Fish Stew

An Italian restaurant we visit occasionally serves a delicious fish stew called zuppa di pesce. It's chockful of salmon, shrimp and scallops that swim in a sea of flavorful broth that beckons to be soaked up with crusty bread. Since I've been spending a major part of this week serving leftovers from last weekends party and I still had more than a pound of already poached salmon in the refrigerator, I decided to make my own version of fish stew to use the fish before it turned bad. I added a bag of frozen shrimp and a bag of frozen scallops that I had in the freezer and, even though fresh always tastes better, I thought a stew would be a tasty way to prepare the frozen and the already poached seafood.

My brother-in-law Tim recreated his own version of the restaurant's fish stew a few years ago and it is delicious. I had his recipe and another one from a cookbook to get me started, but ultimately I had to use what I had on hand. The resultat: really good! So here's the recipe:

Fish Stew

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 lb. mushrooms, sliced

1 cup onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-1 1/2 lbs. salmon, poached

8-oz. bag of frozen shrimp

12-oz. bag of frozen scallops

1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes

2 14-oz cans chicken broth

1 cup dry white wine

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried basil

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Heat butter and oil in a 4-6 qt. large pot over medium high eat. Add mushrooms, sprinkle several pinches of salt on top of mushrooms, and sauté for a few minutes. When the mushrooms start drawing water, add onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender. Add salmon, shrimp and scallops and stir. Add diced tomatoes with juices, chicken broth, wine, oregano, basil and pepper. A couple of good cranks with the peppermill will be fine. Bring mixture to a boil and immediately turn down heat to a low simmer. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until flavors have blended. If using fresh fish, simmering the stew may be increased to 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

Suggestion: Our Italian restaurant–and my brother-in-law Tim–also add fresh chopped asparagus to the soup. That is really good. If you choose to add asparagus, just cut fresh spears into 1 1/2-inch chunks and add to the soup during the last 10 minutes of simmering.

Cinco de Mayo

Today is Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that commemorates the Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Even though I've heard that it's a day not celebrated in all parts of Mexico, here in the US it is also a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.

In our family, no one even has a stitch of Hispanic heritage in their bloodline, but–always looking for inspiration for what to cook for dinner–Cinco de Mayo translated in my head into tacos, salsa, and guacamole. So we cooked some Mexican food for dinner tonight.

I have to admit up-front: Mexican food is not my favorite. I will eat it in a pinch, but when hungry, Mexican is not what comes to mind. Mostly because I didn't grow up with it, and, no matter where I've eaten it, Mexican food has usually struck me as an over-sized plate filled with overly cooked and mashed foods, doused with enchilada sauce and melted cheese. A picture of yellow, brown and red–not exactly pretty.

However, when we make tacos at home, I absolutely love them. I also love all the accompanying dishes, such as salsa and guacamole. So, for the record, I'm going to share our favorite (MY favorite) Mexican dishes with our favorite trimmings. I have absolutely no idea how authentic our recipes are, but suffice it to say that I love 'em, and they look beautiful because they're vibrant and colorful and not covered under a layer of melted cheese.

Tonight we made shrimp tacos with mango salsa and guacamole. It was a terrific meal with fabulous flavor. It took a while to prepare because washing all the veggies and chopping them up takes time. But the result was well worth the effort. Here are the recipes:

Shrimp Tacos

Ingredients for 4 servings:

1 lb. shrimp, preferably uncooked

butter

fresh garlic, minced

cayenne

cumin

lemon pepper

salt

soft shell tacos

Preparation:

Sauté shrimp in butter with garlic. Sprinkle with a little cayenne pepper, cumin, lemon pepper and salt. Shrimp are done when opaque. Serve with warmed soft taco shells.

Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

1 mango, diced

1/2 cup diced cucumber

1/3 cup red onion, diced

1 jalapeño, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

juice of 1/2 lime (about 1+ Tbsp.)

a couple of dashes red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and let stand, in the refrigerator, for 30-60 minutes before serving.

Guacamole Calabas

(This recipe is from Marilyn Diamond's The American Vegetarian Cookbook from the Fit for Life Kitchen)

Ingredients:

2 green onions, minced

1 large garlic clove, minced or pressed

1 large tomato, minced

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

1/4 cup minced cilantro

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. chili

Cayenne to taste

4 ripe avocados, peeled, seeded, and mashed (approximately 2 cups)

Salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation:

Chop all vegetables by hand or use a food processor, to process ingredients in the order given, using the steel blade. Yields 3-4 cups.

Tip: We like our guacamole a little chunky, so I usually mash the ingredients with a fork or a potato masher. If completing the guacamole in the food processor, use the pulse setting only and scrape the bowl frequently, otherwise it's easy to over-process.

To serve, we layer a sprinkling of grated cheddar cheese, shrimp, guacamole and salsa and top the taco with chopped fresh cilantro and a drizzle of salad dressing (optional). Enjoy! This is really good stuff.

One More Pot Roast…

One more rainy day this week, perfect for one more little pot roast before summer beckons with lighter fare. At least that's what I thought today, realizing the pot roast my daughter Emily and I had bought at the grocer's a few days ago should be turned into a hearty dish no later than today.

Trying to keep the dish simple, I worked with what I had in the refrigerator and the pantry: onions, carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper, and … a little red wine.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive or canola oil

1 pot roast, 3-3.5 lbs.

2-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 large sweet onion, cut into chunks

1/2 cup red wine

6 large carrots, peeled, sliced length-wise, and cut into 2-inch pieces

Preparation:

Season the roast with salt and pepper from all sides. Heat oil in a heavy pot, such as a Dutch oven, that can be placed into the oven if you decide to finish the roast in the oven rather than on the stovetop.

Brown roast from all sides for a few minutes. Remove roast from pot. Add cut up onion and garlic and place the roast on top of everything. Add red wine. Cover the pot with a lid and reduce the heat to a very low simmer. Simmer for about 3 1/2 hours, flipping the roast once. About 30-40 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the carrots to the pot.

When the roast is done, remove and set aside on a cutting board and cover with foil. Remove the carrots and put into a bowl for serving. You can strain the gravy, but I decided to take a potato masher and mash the onions into the gravy. No thickening of the gravy was required.

Serve pot roast, carrots and gravy with boiled, salted potatoes. Yum. This was a good dish. Simple ingredients and no-fuss cooking produced a delicious, comforting dinner on a rainy day.

My Favorite Spaghetti Sauce

When I was a kid, I loved the days my mom would cook a noodle dish. Unfortunately, this didn't happen very often. While my dad and I loved noodles and–to a degree–rice, my mom and my brother were potato people when it came to starches. So since my mom was the eminent cook, we had potatoes served with a dish at least once a day. Noodle and rice dishes, however, were extremely rare. So rare, indeed, that I don't even recall what sort of sauce the noodles were served with. Rice was usually served with chicken soup. I think that was pretty much it.

As a student I finally discovered Italian restaurants near the university where I studied that served an incredibly tasty bowl of pasta for a price I could afford. One of my favorite restaurants was called "Roma" and it served both Greek and Italian food. The restaurant is still around, and, as a matter of fact, the last time I went to Germany, we all celebrated my brother's 40th birthday at the place with great food–just the way I remembered it.

In my husband's family, noodles–elevated here to "spaghetti"–were a more favored dish than in my family. So from the start of our marriage, there were automatically days that were designated as "spaghetti sauce" days. Making a tasty sauce to ladle over bland noodles all of a sudden seemed to be the height of good home-cooking. Between the two of us, my husband and I have made a ton of spaghetti sauce recipes, and even though the ingredients have varied, we both agree on one thing: a good spaghetti sauce needs to simmer for a long time over very low heat.

Now this is a busy week for our daughter Emily. It's tech week at the opera with 4 1/2-hour rehearsals every evening, opening night this Friday, and two performances on Saturday. She's very excited to be in an opera and sing on stage, but organizing her regular school-homework-piano life around the rehearsals is going to be challenging. Equally challlenging will be to get dinner on the table on time.

