Comfort Food Reigns

You've seen these individual components before, but here they are together providing a delightful supper dish. That's a little serving of quinoa with sautéed corn and grape tomatoes that have been doused with fresh lemon zest and a generous squeeze from a native Meyer lemon (don't let anyone kid you, they don't only grow in Californina) and taking pride of place, none other than my latest favorite veggie—roasted butternut squash with tamari and a light lacing of raw honey. That dark blob in the back? Slices of whole wheat quick bread that I told you about earlier, too.

The only modification I'd make in the future, if I were to assemble this same cast of characters, would be to add something green. The plate is certainly lacking something green. Remember the rule of thumb, fill your plate with colorful food items, avoiding anything white. That's a healthy approach to food selection. Next comes, don't overcook the food. Don't drown it in rich, fatty sauces, and for heavens sake, don't buy it already prepared in a jar, box, bag or can. Cooking from scratch doesn't take much longer than opening a package, and besides, it's healthier, less expensive and tastes so much better, it's worth the extra few minutes.

Find a food writer you enjoy. My new best friends are Mark Bittman , I check out his entries in the New York Times and Crescent Dragonwagon. They provide me with some great new ideas for preparing quick, easy, healthy meals. But my earlier tutors, Julia Child and Jacques Pepin and the local chefs I took classes with, have given me a good background for being able to peruse a recipe and make adjustments or just plain avoid it. Keeping food preparation simple, few ingredients and few steps, not only makes the process simple, but the end product tastes much better, too!

I like the fresh take on whole foods that Heidi Swanson provides in her blog and cookbooks. The savory bean dishes that Steve from Rancho Gordo suggests are high on my list of things to make and eat. Not to mention, purchasing the great heirloom beans and fresh grains Rancho Gordo provides.

Becoming familiar with the list of Superfoods and adding them to your daily/weekly diet will not only improve your health and trim your waist, but it will give you a variety of new foods to eat and fresh ideas to try.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

A TASTE OF THAI

Not to be confused with Tasty Thai, one of our favorite Orlando restaurants. This is a little coconut milk, peanut, basil, adorning some pretty straightforward veggies and rice. Jasmine rice cooked in a combination of homemade vegetable stock and coconut milk and some stir fried green beans, red pepper, sweet onion, garlic and jalepeño pepper finished with a little Thai slurry and a topping of peanuts and fresh basil. Easy, fast and very tasty.

Using familiar vegetables in unusual ways is a great way to perk up dinner time while getting in the daily requirements. This meal could easily add, sautéed shrimp, chicken or pork for the carnivores out there. Sauté the meat first, remove to a plate while you sauté or stir fry the vegetables starting with the hardest ones, onions, peppers, garlic and then the green beans or broccoli florets.

One cup of Jasmine rice, rinsed off and cooked in 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth (use chicken if you like) and 1 cup of coconut milk with a teaspoon of kosher salt. Bring the liquid to a boil, add salt and rice. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes until all liquid has been absorbed. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before stirring. Finish with 2 TBS fresh lime juice and 1 TBS unsalted butter. Fluff with a fork to serve.

Sauté veggies in a 2 TBS olive oil, add in cooked chicken, pork or shrimp if using, stir fry until veggies are crisp tender 2 - 5 minutes. Meanwhile mix up slurry: combine 3/4 cup coconut milk; 1/4 cup veggie or chicken broth; 1 TBS fish sauce; 1 TBS fresh lime juice; 1 TBS soy sauce or tamari; 2 tsp brown sugar; 2 tsp cornstarch, salt and pepper to taste. Stir slurry into sauté pan and continue to sauté/stir fry for another 2 - 3 minutes. Stir in one cup sliced (chiffonade) basil and 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped. Serve over coconut rice.

This is a simple way to tweak a plain old meal of green beans and chicken. For those of us avoiding a lot of flesh, the combination of red peppers, onions, garlic and greens beans makes a delightful dish smothering the coconut rice. Try it; you'll like it.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking!

Lentils

Here's that old budget stretcher again. The lentils above are just getting started on their way to becoming a pot of tasty chili. It's amazing the mileage one can obtain from a bag of plain brown lentils. Four cups of lentils with six cups of water or veggie broth or a combination of both, along with some diced onion, minced garlic, a little diced tomato and a few spices, produces a huge pot of lentil chili that is guaranteed to warm the cockles of your heart, fill your tummy, provide much needed fiber and even supply the neighbors or better yet, the freezer, with containers for later use.

When the outside temperature dips down, even here in Florida we get chilly, I yearn for soups, chilis or chowders—those wonderful one pot meals that have the dual advantage of not only being good, but good for you. Earlier this year, I made a small batch of lentil chili, using Molly Katzen's recipe. It was so good that I promised myself I would soon make a full batch with containers for the freezer. This was the day.

With such a wide variety of lentils available, red, green, brown, etc., the choice is yours, but honestly for this recipe, the brown, grocery store variety is just fine. I continue to be surprised at how good a meal can be without high priced, hard to find items and also, how easy it is to put together a healthy, palate pleasing plate of food with no stress, no fancy techniques, just a genuine desire to eat well and inexpensively.

The 4 cups of lentils along with the veggies and spices cost about $2.00, yet produced a 5 quart pot of nourishing, tasty chili.

Serve the chili with a dollop of aged Balsamic vinegar, as I have, or top it off with freshly grated cheddar cheese. You might even care to serve it over noodles.

Legumes are a perfect way to cut cost without cutting nutritional corners. In fact, planning meals around beans, seeds and grains will give you a nutritional boost while saving plenty at the supermarket.

Rinse and drain 4 cups of lentils, place in large stock pot with 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare veggies. Chop one large or two medium yellow onions; mince 4 - 6 cloves of garlic. Dice 4 ripe plum tomatoes or use a 16oz can of diced tomatoes. Measure out spices onto a small plate (mise-en-place). 1 tsp paprika; 2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp thyme; 3 tsp chili powder. On a separate saucer, place 3 Tbs tomato paste and 2 tsp salt.

