Easiest Pea Soup Recipe Ever!

Today was another busy day and between school, a visit to the orthodontist, homework, choir practice and confirmation we somehow had to fit in dinner without being able to spend any time in the kitchen. So, I made one of my husband's and older daughter's perennial quickie favorites: pea soup.

I've tried many recipes for pea soup during my married life, adding onions (makes everyone too gassy) or carrots (makes the soup too sweet for my husband), potatoes (to thicken the soup without using flour) and various spices. I honestly do not recall all the different ways we've prepared the soup. What all the experiments boil down to is this: We keep coming back to the same simple recipe that everyone likes best. It can literally be put together in 2 minutes or less. No kidding. If you have a slow-cooker, you can cook my husband's favorite pea soup. It's so simple, a toddler could cook it!

Dan's Favorite Pea Soup

Ingredients:

1-2 smoked ham shanks (sometimes I use 2 smoked pork chops because they're leaner)

2 cups of rinsed green split peas

6-7 cups water

Preparation:

Put everything in a slow-cooker and cook on low all day, or 8-10 hours. Remove ham shanks from soup. Remove all visible fat from the ham shanks and cut meat into small pieces. Mash the peas with a potato masher if you like texture or puree with a blender if you like soup smooth. Add meat and serve.

If the soup is made ahead of time, it can be refrigerated and defatted before serving. It can also be spiffed up by serving it with a nice loaf of crusty bread, a dark rye being my favorite.

Green Beans Asian-Style

I am so excited to have found a new recipe for green beans that is quick to prepare, unbelievably tasty and can be served hot or cold without loss of flavor! AND it's healthy, too!!

Tonight, we prepared a top sirloin steak rubbed with my husband's favorite dried steak seasoning in a grill pan on the stove top because it was just too cold to fire up the grill outside. Although he's been known to grill year-round, temperatures hovering around 0˚F are just too low to be comfortable for grilling outside. So we broke out the grill pan indoors and grilled a very nice steak that we sliced thinly to serve.

We accompanied the steak with about 1 1/2 pounds of fresh green beans that I prepared in a new way. I found the recipe in George Mateljan's book, "The World's Healthiest Foods," and have to copy it here for everyone to see because it is really good. What I like most about this recipe is that it is super-easy to prepare and tastes great hot and cold. Here it is:

Asian-Flavored Green Beans

Steam green beans for 5 minutes.

Combine the steamed green beans with the following mixture:

1 Tbsp. tamari (Japanese, naturally brewed soy sauce)

1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger

1 Tbsp. rice vinegar

1 Tbsp. honey

chopped fresh cilantro (to taste)

sesame seeds (to taste)

There you go. Enjoy!

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce

Just a quick note to revel once more today in the memorable flavors of flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce that Caro and I enjoyed at Muffaletta to celebrate her birthday. We had ordered the Bear Season Special, a menu that consisted of either a salad of field greens or tomato and roasted red pepper soup, spaghetti with meatballs, and for dessert a tiny piece of flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. The meal was excellent, as always, and the chocolate cake was moist and dense like a big truffle. It makes me want to find a recipe for that type of cake, so I can make it at home. Yum.

Milk Rice Morning

With the girls off to school and the kitchen already clean before 8 o' clock in the morning, I have a little time to enjoy a cup of coffee. The boys (our dogs), also known as "the buddies," are lying next to me: little Lenny wedged into the chair with me and big Louie on the floor. It's funny that they always want to be where I am. Somehow, maybe because I spend most of the time with them and do most of the training, I've emerged as their "superhero," and whatever I do, they're right by my side.

In any case, after last night's dinner we had some rice left over, and this winter I have started making milk rice for the kids for breakfast to use up some of the rice we often have left over from Chinese take-out. The girls used to love a bowl of warm oatmeal on cold winter mornings, but for some reason not any more, at least not this winter. I realize serving milk rice for breakfast is like serving them a bowl of pudding, and it is not nearly as nutritious as a bowl of oatmeal, but it doesn't happen very often and makes them smile. How can I resist?

Here's how I made milk rice for 2 servings this morning using left-over rice:

Milk Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup raisins

1 beaten egg

2 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

Preparation:

Heat rice and milk together in a small saucepan until the mixture comes to a boil. Cook for a few minutes until the rice absorbs the milk. Add raisins. In a bowl, beat the egg and add the vanilla and sugar. Now add some of the hot milk to the beaten egg mixture, then pour the egg mixture into the pot and stir. (I find that this prevents curdling.) Cook over low heat until the mixture turns into a custard. Cool slightly and serve.

