Invisible eggplant cake

This is our Zucchini Bread substituting Eggplant.   The color of banana bread without that cloying sticky flavor; not too sweet tasting with a curious after- tang, I bet no one will identify the mystery ingredient and it will be universally loved.   Good plain or with Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge icing (the glossy dark color perhaps hints at the original shiny aubergine peel).

1 eggplant, sliced in half and broiled 10 minutes each side.

 3 cups all purpose flour      
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
stir together the dry ingredients            

Add

3 eggs
1 cup olive  oil
           2 1/4 cups sugar

Mix.     Scoop the soft broiled eggplant flesh out of the skin and add to the mixture, beating well.
Bake in 325 for 30-50 minutes (I used an oblong glass pan time.)  It will be a gray-brown, banana bread color.

For optional chocolate frosting, I used unsweetened baking chocolate, 4 large marshmallows and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Melt all together on stove top or microwave, mixing until all ingredients are melted and combined and thick and shiny (yum).  Also makes good fudge as it!  I think my daughter will appreciate it, since she no longer eats cake or icing because the butter is too rich; no buttercream here!

The golden warm cake, unfrosted, and frosted!  Ummm more veggies for dessert!

The way to eat kale

Uniquely flavorful, nodding to traditional greens cooking.

olive oil and/or goose fat
clove garlic
kale leaves, ripped from the tough center ribs
roughly chopped baby bella or other mushrooms
salt and pepper
finely chopped and/or whole hot peppers to taste
sauerkraut--(I had about a cup leftover in the fridge)
finely chopped slices of Canadian bacon


Heat on medium the fat/oil in enameled cast iron casserole, add the ingredients in order listed, toss well periodically and cover and let simmer on medium low for about 40 minutes until kale softens somewhat and the fresh green color becomes more olive colored.

Best. Ever.

More cake-as-vegetable: Zucchini Bread!

Another recipe in the series of how to use up your weekly CSA box of fruit and veggies:  the best zucchini bread.  And let's admit it, it's cake.  You can bake this recipe in two loaf pans like bread, but I just bake it as one big beautiful Bundt.

It's great weather for this as fall blows in, and there's lots of cinnamon to warm you up.  No butter or dairy, just healthy olive oil, lovely fiber-y zucchini and optional cocoa-dusted pumpkin seeds for my nephew allergic to nuts.  Stays moist as long as you can keep it in the house.  10 minutes prep, 50 min. to an hour in the oven.

3 cups all purpose flour          

1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
stir together the dry ingredients

Add
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil
2 1/4 cups sugar

Mix.     Don't be alarmed that the dough is stiff like cookie dough rather than wet like cake batter:  the zucchini adds a LOT of liquid.

Add grated zucchini.  (As much as you like: about 2 cups is one large or two small zucchini.)

Mix.

Add (optional) 1/2 cup cocoa dusted hulled pumpkin seeds https://www.superseedz.com/

Bake at 325 degrees in two loaf pans or one bundt pan, for 50 minutes more or less (until skewer inserted comes out clean).  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if desired.

Enjoy!  It's ok--it's your vegetable!

Using up the CSA box: eggplant. And, Dog saves Dinner.

Still using up that weekly farm box.  We try to cook through most of them before the new weekly box.  I thought I didn't like eggplant, and we are getting one or two a week.  But I am loving any variation of my made-up rataouille. It's become my new comfort food!

I heated olive oil in my old enameled cast iron pot.  Add roughly chopped onions, peeled and roughly chopped raw eggplant, a few carrots, 6 chopped plum tomatoes , a crushed garlic clove; I threw in what my farmer calls "spicy peppers", seeds removed but left whole so I can remove before serving, because we are not all, in my family, fond of biting heat.   Salt pepper and cumin to taste.  I added a drained two-cup can of chickpeas and a cup of canned chopped tomatoes because I wanted it saucier tonight.  You might add chopped green peppers, chopped zucchini.  Cook until the eggplant darkens and is soft to bite and the rice is ready.

