Chicken Curry Salad with Red Cabbage

My new favorite way to use leftover chicken is in a curried chicken salad served over a bed of wilted red cabbage. This recipe is full of flavor and color, making it very satisfying. I got the idea for how to wilt the cabbage from someone who was telling me how they prepare coleslaw. Curried chicken salad has been done before by many, which is why I was inspired to make it. I like the mixture of savory and sweet in this dish.

Chicken Curry Salad with Red Cabbage

1 head of red cabbage, washed and shredded
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
meat of a whole cooked chicken, cooled and chopped
1/3 c raisins
2 ribs celery, finely diced
1 tart apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
enough mayonnaise to hold mixture together
1 to 2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

In a large bowl, sprinkle the cabbage with sugar and salt.
Allow cabbage to sweat, covered, in the refrigerator overnight.
Mix chicken, raisins, celery, apple, onion, mayonnaise, curry powder, salt and pepper.
Allow chicken salad to chill for at least 1/2 a hour to blend the flavors.
To serve, place at least 1 cup of cabbage in a bowl and spoon chicken curry salad over the top.

Black Bean and Chicken Stew

After returning from the holidays late in the day, I made this simple stew from what I had in my kitchen. At first it was only going to be a black bean stew, but the flavor was lacking, so I added a bit of cut up chicken to it.

2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 1/2 tbsp Indian curry powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp chili oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 c water
1/2 a cooked chicken breast, chopped

Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
When oil is hot, add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add curry powder and chili oil and cook until fragrant.
Add black beans, water, and chicken breast.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes, adding water if necessary.
Serve hot (with rice if you'd like).

Rockin' Homemade Pizza

I have come to learn that you can learn good recipes from even the most unexpected sources. Recently I discovered that my younger brother has become quite a good cook. I don’t think he gets into quite as much experimentation as I do, but he cooks everyday. (I think it’s cool that both of my brothers have become the main cooks of their relationships, rather than falling into the gender roles that would put the “burden” of cooking on their significant others). He shared a recipe for Thai Chicken Pizza with the family, and I must say it’s pretty tasty. Our only disappointment in making it was our inability to find a decent crust.

Actually, a decent homemade pizza crust has been the holy grail of my family’s cooking adventures; it was always out of reach and sought for. As it turns out, my younger brother had found a great pizza crust recipe and I have it in my possession now. I will now add the disclaimer that my family likes thin, cracker-like crusts. That way, the toppings take the front seat in the flavor-mobile and the crust doesn’t sit in your stomach like a lump of clay.

With the new crust recipe in hand, I embarked on the adventure of making a great pizza. I winged the sauce recipe, knowing that too much of a good thing (oregano) can make for a bitter sauce, that I like sauce that is just a touch sweet and with a slight sting, and that onions and whole tomatoes were a must. We also decided to slightly cook the pepperoni in a skillet before placing on the pizza. This allowed the pepperoni to release some of its oil and increased the likelihood that it would crisp on the pizza, despite the short baking time. I venture to say that the resulting pizza was practically perfect in every way.

Rockin’ Homemade Pizza

1 pizza crust for a 9x13 inch jellyroll pan
pizza sauce (below)
½ c sliced black olives
1 ½ c shredded mozzarella cheese
enough pepperoni to cover pizza to taste

Sauce:
¼ c olive oil
½ medium onion, finely chopped
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 rounded teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 rounded tablespoon oregano
1 c portabella mushrooms, finely diced
16 oz canned whole tomatoes, with juice
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot.
Add olive oil.
When oil is hot, add onion and sauté until soft and slightly golden.
Add garlic, red pepper, and oregano and cook until fragrant.
Add portabella mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they have shrunk to half their original size.
Add tomatoes, salt, and sugar and cook, stirring, until reduced to a good sauce consistency.
*You don’t want the sauce to watery, or it will make your crust soggy.

Crust:
1 ¾ c flour
½ tsp salt
¾ c water
¼ tsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Heat the water in a microwaveable dish for 2 to 3 minutes, until hot but not boiling.
Add sugar to the water and stir until dissolved.
Add yeast to the water mixture, stir, and let sit for 8 minutes.
Pour ½ of the water mixture into the flour and stir.
Add remaining water mixture and stir until just combined (you can use your hands to finish the mixing).

To prepare the pepperoni:
Starting with a cold cast iron pan, add pepperoni in a single layer to the pan.
Turn burner to medium heat.
Once the pepperoni has bubbled up, remove from pan.
If you still have more pepperoni to prep, add another single layer and cook until bubbled up.
Repeat until all pepperoni has been precooked.
Drain pepperoni on paper towel until ready to use.

Pizza assembly:
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
Oil a 9x13 inch jellyroll pan and place pizza dough in the center.
Using your fingertips or a small rolling pin, gently press or roll the dough to fit the pan.
Pre-bake the crust for 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove crust from the oven and spread with pizza sauce.
Add olives, cheese, and top with pepperoni slices.
Place bake in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and slide the pizza out of the pan onto a cutting board.
Cut into pieces and serve.

Green Salad and Roasted Pears with Warm Apple Bacon Dressing

The other day I had a friend over for dinner. It was a Christmas present wrapping party that lacked in the wrapping department; problems being she only had a few presents to wrap and I ended up too buzzed to wrap adroitly. In my defense, I was using tissue paper, a material that is difficult to maneuver in the best of circumstances.

I was leaving in a few days for the holidays, so dinner was “what’s in the house?” again. Thankfully I had a whole chicken in my freezer, so I thawed that and baked it with just a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper. It would have been perfect had the wine not induced a short bought of forgetfulness. It was just this side of a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation turkey jerky. Oops. My faithful friend declared it still delicious. What a sweetheart!

