More Fall Favorites

Ok, just some notes to make on fall dinners to archive.

Homemade Pizzas
We are having them 2-3 times a week now! Aaron makes a big batch of dough that keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days with no problem. He makes the crust in one of 2 ways:
* Very very thin, pressed into an 8 or 9" cake pan (sprinkle bottom w/ cornmeal so it won't stick).
* Fried first. This method can be found in Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook Jamie at Home. You basically take the dough, press it round, then throw it into a frying pan with heated olive oil till the dough puffs up. Then you add your toppings and place it under the broiler for just a few minutes. Keep the toppings very light and vegetable-y because the fried dough makes the pizza a bit heavier than you might be use to.

Toppings have included the following: cut up, canned artichoke hearts that I have marinated in olive oil and red wine vinegar. Just cut them up and put them in a tupperware in the fridge w/ oil & vinegar. They'll keep for at least 2 weeks that way. Olives, sausage, and roasted red pepper/eggplant spread.

I've also changed pasta sauces for the pizza. This one is more of a light marinara and is more suitable for pizza rather than pasta. Here are the easy instructions:

Throw some olive oil in a pan, and add 1 chopped garlic clove, dried red pepper flakes, & dried oregano. Slowly fry till the garlic starts to turn golden. Add one 24 oz. can of either diced or whole peeled tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then turn all the way down to a tiny tiny simmer for about 45 min-1 hour, stirring occasionally. If you are using whole peeled tomatoes, don't break them up till the very end. After 1 hour, add 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Get out that immersion blender and whizz it all smooth. Check your seasonings and that's it. Freezes beautifully.

Chicken/Goose/Turkey Broth
Aaron likes to roast whatever kind of bird is on sale at the store about once a week. It's a very economical & convenient thing to do, because he can just eat the meat all week during lunch (for those of you who are stay at home parents, you know how hard it is to remember to feed yourself sometimes when you are focusing on the kid) with a small salad, slice of bread, and some cheese or fruit. Anyway, we are now taking the carcus at the end of the week and making a nice broth to freeze. It's a sure-fire way to get rid of an oncoming cold.

Take your carcus and throw in into a pot full of water. Add a couple of carrots, celery, an onion, and a few cloves of garlic. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Cool, then strain the broth completely--you don't want any chunks of anything in there. Season with salt and pepper and freeze.

To Serve: This comes from an irish recipe called Michaelmas Broth that I found on the internet. Just take your broth, add 2 tablespoons long grain rice, and simmer for about 20 minutes. The rice will kinda thicken the broth a bit. Serve in bowls with some finely cut up pieces of meat and slivers of green onion. I suppose you could throw some other veggies in there as well--baby spinach would be great, and probably mushrooms too.

Extras:
I've also been making quick breads: pumpkin, banana, and applesauce. And breakfast has been either oatmeal, or swiss style museli with heated soymilk and honey. Yum.

Tips for season change

Suddenly its Fall!
And suddenly, we have to figure out what to eat all over again. Gone are the cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers from the backyard. Now we are craving warm food, and turning on the oven is fun again.
Aaron had a great idea of how we should stay on track with our good eating habits. We made a list of all the Fall staple dinners that we like to eat over and over again & that are affordable (and included a category for sides). So each Sunday we sit down and look at the list and see what looks good for about 3-4 nights for the upcoming week. We have 1-2 nights of new recipes, and if any of them stick we add them to the "staple" list for the season. We usually eat with A's parents 1 night a week, and don't really have any kind of formal meal on Saturdays. So, here's the list w/ notes:

Red beans & rice (one of my signature dishes from my grandmother)
Pizzas w/ block mozzerella--we make a dough, divide it into 4 balls, and freeze 2 of the balls. You can also keep the dough balls in the fridge overnight.
White beans w/ sage & ham--this recipe changes every time I make it, but it makes me love my crockpot.
Midnight breakfast--this term was taken from Chef Jamie Oliver. It's basically a frying pan with all your breakfast stuff cooked together (eggs, sausage, tomato slices, mushrooms, etc), kinda like a traditional "English" breakfast fry.
Garlic & Olive oil over pasta--just as plain as it sounds, with a light protein on the side + veg.
Jumbalaya--another one from my grandmother.
Baked beans & hot dogs--now that I can make baked beans from scratch, this one is great to freeze.
Red sauce pasta--there are so many varieties of red sauce to make from canned tomatoes, and the leftovers can be used as pizza sauce the next day.

Sides:
pureed butternut squash, roasted acorn squash, ceasar salad, sweet potato fries, apples & pears, roasted roots & tubers, quick pickles, spinach/feta/pea salad.

Aaron also spends sunday or monday roasting/smoking some variety of meat such as pork shoulder, a whole chicken, chicken quarters, bone in pork chops, or ribs. We also buy meat on sale and freeze it to make hamburgers, bacon, and sausage. He also makes sandwiches: rubens & hot ham & cheese.

Noah and I have a few staples of our own including: quesadillas, sandwiches & tomato soup, baked potatoes, w.w. mac & cheese w/ peas and tomatoes, eggs, turkey bacon, quick fried tofu w/ dipping sauce, french bread pizza (when i'm really feeling lazy).

We are also making focaccia bread to subsitute for crackers, and you can use the leftovers for croutons--yum!!

I might add more as the season moves on.

taco sauce

Aaron has made several rounds of this yummy taco sauce using our end-of-summer tomatoes. The recipe came from the October 2008 issue of Eating Well magazine. If you have never seen this magazine, you should definately pick it up. It focuses on seasonal ingredients in each issue---and seasonal produce is always the least expensive in the grocery store.

1 T olive oil
1 c. diced onion
2 medium chili peppers (poblano, new mexico, or anaheim) diced [we used the banana peppers from our garden]
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs. tomatoes, diced (about 4 1/2 cups)
1 T. ancho chili powder or chili powder
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. salt
1/2 t. cayenne pepper, or to taste
1/4 c. fresh cilantro
2 T. fresh lime juice

Cook the onions, peppers, and garlic in the olive oil until onion in soft and beginning to brown.
Add tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes have broken down and thickened slightly.
Transfer to a food processor (or blender) and pulse to desired consistency. We whiz it till it is all smooth with no chunks.
Sit at room temp till cool (about 1-2 hours), add cilantro and lime.

NOTE:
This sauce is excellent for freezing!! Just don't add the cilantro and lime. Instead you will add those ingredients when you thaw it out. A little bit of this sauce goes a long way, so you can freeze it in quart sized ziplocks, and it will keep for 6 months.

Super yummy on scrambled eggs & sliced avacados.

Notes from tonight's dinner--early fall

We had a great dinner tonight! I figured I better jot down some notes about it so that I remember it for later. The whether has started to get chilly outside, so its time to make some changes to our usual dinner staples (bye bye cucumbers).
I think its good to make some notes, especially during the season changes, so I can look back and see what was working and what wasn't. Aaron has been trying to remember all day today what sandwiches he made last year during the cold whether.
Lunch first: I had maple ham and swiss cheese sandwiches using the sandwich press. I don't like one of those fancy "panini" presses. I prefer the old style one that is sandwich-bread shaped. Aaron had his first ruben sandwich of the fall. He makes it with corned beef and saurkraut, russian dressing, swiss cheese, and rye bread. He heats up the kraut and corned beef in a pan together. (Noah had a PBJ, which he has about 2-3 times a day now...)

And here's dinner:
Aarron had some chicken quarters that he slow-roasted all day after brining for about 36 hours. The brine contained salt, vinegar, 3 T ketchup, 3 T dijon mustard, 1/3 c. lemon juice. I think he basted it all day as well with butter, wisticher sauce, sugar, dijon, and salt.
I made a few odds and ends. We had some sweet corn and eggs from a farm we visited yesterday outside of Harleysville. I turned the eggs into deviled eggs (yolks, mustard, mayo, pickles, salt, pepper, and paprika) and just steamed the corn. I had some local red bell peppers in the fridge that needed to be used asap, so I roasted them. They were amazing! I threw them in the toaster oven on "grill" for about 15 minutes, then put them in a paper lunch bag and closed it for another 15 minutes while cooling. I skinned the peppers (its really annoying) then sliced them thin. I put them in a tupperware with 2 parts olive oil, 1 part red wine vinegar, and salt. They will stay good in the fridge for about a week. I have a recipe for canning them somewhere, but I haven't done that yet this season. I'll be sure to report back when I do.
There was also some feta cheese hanging out in the fridge that I needed to use or loose, so I marinated it in olive oil, vinegar, oregano, basil, dill, salt, and pepper (all dried herbs). This should also stay good in the fridge for about 10 days.
We also had a baguette available for soping up all the yummy juices from everything.
Anyway, its worth noting to hang on to the pepper recipe. They were the best batch I have ever made!

Cucumber Feta Salad

I got this one from my favorite greek cookbook. Of course I have no idea where it is right now so I can't give you the name and author. It's a really great cookbook, so as soon as it surfaces I will come back to this post and add the info.

* 2 cucumbers, peeled and diced (any cucumber will do with this recipe. The original recipe does not require the cukes to be peeled, and they are sliced in rounds, but I like it better peeled and diced.)
* 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (Use the nice sheep or goat kind from either France or Greece. Cheap, crappy, pre-crumbled feta will ruin it. Believe me, its worth the extra $$)
* 1 big handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped (You have to use fresh mint for this one, dried will not do. If you find yourself completely mintless, subsitute fresh or dried dill instead.)
* 6 tablespoons olive oil
* 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
* salt & pepper to taste

Throw your cukes, feta, and mint leaves in a bowl and set aside. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper. (Remember, if you make an adjustment to the quantity of dressing, always keep the ratio 2 parts oil to 1 part lemon juice.) Pour dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve at room temp immediately.

Notes:
This will keep in the fridge for 1-2 days, but make sure you bring it out about 1 hour prior to serving so the oil can come back up to room temp. Toss well again.

I LOVE to eat this with a nice crusty baguette. This salad is meant to have alot of leftover dressing pooled at the bottom of the bowl, and its very yummy to sop it up with a baguette.

Remember that if you subsitute the fresh mint for dried dill, only use about 1/3 of the amount.

Overflow Tomato Pasta Sauce

Ok, this pasta sauce is meant to be a base sauce to freeze, when you thaw a portion out, you add the finishing touches. This recipe is perfect at the end of the summer when you realize you've got a million tomatoes and they are getting soft faster than you can eat them. What I love about this recipe is that you don't have to peel or seed the tomatoes, so the prep time is pretty quick. The down side to this is that you will need to be able to cook them down all day long so they loose their bitterness. I'm talking a minimum of 6 hours here. If you've got a food processer use it to dice the onion and carrot to save time. I've adapted this recipe from my mother-in-law's basic pasta sauce, which she adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking.

* 1 medium onion, diced (I like vidalia or a sweet onion myself.)
* 1 carrot, diced
* 1 clove garlic, chopped (add another if you are a garlic freak)
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (if you've got fresh oregano, omit the dried and use the fresh at the end of the cooking process)
* Tomatoes, roughly chopped, as many as you can fit in the pot (use up the ones that are bruised and overripe)
* olive oil
* salt & pepper
* red wine vinegar

Coat the bottom of a large enamel pot with olive oil, just enough to where it can swish around a little. Add onion, carrot, garlic, and oregano, then sautee over medium heat till onions are transparent. While this is happening, I usually start chopping up my tomatoes.

Add the hacked up tomatoes to the pot, stirring as you add to coat in oil. I mean it when I say add as many as your enamel pot can hold. Add the juices from the cutting board, seeds, and all. Cut, add, and stir, till your pot is full.
Reduce heat to a tiny little simmer. Now we wait. Continue to cook at lowest heat all day long while tomatoes break down. Stir occasionally.
After 6-7 hours, add salt, pepper, (and fresh oregano if you are using it instead of dried) and 1 teaspoon of vinegar.
Now get out that immersion blender and puree the sauce, leaving a few chunks if you like. If you don't have an immersion blender, get one. They are only $14.99 at Target. If you refuse, do it the hard way and transfer your sauce to the food processor or normal blender in batches, pureeing as you go.

Cool the sauce completely, and freeze in whatever portions make sense to you. Keeps in the freezer hapily for 6 months. Remember this is a BASE SAUCE only. When you thaw it out you will add fresh basil, cheese, meat, or whatever the heck you like to put in your pasta sauce. It will be a bit thin when you thaw it, so plan on re-heating it for at least 15 minutes to cook down a bit.

Note:
I like to add 2 carrots instead. I don't know why, but it makes it very yummy and interesting. Try it both ways and see what you think.

Using canned tomatoes: This recipe works great in the winter when all you can get is canned tomatoes. Use 2 large cans (I think they are 24 ounce) per every 1/2 onion and 1 carrot. You will only need to cook down for 1 hour, so you can use it right away. Still freezes well!

My additions: I always add a handfull of fresh basil and some shaved parmesan cheese before serving.

Quick Pickles

This recipe is a favorite of my husband and son. Tastes yummy on a hot summer day.

* 1 english cucumber, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds (use any cucumber you like, but I like the english ones because they do not have alot of annoying seeds)
* 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar (find this in the asian section of the grocery store. rice wine vinegar comes in seasoned or unseasoned, so make sure you get the seasoned one)
* 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Take a gallon size ziploc bag and throw your vinegar and salt in it, shake to mix. Add the cucumber slices. Close the bag and shake to mix again. Lay the bag FLAT on a shelf in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve cold, just pour right out of the bag and into a bowl, vinegar and all.

Notes:
These can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, depending on how thick you cut the cukes. Remember that you just made pickles, so the longer they stay in the brine in the fridge, the less crispy they will become.

Bread Salad

There are a million recipes out there for bread salad, so you will probably end up playing with this one to make it suit your tastes. This recipe was originally designed for using up stale bread, but it is also great if you have a tomato overflow.

* 1/2 loaf stale italian or french bread, cut into cubes (you can use fresh bread, but you will need to toast it first)
* a couple of big super ripe tomatoes, cut into cubes & salted (I like to seed them first, but most people just cut 'em up and toss 'em in, seeds and all)
* Vidalia or sweet onion, sliced very thin (again, add to taste. I'm not a huge fan of raw onion, so I only add about 1/4 of a medium sized one. Some people might add up to a whole onion if they dig it.)
* a handful of fresh basil
* Salt and pepper to taste (I only use sea salt and fresh ground pepper these days. It makes a huge taste difference)
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* half of a 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I'll explain later...)
* 1 small clove garlic, minced

So this is pretty easy. Just throw your bread, tomatoes, and onion together in a big bowl and set aside.

Lets start on the dressing, because this is where it can get weird. Whisk the vinegar, olive oil, & garlic together in a small bowl. Now, in my opinion this amount of dressing is way too much for the amount of salad we have made. I recommend that you add 1/2 of the amount of dressing here, toss first, then taste. With the dressing all you want to really remember is this: 2 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar, then add garlic. You can add as much or as little dressing as you like. I find that too much really overpowers the salad.

When you figure out your dressing, pour it over the bread salad, toss, and let sit (room temp) for 30 minutes. I like to toss a few times during that 1/2 hour. This allows the salad to sop up all that good dressing. After 30 minutes, add basil, salt & pepper to taste, toss & serve.

Notes:
This salad does NOT keep well in the fridge overnight as the bread becomes soggy. Just make what you need for each day.
Bread: My favorite bread to make this with is ciabatta or tuscan. An old baguette works great too, but you might want to cube it the day before, because cutting a day old baguette is nearly impossible. I don't recommend using pre-sliced sandwich bread for this recipe, but if you try it and it works, let me know your secret.
Feel free to add anything else you like to the salad: olives, capers, anchovies, etc.

Great paired with: a cheese plate, mixed grilled meats, appetizers.

Recipes for summer overflow

Several people have asked me to post my recipes that use up summer garden produce. I will happily do that! I keep making the same recipes over and over this summer, and it will be good to catalog them for next summer.

If you have any additional recipes to share please let me know. Also, let me know if you try any of these and how they turned out.
Also, my recipes are usually ones that I have taken from books or magazines and then edited over time. I will note where the original recipe came from on each post. Please note that sometimes I don't really measure things, I just eyeball it, so you might need to add more or less according to your taste.

I bet I pee cucumber juice these days.

Cucumbers, cucumbers, cucumbers. There are 3 zip loc bags in my fridge right now with variations on a cucumber theme. One is cucumber/feta/mint salad, another is filled with "quick pickles", and the third has a cucumber/yogurt/dill soup in it.
Each night we sit down to dinner and have 2 out of 3 cucumber sides as part of our dinner. The dinner usually also contains some combination of the following: bread (made at home or pita), a protein (meat for aaron, seafood or a bean spread for me), fresh sliced tomatoes or gazpacho soup, and fresh fruit. About every other night we go protein-less and opt for pasta or some quick fried veggies (eggplant and zucchini usually).

This has been the pattern for the last 3 or so weeks. Are we sick of it yet? No.

I'm finding that when you either grow your own food or pick it up from a nearby farmer's market you really don't get sick of eating the same things over and over. I think its a combination of 2 things:
1) You feel alot worse about wasting food when you see it grow from a seed, and
2) Food this fresh tastes so good that its hard to get sick of it.
And I think that the former of the 2 reasons also forces you to dig deeper for more recipes using a single ingredient. Not to mention that I do believe your body craves foods that are in season. Its hot outside, cucumbers are cooling. Go figure.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is this...
Growing our own food & eating things that are seasonal & local is what is changing the dinner dynamic of my family. It's easy to figure out "What's for dinner?" when you have a fridge full of fresh cucumbers. And I just can't help but get excited about eating tomatoes at every meal when they are so ripe and cheap at the farmer's market.

I'm not sure what got Aaron and I on this path, but I do know that it wasn't an overnight decision. And I've learned enough in life by now to realize that the things that stick and really affect change are things that happen gradually over time. We are not doing this to be better citizens, or more responsible members of the community, or to take up the current trend of "thinking green." We are doing this because it feels right.
I think part of the problem with making dietary changes is that we often feel we have to attach ourselves to some movement or diet or category of people to make a change.
"Oh, I'm a vegan" and "I'm definately a foodie" or "Our family really believes in the 'slow cooking' movement." And don't forget to slap that "Buy Fresh, Buy Local!" bumper sticker on the back of your car, announcing to the world that yes, you do buy fresh and local...in case anyone was wondering.

Life is so much easier when you just eat. And eating is so much easier when there are 4-5 cucumbers hanging off your fence every day.