Amazing Meals

Marvelous Refried Beans

2011-09-05T08:00:00.001-06:00

I learned to make these beans from my friend and neighbor, Lori. She insisted when I called here that the way of preparing them was too simple to even be called a recipe. I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I serve these, because they are so incredibly easy and yet they taste incredibly good. And they come off looking like you slaved over them for hours.

All you'll need is a couple of cans of pinto beans. The number of cans you need depends on the number of people you're serving. Lori recommends one can per three people. We have been known to stretch it a little beyond that, say one can per four or five people. But use your judgment based on the appetites you're feeding. Drain about half of the liquid off of the beans, until the liquid that is running off is cloudy rather than clear.

I like to sautee a little onion and garlic in a little vegetable oil before I add the beans to the sauce pan. Once they are clear (but not necessarily brown), add the beans. Cook them until they are warmed through. Then smash them with a potato masher until they are not completely broken down (you want a few whole or partially whole beans for effect). Then add salsa to taste; I usually stir in 1/3 to 1/2 cup.

Keep the beans on a low simmer until you're ready to serve them. I usually stir in a bit of grated cheese and then top it with cheese in the serving bowl.

Greek Salad

2011-08-28T14:10:00.001-06:00

This recipe is such a favorite that I'm shocked I've never posted it before. This was our Sunday afternoon lunch today. I don't remember how I discovered Greek salad, but it is one of the best things in the late summer tomato season (right up there with tomato sandwiches, tomato tarts, and bruschetta. It's dreadfully easy to make, can be modified at least three different ways, and almost everyone likes it. It's also pretty healthy. What more could you want?

I've listed the standard recipe here. Obviously, avocados are a great addition. A few sweet or red onion slices dress it up a little bit as well. I've eaten in in Greek restaurants with torn lettuce pieces. I prefer it on the simpler side, but one of the many beautiful things about this salad is that you can modify it any way you want.

Greek Salad
4-5 roma tomatoes, diced in chunks
2-3 cucumbers, peeled and diced into chunks
2-3 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
2-3 tablespoons of your favorite vinagrette salad dressing (today we used Bernstein's Cheese Fantastico; when we use that dressing I like to add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Newman's Own balsamic vinagrette is also delightful)
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and serve. You'll want to serve it in a bowl, as it gets quite juicy after a few minutes. That juice is especially delicious sopped up on a piece of crusty bread.

Coconut Chicken Curry

2011-04-20T08:00:00.002-06:00

Today's post is a recipe I discovered on a favorite of the blogs I follow, My Kitchen Cafe. It's practical and yummy, all at the same time.

I love a good curry, but haven't been especially successful at making them at home. For some reason, the finished product never seems like it's good enough to justify the time invested. But this recipe is a glorious exception. It's relatively simple and exquisitely delicious. It's universally loved at our house. And I hope you love the odor as much as we do, because it will hang around the house for several days. We just look at it as one of the positive by-products of making the meal.

Mel, the author of My Kitchen Cafe, suggests taking the recipe to the simmer phase early in the day and then pouring it in the crockpot to finish on low for four to five hours. I think this is a lovely idea, but it would require thinking four or five hours ahead, which often does not happen when I'm in charge of the meal. We serve it over jasmine rice with any kind of Asian or vegetable sides that suit your fancy.

Coconut Chicken Curry
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch chunks or strips
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons curry powder (we are especially fond of Penzey's sweet curry, which a thoughtful friend shared with us)
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika (substitute cayenne if you want it hotter; we don't)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves minced garlic
4 medium red potatoes, cut into chunks
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, Italian style
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
3 tablespoons of sugar (no wonder it is good)

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Heat the oil, curry powder, and paprika in a large skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat for two minutes, until fragrant but not burned. Turn the heat up to medium and stir in the onions and garlic; cook 7-9 minutes or so until the onions are very clear. Add the chicken, tossing lightly to coat with the curry oil and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink and is cooked through or nearly cooked through (it will continue to simmer in the next step). Add potatoes, coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato sauce and sugar into the pan. Stir to combine. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30-40 minutes. The sauce thickens slightly upon standing. Serve with jasmine or brown rice.

The Secret to Cooking Jasmine Rice

2011-04-14T08:00:00.012-06:00

I'm not making an obscene gesture to the rice. I'm showing the secret to cooking jasmine rice.

We discovered soon after we bought a 50 pound bag of jasmine rice that the proportion of water to rice required in the rice cooker was different than say, Japanese rice. Our friend Michelle and her mom insisted that if you put your middle finger on top of the rice and then fill with water until it reaches the first knuckle, the rice will turn out just right.

I don't know how it works; I realize that people have vastly different finger sizes and that the measurement seems to require a great deal of subjective judgment. But it works. We've had perfect jasmine rice every time I've done it this way.

That's it. That's the secret.

Chicken Adobo

2011-04-08T21:00:00.001-06:00

Chicken Adobo is a Filipino classic. We've tried making it many different ways; one of the most fun efforts was when our friend Michelle and her mom, who is from the Philippines, came over to teach us their method. We made a huge pot of adobo along with many other tasty treats.

This recipe is a slight modificiation of the one Michelle taught us. I have to warn you that it will smell up your house for quite a few days with a potent aroma. But it's fairly simple, exceptionally delicious and also quite inexpensive.

Chicken Adobo
(Makes 6 main dish servings)

12 bone-in chicken thighs (I take the skin off because it's healthier and also because I don't think there's anything quite so creepy as boiled chicken skin on your plate)
2 cups soy sauce
1 cup white vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
4 teaspoons minced garlic
3 bay leaves
1 large onion, sliced in large slices
fresh ground black pepper to taste (other recipes we've tried call for whole peppercorns; one thing I like about this recipe is that you don't have to pick out the pepper corns).
Trim skin and excess fat from chicken. Put chicken in single layer in heavy pan. Mix other ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on very low simmer for 1/2 hour, then turn chicken and cook additional 1/2 hour. Remove chicken and place on broiler tray or in shallow glass casserole which will fit under your broiler.

Strain liquid to remove onion pieces and bay leaves. Drain off as much fat as possible, using a fat seperater if you have one. After fat is removed, boil down the liquid until the sauce is thick enough to barely coat your spoon.

Preheat the broiler. Put chicken under broiler for 5-10 minutes. Turn and broil the other side another 5-10 minutes (depending on how hot your broiler gets). Serve immediately.

Baked Potato Soup

2011-03-25T17:51:00.000-06:00

This is not the healthiest recipe you'll ever make. But it's luxuriously delicious, and it's not as fat-filled as it looks.

The name says it all--this soup tastes just like a loaded baked potato, primarily because it has all of the same ingredients. We tried this for the first time a few months ago, and it has quickly become a family favorite. And if you bake the potatoes ahead of time, it's a pretty quick meal as well.

I combined a couple of recipes I found online to create my own version. It serves 6 to 8 generously.

Baked Potato Soup
4 baked potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 pound bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled (reserve a couple of tablespoons for topping)
3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup flour
7 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
4 green onions, sliced thin, with a couple of tablespoons of them reserved for topping
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, grated (reserve a couple of tablespoons for topping)
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a large pot or dutch oven. Whisk in the flour until completely mixed, breaking up any lumps. Slowly add the milk, stirring into the butter mixture gradually. Bring to a simmer and let cook on low for about ten minutes, until soup is thick and bubbly, stirring frequently. Add the potatoes, green onions, sour cream, salt, pepper and cheese, reserving some of the bacon, onions and cheese for topping. Cook over low heat until well heated, about ten minutes. Sprinkle each serving with cheese, onion and bacon.

Chile Verde

2011-01-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

I know that those of you who are still hanging around thought I was gone for good. But I'm back. At least for a minute.

This recipe was so easy that I didn't think there was any way it could taste good. I found it on Food.com when I was looking for a way to use a pork loin roast in my freezer. I was taken in by the easiness of it and figured we would choke it down somehow. It had the very romantic name of Crock Pot Mexican Pork., promising that it's "a low-fat way to serve Mexican." Now if that doesn't entice you to make it, I don't know what will!

In the meantime, I should tell you that one of Bob's specialty dishes is called Chile Verde. He has spent years acquiring the recipe and adapting it to perfection; when he makes it, it seems like he slaves for hours. And the result is truly amazing. He often makes a very large batch because he knows we'll want more.

Back to my story. I am not kidding when I say that I made this dish in five minutes in the morning before I went to work. I was late. I had forgotten that it needed to be done. So I threw it all in the crock pot and wondered what else we could eat for dinner if it didn't turn out (but at least I wouldn't feel guilty about the unused roast in the freezer anymore).

When I came home after work that night, my daughter Sara said, "I didn't know you knew how to make chile verde." I quickly insisted that it was a different dish. But even I had to admit that it smelled an awful lot like Bob's chile verde. Later, we discovered that, except for not having any potatoes in it, it tasted an awful lot like chile verde. So I've named it after Bob's famous dish, even though we all recognize and accept that it's just Mom's emergency substitute.

Chile Verde
1 pound boneless pork loin roast, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 20-ounce jar salsa (I used Pace mild)
4 ounces chopped green chiles,drained
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

In a 4-quart slow cooker, mix together the pork, salsa and green chiles. Cover and cook on low for six to eight hours or until pork is tender. The original recipe calls for 1 can of black beans, which you can add to the slow cooker, turning the stew up to high and heating for five to ten minutes. I didn't add the beans, because we as a family do not necessarily agree on which kind of beans we prefer.

The recipe also calls for sprinkling the stew with the cheese. We ate it with tortillas, with the cheese and a little squirt of sour cream on top. We ate it all, and we'll make it again!

Tomato-Basil-Parmesan Soup

2010-11-15T08:00:00.002-07:00

This recipe came to me from my friend Jennifer, who saw it in a magazine and gave it a try. She was amazed by how well it went over with her teenage boys; I was amazed at how much my family liked it, given that it has no meat in it. It's perfect for a cold night. The aroma alone makes it worth the effort.

Tomato-Basil-Parmesan Soup
2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup finely diced celery
1 cup finely diced carrots
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup finely diced onions
1/2 bay leaf (I took a walk on the wild side and used a whole one)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano (you can substitute 1 teaspoon of dry oregano)
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped (you can substitute 1 tablespoon of dried basil, but I think you'll probably regret it)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup parmesan cheese
2 cups half and half, warmed
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

In a large slow cooker, combine tomatoes, celery, carrots, chicken broth, onions, bay leaf, oregano, and basil (if you're using dried herbs, add them an hour before serving instead). Cover adn cook on low for 5 to 7 hours until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

About an hour before serving, prepare a roux: Melt butter over low heat in a skillet and add flour; stir constantly with a whisk for 5 to 7 minutes. Slowly stir in 1 cup of hot soup from the slow cooker. Add another 3 cups of soup and stir until smooth.

Add the soup and flour mixture back into the slow cooker. Stir and add parmesan cheese, warmed half and half, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for another hour until ready to serve.

This recipe has an amazing combination of flavors. Some of the kids were a little freaked out by the chunks of vegetables, though. I tried an experiment with the leftovers that made the soup more elegant: I pureed everything in the blender until it was smooth and creamy. It made for a lovely soup:

Coconut Cream Pie

2010-11-12T08:00:00.001-07:00

I have to confess that this recipe is straight out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. But it's a classic that we make over and over again. I justify putting it here because it's written in the BC Cookbook as a variation of banana cream pie; therefore, following the directions is always a little tricky for me.

My own finishing touch is the toasted coconut on top. Toast a few tablespoons by putting it under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Check it frequently and toss it when it starts turning light brown. Be careful; it burns quickly and then won't have the desired effect on your pie.

Coconut Cream Pie
1 pie crust, unbaked
4 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup flaked coconut
1 cup sweetened whipped cream (1 cup heavy cream beaten to stiff peaks with 2 teaspoons sugar)

Bake the pie crust. In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks with fork; set aside. in a 2-quart saucepan, mix sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minutes. Be sure it's really boiling when you start timing the minute. Otherwise you'll end up with a gooey mess that will taste good but not look pretty.

Immediately stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into the egg yolks, then stir back into hot mixture in saucepan. Don't skip this step and try putting the egg yolks straight into the custard; you'll end up with little fragments of scrambled eggs in your pie, which tastes fine but, again, isn't very pretty. Ask me how I know this.

Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter, vanilla and coconut; cool filling slightly (this is another step that I believe makes a difference in whether the pie sets up properly, although I have limited empirical evidence). Pour filling into the pie crust. Press plastic wrap on filling to prevent a tough layer from forming on top. Refrigerate at least two hours until set. Top the pie with sweetened whipped cream and toasted coconut.

Lo Mein

2010-11-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

In my never-ending quest for easy meals that are also tasty, I came across this little gem. It's originally from Rachael Ray, although I've modified it just a bit here. Lo mein is without a doubt Bob's favorite Chinese entree, and he usually makes a more elaborate version. But even he gave this one a thumbs up (each of us agrees that dinner always tastes better if the other person cooked it).

I was surprised to find that the 30 minute prep time estimated in the recipe is actually pretty accurate--15 minutes for chopping and making the sauce and another 15 minutes for cooking it and putting it together. I think this was universally popular at our house, and is destined to be a regular on our menu.

Lo Mein
Sauce:
3 rounded tablespoons hoisin sauce (you'll find it in the Asian section of your grocery store)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons of water
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (Sriracha sauce is a Vietnamese hot sauce. It's very hot, but I felt it should be used in this recipe because it is, afterall, Asian food. The original recipe just said hot sauce and called for 2 teaspoons. I put in 1/2 teaspoon and it was a little too hot for us. So proceed at your own risk; tabasco sauce is somewhat more mellow than Sriracha, so you might want to add a little more, depending on your tastes).

Noodles:
1 16-ounce package of spaghetti (this was one of the things I loved most about the recipe; no bewildered looks from the staff at the Asian market when I asked them what kind of noodles I needed for lo mein. I already had maybe 20 pounds of it in my basement!)
1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided
2 large eggs, beaten
3 chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced into strips
Black pepper
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 inches fresh ginger, chopped or grated
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 green onions, cut into 3-inch lengths then sliced lengthwise
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped (the recipe calls for shitakes; we don't care for shitakes all that much so I used regular button mushrooms)
1 red bell pepper, cut into quarters, seeded, the sliced
1/2 pound shredded cabbage

Directions
Mix together sauce ingredients and reserve.

Bring pasta water to a boil, ad a little salt and cook spaghetti according to package directions.

While noodles cook, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large, nonstick skillet over high heat. WHen oil ripples, add beaten eggs and scramble them to light golden brown. Remove and reserve.

Season the meat with salt, pepper and coriander. Heat the remaining vegetable oil to a ripple, then add meat and stir-fry 4 minutes. Push meat to the side and add ginger, garlic and veggies. Stir-fry veggies 2 minutes, then drain and add pasta and eggs back intothe skillet. Pour sauce over the spaghetti and toss to combine. Turn off pan. Toss 30 seconds and let the liquids absorb.

A couple of notes: the original recipe calls for 3 thin cut pork chops, thinly sliced into strips. I think this would be delicious and would make it a heartier meal. I didn't include it in my version this time.

Also, we've found that powdered ginger works every bit as well as fresh ginger, but the fresh ginger will make your house smell great, so it might be worth the few cents and few minutes it takes to use it.

Kirkland Brand Mayonnaise

2010-11-05T08:00:00.001-06:00

By now I'm sure you're convinced that we never shop anywhere but Costco. And you would be almost correct.

I've posted before about the vast quantities of mayonnaise consumed at our house. Traditionally we have purchased the gallon-size Kraft brand at Costco because it was cheap. We have looked at the Best Foods brand right next to it with longing in our eyes, dreaming of the day when we would be rich and have fewer children to feed. Do we really think we'll be buying mayonnaise by the gallon when there are just two of us at home? If we do we'll have to also be buying some much bigger pants to wear.

Recently Bob spotted this dream come true in the mayonnaise aisle at Costco. It is a) of about the same quality and texture as the Best Foods brand and b) cheaper than Kraft. We are in Mayonnaise heaven.

Split Pea and Ham Soup

2010-11-03T08:00:00.001-06:00

I hated split pea soup as a kid. Or I hated the idea of it. The only place I actually saw it was in the school cafeteria where it looked like something that was fairly unappetizing. It was canned. Overcooked. Pureed to death. Ugly.

As an adult, I find split pea soup comforting. It's a perfect way to use leftover ham. And while you have to start a little in advance, it's simple to put together.

I've discovered two keys to making this soup delicious instead of disgusting. First, don't cook it too long. Most recipes will tell you to leave it in the crock pot all day. Don't believe them. Four or five hours cooking on low will be plenty of time for the peas to soften. Add the vegetables even later than that, maybe one or two hours before you plan to serve the soup. Otherwise you'll get mush. I also like to add a cup or so of small diced ham a half hour or so before it's done for a little extra flavor.

Second, be sure there is enough liquid in the soup. Dry split pea soup has a heavy, mud-like texture that is hard to choke down. Well hydrated soup is a joy to eat. Trust me.