By the way: if using left-over brown rice, the nutritional value of this meal can be greatly enhanced. Brown rice may absorb less milk, though, so adjust measurements.

Of Dogs and Dinner

Today Louie and I went back to obedience training, where we haven't been since before Christmas. It was good to get back into the swing of things. I'm proud to report that Louie and I haven't forgotten anything, and even learned a few new tricks to practice at home. Working on tricks is good to keep him from getting bored, especially on days when it's too cold to spend a lot of time outside.

On the way home, Louie took a little snooze wedged between the back seats in the car, and I started feeling hungry, so, naturally, I began thinking about food. Lunch was coming up, dinner had to be planned and squeezed in between the dentist, choir and confirmation, I still had a few items in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so driving in the car seemed to be the perfect setting for planning the next meals.

I remembered four perfectly ripe avocados in the fridge and a pint of cherry tomatoes on the counter. The word "guacamole" took shape in my head. This led me to thinking about tacos. Voilà! I planned to stop at the grocer's to get a pound of ground meat, taco seasoning, tortillas, cilantro and parsley. Tacos for dinner would please everyone and make great use of the avocados.

Ready to start cooking, I opened the fridge and–how lucky can a person get in one day?–found two nice pieces of ahi (yellowfin) tuna that I had just bought the day before. How could I have forgotten?! Change of plans, then. Seared ahi tuna, served on a bed of baby greens with a side of Japanese rice, became the plan for dinner. Tacos will have to wait.

I often prepare seared ahi tuna quite simply with just a little salt and pepper rubbed onto the surface of the fish and seared in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat for just 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side. The inside will still be raw. Sliced thinly, about a 1/4 inch thick, it can be served with salad greens, mango-avocado salsa, or dipped into a little soy sauce with or without wasabi.

Today, however, I was looking for a recipe with an Asian-style marinade that I could prepare ahead of time and found one on Simply Recipes. I modified it a little and it was excellent. Here's my adaptation of Simply Recipes' seared ahi tuna:

Seared Ahi Tuna

Marinade 2 8-oz. tuna steaks for at least one hour in a mixture of

2 Tbsp. soy sauce (I like naturally brewed tamari, but shoyu is nice, too)

2 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil

1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger

2 cloves pressed garlic

1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 minced scallion

Preheat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and sear the tuna steaks for 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Slice thinly and serve. See above for suggestions.

Inauguration Day Sticky Buns

I just read in the NY Times that each presidency is marked by "firsts," this being the inauguration of the first black president of the U.S. Well, there's a first happening in our house right now, too, while watching everything that's going on in Washington, D.C. I'm making sticky buns for the first time completely from scratch, using the bread machine to get through the messy part of mixing the dough and letting it rise. Just like the inaugural, the buns are still evolving, and I will update this entry as I'm working along. 

The recipe that I usually make–"usually" meaning once or twice a year–, calls for frozen rolls from the grocery store. It's not a healthy recipe, unfortunately, but it's very easy to make and most people enjoy eating it. This recipe was given to me by a good friend. I believe almost everyone in our extended family has a similar recipe on hand:

Caramel Nut Rolls

Ingredients:

about 15 frozen bread rolls

1 small package butterscotch pudding (the kind you cook, NOT the instant kind)

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans (if desired)

Preparation:

The evening before baking, place the frozen rolls in a greased Bundt pan. Sprinkle pudding mix over the top. Melt butter, mix in brown sugar, and pour mixture over the rolls. Add nuts if desired. Put the pan with prepared rolls into the cold oven overnight and let the rolls rise. In the morning, remove the rolls from the oven. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Bake the rolls for 25 min. (they will get golden on top). Let cool a bit in the pan and flip over onto a plate. Enjoy!