To get us all well-fed through the week, I figured I'd make at least one dish that makes a large amount and keeps well. That way I don't have to cook from scratch every day, and can pull dinner together in a matter of minutes. So today I made spaghetti sauce the way my husband likes it: thick and chunky and full of meat with a depth of flavor that only comes from long simmering over very low heat. It's a recipe that started many years ago with a recipe from an Italian cookbook, but it has undergone so many changes and revisions that it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original. I can honestly say this is my recipe:

Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. butter

1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large carrot, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 lb. mild Italian sausage (or try hot Italian sausage for a little extra zippy flavor)

3-4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 6-oz. can tomato paste (I know it's a lot–don't be shy!)

1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes with basil

1 -14-oz. can tomato sauce

1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained

1-2 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Heat oil and butter over medium heat in a large, heavy pot, such as a Dutch oven, if you have one. Add the onions, carrots and celery and sauté until all the ingredients are well mixed. Cover pot and let veggies soften for a few minutes until the onions become translucent. Don't forget to stir a few times.

2. Remove cover and turn heat to medium-high and add meat, breaking it up with a spoon. Brown meat until it is no longer pink, stirring from time to time.

3. Add garlic and mix in.

4. Add tomato paste and mix in. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, basil and oregano, a little salt and pepper to taste. Mix ingredients well. If the sauce appears too thick, you may add 1/2 to 1 cup of water at this point.

5. Simmer sauce on very low heat for at least an hour or two, stirring occasionally. It really helps to have a stove with a dedicated simmer setting, but if your stove doesn't have one, use the lowest heat possible on your stove and stir the sauce more often.

Serve this sauce with your favorite pasta. In our family we all like spaghetti with it. Top it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or some Romano, which is a little more pungent. To round out the meal, add a simple green salad and a loaf of baguette.

Kohlrouladen or Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

There is European deli in downtown Minneapolis called Kramarczuk's that sells a vast array of sausages and also serves Eastern European lunch fare in its adjacent restaurant. Almost every Saturday at around 2 p.m. when I pick up Emily at the opera center, I will inevitably hear her ask me if we can eat there. So sometimes we do. Some of our favorite foods at the restaurant are the pirogies and the stuffed cabbage rolls. To me, the cabbage rolls simply taste like my mother's.

Since we've had a couple of cold, rainy days and the grocery stores are still filled with cabbages because they're in season and we just had St. Patrick's Day, I decided it would be fun to try cooking stuffed cabbage rolls, a dish my mom regularly made in the cold weather season, but that I have never tried. The tricky part was to find a recipe that would bring back the exact taste and texture of my mom's Kohlrouladen. Since I don't have her recipe–she never wrote it down, but just made it–my memories had to serve me as a guide to the ingredients and for quantities, techniques and cooking times I consulted other people's recipes.

Frankly, it took me a great deal of time today to make stuffed cabbage rolls because I haven't eaten my mother's dish for a very, very long time, and this was my first-ever attempt at making them. But as I started preparing the cabbage leaves, the memories kept coming forth and soon I had all the information I needed for a recipe. In the end, I had a very tasty dish that was authentic and put me right back into my mom's kitchen. The following recipe is enough to make 4-6 servings and can easily be doubled.

Kohlrouladen or Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients:

For the cabbage rolls:

1 large cabbage (white, green or Savoy)

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1 cup diced onion, sautéed in a little olive oil until translucent

1 egg

1/2 cup cooked rice

1 tsp. kosher salt

freshly ground pepper

For the sauce:

1/2-1 cup diced onion

remaining cabbage (after leaves are removed), chopped

kosher salt

olive oil

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 cup water

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Preparation:

To prepare the cabbage, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cut the core out of the cabbage. Place the whole head into the water and cook for about 5 minutes, just long enough to soften the leaves and make peeling them off easier. Remove the cabbage from the boiling water and gently peel away its leaves. Set the peeled off leaves aside and let dry for stuffing. There should be at least 12 to 18 cabbage leaves. Per cabbage roll I like to take 2-3 leaves, depending on size.

Chop the remaining part of the head of cabbage into small pieces and set aside.

Sauté a cup of finely diced onion in about 2 tsp. olive oil just until the onions become translucent and set aside to cool off a little.

Mix the ground meats, egg, rice, sautéed onion, salt and pepper well until the mixture is nice and homogeneous.

