Tag Archives: cooking

Recipes for a Storm – Blizzard 2016

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Blizzard: n. severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds of at least 35 mph (56 km/h) and lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically three hours or more…Wikipedia

I’m sure after this weekend no one needs me to tell them that. I love a blizzard because I’m that person who stays home in it, regardless. Stay home, wear pajamas all day and cook. Oh yeah and make the house smell delicious.

This blizzard I cooked from my pantry using my go-to recipes, with a few variations, apple fig muffin tops and pasta fagioli.

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Basic quick bread recipe and this year’s blizzard add-ins:

  • oil, I use canola, ¼ish cup
  • sugar ¾ cup, if you need sweet kick it up to a cup. I just use the 5 oz scoop in my sugar canister.
  • vanilla to taste, I use a lot, no measuring. If you had to measure I’d say a teaspoon but I’m a quick pour kinda girl.
  • 2 eggs
  • flour, 2 cups
  • baking powder, 2 tsp
  • baking soda, ½ tsp
  • salt, 1 tsp
  • some kind of fruit, no more than 2 cups
    • for this blizzard I peeled and cubed two apples and mixed them with fig jam after microwaving them for 2 minutes with a little water.
  • some kind of liquid, no more than a ½ cup, sometimes I use yogurt…
    • for this blizzard I used the liquid from the apples and jam and a dash of ½ and ½
  • just for kicks I added in apple pie spice and some Kashi nuggets

Wisk all the wet ingredients, everything above the flour, together and then abandon the wisk for a spatula and mix in the dry. Add in the fruit and then the liquid to make a smooth, as smooth as something with two cubed apples can be, batter and portion evenly into the six wells of a muffin top pan. No muffin top pan, although I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t have one, you can use a regular muffin tin. Just add more time, like 10 minutes or so.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Fantastic with a cup of coffee, latte or tea. I’ve tested them with each, on different days of course. I have made this recipe in every variable possible, it is forgiving and never lets me down.

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Pasta Fagioli

  • pancetta, I keep cubed pancetta in my freezer and use it as I need it.
  • Soffritto (the Italian version of mirepoix)/mirepoix onion, carrot and celery
  • garlic
  • tomato paste
  • 1 can diced tomatoes I love fire roasted
  • 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed or ick…
  • 1 cup ditalini pasta, or whatever shape you prefer

Render the pancetta in olive oil until its crisp. Add in the soffritto, salt and pepper to taste and sauté until it’s just about to turn golden. I don’t like that whole til its transparent thing I like some color. Add in the garlic and the tomato paste. Really cook the tomato paste until it begins to turn brown. Add in the tomatoes and at least two cans of water. One to rinse out the can and one to bring the level up a bit. Stir until mixed in then add the cannellini beans. Whatever size can you’re using for tomatoes, use the same size of beans. Bring the whole thing up to a boil, you’ll see the bubbles along the rim of the pot, then cover and turn down to the lowest point and let it do its thing for about 30 to 45 minutes. Uncover, turn the temp to medium and add in the ditalini. Cook until al dente. If it gets to thick, add some water. Taste as you go and season to taste.

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Serve right away with a generous sprinkling (or grating from that big chunk you’ve got in the fridge) of Parmigiano Reggiano. Crusty bread on the side wouldn’t hurt either. And a glass of red, just sayin.

I’ve never understood why so many people feel that they have to run to the store in advance of a blizzard for every package of junk food they can find. Calories still count during a storm and yeah you’ll be shoveling but you’re not going to undo 5000 calories worth of chips and dips and donuts and brownies and god knows what the hell else. And your house won’t smell delicious and like everything is going to be alright tomorrow.

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While the snow may be piling up around you and the wind is howling, your day at the stove in your pajamas just might bring you more abundance than you could imagine. “A year of snow, a year of plenty.” — French proverb about cooking during a blizzard, it’s what they do… just sayin.

Buon Appetito from Stowe Lane

 

Too Damn Cold Bests

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There are days when it’s too damn cold to do anything but stay in your pajamas and hang out. Best one to hang out with? Toto

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Best way to relax? Read and catch up on Tivo.

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Best way to keep warm in my house is to cook.

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Best one to cook with? My sister on speaker phone. Since you’re cutting? May as well cut up enough to cook and freeze.

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Too damn cold must have for dinner? Beef stew.

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We took advantage of all the sunny spots in our house and that’s about all we did.

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Perfect…

Kitchen Closed

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What I take from my nights, I add to my days.  ~Leon de Rotrou, “Vencelas,” translated

 

If I had to pick one thing that I call an important nightly ritual it would be closing the kitchen. Someone said, the trouble with living alone is that it’s always your turn to do the dishes.  I don’t mind doing the dishes, it ends my day with a sense of accomplishment even if the rest of the day was a bust.

I’m one of those people who really use their kitchen, you know for cooking. I try to cook something every night and even more on the weekends.  I can always whip up a meal for anyone who walks in the door and fortunately they do walk in the door.

So closing the kitchen becomes a sort of mediation for me:

I load the dishwasher and of course there is a perfectly neurotic way to do that.  Spoons, forks, knives all in separate sections, the spoons and forks facing up and the knives are facing down. Glasses on top, big utensils under the glasses, dishes in a row, it’s not like you don’t know me by now.

I clean the sink, sprinkle with Comet while I fuss with the dishwasher then come back and scrub and rinse until the poor old porcelain tries to shine.

I rub the cutting board with lemon, to disinfect and to make the kitchen smell delicious.  After I’m done I run the lemon through the garbage disposal to bring even more fragrance to the air and of course get the gook out of the disposal.

I wash my coffee cup and put it in position for the morning, priorities are, after all, priorities.

Mostly I get all the crumbs off the counters.  I don’t know what craziness takes me over when there are crumbs left on the table or the counters but surely I wouldn’t be able to sleep if they remained.  Kosher salt used with abandon will find its way everywhere. The linty stuff from pulling paper towels off the roll in the upright holder must go. The lemon zest, the piece of shallot, the cracker crumbs, you get the picture.

Once I’ve finished, as I turn out the light I always look back and smile.  It’s a tiny little kitchen in a perfect little U shape.  I can literally stand in the middle and reach left or right and grab just about anything I need.  Gratefully, I have a very well stocked kitchen both food wise and equipment wise.   It’s far from the one I left behind but I am grateful for the people it draws, the food that comes out of it, the fact that I have it and the nightly reassurance that I want for nothing. Exhale, kitchen closed.