Corn Stuffing

It is October. It is also, for whatever reason, still in the high 70's here, which seems pretty unusual for this time of year in Minnesota. My seasonal meal planning has shifted over to fall, which must mean I'm ready for it, but the weather outside remains warm and pleasantly breezy.

Presumably it is behaving like fall somewhere, and it will eventually do so here, as well. In the meantime, I'm cooking as though the temperatures are about 30 degrees lower than they are, and that suits me just fine.

Today I roasted a chicken. If you'd like to know how, or to be reminded of how insanely straightforward it is to accomplish this in your very own kitchen, I wrote all about it two winters ago, right here.

I also made corn stuffing today. That I will talk about, because it was my first effort at such a project, and I can heartily recommend it. It so happens that last night I made cornbread (the recipe on the Quaker cornmeal box is quick and easy), and today I realized that I had half a pan of it left, and it occurred to me that perhaps corn stuffing would be just the thing to accompany the chicken I was about to pop in the oven.

Say what you will about Rachael Ray, but her cookbooks contain simple recipes for food I want to eat. In this case, I turned to Get Togethers, which was a thoughtful gift from my sister a few years ago. This cookbook is arranged into meals, but I found a corn stuffing recipe buried in her "Giving Grazie: Italian-Style Thanksgiving" meal, adjusted it slightly (as it called for celery and prosciutto, neither of which I had on hand), and subbed in half a pan of leftover cornbread for the "three corn muffins, crumbled" that the recipe suggests. I also added a can of mushrooms to replace the bulk of those ingredients I skipped.

Here's what I made, and it is delicious:

Corn Stuffing

adjusted from Rachael Ray's "Corn, Sage, and Prosciutto Stuffing"

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 small can mushrooms, drained

salt and pepper, to taste

2 tsp poultry seasoning (I used Bell's)

2 sprigs dried sage, chopped (2 Tbsp)

half a pan of leftover cornbread (or 3 corn muffins)

1 cup chicken broth

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, combine olive oil and butter. When the butter melts into the oil, add the onion, mushrooms, salt and pepper, and poultry seasoning. Saute 5 minutes, until onions are softened. Add sage, stir to combine. Crumble cornbread into the pan. Moisten with broth and heat through. Remove from heat, and cover with foil to keep warm.

Avocado Corn Salad

I recently posted about a salad that looks, tastes, and is very healthy. However, this salad that I made today looks, tastes, and is the most delicious way to consume summer vegetables that I may ever have experienced - and, what's truly great, is that it is healthy, as well. The dressing is lime juice, after all.

The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook never ceases to amaze, and this is just another fine example of how their easy and straightforward recipes are just incredible. I was flipping through this cookbook in search of a cucumber recipe, actually, but the page landed open at this Avocado Corn Salad, and I realized that I just so happened to have all the ingredients on hand -and so I made it immediately. I suggest that you do the same.

Avocado Corn Salad

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

Serves 2 (or one hungry person)

1 cup fresh or frozen cut corn

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 Tbsp water

1 tsp ground cumin

pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes

1 medium avocado

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1/2 medium red bell pepper

2 Tbsp minced red onion

salt to taste

dash of hot sauce (I'm partial to Frank's)

whole or chopped cilantro leaves (optional)

In a skillet, combine the corn, oil, water, cumin, and optional cayenne or red pepper flakes. Cook, covered, on medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the corn is tender. Uncover and cook for an additional minute or two to evaporate the excess moisture. Set aside to cool.

Slice the avocado in half lengthwise, and gently twist to remove the pit. Make lengthwise and crosswise cuts in the flesh every 1/2 inch. Scoop the avocado cubes out of the shells and into a large bowl. Gently stir in the lime juice. Cut the bell pepper into 1/2 inch pieces and add to the bowl. Stir in the red onion and cooked corn. Stir. Add salt and hot sauce to taste, and top with cilantro if you like.

Serve immediately, or chill for 30 minutes and then serve.

Spectacular Potato Salad

I have recently claimed that some recipes are too good to be kept to oneself, and this potato salad is one such recipe. As many people know, the folks at America’s Test Kitchen truly know what they are up to in the kitchen. I love (love, love, love) my copy of Cook’s Country, which is chock full of the kind of recipes that grandmothers pass down, but better. They took the recipes that lots of grandmothers passed down, compared them, took the best parts of each, tested ingredients and cooking times, and recommend here the foolproof (in my experience) version with the best results. In the case of potato salad, it seems straightforward enough, right? Cook up some potatoes, cook up some eggs, mix them together with mayonnaise and some chives or something, and call it a day.

Sure, sometimes that works. And sometimes the potatoes are too soft, the eggs are too smashed up, the mayonnaise becomes soupy, or the whole thing tastes like…. potatoes and eggs, sitting in mayonnaise.

Enter Cook’s Country, and their genius potato salad recipe. I made it this weekend as a barbeque contribution, and the host jokingly asked guests not to take too much, as she wanted to be sure to have leftovers. It’s that good. Follow this recipe closely and I feel that you can not go wrong.