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

9 cups water
1 (16 ounce) package dried split peas, rinsed and sorted (2-1/4 Cups)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices (1-1/2 Cups)
2 stalks celery, finely chopped (1 Cup)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 ham bone or 2 lbs ham shanks or smoked pork hocks

Mix peas, ham bone and water in a five quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours or until peas are starting to become tender. Add vegetables an hour or two before the soup is done. When the peas are soft, remove the ham bone and pull any cooked ham away from the bone. Add it back into the soup and serve.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2010-11-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

My kids go crazy for peanut butter cookies. If you want to drive them really wild, put a few chocolate chips in. For years I tried to find the perfect PB cookie recipe with no success; they were dry and hard as hockey pucks. I went to my friend Kip for advice and he posted this little gem.

Chunky peanut butter works best in these cookies; for this batch I was forced to use creamy and tried dressing them up with some chopped peanuts. Next time I'll go back to the chunky stuff.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter (I like to use chunky peanut butter, but that's just a personal preference)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in scant 1/3 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat in egg. Then add water and baking soda with the dry ingredients. Roll the dough into balls and bake at 350-375 degrees until done (about 12-13 minutes).

You can tell these are done when they're golden brown but still a little gooey. They'll cook a little more after you take them out of the oven. You want them slightly underdone in order to preserve the soft cookie goodnes.

Ham Stacks

2010-10-29T17:35:00.002-06:00

Here's another fairly simple sandwich-as-a-meal idea. It's pretty involved for a sandwich, but is robust enough for dinner (and is easy in comparison to most other evening meals). Forgive the crumbs. Somehow at the time I thought they would make the sandwich in the photo look oh-so-appetizing.

This is another idea Bob gleaned from one of the many restaurants where he has worked. You will need the following ingredients:

Sliced French bread (we usually buy it from Costco, but you could also use Texas Toast or any other thick-sliced, fluffy bread)

Softened butter (we find that magic butter is perfect for this)

A small amount of grated parmesan cheese (we use 1/2 to 3/4 cup to make sandwiches for all of us, but you may require far less)

Deli sliced ham (we buy black forest hams and slice them ourselves, but you can just as easily ask the deli to shave it for you). You'll need about 1/8th of a pound or maybe just a little more per sandwich; I actually weigh it out on our kitchen scale and measure about 2/10ths of a pound per sandwich

Sliced Swiss cheese

Sliced tomatoes

Clean, torn lettuce leaves

Homemade thousand island dressing

You'll find that the method for making this sandwich has many similarities to our BFB recipe.

1. Butter one side of each slice of bread. It probably goes without saying, but you'll want two slices per sandwich. Sprinkle a bit of grated parmesan cheese on top of the butter and press it into the butter so it will stick (I use the back side of a small metal spatula to do it). For an example of what this should look like, see here. Set the bread aside for a few minutes.

2. Put the ham into small "stacks" or piles, portioned for each sandwich. Set the stacks aside.

3. Put the bread slices cheese side down on a hot griddle (I usually set it at 350 degrees). Let them cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the griddle and set aside.

4. Put the ham stacks on the griddle and let them cook until they turn ever so slightly brown. Then flip them over (keeping the stacks intact) and place a slice of Swiss cheese on top. The cheese should more or less cover the ham. Leave on the griddle until the cheese has melted, then carefully remove, keeping the ham and cheese in their "stack" formation.

5. Assemble the sandwiches. The cheesy side of the bread goes to the outside; place the ham on the inside of one slice of bread and the lettuce and tomato on the other side. Drizzle with homemade thousand island dressing (see below).

Don't be intimidated by the homemade dressing. It takes no more than five minutes to make, and includes ingredients that you are almost certain to have in the fridge. We usually put all of the makings on the counter and let everyone make their own. Here's the dressing recipe:

Thousand Island Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
1 teaspoon finely minced white onions
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 dash black pepper

Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir well. Place dressing in a covered container and refrigerate for several hours, stirring occasionally so that the sugar dissolves and the flavors blend.

Roasted Broccoli

2010-10-27T08:00:00.001-06:00

I never thought that I would find a brocoli dish that my kids can't get enough of. But this is it. No matter how much of it I make, they're always left wanting more.

Part of the problem is that the broccoli shrinks up quite a bit. I start out with what seems like ridiculous amounts of florets and by the time they're cooked, it looks like almost nothing. So think big. You'll love this side dish.

Roasted Broccoli

A great deal of broccoli florets (I, of course, buy the large bag from Costco and use as much as 1/3 of the bag at a sitting)

A little bit of olive oil (2-3 tablespoons for a large amount of broccoli; go slowly. You don't want to over do the olive oil or it will make your final product mushy).

Whatever herbs or spices you feel inclined to add. I usually add about a clove of minced garlic and some salt and pepper.

2-3 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle the olive oil over the broccoli in a large bowl. Toss with the seasonings until the broccoli is evenly coated with oil and seasonings. Spread out evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for ten minutes, then remove from the office and toss again. Return to the oven for another ten minutes, or until the broccoli is slightly browned. It should be a little bit crisp. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with grated parmesan; serve it while it's hot.

Pasta Carbonara

2010-10-25T20:32:00.001-06:00

A disclaimer: This is not the pasta carbonara I learned to make in Italy. That pasta carbonara was basically scrambled eggs and bacon over pasta. Don't get me wrong; it still has a special place in my heart. This version, a recipe I learned from Bob, is a fancier and more indulgent sister. It's a family favorite. It's rich enough to just be an occasional treat, but it's delicious enough that you'll want to make it again and again.

Did I mention that it's also pretty easy to put together?

Pasta Carbonara
8 slices of bacon, diced
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
½ pound of mushrooms (12), quartered
1 package of spaghetti noodles (8 servings)
1 pint of heavy cream
1 cup grated parmesan
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Cook the bacon until crisp; drain. Add the green onion slices and mushrooms and sauté into butter (we usually reserve a few green onion slices for a garnish). Add heavy cream, parmesan, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until thick. Toss the drained noodles in the carbonara sauce. Top with a little grated parmesan and sliced green onions.Serves 8.

Salsa with an Edge

2010-10-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

There's snow on the top of our tallest local mountain tonight. We know that our warm fall won't last long, and the tomatoes will freeze any day now. Here's a recipe for one last gasp of good weather. I found it a few years ago in Cooking Light magazine. It's a fun combination of flavors, even if it does require remarkable amounts of chopping.

I've made this with any number of different fruits. Peaches are very tasty, but a little sloppy. Apples add a nice crunch and are oh-so-very tidy. This is a salsa with a little bit of everything--sweet, savory, hot, you name it. It's great with Fritos or tortilla chips.

Salsa With and Edge
2-3 chopped Roma tomatoes
1 cup chopped Granny Smith apples (or use mangoes, pears, peaches, or other fruit)
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 cup fresh corn kernals
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped, seeded jalapeno pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients, stirring well to combine. Serve at room temperature or chilled. Makes 4 1/2 cups.

Chicken Bow Tie Pasta Salad

2010-10-07T08:00:00.003-06:00

You won't believe how good this salad tastes. My friend Amy brought some by one day for me to try. It was heavenly! Bob and I opened it for just a taste late that night; I was planning to take it to work for lunch the next day. By the time we finished tasting, the salad was half gone. I've made it several times since.

This recipe makes enough for a crowd. We served it at a recent family party and it was a huge hit. We actually enjoyed two very similar versions at two family parties in a row. My aunt made a salad very similar to this for my mom's 80th birthday party, but omitted the chicken and substituted the almonds with cashews. Both version left people wanting more.

Chicken Bow Tie Pasta Salad

4 cups diced chicken
2 Tablespoons green onion
¾ teaspoon pepper
2 cups bowtie pasta
1 8 oz. bottle Kraft Cole slaw dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
Dash of thyme
Pinch of ginger
Mix the above ingredients and refrigerate overnight or move on to the next step immediately.

Add:
1 cup diced celery
2 cups halved red grapes
1 20-ounce can pineapple tidbits, drained
2 cups apples, diced (Amy recommends one golden delicious apple and one Fuji apple)
¾ cup slivered almonds

Toss lightly and serve. This recipe makes a large quantity, but it also holds up very well for several days.

Ginger Cookies

2010-10-04T08:00:00.001-06:00

To me this is a perfect fall cookie recipe. The spice reminds me of harvest time somehow, and even the color is right for the season. This recipe comes from my friend Kip (see here), and as his headline suggests, they are big and soft. They have a lovely ginger snap flavor, but are much more luxurious to eat.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
¼ cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven.

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Yields approximately 24 cookies.

Clam Spaghetti

2010-10-02T08:00:00.002-06:00

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that putting this dish together is easier than opening a bottle of Ragu.

This pasta dish has a very light flavor (except for the somewhat copious amounts of garlic). It's a lighter pasta than either red sauces or cream sauces--just perfect for the end of a busy day.

Clam Spaghetti

2 Tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
2 six-ounce cans minced clams, undrained
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
8 ounces spaghetti, cooked and drained

Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add onion; saute until it's transparent. Add the garlic and saute until it turns brown (but before it turns bitter). Add salt and pepper. Add clams and white wine; simmer for 4-5 minutes. Toss with hot spaghetti and top with parmesand cheese.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

2010-09-30T20:30:00.002-06:00

This is a crowd-pleasing appetizer that we've discovered just in the last few months. It's very easy to make, which is a good thing because it will get scarfed up quickly. The recipe is originally from one of those Betty Crocker cook book pamphlets that you pick up on your way through the grocery check out; I used to do a lot of work at General Mills and acquired a large collection of them that way. The original recipe called for a little crab added to the recipe. I forgot about the crab the first time I made it and didn't miss it, so I haven't added it since. The original recipe also called for frozen spinach (a ten-ounce box). I am much more likely to have fresh spinach on hand than frozen, so I just put in a few handfuls of fresh spinach until the colors (spinach vs. artichoke) look balanced.

Spinach Artichoke Dip
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
2-3 cups fresh spinach
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese (I think I usually use a combination of the two)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix mayonnaise and parmesan cheese in a medium bowl. Stir in artichoke hearts and spinach. Stir in most of the remaining cheese, reserving a little bit to sprinkle on top as a garnish.

Spoon into a medium-sized baking dish (about 1 quart). Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

We've tried eating this with a variety of crackers, chips, etc. I think our hands down favorite is some lightly toasted baguette slices.

Jearlene's Brownies

2010-09-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

Of all of our many brownie recipes, this is a favorite standard. It's full of chocolatey goodness. We usually frost these, but left them unfrosted in this photo because we were (of course) topping them with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. And we do have our limits.

This recipe came to us from my childhood friend, Jearlene.

Jearlene’s Brownies

1 c. butter or margarine
¾ c. cocoa
4 eggs, beaten
2 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 1/3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
½ t. salt

In large saucepan, melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa until smooth. Blend in eggs, sugar and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients; mix well. Bake in greased 13” x 9” pan at 350 degrees for 32 to 35 minutes until done.

Frosting

¼ c. butter
1 t. vanilla
2-3 c. powdered sugar
5 T. cocoa
¼ c. milk

Blend butter, vanilla, sugar, cocoa and milk until smooth. Spread over hot brownies. Cool and serve.

Yummy Spice Cake

2010-09-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

There's nothing like a spice cake for comfort. After looking high and low, and adapting here and there, we've finally settled on this recipe as a favorite. It's rich and moist and just says "home." As an added bonus, it's awfully easy to make. But remember, I never said it was healthy!

Yummy Spice Cake
2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients, including the pineapple juice, and mix thoroughly. Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely and frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 cube butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients together and beat with a mixer unto smooth and creamy.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

2010-09-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

This post is really more of a pitch for a new favorite cookbook than it is a recipe. But I'll include a recipe below.

A few months ago our friends Steve and Laura stopped by late one evening. They brought with them the most stunning loaf of bread. They related how some friends had taught them to make the bread using the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Being the frugal and conservative soul that I am, I found the book at the library and tried it out. It was instant love. Our family loves homemade bread, and we have long dreamed of making the kind of bread you find in Italian bakeries. This book proved just the ticket.

I've settled into a couple of favorite recipes, although I'm sure I'll eventually try others. For the most part, this book lives up to its title: you can mix up the bread, let it raise for a couple of hours, and then either bake it immediately or store it in the fridge for use a few days later. Or, since the recipe makes a large quantity even by our family's standards, you can do both. I often make an initial batch on Sunday and then bake the rest later in the week. Here's what the pre-baked product looks like:

And yes, having a pizza peel and a pizza stone really helps.

To be clear, I ordered the book through Amazon not long after it was due at the library. The recipe below is for peasant bread. In the book it's listed as roasted garlic potato bread; I made it with roasted garlic the first time, but wasn't awed by the results. Now I make it without and (gasp!) use instant potatoes.

Roasted Garlic Potato Bread
From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
By Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup mashed potato
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I confess that I usually use the pure white stuff)
Cornmeal for the pizza peel

1. Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and mashed potatoes with the water in a 5-quart bowl or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2. Mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon or a 14-cup capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with dough hook). If you're not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3. Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses or flattens on top, approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 7 days.

5. On baking day, dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour adn quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel for 1 hour (or just 40 minutes if you're using fresh, un-refrigerated dough).

6. Twenty minutes before baking time, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone placed on the middle rack of the oven. Place a broiler tray for water on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.

7. Sprinkle the loaf liberally with flour and slash a cross, "scallop," or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife. Leave the flour in place for baking; tap some of it off before eating.

8. Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until deeply brown and firm. Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time.

Allow to cool before slicing or eating.

Chunky Blonde Brownies

2010-09-06T18:59:00.000-06:00

We're big brownie fans. Not necessarily because we like our brownies large (although, truth be told, that's probably more right than wrong). But we like brownies of all kinds. When we want to mix things up a little bit we try these blonde brownies as an alternative to classic chocolate brownies. Even Bob, who claims not to like blonde brownies, likes these.

I think the recipe is originally from Taste of Home. I found it on a now-unknown website and have modified it slightly based on the ingredients we tend to have on hand. I've found that this recipe is especially popular with kids, but everyone likes it with vanilla ice cream on top.

Chunky Blonde Brownies
Makes about 24 brownies, unless you cut them very large

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 - 1 cup chopped walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to the butter and sugar mixture and blend well.

Stir in the white chocolate chips, semi-sweet chips and the nuts. Spoon into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan and spread evenly over the bottom. Sprinkle with any remaining nuts.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Veggie Lasagna

2010-08-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

This recipe was a gift from my friend Jen. And I really mean that. I had heard her talk about her love for veggie lasagna for a few years and finally mustered the courage to ask her for the recipe. The result has been true love.

At least it has been for a little more than half of our family. We usually only make this during the summer because that's when all of the required vegetables are growing in our back yard (okay, at least many of them). Several of our children say they perfer this version of lasagna to its more traditional sister. The rest of the kids like it well enough to eat it without complaining.

I've found that you can mix up the combination of vegetables quite a bit. For example, you'll notice that the photo above shows off the spinach I included. If I don't have spinach, I leave it out (although including it is my preferance). It's also prettier with summer squash and zucchini because of the color differences (the same is true for multi-colored peppers). But I've also made it with whatever I happened to have on hand and it's delicious.

Vegetable Lasagna

2 medium bell peppers, thinly sliced
2 medium zucchini sliced (I have sliced them both lengthwise and cross wise. I am still undecided about which method I prefer).
1 medium onion sliced
½ pound mushrooms cleaned and sliced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Freshly ground pepper to taste
9 lasagna noodles
1-2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce ( Jen always uses Prego Italian sausage; I use whatever is stockpiled in my basement that was on sale for $1, usually Ragu traditional. It is sacreligious, I know, but I also sometimes sneak in about 1/2 pound of cooked sausage).

For the veggies: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put cut vegetables in a large bowl. Use olive oil, salt, seasonings, pepper and salt. Mix until the vegetables are lightly and evenly coated. Spray a jelly roll pan with cooking spray and spread veggies on it evenly. Bake for a total of 20 minutes (I usually take them out at the ten minute mark to toss them for more even roasting.

While veggies are in the oven, cook the noodles according to package directions. Reduce oven to 400 degrees. Spread a bit of the sauce on the bottom of pan then layer noodles, sauce, veggies, cheese. You will end up with three layers. Bake uncovered at 400 for 20-25 minutes. Let stand for 10 before cutting.

Pasta Salad

2010-07-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

I think it's fair to say that this photo doesn't do the salad justice. But use your imagination.

I invented this salad back in my older single days. It was great for potlucks and other social gatherings. It's evolved under Bob's influence. I believe I used to use chicken; it tastes much better with ham. And I'm now not allowed to make it without sufficient amounts of red onion.

This is another very quick and easy meal that's easy to whip up after work. It's also a lovely side dish. You aren't required to use the colored rotini, although we always do (another Bob innovation) because it's much prettier that way.

