Category Archives: Food

Onion tart – Very good. Easy to make, esp. with frozen pie dough, though my husband didn’t enjoy scrubbing the pan I’d caramelized the onions in. I had a lot of leftover onion that got used in various things.

Sausage turnovers – I had some problems with this recipe. A little too much filling and not quite enough pie dough meant lots of filling that wouldn’t fit. The turnovers were tasty, if overstuffed.

Extra filling (sausage, peppers, caramelized onions) turned into a gratin based on a recipe that turned up in the paper that week, and scrambled eggs.

Vegetable beef soup – This is probably the best thing I’ve made in a while and of course it’s the simplest: a pound of stew beef and whatever random vegetables we had in the fridge/freezer (and canned tomatoes, water, and the last of a jar of beef bouillion). Good use of all the kale stems I’d been collecting.

Crockpot baked beans – So, several years ago I tried to make lentil soup in my crockpot and the lentils took three days to cook. I’ve been reluctant to try beans again, especially ones that take longer than lentils would on the stove (which is pretty much all of them, lentils only take 30 min if that).

I sort of merged two recipes: Slow-baked beans with kale, which uses an oven, and one for plain baked beans in a crockpot, which I used to make sure the beans cooked. And then I added some chipotle chiles, and didn’t quite measure the liquid (the recipe said to check on it and add more throughout the day, which is a little tricky if you’re using a crockpot because you’re at work, so I was overgenerous when I added tomatoes and water in the morning).

So I ended up with something like vegetarian chili, and it was good. I still have leftovers to eat tonight. Also, the crockpot didn’t turn itself off like it did when I tried to make pork the other week, so I’m willing to try it on meat again.

A few weeks ago I ran across a recipe for no-knead bread in the New York Times that I just had to try: instead of kneading the dough, you let it rise for 18 hours. I like kneading bread, but the idea of ignoring it while doing other things instead appeals to me (same reason I like the crockpot). I’ve made the recipe a few times now.

The scheduling isn’t any trickier than scheduling regular bread, and I don’t have to scrub the counter so I can knead on it. The dough (just flour, yeast, and water) is super-sticky, though, and I haven’t yet managed to get it from the towel it’s supposed to rise on into the pot it’s supposed to bake in without a big struggle. Last time I tried wax paper but it still stuck, even with a thick coating of flour.

The bread bakes in a dutch oven, which is supposed to give it a great crust, which is nice if you like crust… I would try making it just on a sheet, but I think the loaf would spread into a giant blob and flop onto the bottom of the oven. (The article accompanying the recipe has photos in which the baker’s balls of dough are actually ball-shaped. I’m not sure how he managed that.)

Anyway, good bread, which I’ll make again soon.

Other tasty things I’ve made lately: two iterations of squash soup (this is amazing, why haven’t I made it before?), beef stew, pork posole.

I’ve been eating canned soup for lunch for months and am tired of it, so for the past several weeks I’ve been bringing in bean salads instead.

This lentil and tuna salad from the New York Times sounds strange but was really good. I like lentils, but they don’t have much flavor on their own; mixing them with tuna and the mustard and garlic in the dressing adds a lot.

Probably my favorite so far has been the black bean and avocado salad (with tomato, bell pepper, and lime juice). It’s impossible to not like something with avocado in it.

Chickpea, carrot, and feta salad wasn’t as good (even without the anchovy), though I’ve added green olives to the leftovers which should help with the blandness.

Anyone got any outstanding bean salad recipes?

Some months ago my husband decided he wanted chocolate cake, but had trouble finding a recipe that called for cocoa rather than chocolate. (He eventually found one. That was the night of the icing fire.) After that I asked my mom for her Wacky Cake recipe, which I finally made last night (not exactly the one linked to, but close enough). Turned out really well – moist and chocolaty. We skipped the icing, though, as I was short on time.

