Friday Tuna Melts

Went grocery shopping this morning and got bread still warm from the oven... Rosemary Olive Oil.

Make up some simple tuna salad - tuna, mayo, mustard, minced onions, pickle relish, salt and pepper (no celery because I don't have any) and a bit of tart apple (why apple? see previous shortage).

How much of each you say... go by taste. Start with a little and add until it seems right.

Spread over the Rosemary bread, drape a slice of cheddar cheese over it and TOAST!

I recommend a dry white wine or a fruity red. Really - wine with Tuna salad elevates the whole endeavor. And it is Friday. So eat greek olives while you are preparing this and sipping wine. Or don't use apples and relish and put in olives instead. Hmmmmm.

Have a yummy weekend.

Pumpkin and Soup

To those winter squash connoisseurs I Immediately concede "hard, orange-fleshed, winter squash" and let's be done with it.

So... last fall the Sweet and Spicy Butter Nut squash soup was a TRIUMPH... (defer, defend, abjure)

See the recipe below, try it, and then do what I did. Boot the cayenne in favor of double the smoked paprika. Boot cardamom and replace with cinnamon. Best of luck!

And as a plus... serve with cheese, shallot (onion) and bacon quesadillas... and dark beer... or fruity white wine, or apple cider...

Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

This is a very flexible soup. Have a bigger squash? Not enough stock, like things sweeter or spicer? Remember, you can adjust this to YOUR taste. This is a place to start.

P.S. Since this is all vegetables except for possibly chicken stock and milk, it is safe to taste at ANY time (as long as you blow on the spoon).

2 lbs squash

4 C stock (chicken or veggie)

3 tbs minced garlic

3 tbs fresh minced ginger

1/2 large onion chopped fine (or leeks sliced thin)

2 tsp salt (if using homemade stock - if going low-salt, just none, or only at the table)

1/8 t cayenne

1/4 t cardamom

1/2 t cinnamon

2 Tbs honey

2 C milk/plain soy milk/rice milk/more stock

Heat your soup pot with oil over med-high heat (about 3 – 4 min). Once hot, add the onions and a little salt. Adjust the heat and keep stirring until the onions begin to brown and get aromatic. Add the garlic and ginger, stir until fragrant. Add the rest of the dry spices. Stir well.

Add in squash, honey and half the stock. Stir until things are evenly distributed. TIME TO BLEND!

If you have a stick blender, break it out and get it going. Use the rest of the stock to get everything blended smooth. (Well, I like smooth, you can leave it chunky).

TASTE! Time to adjust the taste to your liking! (Salt, cayenne, and honey)

Or blend in batches in a regular blender.

When you serve – finish with a good stir of a milk (see above), a little more stock, and/or a drizzle of a good fruity oil.

Chicken Chili

Today was make the chili day. Chicken chili that is...

I know chili is a beef thing, a red meat thing, and I like so many have trouble when people just throw chicken in where red meat should be.

But white chili (no tomatoes), THAT is a another story. And so today, my own, very first, personal white, chicken chili.

So the bean are white, the spices and green and white... and hey.

Tomatillas for the acid tomatoes usually bring. All the chiles are green, the onions are white, and DON'T leave out the garlic.

Break out the corn bread!

Clean Out the Fridge Day

The mistakes, the too much of a good thing, the last little bit of stuff in a jar... It is time for all of it to go.

There I have JUST enough room for the next round of silliness.

Hmmmmm.... The farmer's market is open.

How Can You Love Pork Chops if You've Never Tasted Them?

So... It was go to the aquarium day, and we are walking through Pike Place Market (It's just a place to buy fresh food, get over the FETISH now, Please?). The Fish Boyz are throwin' the same tired salmon for the next bus load of tourists, and my son is really over it. But in the next stall is a gorgeous butcher case. We and the butcher are walking around the cases talking about the meat. Stew the crazy shoulder cuts, what is - and what to do with veal? Chicken is already old news but always open to possibilty... but this is a "cornish game hen" and THAT is a quail.

For some reason the Pork Chops capture him.

"I love pork chops," enthuses my son.

"When did you have pork chops?" After the lamb disaster, I had hung back from pork chops.

"I don't remember. A long time ago."

This is actually a valid answer from my son. At 6, it is unclear what you haven't done, and what you don't remember. It gets harder when you think you should have done something, or are pretty sure you want to have done something. (YES, grammar people, at 6, this is a valid collection of tenses.)

So, tonight was the cooking-of-the-pork-chops. This was remarkable for 2 reasons. I, after several failures, actually cooked really good pork chops (see below if you are curious). And he ate half of his with plenty of starch and Orange & Purple salad (see also below). What made it interesting is he asked to have the other half for lunch.

I guess if your fancy takes you, you CAN love Pork Chops even if you have never tasted them. And thus the opposite holds water. If you decide to hate something, you just do, and there is nothing one can do about it sanely. (Thus, sometimes insanity and the ridiculous are effective... but never something reasonable.)

*My First Personal Best Pork Chops*

(Good only for meat eaters. If you don't eat meat... go back to the tomatoes, and wait until I get around to yogurt cheese. Though I am beginning to suspect Very Firm Tofu would react well to this treatment. )

1. Get your paws on GOOD pork chops. To do this find a butcher, or at the very least, get up the courage to ask your grocery store butcher. They are most likely DYING to answer you questions. They know a lot, and no one ever asks them ANYTHING. Make their day.

2. Marinate

3. Sear to produce flavor and texture. (This "sealing in the juices" thing is BUNK, but searing IS super tasty.)

4. Cook the middles covered and over LOW low heat.

5. Serve with something sweet and sour.

More specifically - This recipe is for 2 pork chops. Double, triple and do appropriate fractions for more meat.

2 pork chops

Marinade: In a non-reactive bowl or zip top bag combine....

1 teaspoon sweet (not spicy or smoked) paprika

1/4 teaspoon cumin

4 cloves garlic smashed against a knife and peeled of skins

2 Tbs olive oil

About 1 Tbs soy sauce - for salt

and a few grinds or shakes of black pepper

Mix together, smear over the pork chops, and add -

Enough red wine (up to 1/2 cup) to get everything really wet - fruity if you've got it

Let this sit in the fridge at least an hour... but feel free to have it marinate up to 8 hours.

When it comes time to cook, heat a cast iron skillet or other heavy pan (and I mean HEAVY... is it hard to lift with 1 hand?) over medium high heat with a little oil. Sear each side 3-4 minutes - until it develops a little brown color.

Now turn the heat to LOW, low and Cover Tightly. Cook for another 6 minutes (3 minutes each side if you feel compelled to flip. But at low heat flipping is not essential. When cooked through, but still moist and tender, serve (can keep warm covered with foil, on a plate.)

Serve with Slaw. Slaw? What Slaw? Remember the Orange & Purple salad... here it is.

*Cabbage, Onion and Vegetable Bin Slaw*

This takes advantage of the fact that just about any hard vegetable grated is pretty edible. And any hard vegetable grated and slightly sauteed in somewhere between Very Edible and Down Right Delicious.

Ideal Recipe (This means Totally Adjustable to Current Realities) -

1 Food Processor with grater blade

1/2 head or approximate equiv. of a large cabbage grated, and set aside. (I had purple... thus the Purple)

Grated and mixed together:

1 small or 1/2 large red onion

1 apple quartered and cored - slightly tart and firm preferred, but what you have will do

About 1/2 to 1 cups worth of something crunchy from your vegetable bin (I had golden beets, thus the orange. But celery, carrots, fennel, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash ... whatever! will do).

Dressing: The real rule is TRUST YOUR TONGUE. But if you are saying, sure, but where do I start?

Try: red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp dijon mustard (& a squirt of honey out of a honey bear if it seems like a good idea.) Stir this together with a fork or whisk. Then stir and add some good olive oil (maybe a little sesame oil if you have it/ feel like it). Stir together. If it tastes good, but too strong, it is just right.

In a hot skillet (hopefully the one that you used for the pork chops?) that has a little oil in it...

briefly saute the grated onion apple and misc. hard vegetable.

Toss with the cabbage and dressing. Taste. Add a little salt and pepper, a little at a time, get it Just Right.

Eat the Pork Chops and Slaw together with some toast or left over Mac 'n Cheese or some other handy starch.

Enjoy!

The Lunch Box Dilemma

As I try to decide on the lunch box regimen for the 1st grade, I try to think back to my own lunches. My mom was not a big fan of the "school hot lunch." Standing where she stood, I see what she meant. But having been in my son's spot, I see the appeal. The answer - compromise... Thanks Mom.

So school lunch 1x a month (I remind myself, lots of kids eat this every day, and they are all there, back at school the next day. Just CHILL! On the other hand, this week's Time, "The Real Cost of Cheap Food" also speaks to me.)

But on other days.... I had sandwich and fruit/veg and drink (milk or real juice) and the occasional cookie. I concede I find this a good formula. However, I firmly believe that what we can make fresh(ish) as small producers will always be superior to mass produced incredibly shelf stable stuff that arrives in foil lined, heat sealed, plastic reinforced packaging. Though, some days, I just gotta say yes to the Dorito.

Anyway, tomorrow, day 1 has been slated as "splashy noodles" in the new thermos, with veg, pickled ginger and cookies on the side. + milk

Day 2 turkey sandwich and apple . + milk

Day 3 PB & J, apple +milk.

It is just lunch. No need to get hyper. Just keep it simple, tasty and fresh and everyone will be ok. I think sometimes we forget as a society that little-er kids crave the security of repetition. It is only us jaded grownups that beg for the constant change and something new. Even many adults are happy with the same thing. After all, "I'll have the usual" is something growups say.

Best Diet Ever

Why other peoples' diets invade my mind I DO NOT KNOW. However, if for some bizarre reason I decided I needed to become a diet "guru," this is all my diet would be:

Only eat it if you make it.

There would clearly need to be a few rules, since tossing a Stouffer's Family Size Mac 'n' Cheeze in the microwave counts as cooking to some.

So to start the diet, all the food you make needs to start from items that are only one ingredient themselves. So you can have a sandwich, but you would need to make the bread. (Flour, water, yeast, salt, maybe a little honey?) See, bread has several parts, but I am willing to concede flour is 1 ingredient. Heck you could even have mustard and mayonnaise... you'd just have to make them.

Once you get a handle on things you could then eat things already prepared for you that you COULD make if you had the time or wanted to. Like frozen foods where you read the label and recognize every single thing as food. But not where the frozen food lists processed derivatives of food substances you have never heard of, or can't get your hands on as a home cook.

And that would be it.