It's harder to eat healthy in the winter.

 Summer is so much fun with the garden fresh vegetables and the freshest of fruits to consume. But winter is a bit more of a culinary challenge. Healthy eating is more difficult and I am craving comfort food on these cold snowy days. There were large fresh artichokes on sale when I shopped today; and they called to me. When I got home,  I had them for dinner. This is a very simple meal and quite filling. To prepare the artichoke I peel the stem and pull off  the small bottom leaves. Then I cut a small amount of the top leaves so the water can penetrate the inside. While the artichoke is boiling in saltwater prepare a bowl with olive oil, course ground pepper and sea salt. When a fork easily penetrates the core of the artichoke it is ready for consumption. Place the artichoke in a bowl so the excess water can drain and get an extra plate for the discarded leaves. Then enjoy! Pull a tender leaf from the artichoke and dip in the olive oil scraping the bottom to get some salt and pepper too. Then with your teeth scrape the meat from the bottom of the leaf placing the rest of the leaf on the discard plate. When all the leaves are gone the best part of the artichoke is waiting hidden in a nest of soft silky fiber. Remove the silky fiber and expose the artichoke heart. This is the real meat of the artichoke and bursts with flavor. Don't forget the stem it is totally edible.

Fresh bluegills.

Fish is another healthy winter choice and I am very lucky that my son-in-law Jake is an avid fisherman. Knowing I love bluegills he packages them in water by servings of two and freezes them for me. When I am ready to prepare this delicacy I take a beautiful hand thrown ceramic bowl, by my daughter Amy, and thaw the fish slowly in lukewarm water. While they thaw I steam some fresh spinach and boil some potatoes for mashing. It is not long before the fish is thawed and ready to prepare. I turn the oven to 350@ . Lightly flour the fish and melt some butter or olive oil in a saute pan. Quickly brown the fish on one side and flip turning off the heat. One thing you never want to do with fish is over cook. Then it becomes tough, rubbery and looses all its flavor and appeal. The bluegills are ready to go in the oven to finish cooking while I mash the potatoes and prepare my plate. I add juice of a fresh lemon and some capers to the top of my fish but this is optional.

Bluegills with lemon and capers.

A healthy winter meal choice.

    
      The potatoes are ready so turn off the oven and arrange fresh spinach on the plate with some mashed potatoes. Place the hot bluegills on top of the spinach, pour yourself a nice chilled glass of  White Zinfindel or wine of choice and enjoy a wonderfully healthy winter meal in the company of food.   

Eating visually.

Flax seed jar

  Believing food is enhanced by visual presentation, having ceramic artists in the family is a plus. Doesn't a morning cup of coffee feel more comforting, soothing and appealing in a hand thrown ceramic mug fitting your grip perfectly. Every morning my breakfast meal must include some flax seed.  I delight every time I open the home to my flax seed.  This is one of my favorite ceramic pieces and for some reason makes it's healthy  contents much more appealing.
  Tonight I am making orange flavored chicken breast, baked sweet potatoes, and a zucchini melody with garlic and tomatoes for dinner. This is another one of those cast iron fry and bake dinners that I love.  Preheat the oven to 350@.

Vegetable medley

Ceramic butter dish

  Place your sweet potato in the oven to bake. I always like to start my baked potatoes in the microwave and finish in the oven so the skin is nice and crisp. Next prepare the vegetables. A lovely melody of colors always increases desirability of vegetables. Especially in the winter months when produce is not as abundant.  I slice green and yellow zucchini, tomatoes and of course fresh garlic, then set aside while I start the chicken. Lightly flour the chicken breast to hold in the juices and saute with butter in a cast iron skillet until golden brown. When browned on both sides cut a fresh orange or lemon in half and squeeze over the chicken then  place in the oven. Now my sweet potato and chicken are in the oven finishing cooking. Time to cook the vegetables. In another cast iron skillet heat some olive oil and when it is warm stir in the fresh garlic. When the garlic starts to brown arrange the zucchini around the pan bottom. Let this slightly brown and then flip the zucchini and top with the tomatoes, put the vegetables in the oven. By now your chicken and sweet potato should be ready, so turn off the oven to finish the vegetables. To plate my dinner I choose a fine china plate and arrange the food in three visual sections. I enjoy butter and sour cream on my potato and now get to enjoy another ceramic treasure, a butter dish. This holds the butter nicely at room temperature so it in no way chills my steamy hot sweet potato. I enjoy another delicious meal albeit constant visual stimulation in the company of food.

Everyone loves pizza!

Sauce with Italian herbs, dough, flour, corn meal & pan.

