What's goin' in our maws

Creamy Pumpkin Penne

2009-11-24T18:29:00.000-08:00

I've been cooking more than I've been posting, and have a few winners waiting in the wings for future write-ups. But this is one I made tonight, and loved, as did the rest of my family (well, sans Sam, who's still a bit young for penne).

The recipe is pretty basic. It involved a pound of pasta (penne, in this case) and a cream sauce made with roux-thickened milk, cream cheese, and parmesan, plus a can of pumpkin. To this I added a package of frozen cubed butternut squash that we had in the freezer and some cauliflower that I roasted for about twenty minutes. I think there are a number of things you could add to the base: shrimp, bacon, peas, mushrooms, or chicken are just a few off the top of my head. I liked the squash and cauliflower because they seemed particularly fall-y.

The best part of this recipe was that Charlotte loved it. I gave her about ten meager little pennes in the sauce only, not wanting to tempt fate. She devoured them, and asked for more, and even tried (and apparently liked) a couple pieces of cauliflower. Success!

Here's a brief recipe, with some of the amounts estimated because I just played it by ear:

Cook pasta and drain, set aside.

Meanwhile in a large pot, melt 2-3 T butter over medium heat. Add a clove of garlic, chopped, and saute for a minute or two. Make sure your heat isn't too high--burned garlic is nasty. Then, add either 1 T snipped fresh sage (we have some in the garden still) or 1 t dried, and stir for a minute. Add 1 T salt and black pepper to taste, plus 2 t nutmeg and stir. Then add 1/3 cup flour and stir for a minute, letting the flour soak up all that butter. When the roux begins to bubble a bit, but not brown too much, add 1 1/2 cups of milk. (I may have used more, but I just kept splashing milk in if the sauce seemed too thick, so have it on hand). Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until milk is thickened. Add 1 block cream cheese chopped into eight or so chunks (I recommened full fat here for the creaminess, but I guess you can use reduced. Again, I reiterate: fat free cream cheese is the devil) and stir for a minute. Add one can of pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling!) and stir. At this point, I could tell if my sauce was getting a bit too thick, so I added a little more milk until I reached the consistency I wanted. Also at this point I stirred in my butternut squash and cauliflower. Keep stirring until the cream cheese is melted. Add 4-6 ounces parmesan cheese, and stir to combine. Then dump your pasta in and mix it all up.

Delicious!

Creamy Southwest Chicken

2009-09-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

I am suspicious of simple recipes. For some reason, I tend to think that the extra time, attention, and ingredients that go into complex recipes make for more nuanced results. But I am also conversely attracted to simple recipes. I have a busy life, yet want to cook homemade meals for my family. A simple recipe seems like the perfect solution.

What do I mean by simple? A recipe that contains less than a half-dozen ingredients, and whose list of steps is usually three or less. A one-pot meal, something that doesn't require my constant hovering attention.

I came across a version of this recipe a while back and thought "That's it? There's no way that can be good." But this weekend when I was meal-planning for the upcoming week, I thought of this recipe and spontaneously bought the ingredients. If it wasn't great, it would at least be decent, I thought.

Well, it was better than decent. And it also passed another recipe test: make enough for leftovers, or even for a second meal. I served this with brown rice, and the leftover sauce and rice is currently stuffed into bell peppers and baking in the oven. I think this one gets the simple recipe gold medal for meeting and exceeding all requirements.

Creamy Southwest Chicken
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz block cream cheese (reduced fat is okay, fat free is definitely not, eww.)
1 jar salsa (um, the regular sized jar...don't know the measurements on this. Pick a variety you like...anything goes).
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 bag frozen corn (again, the normal sized bag), defrosted

Place chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker stoneware. Cut cream cheese into six pieces and place on top of chicken. Dump salsa overtop everything, then dump on the black beans and then the corn. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours, low for 5-7 hours. Before serving, stir the sauce together to blend the cream cheese in.

I served this over rice, with a sprinkling of shredded monterey jack cheese. Cilantro would also be a nice addition.

Sweet Potato Curry Soup

2009-09-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm posting another recipe so soon, but I had a couple requests for this one after I mentioned on facebook how fantastic it is. I have to say, I'm embarrassed by how easy it is. It's hardly a recipe, really.

Originally I wanted to make pumpkin curry soup but my hippie grocery store was out of organic canned pumpkin, so I went with sweet potato instead. I was a little disconcerted by how similar the canned sweet potato was to Sam's sweet potato baby food, but I soldiered on. You could also use freshly cooked and mashed squash, pumpkin, or sweet potato in this. If you do, leave the veggies a little chunkier, as I think it'll add some interesting texture. Or, contrarily, throw the whole shebang in the blender when it's done cooking for a bisque.

Sweet Potato Curry Soup
1 large onion, chopped
3-4 celery stalks, chopped
3-4 carrots, chopped
1 T olive oil
1 T salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1-2 T curry powder (use hot if you lik-a the spice, use more if you lik-a the flavor)
32 ounces chicken stock (veggie would be fine, too)
2 15-ounce cans sweet potato mash, or pumpkin, or whatevs
1 15-ounce can coconut milk (don't use light, please!)

Saute the onion, celery, and carrot in the olive oil over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add cumin, coriander and curry and stir well, cooking for another minute. The add about half of the stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about five minutes.

In the stoneware of a slow cooker OR in a large pot mix the remaining stock and the sweet potato. Add the mixture of onions, carrots and celery and stir together well. I cooked this in my slow cooker for 2 hours on high and it was pretty well cooked (carrots not too firm, etc.) I would guess that about 45 minutes worth of simmering on the stove would be about the same. Before serving, remove from heat/turn off slow cooker and stir in the coconut milk.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-09-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

Chocolate chip cookies are a very personal thing. Everyone has his or her favorite kind, and I've found people's feelings about the "right" or "best" kind of chocolate chip cookie to be very vehement and expressive. My college roomie, Shana, really talked up her grandma's famous chocolate chip cookies. When I had a chance to try the famous cookies, shipped to Shana in a cleaned coffee canister, I was disappointed. They were my least favorite kind of cookie: thin and crispy.

