Gingerbread House

We just completed the third annual gingerbread house making project at our house. I won't tell you it's easy, but if you break it up over a couple of days, it is not only do-able, but actually fun. (And look at that sense of accomplishment you too can feel!)

The keys to simplicity are:

• Make the pattern once and save it for next year
• Make the dough then cut out and bake it anytime over the next 3 days
• Make the icing "glue", assemble the house, and let it stand for at least 4 hours before decorating
  

Gingerbread House from The Joy of Cooking
(pp. 842-844 of 1997 edition)

This is a trustworthy set of instructions -- I highly recommend it.

Amy's Royal Icing "Glue"
makes enough for assembling and decorating one gingerbread house

4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons powdered egg white
6 tablespoons water

1. Combine all ingredients in workbowl of electric stand mixer and beat until stiff peaks form. (You want a stiff icing to "glue" your house together so go easy on the water. I like to add it a little at a time.)

2. To decorate: Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small round holed tip or substitute a large baggie with a tiny snip taken off one of the corners.

Icing can keep, stored airtight, for several days.

Winter Squash Soup

These lovely Carnival squashes caught my eye while in New Leaf Community Market with Amy F. the other day. I was craving butternut squash soup, but figured these would probably make a good substitute in my recipe, inspired by "Spicy Squash Soup" in the Open Hand Celebration Cookbook. (The Carnivals did make a great soup, I found out tonight! A little sweeter and more sweet potato-ey than butternut.)

Don't let thoughts of trying to peel these small, lumpy, hard-as-a-rock little squashes scare you. All you have to be able to do is cut them in half with a trustworthy knife, then the rest is easy -- steam roast them in the oven until they are soft enough to scoop out of their skins, then simmer gently with the other ingredients for a delicious soup that can be dressed up or down depending on garnishes.

Winter Squash Soup
serves 6

3 organic Carnival squash
1 yellow onion, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1 tablespoon unsalted organic butter
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 32oz. box organic chicken broth

garnishes: toasted pine nuts, sour cream or crème fraiche, fried sage leaves

1. Cook the squash: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wash squash and carefully cut a thin slice off the bottom (non-stem end) of each squash. Using a large chef’s knife, cut each squash in half starting from bottom and cutting through stem side. (This is best done by placing the knife in the flesh of the squash then giving a good, firm whack of knife+squash on the cutting board or counter.) Scoop out and discard seeds from each squash half. Place flesh-side down, in an 8x11 inch glass baking dish. Add about an inch of water to the pan, cover with foil and bake 1 hour.

2. Heat butter in large soup pot or dutch oven. Add onions and jalapeno and cook, covered on low heat for 10 – 15 minutes until onions are soft, but not browned.

3. Scoop flesh from cooked squash halves and add to the onions. (Be careful not to scoop any of the tough skin. If you accidentally do, remove it and discard.) Add chicken broth, cumin and salt and simmer gently for 30 minutes then remove pot from heat.

4. Using a hand-held immersion blender, puree the soup. Garnish as you like and enjoy!

Amy’s Kitchen Coach Tips

• I often cook the squash a day or two ahead, whenever I might happen to be using the oven for something else, like when roasting a chicken or potatoes. This way you not only get the most bang out of your already hot oven, but you make the soup preparation day really easy.
• Substitute any winter squash in this recipe. One large, or two small butternut squash fit the proportions I give above, but you can wing it.
• If the soup is too thick, simply thin with a little water.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

The heat of late summer plumped the tomatoes in this picture, the last food photo from my partner and husband, dear Christopher.

A time of transition.
A time of beauty.
A time for comfort.

Allow me to bid goodbye to Indian summer, a little bit late, with this simple tomato sauce. My 3 year old and I filled a large colander with the last of our cherry tomatoes and I cooked them briefly with some olive oil and a bit of garlic. Delicious on top of a steamy bowl of polenta with a pat of butter and some coarse grained sea salt.


Fresh Tomato Sauce

3 cups cherry tomatoes, preferably garden grown or from your farmers market
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or unsalted butter
1 clove garlic, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
sea salt

1. Rinse tomatoes and pat dry.

2. Heat olive oil in large frying plan. Add tomatoes and cook on medium heat for 10 – 15 minutes until tomatoes release some of their liquid and it has reduced a bit. (Go with the flow here – it doesn’t really matter how short or how long you cook the “sauce”, as long as you don’t burn the little babies dry. Have fun and enjoy the easy cooking.)

3. Serve over steamy polenta or pasta. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Walnut Cookies

"Pumpkin Walnut Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting" -- yum. Way to go Magnolia! After a few minutes daydreaming through that book, oh, how I wanted a cakey pumpkin cookie. But I didn't want the heavy slather of powdered sugar icing. Time to get to work in the kitchen.

I soon learned that cookies without frosting need more spice. I increased the ginger from 1/4 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons. Cinnamon up by a factor of 4. I added nutmeg, because I love nutmeg. While I was at it, I switched out the refined white flour for whole grain oat and barley. It worked! A pumpkin cookie that gets you in the mood for fall, but doesn't send your blood sugar into the sky. Go ahead, eat a couple for breakfast.

(The model cookies in the photo are sporting a modified brown butter glaze, but due to the moisture level of the cookie, the frosting never stayed dry. Forget it. Leave them plain. Or, try browning the butter that goes in the cookie. Hey...there's an idea!)

Pumpkin Walnut Cookies
makes 3 dozen cookies

1 ½ cups barley flour
1 ½ cups oat flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)
1 teaspoon kosher salt1 teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ cups packed natural brown sugar (I like the light brown Muscovado from India Tree and Billington’s)
1 cup canned organic pumpkin
4 tablespoons unsalted organic butter, softened to room temperature
2 large cage free eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup walnut pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle walnuts onto cookie sheet pan (lined with a silpat or not, it doesn’t really matter here with the nuts) and bake for 10 minutes until toasted. (This brings out the flavor of the nuts and is a nice technique to use whenever you add nuts to your baked creations.) Remove from oven and transfer nuts to a plate to cool.

2. Crank up the oven to 375 degrees F. Wipe out any nut crumbs from the cookie sheet pan used above and line again with silpat or a sheet of baking parchment paper (this time it does matter). Measure the flours and spices into a bowl, whisk to combine, and set aside.

3. In the workbowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter with the sugar. Add pumpkin, eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. Stir in toasted walnut pieces.

4. For each cookie, scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough and place on lined sheet pan, leaving a couple inches between dough mounds. Bake for 15 minutes or until cookies spring back when lightly touched. Let cool on sheet pan for 5 minutes, then move cookies to a cooling rack.

Amy's Kitchen Coach Tips

• Soften hard brown sugar by microwaving it for 30 seconds. Other ideas are out here on Wiki Answers.
• Always toast nuts before you use them in your baked items. 10 minutes at 350 degrees is a general rule of thumb. Toasting enhances the nut's flavor and improves texture.

Slow Cooked Mexican Chicken

Slow Cooked Mexican Chicken
8 chicken thighs, serving 4 - 6 people

8 range chicken thighs, with bone and skin

1 cup organic chicken broth
1 onion, halved then sliced into ¼ inch thick half moons
1 organic red bell pepper, halved, seeded, then sliced into ¼ inch thick strips
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon salt

garnishes: sprouted corn tortillas, avocado, sour cream

1. Rinse chicken under cold water, trim away excess skin and fat, and pat dry with paper towels.

2. Heat olive oil in large dutch oven or stove slow cooker insert (if stove top safe) over medium heat on stove top. Add onions and red bell pepper and cook for a few minutes until veggies are softened. Add chicken in one layer, and lightly brown on both sides – the amount of time isn’t that important, but target around 5 minutes.

3. Add the seasonings and chicken stock. If using a slow cooker, transfer the insert into the slow cooker, cover and cook on low heat setting for 4 hours. If using a dutch oven on the stovetop, simmer gently, covered, for 30 – 40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and falling off the bone.

4. When chicken is cooked, transfer chicken pieces with slotted spoon to a cutting board until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, return the dutch oven or slow cooker insert to the stovetop and boil the remaining liquid to concentrate the flavors and reduce slightly.

5. Remove the skin and bone from each piece of chicken. Chop or shred the chicken and return it to the sauce and you’re ready to serve. Serve family style and pass heated tortillas to wrap the chicken enchilada style.

Amy’s Kitchen Coach Tips

• I suspect that you can use boneless, skinless chicken thighs and save yourself the time removing the skin and bones after cooking, but you might sacrifice some flavor. Stay tuned to Amy’s Food Room and I’ll test this out and post back to this entry!
  
  
• Make it a Meal: Serve the chicken rolled in tortillas alongside salad greens dressed with lemon vinaigrette, grapefruit segments, avocado, and toasted pumpkin seeds. Something spicy like arugula and radicchio is a nice combination.

Spicy Quinoa Salad

How convenient to find inspiration in August's Food & Wine, an idea for using garbanzo beans and quinoa! These two staples seem to have reproduced in my fridge this week. (That, and zucchini...want any?)

A mixture of smoked paprika, turmeric, and cumin are behind the "spicy" in this salad...not so much a "hot" spicy, but a wonderful, flavorful spicy that stands on its own, or livens up a more mellow entree. We enjoyed it with a few slices of grilled steak over salad greens.

Spicy Quinoa Salad
serves 6 - 8

4 cups cooked quinoa (see Amy's Kitchen Coach Tips below)

1 cup garbanzo beans (preferably home cooked, see Hummus from 8/21/08)
2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise, grilled then chopped
2 scallions, finely diced
a few cilantro leaves, if you like them and if you have them

3 tablespoons olive oil
Juice from ½ lemon
1 teaspoon each of the following (sea salt, tumeric, smokey paprika, cumin)

1. Lightly coat the zucchini stalks with olive oil and grill or broil until softened a bit. Let cool until you can handle them, then chop into pieces.

2. Stir together cooked quinoa, garbanzo beans, zucchini, scallions, and cilantro.

3. Sprinkle the spices over the quinoa mixture and stir to combine. Drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice over the quinoa mixture and stir to combine.

Amy's Kitchen Coach Tips

• Cook quinoa just like rice-- in a rice cooker!
• Be sure to rinse quinoa with water a few times before you start cooking. The seeds have a soapy coating to deter pests; harmless to us, but not very tasty. Just put the quinoa in a bowl of water, swish, and pour off the water, two or three times.

Hummus, Mellow on the Garlic

I haven't been able to find my favorite, mellow-on-the-garlic hummus at the grocery the last several weeks, so I finally decided to make some myself. Starting with those hard little garbanzo bean nuggets from the bins takes a little advance planning, but wow! Are they ever delicious! You have not tasted a garbanzo bean until it soaks, cooks and plumps under your own control. They have a wonderful fresh taste and texture you just can't get out of a nasty old can.

Hummus
makes about 3 cups

3 cups garbanzo beans (preferably home cooked)
½ cup water
¼ cup tahini or cashew butter
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed through garlic press
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin

1. Put garbanzos, tahini or cashew butter, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and cumin in the workbowl of a food processor and puree. With motor running, slowly drizzle in the ½ cup water until you get a smooth consistency. (You may not use all the water, or you may need a couple more tablespoons – see what you like.)

Store tightly sealed in the refrigerator. Keeps a couple weeks.

Amy's Kitchen Coach Tips

• If you haven’t yet cooked beans for yourself, garbanzos are a very satisfying first experience. You’ll find the dry garbanzos in the bulk area of your grocery. Buy about 2 cups of dry beans (approximately 1 pound). Recipe for preparing them follows. Just be warned. It will be very difficult to return to the canned ones once you’ve tasted home cooked.
  
  
• Serve with toasted pita bread and olives (the bright green Castelvetranos I’ve been finding at Whole Foods are delicious – very rich and buttery) and a few of your remaining whole garbanzos.
  
  
• Cooking beans. Choose one of the following soaking methods:
  

• Overnight Soak

Set the bean bowl in the fridge overnight. The next day, dump the beans into a colander and discard the soaking liquid. Beans are ready to cook.

• Quick Soak

Put the beans into a large stockpot and fill the pot with water to cover the beans by 4 – 5 inches. Over medium high heat, boil the beans for 3 minutes then turn off the heat, cover the pot and let beans sit for at least 1 hour, ideally 4 – 12 hours (I know, that’s not exactly “quick”, but beans are a zen food…enjoy the pace!

• Cook the beans. (This method assumes you are using 1 pound of dry beans, which will yield 4 – 6 cups cooked beans. If you want to make more, just increase the salt accordingly.)

1. Rinse beans, discarding soaking water.
2. Slowcooker: Place beans in slow cooker and add fresh water to cover beans by an inch or two. Stir in 2 teaspoons of salt. Cook on low heat setting for 8 hours.
   Stovetop: Place beans in dutch oven or large stockpot. Add fresh water to cover beans by an inch or two and boil gently until tender, usually 1 – 1 ½ hours.
3. Once tender, drain and discard any remaining water. Beans will keep in refrigerator for several days, or freeze part of them for another time.