I was originally pretty fastidious about using only Bernstein's Cheese Fantastico as the dressing. But these days I use whatever Italian dressing is on the pantry shelf or on the fridge, and it seems to work out just fine. Our family loves this, and it really couldn't be any easier. It's a great use of leftover ham. We also often use relatively thick-sliced packaged ham.

Pasta Salad

1 15-oz. package of multi-colored or plain pasta
2 cups diced ham
1 ½ cups diced cheddar cheese
1 ½ cups frozen corn
1 ½ cups frozen peas
½ cup minced red onion

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse and cool. Combine other ingredients in a large bowl. Add pasta and stir until mixed. Mix 1 ½ cups mayonnaise with ½ cup Bernstein’s Cheese Fantastico salad dressing to make dressing; pour over salad mixture and blend until evenly covered.

Everyone Should Have a Pizza Stone

2010-07-28T08:00:00.001-06:00

This photo won't win any beauty contests. But it shows off one of my favorite household products, the pizza stone. We first received a pizza stone as a wedding gift from my brother and his wife. We put it away in the closet for several years until some friends came over to teach us how to make homemade pizza. We've been using it ever since. Truth be told, we broke the original model years ago.

Used correctly, the stone gets uglier with age. It works much better after you've cooked on it quite a lot. Cooking items with a relatively high fat content darkens (or seasons it) even faster. On one of our new pizza stones we baked several batches of chocolate chip cookies. While it was admittedly better for the stone than for the cookies, it speeded up the seasoning process considerably. We weren't all that sorry about enduring the crispy cookies.

The purpose of the stone is to crisp up the crust. To call this a pizza stone is a little bit limiting. We actually bake all kinds of items on it. It's especially good for artisan breads. Place hand made loaves on the stone, pour a cup of water in a heated pan on the bottom shelf of the oven, and you're bound to pull out crispy, beautiful loaves.

We haven't found pizza stones all that easy to locate. Our local grocery store carried them for awhile; Bed Bath and Beyond is usually a sure bet.

Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake

2010-07-26T08:00:00.001-06:00

This recipe has been making its way around my neighborhood for a couple of years now. It's a chocolate cousin of the lemon pound cake recipe I posted not quite a year ago. It's extremely rich, but also extremely yummy.

It's also quite easy. It starts with a box cake; use Devil's food. I tried plain chocolate once, and for some reason it made the cake taste like paste (unfortunately the experiment was on my daughter's birthday cake). The other two chocolate sources are chocolate chips (semi-sweet) and chocolate pudding (instant). For this photo, I topped the cake with a super rich (and apparently super shiny) ganache, which is a combination of heated whole cream and melted semi-sweet chocolate chips.

One secret if you're new to Bundt cake making: grease and flour your pan very thoroughly, or the cake will break up when you take it out of the pan. And half the fun of this cake is that it looks just smashing.

Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake
1 Devil's food cake mix
1 4-oz. package instant chocolate fudge pudding
4 large eggs
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips. Beat for four minutes with an electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in chocolate chips by hand until evenly distributed in teh batter. Pour into a 12-inch Bundt pan that has been thoroughly greased and floured. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out dry. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.

There are many ways to finish this cake - dust it with powdered sugar, make a powdered sugar glaze, or make the aforementioned ganache. I also once tried making a ganache with white chocolate chips; it was perhaps my favorite topping ever.

Honey and Black Pepper Beef

2010-07-12T08:00:00.003-06:00

True confessions: I recently started a new job. After working from home for seven years, I'm back in the office from 9 to 5 (well, actually 7:30 to 4:00 or maybe a little later). The first week I worked, dinner times were, shall we say, highly informal at our house. But last week I realized that I really missed cooking dinner every night. More than that, I miss having everyone around the table for at least one meal a day. I convinced myself that I could find meals simple and fast enough that I could make them, even in my post-work state. And you know what? I was right.

This recipe comes from one of my new favorite cookbooks, Homestyle Asian. It honestly took me somewhat less than 30 minutes to put it together (okay, I have to admit that Bob cut the meat up before I got home). It was delicious. We served it over jasmine rice. There were no side dishes, but perhaps we'll work up to that in the coming weeks.

We made a number of revisions from the original recipe. The book calls for 2 pounds of round steak. Bob found some boneless ribeyes on sale that were heavenly; we used two of them, cut into strips. I think any cut of beef that doesn't require long cooking times to become tender would work. I couldn't see our bunch eating snow peas, although that was part of what initially attracted me to the recipe. So I used broccoli, which looked and tasted great. I also put in some red bell pepper strips for color. As a bonus, they also added great flavor. I think my favorite part was the sauce--some sweetness from the honey, some heat from the pepper and some soy to tie it all together.

Honey and Black Pepper Beef
1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 pounds round steak, cut into thin strips
1 large onion, sliced
1 pound or so of trimmed broccoli florets
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat the wok until very hot. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and swirl it around to coat the side. Stir-fry the beef in batches over high heat. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Reheat the wok and add 1 tablespoon of the oil and stir fry the garlic, onion, broccoli and peppers until softened. Remove from the wok and set aside.

Add the honey, soy sauce, oyster sauce and black pepper to the wok. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly.

Increase the heat, return the meat and vegetables to the wok, and toss for 2-3 minutes or until well combined and heated through.

Homestyle Asian Cookbook

2010-07-09T08:00:00.002-06:00

I am well aware that we are supposed to be getting rid of some of our cookbooks. But this one was a gift, and we truly love it.

We invited one of our neighbors and her mother to come over for cooking class. This is the same neighbor who taught us how to make eggrolls. This time she (and her mother) taught us how to make chicken adobo and other wonderful Filipino dishes. To thank us for letting her slave away in our kitchen, the mother (who was here on a supposed vacation from Iowa) sent us this book. I can't tell you where to buy it; I can't find it anywhere, even on the internet. But if you can ever come up with a copy, you will be glad you did.

As the title suggests, the meals included are homestyle. They're things that an average Asian family might eat for dinner. We love the range of cuisines covered in the book. There are recipes from India. Thailand. Singapore. And of course your average Chinese and Japanese dishes as well. They are organized by type of food (soup, appetizers, salads, etc.) rather than by country, which I like. There are beautiful photos of every dish, and for those of you with an international perspective, measurements are given in both metric and English units.

If I have one criticism of the book, it's that it doesn't tell a story about every recipe (and I obviously like stories about recipes). But that particular characteristic makes it more homey for me; it's unpretentious and straightforward. These are meals you should make at home. The publisher is Bay Books. I hope you can find it.

Chicken and 40 Cloves of Garlic

2010-07-06T19:31:00.001-06:00

And now just to prove that we do sometimes still use whole garlic cloves, here's one of the most garlic-rich recipes I know. That may not look like 40 cloves of garlic, but it's actually about 47 or 48 cloves. I doubled this recipe, but refrained from doubling the number of garlic cloves because I wanted to be sure that the neighbor kids would still play with my children. Did you know that consuming large amounts of garlic will cause it to seep through your pores in odor form? Try getting on a crowded public bus in a country where garlic is included in every meal and you'll see what I mean.

I'm not sure of the origins of this recipe, but I think it's French. I've seen many different versions. I'm almost certain I've seen one that calls for a whole chicken cooked in a crock pot (with, of course, the 40-odd cloves). It's a lovely, simple meal. Bob and I have searched for a great garlic chicken recipe since I took him to Mr. B's restaurant in New Orleans six or so years ago. At the time, he couldn't believe that I was ordering chicken at a world-class restaurant (I had been there before on business trips). But after he tasted it, he was won over and has been a raving garlic chicken fan ever since. I can't say this even comes close to Mr. B's, but it has a wonderful flavor and is relatively easy to whip up. Here's what the dish looks like after it's finished:

Chicken With 40 Cloves of Garlic

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of any fat
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
40 cloves of garlic, separated and peeled
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (I didn't have any parsley on hand, so I omitted it. It is, after all, a garnish).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place trimmed and halved chicken breasts in a large zip loc bag. Pound the meat flat with a mallet until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Season with sea salt, black pepper and thyme to taste (the fresh thyme in our garden is going crazy, so I substituted it for the dry. It was lovely).

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. In batches, saute the chicken smooth side down first until nicely browned, about 4 minutes. Flip the breasts and cook for 45 seconds, then remove to a baking dish. Once all the chicken has been cooked, add the garlic to the skillet. Lower the heat and saute for 3-4 minutes, turning often. Add the chicken stock, making sure to scrape all the brown goodies off the bottom of the pan. Season with salt, pepper and thyme if needed. Pour the sauce over the chicken in the baking dish. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Once the chicken has baked, carefully remove the meat and garlic cloves to a platter and cover with an aluminum foil tent to keep it warm. Place the sauce in the large skillet used to cook the meat. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and milk with a little bit of the sauce. Once it's thoroughly mixed, slowly whisk the flour mixture back into the rest of the sauce. Add the butter to the sauce, increase the heat and boil for three minutes or until it's nice and thick. Taste and re-season if needed. Pour the sauce over the chicken, garnish with fresh chopped parsley and serve.

Minced Garlic

2010-06-28T20:38:00.001-06:00

From time to time, we have been garlic snobs. One year, with the help of a friend, we even planted and grew our own garlic. It was delicious. But it took work. We still use fresh garlic sometimes, such as when I make and bottle pizza sauce every summer. But we have embraced so many garlic-intensive dishes that we've seen the light: we now stock minced garlic from (where else?) Costco.

We aren't at all attached to this brand, and I know that you can buy smaller containers at your average grocery store. Truth be told, we discarded a number of containers of this garlic before they were completely consumed because we felt that they had passed their prime. But in recent months we have been polishing it off without a problem.

This works really well for garlic-intensive recipes as you might find in Vietnamese food (see here and here). We also use it for recipes requiring a much smaller amount. We love being able to use garlic to our hearts' delight without all that peeling and crushing.

Cooked Carrots

2010-06-18T08:00:00.001-06:00

For the past several years we have been on a quest to effectively cook carrots. We've eaten delectable carrots at parties, restaurants and family gatherings. We've eaten them glazed. We've eaten them buttered. We've tried any number of recipes that have fallen just a little bit short of our dream.

This weekend I discovered the secret of perfect cooked carrots. Perhaps all of you already know these secrets, but in case you don't, I'll let you in:

1. Cook the carrots in a little bit of chicken broth and
2. Don't cook them for very long.

The children were singing and dancing as they ate these carrots, even the ones who habitually avoid vegetables. Here's the complete recipe:

Cooked Carrots
1 pound peeled, sliced carrots (as you can see, I resorted to baby carrots)
1/2 cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar (I used brown sugar, but I'm sure white sugar would also work)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the carrots in a sauce pan with the chicken stock and salt over medium heat until tender crisp. You only need about 7 or 8 minutes. You should be able to stab them with a fork, but just barely.

Drain off the chicken stock. Add the butter and sugar and simmer until the carrots are lightly glazed.

Note: I haven't tried the carrots without the sugar yet, but I'm betting that they would be delicious simply buttered after they have been cooked in the chicken broth.

Rice Pilaf

2010-06-16T12:01:00.001-06:00

We arrived home from a vacation at the beach late Saturday night. I went through most of the day Sunday believing that we had ten pounds of russet potatoes in our pantry that would make a perfect baked potato complement to our roast chicken dinner (no, not even our family goes through an entire 10 pounds at one sitting). When I came to the realization that we in fact lacked potatoes, I made a double batch of this rice pilaf. We've used this recipe for the past several years. It's a family favorite, and goes well with chicken, fish, or almost any other kind of meat. It dresses up the rice just enough to make it a standalone side dish.

I think the original recipe calls for either orzo pasta or spaghetti broken into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch lengths. Someday I will use orzo; it's prettier than broken spaghetti, but we never have it on hand. We always have spaghetti, and Jenny and Anna are well trained in the art of breaking it into tiny pieces.

Rice Pilaf

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, chopped

1/4 cup orzo pasta or spaghetti broken into small pieces

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup long grain rice

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan. Add the onion and saute until it is clear. Add the pasta and cook with the onions and butter on medium heat until the pasta is evenly browned. Stir in the rice and continue cooking until the grains look clear. Add the chicken broth, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to its lowest setting and continue cooking, covered, for 30 minutes or until almost all of the liquid is absorbed. Place two paper towels beneath the lid and let the rice cook on low heat for another 15 minutes.

BFBs

2010-06-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

What is a BFB, you may ask. This is a family original, or perhaps I should say a family indulgence. It even looks good despite being poorly stage on the floral Corelleware. A BFB is a Big Fancy Burger. I don't remember whether we held an official contest for the name, or if it just evolved and BFB just seemed right. Recently we have considered renaming it the BSB (Big Sloppy Burger) or BMB (Big Messy Burger).

This is actually more of a meal idea than a recipe. There are just a few critical elements. First, use sourdough bread instead of a bun. Lightly butter the bread. Sprinkle and press grated parmesan cheese on the bread. It should look like this:

Then toast the bread on a griddle until it is golden, like this:

We use the sourdough loaves from Costco. You could also buy the square loaves from other stores, but the slices are quite large, so you would probably want to cut them in half. And of course pre-formed, frozen hamburger patties are a bit of an odd-size for this sandwich, so we usually form our own, adding salt and pepper:

The garnishes you add to the burger are really up to you. We usually make them into cheese burgers, and then offer lettuce, pickles (Claussen are our preferred brand), tomatoes, onions and (when we are being lavish) avocados or even bacon. However one of the key secret ingredients is homemade Thousand Island dressing, the recipe for which you will find below. Ketchup and mustard are definitely no-nos on this burger. Trust me. You'll like them better with special sauce.

Thousand Island Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish

1 teaspoon finely minced white onions

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 dash black pepper

Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir well. Place dressing in a covered container and refrigerate for several hours, stirring occasionally so that the sugar dissolves and the flavors blend.

Quantity note: We make a lot of burgers at one time. We have never used all of the dressing made by this recipe. So make them again soon to use the rest, or use it as a salad dressing.

Chinese Chicken Salad

2010-06-07T08:00:00.002-06:00

This recipe has been in my cookbook for a long time. I recently developed a hankering for it, and ended up modifying it slightly from the way I made it decades ago. Its distinguishing characteristic is the addition of ramen noodles--not too surprising, given that I acquired the recipe during my college years. The salad has a lovely Asian flavor and a wonderful variety of crunchies.

One modification I made to this recipe was to cook the chicken in much the same way I do for other Asian salads (see here and here). How can something with this much sugar be bad?

Chinese Chicken Salad

1 large or 2 medium chicken breasts

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce

2 cups water

1 head cabbage, finely chopped

4 green onions, finely chopped

1 package chicken flavored ramen noodles, broken up (save the flavoring packet)

1/2 medium-sized green pepper, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Cook the chicken in the teriyaki sauce and water over medium heat for 30-45 minutes until they are easily shredded. Shred into small pieces.

Combine all of the vegetables, the ramen and the chicken in a large bowl. Add the sesame seeds and almonds. Toss with the dressing and chill one hour before serving.

Dressing

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

ramen flavoring packet

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Pour over salad.

Onion Straws

2010-06-04T19:08:00.001-06:00

I mentioned onion straws in a post about steak and blue salad a couple of months ago. At long last, here's the (very simple) recipe. We made them a few nights ago for a lovely steak salad that we made with some leftover grilled tri tip. It was delicious. I can assure you, however, that our kids like the onions equally well as a simple side dish. The same recipe also works well for deep fried zucchini; it's light and more like a tempura batter than a standard onion ring recipe.

This recipe makes enough to batter one large onion. We actually even battered a medium-size zucchini with the leftover batter. We used a sweet onion this time, but have used regular yellow onions with great success.

Onion Straws

1 large onion, julienned

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 cup water

1 egg, beaten

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients until you have a smooth batter. Stir in the onion slices and cover thoroughly. Drain slightly (I hold the onions over the bowl with tongs for a few seconds while they drip a bit), then fry in 1/2 inch of hot oil until golden brown. I usually turn them over half way through the cooking process.

Use as a side dish, or as a topping for salad.

Basmati Rice

2010-05-05T08:00:00.002-06:00

Basmati rice is generally served with Indian food. It's has a longer grain than most other rice; it also has an incredible, nutty aroma while it's cooking. You can, of course, simply cook the rice according to package directions and it's lovely. We like to dress ours up just a little bit when we serve it with a nice curry or other Indian dish.

The peas, by the way, are optional.

Basmati Rice

1 ½ cups basmati rice
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 small onion, cut into thin slices
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas

Wash the rice in several changes of water and drain. Cover generously in water and soak for 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Heat the oil in a small, heavy pot over medium high heat. When hot, add the onion and stir until it is brown. Add the rice and garam masala. Stir for a minute. Now put in the broth and bring to a boil (or transfer rice to rice cooker and add broth and stir). Cover tightly, turn heat to very low, and cook 20 minutes. Add the peas. Cover tightly again and cook another 5 to 7 minutes. Stir gently before serving.

