The Accidental Artisan

This One's Really Corny

2012-01-19T08:01:00.002-05:00

Welcome to "Ordinary Time".

We're eating well at home, and often, but truthfully, if I plan 5 meals each 7 days, we need only three. I can shop and chef and create all I wish, but we only need new meals three out of five days. Our schedules are so crazy that "heat and eat" is often the best we can do.

On a good Saturday, I'll prep and prepare meals for the seven-day stretch ahead. When I'm chauffeuring on Saturday, it'll be my Sunday project. When I'm busy BOTH days, we're not eating any sort of way I'm pleased with. Our schedules have made "family meal time" an unusual experience. Woe to us.

That said, after more craziness claiming our "free" time to create meals for the days ahead, I turned to my slow-cooker and my go-to recipe collection for a nutritious, made-from-scratch meal for our family on a busy, busy day.

We've finally had a cold stretch which tells us it's Winter. Winter means soups, stews, and chowdahs. I've been in the mood for a good chowdah (corn chowdah is the only one I care for). We have ingredients in our refrigerator and freezer just waiting to be used up, and I have a fantastic recipe. Didn't pass up the two-for-one 5# bags of potatoes at the grocery yesterday. Hooray!

While I'm at it, I'll include a from-scratch recipe for corn muffins I've adopted recently. We grew up with the blue-boxed Jiffy Baking Mix, a less-expensive version of another popular mix in a yellow box. We used it a LOT, mostly for pancakes. We also used the little blue boxes of corn muffin mix, prepared with simple ingredients (egg, milk) from the refrigerator and baked in the cast iron muffin pan. Crunchy outside, soft and sweet, but a bit dry on the inside, just asking for a tiny bit of melting butter. Leftover Jiffy corn muffins were great "grilled" - cut in half and toasted with butter on the griddle until slightly brown and crisp.

My food kitchen friends, two lovely old southwest VA ladies, detest Jiffy corn muffins. TOO sweet for them. They prefer a savory, somewhat dry buttermilk cornbread baked in a cast iron pan laced with hot oil. I've made this a few times myself, and I love it too. My offspring, though, prefer the sweeter muffins from the mix.

SO, I found a recipe for "cheater" mix on the internet. Basic ingredients, excellent results, no preservatives. It's here, with Substitution Queen's influence.

Crock Pot Corn Chowdah
based on a recipe from Fix it and Forget it Lightly by Phyllis Pellman Good

1/4 lb. turkey bacon, cut into 1/4" strips
2 c. potatoes, diced (about 3 fist-sized potatoes) - a little extra is better.
1 c. onions, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 c. plain yogurt
3/4 c. skim milk
1 recipe homemade cream of chicken soup* (link below)
1 1/2 c. frozen corn kernels
Ground pepper and salt, to taste

*Prepare homemade soup mix according to previous post.

Cook bacon in large nonstick skillet until brown and crispy.
Place bacon, potatoes, bay leaf, and onions into slow-cooker. Add a generous grinding of black pepper. Cover with water. Add the homemade soup mix and corn.
Cook on LOW 6-8 hours, until the vegetables are done to your liking.
Thirty minutes before serving, stir in yogurt and milk. Continue cooking on LOW.
When soup is heated through, remove bay leaf. Place 1/2 of the chowder mixture in a blender and puree until smooth. Return blended ingredients to crock pot and stir thoroughly. Add salt and additional ground pepper, to taste.

Skip the blending step if you wish; I find it thickens the chowdah up a little and I like it that way.

Serve with a dash of nutmeg or paprika on top and boiled hot dogs with toasted Yankee buns OR Janet's Mixed-Up Corn Muffins (see below).

Janet's Mixed-Up Corn Muffins
makes 2-dozen mini-muffins or 1-dozen regular muffins

This muffin recipe is REALLY flexible. Add any sort of cheese and relatively dry vegetable you wish to the mix, and it'll be fine, as long as you don't add too much additional liquid. Try muenster and leeks, cream cheese and chives, pecans and bleu cheese. YUM.

Start with Faux-Jiffy-Muffin-Mix (my non-preservative version):
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
3 T. sugar (less if you prefer your corn muffins less-sweet)
1 T. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 T. oil (if you plan to store this mixture, otherwise, substitute 2 T. yogurt with the wet ingredients)

Note: You can make this recipe in triplicate (up to this point) and store it for later if you wish. If you do, add the vegetable oil per the recipe and mix until it's completely incorporated.

Add to dry ingredients:

1 c. cheese, shredded (I used cheddar)

1/4 c. jalapeno peppers, diced (from one of DH's experiments)

1 c. frozen corn

If you have them, add a few diced pimentos as well. Nice color!

Mix thoroughly.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add:

1 egg

1/3 c. milk

Mix ingredients lightly, until most everything is incorporated. Scoop into greased muffin tins.

Bake at 375 degF for 8-10 minutes (mini-muffins) or 15-20 minutes (regular sized muffins), until muffins are lightly browned and crusty on top. Let cool for a few minutes (until cool enough to handle) before unmolding, but be sure to get them out of the tins before they cool completely (and stick to even the best non-stick muffin pan).

* See previous post

http://accidentalartisan.blogspot.com/2012/01/not-so-extreme-makeover-menu-edition.html

Reality Check

2012-01-09T07:26:00.000-05:00

I remember when this intended artisan blog turned into a food-and-social-commentary blog. It began just over a month ago with a whim to clean out my refrigerator and freezer. To reduce the store of perishable goods which crammed our life full. To focus more on what we have than what we want or what's easy or what's convenient. To use what we already have and give the rest to those who need it more.

My friend FJ put much more eloquent words to this notion here (despite or in spite of her description of a questionable taco meal): http://janetlindseyhanks.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/resolution/

It's amazing how an inanimate 26-cubic-foot appliance rules our life. Don't think so? Recall how stressed the family got last time the power went out for a few hours. This appliance speaks to us. It saves the day. It's definitely an elephant in our kitchen. Maybe those science experiments growing in its recesses are what's speaking.

ANYWAY, here's the check-up. Six weeks into my pledge to clear out the refrigerator and freezer: we're still a long way from clear. I cheated. I AM using up food in creative and nutritious and wonderful ways, but I'm also buying groceries. Maybe not at the original pace, but I'm still procuring ingredients to suit our palettes, fill our bellies, and satiate our minds. We're so fortunate to be able to do so. At least I recognize and appreciate this. Maybe one day those "starving" teens of mine will get it. In the meantime...

A sneaky leaky pan of lasagna caused me to inventory what's left today. Inventory - as in, wash every single item in the fridge because it has tomato sauce all over it. We have 1/2 gallon containers of milk (that'll be gone after breakfast tomorrow) and maple syrup (thank you MOM!!). We have 10 carrots, 9 tangelos, 8 stalks of celery, 3 crowns of broccoli, a discolored lime and a partially-shaved lemon. One beautiful Harry and David pear (no partridge): the last of TWO boxes sent by Mom. Thanks MOM!! A bunch of slimy parsley which moved directly to the compost bin. Several cheeses (thanks, Sis). Dairy products I picked up yesterday in my quest to healthify some baked goods recipes. A package of chicken for Thurday supper. Leftovers packed for lunches and dinners between now and Thursday. A door full of condiments - although a mere half of what was there a month ago.

What we are out of: meat.

What we have LOTS of: frozen veggies and refrigerated condiments.

That bottle of pickled ginger and DH's garden experiments are still with us. Well, some of the pickles made it onto my plate last night. Not too bad. With us as well is the cheese-making kit and a package of egg roll wrappers.

Oh, this is going to be a fun month of menus. Everything Must Go. What began as a social justice effort has become a creative game. I never said it would be dull.

Today I "unloaded" a couple of fun freezer items. The frozen peaches, brown-ish apple slices from the fridge, and some of the bottled ginger were cooked down, pureed, and baked into bread. The loaf with pecans was devoured by the largest Sunday School class I've ever seen. The nut-free loaf became my first pay-it-forward homemade gift of 2012. The rest went into muffins, an attempt to make over the original recipe. Most of the fat was eliminated and additional grains introduced. The muffins went back into the freezer for breakfasts later in the week.

I also used up the last pie crust. I found a nice, heart-healthy recipe for frittata on the WWW and adapted it into a pseudo-quiche. Sunday brunch and breakfast this week.

Tonight's no-boil lasagna used up the rest of the tomato sauce (what didn't leak all over the refrigerator), meatballs, and mozzarella cheese. We also had salad (diet salad); I think ONE of the two blue cheese dressing containers is finally empty. We're getting there, even if the original point has been mislaid somewhere along the way.

Here's where we're going: a much, much more intentional eating plan. I love that word, "intentional." I really mean it. Not a diet in the deny-yourself-of-the-things-you-love diet, but an eating plan to adapt to our physical challenges (which includes active teenagers and the death of the family mealtime) and our nutritional needs. That, and a clean fridge. Shine on!

Canadian Bacon and Potato Quiche
adapted from http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/canadian-bacon-and-potato-frittata/55c1cd46-ab83-42fd-bba6-c7dcaf912c5c
Serves 4 to 6, depending on what else is served with it.

1 prepared pie crust, baked until golden (about 8 minutes in a 375degF oven)

6 eggs

2 T. fresh chives or 1 T. freeze-dried chopped chives
2 milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 c. red or green bell pepper, chopped
2 c. refrigerated southern-style hash-brown potatoes (or one fist-sized potato, shredded)
1/2 c. Canadian bacon or cooked ham, coarsely chopped
2 T. Cheddar cheese, shredded
Paprika (for dusting)

Beat eggs, chives, milk, salt, thyme and pepper in medium bowl; set aside.

Spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Add bell pepper; cook and stir over medium heat 1 minute. Add potatoes; cover and cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently until potatoes begin to brown. Stir in Canadian bacon; cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Spread mixture into pie crust. Pour egg mixture over pie crust. Sprinkle with cheese and paprika.

Bake at 375degF for 45-50 minutes, until quiche is set and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cut into wedges and serve.

Grammar School

2012-01-08T21:33:00.000-05:00

Toe-may-tow, toe-mah-tow, poe-tay-tow, poe-tah-tow. Same thing, right? Sure.

How about Appalachian? I can spell it, but don't ask me to pronounce it. If it's a Trail, it's "The AT." If it's a University, it's "Appy State." If I make the mistake of saying this proper noun aloud, in its entirety, a chorus of "you're not from around here, are you?" questions, smirks, or other peculiar noises result. Ayuh, I'm not from around hey-ah.

I received quite an education in mid-Atlantic colloquialisms my first year or two in Virginia. I recall writing a top-ten-type translation dictionary for my Northern family one holiday season. One of the finer points was that here in Virginia you carry your friend to the grocery, where they pack your goods in a sack after you tote them around the store in a buggy. In Maine, buggy (as in, "a little bit buggy") refers either to the density of the black flies in the neighborhood or someone who's a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

My favorite, though, BY FAR (eclipsing even "over yonder", which is away to the left or to the right or even both at the same time), is "barbecue".

I came to Virginia in the mid 1990s, a month short of my daughter's first birthday, just in time for the winter holidays. One of my inaugural activities was the rather large Engineering Department's Christmas feast, a "covered dish" (translation: pot luck) mid-day meal held at the office. This is not to be confused with the department Christmas Party to which spouses were invited, ties and fancy shoes were worn, and "set-ups" provided (translation: drink mixers). Navigating the first two MONTHS was an education in learning a new language by "full immersion."

I remember bringing the very large, extremely delicious fruit cake (I am NOT kidding about the fruitcake) which my mom sent from Maine that year. Snicker all you like, but this was a super-delicious fruit cake. A Jimmy Howard fruitcake. More cake than fruit. Shaped like the State of Maine. Or, as one engineer noted, North Carolina (the border of which was just a few miles away). Who knew? Turn Maine sideways and it looks like North Carolina. At least to an engineer. Fit right in, yes I did.

Until they uncovered the chafing dishes and presented "Barbecue." What?

The same geographically-gifted engineer translated: I'm from The North. Where barbecue is a verb, meaning "to cook outside." I now live in The South. Where Barbecue is a noun. A slow-cooked pork product. Oh, by the way, there's Virginia Barbecue and North Carolina Barbecue and all kinds of other pretend-Barbecues. Or BBQ, as I've seen it lately. Maybe the abbreviation distinguishes it from the verb; it certainly fits on a roadside stand more efficiently.

Celebrity chefs and food critics share a passion for barbecue - either as a verb or a noun - and embrace their own version as they would a signature. Bobby Flay's barbecue involves cilantro and southwestern spices which make me think of black beans and corn rather than slow-cooked pork. Steve Raichlin, with whom I've worked (once, anyway) and associate more with rich Alsace-Lorraine foods than with cooking outside, has made his fame and fortune grilling anything and everything. He's written several BBQ Bibles, even. He is a verb-barbecue King. He has a FABULOUS recipe for root beer barbecue sauce. Somewhere.

Jane and Michael Stern, of http://www.roadfood.com/ and regular guests on The Splendid Table, discuss barbecue and its regional flavors often. The noun barbecue. Some have more vinegar taste, some are sweeter. Some are made with barbecue sauce (think sweet and bottled), some are not. If I spent as much time on the road as they do, I'd probably see the patterns and understand which ingredients indicate which region of origin. I don't, though, and so I focus on what I think tastes great.

I'm not exactly sure why Z, a Pennsylvania boy by birth, is my King of Barbecue, but he is. Z and Mrs. Z enjoy what I lovingly refer to as a "mixed marriage." He is a Virginia Tech grad. She is an alum of the University of Virginia. For many, this is a rivalry which challenges Alabama/Auburn or Ohio State/Michigan in ferocity. They are the most fun, most generous, most caring people I know. Period.

When DH and I announced our intention to wed and relocate, the House of Z geared up for a party in our honor. House of Z parties are, simply, phenomenal. Great guests, abundant food and delicious drink, all set on beautiful grounds. These folks throw a fabulous party. All this after being up the entire night babysitting the barbecue - in both the noun and the verb forms.

Z made what seemed like TONS of his famous slow-cooked pork delicacy. His process involves soaking Boston Butt in a delightful concoction, then slow-cooking on the grill. All night. There is typically a generous amount of beer involved, too, although the recipe he provided indicates that the beer is for the chef, not the pork. When it's ready, Z slices this delicious dish and piles it high on the table for all to admire. Moaning is appropriate.

Not sharing this same penchant for overnight slow-roasting on the grill, I've adapted Z's recipe for the crockpot. Rather than slicing the finished product, I find it's perfect for "pulling", or shredding. I finally understand where the term "pulled pork" comes from. Add a little of the cooking liquid back in and it's EXACTLY the noun I enjoy on a bun with coleslaw on the side.

Z's Boston Butt (or, Chateau Jeaux-Naus Pulled Pork)

Boston Butt (about 5#), rinsed and patted dry. Place in slow cooker.

Combine in this proportion:
1T each garlic (raw, pressed), olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and Essence
Add two times as much Coke as vinegar to cover pork in slow cooker.

Cook on LOW for 8-12 hours.

When done, remove pork to a clean pan. Shred (I use two forks and pull the pork apart). Add enough cooking liquid to bring to desired consistency. Discard the remaining liquid and rinse slow cooker. Return pulled pork to slow cooker to keep warm until serving. Serve on hamburger buns with hot sauce.

