Recipe: Really good strawberry scones

I was reading a Family Fun magazine at a doctor's office last week and saw this recipe for strawberry scones. They looked delicious, so I made some up today and am pleased to report that they are indeed delicious! Annalivia helped to dump the stuff in the bowl, mix it with a fork, brush milk on the top and sprinkle sugar on them.
Here are my revisions. You can find the original recipe here.

Strawberry scones
1 cup finely diced fresh strawberries
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup sugar, plus a little for sprinkling
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
A lemon, for zest
8 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Heat your oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, using a few spots of butter or cooking oil to stick it in place. Set the baking sheet aside.

2. Place the diced strawberries on several sheets of paper towel to absorb their juice. Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Zest lemon into the ingredients, taking care to remove just the outermost skin and not the white pith.

3. Cut in the butter until the flour-coated pieces are the size of peas. Add the strawberries, tossing them gently with a fork to coat them.

4. Make a well in the mixture. Blend the 1/2 cup of cream and vanilla extract in a measuring cup and pour them into the well. Using as few strokes as possible, gently stir the dough until it forms a ball. Let the dough sit for 1 minute.

5. Clean and flour your hands and dust your work surface with flour. Place the dough on the floured surface and knead it gently three or four times. Transfer it to the large baking sheet and pat it into an 8-inch circle. Cut into 8 wedges. Use a small spatula or pie server to carefully separate the pieces, leaving at least an inch between them.

6. Brush the tops of the scones with the remaining tablespoon of milk, then sprinkle the surfaces with sugar. Bake the scones until the outsides are crusty and starting to brown, about 18 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then slide the parchment and the scones onto a wire rack to cool for another 20 minutes before serving.

Recipe: Quick, skillet lasagna

It's getting warmer here and the search is on to find foods that can be cooked out on the grill or on the stovetop and thus not warm up the entire house. Here is a good one that worked well for our family. Have a nice salad and veggie on the side, and you've got yourself a really good meal.

Skillet Lasagna

1 lb ground meat

Sauce:

1 can chicken broth

1 small can tomato paste

1 can tomatoes with garlic and onion

1/2 cup wine

Italian seasonings to taste

salt/pepper to taste

1 cup ricotta or cottage cheese

1 egg

1/2 mozzarella cheese

1/4 parmesan

Italian seasonings

whole wheat lasagna noodles, broken, or whole wheat pasta like farfalle

1 c. mozzarella cheese

In large skillet with lid, brown meat. Remove, drain, rinse.

Add broth, paste, tomatoes, wine and seasonings to skillet. Whisk together til smooth, bring to a boil and allow to reduce a little. (Or just skip the homemade sauce and add a can of spaghetti sauce, tomatoes and the wine to the skillet.)

Add back the meat, then sprinkle in the noodles. While returning to a boil, mix cottage or ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella, parmesan and seasoning together. Drop by spoonfuls into skillet. Cover and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes or til pasta is done and cheese looks like it does in lasagna! If there's too much liquid, allow it to simmer uncovered for a few minutes, but remember that it will continue to set up!

Remove from heat. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top. Cover til and allow to melt.

Eat and enjoy!

Recipe: Vegetable lasagna

It's spring and time to celebrate with the ingesting of many fresh veggies! Here's a recipe I'm really excited about making since I found whole wheat lasagna noodles at Target in the Cities yesterday (yes, I know -- probably most of the world has access to those in regular life. We, on the other hand, have to drive an hour or so to find them. It's a real triumph here.)

FYI, I adapted this a tiny bit from Rachael Ray. Her original used cheese ravioli instead of lasagna to cut the time. But this doesn't take much longer and I find that we don't usually miss the extra cheese.

Vegetable lasagna
1-2 large packages chopped frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4-6 cloves garlic chopped
1 can quartered artichokes, drained and chopped
3 zucchini, shredded, squeezed dry
1 package mushrooms, chopped
1 lb asparagus, lightly steamed, and cut into 1-2 in pieces

1 package lasagna noodles

Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock (or veggie is good, too)
1/2 cup cream or half-and-half (or you can use evaporated milk too)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and black pepper

2 cups grated mozzarella, provolone or Italian Cheese blend

Boil water for lasagna.

Meanwhile, add olive oil to a skillet then add mushrooms and zucchini. Cook for a bit til mushrooms release water, then drain. Add a teeny bit more oil and garlic, cook for a bit, then add shpinach and artichokes til heated through. Remove from skillet.

Place skillet back on the heat and melt butter. Whisk flour into butter and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk stock into flour and butter and let it bubble. Whisk in cream and Parmesan. Season sauce and let cook for a couple of minutes til thick.

Cook lasagna noodles according to directions. In last 3-5 minutes of cooking, add the asparagus spears to a steamer basket or colander and let steam til just tender. When noodles are done, drain. Add the asparagus to the other veggies.

