On A Bed of Greens

I am a cookbook hound, I will peruse through anything I can get my hands on. If I really like the book, I will read it thoroughly and go through every single recipe. I particularly love French cooking; it's simplicity at the very finest. Simplicity is a sign of perfection, I learned that from my figure skating days - the less complicated something is the better it is.

You know that I love my salads but I have now discovered A Bed of Greens. The bed can be torn leaf lettuces or mesclun, which is beautiful - or whatever you prefer. I like to toss mine with a little olive oil and salt and pepper to begin with. Last night I made an amazing salad starting with greens, tomatoes, chopped bacon, garbanzo beans, cheddar cheese sliced very thin and sauteed mushrooms.

So basically, anything warm can be served on top of a bed of greens; potatoes, roasted vegetables, meats, melted cheese on toast...the possibilities are endless. Dream up something good!!!

Chicken, Mushrooms and Rice

I was in the mood for something that was really comforting that I wouldn't have to watch and I decided on Chicken and rice smothered in mushrooms. I've made this with wild rice and it's wonderful, however, today I made it with brown rice.

Here's what I did: In a large skillet brown the chicken on all sides, I used chicken breasts, add 2 cups of mushrooms and few splashes of Worcestershire sauce, and a few sliced garlic cloves with salt and pepper to taste. Put a lid on the skillet and put in the oven at 300 degrees. Meanwhile make the rice, and brown rice usually takes 40-45 minutes.

Once the rice is done, remove the chicken from the oven, put the chicken and mushroom sauce into a bowl. Pour the rice into the skillet and stir it to pick up some of the flavors in the bottom of the skillet. Place the chicken on top, pouring the mushroom sauce over the top. Ooooh, the chicken is tender and the flavors are amazing. I know this is not really a summer dish, but it was the thing for today...totally worth it!!

Make Your House Smell Like A Home

I have had bread on my mind a lot lately, and I have to admit that the only reason I haven't done yet since I have been on this project is out of sheer laziness. I know that bread is not hard and it is not an exact mixture of ingredients like baking a cake.
The truth of bread making is in knowing what the dough should look like at what stages. In the first mixture stage it's sticky then it will begin to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl. Knead by hand for about five minutes on a floured board, get it into a ball and put into a bowl, cover it with a linen towel and let it double in size which will take about 1 1/2 hours. Once the dough has doubled punch it down and knead again for about 5 minutes. Baking pan ready - I use soft butter to grease the pan. Place dough in the baking pan and allow to rise again -  not quite doubling. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes and its brown on top and gives a hollow sound when you tap it. Butter the top when you remove from the oven to cool.

I made this bread strictly from memory - and because of culinary school I know the stages. It takes practice, but it really is only a few simple ingredients:

Yeast
Water
Flour
Sugar or honey
Salt
Oil

I will be posting A Few Good Recipes for Bread, eventually. Baking bread should not be a scary all-day task and for Gods' sake it does not take a friggin 200.00 bread machine to make a successful loaf of bread. When looking at recipes for bread look for the ones with few ingredients and simple instructions. OMG homemade bread, butter and homemade jam....get it down because it's one of life's simple pleasures - makes a house smell like a home.

Anticipation

As a child I was told to wait for something many, many times. As a mother I told my son 'Wait' it seems like every day for nearly everything until he turned 18. Actually, I have taken that 4 letter word quite personally and dreaded the time I heard 'wait' until I finally got what I wanted. As I have gotten older I have found a sweetness in getting what I want after waiting and daydreaming about it. Like when I was a child and I finally got that pretty piece of chocolate and I would take small bites and save a piece for later. Agonizing over getting it and then savoring every single bite like I'd never get it again.

One thing I am really happy about is that some stores I know have brought back lay-a-way. For this I am truly grateful. I no longer use credit cards and this allows me to get something I really want and look forward to it, and set aside for it. By the time I get it I feel like I have earned it and it is truly mine, never owing another red penny for it.

I once worked with a girl several years ago who was going to school and would  not allow herself anything sweet until after her final exams were over. It was more of a family and nationality subject to her but it just seemed like something really wise to do. Instead of just having anything sweet whenever she wanted she looked at as more of a reward, and I am sure that it was priceless once she got it. Also, it was looking at food in a whole new light to me - it was not something that was just there to fill a void and grab because you could; it was an experience and a pleasure to look forward to. I love that and that is one of my favorite things about what she did.

Even if we can have everything we want or could wish for it is a healthy thing to do for ourselves to make a time for something or a place for something - or both - that will require it to be more special and meaningful. It's not just about what's going into your mouth but a full sensation of the area around you to create an experience. Am I sounding preachy? Yea, but I am still trying to get my idea across about cooking home cooked meals and a good home cooked meal is not something you pop in the microwave for 2 minutes or unwrap and it put into the oven. Admittedly, it takes some planning, but it is not difficult to add a few portions to a meal to have left overs for lunches, not every meal needs to have you painstakingly standing and stirring over the stove. I have been doing this for 2 months now, I think about it constantly and how healthier it is - and I don't eat organic and cage free because at the moment it's too expensive and I am on a budget - so it is just simply home cooked meals. Planning meals and cooking them and anticipating them cause the saliva to flow and the juices in your stomach to start moving around, which is much healthier for digestion.

What have you been anticipating lately?? Have a great day!!

GORP

I am not a big snacker and the kind of eating habits I am putting into place here do not allow a fast fix. But I am a scheduled eater, if I don't eat when I do get really hungry, I begin to get a little shaky.

On Sunday I went on a roadtrip for the day with a friend. It had not sunk in with her that I really do not eat out, and she did stop at Taco Bell for her son. Foreseeing this issue on the trip I had a good meal before I left and at a gas station I got a bag of plain salted peanuts. Which brought me to the topic of GORP - 'good old  raisins and peanuts' aka, trail mix.

I like mixed nuts (salted) or just peanuts, chocolate covered raisins - I love the chocolate with the salted nuts. A mixture of whatever you like; chopped dried fruits - I like chopped dried pineapple, dates or apricots - and any nuts, chocolate/carob chips or yogurt chips. Put it all into a big jar and shake it up to have ready for serious hunger pangs, road trips or long hikes. When I used to ice skate once in a while I would take a thermos of peppermint tea with honey and a bag of trail mix - the best.

Carbonara Cures A Hangover

I made Spaghetti ala Carbonara for breakfast today. I have to say that it is an instant cure all for a hangover. The perfect combination of greasy fat, protein and carbs, instantly I felt better...

I make mine with plain old "American" bacon.
Make the spaghetti, as usual. Chop the bacon and fry it in a small saute pan. Once its done, drain the grease, except for about a tablespoon and take the bacon out. Chop a garlic clove and saute that in the bacon grease. Beat an egg in a small bowl - have ready. Drain the spaghetti and keep about half a cup of the pasta water. Dump the whole thing in the saute pan with the garlic. Add egg mixture - at this point the heat should be off or on very low as to not scramble the eggs (but if this happens it's not really a big deal). Stir in about a half cup of parmesan cheese and add the bacon. Sprinkle with pepper and you'll feel much better, trust me on this one!

Soup and Salad

I have been a bit busy and preoccupied with summer life. I live in a beautiful place and try to take advantage of it as much as I can. I am in the process just now of making a white bean and rosemary soup that will last a few days. Plenty of salad fixings to go with it.

Here's what I did: I soaked small white beans (1 cup) over night, drained and rinsed them, added chicken stock about an inch over the top. A large sprig of rosemary, a medium chopped onion and 2 minced garlic cloves. I like it when bean soups cook over low heat for a long time so I have been cooking it for about an hour and a half and may cook for another hour - the beans in this soup will be very mushy. Then I'll puree half of it in the blender to get a mixture of a smooth and chunky texture. And I will make sure to take the sprig out before I do this! Salt and pepper to taste at this point and a handful of crumbled bacon on top and that's dinner. Also, a salad of greens and tomatoes with lemon and olive oil, salt and pepper. The house smells wonderful!!!!

Orange Fluff

My Grandma Trudy used to make what I called Orange Fluff and it's summer junk food at its best:

1 pkg (sm) orange jell-o
1 can mandarin oranges drained
1 container cottage cheese
1 container cool whip

Mix everything together and refrigerate.

Its kind of considered a buffet side salad and I have seen versions of it in salad bars. But nothing compares to this. I can't get enough of this stuff....not healthy but not too, too bad.

LOL - I have just been reading James Beard and he would consider this a basement salad, and I have to agree with him, this is not a salad, its just one of those things.

Outta Jam

Not too long ago I ran out of jam: I finished the last of a huge batch of orange marmalade that I made last year, gathering oranges from a friends tree. I eat jam every day and have insisted the jam I keep in my house be homemade for a while now. Making jam is a big project that I love dearly; fruit all over the kitchen, water bath boiling, ladling hot fruit into hot jars, the table filled with upside down jars - popping one after another. My grandmother taught me how easy it was to make jam and chutney but I taught myself how to process the jars in the hot water bath. It is now one of my favorite things.

