What I Cooked

Apricot-Bourbon BBQ Chicken

2011-08-21T18:40:00.002-04:00

Boy-oh-boy is this good. This recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks is the inspiration for our dinner tonight.

I did a few things differently from the recipe above. First, I used Wild Turkey brand bourbon instead of Jack Daniels. Second, I used apricot preserves instead of peach. For garlic, I used Penzey's dried minced instead of fresh, just because I have it on hand. I used skinless boneless chicken thighs. They fell apart in cooking, which was so yummy in the final dish. Instead of baking the dish in the oven, I threw it in my crock pot because it's hot here and I didn't want to use the oven. At the end, I took the sauce out of the crockpot, then transferred it to a stovetop pan where I reduced it for about 10 minutes. Perfecto.

I have several meals left for the freezer - frozen into individual meal packages, they'll solve the "what's for dinner" problem on a weeknight this coming September.

Pasta con Pomodoro Crudo

2011-08-16T19:13:00.002-04:00

Fresh from my garden. I came home tonight.

Nick has a standing order to "saute an onion" which he did before he left to pick me up from the train station, only 1 mile from our home.

I approached the house from the back door. I smelled that yummy onion and olive oil smell through the screen. The pasta water was hot. The onion was in the 10 inch saute pan, nicely golden.

I diced one yellow crookneck squash (picked from the garden this morning), put it in the pan with some fennel seed and garlic, covered the pan, and put it on medium high.

Meanwhile, I halved my tomatoes - cherry red and lemon pear. I added a gigantic red one for good measure. Put the tomatoes in with the squash and onion. Meanwhile, I cooked my 3 minute angel hair pasta.

After two minutes, the tomatoes were starting to ooze their juice. I put in some chopped basil from the garden, then drained my pasta, and poured my vegetables on top.

A complete meal, with the addition of some grated parmesan cheese.

Pancakes

2011-05-08T09:04:00.002-04:00

Happy Mothers' Day!

Pancakes are a simple and homey comfort food. Usually, we enjoy the plain type, made with regular flour and eggs. Today we mixed it up a bit.

This morning I used my Vitamix to make pancakes and blueberry syrup. (Yes, in separate batches.)

The book that came with the blender has some great recipes. I adapted one to make the following pancake recipe.

Hearty Pancakes

1 1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flax seed, ground

Blend the above on high for about one minute.

Add 3/4 cup oatmeal (not cooked - the flakes from the container), 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds.

Blend all on low for about 20 seconds. Let sit about 5 minutes. It will thicken up.

Thin this mixture with water, if desired. Heat griddle to medium (I use a nonstick griddle, with a bit of canola oil on it). Cook pancakes.

This makes about eight big pancakes. I cooked the whole batch, then packed the leftovers in a plastic container, lined with paper towel. Tomorrow morning, we'll just microwave these and enjoy again.

Blueberry Syrup

1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar (or more if you want)

Thaw the blueberries. Add all ingredients to blender. Blend on "high" for about 4 minutes. Pour on pancakes.

Nick says these pancakes are good, but a little too 'Healthy' tasting.

Harrumph.

Next time, I might use regular flour instead of whole wheat, reduce the milk a bit, add an egg, and eliminate the flax seed.

Chicken!

2010-12-31T19:18:00.004-05:00

At the Quakertown Mart today, I ran across an amazing special. 45 pounds of chicken for $16.99.

Miss Inquisative, also known as Midget Cat, or "Half a Manx" for short, checked out the loot.

I gave half the box to my mom and dad. So they got 6 chickens, and Nick and I got 6 chickens. I packaged mine up in freezer bags. At the bottom of the box, I could see that Tyson had intended these beasts to end up as Rotisserie Specials.

Actually, I felt sorry for the beasts...dead and naked and eviscerated. I eat animals, but I do not take that lightly. These beasts,it seemed to me, were processed so quickly and so efficiently, it seemed wrong. So from the 6 I got, I took the first one and made Coq au Vin.

First, I cut up and sauteed 3 pieces of bacon. Then, I cut up the chicken. I am not too experienced at this, but with the instruction from Meat, a Kitchen Education, by Peterson, I did pretty well .

I simmered the bacon, three onions, some garlic, a bay leaf, some parsley and herbs de Provence mix, in the crock pot for a few hours.

And while I was at it, I used the back of the chicken, along with other trimmings, to make a stock. (Rear of the range). I am proud of the fact that I was able to de-bone the thigh, per Peterson's instructions. My pieces of chicken were not butcher-perfect, but they made this....

Pas mal. I used Malbec from Argentina as my wine. So good, and not expensive. This was melt in your mouth delish. For recipes, consult Julia Child or just do a internet search on "Coq Au Vin" and you won't go wrong. We served ours with brown rice and sweet peas. A sweet New Years' Eve dinner indeed!

Mmmmm Sugar!

2010-12-04T17:16:00.002-05:00

When Nick and I got married, his mom gave me a little blue notebook, The Bell Family's All Time Favorite Christmas Cookies. The book was compiled by his mom and his sister, Cindy. Cindy typed most of the recipes on white bond paper; some of them were Xeroxed from newspaper clippings. Cindy was a professional secretary, before people started to call them "Admin Assistants", "Executive Assistants", or (I hate this one, but I can't tell you why... "Admins".)

The book has several versions of Sugar Cookies, and I like this one best.

Here's the recipe (adaptations or comments by me in italics).

Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs (Tender Crispy Favorites)

3/4 cup butter or margarine (I always use butter. Butter is better.)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I sometimes use less...this amount makes them very sweet.)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I also add 1 teaspoon almond extract to this).
3 1/4 cups sifted flour (I measure 3 cups, and then sift that right into the bowl when the time comes to add flour.)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (I usually use a bit more, as I usually bake with unsalted butter,and I think this recipe was probably designed with salted butter or margarine in mind).

With electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. (I use my KitchenAid stand mixer..and beat the heck out of the butter at this stage.) Beat in sugar and vanilla (and almond extract). Beat in eggs (I always put the baking powder and salt in before the eggs and beat the heck out of the mixture.) Gradually stir in dry ingredients (for me this is only flour...I add one sifted cup at a time, this time using the 'stir' function on the KitchenAid...no desire to get those gluten molecules kickin'! - best to keep them unspringy, so as to make for a more tender cookie.)

Chill three hours (in refrigerator, duh... I guess they felt they didn't need to tell you that...then again, sometimes when it's cold outside, I use my cold garage for cold storage...I wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap).

Roll to 1/4 inch thickness (I like them thinner). Cut with cookie cutters. Arrange 1 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheets (No way Jose...I put mine tight as soldiers in formation. These babies don't spread when heated, so no need to put distance between them.) Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 15 minutes. (I preheat my oven, of course, and bake about 6 minutes, then switch the sheets (top to bottom) and check frequently thereafter...usually mine are done in 10 to 12 minutes because I make mine thinner. Cool on racks. Decorate with frosting. (I don't use frosting. Instead, I sprinkle colored sugar crystals on the cookies before baking. My mom always did it that way, and that is what I do too.)

The Root

2010-11-20T19:02:00.003-05:00

I

Today was "clean out the garden" day. In the vegetable garden, I found treasures I had forgotten about. Decorative gourds (I don't know where these came from...some bird must have left the seed in early spring...), along with japanese turnips and carrots, which I had planted this spring.

The gourds ended up on the dining room table, keeping company with the ones I got last month from Hellerick's farm. The turnips...well, they were a bit bitter, so they ended up in the compost bin.

The carrots ended up here.
Parsley, sage, and fennel, all from my garden, with a little bacon fat from this morning's bacon, and salt. Baked at 375 degrees for an hour, they became this:

A good accompaniment to a roast, a slice of homemade lavash bread, and a glass of pinot noir!

Beet, Carrot and Onion Soup with Garlic and Herbs

2010-10-24T12:59:00.004-04:00

I have been wanting a Vitamix machine for some time. A few weeks ago, our old Hamilton Beach from the 1970s died. This is a machine that Nick brought to our marriage, 25 years ago, and he doesn't remember from where it came. It was probably one of those 'donation' items familiar to college aged-people - it goes like this --- grandma (or whoever) has two blenders, and gives you one of them. This blender was the only one we've ever had until now. I know it is an old blender, because one time, I toured Ike and Mamie Eisenhower's house (it's on National Park property) in Gettysburg, PA. They had the same blender Nick and I did, and Mamie died in 1979. (Ike died earlier).

Our Hamilton Beach died because I had some old parmesan cheese, and I was trying to use the blender to pulverize the cheese so I could sprinkle it on something I was cooking. You know the hard little bits of cheese you have left over from some long-ago culinary escapade? Not moldy, but hard. Well, that was the cheese I was trying to pulverize. The cheese, instead, knocked a hole in the plastic blender container, so that was the end. Besides, the Hamilton Beach was tired.

So, I debated for two weeks before spending a LOT of money (well, a lot by my standards) on a Vitamix.

This baby cooks. Literally! Mostly, I've been using it to make breakfast type smoothies (I experiment with flavors and textures I think will work). This morning, I tossed in 5 frozen strawberries, a half banana, about 10 dried cranberries, 2 oz each cranberry and orange juice.

So at lunch today, I made some soup. Just thought the recipe up as I went along. This machine is so powerful that ingredients COOK through pure friction. Friction is so powerful if you let the machine run long enough, that the ingredients get almost boiling hot, and steamy.

Beet, Carrot and Onion Soup with Garlic and Herbs (serves 2)

1 large beet, peeled and roughly chopped.
1 carrot, same as above.
1 small onion, same as above.
1 clove garlic, same as above.
2 sprigs parsley. 2 more, reserved for garnish.
1 large sage leaf, 2 small ones in addition, reserved for garnish
1 cup chicken broth.
2 T sour cream(for garnish).

