Leeks

How do you decide what to cook for dinner? Time and ingredients dictate my choices. If I have the benefit of plenty of time, I may start by looking for inspiration from recipes....either from a cookbook, my folder of magazine and newspaper clippings, or from blogs. From there I further refine the decision based on what ingredients I have on hand. Or by the amount of time I have to go and get the necessary ingredients. When you share a house with three teenage children there is no guarantee that what you thought you had in the refrigerator, or in the pantry, is what you actually have in the refrigerator or in the pantry. Every trip to the kitchen holds a surprise.

My favorite approach to cooking is to buy what looks good and then find a recipe to use it with. Making the rounds of various stores, the one for the best produce, the one for the best prices on canned goods and staples, the one for the best beef and poultry can be exhausting. Why is it that some places have the freshest produce but not the best cuts of meats? Perhaps a chat for another day.

This week's find: locally grown, fresh leeks. A family favorite is Potato Leek Soup.. which I served after the big swim and dive meet this weekend. btw...KC had an impressive score after completing all of her required 11 dives...earning a medal. Bravo!




My culinary feat this weekend was a delicious Leek and Potato Pie. Truly award winning, if I must say so myself.



Leek and Potato Pie

6 tablespoons butter
5 cups trimmed and sliced leeks
2 cups apple cider
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
2 eggs beaten
1 1/4 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 lb potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch-thick slices (no need to peel)
salt and pepper
12 sheets of phyllo dough, each about 14x10 inches, defrosted if frozen

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt one-third of the butter in a large skillet. Add the leeks and saute until soft, stirring occasionally. Add the cider, bring to a boil, and boil rapidly for 3 - 5 minutes, until the sauce reaches the consistency of thick cream. Remove from the heat and stir in the mustard, eggs and cheese.

Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 3 to 4 minutes until tender; be sure they are cooked through, because the acidity from the cider will prevent them from cooking further when added to the sauce. Drain and stir gently with the leek mixture. Season to taste.

Melt the remaining butter. Use a little to brush the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Place a sheet of phyllo pastry dough on top and brush with a little more butter. Repeat with 4 more sheets of dough to cover the bottom and sides of the dish, overlapping edges. Spread the filling inside, then layer another 5 sheets of dough, in the same way, over the top: fold any overlapping dough. Brush 2 more sheets with the remaining butter, gently crumple and place on top of the pie.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes until golden. Serves 8

(adapted from a dish by Bill Sewell as served in his restaurant, The Place Below, in London)

Unusual Ingredients

If you can bake a batch of chocolate chips cookies you will never be without friends. Or, at least that's my motto.

I don't know anyone who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies. Although I have my favorite recipes, I always seem to be drawn to new ones. My signature cookies are "Busy-Bee Chippers" from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookies and Candies cookbook. I still have my copy, a 1966 edition, where I wrote, many years ago, advice for future batches...."watch timimg, burn very easily...Good, easy too, you can taste the honey alot, and boys luv um."
You can probably guess how old I was when I first starting baking. Above that recipe on the same page is another for Oatmeal Chip Cookies which I gave a Very Good rating. But somehow, I identified more with the Busy-Bee Chippers. I remember thinking how unique it was to use honey instead of granulated white cane sugar. Even as a suburban kid in the 60's I understood the increasing importance for more healthful ingredients.

In her cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, Heidi Swanson introduces a number of interesting ingredients which can transform the most standard of food items. In reading her book it quickly became clear that I could not embark on her recipes in my usual manner. No substitutions to use whatever I had on hand. The fun of her book is finding the ingredients she recommends. What a reward I received when I followed her chocolate chip cookie recipe, exactly as stated...even using whole-wheat pastry flour. But the big secret? Mesquite flour. She writes in her book: "Chances are you're new to mesquite flour, a wonderful, fragrant flour made from the ground-up pods of the mesquite tree." Trust me, it is worth searching for this unique flour and making her Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies. Everyone will love these...not just the boys!!!

Final Days of Summer

As the days grow shorter and the nights grow cooler, it is time to make the last big push for canning tomatoes. After converting 20 lbs of tomatoes to 5 quarts of spaghetti sauce I also tried Sweet Vinegar's recipe for tomato soup. The sweetness of the fresh tomatoes is drawn out in cooking so you really don't need much addtional sugar. Take note of her revised recipe which reduced the sugar amount. My family loved the soup and only left me with 3 quarts to can ... but I look forward to having some on hand when the cold weather hits. Thanks Daniela for a great recipe.

