More good eats

I attended an impromptu birthday party the other day and was asked at the last minute to bring "a sweet treat without chocolate." I perused one cookbook (my no bake cookie collection--soo useful) and got lemon curd on the brain, but then I decided I wanted to do lemon curd thumbprint cookies if I could find a recipe that wasn't too complicated. Oh my, are the recipes for thumbprint cookies complex? If you want, you can take hours making them, with several "firings" and complicated filling regimes. However, I was successful in locating the kind of recipe I wanted, simple, straightforward, and delicious. And here it is, along with my additions (did you think I wasn't going to make changes??):

Thumbprint Cookies

¼ cup butter, room temperature (or margarine, which I used)
½ cup sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp milk
¼ cup cornstarch
1 ¼ cup flour
½ cup pecans chopped finely (optional)
lemon curd or jam

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cream together butter, sugar and salt. Beat in vanilla, milk and cornstarch. Stir in flour and pecans if using until just combined.

Roll into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place on baking sheet and make a shallow indentation with your thumb. Fill indentation with a bit of curd or jam.

Bake tarts for 12-13 minutes, until cookies just start to brown.

Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 2 dozen.


The party guests declared them a success, and the husband loved them, though J, after expressing all kinds of enthusiasm for "lemon bird" decided in the end he really didn't like them after all. Typical!

Good for what ails ya

I have made a lot of rice recently, to go along with chili (I also made cornbread, good Southern girl that I am) and stir fry and curry, etc. But I've had a lot left over, more than enough to support the leftover main dishes, so I decided to make some rice pudding.

Originally, I was going for coconut rice pudding, but the canned coconut milk I thought I had turned out to be a can of coconut solids, not something edible (it had been there a LONG time, I guess). But then I had coconut on the brain, so here is my recipe (entirely original, after consulting 25 other recipes and not finding one exactly right) for Hint of Coconut Rice Pudding:

2 cups cooked rice (I used Jasmine rice, yum)
1 1/2 cups milk (fat free Lactaid, of course)
1/3-1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 cup dried fruit (I used a combination of golden raisins and crasins)
2 teaspoons vanilla (or so--I really didn't measure this...or anything else, actually)
1/8 teaspoon salt (I read that a "dash" is really 1/8 teaspoon, so there you go)

Combine all ingredients in a pot and heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches your desired consistency. Done. (My desired consistency is fairly dry, not at all soupy.)

If I were a good blogger, I would have punctuated this post with stunning photos of my ingredients and mouth-watering finished product, but I am a bad blogger. Sorry! Use your imaginations instead! Here, let me help: I am now eating the pudding (which has turned a lovely shade because of the vanilla and raisins) out of my sons' yellow bowl from Ikea. Go!

True random story: Once upon a time I worked in the bakery of a large restaurant. Among other dessert items, we served "rice pudding," which was really, as far as I could tell, whipped cream with rice in it. I think it might have been topped with a sauce of some sort as well, maybe mango? Anywho, it was, not surprisingly, not too popular. It was a random choice, anyway, in a sea of pineapple upside down cake and guava cake and the like. So, every night, there would always be these glasses of rice pudding leftover (we served it in cut glass goblet-like glasses, for some reason), which I got to eat. And I did, frequently, even though it was the most un-rice pudding like dish on the planet. What is was was SWEET, the perfect end to a day spent making desserts and then setting a gazillion tables and then dealing with spoiled tourists and then slinging dirty plates through a hot, sloshy kitchen.

My current rice pudding is the perfect end to a week of sick kids and sick parents who all need some comfort food. Sigh!

Big cheese, make me

Recently, while on a shopping trip, J tried a sample of beefy cheesy mac, macaroni and cheese with ground beef. To say he loved it would be putting it much to mildly. He inhaled the stuff, one generous scoop of it, and was crying for more.

So, I decided I would make him some macaroni and cheese at home as a treat, and I picked up some Kraft because that's what you eat when you want mac and cheese fast, right? But when I made it I thought, "This stuff is edible?? It hardly should count as food! I can't believe I'm feeding this to my child!" I went ahead and gave it to him, regretting it every moment. And he loved it, as did the husband later on, but I felt too guilty to ever serve it again.

