ruts, projects, and water samples

Wow, I haven't blogged since the 8th. Occasionally I think about it, but I didn't really have anything to say. I do have cute things about Kevin/Heidi posts that I update occasionally, but I haven't been ready to post them yet. Oh, and Ryan's parents came and visited, but I haven't gotten around to uploading the pictures yet.

I have been in a rut when it comes to reading books. I'm not really sure how many books I have started without finishing in the past couple of months. Wives and Daughters, Silent Spring, Out of the Silent Planet, The Dark Is Rising, probably several more. I've tried rereading favorites, starting ones I've always wanted to read, reading books that others recommended, and most books just haven't done it for me. The only one I actually finished was Flowers for Algernon. I read it several years ago and liked it pretty well, but this time I couldn't put it down. I started it in the evening, read until 2 a.m. and couldn't sleep even then, and finished it the next day. It has a lot more meaning now than it did when I was younger because I've had more life experiences (relationships, marriage, children, college, etc.). In the end I cried. But after that I still haven't been able to get out of the rut. I've started Isaac Asimov's Foundation, and it seems promising, so we'll see. I think a lot of my problem is that I have a lot of other things that need to get done and I feel bad reading when I really ought to be finishing homework or a project.

It looks like we're going to have a rather handmade Christmas. I keep thinking about what I could get the kids for Christmas and I just don't want any more toys. But I do have a lot of fabric and scraps, and a few pounds of brown rice that (let's face it) we will never eat. So I'm going to use them to make some quiet book pages and little bean bags.

I also made some more bias tape for another project. I have several baskets that we got when we bought peaches at the farmer's market, and I've decided I'm going to put ruffles around them and put them on top of my cupboards to hold food so that my food storage won't look ugly up there anymore. The bias tape is to make the top edge of the ruffle look finished. Ryan and watched Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy while I was working on the bias tape. I'm intrigued and hoping that the library also has the next movie in the series.

Yesterday I spent the entire day getting my water samples ready to go in the mass spectrometer. It's quite a process. You use these tiny funnels called columns that have a very narrow neck with a little sponge in it. First you put resin and water in the column, and you have to let all the water drain out so that there is just resin in the column. Then you put more water and also nitric acid in the column and have to let it drain out, and you do that several times. Finally, you put the sample through the column. I'm studying the strontium, and the strontium sticks to the resin in the column while everything else goes through. After I put the sample through, I had to put 12 drops of nitric acid in and let it drain out--and then do it again six times. Then I put the column over a new beaker and put water in it, which had to drain out, and then more water, which also had to drain out. The water gets the strontium out of the resin and into the beaker. Altogether it took twelve hours, because it takes a while for the liquid to drain through the resin every time, probably at least half an hour. Usually it takes around eight hours, but for some reason the columns were draining really slowly yesterday. So it was a matter of putting liquid in, waiting, checking to see if it had drained, waiting some more, adding more liquid, waiting, checking, on and on. I knew there would be a lot of waiting, so I came prepared with homework. I ended up getting two pages of a paper done and making some headway on a final lab project. Oh, and the building was really cold, and the lab was even colder. There are a couple more steps and then the sample will go into a mass spectrometer.

Meanwhile, Ryan got to take the kids to Kindermusik and spend the entire day with them. Here's a google chat we exchanged late at night when I was still watching water drip:

Earlier today I was thinking about making mini quiches (which I have never done before), but I didn't really feel up to making pie crust. Dinner time came and it still hadn't happened. I told Ryan I was having a hard time figuring out what to make for dinner because there wasn't time to do the quiches. So he opened up the Tanner family cookbook to a random page and pointed at a recipe: Chicken Pot Pie. "I don't feel like making pie crust," I repeated. He tried again: Beef Pot Pie. I think he might have done it again and landed on Beef Pot Pie a second time. "Okay, apparently I'm supposed to make pie crusts tonight," I decided. But we had macaroni and cheese for dinner and I mixed the pie crust to use later. So I guess tomorrow is quiche and then I have two more pie crusts left for pie. And it just so happens that we're eating pie on Thursday with Jared and Kristi and family, so I guess I did some work ahead of time. We are very excited to get to have Thanksgiving with family.

