Simple September Suppers

This September is really and truly devilishly busy. H started preschool, and E has two major deadlines in September, an out of state conference, plus a test and a batch of papers to grade. So September has been all about easy meals here. We did manage to make 8 pints of canned tomatoes at the very beginning of the month that we've stashed for the depths of winter when we'd love the taste of a good tomato.

Tonight we had one of the easiest dinners we know: Pasta Puttanesca with salad with herbs, cucumbers, beats, and radishes.

Rotini alla Puttanesca
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
3 T olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, sliced and halved
1 small bell pepper, diced
3 T parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 anchovy fillets, or a hearty T of anchovy paste
3 T strong black olives, halved and pitted
1 T capers
salt to taste
1 lb rotini

Combine oil, garlic, bell pepper, parsley, oregano and saute until peppers are soft. Add anchovies and stir. Add chopped tomatoes and olives, red pepper flakes, and capers. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt to taste.
Cook the pasta. When it's done, transfer still dripping into serving bowl and toss with puttanesca sauce.

No pictures of the pasta, but here are a couple of jars of the tomatoes we canned at the beginning of the month.


And, in case you wondered what on earth anchovy paste might be, here's a handy-dandy illustration. It comes in an awesome tube like old-fashioned toothpaste, and you can find it by the tuna, sardines, and other fishy things in the grocery store.

Pressure Cookers and Polenta

Mom has been encouraging me to get a pressure cooker for quite a while. I had an irrational dislike for pots that you have to lock shut and then you don't know when it's safe to open and the consequences for opening too soon are that boiling hot food is sprayed all over the kitchen. Theresa sent me a link to an electric pressure cooker where there are built in safety interlocks so you CAN'T open it when it would spray boiling hot food all over the kitchen so I got one. The children were very pleased with the box that my new purchase arrived in.

It only lasted for about 3 days as a toy before it got destroyed.

This is what the pressure cooker looks like:



My first attempt was to make some creamy polenta which I quite like but it's a pain because you have to sit there and stir and stir if you don't want lumps.
Theresa had sent me a recipe that she got from a friend and I modified it slightly.

Turkey sausage
Onions
Corn (had some left over ears so I cut the kernels off but you could use frozen or canned too)
1 1/2 c polenta
6 c of chicken broth (I used 3 cans plus water to make up the difference)

Saute the onions and sausage in the pressure cooker (there is a couple of settings that allow for browning things in the pot, I used the wrong one so I didn't get good color)

Remove half the mixture to top with later (I skipped this)
Add the broth and the corn.
Bring to a boil
Add the polenta slowly while stirring
Bring back to a boil


Cook under high pressure for 7 minutes (there is a timer, you just pick the type of pressure you want and the time.
Open the fast pressure release valve.

And you have polenta!


I thought it was quite tasty, the texture was just PERFECT. No lumps at all. Patrick said it was too bland and I can understand that because I don't think the sausage and corn and onions were enough of a contrast. I'd make this again as a side dish for pasta sauce or something I think.
Alex tried it. Elizabeth declared that it looked "icky" and almost made herself throw up when we made her take the courtesy bite. (I think she gets that from the McKinney side :) )

More Dessert (this one from Erika)

There is a new website called Pintrest where you can make pin boards of things that you like. You can sign up to follow friends and then you can see what they like too. Erika pinned a super yummy looking banana cake and I had 3 bananas that weren't getting eaten on the counter. I found the recipe here: recipe

We happened to have almost everything. I won't use shortening so I used butter instead. I didn't feel like buying a whole thing of sour cream so I used a container of fat free greek yogurt and then some dregs of a low fat sour cream that we already had plus a little extra banana. I also don't like walnuts so I used pecans and just because I think they go well, I put about 1/3 to 1/2 c of mini chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Add bananas and mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, stirring just until combined. Stir in walnuts. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

I made this during naptime so I had no helpers but here are some gratuitous cute pictures from today. :)

Writing a letter

Best use for an oversized shower ever!

Watching Wonder Pets!

September 18

Welcome back to the blog! We all did have a busy August, didn't we? We have gottent o the farmer's market two weekends in a row. With last weeks haul I made the corn chowder for Christmas Eve, some wonderful chicken chili and french casserole.

Eggplant Lasagne Inspired by the Farmers Market

At the Farmer's market we bought:

Wonderful fresh perfect clean Spinach (About 3/4 cup after sauteing olive oil)

Tomatoes (I used about 10 of them)

Onions ( I used 2 in the tomato sauce and about one fairly small one in the cannellini beans)

Eggplant ( I used about 1 1/2 medium large)

Basil (I used about 1/4 cup, measured after it was chopped)

We stopped at the coop on the way home and bought

Garlic (I used about 1/2 of a large head)

Cannellini Beans ( I cooked 2 cups but didn't use all of them)

I wasn't happy with the mushrooms at the coop so we stopped at Lunds and bought a couple of boxes

The Beans

I started by preparing the beans. I washed them and very slowly brought them to a boil and then let them soak for about three hours.

When I was really ready to cook, I drained the beans and sauteed an onion in the bottom of the pressure cooker. I added 3 cups of homemade chicken broth (just use water or vegetable broth if you want a real vegetarian dish.) from the freezer and the drained beans and very slowly brought the pressure up. I didn't even let it start dancing when I took it off and let it set until the pressure went down all by itself. I have about a cup a half of beans and liquid left now that I have finished the dish. The beans and the cooking liquid are delicious. I'm not sure if we will use them for a salad or rewarm them and eat them straight up tomorrow.

The Tomato Sauce

I sauteed 2 chopped onions and 4-5 cloves of minced garlic in some lovely Greek olive oil. I blanched (dipped in boiling water for about 30 seconds) peeled, trimmed and chopped the tomatoes.and added them to the onions and garlic

I added chopped basil, a bay leaf and a teaspoon or so of thyme and about a teaspoon each of brown and white sugar and 2-3 cloves of pressed garlic. I cooked this down to about half and added 6 oz of tomato paste . This was really great all alone. I a may make more to use for spaghetti.

The Mushrooms

washed, sliced and sauteed in olive oil

The Spinach

washed, trimmed from the stems and sauteed in olive oil

Eggplant

I cut it into about 3/8 inch sliced and brushed both sides with Olive oil. It turned about that after almost an hour in the oven at 325 the eggplant still wasn't quite done. So either pre-bake the eggplant for a half hour or so or bake the whole business covered for an hour and ten minutes and then add the cheese and bake it another 20 minutes or so.

Putting it together

In a couple of Steve's square casseroles I layered things. I had about 3 layers of tomato, 2 layers each of beans and sliced eggplant and one layer each of spinach and mushrooms. The third smaller casserole was quite shallow and I was running out of stuff so there was just one layer of each thing except a couple of skimpy layers of tomato. I topped it with thinly sliced mozzarella cheese and started out by baking it at 325 for slightly under one hour. It turned about that after almost an hour in the oven at 325 the eggplant still wasn't quite done. I baked it for another half hour at 350 and then the cheese was over-baked. So either pre-bake the eggplant for a half hour or so or bake the whole business covered for an hour and ten minutes and then add the cheese and bake it another 20 minutes or so.

We all liked it! Linnea cooks tomorrow.

Two delicious ways to eat eggplant without an oven

No this isn't a fashion blog all of a sudden. When I came home from work on Monday, I discovered that H had organized half of my shoes all in a pretty row. She LOVES my shoes, and she treats them right too!


The first way to eat eggplant without turning on the oven:
This week I made one of my favorite Greek vegetable dishes, and if I do say so myself, it was truly delicious. So tasty in fact that we couldn't get any pictures of it! We bought a gigantic globe of an eggplant as well as 2 pints of green beans from our CSA, so I decided to make a Greek λαδερά (literally oily, but typically just stove-cooked vegetables) dish out of them. As long as you're willing to sit near the kitchen and stir every 15 minutes or so for an hour and a half, this dish is virtually effortless.

Eggplant and Green Bean Giahni (φασολάκια γιαχνί με μελιτζάνες)
This makes 2 quarts or so.
1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pints fresh green beans, tips trimmed and halved
1 large or two medium eggplant, cubed to 1-2 inch pieces
1 large green pepper, sliced
28 oz can diced tomatoes
3 dried hot peppers
salt and pepper to taste
water, if needed (we used 3/4 cups)

This recipe hardly needs directions, it's so straightforward. What you do need is a good large stockpot or dutch oven.

Saute onions in 1/4 oil until they turn caramel colored. Add green pepper, eggplant, and green beans. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add tomatoes and hot peppers, salt, and water to submerge the veggies if it bothers you that they aren't all in liquid at the beginning of cooking.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

This dish is perfect with crusty bread, a thick slice of feta cheese, and a glass of wine.

The Second way to eat eggplant without turning on the oven:
We love eggplant around here, so we've stocked up on not only the large globe eggplants, but also on the long and slender Chinese eggplants. Tonight I made a quick stir-fry with eggplant, edamame, tomatoes, and bok choy.

Eggplant, Bok Choy and Edamame
Serves 3-4
2 cups edamame
2 heads of bok choy, greens and white stalk separated and chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 Chinese eggplant, sliced
Olive oil or vegetable oil for stirfry
2 smallish tomatoes, quartered or smaller
soy sauce
maple syrup
Chili paste with garlic
sesame oil

Stirfry the white stalk of the bok choy until it loses its rawness. Add garlic and bok choy greens, edamame and eggplant.
Mix up the sauce, and reduce the heat on the stirfry to medium low. Add the sauce and cook for 3-5 minutes. In the last minute, toss in the tomato.
We loved this dish with brown rice.



And a bonus, the kid version, edamame, bok choy, and brown rice without the spicy sauce

yummy summer treat!

One of the blogs that I like is Weelicious. It's a mom who cares about making healthy food for her kids. Some of her recipes look fantastic!

I was feeling in the mood for some ice cream so we made this recipe.

Chocolate Ice Cream

1/3 c fat free greek yogurt (we used an entire 6 ounce container because I didn't want a partial yogurt floating around in the fridge)
2 TBSP honey
2 tsp vanilla
bbbbb njdjdfgfcg gggggggg g (this was Alex's addition to the recipe)
1 TBSP cocoa powder
2 c sliced banana (frozen)
1/4 c sliced strawberry (frozen)

Blend the first 4 ingredients. Add the fruit and blend until smooth and creamy. Serve!

Yesterday I sat down with the kids while they were having a snack and cut up some bananas and strawberries. I had to cut up an extra banana and quite a few strawberries because the slices kept getting eaten. I put those in the freezer over night and then today we made the ice cream. My numbers were very approximate. I'm pretty sure we had more than 2 cups of bananas and 1/4 cup of strawberries.

Today when Alex woke up from nap, we got out the food processor (I used that instead of the blender because our blender is wussy).

The kids were great helpers at pushing the button on the food processor.

We had to open the lid a few times to test the final product.

This took less than 15 minutes to make and that was with 2 little helpers.

We all liked it. Patrick pointed out that it was a little bit tangy from the amount of yogurt we put in it. If you used flavored yogurt, it would probably be fine or if you used the amount that the recipe suggests.


If you zoom in, Alex's head does NOT have a scratch on it. It's ice cream.

It's a really good consistency for Alex to practice feeding himself. It just gets a little messy, he got a bath after he was done eating. I want to try making this again using other fruits. I think the banana is critical for the consistency but you could easily sub in some mango and leave out the cocoa powder. Adding just a few mini chocolate chips would also be quite tasty.

Flammkuchen!

Yesterday I went to a friend's house to bake Flammkuchen, and it was surprisingly easy (There is lots of Flammkuchen in Heidelberg because we're not too far from Alsace.)! We looked up a yeast-free recipe that went like this:

For dough:
250g (ca 2 cups) Flour
2.5 Tbsp Canola Oil
150ml (ca 2/3 cup) Water
Pinch of Salt

For toppings:
250g (ca. 1 cup) Crème Frâiche
1 onion (can be red or sweet onions)
1 Tbsp Butter
125g (ca. 1/4lb) Bacon
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 clove Garlic

dried basil

Combine ingredients for crust. The dough shouldn’t be sticky. Slice onions into rings and sauté in butter until clear (don’t caramelize). Cook bacon until crisp. Finely chop garlic and add it with seasonings to the cream. Roll out the dough as thinly as possible and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. On the highest heat your oven will go (or around 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit) bake for around 10-15 minutes, or until the dough has begun to create bubbles and you see nice browning (you don’t want burnt!). Watch carefully while baking.

 We also put tomatoes on it, and it was delicious. The website also mentioned that the dough works well for pizza dough in a pinch, and I bet a whole-wheat version would work, too.