After the lentils have cooked for the first 30 minutes add the prepared vegetables and the spices (not the salt and tomato paste). Stir and continue to simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Watch the lentils, as they cook stir from the bottom from time to time. If they get too thick, add additional water or veggie stock in 1/4 cup increments. After the second 30 minutes of simmering, stir in the tomato paste and salt. Let cook for another 10 minutes or so. Taste for seasoning. You may want it spicier, saltier or thinner. Add additional water or seasonings to suit your taste. For a smaller quantity, use 2 cups of lentils and 3 cups of water and lighten up on the spices.

There you have it, a big pot of lentil chili for under $2.00.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Quick Bread Image from the New York Times

Ah, the joys of modern technology! This week in the New York Times Dining section, Mark Bittman demonstrated how to make a savory quick bread via video. I couldn't wait to try it out. I've made sweet quick breads for years: banana, pumpkin, cranberry nut to name a few. While these all can be made with a minimal amount of sweeteners, they, in fact, tend to be made with quite a bit of sugar, either white or brown or some of each, and often additional sweets like raisins, dried fruit, or chocolate chips.

This bread does have a bit of a sweet component, molasses. The molasses lends the whole wheat flour a dark lush pumpernickel shade of brown and leaves just a hint of both pumpernickel and Boston brown bread on the taste buds.

I'm a big fan of homemade bread. But we don't always have the time to wait for the rise and often a second and third rise. This great little technique, using acid (buttermilk) and baking soda as leavening, provides a lovely loaf of moist, dense bread that is a perfect accompaniment to soups, salads and vegetarian entrées. I found it also makes a great breakfast treat, lightly toasted and slathered with soft Irish butter or an afternoon snack, topped with whipped cream cheese and perhaps a dab of pure wild blueberry preserves.

Take a quick lesson by watching Mark's video. They say, a picture's worth a thousand words, these short videos are perfect for seeing just how things are done.

Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease a standard loaf pan. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the buttermilk or yogurt and molasses in another, when the oven is hot and the loaf pan is prepared, carefully and gently, mix the wet ingredients into the dry, being careful not to over mix. Bake until firm and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 45 - 60 minutes. It's simple, fast and delicious.

List of ingredients: 1 2/3 cups buttermilk or plain yogurt; 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour; 1/2 cup cornmeal; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 cup molasses. I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour with excellent results.

Here's Mark's additional instructions for a lighter bread: Use 1 1/2 cups whole wheat and 1 1 /2 cups all purpose flour; omit cornmeal. Substitute honey for molasses. Beat one egg into wet ingredients. Proceed as above. This might be nice to use for tea sandwiches with homemade jams.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Ancient Grains

I'll admit, I was heavily influenced by Heidi Swanson's recent post. That, combined with my latest personal challenge to use what's on hand, produced a marvelous lunch along with leftovers for today. I've been experimenting with different grains. We all have a tendency to reach for rice when we think of grains. I love the many varieties of Lundberg Farms rices and using jasmine or basmati rice offers some nice variety, too. But there's more to grains than rice and there are many more grains with far more interesting textures and flavors as well as more nutritional value than rice.

Quinoa, is not really a grain. It's actually the botanical fruit of an herb plant that is treated like a grain. Grown in the Andes Mountains of South America, this ancient grain, known as the mother grain, has survived throughout the ages and has now become known as the Superfood of the Future.

I was first introduced to quinoa (keen-wah) by Steve at Rancho Gordo. I followed the simple cooking instructions provided and was delighted with the results. I later found an interesting recipe in the NY Times for quinoa with caramelized onions and have made that several times.

With yesterday's batch, instead of cooking it in water, one cup liquid to a half cup quinoa, I used vegetable stock that I'd made the day before. While the quinoa cooked, I sautéed half a vidalia onion, cut in wedges, a good sized jalepeño chili, sliced lengthwise with seeds removed, and a handful of broccoli florets.

Meanwhile, I had some diced butternut squash roasting in a 425° oven, just lightly coated in olive oil and a dash of tamari. When all components were ready, I followed Heidi's example and filled a bowl with the goodies. To give the dish a hint of Thai flavoring, I used an embellishment of freshly chopped cilantro and a generous squeeze of fresh lime juice over the quinoa along with some salt and pepper.

Be adventurous. Try something new. It's a stretch to call quinoa new. This is a food staple that's been around over 5,000 years. But it is new to many of us North Americans.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Sunday Lunch

Ah, well even the best of us fall by the way occasionally and indulge in a little taste of the foods we've come to relish over the years, despite knowing that they are not good for us. I could do a kitchen confession and avow I am heartily sorry for exposing my body to the horrors that make up those little tasty slices of pepperoni. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

In the spirit of all things in moderation, I gave in to the impulse to add a few slices of those nitrate treated, chemically endowed, dead pieces of questionable pig parts. Had it not been temptingly sitting on my freezer shelf, this whole paragraph would never have come into existence. Confirms my belief, if you don't buy it; you won't eat it! Now that I've offered a ridiculous apology for adorning my otherwise whole food pizza with eight slices of pepperoni, let me tell you, it was WONDERFUL!

Having ready to use balls of dough in the freezer, makes having pizza on demand a reality. I used the King Arthur Light As Air pizza dough recipe, using white whole wheat flour. The recipe makes one large or two personal size pies.

I've learned to keep on hand a supply of Muir Glenn organic fire roasted diced tomatoes, as the dough came to room temperature (I'd defrosted it in the fridge overnight) I cooked down the tomatoes with a generous helping of Mexican oregano, salt and pepper. Oftentimes, I mince up a shallot or a couple of garlic cloves, but this was just tomatoes. I used the immersion blender to break down the tomatoes after they'd cooked down a bit and then to be sure I didn't have a soggy crust, I spooned the tomatoes into a strainer just before transferring them to the rolled out crust which I had brushed with a light coating of olive oil. The oil acts as a protective moisture barrier, keeping the thin crust crisp.

I find that pre-heating the oven and pizza stone at 500° for a good 45 minutes to an hour prior to baking really helps to get a crisp crust on the pie. After covering the crust with the tomatoes, I added a generous layer of freshly grated mozzarella cheese, and then the slices of pepperoni. When placing the pie in the oven, lower the temperature to 450°. Depending on the oven, the size of the pie and how brown you want it, cook for 15 - 18 minutes. Keep an eye on it after 12 minutes or so. The fresh basil was added just before cutting. If you're so inclined, you might like to add a generous sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes and a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese. It's fine without; better with!

With a little planning and a bit of practice, you can enjoy great pizza at home when the mood strikes.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Busy Days Ahead

Today marks the beginning of our annual PlayFest. Ten days of exciting play readings and workshops at the Harriet Lake Festival of New Plays, Orlando Shakespeare Theater project. Each year Playfest has become more streamlined, offering exciting works in development by both aspiring new writers and prize winning, established playwrights.


I've made my choices, purchased my tickets, and have also done some menu planning to allow me to run home, feed and walk the dog, grab a bite to eat, wash up and head back for the next round of plays. Fast food doesn't have to be a cold cut sandwich or a heated, prepared frozen entrée courtesy of Swanson, Banquet or even, the illustrious red boxed, Stouffer's.

I love Mexican food, especially refried beans and salsa. Having a supply of both on hand, along with some good tortillas and a bag of fresh corn chips promises a choice of taco, tostada, burrito or just bean dip with chips. Fast, easy and healthy.

I've found that canned refried beans resemble and probably taste like Ken-L-Ration. Can't vouch for the taste as I've never indulged in any canned dog food. Nor, for that matter, has my dog. I'll admit, it takes a little planning and requires a little time to cook dried beans. Even using canned pinto beans as a starting point for making refried beans is a notch up from buying canned refried beans. At least the only ingredient, we hope, read the label, is beans. No chemicals, lard or hydrogenated oil, etc. Especially, please, no MSG.

I used a cup of Santa Maria Pinquitos from Rancho Gordo. These fresh, heirloom beans require a much shorter soaking and cooking time. Remember, the older the bean the longer it takes to cook. So buy your dried beans from a reliable purveyor who moves a lot of beans.

I cooked the beans until just tender, in filtered water, keeping the water level just over the top of the beans in the pot by adding additional boiling water as they cooked. Don't add cold water as it stops the cooking and don't use hot water from the tap - yuk, all those nasties from the hot water tank do not add minerals to the dish! And don't add salt until the beans are tender, that prolongs the cooking time. If you use canned beans, rinse the glop off them before proceeding and plan to use a half cup of vegetable broth or chicken broth as you proceed. You won't have delicious pot liquor, the bonus derived from starting with dried beans.

Here's a tostada made with a pan crisped corn tortilla, refried beans, grated Monterrey/Jack cheese and a spicy roasted salsa.

For the Salsa: 3 medium jalapeño chilis, halved, seeds and ribs removed; about 8 plum tomatoes, cored and halved; a medium yellow onion, cut into wedges; 2 cloves of garlic, peeled; 1 TBS tomato paste; 3 TBS olive oil; 1/2 tsp ground cumin; 1/4 tsp cayenne; salt and pepper; 3 TBS fresh minced cilantro leaves; juice from 1 or 2 limes.

Preheat oven to 375°, adjust rack to middle position. Combine tomatoes, onion, chilis, garlic, 1 tsp salt, cumin and cayenne. toss to mix thoroughly. Place vegetables cut side down on rimmed baking sheet. (cover w/ foil for ease of clean-up). Roast until tomatoes are tender and skins begin to shrivel and brown. 30 - 40 min. Cool on baking sheet. Using tongs, transfer roasted vegetables except tomatoes to bowl of food processor. Process until almost completely broken down then add tomatoes and add the tomato paste. Process until slightly chunky about 10 seconds. Add minced cilantro and lime juice. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Store covered in refrigerator.

For the Beans: If using dried beans follow above instructions. Use pot liquor for liquid in place of broth. Makes 3 cups. 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth; 2 cans pinto beans (15 oz), drained and rinsed; 1 TBS olive oil; 1 small onion; 1 jalepeño chile, seeds and ribs removed, minced; 1 poblano chili, seeds and ribs removed, chile chopped finely; 1/4 tsp salt; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 TBS minced fresh cilantro leaves.

Process broth and beans in food processor until smooth, scraping sides of bowl. Heat oil in 12 inch non-stick skillet over medium high heat, add onion, chiles and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown. Add garlic and cumin, stir until fragrant then add beans and stir until thoroughly combined. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are thick and creamy (about 5 min). If too thick, add more water/broth, a little at a time until they reach desired consistency. When done, stir in cilantro. Process for beans and salsa adapted courtesy of America's Test Kitchen.

The beans make wonderful burritos, wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with salsa and cheese. Or layer into an ovenproof dish, cover with grated cheese and a thin layer of enchilada sauce, bake off at 350° for 15 - 20 minutes and serve with fresh, crisp corn chips for the best bean dip ever. The salsa is super with chips or use it as the sauce for Huevos Rancheros. Heat the salsa in a 12" skillet, make four wells in the sauce, and crack an egg into each well, cover and cook over medium heat until eggs are set. Serve on crisp oven baked corn tortillas with some refried beans on the side. Going Tex-Mex is easy and fun.

Simple foods providing good eats! No chemicals, additives or preservatives.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Portion Control

Roasted carrots & butternut squash w/ onions, broccoli and blackened Tilapia.

