Delicious days: week 1

Delicious and simple

Sunday

Pasta

Quick polenta. Don't forget salt. Stir in smoked mozzarella at the end.
Roasted tomatoes -- little red tomatoes and chopped garlic, olive oil, salt. 425° until crinkled. Add chopped fresh basil.

Also made pesto. Chopped basil leaves tiny. Chopped garlic cloves. Mixed together with olive oil and salt. Next time might try mortar and pestle... 

I froze this in ice cube tray.

Monday

Chicken

chicken curry 

I planned to marinate chicken in tandoori spices, but decided to go with the simpler chicken curry recipe from NYTimes cooking app. I used a bit more curry powder than called for, also didn’t use tomatoes but added frozen chopped spinach instead. It’s good and worth jazzing up a bit, but next time I’ll: 

*marinate the chicken pieces in tandoori spices mixed with a cup of yogurt

*Sauté some garlic with the onions. 

* cook the chicken BEFORE adding  coconut milk

*add some other vegetables

*top with herbs, as suggested. 

Good with brown rice 

Tuesday 

kale

Surprise! this was delicious. But I like kale. I almost thought it would be my entire dinner, but then I fried a little sliced chicken sausage and leftover polenta in my iron skillet. That was enough.

Kale
Heat up 1/4 C. olive oil in hot skillet. Add 3 cloves garlic. Cook one minute or until light brown. Add kale, ribs removed and coarsely chopped, and chicken broth. Cook. Stir in red wine vinegar. Salt to taste. Cook a little more, until not crisp.

Wednesday

Sopa de calabaza*

The hard part is peeling a pumpkin. But it's worth the trouble.  Soup alone wasn't quite enough, so I finished with chocolate and roasted almonds. I mean I ate them later, but writing this now makes me think almonds might be good with the soup. Chocolate too!

Place in soup pot:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds pie pumpkin, peeled and chopped
chopped up celery, carrot, and onion( I use the kind you buy pre-chopped at Trader Joe's)
A box or can of chopped tomatoes, either large or small -- depends on how tomato-y you want the soup
garlic, parsley, bay leaf,
chicken broth and water,  to make 5 cups
3 ounces white wine
1 T. honey
1 T. cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

Cook until pumpkin is soft.
Mash or blend with immersion blender.
Add 1 cup heavy cream.

*based on a recipe from Goya products

Thursday

Eat out

Friday

Eat out

Saturday

Salmon

Thaw frozen salmon. (I used Sockeye.)
Rub with olive oil, seasoned salt, and pepper if you want. Put on parchment paper. Bake at 450° about 12 minutes per inch of thickness,
Recipe says make a sauce: Mix 3 T. olive oil with herbs to equal 1 T., and 1 T. lemon juice and some lemon zest. pour sauce n top of fish and tent it with foil and let it rest 5 minutes.
Also made brown rice (Trader Joe's frozen)
and salad of mixed greens with olive oil, vinegar and mustard.

Sunday, sweet and easy

Written last night:

Dear Friends,
It was a relaxing Sunday, and also mild and spring-like. Perfect. I kept the windows open and think the allergies came in, but it was worth it. 

Church, dog park, driving around to explore the town — that was the first half, and the second was making a delicious but simple dinner for Patrick and Steph, who were here with Gully and Bruiser. We sat and talked on the balcony before dinner. Recipes below: easy roast chicken, scalloped potatoes, brownies. 

A perfect Sunday. 

Love,
k

Go-to Menu 
 Roast chicken, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, brownies (Takes about 1.5 hours Total)

Smitten Kitchen Flat Roasted Chicken

My words: I bought a 4.5 pound organic chicken. Using a kitchen scissors, I cut out the backbone. Dry the chicken. Sprinkle lots of salt inside it. Grind some pepper. Flatten the chicken. Put it into the iron skillet, breast side up. Salt and pepper the top. Stick some rosemary stems under the skin, all over. Dot with butter or drop some olive oil over it. Preheat the oven to 450. Roast the chicken 45 minutes, more or less, until the thermometer inserted in the thigh registers 165. Squeeze one lemon. Pour the lemon juice over the chicken. You can let the chicken rest until you're ready to eat.

