Recipe Day: Eggplant Roulade

I was away in Scotland for  a week and was wonderfully proven wrong by my White Knight. He did not go out to eat every night with the kids nor did he resort to sandwiches or eggs all week. In fact, he came up with a truly delicious way to make the eggplant that came in our CSA/Farm basket that week that even the kids inhaled! (I'd say his cooking was one of the top reasons I married him, but we both lived in a military barracks and so there was no way to test his cooking skills until later - at any rate, he is a fantastic, if messy, chef and I benefit greatly from that!)

The thin eggplant slices are not overpowering in flavor and even come out tasting a bit like lasagna noodles. Put a thin stripe of marinara sauce on top and they might not even know the difference! So, now that I have this fairly simple, mildly time-consuming recipe down, I'm sharing it here for Try a New Recipe Tuesday over at Home to 4 Kiddos, or Encourage One Another Wednesday at Deep Roots at Home - make sure you head over to see what other folks are talking about today!

Recipe Day: Quick and Easy Twist on O'Brien Potatoes

Ahhh... necessity, you've come to help me find a new recipe again, have you? Well, I'll take it, thanks!

I don't know why, but I've fallen out of the habit of going to the grocery store for a week's worth of groceries at a time and have been instead scraping together and making due for two or three days at a time, then going to the store for food to carry us for another three days or so, and by the end, the pantry and fridge are bare, kids and White Knight are going crazy from a lack of "acceptable" snack food (what? You have something against grass??) and even the mice are starving! 

Breakfast this morning was one such situation. Potentially useful breakfast items included...

Recipe Day: Easy Homemade Stewed Tomatoes

Every time I read something new about foods and the FDA, it gets a little scarier. The not-so-latest, but hardest habit for me to break, has been buying canned tomatoes. Going to dried beans from canned was not so bad, just required a bit of pre-planning; getting rid of most canned vegetables was not remotely difficult because they tend to be overcooked and mushy; but darn those tomatoes in a can! They're just so handy when making homemade spaghetti sauce and soups.

Then I came home from Scotland - long story for another time, but a great trip nonetheless. And found myself faced with a half-bushel of just ripened tomatoes and nothing to do with them. We sliced them for several days, we diced some, we did everything but make tomato pie! And still had a bunch. There is a first time for everything, so I decided to skin and juice them and stew them up for other projects.

Guest Recipe: Irish Car Bomb Tipsy Cakes!

This recipe was made up by a young lady in our church and they are awesome! They are for adults only because of the alcohol in them, but they are not so super strong that you can't drive after having one. Just enough to give a taste - in fact, her mom suggested that next time she put in just a bit more. Either way, they are delicious and of her own design, so all credit for this recipe goes to Rebecca Simerick - and thank you for sharing with the rest of us (we moms with five kids appreciate it!)

These have ingredient lists for the cake part, the filling in the middle and the icing, so it looks like a longish list, but I see that there is a lot of overlap, so don't let it scare you. To simplify things, I'll include an overall shopping list at the end.

~ Irish Car Bomb Tipsy Cakes ~

Recipe Day: Fish Broth (and why we use it!)

I know - Fish Broth?? Why would anyone want to make fish broth?? -  but bear with me here. We are Pesci-vegetarians, and I've begun to make fish broth from home because it provides much needed minerals that help support growing bodies and growing bones. Most notably: magnesium, iodine, calcium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and other trace minerals. But why are we making fish broth? Well, these minerals can help strengthen the bones and - more importantly - teeth in our bodies. 

The veggies in the latest batch of fish broth

I have three boys now with brittle teeth - especially those four in the front at the top. They crumble away.

Recipe Day: Vegan Chocolate Crepes with Fruit Compote

These were vegan (egg- and milk-free), my own creation, and amazingly tasty. There really isn't much more to say - so on to the recipe!

