Finally, a Whole Wheat Pizza Dough to Love!

I finally found a whole-wheat pizza crust recipe that I love. It comes from the book PIZZA: Grill It, Bake It, Love It! by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. I have it out from my local library, but want to get my own copy ASAP.

This recipe makes one pound of dough. I made a pizza on a cookie sheet with a medium-thin crust, and it was tender and not heavy.

3/4 cup lukewarm water (~105F-115F)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

2/3 all purpose flour, plus additional as needed

2 tablespoons walnut, canola, or vegetable oil (I used olive), plus addition for greasing

Place the water in a large bowl. Stir in yeast, sugar, and salt. Wait 5 minutes so the yeast can activate and begin to bubble and foam. (If it doesn't, throw the mixture out and start again. Either the water isn't the right temperature or the yeast expired.)

Stir both flours and oil into the yeast mixture until a soft dough forms. Lightly dust a clean, dry, work surface with all-purpose flour and turn the dough onto it. Knead by holding the dough with one hand, stretching it with the other, and then twisting the heel of the holding hand into the mass. Continually reshape the dough, folding it on itself as you knead. If it's sticking to your hands, add a little more all-purpose flour, in about 1 tablespoon increments. Continue kneading until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Wipe a clean, large bowl with a bit of cooking oil on a paper towel, or spray it with cooking spray. Place the dough in the prepared bowl, turning the dough so all sides are coating with oul, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Shape the dough into the crust shape desired.

Best-ever Glazed Salmon

When Mom made this recipe, adapted from the Curves cookbook, my favorite brother-in-law called it the best salmon he'd ever had. I concur. It's also extremely easy to make.

Glazed Salmon (for 2)

8 oz. salmon fillet

original Mrs. Dash seasoning (the cookbook calls for lemon pepper)

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar (cookbook calls for granular Splenda)

Place salmon fillet in a heavily greased baking dish, skin side down. Season with the Mrs. Dash to taste. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350F for 40 minutes.

Mix together olive oil, soy sauce, and brown sugar to make sauce.

Uncover salmon, brush sauce on. Broil until nicely brown, basting several times.

Big Batch Meals.

I love to cook. Most of the time. Sometimes I just want to make something easy and be done with it. (Hence my love affair with frozen pizza.) Sometimes it gets too frustrating to work in my little apartment kitchen with scarce counter space, which is why I like to cook more elaborate meals in my mom's kitchen which is like wide-open Wyoming to my kitchen's Rhode Island. Actually, Rhode Island has many good things about it, and my kitchen doesn't, so it's a flawed analogy.

Sometimes when I'm very busy, having food ready in advance is a relief. Of course, sometimes, I just want to slack off on the cooking. So the solution is the big batch meal, in which I cook like I have a family of four to six, and feed the two of us two or three meals from it.

Last night was shepherd's pie, made with tri-color peppers instead of corn. (I'm not big on corn.)

I assembled it in the morning while the handyman worked in my apartment, then put it in the fridge and finished cooking it when it was time for dinner. You could also assemble this a day in advance, so if you have lots of time on Tuesday, but Wednesday is going to be nuts, you've still made a wholesome, satisfying meal you can feel good about.

Shepherd’s Pie Remix

about 1 ½ lbs. ground beef

1 packet brown gravy mix

1 lb. frozen cut up mixed peppers (Trader Joe’s calls it “Melange a Trois”)

Mashed potatoes enough to make at least 1” layer on top. (About 6 or 7 cups—a figure I got by converting to metric and doing math. Take it as a rough estimate.)

Brown beef in skillet. Add the gravy mix to the skillet along with the water called for in the directions and stir into the beef.

Spread beef in bottom of and 8" x 11" baking pan. Add the peppers in a layer on top. Then add the mashed potatoes.

You can store it in the fridge, covered in foil, up until the next day, if you’d like.

To finish the pie, bake on 350F for about 45 minutes to an hour, half the time with the foil on (so it won’t dry out), the remainder with the foil off (to brown the surface of the potatoes).

I am going to be busy in the early evening hours, and I know I will be too hungry to think straight when I get back, so I made this Colossal Crustless Quiche this morning, so that it will be there when we get home, and we can reheat our portions in the microwave. Tomorrow, Chris will get a slice in his lunchbox, and I'll probably have it for both breakfast and lunch at home. I also often make quiche on Saturday nights, while watching SNL, so that we have something substantial to eat before church Sunday morning. I love quiche. I can easily justify getting the package of five dozen eggs at BJ's.

