Some like it hot and some like it hotter

My recent trip to the Farmer's Market on Findley also included a quick look in the back at the Hispanic  section.  The bonus find was a medium size basket of tomatillos for 3 bucks.  You know tomatillos are those things that look like green tomatoes in a light brown husk.  For the record they are not in the tomato family at all, but are kissing cousins of the gooseberry. ( For the record, I have no idea how or why I retain crap like that.  If it is totally useless info it stays with me forever, but if it is something important like where my keys are hiding it is gone.)  Back to the gooseberry tomato things- I immediately started thinking about salsa verde, and a couple of days after I got home it happened.  I wanted something simple, tasty and something that required no cooking.  I found several recipes and this is a combination of a couple

Tomatillo Salsa

1/2 pound(ish) tomatillos raw cut into chunks
1,2,or3 serrano peppers coarsely chopped (Only you know your personal tolerance for heat.  I am a 2 seeded with the ribs removed pepper gal.  I like heat but I don't like it to stay around more than a minute after the bite is gone. If you are a wimp and like just a tiny bit of heat opt for 1/2 seeded and ribless jalapeno.  Remember the more seeds and pepper ribs the hotter it will be.)
1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 small cloves garlic
1/4-1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Now for the hard part.  Plug in your food processor and put everything in the bowl.  Turn it on and let it pulverize or chunkify it . (That is a word cause I just invented it)   I like mine a little more blended because the ingredients marry each other and nothing stands alone.  If you prefer to have a mix with different notes singing then blend it less.

I served this the first night over fish tacos ( Yum!).  The next day I forgot to eat lunch and was really hungry so I pulled out 6 saltine crackers and sprinkled them with goat cheese crumbles, topped with a drizzle (glob) of the salsa. Last night I put a tad on a hamburger for a little kick. Tonight I wanted just a little something salty so I got some regulation Tostidos and dipped the edges of each in a little of the sauce.  There is just enough left to have as a topping on a Spanish omelet in the morning.

I am going to the market again on Tuesday and hopefully will find a great deal again.  I am going to need a salsa verde fix again next week.  I think I am going to get an ice cube tray and try freezing a batch. I would love to be able to defrost a single cube and taste this summer fresh spicy flavor in the dead of winter

Put Up or Just Be Quiet

Today was one of those days that start out really fun and productive and then never seem to end.  It began with a trip to the Findley Avenue Farmer's Market and ended in the kitchen well after midnight , freezing, feeding the pantry,putting food up, or whatever term you use for preparing the summer's produce for use in the winter.

 Millie and I had a little "venture" ( as her young niece calls it) traipsing through the produce at the market.  OK so we didn't even begin to traipse, at least we were there supporting local farms and farmers with the intent of buying more than we needed for today.  We officially jumped into the "Slow Food Movement" feet first.  We not only bought from local farmers, but we got to talk with them and hear their stories.  When I buy a bell pepper at Publix I have no idea where it came from,  I know the things we bought were from Chilton county, when they were picked and who raised them.

 A lot of people like to buy at the produce stands in various parts of the city ( Andy's and Murphee's in particular).  I have nothing against buying there and go to them weekly, but sometimes I want okra by the basket or a bushel of corn and at their prices it just isn't practical.  I also want my produce to be as fresh as possible before I freeze it, and sometimes the local marts refrigerate it overnight. I want something that spent most of the previous day on the vine.

The prices today were not at good as they will be a little later when the produce starts flooding in, but the things I got were certainly beneath what I would pay elsewhere and the product was better.  A bushel of sweet corn was 15 dollars, but that bushel has over 60 ears.  At Andy's I recently paid 50 cents per ear, so doing the simple math I got these for half of their price.  Millie and I split it so we each had  only 1/2 bushel to process.  I can't speak for Millie, but after shucking all of my corn I only had an inch or so loss off of a couple of ears of corn.   We ate 3 ears for supper, so that leaves 27 processed and resting in my freezer.  While sweet corn is available I will continue to buy it fresh, but sometime this winter when I am dying for some summer goodness, I will slip out an ear  and remember how good it tasted.

