Potato Leek Soup

A while back I made this soup and posted it to my social networking profile so that I wouldn't forget it. I'm now moving it over here for others to enjoy.

6 yukon gold potatoes, washed and cubed
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 large leek, dark green part and roots removed, chopped fine and rinsed
1/3 c celery, washed and chopped
6 cups chopped kale, washed
2 tsp chicken flavor better than bouillon
salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, put potatoes and garlic clove. Cover generously with water and put over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender. Drain, reserving the liquid.
While potatoes are boiling, put porcini mushrooms in a 2 cup measuring cup and fill with hot water. Let soak. When tender, remove porcini mushrooms and dice. Reserve the liquid.
Once potatoes are draining, return soup pot to the stove and put over medium heat. Add olive oil and butter. When butter is melted, add leek and celery and cook until very tender. Add porcini mushrooms and kale and cook until kale is wilted but still bright green.
Return potatoes to the pot, pour in reserved mushroom liquid. Then add reserved potato liquid. You want to cover generously with liquid, so you may need to add additional water. Add bouillon, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cook for a few minutes, then remove from the heat. Using an immersion blender, very carefully blend the soup until smooth (depending on how finely you chopped the leeks, celery and kale, this might take a while). Once blended, return to heat and bring to temperature desired for serving.

And an alternate option:

Alteration: Replace porcini mushrooms with 3 cups fresh cremini mushrooms, chopped. Sautee mushrooms with leek and celery. One downside is that the mushrooms float and take a while to blend. It might be a good idea to process with an immersion blender before adding liquid and potatoes back to the pot (or with only a small amount of liquid). When using cremini mushrooms, add extra water to replace mushroom liquid.

Bonus Day

I have tomorrow off, so I thought I would post two things today (ooo). Last night I had breakfast for dinner, but without any syrup requiring breads (I don't have any syrup at the moment, bummer). Instead I made an omelet and a potato-kale scramble. Do you call it a scramble if it doesn't include eggs? Hmm... Anyways, it was delicious and accomplished 2 goals: finish the last of the spinach from the share the week before last and knock down one bag of kale from last week's share. I didn't have any bread for toast (should probably go shopping), but I found a large boiled Yukon Gold potato in my refrigerator. Ah leftovers, how you save the day more often than not.

Spinach and Cheddar Omelet with Potato-Kale Scramble

2 tsp butter, divided
3 eggs
3 tbsp green onion, sliced thin
1/2 c spinach, washed and chopped
1 oz cheddar cheese, shredded
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1/2 c cubed cooked potato (cold)
3 c kale, washed and torn into pieces
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

In a pan over medium heat, melt 1 tsp butter.
In a bowl, beat eggs well.
Mix green onion and a pinch each of salt and pepper into the eggs.
Spread butter in pan evenly, then pour in eggs.
Once the eggs are well set, but still slightly wet on the top, use a spatula to flip.
Sprinkle spinach and cheese on one half of the omelet, then turn other half over to cover. Remove to a plate and cover to keep warm.
Place 1 tsp butter in the same pan and add garlic.
Once garlic is fragrant, add potato and kale.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then stir while cooking (using spatula to scrape any browned potato from the bottom of the pan).
Once potato is hot and kale is wilted, transfer to plate and eat while warm.

I think I also mentioned that I was going to make some coleslaw with all the cabbage I had left from two weeks ago. I researched a variety of recipes in my old cookbooks. I find, when you're looking for something classic, the old cookbooks are always the best. Too many cookbooks today try to make things less fat (eat less) or time (I enjoy cooking, so I don't necessarily need all my meals done in 10 minutes) or are trying to reinvent recipes (which I have no problem with, I do that a lot, but again, looking for classic). Also, if I'm looking to experiment myself, I like to know how people typically make something and to think of variations all on my lonesome.

After digging around, I found that a "boiled dressing" was a classic for coleslaw. It's not actually boiled, but it is cooked in a pan and then allowed to cool before dressing the vegetables. I took ideas from a few different recipes and settled upon adding mustard seeds and celery seeds to the dressing. For the vegetables, I added shredded zucchini, kohlrabi, and carrots. I also met someone once who salted the vegetables and allowed them to weep before adding the dressing, so I also did that. After a few days, it's gotten a bit watery, but the first couple days it was delicious. Eaten with some cold cooked chicken, it was a nice summery meal.

