Marjorie Approved Turkey Meatballs

Soooooo, never leaving anything alone, I have a new Turkey Meatball recipe

There are three things to remember
1)  Fresh ground turkey, no frozen chubs.  I prefer turkey from The Turkey Store (Go Barron WI), but you can use other.
2)  You MUST cook by temperature - once the meatballs hit 150, off the heat they go.  At 170 they turn into dry disgusting balls of sawdust.  Under 150 you risk food poisoning.  So get a Thermapen.
3)  Seasoning is your friend - low fat means you need lots of seasoning.  Under season and they are boringly bland

Ingredients
1 lb fresh ground turkey (I use 93/7 - you can use 99/1, but that is pretty dry stuff
8 ounces fresh mushrooms
1/2 onion
1 stalk celery
Garlic (you can use fresh, or use Penzeys Roasted Garlic)
Seasoning as appropriate (depending on if you want Italian, Asian, Swedish, or other style meatballs). For Italian I like Penzeys Tuscan Sunset and for Asian the Sate seasoning.
Salt
Pepper

Sauce of choice, depending on style of meatballs

Recipe
Finely dice onion, celery and mushrooms
Saute onion, celery and 1/2 the mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper, and whatever seasoning your using.  Cook till soft, then cool.
Spread cooked veg on plate, spread turkey of the top
Spread rest of mushrooms on top of turkey, salt, pepper, season with seasoning
Mix together, but not too much.  Compress the turkey, you get blech

At this point I like to make a quarter size piece of the meatballs (squished flat) and cook, to check the seasoning.  Then adjust seasonings if necessary and cook the rest

Heat pan  medium (I use teflon, just spray oil)
Make meatballs and begin to brown
Once meatballs are brown on two sides (but not cooked yet), I add sauce and turn temp down to low. The idea is that the sauce will bring the temp of the meatballs up slowly to 160, making it hard to overcook.  Remember - at 150 they come off the stove.  Residual heat will bring them to 155

Serve - I like using Rosarios Spaghetti Sauce over Zucchini noodles.

Marjorie Approved

Leek and Potato Soup - 100 calories a cup!

I like this soup in the fall when leeks are cheap.  As in 69 cents each.  When they are $2.69 each, I don't like them as much.  Plus, they are cheap when potatoes are cheap also - 50 cents a lb - so a big win on the budget front.

To determine calories, you must of course base it on what you use.  Your calorie count will vary...

Ingredients

Leeks (3 @54 calories each, 162 calories total)
Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled (18 ounces @ 26 calories per ounce, 468 calories total)
Swanson or Progresso Chicken Broth, low sodium (8 cups, 15 cal per cup, 120 calories total).  Or go with vegetable broth.
1 cup water (free)
salt and pepper to taste (free)
Thyme to taste (free)

Yields 8 cups, so 94 calories per cup with what I used.

Cut the dark green portions of the leeks off, slice in half the long way, then slice fine.  Put in a big pot of water and swish around to get the dirt out of them.  Drain.

Add to big pot and sweat (that is, cook at low to medium heat till they soften).  You don't need oil, butter or anything else.  They will release moisture as they cook down.  Salt with about a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper.

Peel and slice potatoes into 1/4 thick slices.  I do it this way because they then cook evenly no matter how big the potato is - every slice cooks at the same speed.

When leeks have gotten soft (10 to 15 minutes), add potatoes, thyme, broth and water.  Cook at medium until potatoes are soft

Put half at a time into a blender, blend till smooth - be careful and put a towel over the blender and don't fill it more than 1/2 way - to much is a good way of blowing the top off, burning yourself and painting the walls with the soup.

When pureed, serve.  Good hot, good cold.

