The Old Standby

As a cook, I don't really have the creativity to develop my own recipes from scratch, as much as I wish I did.  I need to use another recipe as a launching pad.  I love searching through recipes, online, in magazines, and in cookbooks.  If I am looking for something new or interesting, I go online.  I page through tons of recipes on tons of different sites.  I love going to Tastespotting to look at all of the mouthwatering images of delectable food.  I like to use Epicurious because their recipes are reliable and they have great feedback and comments from other users.  If I am looking for something more indulgent, I love Food and Wine.  Healthy food?  Eating Well it is.  That's not even the stacks of magazine pages I have ripped out to try at some point.  But if I am looking for a classic?  If I want an old standard?  Meatloaf.  Chicken Pot Pie.  Sauces.  To remind myself how long to cook a baked potato and at what temperature (or any other basic cooking technique for just about any food).  For any and all of these, I pull out my old, falling apart, needs to be taped at the seam, pages splotched with recipes I've used over and over again, the Joy of Cooking cookbook.

It seems so old school, old lady cooking, but the classic cookbook is a cook's best friend.  All of the fanciest recipes in the world won't help you if you don't know how to do the basics.  The Joy of Cooking is my culinary school general education course.  I go to it for some of my favorite meals and can still get rave reviews using recipes from this book.  The meatloaf I make that everyone loves?   Joy of Cooking.  My meatballs? Joy of Cooking.  Chicken Paprikash?  You got it: Joy of Cooking.

At this point, I don't even know where I got this cookbook.  I don't know if I bought it or if it was a gift.  I think it was new when I got it, but it has been so long, I really don't remember.  All I know is when I am not sure how long to cook a certain kind of steak based on it's cut, thickness, and bone or not, there is a handy little chart.  Each food section starts off with a quick basics lesson on the food - what it is, how to clean or prep it, and how to cook it in the most stripped down manner.  Then you get the recipes.  Recipes that take up hundreds and hundreds of pages of everything from sauce to dessert with every kind of protein in between.  It is my culinary bible and hasn't failed me yet.  I always thought in this technological age, that I would have moved almost exclusively to the internet, but either I'm old-fashioned or the internet just isn't as reliable as a cookbook that has been around since 1931.  So, for now, there will always be a spot in my kitchen where the Joy of Cooking will sit in easy reach, ready to make another delicious meal.

Lasagna. Cheesy, Delicious, Comfort food + Roasted Veggies

Lasagna with Beef, Turkey, & Roasted Vegetables

I love lasagna.  It is a craving food for me.  Technically, I am part Italian.  Without or without my ancestral heritage, I think I would still have a deep love of Italian food.  I remember my Grandma making a big pot of spaghetti sauce filled with meatballs, sausage, chicken, and braciole.  It was, and still is, one of my favorite meals.  I love making a "pot of sauce" on a Sunday afternoon so it can simmer for hours.  Other times, I am looking for the ooey-gooey cheesy deliciousness of a lasagna.  The layers of goodness make me happy.  In more recent years, as I have  been looking for healthier ways to eat food, I will sometimes up the "veggie quotient" of a meal that might otherwise be rather veggie-less.  I still get all the things I love about the food, but I added a little extra nutrition which makes me feel a little better about eating it.  That begins the tale of adding roasted vegetables to my lasagna.

When I first decided to healthy-up my lasagna, I thought I would try just using vegetables instead of meat, but it was missing something.  I tried using turkey instead of ground beef, but there was a lack of richness.  Finally, I figured out to just use all three.  I use half turkey and half ground beef in the bolognese sauce (fancy name for meat sauce).  Then, I take eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash and slice them into long, wide strips (they remind of lasagna noodles sliced this way and could actually be used in place of noodles if you are trying lower the calories/carbs).  I roast them in the oven first and then just layer them in with everything else.

