Turkey spinach meatball

We made a batch of turkey spinach meatballs tonight to serve open-faced on white Italian sliced bread.

I made chicken gravy from my homemade chicken stock to get that soggy white bread comfort food sensation. I made the gravy in the pan I baked the meatballs in. So the dried turkey drippings and chicken stock mixed with some Italian seasoning and a pinch of flour equaled my gravy.

The meatballs were one pack of Jennie-O lean ground turkey, too much garlic powder, about 2 cups raw spinach, parsley, one tablespoon fresh ground pepper, and about three tablespoons ras el hanout.

I wanted 20 meatballs but only got 12. And they were small. And yummy.

Must make double batch next time.

Maybe cassoulet

I was a vegetarian for close to a decade before my daughter was born. I really didn't fully venture back into the world of meat eaters until a bout with severe anemia left me craving bacon cheeseburgers.

I still resist cooking meat. Of all the meats to prepare, sausage is my dreaded least favorite. Gooey and gross.

But I work tonight and thought I'd fire up the crockpot again with something that resembles a hearty French cassoulet.

On the bottom of the crock pot:

- 1 large clove garlic, sliced

- 1 can petit diced tomatoes 

- 1 tiny can tomato paste

- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (all I had)

- 1 approximately 3/4 chunk cube of homemade chicken stock from my freezer

Next I browned a pack of sausage links. 

Being cheap, I put three in the fridge for later and sliced the other two, putting that and the dribbles of grease from the frying pan into the crock pot.

Finally I added:

- 1 can white/ Great Northern beans (bean slime rinsed off)

- 1 can whole potatoes 

- about 3 tablespoons parsley 

- about 1/2 cup frozen sliced mushrooms

Or maybe I dumped more parsley than that...

I plan to cook for seven hours on high. Adding water if liquid is needed. 

Even at first stir it looks great:

I did not add water, but after the first two or three hours I turned the heat down to low.

This was what my small bowl looked like:

My family enjoyed it. Daughter announced it was only a tiny bit less amazing than Saturday night's Kedjenou. I expected it to be more tomato soup-like but I'm happy to report that it's more of a savory stew. (I don't like tomato soup.) Success.

I wish I'd made a bigger batch.

Child soft tacos

We're reinstating the child-makes-one-meal-per-week policy and she opted for soft tacos.

In the skillet, she combined:
- water
- about 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 finely diced garlic clove
- 1 pinch Indian chili powder
- 1 pinch Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

- 1 lb ground beef
- about 16 ounces corn
- about 16 ounces beans
- 1 bell pepper from the garden, diced
Cover with water and boil at medium to medium high for one hour, adding more water and stirring every 15 minutes

Top Round Steak

This is a combination of recipes I found online to do something a little different with the one pound top round steak I bought at Target for $3.50.

In my large Le Creuset skillet, I placed the steak, with about one teaspoon of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

On the steak, I scattered the following:
- 1 clove diced garlic
- about 1.5 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
- about 2 teaspoons country herb blend
- about two teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- about one teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
- about two teaspoons lemon juice

I threw one can of potatoes around the steak and plan on baking it for about an hour. I placed my large pfaltzgraf platter over the top as a cover.

More pickling

The first jar of solar pickles lasted less than 2 days. Child and I decided to repeat the experiment, using up our leftover farm fresh cucumbers and carrots.

We used one pint sized ball jar for each.

Ingredients
(in the order we put them in the jar)

In the cuke jar
- a big handful of dill from the garden
- between 1/2 and 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground salt
- 3/4 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3/4 of a large farm fresh cucumber, sliced, and artfully stuffed into jar
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- fill half the jar with apple cider vinegar
- add 2 teaspoons It's a Dilly (I'm hoping the lemon flavor will add some pizzazz to my pickles)
- fill the rest of the jar with water
SHAKE

For the carrots:
- large amounts of dill from the garden
- 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground salt
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- carrots, in sticks, to fill jar
- fill half of jar with apple cider vinegar
- fill the rest of the jar with water

Using the sun

Although I don't have the right ingredients, and we all know I never do, I decided to harness the power of the sun and make new pickles. Gayle did some research and sent her mom's recipe, which I posted here.

We don't have pickle cukes, but since we have some from the farmers market and they are super fresh and crisp. I plan on eating these later today or tomorrow so I'm not worried about them getting soggy.

While looking in the basement for my spare butter dishes, I found one of those really big jars which I washed out and started a batch of sun tea in.

