Good for What Ails You Chicken Soup

I have a recipe to share today that's perfect for winter weather, and is a good follow up to my chicken post from earlier.  One morning, Someone Special and I had a conversation that went more or less like this:

Someone Special: "I feel terrible, baby. Do you know a place where I could get some chicken soup for lunch today?"
Me: "Why don't I just make you some chicken soup?"
pause
Someone Special (hopefully): "Would that be easier for you than packing up all the kids and going somewhere?"


Isn't it amazing how men can ask you to do something for them under the guise of making your life easier?
(Don't freak out, baby. I'm just teasing)

Anyway, I set out to make a homemade chicken soup, and it turned out good. I mean, really good. The kids all gave it their approval by gobbling it up. Someone Special ate several helpings and claimed that he really did feel better. (Grandma was a medical genius: there's actual science behind why we always eat chicken soup when we're sick. You can read about the wonders of broth here.) He called me the next day, "Do you still have any chicken soup leftover? Could I come over and have some?"

Apparently, the way to a man's heart is still through his stomach.


I think the secret to making good homemade chicken soup is to use homemade chicken stock. The broth is the absolute star: rich, creamy, not-thick-not-thin and just right. Also, I used carrots two ways in this soup: I added regular diced carrots with the vegetables the way you normally would, but I also sauteed some carrots with the onions and celery until they were good and caramelized to really bring out their sweetness. I think this added another layer of flavor. I also used butter, rather than olive oil, to saute the vegetables in to add an extra layer of richness to the broth. The result is a soup that warms you to your bones and tastes like home.  Campbell's who?

The following Sunday, after church, we went out to eat at a favorite local restaurant, and the soup of the day was chicken and rice. After our waitress bounced away, pony tail swinging, Someone Special snickered.

"You've ruined me for all other chicken soups, baby. Why do they even bother?"


Good for What Ails You Chicken Soup

10 cups homemade chicken stock
4 tablespoons butter
2 cups cooked, cubed chicken breast
2 cups plus 1/2 cup carrots, peeled and diced
1 onion, peeled and diced
3 celery ribs, diced
2 tbsp flour
1 bag frozen lima beans
1 tsp dried thyme
1 handful chopped, fresh Italian parsley
salt to taste*
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

To add rice:
1/2 cup uncooked, medium-grain white rice
1 tbsp butter
1 1/3 cups water
**or simply cook to package instructions


Get your  chicken stock ready by warming it in a pot, or as I did, in the microwave in the tupperware container it had been frozen in. In another large soup pot, melt 4 tbsp of butter over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and the 1/2 cup of carrots. Stirring occasionally, saute until carrots are good and caramelized. They should be soft and browned but not burned, about 10-12 minutes. This next part takes some coordination, so read carefully. Add the flour to the butter-vegetable pot, stirring constantly with one hand, and begin slowly adding chicken stock, one ladle-full at a time, with the other hand. When all the stock is added, I like to take my handy dandy immersion blender and puree all the vegetables, because someone doesn't like the texture of cooked onions and celery. This step is not necessary, though, if you don't have picky eaters in your household. Add the chicken, lima beans, and the rest of the carrots, salt, pepper, and thyme and bring to a gentle boil. Lower the heat to low, and let it simmer away.

Now cook your rice.

In a separate medium-size pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add the rice and stir constantly, gently toasting the grains until they are golden brown. Turn the heat to low. Carefully add the water and cover, stirring occasionally, and let cook until rice is soft and fluffy, about 20 minutes.

When vegetables are soft in your soup, add the cooked rice and parsley.
Serve with crusty bread.

Enjoy ;)



*I do not salt my stock at all when I make it, as I prefer to salt each individual dish. So my soup needed a lot of salt, almost 1 tbsp. If you use store bought stock, you will not need nearly so much, even if you use the low sodium variety. I would start with 1 tsp and go from there.

Oatmeal: A Busy Mom's Best Friend

I want to take a few moments to wax poetic about one of our favorite foods: humble oatmeal. Not the sugary-instant-processed-packages (which I do not allow in the house), but the good ol' rolled oat variety. How do you like your oatmeal? Our preferred texture is not runny and not thick, but nice and creamy. I make it in the microwave in around three minutes with minimal clean-up. We liven it up with our favorite toppings: real maple syrup or real local honey, real cream, fresh fruits and nuts, or our favorite trick: frozen blueberries. The hot oatmeal melts the blueberries and makes them soft and juicy, while the cold blueberries immediately cool down the piping hot oatmeal to the perfect temperature for immediate consumption. The oatmeal even turns one of the girls' favorite color: purple. We've tried it with other frozen berries, too. Sliced frozen strawberries are best, the whole variety are just too big, or frozen blackberries and raspberries, and all are delicious, but the blueberries are our favorites. Other favorite combos are fresh sliced bananas and walnuts; warm cinnamon apples; and fresh berries and cream in the spring and summer.

I like to add either honey or real maple syrup for sweetener that brings more than empty calories. The roots of the maple trees reach deep down into the earth, pulling up trace minerals that are not commonly found in other foods. While calorie-wise, maple syrup is close to sugar, at least maple syrup contains a little bit of zinc, manganese, and calcium! Pick brands, such as Coombs Family Farms, which do not use formaldehyde in the refining process. Raw honey is a good choice, too, because it contains amylases and enzymes to digest carbohydrates and grains, which are hard on the tummy. According to Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon,  honey also does not spike the bloodsugar as severely as table sugar. I always have to keep in mind, though, that a sweetener is a sweetener, and no sugar is "good for you", so I try to restrain myself when adding one, even the goods ones like honey and maple syrup.

