Liz On Food

Beef Pad Thai

2010-02-15T11:59:04-07:00

If you're considering ways to reduce meat consumption, either for health or environmental reasons, but still have an occasional hankering for beef, try this Thai stir fry dish. Using a food processor for vegetable shredding, this recipes creates a quick and tasty one-dish meal with ample but not excess protein. One key to successful stir fry is quick cooking in very hot oil, so you need to use an oil that has a high smoking point (just like it sounds, the temperature at which the oil starts to smoke). If you're interested, Cooking for Engineers blog provides a comprehensive chart listing the smoking points of various cooking oils and fats. In this dish, I used shredded broccoli stems instead of bean sprouts. You can save the florets for another use. Broccoli is a common ingredient and keeps well, so I don't have to worry about bean sprouts going bad before I use them.

Yield: 4 servings

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

4 carrots
Stems from 3-4 broccoli bunches
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 small onion, diced
3/4 lb lean steak (your choice of cut)
2 T safflower oil or other cooking oil with high smoking point
1 t Thai chili paste
1 T fish sauce
1 T rice vinegar
1/2 t sesame oil
2 T low-sodium soy sauce
7-9 ounces Thai rice noodles, dry
2 quarts hot water

Shred carrots and broccoli stems in food processor.

Slice steak into 2"x 1/2" strips. Mix chili paste, fish sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce in a small bowl. Place rice noodles and hot water in a large bowl or pan. Let noodles soak while stir frying other ingredients.

Heat oil in wok or saute pan, then add garlic; cook until golden. Add onion; cook about 2 minutes. Add beef; cook about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Push beef to sides of pan; add carrots and broccoli, cook about 2 minutes. Add noodles, then stir in sauce mixture. Let cook 2-3 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Per-serving Nutritional Profile:
    Calories, 400
    Fat, 11 g
        Saturated Fat, 2 g
    Cholesterol, 30 mg
    Carbs, 57 g
        Dietary Fiber, 2 g
    Protein, 19 g
    Sodium, 700 mg
    Vitamin A, 210% Daily Value
    Vitamin C, 10% Daily Value
    Calcium, 6% Daily Value
    Iron, 15% Daily Value

Lentil Barley Stew

2010-01-21T14:30:08-07:00

Lentils cook more quickly than many other dry legumes. This delicious (and nutritious) lentil barley stew recipe can be started late afternoon and be ready in time for supper.

Yield: 12 servings

Preparation Time: 2 hours

1 lb dried lentils
2 c carrots, diced
1 c celery, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped
1 c barley
1 medium tomato, blanched, peeled and diced OR 1/4 c canned crushed tomatoes
1 quart vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups water
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
4 c fresh spinach leaves

In a six-quart stock pot, cover lentils with water. Bring to boil. Let sit one hour. Drain and rinse lentils. Cut vegetables while lentils are soaking.

Place lentils back in stock pot, add all ingredients, bring to boil then reduce heat.

Let simmer until lentils and barley are done, about 45 minutes. Add spinach, simmer five more minutes.

Serve with artisan Italian bread for a hearty yet healthy meal.

Per-serving Nutritional Profile:
    Calories, 190
    Fat, .5 g
        Saturated Fat, 0 g
    Cholesterol, 0 mg
    Carbs, 36 g
        Dietary Fiber, 11 g
    Protein, 11 g
    Sodium, 470 mg
    Vitamin A, 80% Daily Value
    Vitamin C, 15% Daily Value
    Calcium, 6% Daily Value
    Iron, 25% Daily Value

Anise Schnitte or Toasted Anise Cakes

2010-01-17T17:42:04-07:00

During the holidays when I was fact checking for my post about Grandma Poss' sugar cookies, I talked at length with my mom about our family dessert recipes, many German influenced. While I was on the phone, Mom opened up her personal cookbook (a well-worn maroon three-ring binder filled with stained pages recording many family treasures), and read off the directions for springerle, pfefferneusse and anise schnitte. No need for me to write fast and furious as Mom spoke; the directions were rather sparse. That's typical of old family recipes where knowledge was often gained first-hand in the kitchen from one generation to the next. From the minimalist directions contained in Mom's notebook, I summoned forth Great Grandma Louise Marie Knopf Kisker's anise schnitte.

Schnitte means slice in German. Reminiscent of biscotti but lighter and more delicate, anise schnitte or toasted anise cakes are fabulous dunked in coffee, tea or milk. As recorded in Mom's cookbook, here are the directions for her maternal grandmother's recipe:

2 c sugar
8 eggs [No doubt, straight from the hen coop behind the house.]

Beat sugar and eggs for 30 minutes. [This was by hand!]

2 c flour
Anise seed to taste

Add flour and anise seed. Bake as at 350 degrees.

That's it. You're supposed to know how to fill in the blanks, no need to write it all down.

I laughed with my mother about beating the sugar and eggs manually for a half-hour! Surely, Grandma Kisker used a hand beater, I remarked. Mom said, no, I think she hand beat with a whisk. Now there's some exercise to build upper body strength!

"Wow, can you imagine what she would do with a Kitchen Aid mixer?," I asked.

"Probably nothing," said Mom, laughing. " This was a woman who refused to have her wood-burning kitchen stove removed when she got an electric oven. And that wood-burning stove sat in the kitchen until the day she died."

So I'm guessing Great Grandma Kisker's anise cchnitte were baked using a wood-burning stove.

Augmenting the original recipe partly from memory of my mom's cookies and partly from experience, here's my more detailed version of anise schnitte.

Yield: 24 slices

Preparation Time: About 15 minutes for preparation; 45 minutes for baking and 1.5 hours for cooling. Total 2.5 hours.

2 c sugar
8 eggs [Alas, from the grocery store, no chicken coop in my backyard and the farmer's market is closed for the season.]
2 c flour
2 t anise seed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (375 degrees F if at 5,000 feet or higher in altitude). Line bottom of two bread pans (4x8" or 4x9") with wax paper. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs until fluffy and light in color: about 10 minutes. At the start, the mixture looks very yellow.

When ready to stop mixing, the mixture will look creamy and thick.

Gently mix in flour and anise seed by hand.

Fold mixture into bread pans.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown and center springs back to touch.

Let cool 10 minutes, then run sharp knife around edges. Let cool in pans 15 minutes more. Invert onto cake rack; release cakes from pans. Gently remove wax paper from cakes and let cool at least one hour more. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray 12x15" cookie sheet with cooking spray or lightly oil. Using a bread or cake knife, cut cakes into 1/2" to 3/4" slices, approximately 12 slices per cake. Place slices on cookie sheet.

Bake for three to four minutes, turn and bake second side for three to four minutes. Do not over-bake; the bottoms side browns more quickly than the top so looks can be deceiving. Remove from oven, let cool on cake rack.

Stored in a tight container, anise schnitte will keep for a couple weeks. Mom remembers these cookies as being baked by her mom and grandmother during the Christmas season. Several generations removed from that tradition, I find them so enticing that I may be making anise schnitte throughout my cooking baking season (fall through spring).

Per-cookie Nutritional Profile:
    Calories, 130
    Fat, 2 g
        Saturated Fat, .5 g
    Cholesterol, 70 mg
    Carbs, 25 g
        Dietary Fiber, 0 g
    Protein, 2 g
    Sodium, 50 mg
    Vitamin A, 2% Daily Value
    Vitamin C, 0% Daily Value
    Calcium, 2% Daily Value
    Iron, 4% Daily Value

10 Reasons to Get Excited About The Treadmill

2010-01-06T20:09:16-07:00

I have always considered myself an outdoor person. I crave the gardening season and have enjoyed many trips to the mountains and desert for various outdoor activities ranging from camping to skiing to hiking to mountain biking. Yet, I am also attracted to the predictability and repetitiveness of indoor workout equipment. For several years, we've owned a fairly decent treadmill; it features variable incline and speed and courses, and measures heart rate as well as estimated distance and calories burned. So why, despite my attachment to aerobic machines, has our treadmill suffered such a lack of use?

In our previous home, we placed the treadmill in our family room facing the TV. I figured it might guilt the occasional couch potato into a stationary walk instead of zoning out in front of the tube. But when we moved nearly two years ago, the treadmill landed in the garage and there it's sat ever since.

Garages have the innate, boundless capacity to demonstrate the principle of entropy. And the treadmill's presence in our garage made its own special contribution to the growing chaos therein. Another handy feature of the machine, which I neglected to mention earlier, is that the tread portion of the device folds ups. In it's compacted state, the treadmill quickly became a storage unit for the leaf-blower bag, buckets, extension cords and the like. Leaves blew into the garage and lodged themselves under the frame. The top of the machine whitened with sawdust from from a home renovation project. My husband started talking about listing the treadmill on Craigslist. Things were looking pretty bleak for the future of the exercise gadget. But the prospect of losing the machine was just too much. List the treadmill on Craigslist? Now, them's fightin' words.

So when my husband led the charge for a frenzied, no-holds-barred garage cleaning over the holidays, thereby unearthing household archeological treasures, including the treadmill, I started to regain the urge to reconnect with the device. In New Year's Resolution ritualistic fashion, I cranked up the machine on January 1. Despite months of disuse, the treadmill still runs like a charm. And I am very much enjoying my garage exercise time. An arctic blast has cooled down the garage this week, ensuring a fast-paced workout.

In case you're wondering what could possibly be so motivating about repetitive aerobic equipment, here are the top 10 reasons I get excited about my garage treadmill experience:

10. I'm in close proximity to my lawn and garden tools and equipment. I can just feel the energy; I'll be weeding in no time.

9. My Golden Retriever, Buddy, likes to be in the garage with me. Quality time with the dog.

8. No hot flashes in the 50-degree garage.

7. No one else in the family wants to be on the treadmill. Go figure. I can exercise any time I want without standing in line.

6. I can't hear the phone ring, and I can't use a laptop on the treadmill. It's my very special Calgon moment, right there in the garage amidst the trash, recycling and compost bins, camping equipment and tools.

5. I'm a number person. There's nothing like staring at liquid crystal displays giving instant feedback on minutes, miles, calories and heart beats.

4. I can catch up on mindless magazine reading...and find it so engrossing that I forget I'm on the treadmill.

3. I can feel my leg muscles getting a good workout. I'm doing something for my health.

2. I feel hungry. Yet I'm more focused on eating well.

And the number one reason I get excited about my treadmill...

1. I can cook while I'm on the treadmill! Yes, it's true. I scheduled today's workout during bread baking. On the menu for tomorrow' workout: Soaking split peas.

Happy Holidays: Sugar Cookies with Caramel Frosting

2009-12-18T13:35:52-07:00

A holiday gift to family, friends and fellow foodies: I'm sharing with you a German Christmas cookie recipe that has been in our family for at least four generations. The Marr, Poss and Kisker clans will certainly be familiar with these treats. We know them as Grandma Poss' sugar cookies, but my mom relates that her maternal grandmother, Grandma Kisker (nee Knopf), always made these cookies for the family Christmas Eve gathering at the Kisker farmstead in the Missouri River bottoms of Platte County.

Earlier this year, I blogged about our family foodways. I will forever associate this holiday cookie recipe with visiting my grandparents at their farm, originally part of the Kisker property. (Well, not quite originally: Native Americans were pushed out when Platte County opened to settlers in the mid-1800s.) When I was in college, Grandma made up a box of sugar cookies for me to take back to my dorm after a Thanksgiving visit. Each holiday season, our kids put these at the top of the cookie request list. No wonder these sugar cookies been handed down so many generations; they're fabulous. They taste all the more special to me, because I make them with Grandma Poss' cookie cutters that were handed down to me.

