Fruit

I love cooking in the summer.  The abundance of fruit and vegetables available right now is lovely and delicious and I can't get enough of the strawberries, cherries, blueberries and melons.  Picnics, salads, soups and fruit - nothing fancy, but our favorite combination is something with fruit and whipped cream.

Leftover Lentils

Sometimes leftovers are my favorite.  The cook(s) get a night off, and this time around, we discovered a great new combination.  Some leftover garlic chicken with rice, combined with the lentils from last night made for a delicious, quick dinner.

I hold my ground: the microwave counts as cooking too!

Salmon with Lentils

We had a simple meal the other night that was outstanding: Lentils and Salmon.  I'm always saying we should eat more beans, but they're not the kids' favorite, and I always forget that small matter of advance prep with dried beans. We had a homemade minestroni soup this winter that my son declared to be his favorite (except for the beans - even though he actually ate a few) and that was the epitome of hours of soaking followed by hours of tending.  When I read the lentil recipe in Barefoot in Paris, I was reminded of how easy they are.

The lentils soaked for 15 minutes in boiled water while we chopped carrots, celery, onion and garlic. After the onions and garlic cooked for a bit, the other veggies, broth and lentils were added, along with some tomato paste, to cook for about 25 minutes.

When everything was done to tenderness, the salmon was pan-cooked for just a few minutes on the stove, then finished up in the oven for another 5 minutes.

It took about 40 minutes to make this dinner, but most probably only about 20 minutes of actual cooking.  With so many lentils left over (they seem to quadruple in cooking!) there's plenty to work with tomorrow.

Pony Party Cupcakes

The rule around here is if it's your party, you get to choose the cake.  For her party, my daughter chose pony cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake!  One thing I have learned about this cookbook is that I cannot expect our final product to look like the photos in the cookbook, although I have a friend with an amazing-baker daughter who turns out cupcakes that look exactly like the photos!  That girl has a future in some kind of fine craftsmanship! 

We started with a basic vanilla cupcake recipe, to make 24 cupcakes.  I was trying to get these done myself, between various Saturday activities and when I dished the batter up into the paper cups, I only had enough for 12 cupcakes.  See that measuring cup with all the liquids?  Yup, it needed to go in the mix....cooking as therapy for perfectionist leanings!   Lucky for the weekend schedule, the cupcakes turned out fine once the batter was complete.

The kids had a great time assembling the necks, spots, and heads, and we managed to turn out a reasonable looking herd of ponies.  The mini-cupcake tufts of grass were an inspired aunt's contribution to the party pasture. 

We also gave the ice-cream maker another whirl - this time with cream - and it worked much better.  I'm not sure we've found the right combination yet though.  Ah well, we'll have to keep on trying!

Time for Ice Cream

It's suddenly gotten to be 100 degrees here and hot!  That can make for some pretty miserable end-of-the-school year events, but it's perfect for at least one of our favorite foods: ice cream!

I have always wanted an ice-cream maker at home, and lingered over the recipes for home made sorbets, frozen yogurts and the perfect vanilla ice cream.  Well, this year, my mother sent the kid-chefs a summer-celebration gift.  Yup, you guessed it - they have their own ice cream maker!

Since they share the experiments with me, I can't be too terribly jealous....

Our first trial was a learning experience.  We learned that 2% milk is no substitute for cream when making ice cream.  Ice cream.

After a series of well-timed turns of the crank, we dished up some frozen 2% milk with blueberries.

It was delicious - sweet milk, defrosting rapidly in our dishes, with perfectly ripe blueberries.  It didn't last long!  Our next experiment turned out better - stayed tuned!

 

Homemade Pancakes

Have you ever made pancakes from scratch?  They're such a wonderful weekend treat, and delightfully easy to make with things you most likely have in the cupboard, unlike pancake mix, which has a tendency to disappear just before you need it!.  We've been in search of the perfect pancake recipe for a while, and we've settled on a very basic recipe that we vary, depending on the season or what's on hand.

This weekend, my son put himself in charge of our apple-cinnamon variety.

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes:

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

3 TB of oat bran

1 tsp salt

3 TB sugar

add:

1 large egg, beaten

3 TB melted butter

1 cup milk

We melt the butter in the microwave, add the milk and the egg, and stir, then add to the dry ingredients.

Add 1 diced apple, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

Eat with maple syrup, naturally!

Chorizo Chicken

I'm always looking for ways to boost the flavor of dishes without making them completely unhealthful.  Chorizo is like bacon, one of those amazing flavors that just doesn't fit our diet in large portions.  I tried a recipe from A Platter of Figs (an amazing cookbook if you haven' seen it yet) and it used a small quantity of chorizo to flavor a fish soup.  It's a great recipe, and it provided the inspiration for this chicken dish.

We find chorizo here in the grocery store, in rather large quantities.  Luckily, it lends itself to freezing so it's easy to keep some in the freezer, just like bacon.

By using a little bit for flavoring, the spicyness becomes a plesant part of the dish.  You could start out with half the amount, if you've got kids who don't like spicy food, but this is a pretty mild dish, even with the full amount.

Saute one chorizo sausage (skin removed) in a large non-stick frying pan.

Drain the extra fat, add one diced onion and several chopped cloves of garlic.  When the onions are beginning to soften, about 6 minutes, nestle 6 boneless chicken thighs (or other chicken cut) into the chorizo/onion mix.  Cook for about 4 minutes, then turn and cook 4 minutes more. 

Add 1-1.5 cups chicken broth (enough to nearly cover the thighs) and cover the pan.  Let the thighs cook about 6 minutes more, until the chicken is cooked through.  Add a very small pasta (such as pastina) to the pan and cook until al dente.  Serve with a hearty whole grain bread and a fresh salad or other vegetable dish.

The leftovers were even better the next day.

The kids enjoyed chopping, measuring and....eating!

Holiday Weekend

Sometimes, you just luck out.  We spent the weekend doing all kinds of things indoors and out, and then, at the end of a long weekend, we got invited over for ribs.  These weren't just any old ribs either - they were the real deal.  Overnight soaking, all day slow cooking, and finishing off on the grill with 15-ingredient sauce, ribs.  The real deal.

Like I said, sometime you get lucky.  Now that's what I call a holiday.