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"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~ Mary Oliver

Category: Food

December 17, 2016

holiday mince pies! . . .

a baker's dozen of holiday mince pies! . . .

a baker’s dozen of holiday mince pies! . . .

Years ago, I was looking for something special to make for friends, family and professional people who help us out all year long as thank you holiday treats.  A Williams-Sonoma catalog appeared and I saw a Breville “mini-pie maker” that I ordered. At the same time, a store we frequented was selling large jars of Robertson’s mincemeat for pies. I bought about 5 bottles and made my first Christmas holiday mince pies that year.

The aroma of the pies while they’re cooking/baking, permeates the kitchen of our house with a spicy smell that can only be linked to the Christmas holiday. This year, I wanted to make enough to send to people we depend upon to show them our appreciation. I made some additions to the mincemeat:

To two jars of mincemeat that took me ten minutes to locate in the grocery store, I added two peeled, finely chopped Mutsu apples that I had in the fridge. My daughter, C. introduced them to us and they were delicious. I also peeled and cut out the juicy segments of a large Navel orange. Then, a heaping handful of golden raisins went into the large red mixing bowl that I stirred together.

Next, I used two boxes of Pillsbury prepared pie crust, two in a box. I sprinkled flour on my handy silit pad and cut out bottoms and tops to the minced pies. This plastic cutter is vital to making this recipe process work. Fortunately, G. discovered it in the bowels of the pantry when we finally located and dug out the Breville mini-pie pan this afternoon.

Breville mini-pie maker from Williams Sonoma . . .

Breville mini-pie maker from Williams Sonoma . . .

Making four pies at a time, I let the Breville cooker heat up; then carefully pressed bottom pastry rounds into each heated pie space. Then, I spooned in generous amounts of the mincemeat filling, then gently patted the top piecrust round on the filled mincemeat baby crust.

I gently lowered the top and clicked it shut. There was a sizzling sound and soon the aroma of baking pastry filled the kitchen. The pies were so fragrant that it truly felt like Christmas was just around the corner!~ (which it IS!!)

We’ll mail some pies in holiday tins tomorrow at the post office so that these goodies will reach our friends mid-week, around the 21st. They’re best when warmed slightly before serving. We like them with a little cheddar cheese on the side – and some people like them served with vanilla ice cream or some cream.

Like some tasks, I sometimes dread the whole production – searching for jars of mincemeat at the store, buying pie crusts, looking for the Breville pie maker AND the pastry crust mold cutter. BUT, as I’m cutting up the fresh orange, apples and adding the golden raisins, I get in a holiday mood – and when the first batch comes out, it fills me with wonder and delight for yet another holiday season. It’s really worth it and I hope our friends will enjoy this little surprise packed in a gaily decorated tin with two pies nestled in parchment paper.

Happy Holidays!

G. and I shared a small one with our coffee after dinner tonight. We heated it up in the microwave for 20 seconds and ate the mince pie with thin slices of sharp white cheddar cheese. The addition of the fresh fruit and golden raisins has improved what has been an unbeatable holiday treat up to now. Nirvana!

 

 

 

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December 16, 2016

an “all day” vegetable soup on a wintry day. . .

veg-soupI live in New England and the temperature outside today is anywhere from ZERO to 2-3 degrees MINUS ZERO. Good thing the sun is out on this very cold day. Hope the cars start up without any trouble.

When we heard this weather forecast for an unusually cold day today, I thought it would be comforting to make a large pot of old-fashioned beef vegetable soup and have it simmer all day on the back burner of the stove. I have a fast-pressure cooker too that I use to make bone broth – but today felt like a day to do it the old-fashioned way: cook chopped onions, carrots, celery, grape tomatoes cut in two; brown two shin of beef with the bone in; let the soup cook for half a day (it’s 8:30 a.m. right now) adding beef broth and water as needed, tasting along the way.

soup-1For the afternoon stint, I’ll add some rosy red turnips, small yukon potatoes, maybe a half cup of soaked barley and at the very end, some cut up cabbage so that it will be tender but not overcooked in the soup. Might make a ciabetta garlic bread slathered with melted butter and real garlic warmed in a pot and then brushed between the slices, wrapped in foil and warmed in the oven. This old standby has somehow popped up recently and I’ve found that just about everybody loves it – and also that no one has had it in a very long time either!

2 shins of beef browned to start the soup. . .

2 shins of beef browned to start the soup. . .

