Pumpkin Walnut Waffles

Just a few facts,
1. I just wasn't feeling an egg dish on Sunday morning but I really am not a big fan of plain waffles or pancakes.
2. I had made some pumpkin cake donuts the week before so I had some leftover pumpkin puree in the refrigerator that just HAD to be used.
3. Whatever I made needed to be pumped up in the protein department. Especially, if we were having a bread product.

You put these three things together and you get pumpkin walnut waffles.

Pumpkin Walnut Waffles

Preheat waffle iron.

Mix together
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup ricotta cheese (you could use sour cream or buttermilk)
 3 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Sift together
1 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon each; ground cloves, ground ginger, ground allspice, and nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon 

Mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If the batter is too thin sift in a little more bread flour. If it is too thick add a little more milk. You want this to be pancake batter consistency. Be careful not to over mix. You just want to incorporate them. Let the batter rest for 5 or 10 minutes. This lets the batter do its thing.

Ladle into the waffle maker. Cook until golden brown and yummy. Serve with warm maple syrup and roughly chopped walnuts.

JR was very complimentary of these waffles. He thought they were very fluffy and tasted like pumpkin bread. Which is what they really are so he nailed it. He wolfed down two of them before I finished my first one.

With it just being the two of us I had enough leftover for breakfast later in the week. I spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer. JR will just have to pop them into the toaster and breakfast is served.

Stay groovy,
M

Our new favorite sauce - Creamy Cilantro Jalapeno Sauce

This has become our new favorite sauce. It is like a miracle sauce. I've put this on roasted potatoes for salad, on sandwiches as a spread, in egg salad, on top of eggs baked in tomato cups, and on open face black bean burgers just to name a few.

It is sort of a cross between the cilantro sauce I used on the Cilantro Potato Salad and Chuy's jalapeño cream sauce. For those of you who haven't been blessed by the Chuy's jalapeño cream sauce I'm so sorry. It is a thing of beauty that I will eat on, with, alongside, dipped in virtually anything. While this recipe isn't that sauce it is pretty dang close and I'll go out on a limb and say it may edge it out just a little. Maybe I feel that way because it has twice or three times more cilantro. We LOVE cilantro.

Creamy Cilantro Jalapeño Sauce
(all quantities are approximate)

1 cup mayonnaise (your choice homemade or not. no judging here)
1 cup sour cream (treat yourself go full fat)
1 bunch or 1 cup, whichever is greater, cilantro, the leaves only, chopped fine
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped fine
2 tablespoons grated onion
1 clove garlic, grated
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients. Let rest for 1 hour to let the flavors meld and come together in a marriage of awesomeness. You could put all the ingredients into a blender and give it a whirl. I'm a bit of a purist. Plus, I have that new shiny and sharp knife.

I like to grate the onion and the garlic so I don't get a big bite of either. I just want a hint of the flavors. I seed and cut out the ribs of the jalapeño. JR doesn't like his sauce too spicy. Me? I like my sauce to make my nose run. Same way I like my Vietnamese, Thai and Indian food. So if you are like me you'll sneak a few seeds and don't go whole hog on taking out all the ribs of the jalapeño.

 For some other Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno dip recipes:
FoodNetwork
TastyKitchen
8128blog (this guy is from Austin, so he should know)
31Fields

Like mine these are all a variation of a mayo/sour cream dip.
You all seriously need to make this sauce.

Love,
M

My Second Favorite Pan

My first favorite pans in the whole wide world are my cast iron pans. They are a lovely deep black non-stick miracle. I heart them big time. I use them with abandon. But, sometimes they not what I need.

Then I call on my trusty saucier pan.

I've had this pan for at least 15 years. It is just starting to show its age. This pan and I have something in common, showing our age. But its handles are still tight so I think it is in a little better shape than I am. Its younger, what can I say?

You can see that the sides are not cut sharply. See how they have a sloping curve from the bottom up the sides to the top? It is easier to get a whisk into the corners. This makes it easier to stir sauces (I adore sauces. Any sauce. Any time. All the time. And, it shows).

Though I've been known to make soups and risottos in it also. And, poached eggs...OMW, it is great for poaching eggs. I think it has to do with the fact that it is not terribly deep and it is wide at the top making dropping the eggs in simple and painless (I'm notorious for burning myself. I've been cooking for 40 years and I still burn myself on a fairly frequent basis. It's a little embarrassing.). I make poached eggs at least once a week so this pan gets quite a workout. It is the ultimate multi-tasking pan.

The biggest lid from my stainless pan set fits this pan. Because, of metal handles this pan can go into the oven making it ideal for braising, roasting and finishing off meals.  Making it that much more versatile. If I have a choice I choose this pan. My enthusiasm for this pan makes me sound a little weird but it is just that awesome. Are you totally uncomfortable now?

I've loved it since I brought it home and JR has hated since I brought it home. He says it is hard to clean. I say he doesn't try hard enough. I'll keep using it until it falls apart which it doesn't look like will be anytime soon. Reinforcing the statement that you get what you pay for. At the time that I bought this pan it cost about a third of my whole set from Costco. I think it was around the $50 mark. If it broke I'd pay twice that much for another one.

Do you have a favorite pan? Do you have a saucier? If not go get one right this minute!

Love,
M

Eggs baked in tomato cups

I've been traveling a lot in the last three weeks so fancy cooking or really any cooking has been kept to a minimum. Since I have no travel planned until April there will be some cooking going on at the Dog's Life household.

JR and I love tomatoes. Green or red, cooked or raw, makes no difference to us. It's all good. We eat them cooked, raw, stuffed with salads and eaten raw or stuffed with other stuff and cooked, sliced topped with parmesan cheese and broiled as a side dish, or chopped to top on ANYTHING! So when we go to the farmer's market or Coscto or the grocery store we buy tomatoes by the dozen. When I do this I try to buy them a little under ripe knowing that they will ripen on the counter very quickly in our weather.

