Whew, Where to Start

I started writing this post almost a week ago. I'm just going to throw it out there before this gets even more embarrassing.

The past couple of weekends have been all about cooking. The weeks have been all about writing (and a crappy but necessary work project). There's no "where I've been" post in two weeks now because I haven't been anywhere; I've been writing. That's good. I hope. Though it is making me cranky when I get pulled away from it to do other things, and I am consumed with worry that I am going to finish my outline far shy of the wordcount I want. I am discarding a fair amount of the alpha text as I rewrite. We shall see.

On to the food. I still need to type up some recipes, but I can at least get the links out of the way. I did indeed make chicken vindaloo, and it was awesome, very close to restaurant quality. I think next time I will use thighs on the bone, and I suspect that will make them ever closer. To go with it were Penang Pickled Vegetables, or as close as I could get with what I had on hand. Those were also very good. So was the Salmon Chipotle Chowder (as you can see, it was a spicy weekend!). I would make all of these again without hesitating.

The soup project has gone off the rails a bit, even though I got some pretty new bowls from Crate & Barrel. I may get back on track this weekend, but we shall see.

And a few more photos, to catch me up. I am a bad 365er; I have missed many days now, but I'm trying.

365 #23 Yet another view of Boston. I wanted to get the shadows, but I was talking to a co-worker and missed the time.

365 #24 Buying spree at Harvard Book Store

365 #25 Cheddar-Chive Bread via Dorie Greenspan - it rocks

365 #26 Dinosaurs

365 #27 New C&B bowls

365 #28 Days getting longer

365 #29 Miriam 4 months

365 #29 The trees can tell

365 #30 Public discussion on art restoration in the Red Line

365 #31 Mussel shell in a snowbank on First St., Cambridge. I have no idea.

Vegetable Barley Soup with the Taste of Little India (whew)

So far, the soup project has been a success. It's a good way to build new recipes into my schedule. It has not (so far) been easy to do the same with the blog updates; for that matter, I have made quite a few new recipes that aren't soups, some of them quite good, and they haven't even gotten a mention here. But hey--baby steps.

It has been a bit of a difficult month. January is a tough nut any year; this one has seen an astonishing amount of snow for our locale, which makes getting out and about seem like more of an effort than it's worth, and of course there's l'enfant to rob us of sleep. I veer back and forth between thinking that I'm depressed because I'm not getting anything done and because I'm trying to do too much. It's pretty annoying for someone like me to feel both harried and unmotivated. Here we are on Saturday morning, not even 7 a.m., and my weekend is full. Do I need down time, or time that produces something other than a momentary pause in the flood of disorder? I did do a lot of baking last weekend, and that felt good. It has been too long since this place smelled of fresh bread.

Back to the soup. This is a good one. I have not historically used barley all that much, but I should do something about that. It's a hefty soup, brimming with the good things of winter, and you could easily add a few more if you wanted to--some ribbons of kale, or a potato. I love Indian spices and probably used a full teaspoon of each of those indicated. I like a thicker soup, and used less broth and a bit more barley than she suggests.

1 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2-3 onions, chopped
3 big carrots, trimmed, peeled, and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled, cored if necessary, and chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric, plus more to taste
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp garam masala, plus more to taste
red pepper flakes to taste
6 c chicken broth
1/2 c pearl barley

1. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or soup pot. Add the onions, carrots, parsnips, garlic, and ginger. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook about five minutes on low heat. Add the spices, cover, and cook gently, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft but not colored, about 15 minutes.

2. Add the broth and bring to a boil, then stir in the barley. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the barley is tender, which can take from 15 to 40 minutes depending on the type of barley. Adjust seasoning.

Does it get any simpler than that? My only real quibble was with the lack of leftovers; next time I may make a double batch and freeze some.

Spiced Squash, Fennel, and Pear Soup

All this babbling about writing lately, I never got around to posting last Sunday's soup recipe. This is definitely one that I want to keep. You can make a perfectly acceptable squash soup with many fewer ingredients, but this one is really good. The hint of ginger does wonders.

A note about garlic. Dorie subscribes to the French theory that you must split the clove and remove the green germ, because it's bitter. I tasted the green part when I made this, out of curiosity, and found it didn't register as bitter at all, so from now on I'm not going to bother. You may now cast stones.

Yet again, I failed to take a picture. It's squash soup, you can probably guess what it looks like.

Spiced Squash, Fennel, and Pear Soup
Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table

3 lb whole squash (Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, acorn or butternut) or 1 1/2 lb peeled and cut
about 3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, coarsely chopped
1 spring onion or 1 shallot, coarsely chopped
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed, cored, and sliced
2 celery stalks, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, sliced
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
fresh ground pepper
5-6 c chicken or vegetable broth
2 ripe pears, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
2 strips orange or tangerine peel, pith removed
1-2 lemons
creme fraiche or heavy cream for serving (optional)
toasted salted pumpkin seeds for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with foil. If using a whole squash, cut it half, scoop out the seeds, and rub with olive oil. If used peeled and cut squash, toss with a little oil. Sprinkle squash with a pinch of salt and roast until tender (45 minutes for cut, longer for whole). Cool, peel, and cut into chunks.

Warm 2 Tbsp olive oil in a Dutch oven or soup pot over low heat, then stir in the onion and spring onion or shallot. Season lightly with salt and cook 5 minutes until starting to soften but not color. Add fennel, celery, garlic, and a pinch more salt, and cook, stirring often, 5-10 minutes or until soft but still pale. Add spices and roasted squash. Pour in 5 c broth, increase the heat, and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Add pears and orange peel. Partially cover the pot and simmer about 20 minutes or until soft enough to mash with a spoon.

Puree (blender, food processor, or immersion blender). Adjust salt and pepper. Add more broth to thin if necessary. Reheat until hot.

Ladle into bowls and finish with lemon juice, garnish with creme and pumpkin seeds.

Leek and Potato Soup

This marks the start of Project Soup, and I chose it purely because I had two beautiful leeks in my refrigerator. The supply of those tends to be spotty; when I see good ones at the supermarket, I buy them, then figure out what to do with them. Which usually means soup.

I don't usually make this soup to a recipe, but thought that I ought to start the project off right. The results were certainly different than I would have come up with; my L&P soup is much, much thicker, and less seasoned. I like my soup to be just this side of mashed potatoes; I believe next time I will use a method more like hers, but with a different balance of liquid to potato.

I have not yet gotten back in the habit of photographing my dinners. I took this picture at work. It will have to serve double-duty as my 365 pic, because it's the only one I took that day.

Leek and Potato Soup

2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, preferably Spanish, chopped (or 1-2 more leeks)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
3 leeks, white and light green parts, split lengthwise, washed, and thinly sliced
1 large russet potato, peeled and cubed
6 thyme sprigs (I used dried)
2 fresh sage leaves (optional)
4 c chicken broth or water
3 c whole milk or water*
optional toppings: minced fresh parsley, sage, tarragon, or marjoram; snipped fresh chives; grated Parmesan or Gruyere; croutons; truffle oil

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or soup pot over low heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir until they glisten with butter, then season with salt and white pepper, cover, and cook 10 minutes or until soft but not colored.

Add the remaining ingredients, increase the heat, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer, mostly covered, 30-40 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Adjust seasoning to taste. Puree (or don't) with a blender or immersion blender, or just mash it all up a bit, serve and garnish.

* Really now - isn't there just a slight bit of difference in the results depending on which you use?!

What Was Missing

Walked out of the apartment this morning into air like a damp dishrag, and nearly missed the bus--I am not yet used to the fact that waking up ten minutes later may actually impact my morning. A single cricket serenaded my hasty progress.