I think it turned out so well because of the secret ingredient. It calls for 2 cups of sugar, and after I measured about 1/3 cup of sugar I discovered that was all we had. We had some light brown sugar, but it was dried into a solid block. Tried stabbing it with a knife and barely made a dent. Luckily my faithful assistant came up with the bright idea of grating it. Even more luckily, he grated it while I ran off and did some work upstairs. Sounded like he was scrubbing pots.

Today, spurred by an article in the paper about farmer’s markets that still have local produce this time of year, we ventured to the Worthington farmer’s market, which is really hard to find. We didn’t see any of the greens that are supposedly available, perhaps because we got there too late, but did get some squash and shallots and sausage.

Apparently I’m two or three months behind on cooking posts.

Stuff I can still remember making lately, for a generous definition of lately:

* Mexican tomato soup with cornmeal dumplings: Kind of interesting. If I make it again – and I may not – I would use a less strongly flavored oil for the dumplings than olive oil. (From Cooking Light, but I can’t find the recipe at their site yet.)

* Black bean cakes: beans, pepper jack cheese, onion, coated with cornmeal. They were really good (and also made a tasty breakfast). (Also from Cooking Light, also not on their site yet.)

* Corned beef, steamed cabbage, and soda bread. (No points for guessing what day this is from.) The bread, alas, did not bake all the way through, despite sounding deceptively hollow when thumped. A second attempt with an extra 10 minutes of baking time fared much better.

* Tuna noodle casserole. Not very exciting, but it’s easy to double and it freezes well.

* Tamale pie. Basically used the recipe from the Joy of Cooking, but replaced a third of the ground beef with either zuchinni (yummy) or broccoli (good but weird). And replaced much of the salsa with canned tomatoes + various herbs, spices + aromatic veggies. And left out the cheese the second time. I guess I pretty much used their dough recipe and made up my own filling. Also easy to double and freeze.

* Chicken soup with dumplings. I love dumplings.

* Black bean tortilla bake. From Skinny One-Pot Meals. With a lot less cheese than it calls for, because it wanted a lot of cheese. And the second time we didn’t have any nonfat ricotta anyway.

I’m behind on food posts (again). Recent weeks have seen tuna/salmon noodle cassarole, chicken pot pie (twice), chicken cutlets with maple dill sauce (Cooking Light, Dec. 2006, too sweet, not going to make it again), and Beef Stew with Poblanos, Tomatillos, and Potatoes (also the most recent issue of CL), which I have now made twice and am going to be making again next weekend (in the crockpot next time).

Roasted Chicken with Dried Plums and Shallots, Cooking Light, Sept. 2006.

Mmmmmmmm. I’ll be making this again.

It has prunes. And fennel. And shallots. Mmmmmmmm. I *love* fennel.

It calls for four chicken breasts; I had two packages of three, so the two extras got turned into cooked chicken + broth (needed some broth for tonight anyway). Need the cooked chicken for Wednesday’s dinner (stay tuned…).

Supposed to have brussels sprouts on the side; one of us refuses to eat them, so we had broccoli instead.

Aside 1: If they give away the recipes on their website, why do I subscribe?

Aside 2: One of my projects for my oodles of free time (ha) is to put together a web-based recipe database, so I can, say, look in the fridge and notice I have chicken and fennel and then do a search for recipes that include those ingredients. Also, so I can find recipes I like and make them again. It’s hard to track multiple cookbooks + magazines + clippings + printouts.

Ok, it’s really Pork Chops with Cherry Preserves Sauce (Cooking Light, Aug. 2006). But I should have read the recipe more closely before I decided to make it, as the sauce is just cherry preserves and a tiny bit of vinegar. Waaaaaaaaaay too sweet.

Next time I’ll stick with the pork-and-plums recipe I love so much from a previous issue. That fruit sauce is dried plums+wine+chicken broth. Much less sweet.

And I thought I was lucking out since cherry preserves were on sale.