For traditional lasagna: Put a small bit of sauce in a baking dish (just so noodles don't stick) and add noodles, then add one half of veggie mix. Add about one third the sauce. Then add more noodles, more veggies and next 1/3 sauce. Then finally noodles, sauce and cheese. Put in 350 degree oven and bake until cheese is bubbly, or just put under the broiler til cheese is bubbly.

For non-traditional lasagna roll-ups: Put some sauce in the bottom of the pan, then spread veggie mix on a lasagna noodle, roll up and place in the pan. Continue til done, then pour remaining sauce over the top and add cheese. Again, cook in 350 degree oven, if you have the time, or broil if not.

Note -- if you really like alfredo sauce, you may want to make a bit more. I try to keep mine on the non-saucy side to cut the caloric intake.

Hope y'all enjoy!!

REALLY fabulous peanut butter cookies for cheaters

I have been CRAVING peanut butter cookies during the last few months of this pregnancy -- real peanut butter cookies like my grandmother has made in the past. I've not however made any because I find cookie-making to be a tedious pain in the butoushka most of the time.
Last week, I bought a Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix and my dear love mixed them up and made them for me. He did a fine job mixing, but they weren't as I remembered them -- not peanut-y enough and certainly not that great mix of chewy and crumbly that a truly fine peanut butter cookie should be.
It occurred to me sometime this week that I could maybe modify the mix, though, and come up with something pretty close. Tonight I did and besides being really quick, these are SO good, probably mainly due to the fact that with my additions, both purposeful and accidental, I probably quadrupled or quintupled the fat content.
Peanut Butter Cookies

3/4 cup peanut butter
6 T butter, softened
2 eggs
1 T vanilla
1 pkg. peanut butter cookie mix
Optional ingredients -- about 2 doz. Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts or miniature cups or Hershey's Kisses, if you're a purist, or Dove Dark Chocolate Treasures, if you're an indulgent gourmand, unwrapped and uneaten while they sit beckoningly on the counter

Preheat oven to 375.
Cream together peanut butter, butter, eggs and vanilla til well blended and slightly fluffy. Add peanut butter mix slowly til mixed together. Make ping-pong sized balls.
For traditional pb cookies, roll in sugar and then flatten with a glass dipped in sugar or make crosshatches from the tine prints of a fork dipped in sugar. Bake about 6-8 minutes or til very lightly browned on edges.
For blossoms -- just pop in the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Remove and place unwrapped choco delicacy in the center, pressing down slightly to flatten the cookie. Force yourself to let the cookie cool before you gobble it up. And pace yourself -- they're pretty rich.
Should make about 2 doz cookies. Our batch was 22 today, though some got a little big, but they look nice with the peanut butter hearts in them. (I'm telling myself that I'm going to freeze a dozen for Valentine's Day. We all know I'm fooling myself, but for now, it's a nice lie.)

Homemade pizza extravaganza

This afternoon I've been making pizza crusts after having spent most of the morning dozing on the couch while PBS helped Annalivia entertain herself (if I categorized my posts, I believe this would go under "Bad Mothering.")
ANYWAY, this afternoon I've been pretty productive. So far, I've made 6 pizza crusts, which has been just about the easiest cooking I've done thanks to a recipe from Lynn at Choosing Home, my breadmaker and three foil pizza pans I bought at Kroger for $1.24 yesterday. I'm posting the recipe, which I altered a bit at the bottom of this post. Basically, I just let the breadmaker mix it, then as soon as one batch was raising, started the second. I might put in a third and make 9 pizzas!
One of the women at the CH Forum pre-bakes these crusts and wraps them and freezes them so as to have homemade crusts available anytime. My plan is to let these crusts cool and then freeze them for a couple of hours, take them out and top them quickly, then wrap them up tightly and freeze them again so that we will have homemade pizzas in the chest freezer. I'm also going to send some down to my sister, Lil, who could be giving birth at any moment and thus relieve a little of my I'm-a-selfish-big-sister guilt.
So -- this evening I'm making deluxe pizzas (sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, green olives and cheese), Garden Ranch pizzas (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, red peppers and mozzarella over a garlic ranch sauce) and Spinach Artichoke pizzas. Don't those sound good? We're having pizza tonight, too, by the way!
I'm hoping this works and does not make soggy pizzas when they are reheated. We have a pizza stone which should help when baking them again. I'm a little worried about the frozen fresh veggies, but even if these pizzas are a tad soggy, they'll be FAR cheaper and much more healthy than the other options available to us post-partum.

