Recipe: Braised Red Cabbage

I can't boast about having done so much exotic cooking recently. We are definitely in a rut of making pasta, homemade pizza and a variety of meat-and-two-veg combinations. Since time is at a minimum, as usual, I am not looking for extra projects this winter. But I would like to try and find a couple of easy winter vegetable recipes. My potato and celeriac side dish has been a hit with DH and me (don't ask the Things what they think about it). And this week I was ready to tackle another item: red cabbage.

I often have red cabbage in the house. I wish I could say I was making home fermented red sauerkraut, but I haven't been so enterprising of late. Instead I keep it around to mix it with salad greens to bring in some additional nutrients. I also like to use it to make coleslaw sometimes, that can be especially delicious. This last weekend however I was feeling in the mood to make braised cabbage. Who cared what the kids thought. It isn't like Thing 1 eats anything other than raw carrots, cooked broccoli and the occasional salad. Thing 2 simply won't eat any unpureed unhidden vegetables at all. This cabbage was all for me. It was likely I would have to deal with screaming kids anyway, why not do it eating something I enjoyed?

I found this recipe for braised red cabbage through a quick google search. It was easy and came out a perfect mic of salty, sour and sweet.

Braised Red Cabbage

1 head of red (aka purple) cabbage
2 tablespoons butter
1 small to medium onion, sliced
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt

First chop the cabbage into bite size bits. I found this easier too cook than long strings. Place the cabbage into a bowl of cold water for a few minutes (I wish I could explain why you had to do this other than it was in the original recipe, but I truly don't know). In a large skillet melt the butter on medium heat and cook the onions for about 5 minutes. Drain the cabbage and add it to the pan. Now add the remaining ingredients, honey, apple cider vinegar and salt. Stir and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 1 1/2 hours. You won't need any additional liquid.

The result is a slowly braised wonderous side dish. I served my cabbage alongside a meatloaf and buttery butternut squash. It was a stand out in the meal. But perhap the best part was the next day when we made meatloaf sandwiches topped with the cold slaw. Man oh man. My mouth is watering reliving the moment.

I hope you will try this. It will definitely be a regular addition to our winter table. Two winter veggies down, two dozen to go.

Enjoy!

This post is shared with Real Food Wednesdays

Humble Spuds: How to Perfectly Roast a Potato

When I was a brand new mama, I had to completely relearn how to cook. I realized that pretty quickly. Was it that the only food I ate for the first week of Thing 1's life was cheezits straight from the box? Or was it me in the kitchen trying to mince and sweat onions in a dutch oven while my little red baloney-loaf screamed his head off in the bouncy seat? More than one night ended with both of us hungry and in tears.

It was for this reason that I found 'the walk-away'. 'The walk-away' is when you put something on to cook and instead of sticking around to futz with it you simply...walk away. Don't mess with a sausage frying in a pan. Don't check on boiling or steaming veggies. They really don't need you until they need to be strained. Chicken baking in the oven doesn't need you except for maybe one baste. Just walkaway. Go and nurse the baby, fold the laundry or in my case, put your purse away, change clothes and spend some quality time with the kids. 30 minute meals are awesome, but 45 minute meals with only 10 active minutes are way better.

Granted, the 'walk-away' does require medium heat otherwise you might burn something. I always loved how Emeril Lagasse used to pull the knob off his oven on his Food Network show and tell the audience 'You know these come with knobs for a REASON!!' Medium heat is really the best for the stove-top walk-away.

Now all this leads me to the humble baked potato. Steaming. Buttery. Starchy. Filling. I LOVE baked potatoes. But before I had children I don't think I had had more than two baked potatoes in the prior ten years. Post motherhood I began eating them several times a week because they are the best hot walk-away meal! When I would get home from work I would get Thing 1's dinner together and pop my potato in the oven, maybe with a chicken breast or maybe not. By the time the little bugger collapsed in sleep my spud would be fully cooked and I could start my evening. I have tried lots of different ways of making a baked potato. But I am an exacting lady. I am always looking for the absolute best way to cook simple food. I believe I have perfected my potato baking techniques.

