Lazy, Lazy, Stir Crazy

I am B-O-R-E-D. I have spent today at home courtesy of the lovely March snow, and I have barely budged from my sofa and now I'm BORED. So just in case you are housebound like me and have spent hours clicking on everything you ever bookmarked online or hitting refresh on your browser while hoping desperately that someone has e-mailed you, here's a little something to perk you up. If you haven't started making dinner you can even use it as an excuse to get off your lazy butt. Not that you're lazy. That's probably just me.


In the interest of fighting boredom I present you with my mother's list of ingredients recipe for enchiladas, with some slight modifications (including directions, which she did not include). These are not restaurant quality enchiladas. I made those once from a Cook's Illustrated recipe and it took a few hours and about half the dishes I own and a strainer. We still have them occasionally, but Ryan makes them, because I refused. So yeah, not best-restaurant-I've-eaten-in quality. They are however easy, tasty and good home cooking.

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS:

INGREDIENTS:

FOR SAUCE:
1 C broth (use whatever broth matches your main ingredient if possible - beef broth for beef chicken broth for chicken)
1.5 C chopped canned tomatoes
1/2 t garlic powder
4 T chili powder (feel free to up this if you like more spice, I was running out)
1 t cumin
2 T cornstarch (I have never in my life cooked with cornstarch. I usually make a slurry, but I could not even begin to tell anyone how to make a slurry so buy some cornstarch and make things easy on yourself.)

FOR FILLING:
1/2 C chopped yellow onion
3 garlic cloves minced
1 lb chicken sliced thin
1/3 C chopped black olives
1 C sauce (see above)
1 C cheddar cheese

TOPPING/ENCHILADAS
1 package flour torillas
1 C cheddar cheese (additional to what's in the filling)
sauce (whatever's left after you've used the 1 C for the filling)
sour cream

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Combine the broth, tomatoes, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Cook on medium high heat until it thickens and reduces. I'm not sure how long this will take as I used a different thickening method, but it should reduce by about a third and the sauce should be thick enough that it leaves a coating on a spoon. Lower or turn off heat and set aside.

In a nonstick pan, saute the garlic and onion in a tablespoon of olive oil, until golden, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken and cook for about 6 minutes, turning once, so that it is mostly white, not pink. Add 1 C of the sauce you made and the olives. Cook the chicken in the sauce for about another 4 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Using leftover cooked poultry? Just add the cooked meat to the garlic and onion and toss with sauce, only heat up until the meat is warm again.

Find a large baking dish, my 9 1/2 x 11 was too small. Along the bottom, smear some of the remaining sauce. Lay down a tortilla. Scoop 1/3 C of enchilada filling into the tortilla and give it a good sprinkling of cheddar.



Fold up the right edge like so:


Then fold it over one more time so the seam side is facing down. Continue until you've filled your whole pan with enchiladas. Take whatever sauce you have left and combine it with any of the saucy bits left from your filling and pour this all over the enchiladas in the pan. It is very important that the tortillas have sauce over all of them or they will become hard and yucky in the oven. After the sauce, sprinkle the remaining cup of cheddar over the top like this.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Top with a dollop of sour cream.

Doing Without

Today marks the start of Lent. Lent is the forty day period preceding Easter where you prepare yourself for the whole Jesus-rising-from-the-dead miracle thing. Generally this is done by giving something up. This year, rather involuntarily, I am giving up the use of my right foot. You see, back in December, right before Christmas, I was taking Dexter out (at 4:30 am no less) for a morning walk. He may look sweet and peaceful here, but when he wants to go out, he is a noisy little snot.
Anyway, when I stepped off the last stair, it was bad. Very, very bad. I "sprained" it and I spent all kinds of time on crutches and in an air cast. But two days ago? I learned the truth. My ligament is torn and surgery may be the only option. Until surgery, I am supposed to wear the air cast. I have a surgical consult on March 10th, so maybe I'll have better news then, but for now, it looks as though for at least the next 40 days my right ankle will be pretty darn useless to me.

And because I'm such a glutton for punishment (or perhaps because it's impossible for two lapsed Catholics to raise a non-Catholic without imparting some shreds of guilt, martyrdom and self-sacrifice - no matter how hard they might try not to), I'm also giving up desserts.

