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

You know we've settled in when we hit the farmer's market

Here we are, settling into our new little town.

And, it is little! Especially considering the size of Houston. Our new little town is only about 13,000 permanent residents. That number swells to 25,000 when the students get here. Which is in a couple of weeks. Making this a perfect time for us to settle in. JR is slipping into the small town life like a duck to water.

This is our second Saturday here, so of course, we didn't finish unpacking boxes, personalizing my office or cleaning house. No Siree! We walked to the farmer's market.

peaches and pears

The farmer's market is 1/2 mile from our house making it a very pleasant walk. The weather was perfect; sunny and about 55 degrees. We wore coats. The locals wore shorts and t-shirts. We stood out. We're okay with that.

The new county that we live in is a big agricultural center of Washington State. So all the fruits, vegetables and eggs that we purchased were grown organically within about 10 mile radius of the market. It also is one of the best wine regions in the state and dare I say country. Oh yes, I dare!

The farmer's market also has soaps, honey, yarn, art and baked goods. I fell in love with the hand spun yarn. Of course, I can't knit or crochet or hand other handi-craft that uses yarn but I really wanted some of these. I'm thinking next week I'll need to pick some up for an art project, just because.

I totally geeked out over the greens. Though I only bought lettuce today. The weather is getting colder up here. This morning the temperature was only 50 degrees. Does anyone else smell soup season coming?

I have dinner plans for everything I bought already in my head but you would expect nothing less, now would you. Here's how most of it will line up:

Peaches:
I plan to grill the peaches and serve with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. Probably tomorrow night since the Oldest Boy will be coming by to pick up his dog.
Pears: these will be sliced up on some of the lettuce with hazelnuts, blue cheese and a vinaigrette. I'm looking forward to that tonight.
Eggplant: This has eggplant Parmesan written all over it.
Carrots: salads and I may make glazed carrots as a side dish.
Corn: no brainer! Grilled tomorrow with the leftovers becoming spicy corn pudding with the jalapenos.
Raspberries: these will probably be eaten as snacks, tossed on salad or maybe cooked down to make a syrup.
Patty Pan Squash: These will be stuffed and baked. OMG! I can't wait for that night.

There you have it. I'll be posting much more frequently now that we have got the house in a place where we don't feel under the gun to unpack and where we can find the silverware. Finding the silverware seemed to defy us for a few days.

Cilantro Roasted Potato Salad

I was really looking for a way to have breakfast potatoes but not in the same old way. Plus, if I didn't use up the boatload of cilantro I got on sale it would turn into a slimy mess fit only for the compost heap. 3 bunches for a $1.00 is a great deal only if you use it. Just sayin'.

We love cilantro. We were talking about how sad it would be if one of us was unlucky enough to be someone who's genetic makeup is cilantro adverse. I'm sure this recipe would be delightful using parsley instead but it just wouldn't have the some bite. Parsley is so much milder of a flavor than cilantro.

I found this recipe in an old Williams Sonoma  Entertaining with the Seasons: A Year of Recipes cookbook I had picked up at Half Priced Books. I've had really good luck with William Sonoma recipes in the past and thought I'd try another one out on Saturday morning. I'm sure glad I did. This was wonderful...hot and cold. 

I cut the recipe down because it stated that it served 12 - 14, it was from one of the Great Parties cookbooks. My recipe will serve 3 or 4. I say 3 if you want portions like pictured below. I warmed about half this amount up for my breakfast on Monday. Amazing! Again!

Cilantro Roasted Potato Salad. (they called this Roasted Potato Salad with Green Onion Dressing but they are soooo wrong)


1.5 to 2 pounds Yukon gold or Red potatoes, cut into 1" cubes or so.
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil 

Dressing
1 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (though I think I put in 2 just because)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon sour cream
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 to 2 green onions, chopped, greens and all
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat over to 400 degrees

1. Wash and chop potatoes. Coat with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in oven and roast until brown about 40 minutes, turning about every 15 minutes or so. 

2. In a large bowl combine remaining ingredients. When I cut it down I used weight for the cilantro. I may have used more than the recipe called for but whatever we loved it!

