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Quinoa Turkey Meatloaf (Gluten-Free)

  April 3, 2013 - 10:25 pm | , , , , , ,
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I have made my turkey meatloaf recipe constantly over the years. It wasn’t so long ago that this was Little Guy’s favorite, but now, sadly he is going through a phase where he would rather live on chicken nuggets and pizza. This recipe is my adaptation of a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s The Best Light Recipe  cookbook. However, I recently discovered another recipe for turkey meatloaf that used Quinoa instead of breadcrumbs as a binder. Not only does this make the recipe gluten-free, but loads the meatloaf with healthy whole-grain. I liked the quinoa recipe, but it lacked the flavor and veggies that my turkey meatloaf had. So I combined my well loved recipe with the quinoa, and the result was the best of both.

This meatloaf is packed with everything needed for a healthy meal; lean protein, healthy grains, veggies, lean dairy and lots of flavor. So, even if the little ones eat nothing else, they are still getting a full meal. Little Guy is on board too. At first it was begrudgingly, but he kept eating after his requisite four bites. That’s a major success in my house.

As usual, I disguise the veggies by chopping them up very fine. The carrots (an addition of my own) help lighten the texture, add an additional sweetness to the meatloaf and also add even more veggies to the dish. I use around three carrots for a two pound recipe, and pulse them and onions in a food processor until very fine before sautéing them in a tiny bit of oil until tender. I know that purists out there will argue that chopping the onions in a food processor will make them bitter, but I can’t tell and I don’t have time to Bruniose onions and carrots these days, so the food processor handles the job for me.

I don’t have problems getting my son to eat the green specks of parsley and thyme in this dish because when he was less opinionated I explained that the Italian seasoning on his pizza were magic sprinkles that made everything taste good. Ever since then, when he sees me adding fresh green herbs to things, he just asks if the magic sprinkles are going to make it taste good. I highly recommend this approach! However, if your kid is of the nothing-green ilk, then you can leave the herbs out.

This recipe calls for two pounds of ground turkey and makes either one large loaf or two smaller ones. With all my kids still small, we only need half of this recipe for our family. I always use fresh, never-frozen ground turkey when I make this so I can freeze half and have a freshly baked meatloaf for another night. I do not add the sauce before I freeze it, and thaw it thoroughly before baking. Then when I’m ready to bake it off, I mix up a half recipe of the sauce and bake as normal.

If you are using previously frozen turkey and you still want to make a full recipe of meatloaf and freeze half, just bake it before refreezing (although I think the rule about never refreezing meat is a bit silly if you are careful with the way the meat was thawed and handled). You can also half this recipe and just make up one pound of turkey.

It’s healthy, it tastes good, its gluten-free and full of healthy grains. Your kid will like it, so just make it already. ’nuff said! Enjoy.

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Kid Friendly Veggie-Full Quinoa Turkey Meatloaf
Adapted from The Best Light Recipe and this Turkey Quinoa Meatloaf Recipe found on allrecipes.com

Serves 6-8

This recipe splits and doubles very well. The baking times I list are for two loafs per recipe, but this bakes very nicely as a full two pound loaf as well. Baking times will increase to 45 minutes for the first bake, then add the second half of the glaze and bake for about another 15 minutes. Always cook the meatloaf until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

1/2 cup quinoa
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup carrots, peeled and rough chopped (about 1/2 pound)
1 medium onion, peeled and rough chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, such as Crystal
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, finely ground
1 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
2 pounds 93% ground lean turkey
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bring one cup of water and the quinoa to a boil in a small pan.

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Cover, reduce heat to low and cook for twenty minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool fully. While the quinoa is cooking pulse the onion and carrots separately in a food processor until very finely chopped but not pureed.

Heat a skillet over medium heat with one teaspoon of olive oil. Add the chopped onions and carrots with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

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Cook, stirring frequently until the onions and carrots are soft, but not brown, about ten minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute. Turn off the heat and allow the vegetables to cool.

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While the quinoa and carrot and onion mixture are cooling, combine the yogurt, eggs, thyme, parsley, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce, black pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt in large mixing bowl.

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When cool, add the quinoa and vegetable mixture and combine everything together.

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Mix in the ground turkey and mix until uniformly combined. Separate the mixture into two even amounts and form each one into a loaf about 9”x5”x1” on a lined baking sheet.

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Combine the ketchup, brown sugar and cider vinegar in a small bowl and coat each meatloaf with about 1/4 of the sauce leaving the other 1/2 for later in the baking process. If you are only baking one meatloaf and freezing the other, only make a half recipe of sauce with 1/4 cup of ketchup, two tablespoons brown sugar and one tablespoon of cider vinegar.

