January 10, 2011

Today was bitterly cold. Well maybe not bitterly, but at least really freaking cold. So I made soup. Tortilla soup with black beans, it is a recipe I use all the time and really easy. In a large pan heat 1 Tbs oil, add 4 cloves minced garlic and a hefty (or not) amount of chili powder. Stir, then add 2 cans diced tomatoes with their juice, 2 cans rinsed and drained black beans, a can of chicken stock, a small package of frozen corn kernels, and a cup of water. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook for twenty minutes or so. Then when you're ready to serve it crush up a handful of tortilla chips into a bowl and ladle the soup on top, squeeze a lime wedge into the bowl and you're good. I have a bunch of leftover turkey from the deep fried one we did over the weekend, so I diced and added that to it tonight which worked well. I added a cup and a half or so of turkey diced into pieces about the size of the black beans and corn kernels. I served it with a green salad and Pillsbury biscuits. All in all, it took about a half hour to make and probably cost less than ten dollars. I keep saying that the boys will not starve in college nor live off ramen since I will teach them treasures like this soup.
Reactions were good, Steve was feeling turkey deprived since he missed this weekend and it was an otherwise turkey-free holiday season. He appreciated the addition. The boys like the crushing of the chips and ate the soup, as well as the salad and biscuits. Lucas ate all of it, Evert picked around and ate the corn and black beans. He never eats tomatoes, oh well, more for the rest of us. The big hit of the day were the tamales Steve and I had for lunch, so so so good.
I also made a list today of food to cook for the freezer since it looks like this will be a long semester on Steve and the boys, in fact I start classes Wednesday and will be gone until at least 10 pm every day after that, until Sunday. So here is my tentative list of healthy, yummy, freezer stocking foods:
1.More tamales!
2.Stuffed Manicotti
3.Enchiladas, 1 dish of cheese with salsa verde and 1 dish turkey or chicken with red sauce
4.Lentil soup
5.Beef, noodle, and cheese casserole
6.Tortilla pie
7.Bean and cheese burritos
8.Red beans and rice (you have to freeze them separately)
9.If I'm really ambitious I'll put a lasagna in there as well.
10.I need a bigger freezer.