Even though oatmeal is a complex carb, it will still get broken down into simple sugars, and according to Diana Scharzbein in The Schwarzbein Principle, it's best to eat all carbs in combination with protein and real fat (not trans fats, which are man-made). That's why we always add real cream to ours, and the kids usually eat it in combination with some kind of protein, usually a scrambled egg.
But enough nutrition talk! Here's how I make it:

Super-Easy Oatmeal

I usually make 1 cup of dried oatmeal at a time, but you can make any amount you want, just cook it for more or less time. Just remember that however much oatmeal you have, you will use twice as much water. Cooking times may vary depending on how many watts your microwave is. I believe ours is pretty high powered, at least 1100 watts. The trick about microwaving oatmeal is to break up the cooking time into smaller increments so that the oats don't boil over and make a huge mess. Play with your toppings and find your favorites.

1 cup rolled oats (not quick cook)
2 cups water

In microwave safe bowl, combine oats and water.

Oats and water before cooking

Microwave on high in 1-minute increments, stirring between each increment, until you reach desired doneness, about 3 minutes.

The cooked oatmeal with honey and cream. Not too thick, not too thin. Delicious!

 If it still needs to cook longer than three minutes, switch to 30-second increments. Sometimes I have to add a bit of extra water to get the consistency the way we like it. Be careful when you take the bowl out of the microwave! It will be hot!

Toppings (the best part!)

3-4 tablespoons real cream
1-2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup
2 large handfuls frozen blueberries

Frozen blueberries are our favorite topping

 

The girls love how the blueberries turn the oatmeal purple.

Darling had the bowls all ready

Other topping ideas:
sliced fresh bananas, maple syrup, chopped walnuts, and cream
stewed apricots and figs with honey
stewed apples with cinnamon
fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cream, real maple sugar

Cucumber Conundrum

Refreshing Agua Fresca.

Have you ever grown cucumbers? If so, then you know what I mean when I say I have got to find ways to use them up. Now, I know everyone says "pickles" but I have neither the time nor the inclination to make pickles right now, so that's just not going to happen. I've had my fill of cucumber, tomato, and feta salad, and today I was on the search for something new to do with the 'cukes on my counter.

My search brought me, as always, to Simply Recipes. I love this site. If you have not visited before, you must. It has saved our family dinner too many times to count. Today, it saved my cucumbers. Wanting to try something new, I decided to make the Cucumber Lime Mint Agua Fresca. I have tons of mint growing in my garden, so I decided to go for it. I used chocolate mint instead of spearmint, and lemon instead of lime, but it was quite tasty just the same. I would recommend it if you want to try something different!

Prolific chocolate mint in the garden.

Since I'm obsessed with vegetables, of course I did some research on cucumbers to learn more about them.  I learned that this widely cultivated veggie, which I always seemed to overlook in the grocery store, was thought to originate in India, and is actually very nutritious. They are part of the cucurbitaceae family, which also includes pumpkins, melons, zucchini, and other squashes. Because of their unique combination of phytonutrients, including lignans, cucurbitacins, and flavanoids 'cukes can actually provide you with anti-inflammitory and anti-cancer protection, while fiber, a healthy dose of vitamin K, and a high water content keep you regular. Who knew? You can head over to World's Healthiest Foods if you'd like to learn more.

Freshly picked.

I decided to give some to the kids, since I try to sneak vegetables into their diets at every possible opportunity. The girls turned their noses up at it, but they did try it. Pumpkin, however, ran over immediately, pointing and saying, "Sip dat! Sip dat!" I gave him his own in a sippy cup.

After the first sip--I love his face!

 He drank the whole thing. I enjoyed it, too, and found it extremely refreshing on this hot day. So even though the girls didn't like it, I consider it to be a successful recipe.

He decided he liked it, though.

 I have lots more 'cukes on the vine. What is your favorite way to eat a cucumber? I need some suggestions!

Weekly Menu and a Recipe: Sausage and Rice

Here I am with another post so soon! I am very sporadic that way. Sometimes life gets ahead of me and I do not post for a month, other times I'm firmly entrenched in our routine and I can spare a few minutes for blogging. C'est la vie, as they say. Isn't it marvelous?

I am back to my weekly menu plan after a brief hiatus. While the kids were with their dad over Christmas, I did not make a menu plan, and then, naturally, it took a few weeks to get back into the habit. Do you ever feel like a break is more of a nuisance than a blessing? Perhaps it is just that they were gone for a whole week. An afternoon break would have been nice, a week....well. Let's just say I keep myself plenty busy while they are away.

Again, I don't actually know what dish I will make when. Mostly it depends on how long the ingredients will stay fresh. I always have all three kids in tow, and so I do one trip to the farmer's market, and one trip to the grocery store, and that is it. If anything is forgotten, it's just too damn bad. You can tell by the expletive how firmly I adhere to this motto.

Sausage with Rice and Vegetables (recipe below)
Chicken and Rice, arugula and spinach salad with sliced radishes and feta cheese.
Roast Chicken,  roasted brussels sprouts with herbs de Provence
Baked Ziti with Kale (will post this recipe soon, as it's a good one!)
Broiled salmon, sauteed broccoli with almonds
Braised turnip greens with potatoes, carrots, and turnips (I used my own Briased Kale recipe, but substituted turnips greens for the kale, onion for the leek, and beef stock for the chicken stock, plus added smoked bacon and turnips. It was a hit)

Recipe: Sausage with Rice and Vegetables
This was originally my mother-in-law's recipe, and it's a good one, although I've changed it a lot from her original. Cheap, easy, quick, and flexible. I love recipes where you can really play around with the ingredients. I have found that this recipe is a fantastic vehicle for getting vegetables into my kids' tummies. I have often cleaned out the vegetable crisper with this recipe, as it is very forgiving if the ingredients aren't exactly picked the same day. Some of my additions at various times have included frozen mixed vegetables, carrots, mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, parsnips, peas, and corn and it's always good. My kids love sausage, and it's cheap and easy to find good pastured sausage (even I can find it at my very small local farmer's market), but you could do it entirely without meat if you wanted to. For the sake of simplicity, I'm giving you basic recipe, and you can add whatever vegetables you want, but you'll need to use your own judgment about when to add them. Just remember that harder vegetables probably need to be added with the celery and onion so they have time to cook, while softer vegetables, like mushroom or peas, really just need to be heated up and can be added towards the end.

3 ribs celery, diced
1 small onion (use your favorite kind or whatever you have on hand: red, yellow, white, or even green onions), peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (or to taste)
1 pound breakfast sausage (I use mild)
1 cup uncooked long grain brown or white rice
2 eggs
your favorite vegetables, diced, or 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables (harder vegetables, like carrots, need to be diced small so they will cook faster)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil, several turns of the pan

Cook rice separately, according to package directions.  In a large dutch oven, cook the sausage over medium heat until done. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add celery and onion to the dutch oven and saute until caramelized, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic, and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add the sausage, cooked rice, (frozen vegetables) and Worcestershire sauce and stir well. When mixture is thoroughly heated, break eggs into the dish and stir to break up and mix well. Cook until egg is done and no longer runny. Salt and pepper to taste.

How I Make Home-Made Stock

Have you ever made home-made stock, either beef, chicken, or vegetable? It's so much more flavorful than the store-bought kind, but to be honest, I used to think it would be too much trouble to make. Every celebrity chef has their own recipe for chicken stock, but I always find it so wasteful. They often want you to use the whole chicken (or two, or three!)  and then just throw it away once you have strained the liquid. This offends my sensibilities. Waste a whole chicken???? What are they thinking? Likewise with the vegetables. Veggies are relatively inexpensive (only compared to meat and dairy, though), but I still find it bothersome to have to buy vegetables just to make stock.

At last I found a kindred in The Unplugged Kitchen, by Viana La Place. She suggests saving all your kitchen scraps: onion and garlic peels, vegetable peelings, tops, and stems, cheese rinds, and even bread crusts and making soup every week. Then, one of my friends wrote on her blog about saving vegetables scraps in the freezer and making vegetable stock with them. So I decided to try it. Voila! Luscious, dark, flavorful broth, made for free, out of the stuff you usually throw away. And it's super easy to do.

All week long, I save my vegetable scraps, and I mean, everything. Tops, peelings, and root ends of carrots, turnips, eggplants, sweet peppers (though not the seeds or core), celery, okra, potatoes, sweet potatoes, stems of herbs, the tiny little garlic cloves that are too small to use, you name it, I save it. Because I'm using the scraps instead of throwing them out, I make sure to do an extra-thorough wash and rinse of everything before I use it. I put trimmings in baggies and store them in the freezer. We eat a lot of veggies in this house, so I end up with a lot of scraps. One day a week, I roast a chicken. Whatever day that falls on is the night I make stock. Before I go to bed, I ceremoniously dump the carcass and all the pan juices into my large crockpot (not sure of the actual capacity, but it's at least 6 quarts), then I dump all the frozen veggie trimmings on top, and cover everything with pure, filtered water. The only thing close to measuring I do is to make sure I don't over-fill the pot. I add the tiniest pinch of salt and two or three black peppercorns, put the lid on, turn the crockpot on low, and forget about it until the next day. Whenever I get around to it the following morning, I pour the liquid through a fine colander and into 3-cup-capacity Tupperware containers. I use a ladle to press and squeeze every last drop of goodness out of the scraps, then throw the scraps away. Then I label each container and put it in the freezer.

If you are only making vegetable stock, you could make your scraps do double duty by then throwing everything in the compost pile once you've strained your broth. If you are making a stock with meat in it, then throw the scraps away, as animal products are not supposed to go into a compost pile.

The flavor of the stock will not be consistent when made this way, as it would if you followed a recipe, but I have yet to make a batch that didn't taste good. And, I make mine almost for free with hardly any trouble, which is more than I can say for the Barefoot Contessa recipe (although I'm sure hers tastes fantastic). Oh, I do have to confess that I do not include beet scraps. The thought of red or pink stock is just not appealing to me.

And finally, I'll leave you with a link so you can read up on why broth and stock are so very good for for the body. Everyone's grandmother says that if you are sick, you need home-made chicken soup. Well, it turns out there is some actual science behind that old wive's tale. You can read about how good broth is for you here.

Weely Menu and Recipe: V-8 Soup

Here is my dinner menu plan for the coming week, plus my recipe for V-8 Soup. This was originally my mother-in-law's recipe, and it's a good one. There are so many ways to vary it to your taste! The recipe I'm posting here is not her original, but contains my own additions, like fresh root vegetables rather than canned potatoes. I like my soups to be so full of vegetables that it's almost a stew (or a "stewp" as Rachel Ray would say). Recently, I have learned that you should not stir ground beef as it browns. Instead, flip it once so it can brown on both sides, but other than that, leave it alone. My absolute favorite ingredient to add is orzo pasta, but since I'm cutting back on carbs, I've been leaving that out. If you do add pasta or rice, cook it before adding to the soup.

