Cheap, Lazy, Picky Cooks

Enjoy your day after a big binge!

I’ve just become aware of the very enjoyable foodie community, BakeSpace.com. It has blogs, forums, mentors and – of course – recipes, with some wicked good search features. I’ve spent several hours today getting to know the site.

At BakeSpace and at her own blog, Babette’s Feast, founder and CEO Babette has given us tons of resources for connecting to other cooks at a grassroots level.

Fellow foodies should definitely check out these sites.

We’ve made our meal for tomorrow, to take over to Gabe’s family gathering. I’m excited! I look forward to sharing our food, and to hunting for something of theirs I can eat. Amidst the turkey and ham and stuffing and rolls, I’m not expecting to find much to forage… except maybe some cranberry sauce. I hope it still has the can ridges in it. I like that.

Here are the fruits of our evening, two of my family’s recipes — Potato Salad and Fantasy Fudge — and one yummy new one that’s going in our permanent cookbook — Mushroom and Lentil Stew.

Adapted from this recipe.

Mushroom and Lentil Stew
prep time: 35 minutes; cook time: 30-40 minutes

2-3 teaspoons olive oil
2-2.5 cups diced cremini mushrooms
1 cup diced onion
1 cup chopped celery
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1-1.5 cup chopped carrots
2.5 cups peeled, chopped potato
1/2 teaspoon dried savory
3/4 cup brown lentils, sorted and washed
4 cups vegetable broth

1. In a large pot, use oil to saute mushrooms, onion, celery and garlic until softened.

2. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until lentils are tender and stew has thickened.

The original recipe called for adding 2 cups chard at the end, and letting it wilt. We couldn’t find chard and bought spinach to add… and then forgot. It’s still absolutely yummy.

Potato Salad
(Special note: This is a longtime family recipe, so all concrete information is entirely made of approximation. The actual answers are along the lines of “cook until done”, “enough to fill the pot”, etc.)
prep time: 20 minutes; cook time: 30 minutes; assembly time: 10 minutes

8-10 cups potatoes, peeled and diced
6 eggs
4 heaping tbsp dill pickle relish
8 green onions, chopped
2 cups mayonnaise to taste
3 heaping tbsp prepared mustard
salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil potatoes until tender; time will vary depending on their size. Drain.

2. Boil eggs. When done, squish or dice or otherwise make small (make sure they’re cool first if you squish them).

3. Mix all ingredients in clean, dry bowl.

Eat hot or cold. Also good with barbecue sauce on it.

Fantasy Fudge
(This is a recipe we’ve been making in my family since I was a kid. The fact that it’s EXACTLY like the recipe that’s been on the back of Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme that long is a complete and total coincidence. Oh yes.)
prep/cook time: 25 minutes

3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 tiny can (9 oz) evaporated milk
1 bag (12 oz) chocolate chips of your choice
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup nuts (optional)
*Special item required: candy thermometer

1. Spray 9″x9″ pan with cooking spray.

2. In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, butter and milk. Bring to full rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly (and I do mean constantly — but don’t be tempted to cook at too low a temp, as that will make the final product grainy. Better to have a smidge of a scorch or two.)

3. Keep stirring! Continue boiling until temp reaches 234 degrees F. Remove from heat.

4. Quickly add remaining ingredients and mix completely.

5. Quickly pour into pan, smooth, and let cool thoroughly before cutting.

(The vanilla frequently gets left out of this recipe, to no ill effect.)

First off, happy holidays to you all. May you find peace and joy and warmth and nourishment in this season where it’s all too easy to get stressed and worn.

Holiday cooking is thorny for many of us. It has been for me ever since I went veggie. Holiday rituals are some of the only ones my family has, and I don’t want to feel outside that ritual. Hurrying to finish my special dish on time with everything else in a bustling kitchen can be frustrating. Now that I’m gluten-free as well, many of the simplest option for a veggie holiday are not available to me. Tofurky and other meat substitutes contain mostly gluten.

Chandra at Post Punk Kitchen mentions some friends visiting that can’t have gluten or soy! I look forward to seeing her amazing concoctions, which she’ll post after Thursday’s fete. In that same post, she gives other amazing spreads and dishes, many of which are gluten-free or can be made so. WARNING: there is little room for laziness in this sort of cooking. This is in the vein of kickass foodgeek chefery. Come on, you know you’ve got a streak of that somewhere. Pwn that millet, baby.

Here’s an entire gluten-free holiday meal! (Except for gingerbread cupcakes, which could be adapted!): Pear and Endive Salad with Maple Candied Pecans, Porcini Wild Rice Soup, Fresh Autumn Rice Paper Rolls with Butternut Squash, and Pumpkin Seed-Crusted Tofu with Baked Pumpkin and Cranberry Relish. Prep guide included as well.

