Not a favorite salad

Seems like I am functioning in a low ebb of culinary capability. Tonight I impulsively bought bok choy for the first time and made a fresh vegetable salad for dinner. I truly thought it would be good: boy choy cabbage, mushrooms, broccoli, chopped raisins, and roasted sunflower seeds with a dressing of plain yogurt plus cinnamon.

The first clue I had that my family didn't like it was the slow progress through the food on the plate. The confirming moment came when Guy sprinkled Kelly's salad with soy sauce -- and she still insisted on eating in (very slowly) rather than ditching the contaminated mixture and refilling her plate with the original concoction.

A promise of yellow seedless watermelon was the key to maintaining peace at dinner. Ah, well . . . maybe tomorrow will bring new inspiration.

I chose not to immortalize this failed salad recipe in a photograph.

Quark update

Well, I tried a recipe for quark for a reliable source. As it turns out, I had to begin substituting ingredients (lowfat buttermilk for whole buttermilk) and cooking temps (200 degrees Fahrenheit for 150 degrees Fahrenheit) from the very start -- due to the inventory at my local grocery and the capabilities of my oven. The resultant quark, although edible, was disappointing in color (tan, not white), texture (dry, not moist), and overall appearance (rather yucky, not creamy).

So, I will start a new batch of quark in the near future, using corrected ingredients purchassed from a grocer farther away, temperature controlled by a small appliance, and paying more heed to the recommended cooking times.

I will report further when results are in . . .

Rotel hamburgers and fruit salad

It started out simply. Kelly decided to make Rotel* hamburgers. Easy.

She mixed Rotel tomatoes with:
hamburger meat,
garlic powder,
red pepper,
salt and black pepper.

Meanwhile, I helped out by broiling the hamburger buns

Kelly shaped hamburger patties and browned them in the skillet. Then she added the juice from the Rotel tomatoes and enough water to simmer the meat until done.


Meanwhile, I forgot the broiling hamburger buns. They scorched.
I started over, broiling a new batch.


















* Rotel tomatoes are a spicy canned tomato product manufactured by Conagra. Click the link to read more about them.


Kelly served the hamburgers with a fruit salad of fresh grapes and tomato wedges. (The tomatoes were vine-grown, hydroponic, from Canada -- so ok'd by the FDA to eat raw.)


Delightful !

cube steak with Asian vegetables

We had an appreciation dinner for Sherman, who was leaving for a summer job in another part of the country.

Dinner was austere, but yummy!

The main course was cube steak with Asian stir-fry vegetables.


Very simple to prepare because the steak is thin and mechanically tenderized:

• Brown the cube steak on both sides in a large skillet.

• Add a little water (about a cup or so) and simmer until the meat is cooked to taste.
  

• While the meat is cooking, quickly microwave a package of frozen Asian-style stir fry vegetables.
  

• When the vegetables are cooked, add them to the meat in the skillet.
  

• Mix together and heat through.

• Serve cube steak topped with the stir fry vegetables and broth. Season with soy sauce or steak sauce.
  

Enjoy!

green bean taco

*recipe*

Steam or sautée until tender:

fresh, trimmed green beans

Break one egg per serving, into a bowl and mix the eggs thoroughly.


Heat in a skillet:

vegetable oil, enough to scantly cover the bottom of the skillet

Pour beaten eggs into skillet and fry as a large omlette.

Sprinkle:

cooked eggs with shredded cheddar cheese.


Assemble by layering, then folding:

one soft flour tortilla

one serving of cheese omelette

spoonful of cooked green beans

Serve with ranch-dressing on the side.

Ersatz beef stroganoff 2.0

So . . .




Ersatz beef stroganoff was well-enough received that I tried a different variation on the theme the next day.

*Recipe*

Ersatz Beef Stroganoff 2.0

Ingredients

Ground beef
onion
yogurt (ersatz replacement for sour cream)
rice (ersatz replacement for wide egg noodles)
oil
mustard

Saute

ground beef and onions in large skillet or until onions are transparent.

At the same time, cook in separate covered saucepan until all water absorbed and rice is fluffy:

1 part rice
2 parts water
1 tsp oil

After rice is cooked, turn off the heat and let saucepan stand covered.

