No Stinky Cheese

And the 2012 word is.....

2012-01-21T18:48:00.007-05:00

People who are way more serious about blogging than me - probably because they're much better at it - decided they'd all choose a word for 2012. Something that embodies a goal, something that speaks to a quality to develop.

I was specially invited - as an adult who can read and write in English - to participate. See if you can figure out my goal from the following:

a) I'm eating leftovers for dinner.
b) I went to Lowe's today and didn't buy one.single.thing.
c) Tomorrow should be the last day I have paint splatters on my nails.

Possibly, you were thinking along the lines of being ~~a cheap-ass~~ frugal as a worthy 2012 goal. And indeed it is, and it will probably be a by-product of my actual goal... which is to FINISH what I've started.

I'm surrounded by projects that range from too-started-to-pretend-it-isn't to done-except-for-the-last-15-minutes-that-would-make-the-already-invested-14-hours-really-be-worth-it. Is anyone nodding their head in agreement?

What does this "finishing" mean?
1. I have materials and I have plans. Those both need to make sweet, sweet love and become A Thing. For example - I have 4 Goodwill picture frames for prints I've purchased over the years. It's time these crazy kids got together, spray painted or whatever, and decided to hang out on my wall. Any wall. I'm not picky (much).

2. I throw out too much food - hence the leftovers as part of my sly teaser above. I need to FINISH what I cook. Good for the wallet, good for the earth. Sorry, but it's true - and in fact, it (curried chicken with brown rice) was delicious.

3. I'm REALLY looking forward to a time, probably not in the near future, but someday, when I can come home and not have a pile of Projects To Do all over the place, making me feel guilty and tired just by looking at them. Probably wishful thinking, but I can at least do better than I am now.

All that said, what - says the food blogger - is something I DID finish? Well a few things, actually, including a great end-table for our living room that gives much-needed storage, and this terrific frittata.

It was in Fitness magazine (which I finished reading all the way through, thank you) in September, 2010. And I finally got around to making it two weeks ago. Unlike other frittatas there are no potatoes, so it's a little more of a crustless quiche.

The best part is its adaptability. I try to get at least 10 different vegetables into our diet per week, so the asparagus here was perfect. I also added some sauteed country ham bits.

Variations to substitute for all the veggies:
Sundried tomatoes, spinach, and mushrooms (season with oregano). Mozzarella will work; personally, I love goat cheese with sundried tomatoes. Decadence!
Extra mushrooms (sauteed) and thyme (fresh if possible), maybe some smoked gouda
Corn, black beans, cumin (1/2 tsp, maybe?), cheddar or pepper jack instead of goat cheese, and a little hot sauce or chili powder

Kitchen Sink Frittata
Fitness magazine

6 eggs
6 egg whites
1 cup skim milk
1 cup sliced mushrooms
4 stalks asparagus, cut into 1- to 2-inch pieces on the diagona
2 cups arugula (or spinach)
2 ounces crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk together eggs, egg whites, and skim milk.

Mist a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Sautee mushrooms, asparagus, arugula (or spinach) until veggies are tender, about 5 minutes.

Pour egg mixture over the top - don't stir - and sprinkle with goat cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

Choppin' Broccoli

2012-01-09T19:40:00.003-05:00

Back in the 80s we entertained ourselves with hair spray, some fantastically happy dance music, VHS tapes, and this little Saturday Night Live snippet:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/4195/saturday-night-live-derek-stevens-chopping-broccoli

Because if you're going for a big recording contract, you'd better bring it with the broccoli, yo.

The past few months have been rough and I could use some happy dance music, or happy anything, right about now. [brings back of hand to forehead, sighs dramatically] So thank goodness a) we have a radio in the kitchen and b) I've suddenly remembered that the kitchen is more than "the place where I keep the bananas."

TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW we had a real dinner at home (and I had the third at Cutie's house). We faux-breaded trout and had - did you notice the foreshadowing? - roasted broccoli. The original intent was to try a fab-looking recipe for broccoli & sun-dried tomatoes, but I pulled off a trifecta of forgetting to get sun-dried tomatoes for three consecutive shopping trips. [blushes modestly].

Having established already that broccoli and tomatoes go together, and that Parmesan goes with both broccoli and tomatoes, and there was half a container of cherry tomatoes that had about 6 hours of usability left, I halved the tomatoes and threw them in. I'm going to call it 1 cup in the recipe but, really, any amount (or none at all) will work.

ROASTED BROCCOLI AND TOMATOES WITH PARMESAN
based on Ina Garten's Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli

2 or 3 heads of broccoli - 2 pounds-ish
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt & pepper
1/3 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese (yes, freshly grated. It is one of life's true and affordable pleasures to have fresh Parmesan and not the parmesan dust in the green can. Trust me.)
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Cut the head(s) of broccoli into clusters of florets, leaving an inch or two of stalk attached.
3. Put the florets on a baking sheet large enough to hold the broccoli, garlic, and tomatoes in a single layer. Drizzle 1 TBSP vegetable or olive oil over the veggies & garlic - toss to coat all veggies [2 notes - first, I usually line the pan with aluminum foil for faster clean-up. Two, combining oil and veggies is easier in a smallish bowl than on a big baking sheet. It dirties another dish, but it does a much better job of coating the vegetables so that they don't burn.]
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Roast for 20 - 25 minutes, until florets are crisp-tender. They will be a little browned.
6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and toss veggies with Parmesan. A sprinkle & a stir, then again, then again helps distribute the Parmesan and keeps it from melting into clumps.

We had this with fish, but it would work well with chicken, pork roast or pork chops (especially if they have oregano), or pasta with red sauce. Enjoy!

It Would Be Worth It

2011-09-28T08:51:00.002-04:00

It's tradition in my office for me to bake a cake for any number of occasions. This wasn't my idea, but office harmony is worth a few cakes as far as I'm concerned.

One such occasion was yesterday. Over the years I've learned to just bring the frosting to the office and frost there. Trying to transport a decorated (ha!) cake brings me to the verge of breakdown. Not that transporting cake, frosting, and all my crap on the train is any picnic, but still.

The cake almost didn't make it yesterday. It's not that I nearly dropped it, it's that I nearly offered it to a fellow passenger if he would promise to never, ever again wear socks with flip-flops. But I restrained myself....

The requested carrot cake was a hit. No one in my office is on Weight Watchers, so far as I know, I just used the recipe because it's the best carrot cake recipe I've found. It's not health food, but it's not nearly as waistline-impacting as regular carrot cake. And it's FAB!

Carrot Cake
Weight Watchers magazine, 2006

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1/2 cup dried apricots
3 TBSP hot water

2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
4 large carrots, shredded (2 1/2 cups) - DO NOT use bagged, pre-shredded carrot. It will be way too dry.
1/2 cup apple butter
1/3 cup canola oil

12 oz. light cream cheese (Neufachtel)
One 7.5 oz. jar marshmallow fluff (I could only find 7-oz. jars - it worked fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with cooking spray, line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper, and spray the paper.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda in a bowl.

Put the apricots and hot water in a food processor (I use a mini-chopper) and process until finely chopped and well combined.

Whisk the eggs and egg whites together. Add carrots, apple butter, oil, and apricots, stirring until blended. Spread the batter evenly in the pans. Bake until nicely browned, 30 - 32 minutes. Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then remove from pans, remove paper, and cool on wire racks.

To make the frosting, combine the marshmallow fluff, cream cheese, and vanilla (I also throw in a dash or two of cinnamon) with an electric mixer on medium speed.

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

2011-09-25T10:01:00.004-04:00

I embraced the Staycation. There's a lot to be said for sleeping in, having a leisurely breakfast, and taking a stroll through the gorgeous Botanical Gardens. They've set up an edible garden with an outdoor kitchen for cooking classes (cough, SHOW-OFFS, cough). Seriously, props to the Gardens for growing a tremendous amount of produce and donating it to the Atlanta Food Bank.

Might I mention that we got 3 tomatoes, numerous baby squash (they never grew to full-size - why????), and a decent array of herbs from our own patch o'dirt? And yes, I know I should compost. I KNOW. But if I take on one more ongoing responsibility I. Will. Scream.

It was also the summer that Friday became PieDay. Sweetie (my hubs) and Cutie (our niece) share a deep and abiding love for pie. [Note: Cutie has been known to climb in my car and say "What's for pie?"] Sweetie makes some seriously kick-ass pie due in no small part to having learned from his grandfather, a chef. Cutie is an enthusiastic apprentice. Their preferred Key Lime Pie recipe will be a future post.

My own favorite recipes, at least for weeknights, are those that don't require a lot of work. Sorry if that takes the blush off the rose for a cooking blog, but there you have it. There's still some decent corn on the cob out there - enjoy!

And a big shout-out to this fab website that tells you what fish you can substitute for what other fish. This is particularly helpful if you're trying to eat locally or, like me, trying to substitute something - anything! - for the $19/lb fish some recipes call for.

www.fish4fun.com/fish.htm

Flounder With Corn & Tomatoes
Good Housekeeping, September 2011

Makes 4 servings (recipe is easily halved or doubled)

2 c. fresh corn kernels (plan on 1/2 to 1 ear per person) - for presentation, I prefer yellow corn to white for this recipe. It adds a nice contrast with the greens and the white fish.

1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (call it half a handful for 2 people)

1 tsp. freshly grated lemon peel (I wasn't buying a lemon just for this. I used a squirt of bottled lemon juice)

4 (3-oz.) skinless flounder fillets

1 small leek, white part only, well-rinsed, cut into matchsticks (they were crazy-expensive at the Farmer's market, so I subbed in regular green onions/scallions. Don't substitute regular onion, it will be too strong.)

4 sprigs fresh thyme (yay! my garden!!!!). A light sprinkle of dried thyme will also work.

8 tsp. dry white wine

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil (don't buy olive oil just for this recipe. Use it if you have it but if you don't, regular canola or vegetable oil will work just fine)

8 oz. spinach (2 handfuls per person)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. In bowl, mix corn, tomatoes, peel (or juice), and a dash of salt & pepper.

3. On 12" by 15" or parchment or foil (either will work great - I used foil), arrange 1/4 of the vegetables (or 1/2 if you're cooking for 2) on 1 side. Fold 1 fish fillet into thirds (if it's large; mine were small, so I laid them flat). Place on top of corn/tomato mixture.

Top with 1/4 of leek, 1 sprig thyme, 2 teaspoons wine, 1/2 teaspoon oil, and a pinch of salt. [Much easier - combine leek, wine, and oil and just divide it evenly over the packets of fish.] Fold the other side of the parchment or foil over the fish. Starting at 1 corner, fold edges over 1/2 inch all around, overlapping folds until sealed.

[Note: Be sure to leave enough room in the packet for steam. The steam is what cooks the fish & veggies and the fish comes out fabulous moist and beautifully cooked. If the packet is too tightly wrapped it may pop due to the pressure from the steam. And in that case, neither "fabulous" nor "beautifully" applies.]

Repeat to make remaining packets. Bake, on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, 15 minutes.

4. Place spinach in glass bowl; cover with damp paper towel. Microwave on High 2 minutes or until wilted. [I check it every 30 seconds].

5. Open packets; serve with spinach.

Workin' It

2011-06-12T19:53:00.004-04:00

All of it. The land, the bod, the freezer. Not necessarily in that order.

The pressure is on, because I got rid of all my bigger-size clothes so now I have no choice but to eat gruel for breakfast. Occasionally, I splurge on a raisin.

So far, the 2011 harvest does not look like it'll recoup the cost of the plants, but that's OK. I love seeing this baby squash right now -

And the tomatoes....

Aaaahhh, summer! We're also workin' some thyme, basil, and rosemary.

As for the freezer, this little concoction is FAB. If you have kids, or 95-degree weather, this is a good one to do with them since there's no stove involved. Can I get an amen?

From Clean Eating magazine:

1 baked pie crust

5 small, ripe or slightly overripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup light coconut milk (this is different from coconut cream, which is thicker and much sweeter)

1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa, because that's what I have. Regular works fine).

Optional - chopped peanuts

1. Peel and slice bananas.

2. Add banana pieces, vanilla extract, coconut milk, and cocoa to the jar of a blender. Puree, stopping to scrape down the sides every so often.

3. Pour the banana puree mixture into the pie shell - sprinkle peanuts on top if you wish. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and freeze at least 4 hours.

4. Put pie in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Everything's Coming Up Roses

2011-03-18T18:54:00.005-04:00

Tulips, actually. My favorite.

When I experiment I don't want to risk dropping $15 on one recipe, you know? For a while I've wanted to throw a whole chicken in the crockpot, but what if it tasted like sauteed latex? With a side of whatever food poisoning comes from chicken? Or worse???

[Side note - never, ever ask an imaginative person "What's the worst that can happen?" It doesn't give us perspective. It's an invitation to roam over wild idea pastures and peek under Scary Story rocks. Not good.]

Anyhoodle, the other night I was at the gym getting my gluteus more minimus and ran (As if. I drove.) over to the Publix right afterwards.

Anyhoodle again, they had started marking down the perishables that were still good but had overstayed their welcome. YES. I grabbed a roasting chicken for $3.32.

And that, my friends, is a chicken to take chances with. To throw caution to the winds, to wrap in nontraditional spices, to allow a wine flirtation.

Can you tell I don't get out much at this time of year?

The chicken was terrific. So good, in fact, I would even spend real money for the chicken next time, and I don't often throw that phrase around. I CAN'T WAIT to get the stock from this little gem.

[Speaking of stock, this is GENIUS. Get a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. Write "Stock - No Broccoli" on it. Keep it in the freezer and add whatever vegetable trimmings you have - green bean ends, onion ends, carrot ends, etc. and no broccoli or brussels sprouts - as you create them and save them for making stock. So take THAT, Miss Nine-Year-Old "you can compost that."]

Many thanks to Food.com for this one. I used kosher salt, which turned out fine. If you're using regular table salt take it down to 3 teaspoons.

Whole Chicken Crockpot Recipe
Food.com

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon white pepper (why white? No idea. I don't have any.)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 large roasting chicken

1 cup chopped onion (optional)

In a small bowl, combine the spices.

Remove any giblets from chicken and clean chicken.

Rub spice mixture onto the chicken.

Place in resealable plastic bag and refrigerate overnight. (I usually skip this step because I'm always in a hurry).

When ready to cook, put chopped onion in bottom of crock pot.

Add chicken. No liquid is needed, the chicken will make it's own juices.

Cook on low 4-8 hours.

Note: some crock pots cook faster/slower than others

A Loaded Question

2011-01-30T19:02:00.003-05:00

Now that I'm doing this menu planning thing, I have a whiteboard magnetized onto the fridge with a list of dishes we'll have in the upcoming week, assuming no one gets raptured up. You never know.

I came across this recipe while perusing the Eating Well website. Healthy this, tasty that, quick, etc. Having a total of 5 nieces & nephews, I took a look at the kids' section and jeez, what do people pack in lunch boxes these days??? Broccoli, ham, and pasta salad? Well, color me surprised if it doesn't end up in the trash can.

The kids' dinner recipes looked much more realistic, and I HAD to try to Loaded Baked Potatoes. I made them with sweet potatoes and they were fab. If I were making this on a weeknight I'd probably skip the ground meat and just throw in some diced sandwich ham.

Loaded Twice-Baked (Sweet) Potatoes
Eating Well

4 medium russet (baking, or "Idaho") potatoes - or sweet potatoes
8 ounces 90% lean ground beef (I used ground turkey breast)
1 cup broccoli florets, finely chopped
1 cup water (I used maybe 1/4 cup)
1 cup reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3 scallions (green onions), sliced

Pierce potatoes all over with a fork. Cook in microwave on Medium for about 20 minutes (I was baking anyway and just wrapped my potatoes in foil and threw them in the oven). Or use the "potato" setting on your microwave and follow the manufacturer's direction.

Brown ground meat in a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often. Transfer cooked meat to a small bowl and set heat on high. Add broccoli florets and water, then put the lid on the skillet - broccoli should steam in 4 minutes or so. Drain the broccoli and add to the meat.

Cut off the top 1/3 of the potatoes and reserve for another use. Scoop out the insides into a medium bowl, and put the potato shells in a baking dish. Add 1/2 cup of cheddar, sour cream, salt, and pepper to potato innards and mash. Add scallions and potato mixture to the broccoli and meat; stir to combine.

Fill potato shells with tasty mixture and top with cheese. Heat in microwave until the cheese melts.

This Army Runs On Her Stomach

2011-01-17T08:32:00.004-05:00

This is my busy time of year professionally - well, one of them, anyway. Gotta bring the A-game every day. Gotta not get sick. Gotta think on my feet. Gotta not yell. Gotta gotta.

So what's a girl to do? The magic wand is always "out of stock", Superwoman capes don't match ANY of my suits (some fashionista get on that, please. Call me.), and I have yet to find a way to get professional credit for being a good doggie-mama. Oh, the challenges of the modern woman!

For a few months our better dinners will be on the weekends [actually, that's always true, but the disparity between Weeknight and Weekend is a little more pronounced]. I was cruising through some recipes I wanted to try and came across a sassy little Ellie Krieger number for Jerk Chicken with Cool Pineapple Salsa.

Never content to cook off the rack, I applied my own tailoring. Specifically I substituted tilapia for chicken and bottled jerk sauce for homemade. I had been an unsuspecting victim of a nap attack and, well, time and energy weren't my thing just then.

YAY for me, I had made the pineapple salsa the day before. That actually worked out better for the recipe, since it gave the flavors time to meld and the mint mellowed nicely. I had my doubts about the salsa initially, but the cooling off period worked great and we were able to have a healthy relationship. In fact, we may meet again (leftovers) with salmon tomorrow.

The pineapple salsa recipe is Ellie Krieger's; the rest of it is my daring improv.

JERK TILAPIA
3 or 4 tilapia filets (I used the frozen pack from Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup jerk sauce (Atlantans, mine was from DeKalb Farmer's Market)
2 TBSP oil, plus oil for the broiling rack

1. Move oven rack to the center of the oven. Neither fish nor sweetened sauces like to be too close to the heat.

2. Wipe down your broiler pan or rack with an oiled paper towel. This works better than cooking spray.

3. In a small bowl stir together oil and jerk sauce. Olive oil is going to give you an off flavor - vegetable, safflower, or canola oil is a better bet.

4. Place fish on broiler pan/rack and brush with oil and sauce mixture.

5. Broil for 4 minutes on each side.

COOL PINEAPPLE SALSA
1 TBSP honey
1 TBSP lime juice
1 cup finely diced pineapple
1/3 cup finely diced, seeded English cucumber (I used regular cucumber and seeds are fine with me)
1 TBSP chopped fresh mint leaves (yes, fresh - you can also add them to ice water for a terrific refresher)

Combine all. Store refrigerated.

New Year Halo Effect

2011-01-15T10:13:00.004-05:00

Let's see.... linen closet organized, healthful snacks, regular workouts. Yup, it's the New Year Halo Effect. And at 41, I'm too cynical to think I can bring this do-goodery and do-wellery back to life at regular intervals throughout the year. I'm totally going to try to keep my kick-ass linen closet in shape, though.

Atlanta had apocalyptic ice this past week. I suspect that our city's snow removal plan includes the phrase "...then the next day, it melts and life goes on." Which is true 95% of the time. HOWEVER. My neighborhood was unpassable - by car - for several days and I finally busted out on foot without busting anything. Yay, yoga balance drills! As my friends on Facebook know, I really did walk 2 1/2 miles in the snow and ice, uphill both ways. [pssst - totally overrated]

But before "cozy" became "claustrophobic" we had this simple, tasty entree one evening. It's not often that Sweetie gives an emphatic "YUM" on the first bite, but this one rated it. I grabbed some "fish in a bag" flounder at the local supermarket for just about $5. Obviously I'll be getting more.

This is SO easy to throw together on a weeknight and any vegetable(s) will make a good side dish.

Deceptively Easy Fish
2 TBSP lemon zest
1 TBSP olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
6 pieces flounder, tilapia, or similar (the FIB flounder pieces were small, so plan on 2 or 3 for each adult)

Combine lemon rind, olive oil, salt & pepper, and crushed garlic. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or longer for the oil to absorb the flavor.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray baking sheet with cooking spray (I just used baking parchment, it was fine). Put fish on sheet and brush with oil. Bake for 8 minutes or until fish flakes. Serve immediately.

Dressing Up

2011-01-01T08:21:00.004-05:00

Tech Girl joined us for Christmas dinner a few weeks ago; we used the Emeril's Caribbean Chicken recipe for turkey and OH MY GOD. It was amazing, and the resulting turkey stock even more so.

Since we've been roasting chicken lately, I needed to dress up the side dishes a little. Plain roast chicken and plain steamed veggies - even if a nice glass of wine is also part of the deal - is just a little austere. Enter Clean Eating (Eating Clean?) magazine - not my usual purchase, because of their use of more ingredients (e.g. "teff flour") than I care to inventory in my kitchen. But they had this keeper of a veggie dish.

Sauteed Green Beans & Carrots with Dill and Horseradish

1 tsp olive oil
1 medium shallot, finely diced
3/4 lb green beans, trimmed (cut in half, if very long)
2 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
1 large orange, zested and juiced, divided
6 - 8 sprigs fresh dill, chopped - about 2 tbsp (I skipped this part)
1- to 2-inch piece horseradish root, peeled and freshly grated (nope - it was way pricey), or 2 TBSP all-natural prepared horseradish (that's more like it)
Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add shallot, beans, and carrots and saute, stirring often, until tender (3 - 4 minutes).

Add orange juice to pan and stir once. Cover pan with lid and steam for about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add orange zest, dill, and horseradish. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Nothing Short of a Snacktime Revolution, I Tell You

2010-11-25T15:52:00.004-05:00

So it's Thanksgiving Day (have a Happy!), you've read 18 different turkey recipes and seen one too many perky skinny person talk about how they actually lose weight over the holidays. Dinnertime isn't when it usually is. You may be at the home of "that aunt" - the one with the feral cat collection and the off-limits basement. Or, you may be having a perfectly lovely holiday with good friends and loved ones and tasty treats - good for you.

In any event, one of this year's losses was my favorite not-very-salty, fancy-foofy microwave popcorn from the International Organic Artisinal Free-Range Yummy Store. It has been counterbalanced by one of this year's successes.

And by that I mean "popcorn in a paper bag." My new blogcrush, Cheaphealthygood, has a terrific post on making regular, plain ol' cheap popcorn in a regular, plain ol' cheap paper lunch bag.

One quarter-cup popcorn kernels.
Place in paper lunch bag and fold over top.
Put in microwave for 4 minutes. Stop microwave when rapid popping stops.

That sound you hear is the money climbing back into my wallet since it's not going to Yummy HQ in exchange for popcorn. For that, I'm thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Finally! Rutbuster!

2010-10-29T20:44:00.005-04:00

It was bad, y'all. New recipes, none of them fantastic. Then not even any new recipes that I wanted to try.

Oddly enough, life went on. And by "went on" I mean that Mr. Stinkycheese has been working his !@#$ off and I started re-caulking the windows and - wait - this scraper is not supposed to go straight through wood. Nor is wood supposed to splinter and crumble like foam.

This can't be good.

For some reason I expected Mr. Stinkycheese to know what to do, even though he's a first-time homeowner as well. "Your dad has rehabbed a lot of old houses. Should we call him?" I said. "I know what he'd do" replied Sweetie. "He'd have someone who knows what they're doing come out and fix it."

What a GREAT idea! Ever mindful of the time, I quickly changed clothes, consulted the computer, and high-tailed it to Chef Nancy's baby shower. Whew, that was a close one!

The window frame is being fixed (and caulked, might I add) and I even found a recipe to celebrate with. It would never have occurred to me to serve tuna with cannellini, but it rocked. Asparagus was the perfect side dish.

If you're also looking for new ideas - and not at the expense of your Nostinkycheese perusal - I highly recommend cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com. Tell them Stephanie sent you.

Pan-Seared Orange Tuna with White Beans

2 tablespoons grated orange zest (I didn't have any, it was fine)
2 tablespoons firmly-packed brown sugar (too much! I'm going with 1 TBSP next time)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground mustard
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons finely minced fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground pepper

4 (4 to 6-ounce) 1-inch thick sushi quality tuna steaks
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (I didn't have oranges, so Tropicana it was)
1 tablespoon Champagne or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups cooked white beans (right out of the can and rinsed, as far as I'm concerned)
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil leaves

In a small bowl, combine the orange zest, brown sugar, garlic, mustard, cumin, basil, salt and pepper. Reserve 1 tablespoon of this mixture for seasoning the white beans. Rub the remaining mix on the tuna steaks, coating them well.

In a heavy bottomed sauté pan warm the olive oil. Increase the heat to high and place the tuna in the pan. Sear for 1 minute, then turn over carefully, reducing the heat to medium. Sear the other side for 1 more minute until medium rare. Remove from heat.

In a large saucepan whisk the orange juice, vinegar, and reserved spices. Bring to a simmer. Add the white beans and basil, tossing well until hot.

Place the beans on a large platter or individual serving plates; drizzle with olive oil. Place tuna steak over the beans and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Take More - Here, Take It All.

2010-10-11T19:25:00.004-04:00

Years ago, when I was traveling non-stop for a Large Corporation, I would land back in Atlanta on Friday nights and leave again that Sunday. So really, I had 36 hours to wash clothes, pay bills, and call my mother before I left town again.

Since there was no point in grocery shopping - how weird it feels to write that! - I used to call my favorite Chinese restaurant when I was driving home from the airport. It got to the point that I could call to place my order and say "Hi! It's me. The usual. Twenty minutes."

There's a lot to be said for getting to know the owner of a great restaurant. She has told us about her childhood in China, her loser son who seemed to think he needed to move to New York, her son's girlfriend That Girl, etc.

One night Sweetie met some friends there - I was sick and whiny and snarfle-y and stayed home - and the owner pounced immediately, demanding to know why Sweetie was in female company (said female's husband was also at the table, but whatever. I appreciate the assist from the sisterhood.).

When she found out I was sick she packaged up a giant container of my beloved hot & sour soup, the panacea for whatever could possibly be wrong.

This is a good approximation that's terrific for fighting a cold, or just enjoying as a first course.

Hot & Sour Soup
3 oz. boneless pork, cut in strips (or use cooked chicken, or skip the meat entirely)
2 oz. bean thread noodle (replace with rice for a more filling meal)
2 small eggs
1 quart chicken stock
A few twists of the pepper grinder - this is where the "hot" comes in
2 TBSP scallions, chopped
3/4 oz. dried black mushrooms (I use fresh shiitake or oyster and saute them a minute)
8 oz. tofu, cut small (optional)
2 tsp. sesame oil
3 TBSP rice wine vinegar - this is the "sour" of the soup
2 TBSP soy sauce (low-sodium is fine)

Blanch pork in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside. Soak mushrooms in warm water (different warm water) for 20 minutes, drain, remove stems, and cut caps into thin strips. Soak bean thread noodles in warm water (yet a different batch of warm water) 4 - 5 minutes.

Whisk egg with 1 tsp sesame oil in a small dish.

Bring chicken stock to a boil. Add pork, mushrooms, bean thread, tofu, vinegar, pepper, and soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes.

SLOWLY pour egg mixture into soup, through a fork, to get strands. Add scallions and 1 tsp sesame oil. Stir and serve.

It Really Works

2010-09-26T18:32:00.005-04:00

It almost never fails to amaze me when common knowledge turns out to be true. Like "eat less and exercise more and you'll lose weight", or "save your money and you'll have more of it." It's part of my charm.

When I yet again found God-knows-what in the back of the vegetable crisper, I decided that we've been wasting too much food and something had to be done. I am legendarily deficient at estimating volume/amount needed, so we usually have way too much or way too little of whatever produce we need.

That said, my wingin' it plan for dinners was a big part of the problem. Forgetting what was in the fridge, trying to come up with something reasonably healthful after a long day at work, shopping without a plan - pretty much ensured that this "making dinner" thing was a lot pricier and more stressful than it really had to be.

So it's time for a menu plan. It seemed daunting and constraining but hell, we set up a budget (thank you, Dave Ramsey) and what could be harder than that?