Chicken Coconut Kurma

2010-05-03T08:00:00.003-06:00

First, although my mother taught me never to begin with an apology, let me apologize for the less-than-perfect photo. This tastes really good, though. Chicken coconut kurma is one of my favorite dishes at Indian restaurants. The same sauce can be used with other meats; we like chicken so much that we've never ventured out. The coconut cream and raisins give this a sweetness that contrasts nicely with the rest of the savory flavors.

Chicken Coconut Kurma

½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 ½ to 3 pounds skinned, boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

Mix the spices together and stir over the chicken pieces. Mix well and refrigerate for at least one hour.

6-7 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 inch square of ginger root, fresh
1 ½ cups of water

Put the ginger and garlic in a blender with ½ cup of the water. Blend until smooth.

4 Tbs. of vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
6 tablespoons plain low-fat yogurt, whip until very smooth
2 tablespoons golden raisins
¼ cup cashews
1 teaspoon garam masala
½ cup coconut cream (sold by the can in most Asian stores; it's thicker than coconut milk)

Heat the oil in a heavy, non-stick pan. When hot, put in as many chicken pieces as will fit on the bottom. Cook until browned and repeat with other pieces of chicken. Set the chicken aside.

Put the onion in the remaining oil and fry hot until they turn medium brown. Add the garlic-ginger paste. Stir and fry until the water evaporates. Put in the remaining cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne. Fry for about 30 seconds. Now put in the chopped tomatoes. Turn heat to low and cook for three to four minutes, mashing the paste with the back of a spoon. Add the yogurt, one tablespoon at a time. Add raisins and cashews. Put in the chicken and any accumulated juices, ¾ cup of water, and one teaspoon of salt in the pan. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Take off the cover and add the garam masala and coconut cream. Mix gently. Turn up the heat and cook, stirring gently now and then until the sauce becomes fairly thick.

Naan

2010-04-30T08:00:00.003-06:00

We've experimented with making naan, an Indian flat bread, at home. We don't have a tandoor, so it's not perfect yet. But this version makes a reasonable facsimile. It's quite simple. I've found the key is to roll the sections out as thin as humanly possible while still being able to handle the dough. Then Bob cooks it on the barbecue, basting it with olive oil infused with a little bit of garlic as he goes.

Naan

1 ¼ teaspoon yeast
½ cup warm water
4 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
¼ teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 ¼ cups bread flour
1 tsp. finely minced onion (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil mixed with 1 teaspoon minced garlic
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

Punch the dough down and knead in the minced onion if you want onion-flavored naan. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.

Roll each ball of dough out into an oblong shape. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with oil, and turn over. Brush cooked side with oil, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared. (Serves about 9)

Garam Masala

2010-04-27T09:53:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since I've discussed a favorite product. And since I'm going to be featuring Indian food over the next few posts, I thought talking a little bit about garam masala was essential. Wikipedia discusses this combination of spices as follows:

Garam masala from Hindi garam ("hot") and masala ("mixture") is a basic blend of ground spices common in Indian and other South Asian cuisines. It is used alone or with other seasonings. The word garam refers to spice intensity, not heat; garam masala is pungent, but not "hot" in the same way as a chili pepper.

In short, garam masala makes cooking Indian food a snap (this is me talking now, not Wikipedia). You can, of course, make your own blend, but I do not. Different brands have different combinations of spices. Typical spices include cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg and coriander (along with various colors of ground pepper). I have found that prices for the same brand vary widely; the bottle of McCormick featured in the photo is about $11 at the grocery store closest to my house, and about half that at the local WalMart. My friend Laura recently scouted the newly opened Indian store in our community (Bollywood on University Avenue for those of you who are local) and got a remarkable quantity of the stuff for about $4. It appeared to be a somewhat different mix of spices, but smelled great. And that's one of the things you'll like best about this blend--the way it makes your house smell when you cook with it.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

2010-04-14T19:07:00.001-06:00

Can you take one more spinach salad recipe? This one is truly a gem. I made it out of desperation one night when I needed to use up both spinach and strawberries. The dressing is unusual but very refreshing. It gets oohs and ahhs.

The original recipe calls for sliced almonds, which I think would be delicious. However, on the same day that I had spinach and strawberries to spare, I was fresh out of almonds but had plenty of pecans. I sugared them (put a cup of them in a sauce pan with 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar; cook on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the nuts are coated. Then cool on a sheet of wax paper or foil until cooled).

Strawberry Spinach Salad
1 cup candied pecans
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1/2 medium cucumber, sliced and quartered
1/4 small red onion, sliced into thin wedges
3-4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
6 to 8 cups baby spinach

Combine salad ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. Then toss with the dressing:

Dressing
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon poppy seeds

Combine all ingredients in a jar with a lid; shake until well mixed. Pour over salad and toss well.

Serve immediately after adding the dressing.

Peanut Butter Fingers

2010-04-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

I found this delicious little recipe on In My Kitchen. The author of that blog recounts her childhood memories of having this as part of a Utah school lunch. I am a native Utahn, and don't remember having them for lunch in elementary school (although I do remember some incredible peanut butter cookies, the only peanut cookies I would eat at that point in my life). But they are awfully good.

Warning: this recipe makes a lot of cookie bars. It's baked in a jelly roll pan, which we call a cookie sheet at our house. It's something like 16 x 9. So either make it when you're going to a very large gathering, or plan on having it around for a few days. I made it on Monday of this week (which was spring break), and we still had lingering leftovers by Thursday. It holds up well over time, though, and the kids were in heaven with readily available snacks all week.

Peanut Butter Fingers

3/4 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

Cream these ingredients together and then add:

3/4 cup peanut butter, cream until smooth

Note: We used creamy peanut butter because we had a surplus of it and because the kids prefer chunky on their sandwiches. But I think chunky PB would work great, and would add a little nuttiness to the mix.

Add:

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons vnilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups oats

1 1/2 cups flour

Mix together and pat down into a jellyroll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Let the cookie substance cool a little, but while it is still warm, spread a think layer of peanut butter over the top. After it has cooled quite a bit, add the frosting on top:

Frosting

6 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 3/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

1/4 cup milk

Blend frosting until smooth and spread over cookies.

Pasta Cordon Bleu

2010-04-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

This recipe came from my friend Amy. I had every intention of taking her a healthy portion to sample, but it was so popular at our house that there was only a little left, and that after I shooed several kids away. This definitely isn't health food, but it's really, really good.

The original recipe called for even more of the good (but not good for you) ingredients. I scaled them back both according to what I had on hand and what seemed reasonable.

Pasta Cordon Bleu

1 pound package penne pasta

6 tablespoons butter

4 crushed garlic cloves

30 ounces chicken broth

3-4 tablespoons cornstarch

3 cups heavy cream

1 chicken breast

1 cup chopped ham

1/2 cup crumbled bacon

6 - 8 sliced fresh mushrooms

2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Cook pasta. Drain. Saute and brown garlic and butter. Whisk cornstarch with chicken broth and add to pan. Stir until thickened. Add cream, stirring constantly, and heat through; do not boil. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Place noodles, chicken, ham, bacon, green onions, mushrooms, sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

2010-04-07T18:40:00.000-06:00

These aren't the most photogenic baked goods in the universe, but they are easy to make and quite tasty. I started with a recipe from recipezaar.com, a cooking website that I like because it has multiple ways to search and there are often comments from people who have tried the recipe (besides the original poster).

Some of the comments on this recipe noted that the muffins were not particularly lemony. I added more lemon juice along with some lemon zest and was quite pleased with the result.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 large egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup cooking oil

6 tablespoons lemon juice

Zest of one lemon

1 tablespoon sugar for the topping

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds; set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix the egg, milk, and cooking oil. Then add the lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix liquids into the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into muffin tins that have either been well greased and floured or that are lined with muffin papers. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins generously with sugar; do not mix in the sugar, as it is what forms the crunchy top.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Coconut Pecan Brownies

2010-03-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

I found this recipe at For the Love of Cooking. It's a nice variation on your standard brownie. Although the recipe only makes a 8x8-inch pan, it was plenty for our large family because the brownies are rich enough that you don't need much to feel satisfied.

Coconut Pecan Brownies

Original recipe from Epicurious
Makes nine ample brownies

Topping:
3/4 cup of sweetened coconut, shredded
3/4 cup of pecan pieces
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/8 tsp of salt
2 tbsp butter, melted

Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Set aside.

Brownies:
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 large eggs
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.

In a saucepan, melt butter over moderately low heat. Remove pan from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a separate bowl add to the sugar mixture until just combined well.

Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake brownies in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes; remove from oven and add topping to the top then continue to bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until a tester comes out of the center with crumbs adhering to it. Cool brownies completely in pan on a rack before cutting. Enjoy.

Eggrolls

2010-03-25T08:00:00.003-06:00

About a year ago we realized one of Bob's lifelong dreams: to become proficient in the making of eggrolls. It was actually easier than we had imagined, especially with numerous children to help roll them up. We invited a friend of ours to teach us how to make them; her parents are from the Phillippines, and her eggroll-making prowess is legendary in our neighborhood. We've been making them ever since.

The possible variations with eggrolls are endless. On the night we learned how to make them, we used simple hamburger as the filling. Because Bob wanted to make more of a Vietnamese-style eggroll, we've since settled on using a combination of shrimp and ground pork most of the time. You can also use ground turkey or chicken (or any other type of ground meat) or make them completely vegetarian. If you want to speed up the process, you can buy coleslaw mix and shredded carrots at the grocery store in the produce section.

Eggrolls freeze well before they're cooked. In fact, we've often been surprised that they seemed to taste even better when we take them straight from the freezer to the frying pan (better than when we cook them fresh, that is). This recipe makes quite a large batch, even for our large tribe. We usually freeze at least half of them and serve them for a second meal.

Cooked eggrolls can also be rewarmed for a tasty snack, although I'm warning you: don't heat them in the microwave. They'll turn into a droopy mess and won't really taste good. Try putting them in the regular oven for a few minutes at 350 degrees.

There are also a variety of possible dipping sauces for eggrolls. Some of us like hot mustard (you can buy it in powdered form either at the Asian market or sometimes in the Asian section at the grocery store; mix it with water and drip it on the eggroll. Believe me, you'll only need a few drops). We also like sweet chili sauce, which can also be found at the Asian store. A favorite way of eating them is to wrap an eggroll in a leaf of iceberg lettuce and dip it in nuoc cham sauce (scroll down to the bottom of the bahn mi recipe to find it.

Eggrolls

(Makes about 50 eggrolls)

1 lb. ground meat (beef, pork, turkey or any combination of the three. We usually use about a pound of ground pork and add some finely chopped shrimp sautéed in butter and garlic).
½ + head cabbage, finely shredded
2+ large carrots, finely shredded
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
1 T. garlic, finely minced (or garlic powder)
1 ½ teaspoons ginger, finely minced (or powdered ginger)
1 bunch cellophane (bean thread) noodles, available at Asian markets. Cook according to package directions. Chop cooked noodles into thirds or fourths.
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying
Two packages spring roll wrappers (use the kind from better Asian stores rather than the grocery store brand. They stretch a little more and are a little more durable. They also don't bubble as much during frying.)

Brown the meat in a large skillet. Drain off the fat. Add the carrots and cabbage. Gently stir fry until the vegetables are softened. Add the onions, cook for an additional 1-2 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. Mix gently to distribute seasonings. Add bean thread and mix lightly. Let cool.

Put wrapper on a flat surface. Starting at the bottom corner, put about 1 generous tablespoon of filling. Roll upwards until you reach the middle of the wrapper. Fold in the two side corners and continue rolling upwards. Once you have about 1-2 inches of wrapper left, moisten the top sides of the wrapper with water to seal the eggroll. Here is a guided tour of how to fold up an eggroll:

1. Put the tablespoon of filling toward the bottom corner of the wrapper.

2. Fold the wrapper over to cover the filling, and pull it tight with your fingers (this is where having a flexible wrapper comes in handy).

3. Fold the sides of the wrapper in so that they form two parallel lines (much as you would fold a burrito).

4. Roll the wrapper up the rest of the way, keeping it tight. Then seal the remaining open corner with a bit of water, pressing it until it stays closed (believe me, you don't want it coming open while it's frying).

Heat oil (about 1-inch in depth) in a frying pan. Fry eggrolls in small batches until golden brown (about 3-5 minutes). You are frying them until they look the way you want them to; the filling is already cooked, so you don't have to worry about food safety issues.

Serve with sweet and sour sauce.

Other ingredients that you can add to the filling are water chestnuts, mushrooms, diced potatoes, or any other vegetables that you like.

Chicken Parmesan

2010-03-23T12:49:00.001-06:00

A couple of years ago, a friend loaned me her personal cook book so that I could copy a recipe for something she had made for me. These are the best kinds of cookbooks--full of recipes that people make, eat and love on an every-day basis. I don't remember which recipe I borrowed the book for, but I do remember that I saw this recipe as well and knew that I must have it. I made it soon thereafter, and it's been a family favorite ever since.

This is another meal that looks fancier than it really is. It's easy to make, and while it won't win any prizes for being healthy, it will fill up even the hungriest of teenage boys. You can use whatever kind of sauce you like; I confess that part of the beauty of this meal for me is that I usually make it with a bottle of store bought sauce, which makes it very, very easy.

Although I don't think instructions to do so were included in the original recipe, I pound the chicken breasts out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Being the frugal souls that we are (and having a few little tiny girls to off set those hungry teenage boys), we've been known to get two or three servings out of a single chicken breast. It also ensures that the chicken gets cooked all the way through without drying out. Also, we like this dish saucy, so I use a 28-ounce jar of sauce and often augment that with an 8-ounce can of tomato sauce rather than the 12 ounces or so called for in the recipe. This gives us ample spaghetti sauce to put over the noodles that we serve with the chicken. Feel free to dress up the sauce; I often add some sliced, fresh mushrooms or fresh herbs like basil or oregano.

Chicken Parmesan

Serves 6

2 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup Italian-flavored bread crumbs
¼ cup flour
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
6 chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 ½ cups spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
¼ cup grated parmesan
2-4 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs and milk together in shallow pie dish. Place bread crumbs in another dish close by. Combine flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add chicken breasts to bag, one at a time. Shake to coat lightly with flour. Dip coated breast in egg mixture, letting excess drip off. Roll breasts in bread crumbs to coat well.

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic cloves and cook for one minute. Push garlic to edge of skillet and add chicken to pan. Cook 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer breast to 13x9 inch baking dish. Add spaghettis sauce to same skillet and simmer for 3-4 minutes until heated through. Pour over chicken breasts and sprinkle with cheeses.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with small servings of spaghetti noodles.

Roasted Potatoes

2010-03-19T08:00:00.001-06:00

We just finished eating these potatoes for dinner. I thought I was making far too many of them, but they completely disappeared. They are easy, relatively healthy, and inexpensive as long as you find the red potatoes on sale. They are one of those dishes that dresses up a meal without a lot of extra work for you.

The only real secret to this dish is getting the right amount of olive oil. Too much and you'll drown them, not enough and they won't brown and crisp. At their best, these potatoes are both creamy inside and cruncy on the outside. Here is what they look like when they're ready to go into the oven:

Roasted Potatoes
8-9 red potatoes, washed and sliced into wedges
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the sliced potatoes in a large bowl. Drizzle about 1 tablespoon of oil on them; sprinkle about 1/3 of each of the seasonings on top. Toss the potatoes. Repeat this process two more times until all of the seasonings have been used and the potatoes are well coated.

Spread the potatoes on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove them and stir them on the baking sheet. Return them to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes. They are done when they are golden brown.

Steak and Blue Salad

2010-03-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

This is a salad idea that came from a local restaurant. I ordered it there for lunch a number of times; it was quite different each time I tried it. The last time I ordered it, they substituted the roasted red peppers , one of the highlights of the salad, with roasted hot chiles. I haven't been back.

We dreamed up this salad last week when we had some leftover steak. Bob refreshed the meat by warming it on the grill. Then we sliced it thin and put 4-5 generous pieces on each salad. I kept the veggies relatively simple by including some mixed greens (primarily romaine), avocado, tomato, and of course, some roasted red pepper strips. We sprinkled blue cheese crumbles and topped the salad off with some onion straws* and homemade ranch dressing. We both agreed it was one of our favorite salads ever.

As with most salads, the measurements aren't really a precise recipe. But give it a try; this is a wonderful salad. This recipe makes enough for two meal-sized salads.

Steak and Blue Salad

1 head romaine, sliced into bite-sized pieces

1 tomato, sliced into thin wedges

1 avocado, sliced into strips

1 roasted red pepper cut into strips, tossed with a small amount of olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper

4-5 slices steak

1-2 tablespoons blue cheese crumbles, depending on your taste

Onion straws

Ranch dressing

Layer the ingredients in the order listed. You may combine them in a cobb style or toss.

*Onion straws are very easy to make. I will do a post on them sometime soon. The short version of how to make them: Mix a tablespoon of flour with two tablespoons of corn starch. Add about 1/4 cup of water and mix well. Slice an onion in thin rings. Coat the rings in the batter until well covered. Fry for several minutes in oil until onions are light brown.

