Cooking Cabbage Cuteness

Shredded Sprouts

I don't like Brussels sprouts.  Period. 

The interesting thing about Brussels sprouts... they are SO cute!  Like cabbages for children!  Every time I see them I am tempted by their petite, cutie-pie cabbageness.  I find myself cooking them, then eating them, then HATING them!

That said... I bow to the whims and tastes of others.  Don't ever say I only cook what I like.  You're welcome to say I usually only cook what I like.  Since I like the way sprouts look, it had to happen.  With my sister and her husband (b-sprout lovers) visiting, and my husband (another b-sprout lover) to cook for, I had no excuses.  The lovers outnumbered the haters.  So it had to happen.  I cooked cabbage cuteness once again.

The result was beautiful, colorful, deliciously odiferous.  But (sigh) they tasted like Brussels sprouts.  Due to demand from my foodie fans, here is the recipe for Shredded Brussels Sprouts.  (By the way, the alliteration stops here, and now.  Pinkie Promise.)

Shredded Sprouts

Serves 8 (or 6 if my sister eats with you!)

Rating:  Leftovers in Lunch (just not MY lunch!)

1/2 cup chopped pecans (toasted)

1  pound fresh brussels sprouts

2 T olive oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and slice the sprouts.  Cut them in half and slice them thinly.  Heat the oil and lightly brown the garlic.  Add the brussel sprouts and saute until just tender.  Stir in the toasted pecans and serve.

Warning:  They taste like BRUSSEL SPROUTS!  Only better.

Warming My Heart

Goulash Soup

Serves 8-10

Rating:  No Leftovers

When we lived in Germany, we had Goulash Suppe many times and at many different events.  Most involved a lot of beer and late nights.  This is a hearty, invigorating, soul warming meal that is used as its own course in a long evening of partying.  The best Goulash Soup I ever ate was at midnight, at a wedding reception that was still going strong when we left at 2 a.m.  I assume that was due to the soup course that was served a couple of hours prior. 

The combination of potatoes, carrots, caraway, and tomato is so delicious.  When I serve this at parties, there are NEVER leftovers.  If there is more, they just keep eating.  People pass up dessert for another bowl.  It is a great crockpot recipe if you have the time to cook it all day.

I have spent 20 years finding just the right combination of seasonings to duplicate that delicious bowl of soup.  I think I have finally done it.  If you like a soup that will stick with you, satisfy you, and warm your heart (a little Prilosec should take care of that, though) enjoy!

Goulash soup is best served with nice crusty bread, roll, or a soft bretzel, and a spoonful of sour cream to garnish (if you like).

2 oz. (2 slices) bacon chopped

2 onions, diced

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 lb. ground beef

1 t cayenne pepper flakes (or to taste)

1 T paprika

1 T caraway seeds

1 T marjoram

2 T vinegar

2 c beef broth

28 oz. of crushed tomatoes

2 c diced potatoes

2 c diced carrots

2 c water + 4 c water

6 oz. can tomato paste

3 T flour

Sauté onions with bacon.  Add garlic. Sauté until onions and garlic are light brown.  Add cayenne, caraway, and marjoram.  Add the paprika and vinegar and cook while stirring for a couple more minutes.  Add beef and continue until no longer pink.  Drain the fat and add 2 cups of water (combine in crockpot, soup pot, or pressure cooker), tomatoes, and broth.  Cook for 2 hours if using soup pot, or 30 minutes in a pressure cooker.  Skip the 2 hour cooking if using a crockpot.  Add the remaining water mixed with the flour, tomato paste, and vegetables, adjust seasoning (including salt and more cayenne) and cook for 3 hours.  If using a crockpot, cook all day (8 hours).  If using a pressure cooker, cook for 15 minutes on high pressure. 

Serve with rolls and sour cream, if desired. 

