I’m makin’ waffles!
I woke up this morning to a kitchen disaster. I’m usually the sort of cook who leaves the kitchen cleaner when I’m done than when I start cooking, so this is not something I’m used to dealing with. Last night, though, since the chicken took SO LONG and Z & I wanted to get to the gaming night, I did the minimum job of putting away the leftovers, and left the pots and pans on the counter. Of course, they were delightful this morning.
So after cleaning the kitchen, I wanted a simple breakfast. I’ve been working on waffle recipes for a while, and I think I came up with a good one this morning. One worth noting, anyway. Most of the GF waffles I’ve tried come out either gritty or chewy, neither of which are what I want in a waffle. I like them fluffy inside and crispy outside. These were not *quite* as crispy as I would have liked. I think the liquid was too much, and there might be a need for some extra fat in the batter. But these will do.
GF Almond Waffles
- 1/2 C almond flour
- 1/2 C tapioca flour
- 2 T sucanat
- 1T buttermilk powder
- 1/4 t xanthan gum
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 T vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 C water
whisk together the dry ingredients, then add the wet and whisk to combine. Cook until uniformly golden and crispy.
I would half the sucanat and the water next time, and add 2T melted butter.
My Saturday
Today we went to the U District Farmers Market. There were gorgeous winter veggies, and cheeses and meats and baked goods and honey sticks for Zack. We came home with a Savoy cabbage, a bag of multi-colored carrots, and a fresh free-range organic chicken, all of which are in the process of becoming tasty dinner at the moment.
We also got a few honey sticks for Zack, some cheese, and smoked salmon. And, finally, Z talked me into a splurge: cinnamon butter. I put most of that up in the freezer to harden in an ice cube tray, so that we’ll have small portions when we want to have a treat. I also made us two slices of toast with butter that were shared with the neighbor kids, who were over playing.
After we got home, Z went over to play with the neighbors, and I gardened for an hour or so, setting the daffodil bulbs (finally!) and moving a poppy from the back yard to the front. I hope the poppy deals with the transplant. I could feel the stalks and roots cracking and breaking as I set them in the ground. I know poppies resent transplanting. Hopefully these make it; I set them to anchor the corners of the retaining wall.
The plan for dinner is roasted chicken with carrots, which is disappointing me by taking FAR TOO LONG to cook. I finally siphoned off most of the stock, and it’s cooking better now. We’re also having Tyrolean Savoy Cabbage, which is delicious. I snook some out of the pot.
That’s a picture before the cooking. Hopefully it’s done now. I’m going to check.
Rav love & Lasagna
Goodness, people. All the Ravelry love is going to go to my head! I just published a preview of my Anam Cara Kilt Hose, and it’s being queued like mad and generating dozens of comments. I have been turning away test knitters because I already accepted three, and got talked into 5 or 6, and decided I *really* had to cut it off there. Thank you. You’ve all made my week. I’m so inspired! The pattern will be out just as soon as I’m happy that it’s clear and in a clean draft. I may have it up in beta late next week, and hope to have it finished by the end of the month. I want to wait for someone to have knit through the whole thing besides me.
And that brings me to the other point of this post– Lasagna! I have a lovely dish bubbling away in the oven, and thought I would write up the recipe.
No Boil Lasagna
I don’t know about you, but I hate boiling lasagna noodles. Especially the rice noodles that I have to eat. They rip and stick together and are generally, well, like wet noodles. I learned a while ago that I could bake lasagna, and let the sauce and ingredients soften the noodles while they cook! It’s a miracle. I forget who taught me this trick, but it’s a good one. So, with no further ado:
Ingredients
- A box of lasagna noodles. I love Tinkyada.
- Two big 28 oz cans of your favorite crushed tomatoes
- 1 small can of tomato paste
- 1/2 lb spinach
- 2 medium yellow onions
- 1/2 lb spicy italian sausage
- 1.5 lb ground turkey
- 3 T crushed garlic
- 2 T italian seasoning plus a little for a garnish
- 1 T white pepper
- 2 C ricotta cheese
- 1 C cottage cheese
- 1/2 lb blended Italian cheese, or 1/4 lb mozzarella and 1/4 lb parmesan, or your favorite mix of cheeses
- 1/4 lb parmesan or asiago for the top
Prep
Chop the onions into small (1/4 – 1/2″) squares. Chop the spinach as well, into fork sized pieces. I frequently use the pre-chopped frozen stuff, but I’m lazy that way.
