Ken is still sleeping and I am eating a mushroom and swiss omelet at the Greek diner downstairs. On Broadway. We ate the best Greek food I have ever had last night. The braised lamb shank, one of my favorite foods was meltingly tender.
East Coast potatoes:
So when you go out for breakfast in the NYC/NJ area, you get home fried potatoes with your eggs. They are made from previously boiled potatoes. They have tiny diced peppers and onions and plenty of fat. The potatoes sit on the griddle for a long time so that they come to the table with a deep brown crust. I love them. West coast breakfast potatoes, those separate dice of crispy, but otherwise unadorned potatoes are good, too. But east coast homefries are the spuds of my dreams. They are judged carefully by diners, and restaurants build reputations upon them. This first morning in Manhattan, I am enjoying them thoroughly.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Thursday, June 27, 2013
The Roses in My Garden
I never knew that I loved roses. Even though, as a child I adored the Peace Rose in my mother's garden, I was always confused because it didn't smell like a rose. It smelled sort of like black tea. I found hybrid tea roses to be pretty, but boring. When I began to garden, I focused on everything but roses, and for a while I explored the world of poppies. But 17 years ago we moved to an old, crumbling farmhouse in the midst of the wheat fields. The house had been built around 1900. In the remnants of the abandoned garden there was a pink, fully-petaled rose that exuded a heady true rose fragrance. I joked that it survived on abuse and neglect, so it was perfect for my garden. I was smitten. I began to water and care for this tenacious beauty. When we moved, I took cuttings and managed to root one at our new house. It remains my favorite rose of all time.
The bush that I grew from a cutting has taken off with the care and water I've provided. Last year I chose not to prune it after blooming. It has grown beautifully. I just wish I had the room to let it grow to its natural size.
The best I can guess from my internet search is that this rose is a Desiree Parmentier rose, an 1848 variety.
Cultivating this rose led me to explore other old rose varieties, and I found plenty at Heirloom Roses. I looked for the oldest roses I could find. My first purchases were
Rosa rugosa alba, perhaps the oldest rose available,
Rosa apothcarius, a medieval variety used medicinally,
and Rosa Mundi, a variant of Rosa apothacarius.
I planted these three together at the back of an oval bed, which is gloriously pink and white:
Besides those that I purchased from Heirloom Roses, a number of roses were planted at our house when we bought it. The gardener who planted them had taste similar to mine, so there are a variety of centifolia roses whose names I don't know. They were in pretty bad shape when we moved in. I cut away the dead branches and kept them weeded and watered and they've really recovered well. My favorite is this stunning true lavender-colored rose. It was a single stick when we moved into this house:
It is now part of a group of cascading climbers along the fence, which includes an Alexander Mackenzie (a completely awesome, super cold-hardy climber):
an Alchemist - one of the most beautiful roses on the planet:
And a few others.
These are just a few of the roses in my garden. This has been the best year ever. The roses are abundant. The colors are spectacular. If you know where I live, come by and I'll give you a tour.
Cultivating this rose led me to explore other old rose varieties, and I found plenty at Heirloom Roses. I looked for the oldest roses I could find. My first purchases were
I planted these three together at the back of an oval bed, which is gloriously pink and white:
Besides those that I purchased from Heirloom Roses, a number of roses were planted at our house when we bought it. The gardener who planted them had taste similar to mine, so there are a variety of centifolia roses whose names I don't know. They were in pretty bad shape when we moved in. I cut away the dead branches and kept them weeded and watered and they've really recovered well. My favorite is this stunning true lavender-colored rose. It was a single stick when we moved into this house:
It is now part of a group of cascading climbers along the fence, which includes an Alexander Mackenzie (a completely awesome, super cold-hardy climber):
an Alchemist - one of the most beautiful roses on the planet:
And a few others.
These are just a few of the roses in my garden. This has been the best year ever. The roses are abundant. The colors are spectacular. If you know where I live, come by and I'll give you a tour.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
A Brief History of My Gluten-Free Life
There are a million blogs about gluten-free living, so I hesitate to add my voice to the throng, but I want to share the part of my transition that might be the most helpful to others in case someone else can benefit.
I decided to give up gluten for the same reason I decided to do yoga: vanity. My daughter had gone gluten-free as an attempt to treat muscle pain and fatigue, and as a result she lost 4 pounds that she didn’t need to lose without trying. The promise of effortless weight loss was enough for me to want to try it. As with yoga, I discovered many surprising benefits.
I started noticing that my blood sugar spikes and drops became less dramatic. I no longer felt cotton-headed and draggy at 10:30 in the morning, and when my blood pressure was taken, it had dropped from borderline high to normal. However, I was not losing weight after several weeks without gluten, and I was struggling with what to eat for breakfast. I’ve had some form of toast for breakfast my whole life and I loathe cold cereal. I tried gluten-free breads from the local co-op, both commercial frozen and bakery-made, and I didn’t like the texture or the chemical flavor that I attribute to xanthan gum.
I began to experiment with injera, a sour Ethiopian flatbread made with teff flour, but I had an itchy reaction to the teff. I switched to buckwheat flour for a good long time, but eventually the strong flavor of the buckwheat became overwhelming for me. Most recently, I have been making thick pancakes with an equal mixture of oat flour and millet flour which I ferment until it’s really active and bubbly and cook in a round mold on a griddle. I store these English muffin-type cakes in the fridge. Each morning I split and toast one. So far, they are the closest thing to a satisfying toast experience that I’ve had.
Since I started eating fermented buckwheat (known as blini in Russia) and then oat/millet cakes, the pounds have slowly but effortlessly melted away. I have fewer cravings and less of a need to eat sweets. When I eat a meal, I get full more easily and I’m done eating when I’m full. At this point, I’ve lost about four pounds over six months. Certainly that’s not speedy, but the miracle is that it has happened with no effort and no sense of starvation or deprivation. I even gave up my Weight Watchers membership.
A couple of weeks ago, before I had figured out the oat/millet combo, and when I couldn’t bear to eat another buckwheat cake, I bought some of the food co-op’s gluten free chickpea flour bread made with conventional yeast. After about 10 days of eating it, I had gained two pounds, and I had a raging vaginal yeast infection. I treated that, created my millet/oat cakes, and immediately shed those pounds.
There is increasing evidence that our microbiome, the collective noun for the dear little creatures that inhabit our guts, play an important role in our overall health, from causing increased cholesterol, to influencing weight gain. There are many proponents of fermented foods, including Michael Pollan and Dr. Mercola. My own experience is enough to convince me that lacto-fermented foods and wild bacteria are really important for my health.
My sour-dough starter came from organic grapes. It is about 15 years old. Here are instructions: http://www.food.com/recipe/nancy-silverton-s-grape-sourdough-starter-316306 While I started it with wheat, I was able (since I don’t have celiac) to use a small amount of the wheat-based starter to create a teff, then buckwheat, then oat-millet starter. After I ferment the batter, I take some out for the next batch before I add the salt which I store in the fridge for the next batch.
Here’s how I make my muffins:
1 cup oat flour
1 cup millet flour
1 ½ cups filtered or spring water
¼ cup sourdough starter
Whisk together and ferment at room temperature for 24 hours. Remove ¼ cup starter and store in the fridge in a glass jar. Add to the bowl ½ cup oat flour and ½ cup millet flour. Whisk until smooth. Let ferment again for 24 hours. It should be really bubbly. Add 1 tsp (or to taste) salt to the batter. The batter should be like very thick pancake batter. If it is too thin, add more oat flour.
Make a ring about 3” in diameter and 1” high with heavy-duty foil. Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle until medium hot. Wipe with an oiled towel. Spray the foil ring with cooking spray and place it in the pan. Ladle about ¼ cup batter into the ring and cook until the bottom is brown. Remove the ring and flip the cake over. Cook the other side until brown and done in the center. Repeat until all the batter is gone. Store in the fridge. Split, toast and eat with butter.
I think, although I haven’t experimented, that you could turn this batter into sourdough pancakes with the addition of two eggs, ½ a cup of milk, two tablespoons of sugar or other sweetener, two tablespoons of oil or melted butter and a teaspoon of baking soda.
I decided to give up gluten for the same reason I decided to do yoga: vanity. My daughter had gone gluten-free as an attempt to treat muscle pain and fatigue, and as a result she lost 4 pounds that she didn’t need to lose without trying. The promise of effortless weight loss was enough for me to want to try it. As with yoga, I discovered many surprising benefits.
I started noticing that my blood sugar spikes and drops became less dramatic. I no longer felt cotton-headed and draggy at 10:30 in the morning, and when my blood pressure was taken, it had dropped from borderline high to normal. However, I was not losing weight after several weeks without gluten, and I was struggling with what to eat for breakfast. I’ve had some form of toast for breakfast my whole life and I loathe cold cereal. I tried gluten-free breads from the local co-op, both commercial frozen and bakery-made, and I didn’t like the texture or the chemical flavor that I attribute to xanthan gum.
I began to experiment with injera, a sour Ethiopian flatbread made with teff flour, but I had an itchy reaction to the teff. I switched to buckwheat flour for a good long time, but eventually the strong flavor of the buckwheat became overwhelming for me. Most recently, I have been making thick pancakes with an equal mixture of oat flour and millet flour which I ferment until it’s really active and bubbly and cook in a round mold on a griddle. I store these English muffin-type cakes in the fridge. Each morning I split and toast one. So far, they are the closest thing to a satisfying toast experience that I’ve had.
Since I started eating fermented buckwheat (known as blini in Russia) and then oat/millet cakes, the pounds have slowly but effortlessly melted away. I have fewer cravings and less of a need to eat sweets. When I eat a meal, I get full more easily and I’m done eating when I’m full. At this point, I’ve lost about four pounds over six months. Certainly that’s not speedy, but the miracle is that it has happened with no effort and no sense of starvation or deprivation. I even gave up my Weight Watchers membership.
A couple of weeks ago, before I had figured out the oat/millet combo, and when I couldn’t bear to eat another buckwheat cake, I bought some of the food co-op’s gluten free chickpea flour bread made with conventional yeast. After about 10 days of eating it, I had gained two pounds, and I had a raging vaginal yeast infection. I treated that, created my millet/oat cakes, and immediately shed those pounds.
There is increasing evidence that our microbiome, the collective noun for the dear little creatures that inhabit our guts, play an important role in our overall health, from causing increased cholesterol, to influencing weight gain. There are many proponents of fermented foods, including Michael Pollan and Dr. Mercola. My own experience is enough to convince me that lacto-fermented foods and wild bacteria are really important for my health.
My sour-dough starter came from organic grapes. It is about 15 years old. Here are instructions: http://www.food.com/recipe/nancy-silverton-s-grape-sourdough-starter-316306 While I started it with wheat, I was able (since I don’t have celiac) to use a small amount of the wheat-based starter to create a teff, then buckwheat, then oat-millet starter. After I ferment the batter, I take some out for the next batch before I add the salt which I store in the fridge for the next batch.
Here’s how I make my muffins:
1 cup oat flour
1 cup millet flour
1 ½ cups filtered or spring water
¼ cup sourdough starter
Whisk together and ferment at room temperature for 24 hours. Remove ¼ cup starter and store in the fridge in a glass jar. Add to the bowl ½ cup oat flour and ½ cup millet flour. Whisk until smooth. Let ferment again for 24 hours. It should be really bubbly. Add 1 tsp (or to taste) salt to the batter. The batter should be like very thick pancake batter. If it is too thin, add more oat flour.
Make a ring about 3” in diameter and 1” high with heavy-duty foil. Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle until medium hot. Wipe with an oiled towel. Spray the foil ring with cooking spray and place it in the pan. Ladle about ¼ cup batter into the ring and cook until the bottom is brown. Remove the ring and flip the cake over. Cook the other side until brown and done in the center. Repeat until all the batter is gone. Store in the fridge. Split, toast and eat with butter.
I think, although I haven’t experimented, that you could turn this batter into sourdough pancakes with the addition of two eggs, ½ a cup of milk, two tablespoons of sugar or other sweetener, two tablespoons of oil or melted butter and a teaspoon of baking soda.
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Best Pecan Pie Ever and How to Make a Great Crust
We have all been subjected to something at best tasteless and pasty, at worst damp or rancid that is supposed to pass for pie crust. Pies, quiches and tarts are not just about the fillings. Eating the crust should be at least as delightful an experience as eating the filling.
I have had to eat the following awful crusts: a soggy quiche crust that smeared across the plate; a whole wheat crust (the right kind of whole wheat flour can enhance a crust - more on that later) that tasted rancidly bitter and had the consistency of cement; a crust made with canned shortening that left a greasy mouth-feel and was so over-blended that is was pasty, and worst of all, crust sticks bought off the supermarket shelves (do they still make those?).
A pie crust should be all of the following: flaky, slightly crisp, able to stand up to any filling, versatile, easy to work and most important, fragrant with the aroma of pure butter. Butter is the supreme fat for pie crust (and most everything else). A good recipe is simple and contains only flour, butter, salt, sugar and water. The steps are easy, but the technique takes a little practice. In as little as three tries, anyone should be able to make a delicious crust.
There are numerous pie crust tricks. The latest is using vodka instead of water for the liquid in the crust. I tried this and I found that the crust was too crumbly. My husband noticed an "off" flavor. If you know what you're doing, you really don't need cheats. You just need to keep a few ideas in mind as you create your crust:
*Keep the butter cold. Use frozen butter if you have a food processor.