This morning, however, I didn't have frozen rolls or butterscotch pudding in the house, so I searched for a recipe to make the rolls from scratch. Here's what I tried:

Sticky Buns

Add to the pan of the bread machine and process on the dough setting:

1/2 cup water

2 large eggs

2 cups bread flour

1 1/4 tsp. yeast

1 Tbsp. sugar

Roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 18 inches long, spread about 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 cup golden raisins on top and roll lengthwise. Cut the resulting roll into about 18 pieces. Heavily butter a 9x13 pan, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar and drizzle a little honey on top, then spread another 1/2 cup of chopped pecans on top of that if desired. Place the rolls flat side down on top and bake in the oven at 350˚F for about 20-25 minutes. When done, invert rolls onto a serving plate.

I was not very happy with the result. My husband thought the dough of the rolls tasted a lot better than the store-bought frozen rolls and I agree. Neither of us liked the honey flavor, though, it just seemed too pervasive. Also, the rolls were quite small, about the size of a half-cup muffin tin, and instead of just letting the rolls rise for 30 minutes before baking, they may have required a couple of hours. With the help of our neighbors and kids they were all consumed, but I will have to keep looking for a better recipe. Since I don't bake sweet rolls very often, it may take me years to find one. :)

New England Corn Chowder

Just a little over an hour ago I finished a huge 12-quart pot filled with sinfully rich New England Corn Chowder. This recipe has fabulous flavor, but it comes at a high price: the fat content makes it almost prohibitive to enjoy often.

I received the recipe a few years back from my sister-in-law Julie, and it's absolutely delicious. In addition, if you have a child with braces, like I do, this recipe can be puréed in a blender without loss of flavor. My younger daughter, the one with the braces, loves it. It makes a great school lunch, too!

Serve the chowder with a green salad and some crusty bread and you have a nice satisfying winter meal! And if you want to eat two bowls of the soup, go ahead. Just plan on spending an extra hour on the treadmill! : )

No Apple Fritters but Parmesan Spinach Cakes

This was a challenging day. First of all, the temperature was again -20˚F at 7:15 this morning for the fourth day in a row. Not even the dogs wanted to be outside to do their business. Then, after dropping the kids off at school, I swung by the old Donut Hut for the second time this week in search of apple fritters. Because of the deep freeze we're in, I've had a hankering all week for apple fritters, and all I needed were six fritters, four for our family and two for the folks next doors. I got there at 7:38 a.m. and they were already sold out. Big bummer.

At 10 a.m. I had an appointment at the chiropractor and as I backed out of the driveway, my car slid on the ice and knocked over the trash can. Trash hadn't been picked up, yet, and so the can fell over and spilled half of its contents onto the road. Under pressure to get to my appointment on time, I now faced trash on the street. I put on my hat and mittens and started collecting our trash from the icy road… Suffice it to say that I was very frustrated and, unfortunately, in a fit of anger, kicked the garbage can, which made my right toe hurt really bad… I'm sure I made myself the spectacle of the day for the neighbors across the street.

After the chiropractor, things started getting better, though. Caro, whose mother is my cousin, came for tea around noon, and I decided that we needed a little more sustenance than just tea. So I prepared a dish I've been wanting to try for a while: spinach cakes. I found the recipe in Eating Well magazine and thought it might make a really nice little lunch for the girls to take to school some day. Today was the trial run. Caro and I both loved it, and so did my husband who stole a bite or two from my plate, and the only variation one might want to try is to prepare this dish and pour it into a crust, kind of like quiche. (This is Caro's idea.) I like it without crust, however, and think it's a bit healthier that way, too. Here's the recipe from Eating Well, October 2008 issue:

Parmesan Spinach Cakes:

12 ounces fresh spinach

1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese or low-fat cottage cheese

1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan ( I used Romano which is a little more pungent)

2 large eggs, beaten

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Pulse spinach in three batches in a food processor until finely chopped. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add ricotta (or cottage cheese), Parmesan, eggs, garlic, salt and pepper; stir to combine.

Coat 8 cups of a muffin pan with cooking spray. Divide the spinach mixture evenly among the 8 cups.

Bake the spinach cakes until set, about 20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife and turn out onto a clean cutting board or large plate. Serve warm, sprinkled with more Parmesan, if desired.