Remove the casing from the Italian sausage, and brown thoroughly in a large sauce pan, chopping as you go. Add the ground turkey, and brown that as well. Lift from the pan with a slotted spoon, and set aside in a bowl, leaving the juice in the pan.
Add the onions to the pan, and cook until they are translucent and golden. Add the spinach, and continue sauteing until they are thoroughly wilted and well mixed with the onions. Remove to a bowl and set aside, leaving juice and even some onions and spinach in the pan.
Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste to the pan, and bring to a simmer. Add garlic and italian seasoning. Leave sauce at a low simmer.
Mix cheeses, other than what is reserved for the garnish, in a bowl with the white pepper. Stir them together thoroughly.
You now have three bowls of stuff, and a simmering pot of sauce.
Preheat oven to 375°
Assembly
Spoon a generous amount of sauce into the bottom of the pan– enough to easily cover the bottom. Add a layer of noodles. You will need at least three layers of noodles. In my pan, I do three layers of three, and have three left over.
Spoon 1/2 or 1/3 (depending on if you want 3 or 4 layer lasagna) of the meat mixture over the noodles. Spoon 1/2 or 1/3 of the veggies, and then 1/2 or 1/3 of the cheese. Add another layer of noodles.
Repeat all of that: meat, veggies, cheese, noodles one or two times more, ending with noodles on top.
Pour the remaining sauce over the layers. You may have too much to fit in the pan; if so it will be a lovely pasta sauce for another time. Enjoy the leftovers!
Add the garnish cheese on top of the sauce, and add the garnishing Italian seasoning on top of that.
Bake for about 45 minutes, until the cheese is brown and the sauce is bubbly. I put an old baking sheet on the shelf below the pan, because that’s easier to clean than the bottom of my oven. ;-)
Enjoy!
January Spring
hamamelis at the Seattle Center
Seattle is weird. The plants have told me this week that it’s spring. The people have been telling me for a couple weeks that the worst of winter was over, but I didn’t believe them. Plants, though, don’t lie. I have daffodils and daylilies poking up, and there are fat buds on many trees and shrubs.
Forgive me for a moment while I get my garden geek on. The hamamelis is in full flower, and I was just introduced to lonicera fragrantissima while walking around at the Seattle Center today. When I first scented it I thought it was a daphne. I was surprised to see this big, rangy shrub instead, and didn’t recognize it as a lonicera until the gardener who happened to be tending the beds told me.
lonicera fragrantissima at the Seattle Center
I had the most delightful time talking to the gardener, too. I was wandering around while Z was in his acting class, and taking pictures of spring. He was cleaning up the beds in my favorite corner of the landscaping downtown, and we got to talking while he worked, and I enjoyed the fragrance of the lonicera, and the hummingbirds who were also admirers of the shrub. He ended up giving me a cutting to try to root. :-)
Beyond wandering about, Z & I also watched the movie Gandhi, and then went to play board games. I was surprised by how much he got into Gandhi. He was asking me questions and clearly really thinking about the themes being presented. And then we went to game night, and he easily picked up Settlers of Catan, and played quite well for his first time. My little boy is growing up. :-) I’m so proud of him.
It’s been a good day.
Nummy Eggies
We do a breakfast dish that’s known at home as “nummy eggies.” also mostly a breakfast souffle, and easy-peasy. Really not worth freezing because it’s so damned simple.
To make 4 eggies:
pre-heat oven to 450°. 475° is better than 425° here, kiddos, because you want these to cook FAST.
Mix together:
- 1/3 C flour (or 1/3 C rice flour + 1T arrowroot for the gluten intolerant)
- 1/3 C heavy cream*
- 1/3 C sour cream*
- 1/3 C milk
- 4 eggs, or 1 egg + 7 egg whites to make it a bit less of a fat bomb
* You really do have to use full-fat cream and sour cream, or else they don’t rise
pre-heat 4 10oz ramekins in the oven with 1/4T butter in each one until the butter browns. Best to stand all 4 on a cookie sheet– contains drips and makes them easy to handle when they’re HOT.
pull them out of the oven, and CLOSE THE DOOR. Spray the inside of the cups quickly with a shot of canola oil spray, so the eggies don’t stick. Divide the batter between the 4 cups, swirl them around a little so that the batter coats the sides of the cups, and toss them back in. The swirling usually happens naturally as I’m navigating the tray into the oven, and makes for nice pretty crunchy bits on the edges of the eggies. Not strictly necessary, but recommended. :-)
NO PEEKING.
