High Plains Drifters

Moving again?

2010-12-15T17:12:00.003-07:00

Maybe, maybe not.

Trying out WordPress instead of Blogger.

Definitely like the Blogger interface better.

But WordPress is already formatted for mobile devices, which is way cool. If you ever need to grab a quick recipe in the kitchen when you have all four burners going and smoke's coming out of the oven, it's nice to have the pages load super-quick on your phone rather than dragging the laptop into the kitchen.

Anyone have any pros / cons about either format?

Check out this page on your cell phone. What do you think? Worth changing?

This to me seems more like a summer salad, except that oranges are best in the winter months. Summer, winter, whatever ... it's a good change of pace for this time of the year.

Orange + Fennel + Watercress Salad mit Citrus Vinaigrette

Ingredients

2 large oranges
3 Tbs fresh orange juice (will get at least that much when you segment the oranges)
1 fennel bulb (maybe 12-14 ounces)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 + 1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2-3 cups watercress (about two bunches)
salt and pepper to taste

Segment the oranges. (Easy to follow video here from FineCooking.)

Squeeze the rest of the juice from the membranes into a measuring cup. You'll use 1-2 Tbs in the vinaigrette, so drink the rest to help fight the common cold.

Trim the fennel of stems and fronds, then slice the white bulb into thin slices. (You can save some of the fronds for garnish when you're done if you want.)

Mix the orange slices and fennel in a bowl. Then combine the olive oil, orange juice, and salt and pepper into a vinaigrette, and pour about a quarter of it over the oranges and fennel. Stir gently to coat.

De-stem, wash and dry the watercress, and add it to your serving bowl. Layer the orange and fennel mixture over the watercress, and lightly drizzle with about another quarter of the vinaigrette. Serve with the rest of the vinaigrette on the side.

Christmas songs that aren't on a Christmas album

2010-12-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here Come the Geese, Barenaked Ladies Snacktime!
25th December Everything But The Girl Amplified Heart
A Long December, Counting Crows Across A Wire: Live In New York (Disc 2)
Flowers In December, Mazzy Star Among My Swan
Winter, Tori Amos Little Earthquakes
Christmas Morning Lyle Lovett The Road To Ensenada
Christmas in Washington Steve Earle El Corazon
River, Joni Mitchell Blue
Air Of December Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
Winter Lady Leonard Cohen
Winter In the Hamptons Josh Rouse Nashville
Winter White A Fine Frenzy
Christmas in Paradise Mary Gauthier Filth & Fire

The Coffee Cache Fruity Gobbler

2010-11-24T07:12:00.002-07:00

My favorite T-day leftover sammich. Perfect for watching Rivalry Weekend college football games.

Adapted from Kerlin's Coffee Cache's lunch menu, circa 1997.

Bread
Cream cheese
Cranberry chutney
Sunflower seeds
Left-over turkey, roughly chopped
Greens of any sort
Optional: a wee bit of stuffing

Safe travels and happy holidays.

PS. Since lots of folks are already putting up their holiday lights, here's a reminder how to really do your lights.

Goethe's final words: "More light." Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry: "More light." Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlight. Neon. Incandescent. Lights that banish the darkness from our caves, to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's field. Little tiny flashlight for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home- Lead Thou me on! Arise, shine, for thy light has come. Light is knowledge. Light is life. Light is light.

Cheers!

Thanksgiving Poll + Cranberry Chutney

2010-11-15T07:27:00.006-07:00

What makes Thanksgiving Thanksgiving at your home?

Online Surveys & Market Research

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I love Thanksgiving for one primary reason: cranberry jelly. Cranberry chutney, actually.

I can't even remember if we even had cranberry jelly on the table when I was growing up. I think maybe if someone remembered to get it, we might have had a can of the stuff on the table, with those distinctive ripples from the can revealing that it wasn't homemade, as if anyone could have entertained that thought.

And if we had it on the table, I'd eat it as an afterthought, maybe spreading a thin schmear over a particularly dried-out piece of breast meat to give it some life. So, no, I wasn't a fan of it, and it doesn't have any Jungian deep-seated emotional resonance with me.

But cranberry chutney was one of the first recipes I ever tried, holiday or not, where the results so greatly exceeded the expectations. Here it was, something I wasn't crazy about in the first place, and something incredibly simple, and somehow the tiniest bit of this and that transformed it into something I didn't see coming.

Fruit and sugar ... that makes jelly, yeah? Then add some onion. What? A vegetable in jelly? And then a pinch of cayenne ... whoa, did not see that coming.

On top of all of that, it was also trés simple and bombproof, impossible to mess up.

Cranberry chutney may have been the gateway drug that led to finally getting a decent set of pots and knives.

And even though I was probably 35 years old the first time I ever made it, now I can't imagine Thanksgiving without it. And I dare you not to like it, no matter how much you either loved or hated the canned jiggly stuff.

The Indians and English use them much, boyling
them with Sugar for Sauce to eat with their Meat,
and it is a delicate sauce.
—John Josselyn, while visiting New England 1663

Cranberry Chutney

12 ounces fresh cranberries
2 tablespoons red onion,
finely chopped
⅔ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp grated ginger
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup finely chopped pecans, lightly toasted

In a heavy saucepan, combine the cranberries, onion, sugar, ginger, spices and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until cranberries begin to pop—about 5–6 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool. Stir in pecans. Chutney is best if made two days ahead. Refrigerate.

Up next: the world's greatest Thanksgiving left-over sammich, the Fruity Gobbler.

Another Fall Salad

2010-11-08T08:36:00.004-07:00

Oops! Forgot this one on this list.

Pomaceous Salad with Dried Cherries and Walnuts, with Maple Dressing

Maple Dressing
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup pure maple syrup
3 Tbs Champagne vinegar (white wine vinegar works fine)
2 tsp sugar, or 1.5 tsp of agave nectar
½ cup olive or vegetable oil

Salad
8-10 cups mixed baby greens
2 Honeycrisp apples, cut into matchstick-size strips
½ cup dried cherries
½ cup toasted, chopped walnuts

Dressing: Whisk mayonnaise, maple syrup, vinegar, and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in oil until mixture thickens slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Dressing can be prepared 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewhisk before using.)

Salad: Toss greens, apples, cherries, and 1/4 cup walnuts in large bowl to combine. Toss with enough dressing to coat. Divide salad equally among plates. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup walnuts and serve.

Two Trees

2010-11-05T22:59:00.000-06:00

A couple of stories I've been meaning to write down.

The Avocado Tree

Major Phelps came in to work laughing, and said, well, I never thought I'd see the day ...

See, his quarters at Schofield Barracks were one street down from the Deputy Commanding General of the 25th Infantry Division. One street down, so their back yards shared a fence. He could look out the kitchen window of his 900 sf duplex and se the DCG's 3,000 sf fully staffed quarters. And while the DCG had staff for a lot of his personal errands, such as picking up his dry cleaning or driving him to work, like most leaders he didn't want to look like he really needed any help, that he was only accepting the help because it was more efficient to let his staff do it. So he did those certain jobs that he needed to do so that he wouldn't look like he felt he was different than the rest of the troops, jobs like changing the oil in his car and mowing his own yard. And it was while both men were mowing their yards that Major Phelps and the DCG became aquaintenances, the kind of aquaintenances who know a little something but nothing really significant about each other, like whether they mowed the lawn on Saturdays or Sundays, but not how many brothers the other one had or if he was on his first marriage.

One day Phelps and the DCG were both out back doing yard work, and Phelps was picking up something from the back corner, by the fence that separated their yards. The DCG could see Phelps bending over, picking up armfulls of something, and pitching them into a bag. From his manor, he could tell Phelps was not collecting but was hauling off, from the way he was roughing tossing the yard scraps into a plastic trash can. So he ran over there before he could haul off the first load.

You see, Phelps didn't care for avocados. Nor did anyone in his family. But that was an avocado tree in his back yard, and the tree was dropping its fruit, and one can't exactly just run over a few dozen green baseball-sized fruits with the push mower, so Phelps was bagging them up before he mowed. That's what the DCG saw, and without even having to do the math of $1.50 per avocado times a couple of dozen, he knew he couldn't let Phelps just throw them away. No, he ran over to their shared fence and offered to take care of Phelps' little problem.

But what neither of the men knew was that an avocado tree will produce several hundred if not a thousand avocados each season. So when the DCG offered to scoop up Phelps' avocados, he didn't realize what he was getting himself into.

And that's why Major Phelps was laughing. Because over the next couple of weekends, he would invite friends over to barbecue and to hang out in his backyard, and he would point and his back yard and say, "Life is good. How many people can say they have a two-star general as their personal landscaper?"

The Mango Tree
(You can probably guess where this one is going.)

There was a little five mile loop I used to run in Hawaii, a loop starting at the office and running out the front gate of Ft Shafter and into the local neighborhood, and the turn around point was this monstrous shade tree. Not particularly tall, but wide enough to cover three or four yards. And I didn't know what kind of tree it was until ...

Paul came into work one morning and placed a paper bag down by the coffee pot in the break room, the spot where folks would leave a box of doughnuts or coffee cake that was for the whole team to share. "Hey, everybody, I brought in a bag of mangoes. This tree in our front yard, turns out it's a mango tree, and it started dropping fruit, so it's my lucky day: free mangoes!"

There were ten or so mangoes in there, and a bunch of us helped ourselves to one.

Next day, same thing, only a slightly bigger bag. "This is too cool," Paul announced. "Going to be living off mangoes for a while. There were twice as many on the ground when I got home yesterday as there were the day before. So help yourself, everyone!"

Third day, Paul came in with another grocery sack in one arm, and a blender in another. "I don't think we can keep up with these mangoes, so I brought in the blender so we can make smoothies. It doesn't get any better than this, living in Hawaii, does it? These things are a buck each at the commissary, and we're getting them for free!"

That's about when I realized, the commissary always has mangoes for about $1.99 a pound, but every now and then there's this kid selling them on the side of the street, a quarter each or ten for a dollar. So there must be something about supple and demand going on there ...

Next day, Paul walks in and says, "Hey, can someone help me get some bags out of the car? I can't carry all of the mangoes myself. Everyone get a bag, and I guess take them home, cut them up, and freeze them." He was all matter of fact now, no longer excited about the prospect of the gift from the tree in his front yard.

Monday came, and no mangoes. "Hey Paul, is that tree out of mangoes?" someone yelled at him. "Oh no, the opposite ... I spent all of Saturday scooping them up from the yard, and then Sunday morning, you couldn't tell I had picked up a one. I didn't have time to spend all weekend out there, so I just let them lay there."

Tuesday, he came in looking a little pissed. "No mangoes, Paul?"
"You know what, I don't care if I never see another freaking mango as long as I live. You know what mangoes do? They fall from the tree. And the ones from the lower branches, they don't fall so far, and they're not quite as ripe, so you can pick them up. But later on, they're falling from higher up, and they're a little bit riper, so they fall and hit real hard and splat everywhere. Turns out, you know who likes mangoes? Birds. Birds like mangoes. And you know what birds do? They eat them up until their about to puke, and then when they're stuffed with mangoes, they see that there are still more down there, so they just keep stuffing their freaking little faces. And you know what happens when you weigh about three ounces and you eat a pound of mangoes? You poop it everywhere. And do you think a bird cares if my car's in the freaking driveway? Noooooo!"

One week. That's how long it took to go from "Ain't it great living in Hawaii" to "My gawd, who planted a freaking mango tree in their front yard?!?!"

Thanksgiving Collection

2010-11-01T11:33:00.003-06:00

New York Times.

LA Times.

Alice Waters.

Thomas Keller.

W-S.

Scott Peacock.

Food and Wine.

Robert Redford Cupcakes

2010-10-30T07:02:00.005-06:00

Over at the Greasy Skillet, Muddy is embracing his inner Paul Giamatti, and thinking about the burden of glamor that the more photogenic Bradley Pitt must bear. I hear where he's coming from. I could watch a movie where Giamatti stands in line at the bank for two hours.

Been making a lot of working class, unglamorous soups lately. Meals that seem intended to be sipped from the cup of a Thermos, sitting on the back of a pickup tailgate or even better, many stories up in the air on an I-beam during your 15 minute lunch break. No fine china or linen table clothes with these meals. Just a sip from the Thermos, and then wipe your mouth with the sleeve of your Carhart jacket.

Form vs function ... can't be all of one with none of the other, but there's no clear mathematical formula to determine how much of one, how little of the other you should have.

What's funny is, it's easy to dismiss things for being "pretty." Like maybe Bradley Pitt. But it's not his fault that ShowBizWeekly puts him on the cover every week, and what exactly do the bio-metrics of his facial features have to do with the construction work he's doing in the 9th Ward? Besides, pretending to not care about fashion and style is one of the lamest conceits out there. After all, Wrangler and Carhart and Cinch all put their logos on their clothes, and no-nonsense working types check each other out for the "right" kind of clothes, tools, pick-ups, you name it.

With that in mind, we present the Robert Redford cupcake. Named after Robert Redford because it might be all pretty on the outside*, like maybe Hubbell Gardiner, but there's still some Jeremiah Johnson in there, with it's whole wheat flour and hearty fruits and nuts.

* or would be, if someone with a steadier hand than mine did the icing.

Banana-Pecan Cupcakes, aka the Robert Redford Cupcake.
adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour, preferably King Arthur White Whole Wheat
1½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
6 bananas, very ripe and mashed
¾ cup buttermilk
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 ½ cups brown sugar
3 large eggs (room temp)
1 cup pecans, toasted and coursely chopped

Heat the oven to 350º. Line muffin tins with paper liners. In one bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a second bowl, mix the bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.

In a third bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer on med-high until creamed. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat until completely incorporated.

Turn down the mixer to low and add the flour mixture and banana mixture in alternating batches, about a cup of each at a time. Mix until just combined, then add the pecans and gently stir until uniformly distributed.

Fill the lined cups about three-quarters full and bake for about 20 minutes. You can test with a toothpick. Cook before removing from the pans.

Makes about a billion, or at least two dozen.

Icing: Standard vanilla buttercream from Mark Bittman's iPhone app.

4 Tbs butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 Tbs cream or milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter, work in sugar, drip in the milk, keep beating, stir in the vanilla.

Fall Salads

2010-10-21T10:25:00.004-06:00

Basic apple / spinach

1 Honey-crisp apples, cored, cut into large dice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 package (8 cups) baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries

Toss apples with 1 Tbs of the lemon juice. Place spinach in a large bowl; remove long stems and bruised leaves. Whisk together remaining juice, olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt, and ground pepper to taste. Toss spinach with apples and dressing. . Top with cheese and walnuts.

Fennel and Apple Salad with Cider Vinaigrette

1/2 cup unfiltered apple cider or apple juice
3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tsp honey or agave nectar
1 large honey-crisp apple, cored, thinly sliced
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, thinly sliced
2 cups arugula
1/4 cup pecans, toasted
Optional: dried cranberries or cherries

Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl to blend; season dressing with salt and pepper. Combine apple, fennel and arugula in large bowl. Toss with enough dressing to coat. Mound salad on 4 plates; sprinkle with pecans.

On the right: Kitchen Sink Frittata

Potato Chowdah and Cheddar Biscuits

2010-10-21T09:36:00.005-06:00

Falls here ... so you know what that means ...

Potato Chowder with lots of Root Veggies and (of course) Bacon
from Bon Appétit, Oct 2003

2 bacon slices, chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
3 medium leeks, thinly sliced (white parts and up to about an inch past where it starts to turn green)
1 pound parsnips, peeled, ¼ inch dice
2-3 medium carrots, peeled, ¼ inch dice
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ tsp dried thyme
1 ½ pounds potatoes, 1/2-inch dice
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
3 cups milk (some whole, some half-n-half, whatever you got)
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth, plus or minus enough to get the consistency you want

2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

Cook bacon in large pot (or my personal fave, the Dutch oven) over medium heat until crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels. If you have a lot of burnt bits stuck to the pan, deglaze with a few Tbs of broth.

Add oil to drippings in same pot; warm up for a minute or so. Add leeks; sauté until tender but not brown, about 7 minutes. Add parsnips, carrots, garlic, and thyme; sauté 5 minutes. Again, deglaze if necessary with a few Tbs of broth.

Stir in potatoes, then flour; stir 1 minute to coat.

Gradually add milk and 3 cups broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered until vegetables are tender and soup thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made a day ahead. Cover and chill bacon. Cool chowder slightly. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Rewarm before continuing, thinning with more broth, if desired.)

Stir bacon into chowder. Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with parsley; serve.

Cheddar Biscuits

Bowl #1:
2.5 cups flour (either all all-purpose, or a mix of white and whole wheat)
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
6 Tbs unsalted butter, cubed as small as possible
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

(Hint: freeze the butter while you're getting everything else ready. Cold, cold, cold butter cuts into the flour more easily.)

Whisk all of the dry together and cut in the butter with a fork, pastry blender, or food processor. Add the cheese.

Bowl #2
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Beat the egg, mix in the buttermilk.
(Optional, for extra-rich biscuits, add 1-2 Tbs of melted butter.)

Head the oven to 450º. Line a baking sheet with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper.

Slowly stir the dry into the wet, just until incorporated. Scoop about ¼ cup balls of dough and space two inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for about 13-15 minutes, until the tops start to brown.

Chupacabra Soup

2010-10-19T05:38:00.004-06:00

This isn't quite a non-recipe, in the sense that you can pretty much substitute anything you want in any quantity and it'll still turn out basically the same.

But it is a highly negotiable one, with a lot of options in the meat vs vegan, bean, and chile departments.

