Cider-Maple-Dijon Pork Chops: Another One-Pot Oven Meal

Here's a meal you can start with frozen pork chops, put in the oven, and ignore.  Maple syrup and mustard are surprisingly good flavor partners for pork.  Add some apple cider and cider vinegar and you have a wonderfully tasty concoction for bringing flavor to boneless loin pork chops and assorted vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless loin pork chops
• 1 shallot or other mild onion, thinly sliced
• 8-12 mushrooms, sliced
• 2-3 carrots, sliced
• 2-3 stalks celery, sliced
• 1/4 cup maple syrup, preferably Grade B
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2-3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Procedure:

1. Lay the shallot or onion slices in an 8" x 13" glass roasting pan.
2. Place the frozen or thawed pork chops on top of the onions.
3. Layer the other vegetables around the pork chops.
4. Mix together the maple syrup, cider, vinegar and mustard and pour over the chops and veggies.
5. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350°F for 30-45 minutes depending on how frozen the pork was.
6. Uncover the pan, flip the pork chops and spoon the juices and some of the veggies over them.
7. Return to the oven for another 30-45 minutes.

The cooking time for this is imprecise.  The long cooking time enables the pork chops to become tender and the vegetables to soak up some of the flavors.  The only thing to watch is that you don't let the liquid boil away.  If it seems to be loosing too much liquid, recover the pan for the end of the cooking.

Fat-free Cream of You-Choose-the-Vegetable Soup

Good looking asparagus is hitting the supermarket shelves.  Like many folks, hubby Bill doesn't like asparagus so it doesn't end up on the supper plate.  I love it and I love soup for lunch so Cream of Asparagus Soup is on the menu.

It's easy to make a fat-free cream of vegetable soup.  The basic ingredients are

• a vegetable, either raw or roasted, such as asparagus, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, etc.
• fat-free broth, either chicken, beef, or vegetable
• fat-free evaporated milk
• salt, pepper, and a dried or fresh herb mix
• a flour and water slurry to thicken

Procedure:

1. Cut the vegetable into chunks and place in a large sauce pan.
2. Sprinkle on the herbs.
3. Cover with broth and bring to a boil.
4. When the vegetable is partially cooked, whir with an immersion blender.
5. Add the evaporated milk and simmer for several minutes.
6. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
7. Add the flour and water slurry and simmer a few more minutes to thicken.
8. Whir again with the blender to get any flour lumps, missed chunks of vegetables, or dried herb bits.

Serve. This is even better the next day.  I just had a bowl of Cream of Asparagus soup that made my tummy very happy.  It  had in it:

• 1 pound of asparagus, washed, tough ends discarded, and broken into 1-2 inch pieces
• 1 carton Swanson's lower sodium fat-free beef broth
• 1 can Carnation fat-free evaporated milk
• 1 tsp. Penzey's Herbes de Provence
• sea salt and freshly ground Alessi mixed peppercorns
• 3 Tbl. white flour mixed in 1/2 cup water

I am not sponsored by any brands.  The only reason for listing them here is so you can know what I used if you want to replicate what I did.

Cream of Asparagus & Gruyere Soup

Sometimes simple with a few tasty ingredients is the way to go.  This soup takes about 10 minutes to assemble and is delicious. Ingredients: 1 bunch thin asparagus (8-16 oz.), tough ends snapped off 1 can fat-free evaporated milk 1 milk-can (see previous ingredient) chicken broth 4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated salt, white pepper & sugar to taste

Procedure:

1. Cut the asparagus into 1/4 inch long pieces.
2. Place the asparagus in a covered dish and microwave on high for 3 minutes.
3. Add the can of milk and can of chicken broth to the asparagus.
4. Cover and microwave on high 5 minutes until very hot.
5. Sprinkling a bit of cheese at a time and stirring constantly, incorporate the cheese into the hot soup.
6. Taste and adjust flavors with salt, white pepper, and a pinch of sugar.
   
   Serve immediately. The cheese will settle to the bottom as the soup cools so stir again if the soup must sit or if reheating.
   

