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.

Best Tortilla Chips Ever - El Milagro

El Milagro products are made in Chicago.  And, as with many great Mexican places, they combine both their factory with a taqueria.  Now that is a restaurant I want to eat at.

Anyway - the point is this - these are the best tortilla chips you will ever eat.  Thick, crunchy, tasting of corn, not to much salt ... incredibly addictive.  I buy mine at Mercado Sandoval in Eau Claire for $2.89 a bag - a great deal.

Perfect Pan Fried Salmon

I hate fish.  I hate fishing.  I hate cleaning fish.  I hate cooking fish.  I hate eating fish*.

There, I said it.  Pretty sure it is the only time my cooking ever disappointed Meme was on the topic of fish.  Also pretty much got to the point that Meme and the rest of the family was happy when I was out of town because they could then have fish.

Yet I still prepared fish, occasionally  because it is what my family wants, and that is food made of love - food made for others because of the love you have for them.  But I did it grudgingly - is that really food made of love?

Yet I still tried, at least occasionally.

So at Festival Food they had a big Atlantic Salmon sale.  Lots of fresh salmon (it actually did not smell like fish, so it might actually be reasonable fresh, or recently thawed at least).  So even though I hate salmon particularly, I bought it and made it.  I hate salmon so much I made myself something else to eat.

But I discovered something.  I liked this salmon.  I mean I really liked it.  It was great.  So what was the difference?

First off, I learned to what degree or temp to cook it to.  Basically, salmon should be cooked rare - yes, that's right, cook it rare - about 110 degrees in the center, 150 degrees at the edge.  Start with a medium high pan, turn it down to medium after you put the fish in.  Which leads to ...

Second, how to cook it - skin side down till it is about 110 in the center, then flip over and cook just to brown it slightly.  In fact you can turn the heat off when you flip the fish.  Basically you are cooking it through on one side, then just setting the fish on the other side. Use an instant temp thermometer.

Third, seasoning.  Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Sure you can do it a whole bunch of ways, but if you have good fish, that is all you need.  You don't even need lemon

Oh - and this way the skin gets crisp.  And tastes good

For all the gory details, go to The Food Lab.  However, this is the short version.

So the basic details are most salmon you get is horribly overcooked - and thus disgusting.  So a lot of places will highly season it - butter or soy sauce or other glop to cover the fact you screwed up the fish by cooking it well done.

Don't screw it up.

*I did not like eating fish outside of deep fried battered covered.  With tarter sauce on top and coleslaw and fries on the side.   Of course one could argue that is barely fish, but whatever.

Carrot Cake Muffins

Well, carrots are healthy right?  So Carrot Cake Muffins are healthy right?

Rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhtttttttt

Well, perhaps not so much.

Picture is not the best - they really are more like the center one in color.  Of course after Marjorie got done putting the cream cheese frosting on, they were all white on top.

Creme cheese is dairy, right?  And dairy is healthy, right?

Rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhtttttttt

Well, at least it was reduced fat creme cheese.  And of course sugar comes from corn.  And corn is healthy, right?

Rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhtttttttt

Well, here they are with the creme cheese frosting - a little melty.

Anyway - Food made of Love from daughter #3, Marjorie

Pretty tasty - and she even went out to get me cofffee to go with them.

Recipe is from Smitten Kitchen.  No changes - but Mags made them.  Click on the link if you would like to make them also.

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.

Cioppino -Bouillabaisse - Gumbo - Big Words - Ooh La L

Food is really pretty much the same all over the world.  Sure, different spices.  Perhaps olive oil in one area, butter in another.  But in the end, many of the dishes are the same, basically.  Except the names.

And the names are great.  I mean, who would not want to eat Cioppino?  Bouillabaisse? Gumbo? Sign me up.

How about Fish Stew. 

Doesn't really have that name, that certain j ne c'est quoi.