Spicy Red Bean Soup Recipe

I've been pretty lazy about going to the grocery store lately. This method of kitchen-maintenance can be a little dicy. Sometimes the recipes are a flop, and we have to debate whether to eat it anyway or to order out for pizza (a costly proposition in a large family!) So far, we have only flopped a few times in our marriage and I'm grateful that the Spicy Red Bean Soup that I threw together became a winner that even had requests the next day!

There are several benefits to this recipe:

• it's easy, 
• most of the ingredients can be kept in the pantry, 
• it freezes well, 
• it's cheap to make a LOT of it, 
• it can be made ahead of time in the crock pot, 
• it's versatile - don't have a can of chili peppers? No trouble, leave them out. Want to throw in some corn? Go for it! Add a can of diced tomatoes and reduce the liquid for a thicker chili. Kids eating too? Reduce the cayenne pepper some.
• it can be left in the crock pot all day for teenage boys and their friends to grab as a healthy, filling "snack" while they're on the go!
• it can be made in one pot, meaning less work for Mom!

Recipe Day: Mexican Pie

This recipe is one I really thought I had already posted at some point, but can't find an entry for. I am very fond of recipes that can include whatever I have on hand for last-minute meals. This is one which is easy to keep ingredients on hand and make on a night when time is short, hunger is high and you want to "push the 'easy' button".

I normally make in two pans so I have enough for everyone and rarely do I have leftovers. To help fill my hungry boys, I also make spanish rice (homemade and rarely the same twice!) and black or refried beans (also homemade - so easy and healthier than the tinned version.)

As a side note, when I make two pans, I make one spicy and one that is not as spicy, for the younger children. The spicy one uses straight enchilada sauce, the milder version mixes a can of mild enchilada sauce with diced tomatoes and omits the chili powder.

 Mexican Pie

Chef's Secret... Spiced Nuts for Christmas

Okay, I hesitate to write this recipe out because so many of my gift recipients get these for Christmas... I don't want them to feel like they're getting the short end of the stick because of how easy they are to make. Don't tell, okay?

These spiced nuts are gift recipient favorites for those who like spicy foods. I have a "Sweet" recipe that I do for the people who can't stand the heat, but that is for another time. I get my gift tins for $.50 or less at garage sales, thrift stores or free if I just ask people for them (believe me, neighbors tend to be happy to give them away because they take up so much space but are too nice to throw away!)

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper or to taste
1/2 tsp. chili powder or to taste
1 c. mixed nuts - I'm not a peanut fan so I use the Deluxe variety
2 to 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
paper towels (2 or 3)

Method:

1. Over medium heat, warm 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a frying pan; add the cayenne pepper and chili powder and heat for about 30 - 45 seconds - if you do it too long, the spices will turn black and will lose some of their potency.*

2. Add the mixed nuts and coat them with the spices - for 2 or 3 minutes.

3. Add the soy sauce to the nuts and coat the nuts. Stir over the heat until the pan is nearly dry. This will be the longest part of the recipe.

4. Put the nuts on the paper towels off to the side to cool.

5. Once the nuts are completely cooled, put some saran wrap into your gift tin or box so that the wrap is coming out over the top - it should make a little "Saran Pouch" inside the box. Fill the pouch with the nuts and tie off with string or ribbon. Put your lid on to keep them relatively air-tight and to complete your gift wrap!


* The amount of cayenne pepper and chili powder is easy to adjust. I would play with it a bit before sending these out as gifts. You might like a little more... or a little less!

This is one of our healthy snack recipes in the fall. Try some out - you can make them as spicy as you like! Check out for more great tips, ideas and Christmas goodies!