This recipe will serve at least 8 (if you serve large pieces) and easily 12 with slightly smaller pieces and a side salad.  It also freezes really well.  I cut it into portion sizes first and then freeze it.  You can take out a serving at a time and heat it in the microwave or oven until melty and bubbly.  If you do heat it in  the oven, I recommend heating at about 450 degrees, covered with foil, for about 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 large or two small eggplant, sliced lengthwise into wide strips
• 2 zucchini, sliced lengthwise into wide strips
• 2 yellow squash, sliced lengthwise into wide strips
• Lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 28 oz. chopped tomatoes (I like Pomi or Muir Glen)
• 28 oz. strained tomatoes (ditto on above)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup fresh Basil (or about 1 Tbsp dried)
• 2 Tbsp. fresh Oregano (or 2 tsp dried)
• 1/2 cup fresh, flat leaf parsley
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella (or mozzarella-provolone blend) - more if you like it really cheesy!
• 16 oz. container ricotta cheese - I use Narragansett Creamery's Renaissance Ricotta almost exclusively - if you can find it, use it!!!
• 2 eggs. lightly beaten

Step 1: Roast the Vegetables at 450 degrees for about 20-25 minutes (watch that they don't over cook or dry out).  They can still be a little firm since they will bake in the lasagna.  Set aside to cool once done.

While the vegetables are roasting, start the bolognese sauce.

Heat your pan to medium-high.
Add about a Tbsp olive oil (optional).
Add beef and turkey and cook until browned.  If you didn't use lean meats or there is a lot of fat in the pan, drain all but about 1 Tbsp.
Add onion and garlic to beef and turkey and cook until soft.
Add chopped and strained tomatoes, basil, oregano, and half of the parsley and salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer the sauce (the longer you can simmer it to reduce it down, the better, but 20-30 minutes is fine - I have notice a little wateriness in the lasagna if you don't reduce the sauce enough)

The Bolognese sauce

Once your bolognese is simmering, start working on your ricotta mixture.

Best ricotta I have ever had (seriously).  Use this if you can!  It is super creamy with none of that gritty texture ricotta can have sometimes.

Combine eggs, ricotta, other half of the parsley, half of the parmigiana-reggiano, and salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Combine the remaining parmigiana-reggiano with the mozzarella.

Let the layering begin!  You can really layer in whatever order suits your taste, but here is how I do it:

In a 13x9 pan:
Spread a thin layer of the bolognese sauce on the bottom so the noodles don't stick.
Lasagna noodles (about 4, slightly overlapping)
Ricotta mixture (about 1/2 of the mixture)
Roasted Vegetables (mix it up or do an all-eggplant layer here and squash on the next one)
Bolognese sauce
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese mix
REPEAT with remaining ingredients (you might have leftover sauce - it's great on pasta - freeze or save what you don't use)

Before - all layered up and ready for the oven

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until top is golden brown.  Let rest 5-10 minutes after it comes out of the oven before serving.

After - ready for eating!!  

And for those cooks like me who see those cooking shows where the kitchen barely has a thing out of place when they make these kinds of meals.  I make a mess.  It's okay.  It makes it taste better!

If the Smell of Baking Bread Was a Perfume...

Bread.  Warm from the oven, little puff of steam as you pull it apart, a little bit of butter that melts as it touches the surface, that soft chewy wonderfulness as you take that first bite.  I like bread.  It is good (it is evil!).  It is addicting.  The smell of baking bread is intoxicating.  I would seriously consider wearing a perfume that was that scent, but then I would be hungry all of the time.  Instead, I will just wait until that smell is wafting through my house while I am waiting for the latest loaf of bread to be done.

I freely admit that before learning how to make bread, I found the idea incredibly intimidating. I mean, people don't make their own bread.  We buy it, all sliced up and wrapped in a plastic sleeve.  If it was easy to do, more people would do it, right?  I honestly thought it would be such a hassle and not really worth all the hard work it would take.  True, I was bothered by the number of ingredients that went into the store bread (average is about 18 - only takes about 5 to actually make bread), but I just couldn't convince myself to try and make my own. And then someone gifted me a bread machine (thanks, Aunt Connie!).  That's when the magic happened.

If you don't have a bread machine - get one!  Technically, you don't need one to make bread, but boy does it make it really, really easy.  If you have a stand-mixer, you can also use the dough hook on those for the kneading part, which is really the tedious part of making bread without a machine.  I like to use the bread machine to do the kneading and first rising of the dough, but then I take it out and do the final rise and baking in a loaf pan.  Why, do you ask, do I not just bake it in the bread machine?  Well, as wonderful as my machine is, it has a tube-shaped pan.  It makes round bread.  It's still delicious, but it's just weird.  So, I bake it outside of the machine to get the traditional loaf shape.  If you are lucky enough to have a bread machine with the loaf-shaped pan, you can just bake it right in there.

