food – Page 4 – Another Adventure

Recipe for Enjoying a Weekday Afternoon, September Style

September is a fickle month in the Mid-South. Mother Nature can’t quite make up her mind whether the season is summer or fall. The air is crisp and clean and definitely open widow friendly, and yet the sun is still hot enough to make you yearn for a swim in your newly closed pool after a short jog.
In the midst of worrying my face off that I’ll never be accepted back in to school, I am learning to read again–for pleasure, for fun, for “staycation” sake.

Afternoon Coffee:

Serves one

One cup (a real cup, not the American oversized bathtub mugs that give you digestion problems) freshly brewed strong coffee (I use Seattle’s Best, level 5)

One or two splashes half and half

One peppermint candy

Combine ingredients in your reasonably sized mug. Serve with a book and a Grannamae cookie. Use as fuel for your newly rediscovered passion for writing:

Always, Always…

Always, always, bliss on paper. A book and a warm mint coffee? Nothing better. It used to be I could not read, I would not read. Reading merely passed time when I was not consciously doing something we like to call “productive.” My eyes would merely skim the words while my brain ran laps, thinking volatility of the tasks I had not yet completed, the people I had not yet impressed, the weight I had not yet lost. Now on temporary leave from school, after an hour of computer time I feel my energy drain away, so I quickly stand up to shake myself. What to do now? My “tasks” can only go so far in one day, so I decide to read for a few hours–outside I go, with my new friend Frances Mayes:

“How to quantify happiness? Any loved house you’ve personally slaved over feels like an extension of yourself. Many people have told me that when they arrived in Italy, they’ve surprised themselves by thinking, I’m home. I, too, had that sensation when I first came here. By now, that feeling has magnified. And, as for a loved one, I have that scarier feeling, I can’t be without you. Meanwhile, the house just stands here, indifferent, facing the changing light and weather.”

I smile, and I can’t stop smiling, because I love reading stories of triumph over self, of succumbing to the natural order of time and space. I love that I know that I am enough to be happy–to exist within the close confines of happiness. I close my eyes and drink in the clear sky above me, the sky I feel was made just for me today. I want to stay with it forever, under the Tuscan sun like Frances. I wish I could. I know I can’t, at least not yet–I am too young. I am ripe, and my duties in this world are numerous. I face years of overcoming challenges, meeting people, moving forward. I have degrees to earn, pictures to take, many tears to shed, cuts to bleed, God willing. And children to foster. That is just fine with me.

“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”

Breakfast Tomatoes with Basil

My great Italian mother once speculated that tomato sauce flows through my veins in place of blood. I still believe her. I can eat an entire pint of cherry tomatoes by myself, and have done so several times while walking home from the grocery store when I lived in Minneapolis. I.love.tomatoes!

These babies are lightly cooked with olive oil and garlic until soft, golden and melt-in-your-mouth fantastic. They are the perfect side item to a breakfast or brunch of scrambled eggs and cheese grits, which often grace our tables on Sunday afternoons.

Taken from Google, but aren’t they pretty?

Breakfast Tomatoes
Serves 4-6, or one with a Hobbit like obsession for the firey fruit
Four fresh roma tomatoes, sliced about one fourth inch thick
One large handful fresh basil
One large clove garlic, peeled
One to two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Head a skillet on medium heat with one tablespoon olive oil and the garlic clove; swirl it around for a few seconds. When the oil is hot (sprinkle a few drops of water to test the heat level–it should sizzle), add the tomato slices (you will need to do this in batches). Cook for just a minute or two until they soften, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then flip and cook through. The color will brighten and the skin will just start to pull away from the flesh. Remove, place on a plate, and add the next batch of tomatoes with a little more oil if necessary. Repeat, remembering to season your fruit!

When all the tomatoes are cooked, rip the basil over them. Remove the garlic clove; mince finely, then sprinkle over the tomatoes and basil.

Crabmeat and Cheddar Frittata with Eggwhites

A lot of baking goes down in this house, so it was nothing out of the ordinary when I opened up the fridge the other day and saw a two quart mason jar full of liquidly smooth egg whites staring me in the face. Blame my sister, the master baker.

I of course, in true Stanek family fashion, will stand huddled over a chicken carcass until it’s picked dryer than the desert and was not about to let all these beautiful egg whites go to waste. Enter ingenuity!

Crabmeat and Cheddar Frittata, with Egg whites
Serves 4-6
Two tablespoons butter
Small red onion, diced
Two cans, drained, lump crabmeat, or half of one sixteen ounce package
One cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Salt, pepper, and tarragon, about one teaspoon each
Eight to ten egg whites (depending on size of egg and how many mouths to feed)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grab your trusty cast iron skillet or other oven-safe saute pan (but really, if you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you aren’t truly living.)

Melt the butter in the pan on medium heat; when melted, add the onion and saute until translucent, about three minutes, then add the crabmeat. It’s already cooked so you want to just warm it through and incorporate the butter and onion flavors. Don’t let it burn or brown too much.

Meanwhile, beat the eggwhites with the salt, pepper, and tarragon. Add the cheddar and incorporate. Pour mixture over the crab and let it set! No touching. Leave it for five to ten minutes, until the bottom and edges are firm. Use this time to assemble a nice green salad for your lovely family. When ready, transfer the pan to the oven for an additional five to ten minutes, until completely cooked through and it doesn’t jiggle when you shake it (jiggling from the cook, however, is encouraged.)

Serve fresh out of the oven or at room temperature (it makes a mean leftover breakfast) with salad or asparagus and toast!

Bread for your frittata…

Don’t Forget Dessert: Yogurt and Egg white Lemon Mousse
4-6 egg whites
One cup yogurt (plain with a teaspoon of vanilla extract mixed in, or simply use vanilla yogurt)
Ten pieces of crystallized ginger, chopped fine (please don’t actually count this…just grab a large handful)
One large whole lemon
About a half a cup of sugar, more or less to taste

Place yogurt in a bowl and zest the lemon over it, the cut it open and juice in both halves, cut side up.

Using an electric mixer (or with a hand whisk if you’re feeling frisky), beat the egg whites on medium. When the volume has increased but the peaks on your beaters are not yet firm, add the sugar. Continue to beak until the peaks on your beaters stand up on their own when turned upright.

Gently fold the eggwhites, in about four batches, into the yogurt mixture, starting from the outside perimeter of the bowl and working your way into the center. Halfway through, fold in the ginger. When all the eggwhites are incorporated, you may eat, or if you have some patience (God bless you), place in the fridge. The liquid may separate, but simply stir it back together, no harm done.

SOOOOOOUUUUUUUP!

Things I’m doing a lot of these days:
-Organizing bookshelves and refrigerator magnets.
-Zumba.
-Reading My Aunt Joyce’s book, which I recommend to everyone.
-Making SOOOOUUUUUUUUUP!

The early wonders of fall are all around us. Even though, in typical Midsouth stubborn fashion, the temperature is still in the lower to mid eighties and the sun is golden bright, mother nature is forging ahead as the trees begin to change from luscious green to burnt auburn and deep clay red. I love this time of year. It’s like being in my own personal Claude Monet painting, all the time.

This is more like a Cezanne I suppose, but still, acorn squash are works of art all on their own.

When the contents of my refrigerator begin to overwhelm me, I turn to soup. Now that I think about it, when anything overwhelms me, I pretty much turn to soup. You really can’t go wrong there. Big, bubbly bowls of comfort come in many forms, from my favorite gooey French Onion (oh, the wheels are turning…) to creamy smooth Carrot Ginger bisque (like from CharcoalBYOB–if you’re every in East PA, GO!), but, as my friend Mark Bittman likes to say, any soup is only good as its stock.

This, plus a chicken, is all you need for a piping hot bowl of love:

Carrot, Celery, Onion, Parsley, and Bay Leaf that I forgot about…

Place vegetables, raw whole chicken, and fourteen cups of water in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a strong simmer until the chicken is completely cooked through. Add salt and pepper. Take the chicken out and shred to make chicken salad or ten thousand different chicken stir fries. Strain the stock thoroughly, discard the vegetables, and store in the freezer or refrigerator, or boil down to half the original volume to save space and concentrate the flavor.