Projectland

Eat the lawn

It has been very warm here in Chicago so the dandelions have been growing like, well, weeds. One of my favorite spring rituals is to make salads made from the dandelions that grow in the yard. Their taste is so bright and fresh and their texture soft. It's rewarding to eat something that naturally grows abundantly, is considered a nuisance and best of all tastes delicious!

Yesterday I made a twilight harvest from our yard,

washed the leaves carefully, after all we do have a dog...

...and tossed them with a slightly sweet balsamic vinaigrette. We ate them with pasta topped with a garlicky sauce made using homegrown tomatoes from last summer, a bit of goat cheese, salt and pepper. Not bad locavore eating!

Just from the oven goodness.

I remember when Mark Bittman from the NYT wrote about a no knead bread method and I thought, "I have to give that a try..." but I think I had a one year old and a four year old when the article came out, so my time was otherwise spoken for.  A year or two later, we got this book as a gift, where it sat on the shelf up until a few days ago. Since it's winter and I love baking when its cold out, I pulled the book down, checked to see if I had all the ingredients, and mixed up some dough. What a revelation! This bread recipe turns out one of the best breads ever. It's beyond good and beyond easy. Mix up a few ingredients, let it sit on the counter for 12-24 hours and then bake. It is incredible. I can not believe that this bread came out of my home kitchen oven! And what is even better is that it fits the bill for the "busy family meals" category perfectly. A slice of this bread still warm from the oven with a cucumber-tomato salad and a bowl of chicken noodle soup and the kids were in heaven.

And so, here is Jim Lahey's  no knead bread recipe :

(I like that someone in our house decided to color in the little white circle on the book's cover. It does kind of ask for it!)

Perfect pocket pies

A very pleasant lunch was spent recently with friends eating royal pie at Pleasant House Bakery . If you are in Chicago, I highly recommend a trip there. It's a very casual place, but sunlight brightens the small dining room and on the day we went, the counter staff were pip pip cheery-o eager to make sure we had a delicious British workingman's meal.

The kids and I had already been experimenting with empenada style pies using  this brand of buttermilk biscuit dough. (I read on-line that a recipe re-viewer's Chilean grandma uses it for her empenada dough, and I had to try it.) We made a filling together and they had fun spooning the filling onto the dough, folding the other half over and pressing the edges with a fork.

Ground turkey empenada filling that passes the kid taste test

Brown 1.5 cups of ground turkey in a frying pan with a little oil. Add 1/2 C. tomato sauce, 1/4 C. golden raisins, and 1/4 C. diced red or orange bell pepper. Season with 1/2 t. chili powder and salt. Let simmer for 10 min to blend the flavors and soften the peppers. Remove from heat and put in a bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes, then add 1/2 C. shredded cheese. Mix well.

Open biscuit dough and roll out each biscuit until it is an oval that is 1/8" thick.

Spoon about 1-2T. of the turkey mixture on one half of rolled out dough before folding over the other half. Seal edges by pressing the tines of a fork around edges. Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle sea salt or a dry herb mix on top. Bake empenadas on a pan at 375F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

They didn't eat theirs with sauce, but Chief Rail and I put fresh tomato salsa on top of ours.

After our lunch at Pleasant House, I got inspired to use a muffin tin and the same buttermilk bisuit dough to make chicken pot pies. The kids ate them up and asked for seconds. No joke. It's scary-easy to use that dough. I am starting to think that most everything might taste good "pocket style".

For these, I rolled the raw biscuits out to about 1/8" thick 6" diameter circles and pressed the dough into lightly oiled muffin tin cups. Then the kids and I filled the cups with the pot pie mixture, gathered the overhanging dough and pinched it together at the top so it looked like Vietnamese Bao. We brushed them with egg wash and sprinkled the adult ones with Herbs de Provence then baked them at 350F for about 15 minutes until they looked like the picture. They came undone a little in the baking, but didn't spill their cups. Let them cool for about 5 minutes, and then when you are ready to eat, run a knife around the edge to loosen them from the tin. They were fantastic. I could see serving these at a dinner party. Sprinkle a little flour on the counter top and people will think you made the dough yourself.

Just kidding purists.

You can use any chicken pot pie recipe you like, but my kids do not like onions or cooked celery. Too "slimy". So with that thought: here is the recipe for the filling we made.

Chicken pot pie recipe for kids (no slimy stuff)

Make a white roux by melting 2 T. butter in a sauce pan, adding 2 T. flour and mix with a whisk. Allow to bubble for 30 seconds or so, but don't let it burn. Whisk in 1/2 C. chicken broth and allow mix to thicken. Whisk in 1/2 C. milk, add 1/2 C. green peas. Season with salt, a dash of Maggi sauce, 1/2 t. of dried herb mix and a few sprinkles of smoked paprika if your kids will let you... let pot simmer while you:

Cut 1 C. raw chicken breast into 1/2" cubes.  Brown chicken in a frying pan with a little oil. Add 1/4 C. diced raw carrots, 1/4 C. chopped raw broccoli and let vegetables soften for about 5 minutes. Add this to the roux with peas and mix well. Use this filling in the dough filled muffin tin.

YUM. YUM. YUM.

 

It's getting to be meat loaf season!

Sarah's Sweet and Spicy Meatloaf recipe

8 servings

Preheat oven to 350 F

 

Combine in a large bowl:

 12 oz. ground beef

12 oz. ground pork

1 ½ C. finely chopped onions

1 C. breadcrumbs

2/3 C. ketchup

½ C. raisins

1 C.  of a jar of Potbelly’s hot peppers or any good quality Italian Giardiniera

3 lrg. Eggs

1 t ground thyme (or 2T. fresh thyme)

1 t. salt

½ t. ground pepper

 

Knead the mixture with your hands until everything is well blended.

 

Fill a 9 X 5 loaf pan with the meat mixture, mounding the top.

Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the meat is firm to the touch and has shrunk from the sides of the pan or until an instant read thermometer inserted in the center of the loaf reads 160 F. About 1 hour.

Let stand for 15 minutes to serve hot, or let cool completely and slice thinly for sandwiches.

 

For sandwiches:

Serve with mayonnaise (recipe below), sliced tomato, and lettuce.

 1 C. mayonnaise mixed with ½ t. smoked paprika and 2T. chopped, mixed fresh herbs.

 

How to make raspberry jam in four easy steps.

Step 1:

On a beautiful late summer day, pick raspberries with friends. We went to Royal Oak Farm Orchard in Harvard, IL. Not because we want to eat HIS raspberries, but because they use IPM and don't spray their fruit with chemicals. (On the other hand, maybe they are being blessed by the holy triad: the fruit is especially delicious.)

Note: Be sure to eat just as many as you put into your pint container! This is important.

step 2:

Stand back and admire your picking ability.  Take a picture.

Step 3:

Bring said berries home (4 pints total=8 C.), put them in a pot on the stove over medium heat. Smash berries with a potato masher. For sure kids can help here!! Add 6 C. of sugar, and a granular package of Sure Jell pectin. Stir well. Bring to a boil, stirring all the while. Boil for one minute. Ladle jam (that's right folks, you just made jam!!) into clean, sterilized jars.  Recipe makes about 8 or 9 cups of jam. Cap with sterilized caps and rings. Process sealed jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Step 4:

Once again, stand back and admire your "work". Then DIG IN!!

The taste of summer

We went to Wisconsin for a weekend trip to visit our friends Patti and Larry and their five kids. While there, we went to their friend's house on Lake Geneva for a swimming and dinner party. Like Patti and Larry, their friends are in the restaurant business and a couple of the people at the party were chefs. Lucky us! One of them made a corn and peach salad that is summer in a bowl.

Patti and I went out the next morning to the sweet little farm stand on Rt. 50 just south of Williams Bay and bought the ingredients to make the same salad for lunch that day. Here is our version:

 

Corn and Peach Salad

 

6 ears of corn, cooked on the bbq

1 small red onion, diced

20 basil leaves torn into small pieces

2 peaches, with skin on cut into 1/2" pieces

3 T. olive oil

juice of one lime

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut the kernels off the corn cobs.  Combine with the rest of the ingredients. Gently mix together and serve.

 

 

 

 

The kids didn't like the red onion in the salad so Patti bbq'ed the rest of the corn from the farm stand.  Here is how she did it:

She removed the silk, but kept the husks on. After buttering the corn and adding just-snipped garden chives, she wrapped the husks back around the ears so the kernels wouldn't burn, and put them on the grill for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Turkey and corn tacos

Food is not a battleground in our house.

I don't force the kids to eat, but I do suggest they at least try what is on their plate. My good friend Bonnie who blogs at goods and heroes calls this a "no thank you" bite. They'll usually try something they have not had before if they are involved with the preparation of it. Which did not happen with the turkey tacos.