Do you want to know how easy is it to make bread?  Let's look at this basic recipe from King Arthur Flour:

Toast and Sandwich Bread Recipe

Recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup lukewarm milk

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Bread Machine Method (1 1/2-lb. or larger machine): Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your bread machine, program the machine for Basic White Bread (or equivalent), and press Start.

Yield: 1 loaf, 12 slices.

Yes, with a bread machine, you are done.  That's it!  Combine ingredients and press start.  And how many ingredients? Six.  That's it.  All basic things you probably already have in your kitchen.  It really is that easy.  And you don't have a bread machine?  It's still not that hard.  

Manual/Mixer/Food Processor Method: In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix for 2 minutes. Switch to the dough hook, and knead for 10 minutes. By hand, knead till you have a smooth, soft dough. Using a processor, process for 90 seconds.  

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and allow it to rise about 1 hour, or till it’s doubled in bulk. Shape the dough into a loaf, and place it in a greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Tent the dough with a proof cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for about 1 hour, or until it’s crowned 1 to 2 inches over the rim of the pan.

Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until it tests done (its internal temperature will read 190°F on an instant-read thermometer). Remove the bread from the pan to cool. 

Once I figured out how to make the bread and got the original recipe down, I started just trying new ones.  And you know what?  They are just as easy.  Breads also are very accepting of ingredient substitutions.  I like to switch out the butter for olive oil.   I'll use honey instead of sugar.  I also love the King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour - I switch out half the white flour for this (you can use all white whole wheat, but you don't get the same light, chewy texture).  I've experimented with all sorts of breads (like challah - soft, sweet, wonderful as french toast) and rolls (homemade hamburger buns? yes, please!), my latest being a Cinnamon Raisin Swirl bread.  In future installments, I'll focus on my other favorite bread recipes.  Until then, get baking!


And since you can't post a food blog without some sort of photo, here is a pic from my first attempt at making homemade hamburger rolls:

Apple Pie Pockets & the Tastes of Childhood

The taste of foods from my childhood bring me zooming back to being a kid again, a time machine, if you will, to a place less burdened by adult responsibilities, chores, and bills. I like to go back to those foods and try to recreate them. If they were store-bought, I like to try creating homemade versions. It's one of my little adventures with food.

About a year ago, I had a craving for a yummy dessert-type treat. With apples sitting on my counter, I started thinking about those apple pie pockets I used to love as a child. There were two kinds: one was a half-moon shape (Hostess, I think) and the other had two squares and were covered in a yummy glaze (Drakes). The filling was "apple"...though the contents were so jellied and gooey, I am not sure how long ago it was an actual apple, if ever. Even so, they were delicious (and what did we know in the 80's anyway?). Figuring they were little apple pies, I went to work.

Basic ingredients you will need:

• Apples
• Butter
• Pie Crust
• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Powdered sugar
• Milk
• Vanilla

First, the crust - make your own if you have time or in a pinch, you can always use store-bought. If I am making one, I normally do a quick search on a reliable recipe site like Epicurious and use what I find there. Dough for a 9" pie crust will make 4-6 pockets.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4" thickness. I cut mine into rectangles - about 3" wide by 8" long, but you could do larger or circles to make the half-moon.

Peel and dice your apples. Toss them in a large bowl with some cinnamon and sugar. I mix cinnamon sugar separately to taste and then just evenly coat the apples.

Cut up your butter into small pieces (easier to do right out of the fridge before it gets too soft).

Take a scoop of apples and place it on the bottom half of the dough. Add a couple of dots of butter on top of the apples.

To seal the pockets, dip your finger in water and run it around the outside edge of the dough. Gently, fold the top over the apples, stretching it just slightly if you need to, and press the edges where the dough meets with a fork. Make a few slashes across the top to vent the pocket while baking.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, until golden brown.

While the pockets are baking, mix together the powdered sugar (about 1/2 cup) with some milk (start with a small amount - about a tablespoon), a dash of cinnamon, and a small splash of vanilla (very technical measurements, I know). Mix together to a creamy, paste-like consistency. It shouldn't be too runny.

When the pockets are done, remove from the over and let cool for about 5 minutes. The drizzle the glaze over the pockets until coated.

Eat!!! Enjoy!!!

