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.

Farmer's Markets Make Everyone a Better Cook

Just like we are all more beautiful swimming in the waves at the beach, we are all better cooks at the farmers market. The air smells like food... REAL food. Food that has barely had time to realize it's not still planted, or whatever.

It is, AT LAST, northwest tomato time (did 'ja blink? Mighta missed it.) Fortunately we also get Yakima tomato time which is twice as long. And for those of you with diligent souls, having your own back yard tomato time is lovely.

My favorite super-duper-fresh tomato recipes are all raw. If you need to cook a tomato, use an inferior one. (Or go nuts if you are luck enough to have a bumper crop). But in my little corner of the world, the local, ripe tomato is a rare gem. And unless I get it together and grow my own (not currently likely), I will continue to savor them as rare delicacies.

To enjoy the first fruits, just wait 'til your tomato is pleasantly warmed by the sun (on the vine, or -sigh- on my counter, and bite in. Maybe sprinkle on a little fine salt (this is an indulgence, remember). Enjoy the captured sunshine.

Never EVER refrigerate a tomato. It loses all of it's deliciousness. There is actually a chemical that sort-of "turns off" below 55˚F and all the tomato-ness is lost. Cooked tomatoes don't suffer this, but raw ones do.

A warning - whatever fabulous new combination I have recently uncovered is my new favorite... and then I move on.

So my new favorite raw tomato salad:

*Sliced Tomatoes with Herb Pesto*

To Find:

2-3 large ripe tomatoes (they smell like tomatoes, and they feel like you might squish them)

1/4 C balsamic vinegar

about 2/3 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves

about 1/3 C loosely packed other herbs (oregano, chives, parsley, a little mint - whatever you have)

1 large garlic clove

1/2 C toasted pine nuts

salt to taste

a good olive oil - just use the amount you need to get the right consistency (see below)

To Do:

Slice tomatoes about 1cm thick, or about as thick as your thumb. Lay them out in a large, non-metallic tray or dish or plate. Pour the vinegar over them, cover them and leave them overnight somewhere cool, where they won't get direct sunlight. (You don't have to leave them out overnight... but if you can, do.)

To make the pesto - break out the food processor or a mortar and pestle. Like the name says, we are making a paste. Put the nuts and garlic in the work bowl with the chopping blade, take it for a spin, just for about 5 seconds, until you have little pieces. Then throw in all the herbs, a splash of oil and let every thing spin until you have what starts to look like a paste. Stop and taste. Add a pinch of salt, spin and taste again until you have what tastes almost right.

Finally, press go, and add oil until it is just right (maybe another tablespoon or 2, it depends on SO MANY things).

When it is just right, spoon over the tomatoes and serve. Garnish with a few herb leaves if you are feeling artistic.

Pretzels are Good for the Soul

So the last time I had my son's friends over to make pretzels one was floored by the procedure of getting oil all over his hands, and then, On Purpose, spreading it on the (glass) table top. Making such a slippery, sticky mess of oil and dough on purpose seemed completely out of bounds to him. He HAD A BALL! And he is over the moon to come do it again.

I love it when I can open doors like this.

Need to make pretzels? This is my favorite way:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html