Soup and Veggies and Veggies and Soup

The concept of eating 5 servings of vegetables each day is starting to wear thin. It is not that I don't like vegetables, I do in fact. It is just hard to eat that many each and every day. Each day starts with a serving of vegetables first thing out of the chute. There is nothing like cold collards or cucumbers and bell peppers to break the nights fast, but if I don't get the first serving early, then I wind up forcing myself to eat squash as a late night snack. It is just easier to go ahead and jump in feet first each morning. I will confess though that leftover broccoli, sautéed onions and a dash of Parmesan Cheese over 1/2 cup of grits is pretty decent. For the record a collard omelet is a really bad idea!

Tonight I put a huge pot of soup on the stove right after we had finished supper. Once again thinking about how to incorporate the 5 servings, I opted for a vegetable dense soup. I found this in an extremely old Weight Watchers Cookbook I have from sometime in the late 70's? Early 80's? I have no idea what edition or the name of the actual book. I don't remember the actual size of the book either. Over the years is has lost covers and pages and is a shell of what it once was. Funny thing, I don't even remember using it a lot, but I must have for several pages are well splattered. ( I know this book is old because it is broken down into unlimited and limited vegetable servings as well as exchanges)

Everyday Soup

1 small head of cabbage, coarsely chopped
1/4 small onion diced
dried onions to taste
1 large can of whole tomatoes
1 carrot
1 cup green beans
1 cup diced zucchini
1 cup yellow squash
1 cup diced celery
4 cups water
4 beef or chicken bouillon cubes
salt and papper to taste

The instructions are very basic. Toss everything in a pot and cook on low until it is all soft and soupy. Consume 3/4 cup daily as one of the 3 required vegetable servings . ( What is this 3 servings? I am choking down vegetables right and left)

What I did differently: I actually used all of the vegetables the recipe called for, but did not use dried onion. I put 2 small yellow onions and did not chop mine because I like things in a soup to have a chunky consistency. Mine were in pretty hefty julienne slices. I did use a can of whole tomatoes because they were in the pantry, but crushed them with the potato masher before adding them. Instead of the bouillon cubes I chose to use chicken stock for my soup liquid. I used a little salt but no pepper. . In addition I made a little bouquet garni of herbs that were on hand, a little thyme and marjoram and a bay leaf. I think it cooked on low for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I did not eat any tonight, but am pretty sure I will have a cup in the morning for breakfast.

I will have it just as it is, with no embellishments, but when it is part of lunch or supper, i am guessing I will top it with a dollop of light sour cream and some habernero sauce. I will be sure to post how it tastes both alone and amended. I have no idea how many servings this is. Just guessing there will be at least 8 servings, maybe more. Picture to follow tomorrow morning!

What Hot Place Is Freezing Over Tonight?

Wow! I don't know what to do right now. I suppose I should act normal like tonight is just business as usual, but in reality I rarely cook 2 nights in a row. Not that we eat out every other night, but I mean the process of actually planning a meal and following through. We are in a weird place right now. Son3 is in the high school band and gets in much later than The Hub. So much later that by the time he arrives, The Hub has already had something to drink along with cheese and crackers. He still wants supper but generally wants it to be light, but Son3 is starving and wants MEAT and salad and MEAT and rolls and MEAT and green beans and MEAT. I seem to be doing a lot of grilling and salads and rolls and really nothing else. Well, for the past couple of nights we have had a real meal, planned ( Hey! I count it as thought out if you begin thinking before you physically start cooking) and cooked. ( With love? With consideration? With gas?)

For the past couple of days I have indulged my Pinterest interest ( addiction) and followed pin after pin of good things to eat. Now I appreciate cookies and cakes and even cake pops ( though I do beg you people to quit pinning so blooming many of them) but I have been on a vegetable quest. As I mentioned a while back I am trying very hard to eat 5 servings of vegetables each day. I know it is good for me and I actually like most veggies, but I find eating that many means I either have to have salad or crudite' for breakfast. I am getting used to it, but lettuce and morning coffee are not kissing cousins. ( And trust me on this, collard greens are just not a good way to start the day, even if you are like me and love collards) On days like today, I need an additional serving of two at night for the fifth and final serving of the day. I have been eating a boatload of broccoli and cauliflower and asparagus and green beans and just needed something different Enter the new Pinterest rave of the day, Oven "fried" zucchini with a caramelized onion dipping sauce. I started tracing down its' internet origins and though the credit was given to a blog, it seems it originated at a King Arthur Flour site.