Gratin Dauphinois

2 pounds potatoes (I used a bag of baking potatoes) to make 5 to 6 cups when sliced
1 large clove garlic, crushed
2 C. milk
1 1/2 C heavy cream
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 T. butter (for buttering pan)
1/2 C. grated Swiss cheese (I use Gruyere)

Wash and dry the whole potatoes thoroughly. No need to peel them. Slice thin. Don't put them in water now because you need to conserve the potato starch. Combine potatoes with garlic, milk, cream, salt and pepper in a large heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium, stirring to prevent scorching. I use the low-heat burner because I have burned them many times.

Bring to a boil, stirring, until mixture thickens slightly.

Butter a shallow (1 1/2 inch)  baking dish (I usually use the oval copper gratin pan; yesterday it was a 9" x 13" foil pan) and pour the potatoes in. Cover with grated cheese.  I usually put the pan on a cookie sheet to catch drips. Bake at 400° for an hour or until potatoes are soft and top is browned. (You can bake at 450° if you are roasting a chicken at the same time.) These are even good cold.

Serve with asparagus or some other green vegetable. Spinach, maybe.

Smitten Kitchen's My Favorite Brownies

3 ounces (85 grams) unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped (Sometimes I use 70% bittersweet and it is fine.)
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
1 1/3 cups (265 grams) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt (about 2 grams)
2/3 cup (85 grams) all-purpose flour 

Heat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment, extending it up two sides, or foil. Butter the parchment or foil or spray it with a nonstick cooking spray. 

In a medium heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together until only a couple unmelted bits remain. Off the heat, stir until smooth and fully melted. You can also do this in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. Stir in flour with a spoon or flexible spatula and scrape batter into prepared pan, spread until even. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out batter-free. 

Dust the brownies with powdered sugar before serving. (Gretchen, would you consider a sprinkle of sea salt before baking?)

Day by day

Written the last few days:

Wednesday

Dear Friends,

Let’s discuss toilets.  

My toilet took so long to flush. I had to hold the handle down forever. I thought it was a California thing to save water. Every time I visited elsewhere I couldn’t help envying their rapid flush. 

So I asked the plumber who installed my new washer. “Just normal,” he said.

A month later I asked the plumber who installed the new sinks. “It’s not a problem,” he said.

Tonight I asked Randall, the handyman who hung some pictures and steadied my wobbly table legs. “The chain is too long,” he said. And in 30 seconds he fixed it. Now my toilet flushes as fast as they do in Ohio.

“But why didn’t the professional plumbers tell me?” I asked Randall.

“They didn’t care,” he said.

After he left, I made Chicken Tikka Masala with meat from a bird I roasted a couple of days ago. I’ll freeze half for later this month. It’s good with rice and yogurt with cucumber, garlic, green onions and olive oil. My leftover chicken was good, but it’s even better if you marinate and grill or bake the meat the way the recipe tells you. Be sure to use lime juice (I used lemon and it was't as good.)

Love, 

k

Thursday

Dear Friends,

Today small things didn’t turn out as planned. Certainly you’ve had days like this — we are not in control!

One of the chores I’ve been putting off is maintaining Rosa. Clark would always see that it was done, and he could answer any question that came up. He loved cars. But me — I just depend on them. (I love you, Rosa!) Recently Rosa has been flashing lights that say she needs oil. (What a great idea: I would like lights to flash when I need a hug or a glass of wine.) This morning Zing and I took her to the car wash; then we drove to Auburn Boulevard to get an idea of where the Mazda service center is. We wandered the surface roads around there, to get a feel for the neighborhood, which is full of trailer parks.  We got home, ate lunch, and then drove back like pros. Servicing would only take an hour, they said. Zing made lots of friends in the waiting room. Then I got the bad news (which Clark would have absorbed in a professional manner) that I need a new tire and I’m lucky Rosa didn’t split her wheel on the road. Not safe to drive home, they said. Come back tomorrow. To my amazement, Maita Mazda has a free driver service, and he got us home faster than I could have driven myself. Tomorrow afternoon we head back for Rosa, who narrowly missed a tire explosion. Clark would have been able to tell me just how close I actually came to disaster. Or maybe he used his next-world influence to keep me and Zing safe today. 

Love,
k

Friday
 

Dear Friends,

How to tell you’re not in Florida anymore: You learn that it's Cesar Chavez Day.

