Lunchbox Liz

Does Blogging in Your Head Count?

2008-07-04T11:21:00.001-07:00

I blog every day, really--just most of the time it is in my head. Maybe before blogs this was just our thoughts and now we think of our thoughts as type with pictures. For instance, yesterday I was using some miso dressing on a salad and thought "oh, this would be a good one to share," and mentally wrote the recipe down and thought of a lead. Or, while I was traveling in Tampa last week and discovered that all along I could have been ordering my hot tea with seamed milk not just ordinary pour-from-the-pitcher milk. Or, the recipe for grilled coleslaw hat I made when my family cam to visit. Or, how lately I sit in the back pasture and watch our goats eat with such gusto it makes one envious.

I think the biggest culprit of my lack of posts is abandoning my treasured balanced life to write a book and work on a TV show. My lunches have been rushed boring affairs with little imagination. All my creative energy has been poured into other things and my soul is suffering for it. Its time to TAKE BACK LUNCH!

What Goats Like to Eat

2008-05-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

The answer--besides everything--is organic. I was shocked to find that the goats shunned conventionally grown produce, even things they love like cabbage and carrot peels. I discovered this because it is between growing seasons at the farm and we are buying more conventionally grown produce at the local grocery store. I thought that maybe my goats were just picky, but when I happened to go to the health food store and stocked up on organic produce they chowed down. Now, don't believe for one moment that if I left the conventionally grown bits out for them they wouldn't eventually eat it. It's just they prefer organic. Don't we all.

The Latest Excuse

2008-05-07T07:51:00.001-07:00

I've welcomed our goat herd to the back yard. Blogging has once again gone by the wayside. From left to right are: Faith, Zeus, Diva, and the tiny leg just visible is Bella. Diva is working hard at being herd queen and gives Bella a very hard time. Zeus has decided he is not going to have any of that and comes to Bella's rescue. Faith goes with whomever is winning. So goes my lunch hour.

Blog Worthy

2008-04-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

This month book club read The Secret Garden. It was a choice between this and The Omnivore's Dilemma. We chose redemption over castigation. I found The Secret Garden Cookbook at the library and dropped into the lap of the host. She rose to the challenge and made a beautiful meal of roast chicken with bread sauce, mint peas, and roasted carrots. The piece de la résistance was the summer pudding. Made by smashing white bread into a mold, slathering it with butter and then dumping in cherry preserves and allowing it to sit over night. Topped with whipped cream it was like eating jelly sandwiches, but better!

Escape

2008-03-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

Fourish years ago my friend's Meagan and Brian escaped to the pacific northwest to live on a sailboat with three cats. This is their backyard and their boat. When I'm in the area I always drop by for a visit. We eat, drink, and reminisce. The three of us --with a few others in tow; they went home after the summer--moved to Colorado together after throwing darts at a map. Brian has become the cook in the family. He ponders over what food to cook and when to do it, while we sip on beers and talk. It's good to be with old friends.

Always Trust a Foodie

2008-03-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I traveled to the Seattle area. My first stop was a visit with Jake and Ande, a couple that started the supper club in which my husband and I used to participated for many years until everyone moved away. The first thing we did was, of course, lunch. Jake took me to his favorite spot near his office where he works. Apparently none of his coworkers will go there because the food is too weird. He works at Amazon so one might think that his coworkers would be a little more adventurous, plus this is apparently the spot where all the cool Asian professional baseball players hang out. The restaurant features Thai, with American fusion overtones—which makes it sound regal—it’s the neighborhood bar. I had the hamburger steak. The hamburger had onions and probably some breadcrumb mixed in and was topped with graded radish. It was served with a small salad with corn, peppers, with Thai dressing made of sesame oil, chilies, sugar, rice vinegar and soy (I'm guessing here), a small pile of pasta mixed with ketchup, and steamed rice. The meal was out of this world, even the ketchup-laden pasta. I thought the rice was overkill, but there was so much dressing left on the plate that I dumped the rice on top and ate it as dessert. Always trust a foodie to point you in the right direction.

Skiing Into Last Place

2008-03-03T05:54:00.001-08:00

My sixth day on skis this season led me to last place, again. I can't complain even though my continual training goal is to not come in last. I didn't train this year—writing a book puts a kibosh on training as well as blogging. At least, unlike the last race I did two weeks ago, they didn't have to send the snowmobile out to see if I was lost. Still a bad day skiing beats a lot of other things I could be doing.

We stayed in a cabin with other skiers where we could talk about all of the gory details like if we had on enough clothes or too many, what the hills were like, the snow conditions, how our wax did. At the end of the day we a shared a meal with the members of the Boulder Nordic Club.

Potlucks always seem to work out. (If I discount the Tour de France party where everyone brought green salads from their garden; the following year we all brought desserts.) We had a really great meal starting with wine and a small pizza followed by dinner of tomato soup and green salad with roasted chicken and then topped it off with a warm brownie. All complimented with wonderful chat. That's what I call a good day.

Today Lunch
Tomato Soup

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 28-oz can whole tomatoes
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
2 cups red wine
1/2 cup roasted chili or other peppers, chopped (see below for instruction)
2 cups rice, soy, or cow's milk
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp basil
1 tbsp thyme
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Pour olive oil in a large soup pot and place on medium heat. Add garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add onions and cook then until they are translucent. Pour wine into the mixture along with the herbs and bring it to a low boil and cook until the liquid is reduced in half. Place the whole tomatoes in a large bowl and squish with your fingers to reduce their size. Add all tomatoes along with the chilies, milk, salt and pepper, and the rest of the olive oil and cook for twenty minutes just below a boil. I find that tomato soup is best served the day after you make it; the flavors intensify. Serves 4.

Roasted Peppers: I use a gas grill with a cover. Wash whole peppers and have them ready at the grill. Turn the grill onto the lowest heat setting. Place the peppers on the grill immediately and close the cover. Cook for about five minutes checking halfway though to make sure they aren't burning. Flip the peppers and toast on the other side. They should be done when they begin to wilt and show grill marks. They are really easy to burn, but don’t worry. The burned bits peal off pretty easily. You can even leave some over toasted spots to add flavor. Allow the peppers to cool, chop off the tops and remove the seeds. Chop and freeze in 1/2-cup increments for future use.

Blog Buster

2008-02-29T12:49:00.000-08:00

Writing a book is a sure blog buster. I am barely walking my talk with lunches consisting of turkey slices, apples, and chocolate or simply a bowl of popcorn. My training schedule has also taken a dive, but I'm hopeful that all will be back on track soon.

I did bring in a good lunch to work last week to share with those who were at the lunch table--leftover Napa cabbage slaw and curried cornbread from book club. It was my mia culpa to all of those whom I have advocated the importance of a good lunch.

Today's Lunch
Curried Cornbread

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup turbanado or raw sugar or 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp curry powder
1 onion, chopped
2 Anaheim peppers, chopped
1 cup milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients except the curry in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Place olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion on low heat until translucent. Add curry powder and cook for about 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Add peppers and incorporate with the curried onions. Turn off heat and add milk and onion to pan and whisk. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients an pour into a greased 9 x 9 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Deadline blues

2008-01-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

Lunch hit an all time low yesterday when I ate five day old rice and green topped with two day old fish and frozen peas. It was surprisingly good though.

Getting Old

2007-12-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

It's finally happened. I can listen to books on tape that I know I have listened to before and have no memory of the plot. In the past I have not been interested in listening to or reading a book or watching a movie more than once—for some reason plays do not make this list. My grandfather said that one of the best things about getting old is you could read the same thriller over and over again and never have to buy a new book.

Today's Lunch
Black Bean Humus

2 cups black beans (dried or canned)
1 small chopped onions, sautéed in olive or coconut oil.
1/4 cup tahini
Juice of 3 lemons
2 small roasted chilies, chopped (or 1 small 4-oz can)
1/4 tsp Hingvastak or clove of garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Soak the black beans over night. Rinse and place in a pressure cooker with just enough water to cover the beans. Bring to pressure and cook for ten minutes. Allow the pressure to come off naturally. Sautee onions. Place all ingredients in a food processor or mix with a potato masher.

Note: Hingvastak is an Ayurvedic formula. Ayurveda is an ancient system of health care from Indian. Hingvastak is comprised of asafetida (a good substitute for garlic, if like my husband garlic inflames your appetite), cumin seed, ajamoda seed, ginger root, black pepper fruit pippali fruit, and fenugreek. If you don't have it handy add the spices from this list that you do have. They will help you digest the beans.

The Joy of a Hot Beverage

2007-12-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

It snowed the past two days and we have a winter wonderland spread out before us on the Front Range. Yesterday we got in our first say of skiing and I'm so pleased that I have better conditioning than I thought I had. The snow was a bit soft but oh, so beautiful.
Today I have been working on the book all day. I really didn’t think that writing a book would be a walk in the park, but I also didn't think that it would go so slowly! As a break I fixed myself a cup of hot chocolate that I sipped out of my birthday mug, made for me by one of my best friend's daughter. Because life really is a sum of simple pleasures I relish my new mug, hot drinks, snowy days, and stolen moments.

Today's Lunch
Hot Chocolate

1 part milk
1 part creamed coconut
5 drops vanilla Stevia
2 tbsp Coco powder
Pinch salt

A time of thanksgiving

2007-11-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again—Thanksgiving is simply the best. A day (or rather long weekend) for eating with loved ones and giving thanks. I've spend the past three days alternately cooking, eating, weaving, exercising, writing, and doing chores. It is has been lovely. We cranked up our woodstove for the first time to chase away the bitter cold temperatures that have descended in our neck of the woods. Jim set about building a ski-waxing bench with the extra time since there isn't enough snow yet to ski. It's been nice puttering around the house together, an activity we haven't had much time to do lately.
The biggest hit of our Thanksgiving was the pumpkin pie. The filling was made of a baked pie pumpkin gathered from the farm; eggs, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom; a cup of soymilk, and a teaspoon of zantham gum. I used the gluten-free crust from the baking class I took last spring. I'd give you the recipe, but I would feel guilty for sharing someone else's hard work. I hear the teacher is putting together a cookbook. Instead I'll leave you with a Lamb recipe from my high-school friend Kristina in her own hand. Her family is Greek and we used to spend holidays snitching baklava from their kitchen dodging her grandmother who often chased us from the kitchen with a carving knife. Anyway, we used to get a lamb from the farm each spring, but they have sold off her stock. I'm looking forward to finding a new source and giving this recipe a try.

Today's Lunch
Leg of Lamb

ok so here is the lamb recipe, although its only in my head so use your best judgment for measurements. (its soo amazingly easy, but yummy) leave yourself a day or too for marinating.

1 boneless leg of lamb (all tied up)
1 lemon
2+cups olive oil
salt and pepper
1+ head of garlic
a bunch of rosemary
a gallon size ziplock bag

ok first take your garlic, and peel and cut it into slivers. (the big cloves into thirds, the little ones not at all)
then take the rosemary off the sprigs and make a pile.
next take the lamb, and , as brutally as this is, jab it with a small knife to make incisions about 1/2 inch long all over it, I'm talking all sides of the lamb. about 3/4 of an inch between each cut. then, in those incisions, stuff a piece of garlic and some rosemary .
then salt and pepper the lamb, put it inside the ziplock bag, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the bag, and then throw the lemon in the bag. then add the olive oil.
Zip the bag shut, and turn it over a few times.
then refrigerate at least overnight. i like to do 2 days. make sure you turn it over a couple of times.
the reason for the ziplock bag, instead of a pan, is it really engulfs the leg in the oil and juice and marinates the whole thing better than being in a pan. however, if your lamb is too big for a bag, use the pan, you just have to turn it more often.
then when ready to cook, cook it the way you like it. we either grill it, or bake it. (follow the instructions on the lamb package for temp of oven. ) it usually take about 1 1/2 hours.
remember, be careful not to overcook, lamb is best served med-rare
but if you accidentally overcook it, its still yummy!

so, try it out! let me know how it goes

A Quickie

2007-11-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

One of the steady-Eddie, volunteers at the farm--bookkeeper and permaculture planner among other things--has started a blog about her and her husband's quest to eat local for a year. She includes recipes for seasonal, Colorado, cooking and resources for eating local. Check her out at http://lovelandlocal.blogspot.com.

And, speaking of seasonal produce we just got the squash for our winter share. All thirty-one pounds of it!

Women of the Year

2007-11-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

Once a month I get together with a group of women that until last February I didn't know. The group is sponsored by a local women's foundation. There are no rules except the commitment to meet on the first Tuesday of the month. What we have decided to do is meet in each other's homes and divvy up the cooking. The host plans an activity and we do a check-in with each other about how the month has been. It's been a pretty cool thing and I've learned a few new dishes. Today's lunch is from this month's meeting.
Oh, and the photo well that is my office mate Liz Good. We dressed up as good and evil and won the office costume contest for Halloween. We were joined in the competition by Barb in circulation who came as a drunk monk.

Today's Lunch
Ratatouille Crepes

16 entree crepes
1/3 cup cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, sliced
3 Tbls flour
1 1# eggplant, diced
2 zucchini, thinly sliced
2 green (or red) peppers, seeded and cut into thin strips
1 29 oz can Italian-style tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbls capers (optional)
1 cup grated Swiss cheese

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and onion and saute until onion is transparent. Meanwhile lightly flour the diced eggplant and sliced zucchini. Add the zucchini, eggplant and green pepper to onion and garlic. Stir to mix well and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper, and cook, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook for 30 minutes longer or until mixture is thick. Add capers during last 15 minutes of cooking. Divide the mixture evenly among crepes and roll up or fold. Place in single layer in greased shallow baking dish. Top with grated swiss cheese. Dish can be covered and refrigerated at this point. Before serving bake, uncovered, in 350 oven for 20 minutes or until hot and cheese has melted.

Stereotypes

2007-10-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

My husband spent Saturday helping a friend “harvest” a buffalo from a recent hunt. I was delighted when Jim came home with his arms laden with meat. It seems that most people who meet us assume that we are vegetarian hippies. It can be sort of frustrating to be a cultural stereotype. I love meat!
Truth be told I was a vegetarian for 11 years and I did follow the Dead around a bit. I have, however, ditched my wire-rim glasses and I don’t wear Birkenstocks as much as I used to. I do like to live close to the land (as long as it is within walking distance from downtown) and make almost everything from scratch if time permits. I pretty much loathe shopping and spending money. So I guess my modern standards this makes me a hippie.

P.S. I seem to be having some technical difficulties with my blog. I can’t make computers from scratch.

Today’s Lunch
Buffalo Chili

1 lb buffalo
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 red pepper, chopped
1 pound Shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 can or cup pinto beans
1 16-oz can crushed tomatoes or 12 fresh tomatoes
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

In a large stockpot melt oil on medium head and add garlic and onion; sauté for 3 minutes. Add buffalo and herbs and spices, stir, and then reduce heat to medium low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until buffalo is browned. Add the rest of the ingredients, cover and cook for another 15 or 20 minutes. Serves 4.

Saying Goodbye and Hello

2007-10-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Life certainly has been distracting these days. Even so, we had some amazing meals—marinara made with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and basil, gobs of bar-be-que from our housewarming party, and perhaps my favorite smoked salmon fajitas for my mother’s first day of her visit. Food is always good in for celebration and solice. We had to say goodbye to our beloved kitty Meep, whose formative years as a street cat in Vegas finally caught up with her quite suddenly. At the same time we are preparing to welcome our new goats Diva and Zeus. Meep would have liked them. She is buried in the back paddock fenced off from the goats where she can keep an eye on them.

Today's Lunch

Smoked Salmon Fajitas

6 oz smoked salmon

2 cups black beans

1 onion, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

1 yellow pepper, sliced

1 small zucchini, chopped into 1 inch pieces

4 or five shredded lettuce leaves

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

3/4 cut salsa

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 tbsp coconut or olive oil

1 tbs thyme

1 tsp paprika

salt and pepper to taste

6 flour or corn tortillas

Mix beans, thyme, and cilantro and set aside. Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add onion and cook until slightly translucent. Add peppers and cover for five minutes. Add zucchini, salt, pepper, and paprika and cook until zucchini is tender. Warm tortillas and serve the beans, sautéed vegetables, lettuce, salsa, salmon, and cheese in separate bowls allowing guest to top tortillas as they please. Serves 3.

Nothing But Blue Skies

2007-09-17T06:43:00.000-07:00

After the meeting of another grueling deadline I headed to the farm for some puppy therapy. Mura and Dag the farm dogs had nine puppies eight weeks ago and they are ready to play! The farm had a Colorado (mostly) organic spaghetti dinner to raise money for the education programs. The main attraction was the puppies, but there were also hayrides, cattail mazes, and homemade plum ice cream. I volunteered to bring one of a dozen peach custards for the feast.

Today’s Lunch
Peach Custard

6 peaches
4 eggs
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp melted butter

Peel the peaches and bake them for 30 minutes at 350 degrees in a 9- by 13-inch pan. Drain the liquid and place in a small saucepan. Bring the juice to a gentle boil and for ten minutes to concentrate. Allow to cool. Make the custard by beating together the peach juice, 4 eggs, flour and butter. Pour the custard over the peaches and bake for thirty minutes.

Envy

2007-09-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

I have blog envy--it is total and complete. http://annesfood.blogspot.com/

Labor of Love

2007-09-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

Gardens are pumping out produce at a satisfying rate. Today when I visited the community farm we belong to volunteer members were hard at work harvesting; hauling; and counting cabbage, cucumbers, chard, radish, zucchini, yellow squash, garlic, basil, lettuce, green onions, and peppers for the week’s share. This is the first season in many years my husband and I haven't joined them for this Saturday ritual. It feels like cheating to just gather the fruits of their labor. Today’s recipe comes from a member of the farm.

Today’s Lunch

Radish, Cucumber & Basil Tea Sandwiches

4 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped basil (or other favorite fresh herb)
8 slices wheat bread
1 4-inch piece cucumber, sliced into very thin rounds
2 radishes, trimmed and very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Place cream cheese and basil in a bowl; stir with a rubber spatula until combined.
Spread cream cheese mixture on 4 slices of bread; layer with cucumber and radish slices.

Spread remaining slices of bread with butter. Place, butter side facing down, on radishes. Trim crusts; cut sandwiches in half. Makes 8 sandwiches.

Sweet Stuff

2007-08-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Lately I’ve collected random bits of sweet stuff. A co-worker, Cat, made this cake for another colleague for her birthday. This is her first decorated cake!

And Cat isn’t the only clever cake crafter, Debbie, created this lovely wedding cake for a friend, cleverly piping the sides with mountain vistas. Debbie has a passion for pasty that runs deep.

Then I was at the store and saw this site
that tickled my funny bone.

And, because beer is essentially sugar, here is a sign from the Rock Bottom Brewery. Pretty much sums up life (and beer).

The Best Move Ever!

2007-08-15T07:21:00.001-07:00

As I left the office two weeks ago Thursday my officemate wished me the best move ever. It was! We had loads of help and including a wonderful catered meal from a dear friend. After we moved all of the heavy furniture in less than three hours we feasted on a meal of rosemary walnuts; crackers with sharp cheddar, creamy Muenster cheese, and cream cheese with raspberry sauce; marinated tofu, chicken, rice, corn, and sun dried tomatoes salad; marinated carrots with mint, and wheat-free cookies. By Sunday we were completely settled save hanging a few pictures. We are both so grateful for the benefit of good friends.

Today’s Lunch
Navajo Peach Crumble

Peaches are beginning to come in. This recipe has been making its way around the office.

Topping:
1/2 C. Flour
1/3 C. Cornmeal
1/3 C. Sugar
1/8 t. Salt
1/3 C. Butter
1 T. Toasted pine nuts

Fruit:
3 C. Peaches (peeled & sliced)
1/3 C. Sugar
1 T. Lemmon or Orange juice
1/2 t. Cinnamon

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Cut butter into the mixture with two knives or by rubbing mixture between thumb and fingers until coarse crumbs form. Stir in pine nuts and set aside.Combine sugar, peaches, juice, and cinnamon. Spread in 9" or 10" ungreased pan. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit and bake until fruit is bubbling and top is golden (about 30 min.). Let sit a few minutes before serving.

Aww Shucks

2007-08-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

Little Kitty (in black) was banished from the house after she was accused of peeing on my stepfather’s shoes. It was later discovered that Mr. Lewis, head cat, was at fault. Little Kitty was allowed to return to the house and Lewis’s bail is set at one new pair of shoes.

Today's Lunch

Egg Salad with Fresh Corn

4 ears of corn
6 eggs
1 tbsp hot salsa (I recommend Frontera by Rick Bayless)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Fill a large stock pot with water. Bring to a boil and place eggs in boiling water with a slotted spoon. Reduce heat so the water stays at a rolling boil. Set a timer for ten minutes. Run out into the field and pick four ears of corn and shuck. Remove eggs from water and run cold water over them. Place shucked corn in boiling water and cook for three minutes. Remove corn and douse with cold water and allow to cool. Peel eggs and chop. Remove corn kernels from cob. Mix egg, corn, salsa, and season with salt and pepper. Serves 4.

Life

2007-07-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

As I have probably quoted before, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” Life certainly has been at it lately. I’ve thrown myself into the yard, because we decided we were going to stay in our current home forever and ever. Then, boom, we are buying a house down the street. Now for a short while (we hope) we will have two houses. I also didn’t plan on a move in the middle of writing a book. But this is life! The new house is zoned for goats and has a 400-square-foot studio out back, and it is away from the road (that used to be a cornfield). The kitchen has a wood burning stove and lots of room. And, the nicest touch of all is that the neighbors on either side are named Joy--Joy will surround us!

Today’s Lunch
Amaranth Meatloaf

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 young garlic bulb or 2 cloves, chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 pound fresh amaranth leaves (or spring greens of choice), washed well and coarsely chopped
1 lb buffalo burger
4 slices of bread, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
3/4 cup salsa
salt and pepper to taste

Melt oil in a skillet on medium. Add garlic and cook for a minute, add scallions and cook for another minute. Add spices, cover and cook for five minutes. Add amaranth and stir cover and cook until leaves are tender. Place buffalo in large bowl with bread crumbs and salsa. Add ingredients from skillet and mix—it is easiest to do this with your hands. Place in a 6-by-6-inch baking dish. Cover with tin foil and cook at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Serves 4

Note: One of my favorite lunches as a kid was a cold meatloaf sandwich with fresh lettuce and tomato from the garden. Give it a try!

Lush Life

2007-07-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

This week a friend dropped off two lovely pieces of fish he caught in Alaska a few days before. One was halibut the other salmon. We broiled the salmon right away with coriander and ate it that day. The halibut we broiled, mixed it with fresh shell peas from the farmers market, chopped parsley, radish, and celery and topped it with fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and tucked it in our lunch box. Life is good!

First Things First, Second Things Second

2007-07-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

First, I have to clear up a small matter of crediting the fabulous artist who created those incredible vegetable creatures featured in the post from June 3. My mother posted a link her blog (see links) to mine. She works as a radio journalist and the editor she works with at NPR was cruising though her blog; noticed my link; saw the post; and informed mom that his BROTHER created those creatures. Saxton Freymann writes fanciful children’s stories with wonderful titles like How Are You Peeling. You can find a complete list of his books at Arthur A. Levine Books. figured since I ripped off his work once he wouldn’t mind if I posted a book cover here. Two of my officemates have already run out to buy them.

Second, My friend and co-worker Amy celebrated a birthday. I brought brownies laced with cinnamon for the treat and gave her a big bowl of coleslaw as a present. The latter her husband though was really weird, but he enjoyed the former.

Today’s Lunch
Mexican Brownies
Modified from The Joy of Cooking

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
8 tbsp butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup flour
1 16-oz bag dark chocolate chips

Have all ingredients at room temperature, even the eggs. Preheat over to 350 degrees and grease a 13 by 9 inch baking dish. Prepare a double boiler by setting a metal mixing bowl on top of a saucepan large enough so that the bowl doesn't touch the water. Place two cups of water in pan and bring to a soft boil. Place chocolate and butter in bowl and melt. Wisk the mixture and set aside to cool completely. Once cooled whisk in sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, eggs. Add flour and chocolate chips and stir just enough for all the ingredients to be incorporated. If you over beat the brownies will be tough. Scrape the batter into baking dish and cook for 25-30 minutes.

Amy’s Coleslaw

1/2 head of cabbage, coarsely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 cup jicama, peeled and chopped
5 carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 cup parsley, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted (heat a dry skillet on medium, add seeds and stir until they start to pop and brown. Usually takes about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them as they burn easily!)
Favorite salad dressing (for me that is Drews)

Toss all the ingredients in a large bowl, dress, enjoy!

Memory Lane

2007-06-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

I tend to be fairly nostalgic. Cozy memories I’m sure are amended in my mind to make them snuggly. I remember the romance of living without heat and water not the tortuous mornings deciding how long I could linger in bed before facing the cold. Traveling to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my family this past wee was a trip down memory lane, sort of. When I stayed there 25-years ago there were only little small marts selling the basic necessities. Now there are Wal-Marts, full service grocery stores, and yoga. The rolling sea was the same and the lazy mornings as was the one ubiquitous rainy day playing ping-pong and napping. And, best remembered are the dinners. My family can cook! We feasted on pesto brought ready from the garden, fresh bread, bean lasagna, homemade baked beans with copious amounts of bacon, fresh shrimp and bay scallops, brownies laced with cinnamon, and pound cake. Memory can be very sweet (and savory).

Today's Lunch

Curried Scallops

1/2 lb bay scallops
1 cup brown rice
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp rice or wheat flour
1 cup milk
1 bunch scallions, chopped
4 ears of corn (seamed with kernels cut from the cob) or 1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup fresh broccoli florets cut small
1 red pepper sliced into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
2 tbsp curry
salt and pepper to taste

Cover rice with water and soak for a half hour. Rinse rice two or three times. Place soaked rinsed rice in a pan with a cover and add two cups of water. Bring to a boil and cover. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for approximately 30 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Leave covered until served.

Melt butter in a 1 quart soup pot on medium. Add scallions and cook for a few minutes. Add curry and cook for five minutes. Add flour and stir occasionally for a five minutes. Add half of milk and whisk; slowly pour in the remaining milk. Add more or less milk depending on your desired thickness of the sauce. Add broccoli and cover, cook for five minutes. Wash scallops and add them along with the remaining ingredients. Cook for another ten minutes covered or until scallops are cooked. Serve over rice.

Sweet Pig!

2007-06-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

Whomever is responsible creating this sweet potato Guinea Pig is a creative genius! Look for more veggie animals at www.frogview.com/show.php?file=1508. Frog View is sort of a weird open e-mail. I'm not sure what the point is, but since it brought me these wonderful creatures I should just be grateful for the wilds of the Internet.

Public Baking

2007-05-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

I am a perfectly respectable cook and baker, so why is it that when I choose to bring a baked good to a friend more often than not it’s horrible. Last night I brought a pan of brownies to a friend who had just completed his first bike race and had recently celebrated a birthday. He is still training for more grueling events so I wanted to make something that was full of good carbs and high protein. Jim had just bought three bags of coconut flour. I substituted it for the wheat flour in the recipe. Well they were awful! Maybe not the taste, but the texture was dreadful. Next time I’ll mix the flours a bit more. My husband and I took them over anyway with a six-pack of Skinny Dip beer and told him he could throw out the brownies and drink the beer. It’s the thought that counts, right?

Today’s Lunch
Black Beans

2 cups dried black beans
1/2 onion
5 carrots chopped into small pieces
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Cover the beans generously with water—about three cups—and soak overnight. Place beans, bay leaves, orange juice, cumin, thyme, cayenne and black pepper (do not add the salt—it can keep the beans from cooking properly) and add just enough water to cover the beans. Bring cooker to pressure on high heat and reduce the heat to medium low—just enough to keep up the pressure. Cook for twenty minutes. Remove from heat and allow the pressure to drop off naturally—it takes about fifteen minutes. Add chopped onion, carrots, onion, and salt. Bring to pressure again on high heat and then remove the cooker from the burner. Allow pressure to relax naturally and enjoy! I like to eat my beans with salsa. These beans are great cold, too!

Notes: I live at altitude so I have to use a pressure cooker to get beans to cook thoroughly. If you live lower down than you can cook the beans as you normally would or you can buy canned beans and cook the veggies and herbs and add them to the beans.

Don't Eat at the Airport

2007-05-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

Yick. I just ate the worlds worst egg and cheese panini in the San Francisco airport. After visiting the city where you simply can’t get a bad meal this is not a fitting end. San Francisco is foodie heaven. The best meal from the past week is a toss up between a lunch of cold spring onion and fennel soup topped with feta and walnuts at The Ferry Building that hosts one of the nation’s best farmers’ markets or a breakfast of crab macaroni and cheese at the Pergamino Café—they also make killer pancakes. At the Pergamino I got my I got my best tip on thrift stores (west side of the Mission District) from Maynard the restaurants hustler .
I was in San Francisco to attend the Maker Faire and to help my mom celebrate her 60th. We did find some time to do more than eat, but only to work up an appetite between meals. MoMA was closed when we stopped by across the street we found a really great Crumb exhibit included his painted spools and large scale works of Mr. Natural. We rode the ubiquitous cable car, tromped down the world’s curviest road, took a ferry around the bay, cruised Chinatown for trinkets, shopped for books in Little Italy, had a power lunch in the Financial District, watched the lea lions at Fisherman’s Warf, went thrift shopping in the Mission district, hiked Telegraph Hill, got a pedicure and a haircut in Nob Hill, and was in bed by nine each night. Not a bad way to live.