Classic Coleslaw

6 c finely shredded cabbage (mixture of green and napa cabbages)
2 zucchini, shredded with a grater
1 kohlrabi bulb, peeled and then shredded with a grater
1 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp celery seeds
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp butter
3/4 c half and half
1/4 c vinegar
1 c onion, sliced paper thin
2 c carrot, shredded with a grater

Place cabbage, zucchini, a kohlrabi in a salad spinner and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt and toss.
While vegetables are sitting, place other 1/2 tsp salt, mustard seeds, celery seeds, black pepper, cayenne pepper, sugar and flour in a sauce pan and whisk together.
Add egg yolks to seasonings and mix well with a whisk.
Slowly add half and half, whisking smooth.
Add butter and vinegar, then turn on heat to medium-low.
Stirring constantly, cook dressing until it starts to thicken.
Remove from heat, then pour into a Pyrex measuring cup and put in the refrigerator to cool.
When dressing is cool, rinse the vegetables with water and spin dry.
In a large mixing bowl, combine these vegetables with the onion and carrots. Stir well.
Pour dressing over the vegetables and mix well.
Place in the refrigerator and allow to sit for at least 2 hours before serving.

Vegetable Mushroom Soup

I went to a friend's house last night for a small get together. Instead of ordering food or doing our usual appetizers-for-dinner, I offered to cook. Originally I suggested a mushroom-squash soup, broth based because one of my friends recently discovered that her body is having an all out battle with dairy (or maybe that should be the other way around). The other friend indicated she's less than fond of squash, so I had mushrooms as a start and had to apologize to all the squash sitting in my kitchen unused. I hope they aren't sitting there, crying to each other about how nobody wants them. (As a side note: I have a ton of squash because, when my brother and sister-in-law left for a month in France, they left me their enormous csa share which included a ton of squash).

Back to our unpaired mushrooms... While sitting around knitting (I had the day off), I was thinking through different vegetables I could use. Oh, the no-dairy friend is also not a huge fan of meat, so I was going for an all vegetable soup. I recalled a delicious soup I had a local restaurant; it had beets (immediately nixed because one of the people eating doesn't really like those) and mushrooms and a very rich and complex broth. There were a lot of tiny pieces of root vegetables at the bottom of the bowl, so I assumed they had roasted the tiny vegetables with beef, deglazed the pan, and used that as the base. Since I wasn't using beef and didn't want to roast as well as cook stove-top, I wanted to try obtaining the richness in one pan.

In the end, I selected onions, garlic, potato (russet, for the starch), carrots, and parsnips. I used a mixture of baby portabella mushrooms and shitake. I heated a generous amount of olive oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Once that was hot, I added the onions and garlic and cooked those, stirring occasionally until they started to brown. Then I added the potato, and again, cooked with occasional stirring, until that started to brown and stick to the bottom. Next were the carrots and parsnips, a little more browning, some salt and pepper, and then I deglazed with a little bit of red wine. Once the bottom was scraped clean of all those delicious brown bits, I added water, vegetable and beef bullion (my friend isn't averse to that), and the mushrooms. It simmered for about 30 to 45 minutes and I added some more salt and pepper. The end product was a peppery, rich broth filled with perfect little cubes of root veggies and sliced mushrooms. And it was a definite hit with all friends involved.

Vegetable Mushroom Soup

1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 large russet potato, washed and diced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup carrots, diced or sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup parsnips, diced or sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup dry red wine
3 to 4 quarts water
1 to 2 teaspoons beef bullion
1 teaspoon vegetable bullion
3 cups variety of mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat.
When hot, add onion and garlic, stirring occasionally until onion begins to brown.
Add potato, stirring occasionally until potato begins to brown and stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add about 1 teaspoon and 1 teaspoon black pepper at this point.
Add carrots and parsnips, stirring occasionally until they also begin to brown.
Pour in red wine and scrape the bottom of the pan clean.
Add water, bullion, and mushrooms and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
While soup is simmering, taste occasionally to test the levels of salt, pepper and bullion, adding more if needed.

Creamy Winter Soup

After our delicious Christmas of starch and meat... and sweets... my body was craving some vegetables. I also want to get a greater variety of vegetables into my diet. This is something I typically forget to do in the winter months. During the summer, it's so easy; I just stop by my local farmer's market and go wild. We have some wonderful local producers who remember to provide many types of vegetables. I actually have been complimented by a couple (patting myself on the back here) for my "adventurous" selections. Once it was for simply buying rainbow colored carrots (which are so superior to the simple orange ones) and beets. Another time it was for buying kohlrabi, turnips, and possibly rutabaga.

During the winter, I tend to eat a lot of cheese, mushrooms, bread, squash, potatoes and meat. I think that this is mostly natural - those are the items that would have been available... I think... back in the day. But seeing as I have more opportunity to purchase other items year round, I should take advantage of it (to an extent - I still avoid buying fresh tomatoes in the winter since they rarely taste as good as the summer ones. Why torture myself with sub-par tomatoes?) I didn't avoid starch completely with this recipe, but I made sure to add some other nutritious vegetables to make me feel better about it.

Creamy Winter Soup

1/4 c wild rice
2 large red potatoes, cut in quarters lengthwise and sliced about 1/8 inch thick
2 tbsp butter or oil
1 small onion, chopped small
salt
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
12 cremini mushrooms, sliced 1/8 inch thick
1 c reserved wild rice water
1 c reserved potato water
5 c water
2 tsp chicken Better than Bouillon
1 bunch kale, stems removed, torn into pieces and washed well
1/4 c half and half
1 c milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp dill weed
1/4 tsp paprika

Place wild rice in a pan with plenty of water (about 4 cups).
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.
When rice is done, drain over a measuring cup to reserve 1 cup of the water.
Place potatoes in a large soup pot with water to cover.
Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender.
Drain potatoes over a measuring cup to reserve 1 cup of the water.
Dry out the soup pot, then put over medium-high heat.
Add butter or oil to pan and heat.
When butter is hot, reduce heat to medium and add onion and sprinkle with salt.
Cook onion, stirring, until browned (be careful not to burn the onion).
Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
Pour in reserved wild rice and potato water and 5 cups water.
Add chicken bouillon and stir.
Add kale and bring soup to a simmer.
Cook until kale is almost tender.
Add potatoes, cooked wild rice, half and half, milk, salt and pepper, dill weed and paprika.
Heat over medium-low heat until flavors are well blended.
Serve hot.

Wild Mushroom Soup and Varenyky

I realized that the last "recipe" I posted for Varenyky would leave most people at a loss of where to start. So last night we made varenyky and served it with a Wild Mushroom soup. I started the recipe making as many potatoes as when I first learned the dish and increased the amount of dough in hopes that it would be enough to use up all the filling. We ended up with leftover filling (which we plan to pan fry for breakfast). The recipe that follows should get you close to equal amounts of dough and filling. Keep in mind that you can also be creative with the fillings. Spinach and cheese filling would be delicious. I tried a sweet potato, asiago cheese, and Italian sausage filling that was very tasty. The recipe that follows is more traditional, minus the addition of dill. My friend had used feta cheese in hers, but my sister-in-law is lactose intolerant, so we omitted that and added more salt. My brother helped stuff the dumplings. He had plenty opportunity to taste test the filling, since he was licking excess filling off his fingers. It's a good thing we're all family here.

Varenyky with Potato Filling

4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
3 large onions, two finely chopped and one halved and sliced into thin half moons
1/2 c olive oil
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp dill weed
2 c whole wheat flour
1 c unbleached white flour
1 c water (approximate)
sour cream (for serving)

