Smoothies

I know I haven't posted in forever... Get off my back already.

Anyway, everyone in this house (minus my father-in-law who refuses to try anything healthy - little does he know I have been sneaking cauliflower into his mashed potatoes!!!) is on a smoothie kick for the summer. Our chiropractore suggested that my husband try eating a smoothie made with whey protein powder at night before going to bed because my husband's metabolism is so high. Funny thing is that once I started messing around with the smoothie recipes I got addicted to them, too! And my mother-in-law, and my daughter (which is great, because my daughter is a vegetarian toddler - won't eat meat at all!)

So, here are a couple of my favorite smoothies I have come up with so far (and thanks to my friend Liz who has always enjoyed smoothies and has inspired many of these recipes!)

I use a Magic Bullet type of blender for this, so if you use a regular blender, load the ingredients in the opposite order that I give you.

Peach-Cantalope smoothie (makes one serving)
4 ice cubes
1/4 frozen banana, cut up
1/4 fresh peach, cut up
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
4 chunks of cantalope
dollop of plain yogurt

Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothie
4 ice cubes
1/2 frozen banana cut up
2-3 strawberries
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
dollop of plain yogurt
1/4 c milk

Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Banana Smoothie
Same as Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothie, but replace the strawberries with a 2 tbsp peanut butter. You may want to add a bit of stevia to sweeten.

Fresh Peach-Strawberry Smoothie
4 ice cubes
1/2 peach
2-3 chunks of cantalope
3 strawberries (or 4)
1 scoop vanilla whey protien powder
dollop of plain yogurt

The possibilities are endless!!!

A Passion for Food

Recently, if you took a look at my facebook page, all you would see is status updates about food... mostly baking updates. I either have no life, or I have a serious passion for cooking. I don't even think I understood just HOW much I love cooking until a week or so ago. I really really LOVE to cook, bake, ice, decorate, saute', fry, knead, mix, whisk, chop, mince, and eat. It's a passion, and I am starting to think it is what I was born to do.

I always wanted to be a chef, to run a restaurant... but life got in the way of my childhood dreams. When I was a teenager I worked in a restaurant as a cook - probably my first job that didn't involve babysitting. I loved it... and then I started thinking about other things - like how could I own a restaurant and have my holidays and weekends? How could I own my own restaurants and not have to get up early in the morning? And there were no culinary schools anywhere near Dayton, Wyoming. And using this line of reasoning, I proceeded to talk myself out of my dream. I went to school for something practical - to be an English teacher.

Funny thing about that - I didn't give a crap about being an English teacher. I really didn't. I had no passion for teaching. I had no passion for grammar or for good literature (although I really do tend to look down on people who use poor grammar, and I do LOVE to read.) It wasn't a good substitute. So I dropped out after a couple of semesters.

I toyed with the idea of going back to cooking, but cooking doesn't pay the bills, and I needed money. I ended up in my current career - working for doctors to get their bills paid by insurance carriers. Do I have passion for this? No. I don't particularly like doctors, generally speaking... And I am convinced insurance carriers were invented by the devil. And after doing this work for the past (oh, God...) 13 years (?) I am burned out. A bad side effect of this business is that you tend to end up jaded and disliking humanity in general. It's hard to see the good in people when you spend your days arguing with beauracrats and being berated by doctors because they aren't getting the money they think they deserve.

And now that I am 37 years old, I realize that I hate my job. I hate it. I have no passion for it. I do it because I have to. I need to pay the bills, I need to support my family.

I also realize what it is that I WANT to do - I want to be a chef. I want to be a pastry chef. I want to run a catering business. I want to bake beautiful cakes for beautiful brides... I love all of it.