Before There was Martha

2007-05-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

Last night’s Masterpiece Theatre aired “The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton.” How could I have not known about this woman! She invented the modern recipe format. Isabella Mary Beeton was a no nonsense Victorian woman who married a for love. Mr. Beeton a visionary publisher believed in making how-to magazines and books available to the masses (sound familiar). Isabella contributed a column or to Mr. Beeton’s The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, scandalizing her family by going into work every day. She authored the monumental work Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, which presented hundreds of recipes for the masses. Isabella was not much of a cook, but she painstakingly tested recipes sent in by readers of the magazine. What an extraordinary woman. Now I wonder if she has a crafty side…

The Best of What's Around

2007-05-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

Two states, five counties, and seven cities later I finally had to abandon my Craig’s List dream of a yard. The idea of using all the stuff I can scrounge on Craig’s List to landscape has been dashed by the realities of time. I have been saving toward landscaping this summer so I have a bit of money, but between travel and work I have no time. I got practical and ordered eight yards of top soil to build a burm in which to plant the xeriscape plants I bought via the City at wholesale prices. I did pay for my decision; the landscaping company dumped the dirt literally in the middle of the road creating a traffic hazard that I had to take care of one shovel full at a time. They said help was on the way, but it never showed.

Anyway back to the trip. I roared through the states of Maryland and Virginia for both work and pleasure. Work took me to Maryland Sheep and Wool the largest sheep show in the county where I enjoyed lamb sausage and large glasses of ice tea. My colleagues and I had our annual meal at May’s in Fredric Maryland where we feasted on lovely lump meat crab cakes with a side of giddiness that always accompanies a day at the show and gathering of friends. We met with one of the grand dames of weaving and her adorable husband for cocktails in Baltimore and then were led to a dive to eat when my traveling companion asked a homeless person for advise. In Charlottesville, Virginia, my hometown, I collapsed at a childhood friend’s apartment situated conveniently over a wine shop where we could scurry down the back stairs and grab a bottle of locally produced wine, fresh baked bread, and sheep’s milk cheese for snacking. While in the area I visited my god donkeys and their caretaker Ginger and gathered eggs from her neighbor’s farm, enjoyed a spinach pate with a high school friend, and ate a nostalgic dinner of grilled chicken, corn one the cob, and green beans with family while reminiscing about the 1,500 chocolate chip cookies we used to bake for the Messiah Sing-In. In Richmond, I visited my sister where we roamed the thrift stores and ate Thai food before pressing onto the Shenandoah Valley to spend a few hours with my mother eating fried chicken and spinach fresh from the garden. It is not with total regret that I gaze at my lump of commercial dirt and realize that one has to be flexible.

Today’s Lunch
Springtime Fettuccine

4 oz fettuccine
1 tbsp coconut or olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped
1/2 cup of peas (frozen or fresh)
1 tsp basil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan

Cook fettuccine according to instruction on the package. In a large skillet, melt oil on medium heat and add onion. Cook until the onions are translucent, about three minutes, and add, bazil, salt and pepper, squash, and peas. Cover and cook for about ten minutes until the squash is tender. Toss with fettuccine and top with parmesan.

It's a Small World Afterall

2007-04-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a friend and colleague over to dinner. She and I have much in common—our grandparents lived next door to each other in North Carolina; we share the same birthday; her daughter was born in the same Houston hospital that I was; and we work for the same company, although we live in different states. I love the small world syndrome. It makes me feel cozy. She paid me the greatest compliment stating that my turkey soup may have been the best she had ever had and would I post it on the blog. Being agreeable I said, “Sure, it’s easy first you bake a turkey….” and we both started laughing.

A few months ago my husband and I cooked a twenty-pound turkey. We basted it, stuck it in the oven and cooked it for five hours while we puttered around the house. Then my husband sliced the meat off the carcass while I made gravy with the drippings and soup stock with the bones (see post from July 17, 2006 for general instructions on how to make stock). We packed the freezer with one pound packs of turkey, quart jars of stock, and pint jars of gravy. Whenever we need a quick meal I thaw out a quart of turkey stock and a packet of turkey; fry half an onion in 1 tsp of coconut oil in a large saucepan; add 2 stalks of sliced celery, 1 tsp curry, salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 chopped apple, and a handful of chopped parsley; then add the stock and chipped turkey and heat to a simmer. I guess the latter is what I think of as the “easy” part.

(This photo has nothing to do with anything, but I do adore my cats. This is Zoe looking out the back door.)

Just Another Day

2007-04-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

I used to religiously celebrate Earth Day by participating in community events. These days my celebrations are more personal. Today I’ll dig a new bed for all the seeds I have been given over the past year from friend’s gardens. I am not much of a gardener, but I do love digging in the dirt. When I’m digging I imagine that every seed I plant will grow. The earth is pure potential although the reality of my garden is much different.

For me, each day has become more personal. I refuse to let them slip by in a mindless blur. To do this I’ve had to cultivate the notion of limits. This year I’m involved in a book project so that means no training for any triathlons or biking events. My travel schedule has ramped up so that means I may have to have more modest goals about gardening. I am venturing on some hardscaping projects the softscaping will have to wait. (I am tickled that I have finally thought of a theme for my yard. This will be the yard that Craig built—as many elements of its construction will come from Craig’s List as I can manage.) I am also going to have to cut back on my involvement with the farm and blog less. These are all choices I will have to make so that I can joyfully write a book, travel, and garden, and not just endure the process.

Today’s Lunch
LuLu’s L.A.(Lower Alabama) Caviar
www.curtchapman.com/lulu_recipes.htm
Lulu is Jimmy Buffett’s sister. She operates a restaurant called Lulu’s Place on one of the intercostals waterways on the Gulf Coast side of Alabama. My husband and I have a very busy week coming up and this dish makes the perfect grab and go lunch.

6 cans (15oz) blackeyed peas, rinsed and drained
1/2 c red onion, chopped
1/3 c each of green, red, & yellow pepper, chopped
1 c cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 c parsley, chopped
1/2 c balsamic vinegar
1/2 c olive oil
4 T sugar
Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine above ingredients and marinate for 24 hours. Serve with saltines or tortilla chips.

Happy Memories

2007-04-08T08:10:00.000-07:00

My Japanese friends have a wonderful habit of photographing their food when they travel. I’ve just come back from a week and a half in Florida and have nary a picture to share of all the lovely food that I ate during my travels. Upon our return my husband and I have craved simple meals of brown rice and veggies enjoying the lingering memories of fresh fish, beautiful cuts of beef, and Schnitzel.

Today’s Lunch
Curried Crepes

1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp curry
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp melted butter
2 beaten eggs

Wisk together flour, curry, salt, pepper, and milk. Add additional ingredients, wisk. Let batter sit for fifteen minutes to allow the air to settle out of the batter. Heat a skillet on medium and lightly grease with butter. Reduce heat to medium low and using a pyrex measuring cup pour in about 1/8 cup of batter or just enough to cover the surface of the pan. Swivel the pan to help guide the batter. Cook until the edges of the crepe begin to curl, about a minute or two depending on how brown you want them. Using a spatula to lift up the edgeof the crepe grab an edge and flip the crepe wiht your hand, cook for another half a minute. Remove the crepe from the pan and allow to cool on a clean surface. Once the next crepe is cooked you can start stacking the previously cooked crepes on a plate. Crepes can store in the fridge for a little over a week. They are great to use in place of noodles in lasagna or in place of tortillas in roll-ups. I like to place a crepe in a skillet and top it with ham and cheese or broccoli and cheese. Once the stuffing is heated I fold the crepe in half and eat it like an omelet. You can substitute the spices for sugar and have sweet crepes, too!

Back to School

2007-03-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

I attended a gluten-free baking class yesterday taught by Mary Copone of The Wheat Free Groumet. It was so much fun and completely counterintuitive to all of my prior baking experience. There was no kneading and the dough is sticky when finished. The results were yummy! The teacher is working on a cookbook, so I don’t dare share her recipes. Below is a description of the class and a free recipe from her site. Here is a link to the school if you would like to check it out, www.wheatfreegourmet.com.

Wheat-Free Gourmet’s Baking 101
Learn the secrets of the Wheat-Free Gourmet’s baking success with recipes including breads, pizza crusts, savory and sweet pies crust, crepes and more. In this class we will learn the different uses of gluten-free flours and simple techniques for successful gluten-free baking. Included is a recipe for Mary’s Baking Mix. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to dive into the dough.

Our Menu includes: Wheat-Free Gourmet’s Cinnamon Walnut Bread, Parmesan Focaccia Margarita Pizza, Spinach Ricotta Quiche, Fresh Berry Dessert Crepes and Mary’s Baking Mix.
Buttenut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup
This simple and easy to make recipe lets you create a thick, hearty soup without using flour thickening agents.

1 large yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic diced
1 large butternut squash peeled and diced
2 large carrot peeled and chopped
2 TBL Olive Oil
1 TBL Butter (optional)
4 cups Chicken or Veggie Broth
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
1 Bay Leaf
½ tsp minced or dried sage
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. In a large saucepan, saute diced onion in olive oil/butter mixture over medium heat until onion is translucent.
2. Add garlic, squash and carrots and saute for 10 minutes.
3. Add broth and herbs and simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender and can be pierced easily with a fork. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. In small batches puree in blender and return to pan.
5. Serve with a drizzle of seasoned olive oil, or sour cream or plain yogurt mixed with chives and lemon.

Relish

2007-03-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

My husband and I recently enjoyed a three-course East Indian meal at a friend’s house. She served three appetizers (spicy garbanzo beans, cabbage fritters with sweet tomato chutney, and cucumber salad), two main dishes (curried shrimp and coconut chicken) with two kinds of rice (steamed and curried) and a side (asparagus with mango dressing). For dessert we had a fruit bowl. I tried in vain to find some Indian beer and settled for Belgium—not really in keeping, but very good! Our hostess started cooking at 6:30 in the morning and didn’t finish until we arrived. What a wonderful evening we had swapping stories and relishing in good food. The fritters inspired the sweet potato pancakes from my last post. I had to get the recipe for the sweet tomato chutney, which besides the mango dressing, was my favorite part of the meal.

Sweet Tomatoe Chutney
(Tamatar Ki Chatni)
As written in Step-by-Step Indian Cooking by Sharda Gopal

1 lb tomatoes
2 oz sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamon seeds
3 cloves
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt
4 curry leaves

Immerse the tomatoes in a bowl of boiling water for about 2 minutes, until the skins split, drain them, allow to cool, peel and chop.

Bring 1/4 pt of water to the boil in a small pan, add the sugar and tomato and cook for 5 minutes, stirring.

Add the cardamon, cloves and shilli and continue cooking, mashing the tomato under the back of a wooden spoon to make a thick paste. Remove the pan from the heat.

Heat the oil, add the mustard seeds and fry until they have all popped, then add to the tomato.

Stir in the vinegar, add salt to taste and sprinkle over the curry leaves.

Food as Craft

2007-02-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

I’ve noticed an odd phenomenon. Food has risen (or has it sunk) to the level of Craft. The most recent issue of Craft has a recipe for kombucha (a kind of fermented tea). One of our trending magazines at work has dedicated an entire issue to the crafty nature of food. Readymade magazine one of the first of the new slew of DIY magazines has introduced a regular food column with such things as wedding cakes make out of hostess cupcakes. This isn’t truly new. A freshly frosted cake has always been seen as fine work of craftsmanship particularly if it is displayed in a beautiful cake stand. Craft has become cool and so it seems has food. Just like you aren’t seen as a geek because you crochet granny squares, neither are you considered so because you bake your own bread.

Today's Lunch
Sweet Potato Pancakes

1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and shredded
2 cups Napa (Chinese) cabbage, shredded
1 leek, washed well and sliced
2 tbsp coriander
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup whole wheat or rice flour
4 eggs
Favorite oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet on medium. Using a large spoon, dish out an orange-sized scoop of pancake mix. Cover with a lid and cook for five minutes. Flip the pancakes and recover for another five minutes. Drain the pancakes on a paper towel. Add more oil to the pan and continue cooking until all the batter is gone. Makes about 12 pancakes

Get Fat!

2007-02-21T19:35:00.000-08:00

Shrove or Fat Tuesday is a day of decadence. Traditionalists will eat pancakes or crepes to celebrate. These foods are made because they used up butter, eggs, milk, and sugar—decadent foods that are avoided by some during the season of Lent. I celebrated Fat Tuesday by baking a King Cake. Historically this was eaten for the feast of epiphany to celebrate the coming of the three wise men, but I’m not splitting hairs. Tons of King Cake is devoured each year to celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans. One lucky diner from my book group found the bean baked into the cake and was named “king”--or rather “queen”--for the day and shall have good luck for the coming year. Lessez le bon ton roulles!

Today’s Lunch
Red Beans and Rice

1 chopped onion
1 chopped red, green, or yellow pepper
3 stalks celery chopped
3/4 pound sliced polish or Italian sausage
2 12-oz cans of kidney beans
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
2 tsp crushed garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper

Heat olive oil in a stock pot on medium heat for about a minute. Add onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add sausage, peppers, celery, and herbs and spices. Sautee until the sausage is well browned. Add kidney beans with juice and rice. Cover and cook for twenty minutes. Serves 4.

Ahhhh

2007-02-19T07:31:00.000-08:00

I just spent the most delicious weekend tucked away in the Rocky Mountains with thirty-five women, four of whom did all the cooking. It was such an amazing opportunity to do very little, but talk with complete strangers (thank you Mildred G. Arnold!). For the next year ten of us will meet once a month and continue our discussions and play although it will be up to us to do the cooking. Our gourmet goddesses from the weekend were kind enough to leave us with a few recipes.

Today’s Lunch
Mexican Corn Chowder

1 can white beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 minced garlic clove
3 tbsp butter
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 cup hot water
1 tsp cumin
2 cups milk
2 cups (8 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 can (16 oz) cream-style corn
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
1 medium tomato, chopped
fresh cilantro

In a soup pot brown onion and garlic in butter. Dissolve bouillon in hot water and add to pan along with cumin; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add milk, cheese, corn, chilies, beans, and hot pepper sauce. Cook and stir over low heat until the cheese is melted. Stir in tomato. Serve immediately with cilantro as garnish.

Crash and Burn

2007-02-15T06:04:00.000-08:00

For Valentine’s Day my husband baked the most decadent chocolate torte, consisting of 1 pound dark chocolate, 1/2 pound butter, 10 eggs, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1/4 cup of rice flour. We had it for breakfast and for half the day I was on fire. I was articulate, witty, insightful (or so I thought), and bursting with energy, until about 2pm when I crashed and burned. This morning I’m having French toast.

Research Lewis, Research

2007-02-12T05:15:00.000-08:00

Wheat shows up in the most unexpected places. After a hard day’s ski I crave salty snacks. We picked up a bag of Sea Salt and Black Pepper Boulder Potato Chips. As reading food packages is half the fun, I was amazed to discover that they contained hydrolyzed wheat gluten. What the heck is that? A Google search revealed, “wheat gluten is the protein complex found in wheat endosperm (essentially the inner core of a grain of wheat). This protein complex is hydrolyzed (or "chopped up into shorter chains of amino acids) to yield glutamine peptides” according to the eas.com (Energy Athletics Strength). Not knowing what hydrolysis really means I went to Wikipedia and found that “hydrolyzed Protein is protein that has been hydrolyzed or broken down into its component amino acids. While there are many means of achieving this, two of the most common are prolonged boiling in a strong acid or base or using an enzyme such as the pancreatic enzyme to stimulate the naturally-occurring hydrolytic process.” Apparently this additive can be used as a binder or to enhance flavor particularly in meat. Well it was in my potato chips so my husband couldn’t eat them. More hydrolyzed wheat gluten for me I guess.

Today’s Lunch
Sweet Potato with Fried Onions and Blue Cheese

Bake 2 sweet potatoes: scrub the skins well and prink the skins with a fork. Turn oven to 375 degrees and place the potatoes in a baking dish. Cook for forty minutes or until the outside yields easily to a spoon. Allow to cool for ten minutes.
Chop one onion and cook for five to ten minutes in 1 tbsp coconut oil. Top potatoes with onions and generous amounts of blue cheese and black pepper. Serves 2.

Time to Play with Dough

2007-02-06T05:50:00.000-08:00

2007 has come in like a lion, but even as I write this I think that perhaps it is a lamb in lion’s clothing. Last year definitely had it share of roars and although I don’t like to wish my time away I’m happy to pay 2006 adieu. For all the things I couldn’t seem to get right last year, this year is looking up. Although there have been some odd events, too. Such as an when an acquaintance claimed that I look exactly like Ben Franklin. How is that for an ego booster?

One new development is my husband was tested for gluten allergies and discovered that his hunch was right--he has gluten sensitivity. This means that he needs to avoid wheat, barley, and rye, and maybe he can get on top of his allergies. For me it is an opportunity to finally learn how to bake in this high-altitude environment I call home. More than a decade ago I worked on weekends at a restaurant called the Virginian and they paid for me to complete a pastry certification with a woman who studied at the Cordon Bleu. (This is at a time when I thought I wanted to go to cooking school. That is until I read an article in the New York Times that listed chef as the third most stressful job—below brain surgeon, but above scaffolding worker.) I build up a lucrative bank of work baking bread and pastries for area restaurants, but when I moved to the west and nothing I learned here worked very well--cakes were dry, pastries were dense, and bread didn’t rise. I took a job at a bakery and the cooks all sneered. Kitchen staff can be very competitive. So instead of retraining myself I gave it up and went to work with schizophrenics. Now I have to tackle the job head one again. I’ve signed up for a gluten free cooking class. In the meantime I think I’ll start with a recipe I saw in the paper. I can at least practice all of my dough shaping skills.

Play Dough
(From the Reporter Herald, Febuary, 5, 2007 “Homeroom” section)

1/2 cup kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
Liquid food coloring

In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except the food coloring. Stir until well mixed, then add food coloring a few drops at a time until desired color is reached. The mixture will start out soupy. Set the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the mixture begins to clump, dry and gets difficult to move the spoon through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer the dough to a dry work surface. When the dough has cooled to the touch, knead until smooth and cool. To store, refrigerate the dough in plastic bags. Makes 2 cups.

Twelve Dilly Beans

2007-01-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

Just in case you want to sing!

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve dilly beans,
Eleven perfect peas,
Ten leaves of lettuce,
Nine lovely leeks,
Eight mustard greens,
Seven sweet potatoes,
Six garlic peppers,
Five golden beets,
Four Chinese cabbage,
Three Fennel bulbs,
Two tasty turnips,
And a parsnip in a pear tree!

Today’s Lunch
Green Beans with Dill

1 lb green beans
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill or 1 tbsp dry
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice from 1 lemon

Wash beans and snap each end off each bean. Steam for 10 minutes or until tender. Toss cooked beans with the rest of the ingredients. Serve hot or cold. Serves 4.

Eleven Perfect Peas

2007-01-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

While studying at Lincoln University in New Zealand I used to go to dances sponsored by the African community of students studying at the University. I was too young to know why the women were hostile and the men overly friendly. At one of the dances I kindly accepted an invitation from a young Ghanaian man to have dinner and study. He cooked me a dinner of tuna and peas with onion and African pepper served over pasta. While eating he announced that his father had ten wives and he wanted eleven, one of whom should be an American. I skipped dessert.

Today’s Lunch
Ghanaian Pasta

1 onion
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup frozen peas
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 can tuna
1 package of pasta of any variety

Heat coconut oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Chop onion and add to the skillet. Cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add cayenne, salt and pepper, and peast. Cover the dish will draining the tuna. Add tuna and cover again. Cook for fifteen minutes on medium low heat. Remove the lid and turn the heat back up to medium and cook for a further 5 minutes. Cook 2 servings of pasta according the directions on the package. Serves 2.

Ten Leaves of Lettuce

2007-01-03T17:31:00.000-08:00

Lettuce comes in a wide array of varieties with the most incredible names-- Ithaca, Summertime, Bibb, Buttercrunch , Marvel of Four Seasons, Salad Bowl, Lollo Bionda, Oakleaf, Rouge d’Hiver, Little Gem, and Mesclun. Summertime is a type of crisphead or iceberg lettuce, but isn’t it so much better to think about eating a bowl of summer?

Today’s Lunch
Roast Beef Roll Ups

6 leaf lettuce leaves
1 tsp horseradish
3 tbsp mayonnaise
6 slices roast beef
1 red pepper

Wash lettuce leaves and pat dry. Mix horseradish and mayonnaise. Wash pepper, slice off the top and clean out the seeds. Cut into strips. Assemble the roll ups by laying a lettuce leaf flat and smear with horseradish mayonnaise. Lay 1 slice of roast beef on the mayonnaise and add a few pepper strips at the base of the leaf and roll! Serves 2.

Nine Lovely Leeks

2007-01-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

I wish I could speak as eloquently on the cultivation of leeks as Lawrence the farmer can. He is very proud of his leeks that stand tall and proud in his field. He had cultivated this same stand of leeks for nearly six generations (of the leeks that is). One thing I can tell you about leeks is that Welshmen sometimes wear them on their heads on St. David’s Day.

Today’s Lunch
Potato and Leek Soup

4 cups stock (see post from July 16, 2006 on how to make stock)
1 large leek
3 tbsp coconut oil
1 clove chopped garlic
2 pounds potatoes any variety chopped into 1-inch pieces.
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Wash the leeks by copping off the greens on the top right where they start to cluster together and merge with the whites. Slice off the bottom. Cut the leek lengthwise and wash both halves under running water. Slice the resulting two halves along the length of the to create crescent shaped pieces. Melt the oil on medium in a large stockpot. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add leeks, salt, and two kinds of pepper and cover for 3 minutes. Add stock and potatoes and cover. Cook for thirty minutes and then test the potatoes to see if they are tender. If not cook further. You may need to reduce the heat to medium low if the soup comes to a hard boil. When the potatoes are done remove the pot from the head and mash the soup with a potatoes masher then stir. Add more salt and pepper if desired. Serve hot or cold. Serves 4.

Eight Mustard Geens

2007-01-01T15:30:00.000-08:00

The other day I was eating lunch in our company break room with a new coworker. She asked me where I got the mustard greens I was eating. I told her about the farm and I learned that she was newly transplanted from North Carolina. She sorely missed her greens. The next day I brought her a batch of greens from the farm. She was thrilled. After all we displaced southerners have to look out for one another. With a nod to our collective heritage I’m adding black eyed peas with my greens today. According to southern tradition eating black eyed peas on New Years Day bring you good luck in the coming year.

Today’s Lunch
Mustard Green and Black Eyed Peas

1 bunch mustard greens
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 clove chopped garlic
1 cup dried black eyed peas
Bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

Soak the peas overnight (or you can skip this step and buy canned peas, but do buy fresh greens!). The next day drain the peas. Place them in a pressure cooker with enough water to cover them. Add the bay leaf and cook on medium high until the cooker reaches full pressure. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and allow the pressure to subside. This usually takes about 10 minutes. Wash greens thoroughly and pat dry. Slice the greens width-wise in about 3 pieces. Melt coconut oil in a large skillet on medium. Add garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add greens and cover for ten minutes or until greens are tender. Serve the greens in a bowl topped with a scoop of peas. Serves 3.

Seven Sweet Potatoes

2006-12-31T07:03:00.000-08:00

James Taylor sings about them, they share a genus with morning glories, they are yet another gift from the Americas to the culinary delight of the rest of world, and they make a great pie. Americans do themselves a disservice by only eating this most versatile tuber on Thanksgiving. They are mostly carbohydrate, but also include 4 grams of vegetable protein per 1 cup serving and they are high in vitamin A and high in vitamin C which are powerful antioxidants.

Today’s Lunch
Baked Sweet Potatoes with Curried Ginger Butter

4 sweet potatoes
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp curry powder (any variety will do)
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger or 1 tbsp powdered

Scrub the potatoes well. Prick each potato with a fork in a few places and place them in a baking dish with a 1/2 cup of water. Bake at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are soft to the touch. (It is easy to undercook the potatoes, as they can appear done if you only pierce the skin with a sharp knife. I like to sue a spoon to test them. Place the round side of the spoon against the skin and if you can leave a spoon shaped depression in the potato it is done!) Melt the butter in small saucepan on medium heat and add curry. Raise the heat to medium high and cook until the butter comes to a gentle boil stir occasionally for 3-4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and add ginger. Cook the butter for another minute and turn off the heat. Transfer the butter into a small glass dish or ceramic dish and allow to cool until it returns to a semi solid. Serve butter with warm potatoes. Serves 4.

Six Garlic Peppers

2006-12-30T14:47:00.000-08:00

Looking for something easy and colorful to serve your friends and family while ringing in the New Year? Try fajitas. Get a bunch of tortillas; chop some lettuces, tomatoes, and avocado; buy a jar of salsa; grill a bunch of chicken breasts, hamburger meat, and/or steak; and fry up a heap of red, green, and yellow bell peppers. Have everyone else bring the beer!

Today’s Lunch
Three Pepper Sauté

Red, green, and yellow peppers; two of each
3 bulbs of chopped garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Wash the peppers and cut off their tops. Remove the stem from the removed tops and cop the resulting ring into slices. Clean the seeds out from the peppers shells and slice the lengthwise. Heat the oil on medium in a large skillet add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add peppers and toss with oil and garlic, cover and cook for about 10 minutes until the peppers are tender stirring occasionally. Remove the cover and add vinegar. Cook for another five minutes with the lid off, stirring occasionally. Serves 12!

Five Golden Beets!

2006-12-29T07:48:00.000-08:00

The neighborhood where I live is lined with little houses that were once five-hundred feet square, but now sport additions twice their original size. They were built to house the sugar beet factory workers. The hulking factory still stands with its railroad yard, giant silos, cavernous factory, and the impressive managers quarters. I’m not sure how long it will last. There have been various plans for renovation and demolition that surface from time to time. At one point the fields of the plains were covered in sugar beets to feed our nation’s sweet tooth. Today we get our sugar fixes from other sources and only a handful of farmers raise the hulking variety of beet that produces sugar.

Today’s Lunch
Sweet and Sour Beets

2 lbs fresh golden beets, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tbsp maple syrup
5 tbsp red wine vinegar
Juice and zest of one orange
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp coriander

Place the meets in a medium-sized saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Reuce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until tender, 40-50 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. Place the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl and wisk. Pour over beets and serve. Serves 4.

Four Chinese Cabbage

2006-12-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

Chinese or Napa cabbage is a perfect winter vegetable. It is in the same family as western cabbage and turnips. It is cold resistant and stores well so it can be harvested late and stored for long periods of time. Its nutritional content isn’t outstanding, although if it is grown in good soil there will be good minerals available to your body and trace amounts of vitamins A and C. It is high in fiber. I like Chinese cabbage for its spicy delicate leaves.

Today’s Lunch
Chinese Cabbage and Tofu

1/2 onion
2 tbsp coconut or olive oil
1/2 pound firm tofu
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup water or stock
2 cups sliced Chinese cabbage
1 cup frozen peas

Melt oil in a large skillet on medium. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent. Add tofu and spices and reduce heat slightly. Cook for ten to fifteen minutes until tofu is browned on at least one side (my husband and I have tofu debates I like mine brown he likes his still squishy, whomever is cooking wins). Add sliced cabbage (I slice the cabbage from its tip and work my way down to the base), stock or water and frozen peas. Cover and cook for a further ten minutes or until cabbage is tender. Take the lid off and cook for another five minutes if the mixture is too watery. Serves two.

Three Fennel Bulbs

2006-12-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

If you are only familiar with fennel seeds you are in for a treat. The tasty bulb that hides beneath the dill like fronds of the fennel plant is delicious. Technically speaking fennel is an herb that can act as a digestive aid and breath freshener, and adds a licorice-like flavor to sauces, stews, and casseroles. I like fennel best grilled on the barbeque or in salads or soups. Today’s recipe comes from the cookbook From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guild to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce published by the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition. If you are all befuddled about how to cook vegetables I highly recommend this cookbook. (And, by the way I am shamefully pulling the veggie photos from Wikipedia.com.)

Today’s Lunch
Carrot Fennel Orange Soup

2 tbsp butter
1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced (reserve a few fronds)
4 cups sliced carrots (approximately 1 1/2 pounds)
1 garlic clove, chopped
4 cups water or vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sour cream

Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add sliced fennel and cook, stirring often, until soft and slightly golden. Add carrots and garlic; cook and stir for a minute or two. Add water or broth and salt; bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until carrots and fennel are tender, about 20 minutes. Puree mixture in a food processor or blender. Stir in orange juice and sour cream until smooth and creamy. Reheat on low heat, but do not boil. Serve each bowel garnished with fennel fronds. Makes 4 servings.

Two Tasty Turnips

2006-12-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Fresh is the name of the game with turnips. They get a bad rap because after they are stored for a too long in inappropriate conditions (exposed to light and air) they turn bitter. We are fortunate that the farm we belong to is one of the few CSAs that offers a winter vegetable share. The turnips are stored in deep earthen pits and covered with hay and carpet pieces to maintain the optimal temperature. You can get fancy with your turnips, but like them best peeled and steamed. If they are a little bitter then drizzle with olive oil and salt. That fixes everything!

A Parsnip in a Pear Tree

2006-12-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

Although many people think of the twelve days of Christmas being the twelve days leading up to Christmas, it is actually the twelve days starting with Christmas day and leading up to Epiphan--the day the three wise men arrived in the manger to shower the newborn babe with gifts. By now we have been showered with our friend’s and family’s favorite sweet treats and we are ready for a few vegetables. To celebrate the conclusion of the Christmas season I’ll offer you twelve days of vegetables starting with the humble parsnip, the favorite starch of the old world until the potatoe arrived on the scene from that uppity new world. A root vegetable related to the carrot, parsnips are paler with more insense flavor. They top carrots in vitamin C content and beat the potato for carbohydrate and vegetable protein.

Today’s Lunch
Roasted Parsnips

3-4 parsnips
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt

Slice the parsnips at both ends and in the middle. Then cut each piece into four quarters lengthwise (there is nothing magic to the shape, you can simply chop the tuber into whatever sized pieces you want). Bring a saucepan of water large enough to cover the strips to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and the vegetable and boil for two minutes. Drain the veggies and spread out on a baking sheet. Turn on your broiler to 425 degrees. Drizzle the veggies with oil and cook on the middle rack until done. This usually takes about 10 to fifteen minutes. The parsnips will get slightly crispy on the outside. You can skip the parboiling and bake the veggies for about twenty minutes and then flip on then drizzle the veggies with oil and flip on the boiler. This can also be done on the grill encasing the veggies in foil. So many choices!

Fun Food

2006-12-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

Holidays bring out the fun in food. Two of my coworkers bake cupcakes for each other on their respective birthdays with each batch getting more elaborate. Another coworker shared with me a photo of her friend’s ghoulish apples that she made for Halloween. When I was a kid my favorite birthday cake was one my mom made out of chocolate cake cut in the shape of a bunny. You take two cake rounds and use one as the head and cut the other one like the stitching on a baseball creating two ears and a bowtie. The cake was then frosted with white icing and decorated with nose, mouth, eyes and whiskers.

Today’s Lunch
Chocolate Cake

(This cake is adapted from the back of Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten Free Baking Flour. The flour contains garbanzo bean, tapioca, white sorghum, and fava bean flour and potato starch. I haven’t tried with substituting regular flour.)

1 1/2 cups Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour
1 cup Sucanat or Brown Sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking soad
1 tsp Xanthan Gum (a thickener available at health food stores)
3/4 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Milk (cow, soy, or rice)
1/3 cup Canola Oil
1 large Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup warm brewed coffee or coffee substitute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 11 by 7-inch baking dish and set aside. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry in three parts and mix lightly until all the ingredients are blended together. Pur into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Enjoy!

Taking Advise

2006-12-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I was listening to the Splendid Table hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. A listener called in with a question about coconut oil. The caller’s personal trainer touted the benefits of coconut oil, but since she had always heard that it was bad she wanted Kasper’s advice (I think she was also looking for recommendations on how to cook with it, but they never got that far.) Kasper stated that she wasn’t a intuitionalist she referred the caller to Dr. Andrew Weil’s website for advise. I booted up my computer to see for myself what advice Dr. Weil might have about my beloved cooking oil (www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA316479). Although there is evidence that points to coconut oil having nutritional benefits, Dr. Weil does not recommend it because it is a saturated fat and the research is not conclusive enough for him to advise adding it to you diet. Nutritional information is such a quagmire of contradictions. For me I trust my gut, quite literally. My gut feels good when I eat coconut oil. I’ve learned to eat not only according to what tastes good, but also by what feels good. Viva la coconut!

Today’s Lunch
Mulligatawny Soup

Bones from a cooked turkey
1/2 tsp sage
2 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sliced celery
1 large onion
1-2 carrots
2 tart green apples (such as granny smith)
4 tbsp butter or coconut oil
4 tbsp flour
1/2 cup rice

Cover turkey with water and simmer for an hour in a large stockpot. Drain stock and remove any meat left on the bones. Add meat to the stock and throw away the bones. Add celery, carrots, and uncooked rice to stock and simmer for 15 minutes.
Melt butter in a skillet and add 1 onion chopped, herbs, salt, and pepper and sauté until the onions are translucent. Add flour and cook over low heat for 3 minutes stirring contantly. Add flour mixture (called a roux) to the stock. Chop the apples into small pieces and add to the stock. Slowly bring to a boil stirring constantly. After the soup comes to a boil remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes and serve.

Giving Thanks

2006-11-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving—being a day to dedicate ourselves to a sense of gratefulness—is my favorite holiday. It is also not a holiday without its anxieties as we strive to time an elaborate meal of turkey with all the trimmings for either a gathering of one or of twenty. I usually use this day to take stock (and make stock) of my life’s inventory and begin planning for the New Year. I relish this day of contemplation and grace. And speaking of relish, my favorite dish of the day is the humble cranberry sauce. Once of the easiest dishes to prepare, it adds that desperately needed bit of color. (If you are wondering about the photo it is a very simple tapestry that I have finally completed for a friend nearly a year late. I am so grateful that it is done!)

Today’s Lunch
Cranberry Sauce
1 package of 8oz fresh cranberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sucanat or brown sugar
Grated zest of one orange

Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan (when those berries start popping it is nice to give them plenty of room to roam!). Heat on medium high until the contents come to a boil and the berries start to pop. Reduce heat to medium-low and let cook for another ten to fifteen minutes stirring occasionally. Take the pan off the burner and allow to cool. Serve at room temperature.

Note: A coworker who is not a very experienced cook has been cruising my blog for ideas. She has shared her adventures with me as she has tackled a few of the recipes. I have decided to change my ways and write more conventional recipes with lists of ingredients followed by instructions as well as attempting to be more specific.

I’m Average Average

2006-11-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

Kevin O’Keefe wrote a book about his quest to find the average American. To start his quest he had to determine what traits the average American has. Then he set out to find someone who typified these traits. I took a pop quiz on line at his website (www.theaverageamerican.com) and it said I was exactly in between average and not so average. I am like the average American because I live within 20-minues of a Wal-mart, can name all three Stooges, and have lived in my home for at least five years. I’m not so average because I like chunky peanut butter, can name all three branches of the government, and would rather be president than in prison. If you are wondering who O’Keefe determined is the nations most ordinary citizen it is Bob Burns of Willimantic, Connecticut.

Today’s Lunch
Not So Average Banana Ice Cream

I freeze gobs of chopped up bananas that are almost past their prime in order to have fodder for this frequent treat. Place 5-6 banana chunks in a food processor and pulse until the banana is granulated. Add 4 tbsp coca power and pulse one or two more times. Switch the process on and pour a steady stream of milk into the mixture until it reaches the desired consistency, usually about a half a cup. It is really easy to pour too much milk and end up with a smoothie! Optional items in clued adding coconut, other frozen fruit (with or without coca powder) and substitution soy or rice milk for milk.

What is Past is Prologue

2006-11-12T13:21:00.000-08:00

A Brief History of Medicine

2000 BC: Here, eat this root.
1000 AD: That root is heathen. Say this prayer.
1850 AD: That prayer is superstition. Drink this potion.
1940 AD: That potion is snake oil. Dwallow this pill.
1985 AD: That pill is ineffective. Take this antibiotic.
2000 AD: That antibiotic doesn’t work anymore. Here eat this root.

The Ecologist December 2004/January 2005 (The photo is from the door of the State of New Mexico's Archives in Santa Fe.)

Today’s Lunch
Buffalo and Beets

Scrub 3 beets and peel. Chop into bit-sized pieces and steam. Chop 1/2 of an onion and sauté on medium in 1 tsp of oil in a skillet. Add buffalo in quarter-sized pieces and reduced heat to low. Cook for about 10 minutes or until meat is brown throughout. Add beets and 1 tbsp cumin. Cook for another five minutes. Serve with rice or toast.

Good Food Rarely Lasts

2006-11-06T19:13:00.000-08:00

My coworker gifted me a jar of her tomotilla salsa (see post from October 5). I told her that we would take it with us on our weekend trip to Santa Fe. It never made it that far. We ate it with a fabulous batch of tamales from the Mexican grocery store down the street just before we left. That is the problem with good food. It never lasts.

Today’s Lunch
Zingy Holiday Jello

1 6oz box of cherry Jello®
2C 7-up
2 cans Ocean Spray Cranberry and Orange Sauce (Safeway has it)
1 can pineapple bites

Bring 7-up to a boil, pour in 9x13 dish. Stir in cherry Jello® until completely dissolved. With a fork mix together cranberry and orange sauce with pineapple then slow add to 7-up. Refrigerate for 3hrs.

Notes: Another coworker, Jason, brought in some leftover Jello salad to share with us on Friday. It didn’t last long either! This is really good stuff. I could offer some substitutes to make it healthier, but I’m sure it would ruin it.

Stepping Down

2006-10-29T06:25:00.000-08:00

Stepping back from a volunteer position is always hard. For the past two years I have been the chair of the marketing committee for Cresset Community Farm, which means that when I do my farm chores I sit down at a computer. The job that pays my bills requires that I sit in front of a computer, as do some of my hobbies like blogging, so I was loathe doing the same in my volunteer life. Life is now calling for me to do other things that requre more more dirt digging and less key tapping. It is hard to walk away from a job that you know needs doing, but one has to have faith in the power of community--nature abhors a vacuum. Times like these call for a good dose of soul food.

Today’s Lunch
Lima Bean and Mustard Green Soup

Soak 2 cups of lima beans overnight. Rinse the soaked beans a few times and add them to a pressure cooker (an absolute must for cooking beans at high altitude) with enough water to cover the beans. Add red pepper flakes, oregano, and a bay leaf. Do not add salt as it will slow the cooking time. Bring to a boil on high and then reduce heat to medium low for twenty minutes. Turn off head and allow the pressure to drop naturally. Chop one onion and two cloves of garlic and cook in 2 tbsp coconut oil. Add 1 bunch (8-10 leaves) of chopped mustard greens and sauté until tender. Add to beans. Salt to taste and add a little water or stock if the soup is thick.

Don’t Eat Pop Tarts for Breakfast

2006-10-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

Recently I went to a naturopath for a wellness visit. She had me keep a food journal for a week. I meticulously wrote down everything I ate even documenting the of ice cream I had for Sunday supper. When I gave it to her the next week, she said “whoopee you are the first client in a long time I haven’t had to tell not to eat pop tarts for breakfast!” I asked her if was really that bad out there. She told me that a significant number of her client’s problems could be improved or eliminated by cleaning up their diet. “Cleaning up” means not eating pop tarts for dinner or drinking a gallon of Coke every few days. Apparently it does not mean giving up a pint of ice cream for Sunday supper now and again. I was relieved.

Today’s Lunch
Winter Vegetable Salad
(This a recipe I submitted to the farm newsletter last year.)

1 head cauliflower steamed
1/2 fennel bulb
1 Dikon radish
1 kolrobi
1 head endive or sugarhat lettuce
1/2 cup olives
1 tbsp. Capers

Dressing
1 tsp. Lemon zest
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. Minced garlic
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
3/4 cups olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

--Adapted from a recipe in the November 2005 issue of Food and Wine

Chop veggies into bite-sized pieces. Mix dressing ingredients and pour over veggies. Allow to marinate for at least an hour. This is a very large recipe. I like to make it on Sunday and eat it during the week.

Seeing Red

2006-10-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

As the days get shorter and colder my thought turn to eating more hot grains. A fun way to experiment with grains that you are unfamiliar with is to get a sampler from Gold Mine Natural Foods. This mail- and internet- order company specializes in macrobiotic foods and cookware. They offer a variety of grain and rice samplers with such exotic fair as black buffalo barley, Bhutanese red rice, and blood brothers red sweet corn. Their rice sampler includes a half a pound of eight varieties of rice for less than $20. My latest favorite is Bhutanese red rice described as an “an ancient short-grain rice grown 8,000 feet in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Irrigated with 1,000 year old glacier water rich in trace minerals, this exotic rice has a nutty/earthy flavor, soft texture and beautiful red russet color.” The even better news about this rice is that it cooks in only 20 minutes, but still provides you with all of its whole food goodness.

Today’s Lunch
Curried Bhutanese Red Rice with Buffalo and Broccoli

Mix 1 cup of red rice and 1 cup of water with a pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for twenty minutes or until all of the water is absorbed. In the meantime, chop 1/2 onion and cook in a skillet with 1 tbsp of coconut oil for 2 minutes on medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add 1 tbsp of curry. Cook for an additional five minutes, stirring occasionally. (Cooking curry powder in this manner helps reduce any bitter taste.) Add 1/2 lb of buffalo and cook until browned, about ten minutes. (As I’ve said before game meat is best to cook slowly over low heat.) Chop the flowers from one medium-sized head of broccoli. Strip the stem of its tough outer skin and slice. Add broccoli to the skillet and cover, cooking until the broccoli is tender. Serve over red rice, feeds two.

Apples for Applesauce

2006-10-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

We bought a storm door this week hoping that this will ever so slightly decreast our carbon footprint (www.carbonfootprint.com) that we threw completely out of whack by buying our new shiny red SUV. I drove our new car yesterday to a barter bazaar where I traded a weaving lesson and a jar of tomato sauce for some graphic design services. I also swapped some handspun yarn for a dried herb swag and a necklace for a book. I put a jar of canned stewed apples on the table for the gift exchange and in return got a jar of applesauce. To an old friend who attended the bazaar, I gifted a jar of sauce. She regaled me with stories of myself that I have absolutely no memory of, “Remember the Christmas you gave us all pesto, no one knew what that was back then.” I’m glad to know that the self I was fifteen years ago was still trying to share the gospel of food.

Today’s Lunch
Gingery Tomato Sauce

Turn on your largest burner to medium heat and sauté 1 finely chopped cloves of garlic in 2 tbsp of coconut or other high-heat oil for 1 minute. Add 1 finely chopped onion; cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add 2 tbsp dried basil, 3 tbsp fresh ginger, 1 tbsp fennel seeds, 1 tsp salt and pepper. Sauté for another minute or two. Add 2-dozen chopped tomatoes or three 24-oz cans of chopped canned tomatoes. Bring the mixture to a simmer and reduce the heat to just below medium. Cook until the sauce is the desired thickness, stirring occasionally and adding more herbs or spices to taste. I prefer a thick waterless sauce, so generally cook it for at least four hours (as a child we would place the sauce in a cast-iron pot and put it on the woodstove in the morning and have sauce ready for dinner). For canning purposes it is good to leave the sauce a little runnier so that you may reduce it further with added ingredients when you use it at a later date.

My Apologies to Al

2006-10-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

Last Friday my husband and I went to see “An Inconvenient Truth” the documentary about Al Gore’s convincing presentation on global warming. The next day my husband and I bought an SUV. I spend all day Sunday peering out my kitchen window while preparing jars of apple and tomato sauce for canning thinking, “Is that really my car in the driveway?” I’m still very unsure about this car. It will provide us with more room, power, and safety during our frequent trips to Wyoming to ski. We won’t have to battle the winds in our current gutless wonder of a car. Alternatively, we are sacrificing 4 miles to the gallon in gas and living with a higher tax burden; not to mention the social implications of driving a symbol of all that is wrong with our country. I’m longing for the day when it will be old and battered and we will look lovingly at it thinking of all the miles it has carried us hither and yon and all the memories it holds. It will take awhile for me to stop circling around it like a cat wary of a new object in its boundaries. I’m very sorry Al; I’ll have to make it up to you in another way.

