(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Doesn’t that look good? I’ll have to go pick some strawberries for dinner. (We planted some everbearings and get three crops a season from them. Who knew berries grew this way?)

Hello, dumplings. What’s up? My husband and daughter are finally back from London, and I owe them some delicious home cooking. They ate out at plenty of delicious restaurants in London, but nothing says lovin’ like something I have forgotten about and burned, just in time for dinner. On the menu:

* Irish Champ, a la Jamie Oliver (edited later to say: will make this tomorrow; ran out of time)

* Leftover Zucchini Lasagna, which is just my regular lasagna recipe, with planks of zucchini subbed for the pasta. Have I never run my lasagna recipe here? Hmm. Well, here’s Carmela Soprano’s recipe. And here’s my recipe for Manicotti. (Edited to say: No one likes the zucchini lasagna but me, apparently. Wacky Boy had a waffle with real maple syrup; Steve and Wacky Girl and I had Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato Sandwiches on homemade bread. Fake (vegetarian!) bacon bits = vegetarian BLT. And fresh tomatoes from garden! Rock on.)

* Green Bean Salad (from Food & Family)
500 g green beans topped, tailed and halved
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
50g feta cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add the prepared green beans. Cook until al dente, tender enough to bite through but still crisp. Drain and cool under cold tap for a few seconds. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Just before serving add crumbled feta cheese and finely chopped parsley. (Edited to say: Awesome recipe, thanks, Kit!) (Also, my daughter made a huge green salad, with diced celery and green onions, grated carrots and red-leaf lettuce. Really perfect.)

and…
* Zucchini Bread! (I use my Dear Late Granny’s Banana Bread recipe and sub zucchini.)

(We have baseball bat-sized squash in the garden, am attempting to use some of it up.) (Edited to say: Pawned off one of the zucchinis on my friend. She promptly wielded it like a bat and started laughing. I’m all, I know, right? I made three (3) loaves of zucchini bread. Found some white chocolate chips, Wacky Girl said, Add ’em! so I did. Oh. Yum. So good. ps if anyone uses the Zucchini Bread recipe from Dear Late Granny’s cookbook, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon is good, 3 is kind of a lot; add 3 cups of zucchini, not 2. That’s all! ta-ta for now.)

xo and happy Tuesday, also, bon appetit!

wm

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

This is one of my favorite photos of the Tualatin River — can’t wait to get out and canoe some more.

Trying to kick coffee/black tea. New delight:

Herbal Iced Tea

4 bags Passion Fruit herbal tea
2 bags ginger tea
A couple splashes lemon juice
3 cinnamon sticks

Put in a big jar, cover with cold water, leave out for sun tea.

xo

wm

Cookbook is ready!!! You’ll find it on CreateSpace, on Amazon, and on Kindle… soon.

From my Dear Late Granny’s upcoming COOKBOOK! which, yes, is FINALLY DONE after just eight years or something. will be available thru Amazon and Kindle in the next couple of weeks, so watch for it… I’ll post a link when it’s ready for purchase. In the meantime, here’s a recipe.

xoxooxxx

wm

Chicken & Dumplings (from Margie & Nancy)

This is a variation on my Grandma’s Chicken & Dumplings recipe. She would not use shortening; she would use lard or bacon grease. She also would not add lemon, thyme or a bay leaf; she would add lots of black pepper and call it a day. If the Pioneer Woman (Bree) was making this, she would say forget the lemons and add a little apple cider. She would also suggest adding cornmeal to the flour mixture. Keep experimenting until you get it exactly how you like it at your house.

1 (3-pound) whole chicken
1 onion, quartered
2 slices lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups water
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water

In a heavy pot with a lid, place the chicken, onion, lemon, salt, pepper, water, bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat until tender, about 1 hour.

Let chicken cool slightly, then take out of pot and remove meat from bones. Discard bones and skin and skim excess fat off the broth. Discard onion, lemon and bay leaf. Return chicken pieces to the pot. Simmer over low heat while making the dumplings.

To make dumplings: In a medium mixing bowl, cut shortening into the flour and salt. Stir in 1/4 cup water (more if needed) to form a soft dough. Roll out dough on a floured surface until very thin. Cut into 1-inch strips. Tear off 1-inch pieces from these strips and drop into simmering broth and chicken meat. Simmer for 10 minutes with the lid off, then 10 minutes more with the lid on. Serve immediately.

Best, easiest recipe ever for Lemon Squares. Serve with fresh blueberries on the side. Bon appetit, babies!

— wm

Lemon Squares

Serves:
15 squares

Ingredients
Crust:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for sprinkling

Filling:

4 large eggs
5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 2 large lemons)
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

For the crust: In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Mix the flour and confectioners’ sugar in a bowl and add the melted butter, mixing until a dough forms. Press the mixture firmly into a 9- by 13- by 2-inch pan. Bake the crust for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

For the filling: While the crust is baking, with an electric mixer, combine the eggs, lemon juice and zest until smooth. Add the granulated sugar, flour, baking powder and salt, and beat until smooth. Pour the mixture over the baked crust. Reduce heat to 325 and bake for 20 minutes more.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool completely. Sprinkle the top with confectioners’ sugar. Cut into squares and serve.

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

My kids are learning to cook. This leaves me more time for reading. Yes, yes and yes. I am not always the most patient person, who it comes to teaching others to cook. Steve is a bit more patient than I am, but also more likely to say, Sit down and I’ll just do it for you. Our kids are patient with us, thank God. The goal is that they know how to cook by the time they move out, and honestly? They kinda already do, so go us.

Tonight my daughter came up with a good pasta recipe, with a tiny bit of help from me and our friend Giada. OK, yeah, we love pasta. Is that wrong??? Here is…

PASTA A LA LALA

* Cook half a pound of conchiglie pasta until tender

* Add some sliced carrots to the pasta water during the last five minutes of cooking time

* When pasta and carrots are done cooking, rinse with cold water and put in bowl

* In same pot that you cooked pasta in, saute some onions and pea pods in olive oil

* When done, add to pasta and carrots

* Make a vinaigrette from 1 part balsamic vinegar, 3 parts olive oil, salt, pepper and a teaspoon or so of paprika

* Pour over pasta and stir in

* Chop some sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives; stir those into pasta, too! Add some feta cheese if you would like!

Now, make some garlic bread out of hoagie rolls, butter and garlic salt. Toast under broiler.

Done! Bon appetit, babies…

Tomorrow night, peanut butter and blackberry jam sandwiches on hoagie rolls… mmmmmm… peanut butter and jam… mmmmmmm… As usual, I remain happy with a sandwich or a bowl of cereal. Or pasta is always good, too.

xo

wm

People, I love holiday cookies, is that so wrong? The neighbors came over on Monday when we all had the day off school, and it was the Best Cooky Swap Ever.

Grinch Cookies (add a red M&M to signify “his heart grew three sizes that day”)

Sugar Cookies

Snickerdoodles

Soft Gingersnaps

Gub-Gub Brownies

Bisquick Chocolate Chip Cookies

i will have more, but that’s all for now…

xoxox sweet sweet sweetness,

Wacky Momminess

Two thousand and eighty-five posts, that’s insane. Who writes that much? I mean, granted, I’ve been at this since… (stopping to look up dates) Valentine’s Day, 2005, which is, uh, I can’t add that high, it’s late at night.

EIGHT YEARS this coming October. I mean February. And sure, that’s a lot of (hours, days, months) years, but don’t you think 2,085 posts is a little over-the-top? Discuss amongst yourselves. Here’s another of Steve’s lovely pictures. Man, he has a good eye. Thank God. I barely know how to use the camera on my phone. My little techie students were jumping around in front of their computers. “We’re taking pictures of ourselves!” Sure you are, kids, please sit down. Turns out they really were — webcams installed on the fronts of all the computers. Yes, I’m a trained professional.

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Recipes…

Here are the menus for the weekend, and here are two fast recipes for you. No, don’t serve them together, obviously.

Onion Gravy, from Babs (for Shepherd’s Pie, smashed potatoes, or any other dishes)

1 medium onion
2 1/2 cups broth
4 tablespoons white flour
1/2 stick butter

Carmelize onions in about 1/4 of the butter. Add flour and rest of butter, stir in, make a roux.

Whisk in broth a little at a time. Bring to boil, then simmer until thick. Done! Bon appetit!

Haystacks (No-bake cookies, from Shawnee TX at Food.com)

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter or 1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup cocoa
1 dash salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup flaked coconut

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, cocoa (I tend to go a little heavy on the cocoa) and salt.
Heat to boiling, stirring frequently.
When it has reached a rolling boil, cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove pan from heat and mix in vanilla, oats and coconut.
Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper.
Work quickly!
Let cool.
Alternate/optional additions, add any one with coconut: 1/2-3/4 cup mini marshmallows or 1/2 cup walnuts.

You know what line I love, there? Work quickly! I need the encouragement, thanks, hon. Really good recipe, but of course I can never leave well enough alone and had to sub half milk chocolate chips and half white chocolate chips for the cocoa. (I stirred them in after I took it off the heat.) Also left out the coconut because 1) we didn’t have any and 2) I thought the guys in my family didn’t like coconut. Turns out they do! So we’ll go that route next time…

Happy weekend! Hope you’re having fun, whatever you’re doing.

xo

wm

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

My daughter and I go to church; my husband and son go to nature church. Whatever works for you. Getting excited for Thanksgiving, and Steve’s birthday is this week, too. No turkey for us; the kids requested macaroni and cheese. No, not mine. The kind from a box. It’s a holiday, they can have whatever they want. Steve and I will make Shepherd’s Pie (with root vegetables and vegetarian gravy, with spuds on top), stuffing, squash and Pumpkin Mousse with ice cream. For his birthday, his request is always Vegetarian Meatloaf and Polenta. I’ll make a Pear Crisp with ice cream for dessert.

Giving thanks… for food. Shelter. Family. Love. And our three cuddly cats.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012

Tell us about the best meal you ever cooked.

Probably this one.

from my girl Liz:

My Thai Coconut Soup (Tom Ka Gha) turned out amazing! (Thanks Election Stress!) Started with this recipe.

But this is how I make it: Start w/ veg stock (homemade or 2 cans veg or chicken broth in water). Begin heating in a large stock pot on stove less than half full of liquid. Add 1 onion/chopped, 8-10 cloves garlic/chopped, 4-6″ ginger in thin slices and 2 stalks lemongrass (pounded w/ knife handle and sliced into 2 in” pcs). Cook a little on med heat. Add 1-3 jalipenos/sliced, 3 bell peppers cut into chunks, 4 zucchini in 1/2″ slices. Let that cook a little. Add 2 chicken breasts (or tofu) cut into 1+” chunks. Add 1-2 pkgs button mushrooms. Add 1-2 tbsp green curry paste and turmeric sprinkled in. Cook until chicken is done. Add 2 cans coconut milk, 1-2 bunches cilantro/chopped & 1-2 bunches thai basil or reg basil/chopped. Then add squeezed lime juice (1-2 limes). Add salt to taste. Serve right out of the pot or over brown jasmine rice. Yum!

Thank you, Liz! Miss you!