Peace and Comfort, a.k.a. Death and Disaster, a.k.a.Joy and Celebration - Chicken and Uncle Bens Long Grain and Wild Rice Casserole

This is one of those family recipes that came from my mother.  Where she got it from, I suspect a Better Homes and Garden cookbook from the 60's.  It has that vibe - you know when beans and wienies with bottle bbq sauce was fine living.  It is the opposite of fine cooking ala Mark Bittman.  It is full of sodium and fat.  It has no fresh vegetables.  But for when it is needed - it is just the thing. My mom always called it Death and Disaster - for when there was a death or disaster in the neighborhood, this is what she made to take over.

I think the habit of making food for your neighbors in time of trouble has become a lost art.  First - do you even know your neighbors?  I don't, not really. Not like when I grew up.  Today we live in a neighborhood, but we don't live life together.  Xbox and Cable, a dozen different churches (or none), with schools so big you will never know your classmates - we don't live life together.  Shame on us.

Later, my sister in law renamed it Joy and Celebration - because it is a fine dish to bring over in time of  Joy and Celebration, and perhaps she is just a little less fatalistic than my mother (and I).  So it became Joy and Celebration.  I made it when we went to visit our new granddaughter.  And visit our daughter and son in law, but lets face it, its all about the bebe.  Joy and Celebration it was.

Recently I had the occasion to make it for a family where the mother of two young children had died. Well, I really did not want to call it death and disaster (although the situation is both), but Joy and Celebration really did not fit.  So what to call it....

In all the events this is shared, it really is about sharing life together.  Sadness and Joy.  Death and Life.  So I have renamed this dish - it shall now and forever more be called Peace and Comfort. Because that is what it is.  It is that family dish that binds together all who share it.  It is, and always has been food made of love.

The recipe is my mothers - with my edits in parenthesis.  This makes a lot of food - it comes from a time when 3 kids was a small family.  Cut the recipe in half or make it in two dishes - one to share and one for your family to eat.

• 2 chickens, cut up (or just a bunch of chicken thighs - boneless or not, but I do remove the skin.  I think thighs handle the cooking time better than the breasts)
• 2 packages Uncle Ben's Rice-Wild Rice Mix, but only one of the seasoning mixes.  Mom thinks it is too salty with both. (I agree)
• 1/4 cup brown rice
• 1/2 cup white rice
• 1/2 cup french dressing
• 2 cans each cream of celery, cream of mushroom, and cream of chicken soup (so that's six cans of soup)- Mom says low fat does not work well - who am I to disagree?
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 soup can water
• Hazelnuts, a.k.a. filberts (My sister in law omits them - I insist on them)
• Parmesan cheese (or other)

Mix all ingredients except chicken, nuts and cheese and put 2/3 in bottom of baking pan. Place chicken parts on top. Cover with remaining mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to coat. Add nuts. Bake at 350 for 75-90 minutes. This reheats well.

May it bring peace and comfort to those who you share it with, in times of death and disaster as well as in times of joy and celebration.

Green Sauce, a.k.a. Creamy Green Sauce a.k.a. Jalapeno Avocado Sauce a.k.a. ?????

There are a lot of names for this, none of them really very accurate, outside of “green sauce”, because it is, well, green. You will find this in only the finest taco joints.  And by finest, I mean good ones.

While smooth and luscious, there is no dairy, so not really creamy (although you could add crema or yogurt)

While it kind of tastes like perhaps there is avocado in it, there isn’t.  But you could put one in instead of the oil.

It is really just, well, DELICOUS!  Crazy Good!  The kind of stuff you go to a taco joint just to eat spoonfuls of!

So, what is it?

Jalepenos (or other pepper like Poblanos or Anaheims), onion, garlic, salt, fresh squeezed lime (if you like) and oil, cooked and pureed.

Super simple – make some tonight!