It's not enough to just eat whole foods with minimal processing. As Americans, living in the land of plenty, we eat way too much food. Just look at that plateful above. Enough to feed two people easily, but guess what? I managed to lick the platter clean with no effort at all. This is another of my favorite fast slow food meals that I so heavily relied on when I was a full time hard working productive member of society. Putting a wholesome meal on the table in 30 minutes or less is something that anyone can produce with a little foresight, a little planning and a little bit of practice.

The meal pictured above was plated and being eaten in less than 15 minutes from start to finish. That's because the butternut squash and carrots were leftovers from a previous meal (cheat a little - it never hurts). Previously, the diced veggies were tossed in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted off, in a single layer, in a 425° oven for about 25 minutes. Reheating for a couple of minutes in the microwave made them good as new. The broccoli was done in the one pot steam/sauté method* with a sprinkling of crushed red pepper and the blackened fish was gently sautéed in a little olive oil/butter combination for 3 minutes per side. Once finished, a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice over the fillets finished it off nicely. I used Penzey's Adobo seasoning for the fish. This is a great spice mixture to have on hand, rich but not hot and a great flavor booster for chicken, roasts, fish, veggies—use your imagination. The combination of onion, garlic, Tellicherry black pepper, Mexican oregano, cumin and cayenne pepper will enhance almost any savory dish.

Even though I no longer participate in the great rat race and don't come flagging in the door, starved, weary, aggravated from the traffic, I still enjoy putting a good meal on the table quickly so I can get on with my evening. We owe it to ourselves to eat well for enjoyment but more importantly to maintain our health. Whole foods fast is the way to go.

* Steam/sauté in one pot. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan, add broccoli florets and cook over medium heat for 4 - 5 min, add a 1/4 cup of water. Cover the pot, allow to steam for another 2 -3 minutes or until bright green and just tender. Remove lid, let water evaporate or drain. Add salt, pepper and crushed red pepper to taste.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

A Rose By Any Other Name?

Heavens! All the furor over the word scrotum! The book police are at it again.

When librarians are mixed into the fold, and in some cases leading the pack, makes one wonder who'll be left to protect our intellectual freedom.

History shows us that banning books is one of the first steps taken to limit freedom and control a populace.

Newbery Award winner, The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron is under attack for using the word scrotum to describe the appropriate male body part on a dog. The uproar appears to be that the word has no place in children's literature. Nuts, I say to that.

Recently, here in Florida, there was a great "much ado about nothing" over the theater marquee that announced the run of The Vagina Monologues, forcing the theater to change the marquee to read: The Hoohaa Monologues.

I certainly say HooHaa to that, and so did the courts. It seems a woman driving by with her young niece was faced with the unfortunate task of explaining to the child what a vagina is.

Imagine the child's surprise to find her hoohaa had another name. HooHaa, ha!

Another example of American Facists fast at work.

To roll or not to roll? That's the question.

With a small, firm head of cabbage, I faced the dilemma of futzing with small leaves to wrap around a fragrant Japonica rice filling. Then decided that a cabbage and rice casserole might be just the trick to produce the taste of stuffed cabbages without the labor intensive task of removing each leaf, then filling it and rolling it. After removing the tough outer leaves, cut the cabbage in half through the stem end and remove the tough stem, though with a tiny cabbage, there isn't a lot of stem to remove. Slice the halves in generous one inch slices, place in a microwaveable bowl with a sprinkling of water and give it 5 minutes in the microwave to just barely soften the leaves.

Meanwhile start a cup of Lundberg's Japonica rice (that great full flavored mahogany and black combination) with 1-1/2 cups of water, 1 TBS of butter and a tsp of salt. In a separate pan sauté a simple mirapoix in olive oil, one carrot, one medium yellow onion, one stalk of celery, diced. I added a clove of garlic minced, and because I had it in the vegetable bin, a diced jalepeño pepper. Just a note about seasoning: I like to season in layers as I go rather than adding it all at the end. A light 1/4 tsp of kosher salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper added after each addition of the mirapoix ingredients produces a more evenly seasoned dish. But season to your taste, not mine. After the vegetables have softened (add a few drops of water if necessary, rather than more oil) add a 15 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and 1 TBS of spicy sauce. I use the term 'spicy sauce' as there's no need to run out and buy Pickapeppa, which is what I used. Any good steak sauce, like A1 or A1 Bold, will give the mixture a kick and if you leave it out, it will still be fine.

When the rice is cooked, about 40 minutes, it will have a nutty taste and chewy texture, some might even mistake it for meat, add the tomato/veggie mixture and combine thoroughly. Taste for seasoning. Layer the cabbage slices and the rice in an ovenproof casserole. Cover the bottom with a single layer of cabbage, follow with a generous layer of the rice mixture, cover the rice with another single layer of cabbage slices and if there is rice left over, dollop it over the top.

There was a little water in the bottom of the cabbage dish, I poured that right in over the top before covering with foil and placing in a preheated 350° oven for about 45 minutes or until the cabbage was cooked but still green and hadn't completely wilted away.

A small can of tomato sauce heated with 1 TBS of brown sugar and 2 TBS or rice wine vinegar makes a nice serving sauce or the sauce can be added to the casserole before placing in the oven or don't use any sauce— this is a very forgiving dish.
Prep time runs about 30 minutes and cooking time close to an hour. It's not as fast as some of my suggestions, but once made, it provides more than one meal if you're cooking for one or two. Serve the leftovers in some chicken broth for a fast soup. Or use as a side dish with a meat entrée later in the week. Or just reheat it and eat it as is!

Till next time . . .keep on cooking!

Who Says Man Cannot Live By Bread Alone?

While Dr. You-Know-Who was encouraging millions of folks to chow down on flesh and fat, some of us were still eating as our forefathers had. With produce from the garden, or at least from the produce market, grains and legumes. Now that obesity and obesity related illnesses are reaching epidemic proportions, we're being advised that all that flesh and fat, especially the hydrogenated fats, were not so good for us after all.