The charms of this dish are many. It takes less than an hour to make, and barely 10 minutes of hands-on time. It has three of the five basic food groups. The cost of making this dish is about $8, though I know I spent less than that because I got most of the ingredients on sale. (I pretty much stockpile shredded cheese when it goes for $ 2 or less. It's very versatile, so I know I'll use it.) There's not a lot of prep work to do, as the cheese and broccoli come ready to mix in, and the ham and scallions can be effortlessly snipped into bits with kitchen shears. This recipe can be made vegetarian by omitting the ham.

Colossal Crustless Quiche

12 eggs

1 cup milk

2 cups (8oz) shredded Swiss cheese (or cheddar, or "Mexican" blend)

16 oz. frozen chopped broccoli

½ cup scallions or green onions, chopped or snipped into small pieces.

½ tsp black pepper

approximately ½ lb. sliced deli ham (or about 1 cup of other ham, like holiday leftovers), cut into medium-small pieces. (I grabbed a pile of ham slices, snipped it into strips with kitchen shears, and broke those up with my fingers.)

Preheat oven to 375F.

Coat 9” x 13” pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat eggs together with milk. Add cheese, broccoli (still frozen is OK if the pieces are small), scallions, ham, and pepper, and blend thoroughly.

Pour mixture into pan and spread with spatula to evenly distribute the ingredients and make the quiche a uniform thickness.

Bake for about 45 minutes. The sides of the quiche will turn medium brown and begin to pull away from the pan.

Caramel+short attention span=a no go ; Thanksgiving retrospective

Paco the guinea pig, whose attention span rivals my own.

I tried making the candied nuts from my previous post. I wound up with lots of burnt sugar and an unbreakable cluster of nuts that could pass as a lethal weapon in several areas of the Middle East. The recipe really requires patience and constant monitoring. Not my strong suit. So I won't be attempting anything caramel, probably ever again.

However, the roasted almonds from my last post came out great.

For a side dish, we made the following recipe, from myrecipes.com (originally from Cooking Light, December 2004) with butternut squash, omitting the pasta, and that may have been romano, not asiago cheese (whatever was on hand). It was delicious!

Ingredients

• 4 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• Cooking spray
• 8 ounces uncooked pappardelle (wide ribbon pasta) or fettuccine
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups trimmed arugula
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Asiago cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 475°.

Combine squash, vinegar, oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl; toss well to coat. Arrange squash mixture in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan (Maggie's note: who the heck actually has a jelly roll pan? Use a baking sheet with sides or a pan like you'd use to make brownies) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 475° for 25 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, stirring occasionally.

While squash bakes, cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1 tablespoon cooking liquid.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add pine nuts, sage, and garlic; cook 3 minutes or just until the pine nuts begin to brown, stirring occasionally. Place pasta, reserved cooking liquid, pine nut mixture, and squash mixture in a large bowl; toss gently to combine. Add remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt, arugula, cheese, and black pepper; toss gently to combine. Serve immediately.

Also, my class reunion was Friday. I ate way too much cheese, mostly gouda with the smoked rind and fresh mozzarella which was great with raspberries and honeydew. While I was there, my classmate Meredith gave me a challenge. She's tried making risotto every week, and has had disappointing results each time. So I have to successfully make a risotto, and report back on how I did it. I don't want to let Meredith down, so I have to hop to it!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year, it's just four of us at Thanksgiving: me, Chris, Mom, and Dad. (My siblings will be with their in-laws.) So I volunteered to plan the menu for a simple, laid-back, low-effort meal. Oh yeah, and this time, I have to work with not only my picky eater husband (who can be appeased with mulled cider and stuffing from a box), but I was diagnosed with diabetes this summer, and Dad's going wheat free. This is what I came up with, subject to modifications. (Numbered footnotes to follow.)

