Why have I never thought of this before?!?!

Okay, I'm going to bite on Andy's challenge, at least sort of.  I was actually checking the blog to post something really quickly anyway.

For dinner tonight, I needed something quick, since I had to go to the store after picking the kids up.  I settled on pasta with sausage and swiss chard.  I got some bulk hot Italian pork sausage and fried it up, then added about 5-6 cloves of chopped garlic.  We haven't been eating much pork sausage lately - I mainly use sausage in yorkshire pudding, and I've found that chicken sausages are just as good for that.  But, tonight I really wanted some good hot pork sausage.  So, like I said, I cooked up about 1/2 lb with some garlic, then threw in a two big bunches of chopped, washed swiss chard.  I spun the chard in our lettuce spinner after washing it, so it was only damp.  Cooked with the lid on to steam the chard, then removed the lid to evaporate the excess water.  I just made sure to turn it a few times so nothing burned.  It was pretty decent with a little parm on top of pasta.

But, what I really signed on to post was what we came up with for dessert.  I bought some cherries the other day which turned out to be only okay, but which still need to be eaten.  I also bought some peaches against my better judgment.  Aleks cut one up in my lunch today, and it was surprisingly good - enough so that I was willing to try serving the others uncooked.  Will picked out some plums today at the store, though without supervision.  Apparently we have different ideas of what "they're soft!" means.  The net result was that I had some mediocre stone fruit to get rid of, and while I wanted to just cut them up to serve for dessert, I thought they needed a little extra.  So, I checked our ice cream stock.  Apparently, Aleks has been indulging in a bowl of ice cream every now and then, because we were almost out.  But I had whipping cream.  So, I set Will to making a little bit of whipped cream while I pitted the cherries.  He slightly overwhipped the cream, so I had to run damage control, at which point I had a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself).  I added some cocoa.  WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF CHOCOLATE WHIPPED CREAM BEFORE!?!!!?!?  It's amazing!  (By the way, adding cocoa didn't fix the over-whipping problem.  I just added a little more cream for that.  But, it all worked out, since the chocolate whipped cream was amazing, so we all wanted extra anyway.)  Cream, a little powdered sugar, cocoa.  Done.  It doesn't have to be sweet.

Will is ready to open a chocolate whipped cream shop, complete with cinnamon chocolate whipped cream, and double chocolate whipped cream with chocolate chips in it.  I may try chocolate cardamom whipped cream, since cardamom whipped cream is my other favorite.  Ah, the possibilities are endless...

I would say that stone fruit and chocolate are not the most obvious combination, for good reason, but strawberries and chocolate whipped cream with a glass of red wine sounds divine to me.

-Maggie

Summer time, a new month, A CHALLENGE

Today I am posing a challenge...Post a recipe, or recipe idea, for one thing that you've eaten in the past week, or month if has been a boring week.  Also, try one recipe on the blog that you did not post, and report back.  Man, I guess somebody has been going to community college online...Still its summertime, gardens are producing, CSAs and farmers markets are starting up, and you can still get any fruit or veggie imaginable in out out-of-touch idea of supermarkets, so lets get crankin'.

Today is June 4th, but since this is PCT I'll let you slide until the 5th, which puts one week at the 12th.  Plus, I'm allowing you to dip back one week which means you have from the 28th of May to the 12th of June to cook and/or eat something awesome, fun, delicious, interesting, or unique and tell us about it.  Hurry up, last week already happened.

"Somebody say one, two, three go."

"One, two, three, go."

Bonus points for the first one to name the quote, Dad excluded...Although I'll give Dad one bonus point for giving me the two lines leading up to this sequence.  

Love
Andy

Bacon, Avocado, and Corn Salad

Tomorrow is the last day of school, temperatures are pushing 100, and it's time to sit by the pool for hours a day!  It's also time for me to make every single side salad recipe I can find.  I began tonight with this gem.

Ingredients:
5 strips of thick cut bacon
4 ears of corn, husked
1/2 c. feta or cotija cheese (I didn't measure)
2 T. cilantro, chopped (again, didn't measure)
juice of 1 lime
1 large avocado
salt and pepper


Directions:

1. Cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp.  Drain the grease, leaving about a tablespoon or so in your skillet.
2. Slice the kernels off the husks of the corn and throw them into the skillet.  Cook for a few minutes until golden brown, bacony, and delicious.
3. Turn off the heat and throw the cheese, bacon, cilantro, and lime juice in with the corn.  Mix.
4. At this point the recipe said to let it cool to room temperature, but I didn't have time for that.  Do what you want.
5. Pit and chop the avocado into small-ish chunks.  Throw them in the mixture and stir.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Enjoy!

This was pretty darned good, I must admit.  It's obviously not the most healthy of side dishes, but man, those flavor combinations were great.  It was all my favorite things in a bowl.

We had this with tequila lime chicken.  I made a marinade of tequila, lime juice, shallot, garlic, jalapeno, olive oil, and cilantro.  Let the chickens get to know each other in the marinade while we went to happy hour.  Then when they were almost all the way cooked, I threw some homemade pico de gallo on top of the chickens.  Threw some shredded colby jack on top of the pico and cooked until the cheese was melted.  Also delicious.

Ahhhhhh summer vacation!!!

Molly

Sprouts

Let's get back to the subject of sprouts:

If you've tried them, you know they are a great addition to the fresh vegetable arsenal.  They are tasty and nutritious and easy to grow on the kitchen counter year round.  The finer ones, like alfalfa or radish make a great garnish.  The larger, like lentils or mung beans, can be a significant part of a salad or stir fry.  Mom likes any kind of sprouts to top any kind of sandwich.

I started out using a special made sprout grower from The Sprout People but soon found that a one quart canning jar turned on its side worked just as well, accommodating 1/4 cup of lentils or mung beans to make a jar full of sprouts in 3-4 days.  The only complaint was that our bean sprouts were short and stubby, never getting very long before they started to try to grow leaves.

Then I read that mung beans need to be sprouted under light pressure to grow long sprouts.  So, I converted my sauerkraut press (round of hickory log in a plastic bucket) to a sprout press (slightly smaller diameter round of hickory log so it would reach to bottom of the tapered bucket in a plastic bucket).  A half cup of mung beans did not quite cover the bottom of the bucket.  I soaked them for ~6 hours, drained them, and left them under the hickory round.  Rinsed twice a day.  I used a colander to drain the water. In 4 days, I had a 1 gal plastic bag about 3/4 full of long, full sprouts.  I made a really nice breakfast salad of ~half-and-half bean sprouts and baby spinach leaves from the garden with tarragon vinaigrette dressing, and last night we had a big stir fry with a double hand full of bean sprouts.  This is really the ticket for growing mung bean sprouts.

Yesterday, I tried starting a batch of red lentil sprouts in the press.  I don't know if using the press will make any difference with the lentils as it did for the mung beans but I'll keep you posted.

In the mean time, we are eating spinach, lettuce, asparagus, and sprouts, watching the strawberries fill out, and planting garden like mad.

Caramelized onions

Have I posted this before?  If so, I apologize for the repeat.  But, we just had friends over for dinner and enjoyed one of my current favorite flavor combinations, and I felt inspired to post.

Aleks grilled beef steaks, I caramelized onions, and then we pulled some gorgonzola cheese out of the cheese drawer to add to the mix.  Amazing!  4 of us adults ate 6 onions worth of caramelized onions!  Slathering onions and bleu cheese or gorgonzola on top of burgers is another favorite of mine.

The trick is to get well-cooked onions, without adding too much oil and without over-browning them.  I've found that the secret is salt. The salt pulls the liquid out of the onions as they cook, and the liquid keep the onions from burning, without the need for oil.

