Family Salmon Pie

This is like shepherd's pie, only with canned salmon and white sauce instead of beef and gravy. I riffed on two recipes. One came from The Little Irish Baking Book, which is a delightful read that tucks me into the Irish countryside.

The other recipe was from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Country Cookbook, which is delightful for the interior photos of Rocky Ridge. 

I added some parsley and spinach with the peas, and kicked up the white sauce with some onion, celery seed, and dry mustard. When I drained the liquid off the canned salmon, I used that as part of the liquid for the white sauce. 

Even so, I thought the whole thing was a little on the bland side, but my family was enthusiastic. My husband called it comfort food. Good thing they all had seconds because the pie filled up my casserole dish more than I expected from my guesstimates and I was hoping I didn't have a big dud on my hands.

 

My mom filled this same casserole dish with macaroni and cheese when I was a kid. . . comfort food. . . one of the nostalgic necessities of home life.

And also, I realized I was making this Irish recipe wearing the Irish fisherman's sweater my parents got in Ireland in the 1970s when my mom was pregnant with me. I love these objects freighted with memories which are also in happy use in my current life!

Welcome Winter Soup

 Welcome, winter, I love you so. The colors of winter are my favorites, the yellowing fields and sharp brown trees. The thin sharp air. The late afternoon light, especially in my pretty city on the old red brick. I love being snug, seeing lights in the windows, making the house smell good with baking and soup. . . .so much soup. 

Let's not even talk about Christmas, ok? That ridiculously overdone thing that needs to stop hogging winter. We're doing Christmas at my house, yes, and my children are all in a tizzy about it, but I'm focused on winter. . . and soup. 

Here's one of my favorites, from Fountain Avenue Kitchen. My photos are mediocre, snapped in the rush of supper and daily life, but I promise you this recipe is a keeper.

With a loaf of homemade bread (also one of my favorite house smells), it's a supper we all love. I have fudged some of the amounts in this recipe or swapped ingredients, depending what I have on hand, and it's always delicious.

Tuscan Lentil Soup

Saute in olive oil in biggish soup pot:

1/2 lb. loose Italian sausage, or ground beef with some sage and fennel

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, diced

1-2 ribs celery, chopped

When the sausage is browned, add:

2 tsp. Italian herbs

1 tsp. salt

good sprinkle red pepper flakes, however much heat you want

1 1/2 c. diced canned tomatoes (a 14.5 oz. can)

4 cups stock of choice, chicken recommended

1 cup water

1 cup dry brown lentils

1 potato, diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

Cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add:

2-3 cups chopped kale or spinach

2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

freshly ground pepper, to taste

Taste for salt. Add a bit more water if needed. I sometimes add some more herbs at this point. Serve in soup bowls with freshly grated Parmesan on top. So so so good. 

Exactly What I Want To Eat

 I am slow to acquire cookbooks, although I do read a lot of cookbooks. I want cookbooks that I really use a lot. After checking out Dinner: Changing the Game by Melissa Clark from the library over and over, I bought a used copy this winter. 

Summer Vegetable Salad with Tapenade

No exaggeration, I have cooked 1-2 recipes from Dinner every week since then.

I love the concept: each recipe is meant to be dinner and she suggests side dishes if you want some ideas. Very few of the recipes require time ahead of time for marinating or something. Most of her technique is unfussy or flexible where it's unusual, and she's not bossy or snobby. Most of the food I've made has been delicious and creative and very more-ish. Melissa Clark's pantry is pretty similar to my pantry, apparently, and she has new combinations and suggestions that we have loved. Only a few dishes were just average or more work than I care to do for supper. 

Chilled Cucumber & Corn Soup 

The suggested Avocado Toasts to go with the soup

Some of our favorites are Coriander Seed Chicken with Caramelized Brussel Sprouts. . . Roasted Carrots with Walnuts, Feta, and Dill. . . Fresh Corn Cakes with Tomatoes and Fried Sage. . . Watermelon Gazpacho with Avocado. . . Mediterranean Tuna & Olive Spread. . . 

According to her website, Melissa Clark has over 3 dozen published cookbooks. I'm amazed. How does she have the time and talent to produce such excellent, diverse recipes? I'm a huge fan!

What's your go-to cookbook these days? 

Kale-Sauce Pasta

I found this recipe in The New York Times a couple years ago and it has been in regular rotation ever since because

1. It is delicious.

2. It is easy.

3. It uses pantry staples. 

4. It's a complete balanced meal if you need it to be. 

I've used it as a side-dish to fish or grilled meat. Here we are having cold grilled turkey leftover from a birthday dinner. It's great for using up scrappy pieces of kale and if the stems are not too thick, I don't even bother stemming the leaves anyway.

 I've used all kinds of pasta to make this. Sometimes I increase the sauce amounts to use a full pound of pasta because my people eat a lot of food these days. 

I'm also cooking outside on a single-burner induction cooktop to keep the steamy heat out of the house. I keep hotpads and an extension cord right in the drawer there. 

