Dinner with Friends

Yesterday evening, D and I made dinner at our place for some friends.  I have two new favorite tools in the kitchen.  The slow cooker and the bread machine.  My sister gave us this wonderful cookbook for our bread machine when we were using it a lot last fall.  The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger has just about every type of bread you could imagine!  There are about 50 recipes I want to try.  Our machine hibernated a bit in the spring and summer as it was warm and we realized how much weight we had gained.  It has reappeared.  And I have found out new uses.  I have started making pizza dough and find it incredibly easy to do (more on that another time).  I decided to try the naan recipe when I made the plan to serve Indian food last night.  The recipe was super easy.  Add the following to your bread machine:

1 T peanut oil
1/2 c plain yogurt (this was a challenge for D to find - we used Oikos Greek yogurt and I diluted it slightly with milk to equal the above quantity)
1/2 c milk
2 c bread flour
1/4 t salt
1/8 t baking soda
2 1/2 t yeast

Set the machine to the dough cycle and process (ours takes 1.5 hours, so you have to plan ahead a little - thanks to D for running out at the last minute to get the necessary yogurt).  When it's done, divide the dough into 6 portions.  Flatten the bread on a whole wheat floured surface using a rolling pin.  Put the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let them rest covered with a clean towel for 20 minutes.  Heat the oven to 450 degrees.  Once the resting time is over, brush the dough with melted butter and bake in the oven for ~ 8 minutes.  (Each pan separately.).  Serve immediately.  These were even surprisingly delicious today for lunch.  I may try to add some whole wheat next time along with some gluten.

I used the slow cooker to make vegetable and chickpea curry from Cooking Light.  This is packed full of vegetables.  I use frozen green beans, but that's about the only modification I made.  I've made the curry before and it's delicious.  I used a spicy pepper that friends grew over the summer to add a little kick.  The kick is a little stronger today but is nice.  The addition of coconut milk makes a creamy finished product.  The slow cooker is great because you dice things and pile them in hours before you eat.  This frees up time right before you eat to do other tasks.  In this case, prepare the naan and socialize with guest.

Enjoy!

Catch Up

What do you do when friends give you a huge bag of tomatoes?  Make ketchup, of course.  I have a little bit of a fear of canning tomato sauce after reading about it in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle where the idea of balancing the acid is discussed so as not to get sick from the sauce.  I could, no doubt master this with my science-y background but sometimes I don't like to think so much when I cook.  I did end up making a small amount of sauce but froze it instead.  Plus, we just don't eat that much pasta at our house.  So, I was looking for something else.  D eats a lot of ketchup with his breakfasts, so it seemed perfect.  I found a recipe in Home Made by Yvette Van Boven.  You can see the results above.  It's quite delicious.  The flavoring came from red pepper, onion, vinegar, sugar plus some ginger, paprika, nutmeg, coriander and a bit of clove.  I believe the balance of the tomatoes and vinegar in this recipe addresses the acid issues.  This was one of my first canning efforts of the year and really ever.  I think it turned out well.  And I did have to share some of my wares with friends, especially the friends who shared their tomatoes.  But we will continue to enjoy it this winter.

I was thinking about catching you up on what has been happening in my life this year, but it seems a bit too daunting.  Very briefly, I will say that D and I started a new chapter in our life together with a big party, I moved twice, and I taught a large (>100 students) course for the first time.  It has been a busy time with lots of excitement and changes.   

Restart

How do you restart your blog?  The same way you restart your morning.  With a delicious muffin.  D&I found this recipe nearly a year ago and I have made it so many times I can't count.  It appeared in the Nov 2011 issue of Runners World and is originally Mark Bittman.  I have now modified the recipe to be lower in fat and sugar and include more superfoods!  What could be better in the morning?

Blueberry Sweet Potato Muffins
2 1/2 c whole wheat flour (pastry is recommended in the original recipe but I've been making them with regular and they seem to be fine)
1/2 c sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t ground ginger (sometimes I add a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, too)
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 T butter (melted and cooled)
2 T veg or olive oil
1/4 c applesauce
1 c pureed/mashed sweet potato (you can easily use canned pumpkin in this recipe or cook the sweet potato in the microwave)
1 beaten egg
1/2 c buttermilk (we use the powder stuff that you keep in the refrigerator and add to water otherwise we don't use the whole container in time and it seems like a waste).
1 c frozen blueberries

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease 12 muffin cups.  Combine dry ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl (or measuring cup) combine the wet ingredients (through buttermilk).  Now add the wet mixture into the dry and stir until just combined.  Fold in the blueberries.  Bake for 20-25 minutes and enjoy.

One of the amazing things about these muffins is how moist they are for a 100% whole wheat bread.  I have never successfully done 100% whole wheat tea bread or muffins before.  This recipe gives me faith that it is possible.  They are definitely hearty.  Also, you could add nuts but A doesn't like walnuts or blueberries, for that matter, in her baked goods.  I always make a couple of muffins with her name on them by adding the batter to a few muffin cups before folding in the blueberries.

Now, in answer the the question I left you with last year.  The pancake was meant to be a monkey.  I guess I need to work on my pancake art.  :)

What is coming up... my adventures in canning, microwave potato chips and low fat dip, some fall favorites, and book recommendations.  Hopefully, I'll stick to a once a week schedule.

Weekend Update

Two posts in one month! Last weekend was great. D and I were out on Saturday at a local field with our:
It was a lovely day with lots of sun!

We made salmon burgers... sorry no pictures of this, they weren't necessarily pretty, but they sure were delicious. The recipe is a compilation from several locations:
2 (6ish oz) cans salmon (no bones or skin) - TJoes is a great source for this...
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped tarragon (fresh)
1 T dijon mustard (ours was specialty with a bit of maple syrup in it, you could add that separately)
1 zested lemon + the juice of the lemon
1 finely chopped shallot
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
Mix this all together, form 4 or so large patties, and cook over med-high heat for about 4 min per side or until browned. You can finish these in the oven if you want, but we ate them off the stove. We used buns, tomatoes and lots of mustard. We ate these with roasted potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts.

We also worked on some wedding details. Our photographer has been amazing and we've got some great photos of us in the snow. Speaking of the snow, it is getting very old - of course the above wouldn't have been possible without all the snow. But we have no where to put it. I need to shovel down some of my piles this week before more arrives. It gets very hard to lift a shovel above about chest high. Some of the banks are over my head! D was on the roof of his house today with his dad trying to get some of the snow clear so the roof doesn't settle any more and so there aren't leaks come the spring or warmer weather.

This weekend has been great, too. A good workout on Friday night, pesto pizza when I arrived at D's fairly late (after talking to a friend on the drive... Ole), karate with D's daughter, a relaxing afternoon, good dinner, a Trader Joes adventure with D's daughter, fun with snow (some experiments complete with lab notebook notes... what temperature is snow, what temperature after 10 seconds in the microwave, etc). And a fair amount of sleep to try to stay well while D is fighting a cold.

The week between was good as well. I have been able to get a good bit of writing done lately. Need to continue to work over the next few weeks to get several grants done. And the good news is that my graduate student's paper is just about ready for submission. Plus, I have a new grad student and an undergrad will work with us this summer, too. Things are going well, just need to keep the momentum going.

Happy New Year!

Okay, okay, I know this blog has been suffering. Last semester was very busy, but I survived and have been trying to get caught up. Last weekend, D and I had a granola adventure. I've been meaning to try a recipe from John for some time. Finally...
We added dried cherries and toasted almonds plus sunflower seeds (the later a recommendation from John). It is delicious.

I have also been messing with ways to prepare oatmeal. There is a place nearby that serves the most amazing oatmeal in the mornings - or I supposed you could get it for lunch if you wanted. It's just a little salty and a little sweet and seemingly a little underdone. I couldn't get it right. It tend to buy the old fashioned oatmeal - or irish style. So the secret is to use 1/2 cup of oatmeal to a 1/2 cup of water and milk (about 1/4 cup of each). Add a pinch of salt and then cook for 2 minutes in the microwave. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and a little maple syrup. Top with fruit if you have it. We made a surprise fruit salad on Friday night for after dinner and had the rest the next morning on oatmeal. Two apples, one banana, two clementines, one mango, blueberries (thawed frozen). Delicious.

Here's to a healthy new year!

Bounty!

Summer is my favorite time of year for eating! I love the fresh berries (blueberries and blackberries for lunch this week, yum!). Tomatoes, peaches, corn, fresh herbs, what could be better? When I was down in Delaware a few weeks ago, I got to share some bounty with my dear friend. We invented our dinner that evening. After having happy hour complete with delicious cheese and crackers Yea for mango and ginger stilton! (This cheese has been know to bring to people with completely different tastes in cheese to agreement!) We wanted something a little less grand than the original plan. So, we made an amazing salad.
What a lovely place setting, too. The salad you see consists of:
kernels from two ears of corn
1 chopped organic tomato
1 chopped peach
a small bunch of chopped basil
(I'd recommend adding rosemary or mint, but I was too lazy to continue chopping)
lemon juice
olive oil
pan cooked scallops in lemon and lime juice (I don't think they were added yet when the photo was taken.)
and a touch of salt and pepper all served on a bed of greens
I wouldn't have guessed the corn didn't need to be cooked, but since it was such fresh bounty, it was fine.
Delicious!

Something new

Last weekend, I went on a New England adventure. D had planned the trip and we stayed in an adorable inn. The inn had amazing breakfasts, despite some mixed reviews online. We both had omelets the first morning (mine had a bunch of veggies in it and D had assorted veggies, spinach and mushrooms if I remember correctly, along with cheddar cheese). The second morning I had delicious whole grain pancakes with blueberries and D had a breakfast burrito. There was also a fun buffet with good pastries and fruit... yes, we ate a lot, but it's a good thing since the skiing was exhausting. The town where the inn is located is home to one of the infamous Winter Olympians (can you guess who?) so there was much signage cheering him on. We hit one local store and when we were paying, some of the staff was checking the scores for women's skiing. We didn't partake in the downhill events, but rather spent the better part of two days cross country skiing. Those of you who know me, might know that I learned to down hill ski in high school but haven't done much of it since. (I did go with friends once in 2007. And had fun, but it's just not my favorite sport.) I had never cross country skied. I had a bad NordicTrack experience in the distant past. Those things are only for super coordinated people. This adventure went well. It took a bit for me to get the hang of it and I think that was at least partly influenced by the bad conditions the first day. Things improved on the second. We woke up to light and lovely snow. And we also overhead some folks talking about different trails than what we had originally tried. So, even though I had trouble with the down hills (too narrow, sometimes too many uncovered rocks and branches, possibly somewhat unkept equipment), it was a lot of fun overall. I was very sore on Sunday night. But have recovered nicely. And I am also now back to my gym routine and Pilates - it was a rough month including being sick and having some weird rib injuries (did you know you can basically pop a rib out of place... yes, it's as painful as it sounds.) . Things are looking up. But I'm still very busy at work.

Unique Pizza

You all know that I'm a pretty unique person. I invented this pizza after my friend Beth told me about her butternut squash pizza and after I started making a casserole with these ingredients. My pizza is topped with caramelized onions, butternut squash (slightly precooked in the microwave), blue cheese and candied walnuts on top of Trader Joe's herbed pizza dough! Delicious!

(I store this Trader Joe's product in my freezer and thaw it a day or so before I use it.)

It's beginning to look...

a bit like Christmas. Over the weekend, D and I went on an adventure. I had gotten it in my head that I wanted to go to a local tree farm and cut down a Christmas tree. Thank goodness he was willing to humor me, especially since it meant he had to do the cutting and the ground had a good covering of snow/ice. It was a fun adventure. I also now know I should bring work gloves among other things. Here is the leaning tree. It has since been straightened (my geometry gene wasn't working over the weekend). The tree is slowly getting decorated and my ornaments we collected every year when I was younger are on there way here. Thanks Mom! I can't wait to open the box since I only remember one ornament.
Also, D and I made some delicious stuffed mushrooms over the weekend. The stuffing is rather like a hummus. It is quite tasty and so I'll share the stuffing recipe with you. I modified it from a book called Cooking with Pumpkins and Squash by Brian Glover.
Defrost two one lb packages of pureed butternut squash (the recipe tells you to roast the squash, but sometimes that just takes too darn long, so this short cut is perfect for the holidays). Puree one can of garbanzo beans (minus the liquid). Combine these ingredients. Add 1 T olive oil, a small bunch of chopped thyme, 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, 1 chopped garlic clove, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, juice from 1 lemon, 2 T chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. You can just puree the whole lot if you have a large food processor, or you can combine a small amount of the earlier puree with these last ingredients in a smaller food processor. Everything should be well combined and smooth. This is delicious on crackers. It was pretty good in the mushroom caps (add and cook at 375 for 10-20 minutes). And I had it as part of a simple salad tonight. There is a yogurt sauce that goes with it, however, I cannot attest to how good the sauce is, so I won't report the recipe here. See I told you I wish I was a food blogger.

Sometimes I wish...

I was a food blogger. I made a delicious dinner tonight. Simple whitefish with lemon and herbs accompanied by orange-glazed brussels (is that "s" at the end really correct?) sprouts and carrots. There is also some Arborio rice cooked in broth which was left over from last night but made a nice addition to the plate. Here's a picture:
(Okay, so I'm not the best food photographer, but it was delicious.) This is my first attempt at cooking fish in parchment paper. I've always wanted to try that but never had. It turned out quite nicely. And I must say it's a little funny that I just had parchment paper lying around. I can't remember what I purchased it for, but there it was in the cabinet just waiting to be used.

Otherwise, I had a fun day. I slept a lot last night. I needed it. This morning, I worked on an assignment for my students. I am about half way finished. I need to do some of the calculations myself before deciding exactly what I will ask them to do. That can wait until tomorrow morning. This afternoon, I did my part to stimulate the economy. I shopped and shopped some more. I had some brilliant ideas for holiday gifts for friends and family. And so I got a significant amount of gift buying done. It was fun. I sometimes need some retail therapy, even if I'm not buying things for myself.

Breakfast

edited to correct typos:
Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day. Sometimes I eat it three times in one day. I recently finished reading Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies, which was highly recommended by NPR and a bit heart breaking. One of my favorite parts of the book was her talking about a breakfast she had with her family. The special was savory pancakes. It was pancakes covered with asparagus, Gruyere and ham. Covered with two sunny side up eggs and drown the whole lot in maple syrup. I'd pass on the ham. But otherwise it sounds divine. Though I don't think I could eat it right now. I have been having a culinary adventure that I would rather have avoided. I have switched my whole way of eating to try to stay healthy. I eat bread topped with applesauce for breakfast - a trick learned from my sister. And I've been eating a lot of roasted vegetables and way more meat that I normally do. My new favorite roasted vegetable is fennel. If you aren't totally averse to licorice and can find it at your local market, roast it up (400 degree oven for about 30 minutes or so) with what ever other veggies you'd like. I recommend precooking potatoes slightly. Couscous has become a staple again, too. Today I broke all the rules and had breakfast for lunch. I ate delicious lemon poppy seed toast coated with cream cheese. The cream cheese had lavender mixed in. This was a wonderful invention, but I think I would have also added a little honey and lemon zest to the cream cheese, too.