A Dinner

It must have been this morning's 4 mile walk that caused me to be ravenous enough at midday to plot out a relatively complex meal for dinner. It wasn't really a complex meal in the least, but since I've been spending so little time in the kitchen lately, it felt like a big deal.

I started some bread and then went to Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen for inspiration. The recipes are simple, use relatively few ingredients, and make the most of seasonal produce. I ended up making a salad of tiny lentils with dill and feta and served a pecan and arugula pesto over fresh linguine. I wasn't thrilled by either dish but I think the lentils will improve overnight. The pesto was just a bit odd, I guess. I love the flavor of arugula with mixed greens in a salad or tucked into a sandwich, but the heat of the pasta caused that distinctive flavor to dissipate and the final dish just tasted....green. Not a bad thing, but not what I was hoping for.

The surprise was dessert. While I am in no hurry for Passover to be here, I am mindful that the holiday is approaching and there's quite a bit of flour around here needing to be used up so I spent some time with King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking which I'd recently checked out from the library. It's a huge book full of all kinds of things, but the whole grain orange cake caught my eye. Made mostly with whole wheat pastry flour, it was delightful: moist, light, and with a heavenly orange aroma. It had tasty glaze which surely would have made a white flour cake cloying but took this more substantial cake from sturdy to special. The resident teen was only to happy to gobble it down, as were the rest of us (in a slightly more restrained fashion). The recipe is here.

Weekend Roundup

While we did manage to work through an impressive mountain of laundry this weekend, it wasn't all drudgery. Saturday was sunny and delightfully warm, the false spring that so often graces Portland in February. I did not go into a frenzy of pruning or planting as I so often do at the first spot of sun. The yard is as unkempt as ever. We keep talking about pulling down the sunflower skeletons but, ugly as they are, I like to leave them for the birds. Just today there was a cloud of bushtits making a meal on wintered over flower heads, so my garden laziness has its upside after all.

Due to the willingness of friends to allow us to hand of all 3 children simultaneously The Spouse and I managed a nice little lunch together and an afternoon of knitting at a bright and sunny cafe. Later we took the Princess for a few turns on the carousel while her brothers slept over with a friend. She feel asleep on the way home, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to make Adults Only Stinky Cheese Pasta , a simple but intense dish that we both love. If it all sounds too good to be true, it was. The Princess ended up not going to sleep for the night but, in fact, taking a power nap. She popped up at 9 pm and was good for 3 more hours, which we spent watching a Bollywood extravaganza. I can't help myself-- I'm a fool for those goofy movies and my new Netflix membership is just making it worse!

Things fell apart, as they so often do, in the aisles of Target while buying underwear and socks for boys who are always losing one and outgrowing the other. No one enjoys these excursions, but they are occasionally necessary. Unfortunately the boys decided to make their displeasure known through all manner of screwing around which ended with someone getting hurt and everyone getting mad. We left rather ungraciously and grumbled most of the way home. The grumbling was paused, however, when I spotted a pair of bald eagles overhead which seemed rather marvelous in the middle of the city, just a few blocks from Interstate 205. I'm glad everyone was able to take note of that.

Dinner consisted of a mediocre vegetable-rich minestrone at the Dark Lord's request, accompanied by mediocre biscuits. If I'd started the soup earlier it would have been fine but it was a bit rushed and didn't have much character. But dessert was a perfect: Cherry Chocolate Bread Pudding with whipped cream.

Chocolate Truffles

My traditional Valentine's gift for my sweetie is homemade chocolate truffles. I roll them in finely ground coffee, cocoa powder, toasted nuts, vanilla sugar, and shredded coconut for a variety of tastes. Each is tucked into a paper or foil cup and then boxed up. They are ridiculously easy and extremely delicious. Who can resist a box of mixed goodies, dressed up in red foil skirts?

The recipe is here. Enjoy!