My friend Google showed me that some folks take this process WAY more seriously than I do. Relational databases with expiration dates and coupon notations? Auto-trigger shopping lists? SERIOUSLY????

More power to you.

Granted, I'm in the early stages on this, but it's working well so far. Here's what I've picked up along the way:

1. How many nights are we eating at home this week? Sweetie and I both have evening commitments a few nights a week and we just plan on eating separately those nights. Therefore, no need to plan for those as far as I'm concerned. I aim for planning 4 dinner menus per week.

2. What did I buy last week that I need to use up? I desperately want to believe that we have a salad-based diet. We don't. As a result there are usually some greens and cucumbers that I need to work into the first few dinners of the week (carrots keep much longer).

3. What do we have time for? If we thaw some frozen homemade soups, so be it. I'm not going to plan to make a 2-hour roast and several side dishes if I'm not getting home until 6:30 pm.

4. Assigning days - your mileage may vary. It works better for us to just make a list of entrees and side dishes, and not assign them to a specific day.

I also try to mix it up a little so that we're not eating chicken & green beans 3 nights out of 7. This week's list:

Sweet & Sour Salmon, brown rice, sugar peas

Sloppy Cubanos filling in hollowed-out baked potato, salad

Spaghetti, marinara, and Italian turkey sausage with broccoli

Lemon Lager Chicken, green beans

Pork Barbeque (currently frozen), corn

Tips? I'd love to hear them!

And again!

2010-09-18T20:27:00.005-04:00

The beating sun. Sweat. Running. Yelling. Uniforms and shin guards. The blur of the ball and the cheering (and jeering! WTF?) from the sidelines.

The threat of vuvuzelas.

Yes, it was 9- and 10-year-old soccer this afternoon. A brutal confrontation between our niece, Cutie, and her across-the-street neighbor ("Oh, hey, mind if I take this ball?" "Well, I guess it's your turn.").

It was unusual to spend a Saturday afternoon with my husband. Being a two-career couple Sweetie (Mr. Nostinkycheese) and I spend most Saturdays separately, catching up on Life Chores. Our Saturday night dinners are a great time to sit down to a hot meal, relax, chow down on whatever I picked up at the Farmer's Market, and pretend we're adults with real jobs.

We liked the Asparagus Chicken Roulade so much that we had it two weekends in a row. Of course, having all the ingredients on hand had nothing to do with it ("Can we please use up this prosciutto???"). Last weekend I had rice as a side dish, which was fine but just fine. This weekend I sliced a carrot and yellow squash, sauteed with garlic, and topped with parsley. Fab either way. For anyone who can't have dairy, just double the prosciutto and leave out the goat cheese.

Asparagus Chicken Roulade
Ladies' Home Journal (seriously?), Sept. 2010

4 (1 3/4 lbs total) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and black pepper
4 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
8 asparagus stems, cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces

1. Heat broiler to high with rack 4 inches from heat (Steph note: you know your oven, and in mine the chicken will be burned on the outside before it's cooked on the inside if I put it that close to the heating element. Adjust accordingly). Line a baking sheet with foil; set aside.

2. Slice chicken breasts horizontally into 2 thin pieces, using the sharpest knife you have. If necessary, layer between sheets of plastic wrap and pound to 1/4 inch thick. Lay chicken, smooth side down, on work surface. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Spread each with 1/2 tsp of Dijon. Layer with prosciutto, goat cheese and asparagus. Roll up, starting at the wide end of each breast. Place on the baking sheet, seam side down.

4. Coat lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with pepper. Broil until chicken is cooked through and tops are golden, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through.

Like Sunday Morning...

2010-07-12T21:04:00.004-04:00

Easy. Actually, FOR Sunday evening.

I served this with roasted fingerling potatoes and spinach salad. To give the dry rub time to seep in I wrapped the roast tightly in Saran wrap and refrigerated the roast for a few hours before cooking.

Maybe not the usual summer fare? True, true. But I'm too tired to be creative in this heat.

Chili-Glazed Pork Roast
Fitness magazine, sometime in 2007

1 TBSP packed brown sugar
1 TBSP snipped fresh thyme OR 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon snipped fresh rosemary OR 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I didn't have any so I used the dried red pepper that my dad used to shake on pizza)
1 2- to 2-1/2-pound boneless pork top loin roast (single loin)

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl combine all seasonings. Sprinkle evenly over roast; rub in with your fingers. [Note - I used the back of a large spoon, since the spices tend to stick to my fingers and I want all of them on the roast]

2. Place roast on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Roast 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until thermometer registers 155 degrees. The temperature of the meat after standing should be 160 degrees. If desired, garnish with rosemary sprigs.

Classics

2010-05-30T19:25:00.006-04:00

This whole gluten-free business has thrown me into a tizzy cooking-wise. Here's the scoop:

a) Unlike going vegetarian, going gluten-free is not going to result in dramatically improved health and well-being UNLESS you have a sensitivity to gluten.

b) It's not as much of a ~~tragedy~~ problem as I expected. Do I miss bread? You bet. I've got some brown rice flour "bread" that, well, it'll do, but it for darn sure isn't fluffy sourdough. That said, it also doesn't make me ill.

So there's that.

c) Once I found good cereal and good (quinoa) pasta, things fell into place reasonably well.

d) Gluten-free goodies include tortilla chips, chocolate, ice cream (unless there are mixed-in yummies like, say, Oreos), and wine. Yes, one can be just as un-virtuous on a gluten-free diet as if they had access to pie.

e) Crushed corn flakes make excellent breading for fish and chicken.

For Sunday dinner we had fish & chips, and I had brownies (happy, happy, joy, joy!) for dessert. "Brownies" is what the cookbook ("The Fitness Kitchen") calls them - "chocolate cheesecake filling" is what I call it and I absolutely adore it. They're chocolate and yummy and rich and, seriously, I would make these even if I could have regular brownies. Probably not instead of brownies, mind you, but...

I roasted some Yukon Gold potato wedges at 450 degrees for half an hour, with regular stirring and a good drizzle of oil. Actually, I put the garlic-infused oil, then the potato wedges, in a large Ziploc bag and tossed to coat. For the last 10 minutes I turned the oven down to 425 degrees so that I could put the fish in as well.

The fish was regular, inexpensive frozen cod from Trader Joe's. It's not a big deal if your pieces of fish are different length/width as long a they're reasonably close to the same thickness. I used a very sharp knife and cut a few pieces in half.

The source recipe is here: My changes (baking instead of frying, corn flakes instead of bread crumbs) are below.

CRISPY OVEN-FRIED COD

1 cup crushed corn flakes
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 codfish fillets
2 large eggs, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet (line with foil if you wish) with wire racks. Mist racks with cooking spray.

Lightly beat two whole eggs with a fork; place in a shallow dish.

Place crushed cornflakes, cornmeal, salt, garlic powder, and cayenne in a separate shallow dish and mix well.

Dip one fish fillet in egg, making sure both sides are covered. Dredge both sides of filet in cornflake mixture, and place on wire rack.

Follow with other pieces of fish; do not allow pieces of fish to touch on the rack, or they won't crisp properly.

Bake at 425 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes.

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE BROWNIES
The Fitness Kitchen, by Shelly Sinton

1 (8-ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1 cup light sour cream
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use dark chocolate cocoa)
2 TBSP cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup semisweet chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8-inch baking dish with parchment or waxed paper.

Blend cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Add cocoa powder, cornstarch, sugar, and eggs. Blend until smooth, scraping down the ides of the bowl a needed. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Bake until just set, 35 - 40 minutes, then let cool 20 - 30 minutes. Refrigerate for at least one hour (I just keep them in the fridge).

All Snug!

2010-04-18T09:08:00.005-04:00

Last year I ventured into the world of homemade potstickers and, like opera, put it on the list of Things I Can Say I Tried And Never Have To Do Again. Countless teensy spoonfuls of filling on countless smallish squares of doughy wrapper... pain in the ass.

Really, really tasty, though.

So - how to keep the tastiness and reduce the work to a manageable level? Spring rolls! And as a bonus (for me), the wrappers are made of rice flour and tapioca flour - in other words, they're gluten-free.

And forgive me, please, for not spinning stories and offering insight. There's a lot going on and, to be honest, dinner has been tomato soup or a turkey burger out of the freezer more often than not. Fixing my (lack of) house decor has sucked up my creative energy of late, and there just isn't enough to go around.

At any rate - spring rolls are easier because they're bigger. More bang for the buck. Less work for the yumminess.

Oh, and they're not complete without a dipping sauce. I threw some low-sodium soy sauce, a dollop of hoisin sauce, and a little grated ginger into a small cup. Done.

I made a few substitutions (of course...). Instead of ground pork I thinly sliced 2 pork chops. And since cabbage tastes like pencil erasers to me, I used baby bok choy instead. Also, I added mung bean sprouts - a quarter cup or so - for crunch.

Adapted from allrecipes.com:

BAKED PORK SPRING ROLLS

1/2 pound ground pork
1 cup finely shredded cabbage
1/4 cup finely shredded carrot
2 green onions, thinly sliced (optional)
2 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro (SO optional)
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 TBSP oyster sauce (substitute hoisin sauce if you're allergic)
2 tsp freshly grated ginger root
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp chili sauce

1 TBSP cornstarch
1 TBSP water

12 7-inch square spring roll wrappers (mine were round, they worked fine)

4 tsp vegetable oil (substitute cooking spray/oil in a pump spray if you wish)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Saute pork over medium heat until thoroughly cooked; remove from heat, drain.

3. In a large bowl combine cabbage (or bok choy), carrots, cilantro, oil, sauces, ginger, and garlic. Toss to combine. Add pork and toss again.

4. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl. This is a slurry - you'll use it to seal the wrappers after you've worked your rolling magic.

5. Place approximately 1 TBSP of the pork mixture (or a little more) in the upper center of the spring roll wrappers. Roll like a burrito - fold the top over the filling, fold the sides inward (think "seam allowance' if you were sewing), and roll.

6. Dip your fingers in the slurry, moisten the bottom edge, and seal to the rolled spring roll.

7. Arrange spring rolls on a baking sheet - I lined my sheet with parchment paper so that they wouldn't stick to the pan.

8. Mist the spring rolls with cooking spray or oil, or brush with vegetable oil. This is what gives them that wonderful crispiness and browning.

9. Bake in the preheated oven 20 minutes. For really crispy spring rolls, flip them GENTLY after 10 minutes and mist again with oil.

Ah, Chocolate...

2010-03-23T04:26:00.005-04:00

These yummies from this month's "Everyday Food" magazine have been a big hit at my office (and with Sweetie). I halved the amount of chili powder, but will probably go to the full amount next time. Also, I used about half regular cocoa powder (to use up the open box) and the rest dark chocolate cocoa (which I had been dying to get into). I sooooo recommend dark chocolate cocoa!

Mexican Hot-Chocolate Cookies

Cookie
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (regular is fine, just use a smidge less)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
2 large eggs

Rolling Sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cream together butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine.

3. With mixer on low, gradually add dry ingredients and combine thoroughly.

4. In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and chili powder (if using). Using heaping tablespoons, form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture.

5. Place, about 3 inches apart, on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are set in center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on the sheet for a few minutes before handling.

Personal and Professional

2010-03-12T20:10:00.005-05:00

Disposable masks, disposable gowns, and disposable gloves are mounted on the door. The five feet betweeen the hallway door and my friend are called the Isolation Area. It's where I cover my breath and hands so that my presence, intended to bring comfort (to me? to her?), is denuded of its power to harm.

I hope.

"He's vent-dependent", I say at work, reviewing the paperwork of someone I don't know and clinically assessing that individual's need for attendant care and other services.

"She's on a ventilator", I say, with some level of amazement that this really happens to people who were walking around and breathing just fine last week. The respiratory therapist says he needs to clean out the vent tubing and "you can stay if you wish, but, well, some people faint." I have nothing to prove and literally turn my back on my friend. I don't like the symbolism of it, but I don't have great choices. Picking the least-bad of all choices has been rather the hallmark of this entire journey.

We, as a profession, are all about promoting and supporting independence. Driving is more independent than being driven. Being driven somewhere is more independent than being home-bound. Cooking is more independent than being cooked for and eating by mouth is more independent than a feeding tube.

And on a ventilator - Jesus, you can't even decide when to switch from "inhale" to "exhale." Of course, being heavily sedated, that's not an issue for her right now.

"She has a lower-level spinal injury so she has good use of her arms" I say at work, thinking this is really pretty good news.

"They can't say how much use she'll have of that arm," I hear in the hospital. And I wonder how she'll cook and if she'll play tennis again.

In the State Capitol, as I often am for work, I hear that X% (I wrote it down somewhere) of nursing home residents have no one to speak for their wishes in an emergency.

Twice this week I've walked past the bed of a man who has had no visitors that I'm aware of.

Isolation Area.

Valentine

2010-02-12T20:56:00.006-05:00

I know, I know, my fam up in Maryland and PA got 47 feet of snow over the past ten days - Snowpocalypse, SnOMG, etc. and we're shut in with nowhere near that. Don't be a hater.

Here in Atlanta 2 inches of snow is a very big deal for a 4 of the snow plows in the metro area.

It's pretty, though.

And while that in and of itself didn't keep me out of the office, waiting over 30 minutes for a train that never came did it. So there I was, conducting a conference call from my guest room, with door closed to guard against certain barky members of the household revealing my undisclosed location.

The completely unforseen wrinkle? Sweetie's Valentine Day surprise - delivering red velvet cupcakes to my office - went by the wayside. But isn't that the sweetest thing ever?? Our wedding cake was red velvet, and these are the only confection that has come anywhere near equalling the yumminess of our cake.

Let's get a look, shall we?

Look at the loft on that frosting. The rich chocolate of the cupcake and the whimsical crumb/walnut/sparkle topping. A perfect 10.

I love you too, Sweetie.

Short Cuts

2010-02-03T08:19:00.006-05:00

Tear. Snip. "Ooooh!" That's me going through a cooking magazine, tearing out what I want to try.

"Oh, crap" - that's me realizing how many to-try recipes have stacked up in my desk drawer. The keepers, after Sweetie and I agree we'd gladly have it again, go in the recipe binder - plastic page protectors and all.

About six months ago I got 3 plastic envelope/folders, labelled them "Entree", "Side", and "Dessert." I grabbed a thick stack of recipes and got busy sorting (with a lot of them ending up in the trash; did I really think I was going to make a 3-page recipe??). Then I decided that in this new year, I wanted to actually MAKE thoe recipes in the folders. Crazy!

So I got started. And at the end of a Disappointing Food weekend - the Black Bean Catfish was OK but way too much work to be just OK, the Citrus Chicken was uninspired - I made a bold move with the recipe pile.

I threw it out.

Didn't look back.

In trying to declutter I've started looking at the library as the Place Where I Keep My Books, and for the most part the internet is the Place Where I Keep My Recipes. If it was published in a magazine, it's on the web somewhere.

So as for other goals... I'm still trying to pretty-up the house on a dime. The common areas of Cutie's house are a pale, muted yellow that I love. I wanted to duplicate that in our downstairs powder room and picked up some Behr "Butter Cookie." Once on the walls, it wasn't the sophisticated, elegant shade on the card. But if you're going for "we don't want to know the gender so we're going with a neutral nursery", it's totally the shade for you.

Since I had only bought a quart (TINY powder room) and I'm way on a budget I had to improvise. I went back to Home Depot and bought a sample of "Cornerstone", a tannish beige, and mixed and mixed AND MIXED it into the remaining yellow paint. Much better.

And I got this little Christmas decoration at Goodwill for $2. Ain't she a beauty? Note the flaking silvery balls and the sort-of silverish (in spots) vine-like attachment. And the gobs of wax in the votive cups. It's not showing up in the picture, but there was silver tinsel on there, too. Eat your heart out, Martha.

I'm thinkin' I overpaid at $2.....

De-crapified and painted black - much better. And of course, much better than paying $12 at the store. I hung some of Sweetie's historical prints that have some age & some wear on them and, actually, it's looking pretty good. Not your traditional powder room decor, but that's OK.

In progress at the moment - no-sew Roman shades. I'm most of the way through and, frankly, I have my doubts. I'll keep you posted.

Not the F-Word

2010-01-24T20:41:00.005-05:00

Quick food. Speedy food. Not-so-much-work food. But NOT fast food.

As part of my effort to get through my recipes-to-try pile I pulled this one from.... well, January/February 2010. Shaddup.

The two best parts? First, I could make the marinade ahead of time and just toss the chicken in when I got home from running errands that day. It came together SO fast. Second, by using crushed corn flakes instead of bread crumbs I got a terrifically crispy coating; not "pretty good considering it's gluten-free", but actually really tasty and I would make it that way even if I could eat the world's most common food. Not that I'm still bitter or anything.

Ideally I'd make my own BBQ sauce, because store-bought sauce can be REALLY high in sugar/high fructose corn syrup. But this is the real world where I'm in my busy season at work, so I just thank Trader Joe's for the assist.

Cost-conscious tip: cutting chicken breasts into strips will save you around 40 cents/pound (at least) over buying pre-cut tenders. And since DH likes drumsticks, which are way less pricey than chicken breasts, we did half & half.

A salad is a great side dish with this. If you're going for more of a party atmosphere, just do carrots and celery sticks. In the summer this would go perfectly with corn on the cob.

BBQ Chicken Tenders
Eating Well, January/February 2010

1 cup prepared barbecue sauce
2 TBSP Dijon mustard
2 TBSP honey (I used a smidge less than 1 TBSP)
1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups coarse dry breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat

1. Combine barbecue sauce, mustard, and honey in a large bowl or Ziploc bag. Set aside 1/2 cup of chicken tenders in half lengthwise, then add all the chicken to the large bowl with the remaining sauce. Stir to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Coat a large rimed baking sheet with cooking spray.

3. Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Lightly beat eggs in another shallow dish. Place breadcrumbs (or crushed cornflakes) in a third hallow dish. Coat each tender in flour, shaking off any excess. Dip in egg and let any excess drip off. Then roll in the breadcrumb.

4. Place the chicken on the prepared baking sheet. Generously coat chicken with cooking spray.

5. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn each tender (or leg) over and continue baking until the outside is crisp and the tender are cooked through, about 10 minutes more. Serve with the reserved sauce for dipping.

Hibernating

2010-01-16T08:22:00.008-05:00

When I was getting ready for bed Sweetie said, "Are you setting your alarm? It's supposed to ice tonight." True, I said, but there was no reason to think I wouldn't go to work the next day.

And it iced and I went to work and they closed it twenty minutes after I got there. Super!

Before everyone from Minnesota and Chicago and other snow-ain't-no-thing parts of the country get all judgey, remember this - we have no snow plows. We have no snow tires. We have one or two salt/sand trucks. Oh, and we have a LOT of people who have never driven on snow or ice before.

The year Atlanta hosted the ~~Felon Frolic~~ Superbowl we had two ice storms in a row. I was sloooowly making my way to the supermarket around 7am that weekend, just post-storm, when a car behind me became terribly impatient with me. Horn honking, one-handed gestures waving, yelling in the car - the whole dramadeal. Where he had to go at 7am on a Sunday morning I couldn't tell you.

So as soon as it was possible to do so, he passed me - screaming at me the whole time.

He floored it, skidded, and ran into a phone pole.

Sometimes you get to SEE karma instead of just hope it's out there...

So anyway, after I made my way back home (the ice! the skidding! the cooooold!), I hit the supermarket to get what I needed to finally, finally make my sister's tortilla soup crockpot recipe. She sent me a passionate defense of her beloved slow-cooker after this post, and sent the accompanying recipe.

It is said that no two siblings grow up in the same household. And sure enough, I started researching recipes before I hit a double-digit age and Sis lost 8 pounds when I went away to college because "all I know how to cook is salad." She has become a terrific cook and hostess-with-the-mostest since then.

It's FABULOUS. It was just what we needed on an ice-bound day and the leftovers made a terrific lunch. Pork tenderloin is the most healthful/low-fat option. I suspect a Boston Butt would also work at less financial cost, but would be fattier. The texture would be different as well, since it would be more of a shredded/Southern barbecue deal. YUM.

Sis's recipe in Sis's words. I bought a big pork tenderloin and used 1/3 for the soup, froze 1/3 to use as a roast, and chopped the last part into, well, chops.

Tortilla Soup
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
3 garlic cloves, chopped or squashed through the press
1 can diced tomato with jalapenos
1 small can green chilies
1 can (15-ish ounces) corn
32 oz chicken broth (I prefer low-sodium, especially since there are also tortilla chips in here)
1/2 cup crushed tortilla chips

Heat skillet with oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook till softened - about 6 minutes. Stir in chili powder, cumin, and garlic - cook for 1 minute.

Transfer to slow cooker and add cubed pork, tomatoes, chilies, broth, and tortilla chips.

Cover and cook about 4 hours on high (or you can do all day on low, and turn it up for 30 minutes or so when you get home from work). Stir in corn at end (I have added it at the beginning with no difference). I have added canned black beans the last few times I made it. Definitely adds nutrition and flavor.

Ideas

2010-01-06T08:50:00.031-05:00

New year, new possibilities, new recipes. Let's all hope for good things.

One of the best things to happen last year was that my creative juices started to flow. And not just in a circle, but actually down to hands and feet where they become action. I took my mid-90's Pier 1 box-on-a-frame coffee table out of the basement and, via magic, turned it from this (on the deck, just moments away from beginning a miraculous transformation)

To this, with power sanding and a doo-dad from Lowe's and carpenter's glue...

to this. Voila!

I attacked it with Valspar spray paint and quickly realized that Valspar spray paint is awful and chalky and blotchy. So back to sanding, and back to Home Depot for some Krylon spray paint. Luuuurve Krylon. The table is just inside the front door, so the basket of rolled towels underneath the coffee table is for wet/muddy paws.

Oh, and the dark candle-holder on top of the coffee table was a $4 find at the Step-Up Society (on Monroe, for those of you in Atlanta). It was bright, screamin' red with classy-brassy accents and weird faux-distressing when I bought it. Spray paint on oil-rubbed bronze is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

This was the Year of Spray Paint. The god-awful brass/walnut ceiling fan in the guest room? It's now a crisp, fresh, very liveable white. The SHINY faux-gold picture frame with the 1980s pastel print? Spray-painted the frame espresso brown, kept the glass & neutral matting, and replaced the print with a historic one that we needed to frame. This was an $8.50 project via Goodwill instead of a $75 custom framing job.

And fabric. I took the dining room chairs from here -

to there -

Also a great idea, this one Sweetie's.

Know what this is? It's probably a quick escort out of the security line at the airport, for one thing, but it's GENIUS. It's an empty prescription bottle with Sweetie's I-pod earbuds. They don't get tangled, they don't get wrapped around anything else. Hell, they don't even get chocolated (were anyone to carry both an I-pod and emergency chocolate in their bag... I never would, of course...).

One of my goals for the new year is to plow through the ENORMOUS pile of "to try" recipes I've accumulated over, well, longer than I care to think about.

I love Everyday Food magazine and, after my gift subscription from TechGirl ran out, I re-upped myself*. Now maybe (maybe??) in Martha's world is risotto an "everyday" dish, but around here it's for weekends/vacation days only.

That said, it's well worth the time. I'm still on this ridiculous gluten-free thing, and rice is wonderfully starchy and creamy and gluten-free! Sweetie and I are doing a fitness challenge at our gym, and I felt no hypocrisy at all about making this dinner and being in the challenge. I don't generally feel hypocritical about indulging in a little snacky-treat, so maybe that's not a good barometer... anyway, this is really a wonderful, comforting dish on a COLD winter evening.

Risotto can be tricky. If this is your first time making it be sure to have a back-up dish (leftovers, frozen pizza, whatever) to take the pressure and the starving off. Also, read the whole recipe before you start; always a good idea, but particularly important with this one.

You can not use any kind of rice other than Arborio or carnaroli. Those two types of rice are the only two varieties that create their own creamy sauce that makes risotto what it is. Basmati or jasmine or brown or a-roni will not work. Sure, you could make a rice salad or something, but it's way not risotto.

Tomato and Sausage Risotto

Everyday Food - November, 2006 (I told you I've been saving recipes for way too long)

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juice

1 TBSP olive oil (or canola oil if that's what you have; and if you only have $16/bottle olive oil, use the canola and save the pricey stuff for salad dressing or bruschetta)

3/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, casing removed - I used the supermarket-brand Italian turkey sausage, and it was FAB. 3/4 pound was about 3 sausages. Precise weight is not at all important here. And if you're vegetarian, leave it out altogether.

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 cup Arborio rice (uncooked) - Arborio is the go-to for risotto, but carnaroli rice will also work

1/2 cup dry white wine - use chicken broth if you don't keep wine around

1 10- to 14-ounce bunch spinach, chopped, tough stems removed (or not... that's a little picky for me)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (freshly grated yourself if at all possible)

2 TBSP butter (a little gratuitous, if you ask me - and you're reading my blog, so yeah, I'm opining. 1 TBSP or less is fine)

In a saucepan combine the tomatoes, their juice, and 3 cups of water. Heat it until simmering. It is VERY important to keep it hot.

In a larger saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add sausage and onion, season with salt & pepper (or just pepper - the Parmesan and sausage both already have salt). Cook, breaking up sausage with a spoon, until sausage is opaque and onion has softened. Martha says 3 - 5 minutes, but mine took a little longer.

Add (uncooked) rice, stirring until well coated with liquid, a minute or two.

Add wine or 1/2 cup chicken broth, stirring until absorbed, about a minute. And "absorbed" means the rice no longer looks shiny-wet but has a thickened, sauce-like quality.

Add about 2 cups of hot tomato mixture AND NO MORE to rice. Stir and simmer over medium-low heat until rice is absorbed, a good 5 minutes or so. The picture below is right after an addition of tomatoes/juice that has not yet been absorbed. Also, a wooden spoon is great for this as it doesn't get hot.

Continue adding tomato mixture, ONE CUP AT A TIME, stirring until absorbed and then adding another cup. This is a lot of stirring and waiting, so here's how I cook:

Ahem.

After you've added more than half of the tomato mixture (one cup at a time), it's time to start taste-testing. If the rice crunches you're not done yet. When it reaches a nice, toothy consistency - creamy and not soupy, with the rice at cooked-rice-texture (you're a grown-up, you know what rice should be), you're ready to proceed. You may have some tomato mixture left over, and that's fine (you can always season it with a little oregano and basil, stick it in the fridge, and toss it with pasta later for a light lunch).

Remove the pan from the heat and add the spinach. Since spinach cooks down so much it's easiest to do this a few handfuls at a time, let it wilt, then add more.

Note that in the picture above the rice has a creamy coating; that's what you're looking for in a risotto.

Stir in Parmesan and, if you choose to use it, butter. If you're planning to have leftovers the butter will help keep the risotto from getting pasty on the later re-heat.

Settle in, light candles, put on music, and be glad you're out of the cold and enjoying a healthful, tasty dinner.

*Amazon.com has a terrific deal right now on a year-long subscription to Eating Well for $5. I believe the deal is on for another few days - TERRIFIC cooking magazine.

The Dawning of a New Year

2010-01-01T08:49:00.006-05:00

This will be quick, y'all - it's January 1 and I've got to get busy on organizing my house, losing 12 pounds, finding serenity throughout the day, being more understanding...

Mom grew up in central Pennsylvania, which was predominantly settled by Germans. In fact, my Civil War ancestor fought in the Pennsylvania German Regiment. A lot of the traditional family favorite foods in that area are heavily influenced German dishes. And Mom inflicted pork and sauerkraut on us every New Year's Day for "luck." Which always made me think the new year would suck, as I had once again failed to dodge the sauerkraut.

If pork is part of your New Year's Day tradition, here's a terrific Asian-inspired pork tenderloin recipe. Seriously, this stuff is the bomb. I like to serve it with rice noodles (an Asian New Year tradition) and snow peas.

The original recipe is written for the grill and involves hickory chips. You can get the original recipe here; my version is below.

