A Pumpkin Trio

I saw a few large cans at the store and I may have bought all three. Just in case.


Whew...well, it's been almost a month, huh? That old I had turned nasty, then I injured my back. So I've pretty much been on the couch for three weeks. But I'm back! And I'm back with...pumpkin!

Remember the Great Pumpkin Shortage of '09? The empty shelves? The sad lack of pumpkiny goodness through the fall? It was a terrible time. I love pumpkin in nearly everything (except pumpkin pie, because I'm weird like that) and, as a New Englander, I feel that it's my right to consume mass quantities of apples in September and pumpkins in October. It is the right and proper way of the world.

Here are three pumpkin recipes for you to enjoy:

1. Crockpot Pumpkin Spice Lattes

adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking

I changed the original recipe by adding more coffee and less milk, which is how I like my coffee drinks. I don't like dessert-ish drinks, but if you do, add more milk and maybe some whipped cream on top. These are delicious, cheaper than getting them you-know-where, and are perfect for lazy fall Sundays, when you want to sip something warm and putter around the house.

1 1/3 cup milk
2 T canned pumpkin
2 T white sugar
2 T vanilla (yes, tablespoons)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup espresso or very strong coffee. (You can go double-brewed here.)

garnish with whipped cream (optional)

Whisk all ingredients together in the crock and cook for 2 hours on high. Serves 2-3.

I made myself some this morning and sipped it throughout the cold, rainy, day. It was pretty excellent.


Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

adapted from Allrecipes

This is my all-time favorite pumpkin bread recipe. I make it all fall and into the holiday season. It's even better the next day and freezes well.

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
2 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger


1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour three loaf pans, or two loaf pans and a 12-cup muffin tin. (Or, half the recipe, like I usually do.)

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, and water. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Very carefully mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, being careful not to overmix.

3. Bake for 50 minutes in preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.


Pumpkin Oatmeal

I saw a few recipes for this hit TasteSpotting, and I could not believe I've never even thought of this before! Brilliant and very good for you. (This is the recipe for when you've had too many slices of pumpkin bread slathered with cream cheese. Ahem.)

This isn't a recipe, exactly:

1. Prepare quick-cooking (not instant) oats as you normally do, with whatever proportion of milk or water that you prefer.

2. Add 1/2 cup of pumpkin per 1 cup of oats to the pan after the oats are done cooking. (So, 1 cup of oats serves two -- if you're making enough for one person, be sure to half the pumpkin.) Stir in 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice and cook, while stirring, on low heat until heated through.

3. Add brown sugar or maple syrup to taste and serve!

Korean Rice Bowl

You guys, I have been so sick! And it's not the kind of sick where you're spectacularly miserable and in bed for days and people bring you soup. The kind where you're fighting a sore throat, and then a cough, and then a sinus infection, all while you're wrapped in a haze of exhaustion, but not really sick enough to stop going about your daily life.

So I haven't been in the mood for updating, but I wanted to break the silence with a dish that is guaranteed to knock any nasty bugs right out of your nervous system. Ginger and garlic are fantastic for fighting colds and anything spicy will clear those sinuses right up. This is delicious, good-for-you, comfort food to soothe your soul.

(See? I didn't even make the Seoul/soul joke. I am the very picture of restraint.)


Korean Rice Bowl adapted from Veggie Num Num


¼ cup dried shiitake mushrooms
250g (9 oz) tempeh
1 brown onion
2 garlic cloves
5cm piece fresh ginger root
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbs sesame oil
1½ cup sushi rice (I used Uncle Ben's 90-second microwave basmati rice. It was delicious!)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cucumber, diced

Chilli Sauce

2 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp chili paste - I used Sambal Olek
½ tsp sesame oil
to serve

4 eggs, poached or fried (omit if vegan)
toasted sesame seeds


Place the shiitake mushrooms in a heat resistant bowl and cover with hot water. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes until mushrooms are tender, strain.

Halve the onion and then slice thinly, breaking the segments apart, mince the garlic and ginger. Slice the tempeh thinly. Combine shiitake mushrooms, onion, garlic, ginger and tempeh in a large flat dish, pour over the soy sauce, sesame oil and sprinkle with the sugar. Toss the ingredients until well combined and set aside, refrigerated for at least 30 minutes. My tempeh soaked up all the sauce. I might double the sauce next time to go on the rice.

To make the sauce combine all the ingredients in a bowl, adding about 3 tablespoon of water, or thin to the consistency you prefer.

Prepare the sushi rice to packet instructions, keep warm and set aside.

Heat a good heavy-based frypan over a medium-high heat. Add the marinated tempeh mixture and fry for 5-10 minutes allowing the tempeh to slightly blacken and crisp. Remove from the heat, place on a warm plate and cover with foil to keep warm.


To assemble the Korean rice bowl, dish out the prepared rice in four separate bowls, top with tempeh mixture, then cucumber and red pepper, finish off with one egg (if using) a good drizzle of the chilli sauce and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Oatmeal Pancakes

There are a lot of reasons to use whole grains, but for some crazy reason, the first thing anyone mentions are how good they are for you. What about how yummy whole grains are? There are some areas where white breads are more appropriate -- grilled cheese, for instance -- and white flour is almost always the better choice in cakes or lighter baked goods. But thick, hearty, nutty, chewy breads with the depth of flavor that whole grains offer can stand up to big, bold sandwiches. And, in this case, elevates pancakes from being spongy, lifeless, forgettable vehicles for syrup and butter to warm, nutty, tasty little cakes that you could happily eat plain. (Not that I did. Those babies got the syrup, butter, and bacon treatment.)

One of my very favorite recipes for pancakes are the Four Grain Flapjacks from Joy of Cooking. I didn't have any honey on hand yesterday morning, so I adapted a recipe from Allrecipes. I adapted it so far, though, that I'm just going to call it my own.

Oatmeal Pancakes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-1/2 cups buttermilk (you can sub regular milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk dry ingredients together. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk wet ingredients together.

With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix.

Heat a griddle, electric skillet, or nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking spray (butter offers more flavor, but I find that cooking spray makes it easier to flip the pancakes and reduces the risk of burning). Pour the batter in scant 1/3 cup-fuls onto the hot pan. Flip pancakes when bubbles cover the surface of the pancake.

Back to School Brownies

One bowl. One spoon. Crayons. James Joyce and his manpain.


Ahhh, back to school. Back to consistent schedules and only one kid in the house for most of the day...and homework every night and getting up really early and, in my household, losing things. I wish I could blame the children. I can't. I lose school notes and mittens and hats and my phone, on the way out the door, and, more often than not, my keys. My husband has the amazing ability to lose things that he's been carrying around since he woke up with the specific intention of not losing them. The kids seem to have inherited this gene; Oldest Daughter lost her glasses a mere two weeks after getting them.

So while I love fall weather (still waiting for it -- 97 degrees? in New England?) and getting back into the swing of things after a long, lazy summer of eating fresh berries and slowly atrophying our brains in the sun, I'm always a little thrown by the constant and varied demands of the school year. 99% of those demands involve either (a) money, (b) time, or (c) baked goods.

This recipe? Will help you with all three.

These are brownies, made with things you probably have in your pantry. They are made in one bowl, with one spoon, and go in one pan. They're in the oven in less than ten minutes and cost pennies to make.

And oh. my. god. are they ever good.

The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen yet again; Deb goes into great detail about why the cocoa powder is a better choice than melted chocolate, so I won't go into it here. These are very fudgy, dense, dark brownies, with a candy bar quality to them. They are not dry or boring or forgettable, like most brownies you come across! These are not brownies to slather in frosting or as a base to other things -- they are too moist and intensely flavored for that -- but they are killer with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I rounded the cocoa up to a full cup and omitted the nuts. (I am strongly anti-nut in my brownies) The original recipe calls for some double boiler action, but I've included the microwave instructions.

And they take less time to make than it'll take you to find your keys to get to the store.

Cocoa Brownies adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

Makes 16 larger or 25 smaller brownies

10 tablespoons unsalted butter*
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

*It's blasphemy, I know, but I have successfully substituted salted butter and omitted the salt. they come out fine.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. (Or you can use butter/flour spray, or butter and flour the pan. The foil makes cleanup a lot easier, though.)

In a medium-sized glass or Pyrex bowl, melt the butter. Add sugar, cocoa powder, and salt, then stir to combine. The mixture will be gritty -- that's ok.

Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the batter looks glossy and smooth, stir the flour in vigorously until well-blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. (I find that I need to bake them on the longer side, up to 30 minutes.)

Note: If you're the kind of person (like me) who chronically underbakes brownies so they'll be gooey, don't do that with this recipe. They are chewy and gooey on their own; underbaking them will just lead to them falling apart and a raw batter taste. No good.

Maine Cookbook: Swedish Almond Cake and Berry Compote

Here is another runaway hit from the Maine Vacation Cookbook, this time from my friend V.

My family, as I've mentioned, loves to cook. They also love to bake. My mom has made wedding cakes; she knows how to use fondant and fresh flowers and can whip up a pastry cream like it's a pb&j. It takes a lot to impress my family, baking-wise, but after the vacation, everyone was talking about this cake. It's one of those deceptively simple cakes, where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. It doesn't have cream or ganache or jam filling or a glaze (though it would be lovely with those things), but it's memorable and complex and lovely with just a dusting of confectioner's sugar and some berry compote.

Note: I don't normally like almond extract. It always tastes harsh to me. But this cake tastes like it's made with almond paste -- rich and subtle -- and I'm surprised every time that it's not.

Swedish Almond Cake adapted from Cooks.com

1 1/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
2/3 c. milk
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 stick (8 tbsp.) butter, melted
Beat sugar, egg, almond extract and milk together. Add flour and baking powder. Then add butter. Spray baking dish with Pam or any non-stick coating. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until cake tests done with toothpick. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove from pan.
When ready to serve sprinkle confectioners' sugar (through strainer) onto cake. Cut cake into 1/2 inch slices. Can be served warm or cold. Recipe can be doubled and bake in a Bundt pan.

I am going to add my recipe for berry compote below, but feel free to skip that step, heat up some raspberry jam, and drizzle over the top. Just as good and so easy!

Berry Compote

This is not so much a recipe as a technique. I find that following recipes for something as variable as seasonal fruits can be discouraging and misleading. Experimentation is key! Don't be afraid to make mistakes!

2C fresh or frozen berries.*

Sugar to taste, about 1/4C

3 Tbs cornstarch

1C + 4 Tbs water

Squeeze of lemon juice

All measurements are approximate, because the amounts are really going to depend on if you use fresh berries or frozen, and how sweet those berries are. Here is the technique: heat fresh or thawed berries in a small pan on low with enough liquid to cover them halfway. Smash the berries with a spoon. Taste that and add sugar to your taste. You will have berries and grainy sugar floating in a thin liquid -- that's ok! Turn up the heat to med-high. Dissolve cornstarch in 4 Tbs water, add to the pot, and bring to a boil. Bring to a boil, then simmer 1 minute, or until thick.

If the mixture is too sweet: add more berries.

If it's not sweet enough: add sugar.

If it's too thin: add cornstarch 1 tsp at a time, dissolved in water. Bring to a boil again after ach addition.

If it's too thick: add water, 1 Tbs at a time.

*In the summer, you can use fresh blueberries or raspberries or blackberries. In the winter, you could use cranberries for an impressive holiday dessert. (Or breakfast. In fact, serve this cake with yogurt and berries and...yes, now I know what I'm making for breakfast this weekend.)

Whoops, forgot to post! Raspberry Brown Sugar Gratin

I'm sorry for not posting in so long! I had gotten out of the habit, and then not posting became a thing, so then I felt like I couldn't post again without something amazing.

So I am giving myself permission to make this short and sweet, just to get in the habit of posting again.

And this recipe? Short, sweet, and amazing. I first saw this recipe for raspberry brown sugar gratin on Smitten Kitchen, and I couldn't wrap my head around it. Three ingredients and one of them is sour cream? In a dessert? And sure, she went on and on about it, but...what does it really taste like?

Here is the recipe, such as it is:

1 pint sour cream (Full-fat only! This will not work otherwise.)

1 pint raspberries

1 cup dark brown sugar

You mix the sour cream and the raspberries in a shallow dish. Cover it evenly with brown sugar. Broil until it starts to caramelize, about 1 minute.

Yes, one minute. It has three ingredients and takes one minute to cook. I know. I know.

I used a pie plate; you could use ramekins or a baking dish as well. Deb at Smitten Kitchen suggests pushing the brown sugar through a sieve or colander, but that didn't work with my colander. I just spread the sugar over the top as evenly as I could and it worked out fine.

The flavor is...indescribable. (But I will try! How sad would it be if I ended the post there?) It's not like cheesecake or ice cream or yogurt or berries and cream. The sugar turns into a caramel sauce and snakes through the firm, tart sour cream, softening it. The berries are bright and explode with flavor. It's not like anything I ever had before. To be honest, my husband and I were eating it (right out of the pie plate at 11 at night; don't judge) and saying, "I don't know how I feel about that," for the first few bites. And then we kept eating it, and eating it some more, just so we could figure out the flavor. And then we pretty much polished it off. It's crazy good, but not in the way most American desserts are. It was so striking for the fact that it was a genuinely new taste to my palate, made with ingredients I eat every day.

Well, that and the fact that it's a company-worthy dessert that takes three ingredients and less than a minute to prepare.

Take the last of those summer berries and make this! On a weekday, even! Just because you can.

Patatas Bravas and a meal to remember

I haven't had the time to write, as I've been so busy with actual, paid work (what's up with that?) that I've barely even had time to cook. We had fish sticks and frozen ravioli last week, people. Who wants to read about that?

But I haven't been ignoring the blogosphere, oh no, as procrastination in the form of Internet surfing is a fine art Chez Food Wrangler. And once I saw this recipe for Patatas Bravas, I knew I had to get back in the kitchen.

See, there are a few things going on here. One, my husband loves smoked paprika more than nearly anything else in the world. Loves it. I've caught him walking around with his nose in the tin, inhaling the smoky scent with a pining look in his eyes. Two, a few weeks ago, he came home with bottle of Garnacha del Fuego, knowing how much I like Spanish wines, and we both went nuts over it. It's an intense, high-alcohol wine with a deep, smoky, "hot" flavor. We both thought immediately of smoked paprika when we tasted it. It's not really a summer wine, but it stands up very nicely to strong, grilled, meaty or spicy flavors. (And I'm not joking about the alcohol levels. Sip this wine.)

So when I saw the recipe for these traditional Spanish potatoes, I immediately thought of that wine, and this meal was born.

My initial thought was to pair it with Merguez sausage. I went to the only specialty foods store in my area that sells Merguez sausage.

It was $19.95/lb. Time for Plan B.

I ended up going for kielbasa from our local butcher, figuring that it would match the smokiness, but not the heat, which might be kind of overwhelming.

The mister grilled the kielbasa while the potatoes and tomatoes roasted -- the hardest part of the whole recipe was cutting the potatoes -- and I tossed them with the dressing just as we were setting the table. So easy! We served it all with a simple romaine/carrot salad with bleu cheese, to cut some of the heat. (This was a really nice contrast.)

The Verdict: WOW. No, really, just...WOW. This is a meal that's not only delicious and simple, but definitely good enough for company. Impressive without breaking the bank or breaking a sweat, and uniquely appropriate for both summer and fall -- roasting makes the most out of off-peak tomatoes, and you could cut the sausage up, saute it, and mix it with the potatoes for a hearty cool-weather meal.

We both wished for bigger stomachs by the end of the night!

Patatas Bravas (via Bitchin' Camero)

2 lb. fingerling potatoes
4 tbsp. olive oil
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 tbsp. smoked paprika (medium) (Note: I only had hot paprika. I used that and omitted the cayenne. They were quite spicy.)
1 tsp. sherry vinegar
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (less or none if you don’t like spicy foods)
1 – 2 tsp. salt (to taste)

Preheat the oven to 375°. Cut the potatoes into rough 1-inch pieces. Toss the potatoes with 1 tbsp. olive oil and place on a cookie sheet in one layer.

If the cookie sheet is large enough, place the tomatoes on the same sheet, otherwise, put them on their own cookie sheet or in a small oven-safe dish. Bake the tomatoes and potatoes for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and golden and the tomatoes are melting. Remove from oven.

Transfer the tomatoes to a bowl and add the remaining 3 tbsp. of olive oil, along with the vinegar, paprika, cayenne and salt. Mix well with a fork, breaking all of the roasted tomatoes into the sauce.

Place the potatoes in a bowl and toss with the sauce. Add more cayenne or salt to taste.

Maine Cookbook: Napa Cabbage Salad

I am trying very hard to post more instead of agonizing over every post! So this one will be short and sweet, like this salad.

My Aunt L. made this salad one night in Maine. And nobody could believe (a) that it was actually cabbage and actually delicious or (b) that it was so simple to make. It's one of those great recipes that tastes like so much more than it is, with a huge crunch and sweetness and light and depth. Bring it to your next cookout and blow everyone away.


Napa Cabbage Salad

4-5 LBS Napa cabbage sliced into thin strips
5 scallions
2 Pkg Ramen Noodles (discard seasonaings)
1 small pkg slivered almonds
1 Tbs sesame seeds

Dressing
1/2 C vinegar
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C water
1 C sugar
5 tsp soy sauce

Preheat over to 350. Break Ramen noodles into pieces and bake on a cookie sheet until brown. (No time given, but I'd imagine that would be about five minutes, and check frequently.) Add almonds and sesame seeds to the cookie sheet and brown. (Again, likely a matter of minutes.)
Mix everything together and enjoy!

Crockpot Chicken and Tomatoes

I love my slow cooker. Well, technically, that would be slow cookers, plural, because I actually have three of them in different sizes. THAT is how much I love slow-cooking foods.

Slow cookers are never going to be cool. Slow cooking is never going to be the next sous vide or make the cover of Food and Wine. It's always going to conjure up the image of soccer moms and cream of mushroom soup and those Betty Crocker cookbooks at the checkout counter. And it sure as heck doesn't make food that turns out pretty on the plate.

But I ask you this: What is the worst time to be making dinner? Dinnertime! Think about it! You're hungry. You're tired. You just finished a long day of work or a long day with the kids. If you have kids? Well, then you know what kids look like at 5-6 o'clock and it ain't pretty. So now that you've busted your butt all day, it's time to find something to eat, MAKE something to eat, and then clean up all the dishes you made by making something to eat.

This is why people eat corn flakes and pinot grigio for dinner. Sometimes. Some people. *cough*

But imagine this: It's dinnertime and you have dinner, piping hot, already prepared. The dishes from making that dinner are already clean in the dishwasher, like some kind of Harry Potter time-traveling magic. THAT is the awesome power of the slow cooker.

And while you might think that the slow cooker excels at stews (it does) and briskets (that too) and other winter fare, imagine the greatness of the slow cooker on a hot summer day, when you don't want to turn on the oven, stand over the stove, or swat the bugs away from your grill. Sadly, summer recipes are a bit harder to come by for the slow cooker, but, courtesy of one of my favorite bloggers, The Crockpot Lady I found a real winner:

Herb-Roasted Chicken and Tomatoes adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking

Ingredients:
4 pounds chicken, whole or parts, your choice
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons herbes de provence (I didn't have any on hand, so I used thyme, rosemary, and basil)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (I doubled this. We love smoked paprika.)
8 vine-ripened tomatoes
1/2 cup white wine (Shockingly, I didn't have any in the house, so I used 1/4C white balsamic vinegar and 1/4C apple juice. I imagine you could use whatever liquid seems good for your tastes.)
*My additions: I had a 1/2 onion and a large, smashed garlic clove that I put inside the bird for more depth.

The Directions.

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine dry spices and set aside. Wash chicken, remove neck and giblets, and try to cut off as much skin as you can using poultry shears. If the chicken is fully thawed, this is much easier to do. Rub the seasoning mixture on all sides of the bird, inside and out and place into your stoneware. (She put the chicken breast side down, but I didn't and it was fine.)
Wash and cut the stemmy part out of each tomato, and plop on top. Pour the white wine in, and cover the slow cooker. Cook on low for about 7 hours, or on high for 4-5. Carefully remove the bird from the pot, and retain the drippings to make a pot of steamed rice.

Oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. Something about this dish is just magical. The tomatoes stay whole until you cut into them and then they just sort of slump over and sigh, releasing fresh summery goodness all over your perfectly moist, seasoned chicken and to-die-for rice. Or quinoa, in our case, as I had some leftover from Quinoa Disaster Week. Using the liquid from the chicken to make the quinoa resulted in an intensely-flavored, salty, delicious foundation for the silky tomatoes and juicy chicken.

I can't wait to make it again. And I can't wait to use the leftover chicken in quesadillas. Or chicken salad. Or...okay, I might have been picking some out of the pot. It's really just that good. And hey, no bugs, no sweating, and no more cereal for dinner. (Unless you want to. Corn flakes are pretty good over peach ice cream.)

Maine Cookbook: Blueberry Muffins

Every other year, my entire extended family descends on The Lakeside Cedar Cabins in Ellsworth, ME for a week of relaxation, family bonding, and lots and lots of food. We've been going there since I was 9; some years it was just my family, some years we skipped it completely, some years it was just this aunt or that family friend, but now, it's tradition. We go every other year. Now that "the kids" (i.e., me and my cousin) are grown, we bring our own friends as well. We rent all the cabins for the entire week, because, well.

Let's put this delicately: We're not...shy and retiring people. We're not quiet people. We're Irish. We like to party. And we are a bunch of foodies.

Every cabin is responsible for a meal or a part of a meal, and we all (all 20+ of us) eat together. Menus are discussed months ahead of time; recipes are carefully researched and developed, and everyone always, always goes overboard. You would not believe the incredible meals that come out of those tiny kitchens, cooked in full-day shifts.

Last year, for my mom's 60th birthday, I put together a cookbook of all the Maine recipes from that year. I'm going to be reposting them here, then hopefully expanding with more family recipes.

As the only one with small kids, I generally don't contribute full meals. Last year, the baby was only just a year old -- not really an age that's conducive to full-day cooking. But I did make my famous blueberry muffins for the crowd. I make these muffins nearly every weekend. Sometimes I make them with chocolate chips or dried cranberries or swirls of cinnamon instead of the blueberries. But the base is the easiest I've ever used and always results in a light, fluffy, delicious muffin, even if you sub in half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour.

Erin's Blueberry Muffins adapted from AllRecipes

1 1/2C all-purpose flour (you can sub up to half this amount with whole wheat)
3/4C white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3C vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3C milk (or more, see directions)
1 tsp vanilla
1C blueberries

Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin or prepare with paper liners.

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. In a 1-cup measuring cup, add the oil, egg, and enough milk to make 1 cup of liquid. Whisk liquid ingredients together in a small bowl. **I like to do this step in a 2-cup measuring cup and whisk the mixture right in the cup with a fork. This way, you only dirty one bowl!**

Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and blend gently, just stirring enough to moisten the dry ingredients. Fold in the blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin tin. Sprinkle with some extra sugar on top if you're feeing fancy. Bake for 18 minutes at 400 degrees.

Photo credit: Iain M.

The most delicious pizza you'll ever have -- if you're the guy I married

Last night, I made pizza. Two pizzas, to be exact. And I had to fight my husband for every last slice. After much moaning and groaning and weeping to the angels, he grabbed my shoulders, looked me in the eyes, and said, "This is the best pizza I have ever had in my life. In my LIFE." I backed away from the crazy man, and he just kept going. "No, seriously, IN MY LIFE."

If you knew how mild-mannered my husband was? You would be in shock, I assure you.

Now, I'm not sure that this pizza beats New York pizza or even New Jersey pizza, but for New Hampshire pizza, it's pretty darn good. I love making pizza at home; it's cheap and fun and easy and you can have a blast with toppings without breaking the bank.

I also love ordering pizza because of the thing where you dial the phone and 20 minutes later someone shows up at your house with dinner. All those food bloggers who say that "You'll never order pizza again!" along with a dough recipe are liars. Liars, I say! Because I don't care how easy your recipe is: You dial the phone. A guy shows up. You have food. And there are no dishes. It doesn't get easier than that!

But when made at home, pizza is immensely satisfying. It is, indeed, easy to make pizza dough. It's easy to make pizza sauce. It's easy to get funky and creative without veering outside of something that's also familiar and comforting. When people ask me what my favorite food is -- with that little hesitant laugh, because who can ever answer that question? -- I answer without missing a beat: Pizza.

I've finally found a dough that I love; I've tried the Joy of Cooking and King Arthur Flour and Smitten Kitchen and even the recipes on the backs of the yeast envelopes. But this recipe is the most consistent, the best-tasting, and -- surprise! -- the quickest. I don't generally like rapid-rising yeast, but it works perfectly in this to give it that nice, crispy bottom.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough from 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes

-3/4C all-purpose flour, sifted (I never sift anything. I'm so lazy.)
-1 pkg fast-rising yeast
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/2C very hot water
-2 tsp honey
-1/2C whole wheat flour (I always need almost another 1/2 cup to make the dough come together)

1. Combine all-purpose flour, yeast, and sat in medium bowl; add hot water and honey, stirring until smooth. Mix in enough whole wheat flour to make a soft dough. (Note: I did everything, including the kneading, in my stand mixer with a dough hook.)

2. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth and elastic, 3 to 5 minutes. Cover dough with bowl; let stand 15 minutes before using. Roll out dough on a pan or pizza stone.


Pizza Sauce (my recipe)

-1 6 oz. can tomato paste
-1 6 oz. can water
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp sugar
-1 tsp Italian seasoning
- black pepper to taste

1. Whisk all ingredients together over medium heat. Once the sauce is smooth, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.


Start with these basics and you won't go wrong, I promise. Top it with bacon, smoked mozzarella, and red peppers. Or buffalo chicken and bleu cheese. Or tomatoes, garlic, and feta. Or fontina and pear.

Or do what I did last night and make someone swoon: Caramelize some sweet onions for a good, long time. Crumble up some nice, local, all-natural sweet Italian sausage and cook through. Top pizza with mozzarella, onions, sausage, and black olives.

And then get ready to fight for your half of the pizza.

Meal Planning, minus one kid

Oldest Daughter is off to the big, bad city next week for a whirlwind vacation with family, so this week's meal planning is going to be super simple. No balancing the desire for creative, non-bland food over the desire to have a peaceful dinner. Beautiful!

I am proud of her, though. Last night we were at my mom's and she didn't like the options for the chicken (plain or BBQ) so she asked me for the recipe for her favorite lemon chicken, and made the sauce herself. Problem-solving instead of complaining! I love it!

So the week ahead looks something like this:

Today: Turkey burgers with Jack cheese and corn on the cob. If I feel inspired, I might make this pavlova with cherries and blueberries. Or cherry pie, but it's 90 degrees out.

Tomorrow: We're going to a big 4th of July/Youngest Daughter's birthday party at my parents' house. I'm bringing deviled eggs, which the kids love. I don't do anything too fancy to them; just a little mayo, dried mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper, and paprika on the top.

Monday: Pineapple-glazed chicken with jalapeno salsa. I've made this before and we liked it a lot. It's incredibly light and fresh. I keep meaning to make the salsa for other things. I love anything with that sweet/hot combination.

Tuesday: Slow-Cooker Barbecue Beans and Sausage. This is a new one for us. I think D. is going to love it.

Wednesday: Fusilli with Spinach and Asiago Cheese. I haven't made this before, but I'm having a hard time imagining that it'll come out badly.

Thursday: Farmer's market day. I'll make up something from there.

Friday: I am home alone with the toddler, so no fancy food here. We'll probably do pizza.


I will be back later on in the week with verdicts. Happy 4th, everyone!

Summer eating

I am a bad blogger. I keep buying food and intending to blog about it, but then I just eat it. The blueberry buckles and cobblers and whatnot? Gone as I ate pint after pint of delicious blueberries straight from their little cartons. The cherry clafoutis that I wanted to make last night? Well...the cherries were just so good! And there was a big, glistening bag of them right there! Who needs to mess with a sweet, ripe cherry?

Even my meal planning, normally so carefully orchestrated, falls to the wayside in the summer. 90 degrees out? Let's just have tuna sandwiches and call it a day. We'll throw burgers on the grill again. Let's pick up some homemade sausages from our local butcher. How about we throw all our leftover veggies over pasta. Delicious, all of it, but worthy of posting? "Dear blog: I just ate my fourth bowl of Cheerios with half a pint of blueberries on top while watching Top Chef."

So I apologize for the lack of content lately, but it's been all summer bounty all the time around here.

And there's a half a bag of cherries calling my name.

Cook for Good: A Review

A few months back, I downloaded the Cook for Good e-books because we were trying to seriously cut down on our grocery bills and didn't want to sacrifice eating healthy. The experiment was a success; we easily cut our grocery bills by a third, even though we didn't follow the plan strictly. (My kids would revolt if they only ever had toast for breakfast, as would I.) With a picky kid and my own love of experimenting with new recipes, we didn't stay on the plan for long, but I can wholeheartedly recommend it for several reasons:

1. She talks you through the process of once-a-week cooking in a way that is helpful and genuinely innovative. She doesn't advocate cooking all of your meals once a week and eating out of the freezer, but she walks you through making sauces, breads, doughs, desserts, beans, and yogurt in a step-by-step way, combining the steps for each component, that makes you realize that hey, it IS possible to make your own yogurt every week! (That's not a collective you, by the way. My yogurt failed spectacularly. I don't blame the book.) You won't spend your entire weekend cooking, I promise.

2. She doesn't shy away from treats. In fact, she offers a dessert with every meal. I felt like I was eating healthier than ever, and I got a slice of cake every night! Healthy cake!

3. She thinks outside the box. Sweet potatoes and yogurt sauce for breakfast? Brilliant! Spending a little bit on a specialty ingredient like ginger, then using it in curry and stir-fry and sauces and cake? Love it!

There are cons, of course. It is 100% vegetarian by dint of cheapness, not from a vegetarian perspective per se, but that might turn a lot of people off. There really isn't, week after week, a lot of variety. There are creative takes on beans and rice and rice and beans and beans and...beans. But, you know. It all boils down to beans. :D

Ultimately, however, I think Cook for Goood is worth the $9.95. We use the book often as a "tune-up" when our grocery bills get out of control, and I think that her walk-through of once a week cooking is worth the money alone.

Plus, my husband really loves that ginger-carrot cake. It's a killer.

Shaking up Breakfast

Let's just say that the less said about last week's multiple quinoa failures, the better. We don't need to revisit that. And the falafel? *shudder* We won't even mention it. Onward and upward to better things!

I have been trying to shake up my breakfast routine a litte. Generally, I eat cereal, cereal, and cereal during the week, with a few muffins or bacon thrown in on the weekends. Not a lot of protein there, other than the milk in the cereal. But I can't be bothered with dirtying a pan for eggs during the weekday, and I get bored with peanut butter toast pretty fast.

Then, this recipe for Loaded Orange Yogurt popped up on Foodgawker. And then I remembered Molly Wizenberg's recipe for Everyday Granola. Now we're in business!

The yogurt is delicious; it's creamy and rich and tangy, even using low fat yogurt. After draining, I just mixed it right in the original container, and I now have enough for breakfast all week.

Well, if I don't keep sneaking bowl of it. That stuff is delicious.

I didn't mix the raisins, nuts, and orange segments into it because I knew I was going to make the granola. The granola is excellent, but it's pretty much like every granola I've ever made; good, but nothing earth-shattering. But together? Ohhhhh, yes. Together, they make a crunchy, creamy, sweet breakfast that's a little bit virtuous and a whole lot delicious.

I experiment with skewers

One thing that struck me from each of the chicken-on-a-stick recipes that I tried this week is that they both called for chicken thighs. Makes sense; thighs are fattier and hold up to the high heat of grilling much better. They're also way cheaper than breasts, even the boneless, skinless thighs.

Yeaaaahhhh. They needed a lot of trimming. And we still ended up with odd bits in them. So, lesson learned, I am going to get either breasts or better quality thighs next time.

The first recipe we tried was Honey Balsamic Chicken. A few things I did not like: She has you cut the chicken into tiny chunks, which took for-fricking-ever, and it's really hard not to burn. My pan still hasn't recovered.

Verdict: In theory, yummy enough to make again, possibly on the grill. In practice, we'll probably forget about this dish completely.


The second recipe wasn't really a recipe; it was more of a craving. I got it in my head that I wanted to make Chicken Satay. Or, at least, my own, poor, Americanized version of it. So I looked up a few different recipes and came up with something on my own, based on what was in the house:

Marinade
1/4 c peanut butter (I used natural)
2T limeade (no limes, was making margaritas)
1/2c soy sauce
dash fish sauce
dash hot sesame oil
a few dashes olive oil
1/2 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1-in. piece of fresh ginger

I threw all of this in the food processor until it was smooth. It had a really strong taste, which is perfect for a marinade, but would have been intense as a dipping sauce. So I:

-marinated 5 chicken thighs, cut into strips, in HALF of the marinade, for a few hours (You can marinate as little as 20 minutes, if you like,)

-took the rest of the marinade, (still in the food processor!) added another 1/4c of peanut butter, a tablespoon of sugar, and a little more limeade, and processed that. That was a perfect dipping sauce.

Verdict: It was a big hit. The sauce was very yummy and the chicken was tender. Older Daughter liked it, but, in a complete switch, Younger Daughter kept asking for french fries.

Meals 5/21-5/29

This week's theme: Things on sticks. And on the grill. Things on sticks AND on the grill, even. See, we just moved downstairs to the first floor of the 4-family house we live in, and we suddenly have use of the awesome yard. So we can grill without running up and down the stairs or isolating my poor husband to a corner of the driveway while he flips burgers.

When I plan meals, I don't plan specific meals for specific days. That way lies madness and failed plans. I plan for a certain number of days (paycheck to paycheck generally, but we're going to experiment with going once/week) and I make whatever I feel like making on any given day. Of course, I try to use up produce at the beginning of the week, and I save tuna-and-soup-nights for the nights we're going to be busy.

This week's plan:

1. Hot dogs/potato salad/carrot salad
Now, I know I can get two meals out of a batch of potato salad, so we also have...

2. Turkey burgers/potato salad/carrot salad

I also wanted to add some Asian flavors to the week, as Oldest Daughter has a newfound love for soy sauce and citrus:
3. Chicken satay with rice and some kind of veggie

4. Oldest Daughter's request: "Broccoli, peas, baby corn, carrots, tofu, and soy sauce." I'm going to make this into some kind of stir-fry or...oh, hay, I just had the idea to use leftover rice from the chicken satay and make fried rice. Or wait, no, noodles! This would be good with noodles.

And just because sometimes you need chicken on a stick twice in a week...

5. Honey balsamic chicken skewers with rice (yeah, we eat a lot of rice) and corn

6. Hot veggie subs with french fries. (I guarantee you that everyone will complain about this. Tough.)
7. Fish sticks and french fries. Yeah, I said it.

8. Poached eggs on homemade bread with fruit. We had this last week and it was the simplest thing, but everyone went nuts over it.

9. Homemade pizza

Recipes will be posted in the verdict posts!

Me, with my shopping list:

Intro

So, this is my food blog.

This is what I don't have:

-A fancy camera or any photography skills, so there won't be any loving closeups of perfectly prepared food.

-A gorgeous stainless steel-applianced house in the country where I grow my own vegetables and knit.

-A gimmick. This isn't 101 Ways to Make Toast, though I would totally read that blog. I love toast.


This is what I do have:

-An unseemly number of food magazine subscriptions and cookbooks for a girl on a budget.

-A near-obsessive love of meal planning. There may be graphs at some point, is what I'm saying.

-A family, including an insanely picky eater.


The cast of characters:

Erin (me): I was vegetarian for 12 years, vegan for over a year of that, and I still eat very little meat. I'm not used to the flavor/texture of beef and pork yet, (other than bacon! yum!) so I usually sub chicken or turkey in recipes. I come from a big foodie family.

D, my husband: He will eat anything you put in front of him, other than olives, artichoke hearts, and stuffed vegetables. I'm wearing him down on the olives.

Oldest Daughter: Seven years old and horribly, horribly picky. She will eat like, five things. And nothing can ever be mixed together. Though we did learn recently that she has a serious love for Asian flavors, including fish sauce (I mean...really?) and soy sauce, so I'm going to try to incorporate more of that in my cooking. She's also, after years of disinterest, recently asked to make her own recipes. Yes!

Youngest Daughter: She's almost two and will eat anything. Yes, anything. I hope it's not a phase.