Life in my kitchen starts at about 8:30 PM the night before. There is a need for coffee in the morning. Good, hot, strong coffee. This means filling the Mr. Coffee with water and grounds and setting the delayed start so that at 6:00 in the morning the coffee will brew. If it is a hot humid summer night the ceiling fan is left on at the lowest setting to give the cats a breeze to sleep by. Felix the Cat is known to sleep on the kitchen floor in the summer. His other favorite locale is the upstairs bathroom rug.

Morning comes and I wander down the stairs in search of caffeine. Get out the half-and-half from the fridge and cups for coffee. I have a lot of coffee mugs. These have been gifts to me and from my children over the years mostly from places visited such as Puerto Rico, California, Cape Cod, and more. After the coffee is poured the meowing cats must be fed their ½ can of cat-food. Squeaky, also known as Little Kitty, is very loud until she gets her dish. Felix hangs around but is often more interested in going outdoors first. The kitchen door is the one most traveled between the home and the world at large.

The kitchen also houses a sink full of dirty dishes from the previous day, or days! In this household it is the man of the house’s chore to wash dishes. This is fabulous! Doing dishes has been the least favorite housework chore all my life. As a single parent for ten years I was blessed to live in apartments that had an automatic dishwasher. Sometimes when I sense that my husband is feeling overly stressed and tired I will wash up the dishes. Lately they have piled up because the morning routine was changed when we rehabbed our upstairs bathroom and now shower upstairs. For ten years in this home it was the ¾ bath off the kitchen that was used. This allowed my husband to be downstairs before dressing for work and he could do dishes without getting water on his work clothes. So when I observed that this had changed, he, like the wonderful husband that he is, has been making it a point to take care of the dishes each morning. I usually am in the kitchen before him and put away the dishes from the drain.

(How do people write to make these tedious activities sound interesting?)

The protein shakes are whipped up, my workbag is packed with crackers and fruit and the latest book. Sometimes the kitchen serves as a workplace for me and my laptop. I check my email; I pay the bills and balance the checkbook; I write an essay for my new blog adventure or just play solitaire. The last of the coffee is drunk and the kitchen is left alone. In its solitude it keeps watch over our food and our kitty. It is visited by Little Kitty who comes to nibble at the canned food in the two bowls, to lap up the water, and to jump through the pet door to the basement. Little Kitty entertains the appliances by chasing around a moth or a piece of onion skin it finds on the floor. (I may not be the greatest housekeeper.)

I return at the end of my work day. I commute three minutes each way. I should walk but that means packing up my workbag differently. I could bicycle but that means packing up my workbag differently. And I have too many totes and handbags to take into consideration so when I settle on one for the month or season I need to stick with it. For at least a week or so.

Back to the kitchen…The cook book with the eggplant recipe is sitting open on the counter where it has been for the past three days. Big Kitty (Felix) comes in with me looking for more food. The hook on the basement door awaits my bag and purse. There are no dirty dishes this afternoon. I pour a glass of iced tea and re-read the recipe. I have 53 cookbooks in view in my kitchen located on various shelves. In addition there are several notebooks that are filled with recipe printouts and clippings. There are a few books on food science and housekeeping in general. Sounds like a fifties housewife! This cookbook is a Better Homes and Gardens collection. I have liked their selections/collections over the years. Lately they have moved away from the canned soup ingredient dishes which I appreciate. I assemble food from time to time but don’t like using condensed soups anymore.

I bring the cookbook with me to the fridge to get the eggs and milk, cheese, and wheat-germ. That will make an interesting breading for the eggplant. Don’t forget the eggplant. I have stored them in the fridge but am not certain that is the best place for them. Hmmm, I’ll have to look that up. I like kitchen windows. I do not have one over the sink which is what I prefer, but two nice sized ones over the worktable that keeps the breadbox, the beautiful red embroideried catchall, and a large old-fashioned scale from my husband’s childhood kitchen. Here I stand peeling and slicing eggplant. I bought the eggplant at the farmer’s market because it was local and in season. Now I needed to use it so as not to waste it. This will be a meatless dinner but should be filling. Baked breaded eggplant with a tomato sauce topped with freshly snipped basil and feta cheese. It turns out nicely. After slicing the one small eggplant and one largish fingerling eggplant I will dredge them in the egg mixture and coat them with a mixture of ½ cup parmesan and ½ cup wheat-germ with some dried basil in there. This recipe is from the book Home for Dinner, 170 Family-Favorite Weeknight Recipes. It is a Better Homes and Garden collection from 1998. I picked this book up for $4.97 way back when from a Service Merchandise type store, now defunct. Bake the eggplant slices on a greased baking sheet for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees until crispy. And they do turn crispy. Serve topped with tomato sauce. I made my own as I don’t use jarred sauce anymore. I put 1 cup canned diced tomatoes and ½ cup tomato sauce in a small pot, added Italian Seasonings, and simmered. Before that I sautéed one clove diced garlic in the pot. After breading the eggplant I had cheese/wheat-germ mixture leftover and I added that to the sauce. I forgot to put in the red pepper from the recipe but it turned out just fine. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Before putting that in to bake and leaving the kitchen to its own devices. I went out to the backyard and sat with a book waiting for the husband to call saying he was on his way home. He calls me every time. It’s sweet. The call comes and I return to the kitchen. I put the baking sheet in the oven. I make a small salad for each of us and set the table. We will eat at the kitchen table tonight. Often we eat in front of the television or sometimes outside in the nice weather. The table is cleared, dessert is eaten, and we again leave the kitchen to itself.

