Sweetie Pie

Asparagus

We stopped by the local grocery store after school yesterday in search of something green for St. Patrick's Day.  I'm the very proud mom who was able to check out with, ... asparagus as our exciting green item for the holiday.  This is one of the only vegetables that my boy will deign to eat, and the fact that he only eats the top half of each stalk bothers me not in the least.

I was especially impressed with the asparagus yesterday because it was both organic and grown in the United States.  It seriously bugs me that fresh vegetables flown in from Peru are for sale and I refuse to buy them.  Wait for the appropriate season and you'll be able to find better quality produce grown closer to home.  This is a spring vegetable, so look for it in your stores now.  Before you buy, check the tips to make sure that they are tightly closed and not mushy.  The asparagus should be bright green and firm.

My Favorite Asparagus

One bunch fresh green asparagus

One lemon

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees or preheat the broiler.

Wash the asparagus and pat it dry.  Hold a stem halfway up the stalk in one hand and grasp the cut end with the other hand.  Bend the stalk until the cut end snaps off.  This will give you a guide to how much of the stem end to cut off.  As you can see in the picture, I cut off about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of stem.  This was discarded because it is tough.  If you don't want to waste the stems, you can use them in a vegetable stock.  Another option is to peel the asparagus stalks from about halfway down the stem with a vegetable peeler.

When the oven is hot, lightly oil a sheet pan with about one or two teaspoons of oil and spread the asparagus on it.  Roll them around so that the oil is distributed.  Place the pan in a hot oven or under the broiler.  Wash the lemon and cut it in half.  Pull out the pan after about 4 minutes.  Squeeze the lemon over the asparagus and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Return the pan to the oven.  Check again after 4 minutes.  You are looking for a super duper bright green color and just a little sizzle around the edges of the pan.  Do not overcook the veg, it should be a little crunchy.  Serve hot.  

 

 

 

Thin Sin Pizza

This recipe is from Shape magazine (October 2013) and chef Jeff Mahin.  A Thin Sin pie is on the menu at his restaurants every day with assorted toppings.  The slim crust keeps the calorie count low so that you can indulge in pizza without packing on the pounds. 

Thin Sin Pizza Dough

Recipe from Jeff Mahin

yeild dough for 5 two serving or 3 three serving pizzas

4 cups all purpose flour ( I used 3 c ap flour and 1 cup whole wheat)

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Anything baked with yeast (such as fresh bread) will need time to develop flavor.  A good pizza crust is no exception.  Mix up the dough the day before you want to make pizza so that it can become delicious over night.

Place flour, yeast and olive oil in mixer fitted with dough hook attachment and begin mixing.  Add salt and 1 1/4 cups room temperature water.  Mix on low speed for 5 minutes.  Turn off mixer and let dough rest 10 minutes.  You could knead this dough by hand if you're so inclined.

Turn the mixer on medium- high for 5-6 minutes or until the dough is smooth.  Remove from mixer and portion into 3 or 5 rounds.  This depends on the size of pizzas you'd like to make.  If you divide it into five, you'll have pizzas that serve two people.  I divided it into three to get slightly larger pizzas for my family.   Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate over night. 

On the day you want to make pizza, remove dough from fridge in the morning or around noon if it's a very warm day.   When the dough is room temperature and risen a little it's ready to go.   Dust a work surface with flour.  Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out very thin.  I like to roll it out on parchment paper and then put it on a cookie sheet for easy sliding.  (Keep extra dough in the freezer.)

Add toppings of your choice.  We had tomato sauce with fresh basil, red peppers, a generous swirl of olive oil, cracked black pepper, romano and mozzarella cheese on our first pizza.  Other suggestions from the magazine are mushrooms and Gruyere with parsley, green onion and thyme, or butternut squash and turkey bacon pizza, or spinach and purple kale pizza.  Think of your pizza crust as a blank canvas and put your favorite vegetables and cheeses on it - just about anything goes.

Any pizza crust will improve exponentially if you bake it on a hot stone.  Place the pizza stone in the oven to preheat for at least 30 minutes.  Slide the thinly rolled pizza and toppings, parchment paper and all, onto the super hot pizza stone.  This will give you those awesome bubbles and crispy crust.  Bake at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

This pizza was excellent.   The thin and crispy crust was on par with something from a pizza oven restaurant.  The dough is easy to work with and no problem to roll very thin.  It was an added bonus to have extra dough to stash in the freezer for another day. 