Reheat skillet with the browned meat and onions.

Add

mustard and yogurt to the meat mixture.
Warm thoroughly, but don't boil. Remove skillet from heat.
This is the sauce.

Serve

rice onto plates and top with the Ersatz Beef Stroganoff 2.0 sauce.

Delicious!

Ersatz beef stroganoff 1.0

I suggested making beef stroganoff for dinner and got a wide range of responses. The majority favored the notion, with the following comments:

"Don't use onions! I can't stand them!"

"I hate the meat! Can we have it with only noodles and sauce?"

and

"We're out of noodles!"

• 
  

Ahhhhh, the sweet inspiration of Ersatz cooking!

Ersatz (German) means a substitute or replacement for the real thing.

Ersatz cooking is to cook your best using strictly what is on hand -- without getting too hemmed-in by the deficiency of ingredients in the pantry.

We speedily composed two recipes on two consecutive nights (see companion recipe- ersatz beef stroganoff 2.0, posted below):

First recipe:

ersatz beef stroganoff 1.0

Ingredients

patties of ground beef (instead of pan-fried strips of steak)
hamburger buns to match (instead of noodles)
onion slices
pickles (ersatz for onions for non-onion-eaters)
mustard (ersatz for sour cream sauce)

Instructions

Cook hamburger patties in skillet
Assemble hamburgers with mustard, pickles, and onions

Serve.

• 
  

Maintain a good attitude about aspiring to cook beef stroganoff!

It is the thought that counts!

quark question

Does anyone know where I can find buttermilk? The real thing? Not the low fat variety . . . which is all our local grocery carries . . .

I want to try to make Quark (a sort of German variation on cream cheese).

Suggestions appreciated!

ice tea deco

Last night Guy demonstrated that a couple pieces of fruit on the edge of the glass makes all the difference in appeal.

Presentation, presentation, presentation.

*recipe*


Ice tea deco

Slice:

limes

Stem:

strawberries

Assemble:

Fit sliced limes and stemmed strawberries over edge of glasses. Fill glasses with chilled ice tea. Serve

***

Ratings:

4 forks for flavor
5 forks for presentation
4 forks for entertainment

black pepper popcorn

*recipe*

Black pepper popcorn

Have on hand:

big heat-resistant bowl lined with paper towels

Pour into saucepan with lid:

fresh unpopped popcorn
vegetable oil

Season to taste with:

salt
black pepper (freshly ground, if available)

Serve!

**

Review:

Spicy and tangy. Sort of like the salt-and-vinegar-flavor potato chips.

Ratings:
5 forks for flavor
3 forks for presentation
4 forks for entertainment (surprising new flavor)

How do you wrap a wrap?

My question is asked with utter humility. Whenever I try to assemble a wrap, the filling falls out.

Last night, for instance. Boo and I made a filling for flour tortilla wraps. It was sort of lumpy.

*recipe*

Squash and cucumber turkey wraps

Have on hand:

Flour tortillas (enough for your diners)
Fresh leaves of spinach

Mix together chopped:

cucumber
yellow squash
hickory-smoked turkey breast (precooked)

Season with:

mustard
mayonnaise
Italian salad dressing

Assembly:

We placed each flour tortilla wrapper on a plate and lined it with a layer of fresh spinach leaves, Topped the spinach leaves with the mixture described above. Okay . . .

Now the hard part: rolling up the wraps. They just don't hold together. At all. The mixture falls out both ends and it is hard to figure out how to hold the wrap with my hands so it has some stability. Anyone have any suggestions?

**

Review:

Besides the structural defects, the wraps taste pretty good.



Rating: 4 forks for flavor
3 forks for presentation (because it looked funny)

3 forks for entertainment factor while eating

Strange Dinner

We were running late yesterday, being Sunday and all that. As I chatted on the cordless phone about 7:30 p.m., I watched the sky blacken, clouds pile up, and the wind blow roughly outside. Lightning make all the house lights flicker, and disrupted the cordless reception. I hung up just as we plunged into darkness.

