A Tale of Two Stews

Yeah, I know it's not Winter - I like stews throughout the year because for me, throwing several really good ingredients in to a pot, stirring it all up and simmering it down is magic.  The smells that waft through the kitchen are amazing and watching the bubbling little concoctions evolve in to something that is so much more than the sum of its parts is where it's at.  One last thing is that I can always throw some in the canner and have some rockin' stuff to eat when it is Winter again.  First one is kind of like a thin oyster chowder som'n erother.  
Ingredients:
How ever many live oysters you feel like shuckin' - I used 12 and wished I'd had a lot more cause they were small - you could use canned oysters
1 cup raw milk
2 cups water
1 cup fresh okra (or frozen) chopped
1 medium yellow onion diced
2 medium red potatoes cubed
Salt
Cayenne pepper
About 10 shrimp frozen thawed or fresh peeled and deveined
Off the cob fresh corn - about 2 ears or half a can 
4 stalks celery chopped to suit your own liking
Preparation:
OK, this is enough stuff to make a small pot of stew enough for two people to eat on for a couple of meals.  Get a stock pot and put your milk, water, potatoes, onion, okra, corn, and celery in and get the heat going medium to high.  While this is heatin' up chop your oysters and shrimp or leave 'em whole - whatever.  As the mixture comes to a low boil give it a stir and turn it down to simmer.  While it's simmering season it with a little salt and cayenne if you like - take some time to maybe try out some other spices. I kept this one simple.  Give the stew some time to simmer down and lose some of that water, stirring often.  When the potatoes are soft and you've got a really low simmer goin' on, throw those oysters and shrimp in until the shrimp turn pink and you've got stew number one - let it simmer for an hour or so and you've got super stew number one - put it in a glass container and in the fridge for a day and you've got the ultimate stew number one - I am so corny it is painful - let's move on to stew two after a nice pic of the first.

I won't say that this one is way different than the first one as far as ingredients go anyway, but the taste is way different.  This second stew is a sort of real comforting and thick type of stew with a critical last step big event that I'll keep you on the edge of your seat for the rest of this post and you'll be biting your fingernails and...OK that was stupid, the last step is just to add about 2 tbsp butter and stir it in to the simmering pot which just sets this stuff up and gives it some sort of special powers I think...anyway...
Ingredients:
10 shrimp frozen thawed or fresh peeled and deveined
1/4 cup dry white Basmati rice
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 small to medium red potatoes cubed or diced
2 medium carrots diced
1/2 yellow or white onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
3-4 cups mixed baby greens or spinach whole (fresh)
2.5 cups water
2 tbsp butter 
Preparation:
Throw in the rice, taters, carrots, onion, celery, greens, garlic, and water in a small stock pot, give it all a good stir, throw on the lid and get the heat going medium to high.  Remember, there is rice in there so get it on up to boil.  While that is gettin' up to temp make sure your shrimp are prepped and ready, and have 2 tbsp butter on hand gettin' soft on the table top, but make sure that no one...or no dog sneaks by and grabs the fresh butter off the counter and swallows it down because I myself have been known to devour straight up butter and 2 tbsp ain't nothin'.  Some people tell me their dogs eat butter but I wouldn't know anything about that....OK, so when the stuff gets up to boil turn it down to low, get it all mixed up, season it with a little salt - maybe some oregano which I did and found it was a very nice addition, and put the lid back on and leave it alone for a little while.  Once the rice gets finished and the taters are soft, lay the shrimp in and put the lid back on.  When the shrimp are pink, you can pinch them and if they don't wake up then they are done...no that's another thing - if you pinch them and they are slightly firm but not rubbery then they're perfect and now for the BIG EVENT!!!  Put the butter in and stir until it is all melted throughout - make sure you have enough salt and there you have stew 2!!

The Basmati rice sort of disintegrates in to little pearls on this one which gives the whole thing a really cool texture, and who can resist the taste of Basmati rice and shrimp anyway?  Not me. Please check out my facebook albums for current pics of the garden - there is a lot going on this Summer and Fall and hopefully I can get some good recipes going that include everything I grow. Enjoy!!