3. While potatoes are still warm, put them into the bowl with the dressing. Toss well. Taste for salt and pepper. 

4. Serve warm or cold. It doesn't matter since these are so fantastic!

Before I put the potatoes into the bowl I scooped out about a couple of teaspoons of the dressing to scramble with our eggs.   Inspired!    I think I could eat the dressing with just about anything it was that good. 

I wanted get you the link to the Williams Sonoma recipe site but they don't have this recipe on their website. I did find it on another site. The recipe is exactly the same but the author of this post didn't credit William Sonoma so now I'm just confused.

Y'all seriously need to try this.

Love,
M

Weekend meal recap

See the avocado? I'll use any excuse to include it in a meal.

Last Saturday I made an Eggplant enchilada casserole for dinner.
Again!
It was yummy.
Again!

I've blogged about this recipe before but this time I did it a little different. I like to mix things up. It keeps things fresh. And it is not because I'm too lazy to run to the store if I'm out of something so I make something out of whatever I have on hand.

Mixing it up turned out to be;
black beans
brown rice
a variety of chopped veggies
jalapeno (we like spicy food. If a meal makes my nose run than it is all good for me. Too graphic?)
a variety of Mexican spices

and of course
eggplant.

I use eggplant as the tortillas since I try to keep my carb count fairly low, not to mention the wheat factor. This last time instead of making individual servings I made this in a 12" x 12" casserole dish. Making for plenty of leftovers. Of which we have been eating topped with poached eggs.

Youza! It is good with poached eggs.
I mean it was good before but the addition of a creamy poached egg just takes this to a whole other level.

Tonight will be stuffed green peppers, Mediterranean style.
Why Mediterranean?
Because I have a bunch of kalamato olives that need to be used.
Why stuffed green peppers?
Because green peppers were on sale for 3 for a $1.00.

See how this works for me? Do you plan meals? Or are you like me and use whatever you have on hand? Or as I like to say; fly by the seat of my pants.

Have a terrific week everyone. Happy eating!

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.

Meatless Monday Burger E-Cookbook

Hi all,

Sorry I've been a little awol these days. I've been stalking most of your sites but have been lax on the comment front. As with most of us I've been crazy busy these days. It must be the holidays or something.

Anyway, I'm taking the easy way out today. It has been forever since I posted anything about Meatless Mondays. This is a cause that I feel particularly passionate about and not because I'm a vegetarian. That is a health issue for me but that doesn't mean that I don't think that Americans eat too much meat. It seems that I'm not the only one,

"The world’s total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it was estimated to be 284 million tons. Per capita consumption has more than doubled over that period. (In the developing world, it rose twice as fast, doubling in the last 20 years.) World meat consumption is expected to double again by 2050, which one expert, Henning Steinfeld of the United Nations, says is resulting in a “relentless growth in livestock production.”

Americans eat about the same amount of meat as we have for some time, about eight ounces a day, roughly twice the global average. At about 5 percent of the world’s population, we “process” (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total" 

There is growing evidence that excessive meat consumption increases the chances of cancer and other medical issues.

"Given the plausible epidemiologic evidence for red and processed meat intake in cancer and chronic disease risk, understanding the trends and determinants of meat consumption in the U.S., where meat is consumed at more than three times the global average, should be particularly pertinent to researchers and other public health professionals aiming to reduce the global burden of chronic disease."
 
 I doubt if that will make anyone cut back on their meat intake.

A long term study of Seventh Day Adventists shows that vegetarians live longer and other studies show that vegetarians are leaner than meat eaters (sure, I may complain about that extra 5 pounds but that is only 5 pounds not 50).

The thing is studies can be refuted or someone comes out with another study that says the total opposite and people just seriously like their meat. And, they like to eat it every damn day. I personally don't understand it but whatever floats your boat. What I think would be nice is if everyone were a little more creative and thoughtful in their consumption. It is pretty easy to cook up a hunk of meat (I know I did it for years) but making interesting sides is so much more creative. Making those sides a complete meal (don't even get me started on the whole "you are not getting enough protein" issue. A. vegetarians get more than enough. B. most people eat too much.) that a meat eater, like my husband, considers a meal is even harder, more creative and more interesting. Than again maybe that's just me.