Indian Shabbat

I don't know what came over me yesterday. We had an early morning birthday celebration after which boys were delivered to a friend while The Princess was shuttled 17 miles away to her new music class after which we returned to pick up the boys and finally went home. I put nearly 50 miles on my van yesterday. Ouch. Luckily my electric company just informed me that my 2006 Blue Sky energy purchase kept enough carbon dioxide out of the air to equal at least 2 years of driving the trusty minivan so I felt somewhat better about the long drive.

Nonetheless I was pretty well wiped out by the time I got home. And yet, because I am nuts, when The Dark Lord suggested it was time for me to teach him how to make saag paneer I agreed. And then, because I am completely nuts, I went on to make a multicourse Indian style meal: saag paneer (spinach and homemade cheese), a made up dish I'm calling aloo mutter korma (peas and potatoes in a creamy coconut sauce), basmati rice, naan and tomato chutney. I actually whipped this meal out in about three hours, which I thought was pretty good since I made it all up from scratch. Happily I got a call in the middle of preparations and was able to invite a dear friend to join us for dinner. The potato and pea dish was OK--not as flavorful as I'd hoped and honestly, the naan was not so good either. Normally the kids hoover it down and we had leftovers which pretty much says it all. But slathered in sweet tomato chutney it was just fine. And the saag paneer was absolutely perfect. You'll find my recipe here. It's not a quick and easy dish but it's highly nutritious and, more importantly, absolutely delicious if I say so myself. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about the preparation. It's definitely worth the effort.

Cinnamon Rolls

I'm getting very few comments on my posts (except for Elizabeth --thanks, sweetie!) but I do know that lots of folks are out there, silently downloading recipes. Which pleases me immensely. So I'm trying to continue posting the good ones I use. I'm delighted to share, but I would love it if folks could drop me a line just to let me know if they're trying the recipes and how things turn out.

Another gorgeous day here in Portland. We took a brisk family walk, the high point of which was standing on a pedestrian overpass over I-205 with The Princess while she waved madly at the cars below yelling "duckling!" for no reason I could understand. The drivers in the cars below often waved back and honked, including the driver of a large semi whose horn made The Princess giggle with glee.

We returned home for an afternoon snack of cinnamon rolls. I've used many cinnamon roll recipes over the years but had long thought that I could tweak my regular challah recipe just slightly for a good result. I replaced oil with melted butter, water with milk, and upped the sweetening just slightly for a delicious dough. I use my bread machine but it's basically challah dough, the easiest yeast dough in the world as far as I'm concerned, so making it by hand (or heavy duty mixer) should yield similarly delicious results. The recipe is here. Enjoy!

Green Rice

Green rice is a staple around here. One of those dishes that's simple, nutritious, and infinitely satisfying--comfort food at its best. We've been making what we now call "regular" green rice around here for years. The recipe comes from Deborah Madison's The Savory Way which was a gift from my sweetie on the birthday right after we were married. We've cooked just about everything out of that book but green rice is a perennial favorite of adults and kids alike in this house. The greens, herbs, Parmesan cheese, and rice is perfect blend of flavors that's become one of our staples.

With this excellent track record I was delighted to find a "new" green rice in Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. This version is creamy sand elegant, with the gentle bite of fire roasted chiles and velvety sour cream. I still have a few bags of treasured roasted chiles in the freezer from the farmers' market chile man and this is an honorable way to put them to good use. I added corn kernels to make it more of a green-and-yellow rice, and to very good effect, I think. Green Rice with Roasted Green Chiles and Leeks is a keeper--a perfect dish for a cold night and hungry family.

Happy Winter

So many great things today. We woke up to snow, lots of snow, giant fat flakes tumbling out of the sky. Real snow is such a rare treat in this part of the world and the kid in me tends to get very excited about it especially when there's a night off work. I actually felt well enough to walk around the neighborhood with the kids. I love how the snow muffles sound. For a time we heard only our feet crunching the snow. The Princess can't remember a proper snowfall in her lifetime so this was huge for her.

