Happy New Year

So my New Year's Resolution is to remove Genetically Modified foods from my household pantry.  So far, I am off to a TERRIBLE start.  I started off 2013 with some sort of stomach bug, and all I could handle were GMO filled Saltine Crackers and GMO packed Popsicles.  But that's the good thing about New Years Resolutions, right?  You've got a full year to work on them!

(Other resolutions include waking up earlier, and fitting into a dress I found in the attic that I'm pretty sure was my grandma's - although that second one is going to be achieved by altering the dress, not altering me!)

I also recently heard a few rounds on Facebook of "eating healthily/locally/organically/sustainably/etc (not saying those are all the same thing) is just too hard/too expensive/takes too much time.  I am reinvigorated about proving that to be false! 

So, tonight's dinner, while not fancy, will fit those needs.

I do need to say that this is not Rachel's 30 minute meals (but to be fair, those aren't really 30 minute meals either!)  To me, "fast" doesn't necessarily refer to the cooking time - just to the prep time.  This one took me 16 minutes to peel and cut the vegetables, and in the 60 minutes it took to cook after that, I did a load of laundry, straightened the house and (how bout that!) typed the first half of this blog post.  You could even chop all the vegetables in the morning (if you're the kind of person who has that kind of time in the morning) so all you had to do was put them in the oven once you got home.

If you are afraid of beets, please don't be.  This was sweet and earthy, and would be a great dinner even if you weren't a little bit afraid of solid food.  Carrots and beets are still available at the farmer's market, and are generally pretty cheap.  I served this with a salad of winter greens and some leftover rice and vegetables from New Years Eve.

Roasted Beet, Carrot, and Ginger Soup

• 1 lb carrots, peeled and diced into about 1 inch pieces
• 1 lb beets, peeled and diced into about 1 inch pieces
• 2 large shallots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 4 or more cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 inch ginger root, cut into thin slices
• 1 to 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock, or water
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 pinch allspice
• Juice of 1 lemon
• sour cream

Toss first eight ingredients, and bake at 375 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes, until golden and caramelized.

Transfer the caramelized vegetables to a soup pan and pour in the stock or water, Worcestershire, and allspice .  Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, then puree using an immersion blender or by transferring in small batches to a blender or food processor.  Taste, and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Now, normally when reading this recipe, I would think "what poor sap is using water instead of stock?"  But today, I was that poor sap.  I messed up my last batch of chicken stock and don't have any currently (by messed up, I mean left on the stove waiting for it to cool enough to go into the fridge - overnight.  Gross.)  It still had a lot of flavor, but I do feel that it missed something in the mouth-feel department without the silkiness of chicken stock.  Do wait until after you have pureed the vegetables to adjust the seasoning, because adding the vegetables in adds so much flavor.

I thought this was perfect with just a dollop of sour cream, but Jeff felt in needed a little meat and added three leftover shrimp from New Years Eve.  If you were in a meat mood, I think that you could really use anything in this.  Some spicy shrimp or crab, or a little bit of peppered steak.  When you're working with a budget, it's not about cutting out the expensive ingredients, it's about using them sparingly and in the right places.

Fish Chowder

If you've read this blog before, you know that I like food that is easy, as well as a nice big warm bowl of soup or stew.  Well, another thing I like is recipes that are highly adaptable.  While I try to meal plan, I'm not great at keeping track of what is actually in my cupboard.  My poor husband does regularly have to make a quick run to the grocery store to get me whatever it is I may need.  So, I like a recipe where you don't really NEED anything.  A "throw in what you've got" recipe.

I feel like this recipe suits that need.

I also liked the fact that this soup was very light.  Cream soups are often quite heavy - especially chowders - and make me feel like I should probably do a bunch of sit-ups.  Except for the goopy chowder is now sitting like a rock in the pit of my stomach, so sit-ups are really out of the question.

This was very light, and almost tasted a little citrus-y to me, even though there's no citrus in the recipe.  I would suggest using a high quality champagne or white wine vinegar.  It's the only acid in the recipe, and the flavor is important.  I feel like it's a good light winter meal, but also would probably be very good in the summer.  Also, if you're not limited in your ingredients, you could do a lot of experimenting with the recipe base.  I feel like shrimp could be a nice addition, or maybe some bay scallops.  Or both.  Add them at the end where you would have added the fish (or add fish to for a super-seafood chowder!)

I added corn, which was not in the original recipe, because I had some frozen corn from the summer.  You could also add mushrooms, for a richer, earthier chowder.  Or, really, whatever vegetables you have!

I also could have topped this with the corn salsa I made during my canning frenzy, but I totally didn't think about it until it was too late.

Also, I want to point out that this recipe has NO garlic.  NONE?  Yes, none.  And it still tasted good.  I am shocked.  I didn't feel like it needed it...

Trout and Potato Chowder

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped (celery saves in the freezer well for purposes like this.  So plan ahead for the winter!  Wait, it's too late.  Sorry, I should have told you that two months ago.)
• 1 lb potatoes, unpeeled
• 4 cups stock (fish, vegetable, or chicken.  I don't feel like my fish stock has quite enough flavor, so I used 2 cups fish and two cups chicken.)
• 2/3 cups dry white wine
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• 1/2 cup diced cooked ham
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels 
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 lb fresh white fish (I used rushing waters trout)
• 1/2 lb smoked fish (again, rushing waters trout...)
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

In a large frying pan over medium heat (or using the browning feature on your slow cooker if it has one), melt the butter.  Add the onion and celery and saute until softened, about 6 minutes.  Transfer the contents of pans to a slow cooker (if not already there!)

Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes and add to the slow cooker.  Season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine.  Top with stock, wine, tarragon, ham, and corn.  Cover and cook on the low setting for 6-8 hours.  The potatoes should be very tender.

Cut the fresh fish into 1 inch pieces.  Remove the skin from the smoked fish, discard the skin, and flake the smoked fish into pieces.  Add the fish and cream to the slow cooker, and increase the setting to high.  Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until fish is firm and opaque.  Stir in the vinegar, taste, and adjust the seasoning.

As a final note: Come on, Russia!  Where did you go?  Germany is taking a big lead.  But you can crush them!  Click on a bunch of links.  You don't have to read anything, just click the links.  Lets get those international page views up!

A Plethora of Pumpkin, Part 2!

This post is a continuation of "A Plethora of Pumpkin, Part 1, posted yesterday.  If you haven't read that yet, you should probably start here.

When I chopped up and baked my pumpkin, you may have noticed, I had quite a bit leftover.  What to do with it?  Pumpkin soup!

I actually made this soup while I was making the pasta dish, and then heated it up the next day.  It was super quick, super easy, and amazing.  Best of all, it kept well.  I made this on Sunday, had it for dinner Monday, and have been eating it for lunch every day since.

I was surprised, because even Jeff liked it, and he generally does not care for soups without "stuff" in them.  He's a stew kind of guy, and there are few of this style of soup that will appease his manly appetite.  But this he seemed to really like.

I agree.  This soup may not have any "stuff" in it, but it's still very thick and filling.  In fact, I've been surprised at how little I need to take to work for lunch in order to get full (especially if I drop a few fancy mushrooms in it!).  I would have loved to have had this recipe at this time last year, since it's a smooth soup and feels like a real meal!!

(For those of you who don't know me personally, last winter I had jaw surgery.  I wasn't able to eat any solid food for 6 weeks.  I lost 15 lbs.  I also watched a lot of Food Network/Travel Channel and spent many a lazy afternoon on the couch shouting violent, albeit muffled curses at Adam Richmond through a wired shut jaw!  Man vs. Food is not the best TV programing choice when you are starving...)