This is the mild version - if you follow the directions, it really will be pretty mild, unless your jalapenos are the insanely hot (sometimes they are)

Ingredients

• ·         1lb jalapenos (about 20 or so)
• ·         4-5 green onions, cut into 3 inch sections, whites and greens)
• ·         3-6 cloves garlic, peeled
• ·         ½ teaspoon salt
• ·         ¼ cup corn oil (or other neutral oil – no olive oil)
• ·         ½ lime juice, to taste

Recipe

• ·         Put on some disposable gloves
• ·         De-stem, de-seed and de-rib the jalapenos.  If you like your sauce spicier, skip step – just toss in whole.   WEAR GLOVES.  Really bad idea to do this and then rub your eyes.  #justsayin
• ·         Toss jalapenos, green onions into pot of water, bring to boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until soft (about 20 minutes)
• ·         For the last 1 minute or so, toss the peeled garlic cloves into the simmering water.  This will temper the raw garlic taste
• ·         Drain, let cool
• ·         If you did not de-stem, etc earlier, do so now.  The more seeds and ribs you scrape out, the milder it will be.  Like it spicier?  Leave some or all of that out.  But do get rid of the stems
• ·         Toss everything into blender, add salt, puree at low speed
• ·         When things are getting nice and pureed, start slowly adding oil to mixture in blender.  Once added, speed up the blender.  Basically your making a nice emulsion so the oil does not separate out of the sauce
• ·         Taste, add more salt or squeeze some lime juice into the mix while blending.  The lime juice will brighten up the flavors.  Not sure it needs it, be sure to start with just a half lime.  You could use a tablespoon of white vinegar

Options

If too spicy, cut with greek yogurt or sour cream or add advocados.  Yogurt adds it's own tang and was generally preferred in our house.  If you were planning on using yogurt, especially yogurt with fat in it, I would probably reduce the amount of oil.  Same if your adding advocados

1 cup cilantro is a very nice contribution - just put it in at the start of the blending stage.

I like it better without the lime, but to each their own

If you want to have this on chips, remember you want El Milagro "Totopos" homestyle chips.  Really you do.

EAT IT

Dad’s Butternut Squash, Chicken and Pasta, Risotto style

Dad’s Butternut Squash, Chicken and Pasta, Risotto style.  Low calorie, low fat, all delicious.

This is cooked risotto style - that is to say the pasta is sauted in a pan then cooked in chicken stock with the rest of the ingredients.  As it is not boiled, merely simmered,  the pasta takes longer than normal to cook.

Calories are approximately 194 per cup.  Approximately.  It depends on how much you cook down the sauce, how much cheese you put on, did you measure the oil, how big was your butternut squash, etc.  So basically, with 2 tbs of grated parm on top, I call a two cup serving 400 calories.

1 onion, small dice

1 stalk celery, small dice

1 red bell pepper, small dice (or large, if a food fusser wants to pick out theirs)

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and diced fine

1 medium to large butternut squash, cubed (½ inch cubes) - mine ended up being 5 cups diced.

1 lb raw chicken breast, no skin, bone or fat,  cubed (½ inch cubes)

2 oz white wine or white vermouth

3 cups chicken broth

4 oz Creamette 150 calorie pasta

½ lemon

1 tbs italian seasoning (dried basil, thyme, etc.  I use Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset)

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese (not included in above calorie count - 1 tbs grated is 20 calories)

Heat pan (burner at 6 or so (medium heat)  add olive oil.  Put chicken in Pan, brown chicken  in a teflon coated chicken fryer that has a lid.  You could do this in a Le Crueset pot, but you will probably need another ½ tbs of olive oil if you do.  Don’t forget to adjust your calorie count. You do not need to cook it all the way through at this time - just brown it.  It will finish cooking later.  After brown, put to the side in a bowl, leaving any remaining oil, juices in frying pan.

Return pan to heat.  Saute the onion, celery, red bell pepper and italian seasoning.  If you need to add oil , adjust your calorie count.  Since I used a teflon coated pan, I did not need to.  When just about turning brown (or browning a little bit) add the garlic, saute for another couple of minutes.  I am generally at medium heat for this.