Put all ingredients except for sage and parsley garnish, and sour cream into Vitamix. Whirl that baby. Bombs away...the cat scuttles out of the kitchen due to jet-engine noise simulation.

Let pulverize for 5 to 7 minutes, until liquid is steaming. (hot). Watch the liquid go up and down and round and round. Hypnotic red-orange color. Beta carotene and good stuff is practically transluscent in the autumn sunshine.

Pour into bowls and garnish with sour cream and herbs.

Although this was good, it wasn't fantastic. A little 'raw' tasting. Next time, I will soften the roots and garlic in a tablespoon olive oil on stovetop first. A little conventional cooking and carmelization would take this food from good to fantastic.

And if you conventional cook the ingredients before blending, you could make this soup with a regular (non Vitamix) machine.

French Onion Soup

2010-10-17T18:06:00.003-04:00

Years ago, I bought a set of four ovenproof bowls, at a factory outlet store in Flemington, NJ, with the idea that I'd make french onion soup. Eight (or so) years later, (yay) I made it!

My first French Onion soup!

It's not hard to make, which makes me wonder (as I do from time to time) what took me so long!

There is some time involved, mainly in making the caramelized onions that serve as a base for the soup. This step turns out to be easy if you use a crockpot.

Caramelized Onions

Peel, cut in half lengthwise, and slice (getting rid of the roots) about 5 pounds onions. I used regular (huge) NY "Bold" onions (the usual kind, not the sweet ones).

Throw these onions in a large crockpot with 1 stick butter. I used salted butter, so did not add salt.

Cook on low 14 hours. Cool and store in refrigerator, where they keep for weeks. Add salt later, as you use them, if you want. These will be beautifully brown and naturally sweet. But if you think they're not sweet enough, just add some sugar. I've been making these onions for a while.

These onions are great more than making soup. Use them for topping hamburgers, serving alongside any beans or meat, baking on top of a pizza, and so on. At our house, we can go through a batch of these onions in about 2 or 3 weeks. And it's just the two of us.

French Onion Soup

Take about 1 cup of caramelized onions from the fridge. In a pan, melt 1 T. butter, and put in about 1 T flour. Make paste, and heat about 4 minutes. Don't let burn. Whisk in about 3 cups stock of your choice. I used a combination of frozen chicken stock that I had on hand supplemented by water and Penzey's "broth in a jar". This Penzey's stuff is phenomenal, in my opinion. In fact, I buy a lot of my spices and such at Penzey's. My mom turned me on to Penzey's a few years ago. What I don't buy at Penzey's, I buy in ginormous bulk quantity at Costco. Put a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and simmer a while. Put the onions in. All told, simmer about 1 hour. Put pepper and salt in if desired.

Meanwhile, slice french bread into 3/4 inch slices (I made some yesterday) and toast it in the oven at around 325 degrees, basting if desired with olive oil.

Get your oven proof receptacles (I used my little bowls). It's nice to make individual type servings, but you can do it in one huge bowl, I guess, and serve it from that. For the individual servings, pPut 1 slice of bread in bottom of bowl. Put on some cheese (I used mozzarella and parmesan because that's what I had on hand but per Julia Child, you're supposed to use gruyere and or swiss with parmesan). Ladle soup on top. Float about 2 slices of bread on top of each bowl, put on more cheese, then drizzle with olive oil (again, learned from Julia Child). Bake at 325 F. for about 25 minutes. This temp browns the cheese nicely, but is not so hot that your soup boils in the oven.

Nick said this soup was as good as any he's ever had in a restaurant. That's good enough for me!

Gad-Zukes!

2010-08-22T13:49:00.006-04:00

Anyone who has a vegetable garden inevitably grows Zucchini at least once. I grow it every year. One plant yields a few squash every week. I looked away for a few minutes, and was greeted yesterday by a large one. About nine inches. We normally eat them when they're 4 inches long or less. I don't like them 'alone' when they're that big. So, when faced with a large one, there's always the option of Zucchini Bread.

My mother-in-law, Carol, gave me two family recipe compilations when I joined the family. One of these is a Christmas Cookie book. The other is a blue loose leaf binder, into which she had affixed some of the Bell family favorites. The recipes were painstakingly typed onto loose leaf binder paper.

Along the way, she noted my interest in vegetable gardening, and accordingly, my prolific zucchini harvest. So she gave me several Zucchini recipes, which I added to the binder.

This is one of them:

Zucchini Bread With Dates ("Good", she notes, in pen, on the upper left margin)
My changes are in italics to the right of the ingredients.

3 eggs
1 c. oil (I used only 3/4 cup peanut oil. it worked well. less fat.)
1 tsp vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda1 tsp. cinnamon (I used 1 1/2 tsp.) 2 c. grated peeled zucchinni
2 c sugar (I used 1 cup sugar and 1 cup Splenda artificial sugar.)
1/2 tsp. baking powder (omitted)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. walnuts (I used 3/4 cup grated coconut instead of nuts.)
1/2 c. dates (I put in 3/4 cup.)
Directions:

Beat eggs until light and foamy. Add sugar, oil, zucchini and vanilla. Mix lightly.

Add flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. (Recipe says to mix these separately then add, but I just dumped them in.)

Blend. Add nuts (coconut) and dates.

Pour into two greased and floured (I omitted the flour - no sticking, no problems) bread pans.

Bake in preheated 325 F degree oven about 1 hour. (I baked 55 minutes.)

Can be frozen. (I froze one loaf. The other is almost gone. It may not last 24 hours here at the Bell house!)

Mom and Dad's Barnegat Bay Flounder and Potatoes

2010-07-11T19:32:00.004-04:00

This year, the bay is full of large flounder, so when we go to the shore, we often have fresh fish. We catch them in the channel right outside my parents' house.

My mom has a way of pan cooking filets which works really well. First, wet the filets in beaten egg. Then, dip them in corn flake crumbs, mixed with a small bit of Old Bay seasoning. Now, pay attention - following is the secret.

Once the filets are coated in the crumbs, put them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. This firms up the crumbs, and keeps the crumb coating from coming off when frying later.
There are two secrets in frying. Use medium heat, and take the filets out of the pan right BEFORE you think they are done. Also, use a combination of peanut or canola oil and butter. You don't need much oil or butter, really.

My dad planted Yukon Gold and Redskin potatoes (both varieties) in the side yard, in a small patch near the house. They are ready to be eaten as thin skinned, new potatoes. We simply boiled them whole, and tossed them with butter, chopped parsley and a bit of dill along with salt and pepper. This made a a perfect bayside dinner, served along with green salad and coleslaw.
Below, mom and dad are standing in front of a photo of pound boats. These boats were used on Long Beach Island in the 'olden days' to net fish in the ocean. The boats were sail and oar powered. When my dad was a child in the late 1940s and 1950s, he used to go up to the beach to see the pound boats land with their catches of fish.

American Apple Pie

2010-07-05T21:16:00.003-04:00

Apple season has begun! One of the earliest varieties is Yellow Transparent. I was lucky enough to get some of these apples from my mom and dad, who have a tree. I don't ever see this variety for sale in markets - even the small roadside apple stands. The apples we have bruise easily, and I imagine this is one reason we don't see them in markets (hard to transport when they bruise so readily.)

This is an early yielder, and the apples ripened two weeks ago.
Nick and I ate the pie with vanilla ice cream.

Independence Day Potato Salad

2010-07-04T20:30:00.003-04:00

Today is American Iindependence day. For our celebratory picnic, I made a 'french style' potato salad. Why French? In my opinion, without the ready assistance of the French (including Lafayette) and others (including genius battlements engineer Thaddeus Kosiuszko), the United States may not have been able to break free of the mother country. Of course, the americans had to want it bad enough to fight. Hard. Without blood and sweat from the famous and obscure Americans, the United States would simply not have been formed. Today I remind myself that american independence was not a 'given' back in 1776. At the time the Declaration of Independence was written, half of American colonists were still loyal to Britain. Those who wanted independence wanted it badly enough to stake their lives and fortunes on it's successful outcome.

Our country still operates on ideals that are emulated by and envied by many in the world today. May we americans always be worthy -- in our actions, thoughts, and aspirations -- of the ideals and actions of our forefathers and foremothers.

So again, chapeaus off to the French, for helping us out back in the 1770s (and later, when we fought the British again in the early 1800s). To honor the French contribution to American Independence, I made today an adaptation of what Julia Child calls a "French Style" potato salad.

This is a simple recipe, and I'll share it here, but credit Julia for the inspiration. First, you have to start with the best possible ingredients, as this is a simple recipe and the quality of the ingredients "make" the meal.I bought some new potatoes (by "new" potatoes, I mean those of this season, freshly dug) last Thursday from a farmer who is in Philadelphia every week. I've mentioned him earlier here, and he and his mom, and sometimes others, are in Suburban Station (SEPTA) every Thursday.

These potatoes, and some fresh garlic chives and parsley from my garden, along with some red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and good quality olive oil are all I needed.
"Thank the French" Independence Day Potato Salad

8 to 10 ounces new redskin potatoes
1 teaspoon salt (plus more if needed)
a few grinds of pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (more or less)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped parsley (or less if you don't like this herb as much as I do)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic chives (or anything from the allium family -use your judgement)

Wash potatoes well, scrub a bit under running water. Cut into 1/4 inch slices (do not peel).

Boil for about 10 minutes (maybe less ) in salted water. Drain. Retain about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Put that and the potatoes back in the cooking pan. Let sit for about 5 minutes, covered.