I think there are three main kinds of chocolate chip cookies. The first is the type loved by Shana, the thin, crisp, crunchy cookie. The second is its direct opposite, the chubby, cakey cookie. More akin to muffin than cracker, the cakey cookie typically has a uniform texture throughout.

The third type is my personal favorite. It's the perfect cookie: baked just long enough to have a slightly crisp edge, but not too long or you'll lose the chewy, buttery middle. The perfect ratio of chips to dough. Not too puffy, not too crisp. And I finally found the recipe that produces just such a cookie, on the fabulous Smitten Kitchen website. Here it is.

I only did two things differently from the recipe. The first was to double the recipe, because I needed to bring cookies to our church potluck last night. That was no problem at all. The second was to bake the cookies a bit less than the 18 minutes recommended in the recipe (if that sounds like a long time, remember you're baking at 300 degrees, not the usual 350). I hit upon 16 minutes as about the perfect length of time to bake to preserve that chewy cookie center.

Also note that this recipe includes nuts. I happen to like nuts in my cookies, but many people don't, and I really think this recipes would work well without. Definitely use semi-sweet chocolate chips, though. Milk chocolate is of the devil.

What's your opinion on chocolate chip cookies? Have a favorite type I didn't mention here?

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

2009-09-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

I like to make pizza on a weekly basis. When I have time to make my own mozzarella, I use it on pizza, and it is divine. I've been trying to make a weekly pizza that showcases whatever is best in season. So lately we've been having lots of pizza featuring roasted tomatoes and peppers, homemade pesto, and other fresh herbs. I'm looking forward to a winter squash, apple and sausage pizza when the weather gets a bit cooler.

I have struggled for some time to find a whole wheat pizza dough recipe that I like. I have tried many, some rather fancy and complex, others more simple. Inevitably I would end up with something heavy as a sack of bricks, tough and overly chewy. It was too dense, and lacked that elasticity yet lightness of pizzaria crusts.

I think I've finally hit upon a recipe and a method that works for me. Now, when I posted about my success on facebook, a number of my friends chimed in with additional suggestions, such as pre-baking the crust (something I had never even considered), using a pizza stone (I'd love to, but mine was rent in two by the forces of my oven years ago), etc. So this is by no means a definitive recipe. I think I will be experimenting for years.

The two keys to this recipe are: add the flour slowly, in increments; and be certain to knead the dough for enough time. I think part of my problem in the past was adding too much flour too soon. You want the dough to be supple, but not sticky. And I know for a fact I never, ever kneaded the dough long enough. I would knead it for what seemed like an eternity, but then I'd look at the clock and 90 seconds had passed. When you knead the dough well, magical things happen.

Also, I call this a whole wheat crust, but I use a mixture of white and whole wheat flour. I think the ration I've hit upon is pretty good, but it's easy for the wheat flour to tip the balance and make an overly heavy crust, so feel free to err on the side of more white flour if you're concerned about that.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Mix in a bowl:
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 pinch sugar
3/4 cup white flour

Let this mixture sit, undisturbed, for 20-30 minutes. After that time has passed, the mixture should be bubbly--I believe this might be what is called a "sponge" in the bread-making world. If it's not bubbly, your yeast is probably old, and your dough won't rise.

Coat a second bowl with olive oil and set aside.

Add to the sponge:
1 T olive oil
1 T kosher salt

Mix well, then add 1 cup of wheat flour in quarter-cup increments. Once the wheat flour is mixed in, you can begin adding up to an additional cup of white flour as needed. What I do at this point is usually mix in a quarter-cup of the white flour, then flour my countertop and begin kneading. As sticky, wet patches of the dough appear, I sprinkle on a little more flour, and as the flour on the counter gets absorbed, I reflour there, too.

Knead the dough for ten minutes, or until the dough is stretchy and smooth. I use the flatten, fold and turn method of kneading, and really take out my aggressions. Again, watch your flour levels, and add more (to the dough or to the surface) as needed.

Once you've kneaded your dough, place the dough in the oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover the bowl tightly with saran-wrap, and place in a warm location.

Let the dough rise for at least an hour. When the dough has doubled in size, it's ready.

I usually flatten it out with a rolling pin. This makes enough dough for one very large round pizza, or enough to fill a rectangular baking sheet (I think it's 9x13). Now, I usually just put the dough down, then a little olive oil, and then my toppings. I haven't tried pre-baking it. But since you need to bake this for about 14-16 minutes (at 425 degrees), the cheese gets pretty done. So prebaking the crust for about five minutes, then topping and baking ten minutes more, might avoid that issue.

This results in a thinnish, crisp-ish kind of pizza crust. It's no pizzaria crust, but I think it's my best whole wheat attempt.

Two great recipe links

2009-09-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

I'm back! And I'll try to make the posting a bit more regular, but no guarantees. I've been cooking a bit, but nothing I've really come up with myself, so I feel bad writing about it and "taking credit" for it.

But the least I can do is provide you with links to some of the fantastic things I've found online.

The first is this amazing steak and sauce recipe from The Pioneer Woman. This is unbelievably rich and delicious. I made this Friday night to celebrate wrapping up a particularly stressful/busy/exciting week. I made two small modifications: instead of using ribeyes, I used KC strips, as they were on sale at my grocery store. And I added about 8 oz. of a baby arugula/spinach bag to the sauce right before I added the blue cheese (I wanted to feel like this recipe was offering something healthy...so, greens!) It was delicious!

The second link is also something we had Friday night, and every night since! It's a fabulous pound cake from Smitten Kitchen. Now, I used her basic recipe, but I took a couple of her suggestions and added lemon and white chocolate, and people, this cake IS AMAZING. All I did was add the zest of two lemons (I mixed this in with the sugar so it'd impart its flavor into the sugar and be a bit offset by the sweetness), the juice of one lemon, and the chopped segments of the other. The segments sort of evaporate while the cake bakes, leaving you with tangy little lemony pockets of deliciousness. The white chocolate was just chopped baking chocolate, about 1/3 cup, stirred in at the end. I chopped it pretty finely, but I think you could use white chocolate chips and get the same effect.