Getting Fat

Three Kings’ Cake

Serves 16

Rating:  Leftovers in Lunch

Mardi Gras is fast approaching.  Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday for non-francophones) is on traditionally the last day to enjoy all the things you give up for the Lenten season. Pope Gregory, in the 6^th century, moved the beginning of Lent to Wednesday.  He marked those who came for forgiveness with ashes in the traditional  biblical symbol of repentance, ashes and sackcloth – think Job.  The reason to move Lent to Wednesday may be lost in speculation, but it was probably to give the season exactly the 40 days needed to resemble Christ’s 40 days in the desert.  This is because (true-true-true) Sundays are FEAST DAYS, and so can’t count as part of Lent!

Still, many people cleaned their houses of all those things they should NOT eat during Lent.  These were meat, eggs, and dairy.  The reason is kind of funny.  But in the Middle Ages these foods were thought to increase seminal production and so led to increased carnal activity.  So we get to the REAL things that were forbidden during Lent, eh?

So what does this have to do with Mardi Gras?

If you can’t eat it (or do it) for the next week 40+ days, you are bound to want it ONE LAST TIME, and in abundance.  Another reason for Fat Tuesday, is that people hate to see things go to waste.  So what do you cook that gets rid of all the milk, eggs, cream, butter, and bacon or sausage in the house.  Make pancakes!   (Hence Pancake Dinners on Mardi Gras!)

Many people spend Mardi Gras at various youth group sponsored Pancake Dinners.  Unless you live in the South, where it is warm enough in February to party outside ….  Then you have Mardi Gras! 

So what does this have to do with Three Kings’ Cake?

Traditionally a Christmas Season treat used to commemorate the search the three wise men made looking for baby Jesus, the cake was served during Epiphany or after the 12 days of Christmas.  Now the cake is baked all through the seasons, up to and including Mardi Gras.  The three seasons; Christmas, Epiphany, and Septuagesima, lead up to Lent.  Their liturgical colors are gold (or white), green, and purple, respectively.  The King Cake is a circular bread-like cake, similar to a tea ring, iced with white icing and sprinkled with gold, green and purple sugars – Mardi Gras colors.  A small token is hidden in the cake to represent the baby Jesus.  I have a little plastic baby, but some use coins, a bean, or other trinkets.

There are different traditions associated with finding the trinket inside.  Some make the finder the “King” for the day.  Some use the finding to give that person special, but temporary, privileges.  They get to wear a crown, or special beads, lead the group for the day or even for the year.

But with privilege comes responsibility!  The chosen one should give a party, open his house, or other such generous activity.  Most usually the finder, or “King,” has to also provide the next cake!

So if you want to start the tradition, or are responsible for keeping it going, try this recipe of mine for “Three Kings’ Cake.”  You will find that store bought ones (found in EVERY southern bakery and grocery) do not always have the trinket (liability issues perhaps?) and just are not as good as homemade.

So enjoy!  At least until Ash Wednesday!

Three Kings’ Cake

The Cake

¾ C water, warm – 85 degrees

2 eggs

2 T sugar

4 C all purpose flour

1T cinnamon

1 t salt

¼ butter, softened

1 T active dry yeast

To make the dough

Follow the instructions on your bread machine, using the dough cycle.  Without a bread machine, mix water, sugar and yeast together.  Let sit until yeast is foamy.  Mix in the eggs, butter, and rest of the dry ingredients.  Knead in enough of the flour to make a stiff dough.  Knead until smooth and elastic.  Let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. 

The Filling

1 C brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

1 C pecans, chopped

4 large dates, chopped

½ C flour

½ C butter, melted

To make filling

Mix together all ingredients thoroughly.

Putting it together

When dough is ready, turn out onto floured board and stretch, press, and wrestle into a 12 in x 6 in rectangle.  Spread the filling over the dough, leaving an inch along the far edge, the 12 in one furthest from you.  Place the trinket somewhere along the near edge and roll up, cinnamon roll style and seal the edge.  Carefully lift the roll and place seam side down onto a parchment lined 16 in diameter pan (a pizza pan works best).  Seal the ends together and gently stretch, pull and move to make a nice circle.  Proof (rise) in a warm area like the oven with the light on, covered with greased plastic wrap, for another 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.  Let cool.

To decorate

Use your favorite powdered sugar glaze recipe or try this one.

2 oz. cream cheese (optional – really good!)

