Valerie

Salad Bar Recycling: Sauce

September 11, 2008 by Valerie Leave a Comment

One of the things that can happen to me now and then when preparing food for groups is ending up with LOTS of veggies from the salad bar or veggie trays, and while we don’t mind munching on carrot and celery sticks from time to time, as well as other fresh veggies, there are times when the amount left is rather daunting, at least it would be if we felt we HAD to eat these raw veggies before they begin to enter that tossable stage. Soups and sauces to the rescue!

We inherited a pile of leftover veggies and crudites from a recent event, and my stove has had a busy couple of days. The vegetables involved included piles of carrots, both baby and stick fashion, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes and ripe-on-the-vine tomatoes and a couple of sweet peppers. First I started with a pasta sauce that I like to make, and which turns out differently every time I make it. It ends up being a nicely chunky sauce, not too tomatoe-y, and it’s quite versatile. The amounts vary depending on what is at hand, but the basic ingredients remain the same. You will need your food processor, which will do a lovely job of chopping everything into bits, and you can have this in your pot, simmering away for a couple of hours, in as little as 15 minutes.

Vegetable Pasta Sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

1 lb. carrots, cut into chunks (or baby carrots or carrot sticks)

1/2 lb. celery sticks or chunks

2 medium onions (or 1 large)

6 cloves garlic

2 sweet peppers

4 to 5 pounds of tomatoes, any variety or mix of varieties

Pinch of sugar if tomatoes are too acidic

Salt, pepper to taste

Thyme, fennel, rosemary, oregano (I use about 1 t. each if dry, larger amounts if herbs are fresh)

Begin to heat oil over medium heat in a 3 quart or larger heavy bottomed pan. In batches, beginning with onions and garlic together, place vegetables in food processor with the chopping blade and chop until small pieces are formed, about the size of corn kernels. Don’t overprocess, or the sauce will resemble a mush. As soon as the onions are chopped, place them in the hot oil, and adjust heat so that onions will begin to saute gently without burning. Chop the carrots, celery and peppers, adding them to the onions and garlic and letting that cook together while you prepare the tomatoes.

The tomatoes are the one exception to the processing rule–blend away until they are completely pureed. They will be very watery, but a good amount of that liquid will evaporate as the sauce simmers together. Pour over the vegetables in the pan, stir to combine, bring to a boil, and then lower to a simmer; do not cover the pan. Allow the sauce to simmer for a couple of hours. If it is thick enough for you at that time, add the seasonings and let simmer slowly for another half hour; if not thick enough, let it continue simmering until it is close to your desired thickness.

This can be serve as is over cooked pasta, baked potatoes, rice, polenta, whatever strikes your fancy.

Filed Under: Getting Creative With Leftovers, Valerie Tagged With: leftovers, sauces, vegetables

Cornmeal Blueberry Muffin Souffle

September 10, 2008 by Valerie 7 Comments

Well, remember those blueberry cornmeal muffins from my earlier post last week? The last time I made those, I made a LOT. More than our guests could decently eat in the time they were with us, and more than we could handle all on our lonesome. My freezer would not allow any more foodstuffs to be stored, most of the nooks and crannies being filled in with quart-sized bags of blueberries and black raspberries that my husband so nicely picked for our later enjoyment. And they were beginning to get a little dry–even a few seconds in the microwave did not perk them up very much. But my inner frugalista could not bear the thought of introducing them to the local compost pile. SO, what could I do with them?

One of the things we really enjoy is a good bread pudding, and that is the first thing that came to mind, but muffins are quite different from the yeast breads we normally use for this purpose. But, since no other ideas came to mind, I thought it was definitely worth the risk. With the help of some milk, a few eggs, a little sugar and spice, the muffins were transformed from slightly dry bits of breadstuffs to a beautifully light, souffle-like custardy dessert which, when topped with a simple blueberry syrup, made a great ending to an otherwise simple meal. I highly recommend making extra muffins just for this purpose! And I’m thinking some other muffins might work just as well (those bran apple muffins come to mind…).

