Veggie Fridays

When I was finished with 4th grade, my family moved from Iowa City (AKA the People's Republic of Johnson County) to Dubuque. It was a huge cultural shift, from a very PC (even in the 70's), college centered town to a heavily white catholic community. We didn't celebrate Easter or Christmas in the schools, now we had parties with treats for them.

So then, I was intrigued with the concept of giving up something for Lent. In our church, it wasn't required. So I was endlessly amused by my Catholic friends complaining about no meat on Friday. And yes, I did eat pepperoni pizza in front of them to taunt them- followed by chocolate bar & soda. When I gave up eating beef or pork my Senior year in high school (yes folks, my 20th no-Big Mac anniversary is this summer!), I later came to realize that I was eating that way just about every day. And the griping still amuses me. I remember rattling off a list of meals to someone next to me while I was getting my hair cut. For me, meat was easy to give up. Now coffee, that's a whole different story. You'll only be able to pry my cuppa from my cold, dead hands.

Looking into it, I did not realize that there is a spirit of reaching out to others and volunteering your time and taking stock of your own life and values. That is something I can get behind. We often don't take time to realize how lucky we are. So, I have decided to goal for buying something, even one thing a week, when I'm at the grocery store for the food pantry. And I signed up to organize a bake sale for Share Our Strength.

Ha, and now going vegetarian is the new Green option. I read Food Matters by Mark Bittman- which really deserves its own special posting. Great read- and with yummy recipes. So, I plan on Fridays to highlight a vegetarian meal, that will lighten your grocery bill and maybe your waist line too.

We had this last week, when the weather got a little chilly. Great comforting dish- which we all need once in a while. Serve it up with some roasted asparagus or sauteed broccoli. I make it with regular gouda, for me the smoked is a little too much.

Enjoy!

Smoked Gouda Macaroni and Cheese

This American classic has been updated for heightened flavor. You can use regular Gouda or any other cheese that melts well.

1 (1-ounce) slice whole wheat bread
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded smoked Gouda cheese
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
5 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach
4 cups hot cooked elbow macaroni (about 2 cups uncooked)
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place bread in a food processor, and pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs measure 1/2 cup.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic; cook 1 minute. Add flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, salt, and pepper, stirring constantly with a whisk until blended. Bring to a boil; cook until thick (about 2 minutes). Add cheeses; stir until melted.

Add spinach and macaroni to cheese sauce, stirring until well blended. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until bubbly.Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)CALORIES 399 (25% from fat); FAT 10.9g (sat 6.2g,mono 3g,poly 0.8g); IRON 3.6mg; CHOLESTEROL 33mg; CALCIUM 421mg; CARBOHYDRATE 54.9g; SODIUM 725mg; PROTEIN 20.1g; FIBER 3.7g Cooking Light, MARCH 2003

Polenta Pizza

Last week I was watching the Today show before work and Mark Bittman was on whipping up savory breakfasts. Among which was a polenta breakfast pizza, which looked very yummy. I started thinking and got out HTCEV and saw that I earmarked the polenta pizza to make, and Angel said she'd try it.

So, I picked up some cornmeal, beans, salsa and cheese after work and got busy in the kitchen. It's a great method for a really filling, and frugal, dinner. Feel free to experiment with the toppings, add leftover grilled veggies, swap out different cheeses. Since my cornmeal was a little finer than coarse ground, it cooked up a bit quicker. Here's the recipe, adapted from Mark Bittman.

I liked that you can make the crust the morning or even the day before and just leave it in the fridge. The leftovers heated up great, sorry I ate them all. Just a little.

Time: About 45 minutes, plus one hour’s chilling


1/2 cup milk, preferably whole ( didn't use milk, cause we were out- just increased the amount of water)
Salt
1 cup coarse cornmeal
Freshly ground black pepper

Salsa
Can of refried beans
Mexican shredded cheese

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees; brush a layer of olive oil on a pizza pan or cookie sheet. (I just used a pie pan and a spray of Pam) In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine milk with 2 1/2 cups water and a large pinch of salt. Bring just about to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and add cornmeal in a steady stream, whisking all the while to prevent lumps from forming. Turn heat to low and simmer, whisking frequently, until thick, 10 or 15 minutes. If mixture becomes too thick, whisk in a bit more water; you want a consistency approaching thick oatmeal.