Magic Flat-Dough Recipe

I am on a baking/cooking blog kick lately. So be it. I'll just put them in as drafts and then post them when I go a while with few other ideas on what to write about. But I've been thinking: I suppose this blog doesn't really have a "point" to it yet. I started it with the idea of seeing where it goes over time. Will I have an eventual purpose that jumps out at me? Well, so far, I have to say that I don't see much of a pattern yet and can only hope that my posts are edifying to someone. My friend Beth has a blog with the primary focus on knitting. Another friend focuses on the journey she is making to adopt a child. I've consider making mine cooking - but do I want to jump in with the 2,000,000,000,000 other "cooking" blogs out there? And what would my focus be? Breads, I suppose... Eh. Homeschooling? Again - it's being done to death by voices more experienced and wiser than mine. Same thing for religious studies, Orthodox Christianity, home businesses and so many others. Well, for now I'll regale you with another recipe and say only that if you see a pattern that I have missed, feel free to jump in and help me narrow it down some!

Like so many families, we like to occasionally gather 'round for pizza night. By and large though, we've expanded our idea of pizza night to make-your-own-pizza night. Once I discovered how easy it is to make the dough, I can't help but put it on the menu occasionally.

One of the things I've discovered only today is that this dough is more versatile than I thought. If you bake it with holes poked in the dough, it makes pizza; bake it without the holes poked in, just rolled out flat, you have pita bread (let it rise a little bit to get "pocket pita"); fry this dough in a skillet to get Chapati bread - similar to what you find in a Kebab house or like Indian Naan bread. Fried it makes a super tasty, quick lunch bread!

This dough freezes well - but freeze it in smaller batches so you can make one pizza out of one frozen loaf and you don't have to worry about what to do with the rest or wait for it to thaw for a long time.

So without further ado, here is the

Magic Flat-Dough Recipe

This takes about 15-minutes to make and makes one extra-large or two standard large pizzas. The basic recipe is taken from the Reader's Digest, Down Home Cooking, cookbook, but I have changed the method slightly, being the ... expedient... cook that I am!

Ingredients:

1 c. warm water (110 - 120 degs.)
1 packet active dry yeast
3 c. flour (I use bread flour, but it calls for all-purpose)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil

To Make:

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt and make a small well in the top of the mix. Put the dry yeast in the well. Pour the water over the yeast, drizzle the olive oil over the top of the water before mixing! Mix the water into the flour with a wooden spoon (or spatula) until the mixture is a soft dough-ball.

2. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

3. Use the dough in accord with one of the following recipes:

• Pizza Dough: I recommend cooking slightly before adding toppings (think of how the crust looks when you buy a Boboli atthe store.) To do this: roll the dough out into your preferred shape (rectangle/circle/triangle, whatever), poke holes in thedough with a fork, unless you have one of those fancy pizza-poker-thingies you see at the pizzerias, put in the over at 450 deg's F. for 10 minutes. Add toppings and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes
• Pita: Roll out slightly thinner than for pizza dough, do NOT poke holes in the dough, bake for 15 - 20 min. at 450 deg. F.
• Chapati bread: put some olive oil or butter in a fry pan, roll the dough out fairlythinly (it will puff up a bit when frying)and fry it briefly on each side in the oil.

In the picture: pita on the left (before baking), chapati on the right (during frying.)

Eureka! Biscuits!

After eleven years (almost twelve!) of marriage, I have finally managed to make biscuits that I can feel good about. The NHL may be saddened by this news - they will have lost a major supplier of hockey pucks, but I know that some other young (?) bride will soon replace me in this ministry!

So how did I do it? I am here to share my recently-gained secrets with you... There are additional tidbits in there as well about ... Bisquik, Buttermilk and what's a gal to do if she doesn't have either in the house??

Here is the general recipe:

2 c. flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3-4 Tbsp. shortening

2 Tbsp. cold butter

3/4 c. buttermilk OR just under 3/4 c. milk and 1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

1. Mix 1 1/2 c. flour and the rest of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside the final 1/2 c. flour for kneading. Cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter.

Incidentally, at this stage you have homemade Bisquik - has a decent shelf-life when stored in an airtight/bug proof container, wonderful to have when going camping or on trips!

2. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives. Little tip: Cut the butter up into pieces before adding to the flour mixture. If you don't have shortening in the house, add in extra butter. The chunks of butter/shortening should form small "peas" in the flour by the time you're done, but those "peas" make it so the dough is extra buttery and good so don't mash them all out!

3. Add in the buttermilk. Stirring it in until you have a soft dough - this will actually still

be slightly sticky because we kept out that last 1/2 c. of flour.

** So what is a girl to do if she doesn't have any buttermilk in the house? The buttermilk is, believe it or not, an integral part of this recipe. The acidity in the buttermilk reacts with the baking powder to make the biscuits rise and fluffy! SO, the secret is... vinegar! Mix your 3/4 c. of milk with 1 Tbsp. vinegar to curdle it just the right amount. **

4. Preheat the oven to 450 deg. F. Put 2 pats of butter or a bit of oil into your biscuit pan and place it into the heating oven to melt. This step will give a nice crust to your biscuits. Pour the reserved flour out onto a clean counter and knead the dough onto the flour three or four times until your dough is soft but not stiff.

5. Roll the dough out to about 1/2" thick and cut into 2" wide circles with a glass or a biscuit cutter, rerolling and cutting the scraps as you go. Place your biscuits into the heated pan and bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until golden on top.

In the picture on the left you'll see my new biscuit cutter - the center piece comes out to make biscuits, or you leave it in to make doughnuts! Haven't done those in ages - perhaps Saturday before the pumpkin farm, then we can share with friends! (If I do, I'll try to get pictures to share here!)

Here is an extra tip, just for reading this far:

How to make the flaky layer biscuit similar to the ones you see in the store (Shhhh... don't tell my secret!)

Instead of rolling the dough out to 1/2" thick, roll it out thinly, cut it and stack it several times. Then bake as before!

Recipe Day: A little on the UN-healthy side!

Two recipes today - neither as healthy as the last few I've put up (nods to Spinster-Beth!) but both are extremely tasty and worth the time. One is short, one is longer. Both are Delicious (shhhh... and a little healthy,) for a dessert!

The first are the BEST COOKIES I have ever had. Introducing:

Sunflower Seed Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c. butter, at room temperature
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla + 3" scraping of Vanilla Bean (this can be omitted if you can't find vanilla bean, but it is SO MUCH BETTER if you keep it in!)
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
3 c. quick oats
1 c. salted sunflower seeds (this does make a difference!), toasted
1 c. nuts (pecans or walnuts are best), chopped
1 1/2 c. dried cherries (you can use dried cranberries, but the cherries are extra-good)

Recipe:
1. Cream together the butter and both sugars.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla and vanilla bean
3. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and quick oats. At this point, the dough will be fairly dry.
4. Fold in the nuts, fruit and seeds.
5. Form in rolls or drop by the Tablespoon on a heavily buttered cookie sheet. Alternately, you can use a well-seasoned pizza-type stone (I have Pampered Chef stones, but others that might also work if they're well seasoned.) Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes. Watch the cookies carefully to remove them before they're brittle. If they're too brittle to get them off the pan, you can put them back in the oven for just a minute to soften them back up.) Remove them from the pan onto cooling racks.

The second recipe is for you chocolate lovers - super simple, super tasty, and just a small bite will do ya'!



Fruity-Yummy Chocolate Bars

Ingredients:
One package dark chocolate chips (Hershey's Special Dark works well for me)
1 - 1 1/2 c. salted pretzels, broken up
2 - 3 c. dried fruit, such as cherries, cranberries, blueberries, or chopped up apricots
1 - 1 1/2 c. salted sunflower seeds
*Optional Ingredients* 1/2 c. chopped up nuts
1 c. coconut
Dash of chili powder

Recipe:

1. Prepare ahead by laying out a sheet of wax paper on a cutting board. This is a quick recipe so try to have all the ingredients ready at hand before starting.
2. Melt the chocolate over low heat, stirring continually to keep it from scorching. The chocolate will not really get hot enough to burn at any point if the heat is low enough. It won't take long. Remove the chocolate from the heat.
3. Mix in the other ingredients.
4. Using a rubber spatula, spread the warm mixture out on the wax paper. Put the mix into the fridge overnight or the freezer for about 2 to 3 hours.
5. Remove from the freezer/fridge and cut into bars. If frozen you may have to let it sit out for 20 minutes to soften enough to cut. Store in a baggie or container in the fridge - the more pure the chocolate, the faster it will melt. The Hershey's SD melts rather quickly in your fingers so have wipes or a sink on hand when you eat them! A small piece is perfect for dessert!

I've done each of the optional ingredients, one at a time, in this recipe to great success. Just be careful with that chili powder, too much can ruin the whole thing!

Looking forward to hearing your reviews!

Mustard Bread Worthy

With a family of six, we were eating a LOT of bread each week and I was buying the "add everything" variety of bread - "double protein," "double fiber," "double double..." Even at our "reduced price" grocery store, those loaves were around $3.50 each - and four a week was getting to be too much! So I decided to pick up where I left off years ago and learn to make bread at home. Mind you, I tried when I was younger - and made enough bricks to form a small dog house! One of Jeff's favorite things is a slice of mustard bread - he takes a slice of bread, spreads Golden's Spicy Mustard on it and eats it with a snack plate. Maestro, our 10 yo budding family musician, was following this somewhat curious (to me, anyway) culinary habit. So until I could consistently make a loaf that was "mustard worthy," my bread was not ready.

Three or four weeks later, here is the recipe I settled on. And it is good enough to make mustard bread with! It's also far less expensive to make four loaves - if you're following you costs, the basic breakdown is about $1 per two loaves of bread. I can give the breakdown on that some other time but it's a sizable savings and healthier since there are no preservatives added. If you have to, the bread freezes well - it won't last long on the shelf! I often make one, freeze one and maybe make the dough for the 2nd batch to freeze for later.

Not quick, but super-tasty, healthy, and simple to make. I make two loaves at a time (only have two bread pans) and bake once or twice a week. I add extra stuff to make it healthier, but you don't have to have all of that to make a decent, fluffy loaf! If you don't add the extra, you'll need more flour to make up for it. The picture above is made without the extras, and shaped by hand instead of in a pan - we were having pasta that night. I added rosemary to the top and a few other herbs as well. But below is what I use every week for sandwiches.

The stuff with a ** by it is stuff that I add, but that is not really necessary - but does help give it a little bit better "sandwich bread" texture. Without the extras, you get a pretty decent french bread loaf!

Homemade Healthy Bread Recipe, with almost all the extras (well, I guess I could add crushed nuts or something - I LOVE the nutlovers bread they sell at the store!)

Ingredients:

4 - 5 cups flour (I use "Better for Bread" flour, gives me about 6 to 8 loaves per $2 bag)
2 packets of dry yeast (NOT the kind for bread machines)
1 scant Tbsp. sugar or honey (only a very slight difference in taste)
1 - 1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 - 1/4 c. ground flax seed** (1/4 c. of each of these makes it a little too heavy to rise well so I use just slightly less of each)
1/8 - 1/4 c. wheat germ** (I find each of these "extra" items over in the organic section of the Commissary - near the protein bars and vitamins.)
1/8 - 1/4 c. wheat bran**
1 Tbsp. gluten**
Olive oil

Steps:

1. In a 2 c. (or larger) measuring cup, warm 1/2 cup of water to 115 - 120 degrees (the temperature can make a huge difference. I look to go at 120 myself.) Add 1 Tbsp. sugar/honey and the yeast. Let sit about 10 minutes until foamy - it will fill up to about the 1 1/2 c. mark.