I also found a basket of okra for 15 dollars.  I know it sounds like a lot of money for a basket of okra and it is, but it is a little early for okra.  I paid a premium for something we love.  After fixing a mess ( I do love Southern vernacular)  for supper, I processed and froze 3 bags for winter time oven fried okra.  There was also enough for 2 small bags  for boiling.  Only one of us eats the  vile slimy disgusting boiled stuff, but I am not naming names.  The best way I have found for freezing okra is to cut it like you are going to fry it, coat it in cornmeal , put it on a cookie sheet and pop it in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  Take it out and bag it in freezer bags.  I know I am supposed to put the bag on ice to cool it but I never do.  I have a marble slab that I toss it on and it cools quickly that way.

I have the ultimate pan for okra in the oven.  During Christmas when most women are asking for baubles and gems and furs and beautiful people stuff,  I was asking for a stainless steel cookie sheet.  I actually asked my parents, and after opening gifts they had to tell me there was no such thing as a stainless cookie sheet but they bought the next best thing.  It is a huge odd shaped jelly rollish pan, but way to big for a jelly roll, with a tiny waffle design stamped in the bottom.  It is  weird pan and I only use it for oven fried okra, but it is perfect for it.  ( I should have expected an odd item from the folks.  When I was in college I asked them for a styrofoam ice bucket.  My dorm had crunchy ice in the cafeteria and if you had an ice bucket you could fill it up after dinner was served.  Who would not want to eat crunchy ice through the night?  I only asked for styrofoam because I wanted something inexpensive, not because I had a thing for the material.  Long story short, Christmas morning imagine my surprise when I opened, not an ice bucket, but a foam minnow bucket. Close but no cigars!

We found bargain peaches today, $6.00 for an overfull basket of ready right this second peaches.  The minute I got home I had to start processing them.  They were actually a tad ripe for slicing and freezing, so I sliced them and let them take a lemon juice bath.  Then they were smushed a little with a spoon, sugared and, discounting enough for a  dessert cobbler , there are 6 future cobbler packs in the freezer.  While I was peeling all of the little lovelies, I noticed they were creating this  beautiful puddle of juice. ( I am so glad I slice over a bowl and not  the sink)  Hmmmm, with all of the juice and the peels I thought why not make a little jelly.  Then I found 4 peaches that were too ripe to even slice.  I put the peels, juice, a little water and the ultra ripe peaches in a pot and let it simmer until the fruit was cooked and  all the color and juice had cooked from the peels.  After straining and sugaring the juice, I put it along with the very cooked peaches a large pot on  low heat.  I mashed the peach pulp with a potato masher and stirred everything together, then forgot about it.  I am not sure how it happened, but somehow or another I managed to remember it was cooking about the time I had this perfect caramel peach preserves.  Evidently I smelled it before the sugar burned just in time to salvage it.  If anyone asks I am going to swear I did it on purpose .  For the record it is a tad thick but delicious.  I now have one pint in the freezer and the other in the fridge ready for toast tomorrow,

Caramel Peach Preserves

Save the peels and peach juices from peeling a  basket of peaches.  ( If you ere not freezing peaches you could make a peel container in the freezer and just add  to it every time you had a peach.  When you have a boatload of them continue with the recipe.

Cook the peels and peach juices  in enough water to equal about 3 cups.  When all the color has cooked out of the peels strain the liquid and return it to the pot.  Add the flesh of about 4 peaches and cook until the fruit is mushy.  Mash it with a potato masher and add 2 cups of sugar and about 1/2 more cup of water.  Cook on heat  low until the mixture is thick.  This is where the caramel part gets tricky.  Check it every 5 minutes and pay attention to the smell.  When you smell a faint caramel smell remove from the heat and ladle into canning jars.  There is a fine line between caramel and burned sugar so pay attention to you nose.  Like I said before it was just sheer luck I thought about it before it burned.  Don't be like me!

Mine is a very dark ruby color, but whatever variety of peach I bought had a very rosy skin.  I would imagine the color would depend on the color of the peach skin.

Now I need someone who likes to clean to undo the mess I have made!

Concerts and Banquets and Grads, Oh my!

Seems like just a few days since I sat here and posted whatever it was that I posted, but I know looking at the date it has been more than a little while.  Son3 just graduated from high school and April and May flew by at warp speed.  It felt like we moved from one event to another with little time in between to do much more than wash clothes for the next day.  I know that in September I will be sad to have so much unstructured time on my hands, but for now we are glad the madness is over and our life is a dull roar.

Yesterday The Hub walked in  from the office with a cooler full of fresh snapper.  Thanks to his boss' successful fishing trip and the fact that snapper season just opened, we have enough for several meals.  We had just eaten the last of the tuna from his trip in the spring, so this was such a pleasant surprise.  His generosity is always so appreciated.

I had supper planned prior to finding out we had all the delicious fish, so we had it tonight.  Since it is the softball finals we knew we wanted something we could eat quickly, but how can you do that to fish that were swimming just 2 days ago?  Then inspiration hit and we came up with the only thing you can do when you need portability and taste...fish tacos, but not some usual grill the fish and toss it on a hard shell type thing.  Looking through about a dozen recipe sites I found this recipe for grilled Mexican Snapper and thought it might be decent ( OK, more then decent- my mouth was watering when I read the recipe) as the protein filling.

 Red Snapper Yucatan Style

1 lb. skin on snapper filets
juice of 1 lime
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 dried cayenne pepper or 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
2 tablespoons achiote* seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seed
1 tablespoon dried oregano ( Mexican oregano if available)
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons canola oil

Before starting anything toast the whole seeds in a non stick pan over medium heat until the seeds give up their fragrance. ( About 3 minutes and you will truly be able to smell the heated oil in the seeds .  I had a dried cayenne so I added it to the pan for about 2 minutes to toast it also)  Either crush the seeds with a mortar and pestle or grind them in a spice grinder ( Or just be like me and just use the coffee grinder.  After you finish grinding the spices put a piece of toast in the coffee grinder and grind away.  The spice oils will stick to the bread crumbs and you can just wipe the insides with a couple of paper towels.)

Mix all the rest of the seasonings in a small bowl and stir in the ground seeds to combine well

Put the fish filets in a large plastic bag.  Add the lemon and lime juice and mush it around all the surfaces of the fish.  Add the oil to the spice mixture and rub it on the filets.  If yours has skin on it you only need to put it on the cut surface.  Mine were skinless when I got them so I put it on each surface.  Seal the bag and let it sit in the fridge from 2-4 hours.

Preheat the grill to medium and OIL it both prior to the preheat and again right before the fish goes on it.  Just before putting the fish on the grill either turn the heat down or move the charcoal so there is no direct source of heat right beneath the fish.  OIl the skin side of the fish and put it on the grill for 10-12 minutes.  Do not turn because the snapper will break and disappear  through the grate right in front of your eyes.  I cooked mine inside on a non-stick griddle.  It only took about 4 minutes to cook them since I was able to flip them. ( Does sliding them onto a plate then inverting the griddle over the plate count as flipping?)

Remove from the heat and let it rest on the plate for about a minute.  Meanwhile wipe the griddle clean and warm the tortillas while the fish rests.  Put a light coating of Taco Bell Green Sauce on each tortilla.  Then add fish, lettuce. tomato chunks, onions, cilantro and lime juice.  Sadly we didn't have any cilantro but it would have been delicious.

Easy, easy, easy way to have your fish and really enjoy it!

Will try to be better about posting but guarantee nothing since we are having an unstructured summer!

Later!




* Anchiote seeds are also sold as annatto seed.  Believe it or not, I actually had those in my spice cabinet.  If you don't, you can find them in Mexican markets or Penzy's in Homewood

Southern Tragedy? Swedish Ribs!

You know how you stuff the freezer with all kinds of things for the winter, then get to summer and most of the food is still there in their nice ziplock flexible coffins?  Well that is the picture of my freezer, and everything needs to be eaten and eaten quickly.  In fact I need to have about 4 major teen guy cookouts to make a serious dent in it.

This morning I took out a package that looked porkish based on the color but I had no idea what might actually be living in the pack.  I only knew it was bright pink and had bones.  Seems some idiot had forgotten to write the contents on the little white space specifically meant to write  and date the contents.  I would love to point the blame at either The Hub or Son3, but it rests directly on my head. ( I am thinking about being the founding member of D.A. Anonymous.  " Hi! My Name is Anne and I'm a..."  Well you get where I am headed with that.  A quick thaw in the microwave revealed it was a package of country style ribs.  That is an oddity for my shopping list, so The Pig must had had a really good buy one day.

Hmmmm,  Not in the mood for barbecue I hit the internet looking for some alternative method thinking I would wind up with some asian inspired teriyaki recipe.  After looking at 20 or 30 slow cooked barbecue
recipes I finally found one that was Swedish inspired.  At least the recipe claimed to be Swedish inspired.

I began thinking about what I know about Swedish food and came up with 3 things: Smorgasboard, Lingonberries ( saw a can at Ikea), and Swedish Fish ( you know those gummy fish candies).  I know myself well enough to know I will learn to make some Swedish daily staples just because I am totally ignorant about it.  I cannot guarantee  these ribs are actually nordic in origin but I will tell you it was different and delicious.





2 Tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup butter
1 can beef broth
2 pounds country style ribs

Mix all the dry ingredients to make a rub, and rub into  the meatiest side of the ribs.  Let sit at room temperature a few minutes.  In a large skillet, heat the butter to a mid high temperature. Brown all the ribs.  When browned pour the beef broth over the top and cover with the pan lid.  Reduce temperature to a simmer and let it cook away for 1 1/2 hours.  Do not remove the lid while it cooks.  Serve over rice/pasta/mashed potatoes or whatever your personal favorite starch is.

Even though this is a very simple recipe I did change a few things.  I thought brown sugar would be a little nicer flavor but I didn't have any.  I did have some raw sugar so I used it instead of the white.  The allspice was cut from 2 teaspoons to 1 and I used homemade beef broth from the freezer.  I used 5 ice cubes worth  which is roughly 1 1/4 cups.  It was slightly seasoned with celery tops and thyme and could have altered the finished food a tiny bit.  I served it over couscous with a side serving of broccoli and sliced tomatoes.  Nothing more was needed.



This was a unanimous hit at our house.  Son3 asked to have it again soon.  The Hub scarfed his down.
I ate mine slowly ( mainly because Son1 called after about the first 2 bites).  I will do this again and again.  The ribs were not sweet like a barbecue would be, but were slightly sweet, somewhat spicy, and had a little peppery bite.  It was really a pleasant  surprise.  Try it, you might like it___a lot!

Skol!

Not Eggactly What I Wanted

A few days ago I was looking for something a little different for breakfast. Often I eat a salad just because it allows me to choke down a couple of vegetable servings and then have less guilt if lunch is a sandwich on the fly and a diet drink. This particular morning I had nowhere to be all day so the issue about lunch was not even a problem, but I decided to eat the salad anyway. I thought it needed a protein and looked through the fridge for the ever present leftover chicken, beef, fish or whatever, only to find there was none. Looking through ideas on the internet there was a different spin on the traditional salad. It was a breakfast salad that the recipe originator claimed was the best one ever! Fine! I'll Bite!

 So I started prepping this different salad. I should have known when it called for a soft boiled egg that this was not the recipe for me. I should go on the record saying " I just don't like eggs" I will eat an omelet on occasion or a few bites of scrambled eggs, but the lowly egg is never, ever, not in a million years a comfort food for me. You will notice with the above mentioned ways there is no mention of any runny yolk variety. Probably because I do not enjoy a soft yolk or the white either. Enough said about my personal taste.

 1/2 cucumber, seeded and cut into small cubes
1 small tomato seeded and cut into a small dice'
1/4 bell pepper seeded and cut into a small dice
1 tablespoon flaxseed oil or olive oil
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
 about 1 cup of soft greens lambs quarter or watercress
1 soft boiled egg 1 ounce goat cheese
1 teaspoon sunflower seeds (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

 Mix the cucumber cubes with the tomatoes and peppers. Pour the oil over the top and add the vinegar. Stir to coat and let sit while the egg cooks. When the egg is done (boiling for about 2 1/2 minutes at my personal homes altitude) add the lettuce and toss until it is coated. Top with the soft boiled egg and the cheese. Salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle the seeds on top of the salad. Cut the egg and let the yolk run over the greens tossing again to coat everything. Enjoy???????

 I made the salad but not really as it said. First I had no lambs quarter lettuce in the crisper, and no goat cheese either ( which honestly is something I keep on hand, but had used just prior to this) I substituted a mix of romaine and iceberg lettuce and used crumbled feta in place of the goat cheese. Also I am from the south and we do not see cucumber seeds and tomato seeds as bad things so I left them in. I think I cooked the egg a little too long. The recipe called for cooking it for eight minutes before I realized it must be someplace with a much higher altitude, for an 8 minute egg is a hard boiled one here. The yolk on my egg was a little thicker than it should have been. The verdict? I did not like this at all, but I am not an egg person. The flavor was quite good but I could not get past the yellow yolk coating everything. It is not something I will try again but if I made it for someone else the egg would be poached instead of soft boiled. It would be a prettier presentation and should be a little better flavor since the whites on a poached egg are softer. The rice vinegar did not enhance the dish. It would probably be tastier with champagne vinegar instead. If you are an egg person some toast points would be a good addition to the meal. I only ate about half of mine and then just couldn't get past the idea that I was eating eggs. If you like eggs try it. If not, DON'T!

I Love the Flower Girl ( Having a Cowsills Moment)

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head and you can't get it out no matter how bad the song is. For some reason I have been mentally singing The Rain, The Park and Other Things for about a week now.

"Then I knew (I knew... I knew... I knew... I knew)
She could make me happy (happy... happy)
(She could make me very happy)
Flowers in her hair (in her hair)
Flowers everywhere (everywhere)"

If someone out there can explain why this song is occupying my thoughts please let me know, and if this is the indication that I am deeply damaged please just keep that to yourself. I will confess that in the not too distant past I had a completely different song in the vault and it stayed with me for about 6 months. At odd times I would find myself humming and brain singing " Well listen to my story of a man named Jed" I would leave my brain to science if I thought there was anything there worth studying.

Back to the flower song...I was walking through Publix singing to myself when I saw it on the end cap of the produce aisle, cauliflower BOGO. It must have been a message from Asparagasia, the Muse of Flora and Fauna songs.
Before I knew what was happening the 2 heads of cauliflower jumped in my buggy. They were paid for and loaded in my car when I started thinking " Hmmm I am not sure we even like cauliflower enough to have 2 huge heads in the fridge at the same time"
I hate it when Muses makes me buy more than I need of any single item, but I was not going to use one and let the other die a slow death in the crisper drawer. After unloading them I immediately washed and dried one head and put it in a zip lock plastic bag. It's funny, if veggies are prepared we will eat them instead of chips or crackers. But that still left me with one extra, which I did not think about until about 5:30 when it was time to start thinking about supper. I guess I could have done the traditional steam and serve method but we have been eating foods high on the flavor index for about a week and a half and I was not in the mood for anything bland and mushy. A Google search led me to a new and different take on a very traditional vegetable. Since we visited the foods of Peru last week it just made sense to try Spain this week.




Spanish Cauliflower Salad

Dressing Recipe:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, mashed to a paste or put through a garlic press
1 tablespoon small capers,
1 teaspoon paprika
Dash of cayenne pepper
Salt

In a bowl, lightly beat together the olive oil, wine vinegar, garlic, capers, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt. Set aside

1 head of cauliflower with the hard core removed and cut into large floretes
2 tablespoons lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 quart water

1 hard boiled egg shredded
2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley

Cook the cauliflower in a small pot with the water, lemon juice and the salt until crisp-tender. Put it in a colander to drain while rinsing with cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and blot any excess water with paper towels. Remove most of the large stem pieces leaving just the pretty florets Put into a bowl with a tight fitting cover and toss with the reserved dressing.( The recipe suggested letting it stand for a few hours in the fridge. Since I did not start it early in the day our stood for about 30 minutes. Serve with shredded egg and parsley sprinkled over the top.

This was a nice piquant way to eat cauliflower. I served it alongside chicken seasoned with a Spanish smoked paprika, onions, tomatoes and brown rice. I thought we needed a little more color on the plate so I put the cauliflower on a bed of cucumber and red and yellow pepper slices. The Hub and I both liked it, but Son3 gave it a big thumbs down. To be honest he does not eat cauliflower anyway, but he found this particularly offensive. If you like the vegetable and wind up with a BOGO deal I think it is a pretty good and different way to use it. If you are cauliflower intolerant this will not change your mind.

I just realized there are little more than a couple of days left in March and I still have to do something vegetarian and a baked good. I need to find some new inspiration...quickly!


Now have a nice day and deliver me from the Cowsills

What A Crock!

Okay! Before I go any further let me go ahead and admit how totally lame this crock pot post is going to be. I have really had no reason to make anything in the crock pot since we have been grilling out every night, but I realized I needed to have one for my self imposed challenge. I also wanted to make sure I could make it with ingredients I already had in the house. With that out of the way allow me to introduce you to:





Crock Pot Candy


1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 12 ounce package chocolate bits
2 cups fritos, crushed but not crumbed
2 cups pretzels,crushed but not crumbed
1 cup peanuts, chopped

Line a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or foil and set aside
Put butter, brown sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate bits in a crock pot set on low heat. Put the lid on it and walk away and do all kinds of things for about 1 hour then check to see how melted it is. If you can stir it and it is smooth you are ready to add the salty stuff. If not go fold clothes and sweep the deck for about 30 more minutes. When it is all smooth and melty stir in the Friito and pretzel pieces. Quickly take the crock to the prepared pan using pot holders. ( Trust me on this one grasshopper. The crock gets hot!) Spread the mixture onto the pan in a mostly even layer. Pop into the freezer for about 20 minutes then break into pieces similar to bark candies.

Now it is the verdict time. First want to know what kind of idiot thought it would be a good idea to put Fritos into chocolate. I love chocolate and even me, a die hard chocolate lover, did not like the flavor combination. The chocolate did not alter the Frito flavor at all. Chocolate covered pretzels are good. Chocolate covered peanuts are good. Chocolate covered Fritos are bad.
Really bad...So bad that I tossed the entire recipe! 12 ounces of otherwise perfectly decent chocolate in the trash. ( I am wiping tears from my eyes as I type this) I wonder if Pandora has a funeral dirge station? I could have had music and a proper burial instead of a sea funeral down the disposal.

Other than my corn chip/chocolate aversion the candy was very soft, not like a bark at all. The candy had a really nice mouth feel. It was just the taste I found objectionable...really objectionable...really, really objectionable. Come to think of it, when we sit down in the summer to eat corn on the cob I have never said to The Hub " Let's leave the butter in the fridge and get some Hershey's syrup instead"

Thinking a different approach might have been to use butterscotch chips and almond butter rather than the peanut butter, Rice Chex rather than Fritos, and pretzels. ( No nuts). Also I have no idea why anyone but me would make this in the crock pot. The entire thing would have melted in a double boiler in about 15 minutes from start to finish and then the candy pot would fit right in the dishwasher. No hand washing and less time. But to be perfectly honest I will never try this again.


FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mea culpa!