Salad Rolls (also called Summer Rolls)

By request, we had salad rolls for dinner tonight. They were a big hit, as always, which I also always seem to forget. It surprises me every time how much the kids seem to enjoy them. I think the best rolls are fairly simple with lots of fresh crunchy flavors. The kids lean toward the sweeter veggies and always the fried tofu. My 8 year old can roll her own successfully while the 3 year old dictates the ingredients for hers and then always undoes it and eats it all separately anyways.

Notes and Next Time

• Don't forget to get more herbs! This time we only had mint in the garden (the mint forest has recovered well from the massive haircut it got last month) but I like the rolls better with basil or cilantro to offset the mint pungency.
• My kids and I managed to eat an entire block of tofu. We probably need more (or some lightly chilled cooked chicken or shrimp) if PEter is home as well.
• The window between still crunchy rice paper wrappers and overly soft wrappers is short. Don't get distracted!

Ingredients/Recipe

• rice paper wrappers - at least a few each
• mung bean noodles (or super fine rice noodles) -a small amount soaked in hot water until they expand and soften (maybe 5 minutes), then drained and refrigerated
• cucumber, julienned
• red pepper, julienned
• carrot, julienned
• herb leaves, julienned if you like, otherwise picked off the branches (basil, mint, cilantro are great)
• romaine or butter lettuce
• tofu, cut into strips and fried in sesame oil until lightly crispy
• other odds and ends from the crisper drawer (I had avocado and the leaves off of some radishes from the garden)
• sauces - sweet chili, hosin, peanut 

Step 1: (this is the longest step, give yourself plenty of time!) Cut EVERYTHING!!! Slice and dice and put all the ingredients out onto platters so that you can plop it all into the center of the table.

Step 2: Fill a pie plate with water (Pro tip: put the pie plate on the table first and then fill with water unless you enjoy drying your floor)

Step 3: Call everyone to the table! This is a "Assemble it yourselves" meal.

Step 4: place one rice paper wrapper in the water and let soften. Using warm or hot water speeds up this process but it also shortens the window from just done to mushy so be careful. Take the paper out BEFORE you think it is done as it will continue to soften during your assembly. Put it on your dinner plate and the next person can slide theirs in the water to continue the process.

Step 5: Add stuff. Like a burrito, err on the side of fewer filling ingredients else it may burst. Stretch the wrapper as you roll the slides in to secure. 

Step 6: Dip and eat! (note that some (cough, PEter, cough) like to put the sauces inside the roll but I think this is wrong and also too messy)

Good Side Dishes

We like potstickers with these or other small "appetizer" type foods as it makes the whole meal feel like snacks. Remember that you'll need your entire dinner plate to roll so you can't fit many sides on it at the same time. Soup (miso, wonton) is also a nice choice.

Sofia's tasty rabbit

We cooked a delicious rabbit dish when we stayed in the Deruda region of Italy. A few months ago I passed by a fancy butcher shop and stopped in. They had rabbit! I brought it home but life got in the way and Mr. rabbit ended up in the deep freezer. We defrosted it last week in our bid to clean out the freezer before our move and it ws time to figure out how to prepare it. After reviewing a bunch of recipes (none of which were exactly right) I decided to add a bit of this and that and make what sounded good in my head.

Ingredients/Recipe

• 1 rabbit cut up
• sweet peppers (used a mix of the tiny red, orange and yellow ones) sliced into rings
• one small onion minced
• garlic
• 1/4-1/2 cup leftover red wine
• rosemary
• olives (I used the rest of a deli container of ones with pits and a few sspoonfuls of pitted kalamatas)
• chicken broth

I browned the rabbit pices along with oonion to give some color. Then I added the garlic and deglazed the pan with red wine. I added in the peppers, rosemary, and olives, and clamped a lid on to braise. I added a bit of chicken broth as needed to keep things moist. 

Served with soft polenta and it definitely reminded me of Italy!

Preparing and planning

We both are starting new jobs in the next few weeks (and mine will involve a commute for the first time in a year) so I'm trying to rethink our daily routine and figure out how it can be adjusted for our new reality. Part of that reality is going to involve less time for dinner prep in the early evening and an increasing need to get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. While we weren't creating elaborate meals most nights anyway, I've been used to having the time to make this that require longer cooking times while I work around the house.

I'm also trying to use this time before all the jobs begin to create a stockpile of recipes (ha! as if I follow recipes!) as well as the building blocks for meals we like to eat. Today, that means that I need to turn 2 packages of ground turkey and one package of chicken breasts into something I can freeze for a future meal. I'm thinking that the turkey might become a batch of precooked meatballs and frozen burgers. I know that I'll slice the chicken up, but haven't figured out what to season it with. I've already got a package of "Asian-ish" chicken in the freezer. 

It's also Wednesday which means it's our local farmers' market day. I'll need to decide whether we're going in a couple of hours and then make some appropriate dinner plans. It's pretty overcast, so I'm leaning to a night staying home. 

Summer is coming!

With summer around the corner, I'm beginning to think about what we'll be cooking, canning, and growing this season. I've just reorganized the extra freezer and our garden is in and growing. On top of all of this, I start a new teaching contract in a few weeks for the summer. We're going to be busy!

So, what's on my agenda/wishlist for the summer? Well, I'd like to work on doing a better job of using and saving more of the food that we buy. It's so sad to find a soggy bag of carrots down at the very bottom of the crisper. So, that's priority number 1. In addition, I loved the little amount of canning I did last year (jams and the pickled beans). I even made a small batch of strawberry-lime-vanilla jam a few weeks ago! But, we don't go through as much jam as I like to make, so I'd also like to work on making things OTHER than jam! Where does this leave me? Well, I'm not entirely sure. We made yogurt a few weeks ago which was fun. Chickadee found it a bit too sour, so I might try making some lightly presweetened next time. We've also been prepping more beans and freezing them, which I like to do. In fact, there's a big batch of pinto beans in the fridge right now that I need to break down and freeze. And I started a pot of tomato sauce this morning while working from home that I'll also freeze. I also have a bunch of chicken breasts in the fridge (buy one get one at the store) that I think I want to cut up and freeze in different marinades. I've found that we like some of the TJ versions and why not make our own and save some money. And I'm also intrigued by the idea of relishes. I keep seeing recipes on line for them so that's definitely something I'd like to investigate. Alas, I also need to figure out if there are something we'd regularly eat because, as much as I love canning, it seems silly to can things we won't eat.

The garden will be providing us some nibbles soon. We picked a snap pea each on our way to school this morning for an early snack! And we can probably start taking some early potatoes from the plants as well. There are two teeny, tiny zucchini on the plants but no patty pans yet. And the eggplants are looking a little sad. The beans and edamame are about 10 inches high now, but I don't think we'll have enough of either to save, just enough for some meals in late summer. However, we ought to have LOT of tomatoes of all shapes and colors. I'm super excited about those!

Plums! Again! Eeek!

More plums have arrived! Our neighbor gave us two more bags of plums that I've now turned into plain green plum jam (6 jars) and plum-cinnamon jam (4 jars). Then, another neighbor brought over the bag of plums he had originally given HER because she didn't know what to do with all of the plums! So, now I have yet another bag of plums (and each bag entirely fills my colander) to deal with. This last bag I think will turn into a Plum Converse with nuts and raisins. Then, Sofia and I will deliver some jars of each type back to the neighbors to share the bounty.

I'm almost out of jars now and I'm entirely out of sugar, so I'll need to remedy these things to be able to finish the putting up of the plums. I still don't have any tomatoes preserved, but we have a lot of plums!

Yellow and Green Plum Jam

Our neighbor across the street gifted us a giant bag of lovely yellow and green plums from the trees in his yard. We ate some and then I looked at the giant bag and realized that I needed to figure out something else to do with them before they rotted away. Jam was the answer!

But. I struggled to find a yellow or plum jam recipe that sounded like what I imagined in my head. This led to my first ever experiment with making up my own jam recipe! My reading told me that plums have lots of natural pectin and thus adding more was not necessary (and convenient since I didn't have powered pectin at home). The ratios of sugar to fruit varied but about half the amount of sugar as fruit seemed common so that's what I did.

I halved and quartered the plums, removing the pits (the green ones were a free stone while the yellows were cling) and tossed them with the sugar (about 3c to about 6ish c of fruit) and let them sit while working. I also thinly sliced a small (like really small) apple as a backup extra pectin supply and tossed that to. I also added lemon juice from the lemon in thefridge because the recipes all said to.

Eventually I needed a break and started the jam. Fruit and sugar into a pot on the stove while sterilizing the jars in the waterbath pot. I also put some plates in the freezer as many of the recipes suggested. The fruit cooked down dramatically - reducing by more than half and turning a lovely golden color with streaks of red from the apple. I added some lemon zest and vanilla extract after tasting along the way. I did a few tests and around 30 minutes of cooking found that the jam had set up. Into jars and waterbathed for 10 minutes.

I ended up with 5 half pints and an extra bit for the fridge.

Thoughts
The jam seems a bit too sweet to my taste. Since he just dropped off another bag (this one of just green plums) I think I'll try reducing the sugar a bit to get a less sweet flavor. I'm also wondering about add-ins. Maybe ginger? The jam is firmly set - it's probably a bit overly cooked in fact.

