in the post-wedding, wrapping paper strewn, chaos. The salad is flavorful and, as she mentions below, easy to customize. I think it would be fine without chicken, as well.

My sister, who lives in Flagstaff, is a fabulous cook. I think we both inherited the cooking gene from our mother, who always seems to have loved cooking, although what she cooks has changed a lot over the years, to adjust to changing tastes (and a husband with cholesterol problems). The food of my childhood was often classic 70s food: homemade macaroni and cheese (which I hated), spaghetti with meat sauce (ditto), turkey tetrazzini (ditto-I was a picky child. Love 'em all now)-side dishes of canned pears on a lettuce leaf topped with grated cheese. But we also ate things like homemade wontons and chile rellenos and Grecian chicken. My mom, and Rachel and I, all love to bake. One shining childhood memory is of the night dinner was a bowl of meringue. I blame my childhood for my deep ingrained feeling that I haven't finished my evening meal if I don't get dessert at the end of it. Nutritionists who recommend treating yourself once or twice a week to a dessert make me laugh.

And back to my sister's salad! Thanks for this, Rae.

Spicy Pasta Salad
1 ½ tablespoons curry powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 ¼ cups light Miracle Whip
1 pound gnocchi shaped pasta
8 oz. sugar snap peas
1 mango, peeled and cubed
1/3 cup honey-roasted sliced almonds

I made a few substitutions – chicken breasts instead of thighs; pasta
shells; a little more of all the spices, especially cayenne; and on one
occasion used a combo of regular mayo and miracle whip, as well as
sweetened lime juice – they were all fantastic.

1.  Combine curry powder, cayenne, cinnamon, and salt.  Sprinkle 1 tsp. of
the mixed spices on one side of chicken.  Broil 6 inches from heat for 8
minutes; turn and broil another 8 minutes or until thermometer reads 180
degrees.  Remove, let cool, cut into bite size pieces.
2.  Stir remaining mixed spices and 1 tbsp. of the lime juice into salad
dressing.  Refrigerate.
3.  Bring large pot of salted water to boiling; cook pasta until tender
but still firm.  Add peas during last minute of cooking.  Drain and rinse
with cool running water.
4.  Toss mango with remaining lime juice.  Place in serving bowl with
pasta, peas, and chicken.  Toss with salad dressing.  Refrigerate.  Top
each serving with almonds.

Double Chocolate and Orange Pudding

2007-02-23T19:06:00.000-08:00

This is a really easy recipe and it tastes fabulously rich. We love chocolate and orange, but you can ommit the orange zest and sub 1 1/2 tsp vanilla for the Gran Marnier and it will be very, very good. It is an easy recipe for children to help with; the measuring and the whisking, even the orange zest grating can be doable by an older child (especially with a microplane, which my daughter and I both find much easier to use than a zester). Leftovers, if you have any, keep fairly well for a few days in a sealed container in the fridge. It's very good slightly warm, or chilled. With or without whipped cream (I usually don't bother). The first time I made this was as a surprise for my folks, after I stayed in their house while they were away for their anniversary. I left dinner fixings in the fridge, salmon and asparagus, I think, but this is all we remember.

Can serve six, spooned into small ramekins or wine glasses, for instance. Tonight, the three of ate it all.

*1/2 c granulated sugar
*1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
*2 TBS cornstarch
*1/4 tsp salt
*zest of one orange
*2 c 1/2 and 1/2, or 1 cup whipping cream and 1 cup milk
*3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
*1 TBS Gran Marnier, or other orange liqueur.

-Whisk sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt together in medium saucepan.
*Gradually whisk in one cup of cream until completely smooth. Whisk in remaining cream and orange zest.
*Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and comes to a boil, about 5 minutes. Continue to whisk for one minute. Remove from heat.
*Add chocolate and Gran Marnier and let stand until chocolate melts, about 5 minutes. Stir just until incorporated (don't stir too much or it will thin out).
*Serve warm or chilled.

White Chicken Chili

2007-02-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

This is a relatively easy recipe, enjoyed by kids and adults. I've served at parties and work potlucks and it's always the first thing to go. If serving to children (or wimpy adults!) be cautious about spicing it up-start mild and add spices to taste after it's cooked. Remember, chili powder gets spicier as it cooks.

I really recommend using dried beans-I like the texture better, and they are much, much cheaper than canned. If you're lucky enough to get local dairy products and chickens, use those, too.

*1/2 pound dried navy beans (about a cup), picked over, OR 2 cans white/cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
*1 large onion, chopped
*1 TBS olive oil
*4 TBS unsalted butter
*1/4 cup all-purpose flour
*2 cups chicken broth
*1 cup half-and-half or milk
*1 teaspoon Tabasco, or to taste
*1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder (or to taste...be careful if yours is very spicy)
*2 teaspoons ground cumin
*1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
*1/2 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
*1 7 oz can chopped mild green chiles
*1 1/2 cups frozen corn
*5 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 2 pounds), cooked and shredded (I saute them-see below-or poach them)
*1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack or white cheddar(about 6 ounces)
*1/2 cup sour cream (light is fine; can add more to taste)
*Cilantro

-If using dried beans, rinse, then cover with two inches of water in large pot, bring to boil, then remove from heat and let sit for an hour. Drain. Place back in the pot, cover again with 2 inches of water, bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for an hour or until beans are soft.
-If you want to saute your chicken breasts, salt and pepper them. Heat 1 TBS olive oil and 1 TBS of the listed butter over medium heat in large soup pot until sizzling. Add chicken breasts and cook until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Remove, let cool enough to handle, and shred. Don't clean the pan.
-Cook onion in 1 TBS olive oil (or the oil-butter mixture from above) in soup pot until soft and turning golden.
-Leave onion in pot. Add (remaining)butter to pot, let melt,and whisk in flour. Cook this roux for 3 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring, or until it starts to turn golden (be careful not to burn). Gradually add broth and half and half or milk, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, then simmer, whisking occasionally, for 5 minutes or until thick. Add tabasco, chiles, chile powder, peppers, salt, pepper, and cumin. Stir in beans, corn, chicken and either:
-Cook over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
-Transfer to crock pot and cook on low for the afternoon.
-Stir in cheese, cilantro, and sour cream at end of cooking period.
-If you'd like, pass extra cheese, sour cream, and cilantro when serving.

