La Luna Cooks Mrs. Yoder: Lazy Wife Cake

Perhaps I should have called the last La Luna Cooks Mrs. Yoder entry "Mortally Wounded." The project has come to an end (well, or shifted gears, really). Almost since the beginning, I have questioned whether that particular cookbook was a good one to cook all the way through. The recipes are incredibly repetitious. There are a whole lot of recipes that call for canning or pressure cooking, neither of which I was prepared to do. I was constantly having to cut the quantities significantly and, truth to tell, the math was a mite hard for me sometimes. It's one thing to halve a recipe. It's another to reduce something made to feed an entire congregation. And, to be completely honest, I just didn't love the food. Some of it was pretty good, to be sure, and there are still recipes I want to make from that cookbook. I didn't want to be a quitter, especially not so shortly after beginning. But to continue making food I was lukewarm about, food which wasn't particularly healthy in the first place, with so many of the ingredients being either processed or simply full or carbs and fat, seemed not only an unpleasant task, but irresponsible.

However, I need to blog about one last recipe adventure before moving on to the new cookbook. Last week, I made a recipe called Lazy Wife Cake. To me, a lazy wife cake would mean one purchased at the bakery and brought home. Or, at the very least, one from a mix. A lot of women of my acquaintance, frankly, consider themselves pretty enterprising if they do a cake from a box. This cake, however, is all from scratch. It's what I have often seen referred to as a "wacky cake," with vinegar in the mix. The vinegar didn't make me nervous, although the very small amount of cocoa powder for which the recipe called did, just a little.

The recipe calls for the baker to mix the dry ingredients (No Spoons! Forks Only!---Anyone know why this would be the preferred method?) and put them in a pan (size was not specified, so I went hunting for other "Lazy Wife Cake" recipes online and determined that an 8x8 pan would suffice), then to make little wells in the mixture for the liquid ingredients. Although my oil overflowed its hole, all was well and the resultant cake was lovely and lofty. It was a humble cake, fairly light and not terribly rich.

Because I am terribly picky about cake, I took one bite and decided that it wasn't worth the calories for me. My wife thought it was tasty and it apparently got rave reviews at her plant, where I sent the rest of it, so I think lots of folks would really dig it.

What I'm Cooking, October 2014

Dinners:

-Changua (Colombian bread soup) with chèvre salad and good, crusty bread (my favorite is Pugliese)

-Veggie cheese pie, steamed broccoli, green salad, roasted pears with almond crunch

-Out for sushi in memory of my friend, Paul, on what would have been his 44th birthday

-Scrambled eggs, sweet & spicy bacon, smoked cheddar muffins, fruit

-Shrimp scampi with artichokes & basil, capellini, garlic bread, strawberry salad with balsamic-cardamom dressing

-Greek potato, zucchini, & bean stew, cheese & basil scones, fruit, mocha pie

-Sloppy joes, corn, green salad

-Warm lentils with spinach, salad, fruit, crusty bread

-Chili, cornbread, apples with caramel dip

-Chicken tagine with preserved lemons & olives, Moroccan salad, Moroccan bread

-Sausage & rice casserole, lima beans, green salad

-Vietnamese or Chinese out in memory of my grandmom, on what would have been her 93rd birthday

Special lunch treat for myself:

-Sesame brown rice & cabbage

Friday Drinks & Nibbles: 

-Bagna cauda & Fish Eye cocktails

-Artichoke nibbles & hot toddies

Special Treat for a Visitor:

-Gingersnap palmiers

Welcoming Fall with Pumpkin Waffles

I always like to welcome Fall with some kind of seasonally appropriate meal for dinner. I have a convoluted (and somewhat silly---but it works) method of deciding dinner menus, involving rolling dice and counting by sevens. You may think I'm kidding, but I am absolutely not. I mean, there is still a lot of deciding I do of my own free will---it's not all up to fate. I was inspired by my mom and the method helps me plan in a way that utilizes all my cookbooks. Anyway, the dice and the sevens landed on pumpkin waffles for this year's first dinner of autumn and I was delighted! To me, this breakfast for dinner captures the essence of fall dining as well as any pot of chili. I am, of course, definitely thrilled it's chili season. But last night, we really enjoyed our waffles, me with warm maple syrup, my sweet wife with her preferred Mrs. Butterworth. I love that we are able to accommodate everyone's food particularities in our house.

Another particularity is that she loves maple bacon & maple sausage. I pretty much hate sweet and meat together. So, she is often longing for maple breakfast meat, but giving it up because I don't like it. Me, I adore pepper bacon. But, I usually defer to her preference for plain bacon because, well, who's going to complain about bacon? (unless it has maple---but I digress) So, last night, when we were strolling the meat section of our local grocery, she encouraged me to get pepper bacon and I encouraged her to get maple sausage. Then, she hit upon a brilliant solution! I can't believe we didn't think of it sooner. Get both, make enough of each for one person, and freeze the rest!

I'd intended to add fruit to the meal, so at least something would be healthy. That didn't happen. Ah, well. I got lots of good root veggies at lunch with my friend, Frank's, fabulous pork & root veggie stew with cider & curry.

Welcome Fall Pumpkin Waffles

1 c. flour

1 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

About 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (I grate mine directly into the bowl, so I am just guessing)

2 eggs, separated

3/4 c. milk (skim is fine)

1/2 stick butter, melted (you could probably reduce this with no disruption to the recipe)

1/4 c. pumpkin (I might add more next time; I'm putting the rest of the can in oatmeal)

Cooking spray

Maple syrup (or whatever your preferred waffle topping is)

Preheat waffle iron. Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk egg yolks with milk, butter, and pumpkin. Combine with dry ingredients. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into batter. Spray waffle iron with cooking spray. Add 1/2-3/4 c. batter per waffle & cook until browned & crisp. Makes 4 Belgian waffles. These freeze well. To re-heat, just pop them in the toaster. The recipe also happily doubles, although I would only use 3 eggs when doubling, rather than 4. 

La Luna Cooks Mrs. Yoder: Back on the Horse with Red Ribbon Punch & Barbecued Hamburgers

I almost called this post "Bloodied, but Unbowed." That lemony peanut butter pie knocked the wind from my sails, for sure, and last Wednesday over coffee, friends tried to talk me into dropping the project. I was just about to cave, too, but my wife begged me to continue. It's a good thing I'm not being paid for this project, because I am completely unable to talk myself into making 18 different sauerkraut recipes. But, I gave myself permission to skip anything too repetitious (the 42 "taco salad" recipes that vary only slightly, perhaps) and permission to revise recipes, rather than cooking them as written, if something sounds quite wrong.

After skipping the entire week last week, I talked myself into jumping back into the game over the weekend. I made Red Ribbon Punch for my annual Fall Harvest Game Night (along with hot mulled cider for folks who just couldn't bring themselves to consume all that sugar and artificial coloring). The punch is not at all what I would expect the Amish to serve as punch. I would think their punch would consist largely of real fruit juices, mixed together, not a punch brimming with artificiality. But no. What I served was very reminiscent of the sort of punch I encountered regularly (albeit somewhat watered down) at church as a child in the 1970s, gussied up for partying. We never had the sherbet sort of punch at Vacation Bible School, but the vibrant color and super-sweet flavor of this punch was right on. I have to admit, I do like that sort of punch on occasion. My favorite punch, though, will always be the punch they served at coffee hour when I was a kid & now serve only for special receptions. It has become my go-to punch for my birthday & is our traditional Christmas tree decking beverage, as well. I call it Westminster Punch because that was the name of my childhood church.

Westminster Punch

1 12-oz. can frozen lemonade (preferably pink)

1 12-oz. can frozen limeade

2 qt. pineapple juice

2 liters ginger ale

Small box sweetened, frozen strawberries (more, if you like)

Mix everything together and stir to melt the frozen juices.

Getting back to the Red Ribbon Punch, let me just say right now that it would probably not be allowed in most churches now. For one, most churches ban anything bright red because it will likely stain the carpet. Secondly, more parents are vocal about their children not being fed so much sugar or artificial anything. However, it's a fun retro drink to serve, if impossible to find the exact ingredients. I'm not entirely sure Hawaiian Punch still exists. I haven't seen it in years. Honestly, though, I haven't looked for it in years. When I was a little kid, I loved the red kind and I especially thought the opening of the can with a puncture in either side was cool. I was a weird little kid. Red Kool Aid, though, seems to be essentially the same thing. Because I couldn't find Faygo orange pineapple soda, I subbed pineapple orange juice for the pineapple juice called for and used plain old orange soda. It was fun to do a punch, not least because I got to use my mother-in-law's beautiful vintage punch bowl with polka dots etched into bowl & cups. it looked festive indeed! I must also tell you that it paired pretty nicely with vodka. Ahem. Probably not what Miss Troyer intended when she included the recipe. But, perhaps okay during the rumspringa. 

I had planned to make a caramelized onion meatloaf for Sunday dinner with the kids. However, my Wild Mango Queens bookstore outing was a success and we stayed far too long over appetizers and drinks at Bar Louie. So, short on time, I turned to the Amish for a good alternative. I'd planned to have scallion mashed potatoes and corn with our meatloaf, so I went ahead with those to go with the barbecued hamburgers from the Amish cookbook. I wasn't sure how the oven-baked burgers, with their strong, ketchup-y, vinegar-y sauce would go over. I was especially worried that my wife would object to them. However, she and I both really liked them. Bubbles isn't much for red meat, but she ate half of hers, and Pie isn't usually much of a sauce guy, but he cheerfully ate his with half the sauce scraped off. I only made 2 modifications. One was to use 96% lean burger, which I am fairly certain is not part of the Amish repertoire (I could be wrong). The other was to sub a tablespoon of brown sugar for half the white sugar the recipe called for. Next time, I think I will make it with all brown sugar. It probably doesn't matter that much, but I think it would add a little more depth to the flavor.  There will definitely be a next time! Oh, and those scallion mashed potatoes were heaven.

Scallion Mashed Potatoes

1 1/2 lb. small red potatoes, quartered

2 tbsp. butter (you can use less, certainly---the original recipe called for a whole stick!)

1/4 c. heavy cream (or more, as needed---you can sub skim milk)

1 bunch scallions, sliced 

Salt & pepper

Cook the potatoes in boiling water (salted, if you like) until fork-tender. Drain. Meanwhile, heat butter and cream together. Mash into the cooked potatoes, adding more cream/milk, as needed, for desired consistency. Stir in scallions and seasonings. Serves 6-8.

Goulash, Johnny Marzetti, American Chop Suey

When I was a kid, I loved going to eat at my grandparents' house. While we ate well at my house, my mom and stepdad were vegetarian and the pizzas we ordered came from a little hippie place that offered whole wheat crust and all kinds of vegetables like bamboo shoots on their pizzas. So, dinner at my grandparents' house was a chance for me to eat like mainstream Middle America. One of my grandmom's dishes, called "goulash" in our family and "Johnny Marzetti" in my wife's family, seems to have been popular in most mainstream houses. The noodle and ground beef dish is easy to make and feeds a bunch of people for not much money. What's more, it's terrific comfort food!  As fall arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, it's all about the comfort food. So, I offer you this version of the classic dish. Feel free to post your family's favorite way to eat it in the comments section. I'm always up for trying different versions.

Johnny Marzetti's American Goulash Suey

3 tbsp. butter (or, as I did, sub 1 of olive oil or use cooking spray)

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. ground beef (I use 94%-96% lean)

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. basil

Salt & pepper

15 oz. can diced tomatoes

15 oz. can tomato sauce

1/2-2/3 c. tomato juice or V8

Pinch sugar (this lessens the acidity of the tomato, they say)

1 lb. macaroni (or whatever small pasta shape you have on hand---whole grain is good, too)

Heat butter/oil in large pot. Add onion & pepper and cook until softened, 5-8 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute. Add ground beef and brown it. Add seasonings, tomatoes, sauce, and sugar. Simmer while you cook the pasta al dente & drain it. Add pasta. If your wife is cheese-addicted, add lots and lots of that. Or serve it at the table so people can add or not add cheese, as their tastebuds and heart condition dictate. Lowfat cheese is good, too, because you're not relying on it to melt. Serves 8 & freezes well. 

Last Supper of Summer

Although I squawk about the coming cold, I really do love the change of seasons and Autumn is one of my favorites. I am sorry to say goodbye to Summer, with all the lovely produce and the warm weather, but I'm excited about this new season, too. I am all excited about creating my October dinner menus & have already picked my First Rainy Day of Fall soup for the year. Tonight, in honor of the Autumnal Equinox, I am making pumpkin waffles for our first fall dinner. Last night, for the final supper of summer, I thought a salad was appropriate, so we had a chicken piccata salad with roasted kale and fresh blackberries. I picked up a mini pie from Achatz, a Michigan 4 Berry pie. I had tried their cherry pie before and been unimpressed, but a friend was singing their praises the other day, so I decided to try again. I remain unimpressed. Grand Traverse Pie Company's pie, on the other hand, is dangerous for me to have in the house!

The original salad recipe is Rachael Ray's, but I've tinkered with it a little bit. You could probably do a very successful vegetarian version with fried or baked tofu or vegetarian "chicken" & veggie broth instead of chicken broth. You can also lessen the amount of olive oil in the salad and grill or broil the chicken instead of breading without destroying the meal. Low sodium broth is a good idea, too. I almost always use that instead of the regular sort.

Chicken Piccata Salad

1 1/2 lb. small red potatoes, quartered

12 oz. green beans, halved

1/4 c. + 2 tbsp. olive oil

3-4 tbsp. capers

Chopped parsley

Juice & zest of 1/2 lemon

Salt & pepper

1 egg, beaten

1/2 c. flour

2 chicken breast cutlets (the fancy, thin sort you usually see with chicken piccata)

1/4 c. chicken broth

Splash of dry white wine

Cook the potatoes until they are almost tender, but still firm. Set aside in a colander with a slotted spoon and add the green beans to the same water. Cook a couple minutes, then drain. Cool veggies slightly. Whisk together 1/4 c. olive oil, 1-2 tbsp. capers, 3-4 tablespoons chopped parsley, lemon zest, and half the lemon juice. Add the vegetables, along with salt & pepper to taste. Toss gently. Season the flour with a little salt & pepper. Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil. Dredge the chicken in the flour, then dip in egg. Dredge once more in flour, then fry until it is golden brown and cooked through. Remove from skillet and cut into strips. Put broth and wine in skillet and deglaze the pan. Add 2 tbsp. capers, 2 tbsp. parsley, rest of lemon juice. Put salad in 2 shallow bowls or on 2 plates. Top with chicken and drizzle with sauce. Serves 2, with lots of potato-green bean salad left for the next day's lunch. Or 4, if you add a couple more chicken cutlets. 

My default kale recipe is raw Tuscan Kale Salad, but when the weather gets cooler, sometimes it's nice to have warm kale, instead. Plus, this stuff is completely addictive. Completely. Again, you can cut the olive oil by half. Just make sure to toss the kale well so that it all gets a hint of oil. 

Roasted Kale

1 big bunch curly kale

2 tbsp. olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Tear kale leaves into bite-size pieces (if you hate throwing away the stems, they can be added to a pot of veggie trimmings you are simmering to make broth---if you don't want to make it right away, just keep a gallon zipper freezer bag in your freezer and toss various veggie ends in until the bag is full). Toss with the other ingredients. Let sit 5-10 minutes. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast 2 minutes. Stir and roast another 2 minutes. Serves 4. Or 2 kale-greedy people.

If you want to make dessert of the blackberries, they are excellent with a dollop of dulce de leche. You can usually find this Latin caramel confection in the grocery, but if you can't, you can also make it by removing the label of a can of sweetened, condensed milk, lowering it carefully with tongs into a pan full of boiling water, and letting it boil, on its side so that it can roll, for 3 hours. Make sure there is always plenty of boiling water in the pan, as lots of water around the can prevents it from overheating and bursting open. If you see the level of water dropping, simply add more boiling water. When the 3 hours is up, you will need to exercise still a bit more restraint, as it's extremely important to allow the contents of the can to cool to room temperature before you open the can. If you skip this cooling step, you could get an eyeful of burning milk caramel as it geysers out from the can. Anyway, at the end of the 3 hours, remove the can carefully with tongs from the water and ALLOW TO COOL to room temp. It is superb, once cooled, but if you hurt yourself making it, you will not enjoy it nearly as much as you will if you are patient.

La Luna Cooks For Uppity Book Women: Split Pea Soup & Oatmeal Chip Cookies

Last Friday night at this time, I was just slipping a batch of Amish-style oatmeal chip cookies into the oven so I could arrive at book group with them still warm. I had a pot of split pea soup bubbling on the stove, ready to be tipped into the crockpot for the trip down the road.

The cookies were part of the La Luna Cooks Mrs. Yoder project, just what I happened to be making for the day. The split pea soup was chosen very deliberately, based on the book we discussed. Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief is set in Hitler's Germany. It's a wonderful book, full of pain and death and luminous, beautiful life. The mama character is constantly serving pea soup, cobbled together from scarce rations. Therefore, it was the natural choice. We also got to enjoy chocolate chip cookies brought by Brenda & Sue's gazpacho.

Since there have been requests for these recipes, here they are:

Split Pea Soup for Saukerls

1 yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. oregano

1 & 1/2 tsp. salt

A good grinding pepper

3 carrots, peeled & diced

3 potatoes, diced but not peeled

1 lb. dried split peas

64 oz. chicken stock

In a soup pot, sauté onions, garlic, oregano, salt, & pepper in olive oil until onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the rest and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cook on medium-low about an hour or until split peas are tender. You will want to stir fairly frequently so the bottom doesn't burn. Adjust seasonings. Serves 6.

Oatmeal Chip Cookies

3/4 c. butter

1 & 1/4 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

2 c. flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. oatmeal

1 c. nuts (I used chopped pecans)

1 c. chocolate chips

1 c. butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix butter and sugar together. Add eggs, flour, cream of tartar, soda, & salt. Finally, add oatmeal, chocolate chips, & butterscotch chips. Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets. Bake about 10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.