Pizza Dough
2 cups warm water
2 T honey
1 T salt
1/4 c olive oil
5 cups flour (I've been using 4 cups whole wheat and 1 unbleached white today)
2 T yeast
Put in breadmaker in order listed. Allow breadmaker to mix. (Keep an eye on it -- you may need to add more flour to make a soft dough). When done, let rest 5 minutes or so. Divide into three portions and press into pans oiled with olive oil (can use a little cornmeal for a nice texture on the bottom, too!) If you want to make seasoned crusts, brush them with a little olive oil and add your seasonings (like Italian seasonings and parmesan, for example).
Pierce with a fork and let rise about 25-30 minutes til it is nice and puffy. (Lynn's original recipe doesn't have the time for the rise, but if you do take the time, you'll end up with much thicker, chewier crusts, which we really like).
Bake at 425 for 5-7 minutes. At this point, I slid mine off the foil pans and chilled for freezing. If you have a pizza stone and are going to continue baking, now we be a great time to put it on the stone, top it quickly and then stick it back in for about 15-25 minutes, or til done. Keep an eye on it til you figure out what time works for you.

Recipe of desperation: Lemon Curd Coffeecake

It is now the eleventh hour, literally, and I am waiting for a coffeecake to finish cooking so that I may take it to tomorrow's Cookies 'n' More Sale at First Christian Church where it will not be sold, but will be given out for free to anyone who is not scared away by its exotic gorgeousness.
For some reason, I am a sucker for old ladies who call me to do last minute baking, especially when their sob stories involve great personal sacrifice, 12 inch snowfall and a retail establishment that remained closed today with our cinnamon rolls for tomorrow firmly locked within its walls. Tell me -- do male pastors ever stay up far past their bedtime baking?

Anyway, here is the recipe, which turned out brilliantly and looks gorgeous and was really quite simple. I created it and I must say, I'm quite impressed with myself.

Lemon Curd Coffeecake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
1 package vanilla or lemon pudding (I used vanilla because I'm going for a Danish-esque sort of thing. You use what you want).

Mix this up for two minutes on medium and spread in 9x13 greased and floured pan.

1 jar lemon curd (if it has been sitting in your refrigerator for a while, all the better)
1 package cream cheese, softened (if it's not a whole package, that's ok, too)
1/4 cup -ish of powdered sugar. (I'll leave this out next time)
2 egg yolks
1 T vanilla (Grammy uses vanilla and a lot of it in all sweet things, so I do too.)
1/2 t lemon extract, if your curd is not lemony enough for ya

Beat this til well blended and pour down the length of the cake in two thick lines. Sprinkle with sliced almonds, if desired, though don't be alarmed when they sink into the cake.
Bake at 325-350, depending on your pan (dark/ coated less, glass/metal more) for at least 30 minutes, probably 40. Check it periodically and make sure that the center cake tests as done. Be sure to test the cake part, not the curd. Don't worry about the curd, it will set up as it sits.
I am going to glaze it with icing and then sprinkle with some more almonds, toasted this time, then drizzle it with a thicker icing when it cools completely. But, let me tell you -- I have sampled it. This is good stuff. I'm pleased.

Fried chicken success!!

I have finally made fried chicken worth sharing with people other than Dennis and Annalivia. It has taken me literally five batches to finally get it, but I've gotten it, darn it! Hurrah!
So, just in case anyone is wondering, here's what I did and will do beyond this...
Mix flour with salt and pepper -- I probably used about 4 cups flour and four teaspoons salt and pepper for 24 pieces of chicken. Mix milk with two eggs -- about two cups of milk or something. Dip chicken pieces in flour, then in milk, then in flour again.
Fry in oil set. I fried in about 1 1/2 inch of veg oil in an electric skillet set to 275 degrees. I let it get really brown -- about 15 minutes per side on thighs and 10 minutes per side on drumsticks.
Drain on a paper towel and set in a 200 degree oven. After I fried everything, I turned up the chicken to 350 and cooked for 20 minutes.
We liked the chicken that was cooked in the oven and the chicken fried in the oil, drained and then eaten. The stuff in the oven made a very crisp crust, the one straight out of the oil was slightly less crunchy. The meat in both was delicious and tender and moist.
I'm taking the rest of the chicken to Eureka for my dad tomorrow. His birthday was this week and he's a big fan of fried chicken.
I'm so excited!! I can make fried chicken!!!

Another good jar gift

Here's a very cool looking recipe from Midwest Living.

Toffee Blondies in a Jar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
3/4 c coarsely chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1/2 c toffee pieces or butterscotch flavored pieces

To make:
1/4 c butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 t vanilla

Layer in a 1 quart jar the following: brown sugar, chocolate, flour, baking powder, salt, pecans and toffee. Tap gently on counter to settle each layer before adding the next. Cover and store for up to 1 month. Or, attach baking instructions and give as a gift.
Baking instructions: Grease an 8x8x2-inch baking pan. In a large bowl, stir together the butter eggs and vanilla. Stir in contents of jar until combined. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until edges just begin to pull away. Cool blondies in pan on wire rack. Cut into 16 bars.

You don't want to know the nutrition info.