Chateau Jeaux-Naus Cole Slaw

1/2 head cabbage, shredded

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 c. mayonnaise

2 T. horseradish

2 tsp. cider vinegar
1 pkt. sweetener
1/2 tsp. celery seed

freshly ground pepper, to taste

Combine dressing ingredients and mix well. Add to cabbage and carrots and mix well. Serve with additional mayonnaise, if desired.

My kids like this dish because it's the only time I'll spring for a big pack of soda and leave it mostly unattended for them to pilfer at will. I know there's a whole Coke-vs.-Pepsi cola war out there and one's preference indicates their region of origin. I've been known to use Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and even root beer (a nod to BBQ King Raichlin). Oh well.

Not-so Extreme Makeover, Menu Edition

2012-01-08T20:11:00.002-05:00

There's nothing like a little hospital drama and a surgical procedure to steer things back into focus.

DH has two sets of parents (well, four, if you count the two older sisters and their significant others, but I'll leave that one for another time). Both sets of parents have passed their 80th year and have substantial medical histories. One ushered in the New Year with an emergency heart procedure. After a single night of "recovery" in the hospital (as much as one can recover in a bright, noisy place like a hospital), this inlaw was sent home with an arterial stint, a nice big bruise, and a healthy diet plan.

DH remarked that any individual on the other side of 80 might have a difficult time changing practically everything about their diet. A change like this might be good for someone, oh, say, in their mid-40s who's been having trouble sleeping and was told by the doctor to lose weight and exercise more. DH and I both have heart disease, diabetes, and blood pressure complications in our family histories. The first recommendation for prevention of each of these conditions is to eat less and move more. Eat better, eat healthier. Move under your own power. We can do this. Our lives depend upon it.

The Dog is COMPLETELY on board. Walk, walk, walk. The Dog knows the word "walk" and practically leashes herself when she hears it. Wag, wag, wag.

Truthfully, this won't require much change around our kitchen, because (as we've demonstrated well already) I love to cook. From "scratch". I'm a veteran of many, many diet plans (mostly healthy and focused on fresh foods and portion control) and a life-long Weight Watcher. When I heard this buy-in from DH, I sprang into action. Well, not really, but it's given me something to really sink my teeth into. Figuratively, at least.

Seeing myself not only as the feeder of the flock but the caretaker of their nutrients and physiology has given me pause. I appreciate the daunting task ahead. Not only will I love my people by cooking them tasty food, I will cook them healthy food so I can love them all that much longer. Scaling back on the fats, sugars, and meats is a challenge, but not one we can't overcome. This does not mean a constant menu of diet salad (hold the mayo) and cottage cheese. Portion control is the elephant in the room. So to speak.

Well, this artisan blog has turned into a food blog as well, so why not?

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Today's bite is to reduce chemicals in our lives. Specifically, the additives and preservatives prevalent in prepared foods. I'm not a big fan of prepackaged food or mixes or anything, well, "convenient" because I find them high in sodium and other chemicals. That's not to say I'm a purist, and certainly not perfect, because you are still likely to find convenience foods in my cart on any given trip to the grocery.

However, as I cook more and experiment some and consult the world wide web of electronic information, I'm getting better at this. Better at finding healthy, tasty substitutions for some of the more-convenient and less-nutritious products out there. I get frustrated by company websites which use more prepackaged ingredients (which, of course, they sell) than what I call "elemental" ingredients, or food in its somewhat close-to-basic form. I'm not grinding my own wheat for flour, at least not yet, but I am perfectly capable of mixing flour and baking powder together. I don't need to buy it in a box and pay for the brand name and the chemicals required to give it a long shelf life. In the box.

As we cook more at home with fresher or simpler ingredients, we find it increasingly difficult to accept the saltiness of prepared-by-others foods. This means eating out less, because our choices here are limited. That's OK, too. We'll save the eating out for when we travel.

So, here's my favorite make-from-scratch, save-the-sodium, love my heart and DH's blood pressure substitution for... condensed cream of chicken (or cream of anything) soup.

Many, many of the working-mom-time-saving-recipes out there call for some sort of condensed cream soup. I've jettisoned a host of recipes simply because I refuse to keep these little cans of high blood pressure bait in the pantry.

Hold on, though. These little conveniences, laden with so much sodium one bite makes my body feel like it's at high tide, came from somewhere to fill some need. They were canned to replace something that was important to a lot of someones before they became so convenient.

That something is White Sauce. Sauce Bechamel, if you would like to be fancy - named for 17th-century French financier and courtier Louis de Bechamel. Probably found its way to the United States via Monticello. It has an "unassertive characther and smooth texture, which make it the ideal agent to thicken and bind a wide range of dishes". Thank you, Ethan Becker and Joy of Cooking.

If you make Bechamel the Joy way, it takes about 30 minutes and involves simmering milk gently to infuse the taste of bay leaf and cloves. I've done this and it makes a truly lovely sauce. It's worth it if the sauce is for finishing a dish.

If it's used for a binder in a casserole or a thickener for soup, however, the Joy version is far too fussy. Noted author and voracious reader Madeleine L'Engle wrote in her autobiography that she read constantly, even as she stirred the white sauce for dinner. That is the sort of not-fussy thickener/binder I want.

Here's what's in a white sauce: a little flour, some butter, some milk, some stock, and a little elbow grease. That's all. Maybe a dash of nutmeg to finish it up. No more time required than it would take to open and scrape out a tin can. A few fat calories and a couple of carbohydrates, but nothing a portion-controlled diet can't accommodate. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Hold the lemon.

Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute (for healthy hearts)
from http://bunsinmyoven.com/2011/05/04/cream-of-chicken-soup-substitute/

1 T. flour
3 T. butter
1/2 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. milk
salt and pepper (and a grind of nutmeg), to taste

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. When melted, whisk in the flour and continue whisking until smooth and bubbly.

Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the chicken broth and milk. Return to the heat and bring to a gentle boil, whisking constantly, until the soup thickens.

Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

Substitute this for one can of cream of chicken soup.

Substitution Queen thinks cream of celery or cream of mushroom are just as simple, with a little simmering of the vegetable in slightly salty water to make the veggie stock, then continue as written. I'll let you know.

Primarily New Hampshire

2012-01-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

Ah, Silly Season.

I'm not referring to the off-season of professional sports when drafts, posturing prior to contract negotiation, and other crazy team changes are made. Nor do I refer to the time when nothing happens in Parliament due to recess. Nor do I refer to an alien invasion unrealized until it's too late. My Silly Season is definitely IN season and completely in the realm of the realizable for those who consult any sort of mass media.

This is the season when two American states with tiny populations and a mere 11 Electoral College votes between them become the focus, and in some cases deciders, of the candidates opining for a place on the ballot for our next Presidential Election. This is the time when folks throughout the world, even here in southwest Virginia, learn that New Hampshire is, indeed, in the United States of America and is not a Canadian Province.

Having spent the majority of my formative years a resident of New Hampshire (who can resist the State Motto: Live Free or Die!), I feel at liberty to make some tongue-in-cheek observations about this very Silly Season.

Outside the single week following the Iowa Caucus and prior to the New Hampshire Primary, the population in New Hampshire is around 1.3 million*. People. Not counting moose, who are hard-pressed (haha) to hit that VOTE button with their cloven hooves. During Silly Season, though, you'll be looking for hotel rooms in Boston, because all those in (southern) NH are filled with the swelling population of candidates' entourages and mass media representatives.

Folks from "New Ham-sha" can be a fiercely independent bunch. Witness their state laws permitting voters to register as Undeclared and vote for whomever they choose, regardless of party affiliation, in whatever primary or election they wish. Freedom of choice: freedom to choose any candidate out there. Imagine my shock and disbelief when handed a primary ballot with only one party's candidates on it in a large mid-western state. New Hampshire also has the country's highest density of Libertarians. Live Free or Die.

As tiny as NH is in population, so is it in size. NH covers a mere 9,000 square miles, ranking 45th of the 50 US states. At its widest point (its border with Massachusetts), NH is only 68 miles wide. It has only 16 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline, and a 58-mile meandering border with Canada. There are only 190 miles between its borders with Canada and Massachusetts.

That's not to say that presidential hopefuls criss-cross every part of New Hampshire, attempting to shake every hand and meet every primary voter. Most candidates, particularly the serious ones, spend the majority of their time in the southern portion of the state where the majority of the population resides and the Boston stations cover news. Occasionally presidential hopefuls make that long trek (about 30 minutes on I-93) North to be seen in Concord, the state capital. Any candidate seen north of Concord has obviously lost their way and been separated from their entourage.

Outside Silly Season, in many ways New Hampshire's two distinct parts (Southern NH - that is, where the population is, south of Concord - and "The Boonies", all parts North) take on the appearance of their nearest neighbors, Massachusetts and Maine. Middle school students here in Virginia can't distinguish it from Vermont (in fact, they don't think of VT as a state at all but as the local Polytechnic University).

Again, though, the Granite State and its residents are very, very independent. Strongly independent. New Hampshire has a very high population of families from 'old colonial' ancestry, descendants from those original colonists who fled European tyranny. Several towns in NH carry my father's family name; I come from this stock, flavored by grandparents from Northern and Eastern Europe. Certainly this explains a lot.

NH is the only state in the Union which allows for revolution. There you go. Live Free or Die.

Remember that term "rugged individualism"? Herbert Hoover, our 31st President, from (coincidentally) Iowa, is remembered for this term and his belief that those in trouble should help themselves rather than expect others to help them. To me, rugged individualism is status quo in New Hampshire, or at least in our corner of it. Help yourself. Make a change if one is needed. Take charge of your own fate and fortune. Be responsible. This doesn't mean you oughtn't help others less fortunate or accept gifts gratefully, because folks in New Hampshire, despite the hard granite exterior, do have a deeply-seeded tradition of helping neighbors. Helping neighbors helps community. Helping community helps individuals. It's a wonderfully supportive concept. Just don't expect it. Help is a gift, not an entitlement. Now THAT explains a lot.

This isn't to say that New Hampshire folks are all the same, because they're certainly not. They're independent. Sometimes fiercely so. Right, wrong, rarely indifferent. Do not stereotype New Hampshirites as clothed in plaid and fur, huddled around a potbellied stove, riding snowmobiles to school. The political pundits know this, and recognize the power in the independent nature of the New Hampshire primaries. We'll know who wins the primary when all the votes are counted. Not one minute earlier. I'll be right here in my corner of Virginia rooting for my New Hampshire friends to make their choices honestly and independently, and to bask in the limelight before it turns away for another four years and New Hampshire goes back to the beautiful, quiet, unknown state I love.

Saturday's Weekend Edition on NPR brought back one of the fondest memories from my elementary school years: a field trip to a nearby sugar house. Many who travel to New England during the fall are taken aback by the beautiful colors deciduous leaves will turn when the weather becomes crisp. Much of New Hampshire's brilliant color (and subsequent tourist income) comes from the cascade of maple trees dotting its mountainsides. These trees also provide the clear-colored sap which, when collected and distilled in the sugar house, becomes rich, dark maple syrup. I can still smell the vats of syrup and wood fires burning.

I'm spoiled by many great memories and a taste for the finer things I've discovered while travelling through life. Fortunately, my family in Maine feeds some of these tastes regularly. We particularly appreciate the gallons of pure maple syrup which find their way via post to us here in Virginia around the holidays. I've never been able to tolerate the maple-flavored high fructose corn syrup, and as such, I don't order pancakes at a restaurant. So when we have them, it's at home and with The Real Thing.

Today, in honor of New Hampshire's brief 15 minutes of fame and in the spirit of using up what we have (the rest of the 2011 maple syrup stash), it's pancakes for breakfast at Chateau Jeaux-Naus.

Multi-Grain Flapjacks

based on a recipe from Joy of Cooking c1997.

Whisk together the following:

1 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/3 c. cornmeal

1/4 c. rolled oats (old-fashioned or quick-cooking)

1/4 c. wheat germ

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon and a pinch of freshly-grated nutmeg

Whisk together in another bowl:

1 3/4 c. milk

4 T. butter, melted and cooled

1/4 c. honey

3 eggs

Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and gently whisk them together, mixing just until combined. Spoon onto hot, seasoned griddle. Cook until the top of each pancake is speckled with bubbles and some have popped, then turn and cook until underside is lightly browned. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200degF oven.

Serve with pure maple syrup. Nothing else tastes quite right. Or left. Or undeclared.

*Facts from www.statemaster.com

Christmas Dinner for Two

2012-01-07T11:29:00.000-05:00

Here's another of my favorite sayings: Portion Control Begins at the Grocery.

While it seems odd to be discussing portion control amidst the year-end holidays, here we are. As I've been focusing on using up the contents of our refrigerator and freezer, I've been working on a better sense of portion control for myself, for my family, and for my food storage goals. Too much food results in overstuffed folks; too many leftovers result in science experiments located in the back of the refrigerator. All of this is waste, one of the main things I'm resolving to reduce drastically.

This year we didn't bother much about the holidays. We didn't bother to put up the tree. More accurately, we didn't bother hauling the tree down from the attic, a cumbersome task on the best of days. We didn't bother to do any decorating at home, didn't bother to send cards, didn't bother much with gifts. We didn't find the time.

My children spend their holidays with the OP (Other Parent). Our family traditions are folded into the every day "regular time" experiences we share, rather than saved up for specific days and times. This a mixed-up, messed-up time of year for me.

The lack-of-bother helped me clarify the value of some tradition and the ridiculousness of much of the rest. This year, I focused more on what each of the holidays means to me and which parts of our family tradition I don't want to let go. It was much, much, much less about things and much, much, much more about love. For me, a big part of love is food. Food = Love. In so many, many ways.

Food has always been a large part of our lives, and never more so than at Christmas. During my youth, we spent many Christmas holidays at my grandmother's house (yes, over the river and through the woods, but the horse was a V8, it took 3 hours to get there, and it only snowed about half the time). Those are my favorite memories, by far, of Christmas. Most of my mom's immediate family would be there in my gram's big New England house and we'd spend a week preparing and playing. There would be skiing, hot chocolate, shopping, snow forts, decorating, and (of course!) baking and cooking. There was always plenty of food, and every family member's favorites were solicited and prepared. We ate and snacked and nibbled and ate again. Constantly. My Oldest Uncle once advised "You can't leave Dot's kitchen without a calorie," as he stuck his hand into one of the storage tins, winked at me, and raised another treat to his mouth.

The highlights of this wondeful season are numerous and polished well with the passing of time. There are too many to share in a dozen posts, although a 12-memories-of-Christmas essay sounds like fun. In the future.

This is a which-traditions-I-kept-this-year-when-I-skipped-Christmas post. This month's theme is food. This is where we hit the EASY button. I promise.

When I planned my Christmas escape this year, I planned activities and menus. I love making menus, copying recipes, and making shopping lists. Love, love, love. Two summers ago we vacationed for a week in a State Park cabin, and I had a four-meal-a-day-for-a-week menu plan, complete with recipes and shopping list, and as many pre-made food kits as possible. I planned to shop once and not leave the Park after we arrived. No doubt I'm my mother's daughter: we did this often as we prepared for camping or backpacking deep in the Maine woods, nary another human for miles, let alone a supermarket.