For me, the food I make makes people happy. It brings a little bit of love and happiness into their lives, and it is something I do. Something I can give to others that makes life a little sweeter. Someone asked me the other day after looking at a picture of a cake I decorated (I am taking a WONDERFUL cake decorating class right now - here are the websites from my teacher, Zubia Kahn: http://zubiaswiltonclasses.shutterfly.com/ and http://www.giveemcake.com/ ) if I really thought all the work I put into a cake like that was worth it since it only took a few minutes for people to eat it. In my mind, it is completely worth it. These things are a large amount of work, but it is the kind of work that I love to do.



This past summer I made up my mind to go to culinary school. This winter I decided I NEED to go to culinary school. It is my calling. It is my passion. I will do it.

So, no recipe this time... sorry, folks! Just a lot of rambling about food and cooking!

Fourth of July Pie

Summer brings with it certain flavors that you cannot find at any other time of the year: homegrown tomatoes, fresh melons, peaches, and of course, strawberries. When I was a kid I used to go berry picking and end up eating more berries than I brought home. I'm sure if I went berry picking today it would be the same. Strawberries and watermelon are what summer tastes like to me, and this pie is a good way to showcase the beautiful red color of the strawberries for Independence Day.

I brought this pie with me for the Fourth of July celebration at my husband's Aunt Mary's house. They celebrate there every year, but I have always been allowed to bring my leftovers home. Not this year. I was actually booed by the guests when I tried to walk out with the remains of the pie.

Red White and Blue Pie
(makes 2 pies)

Crust:
1 1/2 c gingersnap crumbs
1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
6 tbsp sugar
12 tbsp butter

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, divide between two pie pans. Press into the bottom and up the sides of the pans with the flat end of a measuring cup. Bake empty crusts at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let cool completely before filling.

Filling:
(this is so bad for you, but I justify it by saying I'm only going to make this pie once a year.)

3 quarts fresh strawberries
2 tubs of Marzetti's strawberry glaze (I am working on finding a recipe for homemade glaze, so if you have one, please let me know!)
1 cup heavy cream
sugar to taste
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 pint of fresh blueberries

Wash the strawberries and blueberries. Trim the stems, leaves, and bad spots from the strawberries. Keep any strawberries with no bad spots separate and cut these in half. Use these nice strawberries on the top of the pie.
Whip the cream until stiff. Add vanilla and sugar to taste. Don't make the cream too sweet or the pie can be overwhelmingly sweet.

Divide the imperfect berries into the two crusts. Arrange the more perfect berries on top of the cut up ones. Pour the glaze on top of the strawberries. Use a spoon or spatula to make sure the glaze covers all of the berries. Pour half of the whipped cream on top of the strawberries and then scatter the blueberries on top of the whipped cream.

Seven Layer Dip for Liz

Well, as I am sure you can tell from the dates on this blog, I have not been posting. Please forgive me, gentle reader. I was feeling really strange last month and thought it was just stress, so I took some time to relax and cut out anything extra, such as this blog. It didn't help, so I ended up going to the doctor and found out I have hyperthyroidism - basically, my body's metabolism is going WAY too fast. Thankfully the doctor put me on some medicine and I am starting to feel better now. One upside to the condition (kidding here, of course) is that I can eat whatever I want and still lose weight!

My dear friend Liz sent me a request for a recipe I used to bring to potlucks occassionally - Seven Layer Dip... or as my Mom used to call it "Bean Plate." Which sounds awful, but is a pretty accurate and concise description of the dish.

Seven Layer Dip (Bean Plate)

1 can refried beans
1 small container sour cream
1 can salsa
shredded lettuce
2 cups (or more) shredded cheese
1 chopped tomato
2 or 3 green onions, chopped
One bag of tortilla chips

Layer all of the ingredients, starting with the refried beans and ending with the onions in a oblong cake pan or any other pan or plate you might like. Serve with tortilla chips.

Variation: leave off the lettuce and add guacamole... or add taco meat, or whatever you like on tacos - make it 10 layer dip if you like!