Add Pasta, saute with veg.  Pasta will get coated with oil and start to toast.  Feel free to cook for a while, or not.  Add vermouth or wine and stir.  When the pasta has absorbed the vermouth, use a spatula to scrape out the pan into the bowl that is holding the chicken and set aside.

Return pan to the burner and add the butternut squash and chicken stock.  Bring to a low boil (still at medium heat), cook for 5-6 minutes.  Be sure to cover the pot at this time to keep the chicken stock from evaporating too much.  When you taste a piece and it is getting cooked, but still firm, that is where you want it.

At this point, add all the ingredients back to the pan that is cooking the squash in the stock.  Stir, and cover.  A nice thing about the teflon chicken fryer I have is that it is a glass top, so you can observe the cooking without pulling the top.  This keeps the cooking temperature up, the evaporation down.  

Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring two or three times  Basically you are cooking the pasta till al dente - just slightly chewy.  The sauce is going to thicken and become very creamy, even though you did not add any dairy nor flour nor cornstarch..  Basically this is a combination of the starch from the pasta and the butternut squash forming a nice thick sauce.  You may need to add a little boiling water if it is getting too thick and the pasta is not cooked yet.  I usually just get the electric tea kettle going and keep the water hot in case I need it.  If the pasta is cooked and it is to liquidy, I take the top off and cook it down some.  Generally if you use the same proportions I do, you won’t need to do much of this.

When the pasta is just about cooked, and the sauce is nice and thick, I turn off the heat and let it sit for a minute or two. If you wanted to  you could mix in a bag of frozen peas which would make a little more food and add some nice green color (adjust calories if you do, although I think the per serving calorie count would be near about the same).

Just before serving, squeeze the juice of half of a lemon on top and stir.  Serve, with grated parmesan on top.

This will make four servings of two cups each. More or less, depending on how thick your sauce is.

A great dish, the takes some work but not to much.   It should be served immediately as you do not want the pasta to overcook.

A nice green salad would be perfect with this.  If you wanted to make this vegetarian, I would add a can of drained chick peas in place of the chicken.  Adjust the calorie count as required.

If you had some left over chicken sausage, that would be great also. Adjust calorie count.

Fish Taco's - Why Don't You Make Them?

I mean really - how easy can you get?  You really just want to have some ground up mystery meat stuffed in a piece of bread?  No I say - especially with Tilapia available year round, and usually inexpensive.

So tonight's dinner - Tilapia Tacos with grilled onions and peppers, corn with black beans  and a salad of lettuce, tomato, sour cream and guacamole.

The other advantage is that this is about the only way I actually like fish, and everyone else in the family is usually wining at me for more fish.  So.....Fish Tacos

Served on whole grain tortilla, this is a very healthy and very delicious meal - one you don't have to feel like you deprived yourself in order to have a good meal.  No, this is not real Mexican food.  But is good.
Ingredients

Corn and Beans
1 lb frozen corn - a great use of your own corn
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup Cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime

Salad
Lettuce
Avocado or 1/2 cup Guacamole
1 tomato
1/2 cup sour cream

Fish Tacos
1 lb Tilapia fillets (cut fillets in half the long way so each filet gives you two pieces)
2 tbs Chicken Taco Seasoning from Penzeys
1/2 lime
1 Pepper - yellow, red, green or orange, sliced thin
1 Onion - sliced thin
1/4 cup Cilantro
4 large whole wheat tortillas or 8 small ones
shredded cheese if you like

Recipe

This is a three pan dance.  Start the corn and beans in first pan, then lower temp and hold.  Make and place salad on plates.  Cook Onions and Peppers in one pan, Tilapia in the other, then assemble plates and serve (see above picture)

Corn and Beans
Heat Corn and Beans
Before serving stir in juice of 1/2 lime and cilantro
Serve.  If you like more spice, 1/2 tsp of cumin would be fine.

