Under pressure

Finishing school and not starting my job yet have meant that I have more time than I have since before Eden was born to delve into matters domestic.

My favorite aspect of this realm is cooking, because above almost everything else, we Sullenbrands love to eat.

My mom has had a pressure cooker for the past 33 years, but I can't remember ever seeing it used. So when I got married and registered for kitchen stuff, we registered for a Cuisinart food processor, a KitchenAid mixer, a crockpot, and a slew of pots and pans, but it never occurred to me to register for a pressure cooker. Or to use one. Or what I might use one for.

Well, the Cuisinart and the KitchenAid lived up to my expectations, but I can't say I ever got next to the crockpot. First of all, I found it unreliable. Sometimes things were less done than I expected, necessitating removal to the stovetop and a hasty attempt to finish them before dinnertime. More often than not, they cooked much faster than expected, even on the low or keep warm settings, resulting in a burned-on mess with a barely-edible center. Either way, I never found it to live up to the "set it and forget it" promise that seems to accompany crockpot cooking. Nor did it live up to its reputation for tenderizing things, namely grass-fed meats, the way people promised it would--tough and stringy was more often the disappointing result. It required close babysitting and regular adjustments--not an improvement over the oven or the stove, in my mind. Plus, it's bulky, requires even more advance planning than cooking a regular meal, and lastly, imparts a hot-plastic kind of smell to the kitchen that I find rather toxic and disturbing.

Enter the pressure cooker, which I came across in my mom's cupboard the other day and which vaguely dawned on me as the solution to being busy with a toddler all day, up until about 15 minutes before everyone was hungry for dinner. Simple, multipurpose (cook with it! can with it! marinate in it overnight! use it like a regular saucepan!), and best of all--quick and effective. The first thing I tried was Spicy Shredded Pork, which I'd made several times in the oven as the recipe originally calls for. When I made it in the oven, cooking it for 3-4 hours on low, the results were tasty, but the pork was kind of tough and not very juicy, regardless of how much cooking liquid (or what kind--water, broth) I started with.

For the pressure cooker, I started with a 90-minute cooking time because general pressure-cooker guidelines call for reducing the cooking time in "your favorite recipes" by 2/3. Spicy Shredded Pork originally calls for a cooking time of "several hours," so 1-1.5 hours in the pressure cooker seemed like it should be more than adequate--and I didn't want to risk rare pork my first time out of the blocks.

Here it is marinating:90 minutes later:

And OH. MY. GOODNESS. Absolutely succulent, melt-in-your mouth results from a process that couldn't have been easier.

Pressure-Cooker Pork (adapted from the Pioneer Woman's Spicy Shredded Pork)

-Pork roast (butt, shoulder, whatever--approximately 3-5 lbs, depending on the size of your crowd; but believe me, you'll want to make extra. We ate roughly twice as much of the pressure-cooked pork as we ever did of the slow-baked oven version!)
-2 cups water
-1 large onion, roughly chopped
-Several cloves of garlic
-Splash of white vinegar
-Splash of olive oil
-Squeeze of lime juice
-Few tablespoons each of cumin and chili powder
-Few teaspoons of salt and pepper

Place all but the pork roast and the water in a blender or food processor and blend until it's a chunky paste. Rub onto pork roast, leaving to marinate as long as overnight (you can marinate it right in the pressure cooker if you like) or as little as a few minutes. When you're ready to cook, add water to the pressure cooker, lock on the lid and turn the stove on medium-high. Once the regular starts rocking (don't come a-knocking), reduce the heat to keep it rocking slowly. Cooking time begins now. Cook for 90 minutes (again, I'm guessing you could get away with less, especially if your roast is on the small side), then either let the pressure fall or cool it rapidly by running cold water over it. Pressure is reduced when the pressure valve drops. Carefully remove the lid, remove the pork and shred it with two forks. Drizzle on cooking juices as necessary (not very, in our case, but it comes in handy for keeping any leftovers moist.) Serve with lime wedges, sour cream, tortillas, buns, or whatever strikes your fancy.

You're welcome.

Beef stew is another recipe that we've made often, because stew meat is cheap, and it's a hearty, filling, and healthy meal. It's especially one of Eden's favorites. However, once again, regardless of how I cooked the meat--searing it first, not searing it first, slow cooking it, stovetop-cooking it--it still had a tendency to become even drier and stringier the longer I cooked it. Not a fatal flaw, but not an entirely satisfactory result, either, especially for hours of cooking. BUT. Twelve minutes in the pressure cooker (somewhat akin to seven minutes in heaven!) yielded (you guessed it) succulent, meltingly tender stew meat and perfectly soft, delectable vegetables. Not to mention the fact that you can go from thinking about dinner to having it on the table in under 30 minutes--tell that to your crockpot.

Pressure-Cooker Beef Stew
(adapted from the Presto Pressure Cooker Owner's Manual)

2 pounds lean beef, cut into 1-inch cubes (or 2 lbs prepared stew meat)
2 cups water
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 chopped onion
3-4 small potatoes, diced
Several sliced carrots
1-2 stalks chopped celery
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
Sprinkle of black pepper

2-4 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup water

Sear the stew meat over medium-high heat in the pressure cooker. Add ingredients up to and including black pepper into cooker. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 12 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Let pressure drop of its own accord. Add flour to water to form a paste (depending on how thick you want the stew) and whisk into stew, bringing to a boil until stew thickens, 1-3 minutes. I also add a cup of frozen peas at the end.

You can also branch out into casseroles, desserts, seafood, and all kinds of other things in the pressure cooker. I've got a sneaking suspicion that it just might turn chicken breasts from a dry, tasteless, unappetizing diet food into something--well, better than that. I'll let you know when I test my theory, but know in the meantime that you can cook a whole chicken in 15 minutes, and a chicken breast in just 3-4. You can also cook dry beans in just 3-10 minutes (carefully following the manufacturer's instructions, as beans are one of the foods that foam quite a bit during cooking and so care is required not to overfill the pressure cooker lest the vents should become clogged.) You can cook brown rice in just 10-12 minutes, and white rice in just 5-6. You can make stocks and soups in less than half an hour that taste like you simmered them all day, and you can even cook cheesecake in just 15 minutes!

And SOUP? You'll never have a need for canned soup again when you can make your own from scratch in under 20 minutes. Throw in a chicken breast, a few cups of water, some chopped carrots, celery, and onion, and a little salt and pepper, and you've got it made. If you're really feeling fancy, you can cook some noodles on the stove while the pressure cooker does its thing, then shred the chicken a little and add the noodles and voila, all in about the time it takes to open and heat up a (sodium, soybean oil, and MSG-laden) can:
Are you seeing where I'm coming from yet?! And best of all? These miraculous machines retail around $40-50 and can easily last for generations.

I know one question lots of people have is safety. According to Wikipedia:

"Pressure cookers have a reputation as a dangerous method of cooking with the risk of explosion. Early pressure cookers equipped with only a primary safety valve were at risk of explosion if poorly maintained, allowing food residues to contaminate the release valve. Modern pressure cookers typically have two or three independent safety valves, as well as some additional safety features, such as an interlock to prevent opening the lid while internal pressure exceeds atmospheric pressure. However there is still a risk of explosion, especially if cookers are not thoroughly and regularly maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions."

To further reduce your risk, here's a link to a list of tips for making sure your pressure cooker experience is as safe as it is satisfying.

Here are a few other recipes from the Presto owner's manual:

BEEF POT ROAST
3 pounds beef pot roast
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups water
Salt and pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 bay leaf

Pour oil into cooker. Turn heat selector to medium and brown roast well on all sides; remove roast. Pour water into cooker. Place roast on rack in cooker. Season roast with salt, pepper, onions, and bay leaf. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 45 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Let pressure drop of its own accord. Thicken gravy, if desired.

SPAGHETTI MEAT SAUCE
1 pound lean ground beef
1 can (14 to 15 ounces) diced tomatoes
1⁄2 cup water
1 cup chopped onion
1⁄2 cup chopped celery
1⁄2 cup diced green pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Turn heat selector to medium and brown beef. Stir in remaining ingredients except tomato paste. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 8 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Cool cooker at once. Stir in tomato paste and simmer, uncovered, to desired thickness. Serve sauce over spaghetti. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

CHICKEN CACCIATORE
3 pound chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 cup diced tomatoes
1⁄3 cup white wine
11⁄2 cups sliced onions
1⁄2 cup chopped carrots
1⁄2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

Place all ingredients except tomato paste in pressure cooker. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 8 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Cool cooker at once. Place chicken on warm platter. Stir tomato paste into sauce in cooker. Simmer until thickened. Pour over chicken and serve.

Quick and tasty microwave popcorn

image by Ayelie

While there is NOTHING like a batch of stovetop popcorn cooked in coconut oil and slathered with liberal amounts of good melted butter and salt, there are times you want to cut to the chase (ie the butter and salt and eating part) a little quicker than that method allows, without resorting to the cancerous chemical-laden wasteland that is commercial microwave popcorn.

So how awesome is it that you can just pop (haha) some kernels in a brown paper bag, with or without a little oil, and turn on the microwave till the popping slows? We made a good-sized bowl for two in just under three minutes, using an old grocery bag and 1/4 cup of organic popcorn kernels.

How is there an entire microwave-popcorn INDUSTRY when this is true?!

Easy Thai Curry

One of the restaurants I was most looking forward to visiting once we moved back to the midwest was Thai Spice, which has a yellow chicken curry I've always adored.

One day not too long after we got back into town, I found myself seriously craving that chicken curry for lunch in the middle of a freezing winter day. However, it was a little hard to justify bundling up a car-hating baby and driving 45 minutes to get there (only to spend lunch chasing her around the restaurant). After some debate, I decided to take the plunge and try making something similar myself--even though Asian-inspired cuisine is the food that I've probably had the worst luck with over the years. Not feeling particularly optimistic, we picked up a few ingredients at the grocery store and got to work. Surprisingly, the results were delicious, especially given the simplicity of the ingredients and the ease of preparation. We've eaten it a couple times a week for lunch ever since--and haven't made it to Thai Spice yet.

Easy (Primal) Thai Curry

Ingredients:
2 cups sliced meat (I used boneless/skinless chicken breasts the first time, but beef, shrimp, even sausage all work great--or you can do a vegetarian version)
1 cup sliced vegetables (I use onions with the chicken curry; broccoli, peppers
A few tablespoons of oil or butter for frying
2 Tbsp curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste, which is available at most grocery stores; one $3 bottle makes us approximately 3 batches of curry)
1 can coconut milk
1-2 tsp fish sauce (I used Thai Kitchen)
Squeeze of lime
Few leaves of basil (Thai or regular)

Over high heat, sear the meat in the oil. When cooked, remove to another bowl, then stir-fry the vegetables. Add the curry paste and stir to coat. Quickly add the coconut milk, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Return the meat to the pan and add fish sauce, squeeze of lime, and fresh basil to taste, stirring until heated through. Garnish with additional basil and serve immediately. Makes two large servings.

Served as is (without rice etc) it's deliciously warming and filling, high protein, low carb and primal. I've also added a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter, which is delicious as well.

Almond meal pancakes

This is sort of a compendium of several almond meal pancake recipes out there. Why almond meal? Because since it's made of ground nuts (specifically, almonds--skins and all) instead of grains, it's mostly protein and fat instead of mostly empty carbohydrates. You can make your own, but since trader Joe's sells it for about $3.99 a pound, we opted for ready-made. Having had experience with cooking substitutes before--especially for pancakes, having made egg-free, milk-free, and now grain-free varieties--we were surprised and delighted with how "normally" the almond meal batter behaved. Some sources say to make your pancakes small, since these don't bind quite like regular pancakes, but we made ours in a cast-iron pan and didn't have any trouble at all. We doubled the batch and ended up with about 18 medium pancakes, and had no trouble finishing them off ourselves!

Almond Meal Pancakes

3/4 cup almond meal

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

Drizzle of maple syrup

Mix all ingredients together, adjusting milk amount until desired texture is achieved. Make pancakes in the usual fashion, cooking over a hot griddle until appearing dry on the top. This method does not result in the same air bubbles that "floured" recipes too, but they do puff up and get less wet on the surface so you can tell when it's time to flip.

Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Oven Fries

While we love the idea of roasting a whole chicken and using every bit of it, quite frankly more often than not we don't get around to making stock from the carcass (or we do, but it gets shelved in the freezer for months at a time), and plus, good whole chickens are not exactly inexpensive. And now that we're actively trying to prevent having a surplus of things like chicken stock in the freezer before we move, the whole-chicken option was seeming less and less attractive.

Enter chicken thighs. At Whole Foods, we can get a dozen decent-quality, skin-on (and seriously, why would you want them any other way?) chicken thighs for under $7. Looking for a way to cook them, I came across this recipe, which is deceptively simple but amazingly delicious. Of course, we make substitutions--russet potatoes for the red, dried herbs for the fresh, and I leave out the garlic powder altogether, not to mention cooking it for 20 minutes at 475 instead of an hour at 375--but I'm grateful for the basic recipe, which turned us onto something so good we now have it a couple of times a week.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is how the chicken skin slides right off like a crispy, delicious little jacket that you can pop in your mouth as soon as the chicken hits the plate. MMMMMmmmm. One of the keys to really crispy skin, I've found, is rinsing the chicken and then patting it REALLY dry (most people use a paper towel, I use a clean kitchen towel). Seriously, where have these BEEN all my life? It literally breaks my heart to think of all the amazingly tasty chicken skin that must be wasted somewhere in the interested of satisfying the demand for boneless skinless shoe leather chicken breasts. And, I've had oven fries before and found them to be lackluster (as some of the commenters do on the above recipe), but I'm now convinced that that comes from a misguided attempt at trying to minimize the fat content. Liberally drizzled with olive oil, they're tender, flavorful, and delicious.

Here's the recipe, the way that I make it:

Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Oven Fries

6 chicken thighs, rinsed and patted very dry

4 small russet potatoes, sliced in half lengthwise and then into wedges

Olive oil as needed

Sprinkling of dried rosemary

Sprinkling of dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of two 9x13 pans. Place the chicken thighs, skin side up, in one of them, and the potatoes spread out in the other. Drizzle both pans with olive oil and then sprinkle with the dried herbs, salt, and pepper. Cook approximately 20 minutes or until chicken is done and fries are cooked (cook longer for crispy fries).

Hot and sour soup

We recently ordered a batch of beef bones so that we could make nourishing bone broth, because I was starting to have trouble with my stomach again. Well, we wound up boiling the broth (rather than simmering it) and it was chalky and cloudy and we had to use this crazy method to clarify it. It worked, interestingly enough, so then we were left with several quarts of now-clarified beef broth and had to figure out the best way to use it.

We eventually decided on hot and sour soup, which we loosely based on this recipe and adjusted to our tastes, ingredients, and to fit into our mostly "primal" diet. I'm not even going to presume to give many specific ingredient amounts, because I've realized after following a lot of recipes that people's tastes and ingredients are different enough that the measures are kind of irrelevant and everybody has to adjust them anyway.

Here's how I made it:

(Primal) Hot and Sour Soup

A few Tbsp of lard, butter, oil, or other fat

1/2 chopped onion

1 lb pork of any kind, thinly sliced across the grain

Several large handfuls of thinly sliced green cabbage

A few grated carrots

A pint of sliced mushrooms

A little grated ginger and about the same amount of minced garlic

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Soy sauce

White or other vinegar

1 quart beef broth

Heat the oil in a medium to large saucepan. Saute the onions until golden brown, then add the sliced pork. Cook until opaque. Add the other vegetables in the order given, 3-5 minutes apart, giving each a chance to cook and wilt slightly. Add the ginger, garlic, and red pepper. Pour in a few glugs of soy sauce, scraping the pan to deglaze it as you do. Pour in the beef broth. Add a few splashes of vinegar until the ratio of hot to sour is right. Adjust seasonings and salt to taste.

We thought this was absolutely delicious, and are planning to make a shrimp version this weekend with the remainder of the broth. Bean sprouts (as in the original recipe) would also be delicious.

Cheesy baked cabbage

This is the answer I came up with to life without macaroni and cheese.

Cheesy baked cabbage

1 head of cabbage, shredded
6 carrots, shredded
1 stick butter
1 block cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground red pepper
12 oz sharp cheddar, shredded

Melt the butter over medium-high head in a large saucepan. Add the cabbage and carrots and cook until tender crisp, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cream cheese until melted and vegetables are well coated. Add spices and milk and stir well until creamy. Remove from heat and transfer into a buttered 4-qt or 13x9" pan. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 450 until cheese is melted and bubbling.

I'm already thinking variations--peanut/coconut curried cabbage, ham-mush-cabbage-casserole...more to come!

As you can see, Eden is a big fan!

The summer of slaws

photo by LaCheryl

I know everybody here is familiar with our (okay, my) fondness for food themes. Hummus, soups, salads, sandwiches, quiche...it seems like not a summer, especially, can go by without one.

I've decided that this summer will be the summer of slaws. I use that term sort of loosely, but basically to encompass the non-lettuce-based, often tangy vegetable medleys we've gotten into as of late. Coleslaw is one; this cooked vegetable hash is another. I found it one day looking for a way to cook brussels sprouts. I didn't expect much, but somehow all the ingredients really came together (especially after letting them rest for about 30min, which isn't called for but made all the difference) and it was just delicious. Here's the recipe:

Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, divided
• 1/2 pound shallots, thinly sliced (I used yellow onions)
  
• Coarse kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 4 teaspoons sugar (I used a couple of tablespoons of honey instead)
  
• 1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup water

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Sauté until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add vinegar and sugar. Stir until brown and glazed, about 3 minutes.

Halve brussels sprouts lengthwise. Cut lengthwise into thin (1/8-inch) slices. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sprouts; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until brown at edges, 6 minutes. Add 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons butter. Sauté until most of water evaporates and sprouts are tender but still bright green, 3 minutes. Add shallots; season with salt and pepper.

As I think I've mentioned before, having some kind of cooked or cold vegetable dish makes our main-dish salads feel much more filling, and this one definitely functioned that way. I think you could probably give other cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower) a similar treatment and it would be just delicious.

The funny thing about all this is that I've never liked coleslaw, potato salad, or other vinegary things until recently. I did love things that were tart and/or sour, but unfortunately my tastes ran more toward things like cherry pie or Sour Patch Kids. Now that I've made the effort to reorient my taste buds toward things that aren't pure crap, I've found that the tanginess of vinegar is amazing in egg salad, coleslaw, or the above "hash." Something else that works well in that role? Sauerkraut. We already eat it alongside our scrambled eggs every morning, and last night we whipped up a spur-of-the-moment skillet dinner comprised of onions, mushrooms, sauerkraut, and thinly sliced hotdogs. Might sound kind of crazy, but it was delicious!

Here are some of the types of recipes I'm hoping to try out this spring and summer:

Cabbage and lime salad with roasted peanuts

Broccoli slaw

Blue cheese coleslaw (scroll down)

Asparagus, peas, and radishes with fresh tarragon

And friends of ours introduced us to a wonderful corn, avocado, and shallot salad which is held together by sour cream and a little lime juice, and which never lasts long around here. We plan on making it at least once a week!

Freebies & hitting the road

We're getting ready to head out tomorrow on the closest thing we've taken to a family vacation-- driving down to Frontier in Kentucky for a week while I attend hands-on skills training prior to starting clinicals. (Oh, how it seemed this day would never come.) Since Eden is still mainly breastfeeding, she and Matt are coming along and we're making it a family affair! We're also planning to camp one night after we leave Frontier--either in the Smoky Mountains or Cumberland Gap, depending on how the whim strikes us after we leave!

Our changes in eating habits are still going along quite successfully--Matt's lost 15 lbs, and I've lost an additional 10 in the past few weeks; for comparison, it took me four months of counting calories and exercising daily to lose the first 10. We're feeling great, our grocery bill has actually shrunk, and we're looking forward to the farmer's market opening next month--at that point, we should be able to get almost all of our food either from there or the local farmer where we get our meat, milk, and eggs. We're also now eating in a way that could essentially be feasible if we were growing/raising our own food, which is a major long-term goal.

At this point, we've sort of transitioned from the GAPS diet--emphasis on bone broths, tight dietary restrictions--to the Primal Diet. I like the Primal Diet for maintenance because it offers pretty logical algorithms for eating--basically, eat like a caveman--versus the GAPS diet, which is a little bit more arbitrary (not that it isn't based on science, but it requires memorizing more than reasoning). From the site Mark's Primal Blueprint, here's somewhat of a breakdown:

Is it Primal?

You know the basics: Lean meats and vegetables are healthy, grains and sugars should be avoided. But what about everything else?

• Eggs – Yes (even raw eggs? Why not.)
• Nuts – Yes (Almonds, Walnuts, Soaking Seeds & Nuts)
• Seeds – Yes
• Coconut – Yes, in every way, shape, and form
• Coffee/Tea – Yes
• Whole Grains, Oatmeal, Brown Rice – No
• Beans & Legumes – No
• Dark Chocolate – Occasionally
• Red Wine – Occasionally
• Artificial Sweeteners – Not really, but not terrible [we don't eat these]
  
• Cheese – Not officially, but…
• Soy and Whey and Protein Powders – Depends [we don't eat these either]
  
• Chewing Gum – Depends

Here you can read about how this diet works for weight loss, effortless weight maintenance, and why the Food Pyramid results in an average weight gain of 1.5lbs/year for each American. (Hint: it's the 6-11 servings of grains!)

In that spirit, it's somewhat of a bummer that we won't be able to take advantage of many of the Tax Day Freebies--Cinnabon, ice cream--being offered tomorrow, but on the other hand, we look at that as a very good thing. We know our bodies will thank us for it! And,while we've mostly given up on coffee, even decaf, we do partake occasionally as a treat if it's free. And it's certainly a good time for that: we recently got two free cups from Corner Bakery (ongoing), we're going to Whole Foods (good April 14) later today, and are planning to hit several Starbucks (April 15 only if you bring your own reusable mug) on our trip tomorrow.

We'll be back in just over a week!

Christmas!

I figure that so long as I post our Christmas pictures while it's still December, I'm not too far behind, right?

We actually celebrated our Christmas on December 23rd, because I was scheduled to work overnight on the 24th and 25th. Well, I actually ended up working the 22nd and 23rd as well, thanks to Matt's generous offer to cook the entire Christmas dinner (and clean up after himself!) and watch Eden all day. He did, and I can't imagine things going any better than they did!

Our menu for Christmas dinner was as follows:

Spice-rubbed roast beef
Country Potatoes
Green bean casserole
Buttered corn

The roast was one from the half steer we split with Pam's family earlier in the fall. The recipe we used was one from the Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook, an excellent and artistic book that contains all you need to know about cooking succulent grassfed meat (for example, cooking it "lower and slower" than you would grain-fed beef). This particular recipe involved rubbing the meat with a combination of spices (including cardamom and cloves, which we chose specifically because it seemed especially Christmasy!) and then roasting it at the super-low temperature of 180 degrees. It came out absolutely perfect--tender, juicy, medium-rare, and with just enough spice to lend flavor without covering up the beef's own deliciousness.

The Country Potatoes are a recipe that Matt's mom makes for get-togethers which Matt and I are absolutely crazy about.

Country Potatoes

2 # frozen hash browns (we used two pounds of peeled, cubed potatoes. They didn't cook up quite as tender as we would have liked, so I think next time we might boil them for just a few minutes before assembling the casserole)
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup (we actually just halved this recipe)
1/2 c. chopped onions
1 stick melted butter
1-1/2 c. corn flake crumbs (we used about two cups of torn bread crumbs, since we're all about croutons)
4 T. melted butter

Mix hash browns, sour cream, cheese, soup, onion and 1 stick melted butter together. Pour into 13x9 inch pan. Mix corn flake crumbs and 4 T. melted butter together and spread over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serves 12 (haha)

Utter deliciousness.

For the green bean casserole, we went the easy route and bought French-fried onions (though we've made them before) and used the recipe off the side of the can. We did make our own cream of mushroom soup, though.

We also had a delicious organic red wine with the meal, made better by Pam's introducing us to a wine aerator. It was a total revelation, especially to someone like me who in the past has had to work to enjoy red wines (not anymore!). It really mellows and softens the sharp, bitter edge that red wine often has to it, and we're definitely glad to have one of these on hand!

Here are a few more pictures from Eden's first Christmas:

All in all, we had a wonderful evening. It was simple, quiet, and shared with each other and one good friend. There were gifts, but no extravagance; there were also no obligations, no sense of "we should invite so and so" or anything like that. Just sincere, genuine, and heartfelt. While we missed our families, that was also allayed by the knowledge that next year we'll be nestled about as closely in the bosom of our families as possible, so we were able to enjoy this one quiet Christmas together, and appreciate it for what it was.

Cooking with squash

I've never been a big eater of vegetables. I've tried to browse the grocery store or farmer's market, and just pick up something in season (like hmm, kohlrabi? or so I hear it's beet season), and go home and cook it. Last time I tried that I ended up with the Swiss Chard incident, and there have been a number of other attempts that were equally unsuccessful.

So I'm not really sure what possessed me to pick up a butternut squash and bring it home, except that it seemed so robustly autumnal (this was back in autumn, mind you). Surprisingly enough, I ended up finding at least three uses for butternut squash that I liked quite a bit.

The first one was a variation on Easy Brown Rice Risotto, which was sort of a no-brainer because I've made it before and liked it with sweet potatoes. Here's how that went:

Butternut Squash & Brown Rice Risotto

1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 1/4" cubes)
About 1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp rosemary
2.5 cups chicken stock
1 T butter
1 cup long-grain brown rice
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup walnuts, toasted briefly in a dry skillet
1 cup feta cheese

1. Drizzle cubed squash with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary. Bake at 400 degrees 30-45 minutes or until roasted and tender.
2. Meanwhile, bring chicken stock to a boil. Add butter. Once butter is melted, stir in the rice and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook 45-50 minutes. The rice should be moist.
3. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Stir in Parmesan and roasted squash.
4. Garnish generously with toasted walnuts and feta cheese.

Hummus was next on the list. I actually didn't realize until after I'd made it that butternut squash was the first on the list of possible add-ins we'd listed for hummus way back when.

Curried Butternut Squash Hummus

1/2 butternut squash, cubed and roasted as above except sprinkled with curry powder instead of rosemary

Hummus prepared like this (or any other way)

Add the cubed squash to the hummus and process in a food processor until smooth.

I think my favorite, though, was butternut squash soup, even though I seem to have failed to take a picture of it. It was wonderful--silky, sweet but not too sweet. I had originally looked at a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but found that it had too many ingredients I didn't have on hand. However, commenter #3 on the afore-linked post had just the ticket; I made very few substitutions except to eliminate the leeks, chives, and brie.

Butternut Squash Soup

1 large butternut squash, cut in half. Bake at 350 degrees/45 min.(cut side down on baking dish)
Chop 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 leek (white part mostly). Saute in butter in large pot.
Add cooked squash and 2 liters chicken stock to pot and bring to a boil.
Add one apple (peeled and chopped), one bay leaf, and one tsp. sugar.
Simmer 40 min. Remove bay leaf and mash/puree.Add salt and pepper to taste.

Next up I think I'm going to have to do a dessert round.

Baked potato soup

Baked potato soup has become one of our stick-to-your-ribs cold-weather standards. I've tweaked the recipe I found here (no low-fat ingredients in THIS household!), and we like to deep-fry the leftover potato skins in the bacon grease and then broil them with cheese, bacon, sour cream, and salsa on top. YUM! Real hangover food. All in the name of not wasting a thing.

Baked potato soup

2 tbsp. butter
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
4-6 baking potatoes (about 2-1/2 lbs.)
2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
6 cups whole milk
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sour cream
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

1. "Bake" potatoes in microwave until soft, about 8-12 minutes.
2. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until soft, about 8 minutes.
3. Place flour into the vegetables; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes).
4. Add mashed potatoes, cheese, salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.
5. Stir in sour cream. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil).

For a recipe for potato skins (pictured above), you can go here.

Free cookie and hot chocolate this weekend!

The only thing better than a $10 date is a FREE ONE, which looks like we'll be scooping up at Barnes & Noble this Saturday. There's one well within walking distance of our place, which is awesome given our recent commitment to keep Eden out of the car.

Speaking of yummy ways to celebrate fall, we're hoping this weekend to make up some Apple Cider Doughnuts and possibly some pumpkin bread pudding. We made these pumpkin pancakes last weekend with some canned pumpkin we got from the eviction, and there's more in the freezer. The pancakes were pretty delicious (though despite others' comments, we did find it needed a generous splash of additional milk), but pancakes have never been my forte--the standing around, the burning of outsides, the undercooking of insides. Bread pudding seems like a surer bet.

And speaking of freebies, tomorrow is the last day to answer a trivia question for a free lunch coupon at Ted's Montana Grill. We've each racked up a few of these but haven't been out to get them yet.

Salmon chowder

I couldn't find a recipe for the kind of salmon chowder I wanted to make, so I had to come up with one myself.

Salmon Chowder

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp dill
1 Tbsp parsley
~1/2 lb salmon fillets
3 medium carrots
2 medium stalks celery
2 medium potatoes
1/2 onion
1/4 cup butter or lard
1/4 cup flour
1 cup frozen, fresh, or canned corn
4 cups of whole milk
2-3 Tbsp salt
Sprinkling of cracked pepper

Heat oven to 450. Drizzle the melted butter in a 9x9 or similar pan that the salmon will fit in. Sprinkle herbs on top. Place salmon, skin side up, and cook for 5 minutes. Flip and cook for another side or until salmon is flaky and opaque. Peel off skin, flake salmon, and set aside.

Melt the 1/4 cup butter or lard over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the vegetables, saute 5 minutes or until lightly cooked. Add flour and stir until vegetables are coated and flour is lightly cooked. Add milk and simmer until thickened, 10-15 minutes. Stir in salmon, corn salt, and pepper, and simmer until vegetables are soft.

I give this a 10 and Matt likes it quite a bit too. Creamy, a little bit sweet, and not too fishy at all. There would probably be an easier way to cook the salmon--maybe poaching in the milk or a little broth?--but this is how I'm used to cooking it and so it works well that way for me.

Just in time for fall...

...a mac and cheese recipe that is SO GOOD! We are huge fans of the creamy Wisconsin Mac 'n Cheese from Noodles & Company, and this is a lot like it. I found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen and basically halved it (with some rounding here and there) since the original recipe serves 12 and calls for more cheese than even we usually have around. I have also found you can reduce the amount of cheese in the sauce by about a handful, and increase the salt a little, and it will be just fine.

This is one of "those" M&C recipes people love to complain about--those which Involve a White Sauce. Making a white sauce is one of those things that personally I think takes longer to complain about than it does to DO. Just do it already! If you're not comfortable a flour-and-fat roux--the base for every gravy, white sauce, cream soup, pot pie filling, and other velvety delight known to the kitchen--it's time to get comfortable. It really couldn't be easier. Video tutorials abound, but basically, just cook the oil in the bubbling fat already. Then stir in your broth or milk or other liquid, bring back to a boil, and whisk together until thick and smooth.

Our butter is expensive, so I use lard.

Martha Stewart’s Creamy Mac-and-Cheese
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics

Serves 6

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for casserole
3 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to l/2-inch pieces
2-3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more for water
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2-1/4 cups (about 9 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar cheese
1 cup (about 4 ounces) grated Gruyère or 3/4 cups (about 2-3 ounces) grated Pecorino Romano cheese (I actually used about 1/4 cup Parmesan)
1/2 pound elbow macaroni

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. (I use a 9x9 square pan.) Place the bread in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoons butter. Pour the melted butter into the bowl with the bread, and toss. Set the breadcrumbs aside.

2. Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. (I put it in a glass measuring cup in the microwave. Combines a step and saves a dish.) Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. When the butter bubbles, add the flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

3. While whisking, slowly pour in the hot milk a little at a time to keep mixture smooth. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick, 8 to 12 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 1.5 cups cheddar cheese, and Gruyère (or Pecorino Romano); set the cheese sauce aside.

5. Cover a large pot of salted water, and bring to a boil. Cook the macaroni until the outside of pasta is cooked and the inside is underdone, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the macaroni to a colander, rinse under cold running water, and drain well. Stir the macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup Gruyère (or 1/4 cup Pecorino Romano), and the breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes (though we needed a bit more time to get it brown, but your oven may vary). Transfer the dish to a wire rack for 5 minutes; serve.

I also cook the macaroni first and make the cheese sauce in its pan while it hangs out and drains in the colander. Maybe Martha has somebody to wash all these dishes for her, but I don't.

Anyway, a great make-ahead meal and just all-around delicious!

Quiche of the week: Sausage, onions, mushrooms, & cheese

This week's quiche came about because I had leftover sausage from a meal of biscuits and gravy, leftover mushrooms from a dish of chicken and noodles that never materialized, leftover Monterey Jack from a batch of quesadillas, and half an onion in the fridge. I love that about quiche! I also love that it's possible to make a quiche pretty much one-handed. With one hand I sift together the lard and flour, clump it into a ball, and press it into a pan for baking. With one hand I can crack and beat the eggs together with the milk, saute the vegetables (OK, chopping takes two), and combine them all. This makes it an excellent meal to make when Eden is in the sling or the Ergo and I need to have one hand at least on standby to make sure she doesn't lurch out of it, or topple out when I bend down. So in addition to being healthy, tasty, easy, and cheap--one more reason it's on the menu every week!

To make this quiche, I utilized our standard quiche formula (though with only 1.5 cups of milk and 5 eggs, since we were low on milk) and threw in a handful of mushrooms, diced onions, and cooked sausage that I sauteed together in a little lard. I put the cheese (about a cup) directly on top of the crust since I've heard that keeps it from getting soggy.

Then I added the eggs and milk, and baked the whole thing for about 20 minutes at 425, enough to firm it up but not cook it all the way through because I'm actually planning for us to cook and eat it tomorrow. But Eden's extra-long nap in the Ergo this morning was too good an opportunity to pass up, so I made it ahead today. Just another thing to love about quiche!

Last tomatoes of the season, reason: Freezin'

While I have been aware of the dangers of BPA in water bottles and baby bottles for some time now, it wasn't until I completed a recent project for school that I became aware that one of the most potent sources of BPA (an endocrine disruptor which has been linked to hormone imbalances, diabetes, heart disease, and, most frighteningly, breast and prostate cancer among those who have been exposed prenatally) is in canned foods. And I'm not talking about hearsay from the blogosphere--I'm talking about studies like "Developmental exposure to estradiol and bisphenol A increases susceptibility to prostate carcinogenesis" (from the Journal Cancer Research), "Induction of mammary gland ductal hyperplasias and carcinoma in situ following fetal bisphenol A exposure" (from Reproductive Toxicology), and "Association of urinary bisphenol A concentration with medical disorders and laboratory abnormalities in adults" (from the Journal of the American Medical Association).

We've been soaking and cooking our own beans for awhile now, and so just about the only thing left we buy in tin cans is tomatoes. They're handy for having on hand for a batch of chili, ham mush med, tomato soup, salsa, pizza sauce--the list goes on and on. However, there's evidently only one food supplier so far--Eden Foods, no less--who has chosen to use BPA-free cans (because evidently they cost a few cents more per can, which Eden Foods claims costs them an extra $300,000 a year just for canning beans), and even they still use BPA-lined cans for their tomatoes.

So clearly some sort of action was in order, since the FDA has declined to regulate or ban the substance and the Plastics Council (let alone manufacturers) certainly aren't going to do it voluntarily. Like the solution to many of our problems, this one came in the form of good old Little-House-on-the-Prairie-style self-sufficiency.

So we came up with the great idea to can our own--something we've wanted to do for some time, but, well, have been a little busy. But last weekend we headed up to a farmer's market we like near Gettysburg and bought a bushel (about 45 lbs) of tomatoes for $24. Not bad!

Of course, we bought these on Saturday and by last night (Monday), it was becoming clear that the clock was ticking. It really only then occurred to us that we don't have the equipment for canning and we don't know how to do it. As Charlotte would say (about why a pig can't spin a web): "You lack a set of spinnerets, and you lack know-how." Luckily, we found an easy alternative: freezing. It doesn't require the scrupulous attention to detail or the equipment and lengthy processing that canning does, and the yield--healthfully grown and stored, convenient tomatoes--are essentially the same, with the additional step of thawing. We stored ours in glass jars (pint and quart, which we'd gotten from this little escapade), diced, since the idea of freezing and thawing in plastic bags didn't seem to be much of an improvement over getting them in plastic-lined tin cans.

Freshly picked and waiting

Matt slipping the skins off tomatoes
after blanching them and then immersing in an ice-water bath

the finished product: about 15 quarts of tomatoes, packed in a variety of jar sizes

Now it's easy for me to say, because I was just minding Eden while Matt boiled, blanched, dunked, peeled, juiced, diced, and canned 45 lbs of tomatoes (AND cleaned up the kitchen and loaded the jars into the chest freezer--let's hear it for him!), but it went so well that we're actually considering doing some more.