Baking Powder Drop Biscuits

I whipped these together this morning for breakfast for Benji and me, and took the leftovers to Eryc and Sophia for afternoon snack. This is a classic recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which my mother bought me years ago. However, I have used this page so many times that it has fallen out and is gone forever, so I’m forced to find it online at epicurious.

I don’t have the patience to roll out biscuit dough, so I make the drop biscuit variation, which are wonderfully easy and tasty. They have a light, fluffy texture and a hint of sweetness. We topped them with the last few drops of a delicious floral honey that Alison brought me from Provence seven or eight years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what kind of honey it was because Ben scorched the label in the microwave, so now all we can read is “miel” and “fleurs.”

The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute butter (yum) for shortening (yuck). What a great way to start spring break!

Rustic Jam Shortbread Tart

Last night, we delivered dinner to our dear friends, Nicole and Alex, to help celebrate the recent birth of their beautiful daughter, Madison. When our son, Joseph, was born, they did the same for us, and really threw down the gauntlet by making homemade Chicago-style deep dish pizza, salad and dessert. Of course, dinner is not a competition unless you aspire to be the next Food Network star chef, but I certainly wanted to reciprocate with something equally delicious.

This recipe is another simple yet elegant discovery from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. It’s a buttery shortbread crust, flavored with lemon zest and almond extract, that you make entirely in the Cuisinart and press into a tart pan. I am notoriously horrible (horrible!) at making pie crust, so a tart crust is my ideal... easy, delicious and no-stress. You bake the crust until it begins to brown, then top it with some sort of interesting jam and bake it again until the jam starts to bubble. Cool on a rack and serve. Yum!

I chose Bon Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves, perfect because they were flavorful but not too sugary sweet and the most beautiful rich color. Seconds were had by most and the recipe received 5 stars all around. I will absolutely make this again—it came together quickly, looked spectacular and was a crowd-pleaser.

In case you’re interested in the overall menu, I also made a salad of organic baby romaine with dried cranberries, cherry tomatoes and toasted walnuts, with a red wine vinegar and balsamic vinaigrette, cheese-gilded linguine with smoky tomatoes and garlic bread. Not quite as spectacular as homemade Chicago-style pizza, but a good showing nonetheless.

Classic Herb-Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potato Oven Fries & Lemony Steamed Asparagus

Here is the test of a truly perfect roasted chicken: Picture everyone in the family standing around the carved chicken carcass, gleefully devouring pieces of crispy brown skin. This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks, by Linda Carucci. The herb-roasted chicken is absolutely scrumptious and fills the house with the most intoxicating aroma.

In the summer, when my herb garden is happily growing in the warm Colorado sunshine, I make this recipe exactly as written, rubbing the skin with oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and slipping fresh thyme sprigs under the skin. This technique imbues the moist chicken breasts with the most wonderful flavor. In the winter, I instead rub the skin with garlic powder and herbes de Provence, a delicious blend that includes rosemary, marjoram, thyme, sage, and, most interestingly, lavender.

There is no buttering or basting required, and I’m even too lazy to do the optional trussing. The real secret to the irresistibly crispy skin is cooking the chicken briefly at 425°, then lowering the temperature to 350° to roast for about an hour. The chicken is always moist and flavorful, and, a true testament to its perfection, there are never any leftovers. Sophia, who is only four and quite petite, usually eats one or two legs and a thigh. I eat about half of a split breast and Ben polishes off the rest.

To round out this yummy weeknight dinner, I made sweet potato oven fries, which I roasted right alongside the chicken, and steamed asparagus, topped with a bit of melted butter and fresh lemon juice. A perfectly satisfying, healthy and delicious meal. 

Steamed Artichokes & Abuelita

Yes, this is as weird as it sounds, but it’s a food moment in my life that I can’t let pass by without capturing. We’re having a snow day here in Colorado, so I made a tasty grownup lunch for Ben and myself while Sophia napped—sourdough (because I couldn’t find French bread), brie, steamed artichokes and red wine. I made an extra artichoke for Sophia to have after nap time.