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Bake the meatloaf for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and coat with the remaining sauce. Return to the oven and cook until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, about 15 minutes more. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for ten minutes before serving.

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Baked Potato Tots

  March 7, 2013 - 11:02 am | , , , , , ,
2 Comments
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Crunchy potato tots are a pretty unanimous family favorite. Kids love ‘em because they are tasty, crunchy, slightly salty, go well with ketchup and they seem like they are bad for you. Parents love ‘em because they are tasty, crunchy, slightly salty, go well with ketchup and because the kids like ‘em.

Good potato tots are as good as potatoes can get. They are crispy, hot and flavorful with just the right balance of starchy potato and salt. Bad potato tots are undercooked, limp, lukewarm, falling apart and taste of old potatoes and the freezer (think back to your school lunches).

These are very good potato tots, and they are baked which makes them healthier. Not to mention that you don’t need to deal with the hassle of frying. They only take a few minutes to whip together. From start to finish you can have these on the table in well under an hour (about 40 minutes once you’ve made them once or twice).

By making your own potato tots, you get to control the ingredients. You can use organic or local potatoes and eggs. If you want gluten-free potato tots, just substitute potato starch for the flour. If you want to make them low-sodium, reduce the amount of salt, use light salt or even use a salt-free seasoning like Mrs. Dash or Penzey’s Forward. However you make them, you will enjoy them, as will your whole family. After all they are tasty, crunchy, slightly salty and go well with ketchup.

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Baked Potato Tots
serves 3-4 as a side

Replace the flour with potato starch to make these gluten-free. Don’t be tempted to cook these until they are golden brown. Lightly golden is the best. They can get tough and a little bitter when they are over-cooked.

1 pound potatoes, peeled (about two large)
1 egg white
1 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon flour
non-stick cooking spray or olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the potatoes into large chunks and place in a food processor with the normal blade in place.

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Pulse several times until the potatoes are in small (1/4”) pieces. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may need to do this in batches.

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Remove the potatoes from the food processor and place on a large, clean kitchen towel.

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Wrap the kitchen towel around the potatoes and squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the potatoes.

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Place the potatoes in a large bowl and add the egg white, onion powder, salt and flour. Mix together well.

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Spray a lined baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or lightly brush with oil. Use a small scoop (such as a cookies scoop) or a tablespoon to scoop the potatoes into round “tots” and place on the baking sheet leaving a small amount of space between each tot.

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Spray the tops with non-stick cooking spray or lightly brush with oil and place in the oven.

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Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the tops are light brown. Serve hot.

Bean and Sausage Stew

  January 9, 2013 - 10:18 pm | , , , , , , ,
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So far our legume series has featured two unusual ways to prepare them—fried in an appetizer and a french-fry substitute. This week we fall back to the tried and true, the traditional bean soup (or stew). People have been cooking up beans in a pot since before the invention of farming. They were first gathered from wild vines. My guess is that the first gatherers just popped a few freshly shelled beans in their mouth. They were tasty, but a bit later in the night, the digestive problems set in and they changed their minds. Beans have various complex sugars and combined sugar-proteins (lectins) in their husks. Some of the sugars are hard to digest and others are downright toxic to humans. See http://www.usdrybeans.com/nutrition/nutrition-facts/. They soon discovered that cooking destroyed most of these problem nutrients and thus into the pot went the beans.

By the way, some slow cookers (mainly older ones) don’t get hot enough (176 degrees Fahrenheit) to break down the lectins. If you suspect that your slow cooker isn’t adequate, check its temperature or soak and/or boil the beans and discard that water before finishing them in the slow cooker.

“Pease porridge hot. Pease porridge cold. Pease porridge in the pot nine days old.” Was Mother Goose a negligent cook, unconcerned about her childrens’ nutrition? Well, if she was one of the multitude of peasants in middle-ages Europe, peas porridge (from the French potage) might be all she had for the week’s rations. Even the well-to-do began their medieval feasts with a course of potage or two. What’s potage? Anything cooked in a pot. Ummm, soup or stew; I’m still undecided.

Let no one doubt that bean soup is a cornerstone of civilization. The United States Senate has bean soup in its private dining room every time the doors open. This unbroken tradition began over a century ago by order of some farm-state senators of that day.

Tradition aside, about this time, mid-winter, I start to really crave this stew. It’s this recipe that started me on my cheese-rind-in-the-soup kick a few years ago. In this recipe the cheese rinds help tame the spicy sausage, mellow the beaniness and lend a soft cheesy flavor. I choose to use lots of different beans because each size has its own distinct purpose. The small lentils, peas, and beans dissolve into the soup to thicken it into a stew, the mid and larger beans provide texture. Bob’s Red Mill 13 Bean mix is what I’ve always used, but of course there are others.

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As long as the mix has both large beans and small lentils and split peas it should work. One cup of this soup will give you the warmth and energy to shovel the walk or even to bundle up the kids in the countless layers necessary for snowman building. Enjoy!

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Mixed Bean and Sausage Stew
Serves 8
I’ve made this soup with kielbasa, chorizo, and andouille sausages. I use the turkey variety, but as long as your using a good quality, smoked and strongly flavored sausage it should work.
2 cups dried mixed beans with no flavorings such as Bob’s Red Mill 13 Bean Mix
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package smoked sausage (12-16 ounces depending on the sausage), quartered lengthwise then cut into 1/2” pieces
1 large onion, diced in small 1/4” pieces
3-4 large carrots (about 3/4 pound) diced in large 1/2” pieces
1 teaspoons dried thyme (or 2 teaspoons fresh)
2 bay leaves
6 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese rinds
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt

Soak the beans overnight or bring to a boil for five minutes and soak for one hour, then drain. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer add the sausage.

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Cook the sausage, stirring several times, until it is brown on all sides, about eight minutes. Add the onion and carrots and continue to cook until the onions are translucent, about four minutes longer.

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Add the beans, the thyme and bay leaves and the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

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Reduce heat to low and simmer until the larger beans are just tender, about one hour.

Add the cheese rinds and one teaspoon of salt and continue to cook until the smallest of the beans have fallen apart and the largest of the beans are very tender, about another hour.

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Be sure to stir the stew occasionally to make sure the cheese does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Season to taste and serve with crunchy bread.

A Month of Legumes, Week 2: Chickpea Fries

  January 2, 2013 - 7:08 am | , ,
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With all the celebrating last week, I forgot to mention that I’m making good on a year old promise. Some of you may remember that last year I planned to do a series of recipes using the best winter staple: beans, or more particularly legumes. Of course last year I was severely lacking the energy to get up from the couch, much less do a series of posts on anything. So, last week’s Hoppin’ John Cakes was the first of these recipes and today’s post is edition number two. Never fear, these recipes aren’t the beans you fear. These recipes showcase how versatile legumes really are. From black-eyed peas to chickpea flour, I’ll show that the star of winter cooking is not really a food to fear but one that is your best weapon against the mid-winter lack of produce blues.

There’s a store down the street from me that sells an almost complete line of Bob’s Red Mill products. I love to go in and buy bags of things I’ve never seen anywhere else, or things that just look interesting. This is how I’ve come across coconut flour and the 13 bean mix that I love so dearly in winter for soup. It’s also how I came to discover chickpea flour. What’s not to like now that one of my favorite beans is in flour form, and I can do so much more with it.

First I tried adding a bit of it to pancakes. Don’t try chickpea pancakes; take my word on that one. After that disaster, I decided to see what other people were making with it. Time after time, I ran into people making chickpea fries, but they were all deep fried. We’re not really frying in the house these days, so I wanted to come up with a recipe that would bake well. Turns out, that’s easy because they just bake up beautifully. I boosted the flavor level from the recipes I saw by adding a little garlic and oregano to my chickpea mix before firming it up. The finished product is crispy on the outside and soft and only slightly beany on the inside. Served with tzatziki, like this delicious recipe from David Lebovitz, these fries will be a huge hit whenever you serve them. Who knows, you may even fool the kids with these. Enjoy!

Baked Chickpea Fries
serves 8
This recipe can easily be doubled or halved for a large or small crowd. If you have a convection oven, bake these at 400 for an even crispier outside.

2 cups chickpea flour
4 cups water
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt for seasoning

Prepare a loaf pan by lining with parchment or waxed paper to create a sling for the chickpea mush. Spray with non-stick baking spray and set aside.

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Heat water in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan until boiling; add salt. When water comes to a rolling boil whisk chickpea flour into water in a slow steady stream. Continue to whisk until almost no lumps remain, but if there are small lumps then that’s okay. Stir in pepper, garlic and oregano. Cook for an additional minute stirring continuously. Remove from heat and pour into the prepared loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool. Refrigerate until cold, about two hours.

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Heat oven to 450 degrees. Remove from fridge and release from pan.

