Zucchini Time!

As ususal, the zucchini was prolific this year, producing massive quantities. I had about 25 pounds of zucc on the counter yesterday, so made this very simple, but VERY good soup to freeze. This can be a soup all on its own, or used as a soup base later on.

Zucchini Soup

8 – 10 very large zucchini
2 qt. organic chicken broth
1 head garlic, crushed
salt & pepper to taste

Cut the ends of zucchini & discard into your compost. Chop zucchini into large chinks, place in large stock pot with chicken broth. Add crushed garlic, place a lid on the pot, and bring to a low boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the zuccs are soft. Cool slightly. Puree soup in the blender. Using a pyrex measuring cup, pour soup into freezer bags. Be sure the soup is cool. Label. Lay the bags flat in the freezer. All you have to do is thaw and you have an instant meal, or a really great base for soup!

Chokecherry Syrup

It’s my favorite season – time to can the harvest from the garden as well as the wild.

Here in southwest Colroado, chokecherries abound. Most people just let them fall from the trees and rot, but they can be made into some nice products.I find the taste to be a little sharp even after they are sweetened, but add a little almond extract and they are wonderful.

Last year I had what appeared to be a “failed” batch of chokecherry jelly. When I opened the jar it was a perfect syrup. This year, I made a large batch, and intend to make even more, to give as Christmas gifts. For the time being I have it preserved in quart-sized mason jars, but later I will re-package it into beautiful bottles from Sunburst Bottle Company.

Chokecherry Syrup

7 cups of chokecherry juice
6 c sugar
1 and 1/2 t almond extract

First, pick and clean your cherries. Put the cleaned fruit into a large sauce pan or stock pot, depending on how much you have. For every pound of fruit, add one cup of water. crush the fruit and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about a half an hour. Drain the fruit through a sieve or cheese cloth.

Measure 7 cups of juice into a pan, and add 6 cups of sugar. Bring this mixture to a boil, and continue boiling for 20 – 25 minutes. Remove from heat and add almond extract. Quickly pour the hot syrup into hot, sterile canning jars and assemble lids and rings. Use a hot water canning bath to process the jars for 15 minutes.

You can make large batches without any problem. I had 1 and 1/2 gallons of juice. I added 20 and 1/3 cups of sugar to this mixture. After the mixture reduced, I had one gallon of syrup.

Sour Dough Carrot Cake

It’s my friend’s birthday. That means I get to bake cake! My fave.

Like me, my friend is a displaced Alaskan, so sourdough is always in order. If you don’t know about sourdough, you’re really missing out. I mean, it can be a science, it can be an art – or it can just be Sunday brunch. Nothing like some good sour dough pancakes in the morning.

Before making this recipe, feed your sour dough. Add equal parts of water and all purpose flour. (DO NOT use whole wheat flour in your sour dough. Whole wheat flour goes rancid quickly and it just doesn’t work well for this particular purpose.) Let it sit over night, or at least a good part of the day – several hours at least. The sour dough should get bubbly and active, and rise up the sides of the container a bit. A really active batch might climb right out of the bowl – remember, sour dough is a living organism that requires some care.

I am notorious for huge batches of food. This recipe makes a half sheet pan. Cut it in half and you have your regular two-layer cake.

Line a ½ sheet pan with parchment, spray with non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine:

2 ¼ c. oil
3 c. sugar
1 ½ c. sourdough
5 eggs
1 ½ c. pineapple
3 c. grated carrot
3 tsp. Vanilla
3 ¾ c. flour
3 tsp. Cinnamon
¾ tsp. Salt
1 ½ tsp. Baking soda
¾ c. shredded coconut

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until done. It depends on your pan and your altitude, really. Frost with Ginger Cream Cheese frosting. The recipe is here on our blog.

Sauteed Shrimp with Pasta and White Sauce

There’s not much of a story behind this dinner – a friend was preparing for a long trip and I wanted to make a good dinner. Unfortunately, I fell asleep, and when he called at 5 to say he’d be over at 6, I had to put my thinking cap on. Thank God for that full freezer.

Ingredients:

Shrimp (any size you prefer, just not the peeled kind)
Olive Oil
Red onions
Whole wheat fettuccine noodles
Half & half
White wine
Asiago and/or parmesean cheese
Garlic
Cornstarch
Salt

This is what I call a “wing it” recipe. How much of each ingredient really depends on how many people you are having over for dinner. To get started, put a large pot of water on to boil pasta.

In a saucepan, pour about 3 cups of half & half. Add some fresh chopped garlic and about a half cup of cheese. You can use either Asiago or Parmesan, or a mixture of both. Any hard, flavorful cheese will be good in this sauce. Heat until the cheese melts, but don’t boil because the sauce will curdle. put about 1/3 cup of cornstarch into 3/4 cup of white wine and stir to dissolve. Add this to the sauce and stir well. Cook until thick and the starchy taste is gone. Salt to taste. Pepper, too, if you’d like. This will make enough sauce for 4-6 guests. You can adjust amounts; this is a forgiving recipe. If it’s too thick, add some milk, too thin, add more starch & wine.

By now the water should be boiling. Drop in the pasta. Heat a skillet and add some olive oil, then your sliced onions and mushrooms. Throw in some garlic for good measure. Add the shrimp and cook until they are just done – about three or four minutes. The meat will be white ( or pinkish white) and will lose its translucent quality.

Drain the pasta and coat with a bit of olive oil. Top with white sauce. Arrange the shrimp and onions over the pasta. Serve with some nice bread – ciabatta would be perfect – and a good wine. yes, white is probably most appropriate, but I just love a good red on any occasion. Folie a Deux has both a wonderful white and red table wine. Mmm. For dessert, we had some Pirouline. Everyone went on their way fat and happy that evening.

A Girl Can Never Have Too Much Sockeye (but Too Much Saki Can Get You in Big Trouble!)

A hunter friend of mine came over one day with a big bag of freshly butchered, beautifully wrapped venison and elk. On top was one packaged marked “Back Strap.” Oh… my my my. The prime cut of a deer. What a gift. So I invited him to a slightly Asian style surf & turf dinner with the kids & me. I had plenty of sockeye salmon in the freezer. I am going to make a meager attempt to explain how to make sushi. You might want to google it if it’s unclear – because indeed, it’s easy and very fun. My kids think it’s a combination art project/meal.
Menu:

Salmon Sushi Rolls
Mu Shu-ish Back Strap
Asparagus with Lemon and Dill
Calrose Rice with Rice Vinegar Dressing

Earlier in the day I made the sushi:

Cook 3 cups of calrose rice in 4 1/2 cups of water. Save half for dinner and use half for the sushi. Heat 1/2 cup rice vinegar with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Add this dressing to the sushi rice.

Thaw a fillet of salmon by placing the whole, vacu-sealed fillet in a sink of cold water for about 20 minutes. Using some needle nose pliers, gently pull out the pin bones. Remove skin with a fillet knife. Cut salmon in long strips about 1/2 inch wide. Place sushi nori, shiny side down, on sushi mat. Spread rice on nori, making sure to spread it all the way to the edges. Arrange a strip of salmon on top of the rice. Roll the nori so that it forms a long tube. With a very sharp knife, slice the tube into pieces about 3/4 an inch wide. Top with masago or tobiko if you’d like – those are types of roe available at Asian markets.

Back Strap:

I sliced the backstrap into thin medallions and marinated it in hoisin sauce for a couple of hours. About ten minutes before dinner, I sliced up some red onions. Sautéd the onions, then cooked the backstrap for about six minutes. Done!

Asparagus

The asparagus was quite simple, too. Steam the asparagus until slightly tender, about 15 minutes or so. Place in a serving dish with a tablespoon of butter. When butter has melted, squeeze a half a lemon over the asparagus and sprinkle on some dill.

I was going to have the sushi as an appetizer, but we ended up having everything at once. And guess what? It was delicious and fun. Great company, terrific food, good wine – and at the end, a sushi rolling lesson! Oh, be sure to have plenty of wasabi on hand. Aside from tasting good, it can be a real source of entertainment!

Cooking with an Absentee Sister

The peachy sister is painfully absent from the blogosphere. I’m sure she’ll pop in here soon, though…

The Peach and I talk pretty much everyday. She is in Texas, and I’m here in Colorado. We are both relatively new to our areas. My sister lived in Georgia for four or five years, and I spent eighteen years in rural Alaska. We grew up in Ohio, but the majority of our family came from Kentucky. I guess you could say The Sizzle Sisters have been around. So to speak.

Our conversations usually gravitate towards food right off the bat. “Hey. Whatcha cookin’ for dinner tonight?” One of us will rattle off a menu or a recipe which the other invariably thinks sounds divine. Then we change it to suit ourselves.