Recipe: Really good, but not quite "it" sugar cookies

I made some sugar cookies yesterday that were really quite delicious. They aren't, however, what I've been craving. The cookies I've been craving are from a lady in our church who makes these amazing, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies. She offers to give me the recipe whenever I ooh-and-aahhhh, but she never follows through. Even if I call her and ask her for it, she finds some reason to put off handing down the recipe.
ANYWAY, these cookies are not quite Ruth's but are as close as I've come. I'm going to try adding 1 teaspoon cream of tartar next time and see how that changes the flavor if favor of the recipe in my head. Regardless, these are delicious and very easy and don't even have to be refrigerated, which is great if you are ENFP like me and don't generally plan beyond the end of your nose, let alone 24 hours before cookies are to be baked.

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies
3/4 cup butter, softened, but not TOO soft
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla (or double it or add almond extract or lemon extract -- all delicious)
Cream all together
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix together and add to the creamed mix.
Either refrigerate, or go ahead and roll into balls, then roll in sugar and flatten with hand or bottom of glass. Bake in the upper half of a 375 degree oven for about 8 minutes. These will spread out quite a bit and the bottom will brown very fast.
Allow to cool for about a minute on the pan, then remove!
Enjoy with milk or hot tea or plain!

Mid-day munching dilemma

For some reason, I am not good at making lunch. I don't know why. It's not that I can't make a good lunch. I can and VERY occasionally, I do. But most of the time when mid-day arrives and a hungry Little Bug starts squirming for something to eat we do one of three things: go get something someone else has made at some restaurant/ fast food place, heat up leftovers from the night before, or scavenge around eating little snippets of cheese and crackers and fruit and whatever salads we have on hand until we aren't hungry any more.
Hence, I am looking forward to all the great ideas people will post this week at the Choosing Home blog. And to help myself to feel a little better about stealing all the ideas I will find therein, I'm contributing some recipes we use on any given more-organized week around here. Since it is fresh produce time, I have been hungry for salads. These I can make a couple nights before and have on hand. Some require some chopping, or using a mini food processor, but most are pretty easy. So... here are some favorite salad recipes.

Three Bean Salad
1 can kidney beans
1 can great northern beans
1 small package frozen green beans, thawed
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar (I use raw apple cider vinegar)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 onion, very finely chopped, optional

Drain and rinse beans and combine in large bowl. In small bowl, combine vinegar and oil and salt and pepper. Pour over bean mix and combine with onion, if using. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour.
This is an incredibly easy and incredibly cheap salad and you can use any different mix of beans
-- lima, black, butter, in addition to fresh green beans that have been steamed a little.

Panzanella (Tomato and Bread Salad)
1 loaf stale or toasted Italian bread
3 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T red wine or balsamic vinegar
4 cups ripe tomatoes, cut into pieces
2/3 cup red or vidalia onion, sliced thinly
1/2 cup fresh basil, cut into long thin strips (roll up leaves stacked up to cut easier)
fresh mozzarella, cut into slices
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Soak the onions in a small bowl with cold water and 1 teaspoon salt for an hour, then drain on paper towel.
Cover bread with cold water and soak for about ten minutes. Squeeze out as much water as possible. Crumble the bread into large pieces into a large serving bowl.
Add the tomatoes, onion and basil.
Toss.
Drizzle on the olive oil and the vinegar. Add more olive oil and vinegar, to taste, if you'd like.
Season to taste with sea salt and fresh pepper.
Toss well. Add the mozzarella, if using, around the edge of the bowl.
Garnish with more whole basil leaves.

Spinach Salad
about 1 quart fresh spinach, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped very fine
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
8 slices cooked, crumbled bacon

Dressing:
1/4 c. vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. water
2 t. cornstarch
grease from bacon

Heat dressing, stirring frequently.
Pour over greens and add remaining ingredients. Serve warm.

Layered Salad
Shredded lettuce
5-6 hard boiled eggs
1 bag frozen peas, thawed and drained
1 head cauliflower, chopped
1 lb. bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 cups mayo mixed with 1/4 cup sugar
2 cups cheddar cheese
Layer in a nice glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight.


Note: The following salads all use my grandmother's mayo mix, which is 2 parts mayo to a 1 part of miracle whip. If you are not a friend of miracle whip, try using another part of mayo mixed with a teaspoon or two of apple cider vinegar and a teaspoon or two of sugar.

Grammy's Tuna Salad
2 cans tuna, drained
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 hardboiled eggs, diced
1 1/2 teaspoon sweet pickle relish
2 stalks celery, chopped, optional
mayo mix (see above)

Combine all the ingredients. Chill. Eat.
I don't have specifics for the dressing mix because every family likes their tuna a little less or more wet than others. Also, even if you hate sweet pickles, try the sweet pickle relish. I detest sweet pickles, but the sweet pickle relish gives this a great flavor.