Chupacabra might be a bit hard to find in your local grocer's meat department, since one has never actually been caught, at least as far as the USDA and FDA know. But I think the combination of shredded chicken with two cups of Dynamite chile peppers tastes about the same.

(Truth in lending here: I have no idea what a Dynamite chile pepper is. That's all they had left at this little mom and pop farmer's market I just found. Looks like an Anaheim, but I'm assuming from the name it's a wee bit hotter. Yeah, I know ... I was born at night, but not last night ... didn't just fall off the tuna truck, ya know.)

The basic recipe goes like this: shredded chicken plus beans plus a veggie combo of onions and chiles with or without tomatoes plus broth equals soup.

Hints:

Rotisserie chicken works great here, assuming you can't round up a chupacabra.
Made the last batch with half boiled chicken, half ground Jennie-O turkey. Mixing in a little ground meat was something I tried when I was short on pork loin and I wanted to make a double batch of green chile stew, and I think it adds a little depth to the dish. Same idea works here.
If you boil the chicken, then you'll already have a pot of brothy-water to make the chicken broth later. I've been hooked on Better Than Bouillon chicken base lately, for it's convenience, price, and most importantly taste. Bon Appetit loved it, and it's ridiculously cheap at the base commissary — about nine quarts of chicken broth for around three bucks, with no cans or cartons taking up space.
If you're going to add ground turkey or chicken, then brown the meat first and then cook the veggies in the same pot, so that the meat juices work into the onions and peppers.
Chiles: all I can say is, play around with them. It's always easier to start mild and work your way up. Kinda like unringing a bell, if you over-do the peppers, there's only so much diluting you can do later. This last batch, I used about two cups of Dynamites. I loved it, but it was too hot for M., and she had to cut the soup with sour cream. (Which is so odd, because she nearly always out-hots me under the table.)

Chupacabra Soup

Chicken: One rotisserie chicken, or a smallish over-roasted bird, or a pound or so of grilled chicken (shredded), or a pound or so of boiled chicken (again, then shredded) with maybe a pound of ground turkey, browned.
Olive oil as needed
Two small-to-medium onions, yellow or sweet (I like sweet mixed with chiles, but that's just me), medium to fine dice
3-4 garlic cloves, finely diced or minced
½ to 2 cups chile peppers (depending on your own personal taste and constitution), roasted, peeled, and diced (or, about 14-15 ounces of canned Hatch chiles)
2 cans black beans or 1 can black, 1 can pinto, rinsed
1 Tbs quality chile powder (Savory Spices is a great place to start, or grind your own.)
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp to 1 Tbs Mexican oregano
3 cups chicken broth plus more water if needed

Optional:
1-2 cups of diced tomatoes or 14-28 ounces of canned tomatoes
1 cup corn

Garnish:
Cilantro
Lime
Green onions
Strips of fresh tortillas

First, get your meat ready, either from a rotisserie chicken or by grilling or boiling chicken breasts. If you boil the chicken, then save the water for your chicken broth.

If you're using ground turkey or chicken, brown it in a large stock pot or Dutch oven. If you want, spice the meat with a little chile powder and cumin. Remove and set aside, then sauté the onions in the same pot, using the remaining fat from the meat plus as much olive oil as you need to keep the onions for sticking. Go with about medium heat for 6-7 minutes, and then add the garlic and chiles. Stir gently but frequently. If you have burnt bits on the bottom of your pot, lightly deglaze with a few Tbs of chicken broth (or a splash of wine or beer, if you happen to have some open).

Add the beans and gently stir. Add the spices and gently stir. Add the tomatoes and corn and gently stir (optional items). Then add your broth, and gently stir again before bringing the pot to a boil. Immediately turn it back down to a simmer, giving it 15-20 minutes. Then add your chicken (or chupacabra, if you found one) back to the pot.

Update: I love this technique of thickening the soup with a corn starch slurry at Edible Mosaic.

The key to this soup is managing your chiles. Too many of a too hot variety and you have jet fuel. Too few of a too mild, and you have nursing home cafeteria soup.

Food Trucks

2010-10-15T09:12:00.001-06:00

Used to call the AAFES vendor the Roach Coach. Sold nothing but reheated burgers and cold coffee.

Times have changed.

Food Trucks Taking Sidewalks By Storm, from NPR.

Bookmarking a few for later

2010-10-14T22:12:00.003-06:00

Gotta save these before I forget them:

World's Greatest Mac-n-Cheese, from Denver's Rackhouse Pub

I need some green in my mac and cheese, so I added some roasted broccoli and chile peppers, the broccoli from the grocery store and the peppers from M's mom's CSA.

Tips on how to spice seeds and nuts, from Sur la Table

Candied Walnuts, from One Perfect Bite

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie, from Gourmet

Curried Chicken Salad with Garam Masala Biscuits, from Food and Wine

Butternut Squash Cake with Walnut Icing, from the Gastronomer's Guide

Roasted Apple and Squash Soup, from Chef Louise

Mango Chutney

2010-10-06T11:50:00.009-06:00

We have this combo that never fails to come out perfect. I'm thinking they all originally came from the Colorado Collage cookbook, from the Denver Junior League, or maybe just two out of the three did. But they work together both on the plate and during preparation.

(Left: mango chutney chicken with rice pilaf and grilled eggplant)

The combo is a mango chutney chicken, with a rice pilaf and oven-roasted tomatoes on the side. You prep the chicken, bake it for a while, cover it with chutney and finish baking it. While it's baking the first time, you prep the rice and tomatoes. You put the rice on the stove and the tomatoes in the oven during the chicken intermission. And there's no hands-on for the last ten minutes or so, so you can get everything cleaned up. Henry Ford would be proud of the assembly line efficiency.

But here's the one thing I don't like about the ensemble: the mango chutney. Now, I love mango chutney, or just about any type, for that matter. But come on, five or six bucks for the tiniest jar. And those jars. They typically have a tiny mouth that keeps you from sticking a spoon in there, but also a curve in the bottle that keeps a knife from getting the last ounce out of the jar. If I'm going to pay five bucks for a jar of something, I'm going to get every drop onto my plate.

I just assumed chutney was some terribly difficult thing to concoct. It's sort of like jelly, so there had to be boiling of jars and canning and vacuum seals, right? If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have realized that it's more like cranberry dressing, and our cranberry chutney takes all of about five minutes to whip up.

So I took the time to actually read the instructions for a mango chutney that's in The Dutch Oven Cookbook, by Sharon Kramis and Julie Kramis Hearne. Super simple, it turns out ... but ... for whatever reason, this recipe, like nearly every other one out there, calls for a metric ton of mangoes and a few dozen onions, and makes enough to feed the Royal British Air Force. Not sure what the thought process is there ... maybe because it freezes well, so you can jar 9/10ths of it and pull it out as you need it.

Next time I may try the Dutch oven version that makes six cups, but there wasn't room in the freezer thanks to chili and stew, so we whittled it down to about six servings.

Mango Chutney

2 Tbs olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 mangoes, chopped into 1 inch cubes
(or 2 cups frozen mango)
1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup dried currants or golden raisins
1 Tbs ginger, finely chopped
dash red pepper flakes
dash ground turmeric or curry powder (or, both)
dash cinnamon
1 Tbs lime juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar

Like all good non-recipes, the details aren't important and nearly all of the ingredients are negotiable. Heck, leave out the mangoes, for crying outside, and make it with apples or whatever. Go heavy on the red chili flakes, or leave 'em out. Add nuts, like pecans or macadamias. Add cardamom to the curry powder, or try it with green or red curry pastes. Lots of ways to play around with this one.

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and then add the onion, garlic, mango, red pepper, currants, and ginger. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, then add everything else. Continue to sauté on medium heat for about ten minutes, stirring frequently. Then lower the heat and simmer on low for about an hour. Cool and serve. Will store for about a week in the fridge or longer in the freezer.

More on Chiles

2010-09-26T06:33:00.003-06:00

While you're making Pork and Green Chile Stew, listen to the folks from Spilled Milk tell you everything you always wanted to know about chiles but were afraid to ask.

Episode 22: Chiles

Non-Recipe of the Day: Pork and Green Chile Stew

2010-09-24T22:03:00.007-06:00

Pete's Kitchen was the first place I ever had really good green chile stew. Their breakfast burrito is a rolled up tortilla stuffed with eggs, sausage, potatoes, and cheese, as big as your head, smothered in a spicy green chile sauce. The flavors were so well developed, I assumed it was one of those recipes where everything has to simmer for five or six days, leaping from a stock pot to a Dutch oven to a pressure cooker and back, constantly stirred, with a precise mixture of half a dozen different chiles.

Maybe green chile stew in its purest form has a non-negotiable recipe, but the best I can tell, you can screw this up a handful of ways and you'll still do fine. You can leave out half the ingredients, double up the rest, miss-measure (mismeasure?) everything, and forget to time anything, but it's going to turn out okay, as long as you pay attention to one very important step: quality chiles.

Even using standard grocery store canned chiles isn't a deal breaker. There are some recipes that are just plain bomb-proof. Pour cereal into bowl, add milk, for instance. Do you need to measure the cereal, and does it matter whether it's whole or 2%? Well, along those lines, you got your browned pork, then sautéed onions in a bit of the pork fat, followed by chicken stock and chiles. Like I said, bomb-proof.

I'm no expert, but I have to think that the version at the Santa Fe School of Cooking has to be a consensus fave. But if you use The Google to search the InterTubes, you'll find that there are zillions of recipes 90% similar except that they switch around one of the steps. Some brown the pork in oil, some don't. Some add flour to the pork, some add it to the onions, some leave it out. Some season the pork first with cumin or chili powder, some wait until you add the chicken stock, and some use the green chiles as the only spice . Potatoes are optional, as are tomatoes. Green chile quantities vary from half a cup to five pounds. Chicken stock varies from one cup to six. And some simmer for 15 minutes while others take four hours in the crock pot.

My personal recommendations:

If you want to fire and forget, the crock pot works like a charm, but then you need a second pan to brown the pork and maybe the onions. But the beauty of the Dutch oven is that you can do it all in one contraption. Browns the pork, sautés the onions, and because it retains heat so well it does the same job as a slow cooker.
Most purists will say this can only be made with Hatch chiles, but life's too short to limit yourself to just one kind of anything. Find peppers that you like and mix 'em up. M's mom sent us a gallon of assorted peppers from her CSA, Ricky and Lucy's Country Greenhouse, just outside Sidney, NE. Mostly mild and medium, but all delicious, and the blend of flavors made for a remarkable stew.

If you want to experiment, check out the Santa Fe School of Cooking's version, Denver Green Chile's version here, and Gourmet's New Mexico version here.

Pork and Green Chile Stew

1-2 Tbs vegetable oil (optional)
1-2 pounds pork butt, country style ribs, or other boneless pork, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3-4 garlic gloves, minced (about a tablespoon)
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup diced potatoes
1-2 cups diced green chiles (roasted, peeled, and chopped)
cilantro for serving

Optional items:
— 1-2 Tbs chili powder (Ancho or New Mexico) + salt and pepper to season the pork before browning
— 1 cup diced tomatoes

Brown the pork in batches in a Dutch oven or non-stick pan. Set aside.

Remove any excess pork drippings, saving enough to sauté the onions. Sauté the onions until golden, then add the garlic and cook for one more minute.

If anything has stuck to the pan, deglaze with a quarter cup of the chicken stock, scraping up the bits. If you're using a Dutch oven, add the pork back to onions. If you're using a non-stick pan, then switch everything over to a large stock pot.

Add the chicken stock and potatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add the chiles (and optional tomatoes) and simmer for 15 more minutes.

Depending on how much pork you use, how big your onion was, and how much chile you use, you might need to add more chicken broth to this the stew; conversely, maybe add a few Tbs of flour to thicken it.

Stir in some cilantro and serve by itself in a bowl, over rice, or in and on a breakfast burrito.

Freezes great.

Let's Move Challenge: Recipes for Healthy Kids

2010-09-23T16:22:00.003-06:00

I'll write more about this later ... but wanted to through out one question first.

Let's Move Challenge: Recipes for Healthy Kids

Let's Move!, in association with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is challenging school nutrition professionals, chefs, students, parents and interested community members to create tasty, healthy, exciting new recipes for inclusion on school lunch menus across the country.
Participants will form teams, develop, document, and prepare at least one healthy recipe in one of three categories (Whole Grains, Dark Green and Orange vegetables, or Dry Beans and Peas). Their creations will be served in the school's cafeteria, and rated by students. Fifteen semi-finalist teams will have their recipe evaluated by our judging panel during events held at their school, and the top three teams will compete in a national cook-off to determine the grand prize winner! Semi-finalists' recipes will also be posted for online voting by the public to determine a Popular Choice Winner. Winning teams will be invited to prepare their nutrition-packed meals alongside White House chefs.

Here's my thought: I've always been amazed that kids will eat the worst hamburgers or pizza, frozen and microwaved garbage with no flavor but a familiar look to it, but won't try tasty dishes that look different. While I fully support the First Lady's initiative here, I wonder if we're missing a crucial element: preparation and presentation, not just ingredients and recipes. I wonder if we don't need to also address the food preparation equipment in your typical public school cafeteria.

Check out your school's cafeteria. What do you see? A couple of deep fryers, a large griddle or fry top surface of some sort, and a huge oven. So your menu options are limited to those things that can be mass produced on or in this equipment.

Maybe we need to invent some new large volume cooking equipment?

How do they currently cook veggies? Typically, they're frozen, then boiled to death in a 10-20 gallon pot. We all know that microwaving veggies preserves the vitamins more efficiently, but a commercial microwave won't get the job done. So how about a large volume design that would let the cooks whip up fifty servings at a time? Or maybe a high speed convection-hybrid TurboChefs like Starbucks is using for their sandwiches?

I think there's also potential for a variation of sous vide style cooking in our schools. Prepared meals, vacuum sealed, then reheated quickly as the kids go through the line.

Last thought: I have noticed that kids are more receptive to meals when they either participate or see the preparation. When the cooks do their work in the back, then walk out with a tray of who knows what, the kids are unreceptive. Granted, letting them roll up their sleeves every day might be too much of a stretch, but think about a P.F. Chang's style kitchen, right behind the counter, no walls, where the kids can see exactly what's going on, see the flames and smoke and cool stuff that will get their interest.

I haven't put too much thought into this ... just heard the discussion on Science Friday, and the first thing that jumped into my head was, modern cafeterias look exactly like they did when I was in school some forty years ago. And with all of our technological advances, surely there are some kitchen equipment redesigns that could help get the kids away from burgers and chicken nuggets.

More to follow ...

Zucchini Cornbread

2010-09-22T14:15:00.005-06:00

My mom would make cake-like cornbread back in the day. For the life of me I can't remember with what main dish she would serve it. We were Euro-mutts of a definite haole/gringo variety, so it definitely wasn't anything southwestern, as any spice hotter than grocery store brand pre-ground black pepper would make my Celtic druid hide burst into flames. And we didn't do a lot of traditional southern cooking, despite growing up mostly south of the Mason-Dixon line. I didn't have a standard against which to judge it, but I thought my mom's cornbread was the best in the world. It didn't have the heavy creaminess from a gallon of sour cream, or the authenticity of freshly roasted corn. But it was perfectly uniform like a slice of pound cake, didn't have that unripe-banana mouth-feel that some cornbreads have, and was oh-so-sweet. I'd have two or three slices with dinner, then sneak a square out of the room folded up in a napkin to enjoy in my room or on the porch.

Found out later, all she did was take a basic Betty Crocker recipe and up the sugar and add some vanilla extract.

Been on a bit of a summer squash kick lately, and nine times out of ten, when I get into a rut, it's because I just can't think of anything else to do, out of a lack of inspiration. But this time, it's simply because the Mexican greys and gourmet globes and all of the rest have been so dang good all summer long.

The shredded or chopped zucchini gives the bread some moistness without adding sour cream or extra butter, and seems to be a natural fit for either straight-up corn or corn and jalapeño bread.

And like all good non-recipes, you can play with a couple of the numbers. You can go with as little as half a cup or as much as two cups of zucchini, which can be either shredded or finely chopped. Add an ear's worth of freshly roasted corn, a half cup of frozen, or none of the above. Cut the sweeteners in half or double them. And go a little crazy with the chiles.

Goes great with yesterday's Hot and Spicy Buffalo Chili.

High Plains Zucchini Cornbread, adapted from The Baking Sheet.

½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup corn meal (white or yellow)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ cup brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk
(or one cup whole milk, one Tbs lemon juice or cider vinegar, left to stand for 10 minutes)
2 eggs *
2 Tbs molasses
3 Tbs melted butter
Shredded zucchini: 1-2 large or 2-4 small.** (If all you have are mediums, you're on your own!)
Optional: ¼ cup each of corn and/or diced chili peppers

* The Baking Sheet called one egg + one egg white, but I hate discarding half an egg. If anyone tries it with the one egg white, let me know what you think.
** Several recipes called for squeezing out the water from the zucchini. I skipped that part and thought it was fine, and not sure what squeezing out the water would get me.

Heat your oven to 400º and grease an 8 inch square baking pan.

In the good old large bowl, whisk your flours and cornmeal, then baking powder and baking, then salt and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, whisk your buttermilk, eggs, molasses and butter until smooth and uniform.

Slowly pour the wet into the dry, and stir gently until just combined. Then add the zucchini (and corn and/or chiles, if you're so inclined) and just barely stir again until it looks all even. Pour the batter into your pan, spreading if needed to even everything out.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until it looks like it's just about to brown on top. Cool for a few minutes before slicing.

Freezes quite nicely if you wrap it tightly in a zip-lock or plastic wrap. Wrap in foil and warm in a 200º oven before serving.

Serve on the side of a big bowl of chili.

