Yummy Cappuccino

Today we went to the store, and we got a coffee grinder, and we got a milk frother too. So we made (decaffeinated) cappuccinos when we came home. And then we're also making banana bread...

Best part: The milky froth was really good. We also tried it with a little bit of cinnamon on top and with A LOT of cinnamon on top--it was better with just a little bit.

Room for improvement: Maybe next time try adding another flavor--like strawberry--to the cappuccino.

French Toast for Rosh Hashanah

Linda McGuire says:

Challah is a traditional bread for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins this Friday at sundown.

Anne is making many loaves for the customers of Prairie Flour Bakery. Families eat the bread during the evening prayers, and if there is any left over the next morning, you can make great French toast. Challah is usually made into braided loaves, but at Rosh Hashanah, it is formed into round loaves to symbolize the continuation of life. So your Rosh Hashanah French toast might not look exactly like these pictures.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs beaten with a couple of splashes of milk and a pinch of salt and cinnamon (optional)
• 4 slices of challah, cut kind of thick
• Butter
• Honey or maple syrup

Warm up a griddle or frying pan and melt a little butter on it to cover. Soak the slices of challah, one at a time, until they are very eggey. Put on the griddle and cook on medium heat until they are nicely browned on each side. Serve with butter and maple syrup, jam, or honey (probably honey for Rosh Hashanah).

Serves 3-4

Nana's Chicken Elixir

This is Nana's Chicken Elixer;
If someone is sick, it'll fix her.
Just one little sip,
A drop on the lip,
And she'll jump to her feet like a trickster.

But what if a person is swell?
Well, I'm here sincerely to tell,
Just one little dallop
As small as a scallop,
And she'll glow like Obama (Michelle).


Ingredients:

2 small or 1 large chicken
4 onions
10 carrots
2 turnips (secret ingredient: do not omit)
6 celery
some chopped parsley
salt & pepper

Step 1:

Put the chicken in a soup pot, cover with water, put on the lid, and simmer for an hour or until the leg comes off easily. Then take the chicken out, save, and put the broth in the refrigerator to cool.

Step 2:

The next day--or, in a pinch, later that day--take the broth out of the fridge and skim off the blanket of fat, then peel and cut the vegetables in big chunks and cook until tender (about an hour) in the chicken broth.

Step 3:

Put all the vegetables except the carrots, which are yummy and should stay whole, in a strainer and squeeze out the liquid. Return carrots and liquid to pot.

Step 4:

Cut the meat off the chicken, add it to the broth, warm it up, salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley. Feel the surge!

Minestrone Soup

Served with: fancy salad and leftover pasta.

Best parts: The celery in the soup was really good... and we put fancy celery sticks on as a garnish so people could stir the soup. And if you put a garbanzo bean in a pasta shell it kinda looks like an eyeball, but don't worry because it's not.

Would have been better if: Maybe take out the green peppers.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked garbanzo beans

1/2 cup dry pasta

1 cup fresh chopped tomatoes

parmesan cheese

3 Tbs olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

5 cloves garlic

1 cup minced celery

1 cup cubed carrot

1 cup cubed zucchini

1 cup chopped green pepper

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp oregano

1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

1 tsp basil

2 cups tomato purée

3 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

3 Tbs red wine

Directions: 

1. Sauté garlic and onions in olive oil.

2. Add 1 tsp. salt, carrot and celery and mix well.

3. Add oregano, black pepper and basil.

4. Cover and cook on low 5-8 min.

5. Add green pepper, stock, purée, cooked beans and wine.

6. Cover and simmer 15 min.

7. Add tomatoes and remaining salt.

8. Keep at lowest heat until 10 min before serving.

9. Then, heat soup to boil and add pasta.

10. Serve topped with parsley and parmesan.

Zucchini Crescent Pie

Baba said: “When are you going to make that zucchini pie again? I really like it, and I’m hungry!”

“Sorry, not today,” replied Mai Mai, rushing up the steps. “But, let’s do the next best thing. Let’s post the recipe on Sweet Pea’s blog. How’s that?"

“Grumble, grumble,” mumbled Baba. “Guess I’ll have to go to Sweet Pea’s Restaurant to get some zucchini pie.”

Recipe for Zucchini Pie

One 8-ounce can of refrigerator crescent rolls

3/4 cup cashews

3 medium zucchini, sliced in thin rounds

1 clove garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp dill weed

1/4 tsp pepper

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup cubed Monterey Jack cheese

2 tsp chopped parsley

Crust:

Separate crescent rolls and press in 10-inch pie plate.