Take potatoes and water out, and put in large mixing bowl. Lightly mix in vinegar herbs and pepper. Let sit at room temperature another 10 minutes (Covered). Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. Add olive oil. Toss. Let cool. Transfer to refrigerator. Ready to serve in 2 hours.

Barnegat Bay Flounder

2010-06-13T19:07:00.004-04:00

This weekend, we caught some beautiful flounder, in Barnegat Bay, and tonight Nick and I had some filets for dinner.
My sisters, their families, and Nick and me, along with my mom, celebrated dad's 69th birthday yesterday at my parents' vacation home on Long Beach Island.

Dad is a master filet-er. I have taken lessons, and I can approximate his technique, but my filets are ragged. I save the fish frames to make stock. Although Julia Child says to add the heads as part of the fish frame/stock combo, I don't have it in me, so the heads, along with the innards of fish, go to the laughing gulls and herring gulls who congregate at our dock when the fish come home.

As Dad is a master filet-er, my Mom is the Mistress of fine cuisine. Mom cooked dinner, after dinner, after dinner when I was a child, every meal from 'scratch' and every meal a feast, from salad to entree to dessert. From her I learned how to bake the filets with butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper, with a little flour (a la meuniere, s-il-vous plait) sprinkled on top. Served with sauteed spinach (with garlic and red pepper) and pasta, it made a beautiful dinner.

Steak and Spinach Salad

2010-06-08T20:35:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Nick and my 25th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate, we went to our neighborhood restaurant, The William Penn Inn. Nick ordered the "Prime Rib" and I had the "Penn's Surf and Turf". So, we are having leftover steak and prime rib for a few nights.
Tonight, my leftover filet mignon served as a savory foil to a spinach and mushroom salad (with carrots, onions, goat cheese, and yellow peppers). Served with homemade bread and a nice shiraz, this dinner was a good end to a challenging day.

Here we are last night at our anniversary dinner.

Ooo laa, laa, Hollandaise!

2010-05-09T19:28:00.002-04:00

Barnegat bay flounder, with capers, "New Jersey Fresh" Asparagus and Hollandaise.

The Hollandaise sauce recipe is from Julia Child. Bless that woman for making classic sauces NOT intimidating. With the help of "The Way to Cook", I whipped up that sauce in plenty of time to serve it with lightly sauteed flounder (from the freezer - sauteed in butter and olive oil, with capers and lemon juice added at the end) and microwaved asparagus.

Hollandaise Sauce (rough directions adapted from Julia) (makes 1 cup)

In heavy saucepan, whisk 3 egg yolks until light yellow. Add 1 1/2 T lemon juice. Put on low heat. Add 1 TB butter. Whisk over heat. When egg yolks get thick, add another 1 TB butter and keep whisking. Take off heat. Then add more melted butter (about 1 stick's worth) a few dribbles at a time,whisking constantly. The sauce will stay emulsified, absorbing the extra butter. Add salt and pepper to taste, and more lemon juice if you like. Keep warm. Spoon that goodness over what you like. That's it!

B's Egg Thing

2010-05-01T20:00:00.003-04:00

I adapted a "Crustless Quiche" recipe, which I got from my mother-in-law, Carol, many years ago, so that Nick and I could have a quick and easy dinner. The recipe from "Ma Bell" was supposed to feed 12 to 16 people, and included a lot of butter and significant amounts of cheese. My version is slightly leaner, and feeds four (or two hungry mungries - Nick and Me):

B's Egg Thing
Ingredients
4 eggs - beaten.
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup (or so) cottage cheese (I had some laying around and scraped out the container for this)
1/2 teaspoon each, salt, baking powder, and sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I had an old piece of parmigiano/reggiano, so I used that, along with some fontina, to make 1/2 cup)a pinch garlic powder
6 grinds black pepper

Instructions
Take a casserole dish (that holds about 1 quart), and melt 1 tablespoon butter in it, in the microwave. Smear the butter around to coat the dish.

Preheat oven to 400. (f)

Beat eggs, then add all other ingredients. Put into casserole dish.

Bake until done - around 1/2 hour, or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Basically, you're making a thick custard/pudding.
I served it with homemade rolled biscuits and a salad.

Since I rode my bike 14.1 miles today at a speed of about 12 miles per hour, it was an easy first ride of the season, but I'm pretty tired right now. I work out regularly with weights, and I run and walk, but biking uses different muscles. I understand from those who "know" that when recovering from muscle exertion, one should eat protein and carbs, and this egg dish with biscuits has plenty of both. And the salad (mesclun greens), provides the green nutrition.

I am riding the American Cancer Society "City to Shore" ride (60 miles or so) in July,and I'm also riding the Lutheran Charities Ride in late June. I am not sure how many miles I will ride in late June - either 35 or 50 plus. I find that having a specific goal, fitness-wise, helps keep me on track.

Calzone

2010-04-17T18:50:00.004-04:00

Using a simple pizza dough and some simple ingredients for the stuffing, I made two very large calzones for dinner.

INSIDE THE CALZONE - STEP 1
Last night, I made a pasta topping consisting of sauteed onions, peppers, and italian sausage meatballs. (To make the meatballs, remove italian sausage from casing, wet hands so the mixture does not stick, then roll into balls and fry.) I made enough to have extra for tonight's calzone dinner.

THE BACK STORY
Nick and I mulched the garden today. We had 5 cubic yards of mulch delivered at 7:45 AM. By noon, the mulch was spread. So we felt we 'deserved' a good dinner. You know what I mean?

The DOUGH
Back in 1986, Cosmopolitan magazine gave this recipe for pizza crust. (I know - wierd that COSMO would talk about Pizza crust. but this was the 80s.) Here is the recipe, which I used tonight for calzone dough.
3 cups flour (Cosmo said regular flour - I say bread flour)
1 cup water (COSMO said 1 cup, I say 1 1/3 cups)
1 Tablespoon yeast1 Tablespoon salt
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Mix it all together. Knead, let rest.
I used half of this recipe for the calzones. The rest I refrigerated, to use tomorrow, for dinner (an italian type loaf.)

INSIDE THE CALZONE - STEP 2
I put the "Step 1 " ingredients in rolled out dough (two 12 inch circles, which was half the recipe above) then I added 1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained, and 1 cup shredded mozzarella. I divided the ingredients among the two calzones.

MAKE THE CALZONE
Then, I flipped the dough over so that the ingredients are inside the calzones. I pinched the edges together, then slipped the calzones into a 400 degree F oven. I use a stone in my oven, but you can simply put them in on a cookie sheet.

Then...
BAKE (around 25 or 30 minutes) and ...EAT (the best part).

Simple but Yummy Easter Breakfast

2010-04-04T08:47:00.005-04:00

I always like to make a little something special for Easter breakfast at our house, even though it was just Nick and me this morning.

On the menu - homemade cinnamon rolls, dyed hard-boiled eggs, orange juice, and coffee.

Hard Boiled Eggs
How simple it is to boil an egg, yet I want to share with you a great way to do this homely task, because I think it works really well, and until recently, I didn't know how great a result this would bring.
Start with cold water. Put it on heat, and put the eggs in while still cold. This prevents the eggs from cracking. Bring the water to a boil, actively simmer for about 1 minute, then turn the heat off. Let the eggs sit in the water for about 10 minutes. Drain, cool, and that's it! No green 'ring around the yolk' if you do it this way. My brother-in-law Ken gets credit for teaching me this method.

It being Easter, I dyed the eggs. Using the concept of 'resist' (familiar to all of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s in the form of 'tye dye'), I cut shapes of electrical tape, applied the tape onto the eggs, and then put them in the dye bath. The dye I used was very simple. McCormick food coloring, water, and vinegar. The food coloring at our house I bought back in 1986, and I have just run out of the red. I still have green, blue, and yellow, as part of the original box. A little food coloring goes a long way!

Cinnamon BunsThis is a long-standing recipe, which I make on New Years Day, Christmas, and Easter. I use the bread machine, on the delayed timer. This involves putting a raw, cracked egg into the machine, and letting sit overnight, and there are warnings against this (health caution), but I've never had a problem. Maybe it's because I use ice cold water, into which I put the egg. Water, egg, and the rest of the ingredients sit all night in the bread machine, which is set on the dough setting. When I wake up, I roll out the dough, put nuts, sugar, cinnamon and butter onto the dough, then roll it up in a cylinder. Cut the cylinder into bun-sized pieces, and put into a buttered pie plate to rise. Bake at 350 degrees, for about 30 minutes, let cool 10 minutes, and get ready for some serious noshing!

Here's what I put into the bread machine:
1 broken egg (no shell, of course)
a little less than 3/4 cup ice cold water
2 1/2 cups high gluten flour (bread flour)
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon yeast

Here's what I put on the rolled out dough before I roll it up:
1/2 cup walnuts
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened

I also happened to have some leftover crumb topping for muffins, which consisted of oatmeal, sugar, and cinnamon. I threw that in there too.

These are "more or less" measurements. It's not important to be exact. In my case, I had some butter that Nick had attempted to soften by sitting it on top of the radiator a few days ago, and it quickly had puddled into liquid. I used that in the cinnamon rolls, because it was no longer viable to use as regular butter, and I didn't want to waste it!

Whatever holiday(s) you celebrate this spring, happy celebrating!

Cheese Souffle

2010-03-26T19:09:00.003-04:00

Tonight, Nick and I had fresh asparagus and a cheese souffle for dinner. This is my very first, ever, cheese souffle. I used my grandmother Eleanor's glass baking dish. Not ideal for a souffle, as the sides slope outward, so my souffle did not rise significantly, but it did rise. Besides, I did not have a souffle dish small enough for my two person version. Ok, I will say that this recipe was supposed to serve four, but it served two. At our house, we eat a lot.

I turned to Julia Child for the recipe. I used the one in The Way to Cook. Here's the basic method.

Separate the eggs. I used five eggs. Make a thick bechamel sauce, with 2 1/2 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons flour, and 1 cup milk. Add a bit of salt, pepper, paprika, and nutmeg. Whip the egg whites to stiff peak. After the bechamel cools, add the egg yolks. Then, fold the egg whites into the bechamel mixture, along with the cheese. The recipe said to use 1 cup of shredded cheese, but I used about 3/4 cup. Put into your buttered, prepared dish, then, put a collar on the dish, so the souffle has something to rise against, once it elevates itself in your oven. The oven is preheated to 375 F. Bake for around 35 minutes. My souffle was a bit weepy in the center, but that was not a bad thing, I don't think. Reminiscent of an omelet baveuse.

I served the souffle with a Pinot Grigio, a salad, some whole wheat bread (I used the basic whole wheat bread recipe from this book), and asparagus from California. I bought the asparagus today at the Reading Terminal Market, in Center City Philadelphia. Wow. $1.49 for a beautiful huge bunch! How great is that price? I read earlier this week, I think in The Wall Street Journal, (which I read every morning while commuting on SEPTA) that Asparagus is coming in huge quantities, thus the price, which is a full dollar lower than I am used to paying. So right now, I'm congratulating myself, thinking we ate pretty well at Chez Barbara. AND there's more! It took only about an hour to make this dinner, and it was all 'from scratch'. (I left work 1/2 hour early tonight, which gave us a head start on the deal.)

Getting to the Root

2010-03-21T17:40:00.003-04:00

Root vegetables are comforting. I think I'm genetically coded at the most basic level to say "yes" and "good" when it comes to foods that store well and taste good. All I know for sure is that I like root vegetables. Potatoes. Carrots. Parsnips. Turnips. Onions. And so on.

Spring has come to the northeastern US, and there are still no green vegetables above the ground. Even the alliums are silent. But what we do still have are the root vegetables, noble sorts, who have kept well over the past hard and cold months of snow, ice, and rain.

Every Thursday evening, I stop to visit at a farmer's stall. He is from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and every Thursday, he's at Penn Center/Suburban Station, in downtown Philadelphia. He sells in-season produce and beef. He also sells free-range eggs (from happy chickens, my mom, Anne, would say). I buy from him. He's Daryl, from Rineer Family Farms. I like to support those who put heart and soul into the food they produce for sale.

This past Thursday, I bought beets, carrots, parsnips, and eggs. This post is about beets and carrots.

Carrot salad is a comforting food. Some like sweet, mayo laden carrot salad. I like mine more piquant. So here's a carrot salad I will serve tonight. I made up this recipe, and I'm not an expert. So feel free to experiment yourself!

Barbara's Carrot Salad

1 pound carrots, shredded.
1 lemon, squeezed.
1 small apple, chopped, with peel on.
1 stalk celery
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons neutral vegetable oil (I used peanut)
2 tablespoons sugar (more or less)

Shred the carrots. Put in bowl. Cut up the celery and put in bowl. Cut up the apple. Squeeze the lemon. Swish the apple up in the lemon juice, and add the sugar. Put the apple mixture in with the carrots. Add the oil, salt, and pepper. Cover, and refrigerate. (The apple will not get brown if you do the lemon juice treatment...the alternative is to use a Cortland apple, which do not oxidize brown).

Beet Salad

I had a beet salad at a catered work lunch, and I liked it so much, I was inspired to make my own.

Here's how. I adapted a recipe from the Craig Claiborne NY Times Cookbook, which I have had for years. My version was published in 1990. I use this cookbook a lot.

Boil around 2 pounds of beets whole. This will take around 4o minutes. Then, after they've cooled, peel and chop them. Peel 1/2 a red onion. Cut it into slices. Put the onion into the bowl. Add vinegar to taste, salt and pepper, and a little vegetable oil. Also, add some spices, such as clove or allspice. Chill and serve when chilled down.

Root vegetable salads seem perfect for this time of year. Not hot and hearty and long stewed, but...light and rooty.

Croutons

2010-02-14T18:29:00.002-05:00

Got a stale piece of bread? You've got croutons for two!

Here's how. Cube bread. Heat skillet.

Put bread cubes in skillet. Turn heat to high. Spray liberally (or not so much, depending on your mood) with Pam (non-stick cooking oil spray).

Turn heat to 'medium'. Add herbs of your choice. Tonight, for me, it was garlic powder and "herbs de provence", which is a blend of lavender, thyme, and other 'typique' herbs of southern France.

Saute, stirring frequently, keeping heat to medium (depending on your stove and its heat), until all sides of each piece of bread are browned or golden.

Et, c'est fini! That is it! You have croutons from that stale piece of bread you were thinking of tossing. Serve and smile.

Morels

2010-02-06T19:54:00.003-05:00

My sister, Leslie, brought me some dried Morels, from her last trip to France.
Tonight, Pork Chops were on the menu, Chez Cat Fur Studio. Actually, I was not supposed to be in town at all tonight. I was supposed to fly out to San Diego at 7:30 this morning. A surfing vacation for moi coming up, s'il vous plait!

But a big snowstorm has kept me homebound. In fact, my re-book, for tomorrow at 7:30, has also been cancelled, and now I'm to fly out at 2 PM, and through Phoenix (groan), adding 2 hours to my trip, so I will miss a get-together I've been anticipating for a while (double groan). But it looks like my 1 PM Monday surf lesson is still on. Un-groan. Double-yay!

SO. Cooking.

I'd been conserving the Morels for use at an auspicious time,which, I decided would be tonight. So, in typical conserving mode, I used only about six of the Morels, leaving plenty for a later use. After all, I OPENED the container. That was all I could do for today. Using some was enough...

The directions on the Morel container say to hydrate the morels in hot water for 20 minutes, and subsequently to put them in boiling water. These directions are en Francais, so I THINK that is what they said. So I did what I thought I should do, and I ended up with edible morels. I sliced them, and put them into my saute pan, in which I'd been frying some onions with bacon fat and salt and pepper. The onions were on low heat for almost one hour. I put in the morels, then added the morel soaking water, in which I'd dissolved about 2 tablespoons of flour. This made a nice bed onto which I perched each finished pork chop. On top of the chop, I put some "Frenchs" fried onions. From a can. The type we, who were children in the 1960s are used to seeing on on top of thanksgiving campbells green beans in mushroom soup. Not gourmet fried onions, but who cares. Pretty good is good enough for me, amidst 18 inches of snow.

The serving plate here shows just the main entree and the baked potato, before I placed the broccoli onto the plate. I served this with homemade bread and red wine.

I want fries with that.

2010-01-09T19:11:00.004-05:00

I have been hearing the praises of the "Care and Share" shop for quite some time. My parents love the place, and other friends visit often, too. I've been wanting to go there for quite some time. Today, my parents showed us where it is, and it lives up to its billing. What a fantastic place! I bought a Calphalon nonstick skillet, 13 inches, for $20. Brand new! I also got a plastic bag of rick rack, a hat, some pajama pants, two slips, and a small, 1 1/2 quart deep fryer.

French Fries for dinner! I have a humongous bag of beautiful potatoes from Costco, and two of them, fried up, would make a dinner for two, with a salad, I thought.

The last time I made french fries at home, I was 21 years old and in college. A bunch of us had come home late on a Saturday night (I guess it was really Sunday morning, to be technical), and I remember that I used my electric skillet, on a whim, to make fries. There were at least 10 of us in that kitchen, and I think we ate 10 pounds of potatoes. We kept frying and eating and frying and eating. I think we just cut the potatoes, and put them in hot oil. Did not think too much about it at the time. But then again, I don't think we were a discerning bunch.

So, tonight I consulted Mark Bittman's book on how to cook things, to find out how I should make french fries. Mark and Julia Child (and probably everyone who knows anything about cooking) say that you should peel the potato, then cut the fries, and soak them in cold water. During this time, the oil is heating up in the fryer. Both Mark and Julia say to drain the water from the potato, then fry the potatoes in 325 degree oil (or so), for about 10 minutes. They will be limp at that point, and still not brown. Take them out, drain the fries, let them rest, then put them in at a higher temp - 375 degrees, for a few more minutes, until they're brown.

So, I cut the potatoes, and made the sticks shorter, so they'd fit easily into my little fry basket. I soaked the potatoes in ice water, to get the starch off the surface. I put peanut oil into my fryer. I chose peanut oil because I know it tolerates high temperatures without breaking down, and I plan to re-use the oil after I'm done with it. I will filter it when it's cool, then store it.

One of my jobs during school was in a restaurant where they served a lot of fries. Every night, the fryer got drained, and the oil was filtered, then every week (I think Sunday night) the oil was thrown out and replaced. So that's how I know the 'basics' about deep-frying and oil, even though I have not deep fryed at home since I was 21.

After draining the water off, I lowered the fries into the hot oil using my basket. I ended up just frying the fries in one step, for about 13 minutes at 350 degrees. They turned out yummy, so I'm not complaining...but they were a bit soggy after a few minutes out of the oil. So next time I think I'll try it the Mark and Julia way and do them at a lower temp for a while, then let them rest, then finish them up in high heat.

For kicks, I cut a few potato chips and fried them up too. Not bad! A little thick, but next time I'll cut them thinner to get that perfect crispiness.