Take 2 or 3 dried cabbage leaves, cut out the tough core stems and layer them on top of each other, so that there are no visible holes. Spoon 2 Tbsp. of the meat mixture onto the bottom part of the cabbage leaves, fold the bottom part over the meat once, then fold in the left and right sides of the leaves and keep rolling upwards. Place the cabbage roll seam-side down on a cookie sheet and continue until all the meat filling and leaves are used up.

For the simmering sauce, heat a little olive oil in a large pot and sauté roughly 1/2 to 1 cup of diced onion and the chopped cabbage until they're translucent and slightly golden and softened. Add the wine, if using, and sauté a bit more. Add the crushed tomatoes, water and brown sugar and mix well. Bring to a boil. Add the stuffed cabbage rolls, seam-side down, turn down the heat and let them simmer on very low heat for about 1 1/2 hours. You may want to check for doneness after about an hour to see if the cabbage is softened enough by pricking it with a fork.

This dish is traditionally served in Germany with boiled salt-water potatoes. At our house, everyone really enjoyed my first attempt at Kohlrouladen. Dan, my husband, thought I had a winner and I think my mom would have approved, too. For my part, I have to say that spending a lot of time in the kitchen today to cook stuffed cabbage rolls made a lot of memories come back, happy and also bittersweet. I should probably tell you more about my mom some other time.

Presto, Presto! Pasta Pesto!

I guess today's temperature got up to the low 40's–no wonder I felt like spring was just around the corner! Even though the yard outside is still covered in white, I couldn't resist making a dish that would remind us of the vibrant colors and juicy flavors of summer produce and give us a hint of the good food times still to come. The big box of fresh basil in the refrigerator beckoned to be turned into what my younger daughter Melissa used to call, "green spaghetti." So I went to work.

Fresh Basil Pesto

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. raw sunflower seeds, toasted (a nice substitute for the pignoli I didn't have on hand)

1–4 oz. package of fresh basil, leaves only (about 2 cups of tightly packed basil)

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 to 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano–the real stuff!

1 lb. pasta (spaghetti or penne), cooked to al dente perfection

Preparation:

While cooking the pasta, put sunflower seeds, basil, garlic and half of the olive oil in a food processor and chop everything on the pulse setting. Scrape the walls of the food processor bowl, and then let the blade run while gradually adding the rest of the olive oil. When all the ingredients are blended well, remove the pesto–you will have about 1 cup of it–and add at least 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. If you like cheese a lot, like me, add more to your liking.

Drain pasta when it's done and immediately toss with the prepared pesto in a large bowl. Serve right away with a loaf of crusty baguette and a (green) salad. And maybe a little more cheese on top… Buon appetito!

Leek and Potato Soup

Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make.

(Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

It seems to me that we've had a lot of rich meals lately, so when I went to grocery store today and saw really great-looking leeks in the produce section, I knew instantly that I wanted to make a batch of leek-and-potato soup for dinner. Two humble vegetables simmered together…creating wonderful smells in the kitchen and an all-around satisfying meal. I could almost taste it. Yum! I bought three beautiful leeks and started happily chopping away when I arrived back home.

Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients:

3 large leeks, white parts only, sliced, washed and dried

1 1/2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and diced

2 Tbsp. butter

6 cups water

1 to 1 1/2 tsp. salt

freshly milled pepper

2-4 Tbsp. heavy cream (optional)

chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Preparation:

Melt butter in a soup pot, add leeks and potatoes and cook covered over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 6 cups of water and 1+ tsp. of salt and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

When done, purée the soup in a blender or right in the pot, using a stick blender. Adjust seasonings and stir in a little heavy whipping cream to make the soup a little richer in color and in taste. Top with a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley when serving. This makes the soup not only look more presentable, but enhances its flavor since potato and parsley always pair nicely.

By the way, when using organic potatoes, I sometimes leave the skin on. The flavor and look of the soup will be more rustic. The soup can be completed with a salad and a loaf of crusty bread.

The Annual Sweetheart Dinner

Sixteen years ago, when we had a newborn daughter, no babysitter, and no reservations for a table at a restaurant, we decided to make a really nice dinner at home and invite the grandparents to come, too. This was one of the best decisions we ever made: we didn't have to think about Valentine's Day until the day actually happened, we didn't have to think about which restaurant to reserve a table at, we didn't have to dress up unless we wanted to, we didn't have to schedule a babysitter and pay her, we could eat and drink whatever we wanted and could afford, and, best of all, could spend it in the company of people who really mattered to us, playing music that we thoroughly enjoyed. Sixteen years ago today was the day we "invented" our "Sweetheart Dinner." 

I think this year we actually copied what we made 16 years ago, even though I don't recall what side dishes we served. The main dish, though, was pork tenderloin in yogurt sauce, a dish that was very tasty, but that I haven't made since. I lost the original recipe, but pieced together something from varying sources and this is what I came up with:

Pork Tenderloins in Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients:

2-2.5 lbs. pork tenderloin

1/4 cup+ butter

8 oz. grated gouda

1/2 onion, minced

4 cups whole milk yogurt

2 tsp Hungarian paprika

4 tsp instant chicken bouillon

salt to taste

Preparation:

Wash pork tenderloins and cut off skin, liberally salt and rub with paprika. Turn tenderloins in flour to dust and sear in butter all around.

Combine onions, yogurt, grated gouda and chicken bouillon and add to meat. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes until meat is done. Add chopped fresh parsley and finish sauce with a little corn starch or flour if desired.

We served this with oven-roasted fingerling potatoes and steamed green beans. Delicious!

Tip: The sauce will very easily curdle, even if you're very careful not to bring it to a boil. If curdling happens, just remove the meat and put the sauce in a blender and purée it until smooth. No one will know the difference and the taste is very nice and flavorful.

Macaroni and Cheese

Homemade macaroni and cheese is one of those dishes we don't want to do without in the wintertime because it's simple and satisfying. And once I learned from Dorothy, my dear mother-in-law who is like my mother to me, how easy it is to make, I never looked back to any of the boxed varieties. Taste is definitely more important to me than convenience.

Now Dorothy is one of those cooks who are able to prepare a dish without a road-map, or recipe, so-to-speak. The first time I asked her how to make macaroni and cheese, she answered, "Oh, you just cook macaroni the usual way, then you make a white sauce and put some grated cheese in it, season to taste, mix it all up and serve."

Well, I've spent 20 years in the kitchen and have just within the last couple of years arrived at a place where I feel confident and comfortable enough to start cooking something without a recipe and actually know, sort of, what I'm doing and what the projected outcome may be. I guess it really is practice that makes you perfect. :)

Since making macaroni and cheese from scratch takes a little more time than preparing a boxed mix, I always plan to have time for cooking it. The ingredients are simple and few, and I usually have them on hand, but time is another matter. I would say it takes me about an hour from start to finish. I admit that I'm not trying to rush when cooking because I like cooking to be fun and an experience to be savored. There must be speedier cooks than me out there! No matter how much time is spent on cooking, though, homemade macaroni and cheese are always worth the extra effort. It's also a great way to use up a couple of different left-over cheeses. This is how I made macaroni and cheese today:

Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

1 lb pasta

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

3 cups whole milk, heated

salt to taste

8 oz. (or more to taste) grated cheese (today I used gruyère, fontina, and romano, but try Swiss–it's delicate and delicious)

toasted breadcrumbs for the top

Preparation:

While cooking the pasta to al-dente-perfection, melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the flour to make a roux and let the roux gently boil under constant stirring for about 3 minutes. Then slowly add the heated milk, constantly stirring to avoid clumps, and let the mixture simmer on very low heat until thickened to the consistency of thick cream. At that point add all of the grated cheese and stir the sauce until it is smooth.

To make toasted breadcrumbs, melt 1 Tbsp. butter in an oven-proof pan on the stove-top and add fresh bread crumbs made by processing about 2 slice of your favorite lighter-colored bread in the food processor. Mix the melted butter and bread crumbs well, then put the pan into the oven at 350˚F and toast the bread crumbs for about 15 minutes.

As the next step, mix all of the pasta with the sauce, put everything into a buttered 9x13-inch casserole, top with toasted breadcrumbs, and bake the casserole in a 400˚F oven for about 15 minutes.

