by jphilo | Aug 17, 2011 | Recipes
We’re leaving for Ohio in the morning, to help Anne and her husband move into their apartment. Since I’m packing instead of cooking, today’s recipe comes from the Family Camp Cookbook.
These cookies were the brainchild of Mary Anne Walker, known as Grandma Annie to her grandchildren, my husband included. Their lovely memories of their grandma making cookies are easy to see. When they first see their favorite grandma treats lined up on the cooling rack, their eyes light and their smiles spread. “Grandma Annie cookies,” they say one-by-one, “a meal in themselves.”
For me, they were an acquired taste. Now I love them, too. My eyes light up when they’re served at Family Camp. But best of all is listening to Grandma Annie’s descendants talk about the remarkable woman whose faith and love made a deep impression on all of them. And whose cookies have an impressive impact on waistlines, too. But let’s not talk about that!
Grandma Annie Cookies
3/4 cup butter melted in 1/4 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon soda
3 cups oats
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 cup peanuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add butter, water, vanilla and eggs. Mix thoroughly. Shape into large balls and drop onto cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes.
by jphilo | Aug 11, 2011 | Recipes
Sorry this post is so late. My computer was dead, dead again this morning, so another flying trip to the Apple Genius Bar was required. Everything is fixed for the moment, so here’s the recipe Hiram and I field tested yesterday. It turned out to be a triple hit, falling into the oh-good-another-recipe-with-lots-of-garden-vegetables and the yahoo-another-recipe-where-eggplant-doesn’t-taste-like-cardboard and the miracle-of-miracles-it-uses-zucchini-too categories. Best of all, Hiram and I both liked it enough to make it again!
With all those qualifications, the only thing left to do is give credit to the Cook Smart column in the US Weekend Magazine which came in Sunday’s paper. The original recipe called for 8 medium, boneless chicken thighs. But my version reflects what was on hand at our house.
Chicken Stew with Ratatouille Veggies
Veggies:
1 medium eggplant, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
1 sweet pepper (red, yellow, whatever) cut into 1 inch pieces
2 medium zucchini, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
12 peeled, halved garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
salt and ground black pepper
2 cups cherry tomatoes
Adjust oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all vegetables except tomatoes in large bowl. Add olive oil, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to coat. Turn vegetables onto a large, rimmed baking sheet. Roast veggies until golden brown on the bottom, about 20 minutes.
Remove pan from oven. Add tomatoes and stir mixture. Continue to roast until tomatoes have started to release their juices, about 15 minutes. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. This can be refrigerated up to 5 days.
Stew:
2 cups roasted ratatouille
2 large chicken breasts, cut into fourths
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
12 coarsely chopped, pitted, kalamata olives
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh basil leaves
Drizzle chicken with oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute, turning only once, until golden brown on both sides, about 7-8 minutes per side. Add wine and reduce by half. Add broth, ratatouille, and olives. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, about 10 minutes, until thick stew consistency. Stir in basil and serve.
Note: This recipe won’t use all the veggies roasted. Tonight, I’m topping toasted bagels with pesto, ratatouille, and mozzarella cheese, then broiling them until the cheese bubbles. Hope it tastes as good as it sounds!
by jphilo | Aug 5, 2011 | Recipes
We usually celebrate the arrival of eggplant season by stashing the big purple veggies that come in our weekly CSA share in the refrigerator’s vegetable bin. A month or two later, we celebrate the end of season by removing several rotten eggplants from the vegetable bin and throwing them in the trash can.
The reason for this wasteful behavior is obvious to Hiram and me. We are eggplant impaired due to parental neglect. Neither of our gardening mothers grew eggplant, nor did they ever, ever, ever cook with it. So the weird, purple, tasteless food never entered our culinary paradigm. (That was some pretty good jargon there, don’t ya think?)
But in last week’s CSA newsletter, there was a recipe for eggplant pomadora pasta that sounded good enough to try. So I gave it a whirl. And guess what? It was both easy and mighty tasty. So tasty, in fact, that I’m going to make it again. Which means that at least some of our eggplant crop will experience death by glorious digestion rather than a seedy, slow death in the vegetable bin.
The recipe originally came from Eating Well, but I messed around with it enough to claim it as my own. Give it a try and leave a comment with your opinion and changes to the recipe.