I roasted the half of a butternut squash that was sitting in my fridge to go with it and made a green salad with warm apple bacon dressing and roasted pears. While the food was cooking, we snacked on rosemary crackers and habanero cheese... and of course slaked our thirst with wine, yummy, yummy wine.

The next day I found out that I had been secretly sabotaged – since my friend had to drive home, she kept pouring more wine into my glass every time she topped them off. Whether due to the amount of food or the length of time or my voyage into becoming an... well, let’s just hope it was the food and time, because I wasn’t hung over at all the next day.

Green Salad and Roasted Pears with Warm Apple Bacon Dressing (for 2)

1 head of green leaf lettuce, washed and dried
3 pears, peeled, cored, and halved
1 tbsp bacon grease
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp apple cider
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Once the lettuce has been washed and spun dry, place it in a bowl in the refrigerator to crisp.
Place the pear halves in a shallow baking dish, face down, and roast until browned well (1/2 hour to an hour... I can’t remember... and not because of wine, I swear!)
Heat the bacon grease in a small cast iron pan.
Add onion and saute until golden.
Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit.
Add olive oil, white wine vinegar, apple cider, salt and pepper and stir well.
To serve, put lettuce in individual serving dishes, top with three pear halves each, give the dressing a stir and pour over the salads.

Good wine to try: 2006 Maipe Malbec (Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina)

After losing my internet at home, I have been strongly neglecting my blog, but last night I devised a plan to finally update you on some of the recipes I’ve been making lately. Type the posts at home and upload them before work.

We begin this long journey into my recent past with a recipe for a Pasty potpie style. Some of my coworkers and I have created a cooking club and I was hosting the first round. We chose to do our club like a potluck, since we would be holding them on work nights. We also felt that a theme would help ensure that the foods would complement one another. The first theme was fall foods, which I was forced to enforce with certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, but had chosen the theme and suggested she bring a spring vegetable. Ahem. My strict enforcement of the theme prompted a rather unflattering association between myself and a certain WWII German political party. I, personally, had no trouble deciding what I was making. I had been craving a good pasty, but I had never made one and wasn’t quite sure what gave it its delicious flavor. Enter the internet and it’s perpetual eagerness to find what I needed in less than 4.832 seconds. I found that a generous helping of pepper and onion was the key, as was rutabaga. Done. Many of the recipes had their own pastry recipe, but our family has a tried and true recipe that I opted to use due to its dependability. I did alter the pastry recipe slightly, since I was out of sugar, but I did have some honey and it worked just as well. The pasty ended up tasting exactly how I wanted it to, thank you mom for teaching me how to smell for flavor, rather than tasting.

Pasty (potpie style)

1 double pie crust
1 lb ground pork
1 ½ onions, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large rutabaga, peeled and cubed a little smaller than the potato, but not as small as the carrots
freshly ground black pepper to taste (somewhere between 2 tsp and 1 tbsp)
salt to taste (about 1 tsp)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place the ground pork and onions in a cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat. You do not want the pork to brown, but you do want it to cook all the way through. Stir it often enough to prevent browning.

In a large pot, put the potatoes, carrots and rutabaga, covering with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat a bit so that it does not boil over, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water to stop cooking.

Once the pork is cooked through, mix in the cooked vegetables and add the black pepper and salt. Smell the mixture, you should smell a good amount of pepper. If you don’t, add more. Then add about ¼ c water to moisten the mixture a bit.

Roll out one half of the pie crust and place in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour in the filling (I ended up with a little extra. My dog loved that!). Roll out the second crust for the top. Before laying the second crust on top of the mixture, use some cool water and moisten the edges of the bottom crust, along the rim of the baking dish. Gently roll the second crust onto your rolling pin and lay over the pie. Gently press down when you moistened the bottom crust. Trim both crusts so that you have just over 1 inch of crust over hanging. Roll under and crimp the edges. Use a sharp knife to slice a couple slits in the top of the crust.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden.

One of my coworkers is engages to the son of cranberry grower, which means that at harvest time she kindly brought many of use a bag of fresh cranberries. Yum! I used them to make Cranberry Walnut Pancakes, a fruit cobbler and a filling for crepes. The cobbler came of another day where I was trying to make something from what I had in the house while also attempting to sate a sweets craving. I’ve been making crepes on the weekends recently. They are just so delicious. I’m going to share the fruit cobbler recipe I made and how I’m going to make my next batch of crepes.

Fall Fruit Cobbler

2 soft apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and sliced thin
½ c cranberries, washed and halved
¼ c brown sugar
¼ c flour
dash of salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
¼ c honey
½ c walnuts
½ to 1 c rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place apples, pear, and cranberries in a bowl. Sprinkle with brown sugar, flour, and salt and coat well. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Pour the fruit into a bread dish.
With your hands, mix together the butter, honey, walnuts and oats. Spread over the top of the fruit.
Bake until a fork meets no resistance when inserted into the cobbler.

Orange Crepes with Cranberries

Crepes (make approximately 6):
¾ c flour
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 c milk
1 egg, beaten
½ tsp vanilla
1 tbsp melted butter
zest of ½ an orange

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until completely smooth.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Using a stick of butter with the paper turned back, quickly grease the pan. Pour in ¼ c of the batter and quickly tilt pan in a circular motion to spread the mixture thinly over the bottom of the pan. Cook until slightly brown on one side, flip and brown other side. To keep the crepes warm, place in a covered dish in an oven set to warm.

Cranberries:
¼ lb cranberries
6 tbsp sugar
½ c water
zest of ½ an orange

Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick.

To serve:
Place a crepe on a large plate, put a line of filling along the middle 1/3 of the crepe. Fold over one side, then the other. Slide aside and repeat until the desired number of crepes are on the plate. If desired, you can sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of the cranberry sauce before folding the crepes.