Notes:
-Freezes beautifully!
-If it's too thick, add a little more chicken broth or some beer.
-You can spice it up with some jalapeno or extra chile powder...
-I pureed the peppers in a food processor once before adding them and really liked the way it made the flavors blend.

Dutch Baby

2007-01-13T10:52:00.000-08:00

David made this for breakfast today, and it was by far the best Dutch Baby (puffed oven pancake) that I've ever had. Both girls devoured their portions; Mary said it was the best pancake she had ever had. He used whole wheat flour instead of the traditional white flour, and I really loved the more substantial texture that gave the dish, as well as a heartier flavor. He also cooked it in our indispensable cast iron Dutch oven, rather than in the cast iron frying pan that I usually use. I think this made the sides crispier.

A husband that likes to cook is a beautiful thing. A husband that cooks Saturday breakfast when everybody in the family is sick is priceless.

1/4 c. butter (I prefer salted in this recipe)
3 eggs
3/4 c. milk
3/4 c. whole wheat flour

*Note: this was just right for the three of us and the baby; if you are cooking for more, just scale the recipe up.

*Preheat oven to 425. Place butter in pan, preferable cast iron, and set in oven to melt.
*Beat eggs until light and lemon colored. I've always used a blender for this, but David mixed by hand this morning. If using blender, whirl at high speed for one minute. Gradually pour in milk, then flour, then whirl for an additional 30 seconds (or beat by hand til well-combined).
*Pour directly into hot, melted butter in pan. Return to oven and bake until puffy and well-browned, 20-25 minutes.

Serve immediately. It's traditionally served with powdered sugar and lemon juice. I also like it with salsa and sharp cheddar cheese (good for dinner), or with syrup. Today we had it with powdered sugar and lemon, and our blueberry-vanilla bean syrup on the side.

The creamiest ever, stopetop, mac'n'cheese

2007-01-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

This amazingly good, decadent, rich and creamy recipe is from Cook's Illustrated in the original The Best Recipe; the recipe in the New Best Recipe is not the same (side note vent here: I HATE it when a new edition of a cookbook I love comes out. I write all over my cookbook, adding comments, mentioning when I served the dish, suggestion alterations. When the new edition of a book I love comes out, I have to decide to buy it, and either start all over again transferring comments, or stay with the old one and risk missing something new and wonderful. It's especially bad when the new edition leaves out some of my favorite recipes from the old edition. So much for trying to simplify; now I own both). I don't think you can even buy the cookbook anymore (new, that is).

It's a stovetop recipe, my daughters both love it, it's very easy, and the keys to making it insanely creamy are:
*evaporated milk
*eggs
*having part of the cheese (half for me, usually) be smooth-melting American, which I normally avoid like the plague

You can saute some bread crumbs in butter and garlic and or parmesan if you'd like, to serve on top. If you do that, run the pan briefly under the broiler to brown the topping. I never even bother.

2 large eggs
1 can evaporated milk, divided
1/4 tsp tabasco
2 tsp salt, divided
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp dry mustard, dissolved in 1 tsp water
1/2 lb elbow macaroni
4 tbs unsalted butter
12 oz cheese (I use half sharp cheddar, half american) grated

*Mix eggs, 1 cup of the milk, tabasco, 1/2 tsp of the salt, pepper, and mustard mixture in small bowl and set aside.
*Bring 2 quarts water to a boil in large, heavy saucepan. Add remaining salt and macaroni; cook until tender. Drain and return to pan over low heat. Add butter and toss to melt.
*Pour egg mixture over noodles along w/3/4 of the cheese; stir until thoroughly combined and cheese begins to melt. Gradually add remaining milk and cheese, stirring constantly, until mixture is hot and creamy (5 minutes or so).

Serve immediately.

Mulled Wine (Gluehwein)

2007-01-03T23:14:00.000-08:00

You know, you do what you need to do to get through the holidays. Other people pray or go to therapy or exercise or climb to the tops of belltowers. We like this recipe. It's for those nights where regular wine just isn't doing enough for you and you need to get some extra sugar and alcohol into your system.

Thanks to "A Cook in Seattle" who posted this recipe in a review of a not-loved mulled wine recipe on Epicurious.

*2 bottles of red wine; cheap is fine
*zest or orange part of peel of two oranges (leave the bitter white behind)
*6-8 cinnamon sticks
*8-10 whole cloves
*8-10 whole allspice (allspices?)
*2 star anise
*1 cup sugar
*1/2-1 cup of dark rum

Slowly heat the wine with everything but the rum-don't let this boil! Keep at heat for 10 minutes or so. Remove from heat and add rum to taste. It works well to put this in a crockpot on low heat for serving at a party. You can strain it, if you'd like.

Poblano Corn Pudding

2007-01-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

I suppose this recipe isn't really in keeping with the alleged theme of my blog, as many kids wouldn't eat these spicy chiles. You could adapt the recipe and use a milder chile (though poblanos are pretty mild) or a regular bell pepper. The non-pepper bits of this were loved by our baby.

Thanks so much to my sister for the suggestion of this recipe. She made it for a book club and for Christmas dinner w/her boyfriend's family; I made it for husband's work party and a New Year's Eve party. Adapted from epicurious.com.

*4 poblano chiles
*4 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed (or fresh, in season), divided
*4 large eggs (I've made this w/egg substitute and it's fine)
*1 cup unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
*1 1/2 tsp salt
*2 large pinches baking powder (1/4 tsp or so)
*2 cups light sour cream
*1 cup masa (corn tortilla mix)
*3 oz prosciutto or Serrano ham, diced (optional)
*2 cups grated smoked cheddar

-Place chiles on baking sheet under preheated boiler. Watching carefully, broil until blackened, turning so each side is done. Remove and place in brown paper bag; roll top to seal and allow to steam for 15 minutes.
-Carefully peel charred skin from chiles. Remove stem and seeds. I used plastic bags on my hands the second time doing this, as the first time the chile oil was very difficult to remove (not a great thing when you have a nursing baby). Dice chiles and set aside.

-Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x13" dish.
-Combine 3 cups of the corn, eggs, butter, salt, and baking powder in a blender; blend until smooth. Place in large bowl and add masa, sour cream, ham, cheddar, chiles, and remaining corn. Stir to blend and spoon into baking dish.
-Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden and puffy.