But last night was Mardi Gras, so I walked on my poor injured ankle wearing pretty shoes, and I ate a nice gluttonous pancake dinner and I bought myself a delicious square of gingerbread from my favorite corner bakery.


The gingerbread and the pretty shoes are definitely out until at least Easter, but the pancakes, they just might carry me through.


LEMON RICOTTA PANCAKES
taken rather shamelessly from SmittenKitchen. Incidently, I hope the recipe works, because I reduced mine slightly to take into account how much ricotta I had left (so not 1 1/3 C) and my mental math was positively embarrassing. Who knows how much I added of what, but they turned out delicious.

INGREDIENTS:
4 large eggs separated
1 1/3 C ricotta
1 1/2 T sugar
1 1/2 T lemon zest
1/2 C flour
melted butter for brushing the skillet.

DIRECTIONS:
Separate the eggs. For those of you who are novices at egg separation, I you can buy a ridiculous, space eating contraption to help you. Or you can gently crack the egg on the side of a bowl. Discard half of the egg shell and pour the egg from the other half of the shell into your hand. Very carefully pass the egg back and forth between your hands, allowing the white to slip through your fingers and the yolk to stay in your hand. Then deposit the yolk in a different bowl than the one you let the white slip into. You may sometimes see people passing the egg back and forth between the egg shells to do this. I don't really like to do it that way for two reasons. First, if you're not a world class egg cracker, you may have tiny bits of shell that will come loose and drop into your bowl as you pass it back and forth. Second of all, you can puncture the yolk on a sharp edge of shell therefore completely negating any hard work you've done.

Now that the eggs are separated. Mix the ricotta, flour, sugar and lemon peel in with the yolks. Whip the whites with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks. You can do this with a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Pour a quarter of the whites in with the ricotta mixture and mix it in. Fold in the rest of the egg whites in stages. If you don't know how to fold in egg whites, check out this video. In the very beginning he shows how to separate eggs, and around 1:15 he gets to egg white folding in. Very helpful if you're not used to doing it.

Heat a skillet or griddle to medium and paint with the melted butter. The pan is warm enough when a drop of water splashed in sort of dances around. Pour in the batter (I made mine smaller for easier flipping) about a 1/4 C at a time and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side. You can keep them warm in the oven when you're done. Yum.

Simple Pleasures

A fried egg sandwich on wheat toast. Even if you truly believe you can't cook, you can make a fried egg sandwich. It's one of the first things I learned to make all on my own and in college I ate them late night, for breakfast and many times in between. Here I've written out the recipe to be as basic as possible, so that even those who are afraid to cook will feel like it's possible.


FRIED EGG SANDWICH

YOU NEED:
a toaster or toaster oven
any size non-stick pan and a lid you could put over it (they do not need to match)
a spatula

INGREDIENTS:
2 eggs
2 slice wheat toast
1 T butter
cheese (any kind really, but I like cheddar or American)
salt and pepper
water

DIRECTIONS:
1. Get a your non-stick pan and put it on the stove. Add 1 tablespoon of water - if you don't have measuring spoons, use the one of the big spoons that comes with your forks, knives and spoons. If you only have little spoons, put 3 little spoonfuls in. Add 1 tablespoon of butter - your butter wrapper has lines for this, so look at the wrapper and slice accordingly. Turn the heat on under your pan. Make it pretty high, but not at the highest setting.
2. Pop your toasts in your toaster oven or toaster. My toasts take 4 minutes to cook, if yours are much faster, you can do this later, but it should be okay to start them now.
3. Check your pan. When the water boils (starts bubbling and bouncing around, instead of just sitting there) add the two eggs. If you're good at cracking eggs, you can crack them right in the pan. If you're no good at cracking eggs, break them in a bowl first, fish out any stray eggshells and then add to the pan. Picking eggshells out of a hot pan is no fun. If your pan was hot enough, the whites of the egg should turn white almost immediately after the eggs are added to the pan. If they didn't, no worries, but remember for next time. Add your salt and pepper.
4. Lower the heat so it's not on the lowest setting, but maybe second lowest. Cover the eggs. Cook for about 2 and a half minutes and then check the eggs. I don't like runny eggs, so rather than keep my fried eggs as pure sunny side up eggs, I do them over "medium" which just means, that I very gently flip them in the pan and cook for long enough that the eggs yolks aren't completely liquid. If you don't want to flip yours you should probably cook them another minute right side up. If you want those yolks less liquid, flip the eggs and then add the cheese. Cover again and cook another thirty seconds to a minute.
5. When the cheese is melted and the eggs are cooked enough for you, use the spatula to slide the eggs onto the toast.