I am having a small gathering of family over for a pizza and game night. To begin I prepare the sauce. Season tomato puree with oregano, garlic salt, fresh ground pepper and olive oil  for the sauce or just use an Italian seasoned tomato sauce. I love any kind of fresh vegetables. Chop garlic, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach and any other vegetable you like. The crust is simple, Wall Mart pizza dough. The only other things you will need are flour, corn meal, cutting board and rolling pin, and a cast iron skillet. Heat your oven to 400@. Let the fun begin!
     I am fortunate enough to have many sizes of seasoned cast iron skillets left over from our family restaurant. One of our specialties was deep dish pizza. I must confess, I am getting lazy after thirty seven years of making pizza dough but can not resist the aroma and sweet taste of a hand made pizza perfectly melded with my favorite ingredients. Fortunately, I discovered, after trial and error, Wall Mart pizza dough.

Melody of fresh cut vegetables.

Deep dish pizza ready for the oven.

     For my get together I decided to start with a small deep dish pizza. This takes three fourths of the pizza dough. The dough gets lightly floured and is hand kneaded to fit the shape of the bottom of the pan. I always spray my pan or oil it to ensure the dough does not stick to the sides. Then I lightly sprinkle corn meal on the bottom of the pan. When the dough is in place I cover generously with my sauce and begin layering my toppings. For this pizza I am adding just vegetables. If you like Italian sausage on a deep dish pizza this should be the first ingredient added to the sauced dough. I usually buy fresh link Italian sausage and remove the skin.  I break the raw sausage into little pieces and flatten with my fingers. Each piece is pushed into the sauced dough so it will cook with the dough. Then I layer the rest of the ingredients. There is enough vegetables here for a pan fried pizza, as well.  I finish the pizza with a generous layer of cheese and a few dollops of sauce. Into the oven it goes. This pizza takes about 30min. to cook.

Pan fried crust.

  Now I start my pan fried pizza and roll out the remaining 1/4th of the dough until it is nice and thin and fits the bottom of the pan. I take a 12" cast iron skillet spray it with olive oil and heat on stove top. I arrange all my ingredients for close reach because this pizza has to be layered quickly to avoid burning of the crust. Another hint, precook any raw product like Italian sausage and crumble for the topping. This pizza cooks much quicker than the deep dish and would not give raw products enough heat time. I love fresh garlic but this is an optional step. If you do not like that much garlic just skip this step and begin with the olive oil. When the pan is nicely heated I cover the bottom, generously, with olive oil and sprinkle fresh garlic around the whole bottom. I let the garlic lightly brown then toss in my dough.  As the dough begins to cook it will start to bubble so have a fork handy to pierce the bubbles and a spatula to flip the crust over. Cook until the bottom of the crust starts to lightly brown, turn off the heat and flip the dough. As you can see there will be some shrinkage. Generously sauce the dough and layer your toppings finishing with cheese and dollops of sauce. Keeping the pizza in the pan place it in the oven with the deep dish, which should just be starting to brown. In about ten minutes check the pizzas removing the one that is ready, usually the deep dish is removed first and the pan fried needs a few more minutes of browning. This is the perfect combination because the deep dish should be allowed to rest before cutting into pie shaped pieces.

Place the deep dish pizza in the back of the oven. It's hotter.

 When the pan fried pizza is finished you are ready to eat. For my gathering I allowed my guest to put the toppings on their own pizzas. So I had the chopped toppings arranged on the table and also a large bowl of fresh cut lettuce greens and different dressings so everyone could make a salad to accompany the pizza.You can cut the pan pizza right in the pan but I prefer to slide it onto my cutting board to slice into wedges. A nice large bottle of slightly chilled Merlot finished off the offerings. Nothing is better than a relaxing evening with family in the company of food.

Snow storm!

Today is a snow day from work and I am being the ultimate bum. It is noon and I am still in my pj's as the wind and snow swirl outside my window. I have already taken a nap and am hungry so decide to make an omelet. Amy, my daughter, has avoided the storm and is, as we speak, lounging by the pool in Florida where, she gloats, it is 80 degrees. She also has remarked how much food is in her host refrigerator. Our refrigerator, in her eyes, is always empty. Really? So how can I make an omelet? I peer into the fridge and spot some fresh vegetables left over from the pizza I made for dinner last night. Onion, green pepper, mushrooms, tomato and spinach are all in plain view. And oh yes, there is a carton of eggs and a bag of grated cheddar cheese. There is even butter in this empty fridge!

I chop some onion and green pepper and slice the mushrooms and tomato then add butter to my omelet pan. In a separate bowl I whisk three eggs and season with pepper. I add the onion and green peppers to the pan first to clarify then add the mushrooms and tomatoes and spinach. When the vegetables are warm and melded I stir in the eggs and top with grated cheddar. When the cheese begins to melt I flip the omelet to form a half moon and reduce the heat. Slowly the omelet finishes cooking. When the center of the omelet is firm to the touch it is done. Warm and cozy at my kitchen table I begin to eat. In the company of food I gaze out  my window at the gorgeous winter wonderland and wonder if Amy is eating this good in Florida?