No-Knead Bread

2007-01-03T22:07:00.000-08:00

This bread is sweeping the food blogging world (man, is my life exciting! Always on the cutting edge). According to notmartha.com, it " Appeared in the article The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work by Mark Bittman in the November 8th, 2006 New York Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery"

Allow at least a full 24 hours to make this, possibly more. It takes very little hands-on time during that period, but I found it needed close to 24 hours to sit the first time, and then a several hour rising period at the end of it, plus baking time. It was probably only 15 minutes of hands-on time in that period, including cleaning pots and pans. The long rise lends a wonderfully yeasty flavor (and there is a very small amount of yeast in the recipe). The bread is slightly sour and has a wonderfully flaky, crispy crust.

I baked it in a 6 qt stockpot, oven proof. Notmartha recommends a smaller pan, 4 quarts or so, but I didn't have one the right size and the loaf I made turned out beautifully. Wonderful dipped in olive oil, or toasted with butter and honey.

Recipe, with notmartha's and my adaptations:

Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

- 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (I have had good luck with both kinds of flour, and also with substituting one cup of whole wheat flour)
- 1/4 teaspoon instant [aka Rapid Rise, QuickRise, Instant Active Dry, Perfect Rise, or Bread Machine Yeast] yeast
- 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
-1 1/2 cups water
- Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed for flouring towels (I use cornmeal).

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. [I put it on top of my fridge.]

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice-cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes (I've always skipped this step with no problems).

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with cornmeal (what I use), wheat bran, or rice flour; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart [about a 4-quart pot is preferred] heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 10 or 15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.

World Peace Cookies (Korova Cookies)

2006-12-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

These, along with the no-knead bread, are all over the food blogging community. I plan to try the bread, maybe even later today, and did make the cookies right before Christmas. They really are fantastic; rich and deeply chocolatey and easy. The saltiness of them works beautifully with the chocolate. Other blogs I'd read had suggested this was not really a recipe for children, but my 9 year old loves them and has been sneaking them. I still think the ginger cookies are the best cookies ever, but these come close. The recipe I used comes from Splendid Table from Dorie Greenspan, who says this:

I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I've never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark — there's cocoa in the dough — and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they're salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It's the salt — Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt — that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (I had coarse sea salt; I crushed it in a mortar and pestle, which was a very quick job and worked fine)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits (I used the good, inexpensive pound plus 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe's).

*Sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
*Beat butter in standing mixer until creamy and light. Add sugar and beat. Add salt and vanily and beat until creamy.
*Dump in dry ingredients. Drape a towel over mixer (or use the splatter guard, which I just remembered now that I have) VERY CAREFULLY (you don't want it to get caught in the beaters of death) and pulse 5 or so times, one second each, until flour is somewhat incorporated.
*Mix at low speed about 30 seconds until batter is just combined. Do not overmix.
*Add chocolate pieces and mix again briefly.
*Divide dough into two on pieces of waxed paper. Shape into rough log and wrap in paper, then roll out until it's about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill for three hours at least in fridge; may freeze at this point.
*Preheat oven to 325. Line baking sheets with parchment or Silpat (I think greasing the sheets would be fine, too.)
*Slice log into 1/2'"slices. Note: this is a lot thicker than most icebox cookies, but it works. T hey may crumble when sliced-that's OK, just squish them back together. Arrange on sheet, leaving 1" or so between them.
*Bake 12 minutes only. They will still look underbaked; that is ok. Cool for at least 5 minutes on sheet before transferring to rack. Eat warm or cool.

Barbecued Meatballs

2006-12-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

From my beloved Aunt Beth, I think, though this has long been a family favorite and I'm not really sure quite which aunt originated it. Regardless, this is classic potluck food and a big favorite with kids and grownups. They freeze beautifully-since the recipe as written makes 2 pans, it's nice to eat one now and freeze one for later (that office potluck you forgot about until 10 o'clock the night before). I like to double the sauce to have extra to serve over rice or potatoes, but the dish is really good as written.

*3 Lbs ground beef
*2 cups quick oats
*1 tsp pepper
*2 tsp minced garlics (about two cloves' worth), divided
*1 13 oz can evaporated milk (low fat would work fine)
*1 1/2 cups chopped onion, divided
*2 cups ketchup
*2 eggs, beaten
*2 tsp chili powder (note: this is not intended to be a spicy dish. Know your chili powder well; if it's spicy, you might want to reduce this amount)
*2 tsp salt
*1 1/2 cups brown sugar
*2 Tbsp liquid smoke (really, this is essential. It's cheap and it's awesome in this dish).

-Preheat oven to 350.
-Use your hand to blend meat, oats, milk, 1 cup of onion, 1/2 the garlic, eggs, chili powder, salt and pepper in large bowl until thoroughly mixed. Shape into 1 1/2" balls and place in single layer in 2 9"x13" baking dishes.
-Combine ketchup, brown sugar, liquid smoke, and remaining garlic and onion. Pour over meatballs.
-Bake for an hour, covered with foil for the first half.

Spinach Apple Salad with Candied Almonds

2006-12-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

This is a perennial family favorite, and a standard to take to potlucks. It is always well-received. It's easy, and the flavors are a good way to introduce kids to spinach (it's fairly sweet, the dressing isn't too strongly flavored, and kids usually are very happy about apple slices). The almonds are delicious, and any leftover would be great on ice cream. Theoretically, that is, as I've never had any left over. This is taken from Bon Appetit, with a few small adaptations. In my experience, if you make the full amount of dressing, you'll have way too much for one bag of spinach (unless you like your salad swimming in dressing). I'd either save the dressing to have salad again the next night, or cut the dressing in half. You can make the almonds and dressing in advance; slice apples and toss all together at the last minute.
-
1/4 cup minced onion
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons sugar (divided)
1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup blanched slivered almonds (about 3 ounces)

1 10- ounce bag ready-to-use spinach leaves
2 medium-size apples, cored, thinly sliced

Combine onion, cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, paprika in small bowl. Mix in 2 tablespoons sugar. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. (Note: I usually do this in my food processor-chopping the onion in the bowl then adding the other ingredients without cleaning out the bowl, finally drizzling the olive oil through the tube. You want the onion very finely chopped).

Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add almonds. Stir until almonds begin to color, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon sugar over. Stir until sugar melts and begins to turn golden, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer almonds to bowl and cool. (Dressing and almonds can be prepared 4 hours ahead. Cover separately and let stand at room temperature.)

Combine spinach and apples in large bowl. Toss with enough dressing to coat. Mix in almonds. Serve salad, passing any remaining dressing separately.

Insanely Fabulous, Over the Top Ginger Cookies

2006-12-01T16:47:00.001-08:00

"These cookies are the bomb" said husband. Coworkers agreed, and I ate at least 42 of them myself. Mary loves them as well, even though they are spicy and strong-flavored (not always a plus for kids, as we all know). The recipe is easy and kids like helping roll the cookie into balls and then into sugar (my least favorite part). I've been on a molasses and ginger sort of kick lately-due to the holidays, I'm sure. I always want to lock myself in the house and listen to Christmas carols and cook and eat and watch the snow for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, there is no snow, and the rain is depressing. And on December 26th, I'm so sick of carols I could happily take a sledge hammer to Christmas with the Jackson 5. But right now, this early, there still COULD be snow, and the carols are beautiful, and the lights on the house look fantastic, and there are these wonderful cookies. The chopped crystallized ginger adds great flavor but also makes the cookies moist and almost candied in the center. The large quantities of spice and the unexpected black pepper are essential. Don't be afraid.

Modified from a recipe from epicurious.com.

Makes about 70.

*4 cups all purpose flour
*2 TBS ground ginger
*1 TBS + 1 tsp baking soda
*2 tsp ground cinnamon
*2 (scant) tsp ground cloves
*10 "turns" of fresh ground black pepper.
*1 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger (the Baker's Cut from Trader Joe's is perfect-and cheap)
*2 cups dark brown sugar
*1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
*2 large eggs
*1/2 cup molasses

*White sugar (to roll cookies in; can substitute raw sugar)

*Mix first seven ingredients in large bowl to blend.
*Whirl chopped ginger in food processor til it's a mix of powdery ginger goodness and some larger chunks. Add to dry ingredients and blend.
*Using mixer, beat butter and brown sugar til creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add molasses and beat to combine. Gradually mix in dry ingredients and crystallized ginger, beating only until combined.
*Chill dough for about an hour in the fridge.
*Heat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper or Silpat.
*Roll cookies into balls of about 1". Roll balls into sugar. Place a couple inches apart.
*Bake 10-11 minutes. Cookies will be cracked when done but will look raw between cracks. That's good! Cool for a minute on pan then remove to cool on racks.

Chicken Diablo (Honey Mustard Chicken)

2006-11-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

This is one of my go-to recipes for company (especially picky eaters or folks who I don't know well) and for bringing to people with a new baby or sick family members. It's easy and very flavorful. Kids like it (it's fairly sweet and not too spicy) and it would be a great first dinner recipe for a child to cook. It's wonderful on potatoes or rice. I usually double the sauce to have enough to pour over the potatoes. Thanks to my mom for this recipe.

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1-2 tsp curry powder (I'll use a TBS when doubling)
1 tsp salt
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, approximately (however many you can fit in a single layer in your 9"x13" pan. Which reminds me that I'll usually use an 8"x8" pan and the above amount of sauce when making for new parents or another household of two or so).

*Preheat oven to 375.
*Mix above ingredients.
*Arrange chicken breasts in a 9"x13" pan. Pour sauce over.
*Bake, uncovered, for about an hour, turning and basting occasionally.

Classic Corn bread

2006-11-27T18:40:00.000-08:00

I love this. It's simple, it's fast (I timed it tonight, and not rushing at all, with a fussy baby in tow, I had it mixed and ready to go by the time the oven was hot). My husband likes it with chopped jalapenos mixed in; I prefer it with butter and honey, and Mary (the 9 year old) likes it best plain. It works very well in an 8"x8" Pyrex pan, but oh, if you're lucky enough to have a cast iron cornbread pan then it will be even more beautifully crisp and golden.

This recipe came from an old Good Housekeeping cookbook, that seems to be no longer in print. I've made some adjustments. It has less sugar than the most common cornbread recipes, and uses butter instead of vegetable oil (always an improvement). It doesn't keep more than a day, but it almost never hangs around that long, anyway.

1 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal, preferably yellow
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
1 TBS baking powder
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten

*Heat oven to 425. Grease an 8"x8" pan or cast iron cornbread mold.
*Mix dry ingredients.
*Mix wet ingredients and pour into dry. Stir just until moistened, pour into pan.
*Bake 25 minutes (closer to 20 in cast iron).

Buttery Noodles

2006-11-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of our fabulous friends, Scott and Jean and Emma. Emma is 9, Mary's age, and we take her camping with us every Memorial Day weekend while her folks hit the wineries and drink themselves silly. Thank God that WE are responsible :). Emma contributed this dish for dinner one night-it was a big hit with our girl, and it's surprisingly comforting and yummy. Easy for children to cook, as well. Open to much enhancement, but do so at the risk of losing your child-fans.

Elbow noodles, enough for 2 or 3 people
4 TBS butter
2-3 oz light cream cheese
1/4 cup milk
a bunch of finely grated parmesan
dash of salt (and pepper, if you can sneak it by the kids).

Cook the elbow noodles in salted water and drain. Put empty pot back on burner, turn heat to medium low, add butter and melt. Add noodles and toss with butter. Add cream cheese, cut into chunks, and stir over heat until melted. Add milk and parmesan and continue to stir until melty and hot. Enjoy!

Chicken Stock

2006-11-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

As mentioned before, this is from The New Best Recipe, the one cookbook I would take to a desert island. The chopping up of the chicken was a pain, and a little too graphic for my taste, and made me wish for a good butcher knife or kitchen shears. The result was worth all the effort-and really, once it's chopped, it's a very simple recipe. The technique of browning the chicken pieces makes it very flavorful.

1 TBS vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 whole chicken, breast removed, split and reserved, the rest hacked into about 2" pieces
2 Quarts boiling water
2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves

Heat oil in large dutch oven or stockpot. When it's shimmering hot, add the breast halves and saute until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Add the onion to the pot and saute until colored and softened slightly, 2-3 minutes. Remove to a large bowl.

