family dinner

tonight, for family dinner, i've decided to cook up all the leftover veg i have from last week's csa, since we're getting more tomorrow. it's easy...chop vegetables, whatever you have, sautee them, add teriyaki sauce. serve!

i'm also adding rolls (just the hamburger buns i made the other day -- new ones, not moldy old ones) and a salad -- i more lettuce than i know what to do with. 

for dessert i'm making homemade ice cream. chocolate chip, this time. 

last time i made it with half and half and heavy cream, but this time i only had milk. it will still make ice cream but it won't be as creamy or as gelato-y as my last batch was. i'm going to give you the real recipe, though, so you can make the good stuff. 

*warning: this takes a while, so plan ahead! and you'll need an ice cream maker. i borrowed one from a friend. but i hear the salvation army in humbolt park has a lot*

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups half and half

8 lrg egg yolks

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

(this is not lowfat ice cream! but i also has not s'orn in it)

bring creams to a boil. set aside for 2 hours. yes, at room temp, yes, it's seems gross, but trust me. 

strain cream through a fine sieve. return to sauce pan, bring to boil again. 

in bowl mix egg yolks and sugar, whisk until creamy. 

slowly stir in 1 cup of hot cream mixture into egg mixture.

then mix it all back in the sauce pan.

cook over a medium heat until very hot (180 degrees - ish) but don't boil.

chill mixture completely. 

start ice cream mixer and slowly drizzle in mixture. 

*here's where you'd add very cold chocolate chips*

when the mixer starts to sound like it's working hard, it's done. 

scoop it into something freeze-able and freeze. you could serve it right out of the mixer but it's not as frozen or as solid as regular ice cream, it's more like soft serve. 

simple, yes? yes. 

soup night once again.

raul and i have been eating out a lot lately and i haven't been cooking. hence, the lack of updates. i will take a minute to talk about southwater kitchen. raul and i had a date night on friday. we went to dinner and to the gene siskel film center to see our friend denise preform her burlesque. it was great, by the way, all the girls did a great job. i felt very proud of them. but i digress. southwater kitchen. it was delicious and the wine was out of sight. the prices are a little steep but if it's a once a month thing....

soup night was something we started in the winter when it was all we had to look forward to. our first chicago winter was hard. no warm coats, no money and no jobs. but at least we had soup night. now that we're millionaires* we can look back on those times and chuckle as we sip our cocktails. but soup night still remains. 

*we may or may not actually have a million dollars. 

the soup de jour is clam chowder, or it's christian name, clam chowda. 

it's a really easy recipe and tastes good with just some bread or a bread bowl if you're fancy. laurel, i'm lookin' at you. 

3 slices of bacon, diced

3/4 cup chopped white onion

3/4 cup water

2 cups cubed red potatoes

3/4 tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 1/2 cup half and half

1 tbs and 1 1/2 tsp butter

1 10 oz can minced clams, save the juice! 

in a sauce pan start fryin' up the bacon. when it's almost crispy, add onions. cook until they are tender. add water and potatoes (add a tiny bit more if potatoes are not covered enough). bring to a boil. cook until potatoes are fork tender. add half and half, butter and clams and 1/2 of the clam juice. season with salt and pepp. 

heat up deliciousness but don't boil. 

also, in a way to save the strawberries and rhubarb that we got from our csa i decided to make strawberry-rhubarb jam. 

2 lbs rhubarb, chopped, cleaned

1 cup strawberries, hulled, chopped

1 cup of sugar

1 box strawberry jell-o (or some indie brand, but i like jell-o just fine)

mix everything together in a bowl and let it sit in your 'fridge for 3-5 hours. lean more towards 5. after that, put mixture in saucepan and bring to boil. boil it for 10 minutes. remove from heat and add jell-o. stir until it is dissolved. pour into some container. (not the jars you took home for work (tomato mountain) because no matter what you do it will smell like tomatoes). 

right now i'm eating an old pancake from this morning and drinking champagne. 

love,

keighty 

csa this week....

i forgot to mention that we got our second csa box on wednesday. it included:

mushrooms

rhubarb

strawberries

two giant heads of lettuce

spinach

green garlic

sugar snap peas (!!!)

zucchini 

on wednesday alisa made a delish pasta dish that had zucchini in it. and we made our salad last night with the lettuce and added some strawberries... and we had sauteed mushrooms on the burgers. 