All-American Potato Salad

2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

salt

3 Tbsp dill pickle juice

1/4 cup finely chopped dill pickles

1 Tbsp yellow mustard

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp celery seed

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 small red onion, minced

1 celery rib, chopped fine

2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan with cold water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat, add 1 tsp salt, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

Drain the potatoes thoroughly, then spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet. Mix 2 Tbsp of the pickle juice and the mustard together in a small bowl, drizzle the pickle juice mixture over the potatoes, and toss until evenly coated. Refrigerate until cooled, about 30 minutes.

Mix the remaining 1 Tbsp pickle juice, the chopped pickles, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, celery seed, mayonnaise, sour cream, red onion, and celery in a large bowl. Toss in the cooled potatoes, cover, and refrigerate until well chilled, about 30 minutes. Gently stir in the eggs, just before serving. The salad can be refrigerated in an air tight container for up to 2 days.

Fish Otis

The Moosewood Cookbook that I have is primarily vegetarian, but does include some fish recipes, and this is an excellent one. It calls for "firm fish fillets" and assumes there will still be a side with skin attached. I used skinless tilapia fillets this time, but I suspect it'd be even better with something a bit heftier, like cod. The sour cream and dill are a nice flavor, and when served on egg noodles as the recipe suggests, the sauce mingles with the noodles well. Paired with a salad or simple vegetable, this is a quick and rewarding weeknight meal!

Fish Otis

Serves 2

10-12 ounces firm fish fillets

4 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp chopped fresh dill (or 3/4 tsp dried)

dash of salt and pepper

1/3-1/2 cup sour cream

2-3 thick slices red onion

Preheat the oven to 375. Rinse and dry the fish fillets and place them, skin side down, in an oiled baking pan. Sprinkle with the lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper. Spread the sour cream evenly over the fillets. Break the onion slices into rings and press them into the sour cream.

Cover the pan and bake until the fish is no longer translucent and flakes easily with a fork. The amount of time varies with the thickenss of the fish, but it usually takes 25 to 30 minutes.

Butternut Squash and Blue Cheese Risotto Soup

This recipe, which may actually be my new favorite homemade meal, has a lot to offer. The squash is pleasantly sweet and tender, the gorgonzola is salty, the arborio rice is creamy, and a little sage pulls it all together with an earthy sort of undertone. I'm pretty sure they just called this recipe a soup so that it could be included in this cookbook, which I have mentioned here before, Best-Ever Soups. If you don't own it yet, please put it on your list of cookbooks to obtain. It's less than $5 on amazon.com, and it provides endless soup discoveries. Or in this case (rather like a bonus round!), risotto.

I halved the recipe to two servings, which worked fine (though mine is less soup-like and more risotto-like than what the cookbook showed). This isn't a terribly complicated recipe, but it does take about an hour and a half to prepare it. That's largely because it takes both time (particularly to peel and chop the squash) and (more time) and patience, as you go through the whole risotto routine - add broth, wait... add broth, wait...

Butternut Squash and Blue Cheese Risotto Soup

Serves 4

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

1/2 celery stick, finely sliced

1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 Tbsp chopped sage

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

5 cups hot chicken stock

2 Tbsp heavy cream (I used evaporated milk)

4 oz blue cheese, finely diced (I used gorgonzola)

salt and pepper, to taste

Place the butter and oil in a large plan and heat gently. Add the onions and celery, and cook for 4-5 minutes, until softened. Stir in the squash and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the sage. Add the rice and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring, until the grains are slightly translucent. Add the chicken stock a ladleful at a time. Cook until each ladleful of stock has been absorbed before adding the next. Continue adding the stock this way until you have a very wet rice mixture. Season to taste. Stir in the cream. Stir in the blue cheese, and serve.

Shepherd's Pie

Sometimes, when the wind is blowing at record breaking speeds, darkness is setting in before you leave work, and a long winter lies ahead, you just want to eat something comforting. Furthermore, you want to eat it soonish, and with very little effort involved. Boy, do I have the recipe for you! In October of 2007, this Easy Shepherd's Pie recipe caught my attention, and it was just exactly what I found myself wanting to eat this week.

I got Real Simple magazine for a couple of years, until their suggestions started to feel familiar and the recipes I had flagged in them were piling up. I decided, at that point, not to resubscribe. But I certainly flip back through the old issues, and I recently found that you can find recipes very easily on their website - in this case, I knew what I was looking for, I just wasn't sure which old issue I would find it in. You can do searches by keywords or ingredients or cuisines or all variety of other options.

Here it is - the shamelessly modernized and Americanized version of what I imagine to be a centuries old tradition... probably involving meat scraps and whatever else was lying around! This version requires mostly things I have on hand, and a few things I can purchase with ease if I must. It takes 10 minutes to cook the beef and preheat the oven, 10 minutes to bake. Read beyond the recipe for my tips related to speeding up the mashed potato element of this recipe.

Easy Shepherd's Pie

Real Simple, October 2007

Heat the oven to 400.

Brown 1 lb ground beef.

Stir in 1/3 cup ketchup and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce.

Add 8 oz of mixed frozen vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, green beans - whatever - thawed).

Cook one minute.

Put in a baking dish.

Mix 1 lb of mashed potatoes with 1/4 cup cheddar (cheese is optional).

Spread potatoes on top of beef and vegetables.

