Pumpkin Season II

So I decided to try again. Having made the Jack O’Lantern, I didn’t really need to try that again so soon. I wanted to make something I could eat, and the charcoal I made out of the guts of the last pumpkin certainly didn’t count. (OK, I know the seeds counted, but anyway…)

I bought two “pie pumpkins” at Whole Foods. If you haven’t seen them, they’re about the size of a toddler’s head. Very cute. This time, following the directions, I quartered the pumpkins, gutted them, and put them on a cookie sheet to bake (375 deg. for 1.5 hours).

Little did I know, this is a lot of pumpkin. I scraped the “pumpkin meat” out into the blender (it took two rounds, with a completely full blender) and pureed it up.

I’d picked out this yummy-looking recipe for pumpkin mushroom soup – I’d even bought mushrooms at the store. Only to discover upon arriving home that I didn’t have any evaporated milk. So while the pumpkins were baking, I thought, “Hey! I’m a chemist! How hard can it be to evaporate milk?” I took a Dutch oven (lots of surface area) and put in just over 2 cups of milk. I heated it to steaming but not boiling, and stirred… and stirred… and stirred. An hour later, this is what I had:

So much for evaporated, huh? Oh well.

Onions and mushrooms (a “gourmet blend” of mushrooms, again from WF, with already-sliced baby bella, shiitake, and oyster varieties):

To make up for the unevaporated nature of the milk, I just boiled down the broth for longer. I have no idea whether it did any good, but the end result was tasty (and thick enough)!

Happy Autumn.

Pumpkin Season I

The time has come, and as promised, I begin my praise of the glories of pumpkins. Near the beginning of September, I made pumpkin muffins, gave some to my neighbors, and ate more than I should’ve myself. It was made from a can, not from a garden… pumpkin season hadn’t officially arrived. But now…

My tiny girl saw the pumpkins at the grocery store. “Wallermellons?” “No, honey, pumpkins.” “Wan’ it?”
So we came home with a pumpkin. And I got an education.

1) Pumpkins are fun and also messy. It is always advisable to have multiple spoons, multiple bowls, and an assistant. Having a computer in close proximity is not necessarily a good idea.:

2) When you carve a Jack O’Lantern, you’re left without much “meat” to play with. “Good meat” on the right, “brains” on the left:

However, you do get plenty of seeds:

3) Success #1: I took the seeds, washed them thoroughly, and tossed them with a light coating of olive oil, Worcestershire, and salt. They went into the broiler (on Low) until they were toasted. Mmmmm…:

4) The instructions online said to take a whole pumpkin, quarter it, and put it in the oven to bake at 375 deg. for 1-1.5 hours. Well, I didn’t have a whole pumpkin to play with at this point, so into the oven this went:

And what came out looked like coffee grounds (entirely unworthy of a picture, a blackened mess). Yes, a seasoned cook (haha) would’ve checked on the pumpkin in the oven, but said cook was also reading a very engrossing novel and forgot about the pumpkin. At least the house smelled yummy.

5) Success #2: It’s incredibly early in the season, and a Jack O’Lantern made now won’t make it ’til Halloween, especially if it stays this warm and wet outside. I made an “unholy” Jack, to keep the ants out and hopefully keep the rot to a minimum. We’ll see how he does!

More pumpkins next time!

Presence of Mind (Guilt-Free Part II)

How often to you eat a meal at your desk while working? How many times have you gone through a drive-through and eaten on your way to work (or elsewhere)? Do you eat while watching TV?

Sometimes, life gets in the way. There’s just too much to do, you feel like you’re always behind on something, and you multitask. We all do it. But keeping up this pace non-stop can leave you drained, over-tired and unable to sleep, too physically tapped to exercise, and too mentally tapped to… well… to be human. Practical or no, if you’re so busy you don’t have the wherewithal to laugh, love, exercise your own personal creativity, or play, all of that effort is for naught. And there are plenty of studies showing that all this busy-ness is making us less healthy.

Mealtimes can be one of those times to renew, rebuild, refresh… to take yourself out of the stress and just be. There are more benefits to be realized by this approach than those described above. The stomach has sensors that tell the brain, “Hey, I’m full here!” Their voices are pretty quiet, and if you’re not listening, you won’t hear them. Furthermore, these little guys are pretty slow to speak. They kind of mull it over and consider, “Am I full now? How about now?” If you eat too fast, they don’t have time to catch up. By the time they get around to saying, “Whoa, buddy!!!” you’re already over-full. The multi-tasking style of eating lends itself to wolfing down food; the eating process is getting in the way of whatever else you’re doing. It occupies at least one hand and at least a little attention, so whatever else you’re doing is done less carefully. You bolt down the food to get it out of the way.

Eating while multi-tasking has another, far more depressing side-effect. If you’re not paying attention to eating, you’re missing out on all the pleasant sensations of eating. The textures, colors, flavors, and smells… mmm…. Without taking pleasure in eating, you’re left unsatisfied – eager for more because you missed it the first time around. By cultivating a boredom with eating, you cultivate a desire to avoid thinking about what you eat. You resort to convenience foods like a bag of chips or a candy bar and coke, a Big Mac bought in the drive-through, or even worse, nothing.

One counter-intuitive way to ensure both enjoyment in the food and a slower eating pace can be to eat with friends and family. Why counter-intuitive? Because it seems like multi-tasking. However, when you’re eating as a social activity, you’re more relaxed. You can listen to what a friend is saying and still be attentive to the textures, smells, and flavors before you. And, unless you’re sitting with a stream-of-consciousness talker or are hopelessly laconic, natural pauses are introduced into your eating as you join into the conversation. And, of course, if you’re a true food lover, the meal before you can itself end up being an engrossing topic of conversation in its own right.

’til next time,
Bearable

Have a Guilt-Free Love Affair with Food

No doubt about it – I love food. From cereal to white truffles, from tortilla chips to Palak Paneer, I love food. It’s not that I’ve never met a food I didn’t like, but I’ve rarely met a food done right that I didn’t like.

Because I love food so much, I find it disheartening that the relationship most people have with food is very unhealthy. While some frequently eat greasy, drippy foods until they can’t move, others deprive themselves of every drop of oil and every gram of sugar. Some diets permit unlimited consumption of pork rinds and cheese but prohibit most things with fiber due to the associated sugar content. Others limit consumption to unsafely narrow combinations of foods, like cottage cheese and grapefruit juice (and nothing else).

Many people believe that wholesale gluttony or untempered deprivation are the only two alternatives, when it comes to eating. I’m here to tell ya’ that it’s possible to eat all day, have a love affair with food, and still be healthy, within your ideal body-weight range, and happy. I’ve compiled a list of simple tips and tricks that, if cultivated into your day-to-day attitude toward food, can help you get there. Just look for posts tagged “Guilt Free.”

’til next time,
Bearable

Why Getting Dirty Brought Me Back to the Kitchen

My dad is a junior-high football coach. Parents love him. He knows that football is for fun at that age, and if a kid goes home from a game without a dirty uniform, the kid probably didn’t have fun. Win or lose, second string gets to play.

Maybe the mark of a cook who had fun is how dirty the apron got, or maybe not. But if Colette in Ratatouille is to believed, “Mark of a chef: messy apron, clean sleeves.” I, however, never claimed to be a chef, so I get messy sleeves too.

Today, I made homemade tortillas. Usually, I use a sifter to mix the dry ingredients, cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter, and then mix in the water with a spoon until the flour is almost a dough. Then, I take over and do the kneading by hand. (But if I had a KitchenAid mixer or a bread machine, I’d let a machine do that part too.) I’m a working mom, and efficiency is paramount when I’m cooking. But cooking lost its entertainment value long ago, when I ran out of time to “put the love in,” and my husband does most of the cooking these days. Today, I made tortillas during my tiny girl’s nap, and today, I was reminded why I used to love to cook.

To make tortillas, I use spelt flour, which is a low-gluten relative of wheat. Spelt is great for denser and/or flakier breads (such as tortillas or flatbreads) because gluten is what make cakes and breads fluffy and springy. This recipe works great with whole-grain or white wheat or spelt flour, though.

Three cups of flour, two tsp of baking powder, and one tsp of salt went in first. Rather than using a sifter, I massaged the dry ingredients together with one hand, “sifting” them through my fingers and rubbing out the lumps. I then put in 4 Tbsp (the recipe calls for 4-6) butter-flavored vegetable shortening. Using the same hand used for sifting the flour, I pinched off lump after lump of shortening, massaging it into the flour. Finally, I gradually added one cup of warm water (the recipe calls for up to 1.25 cups), folding it through the pebbly-looking flour/shortening mixture. Already, I could tell the difference. My dough was smoother, doughier, and less sticky than usual, and it kneaded into a perfect tortilla dough in no time. After their 10-minute “rest,” I rolled out each tortilla (the recipe makes 12), and the difference in the dough was even more obvious. My tortillas usually roll out too flat or stick to the rolling pin. These were perfectly smooth and springy, and they made just the right size and shape on first try. Cooked on a dry skillet at 325 degrees, they went great with my husband’s amazing fajitas.

My dress (who needs an apron?) was white with flour, I had a smudge of flour under one eye (like a football player’s anti-glare), my hands were happily tired, and I felt remarkably calm.

More Breakfast Ideas for Dinner

My ideas for eating breakfast at dinner seems to be quite popular amoungst readers and searchers so I will add a few more suggestions for a breaknner menu.

In Austin, breakfast tacos are extremely popular. Steamy, hot, fluffy eggs, melted cheese, beans, meat, potatoes…you name it and they’ll stuff it in there. So, why not make breakfast tacos for dinner? They are vegetarian friendly, and you can get very creative with them. Use wheat tortillas for a healthier option and don’t forget the hot sauce!

Another breafast favorite is the breakfast sandwich. Sometimes I would love to just come home from work and eat a bagel, an egg and some cheese for dinner. (Sometimes). I made a bagel the other day with one scrambled egg, low fat melted cheese, and a veggie patty (since I don’t eat meat). It’s not only easy, but it can be very healthy and filling. I used a wheat bagel with 1.5 grams of fat and 7 grams of fiber. That’s a smart bagel.

One more idea for a breakfast menu for dinner is to just eat a bowl of cereal. If you’ve had a big lunch, or you’re just not that hungry, eating a bowl of healthy cereal with some fruit, and non-fat milk should hit the spot. You should never miss a meal, but eating small is healthy. I like Kashi cereals and sliced, fresh strawberries in my cereal. Or non-fat yogurt with granola and blackberries.

Just a few more quick ideas for breakfast for dinner.

Easy Paella Dish That Lasts for Several Meals

This past weekend I made a paella for my boyfriend and I after watching Vicki Christina Barcelona and drooling over everything spain. Paella is very similar to jambalaya, a traditional, spicy rice dish that is very filling. The greatest aspect of the dish is its versatility: You can make it a seafood, meaty, or a vegetarian dish depending on your tastes.

I chose to make a seafood paella that only included shrimp and scallops. When I make it again, I’ll probably add some cod fish chunks, and mussels but since it was an experiement, I wanted to cheap it up a bit .

Anyway, paella can be easy to make. Well, fairly easy.

I first cooked a box of rice, I prefer Zataran’s spanish rice, with a can of chipotle tomatoes.

Then you should:

• Chop one onion, white or sweet yellow
• Roast your garlic, whole cloves with paper, in a dry pan until blackened. Let cool, coarsely chop
• Roast two pablano peppers in the oven on broil until blackened, peel off the skins and wash out the seeds. Then chop.
• Marinate your seafood (shrimp, scallops) in lime juice and Cajun spices. Then, saute in your pan with olive oil, save all the juices from the fish for added flavor.
• Saute your onions until limp, add rice, peppers, seafood. If it’s too thick, add a couple of splashes of  broth (chicken or veggie)
• Add garlic, and fresh cut cilantro and about a cup of green peas.

• Make sure your seafood is cooked through, and it’s ready to serve

I should have taken pictures of my paella, and I should get in the habit of always doing that, but in any case, there you go. I’ll make it again, and this time I’ll take pics.

Why We Should Revisit Childhood Favorites

There are plenty of foods that are considered “childish,” at least by some. Mac & cheese is an example, not that most of us don’t still love mac & cheese, with or without a little guilt. Chicken strips are another one… or really any fried meat.

I think part of what makes these things “childish” is that they’re kind of bland and typically unhealthy. An adult likes flavor; a rational adult prefers nutrition. But revisiting these old favorites with a grown-up flair has been one of my favorite kitchen endeavors. I have this amazing mac & cheese recipe that’s made with a butter/spelt flour roux, paprika, Worcestershire, minced onion, milk, cheese, and rice pasta. Or there’s a great “grown up chicken strips” recipe my Mom has been using. The breading is made of panko breadcrumbs and sesame seeds… lots of sesame seeds. I make my own breadcrumbs out of rice-based bread. It’s one of the only things I’ve found rice flour breads good for.

But all of the above is an aside, really. There are other foods that we just associate with our childhoods because there was one special time, place, or person in our childhood associated with that food. My grandmother has a fig tree in her back yard. I lived either with her or in the same town as her for the first eight years of my life, and I grew up eating Nanny’s fig preserves. Slightly crunchy, intensely sweet, and unbelievably delicious, I associate Nanny’s figs on Nanny’s buttered toast with the ultimate in comfort. Nobody has ever figured out why she has the best toast. Maybe it’s her toaster, practically museum-worthy.

Until fairly recently, my only acquaintance with the fig was in Nanny’s preserves, and in Fig Newtons (or Fig Newmans, for the gluten-free set). Now that I’ve moved to Virginia, I’m coming to realize that figs are a popular, although somewhat exotic, treat. They have them in regular-ole’ grocery stores out here, and Whole Foods has some beautiful ones on sale right now. I’ve seen figs served in a variety of contexts at restaurants, too. So now I’m on a quest for great fig recipes… recipes outside the “preserves and Newtons” paradigm.

In my search for fig recipes, I’ve found that it’s popular to use figs with various cheeses, all manner of pork products, and apricots. A friend passed this one on to me, and it’s absolutely to die for:

Take a fig, cut off the pointy end and core a drinking-straw-sized hole through the middle. Stuff a tangy, tart cheese (he likes gorgonzola, I picked chevre) through the center, wrap the fig in bacon (just enough to go around one time), hold together with a toothpick, and bake at 350 degrees until the bacon is cooked. Heaven on a toothpick. Despite the bacon, this is really a fairly healthy appetizer. The cheese is good for you (and there’s not really enough to be fattening), and the fig is one of the healthiest fruits on the market. To make this a vegetarian (although still not vegan) dish, the bacon can be omitted and some flavored and salted olive oil can be rubbed liberally on the fig instead. It’s just important to get that savory flavor on there and to keep the outside of the fig from drying out. I intend to try several iterations with different herb-flavored oils.

Why Hummus Makes Us Hum

Hummus is downright delightful. I’ve had hummus made several ways, and I’ve never met a hummus I didn’t love. At Aladdin’s Eatery (a Mediterranean restaurant in Columbus, OH, which also has four different Baklava flavors and more kinds of dessert than you can shake a kabob at), the Hummus is so smooth and creamy, it’s like a savory yogurt. Cafesano in Reston, VA, has a red pepper hummus that is to die for. Tino’s Greek Cafe in Austin, TX, has a hummus that’s plain, simple, garlicky, and utterly heavenly (especially with their Dolmathes).

But perhaps the most intriguing hummus I’ve ever had was made by a friend of mine during pumpkin season. Once fall is in full swing, I intend to praise the glories of pumpkins. In everything. But for now, I’ll focus on hummus. Pumpkin hummus has a smoother and heavier texture than the chickpea hummus-es I’ve had in past, making it especially good as a dip for tortilla chips or a spread to use on sandwiches. Pumpkin has a rather mild flavor, which doesn’t interfere with the “hummus-y” flavor, but it’s less nutty and slightly sweeter than chickpeas.

Here’s how to make it yourself! Enjoy!

Why I am Employing my Foodie Friends

Because I need some help updating this blog! Since I am an administrator for two other blogs, and a contributor to another (not to mention my professional, company blogs) I feel like I need a sous chef or two.