I have been working this summer on perfecting my whole wheat pizza crust recipe, and I plan to post that sometime this week.

Vegetables

2009-07-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a lot of good stuff out of my garden lately, as well as from the farmers' market and my mom's garden (they came down last weekend and left us with some produce). This has expanded my repertoire of veggie recipes, and I thought I'd record that here, even though I don't have any pics to prove I've actually made these things.

I made a modification of the Pioneer Woman's green beans (originally blogged about here) that includes roasted red peppers and a couple of tablespoons of my red pepper pesto stirred in at the end. I made this with yellow beans from my mom, onions from my garden, and my own homemade pesto (see below for "recipe").

I just made these Potato Bundles, another one from Pioneer Woman. I made some slight modifications, including the addition of garlic. This used potatoes from the farmers' market, my own onions again, and parsley from my herb garden. I also have to say that I disagree with PW when she says there isn't a difference between curly and flat-leaf parsley. I think the flavor of flat-leaf is more subtle.

We've been getting a ton of cucumbers out of our garden, so I've been making my mom's cucumber & onions. I asked her for the recipe this weekend and she said she didn't really use a recipe with measurements per se. I now know where I got this tendency from! But the components are sliced cucumbers and sliced white onions tossed in a dressing made from mayo, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. I think it'd be pretty easy to do this recipe "to taste," but I will say that the cukes have a tendency to release their own moisture after you've sliced and mixed, so you might need less dressing than you'd think. This salad keeps for a while in the fridge.

Pesto! I have to admit that a huge motivation for my having an herb garden was to have bountiful supplies of basil on hand. I planted three basil plants: two in the ground and one in a pot (with the hopes that I could bring this one inside in the fall). The potted basil is a sad shadow of its heartier garden cousins, all pale and spindly. But the basil in the ground is a total overachiever: huge, green, bushy and prolific. I have aggressively cut the basil and it just keeps growing. I love it.

My favorite thing to do with basil is make a basic pesto. I make mine in the blender because my food processor is crappy. This weekend I walked my mom through my basic pesto method. Essentially, you need these ingredients: fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan, and pine nuts. Now, you can make the pesto with a nut other than pine nuts, such as walnuts or almonds, but I recommend using pine nuts for the real pesto flavor. You don't have to use a ton--a tablespoon or so will be enough to impart the flavor of the nuts to the pesto. And if you toast them slightly to bring out the flavor, you can use even less. And I usually only use about a quarter cup of parmesan, again just to give the pesto its flavor.

With my blender pesto, I also add a tomato cut into chunks, for two reasons. One is to give the mixture enough moisture to blend. The other is to cut back on the amount of olive oil needed, to make the pesto a bit lower fat. As far as quantities of ingredients go, you just need to eyeball it as you blend to see if you need more oil (to help the pesto emulsify) or more basil (if it's just not green enough) or more parmesan (to help it thicken up).

I also make a variation that uses roasted red peppers instead of tomato. Don't skimp on the peppers--I use about a half-jar for a one-cup batch of pesto. The peppers and basil complement each other nicely.

This pesto is amazing on so many things: stirred into almost any veggie, mixed in with scrambled eggs, spread on a sandwich, mixed with sour cream for a dip. Tomorrow I plan on using it on pizza (recipe to follow).

Horseradish Potato Salad

2009-07-01T18:41:00.001-07:00

Just in time for the fourth of July, here's a potato salad recipe that will shake things up a little bit. I got it from Smitten Kitchen, a cooking blog that's inspired me many times. The original recipe is here.

I made a couple of alterations to the original. I didn't have chives, so I doubled the dill (also in part because I'm infatuated with dill lately, and I have a dill plant growing steps outside my back door). I used the full cup of sour cream AND added a couple tablespoons of mayo (NOT miracle whip, but real mayo) because I like my potato salad to be nice and creamy.

A caveat: this recipe is not a traditional, sweetish, mustardy potato salad. If you bring this to a cookout and it's the only potato salad there, people might be disappointed--not because it's not delicious (it is!) but because it's not representative of what most people think of when they think potato salad. This salad is really zippy, and would make a great side with some German brats and kraut.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

2009-06-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

I made homemade buttercream icing for Charlotte's birthday cupcakes (a post I hope to put up here soon) and have since then been a little obsessed with icing. Eating leftover cupcakes cold from the fridge with ice cream on top was a little slice of heaven during the past week of 100-degree temperatures. So when I saw this recipe for Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies in a cookbook ('wichcraft) that my mom brought down, and saw that it called for sandwiching two rich, sweet, nutty peanut butter cookies together with a peanut butter buttercream, I knew I had to make it.

My mom took that cookbook home with her, but I found a similar recipe online here. That's the one I followed, and I was very pleased with the results. The authors of that recipe suggest using nutella or jelly to sandwich the cookies, but please, please don't listen to them. Make the buttercream. Use the buttercream. LOVE the buttercream.

Incidently, I used Simply Jif for these cookies, which I understand to have a little less added sugar than other peanut butters. It worked just fine, and I didn't add extra sweetening at all. If you use regular peanut butter, you might want to taste the dough for sweetness before adding all the sugar, as it seemed like it might be too much with regular peanut butter.

Kale, Summer Sausage, and White Bean Soup

2009-06-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but there's nothing I want more when it's 90 degrees outside and 100% humidity than a nice, steaming hot bowl of soup. Mmm. Refreshing!

So, this wasn't the ideal recipe for this time of year, but the planets aligned and I ended up getting some yummy summer sausage at a local store and I remembered this recipe that I had been wanting to try for a while. Here's my kind of haphazard recipe:

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chicken broth
1 ring summer sausage, sliced into rounds about 1/2 inch wide
Two bunches of kale, chopped or torn into pieces
1 can white beans (I used great northern), drained
1 T salt (but I like things salty, so perhaps this should read to taste)
1 t pepper
1 T fresh dill or sage, chopped

Chuck it all in a slow cooker. I cooked it on low for about 5 hours and it was perfect. Sorry there's no picture! We ate it all up too quickly.