V-8 Soup
1 48-ounce can V-8 Juice
water- half a V-8 can's worth
1 family-size bag frozen soup vegetable medley (or two smaller bags)
1 10-ounce bag frozen sliced okra
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound fingerling potatoes, washed and diced (I leave the peel on, but you could peel them if desired)
2 large turnips, peeled, tops and root ends removed, diced
olive oil, about a tablespoon, for sauteing the onion and garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender and translucent. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds more. Add ground beef. Break the beef up into a thin layer, but then do not stir it while it browns! When it is thoroughly brown on one side, turn it over to brown on the other side. This allows it to build up more flavor.  

When beef is browned, add V-8 juice, then fill the can 1/2 way up with water (should be about 24 ounces) and add the water. If using turnips, add them next and bring soup to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes before adding potatoes and frozen vegetables. If you're skipping the turnips (and you're missing out if you do!), go ahead and add the potatoes and frozen vegetables and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 45 minutes, or until veggies are tender. Salt and pepper to taste. V-8 contains quite a bit of sodium, so start out lightly with the salt and add more as needed. If adding cooked pasta or rice, add 10 minutes before the end.


Weekly Menu, December 6th-12th
note: I don't actually plan what meal I'm going to make each day, because it inevitably changes. I just write out six or seven dinner plans, then usually decide each day which one to make. I've linked the recipes when applicable.

Roast Chicken (a la Alice Waters), Creamed Spinach, Orange-Maple glazed Carrots

V-8 Soup

Baked Ziti, Roasted Broccoli

Melissa's Chicken, Arugula-Corn Salad

Lamb Shank, Beet and Pomegranate Salad, Baked Sweet Potato

Broiled Salmon, Buttery Mashed Potatoes and Turnips, Peas

Adventures in Bok Choy

I have a confession to make: I have never had bok choy before. Until tonight! I'm always wanting to expand my vegetable horizons, and while browsing Simply Recipes, I came across this recipe for Baby Bok Choy with Cashews. I thought, this is the recipe for me! I was a little skeptical as I chopped it up, but when I ate the first bite, I became a bok choy convert! Tender, crisp, lightly sweet-- delicious! Not stringy, like celery. I decided to do a little research, as bok choy isn't a vegetable that I knew anything about.

In the West, we associate bok choy with Chinese cooking, and that's because it's been cultivated in the Far East since ancient times. It make appearances in Korean, Thai, and Philipino cuisine. And it turns out, bok choy is just as good for you as it is delicious! It's packed with vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, and folate. It also contains beta carotene and vitamin K, phosphorus, and magnesium. With that list of powerful anti-cancer nutrients, it's no surprise that bok choy is a proud member of none other than the brassica family! It may not look anything like the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbages that we see in our supermarkets, but bok choy can definitely hold it's own in this prestigious family, and it does it without that super-strong, cabbag-ey flavor.

If you hate broccoli and cauliflower, try bok choy. It has a nice mild flavor and an addictive crispy crunch. Head on over to Simply Recipes and find a good recipe to try. It just might become your favorite vegetable!

Link: Simply Recipes

For the first time ever, all of my children are sleeping though the night. It's been a long, winding road to this point, but I finally feel like all the sleep battles and nighttime parenting has finally paid off. This means that mommy has a little more time for herself these days! One of the great benefits of not being so exhausted all the time is that I'm cooking more. In my search for whole-food recipes, I came across this lovely blog.  It was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for-- lots of yummy recipes that don't require a gazillion ingredients, have a range of flavors, and basically only use real foods. No condensed soups here! The recipes posted seem to be seasonal as well, although you can of course browse the archives for whatever you're craving. It's great to plan your meals according to the season, because the ingredients taste better, but are cheaper, too.

Check out the Butterscotch Pudding recipe....I must make it! Also, the Apricot Chicken and Baby Bok Choy with Cashews are on my meal plan this week.  Yum!

Gnuts for Gnocchi

I made gnocchi for dinner tonight, and it was so simple and quick that I just had to share! I used a prepared gnocchi, which takes only a few minutes to cook, and but if you have a recipe for the real thing, that would be even better. I had major resistance from my preschooler--she doesn't like tomatoes--but after I coaxed her into trying it, even she like it. The addition of fresh parsley really brings a sparkle to the sauce, and the sour cream brings a decadent creaminess. I meant to make it with ground beef for a heartier sauce, but supper was so late tonight that I just skipped it. However, I think adding shrimp or pan-seared chicken tenders would be divine! I also think this would be a great vehicle to get some zucchini or spinach (or both!) into your diet! This recipe is going into my regular rotation, for sure!

Super-Simple Gnocchi Supper


1 box Delallo Gnocchi
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic, onions, and basil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tablspoons chopped fresh parlsey
2 heaping tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon butter
Fresh Parmesan, for garnish


Directions
Heat a medium saucepan of med-low heat. Add butter. When butter is melted, add minced garlic and sautee for 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes and heat until it simmers. Add sour cream and parsley. 

Meanwhile, cook gnocchi to package instructions. Drain and add to sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

I dressed it up with a Pocoyo bowl. Fancy!

Slow-Cooker Love

I am totally in love with my slow-cooker. Have I said that before? Head-over-heals in love. It is now a permanent fixture on my counter top, no longer banished next to the fondue pot under the cabinet. I have seen the light!

This weekend I made Creamy, No-Stir Risotto in the crockpot, and now, I am (of all things!) making home-made yogurt in it. I am so excited about it, I am smiling as I write this post! I plan on posting the recipe for the risotto, but I am still tweaking it. My idea is to use prepared butternut squash soup (the Cambell's in the green box) to make a no-fuss, dump-it-and-leave-it butternut squash risotto, and my results were promising (and quite delicious). It's just that the proportions were a little off, so I want to refine it before sharing. However, I will post the link to the original recipe that inspired me:
No-Stir Crockpot Risotto

The yogurt was a surprise. I've been wanting to make home-made yogurt for years, ever since I saw my aunt do it. Only fear and the price of a yogurt maker kept me from doing it. So I get the bright idea to Google "How to make home-made yogurt", thinking surely there is a way to do it safely without a lot of trouble or fancy equipment, and what should pop up in the results but how to make yogurt in the crockpot! The blog, A Year of Slow Cooking, is one that I actually became familiar with way back before it was very big. Wow, has it grown! I highly suggest that you check it out, if you haven't already.