Sprinkle cashews over crust.

Filling:

Saute zucchini in a little butter until light brown.

Add garlic and seasonings. Mix well.

Spread zucchini mixture in pie shell.

Pour eggs over zucchini.

Top with cheese and sprinkle with parsley.

Bake:

325 degree oven – 45 min or until golden brown.

Serves 8 very happy people.

Home-Made Hummus Wrap

Leo said: Why keep buying hummus at the store? Nothing can beat what we can make at home.

We set out the ingredients and processed the hummus. Then he tasted it, and we adjusted the seasonings several times until we got it just how he likes it. He said he'd pass on the tortilla...

For the hummus:

2 garlic cloves, to taste; halved, green shoots removed
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
couple of big pinches of salt
4-6 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste
2-3 TB plain low-fat yogurt
2 TB extra virgin olive oil
3-4 TB sesame tahini

For each wrap:

1 large flour tortilla or whole wheat wrap
2 leaves romaine lettuce, ribs cut away
1/8 red pepper, cut into think strips
2 TB cucumber, cut in julienne
Fresh mint leaves (optional)

1. Turn on food processor with steel blade and drop in garlic cloves. Process until chopped and adhere to sides of bowl. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add remaining ingredients and process until very smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings.

2. For each wrap, warm tortilla for 10 seconds in microwave or over burner, until flexible. Lay it on your work surface and cover with lettuce leaves, leaving a 2" border all the way around. Place 3 heaped TB hummus on top of lettuce on bottom half of tortilla. Top with red pepper, cucumber, other veggies if you like and a few mint leaves if desired.

3. Fold bottom edge of tortilla over filling. Fold in sides, then roll up, squeezing the tortilla so that roll is compact. Place roll on a piece of plastic wrap. Fold in sides of the plastic over the ends of the wrap, and roll up tightly to secure. Refrigerate for at least five minutes and as long as 24 hours.

Yield: 1 3/4 cups hummus. Enough for 6-7 wraps.

Advance preparation: The hummus will keep for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. The wrap can be made a day ahead.

Savory Crepes

Served with: salad.

Best qualities: The sausage filling was yummy.

Potential improvements: A sauce would have been nice.

Combine in blender until smooth:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 large eggs

2 tbls unsalted butter, melted

Pinch of salt

Pour batter into a pitcher, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand for 30 min or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Heat pan over medium heat and coat with a little butter. Pour about 2 tbls of the batter into the pan and cook on both sides. Remove crepe to a piece of wax paper and repeat.

Filling:

As you like. We used sauteed mushrooms, carmelized onions and feta in Mama and Dada's. And we put sausage and carrots in Julesy's.

Corney Names

How about HUMITA, the Hopi name for shelled corn? Or ALAWA, the Algonquin name for pea?

Does anybody in Sweet Pea's Restaurant know the native american name for corn?

The Chef's First Day of Kindergarten...

Corn & Cooking Lessons

Delicious recipe and a good one to use with the last of Iowa's fresh corn. Very sophisticated garnish. Thank-you.

On an important and related note: Sonja Wagner has agreed to offer cooking lesson during October, provided that her cats & Annie may also attend, as their skills are thus far limited to very dry kibble.

An aside: Here's an amusing picture of corgis on the beach.

--Nana

Fresh Corn Chowder

Served with: a fancy salad, sourdough bread, and a selection of cheeses (stilton, aged gouda, mirabo, and manchego)

Best qualities: The soup tasted very yummy.

Worst qualities: The blender started to smell like burned rubber while we were using it. So be careful, because the blender can smell pretty yuck.

Ingredients: 

5 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup dry white wine

4 or 5 ears fresh corn

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Garnish:

3 red peppers

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

1. Put chicken broth, white wine and corn in pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook 25-30 min. Remove corn and set aside.

2. Preheat boiler and arrange peppers on cookie sheet. Broil peppers, turning occasionally, until their skins char and blister on all sids. Remove and place in paper bag, closing the bag. After 15 minutes, peel skin off, cut peppers open and seed.

3. Cut kernels from corn cobs and puree with some of the chicken broth. Add corn puree to remaining chicken broth and season with salt and pepper. Heat until hot over medium heat.

4. Puree peppers until smooth and foamy, about 5 min. Add salt, pepper and vinegar to taste.

5. When corn soup is piping hot, ladle into bowls. Spoon 2 tbls of pepper puree on top of each serving and draw out into patterns. Sprinkle top with scallion greens. Serves 6.