Playing with food...by Necessity

While it can be both healthy and fun to make a meal from scratch, there are some times when the idea of planning and executing a meal seems just too much. Our family has had just such a situation lately and I thought I would share it since, let's face it, we all live very busy lives these days.

We own two rental properties, one of them a World War II duplex that was our first home in Historic Hilton Village. When the latest tenant moved out, we decided to make some improvements to the house, and to remain within the budget, it required that all the interior painting be done by our sweat equity labor so our days and weekends have been taken up by scraping, patching, priming and painting, leaving not a lot of energy at the end of the day for cooking (and no time to go grocery shopping!) Combine this with very hot weather and you have the perfect basis for one of those "what do you want?... No, what do you want?" evenings.

One night we had egg salad sandwiches, another night I made tuna salad on a bed of sliced avocados and Roma tomatoes, but last night, we wanted some "real food". Unfortunately, my husband, since I started this blog, just says "make something up,... it will be good" No pressure.

So I took a package of boneless skinless chicken thighs, and inspired by a lemon-caper chicken I once made I took what I had... and renovation chicken was the result! I hesitate to call this a recipe since I didn't measure anything, I just kept tasting until the dish had the flavor I wanted. Because I also had no energy to do dishes, this chicken dish took one pan. As I said, I used what I had on hand so you could change the recipe based on what you had in you fridge, and it would still be good. If I did this again (on purpose) I would serve it with some crusty bread, since the pan juices were great for "sopping" (Sorry, I'm a Southerner!)

Play with Food "Renovation Chicken"

1 pkg boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 5)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow squash

1/2 cup drained sundried tomatoes

1 cup marinated artichoke hearts

1/2-2/3 cup of white wine

2 tablespoons capers

1 small can sliced mushrooms (I told you that is what I had, you could use fresh!)

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Put oil in large frying pan, add garlic and chicken pieces. Brown chicken on both sides then add all the vegetables. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add wine, salt and pepper. Cover and let simmer another 10 minutes. Add lemon juice and cook another 5 minutes. Taste and check seasoning. Serve with a delicious crusty bread. A delicious and easy one-pan meal!!

Cooking the Books- Episode 1

So many bloggers write about the newest and greatest cookbooks and from visiting many sites, I know that many of you have large cookbook collections. I am actually encouraged to read that others have the same problem that I do when it comes to cookbooks- I have a hard time getting rid of them. Whether they were bought or ordered by me, given to me as a gift, or unloaded by a non-cooking friend trying to clear off their shelves, my house is like the Hotel California of cookbooks...no matter how or when they come in, " they can never leave. "(picture to right is one of 10 shelves of books I have!)

Now, why is it that we have a hard time getting rid of cookbooks, even the ones we do not use? I can understand hanging on to the spill-stained, dog-eared cookbooks that we used when first learning to cook, and the cookbooks that we use everyday, looking for inspiration, or the brand new cookbooks with the latest trends, or the ones with sentimental value because they were given as a gift, but what about the rest? The cookbooks bought on a whim, the ones your friend gave you when she moved because she didn't have enough room for her collection, the vintage cookbooks picked up at a tag sale or from your public library's book sale, why can't we just give them away? My theory is that to a dedicated "foodie" (I hate that word!), these cookbooks are like foster children. We have brought them into our family because they represent some connection, whether personal, culinary, or sentimental. We have them because they stirred something in us and they represent a promise, a potential... maybe I can be a bread-baker, or a pie-maker, or a sushi chef. I could cook for celebrities, or a mafioso (Sopranos Cookbook), a wedding, or a great cocktail party. Maybe one day I will have time to make my own croissants, or puff pastry, Beef Wellington, or homemade pasta.

So what do these ramblings about cookbooks have to do with this post? I decided that it was time for my foster children to get up and get a job! Once a month I will write about one of the cookbooks I have on my shelves and make a recipe from it for a post. These will not be the "hot" cookbooks that you see on the pages of Amazon and B&N, there are enough foodies who already do a great job of reviewing new and emerging cookbooks (and encouraging us to add to our cookbook famlies!) I am going to pull out the ones that still have their dust covers, the specialty cookbooks, the ones from chefs before they were celebrities. I want to see what the connection was that made be bring them home to begin with. If the spark is still there, I will keep it, but if not, the cookbook will be making room for.... well, lets face it, probably a new cookbook!