Beans and Rice

2010-09-21T10:56:00.010-06:00

The packages were mailed with impeccable timing so as to arrive the day before the holiday, birthday, or special event, or, in the case of a weekend shindig, on the Friday before. The boxes were cut down and refolded so as to require minimal packing materials, to scalpel away every unnecessary ounce — no sense paying Uncle Sugar and the US Postal folks a penny more than he needed to.

Inside the box were presents for the grandkids, something special for each one, but it also unfailingly included something practical. Maybe a few pounds of pecans from the nearby orchards, or something that my mom had mentioned, off-handedly, something she needed to get from the store.

And there was always an envelope. A blank envelope, no writing or return address or "To:" on the front or back. Unsealed, with the flap tucked in, so the card wouldn't fall out but so the envelope could be used again. Inside the envelope was a card, also blank, with a handwritten note on a separate piece of paper. A blank card and a blank envelope, so I could reuse it, maybe give it to my mom or dad on their birthday, saving me a trip to the store and a dollar-fifty.

The note always started with a reference to whatever we had spoken about last: "Thank you for the baseball pictures" or "It's so good to hear how you're doing in school." Then it congratulated us on our birthday, wished us a happy Thanksgiving, or explained how proud he was of whatever it was we did most recently.

And he signed off the same way every time: "Beans and rice." From my earliest years, I knew what it meant, shorthand for those things that will get you through the hard times. My grandparents had lived through the depression, had seen tough times, not tough as in your stock portfolio took a hit over the last quarter or the Apple Store was out of the 3G iPad, but real tough, missing meals tough, darning socks tough, and waking up seeing your breath it's so cold inside tough.

We weren't much of a bean family, but we had our share of rice. Whatever it was Mom was cooking, rice would make it go further. Add a cup of cooked rice to the meatloaf to make it look like two pounds of ground beef, that kind of thing. Wasn't hardly anything you couldn't add rice to. I half expected to see the grains floating in my Kool-ade.

I still have a lot of my grandfather in me. When I travel and want to send home little gifts, I'm a lot more likely to send them a pound of coffee from wherever I am, than an ornamental plate or spoon or a T-shirt — something practical and consumable that won't sit on a shelf taking up space forever. And I have trouble looking at any recipe without wondering how you could double the servings by adding some rice or potatoes or stuffing it into a tortilla. Mu shu pork burrito? Why not?

Chili always looks naked to me when it's not served over rice. Even Cincinnati-style chili can go a little further if you put a scoop of rice in the bottom of the bowl, then add the spaghetti, then the chili.

Okay, maybe that's getting carried away ... rice and spaghetti sounds like you're just asking Primo to call you a criminal and refuse to serve you. But it's still in the back of my mind nearly every time I step into the kitchen.

Not sure what Papa Joe would think about this chili. The man knew his produce and his steaks, but our family wasn't much for spices that made you sweat. But I do know that after tasting it, he would say that we should double the beans and serve it over a huge bowl of rice. Just because, you never know ... and you should never forget the tough times.

Our go to chili recipe: Hot and Spicy Buffalo Chili (The starting point)

1 pound ground bison
1 pound hot and spicy Italian sausage (casings removed)
1 large red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1 4-ounce can fire-roasted diced green chiles
1 15-ounce can black beans
1 15-ounce can pinto beans
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Shredded Mexican cheese, sour cream, and chopped cilantro for serving

In a large skillet, cook bison and sausage over medium heat until
browned. Drain.

Mix meat and remaining ingredients in 6-quart crock pot. Cover and
cook on low heat setting 6–8 hours (or high heat setting 3–4 hours) or until
onion is tender.

Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Variations:

Grind your own chili powder using dried peppers

There are lots of chili powders to try, and we'll occasionally go up to 4 Tbs if they're not super hot. Savory Spices has a huge selection if your grocery store can't help you out. Mexican oregano is a nice addition, maybe a Tbs sprinkled in with the chili powder.

Experiment with cinnamon, cloves, all-spice, and even chocolate.

I'm guessing you can get canned chili peppers just about anywhere these days. If you're lucky, you live in a place where folks roast Hatch chili peppers on the side of the road, so you can pick up a bag on your way home. In these parts, you can buy them frozen as well. Or, roast your own. The conventional wisdom is to roast them on a grill or in the oven, then place in a paper bag and let them steam. You can then peel off the skins and use immediately or slice and freeze. But I've never quite gotten the part about peeling off the skins. I just slice them up, roast them on the grill or oven, then store in zip lock bags in individual servings. Keep enough in the fridge for the rest of the week and freeze the rest.

Canned tomatoes work in pinch, but try roasting a pound or so, slicing them in half and oven-roasting them for 30-45 minutes. Then coarsely chop them before adding them to the mix.

When we've made the chili on the hot side, it always seems to mellow out the next day. So the first time, serve it plain or over white rice. The next day, make the rice with a little cumin, Mexican oregano, and lime juice, and it won't seem like leftovers at all.

Tomorrow: Zucchini Cornbread, if you really don't feel like rice in your chili

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

2010-09-20T06:51:00.002-06:00

Can't miss fall dessert.

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces bittersweet or semisweet
chocolate chips
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
3/4 cup butter (melted)
6 eggs, slightly beaten

Molasses Glaze:
1/4 cup butter
1∕3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup or dark-color
corn syrup
2 tablespoons molasses

Heat oven to 350° F. With nonstick spray, generously coat a 10-inch Bundt pan and set aside.
Measure 1/2 cup of the flour into a small bowl, and add the chocolate chips. Toss to coat.
In a large bowl, combine the remaining flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves), baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin, melted butter, and eggs. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture, and stir until combined. Then add the chocolate / flour mixture and stir until combined. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan.
Bake for 60–70 minutes. It is ready when a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, but you already knew that, didn’t you? Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool for 30 minutes.
Prepare the molasses glaze by melting, in a small saucepan, the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and molasses. Bring to a simmer, then cook uncovered for three minutes or until slightly thickened. Cool for five minutes, then spoon over the cooled cake.

Improv Blueberry Bars

2010-09-13T05:00:00.001-06:00

One of these days, I'll know what I'm doing. Talking in general terms there, but if you want one specific, you could start with understanding the chemistry of how simple house hold items, like flour and eggs and oils, respond to heat. I mean, I've only been applying heat to food and soon-to-be-food substances for half a century now ... you'd think I'd have paid attention maybe once or twice as to what exactly was going on inside that black box on the wall of the kitchen.

I always thought baking was all about following directions to the T. (Why the T? Why not the S?) But when you can't follow them exactly, because you need an ingredient substitution or don't have the right kind of pan, then you need to actually know what you're doing. Which I don't. I guess it's kinda like jazz. The secret to improvisation is a thorough understanding of the fundamentals. If you're going to cross the line, you have to know where the line is.

So we've been playing around with some desserts yesterday, with delicious albeit less than photographic results. Made a peach pie with Palisade peaches, following the basic peach pie recipe: standard pie shell plus a filling of peaches, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, butter, and flour.

But these were Palisade peaches ... twice as juicy as your standard Georgia, South Carolina, or California peach. So the pie tasted great, but it a little sloppy. Could have used a little tapioca or maybe some more flour. Something to account for these specific peaches.

Same thing with a wonderful blueberry bar recipe I saw at One Ordinary Day. Check out her pix over at her site. Looks perfect as a dessert or snack. Looks like something that would disappear at a family gathering or that would keep in the freezer for quite some time. Whole wheat flour, fresh fruit ... just plain cool all the way around.

Gave the ingredients a quick scan ... yep, got 'em all. So started cranking out a batch without a worry in the world. And mixing the batter couldn't have been easier.

Last step: spread the batter into a 10.5"x 15" jelly roll pan ... oops! No such item in my kitchen. Not a big deal ... can just use a rimmed baking sheet, yeah? So I spread the batter onto a baking sheet ... a 12" x 17" baking sheet. Oops! Only around fifty square inches difference there. Not enough batter to make it to the edge. Dug around and found ... an enameled lasagna pan. That should work, yeah?

Well, it sort of did. But the lasagna pan takes a lot longer to heat up than a simple metal sheet, so while I got a nice crispy top layer, the bottom didn't firm up. Had to stick it back in for another 15 minutes at a lower temp to get the bottom fully cooked without burning the top. Ahhh, well, there you go ... if I had thought about the physics for two seconds, I would have seen that coming. But I still wouldn't have known the right time / temp combo to fix it without trial and error. Because I'm no Miles Davis.

In the pantheon of kitchen disasters, this little experiment doesn't even rate a footnote. My bars weren't as pretty as Michelle's, but they tasted great. And I'd like to experiment a little bit more, maybe make them even more shortbready. But it would be nice, one day, to have a full grasp of the fundamentals so I'd know what was going to happen when I changed Step X into Step Y.

OOD's Blueberry Cookie Bars

½ cup light oil

¼ cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

(I actually used 1 cup sugar + 2/3rds cup of agave nectar)

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract or one vanilla bean pod

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

¼ tsp baking soda

2-3 cups blueberries or mixed berries (fresh if you got 'em, frozen works just as well, but as always, use them frozen, not thawed.)

Heat your oven to 350º. Lightly grease a 10½"x 15" jelly roll pan.

Mix your flours and baking soda in a medium bowl. Then cream the oil, butter, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat well.

Add the flour mix slowly, gently mixing as you do.

Spread ⅔ of your mixture into your pan and then add your berries.

Spoon the remaining batter on top of the berries — no mixing required, because the batter will spread out as it bakes.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden. Allow to cool in the pan, then slice and serve.

I like toast!

2010-09-12T09:51:00.002-06:00

Personal opinion, and we're all entitled to our own preferences ... but toast just tastes better when it's cut in triangles instead of rectangles.

Second place is slightly undercooked toast (undertoasted?) that's folded in half.

Farmer's Market

2010-09-11T15:05:00.001-06:00

Is Summer Over?

2010-09-06T21:18:00.004-06:00

Drank the last St Lupulin. All of the Palisade peaches are gone. No more Rocky Ford melons to be found. And the Sweet Olathe corn is scarce.

Yep, summer's over.

Bring on the chili! (Stay tuned ... ) And dust off your Dutch oven.

Post Script: Okay, I'm full of crap. Talked to a couple of farmers this week and we have the whole rest of September to enjoy plentiful Rocky Fords ... as long as we're looking at farmer's markets and not the supermarkets. (Are there regularmarkets out there? JustOKmarkets?) And they're still shipping some peaches from the Western Slope.

Last one before Labor Day

2010-09-04T10:29:00.005-06:00

One of our new year's resolutions was to pay a lot closer attention to the amount of food we buy. We've never shown a lot of discipline in that area. Dual income, no kids ... so we bought what we wanted, cooked most of it up, ate as much of it as we could ... but we threw away quite a bit as well. Lots of fruit and veggies that we bought with good intentions but never got to, or huge dishes that made for leftovers to the point in which we were sick of it, and then it all went into the trash.

So conscientious consumption was a priority for 2010, and we kicked butt for the first half of the year. We made menu plans which turned into very specific shopping lists. And when we made big dishes, we froze half of it from the get-go, so we didn't have the Eight-Days-of-Lasagna syndrome.

Then along came the screaming bundle of joy.

Cooking mit kinder can be a challenge. There's no time for planning, let alone executing, so at first we were eating a lot of fried egg sammiches. But after the first month, we decided we needed to get back in gear and pay closer attention again.

But we just don't have the time to sort through recipes, so we've been counting on Providence to show us the way. And what works for me is, to toss a magazine in the air and see how it lands.

I randomly grabbed a mag from the shelf and opened it to some place in the middle, and landed on this from the July Bon Appétit. It was a feature on 80 different ways to serve up hot dogs. Hot dogs? Seriously? You need a recipe for hot dogs? But I looked as the recipe, and it called for things we happened to have on hand. And after a quick perusal through the fridge, it looked like the hot dog combo would go great on grilled chicken as well, with a potato salad we were planning on making anyway.

Result? Well, first of all, these were the best hot dogs I've ever had. And second, there was not one ounce of wasted food. What wasn't consumed the first time around made it into the second dish, so we never had the same thing twice and didn't throw away any of it.

So, here's the basic recipe from Bon Appetit:
(click the image of their hot dog on the right to see their original recipe)

Hot Dogs with Dal and Red-Onion Raita

Lentil Dal
½ cup lentils
2 ½ cups water
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp turmeric (or play around with your own combo of curry powders)
kosher or sea salt to taste

Red-onion Raita
½ red onion, thinly sliced
2 Tbs fresh mint, finely chopped
2 tsp minced chile pepper of any sort (seeded for a milder flavor, seeds in for hotter)
2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbs plain yogurt

Hot dogs and buns, or grilled naan or pita bread

Dal: Rinse the lentils, then bring to a boil in a sauce pan with the water and spices. After it reaches a boil, simmer (covered) for about 30-35 minutes. Either scoop out the lentils or drain the pan, saving the water. Mash the lentils into a course paste, adding a bit of the water as necessary to make a topping that will spoon easily onto the dogs.

Raita: Mix everything into a non-reactive bowl and let stand for 30 minutes.

(As you can see, this is one of those efficient recipes, because it all takes about the same amount of time. Brings the lentils to a boil, mix the raita, and finish the dal while the raita sits and does its thing.)

Meal #1: To keep things simple, the first day we just served the dogs on hot dog buns, with a side salad.

Meal #2: Because dal and raita was already made and we didn't really need to make anything else, we used the free time to grill up a little naan to use instead of buns.

Meal #3 and #4: Instead of hot dogs, we used the left over dal and raita on top of grilled tandoori chicken.

Grilled Tandoori Chicken

3 chicken breasts
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs water
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp turmeric
½ cup plain yogurt
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 Tbs chopped fresh ginger or 1 tsp ginger powder
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground cumin
dash cayenne
(or, your favorite combo of curry spices)
2 Tbs olive oil

Rinse the chicken breasts and pat them dry with a paper towel. Using a carving knife, score the chicken across the tops and bottoms, about an inch apart. Set aside.

In a glass pan about the same size as your chicken, mix the lemon juice, water, salt, and turmeric. Coat both sides of the chicken and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.

While it's marinating, mix all of the remaining ingredients. Coat the chicken again and let it marinate for another 10-15 minutes.

Generously oil the grates of your grill, and grill according to your grill's normal chicken time/temps.

Serve with the dal and raita from the day before. We served it alongside the green bean / potato salad from the other day (the lemony, herby dressing worked great with the curry-ish chicken) and a tomato/cuke salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, with a very light dressing of red wine vinegar, olive oil, and sugar, with a bit of feta on top), and a bit of grilled naan again.

Labor Day variations on a theme

2010-09-02T08:12:00.006-06:00

I've been having a pretty good summer but I find myself in a quandary, which is troubling because I'm not even sure what a quandary is. But it seems I've just gotten started with summer dining fare and it's already time to move on to fall and winter grub.

Colorado throws me off that way. The best farmer's market offerings are in August, which is just a stone's throw from the end of the year. Palisade peaches, sweet Olathe corn, and Rocky Ford melons come and they go so damn quickly ... you can't find them, can't find them, can't find them ... then all of a sudden they're everywhere, and then before you know it they're gone.

The weather doesn't help. It's 90º today, 75º tomorrow, and 90º again by the weekend. So who knows whether you should be splitting a watermelon on the porch or hunkering down in front of the fire with a bowl of stew?

That's where we are with Labor Day. Typically the last major grill-fest, and yet it doesn't feel like summer any more.

Which is why I'm thinking of one-off versions of typical summer grill and BBQ stand-bys. Baked beans and potato salad, but just a wee bit off.

Potato Salad with Green Beans and Salsa Verde, via Napa's Long Meadow Ranch Winery.

Instead of mayo, the salsa verde and lemon zest and juice makes this a bright and versatile salad that goes well with just about everything, and makes for a nice summer/fall transition side.

Salsa Verde

¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup chives, finely chopped
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
(or substitute ½ cup of other seasonal herbs)
2 Tbs mint, finely chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
2-3 Tbs lemon juice
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
salt to taste

Mix everything in a small bowl (at least one cup) and let it stand at room temperature for about an hour.

Potato Salad

1—1½ pounds potatoes, 1 inch cubes
2-3 Tbs butter
1 lb trimmed green beans

Boil the potatoes for 8-10 minutes in salted water, then drain and toss with 1-2 Tbs of butter (or olive oil). Lightly salt. Then boil the beans for 3-4 minutes, just until tender. Drain and toss with 1 Tbs of butter. Optional: after draining, dunk the beans in a large bowl of ice water for a minute to preserve the color.
Clean up saver: instead of draining the potatoes, scoop them out and transfer them to another bowl, preserving the water. Then boil the beans in the potato water. This saves water and energy, since you're not bringing two pots of water to a boil separately.

Mix the potatoes and beans, then coat with the salsa verde. The author recommends serving immediately, but this will keep at room temperature for a few hours or can be saved in the fridge until you're ready.

Chipotle-Maple Black Beans, via the Cuisine at Home folks.

1 medium onion, diced
1 Tbs olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 cans black beans (drain or not drained, doesn't matter)
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup ketchup
* 1-2-3 chipotle chiles in adobo, minced
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp worcestershire sauce

*Lots of ways to go here. Use one chile with its seeds, or two or three chiles with or without seeds, depending on how hot you want it. Start on the low end and work your way up unless you know everyone likes it hot. A grapefruit spoon is an easy way to remove the seeds: just cut the chile length-ways and scrape the seeds out.