As soon as she got up from her nap, Sophia bundled up and went out to try her new snowshoes with Ben. While they tromped in the snow, I made them Abuelita, the delicious cinnamon-y Mexican hot chocolate I got hooked on years ago in the Riviera Maya.

They came in, unbundled, and I served them each a steaming mug of cocoa. Sophia spied her artichoke and asked if she could have it with her Abuelita. Who am I to deny her midday veggies?

Ben and I watched in wonder as her cocoa was abandoned and grew cold, eschewed for a steamed artichoke.

Simply amazing!

Whole-Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta & Lemon

As we shared this dish, Eryc, Ben, Sophia and I vigorously debated what rating to give it (my blog has become a family endeavor!) This is a tricky recipe to rate, because it was fundamentally good, but, at the same time, everyone had lots of ideas for improvement. Add crumbled bacon, crisped pancetta, toasted pine nuts, etc. Ultimately, the dish’s imperfections dropped it from a 4 to a 3. That said, it was simple and tasty, creamy without feeling at all heavy and made great use of crisp-tender fresh green beans and cherry tomatoes. 

My mom, Diana, brought me this cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen, this winter, and I love the simplicity of her recipes, her use of flavorful but easy-to-find ingredients, and, to be honest, the beautiful photographs of Giada. Truly, she’s spectacular!

Anyway... Sophia and I have been reading through this book, looking at pictures and talking about the things that are new to her, like yellow heirloom tomatoes and rasp graters (we have a weird household). I picked this because I like the idea of a creamy pasta without a lot of fat—it uses part-skim ricotta. Also, I have fallen in love with the texture of whole-wheat pasta, and have found that it holds up better as leftovers.

All in all, this was colorful, tasty and quick. I do think it needs the added dimension of pine nuts or pancetta, or perhaps a little warmth from red pepper flakes, and I might use a bit more green beans and tomatoes, since everyone here really loves their veggies.

New-Style Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pudding

I’m not sure I can explain the sudden interest in pudding. To be perfectly frank, I don’t even like pudding that much... too creamy and smooth, like yogurt and ice cream. These things need chunks to be good. In our house, we describe this feeling about a particular food as, “I like it, but it’s not my favorite.” This is Sophia’s verbiage, which we all seem to have adopted. Amazingly, I have never heard her say that she just flat-out doesn’t like something. I will have messed up lots of things, but food I’ve done well!

Regardless of my feelings about smooth foods, we all seem to have a mighty sweet tooth this winter (sweet teeth?), and the ingredients in pudding are largely pantry items. Ergo, my second attempt this month at homemade pudding.

Today’s pudding recipe is courtesy Bon Appétit magazine and is a low-fat, healthy version of traditional chocolate pudding. Thus the “new-style” I suppose. First, a few ingredient notes: I used 2% organic milk, instead of 1%, because that’s what we had on hand, and I used Droste Dutch-processed cocoa.

I made this for afternoon snack for Ben and Sophia, and they both gave it four stars. We ate it warm out of the pan, and Ben contends it will be five-star pudding later cold out of the fridge. 

My feeling is four stars either way. The texture is wonderfully silky and smooth, and it was very simple and easy. Foolproof, you might say. However, the flavor smacks too much of cocoa powder and not enough of chocolate. Surely you’ve had the experience of mixing up a cup of hot cocoa using cocoa powder, Hershey’s or otherwise, and finding it insufficiently chocolate-y. I think I’d prefer the splurge of real dark chocolate. However, this was an easy and light treat, so I’m sure it will make its way back into circulation one day.

Cashew Tofu

This is another delicious recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Great Food Fast. I make this dish about once a month with jasmine rice, and I have gradually made a number of changes to improve it (sorry Martha!).

The first change, which I made the first time I prepared it, was to add a few small sliced zucchinis. As is, the recipe doesn’t contain a green veggie, and, well, you can’t have that! The zucchini was an instant hit, and I’ve always added it. 

The next time I made it, we decided that the sweetness of the hoisin sauce needed something to balance it. So, I doubled the amount of rice wine vinegar and steeped ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes in the vinegar, draining them off just before adding the vinegar to the dish. The red pepper flakes don’t really make the dish spicy, but the little bit of heat does balance out the cloying sweetness of the sauce.