But in the end, they are all just fish stew, gussied up perhaps, made with crab one place, mussels the next.  This added, that.  Still all just fish stew.n

Of course here in Wisconsin, unless you are the fish slayer, fish comes frozen.  Not very exciting.  Probably why we are the capital of fish frys - beer batter coating, deep fried, big pile of french fries and coleslaw and some tangy tarter sauce on the side - you would never know it is frozen.  Especially after knocking back 3 or 4 brandy manhattans (sweet, of course).

Yet I like fish stew.  It is easy to make.  Fairly flexible.  Tastes great.  So, here goes.

Ingredients

4 potatoes, pealed and diced

1 bag frozen green beens

1 onion, diced fine

1 celery stalk, ditto

Got a green pepper?  Sure, dice that up also

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs tomato paste

2 tbs Italian Seasoning (Penzeys)

1 cup dry red (or heck, why not, a dry white) wine

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups stock (vegie, chicken, seafod)

1 tbs fish sauce

red pepper flakes

Fish, Shrimp, Clams, Mussels, Scallops, whatever.  Say 1.5 lbs, thawed.  More if you have mussels or clams in the shell going in.  Generally not an oily fish (so no salmon, for example)

Recipe

Cook potates, drain and rinse in cold water.  Cook till almost done.

Cook green beans (sure, nuke them)

Saute onion, celery, green pepper

After about 10 minutes, add garlic and italian seasoning

After 2 more minutes, tomato paste, cook till it starts to turn brown.  Don't forget to keep stirring

When the tomato paste turns brown, add wine

Cook wine down some - say 5 minutes

Add Stock.  Add fish sauce.  Add some red pepper flakes if you like a little heat

Cook for 30 minutes, medim low heat.  Don't skip this - it is what brings the flavor together

Turn heat to medium

Add green beans

in 2 minutes, add potatoes

in 2 more minutes, add fisheys

Cook no more than 5 minutes, serve.  Do not overcook the fish

This is a dish made for fresh, crusty, hot bread.  

Pressure Cooker Chili - Re-Post

Old, but great, especially this time of the year.  Trust me on this - you enter your office chili cook-off with this, you will win.

Alton Brown's Pressure Cooker Chili, modified with love

You can do this in the oven or on the stove (in your Le Crueset, natch), but it will take longer and while tasting great, not as great as it could be.

White Bean (or Lentil) and Kale (or spinach) and Sausage or Shrimp or ? Soup

This is really a kind of stone soup - there are basic ingredients, but most of them can be mixed and matched, used or not.  It is by far my favorite soup, and it can be vegan, vegetarian, or chock full of meat of sordid types.  One of my favorite ways to make this is with mexican chorizo and shrimp!

The Basics
1 onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
4 cloves of garlic, sliced (or minced, but not ever, ever, never pressed)
2 tbs tomato paste
1 cup white wine (or not)
4 cups stock or broth (vegetarian, beef, chicken, veal, ?)
Water (if cooking lentils in soup, you will need additional liquid
1/2 tbs cumin
1/2 tbs rosemary
salt and pepper

Additions
2 cans White Beans (cooked) or Lentils (2 cups cooked or 1 cup not, adjust time in soup if raw and add 2 cups water to recipe) or ?
1 head Kale, off stem and sliced thin, or 3 big handfuls of spinich or whatever leafy green vegetable you have
1 lb italian sausage, or kielbasa or chorizo, or polish sausage or ham or even ground beef.  Or heck, why not, all of them.
1 lb raw, shelled shrimp

Recipe

If using meat, brown (but do nothing with shrimp yet)
Add and saute onion, celery, carrot and potato (in 1 tbs olive oil if not using meat) over medium heat.  Cook till onion and celery are soft - the carrot and potato will still be fairly raw.  Add salt and pepper
Add garlic, cook for 2 minutes
Add tomato paste, cook for several minutes - you want to get the paste to turn a darker color, but not burn
Add wine - cook down to half the volume
Add stock, spinach, lentils and water (if raw), white beans.  Cook for 30 minutes or until lentils are tender.  If using cooked meat add at this time.
After 30 minutes, add lentils if  you are using lentils that are already cooked, cook until hot
If using Shrimp add and cook till done ( 5 minutes is more than enough)
Adjust seasoning
Serve - bread would be great, a salad fine.

If you need to boost the vegies even more, add some green beans.

Rice and Beans - Southwest Style (a.k.a. Spanish or Mexican rice) - Vegetarian also!

Rice and Beans are a classic combination across the world.  Cuban, Puerto Rican, Cajun, and many others.

But as far as I can tell, you can't get "spanish" rice in Spain, nor do you get (typically) rice and refried beans in Mexico (unless you are a restaurant catering to gringos)

Yet I love Rice and Refried Beans.  The only problem is most places the beans are boring (and seemingly straight out of a can) and the rice is a frighting dish too often prepared with tomato soup.  Blech.

However, I am also cognizant of time - how can I get dinner made while fitting it in with everything else that has to get done.  And finally you have the whole rice issue - it's basically like eating sugar pills - simple carbs that add nothing of value (although yes, I understand they make a complete protein when served with beans)

So here is my Rice and Beans recipe - Mexican style - fast, nutritious and delicious.  Just don't pretend this is how it is done in Mexico.  Or Spain.

Ingredients

Cooked Brown Rice (You do make extra when you make other dishes, right?  Otherwise this dish takes way to long to make), 8 ounces cooked.  Basically 2 ounces per serving - no more.
1/2 onion, white, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs Chicken Taco Seasoning (from Penzeys), in 1/4 cup water
Peas - 16 ounces.  Frozen works great.
1 fresh tomato, diced (or 2 Roma)
1 Can, Vegetarian Refried Beans
1 tbs Rojo Taco Seasoning (Penzeys again).  Or cumin and cilantro if you don't like heat
Water
Cooking Spray or oil

Obviously you will have to adjust based on how many you are serving - the above is for 4 people.  You want at least 2 ounces of peas to 1 ounce of rice.

Recipe

Rice -

If using frozen peas, microwave about 1/2 the time on the package (your thawing them, not cooking at this time)
Heat non stick frying pan, spray with cooking spray or 1 tbs oil
Add onions - cook till just starting to brown
Add garlic, cook 2 minutes
Add rice and peas
Add Chicken Taco Seasoning that has been rehydrated as above
Cook 5 minutes.
Mix in diced tomato (your heating, not cooking the tomato)
If you turn off the heat but leave it in the pan it will hold for at least 5 minutes till your ready to serve.  Just cover with a clean dish towel

Beans -

Place beans in pan on stove, add 1/4 cup water and seasoning (either the Rojo or the cumin/cilantro).  Mix well
Heat for 5 minutes at medium heat.  Add 1/4 water (or broth) as needed to thin - the beans should be thin (think thick pancake batter), not watery or soupy

Serve next to each other, not mixed.  These are often served as a side dish, but there is no reason you could not serve this with a fresh salad dressed with guacamole and sour cream and it would be a great meal.  Or feel free to serve with carnitas or tinga or grilled chicken

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.

Scrambled Eggs - the Basics

Everyone knows how to scramble eggs, right?  Sure.  But it doesn't mean that you can't do it better.

America's Test Kitchen Blog has a decent start at instructions.

But they kind of cheat the info, trying to push you to their online cooking classes.  Which is fine.  However, here are my additions to their teaching

1)  Thou shalt use salt and pepper.  Or at least salt.  If you don't add a pinch of salt, they are not going to taste good.
2)  Thou shalt not use high heat.  Eggs will turn green after they hit 350 degrees - so never cook eggs on the stove or in the oven at that temp or higher.
3)  Thou shalt cook extra baked potatoes.   Left over baked potatoes are your friend.  You can fry them up with cooking spray in a teflon pan (no need for butter or oil), then you can cook them with the eggs in a frittata, on the side, or folded in at the end.
4)  Thou shalt eat eggs on your diet.  Eggs are great low fat protein, and their cholesterol risk is highly over rated.
5) Thou shalt not overcook eggs - you want them set, not hard.  Hard eggs are bad

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.