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Omelette for Breakfast

With a little extra time on my hands this morning, I decided to use the zucchini I found in the fridge before it would turn into an science project. The vegetable was still firm, with no spots of any kind, smelled fresh and begged to be julienned, sautéed and stuffed into an omelette with a little soft goat cheese. It put a smile into my husband's face who had been up since the wee hours, already driven one daughter to school, and worked in the office for an hour. Here's my recipe for one serving:

Zucchini-and-Goat-Cheese Omelette

Ingredients:

butter and olive oil

1/2 medium-size zucchini, julienned

kosher salt

2 eggs (sometimes I remove one of the egg yolks to lighten the dietary cholesterol load and give it to the dogs that are always appreciative of such small gestures of love)

1/2 to 1 ounce of soft goat cheese, crumbled

Melt a pat of butter in a small (8- or 10-inch) non-stick pan, add very little olive oil and sauté the zucchini until it's just softened a bit. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on top of the zucchini while sautéeing it. Remove the zucchini from the pan and place it in a covered bowl to keep warm. Do not wipe the pan clean.

Whisk the eggs together with about a tablespoon of water and pour into the pan over medium or medium-low heat. Wait until the eggs start to set, spread the zucchini on half of the eggs, sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese and fold over. Keep in the pan just long enough for the cheese to warm through and melt. Serve immediately.

Oh la la baguette!

There's nothing quite like a fresh loaf of baguette with it's crisp crust and soft, chewy inside. It's delicious all by itself, but magically transformed into something even better with a little pat of butter. With a good baguette in my hands, I often relive fond memories of a summer spent in France as a student, and find it almost irresistible to keep eating until the whole loaf is gone. Alas, those who know how it is made also know there's very little of nutritional value in baguette. So I seldom make it, but when I do, it is something special to me.

The summer I spent in France, I lived with a family in the Pyrénées near the French-Spanish border. They served baguette with lunch and dinner. Usually, a couple of whole loaves sat in the center of the dining table and everyone broke off a piece of baguette for themselves. It was the best baguette I've ever had… but maybe I'm just getting a little nostalgic here because I've certainly had some very good baguette outside of France, and the recipe I use is nothing to scoff at, either.

I've made baguette for years, experimenting with different flours and baking temperatures at times, but the best baguette is still just made with simple white flour, water, salt and yeast. Trying to make it "healthier" doesn't necessarily make it better. When something tastes good, people are happy, and, in my unscholarly opinion, I'm sure feelings of happiness increase our serotonin levels, lower stress and contribute to better physical health and longevity. I'd bet if researched, my opinion could be supported. : )

Here's the recipe for baguette that I've used for years. It is from one of my favorite cookbooks, called Rustic European Breads from your Bread Machine:

Pain Ordinaire

1 1/4 cup water

3 cups flour (I like bread flour)

2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 tsp. salt (kosher or handcrafted sea salt have a nice flavor)

Put all the ingredients in a breadmaker and process on the dough setting. Afterwards, shape the loaves, let them rest for about 30 minutes, brush the tops with egg wash (1 egg white mixed with 1 Tbsp. water), cut three slits into the top and bake at 450 degrees F for about 20 to 25 minutes. Baguette is best eaten fresh. I like mine almost fresh from the oven. Enjoy!

I should have been Italian

I love Italian food! It's a love affair that didn't start until I studied languages and lived alone in a tiny studio apartment that my then husband-to-be called "the box." The apartment had an even tinier kitchen, so small, in fact, that when I stood in the center and stretched out my arms, I could touch all four walls.

There was a small under-counter fridge and a two-burner on top of it for cooking. A sink and cupboard completed this kitchen. No oven. No microwave. No dishwasher. No room. Needless to say, it was not a place to dream up gourmet meals and execute them. My standard fare during those years consisted mostly of sandwiches because they didn't require cooking and all the makings could be stored in the fridge.

Cooking for friends was always a challenge until the day I realized that, hello!, with two burners I could cook pasta on one burner and sauce on the other one. A tossed salad and a loaf of baguette from the bakery completed the meal. I spent a couple of years of my life entertaining just like that. A simple meal, cooked with enjoyment and eaten with satisfaction, marked the day I embraced Italian food. To this day, without a trace in my ancestry to point to Italy, in my heart I am an Italian cook. I should have been Italian.

My Brother's Birthday Cake

Today was my little brother's birthday and if he didn't live half-way around the world from where I am, I would have made him a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and added 44 self-igniting candles on top that he'd have to continually blow out, just so he'd get a little exercise. :)

I don't think there can ever be enough chocolate for my brother. When he was a teenager, I remember him polishing off an entire 3.5-ounce bar of milk chocolate every afternoon while watching his favorite show on TV and washing it down with 1 liter (a tad more than 1 quart) of whole milk. Yahaah! This, by the way, was just a little snack between lunch and dinner. And the guy didn't even gain an ounce. Go figure!

