Food goodness

Pair Annie's recipe with a salad and it's dinner. Yield: about 6-8 servings Ingredients: 2 tsp. olive oil 1 lb. brown mushrooms, cleaned and coarsely chopped 1 large onion, finely chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 3 cups cooked brown rice, at room temperature 2 large eggs 1 cup cottage cheese (reduced fat is fine) ½ cup sour cream (reduced fat is fine) ½ tsp. coarse salt 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided Minced fresh herbs, for garnish (optional), such as chives, parsley, etc. Directions: Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Lightly grease a 2 quart baking dish. In a large skillet over medium heat sauté the mushrooms in the olive oil, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released most of their liquid, about 5-7 minutes. Add the onions to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent and tender, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Add the rice to the skillet and...

You will love this soup. Gwen gave me an adorable cookbook as a present one year, The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes & Reveries by David Ansel. We agreed that a book with a title like that has a specific audience and we both believe we're it. We like our soups cooked long and slow with a story about a Jewish great aunt or annual neighborhood potluck to back up their authenticity. After using this book for a half dozen years, I now have a crush on the Soup Peddler, David Ansel. If/when I make it back to Austin, Texas, I will go to his shop and eat his soup (AND I will go again see the bajillion Mexican freetail bats depart from Congress Ave bridge for their night forage. Once is not enough.) The cookbook is a quirky, fictionalized account of his first year as the Soup Peddler. This recipe is from one of Austin's legendary restaurants, Guero. The soup: 1 chicken 12 C chicken stock 2 onions, cut into thin strips 3 carrots, peeled and very coarsely chopped...

From: Eating Well When You're Expecting This recipe uses fruit juice concentrate instead of sugar. I don't like things that are super sweet, and I thought these were just right. I don't know if kids would like these, but I thought they were good for my breakfasts this week. I'll freeze the rest. You can also add diced apples or pears when you add the raisins. I filled the muffin cups just about to the top. They don't expand too much. They did stick to the papers, though, so next time I might just spray the pan with Pam and skip the paper liners. 1 1/2 cups unprocessed bran 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 1/2 cup ground flaxseed 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 cup chopped toasted nuts (walnuts, pecans or almonds) 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 cups white grape juice concentrate (I used apple juice concentrate) 1 1/4 cups buttermilk 2 large eggs, beaten lightly 3 Tbsp canola oil 2 tsps vanilla extract 3/4 cups raisins 1. Prehea...

I am officially obsessed with brussels sprouts. Yum. I've made this three or four times and finally have it the way I like it, I think. It's loosely based on this recipe from Gina's Skinny Taste, but there are a lot of modifications at this point... I'll still put her nutritional info at the end, but I'm not sure how valid it is any more. Ingredients: 1 package of low-fat chicken sausage, squeezed out of the casings a few splashes of olive oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped  12 oz brussels sprouts, shredded [Wegmans sells these prepackaged, which is amazing; if you are starting with whole sprouts, just dice them them as finely as you can] 1 small onion, diced small 1 carrot, peeled and diced small 1 celery stalk, diced small other optional diced veggies: zucchini, yellow squash, spinach, red or green pepper 28 oz crushed tomatoes  a few T oregano and/or herbs de provance pinch sugar pinch crushed red pepper salt and fresh ground pepper to taste 14 oz ...

Yesterday I went to a craft show at a fire hall in Lancaster Co. As I was leaving the house I said to Todd, "I bet they're going to have chicken corn soup for sale" and they did. It was really good, and I decided to try to make something similar at home today. I wanted something a little heartier, though, so I added some extra ingredients. I also wanted to use up some turkey I had in the fridge, and some turkey stock taking up room in the freezer. You could just as easily use chicken. I just made this up as I went along, so I'll do the best I can with the recipe. 2 Tbsp butter 2 med onions, diced 1 cup diced celery diced peppers, your fave kind (if desired. I used some banana peppers) 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 quart turkey stock 3 cups diced potatoes (I left skins on), divided 2 bay leaves dried thyme dried rosemary 4 turkey cutlets 1.5 cups diced carrots 1 can corn, drained 1 can creamed corn pot pie noodles, or noodles of your choice (optional) milk or cream, i...

adapted from "time for dinner" My favorite part of this cookbook is the back where it says "if you have this, make this." So, taking either a rotisserie chicken or one of those roasted chickens I made, meat pulled off the carcass... Bake a package of biscuits according to the directions. While they are baking, heat 4 Tbsp. of butter in a medium soup pot. Add a chopped onion, 3 chopped carrots and 2 chopped stalks of celery. Saute for 10 minutes, then whisk in 6 Tbsp. flour. Add 1/2 c. of white wine and stir until paste forms. Add 4 c. chicken stock, stirring until smooth. Simmer over low heat until thickened. Add the shredded chicken and some frozen peas, cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper. Split the biscuits in half. Place bottom halves in bowls, ladle chicken mixture over top, cover with biscuit tops. Yum.

One of the other things I cooked during the marathon cooking day was a pot of barley. I had never really thought of using barley as a side dish grain, like rice, but again, that cookbook suggested it, so I gave it a shot. It was surprisingly good, actually. The kids ate rice. I haven’t convinced them yet. They did, however, try this salad. They love beets, but mostly because they make you pee pink. The other prep work I did was to roast some beets in the oven, when I was roasting acorn squash for dinner. I slipped the skins off before I put them in the fridge, which cut down on my work. We had this with the sausages and apple s. It was a lovely fall-ish meal. adapted from "time for dinner" Two cups of cooked barley, in a large bowl. Toss with cooked, peeled beets, 1 can of (drained) mandarin oranges. Toss with a dressing made of 1 part orange juice, 2 parts olive oil.

So...I had some bratwurst in the freezer, and these cooked apples in my fridge. This was super quick. from "time for dinner" In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, brown brats (or whatever sausages you're using) on all sides. Remove, reduce heat, and add a little olive oil and a sliced red onion, 1/4 head of red cabbage (shredded), and the cooked apples (sliced). Saute until the cabbage wilts. Add some of the leftover cooking liquid from the apples, along with a few Tbsp. of cider vinegar. Turn the heat up, add the sausages, and cook through.

A bushel and a half is a lot of apples. Luckily they don’t go bad very quickly, and I have an extra fridge to store them all. I made a huge batch of applesauce in the crock pot with some, and then made these cooked apples. These are also from the same cookbook, so they will be serving dual purposes. We ate 2 ½ of them with the pork, and probably could have eaten the whole pan if I hadn’t wanted to use them for another recipe. adapted from "time for dinner" 5 apples, cored 4 Tbsp. brown sugar 1 c. apple cider 1 cinnamon stick 1 strip lemon peel 2 whole cloves Peel the apples (or not, if you liked cooked apple peel. I do not.) Combine the remaining ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan. Boil for 1 minute, then add the apples, coating them in the liquid. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, flipping the apples halfway through.

Braised pork So, back to the cookbook from G. I made this braised pork, which was a huge hunk of meat. It was enough for dinner for the four of us, and then 3 more meals. I portioned it up and put two in the freezer and one in the fridge for a recipe later in the week. adapted from "time for dinner" one 5 to 6-pound pork shoulder 1 garlic clove 2 Tbsp. paprika 6 Tbsp. olive oil 2/3 c. orange juice 1/3 c. lemon juice Stab deep slits with a knife into the pork shoulder. In a small food processor or on a cutting board, make a paste from the garlic, paprika, and 2 to 3 Tbsp. of the olive oil and smear over the pork. In a Dutch oven set over medium high heat, brown the pork in the remaining olive oil. Add the orange and lemon juice and cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer until internal temperature of the pork is 140 degrees, about 1.5 hours.

Okay, so let’s talk about those chickens I roasted. I stripped the meat off the bones (and ate a lot of the skin), and put in a ziploc bag for recipes later in the week. And was left with two lovely chicken carcasses. Mmmm…carcass. My chickens still had a little meat on the bones, because I’m too lazy to pick them completely clean. And I didn’t bother picking the wings, again, because I’m lazy. I saved all the drippings from those chickens, too, because that right there is liquid gold. Gold I didn’t turn into gravy, since we weren’t actually eating the chickens when I cooked them. Into the crock pot went: 1 chicken carcass, plus any of the skin from the chicken I didn’t eat. Half the chicken drippings (since I roasted 2) 1 carrot, snapped in half (I didn’t bother peeling) 1 stalk of celery, snapped in half Now, you could add all kinds of things at this point, if you like. Peppercorns or a bay leaf or an onion. I saw something that suggested parsnip, and I just happen to have one lonel...