turkey apple chili

Don’t knock it til you try it!  This recipe was adapted from the turkey chili recipe in Deceptively Delicious.

1 onion, chopped
1 pound ground turkey
3 small carrots, grated or very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablesppon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 (15-oz) can diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth
1 large apple
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 (15-oz) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Brown turkey in a large pot with onions and carrots.

Add remaining ingredients except for cornmeal and beans.  Bring to a boil.  If it seems too watery, add some of the cornmeal to thicken it up.  Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes.

Add kidney beans and cook til heated through.

 

Thursdays

On Thursday we made homemade play-doh.

Wait, let me back up a bit.

Thursdays are Jake’s loooong days, starting with a 6:30 AM Bible study he teaches and ending when he returns from his night class at 9:00 PM.  So Thursdays are a bit of a struggle for me.  I’m still learning how to handle both girls by myself for so long (I know, I know, some moms do this on a daily basis — but I’m not one of them, so I haven’t worked out all the kinks yet!). 

Fortunately I have some wonderful friends and neighbors who help out.  Nonetheless, this is a long day for all of us and I usually find myself dreading it.

This past Thursday, things were going pretty well.  The baby actually napped for a while in the morning and I got some chores done.  It was very rainy so we couldn’t go out, and I decided to make some homemade play-doh with Adeline in the afternoon.  I felt like SuperMom – a semi-clean house, everyone fed, and a craft project, all on the day I’m operating solo?  What a great day, I’m thinking.

But when I suggest to Adeline that we make clay, she tells me she’d rather watch Arthur.  My heart drops (much the way it does when I ask if she wants to go outside and she says she’d rather watch a movie — what have I done wrong?!).  I try to make this clay-making endeavor sound really appealing — she usually loves to help measure and mix ingredients.  Still no dice.  She asks if she can play with her real Play-Doh.

So I decide to start mixing up the clay myself, figuring she’ll want to come help when she sees me get out the flour and the measuring cups.  She does.  And for a while it’s all fun.  Until I have to cook the clay on the stove.  Then she’s done helping and starts crying for her real Play-Doh.

Finally, finally, our homemade clay is ready (it really doesn’t take that long, but when you’re trying to impress a two-year-old, more than a minute is too long!).  I let Adeline touch it.  She seems interested.  I show her how we can dye it with food coloring.  She likes that part.  But as soon as that’s over and I suggest we play with it, she says, “Can I get my big Play-Doh?”  Then she asks again if she can watch TV.

*Sigh.*

SuperMom I am not.

But if you want to try, here’s the recipe:

1/2 cup salt
1 cup white flour
1 cup water
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Mix together in a saucepan and cook on low, stirring constantly, until the mixture forms a ball.

grilled corn salsa

I remember my friend Emilee making this in college a couple times.  I’m not sure where she got the recipe (Em, if you remember, feel free to leave a comment), and I’m not even sure if I’ve reproduced it accurately.  As it is, this is my favorite kind of recipe — i.e., one that is just an easy-to-remember list of ingredients that doesn’t require exact amounts.  Just use what you’ve got on hand and adjust the ratio to your liking.

corn on the cob (5 cobs give you plenty)
red and/or green pepper, diced
red onion, diced
bacon, crumbled

Grill corn by your preferred method.  When cool, remove kernels from the cob.  Combine with remaining ingredients and a couple tablespoons of bacon grease (optional!).  Serve with tortilla chips.  Also works well as a corn salad.

savoring summer’s flavors

‘Tis the season — we’ve been getting loads of fresh stuff from our CSA farm lately.  This increase in harvest has coincided with a considerable decrease in time for meal preparation around here.  The result has been some very simple, very delicious meals. 

My personal favorite meal is BLTs with sweet corn and cucumber salad.  I’ve been meaning to try BLTAs (A for Avocado) from the Family Meals cookbook.  We’ve also been enjoying Grilled Corn Salsa (I’ll post the recipe for this soon), and Cucumber Chicken.

Cucumber Chicken has been a favorite in our family for a few years.  I started making this in high school; I think I first found the recipe in Taste of Home magazine, but I’ve been making it from memory for so long that I’m uncertain of its origin.  Also, since I’ve been making it from memory I’m a little sketchy on amounts, so just do what seems right (sorry, I know that’s annoying).  Here it is:

Cucumber Chicken
1 cup (or so) plain yogurt
1 medium (or large?) cucumber, diced
fresh dill
salt & pepper to taste
4 chicken breasts
Italian dressing

Combine yogurt, dill, salt & pepper, and cucumber.  Chill in refrigerator.

Brush chicken with Italian dressing and grill  OR Wrap chicken & dressing in foil and grill that way (chicken stays moister this way).

Serve chicken topped with cucumber sauce.  This is even great with leftover cold chicken.

We’ve also had a surplus of plums, and since my Roasted Plums (again from the delightful Family Meals) didn’t go over so well, I thought I’d try a plum cake.  And I couldn’t stop thinking about Amelie’s Famous Plum Cake, from my favorite-movie-ever Amelie.  So on a whim I googled “Amelie’s Plum Cake” and found this.  And it was so, so, so good!! 

