Jenmenke

Road Warrior

Archives for February 2010

Meatless Monday Eight!

Lowly Potato Soup.

I could almost call this Stone Soup. It’s practically the same thing.

Wait, no. That sounds bad. This really is good soup. It’s seems to make a lot of something out of practically nothing. So, in that way it is like stone soup.

It is a very old family recipe.

Actually, like most things I say, I don’t even know if that is true. It seems like a very old family recipe to me, probably because we don’t have one of those families with a rich tradition of cooking — passing recipes from generation to generation — like some. I remember eating this as a kid. And it wasn’t my mom’s recipe. It was my aunt’s. And my aunt couldn’t cook. So how this recipe came to be a success is a complete mystery, unless it was never hers to begin with. Hence the lore that is is an “old family recipe.”

How’s that sound?

Anyway, this was yet another Meatless Monday where we were not together for dinner. I had my monthly bookclub meeting. It was being held at the best cook in the club and I wasn’t going to miss it for anything. Not even if swedish meatballs were on her menu. Oh my gosh. Those swedish meatballs…

…are fodder for another post….as soon as I wrangle the recipe away from her.

I will be eating meatless today (Tuesday) to make up for my Meatball Monday transgressions and will be looking forward to the potato soup. I should mention that Dave was leaving town again Tuesday, so I couldn’t just push Meatless off until today, because — by God, he was not missing another Meatless Monday, I was going to see to that. So I made them the soup before I left for bookclub. Simple as that.

So the soup. What can I say about it? It is very plain. It is very smooth. It is very plain and smooth.

And also, it is very cheap.

And for some reason, every body seems to love it.

Oh, and it is very, very easy. It must be, because, like I said, my aunt was able to make it without burning it.

But there is nothing spectacular about it. It is just creamy potato goodness.

Oh I forgot another thing: it is very healthy, too. Barely a fat-gram to its name. (Assuming you are not one of the non-carbohydrate freaks of nature.)

So here it is:

Aunt Rita’s Potato Soup (for lack of a better name)
  • Russet potatoes, any size
  • cold water to cover
  • 3T flour
  • 3T butter
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • cheese for garnish
  • bacon bits if you are not partaking in Meatless Monday!
  • fried homemade durkee onions if you ARE partaking in Meatless Monday*

* which I will post if anyone is interested. They were so good!

Put unpeeled, whole cleaned potatoes in a large dutch oven or saucepan with a lid. (for 4 people with left overs, I used 4 baker-sized potatoes) Cover potatoes with cold water by about 1/2″ – 1″. Bring to a simmer and partially cover. Cook until potatoes are tender. DO NOT THROW OUT THE BOILING WATER. Drain the potatoes, reserving the water.

Let potatoes slightly cool and peel. Put the potatoes back into the pot and mash. You can put them thru a ricer or food mill first, for perfectly smooth potatoes, or you can use a hand masher. The idea for this soup is to get it mostly smooth.

For the roux, put 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet, stirring together as the butter melts. Cook, bubbling, over low to medium low heat about 5 minutes — just until the mixture barely turns a shade darker. (If you are making soup for less than 4 or 5, cut the flour and butter to 2T each.)

Over low to medium heat, add the cooking water back to the mashed potatoes, stirring until smooth, then add the roux stirring well. Simmer 10 minutes or so, adding more water if soup is too thick. Salt and pepper to taste. (it will need salt!)

My cousins insisted that you had to put the shredded cheese into the bottom of the bowl, so of course we do, using cojack or cheddar or whatever else green-sided hunk of cheese we find in the fridge. Then, add the soup and top with garnish of your choice. The garnish being a Menke addition.

Here is the picture Morgan took of her bowl, with the fried onion crisps, which were my attempt to combat the yearning for bacon. They scarfed them up so fast there were hardly enough for the garnish. Lord knows there weren’t any left for me today, so I can’t say one way or the other if the idea worked.

And here was my bowl that I had for lunch today. I added some chopped frozen chives for a little kick:

OK, I lied. I couldn’t take it:

So shoot me. It wasn’t Monday.

Dare Me?

Meatless Monday Eight Prequel.

I’m home alone.

I’m making dinner for tonight’s Meatless Monday.