If you did want to change things up a bit the people from Meatless Monday came up with an E-cookbook of burgers. I'm passing it along to you. I didn't ask if I could which makes me a rule breaker but most of us librarians are a little on the subversive side.

I'd skip the bun on most of these because I just don't like to eat all that much bread but I'm sure these are great served open-faced or on a salad or on a bed of greens or other veggies.

Love,
M

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu

So while Ya'll are defrosting, brining, deciding whether to stuff or not stuff your turkey and planning to get up at o'dark 30 to get said turkey in the oven I'll be sleeping in. Why? Because vegetables don't take effing forever to cook. 

Just because we are not doing a turkey doesn't mean we aren't going to have a lovely traditional meal. Because, you know thanksgiving is all about the side dishes and the leftovers. We don't need a turkey for that. 

It looks like it will be just JR and I for dinner this year and while that sounds quiet and leisurely it also sounds like a lot more planning work. You know that if you are cooking for twenty it is easy...just cook lots of everything. But, cooking for just two is a lesson in subtraction. Every recipe will need to be cut down to serve 4 max. Math + librarian = head exploding.

So, I'll be cooking a little bit of the following:

Appetizers
*Mushroom pâté
*Deviled eggs (just a few because it wouldn't be a holiday without these)
*Blood Orange Cosmopolitans. 

Main Course
*Vegetable Wellington
*Roasted vegetable and sage gravy
*Roasted garlic and white cheese mashed potatoes
*Rosemary roasted beets
*Bourbon glazed sweet potatoes
*Green beans (not sure what I'll do with these yet)
*Cheesy creamed spinach (because I'll eat this stuff on a flip flop)
*Veggie sausage dressing (JR loves my veggie chorizo dressing) 
*Oregon Pinot Noir

Dessert
*Pumpkin tarts (we can not eat a whole pie to ourselves or at least we shouldn't) 
*Blue Bell Gingerbread Ice Cream (JR couldn't resist)

Now, that I write all this down it seems like a lot but really since I will only be making no more than 4 servings of each we will have a few leftovers, which really is at this is all about. 

None of this takes a whole lot of time on my part which is nice since I've done my time in the kitchen in the past. I'd like to start spending holidays actually enjoying my time off. So, while I love cooking I've really gotten tired of the all-day kitchen marathon that most holidays seem to demand.

Sending my best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.

Peace,
M

Meatless Monday - Squash, eggplant and chickpea gratin

I want to apologize for not being around last week. I have taken up walking the dog for 40 minutes every morning before I go to work. So while it is good for me and the dog it is bad for the blog. I'll try to do better. Enough excuses onto the food.

This is something that I adapted from a Williams Sonoma recipe. In my collection of cookbooks I have several (I'm not sure how many and am too lazy to get up to count) cookbooks by Williams Sonoma. They put out a pretty good cookbook. I've been able to recreate several of their meat recipes without the meat. This is the sign of a good cookbook in my book.

This is a recipe from their Vegetarian cookbook. I picked the book up at my local Half Price Books. One of my favorite places to pick up cookbooks. My second favorite use to be Costco but our Costco book section is lame so now I don't have a second favorite place. Sad, isn't it?

My one beef about cookbooks, or fancy cookbooks or cookbooks from fancy places or people (yeah, I'm looking at you, Ina Gardner) that is, is that they call for ingredients that a normal kitchen just doesn't have in it. While this cookbook has it's fancy stuff it also has it's peasant stuff also. Since I consider myself a peasant, and I'm okay with that. I am happy to find peasant recipes in any cookbook.

The farmers market had eggplant last week so of course I bought way too much and we can only eat so much eggplant parm and eggplant enchiladas. This recipe came to the rescue. I've cut it down to feed four. I'm working on making smaller meals since it is will be just JR and I in a few weeks.