To be fair, I don't know if they really and truly don't like ground turkey because we never even got to the no thank you bite conversation. As often happens around the 6pm hour, they both were cranky and tired and just wanting to say "no" because they can. Charlotte ended up eating a plain tortilla for dinner, and Sophia had a banana with peanut butter. Like I said, food not a battle I am willing to wage with them because I don't want them to have negative associations with eating. Issuing ultimatums and withholding treats only makes me mad and makes them cry and so makes everyone miserable. That is not what I want. I love food and I want them to love it too. But, if they don't have something healthy for dinner, they can't have "something not good for us" as Charlotte calls treats for desert.
I am still going to call this a busy family meal because Chris and I ate this dinner two nights in a row, and it's good. I only wish I had made it spicier!

Turkey and corn tacos

4-6 servings

 Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped (1 cup)

2 cloves garlic, minced in a garlic press

2 t. chili powder

1 t. ground cumin

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 lb lean ground turkey

½ C. tomato juice or V-8

½ C frozen corn kernels

Tortillas -flour or corn

1/4 head romaine thinly sliced or for more crunch substitute shredded carrot

2 ripe tomatoes, cored and diced

1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

tomato salsa

optional additional toppings: sour cream, guacamole or chopped avocado, chopped green onion or chives and hot sauce

 Directions

Put the oil, onions, garlic, and spices in a medium frying pan, season with salt and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the turkey, corn and tomato juice, adjust the heat so the mixture simmers and cook until the turkey is cooked through and the mixture thickens but is not dry, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl and cover.

 If you have a gas stove: using kitchen tongs, put a tortilla on an open flame and turn it every 4-5 seconds until tortilla is soft and brown in spots.

If you do not have a gas stove: wrap the tortillas in a kitchen towel and heat them in a microwave for 40-60 seconds.

Put the fixings and meat in individual bowls and the warmed tortillas on a plate. Serve, encouraging your diners to build their own tacos, with meat first, then cheese, tomatoes and any other additional toppings they like.

OR

Lightly oil a skillet and place a tortilla in it. Sprinkle ½ with cheese, layer the turkey meat on top of the cheese, and fold the other side of the tortilla over the fillings. Cook over medium-low heat, and flip after you see the cheese starting to melt- about 1.5 minutes. Cook on other side for another 1.5 minutes. Remove from heat, open slightly; add salsa and any other toppings you like and close tortilla back up.

In the winter I like to serve this with rice and black beans and in the summer, with a green salad. 

We are in the season of homegrown arugula, so both of our meals had arugula salad with ranch dressing.

We eat Mexican inspired meals often- at least 2-3 times a week. Japanese and Mexican are my favorite kinds of cuisine. I find Janapese food somewhat elusive when I try to make it at home, but I am very comfortable with preparing Mexican food.

I am going to NYC with some girlfriends for the weekend. I'll have lots of pictures to share with you when I return!

 

Chicken recipe

I lived in Dakar, Senegal for a couple of years when I was a teenager and one of the dishes I remember liking was chicken yassa . I've made this a couple of times and lately I am finding myself craving it. It's so incredibly flavorful. I made it again last night. It was a little too spicy for the kids, but to give them credit: they tried it. We also had salad, steamed broccoli and linguine with parmesean and butter.

One of the projects in projectland is to compile recipes that are healthy, not too involved or time consuming and if possible involve the kids in the preparation. The name of the project is "Busy family meals". I hope you enjoy the following take on Chicken yassa!

 

Poulet Yassa

(Senegalese chicken with onions and lemon)

 

Poulet yassa is a famous Senegalese dish that has become popular throughout Western Africa.

4 to 6 servings

 

Ingredients

Chicken, cut into serving pieces -- 2-3 pounds

Onions, thinly sliced -- 4-6

Green peppers, thinly sliced 4

Carrots, sliced into rounds- 6-8

Green olives- 15

Hot chile pepper, minced -- 1-3

Lemons, juice only -- 4

Dijon mustard (optional) -- 2 tablespoons

Peanut or vegetable oil -- 1/4 cup

Salt and pepper -- to season

Preparation

Add all the ingredients except for the oil, peppers, carrots and olives to a large ziplock bag and mix together. Refrigerate and marinate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Remove the chicken pieces, wipe dry, and grill, broil or sauté them until half done. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium flame. Remove the onions from the marinade and add them and the peppers to the pan. Sauté for 8-10 minutes until they are soft and starting to brown.

In a large baking dish, combine the marinade and the browned chicken pieces with the onions peppers, carrots, and green olives. Put in oven uncovered, and bake until chicken is cooked through and tender, about 20-30 minutes.

Adjust seasoning and serve with rice, fufu or couscous.