Crazy for Cranberries

It's not just the cranberries themselves I'm crazy about. It's the memories and traditions surrounding my grandmother's cranberry relish that drive me wild. How could a food so simple and humble contain so much nostalgia? No doubt it is the fact that they are served during the Thanksgiving holiday - when family and friends take center stage. This year was no exception. I loved having my dining room filled with people I love, enjoying each other's company and reflecting on the things in our lives we are thankful for. I'm thankful for my grandmother who shared her recipe with me, and I'm thankful for my friends Sara and Greg who I passed the recipe on to. I hope my daughter will make it and serve it as well, in the years ahead, becoming crazy for cranberries for more reasons than one.

Nannie's Cranberry Relish
1 package cranberries
1 orange, peeled
2 apples, center removed (pears can be used as well); I like my apples tart, like Granny Smith
2 cups sugar (you don't have to use this much if you don't want it really sweet)
Grind all ingredients in a food processor. Move to nice clear serving bowl and add sugar. Cover tightly and refrigerate. Best made the day before!

The Mixed Up Month of March

In Kansas City, March suffers from Schizophrenia. This I am sure. Delusions of spring are ever-present - the greening of the lawns, the lengthening of the days, the tips of hostas, hyacinths and crocus peeping through the frozen ground. But no. It is not to be. My furnace stills hums all day long, my winter coats cannot yet be put away and the threat of snow still lingers in the forecast. It has been a harsh winter here in the midwest, and the forsythia is far from blooming. The garden stores are slow to stock the plants I crave to lift my spirits and brighten my mood. I imagine the warm sun on my face, I imagine my fingers in the dirt and I imagine the cool night breeze wafting through my bedroom window. I am hallucinating. I cannot do these things in March. So I may as well make the most of it. Enjoy the madness of the basketball world. Enjoy the gray weekends that force me to clean closets and go to the movies. And cook winter soups for a few more weeks. Now that being said, maybe March is not so bad after all.
Winter Bean Soup
(Serves 6; one of the easiest dishes ever!)
2 cans cannelloni beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
3 cups fresh baby spinach
3 cups chicken broth
3 gloves garlic, sauteed in olive oil
1 tsp. each basil, oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb. Italian sausage
Peel garlic and sauté in a tablespoon of olive oil until fragrant, 3-4 minutes. Add the beans and the chicken broth and simmer for 45 minutes. Add spinach and herbs and cook for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, brown the sausage (form in to patties or use sausage links).
Place the sausage in the bottom of a soup bowl and ladle heaping helping of soup over the top. Serve immediately. Yum! A nice crusty bread would be great with this, and a glass of Malbec. Spring can wait.
P.S. The soup is best if eaten right away. The spinach gets a bit ugly after sitting for a day, so its not that appetizing as a leftover.

Why not Kumquats?

How could I get to be this old, this adventurous with food, this knowledgeable about fruits --- and NEVER HAD A KUMQUAT until now? Just saying the word makes me smile. What a happy little thing it is, too. Small - about the size of a quail's egg. Bright orange. A sweet rind and a sour flesh.
The taste reminds me a bit of a Starburst candy. Having just been to sunny (but unusually cold) Florida, I popped dozens into my mouth all week long. Crunchy (you eat the skin and all) and full of flavor, they make the perfect healthy snack. It's nice to know that there are all kinds of simple pleasures out there that I've yet to discover. Perhaps a trip to Whole Foods is in order. Why not? Surprise and delight could be just around the culinary corner.

Golden Memories from The Silver Palate

I have a cookbook that is so well worn that the spine is split in several places. I can remember my mom's cookbooks looking the same way when I was younger, and wondering why in the world she didn't get rid of them. Little did I know. It's not just what's on the printed page. It's the memories that are a part of each recipe that make the book so special. The grease stains, the tomato paste, the notes written casually in the margins. They are all reminders of happy cooking days gone by.
I used one of my favorite golden oldies tonight (The Silver Palate), for a simple vinaigrette recipe. It was given to me as a gift in 1984, before I hardly knew how to cook, from my dear friend Laurel. I learned more than a few great lessons from Laurel - about cooking and about life. And every time I pull The Silver Palate off my bookshelf I think of her. I love those memories, which is one reason why I think I like to cook so much, even today. From the same, worn out cookbooks.

(The classic vinergrette recipe is provided below, but check out the pesto and quiche recipes, if you can. Still my favorite after all these years.)