2 C powdered sugar

1 t vanilla extract

4 T milk (more as needed)

Combine the cheese and milk and add to powdered sugar a little at a time, until it is drizzling thickness.  Drizzle over the cake. 

Sprinkle with Gold, Green, and Purple sugar.

To make the colored sugar, just mix a few drops into white sugar until the desired color is achieved.

Loving Costco

Let me start with a question:  Have you ever found yourself with 10 pounds of an ingredient and no idea how to cook it?

Last summer my foodie son talked me into buying some quinoa. This isn't a problem, except that we were at Costco at the time. 

 For those who don't know (like me), quinoa is, (from Wikipedia):

"Quinoa ( /ˈkiːnwɑː/ or /kɨˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish: quinua, from Quechua: kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds."

It is a native South American plant, the seeds eaten like a grain. Having never cooked, eaten, or even heard about this interesting looking food, I should have heeded my better judgement, and said no.  But in my shock that he even spoke to me directly (those with teens know what I am talking about) I found myself putting the quinoa in the cart with hopes and dreams of my aloof teen and myself cooking quinoa dishes together, laughing, enjoying familial bliss as we once did when he was 5 years old.  I saw it then.  My son standing on a chair at the counter, stirring, mixing, tasting....

But reality intrudes and *POOF* my now 6 foot tall son at the university and I am stuck with a 10 pound bag of quinoa.  I tried cooking it a couple of ways, and found it didn't really enjoy it .... until ....

Quinoa Cakes

Recuperating from Vaction

We spent the weekend in the oldest city in the United States.  St. Augustine, Florida.  The weather was great, if a bit cool.  The city was very... well... historical.  And the food was very tasty, if a little bit touristy at times.  But overall, a great weekend.  It was easy to avoid over-indulging, as we only ate out about once a day (not counting coffee breaks).  I enjoyed the blackened shrimp salad, the empanadas and the seafood cannolis.  Mostly, I enjoyed the scenery. 

Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.  (Once the Ponce de Leon Hotel.)

The beach at the research reserve north of town was incredible.  There was not another living soul for miles!  I felt like Ponce de Leon must have felt when he landed there in 1513.  

The Guana - Tolomato - Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve

I am IN LOVE with Spanish Moss!  I don't know why.  And I will never get over seeing palm trees everywhere! 

  SPANISH MOSS!  YEAH!

But as we were gone all week-end, I never made it to the grocery.  This means we have to improvise!  The menu this week is from whatever I can make from the freezer, or whatever I have on hand.  Being a bit tired of eating out, I craved some simple foods.  So... What can you make with bread (sourdough), Swiss cheese, milk, and ham?  Croque Monsieur, of course!

Croque Monsieur (translated mostly as "Mr. Crunchy") is a French bistro staple.  It is so easy and delicious!  This is a "knife and fork" sandwich.  Traditionally it is made with Gruyere cheese, but a very good Amish Swiss cheese will do as well.  I use light Swiss and Smart Balance Butter Blend with skim milk in the sauce.  It saves a little on the calories and fat.  This is a perfect week night hot sandwich meal.  Great with fruit or a salad.

Croque Monsieur

Adapted from Bon Appetit (May 2001)

Servings: 2

Rating:  No Leftovers

Sauce

1 T butter or margarine

1 T flour

1/2 c milk

1 bay leaf (remove before serving)

1/4 c shredded swiss cheese

2 T grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Make sauce by melting butter and stirring in flour.  Whisk in milk until smooth.  Add bay leaf and cook, stirring until sauce thickens.  Stir in cheese, salt and pepper to taste.

Sandwiches

4 slices firm bread (french, sour dough, etc)

1 T mayonnaise

4 thin slices ham

4 thin slices swiss cheese

1 T butter or margarine

Make sandwiches with ham between cheese slices.  Butter the outside of the sandwich and grill until browned on both sides.  Put sandwiches in a shallow baking dish and top each with 1/2 of the white sauce.  Broil until sauce is golden brown and cheese is melted through.  Cut and serve.

Menu for the Week

Veal Chili Soup

Enchiladas and Salad

Croque Monsieur and fresh fruit