At request . . . two more recipes

Earlier in the week when I shared a vegetarian menu with friends, they asked for the recipes so I want to honor that request. I love putting together a vegetarian meal with the challenge of getting in the protein and full range of nutrition. Here’s what I did when my nonmeat-eating friend came to visit.

Nutty Sweet Potato Soup
Green Salad
Swiss Cheese and Onion Quiche
Whole-Wheat Buttermilk Rolls

A few notes: We now have locally-grown hydroponic lettuce available. That’s a first that I’ve found so I mixed it with the beautiful lettuce I’ve been nurturing with the help of my grow light.

Quiche has been a long-time favorite of mine. You’ll find many quiche recipes but the simplest way to make it is to remember the three eggs to two cups of cream (or milk) combination. Par-bake the crust, sprinkle on it whatever cheese, vegetables and meats you want to fill the quiche with and pour over the combo mixed with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and nutmeg. It won’t fail you.

Whole-Wheat Buttermilk Rolls
1 TBSP yeast
¼ c warm water
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 C buttermilk
3 tsp canola or other vegetable oil
1/1/2 tsp salt
1/1/2 tsp baking soda
2 C unbleached white flour
2 C whole wheat flour
Warm buttermilk, oil and salt to approximately 110 degrees. (If you’re new to working with yeast, test with thermometer then feel with your finger to learn what the temperature should feel like. You’ll like not need a thermometer after you learn.) While warming, combine yeast, water and sugar in small bowl.

Pour buttermilk mixture into large bowl. Add almost all of the flours and baking soda. Beat vigorously until very well mixed. Add more flour until dough is relatively firm. Turn onto lightly floured surface, knead a few strokes then cover with a bowl (glass works especially well) for 15 minutes.

Uncover and knead 5 minutes or so until smooth and elastic. Spray two muffin tins to prepare for 24 rolls. Roll piece of dough into walnut size and put two pieces in each tin.

Cover with a damp towel and place in warm place to double for 45 minutes or so. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake risen rolls for 15 – 20 minutes until gold brown.

Although Cole slaw wasn’t included in that meal, I shared it with a friend the next day at lunch. It was a vinegar slaw I made from the fresh, spring cabbage then froze. Here’s that recipe, too.

Mom’s Winter Slaw
3 lbs. shredded cabbage
2 chopped onions
2 chopped green peppers
2 chopped red peppers
1 TBSP salt
1 C vinegar
1 C Water
2 C sugar
2 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. mustard seed

Mix first four ingredients in large bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in large pot and bring to boil. Pour over cabbage mixture. Cool and fill freezer bags.
I like to use small bags so I have lunch-sized servings.

The beauty of simple food

Since Sunday evening I’ve been staying at PenHouse Retreat Center in Frankfort, Kentucky for some peaceful time to reflect and write. The big, old house with porches on every side offers spacious rooms, generous light and the melody of birds and insects. Those charms do not surpass that of the warm host and hostess—David and Normandi—readily offering their garden meals along with lively conversation.

I’ve often thought I would like to have a place like this to offer to artists, but if I were cooking, I fear there would be little peace for me. I always feel a need to fill a table with options so if my guest doesn’t like one dish, another will suffice. It often means hours of preparation and lots of fussing to make the table look grand.

As I sit at some else’s table, I appreciate the simple goodness of a garden meal in which the natural flavors stand on their own. Cabbage slaw, Goose beans, corn on chicken, garden-fresh spaghetti sauce. Oh yes, I’ve been treated well. Rich flavors intertwine with funny stories and lessons from the journey others are taking in life.

The next time I welcome guests, I hope I can remember that the most enjoyable meal requires more than detailed preparation. It’s the simplest of foods and most genuine of conversations that create the best dining experiences.

Sunday is garden feast day

I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest but it’s especially hard for me to do that during gardening season. I don’t feel a big Sunday obligation to weed and harvest (that was yesterday; more about that in tomorrow’s post) but I so love to cook that it’s hard for me to stay out of the kitchen, especially when my husband presents me with freshly dug carrots, a beautiful head of cabbage and apples to go with the tomatoes I picked the day before.

I began the day with the apples. I wanted to make chutney to can but still had a few apples left. Those I turned into applesauce, one of the easiest things you can make. Simply chop the apples, almost cover them with water, bring to a boil then turn down to simmer until they are soft. Keep an eye on them in case you need to add more water. When they are soft, I mash them then season with sugar and cinnamon. This simple method yields a chunky applesauce that you know is homemade and if you begin with flavorful apples, it will be much more satisfying than jarred apples sauce from the store. If you prefer it to be smoother, put it into your blender or food processor to finish.