Today’s Lunch
Avocado Coleslaw

Combine the following veggies chopped in desired size: 1/2 of a small head of cabbage, 1 tomato, 1 peeled carrot, and 1 avocado. Top with toasted pumpkin seeds and salad dressing of choice.

Enjoying the Rerun

2006-10-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite kind of recipe exchanges happened at work the other day. I asked one of my coworkers for her tomatilla salsa recipe. She said, “You know what tomatillas are like right?” I nodded in agreement as she went on, “I always get asked if there is lemon or vinegar in the recipe, but that is just the natural flavor of the tomatilla. I wash up about a bushel and blend them in the food processor lightly then add a couple of chopped onions, a few cloves of garlic, and a few hot peppers. I cook the mixture for a bit and then wash the jars in the dishwasher, set the lids in a pan of just boiled water. You have to pull the jars from the dishwasher when they are barely hot enough to hold, and then fill the jars with salsa slap on a lid. Works like a charm.” The whole time she was saying this she was looking off into the distance clearly seeing all this happen in her mind’s eye and enjoying the rerun of last weekend's work.

At Loose Ends

2006-10-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

I emphatically do not have a problem with commitment. If I say I will do something I will do it, even if you decide you don’t want me to do it any longer. Take this tapestry I’m working on for a friend. Almost two years ago I said, “Sure I can make you a tapestry to hang behind your desk in your new office using a detail from the rug your Uncle brought back from the Afghanistan, no problem.” Actually making this committment come to fruition is still giving me fits I don’t even like weaving tapestries, but I’m doing it by golly I’m doing it. I always hope the lesson from these experiences is that I will become wiser, and more selective about my commitments. It hasn’t happened yet. I’m hopeful that one day the wisdom we are supposed to gain from worldly experience kicks in. Lord knows I’m pretty strong in the experience department.

Today’s Lunch
Fried Green Tomatoes

Slice 3 medium-sized green tomatoes in half-inch slices. Prepare two bowls one with a mixture of 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup cornmeal, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper; and a second with four beaten eggs. Heat a skillet on medium and add 2 tbsp oil (you may need to add more as the tomatoes cook). Dredge the tomatoes slices first in the flour mixture, then in the egg mixture, and then back to the flour mixture. Fry in skillet until both sides are golden brown, generally about 3-4 minutes a side. Drain fried tomatoes on a couple of layers of paper towel. Serve hot or cold. They are particularly good with baked or fired chicken.

Note: Use an oil that can handle high temperatures such as coconut, canola--or if you are lucky enough to find it--refined avocado oil. Oils such as olive oil are not designed to handle high temperatures and can break down destroying their health benefits.

Farm Fresh Onions

2006-09-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

Robert Earl Keen describes them best as, “Big and round and sweet and real.” After curing in the field, farm fresh onions are nothing short of superb. They are firm, juicy, and full of flavor.

Today’s Lunch
Buffalo with Sweet Potato and Onion

Melt 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a skillet on medium heat. Chop one-half onion in large slices Add onions to skillet and cook for two minutes. Add 1/3 pound of buffalo in small grape-sized pieces, along with 1 tbsp cumin and coriander powder. Cover and cook for five minutes. Buffalo like lean game meat is cooked best slowly on medium to medium-low temperature. Add one chopped precooked sweet potato (leftovers from the night before) and return the cover for another 5-8 minutes until the buffalo is thoroughly cooked.

Note: I learned how to chop an onion properly while working with Mr. Johnson in the prep kitchen of the Virginian restaurant. Mr. Johnson took his onions very seriously. I’ll pass on my lesson: Chop off both ends of the onion and peel the skin off. Peeling is sometimes aided by scoring the top few layers of the onion. Lay the onion on the chopping board with the cut side down. Chop the onion in half. Set one of the halves with the cut side down and slice the onion in 1/4-inch section in the direction of the rings. Then slice the onion in half against the rings. This creates long strips of onion. You may also slice the entire onion against the rings leaving you with small soup sized pieces.

True, But Not Accurate

2006-09-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

My dad was listening to American Routes on NPR as a member of the hippie tribe was interviewed. The hippie tribe is a loose assortment of girls and boys that I grew up with in the seventies. They show up in the oddest places. After listening to the interview my dad said that the interview was “true, but not very accurate.” A barrage of memoirs are hitting the newsstand about the children of the sevenites. I find the the ensuing controversy about how accurate they are amusing. I have total sympathy for the authors. After all why let the truth get in the way of a good story? I believe we have the rights to our own reflective history. Who is to say what is “true” your version or mine? So I call a moped a motorcycle, big deal. There is of course the ability to go too far; claiming feats of skill or experiences that didn’t happen at all. That is completely unacceptable. As an editor I have to be respectful of the truth. Perhaps we need a new term. Maybe the one that Calvin coined while discussing his new “revisionist” biography with Hobbs will work. If we put “revisionist” before the title “memoir” we will know that that the author is doing the best they can to tell the truth as they know it.

Today’s Lunch
Salad Greens with Pesto and Goat Sausage

My lunch for the past three days: lettuce with various veggies—today that would be kohlrabi and green pepper--topped with a tablespoons or so of pesto (see post from August 24), and half a grilled goat sausage. I don’t use any dressing as the olive oil and basil in the pesto do the trick of coating the lettuce leaves and mingling the flavors.

Think Globally, Eat Locally

2006-09-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

Locavores are individuals that commit to eating within a 100-mile radius of their home. The trend started in San Francisco by a group of friends who committed to this concept for a month and a new movement was born. In Los Angeles, three artist started gathering gathering fruit from trees and buses growing on public property eventually filling up food pantries with their spoils. One hundred short years ago neither of these ideas would have been considered very radical, but then niether was organics. Everything that is old is new again.

Today’s Lunch
Baked Apples with Oats

Peel and chop a dozen small apple and place in a 9-by-9-inch pan. Sprinkle apples with a tbsp of cinnamon and 1 cup oatmeal. Slice 1/4 stick of butter into small pats and top apple mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes or until apples are tender. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Right Place

2006-09-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

Occasionally you see the perfect “thing” in an unexpected place. A few weeks ago I saw this stained glass image of a bluesman at Bishop’s Castle in Southern Colorado. Imagine standing on the second floor of a mass of stone and ironwork that has been formed into a fanciful medieval castle--the work of one man as an omage to freedome of expression and the working class--and seeing this stained glass piece so out of place yet so right. Sort of like cucumbers. They don’t seem to fit with the rest of the vegetable patch and yet there they are.

Today’s Lunch
Cucumber Salad

(Gather these ingredients fresh from the farm if possible; here lies the taste and smell of summer.) Peel two cucumbers and slice. Chop two tomatoes and 1/2-cup fresh basil leaves. Mix ingredients and toss with a drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve at room temprature.

I love Lincoln Continentals

2006-08-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

When I was 24-years old my grandmother left me her Lincoln Continental when she passed away. My dad sold it before I got the chance to decided if I would like to keep it or not, which I would have even though that would have not been prudent. I used the money to spend a year at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand. Before leaving the U.S. four friends and I decided to rent a car and drive eastward stopping off at various parental homes so that we could spend some time with our respective families. When we got to the car rental dealer in Denver we discovered that we had somehow ended up reserving a Lincoln Continental. What the heck? It was roomy enough for four women and a dog to travel cross-country. We got our first speeding ticket in Nebraska.
And, just last week a Lincoln Continental saved my butt (and my feet) when a family of seven was cruising the scenic byway of Southern Colorado in their Lincoln and stopped to pick up my friend Diana and I. We had just completed a nearly twelve-mile hike up St. Charles Peak and were facing a six-mile walk home on the roadway. Wonder of wonders they made room for two stinky hikers by piling on each other’s laps and delivered us right to our campsite. As they were pulling away from the curb the teenager in the front seat said to her mother, “She was begging,” referring to the fact that Diana was on her knees with her hands clasped together as they drove by, an act that won sway in our favor. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers, Lincoln Continentals, and friends who are willing to drop to their knees and beg.

Today’s Lunch
Campers Delight: Rice Noodles with Veggies, Chicken, and Peanut Sauce.

Precook an assortment of your favorite vegetables. I used onions, yellow squash, red pepper, fresh basil, and carrots. Purchase a pouch of pre cooked chicken that is found in the tuna asile, a bottle of peanut sauce, and rice noodles. If your grocery store has an Asian food section you might find these items here or you may have to visit a health food store or Asian market. Once in camp boil a pot of water and dump the noodles into the hot water, cover, and set aside for five minutes or until tender. Heat the chicken, veggies, and sauce in a separate pot. Drain the noodles and dress with sauce.

Bad Advertising

2006-08-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Right across from the Bob Hope Airport sits the Burbank Hilton. The hotel has seen its better day, but it is still well run with a good tea available in the lobby, comfy beds, a decent exercise room, and a wonderful restaurant called The Daily Grill. The restaurant sells itself short by the posters advertising its fair in the hotel elevators. I bet it appealed to travelers in the 1950s, but large platters of steak with a backdrop of dark wood paneling gave my traveling companions and me a stomachache. They were so bad that we almost didn’t eat there except for the fact that we were so tired from our day’s work we had no other choice in the industrial section of town where the hotel was located. I ordered a side of grilled veggies and my companions ordered the chicken casadia and a salad. We were not expecting much, but to our delight it was some of the best food we had during our trip. It just goes to show you that you can judge a restaurant by its elevator advertising.

Today’s Lunch
Pesto on Pumpkin Toast

Pick the leaves from basil stems, enough to equal two cups. Place in food processor with 3/4 cup walnuts, 1/2 cup olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend until ingredients are incorporated with one another, but not pureed. Store in a glass container in the fridge. You can make pesto with any herb--dill, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, or sage.

The spelt pumpkin bead made by Ursula at the farm; someday I’ll weasel the recipe out of her.

A High Capacity for Love

2006-08-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

Meep is a a golden-eyed cat that came to live with us about six years ago. She was given this name when she became a part of our family because this is the only sound she can make. She is a very odd looking cat who is knock-kneeed in back, pigeon toed in front, and her belly practically drags the ground when she walks. Meep was found in an alley in Vegas at about the age of four by a friend of mine’s sister. She traveled about for a while with the sister and various other rescued dogs and cats in a large house trailer eventually landing on my friend’s doorstep. At my urging my friend adoptied Meep. I convinced her that a cat would be the perfect companion while she was finishing her PhD thesis. I turned out to be very wrong on this point. My friend found that Meep was not the cat she was supposed to have (she does have a very nice cat now named Minky). Meep possesses many qualities that noncat people use as reasons to hate cats. She was stinky (due to an inner ear infection caused by a very bad case of mites), a clothes sucker (probably from being abandoned as a kitten before she was weaned), an obsessive butt pusher (all cats like to show you their backside as a way of saying they like you—Meep is extreme), a very active snuggler (she spoons), and she has a coat of long hair that becomes dreaded no matter how much you brush her (meaning expensive shavings once a year). It wasn’t working.
I then learned that the farm was looking for a house cat to keep down the mice population, so I volunteered Meep for the job. She turned out to the world’s worst mouser. I thought Vegas would have been good training, but apparently not. She would sit by the wood stove and wait for a lap nary batting an eye at the mice that scurried right under her nose and still possessing all those cat qualities the farmers also found her lacking in charm. Meep also developed a series of heath problems. She has fatty liver disease developed from malnutrition as a kitten. The mites ate away one of her eardrums so she is continually fighting a lowgrage infection in her inner ear that also makes her seasick and very resistant to being picked up. She had a broken femur that at some point was pinned badly and she developed bladder stones. In farm culture cats like this are drowned. She came to live at our house.
Over the years most of her ailments have been taken care of with the help of a team very understanding veterinarians. Meep has one quality that makes her very, very special. She has an undying capacity for love. She expresses her feelings in her very cat like way. After all she has been through she loves nothing more than to rub your ankles, look at you with her golden eyes, and meep her little brains out telling you how swell she thinks you are for being her human.

Today’s Lunch
Strawberry Gazpacho

Mix 1 20 oz can of diced tomatoes, 3/4 cups strawberries roughly chopped, 1 grated cucumber, 1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh basil, 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve chilled with chopped boiled egg as a garnish.

On the Road to Nowhere

2006-08-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

After years of snubbing car camping (not to be confused with road tripping) as an inferior form of backpacking, I’ve now decided that it is ok. Car camping enables you to pack all kinds of food that you might not otherwise take in the backcountry like goat sausage and beer. When in the mountains my husband and I have developed a habit of driving our small front-wheel drive car to places that it really doesn’t belong. Having a packed cooler, a camping stove, and sleeping bags provides comfort when you realize you could blow out your struts at any moment.

Today’s Lunch
Mediterranean Salad

Mix your preferred amounts of lettuce, green olives, hard cheese, fresh basil leaves, and steamed green beans. Dress with Rosemary Vinaigrette: (My husband adapted this recipe from The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates.) In a jar with a tight-fitting lid combine 1 tsp rosemary, 3/4 cup flax seed oil, 3/4 cup water, 1/2 cup raw organic apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1/4 tsp sea salt. Shake well. Add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and shake well again. Best if served chilled.

Note: Two ingredients in the dressing recipe may be new to you. Xanthan Gum is a powder made from the dried cell coat of a microorganism called Xanthonomonas campestris. It is often used to replace the gluten in yeast breads and as an alternative to thickeners such as gelatin or cornstarch. Raw vinegar is not pasteurized. Pasteurization (subjecting the vinegar to heat,) destroys heat sensitive vitamins and enzymes. Most vinegars are pasteurized for esthetic reasons to keep sediment from forming. Both raw vinegar and xanthan gum are available at most health food stores.

Mommy is in the Beer Tent

2006-08-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

This and other phrases are one of the many that bloggers are asked not to repeat. I make the same request of others, but the requests are respected with varying degrees. This must be how politicians and movie stars go through life. I won’t say who mommy is, but the line is simply too good not to use. Particularly when it is heard while sitting in the river at a bluegrass festival.

Today’s Lunch
Stuffed Zucchini

It is that time of year when the zucchini takes over our lives. You will need leftover cornbread. Here is one of my favorite recipes adapted from The New Southern Basics by Martha Phelps Stamps. Sorry Tim O’Brien I do use sugar (Cornbread Nation, Tim O’Brien, 2005.)

Cornbread
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 by 9 inch pan. Mix 2 cups stone-ground cornmeal, 1/4 cup sucanat, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp cayenne, 1/2 tsp paprika. Melt 2 tbsp butter and stir into 1 cup buttermilk. Add to dry ingredients and mix into the dry ingredients. Bake for 40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Stuffed Zucchini
Cut one large or three small zucchinis in half and scoop out innards. Roughly chop the scooped zucchini and set aside. In a large skillet melt 3 tbsp coconut oil. Chop one 1 large onion and 1 clove of garlic or three fresh buds if you are lucky enough to have fresh garlic around. Add to oil with a shake of salt and pepper. Cook until translucent. Add 1 tbsp thyme and basil and the chopped zucchini. Sautee for ten minutes and add 2 cups of crumbled cornbread. Mix. Add stuffing into zucchini hulls and bake at 350 for a half hour covered with foil. Remove foil and top with your favorite cheese. I used Swiss and bake ten minutes more or until zucchini is tender.

Morning at the Farm

2006-07-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

Here in Northern Colorado brilliant lightning, rolling thunder, and rain sounded for a good portion of the early morning hours. It was one of those magical storms where you can hear a collective sigh of relief after a long period of hot dry weather. Today I had volunteered to help with the milking at the farm. One of the famers had hurt his hand jumping from the tractor that he thought was going to tip. I rose at 4am to watch the last of the storm standing at the window drinking tea. By the time I got to the farm the milking had been in progress for an hour. My hand was not nearly as dexterous as the more experienced milker, and in truth most of the work was done before I got there, but the help was appreciated and we got the job done. Not a bad way to start the day.

Today’s Lunch
Ginger Spice Cake

Cream 1/2 cup butter with 1/2 cup sucanat and 1/2 cup dark molasses. Beat in 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of buttermilk. Mix dry ingredients separately: 2 1/2 cups spelt flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger. Fold dry ingredients into the wet until fully incorporated, but be careful not to over mix. Doing so will make the cake tough. Pour into a greesed 9 x 9 pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until a knife can be inserted into the cake and come out clean. Serve in small bowls with 1/2 cup of butter milk poured over the top.

A Moveable Feast

2006-07-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

Every six weeks or so I gather with a group of four women to discuss literature. We are usually on topic for about ten minutes before the conversation veers toward other matters such as children, pets, husbands, boyfriends, politics, and religion. Occasionally we get a really juicy controversy going, but that is rare. The club meets because we enjoy each other’s company and it motivates us to read. To date, I have picked the only truly awful book, Shut Up He Explained by Kate Lader (Ring Lader's stepdaughter). I thought it would be an inside peek into the effect of MacCarthism in Hollywood. It turned out to be a name-dropping memoir and most of the names were lost on us.
Although it is not a requirement the host usual cooks food related to the book. For that awful memoir I fixed food appropriate for a cocktail party: Parmesan wafers, curried pecans, chipolte cream cheese dip and crackers. Tomorrow we are meeting at my house to discuss The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by my favorite author Carson McClullers. This book still leaves me as as breathless as it did when I was seventeen. In celebration of the Southern Gothic, I’m frying chicken, snapping beans, and baking cornbread.

Today’s Lunch
Black Bean Salad

Wash a half a dozen lettuce leaves and spin dry in a salad spinning. Drain one can of black beans. Combine 1/4 of the can of beans with lettuce and top with 1/4 cup mozzarella and parmesan mixed (1/8 cup of each). Top with salsa.

Note: I’m in a bit of a rut, but with the farm producing copious amounts of lettuce at the moment, I’m not complaining!

Taking Stock

2006-07-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last week my husband made roast chicken for dinner. He stored the bones in the fridge for a few days before he dumped them in a pot with a bay leaf and some black pepper just before leaving for the day. I tended the pot for most the morning, which meant reminding myself not to leave the house with the cooking stock on the stove. Making stock is that simple. You simply simmer bones in water for a good part of the day. The rewards of homemade stock are many. Chicken soup was used to cure the flu because the gelatin from the bones repair damage to our digestive track. Gelatin is a form of protein that is made when the collagen in the bones, skins, and cartilage of animal bones is broken down. This is the same stuff from which gummy bears and Jell-O are made. Most commercially available stock is devoid of gelatin and very high in sodium. It is the gelatin in the stock that traditionally made soups thick.
I love the culinary evolution of one meal leading to another. A chicken dinner produces stock for cooking barley. The barley water is saved to cook a pot of pinto beans. That chicken did not die in vain.

Today’s Lunch
Taco Salad

Beans: Soak 1 cup of beans in water overnight. Drain the next morning and place in a pressure cooker with enough stock to cover the beans. Cook under pressure for 30 minutes. Remove from head and allow the pressure to disipate before removing the lid.

Toss chopped lettuce, kohlrabi, carrot, celery, steamed beets, avocado, and 1/2 cup of beans. Sprinkle 1 tsp cumin over salad and add your favorite dressing.

Breakfast Interrupted

2006-07-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Some days are just harder than others. When life gets big my typical response is to break it down into small steps. Get up (check), make tea (check), feed cats (check), bring in paper (check), and so on. I was in the middle of step eighteen (make breakfast) when a friend showed up on my doorstep with an armful of food—chicken rice salad, steamed broccoli, bread, two beers, and a bag of oatmeal cookies—and a willing ear. As the saying goes, “I know what I’ve done to deserve my enemies, but I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve my friends.” Suddenly I didn’t need to break life down into steps anymore. I just hit cruise control. Food does have the power to heal, particularly if it is served with a side of compassion. I’ll have nothing to blog about for the next few days because of all the leftovers.

One for the Road

2006-07-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

Neither to sound like Jane and Michael Stern (http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/whereweeat) nor to contradict my last post traveling provides you with an excellent opportunity to explore the culinary highways and byways. Traveling for work means eating for survival. Traveling for adventure means that the worlds kitchen cupboards are flung wide open. My recommendations: If it says “a local favorite” on the menu order it. With a nod to Blue Highways the more calendars, trophies, and animal heads on the wall the better. If in Virginia order Peanut Butter Pie always, if in New Mexico seek out Posole, if in Seattle don’t eat crab near the docks, and if in Wisconsin drink the local beer.

Today’s Lunch
Peach salad

Chop one ripe peach, one avocado, and 1 stalk celery and combind with 1/2 cup toasted walnuts. Add a pinch of salt.

On the Road Again

2006-07-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

Periodically work takes me away from my desk and sends me out into the wider world. Conferences are a fact of working life. Eating while traveling is both adventurous and torturous. On a recent trip I was relieved to find the catering service served a hot meal in the lobby of the convention hall that included fresh vegetables. Sadly, I was only about to eat there one day out of five because I was running to and fro during their abbreviated hours. That one small dish of chicken and vegetables that I did manage to eat made me extremely happy, as did the one great apple I found after three days of mealy, tasteless orbs.
The tapas bar down the street (recommended by my hair dresser) was superb,and although I don’t really want to think about the mechanics of it, there was sangria on tap. We gobbled down bits of duck, spinach salad, marinated cucumbers, and various dips and spreads topped off with Tres Leche and fried plantains.
I found my ubiquitous Greek salad—an impossible dish to screw up--in a steak house across the street from our hotel and enjoyed a brandy afterwards in the swanky hotel lobby with friends I only see in conference halls. Mostly I lived off of endless cups of tea, bottled water and turkey bagels. When I got home to my kitchen I happily ate steamed rice and broccoli for lunch for the rest of the week.

Eating Pearls

2006-06-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

In its raw state barley is a very unattractive grain. The pearly insides are shelter by three layers of skin, two of which are inedible according to humans, but horses and cows thing that they are a delicacy. The highly processed version you find on the grocery store shelf has only the inner endosperm—referred to as the pearl. It still has much protein as a glass of milk and it is very low in gluten. In the health food stores you can find barley with its third outer layer or alerurone intact. This layer contains fiber and B vitamins. Barley is the perfect grain for light summer salads.

Today’s Lunch
Jim’s Barley Salad

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil and add a dash of salt. Rinse 1 cup pearl barley (or follow the directions if you bought barley with the alerurone intact) and add to boiling water. Stir with a spoon so that the barley doesn’t settle to the bottom. Once the water returns to a boil this won’t be a problem. Reduce heat after the contents come to a second boil and cook for twenty minutes uncovered. Drain and set aside and allow to cool. Once cooled add one basked of cherry tomatoes cut in half, 1 cup frozen corn (or 1 cup fresh if available), and 1 cup black-eyed peas. Squeeze directly into the bowl the juice of 1/2 a large lemon. Add 2 tbsp walnut oil, 1 tbsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

Kibbees

2006-06-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

I love fair food. The fair gave rise to such delights as the ice cream cone and the modern hamburger. Last weekend I visited a wool market in the mountains. While there were lots of goats, rabbits, llamas, alpaca, and sheep; there were only a few food vendors. One would think that after looking at cute fiber-bearing animals the last thing you would want to do is eat one, but the wait for Colorado grown lamb was almost fourty-five minutes. Kibbees are a special treat made from ground lamb and cracked wheat and served on a tortilla with tomatoes and yogurt sauce. Here is my best guess at the recipie.

Patties
1 lb ground lamb
1 cup cooked cracked wheat
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingrediants and form into patties to grill

Yogurt Sauce

1 plain low fat yogurt (its runnier than full fat, but not as yummy)
1 tsp. snipped fresh chives or 1/2 tsp. dried chives
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. paprika
Dash cayenne pepper

Down the Rabbit Hole

2006-06-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

In 1976, my family opened a small café in a college town. We were the first restaurant to serve exotic fair such as quiche, vegetarian enchilada, and big salads. The menu changed daily with about seven entrees and two desserts. It was a wildly popular place and through the eyes of a child full of magic and wonder. My best friend and I would roller skate up in and out of the building making a general nuisances of ourselves with the staff who were--in addition to being restaurant employees--poets, musicians, PhD candidates, thespians, ballet dancers, philosophers, writers, and scientists. We also employed a number of people from a sheltered workshop for deinstitutionalized mental patients. I liked them best or maybe a truer statement is that I felt proud that liked them best. Over the fireplace in the front dining room was the Tenniel drawing of Alice’s Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland. In the winter, I would sit at the table underneath the drawing with the grownups feeling a bit like Alice and listen to ther talk of Kafka and Kesey. In the summer, my brother and I would hang out on the porch while our finest salad maker and dishwasher would use the plastic dish racks as a lute and tell us tales accompanied by bursts of song. Today’s lunch was one the most popular dishes at the Café. It sounds odd, but it’s really good.

Today’s Lunch
East Indian Vegetable Salad

Combine 2 cups of cooked rice, 1 can drained kidney beans, 1 can of drained corn, 1 chopped green pepper, 2 stalks of chopped celery, 2 chopped hard boiled eggs, 1 bunch of chopped scallions, 4 tbsp mayonnaise, 2 chopped pickles, 1 tsp. horseradish, 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper.

Sometimes a Picture is Not Worth A Thousand Words

2006-06-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

You might think that a blog featuring food would be dripping with mouthwatering photos. Photographing food is hard. It requires a great deal of skill to make a bowl of chili look appetizing in a photograph. I remember squealing in horror with colleagues over a book of soup recipes. The bowls looked like they contained dissected brains and other less savory items. Until I have further perfected my skills (and get new batteries for my camera) a thousand words will have to suffice (or in this case 333).

Today’s Lunch
Posole Salad

Soak 2 cups of corn over night. Drain and rinse the corn the next day. (You can take a shortcut and look for canned hominy in the canned vegetable isle.) In a pressure cooker add 3/4-cup broth and enough water to cover the corn. Add a pinch of dried red pepper flakes (more if you like spicy food) and 1 tsp black pepper. Bring the contents to pressure on medium-high heat and then reduce the heat to medium-low for 20 minutes. Allow the pot to cool until the pressure is released. (You can also place the same ingredients in a crock pot and let it cook on low for about 8 hours.) Wash and chop into small pieces 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 red or green pepper, and desired amount of red cabbage. Once the corn is cool toss it with the vegetables and your favorite dressing. I used balsamic vinaigrette.

Notes: Posole is technically a South American stew made with dried lime-treated corn kernels, but in the U.S. the term is often used to describe the corn itself. In North America a similar preparation using wood ash called hominy was learned from Native Americans. Both preparations remove the germ from the grain and the hard outer layer.

Extra Slices

2006-06-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

My husband takes cake very seriously. When I asked him a few years ago for his advise on baking a cake for a friend’s birthday he pondered for quite along time before declaring that I should make the kind with extra slices.

Today’s Lunch
Coconut Macaroons

Soak 1/4 cup raw almonds for at least 12 hours. Ok here is the seemingly hard part—peel the almonds. Once they are soaked it is fairly easy to peel the skins. Leaving the peel on can make the macaroons bitter. It took me ten minutes to do this. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place almonds in a food processor with the chopping blade and pulse for ten seconds. Set the nuts aside. Separate the four eggs (you won’t use the yokes). Beat the whites with 1/4 tsp cream of tarter until the whites form stiff peaks. Fold in 1/2 baking powder. In a separate bowl mix 1/2 cup rice syrup and maple syrup, 3 1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut, 3-4 drops rose water and mix. Fold in egg whites. Back in a 5 x 9 lightly greased Pyrex pan. Bake for thirty minutes. Allow to cool for about fifteen minutes. Cut the dish into 2-inch slices. Roll into small balls and then allow to cook completely on a serving dish. Spray with rose oil before serving.

Notes: I adapted this recipe from The Ayurvedic Cookbook.

Cruel and Unusual Nutrition

2006-06-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

My stepfather calls my mother’s cooking cruel and unusual nutrition, because she makes dishes like stir fried vegetables seasoned with nutmeg (really it's good). Before mom came along his idea of good eating was large bowels of chili mac made by boiling a bag of macaroni noodles and topping it with a can of chili. (And here are a few odd macaroni facts: Thomas Jefferson imported the first macaroni machine to the US after one of his many trips to France. Previously, the noodle was made famous in the US by the phrase in the tune Yankee Doodle that states he “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni” referring to the Macaroni style made popular in Italy. Macaroni’s were individuals who were flamboyant, glutinous, and gambled to excess.) As so often happens with Monday’s lunches they end up a mish mash of the weekend cooking. Today’s lunch is somewhere in-between cruel and nutrition.

Today’s lunch
Macaroni Topped with Grilled Chicken and Beets

Boil one cup of brown rice elbow (also known as macaroni) pasta in 2 cups of water with a dash of olive oil. Cook until tender and drain. Scrub, peel, and chop 2 beets into 1-inch cubes and steam for about 12 minutes or until tender. I used the meat from two chicken drumsticks that we grilled over the weekend to add to the dish. Top with your favorite dressing. I used Drew’s Roasted Tomato salad dressing.

Bad Food

2006-06-02T05:33:00.000-07:00

We have a compost so that we never have to feel guilty about throwing out rotting vegetables or even the few vegetables we just can’t eat, such as black radish from the farm. Marginal food though I can’t bear to let rot in garden. Every once in awhile my husband or I are lured into buying a preselected bag of apples from the store. They always turn out to be tasteless. Probably the reason they want to do the selecting for you. From lemons we make lemonade from bad apples we make applesauce.

