Mormon Wassail

I think these days most wassail is without alcohol anyway, right?  Or it that just the circles I run in?  This wassail is culturally Mormon because it's the wassail I make, it's made in a crockpot, and it is frugal in how it uses relatively inexpensive ingredients to make something fancier.  You can usually get a deal on the oranges this time of year.

One gallon ordinary apple juice
1 cup of good applesauce, to cloud up the juice.
Zest of one orange (zest!  not grated peel!  No pith!  No chunks!)
Tablespoon of cinnamon, or more to taste.  Stir to get that cinnamon powder to get wet and stop floating.

Put that in a crock pot on high, at least an hour before you're serving this.

Decorate the bottom of two or three oranges or tangerines by sticking ~20 cloves in each.  I like to do circles.  Slice the bottom of the fruit off, float it into the punch, peel side up.

Make the same number of pretty slices of the oranges or tangerines, float those as well.

Serve in crock pot, with cinnamon sticks on the side for stirrers.

December Food Plans

What are your Christmas season food ambitions?

I did make Latkes during Hanukah week.   Kinder, Gentler Latkes from Food.com had good detailed instructions.  And, they were delicious as leftovers too.  Yes, I made that many.  I also made the Un-Fried Potato Latkes, but they weren't as successful.

So during the holiday my ambitions are:

Uh-Sides
--make wassail tomorrow so my daughter can take it to her church activity.
--I want a bunch of pomegranates in a bowl to admire and also to eat.

--more delicious salads like lettuce/pears/fresh cranberries/cheese/dressing, like this NYTimes salad winner.  The directions on the NYT site are better than on the original blog.

Meals
--I'd like to get a fondue set for Christmas and try fondues of cheese, of spicy peanut butter, or of chocolate.
--individual homemade pizzas?  I've discovered I like pizza without cheese.
--my daughter had some kind of delicious baked eggs in New York City.  Must try to imitate.
--what easy stuff dinners can we have, so we can eat but also run around shopping and having Christmas outings?

Desserts
--I want to make an orange cake again, with chocolate frosting.
--those frosted cookies my mom always made and we always decorated.


And not:
--the feast of the seven fishes.  I have NO impulse to do it; so much for my vaunted ambition.

(pescatarian) Eel for Thanksgiving

My vegetarian daughter loves Thanksgiving, and has put down my vague guilty suggestions that I should make some main dish for her, alternate to the Turkey.  She loves the vegetable sides, and declares herself more than delighted just to have all those vegetarian versions of the carb ones (mushroom gravy, stuffing that baked in the oven with vegetable broth, mashed potatoes without broth, etc.)

This year, early in the November, I heard a radio spot about the eel industry, how it is mostly processed, cooked, and vaccum-wrapped in China, even if you buy it in a restaurant here.  And, I heard one of the inevitable "what our Pilgrim ancestors really ate," which mentioned the importance of eel.

Eel.  My daughter loves unagi, and now I'd learned that I wouldn't be expected to prepare it, just warm it up from frozen.  All it took was a quick trip to my local Ranch 99 Asian market to get the prepared frozen eel.   It became the "dare" food on the Thanksgiving table, and lots of people, including the kids gave it a try.

One-Bowl Easy Apple Slices Cake

Like most desserts, only ovo-lacto vegetarian, and not remotely vegan.

Box cakes are great--except that I have a hard time remembering to keep the mix on hand for when the impulse to make cake strikes.  I like this recipe because it uses vegetable oil, so it's as easy as a box cake: no separating eggs, no creaming the butter into the sugar.   And, my version takes advantage of my apple peeler-corer.

I suppose though it is based on a basic one-bowl cake from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, the way we're making it would put it in the genre of Breakfast Cake or Snack Cake or Coffee Cake. Does anyone say Coffee Cake anymore?

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 8x11 glass baking dish

Throw in the mixing bowl:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1/2 teas salt
• 2 teas vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar, not necessarily packed
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs

Mix it like pancakes or muffins--just enough to get it barely mixed, like less than ten strokes.

• Then slice/core 2 or 3 apples, depending on size.  Quarter the slices, fold them in.

Bake an hour.  The basic recipe is supposed to take 30 minutes, but it always takes an hour at my house.

And no, I don't frost it.  Happy FHE.

Family Salad Nicoise

I'd only had Salad Nicoise at a restaurant, so it never occurred to me to make a family version. Instead of composing each plate, you just compose one platter or casserole dish for everyone. In our family, this works because it lets one person take more potato, while the next person skips the spuds, another person skips tomatoes, and I require everyone to take certain number of green beans.

I like the sensible Nicoise Salad recipe directions at Simply Recipes, which tell me what to do while the potatoes are boiling so the salad comes together quickly, and how to lay out salad for a group beautifully.

In general terms, Nicoise Salad is:
Lettuce
warm boiled small potatoes
warm cooked green beans
hard boiled egg
tomato
thin small slices red onion (but I use the scallions I have on hand.)
capers (sometimes we forget)
oil-cured olives (but we substitute familiar canned ones)
tuna (canned is fine--we skip the tuna sometimes and up the eggs.)
And all dressed with vinaigrette.

It's really fun with french bread and Orangina.  Viva la Faux France.

Quesadillas and a Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

I made an incredibly simple meal I adapted from the Eating Well July 2010 issue and a recipe from EW's online recipes. Bean and cheese quesadillas with a simple green salad with cilantro-lime vinaigretteSurprisingly, my carnivorous husband and sons pronounced this the "Best Meatless Monday meal, ever. Can we make it again?" They made second helpings and drizzled the salad dressing over the quesadillas as well. Lesson learned: simple and familiar is much better received than complex and "weird". Next time I think I will use dried beans and stash extra in the fridge. The mix would be easy to keep on hand for quick lunches and suppers.

I think these quesadillas would be great on the grill. Also, the vinaigrette (which will have permanent status in my fridge since it is so easy to make) would be very good drizzled over fish.


Pinto Bean Quesadillas
Serves 4
1 14-oz can pinto beans, rinsed, and smashed with a potato masher. Don't completely obliviate them. You want the texture.
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 Cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese
1/2 Cup prepared fresh salsa, divided
4 8-inch whole wheat tortillas
2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
1 ripe avocado diced

Combine beans, cheese, and 1/4 Cup of salsa in a bowl. Spread 1/2 cup of bean mix over healf of each tortilla. Fold tortilla over mixture and press a bit to flatten.

Heat on teaspoon oil in large nonstick skillet over med-hi heat. Add 2 quesadillas and cook on each side for 2-4 minutes or until heated through. Repeat with remaining quesadillas.

Serve topped with avocado and remaining salsa.


Cilantro-Lime Dressing
makes 1 1/4 Cups total

1 Cup packed cilantro (I just use one bunch)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
1/4 Cup orange juice
zest from one orange
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 small clove of garlic, minced or pressed

Puree everything in a blender until smooth.

Quinoa and Black Beans - All Recipes

I recently bought several pounds of quinoa at a local store that sells damaged and close-to-date items. So, I've been looking around for yummy recipes to use it up. Here's one we tried last week and everyone loved it! I served it with tortilla chips to make it more kid-friendly and had salsa, sour cream and guac on the side.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quinoa-and-Black-Beans/Detail.aspx

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.