Peesa Pizza

2010-01-07T19:24:00.004-05:00

I made personal sized pizzas for dinner. Nick complains that anchovies put on only 1/2 of the pizza have an irritating tendency to 'migrate' their umami goodness to the entire pie - his half. So, I made two mini-pies. Mine with anchovies. His without.

I am a prolific bread baker, and am a sucker for bread recipe books. My most recent acquisition is "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes Per Day". The basic premiseof this book is that one takes a wet yeast dough, consisting of flour, yeast, salt, and a relatively high percentage of water, mixes it all together, lets it rise, then stores in the refrigerator, where it gets even more flavorful over time. You make a large quantity of dough, all at once, taking out only the amount wanted, then baking it then and there, for a lickety-split loaf at din-din. These people are geniuses! Seriously. I am blown away by how easy this method is...for someone like me, during the week, to bake bread on a work day. You don't need to knead the bread, because somehow, some way, the gluten gets lined up and springy with only the help of the extra saturation of the water-heavy dough mix.

So, I used some of this stored dough, in my frig, to make two pizzas. I weighed the dough so that each pie used 250 grams of dough, and that way I knew that the pizzas would cook evenly, and that one of us would not get more than the other to eat. (Shades of when I was a little kid, and my mom made sure that my sister and I got our things given to us 'even steven'.)

I heated up my oven to 450 degrees F, with the Pizza Stone in there, then rolled out my little pizzas on my peel, which had been covered with cornmeal. On each pie went some red sauce, then mozzarella, then a bunch of chopped yellow and green sweet peppers. On one pie (mine), went 4 anchovy filets. Then I sprinkled home-grown dried basil on top. Closed the oven door, went to take a shower, came back...and - pizza for dinner.

This dough made a nicely chewy pizza dough, and was crisp on bottom, thanks to my use of the Pizza Stone. My Pizza Stone is nice and black, from years of use, and I leave it in the oven all the time.

So, to summarize, my dear and kind reader, Nick and I enjoyed a tasty, gourmet style (if I do say so myself) pizza dinner tonight. We had the pizza with a nice field greens salad, and our wine was some 2009 Beaujolais Nouveau that Nick got from one of his clients/vendors. Its fruitly sprightliness went well with the mood of our pizza dinner tonight. And Beaujolais Nouveau HAS to be drunk quickly, does it not? So that's why we opened it tonight and did not save it for another occasion.

Snowstorm Soup

2009-12-19T18:58:00.006-05:00

It's snowing buckets, and what better to make than a big pot of soup!

Potato and Sausage Soup
Barbara's Own Recipe

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Bacon Fat (or Olive Oil if you're feeling virtuous)
1 teaspoon salt
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 italian sausage, chopped
4 potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch square pieces (approx)
1 1/2 quarts (approx) chicken broth
1 tablespoon thyme
1 teaspoon green pepper, ground
2 tablespoons flour (optional, for end)

Process
Saute the onion and garlic in the bacon fat, along with the salt, on medium heat. After about 5 minutes, add the sausage and thyme. Saute until sausage is done. When done, remove all from pot, and put aside.

Deglaze pan with chicken broth. Add all the chicken broth and the potatoes. Cook about 25 minutes on high heat, until potatoes are done. Add pepper.

Take about 3/4 the potato mixture (in batches) and put in blender. (Careful...it's hot!). Blend and put back into pot. Put about 1/2 the sausage and onion/garlic mixture in blender, too. Blend that and return to pot. If mixture still looks thin, take about 1/4 cup liquid, put into blender with 2 tablespoons flour and blend hard. Return all to soup pot, and heat to boil, but do not boil.

Call husband for din-din, ladle into dishes, and enjoy. Serves 4 hungry mungries or 6 normal people.

Pears ... and Pie

2009-11-08T17:19:00.003-05:00

My parents gave me a 1/2 bushel of pears, because it's fruit harvest season, here on the east coast! You might remember that I also got a slew of apples. I've made apple crisp, apple pie, apple sauce, stewed apples, apple muffins...later, if I remember, I'll share the list.

But this is not about apples. It's about pears.

Last night, I made a pear and apple pie. For the first time in my life, I discovered the joy of making a pie crust using a food processor. The food processor that Nick and I have is a "Magimix", which we bought in 1986, while living in Germany. The Magimix is a ProtoCuisinart. Ours is a 220 volter, made for Europe, and it's fully equipped with a recipe book "en Francais, s'il vous plait"! And I still use this Magimix, over 20 years later.

I used it to make the crust.

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons crisco

put all this in the food processor, with the metal blade, and pulse about 6 times.

Then, add about 1/2 cup water, iced. Pulse again, a few times, and there is a beautiful, hands-free pie crust dough! This recipe is adapted from Julia Child.

I put it in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour before rolling it out.

This pie...only took half the above recipe, as I put a crumb crust on top, decorated, of course with an apple cutout, drawn freehand. The remainder is in the refrigerator, for later use. Pie crust, if wrapped well, will keep for weeks at a time. I learned this from the Pillsbury people, who sell 'ready made' pie crust in the grocery store. I don't buy that very often...and after discovering the joys of food processor dough, I won't in the future, at all!

After baked, this dough was light, crispy, and perfect for a fruit pie.

So, for inquiring minds, here's what I did for the filling:

6 cups more or less of mixed pears and apples, cored, peeled, and sliced
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup flour

Mix the above all together, and put in the rolled out pie crust.

Top with crumb topping:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
mix in 2 tablespoons butter until crumbly

Bake at 350 degrees F. until done. This is when the crust looks crisp, the pie is bubbling, and your nose...well...it just "knows"...that the baking is done.

The pie you see is ready for transport to a friend's house for dinner! We served it with homemade ice cream.

Bird Food

2009-11-01T14:02:00.006-05:00

Really! Food for birds.

I had about 3/4 cup of bacon fat, collected over the past month or two. Nick and I don't eat bacon that much, and I mostly use it as a flavoring. But I save the grease, and sometimes use it in cooking. Bacon grease makes a fantastic medium in which to fry potatoes.

But I try not to eat animal fat too often, so inspired by the bacon fat in my refrigerator, and by the knowledge that winter is coming, I decided to use the fat to make some suet for birdfeeding. As I write this, the finished product is cooling, and not yet served to the birds. I have high hopes that this offering to the birds will be well received by them, thus you're hearing about it now. In the unlikely event the birds to not like my offering, I'll comment to this post later.

Nick is faithful in feeding the birds. Every morning in late autumn through early spring, right after making coffee, Nick goes outside to stock the feeders. He does this no matter what the weather. In the middle of a snowstorm, he clears off the feeders, and creates a clean space on the deck, putting birdseed down. This is typical of Nick - he loves the birds - and is one of the many things I love about my dear husband. We feed the birds every day in winter with a mixture of suet (especially for the insect eater types), sunflower seeds, and millet mixture. In summer, we taper off, feeding them just a small portion of seeds only - no suet. We understand from the people who are paid to know these things, ( and intuitively this makes sense) that birds need to learn how to forage for themselves, and the way to do that is to limit 'free' food in the seasons during which their natural food (insects, grubs, seeds, or whatever each species likes to eat) is most available. Lots of birds choose our yard in which to raise their families, so it is very important to us that the young ones learn that the feeder is not the only place to find food!

We're lucky in that we live on a 2 acre lot, and the houses are pretty far apart here. Our yard is neat, but not manicured. We don't fertilize our grass. We don't use pesticides. Our lawn looks pretty good. Happily, we do not live in one of those hypergroomed "mcMansion" type neighborhoods, in which everyone "has" to have a monoculture green grass lawn or risk social ostracization. Our neighborhood has a variety of people living in it - from 'first original owners' to young families. Our home was built in 1948.

Our lawn is a mixture of what grows there naturally and survives not getting watered, and getting its head chopped off by the lawnmower every few weeks. So really, we live on kind of a bird sanctuary, since much of our lot is filed with forest 'edge' type growth. Bushes, evergreens, and a mixture of small and tall deciduous trees, with some open patches of grass and low growing plants. We get around 35 inches of rain here annually, so the growth is lush. Birds love it here. We have counted over 65 species since we've lived here.

So let's get to the good stuff, shall we? A quick internet search yielded a recipe for peanut butter suet. I used this as my base, but departed quite radically. Here's what I did.

Melt: 1 pound of chunky peanut butter, along with
3/4 cup of bacon fat and
1/2 cup of crisco.

I figured the crisco, as a hydrogenated vegetable fat, along with the peanut butter, which are both solid at room temperature, would work to hold the mass together.

Next, I took the pot off the stove. Then I stirred in:
1 cup raisins
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups millet birdfood mix
1 cup wheat gluten, and
3 cups of rye flour.
Finally, I tossed in about 1/2 cup of bulghur wheat.

The raisins, the rye flour, the bulghur and the wheat gluten were all geriatric - been sitting in my cabinet who-knows-how long! I needed the gluten, I knew, because the rye and the corn have hardly any natural gluten, so something needed to hold the grains together.

After mixing the above, I added about 1 1/2 cup water. (Not sure exactly how much.) I added enough so that the texture was correct.

I kneaded this a few minutes, then molded it into a plastic square, which was the container in which some commercial suet had come.

I made several squares, and they're cooling and drying slightly on the table. Once they're dry, I'll package them up for this winter's bird feeding.

I think the birds are going to like this, because when I was mixing the ingredients, Nick came in the kitchen and told me how good this stuff smelled. It did smell good. Kind of like a natural foods fanatic's version of a peanut butter cookie!

Looks like I made this stuff just in time, because the first junco of the season arrived at our birdfeeder this morning.

Chicken Marengo, In A Fashion

2009-10-25T19:49:00.003-04:00

23 years ago, Nick and I were living in Germany. That' s the Federal Republic of Germany, aka Western Germany, as it was known back in the 80s.