Chile Dilly Beans

As I was hoping, I made the pickled green beans that my mom used to make last week. Sofia and I picked green and yellow beans from the garden and I supplemented with some green beans from the produce stand down the hill.

I followed the old recipe from The Oregonian (by Jan something) but ended up with 6 jars rather than 4. The last jar (of the tops and ends) didn't get quite enough vinegar so it went straight into the fridge after processing. We opened them last night and they were still a bit too crunchy - I'm not sure if I didn't let them sit long enough before opening? Will have to try another jar in a few more weeks. I'm still hoping to try canning tomatoes if I can find some at the farmers market this week or next. And maybe put up some more peppers in the freezer and nay more fruit. 

The Garden

Our tomatoes are starting to get hit hard by the powdery mildew and I just picked off a green tomato with the blossom end rot. I'm hoping that this is a solitary problem! Still no red tomatoes, but lots of orange cherry tomatoes and the large tomatoes are getting big - but still green. Next year we just have to start plants earlier and probably keep them covered longer. It's only getting up to the mid 60s, low 70s during the days now and chilly at night. Not the best tomato weather. The beans are still producing and happy, and the hot peppers are going gang busters. There's one lonely eggplant on the eggplant plant, almost as big as the plant itself. And the sweet peppers have a few fruit, but not much. I'm going to try to winter those over and see if that helps. Carrots and beets are doing fine when they aren't being dug up by the neighboring cat. And I planted a second crop of potatoes because we had some sprouted potatoes in the house - don't know if they will actually do anything this late in the year. The figs are almost done - we've enjoyed those greatly. And, well, that's the garden! 

Putting things up

I've been enjoying being back in the Northwest and using my "free" time to start putting things up. Last week saw the addition of 10 new jars to our cupboards. I made 7 1/2 pints of blackberry jam (and have now given 2 away), one jar of brandied cherries, one jar of blueberry-basil vinegar, and one jar of blackberry infused gin!

In addition, the rest of the flat and a half of blackberries is resting the freezer along with about a quart of frozen blueberries, 3 or 4 containers of red beans, and 2 containers of chicken broth. Oh! and also 2 portions of carnitas. And rosemary salt!

On my putting up wish list...
- apricot-rosemary jam (using our rosemary outside)
- pickled dilly beans (at least one whole batch, maybe 2)
- huckleberries if I can get them
- peaches? plums? either to freeze or turn into jam
- limoncello (we gave away all of our before moving away from Iowa) I have 2 bottles of Everclear waiting so maybe also an arancello?
- bags of frozen shredded chicken for enchiladas etc
- bagels (frozen)
- par baked bread (frozen)
- yogurt (I guess you don't really put this up... but I miss the taste of homemade yogurt)
- marmalade (I keep reading recipes for this and want to try)
- dried hot peppers from the garden, and maybe a small batch of hot pepper jelly?
- something with the massive quantity of tomatoes soon to arrive... freezing? drying? canning? tomato jam?

Crockpot/Slowcooker Beans

Crockpot/Slowcooker Beans

This is my general recipe for slowcooker beans. I rarely cook them on the stove anymore and I try to buy them in the can infrequently (both for reducing our BPA exposure and to save money). The whole family loves beans and could eat them many nights a week.

General directions
Pour beans into a colander and rinse under water. Pick out any weird ones, rocks, or random objects (my beans seem to generally be fine, but occasionally there is a stone). Dump into crockpot. Add water to cover by at least an inch. Choose seasonings. Turn on. Cook.

Seasonings
I usually include an onion (shallot, leek, garlic), some kind of pepper (black, red flakes, fresh hot peppers), and herbs (thyme, oregano, basil, cumin, coriander, a little cinnamon, paprika). I also always add salt initially even though all of the cookbooks tell you not to. I don't find my beans tough or the skins hard and this way I don't forget!

Freezing
You can't can beans without a pressure cooker, so I freeze mine. I actually freeze in rather large containers, because when we have beans we generally are making soup, chili, or fillings for things. So having 20-32 ounces is about right. I'd love to freeze in all glass, but don't currently have the supplies for that. I always cover with the leftover bean water to reduce freezer burn.

Granola Bars

Yummy! My sister sent me the link to these granola bars.

It looked pretty easy, and the ingredients were almost identical to my favorite granola bars that are $5 a box. I'm eating lots of snacks these days (breastfeeding makes me hungry) so a cheaper snack option sounded good.

