What I've Learned about Cooking (so far)

So, I've been doing this blog for three months now, and today I'm doing my first non-recipe post.

After three months of experimentations, trials and some errors, there's a few things I've learned. First of all, I cook seasonally. And there's not a cookbook out there that can give me enough recipes for all the vegetables I grew. I can make every cabbage recipe in any cookbook, and I'll still have more cabbage than can be cooked. So at times you have to go off the cookbook and go on Pinterest.

Second of all, cooking takes a lot of time....and even more dishes. I may have never noticed this if I had a dishwasher, but since we don't have a dishwasher in our new place, believe me, it's hard not to notice. Especially when the sink is piled so high with dishes I'm in fear of an avalanche. Cooking takes a lot of time, and then you have to do dishes, and that takes about twice as long as the cooking. I end up spending a lot more time in the kitchen than I ever thought I would, not being the Holly Housewife type.

And lastly, if cooking takes a lot of time, blogging takes a LOT of time. My husband doesn't have a problem with my cooking, but the time I spend blogging has been an issue of several occasions. But, the whole thing kind of went hand-in-hand. So it's new recipes and blogs, or it's tuna sandwiches. I can't really believe I've stuck with it this long, but here it is, 3 months later, and I haven't missed a single day. Of course, sometimes I make two or three recipes in one day, and that way I can skip a day here and there. But I've yet to skip a blog. So here's to nine more months.

Happy Cooking everyone!

Lentils with Pork or Sausage

This is another of those recipes that I found in Fannie and then ended up adapting so much that I'm not sure it's even based on her recipe anymore. Her recipe was for Lentils and Sausage, and I didn't have sausage, so I used some pork bones for flavor (and boy did they make the whole thing taste like I was eating pork instead of lentils!) and tried to follow the rest of the recipe. It didn't work out that well, as it was WAY dry and I had to double the water. By the time I was done, it had very few aspects of the Fannie Recipe. If I have sausage again, I might make this, but I found it a bit lacking of vegetables and overall a disappointment. It was way too bland for me. I love my lentil soup (I don't have a recipe, but I've made it many times and it always turns out full of flavor) and this was just eh. The next time I make a lentil dish, I will probably not repeat this one.

For this, I used:
1 1/4 c. dried lentils
2.5 c. water
2 small onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 potatoes, chopped
1 bay leaf
pork bones OR 1/2 lb. italian sausage, cut in 2 inch pieces

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot, combine lentils and water. 
2. Add onions, garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer.
3. Add potatoes and sausage or soup bones.
4. Simmer 20-30 minutes until lentils are soft.
5. I had to add about 2 c. more water because not everything was covered by the water. It all boiled away, so this is not a soup, but a drier lentil dish.

I ended up putting soy sauce and sour cream and cilantro on this just to make it have some kind of flavor besides overwhelming pork-ness. Seriously, it was like I was eating a pork chop. Couldn't taste anything else!

Oatmeal Pancakes

Here's another breakfast recipe I made this weekend. My son didn't like these quite as much, and I didn't either, mostly because they were very hard to flip. They kind of fell apart, even though I added twice the flour in the recipe. I'm guessing it's because I didn't use quick-oats, but regular oatmeal. While it did soften as it soaked, I don't think it soaked up as much milk as the quick cooking variety would. They tasted okay, but not special enough to make these instead of regular or buttermilk pancakes.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. whole milk
1/2 c. oatmeal (quick cooking or rolled...rolled will be a bit chewier)
1 egg
2 tbsp. flour
2 tsp. baking powder

1. Heat the milk, then add the oatmeal and let sit 10 mins for quick oats, 20 for rolled
2. Add the beaten egg, flour, and baking powder and mix batter. I had to add a bit more flour at this point because my batter was too thin.
3. Cook in hot buttered skillet until golden on each side.
4. Serve with butter and syrup or honey.

Gluten Free, Grain Free Zucchini Lasagna

Confession: This was actually an impromptu meal that was salvaged from a failed attempt at zucchini ravioli. The person who made the ravioli is way more talented than I am at wielding a grater. After clutching my stand-up grater so tightly I managed to grate half the skin off my thumb on the opposite side while I attempted to wrangle a zucchini through the slotted side, I gave up. I lifted the grated to find a sad little pile of 2-inch long, paper-thin zucchini shreds and a few longer, thicker, choppy pieces.

Soooo not going to be able to make ravioli wrappings with THIS!

This is nothing like the perfectly uniform ravioli-wrapping strips in the pictures. I didn't know what to do at this point, since I'd already started my sauce and had this wonderful ravioli picture in my mind. So I winged it and made lasagna on the fly, without a recipe. I've made regular lasagna enough that I didn't feel too lost as I attempted a noodle-free version. Forging onwards, I set about slicing the zucchini lengthwise with a knife, making the thinnest slices I could, and laid them out for lasagna noodles.

I then discovered we only had about 1/2 c. of cottage cheese and no ricotta (the ravioli didn't have cheese--it was meat/spinach ravioli). Though tempted to give up, I persevered, using the cottage cheese in one layer and meat in the next, layering with sauce and zucchini and cheese as I went.
When it came out of the oven, it didn't look half bad, all layered and pretty, although my pasta-infused Italian blood did not find the zucchini an equal substitute for noodles. However, it really was quite good. If you're gluten-free and used to things like spaghetti squash and other noodles substitutes, I would absolutely recommend this. But I can't honestly say I didn't feel a *little* deprived, knowing what 'real' lasagna tastes like.

For this, I used:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. chopped onion (fresh or dried would be fine, or leave this out altogether)
1 c. ground beef or lamb
1 large zucchini (2 small would be fine)
1 c. cottage cheese or ricotta (2 if you like more cheese)
1 egg
1 c. grated mozzerella
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1 batch of marinara sauce (or 1 jar canned)

1. In a medium skillet, heat oil, then add onion, garlic and ground meat. 
2. Cook over medium heat until pink is gone from meat, then set aside. 
3. Meanwhile cut zucchini lengthwise in as thin strips as possible (or grate on the side that makes strips, if you are a talented grater-user).
4. In a small bowl, beat egg and then stir in cottage cheese or ricotta. You can add a dash of Italian seasoning or other herbs to this if you wish.
5. Put about 1/4 c. marinara sauce in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish, spreading to cover the bottom of the dish. Then lay out zucchini slices as you would lasagna noodles.
6. Top with half your cottage cheese mixture.
7. 
8. Top that with third of your mozzerella and parmesan
9. Follow with another layer zucchini, then about half your remaining sauce, then the meat, the rest of the cottage cheese, third of mozzerella and parmesan.
10. Top that with your last layer of zucchini, the remaining sauce, the last third of your mozzerella and parmesan.
11. Bake in a 375 oven for about 45 minutes.

Basic Marinara/Spaghetti Sauce

This was basic sauce with red and green peppers as additions.

 I've made several different versions of spaghetti sauce from two different editions of Fannie Farmer cookbooks, and I don't like any of them. She was apparently not familiar with Italian food, or else I'm spoiled by my Italian mother's sauce so nothing else compares. While I don't remember my mother ever using a recipe, and my Italian grandfather's recipe apparently takes 4 hours to make, I know exactly how it is 'supposed' to taste. I have been making spaghetti sauce since I started cooking (don't we all start with spaghetti?) and even my very first pan of it tasted better than the ones in this century-old cookbook. So I can safely say, I'm thoroughly disappointed in Fannie's options where sauce is concerned.

So, I'm posting a version of my own recipe. This is a pretty basic one, though you can add in some optional veggies to make it more chunky.

My basic recipe:
4 tbsp. olive oil
1 med/large onion
2-4 cloves garlic

About 6 cups chopped, crushed or diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1/2 tsp. salt (you can add more later, but you can't take it out once it's in there, so err on the side of less)
1 tbsp. basil
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tbsp. thyme
(or substitute about 3 tbsp. Italian Seasoning if you don't have all three of those herbs)
small pinch of fennel seeds

Just the basic sauce, this time with a lot of onions.

Optional add-ins for variety: sliced or chopped mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, carrots (I never use these but I see them fairly often in canned sauce), celery, red or green bell peppers, parmesan cheese (I always add this on top, but some people like it cooked in), 1-2 tbsp sugar if your tomatoes aren't very sweet, 1 can tomato paste if you really need a thicker sauce

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium/low heat
2. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently
3. Add garlic and fennel seed and cook 1 more minute
4. Meanwhile, chop tomatoes. Taste for sweetness, and add sugar if your tomatoes are sour or you just like sweeter sauce. If using canned, drain some of the juices and reserve in case you need it for step 6.
5. Add tomatoes and herbs and salt
6. Increase heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are completely cooked and some of the liquid boils away. If using fresh tomatoes, this sauce will be much thinner than canned sauce, so if you want, you can cook it down further to thicken. If using canned tomatoes, watch the sauce and add back in some of the reserved liquid if it gets dry or begins to stick.

This sauce is simple and no-frills, but it's always delicious and never fails for any type of Italian food requiring a red sauce.

