MamaPie

Stir Fry

Stir-fry usually gets a bad rap in my mind. Mostly because of the memories of stir-frys (fries?) my roommates and I used to make all the time in college, which consisted of an enormous wok filled with pounds of pasta, frozen corn, frozen peas and maybe some broccoli (not frozen). Sometimes there were some chicken "tenders" thrown in and it was all tossed around with alot of oil and alot of "soy sauce". I can get a stomach-ache just remembering the sheer quantity of it we all ate.

But, thanks to a recipe in Terry Walters' Clean Food, stir fry has received a new lease on life, in my cooking repertoire. I don't think it's legal for me to write out the whole recipe here, but here are the things I gleaned from this recipe that I will be adapting into other stir-fries down the road:

• Walters recommends boiling up udon or soba noodles a few hours ahead of time, rinsing them with cold water when they are done and keeping them in the fridge until it's time to put together the rest of the stir-fry. This helps you avoid the problem of a mass of noodles all sticking together in the middle of your wok or frying pan.
• I like her method of stir-frying the garlic, ginger and veggies first (I have been adding some protein in the form of chicken or beef), with half of your marinade sauce, and then, after transferring those to a bowl, stir-frying the noodles in the other half of the sauce. This helps everything to get evenly coated with sauce.

I recommend Clean Food for so many of it's good recipes--each one I try is great and I am slowly working my way through it. It is arranged seasonally and with this stir-fry I am cheating a little (a case of wishful thinking): it's in the Spring section. So, happy (early) Spring & happy stir-frying!

On my Stovetop & In my Oven

What have you been cooking lately?

Around here, I have been doing my usual ratio of mostly old favorites (or old "easy's") with a few new things now and then. As always, there is lots on my "list" of what I want/hope/wish to cook, but, as always, reality doesn't often match up one's pinterest boards!

Old favorites include salmon cakes (I use Mark Bittman's recipe from  How to Cook Everything, with a little less onion, and a little more mustard and an extra egg), meatloaf, nutburgers (from Feeding the Whole Family), various soups and kale salad.

The new thing I've made recently that has my mouth-watering just remembering it is this. It was just the perfect blend of salty and sweet. Also, in the non-food category of cooking, I've been making elderberry syrup all winter long. I've only been introduced to the (supposed) wonder of elderberries this year, so I'm giving it a go. I say "supposed" because, with the exception of A., we've all been sick quite a bit this winter. I've used various recipes, but they are all pretty similar. Today, I'm using this one.

Hoping it's a good winter in your kitchen!

Summertime in the Kitchen

Each season, I discover a few new things to cook and I make them pretty frequently. If I'm lucky, I remember them the next year and they become the constants while I discover a few more new-er things.

Rhubarb vinaigrette and strawberry-rhubarb crumble are the frequently made things this summer. The vinaigrette ranges in color from pink-tinged yellow to full out pink, based on the pinkness of the rhubarb. Besides being pretty, it is sweet and tangy and delicious. So delicious in fact, that Ezra ate his first plate full of salad, mostly, I think, because it had this dressing on it.

We've also been making lots of smoothies in the VitaMix. Out standard is: banana, frozen mango, ice, coconut butter and yogurt - totally delicious and I especially how the ice and mango freeze the coconut butter into little creamy chunks. We've added two new smoothies into the rotation this summer. They are a green smoothie with: banana, pineapple, ice, water and kale and a peanut butter banana one with: banana, peanut butter, honey and lots of ice. The peanut butter banana one is so good I'm thinking of freezing it and calling it ice cream.

I hope to add a few more "keepers" to the repertoire this summer. I'll keep you posted if I do!

Bye Bye to Convenience...

Once again, I've learned to make something on my own and now the pre-packaged ones are ruined for me. Our easy dinner of (packaged) tortillas, (pre-made) beans and cheese burritos has will now be a little less easy. But alot more delicious.

Last night I made tortillas. yum. I used the recipe from the Rebar cookbook, which I am still loving alot. The only modifications I made were to use 5 tbs unsalted butter instead of vegetable shortening, to make the dough in the food processor and to cook them in my cast-iron skillet with no oil (recipe calls for oiling the frying pan). I also used all white flour, because I was out of whole wheat. We had some friends over to celebrate Andrew's 40th birthday, which is tomorrow. I made a platter of stuff to put in the tortillas: shredded chicken, steamed asparagus, carrots and red bell pepper and made an citrus-soy sauce dressing to top it all off. It was really good, although the tortillas definitely stole the show; everything else was just there because I couldn't really put out only tortillas for dinner and because we all need a little bit of protein.

Tortillas (slightly modified from Rebar Cookbook):

ingredients:

1 1/2 c. unbleached flour

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. white sugar

1 1/2 baking powder

1 tsp. salt

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 10 pieces

3/4 c. hot water

1. Mix first five ingredients in bowl of food processor. Add butter and process until little pea-sized balls form.

2. Gradually add hot water through feed tube while processing.

3. Turn out dough onto floured surface and knead for a few minutes. Form into ball and place in clean bowl, cover and set aside for an hour.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with flour. Break off golf ball sized pieces of dough, roll into balls (I made 10) and place on baking sheet. Cover and set aside for another hour.

5. On a floured surface, press out each ball and roll out disk to form an approximate 8" round (mine were pretty irregularly "round"). Put each tortilla on a piece of parchment paper and stack them up.

6. Heat cast iron skillet to medium-high and cook tortillas one by one. Flip over when bubbles form. I cooked each one for about a minute per side. I wrapped them in foil and kept them in a 200 degree oven until it was time to eat.

This morning we went and bought Andrew a plug-in drill for his birthday, which is a perfect present that Ezra came up with by himself. One rainy day, a few months ago, he was sitting in the living room looking out the window for awhile. Then, he got up, came into the kitchen and told me that he'd just thought of what we should get Papa for his birthday. It's something only Ezra would know that Andrew needs, as they do woodwork and house repairs together, and Ezra said that Andrew is always frustrated by the rechargeable drill losing it's charge so quickly.

Busy Kitchen

I've been spending lots of time in the kitchen lately and, surprisingly, much of that time has been spent cooking new things!

Most of the good eats have come from this cookbook. I check out hordes of cookbooks from the library (what? you don't like to read cookbooks in bed at night?) to vet them before I decide about actually buying them. Well, the Rebar cookbook is due to arrive in my mailbox today, and that's a good thing because the library copy is in danger of getting completely food-stained/well-loved as I've been using it daily. It's rare that a cookbook inspires me so quickly to begin trying out recipes (the last one that had this effect on me was Clean Food), but I could hardly fall asleep the first night after beginning it, so excited was I to get in the kitchen and try out some of the fantastic/delicious/interesting sounding recipes.

And, since I got in that kitchen a few days ago and began working my way through the recipes, I have not been disappointed. I made granola for the first time: the recipe says that the huge batch of granola it yields will keep for one month - it's all gone over here 3 days later. The thai basil tofu with peanut sauce was restaurant worthy (which, for me at least, is saying something when it comes to Asian food) and the citrus cake, which we renamed Sunshine Cake in honor of this sweet book, is light and perfect for those of us anxiously awaiting sunshine.

And, spending lots of time cooking is also a good task for those of us waiting for Spring to arrive and stick around. So that's where I'll be.

Meal Plan for the Week of 2/6

Monday: Meatloaf, rosemary roasted potatoes, Andrea's kale salad

Tuesday: Navy bean soup, bread that Ruby and I make at our parent-child class

Wednesday: Bring something in

Thursday: Pan-fried hazelnut chicken, brown rice noodles, broccoli

Friday: Chicken soup with lots of veggies, challah

Let's see if this works out better than last week. What are you eating this week?

Meal Planning meets Reality

Okay, so here was the meal plan and here was how the meals really went:

Monday: We went out to dinner to Palenque (PDX peeps: this place is delicious - their guacamole is the best I've ever had and their burritos are so flavorful). I spent about an hour making the Goodness Soup from Clean Food, which then needs to simmer for three hours. I left Andrew on soup turning off duty and guess what happened? Yep. So, no soup.

Tuesday: I made the dal from culinate. It was really good over brown rice and with a bigsalad. I added a sweet potato and left out the ginger (because I didn't have any).

Wednesday: Andrew teaches late on Wednesdays, so it's a long evening. Nothing that a little Burgerville take-out can't help.

Thursday: I had a great night out with my friend Julie. The food was delicious at Vindalho.

Friday: Tonight we'll have grass-fed flanken ribs in Hawaiian sauce with white sticky rice and sesame green beans. (And challah).

I hope to have better luck sticking to the meal plan next week. I'll keep it updated here.

Meal Plan for the Week of 1/31

My meal planning has really gone out the window lately, but this week I'm going to attempt to revive this way of scheduling that always frees up some daily brain space, cuts costs and cuts down on grocery store visits. As I'm feeling in a bit of rut with my cooking these past few weeks, I'm going to try quite a few new things. Here goes:

Monday: Red Lentil & Winter Squash Dal

Tuesday: Andrea's Chicken Soup - this recipe isn't on her website, but lots of other delicious ones are.

Wednesday: Andrew teaches on Wednesdays, so I usually pick something up for me and the boys. Or maybe we'll have leftovers.

Thursday: Meatloaf (with the delicious grass-fed beef we get through Know Thy Food) and salad with maple-apple dressing from Clean Food.

Friday: Shabbat Dinner: Salmon with balsamic-pomegranate glaze from the current issue of Cook's Illustrated, challah and roasted brussel sprouts.

Alright, I'll report back at the end of the week on how this all went. See you then!

Fall Soup

Each Fall, it seems, I have a new soup that I make again and again. This Fall is turning out to be the season for White Bean, Red Pepper & Sundried Tomato Soup. After tasting it's deliciousness as a sample at New Seasons, I picked up a recipe card and have now made it twice, each time tweaking it a  little differently.

So, here's my recipe, with all credit to New Seasons market for coming up with the basic template.

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

2 boxes Pacific Foods chicken broth (first time I just used water with bay leaves and that was just fine, too)

bit of olive oil

sundried tomatoes in oil

roasted red peppers (I bet non-roasted would be good, too)

orzo (or, if you can find them, little stars)

2 15oz. cans Cannellini beans

salt, pepper, oregano

Saute the minced onion and garlic in a little oil for a few minutes with oregano and salt and pepper. Add the broth (or water and bay leaves) and sundried tomatoes (drained of their oil). Bring to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Add the orzo/stars,  peppers and beans and let simmer for about ten minutes. I like to let it sit a few hours before devouring eating, preferably with a big salad and bread and butter.

Apples All the Time

We have lots of apples in our kitchen these days. Between the twenty pound box of Fujis on our counter and the gallon of apple cider in our fridge, we have no excuse for getting sick this Fall, as we're all eating much more than one measly apple each day.

I've been making Ezra and Reuben various kinds of cooked apples, which they absolutely love. I make them baked: with butter, cinnamon and salt in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes; sauteed: in a heavy frying pan, again with butter, cinnamon and salt and boiled: with a little water and cinnamon, which makes kind of a chunky applesauce. All of these versions taste great with some plain yogurt or on top of oatmeal.

On Sunday, we made these apple cider donuts. They were a really fun, multi-part project: first we needed to go to the store to buy a donut cutter, then we needed to reduce the cider, then make the dough, let it freeze, cut out the donuts, let them chill, fry them up and then, the crucial last step, roll them in cinammon sugar. Only the reducing the cider and the frying parts were "Mama only"; the rest were great for little hands. And the eating of the donuts was definitely good for little bellies and big bellies alike!