Hoisin and Bourbon-Glazed Pork Tenderloin
Cooking Light, 2002

1/3 cup hoisin sauce (you can find it in the Asian section of a regular supermarket)
2 TBSP rice vinegar (rice wine vinegar is fine)
2 TBSP bourbon
2 TBSP maple syrup (we didn't have any - honey worked fine)
1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon chili paste with garlic (not essential - I wouldn't go out and buy it just for this recipe)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 1-pound pork tenderloins
Salt & pepper, cooking spray

Mix all ingredients (except salt, pepper, and cooking spray) in a large Ziploc bag, or whatever you use for marinating meat. Add tenderloins and refrigerate for up to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, coat the foil with cooking spray, and place tenderloins on sheet; dispose of marinade. Salt and pepper the tenderloins. Roast for 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the pork is 155 degrees.

Note: tenderloins usually have a thick end and taper sharply at the other. I generally end up whacking off the "tail" and removing it from the oven between 5 and 10 minutes before the rest of the pork is done. That way, all parts of the pork are done without any parts being overcooked.

Happy cooking in 2010!

Wrap-up

2009-12-30T17:30:00.005-05:00

Recipes
I'm all about this Lemon-Lager Chicken from November, Ellie Krieger's Sweet and Spicy Grilled Cheese on really good sourdough, TechGirl's Turkey Chilli, and the Halibut with Coconut-Red Curry Sauce (I used grouper instead of pricey halibut) were all wonderful new additions to my treasured recipe collection.

And, should the winner of this year's crown be unable to fulfill her responsibilities or be caught posing nude with penguins or whatever, I'm sure any of them will step up to Recipe Of The Year status. 'Til then, Roasted Vegetable-Rosemary Chicken Soup gets the scholarship and the gym membership and the other fabulous bennies of being Recipe Of The Year. It's fabulous and it was my first and best recipe of 2009.

2009 in General
It's easy, especially for my Eeyore-tendency self, to think that the pay cuts and the foreclosure signs and the FLOODS here in Atlanta earned 2009 a kick in the ass on its way out.

And yet.

The US inaugurated our first African-American president. You may agree or disagree with his policies, but the fact remains that this was a history-making event. [And yes, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, which seems rather premature to me but peace was, frankly, lacking this year]

Sully! Chesley Sullenberger averts disaster and lands his passenger-laden plane in the Hudson River. I mean, I can barely parallel park.

Octuplets are born. And thus, a nursery becomes a giant Whack-A-Mole, which God never intended. Go ahead and flame me, I said it.

Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff went to jail. And not, unlike certain pedophile movie directors, in a Swiss chalet.

The Governor of South Carolina went "hiking." Because that's what those crazy kids are calling it these days.

Passengers overpowered a terrorist bearing explosives on a flight. So now we scan and bag our own groceries, bring our own bags to the store, AND tackle evil-doers in mid-air. We do it all!

It may not have been introduced this year, but I discovered Behr Paint + Primer in one. Where have you been all my home-owning life?

President Obama tells America's school children, via televised message, to work hard and stay in school. Thousands of parents yank their kids out of class that day in protest. I swear to God this is true.

Taylor Swift rises to astounding popularity. Do I think she's a musical genius? No. But it's refreshing to see a young woman rise to such great heights in the entertainment world without flashing her chamber of secrets every time she exits a car.

Facebook! 2009 as touted as "the year your parents join Facebook", but I like to think of it more as the year your way-cool aunt joined Facebook. Besides reconnecting with old friends, I've friended old acquaintances that I never knew all that well. Weird, but very cool. And I got the best message recently, from a college friend saying "You have no idea about this, but advice you gave me in college changed my life and I've pursued a career of social justice ever since." WOW.

Glee glee glee glee glee!!! I adore this show! Although my high school choir had a bitter middle-aged choir director nothing like Will Schuester, and we tended to sing more about sunsets than bust out Kanye. And speaking of busting out, click to CHECK OUT Mercedes singing "Bust Your Windows."

Glee In Real Life - who didn't love Susan Boyle singing "I Dreamed A Dream"?

My older niece came out with the statement "Ice cream helps me with my anger issues." Me too, Cutie.

Why Fish? Why Seven? Why Now?

2009-12-25T03:33:00.004-05:00

Maybe it's my stage in life, maybe it's having lost my grandfather last month. For whatever reason I'm really feeling Italian lately - and not in a nasty, stereotypical "Jersey Shore" kinda way.

Hearing no other ideas from the household peanut gallery it was time for a somewhat-traditional Italian Christmas Eve. My 80-something grandmother (she was married to her two-years-younger second husband for years before he found out her age, so I'm not telling) seemed to be a good source of info, so I gave her a call from the car.

[Side story - both of my grandparents could not - simply could not - understand this "being allergic to shellfish" business. As if I made it up. As if God would exempt me for the sake of heritage. As if it were some trendy malady and I'd hopped on the bandwagon. Remember the scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" when everyone freaked out about the boyfriend being vegetarian, and the aunt said "It's OK! I'll make lamb." That, but "shrimp."]

Me: I'm picking up fish for dinner tonight. What side dishes are traditional?
Grandmother: It's the Feast of the Seven Fishes. That's a lot of food, Steph. Who had room for side dishes?
Me: Fair enough. So what did y'all used to have?
Grandmother: Smelts. Shrimp, of course. Usually some tuna. Baccala*, which your aunt adored. My father loved spaghetti with anchovies, or sardines - you're probably not going to make that one, I guess. And he always had to have scungilli (eel). You could do something easy, like flounder. And of course we had all the other stuff that goes with it.
Me, fingers crossed: Other stuff?
Grandmother: You know, the vegetables.
Me, finally getting somewhere: Really? What did you have?
Grandmother, thinking.... : The usual stuff. Potatoes, I guess. Nothing fancy.

Sigh.

The DeKalb Farmer's Market is an amazing, thriving, international foodie paradise with a lot of things I've never heard of and can't pronounce and would love to try. And on Christmas Eve, if you were in the fish section then chances were good your last name ends with a vowel. An immediate community bonded; there was recipe talk, antipasto ideas, complaints about Aunt Rose, Aunt Mary, Uncle Sal, etc.

I will, at some point, post the recipe I made up for dinner tonight. I'm going to enter it in a contest, and to be eligible it has to be unpublished (yes, even on my own blog).

And the answer to the questions.... why fish, and why seven? It appears no one knows for certain. There is a theory that the idea comes from the Seven Hills of Rome - um, there's fish in them thar hills?? I don't get it. There is another that it's rooted in the traditions of Catholicism, which I don't understand well enough to detail.

This much I do know. Whether your December tradition is calamari or grilled pork or take-out, tradition matters. My grandmother's memories of her own childhood holidays, then sharing them with her children and grandchildren, are giving her comfort now. My grandfather's two biggest concerns with me were that I would forget I was Italian and/or turn Republican. And he may have considered those the same thing, Rudy Giuliani nonwithstanding.

The fish was on the table. And it was, if I say so myself, pretty darn good. And steamed veggies on the side - nothing fancy.

*Baccala is salted cod. Starting at least four days prior to serving it has to be soaked - with the water changed every six hours - to get the salt out. One of my friends once said it was something you would take to war as a physical weapon, a threat, and - if absolutely necessary - food.

OCD Eggs

2009-12-19T20:58:00.002-05:00

Meaning, of coure, Off-Center Deviled Eggs. CLEVER, no?

My BFF has been known to call my cell, from the grocery store, as she debates one cut of meat vs. another. She can cook, but doesn't get the same enjoyment from it that I do - and after knowing her for (gulp!) nearly thirty years, this is how it is.

So the latest question from my burgeoning-with-child friend was "There's a right way and other ways to hard-boil eggs, right? And how do I get the yolk in the middle and not off to the side for when I make deviled eggs?"

You know what? She's right. There's more to boiling an egg than just boiling water.

The part about keeping the yolk in the middle? EASY, and probably not what you were expecting. The day before you're going to cook them, take the eggs out of the carton and replace them, on their sides, in the carton (or in a casserole dish). You won't be able to close the carton. Keep them on their sides for 24 hours before cooking, and you too will have Martha-esque yolk-in-the-middle eggs.

And of course, that really only matters if you're hard-boiling.

Don't boil the water first. Put a single layer of eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water; the water level should be about an inch above the eggs. Add one teaspoon of baking soda to the water, which will help make your eggs easier to peel. Bring to boiling over high heat - crank that flame up!

Once boiling, reduce the heat immediately so that the water is just barely simmering. Cover the saucepan and set the timer for 15 minutes. Let them cook undisturbed.

When 15 minutes is up, run cold water over the eggs. You're done the hard-boiling part.

To be-devil the eggs-

6 hard-cooked eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tp prepared mustard
1 tsp vinegar

Halve hard-cooked eggs lengthwise andremove the yolks gently.

Place yolks in a bowl and mah with a fork. Add mayo, mustard, and vinegar; mix well. If desired, season with salt and pepper. Stuff egg-white halves with yolk mixture. If desired, sprinkle with paprika.

C is for Cookie

2009-12-05T05:46:00.003-05:00

Holiday baking starts today. In an obvious attempt to ruin my life and my happiness my doc has put me on a gluten-free trial. It's not going all that well (I'm a SMIDGE cranky), and for darn sure I'm not going to inflict this on anyone else. In fairness, though, quinoa pasta is actually pretty good. And my lifeline, since this Italian girl ain't no way giving up pasta.

So this year's baking (being given away, with some held out for Sweetie) is decadent. Dark chocolate, intense vanilla, creamy fillings, the works. Cookies are not health food.

These are seriously rich; I can't eat more than one or two (honest) at a time. As crisp, flat cookies they don't ship well (too fragile), so it's best to keep them at home. And easily accessible.

Brown Sugar Ginger Crisps
November, 1989 (Bon Apetit or Gourmet, can't tell from the ripped-out magazine page in my recipe binder)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp anilla
1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger (3 oz)
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Perheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour, bakng powder, and salt. Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Beat in yolk, vanilla, and gingers.

Add flour mixture and mx at low speed until just combined.

Drop heaping teaspoons of dough about 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets and bake in batches in middle of oven until golden, 13 o 15 minutes. Coool cookies on shets on racks 5 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely.

Waiting Until The Last Minute

2009-11-26T03:05:00.005-05:00

'Tis Thanksgiving. And I'm in danger of losing my foodie cred because I'm not racing around with a turkey baster in one hand and the second of 8 sticks of butter in the other.

A variety of issues and events are keeping me out of the kitchen this year. I'm not entirely happy about it, but as long as Sweetie and I are healthy and together for the holiday, the rest is just details.

If you're looking for a spot of color among the table to break up the tan turkey and white potatoes and creamy green bean casserole, this is terrific. It's even healthy, and it can be thrown together at the last minute (which this is).

Cranberry Applesauce
Serves 4

Four peeled, cored, chopped apples - good saucing apples include Fuji, Golden Delicious,
1/4 cup of fresh or frozen cranberries
3/4 cup of water or apple juice (about a small juice box)
1/4 cup of sugar - start with 2 tablespoons, and add more if necessary. Alternative sweeteners (agave, Equal, etc.) can be used instead, just sweeten to taste.
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat 15 - 20 minutes, or until apples are soft and cranberries have released juice. Allow to cool - during cooling, taste to check sweetness and add sugar (by the tablespoon) if necessary.

When cool, puree with in a blender or with a stick/immersion blender. For chunky sauce, simply mash with a fork.

This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled if you're hosting a large crowd.

The Big Reveal!

2009-11-14T10:39:00.006-05:00

Remember the Goodwill projects? Here they are in their sorry "before" condition.

THE VASES - $1.50 each, photographed here in the designated "spray paint area" of the yard. And the $3 chair. Is there any finer indication of quality craftsmanship than duct tape?

AFTER

Because spray paint is magic, the vases all match. Because Michael's prints 40% off coupons, there is fallish stuff in the vases. The black & white photo on the wall is one I did years ago, and the bronze baby booties were my grandfather's.

The desk chair... oy! I wouldn't touch the original seat with bare hands. I gloved-up and got rid of the duct tape, original hardware, and that god-awful seat. After cleaning up the frame (Method wood cleaner is amazing stuff), I gave it a few good coats with Krylon spray paint in Khaki. Then I picked up a fabric remnant and some batting and went nutty with the staple gun for the seat. The photo above is in our dining room, and not the guest room where it will live. We were having dinner guests and needed the extra chair.

I'm not 100% sold on the seat fabric - I'm still debating about the accent colors in the guest room, so it may change. Next up I think I'm going to paint the guest room bookcase from its current black to the same Khaki to match. It'll be the third color in 18 years for that bookcase, what a trooper!

A Little Different Tailgate

2009-11-08T03:46:00.002-05:00

I'm making this up, of course. I've never been to a tailgate in my life, mostly because neither my childhood gymnastic meets nor my oldest niece's soccer games seem to have tailgating parties attached.

But beer and football go together, from what I understand. Much like beer and baseball - I've never cared for beer (and me in a sorority, back in the day!). Yet whenever I go to a Braves game, beer it is.

A little late for Oktoberfest, but this Lemon-Lager Chicken recipe was just wonderful. My beloved Trader Joe's has non-beer people like me covered by selling single bottles for $1 - $2. I mean, we like the recipe but we don't six-pack-in-the-fridge-for-months like it, you know? I made this last weekend when I was a Tasmanian Devil of a house project - recovering chairs, moving around the decor, you name it. Fortunately this is EASY - dump the marinade ingredients in a ziploc or glass dish with a cover, give it a little time with the chicken, and cook. Done.

If you don't have grilling weather just pop these under the broiler. We sauteed broccolini and garlic as a side dish, which was terrific. Some roasted butternut squash or sweet potatoes would be a good choice, too. The leftovers were great tossed in a spinach salad.

Lemon-Larger Chicken
Cooking Light, 2005

1 cup lager (such as Budweiser)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (pricey - I used bottled)
3 TBSP soy sauce
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper (seriously? Who measures freshly ground pepper? Four or five twists of the pepper grinder - close enough)
2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce (2 shakes if you don't want to dirty the measuring spoon)
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 6-ounce boneless skinless breast halves

Combine all ingredients except chicken in a large (1 gallon) ziploc bag, or glass/ceramic dish with a cover. Blend. Add chicken. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Remove chicken from bag and discard marinade. Grill or broil, approximately 5 minutes per side.

What's In Store

2009-11-06T22:18:00.003-05:00

What does "November" mean? For starters, it means that the Christmas displays in the stores are looking tired and dusty after being up for the past 3 months.

For another, people start to reminisce about the year that isn't finished yet. Something about a crispness in the air makes people nostalgic for two weeks ago.

And of course, the predictions for 2010 start rolling in. Eater.com - and I love the name of that site and can't believe I just found it - has released their foodie predictions for 2010.

"More creative snacky things" - YAY! I adore snacky things! 2010 sounds fantabulous already. [settles happily into sofa]

"Sharing is the key" - yeah, Sweetie. Slide a li'l of the cheesey dip and other snacky-treats right here. That's the ticket.

"People are looking for edibles they can trust" - um, is this new? Not in this house, it isn't.

"Fried chicken is the new pork belly" - the hell? Will people trade in fried chicken futures on the stock market (or whatever)?

Oh, good heavens - I just read the description under this little factoid and it used the words "undercooked pork fat." Let's go back to "creative snacky things", shall we?

"Putting in good additives instead of taking out nasty ones" - new healthy benefits to cocktails? You have my attention.

Buzzwords for 2010: Neapolitan pizza (oooohhh, yes!). Lamb riblets (are they small lamb ribs? Small lambs?). Made-to-order ice cream (they already sell "dark chocolate with more chocolate," don't they?). Backyard and rooftop beehives (intentionally? Are the bees plotting against us?). Chefs turned butchers (if you really want a big sharp knife in your hand, best to direct that energy toward being a butcher).

Hmmm.... made-to-order ice cream....

Urban Fairy Tale

2009-10-30T23:48:00.004-04:00

Nothing makes you feel older than seeing the incoming rain and immediately thinking about its effects on your arthritis. I nearly checked myself in at the Sunrise Assisted Living Center up the street after work. Mmmm, pudding...

And then I started to wonder, will I be able to do crafts when I'm really living in one of those places? Crafts seem to be big there. And I can't do them now.

Since my doctor's office is too swine flu'ed up to work me in (and I don't much care to bring my otherwise-healthy self into a lobby-sized petri dish of flu germs, anyway) I turned to the Knower of All (Google) to see how I could help myself out. The anti-inflammatory diet helps (even more so when I stay on it), the yoga and swimming help, but it's time for a new arrow in the quiver.

Know what the first piece of specialized equipment to pop up was? I shit you not, it was a gun with a palm trigger instead of a regular, finger-pulled trigger.

Yup. Think on that for a minute.

So now I'm imagining some sort of terrifyingly simple and deadly Fisher Price-like contraption with a little button that says "shoot" or "fire" or whatever. I don't have issues with mature, responsible gun ownership. But if you're unsteady with the hands, I've got to wonder why why WHY you'd be shooting a gun, and who thinks that's a market that really needs to be tapped.

I mean, I wanted something along the lines of scissors and paintbrushes and a way to get the !@#$!ing gas cap off without pliers. But I guess "everyday activity" means different things to different people.

And the corollary to this, of course, is that I work with the disability community and I know people who do the most amazing things despite significant physical barriers. And I'm all "WAAAAAH, my hands are crampy!" They really are. OY, the rain!

Like today, for instance. A woman at the train station, in a wheelchair, was having a rough time of it - including her shoe falling off. Her upper body movements were not easily controlled, and she was going to need some help.

So I walked over and asked if she'd like a hand. Even with the hat and the new haircut and the scarf, I knew that smile. "K____? Is that you?" I asked. She said yes and we had a few minutes to chat.

Then I put her shoe back on her foot and we both left to start our weekends.

So even in the heart of downtown at rush hour, it's possible to play Cinderella and recover a lost shoe. These crappy hands are good for something after all.

The $25 Oatmeal Cooker

2009-10-26T18:43:00.008-04:00

Giving in to peer pressure usually ends badly for me. And by "badly" I mean it involves painful and expensive (but trendy!) footwear, a hair color not found in nature (at least not outside the exotic bird kingdom), an insufferable concert or a wildly creative explanation/apology.

And so it goes again, if with a little less drama since I'm Old Enough To Know Better.

"I couldn't live without mine," they said. And "Don't know what I'd do without one." And "Really? You don't have one? And you said you.... cook?"

So I bought a slow cooker, formerly known as a crock pot (Crockpot?). For years I resisted - it seemed like such a throwback, such a Grandma thing to have, such an Add-A-Can-Of-Campbells'-Cream-of-Anything. My friend Black Sabbath Kevin (not either of the other Kevins) once said, "My Mom said I should get one of those. For what? I can turn it on in the morning and, when I come home from work, the water is boiling?" Exactly.

But there are cool and sassy-looking slow cooker recipes these days, and even the crockery looks better and less Community College Art Class. More expensive models have high-tech looking settings besides "plugged in" and "not."

But alas... almost everything I've made has tasted like watered-down crap (which, I guess, is better than full strength). The most recent disaster was Tortilla Soup. I had thought that maybe, maybe, MAYBE a recipe with a processed sauce would help. Possibly that was putting too much of a burden on ten ounces of enchilada sauce, I don't know.

Sweetie reduced the soup some to concentrate the flavor, and I'm going to make sweet potatoes, halve them lengthwise, and top them with the fetched-with-a-slotted-spoon soup solids - black beans, corn, shredded chicken, and diced tomatoes WHICH SHOULD HAVE MADE A VERY TASTY SOUP. So at least it's salvageable, possibly even better news for my ego than my pitiful food budget.

I'll give it this, though, the slow cooker makes terrific, creamy steel-cut oats. So easy, so inexpensive, and one batch lasts for several days. Steel cut oats look a little gravelly when raw, but cook down beautifully - and as a whole grain, they are tremendously healthful. Even more so since there's no sugar added to this recipe. The original recipe called for 1 full cup of dried fruit, which would be way too sweet for me.

Let's get interactive, Stinkycheesers. The slow cooker and I are at a non-breakfast impasse at the moment, but perhaps we can find some common ground. What do you make in your slow cooker that you LOVE? What tricks and tips can you offer? Does it maybe sense my reluctance to commit? In the name of Suze Orman, please tell me there's something else I can do with this contraption besides make a wonderful breakfast!

SLOW COOKER STEEL CUT OATS

It doesn't get easier than this, y'all.

1 Cup of steel cut oats (most inexpensively purchased out of a bulk bin at a healthfood store or even Whole Foods)

4 cups water (or one quart of unsweetened vanilla almond milk - I tried it in this week's batch and it's really good, although I'd never drink almond milk)

1 cup (or less) dried fruit

Combine all in slow cooker. Cook on low for 4 hours. Serve or keep in refrigerator.

Some good combinations -

Dried apples, cinnamon, and top with walnuts before serving

Dried blueberries and/or chopped dried apricots, ginger

Dried cherries and/or dried blueberries, and top with almonds before serving

I have my doubts about using dried mango or pineapple - if you use either, consider going down to 1/3 cup since they're both high-sugar.

Stay tuned - my domestic endeavor that's going better than slowcooking is refinishing. Two projects in progress - a $3 Goodwill chair, and these $ Goodwill vases. The "before" shots below, taken outside in our Spray Painting Field.

2009-10-12T00:35:00.003-04:00

Tat, as I mentioned, does not consider herself to be domestic.

Know what? I'm not, either. Outside the kitchen I take a museum approach to the domestic arts, both visual (decorating) and performing (!#$!@ing ironing!). And by museum approach, I mean I look and appreciate others' advanced skills but don't actually participate.

Not that I haven't tried. And in a remedial way I can pull some of it off - assuming, of course, that getting paint color right on the fourth or fifth try counts as "pulling it off." In fact, it really was a museum approach when it came to painting our living room. We were at a party at the home of an interior designer, agreed that we loved her paint, and asked her for the details. Done.

After that I'm a little lost. We visited another friend recently who did AMAZING things with her new house. It's bold and creative and it all works perfectly together. I'm envious of people who can look at an empty space and immediately know that it needs columns, a vintage telephone, and a big-ass bird cage.

For some reason I'm nesting in a huge way and I'm tearing this house up with an orbital sander, drill, screwdriver, and multiple cans of spray paint. Things are definitely looking different and - hopefully - better. Heaven knows I'm trying.

So I've been thinking about gifts lately; the talents we're given with the intent to share. Cooking is one of my gifts. On occasion it is truly shared as a gift, as when I made six or seven sour cream poundcakes for my poundcake-loving friend's 40th birthday party. He recently married a wonderful girl who is blessed with an artistic eye, excellent taste, and the ability to make a house a home.

Chef Nancy once said, when I invited her over for lunch, that she rarely gets invited to anyone's home for a meal because people are intimidated by the idea of cooking for someone who cooks professionally. "How surprising!" I said as I ladled soup and sliced cornbread.

Know what? I'm terrified to have my friend and his wife over, even though she has become a good friend, too. They like us just fine, friend has certainly seen our home at its low points, and my lack of window treatments (how do people DO that???) will not change her opinion of us one iota. I need to get over it. Just as soon as I do something about these windows... and the garage sale coffee table... and....

Sour Cream Poundcake

This is a classic poundcake. It's wonderful served with fresh fruit and/or fruit syrup... or on its own.

1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Allow butter, eggs, and sour cream to stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Really. Have I yet made you jump through hoops? No. This is an important part of good poundcake prep.

2. Grease and lightly flour an 8x4/x-inch or 9x5x3inch loaf pan; set aside. FYI, keeping an old-fashioned powder puff in the flour canister makes this a breeze.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

4. In a mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, beating about 10 minutes or until very light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition and scraping bowl frequently.

5. Add dry mixture and sour cream alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low to medium speed after each addition, just until combined. Over-mixing will lead to a less tender poundcake. Pour batter into prepared pan.

6. Bake in a 325-degree oven for 60 to 75 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Gimme Some Sugar

2009-09-27T10:33:00.011-04:00

Well, someone in Atlanta pissed off Mother Nature and she took her revenge. Flooding - and two years ago, drought. And when I was looking for someone to clean the gutters (24 inches of rain is a terrific way to find out if it needs to be done), I came across an ad that mentioned "French drain cleaning," which sounds really personal.

No progress on home maintenance and I'm working frantically on a Federal grant application for work, so I've been a smidge remiss wth updating stinkycheese. Oh, and I'm totally obsessed with home decor and furniture refinishing right now and it's more time-consuming than I realized. I'm the Martha Stewart of Spray Paint these days and I have fawning blogger-girl-crushes on Centsational Girl and whoever writes the DIY Showcase.

Ahem.

As mentioned earlier, Tat has a terrific opportunity to start from scratch and assemble a basic kitchen. Hair stylist, pinup model, tattoo afficionado - she really doesn't describe herself as "domestic." But we all gotta eat - even pinup models - and she wants to be able to throw something together without being dependent on the Lean Cuisine selection.

She asked for a What Tat Needs For A Basic Kitchen writeup, and here 'tis. I'm pulling pictures from Target because they're nationwide and usually have some very affordable options. If you have a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in your area, that's also a good choice and they constantly have 20% off coupons out there.

THE STUFF THAT GETS HOT

What's the deal with the "Gimme Some Sugar" title? It's this - get a 4- or 5-pound bag of sugar (or rice or flour or whatever) from the grocery aisle. You need to make sure that the handle(s) of whatever you're buying are firmly attached, so before you buy anything put the bag of sugar in the pot or pan and see how secure those handles feel.

Also, while you want pieces that have a nice heft, you don't want anything so heavy that you're in danger of dropping it while it's hot. My still-battlescarred dogs would agree. You also want a nice thick bottom on both a skillet and a saucepan. A thin bottom will scorch your food, and it will burn on the bottom and still be cold/raw on top.

A word about lids - clear glass or plastic lids steam up in half a heartbeat and, at that point, they're no different from a regular, opaque lid. Plus they're a pain to clean. Just sayin'.

A small skillet (about 8 inches across), also called a saute pan, is essential. You know, I use mine so much I may get a second.

Non-stick is often easier for cleanup; non-nonstick will give a better, browned crust if that's what you're looking for. Cast iron is probably more maintenance than you want to do if you're a casual, I-just-wanna-eat cook.

Expect to spend between $15 and $30 for a good one. DO NOT cheap out on a no-name non-stick skillet at Family Dollar or Big Lots, because the non-stick coating will, sooner or later, flake off into your food. The one pictured, which may be the one I have, is the Farberware 8" Professional Skillet for $16.99.

What can you do with one? They're perfect for fried or scrambled eggs, a hamburger, a pork chop or chicken breast, cooking some chopped veggies. If you cook for a one-person household, you've got to have one.

A large skillet - same as for the small skillet, and it's terrific for stirfry or making taco meat or a nice big piece of fish, but you don't need to spend the money unless you frequently cook for 3 or more people or cook extra to freeze. If you almost always cook for one, the purchase can wait.

A saucepan - also, as a guy on Amtrak once realized, called a "pot." These are perfect for
boiling water for rice or pasta, making hot chocolate, heating up tomato sauce or canned veggies.

My medium-size saucepan is a 2-quart, and it's the one I use most often. My li'l one-quart is fantastic for my new carb-conscious serving sizes of pasta, making oatmeal, or heating up soup for one. Be sure to get one with a lid so that you can trap the steam and cook faster.

Some lids have steam vents. Isn't "don't touch a hot pot on the stove" about as basic as it can get? I mean, my dogs know that - even the dumb one. And yet, what would you do with a steam vent? Poke it open and closed when it is clearly so hot it's producing steam. No thanks. You can just rest the lid mostly-on-but-a-little-offset to release steam.

Casserole dishes don't have to be for "one can of Campbell's Cream of Some Icky Stuff" dishes. They're for (yay!) baked mac & cheese, lasagne or ziti, and can even do a small roast (2-pound turkey breast, for example, or a small ham).

LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE and be sure to get one with handles! My very chic white casserole dishes are beautiful but terrifying when trying to get them out of the oven.

Searching Target's website for "casserole" brought up some really pricey options, and some less expensive ones that I wouldn't recommend. But searching for "Pyrex" brought up this terrific option for all of $8.50. I still have and use my grandmother's Pyrex dishes.

And a search for "Corningware", another have-it-for-life company, brought up this very nice 4-quart casserole; be careful with Corningware, though, because of the handle issue.
We're not going to get into baking or anything fancy just yet. There's a whole lot more on the market, but if you want the bare essentials, this is it.

As for gadgetry, most of which I'm pretty sure doesn't require pictures -

At least one wooden spoon. They never get hot and they don't scratch non-stick.

At least two pot holders - your mileage may vary, but I can't get a good grip on anything with those sheets of silicone, no matter how cute they are.

A decent chef's knife - it will be labelled "chef's knife" and it should be very, very sharp. It's actually more dangerous to cut with a dull knife, since you apply excessive pressure to it and can't control it. These can quickly get expensive, and I say they're worth every penny. I also like this Oneida knife, and its li'l buddy - $19.99 for the set. But if you have the funds and want to get a really good knife, go for a Santoku like this Henckels for $29.99.

A cutting board - never, ever, ever cut on glass. Spring for a bamboo cutting board; it doesn't have to be one of the ten-pounders, either. We have at least 4 in the house, and I use the little (4" x 6") quite a lot to slice one tomato or some herbs or strawberries or whatever.
A digital meat thermometer - tremendously important, especially if you're new to this world of "food" and you're afraid you're going to kill your dinner guests with improperly cooked food (I swear I still feel that way about canning - "Merry Christmas! It's botulism - I made it myself!"). The $10 to $15 you'll spend on one of these babies will be well, well worth it. And hold onto the card that says pork should be X degrees and turkey should be Y degrees and so on.

A few glass or metal mixing bowls - plastic can hold odors and stain (yes, I mean YOU, spaghetti sauce). If you go with metal make sure it's weighted at the bottom, or else you'll give it a stir and send it flying across the counter. From, um, what I've heard.

Measuring cups and spoons

Grater - I can't find mine on the Target site, but this is close - mine doesn't have a little boxy-thing on the top and for darn sure it wasn't pushing $20. It takes up much, much less room than a box grater, and I've been known to put mine on top of a saucepan full of pasta and drain the water into the sink. I LOVE things that have more than one use!

If you don't have one on your stove, a kitchen timer is essential. Many a would've-been-terrific meal took a Hefty vacation after someone said "Oh, I'll just remember to take it out in 45 minutes."

And since I PROMISED a recipe, and the sugar title has me in a mood for dessert (like I need any prompting) here 'tis:

Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 11-ounce jar Nutella (also known as "nectar of the gods" or "chocogasm")

1/4 cup shortening (butter or Crisco)

1 1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped, toasted hazelnuts

2 cups finely chopped hazelnuts

Powdered sugar

Stir flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl - set aside.

Beat Nutella and shortening. Add sugar, beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs - beat until combined.

Alternately add flour mixture and milk. Str in 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts. Cover and chill at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Shape dough into 1- or 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll in finely chopped nuts, then roll in powdered sugar. Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookie surface has cracked and set.

Stuff. Good stuff.

2009-09-10T14:06:00.002-04:00

Tat, who cuts my hair (I'm naturally highlighted, of course... yeah), is broadening her cooking horizons. Namely she took a crack at making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, just 'cuz she's bold and sassy and reckless like that. Go, Tat!

She asked if I talk about What To Buy, and Where. LOTS of people, she told me, have no idea what kind of cooking basics and accoutrements and accessories they really need to get started. This was a really good point, and not just because she was waving a razor around my head.

So on the right-hand side, we have a new "Equipment" label - click on it, and you'll be treated - dazzled! - to a few previous ramblings about buying this versus that.

And coming up soon, we'll do The I Don't Really Cook But Want the Option kitchen and the I'm Getting the Hang Of This kitchen. Links, pictures, the works.

The Road To Hell Is Carpeted With Gooey, Yummy Sandwiches

2009-08-26T09:46:00.009-04:00

For real.

For months now I have embraced the whole foods, mindful eating, focus-on-being-healthy-not-on-losing weight thing. And I've lost 15 pounds, with 10 more to go.

Then I went on vacation and embraced the idea of incorporating... a little indulgence. A teensy snacky-treat in my day. Half a spoonful of ice cream to sate the Ice Cream Monster.

HA!

In one week:

Chicken marsala

Brownies for breakfast

Several mojitos (not for breakfast)

Salt water taffy (a New Jersey specialty)

Butter pecan ice cream

French fries

White pasta and lots of it (it's cultural. They made me.) In fact, this whoooole Greek Chicken and pasta dish is compliments of Peter's Diner somewhere in South Jersey. It is large enough to be controlled by the moon and, presumably, would slosh over the sides at high tide.

Regular stinkycheesers are thinking, "But you just got that ginormous windfall of farm-fresh veggies! THAT must have gotten you back on track."

You would think so, right? And to his credit, Sweetie did make homemade tomato soup that was virtuously fresh and packed with lycopene and all that.

But what goes with tomato soup? GRILLED CHEESE. And now I'm hooked on sourdough and melty cheddar. Re-hooked, actually. Relapsed. Mmmmm, cheese....

Ellie Krieger's Sweet and Spicy Grilled Cheese

2 tsp canola oil

1 red onion, finely diced

3 oz sharp Cheddar, thinly sliced, divided

8 slices of whole-wheat bread (although sourdough really, really makes a grilled cheese)

3 oz pepper-jack cheese, thinly sliced, divided

1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Lower heat to medium; add onions and saute, stirring, until edges are brown. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place 3/4 oz. Cheddar on one slice of bread. Spread 1 TBSP carmelized onions on top of cheese, then top with 3/4 oz. pepperjack. Top with 1 or 2 slices of tomato, then another slice of bread. Repeat with 3 other sandwiches.

Spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat until hot. Flip when browned on the bottom (you knew that already).

Abundance!

2009-08-23T15:10:00.004-04:00

YAY!!!

It's like Christmas in July! From our friend's large garden/small farm:

Eggplant

Corn

Tomatoes (big)

Tomatoes (teensy)

About 5 dozen eggs (she has chicken coops)

Peppers

A big bucket o'herbs

Figs

Isn't it gorgeous???

Sweetie was running some errands north of the city, and stopped in to visit a friend. She was planning to go on vacation and said she didn't want the garden's goodies to go to waste while she wasn't there. A thank-you note is seriously the least of what we owe her for all this farm-fresh yumminess.

To be honest, it was more than we could eat, too. So we shared the gift with Cutie and her parents. Thank goodness we did, because it turns out only one of the five of us likes eggplant, and that drove Cutie's dad to find a palatable recipe for it.

I'll be darned - it turns out I can eat eggplant after all without puckering up my face or dying or anything! These were actually very tasty - Cutie, Cutie's Mom, and I all had our doubts and we're all converts now. I can't tell you that I'd eat eggplant any other way, but I would be happy to eat these again.

Cutie's Dad's Eggplant Croquettes

2 eggplants, medium, peeled and cubed

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs (if you have plain, just add some dried basil, oregano, and rosemary)

2 eggs, beaten

2 TBSP dried parsley (optional)

2 TBSP chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

1. Place eggplant in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on medium-high 3 minutes. Turn eggplant over and microwave another 2 minutes. The eggplant should be tender; cook another 2 minutes if they are not.

2. Drain any liquid and mash the eggplant with a fork.

3. Combine cheese, egg, parsley, onion, garlic, and salt with the eggplant. Mix well.

4. Shape the eggplant mixture into patties. Heat oil in a large skillet. Drop eggplant patties into the skillet one at a time. Fry each side of the patties until golden brown, about 5 minutes on each side.

The Local Color Tour - Everything Else

2009-08-15T21:41:00.008-04:00

After completing the most important parts of trip preparation - asking Mom to bring her famous cream cheese brownies and my grandfather to make me chicken marsala - I made the long, long, loooong-ass drive from Atlanta to Cape May, with a welcome stop at College Buddy's house in Virginia and an unwelcome meeting with North Carolina's Finest about their secret traffic laws.

College Buddy and I weathered classes and finals and being RA's back in the day. I'm hoping we can close the circle by arranging a marriage for my niece and one of his sons. That's a sign of quality aunt-ing right there, isn't it? Anyhoodle, we had a terrific dinner at Kahill's in the South Hill area of Virginia. It pays to know locals with excellent taste, and few things are as uplifting as catching up with an old friend. I highly recommend all of the above.

Cape May, NJ is quaint and lovely and annoyingly quirky with its liquor laws. It had simply never occurred to my drink-with-dinner family that there would be dry restaurants - indeed, an entire dry side of the cape (if I understood correctly). Nothing makes you feel like a lush like trying to decide if you should walk out of a restaurant because they don't have wine... but then, nothing makes you feel like you come by it honestly when it's your own mother saying resignedly "Well, we can leave here and get a mojito."

Mom rocks. She made the brownies, too.

Godmother's, Cape May

Meh. The food was OK - not outstanding, but OK - but we did not care for the snippy hostess and lackluster service. This Italian girl expects more from a New Jersey Italian restaurant.

The Lobster House, Cape May

For our Nice Dinner - we showered after the beach and everything - we went to The Lobster House. This is the first time in my life I said "OK" when the hostess said "the wait is currently an hour and twenty minutes."

The Lobster House compound includes a restaurant, raw bar, takeout shop, cotton mill, Li'l Lisa's Fish Slurry plant (that's for you Simpsons fans), gift shop, ballet studio, bar, gift shop, preschool, etc. It's effin' HUGE.

**Name drop alert** And on the night we were there, Ann Hathaway - last season's funniest SNL host, in my opinion - was eating one table over from us.

The food was amazing. My huge portion of salmon was absolutely perfectly cooked, as were the garlic green beans on the side. Mom and Sis were perfectly happy with their shellfish extravaganzas. It's pricey but worth it.

Pop-Pop's House

And then... oh, then... it was off to spend a few days with my grandfather. A first-generation American, polio survivor, and cook- and vegetable gardener-extraordinare, the man can put together a meal like nobody's business.

I had really hoped to get his recipe for chicken marsala. Of course, "recipe" is a rather loose term where my grandfather is concerned. A little of this, a splash of the other, some time in the pan. Oh, and half the discussion (his half) was in Italian, which I don't speak.

He asked when he had last made me chicken marsala. "When I was in college and you were still living at the old house," I said. Well, he informed me, that was the last time he had made it. Whatever - it was terrific. Best as I can tell, you saute some onions, then dust some chicken thighs with flour, salt, and pepper and saute them in the pan. Then add mushrooms and a little butter, some more flour, and some marsala. Mangia!

We did genealogy, we visited my Aunt Jackie, we ate, we ate, and we watched Lawrence Welk. I was privileged to attend his monthly high school class reunion luncheon with him. Monthly because "who can wait a year at our age?" and lunch because "who can drive at night at our age?" THANK YOU, class of 1938, for the warm welcome and showing the rest of us how it's done!

And on the way back, College Roomie did an impromptu re-arranging of her evening so that we could experience some fine dining at the Richmond, VA Cracker Barrel together. No sarcasm there - I love high-falutin' restaurants with famous chefs and innovative dishes, and I love Cracker Barrel. And Roomie really did make extraordinary schedule adjustments so that we could spend time together.

Some trips are about exploring new places. This was the "These Are A Few Of My Favorite People" tour, and it's just what I needed.

As vacation was vacation from lots of stuff - work, daily routine, healthful eating - here's our energizing breakfast, courtesy of Mom. She's justifiably famous for these brownies amongst family friends. The only thing preventing me from whipping up a batch of these right now is that it's Ramadan. "Wait," you're thinking, "she's Methodist." Yup, but we don't keep sweets in the house so I'd have to bring them to work, and my assistant is Muslim and is fasting all day for the next month. Totally rude to bring snacky-treats into the office right now.

Marble Squares

1 6-ounce package of cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup water

1 1/2 ounces squares of unsweetened chocolate

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 6-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips (or dark chocolate)

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Combine cream cheese and sugar in a small bowl. Add egg and mix well - set aside.

3. Combine butter, water, and chocolate in a small saucepan. Melt chocolate, stir well, and cool. Set aside.

4. Stir chocolate mixture into sugar and flour. Add eggs, sour cream, baking soda, and salt - mix well. Pour into greased 15 1/2" x 12 1/2" jelly roll pan. Spoon cream cheese mixture over chocolate batter.

5. Drag a butter knife through the batter several times to marble the brownies. Sprinkle with chocolate chips (were there ever more welcome words in a recipe than "sprinkle with chocolate chips"?).

6. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 - 30 mnutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center (NOT through a chocolate chip) comes out clean.

The Local Color Tour - Gaffney, SC

2009-08-06T15:01:00.003-04:00

I'm trying not to lose too much time on the road, so this will be quick. I'm en route from Atlanta to Cape May, NJ for a Girls Beach Weekend with my Mom and sister, then scooting over another 50 miles to visit my grandfather.

Part of the adventure, I've decided, is to do my best to eat at non-chain restaurants on the trip (please disregard the fact that I'm using the free wi-fi at Panera at the moment). Lunch was at Clocks Restaurant, in Gaffney, SC.

They did not take the obvious/Hitchcocky route with an all-clock decor, thank goodness. You know, when you look at a menu in the South and see fried pickles, pimiento cheese sandwiches, three different types of barbecue sandwich, and fried green tomatoes, you think "These folks take their Dixie cookin' seriously."

About the last thing I would've considered is "Man, they have GOT to have some terrific Greek food." No idea if it's terrific, but to my great amazement they had a lot of it listed on the next page.

When you eat a good barbecue sandwich there should be a little sweet (molasses), a little sour (vinegar and tomato), a little spicy and a little smoke. What this sandwich did - and I have no idea how - was smell like hot dogs. I tried it anyway (I LOATHE hot dogs) - it first tasted honey-sweet, then syrupy, then sourdough-ish, then a kind of chemical/liquid smoke kinda thing was going on.

A shame, because I wanted to like it. The fries were amazing and the service friendly. They even took the extra step of double-bunning the sandwich - there were two bottom-bun-pieces stacked one on the other, so that the sauce wouldn't soak through the bun. GENIUS.

Thoughts while traveling:

A radio station in South Carolina advertised "Rock Star Dentistry" and promised an unparalleled sensory experience. For real? Because would totally do the drive for a chocolate-pedicuregasm that left my teeth clean. Weekly.

Holy moly, I really am eating nuts and berries. My car snacks are strawberries and almonds.

I've been working on my genealogy for a while and have come across some people that I suspect are relatives who I've never heard of. I'm going to ask my grandfather about them while I'm there, and suspect it's (another) branch of the family that no one's talking to for reasons I'm not yet old enough to know (I'm 40).

My friend in Virginia said there are very few restaurants in the small town where he lives, so I'm glad I've embraced the adventure. Stay tuned.

Really, really local and seasonal produce

2009-07-27T20:40:00.008-04:00

So far? Seventeen tomatoes in various stages of tomato-ness; anywhere from "it's defintely a little green orb" to "just cut out the bad parts, it'll be fine."

Mmmmm, LOVE the smell of tomato plants!

Squash blossoms too numerous to count, and five jalapenos. I'm hoping the blossoms will lead to actual squash (or cucumbers, or watermelon - I'm not picky. In fact, I'm still in shock that these little beings are the green I've always heard that these "plant" things should be).

See the black center in the blossom? That's a bumblebee.

As much as I want to pull and use veggies from my own yard, I'm OK with not getting a big haul. It has been really cool to watch these babies grow.

But if I do get to cook my very, very own food, then - even though I don't have an Alaskan river teeming with salmon running through my Georgia garden - I'm making this yummy and SO easy dinner with my peppers and tomatoes. It's fantastic with corn on the cob.

Salsa-Roasted Salmon

Eating Well Serves Two - cookbook

1 medium plum tomato, roughly chopped

1/2 small onion, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, peeled and quartered

1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped

1 teaspoon cider vinegar (plain white vinegar will work just as well)

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt (a few shakes of the shaker - it doesn't have to be exact)

2 - 3 dashes hot sauce (like Tabasco or Texas Pete)

8 ounces center-cut salmon fillet, skinned and cut into two portions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Place tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno, vinegar, chili powder, cumin, salt and hot sauce to taste in a food processor. Process until finely chopped and uniform [Note - you can make the salsa the day before and store it, covered, in the refrigerator]

3. Place salmon in a medium roasting pan; spoon the salsa on top. Roast until the salmon is just cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes.

So You Think You Can't Cook

2009-07-15T21:35:00.006-04:00

Now that "So You Think You Can Dance" and "The Biggest Loser" exist in my world, I'm going to have to drop my whole snotty "I don't watch television" thing. Because I do. Pathetically, I try to be home to wave the rabbit ears and that stupid digital TV converter on my 19-inch TV (color, thankyouverymuch) for either of those shows.

I always tune in to SYTYCD around Episode 4, after all the annoying audition footage - you know, where the white Rasta guy calls his dance genre "classical jazz with a touch of hackysack" and then alternates between stylized hopscotch and snow angels (sans snow).

If you haven't seen it - young dancers are randomly paired and assigned a dance genre and choreographer. This is about as "random" as being tapped for a Presidential cabinet post. The dancers practice cute while they're being filmed, then they perform for the judges and America and the voting begins. To the best of my knowledge felons and immigrants are permitted to dial-in for their favorite.

And the judges are:

Nigel Lythgoe - "The story of that amazing choreography is that an alien and a Revolutionary war hero find themselves at a Miami Wal-Mart buying a tape measure and some hard-boiled eggs. And in this competition, you've got to make me believe that, and I simply didn't see the eggs in your performance. They weren't there. At this level, I need to see the whole story."

Mary Murphy - I hit the mute button every time she comes on. My dogs and my husband bark at her screaming and her shrill histrionics.

Then there's a Random Floating Third Judge seat. Debbie Allen is my favorite - not only is she a dance legend in her own right, but she has terrific insight and is just cooler than cool can possibly be.

Toni Basil, who was the It Chick for about 20 minutes when I was in seventh grade, will grace the stage with a dried flower arrangement on her head and talk about "street" dancing, because she be from the hood, yo. Ahem. Good thing she mentions it every 20 seconds, because I wouldn't have given her down & dirty street cred based on cheerleader-tastic "Oh, Mickey, you're so fine..."

I'm the only person I know who really gets into Mia Michaels' choreography (she also judges), and she's waaay out there but she brings good stuff back with her, so all forgiven.

If it can't be Debbie Allen, I want Adam Shankman or Lil C up there. C (may I be so informal?) is the mellow, cool, heart-of-a-poet guy who can bust some serious hip-hop/krunk ass as he's talking about the confluence of the energy and the art to create the essence of the being which is the second cousin of the soul in the present progressive tense of life. And Adam is the gay neighbor who cuts to the chase - "What the hell was that?"

Oh, and there's usually some kind of a group dance. Because it's not like they're working hard enough already to learn 4 new partner and solo routines in a matter of days. This past week there was a group dance comprised of all the men. The choreographer told the group "Now in the dance, you've just seen an amazing girl." Three of the guys nodded and the other two withheld judgment, waiting to hear if her shoes were fabulous.

Kudos to the show on the dancers all looking strong and healthy. There is enormous pressure in the dance world to be rail-thin and, while none of these dancers are at all heavy, none of them have bones poking through, either.

So in honor of showbiz, a ham sandwich with a fancy French accent.

Croque Monsieur
Cooking Light

4 1 1/2-ounce slices French bread
4 teaspoons honey mustard
6 ounces reduced-fat deli ham, thinly sliced
4 1-ounce slices reduced-fat Swiss, cheddar, or fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fat-free milk
3 large egg whites
Cooking spray

1. Cut a slit in each bread slice to form a pocket. Spread 1 teaspoon honey mustard into each bread pocket. Divide ham and cheese evenly among bread pockets.

2. Combine milk and egg whites in a shallow bowl, stirring with a whisk or fork. Dip sandwiches, 1 at a time, in a milk mixture, turning to coat.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add 2 sandwiches, cook 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Repeat procedure with remaining sandwiches.

25 Random Food Things

2009-07-13T19:13:00.007-04:00

Yup, stealing this from Facebook...

1. I have never used tarragon because of a recipe my mother made - only once - that dredged Cornish hens in a small garden's worth.

2. Nor have I ever had a 7&7 since one fateful night in college. A similar story, but, you know, way different.

3. Chef Nancy made our wedding cake (red velvet) as her gift to us. She walked into the reception site with an actual bucket full of cream cheese icing and instantly attracted admirers and new friends.

Had I known how effective that was, I would've brought a giant frosting-bucket to high school on occasion. What could it hurt?

4. Just to keep it real in my first-ever garden, the oregano and thyme are already a distant, dusty memory. My tomato, squash, pepper, and okra plants are still (God willing) thriving despite my Touch Of Plant Death.

5. I was surprised to read that in Italy people generally don't eat fish and dairy together. I can't stand to have them on the same plate and thought that was yet another quirk of mine (OK, it is) but apparently there's a cultural angle to it also.

6. From the moment College Roomie told me that as a child she once turned the beaters on and lowered them into the full mixing bowl, requiring ceiling replacement in two rooms, I knew we'd be forever friends.

7. It's the seaweed. I've tried and tried and tried to like sushi and I just can't get there.

8. My latest food-crush is coffee ice cream. I don't care who knows it, we're not sneaking around. We're out and we're proud.

9. We don't have cable so I've never seen the Food Network or any of these "celebrity" chefs.

10. That's not true - I was babysitting Cutie and, after her bedtime, clicked through channels and came upon some very cool cake decorating show that required fine arts degrees, architects, engineers, etc. Utterly captivating.

During a break a breathy voice said, "Food Network... after dark." Reflexively I turned the volume down - Cutie is only 8 - then I was all, "Is this food porn? I swear that cake looks like a castle. I'm pretty sure it's a castle...."

11. That's not true #2 - at the gym one time I saw 5 minutes of some "Half-Assed Homemade" show with a kitchen fembot. Apparently picking up a rotisserie chicken & salad at the supermarket, and adding your very own salt & pepper touch to the meat, qualifies for a cooking show.

We're not getting cable.

12. Courtesy of my aunt I own a cookbook autographed "Happy Cooking!" by Jacques Pepin himself.

13. Every summer - and that fateful day is just around the corner - I put up homemade bread & butter pickles. You have NO idea how much I hate this task (I'm sure I'll elaborate on it soon). What's to love about your house smelling like boiled vinegar? For years my mother talked about how good Grandma's pickles were, and I figured I'd go ahead and learn since Grandma's standing-for-hours-in-the-kitchen days were over. It is a testament to how much I love and owe my mother that I do this every year.

14. At a business lunch I tried to fork a crouton and it went flying off my plate and landed on the salad plate next to me. I turned to its owner and asked if he'd like a crouton - he declined. Well fine, I said, but I won't offer again. Great way to start a meeting.

15. My biggest leap of culinary faith was making Black Bean Soup (recipe onsite) despite having never had black beans before. Apparently I'm just that susceptible to online yummy-noises from cooking communities.

16. If you make sugar cookies and forget to add the sugar they take on a flat biscuit/cracker quality. Not that I recommend it.

17. Sweetie and I, who love a good gourmet restaurant, will happily dine at Cracker Barrel every time we get the chance.

18. It took me years to learn how to make decent scrambled eggs. I could make homemade doughnuts, homemade bread, brie-en-croute, etc. and everyone was on their own for eggs or they weren't gettin' any.

19. I've tried Vosges and Scharffenberger and other insanely-expensive chocolates, and I still say Ghirardelli beats them all. [Note that I haven't tried John & Kira's myself yet, but have heard wondrous and amazing things...] I highly encourage anyone else to take this experiment on in the name of "science."

20. Sweetie doesn't care much for chocolate desserts, which is really the only reason I ever explored fruit-based desserts, which I have come to love. I did raise an eyebrow, though, about the "meh on chocolate" thing - seemed suspect.

21. Sweetie also took me for my first and only fishing experience. Fortunately it was a heavily-stocked trout pond, so after only 3 short hours of fish flinging themselves toward my hook ("Over here! Swimmy-swimmy! I'm swimming slooooowly just for yooooou!") I managed to catch something. Even better, they did all the messy stuff so that we could just come home, dust it with cornmeal and toss it on the skillet.

He hasn't wanted to go back.

22. For a Yankee native I've developed quite a taste for fried green tomatoes, barbecue, biscuits, and - under certain conditions - black-eyed peas.

23. I'm trying to avoid painting my guest room. Isn't this list supposed to be 30 or 50 items long?

24. My mother-in-law had the only brunch wedding reception I've ever been to for her second wedding, and it was fabulous. Why don't more people do fancy brunches?

25. Back in my business travel , pre-Katrina, pre-9/11 days, I used to go to New Orleans every so often. I always had to pack a jar of peanut butter in my suitcase because I'm allergic to shellfish and I swear even the restaurant bread baskets had lobster paste or something in them. Legendary restaurants all around and my foodie self with a jar of Jif.

Feel free to add your own list!

How are you keeping it? Good-good?

2009-07-10T20:43:00.005-04:00

I never could master the Liberian handshake. Granted, I don't really have anyone to practice with who knows what it is - it's kind of a slide/snap maneuver, your hands have to be really dry, and you should've been practicing since shortly after birth in order to master it by adulthood. So my chances, I'm guessing, are pretty slim.

It was July 18, 1989 when I returned from six months in West Africa. For my 20th birthday two of my friends took a treacherous cab ride to the American Embassy compound to buy me a bag of frozen strawberries at one of the few supermarkets in the country. Perhaps you know they're not native to the tropical rainforest, but in case you didn't - they're sooo not. Pineapple? Mango? Coconut and banana? All you want. No strawberries. Also not easy to find - ice cream, but they did it. Ann and Denise, I'm still grateful and amazed that you went to all that trouble!

There's coffee, though, and coffee trees smell nothing like coffee. They have the most gorgeous blossoms and a heavy, sweet but not cloying smell. Whenever we went by them all I could do was close my eyes, breathe deeply, and hope and pray to remember the moment.

Why did I stop eating red meat in Liberia? Two words - no cows.

What we did have was chicken, rice, dried fish, palm butter, scorching-hot peppers, rice, chicken bouillon cubes, rice, rice, various types of bread, rice, fresh fish (if by the sea), shortening (instead of butter/margarine for the bread), "bush meat" (whatever unlucky critter ended up in the stew pot), rice, palm wine, plantains, Spam, rice, greens, and rice.

All served on a bed of rice.

School - I was at a university - could not open without electricity, which ran for 3 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. However, when the generator conked out again after having spent 5 days raised from the dead to open school, life and the semester went on undisturbed. And dark at night.

When coming back from Cote d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast), our intent was to walk the 8 miles from the military checkpoint at the border to the next town. But a car came along and picked up the four of us. What would they have done without us sticking our flashlights out the windows to light the way in the absence of headlights?

During the school year I lived on campus and not at the missionary compound. The cafeteria served bread - like a thick shortbread, or sometimes cornbread - for breakfast and dinner. There would be a thick pool of heavy margarine, or a smear of Crisco, on the plate as a spread. The Americans would often bring peanut butter into the cafeteria.

At lunch we stood in line to get a bowl of rice. Then we stood in another line for soup, which in the US we would call a stew. There were several different colors of stew, each with a hint of red from the palm oil. I'm sure they tasted different, but I could never taste anything except the AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH of peppers.

Did I mention I looked terrifically thin when I got back to the States? Suck it, Atkins Diet.

The American professors had apartments on/near campus. When one of the professors went back to the States for a few weeks she allowed us to use her home - and at that point I cooked an entire four-course meal for seven on a hibachi with no refrigeration and one knife, thankyouverymuch. YES. Do I feel any conflict now with my nifty collection of multi-functional kitchen acoutrements? Well no, not until this minute... hmmm..... well, I'll say this - standards are higher in the US as an adult than they were in Liberia (or anywhere) as a college student.

Sweetie mentioned recently that if we're going on a trip there's sure to be a Stephanie-developed checklist of Stuff To Bring. And I can't tell you how difficult it was to get used to a much more laid-back way of traveling. Specifically, when do we leave? When the bus is full. If a big group comes by tomorrow and buys tickets, we leave tomorrow. Otherwise, no. How long is the trip? Depends on if it's rainy season or not. Depends on if the military checkpoints lets us pass. There's no way to know. Now put your head back on your canteen and go to sleep.

And throwing ourselves on the mercy of strangers to take us in whither we landed just blew my mind. But you know, what a wonderful thing - to fling one's self on the wings of adventure and be confident of a warm welcome. It never, ever failed to materialize - a safe, dry place to sleep.

Fufu is boiled, pounded cassava root. Women young and old sit outside with their pot of fufu-in-process and the pounding stick and they pound all day. ALL DAY.

Tastes like wax.

Cassava fries, though, aren't bad.

Liberia is a tribal country. You can draw all the lines you want to around a map, but patriotism is tribe, not country. Every tribe has its specialty industry, and the Mandingo tribe made incredible bread. Like French bread - crisp outside, fluffy inside, perfect with (I'm not kidding) Laughing Cow cheese, which you could buy one wedge at a time on the street in the capitol.

Going to Liberia when I was 19 made it really weird to say "I'll just have a beer." In college - where I had been a mere 60 days previously - there's so much faux-drama and secrecy and posturing about alcohol that it was other-worldly for it to be a non-event to have a Club beer. Which, by the way, I've never liked, but sterilizing your water gets old pretty fast and makes bottled beverages much more appealing. I've never cared for soda, either, but orange Fanta was my best friend for a while.

It's also how I knew I had malaria - I was at the market and spit out my Fanta saying it had "gone bad." It can't. The soda was fine, it was me that wasn't doing so great. And that's really all I remember until about 5 days later when my fever broke.

Palaver is a highly civilized concept. To palaver is to peaceably discuss an issue, for as long as necessary, until a workable solution can be reached. In small villages issues are not put to a majorty vote - because if 51% support an idea, then you have 49% of your village unhappy with it. One imagines a leader doesn't sleep well that way, and probably not much of the citizenry, either.

There is also a wonderful dish known as palaver sauce; I'd be happy to share the recipe but I can't find kpon leaves or plato greens anywhere and doubt they're much available. Sadly, due to the absence of worlor seed, I won't be sharing the worlor sauce recipe, either.

The bananas I've had in the states have, frankly, fallen short of what I've learned a banana can be. Head out of the gutter, please. In West Africa they were small, creamy, and intensely flavorful. If you have the opportunity to pick up some red bananas they most closely approximate what I had available (really available, like "dropping off the tree").

One of my favorite dishes was Groundnut Stew. Groundnuts are known as the States as peanuts. This wonderful dish is cleverly served atop rice.

From the Phebe Cookbook, written by the folks at the Phebe Hospital compound - and by all means, take advantage of the supermarket and its selection of natural peanut butter!

Groundnut Stew
1 pint (2 cups) roasted peanuts
2 lbs. chicken or beef
1 bouillon cube (chicken or beef)
Tomato paste
1 medium onion
1 TBSP butter (optional)

Season meat with salt and pepper. Let stand for a while.

Cook meat on medium heat until partly tender. Pound peanuts in mortar until like butter. Add 2 cups sterilized water to peanuts. Strain through a sieve. Pour the liquid into a pot with meat. Add a little tomato paste to give color. Cook until as tender as desired (approximately two hours).

Now? Not Yet?

2009-06-27T14:31:00.005-04:00

[Note: This is a Michael Jackson-free post. Who cares what a food blogger thinks about Michael Jackson?]

Despite my resistance and disbelief and foot-dragging refusal, time marched on and I turned 40. So here's my question - am I old enough to be crotchety? I would LOVE to tell these young'uns to pull their damn pants up, that flip-flops are not appropriate office attire, and a faux-hawk looks completely ridiculous. Real mohawks look only slightly less ridiculous, but at least the person committed to it.

Once I've had some time out of the sun and a refreshing iced tea I still know that droopy pants and flip-flops and bad hair are UGH, but I'm a lot less likely to say so.

The same heat that is bringing my brown-eyed Susans to bloom and (hopefully) makes my vegetables grow is also driving me away from the kitchen and out to the grill. Last night I had the thrill of making a bruschetta with tomato, basil, and oregano from my own garden, and using it to top grilled chicken and zucchini. YUM. I'm really hoping these vegetable plants decide to help me out by, like, producing something edible. I've got 3 kinds of tomatoes, okra, yellow squash, jalapenos, and herbs going - we shall see.

The grill is a godsend in the heat, not in the least because Sweetie likes to tend the grill while I sit inside in the air conditioning and sip iced tea or a nice Pinot Grigio.

Grilled Herbed Pork Tenderloin
Cooking Light, 2006

1/4 cup fresh oregano leaves - yes, fresh
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves - yes, fresh
1/4 cup fresh orange juice - bottled is fine
2 tbsp honey (the recipe calls for 1/4 cup, which I found much too sweet. Your mileage may vary)
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil - I'm not really sure what it is besides something that would take up even more space in my cabinet. Regular vegetable oil is fine.
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2 (1-pound) pork tenderloins
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray

1. Combine first 9 ingredients - oregano through garlic - in a blender or food processor. Process until almost smooth. Pour mixture into a large heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Add pork to bag and seal. Marinate in refrigerator 2 hours, turning bag occasionally.

2. Prepare grill.

3. Remove pork from marinade. Discard marinade.

4. Place pork on grill rack coated with cooking spray. Cover and grill 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees, turning pork after 15 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Be Zucchiniful and Multiply... A Little

2009-06-18T12:27:00.004-04:00

Funny thing about gardening – it’s a problem to do it poorly (our usual dried flower arrangement out front in the flower eternal-rest bed), and a problem to do it prolifically (zucchini). I love Mary’s “Darwin Garden” term – it's a tough world, and the only survivors are the ones who fight for it.

After last year’s stunning success with a basil plant – it produced basil! – I confidently aimed higher this year. Yup, I bought another basil plant. Plus two tomato plants, an jalapeno (bush? shrub? It doesn’t look vine-ish… should it? Have I messed up already?), and actual living thyme and oregano.

Lessons learned thus far:
a) It’s probably much easier to get a pre-made tomato cage around the plant when it’s small, and not when it’s 3 feet tall and bearing fruit. And hopefully not pointless.

b) Plants need water. Not that I didn’t already know that, but a trip out of town with no rain reinforced the lesson.

c) One thyme plant doesn’t produce a heck of a lot of thyme. I probably need several.

d)You can spin yourself into a tizzy with this organic thing. I was trying to buy organic seeds, but then I realized I’d plant them into soil I know nothing about and they’d be watered with rain in one of America’s worst air-quality cities. Then I stopped thinking about it altogether, hummed a happy tune, and focused on sending cheerful, leaf-affirming thoughts to my fledgling tomaters.

e)Tossing the grill cover on the basil plant – and leaving it there – makes for an unhappy plant.

f) In fact, it may not be a great idea to keep a super-hot grill near the plants at all. Hmmmm…..

One thing I stayed away from was the afore-mentioned zucchini, which produce like the rabbits of the vegetable kingdom. Two reasons – first, there are just two people in the household and we can only eat so much of any one vegetable.

More poignantly, what if it died? Could my self-esteem handle not being able to grow zucchini? It’s like not being able to grow dandelions in the middle of the lawn. I think it would have unpleasant emotional consequences.

For those of you blessed with an abundance of zucchini, a) call me, we’d be happy to take some off your hands! and b) two unusual recipes to use it up are below. I’m not a huge pineapple fan, but I like this bread.

Zucchini-Pineapple Quick Bread
Cooking Light

Yield 2 loaves
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 1/2 medium zucchini)
2/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup egg substitute
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (8-ounce) cans crushed pineapple in juice, drained
Baking spray with flour

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, salt, and next 3 ingredients (through ground cinnamon) in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk.
3. Beat eggs with a mixer at medium speed until foamy. Add sugar, zucchini, oil, egg substitute, and vanilla, beating until well blended. Add zucchini mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in pineapple. Spoon batter into 2 (9 x 5–inch) loaf pans coated with baking spray. Bake at 325° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Zucchini-Chocolate Cake
Cooking Light

I've never made the glaze, so I'm not vouching for it. Also, if you think this is a great way to sneak veggies into kids and they just won't notice something green in their chocolate cake, well, good luck with that. At age 4 it didn't escape Cutie's notice that there was something going on with this cake that she wasn't used to seeing. She ate it and she liked it, but she has always been a good eater (particularly of dessert).

CAKE:
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup fat-free buttermilk
2 cups shredded zucchini
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

GLAZE:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
8 teaspoons fat-free milk
2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray; dust pan with 1 tablespoon flour.

Place sugars, cream cheese, and vegetable oil in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Lightly spoon 2 1/2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 1/2 cups flour and next 5 ingredients (2 1/2 cups flour through cinnamon) in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in zucchini, 2/3 cup chocolate chips, and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare glaze, combine 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons cocoa in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine milk, 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, coffee, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract in a 1-cup glass measure. Microwave at medium 45 seconds or until chocolate melts, stirring after 20 seconds. Combine powdered sugar mixture with chocolate mixture, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over cake.

Not THAT Kind of Blood Orange

2009-06-11T09:50:00.003-04:00

My brand-new salad craving is heightening my fear that turning 40 will make me a Responsible Adult. Or, at the very least, cement my Old Enough To Know Better status. I'm filing for an extension since I'm clearly not ready.

Or perhaps it's just a continuation of the "sashaying to the beat of my own accordion" that I've pretty much always done. At least my newfound obsession, the dark chocolate covered pretzels at Trader Joe's - is keeping a sense of normalcy.

Over the weekend I threw some fish on the grill and made this tasty salad. Two things to work around - a) oranges and asparagus are generally not in season at the same time - sliced apples would work much better than the dry, styrofoam-y oranges I was able to get, and b) how the hell do you "shave" asparagus? They're skinny spears. You have to hold onto them somewhere. They're floppy. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to pull that off without also pulling off a layer of skin.

Our chopped asapragus salad turned out just fine. The dressing is terrific. Thyme, which grows in my herb garden, substitutes just fine for tarragon, which I didn't plant.

Shaved/Chopped Asparagus Salad with Orange-Tarragon Vinaigrette
Vegetarian Times

1/3 cup raw hazelnuts or almonds
1 large shallot, peeled and minced (3 TBSP)
3 TBSP white wine vinegar (or regular white vinegar)
1 TBSP chopped fresh tarragon leaves (or thyme)
2 tsp. orange zest - about 1 orange
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
7 TBSP olive oil (I used 5)
1/2 pound fresh asparagus (8 to 10 medium-size spears)
6 cups mixed spring greens
2 navel oranges

[If using hazelnuts - preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place hazelnuts on baking sheet and toast 15 minutes, or until skins darken and split. Rub nuts between two towels until skins come off. Cool, then coarsely chop]

1. Whisk together shallot, vinegar, tarragon/thyme, orange zest, and mustard in bowl. Whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper. I didn't whisk, I just combined everything in a cruet and shook it.

2. Peel asparagus into long, thin strands with a peeler. Then e-mail me a video about how you did it.

3. Toss with greens in towl.

4. Peel oranges with knife, removing white pith. Slice between membranes, and cut orange segments directly into salad, letting juice drip into bowl. Toss salad with nuts and 3 TBSP dressing. Serve remaining dressing on the side.

Easy-Peasy (Hold The Peas)

2009-06-02T18:48:00.003-04:00

Y'all, we went to the most amazing wedding over the weekend - it was like having a walk-on part in a fairy tale.

Besides "Steph and her Sweetie had a terrific time at the beach wedding", that statement also means "she hasn't cooked much." Seriously, I came home Sunday night - after Sweetie surprised me with a trip to the spot where we got engaged and later married - to no food in the house and not much time to cook, anyway.

Everyone flies on a wing and a prayer at some point. I'm still trying to eat really healthfully, and this has been "throw it in a skillet and hope for the best" week.

Substitute "baking dish" for "skillet", and we have last night's super-easy, quite yummy dinner. Knowing full well there was nothing in the fridge, I stopped by the supermarket on the way home and got one tilapia filet ($1.50) and a small head of broccoli. I may have to do that again...

Baked Tilapia and Broccoli
4 Tilapia filets (to serve 4 - I just did one since Sweetie wasn't home for dinner)
2 cups broccoli, carrots, and chopped shallots (again, adjust according to how many people are eating)
1 lemon
Cooking spray or 1 TBSP butter
Old Bay seasoning

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray baking dish large enough for fish and vegetables. For easier, though not environmentally-friendly, clean-up line the baking dish with foil and then spray with cooking spray.

Place filet(s) and vegetables in baking dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice and seasoning. Dot with butter if using; if not, mist with cooking spray/olive oil.

Bake at 375 degrees for between 12 and 20 minutes. Fish will be opaque and will flake easily with a fork when done.

This could not have been easier and was way tasty.

The Dreadmill

2009-05-20T19:46:00.008-04:00

Dear Women's Magazines -

In some ways, I'm atypical. I haven't eaten red meat since 1989, I do not see the big deal about SNL's Kristen Wiig, I don't have cable TV.

But in a lot of ways, I'm more like the mythical Everywoman that you claim as your audience . I have the following: a job that has its good points but could be better; more Stuff to Do than Stuff-Doing Time; tennish more pounds to lose; two dogs and a husband who all seem to like me well enough on most days (and vice versa).

On behalf of those Everywomen, I gotta tell ya - I'm not down with everything you're spewing at me every month. Some of it is on the money, some of it we have some common ground, and the rest - honestly, either I'm doing this all wrong, or you liiiieeeed like a tobacco exec at a Health and Human Services hearing.

"It's Easy to Work In Exercise During the Day"

I'm willing to meet you halfway on this one. I take all 20+ flights of stairs down to the cafeteria every day at work. And when I can, I exit the train one stop early and walk the rest of the way to my office - and have for the past year or so. Honestly, I do feel better and am more productive when I pull it off, and it's not that big of a deal timewise.

But I didn't lose any weight that way. It's just not enough to make an appreciable difference. Over the past two months I've dropped somewhere around 8 pounds, and I'm literally swimming my butt off. Figure a 15-minute drive to the gym, a solid 30 minutes of swimming (assuming I don't have to wait for a lane), another 45 to shower, dress, and dry hair and the drive home. That's a full hour and a half of non-work time that I had to scrape together out of my already-busy day. It's worth it and it's do-able, but "easy"? No.

Find An Exercise You Love To Do - And DO IT

We're in sync on this one. I like walking, but don't usually have the 3+ hours it takes to burn off as many calories as I need to burn. And finding comfortable sneakers for my extra-wide, flipper-like feet is no easy task. But put me in a pool - where footwear isn't required and flippers are a definite advantage - and I'll stay there for hours. I still get on a treadmill every so often and do weights; swimming, for all its benefits, doesn't build bone density. So in the past two years on the dreadmill, nothin' much. Two months in the pool - weight loss.

Which reminds me.... parents, you might want to try to steer your kid towards an activity they can do for life, like tennis or running or golf. I was a gymnast, and I assure you no co-worker has ever said, "You know, there's a balance beam and a springfloor at the park up the street from me. We should meet up for some tumbling sometime after work" or "You look like you a vaulter - are you interested in joining the company gymnastics team? We kicked Xerox's ass at the corporate Olympics last year."

"Getting in Shape Doesn't Have to Cost Any Money"

In theory, true. I'm sure there's someone out there who gets a charge out of running up and down their house's stairs and hoisting bags of flour or full suitcases or whatever around as weights. And I've heard good things about those $15 fitness DVDs, but my 19-inch TV and playful golden retriever (who does doga on my mat) make that impractical in this house. For those of us who live in the real world - one that has, like, weather - we need a gym.

My costs so far, for an 8-pound loss - I'm not including food, because I mostly shifted around by putting the $ I used to spend on cheese and crackers and Smartfood popcorn towards edamame and strawberries:

* Two athletic Reebok bathing suits - $70 + tax (on sale at Dick's Sporting Goods}

* One pretty bathing suit that proved shockingly and embarassingly inadequate for a good backstroke push-off - $30. I guess I'll bring it to the beach this weekend

* Swimming Cap - $15 (plus the deep conditioner from the two months I swam without one, and the haircut, and the damage to my highlights....)

* Sneakers for my impossible-to-fit, extra-wide, flipper-like feet for land workouts - $80

* Swimmers' shamwow-like super absorbent towel - $10

And keep in mind that I already had a yoga mat, gym bag, extra hair dryer, gym membership, etc. We have a terrific park near the house and I happily go walking there - but not when it's pouring rain (almost every day this month), not when it's over 90 degrees, not when Atlanta's air quality is "unhealthy for every non-cockroach living being" (daily from June to mid-October), and not when the pollen drifts obscure the walking path (March and April).

One free source of inspiration was watching The Biggest Loser. Those folks didn't just show up at the gym and go through the motions - they busted it, they threw up, they sweated through their clothes, they cried, they cursed their trainers. Honest to God, I think of that when I start slowing down on my laps and feel like it might be OK to stop before hitting my goal. And I keep going.

"When You Make Healthful Substitutions, You'll Never Miss Snack Food"

F-you. Seriously. DO NOT tell me that a crunchy carrot stick is a "great substitute" for potato chips. That's insane. What kind of half-wit confuses the two? I happen to love berries, but I'm not so clueless as to notice they're not covered with chocolate.

And the verdict is...
I'm renewing my subscription to Weight Watchers magazine (terrific recipes) and I'll still pick up the occasional copy of Self and Fitness.

Here's the thing - I go to church every Sunday. And the message does not change, ever - in my house of worship, it's "love thy neighbor as thy self" and "follow the Ten Commandments" and "your marriage and your family are important" and "it is impossible to have earned the mercy we are shown, it's a gift." In the past ten or more years that I've gone to the same church, same message. The people who went there 50 years ago? They heard the same thing, every time.

But I need to hear it every week, because it's hard to do and it doesn't mesh with everything I see around me. Same thing with my health - there are no giant billboards advertising carrots the way there are for soda and doughnuts and fried chicken. I need to read the stories every month of someone who lost weight and kept it off to remind me that it can be done.

So dammit, you've got me for a good $10 per month. Just add that to my tab above.

Well played, editors. Well played.

Mother's Day for the Uninitiated

2009-05-19T18:44:00.005-04:00

The most important thing to know - right now - about Mother's Day is that it was two weeks ago. So if you forgot, you're SO screwed and there's no making it up. Like you'll need to buy Mom her dream car in her favorite color, invite her to move in with you, or just head down to the senior center, pick out a new one, and start over.

As childfree couples with mothers way-out-of-state go, Sweetie and I had quite the shindig. No, the dogs didn't put their furry heads together and hatch some gopherrific scheme to surprise me (thank God). Rather, we brought brunch and conversation to a friend who lost her young adult son earlier this year. Oddly enough she preferred to have it at her house, on her porch overlooking her array of beautifully cultured gardens, instead of in our little dining room with its view of the kitchen. We aim to please.

This is one area of life where I have an embarassment of riches. My own mother? Fabulous. My mother-in-law? We're truly, genuinely friends. My "other mother-in-law", who I know through Sweetie and to whom we brought brunch? She's terrific. I'm SO blessed. Note that our Moms are out of state, so we sent chocolates (I highly, highly recommend godiva.com and johnandkiras.com).

It seems oddly appropriate to note that our golden retriever has sought out a Russian grandmother of his very own, and there is sheer joy on their faces when they spot each other. Our neighbor's mother lives with him, and she doesn't speak much English. But she pets well (presumably), and she and Henry Dog have struck up a friendship like nothing I've ever seen. He runs to her when he sees her. She bends down and coos endearments into his big, floppy ear. They smile at each other. It's one of those little serendipitous, joyful things that makes you happy to be a small part of it.

Our brunch was very simple, including a platter of gorgeous fresh strawberries. These Raspberry Cream Cheese Muffins are also a terrific brunch dish. They can be made (and frozen, if necessary) ahead of time. If raspberries are too tart for your taste, substitute blueberries.

RASPBERRY CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS
Cooking Light - June, 2003
Yield: 2 dozen (serving size: 1 muffin)

2/3 cup (5 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (blueberries if you don't care for raspberries)
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add sugar; beat until fluffy. Add vanilla, egg whites, and egg; beat well.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and buttermilk to cream cheese mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Gently fold in raspberries and walnuts.

Place 24 foil cup liners in muffin cups. Spoon batter evenly into liners. Bake at 350° 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pans; cool on a wire rack.

Nuggets of Wisdom

2009-05-16T17:07:00.001-04:00

As a lifelong picky eater, I really can’t relate to my oldest niece sometimes. Like this, at dinner one night:

“I just don’t know what I want. Only two vegetables? I really want the beets. And the Brussels sprouts. AND the squash.”

She lost me after “don’t know what I want.” Mystified, and possibly a little frightened, DH and I looked at each other. The kid wasn’t putting on an act – it was her first visit to The Colonnade, we were feeding her WAY late (like past-her-bedtime late), she was seriously hungry and as long as olives aren’t involved she loves her veggies.

Figuring there’s a sure Ticket To Hell if you don’t give a child Brussels sprouts when she wants them, Sweetie used one of his side dish options for the sprouts. And Cutie happily gobbled them up, in addition to the beets from my salad and the sweet potatoes that came with her burger.

Weird.

As an adult, I call myself a “food snob” instead of a “picky eater” although, really, it’s the same thing. I’m super-snobby about Italian food and my sister and I will go to dramatic lengths to avoid ever eating at Olive Garden. And yet, my mother insists that for a SOLID YEAR, sometime before kindergarten, I ate nothing but Spaghetti-O’s. A concoction that I haven’t touched for 30 years, and that caused me to raise an eyebrow when Sweetie told me in our dating days that one of his specialties was “Spaghetti-O’s Primavera.”

Weird.

So with kids, you just never know. What causes a good sleeper to suddenly be ready to play at 1:30 AM? What causes a seemingly-happy baby to start screaming in the supermarket halfway through the week’s only food-shopping opportunity? What makes a toddler love oatmeal today and projectile vomit at the sight of it tomorrow?

No one knows. The books don’t know, the experts don’t know, the mothers of 12 don’t know, they just work around it.

And yet, they all seem to love McNuggets – which, in my food-snobby opinion, aren’t actually food at all.

If, for marketing purposes, you want to call these “Salmon Nuggets” it may just get the little ones to give these fabulous salmon patties a whirl. Oddly, though, they call for raisins which I simply do not understand. Raisins belong in some salads, oatmeal, oatmeal cookies, and granola. Fish? Seriously??? I doubt even the Brussels sprouts-loving Cutie would touch it.

The salsa is absolutely perfect on the fish, and also works beautifully on chips or chicken.

Salmon Balls/Nuggets/Croquettes with Fresh Tomato Salsa
Self, 10/2002

Tomato Salsa
2 large ripe beefsteak tomatoes, seeded, peeled, and diced
3 scallions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley (yes, fresh – dried parsley will taste musty and have a weird mouth-feel)
1 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp chopped fresh basil (yes, fresh)
1 tsp red wine vinegar

Combine everything in a bowl. Season with pepper. Cover and set aside. Don’t add salt until serving – it pulls flavor from tomatoes.

Salmon Balls
1 lb. fresh salmon fillet, chopped into ¼-inch pieces (you can also use the pouches of salmon that are available now)
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
¾ cup bread crumbs
3 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
2 TBSP Parmesan cheese
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tsp olive oil
6 cups arugula or spinach, torn into bite-sized pieces

Combine all ingredients except oil and arugula/spinach in a bowl. Mix well. Form walnut-sized balls (about 16); SET ASIDE. In a large nonstick frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add balls and cook 4 – 6 minutes, turning to brown all ides. Divide arugula among 4 plates. Place 4 balls in center of each and serve with salsa. Sprinkle with salt.

Per serving: 381 calories, 13g fat (3g saturated fat), 34g carbohydrates, 32g protein

Are There Really Frozen Artichokes?

2009-05-03T19:53:00.002-04:00

You know, there are only so many ways to combine corn, tomatoes, and chicken and I think I've tried every last one of them. Time for something new & different.

What helps break me out of a rut is trying some new, random source for recipes. On a whim I picked up Good Housekeeping and was thrilled to find this Greek Chicken dish. Good Housekeeping is hardly new to the world of recipe-making, it's just not something I usually pick up (especially now that even doctor's offices just carry free publications - what is up with that?).

I've never in my life seen or heard of frozen artichokes. Running into a friend at Trader Joe's, she confirmed that I wasn't the only one. Fortunately, Trader Joe's had jarred artichokes that worked just fine. You could zip this up a little bit with marinated artichokes (which will also increase the fat content), and maybe ditch the mint, depending on the marinade.

The cooking is pretty easy. I got all fancy with the serving - cucumbers go beautifully with feta and mint, so I sliced cucumber and fanned it prettily on each plate. Then a little brown rice, topped with chicken, topped with artichoke sauce, topped with feta. YUM.

Oh, and I tried pounding the chicken breasts to an even thickness and did nothing besides scare the crap out of the dogs with all the noise. If you're equally unskilled, either get a sharp knife and slice them thinly yourself (easiest when they're still semi-frozen), or just decide to let them cook a little longer at a slightly lower temp.

Chicken Saute with Artichokes, Lemon, & Mint
Good Housekeeping, May 2009

4 med. skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves (1 1/2 pounds)
Salt and pepper
4 tsp. olive oil (kind of a lot... you can knock it down to 2 or 3)
1 pkg (8 to 10 ounces) of mythical, don't-believe-they-really-exist frozen artichoke hearts, thawed. Whatever. I found a 14-ounce jar and figured that, once drained, they were probably 10ish ounces.
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, chopped, plus additional for garnish [Note: If you haven't cooked with mint before, I'd start with 2 tablespoons in the sauce and see how you like it. You can always add more later, but you can't take it out.
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (I used bottled)
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. With meat mallet or bottom of skillet, pound chicken (placed between 2 sheets plastic wrap) to an even 1/2-inch thickness; sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides.

2. In 12-inch skillet, heat 2 teaspoons oil on medium heat. Add chicken and cook 12 to 14 minutes or until browned on both sides and chicken loses it pink color throughout turning over once. Transfer chicken to shallow serving bowl; cover with foil to keep warm.

3. To same skillet, add remaining 2 teaspoons oil and heat on medium until hot. Add artichokes and cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in broth and heat to boiling on medium-high; boil 2 to 3 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. Remove skillet from heat; stir in mint and lemon juice.

4. To serve, spoon artichoke sauce over chicken; top with feta. Garnish with additional chopped mint leaves.

Each serving about 285 calories, 43g protein

Book Report and Random Thinkiness

2009-04-29T10:46:00.005-04:00

Michael Pollan - Paula Poundstone was pretty rude to him (but funny) when he was a guest on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." I decided to finally check his book "In Defense of Food" out of the library.

It's an extraordinary book. It's written in everyday (not overly-scientific) language that isn't preachy, it's just uncommon common sense. He points out that we're in an odd state of affairs when we're turning to him, a journalist, for nutrition advice, and that no other culture at any other time has had a hard time figuring out what to feed themselves and how. True enough.

I highly recommend the book if you haven't read it. If you want a quick summary, it's this - "Food is more than a lump of protein, fats, carbs, and vitamins. It's FOOD. Cook your own as much as you can. Eat food as it was intended - orange juice doesn't naturally have calcium, so don't drink it that way. There are lots of ways to eat a really healthful diet, and vending machines and food that never rots isn't part of any of them. Science doesn't know everything."

The anti-inflammatory diet - Also at the library, since it's in the same part of the Dewey Decimal System, was Dr. Barry Sears' "The Anti-Inflammatory Zone." Dr. Sears is the creator of the Zone diet, and I took the book out to see what he had to say.

After getting about one-third of the way through I decided it was quacky and brought it back to the library. Any book that talks about the Secrets Mainstream Medicine Doesn't Want You To Know is, in my opinion, trying to sell something. Like, say, Dr. Sears Zone Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (it's on Amazon). I haven't ruled out the idea that there is something to an anti-inflammatory diet, only that this book reads too SHAMWOW for me to take it seriously.

