Future ingredients

I've been a slacker as I have been on vacation, eating fresh bananas and papayas every day in Hawaii and cooking nothing. It was nice.

Back to cooking later this week, but right now I'm excited about the seeds I bought today! I don't usually go through a whole packet of any one veggie each year, but this year I ran out of many things so I went on a little shopping spree. Soon, I'll get peas, lettuce, onions and broccoli in the ground and other things started in the greenhouse. I'm a bit behind on these things but it'll be worth the wait. Hubby rebuilt the raised beds this month, so they'll soon be filled with brand new, super healthy soil for all my veggies. Hooray!

Melted brie pie

Thanks to my friend Kate, who served this appetizer at a party not long ago, I had a great idea for one of the apps I served at an Oscar party the other night. It's super easy, and super tasty. (sorry I didn't get a picture of the finished product - it disappeared too fast!)

- Just lay out some filo dough - about 5 or 6 sheets thick - that is wide enough to cover a pie pan. (you can also use pie dough)

- Plop a wheel of brie in the middle.

- Cover the brie with something sweet. I used some homemade fig jam I made last fall from our fig tree. Honey works too.

- Top that with some chopped nuts. I used a mixture of almonds and hazelnuts.

- Gather the dough up around the brie so it's closed at the top and twist together the best you can so it stays closed. Brush the top with melted butter.

- Put in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes or so.

- Serve with crackers or bread by just cutting the "pie" into wedges. Brie will gush out, and all the sweetness will mingle with it. Yum!

Chicken parmesan dream

Last week, we made something pretty amazing - and I say "we" because hubby played a major role.

First things first, though: the olive oil.
I heard recently (over twitter) that a new store had opened downtown called "Olive Grand". It's an olive oil store, so naturally I stopped in. What a sweet place! It's the first business venture for this couple, and they have a whole store filled with different styles and flavors of wonderful olive oil, as well as many types of flavored balsamic vinegars. I was in heaven. The folks were very nice and I got to taste a variety of wonderful, rich flavors. I couldn't decide what to buy, so I rashly decided on the lemon olive oil. I got a small bottle - filled directly from a large steel vat - for $13.50. Ouch. But what a delicious novelty!

So, here's the question: What do you use lemon olive oil for? We tried it with some balsamic and dipped olive bread in it. Delicious!

Then, a few days later hubby had the dinner idea of chicken parmesan (something we never make). In the morning, I decided the chicken breasts needed a marinade, so I poured some lemon olive oil in a bag with them (not too much!), added a few cloves of chopped garlic and some salt and pepper and let them sit all day.

To cook the chicken, hubby followed my suggestions: He started by broiling the breasts on each side for about 5 minutes each in a glass casserole. Then he dumped some canned (organic at least!) marinara sauce over them and baked at 350 for 15 or 20 minutes. Then he added a whole bunch of freshly grated/shredded parmesan cheese and let that get nice and melty.

This is when I got home from a late meeting and rejoiced.

I quickly cooked up some egg noodles to put the chicken and sauce over. When I cut into the chicken, the aroma of lemon and garlic oozed out. Surprise! The subtle flavor of lemon permeated the chicken, and mixed well with the marinara and cheese. The noodles provided a good secondary sauce-delivery-mechanism. Oh yeah, we had some salad too. It was all divine.

This was more than a week ago and I can still taste it. I highly recommend all of the above!

Crocked collards

This week's potluck had a southern theme. It was quite a spread: fried chicken, mac & cheese, ribs, and pecan pie. I decided to contribute cornbread and collard greens. Can't get more southern, right? But I've never made collards before, and I don't even like them that much. So, I experimented.

I looked up a few recipes for these greens, and most seemed to include cooking for more than an hour, had a little vinegar, some broth, and ham hocks or something similar.

Since I wasn't going to have a lot of time between work and the potluck, I decided to use the crockpot to cook the greens all day. And because I don't like ham, I decided to use bacon instead.

I washed and coarsely cut two big bunches of collards (cutting off most of the stems). I cut a 1/2 lb of thick bacon into big pieces. I mixed these with some white wine vinegar, 2 cups of chicken broth, some sugar, and salt and pepper and stuck them in the crockpot. They barely fit.

Then I just put it on low and let it go for 9 hours. It cooked down A LOT, but was nice and moist and flavorful. I liked them, and others raved about them. A successful experiment!

In the theme of experimentation, I also used a new recipe for cornbread. I can't say it's my favorite. It was from one of my favorite cookbooks - The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins - and was called "Hot and Sassy Cornbread". To me, it wasn't moist or flavorful enough. It was fine, but I might find a different recipe next time.