This is not a lunch portion, nor is it a mushroomed portion.  I did
cut up a few sage leaves and sprinkle them on top, which added a
nice additional layer of flavor.  The sage was from my windowsill
spice garden. 

Curried Pumpkin Soup

•  4 Tbsp butter (L)
• 2 medium onions, minced (L)
• 4 cloves minced garlic (L)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander 
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 6 cups chopped, seasoned, roasted pumpkin (See recipe here), pureed (L)
• 5 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth (L)
• 2 cups milk (L)
• 1/2 cup buckwheat honey (L)
• Up to 1/2 cup heavy cream, as needed (L)

 Melt butter in a 4 quart saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 4 minutes.  Add spices and stir for one additional minute.

Add pumpkin and chicken broth and blend well.  At this point you could transfer to a blender or use a immersion blender to blend up the onion pieces and get a completely smooth soup.  I chopped mine small enough that I wasn't worried about it and skipped this step.

With the soup over low heat, add honey and mix.  Slowly add milk while stirring to incorporate.  Taste, and if the soup is too spicy for your taste, add cream to reduce the heat. 

You could top this with toasted pumpkin seeds, sage, sour cream, a sprinkle of nutmeg, or any other number of things.

My Best Friend, the Slow Cooker

It's fall, and that means it's slow cooker season!  Really all year is slow cooker season at my house, because it's a good way to make a real meal without having a lot of time.  Working, teaching dance class, and attending dance practice take up a lot of my time.  Add in Jeff's band practice and gigs, and were left with so little time for "real meals."  As it is, most nights we don't eat until 9:00.  The slow cooker allows me to make something up in the morning or, even better, the night before, and then just let it go all day.  It also makes me smile at work to know that there's something warm waiting for me at home.

It works in the summer too, but soups, stews, and fall off the bone meats just aren't what I crave on a 90 degree night.  I will use the slow cooker in the summer, but not ever week like I can in the fall and winter.

This summer I purchased a new slow cooker/rice cooker/pressure cooker.  I have not used the pressure cooker feature yet, because I am definitely afraid of exploding my kitchen, but the slow cooker has a few features that I am pretty pleased with.

The first is the delay start feature. When I'm going to be gone for 10 hours, and my recipe only has to cook for 8 hours, I'd rather it sit on the counter for two before cooking than warm for two hours before I eat it.  Yes, you do have to be careful using a delay start on a slow cooker.  The book is FULL of warnings:  ONLY use the delay start for vegetable based dishes, not meat!

Yeah, I don't follow that rule.

I mean, there's a difference between letting meat sit in a hot car for a few hours, and letting taking it out of the fridge and putting it on the counter for a few hours.  Plus, it's not like the meat isn't getting cooked through!

The other feature that I love is the brown feature.  The point of the brown feature is to allow you to brown any meat you might be using, or to cook onions, or whatever, all without getting another pan dirty.  You just put it in the pot, brown it up, and add the rest of your ingredients on top.  This does work pretty well, although I find it annoying to stir whatever I'm browning because it's not a pan - it's a great big pot.  This also means that my batches have to be smaller to avoid crowding, which means it takes longer.  Depending on what I'm doing (for example, browning  a lot of meat for a beef stew), it can make more sense to just wash the additional pan.

What the browning feature does work really well for, though, is for thickening a sauce after cooking.  I feel like slow cooking always creates a thinner broth than braising in the oven.  So, after cooking, I can turn on the "brown" feature and it will bring to a boil, reduce, and thicken whatever I've made.

This was both easy and delicious.  And it heated up amazingly for lunch.  Overall, a high success and I will be making it again!