Salad
Pile it up - lettuce, tomato, avocado, guacamole, sour cream.  Sprinkle some cheese and cilantro.  Green onions over the top would be nice

Fish Tacos
Thaw and dry Tilapia.
Rub some oil (1tbs or so) on the fish, sprinkle with taco seasoning.  Let sit for 15 minutes
Heat two frying pans to medium/medium high (this is the only tricky part
In one pan put 1 tbs oil, add onions and pepper slices.  Toss till almost cooked to the way you like it, then turn off heat and hold.
In the other pan, at the same time, put 1 tbs oil, then add the Tilapia.  Cook almost all the way through, then flip.  Turn off stove - the residual heat will cook the fish through.
Arrange Taco by placing one to two filets on warmed tortilla, add onions/peppers, squirt some lime juice on top and toss with cilantro

Grand Finale
Set out four plates.
Arrange Salad, Corns and Beans, assemble one (or two) tacos per plate

Spicy Peanut Noodles (not really plagiarized recipes)

Does anyone really buy cookbooks anymore?  Does anyone even use them?  I mean other than as eye candy for the living room table or to fill space on a bookshelf?  I certainly don't (at least very often).

Instead, it is the Internet.  Yes, thanks to Al Gore, we have the internet were all things live in a kind of matrix, waiting for us to explore.  Kind of crazy really.

Which brings us to today's recipe - Spicy Peanut Noodles.  Now the recipe below is not plagiarized  exactly.  Well sort of....borrow from one source it's plagiarism, borrow from two it is research, after all.....

Ok then.  I found this first at Pink-Parsley, via a link on Pulse and Food Republic.  Which of course gave the HT to Pinch of Yum, which collected it from FN Just Recipes, which got it off of Serious Eats  by an author who has her own blog at Once Upon a Chef, but cites no one.  Perhaps she is Al Gore...

So, this is really research, right?

Well, what it is is great.  Great made a number of ways, vegetarian or not.  It is easy to make vegetarian and them simply toss in cooked chicken or shrimp for those of us who miss it.  You can make it spicy, or not.  Also dirt simple to take to a pot luck - make it the night before in it's constituent pieces, bag them, refrigerate, then mix all together at the pot luck.  If you have different veggies  use them.  Pieces of spicy fried tofu would be a nice addition


Dressing Ingredients 
5 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs water
2 Tbs natural peanut butter (I like chunky)
2 Tbs sesame oil
1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
1/2 Tbs honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp Siracha or Sambal - use more if you like heat, less if you don't
1 tbs Sate Seasoning from Penzey's if you do not have the ginger and garlic on hand
1/3 cup peanuts - I use unsalted dry roasted

Salad Ingredients 
1 cup julienne red and yellow pepper.  Heck, why not just one red and one yellow (or orange or green or whatever you have)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed in a paper towel to remove excess moisture
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken breast or 1 lb cooked shrimp (cook in the same sauce above if you like)
8 oz. cooked soba noodles or linguine or rice noodles
2-3 Tbs minced fresh basil - thai basil prefered
2-3 Tbs minced fresh cilantro
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

Recipe
For the dressing, combine all the ingredients (except peanuts) in a food processor and puree until smooth.  Add the peanuts, and pulse a few times until coarsely chopped.  Season with salt or crushed red pepper flakes to taste.  If you just want to whisk it together, that works also.  It does not bother me if the peanuts are whole

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the salad.  Pour the dressing over the top, and toss to combine.

Before serving, top with cilantro and basil, and sprinkle with additional red pepper flakes to taste.

Porc Normande - Pork Loin Roast Braised with Apples and Onions

Meme was the one who cooked "french" food at our home.  Of course my parents cooked many great french meals also, but here it was Meme.  I cooked all other types of food, but never french.  Except for this dish, Porc Normande (or, Pork Normandy, that is to say Pork cooked in the manner of the Norman area of France).  I am not sure why, yet there it is.