Alas, the caramel frosting portion of the recipe was not recorded, but Mom has shared her memories of the recipe. I have been experimenting with variations for years and have settled on the Joy of Cooking's caramel frosting (found in the most recent print edition as well as past editions) as the closest to my memories of the family version. In the section below, I'll mention Mom's recollections as well as my modifications.

Integral to this recipe are chopped pecans for coating the frosting. Pecan trees are indigenous to the river bottom areas of Missouri. Smaller than their southern counterparts, Native Missouri pecans are also sweeter and richer with a higher oil content. When Mom was a child, native pecans were sometimes used for these sugar cookies. Indeed, I remember picking pecans from a tree that grew in the middle of a field Grandpa Poss farmed. The distinctiveness of Missouri pecans has contributed to a growing niche market. A couple years ago, when visiting my parents in Platte County, I picked up a bag of in-the-shell Missouri pecans and brought them back to Colorado. True to the claims, they were intense, sweet nuts.

Note on the yield: As given to Mom by Grandma, the recipe yields about 60 cookies. If you like to bake cookies as gifts or for holiday gathering, make according to directions. You can halve the recipe if you want a smaller yield. I almost always make the full original recipe, because the cookies do take time to make, but also, because they go really fast!

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Preparation Time: 30 minutes for dough mixing, 4 hours refrigeration, 2 hours for frosting

Cookie Dough

1 c unsalted butter, softened
2 c sugar
4 large eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup milk (Grandma's recipes states sweet milk...as opposed to sour milk)
1/2 t salt
4 t cream of tartar
2 t baking soda
4 1/2 c flour (Grandma's recipe states 4-5 cups)

Mix together dry ingredients; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add milk and beat. Add dry ingredients, mix until well blended. Do not overbeat. Turn out dough onto a plate. Wrap with plastic wrap or wax paper. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (can be made a day ahead and refrigerated overnight).

To roll and bake cookies, preheat oven to 350^o F. Flour rolling surface well. Roll 1/4 of the dough at a time; leave rest of dough in the refrigerator.

Coat all sides of the rolling portion of the dough with flour. Roll out to about 1/8 - 1/4" thick.

Cut out shapes with cookie cutter. Place cutters as close together as possible. After cutting as many cookies as possible, roll up scrap and place back in the refrigerator. Repeat process with next quarter of refrigerated dough. The last round of rolling will be made from the scrap dough. Re-roll dough only once more. With more rollings the cookies may turn out tough.

Place cutouts on cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch between cookies to allow for expansion during baking. Bake 7 - 8 minutes until edges start to turn golden. Let cookies cool before frosting.

Caramel Frosting (Adapted from Joy of Cooking)

2 c heavy cream
4 c light brown sugar (Grandma used white sugar, Mom recalls)
4 T butter, salted
1 1/2 c finely chopped pecans (native Missouri pecans)

Heat cream and brown sugar in a medium size sauce pan until well mixed.

Position candy thermometer so that the temperature probe is centered and not touching the bottom of the pan. In the next picture I'm testing the variance between my thermometers in different positions.

Without stirring, bring mixture to a boil and let heat until 238 - 240^o F (soft ball stage for candy). Remove from heat. Add butter and let melt.

Let cool to 110^o F. Do not stir while cooling. The mixture will look like and taste like soft caramel at this point. Pour into mixing bowl. Whip until cool in temperature and light in color. If frosting thickens too much, add a bit of cream and continue mixing.

To frost cookies, transfer frosting to a pie pan. Place chopped pecans in a 2nd pie pan. To frost, turn cookie upside down and dip surface into frosting, twisting slightly for an even coat.

Dip frosted side into chopped pecans.

Place frosted cookie right side up on a cookie sheet. Repeat.

If frosting becomes too thick, use a knife to frost the cookies. Let cookie set for at least 30 minutes before storing. Can be stacked carefully at this point.

These cookies hold well for several days and actually soften and take on a cake-like texture with time, due to the frosting.

May your holidays be filled with the delight of enjoying food with family and friends.