Bake 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

In my case, I realized on Tuesday that I wanted to eat Shepherd's Pie, but I was unwilling to leave the house for ingredients. I looked up the recipe, moved a variety of frozen vegetables into the refrigerator to get a start on thawing, and I made a huge batch of mashed potatoes for dinner (with chicken and carrots, because I had those on hand, but that's a story for another time). If I'd had ground beef in the freezer, I would have shifted that over to thawing mode, as well. But I didn't, so I started a grocery list, instead.

Tonight after work I stopped for ground beef, came home, threw the recipe together, and I'm eating it now, while I write this post!

Here's my note about mashed potatoes. Real Simple suggests that you buy a 1 lb bin of pre-made mashed potatoes from the grocery store. I did that once, just out of curiosity, and they were actually quite good, and did eliminate the need to make mashed potatoes. However, if the goal is to make this recipe quickly, I solved that problem this time by making the potatoes in advance, so the shepherd's pie took less than 30 minutes to make. Also, mashed potatoes are incredibly easy. Here's roughly how Rachel Ray suggests doing it, in her Get Togethers cookbook:

Mashed Potatoes

Peel and cut into chunks, 1 pound of potatoes (2 large potatoes).

Place them in a pot, covered with water. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, and lightly salt. Leave uncovered and simmer at a rolling boil until tender, 8-10 minutes.

Drain the potatoes, and return them to the hot pan. Mash them with half-and-half, butter, cream, milk, roasted garlic, Boursin cheese, or whatever else you like.

I used a generous splash of half-and-half, a few tablespoons of butter, salt and freshly ground pepper. I had cooked three or four large handfuls of tiny potatoes, which I did not peel, as I know they were grown organically and their peel is therefore very good for me, and not at all chemical-ridden as some peel may very well be (mine are from our well stocked CSA box potato supply!).

Curried Eggplant and Potatoes

I received some nice curry powder as a gift some time ago, and I've been meaning to use it. Recently, I got some nice potatoes from my CSA, and a nice eggplant from a friend's garden, and I thought that this recipe might be just the thing. Then it turned out that there isn't actually any curry powder in this recipe. I made it anyway.

I often invite people over for dinner, but just as often, I cook for myself. I halve most recipes (you've probably noticed that on here), and then I usually have leftovers for at least one lunch, and sometimes I freeze leftovers for another time. I really enjoy cooking, and it's nice to make dinner decisions based on what I feel like eating, and what I have around the kitchen. But every once in a while, and this was one of those times, I wonder midway into the effort just why I'm trying so hard. Let me explain.

When I was peeling the potatoes for this recipe, I clipped my finger tip slightly - nothing serious, not even any blood, but it stung quite a bit, and it certainly slowed down my momentum. I wrapped up my finger with a bandage to protect it from the food (and the food from it, for that matter), and forged ahead. I measured all the spices, and peeled and minced the ginger, and peeled and sliced the garlic, and salted the eggplant and cubed the potatoes. I began to cook the spices, took a picture (for this very blog post), turned around, and the pan of spices had burned right into a solid, smoking, black disk.

I turned off the heat, nursed my finger, scooped out the burned disk of spices, and washed the pan - burning my hand slightly when some hot oil spattered. At this point, my momentum pretty much halted. I looked around at the sliced and salted eggplant, which had been resting for two hours, at the potatoes that I had hurt myself preparing, and at the can of tomatoes I had already opened. I tipped up my chin, put the pan back on the stove, and began measuring out the spices again, peeling and slicing more garlic, and peeling and mincing more ginger. I proceeded carefully, monitored temperatures closely, and everything came together as it was meant to. At 10:30, I sat down with a bowl of curried eggplant and potatoes and thought, "It's really a shame that there's nobody else to enjoy this." The next day I invited a friend over for dinner, told her the story, and served the leftovers on rice. She confirmed my findings - this recipe is delicious.

Lest you be scared off - it's actually quite simple, too. Keep your fingertips in while you peel, and monitor those temperatures when you initially heat the spices in the oil. It's smooth sailing from there! I halved this recipe, but wish that I hadn't - it would freeze nicely, and I could eat it many times before tiring of it! Here's the recipe in full.

Curried Eggplant and Potatoes

from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Serves 6

2 medium-to-large eggplants

salt

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp peeled and minced fresh ginger

2 Tbsp sliced garlic

4 Tbsp butter

3 large tomatoes, cored, peeled, seeded, and chopped (canned are fine, don't bother to drain)

3 large potatoes, any kind, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

freshly ground black pepper to taste

about 1 cup water, or more if needed

2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

minced cilantro leaves for garnish

Peel the eggplant if the skin is thick or the eggplant is less than perfectly firm. Cut it into 1/2 inch cubes and salt if it you like. (I did - just sprinkle salt generously over each side of the eggplant and let it sit in a colander for at least half an hour. Rinse and squeeze dry between paper towels before using.)

Combine the oil and mustard seeds in a large deep skillet. Turn the heat to medium and cook until the seeds begin to pop, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining spices, the ginger, the garlic, and the butter and cook, stirring occasionally, until the ginger and garlic soften, about 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, salt, and pepper, and about a cup of water. Turn the heat to medium-low and cover; cook, stirring once or twice, for about 30 minutes.

Remove the cover and turn the heat to medium; add more water if the mixture is dry. Cook, stirring occasionally, until both the eggplant and potatoes are very tender, about 15 minutes longer. Stir in the lime juice and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Garnish and serve.