Squash, eggplant and chickpea gratin

1 can chickpeas 

1 medium eggplant

3 medium zucchini or yellow squash or a combination of both

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small yellow onion

1 bell pepper, color is your choice

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup vegetable stock

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Drain and rinse tomatoes and chickpeas. You could do the whole chopping of tomatoes and picking over, rinsing, draining, soaking and cooking of the chickpeas but really who has time? Not me, so I drained and rinsed the canned stuff this time.

 

Peel strips off the eggplant. You don't have to take all the peel off but if you have a really big eggplant you'll want to take off some so it is not tough. Cut the eggplant and squash into pieced that are about the same size. This is a rustic dish and cooks for a while both on the stove and in the oven so make them a little on the big size. Say about 1 inch pieces. Set them aside.

In a large fry pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onions and bell pepper (I got real lazy and emptied a 10 ounce bag of Kroger onion and three pepper blend into the fry pan.) and cook, stirring until soft, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Don't over cook the garlic because it just gets nasty. Raise the temp to medium high and add the tomatoes, stock, red pepper flakes, basil, thyme, and chickpeas. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. oil a shallow baking dish. I used a 12 inch square pan. 

Pour the vegtable mixture into the prepared dish. Top with the parm. Bake until golden and bubbling aroung the edges, about 20 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes. 

It makes about 4 servings. 

We really liked this dish, JR went back for seconds, and I will probably make it again since I still have 3 more eggplants left. It seems I went a little eggplant crazy. 

Hey sorry about the picture of the leftovers. I forgot to take a picture before I served it up. This made great lunch the next day.  

Love,

M

More container gardening

I know that I go on and on about my container gardening efforts but this time I'll show you what a local garden center has done.

JR and I had heard about a place in Katy that is big on water gardens and since I have a special affinity for water gardens of any sort we thought we'd trek on out there to look them over. This place was having some sort of open house/celebration/sale thing going so there were demonstrations, music and information booths. It must be a big deal because they had a couple of policemen there directing traffic.

Since, we were going there to look at water gardens I was surprised to see container vegetable gardens. Pleasantly surprised but surprised none the less.

This one was filled with tomatoes, corn, and basil. I'm not sure why they chose corn unless it was to train the tomato up the stalk. One stalk of corn only produces a couple of ears per plant so it is not a very efficient use of space. The whole point of veggie container gardening is to get a decent yield in a small amount of space. While fresh corn on the cob is yummy it doesn't really qualify as efficient.

 This one is fairly standard issue; tomatoes, peppers, an herb or two in a narrow planter box. Perfect for a small patio or balcony. Intensively planting in a box or two like this will give you a nice little salad garden throughout the season.

Not sure what to plant with what? It is easy. Plant a tall sun loving plant, like a tomato or two in what will be the back of the planter. Plant a medium size sun lover in front of the tomato that takes either less time to yield or more time to yield than the tomato. Check the tags on the starts that you buy at the garden store. In the very front plant a low and fast grower. Herbs such as thyme or oregano work well as does lettuce. A packet of mixed lettuce seeds are cheap and will having you nibbling on baby greens in only a few weeks.

Think you only have room for a fountain or a veggie container but not both? Think again.  The veggies are planted in the fountain. It is almost hydroponic. Keeping your fountain full keeps your plants watered. Perfect for folks that leave for a couple of weeks in the summer.

This one makes a little less sense. It is placed in a much larger pond. One would have to give a lot of thought to placement. Too far into the pond would make harvest a wet experience.

I encourage you to grow your own if you can. Even a container on the balcony gives you a sense of accomplishment, lets you control a little bit of the healthiness of your produce and adds some life in an urban environment. Plus it is literally no work. No hoeing the rows. No weeding between the plants. And no tilling up the soil at the end of the season. Container gardening is a pick and eat affair with a little bit of tending and consistent watering. 

Tis the season, so go out there and grow your own.

Love,
M

PS: I'm calling this my Meatless Monday post because you can't really container garden cows.

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe

I had a yen for enchiladas on Thursday but I have decided to give up wheat (it just doesn't seem to agree with me) so flour tortillas were out. I don't particularly like corn tortillas and I kind of figured they'd do to me about what wheat does, so not an option. The only thing, how do you make enchiladas without tortillas? 

