I Left the Oven On

Last night I watched Rope (so good!) with lovely friends, while two of them carved Jack-O-Lanterns (also so good!)... then got ready to compost all the guts. When I protested, they said, "but what can you do with pumpkin?" I got flustered and couldn't think of anything but pie and soup.

"I don't like pumpkin pie," one said, to which I replied, "do you hate pumpkin pie, or do you hate allspice?" For a long time I thought I disliked pumpkin pie, too, until someone made me brussels sprouts in allspice sauce. Then I realized that allspice is a gross spice, and that the amount of allspice in a pumpkin pie determines whether or not I will like it. Problem solved. I still haven't made pumpkin pie myself, but I will someday, and it will be allspice-free and delicious. </sidenote>



Because I'm a nerd and I read food blogs a lot, I feel like pumpkin recipes are coming out my ears lately. So here's a list of pumpkin things that ARE NOT PUMPKIN PIE that look good/interesting to me. (Most of the blog entries I link to were brought to my attention by TasteSpotting. I haven't tested any of these except the ones that come from my own blog.)

First off, Here's how to make fresh pumpkin into something you can substitute into recipes calling for canned pumpkin. (Also note that these recipes are all going to taste better made from sugar pie pumpkins--the little ones--than they will from big ol' carving pumpkins, but hey, that is not a reason to throw away pounds and pounds of food every October.)

Secondly: if a recipe calls for "pumpkin pie spice" and you don't have it (or object to packaged spice mixes), but you like most pumpkin pie, try 3 pts (ground) cinnamon to 1 part each (ground): nutmeg, ginger, cloves and [gulp] allspice. If you don't like most pumpkin pie, try reducing or eliminating the allspice and reducing the cloves by half or more.

Soups
Indian-Spiced Pumpkin Crock Pot Soup - my recipe.
Hot and Sour Pumpkin Soup - a link to my journal entry where I described adapting this Gourmet cookbook recipe to use Butternut Squash and Yam. You could adapt it back.
Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Blue Cheese (I'm vegetarian, but Pumpkin Soup with Blue Cheese sounds pretty good to me, especially if something else salty went into to replace the bacon, such as bits of soy-sauce braised tempeh.)
Curry Pumpkin Soup - super simple (I started to type "souper" - argh.)
Pumpkin Sage Soup
Pumpkin Cashew Soup with Cilantro Orange Ginger Gremolata
Pumpkin and Black Bean Chili
Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup - this one is more Mexicany than the first
Apple and Pumpkin Chili
Roast Pumpkin and Lentil Soup

Appetizers/Snacks/Entree-if-you-eat-a-lot-of-them
Pumpkin-Apple Wontons - my recipe.
Pumpkin Chawanmushi - Japanese egg custards
Fried Pumpkin & Minced Pork Cakes - these make me want to try making pumpkin fritters

Entrees, Sides, and Salads
Pumpkin Risotto with Carmelized Onion and Toasted Hazelnuts
Pumpkin and Crispy Pancetta Risotto - I support pumpkin risotto in general. POM Wonderful used to have a recipe for Pumpkin Pomegranate Risotto up that I loved, but the website doesn't seem to be working anymore.
Chiles Rellenos in Pumpkin Sauce - holy cow!
Spiced Pumpkin, Lentil and Goat Cheese Salad
Vegan Pumpkin and Sage Cheesy Pasta Bake - one of those vegan recipes that probably tastes 8x better than it looks
Tortelli di Zucca - pumpkin, parmesan, and amaretti biscuit filled pasta with sage and hazelnuts
Pumpkin Sweet Potato Curry
Pumpkin and Garnet Yam Gratin
Pumpkin Ricotta Gnocchi with Sage Cream Sauce
Vegan Creamy Pumpkin and Cashew Pizza
Pumpkin Salad Tripoli - spicy puréed salad from an Israeli food blog... I'll probably make this one
Pumpkin Fried Rice (with bacon) (or not)
Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Lasagna
Pumpkin-Mozzarella Macaroni and Cheese
Roasted Eggplant and Zucchini Lasagna Rolls with Pumpkin Bechamel


Condiments
Homemade Pumpkin Butter
Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Breakfast
Pumpkin Pancakes
Banana-Pumpkin Pancakes
Pumpkin Waffles
Pumpkin French Toast
Pumpkin-Maple Oats with Pecans
Pumpkin Oatmeal with Sunflower Seed Butter
Pumpkin Muffins - really simple recipe
Pumpkin-Cranberry Bran Muffins
Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins

Things I do not support eating for breakfast, but some people would (or maybe they would serve them with tea)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls - scroll down for English
Pumpkin Five Spice Sweet Rolls
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with cranberries, pecans, and crystallized ginger
Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon-Cider Cream Cheese Glaze
Pumpkin Cranberry Scones - vegan!
Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Coffee Cake
Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Pie Bread - vegan and gluten-free!
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Icing
Pumpkin Streusel Cake - vegan!
Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Desserts (that I didn't put in the previous category)
Pumpkin-Walnut Fudge
Pumpkin Pie Bars
Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Gingersnap Crust
Malaysian Pumpkin and Coconut Pudding
Pumpkin Kheer
Pumpkin and Brown Sugar Crème Brûlées
Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Maple Pumpkin Crème Brûlée
Pumpkin Cardamom Crackle Custard
Pumpkin Kulfi
another Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream - no allspice this time, but it does contain a splash of bourbon, which sounds winning to me.
Pumpkin Mousse Tart with Brandy Chantilly
Pumpkin Gingerbread
Pumpkin and Hazelnut Doughnuts
Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie - with gluten free crust option!
Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Cheesecake - looks more like pudding to me. But still delicious, and calls for stevia or agave instead of processed sugar.
Mini Pumpkin-Toffee Cheesecakes
Pumpkin-Banana Mousse Tart
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Pumpkin Cream Sandwiches
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream
Pumpkin-Butterscotch Cookies
Mini Pumpkin-Gingerbread Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Double-Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
Pumpkin Mochi - !
Pumpkin Custard - vegan!
Candied Ginger Pumpkin Cake
Pumpkin Cake-O-Lantern - oh god
Pumpkin Downcakes with Bleeding Figs - as upscale as the last recipe was kitschy/all-American
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Pumpkin Nut and Chip Cookies
Caramelized Pumpkin and Pear Crumble
Pumpkin Cobbler
Jack-O-Lantern Hand Pies with Pumpkin-Date Filling - hand pies! Like the ones that were $.33 at the grocery store when I was a kid! Except made of actual food!
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Pumpkin-Oatmeal Smoothie
Pumpkin Spice Latte - made from actual pumpkin, and with condensed milk (Southeast Asian style)... I like it!
Spiced Pumpkin Hot Cocoa with Maple Whipped Cream
Pumpkin Punch
Party Pumpkin Punch - in case, I suppose, the last one wasn't partyish enough
Pumpkin Punch - it would help me if these people would be a bit more creative in their naming. This one contains eggs and evaporated milk.

annnnnd Booze - many of these cocktails call for pumpkin butter; see recipe above
Pumpkin-Infused Vodka (there's also a cocktail recipe on this page)
Pumpkin Pie Cocktail - for those who like their cocktails to also be milkshakes
Pumpkin Divine
Great Pumpkin Cocktail - "a toddy-style drink" from Southwest Airlines. Thank you, Southwest Airlines.
Pumpkin Smash Cocktail - you'll need pumpkin-infused vodka for this (see above)
Pumpkin Chai Cocktail - also includes another recipe for pumpkin-infused vodka
Pumpkin Milkshake (with rum) - scroll down
Pumpkin Margarita
Pumpkin Nog
Jack-O-Tini
Pumpkin French 75
Pumpkin Martini - you'll need pumpkin-infused vodka for this (see above)
Great Pumpkin Punch Cocktail - not the same as the other "Great Pumpkin" drink above
Pumpkin Punch - this one contains rum!





....I can't go on. Are you convinced?

After three weeks straight of forgetting to go to the grocery store and complaining that I don't have food (often resulting in me spacing out and not eating at all), my newly-ex boyfriend/still-housemate pointed out: "I've noticed lately that you seem to have lost your ability to do basic things required for living."

Ahem.

It has never been actually true that I didn't have food; between our farmshare and friends' gardens there is more produce in my life than ever before. Mountains of vegetables. Cornucopias. (Is that really the plural of that word?) I've just been too lazy/spacey/mopey to do anything with it. --Until the last couple of days, anyway, when I got over myself and remembered that fresh food doesn't have to be complicated. Here are the two things I've made in the past 18 hours, both delicious and stupidly simple enough that even space-cadet-Kat can focus long enough to make them:

Potato Leek Soup
3-5 leeks, depending on thickness, sliced (leave out the super-woody green parts)
5-10 potatoes, depending on size, coarsely chopped (I don't bother to peel them)
2 tbsp Better Than Bouillon no-chicken base (or another fake chicken broth, or *gasp* actual chicken broth, if you're one of those)
salt & pepper to taste
oil to fry
optional: jalapeño, chopped (I happened to have one; it was lovely; I didn't de-seed it)

Fry leeks and optional jalapeño in the bottom of a soup pot while you chop the potatoes. Add potatoes and broth or bouillon+water to cover. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for at least 20-30 minutes. Transfer to a blender (in batches, so it doesn't explode and burn you like a failed romance) and purée. Salt & pepper to taste.


Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce - I got this from the Cedarville Farm CSA newsletter; they got it from TheBittenWord.com.

This is super-easy to double, triple, etc.

1 lb fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
2 cloves smashed garlic (I used twice this much)
5 thyme sprigs (I just sprinkled on the dried stuff)
olive oil to drizzle
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350­F. Halve small tomatoes & quarter large ones. Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer. Scatter sliced onions over the pan. Nestle thyme sprigs among tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Salt & pepper. Roast 1 to 1½ hours, depending on how cooked you would like your tomatoes. Remove oven from pan. Discard thyme sprigs. Allow tomatoes to cool slightly. Using a blender, food processor or food mill, blend tomatoes until liquefied (as chunky or smooth as you want). Use immediately or let cool and then freeze. [Kat's note: you could totally can them, too, but you'd want to add some 5% red wine or balsamic vinegar to bump up the acidity level to the safety-zone.)

My fridge is filling up with kombucha babies. Anyone in Bellingham wanting to get into brewing their own kombucha?

I use this recipe from kombuchafuel.blogspot.com. The blogger has also posted a Continuous Brewing Method which I have yet to try, but will get to sometime. She also links to this page at the Happy Herbalist which is full of things to do with kombucha besides just drinking it (please, if you try the douche, don't tell me about it) and this page which explains how to make Kombucha Wine (also on my to-do list).

Poached Eggs

are one of the only things I find as actually-difficult as they are cracked up to be. Some things are complicated, but not many foods I've tried to make have been hard. After a lot of trial-and-error and asking around about poached eggs, this is what I've got:

from a private lesson with Anna Wolff, community college instructor (rock on!) and egg poacher extraordinaire:
-you want the water to be simmering, not boiling. You need bubbles to keep it from sticking to the bottom, but not big bubbles that will break it all apart.
-crack the egg into a teacup or small bowl, so it stays small.
-use the handle of your slotted spoon to stir the water into a whirlpool. Slide the egg directly into the center of the whirlpool--as in, the bottom of the cup is below the surface of the water when the egg is coming out of it. You don't want it to fall from a height, or it'll break up. The whirlpool action also helps with this.
-take it out with a slotted spoon when it's done.

You will notice I did not learn anything about the timing here. This is why my poached eggs have still been fairly hit-or-miss. Enter my new Julia Child book, picked up during a visit to Portland last weekend; Powell's is having some silly Julia Child sale to promote the Meryl Streep movie about her.

Julia says:
-put 1 1/2 qts of water in a 8" diameter x 3" deep saucepan. (Always the scientist. I decided she's right that you don't want too big a pot, though, or the white will float up above the yolk and it will look weird. Not a big deal, though.)
-add 1/4 cup white vinegar. (I did not measure. But vinegar! This is the secret I've wanted. It makes the yolk coagulate really quickly, so you get something that resembles a poached egg instead of a stringy galaxy-model.)
-poach for exactly 4 minutes. (Here I am willing to be a scientist. This is perfect.)
-remove with slotted spoon and rinse off the vinegar. (I wouldn't use full tap water force.)

So. Now I'm putting poached eggs on everything. Hooray for no-oil eggs! One of my favorite experiments: poached eggs on bowls of curry. I've been vegetarian for fifteen years, so I'm used to light flavors, but mixing runny egg yolk into the vegetarian curry scratched an itch for flavor-depth I didn't know I had. Who knew.

This morning, I perched my poached eggs atop a pile of quinoa with homemade tomatillo salsa....

Salsa Verde

If you live in Whatcom County, Washington, you need to sign up for Smart Trips, unless you're a lawmaker, in which case you need to immediately stop wasting tax and non-profit grant dollars on that program. I haven't talked to anyone whose transportation habits have become any "greener" since the program started. People who drive alone all the time don't use Smart Trips, and the rest of us just get lots of free things all the time for doing what we always did.

Argh, anyway. So a couple of weeks ago, Smart Trips sent me a $15 gift certificate to the Farmer's Market. Just because. Idiotic, but awesome for me. I bought one farm's whole stock of tomatillos, and picked up garlic, chilies, and onion. Then I went home and made 7 jars of this awesome salsa:

Tomatillo Mexican Salsa - from The Complete Guide to Year-Round Small-Batch Preserving, which I checked out from the Bellingham Public Library. The notes in brackets are mine.

makes 2 cups [A good amount for the fridge; I made 6 times this much and canned the extra]

1/2 lb tomatillos (about 7)
2 hot green chili peppers, seeded and chopped [Or don't seed them. I say use however many/few you please, of any kind]
2 cloves garlic, minced [you could use more if you don't want lots of peppers]
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper [I left this out]
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot [I left this out]
1/4 cup each: apple juice and cider vinegar [I didn't have the juice so I used all cider vinegar and added 1 1/2 tsp of sugar to the recipe--it worked fine]
3/4 tsp pickling salt [This is different from table salt. Get it in the "canning section" of the grocery store. Table salt is probably fine if you aren't canning the salsa.]
1/2 tsp each: ground cumin and oregano [I didn't have oregano, so I substituted marjoram, which worked fine as it usually does]
1 tbsp granulated sugar

Remove husks from tomatillos and discard. Wash tomatillos and coarsely chop in a food processor or by hand. Transfer to a medium stainless steel or enamel saucepan; add chilies, garlic, red pepper, onion, carrot, apple juice, vinegar, salt, cumin & oregano. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, cover and boil gently for 10 minutes. Stir in sugar. Return to a boil and boil gently, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until mixture is thickened. Remove from heat.

[If canning:] Ladle salsa into hot jars to within 1/2" of rim. Process 20 minutes in a water bath canner for half-pint and pint jars. [I am not going to post extensive instructions on how to can food, because I'm still new to it. It's not hard, but it does require some special equipment that you actually do need if you don't want to burn yourself. Here's a good website: Canning Across America. I also really like the book Blue Ribbon Preserves by Linda Amendt. And here's the USDA's food safety publication about canning, if you're worried.)

You know why the Copper Hog sells colcannon (i.e. Ireland's entry in the Best Comfort Foods Ever contest) for $4 per huge bowl?

Because it's about the cheapest food there is.

Especially when you get free milk: whoever anonymously donated a huge pile of bread and PB&J to Anacortes' outdoor music festival last weekend is a really cool person, but what did they expect the crowd to do with 9 cans of evaporated milk? I brought one home, and I don't know whether anyone took any of the others.

Also, last week Cedarville gave us one metric shit-ton of cabbage in our CSA box. So I bought some potatoes, pulled some butter out of the freezer, and within half an hour I had this delicious bowl of colcannon that I am eating right now. Which cost practically nothing to make.