If you feel so inclined:
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
fresh ground pepper to taste
1 cup canned cream style corn
1/2 cup frozen corn kernals, thawed
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tblspn vegetable oil
1 Tblspn packed brown sugar
1 or 2 fresh jalepeno peppers, minched

Heat the oven to 400. Butter an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.
Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in smaller bowl. Add 1/2 the wet mix to the dry - stir till just combined. Add the rest of the wet stuff and mix again until just combined. Pour into the pan. Bake for 25 minutes - or until knife comes out clean. Cool in the pan for a bit before cutting and eating.

Blueberry muffins

Picking blueberries is fun. With delicious rewards. This past summer I went with my friend Amy and her two little kids to McKenzie River Farm to pick amazing organic berries. We ate a TON of them over the next week or so. But I also slyly froze a few bags for later use.

"Later" came last week when I remembered I had these tasty treats and made some blueberry muffins.

This recipe also comes from the 50's era Joy of Cooking, a few pages past biscuits. They usually turn out pretty good. But this time I added a smashed banana and they came out really nice and moist. I recommend doing that.

You'll need a muffin pan. I like the metal ones, and use little wax paper cups. These make 12 good sized muffins.

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
4 Tblsp. melted butter
3/4 cups milk
1 cup lightly floured blueberries - fresh, canned, or thawed from frozen
1 small banana, smashed

Preheat the oven to 425.

Combined all the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, beat the eggs, and then add the butter and milk. Pour the liquid into the dry stuff and stir just enough to wet all the dry stuff. Ignore lumps and don't stir too much. Add the mushed up banana and stir in briefly. Then carefully stir in the blueberries so they don't break.

[To flour thawed blueberries, try to dry them as much as possible first or it won't work. When as dry as you have patience for, toss them gently with flour in a bowl or bag just so they are covered lightly.]

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Best eaten warm!

Surprising winter greens

I said this blog would be about both cooking and gardening, but since I started in January there obviously hasn't been a lot about the garden. But how about a teaser of what's to come on our little plot of land...

In the fall, I planted a few different things - hoping the weather would be mild enough so they'd grow slowly, maybe even yield a crop before shutting down for the winter. Let's see what's still alive:

Garlic... check. That's been up and looking good for a while. It'll be ready in June or so.

Kale... check minus. The stretch of super cold weather in December killed some of it and set back the rest pretty bad. It's still not looking good even with all our warm weather in January and February.

Swiss Chard... choke. Yeah, it croaked the second night of below 20 degree weather.

Cilantro... surprise check plus. It made it through the cold, and has offered enough to pick for garnish all winter long. It's looking super happy right now.

Spinach... check. I thought it all died in December, but I weeded its little patch this weekend and found it's starting to do better. Score! I think I'll have s good early crop that I can tear up before planting something new in its spot.

I haven't experimented much with winter gardening, but it's so great to live in a place where it's possible!

Coconut Beef Curry Valentine's dinner

We stayed in for Valentine's Day. Usually do, actually. It's especially nice this year since Monday is President's Day and we both have the day off. Ahhhh....

I decided on a recipe I've made once before and vaguely remember liking. It's a coconut beef curry I got out of the newspaper years ago.

Here's what you need:
1 lb. stew beef, cut into small pieces (1/2 to 1 inch cubes)
2 Tblsp. butter
1 onion, chopped (recipe calls for 2, but that seems excessive. 1 is plenty)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. of each spice: allspice, coriander, paprika, turmeric
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup prunes, chopped (doesn't have to be this much, but they are tasty)
1/2 cup chopped carrots (recipe doesn't call for this, but I had some baby carrots, and they were a delicious addition)
2 Tblsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 cups pumpkin or other orange squash (like butternut), cut into small chunks.
(I had some frozen pureed pumpkin from a few years ago, and I used a cup of that mixed with some frozen butternut squash chunks bought at the store)
2 jalepenos, chopped
1 can coconut milk (NOT lite)

Cook the onion in the butter in a big saucepot/soup pot until brown.
Add garlic and meat. Stirfry thoroughly.
Add spices, lemon juice, water, prunes, carrots, and brown sugar.
Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add pumpkin and peppers. Stir in coconut milk. Simmer another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until it's a nice thick gravy.

In the meantime, make some Basmati rice. For this amount of curry, I made 1 1/2 cups of rice. Rinsed it. Added 2 1/2 cups water. I cook rice by putting a lid on the pan and turning the stove on high until the water is about to boil over. Then I turn down to low and cook until the water's all gone - about 30 minutes total.

Serve the curry over the rice. Top it with fresh cilantro (I got some out of the garden, even in February!) and chopped toasted almonds. Yumm!!

Seeing how it's Valentine's Day, we wanted to have a nice wine with this dinner. But it was really hard to figure out what to have. Beef might suggest a Cabernet Savignon, but curry might suggest a Gezurstraminer... We tasted the sauce and decided on a Syrah: a 2006 Penner-Ash Syrah we got when we were up near Dundee in November. I think we chose well. The bit of smokiness in this wine complimented the coconut and toasted almonds, and the fruity, rich nature complimented the beef and spices.

Cheers!