THANKSGIVING 2009 MENU

~Hors d’oeuvres~

Cheese and crackers (Sharp Cheddar and Pepper Jack with Triscuits and gluten-free crackers)

Grapes

Bacon-Wrapped Apricots (*1)

Mulled Cider (*2)

Roasted spiced nuts (*3)

~Dinner~

Turkey

Spring mix salad

Butternut squash with arugula (*4)

Green beans almondine

Smashed red potatoes

Stovetop stuffing (mostly for me and Chris)

Meat stuffing, if desired (*5)

Cranberry sauce a la can

~Dessert~

pick one

Apple Crisp or other wheat-free fruit cobbler a la mode (*6)

or

Poached pears

(*1) Bacon-Wrapped Apricots from Real Simple, December 2009. Chris doesn't like scallops, but expressed willingness to try these. Because nothing says festive like something wrapped in bacon.

(*2) Easy way to make mulled cider: 2 quarts cider, a cinnamon stick or two, and two bags Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice herbal tea (or similar). Simmer in a crockpot or in a pot on the stove for about an hour.

(*3) Either "Easy Candied Nuts" from Real Simple, November 2009 or "Rosemary Roasted Almonds" from Cooking Light, September 2009, or both.

(*4) I don't have this recipe with me, but I think it came from an O Magazine a few years back. Will post it if I find it and remember to post it.

(*5) Meat stuffing is like making meatloaf inside the bird, and uses beef and pork.

(*6) I want to try the "Autumn Apple Crisp" from this Sunday's Parade section (November 22, 2009). Also featured this week is a non-alcoholic poached pear recipe. The "Autumn Apple Crisp" does call for flour, and I did buy gluten-free flour to substitute or we could probably just use more oatmeal.

****************************************

~Selected Recipes~

~Bacon-Wrapped Apricots~

Ingredients

• 24 small fresh sage leaves
• 24 large dried apricots
• 8 slices bacon, cut crosswise into thirds
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• toothpicks, for serving

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375º F. Place a sage leaf on each apricot, wrap with a piece of bacon, and place seam-side down on a baking sheet.
2. Bake until the bacon is beginning to crisp, 6 to 8 minutes per side.
3. Remove from oven and brush with the maple syrup. Serve with toothpicks.

~Rosemary Roasted Almonds~

1 TBSP finely chopped fresh rosemary * 1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil * 1 tsp chili powder *

3/4 tsp kosher salt * Dash of ground red pepper * 10 oz./2 cups whole raw almonds

Preheat oven to 325F. Combine all ingredients in medium bowl; toss to coat. Arrange nuts in single layer on foil-lined baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly toasted. Cool to room temperature.

~Easy Candied Nuts~

2 cups unsalted mixed raw nuts (such as almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts) * 3/4 cup granulated sugar * 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat oven to 400F. Spread the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast, tossing once, until fragrant, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to a bowl. Once the baking sheet us cool, line with parchment. In a large skillet, combine sugar, salt, and 2 tablespoons water. Simmer, swirling the pan occasionally (do not stir, as it will crystalize the caramel), until the liquid is amber colored, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in the nuts, then spread the mixture on the cookie sheet, separating the nuts as much as possible. Let cool. Break up any large clusters before serving. (Can be made up to 2 weeks in advance and stored at room temperature in an airtight container.)

~Autumn Apple Crisp~

3/4 cup plus 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1 tsp cinnamon

1 stick cold butter, in chunks

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

2 1/2 lbs. apples, peeled

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup maple syrup

1. For the topping, put 3/4 cup flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon, and butter in a food processor and pulse to form moist clusters. Mix in pecans.

2. Cut the apples into 1/2-inch chunks and put them in a buttered 9 1/2-inch, 2-quart pie pan. Add cranberries, maple syrup, and 1/2 Tbsp flour; mix. Scatter on topping. Place pan on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

3. Bake at 375ºF for 40 to 50 minutes. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.Serves 10.

~Honey-Poached Pears~

1/2 orange
1/2 lemon
2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1 star anise
3-inch cinnamon stick
4 ripe, firm pears, with stems

1. Peel strips of orange and lemon zest (avoid the pith) and toss into a 2 1/2- to 3-quart saucepan. Stir in juice from the fruit along with other ingredients, except pears. Boil for 5 minutes.

2. Peel the pears and arrange in the pan so that they’re covered with as much syrup as possible. Partially cover the pan, lower heat, and gently poach the pears, turning occasionally, for 30 to 40 minutes or until tender.

3. Remove from heat, lay a circle of wax paper over the pears, and cool. Serve at room temperature.

Adobo chicken--just as easily done as said.

This tangy, exotic chicken dish is made with ingredients you probably have around anyway.