Saute the onions over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Deglaze with the vinegar, then turn to high and bring to a boil. Add everything else, reduce to medium low, and simmer for ten minutes.
At this point, you can serve them up if you want, but it's better to turn it down to low, cover with a slight vent, and simmer for a good hour. Or, if you don't mind getting two pots dirty, you can saute the onions and garlic, deglaze, then move everything to a crock pot on high for 1-2 hours.

Little Girl

2010-09-01T08:23:00.001-06:00

Here's why the posts have been few and far between lately:

Quick trip to Alaska and San Francisco

2010-09-01T08:01:00.002-06:00

First trip to Alaska in five years:

Quick stop in San Francisco on our way back home from Alaska.

For those of you in the DC area:

2010-08-30T09:11:00.000-06:00

Best Banh Mi:

Arugula Files : Is the Banh Mi the new Cupcake? (Plus the Best Banh Mi in the DC area)

Not-so-Happy Meal

2010-08-27T13:56:00.000-06:00

Crazy ... McDonald's hamburger's don't age.

August News Round-up

2010-08-26T05:48:00.000-06:00

Scanning the headlines ...

Meditation for a Stronger Brain. More and more evidence is piling up that the brain is just one big muscle, capable of being "trained" in ways we never imagined before.

The world's most powerful drug: Coffee. But does it really work the way we think it does?

Food Fight! Pick your favorite movie meal.

Music and motivation: does music help you work out harder, longer, more intensely?

Fruit leather vs Real food. Not quite a full serving of fruit after all.

The end of cheap food? No definitive answers but some good discussion both ways.

Sustainability: Is it even possible?

Mobile Food Carts: an urban farm in a box on wheels.

Cooking for Geeks

2010-08-16T09:17:00.000-06:00

Back to school edition here, revving up the brain with some quick, easy, and edible science lessons.

From last week's Science Friday, New Frontier For Geeks: The Kitchen.

In Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food, software engineer Jeff Potter discusses using the hacker mindset in the kitchen, from cooking salmon in the dishwasher to a warranty-voiding experiment on his oven to get the scorching temperatures necessary for perfect pizza crust.

Other Science Friday episodes you might want to revisit:

The basil blight that is threatening our pesto.

Do-it-yourself gardening.

The science of cheese-making.

Chef Wylie Dufresne experiments in his laboratory/kitchen.

The evolution of beer and the science of beer bubbles. (Your eyes don't always tell you the truth.)

Grilled Naan

2010-07-31T04:03:00.000-06:00

Two reasons to make your own flatbreads:

1. They sell naan in packs of two for $3.00, and for three bucks in ingredients you can make a dozen or more.

2. Store-bought never tastes as good as right off the grill or out of the oven.

3. It's a lot easier than you might think.

4. For the sake of argument, let's say it's not all that easy. But you can still make it easy-ish by making a large batch and freezing most, to pull out later when you need it. Move it from the freezer to the fridge the morning you want to use it, then take it out to thaw completely about an hour before you need it.

5. The conventional wisdom says that cooking is more art and baking more science. In other words, when you're cooking, there are a lot of ways you can wing it, but baking requires precise measurements for everything to work just right. Could argue that from a lot of angles, but today let's just say, flatbreads are way forgiving. No reason to fear the flatbread.

Okay, that's more than two, but you get the idea.

Grilled Naan

1 ½ tsps dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 ½ tsps sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
6 Tbs clarified butter (called ghee in most Indian recipes) — divided
3 Tbs yogurt
2-3 Tbs sesame seeds, minced onion or garlic, or a dash red pepper flakes, or other flavoring
olive oil

Mix the dry yeast and sugar and add to the warm water. Stir till the yeast is dissolved. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes. The mixture should begin to froth.

Mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture, 3 Tbs of butter, and the yogurt.

Very gently mix this into a soft dough.

Flour a large work surface (counter top or cutting board) and knead until elastic, which should take at least five minutes.

Coat a large bowl with a few drops of olive oil, and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let it rise for 90 minutes. The dough should approximately double.

Punch the dough down and knead for 10 minutes. About half way into this, sprinkle your seeds or onion into the dough.

Divide the dough in half, then each half in half, and then once again. Roll the divided dough into balls. At this point, if you don't want to grill all of the dough, you can put some of it in zip lock bags and freeze it for another time.

Re-flour your work surface and roll out each ball until you have a circle about one-half inch thick. Naan should then be gently pulled into a tear-drop shape.

Get your grill up to medium-high and then generously coat the grates with oil (paper towel and tongs works better than sprays).

Before putting the dough on the grill, spoon the rest of the butter onto each each piece of bread. Or, just spray with olive oil. Grill for 3-4 minutes per side, turning with tongs when done.

The temperature isn't all that important, so if you're cooking anything else, don't worry about having certain zones for each item. Just grill it until it's firm on the bottom.

Serve immediately, or transfer to a plate and cover with foil until your ready to eat.

C hicken and mixed veggies in chile-lime adobo, mixed green salad with creamy avocado dressing.

Rhubarbatism

2010-07-31T02:50:00.000-06:00

I honestly don't know how I feel about this. Change is good, but there's something to be said for survival of the fittest and letting the best man, woman, dog, or cocktail concoction win.

And we're pretty set in our ways when it comes to margaritas. Good tequila, orange liquor, and fresh lime juice, with ice cubes and salt on the rim. It's that simple.

But we do love rhubarb, and this sounded interesting. And it was darn good. But as good as the classic? Well, no ... but still worth making once a summer, I guess. Serve it in plastic cups on a hot day when you're going to be sitting around outside.

I used four stalks of rhubarb, and got a good quart of rhubarb syrup. That would make drinks for a moderate gathering, but don't fret if you don't use it all at once. The simple syrup goes well with iced tea or seltzer as well.

The Rhubarbarita, originally from the Splendid Table via the Greasy Spoon.

Ingredients: rhubarb, water, sugar, tequila, lime juice.

Your measurements may vary, but here's how it worked for me:

I started with one cup of water and half a cup of sugar. Bring the water right up to boiling in a large pot, then cut the heat and add the sugar. Stir until dissolved.

I had four largish stalks of rhubarb, so that's how much I used. I didn't measure them, though, after chopping them into chunks, so I have no idea how much by volume (or by weight, for that matter) I had, but it doesn't really matter. Just chop up what you have and add it to the simple syrup. You want the water to just cover the rhubarb, and in this case, it didn't. So, I measured water by the quarter cup and added it until it did, and then added half that much sugar.

(Most recipes call for over-sweetening the rhubarb, so I was a bit stingy measuring the sugar, never quite getting a full scoop each time.)

Bring the pot back to a boil, then turn down to a simmer, and let it do its thing for 15-20 minutes or so, until the rhubarb is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Then allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

(The Splendid Table recipe doesn't call for this step, but I then went at the whole thing with a potato masher for a minute or so, just to get all of the flavor out of the rhubarb.)

Place a fine-mesh colander over a large bowl, or line a colander with cheese cloth, and pour out the rhubarb mush, collecting the liquid. Use a large spoon or the bottom of a tumbler to press out as much of the liquid as you can. Transfer to a bottle.

Now mix your drinks. Their starting point is half tequila, half rhubarb syrup, with a splash of lime juice, but I think you'll need a lot more lime. So try 3 ounces tequila, 1 ounce rhubarb, 1 ounce lime, and then shift and adjust from there.

Step out into the hot sun, wipe your forehead with a bandanna, and take a sip. Cheers!

End of July Food News

2010-07-30T07:07:00.000-06:00

Wandering through the papers this week ...

Korean Tacos gain momentum. There are several things I like about this trend. First of all, I just personally think the fusion of Korean BBQ with Mexican garnishes just plain works. It's like twins separated at birth, and when you get them back together, you realize that there's something in their DNA that makes them fit. Second, I love the movement towards healthier fast food, a la Chipotles, Garbanzos, Wahoo's Fish Tacos. And third, you gotta love the groundswell of well-appointed restaurants and pedigreed chefs taking their craft to the streets. In Denver, we've always had Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs, but lately he's been joined by GastroCart and the Steuben's Food Truck. 'Cause let's face it — Americans are never going to stop eating fast food, but at least now we can feel good about it.

Pez Cycling interview with Willy Balmat. This won't mean much to 99% of you, but Willy's been a hero of mine forever. A very distinguished chef in the traditional sense, having worked at some major restaurants around the world over the year, what makes him special is that he's been the team chef for professional bike teams for a quarter century. And not just any old teams, but 7-11, Motorola, US Postal, Discovery, Garmin, and now Cervelo. What a career, and what stories he must have.

Beat the heat with a handful of ice cream recipes, from the Atlantic.

Why do we like the food that we like? And specifically, why do we like bitter foods instead of just sweet and savory ones? Paul Bloom discusses that very issue with the editors at SEED magazine and with Ira Flatow on Science Friday.

Field to Plate: We're in the middle of serious farmers market season, and to find out what's in season in your neck of the woods, check out these state-by-state calendars here.

Ready for August? August is National Catfish Month, National Panini Month, National Peach Month, and National Sandwich Month. For the day-by-day "holidays," visit Foodimentary.

Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.

Thought of the Day

2010-07-27T16:17:00.000-06:00

" 'The knowledge of God is the bread of the angels.' I don't know what that means, but I believe it."

Primo, Big Night

Bánh Mì Times Three

2010-07-27T10:43:00.000-06:00

I think we've confirmed the obvious: you just can't screw up the bánh mí sandwich.

There's the Meatball Bánh Mì, the first one we tried.

Then there's the more traditional pan-fried pork loin version, which is always a crowd favorite.

Wrapping up the trilogy is the grilled bánh mí burger.

This one might be the most family and party friendly version, since you can make the pork burgers ahead of time and there's minimal clean-up.

Burgers (makes 4-6)
1.5 pounds ground pork
a couple of scallions, chopped
1-2 Tbs minced ginger or 1 Tbs powdered ginger
2 Tbs sherry
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs Sriracha
1 Tbs fish sauce (optional)
dash of salt
olive oil

+ French or hoagie rolls

Gently mix all ingredients except for the olive oil in a large bowl, then shape into patties the same size as your buns. Use a fork to smash them down into nice rectangles. (And using foil or waxed paper on your counter or cutting block will save some clean up.) After you make your patties, spray both sides with olive oil. If you're ready to grill, then fire them up just like you'd do a hamburger. Or, store them in tupperware or plastic wrap until everything else is ready.

Lightly toast the rolls on the grill right before serving.

Pickled Veggie Slaw
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs salt
1 tsp Sriracha
1 4-inch chunk of daikon, grated or sliced into strips
1/2 cup sliced or grated carrots
1 cup cucumbers, thinly sliced (seeded if necessary)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Combine the vinegar, sugar, and salt until everything is dissolved. Add the Sriracha, then drizzle over the vegetables in an air-tight bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Final Assembly
Prepare a 4:1 mayonnaise to Sriracha mixture (enough for your rolls), then add a dash of lime juice. Grill the patties, toast the rolls, spread on the mayo mix, and then fill your buns with the burgers and slaw. Extra cilantro on top is nice. And some recipes call for one slice of deli ham per bun.

Leftovers? Thinly slice the left over burgers and mix with the slaw, then serve in a tortilla as a wrap.

Hawai'ian Banana Bread

2010-07-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

A hearty thanks to Mary at One Perfect Bite for this one.

I only changed one thing in the recipe. I upped the mac nuts to a full cup, and after I toasted them, I chopped up about half of them with a hand-chopper. (If you chop them and then toast them, they can burn rather quickly, so I recommend toasting first.)

Ahh, the hand-chopper ... so easy, a 2-year old can use it ...

And because all of two of us in the household right now are either on baby formula or kibble, once the bread cooled I sliced it, zip-lock-bagged the slices, and put it all in the freezer, and then the two of us who are walking on two legs can grab one as we run out the door in the morning.

With the extra fat from the mac nuts and coconut, it's also easily thrown in a jersey pocket or Camelbak for a bike ride or hike instead of a commercial energy bar.

OPB's Hawai'ian Banana Bread

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 ½ sticks (¾ cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 tsp lemon zest
1 ⅓ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 large 'naners)
3 Tbs sour cream
1 cup macadamia nuts, lightly toasted and cooled, then chopped
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted and cooled

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 350º F. Grease and flour two 8 ½ x 4 ½-inch loaf pans.

2) Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars, and then beat in the vanilla, eggs, lemon zest, sour cream, and bananas.

3) Add the flour mixture, stirring just until the batter is combined. Add in macadamia nuts and coconut and gently stir until evenly incorporated.

3) Divide the batter between loaf pans and smooth tops. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Let the pan cool for ten minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool on racks.

A Gastronomical Look at the Tour de France

2010-07-07T06:41:00.000-06:00

Some old, some new ... some nutritional highlights from the world's toughest endurance sport.

Five-star cuisine for Team Garmin

Team Garmin Chef Sean Fowler, slideshow with audio commentary.

An inside look at Team Garmin's Daily Menu.

Going gluten-free to fight the inflammation associated with endurance sports.

Chef Duffy, Johann Bruyneel's long time associate:

Homemade Energy Bars from Leah Vande Velde, wife of Team Garmin bike racer Christian Vande Velde

Meals on Wheels:

Info about Clif Bars:

Dr Allen Lim's Rice Cakes:

Food News You Can Use

2010-06-28T06:54:00.000-06:00

News from around the horn:

From Big Red Kitchen, this cool iPhone app and website from AlaskaSeaFood.org, all about cooking frozen fish. No, not the fish sticks from elementary school cafeterias, but fresh-frozen sea food.

Actor/commedian Sarah Silverman joins the school lunch improvement movement. Big ups to Sarah, Woody Harrelson, and Scarlett Johansson for lending this voice to a problem we have ignored for way too long.

On NPR, more news on the basil blight that's quickly moving through this country.

Is local / organic farming sustainable? Lots of folks think, no, according to Heather Rogers at the American Prospect.

Why do we like the food that we like? Paul Bloom peels back the onion on pleasure in SEED.

Good Magazine is teaming up with Let's Move to help raise awareness about childhood obesity. Check out their infographic contest.

June 28th: National Tapioca Day

2010-06-28T06:21:00.000-06:00

Today is National Tapioca Day.

Does anyone eat plain old tapioca anymore?

Couple of ideas:

Good ol' strawberry rhubarb pie.

Blackberry cobbler.

Cheers!

Age is Just a Number

2010-06-24T11:05:00.000-06:00

Jeannie Longo, 51 years young, just took her 57th national title, winning the French national championship in the individual time trial.

Story here at VeloNews.

How big of a deal is this? First of all, the individual time trial is called the Race of Truth ... no tactics, no teammates, no one fetching water bottles for you. Just you and your bike and the road ... best man or woman wins.

Then there's the number 57. Fifty-seven national titles. By comparison, George Hincapie is one of our top racers when nationals come around ... and he has three titles. On the track, we have Marty Nothstein, with 34 gold medals. Marty dominated for many years, but it's still a huge leap from 34 to 57.

Winning in one discipline is hard. Winning in two is phenomenal. But Jeannie has wins on the open road, the individual time trail, cyclocross, and on the track. That's like Usain Bolt adding a marathon and shot put title to his sprinting wins.

Finally, we have the big Five-One. Professional bike racers have been known to race into their early 40s ... to race, but not to win. You're carrying water, escorting the team leader, fetching a rain cape from the team car ... racing, but not winning.

All I can say is, chapeau. Chapeau, and ... now what's my excuse?

Harvest Time

2010-06-22T07:03:00.000-06:00

Last three years I've tried to clear a week during the summer to head to Nebraska to go help M's folks cut wheat. Something always comes up. Typically, one of the geriatric dogs isn't well and I don't want to leave M home alone taking care of 300 pounds of four legged critters.

But this year, I'm trying to nip all of the excuses in the bud. Might board the dogs for a week, prepare a week's worth of dinners so M can come home from work and just relax, and I'll grab a wide-brimmed hat and head out to the farm.

Part of me just wants to help out, but let's face it, most of me just wants to drive a combine and work out under a fierce mid-west sun for a week or ten days.

So, I tell M of my plans, how I don't want to let another summer go by without pitching in ...

Her response? "That's great! You'd make a great lunch boy! They'll love getting one of your brown bags while they're out there working."

See what I gotta deal with?

Chicken and Veggies in Chile-Lime Adobo

2010-06-21T10:45:00.000-06:00

I've been in a grilling rut for a while, especially when it comes to chicken and vegetables. I have two stand-bys that I keep returning to. For a rub, it's based on the Mustang Spice from Canyon Cafe: a Tbs Cajun blacking spice, a Tbs chile powder (New Mexico or Ancho), a shake of salt and a shake of fennel seed. For a marinade, it's half lemon juice, half olive oil, with a shake of salt, Mexican oregano, and chile powder. They're both quick, easy, and don't take a lot of measuring.

But like I said, a rut. No matter how good something is, no one wants it all of the time.

Which is why this adobo from Chef Louise Mellor caught my eye. (That, and the fact that she is an amazing photographer, so everything she posts catches my eye.) "Adobo" is like "salsa," in that it simply means "sauce." There's no right or wrong answer as to what constitutes an adobo, and the term differs greatly from region to region. Many of them seem to be thinner than most grilling sauces, as they work as both a marinade and mop, and the vinegar base of this helps it to penetrate the chicken before it hits the flame.

I just happened to pick up a bag of dried New Mexico chile peppers, even though I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I'm sure I could soak them and reconstitute them, but since they were already dried and I needed chile powder for this adobo, I figured I could grind them in a coffee bean grinder.

The result was a spice that was full-flavored without being overwhelming, that tasted fresh as though it had just been picked that afternoon. One dried pepper turned into 2-3 Tbs of fresh chile powder, and since a bag of 8-10 dried peppers cost around $1.50, it also turned out to be more economical than getting a generic bottle of chile spice from the grocery store.

