Soccer food

Homemade noodles with sauce made as described by Lynne Rosetto Kasper in this recipe.

Here's the noodle recipe from recipezaar. Very easy. I rolled the dough out before church and left it to dry a bit. When I got home, I cut the noodles into long strips with a pizza cutter.

And here's the sauce. First, I sauteed two large onions. When they caramelized, I added four chopped Roma tomatoes, a TBSP each of basil and garlic oil, some dried basil, and two large handfuls of fresh spinach. I did what Lynne suggested and added some of the pasta water to make sauce out of the saute. This simmered for a little while the noodles finished cooking.

Then I drained and poured the noodlesinto a big pasta bowl. I tossed it all with the sauce and a bit of parmesan. Oh boy, it was good! And very easy.

We'll be eating variations of this dish often. I didn't use the beans as in Lynne's recipe but will try that sometime before long.

Tools of the trade

I make biscuits,
light and moist,
just brown on the bottom
with golden tops

Here are my
tools of the trade.

Pastry cutter with
worn wooden handle
and steel tines casting
curving shadows.

Measuring spoons that
dangle from a hook
by the stove
til needed
for baking powder.
My palm suffices for salt.

Rolling pin old friend
with dusting of flour
and squeak, squeak
as it rolls,
even pressure on dough.

And biscuit cutter,
thin handle broken,
so I press carefully,
and shake to release
biscuit discs,
placing each
on the pan,
sides touching.

How many times have
I held tools in hand to
cut in, measure,
roll and cut out.
And baked.

And opened hot biscuit
steam rising,
waiting for butter
and blueberry jam.

National soup month

Oh my goodness! I missed it. January, now a few hours from over, is National Soup Month! I did make and eat plenty of soup this month. I made chicken noodle twice, bean soup, that lovely butternut squash soup, potato soup, cauliflower cheese soup and more. We even ate soup from a can, something we rarely do - clam chowder and good old Campbell's tomato soup, which you must eat together with grilled cheese sandwiches. But somehow, I missed that I should be celebrating soup this month.

Not to worry....I finished this celebratory soup month with a bang. I made two soups today. Chicken noodle with home made noodles by request for a friend and a HUGE pot of corn chowder for tomorrow.

Wonder what food we're celebrating in February?

Golden butternut soup and sweet potato biscuits

As I said over there, I concocted this soup. I looked in the fridge and saw a plastic container with leftover roasted butternut squash, a ziploc with three cooked sweet potatos, and a pot with homemade chicken stock. Seemed the the makings of a good soup to me...which I have decided to call:

Golden butternut soup
Saute in 2 TBSP olive oil:
1 medium onion, diced
1 yellow sweet pepper, chopped

When the veggies are soft, add 2 TBSP. fresh rosemary leaves, let this all simmer gently while you...

Puree:
the *cooked butternut squash and the sweet potatoes together with enough stock to make it all whiz around in the blender. (I just add enough liquid til it blends easily without making my blender seem like it's laboring too hard).

Add the puree to the saute. And then add more stock (I probably used about a quart total).
Stir over medium heat and add a can of evaporated milk (this makes it really creamy and lovely) and about a cup of sharp cheddar cheese.

Now here's the fun part. I thought this soup needed just a little more kick and I had a jar of pickled jalapeno's in the fridge. So, I poured about a quarter cup of the jalapeno juice from the far in the soup. Nice addition.

We ate with a dollop of sour cream. It would also be good with a little feta sprinkled on top and perhaps some toasted almonds....next time.

Sweet potato biscuits
I have used the same biscuit recipe for years. It is based on the basic biscuit recipe in Joy of Cooking. This is my sweet potato adaptation:

Sift together with a fork:
3 1/2 cups flour
6 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 TBSP sugar

Cut in with a pastry cutter:
6 TBSP butter
When the butter pieces are about pea sized, I added a whole baked sweet potato and cut it in just like I did the butter. When this is all well blended together...

Add:
1 cup milk

Mix lightly til moistened all through. Flour the counter and roll out the dough. A light touch means lighter biscuits. Cut with a biscuit cutter and place right next to each other (no spaces between) on and ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes.

We ate these with apple cranberry butter and/or pear preserves. Very tasty!

Sorry I have no pictures of this golden meal. It disappeared too fast.

_______________________
* to cook butternut squash, just cut in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Bake at 350, cut side down with a little water in an oven proof dish, for 30-45 minutes til soft. Cook time will depend on size of squash. You can also cut in 1/2 inch slices and roast on a cooking sheet sprayed with a little cooking spray. Roast at 40 for about 15 minutes (maybe a bit more) til soft.

Oh, gooooood cookies

Here's the recipe I used for the cookies from my favorite recipe source online, recipezaar. I use it frequently and particularly like that there are comments that describe ways people tweak the recipes. I am definitely a recipe tweaker so I like to see how others do it.

These cookies were delicious. Just what I wanted. I tweaked them by using a bit of cinnamon and cardomam instead of nutmeg since I was out of the latter. Yum, yum, yum!

Oatmeal raisin cookies

I've been hankering for a big chewy oatmeal raisin cookie for several days. I like them way better than chocolate chip cookies. Matthew is taking the SAT as I write so I'm going to greet him when he's done with a warm cookie and a berry/banana smoothie.

Off to the kitchen....

Hungry boys no more

Poor Joel. As we headed from co-op to our afternoon of lab classes he asked if I had anything else to eat. He'd made himself a PB and J for lunch and nothing else and we had a long afternoon ahead of us. (He and Matthew are each in one lab and I teach two so we're there all afternoon). I had the remains of the leftover soup I'd heated up back at co-op. It was cold by then, but he ate it. On the way home, four hours later, he was famished. I was, too.

So, dinner needed to be delicious and filling and wonderful. I had a whole cooked chicken in the fridge that I'd boiled yesterday in anticipation of making soup later in the week. Just the ticket for the start of a very good, simple meal.

Chicken salsa saute:
1) Saute an onion, a cup or so of chopped celery, and a red sweet pepper in a little olive oil
2)Add 2-3 cups of the cooked chicken, pulled off the bones (I didn't really measure, just pulled it off til I had a skillet full)
3)Add some salsa, whatever you have. I had a green salsa made with jalapenos and tomatillas (from Trader Joes) and a little bit of very garlicky salsa (also from TJ's)

While this was simmering in the cast iron skillet, I cook brown rice in the rice cooker. And then I made this sauce:

Cheesy Salsa Sauce
1) To about a cup of stock, add a couple of TBSP flour, stir til smooth over medium heat
2) Add a cup more stock and a cup or more of sharp cheddar
3) Then stir in a 1/2 to a cup of the same salsa that's in the chicken. Stir over low heat til smooth and creamy.

So, now picture the chicken saute over brown rice with this lovely flavorful sauce on top. On the side we had roasted broccoli, roasted butternut squash (leftover) and roasted orange ginger glazed baby carrots. (Very simple - just put baby carrots in an oven dish, I used a pie plate, pour a little juice of some sort, orange is good, a TBSP of brown sugar or honey, and dash or two of ginger and roast at 450 til carrots are a little soft.) A meal full of vitamin A and other vitamins that are good for you. I always figure if there is a lot of color, there is a lot of nutrition.

chicken saute over brown rice with lot of sweet red pepper, glazed carrots, roasted broccoli, roasted butternut squash

Joel's face lit up as the food was brought to the table. I love it when I concoct a meal with surprises (like the salsa sauce) that everyone really enjoys. This was one of them.

We sat around the table and Coty read to us while we drank tea for awhile afterwards. Hungry bellies were filled and minds fed, too.