Philippine-Style Chicken Adobo

(the recipe below reflects my modifications)

• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (I used a low-sodium variety.)
• 1 tablespoon minced/crushed garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 whole chicken legs (2 1/2 lb), cut into drumsticks and thighs

• 
  I had peeled the skin off my chicken beforehand. The recipe calls for the skin to be on. It came out well without the skin.
• 
  Stir together vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in a bowl, then pour into a sealable plastic bag. Add chicken and seal bag, pressing out air. Turn to coat thoroughly, then put bag in a baking pan and marinate chicken, chilled, turning occasionally, 2 hours. (I did it longer, more like 3 hours.)
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• 
  
• Arrange chicken, skin sides up, in 1 layer in a 13- by 9- by 2-inch metal baking pan (I used a disposable foil pan with a cookie sheet underneath, to have mercy on my husband who does the dishes) and pour marinade over it. Bake in middle of oven until cooked through, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer chicken, skin sides up, to a broiler pan. (I totally skipped that step and broiled the chicken in the foil pan.) Pour marinade into a small saucepan and skim fat. (<--I did that.)
• 
  
• Preheat broiler.
• 
  
• Broil chicken about 4 inches from heat until skin is golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. While chicken is broiling, bring marinade to a boil and discard bay leaves. Serve chicken with sauce.

I served this with brown rice and sweet potatoes. I peeled the sweet potatoes, cut them into chunks, and put the pan of sweet potato chunks in the oven to cook along with the chicken. When I moved the chicken to the broiler, I took the sweet potatoes out, and tossed them up with a couple tablespoons of margarine.

In which Maggie finally learns how to make boiled eggs the right way.

It took about 29 years, bad insomnia, a show on PBS Create, and a book called The Kitchen Survival Guide by Lora Brody, but I finally did it.

I used to boil eggs with no clue what I was doing. The shell would stick to the white so badly that I'd lose an inexcusable amount of egg flesh just by peeling them.

Then one night, I was stuck awake, watching cooking shows into the wee hours of the morning on the PBS sub-channel Create. For once, I actually payed attention to an entire cooking show, and took notes. The show was Joanne Weir's Cooking Class. Unlike all those cooking shows with one person talking to nobody in particular, the format was engaging because it has human interaction on screen. I was watching Joanne Weir teaching another person how to do something. And it was hard-boiling eggs.

I had missed the couple minutes of the show, so I didn't have all the details. So I turned to the book. I had bought my copy of The Kitchen Survival Guide at a library book sale. The subtitle is A Hand-Holding Kitchen Primer with 130 Recipes to Get You Started. Lora Brody wrote it as her children were coming of age, leaving the nest, and needed all this knowledge. It includes glossaries, meat temperature charts, how to pick the best produce, how to fix culinary disasters, and lots more.

Between my two sources, I learned how to make hard boiled eggs perfectly.

Fill pan 2/3 full with water, put on stove, add eggs (single layer).

Turn heat on High (or whatever setting you need to use if you have special pans), bring to rolling boil. Cover pan, turn off the heat, and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 15 minutes.

Drain off the hot water.

Put the eggs in a bowl with cold water and ice. Keep them there until the ice cubes melt.

Smack each egg around a little to crack them. Put back into the water for a couple minutes. The water will get under the shells and make it easier to peel the eggs.

Peel the eggs immediately, since it will be harder if you wait. The eggs will keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

The Quest for the Heavenly Pumpkin Whoopee Pies

After baking for the church sale, I went and bought other people's baked goods, of which there were an impressive variety. (I need to ask Mrs. Miller about the crunchy cookies she makes with potato chips and pretzels, dipped in chocolate. Sounds odd, tastes great; they seem like they have nuts, but they don't.)

Anyhow, I picked up a pair of pumpkin whoopee pies for us to have a for dessert that night. Basically, it's two fluffy pumpkin cake layers with cream cheese frosting in the middle, made with way more sugar than cream cheese. I don't know who made them, but they were awesome. I just had to have the recipe. So I turned to the internet. Here's what I found. (I haven't made any of the following recipes, at least not yet. I don't make any frosting-type substances, because I don't have a hand mixer, though I am putting it on my Christmas list.)

The recipe I found on Martha Stewart's website actually comes from a bakery in Brooklyn called Baked. This is very simple for a Martha Stewart recipe. The filling is definitely more frosting than cream cheese, and has a more than generous amount of sugar in it, so this might be the recipe used for the pies I bought.

A Canadian blog, Culinary Concocotions by Peabody , alters the recipe from Baked by adding maple syrup to the filling. Sounds good, though I would trim the amount of sugar a little, so that the maple syrup replaces some of the sugar instead of piling that on top of the already ample amount.

Of course, Rachel Ray also has her version of the pumpkin whoopee pie.

This recipe makes a smaller batch. Proportionately, the filling uses less sugar, and unlike the others, no butter. It's just cream cheese and sugar. I prefer my cream cheese frosting to be more about the cream cheese, and not overly sweetened, so I think this will be the recipe I make.

C is for Cookie, Congregational, Church, Common, and Craft fair

Today, I am baking for the "Harvest Festival" to be held tomorrow at First Congregational Church on the common here in West Springfield, a.k.a. "my church".

Right now, I am baking the beer bread I posted back on October 6. My apartment smells AWESOME. It just occurred to me today that this is a vegan recipe. It's nice to have another vegan recipe in my repertoire.

I am also making these cookies, which I posted a long time ago but am reposting to bring them back to the forefront:

Heavenly Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Yeah, I'm making them for church, and the recipe came from a church cookbook, bearing this name. It's corny, but apropos.)

1/2 cup softened margarine
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1- 12 oz. package semi-sweet chips
Cream margarine and shortening until smooth. Beat in eggs, sugars, and vanilla; mix until well-blended. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda. When well-blended, fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls unto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 F for 8 but no longer than 10 minutes. These cookies will be golden brown in spots. Even if they look underdone, do not cook them for longer than 10 minutes--they will settle into perfection. As a variation, these are also good made with white chocolate chips.

Quickie: Grilled Pepper Jack Cheese with Avocado

Not much different from a regular grilled cheese.

You can get pepper jack cheese in sandwich slices, or you can also cut it off a block and arrange to cover the area a sandwich slice would.

Butter both sides of both pieces of bread. Put a slice of pepper jack cheese on each slice, insert 1/2 an avocado, smoosh it down, and close the sandwich. Spray cold pan with cooking spray. Cook sandwich in skillet or grill pan on medium.

Herbed Beer Bread

I got this recipe from the King Arthur Flour cookbook.

This is a quick bread that uses beer to make it rise. It doesn't require kneading or waiting time to rise. It's the perfect way to get fresh, warm, homemade bread with very little effort.

You should use a light-colored beer (I tried making it with a dark beer once, and it was terrible). I used a 12-ounce can of Bud Light, mostly because my folks had about a couple cases worth leftover from the clambake (seems like everybody brought a case). That was an excellent choice.

*******************************************

Herbed Beer Bread

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup semolina (I used 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour in place of the semolina.)

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 12-ounce bottle of beer (or can)

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil (I used olive oil.)

3/4 cup hulled sunflower seeds

1 Teaspoon each: dried parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (like Simon & Garfunkel's song)

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9X5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the beer and oil and stir until the batter is evenly moistened. Stir in the sunflower seeds and herbs, then pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake the bread for 45 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove it from the oven and cool it in the pan for 15 minutes on a rack. Run a dull knife around the edge of the bread and turn it out of the pan to finish cooling.

I found that the batter is very thick, almost a dough. The top of my loaf was dramatically crooked, but the loaf came right out when I overturned the pan, no further prodding needed.

*************************************************

This was delicious and I will have to make it again soon.

Like Crab Cakes, But Salmon

Still organizing the recipe collection. I uncovered this recipe, which I got at Whole Foods aeons ago. It was very simple to make, and delicious. Chris, the resident picky eater, enjoyed these salmon cakes. I will have to make them again.

"Chesapeake Spiced Salmon Cakes"

One 14.75 oz. can of salmon (drain off excess water)

(I bought three 5-oz. cans of the boneless/skinless variety instead, rather than pick over the salmon for bones and skin. The extra expense was worth it to spare me the bother.)

2/3 cup panko bread crumbs, plus more for dusting. (Regular plain breadcrumbs are fine too.)

2 Teaspoons Old Bay seasoning or other seafood seasoning

1/3 cup diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup scallion, finely sliced on the diagonal (I used shears to snip small pieces, it's quicker.)

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (I used a scant 2 Tablespoons of dried parsley flakes.)

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise ("light" is OK)

Salt and pepper

1 egg, lightly beaten

Safflower oil for frying (I used most of a quart bottle. Heads up.)

