Chopped Salad, American-style!

This salad dates back aways, but while it may be historic, it is really delicious. If you don't have the time or interest in this dressing, we have substituted a Honey-Lemon yogurt dressing.

Ingredients:

• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved or 1 or 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 1 cucumber, diced
• 2 Romaine lettuces, or 4 little Boston or butter lettuces, sliced thin
• 1 cup of black olives, sliced thin
• 1 cup baby carrots, sliced thin
• 1 cup celery, sliced thin
• 1 handfuls of mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, chives, mint)
• 2 teaspoons English mustard
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Steps:

1. Wash the salad ingredients and drain, then get a large chopping board and a chef’s knife, and get ready to chop!
2. It is important to dice the tomatoes, pepper, cucumber into 1/2 inch pieces, as this will help to bind with the dressing when you come back to mix it in.
3. With the greens, just make sure you chop them all into 1/2 inch strips.
4. Make a well in the center of the veggies.
5. Add the mustard, vinegar, and oil - mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Now fuss with the flavor, remember you don't get time to let this stand, it must be flavorful from the get-go.
6. Toss the salad well and bring to the table to a choruses of "Hurrahs".

Serves 6.

Perfect Custard

This is a great base custard, especially for trifle. Hold those egg whites for another day (angel food cake, anyone?).

Ingredients

• 3 cups whole milk
• 8 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Steps

1. Heat milk in a 2 1/2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until hot but not boiling.
2. While milk heats, whisk together yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a heatproof bowl until smooth.
3. Add 1 cup hot milk to yolk mixture in a stream, whisking, then add remaining milk, whisking constantly. Transfer mixture to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and registers 170°F on thermometer, 6 to 10 minutes (do not boil).
4. Immediately force custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl and stir in butter and vanilla.
5. Chill custard, its surface covered with wax paper, until cold and thickened, at least 3 hours.

Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes

So, the little ones asked for BFD (breakfast-for-dinner) and they love pancakes above all else (much to my waffle-philia). Daughter #2 "Sweet-Tooth" said, "Oh, what about... chocolate chip pancakes?"

With buttermilk in the fridge for a couple of recipes later this week, this seemed like a logical choice for light, fluffy pancakes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour (mix-n-match white and wheat flours)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp oil or melted butter
• 1 cup of mini chocolate chips

Steps

1. Heat a griddle at 375 F.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients thoroughly.
3. Make a well in the dry stuff and crack the eggs. Scramble the eggs. Slowly add the milks and the oil. Mix until just moistened (like brownie batter).
4. Finally add the chips and just mix through.

Sausage Apple Pie

I saw this recipe in a related form over at Simply Recipes (see recipe link below). That version has a lot more cheese (3 cups more!) and a more "set" consistency. We were looking for a recipe to use up the last of a bag of Granny Smiths, then we used them up making Apple Crisp.

But I had the idea in my mind. I searched for something that was savory, but not "breakfast-y". I made this one up based on what we had - but there are some great versions out there.

• Amy's Apple Sausage Pie (many variants, but "apple pie filling"? Nope.)
• Apple and Sausage Pie from Simply Recipes (cheese-crazy)
• Sausage and Apple Pie in a Cheddar Cheese Crust from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

• 1 lb of sausage (pork, chicken, or turkey; ground or in casing)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3-5 apples (Granny Smith or Empire), sliced well
• 3/4 cup of good applesauce (if storebought, add cinnamon and nutmeg)
• 1/4 cup of cheese (feta, extra sharp cheddar, nothing mild)

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Slice or remove the sausage from the casing and saute till browned. Remove the sausage from the pan.
3. Reserve the juices and saute onions and garlic for 5 minutes. Remove and keep on reserving the juices!
4. Next comes the apple - if you use 3 apples, bulk it out with some potatoes (I had a leftover baked potato, I sliced it thin).
5. I mixed the sausage, onion/garlic, applesauce and apple/potato together. Add in cheese at this point. Taste it, add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Drape the pie crust over a 9-inch pie pan.
7. Place the filling inside the crust and "tamp down".
8. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 F.

Serves 6.

Broccoli Chicken Casserole

We were looking for a solid, non-carbo heavy casserole. (Carol informs me that she has been telling me for years about casseroles that fit this bill, but apparently I just now have caught on!).

