Food

With the arrival of cooler weather, soups are definitely back on my go-to list of meals. I love soup, because I can have All The Flavors without all the damn calories. When it comes to soups and stews, a little goes a long way. Roast veggie soup is one of those “make it with what you have” recipes. There’s no one right way to make it, and pretty much anything you put in will make it yummy! This is my version of Roast Vegetable Soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• peppers (mix of whatever colors/heats you like), large diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and coined
• 1 red onion, large diced
• 2 large or several smaller tomatoes, whole
• 1 head garlic, most of the paper peeled away and the top cut off
• 1 to 2 cups of any combination of the following: cauliflower, kale, leeks, red skinned potato, celery, parsnips, turnip, chard, or whatever else you like
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp to 2 tsp each: cumin, thyme, oregano, paprika, marjoram, and rubbed sage
• 4 to 6 cups vegetable, chicken, or beef stock
• 1 can white beans, well rinsed

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Cover a large baking tray (lipped) with some parchment paper, then add in the potato, peppers, carrot, tomatoes, garlic, and other vegetables. Drizzle it all with olive oil, and sprinkle the vegetables with the spices. Toss it all together using your hands. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes, then flip all the vegetables over and roast for another 10 minutes. Add in any onions and/or leeks, stir well to cover them with the oil and spices, and continue to roast for a further 10 to 15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and slightly caramelized. Remove them from the oven.

Set aside a small selection of the vegetables to add whole to the soup. Remove the tomato skins (they should simply slip off) and squeeze the garlic out of its skin. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and any vegetables you don’t want whole to a large soup pot and add in the stock. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about five minutes. Turn off the heat, and blend the soup with an immersion blender. If you don’t have one, you can add it a bit at a time to a regular blender or food processor, but be careful because it will be hot.

Add in the reserved vegetables and the white beans, and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes to a half hour, to allow the flavors to meld. If you like dairy items, adding in a few pieces of parmesan rind at this point will make this a much more earthy, rich soup.

Serve in warm bowls topped with a drizzle of good olive oil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and a sprig of fresh thyme or some croutons.

When I was younger and still living at home, my father would take me out once in a while for dinner. Mom didn’t really cook, and we often had take-out, but dad and I had a special bond at that time. We always went for something mom didn’t like. Something garlicky, or with big sausages, or meat that wasn’t “standard” (ie mom ate beef, chicken, pork, and turkey, and not much else). There was a Greek place he’d take me to once in a long while, and there, I learned to love souvlaki. It’s easy to make, delicious, and relatively healthy (depending on how you make it).

Ingredients for lamb souvlaki:

• 1.5 to 2 lbs lamb shoulder, boneless, cubed
• 1 medium red onion, cut in half circles
• olive oil (for drizzling)
• juice of one lemon
• souvlaki seasoning: oregano, thyme, and rosemary, garlic, paprika, cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

Your lamb should be boneless, though technically you could rub a whole shoulder with the bone in and cook it that way. Trust me and get boneless butterflied leg of lamb. It’s expensive, and entirely worth it. Aldi has it for a reasonable amount. Your cubes should be about an inch across, and all close to the same size so they cook right.

You can buy Aldi brand or other brand souvlaki seasoning, and just sub it in for the dried herbs mentioned above. You want to be heavy handed, which is why I didn’t put amounts in. For 1.5 lbs of lamb, I use about a quarter cup of spice, and I mix all of the souvlaki seasonings mentioned above “about equally.” Salt and pepper I add at the end, and I tend to go lighter (the mixes may have salt and pepper in them, so check before adding those). You want to dump the seasoning on the cubed lamb and slivered half circles of red onion, add in a drizzle of the olive oil and the lemon juice, then get in with both hands and squish it around. Coat everything fairly evenly, but not so thickly that it’s like sawdust. Cover with plastic wrap and stick your meat in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour, and a maximum of 8.

Make yourself some tzatziki while the meat is marinating.

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Happy September!!!

We’re doing our best to eat healthy around here, but we also want food that tastes good. I love soup (hubby not so much, but oh well), and with the cooler weather arriving, I plan on making a lot of soups. You can pack a ton of flavor into soup that is almost calorie free, where making the “regular” version of it would blow your diet to smithereens. So soup, here I come! This one tastes sort of like the innards of a lasagna, honestly.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion (finely chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• Salt and black pepper (to taste)
• 14 oz can chopped tomatoes
• 6 cups shredded cabbage
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 cups beef broth
• Parsley (chopped)

Pre-heat a soup pot to medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Add in the chopped onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until they have slightly softened. Add in the garlic and let it cook for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant. then, add the ground beef, salt, and black pepper. Cook for 7-8 minutes, breaking the meat apart with a spatula.