As many of you know, tomatoes trucked up from god knows where never taste as good as ones grown in a small garden with rich composted soil but I've found that if I buy them a little under-ripe and cook them they develop a flavor profile that JR and I like.

Friends, please never put you tomatoes in the refrigerator. It stops the ripening process and they just won't have any flavor at all. If your tomatoes are getting over-ripe on the counter then eat them pronto. That's what I needed to do with my last batch.

So, like most of my cooking this recipe was born of the necessity of breakfast, the need to use up the tomatoes on my counter and the fact that I was exhausted from traveling.

Eggs baked in tomato cups

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 firm tomatoes
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 tablespoons basil pesto
Parmesan cheese, optional
breadcrumbs, optional
salt and pepper


Instructions

Preheat broiler. Prepare baking dishes by smearing a little olive oil around bottom and sides.

Cut tomatoes in half across the middle. Remove the stem from one of the halves. With a small paring knife cut out the seeds and membranes of each tomato half, leaving the meat around the outside, to make a cup.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Smear a scant teaspoon of pesto around the inside of the tomato cup. Place in the prepared baking dish. Broil for about 5 minutes or until the a fork goes smoothly through the tomato.

Take tomatoes out of the oven. Take a spoon and push the tomato from the middle to the sides to extenuate the cup. You'll want to do this so the egg yolk doesn't want to slide off the tomato. Sure, a little of the white will but you want the yolk to sit inside the tomato, all pretty like. Break one egg into each cup. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs if you want. Place back under the broiler for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the whites are set. I prefer my yolk runny so I usually bake for the shorter time.

Top with remaining pesto and let them set for a minute or two. They are HOT, HOT, HOT! But, so yummy. And easy, so very very easy.They would make a great meatless breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Love,
M

PS: tomorrow is JR and my 30th wedding anniversary. Not sure what we'll be doing but I do know that JR deserves a prize for putting up with me.

My favorite pan

I love my cast iron pans. I truly believe they are a must have in the kitchen. I say they because I have 3 different types. I actually have 4 but one of them stays in the camping supplies, so rarely gets used. The ones I use the most are a 10 inch and 12 inch fry pans and a 2 burner grill/griddle pan. They are a beautiful deep black with a bit of a shine from the oil I rub on them after each use.

The oldest of my cast iron pans is fairly new for cast iron. I bought it new 5 years ago. To be truly perfect a cast iron should be handed down from one generation to another, well used and well loved (Val, when I die you can have my cast iron if you want it). Unfortunately, it seems that in the last generation or so cast iron has gotten a bad rap. My mother never had cast iron because she was under some strange illusion that they were hard to clean, hard to season which made food stick to them, got all rusty, and were heavy as hell.

Let's take all these things one by one.


Being hard to clean is dead wrong. Cast iron couldn't be easier to clean. A well seasoned pan only takes a dry rag to clean it up. For stuck on food a paste of oil and salt will take care of stuck on bits.

Hell yes, they are heavy. That is what makes them heat evenly. Unless you plan to hang them on your fancy pot rack (ensuring that it will pull down your ceiling.) embrace the weight.

Some people think they are ugly but a well seasoned pan is a thing of beauty. They don't look all pretty and shiny and they shouldn't; they should be black and sort of pitted and to have real authentic rustic charm a dent or two goes a long way. (I dropped one of mine and the looped handle broke off. Did I throw it out? Of course not! It had just seasoned to the perfect degree.)

They will rust if you wash them with water which some people insist upon doing. resist! You really don't want to wash them with water, though I've been known to take a slightly damp rag to mine if needs be. The coarse salt, oil and a rag trick is all they need to keep them clean. A quick coat of some sort of oil or fat (I stick with olive oil) to keep them non-stick. After I've re- lubed my pans I put them in the oven where they wait patiently until I preheat the oven for use. After the oven has warmed up I take the pans outs but only if I need the room. Otherwise they stay in there to continue seasoning.

I baked this fritatta over the weekend:

Yummmm....veggie and goat cheese

See how it slid right out of the pan. I didn't use any oil in the pan before baking it. Notice the broken handle on the right. Now, here it is after I took the leftovers out and wiped it out with a single sheet of paper towel.

Almost ready to lube up and pop right back into the oven.
An added bonus, you won't be paying a fortune for them. I pick mine up at the thrift store or the hardware store and I've never paid more then $10.

That brings us to seasoning your new pan. If you bought new you will need to season your pan. Do not believe what the label says. They are not pre-seasoned. They are sort of, kind of seasoned. You will need to season them again before you start to use them. I won't go into detail on how to do this because there are tons of how-tos on the Internet. Just know that it is a simple matter of lubing up your new pan (top, bottom, sides, handle, all over) stash it in your cold oven, turn on the oven to 400 degrees and bake it for 1 hour. By storing mine in the oven and keeping them in there every time I warm up my oven the pans are continually seasoned. Easy Peasy.

If you have bought your pans used (which I rarely do anymore, mostly because I almost never find them in the thrift stores and I'm a freak about meat having been cooked in a pan that is porous and that I will cook in. It's that crazy vegetarian thing) then you will have some added work but not insurmountable. It is the rust that causes the most work. I've found that buying them from my local sporting goods store is the cheapest place to buy new pans and so much less work than rehabilitating an old one. And, if there is one thing I am...it's lazy.

If you haven't gotten a cast iron pan go get one. They are the best non-stick pan you'll ever own, and without all that nasty Teflon stuff.


Love,
M

Parmesan Crackers

I didn't think I would ever say this but 

IT'S TOO DAMN HOT TO COOK!

So I've resorted to finger food and food that requires little to no cooking time. Nothing that will heat up my kitchen. Soup is right out. Unless it is gazpacho. Comfort food? A thing of the past.

So finger food is perfect and since I love caviar I felt the need to make something caviarish. I don't eat caviar. It's that whole vegetarian thing. Sure, if I could be guaranteed that no fish were harmed in the making of caviar and the price per ounce was less than what one might pay per ounce for a new BMW, I might be more tempted but I can't so I don't, eat caviar that is. Not buy cars by the ounce. That would just be silly.

I sort of put caviar into that space in my head like pastured chicken eggs. Pastured chicken get to do what chickens like to do and are not killed in the process of laying eggs so all's good. Now, just substitute fish for chicken. Yeah, it doesn't really work. 

Then there is that whole grain-free thing I've been up to lately. Takes the fun right out of a caviar and creme fresh topped cracker. So where am I going with this? I have no freaking clue. Oh I know, crackers.

I decided that JR and I hadn't had finger food in a while. You know? What fancy restaurants call appetizers or tapas. And, I was jonesing for some caviar or something caviar like.

I decided to make Parmesan crackers. I've never made them before and I learned a couple of lessons that I'll pass on to ya'll.

Lesson 1; bake them a little longer than the 5 minutes that the recipe calls for. They don't get crispy enough if you don't. Nobody likes a limp cracker. It's unattractive and doesn't have that crunchy texture that you want in a cracker.

Lesson 2; these babies are salty enough! You do not need to be adding a salty topping. Unless of course, you own a bar and want people to buy a ton of drinks. So totally disregard the photo below of these topped with creme fresh and mixed olive tapenade. We switched to a tomato slice and all was good. I think floating one of these on top of some cold tomato soup would be wonderful. I'm also giving a lot of thought to baking it into a pie shell for the base of a very simple (non-cheese) quiche. I'll let you know how that goes.

Anyway, if you are doing low-carb but want a salty crunchy snack give these a try. Did I mention that they only have one ingredient? No? Well, they do. It hardly even qualifies as a recipe at this point.


Parmesan crackers
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Take one heaping tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese. Plop onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Press down a bit. You are looking for nice rounds.

Depending on your oven bake for 7 to 10 minutes. See those up there? You want them a little more golden brown. Those were the 5 minute ones. 8 minutes was perfect for my oven. Let them set a bit before transferring them to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

Don't do what I did. Top with non-salty stuff.

Don't worry about that olive tapenade. It won't go to waste. I'm thinking that it will be yummy stuffed in mushrooms. How does Muffaletta stuffed mushrooms sound?

Off to work for me.

Love,
M

Cauliflower risotto

I love risotto. 

I love the creaminess of it. 

I love that slightly firm bite to it. 

I love the way it marries with other flavors. As I've always said; "it plays well with others". With the low-carb thing I've got going lately I've had to give up my beloved risotto. Maybe, someday, in the future I can enjoy it again but it will have to be on a very limited basis. 

I racked my brain on how I could get that same sort of mouth feel, that same sort of complex textural thing that I love so much about risotto but without all the carbs. What vegetable would lend itself? The obvious was cauliflower. It had the same color. It could be cooked to al dente. The big questions were how do I get it into that rice shape and how do I take out the cauliflower taste? The taste part was not difficult. Cauliflower is not a strong flavor so masking it with some strong flavors would be a pretty easy task. It was the shape thing that was going to be hard. Oh sure, I could pull it through a ricer, if I had a ricer that is but I don't and I wasn't going to buy one for an experiment. Turns out I didn't need one. My good old food processor worked just fine.

So those of you who are playing on the low-carb team and don't sweat a lot bit of calories this recipe (okay, isn't so much a recipe as a technique) turned out really well. Now, the photos that I took? A whole other story. They turned out awful (I finally found my camera. Yesterday. Long after I tried this out.)

Cauliflower Risotto

1 large head cauliflower

1/2 stick of butter (4 tablespoons)

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

3 cloves finely chopped garlic

1/2 cup cream (you could use whole milk but I would stay away from non-fat)

1 cup Parmesan cheese (this is what I had around but any soft or melting cheese would work. I'd stay with something with a strongish flavor though)

Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

Directions:

Cut up cauliflower into large chunks. Steam until cooked but still firm. You want it to give but still retain firmness. It is better to under cook the cauliflower than over cook it because you will be adding it to the cheese sauce so it will cook a bit more later on. I used my microwave on high for about 5 minutes. Time will vary by wattage of microwave. Stove top steaming I haven't a clue but I would suspect about the same. You'll want to keep a watch on it.  

The sauce: melt the butter in a large (you will be adding the cauliflower to this pot so make it fairly large) saucepan over low heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent. About 5 minutes. Add cheese and cream. After the cheese melts keep this mixture warm but don't let it boil. It'll hang out while you wrangle the cauliflower.

Get out your big food processor and put in the shredding blade. Push the cooked cauliflower through the shredding blade to make it rice shaped. Push it fairly hard so the shapes are a bit bigger then if you barely gave it a shove. When all the cauliflower is shredded put it into the warm cheese sauce. Mix gently but well. Give it a taste. Add pepper and a tiny bit (1/8 teaspoon at the most) of nutmeg. Taste again to see if it needs salt. It shouldn't need much with all the cheese in it. Depending what you plan to top it with a pinch of cayenne pepper would be good. 

I served mine topped with a mushroom-sage ragout and a drizzle of apple cranberry wine reduction. The wine was something that I won from Stacy. It is a little sweet for my taste for regular drinking but it makes a mean sangria, mimosa type drink or reduction. Any red wine or good balsamic vinegar reduction would play well also.

Everyone really liked this dish. Even The Boy who hates cauliflower but loves risotto ate it and didn't even complain. Believe me, that is a compliment. Maybe, it was because I didn't tell him it was cauliflower. You can't really tell that it is from the finished product.

I couldn't tell you how many fat grams, calories or carbs it has but it shouldn't be too bad on the carbs. I make no claims to the rest. I do think that it has to be better than the alternative, rice. 

Anyway, if you are jonesing for risotto like I was (I can't be the only one that has a risotto monkey on her back) this recipe/technique will fit the bill. I plan to mix the leftovers with protein powder, form into patties and fry them up. In place of hashbrowns for breakfast. Plus, all this is meatless. And it is Monday. So therefore; Meatless Monday. Yay!

Love,

M

Cashew Crusted Goat Cheese over Zucchini Noodles

We love goat cheese and use it in a multiple of ways. We love its tart and creamy yummy goodness. This recipe makes the most of the tartness of goat cheese, the salty crunchiness of the cashews and the sweetness of a balsamic vinegar reduction. 

This recipe makes a perfect meatless Monday dish though we had it on Saturday and the leftovers with eggs for Sunday breakfast. JR loves balsamic vinegar reduction. I'm pretty sure he'd eat it on a flip flop if I'd serve it that way. But, of course, as everyone knows flip flops are best served with guacamole. 

This recipe has the longest title but the shortest cooking time ever. Go figure.

Crappiest photo. Tastiest dinner

Cashew Crusted Goat Cheese over Zucchini Noodles

Ingredients:
2 medium sized zucchini (somewhere less than 10 inches long)
1 cup balsamic vinegar (best quality you can get)
6 ounces Chevre goat cheese
2 tablespoons milk or cream or liquid of your choice
1 cup salted cashews, chopped
Olive oil to coat baking sheet

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a saucepan bring balsamic vinegar to a boil, stirring constantly. When it begins to boil turn down to medium low. Simmer until liquid reduces by half, stirring frequently. You do not want this to burn. Burnt vinegar smells and tastes nasty. When done set on very low until ready to drizzle. 


While vinegar is doing its thing.

Chop cashews in food processor. Don't do this too finely. So I guess I should say roughly chop. Four or five pulses of the food processor ought to do it. Spread chopped nuts on a small plate. 


Mix goat cheese and milk together until it is a soft paste. If your goat cheese is already soft then you may not have to do this. What you are looking for is something that can be molded into a rounded patty. Divide into four sections. As you make  each patty, press into chopped nuts, coating both sides. Place on greased baking sheet. Continue until you've done all four. Place in pre-heated oven. Bake until golden brown. About 20 minutes.


Using a potato peeler, peel ribbons of zucchini. Working all the way around the zucchini until you get to the seeds. Stop there. Not one to throw anything away save the seeded part for some other purpose. Heat a large pot of salted water to just under a boil. Put zucchini ribbons into the water for about 2 or 3 minutes. You don't want to really cook them, just warm them up. So do this just before you are about to take the goat cheese out of the oven.


To plate: fish out zucchini from the water and place on plates. Top with a cheese patty. Drizzle with balsamic reduction. Serve while cheese is still warm. 

Serves 4

Approximate per Serving Stats:

calories: 354

Carbs:   21

Fat: 27

Protein: 14

This recipe presents fancier than it is. Which makes it prefect for parties. Make smaller patties, plate the whole thing up on salad size plates and keep warm in a very slow oven. 

Curried vegetable stuffed portabella mushrooms

So I promised a couple of readers/friends that I would give them some knock out recipes that were vegetarian and lowish carb. This is the first of them. 

If you like to eat something that is low fuss but high in the running nose spicy side like we do than this is the dish for you. While it is a complete meal in and of itself serving it with a salad with a very light dressing would not come amiss. 

You can mix this recipe up. Like it fiery? Add more curry powder. Don't have the exact vegetables called for? Use whatever you have. No tofu? Hard boiled eggs will work. Don't have raisins? pfft. Use craisins. The only thing that stays constant is the Portabella mushrooms and the apples.

Sure it looks like it's got lots of ingredients and an ugly bit of instructions but really it is just a bunch of chopping and 2 pans.

as you can tell I'm no food photographer

Curried Vegetable Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

1/4 cup golden raisins
3 tablespoons olive oil - to saute vegetables in
1/2 cup onion, chopped 
1/2 cup yellow squash, cubed
1/2 cup zucchini, cubed
1/4 cup bell pepper, any color, chopped
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1/3 pound extra firm tofu, chopped, squeezed of water and crumbled
1/2 Granny Smith or any ole green apple, 1/2" cubes
5 medium Portabella mushrooms
1 - 15 oz. can diced tomatoes with chilies and the liquid
or
1 - 15 oz can diced tomatoes w/liquid
2 green chile peppers such as jalapenos or poblanos, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder


Instructions
1. Soak raisins in water to cover for about 30 minutes. While you are waiting for them.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. If you have a cast iron or oven safe fry pan place it in the oven to heat up. Otherwise, coat a casserole dish with a generous amount of olive oil. If you are using a cast iron pan add 4 tablespoons or so to the pan 5 minutes before the stuffing mixture is ready. You want to heat up the oil but don't want to burn it.
3. Chop all the veggies. Saute over medium heat in a deep fry pan coated in olive oil for 5 or 10 minutes. This is a chop and toss process. Chop up the veg; toss in the fry pan.
4. Chop tofu in 1/2" cubes. Over the sink, take a handful of tofu and squeeze out as much of the water that you can. Crumble and toss in the pan with the veggies. 
5. Add can of tomatoes w/chilies (or the diced tomatoes and chopped chile peppers), apples, and the curry powder to the fry pan. Stir until well blended. Cover and cook over low heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Add raisins.
6. Remove stems and scrap gills from mushrooms. I find a spoon is the best utensil for this job. Place in heated up cast iron pan or casserole stem side up, if it still had the stem that is. It will make a sweet little bowl.
7. Stuff the veggie mixture in each of the mushrooms. I should really say heap this mixture into each of the mushrooms. The mixture might be a little watery so I suggest using a slotted spoon. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.
Let sit for a few minutes before serving.
Serves 5


You can make these ahead and store in the refrigerator until you want to bake them. Just put them in the casserole pan and cover with cling wrap. I like to let them come up to almost room temperature before I put them in the oven. Maybe it's me but I get a little freaked about putting a cold pan in the pre-heated oven. 