I hosted an important work dinner, and I served Chicken Marengo, using a recipe from Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet. This was prior to the scandal that derailed his public TV cooking career.

At the dinner, were my boss, Major Livingston, his wife, Cheryl, my co-worker, Captain Dennis Barletta and his wife, and Elke Dressler, the Third Infantry Division Protocol Officer. Manohmanischewitz, was I a nervous wreck. I didn't know what to play for music, so I left on one of the classical Bavarian music stations (we were stationed in Wurzburg, Germany). It so happened, that the radio station was playing lots of Strauss that night. Elke, who was a worldy - or, should I say, world weary, said, with a critical edge to her voice"What, is this Strauss Rememberance Night?". At that time, I was not good with comeback repartee, so I just smiled and drank another glass of Barolo. And I was happy that everyone ate their chicken peacefully and seemingly, gratefully.

Tonight, I served another version of Chicken Marengo. This version is all mine, for sure. Using the pressure cooker!

Instructions:

Dredge 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts in flour, salt, and pepper. Brown in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Take out of the pot.
Brown 1 onion, chopped,and 2 cloves garlic. Add 1 16 oz. can chopped tomatoes. Put the chicken on top.
Add 1/2 cup dry white wine, and 1/2 cup chicken broth. Then add 5 springs parsley, some celery tops, and a bay leaf.
Cook at 5 pounds pressure for 10 minutes.
Take off the stove, and let sit for 10 minutes more.
Chop some parsley.
Put the chicken on a platter, discarding the bay leaf, the celery, and the parsley.
Put the newly chopped parsley on top.

Serve with mashed patatoes and steamed brocolli.

And this time, if only in my mind...When Fraulein Dressler says, "Is it Strauss Remembrance Night??", with that critical edge to her voice, I'll reply "Yepper...and next you're gonna hear Wagner. Followed by the Skorpions".

With age does come wisdom. Yeah, yeah, I'm over it. Finally. Now.

Herb Layered Foccacia

2009-10-24T07:21:00.004-04:00

I collect cookbooks. I read cookbooks in bed before going to sleep at night. There is something comforting and relaxing about reading cookbooks. A favorite genre is baking. Nick gave me this book, Rose Levy Berenba um's "The Bread Bible". It is one of those cookbooks that tells you now just 'how', but 'why'. It reads almost like an illustrated textbook.

Yesterday, I had the chance to bake some bread. Why I haven't featured that particular activity yet here, I have no idea. Well, it's time to correct that oversight! I cook bread because I like to eat bread. Same as sewing. I like clothes, so I sew.

For me, and I guess for most cooks - there are two types of cooking and baking. There is 'craft' cooking, and there is "utilitarian" cooking. The craft type is when I immerse myself in the process, enjoying the journey as well as the finished result. The utilitarian type is what I do most of the time. It's "get it on the table" cooking. The satisfaction of whipping something decent (and, at my best...great...) out of what we have - and doing it in 20 minutes - that's satisfying! But that said, what I did here was what I would call craft cooking. I had to pay attention to the deliberate process.

I used Berenbaum's focaccia recipe, but I tweaked her method. Her method uses a hand mixing and kneading. But I used my KitchenAid mixer. The one I have is the "professional" model. I had the artisan model, with a smaller motor, but I burned that one out a year ago, when I was using it to knead some sturdy whole wheat bread. So I bought a big boy model.

This dough is very very wet, and when making foccacia, the hardest thing for me is to let it be wet. Because it should be wet. The proportion of flour to water in this bread is 2 cups flour to 1 cup water. That's 1/3 wetter than my normal 'knock it together' pizza dough! But I was disciplined and did not add too much flour.

After a series of rises and gentle punch downs, my dough was velvety soft, full of air, and tender. So I rolled it out, so that a third of the dough was thin, and the rest was thick. In the middle, between the dough layers, before sealing it for the final rise, I put fresh herbs. Our garden still has some herbs growing in it, despite the recent frost here where I live, on the east coast of the US. The only herb that is pretty much decimated is the green basil. My purple basil, for some reason, is hardier. So, after letting my bread rise, in went the herbs.

I had an appointment, so when I came back, two hours later, this is what I had. I punched dimples in the bread, drizzled it with olive oil and salt, then baked at 400 degrees....

Bread with a hearty red wine. A classic and 'can't go wrong' combo. In this case, it was a Spanish wine. Spanish wines are a favorite of mine, because they deliver some good complexity for a reasonable price, in many cases. This bread was s0000 good that we almost finished the loaf - just the two of us, at dinner last night. And after that, I had some as a snack.

Apple Fest Continues

2009-10-14T06:10:00.003-04:00

Nothing against Mott's, but my sauce is way better. Why? Well, it's mine, first of all. Second, the apples are hand selected, then simmered in their peels with a lemon. Zest and juice. Finally, using the old food mill that belonged to my Great Grandmother Alice, a very smooth, fine grained sauce is created. Mixed with a very small amount of vanilla and cinnamon (not discernable taste wise, but enough to make the flavors of the apples sing), then, if needed up to a 1/4 cup of sugar (for a 1/2 gallon of finished sauce). That is it, and oh, how yumilicious. I freeze it in 2 cup baggies, and it will be there, waiting for mid-winter enjoyment.

Apple Pancakes

2009-10-10T20:07:00.002-04:00

I've been busy, busy with all the apples I got recently from my parents' tree. Here is a simple example of how I've been using the apple bounty:

Apple pancakes. Use any pancake recipe, and as the pancakes cook, slip in 1/8 inch slices of peeled, cored, apples. That's it. If you're feeling adventurous, add an apple compote instead of maple syrup. More to come!

Old Fashioned Microwaved Oatmeal

2009-09-28T19:38:00.003-04:00

Old Fashioned? Yes. Microwaved? Certainly. So, it's old fashioned, microwaved oatmeal. For one person. Hearty, heart-healthy, and guaranteed to get you through the morning. Ready? Here's how.

Into a large microwave safe bowl, put:

1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats (don't bother with that quick cooking stuff - it's pustulent!)
2/3 cup water
1 small to medium apple - peeled, cored, and thinly sliced - less than 1/8 inch thick slices. any thicker, and the apple won't cook!
a dash each of salt, cinnamon, and freshly grated nutmeg (not too much of any...you don't really want to taste the spices. you just want them to enhance your apple)

Microwave the above at 2 minutes on "high". let rest for 10 seconds, stir, then let sit for one minute.

Microwave again on "high" for 3 minutes.

Stir in a few tablespoons sugar, honey, or whatever is your sweetener of choice. Mine is Splenda. Three packs. Not old fashioned, but I like it. Stir well. Put into a serving bowl. Top with a 'wafer-thin' sliver of butter, and put milk on top. Serve hot and steaming, and think 'gratitude' for apples in all their autumn glory!

It's Apple Festival Time!

2009-09-26T15:04:00.005-04:00

The house in which I grew up is still owned by my parents. They have always had venerable apple trees growing in the front yard. All the old trees I remember when I was a child have died (they were 40 years old, or so, in the early '70s, and the last of the old giants died around 5 years ago). But my parents had the foresight to plant some new trees. Yesterday, I paid a visit to the old homestead (we call it "51", after the street address) and picked these.

These apples taste of hometown -they have essence of childhood terroir. For that reason they're special enough. But it just so happens that anyone who tastes these apples fall in love. They are truly outstanding apples. I'm not sure what variety they are. They kind of look like Cortland, and their flesh is crisp and holds its shape in pies, but the flesh oxidizes quickly when cut, so that is not it.

Whatever variety they are, it's apple festival time around here. Soon, I'll post pics of apple pancakes, baked apple slices, applesauce, and right now, I'm working on apple juice (never did that before and I'm curious). Tarte tatin and more...coming right up!

Vertical Integration

2009-09-21T19:41:00.006-04:00

Vertical Integration - if you've been within a few hundred yards of business school you know this term. In this case, a fancy -schmancy way to say we're growing, preparing, cooking, and serving the food you see here.

My mom has grown vegetables in the family back yard for a long time. One of my summer jobs, when I was 16, was close enough to the house that I could drive home at lunchtime. I would come home, eat lunch, and help my mom pick green beans. I don't remember what I ate for lunch, but I remember picking those green beans, knowing we were going to enjoy them that evening. With the sun on my back, my mom, and our little dog, "Whiskey", snuffing 'round our heels all the while. Mip, our orange tiger cat, also known as "Mr. Soob", was probably somewhere around too, but he was a hunterly type when he was outside, and didn't want much to do with me except when he was sleeping on my bed. Split personality, that Mip.

So my mom has been growing vegetables almost her entire life, and this year, my dad got in on it too (other than rototilling and helping my mom, he was never that into planting and harvesting...until now.) At the shore, this year, my dad went on a root vegetable kick. Potatoes and carrots! I added some tomatoes and pepper plants. The soil at the shore is beautifully sandy. Perfect for growing root vegetables.

Yesterday, Nick and I went on a 11 mile kayak trip, and we were gone all day, so quickly, it was time for dinner. So I went out back to the vegetable patch, and dug up these.

The potatoes are divine. Thin skinned. Floury. Taste like good New Jersey sand. In all the best ways. The carrots are a little long in the tooth, so we can not eat them raw. But cooked. That's another story. So I peeled and sliced the carrots and potatoes, parboiled them in salted water... then drained them, put them in a well buttered pan (we call this skillet the 'artery' pan) with some parsley, thyme, and chives, also from the garden. Baked at 375 for about 30 minutes. Sweet, root vegetable goodness.

