Category: Recipes

Recipes I use

Turkey Tracks: Taxes and Sons’ Visit

Turkey Tracks:  February 22, 2018

Taxes and Sons’ Visit

The taxes are done!  The taxes are done!

Whoo Hoo!

I’ll drop off the package tomorrow to the tax preparer.

And I’ve had a lovely visit from my TWO sons, up from Charleston, SC, for a long weekend visit.  Do you know how rare it is for a mother to have visits TOGETHER from sons, both of whom have intense lives at home and work.  I so enjoyed this rare gift–facilitated by my wonderful DILs and my seven grand kiddos.

Both sons love lamb, so I cooked lamb shanks one night for them, with smashed Yukon Gold potatoes, roasted beets. and roasted Brussel Sprouts.  Yummo!  My secret for tender braised meat is my covered Creuset pot.  The cooking liquid included defrosted Hope’s Edge CSA tomatoes from last summer–smashed through a sieve–and local leeks and onions and my garlic.

It was a delicious meal!  And a delicious visit with those special, special people.

Turkey Tracks: Tea, the antidote to winter’s blues – By Tom Seymour

Turkey Tracks:  January 23, 2018

Tea, TheAntidote to Winter’s Blues

Tom Seymour

This article appeared in our local paper, The Camden Herald.

I was so intrigued because I have wanted to make a tea with fir “leaves,” but have not slowed down to find out which ones to use and how.  I bought some tea bags some years back and loved the flavor of the fir tea.  But who knew it also had so many vitamins and other goodies.

I dry mint leaves from my garden every year and make tea with those.  Hmmmm. What about mixing them?  I have a white pine just steps from one of my doors.

 

via Tea, the antidote to winter’s blues – By Tom Seymour – Rockland – Camden – Knox – Courier-Gazette – Camden Herald

Turkey Tracks: Comfort Food: Pad Thai Noodle Soup

Turkey Tracks:  December 22, 2017

Comfort Food:  Pad Thai Noodle Soup

Ah yes!

Comfort food on a cold night in Maine is…a treat.

Rice noodles are a special treat for me, and I keep various kinds on hand.  They are always good as a base for putting leftovers on top.

This QUICK soup uses Pad Thai noodles; skinless, boneless chicken breasts; and some veggies (celery, local carrots, thawed CSA Hope’s Edge greens blanched last summer, Hope’s Edge onions, yellow pepper, my garden garlic).  I also drizzled in some sesame oil as this soup is very low-fat, and I know it won’t hold me if I don’t add more fat to it.  Thus I also put a good amount of real cream in my dessert coffee.  Add salt to taste–or soy sauce, which you can eat and I cannot.  And grated ginger would be a nice addition as well, now that I think about it.

Dessert is thawed local organic wild blueberries sourced by Hope’s Edge and raspberries from my garden,  and a drizzle of local real maple syrup.  Just put berries in a bowl, drizzle over the maple syrup and let the bowl sit on the counter until thawed–about an hour.

It’s dead easy, this soup.  And as it cooks fast, I don’t have to worry about histamine levels.

First put the noodles in cold water in a large bowl to soften, which will take at least 20 minutes.  Read package directions, as some rice noodles soften in hot water.

Cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces.  Put some water (about 3 inches deep) in a wide pan and start heating it.  You don’t want too much water as it will water down everything.

Throw in the chicken.  Throw in the veggies.  You might have to skim the top of the soup at this point.  Add salt or soy sauce.  Add any herbs you want.  When the veggies are close to soft, drain and noodles and add them to the broth.  Cook until the noodles are soft and white–about 3 to 5 minutes.

Scoop ingredients into a large bowl.  Tongs help with the noodles and a big ladle helps with the goodies and the broth.

Let the rest of the soup cool thoroughly and refrigerate.  Heat leftovers gently as the noodles will start breaking apart easily now.

ENJOY!

Turkey Tracks: Sunday Night Dinner

Turkey Tracks:  December 18, 2017

Sunday Night Dinner

Some of you know that I grew some Blue Hubbard squashes this summer.

It was a riot.  The vines went EVERYWHERE.

Remember this picture from an earlier post?

I stored them in the garage until it go too cold.  Squashes don’t like cold. Then they came inside to wait to be cooked.  I think there is something that happens if you let the hearty winter squashes “sugar off” a bit.   Remember that Delicata’s, though, need to be eaten more quickly.  They don’t keep as well.

I really love the New England winter squashes.  I didn’t grow up with any of them because we lived in the south, for the most part, and these winter squashes really need a New England summer to develop their distinct flavors.  One of my favorites is this Blue Hubbard squash.  It’s delicious!!!  And a great keeper.  And you can get a lot of squash meat for the freezer from one of these BIG squashes if you halve them and roast them and scoop out the flesh and freeze it.  I love it mixed with cream, maple syrup, fall spices, and mixed with a blender until smooth.  A tiny bit of work gives you an asset to pull from your freezer–just thaw and mix in the other goodies.

Because of the summer drought, some of my squash did not get that big.  Were they still good I wondered?  And could I roast the flesh?  The answer, after last night’s Sunday dinner, is YES and YES!

I cut one of the small ones in half, seeded it, and cut it into slices for roasting–with garlic and fresh rosemary as Betsy Maislen and I did this past summer.

I cut off the rind and tossed the chunks in olive oil in a pan:

I come from the school that there is no such thing as too much garlic, as you can see above.  I grew this garlic and the rosemary.  I sprinkled rock sea salt over the mixture and cooked it at 350 for about 45 or so minutes.  Of course you could roast these with other ingredients.  Hmmmm.  Would they be food with maple syrup and cranberries?  Or with drizzles of orange and honey and basil preserved from your garden?

Before the first hard freeze, I cut all the rosemary and wrapped it in parchment paper and put it in one of the crisper bins in the refrigerator.  Now, almost two months later, it is still viable:

I had two chicken breasts.  Can I rant and say that chicken breasts today are SO BIG that they are obscene.  No way are ONE of these a proper serving for one person.  I layered broccoli and onion into the pan and used some Penzey’s herbs over everything.  I thought perhaps there was enough garlic already in this meal even for me.

This pan went into the oven alongside the squash.

I took out the veggies and let the meat “pop” for about 6 or 7 minutes with added temperature and the convection oven going.

The veggies look delicious and WERE.  I stored the extras for dinner tomorrow night and reserved these for tonight.

So, here’s my Sunday night dinner.  I added half of an organic Honey Crisp apple chunked up for dessert and a dessert cup of coffee and took everything downstairs to watch more of season 9 of PROJECT RUNWAY.  I seem to be hoarding the last two episodes of THE CROWN.

 

Turkey Tracks: Drying Mint

November 20, 2017

Drying Mint

I’ve had my Reynolds, Georgia, grandmother’s mint in my garden for nearly 50 years now–through moves to three different houses.

I almost lost it a few years back here in Maine, but put it in three different places in my garden and when it began to come back, gifted it to a neighbor for extra safe keeping.  It is now close to running amok, as mint will do.  But I love to walk by it and pinch off a piece and crush it in my hands.  In places I ruthlessly mow it down and enjoy the heavenly mint smell wafting across the yard.

I particularly like throwing some leaves into a stir fry.  It just adds a very interesting layer of flavor.

So, this year I’ve tried drying it, stripping off the dried leaves, and stuffing them into glass jars.

High end mint teas are nothing more than dried mint leaves and sell for $6 or so a box of 20 packets!!!!

The mint I’ve dried is working find in stir fries–not like the fresh, but an interesting taste layer nevertheless.

To dry, just cut some stems and stick them into a kitchen glass for a few days.

I use parchment paper to capture the leaves as I strip them from the stalks with my fingers.

The jars are freebies after I’ve eaten the raw cream they contained.

And, voila!

Winter pleasures

(I also blogged here about preserving mint and basil in olive oil in the refrigerator–and have to dig out some of those leaves next stir fry to experiment.)