Not do be deterred because I love enchiladas I started to ask myself some questions while standing in the produce section of my local grocery store;

What could I use to roll the filling in?

What is flexible enough to roll? 

Flat enough? 

Can I get enough of food wrapped in food topped with other food?

Why am I standing here imaging each vegetable as a tortilla and talking to myself?

Why is that mom pulling her small child away from me?

Then answer came to me:  Eggplant!

Oh don't be fooled by its tubby appearance when you cut this purple beauty into thin slices, apply a little heat to make it flexible you've got a great surrogate for a tortilla.

SEE!

Doesn't that look yummy? Oh my friends, it was. JR went crazy for it and you know that man lives on Fritos corn chips, cashews, trailmix and cosmos. You have to know how ashamed I am to write that last sentence but I have no control over his snacking. Did you notice I didn't say drinking? That man make a mean cosmo and I'm not one to stop him since I reap the benefits.

Now you can mix this up anyway you want when it comes to the filling and really to the sauce also. I'm a firm believer on using what you have on hand. So be creative.

Eggplant Enchiladas

(all the quantities are approximate. you can adjust them to your needs and tastes and dietary crazy like I do)

1 large eggplant

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups sauce

1/2 cup or so Filling

Cheddar cheese to top the enchilada

Filling - you can mix this up.

1/2 cup soy crumbles

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1/4 cup pico de gallo

Sauce - another use what you have kind of thing. I think pico de gallo, a true enchilada sauce or whatever is Mexican-like that you have on hand. This is also the place to make this dish as spicy or mild as you like. We like ours spicy so I added a little chili powder and cumin. Here's what I happened to have:

1-14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes with chilies

1-14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a fry pan. Slice the eggplant lengthwise into 1/4 to 3/8 inch slices. You should get 4 or 5 slices depending on the size of your eggplant.  Fry in the hot oil until limp. You don't want to put a crust on it so much as you want to get it flexible. Though a crust is not a bad thing so don't stress if your eggplant develops one. When done lay out on a wire rack to cool. 

Mix filling in a small bowl and set off to the side. In a smallish baking dish or four small ones (I've been trying to adjust my cooking for two these days) divide the tomatoes evenly. Reserve about 1/4 cup to divide and spoon over the top of each enchilada.

Take one of the eggplant slices and lay it in front of you with the narrow end away from you. At the fat end of the eggplant add 2 to 3 tablespoons of filling. Be careful that you don't over fill them or the eggplant will sort of split apart. Roll up and place on top of your tomato mixture. I put one enchilada in each baking dish. It turned out to be a perfect serving for one. Top each of the enchiladas with the remaining tomato mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Serve with sour cream, avocados or maybe a little brown rice on the side.

Brilliant! 

If I don't say so myself. This was even better warmed up the next day.

This has inspired me to rolling other food into food and baking. I've got a zucchini sitting in the fridge that is destined for this type of treatment this week.

Enjoy!

Love,

M

Another Saturday at the Farmer's Market

As most of you know we spend Saturday mornings at our local farmer's market. This is keeping to my personal goal of eating locally, organically and in season as much as possible. JR's personal goal is to keep eating. Sort of mirrors his and really it should be all of our goals to keep breathing. Now, if I can get someone to pay me to breathe then my occupational goal would be ticked off the list. Enough about goals, let's get to the food.

I have a strategy about farmer's market finds. I go to the market without a list, buying whatever looks the best then making up or finding recipes when I bring my treasures home. The only really consistent item I buy is eggs. Everything else is a crap shoot. 

This week the greens were in full force along with some lovely root veggies. The carrots were especially pretty. 

I bought some spinach. Of which some of it went on pizza, some has gone into Dr. Boy's smoothies, of which he makes every day, and the rest, well, I'm not sure but I'm thinking spinach salad with candied pecans and strawberries. The berries are still in season here.

I bought some red beets (sorry no pictures of these). These have been boiled and ready to turn into beet sliders with the green leaf lettuce I picked up (yes, no picture of this either. What can I say; I'm lame). I plan to serve these with fingerling Parmesan fries and possibly the spinach salad. Or maybe grilled cauliflower. I have some that needs to be eaten ASAP!

