Tag Archives: In the Kitchen

Chocolate & Flowers

09 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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It’s amazing how much of life can be put on hold when the temperature gauge falls below double digits.  Groceries.  Gas.  Walking the dogs.  Aaaarffff….

Mix the cold with a dark night and it’s a safe bet you’ll find me snug under a blanket in my favorite living room chair.

The only thing that can break me loose from my comfortable shell is love for others.  And the shameful truth it that even then, love for the warm comforts of my everyday life sometimes wins out.

Not so today.  It was full speed ahead on the do-gooder ship lollipop — errands this morning, my niece’s concert this afternoon and a NBA basketball game this evening.

Had I been thinking of myself, I would have stayed home most of the day.  It had been a rugged week after all.   Had I been listening to my life, I would have known that the combination of fitful sleep, my dental surgery, my husband’s lasik eye surgery and then picking up the threads of everyday life were all telling me to slow down.

Rather than doing what needed to be done, I allowed love for others to carry the day.  And the irony is that the outings so worthy of my presence didn’t really receive it.  I wasn’t good company.  My loved ones deserved a better me; and so did I.

The truth caught up with me while I was sitting in my seat at the Thunderdome.  Watching a half-time show that wasn’t so entertaining, I realized I was ready to call it a night.  I wanted to go home.  I wanted to get my pajamas on.  I wanted to  write and unwind the day.  But when I suggested we  leave the game early, it was easy to see by one look at my husband’s sore eyes that he and I were not on the same wave-length.  This time he won.

So I checked out mentally.  I half-heartedly watched the game play out while unwinding my day amidst a screaming crowd and loud music and t-shirts flying all around me.  It was no problem to be contemplative in smack of a crowded and noisy arena full of basketball fans.  In the quiet space of mind and heart, I watched my day unfold to become happy for taking time to do two good somethings just for myself:  Flowers and Chocolate.

I hadn’t planned to buy myself flowers; but tulips are hard to resist under the best of circumstances.  It doesn”t matter whether they are cut tulips or potted tulips.  Any color will do.  And on this cold winter day, when I ran across a small pot for five dollars, I didn’t even try to resist — I’m glad there was no need to.

Chocolate wasn’t on today’s agenda either.  But driving back home from the concert, with hunger pangs beginning to hit, all I could think about was the taste of warm home-made chocolate pudding on my tongue.  So even though I was tight on time, I made a batch in the midst of pulling together our quick supper.  And twenty minutes later I had 7 small servings of chocolate pudding.

It was a lovely day, all in all.  Too much doing of course.  But the flowers and chocolate were all about being….as in, being kind to myself.

But let me be kind to you too by sharing the recipe.  Some day you might find yourself in need of a little kindness.  From my life to yours.

Chocolate Pudding

Preparation time – 20 minutes    7 small servings

2 egg yolks
3 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp butter

Mix eggs yolks and milk in a bowl and set aside.  Melt chocolate in microwave — medium setting for 90 plus seconds, until creamy when stirred.  In a large sauce pan, mix all dry ingredients with a whisk.   Stir in milk and eggs.  Mix well and heat on medium high heat, stirring constantly.   Mixture will thicken in 5 to 7 minutes.  When thickened, add vanilla, butter and chocolate, stirring constantly.  When completely mixed, pour into serving dishes.

Beef Vegetable Soup

08 Friday Jan 2010

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home

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It’s a frosty 9 degrees outside my ice-covered window, with a forecasted high of  21 degrees.  Snow still lingers on the ground, with little occasion to thaw.

Thank goodness there are other ways to thaw, like with my mother’s hearty vegetable soup…if only I had the ingredients at hand in my freezer.

Alas, I’m starting from scratch with tonight’s dinner; I’m cooking a nice roast beef which will  allow me to make half a recipe of this simple soup for tomorrow night’s supper.

I fear I’m a broken record when I share that there is nothing better to serve (or easier to make) than a home-made soup on a cold winter’s day.  But then we are all broken in one way or another, n’est-ce pas?

This soup is a great way to use up leftovers and I hate to throw out food, even if it’s only half a cup of corn or green beans.  Instead, I pour the small amount into freezer bags — and when I have enough saved it’s time to make this soup.

Or course, one doesn’t have to use leftovers.  One can cook a roast beef  like I’m doing today and then make the soup out of the roast and  broth using fresh or frozen mixed vegetables.  But it’s great to get two meals for the price of one, so I always opt to serve a roast beef dinner first, saving soup for a future second meal.  Some days, it’s just good to have a pot of soup hiding in my freezer that can be pulled together in thirty minutes or less.

To prepare this meal, I literally clean out my freezer, which makes each batch just slightly different.  There’s little science to it — a little more of less of something is not going to hurt; this soup is very forgiving if I don’t get it “just right.”   In this way, the soup becomes a parable, pointing to the beauty of a forgiving spirit… when those we  love and work beside fail to get life  “‘right” according to our own recipes for living it.