Grocery shopping online I accidentally bought something like 25 lbs of rice (the photo looked like a small 1 lb bag and cost no more!)  AND I  split bulk oatmeal with my college student's apartment (they are living of course on overnight oatmeal "bakes").  So we are now in the grain business.

For my student:  you cook rice like this.  Ratio 2:1 water to rice.  To match my pot of ratatouille I used 4 cups of water and 2 cups rice.  Boil the water.  Add the rice, (salt and/or butter optional, I skip it) turn heat to lowest setting and cover the pot.  When the water is all absorbed, remove from heat, fluff with fork.  Total time:  20 minutes.

ACTUALLY MY DOG SAVED THE DINNER!  I joined my father on the backyard patio to chat, just for a few minutes, with the window open to smell the good cooking.  My dog came to me stood up with her paws on my knees and a panicky alert cry.  I suddenly thought, I bet the dinner is about to burn!  Sure enough, just in time, it was the eggplant and rice, both done at the same time, liquid gone and a few charred chickpeas, but the pot bottom ISN'T burned!

Serve the eggplant over the rice.  Serves 5-6 as main dish for hearty appetites.

Mmmmm.  My fussy vegetarian and my classic-fine-diner both loved it!  Sweet tasty and warming after a pool day and as the evening falls earlier!


Thanks Dog!

Roast peach ice cream!

Summer is the best!  I have decided to remain for the remainder of my days a Girl of Summer.  I think I will return to teaching for the summers off (among other worthy and noble reasons).     

Summer series starts now:    how to use up your weekly CSA box.  Peaches are local New Jersey bounty and as we all know a special chemistry geometrically improves the flavor of peaches when you heat  or cook them.  Yes we have Perfect Peach Pie kindness of Grandpa’s hands, and yes we have Peach Jam which my grandma used to make on the stovetop, just a few jars to use, which is itself justification for eating a slice of bread (make it homemade for a slice of heaven).  

For that reason, (heat + peaches = sunshine in the flesh)  AND because you know it is our philosophy here to make do without extra appliances and I don’t have a suitable appliance to whip up Peach Puree--ROAST PEACH ICE CREAM!  I thought broiling the peaches would make them easy to mash with a fork or potato masher, yes, it did.  You may also barbecue the peaches!

(I know, “roast peach” sounds almost like “roast beast “c/o Dr. Seuss and the Grinch! Only my dog would like roast beef ice cream!)

Recipe:

Roast 5 peaches:  Half, pit, and broil, grill or bake until slightly blackened.  Slip off the skins and mash.

Cook over medium heat:

2 cups milk

3 cups sugar

¾ tsp. Salt

When steaming hot almost boiling, stir in:

6 lightly beaten eggs

Cook, stirring, until the custard until thickens slightly.

Stir in:

4 cups heavy cream

2 tsp. Vanilla

Your mashed roast peaches and juice

Freeze several hours or overnight.  

Churn in your ice cream maker then freeze several hours for hard ice cream or serve immediately for soft serve (soft serve was good too but melted too fast to photograph!)

This made slightly too much to churn all at once for my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment bowl to my Kitchen Aid mixer, so I made two batches, a small batch to taste soft serve and the bulk of it to freeze for later. (I LOVE my #KitchenAid_ice_cream_maker_attachment, a gift from my son; having successfully used it starting with orange-buttermilk sherbet, dairy-free sorbets for my daughter and multiple fresh fruit produces, I gave one to my brother to make allergen free ice cream for his little boy.)

Job done. My family LOVED it. Best ice cream ever. Creamy, cold, and lots of delicious icy-creamy peach chunks. Feel free to alter the proportions of cream/half&half/milk and increase the peaches quantity!

Cheatin' Chowdah



With the convenience of shop from home and good intentions to serve (and eat) real food this week, I came home from work on time to the urgent necessity of cooking, tonight, the lovely fillets of cod, haddock and salmon, and of eating another bag of soon-to-expire lettuce.  Broiled the salmon and served a small wedge atop a small lovely lettuce salad (I know, a meal itself), but then--the lovely white fish flesh in an all-American summer-celebrating chowder!

Now I happen to have the new book called Cod: A Biography of the fish that changed the world, by Mark Kulansky. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140275010/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=freeebooks13-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0140275010&linkId=dd17f922b5d4
BUT this is not the recipe (as far as I know) from the back of that book which I haven't read yet.  All I did note was that there used to be a rumor that the children from Marblehead Massachusetts were bigger than all the others because their diet consisted of cods' heads....

THIS was ready and served in LESS than a half hour!

2 fillets of cod or haddock roughy sliced, two inches each
a large yellow onion sliced thinly

Heat in a medium saucepan with 2 T butter, salt and black pepper
Remove the fish when cooked through to another plate

I added a beer to deglaze the pan. (I have a 12 pack of Yuengling lager to get rid of before our southern Baptist relatives visit, which we have because my dad  looks for a beer once a year after hot yardwork, I sent my kid (ADULT CHILD) to the store for a 6 pack, and,  she doesn't drink, or do math.  Yes we are a 3 generation household.)

Boil off the alcohol and add a cup and a half of stock (chicken or vegetable).  Add
quartered mini red potatoes
thinly sliced carrot
chopped tops of celery
frozen green peas
(corn if you have it, I didn't)
Season:  salt, pepper, thyme/tarragon (preferred, but I'm out) or dill or nutmeg or paprika and 4 flakes         dried red pepper
Enrich with 1 cup of half & half or whole milk and return the fish to the pot.
Add a few Trenton oyster crackers or Vermont Common Crackers to each serving bowl.

Job done!  Now read the classics in Cod, or Fannie Farmer, and let me know if this is good enough!

One Bowl Wonder Meal

Home on time to make dinner and craving a good salad?  Check off all your family's food group requirements in one bowl with a Nicoise style salad, with whatever you have on hand to use up.

Rub your extra large salad bowl with a clove of garlic.  Then soak the clove in half/half olive oil, squeeze of half a lemon and red wine vinegar (organic and fermenting, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0131F0NB6/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=httpdinneraccomplished.blogspot.com-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B0131F0NB6&linkId=1f09e38a165b2ff291905a13ee8f441b.  Chop a tomato into it.  Finely slice and chop a few sundried tomatoes into it.   Add  1/4 c. chopped red onion to soak.  Add a few tablespoons of dried cranberries or raisins.

Meanwhile boil the water for a half pound of mixed small red/yellow fingerling potatoes, and slice same into the pot.  When soft, drain the potatoes and while hot, toss with olive oil, wine vinegar, 1/4 c. mayonnaise, and plenty of dried thyme and pepper,  (salt optional).  Also optional, a splash of white wine is traditional.

Back to your salad bowl:  Add dried dill to the dressing at the bottom of the bowl, my new favorite  Italian seasoning! http://amzn.to/2p3iKzg, pepper (salt if you like, I'm skipping the salt); chop a handful of fresh parsley into it.  Add the spinach and toss in the dressing to soften a little.  Chop over the dressing a head of romaine.  Add chunks of canned tuna, two hard boiled eggs quartered.  Crumble goat cheese over the top and toss.

Serve the salad in a large pasta bowl, garnish with optional anchovies, and present with a scoop on top of your warm potato salad.

Presented your family everything they need to eat to eat today.  Job done!

Smuggler's Mystery Cake

I love:  using up stuff in the cupboard and fridge; making do with what I have on hand; avoiding in-person shopping of all kinds; making easy quick cheap nutritious food for my family, AND smuggling some nutritive value (healthy goodness) into my adult vegetarian daughter's diet.  You may wonder why a vegetarian needs smuggled vegetables but her version of vegetarian means she gets to limit her diet to the sweet extras, not caring much for most vegetables or fruits, and definitely not potatoes or ancient grains.

Hence the special cake tonight in lieu of dinner, and having enjoyed a healthy Sunday breakfast and lunch...

Smuggler's Mystery Cake

Mix dry ingredients:
1 3/4 c. all purpose (King Arthur) flour http://amzn.to/2pN1fYX
1/4 c. cocoa*                      *having suffered kitchen cabinet avalanches TWICE with the cocoa, it's                                                not in its original packaging and I also know to be VERY CAREFUL                                                    mixing dry ingredients with cocoa BECAUSE IT'S LIKE TALC, EASY                                                TO BREATHE IN AND DIFFICULT TO SPONGE UP!
2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder (I use Aluminum Free)                                  
                                                 

1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar*       *I used two small fist-sized clumps of brown                                       sugar, having used up what was left                                                     in the sugar bowl....It looked like 2 scant cups

                http://amzn.to/2qnegFA
                      
Dump in:
8 oz. tomato soup
1/2 c. olive oil*                 *As a patriot I used to use California olive oil, but my son and his                                                          California student girlfriend having recently split up, I am trying to avoid                                              C-word memories around the house.  Imported will do fine.
2 eggs                                   \                                                   http://amzn.to/2qiThX2
1 cup "soured" milk    *Similar recipes call for buttermilk but I didn't have it or yogurt on hand.
                                  Since the baking soda is for the buttermilk chemistry, I used nonfat milk with
                                  a squeeze of half a lemon.
Beat all together for several minutes to aerate and create the cake's structure.

Pour into olive oiled oblong pan (I used the same rubber scraper to grease the pan and to scrape down the sides of the bowl, I try to keep my hands and fingers out of the food) and bake at 350 degrees 35 minutes.

                                         chocolate mystery batter

You know with chocolate cake, it's ready before the usual tests apply, before it shrinks in the pan, before it's altogether dry in the middle on testing.

Beautiful, glossy, level!


I iced with a Cream Cheese glaze:  I had about 6 oz. of cream cheese leftover and the only confectionary sugar in the house was about 1/2 cup in my sugar shaker, which I keep in a plastic bag but still wanted to empty and wash before ant season!  I mixed these together with maybe a half teaspoon of lemon juice.  Spread on warm cake . Yummmmm....

.
The cake has a tender crumb and is not too sweet,has an adult flavor and is as good served with red wine as with coffee.
Job Done!
                               

This Little Piggy

I wasn’t going to serve any more pork because pigs are so smart and I hate to eat tortured meat.  But it’s Easter and I’ve recently discovered online food shopping like groceries from Jet or Amazon and decided to look for humanely raised ham, just for Easter this year (I imagine there’s no hope for kielbasa.  Anyway last few times I ate this family favorite I felt like it was going directly to my heart.)  I found some heritage pigs pasture raised in Canada and shipped to my heavenly place on Earth, Vermont, to be cured in maple syrup at Shelburne Farms—but they were sold out until after Easter.  SO I tried two others.  William Sonoma, same heritage pigs, but spiral sliced (easy to serve but never as tasty), and a boneless one from Circle B Ranch.  They were both good. 

Since I spent a fortune on humane meat I decided to be frugal as I USUALLY am in all the dishes on Dinner Accomplished!  So is used the ham bone to make a stock:

Simmer the ham bone in a stock pot with water, and the usual stock vegetables.  I only had two carrots. I cooked it about an hour , it made nice steam and it’s a cold rainy April Saturday.  Skim the fat, scum, bubbles off the top (there wasn’t much with my William Sonoma ham!).  Remove the ham bone and the carrots.  I added a whole handful of parsley, roughly chopped (I just read that parsley and also grapefruit are magic weight loss foods and parsley is usually a cheap herb so I keep bunches of it on hand now and use it everyday!).  I added an entire bag of DRIED RED LENTILS, a chopped yellow onion, salt, pepper, ginger to taste, cumin to taste, simmered until the lentils soft—or much longer like I did, achieving disintegration like pea soup. 

I reheated it with roughly chopped spinach and a chopped tomato,

and served it over rice with the most delicious (humanely produced) sausages from Circle B Ranch!  (I had to add  more products to have the ham shipped so….)

This also makes a super vegetarian dish without the ham bone and the sausages (I know, I make everything twice to include a vegetarian version for my daughter.  Well actually I usually just make things vegetarian for everyone, but sometimes there’s precious Easter ham and sausages)