Farmers Market Haul, June 13

2009-06-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

Pictured above are my purchases from the farmers market this morning. I might make this a regular feature on the site, taking a picture of my Saturday morning haul and then later in the week posting what I did with the various fruits and veggies and herbs I got.

At some point in the next few days, the above will become a swiss chard lasagna, roasted turnips and beets, garlicky kale and white beans, sauteed sugar snap peas, and simple roasted new potatoes.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie

2009-06-08T15:04:00.001-07:00

This recipe is adapted from one in a Country Cooking cookbook I have. Adapted because I decided to make it, spur of the moment, while shopping last week. I saw the cheap strawberries and remembered this recipe I had read a while back. I knew it had a cream cheese layer, so I bought cream cheese. I suspected it required sour cream, so I bought that, too. When I got home, I realized I only had one cream cheese package, while the recipe called for two. Oh, well. In hindsight, I can't imagine how the printed recipe could be better, because the ratio of cream cheese layer to strawberry seemed perfect the way I made it.

Another thing that makes this pie special is the dark chocolate layer. I completely forgot about this, so I didn't buy the appropriate dark chocolate squares or anything. But I did have about 1/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips left in my chocolate chip snackin' bag (c'mon, don't judge). And since my unofficial motto for cooking is "dirty as few pans as possible," I didn't melt it in a double boiler. Too fussy!

So here's how I made it:

Bake a pie crust for the recommended time. I used the rolled-up kind for this pie and thought it was delicious, more so than the pie shells.

Right away when the pie comes out of the oven, sprinkle your chocolate chips evenly-ish over the bottom of the pie. Pop back in the oven for a minute. Then pull the pie back out, and spread the now-melty chips around the bottom and up the sides a little bit. Then put the pie crust in the fridge to chill.

Blend together: one package of cream cheese (I used reduced fat, but don't use fat-free...that stuff is the devil), 1/3 cup sour cream (ditto low-fat versus fat-free), 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Once your chocolate has set and is cool, spread the cream cheese mixture on top. Refrigerate and chill for at least two hours.

Then, once that's chilled, top with fresh strawberries, hulled and placed stem-end down. I also cut the strawberries in half but kept the halves together on the pie for both appearances but ease of eating. I'm not sure how many this will take...it all depends on the size of the berries.

Then melt 1/3-1/2 cup of strawberry jam in the microwave (took about thirty seconds) and "glaze" the berries by pouring the jam over top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

How does my garden grow?

2009-05-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

I was just out planting a few things in my garden. Yes, it's nine at night. And the sun had dipped below the horizon by the time I watered the new acquisitions. But not only is it the only time I can garden without the eager assistance of a nearly three-year-old, but I enjoy evening gardening. It's cooler, and quiet, and my garden has a lovely view to the west.

I thought it would be appropriate to write about my garden on this blog--the food blog--since this is a veggie garden and most of what grows out there will end up being consumed by my family and (possibly) written up on here.

I have in the ground: romaine lettuce, mesclun lettuce mix, raddichio, broccoli, sugar peas (which have been nibbled by the rabbits, I'm sorry to say), beets, onions, swiss chard, and two bell peppers (red and orange). Within the week I will plant the seeds for cucumber and watermelon, and get a few tomato plants in as well. Next to the house is a little plot that I've dubbed my herb garden. I have basil, oregano, thyme, dill, sage, and rosemary. I hope to plant some cilantro and flat-leaf parsley this week. I've also planted marigolds and nasturtium in both gardens.

I'll occasionally post garden updates and, of course, indicate when a recipe includes garden produce.

Are you gardening? What are you growing this year?

Dutch Oven Pancake--now with photos!

2009-05-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

I am digesting this as we speak. And it is good.

I based this recipe off a couple different ones I found online. I've seen them variously referred to as German Pancakes, Dutch Baked Pancakes, and Oven Pancakes. I like my moniker, personally.

The recipe is super easy, which is why I've already baked, photographed, eaten and blogged about them before 8:30 a.m. Although the fact that Sam woke up at 5:30 a.m. might have something to do with it too.

Here's what you need:

4 eggs

1 T. sugar

1/2 t. salt

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup flour

2 T. butter, softened

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Beat eggs in a bowl until blended. Add all the other ingredients and mix until smooth. (I used a whisk, but you could use a mixer as well. 7 a.m. is just a little too early for an electric mixer in my house). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Pour half of the batter into each.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 8-10 minutes. Slide warm pancakes onto a plate and serve with your choice: syrup, powdered sugar, fresh fruit, etc.

Results:

Jana: These are really delicious, more crepe-like than pancake.

Jeff: Nom nom.

Charlotte: Not a huge fan, but then she'd already had a yogurt this morning.

The verdict: Make it again!

Two months!

2009-05-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

For the last two months, we've been subsisting on yogurt, Cinnamon Life cereal, and various canned goods we've scrounged from the pantry. In other words, I have been so busy with school work that I barely had time to grocery shop, let alone cook.

Yesterday, I handed in my final seminar paper of the academic year. Then I stripped naked and ran shrieking through Wescoe Hall. Just kidding. But I wanted to.

Look for the return of TigEats this week. I'm gonna cook my fool head off this summer, and I can't wait!

Green Beans a la Pioneer Woman

2009-03-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before how I was always on the lookout for good veggie recipes. I have a hard time being motivated enough to incorporate vegetables into our diets. We eat a lot of salads, and a good amount of fruit, but I'm terrible about getting the green (or orange, or yellow, or red) stuff on our plates.

One veg that I have particular problems with: green beans. I love green bean casserole, but who doesn't? It's not exactly a health-fest, is it? Fresh beans, on the other hand, I'm not a fan of.