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 garlic clove, peeled and pressed
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup best-quality olive oil

Press garlic in a glass cruet. Whisk mustard and vinegar together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and add to cruet. Dribble oil into the vessel in a slow steady stream. Shake well. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Let the dressing stand at room temperature until you need it. Refrigerate leftovers. This should be used within a week for best results.

Go Green - In the Kitchen

I admit from the start that I am a fan of the environmental movement. I'm pretty good about the little things - like using the right light bulbs, reusing whatever I can (i.e. the Sunday comics are my favorite wrapping paper), learning more about my own carbon foot print and investing in companies that are looking for alternative energy sources (thanks to my ultra green husband). My early teachers were the Silha family - the head of household being the publisher of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. It was good for business and good for the environment. In the early 70's, before recycling was in vogue, they taught me to save my old newspapers for the recycle bin. Education played a big part in my commitment, as it does with most efforts to change behavior. So I'd like to do my part now, and help educate others about simple ways to help our planet. Here's to going green in my favorite room of the house.... the kitchen.

Richard Ehrlich's "The Green Kitchen" provides techniques and recipes for cutting energy use, saving money and reducing waste. Here's just a few examples:
1. Use plastic containers and avoid aluminum and plastic wrap whenever possible.
2. Cook for multiple meals (freeze the "leftovers" if you don't want to eat the same thing twice in a week)
3. Compost your kitchen food waste. Here's the best system I know for a reasonable price:
http://www.amazon.com/All-Seasons-Indoor-Composter-Bokashi/dp/B000TKHJAU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1264368145&sr=8-1-catcorr. It's easy, odor free, improves your garden and helps the environment. (Should I mention I work for the company that sells the product?)

Any green kitchen tips of your own? I'd love to hear. We can all go green together.

Wise Women Buy Holiday Hams

It was fitting last week, on January 6, Epiphany, that we finished our holiday ham -- FINALLY. It fed my family and guests for several weeks, with little effort and lots of taste. We had cold ham sandwiches on egg rolls, four-cheese macaroni and ham, grilled ham and manchego cheese on pumpernickel bread (yum!), Navy beans and ham, and bean soup (seasoned with the ham hock). I felt quite smug as I dreamed up yet another way to serve the same old thing again and again.

Epiphany is about offering gifts. Only this time, it was a wise woman who had trudged over to the Honey-Baked Ham store to buy it for me the week of Christmas. Thank you sister Susan! In return, I offer my all-time favorite soup recipe to you, starring - what else - ham. Don't wait for a holiday, though. Serve it to your friends anytime. They'll think you wise and wonderful.

Parkway 600 Wild Rice Soup
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
3 cups cooked wild rice
1 cup ham, julienne
1 cup carrots, julienne
1/4 teas. salt
1 teas. white pepper
1/2 teas. curry
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup half & half
Cook onions and celery in butter until tender. Add flour slowly to make a roux. Cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Combine liquids and slowly add to flour mixture. Add remaining ingredients. Cook 30 minutes.

Our Histories Unfold Around the Table

"It's true. Dining tables are part of history." Deep in the heart of The Lacuna (Barbara Kingsolver's latest epic tale), this sentence jumps off the page at me. In the novel, the history unfolding around the table was luminous - Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo Rivera discussing the plight of the common people. But history unfolds around simple lives as well, as families and friends gather around dining tables all over the world to share events of the day and forge a connection with each other. Who's to say which one impacts history most?

It is the dining table that draws me to the kitchen. I want to entice people to come together - and food is my favorite way to do so. This holiday was no exception. It has been a holiday filled with conversations, with love and laughter and a bouquet of food and drink - all culminating around the dining table. I am indeed a lucky girl - reflecting on my own history as one year ends and another begins.

So what recipe can I share that reminds me of this time? It could be something fancy and festive to match the significance of the year's end. But I'm a meat and potatoes girl I believe. So I'll stick with the basics. Who doesn't like mashed potatoes? It's a challenge, though, to prepare them for a dozen guests, right before the meal. This has become a family favorite for big holidays - prepared the day before, ready to pop in the oven. One of my daughter's requests. So it will become a part of her history too.

Mashed Potato Casserole (adapted from Southern Living, years ago)
3 lbs. potatoes
1/2 cup melted butter
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 teas. salt
1/4 cup milk (or more, to make the potatoes good and creamy)
Cook, peel and mash the potatoes, adding the butter, cream cheese, sour cream and milk for smooth consistency. Add salt. Put in 9" X 13" casserole dish. Cook at 350° for 45 minutes. Enjoy.