Today’s Lunch
Stewed Apples with Sliced Ham

Wash, peel, and chop apples into 1-inch pieces. (I know many who say you stopped me at “peel apples.” Peeling fruit or chopping vegetables doesn’t have to be a chore. I had a late-night lesson from a French chef about how to peel an apple that has stayed with me all my life. The secret is a very sharp knife.) Melt 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a saucepan on medium. Add apples along with 1 tbsp cinnamon and 1 tsp cloves. Cover with a lid and cook until tender. The pectin in the apples will create a lovely thick sauce that surrounds the apples. Serve hot or cold.

Life in the Slow Lane

2006-05-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

When I ceased to be a commuter I felt like I got a large part of life back. For nearly six years I’ve been lucky enough to live a mile from where I work. Riding a bike to work is a real luxury. After I got my first car, I can remember complaining to a friend that I felt like to got to places too fast. It seems trite to talk about the joy of watching a shopkeeper close up for the day or kids playing in the playground or watching the seasonal flowers bloom or the same man walking the streets muttering to himself. I can’t get enough of it. Now that we have decided not to move and continue to make our life in our little farmhouse next to the five hundred houses and the super Wal-Mart I look forward to another season of watching the slow evolution of life along my five-minute journey each day

Today’s Lunch
Fresh baked bread with butter and honey

Although at one time I baked bread for a living I rarely do the whole process by hand anymore. For our wedding my Aunt and Uncle gave us a bread maker. I either let the bread maker do all the work or I set it for the dough cycle and do the shaping myself. Here is the list of ingredients that I plunked in my bread maker before I headed out for a long Sunday morning roller blade. When I returned I had a fresh loaf of bread waiting for me.

2 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup mixed whole grains
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp sucanat
1 1/4 tbsp salt
3 tbsp regular active dry yeast

Even though the bread maker does not require that you do so I like to proof my yeast. Add room lukewarm water to removal bread pan. Test the temperature just as you would a baby bottle by dribbling the water across your wrist. If it feels neither hot nor cold it is the right temperature. Add sugar and yeast. Wait until the yeast foams to the surface and add the rest of the ingredient.

Note: A friend provided me with a batch of her stone ground whole wheat flour that she makes with her flour mill. She gets the grains she gets from Wheat Montana. She also threw in a side of the mixed whole grains.

Cultivating Contentment

2006-05-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

When I was a teenager my greatest ambition was to be a waitress in a diner or some small café or perhaps a street person. What others saw as malcontents I saw as happy people. I really thought that finding some wage-an-hour job and going home to my small apartment each night to read and drink coffee would be enough. I left high school to follow my dream. I seriously enjoyed the job and many of the skills that stand me in good stead today came from those years—anticipating problems, effective communication, conflict resolution, cooking, and making people laugh. After a few years, however, the boredom set in. It dawned on me that it was not the job that made the waitress I admired in my youth happy it was something she cultivated on her own. I’ve embarked on new careers, but I try to take that original lesson with me wherever I go. Happiness is not an external set of circumstances, but a choice that begins in our hearts and follows us wherever we go.

Today’s Lunch
Spinach salad with steamed potatoes and feta

Wash a cupful of spinach leaves and pat dry with a clean towel. Wash four or five Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes or small red potatoes and steam until tender. Drain and spray with cold water to cool. Chop 2 oz of feta cheese. Top spinach with potatoes and feta and serve with Annie’s Raspberry Vinaigrette. Serves 2.

Notes: Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes come from Baltic region of northeast Europe. They are similar to Yellow Finns and have a yellow skin and golden flesh with a smooth texture and a slightly sweet taste. I like to cook a huge pot of potatoes and eat them throughout the week. Steamed potatoes keep well and can be used in a variety of dishes. I mix varieties of red, yellow, purple, and sweet potatoes to make the mix more interesting.

Keeping Cool

2006-05-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

It seem counter intuitive to eat hot spicy food during the heat of the summer. Consuming spicy foods such as hot peppers actually promotes cooling by making you sweat. My dad tells stories of eating onions like apples while working construction in the deep south. If you want to stay cool bring on the heat.

Today’s Lunch
Beans and Rice

Soak 1 cup pinto beans overnight. Next day drain beans and combine with enough fresh water to cover beans in a pressure cooker. Add bay leaf, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or spicy pepper of choice, and black pepper (I’ve heard that adding salt prevents beans from becoming fully cooked). Bring to a boil and cook under pressure for fifteen minutes. Remove from head and allow to cool until all the pressure is released. Combine 2 cups of water and 1 cup white rice. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium and cook rice until tender—about twenty minutes. Serve with Parmesan cheese and chipotle (smoked jalapeno) salsa if desired.

Notes: I tend to eat more white rice in the summer. I like to get a big bag of good quality basmati rice from our local Indian grocery store at the beginning of the season. Although white rice has half the fiber and only a fourth of the magnesium content it is easily digestible and provides good quality carbs, especially if combined with beans.

Food for Thought

2006-05-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

What constitutes “good health” is often highly personal. Sure there is scientific evidence for various aspects of what is “good” and what is “bad,” however, we all have learned recently with the fat fiasco that this science can be flawed. I know people that think--despite new research that indicates otherwise--that low-fat foods filled with hydrogenated oils are good for you, and they are health professionals! Talking about health can be as contentious as talking about politics and religion.
Yesterday I picked up a Healthy Cooking magazine just to see what they had to say on the subject. Healthy Cooking is published by Sunwest in Riverside California that also produces Island Empire (I can’t really figure out what it is about) and Taste of Italia. This issue of Healthy Cooking is an odd mix of soap opera and celebrity cookbook advertising; lifestyle articles on such broad topics as renting designer purses instead of buying them, safe tanning, and spa vacations; wellness tips on yoga postures and preventing knee injuries; and recipes. The food photography was stunning and the design simple and clean. Despite the weird editorial mix there were lots of nice ideas on how to combine whole foods in simple and inviting ways. I can’t help but wonder what the editor’s definition of health really is.

Today’s Lunch
Vegetable Medley Pasta Salad with Feta

Boil 4 cups water to cook pasta. I used small spring-shaped pasta traditionally called Fusilli Bucati. Any pasta will do. Wash, peel, and chop 3 beets and set to stem. While the beets are cooking wash and chop 3 yellow squash and wash and pick one bunch of spinach. Drain beets when tender and set squash to steam adding spinach at the very end to blanch. Drain and toss with beets. Add 2 cups pasta to boiling water and cook as instructed. Drain pasta and spray with cool water to prevent further cooking of the pasta as it cools. Toss to dry and add to vegetables. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Crumble 4 oz of goat feta and toss. Serve warm or cold. Serves 6.

Memory Lane

2006-05-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Snapping beans reminds me of hot summer days spent on the screened-in porch of my father's country home. I would sit there in the evenings to escape the heat of the kitchen and snap beans. We grew broad beans that we would steam and eat with white rice slathered in tamari sauce. I love dinners with my dad as we always laugh a lot. It brings truth to the statistic that 80 percent of the most important conversations you have involve food.

Today’s Lunch
Steamed Green Beans topped with Toasted Almonds and Olive Oil

Wash bean and snap off both ends of each bean. Steam beans for about 12 minutes or until tender and set aside. Roughly chop whole almonds or use slivered almonds and add them to a dry skillet on medium-high heat. Toast until brown, shaking pan occasionally. Top beans with nuts and add 1 tbsp of olive oil. May be eaten hot or cold.

Complete Comfort

2006-05-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Some foods sooth more than others. We all have our favorites: big bowls of ice cream, mashed potatoes with butter, a favorite cereal swimming in milk, chocolate cake, and so on. Although I do turn to food for comfort, one of the most nourishing feasts I know of is looking at a cat. My stepfather, Charlie, took this photo of Lewis and Maude napping. Looking at it is just about as good as a bowl of mashed potatos.

Today’s Lunch
Mashed Sweet Potato with Ham and Cheddar Cheese

Wash and chop sweet potato in 2-inch squares leaving. Steam potato for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes. Pick up each piece with a fork and peel off the skin (you may choose to peel the skin off before you steam). Mash potato while still warm with 1 tbsp of butter. Roughly chop a few ounces of ham and cheddar cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. May be eaten hot or cold.

The Further Adventures of the Biscuit

2006-05-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

Having leftover biscuits still lurking about, I made enough bread pudding for the week’s breakfasts. Bread pudding can be made from any leftover bread. Line the bottom of a small 9 x 9 inch pan with bread—in my case sweet biscuits. Sprinkle with a handful of raisons or other dried fruit. In a separate bowl bead 4 eggs into 4 cups of milk with a dash of cinnamon and cloves. If the bread isn’t already sweetened you will want to add 1/2 cup of sucanut, brown sugar, or other granulated sweetener. Pour over the bread mixture and bake in the oven at 350 degrees. And, I promise this is now the end of biscuit discussions, for a little while at least.

Toady’s Lunch
Spinach Salad
Fresh spinach topped with chopped carrots, red pepper, and ham (I can’t promise not to talk about ham as I have way too much of it) topped with Annie’s Tuscany salad dressing.

Notes: with the warming weather farmers' markets are on the horizon. I relish the thought of gathering the fodder for my routine summer lunches of raw veggies, toasted nuts or seeds or perhaps a boiled egg topped with dressing.

When is a Biscuit a Cookie?

2006-05-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

The English refer to their cookies as biscuits. I found that in this culture these words are also interchangeable when I served up my “biscuits” for my officemate’s birthday topped with strawberries (sans cream because apparently I was supposed to bring it and that little detail slipped by me). I got raves about my molasses cookies. Maybe the next time I’ll try to make cookies and I’ll get biscuits.

Shortbread (Sweetened Beaten Biscuits)
11/2 c whole spelt flour
1/2 c Sucanut
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
6 tbsp. Cold butter
1/2 cup milk

(Spelt is an ancient wheat variety—you can purchase it at health food stores or substitute pastry flour). Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Cut cold butter into small pieces and add to bowl. Incorporate the butter into the flour with your hands until the butter. The resulting mixture should be crumbly. Slowly add the milk and toss the mixture lightly. The dough should be fairly dry. If not add a bit more flour. Pat out the mixture on a cutting board and use an upside down drinking glass dipped in flour to cut out the round shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

The Pressure is On

2006-05-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine emailed today to ask when I was going to freeze all that ham and start writing recipes again. I think I’ve had my last ham lunch for a while (and split pea and ham soup and limas cooked with ham, and so on). Now I’m faced with biscuit anxiety. No self-respecting southerner would admit they can’t make biscuits, but I’m lousy at it. So, what do I offer to bring for my officemates birthday? Shortcake. Shortcake is just a biscuit in disguise. The key to a good biscuits everyone tells me is cold ingredients and under mixing, but still mine never come out quite right. I made tonight’s batch with whole-wheat flour and sucanut (unrefined cane sugar). They are not pretty, so my ego will suffer, but when slathered with cream and topped with strawberries—that my other office mates will bring--they will be just fine. Sort of like all the things we fret about in life that may seem like a mess to us, but once we share them with friends it all becomes a good giggle.

Today’s Lunch
Coleslaw with marinated tofu and avocado topped with Annie’s Tuscany Dressing

Mix shredded cabbage, chopped red pepper, grated carrots, and chopped parsley in desired amounts. Top with fresh avocado and Baked Tofu Thai Style marinated tofu. Carry dressing separate container and dress before eating.

Be Careful What You Wish For

2006-04-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Around Easter I got the urge for ham. Telling my mother resulted in a ham the size of Eric Hyden’s thigh showing up in the mail. My mother is an overachiever. It is an exquisite air-cured Virginia ham from the Turner Ham House in Fulks Run, Virginia. Ham is by definition cured meat otherwise it would just be pork. With the soft tissues removed, the meat is rubbed with spices—the most important of these being a form of salt--then hung to cure. According to www.schoolscience.co.uk microbes and food page, “What happened during this process was that the sodium nitrate in the saltpetre became converted to nitrite by the natural flora of microbes present, mainly a type of bacterium called Micrococcus. Nitrite acts as a preservative and inhibits many different bacteria, including food poisoning organisms.” It makes me wonder what is really in great-grandfather Turner’s recipe, but I’m going to assume the best.

My ham came with its hock attached. The hock is the joint just above the pig’s foot. The ham was also covered in a thick layer of fat that had hardened on its surface and had a small showing of mold. The instruction that came with the ham suggested to boil the ham for twenty minutes per pound. I trotted out to the garage to gather a hacksaw and my turkey fryer pot—a mere stockpot was not going to cut it. I scrubbed the saw in hot water and soap and proceeded to saw off the hock (I never said this blog was for the faint of heart). Then I washed the ham with a non-perfumed soap and a scrub brush to take care of the mold and grime left on its surface. Taking my sharpest knife I trimmed away all the fat. I was left with a respectable 12.5-pound fresh bone-in ham that I covered in water and boiled as instructed. There is no comparison between this ham and the pathetic slices you get wrapped in plastic at the grocery store. It is on the dry side, salty, and full of flavor. If you have had prosciutto this is very similar flavor, but more robust.

Today’s Lunch
Ham Sandwich on a toasted whole wheat bun with homemade mustard and spinach

(see April 18 post for mustard Recipie.

An Occupational Hazard

2006-04-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

My latest entry to the Southern Living Cooking contest requires many egg whites. As a result, I have accumulated over thirty yokes in my fridge. What else to do but invite friends over for dinner and dig though my cookbooks for egg yoke recipes, leading to one enormous pan of banana pudding and a batch of homemade mayonnaise. I had never made either and was delighted with their ease. I used the mayonnaise in a big batch potato salad. In addition to the potato salad and pudding, my husband and I prepared grass-feed beef burgers, cole slaw, and brown sugar lemonade. I always cook too much food for company so we have been eating leftovers for lunch all week.

Today’s Lunch
Hot Potato Salad and coleslaw
(I know, I know, this sounds weird, but trust me it is delicious).

Potato Salad
Scrub and chop 20 small red potatoes and boil in salted water until tender the night before. Cool on the counter and then move to the refrigerator. (Unless you douse the potatoes with cold water when you drain them from the hot water they will continue to cook. I don’t like the cold water method, so I remove the potatoes par-boiled. They will continue to cook as they cool.) The next day prepare mayonnaise by whisking together two large egg yokes, 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 cove of garlic, 1 tbsp mustard, and a dash of salt and pepper. Using an electric beater on medium speed slowly add 1 cup of canola oil at room temperature. Chop one red pepper and four stalks of celery. Add mayonnaise, pepper, celery, and more salt and pepper to the potatoes and mix.

Cole Slaw
Chop and wash 1 head of cabbage add four grated carrots and one head of chopped parsley. Prepare a vinaigrette dressing by mixing 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, 1 cup olive oil, a few drops of stevia, and salt and pepper to taste in a jar with a tight lid. Shake vigorously. Mix dressing and veggies together.

For leftovers mix equal amounts of cole slaw and potato salad and heat in the microwave.

Notes: Stevia is a natural sweetener from the Stevia plant native to Paraguay. It has unfortunately run afoul of the Food and Drug Administration and the food industry lobbyist and is only sold as a supplement in health food stores. A few drops can substitute gobs of sugar.