Thrifts - The Pantry: A bonus post

My mom is responsible for the two jars in the front left, and the remaining jars came from one of my friends.  (From left: quinoa, lentils, polenta, oats, wheat germ, two types of chai tea, and a black tea.)

The copper containers came from an antique store for $8.

Eats - Corn Bread

But anyway, my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner, and they've not been eating gluten.  We made beef stew, (In the pressure cooker we're still learning to use.  It was delicious.) and I wanted to have corn bread with it.  I figured that wouldn't be so hard to do without gluten.  But try finding a recipe that doesn't have 4-5 weird flours in it.  Or coconut butter.  And I DO have a lot of weird flours and grains in my pantry (I should really show a picture of my newly reorganized pantry.  It's cute.)

Anyway...I came up with something.  It does have one weird flour, but only spelt.  That's pretty easy to come by.  After some research, I was led astray.  Apparently it's not completely gluten free, but has a low amount of more digestible gluten, and so is sometimes ok for people with allergies, but not people with celiac disease.  I'll keep trying.

Eats - Fancy freezer pizza

So, for my first how-to-make-something-quick-and-yummy post - fancy freezer pizza.

My boyfriend and I are suckers for sales on freezer pizza, so we almost always have a stock.  This one was a Tostino's pepperoni, but really I prefer plain cheese.

So, start with your cheap freezer pizza.  Add a variety of fresh (or at least fresher) ingredients and some spices.  Bake as usual, or maybe a tad longer if you add a lot of veggies.

For this one - fresh spinach, goat cheese, onion, dried basil, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper.

Excuses, excuses

I have been unforgivably absent from my blog since *gasp* October.  I have good reasons - new home, new job, new diet, all within a two week span, not to mention hosting two family Thanksgivings and three family Christmases.  Swamped, I tell you.

But life is starting to settle down.  Maybe there will be a flood of brilliant, inspired entries over the next month or so....

But back to the new diet.  I must say, it's hard to think of food in the same way when eating a rigid selection of small meals, six times a day.  It's too much work to make each of them (or really any of them) fabulous.  I blame that for my continued silence.  But I've decided to turn it into a challenge - post simple but healthy and delicious meals.  Starting with what I made tonight, but that'll have to wait.  I already have a couple of entries lined up.

By the way, my next blog entry is not diet-friendly.  One day a week, I get to eat whatever I want.  Now you want to know why I can't use THAT day to make fancy food.  I will, I will.  Stop nagging!  But this one is a throw-back to my last 6+ weeks of insanity that have kept me from really cooking.  A suggestion for making something frozen and dull into something awesome with very little effort.  Teaser.

Notes

Last night I got a real treat.  One of my good friends read my lasagna post and invited me over for a variation on my recipe.  She used polenta instead of the noodles and put sauteed peppers and mushrooms and onions in it.  And she didn't forget the ricotta.  It was delicious!  And what an honor to be treated to a dinner this blog inspired!

Regretfully, I did not take pictures.

Eats - Lasagna

My boyfriend keeps referring to this as "veggie lasagna," but I tell him I think veggie lasagna conjures images of over-cooked chunks of vegetables, and this lasagna is really just a basic, easy lasagna, with room for whatever alterations you wish to make.

Fresh from the oven

Eats - Pork Stew with Chard

Eats - Homemade Tomato Sauce (Prequel to Eggs in Purgatory)

Ingredients:
Either: 3 pounds of fresh tomatoes, blanched, peeled, and chopped or 2 large cans of diced tomatoes, drained
Small can of tomato paste (use only if needed to thicken sauce)
2-3 Tbsp. Olive oil
1/2 large white onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
1 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup fresh basil or 1-2 tbps. dry
1/4 cup red wine
Black pepper
Salt
Crushed red peppers, if desired

Heat the oil in a pan.
Add the onion and cook about 3 minutes, then add the garlic, sugar, basil (I previously posted about a suggestion from my aunt to chop the garlic with your herbs.  I'd repeat that suggestion now), wine, and mushrooms (or carrots, or whatever other addition you may want to make, or none at all if you want it just tomatoes) and saute until the onions are caramelized, about 5 more minutes.
Add the tomatoes and cook down for about 30-40 minutes.  If the sauce is too watery, add some tomato paste until it's the consistency you want.
Add salt, pepper, and crushed red peppers to taste.

Eats - Eggs in Purgatory (Uova in Purgatorio)

Eggs in Purgatory

The other night we had friends over for spaghetti and meatballs, and ended up with a small amount of meaty, mushroomy tomato sauce left over.  So Saturday morning I turned it into Eggs in Purgatory, a traditional and delicious Italian peasant dish.

All you have to do is put the sauce in a skillet, heat it on medium high heat until it bubbles, then crack however many eggs you plan on eating into it (careful not to break the yolk), and let the eggs poach in the sauce.  As they poach, the tomato sauce will start to cook down, and the whole thing looks gorgeous and rustic.  I sprinkled some grated Parmesan on top when I served it.  Yum.

My tomato sauce recipe will follow in a day or two, for anyone who is interested.

Eats - Shrimp Tacos with Charred Corn and Zucchini-Radish Slaw

One day while perusing cooking blogs, I came across this recipe on one of my favorite sites.  After thinking the tacos looked both delicious and beautiful, I realized we had shrimp in the freezer.  Since we also had masa harina, the dry base for corn tortilla dough, this was one of the cheapest meals we've made in awhile.

Thrifts - Tiered Serving Trays and Cheese Server

Turning 30 was profitable, I must say.  The post earlier this week with the apron and flower cookbook were gifts, as were the two (well, at least one, but I'll explain) tiered serving trays and the cheese slicer/server in this post.

One of my dear friends got me one of these serving trays and the cheese slicer as a birthday gift.  She then bought a second serving tray for herself.  Then she found another tiered serving tray that she liked better, so I got the second matching one as well!

Fancy Cheese Slicer

I can imagine the snacks I will be putting out on these.

On top of getting lots of cool vintage dining/kitchen stuff, I also got some really nice vintage jewelry and purses.  Apparently my friends and family know me.  This blog may help.

Thrifts - Flower Cookery - The Art of Cooking with Flowers

This book was a birthday present from one of my aunts.  It's full of recipes using flowers as the main ingredient - and not just candied pansies and rosewater sauce.

There are recipes for infused liquors and syrups and salads, among other things.

I also found it really interesting, reading the introduction, that the author and her husband had lived in Mexico in one of D.H. Lawrence's old homes.

My aunt tells me that she and my uncle found the book in a $1 book grab-bag from a library book sale.

Also, the apron the book is lying on was made for me by the same aunt for my birthday.  It's so cute and looks very vintage.  I love it!

Eats and Thrifts - Portobello Gyros, Roasted Potatoes, and Greek-Style Green Beans

I really love when I forget to take pictures of the final product when I've made a dish.  Usually it's because I'm really hungry, and I've been cooking for a couple hours, and everyone is waiting for me to announce it's time to eat.  Like this meal. For a weeknight meal, man, it took a long time.  

Juicing the lemon - Thanks to my aunt for the lovely juicer.

Eats - Shirred Eggs (and banana strawberry waffles)

Eggs fresh from the oven

Shirred Eggs is a baked egg dish and can be made either in individual portions in a muffin tin or in a baking dish as more of a casserole.

Eats - Makeshift Shepherd's Pie

Just out of the oven

I said I was going to try to turn the leftover roast into a makeshift shepherd's pie (having never made shepherd's pie - totally winging it), and I did.

I spooned selected vegetables out of the broth (leaving the tomato chunks, mainly), trying not to get too much broth.  I added the vegetables to the baking dish.  I took the leftover meat (it had been sitting in the broth from before in the fridge), shredded and/or cut it up into small pieces, and added it to the veggies.  I then took a bag of frozen mixed vegetables (I know, I know, but we're eating cheap, and this was a "make what you have in the house" kind of meal, and they were really tasty in there), steamed them, and added them to the dish, stirring everything together to even it out.  I covered everything with a layer of the leftover garlic mashed potatoes, and then baked it for 40 minutes at 400 deg.

It was pretty darn yummy.  Not bad for leftovers.

Eats - Beef Pot Roast in Mushroom Wine Sauce, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Asparagus in Lemon and Butter

Beef Pot Roast, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Asparagus

Beef Pot Roast with Mushroom Wine Gravy:

2.5 pound beef pot roast

1 box white mushrooms

1 box shitake mushrooms

1 large white onion, coarsely chopped

2 stalks celery, sliced thinly

3 cloves garlic

1 can of stewed tomatoes (28 oz.)

1 cup beef broth (low or no sodium)

1 cup red wine (I used pinot noir)

Fresh rosemary - 2 tbsps

Fresh marjoram - 2 tbsps, chopped

Thyme (Fresh or dry) - tbsp fresh or tsp dry

2 bay leaves

Eats - Cranberry Yogurt Soda Bread

It should look something like this, but I stole this image from here.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups low-fat plain yogurt

2 egg whites

1/3 cup dried cranberries 

2 Tbsp. clear honey

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the yogurt and egg whites, and fold into the flour mixture with the cranberries and honey.