However, I dreaded learning how to make macaroni and cheese from scratch. Down here, in the south, making this particular dish is serious business. Women hide their family recipes in locked cabinets, guarding their particular combination of cheeses like state secrets. Making a batch can take half a day and the praises can be sung for a week after it's served. Intimidating, to say the least.

So it was with great trepidation that I embarked on a mission to find a recipe for homemade mac and cheese that wasn't going to make me cry in frustration and take a year to prepare. Fortunately, I found, get this, a three ingredient recipe: noodles, grated cheddar cheese, and butter! Huzzah. It's prepared on the stovetop and takes about 13 minutes from start to finish. Of course, I couldn't just stick with the recipe as written, so I added some cream cheese because, well, I had it on hand. I also added some chopped ham and frozen peas and carrots, all of J's favorite foods wrapped in one cheesy package. And it was a huge success, judging by the quantity he ate and the two-fisted shoveling into his mouth going on.

Now, when I make it again, I will change the recipe slightly. For example, I don't think one needs all that butter, so I will substitute milk. And the key is the sharpest cheddar I can find and more spices (or any, for that matter). J was fine with the medium cheddar, but the husband likes things a little more flavorful. The ham I'll probably keep; it was a tasty addition.

Next food update: strawberry freezer jam!

Here a little there

When we were first married, I made Thanksgiving dinner from scratch. I don't remember all that we had, but I do know there were two pans of stuffing. Two 9x13 pans. And 10 pounds of smashed potatoes. And two pies, one fruit, one something else. And turkey. And ham. And some sort of broccoli bake and a salad.... For two people. When the husband tells this story, he says after he had eaten more than he had ever eaten at any Thanksgiving, it looked like we hadn't even touched the food. It was a lot of food, she says obviously.

This year, we ate with assorted friends, and all I made were mounds and mounds of sweet potatoes, green beans with bacon and onions, and pumpkin trifle. And we all ate our fill of many other fabulous foods and came home with all kinds of leftovers including mashed potatoes, stuffing, salad, and assorted cheesecakes. What a trade!

Well, okay, I also made a turkey. Because I love turkey and always want more leftovers and didn't want to be greedy with our friends and am obsessive about cooking like that. So, we have turkey, too, though there ended up being two turkeys at our shindig, one cooked in a bag (very tasty) and a deep fried turkey later, sort of a charcoal after dinner mint of sorts. It was good as well, but looked like the after shots of an arsonist attack.

And now for what you're all waiting for, the pumpkin trifle recipe. It's a Paula Dean recipe more or less, courtesy of a Food Network clip on Hulu.

1 30 ounce can pumpkin pie filling
1 5.1 ounce box vanilla pudding prepared
1/2 t. cinnamon
2 T. brown sugar
2 14 ounce boxes gingerbread prepared
2 8 ounce tubs whipped cream

Mix the pumpkin pie filling with the vanilla pudding, cinnamon and brown sugar. (Paula uses 1 T. cardamon and 1/2 C. brown sugar, but that seemed too much for me. She also uses slow cook as opposed to instant pudding, but I used instant and it turned out fine. Full disclosure, however: apparently Libby makes something called pumpkin pie "mix" as well as pumpkin pie filling, which I mistakenly picked up instead, so when this became clear to me, I mixed in a little extra whipped cream to compensate for the missing dairy the filling has. But this mistake also worked out just fine. Paula So.) Layer the gingerbread in your trifle dish (or glass bowl, but I finally got a trifle dish because I always want one and always talk myself out of it, which rarely happens to me with regard to kitchen items. And it was on sale!), then layer in the pumpkin mixture, then add a layer of whipped cream, and then repeat all three layers, ending with whipped cream. Sprinkle with crushed gingersnaps or gingerbread men or nothing at all. Chill as long as you have (particularly when you mess up the recipe with the pumpkin pie mix and use instant pudding, since it can be a tad runny). Reveal with a Ta Da!