But it was a lovely weekend. Saturday began with a trip to the Union Square farmer's market, where I bought--oh, lots and lots of things, and felt ludicrously happy and very much an urban dweller. L asked for a snack, was offered a ground cherry by a man working at the stand we were in line for; she wouldn't try it, so I did, and found it surprisingly sweet. I bought her a stalk of broccoli, which she nibbled at for the remainder of our stay at the market (yes, she likes raw broccoli, at least as much as she likes anything that resembles real food). There was South American flute music, and lots of people had dogs, and some of the eggs I bought are green, not to mention huge. Lunch was a caprese salad and slices from the cutest little watermelon ever. I wish I'd written down the name of the tomatoes I got, because I actually found them okay.

In the afternoon we headed over to the Mystic River Reservation--which is a lot bigger than I realized, looking at it on this map. Maybe next summer I can start running again. The background sound was a strange, constant meld of traffic and cicadas.

On Sunday my sister-in-law and her husband joined us for lunch. I had promised L cookies, so after putting the dough in to chill, I made a corn chowder that looked reasonably good, and indeed it was so. Any excuse to use my belated birthday present:

For some reason, most of what I've bought for the new kitchen is red, I don't know why, though a straightforward interpretation would suggest energizing change.

After lunch the kids dragged everyone else upstairs--I heard a fair amount of LEGO clatter--while I cleaned up a bit and got the dough out. L ventured downstairs while I was rolling out the first bit, and very soon everyone was back in the kitchen, wielding cookie cutters shaped like dinosaurs and decorating the results as soon as they had cooled off.

It was exactly what I have spent the past few years feeling that we've been missing from our lives--casual, minimally planned social contact, in which people can come over on short notice and feel free to linger, because they don't face an hour-plus drive home from our place, and I can relax and putter and feed the people I love without making into a laboriously planned Event.

The place is still coming together--I don't think we'll be fully sorted out for another month, but we unpacked a bit more, hung up the shower curtain I like so much instead of the ugly one the previous tenants left, shoved some out of season stuff into the storage zones, and Freecyled a ton of moving boxes and packing material. We have filled another box with books we might be able to part with. There's a lot left to do, but every incremental improvement in the entropy level does good things to my stress levels as well.

In the late afternoon on Sunday, the kids watched a video while I sat at the kitchen table and leafed through old cooking magazines, cutting down the stack (am I ever going to make that? what was I thinking when I turned down that corner? do I like this entire issue enough to keep it, or can I pull out a few pages and recycle the rest?). It was pleasant and restful and productive at the same time, even if reading about fall recipes makes me want to hurry the seasons forward even more.

Supper was an adaption of a pork and bok choy stir fry I found after a brief online search. I had a ton of bok choy, beautiful little plants from the market, so didn't use any other greens. I also found that I didn't have any cornstarch or hoisin sauce--I have some restocking to do. It was good anyway.

And now it is Monday, and it's going to be 90 degrees again.

Three New Ones from Fine Cooking

After a dry spell, last week saw a burst of energy in which I tried three new recipes from the latest issue of Fine Cooking, a magazine of which I am increasingly fond:

•  Tilapia with Scallions and Black Bean Sauce -- Instant keeper. We loved this one, and it was quick and easy to make. I don't really like tilapia all that much, but this is a good use for an increasingly common and popular fish.
• Chicken Noodle Soup with Lemongrass -- I still haven't found lemongrass around here, but even without it, this is a good soup. I'd make this one again.
• Chinese Egg Noodles with Five-Spice Pork -- The dud of the week's efforts, alas, this was okay, but not something I'd make again -- at least not without significant tweaks, the first of which would be to eliminate the bacon. This turned out on the greasy side.

I don't know if this blog is having an identity crisis or what. I don't seem to have the time to make a proper go of it--work, kids, writing, reading, to which will soon be added apartment-hunting and moving. Too many hobbies, not enough hours. I hate to abandon it, though. I suppose if nothing else I can keep it as a record of the few new things I try these days.

This next week is going to be full of veggies after a weekend that's been mainly carbs, but they're tried and true ones for us. I want spring!

