What we've been cooking in January

This month is the first month of my new semester, AKA, the semester where I earn my income. I'm teaching three different courses all for the first time. It's also the first time I've ever taught three courses at once. Needless to say, dinner isn't a lot of fancy so much as a lot of "OMG we have to eat dinner. AGAIN!." Actually, P spent the first two weeks of January cooking AMAZING dinners that we'll have to post. But then H got sick, and then I got sick. We spent last week in and out of bed and the doctor's office. H's strep got better, and P and I *have* been cooking up a storm this semester. Consider the following:

Recipe for one lovely black dresser:
1) Find a free dresser on freecycle: 0$
2) decide to put new drawpulls on it , and to paint it. Ideas are priceless, no?
3) Go to IKEA, buy new drawpulls: 5$ (or less)
4) Find black milkpaint pigment in basement you've had about for a year or two. 0$ (this time)
5) Buy a sander at a local garage sale: $3
6) Do a minimal sanding job, and start painting.
7) Watch all the paint pull off the dresser. Curse. Loudly.
8) Sand the s*$t out of the dresser and remove all the ugly old varnish.
9) Paint the dresser with that free black milk paint.
10) Enjoy your perfect three door dresser that holds your winter gear, outdoor gear, and kid art stuff!
Total cost: 8$ and lots of energy.


Macke Framed!
In 2000, when I made my first trip to Germany, I went to the Muenster art museum and found this fabulous print of a Macke that I've loved ever since. I think once P and I got settled in NC that we've been meaning to frame it. And we finally did!

Recipe for Framing:
1) Let picture sit in a posterboard to acquire a nice patina of age (optional).
2) Go to your local Micheal's and learn that framing, with the 50% discount, would be well over $200.
3) Record the dimensions of your poster, and of the image. Save in wallet or smartphone.
4) Go to your awesomest local thrift store and look at the frames there. Find one that you like, and that will fit your image. Cost for us: $30.
5) Go to the art supply store and buy matting, blades, and a matting knife. Cost: $8
6) Go back to the thrift store and buy that drafting square. Cost: $o.50
7) Cut the matte to fit your image.
8) Deconstruct the frame and take out the ugly art.
9) Reload with lovely Macke print.
10) Discover you can't put the back on the frame.
11) Go to your local hardware store and buy a staple gun. Cost: $24 for a middle of the road staplegun. Promise yourself and your spouse how much it's going to rock once you own a house and have to staple gun things.
12) Staple up that frame back.
13) Enjoy your gorgeously framed art, and your ability to save nearly $200 by shopping second-hand.

A Salad and a Healthy Dessert

am sending Linnea a CD track by track and while I wait for it to load I will tell you about the salad we made for the Pat and Greg and the dessert they brought on Saturday night. What with all of the dietary restrictions because of an fascinating variety of ailments we have collectively, it is an interesting challenge to cook for the four of us. There was a recipe in the paper (The Minneapolis Tribune may be a bit short on news but they still do have recipes. We get it, you know, because they didn't endorse George Bush.)

My Improved Version of the Salad:

Cut up about 1 medium carrot per person or an equivalent amount of winter squash or sweet potatoes. The sous chef around here was told 3/4 inch by by 3/4 inch. Toss the roots in a little olive oil and add some grated ginger root if you like and pop it in the oven at about 375. (The newspaper wanted one to line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Things turned out fine without the foil and the sous chef cleaned the pan.) I may have sprinkled on a bit of sherry--can't remember. Peel one ripe pear for every two people and an extra one. put them, cut side down, in the roasting pan and sprinkle a bit of oil over them. Again you could add ginger root or sherry if you wanted.

When the pears and vegetables are softened to your taste remove from the oven. Put a half a pear (or a whole pear if you are preparing more than four portions) in the blender with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and about 2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar. Put a small handful of greens or arugula per person on a platter or a dish with low sides. Toss with a bit of oil and sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of vinegar.