I made them Friday evening when I was home alone with the baby. They came together quickly and I just left them in the fridge overnight before cutting (rather than putting them in the freezer as suggested). I didn't measure precisely as I figured that granola was more like cooking than baking and thus probably forgiving. I'll definitely be making these again!

Notes and Next Time

• I left out the flax seed (since the baby was sleeping and I didn't want to wake her up by grinding them). I'd add them next time.
• My favorite granola bars (from Cascadian Organics) are basically the same but have rice puff cereal added. I'll do that next time as I think it'll make the bars lighter..
• Other nuts and fruit would be good. I'm thinking dried blueberries and hazelnuts, apricots and pecans.

Ingredients/Recipe

Chocolate Cranberry Almond No-Bake Granola Bars

1.5 cups whole oats

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup coarsely chopped and toasted almonds

2 x 1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup ground flax

big sprinkle cinnamon

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

1 tsp butter-

1 tsp real vanilla extract

Directions:

coarsely chop almonds. toast on a baking sheet in oven until fragrant and toasty.- heat syrup and butter in small sauce pan over medium-heat until bubbling. stir frequently and let boil for a couple of minutes.- while waiting for syrup to bubble, mix all dry ingredients - once syrup has boiled for a few minutes, stir into dry ingredients.- press mixture firmly into greased (sprayed) small square cake pan. sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips, press firmly - put pan in freezer until totally chilled and firm. pop entire thing onto cutting board and cut into 12 pieces with big knife. store in refrigerator.

Crockpot Oatmeal

So, I've been meaning to make crockpot oatmeal for like the past 6 months? 1 year? something like that. Last night, I finally did it! I dumped the steel cut oats, water, salt and some cinnamon in the pot, turned it on and went to bed. It was warm in the morning. I think it was a bit overcooked, but overall, tasted like steel cut oats. I added brown sugar, milk, and walnuts to mine. I have enough now to have oatmeal every morning at school as long as I remember to pack some to reheat in the microwave.

Notes and Next Time

• Make sure to make extra - not just cause extra is good but because our crockpot is big. I wouldn't want to make a smallish batch and have it all glued to the bottom.
• Maybe put it on low for only 8 hours instead of 10?
• adding dried fruit while it's cooking might be nice

Ingredients/Recipe

• 2 cups steel cut oats
• 8 cups water
• salt
• cinnamon

Michael Pollan's new food rules

Got sent this article from a friend, and you should definitely read it!!!

It's a beautiful online "flipbook" of aphorisms or rules that people live by for their food.

Eating local tastes good!

Today, we were busy. And tired. So tired in fact that Peter took a nap while I stared into the fridge and tried to figure out what we were going to eat for dinner. Luckily, I had taken some ground pork (from the happy pig guy who delivers weekly) and it was defrosting. I then looked at the 8 Japanese eggplants we had hanging out in the fridge and the basket of tomatoes from the garden and started to throw things together.

Take some gorund meat (I used ground pork but sausage would be good too) and saute with evoo. I added S & P and some dried herbs but I'd skip that if I was using sausage. Remove it from the pan once browned, but don't drain whatever oil you have leftover. Chop a bunch of eggplant (we had at least a pound of the dark purple Japanese variety - fresh picked from our "farm") and saute in the pan for at least 10 minutes, letting them shrink and brown. Add a little S & P as the cook and toss regularly. Chop a small hot pepper or add some hot pepper flakes (I did both) and add them after the eggplant has reduced and softened. Also chop some cloves of garlin and add once the eggplant is very tender (so the garlic doesn't burn). Then chop a whole heap of tomatoes - I used mostly romas since that's what we grew, but any type would be fine, I'm sure. Add the tomatoes and stir. Reduce heat and stir back in the pork and the juice from that. Put a lid on and let those tomatoes soften and the whole mixture become tender - kinda like a ratatouille (how the heck do you spell that word?). Boil water and cook some pasta - a short shape that is curly will hold the most sauce. When the pasta is ready, chop a lot of fresh basil and mix it in. Then mix pasta and sauce and eat!

Yum yum. And all the ingredients except garlic and oil were local - or homegrown! Hooray!


Notes and Next Time

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Ingredients/Recipe

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Mom's Zucchini Casserole Redux

So there are some good family stories about Mom, one of the most famous being the way she claims to have "followed" a new recipe but yet has changed just about every ingredient and cooking preparation. Needless to say that this trait runs in the family. Last night, inspired by a gorgeous piece of wild, sockeye salmon (a rariety out here in the Middle), I created this side dish by "following" one of Mom's recipes.