I'm drinking my first cup of coffee since I got sick--what a treat! The little things in life are good, no? As we walked in the snow, I thought of Happy Winter Fudge Cake, a recipe from Laurie Colwin's More Home Cooking which along with the earlier Home Cooking, is one of the most read books in my library. Colwin's novels are not my favorites but her food writing is spectacular. Reading her essays about food and cooking is like hanging out in the kitchen with a clever, talented and much loved friend. Of course there are wonderful recipes but there's more: an enthusiasm for making and sharing food that is contagious and inspiring. Whenever I find myself in a funk a re-read of either of these books will quickly set things right.

The phone keeps ringing as baffled students call to figure out if they need to venture out to school tonight. I am happy to tell them "stay home, keep warm". We have a cozy fire, lovely music, leftovers in the fridge and there's nothing ahead of me but a long night of knitting--bliss! I'm not even knitting alone. The Spouse has gone into the second skein of his eternal vest project and MonkeyBoy has picked up the needles again in the last few days. "Mom", he said, "I love knitting. I really love knitting. I love knitting while it's snowing best of all". That's my boy!

Mmmm...Gumbo!

Well my sweetie sure knows how to take care of me. While I spent the entire day in bed reading and knitting my way back to health he made me one of my very favorite dishes. Deborah Madison's gumbo is delicious--warm, spicy, and packed with nutrition. It's a wee bit time consuming but not at all difficult to make so I urge you to make up a big pot of it soon. It freezes beautifully so you can easily tuck a few servings away in the freezer for another day. I am sure this is going to fix me up and I'll be right as rain tomorrow!

Cinnamon Puffs

Last night I went to bed virtuously planning to arise at a reasonable hour, gently wake my children, feed them a nutritious breakfast, and bundle them off to Shabbat services at our synagogue. The younger two actually wanted to go. But it didn't work out that way at all. The Spouse is still sick and slept fitfully which affected my own sleep. I awoke rather bleary and not at all motivated to drag sleeping tots from their cozy beds. So I turned on the computer, began the day at Radical Torah in honor of Shabbat and then caught up on some other reading. I was delighted to find new visitors to my blog--thanks for stopping by and leaving comments!

Somewhere between health care reform and The Yarn Harlot my stomach began to rumble. French toast made from Friday night challah is pretty standard on Saturday mornings when we're home. Yesterday's challah was absolutely delicious, the best I've made in months. I don't know why this is, I use exactly the same recipe week after week but there are always variations in the final product. Yesterday's challah was soft, sweet, golden, and perfectly cooked. The Dark Lord and I did some quick calculations and figured I'd probably made close to 800 challahs in the last 10 years, so declaring yesterday's loaves in the top 40 was pretty good, I thought. But I don't much like French toast. I wanted something sweet, but with a little kick. Something to go with coffee. Clearly I needed French Cinnamon Puffs, a rich, eggy muffin-like thing rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar. If you haven't yet figured this out, we are a butter positive family!

These are actually full of wonderful associations for me. As a teen I spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out with friends downtown at the Coffee Ritz. This was way before Starbucks came to Portland, before lattes, before there was a coffee shop on every corner. We would take the bus into town after school and hang out for hours drinking black coffee and people watching. Most of my babysitting money went for coffee but when I was flush I could splurge on a French Cinnamon Puff, with its buttery, sugar-crunchy topping. Absolute heaven.

And then I forgot all about them for many years. Around the time MonkeyBoy was born I began craving these things like a madwoman, which how my cravings always come on. If I had had a computer with internet access in those days no doubt I could have found a recipe in no time. But this was during the Dark Ages, so to speak, so if it wasn't at the library or Powell's, it wasn't available and with infant MonkeyBoy and toddler Dark Lord, my browsing time was severely limited. One day, lo and behold, my marvelous Aunt Nancy sent one of her always appreciated packages. This contained, among other things, a cookbook entitled Breakfast in Bed. If cookbook addiction is hereditary, I blame Aunt Nancy for she surely passed it on to me, along with many wonderful cookbooks. Within this small book I found a recipe for the puffs of my youth.