Baked Potato Soup:

I did sort of a "half assed" job of peeling the potatoes, getting most but not all of the peel.  This, first, allowed me to peel the potatoes a lot faster.  It also left a little bit of peel in the soup, which I think added to the flavor and texture:

• 1/4 cup butter (L)  
• 1 large onion, chopped (L) 
•  3 garlic cloves, minced (L)  
• 6 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2 -inch cubes (L)
• 4 cups chicken broth (L)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup cream (L)
• 1 cup sour cream (L)  
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (L)
• 1/4 cup cubed ham (L)
•  3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives (L*)
• cheese, for sprinkling(L) 

In a sauce pan or, if you're extra fancy in your crock pot on the brown setting, melt butter, and saute onions until soft.  Add garlic and cook one more minute.  Either turn off brown setting, or transfer onion mixture to the crock pot, and add potatoes and chicken broth, and season with salt and pepper.  Cook on low for 8 hours.

Meanwhile, combine cream, sour cream, shredded cheese, and ham.

After the 8 hours have passed, blend partially using an immersion blender, or transfer to a blender and blend partially so there are still some chunks left.  Stir in combined ingredients, and heat until warmed again.  Top with chives, shredded cheese, and a dollop of sour cream

Portuguese Sausage and Kale Soup

It's getting cool.  Sooner than I want, the garden is going to need to come down.  Most of my plants are starting to look a little on the sad side, but do you know what's not suffering?  The kale.  It is taking over:

Those greener leaves to the left of it, that's rhubarb.  I didn't know ANYTHING could choke out rhubarb.  But it's succeeding.

I'm not sure why I planted kale.  I have this restraint problem when I'm in the garden store aisle with all the seeds.  The pictures look so nice.  There are all these fancy things that I've never tried, or never tried to grow, or just really like.  I usually buy 12 kinds of lettuce and get home and go - wait - my back yard is only 144 square feet!  I literally only planted two rows of kale in what was probably a 1 foot square.  I've been looking into canning it, but it appears you need a pressure canner to preserve them because they're low acidity.  I wonder if you can use a pressure cooker as a pressure canner... the interwebs say yes, but that it will take forever!

I did find that kale freezes well, as long as you blanch it first.  I might do that, but I think I'm more likely to make a bunch of soup and freeze that for lunches.  Either way, I'm using up a lot of room in my tiny, tiny freezer that I don't have.  One of these days I'm going to get a chest freezer (and a food mill, and a pressure canner, and one of these, blah, blah, blah...)

So, to prepare for the mass of food that will be going INTO my freezer, I'm trying to eat up everything that's in there now to get it OUT of my freezer.  I guess that makes sense, but it's still strange.  One thing I have a lot of in my freezer is Andouille sausage.  It's local (Usingers), but I have about 4-5 packs and I really don't need them.  They're leftover from a party I had over the summer for which I bought WAY too much food. 

So I thought I would use some of both of these things up.  This is not a "true" anything, but it's pretty good and that's all that matters in my mind.  It was warm and filling, and will go well on a cold winter day with a piece of crusty bread.  I did freeze a batch and took it to work with me for lunch, and it heats up exceptionally well after having been frozen, so I will absolutely be making more for lunches and quick dinners.  This recipe was modified from about 6 recipes I found on the internet.  I will probably double it the next time around, so I will have a lot extra to save in the freezer.  I would say this makes about 6 meals total.

Portuguese Sausage and Kale Soup

• 1 teaspoon olive oil 
• 1 large onion, chopped (L)
• 3 large cloves garlic, chopped (L)
• 6 ounces thinly sliced Linguica (Spicy Portuguese Sausage), or other spicy sausage - like Andouille! (L)
• 3.5 cups chicken broth (L)
  
• 4 cups water (L)
• 1/2 cup diced potatoes (L)
• 1 pound fresh kale, washed (L*)
• 1 tbs fresh chopped oregano (L*)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Cut the center veins out of the kale and discard (I didn't do this, and they never got un-chewy!).  Slice the remaining leaves into strips about one inch wide.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil, and add onions.  Saute for about 5 minutes, or until onions start to soften.  Add garlic and sausage, and continue to saute for 5 more minutes.  Add potatoes, and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Allow to cook 5 more minutes, then add broth, water, and kale, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer, and allow to cook - uncovered - for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through.  In the last 5 minutes, add oregano, and season again to taste with salt and pepper.

Dandelion Soup

I can imagine the circumstances under which this recipe was born.  A farmsteader in late April or early May.  The snow has melted, but nothing is growing yet.  The air is still cold.  The potatoes from last year have all been eaten or have gone bad.  After a long winter, you are not just starving for something fresh to eat, you're literally starving.  And then, these tiny little plants with soft leaves and bright yellow flowers start popping up in your garden.  You didn't plant them.  They're crowding out what you did plant.  They've got to go!  But got to go where?  Into the compost pile where they can spread into more of your gardens?  Into the fire?  No, into your belly!

I brought my leftovers to work for lunch, and while some of my co-workers were adventurous and tried, the majority turned up their noses.  Eat a weed?  Is it safe?  Sorry, Kate, that's too weird for me.  Or, my favorite.  Just a laugh.  Oh, wait, you're serious?  Eww...

Grocery stores have certainly changed people.  In many ways, this is a good thing.  We expand our palates by being exposed to new things.  Children can learn about other cultures through their food, and the foreign becomes less strange and scary.  Diets can be better, in theory, because fresh fruit and vegetables can be eaten even in the middle of winter.

But diets aren't better.  Obesity, especially obesity among children is on the rise.  Why?  With the abundance of food comes the abundance of fast food, prepared food, and convenience food.  Not only can we not be bothered to raise and butcher our own cow, or bake our own buns, we can't even be bothered to form our own hamburger patties.  We have Burger King make it "our way," because we can't be bothered to make it ourselves.  And we lose these recipes; OUR recipes.  Sushi is normal, but the recipes of the individuals who built our country are too weird to try?  The ingredients of my gum include glycerol, soy lecithin, aspertame-asesulfame, hydroxylated soy lechithin, BHT, and Phenylalanine - and I'm sure you'd gladly steal a stick - but dandelions, which we can all recognize by sight, are just to strange of ingredients for you to take the risk...

This recipe calls for 1 cup dandelion leaves.
This is way more than that!  1 cup is about
one big plant.

So, I DARE you.  Try this.  It takes less than 30 minutes to prepare, and I bet you have most or all of the ingredients in your house... or yard.  

Oh, and I've added a new notation.  (L) means local, but (L*) means I picked it in my own back yard.

Dandelion Soup

Taken from the Laura Ingles Wilder Cookbook

Serves 2 as a main course

• 1/4 cup butter (L)
• 1 cup finely chopped dandelion leaves (do NOT pick them out of your yard if you use pesticides.  You can find them at specialty food stores) (L*)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (L)
• 1 tbsp minced chives (L*)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp flour
• 4 cups milk

Dandelion leaves sauteing
in butter

Melt butter.  Add greens, herbs, and seasonings.  Saute for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.  Leaves will shrink and soften.  Sprinkle in flour, stirring to coat greens evenly  Cook about 5 additional minutes.

Dandelion leaves cooking
with flour

Stir in milk, cooking over low heat, stirring until smooth.  Simmer until milk is hot and greens are tender, about 5 more minutes.







This is all the recipe called for.  I added a few Herbed Egg Dumplings:

• 2 large eggs (L)
• 1 tbsp chives, minced (L*)
• 1 tbsp oregano, minced  (L*)
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 to 1 cup flour (L)

Dumplings

Add about 1 1/2 to 2 inches water to a small pot, salt, and bring to a boil.

Beat eggs in a small bowl.  Beat in chives, oregano, and salt.  Add flour slowly, until mixture is stiff and no longer sticky.  Drop by small spoonfuls into the boiling water and cook until dumplings are cooked through, about 2-3 minutes depending on size.  Drain water.

Place dumplings in the bottom of large soup bowls and pour dandelion soup on top.  Eat while hot.

*This was even better warmed up and eaten the second day.  I kept the dumplings separate so they didn't get soggy.