just so you know where the food is going....

love,

keighty

gourmet (gore-met) homemade meal

i had a horrible headache today. i need new glasses because now i stare at a computer all day and try to get farmers to return my emails. it was so bad that on the bus home i thought i was going to lose it and i barely made it home without crying. at home i laid on the couch with my eyes closed listening to 'la story' on tv. i love that movie. 

all that is to show how, even with a headache, you can make a great dinner for your family. 

a little while ago i bought some beautiful ground beef from the vendor two tents down from me. an adorable lady told me all about how the cows are grassfed and lived with their babies etc. it was $6 per pound. ($1 discount for me!) that said, it was delicious and worth worth worth it. 

**here's a side note about farmers market prices. farmers that don't grow corn and don't raise corn fed cows rarely or simply don't get government subsidies which means that they're at the mercy of their customers. farmers that do grow corn and raise corn fed cows do get government subsidies so even if they lose money on their crop they still get supported by the government. the reason? the government supports cheap, quick food and it's basically a supply and demand thing. we demand fast food and the farmers have to supply it if they want to make money. it's true that most of the farmers that supply this crap food, know they're supplying crap food, but they have families and mortgages so they grow it.  

farmers that choose not to grow this way are taking a huge risk and that's why their prices seem high but reality that's what food should cost. the cheap stuff we're buying is not good for you, the farmers, or in the long run, the government. if we support our local small farmers and say that we'll pay a little more for real food then there will be no money in growing corn and corn fed beef and everyone will be healthier. 

go watch king corn to learn more. i'll put my soapbox away for now. 

now back to our burgers. 

this whole process took about an hour. and thanks to excedrin from alisa it wasn't so bad. 

leave your beef on the counter, in case it's not completely defrosted like mine. and start making your bun dough... hahaha. bun dough. 

this recipe is for 25 buns so i scaled it down since i don't even know 25 people. 

1/4 cup and 1 tbs warm milk (this is for yeast so not too hot)

2 tsp butter, melted (i threw this in the pot while the milk heated up)

2 tsp warm water

2 tsp white sugar

1/3 package of dry active yeast (i guessed. 1 pkg is 1 tbs so, yeah, just guess)

1/4 tsp salt (i actually forgot this part)

3/4 cup and 3 tbs + 1 tsp all purpose flour

preheat oven to 375.

mix milk, butter, water, sugar and yeast in a bowl and let it sit for 5 minu

tes. 

add flour and salt (unless you don't want to, mine turn out great without

 it). mix up with a spoon until it forms a kind of ball. turn out onto a floured surface. knead for a hot minute. split into three balls, put parchment paper down (or grease it up) on a sheet pan, put the balls on (haha balls) and cover. let them rest for 20 minutes. 

while they're resting form up your patties. and chop up your fixins. 

when they're done resting put them in the oven and watch them. i think they took about 15 minutes to bake. when they're done, let them cool. 

now cook the burgers how you want. i don't have a grill so i made them on the stove, but if you have a grill, do your thing. 

cut the buns in half and add your burgers. 

alisa made a great salad too. 

the rest of the night i spent singing kelly clarkson and of montreal to my room mates so, yeah, it was a great day. 

don't count on the rain, just water the garden, chicago.

love,

keighty

• 
  

granola, soup, bread and a crisp... all in one hour.

i dawdled around yesterday and found myself at the beach with kelly and ben. after an hour or two of getting roasted by the sun i went to scott's to borrow his blender. yesterday was soup night and i was making cream of spinach. 

when i got home i realized that i hadn't made bread in a long time and we needed

some. so i started the dough. then i thought that we were running low on milk and tomorrow i'd have to have granola and yogurt for breakfast, so i made some granola. then i saw the rhubarb and knew i had to get rid of that so i made a crisp. i almost forgot about the soup but i made that too, just in time for raul to get home from work. 

it was so hot in that kitchen, i almost fainted. 

bread you already know. but i'll give you the others. 

granola...

2 cups rolled oats, uncooked

1/4 veg oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 nuts or seeds (it changes depending on what i have at home, this week: sunflower seeds)

1/2 dried fruit (didn't have any,but if you do, by all means...)