Tomato Soup

Lately I've been wondering if my chocolate addiction has gotten out of hand.  I enjoyed some pre -Valentine baking and eating in addition to my regular dark chocolate consumption.  Then came V-day and I slipped over the edge.  My husband and son bought my favorite chocolates for the sweet holiday, and I began shoving them in fast and furiously.  Sometimes it's better to just eat it all really quickly, feel ill, and then move on with your life.  Right?  Anyway,  I think I've finally had enough and I'm craving something healthy.  Tomato soup has been a favorite of mine for a long long time.  Today I made a modified version of my mom's recipe.  I read in Julia's Kitchen Wisdom that you can make a creamy soup by adding white rice to the base and pureeing the final product.  Sometimes I just don't want to consume all the milk that goes into the original cream of tomato soup I grew up with.  Particularly when I'm trying to eat something cleansing and get back on the healthy train. 

Please note that this is just a basic soup recipe, it's not rocket science.  Feel free to adjust the seasonings and proportions to your liking.  These amounts will yield a very tomato tasting soup with just enough thickness and a tiny bit of smoothness.  You can use tomato juice instead of whole tomatoes for a thinner soup, or you can add more rice if you want it starchier, or you could increase the amount of herbs if that's what you're into.  You could also use less tomatoes and add some stock.  However, I don't think brown rice would have the same creamy effect.

Although traditionally served with grilled cheese sandwiches cut into triangles, this time we had a yummy feta and scallion tart with the tomato soup.  It was a perfect accompaniment, and easy to make.  If you want to make this without dairy I think you could omit the cheese and use kalamata olives instead.  The crust recipe uses vodka which I didn't have so I just left it out, and it was great.  After reading the comments on the recipe I reduced the oven heat to 475 degrees and the tart cooked beautifully. 

Tomato Soup

2 Tablespoons butter (you can use olive oil if you want the soup to be completely dairy free)

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons chopped onion

2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon each: dry basil, oregano and thyme

4 to 6 cups tomatoes, in juice - I used two large cans of whole plum tomatoes in juice for a total of 6 cups.  Low sodium tomatoes would be even better.

1/4 cup white rice (uncooked)

Heat the butter and olive oil in a large soup or saucepan and add the onions.  Cook until the onions are becoming translucent, then add the spices, sugar, and flour.  Stir and cook for at least one minute so that the flour will begin to brown just slightly.  Pour in the tomato juice a little at a time and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan as you go.  Once you've got most of the juice stirred in and boiling, add the tomatoes and rice and bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down so that the soup is simmering, cover loosely and cook for at least 25 minutes. 

Before serving, remove the soup from heat and blend thoroughly.  I used an immersion blender but you could also puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor.  I found that it was important to blend really well so that the rice became smooth.  Garnish with parsley, chives, scallions, or whatever fresh herbs you like. 

My five year old actually liked this meal!  Score!  I cut his tart into triangles, and he enjoyed spreading his soup on it and calling it pizza.  This was fine by me.  I'm also happy to report that I've successfully steered my caboose back towards health and moderation.

Coconut and Lime Fish

We had such a delicious dinner last night that I just had to share.  I tried a new recipe and was worried about how it would turn out. 

It was an absolute success!  The sauce for the fish is a variation of beurre blanc made with lime juice and coconut milk.  It's tangy and creamy and coconutty and zippy and lucious and you've just got to try making it at home.  The recipe can be found at good food matters.  It was easy to follow and only took about 15 minutes to make.

For this recipe you will need:

2 or 3 servings of white fish such as flounder or sea bass

1 can coconut milk (light is okay!)

4 Tablespoons butter

zest and juice of 1 lime

salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, scallions or chives, and optional dry UNsweetened coconut

I love that this recipe doesn't call for any hard to find ingredients like exotic chiles.  The only thing I had to remember to buy was a lime.  I used frozen flounder fillets from the grocery store, which I defrosted in the refrigerator overnight.  The only changes I made to the recipe were that I omitted the granulated garlic and used scallions instead of chives.  I also added about 2 Tablespoons unsweetened dry coconut to the spice mixture.

I would recomend that you open a can of coconut milk and measure out 1/2 cup for the sauce, then use the rest of the can to cook some rice.  Use a combination of the coconut milk and water to prepare rice as usual and serve the fish over it. Yum.  We had this with a plain salad and orange slices.   