With apple chutney and applesauce complete, I turned to the chicken I purchased from Marksbury Farm Market. Jim and I both took a gardening break on Saturday to watch Lidia’s Italy on public television and saw an easy and appealing preparation for Chicken Catanzaro-Style. I went to work on the stuffing while Jim removed the necessary bones. I do want to point out that when we watched her prepare it, Lidia appeared to use more herbs than the recipe called for. In addition, she used wine for cooking liquid after she had browned the chicken on both sides.

Another of our favorite Saturday cooking shows is America’s Test Kitchen. I had a recipe from them for Roasted Smashed Potatoes so I started on them while Jim made cabbage wedges wrapped in bacon. Next, I began the Maple Roasted Carrots (recipe below). While those three items roasted in the oven and the chicken continued to cook on the stove, I prepared bread, tomatoes and cheese for Baked Caprese Salad.

I love arranging the food on a platter when I have so many pieces to play with! I saved the beautifully green carrot tops for a vegetable bed. (They taste like carrots so make a nice addition to a meal.) With everything on the table I decided I should also put out the Concord grapes I bought at the farmer’s market to round out our meal.

When Jim walked in and saw all the food, he wanted to know who else was coming to dinner. Although I love to have friends and family here, this week it was just the two of us enjoying the Sunday garden feast—an apt reward for the sweat we put into growing most of the food on the table.

Maple Roasted Carrots
(With apologies for my vague instructions—it’s how I often cook!)

Fresh carrots
Olive oil
Maple syrup
Salt

Chop off carrot tops. Remove skin. Cut into whatever shape and size you prefer. I made our carrots into sticks about ¾” wide.

Put into pan with nearly ½” water (don’t cover them completely). Cover pan with foil and roast 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Check carrots for doneness. When they are nearly as soft as you want them, drain any remaining water, drizzle with olive oil and maple syrup. Toss. The carrots should be coated but not swimming in the oil and syrup. Sprinkle with salt. Return to oven 10 – 15 minutes until you can easily pierce them with a fork. Serve on a bed of carrot tops.

Timing the garden

Our spring came later than usual this year in central Kentucky. The beginning of the month was as dry as August and filled with encouraging sunshine. But it only takes a day for clouds, rain and cool winds to reappear and remind us it’s not summer yet. That’s what we have this week.

Gardeners pay attention to the weather because it’s important. The vegetables I have in the ground now are thriving because this is when they like to grow. Lettuce, spinach, arugula, onions, potatoes, beets, peas, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage are all happily opening their arms to the drizzle and the cool nights. The weather will make them sweet, crisp and filled with flavor. This is their season.

Just last week the warm weather dangled temptation in front of many gardeners, including my husband. “When are you going to plant your tomatoes?” he asked as he eyed the healthy plants I grew from seed. He encouraged me to go ahead and put a few of them in the ground. I declined. In Kentucky it’s never a good idea to put summer crops in the ground until some time in May.

If you’re new to gardening and unsure about the timing of setting our your plants, check with your local agricultural extension office. When I first started gardening, a friend gave me a gardening guide from the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service that included earliest and latest safe planting dates. Just last year I picked up an updated version. It’s invaluable, especially on those tempting days of spring.

West African Sweet Potato Stew

One of the things I love about having a kitchen filled with last year’s vegetables is that I have the ingredients I need for many dishes without a trip to the grocery store. That was the case yesterday when I tried a recipe a customer of my husband’s sent home with him. While he was working on renovations in her home she was cooking soup and making a copy of the recipe for me. It turns out to be a good one.

Kathleen sent over a recipe for West African Sweet Potato Stew. I can always use another way to utilize those nutritious sweet potatoes, so I immediately scanned the ingredient list and was surprised at the variety of vegetables it uses – cabbage, green beans, tomatoes, tomato juice and onions. I had everything I needed from our garden except the onions. I slightly adapted the recipe to use fresh sweet potatoes instead of canned, so I had to cook it a little longer to be sure they were soft all the way through.

Add to that a little ginger and red pepper flakes plus half-a-cup of peanut butter and you have a rich, vitamin-packed stew. I ate it as a soup yesterday but I have a feeling that after that red pepper has had time in the refrigerator to further infuse throughout the soup, I might need to eat it over rice to cut the spice. It will definitely warm me up on another gray winter day.

Preservations Lessons Round #3: Coleslaw

I grew up eating creamy coleslaw. But like with many tastes, as an adult I find that I also like slaw made with a vinegar dressing.

A couple of summers ago when we had more cabbage than we could eat straight out of the garden, Mom gave me a winter slaw recipe. When I pulled out some of the frozen results to serve at a writing retreat a few months ago, one of the other writers rejoiced. She said it was just what she had grown up with in southern Indiana. I, also, grew up in southern Indiana, so I’ve decided this must be titled Hoosier Winter Slaw.

Like with most foods I prepare, I substitute freely. For example, I don’t know that I’ve ever had red peppers on hand to use, but I have added cucumbers instead. Yes, it’s a different flavor, but it works.

If you like vinegar-based slaw, keep this recipe to use with this spring’s cabbage crop.

Hoosier Winter Slaw

3 lbs. shredded cabbage
2 chopped onions
2 chopped green peppers
2 chopped red peppers
1 TBSP salt
1 C vinegar
1 C water
2 C sugar
2 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. mustard seed

Mix chopped vegetables in a large bowl. On the stove, Mix remaining ingredients and bring to boil Pour over vegetables. Chill then freeze.

Please keep in mind that it’s always safest to avoid the use of plastics in cooking or storing anything that is hot or warm as the heat can draw out toxins from the plastic. So mix this in a glass or stainless steel bowl. If your freezer container is plastic, don’t fill it until the slaw is well chilled.

This week’s mealtime garden goodness: potatoes, broccoli and cabbage

I haven’t had much reason to cook recently since we’ve been out of the house so often during meal time. Last night, however, we invited a friend to join us and I drew from our store of garden goodies for the meal.

Our main course was braised paprika chicken with broccoli, prepared with one of our frozen bags of broccoli. Braising a meat helps to keep it moist and flavorful which definitely was the case with this recipe.

The side dishes were a potato cake made from a combination of our red and white potatoes and cole slaw, which I had made this summer and frozen. The only vegetable for the meal that I had bought at the store was onions.

The taste? The veggies were all great, although the chicken dish was a little over-salted, which Jim must have commented on at least three times. He’s usually the one adding salt to the meal. The next time if I dredge the chicken in a mixture that contains salt, I’ll be sure to also use a low-sodium broth so it doesn’t overpower us.

Christmas blessings to you all!

Easy cooking for a Friday evening

I’m at another writing retreat so once again I chose the easy way to feed myself and my writer friends. Last night we ate two of my favorite dishes—Swiss chard lasagna and winter cole slaw.

The Swiss chard lasagna recipe originated with the Moosewood Cookbook that a friend gave to me 20 years ago. Their recipe is for spinach lasagna. I substituted my garden chard (my chard is even more beautiful in the cold weather; its flesh is sturdier and ribbons of yellow, white and red wind vibrantly through the green), my own preserved tomato sauce and added more parmesan cheese than they called for. This is one of those dishes you can assemble in a baking dish the day before so it’s simple to cook when you’re hungry. The results? Here’s what my friends rated it:
Lin: 10
Mary: 10

Since I ate the last of my garden lettuce this week, I pulled some winter cole slaw out of the freezer for the salad. It’s one of those vinegar recipes my mom gave me a couple of years ago when I told her I had more cabbage than I could eat. I think it’s quite tasty and I know it’s healthy since cabbage is in the cruciferous vegetable family, that gang of cancer fighters that I go to for support. Cabbage is also a great supplier of Vitamin C, folate, manganese, potassium and dietary fiber. My husband prefers creamy cole slaw, so instead of subjecting him to my freezer slaw, I brought it to a more appreciative crowd. Here’s what the writers rated it:

Lin: 10
Mary: 10

And yes, we did have dessert. I had Cushaw left from Thanksgiving week since that’s what I used to make our pumpkin pie. My husband clued me in that this southern heirloom squash actually makes tastier pie than pumpkin; he was right. So I made the leftover puree into pumpkin bread, or in this case, Cushaw bread. Topped with a little cream cheese, it’s an excellently moist and slightly sweet dessert. It’s not bad for breakfast either. Here are the ratings:

Lin: 10+
Mary: 10+

Okay, maybe I should have asked Lin and Mary separately for more honest ratings, but I think it’s safe to say from their reactions they really did enjoy the food.