My Go-To Recipe: Spinach Souffle

Hard to believe from the name, but this recipe is my family’s most-requested dish, the one that has my kids begging for second and third helpings! 

Recipe: Spinach Souffle, adopted from Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Get out a 9 x 13 glass Pyrex pan and oil bottom and sides with approx. 1/8 cup olive oil, then sprinkle 1/3 cup breadcrumbs on bottom.

Mix in KitchenAid mixer: 

• 6 eggs
• ½ pounds frozen spinach, defrosted and pressed to remove excess water
• 1 pound of cottage cheese (can use feta, ricotta or a combination of all 3)
• ½ cup Romano/Parmesan blend
• 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (or almond meal if you are doing gluten-free)
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1 ¾ cups shredded extra-sharp New York cheddar (you can cheapen out and use other cheddar if your other cheese are sharp)
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Mix and pour into pan.  Sprinkle ¼ cup of grated extra-sharp NY cheddar on top. 

Bake at 350 for approx 1 hour until golden brown on top

Serve warm or chilled.  The recipe is very forgiving, can swap other kinds of sharp cheeses.  Just keep the spinach/egg ratio and have fun experimenting! Great brunch food but we also have it often for dinner!

Quick & Easy Fudge: Another Recipe without Words

William's favorite bean pancakes: a recipe in photos

Warm Pasta Salad

We have this quite a bit around here. The recipe is more or less this:

Ingredients:
1 pound of whole wheat pasta
1 bag of organic broccoli crowns
1 clove of garlic
1/8 cup olive oil
4 oz. asiago, parmesan blend shredded cheese (or can use other grated cheese-Romano, etc.)
1 can of olives
1 pound of cherry tomatoes
handful of fresh chopped basil
sprinkle of smoked sea salt
sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:
-Make the pasta according to package directions. While that is boiling,
-Steam the broccoli crowns in water for 2 minutes
-Chop the garlic, saute it in the olive oil and smash it up a bit in the oil to release the flavor. (Be careful not to burn!)
-Drain the broccoli, then add it to the frying pan so that the oil/garlic mixture coats the broccoli, throw in mixing bowl

-Open up the can of olives, and slice them in half. Add to mixing bowl
-Chop the cherry tomatoes in half, add them to mixing bowl, along with cheese and freshly chopped basil.
-Pasta should be done right about now. Drain it, add to mixing bowl.

-Toss everything together, sprinkle with smoked sea salt (Trader Joe's has it) and fresh black pepper

We eat this hot but also cold the next day! And there are a million variations depending on what I have in the fridge & cabinets. The above is the variation we had last night. Also try: sundried tomatoes, feta cheese, kalamata olives and oregano with the pasta & garlic broccoli.

Almond Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe: A Lauren & William Creation

Lauren and I were making Spinach Souffle, so I had the almond meal out, and decided it might be good in the chocolate chip cookies we were going to make next.  William, in his cabinet perusal, kept waving the almond extract.  So we experimented and came up with these yummy, crispy cookies!

Lauren & William's Dark Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies:

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 large eggs

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.)  Dark Chocolate or Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
optional: 1 cup chopped almonds (we did not try this but we might next time!)

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, almond meal, and baking soda in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and almond extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in dark chocolate chips (and nuts if using). Chill dough for 10 minutes in the fridge.  Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets

BAKE for 9 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Please leave a comment if you make these, especially if you make any tweaks that make it even yummier!

Screaming for Ice Cream

Back in June, I was fortunate enough to attend an Ice Cream Social sponsored by the Real California Dairy Association. Yum! It was the first day of summer, and the weather cooperated perfectly. We were outside in the sunshine watching a presentation by celebrity chef  Danielle Keene  who showed us some interesting gourmet toppings to pair with readily available ice creams we could find at any market. Some surpringly delicious combos that I liked included chocolate ice cream with smoked sea salt and pink crackled peppercorns, and strawberry ice cream drizzled with balsamic vinegar and fried crispy basil leaves.

I try to to buy locally whenever I can and with dairy, the "Made in California" seal is easy to spot. Local food is fresher, has travelled less of a distance to get to us so uses less resources, plus it helps support our California economy. I did not know that 99% of California dairies are family-owned and that California is the state which produces the most ice cream. It would not have surprised me to learn that we *eat* the most, though! =)

Back to Lauren & William, I took them to the event and Lauren seemed to be convinced that it was for her sole benefit.  She co-opted my T-shirt (see picture above) and ice cream container and little spoon.  William did not behave so well, and I learned that he is now officially too old to sit still.  He managed to dump a glass of water on my pants, right on my crotch so it looked like I wet myself.  I then tried to avoid being photographed and videotaped and being known as "the blogger who wets herself in public."  (At least if I am going to do that, could I be drinking some boozy cocktails first?!)