That said, I'm a little over two weeks into my three-week experiment and I'm feelin' pretty good, even if I don't know conclusively why. There is little agreement on what exactly an anti-inflammatory diet really is. I've removed a lot of simple carbs (bread, pasta), sugar, and nightshades (alas, tomatoes and potatoes), from my daily consumption. I've also let go of cheese, which I generally eat too much of. I'm eating more fish and vegetables. My new gym has a pool and I've been pretty regular in attendance.

So is it the anti-inflammatory component of what I'm doing that's helping? Or the overall health-supporting diet and exercise? Or both? I have no idea. But what drove me to this - wanting relief from constant achiness - is apparently a stronger motivator than "I want to lose weight." Good to know.

It's pretty unlikely that this Italian girl is going to permanently give up tomatoes and cheese. In fact, Sweetie and I went out for pizza this weekend because neither of us had the energy to scrape together something in our own kitchen (and I was REALLY craving pizza). And it's just hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that millions of earth's tomato-eating people are "secretly" battling some sort of painful malady, you know?

Pool Fitness - For crying out loud, if you get in the pool expect to get your hair wet. Seriously. You don't have to go underwater during most pool fitness classes, but you really should expect to be splashed.

Pool Fitness II - When someone with a 4-prong cane enters the pool area, GIVE THEM THE LANE NEAREST THE STEPS. She was elderly, in her skirted swimsuit and floweredy bathing cap and determined to get her workout. She really needed to be in an outside lane to hold onto the side as she power-walked up and down the length of the pool - and good for her, I say. Her reaction when I vacated the outside lane for her let me know that she can't assume folks will make simple accommodations for her. Sad.

New Tag - My blog project right now is adding a "Health Conscious" tag to the selections on the right, which will take you to all the yummy recipes I have from various healthful-cooking sources. Basically, I eat what tastes good and some of it has really healthful qualities and some of it (hellllllooooo, brownies!) not so much. Clicking on "Health Conscious" will take you to those recipes that are, as they say, more of an "everyday" food and not a "special occasion" food.

Seriously Underpaid

2009-04-25T22:38:00.005-04:00

Working with disability as I do, I know that one of the biggest issues in the field is the shockingly low pay that aides and attendants get for the work they do in caring for the elderly and disabled.

Today my grandmother made me realize a whoooole part of the picture I hadn't seen before. She's 85-ish years old, but really hasn't seemed "old" until the past year or two. If you have a traditional Italian or Jewish grandmother, you've pretty much met her. If not, here's the deal - she passionately loves her family, was a terrific cook, talks a lot, and believes that the Youth of Today ("youth" being anyone under 45) really needs a good finger-wagging and talking-to. Finger-wagging will make someone realize that they really don't need heroin, that they nobody's getting any younger so they might as well marry that nice boy, and that only members of the Clean Plate Club go to heaven.

Our weekly chat this morning, which focused on her somewhat-recent move into Assisted Living, went like this....

Me: So you're still happy in the new apartment?
Grandmother: Oh, yes. Everyone here is so nice. All you have to do is call and ask for something, and they take care of it.
Me: Wonderful!
Grandmother: The aides are all young, you know. They really like having older folks around, with our wisdom and experience. They love my advice.
Me: Oh?
Grandmother: Oh, yes! They used to ask me for it, but now I just go ahead and give it to them instead of playing that little game where I wait for them to ask, which I know they're going to do. Like yesterday, one of the young ladies came in and she had been tanning. I showed her all the spots I have from being out in the sun too much and told her she needs to wear a hat. And since we were talking anyway, I told her, "you have on too much makeup."
Me: Really????
Grandmother: Well, someone had to tell her. She thanked me several times.

Methinks someone has stopped recognizing sarcasm, or doesn't realize there are angels in her midst. I hope it's the latter, and God bless them.

Years ago my grandmother sent me home with a loaf of her pumpkin bread. Living alone at the time, I brought it into the office to share. My manager wasn't willing to wait for the mail for the recipe (this was before e-mail); she made me call that afternoon, from the office, and write down the recipe as read by my grandmother.

A full cup of oil ("NOT olive", she specified in the recipe) is a LOT, even though this makes three loaves. I cut it down to 3/4 cup with no ill effect. In her own words, here 'tis.

Irene's Famous Pumpkin Bread
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups pumpkin
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. PAM three loaf pans. Bake 350 degrees, 45 minutes to one hour.

There it is. That's the whole thing. It really is terrific and it freezes well. And if I'd found this in a cookbook I would never have made it, given the 4 eggs and 3 cups of sugar. But then again, my grandmother has been in specactularly good health for most of her life so what do I know?

Maybe I need a good finger-wagging.

Making Changes

2009-04-19T20:21:00.009-04:00

She didn't mean to be funny (I think), but one of the women in water aerobics last night said she liked the class because there's no shame in leaving early.

Honey, please. Wiggling my way out of PE was the first thing I did in kindergarten and the last thing I did before high school graduation. I am impervious to shame on the matter. Believe it or not, I was an incredibly fit kid from ballet, gymnastics, and swimming. Oh, and if I wanted to go anywhere I had to ride my bike (which also accounts for the pocky scar where I gravelled-up my leg... the elbow and face healed better).

But note that in those activities no one is throwing shit at me. Tennis, volleyball, softball, basketball, soccer - all involve a spherical object at high speed (that HURTS) that must be struck and dodged at the same time. Not for cash, not for cookies, just for having done it. Ummm, no. Dance is an art and swimming is a survival skill. If dodgeball is a survival skill you need to carefully examine the choices you've made in life. In college I fulfilled the PE requirement with one semester of dance, and another of fencing, which I knew full well no one would ever ask me to participate in after work.

Were I a mother, I think I'd give Mary a run - or, more likely, a mosey - for the title of Worst Soccer Mom (her hilarious post on this can be found on her hilarious blog, here)*. As it stands, I'm a soccer aunt and that's WAY easier than being a soccer mom (although without politicians pandering to me which, frankly, I could use more of). Basically, if I show up I'm a hero. If I bring Uncle Sweetie I'm a HUGE hero. He even outranks cupcakes as far as our niece is concerned, if you can believe that.

Where was I? Ah yes, water aerobics. I LOVED the class, but I should've met it for drinks first before going all in on an hour-long class. The very fit, heavily-accented German instructor paced the edge of the pool, yelling "HAAAAAAAR FLUFFLE!" and heads would bob up and down. Then "FASTER!!!" and sure enough, everyone would bob double-time. Dutifully, I got twice as confused as I had been before. "Waaaaagggg rummin!" was next, and everyone scooted down to one end of the pool. I swear I'm not making this up.

But once she added the pantomime - and once my glasses-less self got close enough to see her - I was golden. And sore. But that's fine, because I'm envisioning my tushie toning and my legs sleeking. You do too know what I mean.

And as part of the Staring Down The Barrel of 40 program, I'm branching out on the vegetable recipes. It's been years since I made cauliflower - Sweetie doesn't care for it, and it's not one of those veggies that comes in a good one-person serving size. So with dinner over the weekend I made this yummy roasted cauliflower and some steamed green beans, so that we both had a vegetable.

The recipe calls for Parmesan, but I had Asiago and went with that. It was really good, although I didn't so much care for the leftovers.

*Mary and I went to high school together and re-connected on Facebook. She is a self-proclaimed "kitchentard", so I'm guessing she's not a stinkycheeser...

Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely minced
1 lemon (I used bottled lemon juice)
Olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese (I used Asiago - no snobby culinary reason, it's just what I had in the cheese drawer)

Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut cauliflower into florets and put in a single layer in an oven-proof baking dish. Add garlic. Squeeze a lemon over cauliflower and drizzle each piece with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If the oven hasn't reached 400°F yet, set aside until it has.

2 Place casserole in the hot oven, uncovered, for 15-25 minutes, until the top is lightly brown. Test with a fork for desired doneness. Remove from oven and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4.

The Power of Three

2009-04-17T17:38:00.004-04:00

I'm supposed to eat more ginger. Long story, but I'm trying out this "anti-inflammatory" way of eating (yup, no more flamethrowing serving utensils) and ginger is one of the foods at the top of the list.

Some of my favorite foods have ginger - gingersnaps, gingersnap gelato, pumpkin cheesecake... shall I go on? Alas, that's not really what they meant, and also not helpful in banishing the 15 pounds that I want lost and never found.

I wish I knew who to credit with this dessert, because it's amazing. And this sauce would go really, really well with chocolate or vanilla ice cream, too.

Honeydew Melon with Strawberry Ginger Sauce

Puree 2 tablespoons fresh gingerroot (peeled) with one pint of hulled strawberries. Adjust to taste (add more ginger or more strawberries as you see fit). Drizzle over sliced or cubed honeydew.

Unseasonably Chilli

2009-04-15T16:43:00.005-04:00

Girltime is important. One of my favorite things about Sweetie is that he knows that I occasionally have a need to talk about my hair, Target, birth control, window treatments, Natalie Portman's hair, my friend's hair, my friend's daughter and her dating adventures, Being A Woman In The Workplace, and where to find a good mani/pedi where you see people really clean the footbowls. That's Girl Night, usually a la mode. Not only does Sweetie recognize my need to have these, he's well aware of his own need to not spend 3 hours discussing said topics. Win/win.

So my friend TechGirl decided to host a Girl Night to celebrate her birthday a few weeks ago. Remember on the Flintstones, when Fred would smell something yummy in the kitchen and would float in there to see what smelled so good? I nearly did that. She had a pot of chilli going that smelled amazing on that unseasonably cold evening.

And yet. I haven't eaten red meat for literally twenty years. Sigh and inwardly pout.

[Aside - My mama taught me that when you are invited to dinner there are two and only two acceptable responses. They are "Love to, thanks - what can I bring?" and "I'm so sorry, but I have another commitment that evening. Let's get together soon." Mom was right. I make an exception for food allergies and religious restrictions. A good host does not want to kill you or send you to Hell.

Please note that the following were NOT on the Acceptable Response List -
"Dinner? Is it organic vegan? No? Do you mind if I bring a pot of clean dirt to snack on while everyone else eats the creature who sacrificed its life for you?"

"Is it Atkins-compliant? Oh, all you have to do is leave the breading off the fish, skip the French fries and make it a salad instead from this list of approved vegetables, and..."

"You know I hate pork chops, right?"]

Back to the story. So I was in the presence of this wonderful-smelling chilli, catching up with my friend and her daughter before everyone else got there, and I was getting hungry. When everyone got their food and I had a bowl with rice and cheese, TechGirl said, "You know this is turkey chilli, right?"

Obviously not! Oh, happy day and thoughtful hostess!

I asked her for the recipe and, since she happened to be having a life instead of clinging to her e-mail, she got it to me within a few days. By then I had already tracked down another recipe and made it - such was the power of her dinner.

Both were excellent, so I'm posting them both. TechGirl's is in her own words. Both freeze very well.

TechGirl's Crockpot Turkey Chilli
The 'recipe' is really simple. The chili works best in the crockpot. The ingredients are:
1 packet of McCormick's Chili Mix
1 packet of McCormick's Hot Chili mix
1 diced onion
2 lbs of lean ground beef or ground turkey
2 cans of whole or diced tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of kidney beans.

First, put the tomatoes, tomato sauce, and kidney beans in the crockpot with the Hot chili mix, stir and set crockpot to high. While that is heating, put a little vegetable oil in a skillet and brown the diced onion. When done, add the onion to the crockpot.

Next, crumble and brown the meat with the regular chili mix. Once done through, add to crockpot, stir and turn crockpot down to low. Simmer for at least 2 hours for extra flava.

Serve with rice or chips, cheese, sour cream, whatever extras you like.

This other recipe is from the Food Network - we don't have cable so I haven't seen any of their shows, but the recipe was terrific. I didn't have beer onhand so I substituted chicken broth. If you're using ground beef you can substitute beef broth for the beer.

Thirty-Minute Turkey Chilli
Food Network

Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (kind of a lot - you can easily go to two)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped (I used a garlic press)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 chipotle chile en adobo, coarsely chopped, with 1 tablespoon sauce (scrape out the seeds to cut the heat)
1 pound ground turkey
1 (12-ounce) Mexican lager-style beer (or substitute broth)
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, with their juice
1 (15 1/2-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
Sliced scallions, cilantro sprigs, avocado, sour cream, grated Monterey jack cheese, and/or tortilla chips, for garnish, optional

Directions
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt, chili powder, and oregano and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste and the chipotle chile and sauce; cook 1 minute more.

Add the turkey, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, and cook until the meat loses its raw color, about 3 minutes.

Add the beer and simmer until reduced by about half, about 8 minutes.

Add the tomatoes--crushing them through your fingers into the skillet--along with their juices and the beans; bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 10 minutes.

Ladle the chili into bowls and serve with the garnishes of your choice.

Cook's Note: A skillet's larger surface area reduces sauces faster than simmering in a saucepan.

What Part of "This Is My Life Source" Did You Not Understand?

2009-04-04T14:09:00.005-04:00

I adore NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" radio news quiz. This week's celebrity guest was Michael Pollan, known food/health writer who is all about natural, whole foods (who isn't?). I believe he wrote "Eat This, Not That", which I keep meaning to get from the library and never do. Comedian/contestant Paula Poundstone brought her A game this week, paraphrased below.

Poundstone: Look, I try to get my kids to eat vegetables and all that, but I gotta tell ya. One of the things that makes my life worth living is Ring-Dings.

Pollan: Well, there's certainly room in the diet for special occasion foods.

Poundstone: Did you hear me? They make life worth living. And you want me to have them one day a year? What the hell is wrong with you?

Pollan: One good way to tell if a food is a good everyday food is to count the number of ingredents. The fewer the ingredients, the closer to a whole food it is.

Poundstone: Three. Devil's food cake - one. Creamy filling - two. Chocolate shell - three.

There you have it.

Mixing It Up

2009-04-01T07:10:00.003-04:00

Loyal stinkycheesers know that most of my cooking decisions are based on two criteria: what's already in my fridge and pantry, and what's on sale. Since we hadn't had Caribbean Chicken for a while - and chicken was on sale - it was time to make some.

Two changes to the standard version (found here):

1. When I went up to Maryland and made & froze meals for my sister, she became a big fan of this recipe. When she didn't have enough left for a full entree she used it to top a green salad.

Right now that's my dinner, too, and I'm glad to have stolen the idea. I used about 1/3 of a cooked chicken breast, diced it, and it tops a salad of fresh spinach, cucumber, and navel orange slices. It's fabulous and I feel like I might one day drop that 15 pounds if I keep eating like this.

A little goat cheese, which I don't happen to have right now, would really balance out the salad well.

2. Since I forgot to pick up jalapeno peppers I had to use what I had onhand, which was a nice, plump chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. And I absolutely should've pulled the heat-throwing seeds out, but lesson learned. This is a really rich, smoky variation that I'm enjoying just as much as the original.

Happy 100th!

2009-03-31T07:57:00.003-04:00

Back when she was only 92 years old Miss Jeannette would sit in front of us in church every Sunday. Mostly blind, she has a watch that speaks aloud the time when she presses a button. And when she felt the sermon had gone on quite long enough, she'd crank up the volume, aim her watch at the preacher, and hit the button. Three or four times. And said preacher would pick up the pace and wrap it up.

A few years ago, in her late 90's, I brought a poinsettia to her house at Christmastime on behalf of the church. She graciously invited me in - she was still in the home she'd been in for 60 years - and invited me to set on the davenport with her. In the way of stately senior Southern women, she coats her words with honey.

Miss Jeannette: Now what part of town are your Mama and Daddy in?
Me: Actually, I'm from Pennsylvania.
Miss Jeannette, reassuringly: Why, honey, that's all right! The important thing is you're here now. I'm sure it's the second-nicest place to be from.
Me: It's beautiful in the Fall. I grew up near Valley Forge, so it's very historical.
MJ, patting my knee: Yes, dear, of course it is.

She's a trip. And she turns 100 this week. In her honor, a recipe for one of the Dixiest of desserts - a rich, nostalgic caramel cake. Use cake flour - it gives the cake that wonderful from-the-bakery texture and lightness. This recipe uses light brown sugar for the cake itself, and gets its richness and caramelliness from the dark brown sugar in the frosting. It works perfectly.

Happy birthday, Miss Jeannette!

CARAMEL CAKE
Cooking Light

Cake:
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon cake flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
7 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup egg substitute
2 cups cake flour (about 8 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup fat-free milk

Frosting:
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms of pans with wax paper or cooking parchment. Lightly coat wax paper with cooking spray; dust pans with 1 tablespoon flour. Set aside.

Place 1 cup light brown sugar and 7 tablespoons butter in a large mixing bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 3 minutes or until well blended. Add egg substitute to sugar mixture; beat well. Lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with 1 cup milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared pans. Sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Remove wax paper; discard. Cool cakes completely on wire rack.

To prepare frosting, combine 1/2 cup dark brown sugar and remaining ingredients in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until mixture is thick, stirring constantly.

Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread with 1/3 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.

Sweet and Sour

2009-03-14T07:51:00.004-04:00

You've been heard, stinkycheesers! It's time for a break from the chicken. Fair enough. And if y'all are willing to trust Mr. Nostinkycheese's judgment, I'll even experiement with red meat; I don't eat it myself (long story about having lived in West Africa in college), but he's an enthusiastic consumer and I'm happy to give the cooking a whirl. You're on your own for shellfish, though - my commitment to Nostinkycheese ends where my allergies begin. Love ya anyway.

Last week's grouper recipe was a keeper. SO good. So let's keep with the fish theme for a little bit - salmon is super easy to find and incredibly versatile. Oh, and it's pretty, which is always a plus.

Speaking of versatility, this recipe also works extremely well with tuna steaks. Also pretty. Kind of the same color as the ruby grapefruit I'm doing battle with right this very second. No wonder grapefruit is a diet food - out of a half-pound fruit you can only get an ounce of sustenance out of the damn thing and wear the rest.

Moving on....

I don't usually order anything sweet & sour in restaurants, because they seem to forget about the sour. One of the very few times I've sent food back was when there were actual sugar crystals on my sweet & sour chicken. EEEEWWWW.

This 2004 Cooking Light recipe is one of the few I haven't embellished in any way - but of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't. And if you want to report back your results, so much the better!

For some reason I'm compelled to always serve fish with rice. Personally, I'd serve this with plain rice and not last week's Rice/Baby Bok Choy salad - I'd let this sauce stand on its own without competition. Steamed broccoli is fabulous on the side. So is asparagus.

If you have a Costco nearby that's almost certainly your best deal on salmon (unless, of course, you have a salmon stream nearby). We're a two-person household so we just split up the big Costco sizes into two-person servings and freeze. There's controversy about farmed salmon vs. wild caught (I guess they don't call fish "free range", do they?). I'm not entering the debate, just saying that wild caught will be more expensive and usually tastier, but I eat farmed salmon all the time. Dang, food has gotten political.

Salmon with Sweet-and-Sour Pan Sauce
Cooking Light

1 TBSP vegetable oil (or canola oil)
1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth (have you seen the small juice-size boxes of chicken broth? FANTASTIC for these small uses)
2 TBSP brown sugar
2 TBSP fresh lime juice (bottled is fine)
1 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce
1 TBSP fish sauce - available in the Asian foods section of your supermarket
2 garlic cloves, minced - don't use dried garlic, it will taste metallic
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, about 1 inch thick
salt & pepper

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over low heat.

2. Combine broth, brown sugar, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, and garlic in a small dish. Whisk to combine (use a fork if you don't want to dirty a whisk), and set aside.

3. Increase heat to medium-high, and heat 3 minutes.

4. While pan heats, sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Add fillets to pan, cook 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. With both salmon and tuna the color will change - it will become more opaque and less red.

5. Drain fat from fan and discard fat. Add broth mixture to pan, scraping to loosen browned bits (note - you only get browned bits when you cook with a stainless steel pan. If you use nonstick you'll have "stuff" on the pan, but not the cook-treasured browned bits. Still tastes good.).

Bring to a boil, cook 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Serve sauce over fish.

Fishing For Compliments

2009-03-08T19:35:00.004-04:00

I feel amazing. Spring has awakened the outside, bringing color and joy and energy and daffodils. My weekend started early with a fun coffee night with a girlfriend, and moved on to ditching the gym in favor of power walks through the park, getting through the to-do list, and wrapping it all up with a manicure. Life is GOOD.

And did we eat well last night! Craving fish, I tried a recipe from the March issue of Cooking Light (in which I've flagged at least 5 other recipes to try). Sometimes people tell you that dinner is wonderful. Other times, like last night, your dining companion simply focuses on eating and gettng extra helpings and making the occasional yummy-noise. And that's every bit as much of an "I love this" as actually saying the words.

Since I also made the recommended side dish of rice with baby bok choy and a light dressing, it's probably more of a weekend recipe here than one I can pull off during the week. And yes, I'm challenging CL's assertion that this is a 30-minute recipe. No matter, it's in The Binder and will be made again.

The big substitution I made was to get grouper instead of halibut. A quick word about that - I can squeeze the copper off a penny. Regular readers of nostinkycheese know that. But cheap fish, as a rule, sucks. I paid about $12/pound for excellent quality fresh grouper and it was SO worth it. Just remind yourself that this entree would easily be $20/person at a restaurant, if not more, and therefore it's a STEAL. And I figure that one of the reasons we watch our food budget is so that we can have these little splurges.

For those of you environmentally focused, click here to link to the Blue Ocean Institute guide on species that are overfished.

Cooking fish can be a little intimidating. I've written up the directions a little differently than they appeared in the magazine - by mixing the sauces ahead of time, you can focus your attention completely on the fish without trying to go all octupus doing 6 things at once and having NO idea that 10 minutes has gone by, it couldn't possibly have been more than 3! Been there.

If you don't want to make the rice/bok choy, plain rice will work fine. So would a bed of spinach with a little sesame oil, or a plain steamed broccoli/carrot combo.

Halibut (or Grouper) with Coconut-Red Curry Sauce
Cooking Light

2 teaspoons canola oil, divided (or vegetable oil)
4 (6-ounce) halibut or grouper filets
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green onion (a nice addition, but not essential in my opinion)
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger. Yes, fresh.
1 cup light coconut milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce (soy sauce will also work, but not be as rich/authentic)
3/4 teaspoon red curry paste
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice (bottled is fine)

Rice/Baby Bok Choy Salad
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup basmati rice
2 cups chopped baby bok choy
1 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1. Chop the onion, green onion, and ginger. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl or larger measuring cup, combine the light coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, red curry paste, and coriander. Stir until mixed. Set aside.
3. If making rice, chop the bok choy and set aside. In a small cup or bowl mix the soy sauce, lime juice, sugar and dark sesame oil - set aside.

At this point you can keep going or take a breather for a few hours if you have something else to do. If possible, let your fish sit at room temperature for 20 minutes or so before cooking.

4. Combine water and basmati rice in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 12 minutes (or, if you're like me, you just follow your rice cooker directions)
5. Stir in chopped baby bok choy; cover and cook 8 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Set aside.

6. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish to pan; cook 5 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. I find the fish cooks more evenly if I put a lid on the skillet to trap the steam.

7. Remove fish from pan. I just put some on each dinner plate.

8. Add remaining 1 teaspoon oil to pan. Add onion, green onions, and ginger - saute 2 minutes.

9. Stir in the coconut milk/curry mixture that you have wisely already measured and assembled. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in basil and juice.

10. Add soy sauce/lime dressing to rice/bok choy dish and toss.

Seriously - yummynoises abounded. Enjoy!

My Name Is Stephanie, And I Shamelessly Eat Carbs

2009-03-05T18:43:00.003-05:00

And peanut butter. Such a rebel!

Seriously, all I've had today is carbs. Cereal (with milk & blueberries) for breakfast, and a nibble of pasta around lunchtime (never got to eat my lunch today). And since I needed comfort food earlier in the week, I had some Butternut Squash Souffle in the fridge that I just heated up for a dinner of sorts - carby, but it's a vegetable. I'll shortly break the trend by meeting a friend out for caffeine and/or alcohol. Maybe a salad if I'm feeling virtuous, who knows?

I'm loving this stuff. It's not the lightest dish in the world, but it's both sweet and savory, and soft on my sore throat. Really, I'm trying to increase my vegetetable repertoire over the next few months and will share the successes with y'all. I suppose I could share the failures, but that never made sense to me - "this sucks, and here's how you can make it in your own home." ???

From Southern Living:

Butternut Squash Souffle
1 large butternut squash (about 2 lb.)
3 large eggs
1/2 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage* (I used dried)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Remove stem from squash. Cut squash lengthwise into 4 pieces; remove and discard seeds. Cook squash in boiling water to cover in a large saucepan over medium-high heat 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well; let cool for 25 minutes or until completely cool. Remove and discard peel. It was much easier to spoon out the flesh than to use a knife.

2. Process squash and eggs in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. [Note: I don't have a food processor - my hand mixer worked fine] Add sour cream and remaining ingredients; process 20 to 30 seconds or until smooth. Pour mixture into a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish.

3. Bake at 350° for 55 to 60 minutes or until set.

*1 tsp. ground sage may be substituted.

The Cabinet That Physics Forgot

2009-02-26T19:21:00.008-05:00

There's really no other explanation for it. I don't see how all the stuff I squished into that cabinet stayed there without raining (too much) on me every time I opened the door.

Then, when I visited my sister in the Fall, I was making dinner and asked where she kept her Crockpot. "In the garage, where else?" she laughed. And sure enough, her don't-use-it-everyday stuff was neatly stacked in a cabinet in the garage - accessible, but not in the way of the used-regularly skillet and casserole dish. BRILLIANT.

This is short because, y'all, it has Been A Week. Work. Funeral (far, far too young). A cold that won't go away. You know how it is.

So in a nutshell, here's the 3-weeks-or-so process it took to streamline my kitchen so that I can fly through dinner prep. Undoubtedly someone could knock this out in a day or two if they had a lot of time to focus on it, but the 3-week process worked just fine for me.

1. I cleared a shelf in the basement and relocated some rarely-used, but necessary, items from the kitchen to nicely labelled storage boxes downstairs. Specifically - my canning equipment, roasting pan, deviled egg plate, cupcake tin, chip & dip plate, big wooden salad bowl, and a specialty cake pan or two. Key - if it has dust on it, you probably don't use it enough to justify the kitchen real estate.

And there's really no go-to list for this. I have two Dutch ovens and truly use both of them a lot. Not everyone does.

2. Sometimes more is more. If you are washing something multiple times midpoint through a recipe, perhaps you need more than one. My baking goes faster now that we have two good sets of measuring cups and two sets of measuring spoons.

3. Sometimes less is more. If you have 3 soup ladles, and you never make 3 kinds of soup at the same time, keep your favorite and let the rest go.

4. Repurpose. When I moved all the canning equipment to the basement Sweetie went nuts trying to find the funnel. It turns out the widemouth funnel I use for canning was also the perfect size to funnel coffee beans into the grinder. Since it had a regular use I didn't know about, we brought it back upstairs.

5. Bins! Plastic or vinyl-coated wire bins! Fabulous, and cheap! I have a long, narrow cabinet next to the stove and keep grains/rice/pasta in there. And OY, what a pain to have to pull everything out piece by piece (some of it falling of its own accord) to get to what I needed or even see what I had.

What took me so long to figure out that putting the different kinds of rice, biryani packets, box of cous cous, etc. in one of these $5 babies would make such a difference?

And when I had a side-by-side fridge, this (probably $10) was a LIFESAVER - it was sooooo much easier to pull the basket out of the freezer and sort through it on the counter than to remain crouched and frozen, pulling one item out at a time and hoping it would all fit back on the shelf when I was done... We've since sold the old refrigerator but I kept the basket for the new freezer.

Note - write down the measurements of your cabinet/shelf/freezer before you go. A bin 10 inches wide is no help for an 8-inch-wide cabinet.

6. What's it really worth? I am fortunate to come from a family of excellent cooks. And my roasting pan and some other equipment previously belonged to one grandmother or another.

And you know what? To them, it was just kitchen stuff. Not heirlooms, not the souls of their being, not a key piece of their identity. I nearly had a breakdown when I was trying to make some room in the kitchen and couldn't come up with any reason to keep the old handled eggbeater except it was Grandma's. Mind you, I had never used the eggbeater in the 8 - 10 years it had been in my possession.

Realistically - did my grandmother ever gaze fondly at her eggbeater, or vegetable peeler, or Pyrex pie plate (which, actually, I have and use) - and wonder who would care for these treasures when she was gone? Not my practical Grandma, I'm certain. Her heirloom china is beautifully displayed in our china cabinet, but the eggbeater has gone on to grace a stranger's kitchen. Ultimately, she would not want me to live my life surrounded by stuff that gets in my way and keeps me from doing what I want to do. For all I know, she hated that eggbeater and always meant to replace it.

More recipes coming soon!

I Need Maple Syrup, Not This Pomegrante-Infused Pancake Topping With Vanilla Essence

2009-02-19T17:28:00.008-05:00

Sweetie and I frequently have about 15 minutes to sit down and eat together during the week, and sometimes the only reason we even have that is because we decide we'd rather eat together at 8:30 than separately when real people eat dinner. And by "eat dinner", I sometimes mean "slap a piece of turkey between two pieces of mustard-slathered bread and say a blessing over it."

And I have yet to meet any real-life June Cleaver who makes a meat & three from scratch every.single.day. I have and use an apron, but that's really where the commonalities end. Most of us on most days are just doing the best we can!

There are ways, though, to streamline this process so that, with catlike agility, you can whip through your kitchen and break your "Nothin' to Somethin'" personal best time for getting food on the table. Make that getting food on plates on the table.

The first step (we'll do two or three more) is this: get a garbage bag. One pantry/drawer/cabinet/whatever at a time, pull out ALL the food and check the expiration dates.

Much like 12-steppers need to get deeply, painfully honest with themselves (OK, maybe not quite that intense... for some people) it's time to shine the flashlight on yourself and ask The Hard Questions. Namely, this expired when??? and why the hell is it still in my possession, shouldn't it have run away on its own by now?

I thought I was pretty familiar with the stuff in my cabinets. And I was, because some of it and I had quite a long time to get to know one another. I mean the bulgur wheat that was packaged in 200... this hurts.... 2006. Fare thee well. The shiitake mushroom broth that sounded so cool and I never had any idea what to do with it (keep your ideas to yourself, I've Hefty'd the dream). The blanched almonds that made a perfect snack that one time with the dried cherries (also still on the spinaround).

And now that it's all gone, I can - dare I say it? - find the salt. And the peppercorns and the canned tomatoes and the jelly. So when I race in the door and leash up the dogs and run back home to start dinner, I don't waste time anymore plowing through the useless and expired and the highly specialized in order to get to the Jiffy cornbread mix. It's right there.

Next time - What To Do With Aunt Louise's Tupperware Circa 1974

Judgey McJudgerson, Table of One

2009-02-14T17:15:00.003-05:00

So here's how it went down.

Earlier this week Sweetie gave me the wonderful gift of taking care of the dogs after work, which allowed me to go straight from the train station to the gym. This is key, because more often than I like, going home = staying home, regardless of my intentions. I survived the ass-kicking Fat Burner program on the stair stepper, did my weights, and a little more cardio.

As I was leaving I was accosted by a salesperson by the front desk. "You're not really going to go home and cook, are you?" she said. Uh, yes. I'm hungry.

"It takes so long," she said. "You can eat really well without having to do so much work."

She was selling pre-packaged, healthy meals. I told her the sample smelled great, but I really do cook and chop actual vegetables. Long story short, she has met judgey People Who Cook before. She waited for me to tell her that the devil himself lives in freezable trays, that the American way of life depends on boiling your own pasta, and that Big Food could not be allowed to win the hearts and minds of Atlanta families.

Meh.

Broccoli is broccoli is broccoli. And whether you chop it with your own knife or some machine cuts it and seals it in a baggie, it's still 1,000 times healthier for you than French fries. And if someone is depending on pre-packaged food because she works full-time and goes to school part-time and tries to spend her remaining time with her kids, what's with the judgey?

For the record, she made me curious about how much time I spend chopping vegetables. I decided to have Kitchen Sink Pasta for dinner (whatever pasta-friendly veggies I have in the fridge, pasta, and a smidge of cheese on top). To hack up one dinner's worth of yellow crookneck squash, tomato, red pepper, and broccoli took 4 minutes. That includes the time peeling and squooshing the garlic clove... for whatever that's worth.

And in fact, I'm kinda being one of those could-be-slackers right now. I've been sick for 3 days - out of the past 48 hours, I think I've slept for 40. I had planned to make a Red Velvet Cake for our Valentine's Day dessert - it was our wedding cake. But then the whole sleeping thing and, well, no cake. So then I was going to run out to Whole Foods and buy a few slices, and even that is beyond me at the moment. I love to cook and truly see value beyond price and nutrition in preparing my own meals, but the last thing I'm going to do is get all cookier-than-thou about someone who's too sick, too tired, too bad of a cook to do it all from scratch everyday. Isn't life too short?

So in honor of my Valentine I am pulling it together long enough to get one of his favorite meals on the table - Chicken Parmesan. In this case it would actually be more work for me to drive to the store and buy a jar of prepared spaghetti sauce than to use what's onhand at home. I smooshed two cloves of garlic into a little olive oil, opened a can of San Marzano tomatoes, and pulled a dollop or two of tomato paste* out of the freezer. Then I sat down and waited for the Magic of Heat to turn it into sauce. When it's cooked down a little I'll add some oregano and basil. Done.

I line this up assembly-line style on the counter - chicken on the left, then a dish with the beaten egg, then a dish with the bread crumbs, then the skillet.

The breadcrumbs, by the way, are from the Honey-Oat Bread I made a few weeks ago. Making homemade bread is WAY too much work to just toss the bread when I was tired of it, so not wanting to waste all that effort I sliced it, dried it in the oven, and ran it through the blender to make breadcrumbs, which I keep in the freezer. And there's nothing in the world like real breadcrumbs to inexpensively bring the dish up to the next level.

*I never, ever use a full can of tomato paste for anything. Get out some waxed paper, put 1-tablespoon-sized dollops of paste on the paper, and freeze. The next time you need tomato paste just get whatever you need out of the freezer.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chicken Parmesan
Healthy Chicken - Barbara Chernetz

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 large egg
1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumb
2 cups spaghetti or pasta sauce
4 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, sliced (or shredded, it doesn't matter)
1 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese (if you can, do real Parmesan and not the green can)

1. Place each piece of chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap. Pound gently to flatten each piece to an even 1/4-inch thickness. (Note - I used what I had onhand, which was chicken tenders).

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a shallow bowl, beat the egg with 1 TBSP water. Place the breadcrumbs on a flat plate.

3. Dip each chicken piece into the egg mixture, then in the bread crumbs to coat.

4. Coat a large nonstick skillet with vegetable cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning once, until browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

5. Spread 1 cup of the spaghetti sauce over the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan (I just use whatever baking dish is handy). Place the chicken on the sauce, then top with the mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top. Bake until the dish is hot and bubbly and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.

Cake - It's Not Just For Breakfast Anymore

2009-02-04T08:54:00.005-05:00

As Bill Cosby said, "My kids wanted chocolate cake for breakfast. And I thought, well, it has wheat, eggs, and milk. That's breakfast!"

A wise man, that Cosby.

There has been one and only one time that I picked up a cooking magazine in a grocery store and immediately flipped to the recipe and bought the ingredients I needed. Cooking Light's Blueberry Poundcake looked so fresh, so yummy-all-day, so perfect on the cover that I just had to make it as soon as I got home. Trust me, even for someone as cooking-obsessed as me, that's a rare moment.

The cake lived up to its promise and has become something of my signature recipe. I've brought this cake on vacation to Tybee Island, to office meetings, to a baby shower brunch, for a birthday gift, to Sunday School, you name it. Looking at that list, I hadn't realized it's quite the travelling companion. It's also a happy coincidence that my father-in-law adores blueberries, so I make this for his birthday every year. I mean, how lucky is it that my go-to recipe happens to feature his favorite food??

When this recipe was published in 1998 it was fairly easy to find 8-ounce containers of lemon yogurt. At least in my neck of the woods, that's no longer the case. You can safely substitute vanilla yogurt or boldly substitute peach yogurt (not the fruit-on-the-bottom kind). Frozen blueberries work beautifully in this cake - and amen for that, because fresh berries get ridiculously pricey. I also love that this recipe uses eggs and not "egg product." Eggs I'm familiar with and always have in the house... egg product, not so much.

Enjoy!

BLUEBERRY POUND CAKE
Cooking Light

2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light butter
1/2 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened - this is usually labeled "Neufachtel"
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8-ounce) carton lemon low-fat yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice

About an hour before making the cake, take the 1/2 block of cream cheese, yogurt, and the butter out of the fridge to let them warm to room temperature. They'll incorporate into the batter much better that way.

While you're at it, if you're using frozen berries pour them into a colander so that they can thaw and drain. REMEMBER THAT BLUEBERRIES STAIN. If you have a white enamel sink try putting the colander in a metal bowl to catch the juice.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat first sugar, butter, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes).

Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 2 tablespoons flour and blueberries in a small bowl, and toss well. [Note: dusting the blueberries with flour helps them disperse through the cake. If you skip this step the blueberries will all sink to the bottom]

Combine remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Fold in blueberry mixture and vanilla; pour cake batter into a 10-inch tube pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl; drizzle over warm cake. [Note: I consider this optional. I'm sure it's terrific, I've just never bothered with it]

Cut with a serrated knife.

"I want the burger, but I want it without the bun and with organic lettuce and hold the onions, unless they're grilled..."

2009-02-01T19:07:00.004-05:00

ONE. You may make ONE restaurant menu substitution without risk of spit in your food.

And at home, you can do whatever the heck you want. I make a pretty big substitution - beef instead of chicken or turkey - routinely, since Sweetie eats red meat and I don't. So sometimes we have one skillet with ground taco turkey meat and another with ground bison taco meat, and so on.

This substitution was super-easy. While taking the train to work last week, I was sitting next to the Unabomber (seats were sparse) and reading the current Better Homes and Gardens. This recipe jumped out at me, even with the dreaded stinky cheese. But waitress? Um, me? Serve stinky bleu cheese on one, and feta on the other, and we're home free. While I'm not a huge fan of pears, I don't mind them and they work in this recipe. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this comes together quickly enough for a weeknight.

TURKEY CUTLETS WITH SPINACH, PEARS, AND BLEU OR THE MUCH-BETTA FETA CHEESE

Better Homes and Gardens, February 2009

2 turkey breast tenderloins (1 to 1.25 pounds)
1 tsp dried sage
Salt and pepper
2 TBSP butter
1 6-ounce package fresh baby spinach
1 large pear, cored and thinly sliced
1/4 cup crumbled nasty stinky bleu cheese, OR feta cheese (that's kind of a lot - you can probably get by with less)

1. Horizontally split tenderloins to make 4 1/2-inch-thick steaks. Rub turkey with sage; sprinkle with salt and pepper (note: I sprinkled my turkey with sage and it was fine. I'm always washing - boiling, really - my hands a dozen times when I work with raw poultry and I needed to save a washing by doing the sprinkle).

2. In an extra-large skillet cook steaks in 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat 14 to 16 minutes, or until no longer pink (170 degrees), turning once. Reduce heat to medium if turkey browns too quickly).

3. Remove from skillet. Add spinach to skillet. Cook and stir until just wilted.

4. Meanwhile, in a small skillet, cook pear slices in remaining 1 TBSP butter over medium to edium-high heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until tender and lightly browned.

5. Serve steaks with spinach and pears. Top with cheese.

It Depends How Thinky You Want To Be

2009-01-25T09:05:00.001-05:00

One night my oldest niece, Cutie, was putting together her outfit for school the next day. Having reached her 6-year-old limit with accessorizing, she said "Oh, it's pretty enough. Let's play."

That's how I'm feeling right now about food - oh, it's complicated enough. Let's eat.

This week I finished Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" about her family's year of living almost entirely off the food from their farm and farms near theirs. Think about that for a minute.... greens and apples and corn are good, good food. But do bananas grow in your neighborhood? How about coffee trees? Pineapple? Cranberries? Green tea? Cinnamon?

I totally understand her point - she wants to minimize her carbon footprint. She doesn't want to fly grapes in from Ecuador when she has perfectly good apples in her backyard. She wants to support local farmers and humane farming instead of corporate agribusiness. She wants to strengthen her family by sharing the responsibility and the spirituality of the whole process. Makes sense.

Feeling rather smug about having vegetables for breakfast this morning - an omlette with red pepper, spinach, and feta cheese - I took a gander at the provenance of what I was eating. The eggs were distributed from Ohio (possibly also the home of the chickens, but not sure), the red pepper was from Mexico, the spinach was from California and the feta cheese came from Wisconsin.

Hmmm.

Healthful breakfast? You bet - all organic, two egg whites and one yolk, not too much cheese, etc. But local? Not by a long shot. They didn't even carpool.

Lunch was a slice of my favorite Mellow Mushroom pizza (spinach & mushroom). For dinner I made Thai Chicken - "product of Thailand" was seriously on everything, not unexpectedly.

The book is about more than the connection beteween food production and environment, though. It's about family and community connectedness - knowing your neighbors well enough to share growing tips and harvest abundance. Being deeply involved in the fuel you put in your body that powers your movement and your thoughts and your senses. Allowing every member of the household to point to something on the dinner table with some pride and ownership, knowing they grew and/or prepared it.

When I told Sweetie that two of my friends who also read the book have since started making cheese, he thought for a moment and said, "Wow. That must be a powerfully written book." It is, and it's a good read.

In my case, it honestly isn't going to bring about a sea change in our kitchen or our back yard. We already eat at home, we both cook, and I have spent too much time acquiring a recipe collection to throw 80% of it out because it depends on imported ingredients. Particularly since my Italian heritage requires foods that don't necessarily grow or swim here in Georgia. Our 1/10 acre isn't likely to yield more than a little summer produce and give us a reason to get outdoors more. But I did buy some vegetable seeds yesterday, and I so enjoyed my basil plant last year that I plan to grow some more fresh herbs this summer.

And while Kingsolver didn't go into this part, there's another, delayed benefit to family cooking. When I was growing up my mother was an ER nurse on the 11pm to 7am shift. In the winter, she would often come home in the morning and make me half a broiled grapefruit (a delicacy many of my Southern friends have never heard of). Think about it - she could've handled the aftermath of a serious car accident, worked on a patient having a heart attack, treated an abused child brought in by the police - she had to have been exhausted. Yet in the cold, still-dark morning she would make me this breakfast to be sure I had something warm and healthful before going to school. And if that's not love, I don't know what is. Right now - at 9:04 AM on Sunday, January 25 2009 - 30 years or more after the days when she did this as a matter of course - I'm enjoying a broiled grapefruit from my own kitchen, and feeling loved and connected.

It lasts long, long after the meal is over. That's why it matters.

Broiled Grapefruit
One grapefruit, cut in half
1 TBSP brown sugar per half

Move oven rack up to the top of the oven.

Place grapefruit half (or halves) in a pie plate, or other dish that has sides. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Broil for 3 minutes or until white pith of the shell begins to brown.

Enjoy a warm, syrupy piece of citrus.

PSA - Thigh Jab

2009-01-21T09:01:00.004-05:00

With all the peanut talk in the news, and knowing so many folks are allergic, this is your twice-yearly reminder to fellow Epi-pen carriers to check the expiration date and replace if necessary!

Nurse Amy would like me to remind you that using an Epi-pen buys you time to get to the ER - you have to go, by ambulance, if you use your pen after exposure to the allergen. As she says, go ahead and skip the ambulance if you have shock paddles and oxygen in your car - otherwise, let the pros handle it.

This has been your public service minute. Carry on.

The "Freezing My Ass Off" Edition

2009-01-17T21:19:00.005-05:00

Times when "Eleven" is a good number: million dollars won in the lottery, number of seconds shaved off your time for running a mile, percentage of your current salary that is your raise.

When "Eleven" is a bad number: when it's the full count of degrees outside. In Atlanta. WHERE I LIVE. Where I moved to escape the frozen wintry tundra of my native Pennsylvania (the same PA where my ancestors sucked it up and dealt with the weather for 350 years). And more power to them, I say.

It's crazy-cold. And when you have dogs you can't just sit in the house with warm cocoa and shake your head sympathetically at the folks forced outdoors. Oh, no. You bundle up, leash the dogs, and drag their ungrateful butts outside as punishment for not learning to use modern indoor facilities. Then there's the paw-wiping, the fur-drying... it's a good thing they're so stinkin' cute.

Anyway.

A few years ago Atlanta had a rare snowfall with bitter, bitter cold. And nothing warms (and stays warm) like a good soup. Black beans are a relatively new arrival at my dinner table; didn't grow up with them, was rather suspect of them. But wonderful recipe reviews prompted me to give this soup a whirl, and thank goodness I did.

This recipe was the first, and maybe only, time that Sweetie called me the following afternoon with a request for leftovers for dinner that night. No need to cook, he said, we've got that wonderful soup. If that's not a ringing endorsement I don't know what is.

Best of all, it freezes beautifully! I usually double the recipe and freeze it in quart-size freezer bags. If you're short a can of beans, try adding corn after you've done the puree. The taste is terrific, but pureeing the yellow corn with the black beans just doesn't look so hot.

I like to serve this with Jiffy cornbread. For as much as I usually love to serve soup with salad, this soup is so vegetable-intensive I don't feel the need. It's high in fiber and black beans are a super source of iron. Iron is best absorbed when consumed with vitamin C, and that's where the tomatoes come in. Not familiar with chipotle chiles? They're easily found in the Hispanic foods aisle of your local supermarket, and they keep forever in the fridge.

Enjoy!

SMOKY BLACK BEAN SOUP

2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
Cooking spray
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
3/4 cup thinly sliced celery (totally optional)
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder (note: before I get started I measure all of the dried spices into a small cup. They all get added to the soup at the same time.)
2 bay leaves
2 cups water (less if you like a thicker soup)
3 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained (for some reason there is a HUGE variance in the amount of sodium in different brands of canned black beans. I've found the Kroger organic black beans to have the lowest sodium content without breaking the bank)
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans vegetable broth or chicken broth - again, watch the sodium
2 (14.5-ounce) cans no-salt-added plum tomatoes, undrained and chopped (I like the fire-roasted Muir Glen tomatoes)

Optional
1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt or sour cream (this tames the heat)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I've never used it, but I can see how it fits the theme)
8 lime wedges (oh, definitely! Just use bottled lime juice if fresh limes are pricey)

Remove 2 chiles from can; reserve remaining chiles and sauce for another use. Finely chop chiles. If you want to reduce the heat, scrape out the seeds and throw them away.

Heat a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, and garlic; sauté 8 minutes or until onion and carrot are tender. Stir in chiles, cumin, basil, oregano, chili powder, and bay leaves; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in water, beans, broth, and tomatoes; bring to a boil.

Partially cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat; discard bay leaves.

The recipe says to "Place 3 cups of soup mixture in a blender. Let stand 5 minutes; process until smooth. Return pureed mixture to pan, stirring to combine." What a MESS. A few whirls with a stick/immersion blender is much, much easier.

Ladle 1 1/4 cups soup into each of 8 bowls; top each serving with 1 tablespoon yogurt and 1 1/2 teaspoons cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

Resolved: Bread

2009-01-10T19:52:00.014-05:00

From the sheer volume of bread-baking articles in this month's cooking magazines, it seems a lot of people desperately want to squish some dough between their fingers and marvel at the miracle of yeast, water, and flour. Or make use of the bread machine that so many folks got a few years ago that are currently filling the shelves at our local Goodwill.

I have no such resolution. Believe me, I'm in no way immune to the wonderfulness of homemade bread. I've just never had much luck or skill with it.

Resolved - I found a better bread recipe. This honey-oat bread is just terrific. Is it cheaper than buying bread? Probably not, or not by much, unless you're buying $6 boutique loaves with organic flours hand-milled by fifth-generation waterstone operators. Actually, that would be a steal for $6.

Making homemade bread is really about the experience and the incomparable bread that results. It's about getting your hands in the dough and literally shaping your daily bread. It's about the warm, yeasty smell that fills the house. And of course it's about a pat of butter and a little jam.

[Oh, and an aside about the daily bread business. Last week I was at the supermarket with the "daily bread" reusable shopping bag our church sent out. Someone in line behind me harrumphed, "A church?? Being environmental?" I didn't ask her what her problem was, but seriously - what is her problem?]

As usual, I took a few necessary liberties with the recipe. It turns out I don't have two loaf pans (me???), so I made one loaf of bread and one pan of rolls. The rolls were finished after about 30 minutes, and I used billiard-ball size pieces of dough.

Also a quick clarification on the oats. "Quick-cooking oats", and nothing else, are what's needed. You will not make the recipe more healthful by using steel-rolled oats; you'll make it gravelly. Using "old-fashioned" oats won't work, either. The quick-cooking oats dissolve into the water and honey like a very thin oatmeal, and it's imperative to use them for the texture of the bread.

HONEY OAT BREAD

Servings: Makes 2 small loaves.

1 3/4 cups warm water (105°F to 110°F) - use a meat thermometer. If the water is too hot to touch, it's too hot
1 tablespoon dry yeast - this is about 1 1/2 packets of yeast
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup honey - spray the measuring cup with non-stick spray for easier cleanup
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoons salt (table salt, not kosher salt)
5 cups (about) all purpose flour

1 large egg, beaten to blend
Additional quick-cooking oats

Stir 1/4 cup warm water and yeast in large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes to dissolve yeast. If you see a few bubbles, it's working.

Stir in remaining 1 1/2 cups water, 3/4 cup oats, honey, oil, and salt. Stir in enough flour to form soft dough. Coat another large bowl with oil. Transfer dough to oiled bowl and turn to coat. A "soft dough" will stick to your hands a little, but it won't stick in globs.

Cover with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. After 20 minutes or so the plastic wrap will look a little foggy - that's totally normal, it's the gases created by the dough rising. Here's what the dough looks like after an hour or so:

Oil two 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2-inch loaf pans [oil them very well - the only problem I had was getting the bread out of the pan, due to too little oil]. Punch down dough; shape into 2 loaves. Place 1 loaf in each pan. Cover and let rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.

Here are the rolls in their raw state:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush tops of loaves with egg; sprinkle with additional oats. Bake until brown on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool completely. (Can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

Makes 2 small loaves, or two pans of rolls.

Less Is More

2009-01-04T18:22:00.005-05:00

It's never really been my style, but for the past two weeks I've been ruthlessly de-cluttering. Books? That's what libraries are for - two boxes went to Goodwill. Rarely-used serving dishes? Banished to the basement. Dogs? Well, they can stay but no shedding, guys. I mean it. And on top of all that I found my labelmaker and, well, pairing a decluttering urge with a snazzy little labelmaker has made the basement (part of it, anyway) look like someone organized lives here. I hope she sticks around.

Obviously with all this activity - and with Sweetie out of town - a big dinner wasn't really happenin'. You know, when doing a Big Clean it always looks a lot worse before it looks better! It's what I like to call "infrastructure cleaning" - at its core, it's in better shape, it's just not obvious yet through the messs I made while getting to the stuff to be thrown out. Right? Right??? Atlanta has been plenty dreary and foggy and rainy this weekend - in other words, good soup weather.

Periodically I'm swiveling in my seat to look at my sparkling-clean kitchen counter. Pathetic.

One of the best things about chicken soup is its versatility. It can be a thin, light, fresh soup before a main course; a comforting slurpable when under the weather; an elegant cream dish; or a robust, hearty main course. I went the main course route this evening.

This recipe is mostly hands-off, but because of the 50 minutes required to roast the vegetables and the additional hour of cooking time, you can't do an impromptu soup-making with this recipe. But for today, when I was home most of the day but too busy to stand over the stove, it was perfect. The carmelized vegetables give a lovely depth and sweetness to the soup. Fresh rosemary is essential - dried just won't cut it in this.

You may notice that there is minimal seasoning - just garlic and rosemary. I had my doubts about that because I love lots of herbs, but the soup was terrific. I added a little salt and pepper, but that's it.

If you're planning to have leftovers (this will be my lunch tomorrow), keep a little broth on hand. The pasta soaks up broth like nobody's business.

Roasted Vegetable-Rosemary Chicken Soup
Cooking Light

8 servings (serving size: about 1 cup

1 cup (1-inch) cubed carrot
1 cup (1-inch) cubed onion (I don't know what "cubed onion" is. Just chop it.)
1 cup coarsely chopped mushrooms (too thin, and they'll burn)
1 cup (1-inch) pieces celery (I didn't include it - cooked celery creeps me out)
1 cup (1-inch) pieces red bell pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil (use vegetable oil if that's what you have)
1 cup water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups uncooked whole wheat rotini pasta (I used orzo, the tiny rice-looking pasta, instead)

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; drizzle with oil, and toss well to coat. Arrange vegetable mixture in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan lined with foil. Bake at 375° for 50 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally.

At this point, if you need to put the brakes on the recipe go ahead - you can roast the vegetables in the morning and put the soup together in the evening if that's more convenient for you.

Combine water, rosemary, salt, garlic, broth, and chicken in a large Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes. Add roasted vegetables; simmer 30 minutes. Bring soup to a boil. Add pasta; simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

What 2008 Brought

2008-12-28T09:00:00.003-05:00

Best Recipe of the Year - Caribbean Chicken. We make this a LOT - the flavor is incredible, and really - it's just a marinade and not some crazy technique that requires $150 in new equipment for one recipe. It doesn't even require exotic ingredients. We sometimes do the whole deboned chicken thing, but often enough we just marinate chicken breasts and thighs and call it a day.

Best Dessert Recipe of the Year - Pumpkin Cake. Insanely popular everywhere I take it. It also makes excellent cupcakes.

Most Surprising Cost Savings - the new fridge, which cut our power bill and our food bill. It was a steal itself - $275 used vs. $800 - $1000 new, and much more energy-efficient than our 18-year-old icebox. And now that leftovers aren't buried deep in the old narrow fridge, we are much, much better about using things up and not having awful little surprises when we go looking for the mustard.

A slight downer is that I feel pretty un-hip for being this excited about a kitchen appliance.

Worst Recipe of the Year - when you try a bunch of recipes you inevitably end up with some stinkers. And hands down, the worst of the worst was a miso-bean thread salad from Vegetarian Times. Instead of being a wonderful, flavorful cold Asian noodle salad, it was a weird, otherworldy kind of mousse salt lick with veins of noodles running through it. The hell??? Great for Halloween as a visual, but clearly a Gitmo device culinarily.

Best New Gadget - I can't believe this, but, um, I don't have one. Just to be sure, I went through my kitchen and opened all the drawers and cabinets and, yup, nothing new. Apparently this fiscal management/decluttering thing has taken hold more than I realized. I've bought good standard equipment through the years - insulated cookie sheets, a Microplane zester, digital thermometer, standing Kitchen Aid mixer, good wooden spoons (a cheap one broke on me), Calphalon grill pan, etc. - and everything is in working order. I really didn't see that coming.

Best New Resource - Youtube. That's how Sweetie learned to debone a whole chicken - the written instructions paled in comparison to watching a video of how it's done.

Best Old Resource - the library, with which I've reacquainted myself over the past few months. Realistically, I only ever make a handful of recipes out of any one cookbook. It just doesn't make sense to put the money and the shelf space into them anymore.

Favorite Food Sites - what, Nostinkycheese ain't enough?? I'm partial to:

http://www.thecasualkitchen.blogspot.com/

http://www.cookinglight.com/,

http://www.worldshealthiestfoods.com/ - not a huge fan of their recipes, but it's a great nutrition resource

Wise Bread, a living-on-less website, has some terrific recipes and ideas in the food and drink section - http://www.wisebread.com/topic/frugal-living/food-and-drink

http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ is one of my very favorite, reliable sources for a laugh

Best Reason to Try New Vegetables - you might otherwise, inadvertently, name your child after one. Someone yelling "Kale! KALE!!" in the airport was not looking for a leafy green, but their kid. I hope to God they just didn't know... I mean, how low are your expectations for someone when you name them after a vegetable??? The worst part was that the parents clearly thought the other folks in the airport were smiling at how cute their son was - and he was indeed a cutie, but Jeebus, they named the kid "Kale." What else are a bunch of Southerners going to do but smile politely?