Acorn Squash

Last year, we had temperatures in the 90s well into September. I remember swimming in late September and making note of the fact that it was highly unusual. And so, this year, we are having a more usual fall. Which is to say that right about Labor Day, temperatures dropped considerably, and it feels wildly appropriate to wear sweaters, drink hot cider, and... eat squash!

The trickiest thing about squash, hands down, is cutting it in half. Sometimes the store sells them already split, which is kind of nice. But when I got the above squash from my friend's garden, it was whole. Which turned out okay in the end, as I managed (with a bit of strength, a sharp knife, and the powers of leverage) to get it cut into two pieces. From then, it's easy enough - but I do always forget what temperature to roast it at, and for how long. For that, I turned to the trusty How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I took the above picture just before the squash went into the oven - lining your pan in tin foil is a good idea, as things can get a little sticky.

Here are the details:

Roasting Hard-to-Peel Winter Squash

1 acorn or other winter squash, washed

2 Tbsp butter or olive oil, more or less

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

maple syrup or brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 400. Cut the squash in half and scrape out the strings and seeds. In each half, put some butter, salt, pepper and sweetener (I used maple syrup). Place in a baking dish, (I used my 8x8 pyrex, lined with tin foil) cut side up, and bake until tender, about 1 hour. Serve.

(You can scoop the squash and it's flavorings into a serving bowl and mash it all together, or simply serve each individual half a squash, for scooping out at the table.)

Sweet Pepper Soup

I made this soup last summer, truly enjoyed it, and then I totally forgot about it. When my CSA box recently arrived with a generous number of sweet peppers, the bright colors set off some kind of bell in my head, and I felt an urgent need to locate this recipe and make the soup again! I found it, happily, in my Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook, which is one of my favorites. This soup is delicious and can be made very quickly. It's not terribly filling, so I recommend serving it for dinner with a cheese quesadilla and salad, or eating it with a sandwich for lunch, or something along those lines.

Sweet Peppers Soup

Serves 4 (However, I halve this recipe and it works fine, and fed me for three meals)

2 cups chopped onion

1 Tbsp butter or vegetable oil

6 cups chopped red and green bell peppers (about 6 peppers)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp cayenne

2 cups water or vegetable stock (I used chicken stock)

1 cup sour cream (plain yogurt works, too)

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

fresh chopped cilantro

In a covered soup pot, saute the onions on medium heat in the butter or oil for about 3 minutes, until barely softened. Add the bell peppers and spices and cook, covered, until just soft, stirring occasionally. In a blender or food processor (I use my immersion blender), whirl the cooked onions and peppers with the the water or stock and sour cream. Don't over process - small pieces of pepper should remain. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with cilantro and crumbled tortilla chips, if you wish.

Variation: omit the cumin, coriander, and cayenne. Add 1/3 cup chopped fresh dill when you are blending the ingredients together. Serve with croutons, if you wish.

Coleslaw

In my experience, coleslaw is often kind of soggy, dripping in mayonnaise. Sometimes it is even sweet, which, to me, seems kind of inappropriate for cabbage and carrots. Well, as the CSA has a habit of doing, it motivated me to take a nice fresh look at these ideas, because, frankly, I have cabbage and carrots coming out my ears.

Happily, Vegetable Love came through in the nick of time, providing a fresh dressing with a bite, which just barely skims across the surface of the many crispy bits of vegetables that it resides with in the bowl so nicely. I made this recipe earlier this summer, and just realized that I was actually craving it again! Round two has come out just as delightfully as round one, did.

Here's the recipe, halved, with my edits and alterations. I find this to be plenty of coleslaw for one person to consume without getting tired of it, but if you were attending a big picnic, I'd at least double it back to the original recipe (vegetable mix AND dressing).

Crisp Slaw (the recipe name is ever so appropriate here!)

Mix together:

green or red cabbage, cored and finely shredded (about 2 cups)

1 Tbsp salt

1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1-3 carrots, peeled and grated (about 1/2 cup)

Combine and add:

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 tsp celery seeds

1/8 tsp mustard seeds

Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving - the leftovers get more flavorful with time, and the salad lasts just fine up to about a week.

Tomato Soup!

Consider this: it is mid-August, and everyone has too many tomatoes. If you know even one single person with a tiny bit of yard, or even a patio or a window sill wide enough for a tomato plant, they are currently trying with all their might to deposit at least a dozen tomatoes on you. They'll have a dozen more tomorrow. And the next day.

On Sunday, I received some tomatoes and put them in a bowl on my kitchen counter. On Monday, at work, there was a large bowl of tomatoes up for grabs (I passed on by them). On Monday night, I realized that the tomatoes on my counter were splitting, and not long for this world. I grabbed my absolutely reliable soup cookbook* from the shelf, and identified a recipe that looked straightforward and as though it would use up a pretty big pile of tomatoes. It called for three pounds, and I went ahead and assumed that was the amount I had in front of me (three moderately sized romas and four giant round something-or-others, bursting at the edges).

Here's where things really get good - I was able to parboil and peel the tomatoes immediately, and store them in the refrigerator until tonight (a full 48 hours later), when I got home at 9:15, hungry for tomato soup. I dumped the tomatoes and broth into a pan, brought it to boil, simmered for 10 minutes, stirred in 4 more ingredients, simmered for two minutes, plunged the absolutely genius immersion blender into the hot soup, and ate it. Immediately. It is absolutely delicious.