This boon to mortals giv'n

I promised a recipe for this fabulous pumpkin soup I made last weekend. But first, some caveats: it uses canned pumpkin. I know, I know, you're shocked, SHOCKED that I didn't carve a pumpkin, cook it down, render the flesh (or whatever it is you do to squash), and make it from scratch, but I just couldn't see doing that when canned pumpkin is on sale and just as yummy as the real thing usually. And this soup was greeted with MUCH suspicion at first at the event to which I took it. I didn't give anyone the hard sell because I didn't want to force anyone to try a new food and then, you know, get sick on me or something, but I was surprised at how long it took virtually everyone there to warm up to the idea of this perfectly innocuous (or so it seemed to me) soup. Admittedly, I know some people have a sweet/savory issue when it comes to sweet potatoes and pumpkin and the like, but I resisted my urge to make this soup sweeter than it needed to be so one wouldn't feel like one was drinking pumpkin pie. And I added ham and onions for good measure, just to make it perfectly clear that this was a savory dish. But STILL! Once people did break down and try it (there were only three options, so they had little choice), everyone raved. Until then, however, many people wandered up to the large pot (did I mention this recipe makes a TON?), looked in, swished the ladle around a bit, and then said something along the lines of "Oh, pumpkin soup....How interesting." Really? I had no idea I was so gourmet and/or avant garde!
Sheesh!

Pumpkin Soup for a Crowd

1 T. butter
2 med. onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (or less)
2 pounds ham, chopped (size to fit your fancy. I like small pieces and lots of 'em)
3 (29 ounce) cans pumpkin puree (or six of the smaller cans)
3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth (you may not need all of the third)
1 pint light cream (this is all the dairy involved, really a proportionally small amount, but you could use *lactaid* or regular milk)
4 T. brown sugar (or more)
1 1/2 t. cumin (a little goes a long way)
1 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice (so there's a little bit of sweet)
1 t. onion salt
1/2 t. grill seasoning (or more if you're a pepper fan)
1/2 t. fresh rosemary, minced

Melt the butter in the bottom of your largest stock pot over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic until soft. Add ham and saute briefly (the husband recommends sautéing your ham first to brown it and then adding the onion/garlic). Add pumpkin, 2 cans of broth, cream, and spices. Soup will be THICK, so thin to your liking with remaining broth. Cook over low heat, covered, for as long as you want (I cooked it for three hours on low while we were crafting and it was delicious), or heat through on a higher heat and serve. Serves at least 16 people.

(based on a recipe from allrecipes.com but changed in several ways)

Found you another

So, at last, let's talk veggies. So far this season, we've gotten the following items, various quantities of all on various weeks: bok choy, tat soi, collard greens, jalapeno peppers, green peppers, red mustard greens, arugula, green leaf lettuce, carrots, turnips, cucumbers, mixed lettuces, green beans, cucumbers, popping corn, broccoli rabe, sweet potatoes, eggplant, butternut squash, yellow crookneck squash, acorn squash, two different varieties of radish, and green onions. Fabulous variety!

But what to do with all these lettuces? We've had many salads, even accidentally eating red mustard greens in a salad because I thought they were red leaf lettuce (they are a bit bitter raw, by the way). I am not a fan of arugula, but I love the rest, so I've been on a lettuce binge each week. The husband has eaten the radishes raw, and we made a combination of grated carrots and turnips cooked in a little butter that was great while his parents were here. I've used the green peppers and cucumbers in all sorts of dishes, and I've got lots of ideas about the squash, but they are so pretty and they keep so well so long, I'm still enjoying looking at them! The husband is also planning on making more jalapeno poppers this weekend, because they were so great last time.

Last night I conquered collard greens. I began as I always do, looking around the web for recipe ideas. Imagine my chagrin to learn that virtually every recipe out there for collard greens involves either a ham hock or bacon fat. I had neither of these on hand and that's only half of it (grease, glorious grease, best from the pig)! Undaunted, I moved on. I could have looked at recipes for other, fancier, less Southern greens and then just substituted the collards, but for my first outing with this particular vegetable, I wanted to stick with a recipe that had been designed with this specific green in mind and avoid potentially distasteful experimenting. In the end, of course, I changed the recipe I did finally find, but did you expect anything less? The results, Collard Greens and Tomatoes, were yummy! And there were only three ingredients! Huzzah!