I'd love to give you all the stats on this but to tell you the truth I haven't got a clue what they are. What I can tell you is that is hasn't got any grains or potatoes and the sugar from the raisins and apple is natural so that has got to count for lowish carbs.




Please enjoy.
Love,
M

Low-carb vegetarian diet does not mean "no-food" diet

As most of you know I was forced encouraged by my doctor to give up cut back on the number of carbohydrates that I eat per day. As a vegetarian this seemed like a daunting task. What was I supposed to eat? How would I get enough protein at every meal to ensure that I wasn't starving when my only high protein choices are soy and eggs?

After a couple of weeks of whining my creative cooking juices began to flow. Here are a few meals that I have prepared without grains, sugar, potatoes or any of those other bad white stuff. 

Fried green tomatoes on a bed of zucchini and yellow squash noodles drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction. It was yummy. JR loved the reduction so much that he wants it on everything. I think I'll try a port or Pinot Noir reduction next. I used almond flour to bread the tomatoes though soy flour would have worked well enough. I find I don't like to use soy flour all that often so almond flour works well.

Veggie eggs Benedict on a bed of veggie bacon sauteed spinach and grape tomatoes. This was a Saturday morning brunch thing. Very good. Really! How can you go wrong with homemade hollandaise sauce?

Portabella mushrooms stuffed pizza style. I was craving pizza one night. This satisfied. 

Cream of wild mushroom soup. Arrowroot my friends. Learn to embrace it. 

Cheese souffle stuffed mushroom caps. We had these on Wednesday night. They were awesome! I'm going to work on this recipe a bit before I share it. The taste was perfect but the presentation was a little wonky. I also want to work on the mushroom to souffle ratio.

All in all we've had some very wonderful food lately without all the carbs. Though the 'proof will be in the pudding' when I go into the doctor's to have my glucose levels checked again. I will tell you that I have lost 15 of those 20 ugly pounds that I gained since moving to Texas. That made me very happy. I also don't feel deprived of food. I'm getting more than enough protein and haven't succumbed to lethargy.

I think the one thing that I proved was that lowering your carbs will let you lose weight and that vegetarians can safely go on a low-carb diet. It may take a bit more ingenuity but it can be done. 

Love,
M

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

This is one of our favorite soups. 

Cream of wild mushroom soup

2 packages of dried wild mushrooms. (doesn't matter what type. I used morrel and chanterelles)

2 or 3 cups of chopped mushrooms (whatever you've got. I used crimini and shiitake)

1 quart water

1 quart cream or half and half

1/2 cup white wine

salt, pepper and nutmeg

1/4 cup onion - chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup arrowroot

1/4 cup water

Fresh parsley - garnish

drizzle of black truffle oil - garnish

Bring the 1 quart of water to a boil. Turn down to a simmer. Soak dried wild mushrooms in hot water for 20 minutes. 

In large soup pot saute onion in the 2 tablespoons of butter until softened. Add chopped mushrooms. Saute until they are very well brown but not burnt. 

After 20 minutes scoop out the re-hydrated mushrooms. Reserve liquid. Chop mushrooms and add to sauteed mushrooms. Add wine. Add liquid that you soaked the dried mushrooms in. Using a hand-held blender or a regular blender, blend until mostly smooth. We like ours a little on the chunky side. Add cream. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. If I had to guess I'd say start with a half teaspoon of salt, and a quarter teaspoon of pepper and nutmeg. Let it meld with the soup for a minute or two then add more if needed. Cook on low until heated through. 10 or 15 minutes. Don't boil.

Take off the heat. Mix 1/4 cup of water with the arrowroot. Add half of this mixture to soup. Let it cool a little. Stir. Is it thick enough? No? Add a little more of the arrowroot mixture. As it cools it will thicken up some more. You could skip the arrowroot and let it sit on the stove for awhile or eat it thinner.

Top with a sprinkle of parsley and a drizzle of truffle oil.

Serves 4 to 6. It's only 4 for us because we love this stuff.

I wish I could be more accurate with my measurements but I'm not very good at keeping track of measurements. I just don't cook that way. I'm more of a little bit here and a little bit there kind of cook.

I hope you enjoy this.

Love,

M

Zucchini Pancakes

I wrote this post, like eightygillion years ago. Okay, maybe not eightygillion but when you travel a lot it feels like that. I did have it all set up to post last Monday with the exception of the photo but things got hectic and you all know how that goes. So, here you go, last Monday's post this Monday. That makes it almost the same.

I scored some sweet looking zucchini at the farmers market last week that needed to be used, and quickly. I'm leaving town Wednesday morning (going to Baltimore, if you are close please let me know. We'll meet up. totally ignore this line.) so would not have time to do much with this stuff.

I had made fritters the evening before that were a major hit with the family but that still left me with an over-abundence of zucchini (or as they call it here Italian squash)

Recipe

2 cups zucchini, grated

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 egg, slightly beaten

2 tablespoons milk, maybe a little more or less

1 cup self-rising flour

1/2 cup cream cheese

Add-ins, see below

Mix all ingredients together until just combined. Let sit for a few minutes to let the flour absorb the liquid. Spoon into greased skillet (well seasoned cast iron is the best). Spread around a little to flatten them out. Fry until golden brown on one side, flip and repeat.

Serve warm with sauce appropriate for the add-in. See below or make up your own.

Makes 15 to 16 medium sized pancakes

These would make wonderful appetizers if you cut them into small squares or rounds. About the size of a shot glass. They are firm enough to hold small bites of other food yet soft enough to bite into without breaking apart and sending crumbs and food down the front of your shirt. What? That's never happened to you? Happens to me all the time. I pretty much wear my food. If I had a big enough rack it would land there but I don't so it usually lands on the tummy. It seems that that sticks out far enough. *sigh*

Suggested Add-ins

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp cumin = serve with thick chunky salsa and sour cream

3 tbs dried mint (double if fresh) = serve with taziki sauce

3 tbs Italian seasoning = serve with basil or sun-dried tomato pesto

no add-in = serve with olive tapenade, mushroom ragout, pico de gallo, etc

Love,

M

PS: Meatless Monday today. Granted everyday that I am home it is meatless and everyday that I travel it is a meat orgy.