2 tbs honey

1 tsp vanilla

mix everything together. spread on sheet pan. bake at 325 for 10ish minutes. careful not to burn!! let it cool completely then break it apart and store in a tight container, it'll last. 

soup....

this soup was a little disappointing so i'm going to make a few alterations. yes, this is a mark bitten recipe, don't kill me, all you foodies.

1 lb spinach, washed, stems taken off - a little more than 1 lb. 

3 cups chicken stock - i used 2 1/2 cups

3 spring onions (i used green garlic)

small grating of nutmeg

salt n' peppa - tons

1 cup heavy cream or milk or half n' half - i used a pint

put stock, onions and spinach in a sauce pan and bring to boil. lower the heat and let it simma until spinach is tender. turn off heat, add nutmeg, salt n' peppa and let cool for a few minutes. 

pour into blender - in batches, if necessary - and puree. 

pour back into pan, add milk and reheat. season. serve. 

the crisp....

crust 

 

1 Cup flour 

3/4 Cup Oatmeal (uncooked) 

1 Cup brown sugar (packed) 

1/2 cup butter (melted) 

 

Filling 

 

3/4 cup sugar 

1 1/2 Tablespoons flour 

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

1 Tablespoon butter (softened) 

1 egg (beaten) 

2 cups rhubarb (cut into 1/2 inch pieces) 

2 cups strawberries (hulled, halved)  

 

Mix flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, and butter until crumbly.  Press 1/2 into greased 9” square pan.  Add  rhubarb.  Beat egg.  Blend sugar, flour nutmeg and butter.  Add beaten egg, beat until smooth.  Pour over  rhubarb.  Top with other half of crumb mixture.  Press mixture down lightly.   Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

as i sit here in my bathing suit, watching the paint start to bubble on my kitchen table, i am grateful that i cooked so much yesterday and that i'm going to family dinner with just a nice cool salad. 

stay hydrated. 

love,

keighty

hot dog sunday.

today i was craving a corn dog from underdog but they weren't open so i settled on eating a hot dog at home. 

while raul cooked up the dogs, i took care of the egg salad. 

this is the easiest side dish plus it's bar-b-que-ing season and it's always nice to bring something tasty to a friend's grill off. 

this gives me the opportunity to talk about hard cooked eggs. yes, not hard boiled. eggs shouldn't be boiled so whoever started that rumor should come see me. you put the eggs in a sauce pan, then pour cold water over them. much like potatoes, eggs should not be dropped into hot water but allowed to cook at the same speed as each other. once the water does come to a boil lower the heat and let it simmer. also i am famous for saying 'food doesn't tell time', however, there is one exception. eggs, being one of the smartest and move evolved foods, do tell time. once the water is at a simmer watch the clock for 12 minutes. your eggs will be done and shouldn't have that greyish green color on the yolk. 

4 eggs, hard cooked

4 pink radishes, preferably from peasant's plot, a deliciously adorable farm but regular radishes will work too.

3 tbs mayonnaise (roughly, i didn't 

measure)

1 tbs yellow mustard

2 tsp parsley

2 tsp green garlic

cook your eggs. drain, peel and chop.

chop radishes into a small dice. you want the crunch, but not the overwhelming peppery taste. mince garlic and parsley.

in a medium bowl throw everything together and mash up with a fork. 

i ate it while it was still hot because i was so hungry but you should have more self control than me and wait until it's been chilled. save some for your room mate. 

love,

keighty 

a fancy dinner party

you may remember that yesterday was hot hot. raul and i went to the beach but there was no swimming allowed because of bacteria. please, chicago, i've swam at huntington beach, ca, with all the syringes. so we went to the movies to cool off. then we were invited to a dinner party at our friend chris' house. 

we brought a salad with coconut, of course. i made a discovery too. i didn't have any dressing and i didn't want to make any because we'd have to ride our bikes over to chris' house. as it was we had the salad in a small cooler in my basket and a bottle of wine in my backpack. so i avoided the fact that there was no dressing until it came time to eat. but no one noticed. the coconut and the wet lettuce makes it's own sweet dressing that is refreshing and nice. there, never buy dressing again. 

chris made a a sausage and asparagus appetizer and then beautiful dinner of eggplant and plated it very well. as i proceeded to drink the whole bottle of wine and  lost my body weight in sweat we enjoyed a nice dinner with our friends. 

i encourage dinner with friends and especially friends that can cook well. 

bread is best

i was horrified when the no carbs fad was going around. i love bread so much and i think it's a misunderstood food. if you're for carbs but not for preservatives and high fructose corn syrup, or as we call it, s'orn, then i have a few recipes for you. 

once a week i try to make bread for the house. i was good about it for a while but now it's so hot i procrastinate. making your own bread

 is easy and very rewarding. i don't have a bread 

maker so i'm not sure if these recipes would work for one, but i recommend trying it by hand first, i think you'll like it. wear an apron though, because, if you're like me, you'll get flour all over yourself. 

i usually make baguettes and use them for soup night (mondays) or slice in half for sandwiches. 

4 cups flour (all purpose, actually, not bread)

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 cups warm water

oil for bowl

this is a straight dough 

method which means you mix it all in one bowl at the same time. A WARNING though, as with all bread baking, follow the same order: water, yeast, flour, salt. salt always goes last because it kills yeast on contact. that'

s the reason you put salt in the mix at all, so that the bread won't keep rising forever like in that 'i love lucy' episode. 

mix it with a wooden spoon until it forms a kind of ball. turn the ball out onto a floured surface and knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. 

oil up a big glass or stainless steel bowl and add your dough ball. cover with a tea towel and let rise in a w

arm place. in chicago right now, anywhere is a warm place but in the winter i turned my oven to the lowest setting and 

put the bowl in there because it was so cold everywhere else. let the dough rise until it's doubled in size. this takes a little over one 'house' episode. 

turn out the dough to your floured surface and punch it down (knead out all the air bubbles). cut ball into three equal parts. roll those into balls, cover and let rest about 10 minutes. punch down again and roll out int

o three baguettes. careful not to make them too long so they don't fit on your sheet pan. throw some corn meal down then put the three baguettes onto the pan. cover again and let rise. watch another episode of 'house'. 

uncover and score the bread with a floured knife so that it looks profesh. 

put a baking dish full of water in the oven. 

bake at 450 degrees. after 15 minutes, remove the water. 

bake until golden and when you flick the bread it sounds hollow (about 25 more minutes)

these freeze well and when you want to eat it leave it on the counter until it's thawed, no one will know. to store it on your counter, double wrap it in a bread bag (you can use a big ziplock to

o). right before eating stick it in the oven at 350 to re-awesome it. 

another bread that's really easy and delish is pizza! (see, carbs are the best). i make this all the time and even my, 'i can't make anything from scratch', mom makes this. 

1 1/3 cups warm water - warm: not boiling, not cold. this is so the yeast is nice and toasty, we're really catering to the yeast's needs.

1 package active dry yeast

3 tbs olive oil

3 1/2 cups flour (all purpose, if you want a whole wheat pizza, cut the whole wheat flour with some all purpo

se or bread, it'll be way too dense if you don't. i did it once, it was gross)

1 1/4 tsp salt

straight dough method (you know what that means!) SALT LAST! 

knead dough until kind of stiff. 

cover and let rest. 

preheat your oven to 400 degrees and get your fixin's ready. you can put anything on pizza, don't limit yourself. once we had a 

cheddar, apple and onion pizza!

punch down dough and form it. you can flip it and sing italian songs if you want, it tastes the same either way. i have registered for a round pizza pan, but currently don't have one so i use a regular sheet pan and make a rectangle pizza - it's still good. 

throw some corn meal on the bottom - it'll look like delivery pizza later! 

top with fixin's and bake until cheese bubbles and crust is brown (20ish minutes)

i hope you love bread as much as me now. 

love,

keighty

a walk down memory lane

on this crazy humid day, i have lost all energy to run errands so i am going to do a few posts of some of my favorite dishes. i made these before the blog but it was when i first moved to chicago (round two) so they're still pretty new. 

a new favorite for fancy dinner parties or family dinners, which are not necessarily un-fancy, is baked chicory and rice, or as we like to call it raddich-ulous. kelly thinks

 it looks like eels but it 

is a really simple, healthy and filling dish that goes good with a salad and some bread. (and there are no eels in it)

1/3 cups olive oil

1 med onion, chopped

2 tsp finely chopped garlic

2 1/2 lbs of radicchio, cored, chopped, no big pieces (about 6 heads) -- you can also you belgian endive, once i used a 

mixture of both

1/2 cup uncooked white rice

3/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup bread crumbs

salt n' peppa

grease baking dish (or else!)

in large pot add olive oil and onion. cook until wilted. add garlic. cook until aromatic or until you're like, 'who's cookin' garlic?!' add large handfuls of chicory and stir until thoroughly coated and wilted. [here is says to add sorrel or lemon balm. every time i make this i forget to put it in and everyone still likes it but try it if you want!] keep cooking until tender. set aside. preheat oven to 400 degrees.

bring water to a boil and cook rice for 5 minutes.

transfer rice plus 1/2 cup of cooking liquid to chicory. Add 1/2 cup cheese and mix together. pour into baking dish and spread evenly. sprinkle the leftover cheese and bread crumbs over the top. 

bake until rice is tender. (about 30-40 minutes)

i got this recipe from farmer john's cookbook but no i didn't pay $30 for it, i checked it out at the library and turned it in late so i paid $0.25 for it. take that angelic organics! that's for not having enough space in your urban gardening class! 

love,

keighty

cooking on a day too hot to cook

today i worked on family farmed volunteer stuff up until raul got home. when he got there i realized i needed to make dinner but i was missing a few things. we rode our bikes to august to get ricotta and parsley. but once there i realized they had no ricotta and after discussing with the girl who worked there, decided plain yogurt would work just as well. i picked up some yeast (cheapest in the city), red wine vinegar and some vanilla too. 

I was making penne with green garlic ricotta sauce (but really it's yogurt sauce).

I also added sauteed mushrooms right at the end while i was tossing the pasta. 

 I N G R E D I E N T S 

1 1/2 cups fresh whole-milk ricotta -- i used the same amount of plain yogurt

1/2 cup finely minced green garlic  

2 tablespoons minced parsley  

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste  

1 pound dried penne or fusilli pasta  

2 tablespoons butter  

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

I N S T R U C T I O N S 

Combine the ricotta (yogurt), green garlic and 1 tablespoon of the parsley in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. 

Start cooking water. Just before pasta is done, remove 1/2 cup of the boiling water. Whisk enough of the hot water into the ricotta (yogurt) to make a smooth, creamy sauce.  Drain the pasta and add to the sauce along with the butter. Toss well. Add 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and toss again, adding a little more of the hot water if needed to thin the sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning. 

things i would have done differently:

I would have really taken the time to mince the parsley and garlic enough. alisa kept saying it was stuck in her teeth. and a think a little less parsley next time. otherwise the taste was really great. 

i served it with the last of our one head of lettuce in a nice strawberry, coconut and pumpkin seed salad with red wine vinaigrette. 

we ate it out on the balcony since it was so hot. it was a lot cooler out there and we got to see all the new blossoms - strawberries and serano flowers! 

it was a nice summer dinner.

love,

keighty

csa day one

today was the first day of our csa deliveries. our farm, or in our case, farming co-op, is homegrown wisconsin

in our box we got:

one bunch of asparagus

one bunch of rhubarb

two boxes of strawberries

two heads of lettuce

one bag of spinach

one package of button mushrooms

one package of fresh mint

one bunch of green garlic

for dinner i made the an asparagus and mushroom frittata with a side salad with a homemade honey mustard dressing.

i used the recipe the farmers sent with the newsletter for the frittata.

Ingredients

 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese 

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella 

cheese 

Salt and pepper 

 1 tablespoon butter 

 3 tablespoons olive oil 

 1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces 

1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced 

6 eggs 

1 tablespoon water 

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme* 

                                                                           

DIRECTIONS 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). 

2. Melt butter in an oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Stir in olive oil and asparagus, and cook until the asparagus is tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms, and continue cooking about 5 minutes. 

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, water, and thyme. Pour into the skillet, and reduce heat to low. Cover, and cook 5 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the preheated oven. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until eggs are no longer runny. Top the mixture with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Turn on the broiler, and broil until cheeses are melted and lightly browned 

 

*for my frittata i used fresh sage instead of thyme because that's what i had. 

Honey Mustard

two parts yellow mustard

one part honey

two pinches of dry mustard

a few drops of olive oil - if necessary

pour mustard into a small bowl. add honey slowly, whisking the whole time. 

add the dry mustard and whisk in. if dressing is too thick, add olive oil. if you like the consistency, leave it as it.  it's slowly becoming my signature, but adding dried coconut flakes to your salad is a nice sweet addition to your dish.

love,

keighty