Here's the recipe for an easy chocolate cake from the depths of my recipe files. I found it somewhere, but forgot to write down the source. My apologies. The recipe can also be turned into cupcakes quite easily, just adjust the baking time:

Chocolate Cake

(Makes 1 round cake and approximately 14-16 cupcakes; double the recipe for layered cake and bake in two round pans.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbsp. vinegar

Preparation:

Mix ingredients together until moist and well-blended. If making a round cake, bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If making cupcakes, decrease baking time to 25 minutes. Frost with your favorite frosting.

My favorite frosting just so happens to come straight out of Alice Waters' book, The Art of Simple Food, p. 386:

Simple Frosting

Ingredients:

12 Tbsp. ( 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and fresh lemon juice. Beat until smooth.

Variations:

Now you can flavor the frosting with 2 ounces of melted, but not warm, bittersweet chocolate, or with 1/2 tsp. lemon, orange, or tangerine zest.

This recipe makes about 2 cups of frosting, according to Alice enough for a 9-inch cake or 24 cupcakes. Frankly, I can only frost about 18 cupcakes max with the amount because I have a mechanical pastry bag with some fancy tips that use a generous amount of frosting in order to cover the cupcakes. They look beautiful, though. Next time I make them, I'll have to take a picture and add one to this post.

Busy days

Today was a really busy day and on days like that it's a real challenge to put a decent meal on the table.

Since my younger daughter already had to be at school at 6:40 a.m. this morning, the kids had cheesy scrambled eggs with buttered toast for breakfast and left-over chili for school lunch. I cut up an orange and half a grapefruit for them to take to school, too. Water completed their lunch box.

My husband had for breakfast what he calls the "chocolate-banana-flax-flax." It's a smoothie made from two scoops of chocolate protein powder, one banana, two tablespoons of ground flax seeds, one tablespoon of flax oil, and one cup of purified water. It carried him through to lunch at one of his favorite Chinese restaurants.

After driving the girls to school and walking the dogs, I took a shower, had an orange, went to the chiropractor to have my lower back and my osteoarthritic toes adjusted and acupunctured, and went to lunch with my husband at one of his favorite Chinese restaurants. I had a cup of hot and sour soup, an egg roll and beef lo mein, which carried me through the afternoon that I spent on our dear daughters' piano teacher's couch, listening to all the upcoming recital and competition songs. We didn't get home until 5:30 p.m. Luckily, I had found four pork chops in the freezer this morning and started defrosting them.

So for dinner I sautéed pork chops and accompanied them with mashed steamed yams. By the way, I will never bake or boil sweet potatoes or yams in their skin any more. For the last year I have always peeled the yams before cooking, sliced them thinly and steamed for 10 minutes until tender. By steaming, they retain most of their nutritional value and you don't have to hold a hot potato in your hands and scoop out the insides after they're done. No more mess! Check out one of my favorite Web-sites for more information on healthy steaming of sweet potatoes and yams: The World's Healthiest Foods.

So that's it for today. Not really exciting, but it's been a busy day and I tried to do my best feeding my family. I know there's room for improvement. Tune in tomorrow–please!

School Lunches

Now that the kids are back in school after the nice two-week Christmas break, it's time again to think about school lunches. Monday's and Tuesday's school lunches were easy: left-over meatloaf and chili from the previous nights' dinners were tasty and welcome school lunch fare for my kids. I always love it when we have just enough dinner left-overs to pack lunches the next day.

There are plenty of days, however, when I need to pull a fresh idea out of the hat, and I like to challenge myself by cooking up what my husband calls "little designer meals." I've been known to stand in the kitchen at 10 p.m. at night, sautéeing chicken strips, so my kids can have chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce for school the next day. They like that and it makes me happy.

I don't even know how and when this all started. When I went to school, there was no school lunch program. The only thing you could purchase in school was milk or chocolate milk. Everyone bagged their snacks and lunch, and that usually meant a piece of whole fruit for a snack and sandwiches for lunch. My mother liked to pack sandwiches using the hearty, whole grain bread better known as "Vollkornbrot" in Germany. You can purchase that type of bread, vacuum-packed and imported from Germany, at many places here. The other day, by the way, in my favorite grocery store, I overheard a woman telling someone how tasty that bread was and her husband chimed in saying, "and it's as hard as a brick!" Well, I'm getting sidetracked here, but there is some truth to what he said. You have to have teeth to eat that kind of bread.