2. Stir 1 tablespoon oil (I used butter) into cooked cornmeal (polenta). Spoon it onto prepared pan, working quickly so polenta does not stiffen; spread it evenly to a thickness of about 1/2 inch all over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover baking sheet with plastic wrap and put it in refrigerator until it is firm, an hour or more (you can refrigerate polenta overnight if you prefer).
3. Put polenta in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it begins to brown and crisp on edges. I mixed a can of refried beans and some salsa together (makes it easier to spread)

4. Take polenta out of oven, spread bean mixture on top and sprinkle with cheese. Put pizza back in oven for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese begins to melt . Cut into slices and serve hot or at room temperature.

Yield: 4 servings.
Variation: Before you put polenta in oven, top it with thin slices of fresh mozzarella, two or three thinly sliced Roma tomatoes or a bit of tomato sauce, and a handful of fresh basil leaves.

Holiday hermits

I finally got the last of my holiday care packages sent out last week. I just got too busy over the holidays with moving, working and oh, everything to bake at least one thing to include with it. I had picked out a very classic recipe to make, which a form was displayed in Penzeys around Christmas: Hermit Bars.

As much as I adore new trendy stuff, the single orgin chocolate, mixing chipotle into chocolate chip cookies and espresso whatnot, there is something about the old-fashioned tried and true stuff that is just outstanding. And it seems to be going around- Rachel made just chocolate chip cookies this weekend- no pecans, raisins, bourbon, no ne plus ultra, just chocolate chip. And I had three.

I do confess, I did over bake this batch a wee bit as I was a bit leery about the underbaking instructions. But next time I am sticking exactly to the directions, because the bit that was underdone was quite yummy. A couple people who tried them remarked how they don't like raisins, but they liked these. When did raisins get such a bad rap? I used a great blend of three jumbo raisins, nice and plump.

This will definitely be a repeater for me every holiday season. It makes a huge batch of cookies and they keep pretty well. I did use all-purpose flour, and if you do - they recommend to increase the amount of water to 3/4 cup. And I may increase the amount of allspice and cinnamon. Hey, I'm a spicy girl.

The Very Best Hermit Bars Ever

Yield: about 8 1/2 dozen 1-inch cookies

For bars:

1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
5 cups cake flour, divided use
1/3 cup water
2 cups raisins, packed

For glaze:
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup powdered sugar

Procedure:

1. Prepare bars: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 10-by-15-inch jelly roll pan.

2. In large mixing bowl, cream together sugar, shortening and butter, beating at medium speed until fluffy. Add molasses, salt, spices and baking soda. Mix 1 minute, then stop mixer and scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half of flour. Once it’s mixed in, add water, then other half of flour. When batter is mixed completely, add raisins and stir until combined. Spread batter in prepared pan.

3. Bake bars 18-20 minutes, until edges are light brown. They’ll puff up in oven and top will get shiny. As soon as you see this, pull pan from oven. The top will fall back down and interior of cookies will have an almost fudgy consistency. Remove hermit bars from oven and cool them in pan on rack before glazing.

4. Prepare glaze: In small bowl, stir together milk and powdered sugar until smooth; glaze will be quite thin. Use pastry brush to brush it on top of hermit bars before cutting bars.

Source: “The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion”

Restaurant Reviews

See, this is me playing catch-up.



First: Zuzap



I adore Thai food. The complexity and freshness of it just calls to me. It's like my eating life was just in black and white before diving into my first dish of pad thai. But now, I just about know the menu by heart at my favorite place. It seems just a bit too familiar.



Enter Zuzap- also owned by Liam Anivat who opened and operates Cool Basil and Thai Flavors bring us something new to the Des Moines Thai scene. Wonderful curries and noodle dishes await. Frankly, it's been a while since we ate there- but my dish was wonderful. I didn't like too much the type of noodle I selected- a wide rice noodle, but since they have 5 or 6 different types- no worries next time. My only complaint- it's too far away from my house.



Next: Fong's Pizza



Yes, an asian themed pizza joint. How can you not be excited?