Life and a Recipe: Someone's in the Kitchen with Mama

After a year of letting the Darling "help" in the kitchen-- hold stuff, pour stuff, stir stuff, etc...I decided to let her actually help cook dinner one day this week. She now has enough awareness of the danger of fire and sharp objects that she is actually competent to really be my sous chef! Hurray!

I let her help me make one of our favorite entrees, what we affectionately call "Melissa's Chicken". During season 4 of "Next Food Network Star" mom and I rooted for Melissa D'Arabian, who eventually won. In a test pilot, she talked about her simple "4-Step-Chicken" and it looked so easy and tasty that we just had to make it. It was delicious! We've been making it every one or two weeks ever since. Although Melissa's pilot was on The Food Network website for a while, now that she has her official show and Next Food Network Star has moved on to season 5, I can't find the recipe anywhere on the Food Network website, even when I search for it. I'll share it here, with just a few of my modifications. "Melissa's Chicken" meets my dinner criteria: it is easy to double and freezes well! I'll often make up several batches at once.

It was Darling's job to pound the chicken. Putting the chicken between two sheets of wax paper before pounding makes for easier cleanup.

Dredging the chicken in flour

Yum!

"Melissa's Chicken" with Apples

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half horizontally and pounded with the flat side of a tenderizer (optional, I just do this for faster cooking time)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 small red onion, sliced

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup unfiltered apple juice

3 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced

salt and pepper to taste

flour for dredging (I start with about 1/3 cup), seasoned with salt and pepper. I put it in a plastic baggy and shake it up.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Dredge chicken in flour on both sides. When oil is very hot, add chicken. Cook chicken several minutes on each side, until golden brown on the outside and done in the middle. Take chicken out of the pan and set aside on a plate. 

Add onion to your pan and cook until tender and translucent. Be sure to scrape up all those lovely brown bits of chicken!  Next, add the apples to the pan. Cook until tender, and then add the juice and broth. When it starts to get bubbly, add the chicken, reduce heat to low, and cover. Let the broth reduce by at least half. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Enjoy!

(I usually make this with 3 sliced red onions only, and 1 cup lemon juice instead of apple juice, with or without 1/2 cup white wine. It's always delicious and is so versatile! You can add whatever vegetables and liquids you want. I'm planning on trying it with apricots, too!)

So Simple Pasta Salad

Here's a typical lunchtime in my household:

I get the girls their lunch. I sit with them and nurse the baby while they eat. I have my own plate of food. They crawl down off the stools and attempt to run around. Still nursing the baby, I chase them down and haul them to Time Out. During the chase, the baby quits nursing and cries in anger and frustration that his lunch has been interrupted. During the girls' four-and two minutes (respectively) in Time Out, I re-latch the baby and eat a bite of my own lunch, (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers) while standing at the counter. Time Out is over and the girls crawl up on their stools. They finish their lunch. They take their dishes to the sink. I send them back to their rooms to play. Still holding my 22-pound, 29-inch-long baby in one arm, horizontally while he nurses, I stand at the counter and take another bite of my lunch (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers). Screaming starts at the back of the house and gets louder as it comes closer and closer. Darling races into the kitchen pushing a pink doll stroller, looking behind her and laughing, while Doodlebug chases her, screaming, "My sthtwower! No my sthtwower! My! Myyyyyyyy!" They run around the island a few times. The baby, who was almost asleep, unlatches and cranes his head back, eyes wide, to see what has interrupted his lunch, again. I take another bite of my own lunch (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers) and chase down the girls, boob flapping every which way until I re-snap my nursing bra. Let's hope the postman doesn't drive by, as all the blind are wide open. My lunch is left on the counter, forgotten until three hours later, when I return. Hungry, I attempt a quick algebraic equation in my head to determine how many times the germs in my food have multiplied while my lunch sat at room temperature. Unable to complete the equation, I just decide to risk it and take a few bites (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers). Germs build immunity.

If this sounds like just another day at your house, then you need quick, easy to prepare recipes like I do. Here is a pasta salad that is simple to throw together (the hardest part is cooking the pasta!), is excellent hot or cold, is mighty tasty and is excellent leftover. It can be a side dish or a main course. And, as an added bonus, it can be eaten with your fingers if need be, without too much mess.

So Simple Pasta Salad

1 box rotini pasta, cooked according to package instructions and drained (or other shape, although I like spirals because it holds the sauce so well)
1 jar prepared pesto (I use the Classico brand)
1 wedge (big or little as you like) sharp provolone cheese, cut into small cubes
1 cooked ham steak, cut into small cubes
1/2 jar pitted katamala olives, sliced (or whole if you prefer) 

Dump all ingredients into a large bowl. Stir. Eat. Enjoy.

Additions that would be delicious:
marinated artichoke hearts
heart of palm
sundried tomatoes

Life: Summer Cooking

Tonight, I made the first pot of okra and tomatoes of the season! The onions, garlic, and okra all came from my garden (my tomatoes are hopelessly late this year). It was spectacular! Find my recipe in the recipe box on the left. Next okra recipe to try: gumbo!

Pumpkin can officially crawl, and he is trying to pull up onto his feet. All I can say is: No! No, no, no, no, no! 

I'm taking the kids to Kindermusik this summer, and it is going so well. We're in a class that all three can be in together and they love it! Doodlebug is really coming out of her shell, and even little Pumpkin squeals and smiles at the music. I'm so glad I decided to sign us up.

I took Darling to the library today, and we found tons of pictures books about elephants. We checked out six books. I think we will start doing weekly visits. It was such a nice time together.

A Series of Fortunate Ingredients: Lemony Orzo with Roasted Broccoli and Feta Cheese

It continues to be a challenge to get more veggies into my diet, but it's easy with a lunch like this one: Lemony orzo with Roasted Broccoli and Feta Cheese. This is a recipe I came up with on the fly to use up a crown of broccoli before it went bad. The result was light but filling. What I really liked about this dish was all the possibilities. It makes a great side dish or lunch, but would be delicious with strips of grilled chicken mixed in for a simple entree. And you could go beyond broccoli and add your favorite roasted veggies, too. This dish was delicious both hot and cold. The possibilities are endless!

Lemony Orzo with Roasted Broccoli and Feta Cheese

1/2 box orzo pasta, prepared according to package instructions
juice and zest of one lemon
1 crown broccoli, chopped into small pieces androasted in olive oil, salt and pepper at 400 F for 20 minutes. Turn halfway through cooking time.
1 package Athenos Feta Cheese with Garlic and Herbs
Grated pecorino romano cheese, for garnish

While waiting for pasta water to boil, roast the broccoli. Combine hot, prepared pasta, roasted broccoli, and feta in a bowl. Add lemon zest and squeeze in lemon juice. Garnish with pecorino romano. Mix well and enjoy!

Recipe: Quesadillas Made with Smoked Cheddar, Avocado, and Caramelized Red Onions

A lot of my meals are thrown together from whatever I have on hand, and sometimes it all comes together so well that you incorporate it into your regular repertoire. Today's lunch was one such a meal.
I love quesadillas, and I always try to keep flour tortillas and cheese on hand. The girls love them, they're easy to make, and they can be as simple or as fancy and complex as you please. Some days, the quesadilla is nothing but the tortilla and cheese, and some days it include a whole range of ingredients. I started out to make a simple cheese quesadilla today, and spotting a block of smoked cheddar in the fridge, I thought I would mix it up a little. Then I spied the newly-ripe avocados on the counter. A red onion is always on hand in my pantry, and it seemed like the flavors would work well together. Did they ever! This is the kind specialty quesadilla that I would order at a restaurant, but it took no more than 15 minutes to make right at home. A can of black beans spiced up with cilantro, garlic, diced tomato, and topped with the smoky cheddar made an excellent accompaniment. A dollop of sour cream made it absolute heaven.


Quesadilla with Smoked Cheddar, Avocado, and Caramelized Red Onions.
 Makes 2 quesadillas


1/8 of a red onion, thinly sliced and caramelized  in a pan
1 whole avocado, peel and pit removed, and thinly sliced
1 cup smoked cheddar cheese, shredded, divided in half
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded , divided in half
2 soft-taco size flour tortillas
olive oil
 
In a medium saute pan, heat a few drops of olive oil. Lay one tortilla flat and sprinkle with half of each cheese across the whole tortilla. Lay half the avocado slices on one side. Top with half the onions. Fold the tortilla over the side with the avocado and onions. Heat until cheese is melted and tortilla is slightly golden brown and crispy. Cut into four slices. Repeat for second quesadilla.

Kale: King of the Brassicas! And a recipe for real-life: Braised Kale with Potatoes and Carrots

I love kale! The only place that I can find it here in AR is at Whole Foods. At an independent health food store, I once asked if they carried kale. The reply, "No, because people around here don't seem to know what to do with it, so they never buy it." That is one of the saddest things I've heard, next to a story by Michael Pollan where a group of Oakland middle-schoolers were taken to a garden, where they exclaimed in horror, "the food comes from dirt!?" 


Kale (which is incredibly easy to grow from seed, by the way), is a member of that much-talked about, highly-regarded, loathed by children veggie family the Brassicas. If we were to compare it to the table of elements, the Brassicas would be the noble gasses. It has long been known that regular consumption of Brassicas will reduce your risk of many different kinds of cancer, improve lung function, and improved mental function, but a study by the University of HI found that they contain cardiovascular benefits as well. Consuming even tiny amounts of cruciferous veggies, like kale, can lower your LDL and triglyceride levels, thanks to a phytonutrient called indole-3-carbinol. Indole-3-carbinol signals to your liver to slow production of a cholesterol transporter.

Broccoli and cauliflower are other esteemed members of this family, which are all descendants of wild cabbages. It seems that kale was brought to Europe from Asia Minor by Celtic wanderers at roughly 600 B.C. Our forefathers brought kale to the Americas sometime during the 17th century. And interestingly enough, kale was an important crop during Roman times, and with its nutritional profile, no wonder!

Kale really packs a one-two punch for immune support, with tons of vitamin C and vitamin K (an oft-absent nutrient from our modern diets, critical to immune health). Kale is also an excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamin E, manganese, and vitamin A, a smattering of B vitamins (including folate), a few omega-3 fatty-acids, and potassium. Holy brassicas, Batman! With all those vitamins, it must taste like a certain four-letter word, right? Wrong again! It actually tastes like chocolate!

Ok, not really. Kale certainly has a strong flavor (stronger than, say, spinach), and if not handled properly, it can be bitter. I love kale sauteed in olive oil and topped with freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese (If you're feeling really decadent, you can fry up some bacon first to render the fat, then saute the kale with the bacon in the pan juices. Oh, my!). Don't forget the sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper! I've also just hand-torn the leaves and tossed them in salads. Lacinato, or the smoother variety of kale is better for that, as it is slightly sweeter than the curly kale. Ornamental kale is also edible (though not recommended), and when you cut out the center core, the outside purple leaves make a stunning living bowl for dips.