This is perhaps the simplest fine dining dish you can make (other than Prime Rib, which is truly stupid easy to make well, so long as you have a bunch of cash for the meat).  Porc Normande however is very inexpensive - Pork loin is often on sale for less than $2 a pound, and the rest of the ingredients are not expensive either.  Yet people will think you are a genius.

If you need to prepare a meal for a large crowd, super easy.  If you want to make it for two - also easy - use  pork chops and downsize the rest of the ingredients.  You can also prepare ahead of time, put it in the oven, entertain guests, pull from oven, finish, serve, and be acclaimed a great cook.  Or, prepare the day ahead and just warm in a 350 oven for a half hour or so and serve.

Ingredients

Pork Loin
2 onions, sliced
2 tart apples - think granny smith, macintosh, regent, northern spy.  Do not use Honey Crisp or the like.  They need to be pealed, cored and sliced
2 tbs Calvados (apple brandy) - you don't have to use this - sometimes I will add a 1/2 c of fresh apple cider
12 oz chicken broth (or, if your not using the Calvados, use 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 fresh apple cider (do not buy pasteurized - that is just apple juice - live a little and take a chance!  Besides, it is getting cooked for hours)
1/2 cup cream (you can substitute fat free half and half or reduced fat sour cream - but do not bring the sauce to a boil after adding - only cream or half and half can hold together and not separate in the sauce)
Salt, Pepper, oil, butter, flour

Recipe

Heat oven to 350 degrees and get out the Le Crueset pot - sized according to how much Pork Loin you are cooking
Place pot on stove and heat it up on medium heat
Add 1 tbs oil, brown Pork Loin on each side, remove from pan
Add onions and apples, cook until golden brown.
Add Calvados, flame.  Try not to burn yourself.  Don't blame me if you do - I will only mock you.
After the brandy has burned off, add stock and/or cider, pork loin.  Cover and place in oven.
Cook for 1 - 2 hours - until meat is tender
Remove meat, cover with foil to keep warm
Place pot on stove over medium heat and cook down the sauce.  If you like you can make a roux to cheat and thicken the sauce.
If you like you can use your boat motor to puree the apples and onions, or not.
Add cream, bring to boil, adjust seasoning ( basically add salt and pepper to taste)
Slice roast (thick slices - 3/8 of an inch or more), serve with sauce poured over the top (or just add the sliced roast back to the Le Crueset pan and serve.

This is a great dish to serve with braised red cabbage, caramelized apples, mashed potatoes, egg noodles - feel free to go with what ever option you like.

Vegetable Bourguignon -

With an assist from Smitten Kitchen, my version of Vegetable Bourguignon

Boeuf Bouruignon (literally Beef Burgundy) is one of those dishes made of love by both of our parents.  It is a dish to fill the house with scents and to be treasured as one of those truly great meals.  I am sure Meme learned from her parents, and I know my mom and dad learned from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as well as her show, The French Chef.

However, with half my family vegetarian and the other on a very restricted diet, it really is not a dish that we can have the way Julia made.  My version pumps up the vegetables, and cuts the pasta.  It is however still a great dish - one worth of family events made of love.

Ingredients


1 tablespoon olive oil
1 carrot, finely diced
2 stalks of celery, finely diced.
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon seasoning - thyme is traditional, but I often used Penzey's mixed Italian blend
2 tablespoons tomato paste (use the double strength in a tube stuff - don't open and waste a can of it)
1 cup full-bodied red wine  Burgundy is the traditional, but a pinot noir or a petite sirah should be ok or any other dry, full bodied red wine (that means no Apothic/Cupcake or other of these modern chocolate bombs)
1 can (or 2 cups) vegetable broth (or chicken or beef if you have no vegetarians for dinner)
1 tbs Bragg liquid aminos (help pump up the flavor)
1 lb bag of baby carrots
2 pounds of mushrooms, halved or quartered, depending on size.  Feel free to use white, brown, button, whatever you have - even use a combination.  Many recipes have you slice them, but I like them a little bigger so they have more bite, more like the Boeuf.
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (evil, I know.  But it is not much)
1 1/2 tablespoons butter (I know, evil. But as this is a meatless dish, I do not mind the limited amount of fat we are using)


