It's a cloudy, rainy, puddle-splashing kind of day here.  We'd go out to puddle-splash, but it's so cozy inside with homemade oatmeal bread and candles that we don't want to leave.  Friends came over for the morning, so I had a short visit with my friend while the children played together without any conflict.  Sort-of a fantasy day.

Here's the recipe for the soup I made for lunch (adapted from Simply in Season.)

Zucchini Garden Chowder

Melt 2 tbsp butter in soup pot

Chop 2 medium zucchini (or 1 ginormous yellow squash), 1 onion, 1 tbsp fresh parsley, and 1 tbsp fresh basil.  Saute in the butter until tender.

Add 1/3 cup flour to pot and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.  Then add salt and pepper, 1 tsp lemon juice, and 3 cups of water or broth.  Stir until thick and bubbly.  Puree with a hand blender.

Add 1 cup milk and 2 cups corn kernels.  Stir.  Garnish with grated cheese.

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The children all ate it with minimal complaints.  I have changed the meal rules here: no more Mrs. Dr. Nice Guy.  We used to allow children to try Courtesy Bites (1 bite for each year of age) and then if they didn't want what was served, they could have a PB & J sandwich.  But that morphed into whining and complaining through the Rude Bites, then because J & O don't eat PB & J, I was making another dinner... which progressed into my making two dinners to begin with. Consequently, my children eat nothing but hotdogs, chicken nuggets, and quesdillas.

STOP THE MADNESS!

Now I'm making what's for dinner (or lunch), and that's what's served.  Have Courtesy Bites (or not) but don't complain, and there are no other options.  Happily, we have no food allergies here, so I don't have that challenge.

Anyway, I made the soup today.  Pureeing it made corn the only identifiable vegetable, and they all ate it.  Hopefully my new resolve with last long enough for it to become a habit.

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We received our first farm box this week (after a very slow, cool spring): 4 heads of lettuce, a pint of English shelling peas, 4 kohlrabi, and 6 beautiful onions.  So I bring you:

Kohl-Slaw

3 small-to-middlin' kohlrabi, peeled and diced

1 gala apple, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

a handful (maybe 2) of raisins

(if you like cabbage, add a cup of finely shredded cabbage.  we don't, so I didn't)

Mix the solids, then pour over 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/4 cup vinegar (I used red wind vinegar). Let sit in fridge until cool and the marinate is absorbing. 

I also made Lemon Drop scones from Terry Blonder Gohlson's 1000 Low-Fat Recipes.  We gobbled them up quickly.  Yum.

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Last night's dinner was all of my favorites... and because no one else loved it quite as much as I did, there were lots of leftovers for me today!

Jerusalem Lentil Soup (thanks to Mary Fabrikant)

• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 stick butter (or 1/8 cup olive oil)
• 1 1/4 cup red lentils, rinsed thoroughly
• 5 cups beef broth  (I use whatever kind I have handy)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• salt & pepper
• Lemon Wedges

Saute the onion in the butter until soft.  Add the drained lentils and stir until they are glazed with the oil.  Add the stock and spices and simmer (uncovered) until the lentils have almost disintegrated (about 45 minutes).  Remove from heat and cool.  Puree with an immersion blender until smooth.  Adjust seasoning.  Serve with lemon wedges.  (This soup freezes well, just don't add the lemon until it's served.)

Oatmeal Bread (from More with Less, p. 60)

Dissolve 1 tbsp yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.

In a large bowl mix:

• 1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp butter

Pour 2 cups boiling water over oat/flour mixture.  Mix well and cool to room temp.  When cool, add yeast mixture and 5 cups all-purpose flour.  Mix well and knead for 5 minutes.  Let rise in oiled bowl for 45-60 minutes (until doubled.)  Then punch down, shape into two loaves and place in greased loaf pans.  Rise until they reach the top of the pans.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.  To keep tops soft, brush with butter when you take them out of the oven.

Whole Beet Skillet (from Simply in Season, p. 254)

Cut greens off 4-6 beets, leaving 1 inch of stems on tops.  Wash and put in a deep saucepan.  Cover with water and boil the beets about 30-40 minutes (until a fork pierces them easily.)

Meanwhile, cut stems off leaves.  Cut stems into 1 inch pieces and chop leaves.  (Keep them separate.)

When beats are done, cool in cold water.  Saute stems in 1 tbsp butter until softening (about 5 minutes).  Add leaves and cook until wilted (2-3 minutes.)  Peel beets, slice them and add them to the skillet. 

Add 1-2 tsp honey, 1-2 tsp of lemon juice, and 1-2 tsp diced, peeled, fresh ginger to skillet.  Mix well and serve.

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We have been members of several CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) farms-- about which I can share more later, if you'd like-- over the years.  One blessing of that has been learning to eat seasonally, when the food is fresh.  (There are many benefits of eating that way: healthier food, while the vitamins are still fresh; less cost to transport food from far-away places with different growing seasons, and lower storage costs; to name a few.)

One fabulous and economical meal a friend made for us was Summer Grilled Sandwiches.  We made it tonight, and I thought I'd share how we did it:

I salted eggplant slices (to drain out the bitter juices) for 2 hours, then marinated them with slived patty-pan squash slices, bell pepper, onions, and portabello mushrooms (all right, these weren't fresh or locally grown, but are so yummy...) for several hours.

Marinade: equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar (1/2 cup each, approx) with crushed garlic and handy fresh herbs (I think I used parsley and marjoram).

Grill the veges (or broil them) until tender-- 30 minutes or so.

We made bread with the kids and sliced it, then spread just a touch of pesto on it, and piled on the grilled vegetables and a slive of mozerella.

Even my two year old ate the eggplant. I wish I could say the same for my six year old!