Garlicky Tortellini, Spinach & Tomato Soup

Since it's the last day of the month (already!) I guess I'd better catch up here. Two recipes today, the first of which is this lovely little soup, an excellent addition to anyone's repertoire. It's easy, and like many soups, can be put together largely out of pantry-friendly, low-cost ingredients. And it tastes divine, even with dried basil.

Can't ask for much better than that.

2 Tbs. unsalted butter
6 to 8 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups (1 qt.) homemade or low-salt chicken broth
6 oz. fresh or frozen cheese tortellini
14 oz. canned diced tomatoes, with their liquid
10 oz. spinach, washed and stemmed; coarsely chopped if larger
8 to 10 leaves basil, coarsely chopped
Grated Parmesan cheese

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. 
2. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 2 min. 
3. Add the broth and bring to a boil. 
4. Add the tortellini and cook halfway, about 5 min. for frozen pasta, less if using fresh. 
5. Add the tomatoes and their liquid, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook just until the pasta is tender. 
6. Stir in the spinach and basil and cook until wilted, 1 to 2 min. 
7. Serve sprinkled with the grated cheese.

From Fine Cooking

Cauliflower, Cheese, and Tomato Soup

I have made some very good soups from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special. This is not one of them. I'm not going to bother typing it out unless someone asks for it. It wasn't actually bad, but the texture was extremely cauliflower-y (and I like cauliflower), and for a soup with so many ingredients, it suffered overall from a lack of identifiable flavor--just a big muddle of vegetables.

This was week 3's cookcook, by the way; so far, I have managed to adhere to my goal!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and Curry Condiments

This was an excellent if not particularly memorable vegetable soup. She must have some sort of secret, however, because the one in her picture is a vibrant reddish color, and mine always turns out to be sort of muddy. Possibly the type of curry powder she uses is more red than mine? Some of my onions got quite black in the course of roasted, too, which may have been more caramel than intended. Possibly my different method of preparation is to blame -- since I don't have a food mill, I put the vegetables into the broth and used my immersion blender to whirl it all up.

Regardless of its looks, the soup tasted great, and you can hardly beat it for easy preparation. I made this to serve with her Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts on a cold, cold January day when we had lunch guests. I did not do the condiments. I hate coconut, and banana on a soup is too weird for me.

She has taken to specifying "good" in her ingredients lists, as in "good olive oil" and "good curry powder." I'm ignoring that in my transcriptions because, well... duh. What, are you going to use bad ingredients?

3-4 lb butternut squash, peeled and seeded
2 yellow onions
2 MacIntosh apples, peeled and cored
3 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-4 c chicken stock
1/2 tsp curry powder
For serving: Scallions, white and green parts, trimmed and sliced diagonally; flaked sweetened coconut, lightly toasted; roasted salted cashews, toasted and chopped; diced banana

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
2. Cut the squash, onions, and apples into 1-inch cubes. Toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Divide between two sheet pans and spread into a single layer. Roast for 35-45 minutes, until very tender.
3. Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock to a simmer. When the vegetables are done, put them through a food mill fitted with a medium blade.
4. Place the vegetables in a large pot and add enough stock to make a thick soup. Add curry powder, salt and pepper to taste. 
5. Serve hot with condiments.

Serves 4-6

Italian Wedding Soup

First new recipe of the new year! One week in and I have kept at least one goal, that of making at least one new recipe a week, and using a cookbook for it. This week's cookbook is Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics. I selected this soup with some hope that the children would like it, as they have been known to go for some similar efforts on occasion, but no dice this time. It's an excellent soup, though, one I would not hesitate to make again. The leftovers were fantastic. I wasn't sure what shape of pasta to use, but I quite unexpectedly found some organic whole wheat acini de pepe at our supermarket and they worked very well. I don't usually like whole wheat pasta, I find the flavor sometimes over-assertive, but for this use and in such a small size, it didn't bother me at all. I thought the dill would be weird, but it actually added a great, fresh flavor (I did have to use dried).