Take, for example, my modified recipe for Bourbon Glazed beef. You cook down a roast. Just let it sit in the crock pot all day while you’re working (or playing). Then you baste it with a glaze of brown sugar, molasses, dijon mustard, and bourbon. How good does that sound? Well, I was out of molasses so I substituted honey. Then I saw a bottle of A1 Steak Sauce and I threw some in there. So when Peachy called me that day, I rattled off the recipe. She said, “Oh! I’m gonna try that!”

A few days later she called and said, “Those were the best ribs I’ve ever had!” I had no clue what she meant. She made the same glaze, but put it on ribs and barbecued them. It sounded great! So, last night I made ribs, using the original, unmodified glaze recipe – and I will never use a tomato-based BBQ sauce ever again.

Apricot and Dijon Pork Chops

My daughter wanted to cook dinner the other night, so I told her to grab a cookbook and go for it. She chose the Silver Palate, another one of my personal favorites. She modified a recipe to suit the ingredients we had in the fridge – wowee! It was really very good.

Apricot and Dijon Pork Chops

You will need:

4 Pork Chops, dredged in flour
3 T Dijon Mustard
3 T Apricot jam
3 T Apple Cider vinegar
Oil for cooking
Salt and pepper

Begin by heating the oil in the cast iron skillet. Dredge chops in flour then brown on each side. Season with salt and pepper. Mix jam and mustard and spread over chops. Cover and let cook for about 15 – 20 minutes over medium-low heat. The sauce will run off the chops and into the skillet, but the liquid that condenses in the skillet should keep everything from burning.

Remove the pork chops to a plate. Add vinegar to the skillet and stir with a whisk. Top ork chops with the resulting sauce. Serve with a nice side of asparagus.

Cranberries and Pears

Oh, kids… While perusing another blog, I discovered a divine dessert recipe… Check this out: Cardamom and Pinenut Pears http://lucullian.blogspot.com/2007/10/cardamom-and-pinenut-pears.html  How perfect does that sound? I think I”m going to have to try that tonight, since I have everything in the kitchen. Yum.

I’ll soon be heading to Alaska for a business trip and hopefully  few cooking opportunities. It’s cranberry-picking season up there… wonder if I can manage to  bring some home???

Whole Wheat Pasta and Veggies with Marinara

I needed an easy yet filling dinner last night, so I real quick-like whipped up this pasta dish. Don’t let the whole wheat pasta scare you– there’s no discernible difference between it and the white stuff, plus it is so much healthier for your body.

Whole Wheat Fettuccine with Veggies and Marinara

1 small red onion
3 cloves garlic
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
2 or 3 stalks of celery
1 medium zucchini
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 c. red wine
2 TBSP chili powder
1/4 c. brown sugar
basil
oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Whole wheat fettuccine noodles

Get out a good stock pot suitable for a hearty sauce. Fill another pot with water for the pasta and set over high heat. Finely chop onions & garlic; sauté in olive oil for a few minutes. The onions should be tender but don’t let the garlic burn. Chop and add the celery. Peel and cube the zucchini while the other veggies cook; toss in the pot. Cook for a few minutes, but don’t let the zucchini get soggy. Add the tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes and stir well. Add the herbs and brown sugar, stirring well. At this point you can add the wine and let the sauce reduce a bit. Cook the fettuccine noodles.

This is a very basic red sauce. If you omit the onions, celery, and zucchini, you have a versatile marinara. To make a pizza sauce, add some cornstarch to the red wine, then cook for a few minutes to thicken.

Wild Rice and Orzo Pilaf

My friend Riki doesn’t cook a whole lot. She typically makes a big pot of soup or a stew on Sunday and eats it all week long. But you can always count on her for one of the best side dishes on the planet if you invite her to a potluck dinner.

Wild Rice and Orzo Pilaf

1/2 C. chicken broth
1/2 C. mellon seed ORZO pasta
1/2 C. olive oil
1 & 1/4 C. wild rice
1/2 C. cooking oil
1 lb. yellow onions coarse chop
6 cloves garlic pressed
1.5 tsp. oregano
1.5 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. thyme
1 C. parsley minced
1/2 C. bread crumbs
3/4 C. parmesan cheese

Cook ORZO, drain, toss w/ olive oil. Set aside.
Cook rice until almost done, drain, toss with pasta.
Sauté onions in cooking oil, add salt & spices (not parsley). Cook low until glazed.
Add parsley, bread crumbs, chicken stock. Toss.
Add rice-pasta mix to seasoning mix. Fold in parmesan.
Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.