Chocolate Cherry Cookies

I meant to get a photo of these cookies once I put them out at the potluck, but I ended up completely forgetting. So instead, a picture of the potluck itself!

These are made just like chocolate chip cookies (cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla, and then the dry stuff)

- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 cup cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp almond extract
- 1 cup dried sour cherries
- 1 2/3 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of semisweet, milk chocolate, and white chocolate)
- 1 cup butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs

Baking them for 9 1/2 - 10 minutes, using my larger ice cream scoop (leveled) seemed to be exactly perfect - chewy, and they stayed chewy even after they had cooled.

Apple Sandwich

- Bread
- Thinly slice apple
- Sharp cheddar cheese
- Mustard
- Honey
- Black pepper

Cook on a sandwich press (I use my George Forman.) I like to drizzle a little bit of honey on the outside of the sandwich before cooking it, so it will caramelize.

Broccoli Cauliflower Soup

This soup tastes so much better than it should. And it is an easy way to get a large dose of veggies. But it isn't very pretty, so no picture...

- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 cup diced carrot
- minced garlic
- olive oil
- salt
- 1 head of cauliflower, broken into pieces small enough to fit into soup pot
- an equal amount of broccoli (okay to use stems.)
- 1 packet Trader Joe's Savory Broth (I used vegetable)
- water
- about 2-3 ounces cream cheese

In a large soup pot, cook the celery, onion, carrot and garlic in olive oil. Add the cauliflower, broccoli, broth, salt and water (a few cups?). Simmer until broccoli and cauliflower is soft. Blend with immersion blender. Add cream cheese and blend.

Dinner in Bonners Ferry

Chicken pot pie, homemade pickles, corn-on-the-cob (which came with a really good story)...

Kale Salad

- finely chopped kale
- cooked pearl couscous
- diced red bell pepper
- cherry tomatoes
- garbanzo beans
- lemon juice
- olive oil
- a splash of TJ's seasoned rice vinegar
- salt

Next time I want to add some salty feta cheese. One of the nice things about this salad is that it keeps so well, even after the dressing is mixed in. And it just tastes really good.

Summer Veggies over Pasta

I always tend to overdo it when it comes to adding herbs to my cooking, especially veggies. Recently I had dinner at a friends house - veggies over pasta. It was HEAVENLY. I asked him what he had added, and there was nothing but onion, garlic, salt and pepper.
A few weeks later I went to my friend's farm and picked some summer squash, and tried to duplicate it. It took so much willpower not to start dumping in the usual culprits, but I'm so glad I resisted! SO GOOD!

- summer squash
- yellow onion
- red pepper
- cherry tomatoes
- garlic
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- pear juice*

Chop it up and cook it in a big pan. Squash and tomatoes went in last. Eat over pasta. (Later I kind of regretted not throwing in some frozen corn at the last minute.)
* While I was sauteing the veggies, the pan started to dry out. I added pear juice (because I had it on hand) instead of more oil.

Honolulu

It's the 4th of July, and so cold I could see my breath on my ride home from work. Which would be okay if there had been any nice weather whatsoever leading up til now. So last week I finally snapped and bought a ticket for Honolulu. It was fabulous - only too short! The city was way more interesting than I was expecting with tons of food and neighborhoods I wanted to explore.

Leonard's Bakery for malasadas.

They were basically fried dough. Somewhere between doughnuts and fry bread.

My beverage of choice when in Hawaii.

Granola

Granola (from Molly Wizenberg in Bon Appetit, June 2010)

- 3 cups oats
- 1 cup nuts (I used chopped pecans and sliced almonds)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (I didn't have any, but will use it next time)
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- generous 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup dried fruit (I used montmorency cherries)

Oven to 300 degrees; line a baking sheet with parchment.
Heat honey and oil on stove; mix other ingredients (except fruit) in bowl. Add warmed honey and oil. Mix well and spread on baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

The directions say to cool before adding fruit. I add the cherries right out of the oven because I like them a little chewy.

New donut shop! And Pasta with Clam Sauce

Frost Doughnuts is a new doughnut place north of Seattle (Mill Creek). In the picture is a cinnamon-sugar cruller, a pecan, caramelly cake doughnut, and a pumpkin spice. So, so, so very good. Luckily their only shop is a long drive from me.

Clam sauce: this comes from my friend who will hopefully start her own blog, but until then I need to store this recipe somewhere. I couldn't find a way to make clam sauce look pretty in a picture, but I'm posting it anyways...