Add half the remaining chicken pieces and saute until no longer pink, 4-5 minutes. Remove to bowl with onion. Repeat with remaining pieces. Return the onion and chicken parts (not the breasts) to the pot, reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 20 minutes.

Increase heat to high, add boiling water, chicken breasts, salt, and bay leaves. Simmer, cover, and keep simmering on low heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Remove the breasts from the pot. When cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the breasts and shred into bite sized pieces to use for soup.

Strain the stock through a mesh strainer into a container and discard the rest of the solids. Cool in fridge until fat rises to top; skin the fat and reserve for later.

Freezes well.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2006-11-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

I combined a couple of different recipes for this, and it was wonderfully good. It's a simple recipe, but nourishing, especially when you have a sad, sick husband in the house. It's also cheap, as the only ingredient that costs much at all is the whole chicken, and those are never very expensive. I tried to make homemade noodles for this but was not happy with the results-I didn't roll them thin enough, and was wishing I had a pasta machine to get them wafer thin. I'd use commercial frozen or dried egg noodles next time, until I figure out the right noodle recipe.

2 Quarts Chicken stock, from The New Best Recipe ideally
Breast meat from above recipe, shredded. (two chicken breasts' worth)
2 TBS reserved chicken fat from above recipe, or vegetable oil
2-4 carrots, depending on size and your love of carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4" rounds
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1-3 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 tsp dried thyme
8 oz wide egg noodles
ground black pepper
Sherry

Heat chicken fat in dutch oven over medium high heat. Add vegetables and garlic (is garlic a vegetable?) and saute about 5 minutes, until softened. Stir occasionally so garlic doesn't scorch.

Add stock, chicken meat, thyme and simmer until veggies are tender.

Add noodles and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes (note: if you plan to freeze, don't add noodles now. Wait til you serve, and add at the end of your reheating time, or else they'll get way too mushy).

Add black pepper, salt (if needed) and a dash of sherry, all to taste.

Grecian Chicken

2006-11-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

I have absolutely no idea why this is called Grecian Chicken. It's not reminiscent of anything I've eaten in Greece or at Greek restaurants in the states. Perhaps, though, it's what they eat in Greece in the winter, when it's cold and the tourists have all gone home. It's simple, aromatic, deeply flavorful. It's also frugal-use cheap wine and chicken thighs (0.88 a pound last week!); the meat will fall off the bone when it's done. Serve over brown rice or noodles. My mom made this for company when I was a child, and I still think it's a great company dish, especially since you can make it ahead and leave it alone for a few hours.

GRECIAN CHICKEN

Chicken parts for six people...........chicken breasts or thighs
1 onion, sliced thin
2 cups of red wine
1 cup ketchup
1/2 c cold water
2 rounded tblsp. sugar
1 boullion cube (shaved) or one tsp. of instant boullion (recipe doesn't say beef or chicken ...
.just take your pick)
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 large bay leaf
salt to taste
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup raisins (these are very important to the taste)

prepared rice for serving

Put oil in the bottom of a dutch oven.  Salt and pepper the chicken, then fry until brown.  Remove
chicken from the pan and put onions in pan and cook until tender.  Place chicken on top of onions.

In the meantime mix wine, ketchup, water, sugar boullion , garlic, salt and bay leaf together.

Pour almonds and raisins on top of the chicken.  Pour sauce over all.

Cook, covered, 2 to 2 1/2 hours at 325 degrees OR bring to simmer on stopetop, reduce heat to
very low, and cook, covered on stove

Cook rice just before serving.

Place chicken on a platter and sauce in a gravy boat/sauce dish, etc.

Gateau au Yaourt (Yogurt Cake)

2006-10-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is an amazingly easy, flavorful cake. Mary and I are about to make our second of the week-this time for a dinner party. We've added about 3/4 cup of frozen blueberries and it's wonderful-nice for breakfast, too. As part of my effort to get my daughter engaged in cooking, I let her pick a country's cuisine this week, and thus we ended up cooking French food Tuesday night. We made a Quiche Lorraine that was superbly, artery-cloggingly good (from Cooks Illustrated; I'll post the recipe soon) and this cake, from the wonderful French cooking blog Chocolate&Zucchini. Mary loves this cake, and it's so simple she could probably bake it by herself (a good kids' first cake). We made it with thick Greek yogurt, but I think it would be fine with a yogurt that was less-rich. I'd like to try it with almond extract. Maybe tonight.

Gateau au Yaort

Update: Didn't have quite enough yogurt tonight so added a couple of tablespoons of peach yogurt, and substituted almond extract for the rum. It was good, didn't take much different. I forgot to sprinkle the top of the the cake with raw sugar before baking, which I did last time, and missed the sweet caramel crunchiness. It was a hit with our guests, nonetheless.

French Dip Sandwiches

2006-10-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

We had leftover roast beef from a camping trip this summer, and David requested this dish. I had never made (nor particularly enjoyed) french dips, but this was really, really good. And really, really easy. I think the sherry and the shallots were key, though it would be good with a small amount of onion and chopped garlic, too. From Rachael Ray, who annoys me, but can cook. And my daughter loves to watch her show-better than watching Pokemon or Dancing with the Stars, I think.

2 tablespoons butter
1 shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 shot dry sherry (2 TBS)
4 cups beef broth-I use Better than Boullion-cheap at Trader Joe's
1 1/2 pounds deli sliced roast beef
Grill seasoning blend for steak, such as Montreal Steak Seasoning Blend, or, coarse salt and pepper
4 hoagie rolls, split

In a large, shallow skillet over moderate heat, melt butter. Add shallots to butter and saute 2 minutes. Add flour to butter and shallot and cook a minute longer. Whisk in sherry and cook liquid out. Whisk in broth in a slow stream. Bring sauce to a bubble and allow to simmer over low heat until ready to serve sandwiches.

Pile meat loosely across your cutting board or a large work surface. Season meat with grill seasoning or salt and black pepper. Set out 4 ramekins or small soup cups for dipping sauce, 4 dinner plates and 4 split torpedo rolls. To assemble, using a pair of kitchen tongs, dip meat into loose au jus sauce and pile into rolls. Set ramekins or cups with extra dipping sauce along side the sandwiches.

