Busy in the Kitchen

I’ve had a lot going on in the kitchen, lately, along with the rest of life. I’ve got a stack of recipes I’ve been wanting to post. We’ve been eating pretty good. Since the almonds I mentioned in the last post, I’ve managed to prepare some whey and cream cheese. Once I had my whey I pickled some cucumbers and okra. I also made some mayonnaise. I’ve really been pushing myself the last couple of weeks to, at the minimum, plan out my dinners for the week before going grocery shopping. And, I’ve been utilizing more recipes from the Nourishing Traditions book, as well as the discussingNT Yahoo group.

Now there’s a worthwhile email group. They have been so helpful. When I have a question, I scan the files and search the messages. If I don’t find the answer, then I post my question. It is so helpful to have all those more experienced folks to query. I would strongly encourage anyone interested in healthy food to check out that group. If you haven’t yet read Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions, get that first. Then go to the group. You’ll learn tons from both.

Anyway, I seem to be doing much better with dinner. Now to tackle breakfast and lunch. We just used up the last boxed cereal I plan to ever buy. I found a couple of recipes to make my own cereal on the discussingNT group. I made one yesterday and it turned out pretty good. Now I’m set to try the other. I’ve also reintroduced oatmeal. We went a long while without having that tasty breakfast. What I need are some things I can have ready, with little preparation in the morning for G, as he’s leaving around 6:15.

Lunch can be taken care of many days with leftovers from dinner. I’m working on having good choices around for when that does not apply. Weekends are actually more of a challenge with B’s soccer games on Saturday and worship activities on Sunday. G suggested having a brunch ready for when we get home on Saturday (games in the morning). Things like egg casseroles, fruit salads, etc. I’ll have to work on that. For Sunday, I’m planning things that I can prepare the night before or that morning for the crock-pot or oven, or leftovers form the week. We’ll have our big meal mid-day (afternoon), then a snack later in the evening after returning from evening activities.

It’s so great to have all this coming together. I’m loving the farmers market. We don’t lack for fresh vegetables right now. It runs May through November. I’m also amazed at the products available in our local grocery stores – even Walmart. But our HEB is the best. I haven’t had to drive the nearly 10 miles to Whole Foods for a couple of months now.

That’s my update for September. Now, back to the kitchen.

Maria’s Chicken Salad

I had a friend over for lunch today and she brought over some chicken salad. It was rather unique, so I got her permission to post it here. It’s really good. As a matter of fact, I was eating some this afternoon with some crackers for a snack when my husband came in. He tried it and nearly took it away from me to eat it himself. I don’t have any measurements, but I’ll throw out what Maria told me. Perhaps someone out there might like to experiment with these flavors yourself.

2 cans of chicken, some mayonnaise, and some raspberry walnut vinaigrette. Determine amounts by desired consistency.

There ya go. This is just something my friend made up one day when she didn’t have much in the kitchen. Not bad. I might try it with leftover roast chicken instead of canned. At first glance, pink chicken salad is a little weird. But, when you try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

A Red Pepper Quiche

I decided to make quiche for dinner yesterday and tried the quiche recipe in the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. I didn’t have all the ingredients that Sally Fallon laid out in her recipe. So, I’ll put it here how I made it. I did use her flaky pie crust recipe for the crust, but you can probably use any crust recipe you want. That particular recipe compromises the basic principles by using unbleached white flour. gasp.

• 2 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into a julienne
• 1/2 of a sweet onion, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 egg yolks (cage free if you can)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• sea salt & pepper
• roughly 1 cup freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese

Roll out your dough (if you’re making your own) and line a 10-inch pie dish. I used my Pampered Chef stoneware pie dish. Half bake the crust accordingly. Saute peppers and onion in olive oil until soft. Beat yolks with sour cream, salt & pepper, and half of the cheese. Place peppers/onion in the crust and pour the egg mixture over those. Top with remaining cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 1/2 hour.

The crust wasn’t real pretty, but it sure was some kinda good. I served it up with a mixed fruit salad. Even the 4yo ate some, with coaxing, of course. This will be added to my recipe list for those menus I’m working on.

On the Road

We are traveling for the holidays and having a great time. We’ve been exploring Austin and visiting some friends and family, and tomorrow we’ll head to my inlaws’ in Houston. So far I haven’t experienced anything very spectacular in the food department. But we did eat “brunch” at a little dive – hole in the wall – on Sunday.

Due to driving all day Saturday, we had gotten a late start and missed out on the hotel’s breakfast offerings. So, I was in the mood for, well, breakfast. So we did a search on our semi-trusty satellite Sam and found someplace called The Omeletry. My husband ordered some sort of spinach omelet he said was good. I absolutely adore avocados, so had to try the quacamole omelet. It was loaded with mashed avocado, chopped tomatoes and, of course, cheese.

I enjoyed my omelet immensely until . . . I found a hair about halfway through. Ah man, I was so disappointed! That really put a damper on my enthusiasm and I did not finish the omelet. The manager assured us after inspecting the offending hair that it was actually a strand from a basting brush they used while cooking. He also comped our entire bill – all three of our meals. So, I think I would probably go back and give them another chance. They do know how to make a good omelet. What would you do?

For Ginger

In response to my Breakfast for Dinner post, Ginger asked:

It seems like last year our Costco had some pumpkin based thing put out by Krusteaz and there were several recipes on the side of the box for cookies/muffins, etc. They were fabulous!
Do you have any ideas or suggestions. Krusteaz’s website offered no help.
Thanks!

First, let me apologize for taking so long to respond. I’ve had several posts on my mind but no time to sit down and type ‘em out.  Now I’m afraid it’s “too late” for some, but maybe not. Folks might have turkey again for Christmas, so perhaps I’ll still post about the wonderful turkey soup I made from the carcas and leftovers. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

What I have is the Krusteaz Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix. As far as muffins go, just use the basic quick bread instructions and spoon the batter into muffin tins instead of a bread pan. I made some for a meeting tonight and they turned out well. To make them more of a treat I added a half bag of white chocolate chips I had. On the side of the box is the following recipe for:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 pouch Quick Bread Mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 taspoon nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/2 cup raisins, optional
• sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place quick bread mix and butter in medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add egg, oats, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and water. Continue to mix on medium speed until dough forms. Stir in raisins, if desired. Using rounded tablespoon dough for each cookie, form balls and roll in sugar, if desired. Place 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 11-13 minutes. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

On the box are also recipes for Pumpkin Swirl Snack Cake and Caramel Pumpkin Cake. I’d be happy to post or email those if anyone is looking for them. This box came with three pouches. I used one for 2 separate batches of pumpkin pancakes – which were very good. I used the second one tonight for muffins. I have only one left. I’m certain I will find good use for it before the year is out.

Breakfast for Dinner

It was another one of those “What on earth am I going to do for dinner?” kind of nights. This time I decided to have “Breakfast Night.” Pancakes and eggs sounded good. But not just plain old pancakes. Last time I sent my husband to Costco, he came home with Krusteaz Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix. I wondered if that could be used to make pancakes.

The first thing I did was check their website. Nope, there were no recipes or even mention of the possibility of using that mix for pancakes. There was a time in my life when that would have been that. I would have gone no further and we would have had plain old pancakes. But, I guess I’ve grown – in the kitchen, anyway. I decided to give it a go.

I started out with one cup of the mix and one cup of milk, and added 1 tablespoon of canola oil and one egg. Well, that was too much milk, the batter was way too thin. So I had to add a few more spoonfulls of the mix. I probably should have started with 2/3 cup of milk and worked it from there.

Ultimately I had to make the batter thicker than my usual pancake batter for the pancakes to turn out just right. But, it worked! We had delicious pumpkin pancakes for dinner along with fried eggs, over easy, and maple bacon. OK, so this would not go into the healthy, whole food category. But it was a nice treat. I think it’s the first time we’ve had “Breakfast Night” for dinner since the three year old has been around. He got a big kick out of it.

I did pick up a couple of pumpkins yesterday to cook with. I’ll post on that probably next week. I’ll see how much pumpkin meat I come up with and then decide what to make. heh, heh, heh. Stay tuned.