Place potatoes in a pot filled with water and boil until tender.
While potatoes are boiling, heat 1/4 c olive oil in a saute pan.
Add the two chopped onions to the oil and fry until they start to brown.
Remove onions from the heat.
When potatoes are tender (fork inserts easily into them), drain well and place in a mixing bowl.
Use a potato masher or ricer to mash the potatoes well (you don't want any large chunks).
Add sauteed onions with oil to the potatoes.
Add ground black pepper, salt and dill and mix well.
Set aside.
Place flours in a wide, shallow mixing bowl.
Add water a little at a time, mixing well with your hands.
Once dough becomes a ball, begin kneading the dough and adding water as needed.
You should knead the dough five to ten minutes so that it is uniform on consistency. The finished dough should be slightly tacky, but not sticky.
Take a portion of the dough and roll into a 1 to 1 1/2 inch log.
Cut pieces from the log about the size of a large marble and roll into a ball.
Use your fingertips to press the dough into a circle, starting with the center of the ball and slowly working out to the edges.
The dough circle should end up covering the palm of your hand and should not be so thin as to see through it.
Place a heaping teaspoon of filling into the center of the dough. You can fill more or less depending on the size of your circle.
Fold the dough over the filling and, starting with the center of the half moon, press edges firmly together. Edges should be sealed well.
Place prepared varenyky onto a place dusted with flour.
Once you have a layer of varenyky, dust with flour and continue piling the varenyky. Dust with flour between all layers so that they do not stick together.
When you are nearly done filling the varenyky, fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.
To cook the varenyky, add enough varenyky to the boiling water so that they do not overlap. Stir once.
Once the varenyky float to the top of the water, cook for 60 seconds longer.
Remove the varenyky from the water with a slotted spoon and place in a serving bowl.
While second batch of varenyky are boiling, heat the remaining olive oil in a pan.
Add the sliced onion and saute until starting to brown.
Pour some of this over the already cooked varenyky.
As each batch of varenyky goes into the serving bowl, pour a little more of the oil and onion over the top.
Serve warm with sour cream.

As we wanted to have a vegetable with our dumplings last night, my sister-in-law and I decided to make a mushroom soup. As I was making dinner, this posed a welcome challenge to me. I admittedly use a lot of dairy. My typical fat of choice is butter. In my favorite mushroom soup recipe, you fry the onions in butter and add half and half for a creamy texture. This would have left my sister-in-law in quite a bit of pain, so I needed to make a flavorful broth based soup. I knew that my typical recipe, which only uses portabella mushrooms, would have lacked in depth. So when we went shopping we bought fresh portabella and shitake mushrooms and a small package of dried porcini mushrooms. I used the water in which the porcini mushrooms were reconstituted as the broth for the soup. If I had thought enough in advance, I would have made the soup as it reads below. As it was, I forgot that I would not be using the stems from the portabella and shitake mushrooms. So, they are sitting in the refrigerator to be used in a future mushroom broth.

Wild Mushroom Soup

1 package dried porcini mushrooms
3 large portabella mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed and caps chopped
1 6oz package shitake mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed and caps chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, finely diced
2 tbsp onion, finely diced
2 c reserved mushroom broth
2 c water
1/2 tsp chicken better than bouillon
salt and pepper to taste

Bring 3 c water to a boil in a medium soup pot.
Place portabella and shitake mushroom stems in cheese cloth and tie shut.
When water comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and add the porcini mushrooms and the cheese cloth package.
Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until porcini mushrooms are tender.
Remove cheese cloth package.
Place a strainer over a liquid measuring cup and drain porcini mushrooms, reserving 2 cups of the broth (or more if you'd like).
Make sure soup pot is dry and place over a medium heat.
Add olive oil to pot to heat.
Add shallots and onions, cooking slowly until translucent (reduce heat if necessary).
Add portabella and shitake mushroom caps, sprinkle with salt and cook until mushrooms are tender.
Chop porcini mushrooms and add to the pot.
Add reserved mushroom broth, water, bouillon, and salt and pepper.
Simmer for 20 minutes and serve hot.

Varenyky (Ukrainian Dumplings)

This past summer, while in the New York area for work, I visited a great Ukrainian cafe with some colleagues of mine. The borscht was delicious, but I fell in love with the varenyky, or dumplings. The cafe had a wide variety of fillings, some traditional and some not. One of my colleagues is from Ukraine and graciously offered to teach me how to make them. It's quite simple, even without measurements. Like all good home cooked food, this is a recipe of approximation. Relax and have fun with it! This recipe is not traditional because my friend adapted it to her and her Greek husband's own tastes.