July was Ice Cream month, but leave it to me to keep a good party going, we're still eating ice cream (of course!  would we STOP?!) here in August.  Here is Chef Danielle Keene's recipe for German Chocolate Ice Cream with Coconut Pecan Frosting.  Let me know if you try it, looks scrumptious!

Danielle Keene’s Signature Real California Sundae German Chocolate Ice Cream with Coconut Pecan Frosting

2 pints McConnell’s Swiss Chocolate Ice Cream, slightly softened

¾ cup chocolate cake pieces, cubed

Coconut pecan frosting (see below)

Place ice cream in a large bowl. Add cake cubes and fold in. Swirl in frosting. Place in a covered container in the freezer.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

¼ cup cream made with Real California Milk

¼ cup sugar

1 egg yolk

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter made with Real California Milk

¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. sweetened shredded coconut

¼ cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Combine cream, sugar, egg yolk and butter in a small saucepot. Whisk constantly until combined and slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in coconut and pecans. Refrigerate to chill.

I Spy With my Little Eye, Some Rhubarb Pie!

Finally found some rhubarb at the store last week.  It's crazy how plentiful/common/cheap/easy to come by rhubarb is in other parts of the country but so scarce here! (Kind of the opposite of how cheap avocados are in San Diego!)

Sprouts supposedly had some fresh but was sold out when I got there. They did have some frozen packages so we got some and made the same pie we did last year (see that page for notes) but with a few variations. More fresh strawberries, less sugar, and I used whole wheat pastry flour on the crust this time. Here's the new tweak:

My grandma's pie crust recipe:

4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 3/4 cups Crisco
1 tsp. salt

Chop all up with large serving fork.

Add:
1 egg
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup cold water

Mix together, blend and chill for 15 minutes.
Don't handle pie dough too much, and it will be nice & flakey.

Pie filling:

  1 12-oz package chopped red rhubarb, frozen
3 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut RIPE strawberries (in larger pieces)
1 cup sugar (if the strawberries are not ripe you can do 1/4- 1/2 cup more to taste)
2 Tablespoons Tapioca
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix filling ingredients in large bowl and pour out into chilled crust. Brush edges of pie crust with some of mixture of 1 egg white mixed with 1 tsp water. Roll out the other piece of dough and place over filling. Crimp to seal edges. Brush with rest of egg white wash and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 45 to 50 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling.  Don't forget to put a pan under the pie dish to catch the drippings! (I forgot AGAIN and the whole house filled with smoke!)
 

Playdough Parent Retires

Ugh.  I sit here typing this with blue and green hands.  I got stuck with the worst job at Lauren's co-op preschool.  The playdough parent.  You see, parents have to attend quarterly workshops to clean the school for 3 hours on a Saturday morning.  Attendance is mandatory and they are usually scheduled well in advance.  Well 2 years ago, we got our plane tickets to go to North Carolina and then afterwards, they scheduled a workshop while we'd be away.

I appealed to the board that I didn't want to have to pay the fine and have the strike on our record because we'd had the trip scheduled first.  They said we could repaint the lines on the playground instead, one Friday evening.  (You know, "blue box!  Everyone line up on the blue box!", well we were painting the blue boxes.)  They also came up with another idea for me-if I would agree to be the "playdough parent", I would not have to ever go to another workshop (as long as I was making playdough).  All I would have to do is make playdough for the classrooms every month.

I like to cook and I hate waking up early on a Saturday, so this seemed fine.  It should have been my first clue that the board member who offered me the position said with relief that she would not have to do it now.  Later, I wondered why she would have to do it-board members are already excused from the Saturday workshops.  I was given this playdough recipe:

*****
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups salt
3 cups water (put the food color in the water)
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
3 tablespoons oil

Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly.  When it forms a ball and
comes away from sides and you can't stir it, it is done.  Do not
overcook or else the playdough will get too stiff.
(Make recipe 3 times for 3 classrooms)
*****


Here is how it actually played out.  If I had just missed the workshop, I would have paid a $50 fine.  (I think if we missed more than 2, we could be kicked out of the school.)  But I ended up paying way more than that for all of the ingredients.  *Especially* cream of tartar.  That stuff is expensive when used by the tablespoon-full!  And I had to devote a section of my kitchen cabinets to a giant bag of salt and big containers of food coloring.  One bottle of blue food coloring spilled one day, dripping on the white wall and staining everything.  It took Ryan and I (okay mostly Ryan) all morning and many sacrificed towels to clean it up. 