But, last night feeling the urge to have jam back in the house and not a lot of fruit I made some blueberry-lemon jam. With 2 cups of blueberries, 1 1/2 cups sugar and the zest of 1 lemon, I made jam. There is no need for pectin, cooking the berries and sugar until it coats the back of a spoon will be fine. I never use pectin, if I had an apple I would have grated some of it and used it. Since I am using this right away - I poured it into 2 jars and let cool and put into the refrigerator. So there's my emergency jam. I will do more canning later~

A Little Slip

The past couple of days have been great, I've gone camping overnight and gone to a barbecue. The weather is perfect, not too hot for me as I am not a heat lover. Everything we brought camping was homemade and wonderful: marinated venison steaks, corn on the cob, grilled zucchini, salad. It was funny at the barbecue yesterday I went for the chips - doritos, and I ate 3 of them and still feel guilty - I was going to make my plate and started talking to someone and all of a sudden I was eating doritos, I mean I just didn't think. It's not like this is a diet, but I feel better and am looking at the way I do things differently - preparation and thought mean something to me. The food was amazing though, slow-cooked bbq pork with sauce, pasta salad, beans, anyway you know the picture...food for days. And of course, it's not going to kill me...3 doritos...lol.

Thankful for Integrity

My grandmother had a way of being thankful to someone that I didn't truly appreciate until I got much older. She would instinctively know how much time a person - an artist, chef, or any creative person - put into something and for that she would always show them appreciation with a very direct thank-you, looking them in the eye and asking them questions about it. Looking back, I could relate, I knew what she was getting at and why she was thankful. Her thought was 'that person cared enough to take the time, which means they care about what they're doing. They were not just flinging something around willy-nilly to get it over with.' It was their creation and giving time and attention is showing you care about it - know that. I am glad that I got this, because I feel like I know when someone really cares about what they are doing, including me.

Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

When I was little and had a long day at the pool, the river or the beach with friends and family, we would have dinner outside after taking a shower. Just as it got a little breezy and the temp went down. Most of the time just a light dinner of grilled cheese - made the old fashioned way on soft white bread with processed American cheese, Campbell's tomato soup - to which was added a dollop of cottage cheese to, and we ate it with our hair wet with our clean summer clothes on. What an amazing feeling: being out in the sun all day and coming home to shower and be outside again in the light summer breeze. Oh, to be a child with no care in the world!

Summer Supper

In summer I eat salads every day. One of my favorite meals is a big green salad with a vinagrette, with some cold roasted chicken or sliced ham. Maybe some sliced tomatoes, bread and butter. Everything goes on one plate and voila! that's dinner. For the meat I usually have some chutney or a favorite sauce is a little mayo mixed with a smoked chipotle sauce (the mayo to thin it out and reduce the temp).

Strawberries are a fruit that I think we all must love. I like to slice strawberries, mix sour cream with some brown sugar and pour over the bowl of berries. I love this so much I usually eat them all - saving none for later. I love to eat....

The Art of Preparation

Is anybody getting what I am talking about here...
To love the ingredients as much as the dish they produce.
To put thought into the food we buy, we prepare and we eat.
The time we put into preparing food is in a sense showing respect for ourself and the food.
It is important to buy ingredients and not just food that we can put directly into our mouth instantly or within a few minutes, from a box, bag or wrapper - only to satisfy hunger. Yes, to satisfy hunger is important - but we must also nourish our souls with preparation, ritual and tradition. Eating without preparation is missing ingredients that are not edible, but they are the soul nourishing ingredients: patience and love.


I know it is not possible to create every single meal that we eat from our home kitchen, and there are times when socially we must eat out. But the main percentage of our meals must be cooked at home with real ingredients. I think we must have that basic concept in our life. Home cooked meals are not frozen dinners to put in the oven or microwave. They are real ingredients put together to create a meal. There should be no processed food in our homes or boxes of premade food. It saves money and it is more nourishing to our bodies and ourselves to buy whole foods and ingredients. I hope I encourage you, I hope I inspire you.

Orange French Toast

A la orange bitters.
I have used the original Angostura bitters in french toast but this is a new twist made with their orange bitters...and it's pretty amazing.

4 slices bread
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk or half and half
1 tsp Angostura orange bitters
powdered sugar
maple syrup or Lyle's golden syrup
orange or lemon slices

Whisk the eggs, milk and bitters in a bowl. Heat a griddle. Dip the bread into the egg mixture - coat both sides - and place on griddle, cooking for about 3 min on each side. Sift powdered sugar over the top and squeeze a slice of lemon or orange on them. If you like use some syrup. This is a bit of a take on the Dutch baby. I found that I didn't want syrup, they were amazing just with the powdered sugar and squeeze of lemon. Oh, wow....very nice. :)

Easy Summer Pasta

Tonight I made a really easy Pasta with sauteed veggies and parmesan.

I made the pasta and sauteed zucchini, summer squash and garlic. Tossed both together with some butter and olive oil and parmesan cheese. A little cracked pepper and more parm over the top and it was the perfect summer meal. It's hot out now and I did not want to have the stove on for long, so this was the right thing to do today.

Any veggies work here, peppers, onions, some olives.When I was  a kid I never really liked tomato sauce on my pasta just the meat, cheese and butter. I have grown to like tomato sauce but have found many other ways to make pasta without it, also. I feel comforted and satisfied after pasta....FULL. I ate like a pig...