Colcannon - adapted from the Gourmet cookbook
makes a whole bunch (enough for 4-8 people, depending whether it's a side or a main dish)

easily veganized: just sub out the dairy for vegan equivalents

2 heads of green cabbage (about 4 cups)
about 2 lbs of potatoes (I am a snob for Yukon Golds)
1 cup whole milk (I used 1/2 evaporated milk and 1/2 water, because that's what I had)
1 stick butter, cut into tablespoons (8)
salt & pepper

Cut each head of cabbage in half and remove the solid cores. Coarsely chop the leaves. Put chopped cabbage in a pot with the milk, butter, and pepper to taste. Heat to simmering and cook 10-15 minutes or till cabbage is tender. (I disbelieved the recipe about how much milk I would need, and ended up with something soupier than intended. It's still delicious that way, but the moral of the story is that cabbage cooks down, so the amount of liquid you need is less than it first may appear.)

Meanwhile, cut potatoes into 2" pieces and put in a pot with salted water to cover. Boil 15 minutes, or till tender, and drain. Add cabbage mixture to potatoes and mash. Eat.

I've intended to make molé for years--partly because it's delicious, and partly because restaurants hardly ever put it on anything vegetarian, so I can't just be lazy and make other people do it for me.

The thing with molé is that most recipes (I'm assuming: accurate ones) call for about fifty-nine ingredients. And while the actual preparation is simple, I don't always have the forethought to get all the pumpkin seeds and fresh chilies and all that before I'm hungry.

Today, already hungry, I ran across a recipe I've had for years (why do I have a recipe box when I never look through it?) that is just a whole lot simpler than all that. So simple, I had everything I needed:

Veggies in Molé - all I wrote down for a source was "Internet, 2004" - but I kinda think intellectual property freakouts about recipes is a little weird anyway

Molé
3 oz pitted prunes (didn't have any, so I substituted raisins, which I did have)
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/3 (?!) tsp cinnamon (I just arbitrarily under-filled my 1/2 tsp spoon for that 1/3)
2 cups water

*1: Combine all this in a blender and purée till smooth. Set aside.
*Notes:
-the problem with the raisins is that they were so small that they just went underneath the blades of the blender and stayed whole. The sauce still tasted fine, just a bit thin. I included the raisins whole and they were delicious sweet interruptions when eating.
-next time I may use a tablespoon and a half of rice syrup in place of the sugar, because that would thicken it up a little, and because it's better for you than sugar, and more delicious.

Veggies
chopped onions
canned tomatoes

Beyond that it's up to you. I made a note that the original recipe called for carrots, zucchini and red bell pepper. In 2004 there's no way in hell I would have included either of the last two. It also called for beans and 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds. When I made it today I used various summer squashes from my fridge. The recipe calls for 4 cups of veggies, but I used less than that and didn't mind the somewhat-soupiness of the result.

*2: Fry onions (and garlic if using) for a few minutes, then add veggies. Cook 10 minutes on medium heat. (Add greens toward the end of recipe, if using.)

*3: Add molé, canned tomatoes, and any beans or seeds you're using. Simmer till veggies are soft and serve over brown rice (I used quinoa).

Once someone asked me, smelling my dinner from across the room, if I was eating couscous and vinegar. I was not, but the point is: having eaten my cooking a number of times, it seemed completely plausible to him that I would rely solely on an epic amount of vinegar to season something for myself. I've since learned to back off on the acidic seasonings, especially when cooking for others, but now you know why I don't often give measurements for seasonings in the recipes I post here. I also know that I "undersalt" things. I don't really like plain salt.



So: capers. Are both salty and acidic. I'm realizing how genius this is.

When I was 18, and still did things like go to Vancouver to have exotic grown-up adventures, I ordered a pizza with capers because I didn't know what they were. It had so many capers on it that it was almost too salty to eat. The actual lesson: capers can be overdone. The lesson I took: I hate capers.

Later I read that capers are berries. Those little salt balls? How can a salt ball be a berry, brine-preserved or no?

Someone brought deviled eggs to a wine-and-cheese party I recently attended. Each was topped with a single caper. I have a serious problem with deviled eggs (they disappear down my mouth whether it's socially appropriate or not), so I had no choice but to eat the caper.

You know what? ONE caper is totally delicious. It tastes like a berry and everything. A salt-berry. It pops in your mouth. It reminds me of how people describe caviar. (I grew up in a trailer court and have been vegetarian since I was eleven; caviar does not really exist to me outside of murder mysteries and The Bell Jar. But it sounds nice.)

So I bought a jar of capers and started experimenting. I like this best so far--quinoa speckled with various green orbs that sometimes pop sweet and sometimes salty:

Caper-Pea-Quinoa Pilaf/Salad/Stuff
2 cups(ish) cooked quinoa
1-2 tsp(ish) capers*
1/4 cup(ish) frozen peas (thawed to room temp if making cold salad)
1/4 cup(ish) scallions or onions**
oil & vinegar (or, if you're me, sauerkraut juice and a little BBQ sauce, because you're an acid fiend who sometimes eats like a three-year-old)

Mix. Serve hot or cold.

*Look next to the vinegar and olives and stuff in the store.

**Scallions/"Green onions" not being actual onions, I'm not sure what to call the immature red onions a fiddle student brought me from his home garden. That's what I used and they were RAD. I've also been cooking a lot with "garlic greens" (immature garlic) from my Cedarville CSA share... oh man.

Sometimes when I don't post here for a long time it's because I made 49 gross things in a row and I'm embarrassed to admit it. I tend to make shit up as I go along, take notes when it fails, and take notes as I succeed. Sometimes I also just don't get around to posting. In the interest of this being a cooking journal:

Things I Recommend
-Raspberry/Apple/Green Pea/Balsamic Wontons (I have posted quite enough wonton recipes; you can figure it out)

-Tarragon Cream Sauce (recipe below, copied from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, et. al., a recent library find) - on everything - pizza, pasta, asparagus and oyster mushrooms

-Homemade chai liqueur: 2 cups very strong brewed chai tea, 2 cups vodka, 1 tbsp to 1/4 cup honey (to taste); let sit a day or three. I made it up but I bet I'm not the only one. It's awesome with vanilla almond milk and/or coffee.

Things I Don't Recommend
-Buying oyster mushrooms more than a day before you want to use them (unless you like 'em a menacing neon yellow)

-Soy milk, butternut squash, and enchilada sauce soup (just... don't)

-Using soy milk in cooking at all! Why is it so prevalent? Soy is such a distracting flavor. Also there is soy in every processed food and eating too much of it fucks with our hormones. Great alternatives: Oat, hemp, almond. Hazelnut, if you're making a dessert.

-Making vegan ice cream with pineapple in it when you actually hate the taste of pineapple. (Who wants to come over and have some? It also has fig and almond in it.)

Tarragon Cream Sauce (technically not cream sauce as it has no cream)
( recipe )

How I'm progressing on my previously-posted food-related goals
Holy crap; I think everyone should make a list of things they want to accomplish by a certain date. Having this list always in front of me helps me prioritize and make sure that I'm moving forward at least a little bit every single day. Here's the updated list:

( list )

I love you all.

1) RICOTTA
I was always a little confused about why ricotta is used as a filling so often. I never thought it was a bad cheese, just a bit too bland for the things people put it in. (I grew up making lasagne with cottage cheese and I still think that's delicious, not to mention cheaper and lower in fat.)

Then, last night I made it from scratch. Holy crap. Right now I am eating angel hair pasta with fresh ricotta, peas, a little olive oil, rosemary, and garlic. I can't imagine doing that with store-bought ricotta.

( this is how friggin' easy ricotta is to make )

2) TORTILLAS
Here's another thing I recently made for the first time and found so easy to make that I doubt I'll buy them very often in the future. They're also a lot cheaper than storebought tortillas.

( How to make flour tortillas )

----
I recently made a list of things I want to do before I turn 30. (That's a little over four years away, for those who haven't been counting.) Probably one of them should be "obsess less over food so I don't immediately turn into an arthritic blimp when my metabolism slows down" but that's not on the list. Here are the food-related goals, which apparently constitute over 20% of the sum total of my goals for my life:

( the food-related goals )

Many of these things, I realize, boil down to this: a lot of the food we Westerners eat seems to appear on our table as if by magic. It's hard to imagine the plants that grow our food, or the people who raise our food, or the processes by which raw ingredients turn into the stuff we eat. Fermented foods, especially, can seem like things that can only be made by faceless factory processes, since hardly anyone makes them. So when we make (or grow) these things ourselves, it feels magical! And I like magic.

I don't buy a whole lot of California produce (and hardly ever stuff from outside the U.S.), but this SUN that has finally arrived here in western Washington makes me frown at all the aging Washington parsnips and rutabagas in the store and whine but I want aspaaaaragus! So today I made a soup that meets somewhere in the middle: local potatoes and turnip, California leeks, with some (Californian) lemon and chilis to make it bright shiny happy.

Bright Shiny Happy Potato Leek Soup

4 leeks
1-3 Anaheim peppers (feel free to experiment with Serrano or habañero)
oil to fry
3-5 Yukon Gold potatoes (peeled to mitigate the gross-looking-ness)
1 turnip (you could replace this with another potato, but why?)
6 cups veggie or fake chicken broth
1-2 bay leaves (I am not actually sure whether this matters)
6-8 preserved lemon wedges (recipe here), or a buttload of lemon juice and salt to taste

1) Chop the leeks & pepper(s). You want all of the white part of the leek and as far up into the green as you can go before it gets all leafy/stem-y/not-food-ish. I didn't de-seed my Anaheim, or chop it particularly finely. You might want to de-seed and dice a hotter chili, unless you want it to obliterate the other flavors.

2) Sauté leeks & pepper(s) in a soup pot in a little oil over medium heat while you chop the potatoes (and turnip, if using.) Add potatoes & turnip and stir well.

3) Add broth and bay leaves, if using. Bring just to a boil, then turn down and let simmer till the potatoes are soft.

4) Remove bay leaves. Transfer to a blender/food processor in batches: use a slotted spoon to fill the blender about 1/3 of the way with veggies. Ladle in about half as much liquid and you used veggies. Then add 1-3 preserved lemon wedges (unless you're using juice & salt, which you can add at the end of the soup-making process.) Purée till smooth. Pour into a bowl and do another batch. (If you try to do a whole bunch at once, your blender will explode soup-fireworks that will burn you and make you cry.)

5) Put it all back in the pot and reheat if needed. Eat.

Moving is stressful. Sometimes I find it hard to keep hold of that basic fact, instead of yelling at every specific person about whatever specific thing is bothering me at the moment.

Also, I've noticed that when I'm stressed out, I stop making time for vegetables. And not eating vegetables makes me more stressed out.

Here then are the "Calm-the-(@!%-Down Wontons" I made myself yesterday, full of root veggies and greens to balance me out, but also deep-fried for maximum comfort-induction, and full of garlic for maximum deliciousness:

1 package of 48 wonton wrappers** (you won't need the whole package)
1 or 1½ cups oil (I used a combination of canola and toasted sesame)
1 small parsnip, minced
½ small turnip or 1/3 small rutabaga, minced
2 or more cloves of garlic, minced
2 leaves collard greens, stems removed and minced, leaves chopped
3 or 4 leaves dandelion greens, stems removed and minced, leaves chopped
1½ tsp mirin (cooking sake) or rice vinegar, or to taste
1½ tsp soy sauce or liquid aminos, or to taste
½ tsp ume vinegar (optional)
a few shakes of cayenne (optional)
several shakes of garlic powder

Note: double or triple these amounts if you're cooking for more than 1 or 2 people, or if you just want extra filling leftover to make more wontons later. (You might have leftovers with these amounts, if you're not that hungry.)

--Here's an easy way to chop greens: cut the stem off below the leaf and mince. Then roll the leaf up, bottom to top, so you have a little burrito. Cut thin slices from one end of the burrito to the other. Now you have what I think is called "chiffonade"; plus, you aren't all pissed off that leaves are flying everywhere or glued to your cutting board.

--Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Do it while you cut the veggies; oil takes a long time to heat.

--Put all the cut veggies, garlic, mirin, soy sauce, ume vinegar and cayenne (if using) in a bowl. Stir.

--Put a little water in a small bowl; you'll have to dip your fingers in it when rolling the wontons. Put a double or triple layer of paper towels on a plate, and place near the stove.

--Take one wonton wrapper in the palm of your hand (or set it on another plate.) Put about one or two teaspoons of filling into the center. (I just use a normal eating spoon, and only fill the spoon about halfway.) If you put too much filling in, you won't be able to seal the wonton. Dip your fingers in water and wet the edges of the wrapper, then wrap according to package directions--or just fold into a triangle, as I tend to do.

--Drop the wonton into the oil. If it doesn't sizzle, be patient. You probably don't need to turn the heat up, unless it continues not to sizzle for ten minutes or so. If you drop the wonton in and it flips out (turns brown immediately, spits and makes a huge racket), turn the heat down a bit. You want to get to the point where the wontons are browning within 30 seconds to a minute, and are noisy but not scary-noisy.

--Keep making wontons and adding them to the oil, using a slotted spoon to flip them over when they are brown on the underside.

--When brown on both sides, take them out with the slotted spoon and drain on the paper towel-plate. Shake a little garlic powder over. (At some point there'll be enough powder on the plate that you can stop adding more to the new wontons.) Put some more filled wontons in the oil.

--Eat as you go, or keep the finished ones warm in a low-temperature oven. Keep going till you're full, and then put any leftover filling in the fridge for later.

**You could also make these into egg rolls; just get egg roll wrappers instead of wonton wrappers, and do them up the same way.

1) Rice and lentils, together as one.

I can't believe I never tried throwing beans in with grain when boiling grain normally. I forgot that lentils do that thing where they sort of melt together; this made the rice turn out risotto-ish. I seasoned with rice vinegar, soy sauce, a splash of ume vinegar. Hooray! Macrobiotic comfort food. I love healthy food that feels fattening.


2) Hot & Sour Butternut-Yam Soup, which I adapted from a Pumpkin Soup recipe in the Gourmet cookbook. I am such a nerd for that book. This soup is so much more complex/subtle than, um, most things I make. But it's still really really flavorful and spicy. It's also a thinner, silkier (read: classier) soup than usual for me, so that's cool.

1 small butternut squash, peeled & cubed (1½ to two cups)
1 large yam/sweet potato (the orange-inside kind), peeled and cubed - (1½ to two cups)
1-2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup mirin (cooking sake; available all over but WAY cheaper at the Asian market)
8 cups (fake) chicken stock (I used Better Than Bouillon)
1" piece of fresh turmeric root, peeled and chopped (I thought it was galangal, because I believed Terra Organica. I am a fool! But turmeric is good too.)
2 stalks lemongrass.
4 kaffir lime leaves (Anyone know where to get them in Bellingham? I found mine at Uwajimaya in Seattle. You could leave them out, but it would be sad.)
4-5 dried chilies (the kind that are cheap in the "Hispanic" section of Haggen)
1 tbsp sugar

a) Peel & chop the squashies/rootsies first 'cuz that takes a long time.
b) Heat 1tbsp oil in your soup pot. Throw in the onion, ginger, and garlic. Stir till the oil coats the food. Cover the pot and wait 4 minutes. (I dunno; that's just the number the book said.)
c) Add the squash, yam, and mirin. Simmer five minutes, or till mirin is reduced by half.
d) Add stock. Cover, bring to boil, and simmer 20 minutes.
e) Meanwhile, chop up the bottom 5" of each lemongrass stalks, then sauté with the turmeric root and chilies for 1 minute. Set aside.
f) Pureé the stock/veggies/etc. in the blender/processor. IN BATCHES. Don't fill the blender more than 1/3 of the way up per batch, unless you love burning your hand and spraying soup all over your kitchen and boyfriend, as I apparently do.
g) Transfer the soup back to the pot. Stir in the lemongrass mixture and the sugar. Simmer another 20 minutes.
h) Force through a medium-mesh sieve into a big bowl. Throw away the stuff that is left in the sieve.
i) Season with salt & pepper. Go easy; it's spicy already.
j) I found this super-tasty with toasted dark rye sourdough to dip in.

I'm moving right now. Apparently my favorite thing to do when moving is lose my keys, so that have to pay $95.00 to have my old apartment re-keyed, and so that I can't actually get into my new house unless my boyfriend is around.

Most of my food is in the house I can't get into. If this weren't the case, I might never have invented this rad thing, using about 95% of what happened to still be in the apartment:

No-Keys Sloppy Schmoe

leftover grain (I had spelt; rice, barley, or rye would also be really good in this)
tempeh, crumbled into smallish pieces (Or chopped, if you actually still have a damn knife in the house.)
frozen peas (corn would also be really good, and/or butternut squash cubes)
bottled strained tomatoes (the canned tomato sauce--not marinara, but the thin stuff--is about the same thing)
barbecue sauce (I'm hooked on Trader Joes'... I know, I know)
garlic powder
pepper (I used white)

Put all these things except the peas in a pot. Simmer 10 minutes, then add the peas, and simmer 5-10 minutes more or until the tempeh is as done as you want it. I'm not telling you how much of each seasoning to use because I don't think you could possibly make this gross; just follow your instincts.

This is my new favorite thing. But I want my keys back.

Tactics I've been abusing lately:

-Frozen peas and frozen corn don't have to be chopped. (Those frozen mixed veggies work too, but I'm irrationally grossed out by them.) I like to add them to the noodle-boiling water when making spaghetti, mac & cheese, etc., or throw them in the pot when reheating leftovers. If you're frying, be prepared for the ice crystals on the veggies to spit oil at you.

-Baby greens (mixed salad, or arugula, spinach, etc.) cook instantly if you line a colander with them before straining your noodles.


The most delicious of my recent cop-out meals:

Soba noodles
Frozen peas
Mixed baby salad greens
1 tbsp ish mushroom sauce (check the Asian market, or substitute oyster sauce if you're the carnivorous type)
1 tbsp ish barbecue sauce
1/2 tbsp + wasabi mayonnaise

1) Boil the soba noodles and peas for 6 minutes or whatever the noodle package says.

2) Line your colander with the greens and dump the noodles & peas over the top.

3) Transfer to bowl and add the condiments. Careful with the mayo; a little goes a long way. (You could also just leave out the mayo.)

I made this up for the potluck at Chris' house on Sunday, to which no one else brought food. I had made the preserved lemons the week before (see below) and decided I'd better experiment with using them before I forgot about them in the back of my refrigerator. This is a sweet, salty, and I think pretty yummy salad.

Black Rice & Preserved Lemon Salad

2 cups cooked black rice (it really would not be the same with brown)
4 wedges preserved lemon (see below)
1 1/2 tbsp (ish) balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp (ish) rice syrup (or agave syrup, or however you like to deliver sugar)
2 tbsp (ish) raisins
2 or 3 or 5 dried apricot slices
chopped green onions or chives would probably be good; I didn't try it

Soak raisins and apricots in boiling water, covered, for ten or fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, scoop lemon flesh into a sieve placed over a bowl. Dice lemon peels and add to rice. Push lemon juice out of the lemon guts with a spoon, so the juice lands in the bowl. Add lemon juice and vinegar and sugar to the rice. Drain fruits, dice apricots, and add fruits (and green stuff, if using) to rice. Stir well and stick in the fridge till eating time.


Moroccan Preserved Lemons - from Gourmet Cookbook

This recipe makes 48 wedges, and they have to sit five days before use. Also they are DAMN salty, but in a good way, if balanced with other things that are sweet.

10 to 12 lemons (2 1/2 to 3 lb) - Meyers are delicious.
2/3 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Blanch 6 lemons in boiling water 5 minutes, then drain. Cut each lemon into 8 wedges and discard seeds. Toss with kosher salt in a bowl, then firmly pack with salt into jar.

Squeeze lemon juice from remaining lemons to measure 1 cup. Add enough juice to cover lemons and screw on lid. Let stand at room temperature, shaking jar gently once a day, 5 days. Add oil to lemons and chill, covered. Lemons keep, chilled, 1 year.

Someone posted recently about not knowing what to do with a crock pot. It reminded me that I have a crock pot. So I made this:

.1 pie pumpkin (three pounds, maybe?)
.2 shallots (onions would have been fine, especially red onions)
.5 cloves garlic
.oil to fry
.4-5 dried chilies (the ones that are cheap in the Asian market or Latino foods section of Haggen)
.7 cups broth (I made mine with veggie Better than Bouillon)
.2 tbsp (ish) garam masala
.2 tsp (ish) ground ginger (fresh would have been better)
.1½ tbsp (ish) maple syrup
.1 tbsp (ish) soy sauce


1) Peel, de-seed, and cube pumpkin. Insert into crock pot.
2) Chop shallots/onions & garlic (and fresh ginger, if using). Fry with chilies in oil til onions are translucent. Throw into the crock pot.
3) Add broth to pot and cook 2 hours. (I put mine on the "auto-shift", which alternates between high and low heat. My crock pot is about 40 years old; yours may be more elegant in its options.)
4) Add spices and cook on high another hour.
5) Process in batches in a blender or food processor.
6) Add maple syrup and soy sauce.
7) EAT


Garam masala + pumpkin = a soup worthy of that guy in The Fall who wears a turban and lives in a "wigwam." Sigh.

It hurts me to see Minute Rice in so many of my friends' kitchens. I am not being elitist here; I'm just saying: Minute Rice is expensive and bad for you.

Whereas, Pot-boiled rice cheap, good for you, and easy.

1) Put rice in a pot.
2) Add two and a half times that much water. (Just 2:1 water:rice if it's white rice, but you should make brown rice*.)
3) Cover and boil.
4) Turn it down and go do your homework for 50 minutes. (Less for white; don't make white.) DON'T stir or the rice will burn. Trust me.
5) Eat some delicious rice.

*If you don't like brown rice, mix it 50/50 with white rice until you do, or start throwing it in with your spaghetti, or whatever it takes to get used to it. It is so much better for you, and ultimately cheaper because it's more filling.

Rice is also not the only grain.

You can make quinoa, amaranth, teff, millet, or bulgar wheat about as quickly as mac & cheese. Spelt takes an hour but is one my favorites. Rye and barley are also as easy as rice. Oats and polenta have their peculiarities but aren't hard to master either.

Here is a table that shows you the cooking times and grain:water ratios for a bunch of grains.

Make lots and keep the leftovers in the fridge.

Reheat and put with veggies and/or beans (fresh, frozen or canned). When you don't have time for all that, reheat and throw on some condiments. Experiment with combinations of:

-soy sauce (duh)
-any kind of vinegar (rice, balsamic, red wine, white wine, herb-flavored, etc.)
-ume vinegar (which is not actually vinegar, and is very sour & salty)
-mustard
-any kind of bottled sauce (marinara, curry, teriyaki, etc.)
-whatever you find on your spice rack (ginger, garlic, cumin, basil, etc.)
-mirin (rice cooking wine)
-powdered rice condiment from the Asian market (usually contains fish and/or MSG, but is really delicious.)
-seaweed (flaked or soaked/chopped)
-sesame oil
-milk (dairy or non-)
-whatever you find in your cabinets.

Get on it please because: even expensive grains are cheap food. Also, the more you swap out flour products for grains (and chew well), the more nutrients you get and the fewer digestive issues you will have. And I want the best for you.

I spent Christmas with Boy's family in New Jersey, where I received an unexpected, generously-proportioned gift card to Borders. Thus, I now own The Gourmet Cookbook, a giant yellow brick I've wanted in my kitchen for a long time. (I make a point not to own many cookbooks, but this one has EVERYTHING. Want to make your own ketchup? Want to make a Rabbit Terrine? Want to know how Cobb Salad got its name? Here it is.)

Anxious to use the book, I made the Vodka-Spiked Cherry Tomatoes for the New Year's Eve party.

Notes:
-3 pints tomatoes is really more than even a large party of 20-somethings will eat.
-Blanching the tomatoes for 5-6 seconds makes them easier to peel (as opposed to Gourmet's 3 seconds).
-WTF is with the 1-hour max on the marinade? I accidentally prepared these 4 hours ahead, and after the party kept the leftovers in the marinade. Two days later, they are twice as good as they were the night I made them. This is true of most things with lemon peel in them, no?

Anyway, I like them, and I'm glad there were leftovers because they were a rad addition to salad tonight. I also ended up with about a third of a cup of lemony vodka stuff which I used to make delicious carrots tonight:

CARROTS OMG
-4-5 carrots, cut into matchstick-ish things
-leftover lemony vodka broth
-dried basil
-black pepper
-about a tsp of oil

Fry carrots in oil for a couple of minutes. Add vodka stuff and basil, bring to boil, turn heat down to low, cover and simmer 20+ minutes. Mmmmm. I am not phobic of buttery-soft "overcooked" veggies, but if you are, you'll want to start checking the carrots after 10 minutes or so. The longer you let them cook, the more vodka they'll absorb, so it's your loss if you need 'em crunchy.

..

Next cooking goal: get Boy to acquire his mom's cheesecake recipe, because damn.

Does my resistance to colds get worse as I age, or is this just the onset of the Post-Antibiotic Age? Every cold I get seems gnarlier than the last, and far worse than I realized a cold could be.

Anyway, so I haven't been cooking much this week. I've let Boy cook for me, I've eaten pizza (not what a sick person needs nutritionally, but easy), or I've forgotten to eat altogether. When I have cooked, I've aimed for minimal effort and maximum amount of comfort-induction. Such as:

Creamy Fried Rice - this may not be company food, but it kicks ass

leftover cooked brown rice
chopped kale
chopped onion
oil
pepper (I like white)
vinegar (I think I used a combination of rice & balsamic. You could leave this out.)
yogurt

Fry onion as long as you feel like it. (Raw onion is good if you have phlegm to loosen.) Add rice and kale, and stir till the kale is as done as you want it. Add pepper (lots) and vinegar (not so much). Add a couple of spoonfuls of yogurt per bowl and mix in. (I did this because I over-peppered, but in the future I will do it on purpose because it's great.)


Not-quite-instant soup

1 can squash or sweet potato puree
a bouillon cube or tbsp Better Than Bouillon
water (to make desired consistency)
...or you could use premade broth

Whisk over heat. Salt & pepper, or add hot sauce, or be lazy and don't season. I tried mixing in a can of light coconut milk and a can of crushed tomatoes, but it was waaaaay too rich and acidic for me. But go on and experiment with mixing together cans of things; it's fun.

I made this up! It's hummus-inspired, but tastes very little like hummus. Black-eyed peas might be my new favorite thing, all smoky and delicious.

Black-eyed pea dip

2 cups black-eyed peas, cooked*
2-3 tbsp tahini
3-4 tbsp lemon juice, or to taste
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin, or to taste
1-2 tsp garlic powder, or 3-4 cloves roasted garlic
1-2 tbsp soy sauce

Put in blender or food processor, and process to dip consistency.

*How to cook black-eyed peas: soak overnight. (They will double in size. This recipe was the happy result of me soaking 2 cups dry beans for another recipe, then winding up with 4 cups beans and not knowing what to do with the rest.) Drain and rinse, then transfer to pot with water to not-quite cover. (Changing the water supposedly helps get rid of some of the gassiness.) Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered five minutes (which also supposedly de-gasses), then cover and simmer 30-45 minutes till soft.

Or, I suppose, you could use canned beans. But that would be more expensive and less fun.