I went out to the garage and retrieved my Ball jars, the pint sized ones. Washed one and put some garlic, probably too much, and a big handful of dill from the garden in the bottom. Added salt. Had the child fill it with cucumber slices and tossed in some carrot sticks.

Poured in some apple cider vinegar, filled the rest of the jar with water, layered the lids on, shook it well, and put it in the sun beside the tea.

Now, we wait.

Chicken curry tonight

I initially planned a very bland meal of rice with canned chicken and some sort of sauce made from a can of Campbells chicken noodle soup. But brilliance struck, and I opted for some sort of Indian-style curry. I wanted to make a vegetarian dish, but we're low on basic vegetables (like California blend-- cauliflower, broccoli and carrots).

I started the white rice in the steamer. I added the water, some garlic salt (just a pinch), about a teaspoon of parsley and a tablespoon of butter.

Then in my Le Creuset skillet, I mixed a pinch (about 1/3 teaspoon) garlic, two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, about 1/2 teaspoon red Indian chili powder, 3/4 teaspoon four color peppercorn, about 3/4 teaspoon cumin, and maybe 2 teaspoons curry powder. Oh, and a half teaspoon ginger.

I heated this thoroughly and then added about one cup hot water and boiled it. Next I added the canned chicken and chopped it into fairly small pieces. I mixed and boiled it down.

I swirled in about 1 teaspoon half and half and about three tablespoons soy milk. To finish it off I added a can of petit pois.

I served this over the rice.

Very nice.

Pork soup (part one)

My mother-in-law brought us some smoked pork chops, which my husband cooked and cubed while I was at work last night. Instead of serving them as a heat and eat kind of meal, I opted to make a crock pot soup. 

I started with some jarred minced garlic (which I normally avoid because it just tastes funky to me). It came out too fast and I ended up with too much. Then I added a swirl of extra virgin olive oil and maybe 2 cups of diced smoked pork chops. 

While they simmered, I added some sliced potatoes from a can of whole potatoes that I took the time to cut myself. Then I added "fresh dill" from my freezer-- about 2 teaspoons. Next came some organic vegetable broth (which by the end of my base will be 32 ounces worth). I put about a half teaspoon cumin and a half teaspoon fresh ground four color pepper.

To empty the fridge, I dumped about 2 cups leftover cooked vegetables into the pot with the rest of the broth. This was primary some sort of soybean (mukiname?) and green beans with a few slivered carrots.

So, the ingredients in the pot now: 
- diced smoked pork chops
- extra virgin olive oil
- minced garlic
- cumin
- dill
- four color pepper
- potatoes
- green beans
- mukiname? (not endamame, other soybeans)

Hoping to get some white beans and creamed corn and maybe other broth... We'll see...

Crazy Carrot 'Taters

Comfort food with a twist...

On the plane to France I had a special purée of potatoes and carrots. I liked it. So, tonight when I was faced with some potatoes at the end of the line and a plethora of carrots, I decided to mash them all.

• six potatoes, sliced and cooked (skins still on)
• 1 pound carrots, cleaned and cooked
• About 1/2 to 3/4 cup heavy cream (decadent I know, but I ran out of milk)
• 1 teaspoon organic four color peppercorn
• 2 containers of Papa John's garlic sauce

The cream and garlic sauce probably contradicts the healthfulness... but they were yummy.

Tacos

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to make tacos.
I made the homemade tortillas this afternoon and found this site:
http://www.mex-recipes.com/tacorecipes.html

QUOTED FROM THE SITE:
Ground beef
(I prefer ground chuck)
Salt
Chili powder
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic powder or 2 cloves
Bell pepper
Onion

Instructions for taco recipe:

Let's take 2 pounds of ground beef in 2 quart sauce pan add 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of chili power, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 tablespoons of paprika. Enough water to cover meat.

Bring to a boil. Simmer over medium low heat about an hour. I will check in about 15 minutes take a potato masher break up the meat a little don't want it to cook up in lumps.

Repeat this process 2 or 3 more times. Also make sure we don't run dry of water. Add water if needed. Hour over already!

OK, add 1/2 medium chopped onion, 1/2 medium chopped bell pepper, continue cooking 20 or 30 more minutes.

MY VARIATIONS:
I used 1/2 ground beef from a local farm and 1/2 black beans (the ones I made in the crock pot over the weekend.)
I omitted onion, and used one green pepper from my garden.
I turned up the heat a little on the stove, not the taco meat, because I didn't start early enough.