The past few days I’ve been craving Indian food, but I’ve also been watching my budget. This means using up what I have in the house. I discovered that I have three half-full bags of lentils in my cupboard, one of regular lentils, one of red lentils, and the last of Moroccan lentils. I used two with the following soup that was inspired by dal.

Indian-spiced Lentil Soup

1 tbsp oil
½ an onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp Indian curry powder (the kind that is not spicy)
½ lb of red lentils
½ lb of Moroccan lentils
Enough water to cover, plus more to maintain soup consistency while cooking
1 tsp chicken boullion
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a soup pan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
Add cumin seeds and curry powder and cook until fragrant.
Pour in lentils, stir to coat, the add water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Stir in the chicken boullion.
Add water as the soup cooks. You want to maintain a slightly thick consistancy.
Once red lentils have cooked away and Moroccan lentils are tender, add the salt.
Heat a bit more, then serve.
I let this soup simmer for a few hours before eating it.

Tonight I had a craving for Indian, but also for cream of potato soup. This was the result (though, I did have to run to the store for a couple of things). Warning, this is a bit spicy!

Creamy and Spicy Potato Soup

4 red potatoes (big enough that you can’t quite fit your hand around them), washed and cubed
2 ½ tbsp butter
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ a medium onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp flour
2 ½ c milk
salt to taste

Place potatoes in a soup pan, cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Heat the butter in the same pan over medium heat.
Once the butter has melted, add the mustard seeds and cook for a couple minutes.
Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
Add ground ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and cumin seeds and cook until fragrant.
Add the flour and cook for about 1 minute.
Slowly add the milk, then heat over medium-high heat until thick.
Once the sauce is thick, add the salt and potatoes and stir. Bring to desired serving temperature and serve.

Now that I’ve devised my system of continuing my blog, you’ll be hearing from me more often!

Mushroom Dip and Fall Vegetable Stew

I adore my Fanny Farmer cookbook. It's a vintage edition, the same edition that my mother has. I love that it has great recipes and that it's not of the same strain of many newer cookbooks that feel the need to reduce the fat and sugar in everything. I'm all for taking care of yourself, but for me that means eating less of what I love rather than eating more of something that's just mediocre. When I needed an appetizer for a party this weekend, I turned to Fanny Farmer and found a gem of a recipe for mushroom dip. It's simple, very few ingredients, and it was delicious.

I also made a fall vegetable stew.

2 tbsp oil
1/4 c onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
3 turnips, peeled and diced
2 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 a butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 1/2 apples, peeled and diced
4 c water
3 springs fresh rosemary
1 1/2 tsp chicken bouillon
1/4 lb of mushrooms, scrubbed and diced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
generous pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium high heat.
Add onion and cook until browned.
Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Stir in the turnips, potatoes, squash and apples.
Add water, chicken bouillon and rosemary.
Simmer for at least an hour (some vegetables will keep their shape, others will not).
Remove the rosemary and add mushrooms, salt and pepper.
Cook for 15 more minutes, then serve.

And now some pictures, just because I like being random like that.

Happiness

I've become the source of many negative comments and diatribes lately. As such, I thought it was best to start thinking of positive things (a la Crazy Aunt Purl, sort of...)

Example--
Negative: Does Maine even have a summer? It went from spring to fall.
Positive: Mmm, fall food! Rosemary, potatoes, squash, turnips, hearty breads, warm stews, spiced desserts, the list goes on and on. And I can knit too!

I got three family recipes from my mom recently - white bread, Swedish rye bread, and nut bread. I've found I need an oven thermometer. My first batch of white bread looked done, but was doughy in the center. The second batch, after reducing the temperature, was right (or so the people I gave it to told me). I will have to explore some new grocery stores as the one I currently frequent does not carry rye flour. I'm sad, but will persevere. My first batch of nut bread is a little burnt on the outside. I know I can bake, I just have to learn more about my oven so that I can work properly with it. (See me not swearing about said oven, but telling myself that I can work with it? I'm not even going to use the "cooking headaches" label for this post. That's positive thinking... at least for me it is. Don't tell me if it really isn't positive thinking because I don't want to hear it).

Cream of Turnip and Carrot Soup

The cool weather and my need to use some turnips inspired this recipe. Turnips can be a bit sharp in flavor, so I decided to use carrots to balance them. It worked very well. The soup is slightly sweet and savory. Since thyme works well with both turnips and carrots, I used that for seasoning. I also used some saved bacon grease to add a bit of flavor. The measurement for water comes from the amount of water I needed to just cover the vegetables and I used that measurement to determine how many teaspoons of bouillon I added. Make this if you want a light, but warm meal. I ate mine with some toast made from homemade white bread.

1 tbsp bacon grease
5 small to medium turnips, peeled and cubed small
5 medium carrots, peeled and diced small
2 1/2 c water
2 tsp chicken bouillon
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch of thyme
1 to 2 c whole milk

Heat bacon grease in a soup pot over medium-high heat until sizzling.
Add turnips and carrots and saute for a minute or two.
Add water, chicken bouillon, black pepper and thyme.
Bring to a boil.
Turn down heat and simmer until vegetables are very tender.
Fill your blender with hot tap water a few times to make sure the glass is not cold.
Add soup, in small amounts, to the blender.
**Make sure that you do not completely seal the lid, or it WILL explode!!**
The best method is to remove the center of the lid, or keep it ajar so that steam can escape, then **tent with a towel** so that the hot soup does not splash on you while blending.
Blend the soup in batches, until smooth.
Return to the soup pot and place over medium heat.
Add enough milk to make the soup creamy.
Heat to desired serving temperature.

Always a New First - Lamb

I've eaten lamb before, mostly while living in China (either in Hot Pot or at the barbeque restaurant). I was at the store this past weekend, browsing the butcher's display. Some lamb loin chops caught my eye, so I bought three. It ended up being three meals worth of food, which is perfect. I ate the leftovers for lunch the past two days. I also went to the farmer's market. While the farmer's market in Portland is nice, it doesn't live up to my childhood farmer's market. There aren't nearly as many vendors. The prices aren't as low. And some of the produce is seriously sketchy. Oh, and one stand didn't live up to their posted prices, which seriously annoyed me. But, I ended up with some sweet corn (not sweet enough), green beans (haven't eaten them yet), wild blueberries (I've had better), and yellow zucchini (small ones! I was happy about that).

Loving the challenge of something new, I dug out my various resource cookbooks and did some research on lamb and cooking it. I decided to cook it stovetop, using tips from a recent Cook's Illustrated article about barbequed porkchops inside. I also decided to use garlic and cumin to flavor it. So, after spending the afternoon at the Eastern Promenade reading and enjoying the weather, I walked the three miles home and started my dinner.

I rubbed the lamb chops with chopped garlic, cumin seeds and oil. I covered them tightly (as in against the meat, not over the plate) with plastic wrap and let them sit at room temperature for about 1/2 an hour. I took out some yellow squash, a small white eggplant, and an orange bell pepper and prepared them. I washed everything, trimmed the eggplant and squash and sliced into lengths. I seeded the bell pepper and sliced it. The eggplant got salted and put in a drainer for a while. I heated some olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes and let that cool. Near the time for cooking, I brought the oven to about 350 degrees. I rinsed the eggplant, then laid it with the other vegetables and brushed all with the cooled spicy garlic oil. That went in the oven and I heated a cast iron pan over medium heat until hot. I added a little oil, then the lamb chops and cooked them about 5 minutes on the first side. I flipped them (they were browned on the first side) and let them cook on the other side until the thermometer read 130 degrees. I took the chops off the heat, put on a plate and let them rest. Once the vegetables were slightly tender, I removed them from the oven. I ate one chop with some of the vegetables. It was fabulous! I had a leftover lamb chop today for lunch with some leftover cream of mushroom soup. Very good together! I was definitely happy with this new cooking venture.

Jamaican Chicken with Curry Tortillas

So, a while back I mentioned some Jamaican food I made. I was thinking about making it again and thought I should actually get around to sharing it with the rest of you... assuming anyone reads this infrequently updated sorry excuse for a blog. The New York Times had a recipe a while back for Jamaican Beef Patties, so I adapted this to what I had on hand (chicken) and my inability to bake anything due to a dirty oven (thus the curry tortillas).

4 handfuls of flour
1/2 tsp salt (approximate)
1 to 2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 inch thick slice off of a pound piece of lard (or you can use butter)
water

Mix the flour, salt and curry powder in a bowl.
Add lard (or butter) and rub in with fingers until incorporated.
Add water 1 tbsp at a time, stirring with a fork until the dough forms a ball and sides are clean.
Take a piece about the size of a pingpong ball and roll into a ball.
Roll out very thin on a floured board.
Heat cast iron pan to medium-high, then turn down to medium.
Cook tortillas about 30 seconds on each side.
Keep warm between two sheets of aluminum foil.

2 tbsp oil
1 small onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 hot pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp thyme
1 whole split chicken breast, boneless, skinless - chopped fine
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
water

Heat oil in a pan and add onion, garlic and hot pepper and cook until tender, but not browned.
Add paprika, allspice and thyme and cook until fragrant.
Add chicken breast, mixing well.
Add salt, pepper, sugar and enough water to cover.
Cook until almost all of the water is gone and sauce is made.

Spoon chicken mixture into curry tortillas to serve.

A Month?!

So, my work has been keeping me busy lately and I have sorely neglected not only my blog, but also the essence of this blog and one of the things that brings me happiness in this world. Most of the cooking in my kitchen, as of late, either doesn't count as cooking (though I am enjoying what I call my "European" meals) or is quick cooking, which I don't find interesting to blog about (hello breakfasts of fried egg sandwiches). I'm tired and feeling a little worn out.

Perhaps sensing my exhaustion, my alarm clock chose this morning to not go off. It's a random occurrence (trust me, I couldn't sleep through the thing) that has me baffled. I got to work late and rebelliously left "early" (meaning before seven). I got home early enough to take my dog for a nice walk. I met a lovely woman who liked talking about dogs, so we walked with her a while, even though Magellen was seriously annoyed that we were sauntering along rather than briskly trotting from tree to tree. Sensing his annoyance (and tired of having him trying to pull my arm out of its socket) we turned around, quickly walked home and I even had time to go to the grocery store!

You should see my fridge. It is the saddest sight ever! You know the scene in Bridget Jones when she's eating her depression away? That's what my fridge looks like, but without the Parmesan and with a gigantic jar of green olives. I didn't buy a ton tonight, no point since I still have at least one week of absolute craziness at work. I was also riding my bike, and I can only carry so much on my back.

Though it's not a cooking feat and I've posted about it before, I made Cream of Mushroom Soup tonight. Yum. I can't tell you how much my body relaxed while I slowly chopped up the 3/4 pound of mushrooms. The Riesling I bought might have helped a bit too, but I had some wine this past weekend and I didn't feel nearly as calm and centered as I did tonight while cooking. I have a chicken in the fridge right now waiting for tomorrow night when I'm going to bake it (probably cut up so that it cooks faster) and serve it with lemon sauce from Betty Crocker. (Not that crappy low fat version in more recent books, but the one from the 70s). I bought some green beans and I have some small potatoes that I plan on serving with it. ("Serving" - to me, there isn't anyone else here to enjoy it).

