Almost vegan honeyed corn

Today I went to my state Senator's office re: school and gaining political experience and I noticed a "Taste of pennsylvania" cookbook published for free by the Pennsylvania Dept of Agriculture. I grabbed one.

In it, I discovered a recipe for microwaved honey corn from the Pennsylvania Beekeepers Association. I decided to de-dairy it and try it as a baked item.

The original recipe calls for:
- 20 ounces frozen corn
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3/4 cup milk

Mix in covered casserole dish and microwave 8-10 minutes.

My version:
- 16 ounces frozen corn
- 2 tablespoons organic Earth Balance margarine
- pinch fresh ground salt
- 2 tablespoons honey (and next time I hope to replenish my supply of local honey since spring allergy season is here)
- 3/4 cup soy milk

I'm baking mine in the oven thinking the slow heat will let the corn absorb more flavor)

Thanksgiving Shopping List

So, my husband did go to the store for the Thanksgiving shopping list. He only mixed up a couple items: He got one tiny can of pear halves in syrup instead of several big cans of pear halves in juice, he bought jellies made with high fructose corn syrup, and because it was the only can of the only pumpkin related item left in the store, he bought Libby's pumpkin pie mix instead of plain pumpkin. And technically he bought the wrong baking powder. I usually get Rumford in the red can, because it doesn't have aluminum in it. He got generic. But that's okay. He spent $57.03 and he didn't leave anything important behind...

He bought:

• Wegman's Chocolate Soy Milk, $2.79 for a half gallon
• Silk Unsweetened Soy Milk, $2.99
• Wegmans Sour Cream, $1.19 minus 20 cents shopper's club discount
  
• Two pounds of Wegmans butter, one unsalted and one salted, $1.49 each
• Two bars of Wegmans cream cheese, $1.19 each minus 40 cents each for shopper's club bonus
• Two packs of Pillsbury prepared pie crusts, $2.29 each
• Half and half, $1.39
• Wegmans large eggs, one dozen, $1.29
• Frozen cut leaf spinach, 89 cents minus 10 cents for shopper's club discount
• Taylor Sweet Potatoes, 2 cans at $1.79 each
• Wegmans light brown sugar, $1.49 minus 50 cents shopper's club
• Wegmans baking powder, $1.39
• Wegmans strawberry jelly, $1.79
• Pear halves in syrup, 15 ounce can, 99 cents
• canned corn, 39 cents
• Wegmans evaporated milk, 79 cents
• Campbell's broccoli cheese soup, $1.25
• Wegmans red raspberry jelly, $2.29
• Wegmans creamed corn, 39 cents
• Food You Can Feel Good About Shells and Cheddar dinner, 4 boxes at 79 cents each
• Wegmans Woos Original (generic Oreos), $1.99
• Nabisco Oreos, $2.99
• Wegmans bagged salad, Italian Escarole Blend, $2.50
• Wegmans bagged salad, French blend, $2.5o
• Bananas, 82 cents
• Pink Lady Apples, three apples, $2.75
• Cauliflower, one head, $2.50
• Broccoli crowns, three average-sized heads, $2.4o

And he also stopped at the bagel shop and got a dozen bagels for $8, plus we had a coupon to get six free, so with the normal baker's dozen, we ended up with 19 bagels. Yesterday when my friends came, we all had bagels with brie and raspberry jam...

Venez Dîner, C'est Prêt

Yesterday my friend Jessica came to visit after her semester in France, in the northern city of Rennes. I asked her to bring me home a cookbook, a real French one in French. She selected Venez Dîner, C'est Prêt by Dominique Malet. (Come to dine, it's ready) As the cover says, "300 menu gourmands pour gagner du temps."

The book offers a mix-and-match approach to quick entertaining, assuming that you're having guests after work or when busy. I flipped through most of it before my brain kicked in and started translating basic things like teaspoon and tablespoon (or, at least that's what I hope coffee spoons and soup spoons are).

It includes pantry lists and mix-and-match menus, based on what you hope to serve (like veal, fish or game) and how many courses you had in mind (appetizer, main course, dessert) or (main course/side and dessert). It even includes a few vegetarian recipes.

I was thinking of attempting one for lunch, or maybe just throwing together a quiche. I don't have many groceries right now as I've been waiting for June to come before spending more money... but I think I could do an approximation of the one broccoli and noodle dish for lunch and for dinner, I can try the pork with pineapple and serve it with the Asian salad I bought yesterday. Another one of those Dole salads.

My first chicken salad!!!

After surveying my friends and my cookbooks, I have decided to try my hand at chicken salad.

My friends all recommended curry. And various fruits. And since my favorite chicken salad on earth is that of my high school English teacher and involves grapes... and my second favorite is the Apple Walnut Chicken Salad at Java's Brewin at New and Broad Street in Bethlehem...