How to Perfectly Bake a Potato

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

First, select a good medium sized potato, one that is longer than it is wide. A good baker is one that feels heavy for its size. I also like potatoes that have a uniform shape, so that it won't be raw on one side while overdone on the other. There is little in life that worse than underdone potatoes. Flat tires maybe, mornings without coffee definitely.

Scrub your potato. I sometimes use soap and even a rough cloth or clean sponge to get it seriously scrubbed. After all, I eat the potato skin. OH! I should have mentioned that sooner. If you are just eating the inside of your taters and tossing the skin then you are missing out. Potato skins are a tremendous source of fiber. But I eat them because they are so delicious. Interesting....In researching this article I discovered that according to The Straight Dope (a website), potato skins contain toxic compounds called glycoalkaloids. Green potatoes especially have these compounds (so don't eat those). But, you have to eat alot to suffer consequences. I have certainly not had any adverse reactions and I have eaten alot of potato skins. While not all the nutrition of a potato is locked in it's skin, they are really tasty. And they do contain lots of billing fiber!!

Take a fork or a sharp knife and poke a couple holes in your potato. It doesn't have to turn into a crime scene. Seven to ten pokes is more than enough to let the steam vent.

Next pour a teaspoon of olive oil into your hand, then massage it into potato. Lastly pop him in the oven and wait 45 minutes or so. Check the doneness of your tuber by squeezing. The outside should be crispy and crackly while the inside should give and feel soft. A larger potato will need an hour and possibly more depending on size.


When your potato is done, eat it right away or else the super crunchy skin will soften and be significantly less delicious. Favorite toppings? Butter, full fat greek yogurt and plenty of sea salt and cracked black pepper (as seen in all the pictures). But also chili and cheese is sublime. I have even been known to whip up a cheese sauce and soften some vegetable up in there. Cheese sauce, green beans and broccoli to smother a perfectly baked potato? Delish.

Definitely try the walkaway. And definitely enjoy your potatoes!

This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays

'Hoarding Food' or '5 Ways to Stock Up for Winter Even If You Don't Have a Garden'

Indooring gardening failures aside, I am quite concious of the challenges that await me during the winter months ahead. Last year we had trouble eating locally and seasonally during the off season. The winter was long and punishing. By January we were seriously tired of winter vegetables. By February our Winter CSA share was over. And by March I had virtually given up. Deeper into the season, it seemed like every vegetable we bought was from California save our apples, onions and potatoes, oh and the occasional butternut squash. Pastured meats and milk are available year round, but instead of a 50/50 farmer's market/ grocery store split to my food spending, it ended up being more 25/ 75. I prefer to buy local, but that wasn't the biggest issue. It was that in an attempt to eat more local, we ate fewer vegetables overall. Winter veggies are hard to prepare. They require chopping and peeling and boiling. And insanity or not, I felt some guilt buying things that were technically out of season for my locality. But eating locally just wasn't working for me 100%.

So this year I am trying to take action now. I only have one fridge and in it a moderately sized freezer. I store all our meat in the freezer which doesn't leave a ton of space for frozen vegetables but I am trying to stock up on items that I know we won't have in a couple of months.

1-Frozen Greens I have mentioned it before, but we have gotten alot of greens this summer at our CSA and I haven't quite gotten through all of them. So I have chopped and frozen much of the kale I got this year. I have made pesto from the basil and spinach. And I have heard that one can even make pesto from swiss chard. I have to try that since I have two bunches of chard on hand and I am going on vacation soon. Pesto freezes so beautifully! That'll be delightful on a pizza in mid winter.

2-Chicken Feet Pastured chicken is a truly seasonal item, available only in the summer and early fall. I have mentioned before that we just don't eat as much chicken these days. Chickens are expensive to raise ethically. I find the pastured varaities for around $8 a pound. That's high, but then you have to buy a 5 pound bird? There you have a special occasion, $40 meal. Then consider that much of the bird is inedible, even if you make stock from the bones. That's the reason we are eating more pastured beef. Beef is cheaper and I can buy a pound at a time as I like. But chicken feet are a wonderous thing! The dairy farm that provides my milk also raises pastured chickens. And while the feet would be throw away parts for many producers, they make the BEST chicken stock! I regularly buy up all of her feet. And at $6-$7 for a bag of feet that produces 4 quarts of stock that stands up as thick as jello, I'd say that's a bargain. But the chickens will only be around a few more weeks. So I need to stock up on feet if I want them during the winter.

3-Pasture Butter I normally buy Organic Valley's Cultured Butter, a great product. But every summer they produce a green foiled Pasture Butter. It became available in June and when I first bought it, I noticed the difference right away. The smell is sublime and the color is a deep yellow like egg yolks when the butter is melted. I don't have access to pasture butter year round. My dairy does not currently produce butter. And while I could make my own from the Milk Thistle cream, $8 for a half a pound of butter seems especially steep when I consider the effort expended. I mean, I do have a full time job and two kids. If I ever win the lottery maybe I will start making my own butter. But until then I don't think it is a viable solution. Even the local butter by Ronnybrook Dairy (another exceptional dairy) is only okay. It is good, but I happennto like the OV Pasture butter better. Since it is a seasonal product I have been slowly stocking up all summer. I currently have 7-8 pounds of butter in the freezer. We go through about 1/4-1/2 a pound of butter every week (who am I kidding, 1/2 a pound) so I figure I have 14 weeks of butter. I think I'd like to get just a teensy bit more. Thank goodness my ice cube maker isn't working because that has freed up space for butter storage.

4-Sweet Corn Corn is such a wonderful thing. This summer it has been especially plentiful and exceptionally sweet. Our CSA has been providing 4-5 ears per week. That's enough to feed our need for corn on the cob, but not enough to store. So I hve started to buy extra ears at the FM. I plan to take the corn, cut it off the cob, blanch it in hot water for thirty seconds and then cool it, bag it and freeze it. So far though all those extra ears of corn have just gone into my family's bellies.

5-Dried Herbs Fresh herbs have been so wonderful to have around this summer! I have enjoyed dill in my potato salad, hottttt cilantro and jalepeno salsa and basil and kale pestos. But all good things must come to an end. So slowly I have been trying to dry the inexpensive bunches of fresh herbs that I can get at the farmer's market, dill, basil and even chamomile. I have saved some small glass spice jars for storage. Though it has been tough. Drying the herbs means that I can't just eat them fresh.

So there you go! 5 Ways that even a city girl with an itty bitty freezer can store local foods to get ready for the winter. Thus far my husband has been very supportive of my 'crunchy' eating habits, but he has been unwilling to buy a stand up freezer to compliment the tiny one we already have. His biggest problem? That the freezer won't fit in the kitchen and would have to live in the living room. Well...I guess he has a point!!

This post is shared with Real Food Wednesdays and Healthy 2Day Wednesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays and Fresh Bites Fridays and Fight Back Fridays

'Losing The Harvest' or 'My $150 Half Green Moldy Tomato'

I was cherrily mix and straining my kefir one morning when I heard Thing 2 reapeating 'Oh No! Domo!! Oh No! Domo!!' over and over again. There is really nothing funnier than a baby saying the phrase 'Oh no!' because usually it is over something trivial and it is rather sweet to see them be concerned over something so small. I thought he was just playing. Perhaps he was having trouble getting his toy trains to stay hooked. But then I saw him sitting on top of the radiator, right next the to our lone tomato that I had recently supported with a quick fix bungee cord trellis. I stopped what I was doing after I heard him continue to repeat 'Oh No! Domo!' a few more times.

I had noticed a few days eariler that the tomato, the only child of our indoor heirloom Abe Lincoln plant was not fully attached to the plant. Though it was not broken off either. I constructed a trellis using some bungee cords to support the fruit lest the weight of it snap the branch. Then I secured the thin branches of the plant to the cords and hung the tiny tomato over the side to keep it safe and supported. It had been 2-3 weeks since we had first discovered the fruit. It had about tripled in size. But it was clear to me that it was not done and it may double in size again before it began to turn red on the vine. I walked over to Thing 2 but I already knew what I was going to see. My once and future tomato was lying on my floor, green and hard.

Thing 2 looked at me with a very sad face. I knew he hadn't picked it, per se. But I suppose the tomato had just been hanging on by a thread. He probably just tapped it and it fell on the floor. I was really disappointed, but how can you be upset with cheeks as chubby as his? I sighed, picked up the tomato and placed it in the bowl alongside our farmer's market and CSA tomatoes on our countertop. I thought, 'At least we'll get to eat this one even if it is small.'