Sunshine

It's been a long time. I am sorry about that. It's been very cold here, and very gray. We did have some lovely snow last week which now has receded to a disgusting slushy sludge. Today we had a slight reprieve and warmer temperatures which gave me just enough strength to pull it together and update this blog. And I should let you know that I have not made it through this cold snap by indulging in wintery treats like hot cocoa or rich stews. No, I have been making it through with my own little stash of sunshine. Real Florida oranges.

When I was a little girl, my Auntie Lee and my Uncle Ole lived in Florida. As anyone with relatives in Florida can attest, this can come with some serious perks: easy access to Disney World, swimming pools, and special packages of citrus fruit delivered right in time to rescue us from the winter doldrums. I can't even tell you how much better these are than regular store bought oranges. They are sweet and delicious and each bite is a nice summery break from the reality that February has only just begun.

Plate of Happiness

I am having the hardest time writing this post. I think the sugary goodness of the rugelach pinwheels is distracting me. I can't think of anything witty or articulate. I am completely reduced to Homer Simpson drool noises. These were an enormous pain to make, but are just so good. Can I tempt you further?



RUGELACH PINWHEELS
from SmittenKitchen

INGREDIENTS:

Dough:
1 package (8oz) cream cheese
2 sticks butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 C flour

Filling:
1/4 C + 2 T sugar
1/4 C light brown sugar
3/4 C chopped dried fruit (I used raisins, but craisins, dried cherries, or dates would be great)
1 C finely chopped nuts (I used walnuts, but I think pecans work well too)

1/2 C fruit preserves (I used apricot)

Topping:
1 C sugar
2 t cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
Put the cream cheese and butter together in a stand mixer. Mix until smooth (you may need help from you spatula throughout this process). Add the sugar and blend in. Add the flour a half cup at a time, blending well, and using the spatula to keep the batter off your paddle and back in the bowl. Divide dough into 2 sections and refridgerate for at least 2 hours.

Make the filling. Combine the sugar, brown sugar, fruit and nuts. Mix well and set aside.

Right before the dough is ready, heat up your preserves until very liquidy and then allow to cool. I microwaved mine for about 20-30 seconds and stirred well.

Rolling out the dough is tricky, I'm not going to lie. You need it to be rectangular which is difficult and it needs to be about 1/8 of an inch thick. The dough is very sticky and you'll need to work fast. Even though I made this in winter, in a not too warm kitchen, my dough kept getting too soft to work with. If your dough starts to stick, do not panic. I strongly recommend rolling it out on waxed paper or plastic wrap. Remove and roll only one of your two dough sections at a time. Flour your surface well and if the dough gets too soft, stop rolling it out and gently pop it back in the fridge. Give it about 10 minutes to cool down, then get back to rolling it out. Once the dough is rolled out, spread it with half the preserves and sprinkle it with half the filling. Then starting with the long side of your rectangle, gently and carefully roll up the dough into a log. Wrap in plastic wrap and pop back in the fridge. Repeat with the second section of dough. The dough logs will need to stay in the fridge for at least another hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover your baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the topping together in a bowl. Remove a log of dough and slice into 1/4 inch rounds. Dip each round in the topping and gently place on the parchment paper. Bake until lightly browned about 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven and survey the damage. If you're anything like me, some of your rounds will have unspiralled. This is easy to fix if you act immediately. While the dough is still hot from the oven, try to reform the circles. As it cools it will hold it's shape. Also, as this is a very sugary recipe and there's all that fruity filling, you may notice a lot of carmelized goop on your tray. If you get the cookies out of that and onto a wire cooling rack ASAP you won't have a lot of random carmelly stuff sticking off your cookies.

