Packin’ up the chuck box

Welcome to The Cookery, a space to digest life, explore food and keep it real, to read, and to write. I’m writing from another new kitchen, and our family has made the way from Texas to New York. After packing up May 31, we bounced around the country and lived out of suitcases for four months. We’ve moved into our new home, and the household goods were delivered with little damage. I’m packing up my chuck box and breaking out my favorite pots and pans and enjoying the capacity to be able to call a place home. It’s been a long summer preparing healthy meals from my portable chuck box, but it’s doable, and just about anyone can put some chuck together with a few simple tools. What’s in your chuck box?

No-recipe recipe for one hot dish

This no-recipe recipe transforms potatoes into a great hot dish. And as Mama often says, “Honey – There is no recipe!”

Hot German Potato Salad

. . . just boil some taters (6-8) with the jackets on . . . cool enough to hold and remove skins . . .  and slice them into a bowl. Fry a generous amount of bacon, until crispy . . . remove bacon and drain on a paper towel. Make sure you have plenty of grease (bacon, of course, in pan . . . saute chopped medium onion in the grease . . . keep flour close at hand to add to the bacon/onion/grease mixture, as well as a 2-cup measure, filled with 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup vinegar and 1 cup water (blended). The amount of flour added depends on the amount of bacon grease you have available. (Skip the lean bacon.  And as for turkey bacon consumers  – give it your best effort.) It’s just like making a roux or making gravy.

Chop up green onions…about 8-10, and add green part to potatoes. Boil 2-3 eggs, peel and chop, and fold into almost finished salad… add pepper to taste. Pour gravy over all, mix, and serve!

Cookery crumbs

We’ve nibbled away at the last of the crumbs in our Austin kitchen, and made the final meals with few tools. Refrigeration deserves more credit than it receives, and if you have access to clean water (not to mention filtered), count your blessings. A well-working refrigerator, decent sink and clean water, and a cooking/heat source all help in sustaining healthy habits. I miss these essentials already, but appreciate the friends and family along the way who are providing fresh water to rinse the veggies.

‘Round New York, Eileen’s Abby made this list of the top 52. So grab your coffee and give her a toast!

Veggies glazed over

What’s left in this pantry? Not much, and I’m making use of the final “please pick me” ingredients that won’t be making the move with us. With a little olive oil and brown sugar, glaze your favorite vegetables. Here’s a fresh dish to polish off the last of the brown sugar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veggies glazed over

Yield: 6 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons brown sugar

6-8 peeled and sliced carrots

1 cup sugar snap peas

freshly squeezed lemon juice

fresh herbs

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Gently stir fry carrots 4-5 minutes. Add sugar snap peas. Stir gently 1-2 minutes. Add brown sugar and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and mix evenly for 1-2 minutes. Dress with fresh herbs before serving.

Get prepped for Food Allergy Awareness Week

Around The Cookery, Food Allergy Awareness Week is every week of the year, and the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network works around the clock to raise awareness of food allergies. FAAN ramps up awareness efforts next week when it dedicates May 8-14 to increasing efforts to help educate communities on food allergies and life threatening conditions. If you live with food allergies or care for someone who has food allergies, check out FAAN’s 2011 suggestions to get involved.

While you’re browsing, have a look at Allergic Living, which kicked food allergens across North America in its spring 2011 launch issue.  I appreciated the practical example on dealing with food allergies as an adult from the perspective of Mireille Schwartz of the Bay Area Allergy Advisory Board. Find great resources in their online archives and see what’s trending not only with food allergies, but in asthma and gluten-free circles.

Coming clean in the kitchen

It’s almost that time again. You may be thinking spring cleaning, which applies this time of year, but I’m focused on preparing to move. I’m running down pantry items and clearing cabinet clutter. Our time in Austin is coming to a close in June, and as we trim the household for our anticipated return to New York, it’s time to cut kitchen clutter and use what’s left in The Cookery reserves.