But what I really love about kale is that it has so much heart. No, I don't mean like celery or artichokes. There is such a heartiness to kale, that when cooked, it can make you forget that you're not eating meat. This quality, so rare in veggies, makes it an excellent choice for vegetarians, and those on special diets because it can actually fill you up. And the calorie content? Almost miniscule. Here is my favorite recipe for cooking kale. The kale takes on an almost smoky flavor, and the hearty stew quality makes it perfect on cold winter nights with nothing more than a thick slice of rustic bread. It's so delicious, in fact, that you won't even miss the red meat!

Braised Kale with Potatoes and Carrots


2 bunch kale, leaves removed from stems and sliced into thin strips
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
olive oil, several turns of the pan (about a TBSP)
4 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed into small pieces
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 leek, white and pale green parts thinly sliced (make sure to wash away any grit between layers)
coarsely ground sea salt
freshly ground pepper (to taste)


In a large Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add leek, and saute until just tender. Add kale and saute until just wilted. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for ten minutes. Add potatoes and carrots, then cover dish and simmer until tender, at least 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste (note: start out light with the salt, as most chicken stock varieties are very salty)

Note: I plan on adding diced turnips (one of my favorite veggies!) the next time I make this. Just peel, dice to same size as potatoes, but turnips take longer to cook, so add them when you add the kale.
UPDATE: 3-14-10-- the turnips were a delicious addition!

Gardener's note: Kale is so very easy to grow from seed. It will germinated even at low temperatures (50 degree F), and will grow through the winter in the AR 7 climate. Kale is relied upon in very cold climates, such as the Icelandic countries and Russia, because of its ability to tolerate the cold. In fact, a light frost just seems to make it sweeter! Fast maturing-- an excellent early spring or fall crop.

Holy Frijoles! Two great cookbooks and a recipe: Lentil Vegetable Soup

I love cookbooks, and I have two that I am currently obsessed with: The Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics cookbook (which I picked up for less at Sam's Club), and the simply-stated Beans by Aliza Green. Because we've been having frosty weather lately, I am enjoying a lot of soups, and the Barefoot Contessa makes some good ones! Everything in Back to Basics sounds delicious, and the Potato-Leek Soup that I made was especially yummy! (in fact, that was what I ate the night I went into labor, along with some crusty French bread). I also have my eye on the recipe for dinner-sized spanakopitas, which combine two of my favorite ingredients, spinach and feta cheese, in a phyllo pastry.  As expected, a lot of the recipes are French in origin, but this is simple cooking using fresh ingredients (my favorite kind of cooking!).
Beans, on the other hand, has 200 recipes from around the world with one thing in common (you guessed it!): legumes! Nearly every recipe is vegetarian, and the few that aren't have vegetarian options. It just came in today, so I can't yet speak for how tasty the recipes are, but judging from the ingredient lists, these recipes are richly spiced and cover a wide range of complexity and skill level. There are recipes traditional to Africa, India, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, South America, the Middle East, as well as classic American recipes, like Boston Baked Beans. This book is also rich with information on how to choose beans, cook beans, bean history, their nutritional values, as well as sources where you can buy them. It's pretty much EVERYTHING you need to know about the bean except how to grow them yourself.

The recipe I want to share contains French Green Lentils, and is one of my favorite soups. Although it is incredibly easy to make, all the fresh ingredients requires A LOT of chopping, so if you are a slow and steady chopper like I am, it does take a while to do the prep. This recipe is an Ina Garten recipe, but contains my alterations (is it possible for me to make something without putting my own touch on it? Probably not.) This recipe, however, is not in her cookbook, but can be found on the Food Network website, here.

Ingredients:
4 c chopped onions
4 c leeks (clean well)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt 
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 cups lentils, covered in boiling water for two minutes then drained
3 cups carrots, diced
3 cups celery, diced
3 cups French fingerling potatoes, diced (I simply wash well and leave the skin on)
3 quarts chicken stock 
3 ounces tomato paste (I use roughly half of a 6-oz can)


In a large pot, saute onions, leeks, and garlic together in olive oil until tender and just translucent (not brown). In a separate pot, bring 2 1/2 cups water to a boil, add the lentils and boil for 2 minutes, then drain. To the onions mix, add chicken stock, drained lentils, and the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour.


Notes: sorry that the links don't work yet. Somehow my settings have gotten screwed up in Firefox and I can't log in to Google in that browser. I'm still trying to figure out the commands in Safari. I can copy the link in another window, but it will not let me then paste the link when I am editing my post. Hopefully I'll be able to come back and link everything once I get my cookies straightened out in Firefox, or figure out to copy/paste successfully in Safari! That's what I get for being so clueless about computers.

Recipe: Summer Tomato Risotto with Spinach

I can't say enough about spinach. What a nutritional powerhouse! This leafy green, which is thought to be native to Persia (now Iran), should be a staple in the diet of every health-conscious person, but should especially be incorporated during pregnancy. Spinach is an excellent source of iron, a host of B vitamins, including riboflavin (B2) and folate (the naturally occurring form of folic acid), as well as calcium, potassium, and vitamins A, C, and K. It's also a good source of dietary fiber. Your baby will thank you for eating as much spinach as you can. Folate is known to prevent the birth defect, spina bifida, and vitamin K, calcium, and iron are all essential to bone development.