Arrange the carrots and pear halves prettily on top of the greens and sprinkle the pear-oil-vinegar mixture over everything. You can do this just as the pears and vegetable come out of the oven or after they have cooled some. Just don't refrigerate them--actually I guess you could do that if you wanted but warm or room temperature seems better to me. All four of us liked the salad a lot. Time for bed. I'll pass along Pat's dessert recipe later.

A finals week meal

Sometimes it is finals week, and I am busy and hungry. In trying times like these, lentils always make a good, easy, filling, and relatively quick meal. 

Take 1/3 cup lentils/person, rinse them in cold water, and put them in a pot on medium heat, covered with water. While lentils start to cook, chop some carrots, then add them (along with a little more water) to the pot.

Lentils and carrots: cooking! Garlic, onion, and yellow pepper: chopped!

While lentils and carrots cook, chop onions, garlic, and fry until  transparent. If you're jonsing for some protein, throw in an egg. If get impatient for said egg to cook sunny side up, impromptu scramble it with some chopped pepper, or mushrooms, or whatever you have on hand.

When lentils are soft (you might have to add more water while they cook, depending on how much you put in at the beginning), scoop the lentil/carrot mixture into a bowl, mix in fried onions and garlic, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with fried egg 'n stuff.

Yuummm.

Lentils!

Easy Peasy Chicken and Pasta

I always like something quick and easy to cook for dinner after work. Something that works really well for us is chicken and pasta.

It started because I had planned to have Patrick grill some chicken for us for dinner one night but didn't put the marinade in soon enough so I just threw all the chicken in a pan with the marinade to make sauce. Then I served it over pasta and it was yummy!

This time, I got a bunch of zucchini and yellow squash and onions and sliced them up and sauteed them during the weekend. When we got home, first I started the pasta water then, I cut up two chicken breasts into chunks and thew it in a bowl with the marinade powder. It calls for 1/4 c water and 1/4 c oil but I cut back on the oil a bit.

I got a pan hot and dumped in all the chicken/marinade mixture and cooked it till the chicken was mostly done. Then I added the vegetables I cooked over the weekend and cooked it all together until the chicken was done through and the vegetables were hot. At some point when I was cooking, the pasta water boiled and I put in some whole wheat spaghetti and cooked it.

I put together a quick salad and dinner was on the table in less than 20 minutes. Take that Rachel Ray!

Here is the chicken cooking.
Chicken and pasta cooking
This is the marinade packet that I used. I used the tomato garlic pesto but I didn't take a picture before I tore the packet. The italian herb is really good too. We get this from Patrick's coworker Joe who's mom works for Weber but I know you can also get them at the grocery store.
I'm not going to write down an official recipe because it's mostly just throw it all in a pot and cook it but here is a shopping list.

• 2 chicken breasts (or as much chicken or other meat as you want to use to feed your family and have leftovers)
• 1 marinade packet - we like the ones above but you could use anything you want
• olive oil - for the marinade & sauteing vegetables.
• vegetables - we used yellow squash and zucchini and onions but I think broccoli would be good too.
• pasta - we used whole wheat. You could also serve with rice if you want.

Uh oh, guys.

One of my favorite candies is now apparently illegal in the US... http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2011/01/10/man-kinder-surprise-border.html

Recipe Free Soup

Recipe Free Soup

Every Monday we are in town I go to the Women's Cardiac Support Group. Since it meets from 6:30 to 8:00, dinner is sort of a problem. Now my mindfulness group is coming early to meditate or do yoga so I really am not here on Mondays to do anything about dinner but I am always hungry when I get home around 9:00.

Somehow it is a lot less work for me to make soup or pretty much anything without a recipe. We had a ham bone from Christmas and I had actually gotten far enough to buy some green split peas. So I quickly chopped up all of the onions we had in the fridge (about two onions) 2-4 good sized cloves of garlic. and 3 giant sized carrots. I sauteed that in a couple of squirts of olive oil until it was soft. Then I rinsed the split peas (about 2 cups--I think it was a one pound package). Then I added the partly-used chicken broth we had left in the fridge from making pork chops for Mary and Bob last Thursday plus a can of chicken broth and two or three cans of water. I tried to make the whole business about twice as deep in the kettle as it had been before I added liquid. I put in a bay leaf and about two tablespoons of basil and some tarragon and some pepper and brought it up to a boil. and then turned it down so it was barely boiling. Then it was time for me to go to support group. The flavor of the broth was already excellent at that point but the beans were sort of crisp-tender, the texture one wants in fresh cooked vegetables.

I'm afraid there there was a little disagreement between the members of the household about how to proceed. One of us thought that leaving the soup on the lowest setting would produce perfect soup a couple of hours later. The other thought that the soup tasted perfect as it was. It was good if the split peas had a little texture and besides this person was reluctant to leave the burner on while we were gone. I do not recall an admission that the goal was to conserve energy but I am suspicious. Well that person turned off the burner as we left.

Although the burner-turner-offer had had been home for over an hour when I got home the soup had not been cooked any more. The split peas were a bit softer although the broth was still clear. As I said, I am hungry when I get home from support group. It did taste very good. . I did turn the soup back on until I went to bed but I think the split peas were still a bit hard when I added two quarts to the soup stash in the freezer.

Next time I will start cooking the split peas in some water even before I start chopping vegetables.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Yesterday, I came home from the first day of classes (back to work for the wicked), where I will certainly be earning my keep this semester with 3 classes. Paul too, has been earning his keep, in the kitchen! While I was blabbing away about syllabi, and class expectations, Paul was baking:
Blueberry Muffins, Wholewheat Bread,and Roasted Vegetables with Garum Masala

The Blueberry Muffins were so good, P had a 10 muffin kind of a day. Granted, two of those were English muffins, and 4 of the others were mini-. But no equivocating, these muffins are good enough, you'll want to eat 10 (!) in one day.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Pita Party!

Bread in Germany is tasty, but I can't eat it faster than it spoils (even when I keep it in the fridge). And while I could freeze bread, I could also just make a batch of pita dough, keep it in the fridge, and rip off a chunk to cook every time I need something bread-like.

Last night I made a batch of dough with the following recipe:

1/2 cup warm water (not hot or boiling)
1 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup white flour
1 teaspoons salt
1/1-1 teaspoons olive oil (optional)

Mix the water and yeast together and let sit for about five minutes. Add the flour, salt, and olive oil. Stir until a shaggy dough is formed.

Sprinkle a little of the extra flour onto your clean work surface and turn out the dough. Knead the dough for ~10 minutes, until it's smooth and elastic. Add more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking, but be sparing.

Clean the bowl you used to mix the dough and film it with olive oil. Set the dough in the bowl and turn it until it's coated with oil (I forgot to do this, and it didn't matter.). Cover with a clean dishcloth and let the dough rise until it's doubled in bulk, 1 - 2 hours.

Gently deflate the dough, put it into an airtight container, and place in the fridge. The dough can keep this way for up to a week

The last few times I've made this recipe, the dough has been a little sticky, so next time I think I'll try it with an extra quarter cup of whole wheat flour. 

For a snack today I tore off some chunks of dough and rolled them into little balls. Then I cooked them:

Divide the dough into four (or just rip off a chunk) and gently flatten each piece by hand. 

Using a floured rolling pin, roll one of the pieces into a circle 8-9 (or 4) inches wide and about a quarter inch (or less) thick. 

The wooden spoon moonlights as a rolling pin,
and I make my pita significantly smaller than the recipe says to,
because I have a mini pan.

Place a greased pan (wiping the pan with a kleenex or paper towel with olive oil on it does it for me) on the stove at medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, place a rolled out pita in the pan. Cook for 30 seconds, or until the dough starts to bubble, then flip. Cook for another minute and a half, or until the pita has begun to brown and inflate slightly, then flip again. When the pita inflates, it's ready. Wrap done pita in a clean cloth while the others cook.

Fast, easy, and good for sandwiches!

Unfortunately, they're also really hot and burned my mouth a little.

Birthday Cupcakes

Since we have two birthdays right at Christmas time, we started a new McKinney family tradition this year and made birthday cake on Christmas Eve. This year, I made cupcakes. We made one box of chocolate and one box of yellow cake. Turns out one box will make 12 big cupcakes and 24 little cupcakes. I decorated them in a Christmas theme.






















The cake was just the cake mix.
The chocolate frosting was Marie's Chocolate Icing from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book
1tbsp butter
1sq unsweetened chocolate (1 oz)
1 1/2 tbsp warm water (I used cream)
1 c sifted confectioners' sugar
melt butter and chocolate over hot water, blend in the warm water (or cream) Beat in confectioner's sugar until icing spreads easily.

The white was the Butter Icing from the same recipe book
2 1/2 tbsp soft butter
1 1/2 c. sifted confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cream
3/4 tsp vanilla

blend butter and sugar together, stir in cream and vanilla till smooth.

The snowman is a couple of marshmallows and I drew on them with foodsafe markers that I bought in the frosting section of the grocery store. The hat is just a chocolate bell and the scarf is a stretched out candy.

For the reindeer, the antlers are broken pretzels and the eyes are just skittles of the right color

Alex really enjoyed his birthday cupcake

Happy New Year's Noodles

Happy New Year to everyone!
We are enjoying settling back into our house after two full weeks in Minnesota. Our family has begun celebrating our family Christmas on New Year's Day, and I wanted to come up with something that honored the traditional southern black-eyed peas for New Year's. More importantly, we're trying to cook out of our pantry this new year. So, we had a great long-time favorite: Thai Peanut Noodles, enlivened with silly measuring units, green peas, and lima beans.

Thai Peanut Noodles, for those w/out measuring spoons:
1/2 package thin spaghetti (we use only 100% whole wheat)
1/4 cup peanut butter (or just a hugely full big serving spoon)
1 1/2 jiggers soy sauce
1 1/2 jiggers sherry
1 1/2 jiggers tomato paste
1 big tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili paste with garlic
juice and zest of one lime (or 1 1/2 jiggers lime juice)
1 jigger olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, diced or pressed
1 coffeemug full of lima beans, frozen
1 coffeemug full of green peas, frozen
1/2 handful of chopped peanuts (optional)
2 scallions, sliced (0ptional)

1. Heat a pasta pot full of water until it boils. Cook the pasta until it's done. If you want, steam cook the lima beans and peas in a steamer basket on top of the boiling water. This didn't work so well for us, so I ended up dumping the peas and limas in for the last 3 minutes to boil with the pasta. Strain out peas and limas (or if you're lucky, just remove your steamer basket), then save 1/4 cup of pasta water for peanut sauce. Drain spaghetti and return to pot.
2. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, cook garlic for 1 minute in olive oil. Remove from heat.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients for the sauce. Mix well. Return to low heat but do NOT let the sauce boil. (If you do let it boil, the PB separates out, and the soy sauce turns bitter)
4. Dump the peas, limas into the pasta, and toss all of it with the peanut sauce.

Enjoy!

Welcome!

Linnea came up with the neat idea of starting a blog about what we are cooking to stay in touch. I think it's a great idea. I've invited everyone to be authors. If you want a different email address, ping me and I'll add that one as an author.

Linnea also suggests tagging each post with a location.

I'll kick things off. Tonight we are having taco stuff and tortillas. We went shopping at my favorite store (Costco) and found cook them yourselves tortillas that you only have to cook for 60 seconds on a griddle (yay! chance to play with my new cast iron griddle). We will have ground beef with taco seasoning and cheese. I am going to saute yellow squash and onions and see how that tastes with the taco stuff. We also have salsa. Next time, I will post after we have cooked and post pictures too.