2. While the yeast rises, in a large mixing bowl, put 3 c. flour (4 cups if you're not adding the extra stuff), salt and flax, wheat germ, wheat bran and gluten (if using.) Mix all of these dry ingredients together. The rest of the flour will be used during kneading.

3. Add the risen yeast and an additional 1 3/4 cups of water, also at 120 degrees. Mix everything together fairly well - but if there is still some flour not mixed in on the bottom it's not a big deal.

4. Put about 1/2 c. flour onto a clean surface (counter/cutting board/etc.) pout the dough out onto the floured surface (the dough will still be sticky.) Put another 1/4 c. flour on top of the dough. Knead the dough, adding additional flour as needed for 8 to 10 minutes (I'm not precise in the time, as you might guess, but it usually takes me about 8 minutes before it's at a good elasticity. If it is getting hard or difficult to fold over for the kneading process, you can pick it up on one side and let it hang for a second to stretch out a bit and continue from there.)

5. Oil the mixing bowl and put the dough in, coating the outside of the dough with the oil. Cover with a fairly damp cloth and let rise for at least 1 hour. How long it needs to rise will depend greatly on the humidity and temperature.

6. Once the dough has risen and is about double in size (or more if you're not paying attention!) put a light coating of oil onto a clean surface, and knead the dough again for three or four quick strokes. Place in two lightly, but thoroughly oiled baking pans, cover with a fairly damp cloth (almost wet!) and let rise for another 30 to 60 minutes (until risen as high as you'd like them to be.) Mine always rise a little more even once I've put them in the oven, so maybe go just under how high you'd like them to be. Remove the cover and bake at 450 deg.s for about 20 minutes. Let cool for about 15 minutes before turning out for best results.

I hope I've written this out clearly and that it tastes as good for your family as for my own!

IPO

The quiet of a house at midnight is unmatched. Sitting here with a glass of wine listening to dogs snoring and children breathing... so peaceful, so quiet...

until the baby wakes up
because the dog barked
when an older brother
thunked across the wood floor
on his way to the head
because he drank too much Gatorade
before hitting the rack for bed.

(Study Seuss much? There is your poem for the day - and a perfect way to start my IPO blog post!)

As you can see our house is hopping! We have three boys, one girl, two dogs and a cat. The children are all homeschooled - I tried to hs the dogs and the cat, but it really didn't work well. The dogs took to the leash but the cat just flopped down and dared us to drag her across the concrete sidewalk. She pretty well rules the house now. And one of the lovebirds got homeschooled by the Rottie once too - but that's another story for when the mood, and memory, strike me to write it down.

I've come to learn that as many times as I've thought I was the outcast or the silent minority and that I didn't have anyone out there who really connected with me - I'm not alone. There are other Orthodox Christians, homeschoolers, moms to many, (mostly) vegetarians out there. There are other budding photographers, work-from-home, learning to sew, stay-at-home moms. There are other people like me (someday I'll put up the full run-down list, even.) Maybe I will never find someone who connects with me at every point of interest, but at least two or three, and we can just complement one another on the rest.

That's really the point to this blog, I suppose. To connect. I was writing notes on Facebook for "friends-of-friends" to read and even have picked up a few comments along the way! Those will eventually make their ways here to this blog, I suppose. In the meantime, grab your favorite drink (wine, sidecar, water, Gatorade, Perrier) and

sit for a bit
don't read for speed
or because you need
to preview something trite for your kids

Then, if I've touched your heart or your mind, if I've given you a thought or a new perspective - if you can give me an angle I didn't consider before, please, leave your mark - comment, discuss, engage - and pass it on to your "friends-of-friends"; I'd be most grateful!

(Next time, pictures, I promise - I just have to figure out HOW first!) OH and in here you will find recipes, thoughts, hopes, prayers, dreams... politics, laughter, love, and fun among friends and family -

(*ahem* If you'll indulge me one last time:)

even the youngest
among us!