Rhubarb Syrup and Pulp

I may have mentioned in the past that we have a large rhubarb patch.  This is an awesome thing, but with a limited desire for dessert (I know we're weird) it is sometimes hard to use as much of it as we would like. Rhubarb syrup to the rescue!

When your supply of rhubarb overwhelms your desire for cakes and pies, simply place several cups of chunks into a sauce pan, cover with water and add as much sugar as you like. We do about 1 cup per 3 cups of rhubarb and 2 cups water. 
Bring the pot to a simmer, and simmer until the rhubarb piecs are tender. 
Scoop the rhubarb into containers to freeze for use in muffins, waffles, pancakes etc and pour the syrup into containers to use as mixer for mules or juleps, or as a sweetener for lemonade!

BANANA OATMEAL BREAKFAST COOKIES

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Ripe and Spotty Banana
• 1 1/2 cups Gluten-Free Rolled Oats, divided
• 2 tbsp Unsweetened Applesauce (I used milk)
• 1 tbsp Maple Syrup, for added sweetness (Optional)
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/3 cup chopped Walnuts, or another Nut of choice
• Needs some kind of fat - Peanut Butter, Butter, or Coconut Oil 

1. First, Preheat the oven to 350F. Peel the ripe Banana and break it off into “chunks” in a medium bowl. Mash the Banana with a fork until it forms a paste.
2. Next, add 1/2 cup of the Rolled Oats to a blender and process for 30 seconds, or until a fine flour forms. Add the Oat Flour, remaining Oatmeal, Applesauce, optional Maple Syrup, Cinnamon, Baking Powder, and Salt to the bowl with the Banana. Mix until everything is evenly incorporated.
3. Fold the chopped Walnuts into the batter, then line or grease a Baking Tray. Use around 3 tbsp of batter to form a “Cookie”, then press each Cookie onto the Tray – they will not spread out in the oven, so shape them how you’d like them to be!
4. Bake for 15 minutes, flip, then bake for an additional 5-7 minutes.
5. Once cool, store in a loosely covered container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these and reheat as needed!

Pork Picnic Roast with Apples and Sauerkraut

I wish I had a picture - but then again, this was one of those things where the flavor was wonderful, but a photo might not have done it justice.

I was celebrating the birthday of a good friend and wanted to make a special meal. We just took delivery of some fresh local pork - within the past 2 weeks, so pork was a strong possibility. Then I did our winter pickup from the CSA and got fresh-made sauerkraut - so a meal was born.

1 Pork Picnic Roast - Bone-in 4-5lb.
2-3 cups GOOD Sauerkraut - ours had caraway seeds and juniper berries flavoring it
3-4 tart apples
1 large onion
1/2 C wine - I used chianti, (red wine or cider vinegar can be subbed, but I'd use less)
1Tbsp Mustard (I used dijon, because that's what we had)
pepper
ground coriander

Seasonings to taste.

On the stove-top, I browned the roast on all sides in bacon fat reserved from our breakfast. I used minimal salt (in the form of adobo seasoning powder) for this and no pepper.

In a bowl I combined the peeled, cored, and finely chopped apple with minced onion, mustard, wine, pepper and coriander.

Once the roast was browned I placed it in a ceramic baking bowl I have from Pampered Chef - sort of like a tajien,


I spread the sauerkraut around the roast and the apple/onion mixture on top of that and a little on top of the roast. I put the baker lid on and placed it in a 350 oven until the internal temp was 130/135...then let it rest for about 10 minutes.

I served the pork sliced, with the kraut mixture and roasted rosemary & garlic potato/sweet potato combination on the side.

Everyone loved it, so I guess I have to write down the recipe so I can do it again! Lucky for me I have a place to do that!

Home made OLIVES?!?!?!

My olives - after many had already been eaten

I live in the northeastern part of the US, so I don't get to see olives growing on trees anywhere close to where I live. But my lineage includes Italian and Mediterranean (Sicilian) blood, and I love olives - every incarnation of them - and my young boys are learning. My husband remains unconvinced - and it's the one food he will not willingly even try.
Ok, so, I did try a "candied" version of olives, purchased in Chinatown more than 15 years ago, and I will NEVER need to do that again. And black canned olives should just be BANNED, but otherwise...olives are my friend.
So, last November, when I brought home 2 small plastic wrapped styrofoam trays of bright green, hard-as-rocks, globes, the kids were curious, but my husband was not even remotely amused. I'd brought the enemy home to roost.
I, however, remember my grandfather bringing them home and making them into delicious morsels of briny goodness, so when I'd seen them, sitting lonely and abandoned in the reduced produce section of the local veggie mart, I had to give it a try.

Grampy - ca 1956 (10 years before I was born)

I googled, and searched my memory and taste buds...but the memories are so old and no in my living family remembers how grampy made his olives, just the vague recollection of a mallet, salt and oil. So I had to start from scratch with info found on-line.
I wasn't even sure how my experiment would go so I only have pictures of the finished product.
I looked at a lot of recommendations on many sites, but
I ended up using the notes and process written by Hank at Honest Food.
I slit each olive with a sharp knife down to the pit, and I put them in a canning jar with fresh water, put a small plate on top to push all of the olives under. Then put the jar in the "garage" cabinet in my kitchen, and changed the water - trying for daily - for about a month.
Honestly, it was during the holiday season, so there were times when I'd forget about them for a day or two....and I may have done this for closer to 5 weeks, until I was good and ready to look up the brine recipe again.

Grampy with my mom and uncle

Somewhere around the 2 week mark, when I would change the water I'd smell the familiar olive oil smell as I drained and re-filled the jar. During this time, my kids were skeptical, my husband was tolerant...
He was fairly certan that this experiment would end up as compost.

I took vacation time from my day-job during the Christmas/New Year week and decided that I should probably do-up the olives when I was relaxed and not running from one place to another...and before they really did become compost.

So I re-did my google search, found Hank's site again, and pretty much followed his brine recipe verbatim. It is really really easy:

Green Olive Brine:

1/4 cup kosher salt
4 cups cool water    
1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
plus herbs 

I went with the following of his recommendations: bay leaves, coriander, lemon rind, a chili,  rosemary, and garlic.
 
As Hank said - "these water-cured olives taste like olives" — mine are only very slightly bitter, and they are much crisper and firmer than any you will get at a deli counter.  

He also says that they will last a year in the fridge....I will be lucky if they last a couple of months of judicious rationing...next time  - yes, there will be a next time - I'm making more!

Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup - Great Fall Warm-up!

Apparently, I made this soup on this day last year - as reminded by the book of face....
When I saw the picture and re-read the description, I decided I should preserve it for posterity.

Soak 2 C of dry black beans overnight and then pre-cook them with a bay leaf or two - until tender - about 1 hour.

I cooked the peeled and seeded pumpkin meat in some home made chicken stock - but could have used veggie stock just as easily. When it was tender I pureed it all together...


In a skillet I browned some sausage meat, added onions, garlic and a couple small turnips with their greens.
I let that cook for a while then added a green pepper and added the whole shebang to the pumpkin pot.

The sausage could easily be omitted and the veggies cooked in olive oil.

Stirred in the black beans (without the cooking water), added a couple of chopped tomatoes added spices and let it cook for a while. The spices I used that time were thyme, sage, coriander, cumin, cayenne, white pepper.

At the very end I added a little soy sauce for depth of flavorand some good red wine vinegar to cut the sweetness. 

As this was a chili-like soup, we added a little shredded cheese for an acccent!

It was pretty delicious!

Eat Your Veggies! For Kids of All Ages! - Part 1

Sometimes a parent's hardest job is getting kids to eat healthy foods - especially veggies.

As a baby, my first ate anything that was put in his vicinity. He had a preference for orange, but that didn't stop him from eating green...and when he started eating table food, he could be caught examining my plate and my husband's plate to make sure he had everything we had.
He has stayed much the same throughout all of his 12 years... frequently asking to taste a small bit of an unfamiliar food (particularly veggies we bring home from our CSA share).

His brother was similar - until he hit toddler-hood - when he started being particular...frequently more about textures than flavors...and has always been especially cautious about the foods he is trying out for the first time.

Over the years, through persistence and sometimes luck - I have managed to expand my "picky" boy's variety to the point where only we consider him picky - by most modern standards he is as adventurous as they come.
And both boys are mini-epicureans...they do love flavor!

A couple of my tricks-of-the-trade....try something repeatedly, but in slightly differing versions.

This week's version of that was Winter Squash (Pumpkin, Butternut, Acorn etc - any orange fleshed hard skinned squash that saves through the winter).
It has consistently been one of the hard sells....
In the past we have had it - 

* mashed (mixed reviews)

* soup (mixed reviews) - although I can sneak a little into almost any soup...if the primary flavor is squash it's mixed....

*veggie chili - fine - it gets hidden by the chili flavor

*mac'n cheese - ok unless there's too much or the pieces are too big.

*Curried w/ sausage - big hit - but this was a couple years ago and I almost forgot!

*Pizza with squash on top - big hit...my friend made this...
*Cookies - BIG HIT
*Pancakes and Waffles - BIG HIT

This week I made it Roasted - many veggies are helped out by roasting so, having the oven on for a pork loin roast, I put in a sheet pan of squash, and another of beets.

It went over ok the first night, but not so much as a left-over, even after my husband used one of his tricks - adding a little sesame oil (that works well sometimes!)

My younger boy acted as though we were trying to poison him.

I tried to remember ways he had liked other veggies and I know how much he and his brother like curried cauliflower - which doesn't rely on a sauce, but that's another post....but it brought me to this...

It was so simple:

Curried Winter Squash

Start with a Basic white sauce:

melt a pat of butter in a sauce pan

add enough flour to soak up all the butter 

add a cup to two cups of milk depending on how much sauce you want and how thick you want it.

THEN add your favorite curry powder - about 1/2 tsp.

some salt

some pepper

and let the whole mess thicken....

Peel and Cut up the squash in a medium dice - save the seeds for roasting later

put squash pieces in a steamer basket in a deep kettle pot with an inch of water on the bottom.
Cover the pot, bring to a boil and steam the squash until it is tender.

I dipped pieces of squash into the sauce and let both boys pre-test it.
The younger one's immediate response was "MORE!"

I kept the squash separate from the sauce and poured it over the individual servings.
It was well received and there was very little squash left over - this time!
YAY

On an Icy Sunday - what to do? A BRUNCH SKILLET!

This morning was a lazy one - we were up late last night producing a music event at our songwriter showcase - Riverside Rhythm & Rhyme and church was canceled due to freezing rain this morning (YAY!) so a hot nutritious breakfast was in order, but I didn't really want to spend a lot of time...
I have a stock pile of sweet potatoes left from the holidays and eggs...and a small pack of ground beef that hadn't been used for dinner this week....and a plan was born.

This meal can easily be turned vegetarian by instead of the meat gravy making a mushroom gravy or creamed spinach sauce.

If you have children who can help - get them to grate 1 large or two medium sweet potatoes using the medium grates on a box grater....the ones you'd use for shredding cheese for pizza.


Sweet Potato Skillet with Creamed Beef


Creamed Beef Sauce:
In a skillet warm
1 Tbsp oil or fat
Add
1 small onion chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
let cook for a minute or two
then add the feature:
ground beef, chipped beef, sausage meat, mushrooms, spinach
The amount of the above ingredient can vary by taste buds, or by what you have available...
Mostly you are looking to flavor the sauce.....
Let this mixture cook through.
(if using spinach - let it barely wilt then turn off the heat)




In a separate sauce pan melt
1 Tbsp butter
Add
1 Tbsp flour
Mix until incorporated over the heat
Whisk in
2 Cups Milk
a sprinkle of nutmeg
salt
pepper
oregano
sage or thyme and any other seasoning that you like
let warm to almost a boil
Add the mixture from the skillet
Mix and keep heat at low to med-low







Sweet Potato Skillet:
Using the already hot skillet - if needed warm
1 Tbsp butter or Oil
Add
Sweet Potato Shreds
salt
pepper
garlic powder
oregano
any other seasonings that you like
Cook stirring frequently until most potato shreds are not raw any more (10-15 min)
Spread the potato mixture evenly across the pan and





Break fresh eggs evenly spaced onto the potatoes.
Use as many as needed for serving your family.
I used 4 eggs (all were double yolkers)
Put a lid over the mixture and cook until eggs are cooked to desired done-ness.
This could take another 15 minutes as the eggs are not directly on the bottom of the pan....just keep checking.

Plating:
Well, the sauce/gravy can go on the bottom, or the top - your choice. :)
Cut wedges of potato egg skillet for each person and plate as they desire....
With toast or without.....
Everyone in my family ate it up!

Salad Days - Honey Mustard Dressing

Ok - this is probably not very exciting to you as you've probably made your own honey mustard before, but it is incredibly exciting to me because my finicky eater, Evan, was the first to finish his sliced steak dinner salad last night and all because he loved the dressing I whipped up because we were out of bottled.

Our salads were made up of veggies we get from our CSA - Genesis Farm - Mixed lettuces, cucumber, carrot, radish and a little organic celery from the grocery store. We topped the veggies with a bit of shredded cheese a few sunflower seeds and some leftover local grass-fed sliced steak.

I made a dressing from ingredients I had handy....
(All measurements are approximate)

1/8 cup honey
1/8 cup ShopRite Honey Mustard
1-2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar (infused with garlic)
2-3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp San-J Shoyu - (High Quality Soy Sauce)
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1/2 tsp ground yellow mustard seed


The above was made possible through taste-testing. I was set to be "done" after the first 4 ingredients, but the taste was a bit too sharp of the garlic vinegar (which was a fabulous gift from my friend Kim last Yule).
Since the taste was a bit "off" I looked for things to change the flavor slightly and the Soy and herbs did just the trick.  At least Evan thought so...he plowed through his dinner even though it might easily have been considered "not my favorite" upon first glance (his favorites are usually ravioli or breaded fish). It is certainly in the favorites list now!

Green Goddess Dressing!

Sorry it's been so very long since my last post! And I don't even have a photo to go with this as it was completely consumed pretty quickly the day it was made.

I had a church picnic that I had to bring a dish to...and not a lot left of the veggie share in the house.
What was left was a big bunch of spinach, so Spinach Salad, right? Yeah, well the other problem was that I didn't have any significant supply of bottled dressing and while I had plain yogurt and mixes to make ranch or dill dressing, there wasn't enough time to let it sit and "ripen" as mix dressings should.

I did have an avocado that really needed to be used, and plenty of olive oil and fresh lemons....and a very helpful 7yo son - and between he and I this recipe was born:

Green Goddess ala Evan
1 fully ripe avocado pitted, and scooped out of it's peel
mash thoroughly while adding
1/2 C Olive Oil (we used 1/2 garlic infused 1/2 not)
Juice of 1 Fresh Lemon
Several Tablespoons of good plain yogurt
Salt, Pepper, and Sugar to taste
dash of cumin
dash of ginger
1 tsp toasted sesame oil


It was a big hit, both with my helper and with folks at the picnic!

Kale, Potato and Sausage Soup

I have made this a few times - and posted it to facebook but forgot to cross-post here. So, here goes.

Start with a little olive oil,

sweat a leek (or small onion) with 1/2t salt and some black pepper

add a couple cloves of garlic sliced,

add the sausage meat (sweet italian) casings removed and brown

add stock (I usually use chicken or turkey)

taste the broth for seasoning and adjust

add potatoes sliced super thin (use a mandolin if you have one)

add kale sliced super fine.

cook until done.

(I didn't put any amounts because I usually adjust for what I have available and what I think the kids will eat)