My menu focus this year was on using what we have already, PLUS easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy recipes which allow more relaxing and less working. Pack what we need, make one small grocery run for the things which don't travel well, and live with it once we're there. I had a great plan.

We spent $200 at the grocery store. So much for portion control. So much for packing what we needed. Note to self: Take the day off to pack and stick to the plan. Throwing everything together in 10 minutes before take-off doesn't work for air travel, nor for this sort of trip. It does result in many miles of aggressive silence during the ride.

I digress. Again.

We had two big meals at Gram's during the Christmas season: the Christmas Eve Smorgasbord (a nod to my grandfather's Swedish heritage) and Christmas Dinner, usually mid-afternoon on Christmas Day. I wasn't giving either of these traditions up, but they were going to get a serious makeover. Rather than feeding a dozen or more and needing a week's worth of leftovers to feed our largish extended family of Christmases past, this year we'd be feeding two, no leftovers required. Rather than a month of preparation, we had a day. This is a serious makeover.

Christmas Dinner at Mama Dot's was a huge affair. She had the biggest, longest dining room table I've ever seen. The menu included ham and turkey, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, carrots with orange and brown sugar, home made yeast rolls, pearl onions in a cream sauce, and many other dishes I'm forgetting. When Aunty was alive, she hosted Christmas Dinner and it included onion soup. Dessert included pies, cookies, and candy. It all came from Gram's tiny kitchen (no bigger than mine), and many, many hours of loving preparation. It was truly wonderful. Particularly because in those days my only responsibility was "stay out of the kitchen." Whew.

These days I prefer everyone else to stay out of the kitchen and let me chef. Call me selfish, silly, or simply controlling, but I love to cook. Even more, I love to feed. Feeding people = LOVE. Love people. Cook them tasty food. (Thanks, Penzey's Spices, for another great slogan). It's one thing I CAN do for those I love.

So here we are. Christmas Dinner for Two. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy (hold the lemon). DH LOVED it, particularly because it was done so quickly and effortlessly. He kept saying "this is done already?" This may have been commentary on how long it takes me to prepare things at home. No comment!

Pork Tenderloin with Cardamon-CranApple Jam and Winter Vegetables
Serves more than two, with plenty of leftovers

Pork tenderloin (rinsed, patted dry, and butterflied)
Fresh rosemary sprigs
Fresh garlic, sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Sweet potato, baked and mashed
Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup)
Salt and pepper (freshly ground, to taste)
Maple syrup (about 1 T.)

Brussels sprouts, trimmed (about 1/2 lb. fresh)
Carrots, peeled and sliced (2 or 3 carrots)
Onion, sliced (about 1/2 c.)
Dill (about 1 tsp.)
1 tsp. sugar
Olive oil

Take-and-bake loaf of bread
Butter, softened for spreading, or oil-and-balsamic-vinegar for dipping

Cardamom CranApple Jam (see previous post) or any other sort of chutney, jam, sauce, etc.

Preheat oven to 350degF.

Rinse pork tenderloin and pat dry. Butterfly. Line inside with sprigs of rosemary and sliced garlic. Add a few grinds of salt and pepper. Close up tenderloin (tie if you wish, but we didn't). Place in oiled baking dish. Grind a little more salt and more pepper on the top. If you have pancetta or another sliced, cured meat, layer it on the top of the pork loin. Cover with foil and seal well (to keep juices inside and pork moist).

Wash sweet potato. Prick skin with fork several times. Wrap in foil (this prevents any of the potato juices from escaping onto the oven bottom or coil - this is a holiday; you don't want to be cleaning the oven when dinner's over).

Place both pork and sweet potato in oven. Check sweet potato after about 30 minutes (it's done when you squeeze it gently and it gives); remove when done and let it sit until cool enough to handle.

Mash sweet potato and mix with salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Add a little butter if you wish. Place in greased baking dish. Drizzle maple syrup on top. Cover with foil.

Prepare carrots, brussels sprouts, and onions; place in a large skillet. Add about 1/2 c. water (about 1/4 inch in the skillet). Cover.

Check pork after about an hour (cooking time will depend on size of tenderloin). Remove foil and allow to brown on top (or the cured meat on top to crisp), another 15 minutes or so. Remove from oven and allow to rest. Internal temperature will continue to rise. Pork is done when internal temperature is 170degF.

While pork is resting, braise the vegetables and bake the bread:

Crank the oven up and bake the bread according to package directions.Bring the water in the skillet to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat down and simmer the vegetables for about 5 minutes until crisp-tender (longer if you like them softer), then turn off the heat. Add the sugar, dill, salt and pepper (if desired), and drizzle with olive oil. Stir to combine. Cover until ready to serve.

When bread is done, remove to cutting board and turn oven off. Put sweet potato "casserole" into oven to heat through.

Remove rosemary sprigs from pork before slicing. Serve with sweet potato, winter vegetables, a dollop of Cardamom Cran-Apple Jam, and bread.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll confess that we made this dinner the first night we dined at the cabin, Christmas Eve Eve, anticipating leftovers (the only pork loin the grocery had was large enough to feed Gram's extended family). We noshed on it the rest of our time there and a while longer. We came home with leftovers and leftover leftovers, but we ate every single bite.

So THERE! for portion control. Sort of.

This One's Crummy

2012-01-07T07:33:00.001-05:00

What did I do with the leftover applesauce cake?

While I had a LOT of recommendations to make bread pudding, I didn’t think the cake would hold together enough, nor did I expect anyone (other than me) to eat it. Since the cake was so dry and crumbly, I crumbled it all the way and toasted it, like fine grit bread crumbs, in a “slow oven” (about 200degF) for well over 30 minutes. Then the idea of a fruit crumble with a breadcrumb-like top occurred to me.

Well…! The fridge still had some fresh cranberries, a couple of apples, and sweet potatoes. There’s all this vanilla syrup around. Let’s experiment!

It worked surprisingly well. It smelled delicious. It must be terribly sweet. I don’t know… had to leave the warm crumble on the stove for DH to take to our Sunday School taste-testers. We’re off to the pool…

Harvest Crumble Sweet potato, cranberry, apple with crumb topping and white sauce

(inspired by Food Network’s Apple Crumble with Cardamom-Vanilla Caramel Sauce from chef Melissa d’Arabian)

Sweet potato (about 2 c.), diced small (about ½” cubes) and par-cooked until soft
Apple (2), sliced thinly
Cranberries (about 1 c.), chopped
Lemon (zest and juice)

Mix ingredients together and place in baking dish. Mine fit in a standard quiche pan.

Crumb topping:

I used 4 T. butter, melted,
mixed with about 2 c. leftover applesauce cake, crumbled and toasted.

Sauce:

1 c. vanilla syrup
1 T. butter
½ c. yogurt (the recipe called for cream, but I was out… so I substituted!)

Warm vanilla syrup gently in small saucepan. Add butter; when butter is melted and bubbly, remove from heat. Add yogurt and whisk until smooth. Pour over crumble.

Bake, covered, at 325 degF for about 30 minutes, until it is heated through and smells delicious. Remove cover and bake another 10 minutes until top is crispy.

Prepare sauce and pour over top. It’s VERY sweet; enjoy with coffee and milk!

It's All My Fault

2012-01-07T07:12:00.000-05:00

Another Pesto Post.

I wrote this post back in mid-December (during Marathon Swim Meet, I'm sure) but didn't get it posted for one reason or another (probably because it mentions a gift I still haven't given). Ah, whatever. Welcome to my world. Here it is:

I had a poll going, over in the right column. It caused me to change my blog format because it was unreadable. It asked the question: which of these items will be the most difficult for me to use up? Cocktail onions? Easy - marinated olives (which, by the way, turned out to be a BIG hit). The lemon balm wasn’t a big concern. At least for you, dear readers (all four of you who voted in the poll!). For me? I’m stumped. Or, I was.

I harvested a huge batch of lemon balm from my garden. It took to our clay soil and my farming plan called “neglect” – and we had a huge crop. Problem is, I had no idea what to do with it. I tried a few things, but they were horrid. Still, I packed it away in the freezer for an inspired day.

That day is here. My friend (First Janet) brought it on this week when we caught each other two-timing at our regular sushi restaurant (there is one here in our corner of southwest Virginia, in a former Golden Corral building – what a vast improvement). I was there with DH, she with a gaggle of girlfriends.

FJ has taken up the refrigerator challenge with me, making MUCH more progress than we have. I’d like to think it’s because she has a large tribe which eats as much as a small army and pretty much cleaned her out after Thanksgiving when they and their significant others rolled out. My tribe is both small in number and rather finicky.

Apparently FJ has a sparkling white, empty refrigerator, anticipating the coming holidays, when it will be filled in preparation for the return of her tribe. In the meantime, there’s nothing to eat but ketchup, mustard, and some other stray condiment. It’s all “my” fault that she had to go out to lunch with her friends. Sure it is.

Well, to take care of my pal, I’ve decided to give her a care package: two pastas and two pestos. Score three for me: a holiday gift for my friend, and two more items leave my fridge disguised as gifts. You’ve already met Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto. Here’s Lemon Balm Pesto, courtesy of allrecipes.com. Just in time to rescue FJ, her Beloved, and my family for a quick supper during this exceptionally busy week ahead.

Lemon Balm Pesto Spaghetti
(from www.allrecipes.com/recipe/lemon-balm-pesto-spaghetti)

2 c. lemon balm leaves
½ c. olive oil
4 cloves garlic

Combine these three ingredients in a food processor. Process until combined but still slightly chunky. Reserve in glass jars for up to two weeks (in the refrigerator).

1 (8 oz.) pkg. spaghetti, cooked al dente (about 12 minutes) and drained well.
1 (16 oz.) can whole tomatoes, undrained
3 onions, chopped
5 dried shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and diced
½ tsp. arrowroot
½ tsp. salt

Combine tomatoes, onions, and dried mushrooms in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Cook until the tomato liquid has partially evaporated, about 15 minutes. Stir in the arrowroot, salt, and prepared lemon balm pesto. Simmer to blend the flavors and thicken the sauce, about 5 minutes.

Serve the lemon balm pesto sauce over the hot cooked spaghetti.

Substitution Queen's Notes:

1. Arrowroot powder is used as a thickener. I don’t have any. Substitution Queen would use corn starch or flour dissolved in a little cold water. According to my new favorite book, The Food Substitution Bible (Second Ed.) by David Joachim (had to get this the minute I saw it!), 2 tsp. arrowroot thickens 1 c. liquid, as does 1 T. quick-cooking tapioca (don’t have that either), 1 tsp. instant mashed potato flakes (ditto), 1 ½ tsp. cornstarch (now we’re talking) or 1 heaping T. all-purpose flour. Since the recipe calls for ½ tsp. arrowroot, or about ¼ the portion size in this Bible, I’ve decided to use about 1 tsp. flour (about ¼ a heaping T.) dissolved in a little water.

2. Dried shiitake mushrooms are difficult to find here in southwest Virginia. The Food Substitution Bible suggests substituting 8 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms for 1 ½ oz. dried. Since the recipe didn’t give a package weight for the dried mushrooms, I say go for it – add the whole package of fresh mushrooms if it looks right to you. One consideration is that the fresh mushrooms will add liquid to the sauce while the dried mushrooms would have the opposite effect, so you might want to bump up the thickener a little, but I probably wouldn’t. Depends on what it looks like!

3. I already have a nice batch of leftover spaghetti sauce, with onions and mushroom and some errant meatballs, in the fridge, so I plan to use it up instead. Another win!

If I’d been thinking, I would have taken my entire jar of pickled ginger with me to the sushi place. Now THAT particular refrigerator gem has me worried. Pickled ginger chips? Hmm…

Date Night... or... The Day I Found Food Network

2011-12-30T03:40:00.000-05:00

I really don't watch television much. My standard answer to "Did you see the one..." is "Was it on television? That's why I missed it."

We have busy lives conducive to listening, not watching, so my media of choice is radio. It's all the better now we can stream Internet and podcasts on our Sonos (shameless promotion of an excellent experience!).

During my five years as a single mom (in the early "aught" years), we didn't even have cable (gasp!). We had an old TV (one you have to get up to change the channel) and a set of rabbit ears. Five stations if the weather was clear and we held our mouths right.

So... at some point in 2005ish, the now-DH and I spent a weekend at (another shameless promotion of an excellent experience) Cooper's Landing Inn and Traveler's Tavern in lovely Clarksville, VA. Find them on the web, book a room for a luxurious weekend of pampered privacy and unbelievable food. They now offer weekend cooking class packages. Tell Les and Nichol we sent you. They'll remember us and tell funny stories, I promise.

One of the things we found there in our lovely Mid-Summer Night's lodging was a television with cable. DH flipped the channels. I found it dull. Until he found this thing called "Food Network." This I could watch. My favorite thing: food. My other favorite thing: easy. We watched a single episode by an engaging host preparing a simple, low-cost meal for a small dinner party. Hey! We can do that ourselves! Oh, and they have a website, so I can go home and pull up the recipes from this episode on my personal computer. It almost made me wish for cable - one of those wishes which comes with the clarifying "and the time to watch it."

The engaging host was Dave Lieberman and the show was Good Deal. Who wouldn't fall in love with a handsome fellow whose mission is "to teach people how to live, eat, and entertain like royalty, even on a commoner's budget"?

While I never saw another episode on TV, I did become a regular visitor to the network's website. At the time, it was an easy-to-use interface with a great number of excellent recipes for many, many occasions. It was a new world for me. I celebrated by putting together an entire looseleaf binder of recipes. Still have it and use it whenever I'm looking for inspiration.

In the years since, we've subscribed to cable and I've been in and out of regular work, so I've watched a fair share of Food Network and HGTV and (sigh) got hooked on NCIS. So much so that I was doing a lot of watching (great for folding laundry time) but not a lot of doing. Now I'm back to the "who has time for TV?" days and finds Food Network's internet site much less useful (I think it has to do with the auxiliary ads and animated graphics and my aged computer). Fortunately, I still have the binder.

This particular episode, Rush Hour, is full of fantastic and price-conscious recipes which can literally be on the table with limited fuss and time. It's perfect for our home "date nights" because each of us has a role in preparation, it's done with little prep, and is on the table inside 30 minutes. These dishes, together, are a symphony of taste and texture. Spicy meat, tangy salad, and creamy grits.

Oh, right. Grits. Got that north-v-south dictionary ready?

When I turned 18, my parents left home. Seriously. Specifically, the week after I graduated from high school, my folks packed up the house and moved south. 'Way south. South Alabama south. About as far south as we were north. The only thing I knew about Alabama was what little we learned about the Civil Rights Movement in history class and that Oh Susannah and her banjo came from there. Talk about a culture shock.

Well, a shock for everyone in the family but me. I had a summer job and lodging lined up at home and was headed to University nearby in the fall. Everyone moved except me. Their version of this experience (my sister refers to it more as "trauma") is vastly different than mine. For me, it's largely anecdotal and much easier to find humorous. My sister was not amused.

My folks' most popular topic of discussion was the interesting gastronomical experiences they were having. They learned a lot about a lot of things they'd never experienced. Like catfish camps, hushpuppies, biscuits and gravy, sweet tea (that's another whole post, trust me), fried chicken, (well, fried ANYTHING), and grits.

Grits, to me, were the errant sand flecks which inevitably got into my sandwich at the beach or when the mussels didn't get washed thoroughly. Oh, and that wonderful line from a '70s sit-com: "Kiss my grits!" Grits as a voluntary food item was just, well, wierd. I recall we tried them ONCE at home; no one was impressed. Mom's take on this ubiquitous breakfast side dish in the South was that it was simply a medium to convey more butter to one's mouth (she has a similar observation about lettuce, salad dressing, and certain men in our family). I think I tried grits once again on a visit to Alabama. I opt for the toast or home fries option when I order breakfast. Keep the grits.

The odd thing is that I love Cream of Wheat. I prefer it to oatmeal (which I also like very much) for a hot breakfast, with maple syrup or brown sugar rather than butter, salt, and pepper. In their naked form, Cream of Wheat and grits look very similar. This dichotomy is not lost on me, but I can't seem to make it funny, so I'll just leave it there.

Here in mid-Atlantic Virginia, near the North Carolina border, grits are generally an option to toast, biscuits, and home fries for breakfast. Even DH, a southwest Virginia boy, will usually opt for the potatoes. Occasionally we'll see shrimp and grits on a menu, and my New Jersey-native Alabama-educated friend KK is WELL known for her version of this southern standard. I'd probably opt for rice instead, although if given the opportunity to have KK's, I'll stick with what she gives me. She's an EXCELLENT cook and I'm an appreciative guest.

Then I met Dave Lieberman and Food Network. This show featured not only a tasty preparation of a thrifty cut of meat but also a side dish of cheesy grits. I recall clearly our reaction to this: "Oh. I might actually like grits prepared that way." Oh, yes, yes we do. We certainly do. Cheesy grits are a perfect companion to the spicy steak - smooth and creamy and a little bit sweet to balance the bite of the steak and the acid in the salad. WOW.

So here are two and a half of the recipes from Rush Hour. Follow the link below to the first one; there's a link to the episode and all of the recipes on the website. Enjoy!

Dry Rubbed London Broil
4-6 servings, depending on the size of the steak
from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/dry-rubbed-london-broil-recipe/index.html

1 (2#) London broil
2 T olive oil
1 recipe Dave's Rub (recipe follows)

Rub London broil with olive oil and coat generously with the dry rub. Let stand about 15 minutes at room temperature.

(This is where DH takes over. As the inimitable Rita Rudner observed: Men will cook as long as there's danger involved. My man loves his grill.)

Preheat grill. Grill meat about 5 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Remove from heat and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing on the bias.

Two notes:
1. Do NOT overgrill this. Seriously. Wave it over the grill. Do NOT walk away. Err on the side of less time, particularly if you like your steak on the pink side. The meat will continue to cook while it's resting. It will be tough if you cook it too long.
2. Slicing on the bias is important; it helps make the steak easier to chew. Trust me.

Dave's Rub
Mix ingredients together thoroughly in a small bowl:

2 T. chili powder
1 T. dried oregano
1 T. sweet paprika
2 tsp. garlic powder
4 pinches salt
15 grinds black pepper

Note: in a pinch, mix 2 T. Essence with 2 T. chili powder. Food Network also had a recipe for Essence, and I mixed up a batch some time ago. It's pretty much the same, save the chili powder.

Cheddar Cheesy Grits
Makes 4 servings.

1 1/2 c. whole milk (skim works fine, but buttermilk was too tangy for my taste)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. instant grits
1/2 c. sharp white Cheddar, grated

Scald milk with salt in saucepan over medium heat until little bubbles appear round the outside. Slowly whisk in the grits and continue whisking until the mixture barely simmers. Cook, whisking often, until very thick (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in cheese until melted and smooth. Serve immediately.

Creamy Red Wine Viniagrette
Makes enough for 4 salads.

1/2 large shallot, minced (I use 1 tsp. bottled shallots because that's what's in my fridge)
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
25 grinds freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 T. olive oil
salt

Whisk together first four ingredients in large bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil until homogeneous. Season with salt to taste.

Dave adds a head of red leaf lettuce (washed, dried, cut into large chiffonade), tosses gently, and serves. We ususally do this. I get the first serving, DH gets the second, more-dressed (more mayo!) helping closer to the bottom of the bowl.

We have no lettuce today, and it's chilly, so Substitution Queen went to work with succotash in mind:

I mixed up a half-batch of the dressing.
I heated 1c. each frozen green beans, edmame, and corn in my micro-cooker. Beans first (2 min), added edmame (another 2 min), added corn (final 2 min).

I mixed them together. Fantastic!

A note about timing:

The cheesy grits are the last thing to be done. When DH heads out to the grill, I make the salad dressing and toss it with the vegetables. The grits don't need to be started until the steak come back in to rest and be sliced. It's a perfect balance of food and marital harmony in the kitchen: grits "fixing" keeps me from getting in the way of man and grill and sharp knife.

Moosewood Marathon

2011-12-29T16:47:00.002-05:00

Several of us in the office today had a discussion about "hippie". What's hippie? What's hip? Does hip hop figure in? Ah, I'd run back to the dictionary (north-v-south again), but this one I know well and live and will attempt to explain.

I have a dear friend (and previous contributor to this blog) whom I've referred to in conversation as my "hippie friend". Her parents have lived all over the world. They settled in Vermont, and drove a VW bus. We've been friends since Girl Scout camp. She's a lot of things I'm not brave enough to be. I value her choices, her passion, her restraint, her confidence, and the difficulties she's overcoming. When I say "hippie", I mean it as a term of reverence.

Hippie is a lot more than tie-dye and whatever religion one proclaims, because I've known both tie-dyed Jesus freaks and tie-dyed atheists. Hippie is not a cult, it's a culture. Just as our American or Southern or Northern or Red Sox or Steelers or Baptist or Methodist or Tea Party or Occupy nations band together over a common idol/ideal, Hippie is also a nation. You can be a hippie just by adopting a single un-traditional method.

A good friend has referred to ME as HER "hippie friend" because I bake bread. Bread from scratch. From scratch occasionally.

Hippie is, clearly, non-conformism to some standard set by some individual or group at some random point. Hippie is more a label bequeathed than adopted or embraced. Hippie, I've decided, describes those who seem to be less-put-together-than-the-beholder. Beauty, as we know, is in the eye of the Beholder. So Hippies are the anathema to beauty.

NOT! Hippies are The Beautiful People.

To distill all this (and get to the recipes), I believe Hippies are simply brave. These are the folks brave enough to do something, anything, a little differently. From growing organic eggs to recycling to making peace necklaces for volunteers to baking homemade bread to leading peaceful sing-a-longs to marrying your love barefoot to participating in a co-op of any kind. These are my friends who embrace not only life but also value the health of each other and our Earth.

Sometimes I'm brave, many other times I'm not. I'm glad for my friends, for those who are and who aren't Hippie.

Today's recipes come from a duo of my favorite all-time cookbooks, the Moosewood Cookbook and it's follow-up, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Both by Mollie Katzen. The Moosewood Restaurant flourished in upstate Ithaca NY for many years. Mollie, a cook (and visionary), captured their best and brightest recipes in these cookbooks which dominated our youth in crunchy-granola-northern-New-Hampshire in the 1970s and 1980s.

Somehow, in our remote location, we had access to an order-only co-op which provided raw grains and nuts and wholesome bulk foods at extremely reasonable prices. Every month my mom and her friends tallied orders and distributed goods. I learned a great deal about wholesome foods, bulk ordering, and the value of an active group who worked together. I live in a similar remote location now, and suspect there is a natural-food network out there, but haven't yet determined how to build it. This is a "hippie" dream.

In the meantime, I make do with the ingredients I can find at the local grocery and these beloved cookbooks stolen from my mom many years ago. Honestly, I gave her updated versions and made off with the older copies. I love them falling apart and lovingly stained with food or comments on the best pages.

So here are a couple of winners from Mollie and the folks at Moosewood. The first is a family favorite, full of mushrooms and great taste. The second is one I've modified to fit our refrigerator challenge.

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

based on a recipe from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977

Serves 4 richly.

12 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 c. onion, chopped
4 T. butter (I use 2)

3 T. flour

1 c. milk
2 tsp. dill weed (divided)
1 T. Hungarian paprika
1 T. tamari (or soy sauce)
1 tsp. salt (I leave this out and add later at table if needed)
2 c. stock (or water - if water, add the salt; if stock, leave it out)
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 c. fresh parsley, chopped
fresh-ground pepper to taste
1/2 c. sour cream (or plain yogurt or buttermilk)

In a large skillet, saute the onions in half of the butter. Add mushrooms, 1 tsp. dill, 1/2 c. stock/water, tamari and paprika. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Melt remaining butter in soup pot. Whisk in flour and cook, whisking, a few minutes. Add milk. Cook, whisking frequently, over low heat about 10 minutes - until thick. Stir in mushroom mixture and remaining stock/water. Cover and simmer 10-15 min. Just before serving, add salt, pepper, lemon juice, sour cream, and if desired, extra dill. Serve garnished with parsley and a loaf of crusty bread.

End of the Year Cauliflower-Cheese Soup
based on a recipe from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977
marked "Yummy" in my mother's handwriting

We're in what-the-heck-why-not refrigerator emptying mode, so Substitution Queen has her crown on today!

makes 4-5 servings

2 c. potato chunks (Ha! First Substitution right here. No Potatoes). I used rice.
2 c. cauliflowerets
1 c. carrot, chopped (Second Subs. No carrots). I used celery.
3 med. cloves garlic, crushed
1 c. onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 c. water or stock (I used water and vegetable stock concentrate)

Place these ingredients together in a pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 15 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Puree the entire mixture in the blender until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a kettle (double-boiler if you have it). Heat gently and whisk in:

1 1/2 c. cheddar, grated
3/4 c. milk
1/4 tsp. dill (left this out this time, see Subs #1 below)
1/4 tsp. ground dill or caraway seed (left this out)
1/4 tsp. dried mustard (left this out as well)
black pepper

Steam or saute another 1 1/2 c. cauliflowerets (skipped this; ran out above).

Just before serving, whisk in 3/4 c. buttermilk and stir in steamed cauliflower. Serve topped with chopped scallions and extra cheese or a dollop of sour cream or yogurt.

First Substitution: The role of the potatoes, primarily, is to thicken the soup. The veggies are cooked, then pureed in the blender. This results in a creamy soup which doesn't rely solely on dairy products and fat. Yes, we add both a little later, but in far smaller quantities than needed as the starch thickens so beautifully.

So instead of potatoes, we used rice. The leftover rice from DH's porkchop dinner - remember that small country we had enough to feed (overcooked? no problem!). This was a little out there as a substitution because the rice was spiced and had vegetables in it, but what the heck, why not! We're using what we have! As a result, I left the majority of the spice in the second part of the rice and chose to adjust just before serving. All it needed (in my opinion!) was a little more pepper.

Second Substitution: We're out of carrots. We have an entire bunch of celery (because celery is ubiquitous with mayonnaise and salad, and we still have mayonnaise to use), and my Food Substitutions Bible says Do It! So I chopped up two stalks of celery and threw it in. Realizing the celery wouldn't provide that nice orangey-color to the soup, I threw in that tiny jar of pimentos hanging out in the fridge as well.

The verdict? Pretty darned good. The absence of dill and presence of soy sauce (from the rice mixture) with the cheddar cheese flavor was a little off, so I added some dill and all was well. DH loved it!

A picture of my copy of Moosewood Cookbook, purloined from Mom's house (my excuse was that I bought her new editions, with pictures, but the real reason was because I wanted all the notes inside!). The binding's been "repaired" to little avail. This is a well-used (=loved) copy. I wouldn't part with it willingly.

Better Marinated Olives

2011-12-28T18:27:00.000-05:00

I love olives. Black olives, green olives, olives with pits, olives stuffed with garlic, olives whole or chopped or ground into tapenade. Last year I marinated the best olives I could find (filled out with the only olives I could find in the grocery) using a recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. They were wonderful, and beautiful too, although drenched in olive oil, most of which was leftover when the olives were long gone.

2011's diet allowed me "MUFA"s in abundance: mono-unsaturated fats (the "good fats"), to be consumed with every meal in appropriate portions. Hello, olives! Our refrigerator has collected a nice collection of tapenades (green olive, black olive, even roasted red pepper with olive). Some bought, some home-made. Olives now can be found in the grocery in single-serving packs, perfect for lunch boxes and picnic baskets. Olive oil is also a MUFA. So are nuts: almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, all those wonderfully crunchy delights. This girl LOVED this diet!

Marinated olives were at the top of my easy-and-lovely Christmas Eve smorgasbord menu. I found another recipe online which was much simpler, but still called for SO MUCH olive oil. Three cups for one jar of olives. THREE CUPS of olive oil. That would dress 3 c * 16 T/c = 48 salads. The green, diet salads, where 1 T. is a serving. The marinade was good, the olives poor (the local grocery only had canned black olives available). It was quick, it was easy, and we had olives. I preferred last year's recipe, not just because the olives were better.

Then, by courtesy of the internet, I stumbled upon today's recipe. Warm Marinated Olives with only 1/2 c. olive oil. NOW we're talking. This recipe is similar to Martha's with substantially less oil. It does require some waiting - you know, marinating - for several days as the flavors meld (we refer to this step as "get happy"). MARINATE. A little patience, great results, and a little bonus: I added that bottle of cocktail onions I'd been worried about using, an open bottle of good green olives, and the rest of the olives from Christmas Eve. That's THREE empty containers. Delicious!

Warm Marinated Olives
Based on this recipe: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/warm-marinated-olives.aspx
Yields 2 cups.

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 medium cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

Grated zest of 1 lemon (the original recipe called for orange and lemon zests, but we're out of oranges, so lemon zest it is)

3 branches fresh rosemary leaves

1 large or 2 small dried Turkish bay leaves (see note about these)

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Generous pinch of ground allspice

2 cups olives (green picholine and black Kalamata recommended)

1 jar (3 oz. less a few martinis) cocktail onions (remember, we're using things up here)

Heat the oil and garlic in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-low heat until the garlic turns golden, about 3 minutes. Add the zest, rosemary, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, and allspice and sizzle for 2 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add the olives and onions and toss to coat. Transfer to a bowl to cool, then cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, for at least 2 days and up to 1 week.

Just before serving, gently reheat the olive mixture in a small saucepan over low heat until warmed through, 2 to 3 minutes. Scoop the olives and aromatics into a serving bowl and pour a bit of the oil on top. Serve warm.

A note about my zester: I had a zester. It's location and fate is still unknown. Enter a Superior Substitution.

While shopping at a nearby TJ Maxx (the source of much great cooking gear at reasonable prices, if you want what they have), I found this Microplane grater needing a good home. It's "for chocolate". I couldn't pass that up. There may be better graters out there, but I haven't found them. Microplane is a gold-grater-standard.

It's really for shaving anything you'd dream of - hard cheese, chocolate, and (YES!) it works fantastically for shaving lemon skin to make zest. I'd tried using my first-born Microplane for zest, but it's a fine grater - the yield was too high, more oily and fluffy, not substantial enough to be considered "zest". Perfect for fine-grated Parmesan cheese, but not so good for lemons. This younger, bolder sister, is my new zester. Hmm... zester/sister. Much in common.

