Table Runner

This certainly isn't a cooking experiment. It is the table runner I just finished making and it will be auctioned off at Iowa Lakes' annual Korks and Kegs Fine Arts Scholarship event. It'll include wine and beer sampling and a silent and live auction of art and in my case, other objects. Join us Thursday, October 2, 2014 from 5:00-8:00 at the Pearson Lake Art Center.

Smoked Pork Chop with Sauteed Onions, Apples, and Caraway

Don't let anyone fool you. It isn't easy to cook for one person. Most recipes don't divide well down to a single serving, which is why I like things which are singles. One of my favorite meals is Smoked Pork Chops with Sauteed Onions, Apples, and Caraway...There's really no recipe to it. It's all in the title. I like to slice up just a tad less apple than onion. Dad's onions were great for this. They were really juicy and I swear they were as crisp as an apple. I don't know when and how I started to make this exactly. I do know that the caraway was a later advent, but it really does go with it perfectly. I put the chop on my little George Foreman grill, and slowly, patiently sautee the onion and apple. You don't want to cook them too quickly, or they get dark brown and taste bitter. Then, just before I plan on serving, I add the caraway to the pan. Really, this is a meal in itself and it doesn't take much time.

Russian Spice Tea

Well, I've got my car back, and so I'm once again mobile; however, now I have a head cold. The weather is really beautiful these last couple of days. It rained last night, but it was quite late, and the temperatures have reached the 80s, and so it doesn't make much sense making what I'm making today.
When I was a kid, my mom made this stuff that we called "Russian Spiced Tea" and I liked it. I still have the recipe, but I don't like how artificial it is. It's filled with artificial sweeteners and instant tea and Tang, etc. So, I looked for a recipe that had real ingredients and I found one for Russian Spiced Tea. I don't know if it is authentically Russian, but I thought with all the vitamin C in this thing it should boost my immune system. I changed only one thing. I added a small cinnamon stick as well. And my measurements weren't precise because I juiced three oranges and two lemons...I don't know how to juice a pineapple, so I just got it out of a can. I don't mind juicing some fruits. I like to use the peels to put down the garbage disposal. It makes the kitchen smell so good and clean.
It is VERY sweet. The recipe calls for sweetened, strong tea. I used the sweetened tea recipe I use to make Ginger-lemon iced tea in the summer, which calls for one cup of sugar for every two cups of water. This was probably too sweet to begin with. Not that I don't like sweet, but...Otherwise it tastes very good. It should be served warm but kept in the fridge so it's a great recipe to just warm in the microwave. We'll see if it helps me get over this darn cold.

October 3, 2014. Well, I made the Russian Spice Tea again this evening. This time I cut the sugar down by a cup, which helps, but I think there's too much pineapple juice as well. Actually, I think I'd like it just with the lemon and orange juice and no pineapple juice at all. I think without the pineapple, the taste of the cloves and cinnamon would be more distinct.

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup

It's tomato season and now that it's cooler it's also soup season...ok for me, soup season is year round. I love soups. So, when Dad delivered some of his homegrown tomatoes to me, and when I saw this recipe in the October 2014 Cooking Light magazine, I had to make it. It really wasn't that hard, and scent of the roasting tomatoes and garlic was incredible.

That's the way tomatoes are meant to smell. The recipe calls for beefsteak tomatoes. I didn't know for sure what breed of tomatoes Dad gave me. I just took the biggest and meatiest of the lot.

I did have one problem with the recipe. It says to strain the soup through a fine sieve after pureeing it. Well, my strainer is very fine, and the next biggest thing I have is a colander...needless to say it didn't work, so I decided just to eat it without straining out the solids. It tastes good, but it's much thicker than it should be and the texture is undoubtedly coarser. I suspect it would be much more appealing if it were thinner. The smell and the taste is still quite good. However, I doubt I'll ever be making this again. It's not "throw it down the garbage disposal" bad, but it's not exactly, "I can't get enough of this stuff" good either.

Speaking of tomato soups. There used to be a restaurant in Sioux City called Botticelli's. I think it closed, or maybe it moved. Anyway, they used to serve this incredible Carciofi soup. It was a creamy, pureed artichoke (that's what carciofi means) and tomato soup. It was simply to die for. I've been trying to find a good recipe for it for years now. If anyone has any idea how it's made, please share. I'll certainly mention and thank you here.