Butternut Squash and Salami: Sweet & Savory!

Here in the U.S., the common way to embellish butternut squash involves lots of sweetness like brown sugar and marshmallows.  Don't get me wrong, I like a good tooth-aching, carmelized, gooey butternut squash casserole as much as the next person but, when paired with a savory topping, butternut squash is wonderfully sweet on its own.  It's also a much healthier base for "Italianate fixin's" than a bowl of pasta.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, washed
• 2-3 ounces sopressata or other good dry-cured salami,cut into fine dice
• 8-10 mushrooms, sliced
• several handfuls baby spinach, julienned
• 1-2 ounces grated parmesan
• 1/4 cup fat-free evaporated milk, divided
• 2 Tablespoons butter (optional)

Procedure for the squash:

1. Place the butternut squash in a glass roasting/lasagna pan.
2. Roast in a 400°F oven for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until the squash is quite soft and the skin looks a bit dimply like it has a cellulite problem.
3. As soon as the squash is cool enough to handle, cut it in half lengthwise.  
4. Discard the seeds and stringy goo.  
5. Scoop the rest of the squash meat into a bowl and mash with 2 Tablespoons evaporated milk and two tablespoons butter.  Do not salt or pepper it.  The salami will take care of the flavor.
6. When ready to serve, heat briefly in the microwave.

Procedure for the topping:

1. In a medium sauté pan, briefly cook the salami until some of its fat has been released.
2. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms are slightly colored but have not yet released their liquid.
3. Add the spinach and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the spinach has lost its raw color.
4. Add 2 Tablespoons evaporated milk and simmer to reduce.

To serve:

1. Mound the butternut squash on the plates.
2. Spoon the salami and veggie mixture over the squash.
3. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
4. Serve.

Yum.

Portobellos with Sausage Stuffing

We needed a smallish meal to place between the luscious carnivore extravagances of the holidays.  This recipe stretches one link of grocery store Italian sausage to flavor a great meal for two.

Ingredients:

• 2 portobello mushroom caps
  
• 1 Italian sausage link (approximately 6" long by 1" diameter)
  
• 1-2 shallots, finely minced
  
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely minced
  
• 1/2 cup Italian-flavored bread crumbs or plain bread crumbs and Italian herb seasoning
• 1/2-3/4 cup grated parmesan, divided
  
• 1 egg
• 3-4 Tbl. olive oil, divided
• romaine lettuce
• salad dressing

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F
2. On top of the stove, heat 2 Tbl. olive oil in a largish oven-proof skillet 
3. Remove the stems from the portobello mushroom caps, taking care not to break the caps, and mince the pieces of stem
4. Scrape the gills out of the mushrooms with a spoon and discard them
   
5. Squeeze the sausage meat out of its casing and break into small pieces
6. Sauté the sausage meat, onions, garlic, and stem pieces until the meat is done
7. Add the parsley and sauté just long enough for the parsley to wilt
8. Remove the meat mixture to a bowl large enough to mix the stuffing, making sure to get as much as possible out of the skillet
9. Coat the portobello caps inside and out with olive oil and place open-side down in the skillet
10. Bake for 8 minutes
11. Let the meat mixture cool and then mix in the bread crumbs, half the cheese, and the egg to make a stuffing
12. Remove the mushroom caps from the oven and flip them so that the open side is up
13. Mound the stuffing on top of the mushrooms and top with the remaining cheese
14. Bake another 15 minutes
15. Make a salad of dressed romaine lettuce on each plate and place the stuffed mushroom on top.

A complete and satisfying meal!  And it dirties only one pot ... and a knife, the cutting board, a bowl to mix the stuffing and to dress the romaine, ...

Ground Nut Soup: Vegan Peanut Butter Soup

Ground nut soup is to grandmothers across Africa what beef stew is across the US.  Every family has its favorite.  Every country from Ghana to Sudan has local variations.  When the ground nut came across the Atlantic, the dish became a Southern classic, peanut soup.  There are no real rules except for the presence of the ground nuts which, in the US, are easily obtained in the form of peanut butter.