Green Beans and little Red Potatoes to serve with.  No little sugar bombs (a.k.a. pasta)

Recipe

Get out the big Le Crueset pot.  Yes, the 7 quart or bigger version.  No messing around, you have a lot of food going in this.
Saute the finely diced onion, celery and carrots for 10-15 minutes, until they are soft.  Low-medium temp, not more than medium.
Add Garlic and thyme (or other spice) and saute for 2 minutes more
Add tomato paste and saute for another couple of minutes - you are turning the paste brown (it really does change the flavor).  Try not to burn it.
Add the wine, turn up the heat (medium high) and cook wine down 50% or so.
Add broth, aminos and baby carrots.  Cook at medium for 10 minutes
Add mushrooms.  Now the pot will look to full - and you will think, not enough liquid.  Yes, you have enough liquid.  Every couple of minutes stir the pot - the mushrooms will release moisture and "poof" all of a sudden you have enough liquid.
Cook for 20 minutes with the lid on on a medium to low medium heat - you want bubbles, but not a rolling boil
Start your potatoes
Cook for 20 minutes with the lid off (time to concentrate the liquid).
Start your green beans
Cut flour with butter (mix and mush together into a paste)
Add paste to bourguignon and cook for another five minutes.  The sauce will thicken and the flour taste will cook off

Serve

Wedding Cakes Made of Love

Mom is a good cook, she just doesn't love to cook.  She was perfectly happy to let meme or I do it, which worked well for us, because we loved to cook.

Don't let that fool you into thinking she does not understand that food is made of love.  In addition to canning, Mom has always loved baking.  She taught herself how to make cakes in high school, turned it into a business, and has always loved making cakes.  Even when, perhaps, it might of been better to not make the cakes.....but that is another story, for another time.  Perhaps.

For Emilie and Chris's wedding, Dominique made 17 separate wedding cakes - all eight or nine inch rounds. In 14 different flavors.  Raspberry, almond, coffee, vanilla, chocolate, and a whole bunch I don't remember.  It was a crazy way to spend 3 days before the wedding, as the mother of the bride has a few things going on....I guess I did go into that other story, at least a little bit.  But the end result was wonderful, delicious, and added food made of love to our daughters wedding.

At least I was not crazy enough to try to cook for 200 guests.....

How Mom Makes Food Made of Love - Homemade Jam

At Chez Carlson, the children saw their father and their meme did most of the cooking.

However, Mom also got into food made of love - typically by canning and baking.  For Jeremie and Maria's wedding, she made the wedding favors - over 200 four ounce jars of jam.  Peach, raspberry, blueberry, rhubarb  strawberry and I think a couple of mixes.  Most of the fruit came from our yard, but I will concede that perhaps the peaches came from out of state.....Wisconsin is not a peach growing state.

While she is planning on a weekend of making jam and canning and inviting the children, here is a video on how to make jam and can it, although as the video shows, you don't have to can in order to make it.  It is simple and delicious.

This is how I would eat in Mexico City

The Grey Lady ain't what she used to be, but still is better than most newspapers.  From last Sunday's NYT, a great article on Tamales, Tortas and Tacos in Mexico City.

Most of what you get in America is not what Mexicans eat.  There are very few places where you can get that kind of food.  In Eau Claire, WI, that is pretty much limited to Taqueria Sandoval and Tacos Juanita  (which happen to be the top 2 rated Mexican restaurants in EC on Yelp, proving at least enough people have good taste).

Fun article.  Makes me want to both go to Mexico City and to eat real Mexican food - It might be time for a run to Taqueria Sandoval for some Tamales that they serve out of a 40 gallon pot by the front cash register.