Meanwhile, I did a sliced cherry tomato salad with basil. Dressed with salt, pepper, red wine vinegar (would have used balsamic, but we didn't have any) and a little oil.

With a turkey burger from the grill, Nick and I had a stylin' din-din. After all, we'd earned it!

Real Men Do Eat...

2009-09-16T19:20:00.000-04:00

Quiche.

This morning, I prepared and baked a pie shell - a pate brisee- 1 1/2 cup flour, about 1/2 stick butter, salt, a bit of sugar, and some ice-water.

In a separate bowl, I beat three eggs, mixed in 1 1/2 cups mixed cream and milk, a pinch of nutmeg, pepper, and then added 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup muenster cheese. I put the mixture in the refrigerator, where it stayed all day. I asked Nick (who gets home from work before me) to pour the mixture into the pie shell, dot the top with some butter, and bake same at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

Nick made a salad and got some good bread out of the freezer (when I bake bread, I bake lots and freeze it). This bread, however, came from Costco - we buy it in two loaf quantities, cut each loaf in half, and then freeze the halves.

Nick picked me up from the train station. A half a loaf of bread, a salad, and the quiche, along with a glass of unoaked domestic chardonnay, made a grand dinner. We ate half the quiche tonight, and will eat half tomorrow. It reheats nicely. I always try to make two or even three dinners at once, when I cook on weeknights.

Mint Jelly

2009-09-15T20:12:00.000-04:00

I cranked out four jars of mint jelly this evening after work. First, I went out to the garden, where Nick and I have a huge mint patch growing. We have spearmint, peppermint, and apple mint. All our mint is grown from cuttings I got from my mom over 15 years ago. I had not intended to propagate the mint; it was sitting for a week in a glass of water in our sunny kitchen windowsill. It sprouted roots, so I planted it. Our mint patch is now five square feet in area - it's pinned between the lawn, the sidewalk, and the edging. I often wonder why the entire earth is not covered in mint, that plant spreads so prolifically. Once upon a time, I did what any thinking gardener would do. I had my mint growing inside a bottomed-out five gallon bucket. It grew nicely there - civilized and contained. Until one day, I turned my back. It jumped the sides, and now instead of a few tame mint plants, I have a mint field. So tonight, I picked .0001% of my mint field, then brought the leaves into the house, where I sorted and washed them.

I had inadvertently brought inside a pillbug who had been enjoying the mint; I found him (or her) in the sink. I transported the bug back outside, so he could live out his (it is hoped) future peaceful life. Imagine the alien abduction stories this bug could tell it's mates ..."you would not BELIEVE this..I was eating dinner. All of a sudden, I was 6 feet in the air. I ended up under blinding lights, my body sprawled out on this white thing - it was huge and hard. I lost my mouthful of mint. Huge floods of water came rushing down onto me. I almost drowned. Just when I thought I was a goner, I was lifted up, and here I am, like it never happened. Joe, I'm tellin' ya. Aliens are REAL!"

I chopped the mint, and made a strong mint infusion by steeping it in boiling water. I squeezed out the infusion, using a self-invented contraption of colander combined with an old clean t-shirt from Nick (I was supposed to use cheesecloth, but the t-shirt was cheaper.) Combined 1 3/4 cups of this infusion with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, three and a half cups of sugar, boiled it, then added the liquid pectin. Brought to a boil, for one minute, and there I had it! Well, not actually, it was not green enough for me, so I added 2 drops of green food coloring. Here is lots more info on home preserving, if you're interested.

I poured my jelly into my prepared jars, then, for good measure, treated my jars to a boiling water bath. When making jellies or jams, you can get away with just using the 'hot pack' method, but I like to be doubly sure that all the little microbes are dead as doornails, so I use the boiling water bath. The jars are cooling in the kitchen right now. This whole process took me only one hour. Nick and I tasted a bit of the extra jelly, and it is good, for sure. I think I might try this next using some of the basil in our garden. I always make lots of pesto and freeze it, but maybe some basil jelly will be welcome in the snows of January to come. I bet that would taste pretty good? Basil jelly?

Une Omelette Baveuse

2009-09-13T20:06:00.000-04:00

Nick and I got back this evening from the shore past our normal dinnertime of 6:30/ 7 pm. Having been on the bay all day, kayaking, we were rockin' the hunger. It was so late, and we were hungry. So, for dinner, we had an omelet. I cooked it in the Julia Child tradition. A bit runny in the middle, and therefore, light and luscious. Or should I say, "baveuse". Anyway, I put some shredded cheddar cheese inside this omelet and served it with biscuits (not shown) and sauteed onions and peppers. A beautiful sliced tomato with basil on the side.

Easy, Creamy Clam Chowder

2009-09-12T15:51:00.000-04:00

Simple Creamy Clam Chowder

I made this today for lunch - a cloudy, rainy day here on the eastern seaboard (of the US).

Here's how I did it:

heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil on medium-high heat, in a heavy kettle, stovetop.
saute 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped celery rib, one onion, chopped, for about 5 minutes until onion is golden, not brown.
add 2 cups fish stock and 2 tablespoons each chopped basil and parsley.simmer this for a few minutes.
3 minutes before serving, turn heat to low.
then add 10 clams, chopped, with their juice.
immediately before serving, add 1/2 cup heavy cream.

Serve with french bread, spread with salted butter.

And I'll leave you with this. It's been a few short weeks since the heat of summer was still upon us, and with it, this skipper, enjoying his (or her) pollen repast. Thanks to Nick for this beautiful parting shot.

Clam Spaghetti

2009-09-06T12:54:00.000-04:00

This time of year, on the New Jersey coastline, the warm waters of Barnegat Bay contrast with newly-crisp morning air, and brisk breezes whip frothy whitecaps into the water surface.

Nestled in their mud and sand homes live clams. My family loves clams. I think it's genetic, because I love clams too. Nick, to whom I've been married for almost 25 years, has come to tolerate clams. He will eat them, but he does not love clams. I love the scientific name of clams - Mercenaria mercenaria. This name references their role as "money". The first Americans (pre-European invasion) traded in clams, as food (dried) and used their shells, which are beautiful purple, white and gold, inside, as a form of money.

Clams are precious. So humble, simple, living in sand and mud, under the surface of the bay. Biologically, clams have changed little since the Cretaceous period. Fossils exist of creatures which are largely similar to our modern Mercenaria mercenaria.

Clams were initially scorned by early European immigrants to the United States as 'low' food. Northern Europeans deemed clams suitable only for eating by the lower classes. Now, clams are appreciated as a culinary delicacy by many, most certainly, members of my family. My mom and dad make clam patties, clam fritters, clam chowder, clam spaghetti, and my dad makes a killer 'clam egg'. When my parents go on trips, they take two clam rakes with them, they like clams so much.

I have read that clams move no more than 4 inches in their lifetimes. Well, silly me, why should that surprise me? They have a foot, but no legs. Clams stay buried in the mud, siphons up, filtering the smallest sea creatures and synthesizing the plankton into my lovely, sweet, edible nuggets of culinary delight - clams. This time of year, in September, the clams we dig from Barnegat Bay are more luscious than at any time of year. They're fattened up from all that rich plankton which forms in the warmth of the summer.

Warm is good, to a point. The clams seem to like it, but some other creatures who share the bay don't. Blue crabs are not happy when the water gets too warm, because their breathing apparatus is similar to that of insects - kind of a passive oxygen transfer system. Warm water holds less oxygen. Crabs need lots of available oxygen in the water, or they suffocate. Earlier this summer, there was a huge crab kill on Barnegat Bay. The water was so warm, the oxygen levels were depleted below the crabs' tolerance. The water is cooler now, and there are crabs in the bay again. I guess the new crabs must have come from other areas - through the inlet (from the ocean) or from neighboring bays.

Like many bodies of water, Barnegat Bay is getting warmer, due to development and in part due to the existence of Oyster Creek power station. Oyster Creek uses the waters of the bay to cool its reactor, sucking in and out 10 times the volume of the bay each year. Oyster Creek has been around since the 1960s, and is not the sole reason that the Bay is warming. A combination of nitrogen runoff (causing algae bloom), and other development pressures, along with Oyster Creek, makes the Bay warmer. The public loves water, and I love clams. We need to keep working together to preserve our ecosystems, including the Bay. Progress is being made - things look better for the environmental future than they did in the 1970s for sure. So, on to clam spaghetti.

We dug the clams used for clam spaghetti a day before we used them. After digging the clams, we hang them in a basket, suspended off the side of the dock, so that they're dangling in the bay, in clean water. So, the clams continue eating, but they expel the grit that they normally have inside them, because they're not living in sand and mud anymore. If I lived 1 inch below sand and mud, I'd be full of grit, too. Once the clams have cleaned themselves, it's time to bring them in for the harvest.

No surprise - you've got to open the clams to start making clam spaghetti. Clams are easier to open if they are cold. My parents taught me to chill them down in the freezer for about 15 minutes. The clams get sleepy in the freezer and are less resistant to being opened. The clams, being living beings, don't want to die. I don't blame them, so I try to make it as easy for them as I can. So the freezer is a primitive form of anesthesia. You get the clams sleepy from the freezer, then open the clams by taking a knife, inserting it in the side front of the clam, then sweeping the knife inside the clam, to sever the muscle that holds it closed. Once you have done that, the clam gives up, and you scrape it from its shell.