One could get all the recipes one really needs by clicking through food blogs. 101 Cookbooks blogger, Heidi Swanson has a great blog and a great cookbook. This weekend I tried a number of her recipes from, Super Natural Cooking. Her Expresso Banana Muffins were a big hit for Saturday morning breakfast. Since I didn't have walnuts on hand, I substituted with chopped toasted almonds. A slightly different taste.
But my favorite recipe this weekend came from blogger site Figs Olives Wine. Her recipe for Thyme Roasted Chicken and Fingerling Potatoes with panfried tapenade was outstanding. Check out her site for the recipe and a picture of what the dish should look like. The best I could do was get a photo of the leftovers. My family is amused by my blogging, likes the recipe testing, but gets a bit impatient when they need to wait for me to take a picture of the dish. So, I'm afraid that I'm a cook for eaters, not lookers. I also can't decide if I prefer cooksbooks with or without pictures. It helps sometimes to see how the dish should look like, but often it is frustrating when your result does not match the book.

Final judge should be if it looks good enough to eat...and if it tastes good.

Why is there nothing to eat?

If you have teenagers, you know that no matter how often you shop or how much you cook and bake, you never have enough food or the right food. When you do hit upon something great you will need to take care to not over do it.


Although, for the most part, my kids have enjoyed the bounty of fresh vegetables from the garden this summer, they are now getting a tad tired of tomatoes. I know that the current tension will fade into a cherished childhood memory of vine ripened tomatoes, but for the present moment a dose of chocolate is needed. So, to reward us all for surviving the first week of school I relied on the tried and true...banana bread and chocolate chip cookies.

While school supply shopping I located a great deal in the bargain bin...a cookbook by two of my favorite cooking columnists, Sheryl Julian and Julie Riven. The book, published back in 2003, is a collection of recipes which had previously appeared, in various forms in the Boston Globe. It includes intriguing chapters like, Dishes We Make All The Time, Simmering Pots, and If You Love to Bake. From that chapter I decided to make their banana bread recipe (since I had a few overripe bananas ignored by the kids) and their chocolate chip cookie recipe (I always have a package of chocolate chips on hand). The book, The Way We Cook, is exactly that. A book of straightforward recipes that every home cook has tried once or twice. But, some recipes come with a little twist to add new interest. What I like best about the book is that it encourages experimentation. I generally have most of the ingredients on hand and often am missing an element or two. So, being able to substitute without distracting too much from the result is a big plus.




From the chapter, Dishes We Make All The Time, a new twist to meatloaf and potatoes. The recipe combines the two and makes an easy one dish main course. Recipe, adjusted to use what I had on hand...


Meat Loaf with Roast Potato Topping

2 baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 c. fresh tomato sauce - I used some of my own left over in the refrigerator
(originally called for 1 c. canned tomato or pasta sauce)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 pound lean ground beef
1 small onion, grated
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 c. fresh white bread crumbs
1 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 tsp pepper or to taste

Set oven to 375 degrees. Oil the bottom and sides of 9-by-5 inch loaf pan.
Steam potato slices in a steamer for about 12 - 15 minutes until tender, but not falling apart. Remove from pan and let cool.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine tomato sauce, sugar, vinegar and mustard.
In another bowl, combine the beef, onion, egg, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Add half the tomato mixture to the beef mixture and stir well.
Place the meat loaf in the prepared pan, patting down to flatten the surface.
Arrange potatoes so that they overlap on the meat loaf. Pour the remaining sauce on top. Set the meat loaf pan on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any spills.
Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until the juices are bubbling and the potatoes are crusty on the edges. Remove the meat loaf from the oven, let it settle for a few minutes, then cut it into thick slices and serve.

Of course, all my photos have tomatoes in them...holding on to the summer memories. I've also been experimenting with background colors. I was hoping to re-create the green of my kitchen, but with no luck. Hope you like the new color scheme.

Everything's coming up tomatoes

Even though the calendar has changed to September and the kids are back at school, tomatoes still dominate the kitchen. Over the weekend I did bake another sour cream coffee cake using apples and almonds as a signal that apple season is upon us. But, for the most part, all meals still include tomatoes. In the rush to get dinner on the table tonight, I simply baked some scrod topped with peeled, (I love my peeler!!!)diced fresh tomatoes and bread crumbs. Seasoned with sea salt, pepper and a dash of olive oil. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. I served with a tossed salad and baked potatoes. I cheated on the potatoes and bought them already baked from my local fish store when I picked up the scrod. They have a great take out service and you can get items a la carte. Wonderful and fast.

But that was second dinner.


First dinner was for KC who needed to get to diving practice. First week of school and I'm scrambling to get a dinner schedule that works. Today was the ultimate work/home balance which had me finishing up a conference call then making pizza (using store bought dough...sorry) with fresh tomatoes...what else...so that KC could have something to eat. It turned out rather well with Ali finishing it off when she got home. Leaving just the meat eaters needing to be feed.


So, the tomatoes will continue to pile up in the kitchen as I figure out both more ways to use them and a better way to balance the dinner schedule.