What's in a name? that which we call a hoagie By any other name would taste as delicious

Where I currently live, this is called a meatball hoagie. I've personally never liked the sound of hoagie. It's one of those words that just icks me out. Thankfully, the word sub is in such common usage nationwide that I can order a meatball sub and people will know what I mean. They may figure that I'm not from here, but they'd be able to fill my order just fine. In Connecticut, they call them grinders, which is my personal favorite name for this kind of sandwich. Depending on where you live, they might be called any of these things, a hero, or something else I'm not even aware of (in which case, tell me in the comments, enlighten me!) But no matter what you call it, a meatball sub is a whole lot of tasty on a roll (an Amoroso roll if you're in hoagie territory).

TURKEY MEATBALL GRINDER/SUB/HERO/HOAGIE
meatball recipe adapted from Giata De Laurentiis
should make 2-4 sandwiches depending on your roll size, we used 6" rolls and should have been able to make 4

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey (make sure you get 94% lean, 97% lean tastes like cardboard)
1/2 c grated parmesan
1/4 c bread crumbs
2 eggs (or equivalent using egg beaters)
salt and pepper
1/4 c flat leaf parsley (I omit this, we're not big parsley folk)
olive oil
2 cups tomato sauce
long rolls
2 slices provolone cheese per sandwich

Directions:
Mix the turkey, parm, bread crumbs, eggs, salt and pepper and parsley together gently. When thoroughly incorporated, form into 2" balls. Mine flattened quite a bit while cooking, so they ended up looking kinda more like sliders than meatballs, but they tasted great. Anyway, heat the oil (you're going to need a lot, around a 1/4 c maybe, I try to get away with a bit less). The oil should be almost smoking when you add the meatballs. Cook for 5 minutes, then rotate to continue browning. Cook for 8 more minutes. Then add the tomato sauce and cover. Cook for 5 more minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through all the way. Slide two meatballs on a roll. Cover with two slices of provolone and put under the broiler for 2-3 minutes until the cheese is nice and melty. Enjoy.

Cooking by Proxy

In the South, it is traditional to have black-eyed peas for the New Year, black-eyed peas symbolizing luck and prosperity. I don't know about you, but I could sure use some good luck for the New Year. Prosperity wouldn't exactly hurt either. What does hurt is my ankle, which I sprained badly a few weeks ago. I have a lovely cast and a set of crutches. On the upside, I also have a husband who has taken over just about all of my responsibilities, from dog care and plant watering, to cooking. And so, tonight, although the blog post and recipe are brought to you by me, the actual dinner has been provided by Ryan.

NEW YEAR'S DAY BLACK-EYED PEAS AND SAUSAGE
Go ahead, make a double recipe, it takes so long to cook, you might as well have an extra meal to tuck away in the freezer.

Ingredients
1 C black-eyed peas soaked (cover a cup of peas with a few cups of water, bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, let sit for an hour. If there's water left, drain it off).
2 T olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 C canned crushed tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced.
1 lb sausage (check ingredient list to make sure it's gf)

Directions
Combine the oil, onion, garlic, carrot and tomatoes in a large oven-proof pot or dutch oven. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place the sausages in a large skillet with about an inch of cooking water. Cover and let the sausages cook for about 15 minutes. Then cut the sausages into disks. It's okay if they're raw in the middle, they have a ton of cooking left to do! Put the sausage disks in with the tomato sauce. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook for 20 minutes on low with the cover on. Then add the black-eyed peas and stir in. Add enough water to cover. Put the lid on the pot or dutch oven. Cook for an hour and a half to two hours. Check every half hour or so. If there's not enough liquid, add a half cup more of water. If after an hour and a half there's too much water, remove the cover. The black-eyed peas and sausage mixture should be very thick, even a bit thicker than a traditional stew. It's done when the mixture is thick enough and the black-eyed peas are nice and tender.

Inadvertently Festive

In the weeks immediately preceding Christmas it is entirely possible that I consumed nothing of nutritional value. I did eat lots of cookies. And things containing vast quantities of butter. As enjoyable as that is, I always find myself desperately craving vegetables and fruits when I've had too much junk. Back in the day, I used to joke that I was coming down with scurvy and immediately run out and buy a Fresh Samantha to drink. I would lovingly refer to this as scurvy juice.