*Always use unsalted butter. The flavor is better and the moisture content is correct.
*Never over-process or over mix. Butter must remain in grain-sized lumps (about the size of bulgar).
*Don't over- or under-moisten. The crust should look crumbly but not dry and stick together when pressed.
*Work quickly.
*It is not hard to roll out a properly made crust. A crust that falls apart when you roll it is too dry.
The Best Pecan Pie Ever (adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook)
Dough for one crust - see below
1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar or Sucanat
1/2 cup strong coffee
1 cup pecans plus about 18 perfect halves for the top
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
After you make the crust, don't wash the bowl or blade of the food processor. Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of the processor and whir to combine. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs. Process for a few seconds, scrape again and add the coffee, salt, corn syrup and vanilla. Process until blended then add the pecans and process until they are coarsely chopped - a few seconds. Pour into a prepared, unbaked crust. Decorate with reserved pecan halves, and bake at 350 for about 35 - 45 minutes until filling is domed and set. Serve cold with whipped cream.
Pie Crust (enough for a top and bottom crust - make half or save half for the above recipe)
2 2/3 Cups flour*
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 pound unsalted, frozen butter+
1/2 cup COLD water
Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of the food processor and whir once to blend. Cut the butter into small cubes and add the the dry ingredients. Pulse 10 times for 1 second each time. Then pulse twice more for a fraction of a second. With the food processor running, pour in the water in a small steady stream until the dough at the bottom begins to clump together but still looks crumbly. If there are dry patches on top, add a drop or two of water to those areas and re-process for a fraction of a second. Put the dough on a dry surface and press together into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Flour very lightly, put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate while you make your filling.
To roll out crust -
After a rest of at least 15 minutes to let the gluten relax, remove the crust from the bag. Cut it in half with a sharp knife. On a lightly floured surface, gently press one half of the dough into a short cylinder shape, then flatten it into a disc. Pound the dough lightly with the rolling pin if it is cold and hard. Pat the edges of the disc together, then roll from the center out until you have an even circle about 1/8 inch thick. Fold in half and put into a well-greased or sprayed pie pan. At this point you may trim and crimp the edges and fill the crust (as for the above recipe) or fill it then roll out the top crust, cover the filling and crimp and seal the edges. Don't forget to cut decorative steam vents in your top crust.
* You may use whole wheat PASTRY flour (made from soft white wheat) for half the flour. Do not use hard wheat flour.
+If you do not have a food processor, use cold but not frozen butter. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, then cut the butter into small cubes, toss it with the dry ingredients and cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter or two knives. When the flour is the size of small grains, add the cold water slowly, tossing with a fork. Follow directions for bagging and refrigerating.
I have had to eat the following awful crusts: a soggy quiche crust that smeared across the plate; a whole wheat crust (the right kind of whole wheat flour can enhance a crust - more on that later) that tasted rancidly bitter and had the consistency of cement; a crust made with canned shortening that left a greasy mouth-feel and was so over-blended that is was pasty, and worst of all, crust sticks bought off the supermarket shelves (do they still make those?).
A pie crust should be all of the following: flaky, slightly crisp, able to stand up to any filling, versatile, easy to work and most important, fragrant with the aroma of pure butter. Butter is the supreme fat for pie crust (and most everything else). A good recipe is simple and contains only flour, butter, salt, sugar and water. The steps are easy, but the technique takes a little practice. In as little as three tries, anyone should be able to make a delicious crust.
There are numerous pie crust tricks. The latest is using vodka instead of water for the liquid in the crust. I tried this and I found that the crust was too crumbly. My husband noticed an "off" flavor. If you know what you're doing, you really don't need cheats. You just need to keep a few ideas in mind as you create your crust:
*Keep the butter cold. Use frozen butter if you have a food processor.
*Always use unsalted butter. The flavor is better and the moisture content is correct.
*Never over-process or over mix. Butter must remain in grain-sized lumps (about the size of bulgar).
*Don't over- or under-moisten. The crust should look crumbly but not dry and stick together when pressed.
*Work quickly.
*It is not hard to roll out a properly made crust. A crust that falls apart when you roll it is too dry.
