Cavatappi and Chard

This has been a pasta week. We started it off with pumpkin ravioli in a caramelized shallot and butter sauce, followed by this fabulous dish, and ended with the eggplant pasta mentioned earlier. All three dishes were so completely different that the repetition of pasta was inconsequential. Swiss Chard is in season and I love it in this dish. I am including a link to the original recipe but this is how I make this dish. Don't be put off by the raisins - they make this dish. A few words of advice: I use about half stems and half leaves. I'll post another recipe that will use up the remaining leaves. Six cups of stems is just way too much, and I like the color contrast that the leaves provide. You can use any kind of Swiss Chard - rainbow, green, or red, but do realize that if you use the rainbow or red you will end up with a pink sauce. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I've found that the green chard just looks better. The recipe calls for golden raisins, but they are not naturally golden. Use what you feel comfortable with, but I did find a golden raisin called Himalayan Monukka raisins which are delicious but contain seeds. I ended up halving and seeding all of the raisins. This dish tastes fantastic.


1/4 c pine nuts (I don't toast pine nuts, you can, I just don't want to go to the effort for this dish)
2 Tbs olive oil
3 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tsp ground cumin
6 c swiss chard stems and leaves cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 can evaporated milk, not reduced fat
1/2 c golden raisins
16 oz cavatappi pasta (or any pasta with ridges that will hold the sauce)
***the last time I made this dish I was out of broth and hard cheese, so I omitted both and simply increased the evaporated milk. You can use cream as well, but I always have evaporated milk on hand.


Heat oil in a large skilled over medium heat. Add shallots and cook until golden brown, about 5minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and add the vinegar and cumin. Let vinegar evaporate 20 seconds, then return skillet to heat. Add 1/3 c water and bring to a simmer. Stir in chard stems and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 12 minutes or until tender. Stir in chard leaves, milk, and raisins and simmer 10 more minutes. Cook pasta according to directions, drain, and add to chard mixture. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with pine nuts. Enjoy!

Challah

Oh Kathy, I do not understand why it has taken me so long to post this recipe. I found a great bread book at the library several months ago titled Secrets of Jewish Baker. I've only tried this challah recipe, but it is good enough to convince me that I cannot live without this book. Challah makes the best toast, and the best french toast. The only tricky part is the braiding, but it is forgiving and you can braid and unbraid several times until you get it right. I prefer to not use seeds on the top, but I am sure it would be lovely either way. Make this bread and prepare to become addicted. Toasting it is the key!

Wow.

You must make this pasta dish because it will blow your mind. It is an excellent introduction to eggplant. My only changes include using crushed tomatoes (28 oz can) and peeling the eggplant. Make sure you use only fresh eggplant - one that is firm, heavy for its size, shiny, and wrinkle free. Trust me, make this dish. You will be amazed.

Chelsea's Birthday Cake

Our friend Chelsea turned the big 22 last month and I had the pleasure of making her birthday cake. My Dad & I watched Julia Child make this cake on PBS over 10 years ago and I was thrilled to finally have a reason to make it. Chelsea's husband Jordan asked that we use huckleberries instead of raspberries, and it was delicious. It is a labor intensive recipe, but worth the effort.

Grocery Shopping 101 - For Jonathan

When Bryant was in grad school and we were living on my meager income we budgeted $50/week for food, so our current budget of $100/week for the two of us seems a bit excessive, but Jonathan is convinced that this is actually not that much money. When you take into consideration how well we eat, how much we eat, and the fact that all of our products are organic or local, the amount we spend on food doesn't seem too excessive. I was worrying one day about this amount and Bryant said that he would rather spend more money for good food then less money for sub par food. Jonathan asked that I post how I shop and menu plan, so I've decided to give you a copy of what I purchase, how much I spend, and what I make for 2 weeks. If there are any recipes that you want please let me know.

