Glass vs Metal Ovenware

Since we're all cooking way more than normal, here's a piece you might find useful.  What type ovenware (cake pans) is better for different methods?  

This came to me via an Extension Homemaker newsletter.

Golden Summer Squash Bake (Recipe)

On one of our trips out to the produce auction I got a half bushel of yellow squash at an unbelievable price.  Some I gave away, but I still had a bunch to use.  I was not interested in that oh-so-common yellow squash casserole everyone knows.  An internet search discovered one that sounded interesting... and I changed it up a bit to make it even more interesting!

Southern Squash Casserole

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 pounds yellow summer squash, about 6 medium squash, washed & sliced evenly

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup sour cream

1 egg, beaten

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, DIVIDED

about a 1/2 cup Panko

2 tablespoons butter, melted

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add olive oil and butter and swirl to melt and coat. Add the sliced squash, season generously with salt and pepper, and sautée for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover the pot with a lid and continue cooking for 15 minutes longer, stirring every few minutes, or until the squash is very tender.

Stir in the minced garlic during the last 5 minutes of the cooking time.

Add more salt and pepper until the squash is well-seasoned.

Adjust oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 350°F.

 Grease an 8-inch square casserole dish with softened butter. Transfer the cooked squash to a large bowl and mash it with a potato masher to desired consistency. Mix in the sour cream to cool down the mixture (so that the egg doesn't scramble)(OR let the stuff cool while you do something else), then stir in the egg, cheddar, and 1/4 cup of the grated Parmesan until well-blended. Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.

Sprinkle the top of the squash mixture with the Panko and the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan, then drizzle with the melted butter (personally I melt the butter and mix the Panko & Parm in). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Serve warm.

Teri's Slow Cooker Chicken Pho

Himself and I decided a fun (and tasty) thing to do this year would be to make a new soup each month.  Because one of our favorite meals out is to have Vietnamese Pho, that is what we decided to be our first soup of the year.

We had done a class at Whole Foods where a local chef made her pho recipe.  Very good but a ton of seasonings I don't regularly use... like fish sauce.  And it was on the stove simmering for a really long time.

So I did a search of various pho recipes that were made in a slow cooker.  One that did not use fish sauce used dark brown sugar to get that umami flavor.  That worked for me!  After that I basically winged it with ingredients.

Here's my version of chicken pho:

Teri’s Slow Cooker Chicken Pho

3 packages (32 oz each) chicken broth

3 T packed dark brown sugar

3 cloves garlic (good sized ones)

5 whole cloves

3 whole star anise

2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

2 inch long piece of young lemon grass

2 inch stick of cinnamon

½ cup cilantro leaves and stems

1 T whole coriander seeds

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

½ of a small onion

*2 pounds bone in chicken

**1 package thin dry rice noodles

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Accompaniments

Bean sprouts

Sliced green onion

Fresh cilantro sprigs

Sliced jalapeno

Lime wedges

Sriracha hot sauce and/or hoisin sauce

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In slow cooker, combine first eleven ingredients.  Mix well.  Then add chicken and onion.  (For more flavor depth, lightly sauté onion in a separate pan.  Then add a bit of the broth, stir, and add to slow cooker broth.)

Cover and cook on HIGH for about 3 hours or LOW for about 5 hours... or until chicken is tender.

Remove chicken from slow cooker, set aside to cool.

Strain broth either in a colander lined with cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer.

For quicker eating, I poured the broth into a pot and heated to a boil on the stove top.  Then as per directions, I added the rice noodles and cooked according to package time (about 5 minutes).  HOWEVER, next time I will cook the noodles in separate chicken broth.  The noodles clouded the beautiful chicken stock.

Slice chicken into bite size pieces for soup. 

To serve: First put noodles into bowl, and then add broth.  Add sliced chicken on top.  Then let each person garnish their soup from the accompaniments you have prepared.

*Chicken – I used thighs because it is what I had.  Best would be half white and half dark.

** Amount of rice noodles you cook is purely personal.  However~ only cook enough for one meal.  They don’t do well as leftovers.

It's Fruit Cake Day!

Fruit cake.

There seems to be no middle ground... you either love them or hate them.

I'm on the LOVE side of the coin!

Even as a small child, when my parents were given a gift of a fruit cake I broke into a happy dance.  Better yet if there were several such gifts that year!  When I married Himself I found out that his father MADE fruit cake... the most wonderful fruit cakes ever.  Haven't had one since 1993.

Then a few years ago I discovered the fruit cakes of Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri.  The Trappist monks there make incredible fruit cakes to support their abbey.  Check out the video below... it is quite interesting.

Because they a kind of pricey (but worth it) every few years  I will order one as a special treat.  It comes in a plain brown box (so your neighbors won't know)...

... with this tin inside.

TWO pounds of lusciousness!

Is that not a picture of fruit cake beauty?

Ummmmmmm....

Mochi

One of the fun things about exploring ethnic grocery stores is finding all sorts of new treats to sample.

This box caught my eye.  I thought it was a cookie with some sort of a honeydew flavored cream center.

Very pretty, isn't it?

But it is no cookie!!  Gelatinous but not really sticky.  Firm but very soft.

It springs back to pokes by finger or fork.

Here's one cut through.

I have never eaten anything like this!  The texture is soft... almost silky.  But as you chew, it does not readily come apart.  Just like when it is poked ~ it bounces back!!  You really have to work on it.

 The flavor is unique and appealing.

At another shop I found a different brand in Green Tea flavor.  Again excellent.  Less sweet than the melon flavor.

Cut away view.  This type was slightly better quality.

I had to learn more about these tasty little treats.

