Short Attention Span Girl: food Archives

Yogurt Success!

By Marcella on September 2, 2010 1:57 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

When I was doing the natural foods challenge not long ago I tried yogurt making again. This time I tried the crock pot method. Blog after blog declared what a great method it was. Maybe for them. Me? Yogurt soup again. Also, the whole timing of heating, then resting, then stirring, then letting sit for 8 hours just didn't really fit my schedule.

Lately we've been using our dehydrator more. My husband made some really delicious beef jerky. My parents apple trees needed picking so two huge batches of apples were dried. The dehydrator book said that it could be used to make yogurt. I decided to give it a try.

Success!

Much faster and easier than the crock pot method. It only took 3 hours. Even with non-fat milk I ended up with thick yogurt without adding any powdered milk, gelatin or anything at all extra.

I decided to drain the last batch for greek style yogurt and made these yogurt parfaits. I love these because you make them, press a little plastic wrap on the top and stick them in the fridge. When you are ready your delicious yogurt treat is ready for you. This one is topped with some of Ashley's Banana Coconut Granola (just scroll down to recipe #3).

Perfect!

I was particularly happy to have this waiting in the fridge for me after another day of hot and sweaty yoga! I just pulled out a spoon and sprinkled on the granola and was ready to dig in. Perfect fast food breakfast.

Yes, I did survive to take another yoga class today. I got up and felt great; just a teeny bit sore in a couple of places. Then I went to class and when we started doing those poses I realized that actually everything hurt. It still felt great to take class though, and while I do still have some sore spots I'm glad I went.

The original recipe for the parfait calls for pureeing a mango and two bananas for the fruit layer. It is delicious that way. However, my fridge is overflowing at the moment with peaches and nectarines so that is what I used - two of each. I peeled the peaches but not the nectarines.

Yes, the fruit did get a little brown - those fruits do that - perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice would help fend off oxidation. It tasted great though.

Peach and Yogurt Parfait

Adapted from a recipe found in an old issue of Hallmark magazine. Try other fruits or even applesauce instead of the peaches. The original recipe called for one mango and two bananas and is very good.

3 C plain greek style yogurt

2 T honey

1/2 t vanilla

4 peaches, peeled

honey to taste

1/2 t vanilla

Stir together the yogurt, honey and vanilla and set aside.

Puree the fruit, vanilla and honey (if needed) until smooth in a blender or food processor.

Place 1/4 cup of the yogurt mixture in the bottom of each of six serving dishes. Divide the fruit between the dishes. Top with remaining yogurt and smooth to cover the fruit.

Cover and chill.

printable version - yogurt_parfait.pdf

- - marcella

Beans and Things

By Marcella on September 1, 2010 4:03 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The more you eat, the more you toot

The more you toot, the better you feel

So eat your beans at every meal!

I can't help it, sometimes I revert to a 10 year old.

Busy days call for easy and quick dinners. This is one of the few vegetarian meals that I made that doesn't elicit the comment "this is really good, but you know what would make it better? Sausage!" What can I say? The men around here love meat. They also love these tacos, so why not make some for your favorite carnivore?

The tacos that we had for dinner last night were made with garbanzo, black and pinto beans. All from cans; just open, drain and rinse. I've been known to use three cans of beans, a regular size can of tomato sauce and nudge up the spices a bit for a big batch. I just freeze the extra and have an even quicker dinner another night.

Oh, and while the recipe says simmer for 20 minutes, I doubt I've ever let things simmer that long.

I fry up taco shells from store bought corn tortillas but you could certainly make soft tacos with either flour or corn tortillas or buy the crunchy taco shells in a box.

Set out your favorite taco toppings and dinner is ready.

Easy Bean Tacos

Adapted from Bon Appetite magazine. Use your favorite homemade or canned beans to make these. I've even frozen leftovers and they re-heat just fine.

