Category Archives: Food & Garden

My attempts at growing plant things and then turning it into food.

Toddler Breakfast Good Eats

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For our unexpected Christmas time at home Kurt and I bought a few groceries that we knew we could finish within a week and things that don’t spoil. On Kurt’s annoying additive infested list, canned soups and boxed Mac & Cheese. On my list, bulk steel cut oats, eggs. We’re truly like yin and yang. I want to get rid of all that crap but every time I take him shopping with me he buys more of it. I swear if I have to smell Mac & Cheese cooking with nasty cut up chunks of unidentified leftover animal parts (hot dogs) I’m going to heave. That shit is nasty! Any “meat” that expands when cooked just ain’t right. Think about it, what fuckin’ steak puffs up when cooked?

Anyway, tired of only being able to feed Sophia zucchini omelets and Dutch Babies (recipe to follow) for breakfast I decided to force some oatmeal in her. I’ve heard steel cut oats have more nutritional value because they’re less processed than regular old-fashioned rolled oats, so that’s what I use. They texture is a little different and they take twenty to twenty-five minutes to cook verses five to ten, but other than that it’s all the same to me. One part steel cut oats to three parts water cooked until tender, add raisins and/or dates, add milk for preferred consistency, and brown sugar or maple syrup for preferred sweetness, and viola!

I put three tablespoons of oatmeal into a bowl for Sophia and offered her some on her spoon. She pushed the spoon away. Oh no you don’t, you’re going to at the very least try a bite you little shit. I know many people insist that all things should be pleasant joyful experiences for kids. Everything from eating to toilet training is supposed to be made into a ‘fun game’, but at some point I want my kid to try new stuff and she just isn’t doing it on her own. One stupid bite that’s all I want. If she doesn’t like it that’s fine, we can go back to the standby and try it again another time, but just take a fucking bite!

Holding her arms down I used a heat seeking missile spoon to find an opening somewhere around the mouth area. She turned her head back and forth, looked at the ceiling and fought it off until the spoon found it’s perfect opportunity. She paused. She chewed. I readied another spoonful and this time her mouth was wide open. I knew you’d like it you stubborn little shit.

After coming back from Christmas vacation, I tried another oatmeal like breakfast food with Sophia. I learned of it in the “What to Expect When you’re Expecting” book that a friend gave to me, it’s called Morning Muesli, or just Muesli.

  • ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • ½ cup calcium-fortified apple or orange juice (this sounds gross to me so I use milk instead)
  • 1 cup vanilla yogurt (I use plain yogurt)
  • 3 died apricots, chopped
  • ¼ cup raisins and/or dates
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Maple syrup or brown sugar to taste
  • Fresh fruit of your choice
  • 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, almonds, or pecans (I leave these out when feeding Sophia for now)

Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy. I make mine the night before so the oats absorb most of the moisture and I wind up adding more milk. I don’t add the fresh fruit until it’s time to serve.

DUTCH BABIES:

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 or 4 eggs (the more eggs the more quiche-like it is)
  • ½ cup milk (or half-and-half)
  • ½ cup sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg (optional)
  • 1 pinch salt (optional)
  • 2 to 4 tablespoons butter (depends on how rich you want it and salted or unsalted can be used)
  • 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)

DIRECTIONS

  • Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet inside oven and preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
  • In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a whisk until light. Add milk and stir. Gradually whisk in flour, nutmeg and salt.
  • Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven heat to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt butter in hot skillet so that inside of skillet is completely coated with butter. Pour all the batter in the skillet and return skillet to oven.
  • Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove promptly and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve with warm maple syrup and wedges of lemon
Or pour on clarified butter, sprinkle on lemon juice and dust with powdered sugar
OR dust with powdered sugar and serve with strawberries and whip cream on top
Serves 2

When I make this for Sophia I only use enough butter to coat the pan, I leave off all the sugary parts and just top it with frozen fruit that I’ve warmed up. I’ve tried to make this with wheat flour, but it just doesn’t come out the same.

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Apple-Cranberry Dressing

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Stuffing or in this case dressing is the real crown jewel of Thanksgiving. You can keep your turkey for all I care. Dressing is where it’s at! What’s the difference between stuffing and dressing? Stuffing is cooked in the bird and dressing isn’t.

  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (can substitute with olive oil)
  • 1 pound bread cut into bite-size pieces
  • 1 large apple
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 ribs celery
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots
  • Handful fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 2 to 3 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth (about 1 1/2 small cans)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons turkey or chicken pan drippings or melted butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a shallow 3-quart casserole.

Lay bread pieces in a single layer on 1 or 2 baking sheets. Bake until slightly dry and crisp, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool.

Core, and chop the apple, onion, celery, apricots, and parsley.