Is the Cookie Curse lifted?

2008-12-26T15:32:00.005-05:00

Well, probably not - these are more assembled than baked.

I shipped a bunch of these up north and my Mom reports they were a hit. I don't care if she was just being nice. At this low point in my cookiemaking, I'll take it. If there's a New Year's Day party this year, I may bring these along.

Chocolate Bourbon Balls
2 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup peca halves, finely ground in food procesor
6 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces*
1/2 cup bourbon
3 Tablespoons light corn syrup
Granulated (regular white) sugar

1. Place cookie crumbs, confectioner' sugar, and ground pecans in a large bowl and stir to combine.

2. Melt the chocolate in microwave or in top of double boiler over simmering water. Stir in the bourbon and corn syrup. Add chocolate mixture to dry mixture and stir well to combine. Let sit for 30 minutes. Place some granulated sugar in a small bowl.

3. Roll mixture between your plams into 1-inch balls, then roll in sugar to coat evenly. Place balls in airtight container, separating layers with aluminum foil or waxed paper, and allow flavor to develop by sitting at room temperature at least overnight.

*Chocolate chips may not work as well as bar chocolate. Chocolate chips are formulated a little differently to better withstand high temps and keep their shape in cookies.

Getting It Right In 2009

2008-12-26T15:25:00.003-05:00

Overheard, Part Deux

2008-12-23T16:53:00.004-05:00

I spent the day at my satellite office (Panera). It's astounding how much work I can get done there since my phone isn't ringing and no one is stopping by to chat.

Throughout the morning:

a) A couple sat down next to me. College-age. She looked like a Bollywood Ann Hathaway - gorgeous. He looked like John Belushi in the Animal House years. He was saying, "Let's just stay friends and see what happens later." She looked at him like he'd lost his mind. So did the guy at the table on the other side of them.

b) The business owner a few tables away was shouting into his cell phone. I know he was a business owner because of his previously-broadcast cell phone chats. Anyway - "I don't really know how to DO Vegas, though. Like pick up chicks." Well, no surprises so far. "But a friend said you just buy a table and put a bottle of sumpin' on it and that's all it takes. So I'll try that."

c) A trio of women in various stages of pregnancy. The one furthest along received a gift bag, and the giver said, "some of the stuff is not from your registry." The recipient said, "Well, thanks. I guess. Is there a receipt?"

d) Two kids enjoying their PB&J. "But I just decided TODAY that I really NEED the Dora the Explorer sleeping bag. And I talked to Santa ALREADY so how will he KNOW that I NEED it for Ansley's sleepover?" Her brother said Santa is on Twitter - he knows because his best friend already did it.

Overheard

2008-12-23T08:10:00.003-05:00

Overheard it, loved it, thought I'd share:

"No, no, no. I'm going to enjoy the holiday - not be a vehicle for other people to enjoy their holiday."

Purrrr......

2008-12-21T18:36:00.005-05:00

I've found my zen. Yes, we saw Cutie's Christmas pageant and got to see her enjoy the gifts we got her and I went to the gym this afternoon - those are good, stress-reducing things . But more than that...

Right this second there are clean, fresh-from-the-dryer sheets on the bed, I'm in the glow of my pretty Christmas tree, and we just finished our hot Sunday Dinner (turkey-rice soup, using the last of the caramelized onion broth from Thanksgiving). The vase my grandfather gave me is brimming with snowy spider mums and scarlet hypericum. And I've snacked on yummy fruit basket clementines all weekend.

If I were my girl dog I'd hop up on the sofa and wait for someone to rub my belly. Life is good!

There are a few days left before Christmas and some things just aren't going to get done. This afternoon I picked up the new "Real Simple" magazine, and I'd rather curl up and read that than make little poundcakes or whatever. I'm so enjoying this peaceful evening.

Maybe this is what the holiday cards with the doves are trying to convey. I always assumed it was freedom from war and international conflict. But maybe it's this - warm contentment. A little oasis of "I'm happy with" in a vast sea of "I wish..."

Years ago I worked for Big Corporate and handled retail software. Christmas was insanely stressful and impossible to plan, and I used to spend the holidays with a good friend and her family. She made the most wonderful fruity hot tea at the holidays. We would have this hot tea going from post-church Christmas Eve all the way through Christmas Dinner. We were occasionally sidelined by a bottle of wine - two when we had to assemble the kids' doll houses late at night with no instructions in English. Good times.

One of my favorite Christmas memories is one of those serene oases. After Christmas Eve service and a wonderful dinner at my friend's house the baby was ready - more than ready - for her nighty-night bottle. I took her into the living room and we got snuggly on the sofa, her enjoying her bottle and me enjoying her and "It's A Wonderful Life" on the TV. After a little while the 4-year-old quietly curled up next to me. And there we sat - the baby finished and sleeping, her sister finally winding down after a few hyper waiting-for-Santa days, me decompressing after weeks of 12-hour workdays. My friend offered to put the baby in her crib. If you don't mind, I said, I'd kind of like to stay like this for a little while longer. She smiled and understood.

Merry Christmas.

Joy's Holiday Hot Tea

4 oranges
3 lemons
4 cinnamon sticks
2 cups sugar
1 cup pineapple juice
7 regular tea bags

1. Squeeze the juice from the oranges and lemons. Boil the rinds (separate from the juice) in 2 cup of water, for about 15 minutes.

2. To 3 1/2 quarts of water add 4 cinnamon sticks and 2 cups sugar - simmer 15 minutes.

3. Mix above together with juice and add 1 cup pineapple juice and 7 regular tea bags to crockpot. You can heat this on the stove first so the tea will be ready to serve more quickly.

And if you don't have a crockpot, just leave this covered on the stove top on a low setting.

Open House

2008-12-13T08:12:00.004-05:00

I love Open House. Just love it. Stop by, enjoy conversation and some nibblies, share in the holiday spirit.

Right now I'm racing around in the holiday spirit myself, so just a few QUICK nibble-recipes today for anyone who's hosting or who's bringing a dish. We took Cutie to see the famous-in-Atlanta Pink Pig last night, as we do every year. She's 7 and I figure in about two more years she'll decide she's too old, and two more years after that she'll gently break it to my husband that, really, she's too old. She's cool like that.

Just a few quick recipes - for "appletizers", as Cutie calls them - before we head off for shopping and volunteering:

Brown Sugared Turkey Bacon
We had this at a wedding at a very chi-chi country club. Apparently it's one of their most popular reception items, stacked Lincoln-log style. The good thing about it is that you can do two cookie sheets' worth at once.

1 (12-ounce) package turkey bacon (most kinds are really good - but honestly, Jennie-O turkey bacon is about the nastiest stuff ever. Just my opinion)
Vegetable cooking spray
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 tp coarsely ground pepper

1. Arrange bacon in a ingle layer in an aluminum foil-lined broiler pan (I used a cookie sheet with sides). Coat the foil with cooking spray. Sprinkle bacon evenly with brown sugar and pepper.

2. Bake at 425 degrees for 14 - 18 minutes or until done. Serve immediately.

Skewer Options
Load up your toothpicks with:
Chunks of Caribbean Chicken, pineapple, and purple onion.
Grape tomato, cubed mozzarella, a slice of pepperoni

The Mustard-Roasted Potatoes, if you get tiny potatoes, work really well on a buffet if you're serving sliced ham and/or roast beef.

This is a wonderful dip and it can be made the day beforehand and warmed up in the microwave or oven. Or, you can mix it the day beforehand, cover and store in the refrigerator, and bake just before your guests arrive. Serve with tortilla chips or small slices of pumpernickel bread.

SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (real Parmesan, not the dust in the green can)
1 large clove garlic
1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and firmly squeezed to remove moisture
1 (6 1/4-ounce) jar arinated artichoe hearts, drained
1 container (6 1/2 ounces) garlic and herb gourmet cheee spread, such as Alouette (I used the reduced-fat and it worked fine)
1/2 cup sour cream (regular or low-fat, doesn't matter)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. The recipe says to put the Parmesan cheese into a food processor with a metal blade, turn on the procesor and drop garlic through the feed tube to mince, then add the spinach, artichokes, and Alouette. There's no food processor in this house - I minced the garlic with a garlic press and blended everything with a hand-held mixer.

3. Fold in mozzarella cheese.

4. Pour mixture into a 4-cup baking dish (8" by 8") and bake until heated through, 20 - 25 minutes.

Are We Still Calling it "Freedom Toast"?

2008-12-08T19:46:00.000-05:00

Oh, the silliness...

If it weren't for holidays I wouldn't know what a hot breakfast was. To me, it's a decadent, indulgent thing to eat something for breakfast that's not poured into a to-go cup (smoothie) or doused with milk (cereal).

So when Cutie's parents offered to help me cook on Thanksgiving Day, what better way was there to thank them than by giving them a hot, delicious breakfast? I'll tell you - by giving them a hot, delicious, EASY breakfast.

This Orange-Pecan French Toast Casserole is assembled the night before, refrigerated, and popped in the oven the day you serve it. The recipe is a keeper from Cooking Light - yes, it's French toast and it's Cooking Light. We've all heard someone order a rum and Diet Coke or a large pizza with pepperoni and ham and sausage and hamburger and NO CHEESE. This isn't quite like that - they really did lower the fat and calories from the original, but don't tell yourself this is some kind of health food. It's a treat that is more healthful than it might otherwise be, while still tasting terrific.

And this is indeed fabulous. Know how you can tell you're among good friends? They help themselves to seconds, knowing that's what it's there for and that you're glad they've enjoyed their meal that much.

You've got some liberties to take here. Someone's allergic to nuts? Leave them out. No time/patience/oranges to squeeze juice? Buy a small bottle of OJ; I used half for this recipe and half for Orange-Chipotle Marinade, which I used for pork chops.

This is great for Christmas or New Year's morning. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! We fed 5 people (one child, four adults - one of whom had just run 13.1 miles) and it was the right amount of food. If I were feeding more than 5, I'd make two casseroles.

Orange-Pecan French Toast Casserole
Cooking Light - June, 2004

1 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark brown, but light brown will work just fine)
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 Tablespoons light-colored corn syrup (I don't have any - I used sugar-free maple syrup)
Cooking spray
1/3 chopped pecans (leave them out if you wish; walnuts would be a good substitution if you don't have pecans)
1 teaspoon grated orange rind (adds a lot to the dish, but isn't critical - you'll just have a less pronounced orange flavor if it's omitted)
1 cup fresh orange juice (I used bottled)
1/2 cup skim milk
3 Tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large egg whites
2 large eggs
12 1-inch-thick slices French bread (I used the "take and bake" whole grain baguette from Kroger's - I baked & sliced, and it was fine)

1. Combine brown sugar, butter, and corn (or maple) syrup. Pour into a 13x9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. The mixture will be sticky; I pressed mine into place with the back of a spoon.

2. Sprinkle chopped pecans over butter-sugar mixture.

3. Combine rind, juice, milk, white sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, egg whites, and eggs; stir with a whisk or fork.

4. Arrange bread slices over pecans in dish - when I did it, it looked pretty sparse. Fortunately, the bread absorbs the egg mixture and really fills out; here's what it looked like initially:

5. Pour egg mixture over bread. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or up to overnight.

When you're ready to bake...

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Carefully turn bread slices over so that the "naked" side can absorb the egg mixture - this also makes sure you get a little brown sugar mixture on each side. If you have cut the bread too thin, this will be a nightmare; if you can't turn it, just leave it.

Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until lightly browned.

Traditions

2008-12-06T07:33:00.005-05:00

Usually I'm not open to non-traditional ideas on Thanksgiving. I love to cook our dinner and eat in our own home. But this year circumstances were different - our usual Thanksgiving guest couldn't make it. Sweetie was running the half-marathon in the morning. The children's home, where we've delivered Thanksgiving dinner for the past 8 years, has relocated from 3 miles away to waaaaay out in the farmland - not exactly something we could squeeze in between turkey bastings.

So for as much as I love tradition, it's not worth it if it doesn't bring joy. And cooking two Thanksgiving dinners by myself, with a two-hour roundtrip drive somewhere in there, sounded like a very un-fun way to spend the holiday. As it turned out, Sweetie and I had one of the best Thanksgivings either of us has had in recent years.

1. Cutie's parents were looking for volunteer work and asked if they could all come help me cook for the babies & toddlers. In a spirit of giving-ness not only did I say yes, but I told them they could even bring a pie. In a spirit of giving-ness, they brought two. And better yet, they brought great conversation and a kid who can sort cranberries and snap green beans like nobody's business.

2. Sweetie was totally open to the idea of mixing things up a bit. I offered a nice Thanksgiving brunch or doing the turkey over the weekend instead of on the Big Day. He found an unbelievable deal at Ruth's Chris, and we agreed that was the way to go (it SO was).

3. The kids and staff had a great, healthful meal home-cooked with love by multiple people.

It really was a terrific day with a lot to be thankful for. I mean, we saw one of our little ones - whose prognosis was pretty grim last year - walking with her little lavender leg braces while holding onto her oxygen pole. SO very proud of herelf. Giving thanks becomes an everyday event in those circumstances, doesn't it?

Some of y'all know that I found an unbelievable Orange-Pecan French Toast Casserole recipe for our brunch on Thanksgiving morning. As soon as I can pull the how-to pics off the digital camera, I promise I'll post the recipe!

In the meantime.... ugh. As I've mentioned, being the daughter of the Master Cookie Baker means I got the recessive gene on that one. There isn't a cookie in the world that my Mom can't make perfectly. I, on the other hand, have sought safe harbor in about a half-dozen Stephanie-proof recipes. And for some reason I thought I'd venture out into that cold, harsh world again and try to add to my collection.

I've had 3 disasters in the past 2 weeks. The first was one from Oprah's website - an orange-cream cheese chocolate chip cookie (yeah, I know, I know...). It was pale and puffy and cakelike and weird. Next, like a leming to a cliff, was the Chewy Oatmeal Cookie from the usually-reliable Everyday Food magazine, which spread out all-damn-over the cookie sheet and maliciously smelled good and tasted like fried oats. Maybe Martha Stewart really is evil and not just annoying. Oh, and there was a chocolate cookie that went straight in the trash.

I'm too emotionally scarred to date another recipe right now. Instead, I'm seeking sanctuary in my tried & true's this year. I'm sure that in a few months I'll fall victim again and decide to risk a stick of butter and my fragile, duct-taped-together cookie self-esteem.

'Til then, Gingersnaps are the way to go. They're quintessentially Christmasy, they're terrific with a glass of milk and they ship very well.

Gingersnaps
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup shortening (butter or Crisco)
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl combine the brown sugar, shortening, molasses, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and about half the flour. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until combined. Beat or stir in remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls.

Roll balls in the granulated (white) sugar to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 - 10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are crackled.

Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

Krabby Patties

2008-11-25T20:24:00.005-05:00

That was a (very) little joke for the SpongeBob set.

Every year during the shopping, we say "Oh, I love ___________ (apple cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, whatever)! I'm cooking anyway, so we'll just make a little extra to be sure we have leftovers." As if we never had leftovers before. And by the Sunday after Thanksgiving, people dread dinner. They plot to avoid it. It's usually something like this:

* Thursday - a wonderful feast

* Friday - grab a turkey sandwich for lunch and congratulate yourself on using up food you already have. Prepare a casual dinner of leftovers. It's not on the good china this time, so it must be a completely different dinner, right?

* Saturday - Decide everything will taste better immersed in chicken brot as a soup. This is almost always a bad idea; it can be done well, but emptying cold, Tupperwared, clumpy masses into a saucepan and dousing with broth ends up just as appetizing as it doesn't sound. Almost as bad - trying to make a "Thanksgiving Stirfry" - hello, have you ever seen potatoes in a stirfry??? - or "Thanksgiving Pizza" or some other nonsensical, just DOES NOT GO concoction. You're not fooling anyone. Like cartoon Dad Hank Hill once said of Christian Rock - "you're not making Christianity any better and you're making rock worse."

* Sunday - order a ham for Christmas. Each family member discreetly throws some leftovers into the trash and "goes to the gym" or "visits with Aunt Marilyn" at dinner time. Said family members pretend not to notice each other at the local pizza joint.

With a little planning, it doesn't have to be this way. I can't have this dish myself, being allergic to shellfish and all, but from what I undertand crabcakes are quite the delicacy. Whenever we're anywhere near water, Sweetie takes the opportunity to order them and remains dreamy-eyed for the next hour or two.

The young man in the video is heading off to the Culinary Institute of America and is vying for scholarship $ to get there - hence the video (your 5-star rating would help him out). What I like about this is that he didn't try to make these turkey-cranberry-the-rest-of-the-canned-pumpkin crabcakes; he chose one ingredient to incorporate, and it was an ingredient that makes perfect sense.

Without further ado:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szM9E3j2pvU

When It's Good It Stays Good

2008-11-22T08:00:00.004-05:00

'Twas 1999 and I was hosting another Orphans Thanksgiving - those of us whose work didn't allow us to travel for the holiday, who were too battle-scarred from incompetent airlines over past Thanksgivings, etc. In other words, my friends from softball and work and whatnot were held hostage to my cooking! MWWAAAH-ha-ha-haaaaaa!

I wanted the dinner to be very traditional. My parents are both terrific cooks and made the most wonderful Thanksgiving dinners! Granted, my Bangladeshi friend in attendance had no frame of reference for a Thanksgiving dinner, but the folks from Ohio and Chicago and St. Louis did. And whether they were missing their families or escaping them, we all deserved a warm, comfortable, friendly, fantastic dinner together. I did turkey and dessert, they brought the rest.

Wanting to share the best with my friends, I picked up the November, 1999 copy of Bon Appetit to find the perfect turkey recipe. [I'm proud to say I had come a long way from the 1993 incident of calling my Mom in a panic, asking her what this bag was doing in my turkey?!?! What kind of slipshod poultry farm was stuffing God-knows-what inside my bird, and to whom do I report them?? Never heard her laugh so hard.] Narrowing down my choices, I read the recipes to my Dad over the phone and we decided which would be best. On Thanksgiving we had the following conversation:

Dad, vastly experienced with roasting turkeys: So how's the turkey coming? It's in the oven by now, right?
Me: Yeah, but barely. I've rubbed my buttered, herb-y hands all in and over that thing. A nice dinner is the least of what it owes me.
Dad: Um, you don't have anyone over right now who heard that, do you?

That 1999 magazine is one of the very few that I've ever saved in its entirety. I was just looking through it and some things are noticeable for their absence - the words "artisinal" and "vegan", omnipresent in current foodie magazines, aren't there. Neither are website URLs - there are a few, but it's mostly 1-800 numbers for more information. There are no e-mail addresses, no mentions of organic food, and the words "New Orleans" are not followed by "rebuilding" or "lost" or "damaged" or "Katrina." Did it all change that fast?

This recipe has stood the test of 9 years time and I expect to make it for twenty more, at least. Enjoy.

Sage-Roasted Turkey With Caramelized Onions and Sage Gravy
Bon Appetit - November, 1999

1 1/2 pounds onions, sliced
3 TBSP vegetable oil

1 14- to 15-pound turkey; neck, heart, and gizzard removed [the stuff in the bag in the turkey. Ew]
2 TBSP butter, room temperature
8 large whole fresh sage leaves plus 1 1/2 teaspoons, chopped

1 cup (or more) boxed low-salt chicken broth

6 TBSP all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dry white wine (or more broth if you don't keep wine around)
Pinch of ground nutmeg

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 425 degrees. Toss onions and 2 tablespoons oil in large roasting pan. Roast until onions are golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, rinse turkey inside and out; pat dry. Slice hand under skin of turkey breast to loosen skin. Spread butter under skin over breast meat. Arrange 4 sage leaves under skin on each side of breast.

Tuck wing tips under turkey; tie legs together loosely. Rub turkey all over with 1 TBSP oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. [I don't like to touch my salt & pepper shakers with oily, raw-turkey-juice hands. I pour the oil into a little dish, add the salt and pepper, and then do the rub]

Place turkey atop onions in pan. Roast turkey 30 minutes. Pour 1 cup broth into pan.

Tent turkey loosely with foil. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Roast turkey 2 hours. Uncover and baste regularly. Continue to roast until turkey is golden brown and thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 180 degrees, about an hour longer.

Transfer to platter/cutting board. Tent loosely with foil; let stand 30 minutes.

Pour onion mixture into gravy separator, and pour off broth into large measuring cup. Add more chicken broth to onion mixture, if necessary, to measure 5 cups. Reserve 2 TBSP of fat.

Add the 2 TBSP of fat to a small skillet on medium-high heat. Add chopped sage; stir 30 seconds. Add flour; whisk until beginning to color, about 3 minutes (mixture will be dry and crumbly). Gradually whisk in onion mixture, wine, and nutmeg. Simmer until gravy thickens to desired consistency, whisking frequently, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

It's The Stuff That Counts

2008-11-19T22:19:00.019-05:00

Yes, of course, there's heart-warming good will and togetherness and spiritual enrichment at the holidays. And there's shopping! Much as I wish I wasn't, I'm a shopper. And Thanksgiving - or Easter or Arbor Day or whatever - is a great time to pick up a few things for a special dinner.

Cooking the Big Dinner for the first time? There are a few absolutely critical items, some nice-to-haves, and some culinary equivalents of a chia pet.

Really Important and Helpful
MEAT THERMOMETER

Every year - seriously, every year - there are TV news reports and magazine articles and door-to-door missionaries preaching the word about the deadly cavalcade of bacteria hiding out in the turkey, preparing their attack on the half-wit who leaves the bird on the counter for six hours before feeding it to her family. The fever! The chills! The delirium! Um, happy holidays? And what are you grateful for, little Timmy?

You need to thoroughly cook the turkey and, if it has stuffing, that can be hard to do. And the standards are high - you want it fully, safely cooked and you want it not dehydrated. Dear God, what next? A federal turkey bailout?

This little wonder will get you where you're going as far as done-ness of the turkey. Kitchen respect is yours - all yours! - when you use the term "cooked to temperature." That means you confidently tossed aside the recipe directions to cook for X.Y hours and, savvy as you are, you knew that when the internal temp of the bird reaches 165 degrees, you're done even if you're "supposed" to have Z minutes left. If you've stuffed the turkey, the stuffing must also reach 165 degrees.

And by the way, you can use this baby all year long. I always, always, always use mine for roasted chicken - it can be perfectly well done and still be pinkish (who knew?). I also use mine to test the water temp for yeast when I make pizza crust.

For more info on safely thawing and cooking a turkey, click here.

ROASTING PAN
You've seen those foil roasting pans in the supermarket, right? Thinking about buying one for your feast? Do this - while at the store, put a 5-pound bag of sugar in the foil pan and see how stable it feels. Then realize that, between a roasting rack and a 10-pound turkey, you've got at least 7 more pounds to add to that. And when you take the pan out of the oven and the turkey slides and the foil buckles and the broth and grease slosh out, you're standing in a puddle of shoe gravy.

So I see you've decided that a roasting pan is a really good idea. Excellent choice! The picture above is a fancy-schmancy from Crate & Barrel. Do you need a fancy-schmancy? No. My own roasting pan is a piece of my grandmother's speckleware. She turned out wonderful dinners in it for 50 years or more, which is good enough for me. If you're only going to use your roasting pan once or twice a year, I wouldn't bother with a Calphalon or All-Clad version.

As long as your roasting pan has well-attached handles and is big enough to allow plenty of air to circulate around your bird, it's fine. I prefer one with a lid - I think it's more versatile that way - but it's not a hard and fast rule.

Oh, and that magazine rack in the picture? It's called a roasting rack - and yes, I really did use mine as a magazine rack when I had my first Big-Girl apartment. It lifts the bird off the bottom of the pan, allowing the grease and broth to run off and the skin to crisp.

TURKEY LIFTER
I know, I know - I'm breaking my "no gadgets that have only one purpose" rule. I'm sure you can use these to, ummmmm, string up loops and make potholders or something, right?

The first time I made a turkey I couldn't get it out of the pan. Wading cautiously into the waters of entertainment cooking, the bird was a 16-pounder for, I don't know, a dozen people or so. You know, starting slow. I fuzzily recall there was a lot of wine.

Anyway, my plan of impaling the bird on a wooden spoon didn't work out anything like I envisioned it. And three people with two forks each, trying to lift from the bottom, didn't balance so well. Neither did the "helpers" after all that Beaujolais Nouveau.

They're worth the ten bucks.

HELPFUL, BUT NOT MISSION-CRITICAL

RIDGED CARVING BOARD
I really wavered about whether this was imperative or nice to have... Here's the deal. When you carve a turkey there's a LOT of juice that runs off. It's just what you need after you've trashed your kitchen for the past 2 days of preparation, right? You can, if you have to, make a little fortress of rolled-up paper towels around your regular cutting board. I guess.

But if you're going out to buy a cutting board anyway, something like this is the way to go. Never cut on a glass surface - it ruins knives. You can chop your veggies on this, then carve your turkey before serving. The broth collects in in the ridge, which is soooo much easier to work with.

BASTER
I'm SO intrigued by this "shower head baster" business! A regular baster is fine - squeeze the bulb, place the wand in the broth, release the bulb, then squeeze the broth over the turkey. Done. I've had a plain, regular baster for years and when it finally wears out someday, I'll consider replacing it with this one. Note - if you're buying a regular baster, get one with a metal tube. They clean up much better and they don't melt.

Gosh, this shower head baster just sounds like a little spa day for the turkey, doesn't it? The dry heat of the sauna. The blast from the shower head. Wow. Kinda deceiving, actually...

GRAVY SEPARATOR
One of the best kitchen inventions ever. Pre-separator the intructions were to wave an ice cube over the hot broth to solidify the fat so it could be skimmed off. Think about it - steaming hot broth, ice cube. Besides having your own little weather system in the roasting pan, the ice didn't stay ice very long. Ugh. Blotting with paper towels, which took off a fair amount of hard-wrought broth, was another method. But no more!

When you've removed the turkey from the roasting pan and you're ready to make gravy, pour the broth into the separator and wait a few minutes. No need for ice or tribal dances or whatever, just let physics do its thing. The fat will rise to the top and, since the spout is connected at the bottom, you'll pour out plain, de-fatted broth. Stop pouring when all you see is fat.

LARGE MEASURING CUP
This is actually a "triple pour" measuring cup. Why someone can't turn their wrist a little to pour from a regular spouted cup is an unknown here in Nostinkycheese Labs, but whatever. The point is this - a large measuring cup can double as a bowl. If you're mixing up herb butter, or the water/cider/mustard for gravy, you can easily use this to both measure AND mix. I have a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup that I use all the time.

YOU MEAN THESE COST KITCHEN SPACE AND MONEY???

TURKEY PARAPHERNALIA
I come from good people, and we do not embroider our turkey. I don't know anyone who does. Can someone please tell me what the hell this stuff is for? I see this Turkey String Art kit every year. Is it one of those trashy lace-up turkeys? Like I said, I come from solid folk and we wouldn't know of such a thing. Truly, I'm lost.

SILICONE POTHOLDERS
Man, I effin' hate these things. They seemed so happy-bouncy-sproingy in the store! And sure, they're cute and kinda squeaky. But I use them only as trivets now - I just can't get a good grip with them, and if I'm moving 8 pounds of something at 400 degrees, I want to really know that I've got it firmly in hand. Fabric only, please.

On Crate & Barrel's webite, they say this piece of engineering times "three dishes simultaneously... features beep and light signals, clock and countdown functions, and the familiar touchpad controls of handheld electronics. Pre-programmed with cook times for beef, lamb, chicken, and more."

Uh-HUH.

I just wouldn't know where to start with this thing. There's only one probe, yet it times 3 dishes? If they're going that far with it, why not have it yell out "Green bean casserole - done!" instead of giving some sort of Morse code? I think by #3 I'd be trying to remember what on earth was still in the oven and there must be something else for me to remember... do I need to call someone? Is it their birthday? Maybe it's the day for the dogs to get their heartworm meds?... before finally clipping it onto my waistband as a pedometer or something.