1 t oil

1 C diced onion

1 C diced bell pepper

1 T chili powder

2 t dried oregano

1 t ground cumin

1 minced garlic clove

1 - 8oz can tomato sauce

2 cans beans, drained and rinsed (pinto, black, garbanzo, kidney, etc)

12 taco shells

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add next 6 ingredients (onion through garlic) and sauté 2 minutes. Add beans and tomato sauce and simmer for 20 minutes or until thick.

Fill taco shells with bean mixture and top with your favorite things.

printable version - bean_tacos.pdf

Did you know that September is National Yoga month? Me neither. But even in my ignorance I signed up to take a yoga class today. I've been working out to a variety of DVD's lately and have really been enjoying a very basic beginner yoga workout. I've checked a few others out from the library and finally decided that I enjoyed yoga enough that I should try and find a class.

I don't know about you, but for me to show up regularly, an exercise class needs to be convenient. Close to home and classes at just the right time are a must. I found a place that fit the bill with one scary thing. It's Bikram yoga.

Nothing I write can describe how it felt to walk into a 105 degree room this morning. Yikes. It was HOT and I actually like to be hot. People were whining in Phoenix last weekend, but I thought it felt great. Maybe there's something to that dry heat thing. Maybe it was because standing outside in the desert is a whole different thing than facing down and hour and a half of yoga in a hot room with strangers.

I found a back row spot (yes, I am a coward) and lay out my spiffy new yoga mat and took a seat. All the experienced people were doing various warm up poses. Seriously, the room is warm enough that all my muscles were jelly so what was there to warm up? I just sat and sweated. And can I just say that I've never been a big sweaty exerciser? Really. Even when I taught crazy aerobics in the 1980's I never left class drippy wet.

By the time the breathing exercises were done I was wet.

Soon after I was drippy wet.

Then, the compressor kicked in. My brain expected a cool breeze. My body got the heater blasting. Seriously, it wasn't hot enough? The lady next to me tried to fan herself with her hand. It didn't appear to be very effective.

By the end of class I fully understood the expression "feeling like a wet noodle".

It was a good workout though. I am terrible at Bikram and not bendy at all, but it felt good to do. Or maybe it just felt good to be done. At any rate, my drippy towels have been washed and I'll let you know if I drag my lazy self out of bed tomorrow for another morning of stretching, balancing and sweating.

-- marcella

Popovers

By Marcella on August 30, 2010 9:50 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

We, being we, talked about how long it had been since we'd had popovers. They are so good yet is seems that they aren't too common. I used to make them occasionally with dinner. Because I didn't own an actual popover pan, I simply used a muffin tin and they were fine. In a muffin tin they do end up a bit wider and not quite as tall, but they are still delicious.

Because we love nothing more than a good souvenir to commemorate just about any event and actual popover pan went on our shopping list. A few days later I found a mini sized pan. The regular pans make 6 huge popovers, this one is the same size pan but makes 12 still large popovers.

Maybe because they are so closely identified with ladies who lunch and bridge clubs they aren't more popular. However, they are much easier to make than most breads served along side a meal. All the ingredients go into a bowl together and are given a quick whisk and baked. That's it! No creaming or cutting in, no kneading or rising. Just mix, pour, bake and eat.

Seems like we should all be baking these more often.

Plain popovers are wonderful with butter and jam. If you prefer more savory options stir in some cracked pepper and parmesan cheese, or toss in some chopped herbs. The different combinations could keep us in popovers for a long time.

Popovers

Adapted from the packaging of a mini popover pan. Makes 12 smaller popovers.

For years I didn't own a special pan to make these. A muffin pan will work instead, the popovers will just be a bit wider and shorter.

2 T butter cut into 12 pieces

1 1/4C flour

1/4 t salt

3 eggs

1 1/4 C milk

1 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place a piece of butter into each cup of the pan and place in the oven to pre-heat.

Whisk together flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until smooth.

Remove popover pan from the oven when the butter is melted and bubbly. Pour batter into the pan so that each cup is half full.

Return pan to oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Serve hot with butter, jam or other favorite spreads.

printable version: popovers.pdf

-- marcella

Summer Corn

By Marcella on August 23, 2010 2:54 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

In the summer the corn man comes. He is a really popular vendor. We know he has arrived when a long line snakes around the end of the farmer's market and into the parking lot.