January 6-9, 2011, Tucson

Ok, so, the kids and I took a trip down to Tucson. Home to my father, senseless violence, and Mexican food. We have decent Mexican here in Flagstaff too, but all our good eats are hole-in-the-wall taquerias, whereas Tucson has upscale Mexican like Poca Cosa, my favorite restaurant ever. Anyway, Tucson really excels when it comes to markets, it's fantastic for home chefs. I usually come home with groceries from Roma's imports, the 17th Street market, and the Sunday farmer's market. This weekend had specific culinary goals, deep-fry a turkey and make tamales. Both were accomplished. Now for the breakdown:
We arrived Thursday to pasta with meat sauce. It was good, my dad adds heavy cream to his, which was really a nice touch. Though I don't think it is something I will do on a regular basis with my own. We found out that his wife is a picky-er eater than my children. The real discovery was in the salad, which had this AMAZING vinegar in the dressing. It was a balsamic, and thick and sweet as honey. I was told it was a gift. Whomever gives such things can send some to me anytime, in fact I have a birthday next week.
Friday was busy with outdoor activity, also the turkey was still defrosting. I ran, we hiked, it was sunny and warm in Tucson. Perfect desert weather, just lovely. We decided to go out for dinner, Mexican specifically. I requested a casual family type place we used to go to when I was a kid. Instead I was lured into Teresa's Mosaic Café. It was just ok, it got good reviews and had buzz around it, but I was unimpressed. Perhaps I am spoiled. The best part was the fresh tortillas, those were excellent. Though, not as flaky and thin as the ones from the tortillería here in Flag, I like my tortillas like my pastry, flaky over gummy. We had some guacamole to start with, it was just ok. The salsa, however, was really good. The kids ate a massive cheese crisp, the kind I have only ever seen in Tucson. I had a sampler, a tamale, an enchilada, and a taco. It was just ok. The meat in the taco was too dry, the enchilada sauce was bland, and the tamale was a little on the heavy side. It was edible, but nothing spectacular. When I go out I like to eat better than I do at home, sometimes we don't get there. My dad gave his tamales favorable reviews. Caitlin's mole was awful, harsh and unbalanced it screamed out for a fat to meld the flavors. That's what we get for going to the foodie place in the foothills and not the sixty year old family joint on the east side of town. I was disappointed there were no carnitas on the menu. I think they were trying to do a healthy thing, which is fine, but they may be taking it too far.
Saturday we deep fried a turkey. It is remarkably easy. The skin was excellent and the meat was just good. I think brining it would have helped. There's almost no prep, just rub a turkey with a spice rub, and put it in a big vat of hot peanut oil for 40 minutes or so. It was served with blanched green beans, boiled new potatoes, and sunchokes. Good all around. Everything was boiled and tossed with butter and salt, I like to roast my green beans with chili powder, but whatever. In my humble opinion deep frying poultry skin makes everything good. Lucas ate a bit of everything, including several servings of both turkey and green beans. Evert ate a bunch of green beans and potatoes.
Sunday we went to the market, it's nice how Tucson and Flagstaff have opposite seasons for farmer's markets. This means that when my dad and I get together we always have a market to go to. I took home some lettuce, the advent of farmer's markets has made me picky about my lettuce. It must have flavor. Afterward we made tamales, and these were the highlight of the weekend, for me at least. We had already made a chile verde for the filling. You can find the recipe we used here: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chile_verde/ the only changes we made were we used roasted hatch chiles in place of the poblanos, and we used five or six of them. We shredded the pork before we put it in the tamales. To make the tamales you soak corn husks, prepare a masa dough, spread the masa on the husks and top with filling, roll the tamales, and steam them. They are so good I have been eating them ever since. Because this was the first time either of us had done this we followed recipes pretty closely, including this one: http://www.chow.com/food-news/55368/tamales-for-the-holidays/ the recipes were good, I would keep the added chiles and next time triple the masa dough.
We also had a ton of chile verde left over. This morning I fried some leftover tortilla (broken into pieces) in oil, then added some chile, I let that heat and then pushed it to the side of the pan. Then I fried an egg, plated the tortilla and chile and put the egg on top. Yum. Next up for the chile is tacos with black beans.

January 5, 2011

So, last night was supposed to be pizza night. We have an excellent local pizza joint, but those are $30 pies, so for weekly pizza night I get fresh pizzas prepared in the grocery store's deli and bake them at home. They're pretty good. Anyway, I went over to the store at 4:30, asked the girl behind the deli counter to make me a peperoni pizza, and set aside the cheese pizza that was in the deli case, while I picked up a couple other things. When I came back I waited, for about 10 minutes. Then she came out with a peperoni pizza, I thanked her and asked where the cheese pizza was. She said “this is the cheese pizza”, I told her I wanted two pizzas, one peperoni and one cheese. This would have been less annoying if I hadn't told her that three times at the outset. So she disappeared again, for like 15 minutes. Only to come back and tell me she was out of dough. She had a million excuses, none of which explained how it took her a half hour to put some peperoni on a pie and figure out that there was no more dough. Ugh. So I grabbed some frozen pizzas, which are getting way more gourmet like, though often don't taste all that good. If someone made a really good frozen pizza I would totally buy it all the time. Maybe I should make some calzones and freeze them. Anyway, I get to the register and go to pay for the pizzas only to realize that the dog had chewed up my debit card and some considerate little boy had put it back in my coat pocket. It needs to be replaced. And apparently you can't type in the numbers on the register for a debit card, who knows why. We ended up eating leftovers. The boys had penne with butter and parmesan, and a green salad. Steve had black beans on rice, and salad. I ate the last of the beef stew. I also put the last of a yummy spread I made onto celery sticks. It's super easy, combine 8 oz cream cheese and 5 oz blue cheese in a mixer, blend. Stir in a cup of chopped walnuts. It's good on crackers, but really good on apples, pears, and celery.
The other special thing I made yesterday was breakfast for Steve. We all had bagels, but I made him a sandwich. Toast a bagel (I used a cheddar-jalapeño), and fry two eggs, over a medium heat. Once the whites are just set top with two slices of cheese (I used havarti) and cover the pan. Once the cheese has melted slide each egg onto one half the bagel. Yum.

January 4, 2011

Well, yesterday was unremarkable. Breakfast was the usual, lunch was leftovers. Steve had the last two enchiladas with a fried egg on top, it looked good. I made do with noodles. The boys also had noodles. I think their favorite eats yesterday were the pretzels and milk they had after nap! Dinner was another quick go-to dish, peppers, onions, and sausage over rice. I had a bunch of leftover smoked sausage in the fridge, and I'm trying to use up things that will go bad when I go out of town this weekend. So here is how you do it:
Rice, it seems simple, but simple things are often the most overlooked. This is how I do plain white rice. In a medium saucepan heat a Tbs butter or oil, then add 1 c rice. Stir the rice to coat the grains in the fat, this keeps the rice from being sticky and clumpy. Let the grains cook until they begin to take on a golden color, and you can smell them. This gives it a nice flavor. Then add in 1 ½ - 1 ¾ c water or stock. I usually use water and the larger amount of liquid, but you need it up here on the mountain. Stir, and bring to a boil. Cover, and turn the heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes. Then turn the burner off and let it sit for 15 minutes. I don't know if this would work on a gas stove, but on an electric it's fail-proof. I often double it and use leftovers for fried rice.
I topped this with that classic combination of peppers, onions, and sausage. In a large skillet heat a Tbs or so of olive oil over medium high heat. Slice 2 red bell peppers, 1 sweet onion, and 3 smoked sausages, and add those to the pan. I usually use andouille, but whatever you have will likely work. Saute until the veggies are crisp-tender and browning, stir often so nothing burns. Serve on top of rice.
Sometimes I take out one of the sausages and add in shrimp (add them in the last minute or two so they don't overcook).
Reactions were good, Steve had worked late so we both were starving. The sweetness of the peppers and onions goes well with the spicy sausage. I've served this over polenta and it doesn't work as well, so I stick with rice. We also had a green salad, and both boys are all of their salad, and a little bit of rice. I can't complain if the only thing they finish are the green vegetables. Steve and I polished off their plates. The meal also held well, it was about done when Steve called and said he would be a half hour late. I just turned off the frying pan and then reheated it when we were ready and it was perfect. Flexible food is a plus.

January 3, 2011

Today was (sort of) back to normal, and we began with the normal breakfast routine. Cereal for the kids, toast for mom, and eggs for Steve. Yes, he gets eggs and toast most every morning. Never let him tell you he's neglected. Then I took the kids sledding again. Partly because we forgot Storm's leash when we left in a hurry yesterday, and partly because I felt bad about the day being cut short. Sledding was enjoyed by all, even Lucas who went down the (biggish) hill all by himself. Storm tried to herd the sleds, hysterical. Also enjoyed was the hot chocolate we had when we got home. To make mix 2 Tbs cocoa and 1 Tbs sugar in a mug, heat 1 c per serving milk in a measuring cup in the microwave and pour 1 c into each mug and stir. I top it with homemade whipped cream, which the boys assure me is better than marshmallows. Can't beat that.
Dinner was cheese enchiladas. Enchiladas verde to be precise. This is my quick, easy, midweek enchilada recipe. You will need 1 lg jar salsa verde, 12 small corn tortillas, 1 lb shredded cheese (monterey jack), vegetable oil, sour cream, cilantro, and 4 anaheim (or similar) chilis. First, roast the chiles. Here in the southwest you can buy excellent local fresh roasted chiles in the fall and I usually buy a ton and freeze them, but if I don't have any on hand this is how I do it. You could substitute canned ones, but it wouldn't be nearly as good. Buy large, mild, chiles and roast them it's super easy. You can probably order roasted, frozen hatch chiles online, or call me in September. Anyway, put the chiles under the broiler and turn every couple minutes until blackened. Put them into a ziplock bag and seal it. Let them sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Take them out, peel the skin off, cut the top off and remove the seeds. Cut each chile into 3 strips. Then put a little bit of oil in a skillet and heat it over med-high, put enough salsa into the bottom of a casserole dish to coat the bottom (too much is better than too little). Set yourself up an assembly line and fry each tortilla in the oil, both sides, to soften it. The tortilla should have little air bubbles after a minute or so in the pan, remove to a paper towel lined plate. Lay a strip of chile on the tortilla and top with a little, or a lot, of melted cheese, roll it up and put it into the pan. Repeat until all the enchiladas have been rolled. Top with more salsa, don't make them swim in it, just enough to decently coat the enchiladas, and a little more cheese (I use about a pound in all, you could get by with about half that). Bake at 350 until the cheese is melted, 20-30 minutes. Top with sour cream and a little chopped cilantro. Don't squeeze the rolled enchiladas together too tight or they'll be hard to serve, also do not substitute flour tortillas for the corn, they turn to mush and the corn have a flavor that really works here.
I served them with a favorite dish of ours, black bean salad. I improvised this from one my dad makes. In a bowl combine 1 lb thawed, frozen, corn kernels, 2 cans drained and rinsed black beans, 1 large diced red onion and about a bunch of chopped cilantro (I buy a big bunch then hold some for the enchiladas). Mix. In a measuring cup combine 1/3 c vegetable oil, 2 Tbs rice wine vinegar, many (or a few) dashes hot sauce, and the juice of ½ a lemon. Stir and drizzle over salad, toss. Yum, keeps for days in the fridge. Occasionally in the summer I do this with beans cooked from dried and roasted corn, which is amazing, we eat it by the bowlful. It is also an excellent potluck dish.
Reactions were good. Despite a big lunch and afternoon snacks both boys ate a bunch. Tortillas and cheese are a winning combination. The black bean salad is always a hit. Evert ate two helping of salad and two enchiladas. Lucas ate about half his black beans and half his enchilada. The local chiles tend to have some heat to them, and both kids thought dinner was just spicy enough. Steve and I went back for seconds. There are just a couple leftover, and they're really good leftover, I should have thought to double the recipe.

January 2, 2011

January 2, 2011

I feel like something healthy, not that most of what we eat isn't healthy, but I need to detox from the gluttony of the holidays. To that end I am making veggie stir fry for dinner. I plan on using bok choy (I prefer baby bok choy, but the market didn't have any), mushrooms- plain white ones (I would have preferred shitake, but the market didn't have any of those either), chick peas, and scallions. The sauce will be fresh ginger, and garlic, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. I have some dried chiltepin peppers that my dad sent me at Christmas, so I'll probably toss a couple of those in as well. They are one of the hottest peppers around and we love them. They have a really nice rounded heat that doesn't sear, but has a sort of slow burn to it. My original idea was to serve it over brown rice, but then I thought of noodles. So instead we're trying a new brand of rice noodles that were in the Asian section of the supermarket. Reactions and details to come!

In other meals today; they were uneventful. We had cereal and toast for breakfast before heading out sledding. Sledding was a hit. In fact Ev got so excited that he launched himself into an asthma attack. So we rushed home, ate p.b. &j. on wheat, with milk, and took naps. It had been awhile since I've seen him have an attack as bad as today's was; he was visibly struggling for breath. Steve asked if we were going home or to the hospital. He responded to his inhaler and has been fine ever since. It is good to know that a peanut-butter sandwich with a glass of milk is still comfort food. In fact, I found making the sandwich comforting. I ate a whole bunch of cheese leftover from New Year's Eve appetizers for lunch, with beer. Cheese and beer are also comforting.


Anyhow, this was dinner:
For the noodles, follow package directions. I used rice noodles, which I really like the texture of. These ones were Thai Kitchen brand and about the size of linguine. I poured boiling water over them and let them sit for ten minutes, then I added them to the stir fry with the sauce.
For the stir fry I first chopped up about a pound of mushrooms, a (smallish) head of bok choy, two garlic cloves, and I grated about 2 tsp fresh ginger. The mushrooms were sliced on the thick side and the bok choy about the same. The garlic was minced. I also drained and rinsed a can of chickpeas. Then, I put the big cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and added a Tbs of vegetable oil to the pan. When the oil was shimmery I put the ginger and mushrooms in the pan. Stirring often, I let them cook until the mushrooms had released most of their liquid. Then I added the chickpeas. In the meantime, in a measuring cup I mixed ¼ c. soy sauce, a couple splashes fish sauce, 2 Tbs hoisin sauce, a couple splashes mirin, 2 Tbs. maple syrup, and 4 crushed chiltepin peppers. Incidentally, the best way to crush these peppers is to put them into a serving spoon and put a smaller spoon on top of them pressing down to crush them. Whatever you do do not get the oils from these little devils on your fingers, it is deadly. Stir all that together. When the chick peas (which I was stirring often) had browned a little bit I added the bok choy and garlic, after stirring that in I added a heaping Tbs flour. I stirred the flour around and cooked off the pasty taste. Then I slowly added in a cup or so of chicken stock, and scrapped up the bits from the bottom of the pan. When everything was nicely mixed in, the flour was dissolved into the stock, and the bok choy was wilted I added the contents of the measuring cup and the soaked, drained, noodles. I let the whole thing simmer for just a minute while everyone sat down at the table. I served it drizzled with a little sesame oil, and with chopped scallions and slivered almonds as garnishes. Chopped, salted peanuts would have been better, but I didn't have any.

Reactions were pretty good. I thought it was yummy. It was spicy, on a thai restaurant scale it would have been a four or five, not quite thai hot. I thought about adding in a little fresh thai chili, that would likely push it to thai hot (which is how I order my food). Interestingly, the boys thought it could be hotter. In fact Lucas said it wasn't spicy. I offered milk to offset the heat, but they preferred their water. Both boys ate a little bit of noodles, left the rest of it, and played with their chopsticks for most of dinner. Evert wants to go to China to pick out his own chopsticks. He was using a set that Pepe had brought back from there. Hearing that Daddy's cool dragon chopsticks came from Hawaii did not change this wish. Start saving kid. Anyway, Steve and I both agreed that the sauce was really fantastic. The maple syrup was a perfect counter to all the salty ingredients, and added a depth that sugar would have lacked. You could cut down on the chili peppers if you don't like it as spicy as we all do. The combination of veggies was also quite good, the meaty mushrooms and mild cabbage compliment each other well. The chickpeas were great, I think I'll use them in place of meat more often. A little chopped mint might have made a nice garnish as well. Steve's only caveat was that he likes his noodles softer, but truth be told he likes them close to mush. I make them a little toothsome in hopes that one day he will come around. We're still waiting. All in all 4 out of 5 stars. The sauce is definitely here to stay.

Resolutions

New Years Resolutions!
This year I am resolved to make only culinary resolutions. Yum. Fun. Low pressure. I am going to embark of a project of chronicling a years worth of meals, an ambitious and hopefully rewarding undertaking. I also want to try to make new foods. There are some specific things that I would like to try, here is a brief list.
1.Dumplings! I love dumplings, really who doesn't love dumplings? I want to try dumplings from around the world, from spatzel to dim sum. Especially steamed Chinese dumplings, pretty little packages of goodness.
2.Beef burgandy, I'm thinking I'll try this for my birthday. I love beef stew, the only potential problem with this may be finding the wine.
3.Asian style noodle soups. I want to try a variety of recipes and find one that is quick, easy, and fulfilling. I have in mind a highly spiced nourishing bowl, a flexible recipe that can be added to or subtracted from with ease.
4.New England boiled dinner. Mostly so I can make corned beef hash from the leftovers.
5.Cannelloni, ummmmmm cannelloni, I should make extras and freeze them.
6.Cheese soup, Lucas has been asking for it forever. Probably with lots of garlicky croutons.
7.Marcella Hazan's chicken with two lemons, drunk pork, and boiled beef. And probably lots of other things from her books too.
8.Lemon desserts. There is a world beyond chocolate, and that world is bright and fresh.
9.Chilaquiles, why the heck not.
10.Lamb with middle eastern flavors. I have kabobs in mind. Where can I find a spit?
11.And last, but not least, a whole suckling pig. Muwhahahahahahah!