So here is the recipe Baked Zucchini Sticks with Caramelized Onion Dipping Sauce
Compliments of ( stolen from) King Arthur Flour

For the Caramelized Onion Dipping Sauce:
1 Tbsp butter
1 medium sweet onion, about 1/2 pound, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste


For the Zucchini Sticks:
3 medium zucchini, unpeeled, cut into 3"-long stick
1 Tbsp salt
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp oregano
1/2 cup flour
olive oil spray
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

To make the dipping sauce:
Melt the butter in a medium frying pan over moderate heat, and add the sliced onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften, then caramelize. This should take between 10 and 15 minutes. The lower the heat, the longer it takes, but the less likely you are to burn the onions.

Once the onions are a medium brown, remove from the heat and add the vinegar.

Place the onions and vinegar into a small food processor. Add the honey and mustard, and process or blend until smooth.

Add the mayonnaise and salt and pepper to taste, stirring to combine. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.

To make the zucchini sticks:
Place the zucchini sticks in a colander over a bowl and sprinkle with the tablespoon of salt. Let the zucchini drain for 1 hour or longer; rinse and pat dry.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment, and spray the parchment with olive oil.

Set up your zucchini dredging by placing the flour in a shallow bowl, the eggs in another shallow bowl, and the panko, parmesan, and oregano in a third shallow bowl. Dredge sticks in the flour, then egg, then roll in the crumb mixture. Place the sticks on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake sticks for 12 minutes, turn over, and bake for an additional 8 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.

Serve immediately, with caramelized onion dip.

I admit I did not puree' the onions for the dipping sauce. It would have just created one more dish to wash and I am not always about washing unnecessary dishes. It would have changed the consistency of the sauce but not the flavor. I was not fond of the sauce at all. I love caramelized onions and the flavor of them but thought it got lost in the honey/cider vinegar mixture. They overpowered the delicate caramelized onion flavor. I think if I do it again I will use champagne or white wine vinegar, which would be a much more subtle flavor. I would use about less than half of the honey it called for and would use a coarse grained mustard instead of the French's stuff. But I may never make it again for 2 reasons. It just takes too long and too much stirring to caramelize onions that should be blended anyway plus the zucchini sticks were fantastic just plain. I will eat zucchini but it is (was) no where near one of my favorite vegetables. It was outstanding! They are a tad of a pain to make. Well not really a pain but it takes a while to coat them because you have to do them one at a time or you get this big gloopy mess.

I put them together a little differently than the recipe called for. First I peeled mine because I did not look at the recipe when it talked about leaving the skin on until it was a moot point. I put the salted naked sticks in a colander with a breakfast plate on top of them to speed the sweating process a little. When I thought they were sufficiently de- juiced, I put them on a clean tea towel and covered and pressed them with another clean towel. It really did the trick of blotting them on both sides at the same time. I debated about the flour step but decided the King Arthur company had just added it to feature their product, so I put the bare strips in the egg wash and them one at a time rolled them in a shallow bowl filled with the panko, parmesean and the oregano. I strongly recommend the wet hand/ dry hand method of coating them. After using my right hand only for a couple of the strips my had visually looked like a bears paw. I washed the goo off my hand and then used right to dip and left to crumb. I did not have to wash until I was finished. Now for the best part of this whole recipe...Since you spray olive oil on parchment paper lining the pan, there is virtually no clean up and I am all about limiting dirty dishes.

I will put this in the vegetable rotation and can see this becoming at least an every other week menu item!