FYI, most of the steps for making homemade macaroni and cheese are largely based on "my" Dorothy's cryptic instructions and the more detailed instructions found in Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Roasted Turkey for Christmas

Just thought I'd better save my recipe for unstuffed roasted turkey for posterity (haha) while it's still fresh in my mind, especially since I successfully executed it twice in a row this year: for Thanksgiving and a few days ago for Christmas. A good bird definitely makes a difference in taste, but this year I've finally arrived at "my" foolproof method for roasting a turkey that's not only flavorful, but also juicy and nicely browned all around. My method couldn't be simpler.

I started out placing a 14-lbs. turkey (preferably organic or fresh all-natural) in a brine over night. The brine consisted of:

2 cups kosher salt

2 gallons purified water

1 Tbsp. each of dried rosemary, sage, thyme, and black peppercorns

I left the turkey in the brine overnight (approximately 12+ hours). The next day, about an hour before putting the turkey in the oven, I removed it from the brine, rinsed it thoroughly and patted it dry with a paper towel, placed it breast-side up on a V-shaped poultry rack and let it come to room temperature for about an hour.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F, cut one yellow onion and a couple stalks of celery into large chunks and tossed them into the turkey cavity, and rubbed the entire surface of the turkey generously with almost a whole stick of softened unsalted butter.

I roughly estimated 15 minutes of roasting time per pound of turkey (14 lbs x 15 minutes = 210 minutes). Then I divided the time it would take to roast the turkey–210 minutes–by three to know when I would want to turn my turkey over, which in this case was after 70 minutes and then after 140 minutes of roasting in the oven.

In any case, the turkey went into the oven breast-side up at 400 degrees for 70 minutes. I added 1 to 1 1/2  cups of water, a cut up onion and stalk of celery to the roasting pan. 

After 70 minutes I flipped the bird breast-side down and reduced the oven temperature to 350 degrees. After 140 minutes in the oven, I turned the turkey over again, breast-side up, and returned it to the oven for the final third of the roasting time.

(By the way, I got the idea for dividing the total cooking time into thirds and starting with 400 degrees for the first third, followed by 350 degree heat for the second and third third, from Alice Waters' cookbook "The Art of Simple Food." I've always been challenged with the temperatures for roasting birds, but her method has worked like a charm for me every time I roasted a chicken or turkey.)

I periodically brushed a little more melted butter onto the turkey to prevent the skin from drying out too much. The turkey was done at the time I had estimated, was perfectly browned all around, juicy and very tender. Perfect in every way.

We served the turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy (made ahead–ah, there's another recipe to share!), red cabbage, and cranberry sauce. Yum!

Swedish Meatballs

Tomorrow, eh, today (it got a little late), is Christmas Eve and I'm supposed to bring Swedish Meat Balls over to my sister-in-law's house for appetizers.

Well, they just got done, all 120+ of them (doubled the recipe), they're all loaded in the crockpot and sort of freezing on the porch–we live in a cold climate, after all. I can't believe I'm still up, with my doggies, while everyone else in the house is sleeping. I hear dear hubby moving on the level above me, so probably not every one is sleeping. :)

The Swedish Meat Balls recipe came to me via my OTHER sister-in-law, courtesy of one of our local grocery stores. Click on the link to get it for yourself! It's pretty delicious!

Hey, Baby, what's cooking?!

I think I'm finally finding my groove. After thinking about this blog I've concluded that it needs a slant in order for me to want to post something. I was just in the kitchen emptying the dishwasher when the idea came to me: My blog needs a new name, layout and the focus will be on cooking because that's one of the things I really enjoy, and I'm eternally looking for great new healthy recipes and school lunches for my kids.

In any case, as I emptied the dishwasher and thought about what I had cooked the last couple of days, I remembered the recipe for an amazing vegetarian chili that we've just about gobbled up. My daughter recently had a birthday and wanted to get together with a few friends to eat sloppy joe's while watching a movie and just "hang." One of the friends doesn't eat meat, so ever the passionate homecook, I was trying to find a tasty vegetarian dinner option that would make the friend feel included. The chili turned out to be a hit with almost everyone, including my meat-loving husband and "sharptooth" younger daughter. My husband said he couldn't even think of anything to improve the recipe, it was great as it was. I did follow the recipe, by the way, no substitutions other than using frozen corn instead of fresh.