Meatballs
3/4 lb ground chicken
1/2 lb chicken sausage, casing removed
2/3 c white bread crumbs
2 tsp minced garlic
3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
3 Tbsp milk
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper to taste

Soup
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 c minced yellow onion
1 c 1/4-inch diced carrots
3/4 c 1/4-inch diced celery
10 c chicken stock
1/2 c dry white wine
1 c small pasta such as tubettini or pastini
1/4 c minced fresh dill
12 oz baby spinach, washed and trimmed

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Place all of the meatball ingredients in a bowl and combine gently. Form into 1 to 1 1/4-inch ball on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (NOTE: Do not skip the parchment. These critters stuck even to my nonstick pan where it wasn't covered.) Should have about 40 meatballs.
3. Bake 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.
4. Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large, heavy soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery, and saute until softened, 5-6 minutes. 
5. Add the stock and wine and bring to a boil. 
6. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook until tender. 
7. Add the dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute.
8. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the spinach and cook just until wilted.

Serve with additional Parmesan if you like.

Much as I liked this, I did have a few tiny quibbles with the recipe. I am glad that Ina has discovered the effortless joy of baked meatballs, but while the mixture of ground chicken and chicken sausage tasted fine, the mix of ground chicken and sausage resulted in a somewhat visually off-putting two-tone effect. The amounts indicated left me with some hard-to-use remnants. Even though I used "hot" sausage, I thought the meatballs could have been spicier--I might add some red pepper flakes or something next time to take them up a bit. The baby spinach, while readily available and easy to use, did not seem to have a sturdy enough flavor for this soup. I might try kale next time.

Overall, though, this is a good soup to have in your repertoire at this time of year. 

Fresh Sweet Corn Chowder and CI Drop Biscuits

Friday was about 55 degrees and raining out. I took half of the day off so that I could get a few things done, one of them being a visit to the farmer's market that didn't have to be rushed, but given the weather we hurried anyway. I had already loaded up at Kendall Square on Thursday, so I didn't find myself getting much. There is still corn, though it won't be around much longer, and I have been meaning to make something with it other than straight up on the cob. I picked up a half dozen ears, some beets and garlic, some eggs and ground beef from Shady Pine.

I have been craving bacon lately, and my searching turns up this recipe from a site called grouprecipes.com, with which I am not familiar. This is light, straightforward, and on the sweet side. In a brain-dead moment I used chicken stock at the end rather than milk, but it tasted very good regardless, just less, er, like a chowder.

I'll re-learn how to cook one of these days, I guess.

4 ears sweet corn, husks removed

4 slices bacon

½ medium onion, finely diced

1 medium baking potato, peeled and cut into small dices

dash of dried thyme

salt and black pepper

1 cup milk or half-and-half

1. Remove corn kernels from cob by running a sharp knife from top to bottom of cob – rotate cob, cutting kernels off all sides.
2. Use a spoon to run down the sides of the stripped cobs to extract as much of the "milk" as possible from the cob, letting the milk fall into the corn kernels. For soup stock, break the stripped corn cobs into thirds and place in a medium saucepan with 3 cups of water.
3. Bring to a boil; reduce to simmer and cook cobs for 20 minutes. Remove cobs from pot and strain the liquid – you should have about 2 cups of corn stock.
4. In a medium saucepan, cook bacon until crisp; drain bacon and crumble into small pieces.
5. Remove bacon, leaving 1 tablespoon bacon grease in pan (if you don’t use the bacon, add 1 tablespoon butter to pan).
6. Saute onions in grease (or butter) until translucent, about 5 minutes.
7. Add the diced potato, corn kernels and any "milk" that you extracted from the cob, 2 cups corn stock, thyme, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Bring to a simmer; cook, partially covered, skimming any foam as necessary, until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.
9. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed.
10. Add milk or half-and-half.
11. Heat through (don’t boil).
12. Serve, topping each bowl with some crumbled bacon.

With the soup we had a green salad, and I made drop biscuits. Since the whole idea was to make something new, I went looking for a recipe instead of turning to one I had already used.

