In Memory

This week I was saddened to learn that a friend’s mother had passed away.  I hadn’t seen this woman in two decades, but she was such a remarkable woman and such a major influence in my life and it got me to thinking about the mark that we leave on people and the influence we have on those around us, sometimes without even realizing it.

I met her and her family when I was in my early 20s and lost touch with them a few years later.  But that small space of time changed me in ways that I wouldn’t realize until much, much later.  More than any one else in my life, this lady was most responsible for my desire to be a good cook.  Watching her start a pot of sauce on a Sunday morning and feed everyone in her house the most delectable treats all day long in addition to the huge sit down dinner of “macaroni” and sauce with the most perfect meatballs you’ve ever seen and chunks of pepperoni that had gently cooked in the sauce all day.  We’d eat in stages, “here, taste this” or “here, try that” a small plate of meatballs before she dropped the rest of them in the sauce, crispy on the outside and tender and perfect on the inside, what she did in that kitchen was no less than alchemy; a magical combination of ingredients and techniques combined with her love of family and her love of food. My own home was nothing like this, so while someone else might not have noticed so much, I saw how special it was.

When I first met her, she used to tease me that I might need the recipe for ice cubes – and when I tried to salt the pasta water with a table salt shaker, she laughed so hard that she couldn’t yell at me properly for a good ten minutes.  You might think that I’d take offense, but she did it all with such a terrific humor, that you couldn’t help but laugh at yourself right along with her. As an aside, that liberal salting of the water is the secret to a deliciously seasoned pasta dish.

She was short and loud and her children towered over her, something that’s quickly happening to me too and my parenting approach is not unlike hers in that she loved her children beyond measure, but wouldn’t stand for any sort of disrespect, and as much as her children knew that she loved them, she would, without hesitation, put you back in line if you stepped too far out.  And that didn’t just apply to her own children, it applied to her children’s friends too.  I always felt like I was one of the family when I was there, as much from her kindness as from her admonishments. One felt that if you were in her house, you belonged to her too.

I wonder if she knew just how much she had influenced me and how fond I was of her.

Cold Peanut Noodles

Sometimes a dish needs to be made a couple of times before you get it right.  This was such a dish, but in the end, it was so good that I’m glad we only made one package of noodle because even though we were very full, we would have kept eating.  The kids and I readily admitted that and

This experiment started yesterday; I wanted peanut noodles, but not sesame noodles, I was looking for the more intense peanut flavor and I scoured the internet for different recipes.  In the end, I made one up myself, as nothing was exactly what I was looking for.

The one thing I wanted to do was use the vermicelli rice sticks and I bought a package, but there were no cooking instructions on the package.

There was however, a recipe on the back that said to soak the noodles in cool water for 5-8 minutes, so I filled a bowl with cool water and put the noodles in the bowl.  After five minutes they were still hard.  After eight minutes they weren’t much softer.  I let them sit for 20 minutes and after that they looked ok.  They actually looked pretty.

I added the vegetables and the sauce to the noodles and… well…  I should have tasted the noodles before I did that.  They sure are pretty, aren’t they?

Well.  They were very crunchy and chewy and sticky and not at all yummy, so the children and I picked through and ate the veggies (cause I hate waste and the sauce and veggies were pretty tasty), but we threw out the inedible noodles and had wraps for dinner. Sad, right?

Anyway.  I went back to the supermarket and bought more ingredients and tried it again today.  This time I researched how to cook the noodles and found very differing opinions, so here’s what I did:

Bring a large pot full of water to a boil and then shut off the burner. When the water stops boiling, add the noodles and let sit.  Mine were ready in ten minutes. Drain and cool. Perfect, yummy, delightful noodles.

While they’re soaking, take a dry, non stick pan and heat on med/high heat.  When it’s hot, pour a bunch of sesame seeds into the pan and toss them for a couple of minutes.

when they turn golden brown, transfer them to a heat resistant bowl or plate.  Make sure you transfer them, because they will keep cooking in the hot pan even if you take it off the heat.  Here’s what they should look like.

Delish. Toasted sesame seeds. For cheap.  You’re welcome.

For the sauce:

3/4 c. organic peanut butter
6 oz. low sodium soy sauce *we made this again tonight, with regular soy sauce, you really need the low sodium
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced
2 packets Truvia (stevia sweetener) or equivalent, one packet = two teaspoons
8 (or s0) tablespoons vegetable broth
toasted sesame seeds (however many you like)

put all the ingredients in a bowl except for the broth and whisk. then start to add vegetable broth, one tablespoon at a time till the consistency is liquid enough that you’ll be able to toss the noodles with the sauce

For the salad:
Two cucumbers peeled, seeded and julienned
a handful of julienned carrots
1 bunch of scallions chopped

Pour sauce over noodles and gently toss until completely combined.

This probably would have been even better if we had chilled it, but we were starving and it was awesome. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

Fried Green Tomatoes (sorta)

If you’re a Southern purist who doesn’t like people messing with Southern Cooking, especially loud-mouthed Yankees messing with Southern Cooking, you might want to skip this post, it will only make you angry.

The other day I bought some green tomatoes and they were quickly turning red, so I thought I’d make some fried green tomatoes, Unfortunately I had no corn meal, so I improvised.

Here’s what I did:

Sauce
3/4 cup good mayo
1 Tablespoon of ketchup
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 sweet gherkins chopped
1 Tablespoon prepared horseradish (more if you like it hot)
(If I had capers I would have chopped about 3 Tablespoons and added them too, but I didn’t)

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix till completely blended, cover and store in the refrigerator. (This is a great sauce for any fish dish, or crab cakes (Yum).

Next slice the tomatoes thickly, put two eggs in a bowl and whisk them for the egg wash, and put panko bread crumbs on a plate.

Before we move on, can we have a moment of silence for the gorgeous, cage free, organic eggs from my friend Janet’s hen house?

Heat a pan on med/high heat, put enough canola or vegetable oil in the bottom of a pan, when it’s hot start your assembly line.

Dip a slice of tomato in the eggs, then dredge them in the panko and put into the pan.  Repeat until the pan is full, but not over-crowded, you may have to do this in batches.  Let fry for about 3-4 minutes, or until the bread crumbs brown, flip and fry the other side too.  When each one is finished cooking, transfer them to a paper towel lined bowl to catch the oil.  Transfer to a serving platter and serve with the sauce.

What i learned:  There’s a reason you do this with the green tomatoes only, the red ones fall apart.

This was very different from traditional fried green tomatoes, but it was good – lighter.  I think I still prefer them the other way, but my kids and I pretty much devoured this.

Chicken Salad Veronique

A while back I posted a recipe for chicken salad using roasted chicken pieces.  I lamented that I didn’t like to handle the chicken pieces, removing the skin and meat and I’ve found a way to sort of get around that.  I thought I’d share it, as well as another terrific chicken salad recipe.  This is a take-off on the classic Chicken Veronique which has a white wine sauce and includes luscious grapes.  I love to put fruit in my savory food, so I adapted this recipe.  I think I originally got the idea from Ina Garten, but I can’t seem to find a reference to it, so let’s just say that I love everything she does and want to be her when I grow up and leave it at that, k?

2 Split Chicken Breasts, bone in, skin on
Dried Herbs (Tarragon, Parsley, Garlic Powder, Oregano)

Preheat Oven to 400.
Place the chicken on a baking sheet and if you’re like me, use a serrated knife and a fork to cut the skin on one side and pull it back.  If you’re a normal person, just use your hands – squeamish folks, stick with me.  Liberally sprinkle the dried herbs onto the breast and then using the fork (or your hands), pull the skin back over.  You could pin this with a toothpick if you wanted, but I didn’t find it necessary.  Sprinkle more of the herbs onto the skin for the people in your house that will eat the crispy skin – if you don’t have any of those people you can skip this step.

Put in the oven and cook for 40 minutes, until the skin is crispy and the juices run clear when you cut into the thickest part of the breast.

Allow the chicken to cool completely, then pull the skin off (fork or hands) –  I can use my hands if it’s cooked, put your finger under the breast meat and it almost lifts out in one piece.  You can use the fork, or your hands to pull of all the white meat and set aside.  Discard the bones (or freeze for stock).

Salad
meat from two chicken breasts
8 stalks of celery – chopped
Two spoonfuls of mayo
1 T. mustard (I would have preferred dijon, but I only had spicy brown)
about 20 grapes, quartered
1 T. celery seed
1 T dried tarragon (fresh would have been better, a small handful, but I didn’t have any)
Splash of white balsamic vinegar (or cider vinegar)
salt and pepper to taste

We’ve talked about my celery issue before, but I’ll repeat it here. Don’t just slice your celery, slice each stalk lengthwise in three pieces and then turn and chop small.  It’s so much better… better texture, no stray celery strings, and it looks nicer.

Put the chicken, herbs, celery, celery seed, grapes in a bowl and gently mix

In a separate bowl, combine the mayo, mustard and vinegar.  Mix well, pour over the salad and gently toss to combine.

We made Chicken Salad Veronique wraps with Flat Out Bread.  Have you tried them?  I love them.  My husband says they taste raw, so he lightly toasts them, but I think they’re yummy.

I lined a wrap with some spinach leaves and then topped with salad

Fold in both sides and roll it up. Slice in the middle and… yum.

Achieve Anything in Just One Year

We have a winner! Congratulations Daisy!

At first glance, what seems like a very basic, day by day, self awareness book becomes more multi-layered the farther you go.  The very familiar and comfortable, page a day format that starts with a quote, discusses a concept and suggests an activity or a meditation is done very well here.  The grouping of concepts in an order that makes sense and follows a path is quite nice.

If you’re new to goal planning, or self improvement books or could use a refresher, this is a terrific starting place and as a girl who collects quotes, there are a bunch of new (to me) quotes in this book which is always fun!

Now I’d like to pass this book onto one of my readers.  Entering is easy; just leave me a comment telling me what you’d like to accomplish in one year.  Additional comments with links to your blog post, tweet, or facebook post will get you additional entries. Leave one comment per action for each one to count. I’ll choose a winner on Friday March 26, at 10:00 PM.

Full Disclosure: The author sent me a copy of this book to review.

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