Home Is Wherever Your Family Is

This is my first Thanksgiving away from home.

I know many of my friends have spent their Thanksgivings elsewhere--on campus during undergrad, or with their partner's family, or just on their own--whether because travel was too expensive or because their family was in the middle of shaking up the established order of Thanksgiving rituals, or because for them, Thanksgiving was never a huge holiday.  I always felt saddened by this because for me, Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday.

Thanksgiving in general tends to be a warm and fuzzy holiday: good food, family ties, woolly sweaters and maybe a fire in the fireplace, with the weather getting just cold enough outside for the deck to be a secondary fridge for leftovers (well-protected from raccoons and squirrels, of course).  Even better, my family has a tradition of eating the Thanksgiving meal in the early afternoon--usually around 1 pm--so that the rest of the day can be spent in a cycle of napping, playing Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit, and snacking on leftovers.

When I realized I would have to work on Thanksgiving (people get sick on Thanksgiving, too), I knew I wouldn't be able to go home to my family.  Even if I had the day of Thanksgiving itself off, I have to work on Wednesday and Friday, so going home was out of the question.  Luckily, my brother also decided this year that going home was too far for him to travel.  Instead, he is driving down from the UP and will stay with me, and then on the weekend we will visit our cousin who lives in Chicago now (much cheaper & more manageable than going all the way home to KC).

As the days get closer to the holiday, I started to get the itch to make all the traditional Thanksgiving foods--if we can't go home, maybe I can conjure up all our traditions here.  A few quick searches later and I needed  to make a (rapidly-growing) list of items from the store to make the foods that must be on my Thanksgiving table:
-Turkey breast (for my carnivore brother)
-Trader Joe's vegan "turkey" roast (they were sampling it in the store...it was delicious!) for me
-Mashed potatoes (my spin: with roasted garlic)
-Green bean casserole
-Corn casserole
-Dinner rolls
-Pumpkin pie
+/- some optional dishes that seemed like they should appear, though by now my grocery list was a mile long:
-stuffing (inside of acorn squash from my garden?)
-cranberry sauce (maybe I'll go with the can?)

I have a deep, wide ceramic pasta dish that looks like a flying saucer--I'll be able to bake the stuffing, green bean casserole, and corn casserole together.  Make the pie, rolls, and peel the potatoes the night before and I actually think this is pretty doable.

I'm actually excited to give this a try...preparing a meal like this one takes coordination and a considerable amount of hubris, I suppose, to try and recreate my mother's cooking.  I'm also pretty excited to have my own veggie "turkey" option.  But mostly, I'm just happy and thankful that I'll still get to see some of my family for the holiday.  Even if I can't go home, having my brother here and my cousin a short drive away make it feel like home is actually all around me.

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Recipes

Green bean casserole
1 bag frozen green beans, French cut
~4 oz portabella mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, diced
2-3 T. butter
2-3 T. flour
~1 c. milk, warmed
S&P
French's fried onions (you have to.  It's required.)

1. Saute the mushrooms and onions in the butter.  S&P to taste.
2. Stir in the flour until the butter is soaked up (should be about equal amounts).  Cook for about a minute.
3. Whisk in the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, for a minute until the bechamel thickens.
4. Mix in the green beans and spread in a baking dish.
5. Bake at 350 for ~20 minutes, then top with the fried onions and bake another 10-15 minutes, until sauce is bubbly and onions are toasted (but not brown!)

Corn casserole (also known as scalloped corn, corn pudding, and other names)
1 can creamed corn
1 can corn, drained
1/4 c. butter, melted
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream
1 box Jiffy corn bread mix
S (just a bit) &P
optional add-ins (dice or finely chop):
bell pepper
onions
pickled jalapenos, or a can of green chilis, drained
anything your heart desires

1. Mix together all ingredients
2. Bake at 350 30-40 minutes until a knife comes out cleanly.

Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic
potatoes
butter, cubed
cream
roasted garlic
generous S, some P

1. Peel potatoes if desired and cut into medium chunks (the night before if necessary--just keep completely covered in water)
2. Boil potatoes until fork-tender, then drain.
3. Return to the pot in which they were boiled (this will help them dry off a little) and add in butter, roasted garlic, and a splash or two of cream. S&P to taste.
4. Mash by hand, or if you prefer really smooth potatoes, with an electric hand-mixer.
5. You can also add softened cream cheese, herbs, & other seasonings.