- 1-2 cans of clams
- butter
- white wine
- garlic
- half and half, cream, evaporated milk, or whatever you have on hand (optional)
- parmesan cheese
- black pepper
- herbs of your choice (Italian mix, I use 21 Salute from Trader Joe's.)
- lemon zest
- veggies (a handful of frozen spinach thrown in is good, roasted cherry tomatoes were too.)
- cooked pasta

Drain clams and save juice. Saute canned clams in butter. Add garlic and saute until cooked. Add clam juice, white wine, lemon zest, and seasoning. Simmer until reduced a bit. Add a bit of the dairy of your choice. Serve with spaghetti, black pepper, and parmesan cheese.

Rolo Cookies

There are a zillion different versions of this recipe floating around out there. These are so good that I ended up making them three times in two weeks. Seriously. At least I shook it up a little the last time by filling them with peanut butter. They're not much to look at, but they were really, really good.

- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- either frozen rolos, or frozen balls of peanut butter mixed with an equal amount of powdered sugar? I can't remember for sure. I added salt to the peanut butter mixture too.
- bowl of sugar and/or pecans

Cream the butter and sugars together, then mix in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix. Chill for half an hour. Then wrap dough around either frozen rolos, or peanut butter balls. Roll balls of dough in sugar/nuts.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 7-9 minutes, until cracked.

Puran Puri

I doubt I will ever get around to attempting these on my own. (As you can hear M's aunt say in the background, "A lot of skill is required. She is a specialist. Everybody cannot make...") However, I certainly look forward to eating them again sometime soon. Puran puri (pooran poori) are chapatis stuffed with a sweet paste made of chickpeas. After wrapping the chapati dough around the paste, the ball is rolled flat, and you wind up with three perfect layers. It was pretty amazing to watch. And to eat.

Indian Food

Custard apple (also called sugar apple, or atis)

Blueberry Hand Pies

For some reason, herion addicts develop nasty sweet toothes (sweet teeth?!). For example, I had one patient that favored chocolate milk with hot cocoa mix and six (6!) sugar packets added to it. Their hospital rooms rapidly become piled high with the fallout from their snacking - candy wrappers, crumbs everywhere, stockpiles of the little jams that come on their mealtrays, etc etc.

Any-hoo, I had a patient like this the other day. Buried within her pile of junk food was one of these these. Um, yuck. But here I was at home a few days later, with a pile of blueberries that needed used up quickly, and I found myself thinking about those pies, and the glaze they put on the crust...

















So the filling and the crust were nothing special, but I want to jot down the glaze that I used, because it was exactly what I was hoping for:

- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp milk (I used evaporated)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla

Stir together well, then brush onto warm pies.

Corn Cheddar Chowder

Yup - more soup. I usually don't start in with the soup until fall, but considering the weather lately, a pot of hot soup has seemed pretty appropriate.

This batch started out the same as the salmon chowder, but it ended up with corn and cheddar cheese instead. (Very tasty - I've already repeated this one.)

Corn Cheddar Chowder

- chopped onion
- white wine
- chopped potatoes
- broth
- chopped celery
- corn
- 1/2 and 1/2
- oregano
- thyme
- salt and pepper
- grated sharp cheddar cheese

I pretty much followed the same process as with the salmon chowder. The corn gets added when the potatoes are about half way cooked. Then the half and half and cheddar cheese get added last.

Frozen Goodies

My popsicle molds get a lot of use. When I was a kid living in Texas, I remember always having frozen orange juice or grape juice popsicles, and a lot of times that's still what I'll have in my freezer. But I also need some chocolate now and then...

All the recipes I found for fudgsicles involved mixing up a box of instant pudding and then freezing it, which I was not going to do. Then I saw a recipe in Martha Stewart FOOD for vanilla pudding pops. I tried a batch (which I infused with cardamom pods - yum.) So then I took the chocolate pudding recipe I usually use, and tweaked it a little bit...then stuck it in the freezer. I think I have made it two or three times this summer.

Later in the summer my dad made some incredible strawberry jam. One batch didn't set, so he was left with some strawberry syrup. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it...(see the picture above!) I used this recipe for lemon pudding, then swirled the strawberry syrup through it. I can't even begin to express HOW GOOD these are!

Fudgsicles

- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- generous 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, starch and salt in a saucepan. Whisk in milk, then yolks. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until first bubbles appear, then cook another minute (pudding will be starting to thicken.) Take off heat. Pour through seive, then add vanilla. Pour into popsicle mold and freeze.

Salmon Chowder

This is my first food post in a zillion years, and I don't have a photo! And I even have my new camera... But I made this soup late at night, then brought the left-overs to work for lunch, and that was that. But I want to remember this recipe, so I may as well store it here!

I am so bummed I went so much of the summer without a camera. I got to go to fabulous farmers markets in Santa Fe (I got pictures there, but they were still on the camera when it got lost) and Austin. And I ate in all sorts of good restaurants. And there was the posole I made. And the cardamom ice cream bars. And oatmeal blondies. And the homemade vanilla ice cream with strawberry-rhubarb cobbler. I would have loved to post all of that here! Any-hoo, nothing I can do about that now. The picture I ended up posting instead of soup is my favorite farmers market treat - french bread with lots of butter, sliced radishes, and sprinkled with salt. I could eat just that for several weeks and be content.

