Baby Food

I never anticipated that making baby food would be so fun. If I come home from work tired and uninspired to cook supper, I still get enjoyment from the thought of mixing and introducing new flavors to Zeb. Plus, the lure of cute little jars of baby food is rather strong. I'll pretty much fall for anything with a strong cute factor. :) My main inspiration and resource is a blog called Baby Foode and a corresponding cookbook, which I own, called Little Foode. The author encourages the use of spices in baby food to keep it from being too bland. A lot of her recipes call for breast milk to be added to help puree but I've found that when I heat up the food, it starts to taste sour. So I leave the milk out and just add water. I had a fancy Nuk blender from my baby registry but it doesn't work well at all and smells like burning rubber when I use it. Ew.  So I use our normal blender. I wish I hadn't spent the money on the extra blender. Oh well. Live and maybe you can learn something from me. :)

Welcoming Autumn

We don't always have Autumn in Texas. But this year seems to be a lucky one. The weather has been consistently cool and rainy, by turns windy, breezy, and misty. It makes me wish I could stay home all day and bake. First on my list would be these Whole Grain Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Compote*

Ingredients:

2 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)

1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup natural granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup pumpkin puree

1 1/4 cups organic buttermilk

2 large organic eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons butter, melted (melt in the pan skillet you are going to use butter, to serve (and for pan)

Instructions:

To make the pancakes combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, spice and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs, and melted butter. Stir all the ingredients until they are just combined. Don’t worry if the batter is a bit lumpy, you don’t want to over mix. Heat your skillet, pan, or griddle to medium-hot and brush it with a bit of butter. Test for the right temperature. If a drop of water dropped onto the pan starts to dance, you are in the ballpark. Pour about 1/3 of a cup of batter into the skillet. Wait until the pancake bottom is deep golden in color, then flip with a spatula and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve with Apple Maple Compote

.

Makes about 12 large pancakes.

*Source: http://lifeismadeoflove.com/2014/10/12/whole-grain-pumpkin-pancakes-apple-compote/

How does the garden grow

This year, my husband has put quite a lot of effort into cultivating a garden plot given to us by our in-laws. They have generous yard space and we do not. His efforts have yielded us tasty green beans, amazing tomatoes, bits of squash and zucchini, cucumbers and the promise of cantaloupe. I initially berated my husband for planting cucumber when I much prefer squash but in the end, he prevailed. This pregnancy has turned me off to squash but I can't seem to get enough  fresh cucumber with hummus. Oh the deliciousness! His powers of intuition seem to be increasing :]

Our tomato harvest has been enormous. We've been using them to make fresh pasta sauce from a basic recipe in my Martha Stewart cookbook. Saute onion and garlic cloves in a dash of olive oil until soft. Add diced tomatoes. Toss in thyme or basil. Simmer 25 minutes. We've eaten a jar or two, given away several jars and have some in our freezer. Yummy! It's so good you can almost taste the healthiness. 

I haven't hogged all the bounty to my self, last night I made a decent pasta primavera with squash, zucchini, and tomatoes from our garden to pass to a friend. Even though I give him a hard time, my husband is a good worker and I'm privileged to eat the literal fruit of his labors.

Wonderful Wednesday

What could be more wonderful than whole-wheat banana, chocolate, coffee muffins?? I got the recipe from one of my favorite blogs: The Vanilla Bean Blog. The pictures are sumptuous and the food itself is approachable. I tweaked the recipe a lot because I didn't feel like going to the store. I used coconut oil instead of canola/olive oil,  halved the expensive maple syrup and made up the difference with honey, left out the cacao nibs (they are expensive!!!) and used whole milk since I didn't have buttermilk on hand. The wet batter was disconcerting (I have trust issues with recipes) so I added an extra egg and an extra 1/4 cup of flour. They baked for around 20-25 minutes and came out delicious!!! 

