The Pasta Wins Today - Quick and tasty penne pasta for a summer night

Well, it was a refreshing day today on the marsh.  While many in the state were experiencing oppressive air, we had a delightful breeze all day.  The day began with a watering of my summer garden.  I know the heat is moving in, and wanted to give the tomatoes and squash a little relief.  Fun, fun, fun as I played with the sprinkle system for about 1/2 hour to figure  out which direction it wanted to go in.

Next I decided it was time to pull up all my pea plants.  There have been fewer and fewer peas, and they were looking a bit yellow, so I thought it was time.  Of course, I scrutinized every plant before tossing it in the compost, and got quite a full basket of pea pods.  That left me with a decision of what to make for supper.  Most of the pods have gotten too starchy, and very chewy, but there were fully formed peas inside, so I split the pods and kept the peas.  That was my first ingredient for my decision on supper.

My cauliflower is now forming large heads, and one was totally ready to pick.  I could not come to a conclusion as to what I could do for a dish using cauliflower and peas, so I wrapped the cauliflower up after picking and decided it could wait for another day.

The basil has recuperated from its clipping last week.  The two jars of pesto from that trim are now gone, between my sisters family and me.  The pesto is on tap to be made tomorrow, but I haven't used the herb much in dishes yet, so I wondered how basil would taste with peas.  My mind started calculating ingredients once again.

My sister dropped a bunch of pickling cucumbers off from her garden, and mine are still very behind in growth, so they had to be done up in something today as well.  My day was filling up with tasks, but being a workaholic, I thrilled at the prospect. 

When things begin to pile up, you just have to get them done one thing at a time.  First order of business was the cucumbers.  My family are real dill pickle lovers, so we never can have enough to eat.  There is a recipe that all of us have been using for 25 years.  These pickles are the best tasting I have ever had.  Even people who hate dill pickles like this recipe.  It is easy, quick, and the flavor is amazing.  The only drawback is that the pickles lack that crispness that is enjoyed when biting into a brined and crocked pickle.  However, the ease of it makes up for that one shortcoming.

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Never Fail Dill Pickles

Ingredients:
20 pickling cucumbers ( I have discovered that cucumbers vary so much in size
                                       that sometimes you only need 4 or 5)
2 dill heads ( or a tblsp of dill seed)
2 medium cloves garlic (this is preference.  We love garlic so I use
                                        4 cloves of garlic)
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar (the best is Heinz in glass bottles.  Plastic bottles
                                                  tend to have lots of floaters in the vinegar)
1 tblsp pickling or kosher salt (kosher salt is saltier tasting.  I get my pickling
                                                  salt at Agway)

Thoroughly scrub the cucumbers.  Even if it seems that a light brown spot may be just part of the color of the cucumber skin, I get rid of it.  I use a scrub brush and my fingernail to get rid of any brown discoloration.  Very important, because bacteria houses in dirt and crevices. 

Slice the unpeeled cucumbers lengthwise into halves.  Occasionally if the cucumber is really large, you might have to slice the halves into quarters. 

Fill 2 clean, dry, hot pint canning jars with cucumbers.  I don't use pints, I use wide mouth quart canning jars.  Tuck dill heads and a clove of garlic, split in half, into each jar.

Mix the water, vinegar, and salt and bring to a rapid boil.  Pour into jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the rims.  Seal with canning lids.  For pints, process in boiling hot water bath for 5 minutes.  For quarts process for 15 minutes. 

 A word about hot water boiling bath.  Start timing after the water is back to boiling after putting jars in.  If you are using a glass or ceramic top stove, make sure your canner is flat bottomed.  I use a large stock pot, not a canner, and my rack is actually a circular metal  cooling cake rack.

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The cucumbers are now done, and I decide the day is too beautiful to be stuck inside an air conditioned kitchen, so I take a walk.  My eyes always scan the roadsides for berries, but today there are none to be found.  The seckle pear tree along my route is producing a lot of pears, but today is not the day to pick them.  I walk the trail to the marsh, walk around it, then head back home. 

 Refreshed, I am ready to set my sites on supper.  I have one very small zucchini squash that is beginning to turn yellow on the blossom end, so I pick it.  It is barely the size of a pickling cucumber but if I don't pick it the entire squash will turn yellow.  So what can I do with peas, a small zucchini squash and basil?  Well, there is always pasta.  So after scanning to see what kind I had, I settled on a box of penne pasta.  Here is the recipe I came up with for a side dish for supper.