Ingredients -Things to keep in the Kitchen - Always

You keep these things in the kitchen you can probably make just about 90% of anything you want to eat.  You may have to pick up a protein, but in general you will always have enough in the house to make a meal of love .

Fresh Things - Ginger, garlic, celery, carrots, onions, parmesan (NEVER pre-grated Kraft – whole only - it lasts a long time), green onions, curry paste (if you like curry), half n half, butter, ketchup, Dijon mustard

Frozen Things – bag of boneless chicken thighs, frozen shrimp, frozen peas, green beans

Chicken and or Vegie Stock

Knorr’s chicken base (for when you’re out of chicken stock)

Salt (table and Sea Salt)

Whole Black Pepper for your grinder

Flour (AP)

Sugar (white and brown)

Baking Soda

Cream of Tartar

Potatoes (Russets)

Rice (uncle bens, jasmine)

Beans (dry – pinto, red, black, navy)

Pasta (several types, straight and otherwise)

Taco Seasoning

Soy, Hoisen and Oyster Sauce

Vinegar – Rice, Red, Apple Cider, White.  Yes, you need all four.  And Balsamic can’t hurt either.  The stuff doesn’t go bad, so buy it all.  And don’t buy the cheapest stuff either, especially Balsamic.

Oil – Canola, Extra Virgin Olive.

Double strength tomato paste in a tube (refrigerate after opening, lasts forever)

Dry Sherry, Dry White Vermouth, Port.  Good for many recipes, doesn’t go bad, ever.

Spices – Cumin, Chili Powder, thyme, basil, oregano, bay leaves, parsley, sage, cinnamon, cocoa, vanilla, celery seed.  After that, go for turmeric, cayenne, dill weed, sweet paprika, fennel, whatever you like.

Hot Sauce - you need Tabasco and Siracha.  Even if you don't like hot food, you will be surprised at how much just a little will improve the flavor of many dishes.

Canned Goods – diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, kidney, black, pinto and northern beans, corn, coconut milk, evaporated milk, tuna

Coffee (preferably Hippie Coffee)

Chocolate (well, you don’t need this, but for some reason it always ends up in the house, so you might as well put it on the list)

Peanut Stew (a.k.a. African Peanut Stew)

One of those dishes that you think it is crazy to even think about making, but once you have partaken, it becomes a regular in your rotation.  And everyone loves it.  Although I suppose someone with a peanut allergy might take offense.

Basic idea is that this is a vegetable stew, with peanuts and/or peanut butter. If you keep that in mind, you are free to add or drop ingredients as you have them or are available – don’t worry about having the “right” ingredients.  This is also easy to make vegan if you like.

Ingredients for the Stew

• 1 medium onion, diced 
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2-6 garlic cloves, minced (adjust based on level of vampirism in neighborhood)
• 1 lb chicken thighs, diced
• 2  medium sweet potato, peeled diced
• 2  medium potatoes, diced
• 14 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes with or without green chilies (or use fresh)
• 1 lb total of butternut squash or acorn squash or carrots or other root vegetable, diced
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup creamy (or chunky) peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon curry powder/sate powder/cumin – whatever your taste is or you have on hand – or more if you like
•   Salt and pepper
•  red pepper flakes – use some, but adjust based on your taste buds
•   2 cans (small, not the big honking ones) vegetable broth (or chicken).  

For the garnish – prepare and serve on the side for people to spice as they like

·         cilantro, chopped
·         green onions, chopped
·         jalapenos, fresh, chopped
·         lime quarters
·         unsalted dry roasted peanuts

Serve with Brown Rice

Recipe

Brown onion and celery (and chicken, is using).  Use 1 tbs olive oil

Add ginger, garlic, cook for two minutes

Add vegetables and garbanzo beans (what ever you are using) (but not peanut butter), broth, spices

Cook for about 30 minutes, or until root vegetables are soft

Add Peanut Butter – can use up to ½ cup

Cook for five minutes

Adjust seasonings

Serve over Rice

Roasted Tomatoes

End of summer, early fall is a great time for roasted tomatoes.   They make an easy, healthy and delicious way to make a pasta sauce.  They can also be made year round, although the flavor tends to be less spectacular.   If you are doing it outside of garden grown time, I recommend using only Roma tomatoes – they will have the best flavor available at your grocer.  Second after that are grape tomatoes – the little tiny ones.