flour
water
potatoes
onion
olive oil
feta cheese
salt
pepper
dill weed

In a mixing bowl, place enough flour for the amount of potatoes you plan to make. (perhaps 2 cups) Add water slowly, mixing and kneading the dough until it is slightly sticky and the consistency of pizza dough. Set aside. Peel and quarter four to six potatoes. Place in a pan, cover with water, and boil until tender. While potatoes are boiling, chop one to two onions finely. Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a saute pan add the onions. Cook onions until they begin to brown and remove from heat. Once potatoes are tender, drain and use a potato ricer to mash. Add the onions (with the oil) and feta cheese, salt, pepper and dill weed to taste. Mix thoroughly. Take a portion of the dough and roll into a log until the diameter of a quarter. Cut off pieces of dough about 1 1/2 inches long and roll into a ball. Use your fingers to press into a circle of dough. (It should be thin, but not so thin that you can see through it.) Place enough filling so that the dumpling is plump, but you can still seal it. Press the edges firmly together into a half moon shape. Set aside and continue until all the dough or all of the filling is used up. You might need to flour the dumplings so that they do not stick together before cooking. Once all dumplings are assembled, fill a stock pot with water and bring to a boil. Add dumplings one at a time until the bottom is covered with only a single layer of dumplings. Stir once and let boil. While first batch is boiling, chop another onion. Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan, then saute onion until it starts to brown. Once dumplings float to the top, cook another 60 seconds, then remove from pot with slotted spoon. Place in a serving bowl. Pour a little of the onion and oil on the dumplings. Continue to boil dumplings in small batches. Once all dumplings are cooked, serve hot with sour cream.

Savory Citrus Cornish Hens with Mashed (Sweet) Potatoes and Leek Butter

I am continually amazed by how opening yourself to new people can be so rewarding. A woman who volunteers for my employer asked me to show her daughter around while they were in town this weekend. I had met the mother during a work trip and found out that we had a common home town. We had a great conversation, so when she asked me to spend some time with her daughter, I didn't hesitate to say yes. I was not disappointed. Her daughter was outgoing and full of surprises. I love people like that. She was honestly sweet and open, too. As a close friend's mother has put it, "Wisconsin people are good people," this girl included. As an end to the weekend, I invited her and my close friend over for dinner. Not knowing her likes and dislikes, but knowing that she had ordered chicken when we went out earlier in the weekend, I decided on Cornish Hens (well, the store only had huge chickens that were not going to cook fast enough). I made this up as I went, not to say it's original, the flavor combination is common, I think. The entire meal included individual Cornish Hens stuffed with lemon, garlic, rosemary, and capers, mashed sweet potatoes and potatoes with leek butter, cooked carrots, and asparagus.

Savory Citrus Cornish Hens

4 Cornish Hens, rinsed and patted dry
1 lemon, sliced thin
8 cloves garlic, sliced in half lengthwise
2 tbsp capers
2 long sprigs rosemary
4 tsp oil
freshly ground black pepper and kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Separate skin on breasts of hens from the flesh.
Slice four lemon slices in half and slide half a lemon slice between the skin and flesh of each breast.
Divide remaining lemon slices between the cavities of each bird.
Divide garlic, capers, and rosemary between each bird, stuffing into the cavity.
Rub the breast of the birds with oil, then rub with black pepper and salt.
Bake until done, between 1 hour and 1 1/2 hours.

Mashed (Sweet) Potatoes and Leek Butter
2 large yams, peeled and cubed
2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 leek, white only, sliced in half, then thinly sliced into half moons
1/4 c butter

Place yams and potatoes into a pot, cover with water.
Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until tender.
Rinse leeks well and set to drain.
When potatoes are nearly done, heat small skillet and melt butter.
Add leeks and cook until tender.
Drain potatoes and return to pot.
Pour in leeks and butter and mash to desired consistency.
Serve hot.

Recipes - Something to Inspire

A few weeks ago, a close friend of mine and I collaboratively cooked a meal from some new friends. Now, I love to cook, but I don't tend toward what I consider to be... food snobbery. I would love to buy those ingredients that lend a slightly different flavor or are more environmentally friendly, but I can't quite afford those items. Now my friend tends to buy those ingredients. It leads to interesting conversations and eventual compromise in the grocery store. As soon as I have the monetary funds necessary, or my own farm, I'll definitely be up for those ingredients. At the moment, substitutions must be made, especially when cooking from recipes from certain online websites. I also found that said website also got the time necessary to cook a chuck roast grossly wrong, as in at least three hours wrong. I like my roasts tender, an hour in the oven with a mass of vegetables is certainly not sufficient. I also have heard that reducing wine alone makes a more flavorful and less alcoholic sauce, so we applied that to our recipe. If you buy a well marbled piece of meat, you shouldn't need additional fat. I also applied a technique for flavoring a pork roast to our adapted recipe, deep slits into which you stuff seasonings. Here is the recipe, as close as I can remember.