Cranberry Syrup recipe

I know!
I was as shocked as you that I pulled this one off. A recipe? One I made up as I went along? What are the odds? Pretty slim it seems, since, it's been quite awhile since I posted a recipe. I thought I'd throw this one out there see where it landed.

With my travel schedule it is sometimes hard to put food on the table let alone something that I made up on my own. Why is it that my family thinks they need to eat? Do they think it magically appears on the table? Yes, yes they do.

Sunday was JR's birthday. I won't mention how old he is now but let's just say that retirement age is not so much creeping up on him as it is roaring up on a Harley. At our age we don't make a big fuss out of birthdays. We have or can go out and buy whatever we want so there is none of that gift angst anymore but I like to do something a little special for him. In that spirit I made him one of his favorite breakfasts...french toast.

Not just any french toast but cranberry walnut french toast with homemade cranberry syrup. I know, I give and I give. HA!  The day before I found a loaf of cranberry walnut bread on the day old bread shelf at the grocery store. I immediately thought of french toast. So I snapped up that loaf of bread like it was a Running of the Brides sale at Filene's Basement. I paid .89 cents for this cranberry walnut loaf of love. JR didn't need to know that he was getting discounted breakfast for his birthday.

Then Sunday morning I discovered that we had no maple syrup. Oh groovy! No syrup for the french toast. This could have been a birthday breakfast disaster but no! I saved the day by making syrup.

If you are on some sort of diet you are going to want to stay clear of this or do what I do...use moderation. I'm not sure if you can use artificial sweetener but I don't see why not. Here is my recipe that I made up on the fly, if you want to change it up be my guest. That's cool.

Cranberry Syrup

1 1/2 cup cranberry juice cocktail (I had diet Ocean Spray on hand)
1/2 cup orange juice (straight out of the carton. JR buys it that way. Without champagne in it I don't really do OJ.)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Craisins
1/4 cup or so corn starch

Combine cranberry juice cocktail, orange juice, sugar and Craisins to a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Turn down heat to low and let syrup gently boil, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning. Boil for 15 minutes or until sugar completely dissolves and Craisins plump up. Take off of the heat. Whisk in corn starch a little at a time. It will thicken up as it cools down so don't be generous with the corn starch. You can also use arrowroot if you are not into corn starch. Corn starch and arrowroot thicken in cool liquids. Spoon over french toast while it is still warm. Eat. You will have to remind yourself of the moderation rule because this stuff is Yummy!

This sounds really sweet but the craisins and cranberry juice cuts the sugar sweetness. We started talking about all the other things we thought it would be good with, such as;
turkey (JR's contribution)
grilled tofu (mine)
pork tenderloin (JR again)
grilled romaine lettuce (me)

I'm sure you can think of many other savory dishes where a semi-sweet sauce would work well.

Love,
M
It's not really Saturday but what the Elmore!

An apology and a recipe

I need to apologize for dropping off the face of the earth last week. Believe it or not but the Seattle area does have internet access it is only that my mother and step dad don't really know how or why it works or how easy it is to swap out computers or how it doesn't really break it if you plug in another computer or that if you plug in another computer your internet service provider doesn't charge you extra. Knowing that it might be a painful exercise in futility to explain all this to them it seemed like dropping off the face of the earth was a better option. My mother doesn't have wireless internet access. She's only got the cable type which isn't to say that wouldn't have worked great but my step dad gets a little cranky about anything to do with computers. Bless his little heart.

I had three options
1. Using my step dad's computer. He volunteers it all the time only to get all upset if the screen doesn't look exactly like when he left it. I hate to upset him so that option was out.
2. I had thought to unplug his computer then plug mine in but I didn't want to crawl aroung under his desk.
3. I could have bought a wireless router but figured that if I had any problems the man would have freaked the hell out. 

So I just decided to opt out of anything except Twitter and Facebook. Those I could keep up a bit with my phone.

I'm back now. JR and I got back to Houston on Saturday evening. We were totally spent from flying most of the day. For some crazy reason the flight to Seattle seemed to take about half the time of the flight home. Maybe it was a time warp or something. I don't know but we were exhausted by the time we got home.

While we were in the Seattle area we ate out; A LOT! One of the places that we went for lunch is a favorite of our oldest son and his wife. I can't remember the name but it is this little cafe in a strip mall. One of the sides that looked really good was a sweet potato hash. I didn't have any because it had bacon in it but everyone else thought it was good. That got me hankering for sweet potato hash. Sunday morning I tried my hand at it.

Sweet Potato Hash

3 medium sized sweet potatoes or yams, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup onion, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons cumin
1 cup meatless chorizo
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter

Dice sweet potatoes. Place in a pot or large fry pan with enough water to just about cover over medium heat. Cover and cook until the potatoes are almost cooked through. You don't want them to be too soft. Sort of al dente. Drain.

Put back into the fry pan or transfer into a large fry pan if you cooked them originally in a pot. Drizzle with the olive oil. Fry over medium to medium high heat. Add onions, garlic, chorizo and cumin to the potatoes. Mix gently.

Fry until the onions are cooked through. The sugar in the potatoes will caramelize and get all yummy.
Serves 6ish. I couldn't tell you all the fat, calories or nutritional value but I can tell you that everyone liked it and it can't be all that bad.

I served it with scrambled eggs. Then I stuffed mushrooms with some of the leftovers. Yum! I'll be making it again. Soon.

See you all around.
Love,
M

Tomato Sandwiches recipe

On campus we have a College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. I don't really know much about it except that I can go to the student run restaurant and eat lunch for about $5 and that they have a wonderful archives. 

This archives was started as part of the Hilton Archives and then sort of morphed. Have you ever watched Mad Men? The producers of the show came to the archives to get images, old advertising materials, and an idea of the look of that era. Pretty cool, no?