Turkey Tracks: Fall Chores

Turkey Tracks:  October 16, 2017

Fall Chores

Look at this empty porch!

All the wind chimes and flower pots and hanging baskets are down and stored.

The bags you see are full of daffodil bulbs and garlic–and as I write, they are all planted.

Is this the last mow?

Time will tell.  The mower is actually useful to mulch up fallen leaves.  That is much easier than raking or blowing them.

Look how the light has changed now.  I took this picture around noon the other day.

The Blue Hubbard squashes  are harvested and are living in the garage for the moment.  They are small this year, due to the drought, but I hope good.  Even small they are a LARGE squash.

The Cosmos keep blooming…

So beautiful and cheerful.

But the garden is all cleared out now–which was not true when I took this picture.

Betsy Maislen told me that one could strip out all the basil leaves in the fall, pack them in a jar, cover them with olive oil, and enjoy them all winter.  She swears they stay nice and green.  If basil works, why not mint??  So I picked mint tips too.  At the very least, the oil will be great for flavoring and salads.  I LOVE a hint of mint in sautéed veggies.

I still have mint in the garden I want to dry for winter teas.  And maybe I’ll try some rosemary dried for tea and freshly covered with olive oil???

I am off to a quilting retreat, so that will have to wait until I get home.

Still no hard frost at my house.

Turkey Tracks: I Am Not Starving

Turkey Tracks:  September 18, 2017

I Am Not Starving

Here’s a typical lunch for me these days:  a big salad with lots of fresh veggies and some meat protein.  This one has boneless chicken breasts marinated and flash roasted and an array of local fresh produce:  roasted beets and raw cukes, red peppers, carrots, lettuce, fresh dill, olive oil, and salt.

I clearly have something called MCAS or MCAD, Mast Cell Activation Disorder/Syndrome.  I realized this past winter when it got much worse, that I’ve had it my whole life.  It is behind all the trouble with allergies and unpleasant food intolerances.  It is most likely genetic, or the propensity toward it is.  And hello folks, these mast cell disorders are NOT rare, as previously thought.  Some estimates are one in six have some form of it.  I got it from my dad, who thought he had asthma, when really he was likely reacting to histamine triggers he did not recognize, which was true for me for the past 72 years.  Indeed, drugs, from over the counter to serious drugs like my dad took for what he called asthma, can make the condition much worse.  They do for me.  I can’t even look at a Zyrtek or Claritin.

Mainstream medicine recognized this problem around 2008 and 2009 and gradually the knowledge is widening.  The Mayo Clinic is “on it,” for instance.  Common triggers are fermented foods, alcohol, aged foods like aged cheeses, possibly gluten, yeast, chemical smells and chemicals put on the body, hot, cold, exercise, travel, etc.  Some foods trigger the body so that it releases histamine–like citrus, for instance.  The nightshades (like tomato, peppers, eggplant, potatoes) are a problem. There are a number of food lists of high and low histamine foods, but each person has to kind of figure out what works and what does not–and those foods/triggers can change from day to day depending on how full each person’s “histamine glass” is at the moment.  Some people experience terrible migraines and anaphylactic shock, and I feel so lucky that I have not had either of those.  But I have plenty of nasty symptoms otherwise.  And I had plenty of warning signals last summer and fall, but didn’t recognize them for what they were.  There may also be a connection between aging, loss of estrogen, and the main symptom, histamine intolerances.

So…I can’t add vinegar of citrus to a salad and have learned to eat them with a drizzle of good olive oil and sprinkles of salt.  The vegetables themselves are providing plenty of flavor, so I don’t feel deprived.  I have to eat very fresh foods–leftovers acquire histamines as they sit around–so I am cooking a lot.   That’s fine.  I like to cook, and I like to be clear-headed.  One immediate reaction is a king of brain fog so that I feel like I’m walking in slow motion all day, and it is harder to focus.  Restaurants are very hard for me these days.

But, I feel so lucky that I finally stumbled on the information I needed to help myself–and as long as I stay in my own little bubble, I am doing fine.  Along the way last winter I lost almost 40 pounds, which has also been a good thing, however hard it was at the time.  I’d like to lose 20 more and am working at that project now.  I feel lighter, healthier, and have a ton of energy–as long as I stay in the bubble.  Penny girl dog and I are walking every day, and we are both enjoying that a lot.  And I’m suddenly interested in making some fun clothes for my lighter body.

Here’s one of my go-to recipes:

Marinated Boneless Chicken Breasts

Boneless chicken breasts taste like dry newspaper to me, so I needed a way to pep them up.  I went out into the garden and harvested handfuls of herbs–rosemary, parsley, tarragon, thyme, sage, basil, mint–whatever moved me at the moment.  I stuffed them into the Vitamix, added some of the fresh garlic I grew this year, olive oil, and salt.  I added oil until I got a good slurry.  You could use a food processor or a blender as well.

I bought two packages of boneless chicken breasts and took a sharp knife and cut them in half lengthwise–to make a thinner piece of meat.  I put them into a bowl and poured the slurry over them and coated them well with my hands.  I let them sit in the refrigerator about an hour.  I froze all but two–and those two I put on parchment paper in a very hot oven–400 degrees with the convection fan on.  They cooked in 15 or so minutes.  No more than 20 as they are thin.  I put one in the refrigerator to eat as soon as possible and cut the other one up for my salad.  I also have discovered these are great to cook on a hot grill.

Many of you could, of course, add citrus or vinegar to the marinade.  Or, soy.

The frozen breasts thaw pretty quickly if you put the package on something cast iron–a few hours.  And it’s great to have some “go to” quick food assets in your pantry.

Enjoy!

Turkey Tracks: Cabbage “Steaks”

Turkey Tracks:  January 30, 2017

Cabbage “Steaks”

I saw a recipe for cabbage “steaks” on Facebook not along ago.

I am one of those people who LOVE all roasted vegetables, so I thought I’d try this one.  I’ve roasted cabbage sliced thin into shreds before and like it a lot, especially if there is garlic in the mixture.  In this recipe, one slices cabbage into rounds, drizzles olive oil over the “steak,” adds salt and pepper and whatever else one wants, and roasts in a 350º oven for something like 40 to 45 minutes.  The edges of the “steak” will get brown, as will the bottom.  (I cover the pan with parchment paper as I long ago stopped using toxic aluminum foil around food.)  Thicker steaks might take longer.  One that is about 1/2 inches or a bit bigger is about right.  The thicker the “steak,” the longer it takes to get that caramelized sweetness roasting can bring.

Here’s what the “steak” looks like on a plate alongside fresh peppers and carrots and some roasted haddock:

img_1169

Yumminess!

Turkey Tracks: Improv Sauteed Cabbage

Turkey Tracks:  December 31, 2016

Improv Sautéed Cabbage

I hardly ever use recipes any more.

I collect the good clean food found in one of our co-ops or that comes from my summer CSA or garden and just…cook it.

The other day I had one small cabbage, the size of a large softball,  left from the summer CSA, Hope’s Edge.  Cabbage keeps really well in a produce drawer.  I don’t wrap it.

I had some leftover meatloaf, and it was lunchtime, and I was hungry.

So I put the meatloaf into the oven to warm–takes only about 15 minutes–and started sautéing the cabbage in some of my Wilderness Family Naturals centrifuge extracted, unheated coconut oil.  (I order this coconut oil by the case and am always willing to see a jar to someone at cost as it is much cheaper to bulk order.)

img_1152

img_1155

I added a hunk of raw butter for added flavor and browning and good fat, some chopped shallots, some Penzey’s spices, local sea salt, and pepper.  Penzey’s spices are highly rated by the Weston A. Price Foundation.

img_1153

It’s looking good!

img_1154

And it was…

The meatloaf got a little brown on top as someone stopped by to give me something.  This one had added grated carrots and a handful of the greens I dried and whirred into tiny green flakes in the food processor last summer.  (A recipe for meatloaf is elsewhere on this blog.)

img_1156

But this lunch was delicious, nourishing, and filling.