So, now you may know of a few of the many reasons why you need to eat more spinach, but nutrition alone has never been enough to convince anyone to eat anything. But guess what? It's delicious! This is one green that I usually prefer fresh over cooked, and I easily incorporate it anytime a recipe calls for it's less-nutritionally dense cousin, lettuce. I'm not a fan of the soggy, gross boiled spinach that I remember from my childhood (the kind Popeye ate from the can), but luckily there are a host of ways to prepare spinach that are both more delicious, and more nutritious. It's hard to beat a good spinach salad, but spinach sauteed in olive oil with garlic is right up there in my book. I also like it wilted in stir-fries. And can we get a shout-out for spinach dip, please?

I like to make a game of buying fresh, baby spinach in bulk at Sam's and seeing how much of it I can eat before it goes bad. Of course, since I wash it in my fabulous lotus washer, it lasts longer than it normally would, but still. It's a lot of spinach to consume. Naturally, I add it to everything I can, and tonight's dinner was no exception. Simple tomato risotto sounded boring. Where was the color variation? What it needed was some green.

Risotto is a traditional Italian rice dish, made with a short-grain, round rice. Arborio is commonly used and easy to find.  It seems that rice was known in Italy a-way back in the Roman days, but was not common and was used mainly for medicinal purposes. It seems that the Arabs introduced rice to Northern Italy sometime during the Middle Ages, and it became a staple crop of the Po Valley sometime in the mid-late 1400's. Risotto is an extremely flavorful dish that takes some practice, but I found to be more forgiving than it is rumored to be. Just be patient and keep stirring!

Here is my recipe for Tomato Risotto with Spinach. There were no leftovers!


Tomato Risotto with Spinach

1 small package arborio rice
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with liquid, warmed

1/3 cup good wine, warmed (white would be best, but I only had red and it was fine. I warmed mine in the microwave...DO NOT add cold, or it will "shock" the rice) 
1 medium onion, diced (I had a red onion on hand)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken stock, warmed (again, cold liquid will shock the rice), use more or less if needed

2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cups fresh baby spinach 
salt and pepper to taste



In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp butter and saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute more. Add rice and saute until golden brown (5-7 minutes), stirring constantly. When rice is toasted, add the wine in slow constant stream, stirring gently to keep mixture from sticking. Next, add the stock, one ladle-full at a time. Keep stirring gently, adding each ladle-full once rice has absorbed what is in the pan. Then add the canned tomatoes with liquid and continue to stir gently. When rice has reached the "al dente" stage, add the spinach and stir until it is tender and incorporated.  Turn of heat and stir in the last tbsp of butter to make it extra rich and creamy. Top with grated pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately! Enjoy!

Late-Summer Baking

I don't really bake, and I'm not sure why. I love baked goods. But maybe it is because once the delicious goodies are made, I feel compelled to eat them. I feel that I cannot waste even a single one, and so I hear an evil little voice in my head whispering, "Go on! Just one more!" and I wilt.  And let's face it: even when home-made, baked goods are little more than empty calories. Delicious, empty calories. So normally, I abstain from the temptation as much as I can, but yesterday I couldn't resist getting my girls in the kitchen and making some sugar cookies. Two sugars making sugar cookies: how could it go wrong? Well, it couldn't, and it didn't, and our cookies were magnificent. I wish you could have seen my littlest one's face when she poured scoops of flour into the mixing bowl. You would have thought  we were making something magical. Their squeals of delight brought a surge of joy to my soul. Yes, this is what life is truly about, and I've decided in my Heaven, my children and I will bake cookies together every day, only there won't be any calories or sugar highs. Oh, and we'll actually take naps. Yes. Naps and cookie baking. That MUST be Heaven.

The girls poured all the ingredients in the mixer for me, then I rolled them out and they picked the cookie cutters and cut them out. I must say, it was a learning process for me. I consider myself to be pretty easy going (as far as women go. Let's face it, what woman is TRULY easy going? I can't think of one), but I found myself having to relax when they pulled at the dough and tore the shapes, causing me to have to re-roll them and cut everything out again. I mean, we weren't baking for anyone but ourselves, and it was just for fun, so I don't know why I got uptight about it at first. But after a good reality check, I was able to calm down and remember that this was their time and their project, and we needed to do it at their pace. It's amazing where we pick up these little kernels of realization. What did it matter if we ended up adding extra sugar, or if the flour went everywhere? I feel it would be totally unrealistic to expect two toddlers to not make a mess in the kitchen! But what a rich experience it was! There were so many learning opportunities, and the girls were ripe with excitement. It is definitely something we will do again!

Muscadine Update: Muscadine Sauce

So, I promised to update about the muscadines. I didn't attempt jelly like I had originally planned. Honestly, I've never made jelly before, and I chickened out. That's a project to attempt another day. So I went a route I'm more familiar with: muscadine syrup. I make fresh blueberry or strawberry syrup every time the girls and I make pancakes, so I figured I would just substitute the muscadines for the blueberries. The resulting sauce was delicious! But I wouldn't call it a syrup. The nature of the muscadines made this much thicker, so it was more like a sauce. I could have strained the skins, but I wanted to keep more vitamins in the sauce, so I pureed it instead. The muscadines took a long time to cook down, more than 30 minutes. I actually let it cook a bit too long, and so my sauce was quite thick (that's what we get for crafting while we wait!) but it was still delicious spooned over our pancakes this morning!  Here's how I did it:


Muscadine Butter


2 quarts muscadines, seeded
1/2 cup pure sorghum
1 tbps lime juice (that's what I had on hand)


combine all ingredients in a large Dutch oven. Let cook down for about 30 minutes or until all combined and muscadines are tender. Blend in with either immersion or stand blender.