*since so many people liked this - I've gone ahead and listed my alternate recipe below*

Carrots and their use

Every year I think to myself "I didn't plant enough carrots" and every year I'm right. Two weeks ago I made meatloaf with a side of roasted carrots. I couldn't bring myself to use all of our little stash so I pulled up only three carrots and combined them with store-bought carrots. Well, you could definitely taste the difference. So much so that I couldn't bring myself to eat the tasteless store-bought carrots after I had just relished the sweet tasting one from my garden. I picked out the tasty ones and left the rejects on the side of my plate. I don't even like carrots. But no, wait, now I do!

After that experience, I took the plunge. I pulled up all the carrots from our little plot for dinner with my sister on Sunday. I made one big batch to roast. Then Matt and I got into a pointless and intense discussion predicated by my inability to stop being a control freak and all my beautiful carrots roasted to smithereens. They turned into carrot french fries, brown and crispy and I was so mad at myself. At least I took pictures of their succulence before I destroyed their possibilities.

If you're fortunate enough to have a harvest of carrots, here some suggestions for preparing them:

Soup: Curried Carrot Soup
[adapted from Martha Stewart]

2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 tablespoons of butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 teaspoons curry
3 1/2 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
Salt & Pepper

In a large pot, melt butter on the stove and saute onions for about 5 minutes until limp. Add chopped carrots, salt & pepper, and curry. Saute for about 2 minutes. Add stock and let cook on low-to-medium heat until carrots are soft, about 20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Blend in the blender in 2-3 batches (take care, hot liquids can explode in the blender, leave a little room in the lid for steam to escape). Eat.

Salad: Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad
[adapted from smitten kitchen inspired by the Spotted Pig]

1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 tea ground cumin [I actually leave this out]
Salt and Pepper
1/2 large avocado or 1 small avocado
Juice of half a lemon [I leave this out also, I don't have time to juice lemons :D]

On a roasting pan, put the butter and carrots, salt and pepper, cumin, and roast for 20 minutes on 400 degrees. Since I don't pre-melt my butter, I stir the carrots half-way through the cooking time. Times may vary depending on your carrot thickness and if your oven temp is accurate. Keep an eye on them! When they're done roasting, put them in a bowl and mix in slices of avocado. Mix in the lemon juice if you're using it. Eat.

Also: Split Pea Soup that I posted earlier here.

Recipe

I didn't feel well yesterday so I stayed home from work and rested. Toward the end of the day, when the sun was lowering itself and the house began to take on a chill, I fired up the oven. Matt forbid me to turn the oven on for heat, so I had to bake something to justify its use :]. I had some old zucchini starting to wrinkle so I made zucchini bread. I pulled up a chair into the kitchen and wrote a letter in front of the oven, alternatively soaking in the heat and watching the bread rise. I wrote in the letter that I wish I could be on my farm already - staying home all day growing things and baking. I especially like making food for others. It's just fun and meaningful.

Cream together
1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup applesauce
3 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup sugar

Add:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg

Incorporate thoroughly
3 cups shredded zucchini

350 degrees for an hour or until fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Stubborn

Winter is being ornery and stubborn. I fight back with soup.

I love soups because you can easily make large batches in the crock-pot. I'm all about less effort and more reward! :D I found a split-pea soup recipe years ago in Real Simple, tore it out and planted it in my recipe book. It's turned into a staple. Though you really don't even need a recipe. It has all the basic elements of a good soup: some stock, some spices, some meat and/or veggies, some base ingredient (rice, potatoes, beans, etc.) This soup is stock, onions, carrots, split-peas, and ham-hocks [which is a cheap tasty meat for the budget conscious]. If you're lazy like me, you don't even have to chop the carrots very much. Throw in some thyme and you're golden. Now if only I could find a really good potato soup recipe....

Silliness

We had three days of really cold weather, including a hard freeze. So we rushed to cover our fall tomatoes and protect the tender blooms of my rose bushes from the biting wind. I believe we were successful and they survived to see this week of temperatures in the lower 80's. If you can imagine a wry tone in my voice, please do. It's silly to have a hard freeze in the middle of such mild weather.

 

However, I did find a silver linning to the short-lived cold spell: the chance to eat as many carbs as possible including a perennial favorite: homemade pot pie. It tasted every bit as good as you can imagine.

Also - yes, that is my broken pie pan. But it's still functional as long as you take care. Once, a large piece of crystal fell onto the pie pan from a top cabinet shelf. The crystal was unscathed. From that moment, I gave away all my crystal. To me, it is destructive to dishes that are both pretty and functional - like my red pie pan. Thus, I remain on non-speaking terms with crystal, whereas my intimacy with pot pie increases daily.

 

 

winter eats

I love recipes where chunks of stuff are thrown into a crockpot the night before and magically turn into hearty stews. I tweak this in a significant way: more bacon. How a recipe can constrain itself to only 3 strips of bacon is beyond me. Fry up the whole pig! Yummy! I didn't have any carrots last night so I just left them out. I also didn't have tomato paste so I put a couple spoonfuls of pasta sauce. Why not, right? By the time I woke up this morning - everything had melded into a sumptuous, bacon-smelling, delight of a meal.

1 large onion, chopped

3 strips (3 ounces) bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/4-inch half-moons

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (3 1/2 cups)

1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

 

http://www.marthastewart.com/341776/lentil-soup

picture post

+ This is what Yosemite looks like at sunset!

Quiche

I love omelets. They have a ‘blank slate’ quality to them. You can throw in just about anything and it will taste great. I love quiche because its one big omelet with a flaky crust. Hello! With a base of 3 eggs, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup cheese, its a canvas waiting for the colors of your pantry/garden/fridge. Its a frame that makes any picture look good. Its the right lighting for any face. Okay, enough analogies. But I’m serious. Mix in potatoes, ham, spinach, zucchini, even asparagus and it will taste amazing.

So when our garden finally started producing eggplants and when my sister’s garden was overrun with eggplants, I decided to try an eggplant quiche. The results? AMAZING! (of course!).

I use Martha’s Pate Brisee recipe, it yields me three thin quiche crusts, perfect for pulling out of the freezer at a moment’s notice.

The result was perfection!

Tomato

Among summer's blushing beauties, tomatoes are the sweetest. It's funny how, picked from straight from the vine, you can taste in your mouth how they are fruits. You can make a million meals following a simple rule: starch + tomato + herb + cheese/meat (optional).Toasted bread with tomato and bacon and lettuce or cheese and rosemary, spaghetti with tomato and basil and (fill in the blank), pizza crust with tomato and oregano and (fill in another blank). Even chickpeas or couscous with tomato and sausage or eggplant with tarragon, YUM! This version of starch+tomato+cheese came from a british baking book. I know it's british because they use liters and call cookies 'biscuits.' Here is the interpretation: tart crust with tomatoes and mozzarella.

squash

Squash is one of my favorite plants. Taking just 8 weeks to harvest, it satisfies my impatient, instant-gratification tendencies :D. Since the laptop I've been using doesn't have linux (sob), pictures will not be forthcoming. This picture and recipe I found online and made yesterday with my newly picked squash. It was delicious!
Well, okay, I didn't really use the recipe, I more or less used the concept. I chopped up onion and bell pepper and sauted them. Then I added my grass-fed beef from Shady Grove Ranch (friends and neighbor-ish people of mine). Topped with some raw-milk cheese and whole wheat bread crumbs (home made bread is the bomb!), baked for 40 minutes on 350 and voila!