No, no. I haven’t turned over a new leaf. I have bookclub tonight and a busy afternoon of kid stuff. So I’m being proactive.

So yeah, maybe I am turning over a new leaf. But just for today.

I’m making this really old family favorite potato soup recipe. And you know how I love to use up stuff from my pantry…

So anyway, do you dare me?

(you would think Dave would wise up and start reading this blog, if only to protect himself.)

Lola Therapy Day

Lola, Lola, Lola.

When I wrote the tribute to Buzz, and over the next several days, I wondered often to myself what I would write about Lola, if she had been the dog we lost instead.

I don’t know if — simply because Buzz is gone — we automatically elevate him to ‘good dog’ status, or if he really was that much easier of a dog to describe and cozy up to. Maybe it’s just the characteristics of different breeds, Buzz being a vizsla and Lola being a shorthair. Don’t get me wrong, there are admirable qualities to shorthairs! I just don’t know if I would call them ‘lovable qualities’!

Even though she’s independent, she was very attached to Buzz and I worried about her being lonely and confused without him. Thankfully(?), we were scheduled to take care of Pippi/Poopy (my Mom and Dad’s dog) within days of losing Buzz — and Lola loves Pippi. An odd but true fact, considering her demeanor with most others of the canine persuasion.

Having Pippi here took away the immediate emptiness of life without Buzz. It was two weeks of chaos and constant playing. But, now she’s gone and Lola is alone again. So, we had a Lola Therapy day yesterday, where I paid her tons of attention and affection.

I don’t think she even noticed.

Undaunted by her vacant eyes, I pressed on with photos and treats. (She did notice the treats.)

A tribute to Lola? No, because, frankly, it’s unimaginable.

But she is photogenic. So, let’s just call this the ‘many faces of Lola’:

She is Cujo. (with other dogs.)

She is a Sociopath. (If a sociopath is defined as having no conscience, coupled with ’empty eyes’.) Like Charles Manson.

She is Aloof.

She is always Depressed (yes. even as a puppy. particularly in summer. by the pool. in the heat).

She is Naughty. (*see Sociopath.) And yes, those are my pea plants. But you could substitute just about any garden plant and she would be guilty. Last fall, she even dug up a row of carrots and ate them.

She is sometimes Surprising. Shown here with her baby kitty that she ‘mothered’, blowing us all away with her gentleness.

And now, she is Lonely.

She is complicated.

But really, aren’t we all?

Morgan’s 15th Birthday Meal

I don’t know what to say.

She wanted “Fuddruckers” and “French Silk.”

Leave it to me to turn that into a personal challenge. Cuz Lord knows most people would simply get in the car with their wallets and go.

(Before you start berating me for being lazy, crazy, martyr, glutton, etc., you need to know that we had already gone out the night before to celebrate at Big Bowl.)

So, for her actual birthday dinner, I asked her what she wanted. And when she told me, I figured I could get away with having Dave pick up a genuine Baker’s Square French Silk pie and serving burgers with some form of the requested “liquid cheese — like Fuddruckers.”

Nope. No such luck.

When I asked Dave to pick the pie up on his way home, he looked at me like I had three heads. Of course he never actually said anything, mind you. He just stood there looking at me, incredulous.

My first reaction was to start yelling that not everyone considers a birthday done-and-over just because you happened to go out for dinner the night before! For Heaven’s Sake! She’s turning 15! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?! Just because YOU don’t think birthday’s are a BIG DEAL, doesn’t mean that I have to AGREE WITH YOU. What? WHAT!

(Are you picturing the scene? I need you to picture the scene)

Then he said: “No, it’s not that I don’t want to pick it up. I just can’t. I’m out of town tomorrow night.”

Oh.

I guess I was supposed to use my oft-requested powers of ESP to know that. Rewind the tape. Erase that last part.

So anyway, rather than drive 30 miles to Baker’s Square, I opted instead to make it all from scratch. I was surprised to find about a gajillion links for Fuddruckers burger seasoning mix(!) and several copycat French Silk Pie recipes.

I didn’t find a true Fuddrucker’s copycat for their french fries, though I think the recipe I used came awfully close.