Lastly, and, to me, most importantly, I got rid of the chicken. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of chicken, and I absolutely hate the way it tastes when reheated. (I feel I read somewhere recently that chicken is weirdly altered in the microwave... if I remember the source I’ll post it.) So, I’ve replaced the 1½ lb. chicken breast the recipe calls for with 2 lb. firm organic tofu, which I press for a few hours under my Le Creuset and 20 lb. of dumbbells for a wonderfully firm texture.

Not only is the tofu much less expensive than chicken, especially comparing organic to organic, but it gets nice and crispy, takes on the flavor of the sauce and reheats much better. 

Now, the dish is pretty perfect! One last note: it’s worth shopping around for hoisin sauce and experimenting a bit. The range of what you can get in the conventional grocery store is limited, and some are better than others. Soon, I vow to make it to Boulder to the Asian Market and try sauces from there. I imagine I’ll be hooked! 

Pasta Frittata with Broccoli, Roasted Red Bell Peppers & Gruyère

This dish falls into the new category in our house called “fancy leftovers.” I am not a pantry shopper, but instead sit down each Sunday morning and plan lunches and dinners for the entire week. I use a grocery list template to help me to remember staples, like coffee, eggs, milk and yogurt, then add on the specific items that I’ll need for the week’s menus. This is a time-consuming process, but it does inspire me to cook more interesting foods from recipes, and I also waste a lot less food.

On Sunday morning, I also glance through the fridge and determine what “dibs and dabs” I need to use up. This week, I found a small crown of organic broccoli and about 1/2 lb. cooked whole wheat pasta. I remembered years ago seeing a recipe for a frittata that used leftover pasta in lieu of potatoes. I poked around epicurious and found a recipe for Pasta Frittata with Broccoli Rabe and Sun-Dried Tomatoes.

Broccoli rabe is difficult to find, so I subbed out my crown of broccoli, steaming it lightly before adding it to the pan. I subbed roasted red bell peppers for sun-dried tomatoes, and Gruyère for Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The result was delicious. It baked up beautifully in 20 minutes and was a creative and scrumptious use of leftovers. The pasta, because it was whole wheat, kept its al dente texture, and the veggies and cheese made a colorful and flavorful combination. We often have leftover pasta, so I imagine this will become a Sunday night favorite.

Risotto

Frankly, I can’t believe this is my first risotto posting. I would imagine that most dedicated home cooks have one or two signature dishes, recipes that they gradually hone over time and in which they take great pride. Risotto is absolutely my signature dish. It’s my go-to comfort food as well as a favorite stand-by when entertaining.

What makes risotto so glorious? In my world, the basic ingredients in risotto—olive oil, arborio rice, yellow onion, white wine, chicken broth and Parmigiano-Reggiano—are everyday pantry staples. All I need to do, then, is add flavorful seasonal ingredients for a fresh take on an old favorite. I love the toothy feel of arborio rice, the creamy texture without heavy ingredients, the smell of the white wine cooking off the sautéed onions and rice.

I also love the physical process of making risotto. If you’ve never made it before, risotto requires about 30 minutes of constant stirring as you gradually incorporate the chicken broth into the rice. Ergo, you have to do all of your mise en place, or ingredient prep, before you start cooking. Once onions and veggies are chopped, broth is simmering and cheese is grated, you’re free to stand at the stovetop, slowly ladling and stirring and drinking a glass of white wine or champagne, which is required for truly tasty risotto. I absolutely adore being “stuck” at the stove for 30 minutes, watching this satisfying dish come together.

My first risotto, which served as the basis of my own recipe now, was with fresh tomatoes and basil from 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes, a beautiful gift from my Aunt Bev. Today, I prefer risotto with something green like sweet petite peas or asparagus, or sautéed mushrooms and lemon zest, and always Parmigiano-Reggiano. It’s even wonderful without any embellishment save a tablespoon or two of cream, and I make a dairy-free version when anyone here has the flu and needs something bland and simple yet appetizing.

Risotto is that magical combination of nourishing and healthy yet rich tasting and sumptuous. One of my all-time absolute favorites. Yum! Oh, and it’s even good cold, eaten straight from the container standing in front of the fridge. Or so I’ve been told...

A Note on Alice Waters & Chez Panisse

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I’ve been keeping a cookbook out that I want to explore further and start cooking from. This is one step in my efforts to splatter up my cookbooks more. Lately, we’ve been working through The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. Since we’ve made a few delicious things from this book already, I thought I should broaden my horizons and move a new book to the table.

Of the 50+ cookbooks I own, three are by Alice Waters, the chef and co-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. While I’ve not been there yet, I’ve read a great deal about Alice Waters and her unparalleled influence on American cuisine.

But, to be perfectly frank, I am wildly intimidated by her cookbooks. The techniques are complex and the ingredient lists are exotic. Today, I got out one of her books, the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook. As Sophia and I ate lunch (U.S. Senate bean soup and crunchy organic peanut butter sandwiches), I flipped through the book, growing less and less confident.

Smoky Garlic Sausage with Kale? Sounds good. Oh, wait, you make your own sausage! No.

Pigeon Salad with White Bean Toasts. Longmont has plenty of pigeons, but no.

King Salmon in Fig Leaves. Where will I get fig leaves? Or nasturtium blossoms? No.

Artichoke, Cardoon and Endive Salad. I love artichokes, but what in the world are cardoons? Alice says cardoons resemble “giant gray-green heads of celery.”

Sadly, I believe Alice is headed back to the shelf.

Flash Chicken Sauté with Cider and Almonds, Brussels Sprouts & Yukon Gold Potatoes

To encourage myself to introduce more variety into our meals, I’ve been keeping one cookbook I want to cook from more on the dining room table (along with the food dictionary, which is crucial for the inevitable food questions that arise, like what exactly is a tangelo?).

If you know me at all, you’ll understand that this is a huge personal challenge for me, because I like everything in its place, and books don’t live on the dining room table. Anyway... during meals, I flip through the chosen book as we chit chat, and together Sophia and I choose something new we’d like to try.

This is the most recent recipe selected by Sophia from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. I suspect she picked it because in the picture, the chicken is featured with fresh green beans. Green beans aren’t in season yet, so I instead served roasted Brussels sprouts (don’t knock ’em if you haven’t tried ’em) and roasted Yukon gold potatoes, which were delightfully crispy and perfect for soaking up extra pan sauce.

The recipe called for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but out of frugality I instead used organic boneless skinless thighs. This substitution necessitated additional cooking time, but otherwise the flavor was still excellent. The pan sauce, which you make from reduced chicken broth, cider vinegar and butter was simple yet delicious, and the final product was topped with a sprinkling of coarse chopped roasted, salted almonds. Yum! I declared after dinner that I now want everything with cider pan sauce and almonds! Actually, come to think of it, this is the second recipe I’ve written about featuring cider pan sauce. Perhaps this is becoming a thing?

The only reason the dish didn’t get five stars is that the sauce is still very thin, even after reduction. Next time, I'll either reduce the chicken broth more up front or let the finished sauce reduce further before adding the butter. Otherwise, this was flavorful, with a rich yet lively sauce. Seems kind of “fancy” for a weeknight dinner, but was actually quick and easy.

Grandma Guglietta’s Marinara with Turkey Meatballs

Two hours and 1,000 sauce splatters later, we just sat down to Grandma Guglietta’s marinara (this is Eryc’s Italian grandmother, Sophia’s great-grandmother) with turkey meatballs from Joy of Cooking.

This used to be my absolute favorite sauce, and it is wonderful for thick, rick gravy, especially over Lorraine’s crepe-like manicotti. However, we’ve recently become accustomed to the sharp, bright flavors of The Splenid Table’s smoky tomato sauce, and now this sauce disappoints in its just-what-you’d expect-edness (no, this is not a word... what word am I looking for?).

The turkey meatballs were also good, fine, but not nearly as good as they were when my mom made them for us December 21, 2006. Of course, we were snowed in with Grandma Lee after a record 36 inches, so everything may have tasted better then!

I will say that the meal was yummy in a comfort food sort of way, but not a good use of two hours of my life and not worth the sauce splattered kitchen.

Oatmeal and Raisins, the Grandma Lee Way

Of course, you can always follow the instructions on the Quaker Oatmeal canister for perfectly acceptable oatmeal. However, in our family, we prefer our oatmeal the Grandma Lee way, which I suppose now is the Great-Grandma Lee way. My Grandma Lee taught my parents, they taught me, and I have already taught Sophia... yes, she’s only four but she loves to cook! In fact, making oatmeal before school is one of her favorite treats. 

First, a quick note on old-fashioned oat brands: I am generally frugal about all things, and have very few brand loyalties aside from organics. However, I recently skimped and bought Kroger-brand oats. Big mistake. The texture of the oatmeal is mushy, unlike Quaker oats, which retain a little toothsomeness after cooking. What’s funny is that I usually buy Quaker oats, frugality aside, because I adore the oatmeal cookie recipe on the inside of the Quaker lid. See what I get for abandoning my cookie recipe?

So, the Grandma Lee way. Combine one part old-fashioned Quaker oats, one part milk and one part water. Add plenty of raisins (yum) and a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and boil, stirring constantly, for one minute. Cover your oatmeal, remove from the heat and let stand five minutes. The result... oatmeal that is much creamier than the Quaker way.

In my years of serving Grandma Lee oatmeal, I’ve realized that there are as many ways to eat oatmeal as there are kind of people. I imagine this is a family tradition, passed down like recipes through the generations. Our people put a small ring of cold milk around the mound of oatmeal once it’s ladled and topped. My mom leaves the ring intact, gradually incorporating the milk and using it to cool each bite as she goes. Sophia and I stir in our rings of milk right away. We have yet to bring Ben over to our side, so his is milk-free. As for toppings, Ben, Mom and Sophia prefer a sprinkling of brown sugar, and I have recently discovered turbinado sugar, which I have left over from my adventures in Irish-American soda bread.

Like the wonderful women before me, I look forwarding to being Grandma Lee some day, and passing this recipe down, milk ring and all. If you eschew the Quaker recipe for ours, I simply ask that Grandma Lee gets credit where credit is due. Enjoy!

Creamy Fettuccine with Asparagus

Ah... spring! Time to get our fill of asparagus, artichokes and fresh berries. This dish, while perfect on paper, resulted in pasta that was fine, but uninspiring. As mentioned in a previous post, Great Food Fast is my go-to cookbook for weeknight inspiration, and for a weeknight dinner this was certain tasty enough. However, the dish lacks interest.

The one change I’ve made is to omit the fresh dill, which I don’t like in anything but pickles and vinegar-based potato salads. I also doubled the pine nuts, because I had extra and because Sophia loves, loves, loves them.

Next time I have two pounds of fresh asparagus, I’m making risotto or serving it steamed with soft scrambled eggs (divine!). And there are certainly better uses of a perfectly yummy log of Haystack Mountain goat cheese. Crusty bread alone would put it to better use.

Irish-American Soda Bread

Foolishly, I signed up to provide snacks for Sophia’s Montessori preschool class on St. Patrick’s Day. My initial thought was to bring something green and easy... zucchini bread, cucumber spears, grapes.

However, Sophia recently reminded me that her teacher, Bridget and Bridget’s mother, Gertie (the afternoon preschool teacher), are actually Irish and have been teaching them Irish dancing at school. In fact, Bridget is a first-generation Irish-American.

Now, the pressure is on! I realized I have to make some sort of quasi-authentic Irish snack for school next week.

So, in preparation, I started experimenting with Irish soda bread. Tonight’s recipe, from the King Arthur Flour Web site, is an Americanized version, calling for raisins, caraway seeds and plenty of sugar, including a milk and sugar glaze. The only change I made to the original recipe is the omission of caraway seeds. Sophia would love them, like everything else, but I doubt they’d have broad appeal among her pickier peers.

The bread is absolutely delicious... sweet, fluffy and moist. My pan was a bit too small (8.5" x 4.5" vs. 9" x 5"), so it overflowed a bit into the oven. I’ll need to buy a few new pans in order to make enough for next Tuesday, but otherwise it was a scrumptious success.

Lentil Soup

Tonight I did a bit of the “secret cooking” I mentioned in a previous post. To get ready for a great week, and to use up some leftover ingredients from last week’s menus, I made this most wonderful lentil soup.

If you do not own Great Food Fast: 250 Recipes for Easy, Delicious Meals All Year Long, by Martha Stewart Living Magazine, I highly recommend you rush out and buy it tomorrow. Why? Simply put, this is the perfect cookbook! Perfect? Yes, perfect.

First, it’s organized by season, encouraging you to cook with what is fresh, flavorful and affordable. Next, it features a full-page color photograph for every single recipe. Amazing! I love to see what a dish is supposed to look like, and I’ve found I’m much more likely to experiment with a new recipe if I can see what the final product looks like. If that wasn’t enough, for each recipe you get hands-on prep time, total cooking time, and, in the back of the book, complete nutritional information. Lastly, every recipe is intended to be simple and fast, making it the ideal cookbook for everyday meal planning.

Great Food Fast was also a gift from my mother-in-law, Lorraine, and it has made a huge impact on how I cook on a day-to-day basis. It has encouraged me to get out of the rut of making the same five or six weeknight meals without forcing me to spend too much extra time in the kitchen. I have given this to almost everyone I’m close with because I think it’s so wonderful. Buy one now! (No, I do not work for Martha Stewart).

So, the soup. I started making this because a) lentils are an inexpensive protein for lunches and b) it’s a great use of just a little bit of leftover bacon. I’ve modified the recipe only slightly, adding a 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes when adding the chicken broth, water and lentils, for additional veggie oomph and flavor. Also, if you decide to make this, spring for the imported tomato paste that comes in a toothpaste-like tube... much more intense flavor (Sophia likes to sample it every time I make this) and it doesn’t require you to deal with the inevitable leftovers from the little can.

The soup has wonderful, smoky flavor, is hearty enough to satisfy Benji and makes a generous enough pot for lunch twice during the week for all three of us. An instant favorite!

Homemade Butterscotch Pudding

This afternoon Sophia and I were reading a children’s magazine, and there was a picture of a little girl with her kitten, named Butterscotch. This, of course, got us to talking about food, and we realized that a) we had no idea what butterscotch was and b) Sophia had never had butterscotch pudding.

Fast forward several hours... the kids are in bed and I’m casually looking up butterscotch pudding on epicurious, curious myself about its key components. Faster than you can say J-E-L-L-O, Ben’s out on a late-night grocery run for heavy cream and whole milk. [Full disclosure: this “late-night” run was at 7:00 PM... remember, we’re tired new parents!]

The resultant pudding was absolutely sinfully delicious! Nothing like boxed butterscotch pudding, the flavor was much more subtle and yet rich. It was remarkably easy, and I thought tasted like the very best things about cookie dough... brown sugar, butter and vanilla! We couldn’t even wait for the pudding to cool, but ate it immediately while it was still warm (yum!).

I have to say, this is only my second time making pudding from scratch, but it’s so easy, I wonder at the popularity of boxed mixes. It took all of 10 minutes (not including the grocery run!). 

And, yes, there is plenty leftover in the fridge for Sophia to sample Friday.

Grandma Lee’s Meatloaf with Mom’s Salad

Apparently this week’s theme is All-American cuisine. Tonight, I made several family favorites, recipes from the Grandmas Lee: my Grandma Lee, named Virginia Lois Lee, and Sophia and Joseph’s Grandma Lee, and my mom, Diana Kay Lee.

I got the original meatloaf recipe from my mom on the phone yesterday. The recipe card reads: “Maw Lee’s Meatloaf” and it’s dated 1967, the year my parents got married. It’s so simple but remarkably delicious, and one of my favorite weekly meals growing up. There are probably as many meatloaf variations as there are families. Our people surround the meatloaf with potato and yellow onion wedges and carrot pieces and add some water to the bottom of the pan. Yum.

This is the first time I’ve made traditional meatloaf. My only other foray into meatloaf was a pancetta-covered turkey meatloaf of Giada's, which is amazing, but not “real” meatloaf. I think tonight’s meatloaf had great flavor, but was perhaps a bit too dry.