This archives has things like plates from restaurants and hotels around the world, a spittoon from God knows where, images, movies and vinyl records from Hilton and other hotels from around the world, a picture of Hemingway ogling a young starlet at the Havana Hilton opening, and last (and in my opinion) the best; cookbooks from the 1870s to current. Hundreds of them! Every edition of the Joy of Cooking! Not to mention the cooking magazines and pamphlets collection!  Yes, my friends, it is a Michele Playland!

We will be scanning some of these gems into digital to preserve them since most of the oldest ones are falling apart. This means that I just had to borrow a few to look at. I'll be sharing some home remedies with you later in the week but for now I'll share a recipe that I only had to tweak a little and it turned out wonderful. It is not what you think of as tomato sandwiches.

Tomato Sandwiches

1 - 8 ounces package of cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons dried seasoning mix, like Italian, Herbs d'Provance, Cajun, taco or whatever you have on hand. I say get creative.

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 egg beaten with a little milk

1/2 cup bread crumbs

4 medium to large firm tomatoes

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Mix cream cheese and seasoning mix together. Let stand until flavors blend. Usually an hour or so. This is a great mix ahead sort of thing. Just be sure that you take it out of the refrigerator to allow it to soften up before you make the sandwiches.

2. Slice the tomatoes into 1/4 to 1/2 in slices. (don't you hate it when recipes get real precise on the size of slices? Really, recipe writer? Do you expect me to whip out my handy ruler?) It kind of goes without saying that you will need an even number of these slices. Divide into two stacks.

3. Spread a tablespoon or so of the cheese mixture onto each tomato slice of one of the stacks. Top with another tomato slice. Press down to distribute the cheese mixture. See little tomato sandwiches. Now, you could eat them just like this, I know I would but let's take it one step further into the realm of deliciousness.

4. Place the flour, egg mixture and bread crumbs into separate dishes. Basically, you are setting up a breading station. I like to use salad plates. They seem to be the right size and shape but use whatever you have that's handy. We are now coming to the really messy part. 

5. Dip one tomato sandwich into the flour, coating it on both sides. Then the egg mixture, once again coating it on both sides. Then the bread crumbs. Yep, you'll be coating it on both sides. Place on a wire rack until you have all the sandwiches coated. I made them up ahead of time and stored them uncovered in the refrigerator until I was ready to fry them up. Gives them a little time to firm up before you put the fire to them. A little tip for you. Use only one hand to do the breading operation. That way you only have one breaded club hand.

6. Heat up butter and olive oil in a large frypan. Fry each side of the tomato sandwich until golden brown. Serve warm. 1 per person. 1 very large and 3 medium sized tomatoes serves about 6. 

They are awesome the next day. I warmed up the remaining two under the broiler while I poached a couple of eggs. Placed on a bed of fresh spinach, topped with the egg and some chopped fresh tomato. Yum!!!!

Uh, yeah, pictures. Sorry. We ate them too fast and I didn't think of it. If you need an image in your head think really thick fried green tomatoes, only not green and oozing cheese. Aren't I helpful?

I'm pretty sure that these would be wonderful with herbed goat cheese. In fact, I plan to try it this week and will pass on the results. Maybe, I might even take pictures. Wouldn't that be cool?

Give this recipe a try for Meatless Monday or any old day of the week.

Love,

M

Bell Peppers; I bought, I roasted, I cooked

I took the week of Thanksgiving off and while I worked a bit (I can't seem to help myself) I did do things that I really like. Mostly roasting, painting and cooking; cooking, painting, and roasting. I was a vegetable roasting fool. It was like a mission I was on or something. 

I can safely say that if it can be roasted, I roasedt it.

Potatoes - done

Garlic - done

Carrots - done

pumpkins - done

red peppers - done. twice

I roasted peppers on Sunday then again on Wednesday. Out of those, I made two batches of red pepper hummus, one batch of red pepper fettuccine, used it to top poached eggs, spread it on sandwiches, and mixed it with cheese. 

top left to right; red pepper puree, hummus, pasta dough. Just the beginnings of my roasted red pepper madness

The hummus turned out great. JR and I ate all the first batch of hummus before the kids could get a taste. I felt bad (heh) so I made another batch. Just for them. *snort*. It's now gone. I found the mostly empty container still in the fridge. What is up with that? If it is empty take it out! If there is only 2 teaspoons take it out, eat it, then put the dang dish in the sink.

roasted red pepper fettuccine is yummo with spinach pesto.

I, then, roasted a whole other set of red peppers. With this batch I started with a cream of roasted red pepper soup. It was AMAZING! I've been hording just the right amount to make another batch of soup later in the week. I'd post the recipe today but I want to make it one more time before I release it. 

Candace's second bowl of soup. It was determined to be blog worthy then eaten too fast to take pictures. Next batch, I promise.

Have you ever roasted a pepper? 

Do you have an electric oven so assumed that the ability to char the skin was beyond your appliance technology?

Fear no more.
If I learned anything from my mother it was that there is little in this world that couldn't be charred beyond recognition in an electric oven. Gods truth! There is nothing that woman can't burn. It wasn't until I was in my teens that I learned that the bottoms of cookies weren't supposed to be black. It was a revelation. Butter knives became a utensil used to spread butter, not scrape the burnt blackness from the bottoms of cookies. Who Knew!

Let's go through the process:

1. Place peppers on a cookie sheet. Do not attempt this on your racks. Unless, of course, you really like cleaning your oven. If you could see the bottom of my oven you'd know that this was not the case for me.

I started with three then decided that that was just not going to do.

2. Place the oven rack as close to the broiler coils as you can without letting the peppers touch. Touching is bad. Turn on the broiler. You don't need to prep the peppers with oil or anything since there is really no chance of them sticking. If you don't feel safe or you want to decrease cleaning time go right ahead an oil them up. (I don't worry so much since JR does all the clean up. It's a deal we've got going.)

As you can see I didn't stay within the strictly red pepper boundaries. Yep, I'm a rule breaker. I would stay away from the green ones though. I just don't think their flavor is quite as developed but feel free to break some of the rules if you want.

3. Char them up. Electric takes a bit longer so you'll want to wait for 3 or 4 minutes before you flip them.

Keep flipping and charring until you have all the sides burnt. Makes peeling them a whole lot easier if they are burnt on all sides. They get really mushy which in turn makes turning them a challenge. Accept that challenge. Even if it means changing flipping devices, from tongs to a spatula.

Yes, I did leave my cast iron skillet in the oven at the same time. Like me, it love the heat.

4. Take them out of the oven and put them into something where they can hang out. They need to steam a bit to get the skins off. Putting them into something with a pretty good lids works best. I'd suggest a brown paper bag (not plastic). I just didn't have one. We only use those recycled cloth bags for groceries and insulated lunch boxes for, well, lunches. I used a great big pot with a fairly tight lid instead. Oh sure, the brown paper bag would have made clean up easier but see above statement about clean up as to why I don't fret about it.

 (can you say spoiled Princess Michele?)

See, all cozy like.

5. When they are cool enough to handle evacuate them from the paper bag/pot/wherever you stored them. Pull off the stem. Usually, this action will take most of the seeds with it. Start pulling the skins away from the pepper. I tend to like to get every little last bit so I've been know to run them under water while I do this. Also, if you have a sink disposal all these charred bits, seeds and stuff can all go down there. See clean up is half over (only thinking about JR here).

6. Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator until ready to use. I used up my first batch of 7 within the first hour. Half of the second batch of 10 is waiting in the fridge for more soup and I'm not sure what. I'll take suggestions. 

Easy, tasty, and good for you. Works for me. 

I'll pass along all the recipes that I made out of these in the coming days or not. I'm in the middle of a conference that I am hosting this week, so like I said on Saturday, posting may be a bit sporadic. And, visiting will surely suffer. 

See you next week when I surface. I've got a cool idea for a candelabra from a store bought wreath. Nothing like last years epic how-to on making your own garland but totally respectable.

Love,

M

Thanksgiving menu - holy crap I need a menu?

Jan posted her Thanksgiving menu on Friday and I have to say that I admire the hell out of her. She kept with a few of her traditional dishes for her children, reworked a few to fit her new lifestyle and add some new things that fit her perfectly. It was inspirational. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. I mean that in a "Damn! I've got to get myself together" kind of way because she works full time, has a teenager at home, and is creative and everything, so I should be much more together than I am. Then I look at the almost finished painting on my easel and think; "I'll get to food tomorrow".

About Thanksgiving......

I've got nothing. 

Zip. 

Zero. 

Nada.

I have tons ingredients and I know my family's preference so you would think that this would be a no brainer. I've been in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the last 27 years. One year I hosted 57 people for gawds sakes. I should be able to do this with my eyes closed. Yay, uh, not going to happen but here's what I've got so far.

Candace likes green bean casserole.You know the kind. With cream of mushroom soup and those fried onion things. I would have said precised name  but I've never bought them in my entire life so I don't know if they come in a can, box, or jar. Anyway, I'm going to pull this one out old school. I have all the makings for mushroom soup. I have fresh green beans, and I have onions. I'm sure I'll be fine on this one.

JR just wants turkey. You would think that I never make meat. I do, just very rarely but I'm not totally adverse. So JR is getting turkey. A whole one. With legs, and wings, and all that icky stuff in the middle. I bought the turkey on Saturday; all 8.63 pounds of it. Hey, don't laugh. There are only three people eating it. I paid all of .50 cents for it. Not .50 cents a pound. .50 cents for all 8.63 pounds. I think there was a mistake. Anyway, I'll brine this baby overnight on Wednesday, stuff a mixture of olives and herbs de Provence between the meat and the skin, and roast it on a bed of onions, celery, carrots and broth. I've done this before and the guys liked it so I'll do a repeat performance.

The Boy likes himself some deviled eggs. Since, I can do eggs a thousand different ways this will be the easiest of the dishes. The hardest part will be making the mustard. I may even make the mayonnaise.

I'm a mashed potato kind of gal so these will be done with roasted garlic and herbed chevre cheese. I may as well spread them on my thighs now and get it over with.

We'll have mixed bread dressing. What I mean by this is that I've been saving bits of bread from various types of bread for the last couple of months in the freezer for just this occasion. I'll get them out a couple of days before to toast. I'll mix this up with some veggie chorizo, onion, celery, carrots, peppers, seasonings, butter, and an embarrassing amount of white wine. 

You can't have mashed potatoes, no matter how good, without gravy. I could go with simple sage gravy but really how fancy is that? No, I think I'll pull out all the stops. I plan (right, like I plan, HA!) to make a mushroom bourbon gravy.  I've made this before and it is a meal in itself.

I've got some rolls in the freezer that I'll bake with rosemary butter because JR is a meat, potato, and bread kind of guy. I blame his Irish heritage. Vince, feel free to call me on this one but his granddaddy came over from Ireland in the late 1800s and wouldn't sit down to dinner without bread.

I have some mixed nuts that I spiced the other day and froze that will make a wonderful pie. Think sort of pecan style. I'm not a big pie crust maker but will pull out my favorite pin just for the occasion.

There will be some other types of veggies and I may smoke some tofu for myself.

I think that is enough carnage for one day. I'll tell you all what worked and what didn't. I'd try all this ahead of time but I'm starting a new painting tomorrow that I'm really excited about and can't be bothered with food. 

Did I just type that I can't be bothered with food? 

What was I thinking? 

I must be pretty excited about this new painting. I even bought 2 new small round sable brushes. I'd show you the progress but it is a Christmas gift so progress pictures will be sent to the person who consigned it only. That sounds so professional. After Christmas, I'll post pictures, if it is okay with the owner. After Thanksgiving I'll post recipes.

Love,

M