Puzzle Cake

2010-03-15T08:00:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure why this cake is called a puzzle cake, unless it's because of the interesting contrasting colors on top of the finished product. This came from another of our virtually unused cook books, Old Fashioned Family Cookbook, by Clarice L. Moon, published by Ideals Publishing, Corp. I believe I acquired this series as a reward for subscribing to a local newspaper. For each month I continued my subscription, I earned another cookbook in the series.

As you might expect, the recipes in this cookbook were not incredibly novel or exciting. They are, well, traditional. As a result, I found that I already had favorites of many of the dishes included (jambalaya, for example, or tuna casserole). Others were completely unappealing (take salad dressing cake or ham loaf). I also don't love the format--few photos of the end result, and the photos aren't usually any where close to the recipe in the book. But puzzle cake looked like it had potential, so I tried it last Monday night. The result was acceptable. No one has been begging for this dessert since then, but no one turned it down, either, and most of the plates were clean when we were finished even though one of the kids came to a stark realization that dates are a dried fruit (gasp!), not the nuts she had believed them to be as we have used them in other recipes for years.

Puzzle Cake

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

3/4 cup softened butter

Mix together the flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. Set aside one-half of the crumb mixture. Spread remaining crumb mixture in an 8 x 12-inch pan and pat down. Bake in a 350-degree oven for ten minutes. Remove from oven and spread on Filling (see recipe below). Sprinkle reserved crumbs on top. Bake for an additional 25 minutes.

Filling
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine dates, coconut and nuts. Whip egg whites until stiff and add sugar and vaniilla. Fold in the date mixture.

The dessert was good, but probably not worth keeping the cookbook over. Nevertheless, there are a couple of other basic recipes that might serve me well--like a good basic biscuit recipe or a couple of ideas for breakfast cake. Stay tuned for the final verdict.

Italian Herb Bread

2010-03-12T08:00:00.001-07:00

I got this recipe from my friend Steffani and then modified it a bit based on my comparisons with a few other recipes. The end result is a pretty good knock off of the bread served at Macaroni Grill, although that's not necessarily what I was aiming for. My family finished off two loaves of this at dinner the other night, however. It's especially delicious when served with a dipping sauce of olive oil mixed with a little balsamic vineagar.

Italian Herb Bread

2 tablespoons yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar

Mix together and let sit for 10 minutes.

Add:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoon. minced fresh red onion
1 tablespoon dry or 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
1 tablespoon dry or 2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon dry or 2 tablespoons fresh oregano or thyme

Add:
2 cups flour

Mix well, then add:

4 cups more flour

Mix well. Knead 3 minutes in Bosch/mixer on high or by hand. Let rise till double (about 45 minutes to 1 hour).

Punch down. Divide into three round loaves and place on a greased cookie sheet. Baste with

1 egg white mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Sprinkle with sea salt

Raise uncovered until double (about 1 hour).

Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes till golden brown

Roasted Asparagus

2010-03-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe I learned from my neighbor, Michelle. It's simple, delicious and relatively healthy. It dresses up a meal with a minimum of effort and, as long as asparagus is on sale, a minimum of expense. Even the non-asparagus lovers in our family enjoyed it.

Roasted Asparagus
1-2 pounds asparagus
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and trim the asparagus. Toss it in a large bowl with the olive oil. Sprinkle it with fresh ground salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Return to the oven for about one minute, until cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

Eggplant Parmesan

2010-03-08T08:00:00.001-07:00

Eggplant parmesan is one of the few Italian dishes I cook that I actually learned to make in Italy. I lived for about nine months with a woman who had worked as a chef's assistant. She loved to cook. I loved to watch her cook (and sometimes even help). She made this for my birthday dinner in 1983, and I used to make it regularly when I returned to the US.

I've been under the impression for the past several years that my kids didn't care for this meal. Truth be told, I've only made it for them once. When I served it last week, several of them actually remembered it from a few years before and were glad to see it was back.

I've ordered eggplant at a variety of Italian restaurants, including Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill. It's very good at both of those places, but is somewhat different from the way I learned to make it. The restaurant variety is usually a breaded piece of eggplant (or more accurately several pieces of breaded eggplant) topped with red sauce and cheese. This recipe is more like an eggplant lasagna.

You'll need about one and a half eggplants. Slice them about 1/4 inch thinck. Dip the eggplant slices in a pie plate with 2-3 beaten eggs in it, then dip it in a plate with about 2 cups of breadcrumbs on it. Pan fry the eggplant slices in a large skillet until they are golden brown on both sides. Then layer the eggplant in a 9 x 13-inch pan like this:

This is the first of three eggplant layers. Pour 3-4 ladels of sauce over the eggplant (I confess that while I have traditionally made sauce from scratch for use with this recipe, this time I used a bottle of spaghetti sauce from the store. I added a can of tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes to it to make sure there was enough to amply cover the eggplant, and also added 1/2 pound of cooked sausage to give it a little more flavor). On top of the layer of sauce, sprinkle grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Repeat this process two more times, ending with the sauce and cheese layer. I usually put a little extra cheese on the top layer for the sake of appearances.

Bake the eggplant at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted and slightly browned. Then serve it as you would lasagna.

Eggplant Parmesan

2 large eggplants, cleaned, trimmed, and sliced in quarter inch slices

3 eggs, beaten and placed in a pie plate

2 cups breadcrumbs (I use the kind with Italian seasoning in them)

2-3 tablespoons oil

1 large bottle of spaghetti sauce

1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce

1 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes

1/2 pound bulk sausage, browned and drained

1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Dip the eggplant slices eggs, then dip it in a plate with the breadcrumbs on it. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and fry the eggplant slices until they are golden brown on both sides. Then layer the eggplant in a 9 x 13-inch pan so that the bottom of the pan is completely covered. This is the first of three eggplant layers.

In the meantime, brown and drain the sausage and combine the bottled spaghetti sauce and other tomato products in a large sauce pan. Cook until warmed through.

Pour 3-4 ladels of sauce over the eggplant On top of each layer of sauce, sprinkle grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Repeat this process two more times, ending with the sauce and cheese layer. I usually put a little extra cheese on the top layer for the sake of appearances.

Bake the eggplant at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted and slightly browned. Then serve it as you would lasagna.

Roasted Red Peppers

2010-03-05T08:00:00.001-07:00

One of the most useful skills I acquired this year was roasting red peppers, which was awfully convenient since I also developed a ravenous taste for the same. After paying $3 per bottle at the grocery store a few times, I was amazed to discover how remarkably easy it was to prepare them at home.

This actually isn't the first time in my life I've roasted red peppers. When I was in Italy in the early 80s, I remember roasting them over the burners of our gas range with an Italian friend who then taught me to make pepperonata, a pasta sauce with roasted red peppers as a base. I remember loving the sauce, but regretting the amount of time the tedious roasting process took.

This year I discovered that it's actually incredibly easy to roast peppers under a broiler. It can also be done on a barbecue grill, but that requires going outside, firing up the grill, turning the peppers, etc. The (very brief and simple) step-by-step instructions are below.

1. Wash the red peppers and slice them in quarters. Remove the seeds and membranes.

2. Place the peppers peeling side up so that they are as flat as possible (with as much outside surface facing upward as possible) in a baking pan. Place the pan in the oven, about 4 to 5 inches from the broiler. Broil on high until much of the surface of the peppers is blistered and black. The photo above shows a pepper that is fully roasted, although I actually probably could have left it under the broiler for another minute or so and it would have been easier to peel. On average, the roasting process takes about 10 minutes, so be patient.

3. Remove the peppers from the oven and put them in a sealable (zip top) plastic bag. This allows them to sweat so that the skin comes loose. After 10 minutes or so, remove them from the plastic bag and remove the peelings. The more thoroughly roasted the peelings, the easier it will be to remove the peel.

4. Use the peppers in any variety of dishes. I'll try to post some of my favorites here in the near future. I cook them with a chuck roast and onions to make a lovely goulash. They're also wonderful on salads or sandwiches. Add them to a tomato-based pasta sauce for a real treat.

If you want to make them more like the roasted red peppers you buy already prepared, put them in an airtight container with a little bit of olive oil--just enough to coat them. Then slice them into thin (1/4 inch) strips and enjoy!

Guide to Microwave Cooking

2010-03-03T08:00:00.001-07:00

Guide to Microwave Cooking by Cynthia Kanneberg, Ideals Publishing Corporation, October 1978

I'm old enough to remember when most people didn't have microwaves. I don't think my family acquired one until at least late in my high school career. I remember the promise they held for making meal preparation effortless and lightning fast.

We use our microwave many times a day. We warm things up in it. We melt things. We thaw things. We even boil water. But the truth is we never really cook in it, as in prepare an entire meal or even an entire dish. And when I browsed this cookbook, on our shelf since we have no idea when, I could see why. The book includes many tantalizing recipes (orange-almond rice ring, corn and crab soup, for example), but somehow the idea of cooking them in the microwave made them seem cheap and unappetizing. I couldn't even bring myself to try them. Perhaps if the cookbook had also included stove top instructions (defeating the purpose of the book, I realize), I could have been a good sport about it.

So this book has been officially weeded. If you don't share my microwave hang up, let me know and it's yours. It's also available on Amazon for as little as $.01 used, $.89 new. Mine is a mint condition, hardcover copy that is yours for the taking if you act now.

Breakfast Burritos

2010-03-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is a family favorite breakfast that is also remarkably easy to prepare. We quite often make it on weekend mornings; it's also frequently requested for birthday breakfasts. I wasn't a breakfast burrito fan until I married Bob. He has told me about his breakfast burrito odyssey that started when McDonald's first introduced their product twenty years or so ago. For the record, ours are improved enough over the golden arches variety that Bob can't really stomach fast food burritos anymore (except for the Carl's Jr. offering, which is very good).

We make these with Tortilla Land uncooked flour tortillas, so they need to be prepared before you roll up the finished product. We usually prepare all of the ingredients and then lay them out buffet-style on the island in our kitchen. Everyone makes their own, although the little ones usually need a little help with burrito rolling. The burrito featured in this photo actually ended up being more of an oversized taco because I stuffed it too full to roll it.

One of the great things about this recipe is that you can scale it larger or smaller very easily. It's not at all unusual for Bob to make himself a burrito for breakfast with leftover sausage, bacon, or ham.

Breakfast Burritos
Serves about 8 people
8 cooked tortillas (if you are using pre-cooked tortillas, you might want to warm them in the microwave for a few seconds)
1/4 to 1/2 pound of bulk breakfast sausage (a little goes a long way)
8 eggs (or one egg per person, if you're changing the number of servings)
1-2 cups frozen hash browns, fried until golden brown (this is another ingredient that is easily modified; we've used leftover breakfast potatoes or left the potatoes out all together. It makes a good filler, but the burritos work just fine without them).
1-2 roma tomatoes, diced in about 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, diced small
1 cup grated cheddar or jack cheese (we usually prefer a mix)
Salsa to taste (use the salsa of your choice; we've used everything from Pace to fresh pico de gallo).

Brown and drain the sausage. Combine the eggs in a large bowl; break the yolks, but don't whisk the eggs together; you don't want them fully scrambled. Cook the eggs in a large skillet, breaking them into small pieces as you stir them.

Place the ingredients in the order listed. Laying a tortilla flat on a large plate, add filling ingredients until you have about 1/3 cup. Add a teaspoon or so of salsa at the end; this binds the other ingredients together and keeps the burrito from falling apart. Roll the tortilla, folding the ends in and continuting to roll after about the second length-wise fold. Enjoy!

Jalapeno Poppers

2010-02-27T21:41:00.001-07:00

One of the things we love about our neighborhood is that there are a lot of people who care deeply about food. Bob especially loves this feature because many of the people who love food are men. This makes for fun sharing and comparing.

A couple of years ago, one of our neighbors stopped by on a summer evening with this particular snack, made from jalapenos from his own garden. Bob tried for a moment to figure out a polite way to let him know that he doesn't care for jalapenos, but then decided it would be a lot easier to simply try one. It changed him forever. He still doesn't like jalapenos in general, but he does love these poppers. I made them a couple of weeks ago when jalapenos were on sale. They are always a hit at our house.

Jalapeno Poppers
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. chili powder
1 pound fresh jalapenos (about 12), halved lengthwise, and seeded—wear plastic gloves and cut on glass surface (I have never cut on a glass surface because I have no glass surface. So far, they seem to turn out okay cut on a regular cutting board. Be aware, though, that you're going to feel like you're being gassed by the fumes from the peppers. And if you don't like spicy food, be sure to completely remove the seeds and membranes).
½ cup dry bread crumbs

Sour cream, onion dip, or ranch dressing for dip (we prefer ranch dressing; some kind of southwestern ranch would probably be really good).

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cheese, bacon and seasonings; mix well. Spoon about 2 tablespoonsful into each pepper half. Roll in bread crumbs. (Note: I’ve found that if you cut the peppers in half as evenly and perfectly symmetrically as possible, they tend not to fall over in the pan and leak cheese all over everywhere).

Place in a baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 300 degrees for 20 minutes for spicy flavor, 30 minutes for medium, and 40 minutes for mild. Serve while warm with dip.

Parker House Rolls

2010-02-19T08:00:00.003-07:00

This recipe has great sentimental value for Bob. A few years ago he worked as a volunteer at a local church-owned food warehouse. Each Monday he and another fellow cooked lunch for the forty or so volunteers who worked there. He got this recipe from the partner he worked with, and it's been a family favorite ever since.

I've halved the original recipe here. I made the full recipe yesterday because we were invited to have dinner with some friends of ours who have five children--the original batch size is about right for two large families. This batch will make enough for the average family with some left over to share.

Parker House Rolls

4 cups flour

3 teaspoons yeast

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups water

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

Add yeast to 1 cup of hot tap water and a pinch of the sugar; set aside for about five minutes, add the eggs, the additional 1/2 cup of water and the remaining sugar. Blend together.

Add salt and flour to the wet ingredients. Work together until a soft dough is formed. Cover the mixture with a damp towel and let it rest it rise for about one hour or until doubled.

Add another cup of flour to the mix and then work the dough again with an open hand, patting on new flour until the dough does not stick to the sides of the bowl. Divide the dough in half and place on a flat surface that has been dusted with flour.

Roll the dough with a rolling pin until it is about 1/8th of and inch to 1/4 of an inch thick. Cut out rolls with a large drinking glass. You should get about 15 rolls from each portion.

Dip 1/2 of each roll into melted butter and fold it in half. Place it on a baking sheet. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until double. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes or until brown on top and on the bottom. Brush with remaining melted butter after removing from the oven.

Soft Bread Sticks

2010-02-17T08:00:00.003-07:00

Before we move completely away from the Lion House Recipes Lite cookbook, I thought I would share this recipe from the same book, which I made as an accompaniament to the super hamburger soup. These breadsticks were a huge hit, and will no doubt be appearing regularly on our menu in the future.

These are fairly easy to prepare, although they require a little planning ahead (as with any yeast bread).

Soft Bread Sticks

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 cups flour

Yellow or white corn meal

1 egg white

1 tablespoon water

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Stir in sugar, salt, and oil. Add 2 cups of the flour and beat until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface for 6 to 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Spray bowl with nonstick cooking spray; place dough in bowl, turning to coat all surfaces with spray. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour. Punch dough down and divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 10 inches long. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place bread sticks one inch apart on prepared sheet. Let rise, uncovered, until double in size, about 45 minutes. Beat egg white with 1 tablespoon water; brush over bread sticks. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a large shallow pan filled with boiling water on the lowest rack of the oven, and put the baking sheet with the bread sticks on the middle rack. Bake bread sticks for 10 minutes, brush again with egg white, and bake 5 more minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12 bread sticks.

Note: I doubled the recipe because I knew everyone at our table would want at least two breadsticks. One egg white was sufficient for both batches. As an experiment, I basted the breadsticks with butter mixed with Johnny's garlic seasoning just as they came out of the oven. It made them taste like Olive Garden breadsticks. They are also good with just butter or not basted at all (this is a "lite" cook book, after all).

The Cook Book Challenge/Super Hamburger Soup

2010-02-15T10:01:00.002-07:00

We have a problem at our house. We are addicted to cook books. We have a special place in our kitchen for our cook book library, but it is overflowing. We have already weeded out the duplicates--cookbooks that Bob and I both had copies of when we married. But we've slowly acquired enough that there's no more room in the cook book cupboard.

You see what I mean. Some of these cookbooks have never actually been used; others have not been used for a very long time. Our challenge for the next year (or two): weed out the collection by trying recipes from each and every one of them. Those that have at least one worthwhile recipe will be kept; others will be tossed (or more likely, given away).

The first candidate is Lion House Recipes Lite by Melba Davis, published in 1996. The Lion House is a cafeteria-style comfort food restaurant in Salt Lake City. It has nostalgic value for a lot of locals, and also is known for the quality of its homestyle food. I think my sister gave me this cook book several years ago as a gift--it's a copy signed by the author, even. But it's been severely underutilized in our house.

This book may be out of print, but there are a number of copies available on Amazon for as little as $2.98 plus shipping. I tried the Super Hamburger Soup because it sounded hearty but healthy, and also because it used ingredients that we had on hand. There are a number of other recipes that I marked to try in upcoming weeks, though. So I think this book is already a keeper.

We all agreed that the soup was good, but not destined to become a family favorite. The hamburger made it a little boring. But it was delicious on a cold night and filled everyone up--not always easy to do on soup night.

Super Hamburger Soup

1 1/2 pounds extra-lean ground beef

2 onions, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 cans (14.5 ounces) chopeed stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

4 cups water (I substituted beef broth because I was afraid the soup wouldn't be flavorful enough)

4 medium carrots, sliced

2 large potatoes, diced

1 can (16 ounces) corn, undrained (I substituted two cups of frozen corn)

1 can (15 ounces) red kidney beans, undrained

1 can (15 ounces) baby lima beans or garbanzos, undrained

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 zucchini, sliced

Cook ground beef, onions, celery, and green pepper in a large pot until meat is brown and crumbly and onion is translucent. Drain. Add tomatoes with liquid, tomato paste, water, carrots, potatoes, corn, kidney beans, lima beans or garbanzos, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, about 20 minutes. Add zucchini and cook another 10 to 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Makes 12 servings.

The recipe encouraged experimentation with herbs such as basil, marjoram, thyme and bay leaves in order to add more flavor; I added a little bit of each of them (well, actually quite a lot of basil), and it made for a richer soup.

Now on to the cook book challenge!

Sydney Sinful Sunday/Amy's Chocolate Sauce

2010-02-13T15:53:00.001-07:00

At least this started out to be a Sydney Sinful Sunday, Bob's favorite dessert from Outback restaurant, which they no longer offer on their menu.

Bob and I decided a few years ago that dining out on Valentine's Day was an act of insanity. I have an unhappy memory of being in Detroit on February 14th a couple of years before we were married. I was on expenses, so price wasn't too much of an issue. I tried a number of nice restaurants only to be told that the wait was ridiculously long or that they just plain didn't have tables. I tried a number of cheap but tasty restaurants that I figured would be unpopular on that day. I was wrong. I finally ended up eating some really bad Thai food, and quickly realized why that particular restaurant had plenty of space.

As an alternative, we take turns cooking a nice dinner for each other. We feed the kids something simple and then send them to the basement (it's carpeted and heated and has a big-screen TV, so it's not as cruel as it sounds). Then we prepare a nice meal and eat it by candle light, just the two of us.

This year was my turn. We celebrated on Friday, since Saturday and Sunday were looking ridiculously busy. I made a menu of knock off dishes, including this one. I made ice cream balls using premium vanilla ice cream (Dreyer's double vanilla, to be precise). I rolled the balls in toasted coconut (put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes and stir it whenever it starts to look brown on top) and then refroze it. Then we assembled the dessert with the requisite strawberries, whipped cream and the chocolate sauce. The chocolate sauce is a recipe I got from my friend Amy. She gave me a batch of this together with some ice cream a couple of years ago for my birthday, and we've been making it ever since. If you were a fan of the SSS (Sydney Sinful Sundae), this is the closest thing we've found to their sauce. If you never tried the dessert, you'll love this anyway.

Amy's Chocolate Sauce
2 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt chocolate and butter in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir in remaining ingredients, except vanilla. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth. Stir in vanilla. Makes about 2 cups.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

2010-02-10T07:45:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking lately about a kind of cookie I made when I was a kid. I remembered that it had both oatmeal and coconut in it, and that I loved it. Recently our friends Steve and Laura gave us a HUGE bag of white chocolate chips. This cookie seemed like the perfect opportunity to use them.

I found this recipe on recipezaar.com. It called for raisins, which didn't sound that great for my raisin-boycotting family. So I substituted the white chocolate chips, which were dreamy with this particular combination of flavors. Also, after the first time I made it, I realized that the recipe didn't call for salt, and it really seemed to need it. So you'll see my modified version of the recipe below.

The comments on the recipezaar version noted that the recipe made huge quantities of cookies. I didn't find it to be all that outlandishly volumnious, but then again, there are nine people in our household and we like to make our cookies a little on the large side. The recipe probably made between 2-3 dozen of generous-sized cookies.

Also, watch the cooking time. These aren't good if they're over done.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl, cream shortening, butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until blended.

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients except coconut and chocolate chips. When all other dry ingredients are blended, add the coconut and the chocolate chips. Combine wet and dry ingredients until moist.

Drop on a greased cookie sheet about 1-2 inches apart (I make them the size of a generous teaspoon). Bake for ten minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven immediately.

Tortilla Land Uncooked Flour Tortillas

2010-02-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here's another product favorite - Tortilla Land uncooked flour tortillas, available at Costco and other fine stores. We use these so much that we almost always have them on hand. They are, of course, uncooked tortillas that you can brown yourself on a frying pan. This gives you perfect fresh made tortillas without any special equipment, and without the time and effort it would take to make them yourself.

We use these at least weekly for burritos, Mexican salads, breakfast burritos, and other delicacies. They're easy to prepare. So easy, in fact, that the kids compete over who gets to cook them. Here's what they look like in progress:

The tortilla pan is actually another of my favorite products, but I think we found it in a bin in one of the local Mexican markets, so I can't really tell you where to buy it.

Stuffed Mushrooms

2010-02-01T08:00:00.001-07:00

I've noticed that most people tend to have strong feelings one way or another about mushrooms. They either love them or they really don't. These stuffed mushrooms are hard to beat, and are really quite easy to make.

There are endless variations for the stuffing. We like seafood because it's a little lighter than sausage or bacon. But if your going for all out richness, substitute your favorite processed pork product and enjoy!

Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms

About 12 large mushrooms

1 small can broken shrimp and/or

1 small can crab meat

4 ounces or so of softened cream cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1-2 teaspoons worchestershire sauce

1/3 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

3 Tablespoon. butter

1 teaspoon finely minced garlic

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash mushrooms thoroughly and remove stems. Slice off the woody ends of the stems and discard. Chop the stems very finely and place in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the shrimp and/or crab, the cream cheese, parmesan cheese, worchestershire sauce and breadcrumbs. Melt the butter and sautee the garlic in it for about ten seconds. Place the mushroom caps hollow-side up in a baking dish. Put a heaping tablespoon of filling in each mushroom. When all mushrooms are filled, drizzle garlic butter over the top of them. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Corn Bread

2010-01-29T08:00:00.003-07:00

This side dish was born of desperation because I got home from a dentist appointment with one of the kids too late to make yeast bread. Corn bread is something that can be made quickly. It proved a wonderful change of pace. And, since this is a Marie Callendar-style corn bread (meaning it's quite sweet, almost more of a corn cake than a corn bread), it put smiles on faces all around the table. It's also heavy enough to fill everyone up on soup night.

Corn Bread
2 cups flour
2 cups corn meal
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons baking powder
2 eggs
2 cups milk
2/3 cup oil

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir until they are thoroughly combined. Pour in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan and bake for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

2010-01-27T08:00:00.005-07:00

David chose chocolate pecan pie for his birthday dessert. He is old enough now that we can't afford a candle for every year. One candle also looked much prettier than 19.

Previously, I did not have a chocolate pecan pie recipe. Bob and I had eaten it a few times at Mimis, and it's one of the desserts that he seems to get cravings for. My dad requested a pecan pie for Thanksgiving dinner, so I made one using this recipe, which I discovered on my friend Kip's blog. (I tried the Dear Abby's version because I didn't plan ahead very well and wasn't sure I had a full pound of brown sugar). I actually think it is the best-tasting pecan pie I've ever had.

Every time I've made the pie since then, Bob has magically appeared at the perfect time to drop in a handfull of chocolate chips. This seemed to delight everyone, so last night I carefully placed the chips on the bottom of the pie. You can't see them, but they're there and they are delicious. I recommend warming the pie and putting vanilla ice cream on top.

1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
9-inch unbaked pie crust
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 heaping cup pecan halves

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine corn syrup, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, and vanilla; mix well. Place pie crust in a pie plate and scatter chocolate chips on top of the pie crust. Pour filling into unbaked pie crust; sprinkle with pecan halves. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until center is set. If crust or pie gets too brown, cover with foil for remaining baking time.

Carne Asada Salad

2010-01-27T08:00:00.004-07:00

As with many salads, this is more of a salad idea than a recipe.

Another favorite family meal is carne asada burritos. This meal has been made possible by the proliferation of Mexican markets in our area. It is also enabled at our house by my Spanish-speaking husband, who has thoroughly interviewed each of the butchers at the three stores nearest our home. But never fear. I don't speak Spanish and have successfully ordered the meat from the aforementioned butchers on numerous occasions with no problem. It does help to have the advance information, though.

We made carne asada burritos for our dinner group last weekend. I'll post a photo with instructions as soon as I get a good photo to post with it. A couple of days later, Bob and I used the leftover meat to make carne asada salads for lunch.

The easiest way to make carne asada is to buy the pre-seasoned meat at the market. Then you just have to grill it. We've used both diez millo preparada and ranchera preparada. Diez millo is less expensive; ranchera is a much nicer cut of meat (Bob suspects that it is very thinly sliced ribeye steak). But the diez millo is also quite tasty. Both cuts of meat are also sold without seasoning (simply diez millo or ranchera), which we use for beef teriyaki.

Carne Asada Salad
1 head romaine lettuce, cut in bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup carne asada, heated
1-2 Tablespoons green enchilada sauce
diced tomatoes or pico de gallo
Sliced avocados or guacamole
Fresh ranch dressing

Arrange salad ingredients in the order they are given. Top with ranch dressing. A word about the green enchilada sauce: we also used leftovers for this particular salad. After searching high and low for the perfect enchilada sauce, we've actually found that we like the store brands the best (Western Family, Kroger, etc.) If you look for sales, you can usually buy it for about 50 cents per can.

Bahn Mi Sandwiches

2010-01-25T08:00:00.003-07:00

Here is one of our favorite meals, staged for a photo on our favorite Correlle ware. And I haven't posted nearly as many birthday week dishes as I had hoped. What can I say? I've been busy cooking.

This is a meal that Bob prepared for Jenny's birthday. Driven by his love of Vietnamese food (see here), he figured out how to prepare Bahn Mi sandwiches. We've noticed that in large metropolitan areas, Bahn Mi's are quite hip, especially in areas like southern California where there are large Vietnamese populations. There are entire sandwich shops devoted to them. There are only one or two places in all of Utah to purchase them, so we make our own.

One thing I love about this meal is its historical significance. When I first heard of this dish I wondered how an Asian sandwich could be required to be on a French baguette. Then I remembered the French colonization of Vietnam in the first half of the 20th century. This is surely one of the best things that came out of that relationship.

At most of the Bahn Mi shops we've visited, the sandwiches are spread with chicken pate. Bob's not a fan of pate, so we make them without. When you eat this, you will see why it's Jenny's favorite meal. It's a combination of flavors that is unique and unbeatable.

Bahn Mi Sandwiches

2 pounds of pork shoulder, thinly sliced (we have found thinly sliced pork butt steaks or chops that are cheap and that worked quite well. You can also buy thinly sliced pork at the Mexican market. Or have the butcher thin-slice a butt or shoulder roast for you. This works a lot better if the roast is boneless.)

8 cloves of garlic, minced
4 Tablespoons of sugar
5 tablespoons fish sauce (this is available at all Asian markets and some super markets. It stinks, but trust me when I say you will like the finished product)
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Mix all of the ingredients except the pork. Stir well. Marinate the pork in the sauce for several hours. Then grill until lightly browned on the barbecue. Chop into small pieces.

Sandwich ingredients (in order of application):

A baguette, cut in half length-wise

Mayonnaise, spread on one side of the baguette
Grilled Pork, place on top of the mayonnaise
Cilantro, put a thin layer of leaves over the pork
Pickled carrots - marinate matchstick-sized carrots in the nuoc cham sauce
Nuoc cham sauce, see recipe below

On the other side of baguette:
Soy sauce, drizzled across the bread
Cucumber - layer a thin row of thinly sliced cucumbers
Red onion - thinly sliced, layered over the cucumbers
Black pepper - sprinkle over vegetables

Nuoc Cham Sauce
(Note: This is also an incredible egg roll dip)
¼ cup sugar

Juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup fish sauce
½ cup water
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, thinly sliced or julienned (depending on your preference)
1-2 teaspoons chili paste

Mix together and drizzle over the sandwich. You will wonder how in the world something that smells like that can taste so good.

Dipping Sauce

2010-01-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite recipe acquisition stories ever. A few years ago we invited a few friends over for a potluck dinner. One couple volunteered to bring the bread and they thought it would be a great idea to also bring a Carrabba's-style dipping sauce. The husband set to work trying to replicate the recipe from one of everyone's favorite Italian restaurants. "Why don't you just call them and ask them what they put in it?" the wife asked.

"They'll never tell me that," replied the husband. The wife got on the phone and asked the hostess who answered the phone, "Can you tell me what's in your dipping sauce?"

The hostess put her on hold for a moment and then came back. "I'm only going to say this once," she said, "and I'm going to go fast. Write it down." She then listed off the ingredients, if not the proportions, of their herb mix.

I'm quite sure that we don't have the perfect Carrabba's proportions, either, and we use dry herbs instead of fresh because they store much easier. So I won't go on record as calling it Carrabba's sauce. But it's good. You'll like it.

Italian Dipping Sauce
Granulated garlic (or mince fresh garlic over the final mix as you serve it)
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper
Rosemary
Oregano
Basil
Parsley
Salt

I usually mix in a teaspoon or so of each (except for the cayenne and maybe the black pepper, which I do to taste) which makes enough for several meals, even with our tribe. Just store it in an airtight container.There are wonderful ways to vary this recipe. Sometimes I minimize the granulated garlic and then add a bit of fresh minced garlic when it's served. I've also added a little bit of grated parmesan at serving time.

Ham Pasta

2010-01-20T20:50:00.001-07:00

As you may be able to guess from the plate featured in this photo, this is birthday week at our house. Not one, not two, but three kids have birthdays in a period of five days. It's exhausting but fun and it's also a major food fest.

The tradition in our family is that the birthday person gets to choose a special breakfast, a special dinner and a favorite dessert. Anna was overjoyed to discover this year that her birthday fell on a school holiday, so she was also allowed to choose what we had for lunch. Usually the kids choose family favorites. We know that a meal is getting a figurative big thumbs up when we try something new and the kids say something like, "This is birthday dinner material!" So I'll try to feature a few of our birthday favorites over the next couple of weeks.

I was actually surprised that this dish made the birthday list this year. It's an often-requested dish but it's a little on the simple side to qualify for the usual birthday meal standards. But Anna realized that we hadn't had it for a long time and settled on it as her birthday choice even after I offered her what I thought were more alluring options.

I sort of made this recipe up. I say sort of because it was inspired by a sauce that one of my Italian friends used to make when I lived in Sicily about 30 years ago. It's not especially healthy but it's simple and delicious and, I might add, a great way to use up leftover ham.

Ham Pasta
2 c. diced ham
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 c. shredded mozzarella
1/2 c. frozen peas
½ c. grated parmesean

Cooked and drain pasta while you are preparing the sauce.

Cook ham, onion and garlic in skillet in a small amount of oil. As ham begins to brown, pour in cream and stir. Add mozzarella and frozen peas. Cook until well-blended, about ten minutes. Simmer on low heat for 10 to fifteen minutes. Add grated parmesean cheese. Stir until smooth. Stir in drained pasta and stir until pasta is coated. Serves about 8.

Cabbage Nut Salad

2010-01-18T08:00:00.001-07:00

Cabbage was on sale today at the local supermarket for a very good price. I bought one head to make stuffed cabbage rolls for dinner tomorrow night, and bought an extra one just because it was cheap (and remarkably healthy).

I found this recipe, which was actually quite a hit with my family. The soy flavor of the dressing was a little too intense, and I will scale it back a little next time. But the crunch of the nuts and the cabbage seem like the perfect complement to any Asian meal.

Cabbage Nut Salad

1 cabbage, cut into thin strips

1/3 cup sliced almonds

1/3 cup roasted sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 teaspoons sugar

Fry almonds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds in a small, hot frying pan until they are toasted (be careful not to burn them). Mix cabbage and nuts together in a large bowl.

Make the dressing by mixing the oil, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl or in a jar with a lid on it. Microwave the dressing for one minute and stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and nuts and toss well. Let the salad marinate in teh refrigerator for a few hours before serving.

Brown Rice Pilaf

2010-01-16T08:00:00.002-07:00

A few months ago we decided to buy some brown rice for the sake of our health. Not long after that, we realized that we had no idea how to cook brown rice. This started us on the search for brown rice recipes. We tried it simply boiled; while this was certainly bearable, it wasn't something that called out to anyone. We discovered this brown rice pilaf recipe and, voila-- everyone likes brown rice.

We've eaten this as a side dish with many different entrees, but perhaps our favorite combination is this recipe with chicken stir fry. This recipe serves 4 to 6 people; I usually make one and a half times the amount here.

Brown Rice Pilaf
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup long grain brown rice (not instant)
2 1/2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

In a medium-size sauce pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring until onion is golden, about five minutes. Add rice and saute for 1 minute.

Add broth and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 50 to 60 minutes. Uncover rice and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Chicken Stir Fry

2010-01-15T08:00:00.003-07:00

My last post was on Kirkland Stir Fry Vegetables, so it's no surprise that this post is an actual stir fry recipe.

This recipe grew out of our desire to both eat healthier food and eat more Chinese food. We found this recipe somewhere on line and have (of course) modified it a bit. We usually use the Kirkland mix for most of the veggies, although we have made it from scratch, which gives you a lot more control over which vegetables are actually included.We've tried it with both chicken and beef; both are good, although we still need to perfect the beef version. We also like to add a handful of cashews just before we serve it. As with most Chinese dishes, we prefer this one over steamed white rice or a lovely brown rice pilaf.

Chicken Stir Fry

1 bunch broccoli

1 sweet red bell pepper

2 large green onions or 1 medium yellow onion, julienned

3 chicken breast halves

1/2 cup chicken stock (divided)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon oyster sauce (available in the Asian section of most grocery stores)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Dash of dried red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried ginger

1/4 cup cashew nuts (optional)

Chop vegetables into thin strips. Cut chicken into thin strips. Set aside.
Whisk together 1/4 cup of the chicken stock, soy sauce, cornstarch, oyster sauce, sesame oil and red pepper flakes; set aside.
Heat wok or deep skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; heat for 30 seconds, swirling to coat pan. Stir-fry half the chicken for 3-4 minutes or until no longer pink inside; remove and set aside. Repeat with remaining chicken, adding some of the remaining oil if necessary. Add to reserved chicken.
Add remaining oil to wok. Stir-fry garlic and ginger for 10 seconds or until fragrant; avoid overcooking because the garlic will burn and become bitter. Add vegetables and stir fry for two minutes. Pour in remaining chicken stock; cover and steam. Stir once; cook for two minutes or until broccoli is tender crisp.
Stir chicken back into wok; push to side of pan. Pour soy mixture into the center of the wok; cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Stir chicken mixture into sauce until coated. Sprinkle with cashew nuts. Serve over rice.

Favorite Things: Kirkland Stir Fry Vegetables

2010-01-13T20:25:00.002-07:00

This year I'd like to try something new by posting occasionally on food-related or cooking-related products that make my life easier or better. My first candidate: Kirkland Stir Fry Vegetables.

You can probably guess that feeding a large family is made much easier with a Costco membership. I had a membership there when I was single, but it was exclusively for my own entertainment. I got serious about warehouse shopping when seven children came into my life. There are many items that are never on sale at the grocery store below the every day price at Costco. There are some items that you can only get at Costco. And the product quality is generally very good.

A few months ago we discovered their frozen stir fry vegetables. This takes most of the hassle out of making a healthy dinner of meat and veggies. In addition, the mix of vegetables is much more diverse than I would ever come up with by cleaning and chopping from scratch. Who buys water chestnuts and snow peas for an every day dinner? But with the bag-o-stir fry, we simply prepare the meat, prepare the sauce, and TA DUM! Dinner is served.

The mix includes (in addition to water chestnuts and snow peas): green peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, red peppers, and a little bit of onion. I like considerably more onions in my mix than the bag provides, but it's easy enough to chop one up and toss it in.

Easy Chicken Dinner

2010-01-11T08:00:00.001-07:00

Bob tried this meal after spotting the recipe in a grocery store circular a few years ago. The name of the dish is exactly as we found it in the paper - Easy Chicken Dinner. Our family joke is that the dinner isn't really all that easy. It's not complicated, but takes a little bit of time. But it's delicious comfort food that all of us enjoy.

Easy Chicken Dinner

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded until flat

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 16-ounce carton of sour cream

1 8-ounce package of mushrooms, sliced

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season flour with salt and pepper and dredge each chicken breast in flour mixture, coating well. Heat oil in a large skillet. Brown chicken on each side in hot oil and then place in a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Mix the soup, sour cream, mushrooms, milk and cheese together in a large bowl. Pour over chicken breasts and bake for one hour. Serve over steamed white rice. Serves 6 to 8.

White Chili with Chicken

2010-01-08T16:27:00.001-07:00

This year I was asked to be a judge for our local high school's faculty cook off. Like many organizations, the school found itself short on Christmas party budget and turned the potluck into a fun event by making it a contest. Teachers and administrators were invited to bring chili and pies. I should note that I got the job because of the volunteer work I do at the school, not because of my culinary expertise.

One of the other judges told me that white chilis are especially good. Two different pots were entered in the contest, and they were both excellent. I liked them enough that I searched out a recipe to try it at home. This one isn't exactly like my favorite at the party, but it was very good and was a big hit with the kids. I started with a recipe from Betty Crocker's More Slow Cooker Recipes and adapted based on some online versions.

White Chili with Chicken
1 pound boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, cut into strips
1 cup dried great northern beans, sorted and rinsed
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup
5 cups water
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can (4.5 ounces) chopped green chiles, undrained
1/2 cup frozen corn

Mix chicken, beans, onion, garlic, oregano, salt, soup and water in 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat setting 8 to 10 hours or until beans are tender and chicken is no longer pink in the center.

Just before serving, stir in cumin, chiles and corn. Serve with corn chips and top with grated colby jack cheese.

Vietnamese Glazed Pork Chops

2010-01-05T21:19:00.000-07:00

We got a new cookbook over the holidays. American Express gave away the 2009 Food and Wine Annual Cookbook to card members who were willing to pay shipping. We are always easily persuaded to indulge in free cookbooks, so we signed up and have been pleasantly surprised. The book now has lots of little post it pages on recipes that we'd like to try in the future.

This was Bob's first effort. I have learned from him to love Vietnamese food. This dish reminded me of a pork chop that we've eaten at our favorite New York Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon Grill on the upper west side. We tried a similar dish at a restaurant in Salt Lake last week. While Bob felt that these pork chops weren't perfect for the dish (they were a little on the thick side), I thought the flavor was remarkable. We cut the meat into strips to make it easier to manage with chopsticks.

Vietnamese Glazed Skinny Pork Chops
(Serves 4)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup Asian fish sauce (available at Asian or international grocery stores)
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium shallots, very finely chopped
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
8 think-cut pork loin chops on the bone (about 6 ounces each)
Salt
1/4 cup chopped salted peanuts

In a large bowl, combine the vegetable oil with the honey, fish sauce, garlic, shallots and pepper. Add the pork chops, turn to coat thoroughly with the marinade and refrigerate over night.

Light a grill. Lightly season the pork chops with salt. Brush the grill with oil and cook the pork chops over very high heat until nicely charred and just cooked through, about three minutes per side. Scatter the peanuts on top and serve right away over Jasmine rice.

Pizza!

2010-01-04T15:01:00.002-07:00

Homemade pizza is probably our family's favorite meal. Our teenage kids have been known to change plans and stay home (on weekend nights, even) when they hear we are having pizza. We've tried a variety of toppings. In a later post (after we make them again), I'll include the recipes for our Chicken Feta Basil pizza and Bob's barbecue chicken pizza. I'll also try to post the recipe for the somewhat involved pizza sauce that I make from garden produce and bottle every summer.

The first time we made pizza at home was with the help of our friends Blake and Catherine, who are true experts. They introduced us to the magic of the pizza stone (which we had stored in our pantry since our wedding but had never used). We've actually gone through several stones in the meantime, and now have two that are well seasoned and well used--they are also great for baking bread, giving the finished product a lovely crust. See here, for example.

Our crust recipe has evolved somewhat over time as we've experimented with and combined different recipes. This recipe makes three large pizzas, which is usually enough to feed our crew for dinner and a rewarmed snack the next day (warm the pizza on the pizza stone for best results).

Pizza Crust
2 T. + ¼ t. instant yeast (if you aren't using instant yeast, activate the yeast in the warm water. Adding the sugar will make it come to life faster).
2 ½ cups warm water
2 ½ t. sugar
2 ½ t. salt
5 T. olive oil
6 ¼ cups flour

Mix together in stand mixer or large bowl; knead for 7-8 minutes. Let rise until double. Divide into three equal portions and roll out flat (we make them as close as possible to the size of the pizza stone). Add sauce and toppings and bake at 550 degrees for about six minutes.

We have found that order matters when it comes to toppings. Here is the preferred order for our three most frequently made pizzas. Use any basic tomato or pizza sauce for the sauce. We prefer grated mozzarella cheese, which we buy in bulk from Costco and then freeze in smaller portions.

Sausage/Mushroom Pizza: Crust – 1 ½ ladles of sauce – cheese – sausage – mushrooms – onions – cheese

Combination Pizza: Crust – 1 ½ ladles sauce – cheese – sausage - onions – mushrooms – peppers – sliced olives - pepperoni – cheese

Pepperoni Pizza: Crust – 1 ½ ladles sauce – cheese – pepperoni – cheese

Here is a photo of Bob's fine assembly work on a combination pizza just before it goes in the oven (although we do put another layer of cheese on). As you can see from the photo, we use a wooden pizza peel covered with corn meal as the base for the pizza. This allows it to slide easily onto the pizza stone, which we pre-heat for 30 minutes or so in the oven.

Mimi's Buttermilk Spice Muffins

2010-01-02T08:00:00.001-07:00

One of my earliest posts last year was about finding the recipe for Mimi's corn chowder on the Mimi's website. We were also happy to discover the recipe for their buttermilk spice muffins. I have to confess that I've never actually made this recipe. However, Bob has perfected it. This week he found some oversized muffin tins at a very good price, so now they're ready to be shown off in public.

I should note that they work perfectly well in standard-size tins, but they aren't quite as pretty (and don't make you think you're actually at Mimi's quite as much).

Mimi's Buttermilk Spice Muffins

Muffin Batter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk

Nut Topping

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Grease baking tins with butter or margarine.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and the butter together with an electric mixer. When they are thoroughly mixed, add eggs and beat one more minute.

Sift the flour into a separate bowl, together with the baking soda, nutmeg and the cinnamon. Add the flour and the buttermilk. Mix at low speed until smooth. To avoid lumps in the batter, add the wet and dry ingredients alternately, in small amounts.

Make the nut topping by combining all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full of batter. Add a full, rounded tablespoon of nut topping on top of each muffin cup of batter. Bake immediately or the topping will sink to the bottom of the muffin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Recipe yields 12 standard-size muffins or six jumbo muffins. If using the jumbo muffin pans, reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees and increase the baking time by 5-10 minutes.

Anniversary Chicken

2009-12-31T10:56:00.001-07:00

Almost exactly a year ago I had one of those desperate evenings when I had no idea what to make for dinner. I browsed a couple of recipe sites for ideas and found this dish that happened to include ingredients that we happened to have on hand. When Bob looked at the recipe, he said, "Sounds like a teenage boy's dream come true--teriyaki sauce, ranch dressing, bacon, cheese--what more could they want?" And in fact, our son asked for it a couple of weeks later for his eighteenth birthday dinner.

I passed the recipe on to my sister-in-law, Marianne. I don't think I made it again. Last week Mari asked why the recipe wasn't on the blog. "Because I never make it," I said. She said that she makes it all the time and felt that it should be shared with the rest of the world, so I made it for dinner the other night and was pleasantly surprised. It was much better than I remembered.

I made a few changes this time. Instead of using straight teriyaki sauce, I thickened our usual sauce with a heaping teaspoon of cornstarch, cooked on the stove top until it thickened a bit. You can also use prepared sauce from the store; I can't recommend a particular brand, but I'd recommend something that looks thick enough to stay on the chicken. I also used our homemade ranch dressing, but commercial brands work just fine. As one last note, I used chopped, sauteed white onions for this version because that is what I had in the pantry (I sauteed them in the leftover bacon drippings). Finely chopped green onions (not sauteed) also work well and are a bit prettier, in my opinion.

Anniversary Chicken

1/3 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded flat

1 Tablespoon olive oil

3/4 cup teriyaki sauce (thicken with corn starch if necessary)

1/2 cup ranch dressing

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

3-4 green onions, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on the stove top. Fry chicken in hot oil until light brown on both sides, 3-4 minutes per side. Arrange chicken in a baking dish. Spoon the teriyaki sauce over the chicken breasts. Add a spoonful of ranch dressing to each breast and spread evenly. Top with cheese, then top with onions and bacon. Bake for about 20 minutes, then serve.

Yet Another Spinach Salad

2009-12-29T21:33:00.002-07:00

While I have posted a couple of other spinach salad recipes (see here and here), this is the original and best loved spinach salad in our family. It's taken awhile to get it just right. I started out with a mustard viniagrette dressing about which Bob was not too enthusiastic. I then made a sweeter dressing that I didn't think had enough personality. But a couple of days ago I found what might be the perfect combination for our family. It's an easy dressing with just the right combination of tanginess and sweetness.

As with many salad recipes, there are endless variations. I've listed some of our favorite ingredients below. We mix and match according to what we have on hand and what seems to look the prettiest. The kids agree that the essential ingredients are bacon (of course), eggs and cheese. And of course, spinach.

Spinach Salad
6-8 cups fresh spinach, stems removed
1-2 mushrooms, thinly sliced
5-6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
3-4 radishes, thinly sliced
1/3 to 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1-2 carrots, shredded or thinly sliced
1/2 cup mozzarella or cheddar cheese, grated
2-3 hard boiled eggs, sliced

Mix all ingredients except the eggs in a large mixing bowl. You can actually chop up the eggs and mix them in if you like; I think they look great sliced and placed on top. Toss all the ingredients with the dressing (recipe below). Top with the eggs if you chose not to mix them in.

Spinach Salad Dressing
1/2 cup creamy salad dressing (e.g. Miracle
Whip®)
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon poppy seeds

Transfer to a serving dish and serve.

Pomegranate - Avocado Salsa

2009-12-23T17:00:00.002-07:00

I admit to being a little bit sheepish about posting this appetizer. I got it from a friend a few years ago, and it took me awhile to persuade her to share it. She had obtained the recipe from a friend who felt it was hers. But it's got the most incredible flavors, and when you don't use mushy tomatoes (see above), it's downright beautiful. The perfect accompaniament for it seems to be Fritos (the big brown things sticking out of the middle of it, which was intended to be decorative). I like the larger Scoops version of Fritos because you can fit more salsa in the middle for a more diverse bite.

The colors make this a perfect Christmas appetizer (that and the fact that winter is pomegranate season). Perhaps the most difficult part of this recipe is seeding the pomegranate. The first time I tried it, I think the kitchen was almost completely pink with pomegranate juice. For a video that shows you an easy way to do it, see here.

Pomegranate-Avocado Salsa

1 ripe avocado, diced small
1 large tomato, diced small
1 T. finely chopped onion
1/4 t. ground coriander
1/2 t. salt
1 T. lemon juice
1/8 t. cayenne pepper (more if you like it spicy)
Seeds of one pomegranate

Mix all ingredients together. Serve with large Fritos corn chips or Fritos Scoops.

Shrimp Dip

2009-12-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here it is, another remarkably simple appetizer that won't embarrass you, even in the nicest settings (unless someone's allergic to shell fish). This is a favorite of my dad's. We served it last night at a family party.

Shrimp Dip
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 bottle of cocktail sauce
1 6-ounce can of tiny shirmp

Spread the cream cheese evenly on a plate. I like to leave rather deep fork marks on the cheese so that it makes ridges for the cocktail sauce to settle into. Pour cocktail sauce over the cheese. I often only use about 3/4 of the bottle because I don't want it to be overpowering. Then sprinkle the tiny shrimp over the top. We usually serve this dip with an average sort of cracker such as Town House or Ritz; you don't want to use anything too flavorful or it will clash with the flavor of the dip.

Clam Dip

2009-12-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

In honor of appetizer week, here's a recipe that we recently tried straight off of the clam can. It's a simple yet lovely dip that is a little more elegant than average.

The dip is shown here with a potato chip, the scoop of choice mentioned on the can. However, we found that the saltiness and greasiness of the chip overpowered the more subtle flavors of the dip. We tried some spread on baguette slices and liked it much better.

The recipe came from a can of Snow's clams. I've read other places that Snow's is an excellent brand in comparison to others; since I'm using their recipe, the least I can do is give them credit!

Clam Dip

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1 6-ounce can minced clams, drained, reserving

2 tablespoons clam juice

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce

In a small mixing bowl, beat cheese, sour cream and reserved clam juice until smooth and well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover, chill thoroughly. Serve with sliced baguettes. Refrigerate leftover dip.

Ham Rolls

2009-12-19T08:00:00.002-07:00

This is another favorite that we generally only make around Christmas. This was a recipe I learned from my sister Pat that my children have enthusiastically embraced. We always make a lot of these, and they never last very long. They're a simple yet beautiful little delicacy.

