I'd Like to Propose Some Toast

Well, hello there, food blog!  It's been a long time!  Let's just say, summer didn't inspire a whole lotta cooking.  We were hot and busy and out of town a lot, so it just didn't happen.  But now, fall has arrived.  My favorite season.  It's time to start thinking about soup and stew and pumpkin bread and pie.  Oh, yeah.

I do have a few things to post from the last couple of weeks, and I thought I'd start with some toast.  I love toast.  And recently, I've been making it by grilling bread on my grill pan.  I just brush some good French or Italian bread with some olive oil and grill away.

Making a frequent appearance on my grilled toast is my new friend, avocado:

I thought I didn't like avocado.  I hate guacamole, so how could I possibly like avocado?  But I recently tried it in it's non-guacamole form and loved it!  I had it at a party, wrapped in prosciutto with a little melon.  Delicious.  Then, I saw it on some toast in a copy of Bon Appetit, so I decided to make my own.  All I did was grill the bread with olive oil, rub a little garlic clove on the hot bread just off the grill, spread on some avocado, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle on a little more olive oil.  So good.  And healthy!  Bonus!

Last week, we had pasta, so I decided to make more toast.  This time, I added pesto and parmesan cheese to the grilled bread and warmed it in the oven to melt the cheese a little.  Yum. 

I like all this toast.  I'm sure there are a million possibilities.  I like that, too.  Possibilities are good.  And toast is easy.

Coming soon, chicken marsala, chicken apple curry, and white bean chicken chili.  A CHICKEN TRIFECTA, if you will!  And stay tuned also for my attempt at being a recipe tester for my friend Emily, who is writing a book about one of my very most favorite things ever: PIE. 

It's good to be back, food blog.  It's good to be back.

Question of the day:  What is your favorite thing to put on toast?

Summer Ain't Bad - Part 1

Most people who know me probably know that summer is my least favorite season.  I shall spare you the (long) list of all the things that create significant drag for me in the summertime, because this blog is a happy place.  Instead, I am going to try to embrace summer this year by celebrating the things about it that are good.

For example, corn.  Corn is good.  It's really hard to beat fresh local sweet summer corn.  It's so good, you don't even need to do anything to it.  Just eat it right off the cob.  It's like candy.

That being said, there are ways to kick up corn, and my favorite way is Chili Lime Butter.  Oh my goodness.

Here is what you do.  Mash up about 1/2 a stick of room temperature butter with about a teaspoon (heaping) of chili powder and the zest of a lime until it's combined.  Cook some corn.  It really should be fresh summer corn, but you could do this with frozen stuff if it's the middle of winter and you're desperate.   Put some of the chili lime butter on the corn when it's nice and hot so it melts through.  Then, squeeze some lime juice over it.  Don't be shy with the lime juice.  You can add salt and pepper if you want, but you won't really need it.  Taste it first, and then decide. So good.  I swear.  Thank you, summer, for corn.

Fun with Gadgets!

Last Christmas, I got some Amazon money, and decided to use it to buy a mandoline slicer.  After reading lots of reviews of various slicers, I chose this one by Norpro (also the maker of my ravioli press!).  And yesterday, I finally got around to using it.

Kev.  He's always trying to get there to be more vegetables.  So, he recently sent me this link to a bunch of recipes for veggie chips.  I decided to start with the curried sweet potato chips.  So, I busted out my new slicer and got to work.  The slicer is awesome and so much fun!  It's really easy to use, and slices very evenly.  I haven't tried any of the other blades, but I'll let you know when I do.

After I sliced up the sweet potatoes, I put them in a bag with the oil and spices and let Daphne mix them up:

I had to cook them quite a bit longer than the directions said, so just make sure that if you make these, you keep an eye on them and cook them until they get crispy but not burnt.  Here they are, right out of the oven:

These were really tasty, full of Vitamin A, and made the house smell really good.  They make a nice side dish on sandwich night.  Yum!  I bet you could use butter, brown sugar and cinnamon instead of olive oil and curry spices too.  Might have to try that sometime...

Original recipe below:

Curried Sweet Potato Chips from NPR

2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced paper-thin
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon hot curry powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For easy cleanup, line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place sweet potato slices in a large bowl and, using your hands, toss with oil and spices until coated. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and crisp. Remove from oven and eat.

