Tag Archives: In the Kitchen

Queen of Salads

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Far Away Places, In the Kitchen

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AT HOME, CURRENTLY READING: “The Book of Strange New Things,” by Michael Faber

For a girl who once rarely ate salad, it’s strange to find myself now eating a generous portion five days out of seven, and stranger still to have my salad-making skills often solicited by others.  The request, I find, comes packaged in various forms, ranging from a gentle question, such as, ….”You don’t mind bringing salad, do you?”… to the more formal pronouncement, the kind that almost rises to foregone conclusion, that sounds something like… “Well, Janell’s coming, she can bring a salad.”

I do enjoy making a beautiful salad, with all my ingredients fresh and finely chopped, so that any given bite of salad looks and tastes exactly as salad should — a colorful mix of bright greens and vegetables and fruits — rather than that single pathetic hunk of brownish-tinged iceberg lettuce, that is too obese to accommodate other salad fixings beside it on the fork, that usually passes for salad at most dining establishments, fine or otherwise.

Why is it that eating a salad at most restaurants is not like eating salad at all? Due to course chopping, one can rarely get two salad fixings on a fork.  First, there’s the big bite of lettuce, then perhaps a tomato wedge, then the thick slice of cucumber or a husky chunk of what-have-you.  Sometimes I wonder why these salad-makers bother to mix all their fixings in a bowl!

There are, of course, exceptions.  Mark’s American Restaurant, located in Houston, is one.  It’s an exceptional place for salads and everything else listed on its menu.  Last October, I enjoyed the most wonderful luncheon salad full of mandarin oranges and grilled salmon and sunflower seeds and mixed greens with a light citrus dressing that, even now, makes my mouth water to think of it.  I eat at Mark’s every time I go through Houston, which unfortunately, is not often. So I feel lucky and grateful that another restaurant, Paseo Grill, located just a few blocks down the road from my house, also serves wonderful salads.  Paseo’s salads are so good (and so good for me) that I resolved on New Year’s Eve, to enjoy lunch there once a week, throughout 2015!

In case you’re wondering when I became such a salad snob, I don’t mind confessing that it occurred the very instant my physician told me, in so many words, that I needed to eat healthier…. that I needed to eat more vegetables and more salads and a whole lot less carbohydrates!  All of which, in turn, led me to search for new salad recipes, the sort that I knew I’d look forward to eating, as much as if I were eating a salad at Paseo or Mark’s.

And ta-da, here’s one lovely recipe that I found, that’s fit for a Queen, and fit for salad snobs like moi who need to be more fit, and even fit to be called a Queen of Salads. It’s one I’ve been making since last November, which I adapted from the pages of a recipe appearing in the Sunday newspaper.

Who says healthy has to be tasteless?  Or New Year’s Resolutions can’t be fun?  Not this snob, that’s for fit sure.

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Asian Slaw with Peanut Dressing

4 servings, if served as a small side rather than a main course

Wash, dry and finely chop following and add to a salad bowl:

2 cups curly kale, thick stems removed
1 cup red cabbage
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup bell pepper
1/2 cup of dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup drained mandarin oranges

Mix and toss the salad with the following dressing — I use about a third of the recipe and refrigerate leftover two-thirds of dressing for up to a week.  If you prefer, you can easily cut dressing recipe in half.

Peanut Dressing

Mix following in a deep bowl with an immersion blender until emulsified:

1/4  cup honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp finely grated fresh ginger

Note:  For Main Course, add grilled chicken or shrimp to salad before tossing with dressing.

Déjà vu, Déjà Voodoo

16 Friday May 2014

Posted by in In the Garden, In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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IMG_1839The weather, the weather, what can one make of it?

Two weeks ago it was central heat, turtlenecks and sweaters.   Last week…., central air conditioning, shorts and flip-flops.  And today, today, like some sort of déjà voodoo, I find myself living in a text-book springtime sort of day, seventies and sunshine, like Alice in Wonderland herself.  Or maybe her companion, the Mad Hatter.

How often I’ve wished I could “read” the bursts of spring-time weather as signs of  summer-weather-to-come, like some fortune-teller that “reads” tea leaves to predict the future.  Could that “colder-than-normal” spring day mean a “cooler-than-usual” summer?  Might last week’s “hotter-than-normal” spring heat flash mean a “hotter-than-Hades” summer?   Who knows… except that I’m thankful our extremist spring spells of weather cannot spell out their summertime forecasts into words.  Why just think about it… if springtime weather could talk, wouldn’t their rhetoric resemble the extremes offered by hard right-wing and far left-wing talking heads after some big political event?  One shouting “HOT” with the other yelling “COLD.”  One shouting “GLOBAL WARMING”, the other yelling “BAH, HUMBUG!”

I suppose flip-flopping weather — winter-like lows mixed with occasional summer-like highs… is what the passage of spring is all about… the way it gracefully and, too oft with a hard jerk, transitions us from one extreme season to the next.  All the while, offering us the gifts of the season, in new life.  Flowers, and flushes of new soft green leaves on shrubs and trees.  New surprise seedlings to share, to pass along to friends and family.  Weeds to pull and toss away.  And in a way I cannot begin to explain, offering a new lease on life to me, too… from hope and joy too dense to weigh.

Who cares if books in my reading stacks gather dust on their dust jackets?  Or that home-cooking is practically nonexistent when there are gardening chores to do?  Springtime, more than any other season, requires easy eats, which too often translates to eating out or thawing something quick from the freezer.   What a wonder of wonders, then, that I recently stumbled upon the best sort of déjà vu, a recipe for beef tacos that reminds me of those once prepared by my former father-in-law.

I’m not sure whether Jack’s taco recipe was ever written, though I watched him prepare tacos (from afar) more than once.  Small mountains of chopped onions. Ground Beef and spices.  Tomato sauce and beer.  All made from a secret recipe he received from a Hispanic neighbor — shared with one small stipulation —  that Jack, on his honor, would never pass the recipe on to others.  As far as I know, Jack never did.  He died keeping his word, even though many of us longed to have that recipe.

Well… who knows why but that one day, during the dregs of last winter, I began thinking of Jack’s beef tacos.  Which led me to wondering whether I could find something close to Jack’s tacos with the help of my favorite Internet search engine.  I sit down in front of my computer.  Carefully spelled out the three-word phrase,  “beer beef tacos.” Tapped the return key.  And up came many, many pages of possibilities to weed through before hitting something close to “paydirt.”  The result shared below may not be an exact reincarnation of Jack’s tacos, even after my few changes.  But it’s close enough to my memory to conjure up the best sort of déjà vu on my tongue.

Why not double the recipe and freeze “just-right” serving portions in small batches… to thaw and heat up for supper on those days when you don’t want to come inside and cook?  In or outside of springtime.  In or out the garden.  Or whatever your own particular lost in time or space or wonderland looks like for you.  Enjoy.  And pass along.

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Drunken Beef Tacos

In a large sauce pan or dutch oven, sauté over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes, or until translucent:

1/4 cup olive oil
One large onion, chopped
Add 2 minced cloves garlic during final minute of cooking time.

***

Add following ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes without covering with a lid:

1 finely-chopped fresh jalapeno  (more or less to taste)
1 15 oz. can of petite chopped tomatoes
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 tsp salt (or less — add gradually to taste)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 oz. beer

***

Add remaining ingredients in two stages:

1 1/2 lbs of extra-lean ground beef, broken up with your hands or with a spoon or spatula
4 tsp chili powder
4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Cook for a 2-3 minutes, continuing to  break apart beef, before adding:

3 oz. more of beer
1/4 cup water

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until liquid is almost gone.

Serve in your favorite shells or tortillas topped with chopped lettuce, onion, tomato and cheese.

One Good Egg

20 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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Reese Caroline — Saturday’s Egg Hunt

All my “good eggs” have scattered this year.

My husband’s in Saudi Arabia.  My daughters are in route to Chandler to visit their father.  My sons have holed up at their respective residences.  My oldest, I hope, will spend the day resting from a busy tax season… while my youngest, if I had to guess, is working on book number seven of his science fiction series.

Which means, in part, that the approach of Easter has never felt less Easter-ish.  I had no big meal planned.  No special dessert.  No company invited.  So it comes as no surprise, I think, that I should wake up today… waffling on whether or not to attend church.  In the end, I went.  Not out of guilt, though.  I’ve finally reached a point in my life where I attend only when I want to.

Today ended up being more than a “wanting to” sort of day.  Today, I needed to go.  Maybe because the day began too much like any ordinary week day.  Meaning, I woke up early, as I usually do.  I did a little housekeeping.  I fed my dogs and then myself…. and worked through some assigned reading until it was time to get ready for church.

And here, even needing to go, I fumbled at the commitment line.   I don’t know why except that it’s likely tied up with my introverted nature, but I find it difficult to go anywhere by myself.  Today, to avoid going solo, I sent out a “Hail Mary” toss of a last-minute text to my youngest son… inviting him to come with me.  Only when he didn’t respond, did I give in and go by myself.

I arrived to a full parking lot, snagged one of the last two programs for the service, and squeezed into an empty space big enough for one.  In other words, I was far from being alone.  And by the time I walked out the old cathedral where I worship — more weekends than not — Easter had found me.

When Kyle and I connected three hours later, he caught me preparing a traditional Easter ham luncheon for one.  He quickly apologized for not getting my invitation in time…while I was just as quick to assure him that all was well.  We didn’t visit but a minute — just enough time for him to turn down my offer of lunch.  “I don’t know why,” he said.  “But it just doesn’t sound good to me.”  And enough time for me to turn down his invitation to go to an unnamed movie.  “No need,” I said.  “Thanks though.”

It strikes me that it takes a lot of love within a relationship for the parties to feel free enough — free of guilt or whatever, I can’t say —  to speak a simple “no, thanks” to one another.   Lord knows I am not hurt by Kyle not wanting to come over for lunch (or be available to go to church with me, for that matter);  Why I’d rather him come only when he wants to come… and the same goes for all my other good eggs, as well.  I pray Kyle feels the same about me declining his invitation to the movies.  By the same token, I believe God feels the same way about me and my fair-weather attendance at weekend worship services.  Surely, God wants me there… only when I want to be there.

IMG_1787Funny thing about today, though.  I ended up making a nice traditional Easter lunch for myself, even without a big meal plan.  I ended up inviting Kyle to join me, even though it didn’t work out.  And while I had no plans for dessert, somehow, I found myself making one.

I’m not sure when the latter decision happened.  Maybe it was on my drive home from church.  I only know that whenever the idea found me, it came softly and fully formed, as if there all the while, a colorful Easter egg lying in soft, green grass, just waiting for my notice. Because as soon as I walked in the door, I was ready to bake a coconut cream pie.

It didn’t matter that I had no homemade pie crust ready for use.  Nor did it matter when I discovered only one egg remaining in the refrigerator.  No, I wasn’t about to give up my favorite dessert, the one that most reminds me of Mother and all the many wonderful Easter lunches that I’ve been privileged to experience.   In the spirit of serving a Easter luncheon for one, I simply decided to cut the recipe in half. I mixed up half the cream filling, made do with the graham cracker crust that Mother actually preferred, and served it up in ramekins.  They turned out so pretty I think I’ll do it again sometime.

It seems that all I needed for Easter to be Easter… was one good egg.

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Coconut Cream Pie

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
6 Tbsp sugar
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1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Separate egg white from yolk — set aside yolk for pie filling. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer on high until foamy — add sugar gradually, beating until stiff and glossy. Set aside.

One 9″ Baked Pie Shell

Graham Cracker Crust – Mix 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs, 1 Tbsp sugar, 3 Tbsps melted butter.  Form into crust and bake at 375 degress for 7 to 8 minutes.

Pie Filling

3 egg yolks
3 cups milk (I use 5 oz of Carnation Evaporated Milk mixed with milk from my refrigerator, usually 2 percent)
1/3 cup cornstarch – scant (minus 1 tsp)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/8 tsp vanilla
2 tsp coconut flavoring
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

In a bowl, hand mix eggs yolks with milk, then set aside.  In a large sauce pan, mix all dry ingredients with a whisk.   Stir in milk-egg mixture. Mix well and heat on medium high heat, stirring constantly.   Mixture will thicken in 5 to 7 minutes.  When thickened, add flavorings, butter and coconut, mixing well. Remove from heat.
Pour filling into baked pie shell, top with meringue, then lightly sprinkle with coconut flakes. Bake in a 375 oven for 5-7 minutes, watching closely, until golden browned.