It's been suggested by multiple family members that I become a chef, but when I get down to cooking and pondering that thought, I think it wouldn't make me happy. I enjoy taking my time, cooking something that I want to make, being creative, and not having the stress of anyone waiting (unless that's family members and I can always tell them to eat a snack while I finish the meal). I think I would enjoy writing a cookbook and I have an idea or two in my head along that line. Maybe cooking for an in-home party once in a while might be fun, but I'll have to find people who could afford me to come and make a mess in their kitchen. I'd clean up afterwards, even; as much as I dislike cleaning up.

I did spend the first two weeks of August in San Francisco, though during the week I was dealing with teenagers and work stuff. I got the weekend to look around San Francisco a bit. It was nice. I had a couple really good meals, one absolutely amazing meal (which are on my "must blog about" list). For now, though, here are a few pictures from my trip to cold and foggy San Francisco.

Random Topics and Some Vegetable Goodness

Yesterday I went to the farmer's market with a coworker. They finally have vegetables. I say finally because I'm sure in Wisconsin the stands have been up and running for some time now, but here in Maine it's cool, rainy, and just not sunny enough for the things to grow quite as quickly. Truth be told, I want some hot weather, but I don't think that's going to happen. Back to the subject at hand, though: vegetables! I bought some fresh basil (expensive! holy lord, don't people know basil grows and grows and paying that much money for it is just insane? Alas, my apartment doesn't get enough direct sun to grow my own.) I also bought some tiny potatoes (they had a name, I can't remember it - not finger potatoes), lettuce, and pattypan squash. I got home eager to use some of my new purchases. I also had a tomato that needed eating (see how it's kind of wrinkly?):



This was the resulting dinner.


I put the potatoes whole in a pan of water, brought it to a boil, added some kosher salt, and cooked until tender.
For the squash and tomato, I combined it with hot capicola, garlic, and fresh basil. It was quite good. Here are the "recipes:"

Pattypan Squash Saute

4 thin slices hot capicola (a type of ham), sliced into strips
1 tbsp olive oil
4 small garlic cloves, crushed
3 pattypan squash, trimmed and cut into thin wedges
1 roma tomato, seeded, halved and sliced thin
1/4 c basil, shredded
freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Heat skillet over medium to medium-high heat.
Add capicola and cook until browned.
Add olive oil.
Once oil is hot, add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Scrape the capicola and garlic to the side and spread the pattypan wedges over the bottom of the pan.
Allow to brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other side.
At the last minute, add tomato, basil, black pepper and salt.
Stir to combine and serve.

Basil Dressing for Potatoes

1 large leaf basil, chopped
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp honey
freshly ground black pepper

Put ingredients in a sealable container, seal and shake until combined. Pour over warm potatoes.

WARNING: AN UGLY SIGHT AHEAD

This is the truth of how my kitchen looks after cooking.


I've been doing a lot of sewing lately. I made two wrap skirts without a pattern. It's very simple really. Buy a length of fabric that will fit around you once and then some. Mine fit around one and a half times. After washing the fabric, wrap the length of fabric around yourself and find the length you want the skirt to be. Mark that (my fabric had stripes so it was easy to cut a straight line across), and cut off the excess. Make sure the vertical edges are straight (almost never are when you bring it home from the fabric store), and hem three sides. The unhemmed side will be the top. I used the cut off portion to make ties for this green one:

To make the ties, I cut the extra bit in half. Then I folded that over on itself, sewed it up mostly (except about 1 or 2 inches), turned it inside out, closed the hole and did some detail stitching at the end to match the detail stitching it did at the ends of the skirt. I sewed one tie to each end of the top of the skirt. I also made an orange one, but I still need to add ties to that one. Also, I didn't hem it, but did a zigzag stitch on the three sides and washed it so that the edges would fray a bit. I'll probably replicate that with the ties when I get around to making them.

And now... some random pictures:

Inside of a boat.


Street musicians in Portland.


Clouds over the ocean.


Magellen's new throne, my books. (Sad, really. All those books and I don't own a single bookshelf).


(I know I still owe you the Jamaican chicken (or beef) recipe...)

Coming soon - Jamaican Chicken Patties

The other night I experimented with Jamaican Beef Patties, but as always, I used what I had on hand. So, it ended up being chicken instead. And I cooked them on the stove top instead of the oven (I really must get down to washing it again this weekend). By the way, the stove top is not recommended, unless you're frying. More on that later. In the meantime, get ready to drool just thinking about how delicious Jamaican Chicken Patties might be!

Family Photo Competition

So, my younger brother saw that the BBC is having a photo competition this summer (every summer?). The first theme is blue. Here are my uninspired entries which I'm sure the family can quickly defeat seeing as they have greater photography skills than I do. My artistic skills are limited to the kitchen and knitting (and even that is limited).


Branch against blue sky.


Longing to go out.


Lichen in the spring.


Boat at Boothbay Harbor.


Shadow's blue hues.


Blue shadows two.


Boothbay Harbor.

Curry Tortillas

I did a little experimenting today and came up with curry tortillas. Now I'm starting to dream up ways to fill them (I ate them with soup tonight).

Curry Tortillas
(I apologize, but I didn't measure any of this. I totally winged it.)

two generous handfuls of flour
salt (about 1/2 tsp, maybe less, maybe more)
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp butter
approximately 2 to 3 tbsp warm water

In a small mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt and curry powder with a fork.
Using hands, rub the butter into the flour until it's well mixed. (Like making pie crust).
Add the water 1 tbsp at a time, stirring with the fork.
Add enough water so that the dough forms a ball.
I divided the dough into four equal parts.
On a lightly floured board, roll out one part of the dough until thin.
Heat a cast iron pan over medium-high heat.
Once the skillet is hot, turn the heat down to medium.
Place the rolled out tortilla on the hot skillet; cook approximately 30 seconds on each side (adjust this time to how well they are getting cooked and how hot your skillet is).
Remove cooked tortilla from the skillet and keep warm while you roll out and cook the remaining tortillas.