"Were there any weather bulletins?" I asked the children who had been watching a DVD in the room with our weather radio.
"Yes, there were two, . . . We turned the radio off."
YIII!, I thought, "What did they say?"
"There is a tornado watch and a tornado warning. But the warning's for Ottumwa."
(A mere 25 miles away)
"Go down to the basement! I'll get Mimi!" I said, racing upstairs. The house creaked loudly, like metal rubbing against metal. When I reached the second floor landing, I could feel the floor moving. The house veered strangely.
"Mimi! Come to the basement! Mimi!" I shouted before running downstairs, Mimi racing behind me.

Through a spot of glass in the basement door we could see the wind whirling in great arcs, making haze of the heavy rain.

It felt like an eternity, sitting in he dark listening to the wind. Guy alluded to ghosts (remarks poorly received). Boo sang Amazing Grace, and we all joined in.

The wind decreased within about 20 minutes of the electrical outage. We went upstairs, lit a candle, found a flashlight, reported the electrical outage to our utility company on a cell phone . . . and started waiting. As night settled in for real, it was obvious that we would have to "make do" for dinner -- without opening the refrigerator, or using the stove and microwave.

Guy and I peered into the pantry shelves with a mini-flashlight. Funny how dark and forbidding the deep recesses of the shelves looked . . .

I suggested peanut butter sandwiches -- and was immediately overruled by the teens in the crowd! We settled on Underwood roast beef spread, extended with mustard and chopped dill pickles into a spread. Guy chopped the pickles with a huge knife and great enthusiasm by candlelight. Kelly tried to join him in the fun, leading to the formulation of Mom's First Rule of Cooking:

No fighting over the sharp knife!

The sandwiches were splendid! We washed them down with warm canned V8 juice from the pantry. We practiced creating limericks and short stories by candlelight. Guy brought up ghost stories again.

Mimi's ride came and she left to go back to college. The rest of us camped in the music room. As lightning flashed outside and plastic glow-in-the-dark stars illuminated the ceiling, Boo played great piano classics from memory. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata never sounded so good!

Food is definitely about the people. And the moment.

The electricity came back on at 6-something this morning.

How I Learned to Cook

I have never been much interested in food, viewing it as the means to survival and not worthy of much serious thought.

When I arrived in Germany as a University Studentin for a year, my cooking repertoire was scrambled eggs and popcorn. The night I arrived in the University town and moved into my lodgings, my landlady took pity on me and drove me to the grocery store. There I exchanged some dollars and bought some food I thought I might need-- as well as some processed food items that looked interesting, but were complete unknowns.

When the Muenster church bell tolled 6 a.m.the next morning, I walked past the cemetery, through a neighborhood full of backyard gardens to the trolley stop. The trolley took me into the center of the city and the the Marktplatz Farmers' Market outside the Muenster. The friendly vendors spoke a German dialect I hadn't learned in college! But I did buy some produce: tomatoes and green beans (vegetables whose German names I could recognize).

I hauled my small purchases back to my apartment and viewed the entire assortment. Now, with these miscellaneous strange and foreign ingredients, what could I make to eat? I was really hungry, so decided to start with something easy. Soup. I filled the small saucepan half-full of water and started it boiling on my single-burner electric hotplate. I added a couple chopped tomatoes and some snapped green beans. I had never made soup before, so there was a sort of delight about the endeavor. The tomatoes cooked until they disintegrated, the skin peeling itself off into the water. It turned a satisfying and reassuring orangey-red. The green beans floated disconcertingly on the surface. When I thought it might be done, I ate the soup. Not bad! Rather plain and thin.

The question remains: was it a tomato soup or a vegetable soup?

Today's dilemma

Got up this morning, woke up the family, drank a cup of coffee, and drove 200 miles round trip to the nearest airport to meet a plane. By the time I got home, everyone was hungry -- those who had made the road trip with me, as well as those who had already eaten lunch (tuna sandwiches), but were willing to consider having lunch all over again.

A survey of the pantry got my mind going re: what to serve for lunch.

We had glorified Ramen noodles, cooked in a big pot on the stove top (instead of the microwave because I fixed five servings simultaneously). One small can green peas and a small can of chicken soup with rice added a little meat and color to the Ramen noodles. Everyone liked the food. Just didn't eat very much of it.

Suggestion on making tasty Ramen noodles would be appreciated!