Thank You, Billy the Produce Guy

I don't really love going to the grocery store.  Before we got a Wegman's here in town, it was REALLY bad.  There are few places as uninspiring as the Safeway by my house.  Going there sort of makes you not want to eat food anymore. Wegman's is great, and makes shopping much better, but when all is said and done, it's still really just a chore.  So, when I have to go, I like to have a plan, get in there, get what I need, and get out as soon as possible. This is much easier when I go by myself.  Taking people along creates grocery store drag.

This weekend, I ended up having to take Daphne with me to the store.  On Saturday afternoon, even.  Wegman's is at its most crowded on Saturday afternoon.  I was filled with dread.  So, in hopes of making things easier, and since Daphne can read now, I decided to give her the job of checking things off my list.  I told her to get a pencil because we had a "mission."  I don't know what I will do when tricks like that stop working.

Long story short, for me, this was one of the most fun trips to the grocery store in the history of shopping.  Daphne sat in the cart with the list and her pencil, all business, checking things off and making tally marks if we got more than one of something.  Wegman's was having an organic foods festival, so they had lots of samples and little give-aways.  With all the free pink lemonade and rooster tattoos, everyone was on good behavior, and no one was whining, complaining, or asking for toys and candy the whole time.

Our last stop was the produce section, and after we got everything we needed, we decided to check out the "weird food" endcap by the bananas.  This is where they keep unusual things like aloe leaves and cactus leaves and plantains and weird squashes and so forth.  I told Daphne that she could pick something from the section and take it home and try it for a Star Wars point.  After much deliberation, she narrowed it down to either a kiwi or a starfruit, but then she couldn't decide. I figured this was going to take all afternoon.  But that's when I spotted Billy, the produce guy.

I like Billy the produce guy a lot.  I have asked him questions before and he is always a big help.  So I told Daphne we'd get an expert to help her decide.  I wheeled her over and we told Billy that she wanted be adventurous and try something new, but she couldn't decide between the kiwi and the starfruit.  He played right along.  He told her he's never had a starfruit, so could she please try it and come back and tell him how it tastes?  Decision made.  Then, he told us that if we wanted to be even more adventurous, we should get some kale to take home and make kale chips.  And Daphne got so excited that the "Owner of Wegman's" was talking to us, that she insisted we get some kale right away.  OK!  I wonder if Billy the produce guy could get Daphne to eat melty cheese?  I almost think he could do it.

Anyway, we went home with our kale and decided to make the chips right away to go with the last of our pasta fagioli leftovers.  I was completely suspicious of this recipe, but they were really good!  I let Daphne make them pretty much by herself.  First, you rinse and dry the kale and tear it into chip-sized pieces, getting rid of the stems.  Then you toss it with olive oil and salt:

Then, spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet:

And bake them at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes until they are crispy:

Kale is a superfood.  Low in calories, and really high in nutritional value.  Tons of Vitamin A. 

I will definitely make this again as a snack or side dish.  Super easy and tasty.  I overdid it on the salt a little, so I'll watch that next time.  And I may try to sneak in some parmesan cheese next time too.  If you Google kale chips, there are lots of ideas for seasoning out there.  And at least one person crumbled them up on some popcorn.  Sounds weird, I know, but I bet it's good.

So, there you go.  Kale chips.  Thank you, Billy the produce guy.  We'll see you soon with a starfruit review.

Family Cooking Time

New Year's Day Dinner Menu:

Salad (baby romaine, dried cranberries, toasted pumpkim seeds, and breaded warm goat cheese rounds with Wegman's Raspberry vinaigrette)

America's Test Kitchen Cold-Start "Easier French Fries"

Pumpkin Coconut Soup

New Year's Day dinner was extra good because it was a team effort.  We even put Daphne to work.  She tossed the salad and set the table.  Kev was in charge of the experimental fries, and I made the pumpkin soup and breaded goat cheese.