Well, it was their first week. And we ended up with a mishap in the kitchen. The table next to ours got our pizza instead- and we ended up with theirs later (at no charge- but we wanted ours!) and got our speciality like 45 minutes later. We had crab rangoons to start, which were quite good. They were wrapped in egg roll wrappers for a different twist. The mistake pizza was the happy family, which wasn't really my thing- fake krab just grosses me out after a while. Our pizza was the vegetarian with the hoisin bbq sauce, which was good.



The drink menu is worth a look see- it brings that tradition of Trader Vics to Des Moines. I had a Singapore Sling, a classic. Angel had a sip and remarked that at first it didn't seem there was any alcohol in it and then said "Oh wait there it is." Yep, and that's why froo-froo drinks are deceptively deadly and you end up wearing the tropical umbrellas in your hair by #3. And the Sling was the reason I wasn't too upset about the kitchen mishap- whee!



We'll try again- am very intrigued by the homemade pizza rolls. Totino's pizza rolls were a childhood treat, nice to see a homemade version of them. (Hey, why don't I do that?) http://www.fongspizza.com/

But not last: Sweet Binneys

I got an invitation to their Spring open house and tasting. WOW! We sampled a chocolate mousse cake with a cheesecake filling, white chocolate & apricot cheesecake with oreo crust, plum and almond tart, raspberry bavarian cream torte, and a cherry & almond cake which was enrobed with marzipan. Sugar rush, oh yes. My favorite was the chocolate- but of course, I love chocolate- within a group of equals, it always outranks them just by the virtue of being chocolate. The plum tart was my second fave (I love plums) and next was the white chocolate apricot cheesecake.

And since I was there on Wed. night, I have had peanut butter pie on the brain. They had it in the pastry case and it was singing to me. Maybe next week...

I love this bakery so much- everything I've ever gotten from there was been scrumptious, and I know my pastry. Angel is quite amused by the fact that I can spot a pastry shop from six blocks away- no fooling. I love their individual desserts, just the right size for a special occasion or just because it's Friday.

http://sweetbinneys.com/

Goodbye old friend

Well, last night was the untimely end of an old kitchen buddy. My Cuisinart bowl, broke, in a serious way, along with spilling tomato sauce all over the place.

It's had a great long life. Actually it was my Grandma's- and about 25 years old. Just thinking of how many veggies its chopped, batches of pesto made, soups pureed, made me a little sad.

So, I started looking for a replacement bowl on EBay today. Which hopefully I'll find one sooner than later. And not spend $60 for it- I mean, really, would anyone spend that much??

I think that she would of approved of the menu last night. I've been reading off and on, Mario Batalli's new book "Spain, on the road again" and had 7 eggs to use up. Solution? An easy frittata with spanish goat cheese, roasted asparagus and potatoes bravas. My family tends to be more into grazing than eating a huge meal, hence I love the Spanish tapas so much. What's not to love about small plates? You get to try more things!

Here's the recipe. I used a red pepper instead of a green and added a nice tsp of Spanish smoked paprika to the sauce. The potatoes themselves were a bit bland- next time I'll add more spice or come to terms that I am seriously addicted to Penzeys 4S.

Patatas Bravas

Spanish for "fierce potatoes," patatas bravas are a common tapas offering of crisp potato cubes served with a spicy sauce. If you like fiery food, use one-fourth to one-half teaspoon red pepper in the sauce. For the crispest potatoes, stir only every two or three minutes; frequent stirring can damage them.

Potatoes:4 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled baking potato (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced

Sauce:1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
Parsley sprigs (optional)

1. To prepare potatoes, place potato in a medium saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until crisp-tender; drain well.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add butter and 2 teaspoons oil to pan, swirling to coat bottom of pan; heat 30 seconds or until foam subsides. Add potato to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until browned, stirring twice. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon red pepper, and garlic; sauté 1 minute. Remove potato mixture from pan; keep warm.

3. To prepare sauce, heat pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil to pan, swirling to coat; heat 15 seconds. Add onion and bell pepper; sauté 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon red pepper, and tomato sauce; bring to a simmer. Cook 1 minute. Pour onion mixture into a blender. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Serve sauce with potato mixture. Garnish with parsley sprigs, if desired.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup potato mixture and 1/4 cup sauce)CALORIES 153 (26% from fat); FAT 4.4g (sat 1.6g,mono 2.2g,poly 0.4g); IRON 1.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 5mg; CALCIUM 31mg; CARBOHYDRATE 26.5g; SODIUM 416mg; PROTEIN 3.5g; FIBER 2.9g Cooking Light, APRIL 2008

Look what I had after all!