I also made a simple salad with organic mixed greens, English cucumber, grape tomatoes and Mom’s most delicious celery seed dressing. It’s salad dressing like you’ve never tasted before—very Midwestern. What makes it taste Midwestern? Sugar and cider vinegar. Just the smell of it makes me nostalgic. 

A very homespun meal and a loving tribute to the wonderful Grandmas Lee.

U.S. Senate Bean Soup

I am a huge fan of the St. Vrain Historical Society’s annual Pumpkin Pie Days. In fact, I have been known to insist that it’s my favorite holiday. Yes, I know it’s not actually a holiday, and no, it’s not really my absolute favorite, but it definitely ranks.

What is Pumpkin Pie Days? During Pumpkin Pie Days weekend, the Boulder County Fairgrounds main building is filled with dozens of stalls crammed with antiques, and the fine women and men (mostly cute grandmas and grandpas) of the St. Vrain Historical Society serve a wonderful meal of vegetable and bean soup, buttered rolls and pumpkin pie with whipped cream (Ben, you’ll be pleased to know that I rewrote this sentence just to avoid the Oxford comma!). The meal is fabulous, and I wait all year for this most favorite of Longmont public events.

In an effort to approximate the wholesome soup of PPDs, I turned to my favorite resource for classic all-American recipes—The Joy of Cooking. The closest recipe I found is U.S. Senate Bean Soup. Why the funny name? This soup has been on the menu of the U.S. Senate every day for over 100 years!

Of course, I modify the recipe to make it as close as possible to the PPDs soup. First, instead of using a ham hock, which usually yields very little meat, I save the end of a spiral cut ham in the freezer. To make the soup, I thaw the ham, cube as much meat as can be removed and use the remaining hock to make the broth. Much better ham flavor and more satisfying pieces of ham. I also add carrots, use more water than recommended for a thinner soup, leave the peels on my potato and leave the beans intact when the soup is done (as opposed to mashing as recommended in the recipe).

The batch I made this evening is for lunches this week. I feel like we need hot, homemade food for lunch at least every other day, so I try to make some kind of soup each week, often on Sunday—for some reason, we call this practice of cooking on Sunday for the upcoming week “secret cooking.” (The other days we have sandwiches and veggies, leftovers or, on really special days, Elia’s burritos!)

The soup is so delicious, so hearty and wholesome and so reminiscent of my wonderful Pumpkin Pie Days! Now, where’s my pie?

Black Beans & Rice

There are very few things that I make without a recipe... I’m just more comfortable and have more fun in the kitchen without the pressure of having to be inventive. This is one of the few things I just whipped up one night and continue to make with whatever I have around.

For this dish, I prepare jasmine rice, then add chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice while the rice is still warm. I serve the rice with canned black beans that I’ve rinsed and seasoned with cumin, garlic powder and salt. Tonight, I had some extra pieces of smoked ham, so I added those to the beans.

We usually have some mild picante sauce on top, and I served the beans and rice with steamed broccoli. A staple dish that is simple, inexpensive and full of fresh flavors.

Pork Chops, Fingerlings & Artichokes

After a luxurious Saturday evening out at Terroir in Longmont with new friends, I felt we needed a delicious but simple dinner tonight while we prepare for a new week. Even though I work from home, I’m still prone to the Sunday night blues, and a healthy, home-cooked dinner is a good way to turn my mood around. 

I sautéed center-cut boneless Coleman pork chops in butter and olive oil (from Joy of Cooking), then simmered them quickly in a pan sauce I had in the freezer. For side dishes, I roasted organic Colorado fingerling potatoes in olive oil and kosher salt and steamed artichokes.

I don’t remember the source of the pan sauce... it was leftover from a dinner in early January. I need to find it soon because it was delicious!

[Pan sauce mystery solved! Mom made it with a pork tenderloin when she was here taking care of us right after Joseph was born. The recipe for pork tenderloin with apple dijon pan sauce is from About.com. Thanks, Mom!]

A simple but beautiful meal and a perfect end to a wonderful three-day weekend.