We picked up the lovely little grape tomatoes in this picture and are finding ourselves eating them like candy. I'm not sure they will make it into the roasted tomato and garlic side dish I had planned. 

I can't stop this post without telling you all about the flowers. They were FREAKING beautiful! Virtually every vendor had flowers to sell.

I'm pretty jazzed about the new vendor in the market. He sells milk and cream that is organic, local, low temp pasteurized, need I go on. The only thing that would make it better is if it was raw but you know that is never going to happen in the U.S.A. unless I get my own cow. Which will never happen because I hate milking cows or goats. I had to do this on my cousin's farm as a kid and hated it. So, as a grown up I've decided to leave that to someone else.  


Got to go. Have a great day everyone. 


Love,
M


PS: It is Monday so let's all try to make it meatless. You know it is only one damn day out of the week.

Food

Monday last week, I might have mentioned that I was offered a book to review. On The Future of Food is not so much a book as a printed speech. Making it a very small book. Perfect! Since, time has not been my friend these days.

This booklet is an essay adapted from a keynote speech given by the Prince of Wales at The Future of Food Conference at Georgetown University. In his speech he talks about sustainability in food production. Pretty interesting stuff. Something that the Prince said that resonated with me was; "The fact is that food production is part of a wider socioeconomic landscape. We have to recognize that social and economic stability is built upon valuing and supporting local communities and their traditions. Small holder agriculture therefore has a pivotal role."  I couldn't agree more. Supporting small local farms and, growing and storing your own is essential for the health of bodies, the earth and communities. 

I find it very exciting that this idea of growing and storing your own is coming back into vogue. For the longest time we were the only ones we knew that grew and canned our own. As time went by more and more people got on board.

 No matter where JR and I live we put in a small garden. Sometimes all we have room for is tomato plants and herbs in pots but it is enough for us. When we lived on a large plot of land we would grow and can our own produce or buy, straight from the farm, and put by those things that we couldn't grow.

One year we planted our garden in our front yard because that was the sunniest place we had. Vision tomatoes growing next to roses. Our neighbors thought we were nuts until they reaped the benefits of our over abundance.  I come by this grow it where I can mentality honestly; my grandfather dug up the lawn in his back yard to plant a produce garden in his urban St. Louis home. He was urban gardening before it became fashionable. 
 

I learned to can from my mother-in-law, she learned from her mother and so on. I taught 3 of my friends. JR and I went to the library to investigate ways that we could store foods that we couldn't jar up. At one point our basement mechanical room was draped with onions and garlic because it was the best place to dry them out. We had several garbage cans filled with sand and straw to keep carrots, potatoes and root veggies through the winter. Apple cider was frozen in gallon milk jugs that we stored up all year then drank or used to sweeten jams and jellies. 

  

Unlike this photograph, we didn't keep everything in the root cellar. We didn't have a root cellar. I've always wanted a root cellar. Alas, I had to make do with a caning closet in the basement and garbage cans in the garage. Hey, it worked. 

I'd like to encourage all of you to grow your own if you can, buy locally from sustainable farms and jar up, can, or put by (however you like to say it) what you can. And, as always try to eat less meat. Or do as Thomas Jefferson did, eat "meat as a condiment to the vegetables which constitute my principal diet."

Love,

M

Just passing this along.

As most of you know I advocate/evangelize/whatever you want to call it for Meatless Mondays. I think that Americans eat too much meat and too much meat that is not raised sustainable. I'm also big on mindful eating. I could go on and on about this but really you've heard it all before from me.

The other day I received an email from Joey (Joanne but she goes by Joey and since I've hung around (virtually of course) (don't you love parentheses within parentheses?, yeah me too) the Meatless Monday crew for awhile I feel comfortable calling her that. I also developed a burning need to go to NYC to visit their kitchens because I bet they are awesome and I've always wanted to cook in an chefs kitchen. Think they would let me come cook for them some time? Joey? Broad hint at getting an invite.) at Meatless Monday about a book that Grace is coming out with next week and would I be interested in reviewing it. My response was,

"Hi Joey,

I'm a librarian...I never pass up a free book.

thanks,
Michele"

See there is nothing librarians like more than books and free things. So this rung my bell on two levels. Ya gotta love that. But, as a librarian I have to do my homework first. I won't put my name/blog/support behind just anything because they'll give me free stuff (Yes, Albertson's that includes you and your review request for Thanksgiving turkeys. Seriously, did you not read my blog?)

So I looked up Grace and found I liked most of what I saw (I hesitate to say all because I haven't looked at every page on their website. Who has time?). It also led me to Sustainable Table which was even more up my alley because I am nothing if not totally food driven. I took a little time to cherry pick a couple of things that I felt were important enough to me to pass along to you. 

10 Reasons To Learn Sustainable HomeCooking (or: Why It’s Time To Take Back the Plate!)

10 Steps to Eating Sustainable

I particularly liked the buy sustainable search function. I tried it on my zip code but didn't get any results. Then tried I it on the zip code next to mine (covers a wider area of the city) and came up with some cool finds. On the search results page is a Eat Well Guide for travelers. This would be really handy if you are taking a trip. My suggestion to them is make this into a mobile app. I would use that all the time. Even at home.

If you get a chance go check them out. I spent a nice hour wandering around the Sustainable Table site and didn't see/read half of it.

Love,
M

Farmers Market Finds this week

We are very seasonal eaters around here and since our farmers market is open year round it makes meal planning simple. We show up at 8 am, wander through the produce, cheese, bread and meat (We don't buy meat, of course but we do buy eggs at some of the meat vendors. They are the only ones with the duck and turkey eggs) stalls, pick out what looks good and make meals from whatever we pick up. This is one of the best ways to spend a Saturday morning and makes me very happy.

At this time of year herbs and lettuces are plentiful but since I grow my own herbs and I didn't need any lettuce I didn't pick any up. What I did get was all this:

Kale, two colors of beets, green onions, eggs, strawberries, purple cauliflower, three types of mushrooms (crimini, portabella and oyster), cherry tomatoes and green tomatoes. The avocados were not from the farmers market. They were from Costco. I buy them really green so they take a couple of days to ripen up. There is nothing I hate worse than too soft avocados.

First thing I did was roast up the beets.

Aren't they pretty? A little olive oil, some salt and pepper and a handful of tarragon. They were outrageously good. I served them with quinoa and fried green tomato stacks. If I could go back and eat Saturday night dinner again I would. I do have to say that it all made for some wonderful leftover baked eggs breakfast the next day.

These green tomatoes were ideal for fried green tomato stacks. I simply breaded them, fried them in olive oil, sandwiched a quarter inch slice of cheve goat cheese between two of them and let them stay warm in the oven while everything else was finishing up. Yum! I still have a couple of uncooked tomatoes left so I think those will become part of a pasta free veggie lasagna.

I used the mushrooms last night in a ragout. Something we love and is very versatile. The leftovers will make their way into the lasagna along with the kale also. Have I mentioned that I am a leftover aficionado? Leftovers, if there are any, rarely go bad in my refrigerator. They get used in creative ways. I have a thing against refrigerator science projects.

The cherry tomatoes are so sweet that we are eating them like candy. The strawberries are a little under-ripe but still good. By next week the strawberries will be perfect. So I'll buy more.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the purple cauliflower but it was so pretty I couldn't resist it. I thought about making Jan's cauliflower bisque but Jason (a commenter) tried it and says it turned out an ugly gray color. I think I'll just steam it up.


So that was part of my weekend. The other part I'll talk about tomorrow. How was your weekend? Anything exciting?

Love,
M

PS: It's Monday. Try to commit one day to eating meatless.

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

Herb-baked Eggs - Meatless Monday

Awhile back Jan posted that her family of 3 goes through approximately 4 dozen eggs per week. We are not quite the over-achievers that they are but we use what I consider a more than respectable amount of eggs, about 2-1/2 to 3 dozen for the 4 of us. One of Jan's points (and correct me if I'm wrong, Jan) in her post were that eggs get a bad rap. And, I couldn't agree more.  We love eggs and I cook them in about hundred different ways and add them to a ton of recipes. They are one of the most versatile protein sources around.