The Best Pecan Pie Ever (adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook)
Dough for one crust - see below
1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar or Sucanat
1/2 cup strong coffee
1 cup pecans plus about 18 perfect halves for the top
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
After you make the crust, don't wash the bowl or blade of the food processor. Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of the processor and whir to combine. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs. Process for a few seconds, scrape again and add the coffee, salt, corn syrup and vanilla. Process until blended then add the pecans and process until they are coarsely chopped - a few seconds. Pour into a prepared, unbaked crust. Decorate with reserved pecan halves, and bake at 350 for about 35 - 45 minutes until filling is domed and set. Serve cold with whipped cream.
Pie Crust (enough for a top and bottom crust - make half or save half for the above recipe)
2 2/3 Cups flour*
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 pound unsalted, frozen butter+
1/2 cup COLD water
Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of the food processor and whir once to blend. Cut the butter into small cubes and add the the dry ingredients. Pulse 10 times for 1 second each time. Then pulse twice more for a fraction of a second. With the food processor running, pour in the water in a small steady stream until the dough at the bottom begins to clump together but still looks crumbly. If there are dry patches on top, add a drop or two of water to those areas and re-process for a fraction of a second. Put the dough on a dry surface and press together into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Flour very lightly, put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate while you make your filling.
To roll out crust -
After a rest of at least 15 minutes to let the gluten relax, remove the crust from the bag. Cut it in half with a sharp knife. On a lightly floured surface, gently press one half of the dough into a short cylinder shape, then flatten it into a disc. Pound the dough lightly with the rolling pin if it is cold and hard. Pat the edges of the disc together, then roll from the center out until you have an even circle about 1/8 inch thick. Fold in half and put into a well-greased or sprayed pie pan. At this point you may trim and crimp the edges and fill the crust (as for the above recipe) or fill it then roll out the top crust, cover the filling and crimp and seal the edges. Don't forget to cut decorative steam vents in your top crust.
* You may use whole wheat PASTRY flour (made from soft white wheat) for half the flour. Do not use hard wheat flour.
+If you do not have a food processor, use cold but not frozen butter. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, then cut the butter into small cubes, toss it with the dry ingredients and cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter or two knives. When the flour is the size of small grains, add the cold water slowly, tossing with a fork. Follow directions for bagging and refrigerating.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Feeding the Children What They'll Eat
Watching an anesthetized-looking toddler suck on a Dora Go-gurt in her stroller at the mall reminded me of all the years I spent feeding my children organic whole foods. Here's what I thought then and what I still believe now: if you feed kids food that looks like food - not like a Disney character or a crayon - they will eat it if you have set the expectation from the start that food looks like food not toys. Picking a strawberry from the garden and eating it in the warm sun, inhaling its fragrance and tasting the sweetness is a vivid experience that sets the expectation that eating is satisfying and healthful.
When my children were small, I obsessively fed them only whole, organic, naturally sweetened foods. No white sugar allowed! I made them Popsicles from yogurt and fresh fruit. A store-bought cookie rarely crossed the threshold. I was too hardcore sometimes, though. When Rachel was in first grade, she went on a field trip with her class to the bank, where each child received a dollar, and then to the store to spend it. There was a lesson somewhere in being a good consumer that was lost in day-glo blue lik-m-stik powder. Rachel proudly showed me the candy she had selected: Swee-tarts. I tried to be gentle as I explained to her that she couldn't have them because they weren't good for her and then confiscated them. It was a bad mommy moment and she has reminded me of it often over the years.
Finding the balance still takes effort. We have relaxed a bit over the years. Sam and Sophie were certainly not subject to the rigorous food controls that Rachel endured. Nevertheless processed food is an exception here. Dinners are usually vegetarian. In the summer, all our veggies, and quite a bit of fruit comes from our garden.
Sam loves his protein. Though he happily eats beans and rice, he really loves meat and always has. When he walked into the kitchen the other day and spied a pan full of ground beef his exclamation of "Meat! Good!" reminded me both of a caveman and the time in preschool at a Mother's Day tea when he noticed a huge plate of pink ham chunks and said (loudly) "Look, Mama! Meat," and gobbled down large handfuls.
The ground beef in the pan was part of one of the dinners I make sometimes that tries to please everyone. Ken gets fried eggplant baked in marinara sauce (no meat, no dairy - delicious). The kids get a giant pan of baked pasta with ground beef and smoked mozzarella. It's pretty healthy, it's homemade, and they'll eat it all by lunch the next day.
I make this all at the same time. I bread and fry the eggplant while the pasta water comes to a boil, and grate the cheese and brown the meat while the pasta is cooking. The sauce needs no cooking. I mix both cans at once.