Back to school lunches. When my older daughter was in first grade, "selling" her on taking a home lunch to school took a few marketing skills and some willingness to compromise. Of course, I wanted her to eat home lunch every day, but she loved the idea of pushing a little tray through the lunch line and choosing what she wanted to eat. In my opinion, there were too many overcooked, starchy and sugary foods available, but it didn't matter to her. She wanted to eat the way most of the other kids were eating. So we compromised. Every week I allowed her to pick up to two school lunches and the rest of the time she was to take a home lunch. She circled the two lunch choices on the school lunch menu every week, so I knew on which days to prepare home lunch, and on which days not. This method worked for us, not only with our older daughter, but also for her younger sister, until they approached middle school age.

At that time, they had both grown tired of the French toast sticks, hot dogs, and corn dogs and preferred food from home. I happily obliged, and even though it's challenging at times to create an appealing and nutritious lunch day in and day out, I know exactly what my kids are eating. They still have their lunch accounts at school, too, and will occasionally ask if they can get an a la carte item, such as a bag of chips or an ice-cream sandwich. I always say, "yes," to those requests because I know what they have in their lunch box and believe that always being denied some unhealthy foods will make those items even more desirable. I'd rather my kids get an occasional "fix" and avoid overdosing when unhealthier food options are suddenly available.

I should create a category on the blog just for school lunches because it's nice to have some tried and true combinations to fall back on. We've always called our older daughter the "long-neck" (that reference goes back to all the Littlefoot movies we watched when she was young) because she's definitely our "leaf-eater," preferring vegetarian food options most of the time. Her sister, on the other hand, has been labeled the "sharp-tooth" because it's all about meat for her. She needed a lot of training to eat her greens!

It's a Chili Morning

I just returned from dropping the kids off at school and, after having driven for almost a half hour, the car still didn't get warm. It's a frosty morning with a clear sky, -2 degrees F, but it feels like -14 degrees according to the weather service. The sunrise was beautiful. As I looked to the east and my younger daughter commented on how the orange glow of the rising sun made her feel even colder as she looked at it through the barren branches of the trees we were passing, I felt a shudder going up and down my spine, too, and thought it's a chilly enough day to have chili. Dinner is saved!

Now I have to say that I didn't grow up knowing what chili was. My mother never cooked it. I remember once ordering chili at our family's favorite Argentinian steakhouse simply because it was on the menu and I was curious about it. But the server gave me a long look, and asked, "Chili?" as she crinkled her nose, so I reconsidered and settled for a filet mignon, a choice she happily approved of.

Then I moved here and everyone seemed to really love chili. Still, I had no clue what it was (something with beans?) or how to prepare it. That's when I discovered a little brown package in the grocery store's spice aisle that contained assorted chili spices and a number of recipes for preparing chili printed on the back. I read it and knew I could follow those directions. Bingo. Chili from a bag. We made chili like that for years. It tasted okay.

But then came the time for true chili revelation. As I power-walked my way to a slimmer waist on the treadmill one day, I watched FoodNetwork's Ellie Krieger prepare a healthy chili. It sounded good and seemed easy to prepare–I was all over it. THAT recipe became the new standard in our house for what chili could truly be. The only change I made to her recipe is that instead of using ground beef, I have always used ground bison/buffalo. It is a good chili recipe, quick and easy to prepare. Click on the link to see the recipe for yourself. It's what I'm gonna cook tonight!

Perfect Brownie Memories

Just returning from a happy place: the memories in my head, left there a while ago by the most delicious, moist, almost fudgy chocolate brownie my niece made for Christmas. It was densely studded with chocolate chips and every bite had a delightfully smooth texture and was a chocolate flavor explosion–very satisfying for the serious chocolate afficionado. Served with a scoop of fine vanilla bean or mint chocolate chip ice-cream, it made you feel as if you'd gone to heaven and come back. Happy memories. Yum. 

This makes me wonder, actually, if the recipe is a big secret or if she'll part with it…? I will most certainly have to check on that!

Fridge Cleaning Continued

Today's breakfast was another meal to clean the fridge. I found 3/4 lb. of fresh asparagus, already washed and trimmed, 5 eggs, and a little grated cheddar and decided to make a frittata. I didn't think the meal would be anything special, and it wasn't, but, nonetheless, it was pretty tasty.

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. fresh asparagus, cut into chunks

a little chicken broth

a little olive oil

couple dashes of kosher salt

5 eggs beaten with 1-2 Tbsp. water

2 handfuls grated cheddar cheese

Here's what I did: 

I first cut the asparagus in chunks, about 1 1/2 inches in length, and sautéed them in a little chicken broth and olive oil over medium heat. I seasoned the asparagus with a little kosher salt, and when the asparagus was sautéed enough to be al dente, I spread it evenly on the bottom of the pan, added the beaten eggs and sprinkled a couple of handfuls of grated cheddar cheese on top.

When the bottom of the egg mixture was set, I moved the pan into the oven and broiled it until the top was set, too. The frittata made four servings and everyone at the table liked it. Another successful meal from the top of my head. : )

A Fridge-Cleaning Meal…

… has got to be the meal du jour! I will have to take a peek to see what's in the fridge, probably move a couple of containers out, around and maybe even, gasp!, open. We'll see how much of what there is to make a meal and, with an ounce of inspiration and a dash of creativity, I may come up with something.

I'll be back. Stay tuned.

For BREAKFAST I found an apple, an orange and a banana and added them with a cup of purified water to the Vitamix and turned into a smoothie what used to be my mom's favorite fruit salad combo. It lacked something in flavor, probably because the water diluted the flavor of the fruit too much, but at least it was healthy, and with almost 10 g of fiber in it, it will not just clean out the fridge… : )

For LUNCH, well, everyone sort of had what they liked: a sandwich (turkey & avocado on oatnut bread), leftover bison patties with coarse-ground mustard and salad greens, whole grain crackers with cheese, lentil soup.

DINNER was almost exciting: I found a 2-lbs. mix of ground meat (beef, pork and veal) in the fridge, half a bunch of fresh parsley, a 1 1/2-lbs head of cabbage and 4 ounces of gruyère. So, the first thought was to make stuffed cabbage rolls, but since they're supposed to be better reheated the next day, I scrapped that idea and settled for meatloaf and a cabbage gratin. Both were great. I didn't make my usual recipe for meatloaf, but instead consulted the Joy of Cooking. Their classic meat loaf contained fresh parsley and turned out to be great. Here's the recipe adapted from the Joy of Cooking, p. 722:

Classic Meat Loaf

2 lbs. meat loaf mixture (equal parts of ground beef, pork and veal)

1 medium-size finely chopped onion

1 cup quick-cooking oats

2/3 cup ketchup

2/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley (I used Italian parsley)

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Knead everything together, either with your hands, or, if you're like me and don't like to get your hands into the meat mixture, with a European-style potato masher (see picture to the left), until everything is well blended. Put into a 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 hours.

I served this meat loaf with a cabbage gratin from the same cookbook, refer to page 355. My husband doesn't care much for creamed cabbage because it always begs for salt and more salt to make it tasty. So, since I had a nice chunk of gruyère cheese left, I opted for the cabbage gratin, thinking that all the added cheese would take care of the bland taste of cabbage and make the dish more flavorful. I was right! Even the kiddos loved the dish. So here's the recipe for those who don't own a copy of the Joy of Cooking:

Cabbage Gratin

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and butter a 2-quart gratin dish and sprinkle the bottom with grated parmesan cheese to cover.

Bring to a boil about 4 quarts of water with 1 1/2 Tbsp. salt and add and cook for 5 minutes:

6 cups of shredded cabbage (about 1 pound)

Drain cabbage. Whisk together in a large bowl:

2 large eggs

1 cup of milk or light cream (I used 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup whole milk)

1/2 cup grated Gruyère cheese

1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I totally forgot this ingredient–didn't miss it!!)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds, toasted (totally omitted, because dear hubby doesn't like caraway)

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

Add the drained cabbage, pour into gratin dish and cover top with:

1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Gruyère cheese.

Bake until golden on top, 40-50 minutes.

The meatloaf and cabbage gratin were great–easy to make and flavorful. To round the meal out, we added a baked potato for those who needed more sustenance. All-in-all, a great fridge-cleaning day!