I've made this in kitchens in summer vacation houses - just check first that there's a blender or something like it.  

Kale-Sauce Pasta

1. In large pot of salted boiling water, blanch 1/2-1lb. kale, thick ribs removed.

2. Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup olive oil in small pan and gently over low heat cook 2-3 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely. When I can smell the delicious garlic scent and small bubbles are forming around the pieces, I pull it off the heat. Definitely do not let it brown!

3. Pour garlic oil with garlic in blender. 

4. Fish kale out of water with tongs and add to blender. 

5. Add 1/4 cup hot kale water. Add 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan. 

6. Puree. It will be a lovely green!
7. Cook 1/2-3/4lb. pasta in the same hot kale water. 

8. Mix kale sauce and hot pasta, adding freshly ground pepper to taste, as well as more salt and Parmesan as desired. 

The Week in Suppers: end of April, pandemic-style

Monday: baked Boston blue fish using Aunt Maggie's recipe; lemony mashed potatoes (recipe below); green salad; oatmeal jam bars made with spiced grape butter)

Tuesday: Pierogies sauteed with radish tops + garlic, German red cabbage, sourdough crackers with cream cheese + pepper jam
Notes: I do not boil frozen commercial pierogies anymore.  Just thaw them for an hour or few at room temperature, then saute until they get some nicely browned edges and are hot through.  I like to saute them with onions and apples, but here I had some radish tops and was short on onions.  So I improvised!

Wednesday: polenta & eggs from Smitten Kitchen Everyday, French bread + olive oil, sauteed kale with garlic & lime, black bean brownies + the last little bit of mint choc chip ice cream
Notes: It took almost 30 minutes to bake the eggs when the recipe implied it would take only a few minutes. No evening commitments tonight, so it didn't matter.  Flavor was worth it, though!
Also, if you chop the kale stems very thinly and put them in the hot pan for 5-10 minutes by themselves with the lid on, they will be tender enough to eat with the sauteed leaves.  It's a small thing I do to cut down on food waste.

Thawing for supper.

Thursday: chicken tikka masala in the slow cooker from Stock the Crock with swiss chard as well; turmeric brown rice; nigella seed naan; pear chutney; pickled lemons
Notes: If I'm making a saucy stew with a flavorful sauce, I usually bulk it up with vegetables to capture the sauce.
Also, I mixed the nigella seed directly into the naan dough this time because it kept falling off when I sprinkled it on top in previous batches.  Success!
I'm working on using my little jars of canned goodness.  Hence the spiced grape butter on Monday, pepper jam on Tuesday, and chutney here.

Friday: pepperoni/onion pizza, fancy mushroom pizza with white sauce and truffle oil, radish top and green olive pizza; chips!!! frozen peaches
Notes: The fancy mushrooms are from a local farm who normally sells to restaurants. My husband gave me truffle oil and truffle salt for Christmas - I am totally hooked. I tried to recreate a mushroom pizza from a local restaurant I love and I'm very pleased with my version - except that I forgot to put salt in the dough when I mixed it up which shows the state of my brain these days.

Saturday: take-out Chinese!
Notes: We rarely buy take-out or go to restaurants as a family, but we wanted to support our favorite local Chinese place. It was a total treat - a break from the heavy-duty cooking I do and so delicious.

Lemony Mashed Potatoes
I got the recipe from Jennifer, who got it from Melissa Clark.  I don't really consider it a salad, and this is how I make it.

Boil until very tender:
2 1/2 -3 lbs. chopped potatoes with skin on

While they are cooking, mix together in bowl:
zest & juice of 1 lemon
1/3 c. olive oil
2 Tbsp. mayo
1 Tbsp. grainy mustard
1 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2 c. sliced scallions

Drain potatoes. Gently pour hot potatoes on mixture and mash with a potato masher until thoroughly mixed.  Serve immediately while hot or let sit and serve at room temperature.

Home-All-Day Beans

Now we are home all day, every day, thanks to COVID-19.  I'm a little distracted and I'm prone to teariness - is that what you're doing? I start something, walk off, and do something else, and stare into space, and burst into tears.

We are playing board games, doing chores, watching movies, eating our normal good food with extra desserts (morale booster!), and deliberately, consciously, running around in the fresh air every day. I am an introvert and a homebody, so overall, if I don't look too hard at what is causing this situation, I'm content to cuddle down and nest with my dear ones. 

So, the beans. I actually don't have a photo of these beans because they only look like black beans, a little bit soupy. Enjoy these photos of Phoebe playing her daddy Uno instead!