Ham Rolls

1 package deli or sandwich sliced ham
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
Green onion stems or chives

Spread a thin coat of cream cheese on each ham slice. Lay the green part of an onion stem (or chive) on the slice. Role the ham slice like a jelly roll or sweet rolls. Chill ham rolls for 1-2 hours, then slice into 3/4 –inch segments.

Pigs in a Blanket

2009-12-17T08:00:00.002-07:00

One of our favorite holiday traditions is hosting an appetizer dinner party on Christmas Eve. We invite everyone from any side of our family. Half of the fun is thinking in the weeks preceding Christmas about all the many appetizers we can make.

This particular appetizer is a favorite with kids. It's also easy enough that our kids can make it. It's probably a stretch to even call it a recipe, but I'll include a recipe for honey mustard dipping sauce just to keep everything on the up and up. Other favorite dipping sauces include barbecue sauce or mandarin sauce. The kids insist that ketchup is also really good with them, but I haven't been able to bring myself to try it.

Pigs in a Blanket
1 package cocktail sausages, such as Little Smokies
2-3 packages pop out crescent rolls

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Open the packages of crescent rolls. Cut each perforated roll into three roughly triangular sections. Wrap a cocktail sausage in each section of roll. Seal it carefully and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and serve them while they're hot!

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
Mix honey and mustard and serve alongside Pigs in a Blanket

Ranch Dressing

2009-12-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I was playing Scattegories with the kids. The letter we rolled was "R" and one of the categories was "beverage." Anna, who is eight, wrote "Ranch" as her answer. And given the way ranch dressing is treated in our home, we let her count it as being correct.

While the kids are ranch fiends and will consume incredible quantities of it in almost any form, Bob and I are what you might call ranch snobs. This is our new favorite home made version. We make vats of it (I am not making this up), but have scaled back the quantity to a level more appropriate to the average ranch consumer.

Ranch Dressing
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
3/4 teaspoon granulated onion
Dash white pepper

Combine the above ingredients and mix well. Then add:

6.5 ounces buttermilk (yes, it helps to have a kitchen scale. If you don't have one, use a little over 3/4 cup)

Add these ingredients and mix well:

13 ounces mayonnaise (a little less than 1 1/2 cups)
8 ounces sour cream (one cup)

Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Easy Cheesy Rolls

2009-12-11T08:00:00.002-07:00

These rolls were inspired by the breadsticks served at Magleby's, a local restaurant. We tried a similar version at a party and decided to give them a whirl. They are delicious and easy, although not particularly healthy. Our kids love them; I may have worked myself out of the real roll-making business for awhile.

The "recipe" gives you general directions; one of the beauties of this recipe is that as long as you have a bag of Rhodes or other frozen rolls, some butter, grated parmesan and Johnny's garlic seasoning and spread (available at Costco), you can make as many or as few as you like.

Easy Cheesy Rolls

Rhodes or other frozen roll dough

Melted butter - I used about 3/4 of a cube to make 24 rolls

Grated parmesan cheese - I used about two cups to make 24 rolls

Johnny's garlic seasoning and spread (I used about 1/2 cup for 24 rolls)

Thaw the rolls until they are soft but before they have begun to rise, about two hours. Immerse each roll in melted butter, then roll in parmesan cheese. Finally, roll the dough lightly in the garlic seasoning. Allow rolls to continue rising in a warm place for another hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until the rolls are light golden brown.

Mandarin Sauce

2009-12-09T08:00:00.003-07:00

I got this recipe a few years ago when I was on the committee to plan a church dinner. We served ham, and one of the other committee members contributed the recipe for this sauce. I stored the recipe away for a few years until one Sunday when we discovered that the particular brand of spiral sliced ham that I had prepared didn't come with a seasoning packet. I quickly found the recipe and whipped it up; we haven't used seasoning packets since.

This sauce has a number of alternate uses. It's great on chicken nuggets for a quick kids meal. Since the recipe makes quite a bit more than we ever eat as a ham sauce in a single meal, we also often make a quick meal a few days later by adding some stir fried chicken, pineapple chunks, green pepper and onions for sweet and sour chicken. It's great served over white or fried rice.

Mandarin Sauce
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
½ cup cider vinegar
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped green pepper
½ cup crushed pineapple (juice and all)
1 ½ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ginger
Dash red cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon corn starch
1/4 cup water

Combine all ingredients except water and cornstarch in a blender and puree until liquified. Transfer to a small saucepan, bring to a boil, then let simmer for 20 minutes. Mix cornstarch with 1/4 cup water and add to the sauce; bring to a boil and cook until it thickens, about five minutes.

Buttermilk Pie

2009-12-07T10:51:00.002-07:00

This is a dessert that we learned how to make out of sheer frugality. A local restaurant used to have a lovely dessert parlor that served cake, pie, ice cream, etc. It was a great but somewhat expensive place to stop after an evening out. We loved their buttermilk pie the first time we tried it; we liked it enough that we went back several times. After a few visits, Bob calculated how many complete pies we could make for the price of one store-bought slice. We searched the internet and found many, many recipes. We combined, experimented, modified and came up with this as our final version.

I love buttermilk as a beverage, but if you aren't a fan, don't shy away from this pie. It has a mild, custardy taste. It's another recipe that's extremely easy to make, but dresses up well for a party or guests. We prefer it warm, but it can easily be heated in the microwave for a few seconds if your schedule doesn't work out to take it out of the oven just before serving. Then top it with whipped cream and the berries of your choice. Thaw the berries ahead of time so that there's a little juice to drip over the cream.

Buttermilk Pie

1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch single crust pie (for my viewpoint on the make vs. buy decision on pie crusts, see here.)
1 ¼ cups white sugar
¼ cup all purpose flour
2 c. buttermilk
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
¼ c. butter

Mix sugar and flour. Add buttermilk, beaten eggs, vanilla. Melt the butter over low heat. Add to buttermilk mixture and mix well. Pour into pie crust and bake at 360 degrees for 80-90 minutes or until brown on top. I know that 80 to 90 minutes sounds like a very long time to cook. Even then, it will probably still jiggle when you take it out. But it will settle into a solid pie. Leave it in until the top starts to brown a little. Then take it out and let it rest awhile before serving.

Also, I've never tried this with soured milk (milk with vinegar or lemon juice added). I've substituted that combination for other recipes that call for buttermilk, but I've always used the real thing for this recipe.

Meatloaf Sandwiches

2009-12-02T08:00:00.002-07:00

No one believes me when I tell them they're going to like meatloaf sandwiches. But almost always after just one try, they are convinced.

Meatloaf sandwiches are a great use of meatloaf leftovers. Believe it or not, they are better when the meatloaf is cold. I like mine very plain--Miracle Whip or mayonnaise, meatloaf, and classic white bread. Bob, of course has improved upon my original "recipe." Here's his list of preferred ingredients.

Meatloaf Sandwich
2 slices white bread
Miracle Whip or Mayonnaise spread of both slices of bread (he did a taste test between the two today, which I believe was inconclusive)
Enough 1/4-inch sliced meatloaf to cover the bread
1 or 2 slices of dill pickle
1 or 2 slices of cheddar cheese
1 leaf of romaine lettuce (although I'm sure iceberg would also suffice)
Thinly sliced rings of red onion

Here's a photo to illustrate his construction process:

Best Ever Meat Loaf

2009-11-30T08:00:00.003-07:00

Let's face it: most people don't find meat loaf all that exciting. This recipe has changed all of that for my family. With a couple of exceptions, we all look forward to this dinner. It's a good winter meal because it's hearty. We have actually served this to guests with very favorable results.

There are a variety of ways to serve it. Bob likes to dress up the meatloaf by putting it on a thick-sliced piece of French bread, grilled with butter and parmesan cheese on it. He then drizzles a little barbecue sauce over the top. At other times, we serve it with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy for true comfort food. It's also a substantial meal on its own with a salad or side of mixed vegetables.

This recipe makes quite a lot. We make it in our industrial-size loaf pan that is roughly equivalent to two standard loaf pans. Our family eats about three quarters of this in one meal. If you're cooking for fewer people, you may want to reduce the recipe. But be sure to make enough so that you have leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches!

Best Ever Meatloaf

3 Tbs. butter
¾ cup onion, finely chopped
¾ cup green onion, finely chopped
½ cup carrots, finely chopped
¼ cup celery, finely chopped
¼ cup red bell pepper, minced
¼ cup green bell pepper, minced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 eggs, well beaten
½ cup ketchup
½ cup half-and-half
2 pounds lean ground beef chuck
12 ounces sausage meat (we like Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage)
¾ cup fine fresh bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a heavy skillet, and add the onion, scallions, carrots, celery, bell peppers and garlic. Cook until the moisture from the vegetables has evaporated, about 10 minutes.
Combine the black pepper, white pepper, cayenne, cumin, nutmeg and eggs in a mixing bowl, and beat well. Add the ketchup and half and half. Blend thoroughly. Add the ground beef, sausage and bread crumbs to the egg mixture. Then add the chilled vegetables and mix thoroughly with your hands.

Place the mixture evenly in a large loaf pan. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 60 minutes or until brown all the way through. Remove from oven; let rest for 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

Original Pantry Coleslaw

2009-11-27T08:00:00.003-07:00

For several years now, Bob has been telling me about the coleslaw from the Original Pantry, a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles that he frequented when he lived in southern California. He recounts that they serve coleslaw like Mexican restaurants serve chips and salsa--everyone gets it as an appetizer when they sit down.

For several years I have used an alternative coleslaw recipe that was more tangy than this one. The other night I discovered a head of cabbage in the fridge and wondered what I could do with it. I decided to try the Original Pantry recipe. When I asked the kids if they noticed any difference between this coleslaw and our usual coleslaw, one of them responded, "Yes. This one tastes good." So there you have the family editorial on my (apparently former) coleslaw recipe.

This recipe really does taste good, and has a creamy, luxurious feeling to it given that one of the ingredients is, well, cream. It's great as a salad for a picnic, or the perfect complement to barbecue (see my pulled pork recipe, for example). The original recipe calls for cabbage as the only vegetable. I added a bit of carrot because I happened to have a peeled carrot right in front of me, and I also like the color it adds.

Original Pantry Coleslaw
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 head cabbage, finely shredded (I have tried using both a food processor and a salad shooter to achieve the appropriate texture, but they both turn the cabbage into a sort of mush. I've discovered that with a high quality kitchen knife, it's actually faster to just chop it).
1 grated carrot, optional

Blend together mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, and oil. Add garlic and onion powders, mustard, celery salt, pepper, lemon juice, half-and-half, and salt. Stir until smooth.

Pour dressing over cabbage in large bowl and toss until cabbage is well coated.

Egg Salad Sandwiches

2009-11-25T08:00:00.003-07:00

This post is more of a meal idea than it is an actual recipe. This is a Sunday afternoon favorite at our house. It's an easy way to make everyone happy. Eggs have been comparatively cheap in all of the Thanksgiving sales, so we made up a batch this week.

Although some people like to keep their egg salad as little more than eggs and salad dressing or mayonnaise, we really like to put the salad in our egg salad sandwiches. Although we generally fall in the mayonnaise camp on the big mayonnaise vs. Miracle Whip debate (see here), this is one recipe that is really better with whipped salad dressing--the tanginess and sweetness are a great complement to the more neutral flavor of the eggs. So pick and choose from the ingredient possibilities below; we usually use the ones we happen to have on hand.

Also, we usually try to find fancy breads to complement our specialty sandwiches. But in this case I have to say that there's nothing like plain, white wonder-type bread from the grocery store.

Egg Salad Sandwiches

5-6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced

Choose from the following ingredients. Use 1-2 tablespoons of each and dice them small.

Celery

Yellow, red or green onions

pickles or relish (we especially like bread and butter pickles)

olives

Dressing:

1/4 cup Miracle Whip (use mayonnaise if you must, but you'll be missing out)

1-2 teaspoons yellow mustard

1 teaspoon pickle juice or cider vinegar

1/8 teaspoon celery seed

salt and pepper to taste

Thoroughly mix dressing ingredients. Add to salad ingredients and stir until coated. Spread on white, sliced bread. Serves about 8.

Cilantro Lime Rice

2009-11-23T08:00:00.001-07:00

A year or so ago the host of our dinner group planned to serve fish tacos. She asked us to try to find an alternative to traditional Mexican rice to bring as a side dish, preferably a sweet or lime rice. We tried four or five different sweet rice recipes, all of which were miserable failures.

A few months ago my friend Amanda sent this recipe, which I've modified slightly and continue to make with never a bad batch. Tonight when I made it to go with Tacos de Machaca, the kids thought it was unusually good. This is a knock off of the rice recipes served at local fresh Mex restaurants like Cafe Rio.

Cilantro-Lime Rice

1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon lime zest
2 ½ cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

Melt butter or margarine in a large saucepan. Saute onion until translucent; add garlic for the last couple of minutes. Add rice and lime zest. Saute rice until it turns opaque. Add the chicken broth mixed with lime juice and bring to a boil. Cover and cook 25-30 minutes on the lowest heat setting until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.

Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro. Place a double layer of paper towel under the lid. Let it sit for five to ten minutes.

Carrot Cake

2009-11-20T08:00:00.002-07:00

For someone who claims not to be crazy about desserts, I realize that I have been on a bit of a dessert binge recently (at least as far as blog posts are concerned). Perhaps I will break down the "Cookies and desserts" category on my blog into smaller headings so that we can all feel better about my eating habits.

Last week, Anna, Jenny and I went to harvest the last of our garden (see more about it here). We dug up tons of carrots and talked the whole time about all the things we could make with them. We all agreed that carrot cake was our first choice (Anna isn't a fan of cooked carrots). I have been using the Betty Crocker recipe, but haven't been all that happy with the results. I went looking around and found this, which I have modified a bit from the original recipe. It's good.

Carrot Cake
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 cake pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. When it's cooled, top with cream cheese frosting. We tried the recipe below, which wasn't as stiff as our usual recipe. I liked it, though, because it tasted great and was less sweet than my usual version.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake. Note: This recipe makes enough to frost the cake after it has been removed from the pan. If you put all of this on a cake that is still in the pan, prepare to be sick.

Seven (or Eight or Nine) Layer Salad

2009-11-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is a classic salad made better by a novel dressing. The classic name is Seven Layer salad, implying, of course, that there are seven layers. The version featured in the photo was made by my twelve-year-old daughter Sara. It's a pretty salad, and has endless variations. For example, we can never settle on just seven layers.

We've started using a ranch-flavored dressing instead of the traditional layer of mayonnaise (yuck). We like this salad a lot.

Seven (or Eight or Nine) Layer Salad

Layer as many of the following foods as you like, as you have on hand, or as you think will fit in the bowl. We generally use a clear glass bowl for the complete visual effect.

1 head romaine lettuce
2-3 shredded carrots
1 bunch green onion, chopped (red onion works great, too)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
2 diced Roma tomatoes
1 thinly sliced cucumber
2-3 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1/4 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese (I like to use the large side of the grater)

We've found lettuce works well as a base, and that peas or eggs work well as the last layer before the dressing. I like to alternate colors, usually alternating green and non-green layers. After the top vegetable layer is in place, spread the dressing (see recipe below) over the top. Then garnish with bacon and cheese.

Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 package dry ranch dressing mix (7/8 ounce)
Mix the ingredients thoroughly. Spread over top vegetable layer of the salad.

There are two ways to serve this: you can toss it once it's on the table and everyone has had a chance to see how pretty it is. Or you can serve it by taking a cross section of the salad (rather than taking from the top).

Cheese Ball

2009-11-16T08:00:00.002-07:00

When I unveiled this cheese ball at a dinner party a few nights ago, someone commented that it must be holiday time. I guess nothing says "Christmas" like a cheese ball, even though I've been known to make this in the summer because we like it so much. It's simple and delicious, and looks a lot fancier than it really is. This is one recipe that I think I can take full credit for, even though I've experimented by looking at other cheeseball recipes through the years. This has become our standard.

As with many recipes, the possibilities for variations abound. I've found that sharp cheese really does make a difference. But green peppers work just as well as red peppers (although they aren't as festively pretty at Christmas time), and red or yellow onions can easily be substituted for the green onions if you prefer or don't have green onions on hand. And walnuts and pecans work equally well for the nuts on the outside.

Kathy's Cheese Ball
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 cup finely chopped green onions
1/3 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Combine cheeses, onions, pepper, granulated garlic and Worchestershire sauce in a large bowl. I find it easiest to do this by hand, wearing a latex glove. When all ingredients are thoroughly mixed, shape the mixture into a ball. Place the chopped nuts on a plate and roll the ball in the nuts until all outside surfaces are covered. Refrigerate until about 30 minutes before serving time; then take it out of the fridge so that it will be soft enough to spread. We've found Wheat Thins to be the cracker to serve with a cheese ball because they're sturdy enough to not crack under the pressure of the cheese and also have a great complementary flavor.