Strawberry Boullibaisse

SPEAK OUT FOR FREEDOM FOR THE WEB!

Last night I made Strawberry Boullibaisse. I didn't think to take a picture, we just gobbled it up. I usually put lemon juice and orange rind in, but Piano Boy had asked for strawberries for smoothies and then not eaten them, so I had a whole quart of them. (I only used about one fifth of them for two people).

 Here's what I did: I cut up fresh fennel, mushrooms, yellow squash, green squash spinach and strawberries, added a can of olive (sm can) drained, a can of organic diced tomatoes with juice, a can of clams with juice, tilapia, scallops, and shrimp. I cut the fish in soup sizes. For vegetarians, substitute tofu and/or beans for the fish. Spices: thyme, parsley, dill, garlic, salt, pepper, old bay, bay leaves, coriander.

It was different but delicious.

I'm a creative cook, so my recipes are pretty general--I always assume you can decide how much of everything you need per person.

Very good or very lucky!

I'm either very good or very lucky lately, knock on wood, about my cooking, I almost never use a recipe. I used a method my mother would call "by guess and by gosh." I've made a series of incredibly good meals without consulting a cookbook at all, even though I had no idea what I was doing. They included, for example, shrimp ratatouille, scallop and cod coconut curry, and last night, I made:

almond encrusted tilapia (from scratch, no recipe) over a bed of wild rice
served with a side of scallop and andouille gumbo
and golden fried garlic polenta.

And, not to brag or anything, it came out GREAT!!! Better than restaurant food, cheaper, and healthier.

Celebrate, celebrate!

This celebratory fractal is from Fractalworks, a free download for Macs. I made it on Fractalworks, altered the colors on Fractalworks, and then played with it on Photoshop CS4.

Here is a picture of the cod and scallop curry. The light was bad. I neglected to get one of last night's dinner. (If you click on it, you can see a larger image, though why you'd want to I'm not sure.)

Yellow Pancakes (hearty crepes)

the recipe for these is simple:

1/4 c milk, 1/4 c flour and one egg. I used rice milk and ww pastry
flour. Pour in a thin layer and fry in a lightly oiled crepe pan.

I wrapped up fresh garden veggies.

I always forget how delicious and hearty these are--and how quick and simple.

This is one of our new plates. Slightly greasy because I laid the crepe
on it to roll up the ingredients. (This is NOT fancy food photgraphy,
but exactly what I really ate.)

First Squash

We got our first squash from the garden today and I'm preparing them
in a garlic wine sauce with shiitakes.

Parsnip Fretta (say WHAT?)

Parsnip Fretta (say WHAT?)

Our refrigerator seems to get empty with alarming regularity. Maybe it's the Brownies who eat all our food. (yeah, right!) And it's that time again. Lunch time, and almost nothing to eat. I peruse the nearly empty shelves of the fridge and freezer, gathering shreds of food to construct a lunch. A chunk of carrot, one parsnip, and eight of a yellow squash. Nothing green, no mushrooms. I saute them and add an egg. Amazingly tasty! Of course, hunger will do that to you!

Puttenesca a la Marie

This is what I made for dinner last night--a form of Puttenesca a la me. It was part of my creative every day, LOL!

The main thing is fresh tomatoes (or you can use canned if haven't any fresh), garlic, olives, capers. Leave anything out you don't like. I served mine over "designer" pasta ("Mother-in-law's tongue"). I added mushrooms, veggies, wine, and pork. (Also salt, pepper, basil, parsley.) You could add an alternate protein source, or none. But although it was utterly wonderful and seems fancy (cause it's soemthing I've never made before quite like this), it didn't take long.

I dipped the fresh tomatoes in the same water I was boiling for pasta, each for 45 seconds, slid off the skins and chopped them up--the tomatoes, not the skins. Saute the garlic (onions if you like them--I can't eat onions) in olive oil, add any extras (meat, veggies, mushrooms). When they are nearly cooked, if you add them, add the tomatoes, wine, capers, olives, cook a couple minutes and serve over the pasta you've been preparing, YUM YUM! (I fried up a couple pieces of polenta to serve on the side.)

Creative Soup cooking with Soup "Recipe"

This is a soup recipe Nadine could maybe use, as the basic recipe has only a few ingredients.

I spent the entire morning shoveling and am going to have to go out and resume momentarily. Hope to get some pictures, too!

I came in tired and hungry and I hadn't been able to go to the store because of the weather, so I didn't have what I wanted for lunch. I like to challenge myself to make something both healthy and tasty from what I have on hand. And since I was cold from shoveling, I made a simple soup. I had made another different one earlier in the week I'd intended to write about but never had time. So today I thought I'd rest before resuming shoveling by writing this down. The soup came out great.

Basic 4-ingredient soup (with additions later)

1. water
2. vegetable (s)
   
3. protein (s)
   
4. salt (and spices, opt)
   

OK, those are your basic ingredients for soup.

Now, how to do it:

1. measure about a cup of water per person, more if you're very hungry. (No that water won't make you satisfied by itself, but will provide space for the other ingredients.) Use a pan that is somewhat larger than the amount you want, but not a lot larger. (More energy efficient, quicker, more environmental, more economical). Bring to a boil.
   
2. While the water is heating, choose one or more vegetables. If more than one, choose some you like that go well together. Cut them into bite-size pieces (any size you like--smaller ones cook faster.) Today I used spinach and zucchini. I often use broccoli. For each person, as 1/2-3/4 c vegetables (You can use more or less depending on whether you like your soup chunky or brothy), finely cut--or however you want them. Put them in the boiling water.
3. Choose a protein. Tofu works. Beans. Fish, shrimp, chicken, or any combination you like together. I had chicken today. Cut into bite-size pieces (or any size you like). Add 2-4 oz about the amount that the palm of your hand would make if cut up. add to soup pot. Cook briefly, about 5 minutes.
   
4. salt to taste. Pepper, garlic powder opt. (Sprinkle salt over the pan).
   

Presto, a simple soup. Tasty and nutritious.

OK, for the additions.

1. you can add a little wine or balsamic vinegar--I added vinegar to mine today, just a little--careful, not too much. 1 1/2 t vinegar or 2 T wine. Or you can add both. I like both, but BB does not.
   
2. fresh onion and garlic--saute in butter or olive oil. add 1 rounded tablespoon flour. Add a little of the broth in, mix it in, then add the onion and garlic to the soup--presto--a thicker, spicier soup. Use one small to medium clover of garlic and or a few slices of onion. I did not use these today.
3. Milk or cream--mmmm--cream soup. Use less water to start with and add the equivalent amount of milk or cream--near the end. If you put the cream or milk in a jar with a rounded T flour and shake, and then pour it into the soup, it will thicken the soup--or you can saute flour in butter or olive oil as above--don't do both. One or the other. I can have dairy, so I didn't do this, but I often do it for BB.
4. starch: add any kind of pasta in small quantities, or rice--cook it first unless it's quick cooking, or use left-overs, or potato, or oatmeal--yes oatmeal--it's good in soup--or barley, or cous cous. I love little pastinas. I have many varieties, but used none today. Also beans, peas, garbanzos etc. (making pea soup or lentil soup is a little different).* But you can add some to your soup--best if they are already leftovers or if you precook them--otherwise they take too long to cook for this recipe
   
5. aromatic herbs and spices--experiment. Start out with just a little. I like to add jerk spices or hot spices or basil, etc. Today I added none of those. I made a simple but yummy soup.
6. gumbo: use chicken or fish, or tofu, add shrimp, and sausage. Be sure also to add Okra if you can get it. Just a few for authenticity, slices crosswise fairly thin.
7. Leftovers--soup is a good way to use up small portions of leftovers! You can make a yummy kitchen sink soup with various things from the fridge--everything but the kitchen sink. A good stirfry or even a good salad can make a good soup later.
8. au jus, broth--save your meat and veggie dripping and broth to add to your soup--mmmm!
9. eggs: egg drop and egg flower soups are yummy, just drop an egg into the hot soup and cook till it's done for egg drop, or stir for egg flower.
10. tomatoes, V8 juice, tomato juice. For a really quick tomato-based soup, if you're in a hurry, use V8 juice, or tomato juice. Other wise, dip tomatoes in boiling water and pull off the skins. This is easier than it sounds--use a slotted spoon for dipping them.
    
11. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Start simple, and when you're confident, experiment. It's tasty, nutritious, and warming on cold days!

*To make pea soup or lentil soup, follow the simple directions on the dry peas/lentils package--they don't have to be soaked--but cook them longer than it says too for better flavor. If you want help with that, let me know. It takes about 45-hour to make good pea or lentil soup, with onions and garlic and carrots. You can do something else while it's cooking, just stir occasionally--and the leftovers are even better than when it's fresh.

And be "Creative Every Day " in everything you do!

what I made for lunch

For Keith, not me. He likes pea soup. (So do I, but I'm allergic to it.)

A Turkey in my Backpack (Weird Green) and a recipe for Nadine

Yesterday, I walked to the store and bought a 15-plus pound turkey and carried it home in my backpack, which I also stuffed with a half gallon of milk, rice milk, potatoes, sweet potatoes, vanilla, 3 packages of raspberries, and a bunch of other stuff I'm now forgetting. Then I went back for a second trip for another half gallon of milk, two six-packs of beer, one six-pack of soda, and a bunch of other stuff, which I also carried home in the backpack.)

For Thanksgiving, we had a crown roast of pork, and I missed my turkey, felt very sad and deprived. So we had a whole second Thanksgiving yesterday with all the fixings so that I could have a turkey--and turkey soup, turkey croquettes, turkey spring rolls etc. My small contribution to the environment was to walk to the store (not drive, as everyone else around here does) and to use reusable carrying equipment (backpack) (rather than disposable bags that are bad for the environment).

Nadine over at In Blue Ink mentioned in a comment on one of my posts that she likes recipes with only a few ingredients, so here's a

3-ingredient pie recipe [with cheats]:

purchase:

1. 3-5 packages of fresh berries (I used raspberries and blueberries for this pie)--use whatever berries you like that look good--or apples, peaches, other fruit.
2. a package of Pillsbury pie crust in the refrigerator section
3. 3/4 c sugar, and . . .
   

• a pie tin or dish if you don't have one. I used a small disposable one that I didn't dispose of from a previous pie. I wanted to make only a small pie--we still have leftovers from Thanksgiving.

Read all the way to the bottom before beginning! Set out pie crusts in their plastic sacks to warm. Preset oven to 425 (I used 325 because I was roasting the turkey at the same time--it worked fine). Carefully unroll the pie crusts and lay one across the pie tin, pressing it gently into the shape of the tin. Dump in enough berries to fill tin. I needed three packages for this pie (and a few more from a fourth, but the bigger pies I made last Wednesday required more.) [OR slice apples, pears or peaches etc) into the pie crust.] Add 3/4 c of sugar (that's an average amount, you can add more or less if you want a sweeter or tarter pie--mine came out PERFECT!). OK, here' a "cheat" To make the juices thicken some, add a heaping tablespoon of flour to the sugar (on top, or better yet, mix it in). (You can also use cornstarch, tapioca, etc., or some combination). Add the top crust and seal it to the bottom crust by rolling or fluting. Add a little water between the edges if they don't seal. Make a slit or two or a design on top with a knife to allow for the escape of steam. Bake 25-35 minutes until crust is browned and the juices begin to bubble out slightly. If the crust is browning too quickly around the edges, cover them with foil. (or you can do it prophylactically at the beginning.) (My pie got overdone slightly but still tasted great--I was playing a game with PB at the crucial moment.) Cool on a rack for at least ten minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream (or plain).

OK, cheat #2: I had used one of my crusts for a lemon meringue pie so I made a crumb topping: 1 c rolled oats, 1/2 c flour, 1/4 c brown or white sugar (I used half and half), 1/4 c butter or canola oil. Mix well, spread over top of pie.

Cheat #3: to keep the ingredient list down to three ingredients, I did not mention cinnamon. It's not necessary to the pie. However, I prefer it with cinnamon and used cinnamon and some nutmeg--A BIG sprinkle of cinnamon, about a teaspoon full, probably, and a small sprinkle of nutmeg (1/4 teaspoon), added right before you add the top or mixed into the sugar.

Pies are fairly forgiving of certain things, you can be very flexible with ingredients and temperature and still get a good pie.

If you want to make your own pie crust, you need to be aware that that's the hardest part of making a pie. You will need flour, water or milk, oil, lard, butter or vegetable fat. There are many recipes. I use an oil recipe because I am allergic to butter and Crisco. And lard tastes greasy to me. You will also need a rolling pin or wine or beer bottle with the label removed [or you can use your hands, but it won't work as well. Here's one recipe, you can find lots more on-line or in a cookbook.

* 2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix flour and salt together. Pour milk and oil into one
measuring cup, do not stir, and add all at once to flour. Stir until
mixed, and shape into 2 flat balls. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate
for 15 minutes or more.
2. Roll out on lightly floured surface. (I use wax paper with
flour on both the top and bottom).

Making your own is more economical and more environmental, so you can get brave and try this after you try my simple three ingredient pie a few times. It is more environmental not to us waxed paper, but it makes it easier, helps keep it from sticking to the counter or tabletop, and cleanup us easier too.

homemade fried calamari

I made homemade fried calamari for the first time ever--it came out really good. Don't want to make it too often though, all that oil! I made a breading of cornmeal, corn flour, a little white flour, Old Bay spices, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and I dipped the calamari into beat eggs and then into the cornmeal mix and then fried it in oil. Yum. BB liked it too.

See some of the fall color from our yard.

If at first you don't succeed, quit

and cut your losses, or be a fool and keep on trying. Try try again.

It took 5 tries and lots of wasted eggs, lemon juice and oil, but I
finally made homemade mayonnaisee.

I used to do it all the time, and I don't remember it being this hard!!!!

Several times it was coming out nearly perfect and then "broke" as
they say in the mayonnaise jargon.

So, why would I waste all that time and all those ingredients trying
to make mayonnaise? Because I am allergic to the kind you buy in the
store. I am allergic to soy and can't find any without it, and I
wanted to make deviled eggs and potato salad, and to be able to
occasionally. Picnics, family gatherings, etc.

I've been trying for months, off and on, and today I tried and failed.
Was about to give up forever, not understanding why it wasn't
working, when I found another recipe, not the one I'd used first that
had failed me, that said, "follow these directions perfectly and
measure perfectly or it won't work." I did; it didn't. But this was
an "easy" recipe and voila, mayonnaise!

And deviled eggs. And now I am making potato salad! YAY.

All fattening foods, but I won't be making a habit of it--too many
dirty dishes, too much wasted time!

Good thing I am flexible enough to pat my own back, 'cause prolly no
one else cares, LOL!

Skins, Strings and Glue

When I was a small child, my mother and grandmother would make farina or cream of wheat for me and set it out to skin up good before I ate it. I loved those skins. I also wanted my pudding dished out early to skin up. And I loved the skins on sausages.

But I hated strings! They used to have string beans that had a string in them--those strings would make me gag--I had to carefully remove each one. And celery--forget celery! Ugh. GAK!

Strings on mozzarella however, that was different. I loved lasagna, pizza and just plain mozzarella. Mmm, those strings were good.

And I loved gluey stuff. Big gobs of fish-eye tapioca. Mmm.

So it is no surprise that today I love spring rolls, with their soft stretchy gluey skins, I made some for lunch again today, mmmmm, with healthful salad inside. (I'm talking raw spring rolls, not fried ones.)

Spring rolls for lunch

I know I posted about this before but these are so GOOD and so easy.

1)buy spring roll skins (tapico sheets or rice paper)
2)run one under water, lay it on a plate, add mushrooms and/or tofu or
turkey ro shrimp,
3)add vermicelli (or thin spaghetti, (I also added tomatoes and blueberries)
4)add lettuce and/or spinach
5)fold like an envelope
add sauce or salad dressing
6) roll up and eat--YUM YUM!

Spring rolls

Here are the spring rolls I made for myself and BB for lunch. They were scrumptious!

PB is sick. :-(

Mall Walking and Fast Food

I am sick again and it was a DISMAL day, so we went up to Lakeside Mall for a little walking and a little shopping. We went late because BB read to me etc first. While we were there, Piano Boy called from Landslide Skate Park where he'd gone with two friends and wanted BB to pick him up at 9. It was about 7 then. The skate park is very near the Lakeside mall and more than a half hour from home. Once BB agreed to do it, we had two options, three really--eat there and hang out, drive home, eat and drive back, or wait 'til after 9:30 to have dinner.

We considered stopping at Andiamo, the Italian Bistro, but every time I eat out, I get sick. I have so many allergies and the foods I am allergic to are so ubiquitous that it is virtually impossible for me to eat anywhere but home and stay healthy--and I'm already sick--with a wretched, rotten cold.

So we drove home. On the way home, I told Keith what we were going to do--we were going to make pork marinara over polenta. I instructed him what to do and the minute we walked into the door I sliced the polenta and started it frying in olive oil, while he cut garlic and pork. I made from scratch very fast marinara with lots of wine and mushrooms and spinach and spices, We tossed in the pork and more mushrooms that had been sauteing in garlic, ladled it over the fried
polenta and presto, within 12 minutes we had a yummy Italian dinner with spicy sauce--and it was very good.

Food fast, but not "fast food!"

BB said as he hurriedly stuffed his face, "$28.00 a plate at Andiamo
for this, and extra for salad, wine and dessert." And then he drove away to get PB and his friends.

Yummy Egg Rolls

Yummy Egg Rolls

Supper tonight was so good I have to mention it. I know that what I ate fascinates you, right? We made egg rolls. Biker Buddy helped. We grated red and green cabbage, a small carrot, slivered a piece of yellow squash, mushrooms, he put bean sprouts in his (I'm allergic). Chinese 5 spice powder and cayenne pepper, salt and pepper (he had soy sauce, I'm allergic to it). Use protein of your choice, tofu, beans, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, etc (or none). Cook everything, then wrap 2 T in egg-roll wrappers and fry. SO SO SO good. I thought I should probably take some pictures but they were too good to stop eating and take pictures. (OH and I make a yummy sauce for it, but I didn't make it today because of my diet--just take jelly or jam (I used apricot, but another kind would also work), add water or fruit juice, and cut up fresh or dried fruit (I used apricots last time) and cook 'til thickened. Serve ladled over egg rolls--mmmm!)

The Bumbleberry Pie

I took a series for a recipe session, but it's on the lost camera. So
here is the pie just before going in the oven and just before eating
yesterday (for our third thanksgiving). It was delightful--found some
good respberries so it had apples, raspberries, blueberries,
cranberres and strawberries. Yum.

What's for breakfast: cranberry pancakes with Lingonberry Syrup

MMMmmm. I got the Lingonberry syrup at The Village Market. In parentheses, it calls it partridge berry. I've eaten our partridge berry, and they taste like damp styrofoam, so my interest was piqued. I bought it, and yummy yummy yummy good.

Wikipedia says: The Vaccinium vitis-idaea – often called lingonberry or cowberry, also called foxberry, mountain cranberry, lowbush cranberry, and partridgeberry (in Newfoundland and Labrador) – is a small evergreen shrub in the flowering plant family Ericaceae that bears edible fruit. It is seldom cultivated, but the fruits are commonly collected in the wild. The native habitat is the circumboreal forests of northern Eurasia and North America, extending from temperate into subarctic climates.

I then looked up my partridgeberry and Wikipedia said: Mitchella repens , or Partridge Berry, is the best known plant in the genus Mitchella. It is a herbaceous woody shrub, occurring in North America and Japan, and belonging to the madder family (Rubiaceae).
This evergreen plant is a creeping, but not climbing, vine, 15-30 cm long. The evergeen dark-green leaves are opposite, ovate to cordate, with a pale yellow midrib. The petioles are short. Roots may grow at the internodes, forming loose mats. It is part of the undergrowh vegetation in many forests. It has dimorphous, twin white tubular flowers (grown from one calyx) with four petals, covered with fine hairs. They grow axillary at the end of a branchlet. Each flower has one pistil and four stamens. While in one twin flower this pistil is short,in the other it is long. With a short pistil come long stamens, or vice versa. This dimorphy prevents self-fertilization by one flower.

These are the ones that taste like damp styrofoam but are wonderful in the woods and in terrariums. The cool thing about these is that every two flowers forms one berry.

I learned that there are many plants called partridge berry, which is why we have scientific nomenclature, so that there will be less confusion.

Other posts today:

Wolcott Mill
Red maple

What I ate for breakfast: cranberry sauce

Are you tired of sauces? I understand, they could possibly be boring, I suppose. But this was the best one yet. Mmmmmm! So good! And easy, too. I've discovered you can make a great sauce in about a minute (2 minutes counting prep) in the microwave. Take a cup (microwave safe), add sugar, cornstarch and liquid, plus fruit needed, and "nuke" it for a minute and presto--sauce. I did this one in pan on the stove, but even that only took about 3-4 minutes. Mix the sugar and cornstarch well in the dry pan or cup, then add, in this case, water, a couple spoonfuls of frozen white grape juice concentrate, a couple of frozen orange juice concentrate, and chopped cranberries. Stir until thickens over medium heat. Serve over pancake or biscuit or ice cream. I used the whole grain pancake I mentioned earlier. I never measure anything, so I can't give an exact recipe, but boy was it tasty! Yum. I wish I could share it with you. I think with a little expansion in quantity and number of berries, it would also make a great pie filling. Yum.

Not Martha Stewart (What I ate for breakfast--raspberry syrup)

Today I made blueberry pancakes (same recipe as yesterday) with raspberry syrup. I didn't look up a recipe, I just made it, and it tasted great, but was messy. After eating some of the fresh raspberries fresh, I covered the others with water, added sugar and a squirt or two of lemon left from making yesterday's lemon sauce and voila, syrup. I'm not Martha Stewart and I made a big mess on myself and in the kitchen and really enjoyed the food but not the mess. I should have added a little cornstarch for thickening, but it was fabulous! And I have enough left for another meal! YAY! The lower photo is the actual syrup in the pan before I got it all over my clothes, counter, floor etc. I did not strain the seeds out.