Furthermore, I suspect it will freeze very well. Which is good, because I plan to make a few more batches. One for each time I am inundated with must-eat-or-cook-immediately tomatoes.

Fresh Tomato Soup

3 lbs of ripe tomatoes (I eyeballed this, as noted above)

1 2/3 cup chicken or vegetable stock (I used the full can - 2 cups - of low sodium chicken broth)

3 Tbsp sun-dried tomato paste (I had a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in my fridge. I pureed 5 or 6)

2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2-3 tsp sugar

small handful of fresh basil leaves (I tossed in a few pinches of dried basil)

salt and ground black pepper

Cut a cross into the base of each tomato, and plunge into boiling water for 30 second

s. Refresh in cold water, peel off the skins, and quarter the tomatoes. (This took me all of 10 minutes, and then I stuck them in the refrigerator for 48 hours, until I had time to make and eat soup).

Put the tomatoes in a large pan and pour the broth over them. Bring just to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes until the tomatoes are pulpy.

Stir in the tomato puree, vinegar, sugar and basil. Season with salt and pepper, then cook gently, stirring, for 2 minutes. Process the soup in a blender or food processor, then return to a clean pan and reheat gently. Serve immediately.

I ate mine with a dollop of sour cream (naturally) and a grilled cheese sandwich featurin

g the odds and ends of some pepperjack that I found in my refrigerator. (I haven't done an official grocery store trip since the road trip last week).

*A note about cookbooks. This recipe is from a giant hard-cover cookbook called Best-Ever Soups by Anne Sheasby, which is just bursting with color photographs. It was in the $5 rack at Borders about five years ago, and I have made a dozen recipes out of it, each with great success. I love it. It should be noted that based on this experience, I snapped up a giant paperback cookbook last year (also in the $5 rack at Borders) called The Essential Pasta Cookbook (with no author, I now see), similarly bursting with color photographs. I have made two recipes from it, and both were tremendously lacking, both in direction and in result. It really is hard to tell a book by its cover. Or even by a quick scan of its recipes, it turns out.

Life Changing Recipe

Well. You know already that I recently received a giant box of fresh vegetables, and I suspect you can imagine that when one is facing such a box, one does not have weeks upon weeks to spend planning and eating. One must eat those vegetables promptly. They are leafy and springy and fresh and after just a few days, they aren't any of those things.

And so, I thought to myself - a salad! - would be a good solution. And so I made one - the lettuce, radishes, and purple scallions (plus some non-CSA-red onion) went towards this cause, and I tossed a hard boiled egg on top, as well. Unfortunately, I then remembered that every salad dressing I have ever purchased (up to and including the four that currently reside in my refrigerator) has fallen short of my expectations, even when I buy expensive dressings and organic dressings and dressings with fancy packaging. But then I remembered that when I'm furiously paging through my cookbooks with certain recipes in mind (pancakes, or white bean soup, or meatballs, or creamed spinach, say), I whiz past the dressings/sauces categories that are standing in my way. And so, I though to myself - a homemade dressing! - would be a good solution.

Which brings me to my point(s). Firstly, the Moosewood Cookbook is a thing of beauty, a sure path to success, and an essential part of my kitchen. Secondly, creamy homemade dressing (as directed by the Moosewood Cookbook) is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS and TOTALLY EASY TO MAKE. Yes, I am that excited about this discovery. Oh, and thirdly - Elspeth, the better half of this blog partnership, gave me a handheld blender/mixer/puree-er thingy a few years ago as a gift, and it's a genius of a small appliance. Go get one. And then make this dressing.

Creamy Garlic Dressing

3 garlic cloves (I chopped up some of the CSA green garlic here)

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 tsp salt (I used sea salt)

1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese (I used the grocery store can stuff, and it was still awesome)

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

---

1/2 cup milk

Put everything but the milk into a blender (or into the little dressing-making-cup that comes with the handheld blender deal), and whirl for a couple seconds. Add the milk. Whirl a couple seconds more. Eat the dressing on everything in sight, because it's that good. And it'll only last a week or so, covered and refrigerated.

By the by, this dressing also got me through my entire bundle of spinach in two sittings. It's that good.

The First CSA Box of the Season!

Well, I can't begin to say how excited I am about this first CSA box from Driftless Organics! I shared a CSA box with a friend last year, and it went so well that we're doing it again!!

This particular farm actually includes a newsletter with each box, along with some relevant recipes for the more unique vegetables that are included (this time the recipe is for Kohlrabi Potato Gratin). Also, this time, they offered a cookbook that appears to be most excellent - I wasn't clever enough to buy one, but my friend did, so I took a picture! Rather than having you compare the vegetables on the table to the vegetable list in the newsletter, I'll help you along. I think that they go like this, from left to right: top row: blue potatoes and red radishes; second row: arugula, spinach, and red butterhead lettuce; bottom row: german butterball potatoes, purple kohlrabi, more spinach, green garlic, purple scallions, and garlic chives!!

More posts to come, once I start to use these lovely vegetables. Boxes arrive every other Thursday, well into October.