Let me tell you about these fries.  My friend Emily told me about them when she came to visit last summer, and sent me the recipe when she got back to Texas.  I was suspicious.  You start the fries in cold (room temp) oil, bring the temp up to boiling, and just let them cook with no stirring for 15 minutes.  Then, you stir them gently and cook them for another 5-10 minutes, and you end up with perfect crunchy-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside french fries.  Yum.  We served them with warmed-up Patak's Korma curry sauce that I found in a jar at Wegman's.  It was good, spicy and sweet and went nicely with the fries.  So, thanks to Emily for the great recipe and to America's Test Kitchen for experimenting with fries and coming up with this.  So easy.

Kev's Spam apron was a gift from my friend Whitney.  Awesome, huh?

We recently went to a dinner party and my friend Jen made some great pumpkin soup.  She was nice enough to send me the recipe, so we decided to try it for New Year's Day dinner.  This was another very simple recipe, and the results were great.  I followed the recipe exactly, and the soup was good, but seemed to need something.  I added more lime juice, which helped a little, and then Kev swooped in with some cinnamon and nutmeg, which really made it great.  We drizzled on a little cream and served it with toasted pumpkin seeds.

Daphne was eager to try the soup, and she tried really hard to like it, but she just didn't.  That's OK, though.  At least she tried it without a battle.  She loved the fries and ate up all her salad.  It was a good meal.  And meals are always better (more pleasant) when Daphne is involved in the planning and execution.  Wait until I tell you about the chili!  But that's another story.  Recipes below.  Seriously, those fries are pretty amazing for how easy they are.  Let me know if you make 'em.

Pumpkin Coconut Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil 
• 1 onion, chopped (1 cup) 
• 2 carrots, chopped (1 cup) 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 (14-ounce) cans chicken broth, divided 
• 2 (15-ounce) cans unsweetened pumpkin 
• 1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons lime juice 
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar 
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 
• Garnishes: drizzle of whipping cream or crème frâiche, toasted coconut, lime zest curls

1. 1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add onion and carrot, and cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften. Stir in garlic, and cook 30 seconds. Add 1 can of chicken broth; bring to a simmer, and cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are very tender. Remove from heat; cool 10 minutes.
2. 2. Transfer mixture to a blender, and puree until smooth. Return mixture to Dutch oven, and add pumpkin, coconut milk, and remaining can of chicken broth, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a simmer over medium heat; stir in lime juice and next 3 ingredients. Garnish, if desired.
3. Note: Pumpkin Coconut Soup can be made the day before. Pour into a screw-top container, and store in the refrigerator until you're ready to hit the road.

Jackie Mills, MyRecipes
NOVEMBER 2004

(Note:  We added cinnamon and nutmeg to taste)

ATK Easier French Fries 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes (You MUST use Yukon gold in this recipe for it to work - not russets) scrubbed, dried, sides squared off, and cut length-wise into 1/4 x 1/4 inch batons.

6 cups peanut oil

Kosher salt

1. Combine potatoes and oil in a large dutch oven.  Cook over high heat until oil has reached rolling boil.  Continue to cook, without stirring, until potatoes are limp but exteriors are beginning to firm, about 15 min.

2. Using tongs, stir potatoes, gently scraping any that stick, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp (5-10 min).  Using skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer fries to thick paper bag or paper towels, season with salt (right away! while they're vulnerable! - from Emeril) and serve immediately.

If you are registered with ATK/Cook's Illustrated on line, you can read about this method (and the science behind it) in more detail if you look it up.  There is even a video.  But trust me.  It works.

Breaded goat cheese rounds

 

Goat cheese log (I like the honey goat cheese from Wegman's or Trader Joe's)

Panko  (Japanese bread crumbs)

One egg white, beaten with a little splash of water 

1. Cut the goat cheese into rounds about 1/4" thick. (Dental floss works nicely for this)

2. Dip the rounds in the egg white to coat, then dredge in the panko.  Refrigerate until you're ready to cook them.  (It works better if they've been in the fridge for at least 15 minutes)

3. Heat a very small amount of olive oil in a nonstick skillet (I usually wipe it around the skillet with a paper towel just to lightly coat the bottom), and cook the goat cheese on both sides until it's as golden and crispy as you want it.  Put it on your salad of choice.

This makes pretty much any salad more fun to eat. Unless you are Daphne and hate melty cheese.