Last night I uncovered a box of Kashi 7 grain and sesame pilaf that I haven't opened yet. I figured that since brown rice was one of the ingredients, that would make a great addition to the leftover stir fry I had slated for lunch today. And since, I love their frozen dinners- no problem.

What a great find! I am stuffed after eating one serving and have consumed by daily quota of recommended whole grains- so bring on the white bread!

I will definately have to play around with this some more.

And this morning in the shower, I think I caught a glimpse of Mischa tring to jump from the sink to the top of the door. It was a black blur slamming into the top of the door, followed by a thump, then a yowl and kitten footfalls running down the hallway. This was after he spent most of the morning on top of the refridgerator. He is the reason why we don't have lit candles in the open. He is voted most likely to set himself on fire.

I did finish Espersso Shot by Cleo Coyle, the most recent in the Coffeehouse mystery series which I really enjoyed. I just started Deadly Night by Heather Graham, the first in the Flynn Brothers trilogy. I haven't read any of her books before, but it is promising- a good paranormal mystery that takes place in New Orleans.

Pantry Freezer challenge

I am a huge believer in a well stocked pantry and freezer. It's amazing to be able to come home with just some chicken and milk from the store and be able to whip up a great dinner. With a can of tomatoes you can go Mexican, Italian or Moroccan. You can make pasta in minutes.

Managing it, is another story.

I ran into this last night which I just picked up chicken and a couple of veggies for the kung pao chicken I planned for dinner. I was going to use up the rest of the veggies in the crisper and had brown rice to cook at home.

So, after cutting up the chicken, I opened the pantry door to discover I was dangerously low on soy sauce. So much so, I couldn't make the recipe. And no rice wine vinegar. How could I have fig balsamic and sherry but no rice? And brown rice, our rice of choice, nope- had about not even a half cup which would not be enough for the planned leftovers the next day. Luckily, I had a bottle of spicy stir fry sauce in the pantry so I used that instead. Enter the steam bag of frozen rice from the freezer. So, dinner went on as planned, and really who wants to back to the store when it's after 6pm?

I did a fair job of cleaning out the pantry & freezer before moving. But, I am a sucker for buying stuff on sale and clearance because I'll use it someday. I know a lot of it stems from those lean grad school days and under/unemployment days which are behind me. (Knock wood!) But in moving, I found out that I had a lot of duplicates- I mean who needs two huge containers of corn starch? Apparently I thought I did!

So, progress in cleaning out stuff? I used some leftover frozen turkey in the curry soup. The remaining of it is in the freezer (one step forward and, well) We have two more bags of turkey! I think a couple of casseroles may be in the mix or a batch of turkey noodle soup to send off to someone.

Mental Inventory

Frozen sweet corn- totally have to use that.

Roasted hatch chillies- tortilla soup- maybe with turkey? ;-)

Frozen cherries- yum

A slew of frozen meals.

Half open package of Morningstar Farms sausage crumbles

The cheeseball my Mom snuck home with me

Sloppy joes- may be my lunch tomorrow

Duck breast

Potstickers- may have these this week- with some asparagus-

Of course, this just scratches the surface!

And having this upcoming weekend off I was thinking about a couple of cooking projects to further stock my freezer- making chicken stock and bologonese sauce. Or maybe I should work around the house and eat black bean burgers for dinner and gain some more precious free cubic inches of freezer space. Hmmm....

One my things I will have to pay more attention to is the dreaded expiration dates. My baking plans around Christmas didn't work out- so had to end up ditching the heavy cream I bought. Ditto the overage of cottage cheese that we had. And since I bought yoplait yogurt on sale (5 for $2 at Dahls), I checked the dates and bought the one slated to die first with me for breakfast. I was really in the passion fruit mood- but had to settle for strawberry cheesecake- tough life. I did put my celery in one of those green bags that my Mom gave me- so we'll see how that works. I never ever use up a thing of celery. Ever. Too bad Mischa doesn't like celery.

Of course my Mom's freezer is infamous. My friend Jamie noted that once that lone package of eggrolls had been in there the entire time he'd known me. Years. So, Ma- up for the challenge?