Grease a 2-pound loaf pan and spoon in the mixture. Bake in the oven at 220 C for 20 minutes until golden brown. Cool slightly and turn out of pan. Serve warm.

Eats - Spaghetti with Spicy Tomato Shrimp Sauce

I apologize that there aren't any pictures of this. It was an off-the-cuff meal that turned out delicious. So delicious that I cleaned my plate before thinking about taking a picture. So...here's what I did:

For the Tomato Sauce:
1/4 of a large white onion, diced
15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 tbsp sugar
2-3 tbsp red wine
15 oz. can of tomato sauce
A few sprigs fresh basil - chopped
3 cloves garlic - chopped
Salt
Black pepper

Heat a sauce pan on medium high heat with 2-3 tbsp olive oil.  Add the diced onions.  Cook 5 minutes, then add the can of diced tomatoes and the sugar.  Stir and let the tomatoes and onions cook down for about 5 minutes, add the wine and let cook another 5.  Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes more, or until the sauce has reached a desirable consistency.

For the shrimp:
1/4 stick butter
15 shrimp (no tails, deveined, pre-cooked)
A few sprigs fresh basil - chopped

3 cloves garlic - chopped

3 tbps White wine

Salt

Black pepper

Crushed red pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet.  Add all ingredients to the pan.  Allow to cook a few minutes, then add the tomato sauce to the skillet and stir together, cooking just a few moments.  Toss with spaghetti and serve.

For timing:
Start the water boiling for the pasta when you add the "remaining ingredients" to the tomato sauce and start the shrimp when you add the pasta to the water.

Another hint (From one of my smart aunts):
Chop your fresh herbs and garlic together.  The herbs keep the garlic's stickiness to a minimum, and the garlic keeps the leafy herbs contained.

Eats - French toast made from leftover challah and topped with apples cooked in sorghum.

This was one of the first pictures I ever posted, but I didn't include a recipe.  After remaking this French toast last weekend (and getting the rave review of "Best breakfast I've ever had" from my boyfriend), I decided it was about time.

So...start with your leftover challah (Or any bread, but let's be serious - challah is the best, and worth the minimal effort to bake a loaf.  Look back at this post for the recipe).  I like my french toast to be fairly thick, so I cut about 3/4 to 1 inch thick slices.

For your batter:

4 eggs
2/3 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
A few teaspoons each of cinnamon and nutmeg

Using a fork, combine the ingredients in a pie pan or other low dish.

Prepare a pan with 3 tablespoons oil (again, canola is the healthiest).  Once hot, dip your first piece of bread for a few seconds on each side then quickly transfer to the pan.  Cook a few minutes until the bottom side is crispy and brown, then flip and repeat.  Serve with your choice of fruit, maple syrup, powdered sugar, you name it.  Personally, I'm a fan of apples and sorghum (pears and sorghum is also super delicious).

For the apples:

Prepare a small saucepan with two tablespoons of butter.  Add two sliced granny smith apples.  Place a lid on the pan until the apples start to soften, then add a tablespoon of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon, leaving the apples to cook without the lid until they look slightly browned.

Serve the French toast with a healthy portion of apples and a few tablespoons of sorghum.

Eats - Crepes stuffed with berries and savory apple fried potatoes (and bacon)

For my crepes, I've been using this recipe for years.  You can play with it if you need, adding water or flour to adjust the thickness depending on your preference. I like mine to be pretty thin. I stuffed these with sliced fresh strawberries and blueberries, then topped them with powdered sugar.  They are also great with maple syrup on top.

The potatoes need about 40 minutes, so I would start those first, then give yourself about 20 minutes to do the crepes.

Fried potatoes:
3 Tbsps. oil (I use canola because it's the healthiest)
6-8 Yellow potatoes
1/3 large white onion
1 Granny Smith apple
3 Tbsp. white wine
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
Paprika

Slice the potatoes thinly and set aside.  Dice the onion and chop the apple into 1/2 inch chunks.  Heat the oil in the pan.  Once hot, add the onions.  When they begin to turn clear, add the potatoes.  Place a lid loosely on the pan.  After about 10 minutes, add the apple and rosemary.  Return lid.  Wait another 5 minutes or so and add the white wine.  Remove lid.  When the potatoes have begun to brown and are starting to look nearly done, add the salt, pepper, and paprika.  Cook a few more minutes, then serve.