Complex Choices

“The more we know about our food system the more we are called into complex choices.” 

- Barbara Kingsolver

Wow! What a great experience and a fascinating conversation. I was so honored to be included in the discussion on the environmental impact of our food choices today on KCUR’s Central Standard. I learned a lot from the other guests, Tim Crews of the Land Institute and Mykel Taylor from KSU, and I appreciate the way that their specific perspective on agriculture really enriched my own take on things.

It is so true that we face very complex choices as Barbara Kingsolver says. And isn’t it fascinating that choosing what food we eat - which is such a personal decision - necessarily involves so many other people? But I hope that as individual consumers we can find a way to do a little bit at a time - to not bite off more than we can chew, if you will (pun intended). As we pay close attention to what kind of negative impact our choices have on the environment, I think we can also look for ways to have a positive impact on the world around us and on our KC community. Buying from local farmers means choosing to support the people who are taking good care of the soil and the land in and around KC. You can also keep more food dollars in our community rather than sending them to far-off companies and marketers and other entities. These are positive environmental and economic impacts.

As Mykel Taylor suggested - there may not be just one thing that will solve our problems. There might be a variety of solutions to address our great strain on the earth. I'm glad to know that there are groups that are laser focused on finding solutions for the parts of the system that they can impact. And I hope that the KC Food Circle can inspire folks to focus on what they can impact most directly - which is - what's on your plate.

Or bowl as the case may be. And speaking of which, here's my bok choi soup! 

BOK CHOI SOUP

I posted it once before but when I made it again last night I included lemongrass, which was a very nice touch. I also like to add a fresh garnish along with my sriracha. At lunch today I had scallions - tonight when I eat this soup again for dinner (because it's just that good) I'll add some very finely chopped radishes. I made a big batch of it last night since last night was CSA pick up night so I have plenty of soup to keep me going.

Baby Bok Choy and Garlic Soup

from 30 Bucks a Week

Ingredients:

7 c veggie broth

4-5 cloves garlic, crushed

1 piece of ginger, peeled

*a stalk or two of lemongrass! Hard outer leaves removed and just chopped into a few long pieces - remove before eating the soup.

handful of brown rice (between 1/4-1/2 cup; PS this is a great recipe to use up leftover rice)

1 kohlrabi or turnip, peeled and chopped
1 lb bok choy, trimmed and chopped
salt to tast
sriracha or other hot sauce, to taste
1-2 eggs

garnish with fresh scallions and or radish and or mint

Instructions:
Boil the vegetable stock and add the crushed garlic and ginger and lemongrass in a big pot. Let that simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.
Add the rice and kohlrabi (or turnip); cover. Simmer for 20 minutes (unless rice was previously cooked.)
Add more broth if you need it and add the bok choy. Taste and season with salt and sriracha.
Cover and let the bok choy cook down - should only be 5 minutes or so.
Ladle a small portion of the broth out into a bowl and add the egg(s). Stir vigorously with a fork and then pour it all back into the pot. Give the soup a good stir and serve.

Radish Salsa

Michael Pollan would have us believe that we are a nation more obsessed with cooking shows than with cooking. And I think he's right to some degree. But I'm proud to report that my hours and hours and hours of watching Chopped is not for naught because it is on that show that I first heard about Radish Salsa.

Radish Salsa!

I jotted that down in my mental notes back in the winter when I was watching that episode. Now that radishes have been abundant and I've had my fill of my all time favorite Radish Sandwich, I decided to try this salsa at last.

I googled it and used the first recipe I found because it was a Mark Bittman one, so I thought it was reliable. Also, It was 6:00 when I was googling and I and my children were hungry so I wasn't about to go researching a bunch of radish salsa recipes and variations. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Mark Bittman's is nice and simple and makes a large portion - I made a much smaller portion, went easy on the crushed chiles in the hopes that the girls would eat it and wouldn't find it too spicy (ps: they did NOT eat it but Julia did tell me, unprompted, that she thought it was beautiful).

This salsa was the perfect high pitch accompaniment to go with the low tones of the Golden Summer Squash soup I made for dinner into which I added beans and lots of smoked salt. The soup was earthy, the salsa was bright. It was such a delicious combination that all my exclamations and exaltations while I was eating it convinced Julia to try the soup, even though she had initially refused it. And even though she never did try the salsa, she happily ate two full helpings of soup. I credit the salsa for that.


RADISH SALSA
from Mark Bittman

Radish Salsa

Makes: About 2 cups

Time: 30 minutes

Radishes are a classic salsa ingredient in Mexico, and the technique—mixing a vegetable (or fruit) with onion, an acid, chiles, and fresh herbs—is downright common. 

2 cups chopped radishes, like daikon, red, or a combination (about 1 pound)

1/2 English cucumber, peeled and diced

1/2 small red onion, chopped

1 scallion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced fresh chile (like jalapeño or Thai), or to taste, or hot red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Put all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly.

2. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more chile, lemon, or salt as needed. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to a day.

Stinging Nettle

"Stinging Nettle" - such an "Eye of Newt" kind of name

This is stinging nettle. It's a wild edible, I suppose, although you can't eat it when you find it in the wild. I didn't actually find it in the wild myself - I found it at the Eat Local and Organic Expo. It was my farmers who found it growing wild on their farm. I bought it out of curiosity.

It's stings your skin when you touch it (hence the name) but it's safe to eat if you cook it first. ("Really?" I asked the farmer. "Really?" Sergio asked me when I told him. "Really?" You might be asking yourself.) Really it is.

I followed this recipe which instructs you to steam it for 20 mins, which I did and which takes away the sting. This site also says that nettle puts kale and spinach to shame. ("Really?" I wondered, having long since been convinced that kale is the "valedictorian of vegetables.")

Low and behold it is rich in antioxidants. I wonder, are all those nutrients cancelled out if I cram my stinging nettle into a hot mess of eggs and cheese? Even if it's local/organic/free-range eggs and cheese? Maybe. Maybe not. But it tasted good. The recipe worked almost perfectly apart from the fact that I don't know how to make an omelette; any shortcomings of this dish were due entirely to my ineptitude. The stinging nettle was great. Spinachy-tasting in the omelette, though it gave off the most complex minty-potato-ish kind of smell while it steamed.

I wondered why it is I've made it this far in life and haven't learned how to make an omelette. I guess it's because I don't like them all that well.

But I liked this one for sure.

Looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow.

Stinging Nettle Omelete (or Omelette?) 

Our 10th Annual ThanksVegan (TV10)

Well, to be honest, many years ago, when we realized that our ThanksVegan tradition was going to be around for a while, I sort of assumed that we'd be really well off by the time we reached our TENTH ANNUAL ThanksVegan (which seemed so far away). I figured we'd be wealthy enough to fly off to Vegas or Chicago or, come on, at least Fort Worth and have a Destination ThanksVegan like we've always talked about doing, where we gratefully enjoy fine vegan dining in a top notch restaurant prepared by stellar chefs and served to us with little or no effort on our parts.

Instead, we celebrated TV10 with these little rascals on board. And you know what? It was perfect.

Dylan, age 11 months - Clara age 14 months

Rascally Julia was around too, but she is increasingly hard to photograph as she hardly ever sits still. This was now her fourth ThanksVegan (really? No… well… yeah, I guess it is!) and with the addition of the babies, we now amount to a pretty intrusive entourage in the grocery store, and grocery shopping as a group IS an important part of the tradition. That's 7 people shopping for vegan groceries. Oh, and did I mention that Jon was in a wheel chair because he'd just had knee surgery? That's one stroller, one wheel chair, one kids' car shopping cart, and 3 very distracted adults with grocery lists. Fun for us. Perhaps less so for the other shoppers trying to scoot past us. 

the entourage

At home, while the children napped (there were about 5 minutes when I think all 3 kids were asleep at the same time) we reminisced on past ThanksVegan meals (the "tofurkey" at TV1 - never again; our all-breakfast ThanksVegan at TV9 - our most untraditional) and tried to remember what it was like to have so much time to cook and no babies to chase around. Can hardly remember!

The meal

The truth is that we are old hands at this ThanksVegan meal now and those long hours in the kitchen fly by with ease. Jon, hopping across the kitchen on one leg (Hoppin' Jon!), determined to do his part, did most of chopping while the rest of us took turns cooking, setting the table, or wrangling babies. We did outsource our main course and the gravy. Since we are just minutes away from the beloved Eden Alley, we made arrangements to get our very own Spinach and Mushroom Loaf and Mushroom Gravy; it was a perfect main dish. 

I still can't believe it's been 10 years. And yet - in some ways - I can. We have very happily come a long way since then. And I, for one, am grateful. 

The Meal

- Eden Alley's Spinach and Mushroom Loaf

- Eden Alley's Mushroom Gravy

- Mashed Potatoes

- Roasted, Spiced Sweet Potatoes (Smitten Kitchen)

- Sauteed Kale

- Asian Green Beans (a la Erin)

- Butternut Squash Soup (Teany - from this book)

- Jellied Cranberry Sauce and Whole Cranberry Sauce … yes, from a can. Don't judge!

- Fennel Raisin Bread from The New Traditionalist baker who just happened to write to me the morning of ThanksVegan and say, "Can I bring you some bread today?" Um, yes! Perfect!

- Peanut Butter Chocolate Vegan pie for dessert

Tibicos (or Water Kefir)

This is our new favorite drink. There are lots of names for it; most people call it Water Kefir, but we call it Tibicos. And the cutest thing ever is Julia asking for "teebeecosh!" It's a probiotic beverage made with kefir grains. Which sounds so weird when I explain it. So I've started just saying that it's like home made soda but it's good for you instead of bad for you.

It's good for you the way that yogurt or milk kefir are good for you - because of the good bacteria that grows. You start out with kefir grains (not real "grains" - they actually look like giant salt crystals). You feed them sugar (and a few other things). They grow and grow during the first ferment; then you flavor the tibicos in the second ferment, after you've removed the grains. And in just a matter of days you have some lovely and delicious "soda" (so to speak).

Our favorite flavors are peach or apricot (flavored with tea), lemon juice, or ginger. (Oh and we made a black currant one once that tasted just like a Clearly Canadian!)

See below for the "recipe" we received from our friend who got us started in the world of water kefir. We have (miraculously!) kept our grains going for a couple of months now and while we did have to slow down production, we have kept a steady cycle going. And when we've gone on tibicos hiatus in order to leave town, I have missed it so much.

Julia likes it pretty well, too. Clara is still deciding. But I'm glad to have some probiotics to give them to balance out the antibiotics we had to give them a few weeks ago. Gotta keep that balance.

We will have extra grains up for grabs periodically. Happy to spread the Tibicos gospel and the grains!

Water Kefir

Basic ratio:
1 Tbsp grains
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup water

First Ferment:
In a jar, add sugar (ideally sucanat/rapidura/turbinado; organic raw cane sugar works), some raisins (about 10), a splash of lemon juice, a tiny pinch of baking soda, and water. Stir to somewhat dissolve sugar. Add grains. Can be left covered lightly with a cloth or a lid. Let sit in room temperature - not in sun - for 48 hours or until brew no longer tastes like sugar water. You're aiming for the sweet spot between sugar water and vinegar. you can drink the water kefir now or do a second ferment to add flavor and carbonation.

Second Ferment:
Strain out grains and raisins. Discard raisins (or eat them!). Set aside grains. Pour water kefir into bottle with swing-lock top or mason jar with metal lid. Add flavoring. Close bottle/jar, let sit for 48 hours. "Burp" to safely let out a bit of carbonation once or twice a day. Grains can be used again to start a first ferment, as above.

After 48 hours, serve over ice or refrigerated and enjoy!

For more info: http://www.culturesforhealth.com/water-kefir-frequently-asked-questions-faq

Watermelon Popsicles - a very short "recipe"

Watermelon Popsicles

Watermelon Popsicles - a very short "recipe"

Ingredients
watermelon
sugar (optional)
basil, chopped (optional)

Directions
1. Chop the watermelon; remove the seeds.
2. Blend in the Vita-mix (or blender).
3. Add sugar and/or basil if desired.
4. Pour watermelon water into some sort of popsicle maker thingy. If you are a nursing mom, consider utilizing the empty breast milk storage containers that are collecting in your cabinet. They hold 2.5 ounces and are skinny.
5. Add appropriate popsicle sticks if you have them. Or, if you are nursing mom who didn't plan this ahead very well but who hoards, you can rummage through your catch-all drawer and unearth some plastic wear from previous take-out orders. If you can find 6 plastic forks or spoons, make 6 popsicles.
6. Place onto a plate and into the freezer.
7. Wait until a super hot day or a day when your toddler needs a distraction or - ideally - both! To remove popsicles from breast milk storage containers, dip them in a glass of hot water.
8. Have camera ready.

Note to self. Buy popsicle sticks so you don't have to use forks which become kind of hazardous as the popsicle melts. Duh. 

Another note to self: take children outside and strip them naked before giving them a popsicle. Or be prepared to clean. A lot. 

Julia takes the first bite. 

Sharing with her sister. 

Neither of them capable of waiting their turn, they opt to share simultaneously. 

Strawberry Bread Pudding

berries

If you're anything like me, you may find yourself with a good chunk of leftover Italian bread and an overage of fresh, local, organic strawberries (because you can never buy just one quart since one quart is what you eat on the way home from the market and you'll need a lot more than that once you get home). And in this fortuitous moment, you may think to yourself, "Is there such a thing as strawberry bread pudding?"

You may do a Google search and find out that, Yes, there IS such a thing! And you may sort through a lot of recipes before finding THIS ONE and emailing to your husband one morning suggesting it for dessert that night. And you may even get home at the end of the day and offer to make that Strawberry Bread Pudding only to discover that he has already done it! 

And then you may find out that not only is there such a thing as Strawberry Bread Pudding, but it is delightful. 

The next morning your husband may have the brilliant idea to slice the leftover bread pudding and fry it a little like a french toast or something. And then you may justify eating Strawberry Bread Pudding for both dessert AND breakfast. And you may be delighted yet again. 

If you're anything like me, that is.

Strawberry Bread Pudding
from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, inspired by the Daily Loaf 
click here for full details and a recipe for caramel sauce
Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup golden brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 ounces crusty stale bread, torn or cut in bite-size pieces
2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries, sliced

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 x-2-inch pan. Set aside.
2) Combine eggs, milk, sugar (white and brown, vanilla extract, spices and salt in a small bowl. Whisk until blended.
3) Place bread pieces into a large bowl. Pour milk mixture over bread and toss to combine. Let sit for 15 minutes to allow milk to be absorbed into bread.
4) Fold in strawberries and pour mixture into baking dish.
5) Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until raised and puffy. Insert a toothpick into center and if it comes out fairly clean, it’s done. Let cool for a few minutes before serving. Yield: 8 to 10 servings.


The French Toast Treatment for Breakfast

Ingredients:
leftover Strawberry Bread Pudding
butter

Directions:
Slice the pudding into 1-inch or 1 1/2-inch slices.
Heat butter in pan.
Fry the pudding slices (that's a weird phrase) until golden.
Ignore the fact that you just made something unhealthy even unhealthier.
Enjoy!

Mother's Day and Quiche

What a wonderful day on Sunday (as if I deserved anything extra - on top of the regular, run-of-the-mill happiness that I am so fortunate to enjoy). Sergio and the girls delivered me some lovely cards and a gift certificate for a massage (Solaris is the best!) and let me pick our dinner spot (Spin! because it's next to Glacé).

a happy mother on Mother's Day

We went to the lawn at the Nelson-Atkins to see a puppet show by the Stone Lion Puppet Theater troupe. Great stuff, truly. You must make an effort to see them if you haven't already. Puppets of incredible proportion and messages of great import! I loved the crane; Julia loved the turtle; Sergio loved the snake; according to Julia, Clara loved the snail. (We'll take Julia's word for it.)

Later that night while she was playing outside, Julia brought me one of the plastic flowers from her wheelbarrow set and said, "Happy Mother's Day!" It melted my heart. Then she brought the other plastic flower inside, gave it to her daddy and said, "Happy Mother's Day, Daddy!" And since bucking gender normativity is a favorite past time of mine, well, that melted my heart again.

Oh, and I forgot the most important meal of the day - Sergio made quiche for breakfast! Two years ago on my first Mother's Day, Sergio insisted on serving me breakfast in bed. I carelessly told him that I did not like eating in bed and he was crestfallen. He replied, "if I don't bring you your breakfast in bed then today won't be any different than all the other days when I make you breakfast." He was so right. He is always in charge of the morning meal. I had forgotten to be grateful for that. It was a good reminder.

Anyway, this year he wanted to do breakfast in bed again but let's be honest - breakfast in bed when there's a bouncy toddler and a grabby infant nearby is just a big load of dirty laundry waiting to happen. So we ate in our kitchen at our breakfast nook, watched for birds in our new bird bath, and enjoyed our quiche. Or as we call it ... "gheesh." Sergio's been getting into ghee lately - it is lovely and makes a stellar quiche. Here's his crust recipe.

Ghee Whole Wheat Pie Crust 
(for a 2 crust 8” pie)

  

½ tsp salt

2 2/3 c. flour (1 1/3 c. white flour & 1 1/3 c. whole wheat pastry flour works nicely)

2/3 c. melted ghee (clarified butter)

4 TBSP cold water

Mix dry ingredients. Blend in ghee with a fork or pastry blender. Slowly add water, blending. Roll out.

Julia wanted to take her "umbeya" on our walk.
(Note the outline of the shadow of her hair.)

The bush to the side of the garage began to bloom.
Turns out it's spirea! Clara approves.

Bok Choy and Garlic Soup

bok choy blossoms

I am really pleased with the simplicity of this soup. It is humble and straightforward, but also rewarding in both flavor and nutritional value. The ginger and garlic - and of course the bok choy - provide a great boost, especially to one's immune system during the sickly parts of winter, which is when I found this recipe.

But now that my CSA's extended season has begun, the farmers markets are opening, and the bok choy is readily available again, I'm finding that this soup also goes well with spring.

You can amend this recipe in a lot of different ways - another reason it makes a great CSA recipe - so you can just use what you have on hand.

Baby Bok Choy and Garlic Soup
from 30 Bucks a Week
Ingredients:
7 c veggie broth
4-5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 piece of ginger, peeled
handful of brown rice (between 1/4-1/2 cup; PS this is a great recipe to use up leftover rice)
1 kohlrabi or turnip, peeled and chopped
1 lb bok choy, trimmed and chopped
salt to tast
sriracha or other hot sauce, to taste
1-2 eggs

Instructions:
Boil the vegetable stock and add the crushed garlic and ginger in a big pot. Let that simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.
Add the rice and kohlrabi (or turnip); cover. Simmer for 20 minutes (unless rice was previously cooked.)
Add more broth if you need it and add the bok choy. Taste and season with salt and sriracha.
Cover and let the bok choy cook down - should only be 5 minutes or so.
Ladle a small portion of the broth out into a bowl and add the egg(s). Stir vigorously with a fork and then pour it all back into the pot. Give the soup a good stir and serve.

Root Veg: Two Favorite Recipes

One new recipe for beets and one tried and true standard for sweet potatoes...

Hope Julia appreciated my plating techniques.

I have never made borscht before, so I don't know how this compares, but I can tell you it was delicious. I served it as the starter for a meal of acorn squash stuffed with rice, mushrooms, and turmeric with a side of sautéed kale and white beans with a side salad featuring turnips, carrots, radishes - such a colorful meal. Talk about eating the rainbow. Oh, and Julia are two servings of soup! And spilled a bunch of it on her chin and shirt. She looked like a vampire with a belly wound. 

Red Soup

from Nigella Lawson's Feast

serves 4-6

(I love Nigella's writing so I'm including her preface to this recipe.) 

     This soup is so damn Christmassy it's ridiculous. Given the holidays, I wanted as much redness under my belt as possible (a rather childish approach, but there it is) and since, customarily, in borscht the sweetness of the beets is countered by some cooking apple, it made perfect, festive sense to use sharp, seasonal cranberries instead. The juice and zest of the orange, along with the cloves, make it even more of an evocatively Christmas feast. You can eat it with a supper of cold turkey and salad, or as an altogether sprightlier alternative on its own. It's the sort of soup you might choose for a solitary dinner in front of the tv to make yourself happy and to feel virtuously rewarded. 

     Normally, beets take hours to cook, which is why I suggest you just bung them in the processor first. Actually, I loved the soup as it was when I tasted it in the pan, unpuréed, but truly this works best as a deep-toned, deep-flavored, velvety emulsion. 

3 raw beets (1 1/4 lbs) 

1 large red onion

2 tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin)

1 1/2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen

juice and zest of 1 orange

pinch of ground cloves

4 cups vegetable stock

3/4 cup sour cream, optional, for serving

(Emily's addition: pomegranate for garnish!) 

     Peel the beets and onions (wearing rubber gloves unless you want a touch of the Lady Macbeths) and chop them roughly. Put the chunks in a food processor and blitz till you've got a ruby-glowing pile of shreds; no need to be too fanatical, you just don't want large pieces evident. Spoon the oil into a large wide-based pan and tip in the onion and beets, and cook them over a gentle heat for 10 minutes or so. When they have begun to sweat down and soften, add the cranberries (no need to thaw frozen ones), the orange zest and juice and the ground cloves. Stir everything around for a couple of minutes and then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, then cover the pan and simmer the soup for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. It should then be cooked enough to purée or liquidize to divine smoothness, though you may want to do this in a few batches to spare your kitchen walls. (or use an immersion blender!) 

     Taste to see if you want salt or pepper, then pour into a warmed soup tureen and serve. If the idea appeals pour over a swirl of sour cream into each person's bowl as you hand it out. 

     option: Cook this in advance and leave it in its unpuréed state, whizz it cold then heat it up in a saucepan when ready to eat.

featuring orange and white flesh sweet potatoes

This is from Smitten Kitchen (whose cookbook is out - I've asked Santa for it for Christmas!). Her post is here. I make this recipe all the time and I have for a couple of years now. It never gets old. And even one devoted sweet-potato-hater can manage to eat a few of these spiced wedges. I've been using a mix of orange and white fleshed (O'Henry variety) sweet potatoes for a nice visual variation. I suppose you could also get away with throwing a regular potato or a turnip in there! (We found potatoes and turnips to be a nice combo in our new "mashed poturnips" recipe at Thanksgiving.) My farmers suggested mixing up the spices a little - sage, cumin, ground pepper, cloves. Although I am hell bent on sticking to this exactly as SK has written it. So much so that when I set out to make these this year for the first time and discovered that I was out of coriander (and didn't have time to run to the store), I sat down and painstakingly picked out every last coriander seed from my pickling spice mix. And I did this while I was nursing Clara. Who wiggles a lot. It was a challenge! But worth it. Just one whiff of these and you'll see.

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potato
from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes (the latter will make them quitespicy, so using according to your preferences)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 pounds medium sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425°F. Coarsely grind coriander, fennel, oregano, and red pepper flakes in an electric coffee/spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle. Stir together spices and salt.

Cut potatoes lengthwise into 1-inch wedges. Toss wedges with oil and spices in a large roasting pan and roast in middle of oven 20 minutes. Turn wedges over with a spatula and roast until tender and slightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes more.

Whole Grain Applesauce Cake

This cake was lovely. This glaze was unbelievable. If I make it again (and I'm pretty sure I will), I would use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour, so as to increase the cohesiveness of the cake. But the taste was great.

I'm still working on my glazing technique. Mine was messy but delicious. 

The glaze was much easier to make than I would have thought a glaze to be. It has an ungodly amount of powdered sugar that I don't want to talk about. All I want to say is that it tasted to good, I couldn't believe I'd actually made it.  

Happy Birthday, Julia!

Whole Grain Applesauce Cake from Chocolate & Carrots (that's a blog name; there is no chocolate or carrot in this cake) and from Texanerin.

Ingredients:

Cake:
2 1/4 cups whole wheat or whole spelt flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3 large eggs
3/4 cup olive oil – I used extra-virgin
1 cup unrefined or brown sugar
1 3/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cinnamon sugar:
3 tablespoons unrefined or granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Caramel glaze:
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 – 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted (unless yours is already lump free)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and allspice.

2. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the eggs a little. Add the olive oil and sugar and mix. Then add the applesauce and vanilla extract.

3. Add the dry mix to the wet mix and stir. But just until combined!

4. Spray a 12 cup / 10″ bundt pan with cooking spray. Be sure to spray it very well. Then mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle the mix in the pan. Bake for 45 – 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. This recipe can also be halved and baked in a 6 cup bundt pan, which is what I always do. If using a 6 cup bundt pan, bake for about 27 – 30 minutes.

5. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn it out onto a rack and let it cool completely before glazing.

6. For the glaze: Put the butter, brown sugar, cream and salt in a saucepan at medium heat. Stirring constantly, bring it to a full rolling boil. Let it boil for one minute and then take it off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat it until it’s very smooth and  there are no lumps. Pour over the cake.

Source: cake from Erin from Texanerin Baking; the caramel glaze recipe came from The Runaway Spoon.

Eggplant Begins With An E

It's a good thing my hair dresser was running a few minutes late the other day because if she hadn't been, I might not have picked up the Real Simple magazine while I waited and I might not have found this recipe for Eggplant Parmesan Rollatini.

We are kind of a one-trick pony when it comes to eggplant. Or, I guess two tricks. Either Sergio makes his Eggplant Parmesan or I make a pizza. I made a pizza a couple of weeks ago with our skinny CSA eggplants, so I wanted to try something else. Sergio is the one that always makes Eggplant Parmesan and as is common in the patterns of a relationship, that task has fallen exclusively to him, even though I probably could figure out how to make it myself were I so inclined. 

But I wasn't so inclined, I wanted something new. Luckily I found this. The heirloom eggplant at Badseed on Friday night were the absolute perfect size for this and they were gorgeous. If only I could find my camera - still packed away somewhere - I'd have taken a proper photo of them. At any rate - here is this.

And here is the recipe. "Rollatini," by the way, is not some clever descriptor devised by the editorial staff at Real Simple. It is also not a real Italian word. The real Italian name for this dish is "Involtini de Melanzane." Which I think is much more fun to say.

A couple of tips...
• the article suggests that this casserole can be made up to 4 hours in advance but no more than that lest the ricotta mixture separate, but I made mine 6 hours ahead of time and encountered no problems.
• the article also suggests it serves 8; ours, served with pasta, served 5.
• next time I make it I'll likely double the marinara sauce - especially if I serve it on pasta again.
• the hands-on time of 25 minutes does not include toddler wrangling, which will likely double that prep time. 

Sage Cake

File this in the What To Do With All Those Herbs category. I'm always buying herbs and then - unless it's parsley - struggling to figure out what to do with the last of it. Lots of rosemary? You can only eat so many roasted potatoes. So I always use my remainder rosemary to make this Rosemary Remembrance Cake.

Not to mention, I have a penchant for savory/sweet cross over applications - like rosemary in a cake or a creme brûlée, salt on my watermelon, balsamic vinegar on vanilla ice cream, etc.

Along those same lines I had an excess of sage. In the spring, no less, and I usually can't figure out what to do with sage when I don't have any winter squashes around. But now I have this - Rustic Sage Cake.

I have made it twice now (which means I have eight eggs whites in the freezer; if I make this cake one more time, I'll have enough discarded egg whites to make an angel food cake! Can I make an angel food cake with frozen egg whites? Hmmm...) and I can confirm that it is both easy to make and delicious.

You can use olive oil or butter for this - I've only tried the olive oil method. The butter would be better for sourcing local (Shatto!). But I also enjoy the idea (and taste) of olive oil in a cake.

The source for this recipe recommends ice cream as a companion which I'm sure is delicious, but at Sergio's suggestion, we ate ours with drizzles of honey. Very nice indeed.

Rustic Sage Cake
Adapted from this recipe at How Stuff Works

Helpful Tip: Since this recipe calls for egg yolks only, freeze the individual whites in an ice cube tray, then transfer them to a Ziploc bag for easy storage. Next time you want to make a recipe that calls for whites you’ll already have some on hand!

• 14 fresh sage leaves (7 large leaves for steeping and 7 baby leaves for decoration)
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch round, springform cake pan with PAM or another baking spray.

In small saucer combine the milk and 7 large sage leaves, torn into thirds. Warm over medium heat until the milk is very hot. Set aside to steep for 15 minutes.

While the milk is steeping, sift the cake flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt, mixing well with a whisk.

In a small bowl combine the yolks, sugar, olive oil and vanilla.

Strain the milk through a fine mesh sieve, then add half of the milk, and the yolk mixture, to the bowl with the cake flour, stirring to combine. Add the remaining milk, mixing well.

Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan and decoratively arrange seven small sage leaves on top of the batter. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the cake is lightly golden and starts to pull away from the edges of the pan.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a butter knife around the edges and remove the sides of the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature, with vanilla ice cream if you like.

Braised (gasp!) Lettuce

transplants - before becoming full heads of lettuce and before getting cooked

I have cooked lettuce. It feels almost sacrilegious to have done so. Like a desecration of all that is sacred about spring and early harvests and newness and freshness and rawness. Perhaps. But alas, I have done it. Only one week into our CSA season and I'm cooking lettuce. Blasphemy!

But here's my rationale: There was a LOT of beautiful lettuce at Badseed on Friday. But I'd already gotten two beautiful heads from my CSA share last week. So even if I eat a salad every day - sometimes twice a day - I can only consume so much raw lettuce at a time. But (I thought) if I find a recipe for cooking lettuce then I can justify buying even more of it at the farmers market!

And that's just what I did.

The sweet little heads of lettuce at Badseed seemed like they'd be perfect for cooking as they reminded me somewhat of the "little gems" I saw Nigella Lawson cook in her Forever Summer series (Best Cooking Show Ever, BTW, IMHO). So I snatched up three of them to cook knowing that I'd have plenty of lettuce from Fair Share Farm - and "spice on spice" mix from The Herb'n Gardener (arugula and tiny mustard greens and sometimes kale) - to give me salad all week.

I found a version of Nigella's Little Gems recipe but opted instead for this Braised Lettuce and Peas recipe. And I'm pleased to report that it was delicious.


Braised Lettuce and Peas
Ingredients
• 1 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
• 3 medium shallots, halved and thinly sliced - I used skinny little leeks from the CSA share
• 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 medium heads butter lettuce, washed, core removed, leaves halved and thinly sliced crosswise (Boston or bibb) - I used two small heads of heirloom lettuce from Badseed - can't remember the variety name
• 2 cups frozen baby peas
• 3 tablespoons greek yogurt or sour cream (optional)

Directions
Heat oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add shallots, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the top and cook until raw taste is gone, about 30 seconds. Add stock and bring to a boil. Stir in lettuce and peas, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until lettuce and peas are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in yogurt or sour cream, if using. Taste, adjust seasoning as desired, and serve.

Pre Christmas in Kansas City

I am proud to report that I got my Christmas "tree" up early this year - the weekend after Thanksgiving! I have been enjoying it so much. Of course, it's not a tree - it's a garland. I decided that this year I didn't have the energy to fight "Scroogio" (who, by the way, has been replaced by a non-Christmas-hating Sergio this year!) over it and to have to make my case for why the Christmas tree is worth all the trouble. I just didn't have it in me this year. Not to mention - a tree would have been the perfect height for Julia to get into and I like to get those native, invasive Eastern Red Cedars that are prickly and I can only imagine what kind of trouble Julia would have gotten into with that. 

garland and three tiny stockings - one for each of us

So I went with our trusty old back up garland. And even though it's artificial and even though it's not a tree, I love it. 

new ornament this year - Julia's hand print cut out and decorated like Santa (from Nina's school party)

With all my cards sent and my gifts purchased, wrapped and shipped, I was ready, this week, to do some long awaited holiday baking. I have yet to figure out why the winter (even a mild winter like what we're having) makes me feel like baking. But it does. So I hunkered down in the kitchen a couple of nights this week and baked two kinds of cookies - Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies (from Smitten Kitchen), which turned out to be fantastic; and Gingerbread Folk (as I like to call them, since "Gingerbread Men" is so limiting). We bundled these up and distributed them to co-workers and to the concierge staff at our building. Oh, and we kept a few for ourselves. They were all delicious and well worth the hours of rolling and cutting out. 

I make sure my icing is super messy, that way people who receive my cookies know without a doubt that they are home made and not store bought. 

Now, it feels like the night before Christmas because we leave for Mexico tomorrow. The bags are packed; we have wrapped up our Christmas in Kansas City just in time to fly out for the next, big Christmases. (One in Mexico; one in Oklahoma.)

And since my garland is artificial, I'm leaving up until I get home. No reason not to enjoy it a few days into the new year. 

"Frosted Ginger Cut Outs" (or "Gingerbread Folk")

COOKIES

1 cup shortening or butter

1 cup molasses

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

In large bowl, combine shortening and molasses; blend well. Add flour and remaining cookie ingredients to molasses mixture; mis well. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours for easier handling. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. On well-floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness; cut with floured cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool completely. 

FROSTING (Emily's Easy Icing)

a lot of powdered sugar

a little milk

To make the icing, mix a tiny bit of milk with a whole lot of powdered sugar. You just have to eye ball it until you get the consistency you want - whatever you need to ooze appropriately from your piping bag without pouring out and without getting stuck. You be the judge. 

VARIATIONS

GINGERBREAD MEN (or WOMEN!): Roll dough 1/4-inch thick for soft cookies or 1/8 inch thick for crisp cookies. Cut dough with floured gingerbread person cookie cutter. Bake as directed above. To decorate, pipe frosting on cooled cookies. 

(My recommendations on the Gingerbread People - go with 1/4 inch thickness to achieve a softer cookie, and shoot for the shorter end of the 8-10 minute baking time suggestion.)