This is also the kind of recipe that would be good with other fruits substituted for the plums.  We can’t wait to try it with rhubarb and cherries next year! 

kneopfla soup

Kneopfla soup (we say “neff-la”) doesn’t exactly fall under the category of Health Food (it’s full of white flour) but it certainly is a Comfort Food, and it’s one that Jake and I have been eating since we were very small.  The credit for this recipe goes to my grandmothers and my mother-in-law, as well as countless other German-Russian homesteading women who could make marvelous things happen with a little bit of white flour and some potatoes.

For the kneopfla dough
*3 cups flour
*2 eggs
*1 tsp baking powder
*1/2 cup milk
*1 tsp salt
*water
In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients.  Slowly add enough water to make a dough that is soft but not sticky.  Cover bowl with a clean dish towel and let dough rest about 1/2 hour.

For the soup
*4 cups chicken stock
*3 cups water
*1 bay leaf
*2 potatoes
*kneopfla dough
*1 cup cream
Dice potatoes (peel them if you wish).  In a soup pot combine water, stock, bay leaf and potatoes; bring to a boil.  With a scissors, cut small pieces of kneopfla dough into the boiling broth, dipping the scissors into the broth periodically when the dough starts to stick.  Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Stir in cream and heat through.

Note: This is the most common version of kneopfla soup, but my paternal grandmother used to make it using beef broth instead of chicken broth, and she added green beans and sliced sausage pieces (omit the cream).  It’s pretty good this way, too.

In other food related news, I may possibly have found the best bread machine recipe ever.  Personally, I love everything that comes out of my bread machine, but some of the whole wheat bread is too “thick” for some members of this household and it doesn’t hold up well for sandwiches and toast.  This one isn’t 100% whole wheat, but it holds together very well and is perfect for said sandwiches and toast.

soup for the sniffles

This soup is, of course, also very good even if you don’t have a cold!  It’s based on a recipe I modified from The Well-Rounded Pregnancy Cookbook.

3-4 leeks, washed & chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
4 cups stock (veg or chicken)
3 cups water
1 tablespoon peeled & grated fresh ginger
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
a dash (or two, if you dare!) cayenne pepper
2 cups cooked chicken
egg noodles, cooked and drained

Saute leeks and carrots in olive oil in a large pot until soft, about 8 minutes. Add stock, ginger, garlic, and cayenne pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or so.  Add carrots and noodles and cook til these are heated through, about 5 more minutes.

This is especially easy if you have leftover chicken and/or noodles already cooked and ready to go.

musings from the kitchen

Seems like we’ve been spending a bit more time in the kitchen lately, doing some produce preservation and also, with the cooler weather (baking weather!) sweeping in, whipping up a batch of sweets now and again. 

And as I was making my friend Melissa’s Crazy Apple Cake the other day, I found myself thinking how much I love using recipes that were passed on to me by family and friends.  I love that someimes I can remember the very first occasion when I tried a dish and those memories send me back to very specific times and places: my friend Emilee’s pizza dough, Julie’s gooey butter cake, and Amanda’s peppermint bark all take me back to the different cities I’ve lived in, places I’ve worked, celebrations I’ve shared in.  And then there are other foods that I’ve been eating since before I can remember, that are part of my family’s history, and have played a part in many festive holiday meals as well as ordinary weeknight suppers: kneopfla soup, baruschkas, Grandma Martha’s butterhorns, strudels and sausage, pumpkin cookies, and Aunt Doris’s Rice.  There are few things more special to me than having a favorite recipe written down in the hand of a woman who is dear to me.

And so, I would like to share with you this recipe that I attempted recently (albeit typed out instead of written in my own handwriting).  It is one of those “what do we do with all this squash?” recipes.

Simple Squash Bake
You will need:
olive oil
1 large squash or 2 smaller ones, peeled, seeded, and cut into cubes (I have used butternut and banana squash; both work well)
6 or 7 shallots, chopped (or 1 onion)
1 pound (or so) ground beef
1 to 2 cups shredded cheese (I used a Fiesta Blend one time and mozzerella the other)
3 to 4 tablespoons sour cream

Roast the squash & shallots.  Preheat oven to 350.  Combine squash and shallots on a baking pan and toss with olive oil and salt & pepper til coated.  Spread out evenly on the pan and raost for 35-45 minutes (depending on how large your squash cubes are).
Brown the hamburger.
Combine all ingredients.  Once the squash is nearly done, combine with ground beef, cheese, and sour cream in a casserole dish.  Put back in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted and ingredients are blended.

The first time I made this, I had roasted the squash and browned the hamburger the day before, then just combined everything the next day and let it heat up for about 25-30 minutes at 350. 

In other news from the culinary front, we’ve been enjoying some fall-weather favorites and looking forward to some harvest-time treats:
leek and fennel soup
apple pie
pumpkin pie
Grandma Elsie’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies