Peach blueberry chia seed jam

New concept: jam that tastes like the fruit it originally was!

I will now indulge in adverbial musing.

Gustatorily speaking, this jam is superior because it tastes like the fruit it originally was. It has none of that sugar burn that can mask the taste of fresh stone fruits in jams.

Nutritionally speaking, this jam is the tops. The original water content of the fruit is retained (and thus, so is its caloric value). The fruit is not cooked, so vitamins are retained. Chia seeds are nutritional powerhouses.

Economically speaking, I think it's a deal. Chia seeds are on the pricey side, but if you would have used pectin, that cost is gone, and you really don't use that many chia seeds for the jam. Also, it is much faster than other jams, so you have more time. Because you don't cook the peaches down, it makes more per pound of peaches. But then again, you will eat more because it is better than most jams. But then again, if you are eating more of this stuff there is the chance that you will be at the doctor's less. But then again, maybe you will live longer, and that will increase your cost of living. (Clearly I am no economist.)

Visually speaking, you have to overcome the fact that the chia seeds look like bugs. Our first batch had only peaches, and the bugs were especially noticeable. Owl threw in blueberries in the second batch, and that helped immensely. In the end, we went with it and called it "Bug Jam." The owl-cats smiled and ate it.

Historically speaking, this is a rare treat. Michael Pollan says that you shouldn't eat anything your grandmother would not have recognized as food. Well, sorry, Mr. Pollan, but I'm guessing Grandma would have tossed out "Bug Jam." What's more, Grandma had to put a whole lot of sugar in her jam as an anti-bacterial agent. So that's one food rule that should sometimes get tossed.

Blogatorially speaking, we are not original. Everyone out there has a recipe for this stuff (for good reason). Lemon juice may be added to help retain color or for brightness. Some people use fewer chia seeds.

Peach Blueberry Chia Seed Jam (a.k.a. Bug Jam)
A flexible recipe, depending on how much you have. See step 2 for guidelines on amounts.

Peaches
Blueberries (frozen fine)
Chia seeds
Sweetener (maple syrup, agave syrup, honey, sugar--or stevia if you go for that sort of thing, but add less)

0. Wash fruit. Peel peaches (or not--I'm guessing it would be fine with peels if you trust your peaches)
1. Blend up peaches and blueberries.
2. For every 1 cup of blended fruit, add

• 1 tablespoon chia seeds*
• up to 1 tablespoon of sweetener of choice, to taste

3. Refrigerate for an hour to let it thicken.
4. Slather on toast. Eat. Rave. Repeat.
5. Storing: Everything I've seen says this will keep for 1 week in the refrigerator. I am going to freeze some and see how it goes. I don't want to can it, but some have.

*CHIA SEED UPDATE 9/20/13: I made another batch with very ripe peaches. That meant they were more watery. After the hour refrigeration time, I had to add more chia seeds. I checked it again an hour later and it was perfect. Just know that the amount of chia seeds may need to be adjusted depending on the fruit you have. I probably ended up at 1 1/2 tablespoons of chia seeds per cup of fruit.

Best High-altitude Snickerdoodles (so far)

A surprisingly reliable recipe for smiles

These cookies once fetched $50/plate at a charity bake sale. That may speak better of the donor than the cookie, but trust me, this is a worthwhile cookie. A crunch on the outside, a chewy softness on the inside. (For those of you who bake at sea level, just know that those are not givens with snickerdoodles at high altitudes.)

I have to thank Owl, who has never complained at all the taste-testing involved in getting this recipe right.

These cookies freeze very well after being baked. It is always nice to have something in the freezer for a last-minute get-together. Thaw at room temperature for an hour. Then be prepared for compliments.

Youngest owl-cat said, "Smile, cookie!"

High-altitude Snickerdoodles
Note: You can chill the dough or bake right away. I haven't noticed a great difference in flavor or texture, but sometimes it is convenient to chill the dough. The dough is a bit wetter when baking right away, but it tastes the same after baking.

Dry stuff:
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Other stuff:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening (helps with the softness)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons milk

Sugar-cinnamon stuff:
1-3 tablespoons cinnamon, depending on your taste buds (I really like 3 tablespoons.)
3 tablespoons sugar

0. If baking right away, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. Mix dry stuff and set aside. Mix cinnamon-sugar stuff and set aside.
2. Cream butter, shortening, and sugar.
3. Add eggs to butter, then the vanilla, then the milk.
4. Mix well.
5. Add the dry stuff slowly. Mix until it all comes together.
6. Optional: Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill.
7. Roll dough into balls (2 tablespoons is a good starting place. Adjust when you find your preferred size. I have even made big 1/4-cup dough balls. Big cookies make Owl feel special.)
8. Roll dough balls in sugar-cinnamon stuff.
9. Bake. In my oven, it is about 8 minutes for 1-tablespoon balls, about 10 minutes for 2-tablespoon balls. Bake until puffy and the dough still looks a little wet in the creases.  The edges will be firm and slightly golden, but they may not look quite done to you. (See picture below.)
10. Cool on sheets for 2-5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.
11. Enjoy while warm. Share if you must.

Puffy cookies right out of the oven. They will deflate a bit.

Pandora's peanut butter box

Good chocolate + good peanut butter= danger

Use your knowledge wisely.

Oh, what to do with a glut of plums? Freeze them, jam them, jelly them, but don't can them

Plum jam without pectin

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold 
--William Carlos Williams


Every year Owl prunes the plum tree in February and I think we will have no plums. Then he thins the plum tree in May and I know we will have no plums.

And then August comes, and he brings in a tub of plums each morning. No chance of wreaking this marriage by surreptitiously eating the few scant plums tucked away in the icebox.

What we have found during our plum harvests:

• Flash-frozen plums are great for smoothies or lassis. (Or freeze them and make jam later in the winter when a boiling pot of plum jam adds warmth to your somber day.)
• Plum jelly is divine. It makes beautiful thumbprint cookies at Christmas.
• Plum jam without pectin (recipe forthcoming during some plum season) is fun to make for those of us who grew up thinking pectin was required for all jams and jellies. It is like all those dreams coming true where you actually can fly on your own. (Okay, maybe not that great.)
• Sometimes the aforementioned plum jam without pectin turns out to be plum syrup. It just wanted to be eaten on top of Owl's pancakes or swirled with plain yogurt.
• Plum butter is the most plummy of all. Eat with baguettes and a nice soft cheese.
• In a fit of ambition we canned Chinese plum sauce with star anise in 2010. It is very good with potstickers, but we still have a few awkward jars on the shelf. (To eat or not to eat old canned goods...)
• My plums are not worth canning. They look deceptively like peaches, but when you try to eat them, they are gooshy splooshy. This contradicts other's experience. Possible reasons: 
• Long cook time: I have to adjust for altitude, so when I can in a water bath canner, my processing times go up 5-10 minutes. Would pressure canning (so a lower processing time) help?
• My variety of plum (which I cannot name): My mother says it reminds her of a Jefferson prune. The flesh is orange-ish yellow, the exterior golden-ish with purple deepening as it ripens.
• Related, some people have good luck canning whole plums (of a different variety), and that may keep them in tact. My plums get much too large to fit in the jar whole.
• Most probable: they want to be eaten in their prime and refuse to behave in a jar.

Raspberry Ice Cream

Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. 
--Wallace Stevens

Three more "get-ups"* and the oldest owl-cats will be in school. They are ready. Their mother is not, so she is plying them with rare treats. 

*"get-up"-n-how my mother counts down to a special occasion, as in (literally) three more times "getting up"

Raspberry Ice Cream
2 cups raspberries (frozen fine, but thaw a bit first)
3/4 cup sugar

1 cup milk 
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

0. Make sure your ducks are in a row for making ice cream. For us, with a cuisinart ice cream maker, our bowl needs to be frozen. For some of you, that will mean the whole rock salt/ice thing. For those without ice cream makers, try this ziploc bag solution.
1. Blend berries with sugar in the blender.
2. Strain puree through a fine-mesh sieve.
3. Mix puree with remaining ingredients.
4. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions. Here are mine.
5. Enjoy--with children or with warm brownies.

Musings on canning

Rhubarb pie filling

A few years ago we were at a party with smart people. One commented that she likes to can produce. Her shocked family members accused her of turning "domestic." She just shrugged it off, and said, "I call it sustainable."

And that is how it goes. You can have lush "domestic" canning blogs. Or you can have edgy "punk" canning blogs. And guess what? They both proudly (as do we) put fruits in nice glass bottles and put them on the shelves and eat them in the winter.

But would they talk on the subway?

Oh, what to do with a glut of cucumbers: freezing cucumbers and how to eat them later

Cucumbers ready to freeze

When you have eaten your fill of cucumbers, but the garden is still providing more than you and your neighbors (and your child's piano teacher) can eat, you can freeze them. 

They aren't going to taste exactly fresh, but they are much fresher than a pickle. They are vinegary and sweet and a bit crunchy. It is hard to remember this in the heat of summer, but there will be a very cold day when you trudge into the grocery store only to find a few limp cucumbers waiting for you. Then your heart will warm at the thought of being able to pull these out of your freezer.

We love to eat these cucumbers with braised meats (e.g., pulled pork sandwiches) or spicy Asian food.

Freezer Cucumbers

7 cups cucumbers sliced thin (not peeled)
1 cup onions sliced thin
1 tbsp kosher salt (or non-iodized)
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon celery seeds

0. Prep freezer containers. (Wash them and rinse in boiling water or wash them in the dishwasher.)
1. Place cucumbers in a colander and sprinkle them with salt. Put on a timer for 1 hour.
2. In a medium pot combine vinegar, sugar, and celery seeds. Bring to a boil, and then stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. After your cucumber timer sounds, drain the cucumbers. (Do not rinse.)
4. Mix cucumbers with onions.
5. Put vegetables into freezer containers.
6. Pour vinegar mixture over vegetables, leaving 1-inch headspace. Freeze.

Variation: You can also add 1 cup of sliced red bell pepper. It adds a nice color.

Blueberry coffecake

Coffee cake (or, as we call it here in the land where the Bong-tree grows, "breakfast cake" or "giant muffin") is beautiful to eye and tongue. It can be made better, however. Add fruit.

In the fall and winter I like to dice a fresh apple. In spring and summer I add a cup of thawed frozen blueberries. I fold them in after I combine the ingredients together, before I pour them in the pan. It takes a few minutes longer to cook, but wow. It almost makes me want to open a B&B so I can share it with the world.

And yes, that's a cast iron skillet. It makes a beautiful muffin.

Cooking with kids: Quick pizza dough

Friday night dinners are made by the oldest owl-cat (10 years old). Owl and I have been surprised at how able he is in the kitchen. I think most kids like to get into the kitchen and feel independent, but maybe that is because I did. The funny thing is, my mother hated to cook, so instead of believing me that I liked to cook, she did most of the cooking as a service to me. I am guessing that she thought I would have to do enough of that later. (I love you, Mom.)

Owl had his own night to cook from age 8. He remembers making cinnamon rolls and jambalaya. Owl had a lot of siblings (10). They all learned to cook well with that much experience, and now family dinners are very tasty events.

Kids will need supervision making pizza at first (especially with the oven), but the patience required will come easily as you think forward to all those great meals they are going to cook for you in your old age.

Quick Pizza Dough

Dry stuff:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:

1 cup warm water

2 teaspoons yeast*

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons oil

0. Heat oven to 425 degrees

1. Mix wet stuff.

2. Mix dry stuff.

3. Add wet stuff to dry stuff and mix very well. You can use a mixer like a KitchenAid or Bosch, but hands work well too. It just takes longer (and then you have crazy dough hands you can chase your little brother with).

4. Let rest 5 minutes.

5. Oil your pan. 

6. Press into pan with oiled hands (pictured below). If there are a few flour lumps, just massage them as you press out the dough. If the dough doesn't want to stretch out, just let it rest a few minutes and then go back to pressing it.

6. Add pizza ingredients (Owl-cats like spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni.)

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

8. Enjoy!

*I am baking at high altitude. If this doesn't rise nicely for you sea-level devils, try 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.

Pressing out the pizza dough.

And for the grownups--deep dish veggie pizza with alfredo

Eating weeds: Purslane trumps pizza

For once, I am out of words. The middle owl-cat (7) proclaimed in a fit of passion that he prefers this dinner to pizza.

Michael Pollan tipped me off to the culinary potential of this unassuming weed that is full of vitamins and omega-3s. We tried it a while ago in a salad, but it is a bit hard to eat raw after weeding it out of the vegetable patch for years. It may be a bit like someone telling you, "Go ahead, add raw chicken to your salad. It's actually a real cancer fighter!" It's just hard to get past some things.

But after I tried out this recipe for verdolagas last week, we had to have it again this week. It's that good.

I hate to replicate recipes that another hard-working food-blogger has put together and deserves credit for. I will describe the basic steps, so you get an idea of what it is. Then you can go to the source for the recipe. It's brilliant.

Of course, you could always substitute spinach for the purslane, but how fun would that be?

Verdolagas (see link for full recipe; my recommendations in italics):

1. Make a simple green tomatillo salsa in the blender.
2. Boil 2 diced potatoes in salted water (suggested, but not used in the original)
3. Wash and chop the purslane (stems and all).
4. Boil the purslane. Add a little lemon or lime juice to the water in an attempt to preserve the color of the bright green leaves.
5. Heat oil in a pan. Toss in some garlic. Add the green salsa.
6. Drain purslane and add it to the green salsa.
7. Drain potatoes and add it to the green salsa and purslane.
8. Heat a cast iron pan. Heat corn tortillas on the cast iron until there are brown specks on one side. I make a quesadilla with a corn tortilla, split it open and proceed with step 9. The owl-cats like cheddar. I like feta in mine. 
9. Fill tortillas and roll up like a taquito. Or fill with other veggies and eat like a taco.
10. Be prepared for compliments.

Quinoa bowl, pasta bowl: adults happy, kids happy (and a parenting book review too!)

I have to redeem myself after the gazpacho post. I do care about my children--and even their taste buds.

A great parenting book is John Gottman's Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting. For me, the central theme of this book is very other-centered, that you need to respect your child and his emotions. (I only have boys, so this is not being gender-exclusive. I am sure you want to understand girls too, though I am beginning to think I wouldn't know how to.) 

Gottman says you need to have empathy, to imagine your child’s emotional world, and seek to understand him. You need to imagine how dependent he is on you and how he perceives your actions toward him. (He asks something like, "Would you like it if one of your co-workers were to treat you in a similar manner?") Gottman sees your goal as a parent as being able to help your child deal effectively with strong emotions and to help him be independent in that, to become a “self-soother.” 

So when I try to empathize with my children's taste buds, I think of my own taste buds as a child. Rhubarb was out of the question as were beets and turnips and other things I didn't even know I liked until I was 30. My mom didn't push the issue and now I eat almost anything (except Skittles, blood sausage, and sodium benzoate).

Children have more sensitive taste buds, and, according to at least one case study (our own), red heads have ultra sensitive taste buds. Before we adults congratulate ourselves on refinement, we may be able to handle more intense tastes simply because we have fewer taste buds (many of them being killed off by doing taxes).

This grain bowl was a hit at our house. It is more an amalgam of recipes that can be adjusted to taste than a single do-it-my-way-or-hit-the-highway recipe. I remembered a favorite dinner with friends--penne with pesto, green beans, and boiled potatoes. That inspired our choice of vegetables.

Everybody Happy Grain Bowls

Grains:

Cooked quinoa (favorite way to cook quinoa)

Cooked sea shell pasta

(Cooked brown rice would also be nice.)

Sauces:

Pesto

Tomato-based sauce (I use America's Test Kitchen)

(A light Alfredo would also be nice.)

Veggies:

Sauteed mushrooms (shallots are a nice addition to this)

Cooked green beans (I love the whole green beans available at my Costco)

Boiled diced potatoes (or for an extra Wow level, try my favorite roasted potatoes)

(Cooked carrots or yellow summer squash or cauliflower would have worked well for my children)

Set everything out buffet style. You can either let your children go crazy on their own or act like that grumpy guy at the pasta bar they've been to. Act extra stingy about giving them vegetables--they will want them all. Something about scarcity inspires desire.

White gazpacho (Don't invite the kids.)

White gazpacho, garnished with chives, olive oil, and grapes

Of course there are two kinds of parents in the world: those who cater to their children's taste buds and those who don't. I often masquerade as the first, but if I sustain that too long, I want to bite someone. 

The owl-cats are good to tolerate my experiments even if they don't relish them all. If nothing else, it builds their character. They don't get an alternative meal every day, but we have adopted my sister's rule that once a week, they can choose to say, "No thanks" to a dinner and eat a peanut butter sandwich or quesadilla instead--as long as they at least try whatever I've spent hours making. 

(Is it just me, or is there an inverse relationship between the amount of time you spend on a dish and how much the kiddies like it?)

So, yes, you have guessed it. They didn't like my white gazpacho.

White gazpacho makes sense if you think about it (history-wise). Tomatoes are not indigenous to Spain. When they came from the new world, then the Spaniards tossed them here and there and everywhere, as did every thinking cuisine. 

But before tomatoes there was stale bread, and grapes, and olive oil, and nuts. And there were hot summers. (Cue: Spanish guitar music)

And so--buen provecho--White Gazpacho.

This recipe comes from that extensive site, Simply Recipes. I did not have blanched almonds on hand, only raw almonds, so I substituted the skinless macademia nuts I had in the freezer from our adventure in Kauai. They worked beautifully as would pine nuts.

I found this cold soup surprisingly satisfying. (Sometimes cold soups are anything but.) It was sweet and salty, full-bodied and refreshing.

Owl said this tasted Spanish--he did spend two years there. I said I wasn't so sure. Only a trip can settle this.

Homemade paneer triumph

Homemade paneer, pictured with garden-fresh herbs

I have to be upfront. I don't want to disparage you from making paneer, that wonderful Indian cheese, but it did take me an hour stirring the milk as it boiled (granted I did make a double-batch). The 10-year-old owl-cat, old-soul that he is, said, "Was that really worth your time?" Perhaps because it had turned out well, I could give an optimistic answer, but at that moment it struck me that even had it not turned out well, I would still have said it was worth my time. That is a fine measure for a hobby or passion or addiction--whatever we are going to label this food-experiment thing.

Musings aside, this cheese was delicious. I made it to cube and turn into Saag Paneer (a.k.a. Palek Paneer), one of the best things Indian cuisine has done to spinach. It was heavenly for this purpose, but there are a number of other ways to eat it. (Many are listed in Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian.)

Before trying out this recipe, this video is a great introduction to making paneer. 

Homemade Paneer

adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian; Note: I doubled the recipe to good effect.

1/2 gallon (8 cups) whole milk

3-4 tablespoons white vinegar

0. Line a colander with cheesecloth. Place colander over large bowl.

1. Heat milk in large pot over medium heat.

2. Stir gently to keep milk from burning on the bottom of the pot. (I read nonstick may work well, but I don't have a large nonstick pan.)

3. Keep stirring. Read a cookbook while to wait. Or Crime and Punishment.

4. Keep stirring. Not vigorously, just a gentle motion along the bottom of the pot.

5. When the milk boils, stir in 3 tablespoons of vinegar. Stir. It will start to curdle. It will look like cottage cheese swimming in a yellow liquid. You may need to add another tablespoon of vinegar if it does not curdle.

6. Strain the curds through the colander. Keep the yellow liquid (whey) for making bread if you do that kind of thing.

7. Now you can use the curds as is or fully drain the curds, twist the cheesecloth so that you have a nice round bundle of cheese. 

8. Place your cheese bundle on a plate, cover with another plate, and weight it down with whatever will hold still. Small children are not good at this task. 5-lb dumbbells are as would be several of Owl's more hearty tomes of philosophy.

9. After 5-10 minutes you have paneer. 

Applesauce-oatmeal Pancakes (Dairy-free, Gluten-free)

These did not begin life in an attempt to be either gluten-free or dairy-free, it just turned out that way. They were an attempt at oatmeal pancakes that I considered edible, an attempt at an autumnal version of my favorite food.

The problem with oatmeal is it has no gluten. You don't want too much gluten in pancakes, of course, but if you don't have any gluten, nothing will hold them together and nothing will hold the air bubbles. The pancakes will fall apart and will be gluey. You should put them back into the bowl and eat them with a spoon. I tried cooking the oatmeal first, letting it soak overnight, and including wheat flour. Finally I settled on soft-whipped egg whites and applesauce.

I originally intended the applesauce to give the pancakes an apple flavor, but it didn't. Any apple flavor cooks right out of the pancakes. Now, normally applesauce is used in baking as a pectin, often as a substitute for fat. Here I'm using it not to replace fat but to replace liquid and starch. I'm not sure why it works (for an intro to the chemistry of cooking with applesauce, look here), but it does. The pancakes have a great texture and flavor: definitely a keeper. Cat says she prefers them to my regular pancakes. I say don't be ridiculous. But they are good enough for weekday fare.

They take longer to cook than regular pancakes--maybe 4 minutes a side instead of 2. Just something to watch out for. Cat also says she think the cast iron is essential, since you want a good browning on the outside to contrast with the soft interior.

Applesauce-Oatmeal Pancakes

Good enough for weekday fare.

ingredients
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups applesauce
3 eggs, separated
3 T liquid fat (we usually use coconut oil, but be aware that it has a strong flavor)

instructions
0. Fire up your stove and put on the cast iron to get hot.
1. Throw everything but the egg whites into a blender or food processor. Mix it all up.
2. Whip the egg whites into soft peaks.
3. Fold the whites into the batter.
4. Cook on a griddle.
5. Enjoy! Cat likes powdered sugar and cinnamon; the owl-cats like applesauce; I like apple-buttermilk-cinnamon syrup. (Recipe forthcoming.)

Backward Biscuits

Sometimes we surprise the owl-cats with a backward day. We have dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. This year the owl-cats got into metaphysical tangles about what would actually constitute an opposite day, but truly, what can we expect with a philosopher in the house?

This year, neither Owl nor I could stomach the thought of hamburgers for breakfast, so we made biscuits and gravy, which, in our habitat, is more dinner-like than breakfast-like. It was a hit, as was the rule that the owl-cats had to watch Phineas and Ferb before touching their homework.

This biscuit recipe is a white-flour indulgence. Every attempt I have made at adding whole grains has altered their flakiness.

Warm Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted from any old biscuit recipe you can find. Again, we bake at 4500 feet, so if these don't rise as they should, you may need more leavening--many recipes call for baking powder as well, which we have found to be redundant.

2 cups flour (not whole-wheat, sorry)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 8 chunks
1 cup buttermilk

0. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
1. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) in large bowl or twirl in food processor (with steel blade) a few times.
2. Cut in butter with fork, pastry blender, or by chugging the food processor around 8 times. You want the butter to still be cold. You also want some of the butter to still be in visible chunks, ranging from pea-sized to half that size.
3. Stir in buttermilk. (So if you used the food processor, dump the mixture from step 2 into another bowl.) Don't stir too much. Some of the flour will still feel two dry.
4. Dump it all out on the counter and knead until it comes together and is smooth. It will take about 10 turns to get it that way. You may need to adjust flour/buttermilk if they are too dry or too wet.
5. Roll into a rectangle, 1/2 inch thick (or thicker if you like tall biscuits). Using a round cookie cutter (or mason jar ring or glass), cut out biscuits, reforming leftover dough to cut out more. Alternately, you can just use a knife and cut into squares. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes.
7. Serve hot. Take one quickly before the others disappear. Butter and strawberry jam make this into dessert.

Birthday Peeps!

 Birthday revelry by torchlight

The forces of good from left to right: Little John, Maid Marian, Will Scarlet, Robin Hood (with quiver) and Allin a Dale (also Friar Tuck's backside in hideout)

 Prince John and Sheriff of Nottingham lead a flank of soldiers.

It turns out that knowing Old English is practical--for all your Anglo-Saxon cake decorating needs! 

(translation: Happy Birthday, Owl-Cat!)

The middle owl-cat (seven years old this year!) always requests this chocolate cake for his birthday. And Peeps are a regular feature on his cake. Earlier this year I read Robin Hood to the boys (this wonderful version) and we went to an amazing stage adaptation. So I surprised him with this whimsical setting on his birthday. 

For those of you who, like me, love the idea of dressing Peeps up, you really should see the Washington Post Peeps Show. And then you should try it. 

What I learned:

• Peeps take well to construction-paper clothing. The no-arms thing is very helpful.
• You can stick pins in them--what a dream for a tailor to get that "just right" fit.
• You can cinch a waist out of the bunnies, but good luck doing that for chicks. 

Overnight Whole-grain Waffles

Overnight whole-grain waffles topped with yogurt and rhubarb jam

You want to sleep in. The kids do not. Hold on. This recipe may make that possible.

Alas, I have promised too much. Only time will make that possible. But this recipe is delicious, and when we fit it into our weekend routine, we may get extra sleep. Our routine:

1. Make this recipe Friday night.
2. Set out cereal.
3. Remind our children of the lovely lives hobbits lead and how they too can be hobbitish by eating first breakfast and second breakfast.
4. Try to sleep through the clanging of cereal bowls and spoons and slurping of milk.
5. Finally admit that there is no more sleep to be had with hobbits around, and get up.
6. Fire up the waffle irons and enjoy second breakfast (hoping that no dwarves show up).

Overnight Whole-grain Waffles

Adapted from "Overnight Waffles" by Mark Bittman in How to Cook Everything

Dry stuff:

1/2 teaspoon yeast

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (*see note below)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted (or more, up to 8, as your conscience allows)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

The next morning stuff:

2 eggs

1. Mix the dry stuff.

2. Mix the wet stuff.

3. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff. This will be a thin batter.

4. Cover bowl and leave it out overnight at room temperature. (The milk will not go sour, but if you are a microbiology major your conscience may force you to refrigerate this. I understand. Add another 1/2 teaspoon of yeast and sleep well.)

5. The next morning, brush your waffle iron lightly with oil and then heat it.

6. Separate eggs. Plop yolks into batter and stir. Beat egg whites to soft peak stage. Fold them into the batter. A bit of egg white will still be visible.

7. Bake waffles. My waffle iron requires 1 cup of batter and 2 minutes. 

8. Enjoy. 

*Note on whole wheat pastry flour: This is amazing flour and worth getting, in my opinion, from your local health food store (or, as we do--grind soft white wheat in our wheat grinder). You could also use all-purpose flour or 1 cup all purpose, 1 cup whole wheat. I also really enjoy replacing 1/2 cup of the flour with 1/2 cup cornmeal. Experiment! Enjoy!

Fruit mix

Note from Cat: The oldest owl-cat wrote this recipe when he was five. We made it as an experiment, served it over yogurt, and it became a family favorite! It is a healthy--and beautiful--dessert. We have adjusted the recipe. What follows is the owl-cat's (age 9) post.

Here is the adjusted recipe:

Sauce:

1 or 2 large strawberry per person

Put strawberry(s) in food processor.  Blend until smooth.

Fruit on top:

1 small banana every 2 people
1 large strawberry per person

Cut up strawberry(s) and banana(s) into even slices.

Eat with yogurt.  We do plain, but vanilla would be good too.

Weekday vegetarian feast: chana masala

Owl holding his dinner so patiently. He quotes Parks and Rec, more or less: "Tom is a foodie, which apparently means he takes pictures of his food instead of eating it."

Sometimes you just need to celebrate Wednesdays.

We did.

• Chana masala (Indian chickpea curry)
• Brown rice
• Cabbage salad--this one (with apple cider vinegar and a bit of stone ground mustard in the dressing) because I didn't have time for this one, which looks amazing
• Naan
• And frozen peas for the little one

What we thought: Can we eat like this every night? The owl-cats stuffed the chana masala in their naan, and I almost did a jig right there. My kids are eating chickpeas! Hallelujah!

Happy Lunes de Aguas! Caterpillar bread

Once upon a time Owl lived as a missionary in Salamanca, where the Monday after Easter week finds the city picnicking on the banks of the River Tormes. The reasons for doing so are long past (thank goodness), but we have adopted this lovely tradition of a spring picnic by water. Owl remembers walking with the rest of the town down to the river, past university buildings and farms. Everyone eats hornazo, a bready meat pie with an ornate top crust. We usually make calzones, an Italian relative of hornazo, and a convenient individual-sized picnic food.

This year we found this recipe for caterpillar bread, elegant long stuffed breads that resemble caterpillars. We used the dough and shaping instructions, but filled it with mozzarella, tomato sauce, and ground beef (because that is what we had). The dough is easy and fun to work with. I was tempted to default to my regular pizza dough, but I am glad I did not. I doubled the recipe. I don't know if I miscalculated, but I had to add more flour (1 cup for the doubled recipe) than it called for to get it to the right consistency.

Dough recipe

Our improvised filling (for 10 caterpillar breads, or double the dough recipe):
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
1 glug olive oil
1 14-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 lb. ground beef
spices to taste: basil, oregano, salt, pepper
ground caterpillars (just kidding)

Saute onion in olive oil until tender. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. (23 seconds) Add tomatoes and spices. Simmer until reduced by half at least. You want this fairly dry or it will split the dough when cooking.

In separate pan, brown the ground beef. Add it to tomato sauce.

Use these excellent instructions to roll, fill, and shape.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

What we thought: Delicious--and fun to eat. It is easy to segment these breads, like an orange. The owl-cats devoured them. The almost-two-year-old loved that it was caterpillar bread. Next time we may lessen the elegance by decorating with sliced olives for eyes. We will also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Gluten-free banana waffles

The oldest owl-cat's friend is allergic to tree nuts, gluten, and dairy and possibly more--his siblings have additional allergies. He told my son about the banana waffles: for each person eating, mix 1 mashed ripe banana and 2 eggs. That caught my son's imagination and we tried a variation on that theme, which we found here. I didn't have arrowroot powder, so I substituted cornstarch. The coconut oil on the waffle iron added a nice flavor. The cinnamon was nice--I also added vanilla. 

I tripled this recipe for the five of us, so it looked like this:

3 ripe bananas

9 eggs

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

See the recipe for directions. They took about 2 minutes to cook in my waffle iron. I would think that a non Belgian-waffle iron is the best approach (which is what the linked recipe used as well).

We enjoyed them with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

What we thought: Owl was skeptical at first when he saw the recipe, but we all really enjoyed them--even the littlest owl-cat (22 months old) who refuses to eat eggs (but adores bananas). We will make these again!

The owl-cats clamored for more, so I had to appease them with toast. So, it may be better to think 1 recipe per person if you cook for unusually hearty appetites. 

Food memories from World War II

A few years ago I showed this book to Owl's grandma, who was 13 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. After she looked through the book, she said that they didn't have many of the ingredients listed in the recipes. In rural Utah, those items weren't rationed--they weren't available.

Her dad was the game warden, and she said they often had trout for breakfast.

She also remembered eating

• beef heart with stuffing
• cakes with a jam center that were steamed in cups
• sausage gravy
• her dad's baking powder biscuits with cracklings
• sweet soup made by a Swedish neighbor--a soup with large tapioca, prunes, and raisins

My mother was 5 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. She lived on a fruit farm. They saved most of their rationed sugar for canning and preserving fruit, so she remembers longing for anything sweet. I grew up with dessert nightly (often fruit), and I think that tradition came out of her deprivation as a child.

My father was 9 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. I'm not sure if this was during the war or not, but he remembers his family buying shredded wheat cereal for the first time (the big shredded wheat; not "mini" shredded wheat cereal). They couldn't figure out how best to eat it so they tried boiling it. I don't think any of them were impressed.

Bountiful Basket Review

This is the first time we have ordered a basket, and we found it to be quite bountiful. I noticed a few other sites reviewed their experience--here is one more review.

Advantages:

• It was very fast to order and pick up.
• I had to stop by my regular grocery store after, and I did a quick price comparison. We saved at least $6--and my grocery store has amazing produce prices.
• The rye bread (sourdough with a hint of rye and caraway) was good. We have no good rye bread available in this area unless we make it.
• The quality of the produce was good. The bananas were especially good. The zucchini was perfect. The pineapple was underripe, so I can't comment on quality yet.

Disadvantages

• I would have made different choices from the store. I rarely buy tomatoes in the winter. I like to pick my produce.
• I would be interested to know what is in the basket each week before I buy it--or at least know what has been in past baskets to get an idea of the variety.
• This is not a CSA, and my guess is that the choices are quite basic (no kohlrabi here). But then again, there were comice pears in the basket, and my local store never carries that pear.

I will order again, but I like to shop for produce, so I probably will not be a weekly customer.

Easter menu--mostly gluten free

Here is what we ate for Easter. It was mostly gluten free for the Owl's sister. She made an amazing gluten-free lemon cake, but I don't have that recipe yet. We love baked goods so much that Celiac has always been the stuff of nightmares, but it doesn't look so bad now.

We enjoyed the food so much, we did not even think to take pictures, so here is our lovely apricot tree in blossom. Three cheers for spring!

Appetizers:
Deviled eggs
Hot corn dip and chips
Brazilian lemonade (wow!)

Roasted boneless leg of lamb
Quinoa tabbouleh
Roasted zucchini
Spinach strawberry salad with poppy seed dressing
Hot cross buns (for a gluten free option, I want to try this roll recipe--it looks amazing)

Flourless chocolate cake

Notes for next time:

Lamb

• let the roast sit at room temperature an hour before cooking
• watch at the higher temperature to make sure it doesn't burn
• use a lower temperature than 400 (325-375)

Quinoa

• use these instructions for cooking quinoa.
• I toasted the rinsed quinoa in a tablespoon of olive oil with a teaspoon of garlic.
• I used some lemon juice and broth for the water. I really liked how these steps added flavor to the quinoa itself.
• Use more lemon juice and less oil than the recipe calls for--more like 1/3 cup lemon juice to 1/4 cup olive oil. Taste to be sure you like that ratio.
• If you don't have fresh mint, don't let that stop you. If you wait until you have everything, you'll drive yourself crazy.

Flourless cake

• I used America's test kitchen recipe, but this looks close. ATK did not use any sugar, and I liked that.
• I used a combination of guittard 60% chocolate chips and special dark chocolate. It was a good balance of budget-friendliness and tastiness.

Red lentils: the dried bean for beginners

Dried beans can be scary, what with all that sorting and boiling and draining and salting, but red lentils are a great place to begin. They are the convenience food of dried beans--no soaking and they are done within 30 minutes.

If you like apricots, this is the first red lentil recipe I would introduce you to--a red lentil apricot soup. It comes from a fun cookbook The Soup Peddler's slow and difficult Soups that you will want to read if you love soup, bicycles, and at least the idea of Austin, Texas. David Ansel, writer and Soup Peddler, began selling soup in Austin, and the best part is that he delivered the soup by bike (which is what "slow and difficult" refers to). Family and friends, you are welcome to borrow my copy, but don't keep it too long because I will miss it.

Back to the soup: I am always amazed at how much my children love this soup. It is also a satisfying soup to make.The whole truly is greater than its simple parts. It feels a little bit like magic.

The monkeys are dead. And we're back.

When I saw this article in the New York Times, I knew it was time to get back to this food blog. For some time (since the 1980s) some researchers (all Puritans) have thought that severe calorie restriction would increase longevity. Such researchers (and other rich people) became scientifically anorexic in hopes that they would live longer. Now, it turns out, it just ain't true. The super skinny rhesus monkeys did not live longer than the normal weight monkeys (which caused named scientists much grief at the thought of all those forgone croissants). Certainly it isn't an invitation for gluttony, but if we get to eat, let's enjoy it!