Oh, and about the Turkish bay leaves. They are superior because they're softer and lend a better flavor faster in a saute or infusion like this marinade. With a week's notice, I can order them from Penzey's. If I think about it, I'll pick up some next time I'm in Richmond.

Today, though, I have standard dried bay leaves on hand. They're tough as leather (or magnolia leaves, for any of you, like me, who've dealt with a magnolia tree near the house) and release fanastic flavor when stewed or steeped. I threw a couple into this mix, then IMMEDIATELY thought I should have substituted a few fresh sage leaves from the plant still thriving in my kitchen garden. Perhaps I should have added the bay leaves when I added the garlic, giving it the maximum exposure to heat and liquid. Maybe the Food Muse will grace me and this two-day-to-one-week marinating time will allow the bay leaves to give up their earthy flavor.

We'll see. Taste testing begins with Friday Night Tapas. I'm confident.

Creamy Vegetable Soup

2011-12-28T06:51:00.000-05:00

No fancy title here, because there's nothing fancy here. Just GOOD eating.

When I booked the state park cabin for the Christmas holidays, I wasn't expecting company. I planned a retreat with my Bernina, The Dog, and my cross-trainers. With that plan came good, nourishing food requiring minimal preparation and hearty flavors. I planned for cold, even for loss of power. I did not plan for company.

Sometime between booking and checking-in, DH decided to join me. I sewed less, walked more, and had a continuously-stoked fire in the fireplace. This was a blessedly simple holiday.

Creamy Vegetable Soup

adapted from http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Creamy-Vegetable-Soup-2

which serves 12-16!

While the ingredients list is long and the recipe a little fussy, it was ready in 30 minutes.

This version serves 2 generously (really, it's probably four servings, but we had just hiked 4 miles and were hungry). It also cleaned a few more things out of the refrigerator and freezer. Also, two of my favorite words: NO leftovers!

1/3 huge onion, chopped (about 1/2 c.)

2 T. butter

1 med. sweet potato, peeled and cubed (about 1/4" dice)

1/2 bunch broccoli (about 5 crowns), chopped

1 med. zucchini, chopped (sliced about 1/4" thick)
1 carton chicken broth
1 med. potato, peeled and shredded (I used a handful of uncooked hash brown potatoes from the freezer)
1 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt (I used less and adjusted at the table)
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 c. half-and-half (I used buttermilk)

Saute onions in butter. Add sweet potato and broccoli; saute gently until crisp-tender (about 5 minutes). Add zucchini and saute a minute or two longer. Add chicken broth, simmer another 5 minutes. Add shredded potato and all seasonings. Cook another 10 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Stir in cream and heat through.

Ensalada Enlightenment

2011-12-27T19:20:00.001-05:00

Salad. What could be easier than salad?

Seems it depends on your definition of "salad".

When I start talking about definitions, you know I'm headed toward the difference between North and South (which in itself is an interesting definition, since from where we viewed the world while growing up, almost everywhere in the United States was south).

Perhaps this is good opportunity to review, for historical reference, where the Mason-Dixon Line falls. Directly across the bottom of Pennsylvania. Of which I now live south, but grew up much further north of. Damn Yankee indeed (you know, those pesky folks from the North who move South and STAY. DAMN!). Please be nice about my use of prepositions, Oh Great Grammar Queens.

Anyway, back to "salad".

In the days of my youth, salad was both a blessing and a curse. Mom made potato salad (with crunchy celery and peas and hard-boiled eggs, a touch of mustard and vinegar, then a little mayonnaise to hold it all together). A little mayonnaise. We also ate tuna salad and chicken salad, usually with celery, onion, pepper, and a little mayonnaise. A little mayonnaise.

All other salads were diet salads. The curse of being overweight. Lettuce and other raw vegetables with a mere Tablespoon of Italian salad dressing.

Truth be told, I LOVE salad. I love lettuce, raw veggies, and a mere suggestion of salad dressing. My mouth waters thinking about lettuce. Bring on the freshly-ground pepper. Please, don't put too much anything other than vegetables in my salad. I even learned to love it with vinegar, hold the oil.

Salad is GREEN.

Even when it's Jello salad - made with gelatin and something else. Mama Dot made a nice green Jello salad with lettuce for the Christmas Eve Smorgasbord. I think it had nuts in it as well, probably pistachio.

Welcome to the South, little Dorothy. You're not in Kansas (or in Maine) any longer.

I've been in Virginia for 15 years now. I've learned a lot more about salad in these last fifteen years than in the previous thirty.

First of all, we have "Congealed Salad". This did not sound appealing at all to my northern ears. Well, turns out Congealed Salad is simply a salad made with fruit (or lettuce!) and gelatin. OK. I can love the dish while disliking the name. Not sure I like the orange gelatin with lettuce, but I LOVE the cranberry with any sort of canned fruit. FWIW, I'm the de facto Jello Queen at our local Daily Bread.

Next? Well, all other "salads" here in the south involve mayonnaise. A LOT of mayonnaise: enough to make my mother blush. Pasta salad is mayonnaise with elbow macaroni and a few things (pimento and celery) thrown in. Potato salad is mayonnaise with potato and something green - typically sweet pickles or relish. Tuna salad is mayonnaise with tuna, celery, salt, and pepper. When we make tuna salad, I take my portion, then DH adds mayonnaise to his. It's all about the mayo.

Chicken salad is my favorite, because it's so different everywhere in the south I've been. My favorite chicken salad was at a deli/restaurant in South Birmingham (Magnolia Something) with BIG chunks of chicken, pecans, celery, apples, and the perfect amount of mayonnaise. This Thanksgiving we had a phenomenal curried chicken salad from Good Life Gourmet on the Outer Banks. Somewhere in Hampton Roads I had a dilled chicken salad worthy of a medal.

Oh, wait. Not ALL salads involve mayonnaise (at least not until dressing is applied). You can order a "green salad" as a course with your meal at most restaurants - "green" means lettuce and some raw vegetables to which you apply salad dressing. Ranch is the most popular... simply spiced mayonnaise. You can also order a Caesar salad, which, when dressed, is... greens with mayonnaise-based dressing.

THEN... we began travelling the swim meet circuit. Guess you figured it would come back to swimming eventually.

ANYWAY, one of the standard concessions fares at YMCA swim meets here in the southwest portion of Virginia is Pasta Salad. Pasta salad made with (not mayonnaise) but oil-and-vinegar dressing and anything you might have on hand. Most typically, it's made with colored rotini and raw veggies like broccoli and cauliflower florets and shredded carrot. I've seen it with olives, zucchini and summer squash, crumbled feta, and even fresh corn kernels. It's generally mixed with an oil-and-vinegar dressing, like Italian or Balsamic Viniagrette.

What-the-heck-why-not! Pasta Salad. Three things I desperately love. Pasta, raw veg, and oil/vinegar dressing.

SO... in preparation for the aforementioned Marathon Swim Meet, I made a pasta salad from what was in the fridge. Used up several raw vegetables, the previous dinner's leftover spaghetti, and the remaining bottle of Balsamic Viniagrette salad dressing. It was great then, and great today when I ate the last bowl. Two weeks later. THIS is a keeper.

What-the-Heck-Why-Not Pasta Salad
(serves several hungry swimmers and their parental chauffeurs, with leftovers)

Cooked pasta. (We had spaghetti on hand)
Chopped raw vegetables. (We had carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. I do NOT recommend onions or garlic with this)
Crumbled, shredded, or cheese in small chunks if you have it. (We didn't this time)
Cured meat (salami or pepperoni) if you have it, diced small. (We didn't this time)
Salad dressing (oil-and-vinegar based) to coat. (We used about 1/2 bottle Balsamic Viniagrette salad dressing left in the fridge)

Keeps (refrigerated) until the raw veggies become soft.
Does not need to be refrigerated short-term (at least for the duration of Marathon Swim Meets).

The Taming of the Stew

2011-12-12T07:11:00.001-05:00

Stew is a weathervane. Stew means Winter’s finally here. We ate stew a lot during our formative years, because Winter is long and dark in our corner of New England. Stew is warm and comforting for any cold time. If chicken soup is my cure for flu, stew is my cure for cold. Mom’s Spicy Beef Stew is one of those epic recipes that can simmer all day (or not), and will always leave the house smelling wonderfully rich.

Stew beef, on the other hand, is not particularly rich nor is it particularly expensive. I stock up when I see it marked down at the grocery, because it takes up a small space in the freezer for the satisfaction it brings at table. It’s a fair quality meat available in small pieces, the leftover bits from a larger cut. Cook it slow, with lots and lots of liquid, just as you would with chicken bones to make stock. An all-day slow simmer will make it tender and cause it to release its juices into a deep broth. Add veggies, potatoes, onions and spice. Thicken it slightly. A peasant meal, cooked all day, together, getting happy in a pot on the stove. Or at least for an hour or so.

Mom’s version (origin unknown) stews the beef in a decadent sauce of onion and spices, with Worcestershire sauce and paprika to give it strength and lemon juice to brighten it up a little. Browning the beef bits first in hot oil caramelizes the outside of the meat, adding additional depth of flavor.

It took me a long time to get this part right: the oil has to be hot, hot, HOT (think wok hot) to sear the meat and keep the moisture in while creating that delicious outside. I had a tendency to brown the beef at lower heat (to cut down on the spattering of hot oil all over my stovetop) and wound up with gray meat in a puddle of murky juices. Now I crank up the heat under my deepest pot, sear half of the meat at a time, and use a spatter screen to cover the pot during the volcanic eruption. I still have to clean up some of the oily splash, but the quality of the stew is far superior.

Brown the meat. Add the entire “first column” to the pot (in our hand-written recipe card days), including 4 c. hot water, and simmer an hour. Add the vegetables, simmer ‘til done (another half-hour or so). Mix flour with cold water, add to the pot, and cook a few minutes to thicken. Serve in bowls, always with hot biscuits.

Truth be told, I do know a little bit about making biscuits, despite my Northern heritage (and penchant for using this as a point for self-deprecating north-vs-south humor). We ate biscuits during our youth, but hardly ever for breakfast (unless they were English Muffins!), almost usually with stew. Ours were always Bakewell Cream baking powder biscuits: high and light, made with shortening (not butter) and never, ever sweet.

Fast forward to today. Allow me to introduce my particularly pesky southwest Virginia family. DH loves the stew, detests the biscuits. Dear Offspring detest the stew, love the biscuits. I crave these comfort foods on a cold winter day like today, particularly craving the process of making the stew and the biscuits. This is a way I nourish my family and demonstrate my love for them.

Can we fix it? Yes we can! It’s interesting that the fix came from ‘way up North, at Mom’s Welcome Back Again Inn, when I was visiting last year for a significant high school reunion. Mom’s now making the beef mixture (with less liquid), steaming the carrots, and mashing the potatoes. One look at this meal on my plate and I was thinking, “THIS my family will eat.”

I’m still learning to make biscuits. I have the best results, I’m ashamed to say, with the pre-made ones found in the frozen foods section of the grocery. I’m trying, though. I try half butter, half shortening and add a little sugar to the mix. I gave up on the Bakewell Cream version; can’t find it here, and DH didn’t like the strong taste. The best homemade biscuits emerge when there’s buttermilk in the house. Last weekend I made a double-batch (by mistake) and put half in the freezer for later. I’ll let you know tonight how that worked.

When we get home (again) from the swim meet.

DD’s Facebook status today: “If you only have one day to live, go to a swim meet. They last FOREVER.” Particularly a big meet, one with heats and finals, in which your Dear Offspring swim unusual events on the last day. FOREVER, with a LONG intermission.

Fortunately, this pool is only 30 miles from home. When we were done at 10AM, we went home, returning about 4:30PM for the finals. In the meantime, we did lots of laundry, cleaned the kitchen (again!), and made most of tonight’s not-stew, hoping DH will take on the finish-cheffing while we’re trekking home.

I peeled and chopped carrots. They’re in the micro-cooker with a little water, waiting. I peeled and chunked potatoes. They’re in salted water on the stovetop, ready to be boiled, smashed, and whipped with butter, milk, and a little sour cream (shh… don’t tell DS). The beef is browned deliciously, simmered an hour with onions, spices, and 2 c. liquid (remember that reserved sun-dried tomato liquid from the other day? This is where it found a place in life beyond the refrigerator). Ready to heat, finish with some flour and cold water. Biscuits are in the freezer, waiting for the nod.

We’re all on deck. Take your mark. The bell rings on the last lap and we’re done when the last whistle blows and DD is out of the locker room.

Mom’s Spicy Beef Stew (origin beyond that unknown)

Serves 6-8.

2# beef chuck (1 ½” cubes)
2 T. vegetable oil
1 lg. onion, sliced
4 c. boiling water
1 T. salt
1 T. lemon juice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. paprika
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp. sugar

Brown beef in oil. Add remaining ingredients above to pot. Simmer 1 hour.

Add:
6 carrots, sliced
6 medium potatoes, cubed
1 # small onions
(pearl onions are my favorite, but impossible to find here, so I leave them out)

Simmer until done (about ½ hr).

Mix:

¼ c. flour in ½ c. cold water

Add to stew, cook about 5 minutes to thicken.

PS. One substitution: We’ve cleaned out the lemon juice. I used lime juice.

The Verdict: Everyone's happy, and stuffed. Biscuits were perfect (crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside). DH thought the gravy was a little rich - probably the tomato juice was a bit much. Slathering it over the mashed potatoes in the two lunch portions left should take care of it. Two lunch portions left. Perfect!

Alice Watters Does, Shouldn't We?

2011-12-11T15:35:00.001-05:00

I’m back to breakfast again. Remember: Weekend = Cooked breakfast.

I’m the early-riser again, well before the sun here on the western side of our time zone. Attempting to make the best of my day already. Wow.

I heard an interview recently with renowned chef Alice Watters, of fresh local food and kitchen garden fame. One of the things she says she does is to sit down in her home with her breakfast to enjoy it. She makes a special effort, in her crazy busy life, to savor the taste of food and the feeling of peace it brings. My early mornings lately have some of that same flavor and sense of meditation. Today's includes ingredients from right here in my own garden.

This day started with pesto, an adventure in using up home-grown goods from the freezer. “Sun-dried” tomatoes (actually dried in a slow oven) and basil stored in airtight plastic bags. While they aren’t much to look at, they were harvested at their peak and stored carefully, so are hopefully still full of some bright summer sunshine on this cold December day. Throw in some pine nuts, garlic, (both from the fridge) and some olive oil, salt, and pepper from the pantry and Voila! Another condiment is born. So are three more holiday gifts!

I stored my dried tomatoes DRY, rather than in olive oil, so for this recipe I reconstituted them as I would dried mushrooms, by pouring boiling water over them and letting them “steep” for some time. Actually, I did the reconstituting last week and kept them in the liquid in the fridge. When I was ready to use them, I drained them, reserving the liquid for another recipe.

Breakfast was genius: using the “fresh” pesto, a pie crust from the freezer, and the goat cheese we bought for Thanksgiving but hadn’t gotten around to eating yet, I fashioned a quiche. I followed a recipe (well, mostly!) and decided I could have added another egg and more milk because there was plenty of room in the crust; I’m accustomed to my quiche cooking up a bit higher than this one did. Maybe it was the flour thickener? Anyway, add a package of sausage discovered in the back of the freezer (under the pie crust), and it meets both of DH’s breakfast needs: eggs and sausage. Win!