Ingredients

Tomatoes – cut into pieces.  Half if grape tomatoes, quarters if Roma, eighths if larger tomatoes.  For a dryer, more roasted flavor, you need to seed and juice the tomatoes.  If you want a juicier sauce, don’t, but you will likely never get good carmalization.

Olive Oil

Seasoning (basil, Italian, oregano).  Dried works well.  If I have fresh, I usually add that to the final dish, not the roasting

Salt and Pepper

Sugar

Recipe

Turn oven to 450

Line baking sheet (jelly roll pan) with foil.  Use several pans if you need to – you want each tomato to not touch the others.  If there are too many to a pan, they will steam, not roast or caramelize.

All ingredients in pan(s).  I use 1tbs of oil and seasoning per 1lb of tomato, ½  tsp of salt, pepper and sugar for each 1lb of tomato.

Roast for 20-30 minutes, or desired doneness.  The more juice and seeds you remove from the tomatoes, the faster and better they will caramelize.  If you do not do this, it will take a long time for the liquid to evaporate and you may never get good carmalization.

These make a great pasta sauce – just toss into cooked pasta.  Or, eat them as a side dish, or as a dressing for fish or chicken.

Great Use for Bad Tomatoes - Freeze Em!

Good blog post on tomatoes - This is a great use for tomatoes that are cracked or are not perfect.

Step 1 - get a lot of bad tomatoes cheap - many CSA's will have tomatoes that are not good enough to get distributed, but still ripe and edible.

Step 2 - Strip the skin(dunk in boiling water for 20 seconds, then dump in ice bath, the skin will literally fall off.

Step 3 - Cut in half and de-seed/juice - you just want flesh.  If there are any badly bruised areas you can cut them out also.

Step 4 - Cool

Step 5 - Bag, suck the air out as much as possible

Step 6 - Freeze!

Great tomatoes for Winter and Spring cooking!

Easy Cassoulet - And Healthy!

Cassoulet is a classic french dish.  It is also, made traditionally, very high in fat.  It also takes a long time to cook.  Well, I need less fat and more time, so I came up with this recipe - Easy Cassoulet - Start to finish in 45 minutes.  No, it's not traditional.  Yes, it is good.  If Meme liked it, it's close enough.

It is also easy to make vegetarian - drop the meat.  You can add a couple of tsp of soy sauce or Braggs aminos.  Some whole mushrooms can add "meatiness" to it also.  You can also always cook the meat on the side and serve it that way, although the meat juices add a lot of flavor to the dish.

Ingredients

2 (or 3) cans northern beans, drained and rinsed.  If available, I like Randall's Beans - they come in a glass jar. 

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 celery rib, diced

1lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs – diced

Chicken sausage (left overs if you have them)

Low fat ham if no sausage, diced.  Can use Canadian bacon

1 tsp oregano and thyme (each)

1 Bay leaf

4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

1 can chicken broth/stock

½ cup white wine, if you have it.  White vermouth works also

2-3 cups fresh spinach, if you like.  Kale is also an option

Whole wheat garlic croutons (home made) – Toast bread, peal garlic clove, cut garlic clove in half.  Rub garlic over toast.  Cut into small pieces.

Either frozen veggie or salad on the side. 

Cooking instructions

Sauté onion, carrot, celery, chicken with 1 teaspoon oil.  When beginning to brown, add garlic and spices – cook an additional 2 minutes.  Add white wine, if using.  After wine cooks off some, add beans, sausage and chicken stock.  Add fresh spinach if you are using.  Cook for ½ hour.  Add ham/Canadian bacon about 15 minutes in.  

Make low fat garlic croutons (see above)

When done, toss garlic toast croutons over cassoulet, then serve.

Serve with veggies or salad.  A green salad with a vinaigrette is very nice - the acidity pairs well with the cassoulet.

Serve