Add in the chopped tomatoes, shredded cabbage, paprika, garlic, onion powder, oregano, thyme and bay leaf. Mix it all together very well. Pour in the beef broth, stir it, and let it simmer for 25 minutes or so until the cabbage fully cooks. A little longer is okay, as this stuff only tastes better as time goes on.

Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley before serving.

Notes:

I put shredded cheese on the table to add some fat, because this soup does NOT have a lot of it. I did drain the ground beef before moving on with the recipe. You could add a dollop of cream cheese to this, or some spicy peppers, and it would still be good. If you switched out the tomatoes for one of those 14 oz cans of tomatoes and green chilies you can get in the Mexican aisle, then topped it with tortilla strips, you’d have Mexican tortilla soup. All I know is this stuff was delish, a huge bowl of it is only about 300 calories (if made as written), and maybe not even that much.

I realize not everyone likes tofu, but let’s face facts: it’s cheap, it’s relatively healthy, and you can cook it in a zillion different ways. I’m in the process of learning how to use it for more meals, and so I’m going to share some of those recipes (the good ones) with you. This one in particular was so yummy that even my tofu-hater was willing to have it again!

Ingredients:

• block firm tofu, drained
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar*
• 2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• lime juice, for seasoning
• wraps or pitas, for stuffing

Start by wrapping up your tofu in a lint free towel or cheesecloth, and putting it onto a cutting board. Place a cast iron skillet or a baking sheet weighed down with something heavy on top on top of the tofu, and let it drain for at least 15 minutes, or as long as 45 minutes. Don’t skip this, as it helps with the texture of the tofu.

Crumble the pressed tofu into a bowl using your fingers. You want small pieces, with none larger than a pea.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, sugar (*you can use Splenda brown sugar blend or any other sweetener you prefer if you don’t like the regular stuff), vinegar, sesame oil, red pepper, and fish sauce (or if you don’t like fish sauce, you may sub in Worcestershire sauce or mushroom ketchup for umami). The sugar may not fully dissolve, and that’s okay. It will once you begin heating it later in the recipe. Do your best!

In a large cast iron skillet or other nonstick pan, heat the cooking oil over a medium high heat. Add in the tofu, shake it to make an even single layer, and let it cook without stirring until it crisps up and is deep golden brown on the bottom. This can take 5 to 7 minutes. It’s okay to peek to see how it’s doing, but don’t stir it up until it forms that crispy bottom. Once it’s crisp, stir it up (breaking it up if necessary), and try to flip over the pieces to crisp the other side. You want the entire batch of tofu to be crispy, which requires you to let it sit and cook in the oil. It shouldn’t take too long, though.

Once the tofu is crispy, add in the ginger and garlic and stir gently until fragrant. This should take a minute or less. Add in the soy mixture, and continue to cook until the liquid essentially evaporates. This may take up to 10 minutes, but more likely will only take 5 minutes or so.

Spoon the tofu into the wraps or pitas, and add any garnishes you like (such as cilantro leaves, shredded lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, etc.). Top with a light squeeze of lime, then serve.

Notes:

The spicy hot mixes so well with the sweet in this! Too often, tofu is served squishy, and this avoids that problem. If you find that you can’t get a good crisp on the tofu crumbles, you can try dusting it all with a teaspoon or so of cornstarch and then just hand mixing it lightly before frying it. The cornstarch helps it crisp, but also adds to the calories, so avoid it if you can.

There are all sorts of old timey skills that are useful in a SHTF scenario, but knowing how to bake bread will be high on the list. At one time in history (ie anytime prior to 1930), pretty much everyone had at least a vague idea of how to bake bread. If they hadn’t done it themselves, they at least had witnessed it being made. The modern grocery store killed the last of the bakers, though. Baking, even the “bougie” artisan stuff, is done largely by machine these days. Why bake when you can just pick up a couple of loaves at the store? And store loaves last for weeks and weeks, while fresh bread goes moldy after only a few days.

When you have access to store bought bread, that’s fine. But what if you don’t? What if … oh, say a pandemic happens, and all the grocery stores are out of EVERYTHING, and you can’t find store bread? The bottom line is you need to know how to make your own.

There are simple loaves, no knead recipes that come together quickly with a minimum of mess. There are complex loaves that require multiple rises and tons of work. I tend to go for bread somewhere in the middle. Two rises to develop the gluten and make for a lovely, crusty bread that will hold together as sandwich exterior. A nice mix of flours. Standard yeast. It’s not a difficult loaf, if you know how to bake.

On Sunday, I held a class for six people at the Fort at No. 4, where I taught them how to make bread. From scratch. In a wood fired bake oven. We had a real range of students. One was a reenactor from the current iteration of Roger’s Rangers, who simply hadn’t learned to bake in the beehive and really wanted some help. One was a complete bread virgin but the price was right and how exciting to get to hang out in a fort and cook bread? The two couples were doing the lessons as a sort of “date day” thing, and were at varying levels of having attempted bread. One of the guys was a baker at a big company, but had never made bread with nothing more than a wooden spoon and a bowl.

We started out the day by adding yeast to warm water, and feeding it a bit of sugar. I explained that we were fermenting the yeast, letting it become active. While it isn’t necessary with dry active yeast (which is what we were using), it’s a good habit to get into. While our yeast was waking up, we went out to start the fire in the beehive oven. Everyone brought some wood, and I had already split kindling and had scraps from Chris’s day in the workshop on Saturday, so the fire started up quickly. Once it was loaded up and roaring, we were off to the kitchen again.

We slowly added our flour into the water and yeast mixture, then stirred with a wooden spoon. Once we had most of the flour in and the dough was forming, it got turned out onto the table, and we started the kneading process. Everyone has sore shoulders this morning (except me), because when kneading entirely by hand, it takes about 20 minutes. They all had various problems with their dough as we kneaded, and I was able to explain a variety of possible failure points. Everyone ended up with a decent “silky smooth” ball of dough, and we set that to rest.

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We’re leaving the 15th century behind, at this point, and moving boldly into the 18th! This recipe comes from The Compleat Housewife, written by Eliza Smith in England in 1773. Today’s recipe is entitled, “To boil Fowls and Cabbage” and is another forced meat yumminess!

Ingredients:

• a well shaped cabbage
• savory forced meat
• 2 eggs
• 2 whole chickens, cooked
• “some” melted butter
• slices of bacon

Pick yourself a nice, sizable cabbage, peel off a few of the outer leaves until it looks clean and good, and then use a sharp knife to cut off the top (like a lid), then cut out the inside of it. You want to form a cavity, in which you can put your meat, but it doesn’t have to be anything special. Set aside the removed bits of cabbage to stew up as a side dish.

Mix together “savory forced meat” (generally this means any ground meat mixed well with spices that you like, and I use a nice chub of country ground sausage meat) with two whisked eggs, so that it’s well distributed. Put the meat and egg mix into the hole in the cabbage, then put the “lid” back on. Wrap the stuffed cabbage with a cloth (cheesecloth or even a tea towel tied in place with kitchen string works well), and lower it into a large pot of lightly salted boiling water. Boil until the exterior of the cabbage is tender, and the meat inside is fully cooked (anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the size of your cabbage and the rate of your boil – you want the meat inside to register AT LEAST 160°F to be food safe).

While your cabbage is cooking, roast up a couple of chickens or warm up some rotisserie chicken. Place these on a large platter, and then put the stuffed cabbage (removed from its cloth prison) in between them. Over everything, place several slices of cooked bacon, and then drizzle it with some melted butter.

This makes a lovely presentation, and is quite historically accurate to the 1750s!

If you live in or near New England, you may know of the very Northern experience of canned brown bread. Cylindrical and sweeter than regular bread, more dense, and yet so delicious when camping! Canned bread has a long history in New England, and is deeply entrenched in our culture (The Takeout). The reality is that canning only made this steamed version of bread more easy to disseminate to the public. It had long been part of the New England colonists’ food culture. So here is a recipe based firmly on the 1908 version of The Rumford Complete Cook Book.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat or Golden Wheat flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 egg
• 2 cups whole milk

Sift together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder. Add in the raisins and molasses. Whisk together the egg and milk, then add that to the flour mixture.

Have ready several well greased tins with oven-safe lids, and fill these 2/3 full of the batter. Grease the lids and fit them onto the tins. If you don’t have appropriate tins, you can use #3 (large bean) cans or even coffee cans (which are generally #10). For can sizing, you can check out this site.

There are two methods you can use for steaming your bread: stovetop or oven.

To steam your bread on the stovetop, you need a pot that is sufficiently larger than your can that you can put a lid on the pot. Put a steamer rack (a metal trivet, even balled up aluminum foil will work) in the bottom of the pot, and put your can on top of your rack. Add enough boiling water (yes, boil it before you put it in the pot with your bread) to come about a third of the way up the side of your can. Cover the pot and turn the heat to its lowest setting that will still maintain a simmer to generate steam. Steam the bread for three hours.

To steam your bread in the oven, pre-heat your oven to 325°F. Find a high sided roasting or other pan that will hold your can of bread and still allow you to pour in enough boiling water to reach a third of the way up the side of the can. Again, steam the bread for three hours.

You can check your bread for doneness by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it’s ready. I would suggest you start checking your bread at the 2 hour mark, especially if you’re using smaller cans. Continue to steam until the bread is baked through. Let your steamed bread cool on a cookie rack on the counter for at least one hour before removing it from the can. It should slide out fairly easily after it has cooled.

Serve this up as is, or “toast” it in a frying pan with a little bit of butter or margarine. This is very dense, very filling bread, and is in NO WAY a reduced calorie item.

For me, anything cooked in coconut curry is going to be good. You could easily sub out the whitefish for tofu or chicken or anything else, and this would still taste wonderful. This diet friendly, delicious meal is a great way to use cheap whitefish protein in your meals.

Ingredients:

• 2 pollock fillets
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 red potatoes, diced
• 2 asparagus spears, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 tbsp red curry powder (or to taste)
• 15 oz can coconut milk
• 15 oz water
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp avocado oil, divided (or other neutral oil)
• fresh dill (for topping)

Add 2 tbsp of the oil to the cooking pot and heat over medium heat. Stir in the onion, carrots, and asparagus and saute until softened and starting to become clear. Stir in the red curry powder and cook for about 1 minute. Add in the can of coconut milk and then fill the can with water and add that to the pot.

In a skillet, heat the remaining 2 tbsp of oil over medium-high heat. Cook the fish for about 1 minute per side to brown then remove from the heat and cube the fish. Try not to fully cook the fish or it will be too flaky to cube.

Bring the soup pot to a boil and add the diced potato. Reduce to a simmer, then cook for 5 minutes. Add the fish, salt and lime juice to the pot and simmer for 5 more minutes.

Salt to taste, then serve into bowls and top with fresh dill. Add a side of hot, crusty bread and some pickles to make the perfect meal!

I adore Scotch Eggs. They’re the perfect match of sausage, egg, breading, and deliciousness. Done right, the exterior is crispy and salty, the sausage properly cooked without being greasy, and the egg yolk EVER so slightly soft. I will buy them at Ren Faires as a treat, but here’s how to make them at home!

Ingredients:

• 6 cooked eggs
• 1 cup ground breakfast sausage
• whisked egg and breadcrumbs, for coating
• salt and pepper to taste
• frying fat

Depending on how cooked you want your yolks to be, this can be tricky. I usually aim for very soft boiled eggs, around 6 minutes in boiling water. For hard boiled, you want 8 minutes in boiling water. (Note: always put eggs into cold water in the pot, then bring the temperature up to boiling, and start your timer when the water reaches the boil.) To make them easier to peel, you can prick the bottom of the egg (the fat end) with a pin, which lets the water in and separates it from the shell. I’m told baking powder in the water also works. When your eggs are boiled, put them in a cold water ice bath for at least 20 minutes before attempting to peel them.

Remove the shells and rinse then wipe the eggs dry. Using your hands, pick up a ball of ground sausage and make it into an oval shape, flattened to an equal thickness throughout. Wrap this carefully around your egg and gently mold until the entire egg is encased in sausage. The harder boiled your eggs are, the easier this is.

Set the whisked raw egg in one bowl and the breadcrumbs in another. Dip the sausage encased egg into the whisked egg, then roll it in the breadcrumbs to coat it. Add the coated egg to a fry pan with oil and fry them until they’re golden brown. Turn them constantly so that they cook evenly. You want the sausage to be cooked through (and the egg will cook a bit further while you’re cooking the sausage).

These can be served as is, hot and crispy. Alternatively, you can split them in half and serve them with sliced tomatoes and a whisked mixture of equal parts mustard and mayonnaise.

You’ve seen pics of me. I obviously like food. However, I’m trying to be a lot healthier in what I’m eating. I love sweet treats, and if I could tolerate dairy, I could be happy with the occasional yogurt. However, dairy free yogurt is twice as expensive, and the cups are usually smaller. It’s a sad thing. That’s when I ran across this chia seed stuff.

So before you ask, yes, this is the same type of seed you used to smear on clay figurines in the 70’s and 80s (ch ch ch chia!). However, instead of growing them, you’re going to be eating them. It sounds odd, I know, but they’re cheap, and when they’re soaked overnight, they’re really tasty!

This recipe makes a single serving, so feel free to upscale as much as you like!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (or any other milk or milk substitute)
• 1 tbsp honey (or other sweetener of choice)
• 1 tsp cocoa powder

Put all of the ingredients into a jar or other container with a lid, and whisk together well. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, then whisk again, as sometimes the seeds or the cocoa can clump. Cover the container and put it in the fridge for at least two hours, and best overnight. Before serving, top it with a bit of fresh fruit or whatever you like!

It really is that simple, and it’s tasty. Just be careful to mix, let it sit for 2 to 3 minutes, then mix again. The seeds make a sort of gel around themselves (which makes them sort of like mini tapioca balls when you eat it), and so once that begins to happen they are easier to stir.

For those who are diet conscious, the above comes out to about 200 calories, 5g protein, 9g fat, and 28g carbs (but with a whopping 9g of fiber, which makes your net carbs only 19). A fairly balanced dessert!