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.