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Using a sharp knife, slice the fries into sticks the length of the short side of your loaf pan and 1/2 inch thick.

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Brush fries with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and bake until just beginning to brown and crispy, about 25 minutes, turning once during baking.

Brown Sugar Walnut Pennies

  November 28, 2012 - 10:09 pm | , , , , , ,
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Perhaps I should tell you about “gasoline cookies.” That short story might save you the trouble of foraging for black walnuts sometime. My father, who forages his plot for anything edible, most of which turns into wine, hoarded bag after bag of black walnuts a few years ago on a year that produced more nuts than the squirrels could stow away. He had grand plans for these nuts, so he sat eagerly picking the tidbits of meat out of the impossible nuts. The phrase, “a tough nut to crack,” must have referred to black walnuts. After long hours of cracking he discovered a few things about black walnuts. First of all, black walnuts leave a black tar on your hands that is pretty difficult to remove with any earthly substance. It wears off in about two weeks. Secondly, black walnuts have a very distinct and strong flavor. One for which many people do not have a hankering. His childlike visions of a Thanksgiving full of black-walnut treats dissolved into a single simple question “Now what do I do with all these nuts?”

In the end, he made cookies which guests either loved or hated. Most of us felt they had a distinct petroleum flavor that earned them the name “gasoline cookies.” One guest—only one though—loved them for the savory, oily, umami flavor that others just did not understand.

Now, you may think it’s strange that I start out my post on brown-sugar walnut cookies with a story about black walnuts; an ingredient not present in the finished recipe. Here’s why: I spent a lot of November thinking about past Thanksgivings and the crowd that gathers every year for the feast. My parents love to entertain, and through the years they have collected a diverse yet truly lovely extended family that gather for a long weekend of eating and celebrating each other. Some years the crowd is larger than others, and I only get there every other year. On the years I spend with the other half of my family, I mull over all the memories of all the Thanksgivings I have spent with my parents’ Thanksgiving family. The people that grace their Thanksgiving table are so important to my family’s memories that the foods each person introduces bear his/her name from that time forward. Imelda Berries and Pam’s Potatoes are normal side dishes (thankfully Erin’s sauerkraut never took off – sorry Erin!).

Every year is a different Thanksgiving, and each year a different story is told. One year the stuffing exploded; one year my mom invited the florist (or was it the pharmacist?) When I asked my parents about how Thanksgiving went this year my first question was, “Was it a good stuffing year?” My father’s famous stuffing recipe evolves every year and some mutations are more successful than others (this year was a hit). And the second question was, “What was the food star this year?” Every year there is one food item that gets all the talk. This year it was a pecan-pie cookie so good that one taste was enough for a family member to lay claim on the entire batch. So while I thought about those food stars, I kept coming back to the year of the gasoline cookies.

Considering the ingredients, those gasoline cookies should have been wonderful. But, it turns out that you can have too much of a good thing. Black walnuts, prized for their strong flavor and unique nuttiness should be used sparingly and cautiously–especially in baking. Many love black walnuts in savory dishes such as salads or for snacking with strong cheeses, but not usually as the main ingredient in cookies. When you want a walnut cookie packed with nut flavor black walnuts might not be the right choice for you. By the way, after a few years in the freezer, the black walnuts mellowed and made some delightful desserts. Do you have a few years to wait on your walnuts?

For a cookie that is crunchy and sweet with a mouth full of brown sugar and nutty goodness, then you want to use English walnuts. That’s what this cookie uses. To heighten the nutty flavor of the cookies, I brown a portion of the butter and re-cool it before adding it to the mix. There isn’t anything in these cookies that doesn’t add to the flavor; there’s no eggs and no leaveners. The finished cookie is something between a sweet sugar cookie and a shortbread. They are sweet and very nutty (with my normal dose of whole grains). I made them small and coin-like (hence the name), but don’t expect to stop at one or two cookies. They are so good that you’ll need to make sure you have all four dozen ready to go when you serve them, and as a bonus, they are guaranteed to be free from all fossil fuels. Perhaps I should nick-name them alternate energy cookies…Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Walnut Pennies
Makes 48 small cookies
Spelt flour adds a wonderful crunch to these cookies, but no one will guess that there is any whole wheat flour in them.

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) divided
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 cup English walnuts

Melt 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Watch the butter carefully and remove from the heat when the butter reaches a light nutty brown color.

Let the butter cool back down completely to room temperature even if it starts to harden slightly.

While the butter cools, finely chop the walnuts until they are about the size of a piece of rice (I pulse them in a food processor). Set aside.

Mix the cooled browned butter with the rest of the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the salt and vanilla and beat again, scraping down the sides. Add the flour, mixing until just combined, and then fold in the nuts.

Place half the mixture on a long piece of plastic wrap and form into a long rope about 1” wide and about 12” long. Repeat with the second half of the dough forming two long thin rolls of dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least two hours, or until it is hard and cold.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice each roll of dough in half and then each half into twelve even “coins” forming 48 small cookies. Place the cookies on baking sheets lined with parchment or a non-stick baking mat – 24 to a baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly browner than the middle and the middles look set. Let the cookies cool before removing from the baking sheets and store tightly covered until serving.

Caramel Nut Apple Crisp

  October 18, 2012 - 12:33 am | , , , , , , , ,
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This past week I packed the kids in the mini-van and drove out to my parents’ house in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. Fall is the perfect time to be in the rural mountains. The colors are bright, the air crisp, and the breeze invigorating. While there we had many lovely sunny days and lots and lots of fun. My son hauled logs for the wood stove, “helped” Granddaddy with his tractor, and got to throw a lot of rocks in the creek. The babies touched the leaves and did a lot of rolling around on the floor. Our main purpose for this trip, however, was my mother’s birthday.

In our family you get to choose any dinner you want for your birthday. Birthday meal requests are sacred, and the cooks honor any request made. When we were children my sister and I would challenge my parents to find and make things that we thought were impossible. Lobster dinner in Texas in the ’80s was not easy to come by. Neither were artichokes in December. Eventually as we aged we fell into habits. These days we tend to just go for our tried and true meals. This is how it came about that I now have a three course fondue dinner for my birthday almost every year and how my mother, “Mimi,” had apple crisp for her birthday cake this year. Her birthday meal request: hamburgers, baked beans and a caramel apple crisp made with walnuts (not pecans).

There are a lot of recipes for caramel apple crisp on the Internet, but I discovered that almost all of them use store-bought caramel ice cream topping or melted caramel candy. Homemade caramel is so superior to store bought, that it just seemed necessary to make it from scratch. As long as you are diligent while cooking it, it is also pretty easy. Using real caramel sauce in the apple crisp is so obvious, so natural, so fantastic. The result is nothing short of spectacular; it is the best apple crisp I have ever tasted. Of course if you’re all into the salted caramel fad, you can toss a 1/2 teaspoon of salt into the caramel at the end, but you don’t need it; it’s just that good. Happy birthday Mommy! Enjoy!

Caramel Sauce
For my play-by-play on how to make caramel, read my recipe For Caramel Peach Hand Pies

I’m a big fan of the wet method of making caramel (adding a few tablespoons of water to the sugar to help it get started). It’s just a tiny bit easier and I like anything that’s easier. This stuff is up there with molten lava on the temperature scale so make sure you are prepared and using all your safety sense when making this recipe.

1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup heavy cream

Pour sugar in the middle of a medium sauce pan or skillet set over medium-high heat. Slowly pour water around edge of sugar. Bring to a boil, but do not stir. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the pan with additional water to insure that all sugar crystals have dissolved from the edge.

Let the mixture boil slowly until the sugar turns light tan, watching very carefully so that it does not burn. When the caramel is almost the color of tea turn off the heat and swirl the pan. The sugar will get darker.

Add the butter and stir until the butter is completely melted and mixed in with the sugar. Add the cream and let the caramel come to a rapid boil.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Caramel Walnut Apple Crisp
serves 6
You can use pecans or almonds instead of walnuts in this recipe.

5 Apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/2 inch slices
1 recipe caramel sauce (recipe above)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled old-fashioned oats
6 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a large baking dish and place apples in pan. Pour the caramel sauce over the apples and gently stir to make sure the caramel sauce is evenly spread over the apples.



Set aside. In a medium bowl combine the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Using your fingers or a pastry cutter mix the butter into the flour mixture until crumbly.

Stir in walnuts and sprinkle evenly over apples.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the edges are bubbly.

Let cool slightly before serving.

Butternut Squash Pastitsio

  October 4, 2012 - 9:27 am | , , , , , , ,
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Growing up in Texas, we always celebrated fall like everyone else. We talked about the season changing, decorated with colorful leaves and pumpkins and made apple treats. However, it was all a ruse. The season didn’t change (for another few months at least). The leaves didn’t change, and apples didn’t grow well anywhere within a thousand miles of us. Autumn in Texas was a whole heck of a lot like summer, just slightly cooler, with the same humidity, and with school.

Then I moved to Massachusetts: Autumn Central. I marveled at the huge wooden crates of gourds, squash and pumpkins that lined the roads of Western Massachusetts and wondered how it was possible for the whole country to eat all those squash. I learned to love the smell of wet fallen leaves, cold nights and crisp days. I went apple picking, and learned that layering clothes was more than fashion sense, and I was introduced to a whole new food group; winter squash. Texas had winter squash, but they were foreign foods, and why bother with them in a place that overflowed with the intoxicating mix of Southern, Mexican, Cowboy and Cajun cuisines.

My squash experience was not love at first bite; anything but. The first decade I lived up here I avoided the summer squash’s mushy long lasting winter cousins. New England cuisine is all about subtleties while Texan cuisine is anything but. Texas cuisine tends toward grandiose flavors. New England Puritans would have nothing of that. Gulf seafood is frequently heavily seasoned, but cod is often adorned with nothing but cracker crumbs, butter and lemon. Yankees enjoy butternut squash soup, Texans eat spicy chili and gumbo. Well, I could go on and on but you get the idea. Over time I decided that if I was going to live up here I needed to learn to eat like a local. I started to play with squashes and taught myself to make the basics; butternut squash soup and roasted acorn squash

Squash and I are good friends now. I love the natural sweetness and the versatility of autumn’s harvest, and that brings me to today’s meatless meal; Butternut Squash Pastitsio. Pastitsio is a traditional Greek pasta dish that layers pasta with a cinnamon seasoned ground lamb sauce and is topped with a Parmesan cheese laced Bechamel sauce. I’ve never been a huge fan of the meat version of this dish. The combination of cinnamon, pasta and lamb never really did much for me. However, when you substitute the meat with roasted butternut squash and you get something really special. This dish retains all the warm comfort of the original, but with a distinctly autumn flavor. It’s one of those dishes that’s enjoyed by the whole family. Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Pastitsio – Click here for a printer-friendly version of this recipe
serves 4-6

1 butternut squash (about 1 small squash), peeled, seeded and cubed into one-inch chunks
4 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 small onion, finely diced
½ cup white wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cups crushed tomato
1 teaspoon salt, divided
8 oz tube shaped pasta such as penne, rigatoni, or macaroni

Bechamel Sauce:
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss butternut squash with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Roast on a lined baking sheet until just tender, about 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

While the squash is roasting bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil pasta according to the directions on the box, removing from the water while the pasta is still very al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside.

Heat a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add remaining two teaspoons of olive oil and heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Sauté until onion is soft and translucent, about five minutes. Add minced garlic, cinnamon, bay leaf and thyme.

Continue to cook for about 1 minute or until very fragrant. Add wine and stir, scraping up any bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for about fifteen minutes.

While the tomato sauce cooks make the Bechamel sauce by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.

When the butter bubbles, add the flour and cook, stirring constantly for a minute or two so that the flour cooks. Whisk the milk into the flour and butter roux carefully being sure to mix the roux well into the milk so that clumps do not form. Heat until just simmering stirring frequently. Once the sauce simmers, stir in the Gruyère. Stir until the cheese melts and season to taste with salt and pepper.

If your clan is a picky bunch (like mine), then blend your sauce in a food processor or blender until smooth then return the sauce to your cooking pot.

(If you are one of the lucky few that has a family that does not mind chunks, then disregard the previous step and poo poo on you!) Fold butternut squash and pasta into sauce and pour into a greased casserole dish pushing the mixture down into the casserole so that the pasta mixture is evenly packed into the casserole dish.

Pour the Bechamel over the pasta mixture and carefully spread over the top of the dish.

Place in oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the edges are bubbly and the top is starting to color.

Sour Grape Jam

  September 20, 2012 - 4:44 pm | , , , , , , ,
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I usually don’t have time to can anything. I also usually don’t have enough of any one crop to do anything in large enough batches to warrant canning. As you may remember, gardening is not really my strongest skill. However, I am great at letting the wild vines and bushes left by previous owners run wild. That includes the grapes that grow at the edge of my driveway. In past years, I’ve noticed a few grapes that the birds ate before I had a chance to harvest; but this year we had a bumper crop. The vines are covering trees and the ground all around with large grape leaves in a very kudzu like fashion and the clusters are hanging as high up as I can see. This year I made the birds wait their turn and took my share to make jam.

I’ve never made grape jam before, lucky for me my father descends from a long line of food preservers. He is always foraging his plot for wild grapes, blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries and even black walnuts from which he has made pies, jam, and even wine. His mother, an excellent gardener, canned everything she could get her hands on. She canned jam, pickles, and vegetables by the bushel. Thus it was pure serendipity-do-da that the grapes happened to ripen at the same time that my father came for a visit. There were so many grapes that ten minutes of picking produced a huge pile of grapes to pick over. Not all of the fruit was ripe, but there were so many of them, that we could be picky about which fruit we used for our jam. The results are spectacular. It’s fruit-forward flavor is not too sweet nor too firm in consistency. Perfect for toast and pretty much anything you can find to smear it on. Enjoy!

Sour Grape Jam – Click here for a printable version of this recipe
This is not an exact recipe. Everyone will have a different amount of fruit with different qualities, so it is written so that you can follow it with whatever fruit you have. This produces a semi-firm jam; not too jelled so that the flavors still shine through, it also doesn’t have too much sugar so that the natural flavors of the grapes still remain. When deciding to stop boiling your jam err on the side of under doing it. The longer you cook the liquid, the less like fresh fruit it will taste and the more it will taste like flavored sugar. After all if your finished product is too soft, then people will know it’s homemade.

grapes (concord or other sweet grape)
sugar
pectin

Pick over your fruit to remove unripe and spoiled bits, bugs and leaves. Washing is not necessary if the fruits have gone directly from vine to clean container unless they have been sprayed with pesticide.

Place clean fruit in a large heavy bottomed pot. Add a small amount of water (about a cup for every four pounds of fruit). Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Use a potato masher to mash grapes separating them from their skins.

Let simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off heat and let the fruit sit with the skins for 15 minutes.

Pour the fruit into a food mill and press through the mill leaving the skins and seeds behind.

Measure the amount of juice and pulp you have. Return the juice and pulp to the pot and add one cup of sugar for every two cups of juice and pulp. You may need one tablespoon of pectin for every two cups of juice and pulp. Try none or little at first and add only if you need it. Mix the pectin slowly with water until you have a smooth mixture about the thickness of cream. Whisk the pectin into the juice and sugar and return to a boil over medium heat. Continue to boil the mixture for 15 minutes. To test the jam, pour a small spoonful of the jam into a small bowl and allow to cool. If it jells to just under the consistency you want, then your jam is done (it will jell slightly more as it continues to cool). If it is not jelled enough, continue to cook, testing every ten minutes until you reach the desired consistency.

Pour the boiling jam into clean, sanitized canning jars and seal following the directions that come with your canning materials.

 

 

Graham Crackers and New Beginnings

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  August 30, 2012 - 2:52 pm | , , , , , , ,
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This marks our first post twins edition. Things are more hectic than usual around here, but we are back with new posts and a whole new site. If you are new here, welcome. If you’re an old friend, welcome back! Please be sure to subscribe to our new site, either by email, Facebook or RSS feed.

…and now on with the show!

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I’m pretty sure that Sylvester Graham was a weird dude. Imagine someone telling you that you need to bathe daily when, to get enough water for a bath, you had to first hand-pump the water from the well, schlep the water in to the house by the bucketful and finally heat it up enough to be able to stand it. Not only that, but he wanted people to eat whole-grain bread; I mean really! I would have dismissed him as crazy, a lunatic, absolutely batty.

Or maybe the Reverend Graham, Presbyterian, was just a man born before his time (1794-1851). Vegetarian, clean and regular he might have been, but he was eccentric for his day and age. Still, he managed to amass quite a following; enough so that his crackers are now commonplace fare for toddlers, pie-makers and girl scouts everywhere. However, I am sure that Rev. Graham would be appalled at what passes for graham crackers today. His breads and crackers contained only specially ground whole wheat flour, probably little sugar, and no chemical leveners (baking soda and baking powder). Today’s store-bought cracker ingredients read like the good reverend’s no-no list; white flour, calcium carbonate, malto dextrin, and high fructose corn syrup (if it were around in his day I’m fairly sure he would have been against it).

I don’t think my version of graham cracker would necessarily get the Reverend Graham stamp of approval, but they are better than the store brand. I do use chemical leveners and enough sugar to entice a youngster, but not as sweet as the pasty bear-shaped graham cracker snacks that are found in most grocery stores. These taste better, are better for you and make far better s’mores. Enjoy.