Food Musings and Adventures of a Redhead - the renaming of the blog

I started this blog a few years ago. I realized I kept finding little shortcuts in life that I thought would be worth sharing. It became apparent quickly that I was not an endless supply of tips and tricks! I started thinking about those things in life that are constant, always evolving, and that I feel like I will always have something to say about. One of the ever-present things in my life (and all our lives) is food. Between the magazines, cookbook collection, websites, and other assorted food-related information, I am constantly reading, learning, cooking, and trying new recipes. Of all the things I talk about, food is at the top of the list.

After thinking this over (while a batch of rolls was rising in the kitchen with that smell of dough in the air), I made a decision: just turn this into a food blog. Gone is the Tips and Tricks title, replaced by Food Musings and Adventures of a Redhead. The old posts are still there (I still like those tips and some of them are food related!).

Full disclosure: I don't really write my own recipes. I tend to use recipes others have already come up with, sometimes following exactly, sometimes substituting. This will probably be the way this blog goes. If I ever use a recipe from somewhere else, I will make sure to provide the source and proper credit. I'll let you know what was good, bad, easy, or hard about a recipe and let you know of any ideas I might have about alterations (and if they failed miserably or not). I will do my best to include photos when I can. I will post about recipes- making them, finding them, my favorites, and other times I may just decide to talk about food - a specific food, where to buy food, buying responsibly (organic, local, etc.), among other food musings. And who knows...maybe a random tip now and again just to spice things up.

I hope you enjoy the musings and adventures.

KDW

My new favorite thing: The Farm Lady

I have become informed and I also have become disturbed. I have been learning, reading, listening, and absorbing all of this information about how our food is processed, how animals are treated in industrial farming, and how we have destroyed our food culture. And I decided that I needed to try and get myself out of the destructive food chain as much as possible.

I started looking for local farms and CSA (farm share programs - you give them money, they give you some of what they grow). In my research, I found localharvest.org - great resource with a lot of information on how to find local farms near you. As I wandered around the pages looking for farms and CSAs, I came across a farm that mentioned a delivery service that works with area farms. Genius! I call it "the Farm Lady", but it's actually called CT Farm Fresh Express. Now, before you go on about the carbon footprint of my delivery service...this is a local service that drives within the local area to pick up local products. None of the foods traveled 1500 miles just to get to them like in the grocery store. For me, it all balances out.

On to the good stuff: CT Farm Fresh Express is a wonderful company operating in the state of Connecticut. They work with tons of local farmers, bakeries, coffee roasters, etc. The farms are mostly organic farms using sustainable agricultural methods. They work with animal humane farms that treat these amazing creatures who will give their lives to fill our plate with the dignity and respect they deserve. These are small, wonderful farms. The products are fresh, delicious, and amazing. The difference in the food that comes from these places compared to what you purchase in a grocery store is astounding. It really opened my eyes to how far from real food our grocery stores have gone. It is quite sad really.

So, if you live in CT, I highly recommend giving them a try. Their store is open online from Friday through Tuesday's at noon and deliveries are every Friday. You can find them at http://www.ctfarmfreshstore.com/Default.asp If you are not in CT, use your resources and find those local farms, farmer's markets, and other local purveyors. The cost might be a little more for some things, but the quality and the karma are worth every penny!

Here are a few other things that I recommend:

• Read "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan (plus ANY of his other books)
• Watch Jamie Oliver's TED awards speech. I love his passion for the food revolution and fixing the food we are feeding our families, especially in schools.
• Watch Food, Inc. (if you can handle it - it may be traumatizing for some. Read about it if you can't watch it).
• Become informed and understand what is in your food, what industrialization is doing to our food and our health, and find a better way.

Glow, baby! Glow!

This is more of a product recommendation than a tip or trick (though if you don't tell anyone that you are using it, it could be considered tricking them).

Dear Pasty People of the World (or those who like a little summer tan),

If you have not already gone out and bought yourself a bottle of L'Oreal Sublime Glow tanning lotion, I highly recommend it! It gives you a natural looking tan that appears gradually as you use it. The lotion also has a beautiful golden shimmer that makes your skin luminous, on top of the tanning benefits. And for those of you with fair skin: you do not need to buy the "fair skin tones" bottle. Go medium if you want. It just gives you a slightly deeper tan (it doesn't get weird and orange-looking like some brands), and who doesn't want that ?

Once I was told that the only tan I could get was an Irish tan (which pretty much means that the sun brings out all of your freckles and there are so many of them that they start connecting and looking like a tan). Now, this fair-skinned, redheaded, freckled girl has a lovely shimmering tan without the skin cancer risk or the bathing suit trauma.