Wait 12-15 minutes, until you can smell the eggies browning. Then wait another minute. Then crack the oven to make sure they’ve risen and are sufficiently browned. This will make you want an oven with a window, if you don’t already. Kids LOVE watching the eggies rise– they grow out of the cups to about twice the height of the cups, generally. Serve immediately. They are easy to pop out of the cups with two forks. Be sure to soak the cups before putting them in the dishwasher, because the batter sticks like mad, but I let the pyrex cool on the stove before putting them in water.
We serve these in lots of ways. With powdered sugar and berries. With maple syrup. With cinnamon sugar, which I make using the raw crystal sugar, so that it’s a little crunchy. Most decadently I sometimes make a sauce of 1/2C orange marmalade and 1/2 C cream cheese, melted together.
They also make a nice pudding to serve with meat. :-)
Magic Stew
While I was uploading recipes, I thought I would add several more of the house classics. This is one that I learned from a wiccan friend in the Bay many, many years ago. I have no idea of the original derivation of the recipe, and I’ve cooked it literally hundreds of times, so it’s certainly morphed along the way.
It’s one that always gets that amazed look when people first taste it, frequently associated with groans of pleasure. The house smells wonderful for days after I’ve cooked it. I try to have some always as leftovers in the freezer. This defines comfort food for me, especially when I’m feeling a bit under the weather. Healthy never tasted so good.
In its original incarnation it was vegan, but when I started eating meat, I re-worked it as a beef stew. I still frequently make the vegan version, however.
Magic Stew Recipe
First off, you’re going to need a big pot. I have one of those ginormous pasta pots I use, and it’s frequently filled 3/4 full. Add to the pot:
- one can each of red, black, and white beans. Add the liquid that the beans have been canned in as well, because most of the soluble fiber from the beans is in that liquid. If you would prefer to start with fresh beans by all means, but I’m rarely organized enough to remember to soak mine the day before I want to make stew.
- two large cans of tomato sauce, or crushed tomatoes
- one each of white, yellow, and red onions, chopped to 1/2″ square-ish pieces
- 2 C or more of chopped carrots, chopped to fork sized pieces
- 2 C or more of celery, chopped like the carrots
- in season I add yellow beets (washed, peeled, and sliced into 1/4 rounds, and quartered.)
- sometimes I also add bell peppers in various colors, or whatever other veggies look like they want to be stew.
- 1 lb spinach, pureed in a food processor
- 2 T pureed basil- I use the stuff in the jar unless I have it fresh in the garden
- 4 T chopped garlic
- 1 T oregano
- 1 T parsley, or 3 T fresh chopped
- 1 t sage, or a few fresh leaves
- 1 T rosemary, or a similar amount fresh, chopped fine
- 1 t thyme
- 1 T cinnamon
- 2 T coriander (your guest will thank you for this. It works like Bean-o.)
Once you get everything in the pot and simmering, it may be that you need to add some water to get all the veggies covered. Do what seems right. Sometimes I add 2-3 cups, sometimes none.
While the stew is simmering, take out a large skillet if you’re using beef, or a small one if you’re making the vegan version. You’re going to burn the peppers and paprika just a little, which makes them more flavorful. This can be a bit dangerous at worst and unpleasant at best if it’s not done correctly, because you don’t want to breath in the smoke from the peppers. Trust me. Inhaling capsaicin- the chemical that makes your mouth catch on fire- can do real damage to your airway. The stew will still be tasty if you chicken out and just dump the peppers into the pot, but it will be better if you burn them. :-)
Prepare stew beef by trimming off the fat and cutting into 1/2″ cubes. Have on a plate next to the stove top. If I’m using beef, I’ll add two or three pounds.
Put about 2-3T of olive oil in the skillet, and heat the pan until the oil spits if you flick drops of water into it. Be careful with this trick though. If you use too much water the oil will splatter you, and can burn you badly. If you have a stove hood, turn it on high.
Add:
- 3T of paprika
- 2t of cayenne
- 2t black pepper
- 2t white pepper
Stir the spices into the oil, keep stirring constantly, and allow to heat until they start to darken and JUST start to smoke.
IMMEDIATELY add the meat, or a couple ladles of stew to quench the skillet.
Brown the meat, or stir the spices around in the stew you added to the skillet until the spices have all been incorporated.
Add back into to the stew, and simmer until done!
This is a recipe that *really* improves after resting for a day or two and then getting reheated. I serve it with cheese bread, or garlic toast, or sometimes ladled over garlic mashed potatoes.
Lamb Roast
A friend just asked– ok, begged– for my lamb roast recipe. It’s very easy, and completely delicious. When I ask Zack what he would like me to cook for dinner, lamb is always top of the list. I’ll try to get a photo the next time I cook it. In the mean time, here are the directions:
Ingredients:
- boneless leg of lamb; this is sized for about a 4 lb one.
- 3/4 C good quality mustard. I like the kind with seeds.
- 1/4 C crushed or chopped garlic. I’m the lazy sort who buys the big jar.
- 3 T olive oil
- 1 – 3 T ground black pepper, depending on your taste
- 3 – 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary about the length of your roast.
- 1 C carrots, chopped
- 1 C celery, chopped
- 1/2 C onion, chopped
- 1 C red wine
- 1 T arrowroot powder
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450°
Make the marinade by combine the mustard, garlic, pepper, and olive oil in a small bowl.
Prepare the roasting pan by tossing the carrots, onions, and celery together on the bottom. These veggies will help season your gravy, and will keep the roast from burning and sticking on the bottom of the pan.
Most of these roasts as you find them in the grocery come rolled up in an elastic net tube. This is great! Roll it off the roast and set it aside; you will put the roast back in its tube when it’s been marinated, and the tube will hold the roast together for cooking. If it didn’t come with a bag, or you have to cut it to get the roast out, you will need to use skewers or kitchen twine instead.
Examine the roast, and remove extra fat, to taste. Leave some of the fat for flavor, but generally there are great gobs you can just pull off and discard. I generally do this by hand without a knife, and leave anything I can’t remove easily.
Using about 1/3 of the marinade, coat the inside of the roast.
Lay the rosemary inside, and roll the roast back up around it.
Put the roast back in the bag, or tie it up, or skewer it back together.
Use the rest of the marinade to coat the outside of the roast.
Put the roast in the pan on top of the bed of carrots, onions, and celery, and pop it in the oven.
Cook for 10 minutes, then drop the temp to 350°. Continue cooking until it’s done to your liking. I advise a meat thermometer, and I cook mine to 125-130°. This is rather rare, which is how I like it. The FDA recommends 140°. To my taste, that’s medium well done. I expect it to take about an hour, but start checking after 45 minutes, and sometimes it goes an hour and a half.
If you’re winging it, watch for dark juices to start collecting in the pan, and take the roast out. Slice into the center of it, and see if it looks almost done. The roast will continue to cook a bit after you take it out of the oven.
Turn off the oven, set the roast on a plate to rest, and scoop the veggies into a strainer over the roasting pan. Allow the juices to drain back into the pan for a minute or two, pressing them with a spoon to encourage the juicing.
Some juices will have collected on the roast’s plate by now, so add that to the roasting pan as well. Cut the netting off the roast and discard somewhere safe from pets.
Discard the veggies. They have done their job.
Put the roasting pan onto the stove top, and set the burner to medium heat. Use a spatula to scrape any crispy bits off if you can. Let the juices start to simmer, and cook them down if there seems to be too much.
Once the juices are good and hot, and reduced if necessary, add the red wine. It will bubble vigorously as the alcohol boils away, and help to remove anything left stuck on the pan.
Turn the heat down to low.
Add any remaining juices from the resting roast, and examine the gravy. If it seems watery, remove a couple T, and mix it with the arrowroot until you have an even paste. Spoon the paste a little at a time into the gravy and stir well between each addition. Too much arrowroot will give you tasty jelly instead of gravy. :-)
Turn off the stove top, and serve!
I like to make sour cream-garlic mashed potatoes and peas to accompany the roast, along with a tart jelly. My favorite is a red currant, but I also like the Ikea lingonberry and have had a few others that worked well. I don’t like mint jelly much, but many people do.
Sleepwalking
It’s been a good day, I guess. Mostly a day of cocooning. I never really got around to eating anything that could be classed as a meal today, but I’m ok with that. There was busy stuff in the morning, and then a long slow afternoon of work, after which I took a “nap” that was three hours long, and caused me to miss both coffee with a friend and my weekly knitting group. Clearly I needed the nap, but I’m kind of bummed, too.
The thing I miss is that, looking back over the day, I can’t recall any moment in which I was struck by something beautiful. It’s been a day spent almost sleepwalking.
The closest thing I can recall was re-working the candle I bought yesterday. It burned down and went out this morning, leaving a lot of unconsumed wax around the edges of the votive holder. I braided a new wick out of cotton cord and rethreaded the little metal base, and then melted the wax in the votive holder in the microwave. Once it was all melted, I dropped the base with the new wick into the candle, and lit it.
I enjoyed watching the process of the wax transforming from a clear amber colored liquid back into a creamy beige solid. I was working, rattling away at the keyboard, and sitting next to me was this little light. Slowly the wax got white and translucent, starting with just a skim in the corners of the dish. Every time I glanced at it, the solid wax was closing in on the little flame, but while it was liquid in the middle the flame held out.
Unfortunately as soon as the wax fully cooled, the candle rapidly burned through the thin layer around it. The votive holder is way too big. I may melt it again, and pour it into a taller, narrower container. I’m enjoying the scent, and the little flame.
Not my most inspired writing, this. I’m sleepy, though, and think I’ll go back to bed for the rest of the night. Hopefully I will wake up recharged, and have more to share tomorrow.
Travelling to Damascus
This draft got lost somehow and forgotten. It’s almost 2 yrs old, but I just found it and want to post it. (12/9/11)
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I have been folded and beaten and put through the fire so many times, but I think in this last cycle I finally took my temper. So much that was unnecessary and unhelpful has fallen away, and so much that I never valued has come to light. It’s the coal in the steel that makes it light and flexible, yet also strong enough to stand up to blows that would shatter iron. Humanity isn’t weakness. Fear and doubt and other imperfections are what make us beautiful and unique. Haha! Reminds me of a line a friend uses when trying to explain why he falls in love with crazy women. “Everyone’s normal the same way. Everyone’s crazy a little different.”
http://www.bluebladesteel.com/tempering.html
Better than latte
It’s windy tonight, and the rain is splattering against the windows. It’s good to be inside with the cats. I have a little fire, even; a candle I bought today. I wandered into the scents section of the PCC on my quest for fish oil pills, and two smelly things came home with me. This is just a little beeswax votive with I forget what essential oils, but it’s dancing in the drafty house, and makes a warmer light in my bedroom than the computer monitor. I also noticed all night, whenever I moved, how the scent puddled around the candle. It fades or settles when I’m still, but if I get up I wade into the scent, stirring it up.
The other acquisition was a sachet made from wildcrafted sages gathered near Big Sur. Interesting how scent instantly transports me back. I remember like yesterday, shortly after I moved into my duplex on Myrtle St in Santa Cruz (216B!), when the tenant of the other unit asked me to take her to gather sage for smudge sticks. She didn’t have a car, but wanted to go to a particular spot that was a couple miles north of town. I had nothing better planned.
I took her, and we walked around snipping branches off the odd plant and gathering them into shopping bags. This was a time before the ubiquitous plastic tumbleweeds were around, when shopping bags were all made out of paper. We walked and talked, and shared the sunset from a hillside looking across US 1 to the cliffs and the ocean. The scent of the sage was billowing around us, awakened by the fog that came in off the Pacific like a wall.
We took it home, bundled it up, wrapped the bunches with thread in many colors, then hung them in our respective kitchens to dry. I kept one of those bundles for many years; I don’t remember when I let it go. Probably when I moved to Philadelphia.
I now have a little bag of memories sitting on the table next to me. I can squeeze it and close my eyes, and two decades slide away in an instant. I am new to Santa Cruz again, and inhaling it for the first time. I think I’ll keep it in my car, where I can be surprised by the scent whenever I open the door. Much nicer than stale car smell. All this for less than the price of a latte. ;-)
Clearly I’m having a bumpy start with this daily pages thing. eh. I want it. It’s good for me. I just have to fit it consistently into my routine. To some extent, I have. While I haven’t been writing here, I have been writing every night. Last night was a work deadline, a couple other nights were long overdue emails, and there was a post that I started but didn’t feel right putting up. It started as a rambly thing, and then I stumbled over a metaphor I want to get just right. It’s going to be beautiful, but it’s still cooking.
I’ve never done pages at night before. they’ve always been a morning thing for me. My life is very upside down now, though, with this odd schedule I’m keeping. I know what building blocks I need to be happy, but I’m having to rearrange them from their customary positions to support working east coast hours from the west coast. I’m slowly putting my life back together. It feels good.
I’m not tired all the time anymore– I’m getting the hang of napping, and of simply feeling tired at 9pm, so that I can bounce out of bed at 5am. It’s a new rhythm, but it’s going to be a good one. And it seems that I’m doing my daily writing at night, as a way to wind down to sleep.
I need to get back in the swing of exercising. I was good for the first couple months here, but then work got really tough, and I stopped being able to take an hour during the day to workout in the office gym. Fulay wants me to start walking with her, though, and that sounds good. And I want to get in the habit of walking by the beach a couple times a week. I chose to live near Alki for a reason. At some point I need to get the bike rolling and work on that, too.
But for now, sleep is what I need most.
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