A Delicious Research Project

 

I really wanted to eat a ginger cookie, 

but had none. It was time to put my sourdough starter to work ~

Sourdough Ginger Molasses Cookies

Delicious

Soft 

Now the only problem will be 

my poor self control when it 

comes to cookies, especially of 

the ginger/molasses sort. 

(I may be a distant relative of the Cookie Monster! )

Next project will be

Sourdough biscuits

“C is for cookie that’s good enough for me.”

~ Cookie Monster Sesame Street

Sourdough cookie recipe from: homesteadandchill.com

Sourdough biscuit recipe from: littlespoonfarm.com

Homemade Granola

Cashews and almonds

Seeds and grains

Maple syrup, butter and olive oil

Cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

A delicious crunchy bite

~ by the spoonful.

“The greatest dishes are very simple.”

~ Auguste Escoffier, French chef

(1846 - 1935)

A Good Start

Cooking with Potatoes is the beginning of another creative journey. This is not the cookbook I had planned to begin with, but I have an overabundance of the starchy spuds! So I melded two goals together - use up the potatoes and begin my at home cooking lessons. I began with Potato & Meatballs in Spicy Sauce. Despite the name, the potatoes, the starchy element, are mixed with meat and spices.

I have been cooking from childhood til today. One of my early kitchen memories is watching mom or one of my sisters preparing and cooking food. I don’t often use recipes, even though I have more cookbooks than I need. Tonight, I followed the recipe, almost perfectly. I have potatoes, just not mealy potatoes which the recipe called for. The meatballs should have been made smaller than I made them. So, while the flavours were delicious, the meatballs fell apart. Not a bad start, just a lesson learned. Don’t overcook the potatoes - get’s rid of all the starch needed to bind the meat.

The result was my supper, as well as two freezer meals. A good start!

“What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, 

he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.”

~ A.A.Milne

It's Real Cheese-y!

A trial run at a Jamie Oliver recipe ~ and it felt like I’d run a mile - ending with crossing the finish line #1! There was lots of chopping - fennel, leeks, garlic. Having never worked with either fresh fennel or leeks, I had to run back and forth from kitchen to you-tube, from kitchen to table to find all the details that a recipe doesn’t necessarily provide. Like how to clean leeks, and how to cut up fennel (Martha Stewart was my teacher on that last one), when to put in the various cheeses and how much - grated or pinched off in pieces - better known as flavour bombs. My son, Jason backed me up when I needed the pasta drained or when I needed a missing ingredient. The final taste testing was our supper - it was superbly delicious. The next test will be to see how it tastes in the morning - cold from the refrigerator; and secondly, how will it freeze with all the dairy in it. 

From:  Jamie Cooks Italy

            Lasagna ~ Leeks and Fennel

    Cheeses:  Parmeson, 

            Teleggio, (substituted with Havarti)

                            Gorgonzola, (substituted with Blue Cheese)

                            Ball of Mozzerella 

“Good food is a global thing and I find that there is always 

something new and amazing to learn ~ I love it!

~ Jamie Oliver

On a Whim

What to do with the chicken this time?

So I started to build a ‘recipe’ 

Chicken thighs - I’ll cook them in the oven but want something different.

Salt and Pepper - that’s usual, but a sprinkle of oregano sounds like a nice addition.

Hmmmmm……..sour cream! I’ll coat them with sour cream. 

Good. All in the baking dish but they do look lonely.

I know! Potato slices - looks too, I don’t know, boring.

A few slices of onion should help - flavour will be good. Just a quarter of one though. I’m not a big onion fan except for the flavour.

It really does need some colour!

Oh well, in the oven at 350 F for an hour.

~~~~~

Now for the colour - frozen broccoli over it all with little

chunks of orange bell pepper. Back in the oven so they can thaw and cook. That’s better.

Afterthought: finely grated parmesan cheese. Yes, that seems just right.

Final taste test  (my supper)

It was delicious! The chicken was moist and flavourful. I would do something different with the sour cream though. It curdled and the look of the dish wasn’t up to snuff. 

**Note:  I am incredibly grateful to all the truckers that brought me the groceries for my supper. I do not know all the personal reasons for the convoys and protests that each trucker and individuals brought to the Legislature today. I am, however, annoyed - no, I am angry - that some have chosen to disregard the very real danger of the viral spread we are living with. That includes our politicians. If any of it has to do with just a whim, I am even more angry.

“Are you going to cater to the whims and prejudices of people 

who have no intelligent knowledge of what they condemn?”

~ Susan B Anthony Collection

Wherever We Land

Home ~ a feeling 

surrounded by photographs and recipes

artfully posed or candid surprise shots,

wrinkled pages stained with coffee and cake batter

Home is a feeling

infused by scents and sounds of Christmas

Roasting turkey and apple pie,

Crackling fireplace and carolling.

Home is a feeling

created from our homes before now

blending family traditions

creating new traditions from belief.

“The experience is about how we get there, not the landing place.”

 ~ Bill Buxton

(Canadian computer scientist and designer)

Honey Mustard Chicken and Potatoes

Online from 

'Cafe Delites for all good food lovers'

Far be it from me to alter any recipe! That is unless I’m missing one or two ingredients. In this case it was only one - mustard seed. Not to worry, the recipe also called for dijon mustard, so substitutions were not necessary. I did add a squirt of mayonnaise just to pump up the flavour. This delicious garlicky dish started out on the stove, browning the chicken and creating the honey mustard sauce. When the potatoes were added, there just seemed to be something missing…….ahh…..mushrooms. Some lovely little crimini mushrooms in the fridge were just begging to be used. So in they went. No green beans per the recipe? Not a problem. A sprinkling of frozen peas fixed that. It was a delicious late supper ~ that’s what happens when I sleep the afternoon away.

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. 

In cooking, you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

~ Julia Child

An Un-Recipe

Scrambled eggs, for me, are a comfort food any day, any time, or any season. It can be a simple scramble with only salt and pepper with toast and marmalade along side. Or it can be just a bit more interesting - spiced up. On one of his TV shows, Chef Jamie Oliver demonstrated how to prepare spices before mixing them into anything. Melt a bit of butter in a frying pan, add the spices and heat until they are fragrant. I actually didn’t know that spices could be fragrant, but found the aroma of melted butter, red pepper flakes, curry and fennel to be quite delicious. For my more than simple, but easy, scramble, I add cooked rice, stirring around just to marry it with the spices. Before the rice gets browned, but when it’s heated through, I pour in the scrambled eggs. At medium heat, I cook the eggs until they are soft, but not browned.  

Comfort food nourishes body and soul. Preparing comfort food, or any food, often is part of that comfort and nourishment. Gathering accompaniments and creating a fairly decent presentation almost makes me feel like a chef. The aroma of cooking food, the anticipation of sitting down to the completed dish and finally the taste created for personal preference completes any good ‘Un-recipe’. 

“Recipes are overrated.”

~  Chef Jose Andres

Ingredients:

Eggs

Cooked rice

Spices (I use red pepper flakes, fennel and curry)

Salt and Pepper

(Optional - Mushrooms, or anything else)

What's Normal?

‘Normally’ only refers to 

a given circumstance

but begs comparison 

to the perceptions of others.

Nourishment for each culture

comes down from the ages

where there were no recipes

only hunger and thirst.

“It is not necessary to advertise food to hungry people, 

fuel to cold people, or houses to the homeless.”

~ John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)

Book Review - My Kitchen Year - 136 Recipes that Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl

Let me begin by saying that I have never, ever read a cookbook from cover to cover. Most cookbooks have only a handful of recipes that I use, some more than others. Most cookbooks, at least the ones that I own, have short entries about the chapter, or a delicious promise that tempts taste with texture and colour. This cookbook is about the author and her journey following the demise of Gourmet in the fall of 2009. She had been the Editor in Chief of this once popular magazine for ten years and was suddenly confronted by a blank calendar. Each recipe comes from a thought, a worry, a memory or just the experience of the day. They are recipes she has known, recipes she has recreated from a favourite restaurant or tweaked to shape her preferences. Experimenting with No Knead Bread in my own kitchen was from one such recipe from the original by James Lahey. My Kitchen Year is also replete with photos. Photos of plates of finished recipes, but also photos of the seasons and places. My Kitchen Year is sectioned with the seasons beginning with Fall, each recipe matching the season with dishes that nourish not only the body but the soul. 

Ruth Reichl has writes about preparing and cooking food with gentle passion. Yes, some of the dishes have ingredients that I will probably never have access to, but then she lived in a world of extraordinary fare. What she discovered after being away from such a world is that extraordinary fare was found in her own home, and from her own hand. If you enjoy preparing to cook, cooking or baking and then enjoying the results of this act of creativity, you will enjoy this book. Ruth Reichl brings the cook into the kitchen.

“To me recipes are conversations, not lectures; they are a beginning, 

not an end. I hope you’ll add a little bit more of this, 

a little less of that, perhaps introduce new spices or different herbs. 

What I really want is for my recipes to become your own.”

~ Ruth Reichl, My Kitchen Year

Title:  My Kitchen Year - 136 Recipes that Saved My Life

Author:  Ruth Reichl

Published in Canada by: Appetite by Random House

Copyright: 2015

Format:  Hard Cover

ISBN: 978-0-14-752995-4

eBook ISBN: 978-0-14-752996-1

Type: Cookbook

The Second Loaf

A couple of weeks ago, I made my first loaf of No-Knead Bread. Successful and quite delicious. As it was disappearing at an alarming rate - still haven’t found the culprit - I made a second loaf.  I made some changes that I really didn’t think would make much different. But the texture and the taste of the bread were off. (By the way, this loaf also has disappeared. I did make a back up loaf - and again this loaf has disappeared right out of my kitchen. Whoever has disappeared them also used up my butter and my honey!) 

The changes were:

The yeast - I didn’t bring the yeast to room temperature before mixing with the flour.

The bowl - I used a much larger bowl

Rising - I had the second rise go on much longer and had it in the refrigerator for most of the second rise.

Ultimately, the second loaf was good bread, but just okay. So I made a third improved loaf  - I ate the last bit today and won’t make anymore until next week. Just have to try again!

“All sorrows are less with bread.”
~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Discovering No-Knead Bread

My first attempt at No-Knead Bread has been pretty darn successful! The crust is a little dark, but doesn’t taste burned. I had my doubts about the recipe and the dough. The recipe was far too simple - flour, water, salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of yeast. The rising time - now that was just weird. Eighteen hours for the first rise! And then punched down, let rise two or three more times! But I was determined - I wanted a bread that was similar to one I buy at the store. When I discovered this recipe online, and then the same recipe in a book I’m reading (136 Recipes that Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl) I had to try it. Strange or not. The dough was sticky and wet. I couldn’t see how it would amount to anything. Did I mention the temperature of the oven? 475 degrees. And the cast iron pot that the dough was to be cooked in was to be heated up as well as the lid. Getting the dough into this dangerously hot dutch oven was a challenge but I did it without burning myself. Baked for 30 minutes, the lid was to come off and the round loaf of bread I saw was nothing short of amazing. It was a beautiful caramel colour and I was tempted to take it out right away. But, I followed the directions and left it in without the lid for 15 more minutes. I really think it could have come out about five minutes earlier because it seems a bit too dark. It is delicious, though. Crusty, chewy and sweet although no sugar was added. Ruth Reichl says that the additional rising times make a difference to the flavour of the bread. 

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; 

and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.”

~ James Beard

136 Recipes that Saved My Life - My Kitchen Year

By Ruth Reichl

Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread Recipe at leitesculinara.com

When in Doubt: Cook Something

What does one do when walking long walks are not on the agenda?

Slow short walks are ok.

Sitting in the sun at Starbucks and 

visiting with a friend is lovely.

But in the afternoon

when life settles into quiet?

Bake cookies! 

- and get my feet up after

discovering  a new recipe - 

The Best Gingersnap cookie recipe

with a snap from the ginger and 

a crisp to the cookie - two hours for the real crisp to set in.

(so says the recipe)

Taste tester approved before the two hours were up!

“No cry because cookie is finished. Smile because cookie happened.”

~ Cookie Monster, 

The Joy of Cookies: Cookie Monster’s Guide to Life. 

Recipe at:  seriouseats.com  

‘The Best Gingersnaps Recipe’ 

Tasty Treats

Tasty treats at any time 

are pleasing to my tummy ~

pretty on a party plate

oft made by someone’s mummy.

But who knows the creator

of that very first recipe ~

a wise old witch or warlock

just wanting a snack with tea?

“Drinking tea with a pinch of imagination.”

~ 50 Ways to Drink Tea

Author's note: Edited February 22, 2024