If you were a fan of the TV show Seinfeld, you likely remember the Soup Nazi. Step up, state your order clearly and move aside. No debating, no stalling or you get booted.

That's how the corn man works. Ok, I've never seen him actually boot anyone out, but he does get a bit impatient if you aren't ready when it's your turn. He and his workers aren't really in the mood to be chatty. Frankly, the people in line behind you don't want you to be chatty either. They don't want to talk about how their corn is grown or how many weeks more they will be around or how sales are going. They just want you to tell them how many ears of corn and which variety. Then hand over your money and step aside. Because it's California and a certain amount of pleasantries are required he will hand you your bag with a "see you next week". He doesn't wait for your response though. Step aside, because he's waiting on the next customer.

One of my favorite ways to use corn is in these soufflés. They are dead easy to make and yet seem so fancy. Add a salad and some of that farmer's market bread on the side and dinner is ready.

Soufflés have a reputation for falling. It's well deserved because that's what they're designed to do. For happy soufflés, just whip the egg whites until they are in stiff peaks. This ensures a good rise in the oven and the soufflé will make it to the dinner table just fine to be ohh'd and ahh'd over before eating begins.

The only other trick is to be sure your soufflés have plenty of room to rise. They can go as high as two inches above the rim of the dish. Let's just say that experience teaches us that cleaning baked on soufflé out of the top oven element is no fun.

Corn Soufflé

Adapted from a recipe from Café Jacqueline in San Francisco printed in Saveur magazine. Serves 2

4 T butter

1/2 C grated cheese*

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 C fresh corn kernels

1/2 t grated fresh ginger

salt and pepper

2 1/2 T flour

3/4 C milk

3 eggs, separated

additional butter and grated parmesan cheese for prepping soufflé dishes

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Butter two individual sized soufflé dishes.** Sprinkle in some grated parmesan cheese and rotate the dish so that the sides and bottom are coated. Shake out any remaining cheese.

Melt 2 T butter in a skillet. Sauté the corn and garlic until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Melt 2 T butter in a saucepan. Add flour and cook, stirring until thickened. Whisk in the milk and cook, stirring, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

Beat the egg whites until still peaks are formed. Add the egg whites to the milk mixture in batches. Fold gently to incorporate the egg whites without deflating them. Gently fold in the corn and grated cheese.

Spoon into soufflé dishes. Bake until browned, about 18 - 22 minutes. Soufflé should be firm in the edges but still slightly jiggly in the center. Serve immediately.

*Swiss or gruyere cheese is traditional, but other favorite cheeses work well too. We like parmesan or if we're in the mood for something spicy pepper jack is great. Regular monterey jack or mozzarella are both mild and really let the corn flavor shine.

** My soufflé dishes hold 1 C to the lower rim. They measure about 3 3/4" across and 2 1/2" high.

printable version - corn_souffle.pdf

-- marcella

Summer Berries

By Marcella on June 22, 2010 12:49 PM | 3 Comments | No TrackBacks

June for our family means olallieberry picking. When we moved to California many years ago we were introduced to these berries which are related to a blackberry and are actually a cross between a loganberry and youngberry. Nearly every summer we have gone and picked lots of berries and frozen them to use in baking or just poured over ice cream all year long until berry season arrives again.

This year we just finished our berry trip.

We were put into a fairly new area for picking with lots of space between the bushes. However, the bushes really had a lot of ripe berries on them and our boxes quickly went from empty to filled.

Because school had just gotten out there were lots of children with their moms picking berries. One group of children would yell "jackpot" whenever they found a big cluster of ripe berries. Hilarious! Then it rubbed off on us adults too.

The next day at home most of those berries were turned into almost seedless jam. The recipe is simply the one for blackberry jam off the package of low sugar pectin. No fancy add ins or spices or anything, just plain olallieberry jam.

The jam making did mean more purple stains though. Even worse then the picking. My wooden stirring spoon might never recover. I think this winter, when I am eating toast with jam or thumbprint cookies filled with ollalieberry jam, I'll be so happy to have this jam that I won't even remember the sacrificial spoon.

-- marcella

Fair Report 2010

By Marcella on June 15, 2010 3:25 PM | 4 Comments | No TrackBacks

This week is our county fair. A few years ago I started entering the fair. It's not something we ever did in our family growing up. We rarely even attended the fair when I was growing up.

The local quilt guild is very involved with the fair. It's hard to be a member and not get involved with setting things up or helping out in some way. It's a slippery slope from there to entering as well.

This year instead of my usual one food entry, I went for four. When you look around the entries you see that four is pretty pitiful. These people enter a lot! But life is busy and I'm not exactly a ribbon hound so four seemed like quite a bit to me.

Saturday we went down because I had entered the cheesecake contest, and for that you had to present your cheesecake at the appointed time during the fair. This was a new one for me. I've only previously entered things that are dropped off before the fair even begins and you find out how everything went once the fair opens. I arrived with cheesecake in hand along with cutting utensils and paper plates (thanks to my husband because I totally forgot about them) as directed. I was sent to the ominous cutting room where I had to serve up half the cheesecake on one plate and a slice on another. Took me 35 seconds. Ok, maybe not quite that fast, but fast. The other lady in there with me was carefully arranging her garnish and had two slices cut and arranged differently on their plates and was trying to decide which arrangement looked best.

I was totally out of my league.

I turned in my entry and my husband and I took a look around the room.

First we saw this:

That would be my whole wheat seeded bread with a first place ribbon!

And next we found this:

This would be a first place next to that lemon marmalade.

And after a bit of hunting we also found these:

Yippee! Another first for the cheddar bacon scones.

The best part was during the cheesecake judging. One of the preserves judges approached me and returned my marmalade taster jar. She complimented me on my jam and said that so much was gone because my jam was in contention for best of show and it took a few rounds of tasting. I'm such the clueless one that winning anything other than my category had never even occurred to me. Too exciting to think of my jam up against all those other winning entries.

Back to the cheesecake. Can I just say that I clearly do not understand open judging? We all dutifully sat in our seats in front of the stage. The judges went to work and we watched. That was it. They said nothing out loud. In fact, for some conversations they covered their faces with their clipboards like they were NFL coaches and we'd lip read their plays. They did not tell us what they were looking for or anything. There was zero education here. What exactly is the point of this? If you know, clue me in, OK?

There is immediate gratification though. They do announce the winners then and there, and I got 5th which made me pretty darn happy especially since my lemon swirl cheesecake was completely garnish free.

-- marcella

Fruit Crisp

By Marcella on June 11, 2010 10:56 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Every Wednesday a luscious box of fruit is delivered to my house. We split this delivery with friends and she picks up the fruit box and brings it to my house. On Thursday I pick up the veggies.

Because I have not unraveled the mysteries of this CSA, I almost never know what will be delivered in advance. Although there are Tuesday deliveries, their newsletter arrives late on our delivery day and isn't posted up on their website until even later. Only twice since we've joined have they divulged on twitter what is getting packed in their boxes.

I never realized until now how much I'm not a surprise girl. I have no idea why it matters, it's not like there is any reason I need to know in advance. Just another quirk of me.

Until now, the fruit has been sliced up and eaten, eaten whole and twice we've juiced the oranges. I decided it was time to do a little baking. After poking around the cookbook collection, I found a recipe for Apricot-Cherry Crisp in the Fields of Greens cookbook. I love this cookbook. Everything we've made out of it has worked and tasted delicious. Since both fruits called for were delivered this week it was time to get cooking.

Being me, I did make a few changes. Nothing huge. The recipe called for Bing cherries but Ranier had been delivered. I figured since both are sweet cherries they should swap out just fine. I also increased the sugar just a bit. Having been the victim of too tart baked goods too many times, I always now taste the fruit mixture and adjust as needed. Also, the recipe calls for a 9" square or round pan. I have to say that 8 cups of fruit and almost 2 cups of topping is an awful lot for that size pan. To be safe, and in the interest of avoiding an oven bubble over, I used a 7" x 11" pan.