1 bunch collard greens, rinsed well, tough stems and ribs trimmed, chopped
Italian blend seasoning (or basil, oregano, etc) to taste
1 can diced tomatoes (I chose a can with balsamic vinegar, basil, and olive oil, just because it sounded good)

Saute greens in cooking spray until slightly wilted. Add seasoning. Stir in tomatoes and continue cooking until greens are thoroughly wilted and combined. Adjust seasonings to taste. Voila!

C is for cookie

I'm making cookies today while the baby naps. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, one of my tried and true fewer than five ingredients recipes. This one involves a spice cake mix (or a white cake mix and pumpkin pie spice, in a pinch. Or yellow cake mix and cinnamon and nutmeg, in an even greater pinch. It's a method, really), a can of pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling, just pumpkin), and chocolate chips, as many as you think necessary. It's a transplanted recipe from UT that my mother called to share as soon as she found out about it because where do you think I get my love of all things simple in the kitchen??

I was going to jazz up the recipe by adding chopped pecans, but then I thought, why mess with a good thing? I may still, however, drizzle some cinnamon powered sugar glaze over them to make them more...ummm...special? shower appropriate? pretty? I was inspired by a woman in our congregation who made similar cookies and included the icing drizzle over some of them. Well, her cookies were actually three varieties, plain pumpkin, chocolate chip, and nuts, and they weren't so much drop cookies as perfectly formed circles, and they didn't so much come from a mix and a can as totally from scratch. But other than that, they were exactly the same! Regardless, the icing looked like a simple addition of two more ingredients (water doesn't count) with a big TA-DA factor (if I can do it as artfully as she did, a real question. However, I am more confident in my cooking abilities than I am in my artistic abilities, generally.) I'm sure I've mentioned these cookies before, since they are a favorite of mine, particularly once Fall has arrived and the ingredients are more readily available.

J is asleep, which is why I'm making them now, because his new crawling abilities make him a liability in the kitchen when I have to use the oven. So I'm making the cookies VERY QUIETLY so he stays asleep. I feel like all noises in the kitchen, just down the hall from his room, are amplified an hundred fold and he is not the most solid sleeper. The husband used to say, back when J was taking 25 minute naps, that the baby could "sleep through anything for half an hour" but then he would always wake up. I wanted to smack the husband every time he said this, since sad experience had taught me that the baby would, in fact, not sleep through much at all, ever. The husband would say I'm obsessive about noises (particularly those he makes), but I would say I'm just circumspect. And desperate for J to stay asleep at any cost!!!

Knocking on heaven's door

This is turning out to be a busy week, hence the short or limited posts. Yesterday was spent prepping for the coming week, which entails two church functions, one service project, one wedding, and one birthday party in addition to the daily Bible study lessons and, you know, living.

For one of the church functions, tonight's, I'm doing both refreshments and a presentation. The former I remembered and have ready; the latter slipped my mind until this afternoon, so I fit in prepping what I was going to say as I was baking fruity oatmeal bars and making a curried chicken cheese ball (don't mess!). The cheese ball was a success, though I won't do more than taste, lactose depository that it is, but I'd had visions of my grandmother's cheese ball for some time, so I decided now was the day to make it. My mother helpfully provided the recipe, after my father wondered why in the world I wanted it. As I informed him, I have just a few untainted memories of my maternal grandmother, and most of those involve food that she made (her spinach fettucine is one of my greatest lactose laments), so we have to honor our sometimes dubious heritage where we can. The oatmeal bars were a new dish, though I messed up and doubled the recipe but only bought one can of cherry pie filling, which was definitely not enough. What to do? I improvised with some leftover strawberry freezer jam (berries, sugar, and pectin. What's not to love) and some frozen mixed berries, thawed, heated, and thickened with cornstarch. And the new and improved berry oatmeal bars are quite tasty, if I do say so myself (I had to try them. What if they were vile??). Once again, necessity and invention and all that.

Getting ready for tonight was complicated by the fact that J peeed on me not once, not twice, but THREE times today, the third time soaking the outfit I had just then put on for tonight. Granted, this kind of fountainworks hasn't happened for a long while now, so we were due, but each time he let loose today, he giggled uproariously right before, leading me to the terrible conclusion that he has learned to pee on command. And he thinks it's funny. Heaven help me!