For the chicken, we marinade it for a couple of hours before grilling. The veggies got a coating right before they hit the grill, with a little in reserve for mopping about halfway through.

Again, her recipe is here, and she's also on Facebook here.

Chicken and Veggies in Chile-Lime Adobo, adapted from Satisfied.

1 teaspoon sugar

3 Tbs ground New Mexico chile powder

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp Mexican oregano

2 tsp ground garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

3/4 cup white vinegar

Juice of 3 limes

2 Tbs olive oil

More on spice:

There's a little shop right down the street from the big REI in Denver called Savory Spice. A whole shop, nothing but spices.

Now a lot of folks will look at this and think, nothing but spices? Gotta be some kind of hippy, yuppy, over-priced hooplah, yeah? You can get spice from the grocery store ... why make a special trip for your paprika?

First of all, they are anything but over-priced. Some specialty spices might cost a little bit more, but most are actually less expensive than their major brand counterparts, I'm guessing because they buy in bulk and grind them in shop as they need them, without adding stabilizers or preservatives, without fancy labels or advertising, and without a lot of shipping and distribution costs. And because you can purchase your spice in whatever size you want, you're not going to buy a big bottle of something you'll use twice that will go bad sitting on your shelf unused for years and years and years. You can buy just about everything in 0.5/ 1/2/4/8/16 oz packets, and use your own bottles and save even more.

So price and value are the first reasons to shop there. But quality is the most important. Without any stabilizers or preservatives, and because the spice was ground right there in the shop, it's amazing how the target flavor of a particular spice shines through. The words you keep hearing as folks sample in the shop are bright, crisp, and fresh.

Of course, you could do this yourself, if you are willing to hunt down the raw materials each and every time, which is typically a lot harder than it sounds. Sometimes it is quite easy, though. And if you're lucky enough to have a good Hispanic section in your grocery store, dried peppers are a great way to start.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2010-06-21T10:12:00.000-06:00

Spent the weekend on M's folks' farm, and finally got to watch her mom make a pie from start to finish. Typically, we're showing up late and the pie's already in the oven. This time, we got there late again ... but she made the pie the next day, so for once, we were early ... well, early for tomorrow, if that can still count as early.

Anyhoo ...

I'm amazed by rhubarb. It sells for around $3 / lb for conventional in most grocery stores, which isn't bad. The thing is, it's the easiest thing in the world to grow. You plant it, and it grows. Basic stuff.

And apparently I have a rather unconventional sense of beauty, because I think it's a beautiful plant. Big and bold, assertive, staking it's claim. Most folks, though, think of it more as a cross between a weed and a shrub ... a shreed, if you will. Ungainly and gangly, with no apparent symmetry or form. But I appreciate it's strength and perseverance, which more than make up for not being a leggy super-model of the plant world.

In a world that favored function over form, everyone would grow rhubarb right in front of their front porch, or as a divider between their yard and the neighbors. Ugly? Yeah, right, call it ugly when you're having yet another free pie or cobbler, courtesy this shreed that keeps coming back year after year.

For more on the wheres and whyfors of rhubarb, check out this. The key point is, rhubarb is about the tartest thing you'll ever taste, but the common misconception is that you have to kill it with tons of sugar to tame it down. But tart and sweet aren't like a pH factor — you can't just add them together until you get a neutral. Too much sugar kills the tartness of the rhubarb, and you just get an overly sweet pie. You really don't want to use any more sugar than you would for a peach pie of the same size, just enough to take the edge off without drowning it.

Here's the original family recipe:

And if you can't read the 3x5 card, here's another version:

Strawberry/Rhubarb Pie

1.5 cup sugar
4 Tbs minute tapioca
1/4 tsp salt
2+cups rhubarb
2+cups strawberries

Pastry shell for top/bottom
2 cups flour
2/3 cup + 2tbs crisco
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbs cold water

Optional
1Tbs butter

Combine sugar /tapioca/salt.
Add fruit, mix well, let stand.
Spoon fruit into pastry shell.
Optional: dot with butter

For the pie crust, it's just: mix flour and salt, cut in shortening, sprinkle with water and you toss it with a fork, gather into a ball and roll into a shell.

Bake at 375 for about 40 mins. Watch the edge of the crusts; if the edges start to get too dark, remove from the oven, cover with strips of foil, and return to the oven. Wait for the fruit to really bubble or the rhubarb will be crunchy.

Father's Day: Updated

2010-06-21T09:58:00.000-06:00

Old post here updated with new pix.

Summer Solstice

2010-06-21T06:28:00.000-06:00

Just an observation about human nature ... but as a species, we seem to like to know funny little things about our world that don't directly impact our day-to-day life. And today is Summer Solstice, the "longest" day of the year. I think everyone knows that: that today, those of us in the northern hemisphere will experience the longest period of daylight of the year. From this point until Winter Solstice, the days get shorter and the nights get longer.

Everyone knows that. But slightly fewer people seem to remember that today is also the aphelion of the Earth's orbit around the sun. That's counter-intuitive to some, as in the northern hemisphere, it's warm right now, so we should be closer to the Sun, yeah? But then we remember that the tilt is much more significant than the distance from the sun. It's kinda like getting sunburned when skiing. Between the reflected rays from the snow and the thinner air at elevation, you're getting more sun exposure, even though the temps are hovering around freezing. Lots of factors, some are more significant than others.

I have found that even fewer people realize that Summer Solstice equates to the "slowest" days of the year. By slow, I mean, the earth's orbital velocity around the sun is the slowest. This might be easiest to explain by thinking of a tether ball. If you serve up a tether ball and watch it wind around the pole, it starts off relatively slow, but as the rope shortens and the orbital radius decreases, the ball appears to speed up. Similarly, when the earth is closest to the sun (on Winter Solstice), the orbital velocity is the fastest, but during the summer, our big blue globe is moving at it's slowest rate.

Because of inertia, the actual slowest day is around July 4th or 5th. Around New Year's, we're traveling at around 18.8 miles/sec, while on Independence Day, we're putzing about at around 18.2 miles/sec. (Either way, that's just over 65,000 mph.)

I guess folks don't remember this, or think about this, because we just can't relate. Longest and shortest days, those we can see, can feel. We plan our lives around the changing the of seasons, eating different foods at different times, even tailoring our holidays to match the prevailing conditions. That's why we don't grill hamburgers on Christmas Day, or decorate a pine tree to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But relative orbital velocities ... well, we just can't "feel" that.

Maybe Corona should have a special ad campaign the first week of July: Slow it down on the slowest day of the year with a Corona. Copy needs some work, but there's a Science Meets Madison Avenue moment in there somewhere.

But like most things in life, it doesn't matter if you notice them or not ... they're still out there, happening, being, impacting your very being, in their own way, at their own pace.

Getting ready for Father's Day

2010-06-16T07:23:00.000-06:00

I know I'm going to eat well this Father's Day ... because I'm heading to the farm to see M's folks, and that guarantees good grub.

(Left: poppies from the front yard.)

Best fried chicken in the free world, fresh salads and veggies, and they always have 20 gallons or so of cookies down in the deep freezes in the basement.

Yes, you heard that right ... you gotta measure cookies by the gallon in this house, because you'd run out of fingers and toes trying to count them by the dozens.

See the box on the left? Imagine a dozen similar containers, all stored in a couple or three deep freezers in the basement.

And then there's the rhubarb pie ...

So, I'm going to eat well, and the fact that it's not in my honor and that I will only minimally help in the preparation (by maybe setting the table or putting ice in the water) doesn't bother me in the least.

Since I have no food prep responsibilities, I thought I should use the time to come up with some good ideas for subsequent Father's Days, and by "come up with," I mean, "steal from others."

So, going 'round the horn ... some stuff I think dads might like:

Coffee-marinated Pork from the Greasy Skillet

Coffee-brushed BBQ Ribs from A Spicy Perspective.

Grilled Shrimp with Lime, Cilantro, and Peanuts from The Arugula Files

Burger ideas from Mark Bittman and Whole Foods

Capreses Burger from My Kitchen in the Rockies

Tuna with spicy green sauce from My Little Expat Kitchen

A wedge salad with thousand island dressing from One Perfect Bite

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes from the Big Red Kitchen

What are you making for Father's Day?

PS. Happy Bloomsday!

“History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

Salsa is as Salsa does

2010-06-14T06:18:00.000-06:00

Couldn't grill last night because we've had a couple or three days of rain and hail, so Mr. Weber's feeling lonely. Summer is his time, not because that's the only time you can grill but because all of the farmer's markets are in full swing so there's lots of interesting stuff to smack on his grates.

But it's been oven and stovetop for a few days, which is fine.

(Left: broiled mahi-mahi with mango salsa. Recipe: broil the fish and spoon on the salsa.)

But for me, more so than grilling season, summer is salsa season. Again, not something that only works in the summer, but something that works so much better in the summer because of all of the fresh produce to mix in there.

Salsa is a perfect example of my cooking sensibility: you can throw out measurements, forget 25% of the ingredients, swap out half of the ingredients for something else, and it still works. In fact, I find the idea of a salsa "recipe" to be a bit of an oxymoron. You don't really have recipes, you have guidelines or rules of thumb.

F'rinstance, last night's mango salsa can be summarized as follows: mango salsa = less tomato than normal (or none at all), some extra red pepper, and go easy on the spices. It's not about a precise combination of set ingredients; it's about "mostly this," "easy on that." You got your fruity salsas, your mostly tomato, your mostly tomatilla, your fresh and your roasted veggie versions, your pure veggie and your heavily spiced, and your with or without beans.

What was in last night's mango salsa? I dunnoh ... some mango, I seem to recall. Maybe one tomato. Some cilantro. Lime juice. I think I forgot the onion, but might add some to the leftovers. Salt. Cumin? I think I left that out. Can't remember for sure.

From last year, everything you need to know about salsa.

What's in your favorite salsa?

Foodie quote of the week

2010-06-13T10:56:00.000-06:00

"Irish food isn't cuisine, it's penance."
Dennis Leary

Winter Potato Salad that's great in the summer

2010-06-13T06:24:00.000-06:00

Roasted veggies sound like a winter dish, and some folks are adverse to running the oven any longer than they have to in the summer. But the addition of green beans to this anti-mayo potato salad, along with the bright balsamic dressing, make it a nice change of pace for summer time dining.

You need:
4 oz green beans, cut half
1 head of garlic
1 lb new potatoes, 1-to-2 inch cubes
1 red pepper, cut into largish chunks
2-4 green onions, finely chopped
(Optional: button mushrooms, sweet onion, green/yellow/orange peppers)

salt and pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbs or more balsamic vinegar
1+ Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp snipped fresh rosemary
(optional: chopped cooked bacon)

Heat your oven to 400º.

Cook the green beans in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and dump into ice water to cool. Drain again.

Peel away the paper from the bulb of garlic. Slice off the pointy top of the bulb, just enough to slightly expose the tops of the cloves. Place in a square of tin foil, then drizzle with olive oil. Wrap the foil over the top of the garlic, twisting the top so that it is covered but the foil is not touching the exposed tops. Set aside.

Add the green beans, potatoes, red pepper, and green onions in a shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then drizzle half of the broth (about 1/4 cup) over everything. Place the
garlic bulb in the middle of the veggies and roast in the oven for 1 hour. Stir at least twice, drizzling with the remaining chicken broth.

Remove from the oven and set the pan aside to cool for just a few minutes. Remove the garlic bulp from the foil and squeeze out the roasted garlic paste into a bowl or measuring cup. Add 2 Tbs balsamic vinegar and 1 Tbs olive oil and mix with a fork. Add the rosemary and mix again.

If you really, really like balsamic, you can add another Tbs or two. Or you can add another Tbs of olive oil instead to thin it out. Spread the dressing over the veggies and gently stir to coat. (Optional: bacon!!) Serve immediate warm or cove and chill for up to six hours. Since this is anti-mayo potato salad, it travels well for outdoor events, and it's easily doubled for large groups.

Pepper trivia: Most folks know that Christopher Columbus, the famous explorer known for getting lost and "discovering" things that had already been discovered, misnamed the indigenous people of this country as "Indians" based on a the mistaken belief that he was half a world away. Columbus is also responsible for mistakenly naming peppers, which went by forms of the words capsicum or chile amongst the peoples who already grew them. In Europe, "pepper" referred to any hot spice, stemming from the peppercorns that come from the unrelated Indian plant Piper nigrum. Because Columbus "found" this "new" family of plants that were spicy, they also became known as peppers, and to this day the term refers to both groups of plants.

Father's Day Grilling Ideas

2010-06-13T05:11:00.000-06:00

For a while it seemed that everyone was loading up their hamburgers with weird stuff that did nothing for the flavor. Fillers, I guess. If the burger was concrete, this junk was the cement, something to bind it or hold it together. I saw packets of taco seasoning or onion soup mix, or bread and eggs. The whole thing turned me off to adding anything at to a burger. Just meat, had to be the authentic way if everyone else was playing evil mad scientist with theirs.

But there's something to be said for adding real food to the burger concoction. Not packets of crap that were processed who knows how many years ago, but real food with real flavor.

Two normal sized burgers for the two-legged animals in home, and a couple of mini-burgers for the mutts.

A whole bunch of ideas are here at the Whole Story.

I think my favorite is just a little bit of blue cheese or Gorgonzola with some onion or fennel.

And the maestro will walk you through a plethora of options here.

What do you like on or in your burgers?

Always the last to know

2010-06-11T18:10:00.000-06:00

I learned how to make whipped cream this week. Apparently, the ingredients are (get ready for this) cream, and a whipping instrument. You whip cream. Hence the name, whipped cream.

That was probably obvious to 99% of the folks out there, but growing up, we couldn't afford whipped cream. Whipped cream was for the rich kids, and it came in a pressurized can at the ice cream shop or maybe in a tub, kept in the freezer, at your grandma's when pumpkin pie was on the menu. Me, I was lucky to have a mayonnaise sandwich without bread, or maybe the infamous wish sandwich.

So I never made the connection that whipped cream was just cream that was whipped. I just thought it was a name someone gave it because that's what it looked like. So when I followed this recipe for strawberry shortcake, courtesy Dine and Dash, it was kinda cool figuring out that fresh whipped cream is pretty darn easy to make, tastes worlds better than anything in the frozen food section of your local grocer, and (best of all) is easy to whip up (oops! sorry!) on a moment's notice.

The reason I mention this is, I'm kind of an idiot. The other day someone said that they were intimidated to cook for me because I was always posting interesting looking menus on the world wide interweb. And while they meant it as a compliment, I was a bit taken back. (See, I'm an idiot ... shouldn't that be, I was taken back a bit?) Because I've tried very, very hard NOT to make this a "oooh, look at me" site. The exact opposite, in fact. Purpose #1 is quite simply to record the stuff we make, so we don't have to look too hard to find it later if we want to make it again. Purpose #2 is to have a little fun making mistakes as we grope our way through dinner each night. And purpose #3 is to throw some ideas out there, and with a little luck maybe someone else tried it a different way with better results.

So, looking forward to hearing about your "a-ha" culinary moment.

Once again, Dine and Dash's Strawberry Shortcake is here.

Rhubarb

2010-06-08T04:06:00.000-06:00

I just knew these guys would do a show on rhubarb sooner or later. And glad it was sooner rather than later.

Spilled Milk: Rhubarb

Download it at iTunes.

Rhubarb in it's non-grocery store form.

Health News Round-up

2010-06-05T04:35:00.000-06:00

Haven't done this in a while, but stumbled on to some stories that deserve to go around one more time.

Strong mind in a strong body: Exercise and good grades go hand in hand.
(From the NYTimes Well)

Yet another barefoot running convert. Only took her a couple of hours.
(From SPI)

Do you do yoga? Or, do you do Yoga ©™?
(Via the Guardian UK)

Note: Patenting yoga? Who do they think they are, the US Customs Court of New York?

What?!?! Chocolate isn't a magic cure-all health food?!?! (Actually, not saying it isn't, not saying it is ... just saying the studies are not conclusive.)
(From the LA Times)

Crackers from scratch

2010-06-04T06:30:00.000-06:00

I have been meaning to try my buddy Muddy's flatbread (either this one or this one or the non-flat one here, doesn't really matter which) for quite some time now, so will have to make that a priority this summer.

But there was another crazy-easy flour-based snack food that has been on the backburner for ages as well. About five minutes of prep and 12 minutes in the oven, so it had my name written all over it.

Crackers.

Yep, crackers. Those cheap little snacks you get in a box for $2 at the grocery store. Why in the world would anyone make their crackers?

Well, because it's easy, for one. Because you know exactly what's in them, for two. (No partially hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable monoglycerides, monosodium glutamate, or yellow dye #5, for instance.) And because they do taste a ton better when you know that they were in your very own oven just minutes ago.

And maybe mostly because this is another one of those recipes where there are 1-2 things you have to do, and then everything else is optional.

Here's what you have to do: Mix flour with a little liquid, roll it out, and bake it.

Here's what else you can do: Add butter, milk, cream, cheese, salt, spices, herbs, etc. Use whole wheat flour, or mix in some rye or other whole grains. Roll it thick or thin. Piece the dough with your fork to let out steam for a crisper cracker, or don't for a more tender one.

I went with the first version I ever saw, Parmesan Cream Crackers from Mark Bittman.

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus some for dusting your rolling surface
1/2 tsp salt
a heaping 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
4 Tbs butter
about 1/4 cup milk, half-and-half, or cream (have a little bit more on hand just in case)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat the oven to 400º and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix everything but the liquid in a food processor and pulse until it is uniformly combined.

