Apr 9
2013

Just jotting this down because I made it up tonight, and it ROCKED. You’re lucky there were leftovers, or there would be nooooo pictures to prove I made it. (;

Quick Southwestern Potato Salad

Serves 2-4

  • 12 red creamer potatoes
  • 1 large green onion, chopped
  • 1/2 a small red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • a small handful of cilantro, minced
  • juice of one lemon
  • dollop of Best Foods olive oil mayo (use your favorite mayo)
  • splash of hot sauce (I used Arizona Gunslinger chipotle hot sauce)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes until fork-tender. While they are boiling, chop the onion and bell pepper, and make the dressing by mixing the garlic, cilantro, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and hot sauce until well-combined.

Drain the potatoes, cool slightly, and chop into quarters. Toss with the onion, bell pepper, and dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

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Mar 21
2013

I haven’t made jam since … eesh. Before Christmas. (That batch was quince. Ah, gorgeous quince, but that’s not today’s post!)  I’ve been busy and kinda run-down. Doing better, so I made jam today.

How do you detect a perfectly ripe Bartlett pear? It should be a warm just-turned-yellow color with speckles, and deliciously fragrant. Your Bartletts are green and hard? No problem! Pears don’t ripen until they’re picked. Set them out and they’ll ripen on the counter over the course of a few days. It won’t hurt to use some slightly underripe pears, but you may need to cook them longer. Could you make this with D’Anjou or Bosc pears? Sure. They’re not as sweet, so you may not get as much yield — jam yields depend on the sugar in the fruit and the sugar you add. Don’t want apple pie spice? Leave it plain, or use your favorite sweet spice blend (look, poudre douce again!), or a splash of vanilla. Never canned? This will make fine freezer jam.

Super-Easy Pear Jam

Makes approximately 7 half-pints. I got just under 8, but I like my jam soft. If you like it firmer, you’ll get a bit less.

  • 3 1/4 lb. delicious juicy-ripe Bartlett pears
  • generous 1/4 c. lemon juice
  • about 5 c. sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. apple pie spice

Prepare your canner, jars, and lids if you’re canning. Otherwise, set out some freezer-safe containers. Set out a blender or food processor. I use an immersion blender because I’m lazy, and because I don’t like scooping hot-like-lava food into a blender.

You can peel the pears if you like. I don’t bother. I like a bit of texture in my jam, and the skins are full of nutrients. Core the pears and chop into small chunks. Put the pears and the lemon juice in a wide saucepan, cover with a lid, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook for about 25-30 minutes, until the pears mash easily with a spoon. Puree the pears with your blender or food processor — be careful, it’s hot! You can leave some small chunks if you like; it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth.

Add the pears back to the pan and set the heat to low. Add the sugar and 1/4 tsp. apple pie spice. The spice here is supposed to be subtle — the jam should taste like delicious sweet pear, only better. If you want it more pie-like, you can add more spices.

Stir the pear mixture until the sugar is all dissolved, then raise the heat to medium-high. Boil the jam vigorously for 10-15 minutes, until it sheets off a spoon or mounds in a chilled dish. This went very quickly for me. I think it was because my pears were so sweet that there wasn’t a lot to boil down. Ladle hot jam into hot jars (pints or half-pints), cover with lids and bands, and process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. Or allow to cool and scoop into freezer containers and freeze.

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Jan 30
2013

I am being overrun with greens from our CSA. It’s that time of year, it happens. Mark’s not so much a fan of greens as I am, so we end up with more than we can easily eat, sooner or later. What to do with a plethora of greens? Make soup! This recipe is easily adaptable for whatever greens you have, and it’s a snap to throw together.

Creamy Greens Soup

  • one large onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp. butter
  • a pile of greens — I used a mix of kale, beet greens, radish greens, and broccoli leaves, stems removed and roughly torn
  • chicken broth
  • milk
  • salt and pepper to taste

In a medium pot (trust me, a big pile of greens shrinks fast), saute the onion in the olive oil and butter until tender. Add the garlic. When it is nicely fragrant, add the greens. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens have wilted. Add enough chicken broth to make the soup look brothy, then splash in some milk — I think I used about two cups of chicken broth and half a cup of milk.

With an immersion blender, puree the soup to your preferred smoothness. Or use a food processor or a blender, working in batches. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and enjoy. Add a little nutmeg if you think it needs it. I thought the radish greens gave it enough pep that it didn’t.

Be aware that beet greens bleed red — if you use beet greens, your soup will not be a pretty green color, but kind of muddy looking. It’ll still taste fantastic.

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Jan 29
2013

In the winter, I just don’t want to eat cold food. Coupled with the fact that I crave comfort food and I’m trying to cut down from the sugar insanity that is Christmas, it’s nice to have something semi-healthy to fall back on.

Speedy “Baked” Apple (serves 1)

  • 1 apple, cut into 8ths and cored
  • generous pinch brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. raisins
  • a nice sprinkle of poudre douce
  • 1 tsp. butter

Put the apple pieces in a microwave-safe bowl. Top with brown sugar, raisins, poudre douce, and dot with bits of butter. Microwave 3-5 minutes depending on the power of your microwave and how cooked you like your apple. Eat with care as it can be like flaming hot lava. Delicious flaming hot lava.

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Jan 28
2013

I really did honestly just throw these together out of what was in the house, so your version may not look like my version. That’s fine, it’ll be tasty, trust me. (: I would like these to have a bit more of a creamy filling, but they’re still pretty good just as they are. This makes enough filling for about 12 pasties, pocket-pies, calzones, whatever you call them.

Curry Chicken Pasties

  • 1 to 1.5 recipes Sourdough Piecrust
  • 1 lb. ground chicken
  • olive oil
  • 1 small-medium onion, chopped
  • about 10 button mushrooms, chopped
  • 1/2 c. celery or Swiss chard stems, chopped (I used reconstituted dried celery and chard from my stash)
  • 1 hot pepper, minced
  • 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric (if you’re using Penzey’s turmeric, use less — it’s strong stuff)
  • 1/2-1 tsp ground ginger
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 c. raisins (or more)
  • 1/4-3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (depending on how much heat you like)
  • salt to taste
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • generous pinch sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. garam masala
  • 2 Tbsp. butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Saute the onion and celery in a generous splash of olive oil until they start to turn soft and tender. Add the mushrooms, hot pepper, and spices. When the mushrooms are beginning to get tender, add the garlic and the ground chicken. Chop and smash the chicken with a spoon as you cook it to get small pieces. Add a little water to loosen it all up if you need to (the mushrooms will release liquid as they cook, which may be enough), then add the lemon juice, sugar, and raisins. Let cook until the raisins are nice and plump and the chicken is fully cooked. Swirl in the butter, remove from the heat, add the garam masala, and stir well. Taste and add salt or more garam masala if needed. Allow to cool.

Make small balls of the sourdough piecrust, each a little larger than a golf ball. Roll one ball into a round, top half the round with chicken mixture, fold over the other half, and seal it shut with a fork. Cut a vent hole in the top of the pastie with a sharp knife and place it on a cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining pastry balls. You will get about eight pasties with 1 recipe of piecrust, and some chicken left over. You’ll get about 12 for 1.5 recipes of piecrust, and no chicken left over.

Bake the pasties at 350°F for 40 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. They can be frozen and re-heated in the oven to crisp them up — 20 minutes at 350°F for reheating.

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Jan 15
2013

Pinning this up for me for later, also for you people, if there’s anyone still out there. (;

Super Easy Sourdough Piecrust
(I used this to make curry chicken pasties)

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
10 Tbsp. butter
generous pinch salt
1 1/4 c. sourdough starter (you can use the leftovers from feeding your starter)

Sprinkle the salt into the flour. Cut the butter into the flour. Add the sourdough starter and mix, then knead just until the dough comes together. Makes enough for at least two piecrusts or nine hand-sized pasties.



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Aug 17
2012

It’s been hot here. So hot. I haven’t been wanting to cook much, but dang it if I didn’t want to eat at home tonight, and I wanted warm food that wasn’t too heavy. Been eating out way too much lately.

About 45 minutes after raiding the fridge for whatever was in it, I came up with this:

Completely Impromptu Krab Casserole

  • Half a large onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Splash of olive oil
  • Kernels from 1 ear of corn
  • 1/2 lb. krab or real crab, whichever you prefer, chopped
  • 1 hot pepper, minced
  • 4 Kalamata olives, minced
  • Dollop of Lemonaise (or the best other mayonnaise you can get your hands on)
  • Dollop of lowfat yogurt
  • About a cup of shredded jack and Fontina cheese, divided
  • Half a jar of the Desert Pepper Trading Company black bean-corn salsa
  • Salt and pepper to taste

 

To serve: tortilla chips and guacamole (preferably homemade)

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Chop the onions and garlic, and saute in the olive oil until translucent. While those are cooking, cut the kernels off the cob, mince the pepper and the olives, and chop the krab, and place all of them in a medium bowl. Add the onions and garlic. Stir to combine, then mix in the Lemonaise and yogurt and about half the cheese, and season to taste with the salt and pepper. Spread in a greased 8×8″ baking pan.