And I'm using my Le Creuset skillet instead of a saucepan.

Garlic Multigrain Biscuits

This afternoon I made my multigrain yeast biscuits that I invented a couple weeks ago. They are in the oven now. I changed the liquid from 1.5 cups warm milk to 1+ cup warm soy milk, one container papa john's garlic sauce and 1/2 cup warm water.

I hope to serve them tonight with a meat and cheese platter, dates, and organic spring mix with bacon dressing (I got out of the freezer).

A friend stopped by today with various meats, some cheese and some vegetables so any shopping I do in July will be skewed if you're tracking how much I spend.

Hamburger Stuffed Bread II

Of course, I can't make anything twice the same way...

I started with some extra virgin olive oil and about 1/3 pound hamburger in the Le Creuset skillet. Added 1 clove garlic, sliced, and about 1/4 cup red wine. When it was brown, I added 1 can condensed tomato soup, oregano from the garden, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and some garlic powder. Oh, and four color peppercorn.

Layered it into a hollowed out baguette with some cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350, in aluminum foil, until the family gets to the table.

DON'T do what I always do. I cut the bread in half. You want more of a deep hole, like a boat, instead of two French bread pizzas.

Pasta with spinach in herbed lemon butter sauce

Since last week's pasta in lemon butter sauce was so popular I opted to try and repeat the experiment.

I started with the Le Creset skillet, a tablespoon of butter, 1/2 a clove of garlic, juice of one lemon, two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, handful of fresh parsley from the garden, and several tablespoons fresh chives from the garden. I stirred over low while it all cooked. I believe I added another tablespoon or so of butter to balance the lemon juice.

Next I added about 1.5 cups chopped spinach leftover from the omelet the other day and increased the heat. Then I added slices of Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples. Let that cook until the sausage browned and the liquid started to dry up.

I made some whole wheat rotini, put them back in the pan with another two tablespoons of butter and a trickle of extra virgin olive oil. Then I mixed it the spinach mixture from the skillet. Voilà, c'est prêt.

Italian Style Veggie and Rice skillet

One more day and my husband gets paid. The cupboards are getting bare, but yet are older stocked with items like eggs, flour and butter.

I took a bag of steam in bag Italian vegetables, with some sort of mildly seasoned sauce, and the last Boca burger. I threw the veggies in the microwave and fried the veggie burger in olive oil and butter and a dash of soy sauce. I chopped it up, added the veggies, a pinch of four-color pepper, and the leftover two cups of cooked white rice. Added some garlic powder and a little over a tablespoon of butter to keep the rice from sticking to the skillet and...

Voilà.

Far from fabulous. But a fairly healthy lunch.

Leftovers in lemon-butter sauce

Today for breakfast we had raisin bran and I forgot to have my second breakfast. That made the morning challenging.

It's cold and rainy so my multigrain pizza crust didn't rise properly (still tasted fairly good and kind of like a soft pretzel). But the pan pizza came out nicely.

The perfumed pineapple, well, my daughter over perfumed it and I over-buttered the crumbs again so it was far from perfect but edible.

But I made up for all of this with dinner.

I started with some white rice in the steamer.
Assembled the following:

• Le Creuset skillet
• 1 clove garlic sliced
• extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed)
• butter
• lemon juice
• 1 crown broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces (2-3 cups?)
• 2 chicken sausages with apple (from Trader Joe's), sliced
• 1 chicken breast prepared "chicken frances" leftover from the diner last night, chopped
  
• leftover rice from the diner

• 1 slice garlic bread from the diner

Okay, so I started with two tablespoons of olive oil and a slice of butter in the skillet as I dropped the garlic in on low. I added the chicken, because it came out of the fridge and was cold. Then the sausage. Then the broccoli. Every time the liquid got absorbed, I pushed everything to one side of the skillet (now at medium heat) and added a couple tablespoons of butter and equal amounts of lemon juice and blended them vigorously. Then I let the sauce seep to the other side of the pan and mixed everything up again.

I probably made this little batch of sauce three times and then I added the leftover rice from the diner and two heaping serving spoons of white rice from my steamer. More vigorous stirring.

Then, when the liquid disappeared and the rice started to stick, I moved everything to the coolest side of the skillet, reduced the heat to low, and added another couple tablespoons olive oil and mixed it up one last time.

And served.

I put the garlic bread in the skillet (once I pushed everything to the side, again) and fried each side a minute to get it warm without getting it soggy. Who says you can't reheat garlic bread?