One of these I cooked over a lower heat for a longer time and I found it dried out a bit in the center and was very similar to a cracker. That gives me some ideas...

Pancakes with Banana Sauce

I forgot to get syrup at the store last weekend. So I made pancakes and used two ripe bananas to make a sauce for them. If you like banana bread, you'll like this.

Pancakes (enough for 2 to 3 people)

1 1/4 c buttermilk
1 egg
1 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg.
Add the remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.
Allow to sit while you make the banana sauce.
Once the banana sauce is started, heat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat.
Once the skillet is hot, lower heat to medium to medium-low.
Use a paper towel to spread some shortening on the skillet before the first pancakes go on.
Using 1/4 c measuring spoon, put three measures of pancake batter on the skillet.
Once pancakes are bubbly and starting to just dry along the edges, flip. Do not press down on the pancakes - that makes them flat.
Allow to cook on other side a few moments, remove and add more pancake batter to the skillet.
I keep the pancakes warm by putting them on a plate covered with aluminum foil.

Banana Sauce

2 ripe bananas that have started getting a lot of brown spots
1/4 c sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter

Put bananas in a sauce pan and mash.
Add sugar and molasses and stir.
Cook over medium-high heat, bring to a boil.
Stir in the salt and butter.
Once butter is melted, turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit before serving.

My New Spin on Chicken Salad

Let me start by saying that while the posts about food have been lacking in photographic evidence, you should be thanking me for that. Seriously, I don't think I've ever taken more unappetizing pictures ever before. So, until I have the foresight to actually set aside part of the meal so that I can take a picture of it in good light, not to mention remember that I'm supposed to take the picture the next day, you don't want to see the dark, slightly disgusting pictures I've been taking lately.

That aside, let us get to today's meal. Actually, tonight I had leftover greens and rice and cooked some Cajun salmon to go with it. But, the other night I made chicken salad, but added a little something-something to make it extra tasty. I've been eating it for lunch all week and I still haven't tired of it. Good thing, too, since I have a lot left still!

Lemon-Thyme Chicken Salad

2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp dried or fresh thyme (fresh would probably be a lot tastier, but I only had dried in the house)
salt (as needed)
3/4 lb brussel sprouts, shredded and rinsed well
6 good sized carrots, peeled, quartered and sliced thin
1/4 to 1/2 tsp sugar
12 oz small shell pasta
1/2 c mayonnaise
juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 tsp thyme
good pinch of cayenne pepper
pepper to taste

Put chicken breasts in a pot, cover with water, add salt and thyme and cook until done. Allow to cool.
While the chicken is cooking, put on a large pot of water to boil.
Once water in second pot is boiling, add salt, stir, then add pasta.
Cook pasta until done, drain and rinse in cold water until cool.
While pasta and chicken are cooking, prepare the brussel sprouts and carrots.
Put brussel sprouts in a large serving bowl, sprinkle with a bit of salt (not too much, maybe 1/4 tsp) and about the same amount of sugar.
Also while other things are cooking, mix mayonnaise, lemon juice, lemon zest, thyme, cayenne pepper, and pepper (and salt if desired) in a bowl and set aside.
Once chicken is cool enough to handle, cut into bite-size pieces.
Add carrots, pasta and chicken to the shredded brussel sprouts.
Add the dressing and stir until well coated.
Allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

The Other Half

The same night I put the roast in the crock pot, I decided to cook the rest of it on top of the stove. The results were forgettable. So much so, I had to sit here and attempt to remember what I had done with the rest of it.

I believe I started the dish by cubing the beef. I heated some oil in a cast iron pan on the stove and added the beef and some chopped onion. I think I added thyme and, when the meat was nearly done, some chopped mushrooms. I deglazed with red wine and at the last second threw in a chopped tomato (so that it would warm but not disappear). The meat was tough and the flavor was lacking. I ate it all, over the next few days as lunch, but this definitely needs some work before I would actually serve it to other people. Although, the chances of my serving other people food in my house any time soon are very slim. Moving from an efficiency to a one-bedroom makes one realize how sparse their belongings are.

Garlic Ginger Beef

Last week I had a roast that needed to be cooked, but I still haven't gotten around to re-cleaning my oven, so I couldn't roast it. So, instead I cut it in half and put half of it in a crock pot (my crock pot is very small) with 6 crushed cloves of garlic, 2 inches of ginger, peeled and sliced, 1 cup vegetable broth, and enough water to cover. It cooked overnight and was absolutely delicious. The flavor might be a bit strong for some people, in which case you would need to reduce the amount of garlic and ginger.

I ate the roast two ways. One was in a salad of green leaf lettuce with a ginger and sesame dressing (also made by me, but I can't recall what I put in it beyond grated ginger, sesame oil, olive oil, and brown rice vinegar). I also sliced the roast thinly and piled it on french bread with some Russian kale and freshly ground black pepper. This was an easy way to make a very versatile base for meals. I think I might do this again and make a pasta salad out of it.

Cajun Salmon, Rice and Collard Greens

I made Cajun salmon again tonight. I've never made salmon any other way and I really must try something new, but I just love Cajun salmon. I also boiled rice and sauteed some collard greens. The combination of spicy, sweet, and slightly salty was very nice.

Boiled Rice

water to fill medium sauce pan
1/2 cup rice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp butter

Bring water to a boil.
Add rice and salt and boil until tender (the water should not all cook off, it should be like boiling pasta - too much water for the rice).
Drain in a sieve, then put back in the pan.
Add the butter and stir until melted.

Collard Greens

1 tbsp ghee
1/4 c red onion, sliced thin
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 large bunch collard greens, torn and washed well
2 tsp to 1 tbsp honey

Heat pan over medium to medium-high heat and add ghee.
Once ghee is hot, add onion and saute for one minute.
Add garlic clove and red pepper and saute until onions are translucent.
Add collard greens and cover, stirring occasionally.
Once greens are too desired tenderness (I don't like mushy greens, so I leave a little bite), drizzle with honey and stir.

