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!

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.

What happens...

when you go to the gym while the other major family cook goes to various appointments? You go to Culver's. Okay for fast food. I would have preferred going to Kopp's. While Culver's has spread the frozen custard love throughout many parts of the nation, Kopp's is a family owned chain in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nobody (and I do mean nobody) makes custard like Kopp's. While most places have a mild, nearly tasteless vanilla ice cream (or custard), Kopp's vanilla has a strong flavor. And their chocolate? To die for. So even if you're not keen on the flavor-of-the-day, you're guaranteed a tasty pleasure with their standards. I think this month we'll have to make a trip for Caramel Cashew. It's delicious! And a family favorite. I must stop now or risk drooling on my keyboard and shorting it out.

Toffee Bars

As promised, the toffee bar recipe. These are fabulous because the crust is sweet, but has a slightly salty quality, and then it's topped with chocolate chips and walnuts. It makes a cookie sheet/jelly roll pan-full. Which either means you have toffee bars for quite a long time, or, if you have ravenous eaters like those housed here, a couple days.

Toffee Bars

1 c butter - softened
1 c brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
enough chocolate chips to cover (1/2-full bag)
1/2-1 c walnuts, chopped (to preference)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix butter, brown sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, salt and flour.
Spread as evenly as possible onto a cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle with chocolate chips and let them melt. (You can keep them in the oven with the door propped open to aid the melting).
Spread the melted chocolate chips over the crust.
Sprinkle with chopped walnuts.
Cut while warm.
These are soft and slightly chewy when warm, but firm and slightly crunchy when cool.

Dessert and my love of it is one of the reasons I have to workout diligently, or risk gaining weight that took forever to lose. :)

Chicken and Broccoli in a Garlic Cream Sauce and Chayote Dessert

Last night my mentor (who took offense at being referred to as my "clean up crew" despite it being a self-inflicted title) made Chicken and Broccoli in a Garlic Cream Sauce. Look at that beautiful broccoli! It smelled fantastic while cooking, always does, unless you let it cook too long. You can tell you've cooked broccoli too long as soon as your house starts smelling like your high school cafeteria, the holy land of over-cooked or dried-out "fresh" vegetables. Am I glad that my mom used to pack our lunches for us. I could take all the teasing questions about whether my mom also chopped down the tree, mashed it into a pulp, and made the paper bags for us too; the jealous taunts produced when my friends found out my mom made all of our bread.
I realized that I cook quite differently from my mentor now. I typically put at least eight cloves of garlic in my garlic cream sauce. She used four. I resisted the urge to go grab more. She, after all, was doing the cooking. We typically stay out of each other's way while cooking. If we are in the kitchen at the same time, we are usually making separate things. Did anyone read the New York Times article about alpha cooks? My mom and I are both alpha cooks. I managed to bite my tongue (but not my tone) when she asked me to chop some celery for this dish. I would never put celery in it. But, as my sister-in-law would point out, what "white people" dish is complete without celery and onions? None, I tell you. Many-a "white people" dish contains celery, onion, and ground beef and most often includes some "cream of" something soup. Cook something like that up and you'll be transported to the aromatic world of a white, midwestern church potluck.
This dessert was not such fare. Chayote squash, which I halved, seeded (only one large seed in this squash), and stuffed with a mixture of walnuts, raisins, coconut, brown sugar and cinnamon. I baked it at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, turned it down to 325 for a while, and then called my dad while on the way to the gym and asked him to turn the oven off, but leave them inside. When we got home a couple hours later, they were soft and still warm. It was agreed that chayote, while probably making a rather healthy dessert, also makes a rather bland dessert. The topping was delicious, but the chayote tasted of nothing next to it. When I use this vegetable again, it will be with something savory. Perhaps I'll take the Field Guide to Produce's advice and make a mixture including chorrizo to stuff them with, making sure to slice the flesh so that the flavor can penetrate the chayote a little better.

I also mutter outside the kitchen

In fact, if anyone comes within audible distance of me while I'm doing most anything they will inevitably ask, "What?"

I grumbled and muttered a lot while making this skirt from some material I bought while in Japan for a friend's wedding. I loved the fabric, and now I have a skirt I love. I took a full skirt pattern and shortened the main body of the skirt. Then, through much trial and error, I figured out that in order to make the border I had to extend the part I cut off by 1 1/4 inches at the top and 5/8 of an inch at the bottom. I hemmed the skirt and both sides of the border and then sewed the border to the inside of the skirt. I also discovered the reason you stay stitch curved edges, especially on long narrow pieces like those. The original cut pieces were way too long once they stretched out of shape. Luckily, I bought enough of that fabric to cut more pieces (just barely, though). Now I just have to find a shirt that looks good with it. The sweater in the photo is okay, but the collar (which you can't see) isn't quite the right style.

This skirt will not be worn while I cook. I have ruined many-a-clothing item wearing it while cooking. I am a MESSY cook. Even when I try to be neat, it doesn't work. I can use a splatter screen and the grease will still coat the entire top of the range. That's why I have a clean up crew (my mother). I don't think she minds too much, seeing as I do most of the cooking while living with them. It allows her to actually enjoy cooking when she does it, as opposed to while we were growing up. Every day we posed the question "What are we having for dinner?" To which she would reply, "I don't know, what sounds good?" The perpetual answer..., "I dunno. Food?" The woman (or man) who does all the cooking for the family is a tortured soul, especially when they cook only because nobody else will or can.

Which reminds me, I don't have to cook tonight. We have split pea soup. I'll post a picture and recipe tomorrow. I thought I might add a dessert of stuffed chayote.
I actually knew what I could do with this vegetable thanks to The Field Guide to Produce by Aliza Green that I got for Christmas from my brother and sister-in-law. They also got me the Field Guide to Meat and the Field Guide to Herbs and Spices. Hopefully this will lead to more creative cooking on my part.