Eating my veggies

I'm going to hit two recipes in one post. I don't think I can dub either one as a go-to recipe, mostly because Trillian is not crazy about either one. Most of that is her general dislike of vegetables. (Side note: For the first almost-ten years of our relationship, I was a vegetarian and she most definitely was not. And once I'm done with the whole child-bearing thing, I plan on greatly cutting back on my meat consumption again. Interesting times.)

The first vegetarian recipe I tried from A Year of CrockPotting was the Vegetarian No Noodle Lasagna. It uses eggplant and squash as the 'noodles.' I've made it twice and go back and forth on the eggplant, both in this and in general, but I will probably make it again with just squash. I absolutely love the spinach and mushrooms in this (or in anything really). Just possibly, this is not one of Trillian's favorites since she is not a fan of mushrooms or cooked spinach. (Side note #2: While I was a vegetarian and still eating wheat, we made good use of two-pizza deals. My favorite combo of toppings for a very long time was mushroom and black olives. It would be hard for me to pick two things Trillian likes less on her pizza.)

The other vegetarian recipe I tried was Indian Spinach and Tofu. One of my favorite Indian dishes is palak paneer, and this seemed like it might satisfy that craving. I ate a lot when it was first ready, but didn't like how it tasted as leftovers. I'll be giving it another try with a few modifications. The tofu in particular did not hold up well, so I may either leave it out or keep it on the side--or maybe go with cheese. I've also seen potato cubes suggested. The chickpeas also didn't hold up well for me, so I'll likely leave those out (or make some hummus instead). And then I would seriously up the spices, but I enjoy a little bite.

So now the trick for me is to figure out some easy vegetarian recipes that will appeal to a non-veggie palate so that I can justify making them more than once in a blue moon.

A fine cup of coffee

Ever the romantics, Trillian told me specifically what she wanted for Christmas. When I ordered her gift, I picked out something for myself and told her what she got for me. But frankly, it would be hard for us to go wrong when we're ordering from Sweet Maria's.

Trillian had been eying vacuum coffee brewers for a while. She decided on the Yama 8-cup, stove-top model.

On first reading the process of vacuum brewing, it can be a bit intimidating. For me, anything made of glass that could shatter immediately sends a number of nightmare scenarios running through my brain. But now that I've been roasting our coffee for a while though, I'm a little braver and willing to jump into new things.

The process is sort of fun to watch. The basics:

1. Put filter into top section. Add ground coffee on top.
2. Add water to bottom. (If it's pre-heated, the rest goes faster.)
3. Fit the top part into the bottom so that a seal is created.
4. Place on low flame. Wait until nearly all the water goes into the upper chamber.
5. Let brew for a minute or so.
6. Remove from heat and wait until the coffee funnels back into the bottom.

Then enjoy an amazing cup of coffee.

The directions point out that this coffee is likely to be a bit different from what one is accustomed to. It is 'cleaner,' in that there truly are no grounds left in it. The mouth-feel is soft and smooth, very pure.

This is the way we like to end our evenings now, with a pot of delicious decaf. Excuse me while I go pour another cup.

Cheesecake in the crockpot!

This is the recipe that first got me to go check out A Year of CrockPotting, even if I am only now getting around to it.

So in one of my time-wasting incarnations, I was spending a lot of time on a major newspaper's celebrity blog. Generally with online newspaper postings, I have a policy of not reading comments since they tend to make my blood boil after a very short time. This blog, however, is an exception, as the comments are often funny, even as they veer wildly off-topic. One day, there was some food discussion in the comments, and a regular mentioned she was having gluten-free cheesecake that she had made in the crockpot. And then she left the url.

In this recipe, the crockpot basically serves as a bain marie. I put off attempting it in my 4 quart, since the only cooking dishes that would fit into it were too small to be cheesecake-worthy. Now that I have my 6 quart, it seemed the perfect dish to try out (despite this whole trying-to-eat-better-and-get-in-shape thing).

Now a note about my version: There is no crust. Stephanie has instructions for it with the original recipe. I have also made a crust before by crushing up ginger snaps and mixing with melted butter. But... Cheesecake is something we've discovered Scooter will eat, except he always leaves the crust. AND I'm trying to avoid carbs (or so I say, but the slice of toast and rice I had at dinner tonight say otherwise). So I felt like a crust would be wasted--and those gluten-free cookies are not cheap enough to basically throw away.

Ingredients:
- 16 oz cream cheese, room temperature (I used two tubs, since they were on sale.)
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (I let this get to room temperature too--not sure if it's necessary.)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tbsp flour (I used brown rice flour)

1. Find a baking dish that will fit into the bottom of the crockpot. I have an oval casserole dish (not sure of capacity) that fit with an inch or two gap all around.
2. Mix ingredients together. I did this by hand, but will use our stand-mixer next time. There were a few cream-cheese lumps in the finished product, but it didn't affect the overall taste. Put this into the baking dish.
   
3. Add some water to the crockpot, then carefully place the dish into it. I started with a cup, and ended up adding some more after putting the dish in (with a funnel stuck in the gap).
4. Cook for 2-3 hours on high. Check at an hour or so. It's done when you touch it and don't get too much stuff on your finger. Mine cooked for just over 2 hours.
   
5. Turn off crockpot, let sit for an hour or so, then put in fridge to set.

Trillian and I both liked this a lot. Scooter thought it didn't look right--I guess because it didn't have the crust he wasn't going to eat--so he took one bite, said it tasted good, and then put his spoon down.

Technically, I can't call this a go-to recipe since the whole point of that goal is to come up with easy dinner recipes. Don't get me wrong, I totally could eat this in place of a regular dinner, but the adult in me knows that this can only be a sometimes treat.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

I tried out another crockpot recipe from A Year of CrockPotting: chicken cordon bleu. I will be making it again, but monkeying around with a few things, as ours turned out too dry. Which really surprised me, given the amount of liquid in there. I think that next time around, I will brine the chicken first--that's given us good results in other chicken dishes.


Ingredients: 4 chicken breast halves, pounded thin (I bought meat that had already been pounded; this was a huge time saver) 4 slices of ham 4-8 slices of swiss cheese (I used 6, 1 1/2 per half) can of cream-of-something soup + 2 Tbsp low fat milk (since most cream-of soups contain wheat, I used a portion of the homemade cream of mushroom soup I had in the freezer)

1. Spray the crockpot with oil. I used my 4 quart so that it would be at least half full.
   
2. Take one chicken breast, put a slice of ham on it, followed by swiss cheese.
3. Roll breast up and place in crockpot, seam side down. I was able to fit two breasts in the bottom and then put the remaining two on top of those in the opposite direction.
   
4. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10.

This is so easy that I really want it to work. The tastes are good too. That's why I'll give this another go in a couple weeks. Brining the chicken will add some work, but if it does what I think it will, it could be worth it.

Pasta Fagioli

Photos just don't do justice to stews, I suspect. And Blogger has rotated my photo for some reason.

I spend a lot of time in my physical kitchen, so I'm not sure why I let things slide here for so long. But since one of my goals for the year is to re-establish my presence here, you can look forward to more regular posting of recipes and other food-related topics.

My main gift this holiday season was a 6 quart crockpot, a desire I developed after discovering a great site, A Year of CrockPotting. And I figured, what better recipe to break it in than pasta fagioli; I knew as soon as Stephanie posted her recipe that I would have to make it sometime, since this soup has a history in our household.

I first discovered Trader Joe's when I moved away for grad school. It was a popular place to go for cheap but good eats (and wine) among my colleagues and I immediately understood why. Trillian and I found their pasta fagioli canned soup on a trip; it became a stock-up purchase at each subsequent visit. For about a dollar, we could have a tasty and filling lunch. At the time, I was still a vegetarian, though I have to admit that I don't remember checking to see if this used chicken broth.

While in Canada, we didn't have access to Trader Joe's, so we were looking forward to having one in Capital City after our move. It was one of the first places we went once the movers brought our stuff. Of course we headed to the soup section... only to discover that our favorite soup had been discontinued. Trillian still remarks on this every time we set foot in the store.

Now Stephanie's recipe is meant to copy Olive Garden's recipe, and it's definitely different than the TJ version. But I will be making this and variations on a regular basis! As soon as Trillian had a couple bites, she said, "Put this into the rotation!" (I'm trying to develop a list of go-to recipes that are easy and both Trillian and I like.)