We buy our eggs from at the local farmers market. Sure, we pay more per dozen but the taste is so much better, they are typically bigger so you can use less and the chickens are not treated with antibiotics and hormones. They are raised in a pasture where they eat the things that chickens are supposed to eat; bugs, weeds and seeds. This is the same way that we raised our chickens when we raised chickens. I don't want to get all animals rights activist on all of you but factory farming anything, chickens, ducks, turkeys, beef, whatever, is BAD! It's bad for you, bad for the environment and bad for the animals. End.of.rant.

One of our favorite ways to have eggs is baked. JR likes them because they are flavorful. Me too but I also like them this way because they are easy and clean up is a breeze. Not that I do a lot of the clean up around our place. I cook, JR cleans. It's a deal we worked out long ago and I'm not upsetting that apple cart. 


Now to the recipe. I've adapted this from an Ina Garten cookbook but you can find it in any of a number of cookbooks. I mix up the herbs, I cook them on a bed of creamed spinach (I love me some creamed spinach. Yes Jan, I will still eat creamed spinach on a flip flop, that's how much I love it.), I will bake them on a layer of grilled peppers and onions with jack cheese and taco spices. So this is, once again, not really a recipe as a technique. You can change up any one of the ingredients to make it what you want to eat that day. Be creative! (yes, I once told a student to do that much to my chagrin later. I should really know better.)

Herb-baked Eggs

1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
6 eggs
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper


Pre-heat broiler for 5 minutes or so. Place oven rack approximately 6 inches below heat.


Combine herbs and garlic, Chop very fine. Add Parmesan cheese to this mixture. Set aside.
Crack 3 eggs into a small bowl. Repeat with the other 3 eggs. These are not the bowls that you will be cooking the eggs in. This just speeds the process of transferring the eggs into the baking dishes.  


Divide heavy cream and butter into two baking dishes*. Place under broiler until hot and bubbly. Carefully pour 3 of the eggs into one baking dish, sprinkle 1/2 of the herb-cheese mixture over the eggs, return to the oven. Do the same thing with the remaining 3 eggs and herb-cheese mixture.


Cook for about 5 to 6 minutes so that the whites are almost completely set. Move the dishes around to cook the eggs evenly if needed. Take out and let sit for a minute or two. The eggs will continue to cook. Serve in the dishes that you cooked them in. Just be careful that you don't burn yourself (why yes, I have done this before.)


* I've been known to cook the whole works in a medium sized cast iron pan, then serve it up with a big spoon. Hey, it may not be pretty but it tastes the same.


Want another baked egg recipe? Check out Jan's.



So the technique part of this is to
1. lay a bed of fat and flavor (the cream and butter, creamed spinach, grilled peppers and olive oil), 
2. warm it up, 
3. layer in the eggs, 
4. top with seasoning and cheese. 
5. Bake. 
6. Eat. 
7. Enjoy the flavor and the low-carb benefits. FYI, the toast in the picture was for JR.


As you all know I'm doing a low-carb vegetarian thing in order to bring down my A1c hemoglobin numbers. I'd like to report that it is working. Where I was 6.2; .2 away from being consider a diabetic, I am now at 5.6, which is within the standard range. Losing weight was just a bonus. I've even splurged on some pasta and pizza every now and again but I have a couple of rules about this. I can only have off limit items when; 
1. I haven't had very many carbs for the day. 
2. only when it is really good home-made pasta and gourmet pizza, because why bother if it's not? 
3. I limit my serving size of the bad stuff and fill up with extra helpings of good stuff.


Try baking your eggs for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I think you'll love them. Have you got a go-to egg recipe?


Love,
M


PS: the photo was taken straight out of the camera because the laptop that my photo editing software is on died.I'm bummed. It has been feeling sick lately but I'd been babying it along. This week it breathed its last. So I'm on the hunt for another one. This little mini just doesn't cut it.

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