Meanwhile, since it is a sort of stay at home day (although I have to go out twice today,) I’m also going to make mince pies to mail out for Christmas Thank-Yous to various professional people who help us every year. So, we’ll see how far that goes and whether there’s enough energy (me) and time to make them all today, wrap them up and mail them out tomorrow before the Christmas mail crunch really hits on Monday. Or maybe I’m already too late for that!

 

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December 11, 2016

“a birthday cake for the ages”. . .

I don’t know where these ideas/recipes come from but I saw a photo of this cake on line the other day and my jaw dropped. I’ve been baking and cooking for a very long time but what I liked about this one was it’s miniature size (3 X 6 inch cake pans); a chocolate “filling” PLUS a hazelnut chocolate “frosting” PLUS a dark chocolate hazelnut glaze with twirly decorations and chocolate sprinkles. W-O-W!!

Mixing the cake batter. . .

Mixing the cake batter. . .

Well, as it happens, we’re celebrating a family birthday tonight and I am just about ready to take the three six inch cakes out of the oven. They smell heavenly by the way. I also gave in and followed the recipe to the letter. I was going to “cheat” with prepared icing but after seeing the cakes, I had all the recipe ingredients just in case – and I melted semi-sweet baking chocolate and butter for the filling; and then the coup de grace: frosting with butter, cream cheese and Nuttella HAZELNUT (the last jar on the shelf in the grocery store) beaten together. Honestly, it’s SO DELICIOUS! – not too sweet with the cream cheese and highlighted by the subtle hazelnut flavor and creamy smooth.

the "filling" - semi sweet chocolate & butter

the “filling” – semi sweet chocolate & butter

For the glaze, I have a bar of Ghiardelli dark chocolate with hazelnuts which will be melted and poured over the cake after it has been filled and frosted. Amazing, huh? If you’re having trouble with all these filling, frosting and glaze terms, I was too.

the frosting - butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and Nuttella Hazlenut spread

the frosting – butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and Nuttella Hazlenut spread

There are two layers of filling: the melted semi-sweet chocolate plus frosting on top but not all the way to the edge of the cakes. The glaze is poured over the top of the unfrosted cake top and then frosting rosettes are added on top of the glaze. Chocolate sprinkles on top (just in case, I guess.)

Cool for 15 minutes, invert on plate and tap gently - Invert and frost the flat bottom side when putting the cake together

Cool for 15 minutes, invert on plate and tap gently – Invert and frost the flat bottom side when putting the cake together

So here is a small tower of chocolate-ness with hazelnut,  rosettes added with a decorating tip that I got at A.C. Moore yesterday along with the 6 inch cake pans. Well worth it!

Happy Birthday, C.!

finished cake . . . the sprinkles got a little away from me!

finished cake . . . the sprinkles got a little away from me!

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December 1, 2016

an unagi rice bowl for supper . . .

dscn8600If some of you are partial to smoked eel (unagi) on sushi in Japanese restaurants, here’s what’s on deck for dinner tonight. At the local asian grocery store called H-Mart in Burlington the other day, frozen unagi was on sale for $2 off. I bought three of them and stashed them in the freezer for nights like this.unagi-rice-bowl

These smoked eel packages are so easy to prepare – keep frozen and take off the plastic wrapping just when ready to heat up: cover the entire piece with aluminum foil and seal well. Heat the wrapped eel on a cookie sheet in the oven according to the package instructions until it is warmed through and through. In the meantime, start your rice cooker with short-grain white rice (I like to use a pinch of dashi in the broth) and wait until it is cooked.

dscn8601If you have some persian cucumbers on hand, wash and quarter-slice a couple (hold knife at an angle, cut, turn cucumber a quarter turn, cut, turn, cut, turn cut) and put them into a shallow bowl. My recipe for this salad is to reconstitute dried wakame seaweed with boiling water, drain in cool water and add to the cucumber. Garnish the cucumber and wakame with a seasoned Japanese vinegar, a little soy sauce and sesame oil. Cover and chill in the fridge while the rice is steaming.

When ready to serve, place a fat ball of rice in a serving bowl for each person. Carefully open up the warmed eel on a plate to ensure that the glaze/sauce doesn’t escape. Cut the eel into serving portions and cover the entire top of the rice. Spoon the sauce over the eel on top. Serve with the cucumber wakame salad on the side.

Yum, and this very special umami-taste dinner couldn’t be easier to prepare!

dscn8597

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November 29, 2016

spinach salad with bacon and eggs. . .

NYTimes photo of Melissa Clark's salad. . .

NYTimes photo of Melissa Clark’s salad. . .

I’ve been avoiding eggs for weeks while taking a prescription to get my cholesterol numbers down. Later this morning, I’m visiting my doctor and will see whether my numbers have improved after six weeks of egg and animal protein semi-fasting.

Afterwards tonight, I plan to have a light dinner of a robust spinach salad made from Melissa Clark’s recipe that appeared in the NYTimes today. It looks like just what the doctor didn’t order – but which I’m going to have as a mini treat for having been so disciplined. Then tomorrow, back on the wagon again!

I remember making a warm spinach salad with thickly sliced fresh mushrooms and bacon in the 80’s. This one reminds me of that same recipe, even the vinaigrette ingredients. Maybe I’ll do that and skip the eggs tonight, whaddya think?

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November 27, 2016

a sushi handroll feast! . . .

fullsizerenderOur family gathered yesterday for a sushi handroll meal. I cooked up a batch of brown and black rice, added vinegar/sugar while it was still warm and stored it in a wooden bowl with a damp kitchen towel on it before we used it to make sushi maki and handrolls. Other ingredients included: fresh tuna, salmon, beautifully ripe avocado, watercress, wasabi mayonnaise, shrimp tempura, and toasted nori sheets.

Made an eel sauce that we dipped some of the fish in before wrapping up with the avocado and other goodies. The shopping and pre-prep were time-consuming but the results were extraordinarily delicious! My favorite was a toasted sheet of nori cut in half, spread with brown/black sushi rice, crisp tempura shrimp, avocado and wasabi mayonnaise rolled up. It was crunchy, crispy, unctuous – the crisp contrasting with the unami flavor combo of shrimp, avocado and wasabi mayo. SCRUMPTIOUS!!

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November 16, 2016

‘easiest homemade vegetable soup” . . .

vegetable-soup-1In these turbulent times, it’s comforting to make a simple vegetable soup from whatever you happen to have in your fridge and pantry. I made a pot after breakfast this morning that is simmering on the stove right now. Here’s my recipe:

  1. Look in your fridge’s vegetable bin for an onion, carrots, celery, squash (yellow or zucchini).
  2. Chop up a half (if small) Vidalia onion and cook on low heat in a stockpot drizzled with a little olive oil.
  3. Chop up 2 carrots into bite size pieces; ditto for the peeled yellow squash or unpeeled zucchini squash – use half of the vegetables if they are good-sized.
  4. Take the leafy parts of celery hearts, rinse and chop up – add all to the pot and stir.
  5. Open a can of Del Monte stewed or diced tomatoes without salt with garlic and oregano. Pour into the pot and add two cans of spring water.
  6. Use a container of Knorr beef broth gelatin and add to the pot. Stir well – or use a can of beef broth instead.
  7. Put on the lid and simmer for a couple of hours so the soup has a chance to soften and meld together. Taste for saltiness and add more water if needed to correct the seasoning or if the soup is too thick. Add a handful of small macaroni or pasta 20 minutes before serving if desired.
  8. Serve bowls of soup with toasted dark pumpernickel bread – which crisps up beautifully on the surface and remains chewy in the middle. I butter my toast with unsalted Kerrygold butter. Serve the toast alongside the soup.

Benefits of this soup are that you usually have all or most of the ingredients already in the fridge and pantry without having to go to the store so that you can make it on the spur of the moment. Other vegetables such as beans, lima beans, peas, corn, tomatoes can all go into the pot. What I have to watch out for is that I’ve laid up a few cans of the stewed tomatoes and the beef broth (either in gelatin or can form) in the pantry beforehand.

Goodness in a pot. Honestly, it will make you feel better, no matter what kind of day you are having.

vegetable-soup-2

 

 

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November 13, 2016

an austere post-election Sunday dinner. . .

austere-1

I’ve been making an effort to cook semi-macrobiotic food for a couple of weeks now. It isn’t always easy to put together an appetizing menu but tonight, I think it’ll be tasty although the idea of it is rather austere:

  1. kabocha nimono:  squash slices parboiled in a dashi/soy broth; then broiled in the oven with maple syrup glaze;
  2. Minnesota wild rice with mushrooms and onions
  3. carrot and hijicki nishime: sauteed carrot sticks with soaked hijicki seaweed braised together in a soy and mirin based dashi broth
  4. roasted chestnuts after dinner to eat along while watching the Patriots game against the Seahawks at 8:30 EST.