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

from Kevin at www.closetcooking.com/2010/08/sun-dried-tomato-pesto.html

Makes ½ c.

½ c. sun-dried tomatoes, drained

2 T. fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 T. pine nuts, toasted
2 T. parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste (about ¼ tsp. each)
3 T. olive oil (or oil from the sun dried tomatoes)

Place all ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth. Add a little more olive oil if needed to adjust consistency. Store in glass jars in refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Breakfast Quiche with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto and Goat Cheese
(based on a Pesto, Goat Cheese, and Sun-dried Tomatoes Quiche from allrecipes.com)

4 T. sun-dried tomato pesto

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust

4 T. crumbled goat cheese (I used a 4 oz. log)

3 eggs
½ c. half-and-half (I used skim milk)

1 T. all-purpose flour

Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste, sprinkle of paprika for color

Preheat oven to 400 degF.

Spread pesto evenly in the bottom of the pie crust. Sprinkle goat cheese over pesto.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, half-and-half, and flour. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over goat cheese in pie crust. For a nice touch, sprinkle paprika on top to give the quiche a little color.

Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes, or until done.

Note: allrecipes.com says this quiche makes 8 servings. I cut quiche into generous servings. This one was just 4, as it didn’t have as much filling as my others often do.

The fun part of this day was that I got to use two – count ‘em, TWO – of my newest kitchen gadgets: a mini-food-processor and this metal ring which kept my quiche rim from getting too brown. Ahh!

Burger Queen

2011-12-10T15:26:00.001-05:00

We're omnivores here. My apologies to Michael Pollan: even though I've checked his book out of the library a half-dozen times, I still haven't read it. I may have a dilemma, but this week it's NOT about ground beef.

We generally have at least one package of ground beef in the freezer, or ground turkey, or ground chicken (ground pork is hard to come by here, or we'd probably have that too). Sometimes it's on sale and we'll cook two pounds, freezing some for later. It's our go-to "emergency" protein (well, after peanut butter, that is). We can have a pound of hamburger cooked and turned into a goulash or a chili or a meat sauce inside 30 minutes. We like whole burgers grilled and cheesed, or occasionally stuffed and pan-fried. We've learned to bake meatballs in our mini-muffin pans. We really, really like ground meat as a versatile ingredient for a family meal.

There's one meat dish that says "I Love You" more than any other to me. It's a Spicy Meat Pie recipe my mom made occasionally that's delightful, just fussy enough to be something we didn't have often, and uniquely flavorful due to it's unusual ingredients. The recipe, oddly enough, came from Hellman's; I suppose because the crust is made with mayonnaise. The unusual spice comes from the celery leaves and cloves in the filling. The recipe below is my mom's (and Hellman's) original.

Earlier this year I experimented with making this a filling for tartlets to eat as finger food on a buffet, rather than the traditional family-style pie. Since I was making a lot of different foods for a large crowd, I used store-bought pie crust instead of the mayonnaise crust. I cut circles with a glass and lined the mini-muffin pans with the crust, filled with the spicy meat mixture, and topped them with more crust, cut into leafy shapes. I probably painted them with egg wash before baking them. They looked gorgeous. They tasted DRY. Too much crust, not enough meat in those mini-muffin sizes.

Not one to throw food away (particularly food I worked so painstakingly hard on!), I froze them. They were still in the back of my freezer this week when I was planning and prepping ahead. I decided to experiment again, and this time was really successful.

I took another package of hamburger (also from the freezer) and made another batch of the meat filling, using onion, celery leaves, and chicken stock left over from the chicken soup (augmented with a tsp. of vegetable stock concentrate because it's in the fridge and I wanted a richer taste). I also added a can of white beans to stretch it. I thickened it with cornstarch and cold water, and filled the bottom of a Pyrex baking dish, and had enough for a lunch-size dish as well. Instead of making crust, though, I topped the meat mixture with the thawed tartlets, pressing them deep into the mixture until they were almost submerged, with their leafy tops peeking out. I covered them with foil and heated them through (about 15 minutes).

Coupled with a leftover pasta-and-veggie-gratin from last week. Gorgeous, and delicious.

Spicy Meat Pie (Serves 4 - fits in 1 qt. baking dish)
Original recipe from Hellman's

1# ground beef
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 c. celery leaves, chopped
3/4 c. bouillon (I used chicken stock augmented with 1 tsp. vegetable stock base)
1/4 tsp. sage
1/4 tsp. ground mace
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

3 T. cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 c. cold water

Saute meat, onion, and garlic. Stir in celery, bouillon, and seasonings. Mix cornstarch and water, stir into meat mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer (covered) for 10 minutes. Transfer to 8" square (1 qt.) baking dish.

Mayonnaise Pastry
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. real mayonnaise
1 1/2 T. cold water

Mix flour and salt, blend in mayo, stir in water. Press into ball. Roll larger portion to fit 8" square pan. Fill with meat mixture. Roll pastry large enough to cover baking dish. Crimp edges to fit neatly.

Bake at 425 degF for 30 minutes.

Easy is Relative

2011-12-10T14:48:00.001-05:00

The first week is easy. Easy is relative.

We were cruising along just fine... lots of things prepped over the weekend for the week ahead. We have a LOT of beef in our perishable inventory. Then influenza came to visit.

DH, who spent most of the weekend caring for his flu-ish folks, again proved the "no good deed goes unpunished" adage Sunday evening and Monday. Poor guy.

Who feels like eating when the flu's in the house? Who even feels like smelling anything that's cooking? Anyone who does NOT have the flu. So everyone's hungry on Monday except poor DH. Well, teens aren't ever hungry... they're either starving or they're asleep.

Fortunately, by the time I came home at noon to check on the patient (with ginger ale, Gatorade, oyster crackers, and the ingredients for the only meal I could imagine preparing), DH was feeling better, just weak. Since I was home only for a lunch break, I decided to try something new: Chicken Soup in the crock pot.

WHAT a win this was. Dump all the ingredients in the crock pot. Turn it on HIGH, and leave it alone until we get home at 6 pm. Turn it off. Remove the chicken and set aside to cool slightly. We strain the solids/liquids with a fine-mesh sieve to have a (mostly) clear broth and use some of the broth to start the rice in a separate pot.

We then sort through the veggies, adding the ones which are whole back to the soup pot. This step is to be sure we get all of the chicken bones out. We picked the chicken from the bones and shredded it, adding it back to the pot as well. Since this recipe made double what we really needed for the time being, we put half of the chicken and vegetables in a quart zip-top bag. We then added the strained liquid back into the pot to cover the vegetables and chicken. We stored the remainder of the chicken stock (about 1 qt) in the freezer for a future meal.

When the rice was done, we had a fantastic chicken-and-rice soup with oyster crackers. It was a simple meal for empty and sensitive stomachs. Warm and nourishing and full of good cheer. Bonus was that DD helped with the straining, the sorting, and the rice. Hooray!

We froze the stock and the chicken and veggies separately to give us more options in the weeks ahead. We may use them together, but will more likely make the chicken and veggies into a pot pie and use the stock in place of water in something else altogether.

CROCK POT CHICKEN SOUP

adapted from a COOKS.COM recipe found at http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1639,156182-243203,00.html Content Copyright © 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved.

2 chopped onions
3 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. thyme
3 T. parsley
1 (about 2 1/2 lb.) chicken, in pieces
4 c. chicken broth plus water from rinsing the container

Place all ingredients in crock pot. Cover and cook on HIGH 4 to 6 hours (or LOW 8 to 12). One hour before serving, remove chicken and cool slightly. Remove meat from bones and return meat to crock pot. Serve with rice or noodles.

Breakfast is Champion.

2011-12-08T21:06:00.001-05:00

Let's talk about Breakfast!

Breakfast is the favorite meal around here, even when we share it after the sun's gone down. It's our favorite meal, even as our eating habits relegate something so "complicated" as Breakfast to a day or two on non-working days or evenings when we're all together. Don't challenge me on what constitutes "work" around here, I'd write volumes.

As kids, we ate cereal a LOT. We loved it. We loved it for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, for snack, whenever we were snacky-hungry. We ate it with milk and sugar, then just milk, then eventually au natural because eating with spoons and driving a stick shift were mutually exclusive. Cereal is not just a breakfast food: it's a snack, but it's so healthy, it's also a meal. Cheerios were (and still are) by FAR my favorite. The one food I won't substitute with store brands because frankly, only General Mills gets this one right.

That's not to say we didn't cook breakfast on occasion, because we certainly did. Mom had this neat electric griddle with convertible sides which would be flat, for pancakes, or notched, for waffles. I LOVED those days. We had eggs and toast and bacon a lot, sometimes even sausage. We're from the Frozen North, where sausage isn't a food group, but more of a side item. We had hot cereal: oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar, cream of wheat with butter and brown sugar, both with milk. We learned to make omelettes with cheese when Mom found the right sort of saute pan. Eggs Benedict became a family Christmas Brunch tradition.  We found home fries at a local restaurant in my late teens. We found bagels and English Muffins and homemade muffins with butter and jam to be excellent substitutes for toast. We even ate doughnuts occasionally.

When we were busy, though, it was cereal, or it was toast. Cooked breakfasts were for lazy weekends, and we had them, but not often or regularly.

Now we live south of the Mason-Dixon line, where local tradition dictates that breakfast is cooked. Not toasted, dryly, in a machine, but cooked, on a stovetop, with whatever pork product is on hand.

DD has friend whose family she dearly loves to stay with because their family of farmers cooks breakfast EVERY morning.  When home errantly, DH likes a cooked breakfast. Always. We'll miss early church service to have breakfast. We'll skip morning routines (except the fair-weather golf one, when first tee takes precedence over sausage) to have breakfast. Cooked breakfast involves eggs (they might be scrambled, if it's easier, but omelettes with cheese are preferred) and meat (sausage > bacon > steak > ham) and biscuits (when Someone's ambitious) or toast (when Someone's tired), and potatoes when they are available. Jam, jelly, maple syrup, molasses, apple butter, you name it, it's there in the fridge.

We had a delicious cooked breakfast TWICE last weekend.  Bacon, bacon gravy, eggs, and biscuits on Saturday, the same on Sunday with an eggy/cheesy omelette featuring leftover steak, some stray onions and mushrooms, and the nice Havarti we brought home from our Thanksgiving trek to the Beach. Saturday’s biscuits cut into halves, buttered, then toasted in the oven. DH helped (in MY kitchen!). A few toes were stepped on, but the taste buds won over the toes.

A mistake on my part resulted in twice the biscuit dough needed, so I tried an experiment. I put some of the cut biscuits on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and put them in the freezer. Once they were frozen through (maintaining their cut shape), I stacked them in a freezer storage bag. We'll see how they work later this month!

Spent the bulk of the remaining weekend cleaning and blogging. Writing doesn’t seem to take long. Editing sure does!

Putting Food By

2011-12-07T19:26:00.001-05:00

Insomniac. Parasomniac. Just-don’t-care-about-football heretic. Call me what you might, but after my Fighting Black Bears of the University of Maine football team (yes.... Maine has a football team.... a pretty good one this year) won Saturday (and all those other local favorites lost spectacularly), I called it a day early and slept through all the angst and unhappiness. Sometimes the oblivion of a cozy bed is better than football (ha!).

One consequence of falling asleep before the sun goes down is waking up the next morning before the sun comes up. The sun and moon and stars and I have a tortured relationship: I love them all, and won't try to prove which I love more, because I don't. Like my kids (they don't get this either). I can't pull that equal-time-for-each-side-of-the-family gymnastics off for either my kids or my companions in the heavens.

My biological clock seems to know when it's time to rest and when it's time to get on with making something of the bountiful life we have.

Restlessness and tossing around make for an unhappy spouse (woe to she who adds sleep interruption to disappointing football results). Since my racing mind was circling the clean-out-the-perishables track at an Indy 500 pace, I headed for the kitchen, my refuge. There’s always something to do in the kitchen. My studio is also a refuge, but since it’s attached to the bedroom, it’s not a good choice when respecting DH’s sleep needs.

I'm planning to make a traditional Swedish sugar sweet for our upcoming office cookie exchange, although it calls for a few "exotic" ingredients (those sorts of things you can't just pick up at the local southwest Virginia grocery). One is golden syrup, which Substitution Queen here has all taken care of (more about our syrup stash another day). Another is vanilla sugar. Trawling about the internet brought the simplest of recipes from one of my favorite food nerds, Alton Brown. I had vanilla beans in the freezer and sugar in the pantry. Score.

Vanilla sugar is just that simple: slice the vanilla beans open and scrape out the insides. Add to sugar. The ratio is approximately one vanilla bean to 2c. sugar. The entire mixture takes up about one quart canning jar (if you tamp it down some). Since my sugar tends to be lumpy, I ran it through the sifter first, then mixed it up and stuck it in the canning jars. Made two batches. They're "getting happy" infusing merrily on the shelf until I need some next week.

I still had about eight full vanilla beans left over. A little more trawling on the internet found a vanilla syrup recipe which is only slightly more complicated: an added ingredient (water) and process (cooking until the sugar melts into solution). I added a "shelf stabilization" process as well, opting to "can" the syrup (process in hot water bath for about 10 minutes) in pint and half-pint jars. Voila! Homemade holiday gifts! Beautiful, too. Score 1 for the freezer, now down the vanilla beans from who-knows-when-but-they-came-from-Maine-so-it-must-have-been-a-while.

Vanilla beans = extra-special love.

On a roll (or a rolling boil!)... also preserved (most of) the rest of the fresh cranberries and some apples, together with some of my Swedish-heritage stash of fresh cardamom to make our own version of jellied cranberry sauce/jam. I made this is thinking ahead a little to the pork loin I'm planning to stuff for Christmas and the fact that preserved jam will keep on the shelf for, well, almost ever. The cranberries were beginning to look a little peaked, so into the pot they went, with sugar and apples and cardamom, then into jelly jars and then the canning pot. So, so pretty. One of the jars may be another holiday gift!

CranApple Cardamom Jam
http://www.sbcanning.com/2011/11/cranapple-cardamom-jam.html

Vanilla Syrup
http://www.foodinjars.com/2009/12/gift-in-a-jar-vanilla-syrup/

Vanilla Sugar
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/vanilla-sugar-recipe/index.html

Looking and Cooking Ahead

2011-12-06T16:42:00.001-05:00

We took advantage of the swim meet (kids transported by bus far away and then home safely hours later) to make my dear friend Rachel’s Sweet Potato Cranberry Quick Bread. Rach often includes a sweet potato recipe in her holiday greetings. She slipped this one to me on the side last year (admittedly, through Facebook). I can’t begin to describe the comfort and bliss the aroma of this bread baking gives me. EPIC. When I’m down and out? Forget Simon, Garfunkel, any bridge over any water. Give me this baking bread.

Fresh cranberries from the fridge, bought during an “oh, shiny!” moment at the grocery before Thanksgiving, with full knowledge we wouldn’t use them for that particular holiday. We get ‘em while we can, as these edible garnets aren’t available year-round in our grocery. Add Bob Evans (yes, processed) sweet potato, rescued from the mark-down bin at our grocery, stored in the freezer until now. The price of a few preservatives to make this bread when the cranberries are fresh isn’t a difficult one to justify. We have boiled and mashed fresh sweet potatoes for this purpose before and been rewarded with a simpler taste, but sometimes we use what we have available. We added butter, orange juice and eggs from the refrigerator, then slivered almonds, spices, brown sugar, flour (1/3 whole wheat) and baking powder from the pantry.