fish for dinner

My friend Dawn Hale told me about tilapia fillets at Aldi. They are frozen, individually wrapped, $5.99 for 2 lbs., de-boned, and surprisingly easy to cook. I was skeptical because I always kind of thought that if you don't know how to cook fish, and/or if you don't pay through the nose for special fish, then it won't taste good. But I decided to try them out. I thawed out three fillets and baked them for 10 minutes in butter and sprinkled with lemon pepper. I didn't want to make more in case they were a flop.

So, here's what I expected to happen at dinner:

• Kevin would take a microscopic bite, spit it out, and ignore the fish. (Kevin will rarely eat meat.)
• Heidi would eagerly stuff a bite in her mouth, then stick her tongue out and throw the rest on the floor piece by piece when I wasn't looking.
• Ryan would try some and say apologetically, "I don't really like fish."
• I would take one bite and declare I like it, take another bite and say it's okay, and take another bite and decide I can't eat three tilapia fillets all by myself.

And here's what actually happened:

• Kevin loved the fish and begged for three more helpings. I think he ate twice as much as anyone else individually. We were shocked because this child has never eaten that much meat in one sitting before.
• Heidi ate her couple of bites and screamed at me for more when she saw me putting some on my plate. She would have eaten a lot too except that Kevin had eaten the last of it before she had a chance.
• I asked Ryan if he liked it and he said, "Well, it doesn't taste like the ocean, if that's what you mean."
• And I thought it was good and wished there was a little more.

new goal: follow a menu

I'm starting to feel like it's time for a new goal. Here are the habits I've been working on so far:

1. Only eat sweets as a treat on the weekend or for special occasions.
2. Read scriptures and say prayers before the kids get up.

My new goal is to make and follow a dinner menu. I just made a menu for the entire month! What a relief to have it already planned! Here is this week's menu:

Sunday: spaghetti and meatballs, green beans, white bread

Monday: au gratin potatoes, sweet potatoes, meatloaf

Tuesday: hot dogs, homemade baked fries, cooked carrots

Wednesday: white chili, salad

Thursday: shredded beef sandwiches, cooked carrots

Friday: tacos (using the leftover beef)

Saturday: burritos, rice

My plan is to do most of the preparing while the kids are taking their afternoon naps so that when they wake up I can toss things together and heat them up and we can have dinner soon after that. Tuesdays are my designated grocery shopping days, so I planned things so that on those nights dinner is quick and easy. Before I go shopping I can look at my menu and my recipes and figure out which ingredients I need to buy for that week.

Cooking Beans Part 4: refried beans

Part 1: rinsing and soaking
Part 2: boiling
Part 3: preparing beans ahead of time
Part 4: refried beans

One of our favorite recipes is refried beans. They are great for making burritos and also make a very yummy chip dip.

Start by making a batch of pinto beans (or other beans would probably work). When the beans are soft, drain the beans, reserving the bean water in a bowl.

Use a potato masher, blender, mixer, or food processor to mash up the beans. I like to mash the beans up a few cups at a time and gradually add more. Add bean water as needed to get the consistency you like.

On the stove, heat 1 tbsp. of oil and saute 2-3 cloves of minced garlic for a couple of minutes. Gradually mix the mashed beans with the garlic. If the beans get too dry, you can add some bean water. If you add too much bean water, you can just cook it until some evaporates.

You can add lots of different spices depending on what you like. Cumin, chili powder, and taco seasoning are all spices that work well. I usually just go with the garlic. I also like to add some salsa.

When you're satisfied with the taste and the bean mush is as thick or thin as you like it, you're done. Now you have refried beans.