Toad-in-the-Hole

Adapted from A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price

This cookbook chronicles the international travels and dining experiences of Vincent Price(for you Generation X-ers, he was the narrator in Michael Jackson's Thriller video)and his wife Mary. From the Food Halls at Harods to The Four Seasons in New York to Thanksgiving at the Price's home, the cookbook is a tribute to fine food and enjoyment of food around the world. My in-laws gave me this book and it was the first gift I got from them, so besides being a great cookbook, it has a lot of sentimental value!

I make this recipe for a great breakfast dish, which is like a popover with sausage, and when my kids were little they loved the name! The original recipe calls for vienna sausages, but I use brown and serve sausage links, though any cooked link sausage would work. These are delicious with a pat of butter, and a light alternative to heavier breakfast foods! This recipe makes a dozen muffin-sized treats, but you could also do this as a casserole

12 cooked or brown and serve link sausages

nonstick spray with flour

1 scant cup of flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift flour into a bowl with salt. Stir in milk. In another bowl beat eggs until frothy, and then beat eggs into batter. Let batter stand about 30 minutes. Spray muffin tin with nonstick spray with flour (this will let them rise really high!) Place one sausage in each muffin cup (I sometimes slice them so that there is sausage in each bite!) and then pour batter over sausage and fill about 2/3 full. Bake for 10-15 minutes until batter is browned and puffy. Serve with butter and/or maple syrup. ("Toads" will fall after you take them from the oven, so don't panic!)

Cool salad for a hot day!

What to eat when it's 95 degrees outside and 60 percent humidity?! I know when I get home the in the dog days of summer, the last thing I want to think about is cooking. I don't know about you, but the hotter it gets the less I want to eat... finding something that is light, healthy and appeals to heat-wilted taste buds is a bit of a challenge. I find that in summer we often choose a protein that can be cooked on the grill (avoid heating up the kitchen) and a large salad.

For me, making a salad that has surprising and different flavors is a challenge and you know I love the opportunity to play with food. This led to my previously posted roasted beet salad, which is a rich and delicious salad that can become a main dish. The down side is that beet-roasting takes about 45 minutes of oven time, which is not that appealing during June in Hampton Roads. So I have had to experiment with some new twists on salads to keep my family interested and I am going to let you in on the results of my experimentation so you can escape the heat of the day with a cool salad. These are less recipes than formulas for a salad that is a delicious respite on these hot days. So grab some greens... and go!

Tex-Mex Salad

2 heads romaine or iceberg lettuce, torn into pieces

1 large tomato, diced

1/2 red onion chopped

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

4 ounces cheese cut in chunks (pepper jack, cheddar, queso fresco are all good choices)

1 cup corn kernels (fresh are great (good use for leftover corn on the cob) but canned or frozen work well too), drained

Toss all ingredients together. If you have leftover chicken or other meat, you could add to make the salad heartier but with the cheese and beans, no meat is needed. I serve this with a dressing made of 1/2 cup of ranch dressing mixed with 1 teaspoon of taco seasoning mix (I know it's gauche, but my family loves it! You could toss a vinaigrette with cumin and smoked chipotle chili powder as an alternative)

Salad with Dried Blueberries

2 heads of butter lettuce (I love the delicate taste of this), torn into pieces

2 whole ripe pears (if you can find them) peeled and sliced or 1 can pear slices, drained

4 ounces goat cheese or blue cheese (my personal favorite, but brie would also be great) broken into pieces

1/4 cup broken walnuts

1/2 cup dried blueberries

Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise (light is fine)

1/4 cup raspberry vinegar

1 tsp sugar or 1 packet of Splenda (for diabetic husband)

Toss all salad ingredients. Shake all ingredients together until smooth. Toss salad with dressing.

You could make a simple raspberry vinaigrette for this but the creaminess of this dressing with the acidic kick of raspberry vinegar is delish!

Competition Kitchen (or NFL for cooks!)

Summer's here and along with barbecue, and Dave Lebovitz's ice cream, it is time for competition in the kitchen. Whether you like the urbane Top Chef, the commercial The Next Food Network Star, or the R-rated Hell's Kitchen, this is like the NFL playoffs for foodies! And I have to say that I like them all (If I watch them all, I'll have no time to cook...) At least if we have to be subjected to reality TV, it is great that some of it takes place where a lot of our reality happens... in the kitchen!

