Best. Lunch. Ever.

Sometimes it has very little to do with cooking and everything to do with what you have on hand.  Sure, you could call this a melted cheese sandwich with a bit of preserves on top.  But if that's all you see, then what we have here is a failure to communicate.

Because this a melted cheese sandwich made from fresh Okracity cheese from Stoudts - hand made cheese with, yes, roasted okra dotted throughout it.  I bought it from the cheese lady at the Farmer's market yesterday.  This cheese sandwich is also made from my own bread and topped with cranberry chutney that I picked up when traveling in Maine this summer.


And THIS was my breakfast yesterday:

I'll admit, I'm a fan of the bread and cheese combo for the small meals.  What you see here, is a cup of coffee from local a coffee roaster, my bread (again) and a bit of locally produced goat cheese from Whole Foods.  Perfection.

I'm always making stuff like this for myself on the weekends - a little hummus on crackers with some minced parsley and squeeze of lemon.  Avocado slices on a toasted English Muffin with a sprinkling of sea salt, maybe a thin slice of tomato.  A little leftover Rao's Spaghetti sauce, straight from the jar with a bit of fresh basil straight from the yard, maybe a little cheese, or not, on top of toasted pita, thinly sliced bread, or just some water crackers.  Bread, goat cheese, pumpkin butter.  Sliced grapes, feta, and chopped haricot vert salad. Maybe with a can of chopped drained tuna thrown in...

Whatever you have.  Smith has gotten into the habit of waiting to see what I'll make myself, before he goes to his default, PB&J.  Sometimes he sticks with the standard (particularly if what I'm putting together involves olives), sometimes he takes what I've got, and adds his own touch.  The big dinners are important, sitting together at a table with your spouse and children, or your fiends is an important part of the day, but it is the small meals, often eaten alone, which make up the majority of our dining experiences.  And these, in my opinion, should be tasty, created from the foods you love.  Pure comfort even if it's five minutes in the middle of the busiest part of the day.

Pancakes (Dairy Free)

 

Poison

So for the past, oh, 3 years or so, our Emm has eaten a Van's Chocolate Chip Waffle for breakfast.  Van's Waffles are the best frozen waffles you can buy.  They toast up crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside and have an excellent vanilla taste.  And because I don't allow my kids to have syrup on their waffles on a school day, I gave her maple flavored yogurt to dip her waffle in.

If you read my previous post, you already know the disaster that created. 

 The third ingredient in Van's Chocolate Chip Waffles?  That's right, Non Fat Milk.  And yogurt.  She doesn't even like yogurt, I just made her eat it because I thought it would be better for her than maple syrup.  It's like when they were children, and they'd be all, Mommy my feet hurt, and I'd be like no they don't we just bought you new shoes, but they'd complain and complain and you take them to the shoe store and it turns out their little feet have grown two solid sizes and you've been jamming their feet into those now tiny shoes.  It was like that.  Only worse.  A lot worse.  Yeah, so I don't feel badly about that AT ALL.

We started giving her oatmeal for a quick breakfast, but on weekends we are serious fans of pancakes. (With a side of bacon, of course.)  And I always made pancakes with buttermilk and butter - but I wanted to see if I could make them dairy free - and still have them taste good.  I started out using vanilla flavored soy milk and the dreaded earth's best margarine (again, previous post for what I think about THAT stuff) - and the pancakes were passable - but didn't get that nice crust we liked that came about when you buttered the pan.  Plus, the soy milk, no matter how much you try to hide it with vanilla flavoring, to me just tastes off.  There is an aftertaste.  I know lots of people like it, and I'm certainly not hating on the whole soy industry - it's just - for us, well, ew.  Plus in all my breast cancer research, there is a link between soy and hormones and breast cancer, so the girls and I are probably better off not drinking it.  So we switched it out for vanilla flavored rice milk - and that was great. No weird after taste - but I was still left with, ok I'm just going to say it, flaccid pancakes.  Ew.

I don't know why it took me so long, but I finally switched the margarine out for good old canola oil, and LOW AND BEHOLD, the perfect pancakes.  Add to them some dairy free chocolate chips and they were amazing.  Plus, no stomach ache.  And the other family members loved them.  So happiness all around.

I like to mix the dry ingredients for my pancakes and just leave it sitting in a jar so that it takes me a fraction of the time to make breakfast in the morning.