Crispy Ginger Orange Tofu and Vegetables

2006-10-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

This was my first experience cooking with tofu, which I've long thought I hated. I live in a very tofu-centric community, and perhaps my resistance was just due to my inherent oppositionality (new word of the day). But I have to believe there's some validity to my distaste. It's got that freaky texture, after all: gummy and spongy, like hardboiled egg whites (I hate hardboiled eggs) with no taste. Tofu-loving friends of mine have tried me to convince me that there is more to their beloved bean curd than I've believed, saying you can make it flavorful and crispy. I finally decided to give it a go, and adapted three or so recipes into the following. And man, it was good. I mean, I'm usually always right :) but I was wrong about tofu. This had us all sneaking the little leftover crispy tofu bits. My daughter wasn't a big fan of the veggies (but I think next time I'll try peapods, which she likes) but she liked the tofu and sauce and rice (though she persisted in calling the tofu chicken).

This is a recipe you can play with a lot. Cook up some brown rice to serve with. Sub whatever vegetables you've got on hand. Recently, I had to use half lemon juice, as I only had one orange in the house. It was very tart, so I added a tablespoon of honey while cooking the sauce. It was still very tart, but also delicious, and Mary still loved it. The trick of dusting the tofu with cornstarch is apparently very helpful in making it golden and crispy.

*1 lb firm or extra-firm tofu
*Soy Sauce
*Dry Sherry
*Sesame Oil
*Vegetable Oil
*Cornstarch
*Several cups of vegetables prepared to stir-fry. I used thinly sliced carrots, broccoli slaw, and green onions. Cabbage, spinach, mushrooms, regular onions would all be good, too, I think.
*1 TBS toasted sesame seeds (or more, if you'd like)
*1 1/2-2 TBS grated fresh ginger
*2 or 3 large garlic cloves, minced
*3/4 c orange juice

A few hours, or the night before you want to eat, slice the tofu into four to six thin slices. Place on a kitchen towel, then wrap the towel over the tofu and weight the whole lot down (I put a cookie sheet on top, then a few big cookbooks). This presses the water out of the tofu. You may need to change the towel part of the way through.

When done, cut the tofu into approximately 1" cubes and put in a ziploc bag. Add a splash of soy sauce, a splash of sherry, and some sesame oil (amounts aren't really important). Marinate in the fridge for at least an hour.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in large nonstick skillet over medium to medium-high heat. While it's heating, pat tofu cubes dry and lightly dust with cornstarch (I put some cornstarch in a small wire sieve and tapped it over them, turning them occasionally). When very hot, add tofu cubes and cook, stirring occasionaly to turn them over, until they are golden brown and crispy. Be patient at first, as it takes awhile for them to start browning. Watch carefully at the end and lower heat as necessary, as they can suddenly begin to burn. Remove tofu to plate.

Add vegetables to the hot pan-remembering to add the ones that take longest to cook first. So in my case I added the carrots, cooked, stirring constantly for a minute or two, then added the broccoli slaw. When both were done but still had some crispness to them, I added a couple of chopped green onions and the sesame seeds. Stir fry for a few seconds and then remove to a second plate or bowl.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add ginger, garlic, orange juice, a TBS of soy sauce, and 2 TBS of sesame oil. Cook, stirring constantly, until it's bubbly and well-combined. Add tofu to sauce and heat through until the sauce coats the tofu and is somewhat thickened.

Spoon veggies over rice, and then tofu and sauce overall to serve.

Stuff I Love-practical

2006-10-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

Do you have one of these?

Microplane Grater: grates chocolate and parmesan and citrus zest! Makes these beautiful cloudlike piles of parmesan cheese, and my 9 year old loves to use it.
Butter Bell: keeps butter soft and fresh at room temperature for a long time. We love it because it solves the dilemma of having to choose between hard butter that rips holes in your bread or soft "spread" that isn't the real thing.
Forschner knives highly rated by Cooks' Illustrated-and much less expensive than the brands you normally encounter at high-end cookshops. We have the paring knife and the chef's knife, which cost about $30 total and are fantastic. Made by Victorinox, the Swiss Army folks.
Garlic peeler: simpler rubber tube. Cheap, effective, fun for the baby to play with.

Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic

2006-10-14T18:50:00.001-07:00

This is a feeble attempt to counteract the death-dealing properties of the last recipe. I have to admit, though, that even though this dish is healthy, it's really, really good. And simple. And easy. It is the only cauliflower dish a friend of mine who hates cauliflower enjoys. Since the cauliflower cooks down so much, it's a very easy way to eat a lot of veggies in one serving. I like to do two cauliflower heads at once, so we can have it for dinner and have leftovers. My daughter, alas, is not a fan, but we keep trying.

*1 or 2 heads cauliflower, chopped into pretty small pieces (say 1/4-3/4 inches-but not a big deal-just chop it up)
*Lots of chopped garlic-the stuff in the jar is fine, though fresh is best. I'll use a tablespoon, at least
*Olive oil
*salt and freshly-ground pepper

Head oven to 375. Put cauliflower in a 9x13" dish. Add garlic. Drizzle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir well. Place, uncovered, in oven. Cook until the cauliflower is a nice golden brown, stirring frequently to keep garlic from burning.

Chocolate Stout Cake

2006-10-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is one fantastic recipe. It's insanely easy and incredibly delicious. I've had multiple recipe requests, and have made it twice in the last couple weeks. It makes a huge amount-the original recipe makes an enormous 3 layer cake, but I haven't tried that. Cut it in half to make a bundt cake, if you'd like. First attempt, I made a bundt cake and 12 cupcakes (most reviewers of the original recipe found it made 20 cupcakes-we went to town eating the batter first-apparently 8 cupcakes' worth). Second attempt, 40 cupcakes. It's supposed to freeze well, so 10 of the cupcakes (unfrosted) are in my freezer. The ganache recipe for frosting is very easy, and leftovers are great melted on icecream. Some reviewers complained about the recipe tasting of beer, but none of us noticed that (dammit)-it has a nice, rich, yeast taste.

Modified slightly from Epicurious.com (from Bon Appetit-a recipe requested from the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts).