I don't know alot about gardening, either indoor or outdoor. So I don't know the optimal time to pick a tomato. Should one allow it to ripen on the vine? And if so, how ripe should it be? Should one pick a tomato when it begins to turn from green? Either way, I was pretty sure that picking a tomato when it was very underripe was a bad idea. I knew the tomato would turn red if left on the countertop, but I wasn't sure if it would be fit to eat. Or if it was fit to eat, I wasn't sure if it would be delicious.

Since I began the great O'Brien tomato fiasco of 2011, we have had dozens of flowers and all of them have died and shriveled up and fallen off the vine. This was the only tomato that was born between the two plants. I believe that I have 3 or 4 more tomatoes on the way, but boy oh boy they have been slow growing. I don't have alot of faith that any delicious tomatoes will materialize. Overall I have grown a little tired of this grand experiment. It has been alot of work, daily watering, about $150 of investment and a fair amount of feeling foolish as I take an electric toothbush to the flowers to attempt to pollinate them. There has been little, well really no payoff. And now that my only tomato had been tragically growth restricted, I was feeling over the whole thing. I am going to hang in there and keep watering the plant in the hopes that those 3-4 tomatoes do grow. And I am going to try and pollinate the remaining flowers in a different way. And I am thinking of pruning both plants to encourage new shoots. Right now the only new flowers are coming from new shoots. And there is no more room for new shoots to grow. We'll see if this can continue into the off season.

After all my malaise I was even more disappointed to awake one morning and find this...



As my tomato began to turn blushingly red one half stubbornly remained green and proceeded to mold. I weighed two heavy questions, do I eat the red part? Or let this one go? I decided that since this could very well be my only tomato of the season, I had to try it. I couldn't throw the only tomato in the garbage and say I had never tried it!

I cut off the still good red part. Only about a teaspoon of tomato was still good. I cut it in two pieces and..gulp..took a bite. It was pretty good. The mold certainly hadn't affected the whole tomato. The taste was very summery and had the grassy taste of an heirloom variety. But it did have an awfully thick skin. I am guessing that is because it was young and underripe. Overall, not a winner.

Tomorrow I will still water the tomato plants. But, I am kind of counting down the days until winter.

To read the previous indoor gardening posts click here:

The Hanging Garden of Washington Heights

On Flowering Tomatoes and Daughters

And Just Like That We Have a Tomato!

This post is shared with Fight Back Fridays and Traditional Tuesdays

CSA Pics: Week 7

This week at the CSA we got a nice manageable share. We got two enormous zucchinis, two enormous cucumbers, I had a choice of several greens and I chose some collard greens, a bag of salad greens, a bunch of beets, a small fennel bulb and a head of lettuce. We were supposed to get a bunch of fennel fronds, but I couldn't manage.

With the zucchinis I am planning on making muffins because it seems like a good idea. And I knew the kids would like them. The zukes have been tough this year, no one wants to eat them except me. I am kind of obsessed with the possibilities of this collard greens recipe, collards and bacon. I actually chose the collard greens specifically for this recipe. Wish me luck. And I still have the fennel bulb from last week, so I might combine them and try and roast them. Other than that, I am just happy that it is not an overwhelming amount. I haven't made a starch with dinner in two weeks.

On Flowering Tomatoes and Daughters

My indoor gardening idea was a 'get tomatoes quick' scheme at best. I have invested about $100 so far, and I guess that you could say that I didn't buy a pair of shoes (or two) this summer to offset the costs, so I am not crying over the loss of $100. But still, $100 is nothing to sniff at and I really want some tomatoes for some return on investment.

Since I started the great indoor gardening project I have watched these plants quadruple in size, bend upward toward the sun and put out several flowers. The red fruited 'Abe Lincoln' has put out a couple dozen flowers so far, with only 7 or 8 actually growing big enough to open. The yellow fruited 'Yellow Oxheart' has also put out a couple dozen flowers too, but they have all stayed small and tight. I think that my little yellow dear may not be getting enough sun since it is further in the corner. I moved the rack to a sunnier patch to oblige the plant.

With all this fertility and flowering I can't help but think of these plants as being female. I like to refer to them as a couple of 'shes' and they remind me of the irregular young girl in the first year of getting her menstrual cycle. Their little plant bodies are struggling to make babies and only producing dying flowers. And since I have no daughters who will one day grow up and need my loving guidance as they become women, maybe I am acting out through these plants a great void in my heart to help a young girl grow up. Remember when Rudy Huxtable got her period on the Cosby Show? I always imagined having a daughter. And when her time came I would keep her out of school for the first day after and we would go have lunch somewhere fancy in midtown, get manicures and go shopping at Sak's to celebrate her crossing over into womanhood. Now all I have to fulfill those dreams is a couple of irregular tomato plants that can't quite make tomatoes.

An astute reader commented in the first post about my indoor gardening that perhaps the plants needed bees? I foolishly believed that I could just BE the BEE. I could tap the flowers and polinate them. I mean, have you SEEN a flower? The stamen sticks out and all these dusty pods float in the breeze just begging to knock the plant up. I had it all worked out in my head. Then the first little flowers opened and I realized the trouble. A tomato flower comes in two parts, the outer flower that looks like a regular flower and then this, rather surprising to me, inner flower that covers the stamen and all the pollen bits.

I looked at the flower and thought, 'Ok, what the hell do I do now?' Before I left on vacation I had 3-4 flowers that were open. I had planned on gently tapping them to pollinate them, but clearly I was going to have to be more...invasive. I pinched them, but I didn't see any pollen fall out. I tapped the flowers from the back. I didn't know what to expect. I left on vacation hoping to come home to little green knobs.

What did I come home to? 4 new flowers and a couple dead flowers on the floor. Boo. So I looked online and found this website on how to pollinate indoor tomatoes. This website recommends getting an electric toothbrush and gently massaging the nearby support stems. Apparently the frequency of the vibrations loosens the pollen in the inner flower helping it to fall down and pollinate. An electric toothbrush? For real? I am starting to feel like I have crossed the line with this project into 'ridiculous territory'. I don't want to spend one more dime, but on the other hand if I don't see it all the way through then my entite initial investment is down the drain. What a conundrum! I decided to gently massage my plants with my fingers. I am making sure to ever so carefully tap the support stems on which the flowers are. I am trying to imitate the movement that the toothbrush would provide. And I am sure that I have now completely lost it.

I guess in a couple days I will know if I have ruined another batch of flowers and I need to buy an electric toothbrush. But I must see this through to the end. After all, I am the only mommy that my little girls have got.

Now don't get me wrong, having boys is awesome. Awesomer than I could have ever imagined. And rather than helping them become women (obviously), I am teaching them what to expect from women and how to have proper inter-gender relationships. I feel that it is my responsibility even at their young age to teach them to develop a healthy marriage by building great external friendships. But we want what we want. I remember the day the ultrasound clinician told me that Thing 2 was a boy. I was laying flat on my back and I truly believed that if I adjusted my head properly my two fat tears might roll back into my tears ducts from where they'd sprung. Since then I have reconciled my feelings. My desire for a daughter does not reflect upon my love for my boys at all. One has nothing to do with the other. And I don't feel guilty at all about my want of a daughter. But a Thing 3 is not looking so likely. So until we hit the lottery or I sell a book idea, I think that I will focus my attention on my tomato plants.

Read the first post here: The Hanging Gardens of Washington Heights

Read the next post here: And Just Like That We Have A Tomato

This post is shared with Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays and Traditional Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays

Recipe: Aisan Kohlrabi Slaw

We arrived back at our house Sunday evening from our long week away to find our CSA goodies waiting for us in the fridge (Thank you MS for picking them up!) Since we only had one day to eat them before more were delivered, I figured I had better get cracking. I did alot of cooking, but this was one of the easiest and freshest things I made. And after a week of being "off plan", I was ready for some fresh vegetables big time.

Aisan Kohlrabi Slaw

Start with one head of kohlrabi, green or purple it doesn't matter.




Although I started out with two, I ended up using only one. They get huge when grated. Grate your kohlrabi.




Chop 4-5 scallions.