A random little cookbook from my mother, Salads and Dressings Varied and Delicious by G&R Publishing, 1993, lists the following for chicken salad:

Chicken Salad

from Salads and Dressings Varied and Delicious

2 cups cooked chicken, diced coarse

1 cup celery diced

3/4 cup peeled cucumbers

1 TBS finely cut green onion

Dash salt

1 cup salad dressing

Angel's Chicken Salad with Fruit

1 3/4 cup chicken

1 cup chopped apple

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped grapes

1/2 cup nut topping

1 tsp. it's a dilly

3/4 cup Nayonnaise/ soy mayonnaise

More creamsicle smoothies/ On Sorbet

I made another batch of creamsicle smoothies this morning spiked with mango sorbet. My father-in-law brought the Häagen-Dazs mango sorbet some time ago, but I didn't have any use for it so I ignored it.

Well, this morning, as I finished it to make another batch of smoothies, I read the label. Yeah, I do it on anything. The nutritional info on rainbow sprinkles is appalling.

I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, the carb count was high (37 g in a 1/2 cup) but the vitamin content was good. In the same serving size, the RDA of vitamin A was 20% and Vitamin C was 10%. That implies they use real mangos and not mango-flavor.

So I check the ingredients. Water, mango puree, sugar, lemon juice concentrate, carrot juice concentrate, pumpkin juice concentrate, natural flavor and pectin. May contain trace amounts of milk protein.

Thai (Peanut Butter) Noodles

I don't quite remember where this cookbook came from, but I'm fairly certain Shannon gave it to me probably 15 years ago. Okay, so the copyright is 1996, so it's more like a decade ago. It's called Quick & Easy Recipes Pasta and Noodles Food Writers' Favorites. I was surprised to see that includes a recipe for kugel that is attributed to the wife of my former boss and favorite editor at The Morning Call.

It's been a year, maybe two, since I've made peanut butter noodles. The name sounds gross, so I often call it "Thai noodles." We'll be serving it tonight with a side salad, and maybe some fresh mango.

The recipe came from Christine Randall, who was then asst. features editor at The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C. She writes: "When I first came across this recipe, it sounded a bit offbeat, but I figured I'd try it once because it was so easy-- and I loved it."

Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles

Makes 2 to 3 servings

1/3 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy  

2 tablespoons vegetable oil  

2 tablespoons soy sauce  

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (can be adjusted to taste)

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar  

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped  

8 to 12 ounces spaghetti or linguine

1. In a bowl, combine peanut butter, oil, soy sauce, cayenne, sugar, vinegar and garlic. With a rubber spatula, work mixture together until creamy and smooth. If time permits, refrigerate, covered, for four hours. (If time does not allow, don't worry, it will still be good.) Bring to room temperature before using.

2. Prepare spaghetti. Drain. Combine hot pasta and peanut butter sauce. Mix gently. Serve immediately.

The helpful household cookbook

I have shelves upon shelves of cookbooks, plus at one point I had recipe software, and subscriptions to Vegetarian Times, Vegetarian Journal (a great vegan magazine) and Bon Appetit. Friends give me recipes. The internet provides a wealth of cooking info at your fingertips. How do you store everything?

I noticed long ago that I pulled recipes but never tried them and then when I needed to find a specific one, it was impossible. Or I didn't even have the slightest idea what was in the pile. So I developed a system. I have a pile for new recipes that I have not tried. I have some bookmarks in cookbooks, but for the most part, I use a binder.

ANY recipe I use on a regular basis, gets inserted into a plastic sleeve and stowed in a three-ring binder. The binder is separated into the following categories: appetizers (including soup), baking/desserts, bread, breakfast, drinks, entrées, salad, sandwiches, sides, snacks and vegetables.

In order to earn a place in the binder, it must be tested and approved by the family. The binder contains print-outs from my database when I had it, magazine clippings, hand-scrawled items even web pages printed. I have even copied pages from cookbooks I own. Because now I can flip through the volume and find a dinner recipe lickety-split. Without trying to remember where the recipe is stored. And the plastic means it cleans easily. The binder means it's easy to add pages. I love it.

Baked Chicken and Fruit

As I mentioned another day, I own many cookbooks and I don't get to read them often enough to remember what I want to try... 

This particular recipe was the dinner I made when we had our first post-baby dinner party. Our neighbors had a baby one week older than ours so we shared this casserole one night. It comes from The Big Book of Casseroles by Maryana Vollstedt. 

Baked Chicken and Fruit (pictured before it goes into the oven): 

1 chicken, cut into serving pieces (3 to 3.5 pounds)

[I have always used about a pound of chicken breasts, cut into small chunks]

salt and pepper to taste

paprika [I don't have any today]

1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil [I use olive]

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/4 cup golden raisins [I use golden and regular, we like raisins]

1 cup pineapple chunks [I use one can]

4 peach halves [I use one can sliced peaches]

8 dried prunes [I skip]

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and paprika.

