Radish Greens with Sauteed Radishes

Recipe:
About 2lbs radishes
2 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 garlic clove (minced)
2 tablespoons red onion (chopped)
black pepper (to taste)

Wash radishes. Do I even have to say this?

I used organic french breakfast radishes from the garden, and I cut them into quarters. I cut them lengthwise first, and then chopped those sections in half.

I chopped the greens up fairly coarsely. They were prickly and unpleasant to touch, so watch it!

Heat the butter in a 12 inch skillet. I had my heat at "3", but your mileage will vary.

When the butter is heated up and the foam is almost gone, add the salt. Stir.

Add the greens and the radishes together. Dump in the garlic, onion, and pepper.

Stir while the greens wilt and the onions go transparent.

Serve. :)

If you like your radishes cooked a bit more, then you can cook them separately for a bit longer. When they are the right texture, you can add the greens. If you are particular about your onions/garlic, you can remove the greens and then saute those seperate and add them in later.


 Verdict:
I thought that this one was going to be a flop, but it was delicious! My husband ate half of it right away. I'd definitely do this again.

Radishes straight from the garden. YUM YUM! These are French Breakfast.

Wash them until they are pretty.

End result.

Following A Recipe (sorta): Taylor's Piroshki Recipe by TAYLORSMOMMY

My ex-husband LOVES pirogi. (I believe that is the proper way to spell the plural of pirozhki or "piroshki", but I may be wrong. I'm not up on my Russian and am falling back on the wikipedia article on this topic.)

At any rate, he loves those things and buys them at the fair every year. I like thinking about things that I can do for him, and so it dawned on me that although I've never heard of anyone I know cooking these things...Russians probably made them before fairs. haha

So, with amazingly little work I tracked down a recipe (and then tweaked it a bit). The original involves frying, while my recipe involves baking. I realized I could do that from reading all of the comments on the recipe, so I can't take any credit for it. I added garlic and sharp cheese.

This is the first time that I've made a bread with yeast by hand. I think it worked out great!

I ran out of eggs while making this recipe, so I'm reminding myself right now to check the amount of eggs I have before trying this again.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 red onion, chopped up fairly fine
• 1 teaspoon salt
• a few shakes ground black pepper (to taste)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried dill weed (alter to preference)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola, and that was fine.)
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour to start (You will add lots more.)
• Around 11 small (1-2cm cubes) sharp cheese
  
  

  Meat section:
  

  1. Brown meat in a skillet, on medium heat. I used the 3 or 4 setting on my stove.  Once the meat looks evenly brown, try to drain off the fat as much as you can. I'm sure that there are great ways to do this, but I sort of tip the pan while guarding the meat with a spatula and draining fat into a container (for later clean up).
  2. Stir in chopped red onion, salt, pepper, dill weed, and garlic. Cook until the onions seem pretty translucent.
  3. Pour meat mixture into a bowl to cool. Refrigerate.

  Bread Section

  1. Pour packet of yeast into 1/4 cup of warm (but not super hot) water. Put it in sort of a warm location, if available. Wait about 15 minutes, until the yeast becomes frothy.
  2. Heat milk in a pan over low heat. I set my burners on 1 or 2.
  3. Combine eggs, oil, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Put two cups of flour in a different and larger bowl.
  4. When the milk gets warm, add the contents of the small bowl (eggs and such) to the milk. Use a whisk to sort of agitate the stuff gently. As soon as it looks warmed up and well mixed, remove from the burner.
  5. Slowly pour milk mixture into the flour bowl while stirring. 
  6. Add half of yeast solution to the flour bowl. Stir it.
  7. Add a cup of flour to the flour bowl. Stir it.
  8. Add last of yeast solution to the flour bowl. Stir it.
  9. Add another cup of flour to the flour bowl. Stir it.
  10. Assess the texture of the mixture, and add flour until the bread seems to be a dough that forms into a ball and isn't sticking to the bowl. (This took quite a bit of flour when I did it. I probably put another two cups or so into it.)
  11. Knead it to make sure it is evenly mixed, but don't mix it a bunch after it seems pretty even.
  12. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and set in a warm location. Give it at least 30 minutes. (I didn't notice the dough really rising, but I got tired of waiting after 30 minutes and just did my thing.)