Those of us who clung to the whole foods, cook-it-like-grandma-did route, may have the last laugh. While it's true, man cannot live healthily by bread alone, whole grain breads sure can play a big part in the nutritional picture, as well as being a popular palette pleaser. Bread making, or any yeasted dough process, intimidates many cooks. But simple doughs are easy for a novice to work with and produce fine results .

The first yeasted dough recipe I worked with came from Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet. I've used the same recipe for both pizza dough and focaccia for years with excellent results. Bread is simply flour, water, yeast and salt. Sometimes with the addition of oil or butter. The focaccia pictured above was made with 3 1/3 cups whole wheat flour, 1 package instant yeast, 1 cup warm water (105° - 115°), 5 TBS olive oil and 1 tsp salt. The same dough can be made with unbleached all purpose flour for a white loaf or combine all purpose with whole wheat for a lighter loaf that still has some whole wheat in it for nourishment and flavor. If using just all purpose flour, the dough may require up to 4 cups to hold together nicely.
Once the dough is mixed and kneaded, (I let my Kitchen Aid standing mixer do this part) place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place. When the dough has doubled in size, punch down, shape into a flat focaccia, or roll into a baguette. Allow to rise again, then bake at 400° for 30 minutes. I like to make finger holes in the top of the dough, then brush it with olive oil and sprinkle on a generous dusting of kosher salt and crushed, dried rosemary. If using the dough for pizza, it's ready after the first rise. Divide the dough in two, form into balls and roll out for a 10" crust. Or place the dough balls individually into zip lock bags and freeze for future use. Baking in stoneware is excellent for producing a crusty loaf. Baking pizza on a pre-heated pizza stone ensures a crisp crust, too.

Since neither man nor I can live by bread alone, I added a little protein and a bit of fruit to accompany the warm bread when it emerged from the oven. I recently picked up a fast and easy treatment of Thai Chicken Satay with peanut sauce from the Dining section of the New York Times and decided to put it to the test. While this simple cooking technique may lack great grilled flavor, it also eliminates the carcinogens produced by grilling food. The Times article called for a cooked chicken breast, I had some lightly sautéed chicken tenders on hand, they worked perfectly. I sliced them in half lengthwise to make thinner planks.

For the Sauce: 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy); 2 TBS sesame oil; 1 TBS Tamari or soy sauce; 1 TBS honey; 1 tsp milk.
For the Satay: 1 cooked chicken breast; 1 TBS Tamari or soy sauce; 2 TBS honey; 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional).

For the Sauce:mix peanut butter, sesame oil, tamari, honey and milk in a small microwaveable bowl. Microwave until thoroughly heated, about 30 seconds (be careful not to overcook), then mix until smooth.

For the Satay:cut chicken into 1" thick strips. Mix tamari and honey in small bowl. Coat chicken with mixture, discard any excess. Microwave for 15 -20 seconds. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired, serve with peanut sauce.

Well, wasn't that fast and easy? You don't have to bake a focaccia to enjoy the Chicken Satay. But giving your own baked bread a whirl is rewarding and you might just find that working with yeast dough is a technique you'd like to perfect. I'm still working at it.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking!

Oatmeal Anyone?

By now we're all familiar with the word that oatmeal is a great food to include in our diets but not everyone is ready for a bowl of mush. Here's a great way to include fiber in our diet and satisfy our sweet tooth at the same time. Quick and easy to make, oatmeal cookies require no special culinary talent and no fancy ingredients. If you don't have an heirloom recipe that's been handed down from your grandmother, just follow the directions on an oatmeal box.

I normally add raisins and walnuts to oatmeal cookies but today I used 1/2 cup of mixed candied dried fruit and 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. One of the tricks to producing a chewy cookie as opposed to a crisp cookie is to not over bake it. After 10 minutes in a 350° oven, I start watching carefully. The cookies should be brown around the edges but not quite set in the center. They'll firm up as they cool and the result is a toothsome tidbit.

Allowing the cookies to cool completely on a cooling rack before storing them in an airtight container will assure they stay fresh and chewy for days. If they last that long. Try it — baking's not only fun, homemade sweets are the best!

I like to bake on Saturday mornings as I listen to favorite programs on public radio. It's both relaxing and productive. I end up with goodies to eat and don't miss a beat of "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" or "The Arts Connection" or I bake right after lunch and listen to Ira Glass and "This American Life".

The Cookies

I use 3/4 cup of butter not vegetable shortening (hydrogenated product) and I cut back on the amount of sugar called for in most recipes. One cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white is enough, with 3 cups of oatmeal, one cup of flour, 1/2 tsp of baking soda, one tsp salt, one beaten egg, 1/2 cup of water, one tsp vanilla. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, add the egg and water and mix well. Whisk together the oatmeal, flour, baking soda and a teaspoon of salt in a separate bowl and then add to the wet mixture. Once the dry ingredients have been incorporated, add 1/2 cup each of the extras of your choice. Chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins, dried cherries or apricots, coconut or combinations of any of these. Be adventurous; experiment. I cover the baking sheets with parchment paper and drop the dough by rounded tablespoons for large cookies; rounded teaspoons for smaller cookies. Don't overcrowd the cookie sheets - 3 across and 4 down seems to be good spacing for the big cookies. The large cookies take anywhere from 12 - 15 minutes at 350° or a little longer depending on the accuracy of the temperature in your oven. Watch them after 10 minutes to be on the safe side. Smaller cookies cook more quickly. Vigilance pays.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

An Ode to Odds and Ends

I seem to be on a kick that combines the KISS approach (keep it simple, silly) with a frugal bent that includes lots of fresh vegetables. Last night I found a lovely large red bell pepper that had been lingering for almost a week in the fridge. Not a good thing. Then there were some blanched green beans in a plastic bag, left from the penne and pesto I made on Sunday. Hmmm. . . ideally, I should have whipped up a pot of polenta with cheese to accompany the melange of roasted veggies I tossed in the oven. But, instead, I opted for a familiar staple, a large russet potato.

I washed and sliced the red pepper along with a medium sized jalepeño and a medium yellow onion. I added the leftover blanched green beans and tossed this all, in an oven proof sauté pan, with a drizzling of olive oil, some salt and freshly ground pepper. The oven had been preheating to 475°. I scrubbed a large Idaho potato and gave it 5 minutes in the microwave on high while I was prepping the other vegetables. Then I moved everything into the oven for 15 minutes. When the timer rang, I checked the potato and gave the pepper mixture a good stir and added a sprinkling of tamari and a little rice wine vinegar then returned the pan to the oven for another 10 minutes. By then the potato was cooked, too.

I removed the tender flesh from the crisp skin, and roughly mashed it with a fork right in the serving dish, added some butter, salt and pepper and mounded it up in the center. I topped it with a dab of butter, a grating of Parmesan cheese and a little more freshly ground pepper. Then ladled on a generous helping of the roasted veggies, poured a glass of cabernet and voilá, another healthy, 30 minute meal that's a real palate pleaser and budget squeezer! Few ingredients, minimum preparation, no fancy techniques, just whole foods cooked simply.

The addition of the tamari and rice wine vinegar added a piquant edge to the mildly spicy vegetables that were slightly browned and caramelized from the roasting. Polenta, rice, lentils, quinoa, all would make a great companion for this easy roasted veggie dish. Carnivores can easily use this as a side dish for any meat entrée.


Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Pasta Al Pesto with Cream and Green Beans

Give yourself a taste treat, lighten the load on your colon, free up some of the money you spend at the grocery store, and start planning a meal or two each week using pasta and vegetables. Here's another quick, lip-smacking dish that stands alone or if you insist, makes a wonderful side dish to accompany chicken or fish.

I mixed the penne pasta, half multi-grain, half durum wheat. Following my own advice: use what's on hand. This dish is equally good with any pasta shape you wish to use or whatever you happen to have in the pantry. The beans can be replaced with sliced yellow and/or zucchini squash, too. So many pastabilities!

Oftentimes, when thinking of Italian food, we think of red sauce. While the heavy tomato sauces, also known as gravies, are prevalent in the South of Italy, the Northern regions use only a touch of tomato. In Venice, for instance, you rarely see a red dish.

Pesto sauce is thought to have originated in Northern Italy. It's a quick, easy, very rich sauce that is simple to prepare in either a blender or food processor. But there is good quality prepared pesto available frozen in specialty stores. Check the label, watch for food additives. Pesto is made from fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts. That's it, anything else in the preparation is out of place. There are different varieties of pesto. The pine nuts can be replaced with walnuts for instance and the basil replaced with parsley. But pesto is simply herbs, nuts, oil, garlic and cheese. If you purchase pesto, read the label. But that's true for any processed foods that you buy.

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil with salt. Parboil 1/4 lb of green beans, trimmed and cut in one inch pieces. (approximately 2 cups). Boil beans for about 2 - 3 minutes and then remove with a skimmer to a plate to cool. Add 3 cups of penne to the boiling salted water and cook until just al dente. Do not overcook. Pasta should be firm yet tender, not soggy and swollen.

While the pasta cooks, sauté a couple cloves of minced garlic in a little olive oil, then add the green beans and sauté until just tender - 5 minutes or so. Mix 1/3 cup pesto and 1/2 cup of half & half. Set aside. When pasta is cooked, drain well, return to pot and stir in pesto mixture and green beans. Toss all together, add salt and pepper to taste and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Just a few green beans and a little pasta. My, oh my.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Viva L'Italia

A popular patriotic custom in Italy is to prepare a pasta dish reflecting the colors of the national flag. Recently, Mark Bittman published an updated cheesy pasta sauce coating bowties (farfalle) with arugula and cherry tomatoes.

This is fast, fresh and fabulous.

You know me, the Queen of Substitutions, I had grape tomatoes and some baby spinach, no arugula. Seemed a good alternative, so it was full steam ahead. (The spinach image is by Tony Sinecola.) Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and add 4 cups of bowties, while that cooks (13 minutes) wash and chiffonade two big hands full of baby spinach, wash and slice in half a cup of grape or cherry tomatoes.

Measure a cup of half & half into a small saucepan and gently heat, add a cup of crumbled Gorgonzola cheese. The cheese will melt into the half & half, leaving some lumps is fine. When the pasta is al dente, drain and immediately return to pot and place pot back on hot burner (turned off).

Add the cheese sauce to the pasta and stir well to distribute along with the spinach chiffonade. Stir for a few minutes to help the spinach wilt and the sauce thicken. Then stir in the cut tomatoes and some freshly ground pepper. Add a fresh grating of Reggiano cheese when serving.

Who says there's no time to cook?

Tuck this one away to make when you want something quick and easy yet soul-satisfying.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Baked Fideo

On a cold rainy day what could be better than comfort food? For those macaroni and cheese lovers out there, here's a Mexican version that will warm the cockles of your heart and if you use a heavy hand with the chipoltes, as I do, it will warm everything from your lips, tongue, soft palate and esophagus all the way to your stomach!

This is one of my favorite, quick, easy, tasty dishes, thanks to Mary Sue Milliken and Sue Fenniger, those Too Hot Tamales. Served as is, straight from the oven on the first day, and then it transforms itself, with the help of a few cups of chicken broth and some broken corn chips, into a fabulous simulated tortilla soup the next day. Nothing could be easier.

Start by tossing four good sized, chopped, ripe plum tomatoes into the blender along with a cut up medium yellow onion, 3 - 4 good sized cloves of garlic, a generous teaspoon of salt and a half cup of water. Puree, then add another cup of filtered water to the tomato mixture. Break up a half pound of skinny noodles. I like to use vermicelli but you could also use the ones labeled 'thin' spaghetti.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in an oven proof pan and add the broken pieces of noodles, turning them as they brown. Be careful they don't burn. Once the oil is hot, I turn the heat down to medium to allow the pasta to brown slowly. When most of the noodles have browned, add 3 - 4 dried chipoltes. The more chilies, the hotter the final dish. Toss the noodles and chilies around in the hot pan for another 5 minutes or so then add the tomato puree, cover the pan with foil and place in the hot oven for 15 minutes. All the liquid should be absorbed and the noodles should be soft. While this is cooking, grate 6 - 8 oz of cheese. Ideally, you should use anejo, but I've used everything from Cheddar to Jack to Monterrey and combinations thereof.

The pictured dish was made with about 6 oz of Monterrey/Jack cheese. Once the noodles are soft, raise the temperature of the oven to 400°, carefully remove the pan from the oven, sprinkle on the grated cheese and return to the oven, uncovered, for another 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and started to brown in spots. That's it. It's ready to eat - the tastiest macaroni and cheese on the planet. The quantities given above make the amount shown. Double the quantity and pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish for a larger serving.

If you have leftovers, heat a quart of chicken broth, add the fideo and serve with some broken corn chips in the serving dish, a dash of fresh lime juice and a sprinkling of chopped cilantro give it a professional finish but the soup is fine with nothing extra added. Add this to your quick, easy, economical, superbly satisfying repertoire.

Till next time. . . keep on cooking!

The Lovely Lively Lentil

Cooking with legumes takes some planning. Remembering to soak beans and allowing enough time to cook them slowly with gentle heat assures flavorful, tender beans, but often busy people just don't have the time. Canned beans come to the rescue. Lentils offer an alternative to canned beans. They come in a colorful variety, are jam packed with protein and nutrition, cook quickly and require no pre-soaking. But I suspect, the lowly lentil is neglected by many of us.

I recently remembered making a great lentil chili from one of Mollie Katzen's books many years ago. It was delicious served over egg noodles drizzled with a little aged balsamic vinegar and I recalled that the preparation called for a lot of garlic, something like 10 -12 cloves. After scouring my bookshelves, I realized over the years some loaned vegetarian cookbooks never came home to roost. Still Life with Menu is one of them, unfortunately. But on the bright side, hopefully, whoever has it is cooking up a storm of tasty, healthful meals. Thanks to modern technology, a simple on-line search found the recipe on Mollie Katzen's website. The ingredient list appeared to have changed slightly. Where, I wondered, had the many cloves of garlic gone? I made half the quantity specified - working with 2 cups of lentils not four and I adjusted the liquid accordingly. I used 4 cups of homemade veggie stock I had on hand and added a bit of filtered water as the lentils cooked. I used 4 large cloves of garlic, minced and one medium onion, diced, and followed the suggestions for the herbs and spices, though, in fact, I used smoked paprika as well as a liberal spoonful of Mexican hot chili powder in addition to the cumin and thyme called for in the recipe. You can play with the seasonings to suit your palate. I added a touch of balsamic vinegar at serving time and Mollie's lentil chili tasted as wonderful as I remembered it. Give it a try. This is a fabulous meal, easily prepared for pennies. The leftovers are even better reheated and it freezes well, too.

Then there are the nights when you just don't feel like cooking anything, right? We've all been there and our solutions are sometimes pretty lame. Zip through a fast food drive-in on the way home, call for take out, pick on snack food. How about a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich with something green?

With a little twist to the common grilled cheese sandwich, a quesadilla fills the bill nicely especially if you've some interesting tortillas on hand. This little number is comprised of the end of a piece of Harvati grated and a sliced tomato. The broccoli and red pepper are cooked with a sprinkling of crushed red pepper and slices of shallot and garlic in a little olive oil and 1/3 cup of water. They were ready in 5 minutes with the one-pot steam/sauté trick. I don't consider the ten minutes it took to prepare and cook the above plate of food really cooking...and look -- four servings of veggies and the torts are whole wheat with green onion. Nice and healthy. Next time you don't feel like cooking, think of something fast and easy like the food pictured above. It's quick, easy, and to top it off, it's a budget pleaser as well.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

Popeye Never Had It So Good

As I recall, all pictures of Popeye eating spinach had him slurping it out of a can. Yuck. I would imagine that canned spinach, black, soggy, and bitter, accounts for the bad rap this veggie has collected over the years. With the recent recall of fresh spinach, I've been a bit reluctant to buy any. Prior to the e.coli outbreak at the end of 2006, I purchased and ate a package of fresh spinach weekly. Like broccoli, I ate half of it cooked and half of it raw, trying to cover all bases for getting the most nutrients from the veggie and the best flavors, too.

When one considers the number of people who die in automobiles annually (43,000) or the number of folks who innocently took prescription medications prescribed by their trusted physicians and have died from the drugs (565,047, since 9/11/01) and then look at the latest count of deaths from spinach related e.coli -- three, eating bagged spinach doesn't seem much of a risk, does it? We think nothing of getting in our cars or popping a pill our physician prescribed, so why not have some spinach?

Spinach salad is a versatile dish that can incorporate various fruit, such as strawberries or mandarin oranges, and reaps a great taste treat by adding red onions, various cheeses, nuts and seeds. Spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing is luscious, too. For those who can't take the straight hit of all spinach, it's great mixed with other greens like red leaf lettuce or romaine. The salad pictured is a straightforward rendition of spinach salad. Red onions, stawberries, pine nuts and crumbled goat cheese. The salad is dressed simply with a balsamic vinagrette. Using the standard proportions of one part vinegar to three parts oil, I mixed 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard, a dash of salt, a couple of grinds of fresh pepper, and a teaspoon of Penzey's Raspberry Enlightenment. I put all the ingredients in a small glass jar with a tight fitting lid and gave it a hearty shake. Dress the washed and dried spinach with a couple of tablespoons of the vinagrette, just enough to moisten each leaf lightly then add some thin slices of red onion, a few sliced strawberries and a sprinkling a toasted pine nuts and top it off with the crumbled goat cheese. Divide onto two individual plates for a salad course, or use one big plate for an individual luncheon course.