You can make big batches of refried beans and freeze them in meal-sized portions, just like with regular beans. They are easy to reheat by microwaving them for 1-2 minutes.

As a side note, it is also possible to grind up beans in a mill (check the owner's manual of your mill to make sure!) and use the bean flour as instant refried beans. I have tried it this way and didn't like it as much because I like the more chunky texture of mashed beans.

To make burritos, spoon some refried beans onto one side of a large burrito-sized tortilla that has been heated in the microwave long enough to soften it. Don't put too much on the burrito because you need room to roll it up.

You can add other toppings to the burrito, such as avocado, peppers, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, cheese, rice, or meat.

Now you roll it up. (I hope that between my instructions and the pictures you can figure it out, because it's kind of hard to explain.) Start by folding up the edge closest to you.

Next fold in the sides.

Starting at the end where the beans and toppings are, roll up the burrito towards the empty end.

If the beans and tortilla are warm, you can eat it now, or you can microwave the burrito for about one minute to heat it up.

Burritos are a nice alternative to sandwiches for lunch. I don't know what's in frozen burritos, but homemade burritos just have beans, a tortilla, and whatever toppings you add, so they are cheap and very healthy.

Cooking Beans Part 3: preparing beans ahead of time

Part 1: rinsing and soaking
Part 2: boiling
Part 3: preparing beans ahead of time
Part 4: refried beans

I was aware of the low cost and the health benefits of beans long before I became comfortable with cooking them from scratch, but one of the main reasons I didn't cook them very much was because of how long it took for them to be ready. Even though most of the time you don't actually have to be paying attention to the beans, it still takes planning ahead so that you can have beans ready for a meal. It didn't really seem worth it to me to spend the whole day cooking beans for just one meal, and I didn't want to be eating leftover beans for the next several days either. I think this is why a lot of people don't cook beans very often.

One solution is to buy canned beans. You can also can beans yourself in a pressure cooker (use the Ball canning book or another tested recipe to make sure they are processed correctly so you don't grow a bacteria colony in your jar). Since you can reuse mason jars and the ring part of the lid, the main costs you would have to consider are the cost of the beans and the cost of the part of the lid that seals to the jar. If that is less than the cost of canned beans from the store, and if you feel that you will get enough uses out of the mason jar, then it's worth it to can your own beans. The disadvantages to canned beans are that they will not last for years and years like dry beans will, the cost is greater, and they also take up more space. The advantages are that you can have beans for dinner without a lot of preparation, and in a situation where you don't have a lot of water or the available water isn't fit to drink you can still eat your beans since they're already cooked.

One other option is to freeze your cooked beans. When I make beans I cook a large batch and then store the beans in 1-cup-sized plastic Glad containers, which I put in the freezer. I don't add any extra water. When I want to use my beans I pull out the amount that I need and either let the beans thaw in a bowl of water or let them heat up in whatever I'm cooking. This works well for soups and casseroles. I don't like it as much for putting the beans on salads.

cooking beans Part 2: boiling

Part 1: rinsing and soaking
Part 2: boiling
Part 3: preparing beans ahead of time
Part 4: refried beans

After your beans have soaked, drain them and rinse them, the same way you did before soaking. As I mentioned in Part 1, I like to use a colander and rinse the beans with the sprayer on my sink.

Now that your beans are soaked, there are a few different ways you can cook them.

Crockpot

You can put the beans in your crockpot (about 6 hours). This is nice because you don’t have to babysit the beans—and the beans don’t leave a nasty burned ring like most crockpot recipes do!

On the Stove

You can boil them on your stove (1-2 hours, depending on the type and size of bean). Bring the beans to a boil, then reduce the heat (I usually use "2" on my stove) and boil them gently with the lid on until they are tender. When you have waited the recommended time, taste a few beans to see if they are done. If they aren’t, check back in about 15 minutes.

Pressure Cooker

I don't have a pressure cooker and have never tried cooking beans in one, but soaked beans will cook really fast in a pressure cooker (as in, 5-10 minutes!). If the beans are not done when they come out, you can boil them on the stove until they are tender. I also found a video about how to cook unsoaked beans in a pressure cooker: click here to see it at Everyday Food Storage.

If you are using the crockpot or stove, add the following to the beans before cooking:

• 3 cups of water per cup of dry beans (as in, the number of unsoaked beans that you started with)
• 1 tsp. salt per cup of dry beans
• 1 tbsp. oil/fat per cup of dry beans (optional, supposedly reduces foaming)
• Spices if you like (I have never tried adding spices during boiling, so I don’t have any recommendations—sorry!)
• You can also add a ham bone or pieces of ham.

For an electric pressure cooker, I'm not sure if it's okay to add salt or oil or spices.

Boiling Guide for Dry Beans, Peas, and Lentils (if you boil them on the stove)

(I got this from the family cookbook [RT's side], so hopefully nobody minds me posting it here.)

Vegetable (1 cup)	Water (c.)	Boiling time (hrs.)	Yield (c.)
Black Beans	3	2	2
Great Northern	2 ½	1 to 1 ½	2 ½
Kidney	3	2	2 ¾
Lentils (unsoaked)	2	30-40 min.	2 ½
Lima (large)	2 ½	1	2 ½
Lima (small)	2 ½	1	2
Navy	3	1 1/2 to 2	2 ½
Peas, whole	2 ½	1	2 ½
Pinto beans	3	2	2 ½
Soybeans	4	2 ½	2 ½
Split peas	2	1/3	2 ½

The beans are cooked when they are soft and when they have a texture that you like. If they still taste a little gritty or crunchy, then check back in 15-30 minutes to see if they are done. Taste a few beans each time because sometimes you'll find one that is soft even if most of them aren't quite done.

I know there are mixed messages about adding salt during cooking. I have heard that you shouldn't add salt because your food will never cook or your water won't boil. I have also heard that you should add salt because it increases the boiling temperature of your water and your food will cook faster. Salt actually does raise the boiling temperature of water, which means that technically it would take longer for your water to boil, but when it does boil, it would be boiling at a higher temperature and your food would cook faster. However, if you want to have a noticeable effect, you would have to add quite a bit of salt (so your food wouldn't taste good). So, I just add it right away. The main reason to add salt is for flavor. And beans are pretty bland, so you will probably want to add some salt before cooking.

already an interesting day

The night before last night I dreamed that I had beautiful twin boys. They sort of fell out of me. I was really concerned because I'm not even halfway to my due date, but they were healthy and strong and looked full term. My mom was there and we were busily trying to figure out a way to get to the hospital with them to make sure everything was all right (because they were five months early!). I was kind of glad to wake up and find it was a dream, but it did make me feel more baby hungry.

When I woke up I mentioned to Ryan that I was out of breath, and he said, "No wonder. You were running through my mind all night. Literally. We were running from the flood."

So between running all night and having two babies at some point as well, I guess it's kind of surprising that it was actually a rather restful night.

Then Kevin and I made bread together. By hand. It was the most stressful thing I've done in a long time, but I feel like a good parent because I cooked with my child and didn't even yell. It was fun too, though. Kevin enjoyed stirring the dough with a measuring spoon and helping me measure ingredients and trying to taste the dough (which he didn't like, but he kept trying it anyway). In the end, the damage actually wasn't too bad--one flour-covered outfit and a counter covered in about as much flour as you'd expect from making bread by hand, plus the dishes and our hands, of course. It was a new recipe that calls for a little bit of cornmeal and oats, and it turned out very nicely. I bought a lot of cornmeal a few months ago and then realized that I don't like cornbread enough to cook it often enough to use all this cornmeal by the time I die, so I'm on the hunt for other good recipes that call for cornmeal (besides cornbread). We still need to try making tamales. The bread turned out quite nicely. Kevin ate about five pieces yesterday evening before dinner--he kept begging for more! Now I can't decide if it was good because it was made by hand, or because it was a good recipe. Or maybe it's just that Kevin makes awesome bread. I usually let my bread mix in my breadmaker and then I bake it in the oven, but lately it hasn't been tasting good to me, so I've been wondering if it's the recipe or if it's something about the breadmaker (I suspect that the breadmaker warms the dough slightly while it mixes, and I wonder if that changes the taste). I know I shouldn't have changed two variables at once (method of mixing and recipe), but I guess I was so excited to try this recipe that I did it anyway.

My first class today was cancelled because of the snow, but they only cancelled class until 11:00, so I still had to go to my second class. It didn't snow a lot, but there was a lot of ice. On my way down to catch the bus, I passed a girl who was standing by the sidewalk, staring at it rather fearfully. As I passed, she asked me if it was slippery. I told her it was a little slippery, but her shoes looked like they had better traction than mine did, so she would probably be fine. I had to walk a little more slowly than normal, but it didn't seem that slippery to me, and the stairs are easy because you take one step at a time anyway. So I was a little surprised to look up from the bottom of the stairs (there are a lot of stairs before you get to the bus stop) and see her still almost at the top of the stairs. She was clinging to the rail for dear life and going down the stairs very slowly. I'm pretty used to ice because we had ice pretty often in Idaho when I was growing up, so it didn't really faze me. If you have ice often enough, you kind of get used to the different types of ice and figure out how to walk without slipping. I guess this was the first time it occurred to me that a lot of people around here are scared of walking on ice because they don't know how to do it.

Just before I left, I was doing the usual things--putting on my coat, grabbing my keys, putting on my backpack, etc. Then Kevin got a look of realization on his face that said quite clearly, "No! It's starting again!" and started crying because he knew I'm going to start going to school again. It didn't take him too long to recover, but it's always tough to leave him crying like that.

sweet potato fries

Recently I found a recipe for sweet potato fries and wanted to try it out. It seems like usually yams are a sweet dish (they are sweet potatoes, after all), so it's kind of fun to have yams with salt on them for a change. Here's my recipe (modified to bake in the oven).

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cut up 1 lb. of sweet potatoes (one large or two medium). You can cut them into fries or cubes or slices. 

Place the sweet potatoes in a bowl, and mix in 1 Tbsp. of olive/vegetable oil, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper.

Spray a cookie sheet lightly with cooking spray.

Bake fries for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. They are done when they are softened. You can bake them a little longer or broil them for a couple of minutes to get them crispy.

on working really hard without having much to show for it

Written yesterday:

I accomplished a lot today. But for some reason I just feel discouraged. I had a lot of things I needed to do today. I had my mineralogy class this morning, which was fun, and then I had an appointment half an hour away in Hillsborough, after which I wanted to go to the library, see if there was anything good at the PTA thrift shop, get some money out of my bank account, get some things that were on sale at Kroger and Harris Teeter, and then try to catch up on my Calculus and make some bread before bedtime. We got to Hillsborough, the library, the bank, and Harris Teeter, but by the time we were done at Harris Teeter I knew we had to come home. Kevin was bored to tears and kept throwing the frozen vegetables on the floor, and he screamed much of the way home. At the library he was throwing books everywhere, faster than I could put them away, and in my head I was feeling like such a hypocrite because I was a library aide in fifth grade and eighth grade and I hated it when people just stuffed books wherever instead of putting them where they belong or at least giving them to a librarian to reshelf. That's how books disappear. At least they were still on the right shelf, right? And all of that was for me to pick up one book on CD to listen to in the car. At the bank he kept trying to run out the doors. It's kind of odd, because normally I know better than to try to get that much done when I've brought Kevin with me. For some reason I just planned out the whole trip and figured all the little stops wouldn't make much difference, but of course they did. Before Kevin was born I could do that. I could stop at the PTA thrift shop, then Goodwill, then Kroger, then the library, then the bank, and so on. And then when he was born I would very carefully plan my grocery shopping trips. I knew that I had to get everything planned and packed and ready while he was napping so that I could feed him as soon as he woke up and then go straight to the store, and I knew that I had about an hour to get it all done before he couldn't stand it anymore. It's better now because he can be awake for longer than that, but now the problem is that he won't hold still because he's bored. I may have to start getting groceries late at night after Ryan gets home and we have dinner so that I don't have to bring Kevin, but I don't want to because it's dark and it's late and I'd rather be with Ryan and all the good deals are out of stock.

I came home and felt like complaining that I didn't get anything done today.

It makes me think of something a friend of mine blogged about recently. She talked about how the best things are not convenient. Being a mother isn't terribly convenient, but it's still worth the effort and the challenges.

Continued today:

One of the reasons I was so disappointed that I didn't get everything done was because I had been planning to buy milk at Kroger (oh, and also Butterfingers). We've been going without milk for four or five days because I didn't have time to go grocery shopping between conference and Sunday and having class all afternoon on Monday. It was a lesson for us about what we would do in an emergency where we couldn't go to the store for a while, and it kind of makes me think that maybe we should try to get used to drinking powdered milk so that eating cold cereal with powdered milk will be possible (which it isn't right now, at least not for me).

So this morning I woke up and realized that we had no milk, so we couldn't have cereal for breakfast, and we had no bread because we finished it off yesterday and I didn't have time to make more because of the other errands. So I made muffins, and they were yummy. It made me feel good because muffins require milk and eggs, and yet I didn't have to use a single perishable item to make the muffins. Everyday emergencies happen. Store powdered milk and powdered eggs.

I had no measuring cups except a 1/3 cup and a 1/4 cup to use to make the muffins. But fortunately, I am somewhat advanced in math and I know how to make 2 1/2 cups from 1/3 and 1/4 cups.

To my credit, we did a lot of baking this weekend and the measuring cups were all in the dishwasher, but the dishwasher wasn't quite full yet so we hadn't started it. So we actually are doing something right. But I do generally feel that for some reason I just can't keep up with the dishes, and the scarier the pile is, the harder it is to bring myself to attack it. Even if I just cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom yesterday, there always seems to be a pile of dishes waiting to be washed. Those dishes are my mortal enemy that won't die. Maybe they're slowly working on me, getting me tireder and tireder so that one day they can attack and easily defeat me.

Well, this morning I finished up those muffins and popped them in the oven, and then I turned and stared at that pile in the sink, and I thought, "Okay, this is just wrong. I just used that bowl for popcorn, so why did I let it sit there and get filled with spaghetti sauce water?" This is a perfect example of a little word that I learned from Don Aslett: "procrustination." [sic] [or sick] It would have taken me ten seconds to wash that bowl, but because I decided that it could wait, I ended up have to spend much longer and use much more soap because it was so procrustinated. [sic/sick] So, as I often do when situations like this arise, I attacked those dishes with a vengeance, and by the time the muffins had cooked, I had managed to get them to retreat. Maybe what those dishes need is to be beaten into submission.

I often think that it would be a very good idea to make a rule for myself that the dishes must be washed or else in the dishwasher ready to be washed before I go to bed at night. Think of the freedom I would experience every morning if I woke up to an empty sink.

You probably fall into one of two groups of people. The first group is rolling their eyes and can't believe how silly I am. The second group is secretly thinking, "I can totally relate." The first group may be thinking that also. I hope both are still my friends.