My usual soup-making drill looks something like this:  I open up my freezer in search of an easy meal.  Out comes the frozen beef stock.  I empty it directly into my large saucepan where it simmers until completely defrosted.  Then out come all the small bags of uncooked and cooked vegetables and roast beef.

Bags of uncooked diced celery and onion are always waiting in the freezer for “such a time as this” — these frozen soup and sauce starters are the best time-saver —  a tip I learned from my Aunt Jo some time ago.   Once the stock is heated, everything but the pasta goes into the pot to simmer.  The cooked pasta goes in shortly before serving.

Like my mother before me, I serve the soup with cornbread — and the soup itself in bowls with slices of cold cheddar cheese covering the bottom.  The hot soup melts the cheese and even now, writing this memory sends me back to those cold winter days of my childhood.

Looking out the frosty window reminds me of those earlier days too, when I would artfully inscribe some little message in the ice with my finger.   If I were to indulge in this fancy today, my window would simply say this to you:   “From my life to yours”…

Beef Vegetable Soup

Serves 4 to 6    30 minutes to prepare

 
4 cups beef broth, (preferably home-made, fat removed)
1 14.5 oz petite diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
3 cups vegetables chopped (canned, frozen or fresh)
2 cups roasted beef (fat removed)  (at times, I’ve even substituted cooked crumbled ground beef)
1 – 2 tsp salt (depends on salt level of ingredients — start with 1 tsp and adjust to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup penne pasta, cooked al dente

Heat broth in a large sauce over medium-low heat.  Add all other ingredients but pasta.  Cook until vegetables are fork tender.  Remove from heat; set aside until ready to serve.  I often pull this soup together in the morning and allow it to rest, giving time for the ingredients to blend together.  Fifteen minutes before serving, I warm the soup over medium heat with the cooked pasta.

Serve warm in bowls over slices of  cheddar cheese with a piece of buttered cornbread by its side.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

01 Friday Jan 2010

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home, Prayer, Soul Care, The Great Outdoors

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I’m taking it easy on this first day of the new year.

Not so yesterday.  With my husband’s help, I swept the house clean of Christmas, save for three ‘everyday’ nativity sets which reside in our living room.

We dusted, waxed, wiped down counters and cleaned windows.  Then, we vacuumed carpets and mopped wood floors clean of salty residue tracked-in from our recent snow.   Our morning’s work of hard labor left the house smelling as fresh as it looked.  I can’t recall ever beginning a year in such spartan surroundings.

It’s hard to clean amidst Christmas glitter and garland, which in my house typically hangs on through Epiphany.  Yet, the need  for housekeeping is not so apparent when decorations help distract eyes from dust.  Perhaps it’s this way with people too.   Our exterior adornments and ministrations can easily draw focus away from tender care of the soul.

It’s a thought that leads me to pray; and today, this borrowed one will do:  “Create in me a clean heart.” And in this new year, put a new and right spirit within me.  Let me be kinder to myself.  Help me not push myself into a dizzy tizzy.  Let my expressions of love be as simple and right as today’s meal will be.  No New Year’s resolutions these; I will need God’s help to live everyday life simpler.

Unlike New Year’s past, we’ll have no feast today.  Instead, it will be an everyday meal of fried chicken and gravy for three.  I’ve made this meal so many times it’s become a simple undertaking.  No more than thirty minutes, from start to finish, I’ll complete our supper with mashed potatoes and a few vegetables.  Perhaps I’ll reheat a few of Max’s frozen Rocket Rolls — he’ s always glad to share … for a price.

For dessert, we’ll enjoy this simple Sopapilla Cheesecake, which came into our lives through Kara last winter.  The recipe mixes up quick — 10 minutes — and bakes in 30.  It’s good served warm or cold.  I like it for breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea.  For small groups like today, I half the recipe.  For larger gatherings, I make the full recipe.

Somehow the dessert reminds me of snowy days.  Maybe it’s because of the fluffy cream cheese filling.  Or perhaps because I returned Kara’s favor and carried the dessert to her and Joe one snowy afternoon last winter.  Or maybe it’s because the dessert lasts about as long as a Oklahoma snowfall  – there are rarely leftovers for another day.   In the end, the reasons don’t matter much.

What matters today is that a new year of simple pleasures awaits us.  May they be as good as this simple dessert.  From my life to yours.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

 

Preparation Time:  10 to 15 mins.  Bake Time:  30 Mins in 350 oven

2 pkgs Crescent rolls
16 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla

In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

In the bottom of a 9×13 pan, flatten 1 can of rolls, so that they form a continuous crust.

Beat together 1 cup sugar, vanilla and cream cheese.  Spread on top of crescent roll crust.  Unroll the second can of rolls — carefully stretch and shape to form top crust to cover cream cheese filling.  Pour melted butter over this.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Bake for 30 mins in a 350 oven.