One batch fits well in the stoneware mini-loaf pan from Pampered Chef. Yields four GREAT holiday gifts. Another batch (with the additional ½ c. sweet potato left over) made a nice Bundt pan sized brunch bread for Sunday.

We shared this bounty with our Sunday school class (at least with those not training for some half or full marathon or something, those healthy-minded folks… bring on an oven marathon and I’m in training!). We gave the rest to a friend whose family eats and appreciates EVERYTHING shared their way.

Oh, I have four mini-loaves left for holiday gifts. Look out, First Janet, these may well find their way to your caroling party!!!

Rach's Cranberry-Sweet Potato Quick Bread
makes one regular (9"x5") or four mini-loaves

2 1/2 c. flour (I like 1 c. whole wheat and the rest white)
1 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 c. mashed sweet potato
3/4 c. egg substitute (the original low-fat version) or about 4 eggs (Rach uses her own hens' organic eggs)
1/3 c. orange juice (squeeze it yourself if you have healthy oranges!)
1/4 c. margarine (original version - yuk) or butter (that's more like it), melted and cooled
1 c. cranberries, chopped (Rach says you can use dried cranberries, but they'll be much sweeter and less bright)
2 T. almonds, chopped

Mix dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Beat eggs slightly with OJ and butter, pour into well and mix lightly. Mix in remaining ingredients. Spoon into baking pan(s). Bake at 350degF for 1 hr 10 min. Cool 10 minutes, then unmold. Make coffee and eat well.

First Friday Feast

2011-12-06T08:36:00.001-05:00

Friday's meal was wonderfully easy and wonderfully satisfying:

Boiled hot dogs (found deep in the freezer) with “hot dog chili" (leftover from DD’s birthday cookout), cole slaw and potato salad (left over from last week), plus some fries found (again) at the back of the freezer.

After the earlier confession about my chili-inspired nickname and it's history, it's fair to also reveal my passion for chili as a main course (or in this case, a condiment). Our chili is often a "what-the-heck-why-not" recipe, meaning I throw in anything we have on hand that seems interesting and somewhat harmonious. Who's guessing we have chili on New Year's Eve around here?! These are feasts (or famines!) which will never be recreated exactly because I rarely write it down. Veggie, beef, steak, chicken, spicy, mild, with tomatoes or white, but always with beans: kidney, black, white, even garbanzo beans. Chunky and spicy. Like me!

This condiment I refer to as "hot dog chili" is really a creature of a different sort. I don't think I'd ever had a "chili dog" before moving to Virginia almost 20 years ago, although I had seen them on menus during my travelling days. In Ohio I fell in love with Skyline Chili's 3-Ways (Cincinnati-style chili over spaghetti with shredded cheddar cheese) and learned what a Coney Dog is from the menu. Never ordered one. DH's introduction to Skyline wasn't as much of a rave as mine. Skyline is on my bucket list, not his.

Shortly after moving to southwest Virginia, I received a fantastic local culinary lesson. DH's extended family was planning a birthday cookout. We discussed what to bring for the potluck. Menu was simple enough: hot dogs and the works. SIL was bringing chili, so I offered to bring cheese and sour cream or tortilla chips or corn muffins (the kinds of things I associate with chili) or a second kind of chili altogether (not the "substituted" kind, I promised, probably the white chicken version I'm fond of).

DH says, "Um, DEAR, I think she'll bring chili for the hot dogs, and she'll certainly have enough." Oh. Right. Reset thinking. I've seen that. Coney Dogs at Skyline. Should I make spaghetti? "No." (See previous remark about DH's introduction to Skyline). Is there a recipe? "Probably not". When pressed for time (SIL has very busy career and active family), you can get this at the grocery. Open cans, add water and heat. OH. RIGHT. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Somewhere between then and last year, Someone Wonderful asked me to make chili for a church youth function. Meaning the kind for hot dogs. Asked ME. A Northerner. A Damn Yankee (you know, the ones who move South and STAY), those folks who don't know anything about making biscuits, gravy, tea (sweet and iced, not hot and add-your-own-sweet-if-you-like), BBQ (the noun which involves pork, not the verb meaning to cook outside) or chili (condiment for hot dogs).

I need a culinary interpreter. A study in food's foreign language with the Southern dialect.

My first inclination was to search my library of cookbooks for a recipe. It's a nice library (thanks to KKS-PHD, Mom, Sigrid, Sis, Aunts Dawn and Ellen, my friend VISA), I don't like to simply open cans (don't start on how much easier it would be if I did, and don't lecture me when I use canned goods to help in a pinch).

For the kids? For a church gathering? I'm cooking. From scratch. This is a fundamental belief, that all wonderful people should eat tasty, (mostly) healthy food. I know how to cook and I intend to prove it!

Pay attention here. I'm about to give away a "secret recipe"!!!!

I turned to my Despiration! friends Alicia and Beverly. They have another phenomenal cookbook (go out and buy this one too... get it together with the other one I suggested and you will get both a discount and probably free shipping!) titled Despiration Entertaining!

The recipe is Carolina Chili Dogs. I made this recipe for that original event and then by request (from same Someone Wonderful, who "doesn't like hot dog chili but likes this!" for several years, at least until a recent bout with flu put an end to this devotion. On DD's birthday at that, thus the leftovers in our fridge this week).

We were asked to bring something for DS's baseball concessions stand last spring, I volunteered one batch and was immediately asked to bring gallons (at 2T. per hot dog, a gallon goes a LONG way feeding hungry baseball players and families). At one point our family freezer had 15# of on-sale hamburger stored to make this condiment upon request, when it ever stopped raining. Double-headers were the best: LOTS of hot dogs sold to captive players and their related audience.

My Despiration Entertaining! cookbook has "Janet's version = for a crowd" calculations in the margin. The spine on my paperback version is broken open there. Easy to find... kinda like looking for the spots on the pages for a family's favorite recipes.

There's no secret recipe: I bought it! I bought the recipe in a cookbook in a bookstore (how RETRO!) and the ingredients in a grocery (how retro again - not a superstore!). I put them together (with a variation, no substitutions!), and it's a chili condiment for hot dogs. One which People Request. HEHE. I'm publishing my crowd version here but expect you to buy your own version of the cookbook as well.

Our family take on hot dogs includes “Yankee Buns”: DH’s term for the “New England Split-Top Buns" ubiquitous in Maine but in limited supply here in southwest VA. More dough, less crust than the standard buns available here. Soft sides we grill with butter to a golden, crispy-but-still-soft perfection. DH moaned (with pleasure) the first time he tasted boiled hot dogs with "grilled Yankee buns" and corn chowdah at Mom's Welcome Back Again Inn (my mother's home, alternative B&B, hostel, refuge, "free" bathroom (leave a quarter), Next Generation hangout, back-to-basics-boot-camp, heavy tools warehouse, and unexpected greeting card inspiration) in Maine.

All this, “Says You” (one of my favorite radio programs ever), AND a movie tonight. Microwave popcorn from the pantry. Mom, papa, kids, even the pets were satisfied tonight.

Score two for the freezer and three for the fridge, only two hot dog/bun pairs and chili leftover. Those vanished during someone's Saturday snack-time. No one's confessing, but I have my suspects.

Hokie Hot Dogs for a crowd
2T per serving, makes a gallon or so.
(my SWVA variation on Despiration Entertaining!'s Carolina Chili Dogs)

6# ground meat (up to 2# turkey or chicken, the rest beef of any fat content)*
3 onions, finely chopped
3 cans (12 oz) tomato paste
3 cups ketchup
3 Tbsp. chili powder
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. vinegar
2 Tbsp. salt
Ground pepper to taste (I use plenty!)
Water, as needed

*(Here's where my recipe differs). I prefer to cook the meat before making the chili, because I want to get most (but not all) of the fat out. It's less expensive (because you can use burger with higher fat content), but it does take longer. I usually add a generous scoop (about 1/2 c.) of the cooked-out fat/water mixture to the larger chili pot as I transfer the meat with a slotted spoon, then water to make up the difference.

1. Place the meat (2# at a time) in a large skillet. Cook over med heat until brown all the way through. Transfer meat with a slotted spoon to large pot. Reserve other fat/juice to separate container. When all of the meat is completely cooked, add ladle (1 at a time) of reserved fat/juice (and water as preferred) to pot until meat is covered, but not swimming, in liquid.
2. Add chopped onion. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium.
3. Add tomato paste, ketchup, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Stir well until the tomato paste has dissolved and the meat is broken up.
4. Continue to cook the chili at a slow boil, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until the mixture is thick (about 15 minutes). As the mixture thickens, you may have to reduce the heat to prevent sticking.
5. Move chili to crock pot set on LOW. Serve on hot dogs. Add water as needed, stirring well, to maintain desired consistency.

Everyone's on Board the First Day

2011-12-06T07:10:00.001-05:00

This feels like the start of a diet. Everyone’s game in the beginning, it’s even fun!

We start out the month of using what we have with an easy dinner. Particularly easy because I didn't have to make it! I left the recipe on the counter for DH to chef while the kids and I endured the journey to-during-from swim practice (think Hockey Mom here, without the lipstick and much, much more deferential to the other parents).

Shameless plug for one of my go-to cookbooks: Desperation Dinners! by Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross to the rescue. If you don’t have this gem, order it NOW. It’s 20-minute meals for families: you can actually make them in 20 minutes and the kids will eat them.

Pork chops from the freezer, rice and other treats from the pantry, all with an oriental taste. The recipe in its original form calls for fresh mushrooms, which are generally staples in our refrigerator. Not today. DH substituted jarred mushrooms from the pantry, and jasmine rice for the “instant”, confident the “Substitution Queen” (that’s me) wouldn’t relinquish her title for something innocuous as this.

Here’s the back story: Many years ago, when DH and I were merely co-workers, I made three or five or whatever number of types of chili, bringing one to work each day for a while. Can’t remember why, but perhaps a magazine did a feature on chili and I set out to make them all. Anyway, one particularly aromatic batch (made with brewed coffee, an intriguing ingredient) called for a small can of diced chiles. I didn’t have any on hand, but did have a small jar of diced jalapenos, so I substituted. Woah, Baby, was that chili hot and spicy! DH and his pal (no stranger to intense spice, as he was known to eat an inch of wasabi paste straight from his finger) took a good 30 minutes to eat a bowl of this stuff, with tears running down their cheeks, laughing all the way. A day for which I will remain infamous.

ANYWAY,
Today’s meal was fantastic. The rice (cooked separately and added later) was a little squishy (probably should have added it a little later in the process). The house smelled divine when we got home. Don’t let the long list of ingredients intimidate you; you likely have most of them in your pantry or refrigerator already – and the point is to USE them!

One interesting result: there were lots of leftovers. This was NOT because we didn’t eat heartily at the table, but because the recipe was apparently marked for a family our size and a small continent as well.

Oriental Pork Chops

(adapted from Misako's Pork Chops, from Desperation Dinners!)

1 tsp. oil (vegetable or canola)
4 boneless center-cut pork chops (about 3/8” thick, about 1# total)
1 large onion (sliced into rings)
1 can (14.5 oz) broth, Oriental or chicken (we used water)
1 ½ c. “instant” (5-minute) rice (we used 3 c. cooked jasmine rice)
1 can (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes (we used diced)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. bottled chopped ginger
¼ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. dried basil
¼ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. salt (optional)
1 med. bell pepper, red or green (for 1 c. rings) (we left this out)
1 c. mushrooms, sliced (we used jarred)

3 T. cold water
2 T. corn starch

1. Heat the oil (medium heat) in large skillet with lid. Add chops, sauté, turning once, until golden brown on both sides (about 3 min). Remove the chops to a plate for the time being. Peel and slice onions into thin rings, scattering them evenly over the chops as you slice.

2. Add broth, tomatoes, Worcestershire, and ginger, (and rice if you’re using instant), stirring well. Turn the heat to high, cover the skillet, and bring broth to a boil. Measure the garlic powder, onion powder, basil, salt, and black pepper into a small dish. Uncover the skillet and add all of the spices at once, stirring well. Return the chops to the pan.

3. Re-cover the pan and let cook while you seed the bell pepper and slice it into ¼-inch rings. Add the pepper slices and mushrooms to the skillet, distributing them evenly over the chops. Cover again and continue to boil the mixture on high for about 8 minutes, until the chops are just done (no longer pink in the center).

4. Meanwhile, combine the water and cornstarch in a small container that has a lid. Shake well until the lumps disappear, then set aside.

5. When the chops have simmered for 8 minutes, add the rice (if you’re using precooked and haven’t already) and stir well. Allow to heat through (a minute or two). Shake the cornstarch mixture again, and add it to the skillet. Stir constantly until the liquid reaches the desired thickness, 1 or 2 minutes.

6. Spoon out a bed of rice and vegetables onto each serving plate. Top with a pork chop and serve with a smile!

Serves 4 (per the recipe) and a small continent (per our experience).

A note: Our package of pork chops had six in it. Since at least one of our teens is a picky eater, DH kept two of the chops aside after sautéing them and kept them warm in the oven at low heat. They were cooked perfectly by the time everything else was done. Picky Teen 2 had perfectly plain pork chops with perfectly plain rice. Perfect.

Another note: I’m not sure, exactly, how the water/rice ratio worked itself out (but it certainly did!) because I was driving the car, not the stove, during preparation. I suspect the jasmine rice was cooked according to package directions in a separate pan and no additional liquid was added to the pork chop mixture other than the water/cornstarch mixture at the end.

December 2011: Day One. Defining this Month's Challenge!

2011-12-04T15:08:00.001-05:00

After a wonderful November (fast forward to 2011) of daily meditations on significant things for which I’m thankful, and realizing how centering each day’s appreciation was for me, I’ve decided to continue the exercise with a new challenge throughout December.

Sometime in mid-November I settled on a topic (“Holiday Wishes”), then immediately put it out of my mind, preferring to make it a daily, spontaneous exercise and not plan topics ahead. November’s medium, Facebook, is well-suited for such short, spontaneous reflections.

Then this week slammed me right in the face.

Among the many things I’m consistently grateful for is our family’s financial security. Sure, we “do without” a large number of things (to the great consternation of our teenagers), but we still have all that we need and much that we wish for. Our family car quit (quite literally and spectacularly), so we replaced it. We paid cash from our rainy-day fund and purchased a comfortably used one. We eat well (and often!) and maintain a generously-stocked pantry, despite the teens’ frequent insistences of “there’s nothing to eat in this house” (translated: nothing which requires less than a second of preparation). We have comfortable incomes, health insurance, and some savings. We have healthy families, time to volunteer, and disposable funds to be generous with. We work hard, spend thriftily, and eat very, very well. We’re proud of who we are.

We are also very, very fortunate. We speak of it often among ourselves. What we don’t do is share this conversation with others.

I pledge to spend this month on this blog doing just that – with a twist.

Members of our Sunday school class often say any one of us is just one step away from major catastrophe, for the grace of God (and mass transit). Our family understands this. We have plans (and savings) to keep the minor catastrophes from getting us down (aforementioned vehicle difficulties to wit).