Since Top Chef comes on at 10 PM, I rarely get to see it, but I take advantage of the weekend marathons while I am cleaning up or folding laundry (or blogging).This is actually one cooking competition show where home cooks can learn something and get ideas. I love the approach to cooking competition on this show, because it is meant as a growth opportunity for the contestants as they are weeded out and most of the drama comes from the challenges, not from back-biting (though there is some of that) or histrionics. And where but Bravo could you see a challenge where the contestants had to each cook a dish that represented each of the seven deadly sins?!

The Next Food Network Star is a more commercial cooking competition with a focus as much on personality as food, since the winner will actually get his or her own Food Network show. Now I know there are a lot of people out there who think the Food Network is like TV culinary junk food, but it has created interest in home cooking in the generation of X-Box and I-Pod, because it makes cooking accessible for cooks of all experience and skill. For that, they get my kudos.

That brings me to Gordon Ramsey and Hell's Kitchen. It seems so appropriate that Gordon is on in the summer since it is h-o-t in his kitchen. Watching this show is a lot like slowing down to stare at an auto accident- you know what you see might be painful and someone may be hurt, but you can't stop watching. And Gordon Ramsey... honestly, I think Beelzebub would be easier on aspiring chefs. He uses the f-bomb enough to be a headliner on Death Row records! The redeeming factor in this show for me is to see people who are really passionate about cooking and food pulling out all the stops and enduring constant abuse to realize their dream. I always root for the fry cook or a line cook from the Waffle House (kind of like being a Redskins fan!)

So get yourself a perfect scoop of ice cream, and when it gets too hot in the kitchen or out by the grill , get the remote, and settle in for a long hot summer in the competition kitchen!

Things I thought I'd never eat...

In reading people's comments to my posts, many of which include food likes and dislikes, I thought about those foods that I love now that at one time I couldn't even imagine eating, and I thought that it might make a good post. Sometimes your food likes and dislikes come from previous experience, or childhood food experiences, sometimes it is just your personal taste. No matter what the reason, we can be encouraged (those of us with picky eaters in our household) that over time tastes can change, if we are adventurous and play with food!

Foods I thought I would never eat:

Skim Milk-Like a lot of 50's era kids I grew up drinking whole milk. As I got older and wanted to reduce fat I cut back to 2% milk, but even so, I could not drink skim milk. To me, it tasted like watered down milk (I also couldn't stand ice in milk for that same reason). But time marches on and in trying to reduce calories and fat in my family's diet, we have been drinking skim milk in coffee, cereal and with cookies or brownies (Defeating the purpose?!)

Rabbit- As a child I had a very traumatic experience when I saw a neighbor of my grandparents kill their pet bunny for a meal. It wasn't until about three years ago that Evil David made rabbit and I could eat it, and it was delicious. I guess time really does heal all wounds (great for me, not so much for the rabbits!)

Yogurt- Back in the 70s when only hippies ate yogurt, a friend of mine tricked me into taking a bite of plain yogurt. It tasted like thick buttermilk, and it spoiled me on yogurt until the 80s. Now I love yogurt- tzatziki, yogurt cheese, mediterranean yogurt, and the traditional fruit yogurt. One of my favorite healthy desserts, Swedish cream, is made with yogurt. But I still don't like buttermilk!

Sushi and sashimi- Honestly, I never thought I would eat raw fish, and it took real inspiration to get me to try it. I was invited to lunch by a competitive male colleague who suggested we go for sushi, assuming as a mom from a working class background just re-entering the workforce that I wouldn't be into sushi (he even made a point to let me know of the stir-fries available!). I was determined that I was not going to be intimidated when he ordered sushi, so I ordered sushi as well (I think primarily tuna roll and California roll). The lunch was not all that memorable, but I became addicted to sushi- I have tried just about every variety, and I make sashimi quite often for tapas and as a light summer dinner.

Fennel- I have never liked licorice, even the smell squashes my appetite. I was the kid who gave all the black jelly beans to my brother (who loved licorice!), so when I heard that fennel had a licorice-like taste, I wasn't very inspired to try it. However, after Evil David incorporated it in a dish at tapas night, I found that I liked it. I have several dishes that I use fennel in, including a delicious salad and fish en papillote. But I still throw away the black jellybeans!