Lasagna

Me and my brother Izaak watching our new brother Gabriel in his cradle

There are certain food memories that really stick in my mind from when I was very small… a neighborhood kid giving me a Nestle Crunch candy bar when I was about two years old and not allowed to eat sweets… dragging my spoon through cream of mushroom soup and trying to get the next bite before the soup was able to cover the bottom of the bowl again… sharing the wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey with my uncle Grant (he got the biggest part, and I was so upset I didn’t get my wish that he gave me the bigger part!)

One of these memories was the lasagna that one of my Mom’s friends brought when my brother Gabriel was born. I was about six years old, and I don’t think I had ever had lasagna before. It was so good that this is the touchstone of lasagna I still compare all lasagnas too, especially all vegetarian lasagnas – because this one had no meat in it… and the woman who made it told us we could use tofu (yes, TOFU) for the filling. The unexpected spices in the sauce and the filling are what really make this lasagna stand apart and above all other lasagnas in my mind. Cloves and bay leaf in the sauce bring out the flavor of the tomatoes, and the nutmeg in the filling makes the cheese and spinach pop.



I think of Gabe every time I make this lasagna. He has a family of his own now, complete with his own Gabriel, Jr.





Lasagna

Cook 1 lb lasagna pasta.
Grate 8 oz. mozzerella cheese.

Sauce:
Saute a small onion with garlic. Add a quart of tomatoes and a small can of tomato paste. Season with 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 bay leaf, 2 whole cloves, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp oregano, and a sprinkle of sugar. Cook until bubbly

Filling:
Mix thoroughly 1 lb. ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, or tofu, 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp pepper. Cook and drain one 9 oz, pkg of chopped spinach. Add this to the tofu mixture.

In a rectangular baking pan, layer ingredients in this order:

1/3 of the sauce
1/2 of the pasta
All of the filling
1/3 of the sauce
1/2 of the mozzarella
1/2 of the pasta
1/3 of the sauce
1/2 of the mozzarella
Parmasan cheese

Cover loosely with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. (I usually end up baking it longer. I also take off the foil at about 30 minutes so the cheese can get a little brown on top.

This is good at the first serving, but even better as leftovers on the next day.

Migas

I never heard of Migas until I made my recent trip to Austin. My brother's girlfriend Elizabeth ordered them at the Magnolia Cafe, and informed me that they are on the menu at most restaurants there.

Migas are eggs with whatever you like scrambled in - and then you add tortilla chips to the scramble as well. There is something about corn tortillas (chips or otherwise) and eggs that just goes so well together!

This morning I made my first Migas, and here is the recipe, although your imagination is the limit.

Migas
2 eggs
1/4 small onion, diced
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 c shredded cheddar
3 tbsp chopped roasted green chiles
handful of tortilla chips
1 pat of butter

Melt the butter in a pan, add all above ingredients, scramble, then eat.

Pancakes on Sunday

I made a batch of pancakes this morning - and I started thinking about pancakes... I love them... if they are done right. And the funny thing is, this is one of very few things that I don't make from scratch. Mainly because I haven't found a recipe I like enough, and because the mixes make good pancakes.

So, now you all know me for the hypocrite I am. I extoll the greatness of home cooked food, and yet I use pancake mix. I should hang my head in shame.

But, my pancakes are better than the way they tell you to make them on the box.

The trick is to buy a mix that has you add eggs to the mix, and also to add more milk than they tell you to... the batter should be relatively thin, or you end up with thick, chewy pancakes that taste like pan-caca. So keep adding milk until the mixture runs off the ladle and easily spreads itself into a pancake when it hits the pan.

You can do add ins as well... Today I did 1/2 a mashed banana and a 1/2 cp of chopped pecans. Another one of my favorites is chopped cooked bacon. Or apples and cinnamon. Or the traditional blueberries. The best way to make blueberry pancakes is to use frozen blueberries and add them AFTER you have already poured the batter into the pan, so you can spread them out evenly. And if you just want ultimate decadence in a pancake, add chocolate chips and serve it with whipped cream or peanut butter.