Pandowdy

Anyone who does much cooking on a regular basis will tell you that the most difficult part is the planning.  What to cook?  Will the family like it?  Do I need to buy any special ingredients?  How long will it take?  All these factors must be taken into consideration if you are going to have dinner on the table at a reasonable hour on a weeknight.
After poking around in the refrigerator on this particular afternoon, I came up with a bag of very spotty apples, a pie crust that has been defrosting for about a week, eggs, ricotta cheese, a box of spinach, and an onion.  I enlisted the help of my four year old by talking up the apple dessert we would make.  Since I have a problem with soggy bottom crusts, I decided to use a pretty casserole dish and put the crust on top.  After some quick research, I discovered that this type of deep dish dessert with pastry on top is called a pandowdy.
Evidently there was no romance involved in naming apple desserts in days past.  As I searched for the proper name for my creation I discovered the apple buckle, the apple slump, the pandowdy, and worst of all:  the apple grunt.  Gross.  The pandowdy was so named because it was baked in a deep dish and topped with a crust, which looked dowdy.  I'm pleased to say that my creation didn't look frumpy, it didn't slump or buckle, and I didn't make any gutteral noises while making it.  Toss the fruit with a little bit of sugar and some cinnamon, place the crust on top and bake in a hot oven for about an hour.
After this was in the oven, we turned out attention to a making a simple frittata.  This is an easy dish to fall back on no matter how little you find in the refrigerator.  Eggs are the main ingredient, and everything else is optional.  You can add onions, veggies, cheese, or even leftover meat or pasta. 
Crack a few eggs into a bowl and whisk them up with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Saute some chopped onion in an oven proof skillet, add garlic, spinach, or any other vegetable that will need time to cook and soften.  Pour the eggs over the cooking veggies, sprinkle cheese on top and any other topping such as herbs or tomatoes.  Put the pan into a hot oven and cook until it puffs up a little and the eggs are done to your liking. 

Do you have any simple, easy and versatile recipes you fall back on when you want a hot meal for your family?

 

 

 

Broccoli: It's what's for dinner

My small son was dismayed to come to the dinner table and find nothing but a big bowl of broccoli and some veggie fried rice.  It was a delicious meal of Ginger Garlic Broccoli and yummy rice, but it held no charms for him.  Admittedly I am no lover of broccoli either, but in an effort to bring more green veg to the family I have been trying some new recipes.  This is a cool season vegetable, so now is the time to find it on sale along with cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and greens such as spinach.       I had high hopes that this recipe would magically transform the broccoli into an irresitably savory mouthful that even my child wouldn't be able to resist.  This dish is very tasty, but it's not magical.  I followed the recipe I found on Simply Recipes and just increased the flavor a little bit here and there.  The grown-ups at the table were pleased with the result.

Broccoli with Ginger and Garlic

1 pound broccoli

2 Tablespoons fresh ginger finely chopped

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 Tablespoons sesame oil

1 pinch red pepper flakes

sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

Begin by washing and chopping up the broccoli.  Separate the florets from the stems.  Peel the stems with a vegetable peeler and chop them up.  Break the florets apart to your desired size and put them in a separate pile.

Heat the cooking oil in a big saute pan and add the broccoli stems.  Let them cook for a few minutes before adding the florets because the stems will cook more slowly.  Stir everything so that it's all evenly coated.  Now scoot the broccoli to the outside of the pan so that you have a little space right in the middle to add the garlic and ginger. You may need to add another splash of oil here to get it going.   Let the garlic and ginger become fragant, then stir everything together and add the stock, soy sauce and sesame oil.  Stir and cook on high heat.  If the broccoli is getting over done, you can take it out with a slotted spoon and let the sauce reduce on it's own.  Continue cooking the sauce until only a few tablespoons remain, then add the broccoli back to the pan.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving.

Pie Pumpkin Soup

This easy pumpkin soup recipe from Alton Brown is fun to make with kids this time of year.  Pie pumpkins are smaller than the large type we buy to carve into Jack O Lanterns.  These little cuties are sweeter, more flavorful and have bright orange flesh.  There are a few varieties of pie pumpkins including one called 'Sugar Pie', but I couldn't find any specific varieties around here and had to settle for a generic 'Pie Pumpkin.' 
You wouldn't want to try this recipe with one of those large pumpkins because they're bred to be big and tough so they can hold up to carving and resist rotting while sitting on your front porch.  Taste is not a priority with the big guys.
Look for pie pumpkins that are bright orange and firm with the stem attached.  Take them home and wash them thoroughly.  Then cut the top off and scoop out the seeds.  Place all the gook and slime and seeds in a bowl and put your kids to work separating out the seeds for toasting later.  Our little guy loves being involved in making snacks, and this job kept him busy for a good long while.

Pie Pumpkin Soup

recipe from Alton Brown

1 pie pumpkin

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup cream  (I think you could use coconut milk here if you can't do dairy.)

1 apple, peeled and diced

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic

1 tablespoon butter

salt, pepper, and a pinch of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Take the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds.  Place the pumpkin in a foil lined casserole dish to protect your oven from spills.  Put all remaining ingredients inside the hollow pumpkin, place the lid back on and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Take the lid off and scrape the inside of the pumpkin so that the flesh mixes with the other ingredients.  Use an immersion blender to smooth it all out into a delicious fall soup.  Mr. Brown recommends a goat cheese and fresh thyme garnish which sounds delicious, but I forgot to buy goat cheese and it was still really yummy.