  Putting It Together

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Get out two cookie sheets, and cover in parchment paper.
  3. Uncover bread dough bowl, and retrieve meat bowl.
  4. Pinch off a handful of dough and roll into a small pizza like disk about 4-5 inches in diameter.
  5. Put at least two heaping tablespoons of meat mixture in the middle. 
  6. Put a cheese cube in the center of the meat mixture.
  7. Close the dough over the meat, and pinch closed.
  8. Roll them slightly in your hands, smoothing any rough bits out. 
  9. Place completed meat/dough sphere on parchment paper covered cookie sheets.
  10. Do steps 4-9 approximately 11 times. In other words, make balls of meat until you run out of stuff.
  11. Let them all sit for about 10 minutes before cooking.
  12. Place in the oven and bake for 18 minutes.

 Verdict: These are awesome! Everyone in the house ate them up, and wanted a whole lot more. My only regret was that I thought that they could have had more meat to the amount of bread. I really liked these, although the prep time on this is sort of outrageous (at least for me). If you don't mind a project, they are well worth the time.

Right out of the oven

Action shot of it being delivered to the ex-husband.

Natural light. The bread really did turn out nice!

YUM!

Baked Zucchini, Yellow Squash, and Purple Potatoes

I sort of winged it, and it turned out decent. The potatoes would have been better if they were cooked for a bit longer though, so I'd tweak that somehow if you decide to do this at home.

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Take (something like) three yellow squash, four zucchinis, and four small purple potatoes and wash and peel them. Cut them up into small pieces, and put all of the pieces in a large mixing bowl.
3.  Add olive oil (~2tbsp), garlic powder (~2 tsp), salt (~2 tsp), pepper (~2 tsp), chili powder (~ 1/2 tsp), oregano (~2 tbsp), parsley (~1 tbsp), and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. You're going to have to trust your gut on all of these, and add what seems right to you. I can tell you that I did something like this, and it ended up SPICY and PEPPERY.
4. Use your hands to sort of distribute the spices and oil all over the veggies.
5. Coat a roasting pan with olive oil, and pour the veggies into it.
6. Cook about 25 minutes

Verdict:  
This was super tasty to me, and to my husband! It was mega spicy and peppery though, and I would probably cut the pepper back in the future. Nobody else wanted any part of this dish. It smelled wonderful. I liked eating it with cheese and bread crumbs sprinkled on top, and think I might make a casserole like that in the future. The purple potatoes definitely needed more time, and I think in the future I may want to give them a head start somehow.

Plain

With Sprinkles!

~Patty

Following a Recipe: Baked Kale Chips by LucyDelRey

This year my housemate grew some organic kale, which is awesome...except that you can't really eat kale without doing something to it.

Well, I guess you can.

I just don't know why you would want to.

It is beautiful and easy to grow out here in the Pacific Northwest.

Behold the power of kale!

I was going to bring in a few plants and sauté them, but then things went sideways. I decided to make chips, and I found this recipe for Baked Kale Chips Recipe by LucyDelRey.

I didn't really follow the thing to the letter at all.

Here is the gist:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Get some kale, and take off all of the individual leaves. Wash the kale leaves, and sort of shake them dry. 
3. Take out the tough middle stem parts, and tear into bite sized pieces.
4. Put all of the leaf pieces on some cookie sheets covered in parchment paper.
5. Drizzle with olive oil. I am not good at "drizzling", so I pour some into a tablespoon and drizzle with the spoon. It helps me keep track of how much I am using, and limits catastrophes.
6. Shake some season salt over the leaves. (I think that in the future I want to experiment with my own mixtures of spices.)
7. Bake for about 10 minutes (or until edges are brown).

I think that I probably should have baked mine for less than 10 minutes, personally. They were definitely crumbly.