Top the krab mixture with a layer of the black bean-corn salsa, spreading it over the surface, then top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350°F until the cheese is melted and the casserole is bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve hot with tortilla chips and guacamole, or roll into tortillas. (Make sure you include the guacamole. The cool creamy taste with the little pops of sweet corn and krab is to die for.)

Serves 4.

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Aug 6
2012

I suppose technically, this is a quiche, since it involves eggs and leftover bits and pieces. But I like pie. Mmmm, pie.

Since my stovetop is currently unreliable for simmering, I’ve started baking for breakfast. Or more accurately, baking ahead of breakfast and reheating. Pies are easy to reheat — plop a slice or two on a pie pan, cover with tin foil, set your oven to 350°, pop the pan into the oven, and wait 10-15 minutes. Not quite as good as fresh, but way better than the microwave. The tin foil helps retain the moisture in the crust, so don’t go without it.

This week’s breakfast is using up some meat and mushroom crockpot ragu that I made last week; it’s a recipe from The Italian Slow Cooker by Michele Scicolone. (By the way, it’s an excellent book. Everything I’ve made out of it has been dynamite.) This particular leftover includes ground chuck, Italian sausage, and mixed mushrooms. I’m also using up some poor zucchini that got left in the bottom of the fridge. Such a sad thing — try not to do that to your zucchini. (; The recipe is infinitely flexible; about six cups of cooked mixed meat and veggies, three eggs, some cheese, and a pie crust.

I love making pie crust by hand, but the high around here has been in the 90°s (that’s about 33° for you Celsius people) for the past week, and it’s going to continue for the rest of the week. So hand-making the crust is not very practical right now. Too melty. Fortunately, the food processor is a great tool for making pie crust in the heat, so I’m including the recipe for that as well. Make the pie crust first, and let it chill while you put together the rest of the ingredients.

Food Processor Pie Crust

  • 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1/2 c. white flour
  • 1/2 tsp. sugar
  • generous pinch salt
  • 1/4 c. butter, cold
  • 1/4 c. bacon drippings, cold (you can use all butter, but I like bacon drippings for meaty pies)
  • 2-3 Tbsp. milk

Put the flours, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor, and process just to combine. Cut the butter and bacon drippings into chunks and add to the food processor. Process just until they are incorporated into rough pea-sized bits. With the motor running, add the milk slowly through the feed tube, stopping immediately when the dough gathers itself into a ball. You may need to whip the dripping feed tube out of the processor. Remove the dough from the food processor, wrap it in plastic wrap, and tuck it in the fridge for at least half an hour to chill out.

Leftovers for Breakfast Pie

  • 3-4 c. zucchini, small dice (about four small zucchini)
  • olive oil
  • about 2 c. leftover cooked meat and mushroom ragu, or whatever meaty thing you have left over, well drained
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/4 c. milk
  • 1/2-3/4 c. shredded cheddar, or whatever cheese you like (cheddar was just what I had on-hand)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Saute the zucchini, seasoned with salt and pepper, in a generous splash of olive oil until nicely browned.

Sauteed Zucchini

This is just about right, could be a little browner

Add the drained ragu and set aside to cool.

Zucchini and meat

Zucchini and meat

Beat the eggs well with the milk, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Shred the cheddar. Check your pie crust and see if it’s firm enough to handle.

Eggs and cheese

Eggs and cheese

When the pie crust is firm enough to handle, roll it out, dusting with extra whole-wheat flour to prevent sticking.

Pie crust to roll

This entire post is just an excuse to show off my super-awesome Amish-made rolling pin that my Mom got me. (;

Scoop it up with the rolling pin and drape it into the pie pan, and flute the edges however you like. I used a fork because to be honest, I didn’t wait long enough to roll the crust out and it was sticking.

Fluted pie crust

This is a wonderful deep-dish plate that my Auntie Deb gave us for our wedding. If you’re using a standard-size pie plate, you may want to reduce the amount of filling by a cup or two.

Fill the pie with the zucchini-meat mixture and top with half the cheese. Pour the eggs over, then top with the remaining cheese.

Filled pie

All ready for the oven now. I could have put more filling in that if I’d had more leftovers!

Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes, until a sharp knife stuck in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve, or let cool completely, cover, and store in the fridge for breakfast.

Finished pie

Mmmm, yummy!

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Aug 1
2012

Garden Left Side

Italian stone pine, hydroponic bed, and boysenberries

Other half of garden

Boysenberries, baby kumquat tree, miniature rose, live oak (doing well), black oak (doing poorly) and Aleppo pine

This is my current garden, such as it is. Kind of a far cry from the old house, but you make do with what you have. And I’m not allowed to get any more plants just now, or I won’t be able to get into/out of the storage closet and the hot water heater closet. ^_^; The perils of trying to garden in an apartment!

We’re still waiting on the new house, though our agent tells us we should hear something by the end of the week. I’m trying very hard to be patient. Been getting lots of practice with that lately. So in order to distract myself, let me tell you about the wee hydroponic bed.

My dad, my husband, and I all went to the AgPals demonstration last weekend at the San Diego Botanic Garden. We got to make the spiffy tub you see pictured above, which is put together out of really basic household materials, filled with planting medium, and then planted. Check out the interior:

Hydroponic tub under construction

An 18-gallon tub, a third of a Home Depot bucket, three heavily pierced Gatorade bottles, a wide length of PVC, an old groundcover container, and some zip ties make the beginnings of a basic hydroponic tub.

What you don’t see in this picture: the groundcloth that’s placed over the groundcover tray to keep the medium from falling through, the planting medium, and the plants, of course. You slit the groundcloth to fit over the pipe and the bottles, press it on securely, then fill it up with planting medium, making sure to jam the medium into the bottles tightly so that they will wick up the water. Make sure the planting medium is well dampened, plant your plants, then fill up the reservoir with water and a bit of the right kind of fertilizer, using the PVC tube, and you end up with this:

Hydroponic bed

From top left, clockwise: Hungarian Wax pepper, green onions, basil (it’ll have to be thinned), Early Girl tomato, more onions, strawberry, and lettuce in the center.

We capped off the fill tube with a ceramic drip tray to prevent the mosquitos from getting in. The tub took about five and a half gallons to fill, and I’ve topped it off with a quart of water so far. We’ve had it since Saturday, and it hasn’t needed more water since — it’s stayed beautifully damp and just barely draining the reservoir. I’m sure that’ll change once the tomato and pepper really start going, but to be honest, I’m both shocked and pleasantly amazed at how little water it seems to want. I may try to do a lot more of this; water is the biggest cost for a garden here in SoCal.

It’s so nice to have a veggie garden again, even just this little scrap of one. If I were going to be staying in an apartment for a long time, I’d be seriously considering about four or five of these, instead of the trees that I’m hanging on to, to bring to the new house. You can grow a lot in these little beds! Ag Pals had several examples of these at the San Diego County Fair that were full-up and producing like crazy.

More pix of the garden below. (:

Garden Pictures

It’s a pretty little space.

Miniature roses

Miniature roses, from my niece’s baby shower — both she and the roses are two years old now!

 

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Jul 23
2012

Apologies for being gone so long. We’ve been in the process of moving, and it’s been taking about as long as it’s been since my last post.

We are currently in an apartment, waiting for our new house to be released from the banks. It will be a glorious house with a glorious yard and a glorious kitchen.

But right now, I’ve got the kitchen from hell.

At least it’s got all the pieces that make a kitchen — sink, stove, oven, fridge, and even a dishwasher, and a microwave. And it’s even got more shelf space than our old house, when we weren’t using the linen closet as a pantry and had four extra bookshelves for more storage brought in. This does not help.

The stove makes me want to throw things. It’s an old electric coil burner stove. Once something gets too hot, there’s no way to cool it down short of turning everything off and waiting fifteen minutes. Better yet, if you’re running the oven at the same time as the stove, the stove doesn’t cool at all. The heat just radiates up from the oven. Ugh.

And there’s nowhere to set something that needs to cool; the countertops are that awful vinyl stuff. We’ve had a tile kitchen, and we’re going to a granite kitchen, so why would you need massive numbers of trivets? You wouldn’t — unless you were stuck in this apartment.

All of which means that a simple breakfast of poached eggs, toast, and grapefruit this morning — which I could make in my sleep on my old stove — resulted in my having to throw out two of the three items, and I’ll give you one guess as to which I only had to prepare once. And then burned myself trying to pick up a pot lid I’d set to cool on an unused burner — because there was still heat radiating from the oven.

GET ME OUT OF HERE.



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