Squash is really easy to grow (and fast in a really sunny spot), but if you don't have marigold, basil, or other bee attracting plants, you can end up with unpollinated flowers and no squash. Squash bushes have male and female flowers. You can tell by looking closely which flowers are female, they have tiny little squashes underneath just waiting to grow. In the morning, when the flowers open, sometimes I'll take a q-tip, dab it in the pollen of an open male flower and then spread it around inside the open female flower. Voila number two! Pollinated squash (cue inappropriate jokes :D). It may be a crude method, but it works.

pizza pizza

The hard frost came and leaves withered to black despite the willing readiness of its fruit to stay. So I harvested a bounty of green tomatoes; far more than the totality of red tomatoes this summer. They look beautiful but are tart instead of sweet and the idea of frying all those tomatoes nauseate me. Our local farmer timely received a hormone/chemical free pig and luscious bacon was available. Cue recipe. Paring homemade wheat bread dough with blended tomato for sauce, onions, mushrooms, bacon and green tomatoes for topping and the result was culinary bliss. I wish I had a picture of the finished product. Hearty, warm, nutritious, filling, everything a winter meal should be. For better or for worse, I still have a whole bowl of green tomatoes left. I wonder how many pizzas I can eat this winter?

pie in the sky

My first ever apple pie. The crust was a pain to roll out so I thought for sure it would bomb but it tasted amazing! Best of all, it was made with local organic apples. Yumm!!

soup!

Fall is the season for soups. I always ran into the problem of disliking soups and was left with little alternative this time of year. But now, with fresh organic veggies, food tastes SO different and my body can’t get enough soup! Full of nutrients, warm, easy to make and store, we’ve been souping it up like nobody’s business. I discovered multi-grain saltine crackers at the store. I had never seen them before and they are a revelation! They’re the same price as regular saltines, but tastier, with no ingredient change other than the addition of whole wheat flour. Hurray!

comfort food

When the weather turns cold, one of my favorite comfort foods is quiche. And since I’m not a big potato eater (can you say starchy non-complex carbohydrates?), I turn to in-season zucchini. A little trick I’ve learned is that 1 cup of bisquick pancake mix will self-crust if you don’t have time to make your own crust. For the picture, I used Martha Stewart’s classic pate brisee. I have to admit that I don’t measure much with this recipe. It takes about two cups of shredded zucchini (after squeezing water from it), roughly 1 and a half zucchini, and the left-over zucchini I slice and place on top. About 2 cups shredded cheese, 3 eggs, and 1/2 cup milk, with spices all thrown in and cinnamon sprinkled on top. I took this to a baby shower this morning and it was a big hit, with not even a crumb left. Yumm!!

Eat!

I have a new Mediterranean cookbook with which I have since been experimenting. I’m not sure how it happened, but I at least five basil plants so linguine pesto was a natural choice for the inaugural recipe.

2 cups fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic crushed
1/4 cup pine nuts toasted (we used almonds instead)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (PLEASE don’t use that cheap stuff in a plastic green container that is typically and irreverently tossed on spaghetti)
1 lb. Linguine (if it’s whole wheat, all the better!)
1/4th of a purple onion (I added this)
Shaved Parmesan for serving

I cooked the pasta al dente as directed but instead of a food processor (which I don’t own, and frankly, I’m fine with one less appliance) used the blender. The result was fantastic. As an aside, guess what I used as my backdrop for this picture? It’s probably not that hard to guess.

Don't you think the cookbook gets along nicely with it's new family? :]

that kind of day

Some days, your only accomplishment is getting food on the table. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

• Chicken Breasts cooked (slowly!) in olive oil, sprinkled with Lowery’s seasoning, basil, and garlic powder, then chopped.
• Bell peppers and mushrooms stir-fried in the left over chicken grease (is that gross?)
• Pad Thai Noodles from a box with sauce from the same box (hey, boxes are handy sometimes)

last week's menu

Creamy Chicken with Spinach

Pasta with Chicken, Tomatoes, and Feta

Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad

Garbanzo Bean Burrito

I dream of having my garden to a place where, instead of the grocery store, I simply step outside :D