Cornmeal Blueberry Muffin Souffle

6 standard-sized cornmeal blueberry muffins

4 eggs

1/3 c. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

Pinch of salt

2 1/2 c. milk

1 t. vanilla extract

Preheat over to 325 F. Break muffins into large chunks in a buttered 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish. Whisk eggs thoroughly, add sugar, spices and salt, and whisk again to incorporate. Stir in milk and vanilla, mix till completely combined. Pour over muffins, and let the mixture sit for a few minutes to give the muffins time to absorb some of the egg mixture. Push down any floating pieces to make sure all sides have been exposed to the custard. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a clean knife inserted near the middle comes out mostly clean. Let cool a bit before serving, or chill until ready to serve. (We liked it best served slightly warm.) Serve with Simple Blueberry Sauce.

Simple Blueberry Sauce

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/3 cup sugar

grated rind of one lime

juice from one lime

dash salt

1/2 t. vanilla extract

Place berries, sugar, lime rind, lime juice and salt in a small saucepan, and heat until the mixture boils and berries begin to burst. Lightly crush some of the berries, boil for one minute, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. May be served warm or cold, and any leftover should be refrigerated. Great with ice cream, pound cake, angel food cake, pancakes, etc.

Normally, I’ve used lemon with any blueberry sauces I’ve made, but all I had at hand at the time was a lime, and we loved it! Gives a nice twist to the dessert.

Filed Under: Desserts, Getting Creative With Leftovers, Recipes, Valerie Tagged With: blueberries, Cornmeal, leftovers

Blue, Blue, Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

September 6, 2008 by Valerie 2 Comments

In an earlier post this summer, I raved about The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon (that name always makes me smile) and the two versions of cornbread salad we had tried out, both receiving enthusiastic reviews. Well, since then, it’s been hard for me to NOT bake and cook without cornmeal. Cornmeal breads, muffins, pancakes, etc. And my latest favorite muffin is her recipe for Blue, Blue Blueberry Muffins. All the blue is the result of using blue cornmeal and serving the muffins with a Blueberry-Cream Cheese-Honey Butter. Okay, have I your attention now? Are you hooked? Shall I start reeling you in???

These are unbelievably tender and moist, and the main spice in the recipe, nutmeg, sets off the flavor of the blueberries and the cornmeal beautifully. (I am somewhat biased—most dishes are considered incomplete without at least a little nutmeg thrown in). And when you top the warm muffins with the meltingly delicious blueberry butter—moment of silence, please.

Now, if you are not able to find blue cornmeal, yellow is fine, and you end up with another lovely version, just less blue! Blue cornmeal is not easily accessible up here where I live in northern MI, so I’ve made these frequently with yellow cornmeal, as you can see here—

So if you have stockpiled a good amount of end-of-the-summer blueberries AND you are a lover of corn AND need some muffins to warm you up on the crisp mornings arriving with the turn of the season, this recipe is for you. One note: When I made these muffins, I did notice that it only made 12 of what I would call standard sized muffins—if I had tried to make 18 muffins out of this, they would have definitely been on the small side.

Blue, Blue Blueberry Corn Muffins

From The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon

Vegetable Oil cooking spray or muffin papers

1 2/3 c. unbleached white flour, divided

1/3 c. stone-ground blue cornmeal

½ t. salt

1 T. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

1/3 cup butter, at room temperature

½ c. sugar

1 egg

½ t. pure vanilla extract

¼ t. freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup low-fat milk, plain or vanilla

Soy milk, or a combination (see Note)

1 cup blueberries

½ c. chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spray 18 standard-size or 12 large muffin-tin

cups with oil, or line the cups with papers.

2. Stir together the flour, blue cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl. Set aside.

3. Cream together the butter and sugar in a small bowl, then beat in the egg, vanilla and nutmeg.

4. Stir the creamed mixture into the dry mixture along with the milk, until not quite blended. Then add the blueberries and the walnuts, if using, with just a couple of strokes, so the mixture is just barely combined. Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.

5. Bake until the edges of the muffins are golden brown and the caps are rounded and also golden, 22 to 27 minutes. Let cool for just a few minutes, then remove from the cups. Serve warm with blueberry-cream cheese-honey butter if you like.

Filed Under: Bread, Breakfast Foods, Valerie Tagged With: blueberries, Cornbread Gospels, Cornmeal, cream cheese, Crescent Dragonwagon, honey, muffins, Valerie

Mango Custard

September 5, 2008 by Valerie Leave a Comment

Mangoes…I love them…just have a hard time finding a good one at times.