I have since made them many times. Recently they were on the menu for a Sunday brunch with friends, one of whom grew up here and knew exactly what I was putting on the table. It was a wonderful moment of connection. We didn't know each other as teens but had shared this experience though she actually worked at the Coffee Ritz and apparently suffered mightily whereas I was merely a customer.

The original recipe was stupid in that it only made about 8 good sized puffs. I'm sorry--who has an 8 cup muffin tin? Ridiculous! So I've upped the quantities just slightly in order to fill a normal person's muffin tin.

Even though they are called Cinnamon Puffs, the hint of nutmeg in the batter is crucial. I have not been a huge lover of nutmeg over the years, but it's growing on me. One of the very few actually cool places I've discovered in mid-county is the wonderfully exotic Anoush Deli which is full of all kinds of goodies from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. For pennies, one can buy a handful of whole nutmegs for grating at the Anoush. When you run them over your Microplane grater, not only are you rewarded with a heavenly aroma, but they are beautiful to look at as well. I think so anyway. So try the Puffs. Let me know what you think.

New Year's Resolutions

It's a good thing I do mine in the fall because if, like millions of others, I'd vowed to eat right and lose weight in 2007 I'd already be a failure!

We were invited to eat Portzelkje today at the home of some new friends. All I knew was that they were some variation on fried dough and since Chanukah's been over for all of 10 days it must be time to eat fried food again. It was a lovely afternoon -- just the kind of experience to bode well for 2007.

Since it was New Year's Day, it seemed black eyed peas should be on the dinner menu, not that they've ever been customary in my family. But still. The problem, of course, was coming up with a nice, flavorful vegetarian recipe. I figured I'd find something tasty in Passionate Vegetarian (thanks, Karen!) and I was not disappointed. The dish is called Dancin’ John: New South Black-Eyed Peas and Rice and is absolutely delicious, chock full of tasty veggies and warm spices. With some thick slices of crusty bread it was perfect. Next time I might even throw in some thinly sliced mustard greens or kale towards the end but it was most tasty just as written. And even vegan--not a big deal to me, but a subject of interest to many.

I have been trying to figure out a good way to get recipes out there in an easy-to-manage format. If anyone is actually looking at these, please let me know if the current set-up works. Thanks.

A Dinner to Keep the Cold Away

Many of us in this household are feeling not as well as we'd like. Maybe not sick but on the verge. This feeling always makes me crave hot, spicy food which my children generally refuse to eat. I came up with a good compromise dinner tonight which everyone enjoyed though I prepared things on the mild side and added liberal splashes of my beloved Crystal hot sauce to my food.

I was introduced to Cowboy Caviar by a certain homeschooling mother of three who lasted a couple of years in the damp Northwest before having the nerve to up and move her family back to Texas. I miss her a great deal, but at least she left me this tasty recipe to remember her by. My children are always delighted to eat a meal served on tortilla chips so I try not to ruin the fun by pointing out how very nutritious this is.

I am crazy for roasted green chiles. I regularly hit the farmers' market in late September, to stock up on my winter supply of chiles for the freezer. One of my favorite ways to enjoy them is in Creamy Green Chile Soup, which is basically a potato soup taken south. I make it on the mild side for The Picky Ones, but feel free to give it as much heat as you like.

The Dark Lord promises to top off this tasty meal with a Banana Chocolate Chip Cake which is extremely simple but always makes a good ending to dinner. Not a bad breakfast either.

MonkeyBoy later decided that he, too, would get in on the act and decided to make up a mess of Buckeyes, a delicious confection that hits the same spot as a peanut butter cup only much,much better because the ingredients are of far better quality. The kids love to make and eat them. Cleaning up afterwards, not so much but they're worth the mess.