Sadly, Fresh Samantha is long gone, bought out as most good small companies are, so now I'm left to fend off scurvy on my own. So I ended up craving broccoli soup. Without cream. Broccoli has scads of scurvy-fighting Vitamin C. I found a recipe that is absolutely delicious, easy, and looks marvelously seasonal on my new Christmas tablecloth. The tablecloth, by the way, was hand-embroidered by my great-aunt. Pretty cool, no?


BROCCOLI SOUP (NOT CREAM OF BROCCOLI SOUP)
From Rosalynn Carter

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 T vegetable oil
1 bay leaf
1 pound green broccoli, chopped
1 small potato, peeled and chopped
2.5 C vegetable stock
the juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper
dollop of plain yogurt (optional)

Directions:
In a soup pot, add the oil, onion and garlic. Saute for 3-4 minutes until the onion and garlic are soft. Then add the bay, the potato, broccoli and vegetable stock. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes until the broccoli is bright green and tender. Remove the bay leaf and let cool a bit. Puree using a blender or immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lemon juice and reheat a bit if necessary. If you want, serve each bowl with a small dollop of plain yogurt.

Christmas Cookies Episode 2: Ginger Crinkles

I know, I know, you have certainly finished all your Christmas baking because you are on top of things. I on the other hand, have barely begun. In fact, the only cookies I have managed are these ginger crinkles. My mother and I had a serious discussion this year about cutting back after last year's Christmas overload. We agreed that for with only four people, we needed less of everything. Fewer appetizers on Christmas eve, fewer presents and fewer Christmas cookies. And so we began negotiating. I declared that gingerbread was essential. My mother felt my father might have a fit if we skipped our bird's nest cookies. Neither of us could fathom a year without bourbon balls. And so the cookie we agreed we could eliminate was the poor, unsuspecting ginger crinkle. Which is too bad really, because it's my grandmother's recipe, and I've always rather liked them. Then, I found out that my mother had decided we could decorate the Christmas tree just fine with no cookies. Clearly she doesn't understand motivation very well. So I whipped up a batch of the ginger crinkles, and good cheer was reestablished. They took almost no time at all, so if you're short on time or patience this year, give them a try. They are sweet, molassesy and somewhere between crisp and chewy.

NANA'S GINGER CRINKLES

Ingredients:
2/3 C vegetable or canola oil
1 C sugar
1 egg
4 T molasses
2 C sifted flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t ginger

1/4 C sugar for dipping

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix the oil and sugar thoroughly. Then add the egg beat well. Add the molasses and stir until thoroughly incorporated.

In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring as you go to form a dough. Get a small bowl and fill it with the 1/4 C of sugar for dipping. Form cookies by making small ball of dough in your hand, then dropping it in the sugar and rolling it until coated. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Leave plenty of room between cookies because they spread flat while cooking. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Procrastination

I have a bad habit of putting things off. And then the more I put them off, the more I dread dealing with them. Case in point. A while ago I asked my husband to buy me some plain yogurt, so that I could have it for breakfast. He is not a procrastinator, so he went out and got some that very day. Then it sat in my fridge. Every time I made breakfast, I'd look at it and think "ooh, I should really use that yogurt." But I didn't do anything about it. So with the sell by date fast approaching, I went into full panic mode. I baked two cakes using yogurt as an ingredient. One was a chocolate cake, and the other was a delicious apple cake. I really meant to write up that apple cake recipe for you. I did. I swear. But I hadn't taken a picture of it, so I kept putting it off. The thing about procrastination is, if you wait long enough, decisions are made for you. In this case, we ate the whole cake, so there is no picture to take. But I will try to make it up to you, with a recipe.

APPLE CAKE
from epicurious
INGREDIENTS:
2 T butter
2 large baking apples (such as Macoun, Jonamac, Granny Smith, or the ultimate baking apple Northern Spy)
1 1/2 T apple juice or apple cider
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 C + 1 T sugar
2/3 C plain yogurt
2 C flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 C vegetable oil
3 eggs

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Peel, core and roughly dice the apples. Melt the butter in a saute pan, then add the apples and cook on medium for 5-7 minutes until golden brown. Add the juice, 1 T sugar and cinnamon. Remove from heat and set aside until needed.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and yogurt, whisking until very smooth. Then add the eggs and oil, again, mixing well. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda, and then add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring until well blended. Finally, stir in the apple mixture. Put in a well-greased 8" round pan and cook for 45-50 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.