In a large bowl, break up salmon into small pieces, removing bones and skin. In another bowl, combine breadcrumbs, seasoning, red pepper, scallion, parsley, salt, and pepper. Add to salmon then gently stir in egg and mayonnaise. Form into 12 small patties. Flatten patties, cover with plastic wrap or parchment or wax paper and refrigerate until ready to fry (they can be prepared the night before). Remove from fridge and dust both sides with breadcrumbs. Heat 1/2" of oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat and fry salmon cakes in batches, 2-3 minutes each side, turning gently, until golden brown.

Note: Since I used boneless/skinless salmon, I didn't need to pick through it. I saved a dish by mixing the dry ingredients and veggies in the big bowl and adding the drained salmon directly into that bowl. One less bowl to wash is good.

Quickie: Holy Macaroni!

Pasta salad is one of the easiest dishes to make a large batch of, and always a crowd-pleaser.

I stock up on pasta and Italian dressing when they go on sale, and am always ready to whip up a batch for church luncheons and other potluck events.

I like to use Wacky Mac, a multicolor mix of pasta shapes (shells, wheels, and spirals) which adds visual excitement with no extra effort on my part. Wacky Mac is colored with beets, tomatoes, and spinach, not artificial ingredients. Wacky Mac also goes on sale at Big Y frequently, and there are often coupons for it too, so I stock up on it.

Here's what was in my last pasta salad-- The colossal batch I brought to the 9/21 church supper.

1 1/2 pounds pasta (2 bags of Wacky Mac)

16 to 24 ounces Italian dressing (I used 24 oz. of Cain's Light Italian.)

1 1/2 pints grape tomatoes, snipped in half with kitchen shears

2 cans black pitted olives

8 oz. bag of pizza blend cheese (or Italian blend or mozzarella)

Toss everything together.

Of course, adjust the batch size and ingredient proportions to your liking. The cheese added some protein so that the leftovers would be more like a complete meal. Unfortunately, the supper was very sparsely attended, and I packed up three quart-sized yogurt tubs to foist upon others. But it was sooooooo good.

Quickie: Double Pepper Cheeseburger

Double Pepper Cheeseburger:

Mix adobo seasoning into the raw meat. Prepare patties as you normally would.

Top with slices of sweet red pepper and pepper jack cheese. (We had raw peppers, but roasted red peppers from a jar are good too.)

We had our burgers on hearty multigrain bread, and put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds to melt the cheese.

P.S. Speaking of good hearty bread, I just got my (FedEx-ed) bread from Nature's Pride through FoodBuzz. It is delicious. It's a bread to get for what's not in it, namely trans fats, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. Just the good stuff. :)

Shrimp with Carrot Ribbons and Coconut

I am finally organizing the 3 years worth of recipes that I had accumulated in a large laundry basket.

I have photo albums with the sticky-pages for the small cards and clippings, and binders with plastic sheet protectors for full pages.

Having run out of supplies, I made a Wal-Mart run.

It was Chris' evening at his grandmother's, so I was going to be alone and could make whatever I wanted for dinner, without having to work around his fussiness. So I got a 14-ounce bag of frozen cooked shrimp for $5, went home, and invented this recipe.

I got the cooked shrimp because it requires less effort than raw.

I cut the carrots into ribbons with the peeler because they cook quickly and it's less time-consuming than dicing.

Also, it looks pretty, and carrot ribbons are also nice tossed with fettuccine or linguine.

Shrimp with Carrot Ribbons and Coconut

½ lb. frozen cooked shrimp

2 TBSP olive oil

3 scallions, diced

¼ cup fresh parsley or cilantro, diced

2 medium carrots

juice of 1 lime

about 1 tsp Goya Adobo with cumin

about ½ tsp black pepper

(I sprinkled the seasonings directly from the containers over the food.)

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Run shrimp under cool water and let sit in colander to drain and partially thaw while doing the following steps.

Peel the carrots. Using the peeler and the same peeling motion, cut the carrots into ribbons.

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Sauté scallions and parsley until the scallions are translucent, stirring frequently.

Add shrimp to the pan. Add the carrot ribbons. Both will take the same amount of time to cook. Thoroughly squeeze the lime over the pan, stir. Let cook about 3 minutes. Add the coconut, adobo, and pepper, toss to thoroughly mix. Cook for about 5 more minutes, or until the shrimp is heated through.