New England, my new home

When I first moved to Maine, this is what greeted me. When I came to interview there was a horrible snow storm that dumped slush from the sky. I've seen slush on the ground, not falling from the sky. When I moved here, another huge storm hit. I started wondering if I would ever see sun in this place.


For a while I lived in Boston, so here are a couple images:



I also took an evening trip out to Providence to see a lovely friend of mine. I took almost no pictures, but I did get a picture of the State Capital Building.


My brother and sister-in-law invited me to go house hunting with them one weekend. I walked into one kitchen and it was eerily like my parents' kitchen...

...right down to the ugly floor...


I recently went up to Boothbay Harbor with my brother and sister-in-law. It was very cute. I took my dog because I wanted him to be able to get out and run around. We never actually made it to a place where he could run free, but he had lots of fun whining and yelping for sympathy as we went into shops or had the nerve to stop walking for a few seconds. He did get to beg for food though...





And some more pictures, just because:

Internet can be an annoying thing

I've tried posting quite a few times between my last post and this one. Everytime I get it all typed up, my internet connection disappears. I wrote this a while ago, but here it is for you pleasure:

I am in heaven, or what I might imagine it to be like, if I believed in it. My kitchen is once again functioning. I am once again cooking for myself (not just having raisins and popcorn for dinner - yes, there are times when I consider that dinner). I went grocery shopping this weekend and bought a lot of staples and a few things to try.

A few weekends ago I went to my brother and sister-in-law's for the weekend and she made this awesome marinara sauce. I asked her for the "recipe" and sucessfully made that Sunday night, but I embellished the meal a bit.

Marinara Sauce

a good amoung of olive oil
1/2 head of garlic, cloves peeled and crushed
1 large can whole, peeled tomatoes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.
Once oil is hot, add the garlic and stir until starting to brown.
Add the whole can of tomatoes (juice and all) and stir.
Turn to medium-low heat and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for a half hour.
Add black pepper and stir.

To serve:
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook enough fresh pasta to feed the number of people eating (obviously assuming you made enough marinara to cover said servings of pasta).
Drain pasta, divide into serving dishes.
Spoon marinara sauce over the pasta.
Serve with fresh basil, allowing each person to tear off as much basil as they would like.

I added a good scoop of ricotta cheese to mine as well (who can pass up a chance to add cheese?)\

[ETA: I used this base and made a spicy version the other night, cooking real pepperoni, sliced, in the oil for a bit with some ground black pepper and crushed red pepper before adding the garlic. It was good!)

Last night I made Indian food. Dal and curried eggplant. It was perfect. I'll also admit here that when I make ghee (very simple to do), I use salted butter. I'm a bit of a salt addict and I prefer the taste of this to the unsalted ghee. I will probably face further shame when I admit that I also spread the browned bits at the bottom of the pan on bread. It very salty and very tasty and I don't really care how bad it is for me; it's fabulous.

Tonight I made cajun salmon. (First time ever that I successfully cooked fish without overcooking it. I'm very proud of myself.) I also attempted to make cornbread (sweet version), but discovered that I must not have cleaned all of the oven cleaner off the heating elements in the oven. The fumes were horrible. I gave up (must fix that problem; first my oven was filthy - honestly why do people live like pigs and leave the next tenants to clean up after them? - now it's a cess pool of chemicals). Instead, I cooked the batter like pancakes. It worked very well for a last minute fix. I also made fiddlehead ferns for the first time ever. I'm in Maine now, and it's the season. I followed my lovely guide to produce's advice and cleaned the ferns, boiled them in salted water for five minutes, drained and seasoned with lemon juice, butter, salt and pepper. I must say, I like ferns. They're yummy.

I love having my kitchen back.

Green Salad with Creamy Curry Vinaigrette

I just discovered my new favorite salad. I had some left over chicken breast from some chicken soup I made the other night. I only put the dark meat in the soup, so I had two breasts to use in other meals. I created this salad from things I had around the house (I haven't been purchasing many things lately, mostly due to lack of time).

1/3 c plain yogurt
2 tsp brown rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar (or to taste)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
4 to 5 leaves lettuce (torn and washed)
1/2 chicken breast, chopped
1/4 c walnuts, chopped
1 pear, cored and chopped

Mix the yogurt, vinegar, sugar, salt and curry powder together. Let sit while you prepare the other ingredients. Combine lettuce, chicken, walnuts, and pear in a large bowl. Pour on the dressing and toss (or stir carefully if you're kitchen accident prone like me).

I have a suspicion that I would love this salad even more with currants instead of pear, but pears were what I had at the time.

I've also been making orange yogurt by mixing plain yogurt with a spoonful of marmalade. It's delicious (especially if you use full fat yogurt).

I'm mostly settled into my new town, so the possibility of my posting more often will definitely increase. Nothing made me happier than unpacking all of my kitchen things! Well, a few things are still in boxes because I have almost no counter space and it's taking me a while to wash and put away everything. Plus, there isn't enough cabinet space for all of my kitchen stuff. I think my first investment will be a small, movable island for the kitchen. Who cares if I have a huge living room which currently houses 1 chair, 1 coffee table, 1 end table and a ton of boxes of books? I need to cook!