There are several factors to keep in consideration that differentiate my food planning from the norm:
- we only eat meat 3 to 5 times a month
- I make everything from scratch, including bread
- our menus are based around what produce is in season, and what other products are on sale
- Bryant almost always takes his lunch to work instead of buying lunch, and our lunches are also almost always leftovers from dinner (we love leftovers, almost everything tastes better the second day)
- we eat a lot of random grains, and buy them in the bulk section

I've done our shopping by planning out a weeks worth of meals, but find that by Wednesday I no longer want to eat what I've planned. As I've become a more creative and confident cook I've been able to be less rigid in my grocery shopping. Now I basically start in the produce section and stock up on what's in season (which is also usually what is on sale), head over to the bulk grains to replenish what I've used the previous week, pick up cheese, milk, and eggs, and any other remaining items I think I'll use to make meals based on the produce I've decided to purchase. I haven't had to buy meat because I have chicken that I roasted and shredded in my freezer, as well as halibut and salmon that our good friend caught in Alaska last summer.

These are the staple items I consider necessary to be able to cook good meals:
Good extra virgin olive oil
Good Balsamic vinegar (for all you SLC dwellers, go to Caputo's and buy the Balsamic Modena, it is cheap and amazing)
Butter
Milk
Eggs
Cheese - both goat and cow's milk
Flour - all-purpose, whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, and 00 (for pasta)
Polenta
Cornmeal
Quinoa
Barley
Oats - rolled and steel-cut
Couscous
Sugar - white and brown
Honey
Pure Maple Syrup (I use Coombs Family Farms Organic Grade B maple syrup and buy it in bulk on amazon.com)
Almond Butter
Jam
Spices (too many to list)
Pure vanilla extract
Yeast
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Fresh garlic
Fresh onions
Black beans
Chicken Stock
Good canned tomatoes
Canned artichoke hearts

There you have it, my idea of pantry staples. I also grow my own basil, mint, rosemary, parsley, lavender, and arugula in our window boxes. More often then not I spend more than $100 the first week and then compensate during the second week. It depends on what I need to buy, like if I am out of olive oil or am stocking up on cheese. Here is week 1 - receipt and menus. I am not going to type out organic or local next to every product, because they all fall into one of those categories.

Honey (24 oz) $4.25
Thai Kitchen Light Coconut Milk (2 cans) $3.98
Creamy Almond Butter $6.79
Whole San Marzano Tomatoes $2.99
Ballard ID Jersey Gem (cheese) $7.36
Ballard ID White Cheddar $5.39
Ballard ID Feta $3.77
Montchevre (goat cheese) $6.98
Milk (1 gallon) $5.99
Wallaby Vanilla Yogurt $3.29
Aldens Blackberry Ice Cream $4.95
Aldens Vanilla Ice Cream $4.95
Duck Eggs (1 dozen) $4.99
Red onion (1) $0.19
Yellow onion (1) $0.33
Red leaf lettuce (1 bunch) $1.99
Fennel (1 bulb) $1.29
Leeks (2) $3.32
Artichokes (2) $3.38
Baby Artichokes (.98 lbs) $3.08
Garnet yam (1) $1.39
Bananas (1.85 lbs) $1.83
Lemon (1) $0.63
Strawberries (1 pint) $3.99
Raisin (.52 lbs) $2.89
Pinenuts (.12 lbs) $2.82
Raw macadamia nuts (.15 lbs) $2.47
Walnuts (.26 lbs) $2.68
Yeast $1.24
Red Hot Blues (chips) $3.39
Lemon Pepper $2.13
00 Flour $4.44
Total spent: $109.87 (including a rough tax estimate)
*this means I only have $90.13 for the next weeks groceries

I didn't have any idea when I went shopping what I wanted to make except for some homemade Popsicles I'd been wanting to try, hence the coconut milk purchase. I also had some leftover white chocolate chips from several months ago, which is why I bought the macadamia nuts. Bryant requested chips, yogurt, and cheese. Here's what we ate:

Breakfasts:
Steel-cut oats with brown sugar and cinnamon
White Chocolate Macadamia pancakes with caramelized banana maple syrup
Eggs & Challah toast
Pumpkin chocolate pancakes

Dinners (leftovers for lunch):
Challah French Toast
Roasted zucchini stuffed with chicken, spinach, garlic, onion, and goat cheese
Pizza with pesto, chicken, artichokes, and goat cheese
Calzones with spinach, onion, garlic, tomato, and goat cheese
Black bean nachos
Honey-Balsamic glazed salmon with roasted yam and grilled artichoke
Risotto with baby artichokes and leeks

Desserts:
Fresh strawberries
Ice Cream
Homemade Popsicles with coconut milk, banana, strawberries, and agave

During this week I used up some leftover spinach (fresh and frozen), cucumber, salsa, sour cream, the white chocolate chips, some unsweetened chocolate, canned pumpkin, frozen chicken, and salmon. From my pantry came the remaining ingredients that aren't on my shopping list. We were invited over to dinner once and had the same people over to our home for dinner another night and I wanted to make a dessert using the remaining can of coconut milk, so I used some of our 'fun money' budget and bought frozen strawberries, whipping cream, and lady fingers. (Yes, I am a very meticulous about our budget.) This week I made Challah for the first time and it was a huge success, our new favorite bread because it makes the best toast and french toast. So that's week one. I'm heading to the farmer's market in an hour or so to get our produce for this week. We are making a birthday cake for a friend on Saturday which will have to be taken into consideration, but we are also going to a picnic for Bryant's work on Saturday and having dinner at our friends' birthday party that evening, so it will all even out. I still have fennel, cheese, some eggs, and milk as well as a lot of ice cream left over from this past week. We also have pumpkin chocolate pancakes and calzones in the freezer to be used. I hope this is what you want Jonathan. Stay tuned for week two.

Oreo Cheesecake Balls

I made these in my food processor. To make by hand simply put the Oreos in a large ziploc bag and crush to fine crumbs with a rolling pin.

1 pkg Oreos (I used double stuffed, but regular work just fine)
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
Chocolate for dipping

Put entire package of Oreos in food processor and pulse until they become fine crumbs. Add cream cheese and process until combined. With a melon baller or tablespoon scoop into small balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Freeze at least 30 minutes. Dip in whatever chocolate you desire. Freeze until chocolate is set, about 30 minutes. Serve cold.

*I melted 60% cocoa Ghirardelli chocolate chips in a double boiler and then dipped the balls. I liked the contrast of the slightly bitter chocolate with the sweet center. You do not need to use popsicle sticks, I just liked the look of lollipops, but you can make them like truffles. They are very good, but need to be served cold!*

Homemade Bread

A slice of warm, freshly baked bread has to be one of life's greatest pleasures. Homemade bread also makes a great gift. One night at dinner our friends served the most delicious bread and I loved the bread so much that I apologized for not eating the dinner, but explained that the bread was all I wanted. My cute friend Jill called Bryant later in the week to find out when I would be home so that she could surprise me with a loaf. Not only did she bring me a warm loaf of delicious bread, but also strawberry jam from her grandmother. I later realized that this was the first time anyone, other than my own grandmother, had given me bread. For some reason bread seems like an incredibly personal gift, perhaps because it represents home. Here are two of my favorite bread recipes. The first is a 100% whole wheat bread from King Arthur Flour. The recipe is quick, moist, and only makes 1 loaf which is perfect for Bryant & I. We don't have much freezer space so I would rather make bread more frequently than make 4 loaves at once, especially when the recipe takes so little time. The second recipe is from my friend Jill, and is perfect when you want fresh bread with dinner but don't have time to let it rise.

Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast or 1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 2 Tbsp water
1 1/3 c lukewarm water
1/4 c olive oil (or you can use vegetable oil)
1/4 c honey (or you can use maple syrup, but I prefer honey)
3 1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 c nonfat dried milk
1 1/4 tsp salt

In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients and stir until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead for 6 to 8 minutes until it becomes smooth and supple. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 hour depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface and shape into an 8-inch log. Place in a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan and cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 30 to 60 minutes or until it has crowned about 1 inch above the edge of the pan. A finger pressed into the dough should leave a mark that rebounds slowly.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, tenting it lightly with foil after 20 minutes. Test for doneness by removing it from the pan and thumping it on the bottom, it should sound hollow. Remove from oven, turn out of pan, and cool on rack. Makes 1 loaf.

Jill's Irish Brown Bread

*I have made this by hand and in my food processor, both work great although the food processor is much faster.*

1 c all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp cold butter
2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c regular rolled oats
1 1/2 c nonfat plain yogurt

Mix first 5 ingredients and then cut in butter until mixture forms fine crumbs. Stir in whole wheat flour and oats. Add yogurt and stir gently. If mixture is too dry stir in some milk 1 teaspoon at a time just until dough holds together.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead 5 times to make a ball. Set on a lightly greased baking sheet and pat into a 7-inch circle. Cut a large X on top of loaf.

Bake at 375 degrees until well browned, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on rack. Makes 1 loaf.