Graham Crackers – click here for a printable version of this recipe
makes approx 30 – 3X2” crackers

1 1/2 cups graham flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, cut in 1/4” inch pieces
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk

In the bowl of a large food processor, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
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Pulse to combine then sprinkle butter pieces over the top of the flour mixture. Pulse several times until butter is in small pieces and mixture resembles wet sand.
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In a small bowl, combine milk, molasses, honey and vanilla. Pour over flour mixture and pulse until just combined. Empty dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until the dough is even and smooth. Divide into two discs, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take dough out of refrigerator. If the dough has been chilling for more than an hour let it warm up for about ten minutes before rolling out. Roll dough directly on silicone baking sheet or parchment paper to about 1/8” inch thickness.
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You can cut and move pieces of the dough until you have a nice rectangular shape. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough to 3×2 inch rectangles.
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Prick the top of the crackers with a fork.
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Bake for 14 to 16 minutes until the edges are slightly darker in color than the middle. Remove from oven and let cool before removing from the pan. If crackers are not crunchy when cool, return to oven for another minute or two. Store covered for up to a week.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cream Pies

  January 27, 2012 - 3:34 pm | , , , , ,
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I mentioned in my last post that I found national food holidays interesting. I don’t know if interesting is really the correct word. I think they are bizarre, funny, weird and fascinating. When looking at the holidays listed here, I noticed that January is not only National Soup Month, but also National Oatmeal Month. So, less I offend my morning breakfast, I think it only fair to give oatmeal its moment in the sun as well. That actually works well since I’d been craving a Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie lately.

I bought a box of the cream pies to do a little research – just for research purposes, I assure you. One bite and it was pretty obvious that although they were certainly edible (at least my first four have been), it would be very easy to make an at-home version that was better, and one that didn’t list corn syrup, white flour and partially hydrogenated fat as the first three ingredients.

Which would you rather have?

As in most of my recipes, the first thing I wanted to do was substitute out the white flour for whole wheat flour. With a textured cookie like an oatmeal cookie, it’s a no-brainer to make the change. I also found a few other tips for these little round bundles of happiness while reading through other people’s recipes. Cook’s Country Magazine suggests grinding some of the oatmeal to increase the oatmeal-y flavor in oatmeal cookies. That also worked well since I noticed that there were no large flakes of oatmeal in the store-bought cookies. Then I noticed the ingredients on the store-bought cookies listed raisins as an ingredient, but they were not advertised as “raisin” cookies, and it seemed doubtful that they would put in fruit unless it served a purpose. An internet search revealed that ground raisins are essential to keep the cookies soft and chewy. This sounded good to me since I love the chance to hide anything of real nutritional value in my recipes. Several other sites suggested that the cookies would not bake correctly when baked on a Silpat baking mat, and that parchment paper was a necessity to get the consistency right. This theory I tested, and they were right, the cookies baked on the baking mat did not spread enough and stayed smaller and puffier than those baked on parchment paper. Although the difference for my recipe was minimal.

But there was still one thing missing. Oatmeal cream pies are nice, but oatmeal chocolate chip cream pies are even nicer. The addition of chocolate chips and cocoa elevated these cookies to another level. Chocolate tends to have that effect on sweet foods. So, here is my recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cream pies. Now, get in the kitchen and make them – now. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cream Pies – Click here for a printer-friendly version of this recipe
makes about 16 individual pies (32 cookies)

These hearty cookies are sweet without being too overpowering. The cocoa helps balance the flavors nicely. The filling is also sweet without being cloying. If you want the traditional ultra white filling, use the shortening. If you don’t care about the color, go with butter.

1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, divided
1 cup whole wheat flour (I use white whole wheat)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Filling: (based on this recipe from King Arthur Flour)

1/2 cup butter or vegetable shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup Marshmallow Fluff
pinch salt dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat oven to 375°F. Place raisins in a microwave safe bowl. Pour water over raisins, cover and microwave for 30 seconds. Let sit until cool. While raisins are cooling, place 1 1/2 cups of oats in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until oats are ground fine; there will be a few larger pieces and that is okay.

Transfer oats to a medium mixing bowl and combine with flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside. When the raisins are cool, transfer along with any liquid to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until a paste forms and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine butter and both sugars. Mix on medium speed until light and creamy. Add raisin mixture and egg and beat until fluffy.

Add dry ingredients except for unground oats and chocolate chips and mix until well combined. Fold in unground oats and chocolate chips.

Spoon two tablespoons at a time on to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, putting no more than eight cookies per baking tray. Use a wet finger to lightly flatten each ball of cookie dough. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are set and the middles are still slightly soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool before filling.

While cookies are baking combine shortening (or butter), powdered sugar and Fluff with a mixer until well mixed. Mix in salted water and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy.

When cookies are cool, spread a heaping tablespoon of filling onto half the cookies. Top with the other half of the cookies. Cover tightly to store for several days.

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