Major catastrophe, like the tornado which ripped through a neighboring community last April and destroyed every THING some families had, and a recurrent brain tumor which took the life of a good friend last year, are completely another story.

I digress. I wander. I travel in circles (hence the license plate I want for my new vehicle: 2*PI*R). Forgive me.

This month’s personal challenge is to take a step toward understanding hunger and limited means. It’s a soft challenge, because we don’t have to sacrifice much (I’m holding onto that one for Lent; stay tuned). For many, many reasons (which I’ll attempt to explain over the course of December), I pledge to empty our refrigerator and freezer by the end of the year.

We will begin January fresh in countless ways (although of course I’ll count some as we progress).

That’s it. It’s that simple. A little crazy, and perhaps unnecessary, but there is a lot of history, meaning, and a whole lot of faith tied up in what I hope we’ll learn from this exercise. I'll explain as this month unfolds for us all.

A few clarifications:

 We are focusing on using up perishable goods rather than discarding them when our ability to purchase goods outpaces our ability to use them well. We’re emptying the refrigerator and freezer. Our pantry, like our rainy-day fund, serves to augment and enrich, but we won’t be focusing on eliminating our stores completely.

 We will NOT throw anything away. We will make the best use of the calories and nutrients (and financial investment) we’ve made in everything at our disposal. If it’s spoiled, it’s compost.

 We are not putting ourselves on a grocery diet (at least not at this point: stay tuned for Lent). We’ll buy what we need, and even what we want, as long as the goal (EMPTY fridge/freezer) is met.

 We are already frugal, already focused on using what we have well. THIS is a challenge to use even the difficult items (like all those "interesting" condiments), and to find creative ways to work unsuspecting ingredients into the mix.

 Until I get a handle on mixed-operating-systems-media, there may/may not be photos on the blog. Check Facebook (be my friend!) for photos; so much easier to shoot with the iPhone and post there.

 We are going to be very, very creative. Creative is good. In fact, it’s my favorite survival skill.

Wish us well, and please let us know what you're thinking. Keep us accountable so that what we say = what we do.

Blessed Be.

Potions and Notions

2010-01-08T08:46:00.005-05:00

After a year's hiatus, the restart of the calendar year seems like a great time to restart the blog. Look for lots of recipes and cooking chatter (the Potions part) and likely even more quilts and sewing suggestions (the Notions part).

As noted in the last post (yes, a full year ago), I volunteered to edit (in this case, write, assemble, and distribute) the Guild newsletter "Pens and Needles." I think it went well last year outside two computer deaths and issues stemming from subsequent digital recovery. I do think, however, there's room for improvement. I used FAR too much clip-art to fill in the blanks.

One of the new features I decided to add was a column/editorial. I thought "why shouldn't I?" My kids can think of many reasons why I shouldn't, most stemming from their (well-reasoned) fears I'll write about them. They'll likely star in a column at some point, but not just now. Hopefully other Guild members will be moved to write something as well.

Here's the premiere:

Potions and Notions

In January we often think of New Year’s Resolutions. This year, I’ve resolved not to make any, but I do love a good To Do List, particularly one with some serious ambition. So here’s my 2010 To Do List for your entertainment, edification, and perhaps inspiration:

1. Get Some Class. We all have to learn new things to grow, some of us more than others, and perhaps I do more than most. I do a tremendous amount of learning by making mistakes all by myself, yet I find it particularly rewarding when guided through the process in the presence of others, preferably led by one who knows more (or sometimes even less) about the route than I do. To this end, I challenge myself to take a class led by someone else on a technique new to me. Perhaps piecing curves, embellishment, or appliqué, three techniques I haven’t attempted because I don’t even know where to begin. Well, I DO know where to begin: by signing up for class!

2. Get Some Class (Part 2). I believe I master a technique best when, after sufficient practice, I attempt to teach it to someone else. This generally takes the form of a series of mistakes requiring additional fabric purchases and step retracing in a public forum. I have a couple of ideas percolating in my head, several of which are actually in preliminary digital form. The challenge for me is not so much deciding on what to teach the class about, but in finding the appropriate forum. For whom, where, and when will I have the class?

3. 3 x 3 Challenge. In 2009 I entered several of my best quilts into competitions around the area. I went so far as to put aside several commissioned and promised works to design and quilt an original creation. I was successful in several of the quilt and needlework festivals, but failed miserably when I presented my work as Fine Art. In a fit of frustration tinged with far too much anger, I grumbled to my sister that I had I created three abstract works with minimal effort I might have had more success as an “artist”. Her advice was that art does involve setting boundaries, then stepping boldly outside them. To this end, I’ve developed what I’m calling the “3 x 3 Challenge,” a three-quilt series of boundary-busting. I think the first will be a 1’ x 1’ in which I’ll allow myself an hour to complete, the second a 2’ x 2’ (four hours) and the third a 3’ x 3’ (nine hours). Why the exponentially-increasing time limits? I’m such a square!

4. Do My Community Service. At one time I defined my personal philosophy as “Give Back, Give More” without really exploring or explaining it particularly well to others or even to myself. This To Do challenge is to put my money where my mouth is, put the rubber to the road, and incorporate intentional, planned quilting for others. I made two big steps forward when I donated a quilt to a fundraising auction and completed a challenge for a local women's center in 2009. The next step is to give MORE. My thoughts are to organize a “Quilt-In” with others or design and make ornaments as a fundraiser or something along those lines, something that will make a greater impact and involve more than just myself. To Give More.

5. Five-on-the-Fifth Fabric Flings. We all have fabric lying around that we don’t really like and will probably never use. You know what I’m talking about: that fabric you bought 20 years ago and have moved houses with five times. It clutters up sewing rooms, our drawers, and closets. Many more organized (or perhaps less Yankee-frugal?) folks get rid of their fabric by donating it or even (gasp!) throwing it away. I’ve filled a donation bag (mostly with scraps) but can’t ever remember to pass it on. Remembering to do that would be a first step. However, my Freakish Fabric Flock is not moving south but breeding in captivity. So I’ve decided to take a page from the Fly Lady, a motivational housekeeping maven, and alter her “27-Fling-Boogie” to address my cloth clutter. I challenge myself to complete a “Five on the Fifth Fabric Fling” each month. This means that I will cull FIVE pieces of fabric from my stash and place them in my Guild bag for donation. Why five? Well, beyond the obvious favor I have for alliteration, “Five on the Fifth” means I’ll make some headway quickly and I’ll have it done before the Guild meeting, whichever day the second Tuesday falls. Will I run out of fabric to fling? We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. My not-so-empty nest is fairly well feathered with fabric. I won’t see the river anytime soon.

So, what’s on your To Do list?

Quilt Guild 101

2009-01-25T21:36:00.011-05:00

My sister said... "Great! Have fun at the quilt guild meeting. Just don't take too much Show & Tell and don't volunteer for anything."

How many times in my entire life do you think I've listened to my sister? Right. You could count them on one hand, even if a couple of the fingers are missing.

I've wanted to be in a quilt guild as long as I can remember quilting, but have always had too many conflicts. In my prior home, kids were not permitted (even as spectators), and everything I did had to accommodate my toddlers. I tried again when I moved to this area almost three years ago... but always had school conflicts. Not anymore.

I invited myself along to ride with a couple of friends, ladies I've known and hope to know much better. The guild isn't huge, pretentious, or particularly rigid about much of anything. A motley crew of very talented ladies, gents, even kids (C. is eight!). This year's challenge is "Think Green!" That's it - the rest is up to the quilter. Yes, this will be FUN. Creative. Inspiring. Affirming.

I broke with my sister's advice even before leaving home, taking at least five pieces for Show & Tell AND a fist-full of pictures to boot. There WAS a theme, though... stars, stars, stars... I took the first challenge quilt (maybe the only) I ever made, complete with bowed-out sides and dental-floss-like quilting thread, and the one I made this New Year's with the nice ribbon-like pieced stars that stand out like ribbons due to the close stippling I did... and a few from in-between. See How Far I've Come???

I didn't volunteer for anything... until the next day, anyway. Hey... the Guild needed a newsletter editor. How tough could that be? Well... Sis says it's the worst job in the Guild (maybe that's why they needed an editor?!). I don't know; seems like fun to me. I hope the folks of the Guild can handle my attempts at humor.

Did I follow my sister's advice? Well, at least I DID have fun!

Black Friday Recap

2008-12-01T22:17:00.002-05:00

I can’t stand it. Where is the outrage?

There’s plenty of angst and unhappiness this holiday season as we Americans talk about the sacrifices we must make, the things we must go without. We can’t afford the high price of the cheaply-produced electronics our ‘tweens beg for – nor do we treat ourselves to a new automobile this season, produced in part all over the world and hopefully assembled somewhere on our continent. We do honestly believe we intend to be modest this holiday season of extravagance.

Yet… as Black Friday, the 28th of November, 2008 closes… what do we see?

The headlines of my regional paper sum it up precisely. As precisely as we Americans, in our land of plenty, care to think.

Above the paper’s masthead? Date – Place – Time – Station for rivalry football.

The main headline? “Mumbai gunfire rages; 2 Virginians among dead”

The right column headline? “Shoppers scour stores for deals on Black Friday”

Which article did I read first?

Well… I was where papers weren’t delivered on Friday, so I’m catching up after a long weekend with little outside influence. I’ll admit to already knowing the outcome of the football rivalries for the weekend. I’ll also admit to watching headline news during our sausage breakfast on Friday morning, followed by a LONG stretch of CNN trying to figure out what was happening in our world, followed by a WHOLE lot of football. Today it’s Monday, with a family-friend crisis at hand, and I’m digesting papers as we go from snow delay to the hospital to school and back, then home.

I wonder… Which article did you read first?

We, as Americans, have for generations defined ourselves as “not British” and, yet, live some telling British ways. Our forsaken forebears celebrate their Christmas holiday with gifts, a feast, and an afternoon lolling by the fire and the telly (which illuminates more, I’ll leave to you). The Monarch broadcasts her version of the State of the Union in fireside-chat sheep’s clothing. On the next day, Boxing Day, the country is shut down, and perhaps a bit quiet and contemplative. When we girls were there in 1986, we walked the moors around York looking for sustaining peace and field conversation a la James Herriot. We found exactly what we needed in that serene and foggy repose.

Yet… Perhaps… What we really needed in those plentiful 1980’s was a day of free-for-all shopping! For goodness sake – who would plan a holiday without a blank day after to engage in reckless commerce?

That, my friends, is what I fear “Black Friday” has become. Reckless commerce, driven to make ourselves feel SOMETHING, whatever our perceived deficiency might be.

It didn’t surprise me one bit that the headline news carried a sympathetic bit about the two Virginians on pilgrimage who died in Mumbai – and just a few breaths later described the death of a mass-merchandise company’s employee at the feet of shoppers eager for some sort of bargain. Both tragedies,but of very different import.

WHAT are we thinking?

All of these lives were lost in senselessness… and the lack of sense surrounding our now-decreed-successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday supplants it all. I haven’t read far enough to know why these gunners in India decided to kill to make their point, nor do I understand the point they might have tried to make before experiencing their own deaths. I don’t understand, either, why Americans make their point by trampling others to stake their claim on cheap purchases. Neither of these situations seem like reasonable ways to improve ones lot in life.

I honestly believe we get what we pay for, however we might intend or direct.

I am outraged about the things I pay for. I trust you are, too.

The Holiday Photo

2008-11-03T20:52:00.017-05:00

What makes a great holiday photo?

Whether you actually have the camera handy (and the batteries aren't dead), or the kids are mysteriously dressed in compatible tones, or even if the kids will simply stand close enough together to frame a single shot, somehow that serendipitous moment, when caught on film, is a magical gift to ourselves, family and friends, and, eventually, our progeny.

Accidental Art, I say!

Lian Dolan got me thinking about the best holiday photo I've ever seen (read her article about getting a jump on the hectic holiday hoo-rah at http://www.makinglifebetter.com/home-family/article/cut-the-chaos-getting-a-jump-on-holiday-madness). Getting a memory recorded for posterity can be a lot easier than one may think!

My cousin Bonnie and her family send a montage of photos every year, which I love. There was a time when I lived close and I could pick out the ones I'd taken myself. This can be overwhelming to some recipients, though, because each shot is so tiny.

Getting the subjects to play along can be also a challenge. I remember a particularly horrible photo "session" my sister and I endured on a hot summer day, dressed up in matching parkas with crocheted hats and mittens - cute, but horrible just the same. I recall year after year (after YEAR after YEAR... even as late as LAST year!) of being the single family member who ruined the family photo because no one had the patience to take more than one or two snaps.

Fortunately, I'm blessed both with photogenic kids and an occasionally-handy camera with auto film advance. Here's my favorite holiday photo, EVER, which doubled (thanks to Accidental Aura in clothing choices by the kids) as a phenomenal legacy desktop photo... from 2005 (I think). Again, a supreme Accident, as we'd stopped to see a breathtaking mountain view and, instead of snapping the standard tourist shot, we staged the photo against a spray-painted rock and decaying tree. A great memory of the days when the kids would share a hug and both had front teeth!!!

Go out and snap some Accidental Art with your family today!!

My Name is Jonas...

2008-10-20T11:15:00.001-04:00

Many thanks to my 2007-8 1st period class at AMS for giving me a theme tagline...

My (married and adopted) name IS Jonas - and I guess I do carry the world for my family (if not for the Guitar Hero 3 audience)! Many thanks to Weezer, their lead singer's brother, and Jacob T., who asked me to play the song each and every one of our 180 days together.

THIS Jonas is... well... a MOM. I was many things before, and I expect I'll be other things again, but I am first and foremost a MOM.

What's a MOM?

You can scour the internet for a definition, or look a little closer to home. I've joked often that MOM stands for "Mean Old Mother"... and that I learned from The Best... SHE took that as a compliment. That's my MOM for you.

But what am I, this being and blogging entity who posts her occupation plainly on her license plate as "JSJ-MOM"?

Well... I'm a born-and-bred New England outsider, someone who claims places as home which mightn't claim me. I was born in Maine and raised in part of NH that few people know - few politicals even visit my North Country before a presidential primary. I was raised again at an accessible NE boarding school (as a day student!) and yet again at a VERY accessible state university... and yet again as a Bright Young (Female) Engineer in an aging paper industry. All my life I was taught, told, and subsequently believed I could do anything.

Today I live in SW Virginia, on the edge of a different Appalachia. I truly can do almost anything... cook, sew, write, read, light carpentry, even some rudimentary plumbing... anything except, so it seems, get hired. My education, degrees, training, and life experiences don't impress anymore - perhaps these credentials even intimidate some. My husband's impressed... thank goodness, because if I relied on the neighbors, the community, or the family for much support, I'd be destitute.

So... why blog now? Good point... particularly as this life I lead at home seems so dull. Perhaps this blog is an attempt to document a simple life, albeit in an upscale, electronic form. Perhaps I reach out now for affirmation, or simply to document both the easy yet hardworking life I knew, adopted, and now hope to bring to my corner of the world.

The trouble with this, then, is narrowing a focus.

A hardworking family woman does it ALL... and somehow manages to teach that hardworking ethic to her progeny. Maybe that's the hook... figuring out how to pass that ethic on to generations to come, by sharing the load.

Instead of doing it all myself... maybe we can learn to do it all together.