Serve over brown rice.

Serves 2

(But I ate both portions. Delicious.)

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

Rosh Hashanah started at sundown tonight. I'm not Jewish, but I felt like celebrating a holiday with festive food.

I used the occasion as a reason/excuse to make (Martha Stewart's version of) the traditional honey cake, which I found amongst my recipe clippings.

Honey Cake with Caramelized Pears

If you keep kosher and would like to make dairy-free versions of these recipes, substitute margarine for the butter and soy milk for the regular milk. The cake can be made (without the pears) one day ahead, and stored in plastic wrap at room temperature.

Ingredients

Makes one 10-inch cake

Unsalted butter, softened, for pan

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons best-quality honey

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

Caramelized Pears (below)

Freshly whipped cream, or nondairy whipped topping, for serving (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 10-inch springform pan. Dust with flour; tap out excess. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside. Mix eggs and sugars on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until pale and thick, about 3 minutes.

Whisk together honey, milk, oil, and zest. With mixer on low, add honey mixture to egg mixture; mix until combined, about 1 minute. Add half the flour mixture; mix until smooth. Mix in remaining flour mixture. Pour batter into pan.

Bake until dark golden brown and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of cake; carefully remove sides of pan. Transfer cake to a platter. Top with pears. Serve with whipped cream or topping, if desired.

Caramelized Pears

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 3/4 pounds red Anjou pears, cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges (or 1/4-inch-thick wedges if pears are firm)

1/4 cup best-quality honey

Directions

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sugar; cook, stirring, until almost dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes. Add pears; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and just golden, 12 to 20 minutes. Pour in honey; cook, stirring, until pears are coated and very soft, 3 to 5 minutes.

I used apples instead of pears because that's what I had on hand. It took 5 apples to make the 1 3/4 pounds, and I skipped the sugar.

Everything You Need To Know About Food Safety But Didn't Know Where To Look (or even that you needed to know)

I am so psyched about this! Yes, I'm a nerd, but this is just great!

Yesterday, the federal goverment launched FoodSafety.gov, a website that has everything you will probably ever need to know and more about food safety, in article and chart formats, with information from the USDA, FDA, CDC, NIH, and other federal agencies. Recalls are posted in a live feed in the upper left corner of the pages. (Today's recalls include cookies that were labeled as molasses cookies but are really peanut butter cookies. So, peanut allergy sufferers, avoid Stop & Shop Home Town Bakery molasses cookies for a while.) This is government at its most effective. We need more of this quality of work from the feds.

Charts to check out first:

What temperature do you need to cook that meat to be safe?

How long can I keep stuff in the fridge or freezer?

How long can those eggs/egg dishes/egg products stay in the fridge/freezer?

There are also Q&As, like this one about how to spot a safe seafood seller.

Full disclosure: I worked in the seafood department of the Spencer, MA Price Chopper supermarket in the summer of 2000. Going by this advice, I would not buy from myself and that department as it was at that time.

There is also a wide variety of multimedia materials, which would be a good resource for teachers and groups.

Good job, feds! Now do everything else this well!

Maybe I'll call it "Green Monster Pie"

Tonight I made an extemporaneous variation of spankopita. I prefer to buy groceries based on what is on sale or in season or a good deal, and seldom buy anything with a specific plan, but to have on hand to work with as the spirit moves me. For this dish, the only ingredients I bought specifically for it were the spinach and the feta. I had everything else I needed. Actually, I didn't really, but I had ingredients that were "close enough". This "Green Monster Pie" was nowhere near authentic Greek cuisine, but it was delicious and addictive. I had to pack our lunch portions before we ate so we wouldn't eat the whole batch tonight.

I used the recipe below, diverging from it in several places.

*First of all, I used Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking & Pancake Mix instead of Bisquick. It's heartier and more wholesome than processed white flour baking mixes.

*Secondly, because at Price Rite frozen spinach only comes in 16 ounce bags, and I didn't want to open another bag of spinach to get the 20 ounces the recipe calls for, I decided to make up the 4 ounce difference with zucchini, of which I had a bounty. I used 2 small zucchini, which was much more than 4 ounces--I'm guessing now that each one of them could have been 4 ounces. But the extra veggie matter was good.

*Thirdly, I was all out of scallions, and didn't want to buy any when I had a decent substitute on hand. So I used an entire sweet onion I had in the fridge. I used the coarse side of a box grater to shred both the onion and the zucchini, and squeezed the excess liquid out of the shredded onion using a paper towel.

*My feta came in an 8 ounce block, so I put that in and increased the quantity of the other cheese to make up for the difference. I used a whole 8 ounce/2 cup bag of shredded cheese, a pizza blend that included mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, and romano. This also made the recipe more to Chris' liking (he's not a big feta fan, and prefers it in small doses).

*Otherwise, I followed the recipe step-by-step.

SPANAKOPITA WITH BISQUICK

6 eggs, divided

1 1/4 cups milk

2 cups Bisquick mix

1 Tablespoon oil

2 10-oz. packages frozen spinach, thawed

2 bunches of scallions, chopped

3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 cup grated cheese (we used mozzarella)

Squeeze dry the thawed spinach. Mix together 2 eggs, milk, Bisquick, and oil to make a batter. Pour half the batter into a 9"x13" pan. Make sure batter is close to edge of pan. Saute spinach and scallions in a little oil. Add 4 well-beaten eggs, feta, and grated cheese. Carefully spoon spinach mixture over batter in pan. Top with remaining batter. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 325F and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

I think you could also increase the zucchini so it would be 10 ounces of zucchini or so and a 10 ounce block of frozen spinach, so this would be great way to use up the ubiquitous zucchini that you may have an absurd amount of and may be running out of ideas for.

An Authentic New England Clambake

Ahhhh…A New England clambake! A wonderful culinary tradition, a wicked lot of work to put on, and still so much fun. This is the story of my family’s most recent clambake, held at my parents' rural home.

About a week in advance, the lobsters, clams, and seaweed were ordered from Colony Farms, a seafood market and wholesaler in Worcester. They were picked up a day in advance and the lobsters kept in coolers, and the seaweed kept wet in a barrel of water. The clams were kept in a cooler, layered with ice and cornmeal. (First the ice, then the clams, then the cornmeal, then ice, clams, cornmeal repeated until the clams are all packed in.) The cooler was tipped to drain, so the clams wouldn't fill up with freshwater which could kill them. . The clams ate the cornmeal, and eliminated the sludge from their bellies, so their bellies became tasty pockets of cornmeal instead of yucky parts to avoid when we ate them. In a group effort, the clams were packed into cheesecloth pouches in which to cook.

A clambake essentially is the creation of a giant temporary outdoor pressure cooker to steam the food. Besides lobsters and clams, we had corn cooked by the same method, soaked in the husk overnight. We also had onions wrapped in foil, which some people apparently like to have at clambakes. (I’m not entirely averse to them, but not a fan—there’s just so much else to eat, so I don't bother with them.)

Here's how the clambake was done, with vivid photos taken by Anna Foss and (my brother) Joe LaCroix, who graciously furnished me with a flash drive of photos to choose from. Thank you.

Dad used the tractor to dig the pit.

The pit was lined with stones, and the fire started with kindling.

After adding the big logs, the fire had to be oxygenated to keep it going. Yes, that is a leaf blower Dad is using. Some “scattered showers” were passing through, and the fire needed all the help it could get.

The guys knocked down the fire. They pushed the remains of the big logs off the fire using brooms and rakes, to expose the hot rocks which cook the food.

A casualty of the knocking-down procedure.

Seaweed on the hot stones.

Then a thoroughly pre-soaked canvas tarp over that.

Then the food was added to the pile. One lobster and a bag of clams was put right near the edge, so one can check for done-ness (if those are done, the others are too) without letting a lot of steam out.

Then the thoroughly pre-soaked comforter that used to be my sister’s (not shown) on top of that, and then the top tarp.

Sand weighed down the edges of the tarp to trap the steam. See how the tarp makes a bubble.

After about 30 minutes, it was time to check the lobsters and clams. They were ready, and so it was time to peel off the tarp and take the food off the pile--using gloves, of course, because everything was extremely hot.

Meanwhile, I was in the kitchen melting four pounds of salted butter in a saucepan in the kitchen. Salted butter is the preferred dipping sauce from clams and lobsters. It sounds like a ridiculous amount, but with 30 people or so, it was all used, and we resorted to margarine (“I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” (tm) ) when we ran out, but that wasn't quite as good.

Yes, everything was as delicious as it looks!

Shell sculpture!

A great time was had by all.