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Waste Not Want Not Penne Pasta
Serves 3

Ingredients:
1/2 Box of penne pasta
1/3 cup fresh peas
1 mini zucchini squash
1/2 medium onion
your favorite ready made alfredo sauce (I used Classico Four cheese)
several basil leaves
Smart Balance original spread
garlic
Fresh parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
chopped pimento











Slice zucchini into circles, then cut circles into quarters.  Chop onion, but not too small.  Place peas, zuccini, and onion in microwave safe dish and add just enough water to fill bottom of dish.  Cook on high for about 6 minutes.  Set aside. 

Cook pasta accoring to directions.  Drain.  Toss garlic butter into pasta.  Heat up the alfredo sauce.  Want to make your own?  Make this simple 5 minute microwave alfredo sauce.

You know that vegetable dish you microwaved?  Well, add about 2 tblsp Smart Balance, and reheat in microwave for about a minute, just until butter is melted.

Chop basil leaves into small pieces, and chop pimento.  Keep an unchopped basil sprig for each dish.  To serve your pasta, first layer pasta in dish.  Top with 1/3 of the vegetables.  Spoon alfredo sauce on top of pasta/vegetables.  Grate parmesan cheese on top of sauce, then sprinkle some of the chopped basil on the sauce.  Take pimento and add on top of everything.  Place a sprig of basil off to side.  You have a tasty and beautiful pasta dish.

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Our meat choice was boneless, skinless chicken tenders.  Now we have a very simple way to cook the chicken.  You need Kraft grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, and minced garlic.  Place oil in frypan, add garlic, start to heat to release garlic smell, then add tenders.  Shake on cheese, and cook at medium heat.  Keep turning over chicken and shake more cheese on when you turn.  When chicken is nicely browned, it is ready to eat.  Just make sure there is no pink in chicken, but it is usually not a problem when cooking tenders. 

Well that is it for now.  Have a great day.

Summer Canning - July 18, 2011

What is happening on the "farm" this week?  The harvest is ready to start canning.  Growing up in a farming family, canning was as much a part of our year as going back to school in September.  My father used to can pickles and tomatoes.  My grandfather lived with my uncle, and they used to go head to head to see who could get the best garden, and they both canned not only pickles, but beans, relishes, corn, just about anything they could grow. 

Every one of my relatives canned every year.  It is totally natural that I would follow along with the tradition.  The moment I moved into my house in Tolland, I thought about gardens and canning.  No more apartment living, and I took full advantage of that fact.   So every year I have canned something, and I have shared that love with many of my friends and acquaintances.  It  is great fun to be hanging over a hot stove cooking apple butter when you have somebody to do it with.   I choose that example because apple butter has to be one of the hottest dishes to can.  We would take turns stirring the butter over the heat, because when you make any kind of butter the cooking can go on for an hour or two, but it is worth every minute once you taste the apple butter, and have it on toast on a cold morning in January. 

So what am I canning this week?   We have cucumbers, dill, basil, and blueberries.  So that means it is time to can dill pickles, make a batch of pesto, and make spiced blueberry jam.  My dad remembers fondly the spiced blueberry jam he would get from my aunt in Cushman, MA.  Growing up on our hill in Ellington, CT., we had numerous wild blueberries, but never enough to make jam.  What do you expect.  We were kids that were sent out to pick the blueberries.  By the time we were done, many would fall out of carelessly held coffee cans.  If they did not fall out, they ended up in our bellies.  Three hours later we would come home with just enough blueberries to make one batch of blueberry muffins. 

We have remedied the problem of  blueberries by planting several high bush variety.  Admittedly, nothing is as tasty as wild blueberries, but the cultivated bushes do bring enough blueberries for several pies to freeze, lots of jam, plenty of breads and muffins, and some years even enough to make blueberry wine. 

Cucumbers and dill are never a problem.  Every year it seems we have too many of both.  I usually plant just the pickling cucumbers, because they are versatile and can be used in salads like the long cucumbers you buy in the store, with a crispness and small seeds.  I always start my pickle season with dill pickles.  I make bread and butter pickles later on.  There is something about homemade dill pickles that can't be beat.  I don't do brine pickles.  I do refrigerator pickles or canning by the jar. 