Unlike a lot of people I know, I am not a big fan of Cooks Illustrated. I actually find their attitude kind of irritating, and I don't normally want an entire page of backstory on how they found their idea of the perfect recipe for X. But these are really good biscuits, light and flaky, and incredibly easy to make, so I will give them this one. Grudgingly.

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes), plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475°F. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.
2. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Using greased 1/4-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high). Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes.
3. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Dinner for a Disappointing Day

Wednesday, well... kind of sucked. Only kind of--the kids went to their checkup and we received no alarming news, and it was a productive day of work. But there was that whole rejection letter thing, and then I went looking at house listings and stumbled over what was obviously meant to be my house, falling instantly in love with everything about it only to find out that it was already engaged to someone else.

So I was plenty bummed when I knocked off for the day and went over to the grocery store. On the walk back it started raining, then started pouring. Sans umbrella, I told myself it was the universe reminding me not to take myself so seriously.

Once home and dry, I cut up most of a butternut squash I'd bought on a whim over the weekend, and set it simmering in some chicken broth.

I put the zucchini from the farmer's market through the food processor, salted it and let it sit while I chopped up tomato and garlic, grated some Parmesan, and dug out the dried marjoram. Once all of that was set up and JJ had been corralled for the umpteenth time, I rinsed off the zucchini and broke six eggs into a bowl, then decided that wasn't enough and added one more. I shoved my stick blender into the squash, put some canola oil in a tiny frying pan with some of the garlic and a teaspoon or so of curry powder, then added that to the now-soup and returned to my eggs.

The recipe I was using had originally been published in Eating Well. I remembered it very well, but couldn't find it for the life of me, possibly because I was convinced it was in some other magazine. But the kindly souls at the Cooking Light bulletin board unearthed my own review of the recipe, from almost exactly four years ago. I'm pretty sure it's from Deborah Madison.

1 1/2 pounds zucchini, coarsely grated
1 1/8 tsp salt, divided
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
4 large eggs
4 large egg whites
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 c of Parmesan or Monterey Jack cheese
1 Tbsp chopped fresh marjoram
2/3 c part-skim ricotta cheese

2 1/2 c chopped tomato (we had grape tomatoes, I quartered them)
1 medium shallot, minced
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 tsp chopped fresh marjoram
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

My condensed instructions:

1. Toss zucchini with 1 tsp salt in a medium bowl; put in colander to drain for 20-30 minutes. Rinse briefly and squeeze dry.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil over in a large non-stick skillet over M-H heat. Add zucchini and cook, stirring frequently, until water evaporates (5-6 min). Remove to bowl, wipe pan clean.
3. Preheat broiler.
4. Whisk eggs with salt and pepper in a large bowl. Stir in zucchini, cheese, marjoram. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in the non-stick pan over M-H heat. Add egg mixture and reduce heat to M-L. Dollop ricotta over the top. Cook until eggs are set on bottom, top still wet (5-7 min). Transfer to broiler and broil until done (3-5 min).

For tomato garnish: Toss all ingredients together. Cook in a skillet for a couple of minutes, until warm and releasing juices.

I sliced up some orange-cranberry bread from the farmer's market to go alongside, and the result was good enough to restore a teensy bit of gloss to the day.

8/7 - Edited to add photos.

Hearty Bean and Barley Soup

Not been a stellar week of new recipes around here. We had this on Monday, just now getting around to recording it. Again, it was okay, but just not that interesting. Admittedly, it being a weeknight, I skipped the broth intensification step, and maybe it would be worthwhile giving it another shot, but... eh. Probably won't get around to it.

Hearty Bean and Barley Soup

Soup and Bread, Part 2

I worked from home on Tuesday, and threw my week out of whack. I generally work from home on Wednesday, you see, and it's funny how these little things become ingrained into your thoughts, so that I spent the next day vaguely out of sorts because my body thought it was a different day of the week than it actually was. Having a cold didn't help.

But on Tuesday we were supposed to get "our every five or six day storm," as the radio meteorologist resignedly (and accurately) called it, and all of my normal meetings had been canceled in favor of a big project review, which is the kind of thing I am regularly grateful I don't have to go to. So I switched my days around.

Working from home not only saves energy and my sanity, it allows me to make things that take time but not effort--like bread, and bean soup using (gasp) dried beans. There's this meme out there right now that dried beans are totally the way to go (Mark Bittman and Rancho Gordo being the prime movers, apparently). I'm not really vested in the argument, since I've always opted for the convenience of canned, but I figured I should give the dried ones a try if the time and inclination ever came together, and Tuesday turned out to be it.

I can't say that I was totally blown away, but I could see a positive difference in the texture between the dried ones I cooked up and the canned ones I normally use, even though I think I overcooked them. The recipe that I used was more or less this one, since I had most of the stuff it wanted. I used a canned roasted chile in place the jalapeno (should I just start buying one every week, just in case?), and added a bit of cayenne to offset what seemed to my virally-impaired palate a lack of resulting heat. The soup was fine and sturdy, the bacon particularly yummy.

To go with it, I made this walnut bread. I went back and forth on whether to add the walnuts or not, went ahead and added them, and berated myself when L noted their presence and refused to eat any of it. JJ, on the other hand, ripped his little piece into tinier bits and ate them thoughtfully.

Today, the gas station sign said 10 degrees when I left Worcester. Itis not supposed to get much warmer than that all day. Along with everyone else I know, I am seriously sick of this weather. February is always the toughest month, I remind myself. I am nevertheless going to venture out of the office today and have lunch with a friend I haven't seen in ages.

Soup and Bread, Part 1

This past Sunday I started coming down with a cold. As usual it was just me and JJ for the morning. I sat down on the couch for a few minutes and watched him play, and thought about staying there; what the hell, I was sick! I could watch a video, or something.... But no, that wouldn't do. I am not sure at what point in my life I forgot how to just sit around relaxing; probably some time after L was born.

Instead of loading up a DVD, I thought about the leeks I had picked up at the store on Saturday. Good-looking leeks are a rarity around here, so when I see them, I tend to buy some even if I don't know what I'm going to do with them. I got some Yukon Gold potatoes, too--organic ones, because their regular ones were all green--with the vague thought that I hadn't made mashed potatoes in ages.

This is obviously leading up to potato-leek soup. But I wanted something to go with it, and it was too late in the morning to start bread and have it ready by lunch time. Suddenly I remembered the existence of Irish soda bread. I first made this for supper club a couple of years ago--we were doing a St. Patrick's day theme--and while it's definitely not something I would make all the time, it does make a nice change of pace once in a while, and it's the easiest thing in the world to make. I even had buttermilk in the fridge. I mixed it up, put it in the oven, and got to work on the soup.

The very good advice in Julie and Julia notwithstanding, I don't use a recipe for making potato-leek soup any more. I put a few tablespoons of butter in a pot, chop up a couple of generously-sized leeks, and let them sit in the butter there over lowish heat while I peel and cut up potatoes (and try to keep JJ out of trouble). I love the buttery color of Yukon Golds. I fell out of reading Much Depends on Dinner as easily as I fell into it, but I was thinking about her chapter on butter while I cooked, and the multiple meanings of its color.

I put in the potatoes and enough chicken stock to cover, and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Out comes the immersion blender for a couple of whirls. I don't generally care if my soups are perfectly smooth; I like them to have some body. At this point the dish looks like mashed potatoes, not soup, so I taste it for salt and add either water or more chicken stock to thin it down, let it simmer a wee bit more, and that's that.

It was ready a few minutes after D and L got home from church. Simple, warm, yummy, and with plenty left over for me to take to work a couple of times this week, breaking me free of the sandwich rut I've grown to heartily resent over this long winter. A thousand times better than cracking open a can, and not all that much more work.