But, I get to eat fabulous food at restaurants

I do! I've been eating out entirely too much, but I've discovered some cuisines I want to experiment with a little more. Like the potato and cabbage mash with gravy that I can get at many Irish pubs (I didn't grow up with Irish food, and some of it is very good, so I've discovered.) I've had some very tasty bangers as well. Besides Irish food (I'm surrounded by pubs), I've also had a fair share of Thai food. Mmm, Thai food. I've made some Thai food before (green curry to die for, so much better than a lot of the kinds I had had before). But I've been eating Tom Kha (soup with a coconut base and so much flavor), Pad Thai, curries, and I had this at a small restaurant in the town I'm moving to. It's thinly sliced beef dressed with a chili and lime sauce served with iceberg lettuce, cucumber, fresh green beans, and tomatoes. The cool vegetables nicely contrasted (and calmed) the spice of the beef. I also had fresh rolls (lots of veggies and shrimp wrapped in rice paper and served with a dipping sauce), but ate them before I thought of my camera. Actually, I would have a lot more posts if I thought more about my blog and camera than my stomach.

The Sad Cook

My new company was very generous and set me up with an apartment for the time that I'm in between cities. Unfortunately, that apartment was supplied by someone who obviously cooks absolutely nothing. The knives are dull, the cutting board is glass (glass! ugh! loud and the answer to why the knives are dull), the can opener is broken, I had to buy a spatula, there are no measuring spoons, and (for me) there aren't nearly enough pans and bake ware. It's sad, and it makes for a sad cook who barely cooks. I guess I'm also hindered because I don't have all the staples I would normally have to make a wide variety of foods. But, simplicity also created this salad.


It was based on a Japanese cucumber salad that I had made before, but I added lentils and red bell pepper. It turned out really well. It's been a really long time since I made it, so I'll guess at how much I put in it.

Lentil, Cucumber, Pepper Salad

1 c dry lentils
1 cube vegan "chicken" bouillon
plenty of water
1 cucumber, scrubbed, seeded, and sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cracked red pepper
1 tbsp finely chopped red onion

Put lentils, vegan "chicken" bouillon in a pot and add plenty of water (2-3 cups).
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and let simmer until tender.
In a bowl, mix together the brown rice vinegar, honey, olive oil, and cracked red pepper.
Add the cucumber, red bell pepper, and red onion.
When the lentils are done, rinse with cold water until cool.
Add lentils to the rest of the salad.
Let sit for at least 1/2 an hour before serving.

A quick note about food love

My present food love? An avocado, cut in half, pitted, salted and eaten with a spoon.

Honey Mustard Sauce and Excuses

I'm afraid that both parts of this post will be boring. The more boring part: excuses:

For not posting often enough:
I'm preparing to move across the country and have been extremely busy.

For not having photos:
I'm lazy, plus see the note above.

For not having my homework ready to hand in:
I did it, I must have left it on the kitchen table.

The less boring part: my experiment with making a honey mustard sauce:
I suppose the easy thing to do would have been to find a recipe in a cookbook, but after shopping all day Saturday (I hate shopping, except for shoe shopping or when I have a specific item that I NEED to buy. The latter has a maximum time limit of 2 hours to ensure that I don't lose all brain function) and then moving my boxes out of the attic for a good part of Sunday, I didn't even think to look in a cookbook. I just took the pork tenderloin and butterflied it. I dry roasted some yellow mustard seed (about 1 tbsp) in a small cast iron pan, allowed it to cool, and crushed in plastic wrap with a meat mallet. I fried a large white onion in a pan, added the crushed mustard, then added the tenderloin to brown. I figured it was cooking too quickly, so I put two cups of chicken broth and a quarter cup of honey in the pan. It was at this point that I realized that I was near ruining pork tenderloin.

Luckily, mom was there to save the meal. She took the pork out and put it in a dry cast iron pan to brown (and get rid of that porky smell). Then she instructed me to start the sauce separately because the pork had left nasty little balls in the sauce (gross). This time I started with 1/3 cup of prepared Dijon mustard (the other stuff hadn't even smelled like anything), slowly added 2 cups of chicken broth and then whisked in 1/4 c honey. I think I added salt and pepper as well. When it had boiled a bit, mom deglazed the browning pan with a bit of water and added it to the sauce. Then I added a bit of cornstarch/water mixture until it was thick enough to glaze. We put the pork in the sauce and allowed it to sit, covered, but without heat until we were finished preparing the accompanying dishes (corn and mashed potatoes).

Perhaps it was my mood that made me not love this dish, but my dad seemed to really like it. I'll have to try again, perhaps with tenderloin that is grilled (tenderloin tastes best grilled) and using the sauce as an accompaniment rather than the sauce in which it cooks.

Lime and Coconut Custard Cakes

Do you remember the plans I had for limes last weekend? I finally got around to the experiment last night. A while ago I made Lemon Custard Cakes from Martha Stewart Living (March 2007, pg.147), and instantly wondered how a lime and coconut version might be. The results were delicate, fluffy lime cakes with a thin layer of custard, resembling lime curd, at the bottom. Admittedly, the flavor of coconut lent by the shredded coconut was so subtle that I nearly missed it. I think, next time, I will either simmer the flaked coconut in the milk (and allow it to cool to room temperature before adding to the batter), or I will use coconut milk or cream in place of the milk.
Here is my version of the recipe:

Lime and Coconut Custard Cakes
Butter, room temperature, for custard cups (or you can melt it and use a brush to butter the cups)
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
zest from two limes
a little over 1/4 c fresh lime juice (juice of two limes)
1 c milk (or the substitutions listed above)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Set a kettle of water to boil.
Butter six 6-oz custard cups.
Place the custard cups in a roasting pan or baking dish lined with a kitchen towel.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and granulated sugar until mixture is light.
Whisk in flour.
Gradually whisk in lime zest and juice.
Whisk in milk (or substitutes).
If coconut has not been mixed in, stir it in as well.
With an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form
Add to lime mixture, gently folding in with the whisk.
Divide batter among prepared cups.
Place pan in oven and fill with boiling water to reach halfway up sides of cups.
Bake until cakes are puffed and lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature.