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Posts tagged ‘cheese’

Two Twinkies, jammy tomatoes

tomato jam 175

Reducing tomatoes to jam-like consistency. Chops from Brushy Creek Farms in Union Grove (NC).

One feels odd, to say the least, taking diet words of wisdom from comic Louis C.K., but in the April 25 issue of Rolling Stone, he does talk sensibly about anxiety and eating. When asked if it helped to realize that his compulsive eating was just self medicating anxiety, he answers: “Oh, definitely. Once you say that to yourself, ‘Oh, this is anxiety,’ you get to say to yourself, ‘Why am I anxious?’ because when something’s bothering you, (if) you don’t name it, you just start eating something. I’m still going to eat the two Twinkies, but when I start opening the second package, I say to myself, ‘What’s going on, buddy?’ That will get me to two Twinkies instead of eight.”

The trick is that you not say, “Shut up, bitch,” when you ask yourself what’s going on. I belong to a generation that wasn’t supposed to acknowledge we even had bodies, let alone listen to them.

But in the last year or so, I’ve tried listening. Amazing how many times sitting down with a book, going outside and planting some basil, drinking water or coffee, works just as well as junk food to soothe a stressed psyche.

Or planting tomatoes, everyone’s favorite vegetable from backyard gardens.  While we wait for nights without frost, I bought a box of grape tomatoes from faraway. This easy recipe from the April issue of Real Simple magazine justifies the non-local purchase (in my mind, anyway). The grits, of course, were (was?) my favorite part of the meal, but the tomatoes, the healthiest. And this is a good way to use a lot when your own  tomato plants overflow, say, in August.

Pork chops with cheesy grits and jammy tomatoes

1 cup quick-cooking (not instant) grits

2 ounces Cheddar (about 1/2 cup)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt and pepper

4 bone-in pork chops (1 inch thick; about 2-1/2 pounds total)**

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup cider vinegar

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

**I used thinner chops from a local farmer and adjusted cooking time accordingly.

Cook grits according to package directions, stirring in the cheese, butter and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper during last minute of cooking.Meanwhile season pork with paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the pork until browned and cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes per side; remove and set aside to rest.

Add tomatoes, vinegar and sugar to drippings in skillet and cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes are soft and the liquid is syrupy, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve pork with tomatoes and grits. Sprinkle with parsley. Makes 4 servings, 645 calories (that’s with 10 ounces pork and bone each), 26 g fat. Because I cooked only 2 servings of pork and tomatoes, I was able to have leftover grits for breakfast several mornings. Yum.

Category:

Compulsive eating, Emo eating, Meat, Simple foods, Spring, Tomatoes

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A Tale of Two Pies

I ate the best beef of my life last week at 131 Main in Cornelius (NC) – another bon voyage whoopdedo for Dora the Explorer. I ordered the Thai Style Steak Salad and expected the usual chewy beef bites that bite back. But these were like butter — tender, sweet and with a distinctive flavor. I found out later from the manager that the beef  with the Asian noodles, cabbage, mint, fresh avocado and mango was trimmed from filets mignon. Beef bites, in other words, that relate to the usual as Dame Maggie Smith,  to Britney Spears.

Of course, what I photographed was the mile-high peanut butter pie that I shared with Stoic the Vast. Even though he wasn’t crazy for the cinnamon in it, I was, and I also loved the crunchy nuts in the crumb crust. What a meal, what a meal!

Peanut butter pie drizzled with chocolate and buried beneath an avalanche of real whipped cream at 131 Main.

We heard from Dora in Tanzania this morning, saying that she was on her way to another island near Zanzibar this afternoon, getting to know her 17 classmates. And she’s supposed to be home Dec. 15, the day “The Hobbit” opens.

I saw the first aster blossom yesterday; we have fewer hummingbirds and the goldfinches are stocking up for winter among the sunflowers. Fall will come, and we’ll drink cocoa and use blankets at night.

The gang’s all here for lunch, including Pearl the puppy and Ariel the black cat. That’s a harlequin glorybower shrub next to them.

Last week we  had another bon voyage party with old friends from the newsroom, Dora and her friend, who’s just back from a year in Russia. We had tomato pie, Molly Katzen’s Szechuan green beans, green peppers stuffed with scalloped sweet corn (a Mayo Clinic heart-healthy recipe), the Silver Palate’s zucchini bread, ice cream sandwiches with fresh raspberries and lots o’ wine, including a bubbly toast to these two adventuresome young citizens of the world.

I couldn’t find my Presbyterian cookbook when I was ready to make the tomato pie so I used the Episcopalian one. Mistake. For once, the Episcopalians held back more than the Frozen Chosen (I can use that expression because I am one.) The Presbyterian recipe has more basil and tomatoes and even though I’m showing you a picture of one I made, the other is better. I promise.

The Presbyterian pie, like so much in our church, depends on your ability to wait. Give it 15 to 30 minutes to “set” after you remove it from the oven, and it will be firm and cheesy, not tomato-juicy.

Edie Holland contributed this Fresh Tomato and Vidalia Tart to our church’s 250th anniversary cookbook, “Fourth Creek Meeting House Encore (2003). And it’s worth it, by the way, to look for  a Vidalia onion — they’re almost always significantly sweeter than other yellow onions.

Fresh tomato and vidalia tart

1 refrigerated pie shell

8 ounces cheese, shredded (I used Cheddar — a touch of blue would be good, too, or Swiss or Havarti)

2 tablespoons fresh basil, cut into thin strips with scissors

4 medium-size ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, sliced and drained for 15 minutes

1 large onion sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup good-quality olive oil

Heat oven to 400.° Fit pie shell into tart pan. Sprinkle cheese over crust and top with basil shreds. Arrange tomato and onion slices over cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake 30 to 40 minutes. Serves 8.

Our daughter’s friend says even the Episcopalian version of the southern tomato pie is “insanely delicious.”

Category:

healthy cooking, Pie, Seasonal food, Tomatoes

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Best crockpot potatoes ever

Plug, plug, plug. This is what I do every day. Work at turning eating in a healthy way into a way of life. A lifestyle even. Keep track of my calories. Measure food with scales, cups and spoons. Exercise. Exercise more. Drink quarts and quarts of water. Sleep.

On the plus side my flowers look as good as they’ve ever looked in the almost 23 years we’ve lived up here on our hilltop. On the minus, I’m not much fun, collapsing into my recliner before it gets dark and trudging to bed not long after that!  Today I did my 15 minutes worth of yoga,  rode my newly tuned-up bike for 45, then weeded and clipped irises for two hours. Whew!

This week I’ve also weeded around the rhubarb and realize we probably have some of those lovely red stalks out there now, ready to eat. I’ve picked huge heads of broccoli and found them full of small jade-colored worms that have crawled in to spin their cocoons (a saltwater soak disposes of them most efficiently). I’ve picked lettuce that’s somehow stayed green and crispy in this summer heat (90s today), cleaned up around our two apple trees, pruned 3 gigantic mock orange bushes, several shaggy harlequin glorybower and forsythia bushes. I’ve made an impatiens bed for coral and salmon-colored blossoms and planted 14 basil babies ($2 at Walmart) in the herb bed. I am gardening woman, hear me moan.

The upside here is I lunched on our neighbor Anne Cain’s amazing goat cheese terrine with pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and green olives spread on good garlic crackers. Even with a lime fruit bar (70 calories) for dessert, I still haven’t eaten as many calories as I’ve burned. (Remember, I track calories in and calories out for free on livestrong.com.)

I think I decided (!) yesterday that I’d like to lose 30 more pounds and that it will probably take at least a year, but that’s OK. I don’t want to give up all things tasty, just plan to continue moderating how much I eat. This morning’s breakfast, for instance: One serving of a 277-calorie per serving blackberry cobbler with 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt (another 70 calories).

With these potatoes, which were devoured before I remembered to take their picture, I trimmed fat from the recipe (original recipe called for 1 pound bacon, among other mind-boggling extravagances) and ate no more than 1/2 cup per meal, much as I wanted to devour the entire slow cooker-full!

Best crockpot potatoes ever

3 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into slices, cooked in gently boiling water until done, about 15 minutes

2 ounces Cheddar cheese

3 ounces Parmesan cheese

5 ounces reduced-fat ricotta cheese

5 slices bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix 3 cheeses. Layer in slow cooker with potatoes and bacon crumbles. Cook on low for 3 to 4 hours and try not to eat the whole thing

 

Category:

good food, Rural life, Simple foods, Weight loss

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Baby onions, grown-up onions

Baby onions have stems no bigger than the stick on a Q-tip. The easiest way to slip them to their 1-inch recommended depth is to use a dibble planter with inches marked on it (like the one made for me by my friend Jerry Keys out of poplar wood). Poke a hole to 1 inch, plop in the onion and firm the earth around it. Just make sure that your onions can enjoy all-day sunbathing — I put a few in a shady nook  to see what would happen (and because I was out of onion room) and they haven’t grown a bit, just moped.

Baby onions waiting to go in ground. The established plants in each hill are garlic and leeks.

If your onions do something more productive than mope in the shade, someday you can enjoy this onion tart from the April 2011 issue of Cooking Light.  A rustic crust like this (no pan) is also called a galette. This one is heady with the earthy flavors of roasted onion, feta and Swiss cheese and fresh thyme. My thyme plants are also mopey (or deceased) so I used 2 teaspoons dried thyme instead of 2 tablespoons chopped fresh. The magazine suggested an arugula and walnut salad to accompany since neither of those ingredients will be overpowered by the  onions and cheese.

Onion tart

1 tablespoon olive oil

2-1/2 pounds onions, peeled, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 14.1-ounce package refrigerated pie dough (1 crust)

1/4 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat Swiss cheese

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons water

Heat oven to 425º. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, thyme, salt and pepper; cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Roll or stretch out dough on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle feta cheese in center, leaving 1-1/2-inch border; top with onion. Sprinkle with Swiss cheese. Fold piecrust border up and over onion mixture, pleating as you go, leaving a 6-inch-wide opening.

Combine egg and water; brush over dough. Bake at 425º for 25 minutes or until golden. Cool for 10 minutes. Makes 4 servings, 402 calories, 9 g fat each.

Onion galette with the last of our 2011 onion crop.

 

Category:

good food, healthy cooking, Local food, Rural life, Simple foods

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Seduced and abandoned

Spring, that brazen hussy, sashayed through the open windows yesterday without a care that soon we’ll be ravaged by summer’s awful heat. Every year I forget. Every year I throw open those windows and smell the turned earth, the pear blossoms and the cows. Every year I hear the meadowlarks and the peepers and think, “This year she’ll stay like until fall.”

Matt sheds his winter coat.

With spring’s arrival, the horses let go of their shaggy winter coats. Boom! Just like that, I can pull/brush out enough handfuls of hair from my 34-year-old buckskin Matt Dillon to leave the ground looking as though many furry bunnies have had a violent set-to (the Dead Rabbits perhaps?). The nesting birds will be so happy — horse hair is to to birds what Tyvek insulation is to human builders.

Along with the bluebirds, the beloved college students arrive on spring break. We like the students much more than the bluebirds which tend to develop obsessions with particular mirrors, windows and blue cars and leave behind really messy mementoes of their passion. When the students leave, it’s not messy, but dimmer as though someone put lower wattage bulbs in all the lights.

Red-haired daughter and horses, green grass, blue sky.

We’ve eaten, walked, eaten, watched movies and eaten. Their first night here we ate this Woman’s Day magazine frittata made with baby “bellas,” ricotta and the last of our 2011 leeks.

Leek, mushroom and ricotta cheese frittata

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 leeks, slivered, washed and drained

Salt and pepper

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

8 large eggs

1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan (12 ounce)

Heat oven to 400º. Heat oil in large, oven-safe skillet. Add leeks and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, tossing occasionally, until they’ve released their liquid and turned golden brown and tender, 4 to 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in bowl whisk together eggs, ricotta and Parmesan. Add egg mixture to skillet and stir to mix. Transfer to pre-heated oven and bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, 16 to 18 minutes. Serve with salad and crusty, whole-grain bread. One-fourth of the frittata has 307 calories and 20 grams fat.

Clean skillet by adding a little water, heating and scraping up leftover bits. Dump water and wash as usual.

Category:

Breakfast-brunch, Family, good food, healthy cooking

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Making butter, cheese, yogurt and lots of other stuff

Pickled ginger on upper right, next to ginger carrots and sauerkraut, above the ricotta-spinach spread.

Except for the pickled ginger, Sunday was an outstanding food day. My Valentine made real oatmeal for breakfast, no sugar, just the warm, oat-y taste of the grain and an occasional burst of sweetness from a soft, puffy raisin. The Women of the Church served lunch — a choice of chicken taco or potato soups, muffins, tossed salad and many Valentine desserts. Pink camelias and hellebores on the tables.

Madge's kitchen ready for 17 students

Then on to Madge Eggena’s beautiful Mills Garden Herb Farm where she and her sister Jane Abe were teaching a 3-hour class in fermentation. Fermentation as in yogurt, cultured butter, feta, ricotta and chevre and those — ahem — pickled vegetables which included cabbage, daikon radishes, carrots and ginger. And a zippy mustard made with whey, lemon, garlic, honey and mustard seeds. 

We had the butter and cheeses slathered on Madge’s wonderful whole-grain baguettes. We drank lemon grass-lemon balm-green tea, beet kvass (next time I want mine with gin and

Madge (left) and Jane say their classes aren't a success unless every dish in the house is messy.

sparkling water as suggested by Clark, the young chef in our class), dipped crudites in herbed chevre, tried to restrain ourselves when eating mouthfuls of home-made feta with black olives, gave up any pretense of restraint when the home-made tortelllini stuffed with home-made herbed ricotta, vegetable cheesecake and chicken thighs marinated in yogurt and spices hit the groaning boards. Dessert was Greek yogurt, red raspberries and blueberries, nothing more, nothing less.

Passing around pot of cheese in the making

It is no wonder that I weighed 3 pounds more this morning than yesterday.

Yogurt is something I think I was supposed to learn how to make in the ’60s, but I was busy changing diapers. It’s never too late to learn, though, and as soon as I find milk and cream that are not ultrapasteurized (pasteurized is what I’m looking for), I’m ready to start.

This cultured butter couldn’t be easier, silkier or tastier. I do not think I can be alone in the house with it.

Cultured butter/creme fraiche

1 pint heavy cream, not ultra pasteurized

3 tablespoons yogurt

Fresh herbs, salt to taste, optional

Mix cream and yogurt well in glass bowl, cover with plate and leave out overnight. The next day, whip the cream past the stage where it looks like whipped cream clotting into butter. You want to whip until it separates into butter and buttermilk (and you can do this with an immersion blender or hand-held mixer). Once it separates, use a spatula to force out more liquid from the solids. Add herbs and salt, if you’re using, to butter  before refrigerating. If you don’t whip the cultured mix to separate out the butter, use it in recipes as creme fraiche or European-type sour cream.

If you look at the buttermilk at left, you can see the butter is a beautiful pale yellow.

As for the buttermilk, it’s sweeter than what I’ve bought in the grocery. If you’re a true Southerner, you’ll squish a piece of cornbread in your glass and “drink” it with a spoon.

 

 

Category:

Cheesemaking, Fermentation, Homemade yogurt, Making butter

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Gray rainy (grainy?) day quiche

Despite the fuzzy image, the apple-bacon-blue cheese quiche is clearly a treat. Also clearly a smidge overbaked.

OK, any day’s good for a well-made quiche, but it seems particularly appropriate on this gloomy-gus Wednesday while we deal with the last of the germs that accompanied us home from our recent trip to Baltimore, Boston and Gettysburg.

Quiche is easy to prepare and even easier to enjoy. It’s soft and comforting as a baby’s “lovey” (what my kids called their security blankets), gentle on the tastebuds, the digestion and not even too horrible on the calorie count.You can’t eat it everyday, but it can certainly be a once-in-a-while treat at any of the daily meals. And it follows the nutritional guidelines that suggest making cured meat and cheese more like condiments.

Mark Bittman of The New York Times just published this quiche recipe, which includes a flaky crust from scratch. I’m too lazy to make the crust, am almost always happy with Pillsbury. I am in possession of my mother’s no-fail piecrust recipe and it is (no-fail), but I’m not nearly as inclined to suffer for my art as was she.

If you’re a big rosemary fan, you might up the one teaspoon minced. That amount adds to the full mouth taste of this quiche, but you never feel like you’re munching on pine branches. If you like that feeling, mince more!

Bacon and apple quiche

Piecrust for 9-inch deep dish

8 to 10 slices of good bacon (seriously, is there BAD bacon?), cooked to a crisp, drained (1 tablespoon fat reserved) and crumbled

2 large apples, peeled, cored and then grated or chopped (I used Granny Smiths and liked the way they stood up to the other flavors)

Salt (1/2 teaspoon?) and freshly ground pepper (to taste) 

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary needles, minced

1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles (can use reduced-fat)

4 eggs, room temperature

1-1/3 cups cream (might try whole milk next time — this time I was using up the leftover whipping cream from the holidays)

Prepare piecrust however you wish; transfer to pie plate and crimp edges. Heat oven to 425 with a rack in the middle.  Line crust with double layer of foil; cover with dry beans, uncooked rice or pie weights. Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until crust begins to brown, remove from oven and reduce heat to 375.

Add 1 tablespoon reserved bacon fat to skillet and fry chopped apples with salt, pepper and rosemary. Cook on medium-high, stirring frequently to prevent rosemary scorching, until apples are soft and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Spread cooked apples in pie crust (pie weights and foil removed, obviously), sprinkle with bacon and cheese.

Whisk together eggs and cream. Put shell with apple, bacon and cheese on baking sheet and pour in egg mixture. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until almost firm (it should still jiggle a little in the middle) and lightly browned on top. Cool on rack for a few minutes and serve warm, cold or room temp. Serves 6.

Just because the weather COULD be worse. This is our upstairs bathroom the day after the July 2005 tornado that removed our roof and dumped 10 inches of rain in an hour! My friend Maggie's photo looks like a Dali painting to me.

Category:

good food, Quiche, Simple foods

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Vegetarian vacation

Apricot and brandy-glazed coffeecake with pecan, currant, brown sugar and butter filling.

As wonderful as it is when the children come home, it stinks when they leave to go back to college or work or both. Our youngest drove off in pouring  rain this morning, leaving the house feeling chillier and duller.

We had a wonderful time, saw 9 movies during the 8 days and 9 nights she and her imaginary cat were here (although last night her ‘fraidy cat  actually made it all the way from bedroom to living room) and ate ourselves silly.

Since she’s a vegetarian, we ate shells stuffed with mashed sweetpotatoes, blue cheese and caramelized onions, cream cheese- and blueberry-stuffed oven-baked French toast (stuffed being the operative word in both recipes), cannelini bean soup and a green chili and egg casserole. We ate in Lebanese, Mexican and Chinese restaurants. We ate homemade oat bread, James Beard’s sweet coffee cake and a melt-in-your-mouth fruitcake that begins at Thanksgiving with fermenting fruit. We had enough sugar, butter and chocolate to last us until next Christmas.

We are blessed, which does not stop me from feeling sad on this drippy morning. The house looks like Times Square on New Year’s Day, but  next week someone else’s children will spend the night here when the choir from Westminster College of Pennsylvania sings at our church. And we’ll give thanks again for young people of passion and talent.

Green chili and egg breakfast casserole

10 medium eggs

2 cups small curd cottage cheese

2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese

2 4-1/2-ounce cans chopped green chiles, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2-quart rectangular baking dish or spray with cooking oil.

Break eggs into mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients and blend thoroughly. Pour mixture into baking dish, place dish into oven and bake for 50 minutes or until center is firm. Bake only until casserole becomes firm but remove it from oven before top browns. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before cutting into it. Serves 8.

Beloved college junior focuses on sugar cookie decorating.

Category:

Breakfast-brunch, Desserts, eggs, Family, Holiday baking, Holiday cooking, Holiday eating

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As corny as North Carolina in July

This is the time of year when it likes to rain fast and furiously late every afternoon, followed by steam rising from the ground. Looks as if  we should be searching for a lost city of the Incas among the kudzu and blackberry tangles.

I remember spending two weeks in Aspen long ago and in a galaxy far, far away where similar storms blew up every afternoon. But summer nights in Aspen were cold and starry. Here’s they’re warm, hazy and echoing with happy katydids.

Our daily showers, though, meant the sweet corn pollinated, even in this month’s hellish temperatures. I am going to focus on that this morning, not on the fact that lightning apparently knocked out our air conditioning during yesterday’s storm.

We’ve enjoyed “family” corn this week — starting with Silver Queen on the cob at last Sunday’s 90th birthday lunch for my husband’s Aunt Vera, followed by sauteed cabbage and corn in balsamic vinegar and Deborah Madison’s corn souffle.

We’re having friends for supper on Saturday (let’s hope it’s below 90 in here by then!) and we’re going to grill our own Golden Queen (I think it has a bit more “tooth”) the way Eric F. remembers it from his mission trip to Mexico where the street vendors sold individual ears grilled with mayonnaise, cheese and chili pepper.

The version I found at cdkitchen.com looks as if it replicates what Eric describes with such gusto, and I’m going to use reduced-fat mayonnaise and/or a combination of that and low-fat sour cream. Possibly this will keep me from falling face-forward into my mother’s mac ‘n’ cheese made with Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar. I doubt it, though. The best part of her dish was always the bread crumbs tossed with butter-topping and now that we’ve got panko bread crumbs, there’ll probably be no stopping me.

Cheese on the cob

1/2 cup mayonnaise or mayo and sour cream combined

5 ears corn — shucked and silked

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Chili powder to taste

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Prepare grill or heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a thin layer of mayonnaise on corn kernels. Sprinkle corn with cheese, chili powder, salt and pepper. Wrap each ear with foil and place on the grill or in the oven. Turn occasionally and cook for about 10 minutes on the grill or 20 in the oven. Serve warm.

I’m thinking about skipping the burgers altogether — after all, who needs meat when you can have a cheese coma?

 

Category:

Local food, Rural life, Seasonal food

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