Melt the 6 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apple, onion, celery, apricots, cranberries, thyme, and salt; cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the broth and parsley and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat.

Beat the egg in a large bowl, and add the toasted bread, and the onion, celery, fruit mixture; toss until evenly moistened. Loosely pack the dressing into the prepared pan. Bake, uncovered, until the top is crusty, about 40 minutes. Add pan drippings or melted butter over the top. Cook until the top is crisp and golden, about 20 minutes more.

November, 30 posts in 30 days nablopomo.com

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Finding Balance in Zucchini Bread

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I found a recipe for zucchini bread from Paula Deen’s website. On first glance I new this would more like a cake than bread, but I followed the recipe exactly as written. Well, except I used Olive oil instead of some other vegetable oil, but I don’t count that as a major change. It’s still oil. I also used lime instead of lemon juice; again, I don’t think that makes a difference. It’s still an acidic citrus juice.

Ingredients:
2 cup grated zucchini
1/3 cup water
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1½ teaspoon salt
3¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 greased standard loaf pans, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.
Yield: 2 loaves
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

I love that she says the prep time is ten minutes. Obviously there isn’t a demanding toddler tugging at her pants leg and weaving between her legs like a cat the entire time she makes her zucchini bread. The recipe made “as is” was very tasty, and is fabulous if you hate zucchini, but I wanted something that would allow me to actually taste the zucchini. So I altered this recipe. I doubled the amount of zucchini. I relied on the added zucchini to provide the bread with enough moisture so I removed the water entirely and cut the amount of oil in half. I saw a few other recipes that replace some of the oil with applesauce but I didn’t want to add another ingredient. I cut the amount of sugar in half and used brown sugar instead of cane sugar. Cutting the sugar made the nutmeg stand out a lot so I cut that in half as well. I added the nuts in my very first batch, but in following batches I left them out. I find that nuts are a normal part of everyday life but they optional in bread. Here is my final revised sugar and zucchini balanced recipe:

Ingredients:
4 cups grated zucchini
4 eggs, beaten
½ cup olive oil
1½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1½ teaspoon salt
3¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine olive oil, eggs, zucchini and limejuice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 greased standard loaf pans, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.
Yield: 2 loaves
Prep time: 10 minutes (depending on distractions)
Cook time: 1 hour

November, 30 posts in 30 days nablopomo.com

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Easy seasonal apple topped pork steak with stuffing and squash

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Recently I discovered that Costco sells Foster Farms chicken in their usual huge packs, but within that pack are individually sealed two-person portions. We’ve been eating a TON of chicken. And Kurt and I are both a little chickened out, cheesy pun intended.

I hope G-man from Mr. Knowitall doesn’t mind that I totally stole his all-in-one-dish pork steak with apples, stuffing, and squash recipe. Actually, I made some changes of my own, of course. It came out AWESOME! First thing Kurt said was, “keep this one on the list!” Because I like to keep things as close to original natural not-from-a-box form as possible I made G-man’s very simple recipe a tad more complex.

Ingredients:

  • One bag (15oz) of stuffing bread cubes
  • One celery rib
  • Half of a small onion
  • One small apple
  • One can of chicken broth or less
  • One or two can(s) of apple pie filling with NO ADDED SUGAR
  • Two or four pork steaks
  • One spaghetti squash (You can use any kind of squash)
  • Salt and pepper

Directions:
Dump your bread cubs in a mixing dish. Add to your mixing dish chopped up celery, onion, apple, and mix in chicken broth. I used a whole can of chicken broth and with the juices from everything else in the baking dish, the stuffing lost its cubed bread form, so a whole can isn’t necessary. Salt, pepper and otherwise season to taste; I usually use fresh thyme in my dressing/stuffing.

I used an enamel coated cast iron pot, but you can use any oven safe deep dish with a cover or with tin foil. This recipe ain’t rocket science. Dump one or two cans of apple pie filling in your baking dish then cover the apple pie filling with seasoned (salt and pepper or whatever to your taste) pork steaks. Then add the stuffing from the mixing bowl. Cut the squash in half or quarters and set on top of the dressing with the skins side up.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour and half to two hours. I served the pork steaks with the apple filling on top, but the filling can also top the squash for a sweetener instead of using brown sugar.

November, 30 posts in 30 days nablopomo.com

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Birthday Carrot Pineapple Nut Cake

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I don’t remember where I got the recipe, probably off the back of some box or bag of something, but it’s AWESOME! This is the cake I’m making for Sophia’s birthday:

Carrot Pineapple Nut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound carrots
3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cups vegetable oil
4 eggs beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
1½ cups chopped walnuts
1½ cups shredded coconut
2 8-ounce cans crushed pineapple drained

  1. Peel and coarsely chop carrots. Cook until tender; puree. Set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
  3. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in oil, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. Fold in reserved carrot puree, walnuts, coconut, and pineapple.
  4. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean and edges have pulled away from the sides of the pan.
  5. Cool in pans 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack. Fill and frost cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Top with chopped nuts and carrot strips if desired.

*tip: I don’t know how most people cook carrots for a puree but I boil mine in a little bit of water (not even enough to cover them) and cover with a lid to get the steam going. Then to make puree I use the water they were boiled in to help with moisture. If there wasn’t enough water in the pot I add some of the oil from the cake recipe to help the pureeing process along, but not water it down too much.

Also, I don’t trust Sophia to not choke on chunks of walnuts so I poured some of the batter in one 9×9 dish and then added nuts to the rest of the batter, which goes in a 9×13 dish.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 ½ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

  1. Beat cream cheese and butter together in mixing bowl until blended. Blend vanilla.
  2. Gradually beet in sugar, mixing well after each addition until frosting is smooth.

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Baking Pumpernickel Bread

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The name of the recipe I found for Pumpernickel was German Pumpernickel, which led me to believe that it was authentic. It’s not. It’s authentic Americanized Pumpernickel, but I made it anyway. It turns out that real German Pumpernickel is made with coarsely ground rye meal and does not include wheat or all-purpose flour. It gets it dark color from baking at a low temperature for sixteen to twenty four hours not by using cocoa powder, or molasses, and it uses sour dough starter not dry active yeast. The Americanized Pumpernickel recipe I found is still pretty good, at least according to Kurt. I found that I absolutely HATE, as in LOATHE, caraway seed. I tasted caraway seed before, but didn’t know what it was at the time. Caraway seed is found in the sausage used at some pizza places. It’s a vile little grey/brown seed with green stripes. Aside from the horrid taste, the bread I made came out well. It didn’t turn out like a doorstop like the pumpkin biscuits I made when I was pregnant. I’m tossing out the caraway seed and if I made this particular recipe again there won’t be any of that CRAP in it!

“German” Pumpernickel
2 packages active dry yeast (4 ½ teaspoons)
1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa
2 T. sugar
1 T. caraway seed (I HATE caraway seed)
1 ½ t. salt
3 C. rye flour
2 C. water
1/4 C. molasses
1/4 C. butter
3 C. sifted all-purpose flour
Shortening – (I used olive oil)

In large bowl, stir together yeast, cocoa, sugar, caraway seed, salt and 2 cups rye flour; set aside.

In 2 quart saucepan over low heat, heat water, molasses and butter until very warm.

Using mixer at low speed, gradually beat molasses mixture into yeast mixture until well blended. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes. Add remaining 1 cup rye flour. Increase speed to high; beat 2 more minutes.

Stir in enough all-purpose flour to make a soft dough. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic about 5 minutes.

Place into greased large bowl, turning over dough so that top is greased. Cover with towel and let rise in warm place until almost doubled, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Punch down dough. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 5 minutes.

Shape each half into a round loaf. Place 4 inches apart on greased large baking sheet.

Cover and let rise until almost doubled, 45 minutes to an hour.

Diagonally slash each loaf, crosswise, 3 times.

Bake in 375°F oven for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with foil; bake 15 minutes more or until loaves sound hollow when tapped.

Immediately remove from baking sheet. Brush tops of hot loaves with shortening. Cool on racks.

Yield: Makes 2 loaves

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Drunken Salmon

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One of the managers at a place I worked at long ago got this recipe as a fax. He tried it and loved it so much that he made copies for EVERYONE especially people that said they didn’t like fish. He insisted that even fish haters would like this one, and I agree completely. I like fish though I wasn’t much of a fan before this recipe. It was this recipe that made me realize that a lot of the fish I had in the past, the reason I didn’t like it was due to over cooking. Don’t over cook your fish it comes out a lot better.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Salmon fillet (for 2)
¼ cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp. Bourbon whiskey (Early Times)
3 tbsp. Sweet onion (Vidallia) chopped
2 tbsp. Vegetable oil
3 tbsp soy sauce

Directions:
Place salmon skin side down in baking dish and remove all small bones with tweezers. In a small bowl, combine all other ingredients and pour ¾ of it over the salmon to marinate in refrigerator for a few hours. Place salmon on grill or in broiler 5-7 minutes per side, brushing with remainder of marinade.

My notes:
I broiled each side 5 minutes (starting skin side down) then flipped it one last time (skin side down) and poured the rest of the marinade and cooked it another three to four minutes.