KABOCHA SQUASH RECIPE: I took a chance buying a small squash with a dark green skin and when I cut it open, the bright orange flesh inside told me it was indeed Kabocha. I scooped out the seeds and, using a very sharp knife, cut the squash into wedges. I made a dashi stock and added a tablespoon of soy sauce and simmered the squash with the cover on. It cooked through in just about 20 minutes which surprised me. I took it out and drained it on a baking sheet to hold until I brushed on a little maple syrup before running it under the broiler to brown before serving. The texture of kabocha squash tastes a lot like sweet potato too.austere-4

CARROT & HIJICKI NISHIME: It took me about ten minutes (much to my chagrin) to locate where I had put the Hijiki seaweed in the pantry that I had ordered on Amazon. It’s sometimes hard to locate at Asian markets and I had ordered two packets of it. I used half a packet for this dish. It was a little harder to cut the carrots by hand into thin matchsticks before sauteeing the carrots in a little sesame oil in a skillet. While the carrots cooked, I added the hijiki after rinsing it well under running water to remove any impurities (and having soaked it in boiling water.) Mixing the carrots and seaweed together, I added a mixture of 2 tablespoons of Ohsawa organic soy sauce and 1 tablespoon mirin, a touch of splenda for a little sweetness and some of the dashi broth that I used to poach the kabocha squash to austere-2promote the umami taste of the dish.

WILD RICE & MUSHROOMS: I like cutting up large button mushrooms into quarters and sauteeing with some chopped shallot in unsalted butter before adding a packet of wild rice and spice packet, letting it steam for about 20 minutes before dinner, removing the lid and letting all of the liquid to absorb and crisp up the rice.austere-3

I’m impressed by the umami tastes of the kabocha squash, the carrot and seaweed nishime and wild rice mushroom dish. It seemed like a rather austere menu in the abstract when I first decided to make it. But it turned out to be quite complex in flavor and very flavorful with varied textures to boot. It’s also a water-based cuisine so very refreshing to eat and savor.  Definitely a keeper!

Rather cheery outcome, especially in light of the world spinning around us!

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November 2, 2016

a World Series ‘dutch baby’ . . .

dutch-baby

Well, tonight, we were going just to snack on some almonds while watching the 6th game of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland. But after the Cubs got three quick runs in the very first inning, my instinct was to make something quickly for us to snack on while we watched the rest of the game.

So, I heated the oven to 425 degrees and melted half a stick of butter in a 10 inch skillet. In a small bowl, I mixed up a half cup of flour, 3 eggs, a tablespoon of sugar and a half cup of milk (actually some cream with some water because I was out of milk.) Whisked it all together and waited for the oven to preheat and then heated the skillet with the melted butter in the hot oven for 3 minutes before I pulled it out quickly and poured in the batter.

I set the timer for 20 minutes. After about 12 minutes, I walked over to take a peek in the oven window. Imagine my astonishment when I saw the ‘dutch baby’ had risen gigantically! At 20 minutes, I turned it down to 300 degrees for 5 more minutes according to the recipe I followed.

On the table, I placed a jar of raspberry preserves, some butter and maple syrup. We can figure out how we’d like to eat this baby after it comes out of the oven – enough nervous energy dessert to watch the rest of the game!  JUST  STUPENDOUS!!

dutch-baby-2

 

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October 30, 2016

edamame dip . . .

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I was reminded by a FB post I made a year ago to make a new batch of edamame dip to serve with kale and spinach chips for the Patriots game against the Buffalo Bills today. I’m making it because Rex Ryan, the Bill’s coach is always so outspokenly obnoxious in his remarks, together with the fact that the Bills are the only ones who have defeated the Patriots so far this year during Tom Brady’s absence — so that we’ll enjoy having some extra refreshments to watch them play this afternoon.

The recipe goes like this:

Take a batch of fresh edamame beans and put them into a small food processor. Add chopped garlic, chopped red onion, olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice. A pinch of cumin and some chopped fresh cilantro leaves. Process it together and taste for seasoning. Add some cracked pepper and a dab of chili paste (siraicha) if desired.

Cover and let it sit in the fridge for an hour before serving with kale/spinach chips or Sun chips.

Addendum: When I made it today, I discovered after adding the lemon and lime juice plus some olive oil that the “dip” wasn’t emulsifying enough. So instead of adding more olive oil (flavor) I opted to add a little lite buttermilk to the mixture. It became smoother and the taste was tangy and full of flavor. I sprinkled some cracked pepper on top – and we’re going to have it as a spread on toasted pumpernickel bread to eat along with our clam chowder for lunch.

GO PATS!!

 

 

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