Coming soon (hopefully with pictures): more frozen summer treats...

But for now -

 

Salmon Chowder

 

Ingredients:

- leeks, cioppino onions, or some other mild onion

- 1 clove of garlic, chopped

- white wine

- 2-3 stalks of celery, chopped

- 8 small potatoes, chopped into chunks

- salt and pepper

- unsalted vegetable broth (TJ's organic in a box), aboiut 2 cups

- milk

- about 8 -10 ounces of smoked salmon

- half and half*

- dill

 

Cook the onions in the bottom of your soup pot, stirring constantly, and adding a small amount of white wine or vegetable broth when onions begin to stick to bottom of pan, scraping up the browned bits.  Repeat this several times, until the onions are carmelized.  Add garlic, celery, potatoes, and salt and pepper.  Continue to stir, and cook another few minutes.  Pour in enough broth to cover the potatoes.  Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.  Stir in the salmon, milk, and half and half over low heat - do not boil.  Stir in dill and serve.

 

*Next time I am going to try replacing the half and half with cream cheese.  In the past I have made a fish soup that had cream cheese in it, and it was fabulous, and I wanted a little bit of that flavor here too...

Lemon Pudding, and my sorry excuse for a sink.

I've been meaning to show you my kitchen sink for awhile, but I'm not sure this photo even does it justice. It is shallow to start out with, and then the divider down the middle makes it even less functional. Did I mention that I do not have a dishwasher? What I am saying here is that it is a wonder that I ever make anything BESIDES pudding.

I've been making pudding a lot lately. It is so easy, doesn't dirty a lot of dishes, and satisfies my sweet tooth without making me feel ill. I usually make chocolate, but I recently got the bug for lemon pudding. I wasn't even sure there was such a thing outside of the world of Jello. I finally found a recipe on the Food Network. It was just like any other pudding, only you cook the milk with lemon zest, then at the end you stir in a bunch of fresh lemon juice. This fascinated me - I thought for sure it would cause the pudding to curdle. But it didn't! It just made it taste really lemony, and not at all heavy.

Lemon Pudding - from the Food Network.

- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 2 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp butter
Whisk the sugar and the cornstarch together in a medium saucepan. Add milk, stir until smooth. Add the egg yolks, zest, salt and cook, stirring frequently at first and constantly towards the end, over medium heat until thickened enough to thickly coat the back of a spoon.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and butter. Pour through a strainer. Cover and chill.

Aunt Arlene's Chicken and Tough Noodles

Some background: I have been mostly vegetarian for fifteen years. During that time there have only been a few things that I missed eating - one of them was my Aunt Arlene's Chicken and Tough Noodles. This year I have made a few exceptions to my vegetarianism. I had some Christmas turkey for starters. Then a few weekends ago I made a trip to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, for a mini family reunion, AND to get a tutorial in making Chicken and Tough Noodles!

Here's the thing - you know how over time, your memory can kind of exaggerate the greatness of things from your childhood? The opposite was true of these noodles. They are pure heaven. Dense and almost chewy. The closest thing I can compare them to is spaetzle. The best part is that they are SUPPOSED to be tough, so you don't have to worry about over-working the dough!

I was hoping to try making a batch on my own before I did this post, but life has been interfering. However, my stepmom gave it a try the other day, and reported great success!

Here is the general gist, because of course, there was no recipe used:

Day 1:
Boil a whole chicken.
Save the stock; chill, then skim and discard the fat off the top.
Save the meat from the chicken.

Day 2:
Put an egg or two into a food processor. Add flour until a ball forms. If a ball is not forming, add a small amount of milk. Set dough aside and repeat - one egg's worth of dough will make approximately enough noodles for one person.

On a HEAVILY floured surface, roll out a ball of dough to approximately 1/8" thick. (The extra flour on the noodles will help thicken the sauce later.)

Sprinkle with flour, then roll the sheet of dough into a jellyroll shape. Slice off noodles at 1/4" increments.

Bring the stock to a simmer. Unroll noodles and drop into broth.

Add cream of chicken soup and/or chicken bouillon, depending on your mood, and what you have around. Add chicken. Simmer until done (I think about an hour? The longer you cook the noodles, the less tough they are.)

Eat, eat, and eat some more.

The final spread included Chicken and Tough Noodles, mashed potatoes, two kinds of jello salad, green bean casserole with onion topping (yay!), and green salad. Followed by chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting, which you will be hearing about at another date.


Eleven people, four dogs, and a cat squeezed into this house for Chicken and Tough Noodles!

The view of the Kootenai River from the downtown Bonners Ferry bridge: