Return of the Cook

It was a little chilly this past weekend, y'all. It had that snap, that bite, that autumnness about it. I love new seasons and particularly am fond of fall. I mentioned last time that we've had a great grilling season and so many peaceful nights on the back deck, but I miss COOKING. So I kicked off the chill in the air with an impulse-cake, a spontaneously made applesauce spice cake. I have this bundt pan that I acquired, probably at a yard sale, for roughly $1, and every so often the big, heavy, 1978-mustard-yellow thing must be used. So, here we are.

It's not super-apple-y but even still seemed the right thing to make on Rosh Hashanah. I took a recipe and tweaked it a few times over, so it's kind a "choose-your-own-ending" sort of cake (for example, it would be just fine if you skipped the nuts). It's not an extremely sweet cake, which was sort of intentional. I opted not to glaze it, but if you're looking for something very dessert-y you might want to do so. I don't have an enormous sweet tooth and prefer the delicate dusting of confectioners' sugar - plus it looks pretty, y'all. (If you do that, I suggest putting some plastic wrap under the cooling rack to catch all the extra sugar.)

As I mentioned it's not really apple-y, so if you arrived here looking for an apple cake - you can just chop up an apple and mix it in. I encourage Pink Lady apples in baking, but Granny Smith or Honeycrisp would work well too.

Autumn Kickoff Cake

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups applesauce

[*Note: my applesauce was really excessively sugary, which is what made me look for a recipe in the first place - so I reduced the sugar to 1/3 cup of white and 1/3 cup of brown. Adjust per your preferences.*]

1 cup vegetable oil [*I ran out and used half olive oil, which is healthier anyway - can't taste a difference at all.*]
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans [*Important: not huge chunks! They'll overwhelm.*]
sifted confectioners' sugar or vanilla glaze (recipe below)

Lightly butter and flour a bundt pan or a loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar, applesauce, oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour, soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg until well blended. Stir in chopped walnuts or pecans (and apple(s) if using). Pour batter into prepared bundt pan or loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cake for 10 minutes in pan on rack. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar or drizzle with vanilla glaze.

Vanilla Glaze  
(courtesy southernfood.about.com)

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sift before measuring
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, soft
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 to 4 tablespoons milk

Combine all icing ingredients in small mixing bowl. Stir until smooth and well blended. Adjust for spreading consistency if necessary, adding more milk or more confectioners' sugar. Spread icing or drizzle on warm cookies, Bundt cake, or pound cake.

One Last Grill

Friends,

Hello again. The summer is winding down - technically, by the Jersey Shore calendar, it's over already, and the 49 degrees it was when I woke up this morning attests to that. It's been a lovely summer of grilling and growing, but I'm ready for cooking season. "Cooking season?" you say. Yes indeed, readers. The oven goes dormant from late May through, well, about now. So much grilled deliciousness this summer, mostly done be EPH but a little here and there by me.

Which reminds me - did I ever talk to you about the brining of everything else? During one of EPH's trips I felt like grilling, and in a fit of health had purchased skinless boneless chicken breasts. These are not something I generally have on hand as I feel they are generally bland and flavorless. But then somebody said something about brining them, I gave it a try, and just like that -- chicken breasts redeemed! The only lingering question is WHY didn't I do this before???

Why you gotta bug me?

If you're a gardener, by this time in the summer you're probably hitting some pest or illness issues of one variety or another. So far this summer I've dealt with aphids, yellowing leaves on the tomatoes, and Japanese beetles - and dealt with each one with various things I had on hand, no chemicals needed. 

Greetings from the Deck Farm

Time for a garden update! Things are growing along nicely, and each thing is its own little surprise. For one thing, who would have thought that the corn would be the easiest and lowest maintenance?? I have ears coming out now, and while I don't think it's going to be a super high yield (I have seven ears at the moment, assuming all come out in good shape), it's been a fun experiment. 

My zucchini has finally hit its stride -- it had some issues early on and needed various TLC (more on that in the next entry) but now I'm harvesting at the rate of about 3 to 4 per week. Good thing we like zucchini!! 

 

Harvest Season!

So it's been two weeks....and all of the sudden, I have a full blown zucchini that we'll eat with dinner tonight, and four more blossoms popped open overnight! This is one fast-growing veggie. (On a related note, if this rate keeps up I'm going to need recipe ideas...)