Salmon Cakes and Broccoli

When I was home for Christmas I had a chance to peruse an issue of Eating Well, which was both interesting and bursting with promising recipes. I read a feature about canned salmon, and ever since then, I've been intending to purchase canned salmon and do something with it! Last week, I revisited this intention by, well, doing just that.

With a quick effort on Eating Well's comprehensive website, I pulled up a recipe for salmon cakes, and promptly decided that half of such a recipe would be plenty of food for my one-person dinner! It occurred to me that salmon cakes, by themselves, weren't quite a meal... so I also pulled out a favorite cookbook of mine: For Goodness Taste, produced by the Junior League of Rochester! That's Rochester, New York, and the cookbook is much like you might imagine it - the ladies of the Junior League appear to have gathered up family favorites, thrown them into categories, and printed themselves a cookbook! I am lucky enough to own a copy, and I flipped through the flagged pages until I found a good companion for salmon cakes: Broccoli with Lemon Cream Sauce. As a bonus, one recipe needs an egg white, and the other recipe needs an egg yolk! Waste not, want not.

Here are the recipes, as I cooked them. I ended up only cooking half the salmon cakes, and when I cooked up the other half the next day, they were even more delicious. The recipe takes about 15 minutes from start to finish, so if you can mix it a day ahead of time, then it'll take about 8 minutes to do that... and another 7 minutes to cook them whenever you're ready to eat.

Salmon Cakes (2 servings)

Combine:

1 (6-7 oz) can of boneless, skinless, Wild Pacific salmon, drained

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1 egg and 1 egg white, lightly beaten

1.5 tsp grainy mustard

1 tsp dried dill

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/8 tsp salt

Add:

2 cups frozen shredded hash browns (I found a brand called Mr. Dell's in the frozen vegetable section. There are other brands in the processed frozen breakfasts section, too.)

Mix this together, and shape the cakes. (Make them one at a time, packing them into a one cup measure, and then turning them into the pan, and flattening with a spatula to create 3-inch cakes.) Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a pan (mine is cast iron, which I recommend), and cook the salmon cakes, 3-5 minutes on each side.

Serve with ketchup, sour cream, or this sauce:

1/3 cup sour cream

1.5 tsp capers, chopped and rinsed

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Broccoli with Lemon Cream Sauce

Steam and drain one bunch of broccoli. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 Tbsp butter. Stir in 1 cup of half and half, and heat to boiling. Boil 5 minutes until mixture is slightly reduced, stirring often; remove from heat. Stir a small amount of mixture into an egg yolk, lightly beaten. Slowly combine this combination back into the saucepan. Stir in 1/4 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Return to heat and cook on low, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.

Pour sauce over broccoli and serve immediately.

Egg Salad

Until recently, I had considered egg salad to be a sort of smelly, mushy, mayonnaise-heavy slop. However, unexpectedly, I decided about a month ago that I very much desired to eat an egg salad sandwich. And I wanted to make it myself, to be sure that it didn't fit into any of the above categories. I turned to my Cook's Country cookbook, where the trusty folks at America's Test Kitchen tend to offer very helpful suggestions for, as they put it, "American Home Cooking" - and once again, they saved the day!

From what I can tell there are just a few important things to know:

1) Achieve perfect hard-boiled eggs: place them in a pan of tap water, put a lid on, let it reach a hard boil, and then take them off the heat. Ten minutes later, you'll have hard-boiled eggs.

2) Slice your eggs, don't mash them. Ideally, slice them in an egg slicer, criss-crossed two or three times until you've got cubes or at least slender slivers.

3) Figure about 2 Tbsp of mayonnaise for every 3 eggs. This particular combination makes enough for two sandwiches, as far as I'm concerned. Adjust accordingly.

4) If you've got them, toss in a spoonful of dijon mustard and a tsp or so of lemon juice.

5) Salt and pepper are essential here - if you leave them out, the whole thing tastes boring.

6) Adjust as you see fit: I like to add green olives or sliced red pepper. This cookbook suggests a more standard mixture of celery, parsley, and red onion.

Pumpkin Bread

I made pumpkin bread last weekend, tossed some plastic wrap over the loaf pan, and it stayed moist and delicious until I finished eating it on Thursday! It's best when warm (or toasted) in thick slices with butter. I highly recommend this recipe, which is another one from Joy of Cooking:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

In a large bowl, beat until light and fluffy:

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup shortening

2 eggs

Add and beat in:

1 cup canned pumpkin

Now add the sifted dry ingredients in 3 additions alternately with:

1/3 cup water or milk (I used milk)

1/2 tsp vanilla

(I found that particular section of instruction to be confusing. Just mix into the sugar/shortening/eggs combination 1/3 of the dry, 1/3 of the wet, 1/3 of the dry, etc etc until you have it all blended together).

Do not overbeat between each addition. Fold in (optional, I didn't do this part) :

1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts

1/3 cup raisins or chopped dates

Pour batter into a greased pan and bake about 1 hour or until a toothpick, inserted into the bread, comes out dry.

Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

I noticed the other day that tomatillos are currently available in my produce section. If you are not familiar with this fruit (that seems like it'd be a vegetable), I encourage you to learn more. They look like green tomatoes in a paper wrapping, and my Vegetable Love cookbook describes them as having "a delicious combination of sweetness and mild acidity" which seems as accurate as any description I might come up with here. It reminded me of some awesome homemade salsa that I made last summer when my CSA provided me with a generous number of tomatillos.

This salsa, which could be made very easily any time fresh tomatillos are available, tastes like summertime has come alive in your mouth. I highly recommend it. It is from the aforementioned Vegetable Love cookbook:

Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

2 medium cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and deribbed

4 medium sized tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed well, cored and coarsely chopped

2 scallions, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1 tsp kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place garlic and jalapeno in a food processor and chop very fine (I used my hand held one, and it worked great). Add the tomatillos and scallions and process until finely chopped but not pureed.

Transfer the mixture into a bowl and stir in 1/3 cup water and the remaining ingredients. Allow to stand 30 minutes, then adjust the seasoning and serve. Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Roast Chicken

Many of my friends do not cook meat, though they enjoy eating it. I think that's a shame, especially now that such healthy and safe meat can be purchased with relative ease. I get all my meat now at the Seward Co-op, which has a Meat and Seafood Department that "features delicious, locally raised beef, pork and poultry" and makes my shopping and cooking quite pleasant.

With the temperatures well below freezing these past few weeks, it felt appropriate to roast a chicken, and for that, I turn to my Joy of Cooking: The All Purpose Cookbook for it's delightfully straightforward recipe:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the bird on a rack, uncovered, in the oven and reduce the heat at once to 350 degrees. Roast about 20 minutes per pound. Baste frequently with pan drippings. Serve with gravy.

Here's the kicker: I don't have a rack, and I didn't even baste the thing. And it was perfect. I do stick an onion (cut in half) inside the chicken, and I rub a drizzle of olive oil over the top, along with some rosemary and thyme. I also make gravy, but that part is easy:

Pour the juices into a pan, and heat until boiling (on the stove top). Whisk in flour until all the liquid is absorbed. Whisk in water until the gravy has reached a thickness you are happy with. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Homemade Pasta - easy, delicious and fun!

I was trying to decide what to eat last night, and was coasting around the grocery store. Asparagus was super on sale, so I picked that up and was thinking "I can't eat JUST asparagus, what else will I have for dinner?" when my mind started yelling "asparagus, cream, butter, pasta...Fettuccine Alfredo!!!!" Oh yes. I've been sick for the last week and was in need of a good, warm dinner full of cream and butter, and what is better than homemade fettuccine alfredo? So I got the ingredients I needed and headed home to make my treat of a dinner.

I pulled out my Cooks Illustrated "New Best Recipe" cookbook, usually the first place I check, and sure enough, they had Fettuccine Alfredo. "Fresh egg pasta is a must here; dried pasta can't stand up to the richness of the Alfredo ingredients". Well shoot. I own a pasta maker, which I should use more. It was barely 6 pm and I had no plans for the evening. No reason why I shouldn't make the pasta myself! So with all that running through my head, it was set, I was going to make myself some pasta. So easy. Homemade egg pasta is just eggs and flour, not hard at all. The recipe called for 3 eggs, so I did a 1/3 recipe, just using 1 egg, since I was making dinner for 1. I made the dough, let it rest, got the alfredo sauce ingredients ready to go, rolled out the dough, cut it and laid it out. Made the sauce while the pasta cooked, and before I knew it dinner was ready. And delicious. Obviously, fettuccine alfredo is a bit heavy for a regular dinner, but, once in a while, whooo boy it's delicious. On the other hand, homemade noodles are super easy (if you have a pasta roller) and taste delicious in dishes.

Fresh Egg Pasta (from Cook's Illustrated: The New Best Recipe) Makes about 1 pound.

Ingredients: 2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour, 3 large eggs, beaten.

Directions: Pulse the flour in a food processor fitted with a steel blade to distribute and aerate it evenly. Add the eggs; process until the dough forms a rough ball, about 30 seconds. (If the dough resembles small pebbles, add water, 1/2 t at a time; if the dough sticks to the side of hte workbowl, add flour, 1 T at a time, and process until the dough forms a rough ball.) Turn the dough ball and small bits out onto a dry work surface; knead until the dough is smooth, 1-2 m inutes. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for at least 15 minutes, up to 2 hours, to relax. Using a manual pasta machine, roll out the dough. Leave the pasta as is for use in filled pastas. Cut the pasta sheets into long strands to make fettuccine.

Fettuccine Alfredo (from Cook's Illustrated: The New Best Recipe) Serves 6 as an appetizer, 3-4 as an entree.

Ingredients: 1 2/3 cups heavy cream, preferably not pasteurized, 5 T unsalted butter, salt, 1 recipe Fresh Egg Pasta, cut into fettuccine, 2 ounces (1 cup) Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, ground black pepper, pinch freshly grated nutmeg (optional). *

Directions: Bring 4 quarts water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Combine 1 1/3 cups of the cream and the butter in a saute pan large enough to accommodate the cooked pasta. Heat over low until the butter is melted and the cream comes to a bare simmer. Turn off the heat and set aside. When the water comes to a boil, add 1 T salt and the pasta to the boiling water and stir to separate the noodles. Cook until almost al dente. Drain the pasta and add it to the saute pan. Add the remaining 1/3 cup of cream, the Parmesan, 1/2 t salt, pepper to taste, and the nutmeg. Cook over very low heat, tossing to combine the ingredients, until the sauce is slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve the fettucine immediately in heated pasta bowls.

* I parboiled asparagus for 2 minutes, chopped it up, and added it to the sauce when I added the pasta...delicious! You can also add chicken to this of course, though it will need to be cooked ahead of time, poached or grilled is best.

A little bit of Maine for you. Ayuh!

I think I've mentioned before that once a month 3 friends of mine and I get together and make a big dinner. We rotate hosting and whoever hosts picks the theme and makes the entree, the others bring appetizers, sides and dessert. We've been going strong since last October, which is pretty impressive that we've kept up the tradition, and it shows no signs of stopping. Good thing, because I love it. Anywho. I pride myself on my dessert abilities, and I hadn't been in charge of dessert for a while, so when I was given dessert duty this month, I thought, CHEESECAKE, that'll impress 'em. I was so pumped. I read through the recipe, made my grocery list, and was all set to go, and then saw the final two directions. Cool for 2-3 hours, then chill for at least 4. Uh. That's minimum 6 hours between finishing cooking the thing, and eating. And dinner is at 6. So. Shoot. I decided that the cheesecake would have to wait for another time, when I plan ahead a bit better and prep the night before.

So here I was, it's 11 am, I have tons of time till dinner, but I had a friend in town that I wanted to see for an hour or two, and bear in mind I take the bus over to my friends house, so it had to be something portable. I came across Creme Caramel in my cookbook and had pretty good feelings about eating that for dessert, but realized that was not something you can make at home, then carry on a bus for 15 minutes, walk a few blocks with, eat dinner, then serve and have it look the way it should. So that was out. I found 3 or 4 different chocolate cake recipes, each with their own variation, that sounded fantastic, but I always make people chocolate cakes (they're my weakness, and most other people's too, so they're usually a good choice). So I gave up and went and hung out with my friend for a bit. Now it's nearly 1 pm and I still haven't picked a dessert. First I flipped through the dessert section of a bunch of my cookbooks (Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer, The Art of Mastering French Cooking, Craig Claiborne's NY Times Cookbook, and last but not least, Cook's Illustrated's 'Best Recipes' book). Nope. Nothing that yelled 'make this Elspeth!'. So then I went over to my stack of magazines. I subscribe to both Cook's Illustrated and Bon Appetit, and both offer, so nicely, and index, by category, of all of their recipes in the issue. So I frantically flipped to the last page of each magazine, making piles of yes or no. The yes pile is where all the delicious sounding chocolate cakes came into play...oh those will be made one day, and they will be so delicious! Anyway, back to my mission. I got to the end and last but not least, in the October 2005 Bon Appetit, which I bought at a used bookstore for 80 cents, had a recipe for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Ohhhhhhhhhh boy. Not only are whoopie pies a Maine thing (people say they're a New England thing sometimes, but Maine is the state that fully embraces them) but they are pumpkin (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, when pumpkin is on the mind. I baked 'em up, put them together and voila, in no time I had a dessert that was quickly (and happily) gobbled down a few hours later.

Whew. This post is a bit longer than I originally planned, and I haven't even talked about the fabulousness that is whoopie pies. In short, whoopie pies are two chocolaty cake cookies (excited yet?) with super sweet white sugar something in the middle. They're wrapped in plastic wrap and in every general store in Maine. I promise. Usually with a sticker on it saying that they were made by so and so, who is the owners sisters aunt or something. Pure delicious. Also pure 'bad for you' but, it's worth it.

This recipe, which is a bit more refined, seeing as it IS in Bon Appetit, not Uncle Henry's (the local weekly classifieds booklet, preferred over Craigslist by Mainers I'm sure, and also found in every store in Maine). You'll find it's cream cheese mixed with the powdered sugar rather than shortening, and you can make these a bit more manageable size wise, rather than the huge ones you'll find in Maine. These cake cookies are so moist, and the overall taste is quite delicious, and for not much work too, so this is a great party pleaser.

Here's the recipe, from Bon Appetit's October 2005 issue (and from the RSVP section, where it states that the recipe is actually from Amy's Bakery Arts Cafe in Brattleboro, VT...bah. Vermont. Whatever).

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Makes about 24 (I halved the recipe this weekend and it worked just fine!)

Cookies

2 3/4 cups flour

4 1/2 t ground cinnamon

2 t baking powder

1 1/2 t ground nutmeg

1 1/2 t ground ginger

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

1/2 t ground cloves

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 T dark molasses

2 t vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups canned pure pumpkin

1/2 cup buttermilk

Filling

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temp (that is two 8-ounce, not 28 ounces)

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

2 t vanilla extract

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Begin with the cookies. Whisk first 8 ingredients in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, molasses and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in pumpkin. Beat in dry ingredients in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions, beating until just combined. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies 1 sheet at a time until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 13 minutes. Cool cookies on sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. While cookies are baking, make the filling. Beat all ingredients for the filling together in a medium bowl until smooth. Adjust sugar amount to your liking. Once cookies have cooled, spread 2 tablespoons of filling on flat side of 1 cookie. Top with second cookie, forming a sandwich. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling, and of course, adjust filling to cookie ratio to your liking. Let stand at room temperature for up to a few hours, if it will be longer than that until you serve them, refrigerate until ready, but try to serve them at room temp.

Enjoy!