This is sure to be appearing again over the summer. The topping would be great with any fruit that likes to be baked - peaches, berries, pears or apples.

Topped with a little vanilla ice cream or whipped cream it's a great summer dessert.

Apricot Cherry Crisp

from Fields of Greens by Annie Somerville

The crisp topping can be doubled with the extra frozen for a quick dessert another day. Change out the nuts to fit the fruit used or leave them out entirely for a nut free dessert.

Crisp Topping

1 C unbleached flour

1/4 C granulated sugar

1/4 C brown sugar

1/4 t salt

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 C butter cut into small cubes

1/4 C chopped walnuts

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, salt and spices. Add in the butter and work it in until the mixture is crumbly and begins to hold together. Stir in the nuts.

Filling

1 1/2 lbs apricots, sliced, about 6 cups

1/2 lb sweet cherries, pitted, about 2 cups

2 t lemon zest

1 t grated fresh ginger

1/2 C granulated sugar, adjust to the sweetness of your fruit

2 T unbleached flour

In a large bowl stir all of the ingredients together. Pour fruit mixture into a 9" baking dish.

Cover the fruit with the crumb topping and bake about 50 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit juices bubble around the edges of the pan.

printable recipe - apricot_cherry_crisp.pdf

-- marcella

Onion Rings

By Marcella on May 17, 2010 9:12 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

There was a lot of cooking going on this weekend at our house. Some were misses - like the graham crackers that were more like shortbread and the coconut marshmallows that were a bit too gooey after a day.

The hit for us were the onion rings.

My husband had mentioned that it would be nice to grill up some burgers this weekend. This meant, however, that we had to clean the grill after a long winter which was a pretty big job. After all that scrubbing and bad cookie baking and marshmallow making I was rather tired. Even though I had wanted to make onion rings to go with our burgers, I nearly decided that we could do without the homemade onion rings and maybe buy a bag of frozen at the store instead. Fortunately, good taste prevailed and we enjoyed a few too many delicious onion rings with our dinner.

It's actually an easy dish to make. Slice up some onions. Whisk together a few ingredients in a bowl. Heat the oil. Dip the onions in the batter and fry.

Dealing with the leftover oil and scrubbing the oil splattered stove is less fun, but worth it for an occasional fried treat.

We dipped our rings in some spicy ketchup. I simply stirred together about 1/3 C of ketchup with 2 T sherry vinegar, 1 t Worcestershire sauce, 1 t sugar, 1/2 t smoked paprika and 3 T finely minced onion. It was a nice spicy dip that went nicely with the sweet onions.

Simple Onion Rings

a Short Attention Span Girl original

1 large onion, cut into 1/4" slices and separated into rings

1 C all purpose flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

3/4C club soda

oil for frying

salt

If the onion is particularly hot, soak onion slices in cold salted water while preparing the batter.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Slowing whisk in the club soda until a thin batter is formed.

In a skillet, pour the oil in to measure 1 inch deep. Heat over medium to 365 degrees.

Dip an onion ring into the batter. Allow the excess batter to drip off and then carefully place in the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, turning so both sides cook evenly.

Remove onion rings to paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with salt.

Onion rings may be held in a 250 degree oven to keep warm while remaining onions are cooked.

printable version - onionrings.pdf

-- marcella

What's Been Cooking

By Marcella on May 3, 2010 7:27 AM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

My computer is littered with half written posts. There are posts about food that I forgot to photograph, photographs with no matching write up, things I made so long ago they no longer seem relevant and the lone picture of the rising sticky buns with no baked buns to go with it. Seems we started eating devouring like starving wolves before a picture could be taken.