Baked Winter Squash (Butternut)

For years, I've looooved butternut squash. I mean, I could eat one every day all winter and never get tired of it. I know, because I've done it. So when my mom gave me some seeds, I was excited to plant them. Unfortunately, I didn't have much space in my garden, so I was only able to plant 4 hills (5 plants came up). I quickly decided that was enough, as the plants seemed intent on taking over the world. 

However, just when I thought I'd be overwhelmed by squash, the squash bugs descended and killed all my plants. Fortunately, they'd already set about 30 squash. Unfortunately, they weren't mature enough to pick yet. I wasn't sure what to do, since my mom said to pick them although they weren't quite ripe. I picked one to see how it was, and it was a bit watery (NOT the correct texture for this rich, creamy squash) and not at all sweet.

So I went to Fannie to see if I could use it up somehow (I left the rest of the squash in the garden to see if they could ripen up from whatever leaves were left on the vines).

Fannie's recipe for this is quite simple.

You will need:
1 butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise.
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1/2 tsp. salted butter

Bake the squash at 375 for about 40 minutes or until soft.
Mash it a bit while leaving it in the skin.
Add butter and maple syrup and enjoy.

While this was not nearly as good as a mature squash, which is sweet enough on it's own, it did give me an edible way to eat the immature squash I'd picked. I haven't tried another one yet, but I'm sure I'll post when I do.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Guess where I got this recipe? Off the wonderful collection over on this blog. My goal is to make 10 of them this year, so I'm working my way through. I already made a zucchini banana bread, but I was at my mom's and she asked me to make something from the overripe bananas she had sitting on the counter. Instead of making regular old banana bread, I went to the list and found one I hadn't made. This one calls for Greek yogurt, but I used regular vanilla, since that's what she had. I didn't adapt this one a whole lot, since it's already healthy-ish.

For this, I used:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cups white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 3 large over-ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vanilla (or plain) yogurt
• 1 cup zucchini, grated
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
2. Mix brown sugar, bananas, eggs, vanilla extract, yogurt, zucchini and chocolate chips in another large bowl.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
5. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown and a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes.

Tomato, Green Bean and Carrot Salad

This recipe is LOOSELY based on a Fannie Farmer recipe that is made up mostly of green beans with a bit of tomatoes and no carrots. But since I still have lots of tomatoes that need to be used, and the green beans are just coming on, I switched their amounts and made a tomato salad with the other vegetables I had on hand (like carrots instead of celery). It turned out pretty well, and was definitely an interesting salad. I would probably make this again, as it was bursting with flavor and used a lot of tomatoes.

For this, I used:
3-5 medium tomatoes (about 4 cups, chopped)
1 c. green beans
1/2-3/4 c. black olives
2 medium carrots
1 very small red onion (or 1/2 medium)
1/2 c. vinaigrette dressing

1. Remove stems from green beans and cut to about 1 1/2 inch pieces
2. Put on to steam 5-10 minutes, until slightly soft but still a bit 'squeak' when bitten
3. Meanwhile, chop tomatoes
4. Put carrots and onions through a food processor or grate/mince them
5. Cut black olives if whole
6. Mix all ingredients together and dose liberally with vinaigrette/French dressing
7. Take green beans off heat and chill in fridge until cold, then toss into salad
8. Eat plentifully!

Sausage-Stuffed Apples

This recipe is from my mom's old Boston Cooking School Cookbook, and is not found in my updated Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It's a shame, too, because this was a very interesting dish. It didn't really seem like dinner, but it had sausage, so I wouldn't call it dessert. It would kind of fit in the breakfast category, but it didn't taste at all like a breakfast food! I made it for dinner, so I guess it's a dinner dish.

For this, I used:

• 1 lb. ground sausage
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. onion, chopped fine
• 8 apples
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• (optional: 8 strips bacon...I didn't have any or I'd have used it)

Instructions:

Cook onions, garlic and sausage in a skillet for about 10 minutes or until sausage is completely cooked.

I used drops from my mom's tree, so if they look a little scrubby, that's why!

Core the apples meanwhile.

Stuff the cavity in each apple with sausage (I really had to pack it in and still ended up with a bit extra)
Sprinkle sugar over the tops
If using bacon, drape a strip over the top of each apple
Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes until apples are soft.

These turned out well. The first night, the apples were a little crisp still, but we reheated the leftovers the next day and the apples cooked until soft, as they are supposed to be. It was good both nights. The sugar made a crispy sheen on top of the apples, and the sausage and apples complemented each other nicely. This is a good apple dish that can be a main course, and it was nice to find a use for apples that wasn't a dessert. This was a little different than a usual dinner course, but not bad for a change of pace.

 

 

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (or Bread)

 When I was a kid, my mom made chocolate zucchini cake every summer. I still remember exactly how it tastes, unlike any other chocolate cake. I looked up some of the recipes for it on Pinterest, and they are almost all nearly identical. This one was a tiny bit different, as the chocolate chips were supposed to be mixed in and not spread on top of the bread. I didn't have chocolate chips, so I just made these a bit more chocolatey by adding extra cocoa powder, and I made them into muffins instead of bread. Unfortunately, I didn't add extra oil to make up for the dry cocoa powder, and they turned out a bit dry and not very good. Also, I was making these at the same time as I made pancakes for my son, and I got distracted and used all whole wheat, which didn't help any. They tasted really healthy, and not in the good way--kind of like a power bar.

The original recipe, this one from the list of zucchini bread recipes, calls for a brown sugar glaze, but I'm obsessed with cream cheese frosting, so I put it on everything, including these. It still couldn't save them, though.

I used:

• 1 C whole wheat flour (would recommend half white!)
• 1 t cinnamon
• ¾ t baking soda
• 5 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ C coconut oil
• ½ C organic raw sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• ¼ C sour cream
• 1½ C grated zucchini
• 

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a large 9″ bread pan (or muffin tin with cupcake liners) and set aside.
2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a small bowl until combined. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together sugar, oil, and eggs. Add vanilla and sour cream.
4. Fold in the grated zucchini. Add the remaining dry flour ingredients. Stir to combine.
5. Pour into prepared 9″ bread pan or cupcake liners. Bake for 50-60 minutes for bread, 25-30 minutes for muffins, or until a toothpick in the center comes clean.
6. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes and remove from pan. Top with cream cheese frosting if desired. 

It's hard for me to give directions for this, since it was NOT good. Just don't follow my directions, or look for an alternative recipe, or try following the original recipe exactly. All I know is, these hung around on the counter for DAYS, and that's saying a lot for a chocoholic like me. I finally managed to eat them all, just to use them up, because I felt too guilty to throw them out, seeing as they weren't burnt to a crisp or anything (dang, I should have thought of that earlier...)

Shepherd's Pie

I've only had this once, though my husband says he's eaten it at lots of restaurants. Maybe I just don't like the sound of it, so I've never noticed it on a menu. Anyway, my brother in law made this last year and I liked it. It's kind of like pot pie with mashed potatoes for a crust, which is perfect for anyone who doesn't want to or can't eat gluten.

For this I used:
1 lb. ground lamb
3 c. mashed potatoes (about 4 large, but depends a lot on size of potatoes...doesn't have to be exact, so just guessing is fine)
1 onion, chopped fine
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground lamb (beef works fine, too)
1 tsp. rosemary
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp. flour
3/4 c beef broth
salt & pepper

Add-ins: 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 small zucchini, all chopped fine in food processor.

Steam or Boil potatoes. I used purple potatoes, so my pie was a bit purple. Mash them (about 3 c.) and set aside.

Cook lamb in skillet until pink is gone. Add onions, garlic and rosemary.

Melt butter in skillet or sauce pan. Add flour and cook a few mins. Add beef broth and cook 5 more mins.

Fannie doesn't call for any veggies in this, but I can't in good conscience make a veggie-less dish this time of year. So I added the peppers and zucchini at this point.

Add meat mixture and level it in a baking dish.

Top with mashed potatoes, make checkered pattern on top with fork. Cook in 375 oven for 30-40 minutes.

 This turned out really well. You could easily use ground beef in the absence of lamb. I love this dish, since I don't like pie crust so I usually only eat the inside of pot pie anyway. I would have liked the gravy on this to be a little creamier, so I may use milk next time. But it is still a great dinner, very filling and hearty, and, if you use pastured meat and veggies, very healthy as well. Will definitely be making this one again and again.

Coconut Waffles

I've been running through Fannie's pancake and waffle recipes at breakneck speed. I didn't realize I made breakfast so often until I started this challenge. But pretty much every weekend I make breakfast at least once, sometimes twice. Instead of making the same old recipe every time like I used to, I've been trying to work my way through Fannie's recipes. Unfortunately, she doesn't have that many, so I've used up most of them already!

Here's the recipe for Coconut Waffles:

Mix in bowl:
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. white flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. coconut (finely shredded)

 Using a large-mouth jar, mix together:
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. milk/buttermilk/sour milk/or yogurt

Pour dry ingredients into jar and shake until just mixed, about 10 seconds. Pour about 1/4 c. batter into each section of hot waffle iron, sprinkle each with 1-2 tbsp. finely shredded coconut and cook until golden.
 
These turned out really well. The coconut is barely discernible in the cooked waffles, but it gave them a bit of a unique texture. If you like a bit of crispiness in your waffles and like coconut, these are pretty good and really no more work than regular waffles. Top with butter and syrup or topping of choice.