Add in your grated kohlrabi, and grate 1-2 carrots. I had slightly less carrots than kohlrabi. Add them.




Then add everything else: about a quarter cup of chopped nuts (I used roasted cashews and almomds), a tablespoon of sesame seeds, a fat tablespoon if mayo (please make homemade, it is so extra yummy), 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons of honey and one teaspoon of toasted sesame oil. Stir and let sit in the fridge until you are ready to serve.




Here is to getting through all these greens by Tuesday night!!

This post is part of Traditional Tuesdays

I Thought I Knew How to Wash Vegetables

I found myself in a slightly awkward situation a few days ago. And let me preface this by saying that those with whom I was talking probably didn’t find the situation awkward at all. I was discussing with some folks about how to wash vegetables, when a good friend asked me, ‘Why do you soak your produce in vinegar diluted in water? Will it really remove the pesticide residues any better?’ I stuttered a half confident ‘I heard it from a friend’.

Now that wasn’t an answer that I was happy about! I like to think of myself as being a researcher and having a mind of my own. I like to think that I will confirm anything I hear out there with some trustworthy report. I want to believe that I will truly understand the reasons why I do the things that I do. That is what builds confidence. People who read this blog don’t just want to hear what I do with food. They want to hear why I do something with my food.
It is likely that people reading wash their produce in many varying ways. Some may scrub. Others soak. Some many wipe food on their clothes (no joke), while others mist with a mister. Some people buy those veggie washes. But there are some things you need to know about washing fruits and veggies.

· There are three things (and maybe more) that you need to be concerned about washing off your fruits and veggies when you get them home: dirt left over from growth, bacteria picked up either from the dirt or through transportation/ handling and pesticide residues. I don’t always buy organic produce. But even when I do, I always wash my fruits and veggies.

· Veggie washes aren’t worth the money. As NPR reported in 2007, Cooks Illustrated Magazine did an analysis of various cleaning methods and they found that veggie washes did little more than simply washing in plain water.

· That same analysis showed that veggie scrub brushes did remove slightly more bacteria than simple washing.

· But the best results were obtained from washing fruits and veggies with a solution of one parts vinegar (they used white vinegar) and 3 parts distilled water.

I thought the distilled water bit was interesting. Distilled water has had all the bacteria and living bits removed in the distilling process, thus you will be less likely to contaminate your fruits and veggie with something that was found in the water itself. But my first impression? I drink my tap water. So I run no greater risk of polluting my veggies with ickies than when I drink a glass of water. However, you might not feel so confident about your tap water…and I get that. I am not going to be buying distilled water just to wash my veggies.

The article said that it was not necessary to soak fruits and vegetables in water before storing them. And again, I get that. But I have had GREAT results through soaking. What I typically do when I get home from the market is to scrub my sink with soap and warm water (including the opening of the drain!) and rinse thoroughly. I then fill the sink up with cold water and add in some apple cider vinegar (previously I have been adding a few tablespoons but as a result of reading the article I will probably start adding a cup or so). I let my fruits and veggies soak for 30 minutes to an hour. I agitate them during the soaking so that all dirt and residue is removed. Then I remove them from the water, shake them off and let them drip dry on a clean dish towel. As I have mentioned before, I store most of my veggies in plastic bags in the fridge. Lettuce I like to store in a big glass Tupperware. With spinach I will often remove the stems before storage.

Fruits and veggies I soak: all greens, carrots, green beans, leeks and scallions, apples, pears, potatoes, grapes, stone fruits

Fruits and veggies that I rinse just prior to eating: all berries, anything bagged in plastic or otherwise washed before prepackaging

Fruits and veggies that I don’t wash at all: bananas, sweet potatoes, avocados, onions, oranges (all items that I NEVER eat the outer layer)

**As a note about pesticide residues. I found an interesting article on the WH Foods website that stated that one can remove most pesticide residue through washing and soaking, but not everything. And one cannot remove the pesticides that have been incorporated in the plant itself. I eat a lot of organic food, but I am not maniacal about it. Almost all the local fruit in my farmer’s market is sprayed with something! And I still prefer local to trucked in.My mantra is limit your exposure through buying some organics and washing the rest and then letting go and accepting the limitations of this life!