Chock-Full Chicken Noodle Soup

Another old stand-by. There's not a lot to say about this -- or perhaps there is, but I'm very tired, after JJ had another rough night battling his tummy virus -- but it's a good, sturdy chicken soup that you can certainly embellish or subtract from as you like. The only change I make to this is that I sauté the onion, carrots, and celery together. Sometimes I leave out the spinach. I use Better Than Boullion these days when I don't have my own stock (which is most of the time); do be careful with the amount, or it will end up oversalted.

Chock-Full Chicken Noodle Soup

The weather has gotten very cold again; it was 18 degrees when I left Worcester, and I trotted a good bit of the distance from the parking lot to the office. Supposed to warm up a bit over the next couple of days, I believe, and then we plunge in the gloom of February. Hopeful enthusiasm over the presidential inauguration aside, it's a difficult time of year. Spring seems a long way away, but the calendar is bare of any closer anticipations.

Admittedly, things will probably look a lot better to me once the kid is back on his feet.

Ham and Bean Soup with Vegetables

I could have sworn I'd blogged this recipe already, but if I did, I didn't label it right. Maybe I'm getting senile already. Then again, this isn't something I make all that often, since I don't generally have a ham bone sitting around.

The most important thing about this? L actually ate two servings!


1 cup dry navy beans
1- 1/4 to 1- 1/2 lbs meaty smoked pork hocks or one 1- to 1-1/2-pound meaty ham bone
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced celery
1 Tbs instant chicken bouillon granules
1 Tbs snipped fresh parsley
1 Tbs snipped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups chopped parsnips or rutabaga
1 cup sliced carrots
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained



1 Rinse beans. In a Dutch oven combine beans and 5 cups cold water. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand 1 hour. (Or, skip boiling water and soak beans overnight in a covered pan.) Drain and rinse beans.

2 In the same pan combine beans, 5 cups fresh water, pork hocks or ham bone, onion, celery, bouillon granules, parsley, thyme, and pepper. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1-3/4 hours. Remove pork hocks or ham bone; set aside to cool. Mash beans slightly. Stir in parsnips or rutabaga and carrots. Return to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

3 Meanwhile, cut meat off bones and coarsely chop. Discard bones. Stir meat and spinach into saucepan. Cook until heated through. Makes 4 or 5 servings.

Udon-Beef Noodle Bowl

I don't know what it is about noodles, but even the word says "this will be good." This is one of my all-time favorite recipes, so much more than the sum of its simple parts and easy enough to make on a weeknight--though it does require some coordination and several pans, and preferably someone else to watch the baby!

Break out the chopsticks and give yourself permission to slurp. Use fresh udon noodles if you can find them, since they are fantastic; if not, dried will do. I would not use spaghetti as the magazine suggests, though, unless you are absolutely desperate. People will probably want seconds.

North Woods Bean Soup

AKA, "She ATE IT!!!"

This is an old standby at our place--I didn't even pull out the recipe last night, I've made it so many times--but it's been in retirement for a while, as it's not exactly a summery soup. It is hearty, warming, and relatively cheap as far as the ingredient list.

We have been working for a couple of weeks now on getting L to eat a normal dinner, instead of going through a separate rotation of the four things she likes to eat, and then giving her some yogurt. The invariable reaction has been to push her plate away, drink her milk, and announce, "I'm done." I did have some hopes for this soup, because she does like beans. She did pick a few of those out, then speared a piece of kielbasa and asked me if it was a hot dog. "Yes," I told her, figuring it was close enough. She ate it. A while later I saw her looking speculatively at a carrot, though she made a face when she ate it. She even ate a piece of kale (which I use instead of spinach when I have it).

Needless to say, this soup will be going into regular rotation.

Black Bean Soup for a Rainy Day

After last weekend's budget-busting entertainment extravaganza, I was determined to be a bit more frugal this week. Saturday was soggy as can be, and we spent a goodly chunk of it looking at a couple of houses in Framingham, one of which actually seems like it might be a good prospect (finally). I did not have time to do grocery shopping; I did have the leftover ham and a bag of black beans. So--black bean soup it was! I made some bread while it simmered, and there you have it, a decent and decidedly cheap meal (with leftovers to have for a couple of lunches).