For the baked pasta:
1 pound pasta shapes
1/2 pound smoked or regular mozzarella, or a mixture
1 pound super lean ground beef or ground bison
1 large can Muir Glen tomato puree
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp fennel seed
salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain. Toss with butter or olive oil and put in a large casserole. Brown the meat. Drain. Add 1 clove of garlic - pressed, and some salt and pepper. Spread over the pasta. Press the other clove of garlic into the can of puree. Add the rest of the spices. Pour over meat and pasta. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and bake for 1/2 an hour at 350 until browned. Serve with a salad or green veggie.
Eggplant Unparm
1 large eggplant
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup flour
1 cup matzoh or cracker meal
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt
pepper
1 can Muir Glen tomato puree
1 clove garlic
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp fennel
salt and pepper to taste
Wash the eggplant and cut it into 1/4" slices. Mix the matzoh meal with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Put the flour and egg in separate bowls. Heat the oil in a skillet. Dip the eggplant in the flour, then egg, then meal. Fry in a single layer until brown on each side. Put the fried eggplant into a baking dish. Press the garlic into the can of tomato puree. Add the other spices. Mix and pour over the eggplant. Bake at 350 until heated through - about 1/2 hour.
Enjoy!
When my children were small, I obsessively fed them only whole, organic, naturally sweetened foods. No white sugar allowed! I made them Popsicles from yogurt and fresh fruit. A store-bought cookie rarely crossed the threshold. I was too hardcore sometimes, though. When Rachel was in first grade, she went on a field trip with her class to the bank, where each child received a dollar, and then to the store to spend it. There was a lesson somewhere in being a good consumer that was lost in day-glo blue lik-m-stik powder. Rachel proudly showed me the candy she had selected: Swee-tarts. I tried to be gentle as I explained to her that she couldn't have them because they weren't good for her and then confiscated them. It was a bad mommy moment and she has reminded me of it often over the years.
Finding the balance still takes effort. We have relaxed a bit over the years. Sam and Sophie were certainly not subject to the rigorous food controls that Rachel endured. Nevertheless processed food is an exception here. Dinners are usually vegetarian. In the summer, all our veggies, and quite a bit of fruit comes from our garden.
Sam loves his protein. Though he happily eats beans and rice, he really loves meat and always has. When he walked into the kitchen the other day and spied a pan full of ground beef his exclamation of "Meat! Good!" reminded me both of a caveman and the time in preschool at a Mother's Day tea when he noticed a huge plate of pink ham chunks and said (loudly) "Look, Mama! Meat," and gobbled down large handfuls.
The ground beef in the pan was part of one of the dinners I make sometimes that tries to please everyone. Ken gets fried eggplant baked in marinara sauce (no meat, no dairy - delicious). The kids get a giant pan of baked pasta with ground beef and smoked mozzarella. It's pretty healthy, it's homemade, and they'll eat it all by lunch the next day.
I make this all at the same time. I bread and fry the eggplant while the pasta water comes to a boil, and grate the cheese and brown the meat while the pasta is cooking. The sauce needs no cooking. I mix both cans at once.
For the baked pasta:
1 pound pasta shapes
1/2 pound smoked or regular mozzarella, or a mixture
1 pound super lean ground beef or ground bison
1 large can Muir Glen tomato puree
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp fennel seed
salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain. Toss with butter or olive oil and put in a large casserole. Brown the meat. Drain. Add 1 clove of garlic - pressed, and some salt and pepper. Spread over the pasta. Press the other clove of garlic into the can of puree. Add the rest of the spices. Pour over meat and pasta. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and bake for 1/2 an hour at 350 until browned. Serve with a salad or green veggie.
Eggplant Unparm
1 large eggplant
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup flour
1 cup matzoh or cracker meal
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt
pepper
1 can Muir Glen tomato puree
1 clove garlic
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp fennel
salt and pepper to taste
Wash the eggplant and cut it into 1/4" slices. Mix the matzoh meal with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Put the flour and egg in separate bowls. Heat the oil in a skillet. Dip the eggplant in the flour, then egg, then meal. Fry in a single layer until brown on each side. Put the fried eggplant into a baking dish. Press the garlic into the can of tomato puree. Add the other spices. Mix and pour over the eggplant. Bake at 350 until heated through - about 1/2 hour.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Cougar Gold
The time has come for me to wrench my eyes away from endless games of Bejeweled and focus on a productive pastime. As of today, this blog is up and running again.
With so many subjects dear to me, I had trouble, at first, pinpointing my focus. Although food blogs are as common as dog hairs on my rug, I really want to write about food and share recipes that I develop in my kitchen in the spontaneous way that I do when I have a meal to prepare with limited time and ingredients. I hope that my readers will enjoy sharing meals with my family in this way.
My dear and generous friend Dana and her husband Dan came for dinner and poker the other day, bringing with them wine, and a whole can of Cougar Gold cheese. Cougar Gold is made locally on the Washington State University campus in limited quantities. The production quota is bought out quickly each year. It is a pale yellow cheddar-type cheese with a buttery, sharp flavor and a crumbly texture. It melts beautifully. It is sealed into flat, round cans that weigh about 2 pounds each, so a whole wheel is an extravagant luxury.
We savored the cheese that night with plain crackers, and I've had it on toast, with apples and pears and with pasta. My two teenage children who live at home declared it, "too sharp," preferring the blander, smoother, slightly bitter flavor of orange Tillamook medium cheddar. They are always suspicious of any cheese that isn't orange, unless it's mozzarella.
The best combination that I've discovered so far is Cougar Gold and Squash Soup. I improvised this soup for dinner a couple of weeks ago. My husband and I had it with Garlic Crostini and Domaine de Couron Cotes du Rhone Villages 2005. It was just the two of us. I was a great dinner.
Squash and White Bean Soup
2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil melted together in a soup pot
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 shallots
3 cloves garlic
A 3 - 4 pound squash, cut in half, seeds removed and baked until soft
3 15 ounce cans of white beans, drained and rinsed or the equivalent in homemade white beans
7 ounces whole tomatoes, with juice
1" cube fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
black pepper and salt to taste
1 - 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar or to taste.
Water or broth - about 4 cups
Parsley for garnish
Saute the onion and shallots in the butter and oil until soft and slightly browned. Add the garlic and saute a few more minutes until the garlic is soft and fragrant. Add the ginger and paprika and saute another minute.
Add the tomatoes and their juice. Let the juice reduce by about half. Add the beans and squash pulp, the vinegar (add part, taste and add more as necessary. It should impart depth of flavor, not sourness). Puree it all in the pot with a hand-held immersible blender. Add enough water or broth to make a thick soup - to your preference. Taste and add nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste. Simmer on low for 15-20 minutes until all flavors are blended.
Serve with grated Cougar Gold Cheese and Garlic Crostini
Garlic Crostini
Saute French or Sourdough bread fingers in olive oil and butter until brown and crispy on both sides. Rub each with a clove of garlic. Salt lightly and serve with soup.
With so many subjects dear to me, I had trouble, at first, pinpointing my focus. Although food blogs are as common as dog hairs on my rug, I really want to write about food and share recipes that I develop in my kitchen in the spontaneous way that I do when I have a meal to prepare with limited time and ingredients. I hope that my readers will enjoy sharing meals with my family in this way.
My dear and generous friend Dana and her husband Dan came for dinner and poker the other day, bringing with them wine, and a whole can of Cougar Gold cheese. Cougar Gold is made locally on the Washington State University campus in limited quantities. The production quota is bought out quickly each year. It is a pale yellow cheddar-type cheese with a buttery, sharp flavor and a crumbly texture. It melts beautifully. It is sealed into flat, round cans that weigh about 2 pounds each, so a whole wheel is an extravagant luxury.
We savored the cheese that night with plain crackers, and I've had it on toast, with apples and pears and with pasta. My two teenage children who live at home declared it, "too sharp," preferring the blander, smoother, slightly bitter flavor of orange Tillamook medium cheddar. They are always suspicious of any cheese that isn't orange, unless it's mozzarella.
The best combination that I've discovered so far is Cougar Gold and Squash Soup. I improvised this soup for dinner a couple of weeks ago. My husband and I had it with Garlic Crostini and Domaine de Couron Cotes du Rhone Villages 2005. It was just the two of us. I was a great dinner.
Squash and White Bean Soup
2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil melted together in a soup pot
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 shallots
3 cloves garlic
A 3 - 4 pound squash, cut in half, seeds removed and baked until soft
3 15 ounce cans of white beans, drained and rinsed or the equivalent in homemade white beans
7 ounces whole tomatoes, with juice
1" cube fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
black pepper and salt to taste
1 - 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar or to taste.
Water or broth - about 4 cups
Parsley for garnish
Saute the onion and shallots in the butter and oil until soft and slightly browned. Add the garlic and saute a few more minutes until the garlic is soft and fragrant. Add the ginger and paprika and saute another minute.
Add the tomatoes and their juice. Let the juice reduce by about half. Add the beans and squash pulp, the vinegar (add part, taste and add more as necessary. It should impart depth of flavor, not sourness). Puree it all in the pot with a hand-held immersible blender. Add enough water or broth to make a thick soup - to your preference. Taste and add nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste. Simmer on low for 15-20 minutes until all flavors are blended.
Serve with grated Cougar Gold Cheese and Garlic Crostini
Garlic Crostini
Saute French or Sourdough bread fingers in olive oil and butter until brown and crispy on both sides. Rub each with a clove of garlic. Salt lightly and serve with soup.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Missed Calls and a Few Recipes
I was frying slabs of tofu for dinner when my radio toned. The call was a car fire. I wanted to go, but there was no one to take over cooking for me so I stayed home. I wasn't heartbroken because I don't really enjoy fire calls, but I would have gladly gone to this one. In a few minutes the crew called back in service and the truck returned to the station. The fire was out.
I continued cooking, roasting eggplant and tomatoes and browning tofu. Then my radio toned again. I thought the fire had reignited, but this was an ambulance call for a car accident. The crew was still at the station, so the ambulance left before I could have arrived there.
Missed ambulance calls are a source of frustration for me. I love patient care and I am a confessed adrenaline junkie. At the same time, dinners together a few times a week are important to my family, and I cook from scratch most of the time. Last night's dinner came entirely from local sources or our garden. The tofu is made locally, the chicken was raised by a client of mine, all the veggies - beets, eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, tarragon, rosemary, potatoes - came from our garden. I picked most of them moments before cooking. It was a festive meal, almost like a holiday. Worth staying home for.
Roasted Tarragon Chicken
Rub the chicken with olive oil. Sliver a few cloves of garli and slip them into slits under the chicken skin and in the cavity. Sprinkle with fresh tarragon, and stuff some tarragon into the cavity. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put a few small potatoes around the chicken and roast at 350 for 3 hours or until the skin is crisp and brown, and the legs are easy to wiggle.
Fried Tofu
Slice a cake of tofu into 5 or six thin slabs. Saute these in a single layer (you'll probably have 2 batches) in canola oil until lighlty browned on each side. Remove from teh pan and pour off all but 2 Tbsp. of the oil. Return the tofu to the hot pan and toss with 2Tbsp tamari, 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1/4 tsp garlic powder and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes until the liquid is absorbed into a syrupy glaze. Serve as is or in sandwiches.
Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes
Cube 3 Japanese eggplant, toss in a glass casserole with 3 Tbsp olive oil until well coated. Roast at 350 for 45 minutes or until broen and completely soft. Add 5 diced tomatoes, a few cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp minced fresh rosemary, salt, pepper and 2 tsp balsamic vinegar. Bake another 45 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed. Serve with good sheep's milk feta, kalamata or nicoise olives and crusty bread.
I continued cooking, roasting eggplant and tomatoes and browning tofu. Then my radio toned again. I thought the fire had reignited, but this was an ambulance call for a car accident. The crew was still at the station, so the ambulance left before I could have arrived there.
Missed ambulance calls are a source of frustration for me. I love patient care and I am a confessed adrenaline junkie. At the same time, dinners together a few times a week are important to my family, and I cook from scratch most of the time. Last night's dinner came entirely from local sources or our garden. The tofu is made locally, the chicken was raised by a client of mine, all the veggies - beets, eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, tarragon, rosemary, potatoes - came from our garden. I picked most of them moments before cooking. It was a festive meal, almost like a holiday. Worth staying home for.
Roasted Tarragon Chicken
Rub the chicken with olive oil. Sliver a few cloves of garli and slip them into slits under the chicken skin and in the cavity. Sprinkle with fresh tarragon, and stuff some tarragon into the cavity. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put a few small potatoes around the chicken and roast at 350 for 3 hours or until the skin is crisp and brown, and the legs are easy to wiggle.
Fried Tofu
Slice a cake of tofu into 5 or six thin slabs. Saute these in a single layer (you'll probably have 2 batches) in canola oil until lighlty browned on each side. Remove from teh pan and pour off all but 2 Tbsp. of the oil. Return the tofu to the hot pan and toss with 2Tbsp tamari, 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1/4 tsp garlic powder and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes until the liquid is absorbed into a syrupy glaze. Serve as is or in sandwiches.
Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes
Cube 3 Japanese eggplant, toss in a glass casserole with 3 Tbsp olive oil until well coated. Roast at 350 for 45 minutes or until broen and completely soft. Add 5 diced tomatoes, a few cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp minced fresh rosemary, salt, pepper and 2 tsp balsamic vinegar. Bake another 45 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed. Serve with good sheep's milk feta, kalamata or nicoise olives and crusty bread.
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