Yesterday my vegetarian and vegan friends were here for lunch so I threw together some warm and tasty soup from what was in the cupboards.  I had store-brand all-natural peanut butter on hand, making the flavor a bit milder than soup made with the national brands of peanut butter.   In fact, it didn't taste like peanut butter but rather like nuts.  As with most soups, the proportions are up to you based on taste. 

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Tbl. olive oil
  
• A large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
  
• 2-3 stalks or inner stalks & heart of celery, coarsely chopped
• 2-3 carrots, washed & trimmed but not peeled, coarsely chopped
• 2"-3" knob of ginger root, peeled, trimmed, & finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 4-6 cups water, divided
  
• 1/2 cup catsup
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1 can beans (e.g. kidney beans), drained and rinsed
  
• Several springs cilantro, finely chopped
• 1-2 teaspoons cumin
  
• Sea salt to taste

 Note: if you use sweetened peanut butter or tomato sauce instead of catsup, you may want to skip the molasses.

Procedure:

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot.
2. Over medium heat, sweat the onion, carrots, celery, ginger root, and garlic until the onion is translucent.
3. Add half the water and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
4. With an immersion blender or in the food processor or blender, lightly whir the vegetables and water until thick with some chunks of vegetables remaining.  If you don't have the equipment for this step, chop everything more finely at the outset.
5. Add the remaining water, catsup, molasses, and peanut butter.
6. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to meld flavors.
7. Add cilantro, cumin and salt, adjusting the seasonings to taste.
8. Simmer another 5-10 minutes.
9. Serve.
   

A Sweet Vegetarian Curry over Brown Rice

My vegetarian dinner guests came back for more. One had three helpings and I liked it, too. A tasty, sweet, and not very hot curry.  If you like it hotter, add a hot pepper or two.


Ingredients:

• 2 cans chickpeas, drained
• 1 can  coconut milk
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 large, sweet onion, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 large parsnip, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
  
• 1-3 carrots, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 white potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 bell peppers, 1 green and 1 red, cut in 1/2 inch squares
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 Tablespoon garam masala
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, deep skillet with a cover.
2. Sauté the onion until translucent and slightly carmelized (about 10 minutes).
3. Add the rest of the vegetables, including the garlic, and the vegetable broth.
4. Cover and steam until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork (about 20 minutes).
5. Add the chickpeas, coconut milk, honey, garam masala, cumin, and ground pepper.
6. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
7. Adjust the taste with the salt.
8. Serve over brown rice.
   

Potato Leek Soup, Vegan Style, Garnished with Roasted Red Peppers

A couple of friend were over here today, he's a vegetarian and she's a true vegan. So, vegan soup was on the lunch menu. This potato leek soup was nice and creamy despite its no-animal-products condition. It takes about 1/2 hour total to make this soup.

Ingredients:

• 4 well-scrubbed, thin skinned potatoes
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I used 1 container of Swanson's veggie broth but you could use homemade stock or veggie bouillon.)
  
• 3 large leeks, white parts only
• 2 Tbl. olive oil
  
• several sprigs curly parsley
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• salt
• pepper (I used Alessi lemon pepper)
• roasted red peppers to garnish

Procedure:

1. Cube the potatoes and put in a large soup pot
2. Cover the potatoes with the broth and boil until the potatoes are soft
3. Cut the ends off the leeks, slice in half lengthwise and then slice into 1/2-3/4 inch slices. Wash thoroughly.
4. Sauté the leeks in the olive oil until soft.
5. Add the leeks to the potatoes & broth
   
6. Using an immersion blender (or in a blender or food processor) whir until smooth
   
7. Finely mince the parsley and the garlic and add to the soup
8. Simmer slowly until the garlic loses it's raw bite
9. Serve hot or cool.
10. Garnish with a spoonful of coursely chopped roasted red peppers
    

Roasted Red Peppers on Homemade Bread: Easy You Say?

Yup, I do say easy. We haven't bought bread since I found the wildly popular no-knead bread formula and with locally grown red peppers so cheap in the grocery store it'd be a crime not to roast them.

So, in the picture is my bag of a dozen roasted red peppers and some fresh oat bread. We've ordered oat flour and other goodies from Barry Farm Foods in Ohio. Hubby Bill first discovered them when looking for rye flakes and wheat flakes as alternatives to oatmeal.

I've been alternating oat bread with rye bread using their flours. The special flours seem expensive until you compare the price to buying bread in the grocery.

The basic formula I use for the bread is:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 cups oat flour, rye flour, or whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats, rye flakes, or wheat flakes
• 2 Tbl. brown sugar or molasses
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 envelope of rapid rise yeast
• Optionally, add a flavoring like caraway seeds to the rye, sunflower seeds to the whole wheat, etc.
  
• 2 1/4 cups water

Procedure:

1. Mix the dry ingredients (including sugar if using) in a large bowl
2. Stir in the water (with the molasses stirred into it if using)
3. Cover and let rise approximately 8 hours, give or take a few hours
4. Stir down, cover and let rise again for 2 hours, give or take an hour
5. 30 minutes before you plan to cook the bread, preheat a covered pot for baking the bread in a 450°F oven.
6. Lightly oil the hot pot and flop the batter into it.
7. Bake 30 minutes, covered, at 450°F
8. Remove the cover, lower the oven temperature to 440°F and bake an additional 20 minutes.
9. Remove the bread from the pot and cool on a rack.

Voilà! Bread.

For the roasted red peppers:

1. Preheat the oven broiler to high and move a rack to the top-most position. Keep the oven door ajar to make the broiler element stay on.
   
2. Halve and remove the seeds and white membranes from the peppers.
3. Place, open side down on a foil lined cookie sheet and flatten with the palm of your hand.
4. Broil the peppers 10-16 minutes until the skins are black. Don't panic. You indeed do want almost all of the skin to be black and brittle.
5. Remove from the oven and let the peppers steam in their own heat by bunching the foil.
6. When cool enough to handle, slough the skins off the peppers.

Voilà! Roasted red peppers.

See? Easy peasy. The bread measurements and rising times need not be precise. The peppers will look ugly when they come out of the oven. They are supposed to. You can't lose.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Peeling and seeding a butternut squash is a lot easier after it's been roasted. And just as roasted cauliflower makes a wonderful soup, roasted butternut squash is a great base for soup.

Procedure:

1. To roast a butternut squash, leave it whole but poke a few holes in the skin with a fork. Put it in a shallow pan and roast at 400°F for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the squash is very soft. When the squash has cooled, remove the stem, skin, seeds and "strings."
2. In a soup pot, sauté a chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil until translucent.
3. Add the roasted squash and cover with fat-free chicken broth.
4. Use an immersion blender to purée the mixture.
5. Optionally add a can of fat-free evaporated milk.
6. Add ground or rubbed sage, salt and pepper to taste.
7. Heat through.

So warm and creamy you just want to float away in a pool of it and yet, except for the olive oil, fat free.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup for a Rainy Evening

Roasting vegetables really brings a depth of taste to them. Roasting cauliflower before making soup results in a deep, rich taste to the soup that can't be beat.

You can roast the cauliflower ahead of time while cooking other things in the oven and save it in the fridge for several days, making the soup when you are ready for it. I have not tried freezing the roasted cauliflower but that might work as well.

To roast the cauliflower:

1. Cut a cauliflower into flowerettes, discarding the leaves and the toughest part of the central stem.
2. Toss the cauliflower in olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Roast until brown around the edges.

Note: I didn't list a time or a temperature. That's because you can roast the cauliflower while you are cooking other things. For example, I roasted it the other night while cooking a sirloin tip roast, some potatoes, and mushrooms. The cauliflower was in the oven at 375°F for about three-quarters of an hour.

A higher or lower temperature, what else is in the oven, etc., will affect the time needed. This is not rocket science. You are going for slightly toasted but still moist cauliflower. It does smell like cabbage as it cooks so I am not sure I'd roast it while baking an angelfood cake. You wouldn't want the cake to smell like old socks!

To make the soup:

1. In a soup pot, sauté minced shallot and garlic in olive oil.
2. Add a peeled and cubed potato and the roasted cauliflower.
3. Cover with chicken broth.
4. Simmer until the potato is cooked.
5. Purée until smooth.
6. Optionally add a can of fat-free evaporated milk.
7. Adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper.

Using an immersion blender to mix in the evaporated milk results in a very thick and creamy soup. The roasting of the cauliflower adds a real depth of flavor. I'm going to have the leftovers right now.

Tzatziki, Raita, Maast-o Khiar, Jajik: Cucumber & Yogurt is a Good Idea

Cucumber in yogurt is a salad staple in many cuisines, from Greece, across the Middle East and on to India. Each country has its own favorite way to make this creamy, cooling side dish.

The basics:

1. Pare a cucumber
2. Add flavorings
3. Dress with plain yogurt
4. Chill to let flavors meld

The flavorings:

Every culture and seemingly every family has favorite flavorings for cucumber yogurt salad.

• Garlic and salt are almost ubiquitous additions.
• Green ingredients include chopped dill weed, cilantro, parsley, mint, or scallions.
• Very thinly sliced onions add bite.
• Spices such as pepper, cumin, turmeric or other spice may be added.

Simple or complicated?

The choice is yours.

• Peel the cucumber. (Or not.)
  
• To assure the yogurt does not get watery, remove the seeds from the cucumber, salt and let drain for 30 minutes before preparing the salad. (Or not.)
• Use good quality Greek yogurt that has been drained. (Or not.)
• Stir some flavorful olive oil into the yogurt. (Or not.)

For a quick, weeknight sauce to serve with rice and chicken, I like to

1. slice a peeled and seeded cucumber,
2. add store-brand plain low fat yogurt, chopped fresh dill weed, finely chopped garlic, salt and white pepper
3. Stir.

I tend to make this first so that by the time the rest of supper is ready it has sat long enough for the flavors to meld a bit. No, this doesn't result in the most scrumptuous tzatziki/raita/maast-o khiar/jajik you ever had, but it's a great quick side dish!

Fresh Refrigerator Pickles: One Cucumber at a Time

The inventory of the roadside veggie vendor near here depends on what his farming friends in the low country of South Carolina have. This past week, he had pint baskets of cucumbers and one of them came home with me. I like cucumbers but who wants to eat the same veggie several days in a row? Small, one-cucumber batches of fresh pickles to the rescue, each with different flavors.

This recipe needs no canning and can be done at the drop of a hat. It is completely flexible.

Step 1: Make brine for the pickles.

The sweetness and sourness of the pickles depends on the brine. If you look at recipes in books or online, you'll find great disparities among the ingredient ratios.

You can choose how to proportion

• Water
• Vinegar
• Sugar
• Salt

I am happy with

• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tsp. salt

This is about enough to cover 2 separate 1-cucumber batches. This makes a sweet but not cloyingly sweet pickle that is tangy without being too sour.

Bring the brine to a boil and stir to fully dissolve the sugar. I do this in the microwave.

Step 2: Prepare the vegetables

Slice, cube or other wise cut the cucumber into pickles shapes. Layer in a covered dish with the flavors you have chosen for the pickle.

Consider the following combinations:

• sliced cucumber, sliced yellow onion, chopped garlic, fresh dill
• cubed cucumber, sliced red onion, cinnamon stick, peppercorns
• Slice cucumber, squares of red bell pepper, slice sweet onion, whole coriander seeds

Step 3: Pour brine & refrigerate

Pour the hot brine to cover the vegetables and spices. Cover with cling film and refrigerate.

These pickles can be eaten as soon as they are cold but they improve in flavor over the next few days, by which time they will probably be gone.

This recipe can serve as the basis for pickling other vegetables, e.g. zucchini, summer squash, sweet potato slices, cauliflower, etc. Have fun experimenting!

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Phew! I found that little slip of paper I had written the roasted red pepper sauce formula on! Red bell peppers were 89¢ each at the Piggly Wiggly today so it's time for another freezer-stocking project!

Freshly roasted red peppers are one of life's great pleasures. They are smooth and sweet and bear absolutely no resemblance to jarred red peppers. And they go on or in anything! Fish, pasta, potatoes, chicken, you name it! Frozen, red pepper sauce keeps that wonderful flavor around to be used at a moment's notice.

The pictures are from an 8-pepper (quadruple) batch.

Ingredients: 2 red bell peppers, roasted and peeled 1/4 cup white wine 1/4 cup chicken broth 1 medium red sweet onion, roughly chopped 1 Tbl. olive oil 1 Tbl. minced garlic
Procedure for roasting the peppers: Preheat the oven broiler and move a rack to within 4 inches or so from the element or flames Line a cookie sheet with foil. Cut the red peppers in half and remove the stem, seeds, and whitish membranes. Place the pepper halves skin side up on the foil and press them with the palm of your hand to flatten them. They will break a bit as you flatten them and will not lie completely flat.
Broil the peppers until the skin is almost totally black char but the meat is still moist. Keep the door of the oven ajar so the broiler element will stay on. These were broiled for 10 minutes, turning the tray half way through.
Remove from the oven and gather the foil up around the peppers to form a sealed sack to steam them.
When the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the meat of the pepper. At this point, the roasted peppers are ready for use. I usually slice them into narrow strips. If moved to a sealed plastic bag, they will keep in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days.
Procedure for the coulis (sauce): Sweat the chopped onion in olive oil until translucent and starting to carmelize. Add the garlic and sauté another minute. Pour the wine into the pan and stir to deglaze. Simmer to reduce the wine by half.
Add the roasted and peeled peppers and stock. Simmer 10 more minutes to thicken. When cool enough to do so, purée
The red pepper sauce can be served hot or cold. It will keep refrigerated for several days. It can also be frozen in meal-sized amounts for later use. It's bright red and pretty and tasty and will impress the heck out of your friends.

Easy Hamburgers & Sweet Potato Oven Fries Redux

This time with pictures & just salt & pepper on the "fries." We served them with sweet gherkins and some tasty honey-dill mustard. Preheat an iron grill pan in a 400°F oven.
Peel the sweet potatoes & cut into french fry size.
Toss the potato pieces in 2 Tbl. olive oil and season as desired. Lay in a single layer on a roasting pan. Roast in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Flip the potatoes and return to oven.
Put the hamburgers on the grill pan, only oiling the pan if you are using very low fat burgers. Roast in the over for 8-10 minutes. Flip the burgers and roast another 6-8 minutes and check for doneness. Continue to cook until they reach the desired doneness. The USDA recommends 160°F for ground beef but remove the burgers from the oven at a slightly lower temperature because the temperature will continue to rise. When the burgers are done, the potatoes will be done, too.

The previous post on hamburgers and sweet potato fries is here.

Tweaking the Easiest Hamburger Meal

After many years of making pan-cooked hamburgers that were dry, hard on the outside, too raw in the middle, I am so happy to discover oven grilled hamburgers! The first time I tried them the result was exactly medium burgers, no pink but still juicy. This time I aimed for the rare side of medium with just a blush of pink. Nailed it.

Procedure:

• Place ridged grill pan in oven and preheat to 450°
• Lightly brush hot grill pan with oil to prevent sticking
• Place 3/4 inch thick burgers on pan and return to oven for ten minutes
• Flip burgers and return to oven for another 6 minutes

In the same time it takes to roast the burgers, you can roast some vegetables. Here's what we had as our side dish:

Ingredients:

• Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
• Mushrooms, stems trimmed and halved if largish -- make them about the size of the sprout halves
• Dried herb mix, salt & pepper, e.g. McCormick Italian Seasoning, ground sea salt, and Alessi Lemon Pepper.
  