This is a pretty standard casserole with some simple variations - thighs instead of breasts for some added flavor, simmering in broth not water, Progresso instead of Campbell's, and since that is not condensed we add some stuffing to soak up some of the soup and make the final casserole less watery.

Ingredients

• 1 lb of chicken (4 breast halves or 4 thighs)
• 2 pounds of broccoli florets, steamed
• 1 (18 ounce) can Progresso cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup dry stuffing mix
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup of butter

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Boil chicken until tender in broth. Then shred or cut into bite size pieces.
3. Meanwhile, steam broccoli until crisp but tender.
4. In a small bowl mix together the soup, stuffing and mayonnaise. Set aside.
5. In a 9x13 inch baking dish layer the chicken, broccoli, and soup mixture.
6. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.
7. In the last 10 minutes, saute 1 cup of breadcrumbs in 1/4 cup of butter.
8. Top the casserole with breadcrumbs and bake for 10 minutes more.

Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup

We both have a strong memory of comfort food built around cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. And after cold, windy days like today (our annual Farm Open House, 45 F in a gusty 20 mph wind), we need a bit of super-warm comfort.

The trick with this recipe is not to fall back on making Campbell's instead. It does take about 30 minutes of simmering, but it is worth it. We use our own quarts of tomato puree from the year before. The tomatoes are all gone by then, but I have 14 oz cans of Muir Glen diced tomatoes handy to give it some texture.

The 30 minute simmering time is to allow the basil time to get well-mixed.

And finally, we don't buy cream this way (unless it is going into whipped cream). So I used 1/2 cup of whole milk - not from the store which may have some cream removed, but absolutely fresh off the udder, whole goat milk. The cream there is part of the allure of the texture and gives a nice floor to the sweet tomato flavor.

"Tastes like summer."

Ingredients

• 1 quart of tomato puree, hopefully your own
• 4 medium sized tomatoes, diced OR 14 oz canned diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp of dried basil OR 10-15 fresh basil leaves (best)
• 1 broth cube (I used Herb-Ox vegetable bouillon cubes)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream OR 1/2 cup whole milk w/ cream

Steps

1. Add the quart of puree, the diced tomatoes, broth cube and the basil to a medium sized pot. Bring to a fast simmer then down to a low simmer. Hold there for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Once the 30 minutes are up, turn off the heat and stir in the cream/whole milk and serve immediately hot.
3. While the soup is simmering, you might as well start making grilled cheese sandwiches!

Serves 4.

Vietnamese Beef Pho

Vietnamese Pho is pretty much "awesome broth that has lots of crunchy, yummy add-ons." Obviously then, the broth makes the soup. There are two schools of thought here: make a slow cooked beef broth out of good knuckles, oxtail, or other bones plus a mix of almost "garam masala" type spices. You can see a discussion of those spices at Steamy Kitchen's version of Pho.

It really benefits from remembering that this is "jumped up street food" and so our recipe is fairly flexible based on what is in the fridge that needs to get used super-fast. At its core, the Pho needs a solid beef-y broth, sprouts, beef, and something from the onion family (leeks, onion, scallions, etc). Top with lime juice and cilantro/basil and we are ready.

Even Bri will eat this soup.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of broth from cubes
  
• 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice
• 1/3 cup of an Oriental sauce (stir-fry sauce, plum sauce, even gravy!)
• 1 inch of grated ginger root
• 1 dash of red pepper flakes
• 1 cup of sliced onion family (leek, onion, or scallions)
• 1 cup of carrots sliced
• 1 lb of flank steak, chilled then sliced very thin against the grain
• 8-10 oz of rice noodles
• 2 cups of sprouts
• 1/2 cup of cilantro, diced

Steps:

1. In a large pot, heat the broth water to high simmer.
2. Add sauces, ginger and red pepper. Stir well and simmer until uniform.
3. Add onion, carrots, steak and cook for 20 minutes.
4. Add rice noodles and cook 6-8 minutes (read package carefully).
5. When the noodles are done, serve immediately by ladling into bowls. Top with sprouts, cilantro (basil is also good). Make sure there is more hoisin sauce and hot pepper sauce available on the table.