Thinly slice more onions than you think you could possibly need.  1) These are so good that even people who don't like onions heap them on their plate, so you always eat more than you think you will, and 2) The volume will decrease substantially as you cook them.  Put a bit of olive oil or butter, just enough to tide you over until the salt does it's trick, in the bottom of your pan, add the onions, and turn on the heat to medium/medium-high.  Sprinkle in some salt, not enough to make it taste salty, but enough to act on the onions, maybe 1/2 t. per 3 onions, but I really just sort of sprinkle it on, so that's just a guess.  Turn the onions as they heat to mix in the salt and keep everything from browning.  When the onions start to cook and release their liquid, turn the heat down to medium-low/low. Cover with a lid.  Turn the onions every once in a while, and continue cooking until they are translucent and soft, and a big delicious mess, about 15-30 min.  If the onions are too soupy and not brown enough, remove the lid and turn up the heat a bit.  As the liquid evaporates off, scrape the bottom of the pan and turn the onions every few minutes so that they brown without burning for another 5 min or so.  Enjoy at will!

I think onions cooked this way count as one of those dishes that is cheap, oh so good, and good for you, if you keep the oil to a minimum and take advantage of the salt.

-Maggie

Spinach & Artichoke Stuffed Shells

Hey blog world!

The musical is over and I'm back to being a human again.  I got to try a new recipe tonight and made my own pizza dough last night instead of buying the pre-made stuff from Sprouts.  Yay!

Tonight's recipe was somewhat labor intensive and probably not something you want to consider for a normal weeknight meal, but it was pretty good and seemingly healthy.


Ingredients:

1 cup shelled edamame (I bought pre-shelled frozen stuff to save time and recommend this)

1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 small onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 10 ounce package thawed frozen chopped spinach, squeezed dry

9 (or so) oz artichoke hearts.  (I used a 14 oz can of artichoke hearts which I then chopped.)

1 1/4 cups plain nonfat Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup shredded parmesan

Salt and pepper

Your favorite homemade (or store bought) tomato sauce

Directions:

1. Set the oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor or blender, puree the edamame. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

2. In a large nonstick skillet set at medium heat, pour the extra virgin olive oil and add onion & garlic. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the spinach and artichoke hearts; cook & stir for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat - add in the yogurt and lemon juice.

3. Add half of the spinach mixture to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Fold into the remaining spinach along with the edamame, cheese, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Set aside.

4. Cook pasta shells according to package directions. Drain and spread jumbo shells on 2 baking sheets. Let them cool before stuffing.

5.  Make or open your favorite tomato sauce (heat it up if not already).

6. Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray. Cover the bottom of the dish with tomato sauce. Start to stuff the shells with the dip and line them up in the baking dish. When the dish is full, drizzle pasta sauce over the shells. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.

Again, this was a bit labor intensive for a Tuesday, but the end result was good.  I also have leftovers for a good long time.  Try this some weekend if you're looking to "indulge" in something creamy.  Truthfully, this is pretty darned good for you even though it tastes creamy.

Enjoy!

Molly

Soft-boiled Eggs and Salad Breakfast!

The soft-boiled egg is an art form rarely practiced today.

Thank you for inviting me into this blog!

Some amazingness happened today, with a couple of farm fresh eggs, smoked steal head and baby asparagus.

On soft-boiled eggs:

What amazing delights these are! It's like cracking open a dressing.

-I try to steam the eggs for 6 1/2 minutes, not letting them sit too long on the heat side of the stove.

-Put them under cold water after.

I love the role of chicken eggs in cooking. Better than butter in sauces, they make soups,  and they leven.

I like soft boiling / or soft poaching a bit more than poaching, frying, braising, pickling,  omeleting, or hard-boiling.

For the breakfast:

-Spinach (or spring greens)
-Browned butter
-Soft boiled egg
-Bacon or smoked fish
-Asparagus  or another spring veggie.

For the steps:

(while having eggs in 2" of simmering water for 6 1/2 minutes.)

-brown butter in a cast iron skillet.
-toss with spinach.
-add salt and pepper.
-roast asparagus on same pan.

Serve:

-Leafy greens with a bit of fat, tossed.
-A bit of something else spring, like asparagus.
- A soft-boiled egg, and a little piece of whole wheat toast.