We had some weather roller coaster-ing the past week or so - it got cold and rainy for a while, then temps shot back up, and I had some worries about system shock for the Deck Farm. But all plants seem unfazed. Zucchini, as noted, is happy as can be, and the tomato plants are popping out all over the place. I've been pruning aggressively but they're still extremely bushy. We now have actual tomatoes on both plants, though, so exciting news there - I was worried with the crowded pots there wouldn't be enough nutrients, but apparently that's a non-issue. The corn continues to shoot skyward, as well - this morning I realized it was up to my shoulders!

Whoa there, mini-farm

Y'all, the garden has gone haywire.

So for those of you not in the MidAtlantic region: we kind of skipped spring around here. It was cold cold cold chilly nice-for-about-a-minute and then boom, 85 degrees. So be it -- but it seems to have confused my plants. I had growth spurts across the board, but now everything is flowering and I have a feeling I'm going to have produce ahead of schedule. This might not seem so bad, but these plants haven't gotten quite tall enough yet to support the produce so I'm not real sure what I'm going to end up with in terms of crop yield. (Farm lingo, obviously.)

Things a-growin'

So life, as always, got in the way. Lots to report from the garden/kitchen front these days...garden first. 

I decided to go big this year, both in crops and in containers. After years of attempting to grow vegetables in small pots intended for nothing more than flowers and herb bushes, I broke down and bought whiskey barrels this year - well, plastic facsimiles, but what can you do. I then proceeded to....completely overcrowd them. Here's the deal - as I wrote last time, I had bizarrely high seed-to-start rates this year. (That last cherry tomato plant eventually sprouted for a 100% rate.) I then promised the 2 extras of each to my friend so her kids could play in the dirt productively. After THAT I was a flake, forgot about that, and planted all five of each start in the barrels. So to recap: my friend got no starts and my barrels have more plants than they should because I can't bring myself to yank them back out. (Note: the tomatoless friend situation was remedied when my mother found herself in the same situation as me and brought her extra plants over to said friend.)

Another new leaf

I talked yesterday about the revolting winter we had. Now, by God, I'm having spring. I have to believe it will eventually be something other than gloomy/chilly, and to that end I started my first round of seeds inside. 

This year I have probably the largest amount of gardening real estate I've had - and with good sun angles to boot - and am determined to maximize it. Our home, while lacking in legit yard space, has a startlingly large deck, which is both on the southwestern side and elevated away from most critters. The squirrels are an occasional issue but nothing like the deer and rabbits my mother contends with. While we do have our CSA membership for the summer, I want to be able to supplement with things that I know we like, and in a perfect world go to the grocery produce section for only specialty items and certain staples. 

The plan for the deck is ambitious but not, I hope, overly so. For produce, I'll do two kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, and container corn, which I have zero experience with but am intrigued by. Also, a pot of strawberries. I've got lavender and rosemary going inside and will relocate them when things warm up, and have two pots which will hold spearmint and thyme...I think. I'm considering doing two pots of mint, as I use it quite a bit in iced tea during the summer and thyme is such a pain in the neck to grow - and takes so much to get enough to use in a recipe. Maybe, though. I normally grow basil, but I have one of those odd hydroponic basil plants in the kitchen - purchased mid-winter because it was the exact same price as buying a clipped bundle, and I figured I'd see what happened. Much to my surprise, it's growing just fine. It's not visually interesting, or all that attractive, really, but it's there so I may as well let it be for as long as it survives. 

So back to the point. Last Monday, I started my seeds. I use the peat cups so as to not actually have to transplant them, and I generally start twice as many seeds as I want plants. This usually results in about a 70% sprouting rate, and then a few die off and I end up with the right number of actual plants. This year I am hoping for 2, at most 3, plants of each variety of tomato - I'm doing Sweet Cherries and Black Krims - so started five seeds. And all but one Sweet Cherry has sprouted! This is both exciting and daunting. If all the sprouts survive I will have too many starts, and everyone I know around here who gardens grows tomatoes themselves so will have no need for my extras. 

I was puzzling over this yesterday and remembered last summer at the food bank we occasionally had plants to give away. For the most part it was herb plants - basil and the like - but every now and then something else would be there. These plants all were WILDLY popular - gone in minutes. So if my plants are too numerous, perhaps there's a food bank here that may want them -- and on that same note, I'm now thinking maybe I ought to go ahead and plant the remaining seeds too. What do you think, readers? Do any of you have any experience with donating extra plants? 

Gloom, Doom, Diets and Food Security

So....it's been a dreary winter. I moved back east all pumped for snow and frosty mornings, and got...gray. And ice. And one blown forecast after another. Friends, this winter BLEW. And those of you in places that got five times more snow than you wanted, I know you weren't happy either. Meanwhile, Seattle seems to have had the most gloriously sunny winter in the history of time, which the Facebook has informed me of on a daily basis. Do we miss it? Yes. Yes, we do. 

The gloom has led to me wanting nothing but mounds of pasta - but EPH began a dietary change in January that, frankly, has saved me from myself. He has been doing the Whole30 program, and since we eat dinner together that means I have been doing Whole30 dinners, at least in January and March (he cycled off in February, and we were to Europe - so that worked out well for everyone). 

I'm not going to use this space to go pro or con on any diet, much less one that is basically a more extreme version of paleo - which inspires MANY opinions from people one way or another. I will say that in a season when I tend to consume cheesy noodles and chocolate at alarming rates, I was prevented from doing so, and am healthier for it. There are things I definitely do not agree with in this program, though, so am not shilling for it here - but it's been good to be forced into eating mainly whole foods. 

The restrictions of the diet have meant our dinners have been simple - meats or fishes, and vegetables. No sauces whatsoever, so simple searing, steaming, etc, using only seasonings. The rules are also pretty firm about the proteins coming from clean sources. This has meant, in essence, that we have been sticking with organic/free range meats/fishes (the latter wild-caught), and organic produce as well. It has meant that our grocery bill has gone up, and that there is limited - if any - "convenience" food in the menu - although it also means we barely eat out as following this system in a restaurant is basically "a side of steamed vegetables, please, hold the butter sauce." 

I've talked here before about the issue of hunger in low-income communities, but experiments like this really just drive home the point that eating truly clean and healthy foods - and it has been proven that the sourcing of the protein does translate into how healthy it is, in measurable ways like cholesterol and GI effects - is incredibly expensive, often prohibitively so. Yes, there are tradeoffs in every dietary choice - and there are ways to eat healthy on low budgets if you are creative and have access to options - but access is such a huge and under-addressed part of the conversation. We are lucky that we have a terrific grocery store, and that I have a car to drive to it. If my options were corner stores whose produce section is one stray banana, and long bus rides on which food may spoil, the simple goal of eating whole foods, unprocessed, within a reasonable nutrition standard while on a limited budget would be like having a goal of sprouting wings...maybe even more laughable. As we do this Whole30, I have friends who, as a Lenten exercise and fundraiser, are living on a SNAP budget for the month. Needless to say, these two average meals are so far at odds it's hard to believe we're in the same culture, globally speaking. 

This has to stop, y'all. We cannot continue to let this country be a place where people who can't afford or access decent food then end up with health conditions requiring care and/or medications that they also cannot afford or access thanks to subsisting on a terrible diet, which is all that is realistically available. If you've read this far, thanks. I don't have action items for you. I have - and always will - encourage supporting your local food banks, informing yourselves on these issues (I would hope you wouldn't be willing to just take my word for it), and generally remembering that we are only as strong as our weakest neighbor, to tweak the quote. 

Okay, soapbox vacated. Real posts coming again soon. 

Expedited Deliciousness, and no leftovers

I got a new cookbook for Christmas and you all need to go out and get it, stat. I start with a bias here because I've always been fond of Mark Bittman, but his new How to Cook Everything Fast is a whole new level. One of my biggest problems is that I'm just not a speedy chef, and when I make something new or interesting - or even something I've made many times before - we often end up with a later dinner than I'd like. So I was really excited to see this book - he covers many cuisines and basically just simplifies things. The book starts with helpful resources like substitution suggestions, and then he's off and running.

The other night, with snow in the forecast, I was craving Bolognese. Now anyone with a drop of Italian blood knows a decent Bolognese simmers for a good long time, and it was already mid-afternoon by the time I had this idea. So I checked HTCEF, and voila - Spaghetti with Nearly Instant Bolognese. I tweaked the recipe a bit based on what I had on hand and a few other things, but followed his process for the most part. The result, while a stray from traditional, was delicious. Not to toot my own horn...much...but I was kind of impressed with myself. The ingredients are things you mostly have on hand or can sub easily, making this a great late-afternoon-cold-weather-lazy quick dinner.

The slowest bit was the chopping, and Bittman recommends doing that while the meat simmers (or even, if you are already multi-tasking here, just pop them all in the food process for a sec). I chopped ahead of time but that's just my preference and it did add time doing it my way. This, like the baked chicken & squash soup menu from last week, has two things cooking at once so you can adjust a little as you see fit; the pasta is an approximate timeframe and if you're using a thinner pasta you'll want to wait till the sauce is reducing the wine before you put the pasta in the water, then do a quick salad while those two finish off. The cooking was so quick that I didn't get to take pictures, and then it was so good that leftovers went out the window too.





Meg's Nearly Instant Bolognese
Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Fast
Should serve 4...but don't expect leftovers with less people!

Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
Olive oil
~1 lb ground meat (I used turkey because it was there, the recipe suggests meatball meats - beef/pork/veal, so whatever you have on hand should work)
1 small onion or equivalent shallots
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup tomato paste (if you only happen to have, say, a can of diced tomatoes, that's fine too, and particularly with a drier meat like turkey you can use the whole can)
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup of cream (which I didn't have, so used a splash of milk)
Pinch of dried thyme
Dash of cayenne (optional; not enough to make it spicy - just enough to brighten the flavors, and people might not even realize it's in there)

Pasta (shape & size of your choosing)
freshly grated parmesan

Get the pasta water going (don't forget to salt it! This is an overlooked but important step and your noodles will thank you). Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high and add a glug of oil (about a tablespoon or two, not a ton). Once the oil is hot, add the meat and cook, breaking it up with a wood or silicone spoon. While that cooks, trim and finely the carrot, onion, garlic, and celery. As you finish each toss it into the pan to cook with the meat. Once everything is in there, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Once the meat is fully cooked and the veggies are softened (about 10-15 minutes), add your tomato product of choice, and sprinkle with the thyme and cayenne if using. Let it cook for a minute to heat through, then add the wine and scrape the pan as you stir it in. (NOTE: at this point, add the pasta to the boiling water if you are using a thick noodle like a fettucine that takes 10-11 minutes to cook.)

Let the wine bubble and cook until it has reduced (about halfway is the guide Bittman uses). Add your cream/milk at this point and turn the heat as low as it will go so you don't boil the milk. (NOTE: this is when to start cooking your pasta, if using a fine noodle, as you only have a few minutes of cooking left)

After a couple minutes you can turn the heat off under the sauce. Drain your pasta now. Bittman recommends tossing the pasta in with the sauce and serving that way; I prefer to plate the pasta and top with the sauce. Your call. Either way this is the time to add the parmesan, although full disclosure - I put the cheese on the table, and when we tasted the dish it was so flavorful we both completely forgot about the parmesan.

Buon Appetito!

Sunday Suppers: The 45-Minute Edition

(Caveat, because I hate all those 30-minute recipes that have tons of prep time - this could have some prep time. A little planning can offset that, though. Read on...)

So it was 4:45 on Sunday. Rainy, gloomy, dark. A miserable January day, except warmish, which had the odd effect of being more irritating because, well, JANUARY. I didn't want to go out to the store but hadn't planned a thing for dinner. Most nights, I'm good with cobbling something together and seeing what happens, but Sundays...well, it's Sunday Dinner. It ought to be a higher bar, in my opinion. But I wasn't open to going outside, so that left...the freezer. A dark and mysterious place, with many well-intentioned but since-forgotten packets.

And what to my wondering eyes...oh right sorry. January. Habits and all that.

So I poked around and found some forgotten chicken things and some cubed squash from a few CSA pickups ago. I don't know about you all but in the fall we went CRAZY with the squash, roasting it six ways to Tuesday. So that's good and all...but I'm kind of over it. I was feeling like soup, but a low-complication soup. Google to the rescue! I merged a couple recipes, and got this. This soup was flavorful and creamy, but with limited actual creamy ingredients and a relatively short cooking time. The biggest complication, frankly, was waiting for everything to defrost. I made kale chips to pass the time. And full disclosure about the squash: I used both butternut and Hubbard squash, because that's what I had. Delicata might work too, although I think acorn would be too savory. Butternut just sounds better in the title than "Any Squash You Have Soup," don't you think?

The chicken is one of my go-to's - easy, comforting, and aromatic, if maybe not 100% healthy as it basically cooks in its own fat. But whatever. I stuck that in the oven, and made the soup while the chicken cooked. Add a quick salad, and you're done. If you think of this the night before and pull everything out of the freezer, you dodge the only complication. (Yes, this assumes you have squash in the freezer. If you don't and this sounds good to you, keep an eye out for it - you can chop and freeze it raw very easily.) The particular seasoning combination in the soup is just right for January - the allspice and clove have a lingering holiday-ish aroma, but the cumin takes that and gives it an almost Middle Eastern spin to get you out of the rut.

45 Minute Sunday Supper: Baked Chicken Things & Butternut Squash Soup

Chicken:

Bone-in Chicken Thighs (2 per person, roughly)

Seasoning of your choosing

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking dish (like a Pyrex or that depth, not a baking sheet) with foil. Place your desired number of chicken breasts in there - I've done as few as two and up to 6, but it's really more about how many you want and will fit in your dish without crowding them. Generously sprinkle your preferred seasonings on them - I prefer Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt, as it seems to hit all the right poultry notes and is good and salty. I confess to not really knowing what's in it, though. I would think if you wanted something fresher you could use any good poultry friendly herbs, and some salt and pepper. Anyway: coat it, and stick the dish in the oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes (or a few minutes more if you like the skin particularly crispy).