Pour in half of your quarter-cup of cream while running the processor on the lowest setting. Then slowly add the rest, just a little bit at a time, just until the dough holds together.

Now for the best part. What you basically have now is cheesy pastry dough, but unlike a pie shell, you don't have to be careful about overworking this dough. It's just a cracker, so you can work it over pretty good.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it's around a quarter-inch thick. Common sense here: thicker means a more tender cracker, thinner means crispier. Then slide the dough onto your baking sheet.

If you score it with a knife or pizza cutter (I used a faux-Ulu, the Wüstof weigemesser mincing knife), then you'll have nice square crackers that break off easily when you're done. You can also prick the dough with a fork, 2-4 times per square, to release some steam for a crisper cracker. (The first time you try this, maybe prick half and don't prick the other, and see which side you prefer.)

Finally, sprinkle with salt and any other spice you want, such as freshly ground black pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes. (Again, maybe sprinkle something different on a couple of different sections the first time out.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes, then cool on a rack.

These will most certainly satisfy any hankering for a hunk of cheese.

(Hat tip to One Ordinary Day for the pro-fromaggio PSA.)

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

2010-06-03T07:58:00.000-06:00

It's funny how I can wander all about the house all day long when I'm home alone without making a sound ... but when I'm trying to make breakfast while everyone else is asleep, I invariably drop a muffin tin or slam a cupboard door or knock over a bowl filled with metal measuring spoons.

And sometimes all of the above.

Maybe it's the rush to get everything in the oven before anyone else is awake? (Everyone but Zo the Wonder Dog, who at 95 years old has to get up to pee three times a night and tends to keep me company in the kitchen in the wee dark hours of the morning.)

Not sure why I'm rushing ... takes about ten minutes to whip up muffins from scratch. Maybe I should slow down, try not to drop things, and stretch it out to twelve minutes?

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

Heat your oven to 375º. (Why do they always say "pre-heat"? It's just heating it. Pre-heating it would be the things you do before you heat it, like make sure it's plugged in, cleaning it, putting the rack in the right position.)

Butter or grease your muffin tin (12er)

Dry Ingredients:
2.5 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (oops! forgot that one today)
1 Tbs orange peel or zest of one orange (lemon will do as well)

Mix all of the above in a largish mixing bowl.

Wet ingredients:
1 egg (beaten, of course)
3/4 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup light or neutral oil
1-2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the egg, then add one item at a time and give the batter a good stirring before adding the next. Gently, gently, gently pour the wet into the dry, and with a largish silicone or rubber spatula, mix very gently right up to the point in which they are blended.

Final ingredient:
1-2 cups blueberries

Fold in the berries, just barely cutting through the batter with your spatula so as not to overmix the batter.

Scoop largish spoonfuls of batter into the muffin tin and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee. Maybe you can even sneak 1-2 before anyone else wakes up.

All-American Cracked-Wheat Summer Salad

2010-06-01T21:18:00.000-06:00

A rose by any other name ... got me thinking.

"All-American Cracked Wheat Summer Salad." That's my new name for tabouli. Or tabbouleh. Or tabuleh. Or any of the other variations of this wheaty salad.

(What? Spellcheck says "wheaty" isn't a word? I'll deal with that later ...)

Seems lots of folks don't like the idea of tabouli more than they don't like what it actually is: wholesome wheat berries with summer vegetables and a light lemony sauce. Tabbouleh ... just sounds foreign. Maybe even French. And definitely hippy. Tabouli rhymes with patchouli ... can't be a coincidence, can it?

So how do you sell something like tabouli to mainstream America? Easy ... what's it made out of?

First and foremost, all-American wheat berries, one of this country's great staple crops and a $7B a year industry.

Not sure why, but folks look at bulgar wheat or tabouli and think, what is this mush? We've all heard of flour and oats and real American grains, but this has to be one of them foreign weeds, like quinoa or couscous. But bulgar wheat, or it's less processed form, cracked wheat, are just that, wheat. Wheat berries that have "cracked" or ground into various granulations for faster cooking. (In the case of bulgar, the berries are steamed first and then dried.)

So what else is in the "foreign" salad? There's cucumbers, an American favorite during the summer. Tomatoes, found in every Big Mac and on so many front porches in container gardens or those upside-downy hanging contraptions. Lemon juice, another summer fave. Salt and pepper. And a mix of herbs familiar to most any American home garden, like mint or parsley.

Crazy stuff, eh?

And it's easy to make, and you know how Americans hate anything that's easy to make. The wheat doesn't even have to be cooked. You can just steep it in hot water and you're done. (If you want to get crazy, you can saute it in broth with onions and garlic, but that's totally optional.)

And it's versatile. Another things Americans hate. There are about 50 different ingredients that can go into tabouli, and you only need 5 of them or so, so you can mix it up and never have the same salad twice.

It travels well, and we know how Americans hate summer picnics and barbecues. There's not mayo to go bad in the heat like potato salad. Basically, keep it out of direct sunlight and it will last all day.

And finally, it's healthy. (Okay, sarcasm off, we're not so crazy about healthy things, as a nation. But we're getting better.) There's nothing in it but whole grains and fresh vegetables. Because you're using ground wheat berries, you still have a lot of the protein from the wheat. There's a skosh of healthy fat from the olive oil. Add some chopped chicken breast for a bit more protein, and you have a near-perfect post-work-out recover meal.

So, support American wheat farmers and serve up some All-American Cracked Wheat Summer Salad.

Basic Recipe:
One cup bulgar wheat or cracked wheat
Two cups boiling water
2 Tbs olive oil
Juice from two lemons
Half cup mixed herbs, chopped (mint, parsley, cilantro, etc)
Half cup diced veggies (cucumber, tomato, red pepper, onion, green onion, garlic,
Salt and pepper to taste.
Optional:
half cup chick peas
half cup shredded Romaine lettuce

Pour the boiling water over the bulgar and let it steep for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, dice your veggies and finely chop your herbs. When the bulgar is ready, add veggies and then olive oil / lemon juice.

Notes:

You can really play with all of the proportions. In some parts of the world, this is really a parsley salad with a little bit of cracked wheat, not the other way around. You can up the herbs, then, to a full cup or more with no problems. The more wheat, the more lemon juice it can handle, and you'll see as much as half a cup per cup of bulgar in some recipes. Onions ... red, yellow, sweet, or green all work. Most cultures call for lots and lots of parsley, but we've made it with 100% cilantro and loved it. Technically, that's probably not "tabouleh," but then again, we're not so worried about labels here.

Farm Facts:

Agriculture employs 21 million people—more than seven times as many workers as the U.S. automotive industry.
Agriculture is one of the few sectors of the economy that consistently runs a trade surplus.
For every dollar Americans spend on food, farmers only get 20 cents.
95% of U.S. farms are run by families, farmer partnerships or co-ops.
Today's farmer provides food for about 140 people—up from just 19 people in 1940.

"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." - President John F. Kennedy

Frondy

2010-06-01T05:52:00.000-06:00

When the fennel is this good looking, you just have to whip up some of Molly Wizenberg's celery root and apple salad.

Source: Sunflower Market, Denver CO.

Tamale Lasagna

2010-05-27T17:04:00.000-06:00

Sometimes a mistake turns out pretty darn good.

Seems I got me some bad corn tortillas. Didn't check the date, a tad on the stale side.

So when I tried to make My Kitchen in the Rockies' enchiladas, the tortilla just crumbled when I tried to roll them up.

The horror, the horror!

Ahhh, but all is not lost. Simple fix. Instead of rolling them up into enchiladas, layer the tortillas a la lasagna. The corn will get a bit mushy from the salsa, and will ever-so-slightly resemble a tamale.

Follow their recipe, right up to the point where you assemble the ingredients.

(I really like her tomatillo-chile sauce. Nice and tangy. Made a double batch, and got half in the freezer ready for the next "forgot to plan dinner" moment.)

Then, instead of stuffing the tortilla and layering them in the dish, do this instead:

1. Pour the tomatillo sauce on the bottom of a baking dish, just enough to cover it.

2. Cover that with the corn tortillas that wouldn't cooperate before. (That'll teach 'em, not wanting to roll up on command.)

3. Layer veggies with sauce, tortillas, cheese, meat with sauce, tortillas, etc, until you get even with the top of the pan or run out of food, whichever comes first.

For the cheese, it's great if you can get some real Mexican quesos, but if you can't, just use mostly cheddar with a bit of something tangy, like feta or goat, mixed in.

After your last layer of corn tortillas, spread a little more cheese and then enough sauce until it soaks through the top layer.

4. Cover with foil and bake at 350º for 20-30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 10 more minutes.

5. Let cool for 5 minutes, just long enough for the cheese to set, then slice and serve like you would lasagna.

Salud!

Keeping It Real

2010-05-27T16:47:00.000-06:00

Just needed to remind myself: if you can't have this much fun in the kitchen, it's time to hang up the apron.

It is an honor and a privilege, not a chore, to prepare something that someone else might find tasty.

Now, someone, fetch me my knives!

Simple Currant Scones

2010-05-27T08:31:00.000-06:00

We tried this idea the other day. Wasn't a 100% success, but it might work for you, depending on your grater.

I always have trouble cutting butter into a pastry dough. Scott Peacock says to use your hands (as described in our cheddar scone recipe here), but that seems to take forever and I always miss a couple of pieces. The easiest way, in my opinion, is a food processor, but then you have a lot of extra cleaning to do.

But here's an idea from a friend: freeze the butter and then use a cheese grater to grate the butter into the dough.

We used a Pampered Chef grater, which was so simple even a two year old could do it. And it worked great, except that the butter melts from friction and collects in the innermost corners of the grater. I'm guessing about 5% of the butter never made it into the dough. So it's not perfect, but it works.

If you used a box grater, you'll have to work a bit harder, and the very last sliver of butter will melt in your hand, but you can just toss that into the dough and cut it in with your hands, pastry cutter, fork, or whatever.

Maybe I just need to find a better pastry cutter?

Or ... and I'm leaning towards this one ... just use the food processor, but to make the clean up worth your while, make a double batch and freeze half of it. That's what we did with the strawberry shortcakes the other day.

We have shortcake biscuits in the freezer, which take about 15 minutes to thaw before tossing into the oven.

(By the way, I guess I'm the last one to find out that to make homemade whipped cream, all you have to do it take some cream and whip it. Seriously. It's that easy. You can add a wee bit of sugar and vanilla extract if you want, but basically, whipped cream is — get ready for this — cream that has been whipped. Who knew?)

Lots of options ... will have to work on all of them before deciding which one to stick with.

Simple Currant Scones

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
(1 tsp sugar for sprinkling over the scones later on)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (8 Tbs) butter (freeze for 30 minutes)
1/2 cup currants or raisins
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 400º.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a 4 quart mixing bowl.

Grate the frozen butter into the dry mixture using a box or cheese grater. Mix thoroughly with your fingers, a fork, or a pastry cutter. (Or, mix the whole thing in a food processor.)

Blend the sour cream and the egg in a measuring cup or small bowl. Stir the wet mixture into the flour, slowly with a fork. Just as lumps start to form, with your hands, press the dough into the bowl to make a ball. Don't worry if the dough doesn't look wet enough — it should still hold together. If not, gently knead it once or twice and try again.)

Pat the dough into a circle on a lightly floured surface, and pat it down to about 3/4 of an inch thickness. Sprinkle with sugar, and then draw a knife through the dough to form eight triangles.

Using a small spatula, place the triangles onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, just until the tops are golden brown.

Favorite variation: add lemon zest to the dry mix and sub blueberries for the currants.

The good thing about being out of ideas ...

2010-05-22T12:22:00.000-06:00

... is that there are plenty of other folks out there doing the thinking for ya, should you become so stumped.

F'rinstance, I wanted to come up something for dinner that we could whip up once and then chow on for the rest of the week ... and just then, I stumbled onto Big Red Kitchen's lasagna piece.

Tomatillas were on sale at Sunflower Market, so I grabbed a bunch but wasn't sure what I was going to do with them ... and as soon as I got home, My Kitchen in the Rockies had a great looking enchilada recipe.

(Will have to talk about this one next week ... because I couldn't get the corn tortillas to roll up without cracking, so I just layered them in a baking sheet instead and came up with a faux Mexican lasagna or tamale pie or something in between.)

Then I wanted to do something different for dessert ... and when I opened my Google Reader, Dine and Dish had this gorgeous strawberry shortcake recipe, via Reluctant Entertainer at the top of the page.

(Did you know ... that to make homemade whipped cream, basically you just whip cream? Sounds crazy, I know ...)

A week's worth of great meals, without having to do any heavy thinking on my part.

Since blackberries were on sale this week ...

2010-05-18T07:16:00.000-06:00

... pulling up this one from the files.

What's cooking in your neck of the woods?

2010-05-15T07:11:00.000-06:00

Great little app for finding out what's in season in your neighborhood.

Cutting edge or traditional? Why not both?

2010-05-04T12:45:00.000-06:00

Chef Jose Andres was on 60 Minutes this past weekend. He's doing some amazing things in the kitchen with this molecular gastronomy thing. Some of it is pure chemistry, such as the gin and tonic that has separate spheres of membrane-enclosed liquid. Some of it is just a little odd, like cooking a two-pound fish in a crust of a full pound of sea salt.

60 Minutes with Chef Jose Andres

It would be easy to dismiss Chef Andres as just a stuntman, a performer with a shtick, if the only thing you need about him was his love of chemistry. But the same guy who is creating visual feasts that make you go "hmmmm" has been working with the D.C. Central Kitchen for the past two decades, making simpler dishes that make you go "mmmmm." He volunteers in the kitchen, he helps prepare 4,000 meals a day, and maybe most importantly, he has hired the graduates of their cooking school and has helped them start their own careers.

Participating in the NPR "How Low Can You Go?" challenge, I thought his Moorish stew was the best of the entrees by a long shot. With the task of making a dinner for four for under $10, he provided an old family recipe that can be whipped up in about 20 minutes.

It's easy to see why the press is all a-ga-ga over his culinary chemistry set wonders, but I'd love to see a feature about his roots, and about the traditional cooking that still inspires him.

One in Three

2010-05-03T07:42:00.000-06:00

One in three.

In a lot of competitive programs, on the first day of training the instructors will tell the candidates: look to your left, and then look to your right. Come graduation day, one of you won't be here.

Now imagine you're in an elementary school classroom. Ask the kids to all look to their left, then look to their right. One of those three will develop Type II diabetes, according to the CDC.

That's where FoodCorps is trying to make a difference. From their website:

FoodCorps responds to the needs of the current “obesity generation.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three children born in the year 2000 is on track to develop Type II diabetes. For minorities, the prediction worsens to one in two.
The program addresses this multi-faceted epidemic with a mechanism that, as philosopher Wendell Berry says, “solves for pattern.” The simple tool of a schoolyard garden positively addresses six of the eight contributing factors to obesity identified by the CDC. Gardens that engage children provide better food choices, encourage physical activity, reduce sedentary behavior, and lead to healthier environments at home, at school, and in the community.
Further, the CDC has singled out Farm to School as part of a community based solution to the obesity epidemic.
Building on the leadership of the White House Garden and the USDA People's Garden Initiative, the President's Task Force on Childhood Obesity, and model programs in states like Montana, Iowa and Wisconsin, FoodCorps will help bring healthy food infrastructure to the schools facing the most severe challenges of diet-related disease.

I can't get that number out of my head. One in three.

Think about your kids, and their closest friends, teammates, neighbors. How many is that? Now, pick one-third of them to get Type II diabetes.

And the worst part is, the kids aren't doing anything wrong. It is the adults in their lives who are failing them.

(Hat-tip to 5 Second Rule.)

How Food Shapes Our Cities

2010-05-02T11:59:00.000-06:00

Today's Pause and Ponder:

"Architect Carolyn Steel discusses the daily miracle of feeding a city, and shows how ancient food routes shaped the modern world. Understanding the flow of food will help us reconnect with what we eat."

From her October 2009 TED Conference presentation.

May's Stuff to Try

2010-05-01T12:43:00.000-06:00

Bars of Chocolate Dulce de Leche with Shortbread Crust and Fleur de Sel, from My Little Expat Kitchen.

Cabbage Bombs, from the Greasy Skillet

Amardeen Margarita with pistachios, from A Taste of Beirut

Essential Kitchen Equipment: the iPhone?

2010-04-30T09:42:00.000-06:00

I dropped my iPhone in the sink the other day. The sink was empty, save for a single 2-cup measuring cup that was full of water, and guess where the phone landed. Yep, perfect swan dive into the murk. Shorted out, temporarily brought it back to life, but eventually gave up its ghost.

Which is why I'm dubious of any iPhone app that claims to be a kitchen essential. Kitchen essentials are made out of Solingen steel, copper, silicone, or hardwood. Not chips and circuit boards and other hydro-adverse components.

But even though I know in my heart of hearts that electronics in the kitchen can be trouble, I keep finding myself dragging my MacBook or iPhone in there. Which results in a kabuki dance of jumping back and forth from the work space to the safe zone, from the floury counter top or water-filled sink to the corner of the bar where the directions lay.

Time saving? I can find the recipe I want in a blink of an eye, instead of searching through a shelf full of cookbooks, but I'm doing laps around the kitchen during the actual cooking process.

So I think the answer is, it's a given that modern technology is going to make our iPhones seem like extensions of our arm, something we didn't know we needed until we started using them, so we can fight it or embrace it.

Some apps like Grocery IQ have become second nature already. We love how it lets us sync the grocery lists, so M. can add stuff the same time I am, on different phones and in different stores. If I'm in the middle of shopping, she can add a couple of things and they pop up on my list, and if she's shopping for something but I just grabbed it, it disappears from hers.