Everything was amazing, aside from me overcooking the hamburgers, dammit! And, the cheese sauce left a bit to be desired. But that may have been due to the fact that I was trying to make due with what I had on hand (no surprise there) and I was admittedly light on the cheese side of the cheese sauce.

I included links to the recipes I used above. Just so you know, I halved the french silk pie recipe and put it into an itty bitty pie plate. I also thinned out the batter for the fries to be much runnier than the recipe called for and liked them better that way. The cheese sauce? Well, let’s just skip that one, shall we?

Morgan felt very loved.

Or at least I think she felt loved.

If you eat until you feel sick, does that mean you feel loved?

Meatless Monday Seven!

And Valentine’s Day wrapped up in one.

Dave gave me two cookbooks for Valentine’s Day. One was an Indian cookbook and the other was a vegetarian cookbook. Which proves that even though he is pissing and moaning about Meatless Mondays, he is – in fact – encouraging me to continue.

I was very excited. I made an Indian pork dish for our Valentine’s Day dinner. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, being that most Indians don’t eat pork, but apparently a few in the south do (The Christian ones, the recipe states). It was delicious. Even my daughter’s friend — a notoriously picky eater — liked it. And that’s saying something.

So, for Meatless Monday Seven, I decided to cook something out of the other one. The vegetarian one. Both cookbooks have lovely pictures — a must, for me. I know there are many, many, many fabulous cookbooks that don’t have pictures. They just don’t appeal to me anymore. Maybe I don’t have the time to really delve in. I don’t know. I judge cookbooks-by-their-covers and that’s all there is too it.

The point is, these both had lovely pictures.

However, after cooking out of both. The Indian is in the lead. The vegetarian one has two fails so far. And I’m wondering:

Can I return it and say I don’t like it after having used it? Like you supposedly can with make-up you have already opened? Even though I don’t actually return make-up I have already opened and hate? Because it just seems wrong? Then I’m mad and vow to stop buying make-up at the drugstore from now on. When I should just return it. Anyone else suffer this same madness? Madness as in — mental illness?

Anyway.

I wonder what Barnes and Nobel would say if I brought it back and said, “The cellophane noodles called for in the recipe for Thai Spicy noodles are clearly NOT cellophane noodles in the photo. I want my money back!”

Because that really bugs me.

Don’t take a picture of the finished dish and make it look better with different noodles than the recipe calls for. That’s FRAUD!

Being that I am generous and forgiving in nature, I did not give up on this cookbook for that obvious failing. I generously cooked not one, but two recipes from it: 1) Refritos Gateau and 2) Sage Buttered Parsnips.

Let’s start with 2), because it’s faster: Sage Buttered Parsnips are, well… sage. buttered. parsnips. That’s the “recipe.” Cook parsnips, drain and mix with sage and butter. I fricken’ kid you not. But still I made them. I even followed the recipe for once! Oooh. Aaah. They were AMAZING. Ohh. ah. This cookbook. Is. Amazing!!

Moving on to 1) Refritos Gateau. It sounded quite promising. In the end though, it was little more than refried beans with melted cheese and sour cream. All the other stuff in the photo at the top? That was my attempt to cover up the ghastly-looking patties so that my family wouldn’t barf when they sat down to dinner. I’m sure it wasn’t any coincidence that caused the editors to skip Refritos Gateau when selecting recipes to photograph for the cookbook.

It tasted just fine. It was even good. It simply did not deserve 1 hour of my time when I could have just as easily opened three cans of beans, popped them in the microwave with some cheese and served them with sour cream, avocados and other miscellaneous accouterments.

Because that was what it tasted like. Nevermind the sautéed onions, eggs (? Yes. eggs. which were a complete waste of delicious fresh eggs) and the other blather called for in the recipe. Dividing it, baking it, in two springform pans (!), assembling it, warming it in the oven, spreading it with sour cream, back into the oven, blah blah blah, waste my time no more!

I will not give up on this book yet. I will give it more chances and report back. But if it continues on this downward path, look out. Hell hath no fury like a cook scorned. And I will unleash that fury with ratings anywhere and everywhere I can. (Just ask the poor sods who sent me the wrong furnace filter and made me pay the return shipping.)

