Blender bruschetta

Our neighbor left a bag of tomatoes on our porch, and we returned from Indy with another bag from Mark’s folks.

Some of the bigger ones went into a tomato salad.

The cherry tomatoes became bruschetta. Or at least they were supposed to. I wasn’t in the mood to chop them by hand, so I decided to throw them in the blender, splash them with olive oil, sprinkle with oregano and pepper and garlic powder (would have also used basil if I hadn’t used the last of it in the salad), and chopped on the blender’s lowest setting.

The result is, well, bruschetta soup.

I suppose one advantage to chopping by hand is that most of the watery juice runs off so you get nice chunkiness instead of soup.

It still tasted good, just watered-down thin.

Tamara’s fabulous focaccia

I made Tamara’s focaccia this evening. I used half whole wheat and half regular flour, subbed honey for the sugar, and topped it with parmesan, cheddar, and sliced cherry tomatoes from the garden. Mmmmmm.

Pecan Nectarine Cobbler

I didn’t think to take a picture until after we’d eaten some, but it still gives a good idea.

This cobbler is loosely based on the “fruit cobbler” recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.

4 nectarines
1/2 - 1 c pecans
3/4 - 1 c oatmeal
1/4 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/8 - 1/4 t cinnamon
3 T butter
1 egg
3 T milk
3-4 T honey

Butter a small casserole and fill with sliced nectarines. Top with pecans. In a bowl combine oatmeal, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In another bowl combine the egg, milk, and honey; blend well. Add to the crumb mixture and stir just until combined. Spoon over the pecans. Bake at 400 for about twenty minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Honey Orange Chicken

A delicately refreshing dinner option discovered this evening.

Chicken
2 chicken pieces (I used boneless, skinless breasts)
1-2 t honey (this and all other measurements are estimates)
1-2 T orange juice
1/8 t each garlic powder and ground ginger

Sauce
1/4 c orange juice
1-2 t honey
1-2 T flour
1-2 T butter
1/8 - 1/4 c skim milk

Sprinkle the spices on the chicken pieces, drizzle with honey and orange juice. Bake at 350 for twenty minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the pieces and whether or not they have bones. Baste at least once.

Meanwhile, prepare rice or noodles.

In a small pot (I used the noodle pot while the noodles were draining in a colander) make the sauce.

Option one: In a small bowl whisk together the honey, orange juice, and flour. Melt the butter in the pot, then add the honey mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add enough milk to get the consistency you want.

Option two: Melt the butter in the pot. Add the flour to make a roux, browning gently. Add the orange juice and honey, then continue as in option one.

Serve the chicken on a bed of rice or noodles, drizzled with the sauce.

Entire wheat bread

I made bread today because I don’t care for the store brand bread we bought this weekend. It’s not awful, but not as good as Wegmans’ was.

I adapted the “Entire wheat bread” recipe from Fannie Farmer, below. It’s a batter bread so requires no kneading. You can tell it’s whole wheat from the taste and color, but you’d never guess it has no white flour, because it’s very light and fluffy and doesn’t crumble like other whole wheat breads I’ve made. Tastes good plain but is fabulous buttered.

2 c hot milk (I only had skim so I added a tablespoon of butter)
1/3 c molasses (I hate molasses so I used 1/4 c honey instead)
1 1/2 t salt (since I used salted butter I only added 1 t salt)
1 package dry yeast
1/4 c warm water
4 1/3 c whole wheat flour

Mix the milk, honey, and salt in a large bowl and allow to cool to lukewarm. Dissolve the yeast into the warm water, then add it and the flour to the bowl. Beat well, cover, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size — took me about an hour. Beat again briefly then turn into one greased loaf pan and two greased mini-loaf pans (or make rolls in a muffin tin with the leftover). Each pan should be half-full. Cover and let rise again until almost double — took me about a half hour. Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes (my minis were done by then but the main loaf took another 20 minutes or so — perhaps because I baked everything in the toaster oven so it was a bit crowded. I also needed to put foil over the tops to keep them from burning — again probably due to the toaster oven’s small space). Remove from pans and cool on a rack.

Tuna curry couscous

We ran out of our usual lunch items today, so I threw this together.

1/2 c water
1 can tuna (packed in water), drained
1/2 c couscous
1 T butter
about 1 c frozen veggies (I used peas and corn)
1 T or so plain yogurt
1 t or so curry powder
pinches of garlic powder and celery seed

Heat water to boiling.

Add next four ingredients, cover, remove from heat, let rest five minutes.

Add remaining ingredients, stir, and eat.

Chocolate Crinkles

I haven’t made cookies in ages, since I’ve been trying to avoid or at least minimize the amounts of white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated fats I eat. This weekend, though, I experimented with a Chocolate Crinkle recipe. (I got mine from my mom, but I’m not sure what her source was.)

