Nuts for the Holidays

Like the not-so-clever double-entendre? I made these nuts last year and just finished eating them almost a year to date despite the fact that the recipe says they keep for two weeks. (I hate this age of covering your butt to the extreme...but I digress). You may think nuts around the holidays are a bit cliche and passe, and perhaps they are, but they are tasty nonetheless. And super easy. If you make a ton as I did last year and find yourself eating them well into 2010, they are good chopped up on salads or as a snack.

Legal Seafood Asian Salmon

I just made this tasty salmon for dinner. Very quick as far as hands-on time, but there's about 40 minutes of time involved in simmering, marinating and cooking so plan accordingly.

Looking in my fridge for some veggies was a bit disheartening but I came up with a side that went so well with the salmon I will always make them together. I shredded some brussel sprouts and green cabbage and sauteed in olive oil and garlic. Once they were bright green--about 5 minutes on medium high heat, I stirred in about 2 T of the sauce from the salmon and cooked about a minute more. Tasty and crunchy. I served all of this with some Yukon Golds whipped with 1T butter and enough milk to make them smooth.

All in all a fast dinner that was healthy and impressed my hubs. What more can a girl ask for?
VEW

Stocking My Freezer

If there is one comfort to a summer that passes too quickly, it is that the onset of Autumn brings with it an intense nesting instinct in me. Suddenly all the things that I couldn't be bothered with when the sun was shining and the gardens were growing become like long-lost friends with which I can't wait to get reacquainted.

My plans this year are perhaps my most ambitious. Without getting preachy I'll just say that I've learned a lot from reading books, researching, talking with friends and participating in a CSA. The knowledge I've gained demands that I be a better steward of the earth and its inhabitants, as well as my family's health. To that end I'm trying to eat more whole foods, and buy only things that are responsibly grown. I felt like I was doing a good job before, but I want to do more. I've been trying to figure out which staples/snacks in our house I can make from scratch without too much trouble, and thus remove us at least another step from the industrialized food chain. The list will only increase I'm sure, but so far I've been making or planning to make the following things and will post recipes when I am not just satisfied, but thrilled with the results:
Wheat bread for my kids' sandwiches
Artisan breads
Crackers for my husband's snacking
Hummus
Marinara sauce to stave off ordering pizza in a pinch
Various pastas
Bagels
Cheese
Pickles

It's so fun to realize how easy it is to make things that all my life have come in a box or jar or cellophane, and even the most pathetic effort generally bests the store bought version as is usually true with homemade things. Please feel free to share any tips, sites, or recipes that fit the bill!
VEW

The Best Hummus

We eat a lot of hummus around here. I used to make it from canned chick peas until one day, desiring to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible, I wondered if I could find dried chick peas at my grocery store. I did and the resultant hummus was fabulous. I will never go back to canned. Not only do more nutrients remain in the final product compared with canned peas, the texture is unparalleled. This was as good as any restaurant hummus I've had and it was really easy. I make it to taste (I love the addition of freshly ground cumin and I like the tang that the addition of sumac adds), and started out working from this recipe.

If you eat hummus you really must give this a try. Yes, you have to plan ahead a bit since the chick peas require overnight soaking, but other than that, there really is very little time different between cracking open a can and giving your soaked peas a quick soak and boil. Oh, and peas you don't use right away can be frozen after they're boiled, making your next batch even easier than your first. I now maintain a steady supply of ready to go chick peas in the freezer.

VEW

Beet Greens!

I was a skeptic. Worse than that, a non-believer. I had read that beet greens were edible. I may have even read that they were good, but I didn't believe it. I was like my 4 year old who refuses to believe that anything I make for dinner will be remotely edible, let alone palatable. But I finally tried them. I don't remember what sparked it. A conversation with a friend perhaps. Or the fleeting thought as I chopped off a huge bundle of greens from a bunch of beets that I was being wasteful...I really don't know. But now I am a believer. They were so good I went out and bought some more. If you like sauteed spinach I can guarantee you will like beet greens. Same texture, similar taste but without that strange astringent aftertaste you sometimes get with spinach. Furthermore, at least in season, beet represent the greatest value in veggies and the 2 dishes you can get from this one plant are so different, it's hard not to start loving the beet. And all this from a person who last year not only merely tolerated the beet, but tossed the greens with a sneer at the thought of eating them. My apologies to those wasted greens.

Sauteed Beet Greens

Trim greens from one bunch of beets. Submerge in a sink of water to wash. Trim thick, woody ends and ribs. Roughly chop leaves.

