Archive for the 'food' Category

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Quiche Makes Me Happy

Published on September 10, 2008 in blogs I read, Creating, food and recipes. 1 Comment Tags: cooking, food, recipes.

There is something wonderfully satisfying about quiches for me. I find it hard to believe that before a year ago (or so) I had never made a quiche before. Daunting task I suppose, until I tried it. They are so freakin’ easy and quick and pretty much always delicious. This one was fresh garlic, Walla Walla Sweet Onions, fresh spinach, cheddar cheese, eggs and some half and half. I was a little worried that it wouldn’t work so well after pouring in the egg/half and half mixture and it disappeared. But I wasn’t about to add another egg. Oh, and I coat my pastry shells (yes, this one was from the store…I know I know), with egg white. I bake them at 350F for about 40 minutes, but always check after 25mins and decide how much longer it needs to stay in the oven.

I am not a fan of leftovers, they are almost always hard for me to eat (except the foods that get better the next day…pizza, lasagne, quiche….), so sometimes, I toss my leftovers into a quiche and you’ll never know that they were leftovers. I’ve done it with salsa and beans YUM! lasagne filling, Indian food, almost anything. And they are always a treat!

I think you might remember that I’m a big fan of Mark Bittman and his NYT blog Bitten. Well he posted this lovely recipe for Chickpea Salad with Ginger. It made my mouth water! I learned something new: toasting cumin seeds to bring out the flavor. WOWZA that’s all I have to say. After toasting the cumin seeds, I crushed them with a rolling pin as I am sans spice grinder. I didn’t have any ginger and I can see how it would totally add to the dish, but it was absolutely yummy without it. And the best part. For those of you counting – 0 points on Weight Watchers. I think it has just a bit too much flavor for Iz, the cumin is perhaps a bit to “sweet” for her. But I can’t get enough of it. The recipe makes a big batch, so we’ve been eating it for 3 days so far and I’m not tired of eating it.

I think the one thing that I’ve really learned over the past 6 months is to enjoy food. Enjoy finding it, whether it be growing it myself, picking it up at the local farm, the farmer’s market or even the produce section. Taking the time to make things from scratch as much as possible. Sometimes it’s just not possible (although I’m learning everyday…so it could be possible). I take my time preparing and cooking the way needed, then once it’s on the plate, really, really enjoying each and every bite. The other big thing I’ve learned is that if it doesn’t taste good, don’t eat it. I’m off to make lunches…

The Best Pancakes EVER!!!

Published on August 25, 2008 in about me, family and food. 1 Comment Tags: family, food, pancakes.

I have many food memories growing up. Other than the “you must eat the liver” memory (ugh – do you have one like that too?), probably the next biggest would be our pancakes. Every weekend, Dad would make us pancakes using his mother’s recipe. They were of course, delish, and would come in the shape of the letters of our names. They were so much fun to eat. And, we could make them together. There was ingredient getting, measuring, mixing, pouring, the butter and cooking. Oh, and let’s not forget the eating. YUM! Dad would pile his pancakes up high on his plate, biggest pancake on the bottom to the smallest pancake on top. He’d ever-so-carefully place a small pad of butter on top of each pancake then drizzle maple syrup over the whole stack.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had those pancakes, but lucky me has moved to Seattle and spent a weekend with the family that has kept this little recipe alive. I had forgotten how delicious they really are.

At our house we’ve been eating pancakes with the lovely mix from Trader Joes, and it’s really yummy. But I think I’m going to just make these now….

They are amazingly light (much lighter than the TJ’s mix) and just sweet enough but not sugary.

I didn’t leave the table with that “oh, that pancake just SANK to the bottom of my stomach” feeling. And now, of course, I can’t stop thinking about these pancakes! Thanks Aunt Debbie!

A Little Family Reunion

Published on July 13, 2008 in about me, family, food and Uncategorized. 7 Comments Tags: cousins, family, family reunion, food.

Since we’ve moved to our house in Western Ma 2.5 years ago, I’ve been daydreaming of having a big family party. And now that we are moving, everyone came to visit. Most of the visitors stayed for 10 days and over the weekend of July 4, we had 22 people! It was fantastic. Do you know that saying, something like, “Visitors are like fish, after 3 days, they go bad”. Well, my little family is proof that it’s not always that way. Everyone got along, was pleasant, quite appreciative, and a wonderful help.

Here are a few of the highlights:

I got to meet my brother’s youngest for the first time ever. He’s 5. (They live in South Korea.)

Dad chased his oldest grandson around and ripped up his knee, spent his entire visit on crutches, but was a good sport.

My brother gave up Diet Coke. This is a big deal. He drinks something like 3 cases of it a day. (Is Diet Coke bad for you? – you do the research.)

We went to the 61st Annual Chesterfield 4th of July parade. Animals pooped, and well, that was certainly the highlight for the cousins.

We ate SO MUCH FOOD. For our family picnic, we (I mean GREG Thanks Greg – you rock) grilled pizzas. If you haven’t tried this yet, you really, really must. They are SO DELISH! I used whole wheat dough from Trader Joe’s and for one pizza I carmelized fennel and red onion and added Feta cheese. The other pizzas were topped with mozzarella, basil pesto and tomatoes. YUM!!!

That very night, we had visitors. Bears came and toppled our compost. They must have played for a while, there were lots of paths created on the hill. Everyone got a little nervous, but they didn’t come back. Mom fell asleep watching TV, and woke up hearing growling the next night. She tried to wake her husband (he slept through the excitement), and after a few minutes of heart-in-throat, she realized it was the lion on the MGM bit of the movie she was watching.

My super wonderful sister-in-law made us “kimbop” (I am spelling this phonetically… but it’s Korean for hot dog – so I’m told). We call them sushi rolls, or California rolls. They were so AMAZING. We stopped at the Korean grocery store and I learned about a few new things that we’ll be adding to our Friday night roll making ritual. They were perfectly rolled and absolutely delicious.

Seeing my daughter and her cousins play together was just priceless. I only wish we could do it every weekend.

It was 10 days. It was wonderful. As everyone left I couldn’t stop thinking about the pictures, did I get enough? (ok, I took over 500…) Did I get the right ones? I don’t want to forget our wonderful time together, and I want Iz to be able to look through the photos and remember too.

Cleaning The Plate

Published on May 31, 2008 in food, My Road To Fitness and recipes. 2 Comments Tags: cooking, My Road To Fitness, pizza, polenta, recipes.

I have something to tell you. I’m on the road to fitness. To better health. To losing weight and exercising so I can feel better and fit into some of my fabulous clothes. To run and play with Iz and not get out of breath. I’ve lost 18 lbs so far (that’s 18 sticks of butter! – ew).

I’ve been learning a lot about food and working on changing what I eat and how I eat it. So, I’ve been cooking a lot of new foods. Wtih summer here, I’ll probably be posting more about food and garden than sewing (although – you can bet I’ll still be sewing).

I’ve started making these super yummy Polenta Pizzas. Here’s a recent favorite:

Zucchini Feta Tomato Polenta Pizza

1 cup coarse corn meal

3 cups stock (chicken or veggie)

1 cup red onion finely chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic finely chopped (more or less depending on your taste)

1 medium zucchini sliced

1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes sliced

1 cup feta cheese (I used non-fat)

2 tsp canola or olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

pinch or two of Italian Seasoning

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in pan, add 1/2 garlic and onions, saute until onions and garlic are soft, add pinch of Italian Seasoning, saute for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

2. Make the polenta. I use my rice cooker which works well every time. Pour garlic/onion saute into rice cooker. Add the corn meal and stock. Turn on rice cooker. (If you aren’t using a rice cooker, I pour 1 cup of cold stock onto the corn meal and stir with a fork to eliminate all the lumps. Meanwhile I’;m bringing the other 2 cups of stock to a boil, then adding the polenta/stock/garlic-onion saute mix and whisking lightly (to make sure no lumps), bring it back to a boil, then remove from heat, leaving it covered.

3. While the polenta is cooking, heat up the rest of the onion-garlic saute and add the zucchini. Brown the zucchini slightly, season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

4 Once the polenta is done pour it into a 9 inch pie plate smoothing it around and making the sides higher. If you don’t add the onion-garlic saute to the polenta, you will need to lightly grease the pie plate. Pre-heat the oven to 350º.

5. Pour the zucchini mixture over the center of the pie, keeping the edges clear. Cover with cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with feta cheese.

6. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes.

I think this tastes best after a few hours of letting the flavors mix together. It’s wonderful hot or cold, and even better the next day. It’s perfect for potlucks! Enjoy!

Eat Responsibly

Published on May 16, 2008 in food, garden and green. 3 Comments Tags: eat responsibly, global, green.

I’ve always been a fan of food. Always. I’ve learned to eat healthy, with the help of a holistic health care professional and a fantastic nutritionist. I needed these two people in my life to help with my allergies, and the things I learned have transformed my life! I’m much healthier, I can breathe, I can smell and taste my food, my skin, hair and nails are much stronger and I sleep well. When I became pregnant, I learned even more about nutrition and food, and worked hard to make sure my body and baby were getting the things needed to be healthy. When I introduced food to Iz, we made EVERYTHING. I bought bulk organic grains for her cereal and blended it together myself. Organic veggies and fruit arrived weekly in a lovely box from Urban Organic, and I spent delivery night steaming and prepping food for the week. I used Super Baby Food as my main source of info. Everything that we ate was as local as possible and as organic as possible. Some of it was a challenge living in NYC, but some wasn’t. We shopped the Green Markets every week, supporting local farmers and eating beautiful foods.

Now that we live in the country, we have room for gardens, and we grow lots of our own veggies each season. Not only does it feel good for the soul, it’s so good for our bodies and our environment. There’s no fuel spent to deliver or pick up the food, we bond over gardening and are so proud of our harvest. For what we can’t grow, we purchase a share of our CSA. It won’t start until July, as we have a small growing window in New England, but knowing that the food is grown organically, locally and with the kind hands of our friendly farmers, makes it even more delicious.

Every day we are more and more conscious of our health and our environment and have known that the well being of each is dependent upon each other. We strive to eat as local as possible, choose things from the super market that are in season, and make as much as our own food as we have time for.

I’ve just started reading food blogs. I probably started cooking in the late 90s, after moving to Seattle and having a kitchen that we could cook in. I’m not a “natural” cook, but I am really, really interested and I’m always looking to learn more. One of my favorite blogs is Bitten, the NYTimes food blog. Mark Bittman, the blog’s author has recently spoken at TED. I think you should stop and listen. It’s 20 minutes, maybe listen one night while cooking dinner. I think it’s important.

Please make sure you know where your food comes from and the how the choices you make impact your body and the global environment. Please Eat Repsonsibly.

Cozy Soup

Published on March 31, 2008 in food. 1 Comment Tags: comfort, food, recipes, soup.

It’s snowing here, again. March was In Like a Lion and Out Like a Lion. So, I’ve been making lots of soup and other yummy cozy food. (Cozy is a word Iz has been using a lot too.)

I really do love soups, and I have a hard time cooking them so they are flavorful and full. But I think I did ok this time. This is a vegan pea soup with pita bread toast.

Here’s my recipe, without many measurements, because I usually use what I have.

1 bag of green split peas, soaked over night, then boiled for 1 hour before making the soup
1-2 onions, chopped
5-10 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste), chopped
handful of carrots, chopped
a few stalks of celery, chopped
about a cup of barley
2-4 tablespoons of curry powder
2-4 teaspoons of cumin
6 cups of veggie broth (more or less depending on how thick or runny you like your soup)
a few tablespoons of olive oil

Warm up the olive oil in a sauté pan (or the bottom of your soup pot so you don’t have to do more dishes), sauté onions until clear, then add garlic. Sauté for a few minutes add curry and cumin. Wait one minute, then add carrots and celery. Sauté until they are tender. I throw the barley in for just a minute and mix it all together. Then add the broth and the peas. Boil for 45 minutes to 1 hour, checking the peas for tenderness. At the end, I blend with my little hand held blender, not all the way, I like it a little chunky, not a full pureé.

Serve with Pita Toast:

Left-over Pita in the Fridge
olive oil or butter(yum!)
Italian seasoning
rosemary
roasted minced garlic
parmesan cheese
or anything yummy in your pantry

Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Cut pita into strips or triangles. Lay single layers flat on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan (I throw them on and mix them together, they are not perfectly placed on the pan). Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle on spices and throw in the oven (careful not to spill pita). Let them cook for about 10 minutes, but keep a close eye, they turn quickly. We like them crunchy, right before they burn.

*A note about the soup: It was SO MUCH BETTER THE NEXT DAY! Much more flavor than immediately after coming out of the pot. The next time I make this, it will be at least a day ahead (if I can get my act together!).

Remind me to tell you about the black bean soup I made the next night – YUM! and served with Making Dinner for Aunt Melissa Drop Biscuits. They were delish!

Winter Days

Published on February 26, 2008 in about me, birds, dollhouse, family, Feb Funk, food, Iz, nature and photos. 4 Comments

This is from our walk this weekend. It’s our usual walk, out the door, turn left down the road and walk to the bridge and look at the water. It’s quite beautiful, and all 3 of us just soak it up. At least this weekend we could go for a walk, it’s warming up a bit. We’ve all been sunk in Feb Funk these past few weeks. Eager for spring and ready to be outside all day long. Fresh air and sun is good for Feb Funk.

We’ve been talking since October about giving Iz her Great Aunt Carol’s doll house, first for Christmas and then for her birthday. Well, we finally did it. In celebration of February. There will be more pictures later as we paint the whole thing, redecorate and start furnishing. I’m quite excited about making rugs. And did you know that Ikea has doll furniture? Of course – we’ll have to update the phone (we won’t we’ll leave it there, it’s just too cool for school). Iz is thrilled with it. The cat loves it and has slept in all 8 rooms already.

I’m almost finished with another pair of PJs for Iz. She’s going to see Dan Zane’s Friday night for a Pajama concert. I’ll be popping in the buttons, holes and waistband. She loves them. Fresh PJs to beat that Feb Funk.

I’ve been thinking a lot about meal planning. It’s not coming to me too quickly. Slowly but surely. Saturday we made tacos. It was perfect. Fresh veggies, ground and browned veggie protein crumbles (doesn’t that sound delish?), yummy taco shells and taco sauce. Iz loved it, but decided she’d need another since the first crumbled in her hands. I love our sushi roll nights, and taco night will certainly be added to the monthly meal planning. Any tips on the meal planning?

Then, yesterday, I heard funny noises outside the kitchen. I thought there was a large critter in the new part of the house, but couldn’t find anything. I walked outside and found one of these calling loudly. It flew away as I took a step near it. I went inside to get the camera, and when I came back, there were 2. Sitting on the pool. Looking for food? water? I thought they were turkey vultures, but everything I find says the white head means they are from Africa. Anybody recognize them?

Grateful

Published on November 25, 2007 in about me, Creating, fall, family, food, friends, Iz and photos. 1 Comment

For Diners open Thanksgiving morning so we can have breakfast on our long trip. And for whipped cream on a mug of hot chocolate.

For chewing gum.

For the timer on cameras – so I could make it into the picture (after a few tries…)

For cousins that love music and ballet.

For large family gatherings.

For sleepers at every family gathering.

For lunch with Pop Pop.

For cookie dough and good friends.

Sew-A-Bration!

Published on November 21, 2007 in bag sew, food, friends, inspiration, LuckyStitches, sewing and The Bag Sew. 0 Comments

Monday night a bunch of bag (and lucky) stitchers got together at LuckyStitches for a little Sew-A-Bration. It was the launch day in Florence for The Bag Share. Florence Hardware, Leather & Lace and Cooper’s Corners all now participate in The Bag Share. So there was much to celebrate. With pizza, yummy soup and a bunch of other goodies all to sustain sewers, we stitched up more bags to contribute to the cause. Fabric had been donated, a bunch of machines were on hand, people were busy and the machines were humming. Oh, how I love the sound of sewing machines. The next Bag Sew at LuckyStitches is Dec 5, 6pm-9pm. Hope you can make it. We have so many bags to make!

Zucchini Zucchini Zucchini

Published on September 11, 2007 in canning, food and garden. 1 Comment

We have tons of zucchini at the moment. I’ve shredded and placed in the freezer 26 cups and chopped 4 gallons that are in the freezer too. I’ll use the shredded in bread and cake and yummy risotto. The chunks will be for winter stews and roasting. yum. Oh did I mention that all of this came from only 5 zucchinis? I love gardening.

Here are the baby zucchini plants.

This was taken before picking the zucchinis.

I tried to can tomatoes over the weekend, and while I don’t think I failed horribly, it wasn’t what I was hoping for or expected. 5 quart jars are now in the freezer. I borrowed a large pot, but it wasn’t big enough to cover the filled jars with water and boil. ARGHHHHH. I have to do the rest of my tomatoes and I’m thinking I’ll follow the advice left over at Bitter Betty’s post about canning. It’s a great tutorial. Does anyone have a great online source for canning? and supplies? I’d love canning tongs and can’t seem to find them locally. I found this kit.

Archive for the 'food' Category

Page 3 of 3

Quiche Makes Me Happy

The Best Pancakes EVER!!!

A Little Family Reunion

Cleaning The Plate

Eat Responsibly

Cozy Soup

Winter Days

Grateful

Sew-A-Bration!

Zucchini Zucchini Zucchini

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