Of course, basil is an herb that produces a great deal of leaf throughout the season.  I am making pesto for now, but I am exploring other uses of basil in fruit dishes and things like that.  Pesto is a spread that I made for the first time last year.  I am sold on the stuff, and love every teaspoon that gets spread on crackers, toast, pasta, and meats such as chicken.  Here are the recipes I used this week.

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Spiced Blueberry Jam
Ingredients:
3 cups blueberries
1 tsp lemon juice
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 pouch liquid pectin


Remove stems from blueberries.  Crush them,
one layer at at ime.  Measure 2 1/4 cups, packed solidly.  Add water to make up amount.  Pour into saucepan.  Add lemon juice, sugar and spices; mix well.  Bring to a full rolling boil (a boil that can't be stirred down) and boil, stirring, for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and immediately stir in pectin.  Ladle into hot jelly jars.  Cover with lids, then process in boiling hot water bath for 5 minutes.  Makes about 4 8oz. jars  of jam. 

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Dill Pickles By The Quart

Ingredients:

1 quart (1 1/2 pounds) pickling cucumbers

1 clove of garlic, split in half

1 red hot pepper, dried (I used cayenne)

2 tblsps white vinegar

1 tblsp pickling salt

2 (or more) fresh dill heads

boiling water

Wash the cucumbers.  Slice a small piece from each end of the cucumber.  Prick two or three times in different places with the tines of a fork.  Pack cucumbers in a 1 quart canning jar (I always use wide mouth for dill pickles.)  Add the garlic, pepper, vinegar, salt and dill.  Cover with boiling water, seal with canning lid.  Store in the refrigerator.  Should be ready to eat in 2 or 3 weeks.  The longer you let the cucumbers pickle in the refrigerator, the stronger the flavor will be. 

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Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

• Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Serve with pasta, or over baked potatoes, or spread over toasted baguette slices.
Yield: Makes 1 cup.

This recipe was provided by Simply Recipes

I have had advice from a top notch Italian cook who says that you can use about half the olive oil that most recipes call for.  Instead of using 1/2 cup, use about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of olive oil.  I also use fresh parmigian cheese.  If you would like to try a less expensive "nut" I have used roasted, unsalted soy nuts in my pesto.  It still tastes very good. 

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Tonight's Creation - Without a stove

We are currently redoing our kitchen, so I have been without a kitchen since Monday, June 20.  I am sick of going out to McDonald's, or KFC for supper, so I decided to get creative.  What I have to cook with is a grill, an electric frypan, a George Foreman grill, and a microwave oven.  First creation:
   
Incredible Noodle Saute:
 
Ingredients:  fresh sugar snap peas (with pods) that came from my garden
                     No Yolks broad egg noodles
                     fresh grated parmesan cheese
                     Smart Balance original buttery spread - 3 tablespoons
                     salt and pepper to taste
                   
First, fill a 4 quart microwave safe container with water.  Heat on high in a microwave oven for 14 minutes.  Pour in egg noodles.  Cook for an additional 12 minutes.  Drain

Remove ends of sugar snap peas.  Place Smart Balance in electric fry pan.  Set pan at 200 degrees.  Saute peas for about 6 minutes. 

Mix in egg noodles, grate about 3 ozs of parmesan cheese and add to noodle mixture, and heat through until cheese is melted.  If noodles seem dry, add a bit more Smart Balance

Best Boneless Barbequed ribs

Ingredients:   boneless pork ribs
                      2 - 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
                      1 - 2 cups water
                      1/2 red onion
                      Kraft original barbeque sauce (or what you like)
                      salt and pepper to taste

Pour water into a microwave safe baking pan.  (I used an 8 inch square glazed ceramic pan)
Add vinegar.  Dice red onion.  Add 2/3's to water.   Place ribs in water, and top with remaining onion.  Place in microwave and heat at around a 6 (out of 10 settings) for about 9 minutes.  Turn over and cook at a 6 for another 6-8 minutes, so no longer pink.
Take out red onion with slotted spoon and add some to the barbeque sauce.  Place ribs on grill and brush on sauce, then barbecue over hot charcoal for about 15 minutes, turning often and brushing with barbeque sauce.  What I ended up with were extremely moist, very tasty ribs.  They were so tender they just melted in my mouth.

Last item I used for my dinner was a garden salad, made from lettuce from my garden, some peas without pods, full sugar snap pea pods, red pepper, cucumber, vine ripened tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and just a little swiss chard.  So you can cook a very tasty meal without a stove or conventional oven, it just takes a little forethought as to what to microwave first.