While the chicken cooks...

Butternut Squash Soup

1/4 cup chopped onion [*prep shortcut: shake in some dehydrated minced onion. Works fine with all the liquid.]
~2 1/2 tablespoons butter
4 cups peeled and cubed butternut (or other winter) squash
2-3 cups chicken stock
Generous dash of allspice
Generous dash of ground cloves
Generous dash of cumin
Generous pinch of dried thyme
Something cream-based (in my case, it was about 3 tablespoons of leftover whipped cream cheese and a dash of milk. Got some heavy cream left from a holiday recipe? Dump it in. I'd probably draw the line at eggnog, though...I imagine, since this is more of a texturizer than a flavor add, you could make this healthy fairly easily - maybe some greek yogurt (plain), or even a chunk of ripe avocado. Play with it!)

In a large saucepan or stockpot, melt the butter. If using fresh onions, saute until tender. If using dehydrated: add about half a cup of the stock and the dehydrated onions, and let cook for a few minutes. Add squash, the rest of the stock, and all seasonings. Bring to boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer and cook 15-20 minutes, or until squash is tender.

Add whatever creamy ingredient you've chosen and give it a little stir. Puree the whole thing with a stick blender, leave on a gentle simmer for a few minutes to get back up to hot, and do NOT boil. 

Your chicken and your soup will probably be done at about the same time - but you have flexibility here. The soup can hang out on a low simmer for a few minutes if you need it to, and the chicken can stay on keep warm or even come out and rest while the soup finishes or while you throw together your salad.

Caterpillars in the Sink

I remember one of the first business lunches I had after moving to Seattle years ago. I was enjoying a really lovely salad, and then I looked down and saw...a leaf was moving. A tiny green caterpillar emerged a moment later, and we blinked at each other. (I know, they can't blink, don't be so literal) The server happened to be standing there and noticed this as well, and his response: "well, you know we take our organics very seriously!" And that, dear readers, is how you know you're in the PacNW.

I thought of this tonight as I was cleaning up a bunch of kale to make kale chips. I got a bag full a few weeks ago at our CSA here in Pennsylvania (they have a root cellar and greenhouse so we are lucky enough to access fresh produce throughout the winter), and had been meaning to get to it. The new year, with all those take-on-the-world resolutions, motivated me to do so as part of the cleaning out of the fridge, the inventory of the freezer...you get the idea. Next week: it all goes off the rails. Anyway...

 I chopped and tossed each leaf into a big bowl of water to jump start the rinsing, and as I pulled it all back out to spin dry I spotted a few wee caterpillars, sadly (?) dead and drowned at the bottom of the bowl. (*This also explains the larger caterpillar EPH spotted working its way across the kitchen floor last week...although it poses the new question of how exactly the little guy got out of the fridge. EPH was impressed with the effort.) So yes indeed, organic kale here. Anyhoo, the chips. I attempted them once years ago only to be rewarded with a smoky mess of a kitchen, so have stayed away since, intimidated. But now thanks to the CSA there's much kale in the fridge, and I am determined to waste none of this bounty. EPH's sister was kind enough to share her much-tested recipe, and I am happy to report I have conquered the kale!

It's pretty simple, and the result is thin, crispy, salty, and addictive. All you need is kale, olive oil, and salt. Preheat the oven to 325-350, depending on if your oven tends to run hot or cool. Take your bundle of kale and give it a good rinse (watch out for caterpillars). Slice out the spines, then rip/cut into roughly 2" pieces. Dry, dry, and dry again - wet leaves will not a good chip make. I dried and then threw it in the salad spinner for good measure. Toss it in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil - really work the oil around so it distributes, but don't use a ton. Sprinkle salt and pepper,or whatever spices you want, really, and lay them out on a baking sheet in a single layer. I put parchment under them for good measure, but I'm not sure that's mandatory. Pop the sheets into the oven for about 8 minutes (or closer to 10 if you're using curly kale, apparently). Keep an eye on it, because it will cross from a yummy hint of smokiness to a charred disaster in a quick second. Pull it out, leave it to cool for a few minutes, and then serve! (Or if you are making it for later...put it aside promptly. If you test a piece you'll eat them all.) Be prepared to go through many rounds of baking due to the single layer rule, but otherwise it's super easy. Enjoy!