Take a summer squash or two (I used 1 yellow zuke and 1 yellow crookneck from our garden) and dice smallish. Saute them with some garlic and olive oil. Once just starting to brown, add the sides of bell peppers (I used 1 red and 1 yellow) and rice (I used left over white rice). Remove from heat and add quartered cherry tomatoes, shredded Parmesan, and herbs (I used fresh thyme and chives from the garden). Then, spoon this into the hollowed out peppers (I cut the side off if possible so I can serve them with the top on the side... just cuz it looks cool. Cut off the tops if it's easier). I tend to make a lot, so I had enough left over to also fill both halves of a hollowed out zuke AND a small ramekin. Bake in a hot oven until done.

This is what you get!!

Notes and Next Time

• any grain would work well, brown rice, quinoa, etc
• I bet other veggies would work too... some spinach or other greens, bits of leftover winter squash (like acorn)
• tomorrow I might add leftover italian sausage and make them the main dish
• I bet different cheeses would also change things up a lot
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• some veg
• some herb
• some grain
• something to bake in (other veg or baking dish)
  
• some cheese
  

What I've been eating

So, I have no cooking tales to report, but I have lots of tales about eating! Cristiana and Alfredo are both fabulous cooks and they not only share their talents with us, but are very responsive to my nosy questions asking how they did this or that.


For example, yesterday, Cristiana made tacos. Yawn, you're probably thinking, aren't you tired of tacos yet? And truly, the answer to that question is that I could NEVER tire of tacos. But, these aren't any simple, boring old tacos. No, I would call these enchiladas, even though Cristiana doesn't. Anyhoo, let's begin.


The tacos are rolled around a filling of barbacoa and in a green sauce (doesn't that sound like enchiladas?). They were delicious and tasty and I ate all 4 of the ones on my plate. Yum yum.


At dinner last night, I asked Cristiana how she makes them, what's the secret. We've had a few of the conversations so far, and they typically end with, special ingrediant that doesn't exist in The Middle (although you on the coasts might fare better). This time, as always, this was the case. The secret ingredient is barbacoa - not BBQ, but a slow roasted meat in it's own juices so it's tender, not drier like BBQ (no charred bits etc). To make barbacoa, meat is stewed placed in mamey leaves and then placed in a hot earthen oven (like tandoori almost I think). This makes a little packet and the leaves impart their own flavor. Then the meat is cooled, chunked, and the tortillas (fresh from the tortillaria of course) are filled and rolled. THEN, and here is where it gets interesting... the rolled tortillas are quickly dipped in hot oil - not until they get crunchy (that would be flautas or taquitos) but just to soften them. Then, you pile them up on a plate to wait for your hungry family. As they arrive, you place three or four of them in the bubbling plate of green sauce (tomatillos, chiles, garlic, onion) until just heated through. Then move them to a plate and top with crumbled cheese.

Several new techniques stuck out at me that I plan on trying. First, is the not baking the enchiladas in the oven for a long period of time. Cristiana noted that they can get a bit mushy (and PEter and I noticed this the last few times) and that tey just needed to be gently heated through. Also, she made her own sauce so quickly and easily, that I'm convinced I can do it too... and without perservatives and other strange things!

We have a great carnitas recipe at home (but I haven't posted it yet, will do when I get back!) that I think would make an excellent filling for these tacos. I'll experiment and keep you updated!

Notes and Next Time

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Ingredients/Recipe

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Fire Roasted Red Pepper Sausages with Orzo and Veggies

So I was trying to figure out what to do with my raab and spinach I got in my last organic produce delivery (pioneerorganics.com), so I starting digging in the cupboards and fridge. I found chicken/turkey fire roasted red pepper sausages from Applegate Farms. They are raised with no antibiotics, check out their website where you can track where you meat comes from. Found some cherry tomatoes that needed to be eaten and spiced it up with garlic, onions, and red pepper flakes. The recipe that follows has no measurements since I didn't measure anything. It made enough for 3 servings.

Ingredients/Recipe:
2 chicken/turkey fire roasted red pepper sausages (Applegate Farms) http://www.applegatefarms.com/Products/Details.aspx?ProductID=118
chopped onion
garlic
red pepper flakes
raab
spinach
orzo
cherry tomatoes
grated Romano cheese or Parmesan
evoo

Start pasta. While pasta is cooking prep veggies and sausage.
Saute onion, garlic, and raab in evoo till the raab is about half done. Add sausage and put lid on to steam while you drain the pasta. Add tomatoes and spinach, replace lid until spinach is done. Serve and sprinkle grated cheese. Delicious and simple.

Notes and Next Time:
I thought that it was fantastic. The only thing i would change for next time is to make that none of the cherry tomatoes were put into the leftovers and reheated. I would just throw some uncooked ones in after reheating.