(Valentines Day is not just for people)

Free Valentine Cards Output

I’m a little late for this, but if anyone else is scrambling for a school Valentine Party at their kid’s school tomorrow, here is what I just did.

You probably won’t think it’s as funny as I do, since they aren’t your animals. But it might do in a pinch!

Click on this for the link to the higher resolution image at flickr, download the file to your computer, open up and print. Set your printer to “borderless” or “scale to fit” and then trim the white edges.

Do let me know if you use them, because then I will know there is someone even more more unorganized than me.

[If it makes you feel any better, I’ll be stopping at the grocery store on the way to school and Charlie will be armed with a stapler to staple the candy to the card. Nothing like being prepared, is my motto!]

Enjoy!

Faster than a Frozen Pizza Green Curry

Approximately three times a week, at about 6pm, I can be heard asking anyone standing within earshot, “Should we have Green Curry tonight?”

So sick have my family become of this question, that now treat it as rhetorical.

Tonight I had Green Curry.

It should be noted that the vocal portion of the family were gone. That left Charlie and myself as a voters. And he is mere putty in my hands, the poor boy. He actually seems to want to please me!

Maybe it’s the headphones clasped to head, with guns roaring in the background as he plays Call of Duty Modern Warfare (don’t worry, he has the “blood turned off”, whatever that means) as I asked him his preference between frozen pizza and Green Curry. Maybe it is his sweet nature. It really doesn’t matter. He let me decide.

I ate way too much and now I feel sick, sitting in bed with the place all to myself. Books and magazines spread out across the entire surface…

But that’s not the point.

The point is, this is, by far, the fastest meal in my repertoire. Even if I start with frozen chicken. It is also one of my most favorite meals. I. Love. Green. Curry. Anything.

Maybe the delicious nature of green curry is responsible for cultures that eat dogs? I really swear you could put anything into the silky green liquid and it would taste like heaven.

I digress. And not in a good way.

I have long drooled over tempting recipes with long ingredient lists patiently pounded out with a mortar and pestle, ending in a curry paste that promises to be the best I’ve ever tasted.

And yet, I’ve never settled down to make one from scratch. I keep meaning to. It sounds fun. but…

WHY SHOULD I, WHEN THIS HEAVEN-IN-A-CAN EXISTS?

Honestly. I love it. Everything is already in there: kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, bamboo shoots, coconut milk…

Before my friend Beth (who used to live in Thailand, I might add) turned me on to this brand, I used to nurse along a kaffir lime plant and a lemongrass catastrophe-in-a-pot so I could make a decent curry from the Thai Kitchen brand green curry paste available in grocery stores and I would never be without my favorite meal. It was really good. But it was a giant pain in the ass.

I’m exaggerating: it wasn’t really all that huge of a pain in the ass; only when compared to the curry in a can that I use now.

Here are the steps to making it:

  • about 20 minutes before we need to eat, I run downstairs, grab some chicken thighs or chicken breasts from freezer.
  • I submerge frozen chicken package in warm water. I don’t defrost in the microwave anymore because I got sick of partially cooked corners and I think it changes the texture of the meat.
  • I rifle around for any (and I mean any) languishing vegetables to toss in: peas pods(or frozen peas), tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, potatoes, eggplant, carrots… anything.

  • I cut chicken into large bites, discarding any globs of fat from the thighs (which I like better than breasts for this)
  • If feeling dandy and I have the time, I brown the chicken before dumping in the can of curry. It’s not necessary, but does prevent weird chicken dust from forming in broth. I can’t think of any other way to describe that stuff that floats in the sauce. If done right, it also creates brown bits that I scrape up when I add the curry, which adds some extra flavor.

  • I simmer until chicken is cooked thru, adding veggies in last minutes.

  • And finally, I serve it over jasmine rice

Tonight, starting with frozen chicken thighs, I had dinner on the table in 15 minutes. The thighs took 5 minutes to thaw. The curry took 10 minutes to cook. And the rice was ready in 15.

I ate two full bowls and then ate the rest of Charlie’s. And then ate a bunch more as I put the leftovers away.

Send help.

[update: it is now lunch. I am over my sickness and preparing to eat the rest for lunch in 44 minutes.]