Eggplant Pomodora Pasta
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium eggplant, (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup onions, chopped
4 plum tomatoes, diced – I used 4 of whatever tomatoes came in our CSA bag
1/3 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
12 ounces pasta
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, or basil – I can’t believe I forgot to add the basil!
Put a pot of water on to boil.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add eggplant and cook, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and onions. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add tomatoes, olives, vinegar, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Cook, stirring, until the tomatoes begin to break down, 5 to 7 minutes more.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water until just tender, about 6 minutes or according to package directions. Drain and divide the pasta among 6 shallow bowls. Spoon the sauce over the pasta and sprinkle parsley (or basil) on top.
by jphilo | Jul 27, 2011 | Recipes
The title of today’s post says it all. Zucchini season has arrived, and the annual how-to-make-zucchini-edible conundrum has begun. The picture above shows my first stab at the solving the puzzle. This recipe comes from the cookbook I picked up at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Since I altered it quite a bit, here’s the original recipe, followed by my changes and recommendations.
Stuffed Zucchini
6 medium zucchini 1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 cups butter crackers 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 eggs, beaten
1 small onion, minced 2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons parsley, minced
Wash zucchini and cut off ends, but do not peel. Cook in boiling, salted water for 5 minutes or until tender. Halve lengthwise. Remove pulp with spoon. Combine pulp, crackers, cheese, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and eggs. Fill zucchini shells with mixture and dot with butter. Sprinkle with additional cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
My zucchini was closer to large than medium, so I cut off the ends and cut it in half before boiling. Even so I had to boil it close to 15 minutes before it was tender. When scraping out the pulp, leave a good 1/4 – 1/2 inch of flesh next to the peel so the shell keeps its shape. Also, the recipe doesn’t say to crush the crackers, but that’s what I did until I had 2 cups of crushed crackers.
Even so, I had more than enough – probably could have halved the whole filling recipe and had enough. As you can see, I sprinkled bacon bits on top because Hiram is a meat guy, and I though the recipe would be bland otherwise. Looking back, they were plenty tasty and satisfying. So maybe the bacon isn’t necessary.
If you fool around with the recipe, leave a comment about your alterations. With more zucchini in the fridge, I could use a new challenge!
by jphilo | Jul 22, 2011 | Recipes
We’ve been back from Family Camp for two days, just enough time to miss the camp menu and not enough to do much cooking here at home. So today’s recipe is the result of a quick poll taken on the flight home.
The poll question was: What was your favorite main dish at camp?
The unanimous response (from pollster and pollees) was: Barbecued meatballs.
Enough said.
Barbecued Meatballs
Meatballs:
1 small can evaporated milk
3 pounds hamburger
2 cups quick oatmeal
2 eggs
1 chopped onion
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Mix together and form into balls. Place in cake pans.
Sauce:
2 cups ketchup
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/2 cup chopped onion
Mix together and pour over meatballs. Bake without the sauce in 350 degree oven until done – about an hour depending on the size of the meatballs. Transfer to a crockpot and pour sauce over top. Heat through and serve.
This makes a big recipe, but the baked meatballs can be covered with sauce and frozen. Then put them in a crockpot in the morning and cook on low. They’ll be ready when you get home!
One of the camp cooks emailed with these variations:
- Serve the meatballs Alfredo sauce and serve over noodles.
- Serve with sweet and sour sauce, pineapples, and peppers.
by jphilo | Jul 6, 2011 | Recipes
Our annual Family Camp is only a week away. Though you won’t be with us on the mountain, today’s recipe gives you a taste of what we’ll be eating for dessert. My recipe for Barb’s Eggless Zucchini Brownies is similar to this one, but not quite. These taste quite a bit like the zucchini version, which are absolutely divine served warm with a scoop of ice cream. Now that’s a serving suggestion that could make you so happy, you won’t even think about us on the mountain at all next week!
Janel’s Chocolate Bars
Bars:
2 cups sugar 2 cups flour
4 tablespoons cocoa 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda 1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup butter. 1 cup water brought to a boil in a saucepan
Mix all ingredients. Put in a greased jelly roll pan and bake 25 minutes at 325 degrees.
Frosting:
6 tablespoons butter, melted
6 tablespoons milk
Add 1 1/2 cups sugar and boil 30 seconds only. Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips and stir until melted. Spread on bars. Frosting will be thin and set up fast.