All in all, I used 3/4 stick of butter and equal amounts lemon juice for the sauce. I love lemon-butter sauce.

Asian-style steak leftovers

I'm sure I've posted my Asian-style sauce recipe before... Last night I planned to marinate the leftover meat from the weekend, the asparagus and the carrots, with some added "california blend" veggies from the freezer... I mixed all that into the sauce and let it marinate overnight.

Now, I'm heating my Le Creuset skillet with about a teaspoon butter, a teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon walnut oil and almost two tablespoons sesame oil to stir-fry everything.

I have rice in the steamer.

Clicking "asian" will lead to some variations in the sauce. Or this is the basic recipe:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/02/stir-fry-with-seitan.html

*note* part of the reason I made this was to use up leftover pineapple. I forgot the pineapple! Had I remembered the pineapple I would have sauteed it in the oil before I added anything else.

Sausage and rice with veggies

Tonight I prepared Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples (3 sausages) in my Le Creuset skillet with about 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and 2 cloves fresh garlic. When the sausage finished cooking, I sliced it and added the broccoli from one broccoli crown and a couple cups of fresh chopped cauliflower. I let that sizzle for a while until the vegetable soaked up all the "juice" and then I added another tablespoon olive oil, the last of my French butter (probably three tablespoons) and about three tablespoons champagne vinegar.

And then I added the long grain white rice I had cooked in the steamer with garlic powder and four color black peppercorn. (It was 1.5 cups unprepared rice) And stirred it all up and let it cook until the rice turned a soft yellow (and wanted to stick to the bottom as I stirred. I stirred constantly.)

I was nervous about it because of the champagne vinegar, but it was good. Really good. I had two plates and I'd really like another...

More Super Salads! (Croutons)

We're having more salad tonight (It's a spring thing for me. I *want* it.) I bought fresh spinach to add to last night's salads and we're transforming my last homemade baguette into homemade seasoned croutons.

We heated the oven to three hundred.

We sliced the bread, put it in a bowl, drizzled some extra virgin olive oil on it, and sprayed it down with cooking spray. My daughter mixed them all up and we poured generous amounts of the following in there:

• garlic powder
• pizza and pasta seasoning
  
• parmesan cheese
• parsley
• four color organic peppercorn
• garlic pepper

And bake as long as it takes, turning every 15 minutes of so. They smell scrumptious.

Asparagus

I steamed a pound of asparagus tonight. I forgot to store it in a small glass with an inch of water like they always recommend, but it was prime asparagus so it was salvageable. Heloise-- the syndicated columnist with the helpful household tips-- recommends rinsing the asparagus in cold water, then snapping the wooden ends off, by bending and letting the stalks naturally break wherever they break.

My husband will eat the woody pieces, so it's a waste for me.

I placed the pound of asparagus in the steamer for 15 minutes. Then, I heated a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in my Le Creuset skillet.

Then I placed the steamed asparagus in the skillet, sprinkled liberally with garlic powder, ground about 3/4 teaspoon four-color pepper and added less than 2 teaspoons butter. And sauteed for five minutes.

Great stuff! (Even the little one loved it!)

Another batch of chili

So... It's raining. I'm making a batch of chili.

I started with one idea and due to my mistakes ended up with quite another.

I started with a partial teaspoon of olive oil, some garlic powder and some diced tomatoes. I added four color pepper, Italian seasoning, a pinch of cumin, a teaspoon of chili powder, and I meant to add a pinch of Indian chili seasoning but I ended up with closer to a teaspoon. Oops!

So I added almost two teaspoons of cocoa powder and another can of diced tomatoes, this one Italian style, and more garlic. Then I added a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple. I boiled it for about 15 minutes, then simmered it for an hour and added two cans of no salt added dark red kidney beans, one can light kidney beans, and one can black beans.

I made the cornbread dumplings to go with the chili, and I didn't have enough milk, so I reduced the amount of milk, added some water (do-it-yourself skim milk) and a little extra canola oil.

VERDICT: The chili wasn't spicy and because I cooked the pineapple and tomatoes together for a couple hours, everything more or less melted into one flavor. And the flavor was very rich and despite the lack of spice still had taste.

Now the dumplings took over the pot, but they were yummy, even if it was hard to find the chili underneath.

Perhaps my best batch of chili ever.

Said to my husband, I probably won't be able to replicate it, but then he said I probably wouldn't try...

This is the link to only the three recipes I usually blend to make my chili:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/five-alarm-chili.html

All my chili-related recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/chili