It also has a very useful barcode scanner with thousands of items in its database. Every now and then it won't recognize something, but it usually surprises me by calling up a locally produced item.

But the recipe apps ... not so much. They all seemed okay, but never managed to impress me. One of them only recognized key words in the ingredients list and not in the title, so searches were always coming up empty. Most of them are poorly organized, so you're groping your way through their lists to find what you want.

I am very impressed, however, with the new How To Cook Everything app from Mark Bittman, courtesy the folks at Culinate and Wiley Press. Somehow they managed to cram nearly all of MB's 900 page opus into a $1.99, 23 meg app. I shouldn't say "cram," however, because HTCE is intuitively organized with a learning curve of about three seconds. While it seems most apps start with a good idea, then try to figure out how to minimalize everything to fit it onto a phone, the HTCE app looks like it started with the premise that we're talking about a hand-held device, then adapted the features of the book to this delivery system.

HTCE is in fact not just a recipe app but a guide on how to cook everything, just like the book. There are sections on kitchen basics, how to pick a chef's knife, food safety and produce selection, and the essential kitchen techniques. The recipes are organized in so many ways that it's easy to find what you're looking for, whether you're searching by ingredient, by MB's recommendation, or by preparation time.

And the recipes are the most interactive of any iPhone app I've ever seen. Let's take his Fried Chicken Made Easy. On the overview page, there's a sidebar showing different spice rubs, in case I have the time to play around with this.

The next page is the ingredient list, which has a couple of cool features. If there are ingredient substitutions for this recipe, I can pick the one I want by touching the adjacent button. Then I can export this list to my shopping list, which I can view by grocery store aisle, alphabetically, or sorted by the recipe to which each item belongs. And while it won't sync to another person's phone, I can export the list and send as an email.

Also impressive is the way that it handles recipe steps. In describing the steps, if there is a technique that requires further explanation, there's a link taking you to that page. And whenever anything needs to be timed, there's an embedded timer for each step. Let's say you're boiling the pasta while simmering the sauce. With this app, while you're reading the directions, you can also have multiple timers running, each labeled telling you what it's for. If the first timer dings and you can't remember which step that timer went with, the label clearly shows you.

And because they are embedded and pre-set, you're not bouncing back and forth between the app and the phone's built-in timers. That feature alone is worth the price of admission. And what's funny is, I never used a timer before, because I hate setting them. These are already set, so now I find myself using them when I don't even need to.

So, I'm hooked. But let's just wait and see for how long. The next time I'm trying to clean whole wheat flour out of the headphone jack or worse, heading to the Apple Store to replace a phone that just met the disposal up close and personal, we'll see what song I'm singing.

Braising Hell

2010-04-22T08:36:00.000-06:00

Even the most die-hard vegan has to admit, you drive by a rib shack and the place just smells good. Might not be your cup of tea to actually eat, but the smell is like a slap of Vitalis, a cup of coffee, a good nap, and a favorite book all wrapped up in one. It's something familiar yet not boring, a little bit of everything but not too much of anything.

(Carnitas burrito, guac, and green salad with Mexican-ish dressing)

But smoking ribs is a lot of work. The really good joints, they start working 6-8 hours before the first meal is to be served. You have to get the right wood and charcoal mix, get the smokers up and running, prep your meat with a mop, rub, or sauce, and then let the smoke and time do their thing.

So it's always cool when you find a simpler way to do something that gets the job done almost as well. And I've had a ton of luck with this recipe from the folks at Spilled Milk, the foodie version of Car Talk.

(The entire Spilled Milk braising collection: braised scallions, Molly Stevens' braised cabbage, and carnitas.)

Braising seems like a winter way to cook. Slow cooking, aromatic, fills the house with warmth. But I'm not going to cut it out of the schedule just because the Weber is topped off and the sun is raining down its UVAs and Vitamin D on us. Because the Spilled Milk recipe for carnitas keeps turning out shredded pork as good as the places that pass out handi-wipes by the bucket.

We've made this three times now, with very slight changes to their recipe each time, and it's fool-proof, bomb-proof, and oh so versatile each time.

And while it's not exactly the same thing as good ol' barbecue, you do get a pile of tender pork that rivals the pulled pork from the most traditional of smokehouses.

The basic recipe is easy. Three pounds of pig (pork shoulder or country style ribs) and an onion go into the pot, all chopped. Then you pour in a mixture of one cup of chicken broth, 1/4 cup of tequila, and a few tablespoons of lime juice. Turn up to high until the liquid boils, then turn down to simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 hours. Right before you're ready to serve it, you can turn up the heat to evaporate the rest of the liquid.

The only thing I'd suggest is to do the whole thing in a Dutch oven. They called for braising the pig in a sauce pan, then moving everything to a skillet to slightly brown the meat before serving. If you use a Dutch oven, you can do the whole thing in one pot. Plus, let's say you've cooked the pig for two hours, but everyone is going to bet late for dinner. You don't want the carnitas to dry out yet, and you don't want to scoop it up and put it in the fridge. With the Dutch oven, you an turn the stove down to as low as it will go, cover it, and let it self-baste until you're ready to brown it up. Yet another example of how the Dutch oven rocks.

(Carnitas salad, cabbage, and scallions.)

The Spilled Milk recipe is for a carnitas salad, which I highly recommend. Your pork meat goes over chopped cabbage, and gets a dressing of hot sauce and lime juice.

Unless you're feeding the entire high school football team, you're going to have leftovers, and the carnitas is great in a quick burrito, taco, or sandwich. Here we mixed mayo with homemade salsa on a roll, with the carnitas, cabbage, and lettuce.

Like I said, we've made this three times now, as such:
1. No change to their recipe. The meat is tender and succulent, and the tequila gives it a brightness that goes well with the cabbage in the salad.
2. Left out the tequila and used either a Vidalia or Texas Sweet onion instead of a plain yellow. This produced a mellower carnitas, still very tender, with a stronger pork flavor.

(Left: braised carnitas with triple sec and hot sauce.)

3. The third time, I'm embarrassed to admit, we had failed to replace our vanquished bottle of tequila, so I intended to make it just like #2. But for whatever reason, at the last minute I poured a splash (2-3 Tbs) of triple sec over the pig. No idea why. Just did it. And then, because we were going straight to the burrito/taco phase and skipping the cabbage salad phase, I added the hot sauce to the liquid as it braised. Maybe 2-3 tablespoons of Texas Pete. I have no idea what the chemical formula for the reaction between triple sec and Texas Pete is, but the resulting carnitas had a tangy, slightly sweet BBQ flavor.

For the burritos or soft tacos, we warmed the tortillas in the oven, added the carnitas, some chopped cabbage, guac and salsa. Served it up with a side salad with a home-made version of a Mexican dressing (or, at least, what this haole druid thinks a Mexican salad dressing would taste).

Braised Carnitas

Around 3 pounds of pork shoulder or country style ribs
1 onion, diced
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup tequila (blanco)
Lime juice, from one lime or 2 Tbs

Carnitas Salad Dressing
Hot sauce (Frank's or Texas Pete) + lime juice (about a 3:1 mix works for me, but you'll need to play with that.)

Mexican Salad Dressing
1:1 ratio of mayonnaise to sour cream
splash of milk
splash of lime juice
dash of cumin, ancho chile powder (or other chile powder), Mexican oregano
(optional: finely chopped fresh cilantro)
Only make enough for the number of servings that you need, pour over a mixed green salad.

Leftovers

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T08:20:00.000-06:00

"God bless America.
Let's save some of it."
~ Edward Abbey

A little military history diversion

2010-04-21T23:45:00.000-06:00

This weekend the Spring Classics conclude with Liège-Bastogne-Liège, also known as La Doyenne, or "the oldest." The Classics start with a sprinter's race in Italy, Milan-San Remo, then move to the cobbles of Ronde van Vlaanderen (the Tour of Flanders), Gent–Wevelgem, and Paris-Roubaix (the Hell of the North). The month concludes with the Ardennes Classics: the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and finishes with Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Most of these races take place along the Belgian-French border, a region that saw it's share of combat in the 20th century. In sports, it's often poetic to describe competition as war or battle, but it is not very often that the match takes place on an actual battlefield. For many of these bike races, that is exactly the case.

Because he has already described this better than I ever could, I'll just turn it over to Belgian Knee Warmers and his post, The Monuments.

If you should catch L-B-L on the web this weekend, you'll hear a lot of the towns that were key points in Janice Giles' The Damned Engineers, the brilliant account of the 291st Engineers and their impromptu defense against Kampfgruppe Peiper during the Battle of the Bulge.

(John Pierce of Photosport International)

You can find the route for L-B-L here. Compare it to this map of the Battle of the Bulge here, on page 452.

When was the last time you ate outside?

2010-04-16T16:05:00.000-06:00

In 1975, the average American went on five picnics. This past year, the average American went on two picnics. That's a 60% decrease in outdoor, communal, cole-slaw-based dining.

Just something to think about as we move into summer.

Fish Tacos and an Inordinate Fondness for Cabbage

2010-04-16T05:30:00.000-06:00

I have a tendency to take things a little too far. I get into something, then beat it to death until I'm sick of it.

I think I might be close to doing that to the poor, innocent cabbage.

When I was first learning how to eat ... no, not how to use a fork and spoon, but how to really eat ... One of my first nutritional discoveries was that your basic iceberg lettuce is a waste of space, a weed that has found its way into the American kitchen thanks to fast food joints and crappy diet plans. (A discover, I should add, that, like most nutritional information, is only partially true.) Sure, it's low-cal ... and low-taste, low-nutrition, low-everything. But it's easy to grow and takes well to American soil, so we grow a ton of it ... five million tons, more or less, more than anyone but China.

But it's a waste of time, of space, of chewing, even (or so I was told at the time), and I moved on to heartier leaves and heads as one of my strides into a healthier and tastier way of living. Color means vitality, so more vibrant heads are the way to go, more often than not.

At some point on this journey, I decided that anything calling for lettuce would get either cabbage or spinach, two of the better choices from a nutritional standpoint. So I went a little nutty with the cabbage, forcing its way into every recipe until, as could be predicted, I got a bit sick of it, and off to limbo it went.

This past winter, thanks to the folks at Spilled Milk, I reacquainted myself with cabbage. But this time, it wasn't just a substitution for lettuce, but the centerpiece of a recipe. I made braised cabbage on more than one occasion, after listening to them go on and on about Molly Steven's recipe (and deservingly so!). Then for St Paddy's I made their colcannon. I made up a couple of other ways of making cabbage a side dish unto itself, and not an ingredient in something that inevitably tastes a wee bit too much like something that's trying too hard to be healthy. (Start with the SM colcannon, but cook the cabbage with onions and add a dash of balsamic vinegar before mixing it with the spuds. Delish.)

And in doing so, I rediscovered the veggie that I had over-done the first time around. Okay, it is one of the healthier things on the produce shelf. That doesn't have to be a bad thing. It has a pretty darn decent shelf life, making it a good item to keep around. It's cheap. And a little bit goes a long way.

For instance, just a tiny bit of finely chopped cabbage brings a little life and vibrancy to posole. Chop it up, put it in the bottom of the bowl, then ladle the posole over it, and it adds both brightness and crunch to the stew.

In the summer time, my favorite use of cabbage is in tacos. It just seems to go better with a soft, warm tortilla and succulent, spicy meat than your standard lettuce, which wilts under such scrutiny. Cabbage will hold its own, providing some crunch and texture, no matter how much salsa or fire you add to the mix.

Why don't people use cabbage more often? Mostly because if knife skills aren't your thing, it can look like a chore to chop it up. I've heard folks complain that when they're done chopping it, they have cabbage shrapnel all over the counter and even the floor. And because a little bit goes a long way, and folks think the rest will go bad before they get around to finishing it. Personally, I'm not buying either excuse. As long as you wrap up the exposed face of a head of cabbage, it won't mind a bit that you hacked off a quarter or an eighth and saved the rest for later. As for knife skills, all you really need is a good 8 inch chef's and a cutting board a little bit bigger than you thought you needed at first, to keep the occasional cabbage projectile from leaving the counter top.

And I can't imagine making fish tacos with plain old lettuce.

Not so much a recipe as just a couple or three tips.

Tortillas: wrap them in foil and put them on the warm (not hot) part of the grill for 10 minutes or so right before serving. Or after you're done with everything else, just throw them on the grill individually, unwrapped for half a minute or so per side.

Salsa: Take your pick. No wrong answer.

Rice: You can put it in your taco, or have it on the side. Put the rice in a sauce pan with a little bit of oil and a shake of Mexican oregano. Stir it around so the rice is evenly coated, then put it on the stove over medium-high heat for about a minute. Instead of plain water, add half water, half chicken broth. Cook per the instructions for your type of rice.

Other toppings: cheese, sour cream, cilantro, chopped olives, chiles.

Fish: Typically a white, flaky fish, like cod, mahi-mahi or tilapia. You can marinate it if you want, but I like a simple rub. Try one part Cajun blackening spice, one part ancho chile powder, with a dash of sea salt. Times vary, but fish cooks quickly so it's typically 4-6 minutes per side. As soon as you take them off the grill, give them a squirt of lime juice and let them stand for a couple of minutes before flaking them into your taco.

Sides: the aforementioned rice, grilled veggies, refrieds, or burracho beans. To make gringo burracho beans, either open a can of black beans or soak and boil dried black beans, as you normally would prepare them. Then, an hour or so before dinner, add 8 oz of a crisp lager (do not use an IPA or other bitter beer — will leave the beans with a burned aftertaste). Add a dash of cayenne and/or cumin and stir it all in. Bring to a boil, then simmer partially uncovered until the liquid is mostly gone.

Serve with a bright wheat beer, like Odell's Easy Street or Breckenridge's Agave Wheat.

Limits

2010-04-15T17:32:00.000-06:00

Another brilliant piece from Jad and Richard at RadioLab.

Limits

How far can a person push himself? How much information can the human brain hold and retrieve? The answer is: a lot further and a lot more than you probably think.

Lots of amazing ideas in this story, but the one big idea that I thought was most powerful was: our muscles have very little to do with our endurance. It mostly comes from self-imposed limits, ideas of what it means to be tired or spent. Free the mind, and the body will follow.

Companion piece: one of my favorite articles from the now defunct New York Times Play Magazine.

That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger
by Daniel Coyle

How to Live to be 100

2010-04-13T07:04:00.000-06:00

Dan Buettner shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that are found in the world's longest living communities.

Now we've seen everything

2010-04-13T06:17:00.000-06:00

The new KFC Double-Down.

I really thought this was just a publicity stunt, but apparently it's real.

Surely the combo meal comes with a tray of doughnuts, an XXXL Snuggie, and a bottle of Lipitor.

For Really Great Salsa, You Need ...

2010-04-02T07:40:00.000-06:00

... an iPad.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen Gets a Free iPad

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Fox News

Kitchen Sink Frittata

2010-03-27T11:53:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what I would do if I was forced to give up eggs. Scrambled with a side of toast and bacon. Scrambled with green chiles in a breakfast burrito. Boiled just right for egg salad. Soft boiled with lots of salt and fresh cracked pepper. Fried hard for a quick sandwich, with cheese and a slice of tomato. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

And in this tough economy, at about a dime each, eggs are the most cost-effective way of getting protein. A dozen of large are just north of a buck at our grocer, and as high as $3 for the hippie eggs. That's still just a quarter an egg, or $2 for all the eggs you need for this frittata that serves four easy.

Throw in two bucks worth of veggies and this meal is a dollar per serving. So take that, you drive-thru, dollar menu clowns.

So here you go. Read the entire thing, then go back to the beginning and pick your ingredients. You have five minutes of prep, then just watch it cook. 30 minutes start to finish.

Everyone's selling frittata pans these days, but any oven-proof pan will work by starting it on the stove and finishing in the oven.

The Base:
8 large eggs
1/2 cup milk or cream (preferably not skim, but skim will work if that's all you have)
1 Tbs flour
salt and pepper to taste

In a very large measuring cup or mixing bowl (about 4 cups) mix all of the above.

Then add any of the following:

The Kitchen Sink:

Up to 2 cups of veggies and meat: Bacon, sausage, chorizo, canadian bacon, pancetta, or you name it. Fresh red or green bell peppers, mushrooms, jalapeños, onions, spinach, summer squash, or, again, you name it. Steam some asperagus and cut into one-inch pieces. Microwave some diced potatoes. The only caveat is, if you use sauteed or cooked veggies, let them cool before adding them to the egg mixture.
Half to a full cup of cheese: Any hard or soft cheese will work. Try crumbled feta or goat, or grated cheddar, or packages of mixed Italian or Mexican cheeses. Note, if using salty cheese, like feta, then take it easy on the salt in your egg mix.
Herbs and spices: Sprinkle enough spice to cover the top of your egg mix, then whisk into the mixture until blended. Try red pepper flakes, garlic, green onions, or basil, cilantro, or parsley.

Here's the last bit of your hands-on. Heat your oven to 350°. In an oven-proof pan, heat enough butter or olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan over medium heat. Medium, not medium-high. Get your egg mix ready, and then give the pan a twirl to make sure the oil touches the sides of the pan. Slowly pour the egg mix into the pan, cover, and let it sit on medium heat for about a minute. Then turn the stove down to low and give it about 7 minutes. Check the egg, and when the eggs are set about an inch from the side, you're ready. Depending on your ingredients, this might take up to 12 minutes, so just keep checking.

Then uncover the pan and move it to the oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes, but again, because of your ingredients, it might take up to 25 minutes to finish. You're going to bake it until the top is completely set. Watch the very center; when the center is set, you're done.

If you're using an omelet-style pan, you can slide the frittata to a cutting board. We use a straight-sided pan and just cut it in the pan with a sharp plastic spatula. If you let it cool for two minutes, it will pull away from the pan and will be easier to serve.

Serve it as-is or with salsa. A side salad, green or fruit, goes well with this dish. Or, cut it into one inch squares for an hors d'oevre.

Kitchen Sink Frittata

2010-03-27T11:01:00.003-06:00

Up to 2 cups of veggies and meat: Bacon, sausage, chorizo, canadian bacon, pancetta, or you name it. Fresh red or green bell peppers, mushrooms, jalapeños, onions, spinach, summer squash, or, again, you name it. Steam some asperagus and cut into one-inch pieces. Microwave some diced potatoes. The only caveat is, if you use sauteed or cooked veggies, let them cool before adding them to the egg mixture.
Half to a full cup of cheese: Any hard or soft cheese will work. Try crumbled feta or goat, or grated cheddar, or packages of mixed Italian or Mexican cheeses. Note, if using salty cheese, like feta, then take it easy on the salt in your egg mix.
Herbs and spices: Sprinkle enough spice to cover the top of your egg mix, then whisk into the mixture until blended. Try red pepper flakes, garlic, green onions, or basil, cilantro, or parsley.

Happy Birthday

2010-03-21T11:51:00.000-06:00

Z's Second 2nd Birthday

St Patrick's Day (Updated)

2010-03-17T08:28:00.000-06:00

Added the corned beef on the grill (from Weber) and a few others.

St Paddy's Day Recap

2010-03-16T06:16:00.000-06:00

In no particular order ...

Short story about Guinness at The Whole Story.

Bangers and Tatties from the Big Red Kitchen.

And their complete Irish Feast, including Murphy's Stout Milkshakes, here.

Irish Soda Bread right here.

Two other ways to make Irish Soda Bread at Bon Appétit.

Irish Stew with Cheddar Scones right here.

A nutrition clip that mentions Guinness as a healthy beverage choice here.

Corned Beef via Spilled Milk. And Molly and Matt's thoughts about St Patrick's Day here.

Corned Beef on the grill, courtesy the folks at Weber.

Corned Beef and Cabbage via Sur La Table.

Irish oatmeal: crockpot steel-cut oats at Kalyn's Kitchen.

For dessert, a Vanilla Guinness Shake.

Or Guinness ice cream here.

How to say "cheers" in numerous languages here.

Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart.
—Ecclesiastes 9:10

Payday came and with it beer.
-Rudyard Kipling

Work is the curse of the drinking class.
-Oscar Wilde

Here’s to you and here’s to me, the best of friends we’ll ever be, but if we ever disagree, to hell with you and here’s to me.

The problem with some people is that when they aren’t drunk they’re sober.
-William Butler Yeats

Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the Bible says love your enemy.
— Frank Sinatra

(On receiving a hearty introduction) When I get a very generous introduction like that I explain that I'm emotionally moved, but on the other hand I'm Irish and the Irish are very emotionally moved. My mother is Irish and she cries during beer commercials.
— Barry McCaffrey

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my Mum. I know I've got Irish blood because I wake up everyday with a hangover.
— Noel Gallagher

We are all of us in the gutter.
But some of us are looking at the stars.
— Oscar Wilde

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.
— W. C. Fields

I like to do my principal research in bars, where people are more likely to tell the truth or, at least, lie less convincingly than they do in briefings and books.
— P J. O'Rourke

I like beer. On occasion, I will even drink beer to celebrate a major event such as the fall of Communism or the fact that the refrigerator is still working.
— Dave Barry

This beer is good for you. This is draft beer. Stick with the beer. Let's go and beat this guy up and come back and drink some more beer.
— Earnest Hemingway

I can resist everything except temptation.
– Oscar Wilde

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brains
With grammar, and nonsense, and learning,
Good liquor, I stoutly maintain,
Gives genius a better discerning
--- Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774), Irish poet

I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society, except that which makes the road safer, the beer stronger, old men and women warmer in the winter, and happier in the summer.
--- Irish novelist Brendan Behan

What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for.
--- Irish proverb

There is an ancient Celtic axiom that says 'Good people drink good beer.' Which is true, then as now. Just look around you in any public barroom and you will quickly see: Bad people drink bad beer.
--- Hunter S. Thompson

Breakfast Tacos

2010-03-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

Personally, big fan here. Doesn't really matter what's in them. Eggs, of course, are a great way to start.

What's not to like about breakfast tacos?

The Mother of All Cobblers

2010-03-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

O, blackberry tart, with berries as big as your thumb, purple and black, and thick with juice, and a crust to endear them...with such a taste that will make you close your eyes and wish you might live forever in the wideness of that rich moment. —Richard Llewellyn, Welsh novelist (1907 — 1983)

Filling:
8 cups blackberries fresh or frozen
(thawed slightly if frozen)
1 cup sugar
¼ cup instant tapioca
Juice of ½ lime
Pinch of salt

Topping:
1 cup flour
1 cup coconut
¾ cup sugar
½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup cold butter, cubed
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375°. In a large bowl, toss berries with sugar, tapioca, lime juice and salt. Spoon into a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Don’t be afraid to mix or try other fruits too—peaches, raspberries, blueberries, etc. Use a little more tapioca with frozen fruit or expect the juices to be a bit thinner.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, coconut, sugar, pecans, baking powder and salt. Knead in the butter using your fingers. The mixture should resemble coarse sand; avoid overmixing. Blend in egg with your fingers; dough will be sticky. Spread topping over berries in clumps, covering evenly.

Bake for 45–50 minutes or until golden and crisp and filling is thick and bubbly. Place a cookie sheet under the dish during baking to catch spills.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Impressions — Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

2010-03-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a great tasting little cake with a little bit of show. By timing them to come out right when you're ready to serve, you get a mini-volcano of chocolate lava running out of the cake. It's really, really, really hard to screw these up.

1 stick butter, plus more for preparing the ramekins
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate,chopped
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons flour, plus more for dusting

Preheat oven to 450°. Butter and flour four 6-ounce ramekins, tapping
out excess.
Melt the stick of butter with the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler and whisk until smooth. In a medium bowl, beat the whole eggs with the egg yolks, sugar and salt with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and thickened.

Quickly fold the chocolate into the egg mixture along with the 2 tablespoons of flour until just incorporated. Spoon the batter into the ramekins.

Set the ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, or until the sides of the cakes are firm but the centers are still soft.

Let the cakes cool for 1 minute. Run a knife around the edge of each cake, cover with an inverted dessert plate and turn it over. Let the cakes stand for a few seconds before unmolding, then serve.

Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig

2010-03-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!

Gotta confess ... I don't get St Patrick's Day. I just don't get it. First of all, St Patrick was English, which right off the bat makes him a highly unlikely candidate for Irish immortality. And while St Patrick's Day has practically always been a holiday in Ireland, the concept of a parade and the slogan "kiss me, I'm Irish" are completely American. Granted, Irish-Americans make up the second largest ancestral group in this country (after German-Americans), but we're still only talking about 12% of the country. So why don't other ethnic holidays get the same amount of attention? Does anyone remember a particularly rowdy or noteworthy Columbus Day party? Why didn't Fasching catch on around here? Or St Hubbin's Day, where we celebrate quality footwear?

So you have a saint about which very little is known, to whom only 12% of us have a connection, and you have a mostly Catholic holiday that falls in the middle of Lent, and yet, it has endured.

Well, if you're going to celebrate it, you have to celebrate it right. You have to know how to pronounce "slàinte," to start with. (Trick question, as there are at least three correct pronunciations.) You have to know the Latin names for all of Ireland's indigenous snakes. And you have to make something Irish besides pouring a glass of something from the Class VI store.

In no particular order, a couple of redirects. A couple of good corned beef recipes here and here. And a Guinness shout-out here.

And here are a couple of things we've whipped up around here lately. Hoping I'm giving you plenty of time to get the grocery shopping done. Other than nabbing a brisket or some ground lamb, there isn't much you really need that you more than likely don't already have. (And, honestly, ground beef with a little ground pork makes a mighty fine shepherd's pie.)

Irish Soda Bread

The simplest thing to make would be one or more loaves of soda bread. I didn't realize there was controversy around soda bread, but I've recently been informed that quite a few people don't like it. Which doesn't make sense to me, because soda bread is just bread with baking soda instead yeast as the leavening agent. So, technically, soda bread is just bread. Now, you can add raisins and currants and use rye flour or barley flour and all of that, so I guess there are varieties that might not be ones cup of tea. So, just remember, if you don't like raisin bread, don't add raisins. Brilliant, eh?

So your basic soda bread is this simplest of simple recipes, courtesy Mary O'Callaghan from the Ballinalacken Castle Country House and Restaurant, in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. (Found in the March issue of Bon Appetit.)

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup butter, cut into very small cubes
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F. If using a baking stone, pre-heat the stone as well. If using a baking sheet, either line it with parchment paper or lightly butter or grease a 9x9 area in the center of the sheet.
(What happens if you don't pre-heat your stone? Well, this.)

Thoroughly mix both flours, then the sugar, and then the baking soda in 4-6 quart bowl. Add butter and cut in until it is reduced to pea-size pieces. Form a well and add the buttermilk, and then very gently stir until the dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead about 10-12 times until the dough comes together, and then shape dough into 9-inch round. Place dough on your stone or prepared baking sheet. Using a carving or baker's knife, slice a large cross, 1/2 inch deep, all the way across the top of the dough.

Bake the bread for 55-60 minutes. (Note: I halved the recipe and baked it about 50 minutes.) Cool on a rack for about ten minutes before slicing.

Irish Stew and Cheddar Scones

This one takes a good hour and a half, but most of that time is just watching it simmer on the stove, which frees you up to make the scones, clean everything up, and set the table, so once dinner's on, there's nothing to do but sit back and enjoy it all.

Ingredients:
2 pounds stew meat (beef or lamb), cut up into one inch cubes
Olive oil
1 large onion or 2 med/small ones
2 Tbs chopped garlic
2 Tbs tomato paste
1/4 cup flour
One bottle stout or porter beer
4 cups broth — 2 cups beef, 2 cups chicken
Thyme: either a couple of fresh sprigs or a shake or two of dried
*2 pounds potatoes (Yukon works best)
*1 cup carrots
*1 cup frozen peas
*1 cup savoy cabbage

*you won't need these until after the stew simmers for an hour, so you have time to chop it all later

(Adapted from Cuisine at Home.)

Season the stew meat with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven or large pot, brown the meat for 5-8 minutes on med-high in 1-2 Tbs of oil. Move it to a bowl (or a plate, but you want to catch and save any liquid from the meat for the broth) and drop the heat down to medium.

Add a bit more oil and saute the onion for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and garlic, stir well and cook for 2 more minutes, until the paste darkens. Add the flour and stir until everything is evenly coated, and cook for 1 more minute. Then deglaze with your beer, scraping the bottom for a couple of minutes to free up the meat and onion bits from the bottom of the pot.

Most folks will tell you to use a Guiness, but this time I used an Odells Cutthroat Porter. Any dark beer will work, but avoid anything sweet (eg, your vanilla or chocolate stouts).

Once you've deglazed, add both broths, the stew meat and its juices, and the thyme. Simmer for one hour on low heat. (Now you can work on the cheddar scones and clean up a bit.)

Chop the potatoes and carrots. Stir in to the stew and cook for about 10-12 minutes (potatoes should be tender). Cut the savoy cabbage into slices and add with the peas, and cook for 5 minutes more.

The cheddar scones take about 20 minutes to make and 25 minutes to bake, so you can make these while the stew is simmering.

2 1/2 cups flour (up to one cup whole wheat, the rest all-purpose)
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
10 Tbs butter (keep it cold until you need it)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup minced chives
*1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbs water
1 egg whisked with 1 Tbs water

*or water and Saco cultured buttermilk powder

Preheat the oven to 375ºand line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. (Ahh, parchment paper... one of the world's greatest inventions.)

Mix the flour, sugar, baking power and baking soda, and salt. Combine until evenly mixed. (If you're using the buttermilk powder instead of real buttermilk, add that now as well.) Cut in the butter until pea-sized.

(Scott Peacock says to cut in the butter by hand, mashing it and tearing it between your fingers until it crumbles. I tried that but make too much of a mess. And I'm not a huge fan of pastry cutters, because I hate cleaning them. So I use my three dollar, all-purpose utility knife to cut the cold butter into tiny cubes and then mash it with a fork.)

Add the cheddar and chives (or a dash of onion and garlic powder, if you forget to get green onions) and then add the buttermilk and 2 Tbs water. Mix very gently, just until blended. Move the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and pat into a large square, 8-10 inches on a side. Cut in half both ways, and then cut each section in half both ways again. Then cut those squares into triangles. Place on the parchment paper and brush the tops with the egg/water mixture. Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden.

Clean up the kitchen, get back to the potatoes and carrots, and get ready for a slow dinner.

Cheers, and Happy Birthday, Naomh Pádraig!

March 4th: National Pound Cake Day

2010-03-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

The term pound cake comes from the traditional recipe which required one pound each of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Well, not "traditional," I guess, but original. Back in the day when the oven was heated by a wood fire and you used the "seconds to too hot" method of sticking your hand in there to guess the temp, and your measuring cup was the same thing you drank coffee out of. Now we have these newfangled measuring devices, can be a bit more precise, and the recipe folks keep tweaking with things to get them right.

I guess every day is Something Day, if you look hard enough. But pound cake is worth mentioning because cake seems to be one of our more popular desserts and at the same time, one that no one really likes all that much. Everyone gets a birthday cake, not a birthday pie, but does anyone really prefer dried out, flavorless, airy baked dough that needs flavored icings and colorful decorations to get our attention? Does anyone prefer that to one of Grandma's fruit pies? But a pound cake, like it's cousin the Bundt cake, can stand on its own. Maybe on the bronze or silver step of the podium, but still standing nonetheless.

So for National Poundcake Day, how about Elvis's favorite? Simple recipe, just flour, eggs, butter, vanilla, and heavy cream. But in the spirit of Elvis, feel free to spread peanut butter on it and then deep fry it.

Spicy Black Bean Soup with Irish Soda Bread

2010-02-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

There's a band out there that calls itself the Afro Celt Sound System. Founded by members of the Pogues (the sometimes folk, sometimes pop, sometimes punk Celtic band), they blend Irish melodies with West African rhythms to create an always interesting musical hybrid. I think that's sort of why St Patrick's Day is such an endearing holiday. The Irish may not lead the world in any particular industry or art form, but they make for a nice mix in everything they do. It's a culture that is easily incorporated into everyone else's.

As Tim Allen once said, the great chefs of Ireland ... now there's a short list for you. The Emerald Isle might not be known for any truly groundbreaking dishes, but a little bit of it goes well with just about everything else out there.

And the same is true for Mexican fare. You can throw a little bit of Mexican spice into just about any culture's offerings and do quite well, and there's a salsa that will accent just about anything from anywhere.

I was getting ready to make our Spicy Black Bean Soup, and this recipe for Irish Soda Bread leaped out at me. Typically we make some guac to go with this soup, but I didn't have an avocado handy, and hot bread sounded good to dip into the soup and soak up the last bit from the bowl. Irish and Mexican ... two great things that go great together.

And, in keeping with our recent theme, a very economical meal. The soup features one of the all-time great utility players, the chipotle pepper in adobe sauce. You can score a can of these for right around a buck, and you only need 1-2 peppers per dish, so we're looking at 10-20¢ for a major spice upgrade. The soup features about $1.50 in beans, $2-4 in sausage (depending on brand), $1.00 in chicken stock, and pennies for spices, for 5-6 bowls. And the bread costs you about $1.25 in flour, brown sugar, butter, baking soda, and butter milk.

Quick digression ... Mexican spices are one of the great deals I've found in this part of the country. I have no idea whether everything we have in Colorado is available nation-wide, but we are never in want for jalapenos, cilantro, or other produce staples. I can get a 1.5 oz bottle of McCormick's oregano for around $3, or an 8 oz pouch of Mexican oregano for $1.50.

Spicy Black Bean Soup

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1½ teaspoons minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
1 canned chipotle chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 12-ounce package smoky cooked sausage, such as andouille, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons lime juice
¼ cup finely chopped cilantro
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Sour cream and lime wedges for serving

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add onion and cook over moderate heat until softened—about 3 minutes. Add garlic, chipotle chili, cumin and oregano and cook until fragrant, stirring occasionally. Add beans and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Coarsely crush some of the beans using a potato masher.

Meanwhile, cook sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Add sausage to the beans, along with the lime juice and cilantro.
Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 2 minutes. Serve with sour cream and lime wedges.

Irish Soda Bread

I halved the recipe here so that we wouldn't have too many left-overs. The half-size made enough bread for four.

1.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2-3 Tbs of butter, chilled*
1 cup buttermilk**

* put the butter in the freezer until your ready to use it, then slice it into tiny slivers, then rotate and slice again.
** or one cup whole milk with one Tbs white vinegar or lemon juice (mix well then rest for 5-10 minutes)

Preheat the oven to 425º. If using a baking stone, preheat the stone as well. If using a heavy baking sheet, line with parchment paper or lightly grease.

Mix the flours, sugar, and baking soda until uniformly mixed. Add the chilled butter and work it into the flour with a fork until the butter nearly disappears — about half-pea sized pieces. Make a well and mix in the buttermilk, stirring very gently until the liquid is gone.

Pour the dough out onto a lightly floured cutting board or counter top and knead for 10-12 turns. Then shape the dough into a ball about twice as wide as it is tall. Place the ball onto your stone or baking sheet and mark it with an X (any sharp knife will do, about 1/2 inch deep). Bake for about 35 minutes.

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