Progress is Slow!

Trying to get recipes posted, but it’s slow going. As I’m only organizing recipes for my own use, and maybe a few friends and family, there isn’t much motivation. Also, I haven’t been doing a lot of great cooking lately as we’re trying to lose weight. I doubt anyone wants a recipe for most of the low carb crap we’ve been eating.

When I do cook something good, it’s usually when we’re having somebody over for dinner, then I’m too busy to take any photos. I guess I’ll post some recipes with no photos, maybe some to be added in one of these days.

I’ve also been experimenting with Keto type recipes. I need things I can fix for guests that are diabetic & gluten intolerant, and also things we can eat that are low carb/lower calorie. Mostly desserts are the problem here. If I happen to find anything that is at least tolerable, I’ll post it. Like this keto chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Does Anybody Really Like Pumpkin Pie???

I’m already making plans for Turkey Day, and giving serious consideration to what desserts I should make. Every year, in addition to other desserts, I make the mandatory pumpkin pie. In keeping with tradition, everybody eats a sliver of pumpkin pie, mostly as a vehicle for a big blob of homemade whipped cream, then they move on to bigger and better things.

I’m thinking this year, I’ll just buck tradition and make a pumpkin praline torte instead. Still pumpkin, still whipped cream, but with pecans…and carmelized topping….and, well, yum!

Then, because you just can’t never have enough dessert, I think I’ll make a berry tart, probably an apple pie, and maybe something chocolate, just to cover all the bases. Maybe some brandied, chocolate covered cherries. I usually make those for Christmas, but since I’m bucking tradition, why not just let it fly?

Dang, I guess I’ll have to make a turkey and some other stuff before I can have dessert. Bother. Hmmm…you think that will be enough dessert for ten people????

Dad’s Day

I asked Mr. Man what he wanted for his grand Father’s Day dinner, and he picked hamburgers. Huh? That means he and/or Jace would be manning the grill because that’s not my territory. If you do a job good, it’ll be yours for life, and I already have enough jobs. So I just tell Merl what a great griller he is, and stay out of the way! Yeah Merl, nobody grills like you……:)

That doesn’t mean I’m completely off the hook. I still get prep, clean-up, and everything else in between. I thought the burgers should have a little sumpin’ sumpin’ so I cooked up some finely diced onions and mixed them into the meat along with some garlic and seasoned salt. (1 tsp per pound). Then just before they were done, we brushed some bbq sauce on and cooked them a little longer until it carmelized. By the time we added bacon and cheese, I could feel a coronary coming on.

While the boys were at the grill, I figured they might as well grill some corn on the cob. Sure, why not? Meanwhile I was inside (where the air conditioning was) frying up some beer battered onion rings. Some of Merl’s favorite baked beans rounded out the meal for him and Jace. Angela and I had some green salad. The boys were welcome to join us, I made plenty, but they were working on clogging all those arteries.

Just ice cream for dessert, because there’s always room for ice cream. My dad said it just melted and filled in all the cracks. Any excuse to eat ice cream would do.

So there you have it. I don’t know if it was a special Father’s Day, but we were all especially stuffed.

Zucchini

Our summer garden is just getting in full swing, except for the zucchini. Those plants passed up everything in the garden. They’re like some weird alien parasite. I can’t stay ahead of them. They spit out more zucchini overnight. If I don’t check on those stupid plants for just one day, I have zucchini of gigantic proportions.

I only have two plants, one green and one yellow. The green zucchini mystifies me. I’ve never seen zucchini that shape. I don’t know what kind they are, but they just look all kinds of wrong. The yellow plant puts out some yellow, some orange. Again, it’s a mystery, but I’m stuck with them for the season. See, look! What is up with those green ones???

I’m giving them away, but they keep getting too big too fast. I’m now on a mission to try to figure out ways to deal with the zucchini onslaught. So far we’ve had them battered and deep fried, pan fried with onions, baked in the oven with Parmesan cheese, baked in a quiche, and packed into some zucchini bread. Pretty much, I’ve just been winging it since I don’t have any zucchini recipes, but if I can figure out what it is I’m doing, I try to write it down for posterity. Started today with zucchini bread. Wish me luck.

Whatever’s in the pantry

Sometimes it’s not about what you want for dinner, but what you have in the pantry. Our refrigerator is completely packed, our pantry is at capacity, but for some reason there’s still nothing to eat. I have everything to cook with, but nothing to cook. How is that even possible?

One thing I try to keep on hand, is three cans of minced clams. That way if all else fails, or it’s just a cold and dreary day, I can whip up some clam chowder. Or at least my version of it, which is less clams and more chowder, and not as rich as most recipes. All the other ingredients (potatoes, onions, bacon, milk, frozen corn) are things I always have on hand.

Then I thought I’d bake a cake. I found a box of cake mix and some instant vanilla pudding, which I had left over from making rum cakes at Christmas. Being orange farmers, we have orange juice in the freezer. So orange juice bundt cake it is.

Most importantly,  I always have my clean-up crew on hand, just in case I drop something while I’m cooking.

 

Making Gnocchi…and Potato Figasa

I had an Italian grandmother, but she never made gnocchi. I’ve managed to live most of my life without ever tasting gnocchi, and having tasted it, I’m not sure it’s one of life’s necessities. Still, our kids love the stuff, so I decided to make gnocchi today and post the recipe.

I made a double batch, which I will NEVER do again. Half way through, I lost my will to live. The last third of my efforts looked less like gnocchi and more like mutant slugs that crawl up your nose into your brain and take over your body. Don’t worry kids, I won’t give you that last tray.

Still, there really isn’t much to making gnocchi. And if you don’t want to bother rolling each one on the tines of a fork, to make little sauce-holding ridges, it would be really fast.

I’ve never tried cooking them fresh. I always just make them and stick them in the freezer for a rainy day. So I guess it’s possible they may not come out the same. I guess if somebody tries making and cooking them without freezing, they can let me know. So here’s what a non-slug looking gnocchi is supposed to look like.

Cousin Gayle has been craving the potato figasa our Noni used to make. When she had some leftover mashed potatoes and needed an afternoon snack, Noni would make a little figasa. I often dropped in about the time it was done, since I lived spitting distance away, and poor Noni had to share her figasa and beer with me. Oh yeah, that’s the way us Italian kids rolled.

Full disclosure, we always got booze, coffee too, at Noni’s. Breakfast was a mug of coffee with a lot of cream and sugar. We’d dump in Cheerios, eat them, then drink the coffee. Meals came with wine, but it was a glass full of water with just enough rot gut red wine to give it a little color. Figasa came with beer. Anybody remember ABC beer? Silver can, red and blue letters. Noni probably bought it because it was the cheapest. 7up got jazzed up with a splash of Creme de Menthe. Coffee got zippy with a dash of brandy (Coffee Royale). And today, I don’t like beer or wine, but still do LOVE coffee! And I’ve digressed down memory lane.

Anyway, back to potato figasa. If you fry the gnocchi dough in olive oil, you get something pretty much like the potato figasa Noni used to make. We’ll let cousin Gayle give it a try and see how it measures up.

It doesn’t matter how it looks….

All that matters is how it tastes. Words to live by when you’re just a lowly home cook. I think I’m doing good if what I cook doesn’t end up as the dog’s dinner. Truth be told, I once made something so horrible the cat wouldn’t eat it.

The other night I was watching little kids making eclairs on Master Chef Junior. It dawned on me it had been a really long time since I made eclairs. The kids were coming for dinner, so I thought it would be nice to have something different for dessert.

You’re supposed to have a pastry bag to exqueez the pastry dough onto your baking sheet so they’re pretty and uniform. I couldn’t find my pastry bag. Pretty hard to keep tabs on something you use so seldom, but I think it’s possible I threw it out.

An industrious mouse chewed through our dryer vent, through the dryer hose, through an interior wall in the laundry room, and from there went on a rampage through every nook and cranny of our house. Well, maybe more than one mouse. We had no idea how they were getting in, so the pillaging went on for quite a while.

Long story even longer, at least one ended up in our kitchen cabinets. I had to clean and disinfect the cabinets, wash everything, and threw out lots of stuff. So probably that’s what happened to the pastry bag.

Anyway……I had no pastry bag, so I decided to put the dough in a plastic sandwich bag and cut off the corner. Only it turns out I had fancy sandwich bags that are pleated to make square bottoms, so no real corner. Forging ever onward, I cut a hole and squeezed out just a horrible mess. I wasn’t about to give up at this point, so I used a knife to sort of smush the pastry into something that resembled what might turn out to look like eclairs. And guess what, they didn’t look too bad, see!

Of course, not having a pastry bag, I couldn’t inject the pastry cream into the eclairs, so I just cut them in half. It’s probably better anyway, because how can you tell how much cream you’re squeezing in when you can’t see it?

I didn’t have semi-sweet chocolate, but I had some bittersweet chocolate chips, so they worked for the glaze. All things considered, they didn’t look to bad, and more importantly they tasted pretty darn good. So you don’t have to be a pastry chef, and you don’t have to have all the fancy shmancy tools of the trade to make your culinary dreams come true. Raise a glass, lower your expectations, and make some chocolate eclairs for yourself. Have two….they’re small 🙂

Gifts From The Kitchen

It’s that time of year to spread a little holiday cheer. I used to do a whole lot more holiday baking, but I still make a few things. Christmas jam is a standard because it’s so easy to make, is a nice festive red, and it’s really tasty. It’s also foolproof.

I vow to never make plum jelly again. I made some that didn’t jell. Dumped it back in the pot, added more pectin, and I still have many jars of what could only be plum pancake syrup. Sigh! So I’m sticking with my Christmas strawberry/cranberry jam.

I also have a few standing orders for rum cake. Nothing fancy there, it’s the ancient Bacardi rum cake recipe. But it’s about as good as a cake can get, is super moist, and lasts for days. Plus did I mention it’s full of RUM?

It remains to be seen what else crawls out of my kitchen this holiday season. I made some good old oatmeal cookies this morning. I was grocery shopping with Mr. Man the other day and he decided he needed oatmeal cookies. I’m not one to keep anyone from their dreams, so we bought some oatmeal. I patiently waited for several days, thinking maybe he was going to make his cookie dream come true, and I could just swoop in and help myself. But noooooo. He outlasted me. I finally gave up and made them myself.

Other possibilities this season include chocolate covered brandied cherries, chocolate covered brownie bites, fudge, assorted cookies, cheesecake, toffee, caramels….. Just gained 20 pounds thinking about it. Maybe I should take a pass. Or maybe not. We’ll see……

Surviving Thanksgiving

A little late to reflect on Thanksgiving, but it’s  a busy time of year. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, it’s a mad rush to get everything done and try to keep from gaining twenty pounds. I’ll be an epic failure at that last one.

I did the whole Thanksgiving feast this year, and how did I survive? PLAN AHEAD!

I cooked everything myself. Dinner was ready at 1:30. And how did I spend my morning? Washed my hair. Had a leisurely cup or two of coffee while I watch a Hallmark Christmas movie. Played some computer games. No kidding. It was a very relaxing day, because I did absolutely everything ahead of time.

A couple of weeks before, I made sweet potatoes and stuck them in the freezer. The longer they sit in that sauce getting delicate, the better they taste. I just put then in the fridge to thaw out a couple of days ahead of time.

Two days before, I made the things that would keep: Noni’s Italian cake, chocolate Kahlua bundt cake, and carrot cake. The day before I made pumpkin pie, apple pie, mashed potatoes, dressing, roasted brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, and the infamous green bean casserole. Prepped stuff for a salad bar and set the table the table too.

Thanksgiving morning, we shoved the turkey in an oven bag, and put it in to bake at 8:00. Then I had nothing to do until I started sticking things in the oven at noon. It was awesome.

Why eat so early? Well, a few people have to go to another house for dinner that night. But mostly it’s because our Thanksgiving tradition requires “Second Meal”. No matter how miserable we are, nobody can go home until we drag out all the leftovers and go at it again. Most heat up plates of their favorite stuff. I require a cold turkey sandwich with lots of mayo and salty Ruffles potato chips with rrridges. We all have our traditions, so don’t poo poo ours.

Of course I was too busy fixing food to take time to take any pictures. Some of the recipes I used are already posted. I’ll post the rest without photos and you can just imagine they look good. Maybe next time I fix them, I’ll remember to take a picture. But don’t hold your breath.

Who has time to bake?

Not this girl! A couple more years, I’ll retire, then maybe I’ll have time to cook more. Or maybe I’ll find better things to do and just eat out. Or cultivate a taste for Hungry Man TV dinners. Who knows?

But cousin Kathy & I were talking about bread the other day. And you can’t talk about bread without wanting to wallow in the yeasty smell of it baking, then eating it hot out of the oven slathered with butter. And it doesn’t make itself. (Like all those incorrect sentences beginning with conjunctions? My trademark!). BUT, I digress.

Anyway, I decided to make one of my favorite breads, that has the added benefit of being easy to make and quick to rise, Italian Parmesan Loaves.

We had these with chicken and homemade noodles, because sometimes you just can’t get enough white flour in your diet I guess. I’m not going to apologize. Look at these babies and tell me you don’t want one…or two!