Here’s some Cornbread Stuffing With Pears and Pecans.

You can have Roasted Butternut Squash and Roasted Brussels Sprouts, which both sound delicious.

The Chili Pumpkin Cranberry Risotto with Spicy Toasted Pumpkin Seeds sounds om nom.

And the one that sounds like the most fun to me: Latkes for Hannukah!

Elsewhere, the Gluten-Free Blog has this post about the holidays, which includes a slew of bread and baking recipes, and the most scrumptious looking Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms. I’m dying to try that, just as soon as I figure out with to do with the prosciutto. Just drop it? Or substitute something? What do you think?

To be posted later: our actual, much lazier yet still perky menu for Gabe’s grandma’s house, which includes mushroom and lentil stew, potato salad, and fudge. First, there is much cooking to do.

This favorite recipe of ours also predates our romance. It’s in the “long recipes” section of our personal cookbook. It doesn’t take much prep time but, like any good chili, it needs to simmer slowly. Gabe found a similar recipe online ages ago and adapted it to his personal taste.

I think you’ll like it.

Gabe’s Chili
prep time: 30 minutes; cooking time: 2 hours

1 cup TVP, reconstituted (see below)
2 cans red beans, drained
2 cans black beans, drained
4 stalks chopped celery
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chopped parsley
1 tsp oregano
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 LARGE can tomato sauce (28-30 oz, depending on brand)
8 oz water

To reconstitute TVP – Combine 1 cup dry TVP and 1 cup hot water in a bowl. Let sit 5 minutes or so.

1. In a large pot, saute everything except the beans, tomato sauce and water over medium heat, until onions are translucent.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly.
3. Simmer 2-3 hours, stirring every 15-20 minutes.

Good by itself, or: with cheese on top, with cornbread, over a baked potato, over tortilla chips.

I fear my amusement at this lolcat will show my age. I’m not entirely certain my niece and nephew would get the joke.

Well, back in my day… *shakes cane at young’uns*

I CANNOT contain my glee!! I am not an overly experienced baker, and I have almost no gluten-free baking experience. However(!), in trying to recreate an old favorite recipe, I have stumbled into some muffins that are TO DIE FOR. I just pulled them out of the oven, and then proceeded to overeat in a delighted fervor of muffiny goodness.

The recipe below is a combination of this recipe over at Gluten Free Bay, and a pumpkin muffin recipe that can be found in The Compassionate Cook by Ingrid Newkirk. The latter was my original, gluten-filled recipe, and the former was a close approximation that I found. There were still several changes I wanted to make, though. I wanted baking powder in there to fluff it up, and I wanted to use primary spices, not a mix. I also dropped and changed some other ingredients for convenience.

Witness, drool, then make and eat. I’m serious. Gabe doesn’t even like pumpkin, and was skeptical about this whole business. He’s now on his second muffin.

Pumpkin Muffins
Prep time: 15 minutes; cook time: 20-25 minutes

3 1/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose baking flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 cups pumpkin puree, or one 15 ounce can (unseasoned)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk or soymilk
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl, then fold into dry mixture.
Blend all ingredients until combined and smooth.

Place muffin liners into muffin pans, and spray the insides of the papers with baking spray.
Distribute batter evenly between muffin liners (approximately 1/4 cup each; they will be surprisingly full for a rising mixture).

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

This is certainly the most appropriate place to begin our recipe collection. I consider this one the ur-recipe of my shared culinary life with Gabe. Long ago, he found and adapted the recipe from somewhere he doesn’t remember. Once upon a time, in between becoming friends and becoming partners, he shared it with me and it quickly became a comforting staple in my life. We now eat it about once a week. It never gets old.

The recipe experiences shifts over the years in its tomato-to-bean ratio. Here’s where it is now. Feel free to take it and run with it; it would make a fine base for a more complex dish. We’ve considered adding both kidney beans and mushrooms, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. It also expands to fit larger dining parties very easily — your only limit is the size of your pan.

Curried Chickpeas
cooking/prep time: 20 minutes

1-2 tbsp oil
1 small diced fresh onion (or frozen equivalent)
3-4 cloves garlic (to taste)
curry to taste (we use A LOT, and usually mix red and yellow)
2-3 cans drained chickpeas
1 can diced tomatoes (plain, NOT Italian or Mexican)
1-2 fresh diced tomatoes, optional
cooked rice

1. In a medium saucepan, warm oil and saute onions and garlic, until onion is unfrozen or translucent. 2. Add curry to coat the other ingredients and make a oniony, garlicky paste.
3. Add chickpeas and all tomatoes and adjust curry levels.
4. Simmer 10-15 minutes.
5. Serve over rice.

I shall start this blog the same way ANYONE should start ANY blog.

Lolcats! Every… what’s today? Friday!