In a pan, heat extra-virgin olive oil and add at least 2 cloves chopped garlic. Just as it begins to turn golden, throw in the greens, scant 1t kosher salt and stir. Cook until wilted. Eat. Buy more. Repeat. Become a believer.

VEW

Pick a Leaf Pesto

Tonight should have been a pizza night: My husband is out of town for the second night in a row, I have 3 small children that never seem to tire, today was the first day we had to all be out the door and 25 minutes south of home in the early (for us) morning...I am tired. But I couldn't bring myself to feed me or my kids a bit of dough with a bit of processed tomato and some poor quality cheese. The scene in the fridge wasn't promising. I had a bunch of singlet veggies and not much else. Upon realizing they would all go to waste since we are headed out of town for the weekend I brainstormed the following tasty dish which I will now add to my repertoire of speedy, good meals.

I had some arugula and decided a pesto topped with my random veggies would be good. I didn't really have enough of any one ingredient for a true arugula pesto so I used what I had and it worked well. I always make pesto to taste rather than by measurements, so I will just try to approximate them here.

2 big handfuls of greens: I used a lot of arugula and added about 10 big leaves of basil, 10 leaves of sage and a bit of parsley.
3 cloves of garlic
6T total of nuts: I used pine nuts and walnuts
Process in a food processor then add:
1/3 C extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 C total Pecorino and/or Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt to taste

To this add pasta water to make the consistency to your liking.

To the cooked pasta and pesto I added one whole zucchini, peeled into ribbons with a veggie peeler--my new favorite thing to do since a friend gave me the tip that I think she learned from Jamie Oliver.

This alone was great, but grilled chicken would be good with it for something more hearty, or you can do what I did and saute whatever veggies you have on hand and top the pasta with them. I used some grape tomatoes, red bell pepper and red onion. It was so much better all around than pizza and just as quick.
VEW

Saturday Morning

Interesting that my first post-baby post was about butter and my first post-baby painting is a still life of a doughnut... It's called Saturday Morning. Many such a morning finds my husband running down the street to a little bakery to bring back a "second breakfast" of treats. I used to find the amount of sugar consumed during this period a bit alarming but have since embraced the glee with which my kids receive the treats. I thought the sprinkle doughnut was the epitome of what Saturday mornings are like around here and I wanted to preserve that memory.

VEW

A Simple Summer Meal

A visit to a local farm and neccessity of quick preparation inspired this meal for friends.

Pasta with Roasted Summer Vegetables
Country Wheat Bread with Homemade Butter
Peach Tart with Blueberries and Whipped Cream

In a shallow roasting pan toss:
4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
3 baby eggplants, sliced in 1/2 inch pieces
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 portobello mushroom, chopped
1/4 C olive oil
salt

Roast at 350 degrees for 1 hour, remove from oven and add 1 zucchini sliced into ribbons with a vegetable peeler and a handful of chopped, fresh herbs such as basil, sage, thyme, oregano and tarragon. Stir to wilt. Toss with fresh pasta.

The bread is self explanatory, for the butter, see post of the same name.

This tart was great. It reminded me of a peach cobbler but was much more elegant. It looks beautiful and had my guests going back for more. I used regular peaches and added blueberries after I removed the tart from the oven. Serve with freshly whipped cream.
VEW

A Foddie's Rock Star

Ever wonder the difference between snails in your garden and escargot? Novella Carpenter did and the answer she found may surprise you. You can read the whole thing here.
VEW

Quintessentially American...Unfortunately

My husband is off on a camping adventure. He does this every year and I am glad for the outlet it gives him. It is one of the handful of times that he ventures into a grocery store alone to pick out his provisions for the following few days; something I'm sure he relishes as my voice is surely nowhere in his head telling him to put down that over-processed, sugar-laden thing he has picked up precisely because he was not allowed to have it during his childhood either. I exaggerate a bit. He actually comes home with quite healthy snacks, knowing that in order to feel good on the many miles of hiking he'll be doing he can't subsist on Pop Tarts and Cheez-Wiz.

As I watched him unload his bags yesterday I noticed something odd. A plastic pint-sized container of whole, already peeled garlic. "What are you doing with that?" I asked him perplexed. He shrugged, but I'm sure he has a gourmet (by camping standards) meal in mind. He is after all, quite spoiled by good food, as I am fond of reminding him when he complains about my addition of flax seed meal or some such thing that he finds a little too healthy in his scones, cookies, etc.

