Category Archives: Recipe Ideas

These are ideas that can let your personality shine

Organic Surprise

Posted on July 8, 2009 | 5 comments

Overnight we received our first home food delivery, including eggs, cheese, applewood smoked bacon, a couple of steaks and other items.  Unfortunately they were left in grocery cooler bags and not in the 70 qt. rolling cooler we purchased and are supposed to set out every week to keep things fresh.  Nothing seemed spoiled this morning but it was disappointing.

I told you about the milkman.  First time I’ve had a milkman in 40 years!  We got one gallon of organic milk, in a GLASS bottle.  All I need to do is rinse out the bottle and leave it out next week and they’ll hold the $1.50 deposit for my weekly standing order.  Cool!

Now to the surprise.  I wanted to challenge myself with fresh produce to get me out of a cooking rut.  Cooking only meat is getting boring but Jim can’t eat fish and isn’t much interested in veggies (unless it’s an iceberg wedge with Thousand Island or a loaded baked potato) so… ta dah!

In this week’s first shipment, for $19.95, the coolest thing is gorgeous bunch of carrots with fluffy green tops attached, dirt and roots.  Lets me know it’s local and fresh.  Two lemons, one hard avocado that I’m ripening on the counter, two cucumbers, 1# of cherries, one head of iceberg lettuce and 3# of organic red onions.

I love a cold cuke soup with yogurt and lemon but Jim doesn’t, so here’s what I’m thinking.  I’ve tons of eggs, what with 18 in the frig and 24 just delivered.  Cold supper with ham and cheese and artisan bread, maybe homemade.  Hard-cooked eggs.  Fresh tomatoes.  Cucumber salad (my grandmother’s recipe is on this site).

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll try a cherry clafoutis (pancake of sorts) that I haven’t made since cooking school.  Right now I must get ready for my guitar lesson as I’ve been somewhat lax in practicing.

I did download some iTunes this past week to help with my lessons.  More on that later.  Viva local Utah milk, eggs, and organic produce!  Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Utah

Tuesday Dinner

Posted on July 7, 2009 | Leave a comment

Tonight I made boneless, skinless chicken breasts and marinated them in orange and lime juices, soy sauce, chili flakes, garlic, scallions, pepper and a bit of canola oil.  I cooked them indoors, instead of on the grill.  I’m not giving you the marinade recipe because it wasn’t quite right.  I know I’ve the internet at my command but miss having even one cookbook to peruse for personal enjoyment.  Actually I do have one from my neighbor the pastry chef, but I was at 90% on the chicken breasts tonight.  Better if done on the grill and skin-on.  But I got a great deal at the grocery so we still have two breasts left, which I froze because Jim’s just not into chicken.

Thanks for checking in and let me know who makes your own fry sauce!  Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas

Pizza Night

Posted on June 29, 2009 | 1 comment

But easy.  I usually make my own dough but just got back from my guitar lesson so am letting some whole grain dough from Whole Foods (punched it down, formed it and will let it warm up for an hour so I can roll it out) sit a bit, with flour, on the counter, covered by a large bowl.

Jim gets mozzarella and pepperoni, perhaps mushrooms if I’ve got time to saute them.  I get spinach with garlic, topped with feta.

Thanks Foodies for stopping by.  Please let me know what kinds of things you’d like to see in the future.  In the meantime I put a lot of work in my cookbook selections and pantry items so you may want to check them out – it doesn’t cost anything!  Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Cook Books, Cooking Utensils, Editorial, Education, Recipe Ideas, Recommended Pantry Contents

Balance

Posted on June 29, 2009 | 1 comment

Our families are involved in different things.  Retired and in his seventies, my father is working to create a new ballet company.  Jim’s father owns a cattle ranch.  Jim majored in physics but is a software engineer and inventor.

Lately, I take care of the home.  It has been a year since Jim created this blog for me.  I was so scared at first, now some of my friends don’t email anymore and do facebook and I feel OK on the blog but facebook is something I want no part of.

Recipes.  I’d like to do a book about family recipes and may have received that box a few days before our temporary move.  It remains unopened, in storage, so you’ll have to wait as will I.  If I do a really complicated recipe, I like to have it in front of me while cooking, otherwise, unless it’s baking, that’s not my interest, I’ll guess-timate after the first  couple of times.