If I were as disciplined as my Virginia pal, Mary, I’d wipe down cabinet and pantry shelves every three months, and methodically rotate every spice bottle. Truth is, I’d fail Mary’s pantry test today, but there’s hope for next week. Moving or not, come clean with me in the kitchen this month. Recycle old kitchen tools, use up ingredients nearing their expiration dates, and break bread with someone.

Dumplings on my doorstep

We’re guilty of polishing off heaping servings of potstickers and Chinese dumplings. Can you guess where these beautiful potstickers came from?

potstickers

Neighbors, yes, and they were made from scratch (no pre-made wraps in their household) and delivered to our Austin doorstep. Beyond delicious!  If you want to create Chinese dumplings or potstickers, drop by Metrocurean with resident food temptress Amanda. She linked back this week to one of her earlier “Steal This” postings . . . a dumpling demo with Wolfgang Puck. D.C. friends . . . check out this site for great tastings in and around the city.

Thanks, neighbors!

Bento Box filled with healthy fun for one

Yum-Yum Bento Box

How long does it take to fix a school lunch? For the experienced parent, good at keeping chips or the equivalent, fruit and veggies, a sandwich and a treat, maybe two minutes. That’s unless the peanut butter has separated or the jelly cowers at the unreachable bottom of the jar. It’s a daily task, done with a kind of slapdash love. But other folk have other ideas. The Yum-Yum Bento Box, a delectable little cookbook is a case in point. Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa introduce the art of designing lunch in a bento, a box-for-one popularly known in Japan.

The colorful pages display elegant or humorous lunch ideas that are sure to be the envy of everyone else in the cafeteria.

Full-color photographs show folktale and fairytale characters, holiday symbols and creatures created almost wholly with snippets of fresh vegetables, molded rice, and nori (dried seaweed). The ingredients are mostly at your regular supermarket though it might be tricky to find quail eggs if you are dedicated to copying the bumblebee creation!

Yum-Yum Bento Box: Fresh Recipes for Adorable Lunches, By Crystal Watanabe, Maki Ogawa, Quirk Books, 2010

© 2010 Jane Manaster. All Rights Reserved.

While you’re gathering ideas for young palates, consider Silly Snacks by Favorite Brand Name. Silly is the key ingredient in this snack helper filled with clever creations. I received a copy of this cookbook several years ago from the queen of kid pleasers, our “90-something” great-grandma to my kids. She sent copies around to many of her loved ones and we keep ours at the ready when meal time calls for fun. We love the Tic-Tac-Toe Tuna Pizza.

Tangy sweet potato soup

Do you ever try to hide ingredients to disguise food for your kids? That’s a tough call. I don’t endorse hiding ingredients, and my kids have grown to expect a variety of vegetables at meal time.  They also know that soup makes an appearance at our table often, and this time of year, I break out the sweet potatoes. I’ve been experimenting with sweet potato soup variations, prompted by sharing a bowl over lunch with a friend, dusting off a recipe from the archives, and putting to use a bounty of produce that I picked up at the October farmers’ market with my sister. This soup, paired with crusty bread, measures up like a meal of tangy and sweet reward.

Try this sweet potato soup recipe. 

Tangy sweet potato soup

Tangy Sweet Potato Soup

 4 medium sweet potatoes, rinsed and dried

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 onion, chopped

1 piece fresh ginger root, approximately 1 inch, grated

½ cup orange juice

½ cup sweetened condensed milk

4 cups vegetable broth

2 cups water

1 teaspoon allspice

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375 ° F. Pierce sweet potatoes and place on foil-covered baking sheet. Bake one hour. Remove and cool. Sauté onion and canola oil in stock pot. Add ginger and allspice. Stir over medium heat three-four minutes. Add orange juice, water, broth, condensed milk and salt. Stir. Remove skins and cube potatoes. Add potatoes and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in coconut and serve.

Yield: eight servings

Pumpkin roll

I’m on the annual pumpkin roll, and to start things off with sugar pumpkins, The Cookery rolled out four festive pumpkin lovin’ loaves yesterday. Pick up a sugar pumpkin and try my candied pumpkin bread recipe. Up next . . . my family will be testing Metrocurean’s tempting take on pumpkin pancakes.