In my defense, sometimes it's hard to get to the dishes when you know that if you focus on the dishes the rest of the house will be trashed while you're up to your elbows in soapy water. Sometimes I find myself washing dishes while Kevin is strewing all the clean dishes from the lower cupboards all over the floor. Seems a little counterproductive . . . which is an interesting word for me to use in this context since I'm being productive at the level of the counter while Kevin is making a mess at the ground level.

a couple of recipes

Buttermilk Coffee Cake
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup white flour--it was great!)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cups buttermilk or sour milk (or mix 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar with enough milk added to make 1 1/3 cups of milk; let this mixture sit for 5 minutes before adding)
1/2 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of a 13x9X2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside 1/2 cup. Stir baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg into remaining crumb mixture.
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs and buttermilk. Add eg mixture all at once to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Stir together reserved crumb mixture and nuts; sprinkle over batter.
3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool slightly; serve warm.


From the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Minestrone Soup
1. In a large saucepan, brown 1 large, chopped onion in 2 tablespoons of fat (from the sausage).
2. Add 1/2 lb. sausage, browned and drained; 8 cups beef stock or broth; 2 cups cooked, drained kidney beans; 1 teaspoon oregano; 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt; 1 bay leaf; 2 tablespoons parsley flakes (or 1/3 cup fresh, chopped); 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste); and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
3. Cover, bring to a boil, and simmer 10 minutes.
4. Add 1 cup zucchini, celery, or carrots, or a  combination, coarsely chopped; 2 cups coarsely chopped spinach, swiss chard, or any other vegetables in season; and 1 1/2 cup uncooked noodles.
5. Cook 10 minutes longer or just until vegetables are cooked.
6. Serve hot. Sprinkle with grated cheese, if desired.
8-10 servings

From Deseret Recipes

stir-fried dandelion stems

Today I got a free sample, and with the sample came this recipe. It made me laugh.

The real title is Spring Dandelion Greens Saute'
8 cups dandelion greens
1/2 cup chopped spring onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Thoroughly wash dandelion greens. In skillet, heat olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Saute' spring onion and garlic until translucent. Add greens and cook for 3 minutes or until leaves are wilted. Garnish with salt and pepper to taste.

I'm not kidding. This is a real recipe.

Cinnamon Muffins

Today I tried this recipe with half whole wheat flour, and it occurred to me that this would be a great recipe to use if you're just getting started using wheat. I think the cinnamon and brown sugar help to mask the whole wheat a little bit so that the wheaty taste isn't too overbearing. I couldn't really tell that I had added whole wheat.

Mix together:
1 cup sifted flour (or 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt

In a separate bowl combine:
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar (I actually only used 1/4 cup today, and they still tasted great)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together with a spoon. The batter will be a little lumpy. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray and spoon the batter into the pan. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. This recipe makes about 9 muffins.

You could also add chopped fruit. Apples or peaches would be very good.

sprouted lentils

A few months ago, I did a Relief Society class about beans. I've been working on perfecting my notes from the class so that I can share them with the sisters in my ward--it's been a slow process because Calculus kept me so busy, but I'm almost done. Well, one person asked about sprouting beans, so I read a little bit about it and figured maybe I should try it out. So, I went through the process of sprouting them, and here's what I ended up with:

Lo and behold, it worked. This was originally a half cup of lentils, and I had to pry them out of the jar with a spoon to get them out today. I let the sprouts grow a little longer than I was supposed to (you're supposed to wait until the sprout is as long as the bean), but I didn't know what to do with them, so I kept rinsing them and letting them sprout for another day or so.

So now the question is, what do I do with my sprouts?

Lemon Chicken Pasta Toss

2 cups dried multigrain penne (6 ounces)
12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped shallot (3)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons capers, drained
3 tablespoons snipped fresh Italian parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
(I didn't use any shallots, capers, parsley, or Parmesan cheese)

1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Return pasta to hot saucepan; cover and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl toss together chicken and flour until chicken is lightly coated. In a large skillet cook and stir chicken in 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat for 6 to 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken from pan; set aside.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining oil to skillet. Add shallot and garlic; cook and stir about 1 minute or until tender. Carefully stir in broth, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Cook, uncovered, for 2 to 3 minutes or until reduced to about 2/3 cup. Stir in chicken, capers, and parsley; heat through.
4. Toss pasta with chicken mixture. If desired, serve with Parmesan cheese.