12 garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon whole mustard seed, roasted in skillet and crushed
2 tsp black peppercorns, roasted in skillet and crushed
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 4 lb chuck roast
2 c dry red wine
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 c chicken broth
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 small celery root, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 small to medium rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 medium to large onions, peeled and cut into eighths

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To prepare mustard seed and peppercorns, place in a small heavy skillet over medium heat. Gently shake pan until mustard seeds start popping. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Place in the middle of a piece of plastic wrap. Fold plastic wrap in half to seal in the seeds. Pound with a meat mallet until crushed.
With a sharp knife, make 1 inch deep slits into the roast at regular intervals on all sides, placing a clove of garlic in each slit.
Rub the outside of the roast with the kosher salt, mustard seed, and peppercorns.
Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
Place roast in the hot skillet and brown on all sides.
Remove roast from skillet and place in large roasting pan.
Reduce heat on the skillet to low.
Once cool enough, pour in the wine and start stirring to loosen the browned bits.
Bring the wine to a simmer and cook, stirring, until reduced to half.
Add bay leaf, thyme, and chicken broth and cook until aromatic.
Pour the sauce into the bottom of the roasting pan.
Cover the roasting pan loosely with aluminum foil.
Place in the oven and roast for about 2 1/2 hours.
Add vegetables and continue roasting until vegetables are tender and roast is tender enough to insert a fork, but the fork does not lift the roast when removed.

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.

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...)

Roast Beef

Another of our family's comfort foods is Roast Beef. The last time we went to the butcher (http://www.brandonmeats.com/) it was still a bit cool outside, so I ordered two roasts. Then it became unseasonably warm (80 degrees, 80 degrees in March, that is wrong on so many levels), so I started trying to think of warm weather ways of preparing the arm roasts. But, it got cool again, so last night I made Roast Beef with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. The cooking time for this one is long, and longer if you do it the way I did yesterday so that I could go to the gym (needed more time), but the results are a tender roast.

Roast Beef

1 beef roast (You can use any size or cut. The size will only affect the cooking time. I believe the one I used last night was around 3 lbs, and it was an arm roast.)
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 large bell pepper
1-46oz can of tomato juice
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 275 - 350 degrees (higher temperature will reduce cooking time).
Place the roast in a large ovenproof skillet (we use cast iron).
Salt and generously pepper each side of the roast.
Add the onion and bell pepper.
Pour the tomato juice over everything until the roast is covered.
Place, covered with lid or aluminum foil, in the oven and cook until a fork, inserted into the middle of the roast, comes away without resistance (Yesterday I cooked the roast at 275 degrees for 3 1/2 hours.)

A gravy can be made of the tomato juice after the roast is complete. Simply remove the roast from the skillet and set aside, covered. Place the skillet on a burner set at medium to medium high heat. In a shakable container, put flour (the amount of flour depends on the amount of liquid in the pan, you'll have to experiment as we never measure this part) and enough water to make it runny and shake. Slowly whisk the flour and water mixture into the tomato juice and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Once it is thick, pour into a gravy boat and serve.

Irish Soda Bread

I love (and I don't use that term lightly... at least here) the New York Times food section. They have provided me with some absolutely delicious recipes, and the Irish Soda Bread that was featured recently is no exception. It's a basic, slightly sweet buttermilk quick bread flavored with a healthy dose of currants and some caraway seeds. It's no longer on their website, but I don't feel comfortable copying it here. (But if you asked me, I would be okay sharing via email.) Instead, I'll give you the recipe for a light cream of potato soup which we ate with the soda bread, sharp cheddar cheese and thinly sliced tart apples. By light, I do not mean light on calories (though it may be, I haven't checked), but less dense, through the use of more chicken broth than milk and less flour in the roux.

Potato Soup

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp flour
salt and pepper, to taste
2 c chicken broth
1 c milk (I used 1%)
3/4 c diced ham

Place potatoes in a soup pan, cover with water, and boil until tender.
Drain potatoes in the sink while preparing the sauce.
Melt butter in the pan.
Add the onion and cook until starting to brown (better flavor).
Stir in the flour, making sure to get rid of lumps, and allow to bubble for one minute.
Add salt and pepper. (I did not add salt to mine because I thought the ham and chicken broth would lend enough. They did.)
Slowly add the chicken broth, stirring or whisking to prevent lumps.
Add the milk.
Heat this mixture to boiling.
Add ham and potatoes and heat through.