With a solid background in French cooking I skew towards southern France, Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean for ideas. Otherwise for Jim it’s some version of meat and potatoes, as he’s allergic to fish.

His technical books are about numerical recipes, mine are about food.  But I didn’t bring one book with me on this short-term journey.  I love my cookbooks and hope you’ll take a look because I chose the ones I feature judiciously.  They’re in air-conditioned storage right now.

The balance is between us, physics and cooking, science and art, software and being a dog’s “mom” and taking care of a household.  No, I never thought I’d be here, but living in the mountains for a couple of months isn’t a bad thing.  As for boiling water for tea at high altitude, I chose Overstock’s electric Kaloric kettle, that comes with placemats and two mugs.  It boils water in 1/4 the time it takes the gas stove to do so.  Again, we’re living at high altitude so your results will differ.

I’m looking forward to my first surprise organic basket Wednesday morning so will do minimal shopping tomorrow.  Will let you know how it goes….  Take care, Dee

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Posted in Cook Books, Editorial, Greece, Italy, Recipe Ideas

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Chicken

Posted on June 24, 2009 | 1 comment

We cooked some lovely chicken, first time I’ve used the smoked paprika rub I made a few weeks ago.  I finished it in the oven alongside scalloped potatoes that burned a bit on top when I turned up the oven to speed cooking.  But they were very good.  Dinner was finished off with an iceberg wedge salad with Jim’s favorite bottled salad dressing for that dish – thousand island.  I prefer to make my own vinaigrette and have better greens but this is something he’s wanted and he normally doesn’t eat vegetables so that’s what he gets.

It’s been getting a bit warm here, no-where near Texas warm, and I’ve tried to deal with it by lowering the blinds downstairs to minimize sun.  But this afternoon I had to bake potatoes then chicken so it heated up to 76 degrees, which is nothing in Houston.  It’s already cooling off and Jim has the slider open upstairs so we should be OK without turning on A/C.  As long as there’s not a skunk!

Han Solo (normal Sandhill crane visitor, that’s my nickname as this crane always comes alone and most are in pairs) has not been here since Monday.  A pair of cranes came yesterday, and a huge crane came in alone this morning and left.  It must signal the end of the migration to NW Canada through this pathway.  I always wanted to get the sounds of a crane on tape, but there’s no way to anticipate them.  The only recordings I can find are of a multitude of cranes so you don’t get the prehistoric sounds they make.

Anyway, the smell of smoked paprika has been wafting through our pantry and I thought the spice rub I made might be too strong.  It wasn’t.  Jim loved it. That’s big for me because Jim can’t eat fish for allergies, and doesn’t like chicken.  That leaves me few alternatives. Oh, vegetarian is not an option.  So for him to like chicken is a major coup.

Here’s to creative cooks everywhere!  Cheers, Dee

Aside from bird cranes, there are balloons up in the mornings, and a real crane building a bowling alley right next door.  Am I sick of paying full price to live here with construction vehicles on the roads at all hours six days a week and already one flat tire?  You bet.  They stop these diggers and leave them across our street, while the other end of the street is similarly blocked.  It is a hardship to live here given what they’re doing on and to the roads.

All I can say is that if you want to ski near Park City next year, ask about construction first.  This is supposed to be open very soon, but this week’s newspaper offered condos on top so construction will be going on for some time.

We will be here to September, that’s all we know for now.  Me, antsy?  No way.  Wait a few weeks.  Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Utah

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Lamb Burgers

Posted on June 10, 2009 | 1 comment

Who knows if it’ll be pouring rain or hailing, but I’m planning lamb burgers on the grill or cooked inside.  I can give you a recipe once I try it out and probably tweak it once or twice but right now am just giving you an idea.

I had the butcher grind some leg of lamb, will add seasonings, egg, breadcrumbs and crumbled feta.  Serve with sliced tomato, romaine lettuce, cucumber slices.

Jim loves his frozen fries so I’ll do that and a cucumber salad, or romaine, or his favorite iceberg wedge with Thousand Island….  Not my favorites but I make do.  Will let you know how it goes.  Cheers, Dee

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Reminiscence

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

It’s ironic that just as I receive photos from my Texas friend who moved to Scotland, I’d love nothing more than being back in Scotland right now.  The irony is that her photos are of her trip back to Texas last week.

Everyone in Scotland must have an electric tea kettle.  I love mine.  At this altitude it takes forever to boil water on the stove and this is quick and easy.  It’s not nearly as fast as ours in the UK, given the difference in volts and whatever that my husband used to scare me about kitchen appliances (there you have to turn everything on and off separately).

We did have a great time there, at least I did traipsing the countryside, literally, with Karen.  We took so many photos, had a lot of tea and scones.  They had terrific water, drinking right from the tap.  Also salmon and their mussels were gorgeous.  Mussel Inn in Glasgow is the place to go for a pail of mussels with your choice of “sauce.”  I prefer just a bit of garlic, white wine, butter, chives in mine.  To cover them with tomato sauce is a sin.  Look it up!

Yesterday we drove the scenic route in a thunderstorm, to Ogden.  We had lunch at pretty much the only restaurant that was open on a Sunday at historic 25th Street.  Jim had wanted to see the Railroad Museum but it was closed.  The Eccles railroad museum was out there, however, so we saw some old trains and pretty cool engines.  Steam, diesel and a jet engine that can pull 735 fully-loaded freight cars through the mountains.  [We also saw the car that carried the Olympic torch in Utah’s 2002 winter games.]

That would be a seven mile-long train.  It’s a near 3,000 foot climb through the mountains from Ogden to California.  It’s just under 3,000 feet up to get to Cheyenne, and Ogden is still a frieight depot.  Wasn’t much of a town, though.  It’s amazing that mid-1800’s trains traversed these mountains carrying mail and other items.

We got home late from our driving excursion so had to take care of the dog et al.  I made my own version of tostadas, cheating all the way.  Note that it’s not the way I normally cook.

corn tortillas (fry or buy already cooked as I did)

rotisserie chicken

tomatoes, shredded lettuce and cheese

vegetarian black beans

1 avocado, large dice, with lime juice to keep from oxidizing

salsa

sour cream

limes

I took the breast meat off the chicken and shredded it.  Topped tortillas with a 1/3″ layer of refried beans and placed them immediately in the oven (I’m guessing 350 for you as I have to adjust for altitude) for 5 minutes then topped with all ingredients, cheese first so it would melt into the beans.    It was good.  Make sure you have everything ready and top with beans and bake at the last minute as the beans will soften the tortilla.  Top with other ingredients immediately.

There wasn’t any left for a photo, sorry.  Hope it’s the same in your home!  Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Scotland, Travel

Peasant Food

Posted on June 3, 2009 | 2 comments

In today’s Slate Regina Schrambling states “Peasant food has cachet only if you are not forced to live on it.”  That comes in a wonderful treatise on lard that will get me looking for it and perhaps even trying pastry even though I’ve “hot hands.”  Hot hands ruin pastry.  http://www.slate.com/id/2219314/

Vitello Tonnato is a dish I never understood, veal with tuna sauce.  I made it in cooking school and it was famous because both veal and tuna were expensive so it was dubbed a “rich man’s dish.”  I knew a girl freshman year in college who ordered surf & turf on a first date so the guy would know she was important and worth keeping.  Then she expected two dozen roses in a funereal display the next day.  Just in a vase wasn’t enough.  We haven’t spoken in many years but I heard she never married and became somewhat of a nun.

As far as I’m concerned, peasant ingredients are welcome at any time (as long as no serious butchering is required).  Let’s just say that beans and rice have a place on my table, as do polenta or risotto al salciccia, white pizza.  I’ve dined on cheese quesadillas or peanut butter sandwiches.  But cooking for two can be simpler and less expensive than cooking for one.

If guests show up unexpectedly, I can toss two cans of white beans in a colander and drain them, dress them with salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, good olive oil and that’s a side dish.  Add a little pepperoni and mozzarella cheese, then add a green salad, some tomatoes, and that’s lunch.  Granted, I cheated with the prepared beans.  But if one knew guests were coming, these things could be planned and thus less expensive.

Peasant food doesn’t mean last-minute food.  A lot of dishes are braised take other longer methods and it takes work to make something that sounds simple from a menu.  One makes and slaves over a sauce, makes pasta from scratch, perhaps even makes the mozzarella and ricotta cheeses.  We have the luxury of buying a lot of this at a specialty grocery store.

Perhaps you can allow me to peruse the idea of the perfect guy’s first date with the gal.  Oh, that’ll be fun.  Authentic peasant food but he has to do something special, like take her out to see the full moon or go bowling or something.  Just a thought.

While I kissed a couple of frogs along the way, my husband is the perfect definition of a peasant dish, in all good ways.  It helps that he grew up on a farm with those principles.  Now forget about him, as I’m about to talk about food and it’ll be weird.

I always thought of peasant food as  few ingredients, best possible, a little salt and pepper and aromatics and you feel like you’re at your mother’s or grandmother’s table.  That’s thanksgiving (smaller case on purpose, giving thanks to those you love) to me.  Cheers! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Education, Recipe Ideas

Happy Memorial Day!

Posted on May 22, 2009 | 2 comments

Now is the time to remember friends and loved ones who gave their lives to serve our country. Did I get that right? Everyone else at the store was buying hamburgers, hot dogs, charcoal and cold beer. Perhaps they’re celebrating something else.

It’s been eighty degrees this week, with snow still on the ski runs but melting fast. Perhaps by July it’ll be gone. The grasses are greening, bushes and trees sprouted leaves with just one day’s rain. Yes, it’s going to be fun to watch Spring and Summer on the mountain.

It cooled off quite a bit today. It started with getting ready for the weekend, having the handyman visit and change filters and draining the hot tub. I made chimichurri this morning and will marinate and grill some skirt steak I found on sale yesterday. Smallish loaded baked potatoes, and some fresh snap peas and crispy radishes will round out dinner. Tomorrow I’ll make some of my “Celebration Cole Slaw” for the weekend.

For Chimichurri I used Tyler Florence recipe on http://www.foodnetwork.com, the one he paired with pork loin. I used one large red jalapeno in it instead of two regulars and it packs some heat.

We were supposed to go away this weekend and even had a good place for Zoe to stay but it didn’t work out in the end. Perhaps we can do a day trip, though it’s supposed to rain.

My family was never much for Memorial Day parties. Jim’s folks are going to his Mom’s folks near Dallas, as Margie’s dad came in from California for a few days. We just recently left Texas and can’t justify going back for one day.

Hope all is well with you and that you’re cooking up a storm this weekend. Cheers, Dee.

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas

Bolognese

Posted on May 18, 2009 | 3 comments

I made a ton of it yesterday. Enough for 3-5 meals for the two of us. I started with onions and garlic and took out the meat, 1.5 lbs lean ground beef (turned on me) and five mild Italian sausage links that I took out of the casings and crumbled. I stopped everything and went and bought more ground beef. Two 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes, 2/3 of a 6 oz can of tomato paste, salt, pepper, peperoncino, oregano and basil went in.

You know by now that I’m not using my own pots and pans, only the 3-4 I bought for ourselves but I sauteed everything in a pan we bought, then had to move it to the pasta pan, which had so many hot spots I had to stir this sauce every couple of minutes on as low as a gas stove would go.

Jim was working on a long-term project all day yesterday and I was making sauce so we ordered pizza. Good pizza from down the path. So our sauce is in thirds: frig, out already; and two quart baggies in the freezer for lasagne or other dishes. The flavors should have melded by now and it’ll be a great dinner, fusilli with bolognese and parmigiano reggiano. I’ve organic baby greens and Tuscan ciabatta bread.

Now all we need is Jim. “We” meaning Zoe and I, had a productive day today, not as productive as we would have liked. Right now she needs dinner, out and one more outing before our bedtime. I need to make her that meal, make ours, take her out and have a few more items on my to-do list before Jim comes home.

We’ve been in UT less than two months and there was much snow and a lot of clouds. Lately the moon has been so bright it looks like morning in our bedroom. Now that the moon is waning when we look out at night it looks as if we’re in a planetarium, the stars are so bright. If I had my way, I’d come out here for a week’s visit at this very time of year.

Yes, I know there are more seasons to come. It’s very warm this afternoon but will probably go back to the 40’s at night. Jim insists on taking his severe weather coat to work every day. In Girl Scouts I endured the torture for four months before recanting my oath The leader not only failed me for my first badge, she had all the girls come over while she laughed at my work.

The point is that Jim was never a Boy Scout, he didn’t need to be. He lived on a working dairy farm where cows were milked twice a day, even on Christmas. He knew what to do if a bull came at him, or a snake. He freaks me out building hurricane kits for us but he’s right. I’ve never felt safer in a crisis than when I’m with my husband.

Enjoy your dinner. I know we’ll enjoy ours. Cheers. Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Utah

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