To do this scoop 4 cups of all purpose flour, 3 TBLSP of baking powder, 2 tsp of baking soda,  a scant TLBS of sea or kosher salt and 2 TLBS of sugar into a large jar and put the lid on and shake it up.  If you want to get fancy, you can divide this mixture into two smaller jars and drop a vanilla bean into one and an orange peel in the other - which will gently flavor your pancakes.  Or get crazy and drop in a cinnamon stick.



Then, when you are ready to make your pancakes, break 1 large egg into a large bowl.  Add 1 cup of vanilla flavored rice milk and 1TLBS of canola or other lightly flavored oil (grapeseed is good, but olive oil is too strong) to the bowl and give it a good whisking.  




Then dump in 1 cup of the pancake mixture.  If you mixture is plain, add 1 tsp of vanilla before mixing it.  If it is already flavored, leave it be.  Play around - have fun - go nuts with the flavors.  Mix it up until it is only marginally lumpy.  If it looks too dry, add more rice milk.  I don't like my batter too dry.

While you are doing all this, you should be preheating your pan or griddle.  Just before you make you pancakes - add a swirl of canola oil (this is usually a couple of tblsps) - Cook the pancakes over medium heat until the bubbles burst, then flip 'em.  I find that if I cook them on to high a heat they burn quickly, probably because of the oil - but do be sure your pan is good and hot before you add the oil.  Then turn the heat down to medium when you add the batter.

We are big fans of adding chocolate chips.  Emm has become addicted to these Enjoy Life Mega Chunk chocolate chips which are dairy, wheat and nut free.  A handful of these sprinkled on top of the pancake while it cooks, before you flip it - takes it from darn good to spectacular.

       

Heavenly - dairy (and stomach ache) FREE

               

 

Goodbye Yellow Brick

  

Yes.  That yellow brick.  After 2 years of agonizing stomach aches, innumerable blood and skin tests, one endoscopy and a truck load of prescription strength Prilosec, we have our answer:  Em is allergic to dairy.

OH. MY. GOD.  I was kind of hoping for something simple, like corn.  It's not like corn is in everything... oh wait.  Actually, it is.

So, my heart is breaking.  Of course on the bright side, we'll all probably lose a few pounds here since I won't be adding tablespoons of butter to everything a la Paula Deen.  On the dark dark dark side: mashed potatoes.  Mashed potatoes are a staple in our house.  I know one can mash up potatoes with chicken stock (in fact, I usually boil my potatoes in a combination of chicken stock and and water), but to get them super super creamy you need butter.  A lot of butter.

Want to know what is NOT going to cut it for the mashed potatoes?  This:

This would be margarine.  I don't care that it's in gold packaging, I don't care that it is organic margarine (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) it's margarine and it sucks.

Years ago, in the late 70's when my parents and the parents of everyone else I knew was on a heart-healthy-health-food kick and consuming enormous amounts of margarine (...if you think it's butter but it's not...) - I remember my grandfather taking a stand.  Margarine was simply not allowed in his house.  My grandmother would plead, "But, Jimmy, our arteries..." and my grandfather would have none of it.  "That stuff'll kill you," he said plainly.  This was a man who salted his cantaloupe half each morning.  Who drank a Co-Cola every day, and a cocktail every night.  Sure he only lived briefly into his seventies, but he LIVED.  You know?  I miss that guy.

So, margarine isn't in the genes.  And I think olive and other expeller pressed oils are fine - and can be used in a lot of things in place of butter (see my next post which will be on truly yummy dairy free pancakes)  but - oh - dear - the mashed potatoes.

No recipe in this post, just mourning here.  Just mourning...

Sauteed Pork With Brussel Sprouts Leeks and Apples, Plus, Creamy Polenta

OK - here's the picture of my latest creation.  Right off the bat I want to say that my daughter Mads took a much more appetizing picture - but I'm a spaz and I couldn't find the thingy to connect to the camera and the laptop to upload the pictures so I had to upload the ones I took with my phone.  Hopefully, you get the idea that this was delicious and not at all slimy.

This was really fun to create.  It started with Ina Garten's recipe for creamy polenta found on page 182 of her book, How Easy Is That? - I was thumbing through it yesterday looking for ideas for meals this week before heading out to the grocery store.  I love polenta - but no one else in my family likes it as much as I do - still every now and then I just need to make something I like, right?  Polenta is pure comfort food.  I think it's because I spent a lot of time in Kentucky in the summers and my cousin Martha was fan of grits back then.  Plain grits with melted butter.  I remember trying them for the first time in my Aunt's kitchen.  She had that crazy green and white trellis wall paper in her breakfast room that a lot of people had in the '70s.  And she had this beautiful chandelier over the breakfast table that was white and shaped like vines and flowers.  Martha made the grits for me, and at first I thought they were tasteless.  And gritty.  (Hence, grits - probably - right?) But then that butter melted in, and I added more salt, and I was hooked.  I cannot pass up grits if it is on a menu.  Nor can I pass up grit's Italian cousin - cheesey, creamy Polenta.  Fuggeddaboutit.  The best.  

Then I had this idea that the pork sirloin I'd bought would be tasty with the polenta - AND I had this thought that my sage outside - sitting pretty on my deck was getting a bit large and could do with a trim.  And it dawned on me that those things would taste nicely together - polenta, sage, pork...  

Of course when I went to make the grits polenta, I did not have most of the ingredients - despite going to the grocery store less than an hour before firing up the stove.  (see "spaz" in the 1st paragraph)  Ina calls for chicken stock.  I had beef stock.  Ina calls for parmesan - I had nought but a rind, dammit.  But I always have goat cheese.  And of course, when I was at Whole Foods, I intended to pick up some sort of vegetable to go with the pork and polenta but, as usual, I got distracted by something shiny and forgot - So, did what I always do and winged it.  Had about a 1/4 bag of frozen Brussels Sprouts and a 1/4 bag of leeks in the freezer - which I threw in after cooking the pork.  Wanted to make a wine sauce to deglaze the pan - no wine - only beer.  Used that.  Then I thought it looked like it needed plumping up, so I added the apple and it was a home run.

Sauteed Pork, With Leeks, Apples and Brussels Sprouts over Creamy Polenta

For the Polenta: 

(I made this to serve 4 people, three of whom claimed they didn't like polenta all that much - this recipe is easily doubled. Doubled it should serve 4-6)

1/4 cup olive or canola oil

10 or so whole sage leaves

2 Cups of Beef Broth (low sodium in you have it - you can also use chicken stock, homemade or not - you know me, I'm all about using what you have)

1 minced garlic clove 

4 fresh sage leaves

1 cup of polenta or stone ground grits

Kosher salt to taste (I think I used a tsp & 1/2 of it)

Freshly ground pepper to taste (probably about 1/2 a tsp - I love pepper)

1/4 cup of creme fraiche - (I can't figure out how to make that look French - but you know what I'm talking about) - or you can use sour cream - but creme fraiche is better - 

1/4 of goat cheese (instead of the parmesan - !  And better!  Who doesn't love goat cheese, right Ina?)

First, heat the olive oil until it is very hot, and drop your sage leaves in a few at a time until they are crispy.  Take them out and let them drain on a paper towel.  Repeat until all the sage leaves are crispy. Set this aside.  

In a medium sized pot heat the broth, garlic and sage leaves until the broth has hit a rolling boil.  Slowly, whisking constantly, add the polenta and continue to whisk until it is all absorbed.  Switch your stirring implement to a spoon and keep stirring until the broth is absorbed and the polenta is thick.  Take your polenta off the heat and whisk in the creme fraiche and the goat cheese.  Adjust your seasonings.  My seasonings were a bit salty because my beef broth was NOT low sodium, so I had to add more creme fraiche until it tasted right.  This is never a bad thing.  More creme fraiche is only ever a good thing.  

For the Pork:  

4 bonless sirloins of Pork cut into 1/4 inch strips. ( I have to confess, I don't know how much pork I had - I threw the package away before I wrote it down.  Suffice it to say, I had 2 packs of 2 sirloin cuts of pork - maybe a lb all together? I don't know (refer back to "spaz"))

1/8 cup or so of olive oil

2 TBLSP of fresh sage, minced

1 large apple, cored and cubed

1 1/2 cups frozen Brussels Sprouts 

1/2 cup frozen leeks (you can get these at Trader Joes!  Yay!)

1/4 cup beer (I used a darkish Mexican style beer - but something more stoudt-ish would be good too)

1 TBSLP butter - I used my salted Kerry Gold - because that's all I had (What DID I buy at Whole Foods yesterday, you must be asking yourself, and the answer is, I don't know.  Sigh.)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a sautee pan or cast iron skillet until it shimmers.  Add the pork in batches and sautee it until it is lightly browned - just about 3-4 min a batch.  Take it out of the oil and let it sit - repeat until all the pork is cooked.  Add the frozen leeks and brussels sprouts (I didn't even bother to try and defrost them - if you have fresh ones of these things, you might need to pre-cook the sprouts a minute in a pot of boiling water or a microwave because they'll never cook here otherwise - fresh leeks you can just chop and throw in) - add the beer and scrape up all the browned bits from the pork.  When the leeks are nice and wilty and the sprouts are pretty much defrosted in the middle, add the apples to the mix, then return the pork and any of the accumulated juices to the pot.  Stir all this around until the pork is heated through - about 5 or so minutes - take one of your pieces out to check it - then stir in the butter and add salt and pepper to taste.  With a slotted spoon, remove the pork and sprouts, but try to leave some apple chunks behind.  Let your sauce simmer, and smash the bits of apple right in to thicken it.  

Serve the pork over the polenta - Remember that sage you fried?  Pour a bit of the oil over each serving and crumble your fried sage leaves on top.  

The sad thing is that I made the polenta fully expecting to have leftovers for lunch today - and darn my family - nothing is left.  (insert frowny face here.)

I believe this counts as a full meal because it included starch, protein and vegetable - even the dairy - all on one plate - which should make Mrs. Obama very happy.  OH - one thing we DID buy at Whole Foods - a very delicious strawberry rhubarb pie, which we ate for dessert.  Mmmmmm.

LET THEM EAT CAKE! - Oops - wrong revolution, Still: CAKE!

Red Velvet.  I'm still perfecting it - so I'm not going to put the recipe up yet, but I couldn't possibly let a great title like that slip through my fingers.

Here she is - a grand old Lady:

My cake decorating skills leave a lot to be desired, I know.  Usually I'm a little better, but I was rushed last night because the girls had their own plans for fireworks and the like and I was trying to get at least one daughter (and her friend) to eat a hamburger so I wouldn't have to receive the, "Mom, I've got a bad headache can you pick me up NOW," call.  I hate that call - because if they'd only listened to me and had a little food...

Who am I kidding?  They don't listen to me.  They're 12 and 14.  In ten years they might be ready to listen to me but until then I do my best to speak through their father (for whom they still have a bit of respect.)

We had fun this Fourth.  Mads, her dad and I went to the usual parade - with the ooompa loompa band:

they old timey cars:

Plus your usual panoply of kids on bikes, floats made by parents featuring their infants, politicians (some more smarmy and blown dry than others) - police cars and fire trucks.  The guy on stilts was there, as he is every year as well as the creepy, yet still somehow cool horse drawn hearse from the historic grave yard that borders our town.  This is the very same hearse used in the 1800s to carry those who could afford it to their eternal resting places:

See what I did here - used my camera+ to make it LOOK old timey

even though I took these pictures yesterday- because I'm clever that way.  (Love those horses)

Any way - even though I'm still working on my red velvet cake recipe (because frankly the one above was a bit dry) - I'll give you the method - (because everyone has this recipe) - for creating my awesome cream cheese frosting with which I frosted my July 4 cake:

Super Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting:

3 cups of powdered sugar

2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter room temp

tsp of good vanilla (the best you can afford)

pinch of salt (just regular old table salt, not sea salt)

1 package of cream cheese - room temp as well - chopped up into bits about a table spoon in size

Sift the powered sugar.  Sift it again.  And just to be on the safe side, sift it one more time.  The main thing here is no lumps.  At all.  I mean it.  If you see a lump sift it.  Put your butter in a standing mixer if you have one - although a hand held is fine, it's just more boring because you have to whip the heck out of the butter - you just leave it in the bottom of the mixer getting all whipped up by the mixer until it's light and incredibly fluffy - then add the sugar about a cup at a time - letting it get all whipped into the butter before adding more.  When all the sugar is whipped add the vanilla and pinch of sugar then add the cream cheese a block at a time until it is all incorporated and very very whipped.  

Every time I write the word whipped I keep thinking that there's got to be a joke in there somehow involving Paris Hilton or a Kardashian - but I can't do it because I'm not a guy.  

Anyway - when all your cream cheese is incorporated and, well, whipped, you will have the lightest most yummy cream cheese frosting ever.  And if you want to make it chocolate, just swap out 1/2 cup of cocoa powder for 1/2 cup of sugar and sift, sift, sift and mix like mad.  People will love it.  Even if your  cake is a little dry.  

Happy 4th. Yay US.