Chocolate Crinkles (Original)

1/2 c shortening
1 2/3 c sugar
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
2 1-oz squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/3 c milk
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Cream together shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in eggs, then chocolate. Sift together dry ingredients; blend in alternately with milk. Add nuts. Chill 3 hours. Form 1-inch balls, roll in powdered sugar. Bake on greased cookie sheets 2-3 inches apart for 15 minutes at 350.

Chocolate Crinkles (My half-recipe variation)

1/4 c butter, melted
1/2 c maple syrup
1 t vanilla
1 egg
1 1-oz square unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1/6 c Milk
1 c chopped pecans
1/2 c - 1 c rolled oats

Measure maple syrup into a liquid measuring cup. Add milk until contents reach the 2/3 c mark. Blend in the remaining liquid ingredients, then blend in the dry — add oats last, adding just enough to make dough somewhat stiff but still sticky. Chill and form according to original recipe. Roll in cocoa powder mixed with powdered sugar, or just powdered sugar. Bake as directed in original recipe.

Delicious, though not exactly like the original. Less overwhelmingly sweet, still good and chocolatey, soft and chewy. Mine turned out quite round still — they’re supposed to flatten as they bake, cracking the powdered coating to reveal the dark chocolate insides (perhaps less oatmeal next time).

Dinner Improv

Last night I wasn’t sure what exactly to make for dinner, but I wanted to use rice or couscous, two pieces of chicken, the three cups of stock in the freezer, and at least two of the tomatoes that we’ve ripened in a box (and hence are too pasty to eat raw).

I flipped through one of our cookbooks, the Fannie Farmer one, and found a recipe for chicken jambalaya. It had a few ingredients we didn’t have on hand, like ham, green pepper, garlic cloves, and celery. And it wanted to be baked in the oven. But I decided to improvise… here’s my version.

2 pieces of chicken (with bones; or reduce cooking time)
1/8 c onion, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped (or use canned)
3 c chicken stock or broth
1 c rice
1 T butter or olive oil
Pepper
Celery seed
Garlic powder
Thyme
Cayenne pepper
Bay leaf

Bake 2 pieces of chicken at 350 for 50 minutes sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Meanwhile, sautee the onion in the butter, sprinkled liberally with pepper, garlic, and celery seed, and with just a bit of thyme and cayenne pepper. While that’s going, peel and coarsely chop the tomatoes.

Once the onion is soft, get the stock boiling in a pot, add the bay leaf, veggies, and rice to it, cover, and reduce heat to simmer. Set a timer for 20 minutes.

When the chicken is done, take the meat off the bones and cut it up, and quickly add it to the rice mixture to avoid losing steam.

If the rice mixture is too soupy for your taste, uncover and continue to simmer after the 20 minutes are up, until it’s the desired consistency. Remove bay leaf before serving.

We were both surprised at how tasty this was, considering how far from the original recipe it strayed.

Berry scones

This morning I made blueberry-raspberry scones, adapted from this recipe.

Here’s my version:

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c regular oats
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda

Stir together.

3/4 c nonfat plain yogurt
3 T maple syrup
1 egg
3/4 c frozen berries

Combine liquid ingredients then add to dry ingredients to form a stiff dough. Form into a ball, and, on a lightly floured surface, pat into a 7-inch circle. Place on a baking stone or greased baking sheet. Cut into wedges and separate them slightly. Brush with milk and bake for about 20-25 minutes at 375.

They are so easy to make, with no cutting in of butter or kneading or anything. They have a nice texture, and the yogurt does not make them sour at all. They are not very sweet — you might not think they’re sweet at all — but with butter and honey or jam you can make them sweeter if you like. I also think some chopped nuts would be a good addition.

Apples and thumbs

One of the things I was excited to find in our yard when we moved here is an apple tree. It’s old and hasn’t been well cared for, but produces nice ugly scabby green apples that are tart and crisp and excellent in pie.

I love a good apple pie.

I make mine with a whole wheat butter crust, honey instead of sugar, and a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg. The apples must be sliced thin, and no raisins are allowed.

This year the tree is full, but because my thumb is still bothering me, making pies is not a good idea. At least the paring and slicing apples part. I decided to offer a bunch of apples to folks at church so at least someone would get some use of the tree this year.

Deb, one of the ladies in our small group, offered to take some of the apples home and slice them for me — ! — and we picked them up after our class Monday night. She also took home enough apples to make a crisp for herself.

Yesterday afternoon all I had to do was roll out the crust, layer in the apples and seasonings, and bake.

Mmmm… apple pie…