• Olive oil
  

Procedure:

1. Place trimmed and halved veggies in a single layer on a broiling pan, roasting pan, or cookie sheet with sides.
   
2. "Droozle" a bit of olive oil over the veggies
   
3. Sprinkle on the herbs, salt & pepper
4. Stir to coat the veggies and the bottom of the pan -- I use my hands for this
5. Roast in a pre-heated 450° oven 10 minutes
   
6. Stir and roast another 6 minutes

This make such an easy supper!! In thirty minutes or less,

1. Turn the oven on and put the grill pan in.
2. Prepare the veggies.
3. When the oven is at temperature, put the veggies in, brush oil on the hot grill pan and add the burgers
   
4. Leave alone in the oven for 10 minutes
5. Flip the burgers & stir the veggies
6. Leave alone in the oven for 6 minutes
7. Supper!!

What could be simpler?

Hamburgers & Sweet Potato "Fries" in the Oven

Here's a meal that takes very little prep time and only thirty minutes in the oven. Burgers and fries are not exactly "good for you" but letting the burgers grill up out of the grease and making sweet potato fries in the oven is a healthier version.

I used Za'atar to flavor the fries. Za'atar is a variable mixture of herbs, often with thyme as a base, used in Middle-Eastern cooking. I've spoken before about buying spices while on vacation. I got this bag of Za'atar at a Lebanese grocery store while visiting friends in Los Angeles.

Ingredients:

• Sweet potato
  
• Ground beef shaped into hamburgers about 1 inch thick
• Za'atar or other herb mix for the potatoes
• Salt
  
• Olive oil

Determine amounts by how many servings you want. For two servings I used one large sweet potato and two four-ounce burgers.

Procedure:

1. Place an iron grill pan in the oven if you have one (If you don't have an iron grill pan, forego preheating the pan and use a broiling pan with a rack.)
2. Turn on the oven and preheat to 400°
   
3. Peeled the sweet potato and cut into french-fry shaped pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick
4. Toss the sweet potato in olive oil to coat.
5. Toss the coated potatoes with Za'atar and salt to taste
6. Place the potatoes in a single layer on a baking pan
   
7. When the oven is up to heat, cook the potatoes for 10 minutes
8. By this time your grill pan should be very hot. Use a barbecue brush to "paint" the grill pan (or rack) with olive oil to prevent sticking.
   
9. Place the hamburger on the oiled grill pan or rack and cook in the oven for 10 minutes.
   
10. Flip the burgers and the potatoes.
11. Cook another 10 minutes (30 minutes total for the potatoes, 20 minutes for the burgers)

It this point, the burgers will be medium well-done and the potatoes will be soft and slightly carmelized. We put some honey dill mustard on the burgers. Yum.

Mashed Cauliflower: Soft White Food but Healthy

I love soft white food. Grits with butter and cheese. Mashed potatoes made with cream and topped with butter. Fettucini alfredo. Creme brulee. The list goes on. But I do attempt to keep my circumference less than my height so healthier soft white food is welcome, too.

Mashed cauliflower and light Laughing Cow cheese wedges (any flavor) come to the rescue. A whole head of cauliflower only has about 100 calories, depending on size. Three Laughing Cow light wedges have only have 35 calories each. A quarter cup of skim milk is only about 20 calories. With a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg these make a large bowl of yummy creaminess with about 225 calories in the whole bowl! If, like me, you like a touch of sweetness in your veggies, add about a teaspoon of brown sugar. A rounded teaspoon of brown sugar only adds about 20 calories.

Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower, green leaves and central stem removed
• 1/4 cup milk
  
• 3 wedges light Laughing Cow cheese
• salt, pepper & nutmeg to taste
• optionally 1 rounded teaspoon brown sugar
  

Procedure:

1. Roughly chop the cauliflower and place in a microwave-safe bowl
2. Sprinkle a little bit of water on the cauliflower to provide some steam
3. Cover and microwave until soft, approximately 5-6 minutes
4. Add the milk and cheese and mash or whir with a stick blender.
5. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg & sugar (if desired) to taste.
6. If necessary, heat briefly in the microwave to bring back to serving temperature.

Bill and I find we can polish off a whole head of cauliflower between us served this way. The other night, the cauliflower accompanied some salmon patties.

How to Use a Whole Bag of Potatoes

There are only the two of us, so I generally buy potatoes only as needed. Bill has been swooning for lack of mashed potatoes, which really are best made with baked russets. Summer is no time to turn on the oven for just two potatoes. If I just microwaved them one or two at a time, inevitably some poor, lost potato would end up sprouting in the bottom of the veggie bin. What could I do with a bag of 13 good-sized russet potatoes that would allow me to bake them all at once? Time for some new cooking experiments.

The web came to the rescue with many seemingly simple recipes for potato gnocchi. Gnocchi are little Italian dumplings. Like dumplings everywhere, they can be made from a variety of ingredients, a simple version using potatoes, flour, eggs and salt. The pictures of web versions can be a bit intimidating because they seem so evenly shaped. Mine might more appropriately be called "malfatti," Italian slang for poorly shaped dumplings or pasta. No matter, they were very tasty.

Ingredients:

• Cooked russet potatoes, still warm, skins removed.
  
• 1 egg for each two medium-large potatoes
• Enough flour to make a dough you can handle.
• Salt to taste
  

Baked potatoes are drier than boiled resulting in less flour being needed to make a dough. Less flour means more potato flavor. Measurements and proportions vary with the weather, size and moisture of potatoes and eggs. I had seven biggish potatoes, 4 large eggs, and added about two-and-a-half cups of sifted flour to get a sticky dough that left the sides of the bowl.

Procedure:

1. Mash or grate the potatoes by hand. Do not blend or process them. Using a blender makes the potatoes runny which would result in more flour being needed and heavier gnocchi.
2. Mix the egg into the potatoes.
3. Work in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough leaves the side of the bowl and can be handled.
   
4. Refrigerate the dough a few minutes to stiffen it a bit and make it easier to handle.
5. To shape the gnocchi, roll pieces of dough into snakes about 3/4 inch in diameter and cut into 3/4 inch pieces. You may then roll these pieces into balls and roll the balls across the tines of a fork, holes of a grater, or wires of a whisk to make ridges in the gnocchi that will better hold sauce.

If you are going to freeze the gnocchi, place them separated from each other on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once they are completely frozen, put them in meal-sized plastic bags.

To cook the gnocchi, whether frozen or not, bring a pot of water to a boil and gently put the gnocchi in one or two at a time. Make sure the pot is big enough that your gnocchi can poach without touching each other. At first the gnocchi will lie at the bottom of the pan. Move them gently to make sure they are not stuck. Wait until they float and then remove them from the water.

At this point, gnocchi become a wonderful canvas to be painted with sauce, pesto, butter, whatever strikes your fancy.

Yummy!

Last Minute Mashed Sweet Potatoes

They are sweet; add a little brown sugar and they are decadently sweet. They can be cooked using almost any method from microwave to stove top to oven. They are even good raw. They feel wonderfully starchy yet, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sweet potatoes are better for you than broccoli!

If you need to hurry along sweet potatoes, they take well to being microwaved and mashed.

For two helpings of decadent mashed sweet potatoes:

• 1-3 sweet potatoes (depending on size)
• 1-2 Tbl. butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 Tbl. brown sugar
• Salt & white pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Peel and thinly slice the sweet potato. The thinner you slice it the easier it will be to mash.
2. Place in a covered microwave bowl with about 1/3 cup water.
3. Microwave on high, covered, about 15 minutes, until the water has almost disappeared and the potatoes are soft.
4. Mash remaining ingredients into the sweet potatoes.
   
5. Microwave another minute to bring back to temperature.

In the picture it's served with pulled pork that has been heated with a mustard-based barbecue sauce typical of the South Carolina Midlands.