Easy Peasy Tuna Pea Salad
1 small box small pasta shell
1 can tuna, drained
1 package frozen green peas, thawed (or use fresh)
1 small onion chopped
mayo mix (see above)
salt and fresh pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to directions and drain. Add drained tuna, frozen peas, and onion. Add enough mayo to make it slightly dry and then add apple cider vinegar to start (start with less than a tablespoon and add a teaspoon of sugar -- you just want a hint of sweetness).

Crab and Cabbage Salad
1 package frozen imitation crab legs, thawed and cut into pieces
1 package prepared coleslaw mix (OR one head cabbage, shredded)
1 small onion, chopped, finely
mayo mix (see above)
salt and fresh pepper to taste

Mix. Eat.

Recipe: Lenders begone

It seems like all my posts are about food lately and I'm not entirely sure why that is, except that I am so tired that most of the time we are home I spend on the couch unless I'm fixing food. Hence the food posts?
Anyway, today's recipe is for wondrous homemade bagels. I LOVE a bagel in the morning, but the kind one can get at the store has corn syrup in them always and corn syrup is murder on my blood sugar level. The store bought kind usually aren't whole wheat, either, but rather mainly white flour with a little wheat thrown in and they're usually pretty big -- far bigger than an actual serving of grains as defined by the FDA.
Anyway, this homemade version is all whole-wheat and all delicious and one can control the size of them. These were much easier than I thought they'd be and though mine were a tad misshapen, they turned out wonderfully and taste SO good. I've had one this morning with green olive cream cheese. Yummmmmm....

Homemade Whole Wheat Bagels

2 cups warm water
1 packet yeast
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup olive oil or coconut oil
6 cups whole wheat flour (I used 1/2 pastry and 1/2 a rough stone-ground flour -- next time I'll use almost all soft flour and maybe some ground flaxseeds for crunch)
1 tablespoon salt

Mix water and yeast and honey and let bubble. Then add oil and salt and begin adding flour until you have a stiff dough. Kneed and incorporate more flour if necessary. (Or dump all of this your bread machine after the yeast has bubbled and let it do the work!)
Set dough in a greased bowl and cover and let rise til double (or let bread machine do it). When doubled, punch down and divide into equal parts depending on what size you want your bagels (I made 18 of this recipe. Form each section of dough into a ball, then create a hole in the center with your fingers. (The hole will puff up and close some during boiling, so keep this in mind when making it the desired size). Place on a very well greased light colored cookie sheet and cover and let rest and rise for about 20 minutes.
Sometime during the resting/rising time, bring to boil in a large pot or dutch oven about 6 inches of water with 2 Tablespoons honey added after the boiling has begun. You want this to be rapidly boiling as this will puff up your bagels. When water is rapidly boiling, gently drop in bagels and cook for a minute or two on each side. They will puff slightly and look a little more bagely! Take them out and drain them on paper towels over newspaper. Then place on cookie sheets that have been regreased.
If you'd like, brush a little olive oil on top and sprinkle with kosher salt, garlic, poppyseeds, dried onion, sesame seeds, pepper -- whatever you like. Bake the bagels in a hot (about 400 degrees) oven for about 20 minutes.

Green Olive Cream Cheese
1 package cream cheese (don't get the lowfat stuff- the additives make it less worthy. Really)
3/4 cup or your desired amount green olives without pimentos (I'm not a fan of pimentos -- I suppose you could leave them in, though!)

Chop up olives to desired size -- I like mine in pretty substantial chunks. Soften cream cheese. Mix up. Use now or store covered for up to a week.

Recipe: Boy oh boy bolognese sauce

I have been craving spaghetti sauce for some reason -- and not the stuff that comes from the jar, nor the stuff that comes from our local pizzerias around here which is delicious, but has been cooked for literally hours in lots of salt and thus is a lot better in cold weather than in warm.
What I've been hungry for is something fresh and summery, not too heavy, but also substantial. Oh, it also needed to be ready in the half-hour before dinner time that it occurs to me that we should eat something in the evening!
So here it is -- incredibly easy and wonderful bolognese sauce. Oh my goodness, is this ever good!
Summer Bolognese Sauce
1 lb sausage or beef (we use sausage)
1 onion chopped
lots o' garlic minced
1 can no-salt organic tomatoes (or use fresh if you have them -- they're not ripe here yet!)
1-2 cups organic broth (I use beef, but veggie or chicken would work, too)
2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
about 1/2 cup good red wine (I use Chianti)
Italian seasonings
any other veggies you'd like to hide i.e. carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, chopped, diced, minced or shredded, depending on how well you want to hide it!

Brown the meat and add the onion and garlic toward the end of the browning time. Drain if you have a lot of grease -- we use lower fat sausage so I don't drain it. Add the broth, tomatoes, tomato paste, and wine, if using. Add the seasonings. Bring to a boil, then turn down and let simmer. Taste the mix and see if it is tomato-y enough. Add more paste, if not.
Allow the mix to simmer until reduced to near-desired consistency. Add any extra veggies (note: you can add the tomatoes now instead of earlier, if you like the taste of semi-fresh tomatoes. I, myself, am not a fan). Allow to finish reducing or heat through and enjoy.
Note: This recipe makes a very meaty sauce. You can stretch it a lot by adding more broth and tomato paste or more veggies.

Recipe: In case of a bumper crop

Somehow, even though we didn't plant a garden this year, we have a bumper crop of zucchini, thanks to the generosity of my sister, Lil, and some church members. Today I was facing eight large zucchini on my countertop. And when I say large, I mean, slightly larger than the dog next door.
Anyway, here is a recipe for soup using zucchini. I have modified it because the original, while tasting delicious, had a texture that would have been great during the winter, but not so lovely now. However, this version is grand and supposedly freezes like a dream. So if you had a deep freezer, you could make this stuff for cold weather and you'd be golden.

Red Lentil, Zucchini and Couscous Soup
1 onion
1 stalk celery
olive oil for sauteeing
6 c. broth (I used chicken, but veggie would be great and beef is good in the winter)
1 c. red lentils
1 t. salt
1/2 t ground pepper
6 big leaves fresh basil
2 large zucchini, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 large carrots, cut in slightly smaller pieces than zucchini
2/3 c whole wheat couscous
1/2 c grated parmesan (optional)

Dice onion and celery and cook in olive oil til translucent.
Pour in broth and add lentils and seasonings. Allow to boil, then turn down heat and cover, allowing to cook at slow simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Add zucchini and carrots and couscous and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
You may want to stir in the parmesan or add it to bowls or leave it out altogether.
This soup could also take a whole lot of other seasonings, so experiment and enjoy!

Recipe: Favorite bread, soaked

The other day, Annalivia and I accompanied Dennis to the Quad Cities and while he was in class, we went to a hoighty-toighty grocery store in Iowa. I was so excited to see that this grocery store had a wheat mill to grind one's own flour! (The extra dollar tacked onto the price of everything in the store must cover the cost of the mill).
Anyway, I ground my own hard white winter wheat and came home to try it in bread. It's amazing how different fresh flour smells! That in and of itself should tell me something.
The end product of this recipe experiment, aided by the info Dawn posted about soaking bread on her site, prompted me to go get more fresh-ground flour yesterday. So, this recipe, which I used to make only at the holidays, has now had two trials in its soaked form and is wonderful, and has thus become everyday bread for us.

Honey Oatmeal Bread
2 cups buttermilk or yogurt
6 1/2 cups whole grain flour (I use 5 cups whole wheat and 1 1/2 spelt)
1 c. oats
Combine and allow to sit overnight.

The next day combine:
1/4 c water
1/4 c honey
1 T yeast
Allow to bubble

Mix in separate dish:
1/3 c melted butter
1/4 c honey
2 t salt

Add the yeast mix and the butter to the flour mix
Add:
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Mix it all up. Knead in another cup of flour (again, I use spelt) if necessary.
Allow to rise til double, then punch down and form into two loaves (if using loaf pans, grease/ butter well). Gently slash the tops and allow to rise til double again.
Combine 1 T water and egg white before baking and brush tops. Then sprinkle with oats. Or you can use butter and sprinkle with oats. Or leave it unsprinkled.
Bake at 375 for about 35 minutes. Remove from pans to cool. You can brush with oil again, if you like a softer crust.

Recipe: Breakfast puff

This is a great and SUPER easy recipe for a wonderful breakfast treat. We have found it perfect for Sunday morning pre-church because it can be made the night before. It goes by different names -- Dutch Puff or Yorkshire Pudding are the most common.

Breakfast Puff
4 eggs
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or spelt
1 cup milk, buttermilk or milk with 2 T yogurt (not more than a cup)1 T vanilla
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

Add eggs, flour and milk to blender and blend. If you want to presoak grains, you can do this the night before and stick it in the refrigerator.
Before you cook it: Preheat oven to 425. Allow oven to get hot then stick a square baking dish in the oven and allow it to get hot, then melt the butter in the pan in the oven.
Pour the mix (whisk it first if you refrigerated) into the hot pan. Close up the oven and let it cook about 20-25 minutes.
The key to this dish is a very hot oven, a very hot pan, and very hot oil. As long as these three elements are in place, it will puff up into a beautiful souffle-like creation. If the oven isn't hot enough, it may just take a little longer to cook.
You can also mix things up by adding apples or peaches before pouring into the pan. Or you can take it into the savory realm by omitting the vanilla and adding sausage. It is wonderful with maple syrup and equally as grand with homemade berry syrup. This recipe serves four, but it can be easily doubled and cooked in a 9 x 13 pan. Delicious stuff.

Recipe: Pink and brown look good on us

I made a really good supper tonight, stolen, sort of, from Daisy Martines of Daisy Cooks! on PBS. I say, sort of, because I was half-watching the show the other day and half-listening to this recipe and I was fully inspired. However, I couldn't find the recipe online at all, so I'm half-claiming this as my own ingenuity. It's deliciously flavorfull, full to the brim of fiber and incredibly, incredibly low on fat, which is not a bad thing. Best of all, it can be made in stages and though it takes a long time cumulatively, it is really easy.

Pink Beans and Brown Rice

1 lb dry pink beans (or you could use red)

6 cups filtered water

2-4 cups sofrito (recipe follows, if needed)

olive oil

1-3 T salt

lots of green olives (I used one medium jar)

2 1/2 cups brown rice

stock of your choice (at least 1 quart)

First, cook the beans using your chosen method. I let them soak in 6 cups water overnight, pour off said water, and put the beans and six cups new water in the crockpot on high for 1 hour and then on low the rest of the day. When beans are done, don't drain. If you use canned beans, crazy fool, go ahead and rinse off the beans.

Heat olive oil -- as much or little as you want -- in a large, heavy pot on medium heat. Pour sofrito into hot oil. Add the green olives and pour in some of the olive brine. Mmmm. Cook it up in the oil til you can't stand it and just want to jump in and swim in all those wonderful fragrances. If you are going to use and unsalted stock, add quite a bit of the salt. If you are using a salted stock, add less.

Then, pour in beans and bean liquid and add 2 1/2 cups rice. Then (and this is Daisy's trick) take a wooden spoon and put the end of it into the liquid just touching the rice. Take it out and hold up your fingers to the liquid line. You need two fingers worth of liquid over the level of the rice. Add stock to make up the difference.

Let this lovely mixture boil, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reaches the level of the rice/ bean mix, then cover it and reduce the heat. Let the liquid absorb at a low simmer. When you uncover, it will be deliciously wonderful. Even husbands who swear they don't like "ethnic" food yet have been strangely receptive to falafel, groundnut stew and tabbouleh lately, love it.

This makes a whole heck of a lot of rice and beans, fyi, which is great for large families... or small families who will now have to search out unsuspecting family and/ or church members to hoist leftovers upon them...

Sofrito

1 large tomato

1-2 large onions

6-8-20 garlic cloves (less if you're crazy and dislike garlic)

1/2 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 cubanelle pepper or banana pepper

1 bunch cilantro

In a food processor, place tomato, garlic, onion, peppers, cilantro. You may want to cube everything into similar sized pieces. Whirl away til it is a lovely fragrant mush. Use in any or all latin dishes. (It freezes well, too!)

Recipe: Portable pumpkin oatmeal

Putting off writing anything of substance, here is the latest culinary brilliance to come out of Kitchen McStew.

Portable Pumpkin Oatmeal

4 c rolled oats

1 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour, smelt, or kamut (I used smelt)

4 c water

1/2 c yogurt or buttermilk

3 eggs

6 T melted butter

2/3 c brown sugar, sucanat, or rapadura

1 1/2 c pumpkin

2 t vanilla

1 T baking powder

2 t cinnamon

1 1/2 t salt

1 apple chopped (optional, but highly recommended)

For maximum digestibility mix oats, grain of choice, water, and yogurt or buttermilk the night before. Cover and let sit at room temp for 8-24 hours.

Whisk together eggs, butter, sugar, pumpkin and vanilla til well blended.

Sprinkle baking powder, cinnamon, and salt over oatmeal mix. Blend gently but thoroughly with wire whisk.

Add pumpkin mix to oatmeal and whisk til just combined. Add apple if desired.

Pour into 24 greased and/ or lined muffin tins. Muffin tins can be quite full, as this does not raise much.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or til the oatmeal is slightly puffed and moist, but does not look wet.

Remove and let cool a while. If you did not use papers, these will come out of their tins very easily if you let them sit a bit.

I made these because we had a partial can of pumpkin that needed to be used and we LOVE the baked oatmeal recipe from Annie that forms the base of these goodies. They are not as dry as a muffin -- more like an oatmeal (hence the name), but they freeze beautifully and the Bug will eat them right up, so they are winners with us!

Recipe: Pretty awesome pitas

Today is a baking day -- one where the air conditioner remains off and the oven remains on. So I'm making the most of it with sandwich bread, pita bread, pumpkin et al. muffins and my new favorite breakfast food- baked oatmeal. Of course, I planned poorly and started the oven not remembering that two recipes call for eggs. And the egg-man won't bring eggs until this evening when he picks them up from his aunt after work. Oh well.
ANYWAY -- point of all this -- the pitas I made today are WONDERFUL!! So, so, SOOOOO much better than the kind you buy in the store. I used the Montana Wheat Lil gave me for my birthday. It is a very soft, fine wheat. I usually like my whole wheat a little nuttier and coarser, but this wheat makes a great sandwich bread when mixed with spelt.
Pitas
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup yogurt
1 T honey
2 t salt
1 1/2 T olive oil
3-3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 t yeast
Put in bread machine on dough setting in order stated or if mixing by hand, mix water, yogurt and yeast. Add honey, salt, olive oil. Incorporate flour, knead til smooth. Cover and let rise til double. Punch down and divide into 8 parts. Let rest for about 10 minutes. Form into patties about 1/4 inch thick. Heat a non-stick skillet or griddle on med. high heat for about 5 minutes. Cook each pita about 3-4 minutes on a side -- they will puff up if skillet is hot. Prick any large pockets of air to make an even surface. You may have to turn down the skillet as it gets hotter -- I start on med. high and move to med.
These are SO good. Now I'm empowered to try tortillas later this week! Wow.

Recipe: Chocolate zucchini cake attempt #2

I found a blog last week called Whole Wheat Cookbook. I think the guy just finds whole wheat recipes online and then posts them to his blog. But on the blog, there is a recipe for Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Well, I tried it and it was ok. But my friend, Patrice, makes THE best zucchini bread in the whole world and I was hoping that this cake would taste like a chocolate whole wheat version of her bread. Not so. In my opinion, zucchini bread is best when you can press on it and oil beads on the surface. Yeah. I like it a little moist and frankly, the Whole Wheat guy's recipe was a little too dry for me.

So, I tried my version -- a marriage of Patrice's amazing zucchini bread recipe and the guy at the Whole Wheat cookbook blog's cake recipe today.

Miraculous, Marvelous, and Versatile Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Mix and cover -- it will be very thick! Let sit at room temperature for 8-24 hours.



In large bowl cream together:

4 medium eggs (3 large)
1 cup rapadura or sucanat
1/2 cup olive oil (or 1/4 olive oil and 1/4 cup applesauce)
1 T vanilla
1/2 cup grated apple or applesauce

Add

3 cups raw finely shredded zucchini w/rind (or you can use yellow squash, carrots or apple, though clearly that would change the title of this masterpiece!) I think the finely shredded/ grated thing is key to the amount of moisture in the cake. You want this to be very moist!

Sprinkle the following evenly over the flour/yogurt mix:

3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 T cocoa

Mix and then add to creamed mix. Mix well for about 2 minutes. Pour into well-greased and floured cake pan, muffin tins, etc.

Sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chips, if desired (highly recommended by this choco-nut!).

Bake at 325 for about 50 minutes, if using 9 x 13 pan. Try hard not to overcook. This will make a very, very moist cake. Can be frosted with cream cheese frosting if not using chocolate chips!

Recipe: Some mighty fine 'za

Fridays are becoming our pizza night and tonight's was really good, so I thought I would post the recipe. I made it with whole wheat flour that had not been soaked, since I can't really figure out how that would work in a recipe with yeast. Anyone with a clue about this, feel free to respond.

We used organic toppings, which I think makes a difference, but regardless both of these are really good. We make two smaller pizzas out of the crust recipe.

Whole Wheat Crust

1 cup warm water

2 T honey

2 T olive oil (or 1 T olive oil and 1 T coconut oil)

2 t sea salt

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 pkg yeast

optional seasonings: oregano, basil, garlic, onion, etc.

I use a bread machine and add the ingredients in the order listed and set it on the dough setting. Sometimes I let it rise in the machine, other times I take it out and use it as soon as it's mixed. The second is our favorite. If you plan to let the dough rise, don't put the seasonings in the crust until after you press it out.

After it's done, I press it out on an oiled and cornmeal floured pan and seal it with olive oil or olive oil and garlic.

Top with toppings and cook at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or 'til done.

Spinach Artichoke Topping

1 16 oz bag of cut-leaf spinach with water squeezed out of it

1/2 can of artichokes drained

1/2 c cottage cheese (may need more)*

1 T dill chopped, or dry dill

2-3 garlic cloves

1/2 onion chopped

sea salt to taste

parmesan cheese

mozzarella cheese or pizza cheese blend

Mash cottage cheese well 'til it is fairly well broken down. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and taste for seasoning -- add more of whatever until it tastes like you like it. Spread on 1/2 of the above pizza crust. Top with cheese.

*You can also use cream cheese and mayo

Zucchini and Veg Pizza (modified from Rachel Ray)

Pizza sauce

1 small zucchini cut into very thin slices

Italian seasoning

mushrooms, onions, green pepper sliced thinly

green olives

sausage, ham, pepperoni, etc.

parmesan cheese

mozzarella cheese or pizza cheese blend

Take thinly sliced zucchini and lay out on paper towel. Sprinkle very lightly with sea salt and then sprinkle with Italian seasoning. You can also use red pepper flakes, if you'd like, but a little goes a long way! You're trying to emulate pepperoni.

Spread desired amount of sauce on pizza. Then put zucchini slices on pizza, but don't overlap, or your pizza will be soggy.

Our favorite so far has been sauce, zucchini rounds, Italian seasonings, garlic, parmesan, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, green olives, cheese in that order. Delicioso!