Verdict:  They made the house smell bad, in my opinion. They were pretty tasty to me though, and addictive. I ate about half the kale without even thinking about it. My child, who hates all green things, voluntarily ate some and liked them. My housemate wasn't pleased by these at all, and made some wistful comments about how it might have tasted if the kale was prepared otherwise...and compared the chips to eating dry tarragon. My mom thought that they were tasty. I'm not sure if I'll do this one again or not. It is definitely fast!

This is what the process looked like:

Raw Kale

Drizzled and Salted

Baked Kale

~ Patty :)

Wikipedia Article on Kale:
"Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical with potent anti-cancer properties.^[1] Boiling decreases the level of sulforaphane; however, steaming, microwaving, or stir frying do not result in significant loss.^[2] Along with other brassica vegetables, kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells.^[3][4] Kale is also a good source of carotenoids.^[5]"

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

I pretty much followed a recipe on this one, with some really minor alterations.

I was having a five alarm sweet tooth emergency at 11pm or so, and tried to imagine what my mouth wanted. It answered chocolate and oats. I looked around for a recipe and found Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies by Norcal. I didn't go too far afield with this, as I'd had some unfortunate hamburger recipe issues earlier in the day (which I'll write about soon).

I didn't have semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I had some leftover white chocolate ones. I like a bit more vanilla in my cookies, and I also needed to cook these longer than was stated in the original recipe.

Darn good cookies, actually.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl with a whisk.
3. Mix margarine, brown sugar and white sugar in a different bowl. Then mix in the egg and vanilla. 
4. Mix the two bowls together, slowly bringing the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mixing a bit after each bit is added. 
5. Mix in oats and choco chips.
6. Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet. (I cannot sing the praises of parchment paper enough!)
7. Spoon out the cookie mixture onto the cookie sheet. I liked 1 tablespoon sized spoonfuls. 
8. Cook for about 11 1/2 minutes. (The original recipe said 8-10, but that didn't work for me very well.)
9. Remove from oven and let them sit on the hot sheet for 5 minutes, then put them on a cooling rack.

 Verdict:

My child ate some, but wasn't in love with them.
I adored these cookies, and so did my partner.  I think that I might want to double this recipe in the future, because I'm going to be out of cookies fast. I think these are some of the best ones that I've baked so far.

~Patty 

Ogre Cookies (Combo Smitten Kitten and Jill Saunders)

Why Ogre Cookies?

They have layers.

I am starting to be a bit adventuresome with online recipes, and I add or subtract things to see what happens.

I also combine recipes sometimes, and that is what happened here.

I was craving a soft cookie that had a couple of different flavors, and a bit of chocolate. I found Brownie Roll-out Cookies by Smitten Kitchen and The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies by Jill Saunders, and I decided to put them together to make something a little like both.

I made the dough separately, and it looks like there is a lot more vanilla sugar cookies than chocolate (if you follow this to the letter).

So, I made the Brownie ones first (and with only a few minor changes):

Choco Layer

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Don't preheat the oven, because this is going to have to chill for at least an hour. Soften the butter by nuking it for a short time (like 15 seconds).

1. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.
2. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa in a different bowl. Use a mixer instead of a spoon, or you'll get the same stupid chunks in your dough that I did. That cocoa is insidious stuff that likes to create balls of powder in otherwise nice dough.
3. Mix the dry stuff into the wet stuff slowly. I used my hands to really mix it up, and then I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and shoved it in the fridge.

Vanilla Layer

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Don't preheat the oven, because you will have to chill this for an hour. Soften the butter by nuking it for a short time (like 15 seconds).

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.
2. Mix butter and sugar together in a different bowl. 
3. Add eggs and vanilla to butter/sugar bowl, and mix together.
4. Stir the dry stuff into the wet stuff, slowly.
5. Mix with your hands, until the dough looks pretty good. Then wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Chocolate and Vanilla Ogre Finger Sugar Cookies (Not exactly catchy, is it?)