As always, gluten free

5 Star Veggie Tacos

No no no, don't get confused - this ain't no tofu taco recipe where I tell you to go out and buy some firm little square pieces of fermented soybeans so you can slap it on a corn shell and call it a taco.  No way.  This recipe actually stems from a breakfast that Mandy and I currently enjoy of quinoa, millet, and amaranth grains done up just like grits or oatmeal...but so much better, but there's more...these three grains are three of the only ones consistently listed as alkalizing on many of the "alkalizing foods" lists that you can find in books, on the internet, wherever you can find acid/alkaline balance information on foods.  Yeah, I told you that I was on an alkalizing kick, and now I will be for life...not because of all of the breathtaking evidence for it, but for the way I feel - I've never been better.  I didn't tell you that I have started letting my former enemy (grains) slip back up and make their way back in to my digestive tract.  Well, in this case, we had a little talk over breakfast one morning, and while I was telling them how disgusted I was with the sorry excuse for food that they were, the quinoa, millet, and amaranth leapt out of the cabinet and just so happened to fall in to my mouth - along with a little bit of butter...and some salt...OK OK, I shouldn't have to make excuses - so if you're going to get some whole grains in your diet, here are two excellent and perfectly tasty ways to do it.  It all started with breakfast when Mandy noticed the unique texture of the quinoa.  That is when she said "You know what?  This stuff would make awesome tacos if you seasoned it up like chili!"  That was that, and after tonight - I don't think we ever have to worry about not having a freakin' awesome taco again - here they are. (Look, don't give me a hard time about the corn - everyone deserves a real taco every now and then...or maybe once a week or so.)

For the tacos you will need:

Ingredients:

Organic taco shells (Trader Joe's - be sure they are corn only)

1/3 cup whole quinoa

1/3 cup whole amaranth

1/3 cup whole millet

1.5 cups veggie broth

1.5 cups water

1 white onion chopped

4 garlic cloves chopped fine

1 tbsp cumin

2 tbsp chili powder

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (leave it out if you don't like the kick)

Iceberg lettuce (Mandy said so)

Sour cream

1 can diced tomatos

2 tbsp raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar

1 tsp cilantro fresh (dried parsley works too)

And the usual extra virgin olive oil and some sea salt

Alright, sorry...I didn't realize that the list was so long - stay with me cause it's so worth it.  You can do this part way ahead of time, it's just the salsa.  It's tough to find a salsa made with apple cider vinegar (let alone raw unfiltered), so I just improvised my own that turned out pretty good.  Just saute half of your white onion with about 2 cloves garlic until soft, pour the tomatoes over that and add the apple cider vinegar and cilantro - let it get hot and bubbly and then take it off the heat and chill it in the fridge - that'll make a decent salsa for topping the tacos or with chips.  Now we can start on the "chili".  Start by sauteing the rest of the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft.  Then add the veggie stock, water, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, paprika, turmeric, a few good pinches of salt, and all the grains.  Stir it all up, bring it to a boil and then put a lid on it and turn it on low heat to simmer until the grains take up all of the liquid and spices - about 20-25 minutes.  While the chili is going, get your lettuce chopped up, get the taco shells toasty in the oven, and get a couple spoons out for sour cream and salsa.  When your chili is finished, slap some in a shell, put down a nice portion of sour cream on that, layer on the lettuce, and drizzle on the salsa.  What you have there is the best veggie taco ever...you can thank Mandy.

OK, so really quickly - if you like your whole grains in the morning, take that 1 cup mixture of whole grains from above and just do 2 cups water for 1 cup grains, bring it to a boil and then put a lid on it and turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.  This makes an awesome replacement for corn grits or oatmeal.  Just stir in some butter and salt, maybe some milk, maybe some honey - hell, whatever you put in your grits and oatmeal.  It's organic unsalted butter and some sea salt for me...perfect.  Enjoy!!

As always, gluten free  (that's breakfast up there)

Quinoa Breakfast Sliders

Inventing an interesting and tasty breakfast is not easy when you are gluten free, processed food free, sugars free (sugars free is not a typo, I say this to make a point that this is different from sugar free.  Sugars free means no sweetening sugars which right now even includes lactose - milk sugar) and blah, blah, blah free right?  Recently I have been on an acid alkaline balance kick, and it has become pretty obvious that many of us, including myself are mildly acidic or even severely acidic.  This stems from eating too many processed foods, sugar, meats, and grains.  However, not all grains are created equal, and although it seems ironic to be limiting grains to absolutely nothing in my diet and then come up with this breakfast, I challenge all to do a little research on Quinoa.  This grain goes way back and may be a smarter alternative to the beloved other grains that we all have been taught are so healthy these days.  But lets get on to the good stuff - breakfast!!

The Word Savory....now makes me think of this....Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Puree Soup

After trying something new, have you ever wondered why you haven't been eating it all of your life?  I mean really, I'm sad because I ate the last little bit of this at lunch today.  I had never had butternut squash anything, ever, but if you ever watch any cooking shows or look through any winter recipe magazines, butternut squash seems to be a pretty popular ingredient and especially in soups.  Needless to say, I decided to give the butternut squash a spin.  I took a couple of different recipes, added my own ideas and twisted the others a little and came up with my own roasted garlic and butternut squash puree.  This one is at the top of my list for taste and ease of prep.

Ingredients: 

1 medium butternut squash

1 medium white onion

1 whole head of garlic

4 cups chicken stock

4 tbsp. organic butter

Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, chili powder

Sour cream and chopped green onion for garnishing

Preparation:

Start out by chopping up the butternut in to large hunks, skins on but throw the seeds out. (Unless you want to toast them and sprinkle them on top of the soup - shoot! why didn't I think of that?)  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place the chunks in a large baking pan and add about 1.5 inches of water.  Wrap your garlic head up in tin foil and place that and the pan of squash in the oven for about an hour.  While that is roasting, saute the white onion in a pan with extra virgin olive oil or butter until the onion is soft.  Now, if you have any friends, call them up and tell them to stop by the store and grab some wine and come on over for soup, wine, and movie night. If you have kids you must send them off somewhere else at this point, but if you have dogs then you don't have to do anything.  If you don't have friends then open the oven every few minutes and have a conversation with the butternut squash about how wonderful it will be to have it all to yourself and.....OK, by now it has been an hour and you can take the squash and garlic out of the oven.  If you don't mind searing hot squash on your hands then don't let it cool for a few minutes.  Get out a soup pot and a food processor.  Puree the squash along with the liquid left in the pan, garlic (just remove each little clove from the little skin pouch and toss 'em in), and onion all together - and don't worry if you still have a few chunks of squash in your puree - it is good that way!!  Place the pureed mixture in the soup pot along with the chicken stock and butter and bring it up to medium heat.  Add about 1-2 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tbsp cayenne (less if you don't like so much kick) and salt and pepper it all to taste.  Let it simmer for as long as you like and serve with a dollop or two of sour cream with some chopped green onion - wipe the drool off your keyboard now.  Enjoy!!

As always, gluten free

Cooking at Mom and Dad's House - a three course in the oven night...

My parents have done so much for me my entire life.  They stuck with me through the thick and the thin, and they still help me out no matter what - it's what family is all about.  I think the least I can do is prepare dinner once in a while.  I believe that if it wasn't for my mom desperately researching to find out what it was in my environment that was making me sick, stupid, and sad that I myself would never have become so interested in food, and what it does to our bodies good or bad.  Through the years I have really developed a love for food, and also a real passion for how food can heal or kill.  Just maybe I can partially repay my parents love by helping them to be healthy and to age gracefully through food, so that one day they may happily grow old without surrendering the last quarter of their life to detrimental illnesses that so often incapacitate the mind and the body.  So tonight represents one meal in that quest - roasted artichoke hearts, mushrooms, onion, and cauliflower, egg souffle with green onions and cilantro served with salsa, a nice salad, and finally (because I believe that my parents secretly cannot eat a dinner without having some sort of dessert - I will have to break them of this) baked apples and raisins with honey and pecans.  Sound good?  Yeah, it was.  Let's start with the roasted veggies:
Ingredients:
2 cans artichoke hearts quartered
1 large head of organic cauliflower (chop off the florets)
1 large pack of baby Portobella mushrooms
1/2 large white onion or 1 small sliced
Dried basil and oregano
6 cloves garlic whole but crushed with a knife blade just to let oils out
Butter
Lemon Juice 
Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper 
Of course - a little cayenne!!