One of the secrets to healthy eating is to make each meal as colorful as an artist's palette. Veggies with deep, rich tones are the ones that provide the most nutritional value.

This veggie plate includes edamame in a light vinaigrette, citrus flavored roasted sweet potato, green beans with roasted red pepper in a citrus/mustard sauce and some cranberry relish. The veggie plate was complemented with a small whole wheat pita bread and a cold crisp glass of Reisling. Even with all those veggies in the luncheon salad and the dinner plate, it only adds up to 8 servings, one short of the recommended daily 9 servings of fruit and vegetables. Though I will admit, the spinach serving was large enough to count as 2 or even 3 servings - might it be pushing it to count the grapes in the wine?

Green Beans Moutarde with Grilled Red Peppers

Any green bean preparation is made simpler by having the beans ready ahead of time. If possible, removed the ends from the beans, wash them well and blanch them with a sliced onion for 3 - 5 minutes depending on the size of the beans. You want them bright green and barely tender. Drain, refresh and store them in a ziplock bag in the fridge. Then, when you're ready to proceed, they're ready, too.

Melt one teaspoon of butter and one teaspoon of olive olive oil in a large skillet. Add the green beans (approximately one pound) and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add slices of a roasted red pepper, and sauté for another minute or so. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and cover and steam for 3 or 4 minutes. While the beans and peppers are steaming. Grate the zest from about half a piece of citrus (use what you have on hand: orange; lemon or lime) Place the zest in a small bowl, juice the fruit and measure two teaspoons into the bowl with the zest. Add a tablespoon of Dijon mustard a pinch of dried tarragon or a tablespoon of fresh and a little salt and pepper and mix well. Add the mustard mixture to the skillet with the beans and peppers, toss well to coat. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding a little more citrus juice if necessary. Another delicious veggie preparation courtesy of The Passionate Vegetarian. For you carnivores, these green beans would be a great side with a thick juicy pork chop.

Till next time . . . keep on cooking!

Roasted Butternut Squash

After a great lunch that included roasted butternut squash, I found myself wondering if my life is so empty and dull that a plate of oven roasted squash gets me excited OR, if on the other hand, I've reached that mellow, relaxed place in life where small wonders fill me with joy -- no need for big extravaganzas. Whatever. . . I'll tell you, the image above is what's left of the best .88 cents I've ever spent.

I bought a little butternut squash that weighed in at just about one pound. With the oven set at 400°, I peeled and diced the squash, tossed it with a teaspoon of olive oil and two teaspoons of tamari and spread the pieces out on a cookie sheet. (I covered the sheet with a piece of foil for ease of clean up).

Bake the squash until the pieces are lightly browned, slightly shriveled and fork tender. The Passionate Vegetarian suggests cooking them to the al dente stage, barely tender, and then tossing the pieces with a teaspoon and a half of honey, returning the pan to the oven to crisp up and brown some more.

I went out to walk the dogs during the first roasting, when I returned thirty minutes later, we'd passed 'barely tender' and were definitely at fork tender. Light brown had come and gone, too. Not to be deterred, I removed the tender, slightly blackened pieces to a serving dish, drizzled them with a teaspoon of unfiltered orange blossom honey and made that the main component of my vegetarian lunch. For those who shy away from an all veggie meal, this will make a marvelous side dish with chicken or the other white meat.

Oven roasting vegetables is a smart way to prepare side dishes simply and quickly. Not only does the produce retain its supply of vitamins and minerals, but the high heat caramelizes the natural sugar in the veggies, bringing out the best of the flavors and adding that bit of crisp browning that we all love. Eating a wide selection of deeply colored vegetables is the best way to help our bodies fight disease. The taste treat above beats a pill any day!

Till next time . . . keep on cooking.

What's in the Veggie Bin?

I love to open the vegetable bin drawer and quickly fill a plate with fresh ingredients using what's on hand. Above we've a little romaine, some mixed young wild greens with radicchio, sliced radishes, sliced cucumber, slivered sweet onion, a few golden raisins, some walnuts and a generous sprinkling of Gorgonzola crumbles. The salad is lightly dressed with a dash of apple cider vinegar and a drizzle of high quality first cold pressed olive oil from Italy, salt and freshly ground pepper. I use a finer grade of olive oil for eating than I use for cooking.
On the other hand, practically the same group of veggies can easily become a spicy, hot stir fry.

Instead of romaine and wild greens, I've used some bok choy, radishes, sweet onion, carrots and jalapeno ( you can't see the chili - I added it as an after thought - found it in the bin after shooting the shot).

I started by sauteing the onion with some sliced garlic and a few flakes of crushed red pepper in a little olive oil, then added the crunchier veggies with a dash a tamari, saving the leafy greens to add last. In a separate pot, I cooked up a 1/2 cup of fragrantly delicious mixed brown and black Lundberg's rice. As the stir fry reached crunchy/tender perfection, I added a little more tamari, a dash of salt and pepper and plated it over a mound of the rice, topped with a few unsalted peanuts. Nice to have a 'found' meal with little effort.

If you shop with a little foresight, quick, easy meals are at hand in the fridge and pantry. Make your own 'found' meal with what's on hand. Give it a shot, and be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to turn out a plate of fine tasting, healthy food in record time.

If you need something to read while you're eating, check out:

Nelson DeMille's WildFire or Greg Iles' True Evil both are rapid page turners! Though reading while you eat is not recommended if you're trying to lose weight. It's so easy to keep moving the fork from plate to mouth as you turn those pages!

Till next time . . . keep on cooking or better yet, eat it raw!