I was cooking to feed five people, so I used 30 clams in this recipe- medium to large sized. The large "honkers", I reserve for clam chowder, but you can use them if you want. I save the smaller clams (1 1/2 inch to 2 inch) for eating raw on the half shell, or to steam. Next, take 2 cloves of garlic, or as much as you want, if you're a garlic lover, and cook (don't brown) in 1/2 stick of butter. I used unsalted, but if all you have is salted, use it. (Use less butter, if you're making a smaller quantity - remember I was cooking to feed five adults). Soften the garlic, stirring constantly, in the pan. Remember, do not brown the garlic! Last night, when we made this dish, my sister Leslie stirred the butter and garlic for over 10 minutes, only to have me come into the kitchen, turn the heat up, and burn the garlic. We had to dump it out and start over again. Learn from my mistake -go gently with the heat, and you'll not burn the garlic.

Meanwhile, drain most of the liquid from the clams, then chop the clams. (Do not grind them). I used a pair of old kitchen shears for this job. You can reserve the clam juice, if you want, for another use. Be aware that the clam juice is very salty (as are the clams...but the juice has a LOT of seawater in it). You're going to put the clams in at the very end, just as your pasta has 3 minutes to go. Because you do not want to cook the clams hard. You want to only warm the clams and turn them from translucent to cooked, right before serving. If you cook the clams hard, you'll end up with little rubber bands, not clams.

Chop your parsley. This is my sister, Leslie's hand at the beginning of her chopping sequence. The parsley was from my mom's beautiful shore garden, which includes assorted herbs, marigolds, phlox, cosmos, zinnias, and such. The garden is right outside the back door, on the way to the dock.
Right when your pasta is finishing up, around at the three-minutes-to-go mark, add your chopped clams, and cook for about 2 minutes. Then, add some heavy cream. Not much - just enough to smooth it out. For five people, I used 1/2 cup. Then, add the chopped parsley, and...if you have it, about 2 ounces good quality white wine (we used a nice unoaked chardonnay).Stir, warm, and you are ready to mix it with your drained, cooked pasta. Mix the pasta and the clam mixture well, tossing to cover all the noodles. Reserve some of the clam mixture to put on top of your finished dish, before serving, for appearance's sake.
Many people make clam spaghetti using olive oil, instead of butter and cream. I like the butter and cream more than olive oil, as these seem to 'soften' and complement the flavor of the clams. Use some pepper on the final dish. You won't need salt.

Thanks to Mary and Leslie for culinary assistance and photographic documentation!

Country Style Chicken Soup - Or What I Do With A Leftover Rotisserie Chicken

2009-08-22T20:20:00.001-04:00

When Nick and I buy a rotisserie chicken, we get at least five meals from it. The first night, we play primal caveman. We take a drumstick or thigh, and a few slices from the bird. That first night is always the best. On days two and three, we cut successive slices from the beast, usually eating it with my homemade bread, or potatoes, and always a salad. On day four, it's chicken soup time.

My chicken soup varies with my mood, but it always starts like this. Pick the remaining meat off the carcass and reserve. Meanwhile, sweat some onions (mandatory), and, possibly celery, green pepper, carrot (depending on mood). Then crush and toss in some garlic (or not). Take the bones of the carcass, from which most of the meat is stripped, and separate them, so that they will lie in the bottom of the kettle, and will be totally immersed in 2 or 3 inches of water. Add the bones, the water, and various herbs (I used whole fresh ones from the garden in summer, which I later remove, a la bouquet garni). The herbs I used today were rosemary, parsley, and thyme.

Simmer (don't boil) for about 1 hour. Remove the bones and the herbs. Discard the herbs. Scour the bones for any remaining meat, and return the meat to the pot.

Now, is when I can get creative. Today, we picked a zucchini from the garden. That, and my love of basil, made me think, "summery provencal style". So I added the squash and some chopped tomatoes and 2 cups of cooked garbanzo beans. (I cook beans in quantity and keep them in 2 cup portions in my freezer). I simmered about 15 minutes more, then I added some chopped basil, and finally, the reserved meat from the chicken, which I chopped up before adding to the pot.

We had this tonight, and have enough left over to have again on Monday (a worknight, when cooking time is nonexistent). I love when I can do two meals in one!

I served the soup salad and Ruhlman's "3-1-2" biscuits, which, for just Nick and me, was 1 cup flour, a few tablespoons butter, 1 t. baking powder, salt, and enough milk to make it stick together.

Clams, A Whole Army of Them!

2009-08-21T19:23:00.001-04:00

One of my family's favorite things to do is go clamming on Barnegat Bay. I always bring some home. Nick, my husband, being a midwesterner, took many years of marriage to me, but eventually go so he's willing to eat clams. So, after work today, I made us some clam fritters.
I used this recipe, as I didn't want to delve through all my cookbooks to find a suitable one. This one was light on flour, and it turned out to be a good thing. The key is to pour the liquid into very hot oil. Yumilicious.

Peach Jam

2009-08-18T20:11:00.000-04:00

When I was little, my mom would buy peaches by the 1/2 bushel, and can them. She used my Grammy Alice's old canning kettle, and quart-sized Ball canning jars. I remember playing with the circular canning lids while sitting on the floor, where the living room met the kitchen, watching my mom skin the peaches, prepare the simple syrup, cook it all, then ladle it into the hot clean jars, after which they'd go into the canning (sterilizing) kettle. When they were done, she'd lift them out with a stainless steel cage, into which each jar nestled.

I've channeled this heritage by making peach jam this evening. Sometimes, I crave the instantaneous results that such efforts yield. I have seven jars of peach goodness, after 1 hours work tonight.

This recipe is simple - 5 cups of peeled, chopped peaches, 1 box of granular pectin, 5 cups of sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Boil. Ladle into jars. Process jars in boiling water 10 minutes. And there you have it - holiday gifts ready for the packing. If they make it until then! I sneaked a few spoonfuls of this, and it is mmm, mmm, good!

Impromptu Salad Bar

2009-08-17T18:00:00.001-04:00

This is about taking what you have, and making dinner from it!

On the upper left, there are tomatoes from my garden. Romas, cut up, along with Sweet 100 cherries, and yellow pear tomatoes. On the lower right, is a hot pepper. Cucumbers, sweet peppers, and red onions complete the palette.

Nick's coming home soon, bearing, it is hoped, a rotisserie chicken. That, field greens, the veggies above, and bread, make a balanced meal at our house! .

Fish Stock!

2009-08-16T14:52:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Michael Pollan put an article in the New York Times Magazine. I like Michael Pollan's work, and find it informative and thought provoking. I recommend his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, to you, if you've not already read it. In the New York Times article, Pollan states that many of us don't cook anymore, except to heat things up - things like pre-packaged food. Interestingly, he notes the concurrent proliferation of armchair cooking - that Americans love to watch TV shows about cooking - shows like "Iron Chef". But that these shows are entertainment. They don't seek to teach us how to cook, as Julia Child did, in her PBS show of the 60s/70s. (I remember watching that show with my mom - I reacted the same way many others did - I was inspired that I, too, can cook! I figured, all I need is a sense of adventure and some ingredients. The worst thing that would happen is what I create is inedible - hardly a tragedy. And, since I started cooking for myself and my college friends in the 1980s, I've not had too many total, irreperable failures in the kitchen. That inspiration came from Julia. And it also came from my dad - who showed me from the time I was four years old, I could do pretty much anything I wanted. Of course, my dad's idea of adventure was me cutting the grass, putting up insulation, and cleaning the cars. But he also spent the entire summer of 1968 teaching me to water ski. He taught me to sail. He taught me to change the tire and oil on my 1972 Ford Pinto - I had to learn those things before I was allowed to drive. What with all that hard work, he gave me a pretty strong work ethic from that...and confidence. He was the toughest boss I've ever had. And that includes U.S. Army bosses, restaurant bosses, lawyer bosses, and on and on. None are ever even half as tough as dad was. When I told him that once, he shrugged it off - I don't think he believed me! I'll tell you about my mom later - she was just as influential, in different ways, to me and my two sisters as we were growing up.

Speaking of my dad - he caught some flounder yesterday, and saved me the bones. I have recently become enamored of the book, Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman. In this book, Ruhlman instructs us how to think about cooking. Not to think 'recipe', but to think logic, and ratio. I've been doing that, more or less, for over 25 years - I've never been one for following recipes. I use recipes as a base from which to riff my own food. Ruhlman's book takes my ideas much farther. He says that pretty much all cooking is based on basic ratios. Take bread. It's 5 parts flour (by weight) to 3 parts water. Then add yeast, salt, and so on. If you use the 3:5 ratio for bread, you'll get decent bread. It might not be earth shatteringly delicious, but it will be good. That's the basic idea behind the book. There's more, but you'll have to look at the book for yourself, because I want to move on to what I cooked today.

Stock. From the flounder bones my dad gave me.

Here's basically what I did to make fish stock:

Chop coarsely some onion and celery. Put in kettle with a little oil. "Sweat" the vegetables (on medium heat, with lid on) for about 5 to 10 minutes. Do not brown them.

Meanwhile, soak the fish bones in very cold water. (See below for a photo of my bones. My FISH bones, silly. Not mine.) Change the water a few times. This gets the blood out.

Drain the fish bones (after offering a bit of sushi to the cat), and add them to the vegetables. "Sweat" the bones with the vegetables for about 5 minutes. Then add water and other herbs (I used parsley and thyme, and a bay leaf, with one leaf of sage). Bring to just under a simmer. Don't boil. Cook on low heat for 30 minutes. Cool, and strain. Salt to taste. (If you wanted you could leave the fish bits and vegetables in there, you could...especially if making a fish stew... But I discarded my bone scraps since most of the nutrition and flavor has been leached out by the water.). Pretty darn tasty stock! I'm going to freeze my stock in 2 cup portions, and use it to cook rice, as a base for soup, to enrich my clam chowder, and so on.