Lemon Shrimp Pasta Toss: Prepare as above, except substitute 12 ounces peeled, deveined shrimp for the chicken. Cook and stir in skillet for 2 to 3 minutes or until shrimp are opaque.

I loved this because it was a light pasta dish. It seems like all of the things I make with pasta either have tomatoes or a white sauce, and this one just has a little broth and lemon juice. It was nice to have a little change. I also added fresh green beans the second time I made this, and that was pretty good.

what to do with a whole chicken

I've learned a lot about cooking since Ryan and I got married. I'm amazed at the things that intimidated me when we were first married. I was a nervous wreck the first time I bought a can of kidney beans and a can of tomatoes so that I could make this taco bean soup recipe that I thought sounded good. I had never bought those before, so for some reason it was scary. (Now I stock up every time tomatoes go on sale, and I freeze big batches of beans [cooked from scratch] in the freezer so I can make quick bean dishes a couple of times a week--I've come a long way.) I'm a lot more confident about my cooking skills now, and I'm not scared to try most recipes anymore.

Anyway, one thing that I have learned to do is to cook large quantities of meat in the crockpot (like roasts or whole chickens) and then use it for several meals. For some reason that used to be soooo intimidating to me, but it's actually pretty easy after you've done it a couple of times. My chickens aren't works of art like some people's are, but they still taste good and the meat is nice and tender.

1. Thaw out the meat if it is frozen (in the fridge--it takes a day or two).
2. Take it out of the packaging, rinse it, and put it in the crockpot. You can add a little water, but you will get a lot of liquid just from the meat cooking.
   
3. Add spices if you want. Bouillon, garlic, onions, salt, pepper, and special seasonings like Prime Rib Rub all work well. You can also add vegetables like carrots and potatoes, which adds flavor and also makes this a really nice meal if you throw in salad and bread (meaning as part of the meal--I wouldn't advise putting lettuce in the crockpot . . . (-; ).
   
4. Cover the crockpot and let the meat cook for several hours. I use a thermometer to check if it is done.

In other words, put a hunk of meat in the crockpot and cook it for a while. How hard is that? I don't know why it was so scary. I think I thought that since whole chickens and roasts were nice meals, they must involve some complicated, fancy stuff.

After the meat is cooked, you can use the broth and meat for lots of things. I let it all cool down a bit, and then I take all the meat off of the bones and put it in a container in the fridge. Over the next few days I can use that meat for soup, sandwiches, enchiladas, chimichangas, stir-fries, etc. Then I drain the liquid (this is the stock or broth). A colander works fine, but if you don't want the floating fat and such you can use an old pair of nylons to make the broth nice and clear (I keep a pair in the kitchen and just cut off and throw away the part that got dirty). If you put the broth in the fridge overnight, it will become like chicken/beef jello and the fat will float to the top, so you can easily scrape the fat off with a spoon. Then you can use the broth for soup or stir-fry or any recipe that calls for broth.

A word about bouillon and broth: they are the same thing!
1 bouillon cube + 1 cup water=1 tsp. bouillon + 1 cup water =1 cup stock or broth
When I realized that, my world of cooking grew by leaps and bounds. Maybe everyone else knew that, but somehow I missed that helpful bit of information. I think I figured it out by reading the family cookbook. Now I can make really delicious soups and lots of other things. Chicken soup is just several cups of chicken broth with vegetables, chicken, barley, noodles, spices, or whatever you want to add. For some reason that used to be such a mystery to me.

Anyway, I hope I'm not the only one who was intimidated by cooking whole chickens and roasts. I still haven't tried making a roast or a whole chicken in the oven, though--I'm afraid it would be dry or burned, so I haven't dared to do it.