Here's the recipe, adapted from A Year of Crockpotting. I kept to the basic structure she provided, but upped some of the veggies and omitted the salt (because the broth has plenty, in my opinion).
Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1 small red onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, sliced
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar pasta sauce (no idea how many ounces, just a regular-sized jar)
generous shake of Italian Seasoning
a couple shakes of Tabasco sauce
black pepper to taste
a couple handfuls of dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time (I used Tinkyada brown rice fusilli)

1. Brown the meat. Let cool while chopping vegetables.
2. Chop up onion, carrots, celery.
3. Add everything (except pasta) to the crockpot and mix a bit.
4. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
5. Add pasta and cook on low for about another hour.
6. Enjoy with parmesan, crusty bread, or whatever else sounds good.

I cooked ours for a little over 7 hours and then added the pasta. We grated some parmesan into it, and Trillian greatly lamented her lack of crusty bread (we've been keeping frozen hard rolls for her, but ran out).

This was much more tomato-based than the TJ version, but I'll happily use this recipe again. We've both enjoyed at least one bowl a day for the past three days, and I have several more servings frozen for later. If I want to get a little closer to our beloved version (and/or to make it vegetarian), I'll probably use vegetable broth, omit the beef and kidney beans, double up on white beans, and use elbow macaroni.

Lunch for guests

For the first time since we moved into our house, we entertained. My in-laws came over for lunch since various business places gave off for Presidents' Day. Trillian's mother has cooked for us several times, and so I wanted to prepare a lunch that would match the wonderful meals she has made. I went with several stand-by dishes, experimenting slightly with them, but not too drastically.

Our menu:
Shrimp with chile and lime
Skillet-roasted potatoes
French green beans
Baked apples and pears

For the shrimp:
The simple idea behind this is to sautee some peeled, uncooked shrimp in olive oil that has been heated with chopped-up dry chiles. We frequently do this with chile and garlic, but I decided tonight to just use the chile and then squeeze lemon juice on them at the end. I don't remember what chiles we used in the past, but I used the dried chipotles on hand today. Even with the seeds removed, the chiles were hotter than usual, but not so hot that they overpowered the taste.

For the potatoes:
I use our large skillet for this. Olive oil in heated skillet. Sautee an onion until it's translucent and thinking about caramelizing. Add thinly sliced potatoes and herbs. Today, I used fresh thyme and rosemary, as well as some leek. Cover and stir around from time to time. I start this dish first so that the onions have plenty of time to caramelize and the potatoes can brown and soften.

For the green beans:
The easiest part of the meal. Trader Joe's has wonderful frozen French green beans. Unlike many other frozen veggies, they maintain their crispness and flavor. I threw a bunch of these into a saucepan with a little water and butter and let them heat up while I did everything else.

For the dessert:
This is a variation on the baked fruit I made before. I cored apples and pears before cutting them in half and placing them in the baking dish. I then used our mini-chopper to chop up some walnuts with cinnamon, to which I then added some honey--not a lot, just enough to keep it from falling all over the place. I put a spoonful or two into the center of each fruit half and baked for about half an hour.

At least my in-laws can be certain that I'm keeping their daughter well-fed.

What do you want for dinner?

Generally, I've been much better about planning meals and shopping specifically for them, but I haven't been on top of that this week. We had an excellent Valentine's dinner, which I will write about later, but so much thought went into that that we were headed towards dinner-time without a solid plan.

"What do we have?" Trillian asked.

I ran through a few things, including the sausage I'd bought recently from Whole Foods. Their "Whole Ranch" line includes a number of styles of sausage and are all gluten-free. This has turned out to be something I have to look for. I had been hoping to get chicken sausage, but the brand I used to get has bread crumbs in every flavor I found.

Using that as our basis, we decided on a quick, simple, but satisfying menu:

• 2 Italian sausages cut up and browned with marinara then poured over them.
• Quinoa pasta (gluten-free, decent fiber and protein levels).
• Romaine lettuce with gluten-free blue cheese dressing. (Interestingly, blue cheese is another food that has to be labeled gluten-free to be safe. Frequently the mold used in it is started on bread and can transfer gluten to the cheese.)

I was able to heat up the sauce and make the salad while the pasta was in the pot, plus it's pretty hard to mess things up.