Long time gone and Its orange

I know that I have been gone from here for over a month. I did cook and will try to make up some posts in the next week.

I want to tell you about the orange day.

Tuesday I cooked in orange.

I had two cooking experiments to do today one was butternut squash gnocchi and the other was “Sell Your Soul Pumpkin Cookies” from “Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar”.

Both seemed like huge undertakings. I was making the gnocchi from scratch, something I have only done once before with regular potato gnocchi. I was a little nervous, probably due to the fact that in the two recipes I was looking at both referred to ability to make gnocchi as if it was some mystical power.

Well I read the two recipes and decided to use the one I found on Too Many Chefs. The article mentions that she has no real idea how much flour she used and called for 1 butternut squash. The other called for 1 butternut squash that was about 1 ½ pounds. I had 2 butternut squash and was planning on using the smaller on that weighed closer to 2 pounds. So the vaguer recipe seemed the better fit to my situation.

A comment (and in the directions to the recipe I saw at Gourmet Sleuth) mentioned that one should let the freshly cooked squash sit in a sieve overnight in a bowl to let it give off some of it’s liquid. Not something I wanted to do last night but cooking the squash in the morning and letting it sit for about 4 hours was what I could manage. It gave off very little liquid in that time. So I’m not sure that would have been a benefit for me with this squash.

As always, cutting the butternut squash was hard. I ended up jamming the vegetable cleaver in to the cut I had made and pounding the works on the cutting board until it split. The result was not a pretty cut but it didn’t need to be presentable so it was not a problem. I used vegetable cooking spray to coat it for roasting, easier than trying to brush some on. (Word to the wise, don’t use baking spray that has flour in it for this application.)

Roasting the squash in the oven gave off the best aroma. The result was wonderful. I grabbed the end just under the shell/rind/skin and it lifted off with ease leaving only the golden soft sweet smelling flesh. I was easily able to scoop up the tender squash and put it in my microwave steamer basket to use as a sieve. I let it cool this way for 4 hours.

4 hours later it was time to also do the most complicated step of the cookies: reducing a cup of canned pumpkin to a half cup of pumpkin. So I put the pumpkin in a sauce pan and the eggs for the gnocchi in the bowl of my stand mixer. Taking some knowledge that I picked up from Alton Brown on one of his many “Good Eats” shows, I cracked the eggs on a plate and I mixed the eggs and squash using the whisk style beater. I slowly added the flour until it was very sticky and then slowly removed the beater while it was still on so that I didn’t have to scrape it and slow enough not to make a big mess.

Every so often I stirred and checked on the pumpkin. It said it could take an hour to reduce and then it would have to cool. With all this cooking of orange vegetables for lengthy times I was beginning to think I had a theme going and might be a bit crazy.

As I added and added flour until I had a sticky dough. Nothing went wrong with pumpkin no browning no burning and it did indeed reduce down like it said. I also ended up with a large amount of beautiful gnocchi dough.

As the pumpkin cooled I rolled and cut the gnocchi dough. I made the “snakes” of dough about a thumb thickness and cut them into 2 ½ finger width pieces.

Boiled them until they floated and returned them to the rinsed clean vegetable dish with strainer that I had cooled the squash in earlier. The kids could hardly wait and attacked them with forks and pronounced them good.

We had dinner with them in a garlic and roasted tomato jarred sauce and grated parmesan. Very yummy. I made so many that some needed to be frozen (“some” equals 119) I put the cooked gnocchi on sheets of waxed paper and left to dry for an hour (just to get the excess water off before they go in the freezer)
*

While they were drying I made the cookies. I’d never made vegan cookies before, at least not specifically. These turned out to be very easy after the pumpkin was reduced and cooled. It was, in the end, put everything in the mixer and blend it all together.

I put them in the oven and they were beautiful

I never took a picture of them finished. And by the time I realized that, we had eaten them all.

Some time simple and easy is perfect

I have been under the weather for the last few days. This has meant I haven’t been up to cooking much or thinking to hard about food. It also means I got to the end of my planned menu and did not make a new menu or shopping list.

So here we got to tonight and a plan needed to happen. We had plenty of leftovers. We could of had some of that. But the kids have not been pleased with what is left.

I surveyed our fridge and cupboards. Protein in the house was turkey bacon a variety of beans and eggs. Having had plenty beans and it being Meatless Monday Eggs won.
We had a half cup or so of cheese so I thought either cheesy scrabbled eggs or a cheese omelet.

Veggies We actually had a rather large bag of green beans in the crisper. They were in great shape so there is our veggies.

We don’t have enough potatoes for a full dinner and I wanted to round out the meal the bread in the house is a wonderful whole grain and the kids don’t like it much too seedy for them. In the cupboard was several boxes and bags of pasta none of which is enough for a meal but together they work.

So we had a simple dinner of cheesy scrambled eggs, green beans and buttered pasta.

Every one was so pleased that a picture could not be taken.

So here is to really keeping it simple.

Dinner on a Saturday Night - Winter Vegetable Chili

We haven’t made this in some time, but it has been a favorite vegetarian meal of ours. It’s just a bit time and effort-consuming to make and the kids usually aren’t that thrilled with it. But to heck with the kids, we’re making it this weekend.

We found the recipe on a cooking website more than a decade ago, but as far as we can tell, the website is now defunct. Fortunately, we saved it to a file on our local computer. In fact, I’d recommend that to anybody who finds good information online. You can’t expect to retain access to it in the future, even if it’s a major corporate site. Things change too fast and are outside your control. So, copy copy copy…

Winter Vegetable Chili

4 tsp olive oil
1 medium-size butternut squash (1 3/4 pounds), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 medium-size carrots, diced
1 medium-size onion, diced
3 T chili powder
1 can plum tomatoes (28-ounce)
1 can chopped mild green chiles (4-ounce)
1 c vegetable broth
1/4 tsp salt
2 can black beans, rinsed and drained (15- to 19-ounce)
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
4 T non-fat sour cream (optional)

In 5-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil. Add butternut squash and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden; remove.

In same Dutch oven heat 2 more teaspoons olive oil; cook carrots and onion until well browned. Stir in chili powder; cook 1 minute, stirring.

Add tomatoes with their liquid, chiles with their liquid, vegetable broth, and salt; over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally with spoon to break up tomatoes.

Stir in black beans and butternut squash; over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until squash is tender and chili thickens. Stir in cilantro. Serve with sour cream if you like.



Butternut squash is really tasty and cooks up very well, but it is a royal pain in the ass to peel and cut up. I have a large vegetable cleaver (looks like a meat cleaver, but intended for veggies). It’s got a nice and heavy blade, but I still think I need to get a wooden mallet to pound it through sometimes.

Lunch

Bill and Holly returned home in time for lunch. Since they has spent the morning at our local grocery store Bill picked up some stuff we needed to make dinner and some chicken for lunch.  We had in the pantry a chicken helper. Holly has decided that will eat chicken, eggs, dairy, and ham but no other meat product right now. I am am limiting myself to eggs and dairy. Bill and the kids had the chicken helper for Lunch it looked pretty good but I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.

So, I needed to fend for myself. Lunch on weekends is always a complicated question. Given a full kitchen to eat from there is too much choice. Since the noodles that the rest of the family was eating looked good the idea of noodles sounded good. I saw the flat of ramen we have and thought I know the cheap college dinner I used to make back then. 

It went like this:
I package of ramen
½-1 cup frozen vegetables
1 egg beaten

Put ramen and vegetables in a pan of water heat on stove for 5 minutes on high. Stir. Drain off some of the water to soup consistency you want add beaten egg while stirring. Add ramen seasoning to taste.


But today it didn’t happen that way. Once I got the water noodles and ramen cooking I realized that I had eaten 2 eggs today and thought that I really didn’t want to have more.  But  I felt that I wanted a little protein in my soup.  I opened the fridge. There in the meat drawer were two Smart Dogs. We had used the rest of the pack earlier this week for a veggie beanie weenies. I decided to substitute them in.  The package gave the instruction of after bring the water to a boil turn it off and place the dog in for 2 minutes. So I drained down the water seasoned it brought it back up to boiling turned it off and put the cut up pieces of the Smart dog into the mix set the timer for 2 minutes.

 While I waited I made my tea. Yes, more tea!

It now seems I need to write that tea post now.

Breakfast

I have never been a traditional breakfast eater. My favorite breakfast has been a microwaved “baked” potato with some cheese. When my family got a microwave in the 1980s I discovered this and I would make one while packing my lunch and eat it on the bus to school Yes I was breaking a big rule. It was great in the cooler months. It kept me warm until I was ready to eat it. Sometime I wonder if I would have made two if I lived in a cold climate like I do now back then.

So here’s a bit about what we did for breakfast this morning.

Bill and Holly had to go to the local store to sell Pizza Hut coupon books for her swim team so they left a bit early.  Bill had a day old fry cake. Holly had nothing. She has never been a fan of breakfast. She would prefer to wait until 10:00 before eating this has been he way since she was a baby. She would sleep nurse before 6am and then not again until after 10am.

So this is what I had.


2 boiled eggs, a tangelo, a small baked potato with cheese and a mug of tea.
Not pictured was the glass of OJ. I’m fighting a cold so I wanted to up the ante on the vitamin C.

Griffin slept but when he got up this is what he wanted.


Day old frosted fry-cake, apple, tangelo, and a tube of blueberry yogurt.
Once he had eaten some of every thing he got a glass of chocolate milk.
I know many of you are checking you blood sugar and brushing your teeth having read and seen that. Griffin needs extra calories. His Chocolate milk is whole milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast. The amount of calories in a fry-cake for it’s size is tremendous so I indulge him. In all the meal for him represented 820 calories give or take a few.

So that is our habits for breakfast on weekends.

Week days well has much less to be desired. Griffin is a toaster waffle boy complete with syrup (he has a snack at school where he takes a package of muffins and some fruit snacks). Holly might have a glass of something to drink and I am yogurt and tea. I am not sure Bill eats unless he has cereal at work.

Ah well Breakfast is the forgotten meal so much of the time.

Menu Planning again....

I sit here with what Michael Pollan has called the omnivore's dilemma. The introduction to his book, The Omnivores Dilemma, begins with the question “What’s for dinner?”

On facebook and live journal I have seen from time to time the question raised by my friends. I may self have raised it. Even in my long ago office job it came up at least once a week.

I bring up Michael Pollan because Holly and I are listening to it in the car. We checked out the book on CD from the library. We find it most fascinating and disturbing. We have become so disgusted at the state of how beef get to our table in the US that we have not been able to eat meat since. I referenced this in my post on My Mother’s Curry.

So Now I need to create a menu for the week full of meals that can be both vegetarian (ovo-lacto) as well as not for the rest of the family.

-an hour or so passes-

So now that I have had time to think with all the distractions from writing this today I have My Mom’s Lasagna, Sears Penne-Rigate Casserole, Imus Cowboy Sloppy Joes (and some leftovers for the meat eaters) Soup and grilled Sandwiches and Spaghetti for a possible play date dinner night with Meatballs on the side. I also have Tuna Noodle Casserole on to see if we can manage to eat that.

Hopefully, Holly and I won’t hear some long description of how awful tuna live and how unhealthy they are before they are slaughtered for our food.

My Mom’s Curry

My mom came across curry shortly after she moved to California in 1969. I think the person she got it from was Indian but really just made it with what she could in the 1960s and 1970s.

My mom came up with a recipe from the experience and from some discussion with the woman. I am probably not quite telling the story right but I have it in essence. It became a staple of my diet growing up. It mainly was a way to use up left over turkey and chicken. When we were in the UK we found ‘real” curry and liked it as well. But in my book I loved my mom’s curry.

It is simple and easy to make. The hardest part is cutting everything up or, for me, remembering all the extra’s.

The curry itself is sliced onions and some garlic sautéed. Add to it left over cooked chicken or turkey (my mom usually allows about ¼-½ cup per person). Warm through and season with curry powder. Add gravy to make a sauce and heat through.

Serve over rice with toppings

Peanuts
Sautéed sliced bananas
Chopped green peppers
Toasted coconut
Chopped hard boiled eggs
Chunk or diced pineapple
Golden raisins
Sliced scallions or green onions
Bacon (we have been using turkey bacon to cut down on fat)
Chick Peas

Today we made this for our usual Sunday night gathering. We are using low fat everything and because we forgot to thaw out the left-over turkey from Christmas we bought some chicken breasts. Also Holly and I have become “grossed out” by meat.
So I made a veggie version with squash and firm tofu. It turned out very nicely. Holly liked it a lot too.

Veggie version of Mom’s Curry:

1 small winter squash in large cubes (we used a small acorn)
1 12 oz block of very firm tofu in large cubes
12 oz vegetable broth
1 small onion sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tsp arrowroot
2 Tbsp flour
4 tsp curry powder

In a sauce pan sauté the onions and garlic in oil or white wine (white wine works well to sauté when you want to save on fat). Once close to being nice and brown, add more wine or oil and the cubed squash and just toss in the pan, almost searing the squash.

Meanwhile whisk together vegetable broth, flour, arrowroot and curry powder. Pour in sauce pan with vegetables and gently stir in tofu.

Bring to boil and then lower heat until broth gets thick and squash is firm but pierces easily with a fork.

Serve over rice and top with appropriate toppings (see above)

The tofu will break up some but that is fine. Holly loved the little bright yellow tofu “bombs”. She was very happy with the curry which is great since I made this up in my head and I was worried that she wouldn’t like the texture of the squash.