They are made of gelatinous rice which is traditionally pounded (and pounded and pounded...) into a "paste".  Modern prep uses rice flour that is cooked.  It is then somehow molded.  Various forms are special treats for holidays such as New Year's.  During cherry blossom time, pink ones are popular.

There is a dark side to mochi...  Remember how I said you really have to put some chewing into eating one of these?  They are a big choking hazard in Japan, especially among children and elders.  Because of the texture, they are also very difficult to get out of the airway.  It is recommended to cut them up before eating.  

It's good advice.

Below is a video of mochi being made using the traditional method.

Here's the beef

In looking over the papers I picked up at the learning center at the Bluegrass Stockyards, I realized it was really good information.

If you like a better view of the info on the top chart, go to:

https://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/cuts 

In fact, I'd recommend exploring the whole site.  There is a lot of really good information there! 

More Herbs, Less Salt (with recipes)

While today is "More Herbs, Less Salt Day", for us that is every day.  I have a large variety of herbs and spices in my cabinet; some I have bought and some I made.

A lot of those I've made come from the herbs I grow in my yard.

I have parsley...

... sage... 

...rosemary...

...and thyme.

Plus oregano (which is the beast of the garden, always trying to take over).

And our beloved basil.

This last very bitter cold winter took a toll on my herbs.  Two of my big lush rosemary plants were killed back completely... as was my thyme and 2nd year parsley.  So I've had to replant those.  No problem with the thyme and parsley... but it will be a couple years before I'll have plentiful rosemary again.

One of my current favorite herb blends (this a low salt recipe) is free to make.

When we have pho they always bring out a huge bunch of cilantro... far more than we could use.  I bring a little zippie bag and bring it home with us (they would just throw it away).  And when Himself buys a bunch of celery, I take the leaves from it.

Both of them are laid out to dry for a few days to get most of the moisture, then I put them in a low heat oven to finish the drying.  I keep it up until they are crisp.

I use about 2 parts of celery to 1 part of cilantro.  Then I had just a bit of salt.

It is really good on scrambled eggs.

And here are a couple other herb based seasonings you might enjoy...

Simple Sage Pesto

Makes approximately 8 ounces

2 cups fresh sage leaves, loosely packed

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1/4 cup pine nuts

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

a pinch of pepper

In the bowl of a food processor (or in a blender), add the sage, garlic, cheese and pine nuts.  Pulse the ingredients a few times until chopped. In a steady stream, slowly add the olive oil while the food processor or blender is running.  Stop to scrape down the sides once with a rubber spatula and add the salt and pepper.  Run the processor for a few more seconds to combine thoroughly.

Transfer the pesto to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.  The pesto will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Rosemary Thyme Marinade

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar

5 - 4 inch sprigs of fresh rosemary

about 15 - 4 inch sprig of fresh thyme

Mix the oil and vinegar into a glass dish that will fit your meat.  Give both herbs a slight pounding on a cutting board to bruise.  This releases their flavors.  Put into the oil & vinegar mix and swish around a bit to blend the flavors.  Then add your meat, coating both sides. 

Let sit at least 4 hours, occasionally turning to get the marinade all over.

Growing My Own Shiitake Mushrooms

We adore mushrooms of all sorts... but have you looked at the prices lately?!  So when we had a chance to take a class on growing Shiitake mushrooms I jumped on the opportunity.  

It all starts with logs.

For Shiitake (each kind of mushroom has different requirements) you can use logs of oak, pecan, walnut, alder, sweet gum, hard maple, ironwood, hornbeam, cherry, sycamore, tulip popular, ash, birch, and willow.

Do not use conifers, fruit trees, elm, hackberry, sassafras, soft maple dogwood, black locust, beech, or hickory.

Those above are oak.  You start with fresh cut logs from a living tree (no snags) no older than 6 weeks from the cutting.  You want them 6" to 7" in diameter (width sets how long the log will be productive which is about a year per inch of diameter~ but remember... you have to be able to move them!).  Cut at about 3' long.

Make some sort of work station or your back will be very upset with you!

Mark all the way around the log about 5-ish inch place in a row, next row off-set from the one previous.  Go all the way around the log back to your first row.

Drill 12 mm holes about 1 inch deep.  

For the class we had a sawdust spore mix, which uses this tool.  You jam it down into the sawdust mix and plunge it into the holes.  You can also buy little plugs that you just stick into the hole.  

Here's the sawdust mix.  The white is mycelium.  It is a type of fungus that helps break down wood.  It is a good thing.

Using the plunger to push in the sawdust mix.

The hole filled.

See all the filled holes?

Then you seal the holes with a food grade paraffin.

Just brush it on good and thick.

Like this.

My finished log.

Now it goes to a dark-ish place, like the north side of a building.  Keep an eye that it doesn't get too dry.  If so, it needs to soak for about 12 hours...more than that will drown the mushrooms.

In 6 to 9 months it should start looking like this (it is called a flush).  A log should produce 3 to 5 flushes a year.  

I am hoping for my first flush in time for Thanksgiving dinner!

Vietnam Kitchen in Louisville, KY

One of the fun things about staying at The Hawk's Eyrie was the culturally diverse neighborhood it is located near.  What makes it fun is the grocery stores and restaurants.  There were at least 5 Vietnamese restaurants within a mile and a half.

We decided to try Vietnamese Kitchen, only a half mile away.

It was a great choice!

Other than pho, I've never had the opportunity to try Vietnamese cuisine.  These two waiters were asked a lot of questions on how to eat this and that.

So much fun!

The restaurant does a brisk business.

This kind of tickled me... I've never seen a chop sticks dispenser.  And they were the GOOD chop sticks too.

Here's our meal:

(Our favorite appetizer) 

(AMAZING!!!)

Again, when we go back to Louisville this will be one of our meal stops.