We have been cooking and eating around there though. Lately we've cooked quite a few things from other blogs. Here's a list of recent hits:

Pizza for breakfast from Smitten Kitchen. This was a very well received surprise for my husband. The recipe makes two savory, egg topped pizzas. We made one and reserved the other half of the dough for a more traditional dinner type pizza another night. I have to say this is probably my favorite pizza dough so far and we've made many.

And while I'm mentioning one delicious find from Smitten Kitchen, I might as well add another. The thick and chewy granola bars have been made around here at least three times. Yes, they are that good. They are so good that I can put one in my husbands lunch box and it does get eaten. True story, I married a man without a sweet tooth. I have no idea how that happened. The bars are chewy and delicious. I do use the smaller amount of sugar called for in the recipe. Combinations of dried cranberries or cherries or apricots with pecans or walnuts or almonds or a mix have all been awesome.

Movies at home required some theatre style snacks. Instead of the usual popcorn we serve, this time we got fancy and made pretzel bites and cheese sauce. Hot pretzels would be our sons favorite movie treat. The pretzels were shiny and salty with a bit of chewy thrown in. Must invest in official pretzel salt for next time.

A simple loaf of Honey Whole Wheat bread really hit the spot. Whether hot with dinner and slathered with butter or eaten as toast for breakfast or serving as the base for my favorite lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, this bread was just perfect.

One of my husbands favorite types of dinners are what he has dubbed "one bowl". He likes it when I use these wonderful wide and shallow bowls we have and layer the whole meal inside like Japanese donburi. The other night we thoroughly enjoyed honey soy chicken over rice with steamed broccoli arranged around the edges. I did cut down the recipe and made about 1/3 of the sauce. I also used less honey because I don't care for very sweet main dishes. Oh, and our chicken around here is always skinless. It was quick, easy and tasty and the leftovers kept me happy at lunchtime.

Back to breakfast; we also enjoyed these raisin bran muffins on several mornings over the last week. Easy to mix and just bake what you need saving the rest of the batter for another time. What could be simpler?

enjoy!

-- marcella

Spring has Sprung

By Marcella on April 16, 2010 9:38 AM | 3 Comments | No TrackBacks

Around here it's considered spring when the little baskets of strawberries begin to arrive in our CSA box. Normally, I eat them straight up, but in celebration of the first strawberries of the year I wanted to do something a little special. The weekend was coming up so I decided that waffles with strawberries were the answer.

To be honest, I don't make waffles very often. As we ate our breakfast we tried to remember the last time we'd even had waffles. Neither of us had any idea, but it was quite a while ago given the dust coat I had to wash off the waffle maker before using.

These waffles are the best! They are really light and the potato starch makes them crispy. Potato starch isn't a very common ingredient in recipes but is easily found in the supermarket. Around here it comes in a blue box similar to a cornstarch box and is in the same section in the store. Just be sure to by starch and not flour. If you can't find it, or don't want to make a special trip to the store, you can substitute corn starch. However, your waffles won't be quite as crispy and light as the potato starch version.

While they are sublime topped with fresh, sweet strawberries, they are also great topped with syrup or jam or whatever you love on a waffle. Feel free to mix additions into the batter before cooking. A favorite of ours is to add about 1/2 C of chopped pecans.

Our waffle maker is the old fashioned kind. It makes four square waffles. We ended up with about 12 of them. The extra waffles were kept in the fridge and reheated later in the toaster.

Light and Crispy Waffles

a Short Attention Span Girl original

1 C flour

2 T potato starch

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 T sugar

2 eggs, separated

1/2 C sour cream

3/4 C milk

7 T butter, melted

Preheat the waffle iron.

Stir together the dry ingredients.

Beat the egg whites until stiff.

Whisk together the egg yolks, sour cream, milk and butter.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry infredients and mix thoroughly to combine. Fold in the egg whites. Cook in a waffle iron until crispy and golden.

printable version - waffles.pdf

-- marcella

Recently in food Category

Yogurt Success!

Beans and Things

Popovers

Summer Corn

Summer Berries

Fair Report 2010

Fruit Crisp

Onion Rings

What's Been Cooking

Spring has Sprung

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