Food – Page 7 – E A Summers

October 23, 2014

Food for the road

I typically cook on the road like I do at home. I love my RV kitchen – the propane cooktop is wonderful. Most RVrs cannot stand the propane oven, but I have no issue with it and make bread, crackers, pizza and even pie with no problems. But, to each their own!

Often, I do prep some things for when I’m driving several days in a row and also working before and/or after the day’s drive – which is the case for this Friday-Saturday-Sunday. AND, I had some things that store more compactly when cooked so this morning:

Chipotle-Tomato-beef sauce, broccoli, cauliflower and chicken breasts were popped into the oven very early and then into the refrigerator to cool.

The broccoli and cauliflower are in mason jars to be used as side dishes or quick snacks.

The sauce and chicken are packed in single serving snack zips and then a larger zip and in the freezer. I started freezing single servings of sauce, meat, rice, beans, fruit and vegetables about 6 months ago and really like that I can pull out what I want for what I feel like eating. That kind of de-constructed freezing instead of freezing a specific meal lets me make soup, pasta, tacos or burrito, etc. The little zips thaw enough fairly fast to allow emptying them into a sauce pan to warm. And I don’t have a huge amount of leftover whatever that MUST BE EATEN whether it sounds good or not. Again, to each their own…leftovers once is fine, after that I mostly am ready for something different.

Tonight, there was enough “leftover” sauce and broccoli that did not fit in the containers to make my supper.

Some spaghetti squash is hiding under the sauce so it was squash with tomato beef sauce, roast broccoli and a bit of pecorino-romano with some crusty bread..

Food for the road and for the last supper before hitting the road. We roll tomorrow!

October 7, 2014

Apple Hand Pies to start Tuesday

I have a couple of days with no meetings, no work sessions…just work on my own tasks. I’m enjoying the flexibility in my schedule!

Yesterday, Bear and I went to Wayfarer’s park before lunch (see my Instagram for photos). We are having another bit of summer-like weather before what NOAA calls “THE BIG CHANGE” happens this weekend – a cold and wet front to take us back to Fall.

My neighbor was to come for coffee this morning but a bug in the family altered plans. The hand pies were already in the oven…

I’m going to have mine!! (AND, you bet I scooped up all of that caramel-y overflow!) …but, I’ll freeze the rest for when all feel better.

Apple Hand Pies to start Tuesday.

*** My method for the Hand Pies:
I had my own Brioche dough in the freezer packaged in large lemon sized rounds each 1 perfect for a hand pie. Last night I got 5 rounds out and put them in the frig. This morning, after the dough warmed up, I lightly rolled each round into a 5 inch circle and covered while I sliced 3 apples. I mixed a bit of lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt with the apples, divided between the 5 pies – stuff them VERY full as apples bake down, little bits of butter, fold over the top, slice some vents, brush with egg wash and into the oven (350 for 30 minutes). That’s it! The apples today were local McIntosh from my farmer’s market. I also like Granny Smith’s. AND…this mix is good with a bit of country pork sausage (pre-cooked) in with the apples.

I guarantee that these taste multitudes better than any toaster fruit pie :) !

October 4, 2014

Who rescued who and scratch cooking from Jennifer Perillo

I follow just a few food blogs.

One is In Jennie’s Kitchen.

I have Jennie’s cookbook: Homemade with Love

I make Jennie’s Chocolate Snaps, her rif on Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce and her lentil ricotta meatballs regularly. Other recipes are on my “to make” list and I’ve learned much about techniques from reading her posts. My scrambled eggs are 100% better after reading her method! Just in the last weeks, I was inspired by a description of her napa cabbage-apple-sesame salad with honey-mustard vinaigrette to make my own salad.

But it is not just her recipes.

Her writing and her approach to cooking is what drew me to her blog and cookbook.

A little over three years ago her husband died suddenly, leaving her a single mother of two young girls.

BUT, that is NOT the story here. The story is…as the story always is…not so much what happened as what she did with what happened.

She got the book deal and did the cookbook – even in the early days of grief and single parenthood.

In the past year, Jennie, who lived in apartments in Brooklyn her entire life, bought a house in rural New York. As a person who LOVES a simple and quiet rural life, I cheered and hoped that she and her daughters would love rural life also. This summer, they left Brooklyn and made their country house their permanent home. And in the last weeks, they added to their family: a tuxedo cat named Ms. Paula Poundstone and a sweet terrier mix named Miche.

Oh, yes!

Miche!

Ms. Paula Poundstone!

Jennie explains Ms. Paula Poundstone’s name in this post: All in the family

Yesterday, Jennie announced a new project: a quarterly magazine called Simply Scratch Cooking: a homecook’s journal for making easy, everyday meals.

Jennie’s eloquently written post about how all came about: A leap of faith

I am a fan and follower of Jennie’s, not because she is a woman, not because she is a widow with young children and not even because she moved to the country and got a dog and a cat. What draws me is her passion. Passion for something is in fact what draws me to the people for whom I have the most respect and admiration. What I see in Jennie’s work is her passion for creating beautiful and delicious food, simply, from scratch and sharing all of that with the people around her.

I haven’t subscribed to any magazines for years, but I could not resist ordering Jennie’s. Her cabbage salad recipe is in it! Also the peanut butter swirl brownies she showed on her Instagram that had me drooling. The link to order is in her post: A leap of faith. I’m so excited to receive my copy. I look forward to a weekend of browsing, enjoying and cooking or baking from it when it arrives in 2 weeks.

I emailed Jennie to ask if I could use the photos of Miche and Ms. Paula Poundstone in this post. She warmly replied in the affirmative and also said: “Most people think I rescued them, but it’s totally the other way around. These little creatures have made my life so full, they have rescued my heart in a way I can never fully understand myself.”

I know a little bit about how that has worked in my life and I was so happy to hear that it is working in her life.

Cheers, Bon appetite and I hope all who read this visit A leap of faith and get a taste of Jennifer Perillo’s Simply Scratch Cooking.

October 1, 2014

The local vegetables…and the weather

Vegetables and the weather…not things you’d think go together.

They don’t. Well, except what bad weather does to things in gardens…

So, Veg: tomatoes, beets and cabbage figure prominently in last and this week’s menus.

As noted 2 weeks ago when I bought the last of the Farmer’s market tomatoes…I ate what I could and processed the rest into sauce. I used some of the sauce and then decided I needed to freeze what was left.

I’d seen a blurb on using paper cups – vs ice cube trays (too small) or flat zips (good!) and decided to give the cups a try. I found paper cups with no wax or other “stuff”. Hopefully, I can peel off the cups, dump the 3 oz of tomato sauce in a pan, slowly heat and “Bob’s your Uncle” – the perfect bit of tomato sauce for 1!!

The freezing part went fine. The peeling and thawing and use…to be cont’d at a later date.

Next up is the beets.

When I bought the beets, I also bought some spicy sprouts. I LOVE a sandwich of beets, goat cheese and sprouts on my own rustic seed bread.

But, browsing beet salad recipes…so as to also use the greens…

Anyway, I ended up mashing several recipes to make a roast beet galette: beets, caramelized onions, capers, HORSERADISH! and goat cheese and my own Brioche dough for the “crust”.