This was a fun and simple recipe to make.  The soup is a great starter to any fall meal, warming and tasty.  The toasted pumpkin seeds were also a big hit in our house. 

 

Creamy Carrot Soup

Sometimes it seems like a good idea to buy a 5 pound bag of carrots.  What a deal!  These carrots look fantastic and I won't run out of them no matter what I decide to cook!  Then, after using  two or three carrots and seeing that I still have about 4 and three fourths pounds of  carrots left, I begin to wonder why I thought it was such a good idea to buy that huge bag.  Here is a recipe that really highlights the sweet flavor of this hearty root vegetable.

This has been a week of gray skies, drizzly rain and slightly cooler temps.   It's been perfect weather to finally use my brand new red Le Crueset french oven and dish up some warming soup.  This creamy carrot soup is simple and delicious with a hint of ginger and coconut milk to finish it off.  Please remember that when you're making such straightforward recipes, it's absolutely important to use quality ingredients. 

Buy some fresh and bright orange looking carrots, not those pale anemic looking prepeeled 'baby' things.  Pick up some fresh ginger in the produce aisle, quality cooking stock, and a can of light coconut milk in the asian foods section.  If you already have an onion and some olive oil, you're ready to go.  Crusty bread with gooey melted cheese rounds this out to a meal.

 

Creamy Carrot Soup

Recipe from Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard

1/3 cup olive oil

2 medium or 1 large onion, diced

2 lbs, or about 5 cups carrots, cut into rounds

1 clove garlic

5 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup light coconut milk or regular milk

1 teaspoon finely grated ginger 

Heat the oil in a big heavy pan, add the onions and saute until translucent and just beginning to caramelize.  This will take about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and the carrots and stir to coat everything in the olive oil.  Cook, partially covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the carrots are sweet and tender.

Add the stock and bring up to a simmer.  Add the ginger and the coconut milk.  If you're using regular milk, don't add it until right before you serve it.  Puree the soup either in batches in a blender, or with an immersion blender until it's creamy and lucious. 

The carrots give the soup sweetness while the garlic and ginger make it interesting.  The coconut milk makes it smooth and creamy without using any dairy.  This would be a perfect starter for a nice roast chicken dinner on a cold day.  Now, I'm sure you're all dying to know how this soup was recieved by my hubby and the little pirate.  I'm proud to say that this simple soup is so yummy that they both ate it right up.  The little one used it mainly as a dip for his cheesy bread, but he ate it with no complaints!

Let's Cook!

I just spent a relaxing evening learning to prepare delicious dishes while sitting comfortably and chatting with other nice ladies.  The Let's Cook Culinary Studio has a perfect set up to watch and learn. 

As you can see, there's a cool TV screen to show what the chef's hands are doing.   They offer lots of different types of classes throughout each month as well as private events.  We were at the 'Wild Women Night".  It was more like a 'Mild Women Night' as it was a small and sedate group, but that was okay with us. 
The menu started with a Thai steak salad, then we had Pad Thai with shrimp and chicken and Mai Thai Coconut Cake for dessert.  I especially enjoyed watching it all being prepared and learning about the ingredients without having to lift a finger.  Even someone who has no interest in cooking (but likes to eat) would enjoy these classes because you can bring a bottle of wine and relax while someone else does all the work. 
 Dessert might have been my favorite part but as you can see, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Here are some of  the ingredients.  It was a pineapple cake with cream cheese, rum, orange and coconut frosting and oh so right.  I will definitely make this recipe at home.

This was a great way to spend some time catching up with a friend and meeting new people.  There are lots of great classes lined up for the fall like wine making, canning, tapas, healthy cooking,  and I saw on the website that there will be a pie making class.  Some of these are demonstrations, and some are hands on.  Whatever you're into;  I'll be back.

Relish to the Rescue

Sweet Red Pepper Relish came to my rescue when nothing was going quite right in the kitchen.  The recipe is so simple and straightforward I knew I couldn't mess it up.

After a big fat focaccia failure  learning experience, I needed a quick fix to make me feel like a successful home cook again.  I like this recipe because it only requires 1 sweet red bell pepper.  Coincidentally, that's exactly how many peppers I had from my garden.  I will tell you the ingredients you need, and assure you that the results are wonderful.  However, if you want full instructions you'll have to click through to Savory Sweet Life.

Red Pepper Relish needs only the pepper, half an onion, some sugar and vinegar.  That's it, but I have to recommend that you go ahead and make some roasted garlic while you're at it.  This sweet hot relish is so divine with roasted garlic and cream cheese on a cracker or pretzels.  You won't believe how easy it is to make, how fast you eat it all up, or how amazing it is on a sandwich.

(I'm still working on the focaccia bread and will let you in on the recipe next week.)