As I put the beans in my slow cooker this morning, I realized they are just absolutely what I want to be cooking in this strange time.  They are forgiving of my distraction, they do well with little check-ins throughout the day but they're fine without, they might get done early if the beans are fresh and then they can sit and wait for dinner.  They use pantry staples, and they are cheap and nutritious. They don't make a big mess, which is lovely because even though I have time - lots of time! -  to clean up the kitchen, I'd rather be sewing.  These beans are the kind of  simple, fundamental food we didn't realize we were craving.  They are creamy and salty and while they have flavor, they can be a side dish or the main dish of a meal.  Tonight we ate them spooned over cornbread with a crunchy purple cabbage salad with cilantro and lime and frying cheese. Also great next to garlicky greens and mac and cheese, or over rice with salsa.

Home-All-Day Beans
Put 1-3 cups dry beans, whatever color you like, in slow cooker in morning (I typically do 2 cups black beans in my 4-quart cooker).  Add water to cover by an inch or so.  Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil, a few shakes of cumin, a sliced garlic clove or two - I just slice it in my fingers with a paring knife, very quick and casual.  Turn on High. In an hour or so, stir the beans, add a little more garlic or cumin, and keep it all cooking.  I check on the beans intermittently, tasting and adding more garlic and cumin if I feel moved, and when they are almost soft, I add salt (the experts vary on when to salt cooking beans - eye roll - I get contrary sometimes and add it whenever I want to).  Sometimes I turn the cooker down to Low.  Sometimes I take the lid off mid-afternoon if the beans have more liquid than I meant them to have.

Phoebe lost the Uno game, can you tell? Be well, friends. Let's keep in touch and lift each other up.

Still Here

I have plans to knit myself a robin's egg blue hat.  I'm almost done with a pair of striped socks for Phoebe. 

The superintendent came to the PTO meeting tonight, and I am now fired up about inequitable school funding and considering more ways to get involved. Mr. Thrift is not pleased, as I run intense about stuff like this and he would prefer I calm down. I might.

The oldest has a new pet, a sweet little bunny,  that she worked long and hard to prepare for, but I was still out to the Amish stores yesterday to buy pellets and see about getting hay for her to burrow in. 

I bought the most beautiful, soft fabric at the creative reuse store the other day - I think, I dare to hope, it may be cashmere; the strongest, most declarative green  - not kelly, not dark green, just a strong, rich green green.  

I overheard a standholder at market say she needed to get rubberbands for the egg cartons, and I had a bag of rubber bands down to her the very next market day because I am oversupplied.  We were both tickled.  And this is also the stand that still has local storage veggies, which I am so grateful for because buying and eating local food is my act of defiance and hope in the face of very large world problems.  

Phoebe has had a dreadful cough and of course, it is worst at night and people are sleeping poorly around here. We read the news about the coronavirus with disbelief and worry. 

I do laundry every day.  I keep up!  I keep the family in good food.  I have a sore foot that is healing very very slowly, so I can't jog as much and this is changing my mental and physical health.  I do Pilates.  I try. 

Ben has soccer games and soccer practices just about all the time (it seems).  He just absolutely loves it, so I try to work on my attitude about driving him all over creation.  We carpool, and I take my knitting along, and I enjoy my boy enjoying himself. 

I am studying sourdough bread.  I have borrowed books on the subject, and one or two blogs I read.  I made a few notes.  I make something with sourdough every week, as I have for about 10 years now, but I am tweaking and understanding it differently, and the feel of the silky strong dough is pure delight in my hands. 

I finished Phoebe's quilt.  That does really need its own blog post. I'll be back.

Singapore Street Noodles

My husband found this recipe somewhere online and cooked it with Ben when it was Ben's turn to make supper.  Total keeper recipe!  We all love it. I've tweaked it a bit, and I've also subbed in whatever vegetables and protein I had on hand: the sauce is the important part.

I loved the street food scene in Crazy Rich Asians because I love food.  Eating Singapore Street Noodles gives me a tiny little connection to the food on screen.

To cook this recipe, do all the prep and chopping first.  Once the wok for the stir-frying part gets going, you won't have time to chop anything or untie a jump-rope or check a child's "cleaned" room or supervise screen time.  Or maybe that's just me.

Singapore Street Noodles

Cook and set aside:
16 oz. pasta or rice noodles, skinny strands preferred - toss with 1 Tbsp. sesame oil after cooking to prevent sticking

Mix and set aside:
1/2 cup oyster sauce

2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. ketchup
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. curry powder
1 tsp. sriracha, or to taste (some of us add more at the table)

Stir fry in large skillet or wok over high heat:
2 Tbsp. oil
8 oz. chopped, raw chicken breast

Add and cook for 2 minutes:
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 cup thinly sliced cabbage
1/2 cup julienned carrots
2 tomatoes, diced

Add:
8 oz. peeled raw shrimp
sauce

Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add cooked noodles - use tongs to lift and toss and combine well for 2-3 minutes.

Turn off heat.  Add:
1/2-1 cup chopped cilantro
4-5 spring onions in 1" lengths

Notes: I don't usually use chicken.  I use more shrimp or sub tofu or mushrooms. Boneless skinless chicken breasts are super-expensive if you buy local, organic chicken; the reasonable price is a whole chicken, and I can't be bothered to skin and bone a breast for this.