Maybe you need to renew your passport — only a few days left on the old one. You carefully plan: find the closest office (Yay! the library is only a few blocks away), download and fill out forms, grab checkbook (no credit cards accepted), even luck into a neighbor (Darrius) who wants to watch Zing. 

The sidewalks around state offices were nearly empty, my walk to the library strangely easy. 

The library door was locked. An apology in the window said sorry for the inconvenience. Closed for Cesar Chavez Day. 

State offices and schools were closed across California and several other states honor the farm labor leader too.

I’m kind of glad I was taken by surprise, because that means I’ll never forget March 31 is Cesar Chavez Day. I celebrated by walking around Chavez Park, down the street from the library. 

Saturday
Dear Friends,

Today I made a turn-around, from doing things the hard way to choosing the easy way. For one thing, at least.

Renewing my passport.

Clark and I were about to do that when he died, but since then I’ve forgotten about it -- and so much else. Now I’m kind of coming to life (although that seems disloyal sometimes) and the other day I discovered my passport expires this coming Saturday. So I freaked out today and drove round and round -- to three different post offices and one library -- only to be told over and over that they were already too booked to take me. Renewing your passport is not like renewing your driver’s license, which is hard enough. 

My plan, then, was to be first in line at the post office Monday. But that wouldn’t be a sure thing, either — I gathered this from today’s conversations, the details of which you do not want to know. 

Later, as Zing and I were taking our walk, we ran into Sandra, Zing’s friend who owns the gym. She told me she’d renewed her passport quickly (six weeks is quick!!) by mail, with no problem. (I know, Rachel, you told me the same thing … ) So as I was going to bed I glanced once again at the passport website. What had seemed a tangle before was simple now. I filled out the information, wrote the check, stapled my photo down, and it’s done. No need to spend Monday in an uncertain line. Monday I mail it — overnight delivery, just to be safe. 

I made this simple chore way too complicated. But I did learn how to drive to three post offices. 

Love,
k

Beef Bourguignon

Dear Joy,

Here's the  recipe I promised. It's not my great-grandmother's exactly, but she has a lot to do with it. My mom, Veronica Krumm, was a great cook. She would often tell us about her grandmother's beef stew, how delightful it smelled, cooking in the oven. Mom was always trying to make something that scrumptious, and she felt she never did. So I am pursuing the elusive French beef stew in the oven. It must smell and taste heavenly. (Mom's grandmother was from Paris, and she married a German -- an atrocity that got her disowned. They left Europe for Ohio, where she continued cooking.) I've had this recipe for more than 40 years, and I think it's from Julia Child.

Beef Bourguignon 

Sauté 6 ounces bacon for two to three minutes, to brown lightly. Take bacon out. Reheat the bacon grease with 1 T. oil (I use olive oil.) until it is almost smoking.

Cut 3 pounds of beef* into 2" cubes. Dry the beef and sauté it until brown. When brown, put it in the dish with the bacon. When it's all brown, put the beef back into the pan. Sprinkle it with 1 t. salt, 1/4 t. pepper, 2 T. flour. Put it in 450° oven for 4 minutes. Stir, and put back in oven for another 4 minutes. Turn the heat down to 325°. Add 3 C. red wine (Chianti is good.), the bacon, enough beef broth to barely cover, 1 T. tomato paste, 2 mashed garlic cloves, 1/2 t. thyme, a crumbled bay leaf. Simmer on top of the stove, then cover and put in the oven until the meat is tender -- 3 to 4 hours, or more. When it is ready, braise**  18 to 24 small onions (I use a bag of frozen, thawed.), and sauté a pound of sliced mushrooms in butter.

When beef is tender, pour the casserole over a sieve into a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the meat to it. Put the onions and mushrooms on top. Skim any fat off the sauce and simmer it a minute or so. It should coat a spoon lightly. Taste it! Pour it over the meat and vegetables. If you are serving now, simmer it a couple of minutes, basting with the sauce. You can also cool it and then simmer it 20 minutes before serving.

Serve with buttered carrots and French bread.

*Good meat = good casserole. Rump roast is best. Then chuck. Then sirloin tip.
** Braising means to brown the onions and then cook them until tender.

Beef cooked until tender, right
Onions braising on the left

Steak salad

I needed more iron, so we started eating beef on Sunday. 

This is what we eat: Steak, salad, potatoes.

Sunday Steak Dinner

Some kind of steak, maybe strip or sirloin, not too much. Cut it into strips. Marinate. 

Here's the marinade recipe for one pound of beef. I make 1/3 of it. I've thought of making a whole recipe to have some for later, but I'm sure it's best fresh.

Marinade

1 C. bottled Italian dressing (I use Good Seasons.)

2 T. fresh lemon juice

2 T. Parmesan cheese

4 minced garlic cloves

1 T. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce

Marinade makings

Use about 1/3 of this to marinate the meat; the rest will be salad dressing. Marinate 30 minutes to 4 hours. (I'm pretty sure overnight would also be fine.)

Just before we eat I put the steak into a hot iron skillet and cook it until it's still slightly pink inside. Toss some salad greens with the rest of the marinade and put the meat on top. 

We like this with little potatoes that have boiled until just soft, then smashed and drizzled with olive oil. Cook in a 425° oven until browned -- about 30 minutes. 

Fast & Delicious Chicken Parmesan

Buy two chicken breasts with bread crumbs and Parmesan already on them. (Earth Fare has them.)
Brown in olive oil. Pour this sauce over them. Gia something -- that's why I took the picture; get the jar that looks like this. It's called red wine cooking sauce. Oh, I just looked it up: Gia Russa Simmer Sauce.  Cook over low to medium heat until the pink center is gone -- I forgot how long! Should have written it down. But short -- 10 or 15 minutes. Make polenta according to directions on the box, except I add a little more water because I like it runny. Make sure you stir as you're adding the cornmeal to the boiling water, or else you'll get lumps. Add a little butter and Parmesan to the finished polenta. Serve chicken beside (on top of?) polenta. Spinach sautéed with garlic and olive oil would be good with this. Plus a simple salad. "Good enough for company," Clark said. Meaning it looks fancy.

Okra

I used to think of okra as green noses full of snot. That's because long ago I had a bad okra day. In the convent I ate canned okra. Gag.

But yesterday at the farmers' market I was buying black-eyed peas. The woman in a straw hat asked if I wanted okra too. No, thank you. The couple beside me said in unison, "You can't buy peas without okra." Can too! I said. Then everyone started telling me how to cook it: Boil the peas and rest whole okra, ends tipped, on top and cook lightly. Or cook onions and hamburger and tomatoes. Add okra. Or make gumbo. So I gave in. Last night I made their hamburger recipe, with a dash of lemon juice, a couple sprigs of thyme, and chopped green peppers, with enough water to make it soupy. I used lowest-fat hamburger and winged the amounts, except for precisely cutting the okra into 3/8" slices (I read that in the recipe for shrimp and crab okra gumbo from The New Orleans Cookbook.) Simmered for 2 hours, adding okra for the last hour. Served it over rice. It was good.

My favorite poet & a meatloaf sandwich

In the awful moving of a shelf of books I came across poems of someone I love -- me!

Certain men won't cry
until they learn
a beloved dog
is going to die.

For lunch we had meatloaf sandwiches: buns, tomato slices, some shredded Napa cabbage and horseradish sauce. The meatloaf was good the first day too, with baked potatoes and broccoli, It  suited the gloomy day.

For a guide, I use Sarah Leah Chase's recipe from Nantucket Open-House Cookbook. She calls for flattening out the meat mixture and spiraling it around provolone and prosciutto, which I skip. I used grocery store meatloaf combo of chuck and pork, and I did not exactly measure the other ingredients. I didn't have tomato juice, so used broth and squeezed in a little tomato paste from a tube. Here's the basic recipe:

Sicilian Meatloaf

Mix (I used my hands.)
1 1/2 lb. ground sirloin
1 lb. ground veal
1 medium onion, chopped
4 coves garlic, minced
2 T. dried Italian herb blend
1/2 C. chopped parsley
2 1/2 C. fresh bread crumbs

Add
2 eggs
1 C. tomato juice
1 T. salt
2 tsp. or less pepper

Form into a loaf shape on a baking sheet or shallow casserole dish.
Bake at 350° for an hour, or until the center is not pink.