The first time I ate a mango, it was somewhat underripe, and actually cutting the mango up was a little bit frustrating, due to the monster pit waiting inside that lovely yellow flesh. But even under-ripe, the fruit was delicious, and that bit of piney undertone to the flavor was addicting.

Finally encountering a ripe mango, I was completely transported–I had no idea that fruit could send you to another dimension. Well, perhaps I exaggerate, but it was darn good. My problem over the years has been finding mangoes at that peak of perfection. I’ve discovered the color on the outside does not seem to be a good indicator, but the touch test is helpful–if the fruit yields to gentle pressure, you may be in for some good eating. If the fruit yields to the point of being able to touch the pit, it’s been around a little too long. If it is rock hard, it may ripen for you, but may actually begin spoiling before it is ripe enough to enjoy.

If you are lucky enough to find good ripe mangoes, cutting them up is actually easy, if messy. Starting at the top of the fruit, with stem down, and with the narrow side facing you, bring the blade of your chef’s knife down across the top and slice down through the fruit slightly off center; when you encounter some resistance, curve the knife out away from the pit a bit, and use the pit as a guide for your knife as you finish slicing through the bottom. Repeat the same slicing on the other half, and be careful, because the open portion of the mango is pretty slippery. Laying the mango halves skin side down, you can cut the fruit in a cross-hatch fashion, going vertically through to the skin (not through the skin), and then horizontally, so you end up with cubed mango pieces, still connected. Pick up that mango half, press up against the skin so that the mango curves up and out, and the skin is now concave. Grab a spoon and half a lime, squeeze the lime over the mango and dig in. (Lime is one of mango’s best friends, by the way.) Or you can do what a friend of ours does, and forego the spoon. Just have a bowl handy to catch the drips.

Now, there is some good mango left on that pit, and I just take my paring knife and trim off the peel that is left as well as removing all the fruit that still clings to the pit. Cook’s Treat!

Once in a while you will find that even though the fruit is good and ripe, the flesh is very stringy and unappealing for eating as is. When I encounter that, I either use the mango in a fruit smoothie, or I make Mango Custard, which is a lovely and simple sugar-free dessert.

Mango Custard

3 mangos, peeled, pitted and sliced

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/8 t. salt

Grated peel of one lime

Juice of one lime

3 large eggs

2 T. shredded coconut

Lightly butter a 1 quart baking dish, set aside and preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place mango, nutmeg, salt, lime rind and juice in the blender, and blend on medium. You may have to pulse and scrape down the blender a couple of times as the mixture will be quite thick. When most of the fruit has been pureed, add the eggs and blend again until thoroughly mixed and smooth. Pour into prepared dish and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a knife inserted halfway to the middle comes out clean. While the custard bakes, lightly toast the coconut in a small skillet for a few minutes until toasted to a nice golden brown, and set aside to cool.

When the custard is done, set it aside to cool, and you can either serve at room temperature or chill before serving. When you are ready to serve, sprinkle the top with coconut, a nice lime slice if you have one handy, and dish it up. Jim and I found that we really like it with extra lime juice squeezed over the top–a really nice contrast to the sweetness of the mango.

Filed Under: Desserts, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Recipes, Valerie Tagged With: coconut, lime, Mango, Valerie

Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Badge- If you’re so inclined.

July 6, 2008 by Rebecca 3 Comments

It was pointed out to us that we should have a badge for our Second Tuesdays Déjà Food event. (I’m looking at you White on Rice Couple!) So, here it is. Eherm, I think it is anyway. Not so sure what a badge is, but this looks badgy to me.

Filed Under: Getting Creative With Leftovers, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Valerie Tagged With: Second Tuesdays Déjà Food

Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Inaugural Event!

July 6, 2008 by Rebecca 3 Comments

And yes, there’s a prize! (See below)

Here at Foodie With Family we- Rebecca and Valerie- love leftovers. They let us get creative with ingredients, minimize food waste, save money, try new flavor combinations without risk (You got one meal out of this already, right? Take a chance!), and save time. And they do the laundry. (No, wait, that’s what I wish they did.)

There are, as far as we’re concerned, two kinds of leftover meals. Regular leftover meals are simply a second serving of the first meal. Not bad by itself, but we prefer the second type of meal; a grand makeover of the original dish we like to call Déjà Food.

Shockingly, we know a great many people who do not eat leftovers. Since we prefer to think well of people we choose to attribute this to the fact that they don’t know how to make-over leftover food. So in order to educate them and to celebrate the oft-maligned leftover we have decided to create our very first event; The Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Event. The second go-round with the food on the second Tuesday (2sday?) of each month. Easy enough, right?

The event is open to everyone and will be repeated monthly. Here’s what we’re asking:

Use your leftovers to create something delicious and different.
Write up and post what you made by the second Tuesday of each month. (We understand that leftover wizardry does not often involve measuring, so if you can’t provide the exact recipe don’t sweat it. Just tell us what you made originally- with or without the recipes- and how you transformed it!)
Send us the permalink for your Déjà Food write-up and a 150 x 150 image of the dish. (Image optional)
Mention the event in your post so that more people learn about the event and we can all inspire each other to create greater Déjà Food masterpieces.

Because of the relatively short notice of this first event, you’re welcome to submit previous posts you’ve made of your Déjà Food show stoppers!

The rules for a Déjà Food meal are simple. It has to be materially different from the first meal. For example, you can take leftover refried beans, beef, lettuce and tomatoes from tacos and supplement it with homemade tortillas and fresh guacamole to make tostadas as we did in this post. Alternately, you could make a pizza crust and top it with the goodies to make a taco pizza. You can take leftover roasted or barbecued chicken, chilled leftover rice, and a supplement it with some fresh veggies, eggs and soy sauce to make fried rice. You can throw your turkey carcass from Thanksgiving into a pot with rice and water to make jook (congee). The possibilities are nearly limitless.

On the second Wednesday of each month, we will post the entries. You’ll then have 48 hours (2 days- Can we stick with a theme or what?) to let us know your vote for who did the most amazing thing with their leftovers. The winner can choose of a jar of sweet, fruity, smokin’ hot homemade pure habanero jelly (perfect for glazing grilled meat, serving over cream cheese with crackers or spreading on a sandwich and guaranteed to give you immediate pain AND a hot sauce hangover!)

Or you can choose a jar of lovely, mild, homemade cranberry ketchup (great with pork, venison, as a dip for or part of a glaze for grilled turkey.)

And as always, all of our homemade preserves, pickles, jellies, jams and whatnot, are all-natural and contain no added funky unpronouncable preservatives or colorings and are prepared according to established safety standards.

Click here if you’re the badge-loving sort! I made it all by my little-old-self. (Like you wouldn’t be able to tell that when you see it. I’ll just feel superior until you click here.)

Filed Under: Getting Creative With Leftovers, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Valerie Tagged With: leftovers, Second Tuesdays Déjà Food

Really, truly, PERFECT hard boiled eggs!

July 1, 2008 by Valerie 1 Comment

For several years now I have avoided making anything that required hard boiled eggs that would be served in a style in which they were required to be as close to whole as possible—as in deviled eggs, which are attractive if the white has not been completely mangled in the peeling process. Trying to paste the whites together with the yolk filling doesn’t fool anyone—it becomes perfectly obvious which of the basic kitchen skills you have failed to master. So rather than face that humiliation again and again, I became the queen of the egg salad sandwich—smashing the things to bits and covering my sins with a hefty scoop or two of mayo never betrayed my ineptitude in the peeling area.

And I tried everything—cracking all over the egg, using the tip of a spoon to get under the shell, soaking in cold water, soaking in warm water AFTER soaking in cold water, refrigerating the eggs first, using vinegar in the cooking water, yadda, yadda, yadda…Nothing seemed to help.

But recently, I was hit hard with the desire to try one more time—I love eggs in almost any form, and deviled eggs have always been a favorite. I thought I’d do a quick search online and see what I could find, and what I found was GoodEgg.com. It’s a site with recipes for breakfast, lunch and supper, as well as salads and desserts. I not only found a recipe for deviled eggs; I also found simple instructions for successfully hard boiling an egg:

Hard Boiled Eggs

To hard cook eggs, place eggs in enough COLD water to cover completely, bring to a ROLLING boil over HIGH heat; then reduce heat to a lower MEDIUM boil for an additional 12 minutes. Promptly chill eggs in ICE WATER to chill promptly so egg yolks remain nice and bright yellow.

Hard boiled eggs are good for one week if kept in the shell, in the refrigerator.

Having a hard time peeling the eggs?

