I heart cooking clubs- Farewell Food

The group I heart cooking clubs focuses on one chef for a period of 6 months and then moves on to a new chef. It is really such a great way to get to know new chefs and to push yourself to try new things. I will be honest, before joining the group, I really had no idea who Mark Bittman was. Now his recipes have become a staple in my home and even when I don't follow a recipe exactly, I will still grab my big, red How to Cook Everything book to see what the best way is to slice some fruit or how to prepare some other fill-in-the-blank. So for me this isn't really goodbye because Mr. Bittman is here to stay! Which is really what this group is about. I have found a new favorite that I don't think I would have found otherwise.
However in keeping with the farewell theme, I decided to say farewell to summer as well as Mark Bittman. I found a tasty and simple recipe that has become another meatless favorite!

Pasta with Corn, Zucchini, and Tomatoes

Ingredients

• Salt
  
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or 2 tablespoons oil and 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup corn kernels (from 2 or 3 ears)
• 1 cup diced zucchini or summer squash (from 2 or 3 small vegetables)
• 1 medium onion or 3 or 4 shallots, diced
• 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic, optional
• 1 sprigs tarragon
• 4 plum or 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 1 pound cut pasta, like penne, rigatoni, or fusilli

Method

• 1. Set a large pot of water to boil and salt it. Put 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add corn. Cook, stirring occasionally, until corn begins to brown. Add zucchini and some salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until zucchini begins to brown.
• 2. Add onion or shallots and garlic if you are using it. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add tarragon and cook for 30 seconds, then tomatoes. Put pasta in boiling water and cook until tender but not mushy, 10 to 15 minutes.
• 3. While pasta cooks continue to cook sauce, reducing heat when tomatoes begin to break down. If sauce dries out (with plum tomatoes, this is likely), add some pasta cooking water, about 1/2 cup at a time. When pasta is done, drain it, toss with sauce and remaining oil or butter, and serve immediately.

I heart cooking clubs- Dining with Dad

Here I am posting on the last day of the week, again! Hmmm, I need to get more organized. We have so many things going on during the summer that posting gets pushed to last.
Okay, so this week I made two recipes from How to Cook Everything. The first one is Everday Pancakes with one of his variations, and the second recipe was The Best Scrambled Eggs.

The Everyday Pancake recipe is a really great basic pancake recipe. It will probably be my go-to recipe for pancakes because it is so versatile and quick to whip up. I love all of the add in suggestions and look forward to trying a lot of them. Some of them sound so good, like substituting coconut milk for regular milk (love coconut milk) and some of them sound intriguing like spooning the batter over cooked bacon. I didn't pick anything as exciting as either of those two suggestions this time. My husband is a big fan of grains so we added one cup of cooked wheat berries to the batter. He liked it a lot and everyone else seemed to enjoy them as well (particularly my littlest guy). The wheat berries kind of give the pancake a chewy texture but it worked. Here is the recipe-

Everyday Pancakes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional (I left it out)
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter (optional), plus unmelted butter for cooking, or use neutral oil

Method

• 1. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Beat eggs into 1 1/2 cups milk, then stir in 2 tablespoons melted cooled butter, if using it. Gently stir this mixture into dry ingredients, mixing only enough to moisten flour; don't worry about a few lumps. If batter seems thick, add a little more milk.
• 2. Place a teaspoon or 2 of butter or oil on griddle or skillet. When butter foam subsides or oil shimmers, ladle batter onto griddle or skillet, making pancakes of any size you like. Adjust heat as necessary; usually, first batch will require higher heat than subsequent batches. Flip pancakes after bubbles rise to surface and bottoms brown, after 2 to 4 minutes.
• 3. Cook until second side is lightly browned. Serve, or hold on an ovenproof plate in a 200-degree oven for up to 15 minutes.

My second recipe, The Best Scrambled Eggs, was also pretty good. They take quite a long time to cook but they have a very creamy texture. I probably won't make these too often. They were tasty but not enough to justify the extra time they took. One of the things I love about scrambled eggs is that they only take about five minutes to whip up so this just isn't as useful to me but for a special occasion they would be a yummy addition. The recipe only makes two servings so I doubled it. I also didn't have cream on hand (well actually I did but it was put in a part of my fridge that freezes and was totally solid) so I used 3 tblsp. of whole milk with 1 tblsp. butter. Here is this recipe doubled-
The Best Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

• 8-10 eggs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons of cream
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

Method

• 1.Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them just until the yolks and whites are combined. Season with salt and pepper and beat in the cream.
• 2. Put a medium skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add the butter or oil and swirl it around the pan. After the butter melts, but before it foams, turn the heat to low.
• 3. Add the eggs to the skillet and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. At first nothing will happen; after 10 minutes or so, the eggs will begin to form curds. Do not lose patience: Keep stirring, breaking up the curds as they form, until the mixture is a mass of soft curds. This will take 30 minutes or more. Serve immediately.
  

I heart cooking clubs- Herb Garden

I love fresh herbs, unfortunately I CANNOT seem to keep them alive! I don't know what I am doing wrong, but despite my best efforts I keep killing them. Luckily, the grocery store has them so when I am in need, I can drive five minutes and pick them up.
The herb I decided to play with this week was thyme, and just for the heck of it, I looked it up on Wikipedia. Here are a few interesting factoids about thyme: Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming. The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing that thyme was a source of courage . It was thought that the spread of thyme throughout Europe was thanks to the Romans , as they used it to purify their rooms and to "give an aromatic flavor to cheese and liqueurs". In the European Middle Ages , the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. In this period, women would also often give knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer. Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life.
I made Italian bread sticks, also called grissini. They are an item that I buy from Whole Foods whenever I go there because they are just so yummy. I discovered them a couple years ago and have a mild addiction to them. Now I can make my own and season them however I like and as an extra bonus, homemade just tastes fresher and yummier. These are really easy to make, and the recipe says you should get 50-100. I got around 60-70 ish, so not too shabby. The dough is mixed in the food processor, which I love because it makes it so darn easy!
These are very customizable. The first pan I actually started cooking before I realized I hadn't added any herbs (duh), so they ended up being plain. After that I added thyme to the dough, and for my last two pans, just to jazz them up a little, I sprinkled one with onion powder and one with garlic powder. All of the variations were just lovely and would be great dipped in just about anything (ranch and marinara are my faves).
Anyway without further ado, here is the basic recipe, and if you are going to add herbs, he suggests 2 teaspoons of rosemary, thyme, sage or a combination of the three which you are supposed to add along with the olive oil, oops.


Breadsticks

2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups all purpose or bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
1/2 cup semolina or cornmeal

1. Combine the yeast, sugar, flour and salt in a food processor; pulse once or twice. Add the oil and, again, pulse a couple times. With the machine running add 1 cup of water through the feed tube. Continue to add water, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture forms a ball. The dough should be a little shaggy and quite sticky.
2. Put the olive oil in a bowl and transfer the dough ball to it, turning to coat well. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1 hour in a warm place. Reshape the ball, put it back in the bowl, cover again and let rise in the refrigerator for several hours or, preferably, overnight.
3. Heat the oven to 400F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets with olive oil and sprinkle very lightly with the semolina.4. Cut the dough into three pieces: keep the other 2 covered while you work with the first. On a well floured surface, roll a piece of dough out as thinly as possible into a large rectangle, about a foot long. Use a sharp knife or pastry wheel to cut the dough into roughly 1/4 inch thick strips (slightly smaller is better than slightly bigger).
5. Transfer the strips to the baking sheets, spaced apart and brushed with olive oil. Bake until crisp and golden, 10-20 minutes, then cool completely on wire racks. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

I heart cooking clubs- Garlic Breath

For this weeks IHCC recipe I made braised potatoes. He has several (10) variations of the recipe and I made Braised potatoes and Garlic. I love garlic and I actually think this could have easily accommodated more garlic but I try to be sensitive to the rest of my family. This was a really easy recipe and if you are having freaky weather for May (like we are) you might enjoy soup.

Ingredients-

2 pounds all-purpose or waxy potatoes
3 Tblsp. olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
1-2 heads of garlic, peeled
2 cups stock or water
1/4 cup parsley, for garnish (I didn't have any so I skipped this)
Parmesan, if desired

-Peel potatoes and cut them into chunks.
-Put the oil in a large pot over medium high heat. When hot add the potatoes and garlic, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook stirring occasionally until coated in oil and beginning to turn golden.
-Add the stock and enough water so that the potatoes are barely covered. Bring to a boil, stirring once in a while to make sure the potatoes aren't sticking, then turn the heat to medium-low so that the mixture bubbles gently.
-Cook, stirring occasionally until the potatoes get tender, 20-25 minutes. Add more liquid if they start to stick.
-The potatoes are done when a skewer or sharp knife inserted into one meets almost no resistance. Adjust seasoning, garnish with Parmesan and serve.

After tasting the recipe the way it is, I did puree about half of the soup just to give it a more creamy texture. My whole family loved this. Everyone had seconds and my two year old had fourths (although I was giving him much smaller servings).

I heart cooking clubs-(and I heart) breakfast in bed

I really love making (and eating) breakfast! It is my favorite meal of the day and I think breakfast foods are a completely viable option for any meal of the day. I missed last weeks IHCC theme because I had a house full of sickos and just never found the time to devote to cooking what I had planned to make, so maybe for potluck this month... Anyway, because of that I had a real hankering to make something for this weeks IHCC theme. When I woke up this morning I was so excited because I already had been eying a breakfast recipe, Swedish Pancakes, and knew I even had all of the ingredients, mostly because they are really basic ingredients.
So here it is, hope you enjoy, I know we really did! They were really rich but my kids still managed to eat an unholy amount of these. My littlest guy ate them plain (I am not a fan of sticky) but the two older ones had powdered sugar at first and then tried them with maple syrup. Both ways were great but I will have to pick up some lingonberry preserves to try them with next time. My middle guy told me these were so much better than regular pancakes because they were yummy and cute and tiny (who doesn't love mini). Anyway these were so fluffy and light, from the egg white, and they were really sweet enough to eat plain. I got the recipe from the NY Times.

Mr Bittman offers some advice:

Don’t stir the batter any more than is necessary to combine the ingredients; it will make the pancakes tough. Cook them, over fairly high heat, in a lot of butter. These are so rich and delicious they can be served with nothing more than a dusting of confectioners\' sugar. But they are sweet enough so that you can serve them with lingonberry or other tart preserves or even a little lemon juice. Yogurt or sour cream also complement the pancakes nicely.

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter, more for cooking
confectioner's sugar for dusting

Method

• 1. Separate eggs, and beat yolks in a medium bowl with sugar and salt. Add milk and flour alternately, stirring gently after each addition, to form a thin, smooth batter. Stir in melted butter. (Batter can be covered and refrigerated at this point for up to a day.)
• 2. Beat egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Gently stir them into batter; do not worry about fully incorporating them.
• 3. Heat a cast iron or nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat; when a drop of water skips across it before evaporating, it\'s ready. Melt some butter in pan, and, using a tablespoon, scoop up a bit of batter and put it in pan. Cook as many pancakes at once as will fit comfortably, turning them when they are brown. Total cooking time is less than 5 minutes per pancake.
• 4. Serve immediately, sprinkled with confectioners\' sugar.

I heart cooking clubs- Pantry raid

I just joined the "I heart cooking clubs" group. Originally I planned to wait until next weeks theme to get started but I really like the Pantry raid theme, and decided I would use it for tonight's dinner. I found a recipe by Mark Bittman (who is the chef/cook the group is focusing on for 6 months) that uses dried pinto beans. I happen to have a bag of dried pinto beans that has been in my pantry for probably as long as we have lived in our house (5 years). I made Chili non carne and used the tomato variation. The recipe was basic and hearty. It is a perfect fall meal so I will be using it again for sure. We added a little hot sauce and extra seasoning because it was a tiny bit bland (although that was probably my fault because I made 1.5 times the beans the recipe calls for and forgot to add extra seasoning). I read his instructions wrong and didn't let them cook as long as they were supposed to before adding the tomatoes, so I ended up pouring everything into the electric pressure cooker and dinner was saved! Nobody likes crunchy, not cooked enough, beans.

Chili non Carne

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Time: About 2 hours, largely unattended

Chili means different things to different people; I think of it as slow-cooked red beans seasoned with cumin and chiles, though some insist that chili should be made with meat and few or even no beans. To me, at that point you've entered the realm of cassoulet, though the second variation includes meat. Other beans you can use: red or pink beans are traditional, but you can also use cannellini or other white beans alone or in combination.

1 pound dried pinto beans, washed, picked over, and soaked if you like

1 whole onion, unpeeled, plus 1 small onion, minced Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup bean-cooking liquid, vegetable stock, or water 1 fresh or dried hot chile, seeded and minced, or to taste (optional)

1 teaspoon ground cumin, or to taste (optional)

1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (optional)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

1. Put the beans in a large pot with water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat, skimming the foam if necessary. Add the whole onion. Adjust the heat so the beans bubble steadily but not violently and cover loosely.

2. When the beans begin to soften (30 minutes to an hour, depending on the type of bean and whether or not you soaked the beans), season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally and adding water if necessary, until the beans are quite tender but still intact (about as long as it took them to begin to soften).

3. Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid if you choose to use it. Discard the onion and add all the remaining ingredients except the cilantro. Turn the heat to medium and bring to a boil. Cover and turn the heat down to low.

4. Cook, stirring occasionally and adding more liquid if necessary, until the beans are very tender and the flavors have mellowed, about 15 minutes. Taste, adjust the seasoning, and garnish with cilantro. Serve with rice, crackers, or tortilla chips and bottled hot sauce.

Chili with Tomatoes.

This simple addition makes a big difference; you might also add 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground cinnamon: Substitute 2 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomato (canned is fine; don't bother to drain) for the bean or other liquid. Cook carefully, adding a little more liquid if needed. Top with freshly grated cheddar or other semihard cheese if you like.

Chili con Carne.

Try this with the preceding variation: While the beans are cooking, put 1 tablespoon neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 pound hand-chopped or ground beef, pork, turkey, or chicken and cook, stirring, until the meat has lost its color, about 10 minutes. Season the meat with salt, pepper, and about 2 teaspoons chili powder, or to taste. Stir it into the beans along with the other ingredients.

White Chili.

Substitute any kind of white beans for the pinto beans. In Step 3, when you discard the onion, stir in 2 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken (grilled is terrific).