Lentil Soup

~ nancyruth ~ 8 Comments

 

I have been browsing through food magazines while walking the treadmill. The problem with this is that I get too many ideas and want to make them all at the same time. Last week I found an article in Rachel Ray’s magazine on One Grocery Bag: 3 Great Meals. This was from March of last year. One of the menus was lentil soup with pita and whipped feta. Sounded interesting. I have a bag of lentils in the pantry and feta in the fridge. So what’s the problem?

Before I get to make that meal, I am browsing through one of her magazines from 2014 and find other interesting recipes that I want to make and have the ingredients (or most of them). One of them is a pasta with chimichurri and tomatoes. This is fabulous because in my “Want to Try” recipe clippings I have a chimichurri recipe that I was trying to figure out what it should go with. Pasta!

But one thing at a time!

For Monday night’s meal I go with the lentil soup. I have leftover chicken so this will not be a Meatless Monday. I use the recipe as a guideline only. I use chicken broth and add potatoes and celery. I want to make a lentil stew as Hubby likes stews better than soups.

  • 20160613_201937620_iOS1 cup rinsed lentils
  • 4 cups chicken broth plus two cups water
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1 medium potato
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • about 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • about one cup cooked chicken, diced or shredded
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2-1 cup crumbled feta
  • fresh parsley for garnish

Chop the vegetables. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large pot. Throw all the chopped vegetables, including garlic, into this pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rinsed lentils and chicken broth along with the cumin. Add the chicken and bring to a boil.

Cover the pot and let simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils are tender. This could take a bit longer, up to 40 minutes.

Now for the whipped feta. I used my immersion blender instead of a food processor because I only had 1/2 cup of cheese. I put this in a glass measuring cup and added 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Blend/whip/process until smooth and fluffy. Mine was more smooth and creamy than fluffy. I added about 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano as well and drizzled a bit of lime infused olive oil on top. I added some parsley for presentation.

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I served this with Keebler Townhouse Pita Crackers instead of the toasted Pita bread wedges suggested in the magazine. The soup and this made a nice supper. The dip was “grown up” per Hubby and is definitely worth making again. I think I would add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to the soup next time. I forgot to add chopped parsley to the soup for the picture. When I added it to my soup it gave it a nice fresh flavor addition. This is parsley growing out on my porch. Much nicer than the dried stuff!

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Dinner is served!

 

What we ate this past week…

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

This past week I had not been terribly inspired to try new recipes or cook elaborate meals. But we do go to work, Hubby and I, and come home and need to eat. For the most part I am trying to eat better, and less, for health and well-being. I usually get two to three days into the week and BOOM!, I fall back into eating too much or having that extra glass of wine or sweet thing that sets off the indigestion or sets back the good efforts I have made.

That said, I have been making protein shakes for breakfast and taking a decent lunch with plenty of fruit for snacking at work. I have a bag of string cheese in the small fridge in my office for a healthy snack mid-morning. One morning I cooked up an egg with a piece of ham with a bit of frozen spinach for color. It took just a few minutes so I am not sure why I don’t do that more often.

Another hallmark of the week is that I have logged 10000 steps one of the days! I did this by walking to work (7/10th of a mile) and walking a mile on the treadmill during my lunch break. AND carrying my iPhone on my person to track the steps. A Fitbit would be easier but it’s just an extra bit of technology that duplicates the App on the smartphone. I do not walk to work everyday because I need to give my ankle a chance to rest and sometimes because I am just plain lazy!

So what did we eat?

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Monday was barbequed chicken baked in the oven. I used my homemade sauce (It’s different every time!). I baked the chicken and poured on the sauce after 30 minutes and then set it under the broiler after 20 more minutes to brown them. I served this with a spinach/romaine salad topped with strawberries, toasted pecans, and feta cheese, dressed with homemade Green Goddess dressing.

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Tuesday was a quinoa salad made with the two leftover pieces of chicken from Monday’s dinner. I found a fabulous quick cook quinoa/wild rice mix that cooks up in 10 minutes and there are no additives or spice mix in it. This is the multi-grain crunch salad from the back of the box. I forgot to use chicken broth to cook the quinoa and just used water. I did not measure the vegetables but added plenty along with my own addition of Craisins and walnuts.

  • make the equivalent of 1 1/2 to 2 cups quinoa/rice/grain mixture
  • add 1 cup cooked diced or shredded chicken
  • 1/3 cup chopped carrots (I used prepared shredded carrots and chopped them up further.)
  • 1/3 cup diced celery (I used 2 large stalks)
  • 1/3 cup diced red pepper (I used 6 mini peppers of varying sizes and added 2 yellow ones as well.)
  • 1/3 cup citrus vinaigrette (I made about 1/2 cup using 1/4 cup of the Persian Lime olive oil and the juice of one lemon. I chopped up fresh chives and thyme and parsley to make a few tablespoons, add a bit of kosher salt and pepper.)
  • 1/4 up Craisins and 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cook the quinoa, chop the vegetables, add the chicken, and toss with the dressing. Super simple and super delicious. And super good for you! I made double and was able to take some for lunches. It can be served warm or cold.

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Wednesday was a “BAD DAY”: Super Nachos! But served with guacamole for the vegetable! For these nachos I browned about 1/2 pound of ground beef seasoning it with 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, a pinch of salt, and a few drops of hot sauce. Pile on cheese and jalapeno peppers and bake for 10 minutes. I make guacamole with garlic powder, diced tomato, lime juice, and a spoonful or so of sour cream. Oh yeah, don’t forget the avocado!

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Thursday was a re-run of the quinoa salad. For this supper I put fresh baby spinach leaves in the bowls and then piled on the salad. This is a great salad. One could switch it up and use rice or lentils or barley instead of quinoa for a nice summer supper.

Friday was the start of a camping weekend. We had our usual Subway grinders for Friday with chips. This lets us get to the campground, set up, and then have a supper ready to eat. For Saturday I had par-cooked (read that as “boiled the heck out of”) chicken leg quarters that we would finish cooking on the grill. I forgot that they were on the stove so they were more than par-cooked and turned out a tad dry but good enough with a Texas BBQ Rub. I did end up with a nice rich chicken stock out of it though! We made a foil packet of potatoes with butter, onions, and cheese as well.The best meal of the camping was the cheeseburgers for lunch. But here is a pic of our dinners:

So now it’s Sunday and were home again. What to cook this week?

Sunday in my Kitchen

~ nancyruth ~ 7 Comments

It’s a rainy Sunday and I feel inspired to do all sorts of things. First I started with my closet. I set up ten “outfits” so I could just grab something out of the closet first thing in the morning for work. I have too many clothes so sometimes the decision making stumps me. It’s just clothes! But still!

We are in need of more ketchup and the homemade stuff is so good. I pull out the crock pot and throw in the ingredients, Special Sauce. Here is the recipe that I posted earlier.

It occurs to me that I have a container of neglected Sourdough Starter in the fridge that needs feeding. I hope it is still good. What to do with the “pour off”? Ha! I saved a fellow blogger Kristina’s post on country bread, Classic Country Bread. Her recipe is made with a poolish; I’ll substitute the starter for the poolish. I also don’t have a bread machine so I’ll just knead it in my KitchenAid with the bread hook. I have more whole wheat flour than all-purpose so I use 1 cup wheat flour and 1/1/2 cups all-purpose and two teaspoons instant yeast.  I just mix it all in the mixer, knead it for 5 minutes and place in a greased bread pan to rise.Here’s hoping it turns out okay!

I have fresh herbs that are growing nicely. I was looking through a Food magazine last week while walking on the treadmill (I have got to lose some weight!) and saw a recipe for Green Goddess dressing. I remember that from way back. So I look around on the internet for a recipe. There are plenty. This is my modification of the one from Epicurious, Buttermilk Green Goddess Dressing. I do not have anchovy paste, nor fresh tarragon. I leave the former out and use 1 teaspoon dried tarragon. I mix it all in a blender instead of the food processor.

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Not everything has to be from scratch. I put together a tray of cheese and crackers to take to the Refugee Coalition reception. And I feel so honored, the wife wants me to show her how I made the Baharat spice mixture: Timman Z’affaran. Its not about me but I am so pleased that it was so well received!

So at the end of the day here’s what I have added to my kitchen:

A wonderful artisan bread that served as our supper!

Green goddess dressing and homemade ketchup. This means I need to eat more salads this week. And some of the ketchup will be taken on our next camping trip to have on or cheeseburgers. Good eating!

Pork Pies

~ nancyruth ~ 5 Comments
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Pictured here are just pie dough and jam, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar: not the recipe below!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a little while now. I have these in my freezer, we ate some for a supper, and even took some camping and toasted them up on the grill. The pastry is from a recipe that I copied out of a book The Make Ahead Cook. I don’t remember the author. I found this in my “want to make” recipe notebook.

I had some seasoned pork that my stepdaughters’ aunt puts together for pork pie. My youngest stepdaughter made pork pie for us one time and it is delicious! I found a recipe for pork pie in the Yankee magazine after the girls told me of it. I had never heard of it before. It is ground pork seasoned with onion, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. I think each family recipe is probably a variation on that. Hubby mentioned that I needed more puff pastry so I could use that with the seasoned pork which the family calls “gratin”.  I did not have any puff pastry so this recipe came in handy. And its a bit different than regular pie pastry. Here are the ingredients for the crusts:

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  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  •  8 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces (the original recipe called for shortening)
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 5 tablespoons vegetable oil

A food processor is a fabulous appliance for making pastry dough.

20160526_203351193_iOSProcess flour, salt, and baking powder in food processor until combined, about 3 seconds. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. (I did not cut the butter into small enough pieces so ended up with chunks that made the rolling out of the circles a little more difficult than should be).Add broth and eggs until dough comes together. This took more than the 5 pulses in the original recipe. Transfer dough to a lightly floured board. Knead by hand to form a smooth ball and then divide into 16 pieces.

Roll each piece into a circle of about 6 inches diameter. Place 1/4 cup filling on half, brush edges with water, fold over and seal. I have to admit my 6 inch circles were approximate and “circle-like”! Half way through I ran out of the prepared pork (already cooked) and made a quick extra filling by cooking some breakfast sausages and scrambled eggs with a touch of grated cheese. (The original recipe called for a meat mixture made with 1 1/2 pounds of meatloaf mix.)

These get baked on cookie sheets preheated in a 425 degree F oven. When the pans are heated drizzle 2 Tablespoons of oil on the pan before placing the pies on them. The original recipe said to brush the other Tablespoon of oil on the tops. I sprayed them with cooking spray and for the second pan I did not drizzle the oil. The oil drizzled pans did produce a browner, crisper crust. So it might be worth the effort to do so next time as well.

I sprinkled paprika on the scrambled egg ones to distinguish them from the pork. This is a recipe that I will use again. It made 14, not 16, but that was the extent of the filling available. The crust is flavorful, like a biscuit, but thin and crisp. They are definitely not just pie dough and filling. These will be handy for a grab and go lunch or super easy supper on a busy night, or when I am just too lazy to cook!

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Pasta with clam sauce

~ nancyruth ~ 4 Comments

I am finding that in the summer time I am having less motivation to sit with my computer to write. When I return home from work I want to sit out in my backyard soaking in the warm weather now that it has finally arrived. But we do still have to eat…

This recipe is inspired by my Hubby. Who now insists he has made his version for me not too long ago. I think I would remember that! He has talked about it but I don’t remember him making it. But I have just had one of those birthdays that end in O as in “0h, no, I moving into another decade!”

Clams and garlic over angel hair pasta is what he told me. Since I am home first to prepare the meal for the three of us it is up to me to figure out how to put this together. Hubby bought four cans of clams hoping we would get to feed both girls (young women) but just one is coming for dinner tonight. 😦

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I gather together cans of clams, garlic, olive oil, onion, butter, fresh parsley. I love parsley; it adds greenery! The angel hair pasta nests are cool. These get cooked in a pot of boiling water while the clam sauce is prepared.

  • 4 cans of clams with juice
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 a large onion, chopped
  • 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2-3 Tablespoons of butter
  • scant 1/4 cup of flour
  • handful of fresh parsley
  • 7 nests of angel hair pasta cooked in 4 quarts of boiling water

Saute the onion and the garlic in the olive oil. Add salt and pepper as you like. Then add in the butter until melted. Sprinkle on the flour to make a roux. I am thinking this is needed because I will have four cans of clam juice to thicken. Then stir in the four un-drained cans of clams. Let this simmer until the pasta is ready and/or the family comes home. Throw in the parsley to add some color.

I serve this with a salad, Italian bread, and grated Parmesan cheese. We sit outside to eat our dinner, enjoy the warm evening breeze, and each other’s company.

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Beef Goulash

~ nancyruth ~ 7 Comments

And then there was a recipe that looked interesting and people to feed.

Not sure why I got out The Best Recipe Book from Cook’s Illustrated (1999) but I did. I was looking through soup recipes originally thinking about a lentil soup. I came across Beef Goulash (page 278) and as luck would have it, I had all the ingredients or a reasonable proximity thereof. Making this used up the remainder of my Hungarian Paprika from Soulard Market Spice Shop but it was worth it. Here is my version.

  • top sirloin butt or other beef steak cut into cubes, lean; Hubby estimates this as 10 ounces. It might be closer to 2 pounds. The original recipe called for 3 pounds,
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • bacon, 3-4 ounces
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 5 red mini-peppers, de-seeded and chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 cup homemade vegetable stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • bunch of baby carrots, halved; I think I used at least a dozen
  • 1/4 cup freshly minced parsley
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

I am not sure the weight of this beef. But it was plenty. Hubby had cut it into stew meat when he cut up a huge hunk of meat a while back. These were the bits and ends leftover from steaks.

I modified the recipe by cooking it in the crockpot. I do not usually have 3-4 hours to cook a stew on a weeknight. Goulash is good served over egg noodles and Hubby loves egg noodles. One girl was coming over as she is home from college for the summer. We like to feed her meat since her mom is vegetarian and this is her opportunity to be an omnivore. (I like meatless meals every so often but this evening was not the night for lentil soup.)

This took me 30 minutes in the morning to prep since I did take the time to brown the meat and cook the bacon. I freeze entire packages of bacon and hack off the ends as I need. This way the bacon is already diced. I also chopped up the vegetables and then just threw everything in the crockpot. The vegetables filled a four cup measure.

The aroma was marvelous as I walked in the door after work. Now for the chopping of the parsley. I love fresh herbs. And there are the plantings I just bought in the background to grow my own.20160519_214041540_iOS

I served this over egg noodles after stirring in the parsley and sour cream. For the future I would stir in some flour or cornstarch to thicken the broth, but it was fine. I also had leftovers for lunches. It was a hit with the family diners that evening. I served it with a small salad with blueberries and pecans.

 

 

Dining Al Fresco (or is it Fresca?)

~ nancyruth ~ 5 Comments

The sun came out this weekend. Yay! We bought dirt and planted the herbs and flower seeds for Four O’Clocks which rarely turns out. Four O’Clocks were in the front of the house where I grew up and I’ve been trying to get a bed going ever since I moved into this house. Some day?

When we bought dirt we came across the updated version of the Gas Grill that Hubby really likes. The one we have is breaking down bit by bit. So what the hey? We buy the new one. We also splurged on reclining zero gravity chairs, cheaply made, but at a great price!

Tonight we dine out. Cheeseburgers on the grill are a favorite and so simple to do. Hubby is the grill master!

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the new grill is in the background; and look who is under the table?

On or table here are our cheeseburgers on plain hamburger buns. The onion rings are store-brand ring shaped onion “cookies” since they are formed with diced onions. These were purchased on a whim, nothing to be proud of! We have homemade ketchup Special Sauce,  and a summer salad Salad Days. For this salad I drizzled a bit of Persian Lime Olive Oil, a squeeze of fresh lime, and a couple pinches of Fleur de Sel. The lime-mint combination is very refreshing as I found out when Hubby and I made a Mojito earlier in the week to experiment with cocktails.

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layers of watermelon, cucumber, chopped mint leaves, and feta cheese

The iPhone is on top of a speaker as the source of beautiful classical music to enjoy with our cheeseburgers. We ate. We watched the birds in the bushes. A bumblebee buzzed around the yard. And the cat lounged about under the table. A lovely way to end the weekend. Now it is back to the daily grind…but the Memorial Day three day weekend is coming up next! Yay!

Fresh, fresh fish

~ nancyruth ~ 4 Comments

 

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Just when I thought I had nothing to write about our neighbor left us a cooler full of freshly caught fish. He found a new fishing spot that has been very fruitful. I think these are trout.

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My mother would have just gotten in here and manhandled these without qualms. I am not my mother’s daughter regarding this. I don’t know how to clean and dress fish for cooking. Luckily Hubby loves to fish and even has a filet knife to do the job. I scoot around him and the fish entrails in the kitchen trying to get the “ooh, icky” grimace off my face. At one point I ask if what he was doing was the proper thing to do and he replies “Do you want me to do this?” with that “stop being a kitchen bully” tone of voice! Okay, yes, I want him to do this beheading and gutting, absolutely!

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Meanwhile I fix a bit of couscous and mixed vegetable. He decides to cook the fish on the grill so I go to the camping trailer to retrieve a foil grill pan for him to use. Once this is used it can be thrown away. Usually I do not use disposable pans but this is fish whose head and guts have been just removed and were swimming around that very morning. I get a brief glimpse into what vegetarians might feel when they think about meat. Maybe. Probably not. My sense is one of ickiness, not of moral outrage. I am an omnivore and I don’t plan to change.

Now Hubby removes the skin and then the bones. This is a delicate process. He does a better job than I do. Even though I have to pull one or two tiny bones out of a few the forkfuls I have put in my mouth. Nice tasting fish and we did not season it at all.

20160518_221330936_iOSHere Kitty waits for his bit of seafood! But this fish did not come out of the sea; is it still seafood? River food? Hmmm?

 

Puff tarts!

~ nancyruth ~ 2 Comments

These are totally inspired by Lana-Once Upon a Spice and her Pie Week: “Pop tarts”. I have made homemade pop tarts with a short crust pastry before but this time I am using the one sheet of puff pastry that is leftover in my freezer. So they don’t end up flat enough for the toaster, so they are jam puff tarts! I love pie, any kind of pie. Well, I am not that fond of key lime or rhubarb, but just about everything else.

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The ingredients

Roll the pastry. I actually did not even have a whole sheet of pastry. I rolled it thin to about 12 inch square  on a floured surface. After thawing it, of course! Cut that into 4 squares, heaped a large tablespoon of the jam (technically not a jam or jelly or preserves, but a fruit spread), rubbed water on the edges and folded and crimped the edges with a fork.

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And I poked each one in the middle with the fork.

Before putting them in the oven at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, I sprayed the tops with cooking spray and sprinkled on a very little bit of granulated sugar. I thought this would help them brown a little.

So does the water, cooking spray, and sugar make it five ingredients instead of two?

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Voila!

What to do with egg whites?

~ nancyruth ~ 4 Comments

20160504_214255930_iOSI have a cup of egg whites in my refrigerator taunting me to do something with them. I have these whites because Son made me a Parisien flan before he left for his job in Alaska. I showed him this  Parisien Flan from Nadia at Maison Travers and he made it for me! It was fabulous!

 

I’m thinking about a … (French word, meringue cake), it’ll come to me in a moment…Pavlova…Dacquoise! I describe this to Hubby and he looks at me with a blank face. I look through a few cookbooks for meringue recipes. Many of the recipes are for 2 egg whites with 2 cups of sugar, confectioners and granulated. That seems like a lot of sugar but sugar is important for the structure of a meringue. I have four egg whites so 2 cups of sugar will have to do. I suggest to Hubby that I could make espresso flavored meringue cookies and he says to go for it. I settle on adapting a recipe from Bakewise by Shirley Corriher. She explains the science behind the product. I do not have cream of tartar so must find a substitute: apparently 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice per egg white.

  • 4 egg whites
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup superfine sugar; made by processing regular granulated sugar in the food processor for one minute
  • 3/4 cup confectioners sugar (I didn’t have a full cup!)
  • 1 tablespoon espresso powder
  • 1 tablespoon Hersheys Special Dark Cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon flour

First I beat the egg whites and lemon juice with all but two tablespoons of the superfine sugar until stiff peaks formed.

Mix the rest of the dry ingredients to sprinkle on top of the beaten egg whites and fold in until incorporated. I confess that I do not like folding. I always worry about mixing too hard and flattening the mixture.

This is to be piped or spooned onto parchment paper and baked in a 200 degree (F) oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes. My oven is too small. I have three pans of meringue cookies and enough to make a nine inch circle for a Pavlova. I made this planning to dump a can of canned cherries mixed with sweetened yogurt on top and have a fancy dessert.

I don’t like my pastry bag so I just put huge spoonfuls on the pans. I don’t get marks for prettiness! These are baking away forever in the oven and I am on the phone with my sister when the timer goes off. I have never made meringues before, yes meringue topping for pies but not meringues. Smart phones are wonderful. I show her the meringues as I take them out of the oven and she says they look perfect. Now to let them cool. But wait, Hubby went in and took one off the tray. Yumm! They have a nice coffee flavor. Now I am not sure if cherries on top of the circle is the best flavor combination.

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It is a bit squishy because it is not completely cool.

I still need to do something with the large circle. I serve wedges with ice cream and Hubby pours on a bit of Irish Cream liquor. Too much of this will make us fat and drunk!