Soft dinner rolls (adapted from several recipes around the web, but it's basically a lightly-enriched yeast dough that you roll into balls and bake in a 9x13 pan)
1 T. yeast
1/2 c. warm water
1 c. warm milk
2 T. sugar
2 T. melted butter or oil
1 t. salt
~4 c. flour

1. Combine water, milk, and sugar in a large bowl.  Sprinkle yeast on top and let sit for a couple minutes until it looks bubbly.
2. Stir in melted butter and salt.
3. Add in 3 cups of flour, then add flour in 1/4 to 1/2 cup increments until a soft but workable dough forms.
4. Cover and let rise until doubled, 20-30 minutes.
5. Flour a work surface and pat into a rectangle.  Cut rectangle into six strips (halve, then each half into thirds). Cut each strip into 4 pieces = 24 rolls.
6. Take each piece of dough and palm it, then roll against a surface til the edges are tucked under and it's nice and round.  Place in a greased 9x13 pan.  Repeat with remaining dough.
7. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled.
8. Bake at 400F for 20minutes until brown on top.  You can also brush them with melted butter before you bake them so they brown even better.

Pumpkin pie
I use the recipe on the can of Libby's pumpkin!  I think it calls for evaporated milk, eggs, pumpkin, spices, and sugar.  Very traditional.
No-roll pie crust from Allrecipes:
1.5 c. flour
1/2 c. oil
1/4 c. cold water
pinch salt
1-2 t. sugar

1. Mix pie crust ingredients together.  Press into the bottom and sides of the pie pan to an even thickness.
2. Pour in pumpkin pie filling and bake according to directions.

Lasagna, soup style

Grocery shopping while hungry the other day, I had a craving for lasagna.  It's starting to get chilly outside at night and in the mornings, and instead of craving cold sandwiches and ice cream I want to bake bread and cook soup in a crock pot and make warm casseroles.

I'd found a recipe a long time ago for lasagna soup, and the idea has always been in the back of my head as something I wanted to try.  I made mine completely from scratch and while it took a while, most of the time is pretty passive.  Here's three ways to make it, depending on how much time you have or how skilled you are.

Lasagna soup.  Like tomato soup, but waaaaay better.

Lasagna soup, level three

3-4 big tomatoes

1 medium onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, divided

1 cup cottage cheese

0.5-1 cup grated parmesan

4 wide lasagna noodles

S&P

1. Heat some olive oil in a medium pot.  Finely dice the onion and throw it in the oil, cooking until it's translucent.  

2. Medium-dice the tomatoes, reserving any juices that ooze out while you chop them.  

3. Either grate the garlic cloves or finely mince them, then saute them with the onions for about a minute.  

4. Once the onions and garlic are fragrant, add the tomatoes and juices into the pot.  Turn the heat on medium-high, salt the pot liberally, and bring to a boil.  (The salt will help the tomatoes release their juices.)

5. In the meantime, finely mince half the basil.  Add to the pot, which should be very juicy.  Add about a quart of water and bring back up to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer.

6. Combine the cottage cheese, parmesan, and the other half of the basil (minced fine), along with some freshly-ground pepper, in a separate bowl.

7. Once the soup has simmered for about 10-15 minutes, break the lasagna noodles into pieces and add directly to the soup.  Cook until the noodles are al dente.

8. To serve: dish up the soup into a bowl and take a heavy dollop of the cheese-basil mixture in the middle of the bowl.  

Holds up surprisingly well as leftovers, too.

Not that much time?  Try it this way.

Lasagna soup, level two

1 medium onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 jar pasta sauce

basil, fresh or dried

cottage cheese

grated parmesan

lasagna noodles or other pasta

S&P

1. Dice the onion and saute.  Mince the garlic and saute with the onions for a minute until fragrant.

2. Add the jar of pasta sauce and 1 jar's worth of water.  Bring to a simmer.

3. Add some basil to up the flavor.

4. Make the cheese garnish as above.

5. Add the noodles to the soup and cook until al dente.

6. Serve garnished with the cheese mixture.

This version leaves out the work of fresh tomatoes, but throws in a little prep so it's half-homemade.

Used up your food budget for the month? Haven't been shopping in weeks?  Here's a pantry items-only version.

Lasagna soup, level one

1 can tomato soup

dried basil

garlic powder

noodles of choice: macaroni or shells or lasagna noodles

Optional garnish: cottage cheese, or just parmesan

1. Prepare tomato soup as directed on the package.  Add dried basil (or Italian seasoning) and garlic powder.

2. Add noodles to the soup and cook until al dente.

3. Garnish if desired/available.  Enjoy!

Things to Eat when It's Hot Out

Even in an air-conditioned apartment, summer heat leaks in through windows and the cracks under the door and the closets under the eaves.  So, having moved in the middle of summer, I have hardly given my new kitchen a proper christening.  Yes, I've cooked a few times, but really I've been eating lots of cold meals.

Here's what I eat when it's too hot to stand by the (turned off) oven or stove:

-Peanut butter sandwiches and milk

-Crackers and {peanut butter, cheese, hummus, tuna salad}

-Salads

-Cherries (yes, sometimes just cherries for dinner)

-Cottage cheese and nectarines

-Cottage cheese and walnuts and a drizzle of honey

-Cheese roll-ups (large tortilla with some shredded cheese, microwave for a minute until gooey)

-Yogurt

-Cereal (even for dinner)

-Pasta with a no-cook sauce (minus points for boiling water, bonus points for no-cook sauce). I like a creamy yogurt + pesto combo, or carbonara (shredded parm, garlic, and a beaten egg, plus a tiny bit of pepper and pasta water), or chopped tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil.  Throw in a big bunch of arugula and it's like pasta and salad all together.

-Peanut butter (yes, it's on here again.  I eat lots of peanut butter.)

-Ice cream

I love to bake my own bread, but when you don't want to turn on the stove, setting the oven to 450 degrees for any kind of bread is madness.  I did find this recipe for Crock Pot Bread that actually worked like a charm--the end result was really tasty and I didn't heat up my apartment hardly at all.

Here's to staying cool, even in July!

Winter Vegetable Feast

These ain't ya mama's brussel sprouts.

When it's cold outside, and Thanksgiving is over, and you're waiting for the first real snow to hit the ground, there's nothing that warms things up like roasting some winter veg in the oven.

I know I'm not the first one on the bandwagon here, but really: simple, roasted vegetables are the way to go!  Nothing tastes heartier or more delicious than slightly crisped, well-seasoned vegetables that the oven has turned into nutritious dinner-jewels.  (okay, I'm waxing a little poetic, but they're delicious!)

The best part, especially now around finals, is that they're way hands-off.  Throw them in the oven, sit down, go through a lecture, pop up to check on them, and there! dinner's all done.

Oven-baked Carnival squash with a pseudo-poached egg
and roasted brussel sprouts

I like to make my winter squash the way my mom used to, cut in half, gutted, and baked in a pan with a little water in the bottom and foil on top until it's melt-in-your-mouth tender.  This takes about an hour to an hour and a half, so it's good to start ahead of everything else.

Brussel sprouts are a new wonder, too.  When I was little, they were awful: Mom would steam them in the microwave or on the stove, and I remember them being a terrible olive color and smelling disgusting, with a texture that was basically mush.  These I halved and tossed with some olive oil, salt & pepper and popped into the oven 20 minutes before the squash was done.

To pull it all together, I wanted a fried egg with an oozy yolk, but decided I'd made enough dishes for myself.  With the squash done, I put it on a plate, cracked an egg in the middle, and covered with plastic wrap.  Microwave for about a minute or two (check every thirty seconds or so!) until it's done the way you like it, and it looks way prettier than the time it takes to make would suggest.

Bonus: you can actually roast squash seeds in about 5 minutes in the microwave! I did not know this was possible.  I washed them and originally was just going to dry them in the microwave, but after a "nuke for a minute, stir, repeat" for a couple of tries, I added a tiny splash of oil and salt and continued microwaving in 1-minute bursts until they were toasted.  It probably was 5-6 minutes total--I didn't really keep track and since I was trying this out I wasn't even sure it would work.  But it was way faster and just as delicious as the oven, without washing a pan afterwards.

That time I set the pot on fire

We had a pub crawl yesterday, and as a result I was severely hungover today. Watching a Jersey Shore marathon and consuming variations on the theme of "bread and cheese" for meals were the order of the day.  At least the weather was cooperating: drizzling mist alternated with purple rain clouds and outright downpours all afternoon.

So when I decided dinner was going to be sweet cheese wontons washed down with OJ leftover from yesterday's festivities, I got to work. The first thing I did was make the filling: one ounce each of goat cheese and neufchâtel, blended with a couple teaspoons of honey. Next, I got out the tiny pot I use for frying things, namely because it cuts down on oil waste and nutrition guilt. I put it on medium heat and started filling wontons.

I had filled about eight wontons when I realized I could hear the heat in the oil. Thinking I just needed to turn down the heat, I turned around to see the oil smoking profusely.  I turned down the heat and dug frantically through the "clean" side of the kitchen sink for the lid, then remembered it was still in the
cabinet. When I turned around, this was what I saw:

FIRE!!!
For obvious safety reasons, I opted for an illustration rather than a photograph of this moment.

There were FLAMES coming out of the pot.  I dropped the lid on as fast as I could and moved it to a cold burner.  The kitchen and the living room were both hazy with smoke now, so I opened up the windows and set up my bedroom fan to circulate the air (alarmingly, the fire alarm did not go off, even though it will sometimes rebel at baking cookies or sauteed onions).

A little taken aback but unsure of what else to do, I went back to filling wontons until I had used up the cheese mixture, about a dozen of them total.  I greased a baking sheet, spaced the wontons out on it, then brushed the tops with a little oil.  Fifteen minutes at 375F and they were done.

The wontons were probably too rich for dinner, and the cheese oozed out the sides, but they were delicious.  Also, my apartment smelled for several hours and still isn't completely cleared of burnt oil-aroma.

At least I didn't burn down the apartment, though!

~Lindsey

End-of-summer galette

Nothing says summer like stone fruit: peaches, plums, nectarines--as soon as they hit rock-bottom prices at the store (and once the air hangs heavily with summer humidity), it's time to make pies or smoothies or just eat as many as you can out-of-hand.  My favorites are plums and nectarines.  (Peach fuzz still kinda weirds me out, you know?  But really good peaches are a mess to try and peel...thus, the nectarine.)  I was trying to find something easy to do with some nectarines because I just had tons of them and--much as I love them--I wanted to do more than just quarter them and munch on them as a snack.

My first creative use: salsa.  I forgot to take a picture of it.  (Shame on me, I know.  But I'm new at this!)  My summer research project involved working at a community garden, where they have a weekly cooking demo.  Last week's was fresh salsa, and I was inspired to make a fruity-spicy combo that went really great with plain tortilla chips.

Nectarine salsa (makes 1 bowl, serves 1 for dinner or a crowd at a party)

1 nectarine

1-2 banana peppers

half an onion

half a lime

salt

herbs of your choice

Method:

-Quarter the nectarine, remove the pit, and peel.  Dice medium to fine, depending on how you like your salsa.  I like this one pretty chunky.

-Dice the banana peppers the same size as the nectarine.  Be sure to remove the seeds before you dice them!

-Dice the onion and add it to the nectarine and peppers.  You can use red (a little sweeter, probably better) but I used white in a pinch and it worked fine.

-Juice the half a lime into the bowl of diced fruit and veg and add a pinch of salt.

-Mince some fresh herbs and add to the salsa.  I used a green onion and a few leaves of mint because that's what I had on hand, but the next time I made it I used a little basil and some chives--still good!  They just add some freshness and a brightness to the salsa.

-Mix everything up together and let it sit for a little if you can, or if you're like me just go ahead and eat 2/3 of the bowl right away with chips.

After I made the salsa (twice in two days), I decided it was time to go a little more traditional and make a dessert.  Pie always sounds like too much work, but I remembered that galettes are like pie but without the pan and are a little more forgiving.  I borrowed the base recipe for pie dough and general method from smitten kitchen, but I skipped the complicated parts (the ground almonds and the flour on the galette before I added the fruit).  

So...I couldn't wait.  I had to try a slice right away.

This galette used 2 1/2 nectarines...so almost 3, but I snacked on the scraps.  Basically, I think galettes are my new favorite dessert.  You make a pie dough, you roll it out, and then you slice and arrange your fruit in a pretty circle in the middle.  Leave about 2 inches or a little less around the circumference of the fruit so you have enough to tuck over the sides.  Then, I drizzled some honey over the top of the fruit, folded up the sides into pleats, and brushed the crust with egg.  A quick sprinkle of vanilla sugar and the whole thing went into the oven for I think 45 minutes.  

The directions said to transfer the galette right away to a cooling rack, which I did--the crust stayed nice and firm, with a hint of crackle as I bit into the sugared pastry.  It also said to wait 20 minutes before slicing, which I only barely managed to do.  But then I definitely had a slice.  Or two.  And I may or may not have eaten a big chunk of this for breakfast the next day.  (What?  It was around brunch time when I got up, anyway...)

This was the perfect way to end the summer.  But now it's off to school again...second year and the board exams looming!  

Enjoy the stone fruit while you can!

~Lindsey