That is most of the activity in the kitchen. I do not have a dessert to bake as there is still carrot cake in the fridge. We will not sit at the table to parallel play on our laptops this evening because we are too tired to think. Before bed the coffee pot is set again, my book is laid on the table to remember to take with tomorrow, and we take turns calling for Felix to come in for the night. He finally does.

Tomorrow it begins again.

I’ve been thinking about fried okra. I think this is because most people don’t like okra and think of it as a slimy vegetable. It can be slimy. Other people think of it as just a thickener for gumbo. I remember fried okra in my childhood. It was not a common dish but very distinct. I remember my mother cooking it in that big heavy skillet of hers. So when the hospital’s greenhouse listed okra among its greenhouse farmer’s market offerings my eyes lit up!  Yay! Here’s my chance to make fried okra. ‘Tis the season as I have been seeing fried okra recipes around the internet lately.

The opening day of the farmer’s market did not have the okra. As it turns out the okra came out after I had gone on to a meeting. So I asked the greenhouse coordinator to save me a batch next time. In the pouring rain I get myself over to the greenhouse getting drenched in the process. I find one customer in front of me with bags of okra. Oh no! And just as I spy out that situation, the greenhouse coordinator says “I need to save one of these bags…for Nancy” and he hands it directly to me. Did he not remember until he saw me? We’ll never know for sure. But what we do know is that I have a batch of fresh picked okra and I’ve put fried okra on the menu for dinner.

What was to be for dinner that night was a question? I have too many ideas and meals that I want to make. I have fresh eggplant from the same farmer’s market. I had cooked up two of the fingerlings in a grilled ratatouille last week. Peeling them and slicing and then tossing them in the grill pan with a chopped onion, summer squash, baby bella mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes. I found a recipe for crispy eggplant with a tomato and feta sauce. The picture looks good and I have all the ingredients. But that would be a meatless meal and the hubby likes meat for dinner. What to do? The okra solves the problem. Grilled sausages for the main course and fried okra for the veggie. I will also serve the ever present cucumber salad pickling itself in the fridge.

Hubby has not had fried okra before. He has most likely only had okra hidden in gumbo once in a while. I assure him it will be a wonderful treat. (I’m crossing my fingers that he will like it!)

First I gather the ingredients and equipment. I have to run out to the camper trailer to borrow some additional cooking oil. I’ve got to make a grocery list. I have “shopped” my trailer for mouthwash, paper towels, aluminum foil, and dish sponge already this week!

Gather all ingredients, slice okra, dip in egg beaten with milk, dredge in cornmeal  (I added a handful of flour as well; not sure it’s really needed), fry in hot oil in batches.

Here’s hubby tasting his first bite of fried okra. After which he made a dipping sauce of sour cream, mustard, and hot sauce. Not a bad idea.

       

Truth be told: I’ve never made this dish before! But I went about it with the absolute confidence that it would turn out like I remembered. And it did!

Go forth and cook!

I make a good quiche. My family loves my quiche. The exception is my daughter who for some inexplicable reason became lactose intolerant since college. I don’t know how I started making quiches. My mother never made quiche. In the Midwest in the 70s when I grew up quiche was not a common dish. I think that only in the last ten years did I get interested in making quiche when I began to be a serious student of cookbooks and having had some quiche at some church potlucks here in New England. It has become an easy dinner and “go to” dish when it is difficult to decide what to cook.

I have never been very good at pie crusts. I loved that one could buy the rolled up refrigerated crusts, first by Pillsbury and now store brands as well. Before that, there was a box of pie crust mix. This was as difficult as making crust from scratch. I also used the frozen crusts already rolled out into the aluminum pie tins. The bonus from those was the pie tin that could be used over again. My sister always made her own pastry crust. My mother had several recipes including a “no fail” crust that I had great success at failing at! One year my son and I made two pies, one with store bought crust and one with homemade. The difference in quality was insignificant according to the family taste-testers. Then my son went off to the Peace Corps and a fellow Volunteer shared with him a pie crust recipe using apple cider vinegar and egg. That recipe is a keeper. I admit I still buy the refrigerated kind from time to time for “emergency meals”. But that recipe makes three crusts and when I make a batch I have pie crusts in the freezer if I haven’t made too many pies. I either line an aluminum pie pan so it is already set up or roll them out and put them in a nine-in round cake pan until frozen and then put them in a freezer bag. They lie (or lay?) nice and flat until needed. Why I use this recipe? I can make it in my food processor!

Pie pastry from Emily, RPCV from Armenia (2011)

1 Cup Butter; 2 ½ Cups flour; ½ Tab. Salt: mix until fine meal

In a one cup measuring cup: 2 1/2Tab. Apple cider vinegar; 1 egg and mix with fork. Add cold water until all liquid reaches a full cup.

Slowly mix into flour/butter meal. Add small amounts of the liquid. You will have some leftover.

Makes three pie crusts.

   

My quiche recipe: 4 eggs and 2 cups milk or cream or half and half or combination thereof. For other ingredients add whatever you want. One of my favorites is spinach and roasted red peppers. I usually use frozen spinach that I pan sear to dry. Drain the red peppers. Add a few grinds of fresh black pepper and a few shakes of dried red pepper flakes. Another favorite is bacon, onion, and cheese. There are so many combinations to try. I have made a Greek themed one with black olives, oregano, and feta cheese. I may have added spinach to that one as well. Quiche Lorraine is made with bacon and cream. Cheese was a later addition. The amount of added ingredients should not overflow the pie crust. Bake 425 for 15 minutes and then lower temp to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. For this quiche I used fresh spinach that I chopped and two mini red peppers that I sliced. I added two slices of fresh ham that I diced as well.

Served with a nice green salad and a glass of chilled white wine this made a wonderful summer dinner. There will be leftovers. Perhaps for breakfast?

Since starting to write about food I feel this urge to take photos of all the food I prepare and keep lists of what food I eat throughout the day. But the purpose of this blog is to talk about thinking about food and recipes and how it plays a part of ordinary life. After all, one must eat, and if one has a family, must feed those folks too. I think about food a lot. I think about food in the morning: “What to fix for supper tonight?” “What can I take for lunch today?” “Do I need to go to the store?” “Which store?” I often look through my recipe books and find new things that look like they would be fun to make or sound really good tasting. I usually have two or three off the shelf and on the counter so I can peruse them when I come home from work. I do tend to pass up very fussy recipes that require too many steps or unfamiliar ingredients. I tweak some of the fussier ones to make them more ordinary kitchen friendly.

I recently went through three of my cookbooks to mark out the recipes that I would be interested in making. I listed the name and page number on an index card. I would like to leave my children the recipes that I use the most as a memory. I could tape the index cards in the front cover for reference. The problem is I like different recipes from different books and I don’t want to copy and put everything in a notebook, or two or three or four! What to do? Well, to be honest I do compile recipe clippings and print-outs. I have three notebooks already and have just started on a fourth. I cooked basics for my two children when they were growing up. I did try to recollect those and put them in a notebook that I gave my daughter when she got married. I don’t think she knows where it is at this time. But it is in her house somewhere and if she is like me she will drift back to her upbringing as she gets older.  The basics are spaghetti with meat crumbs, baked chicken leg quarters, best ever chocolate cake, eggs in a frame, lettuce salad and a snack cake I got off the back of a flour package. Oh let’s not forget the Fleishman’s bread cinnamon roll recipe for Christmas mornings.

One weekend I was poring over the books wanting to bake a cake or muffins or some sweet. I chose in the end the snack cake but used white wheat flour. It bakes in an 8×8 pan and uses no eggs or butter. It is quite tasty and easy for a bite of chocolate when desired. There were too many choices from the books which drove me to an old staple (from one of my notebooks of recipe clippings).

But not every meal must come out of a cookbook.

For one of our weeknight dinners we were grilling a filet of salmon. It was one filet from a package of frozen. I had bought fresh asparagus and had found two recipes, one with pine nuts and one with lemon zest. But I just threw it in the grill pan and my husband grilled it along with the salmon. It was quite tasty with nothing added. The salmon had a bit of pepper on it and that was all. For the starch I “nuked” two smallish russet potatoes and we piled those with butter, sour cream, and freshly chopped chives. A yummy meal all in 20 minutes. And for dessert I whipped a bit of heavy cream and put it on top of bowls of fresh raspberries.  A perfect example of whole food simply prepared that is satisfying and enjoyable, both to prepare and to consume.

Fish was known as brain food. Food for thought.

On my quest to eat more whole/real foods I have been reading ingredient lists and looking for whole grains. So I bought white wheat flour to replace my all-purpose flour. Whole grains are better for you even though I usually buy unbleached flour. I don’t know if the whole/real food folks were bakers before they went healthy but there is something to be said for all-purpose.

Pizza night. My husband and I decided we would make pizza. He wanted to make a clam pizza that he remembers from a pizzeria in New Haven. I have a thriving basil plant so I think Margherita. I make the dough using white wheat flour. Half goes into my husband’s hands and half into mine. We hand stretch the dough. I want mine thinner so I get out the rolling pin and make a good circle and then pre-bake that for about ten minutes in a very hot oven (450), pricking it all over with a fork first. Hubby follows suit but his is more artisan in shape. Meanwhile we prepare our toppings. He uses canned clams, butter, garlic, oregano, and Romano cheese. I use garlic, fresh basil, tomato slices, and mozzarella cheese, diced and sliced.

Mine’s pretty; his is artistic. We bake them and are very excited about our pizzas. The first bite tells my husband that the crust is not at all what he wanted it to be. Whole wheat crust is thick and not flaky. One would have to adjust to the taste. It is rather like a thick cracker. My husband announces that he will make his own crust next time. I’m thinking whole wheat pastry flour might be the answer. We will eat the leftovers cut up in small bites like appetizers. It wasn’t that the pies didn’t turn out. It was just that they were not enjoyable.

Moral of the story: I am a baker and I will on occasion use more processed flours in order to enjoy the goods I make. I bake sweets much less than before so when I do decide to make a cake or whatever, it should be decadent!

I am not in my salad days being a woman of a certain age with almost solid white hair. My wonderful husband calls me a platinum blond! “Salad days” is a Shakespearean expression referring to youthfulness, inexperience, and the enthusiasm that accompanies innocence. I am in the salad days of this blogging experience and the recipes this week are salads. We are in a heatwave defined by three consecutive days of 90 plus temperatures and, I believe, a certain level of humidity. In this type of heat it is best to not heat up the kitchen with a lot of cooking and the cold salads are refreshing as well.

So first of all there is the standard cucumber-onion salad of my youth. Mom would slice up a cucumber and an onion, put it in a bowl, and cover with a mixture of water, sugar, and white vinegar. She may have added salt and pepper but I do not really remember. This bowl would be placed on the kitchen table while supper was prepared and I would sneak nibbles until supper. I believe my siblings also would pick at the cucumbers as well. I have looked at a number of recipes for this and most, if not all, call for oil and heating the concoction before pouring on the cucumber-onion combination. My mom never used oil nor do I remember her heating anything. So even though I have looked at those recipes to get an idea of the proportions I never add the oil. My basic recipe is equal parts sugar, water, and white vinegar. I add dill as well although this time I added sliced mini red peppers to mimic a recipe I found in Food Network Magazine. The beauty of this salad is that one can always keep adding slices of cucumbers and onions as they get eaten out of the liquid.

                                       Next I make a cucumber watermelon salad that I try to remember from an advertisement for feta cheese in a magazine last summer. I even bought a mint plant for fresh mint leaves. This is a simple combination of diced watermelon, diced cucumbers, crumbled feta, and mint leaves. I drizzled it with juice from half of a lemon and the lime infused olive oil I purchased from one of those specialty oil and vinegar shoppes while visiting Chatham.

But the salad I was looking forward to making was a succotash salad. My inspiration was the salad shown in Food Network Magazine. I remember my mom making succotash; she just cooked corn and Lima beans together. I fancy mine up with sauteed onions and bacon. But this is a salad. I had made a salad with corn, green beans, and zucchini found in the newspaper earlier this summer. And my darling granddaughter loves to eat green beans and corn so I thought this would be fun to make even though she is not at my home for this meal. I blanched three ears of corn instead of using them raw. I added a sprinkling of red pepper flakes and dried chives, because I had no red onion, and I do not always like onions in salads. (The cuke-onion salad above is a primary exception). The dressing was honey, red wine vinegar, and olive oil. I later drizzled the lime olive oil for a brighter taste.

                          

3 ears corn, blanch, and remove kernels; about two cups each frozen or fresh green beans and Lima beans, thaw and cook in boiling water for about 3 minutes; 1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved; one diced avocado; a handful of fresh basil leaves,sliced. Mix all together and pour on dressing and toss to coat. I think you can use whatever homemade vinaigrette type dressing you prefer, about 1/2 cup. And add freshly ground pepper and a pinch of salt (if you use added salt). For using the leftovers I added diced ham for a second meal.

Keep cool and eat your vegetables!

Hello again.

First of all let me correct the sugar content on the cheesecake recipe on the previous post. It is one cup not two cups. I was in my kitchen with all the ingredients nicely at room temperature but that sugar amount was nagging at the back of my mind. This sent me scurrying to hunt for the original clipping. I found it in the third notebook in which I have collected clippings and printouts of recipes over the years.

So I made the cheesecake batter and sprayed my mini muffin pans with cooking spray. This was 24 and there was still  enough batter to make a whole cheesecake as well. I did substitute Hershey Special Dark chocolate for the German chocolate since the discount grocery store I shop at did not carry German chocolate. I think that a milk chocolate bar could be used for a slightly milder flavor. The mini-muffins took 30 minutes to bake. Then I was faced with how to remove them from the pans. I found a spoon was the most effective after letting them cool for a few minutes. I have put these in a freezer bag and have been eating the whole cheesecake that I baked in a 5-7 inch casserole dish. It is very creamy.

My goal is to have real food ready for assembly for weeknight meals. So now I have a bit of dessert. This recipe could also make two 8 inch round cakes. In the future I will make a whole cheesecake, cut into wedges, wrap each wedge, and throw them in a freezer bag. Less fuss that way.

I have been reading the book 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake. I like the basic recipes she has in the back of the book and have made the onion soup mix. I too am a fan of eating more real food and less processed foods. With that goal my husband and I did not buy any crackers or chips this weekend. So what to eat with cheese? I asked him if he wanted me to make crackers. He said “is that possible?” So I pull out Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and make crackers. I used half rye flour (because I had a half cup left in my freezer). They came out crispy and fine. But there is no real reason to make one’s own crackers unless you can’t find crackers at the store with real ingredients in them. I would suggest making them yourselves once for the experience. My son has made homemade cheezits in the past and they were tasty but the amount of work and mess…I am not a whole food purist. This is why there are brownies cooling on my counter made from a Ghiradelli’s box mix. in another post I will tell you about the great brownie search.

Happy home cooking everyone!

I needed to clean out the fridge in preparation for a grocery shopping trip and because we had been away camping for the past 4 weekends. Here’s what I found: two half cartons of sour cream, the real stuff without additives, 1/3 jar capers, 1/2 jar horseradish, 1/2 jar mint jelly, a pickle jar with one small pickle in it, wheatgerm, and instant yeast. I had two jars of salsa which had passed their time also. There’s more but this is the stuff that needs to be paid attention to.

I am thinking of the baked good to make this weekend. I am thinking of cheese cake bites. I have been reading books and other websites on making things ahead of time and having the homemade food ready to assemble into meals. What has been on my mind does not use the above ingredients. Eons ago I found a crust-less cheesecake recipe in the newspaper. I have memorized the ingredients: 3 pkg cream cheese, 5 eggs, 2 cups sugar, bar of German chocolate, and vanilla extract. I will bake it in mini muffin pans and when cool plan to pop them into a freezer bag so we can have a little dessert once and awhile without eating the entire cheesecake. I am not a food scientist so I am not sure how long they’ll keep. But it is cheesecake so how long does it need to last?

My mom did not ever make a cheesecake to my memory. So when I had my own kitchen as a junior and senior in college I bought the Betty Crocker no-bake cheesecake mix and this is what I made. When I first saw New York style cheesecake I was suspicious. I mean, really, baked cheese! But my palate has matured and I no longer like mediocre cheesecakes or the no-bake type.

The cheesecake above is a marbled version. Melt the chocolate and mix into 1/3 of the cheesecake batter made by beating the other four ingredients until creamy and smooth.In a 9 inch buttered dish it takes 30-35 minutes to bake at 350 degrees. I imagine the mini muffin versions will take a shorter time. I will have to let you know after I make them.

Gentle reader, please bear with me as I learn the way to blog. I need a blogger class. Usually I can read and learn but on the computer I find I need to see how and then I can learn the process.