Preparation:
Let's be serious people - if this isn't the easiest but best tasting veggie dish ever then you don't like food - period.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter a large baking dish, throw the artichoke hearts, mushrooms, cauliflower, garlic cloves, and onions in the dish.  Sprinkle about 1 tbsp basil and 1 tbsp oregano all over it, hit it with a little lemon juice, 2-3 pinches of salt, pepper it a little and don't forget a couple pinches of cayenne, and lastly as if this sentence wasn't long enough already, pour about 1/3 cup melted butter all over it.  Now mix it all up so that all of the ingredients get a coat of everything, pack it down a little bit and pop it in the oven for about 45 minutes.  When it comes out, grate a little bit of fresh Parmesan cheese on top and that's it, and it is the best part of this meal - delicious!!

Now for the egg souffle.  This thing is light and fluffy and full of eggy tastiness with a little oniony bite.  I served it with some salsa on the side, but it really didn't even need it.  You will need:
Ingredients:

10 eggs, whites separated from yolks to start (you will use both so don't discard anything - except the shell)

1.5 cups green onions chopped

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Butter

Preparation: 

This is so easy.  The oven is already on for the roasted veggies.  With a beater, whisk the egg whites until they get very thick and creamy - like a stiff foam.  Beat the yolks and add a pinch of salt, green onions, and cilantro to them.  Butter an oven safe, deep dish pan like a large cast iron skillet.  Mix the yolks back in with the whites on low speed with the beaters.  Pour the mixture in the pan and stick her in the oven - just make sure and try to distribute the onions and cilantro evenly.  That will be done when the top turns a dark golden brown - about 30 minutes.  Serve it like it is or with some salsa!

I'll leave the salad ingredients and prep. to you guys.  Let's get it on with some baked apples.

Ingredients:

3 Braeburn apples (cut in to boats, triangles? You know.)

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup raw honey

1/2 cup raisins

1 cup pecans 

Preparation:

Place your apples in a baking dish, sprinkle on the raisins and pecans, pour the butter over this, drizzle on the honey, mix it all up really well and bake it in the oven until the apples reach your desired softness - some like 'em crisp and some like 'em soft.  I actually took mine out after about 10 minutes and stirred it all up again just to make sure the apples on top didn't dry out, and then I put 'em back in for a while.  That's it, another three courser and all in the oven and all stupid simple.  Enjoy!!

As always, gluten free

Today's Lunch

Today we have: Leftover lentil veggie soup, leftover tuna green bean casserole, wild arugula salad with a little homemade vinaigrette on the side, and some celery with peanut butter (peanuts and salt).

My vinaigrette is high quality extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, horseradish mustard, lemon juice, basil, smidge of salt. 

As always, gluten free.

Ridiculous Good Quick and Easy Casserole!!

If you're dedicated to not eating fast food and take-out, and you cook most of your meals, then you probably know what it's like to come home after a long day and look in the cabinets and say, "What in the world am I gonna make tonight?"  It's one of those nights where all planning has escaped us and we're left, tempted to just call in something when that little voice says "NO!"  So you start sifting through all of the ingredients, trying to put a picture together of what dinner is going to consist of...yeah this looks good, that might work, don't want that really, ooooooh yeah I could do that!  That is what is going through your mind as you concoct the masterpiece that you will either regret later, or say dang, that was truly awesome.  Truly awesome is what happened the night Mandy and I were like - hell what about green beans and maybe ummmm Tuna, and well....you get the picture.  This one came out so slammin' that I'm pretty sure Mandy said it was her favorite at that time (now it's the soup I just posted).  I have finally gotten around to making it again with a few tweaks...so here it is, a true throw it together treasure...tuna casserole with homemade cream of mushroom and green beans!!  That's a mouthful that you won't regret.  You will need...

Ingredients:

24 oz. canned wild tuna - light or dark - I use dark

1 qt. jar green beans - mine were from my garden this past summer - equivalent canned or frozen is fine

3 cups homemade cream of mushroom or equivalent, but you will be hard pressed to find one that doesn't have 25 other stupid ingredients in it - MAKE YOUR OWN!! I will include that recipe at the end.

1.5 cups fresh mushrooms

1/2 cup sour cream

1.5 cups shredded grass fed cheddar cheese and extra for top of casserole

2 eggs beaten well

Salt and cayenne pepper 

Butter to grease pan