Comfort food.

 Comfort food, isn't that what winter is all about? Oh Yeah!!! And one of my favorites is country ribs with sauerkraut, potatoes and carrots. This is a painfully simple meal to prepare but so delightful to consume with a dose of mustard on the side and butter for the perfectly boiled potatoes. Sinful!

The ingredients are simple. Fresh carrots, fresh potatoes, onions, sauerkraut and meaty country ribs.  A crock pot meal extraordinaire; filling the house with tantalizing aromas that excite the taste buds. I have the extravagance of time; so I boil my ribs first and boil my carrots until cooked second; then boil my potatoes until they are par cooked. I layer my ribs on the bottom, onions, sauerkraut with juice, a dash of course ground pepper and cooked carrots on top finishing with blanched potatoes. This way the meal is done in about an hour. But for a young working mother follow the same layering, forget the precooking and set the crock pot for the day and enjoy. The ribs on the bottom will get the best cooking heat, the onions will meld with the sauerkraut, which you can not over cook. The carrots will cook before the potatoes, which will finish at the same time as everything else. A delicious meal ready and waiting after a busy day. I enjoy mustard and horseradish as a compliment to this winter comfort meal.

The secret of a gingerbread house.

Bella Rose with her first gingerbread house.

     A smile! I personally hate gingerbread cookies but I love the magic of a gingerbread house. I have gone to visit a dying person in a nursing home with one in hand and there is no talk of death, but of love and beauty. I have sent one to a loved one who has moved far away and I get a thank you call full of tear, happiness and memories. It is a gift that gives back!
I receive as much, if not more, pleasure then the recipient. As a girl scout leader I challenged my troop to auction off gingerbread houses for charity.  My daughter Amy's gingerbread house took the highest bid. Who knew that she would eventually graduate in product design? Her windows looked like stained glass and she had a light inside to show them off!
     Last year I made a gingerbread house for my first grandchild, Bella Rose. Her mommy and daddy got the pleasure of eating the gingerbread house. I have the pleasure of this picture for years to come. I am looking forward to making a second gingerbread house for Bella and will decorate it with things that she can eat.  Happy holidays to all and when you see a gingerbread house, smile in the company of food!

Lessons in fettuccine

Wow this is easier than I thought!

      Today I demonstrated how to make fresh fettuccine using my mother's antique pasta machine. She bought the pasta machine, many years ago, for our restaurant on one of her many return trips to Italy to visit her family. It was used continuously until the restaurant sold about three years ago, after thirty seven years in business. Until a coworker asked if I could teach her how to make homemade pasta the pasta machine has been sitting on a closet shelf. Today was our pasta lesson. I retrieved the recipe and told Nancy what to provide. I like using semolina flour in my pasta because it makes a firmer, more flavorful pasta. She was so cute searching everywhere for semolina flour and she finely found it in an ethnic grocery store. Fettuccine can be made with just flour and be delicious but the semolina flour is a nice addition. To show the different taste we made a batch of pasta with just flour and another with half flour and half semolina flour.
     The basic recipe is very simple. The first step is to put a large pan of water on the stove to boil with a dash of salt and some olive oil. Next to this pan place another pan with cold water and ice cubes to chill pasta after it is blanched.  Assemble ingredients, three eggs, two cups of flour, three tablespoons of olive oil, half teaspoon of salt and a smidgen of water. Dust the counter top with flour so the moist pasta does not stick.Just break eggs into the food processor add flour, oil and salt and blend adding water {slowly} until the dough form a nice moist ball. Prepare the dough ball for the pasta machine by hand forming it until it is thin enough to fit through the largest setting of the roller. Repeat this process gradually reducing the thickness dial. As the pasta thins you will need to cut into sections to continue thinning. We stopped at number three. Now we take the thinned and sectioned pasta slabs and roll them through the top pasta cutter to form the fettuccine noodles. At this point you can dry the fettuccine for use on another day. Blanch, chill, and freeze the fettuccine in portion size zip lock bags; or hold the fettuccine in the chilled water for immediate use.

Fettuccine Al Fredo

     We decided to chill the fettuccine and make some Al Fredo sauce. To use this pasta it must be cooked until tender in the boiling water again. I am sure Nancy is laughing as she reads this post as this is the step I forgot in our lesson and we ate the Fettuccine Al Fredo with the blanched pasta before I realized my mistake. Prepare the Al Fredo sauce by melting butter and whisking in some flour to form a roux. Add some pepper and Parmesan cheese and slowly thin with milk until the sauce has a thick creamy consistency. Toss in the cooked fettuccine and mix until it is thickly covered with the sauce and place in a baking/serving dish and sprinkle with some more Parmesan cheese. Bake until the top starts to brown and enjoy. To make it less time consuming you can just pour the warm sauce over the warm pasta and it is simply delicious, as well.
     Learning new cooking skills in the company of food !