What I Cooked – July 13, 2011

Eggplant and Zucchini Frittata

2 Japanese Eggplant or 1 small Eggplant, diced
1 Zucchini, diced
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
12 eggs
½ cup soymilk
1 Tbl dried thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
Salsa or marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Heat oil in a medium, oven-safe skillet. Sauté eggplant, zucchini, onions and garlic until soft.  Crack all the eggs in a separate bowl.  Add the soymilk, thyme and salt & pepper to taste.  Whisk.  Add eggs to the skillet.  Cook for a few minutes, lifting up the edges of the eggs to allow uncooked eggs to come into contact with the heated skillet surface.  Once most of the egg is cooked but the very middle, put the whole skillet in the oven.  Cook until all the egg is cooked, 5 to 10 minutes.  Check every few minutes.  Serve with salsa or marinara sauce.

Slow-Cooker Marinara Sauce

Tomatoes, peeled & diced – this is a good use of “ugly” tomatoes… just cut off the bad bits.

Herbs – per pound of tomatoes
Salt – about ½ tsp per pound
Sugar – about ½ tsp per pound
Basil, Sage & Oregano – 1-2 Tbl fresh or 1-2 tsp dried per pound

Boil hot water… score the bottoms of your tomatoes and dip in the boiling water for 20-30 seconds to loosen the skins.  Peel and quarter the tomatoes.  Squeeze each quartered section to get rid of most of the seeds and excess juice. Don’t get hyper about getting every seed unless you REALLY want to.  Dice up the quartered sections and throw in a slow-cooker.  Choose a size that works for the amount of tomatoes you have.  I usually just do 2-3 pounds at a time… whatever I can get ugly and cheap at the farmer’s market.  Toss in the salt, basil, sage, oregano and, really, any other herbs you feel like, turn the slow cooker on slow and leave it.  About an hour before dinner/serving, I like to take the lid off and turn it to high to cook off some excess liquid.

Tilapia with Dill-Grapefruit Mayonnaise

1 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbl chopped fresh dill
2 tsp grapefruit zest
3 Tbl fresh grapefruit or lemon juice
Salt & black pepper, to taste

4 Tilapia fillets
Oil
Grapefruit slices (cut across into circles)

In a small bowl, mix together the mayo, dill, zest, juice & salt & pepper.  Cover and chill.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Spray or brush with oil.  Spray or brush the fish fillets with oil and set on the parchment paper.  Top each with a slice of grapefruit.  Bake until fish flakes easily with fork, 8 to 10 minutes.  Serve with mayonnaise.

What I Did with My Budget Box 6.29.11

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Olive oil
1 pound pork tenderloin, diced into 1/2" cubes
1 Tbl low-sodium tamari sauce or soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced

16 large lettuce leaves
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced red bell pepper
1 cup sliced radishes

Sauce
1/3 cup low-sodium tamari sauce or soy sauce
1/3 cup water
3 Tbl fresh lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbl fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp sugar

In a medium skillet, heat olive oil.  Stir-fry pork, tamari sauce, garlic and ginger until the pork is done. 

Prep all vegetables on a platter or in bowls. 

In a small bowl, mix together sauce ingredients. 

Use a lettuce leaf to make lettuce “burritos” with meat and choice of veggies. Roll up and dip in the sauce or spoon the sauce over.  Be prepared for a yummy mess.

Pouch Potatoes on the Grill

1 – 2 lbs of new potatoes, quartered
Garlic powder
Thyme
Olive oil

Tear a sheet of aluminum foil 18” to 24” long (depending on how many potatoes).  Toss the new potatoes in a little olive oil with a sprinkling of garlic powder and dried thyme (to taste).  Fold the aluminum foil over and fold over the edges, crimping them shut all around.  Cook on the grill for 15-20 minutes (depending on heat) until soft. 

Minestrone

3 Tbl olive oil
4 green onions, sliced

2 carrots, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

4 oz. green beans, cut into smaller pieces

1 quart chicken or vegetable stock

1 quart water

1 pound tomatoes, skinned & chopped

1 Tbl dried thyme

1 Tbl dried oregano

½ cup shaped pasta (I used elbow)

Salt & pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add green onions, carrots, zucchini, and green beans.  Cover and reduce heat.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add stock, tomatoes and herbs.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover.  Simmer 20 minutes.  Stir in pasta and cook an additional 10 minutes (or until pasta is cooked).  Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Italian Pork Soup

3 Tbl olive oil

1 pound pork tenderloin, diced in ½” cubes

4 cloves garlic, minced

Italian seasoning mix (see below)

1 quart chicken stock

1 quart water

1 pound tomatoes, skinned & diced

2 carrots, sliced

1 small head broccoli (or broccolini)

2 Tbl garlic chives, chopped

4 green onions, sliced

2 cups greens, rinsed & chopped (spinach, mustard greens, collards… whatever you have).

Salt & pepper, to taste

Italian seasoning mix

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp red pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp minced onion

2 tsp salt

Heat oil in a stockpot or large sauce pan over medium heat.  Toss the pork with the garlic and Italian seasoning mix.  Brown pork in the pan.  Add the stock, tomatoes and carrots.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Stir in the broccoli, garlic chives, and green onions.  If you are using heavier greens (like collard or mustard), add them now too.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. 

If using spinach, after 15 minutes, remove from heat, stir in spinach and cover for 5 minutes.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Readers and Font Color

ARGH!  Having trouble copying and pasting posts into here and getting the color to work right.  Sorry for those of you who got my most recent posts in your reader and they were in pale green font.  Anyone familiar with blogger wanna tell me how to make it show black as I type it but then convert to white when it's on the dark background of our blog?

What I Did with My Budget Box(es) May 13, 2011

Quick explanation of a Budget Box.  A budget box is the weekly CSA box we get from Fresh Connect KC.  It's a variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs.  We never know what we'll get.  All the produce is local and/or organic.  This is a series I write for the Fresh Connect KC blog on what I do with the goodies I find in my box each week.  Foods that are in bold and italics are those in my budget box.

Cross posted from Fresh Connect KC: http://kc.freshconnect.com/what-i-did-with-my-budget-boxes-may-13-2011/


Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

4 fish fillets, such as Tilapia
Chili powder
Cooking oil
Taco shells (I love the local Li Tiara brand... so thin and crispy)

Salsa
1 mango, peeled, seeded and diced
2 tomatoes, diced
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup green onions and/or garlic chives, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp salt
2 Tbl fresh lime juice (I used one half of the lime in the salsa and one half on the fish)

Combine the salsa ingredients and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat cooking oil in a large skillet.  I used oil flavored with chili peppers, but whatever cooking oil you prefer is fine.  Sprinkle each fillet lightly with chili powder and pan-fry, about 3 minutes each side depending on the thickness of the fillets. Cook until fish is flaky.

Serve.  I also served guacamole with the tacos.  If the avocado that came in my Budget Box had been less rock-like (needs a few more days), I would’ve diced it up into the salsa too and skipped the guacamole.

Green Beans with Fresh Mint

1 lb. fresh green beans (later we’ll be able to use these from Fresh Connect too)
2 Tbl butter
Fresh Mint

Steam green beans in a little water in the microwave.  3-5 minutes.  Drain off excess water and add the butter and fresh mint.  I used two stems worth of leaves that I cut chiffonade-style.  Microwave for another 2 minutes.  All microwaves vary.  As a point of reference, mine is hyper powerful.   On most recipes, I start at HALF what they call for.  So you will likely need more time than I did.

Spinach Salad

This is NOT anything new or fancy...but it’s the tried and true ensemble I go to time and time again. Now to remember I’ve already posted this recipe and not do again... and again... and again...

4 strips of bacon
2 Tbl spicy mustard
½ cup vinegar (I used a combination of apple cider and balsamic)
1 tsp honey
1 lb. fresh spinach
Slivered almonds
Strawberries, sliced
Hard-boiled egg, chopped

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry in a small skillet until done.  Turn off the heat.  When dinner is almost ready, add the mustard, vinegar, and honey to the skillet and stir.  Put the spinach, almonds, strawberries and hard-boiled egg in a large bowl.  Pour the warm dressing over the top and toss.

I served the green beans and spinach salad with some leftover Easter ham.

Indian Saag

½ cup butter
2 tsp cumin seed
2 Tbl jalapenos, chopped (I used pickled, but fresh would be good too)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Tbl garlic chives, chopped
1 ½ Tbl ground turmeric
1 lb chopped greens, mustard, collard, or some other favorite (I used a combination of frozen greens from my freezer - frozen from the garden last year)
1 lb chopped spinach (I used fresh here.. duh... from my Fresh Connect box either fresh or frozen works)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt

In a large skillet with a lid, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Stir in cumin seeds, jalapenos, garlic and turmeric.  Cook for a minute or 2 until the spices are really fragrant.

Stir in the chopped greens, a little at a time.  Continue to add greens, cooking and stirring as they reduce now, until all greens have been added and all are wilted.  Stir in the cumin, coriander and salt.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer until greens are tender, about 10-20 minutes.  Add water as needed to keep the greens moist.

Aloo Phujia

1 onion, chopped
2 Tbl vegetable oil
2 lbs potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 tsp salt
¼ - ½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp cumin
2 tomatoes, chopped

In a large skillet with a lid, heat oil over medium-high.  Saute onions until soft and lightly brown.  Stir in salt, cayenne, turmeric and cumin.  Turn heat down to medium, add potatoes and cook about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally to keep from sticking.  I also added water a bit here and there.  Add tomatoes, cover pan and cook until potatoes are soft, 10-20 minutes.

Birthday Party Distractions again...

Our dear friend Robin suggested we make sure we keep backups of my blog posts on Fresh Connect since we don't know their post archive policy.  I will start posting them here too with links to the post there as well.


Cross-posted from Fresh Connect: http://kc.freshconnect.com/birthday-party-distractions/

Birthday Party Distractions

Okay... so this post isn’t exactly going to be about food or gardening... but it will be about entertaining, another passion of mine.  And it will go part of the way to explaining why I haven’t posted in the last two weeks.  My first excuse... my son’s 8th birthday party.  The other excuses include Easter, LARGE workloads at the office and a sick grandmother in and out of the hospital (and in and out and in....).  I’m only going to share the birthday party excuse here.  

MAD SCIENCE!!!  Bwahahahahaha... The last two years my son wanted commercially themed parties, specifically Pokemon and Mario Brothers.  There are only so many ways you can rename the same party games to fit new themes.  One year we had Pin the Tail on the Pikachu and the next, Pin the Mustache on the Mario.  Mom wanted something different... a new challenge.  Forget what he wanted!  Okay... well, maybe not entirely.  He is INTO SCIENCE.  I suggested a Mad Science theme and he jumped on the idea.  I even conned... er... convinced my husband, Jason, to be the Mad Scientist in charge.  Having been a physics major in college, it wasn’t that difficult.  

The hardest part was convincing Jasper that he could not invite EVERYONE like he usually does.  I started by limiting it to boys only.  That got the list to 35ish.  After more negotiations, we got it down to 20.  We STILL had 14 boys.  Here are the basics:

FAVORS

All the boys got goggles and “lab coats” when they arrived.  I’d ordered 10 colorful safety goggles from Ebay and found more for a dollar each at Deals when our guest list went over 10.  The lab coats were white T-shirts cut up the front with the collar folded down and ironed to look like a lab coat.  Name tags had the biohazard symbol on them and were pinned on.  

I also put together favor bags.  Thanks again to the dollar store, these were pretty economical. I used plain brown bags and printed labels with various scientific symbols.  Favor bag contents included: Pop Rocks, Smarties, and Warheads candy, a compass, a magnifying glass, erasers and two “magic grow capsules” with instructions for a little science project to do at home.  The remaining “favor” came from one of the science experiments.

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

Instead of traditional party games, we did science experiments.  I highly recommend putting everything necessary together ahead of time.  We did and the transition between each experiment went smoothly and made the whole thing go very smoothly.  I made good use of all the empty canning jars I own (waiting for summer canning.. oh so close in the future!).  

We divided the boys into new teams for each experiment.  Since not all the boys knew each other and we had ages ranging from 6 to 13, this worked well in helping them get to know each other and keeping the teams “fair”.  For all the experiments but the slime, we had teams of 3 or 4.  Slime had teams of 2.  We didn’t do prizes for winners at all.  Really only one of the experiments even had a “winner” per se.  

I’ll link to the sites we used to help us design the experiments and include my own comments here.  The experiments in order...

Diving Raisins - This was an easy ice breaker.  Each team got a tall juice glass (clear) and a small baggie of raisins.  

Baking Soda & Vinegar Volcanoes - Our teams actually made their own dough and built the volcano around the bottle.  A messy good time.  Again, everything was prepped ahead of time.  Flour & salt was in one container.  Water & oil was in a pint canning jar.  We walked around with the baking soda, warm water, etc. as each team was ready with their volcano.  

Toothpick Towers - Each team got a box of toothpicks and a baggie of large marshmallows, gumdrops, cheese puffs and gummy bears.  They had 10 minutes to build the tallest and most stable tower they could.  Some teams were more focused on building.  Some teams were more focused on taste testing the building materials.  They all had fun though. 

Slime - I’m not sure that the boys had a favorite activity... they were all pretty popular, but this one may have edged out as the top spot for most of the guests.  We did have two boys who wanted nothing to do with the yucky stuff touching them but they still had a blast giggling at all the other boys playing with it.  We sent home slime in snack-size ziptop baggies as part of their favors.  

Mentos & Diet Soda Fountains - We did not use diet soda because we were being cheap and bought the store brand of soda, which doesn’t have a diet option.  We still got fountains but learned later that to get the truly epic fountains, you need diet soda.  Next time (Ha!).  This activity nearly tied for top spot... at least for the two oldest boys who insisted on dipping their heads in the fountains!  

FOOD

We planned our party from 2:00 to 4:00 so we only did dessert.  No other snacks.  I had “Make Your Own Alien” cupcakes.  I freshly iced the chocolate cupcakes so the frosting was soft and good for decorating.  Each boy got a cupcake and each table had a bowl full of decorations... peach rings, mini chewy SweetTarts, and peel apart Twizzlers.  Once all the aliens were created, we let the boys all come inside to watch a movie on Netflix instant view about magnetism.  I served lemonade and water.  After cupcakes, we gathered everyone together for present opening.  By then, it was time to head home for everyone.

DECORATIONS
We were VERY simple with decorations.  I printed out the chemical structure for many common chemical, including all the various ingredients we used for the experiments, like baking soda, acetic acid and borax.  The birthday boy was in charge of taping them all over outside (front and back) and inside.  We put up two Happy Birthday banners.  Other than red gingham check vinyl tablecloths on the card tables outside (because that’s what I had), we had no other real decorations.  The boys in their cute goggles and lab coats were decoration enough and they didn’t seem to care.  

INVITATION

I made our own invitations.  I used a very silly picture of Einstein sticking his tongue out and used the following wording.  I printed them two to a sheet on white cardstock.  

Join Professor J for Some Wacky Experiments, Kooky Chemical Reactions and Explosive Fun!
Testing Begins: (Date & Time)
Lab Location: (Address)
RSVP:  (you get the idea...)

I really have been cooking when not planning birthday parties, or chasing between the hospital and the skilled care facility or working too much.  I’ll post more on the garden and what I did with my budget box(es) soon.  

Birthday Party Distractions

I hate to just post a link but since I used the excuse of the birthday party as the distraction from my posting duties on the Fresh Connect KC blog, I didn't want to have to reinvent the wheel and repeat it all here.

So read http://kc.freshconnect.com/birthday-party-distractions/ to see all about Jasper's 8th birthday party.

Blogging... really I am...

I am blogging... again... but not here.  I will continue to do some family updates here (when I remember/have time) but for all your recipe and garden information needs, check out the Fresh Connect KC blog where I am now a regular contributor.  Don't let the "KC" moniker scare you away if you aren't a Kansas City area native.  The blog is more about gardening, recipes, product reviews, etc.  My most recent post is here:  http://kc.freshconnect.com/what-i-did-with-my-budget-box/