Kale! Kale! The gang's all here!

Somehow I had only read about kale until recently. Introducing new foods to old menus can be tricky, but this turned out to be well received even with my pickiest eater. Hint: not me. Oh! I mean "not me" as pickiest eater. Of course, with both lemon and garlic as primary flavoring, it had a pretty good chance of making the grade.

The recipe came from AllRecipes' site: Mediterranean Kale

Three C Hummus in a PB Blend

I had always thought there could not be hummus without tahini; but because of the sesame allergy I had to look for something that would serve as a tahini stand-in. On the AllRecipes site I found Creamy Yogurt Hummus that made hummus using garbanzo beans, lemon juice and yogurt. I mixed some up, but frankly, it was not what I had hoped. I missed the authentic hummus texture rendered by that forbidden ingredient, tahini. I knew I would not be able to eat it as it was, so back to the “Ingredients” feature I ventured, this time adding peanut butter as a possible tahini substitute, and up came Falafel I .

To my previous mixture I added peanut butter, a bit more garlic, some onion, coriander, cumin and cayenne. I think the peanut butter provided the texture I had missed, and the three C’s stepped up with the missing flavor.  Of course, another C (curry powder) might have been used, but this was good, and I met my goal of salvaging the first mixture, as well as finding a way to have hummus again. The mixture was best after having been chilled a few hours, for all the flavors to meld.

Lots of protein in this snack. It could be more interesting looking had I added snipped chives or the green of a spring onion and some of the roasted red pepper I instead used for (photo-primping)  garnish. ;o) Anyway...

[[Maybe my new version should be called "Falafammus". What do you think?]]

Savory Apple Pork Chops

I had a couple of green apples looking for a good use, and also had a couple of thick-cut pork chops that I had bought for a Sunday dinner, so I did an ingredient search on All Recipes dot Com and found this "Savory Apple Pork Chops" recipe. Couldn't beat it for simple ... except to use the crock pot for cooking, which I did.  Didn't use ketchup for it, though, as recipe calls for because I had a partial can of diced tomatoes on hand. The end result was a good (but not great), extremely easy meal. May try it again if I find myself with sufficient lead time and have the ingredients on hand.

Served with broccoli, rice, and caramelized onions.

Balsamic Fig Glazed Fruit-Topped Chicken Breast - Middle of Page 45

Found this yummy fig-glazed chicken recipe in Costco's September 2011 edition of their magazine, The Costco Connection. I substituted apples for the suggested pears because I had a big bag of small organic apples on hand; I used honey in place of the sugar called for; and I used far less salt & pepper than listed. The hardest part of the prep was pressing the fig sauce in my too-small-for-the-task sieve.  I will probably try to round up a larger sieve  before my next rendering of this. Also, I would like to try it "as written"...using pears. 

Here's how Costco printed the recipe (except for abbreviations):

Balsamic and Fig Glazed Pear-Topped Chicken Breast

4 oz. goat cheese                       3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3/4 tsp. dried thyme                  1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp minced garlic                6 boneless, skinless chicken

3 pears, cored & halved                breast halves

1 1/3 cups low-sodium chicken broth   2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups dried figs, plus          1 tsp. black pepper

 diced pieces for garnish            Thyme sprigs, for garnish

Mix goat cheese, thyme and garlic until blended. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of goat cheese mixture into center of each pear half. Puree chicken broth, figs, vinegar, and sugar in batches in blender until smooth. Pour into strainer set over a bowl. Press liquid (sauce) into bowl and discard solids. Pour half of fig sauce into a 13 x 9 x  2 inch pan.

Place chicken breasts over fig sauce in pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place filled pear half cut side down over each chicken breast and drizzle with remaining fig sauce. Cover pan with foil and bake at 375 F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake, basting occasionally, 30 to 40 minutes until chicken breasts reach an internal temperature of 160 F.

Cut chicken and pear in half to serve. Spoon sauce over pears. Garnish each serving with diced figs and thyme sprigs. Makes 6 servings. 

--------------****---------------

Thank you, Costco! This is "company special"! 

Counting the Days till the (grand)Boy's Arrival 

Name Still Under Wraps

Travel mode is definitely upon the (grand)man. His communications to the couple-in-waiting have picked up frequency, even as I tell him in the background that they are well aware of  the due date, and also that the baby has not decided to come, just yet. the (grand)man now has several sequential pairs of hotel reservations advancing to the outer limit of what he feels will be the baby’s arrival. This is good, though, as it gives him something to do. He is in charge of tracking these and canceling the right ones in the timeframe allowed. 

Today we have workmen felling a couple of trees in our yard, and an electrician coming to finish up some lighting in the den. This seems to be a likely time for baby to come, but he may not have a calendar on hand to note that he now is right between the two due dates that had been projected.  

Besides, if he were going for inconvenience, he would have opted for the power outage during the recent record-breaking heatwave, wouldn’t he? Of course, my phone weather application  suggests that the high for Saturday in the baby's city is forecast to be over 100 degrees. 

Boy, oh Boy! When that phone call comes, though, won’t we both be ready?

I'm Cuckoo for Coconut!

One of the things I have never quite mastered with consistent results is cream pies. A friend gave me a recipe for coconut cream pie that I have attempted from time to time; sometimes with success, (even).

Lately I have found that these cream pies do not have to be done in a double boiler or saucepan on very low heat. Enter the microwave. In fact, one can have equal success/failure whether using stove-top or microwave cookery.



Stove-top Method: 

For custard filling: In a saucepan combine 3/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and 1/4 tsp. salt; gradually stir in 2 cups milk. Cook and stir over medium high heat for two minutes. Remove from heat. Stir about 1 cup of this hot mixture into 3 beaten egg yolks, immediately returning to hot mixture. Bring to a gentle boil. Cook another two minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add 2 T. butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. Stir in one cup flaked coconut. Pour into a nine-inch baked pie shell. For meringue, using a chilled bowl, beat 3 egg whites, gradually adding 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar, 6 Tablespoons sugar and 1/2 tsp.vanilla. Beat until peaks form. Spoon over pie. Optionally, you may sprinkle meringue with 1/3 cup coconut before browning for 12 to 15 minutes in a 350 F. oven. Cool and refrigerate.

Hmmm. No wonder the phrase is not "Piece of pie!" to indicate simplicity. ;o) By the way, in Japanese an equivalent idiom for simplicity is directly translated as: "Before breakfast." Meaning, that is so simple, I could do it before breakfast.

FYI...you can find microwave versions of cream pies, custards and puddings on the web. And they actually do work. A good recipe to practice this method with is AllRecipes' Microwave Lemon Curd.

I.C.E.

Grill Date: 6/3/2011 9:05 AM 

I.C.E. = In Case of Emergency

  It's been four days since our grill purchase...an "intro level" gas grill by Weber. We decided on gas because I was more likely to be the one grilling, and though during the recent five day power outage I did finally resort to charcoal, as I found that candles under a fondue pot require two hours to heat two small cups of water for "almost hot" tea. The day of my charcoal grilling was a dawn to dusk affair, as I cooked our food, and heated our bathing basins, attempting with near-tepid results to carry hot water through the night by storing in Thermos®-like vessels.

When we finally got to a grocery operating on partial power, in our otherwise primarily powered-down city, my husband grabbed the cart while I scouted about on my own for "finds" of the fast-emptying shelves. When I found him again he had garnered the following "emergency foodstuffs": two apple turnovers, two doughnuts, a pack of cookies, a box of honey-intense granola bars, and a carton of soda pop. I confiscated the cart at that point and went back through for some actual food. (Sigh.) Just between us, I think if I "go first", he'd stock the cabinets just that way...and live to be a hundred and ten. 

Prior to nature's onslaught throughout the South, was the March 11 quake/tsunami/radiation triple hit in Japan, my other home for so many years. Then Missouri's awful suffering and now Massachusetts' following so closely leave us all wondering what next?

I cannot say, but THAT day, the charcoal mini-grill day, was quite temperate. Alabama had some beautiful Spring-like weather during the days immediately following our tornadoes. There were dusk to dawn curfews enforced for all but those who had some means of proving their business. And quiet?

You've never HEARD so much quiet at one time, at least until folks began finding and running generators. Cell towers were down, even the tornado alarm sirens were non-operational for the last two local tornadoes on the night previous. So, the starry evenings were amazingly calm; and yes, we could see the stars. Our neighborhood was spared any significant damage from the storms, and people got out and spoke to one another like it was 1959 all over again. "Are you okay?", "Do you need anything?" And children appeared. Children DO live in this neighborhood. On day 2 my husband and I took an afternoon walk and purchased lemonade from children who hawking their hearts out in their front yard. I knew this oasis of peace and good will was bought at a terrible price of devastation elsewhere throughout our state, and even in another part of our city, but I could not help enjoying the short-lived cultural throwback to simpler times that followed so closely on the heels of destruction.

It is true. Though we have family members whose home will have to be rebuilt, still I will remember those quiet days as a gift.

And here and now the heat is back and I am grill master of the manor. As I was saying, only four days we've had it, and due, in part, to a non-weather-related kitchen malfunction, I've grilled daily since its arrival. Yellow squash, red onion, green pepper, zucchini, burgers, hot dogs, steak and last night Caribbean Chicken. 

 

                                          ↔↔↔↔