Cake
2 cups stout (I used Guinness-almost 2 bottles, drink the leftovers)
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder

4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups nonfat yogurt (what I used) or sour cream

Icing
2 cups whipping cream
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides, bundt pan, or put paper liners in cupcake tins (can make cupcakes in batches). Butter very well-ideally using the Baker's Joy spray.

Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and yogurt in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. If making full recipe, you'll probably have to add the last of the flour by hand, even if using a Kitchenaid, as it makes so much batter. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes (Start cupcakes for 15 minutes; probably will take longer.) Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently. If you refrigerate too long and it gets too hard, let it sit on the counter or zap briefly on low in the microwave to soften enough to spread.

If making bundt cake, spoon ganache over cake while still fairly warm.

If making layer cake, place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake.

Lentil and Brown Rice Soup

2006-10-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite kind of meal. It's delicious, it's simple, it makes lots to freeze (and reheats beautifully), it makes your house smell wonderful, and it's healthy to boot. From Gourmet magazine via epicurious.com, which I think is hands down the web's best recipe source. I've made a few changes.

5 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 cup brown rice
28 oz can chopped tomatoes
3 carrots, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried basil
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried orégano
1/4 teaspoon crumbled dried thyme
(or, as I prefer, add a bunch of the above herbs, fresh, at the end of cooking-or do a little dried during, a litte fresh at the end)
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves or cilantro
1 lb smoked sausage (the low fat turkey is good in this)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar, or to taste
hot sauce, to taste, if desired

In a dutch oven or other heavy kettle, combine the broth, 3 cups water*, the lentils, the rice, the tomatoes with the reserved juice, the carrots, the onion, the celery, the garlic, the basil, the orégano, the thyme, and the bay leaf, bring the liquid to a boil, and simmer the mixture, covered, stirring occasionally, for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the lentils and rice are tender. Stir in the parsley, the vinegar, and salt and pepper** to taste and discard the bay leaf. The soup will be thick and will thicken as it stands. Thin the soup, if desired, with additional hot chicken broth or water.

If using sausage, slice into small half circles and cook in nonstick pan until brown. Add to soup near end of cooking time.

*I used chicken "Better Than Boullion", which I think is better than the canned broth, though not as good as homemade. So, 8 cups water and a little less than 2 tablespoons of BTB. I might actually reduce the boullion next time; I love salt, but this was a little too salty.
**The soup was plenty salty, as mentioned above, and I added no extra salt.

Makes about 14 cups, serving 6 to 8. The recipe makes quite a bit; eat for dinner that night and freeze the rest, if you'd like. Excellent with a good crusty brown bread. It's very thick-more stew like than soup-like, but I liked it that way.

Kid factor: My daughter was ambivalent about this, but had burned her tongue when first tasting so was very resistent to trying it again. We'll serve it to her again from the freezer and see how it goes.

Thoughts about Baby Food and an Applesauce recipe

2006-10-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

With my eldest daughter, I introduced baby food (rice cereal! yum yum) at 4 months and added regularly after that, sticking the the baby book schedule. I made some of my own baby food, but bought a lot, too, while continuing to breast feed.

This time around, we decided to wait for baby to hit six months, as she was happy with breast milk alone and we're trying to do anything we can to protect her from our family's bad history of skin and other allergies. (I should clarify that we are not allergic TO skin; rather, lots of excema and psoriasis issues. Being allergic to skin would be disturbing). So, right at six months, we ceremoniously introduce rice cereal, mixed with breast milk, to be greeted by tightly clamped lips and a turned away head. She was very interested in everything we were eating, just not in any of that baby food crap.

So we tried these, which I believe my sister, the occupational therapist, had sent: baby food mesh feeders. They are a fantastic idea-little mesh bags that you can put anything appropriate for baby (no marsala-soaked tiramisu or crack cocaine) and baby can suck and chew away and not risk choking. Our baby loves playing with them, but still really was more interested in really digging into people food. We tried things like bits of mashed banana, unsweetened applesauce, avocado, but she wasn't interested in doing anything but smear them around on her high chair (and may I just say that the highchair tray that goes in the dishwasher is the world's greatest invention. Next to reliable birth control. Though if birth control was perfectly reliable some of us, perhaps, might not need aforementioned high chair).

All of the sudden, she wants to eat everything. I've been bad and have let her have things that a good mom would wait for years to try, either because they are bad for her (cake batter ice cream!) or because they have mixed ingredients (lentil soup) and I know you're supposed to add things individually. Still, I'm trying hard to stick to my slow food goals for my baby, too, and we have avoided any prepared baby food. She'll tolerate avocado, loves to chew on a crust of bread or piece of pita, and really is happy gnawing on a slice of apple or asian pear. We've been drying the asian pear into rings (we have a box full) and those are fun for her as they are easy to hold. No teeth yet, so we don't worry much about her chewing off a piece of, say, apple, though we do watch very closely, of course.

Easiest recipe ever:
*unsweetened applesauce, store frozen into ice cubes. Either thaw individually for a serving, or put a frozen one in a mesh bag and let baby go to town. Messy, but makes for a happy teething baby. And, if you haven't tried before, applesauce is the easiest thing ever. Wash apples, slice into quarters-peel and core if you don't have a food mill, add a little water, and cook until they are really soft. If you have a food mill, run them through. If not, mash with a potato masher. Add sugar if you'd like, though not for a baby.

Applesauce variations:
Of course, you can add sugar, cinnamon, etc.
Add some horseradish and serve with pork.
IF your baby doesn't appreciate your applesauce cubes, throw into your next smoothie.

What was I thinking?

2006-10-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

I had this vague hope that blogging about food would be an incentive for me to eat better-you know, it'd be kind of like keeping that food diary nutrition folks always tell us to keep. So yeah, that lasted almost three days, until I was starving rushing home from work today, and pulled into McDonald's and got the $1 bacon cheeseburger, and a chocolate shake. Ugh. And we really don't eat fast food that often.

In the spirit of trying to learn from this, some obvious reminders to myself:
*Take good food to work. (I had done this today, had great leftovers, but ran out of time to heat them up and couldn't eat them on the way home, because eating a ziploc bag of soup in the car is even worse than my horrible habit of talking on the cel phone while driving). Therefore:
*Remember to eat the good food that I make, so I don't waste money/calories/time/karmic debt on fast food.
*Eat before I get starving, so I don't make stupid choices.

Cous Cous Salad with Orange Dressing

2006-10-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

This doubles easily, and is open to lots of variation. Very quick, as well.

Salad:
*2 1/4 Cups chicken broth or water, boiling.
*1 1/2 Cups cous cous
*1/2 Cup chopped dried apricots, currants, or raisins (I prefer apricots)
*1 can chickpeas (garbonzo beans), drained and rinsed (or other canned beans)
*1 bunch green onions, chopped
*1/4-1/2 Cup slivered almonds (or other nuts)
*optional: cooked chicken from a roast chicken

Place cous cous and dried fruit in medium to large bowl. Pour boiling broth over, stir to mix, and let stand 5 minutes. Add beans and onions, stir and fluff.

Dressing:
*3/4 Cup orange juice
*3 TBS balsamic vinegar
*3 TBS orange zest (zest from 2 or 3 oranges)
*1 TBS ground cumin
*1/2 cup olive oil

Combine all in a jar. Put the lid on :). Shake vigorously to blend right. Add to salad and toss-start with about 1/2 the jar and more to taste.

Does well made ahead, and left overs are great.

Pasta with Peas, Parmesan, and Bacon

2006-10-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

This is what we had for dinner last night, and my daughter helped stir, and grated the cheese. We all enjoyed the dish (bacon! cream! butter! garlic!)-she ate a whole helping, peas and all (and cooked peas are usually a big No). Served with a side of sliced cucumber and sliced Asian Pear-a quick meal, with 2 1/2 servings of fruits and veggies.

*12 oz pasta (we used the little shells, which were perfect)
*1 TBS olive oil, plus more to toss with cooked pasta
*1 small onion, chopped,
*1 cup frozen peas
*6-8 slices bacon (or ham or prosciutto)
*2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
*1 TBS dry sherry (optional)
*3/4 cup half and half, whipping cream, or nonfat evaporated milk (we used 1/2 and 1/2)
*1 TBS butter
*3/4 cup finely grated parmesan.

*Cook pasta using package directions. When al dente, drain and then place back in pot and toss with olive oil.
*Heat 1 TBS olive oil in large skillet on medium. Add onion, reduce heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
*Meanwhile, cook bacon. The least messy (though I suppose, not technically slow foodish) way to cook bacon is in the microwave-place slices in flat layer between two paper towels, cook on High in 2 minute intervals until done). Chop into small pieces.
*Add peas and 2 TBS water to pan. Stir until peas are somewhat defrosted. Add garlic and cook for another minute or so.
*Add sherry and half and half. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, letting it bubble some.
*Remove from heat. Add bacon. Add butter, stir to melt. Add parmesan, stir to melt. Serve.

A few things I've found to actually work (sometimes) with kids and good food

2006-10-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

*I once read that we all need to be exposed to brand-new flavors something like 21 times before we develop a taste for them. I've been telling my daughter this for years and so she knows that she has to try everything, every time, because one time she just might like it. It's worked as her tastes have changed (and it works for grown-ups, too; note my newly developed taste for sushi at the age of 35. Just in time to get pregnant and not be able to eat it and thus crave it horribly for the next nine months).
*Everyone in our family gets to pick one food that they never, ever have to try. It needs to be permanent; it can't change with every meal. I figure that kids, just like grown-ups, have things they really dislike and that should be respected, to an extent. My daughter's is broccoli, my husband's is grapefruit, and mine is eggs.
*In the obvious but true category: kids are more likely to eat things they pick out and help cook. When my daughter was old enough to read, we found a couple of good kids' cookbooks and we like to have her be primarily responsible for picking meals from them once a week or so. She struggles with math, and so the fact that cooking is a great way to understand fractions better is a great bonus. The cookbook we like the most right now is the DK Children's Cookbook. Another great resource is Family Fun Magazine.
*Take kids shopping with you whenever possible. And yes, I know it's a pain. I know you can get it done faster by yourself. I know sometimes you can tell your husband you are shopping, then get it done quickly and stop for a latte and a brioche and read the paper, while the kids are at home with him. Just take them with you sometimes, especially when you go to the farmer's market. Ask your child to pick one thing they've never eaten (one nutritious thing; not one new flavor of pop tart) and then go home and figure out together how to cook it.
*Garden. This theoretically works; I have a black thumb of death and kill most everything I plant. I do manage to grow tomatoes and rhubarb and zucchini and herbs every year. Let your child plant their own patch and eat what they grown.
*Join a CSA (community supported agriculture-click on the link to find one near you). Getting a mystery box of produce delivered to your house is exciting for kids and grown-ups. It's like a treasure hunt. There might be a plum! There might just be broccoli!

Getting vegetables down the kids

2006-10-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Nine year olds and vegetables. Sigh.

Here's what she'll always eat:
*Artichokes. One of her all-time favorite foods. Picked for birthday meals. Best prices usually at Trader Joe's-I can't stand paying two or three bucks a piece, which is what they will often cost in the grocery stores around here unless they are right in season. She likes them best plain or with ranch; I have to have bearnaise.
*Edamame (you know, raw soybeans in the pod-nice tossed with kosher salt after you've steamed them for 5 minutes). Trader Joe's has great prices-I always have whole and shelled in the freezer.
*Raw peas in the pod. Good deal when you buy the big bag at Costco for $5. Otherwise, usually pretty expensive.
*Raw baby carrots.
*Baked or mashed potatoes.
*Cucumbers
*Raw green beans and (horror of horrors) CANNED green beans. Gotta love that limp goodness.
*Tomatoes. We never get a good tomato harvest as they are always eaten right off the vine. Happy she enjoys them, but it's only good for those few precious tomato months of the year.
*A few leaves of lettuce or baby spinach.
*Raw jicama

Never:
*Broccoli. I've tried selling it as "little trees" a la Enchanted Broccoli Forest to no good. I think it's the absolute least favorite.
*Most cooked veggies, even with cheese sauce.
*Anything pickled.
*Wonderfully crisp, cooked green beans. Heaven forbid.
*Cooked squash, even with butter and brown sugar. This defies all logic, since it is now really more of a dessert than a vegetable.

Themes: crisp, relatively tasteless or sweet: good
cabbagey or cruciferous flavor: bad

So, my goal for the next month is to find a few more vegetables she'll eat. Wish me luck.