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Grab about a third of the vanilla dough, and roll it out between wax paper.
• Grab a similar amount of  chocolate dough, and roll it out between wax paper.
• Remove the top pieces of waxed paper on both flattened pieces of dough, and then carefully lay the choco layer on top of the vanilla one.
• Remove the wax paper on the choco layer completely.
• Roll the dough into a long cylinder
• Cut the cylinder into 1/4 inch cookies. (I smooshed mine, so that they became long finger cookies.)
• Place them on cookie sheets that are lined with parchment paper. (I'm a huge believer in parchment paper. It makes clean up SO nice!)
• Cook for about 12-14 minutes. Check at the 12 minute mark by sticking them in the center with a toothpick. If you pull it out and it looks like the toothpick isn't wet, and there isn't dough sticking to it...it is done!

This makes a boatload of cookies, and leaves you with a bit of leftover vanilla dough.

The Verdict:

This was a bunch of stuff to go through, and it left me feeling sort of "meh". My daughter felt the same way about them. The two men in the house devoured them hungrily, and raved about enjoying them. These are GREAT cookies to be served with coffee. I've had requests to make them again.

Layers...like an onion.

These are long finger cookies, and that is totally on purpose. It has nothing to do with smooshing the dough when I was trying to cut it into circles. Nope. I'm sure that wasn't the case. *cough*

Cutting Up A Whole Chicken, and Oven Fried Chicken

I'll tell you a secret...

I'm afraid of cooking meat.

I think that I'll do something wrong and kill everyone with food poisoning, and I'm particularly phobic about chicken.

Therefore, it took some courage to decide to look at a whole chicken and decide to cook it in any way. (I've cooked chicken maybe two or three other times, but always in a crockpot. I have produced bland and sad meat that made the baby Jesus cry.)

The first real hurdle was cleaning and cutting up the chicken.

I carefully washed the bird off in the kitchen sink, with just plain water. It was a good idea to get a buddy to turn the water on/off, and make the garbage can available without needing to use my hands. It was also good to have a bowl right next to me to put the bird in, so it didn't drip on the floor on the way to the cutting board.

The CSA that I signed up for plucked and gutted the bird, and I decided to turn to Youtube for the answers to cutting it into pieces.

 

                              How to Cut Up a Whole Chicken - Gourmet Magazine 

This video was super helpful, but cutting up a chicken didn't go exactly like this at all. I had a very crummy dull knife. It is extremely helpful to have a good one, I'd imagine. 

Popping the bones out wasn't exactly effortless either, and I really had to work on some of them. I guess that I have to start working out with weights again. Ha!

 I watched the video once, and forgot some of the steps too...so...I didn't have quite as many pieces. 

The coolest thing about this video is that it gave me an idea of what to do, and it also mentioned kitchen scissors. I finally know what those are really great for doing! 

I managed to do the breastbone part completely wrong, and it was nowhere near as easy as he showed. I'll have to try to improve on that part next time.

I was pretty happy with the end results. I got most of the meat off of the bird, and in a fairly orderly manner. 

I found a recipe that I could use as a jumping off point, Oven Fried Chicken III Recipe by Elizabeth Hinlely.

I changed quite a few things about it. The very first thing was the oven temp. I put it to 375 degrees.

Ingredients 

• 1 whole chicken, cut up into pieces
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs (I used IGA brand breadcrumbs.)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon Curry Powder
• 1/8 teaspoon Mustard Powder
• 1 cup mayonnaise

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Mix dry ingredients with mayonnaise.
4. Rub chicken pieces with mixture. It will be sort of gloppy, and won't stick on the chicken very well. 
5. Put the chicken pieces in a glass baking dish, and then put all remaining glop on the chicken pieces.
6. Bake for 45 minutes. Check internal temperature of chicken with a meat thermometer. It needs to be 160 degrees. If it isn't, put it back in for 5-15 more minutes. 

Verdict: 

 This recipe turned out uber yummy. I left the skin on the bird, because I like it. My partner wasn't fond of the skin, but he removed it easily and enjoyed it anyway.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be doing this recipe again, and I think that next time I want to try using my own (homemade) breadcrumbs and cornmeal. I don't know how to do that yet, but it sounds fun and I think it would taste good. I'm also curious about taking off the skin, dipping these in egg, and then rolling them in the breadcrumb mixture (without the mayo).

~ Patty