Sardines- My stepdad used to love sardines and he ate the ones packed in mustard as a snack (okay, this was the man who drank buttermilk from a carton!), and I could hardly stand the smell of them. However, again, this when grilled sardines were one of the first tapas dishes Evil David made, I had to give them a try. With fresh lemon squeezed over and sea salt, they were delicious, and now we have these morsels regularly!

Swedish Cream with Fruit

1 quart plain lowfat yogurt

1 package instant vanilla pudding mix (I use sugar free, fat free to keep calories down and so my diabetic husband can enjoy this)

Fresh fruit (sliced strawberries, kiwi, peaches or a combination are all delicious)

Using a hand mixer or whisk, mix pudding mix into yogurt until well-blended and thickened. Chill. Serve topped with fruit or make a parfait layering fruit and cream. A delicious and healthy dessert!

So come clean...What are the foods you like now that you thought you would never eat?!

Cucumbers and milk... and other strange bedfellows

Hot weather is here with a vengeance in Tidewater Virginia, and you know what that leads to... the search for cool dishes that are appealing in the heat and humidity. Of course, anything on the grill can be a centerpiece whether it is fish, chicken, steak or hamburgers, but what can you make to go along that won't heat up your kitchen. Well , here are two ideas that you might not think of. Why? because they seem like very weird pairings. Cucumbers and milk is a deceptive name because this dish has no milk, it just looks like milk and that is what we called it as children. My mom made this for almost every picnic or cookout because everyone loved it. My second recipe comes from an old cookbook of mine, The Blue Strawberry Cookbook by James Haller. James Haller's book and restaurant was based on the concept of no recipes, just putting foods together in unique and delicious ways. His unusual (and successful) pairing put together watermelon, beer and orange juice (I know it sounds disgusting, but please try it-I swear it will be a hit alongside spicy ribs, or barbecue chicken) If you are making this and kids are eating, try it with good quality non-alcoholic beer. The melon tastes almost carbonated when you eat it!

Part of playing with food is not being afraid to try something just because it sounds a little weird - so go ahead, be adventurous, you won't be sorry!

Cucumbers in Milk

2 medium cucumbers (regular or seedless/English) peeled and sliced thin

1 medium onion thinly sliced and separated into rings

1/2 cup mayonnaise (light is fine here too!)

1/2 cup vinegar (apple cider is best)

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh or 1/4 tsp dried dill

Mix mayo, vinegar, water , salt and dill together, stirring or shaking until mixture looks like milk. Put cucumbers and onions in liquid and chill for at least 4 hours. Light and crisp counterpoint to heavier or spicier summer foods.

Watermelon in Beer and Orange Juice

1/2 seedless watermelon cut into chunks or into melon balls

1/2 small can of frozen orange juice concentrate

1 can or bottle of beer (non alcoholic would work too)

Mix beer and orange juice concentrate together. Put melon into liquid and let stand in fridge for at least 4 hours. Don't tell people what is in this- they will love it and will be horrified when you tell them how you did it!

Hits vs Dialogue

Like many bloggers, I have a hit counter on my page to measure the traffic. Hit counters are a great thing since they let you know how many people come to your blog, where they are from, what hours receive the most traffic, and it helps you identify trends. And while I get a special thrill from seeing a new high on my daily count or watching my average daily hits trend upwards, it is the dialogue that comes from your comments that makes blogging really special for me.

In my blog travels I see a lot of blogs with post after post with no comments and I wonder what keeps them writing. While they may have thousands of hits, where is the reward of feedback that comes from a comment that lets you know that your post has inspired... or resonated... or even angered?

I know for the "big" blogs, commenting and responding to comments may be a burden. Hell, it is time-consuming even for this little missal. But to me, creating a community is what blogging is about. I make a special effort when I go to a blog with very few comments to find a post where I can leave a comment, because I remember how special it was to get a comment when they were few and far between. And when people take time to leave a comment on my blog, I always try to answer quickly, trying to hold up my end of the cyber-conversation. And I appreciate when others do the same. I am often disappointed when I ask a question on a blog and it seems to go into a black hole. While commenting and responding to comments does take time, even the more famous bloggers (Ruhlman!) realize the importance of keeping the dialogue alive. After all, if all blog readers wanted was to read, they could look at a book, or magazine, or column.

So for those of you who visit and comment... Thank you! It is what keeps blogging interesting not only for me but for other readers, and I will respond in spades to you. And if you stop by (not only this blog, but others), take a moment and leave a comment. Blogging is meant to be more of a contact sport than a spectator sport!