Now for a really important question. Do any of you happen to know who the patron saint of photographers is? I really do need to petition him/her before Christmas. If I am going to taking pictures of food I at least need a better camera than the one I am using . Of course I can shoot, talk and text all at the same time, so why would I want anything more?

Interested in Pinterest?

Pinterest has become the single biggest time bandit of my life. It is addicting to see all the stuff I would never run across in my normal internet browsing; to see all the things I will never make, do, or see and to occasionally find something I will actually use in my walking around 3-D life.

For any of you who are unfamiliar with Pinterest, it is a website that acts as a digital bulletin board. Remember how before the computer age we would see something we liked in a magazine or a newspaper and would cut (tear) it out and stick it on a cork board with a thumb tack, or a straight pin ? Well this is a similar thing except it is a global assortments of everyone's favorites, lumped into one huge massive site. It takes forever to even get through the tip of the Pinterest iceberg. I should know! I have spent countless hours when I should be sleeping looking at the plethora of interesting things I had no idea were available for my taking. For instance, it had never occurred to me to core an apple and insert a tea light to use as table decorations in the fall. Now I know and will use it somewhere. In addition to the boatloads of decorating and craft ideas are tons of recipes. One for something called Monkey Muffins has hit with a bang this week, so I thought why not try it.

Monkey Muffins from Pinterest but originating on The Pioneer Woman blog

Since this recipe is per muffin only you will decide "how much" the recipe calls for. I started mine with 6 frozen uncooked dinner rolls ( You know those you get in the frozen food aisle with about 2 dozen frozen rolls that look like white mutant eggs) If you have a fabulous dinner roll recipe you love to make knock yourself out and make it. If you had rather take an easier step and eliminate the whole yeast rising thing use biscuit dough, either homemade or canned

Take out of the freezer and let thaw. Take out a muffin pan ( regular size) and do a quick swish with Pam ( I did not do this step and really wish I had cause clean-up is going to take more than a little elbow grease) In the bottom of each muffin cup you are going to use put a thick pat of butter and one teaspoon of granulated sugar. Follow with about 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon sprinkled evenly ( yeah right!) over the sugar. Tear the thawed rolls into three parts and kinda roll them into 3 balls. (Easier said than done for the dough is very sticky) and put on top of the goodness in the muffin tins. Cover and let rise for about an hour. When the dough is risen put one more pat of butter on top of it, another healthy sprinkle of sugar ( 1/2 teaspoon or so) and a light sprinkle of cinnamon ( literally a pinch) Bake at the recommended temperature for your recipe, can or package ( mine was 400 degrees) until they are nicely brown and cooked through. While freshly hot and just out of the oven top each muffin with a healthy teaspoon of sweetened condensed milk over the top and let it ooze all over the hot bread. When they are cool ( Who am I kidding? These things need to be eaten warm) loosen the edges with a knife and serve with either steaming hot coffee or ice cold milk.

And the verdict is these are pretty delicious as is but there are a couple of things I will do differently next time. First I will put the still in a can condensed milk in a water bath in the crock pot for about 1 hour on high and then reduce the heat to low for 15 or so more hours. When it is done I will have this thick caramel to put over the blazing hot muffins. I thought the plain condensed milk was a little too milky and "raw" tasting. I will also add some toasted pecans on top of the caramel, but that is a personal thing. I do love pecans. I think I will try another batch and use ground cardamon instead of the cinnamon just to see how it tastes. Don't get me wrong, the cinnamon was excellent, but the cardamon would give it a Swedish flavor and could be outstanding. When I try it that way I will probably use toasted almond slivers rather than pecans.

I will also try it with biscuit dough some morning for a quick biscuit. I will let you know the pluses and minuses of all the different ways.

Now my biggest problem is what to do with one can minus 6 teaspoons of condensed milk. Any Suggestions?

Just and Aside

Take sliced turkey and sharp cheddar cheese and put it on either side of a leftover hamburger bun. Run it under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and the turkey is warm. Remove from the oven and add shredded lettuce and tomato slices. Douse with Come Back Sauce. Can you say delicious?

Let me say again, I will always keep that sauce in the fridge!

Childhood Redoux

Tonight was another of those kinda frantic meal prep nights. It may have been caused by my total lack of prior preparation , but I doubt it. I think the convergence of spices in my cabinet and the electrical pulses from the fridge created some break in the space time continuum, causing me to run to the Pig at nearly 7:30 to gather the ingredients for the impending dinner. At least that is the story I am sticking with.

I had no idea what to cook tonight but whatever it was had to be easy and preferably something I had on hand, but then I remembered I don't keep real food on hand. If you want a can of coconut milk or some red curry paste, call me and I can hook you up. Want capers packed in salt? Got it covered! Going to die if you don't have immediate access to food grade lavender? I am your go to guy. I have 10 pounds of flour always, at least 5 pounds of sugar. Every condiment known to man is at my disposal, but...Need lettuce? Thawed meats or chicken? Fresh beans? Uh not likely to have it.

I admit I love the European method of daily shopping and would love to walk 2 blocks with my little basket and wind through the local shops to gather what I need for the day, instead of driving to Publix or the Pig and pushing a huge grocery cart through the store. It begs to be filled so I do my duty and start filling. Oh Rice a Roni is bogo. I must get it even though we don't like it. Cheeze It's the same buy one get one thing. Into the basket they go and I am happy as a clam until I have a nearly full cart and realize I still don't have a blooming thing for supper.

Tonight I went with an actual list and discovered something amazing. If i have a list and it's late I buy only what is on the list. Well what was on the list plus a pack of pork chops because they were pretty and on sale. Prior to hitting the store I did an emergency quick cookbook look -see. The first book I pulled out ( without even looking at the cover was the Emeril Lagasse cookbook "There's a Chef in My Family" . It was bought several years ago when Son3 was first learning to be self sufficient. I spent about 2 minutes looking through it and found a quick simple recipe that I have never made before. Trust me, I have made Chicken parm often but it has always been a traditional "pound the breasts into cutlets, bread and saute" type thing. This was a cleaner, easier version of the old standard.

Emeril Lagasse's kid friend version Chicken Parmesan Emeril Style .

4 boneless Chicken breasts
2 teaspoons Baby Bam
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 C. Emerils Kicked up tomato sauce or jar of your favorite brand
of red pasta sauce ( Duh make it or buy it? Buy!)
1/4 lb. Mozzarella cheese cut into 4 equal portions ( 4 slices of already sliced mozzarella)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese ( again the green cylinder stuff)

!/2 lb cooked fettuccine

preheat over to broil

Season each chicken breast with the Baby Bam* (Dorky herb blend with no heat so little people can think they have something special.) I opted for traditional Italian herbs and salt but you choose what you want. Heat the olive oil in an oven safe saute pan and warm over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook on one side for about 4 minutes. Turn it and cook on the other side for about 2 minutes.put about 1/4 cup of the red sauce on each chicken breast and top it with the mozzarella cheese. Then sprinkle with the Parmesan. Run it under the broiler for about 3 minutes until the cheeses are hot and bubbly.

Serve over the cooked fettuccine with a side salad and garlic bread.


To be honest this tasted pretty good. Insead of the baby bam, I threw some finely chopped fresh basil, some oregano, minced garlic, salt and pepper on the chicken before sauteing. I used Classico tomato and basil sauce because we like it. It is not sweet and is full of flavor. We all thought the mozzarella was overkill and will leave ti off next time, but the Parmesan melted then had a few crispy bits at the edges. It was very good . This might one of those meals that you should always have the ingredients on hand. I will make it again but will leave off the mozzarella.

Hopefully I will never be in the same situation I was tonight where I had to run buy stuff to cook quickly, but who am I kidding. Most likely I will repeat the process ...tomorrow.




* Baby Bam
3 Tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons of each of the following: salt, dried parsley, onion powder, garlic powder
1 teaspoon of each of the following: ground black pepper, dried oregano, dried basil, dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon celery salt.

Add all ingredients to a medium sized bowl. Stir everything together with a wooden spoon to mix well. Store in an airtight container for 3 months.



If you have a little person in your midst who would like to learn to cook the Emeril books are real gems. He does not dumb it down and use many prepared foods. Instead he has very easy to follow instructions for simple yet real food. Son3 learned how to cook using these. Better than that, a friend with a newly married daughter saw them and thumbed through them at my house one day. She immediately went out and bought both of the Emeril's" There's a Chef in My " cookbooks . I have no idea if she is still using them but according to her mother the books may not have turned her into a mini Martha Stewart, they at least have her where she can put a complete meal on the table.

I forgot to take a picture so I will have to recreate it from leftovers tomorrow, but right now it's late and I need sleep.

Ciao

Y'all Come Back Now! Heah?

Today was the perfect day for football in the South. The temperate day with a beautiful blue sky and of course the Crimson Tide on tv could only mean one thing...Food Orgy! I actually cooked breakfast this morning. (a very rare occurrence) Since I normally do not eat right out of the chute each day I was not really hungry (at all) when the " football is on right now so that means food is needed" rush hit. Fortunately I had thought ahead and right after the breakfast dishes were in the dishwasher I started cooking a dutch oven filled with sloppy joe's and a small batch of cupcakes. (I did mention the dips and chips to go with said joe's and cakes didn't I?) I am not exactly certain when the feasting began but I am pretty sure it was with ESPN's Game Day prior to Auburn's 11 ish kickoff. I lost count of the number of eating experiences everyone had (all at different times) but at some time tonight after the Georgia/South Carolina game the "What's for Dinner" question was asked. With all the other food already ingested the only thing I wanted was a salad. Since Son3 was out for a little social activity The Hub reluctantly agreed to it. He is sometimes less than overwhelmed with the idea of just a salad for the evening meal. He has adopted the John Pinette stance. "Salad is a promise something good is going to come."

Fortunately there had been a surge of pins on Pinterest about the famed Mississippi Come Back Sauce. When I first saw it there was this small ding in the back of my head that recognized the name but I couldn't remember where I had heard of it before.Finally I remembered it was in an old Sweet Potato Queen's book. I had to hunt to find it , then had to search through several until I finally found the correct book. Lucky for me I made it this morning while I was making some dips for the games.

Hal and Mal's Come Back Sauce from The Sweet Potato Queens Book of Love

(For the record I seriously doubt this is the actual recipe from Hal and Mal's. If I had a restaurant I would share a recipe that was close but I would also leave out some particular ingredient that would make it good but not quite the same. If Hal and Mal are smart enough to run a successful brew pub they are smart enough to be a tiny bit deceptive when "sharing".)

2 cup mayonnaise ( For the love of all things Holy, use Dukes)
1 cup ketchup
1 cup chili sauce
1 cup vegetable oil
1 onion,minced
juice of 2 lemons
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons salt

Mix everything together and pour into a wide mouth jar with a lid. let it set for 24 hours then enjoy as a dressing, with seafood, as a dip with french fries or anywhere you would normally use mayo. ( I can't wait to try this on a turkey sandwich)

What I did differently: I did not want a heavy garlic flavor so I used just 1 large clove of garlic. I minced both the garlic and the onion into a super fine mince. If you did not want to go to all the trouble of mincing I don't see why you couldn't just use a blender or food processor. I couldn't find the dry mustard easily and did not want to dig through all my spice jars so I just squirted about 2 teaspoons of regular yellow mustard in it. The rest I followed to a "t" except I don't actually measure anything.


The Verdict: Though it is basically just a gussied up version of thousand island dressing it was delicious. The salad I made was just mixed lettuces, green zebra tomatoes, red pepper strips, scallions and a few cubes of a sharp cheddar cheese. The dressing absolutely made the salad beyond delicious. ( And I didn't even wait the full twenty four hours for the flavors to marry.)

As I was sitting here typing Son3 returned with the remnants of food he had picked up at McD's on his way home. I begged for a couple of fries so I could preform a scientific test using the sauce for dipping. It is so much better than ketchup!

This is something that I will be keeping in my fridge all the time. I am not sure how long it will last ( shelf life) but I will keep tasting it ( cause I am unselfish like that) so I can let you know about how long it stays "good". I think when this batch is gone I will try making a much smaller amount and make it often. I never want to be without this!

p.s.I see the need for putting it in a wide mouth jar. You're going to want a big spoon to fit in it so you can ladle out a boatload of this deliciousness.

pp.s Once again Blogger will not let me post a picture. As soon as it cooperates with me, I will add it.

It; was late, I had chicken and nothing sounded good

What do you do when you rush in at 7:10 and need to have supper on the table in roughly 30 minutes? I had boneless chicken breasts in the fridge and 2 packs of yellow rice in the pantry, so the only question was what to do to it to make it taste good ( Quite frankly I could not bear another broiled chicken with yellow rice and green beans meal)

I decided to do a quick Google search for some delicious chicken recipe and came up blank. In fact nearly every recipe I found with the words quick and delicious took me to something made with cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup. Delicious??? Really??? I thumbed through a couple of old cookbooks I inherited or picked up for a quarter at a yard sale. You know those Favorite Recipes of ( Fill in the blank here. Any church group or organization would work) I have no idea which cookbook this was, for it had no cover and nothing identifying it on the inside of the book. In addition to the aforementioned ingredients I also had 2 cans of tomatoes and okra that I found in the back of the pantry. I decided maybe a chicken gumbo of sorts if I could find a quick and easy recipe. So that was my original search through the cookbook Well I did not find a gumbo but instead found a creole recipe and I seemed to have most of the ingredients on hand. So here goes!

Chicken Creole From some group cookbook from somewhere

Enough oil to coat the bottom of a deep skillet ( Gotta love a cookbook that uses the word skillet)
4 medium chicken breast halves, skinned, boned, and cut into 1inch strips o 1 can tomatoes, cut up
1 cup chili sauce
1 large green peppers, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt




Directions
1.Put the oil in the bottom of the skillet and heat the pan over high heat. Cook chicken in hot skillet, stirring, for 3-5 minutes, or until no longer pink. Reduce heat and add tomatoes and their juice,chili sauce, green pepper, celery, onion, garlic, basil, parsley, crushed red pepper, and salt. Bring to boiling; reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

What I did differently: First off I did not want chicken strips, because I was serving it on the rice I wanted it to feel more substantial. I cut it in chunks about the size of a standard ice cube. I like the visual weight it gave. Secondly I cut the pepper in strips because Son3 hates bell peppers and it is easier for him to separate them if they are larger. Ditto with the onions. I minced the celery finely because The Hub does not like big chucks of cooked celery. With everyone's oddities taken care of I started tossing things in the pot. Chicken followed by the onions followed by the pepper, followed by the celery and garlic. I prefer the veggies to saute a little rather than just stew. Instead of the tomatoes I tossed in 2 cans of tomatoes and okra ( Because it was already out of the pantry and opened when I found the recipe) I did not have any chili sauce ( I am assuming this means that stuff that is on the top shelf near the ketchup in a grocery store) so I punted and added 1 small can of tomato sauce, about a tablespoon of sugar to sweeten it a little and red pepper flakes. I stirred it in to blend and while stirring added the remaining seasonings. I put the lid on the pan and let it cook for about 15 minutes on a medium heat.

When I took the lid of the yellow rice I was in for quite a surprise ( You know the yellow rice in the foil packs) Turns out it was not yellow rice at all. It was yellow all right but it had none of the traditional saffron flavor. It was loaded with garlic,cayenne and additional spices. I think maybe that particular run of rice mix had the flavor and packaging mixed up. Lucky for us I was using it as a base for the Chicken Creole. The heat and spices in the rice really only enhanced the taste. A simple green salad and some tomato wedges and the meal was made. It was a hit and now we have one more way to cook chicken when time is tight.

This is something I will do again, but probably not too often. I think it would get old and boring if we had it much so I will keep it as a "by request" item.


p.s I have a picture but Blogger will not let me add it right now. I will try later