Extremely fresh eggs will not peel easily. In fact, an egg that is just a day or two old is almost impossible to peel. As eggs age, the shells will peel more easily. It is advisable that eggs used for hard cooking (including Easter Eggs) be at least 2 weeks old before cooking for easiest peeling.

One other hint I stumbled across somewhere (not sure where now) was to start peeling from the small end, after cracking the shell all over. I’ve made hardboiled eggs four times now since finding this info, and I’ve had absolutely no problem with peeling the eggs. Two key things: Eggs MUST be ancient, and peel from the little end. (Nod to Jonathan Swift and Gulliver—After years of being a Big-Endian, I am now a convinced Little-Endian…) And here is the recipe for basic Deviled eggs, also from GoodEgg.com:

Classic Deviled Eggs

Serve for any occasion, whether it be a wedding feast, a picnic in the park, or for lunch or dinner!

Items Needed: (for 12 Deviled Eggs)

6 hard boiled Eggs (large)

3 tablespoons mayonnaise or salad dressing

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon mustard (honey mustard is great!)

1 teaspoon vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

paprika (optional)

To boil eggs, place eggs in enough cold water to cover completely, bring to a rolling boil over high heat.

Reduce heat to a lower MEDIUM BOIL and cook an additional 12 minutes.
Promptly chill eggs so yolks stay bright yellow.

Remove shells from eggs, and halve lengthwise with a knife.

Carefully remove the yolks, and place in a medium bowl.

Mash yolks with a fork, and add remaining ingredients.

Very carefully spoon mixture back into the egg white halves. Garnish with a light sprinkling of paprika (optional).

One more note: I often add minced onion, chives or tarragon (just a very little tarragon goes a long way!) to the yolk mixture before filling the eggs.

Filed Under: Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Valerie Tagged With: hard boiled eggs, techniques, tips

Cornbread Salad for the Weekly Cookbook Challenge – Part 3

June 29, 2008 by Valerie 5 Comments

As I mentioned earlier, I also made a half recipe of the vegetarian version of the salad this morning. If anything, it received an even warmer reception from my (expected and unexpected) audience. My husband and I work for a small church-related camp, and on Sunday, our next camper groups come in to begin their week. Which means lunch is the last meal our paid staff has alone together. Normally. So I thought I would bring these salads to share with everyone. Well, some of the campers arrived early, and so we had a lot folks who had a chance to try these out, and I have to say, I’ve had more requests for recipes after serving these than anything else I’ve made in a long time. And even more surprising—this vegetarian version seemed to be the favorite—seems to be the jalapeno!

So, here is the process for this version:

First, crumble the (nicely and unnecessarily cubed) cornbread into a large bowl:

Cover with all the chopped and shredded goodies:

Pour dressing over, mix and serve and devour again:

Here’s the actual recipe—in the cookbook, there is just a paragraph telling you which ingredients are added, which are left out, but I thought it might be easier if you just had it laid out like the other recipe. Oh, and Elayne is a friend of the author who came up with this variation.

ELAYNE’S VEGETARIAN VERSION OF PATSY’S CORNBREAD SALAD

1 skillet of cornbread

1 15 oz. can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup sour cream

½ cup sweet pickle relish

2 T. juice from sweet pickle relish

2 T. chipotle barbecue sauce

1 bunch scallions, finely sliced

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped

4 to 5 juicy ripe tomatoes, cut into medium-size chunks

Coarsely crumble the cornbread into a good big bowl and let it dry out for a few hours.
Stir or whisk together the mayo, relish, relish juice and barbecue sauce. That’s your dressing. Set it aside.
When the crumbled cornbread has dried slightly, toss in the scallions, peppers, tomatoes, cheese and pinto beans. Toss well, so that everything is well distributed.
Spoon the dressing over the top and stir thoroughly. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve. It can be made up to 24 hours in advance.

My tweaks: Again, grape tomatoes were the tomatoes of choice. I could not find chipotle barbecue sauce, so I used a couple tablespoons of a spicy barbecue sauce and a couple tablespoons of a chipotle salsa. Also, since I know folks may not like biting down on a chunk of jalapeno, I tossed it into the small bowl of my food processor, chopped it up, and then added the rest of the dressing ingredients and blended it all together, pouring it over the salad at the end.

These are definitely keepers.

Filed Under: Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Valerie, Vegetarian Tagged With: Cookbook Challenge, cornbread, Cornbread Gospels, Cornbread Salad, Vegetarian