I think I finally figured out what's wrong with beans and me: the cooking time. Most veggies I like barely cooked, just faintly tender. Green beans are too tough and weirdly...hairy? Furry? I don't know, but the texture of barely cooked green beans is grody to me. My mom made green beans when she was here early last fall, and she cooked the HECK out of them, and they were delicious.

So other than just cooking them until they lose their will to live, what can I do with green beans? This weekend, I tried The Pioneer Woman's green beans recipe. I adapted the recipe somewhat: I didn't have bacon grease (shame, that) so I used butter and olive oil. I'm not a huge fan of red pepper, so I omitted it. Somehow mine never carmelized the way she said it should, but it was still delicious. Even Charlotte liked it!

The next veggie to tackle: cauliflower.

Lasagna

2009-03-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

I love lasagna. It's one of those meals that I make and then think "Why don't I make this more often?" There's something about lasagna that seems inherently complicated, something about the multiple bowls used to make the different layers. Whatever it is, it keeps me from making lasagna more often.

However, last weekend we had family in town for Sam's baptism, and I decided to make lasagna for a couple reasons. One was that it's something many (if not most) people like, so I wouldn't have to worry about grossing someone out with fish or pork or spiciness. The other reason, one that I will write about more sometime over the next couple of weeks, is that I've started making my own cheese. My first two (fortunately successful) attempts were fresh mozzarella and whole-milk ricotta, which, of course, are two key ingredients in lasagna.

This recipe would work just as easily with store-bought mozzarella and ricotta, of course. But I have to say that the fresh mozz was so amazing in this lasagna. It was creamy and light and melty and fabulous. So consider using fresh mozz (the little balls packed in water) in this recipe sometime instead of the bagged shredded kind.

Basic Lasagna

Meat Sauce:
1 T. olive oil
1/2 - 1 onion, chopped (I used half, not wanting to overwhelm anyone, but I think a whole onion would be good, too).
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 pound pork sausage
1/2 pound ground beef
1 t. salt
pepper to taste
1-2 jars basic spaghetti sauce (seriously, the cheap stuff is fine here, and any flavor/style is good, too).

Saute the onion in olive oil on medium-high heat for a few minutes. Turn the flame down to medium and add the garlic. Saute a few minutes more. Add the meat and break up with a potato masher or spoon, stirring. Cook until the meat is no longer pink. Add salt and pepper, then spaghetti sauce, and stir. Turn heat to low and simmer while you mix the cheese layer.

Cheese mixture:
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
Chopped fresh basil and parsley OR dried basil and parsley (I find fresh herbs make all the difference)
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Now, people differ on what to do with your lasagna noodles. Do you cook them thoroughly in a pot of boiling water? Do you not cook them at all, and add moisture to your sauce? I think I struck on the perfect compromise. Lay 12 lasagna noodles in your casserole dish. Boil a kettle of water and dump on top of the noodles. Let them sit for about 5-10 minutes. The noodles will be softened but not completely cooked. They'll finish cooking in the oven.

After you've softened your noodles (heh), begin layering your lasagna. You'll also need your sliced or shredded mozzarella cheese (12-16 ounces) and shredded parmesan (8 ounces) at this time.

First, ladle some of your meat sauce into the bottom of your dish. Layer lasagna noodles on top, slightly overlapping the noodles (like shingles). Then spread on a layer of the ricotta mixture, topped with sliced/shredded mozz. Ladle half the remaining meat sauce on top. Then repeat: noodles, ricotta, mozz, meat sauce. Sprinkle the parm on the very top.

At this point, you can bake the lasagna at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or you can refrigerate until you are ready to bake. If you bake the lasagna right out of the fridge, you might need to add some extra time.

Enjoy!

Orange Broccoli

2009-03-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

I have a hard time knowing what to do with vegetables. As in, how to prepare them. Beyond the basics (steaming, roasting) I have no idea. I've spent a lot of time over the years searching for good veggie recipes that don't involve slathering the veggies in cream or cheese or mushroom soup and thus dislodging any health benefits of said veg. And I've collected maybe two recipes. Total, that is...not two per vegetable. That's pathetic.

Last night, in despair, I made up my own recipe for broccoli. I had a bag of prewashed florets in the fridge and I wasn't about to let them go bad (that happens more often than I'd like to admit). It ended up being very easy and quick and most importantly, delicious. I could tell I was eating broccoli, but the flavors of the recipe augmented the veg nicely.

Essentially, I dumped half the bag into a bowl and microwave-steamed the broccoli for a minute. Then I melted a tablespoon of butter in a skillet, added some orange zest, dumped the broccoli in the pan, and squeezed half the orange over top. Another minute or two in the pan (not too much, nothing worse than soggy broccoli) and it was ready.

The results:
Jana: This is the easiest recipe ever and it tastes good. Hallelujah.
Jeff: He actually ATE BROCCOLI THAT WAS COOKED. This is a miracle.
Charlotte: Ate about half of what I gave her, which seems pretty good to me.

The verdict: Make it again!

Salmon Chowder

2009-02-19T11:33:00.000-08:00

This chowder is one of those happy accidents that came together entirely without planning or even a recipe. It was cold, I felt like soup, I looked in the freezer and found this package of frozen salmon fillets that I'd been meaning to use...et voila!

When I cook like this, I'm terrible about measuring (meaning I don't measure). I just throw stuff together. But here's my best approximation of what went into this dish:

1 T each olive oil and butter
1/2 large onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1/2 t. salt (possibly more)
1/4 t. black pepper
1 t. dill weed
1 bay leaf
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 - 2 cups chicken broth
A couple good-sized salmon fillets
1 cup corn
1-2 cups whole milk or half-and-half

Put the olive oil and butter in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until translucent. Add celery and carrots and cook for a few minutes. Add salt, pepper, bay leaf and dill and cook, stirring, for about a minute. Sprinkle flour over everything and stir for a minute. Then add broth and stir to mix. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer for about ten minutes.

At this point, I dumped everything from the pan into the crock pot, added the salmon fillets(uncooked, but defrosted) and the corn, and turned it on high for a couple hours. When that time was up, I broke up the salmon with a spoon into chunks, added the milk, and turned the heat off. And that's it!

This was really yummy, very easy, and didn't taste as "fishy" as I was worried it would. I didn't have potatoes, but I think a couple potatoes diced would be good in this, too.

The results:
Jana: Delish!
Jeff: Ditto!
Charlotte: Took a bite of Jeff's, then asked for her own bowl.

Verdict:
Make it again!

Chicken Rice Casserole

2009-02-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

There are a thousand manifestations and variations of this recipe out there, but I've been looking for one for awhile that seems to match the one I remember from my childhood. When I was a kid, this is the dish I would request my Grandma Deur make every year for my birthday dinner. The chicken part is good, but it's the flavor of the rice that I remember particularly. I love the bits around the edge of the dish that get a little bit more done. Mmm.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cups minute rice
1 package onion soup mix
1 cup water or chicken broth
Four chicken breasts (split) or eight chicken thighs or mixture (boneless skinless is okay, but bone-in skin-on is more flavorful)
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
1 additional cup water or chicken broth

Place uncooked rice in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish. Sprinkle soup mix over top, then pour 1 cup of water or broth on top of that. Place chicken on top of rice. In a bowl, mix the soup and the water/broth, then pour over everything.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 1-1 1/2 hours (check chicken for doneness at 1 hour; add additional time if necessary).

One of my friends on facebook described this recipe as "Dutch yummy," which I think is particularly apt. Another term might be "midwestern comfort food." These days I tend to shy away from most casseroles, and particularly those that include cream of whatever soup, velveeta cheese, and/or a topping of those fried onions that come in a can. However, many of my favorite recipes from my childhood could be described as "Dutch yummy," featuring one or all of those ingredients. Green bean casserole? Stove top stuffing? I mean, who can begrudge me my memories?

Results:
Jana: Tasted just like I remembered, and that was good.
Jeff: I didn't think he'd like this one, but he went back for seconds.
Charlotte: Ate all of the chicken I gave her, avoiding the rice. I encouraged her to try the rice, and when she did she said "Mmmmm!" loudly, and finished most of that.

The verdict:
Make it again!

My Favorite Salad

2009-02-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of other recipes I want to review on here soon, but I'm putting this one up first because it really deserves a place of honor on this site. I am obsessed with this salad. I never tire of it, and I eat it frequently--sometimes more than once a week. It's really simple and is, ultimately, just a boring salad but something about the mingling of flavors is perfect in my book. It's composed of: romaine lettuce, shredded swiss cheese, dried cherries, mandarin oranges, chopped pecans (although I sometimes use those roasted flavored almond slices in the bag instead), and poppyseed dressing. That's it. To make it an entree salad, I add sliced chicken breast.

I'm eating this salad right now.

My favorite dressing for this salad is the Maple Grove Farms of Vermont Fat Free Poppyseed. It has nothing to do with the fact that it's fat-free; that's just a happy coincidence. It's the perfect balance of tangy and sweet and doesn't overpower the rest of the ingredients.

I am such an evangelist for this salad that I encourage each and every one of you (all four of you who read this blog) to make this salad this very week and report back to me how much you love it. DO IT!

Thai Chicken Pizza

2009-01-28T13:31:00.001-08:00

Well, some things have changed around here since the last post. My bout with dairy-free has ended, but not before I was also everything else-free for a while. Oh, what horrible memories that brings back. But we've determined that Sam's fussiness is not dietary, so I'm back in the saddle again.

Last night I made Thai Chicken Pizza, which is so embarrassingly easy I feel ridiculous posting a recipes. It's mostly prepackaged ingredients, hardly any prep or cooking involved. But we're all about convenience around here these days, so I'll post it anyway.

All it takes is one prepackaged pizza crust (like Boboli); 1/2 c. Thai peanut sauce; 1 c. broccoli, finely chopped; 1/2 red pepper, finely chopped; 1 6-oz package grilled chicken breast strips, chopped; 1 c. shredded Italian or pizza blend cheese. Bake according to the crust package's directions.

The Thai peanut sauce is a little too fiery for Charlotte, so I just fixed her a plate of broccoli and chicken, which she rejected in favor of yogurt. Jeff and I, however, demolished the pizza without her help.

The results:
Jana: I like it, especially considering how easy it is to make. I think this would also be good with other veggies, like mushrooms or onions, and possibly with shrimp instead of chicken. Ooh, or beef.
Jeff: Thai? Anything Thai and peanut sauce is alright in Jeff's book.

The verdict: Make it again!

Cowboy Caviar

2009-01-14T16:54:00.000-08:00

So, I'm swearing off dairy for a few weeks in hopes of solving Sam's gas issues. As a result, I've had to scramble to find things to make that don't include dairy. This has proved more of an issue than I anticipated, but I'm rising to the challenge. The first entry is something I've been craving anyway: Cowboy Caviar!

There are a number of variations of this recipe (as you'll discover if you Google it), but mine is a can of black beans, a bag of frozen corn kernels defrosted (I like to spring for the white and yellow sweet corn mix as the corn tends to be less chewy), a thing of fresh salsa (in the summer I use diced fresh tomatoes and onions), a whole bunch of chopped cilantro, a couple diced avocadoes, and salt. Stir and eat with tortilla chips, on tacos, over huevos rancheros.

The only thing that would make this better is cheese. Sigh.

Dutch Spice Cookies

2008-12-20T20:08:00.001-08:00

The title of this post should tip you off: I still haven't been cooking much lately. That has as much to do with lingering iron-supplement nausea as it does with my insane end-of-semester busyness. I promise you we're eating more than just cookies around here, although if Charlotte had her way, it would be nothing but cookies morning, noon, and night. And so far this family recipe is her favorite cookie. She actually eats the entire thing instead of just nibbling a few bites and then leaving it somewhere for me to find later.