At the beginning of my "tenure", I also had to make separate gluten-free playdough for two sisters in the school who have celiac disease and cannot even touch wheat.  I originally had a recipe the school gave me using cornstarch and rice flour.  I bought a giant bin of cornstarch (more cabinet real estate gone) and made the recipe twice.  It came out terrible and the teachers complained.  So I can report that after much experimentation, the above recipe will work if you use corn flour instead of wheat flour.  The texture is slightly more chalky but it's fine.

Anyway, I made the playdough tonight for what I hope will be the last time.  They have a workshop this week and that's the last one of the school year so I think I'm off the hook, phew!  And when William's at the school, someone remind me to NEVER NEVER NEVER get roped into this again!!!

In case you were wondering...

...I'm still pregnant!  No, I didn't have the baby and forget to post about it. ;)

Everyone keeps hoping I will get "the burst of energy"/nesting instinct that means I'll have the kid soon.  Not really happening, I've just been feeling enormous and lazy.  But I have been cooking!  If you were to come to my house right this second, there's a nice garlicly smell throughout.  There are black beans in the slow cooker.  Here's the  recipe:


Frijoles Negros (Black Beans) in the Slow Cooker

Use this as the base for a pot of soup, or eat the beans with rice,
use them in a black bean dip or refried black beans.

1 pound dried black beans, rinsed, drained and picked over to remove debris
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1 large onion, peeled and diced
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
8 cups low-sodium  vegetable broth
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Tabasco or other hot sauce

Place beans, cilantro, onion, garlic and broth in the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 12-14 hours, or until the beans are soft.
(The range in cooking time is because it is difficult to overcook
these, so you are safe leaving them longer.)  Taste and add salt and
pepper, and a squirt of Tabasco, if you like.


The recipe is from Dorothy Reinhold, who has a great blog called Shockingly Delicious.  She has not posted the recipe there, though, it was on an email list.

Here is my vegetable broth recipe from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant (Cookery).

Vegetable Stock:

4 small/medium unpeeled potatoes, quartered
4 small/med carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 apple, seeded and chopped
2 T apple juice
2 bay leaves
18 peppercorns
15 cups water

Put all in large pot and simmer, covered, for 1 hour, then run through strainer/colander to get the stock. Freeze what you don't need for recipe. It's not an exact science. If you have extra of some vegetable or not enough of another, throw it in.

Because I'm weird, I like to eat the mushy potatoes & carrots leftover from the stock.  Mmmm, yum!

Lemonade Weather on the way?

The soup weather came back around here, foggy and cold and high 60's.  But today it's in the 70's and heating up just a bit.  I missed our usual farmers' market expeditions this week because Ryan's car's in the shop so he's been using mine and there's only one market I can walk to, on Tuesdays.  This past Tuesday I was too exhausted from chaperoning Lauren's field trip, and then navigating the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus to take her to music class and home.  I feel so sorry for people who relay on the bus regularly!  Buses are so unreliable, late, and they will not stop if they're already full, it would make life really difficult if I were trying to get to work via one!
     But anyway, once I've got my own wheels back, we'll resume our weekly strawberry purchase.  There are so many local strawberry farms that sell at our local farmers' markets, I generally pay only $5 for a half flat of organic berries.  I have forgotten the name of the certain kind I prefer, but one taste of it at the market and I know.  They taste like peach candies, bursting with sweetness and they  must be eaten that day or frozen.  We have handfuls of them on the walk home and then I cut the tops off the rest and freeze them. All week we thaw out bowls full and enjoy.

Here's something else we make with the strawberries, and Meyer lemons from my parents' tree:

Strawberry Lemonade (based on "Never Bitter-Lemonade" from Allrecipes.com):

Ingredients

• 12 cups water
• 2 cups white sugar (use a bit less if the strawberries are very ripe)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• frozen strawberries to taste

Directions

1. In a pot combine water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for 2 minutes. Chill the sugar water for at least 60 minutes in the refrigerator.
2. In a pitcher mix cooled sugar water and lemon juice together. 
3. Fill blender 1/3 full of lemonade and add frozen strawberries to taste.  I do at least 1 pint.
4. Return strawberry mixture to pitcher and blend with the rest of the lemonade.  Or mix it directly in each glass if you want to save some plain lemonade aside for the non-berry fans!

Soup Weather

Wait, I started this post LAST WEEK! News flash, it's sunny now!

It's been in the 60's around here, as if Los Angeles doesn't know it's July.  Soup weather.  So I made some Harira, Moroccan Stew from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant (Cookery).  I've made it so many times that I've personalized the recipe.  Here's my updated version:

Vegetable Stock:

4 small/medium unpeeled potatoes, quartered
4 small/med carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 apple, seeded and chopped
2 T apple juice
2 bay leaves
18 peppercorns
15 cups water

Put all in large pot and simmer, covered, for 1 hour, then run through strainer/colander to get the stock. Freeze what you don't need for recipe. It's not an exact science. If you have extra of some vegetable or not enough of another, throw it in.


Harira:

1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
2 1/2 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 1/2 small potatoes, chopped
2 small carrots, diced
6 small tomatoes, diced
1 1/2 cups tomato juice (I cut out the cores of tomatoes, put them in the blender and use this as juice)
6 cups vegetable stock
1 medium zuchinni, finely chopped
3/4 cups curly vermicelli, crumbled (can use angel hair or other pasta)
1 1/2 cups canned or cooked chick peas (I dump in the whole can)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
parsley for garnish
In a soup pot, saute the onions and celery in the oil until the onions are translucent. Add the spices, potatoes, and carrots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. (This is the part where the spices will get browned and overcooked if you don't stir!)

Mix in the chopped tomatoes, tomato juice, and vegetable stock and simmer until all of the vegetables are almost tender.

Add the zucchini and vermicelli and simmer for about 5 minutes longer. Mix in the chick peas, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley.

Note: If you don't have all of these spices, you can buy them by the ounce at Sprouts, Boney's...some of the Whole Foods also have bulk spices. And I think I have a lifetime supply of turmeric so you could take some next time you're at my place!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

The one sweet dessert food I've discovered I can eat!  Strawberry rhubarb pie!  Mmmm....I finally FINALLY found rhubarb for sale in Los Angeles.  The Albertsons on Sepulveda & Palms has it for $2.99/pound (I did get some last summer at Whole Foods, organic, for $8.99/pound so that in the end, the pie would have been much cheaper to buy and have shipped!)  You will need to buy about 2 pounds of rhubarb for this recipe, depending on how much of the stems you have to cut off.  And of course, strawberries are in season right now at farmers' markets.  Just buy a ton and you'll be sure to have 3 cups with leftovers! :)

My grandma's pie crust recipe:

4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups Crisco
1 tsp. salt

Chop all up with large serving fork.

Add:
1 egg
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup cold water

Mix together, blend and chill for 15 minutes.
Don't handle pie dough too much, and it will be nice & flakey.

Pie filling:

3cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
3 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut RIPE strawberries (in larger pieces)
1 cup sugar (if the strawberries are not ripe you can do 1/4- 1/2 cup more to taste)
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix filling ingredients in large bowl and pour out into chilled crust. Brush edges of pie crust with some of mixture of 1 egg white mixed with 1 tsp water. Roll out the other piece of dough and place over filling. Crimp to seal edges. Brush with rest of egg white wash and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 45 to 50 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling.  Don't forget to put a pan under the pie dish to catch the drippings! (I did and the whole house filled with smoke!)

The pie dough recipe is enough for two pies so you can double the filling and make two, or you can do what my grandma always did for me and what I did for Lauren and give the rest of the dough to a little kid to make tarts with.  Make little filled tarts with strawberry/sugar inside and bake in the 375 oven with the pie for the last 20 minutes or so, until they're browned.  Could also put jam in the tarts or whatever you feel like!

Mmmm, spanakopita

We interupt these Lauren adventures to bring you...spanakopita! Mmmm, yum! I have made a few recipes enough times that now I can finally make them without one by combining ideas from them all. Of course, mine are not authentic because I've never been to Greece (or really, even eaten at the Greek-Byzantine quarter). But here's what I do, more or less to taste. Thaw out 2 Trader Joe's frozen spinach bags. Fry a chopped up onion in olive oil. Add the spinach and some toasted pine nuts (maybe 3/4 cup?), 2 containers of TJ's crumbled feta cheese and some chopped parsley and dill. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon on top. Roll out some phyllo dough from Whole Foods and fold it into thirds, then put filling in, fold into triangles. That part is hard to explain in words but maybe the phyllo dough box has a diagram? Brush melted butter or olive oil on, bake at 375 for about 10 minutes, then flip them over and bake 10-15 more minutes. Delicious!

Yum

I just made these chewy granola bars from a recipe that Catherine Newman's blog linked to. They are very good. TOO good. Someone has to come over right away and help me eat them or else I won't be able to fit into my jeans next time you see me. Just saying.

And, I've made tomato soup from Mona's recipe, which is more or less this:


Recipe: Bake 4 pounds tomatoes, 1 yellow pepper, 1/2 onion, 2 cups water, 2 T. brown sugar, 2 T butter for 1 hour. Add 1 t. thyme. Put all in the blender and eat. Or rather, drink.