Banana Bread

This is my favorite Banana Bread recipe; however, I have had some problems with it in the past. The reason I like it so much is because it doesn't include any fat or processed sugar. It's made using honey and applesauce. The problems I've had with it is that if I cooked it in a regular bread pan, it would either be too dark on the outside or gummy on the inside. My solution was to use a pan my mother had given me ages ago. It's wider than it is deep. This works perfectly. I also changed just a few things with the recipe. I use white flour instead of whole wheat flour, not because I have a problem with whole wheat. I love whole wheat, but unless you're going to use it all right away, if you keep it even for a short time, it will go rancid, and I never use even the smallest purchasable amount in a short period of time. The other thing I changed is that I added chopped pecans. For me, it just isn't banana bread if it doesn't have nuts. Try it out some time, but consider the problems I've had and plan accordingly. I think you'll like it.

Deconstructed Pizza Sauce

I don't know. Maybe everyone does this, but one of my favorite things to do in tomato season is to make homemade pizza. Rather than making a sauce though, I like to peel the tomatoes, slice them, and just arrange them on top of the crust. Then I sprinkle, sugar, salt, fresh basil and oregano, sauted onions, garlic, and mushrooms on top. I've tried a few crusts from scratch, but I haven't found one as easy and good as the packets to which you just add hot water. If someone knows of a better homemade crust, please let me know. I don't like to use much cheese, usually, either mozzarella or feta or sometimes a little of both. I also like to use olives, both ripe and green, but I forgot to buy either olives or mushrooms when I made the pictured pizza. If you can't tell, I put this pizza in a cast iron skillet. It's a lot closer to a deep dish rather than a thin crust, which is a lot more popular these days. However, on a chillier day like today, it's a great pizza, and really it doesn't take much work at all.

Almond Cookies

I knew when I woke this morning that I wasn't going to be up to making the puff pastry pinwheels...that'll have to wait for another time. I need to somehow teach my little dog that there's a difference between weekends and weekdays. She wants me up to walk her and give her her pills (she has allergies). So instead, I tackled almond cookies.These cookies are so easy, I'm actually a bit embarrassed. However, they are light and tasty. I think they're going to be great with a latte.

What made them different for me was that one of the ingredients is ground almonds. This was really easy. I have a food grinding attachment to my Kitchen Aid mixer. I usually use it to grind chicken for chicken salad, but it worked really well for grinding the almonds.

My Kitchen Aid is pretty disreputable. It's actually Mom and Dad's old one. They got it when I was still in high school...we won't even talk about how long ago that was. I keep waiting for the poor thing to break down. I can't justify getting a new one as long as this one's still working.

I did change one thing. I used almond extract instead of amaretto. I'm not a big fan of liqueurs, so I don't go out and buy a whole bottle for a simple recipe like this.

So, I've decided that my Mission Statement is too narrow. I want to write about cooking beyond techniques and foods I've never used before. It's sort of like my students who choose topics that are too narrow for their essays. I guess there's a learning curve to this as well. So, don't be surprised to find recipes and writings about foods I've made in the past and have really liked. I'll still get to those new things, but I guess it has to come in its own time. So, you can check here a little more frequently because I'll be writing more.

Groceries

I just got back from shopping. I hate grocery shopping. I sort of imagine a lot of people do. Ok, there are those who love any kind of shopping, but I do not fall into that category at all. Maybe amazon.com has got the right idea about using drones for delivery of products. But I think we've gone in the wrong direction. I think shopping for groceries should be a sensuous experience. But here in the rural Midwest, everything is hermetically sealed. I want to be able to smell everything even the stinky fish and cheese. But that isn't how things are done today. Even the fruit is bred for consistency and longevity, but smell isn't all that important, so you don't really smell it in the produce department. I also want to see the colors and yes, sometimes even touch the produce, but that isn't allowed. I think our health and happiness is threatened more by overprocessed foods than germs.

With that being said, tomorrow, I'm planning to get some cooking done. I'm not going to say what for sure because I don't know. Check this space.