This is a family recipe, which I believe came from my grandma Terlouw (my mom's mom).

Dutch Spice Cookies (makes about four dozen)
1 cup butter, softened (two sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt (more if you're using unsalted butter)
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. each nutmeg, allspice, cloves
Additional sugar and cinnamon for coating

Blend the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go. Add vanilla and mix.

Now, here's where I break the baking rules a bit: I don't sift together my dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding to the wet ingredients. I just dump them in on top of the wet ingredients and mix them around a little bit. And my cookies always turn out okay. So, you can be a slacker like me, and your cookies will still be smaak lekker. (Is that right, dad? I'm forgetting the little Dutch I do know.)

Anyway, dump all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and blend away. If the mixture seems too wet, don't add more flour, just chill it in the fridge for an hour. Once the dough is firm enough to handle, roll into balls (about a tablespoon's worth) and roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes. I like to err on the side of underbaking these, because they're really tasty when they're soft. Remove from pan to cool. Eat, enjoy, repeat.

Beef Stew

2008-11-22T19:15:00.000-08:00

Yeah, remember when I thought it would be a great idea to start this blog. Oops.

Don't worry...we've been eating! My nausea isn't quite as bad as it was a few weeks ago, so I'm even managing to eat in the mornings now. But our meals have been pretty uneventful and uninventive. Boring, if you will.

But I did have a success story this week! I made one of my staples, the old stand-by: Beef Stew. I have a basic slow-cooker recipe that I followed for years, but it requires a lot of prep work: browning the meat, then sauteeing the veggies, then making a sauce with broth and flour and herbs. Hey, Slow Cooker Cookbook: I use my slow cooker to CUT BACK on cooking time. Geez. Give me a break.

But it dawned on me that maybe I don't HAVE to listen to my cookbook. So I cut out a couple of the steps. I still browned the stew beef, and then added flour and broth to the pan to make a gravy. But all the veggies (this time I used mushrooms, celery, carrots and parsnips) I just chopped and dumped in the slow cooker, and then mixed the meat and the broth in.

I was fortunate enough to make this recipe on one of the coldest days we've had so far, so walking from the bus stop shivering into a house filled with the smell of delicious stew was an experience akin to attaining enlightment. Served with mashed potatoes, it was the perfect winter meal.

Results:
Me: Love. Parsnips were a nice addition. I ate the rest of the mashed potatoes straight out of the fridge later. Shame.
Jeff: Always a fan of my beef stew.
Charlotte: I was surprised at how much she liked it! She ate a pretty large portion, and wasn't selective about just picking out mushrooms, either. Hooray!

Verdict: Make it again!

Favorites

2008-11-03T16:56:00.000-08:00

Sometime last week I began noticing that I was feeling nauseated in the mornings and afternoons. Normally I can't wait to eat breakfast in the morning, but I began just having tea and juice because the thought of food was just too gross. By lunchtime I would be so hungry that I'd eat just about anything, but I felt sick to my stomach after. I was afraid that my pregnancy-related nausea was returning. "Good thing I still have some Zofran left from my first trimester," I mused.

Then I started thinking about how long this had been going on. I could trace it back to the week before...when I had started taking iron supplements at the behest of my doctor. A quick google search revealed that for many people taking iron can indeed cause nausea. As I take my supplement before bed, the feeling for me is usually the worst in the mornings and abates by dinnertime, when I am typically starving and ready to make up for the day's lack of calories.

All this is to say that I haven't been doing much cooking lately. Most of the time I plan and start meals in the late morning, before I head to school, so they'll be ready when I come home in the late afternoon. Making dinner is the last thing I want to do in the mornings these days.

So this has led to some creative mealtime improvisation, as well as to my trying to have a few of Charlotte's favorites always on hand. For the time being, while my nausea is still bad enough to keep me from cooking regularly, I'll post on a few of C's favorite things.

One of her favorite meals also happens to be one of mine, and fortunately is almost ridiculously easy. It's two things: a Distinctively Dole salad and a Bertolli pasta meal. I have to admit to feeling a little guilty about serving two packaged things at one dinner, but I fall victim to convenience. Plus, Charlotte can't get enough of either. Is it weird to have a two-year-old LOVE salad?

Butternut Squash-Carrot Bisque with Oatmeal Walnut Soda Bread

2008-10-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

This meal was essentially convenience food--the bisque was a package of chopped veggies and herbs from Hy-Vee that you throw in the slow cooker with chicken broth, then puree and add milk. I added some leftover roasted carrots to make it squash-carrot bisque. And I wanted bread to go with the soup, but didn't have time to run to the store, and didn't have the time to make a yeast bread, so I made this recipe. I didn't have cake flour, so I just used another half-cup of regular flour. I think it turned out fine. I'd use this bread recipe again as a go-to quick bread.

Results:
Me: I've had better squash bisques, but for convenience, this was pretty easy.
Jeff: Liked it, got excited about the bread ("This is like the bread I'd get at the shop in Ireland!")
Charlotte: Proclaimed the soup "mmm...yummy!" but only ate two bites. Ate about the same amount of bread, too.

Verdict: A mixed bag.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole (with a side of humble pie)

2008-10-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've been really bad about posting here, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll try to post a few new meals here over the weekend to do so. My apologies! If you've been losing sleep wondering what the Tigs are eating, or if we're eating at all, worry not. I'm seven months pregnant, remember? No chance I'm not eating.

So, sometime last week I made Spaghetti Squash Casserole. I got the recipe from a cookbook I've had for years, but it's pretty similar to this one, with the addition of a can of diced tomatoes. It's a very easy recipe, made even easier by the fact that I didn't saute the veggies, just chopped them and mixed them in with the squash. Cheater! I didn't feel like washing another pan, okay? It turned out fine, although the onions were a little crunchier than they would have been had I precooked them.

Results:
Me: Yum. Great especially with the multi-grain baguette I served it with.
Jeff: He's a fan, too.
Charlotte: Ate the mushrooms, panned the rest. I quote: "I don't LIKE spaghetti squash. I think it is yucky."

Verdict:
A mixed bag.

Pumpkin Polenta with Chicken Sausages--with guests!

2008-10-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

This is a Rachel Ray recipe from a cookbook I got in a family Christmas exchange. It's lucky I got this cookbook that way, because I never would have purchased it myself due to my vague dislike of R. Ray. I find her a bit abrasive. Even the way her recipes are written is annoying. But I have found some really good, quick recipes in here that I've turned to again and again.

The recipe isn't on her website, but it's pretty simple. You make quick-cooking polenta using chicken stock and milk as the liquids, and then add a can of pumpkin puree and a half-cup of asiago cheese when the polenta thickens up. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. The sausages are the packeged, pre-cooked flavored chicken sausages you can get in the meat section. I made a variety: sweet apple maple, italian with peppers, and sundried tomato basil.

I also served this with a basic romaine salad and some leftover garlic bread.

Results:
Me: I know I like this recipe. Pumpkin in anything=good. I'd make it again.
Jeff: Ditto. Loves the sausages especially.
Charlotte: Not a fan of anything like polenta or mashed potatoes, so she skipped that part. Loved the sausage, and as always is a big fan of salad.
AND THE GUESTS:
Mom Deur: I won a battle getting her to try polenta. She was reluctant, and reserved in her praise, but managed to choke it down. :)
Dad Deur: Liked the Italian-style sausages the best. I don't think he ate much polenta.

Verdict:
Make it again for the Tigs, but probably not for the Deur family.

Pot Roast!

2008-10-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

This week, something just felt "off." I was wiping my countertops and felt I just wasn't getting them clean enough, so I used my clorox bleach pen to whiten around the sink area and tidy up a couple of coffee stained spots. I folded and refolded my daughter's tiny underpants so they would all "face the same way." I used a lint roller to remove fuzzies from the back of the couch.

Then, it dawned on me. I just wasn't feeling domestic enough! So, for the first time ever, I made a pot roast. I felt quite housewifely asking the butcher dude at Hy-Vee for "a pot roast, about three pounds please." Then I felt vaguely repulsed when he handed me what seemed like a giant slab of meat wrapped in brown paper. What can I say...I went through a brief vegetarian phase and sometimes enormous cuts of animal are still weird.

But that repulsion quickly went away, because, people, I have a message for you: pot roast is delicious. In fact, I think I may need to take a break from writing this to go downstairs and have a bit of the leftovers (turns out three pounds is a very generous cut for two adults and a toddler, fyi).

I'd link to my pot roast recipe but I sort of cobbled it together from a couple different sources, as I am wont to do. It basically started off as one recipe, from my mom's low-carb slow-cooker cookbook, and then took on attributes of my own crockpot recipe, and then I just started throwing things in the slow cooker. Here's a brief version: dump almost all of a bottle of beer (we had a can of Foster's in the fridge, so I used that) into the bottom of the slowcooker. Add a beef bouillon cube, a package of dry onion soup mix, a slosh of steak sauce, and some black pepper. Stir. Meanwhile, brown the pot roast on all sides in a pan. Don't get all nuts or anything...just make the outside not pink. Then pick the giant slab of meat up (not with your hands or anything--perhaps some tongs) and put it in the slowcooker on top of the beer mixture. Then flip it over so both sides get the sauce. Also, before you turn the heat off under your pan you browned the roast in, throw the remaining couple of ounces of beer in there. Slosh it around and dump that on top of the roast. I believe the french call this "deglacing" or something.

According to both of my recipes, this is it. Turn the slowcooker on high for five hours. But I wanted veggies in there, too, so I chucked in a quartered onion, some roughly chopped (two-inch lengths) celery, baby carrots (as is) and mushrooms (halved). I just randomly threw those things in, tossed on the lid, and then turned on the slowcooker. Then I left for school.

When I got home five hours later, I walked in on Jeff and Charlotte hunkered over the slowcooker like lions over a wildebeest, surreptitiously sneaking bits of mushroom (Charlotte) and meat (Jeff, of course). "Busted!" Jeff said sheepishly. I shooed them out of the kitchen and made mashed potatoes. Then we all feasted.

Results:
Me: Yep, it was good. Next time, I'll get a smaller roast and throw in more mushrooms.
Jeff: I think he felt like a real man after eating this meal.
Charlotte: Also felt like a real man. And boy does this kid love mushrooms. She also ate a few of the carrots and some meat, but declared "mashed potatoes are yucky." Beg pardon? Are you my child?

Verdict: Make it again!

Coconut, Shrimp, and Corn Chowder

2008-09-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

I've made this soup (excuse me, chowder) before, but when Charlotte was too young to participate in eating it. I stumbled across my recipe when we moved in, and thought I'd try it again. The recipe comes from Real Simple; in general I like their recipes because they require few ingredients and few steps. Uncomplicated, just like me. Heh.

I made one slight change to the recipe. I had some fresh ginger on hand threatening to go bad, so I chopped off a couple of big chunks (silver dollar sized) and threw them in while the soup was simmering. I fished them out before serving. I think it gave the soup a nice fresh flavor. I didn't puree half the batch before adding the shrimp, but I think I would do that the next time. I might also consider adding a tiny pinch of curry paste to add zip.

Results:

Me: Yum. I love anything with coconut milk and shrimp.
Jeff: Ditto on the coconut milk. Thumbs up.
Charlotte: She ate all her shrimp and asked for more. "Where'd the shrimp go? I need more shrimp!" She also is a huge fan of corn. Her bowl was full of potatoes and a little broth when she was done. The pureeing might help her eat more of the actual soup.

Verdict: Make it again!

What are we eating?

2008-09-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

This tangential blog will serve two purposes: 1. To remind me of the things I've cooked that have been "successful," and 2. To answer the question, "So, what's Charlotte eating these days?" I'll try to post once or twice a week, depending on how frequently I make new things (or cook at all, as opposed to throwing a box of mac & cheese on the stove...shhhh, don't tell).