2. In Dutch Oven, over medium high heat, warm one tablespoon oil. Brown chicken until golden, five minutes on each side. Add more oil if needed. Add remaining ingredients. 

3. Cover and bake until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 50 minutes. Baste with sauce while cooking. Remove

 lid and cook 10 minutes longer. [I don't imagine the covering and uncovering is necessa

ry with my little pieces.] 

I made brown rice to accompany. My husband had three plates. I had three small scoops, which more or less equaled one big serving. My daughter ate one serving. I divided the leftovers into three containers: two containers each with one serving for an adult lunch and one big container with enough for all of us to have for dinner. If I had to figure it out, I would guess the whole batch cost less than $10 to make and more or less covered three meals for the family. 

Picnic Lunch: Tuna melts and orange-mango smoothies

You can always recognize a good cookbook in someone's kitchen. It's dirty, warped and maybe even unidentifiably sticky. I have Italian cookbooks, Chinese cookbooks, vegan cookbooks, vegetarian cookbooks, French cookbooks, chocolate cookbooks, casserole cookbooks, even a pasta cookbook.

Nava Atlas' The Vegetarian 5-ingredient cookbook is one of those tomes that is on its way to dirty stickiness. I don't actually use it that often, but after flipping through it looking for the orange creamsicle smoothie recipe this morning... Well, there are several recipes that piqued my interest that I had never noticed before. I love that every recipe is five ingredients (or less.) I think that speaks well to the harried nature of our lives and blends with a "this is what I've got on hand" situation.

I "got hungry" for Atlas' smoothie when I bought those YoBaby smoothies the other day and made the wisecrack that I knew I could make them at home. And they'd taste better. And I knew making them (with the blender, the blender!) would thrill my daughter. So, we made the smoothies and packed them with hot sandwiches for my daughter's picnic with Daddy. (I have class Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 to 12:15 p.m.)

Smoothies first...

Orange-Vanilla Creamsicle Smoothie

makes one to two servings (I automatically double.)

From Nava Atlas' 5-ingredient Vegetarian Gourmet

In blender combine (or stir if you want a lumpier consistency):

1. 1 cup fresh orange juice
2. 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
3. 1/4 cup seltzer or sparkling water (optional)
4. dash of vanilla extract (optional)
5. ice (optional)

I did not have any "bubbles" on hand, so we skipped them. And I added probably less than 1/4 cup mango sorbet. And doubled the orange juice and yogurt. As expected, it was a hit.

For the entrée of this lunch, I toasted English muffins, added some cheddar cheese and melted it, and then piled on the tuna (which I make with Nayonnaise because I think mayonnaise is nasty). I popped the lid on and wrapped the hot little sandwiches in foil with the home of getting them to my husband warm. When I asked if I succeeded, he shrugged. An attempt at portable hot lunch, when you're on a tight schedule is not worth the effort and stress. But it was fun for today.

On French cookbooks and grocery budgets

My poire tarte tatin was a resounding success yesterday. The original recipe, as I mentioned in my post, came from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris. (In the photo, on the left.) Most of my French recipes come from this book or The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells. Everything else comes from random hits on the Internet. The Paris Cookbook has my brioche recipe, which is an all-day process. Garten has a brioche loaf that takes less time and is tasty, but brioche in a loaf is less fun.

Garten includes a variety of essays that talk about her experiences cooking and gathering recipes in France, all of which are very enjoyable. I lust after the cookware she mentions from E. Dehillerin (which does have a web presence).

After my class yesterday, I met with the professor and we had a conversation that I thought deserved to be recorded here. I had sparked the conversation with discussion of how my French exchange student considered everything in the U.S. "big" and I thought it an apt description of American culture. He's French, and he mentioned that Americans have no sense of aesthetics. He directly associated this with food.

"Have you ever noticed," he said, "when you go to someone's house to eat... It's never 'Did you eat well?' or 'How did it taste?'"

And I cackled, because I sensed his upcoming question.

"It's always, 'Did you have enough?'" I finished.

And he nodded.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like, or how it tastes, just how much there is," he said.

Something to think about. Supersize that.

I have no meal plan for today, yet. My husband took off of work today because I have to go to the office around the same time the furnace maintenance is scheduled. I have cash because I used my credit card to buy a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law that my father-in-law paid for. I'm hoping to spend about $50 at Aldi and round out some missing supplies. Then, I can take the other $50 bill and head to Wegmans for some specialty items. (Whole wheat flour, soy milk, Wegmans Mac N cheese in the box, and imported chocolate for a business meeting, but that's another post.) That left $38 for an office Christmas dinner my husband has to attend Tuesday. Isn't budgeting fun... The $66.67 I spent on groceries thus far this month represents 4.5 percent of our projected income for December. And I did stop at CVS yesterday and spent $12 on some bathroom items that normally would have fallen in with the groceries, except I needed them ASAP.