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I have all sorts of chicken soup "recipes"-- including just the chicken carcass in the pot of hot water until the meat is off, then adding vegetables.  (I love that.)

But here I want to share my college roommate Irene's easy chicken soup recipe, which my children also love (and love to make themselves.)

Irene's Chinese Chicken Soup

2 cups chicken stock (or 1 14 oz can)

1 can cream style corn

1 egg, beaten

1 can chicken pieces (or 2 cups cooked chicken leftover)

+/- leftover (cooked) noodles or rice

Bring the broth and corn to a boil.  When it is boiling, pour the egg in slowly, stirring all the while until it has the consistency of the egg in Chinese egg-drop soup.  Then add in the chicken, and if desired, the cooked noodles or rice.

My kiddos (or kiddoes?) have been sick this week, so we coddled ourselves with a pot of it.

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1 quart whole milk

1 quart  2% milk

½ cup sugar (or less to taste)

1 to 2  packets of unflavored gelatin (the more gelatin you use, the firmer it will be)

Mix all ingredients well and microwave until scalded (when you can smell the milk but it’s not yet boiling.  This kills the bacteria that would interfere with the cultures.)

Cool it (on the counter) to 110-120¢ª F.

Then add in ¼ cup of last week’s (or 2 days’ ago’s) yogurt and 2 tsp (or more) vanilla.  Mix very well (2-3 minutes with a hand whisk.)

Pour the mixture into the container you want to store it in—we have half-gallon containers made for our yogurt-heater (Yogourmet ®) but sometimes I put it in two 1-quart canning jars instead.  Then “culture” it by keeping it at 110-115¢ª F for 3 ½ to 4 hours.  The longer it cultures, the thicker (and more tart) it will be.  The Yogourmet ® keeps it at 115% and takes up less room on the counter than my crockpot.  However, because I make a gallon at a time (usually) I put it in the oven on my “Warm” setting, at 115¢ª F, for 3 hours and 45 minutes.  It will still be liquid at this point, but the next morning it is much firmer.

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Many of my favorite recipes come from a cookbook by Terry Blonder Gohlson, called 1000 Low Fat Recipes.  My friend Jerusha gave it to me and lovingly marked her favorite recipes, and I have given it to my friend Sharon with my own favorites marked.

We made Pineapple Barbecue Chicken last night—very easy, fast and good, and the chicken was moist and tender.

1 20 oz can of pineapple

2 ¼ lbs chicken in pieces (I actually used breast “tenders,” whatever that means)

1 cup barbecue sauce

Combine pineapple and sauce in baking dish.  Place chicken into the sauce in a the dish (in a single layer) and bake at 375.  Thighs take approx 45 min, breasts about 30 minutes.

We serve it over lots of rice.  I made a salad with strawberries and mushrooms and her Poppyseed Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.  Mmmmm.  And we had some chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  It felt like a feast, and it took me about 15 minutes total.  We even had leftovers to share with a neighbor.

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We love chocolate chip cookies around here, but we can't make a lot at one time, or I end up being the "bad guy" every five minutes, having to tell them that they can't have cookies right now.

Our solution has been to make a (single or double) batch of dough, and then to form it into balls.  We bake 10 or so the first day and freeze the rest on a cookie sheet.  Once they're frozen, we put them in a gallon bag and take them out, however many we want to eat at a time, to bake. 

I know it's not an energy efficient way to make cookies, but we eat them in smaller quantities this way, and enjoy them more often.

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Finally, success.

For my little crockpot, the "rule of 3" seems to apply.

3 cups milk: 1 cup steel cut oats

Cook for 3 hours (I think my little crockpot runs only on high.) 

I added a dollop of butter and a lot cinnamon (and a touch of brown sugar) and even my daughter ate it.  Mmmm.

No more oatmeal postings, I promise.

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The oats were burned around the edges.  More water?  Less cooking time?  (I put it on for 6 hours).  Help me, oat experts!

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I'm not sure why I care so much about oatmeal.  It was not a food we ate growing up, and when I first started eating it (in college) I ate only those instant packages with more sugar than oats in them.  I didn't like those so much, but something in me continues to long for oats.  Cooked slow.  In milk, with yogurt and fruit on top.

I had gotten pretty good at making it in the morning-- quick oats, then old fashioned oats as I gained confidence-- but there was something missing.  I still Wanted More.  I searched my favorite websites for steel cut oat recipes... they all said Crock Pot.  Well, since my 4 quart slow cooker broke, I have been cooking in a ginormous crockpot I can put a whole chicken into.  So for my own measly self, it would be oatmeal overkill.

My husband said, "Buy a little crockpot-- the kind to cook dips in."  I started to search Craig's List for a used crockpot.  He said, "That's crazy. I bet they're $8 at Target.  Just go buy one."  But buying a crockpot just to cook oatmeal in-- and oatmeal only I would eat-- seemed like such a waste.

Then one day, I just HAPPENED to stroll down the crock pot aisle at Target, and low and behold, the little dip-cooker-aka-oatmeal-slow-cookers WERE only $8.99.  So I bought one.  And since then, I have been having oatmeal mishap after mishap.  First, I discovered that cooking it all night (there's no timer setting on the baby crock pot-- I guess the timers grow on them as they get big) burns the oats.  Yuck.  The next time, I put the wrong ratio of oats to water.  Crunchy.  The third time, I turned it on very late at night and got up very early to eat -- regular oats I had mistakenly put into the pot instead of steel cut oats.  Burned again.

Tonight I put steel cut oats, milk (in a 1:3 ratio), dried fruit, a little butter, and a dollop of brown sugar in the pot.  And I put the baby slow cooker on my timer (the kind I put my lights on when I go away) to cook from midnight to six.  I live in hope.

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