I used Evan Williams Whiskey

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Doctored Rice with Raisins and Pinenuts

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I saw a recipe on another blog for “Wild Rice with Raisins and Pinenuts”. It looked great (there were pictures, step by step). But I don’t like wild rice (it’s a little gamey for my taste), and the quantity was a bit much for just Kurt and I, so I doctored it a bit.

Not so Wild Rice With Raisins and Pinenuts:
2 Tblspn. Butter
½ small onion – chopped
1 apple – chopped
¼ cup raisins
½ lemon –juiced
¼ cup pine nuts
1 cup Basmati Rice – already cooked (See bottom of this post for directions)
¼ cup chopped cilantro

Sauté onion in butter until it’s translucent. Add chopped apple and let it cook for a couple minutes. Juice the ½ lemon and add raisins. Then add the rice. Make sure to stir so the rice doesn’t burn. Add the pine nuts, and then the cilantro.

Basmati Rice:
1 ¼ cup water
1 cup Basmati Rice
(Pan with a lid)

Bring water to a boil then add rice. Turn heat down to simmer and with the lid on the pot cook for about 15 minutes or until all of the water has been absorbed. Let stand for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork before serving (or in this case, before adding to the other pan).

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I may as well have served chicken heads

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Yesterday I made stuffed bell peppers. I specify bell peppers because I occasionally (twice) make Chile Rellenos as well. I have a few dishes that I never really make the same way twice and stuffed bell peppers is one of them. Here is the basic recipe:

Four bell peppers
One can of diced tomatoes (14 ounce)
One can of black beans (14 ounce)
One can of salsa (4 ounce? – very small) or make a little of your own
A couple small slices of Monterey Jack cheese
Sour cream

Mix the tomatoes and beans together and stuff into peppers. Add a couple teaspoons of salsa and a couple slices of cheese in each pepper. You can either place the peppers in a crock pot and have dinner ready right after work or put in the oven at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes (I place the peppers in a enamel coated cast iron Dutch oven). Serve with a dollop of sour cream. Depending on the size of the peppers they may not be fully stuffed with just those ingredients and this is where the changes take place.

One time I made this dish and added some polenta. It was edible but I wasn’t impressed – never bought the stuff again. Another time I had some extra frozen corn from another dish I had recently made and so I added that. With both of those variants, Kurt took little notice. Last night I made it and cut up a couple carrots – he freaked out. “You added carrots!” he says with disgust. He likes carrots. I guess he felt they don’t belong in this dish at all! He acted like I may as well have served live chickens.

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Lets just hang out at the grocery store

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Today after work I went to the grocery store to pick up some tamarind for Agua Fresca and oohh it felt so good in there. Typically on super hot days I’m out there soaking up sun like a lizard. While others may retreat to the shade if I did the same, I would require a fleece at the very least. AC – forget about it! I would start chattering my teeth even if I had just been out in 97 degree Fahrenheit heat like today. No, I’m not anemic! I just live for warmth and the sun and AC is much too much concentrated cold for me.

Now that I’m pregnant and in my third trimester I’ve not only turned on the AC in my vehicle but I’ve turned the vents towards me instead of aiming them at the opposite side of the car. I’m dying over here! I even drank water today. Anyone that knows me knows that is no small thing – but it’s actually the third time I’ve had water since becoming pregnant. The first time I drank water at least one of my friends literally marked it on her calendar – March 9th at 3pm. Water is the most vile and disgusting liquid on the planet. I don’t care if it’s filtered and/or bottled if it hasn’t boiled and flavored I won’t drink it. How can anyone hate water you may ask, simple, I grew up in Alaska where my city water came out of the tap BROWN and smelled like rotten eggs. If you allowed it to sit, you could actually see brown sediment settling to the bottom. I ain’t drinking that crap. It has amoebas and I’m not touching it.

It turned out to be much too hot for me to cook today so we went out to eat and it was still too hot for me to get my lazy butt up and make agua fresca, but I’ll give you directions for it…

  • Get about 12 to 16 tamarind pods – tamarind is the stuff that’s usually located next to the fresh jalapeños and habaneros and looks like a large peanut
  • Take the outer shell off (you can take the vines off but it may become a sticky mess so leaving them on/in is ok too)
  • Put the sticky fruit in a large pot and add about ten cups of amoebas water
  • Add a cup of sugar
  • Bring it to a boil then lower the heat to med/low for about ten to twenty minutes then let it sit with the lid on for an hour or so – you want the fruit to become a bit mushy
  • Get a strainer, place it over your juice container, and scoop the fruit into the strainer
  • Pour the water through the strainer a little at a time and mash the fruit through so that you get as much of the fruit in the water without the seeds and vines
  • Refrigerate, Stir, and serve cold

*Do a taste test before refrigerating – if it’s too tart for you just add more sugar

Yes this creates brown water, but at least I know what’s in it! :)

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