He packed a few pungent cloves and left the rest of the container on the counter, perfuming the entire house with its manhandled, I'm-so-handy stench. I studied the label. There had to be the equivalent of 4 heads of garlic cloves packed in there--all perfectly peeled. It had cost him ninety cents. That's a lot less than buying the actual heads of garlic would cost. Interesting considering the heads of garlic are sold in bulk: no packaging costs, no labeling costs, no labor of peeling and putting into container and pressing on a lid costs. I have passed these containers many a time in the store and thought, albeit fleetingly, of grabbing one to save myself the extra, what? 5 seconds? it takes to peel a clove myself. Seeing the ridiculousness and utter un-need of such things I always pass them up. Besides, prep is one of the joys of cooking. Its meditative quality is calming...when you're not rushing. These nude cloves of garlic presuppose rushing. I began to hate them. And then I noticed something in small print: Product of China.

WHAT?

I began to feel very superior for not having brought this contraband into my house. Do we really need a country half way around the globe peeling our garlic and flying it around the world just to save us mere seconds? I laugh at the sheer ridiculousness that is our food system. How did it come to this? Can I boycott such things by standing in the produce section with a little sign? Then again, do these nudies even deserve as much thought as I've already given them?
I am sure my husband did not notice this little tidbit of information, and I like to believe that if he had he too would have passed on this purchase (especially having just finished The Omnivore's Dilemma and finally having jumped, at least partially, on my bandwagon).

Is there a better argument for buying local as much as possible? Better yet, grow your own Victory Over Stupidity garden and be sure to plant lots of garlic. I will. More on that next Spring.

VEW

Butter!

Lest I give a false impression with the title of this post, let me just make plain that I have a slight fear of butter. It is the same fear I have of bacon, but idiosyncratically not of things like whipped cream or summer sausage. I use butter as little as possible in my cooking, despite that fact that it makes all things better. I think I simply fear that if I were to really let go with it, because I cook so much, I would quickly condemn myself and those I feed to a life of clogged arteries and excess cellulite. With that being said however, I feel that if one if going to use butter, better that it is in its rawest form--fresh butter on warm bread for instance, which is what this post is about.

I love making butter from scratch. It is so easy and so satisfying and SO GOOD. There is a great demonstration of how to do it from Saveur Magazine's web site (which is my reigning favorite food site btw). Basically, you just whip heavy cream until the solids separate from the liquid (buttermilk), wring out in cheesecloth, wash it, and then mash in some salt. Voila. You can do it with a mixer but it really is nice to do it by hand with a whisk...if you like that kind of thing.

I made two kinds: one with unhomogenized, grass-fed, organic cream and one with plain organic cream. The grass-fed cream smelled quite ripe and I worried that the butter wouldn't taste that great, but the whipping process mellowed it and it came out well. I have yet to do a side-by-side taste test as promised in an earlier post, but I really am curious so I will soon. The grass-fed cream butter was slightly yellower than the other--a by product of the grass, rather than grain diet of the obliging cows.

If you are a fan of the butter you get with good bread at good restaurants, you must give this a try as it blows even those away.

-VEW

Back in the Saddle

So it has been a while since I've written anything, but for good reason. My posts slowed and finally ended last Fall as I felt sicker and sicker in the midst of my third pregnancy. I didn't think anyone needed recipes for plain egg noddles, mac and cheese, store bought bread, etc. When I regained my appetite it was not exactly for the stuff cooking blogs are made of. There was lots of unhealthy and uber low-brow dishes flying about my house for a while as I gave up trying to not indulge my cravings. One healthy baby boy and a few months later, I am starting to cook again as I should--tasty, mostly healthy, seasonal as possible in New England meals. And while I did not join a CSA again this year simply because I knew it would be a bit overwhelming with two small children and a new baby, I have been doing my best to buy seasonal, local produce and make interesting things with it. In doing such I have a new respect for beets that didn't exist last year when they kept showing up in my farm share, I have passed up on the pathetic looking out of season strawberries on numerous occasions despite my desire for shortcake, and I have begun checking out more farmers'markets than just those nearby (they are popping up everywhere which is a good sign of the times).

Tonight I made two batches of fresh butter. One was with an unhomogenized, grass-fed cream, the other with a homogenized, pasteurized organic cream. I am going to see what difference in taste they yield. It should be interesting as the grass-fed batch smelled like a cow pasture from the get-go so I am hoping that will turn out to be a good thing...though I am not so sure.

More on the taste test later.