Per-cookie Nutritional Profile (like you really want to know):
    Calories, 200
    Fat, 11 g
        Saturated Fat, 6 g
    Cholesterol, 40 mg
    Carbs, 24 g
        Dietary Fiber, 1 g
    Protein, 2 g
    Sodium, 75 mg
    Vitamin A, 6% Daily Value
    Vitamin C, 0% Daily Value
    Calcium, 2% Daily Value
    Iron, 4% Daily Value

Carrot Love

2009-12-03T19:59:38-07:00

We've cozied up to the fireplace. Outside, the temperature is eight degrees F and dropping. Tonight, the thermometer is supposed to drop below zero. With yesterday's snow came a blast of frigid air that crystallized the landscape. Beneath the white blanket, carrots are still in my garden. They're nestled under fall leaves with small dirt mounds buttressing the ends of the row. When the weather breaks and the snow melts, I'll be able to dig a few more for soups and stews.

My carrots are not destined for summer salads. I rarely pull any before October. They're always the last crop to be pulled from my garden and a steady reminder of recent harvest season and the not-too-distant-future planting season.

A couple weeks ago, I pulled carrots for chile verde con carne, using some of the chile verde sauce I froze into cubes earlier in the fall. Here's what the crop looked like mid-November. With fall leaves mulching the row, the carrots are barely recognizable.

But clear away the debris and you find gorgeous orange roots.

Fresh from the garden, my mid-November carrot harvest.

Orange beauties cleaned, peeled and diced, ready for the chile verde con carne.

After I sow carrot seeds each spring, I let the plants grow haphazardly. I don't bother thinning seedlings. At harvest, I pull plenty of full-grown, plump carrots with just a few misshapen or stunted. Thus, I hardly think the thinning is worth the effort. Every so often, I pull out surprises like these two intertwined plants, which I must admit were a little more challenging to peel and slice than the straight versions.

Now that must be carrot love.

Peach Jam Pecan Bars

2009-11-23T17:00:39-07:00

Regardless of when Colorado peaches are in harvest, we enjoy their delectable goodness year-round by freezing pie filling and making peach jam. I spiced this year's batch of peach jam with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. And that's the impetus for this crunchy, crumbly sweetheart of a bar cookie recipe I whipped up. The following version calls for peach jam with the spices as separate ingredients (because I'm assuming you may not find a ready supply of spiced peach jam).

Yield: 30 bar cookies

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

3/4 c butter
1 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c old-fashioned or steel-cut oats
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t baking soda
8 oz peach jam
3/4 c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400^o. In mixer, beat butter and sugar until light. Add dry ingredients, mix until crumbly.

Place half of mixture in 9x13 baking pan, press to fill bottom of pan.

Spread with peach jam.

Sprinkle half of chopped pecans over jam.

Gently spread remaining crumb mixture in the pan. Top with rest of chopped pecans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges just turn golden. Let cool before slicing.

Per-serving Nutritional Profile:
    Calories, 140
    Fat, 7 g
        Saturated Fat, 3 g
    Cholesterol, 10 mg
    Carbs, 19 g
        Dietary Fiber, 1 g
    Protein, 1 g
    Sodium, 65 mg
    Vitamin A, 2% Daily Value
    Vitamin C, 0% Daily Value
    Calcium, 2% Daily Value
    Iron, 4% Daily Value

Fun breakfast treats, these peach jam pecan bars go nicely with coffee and tea, in addition to milk.

No Singing at the Supper Table

2009-11-18T16:44:38-07:00

I grew up in a relatively large family: My parents had five kids within a span of a little over seven years. If Mom and Dad hadn't set forth some pretty clear kitchen rules, we "spirited" children might have caused dinners to disintegrate into food riots. Family meals were near sacred in my family, and memories of those early dining experiences with my parents and siblings figure prominently in my passion for food. So when the Associated Press and i-Village recently announced the results of their poll on the family dinner, I was quickly reminded of how my childhood home dining experience compares to today's family sups.

The good news, according to the survey, is that the family meal continues to endure: More more than 60 percent of "those who live with families said they sat down with family for dinner at least five nights a week." And home-cooked meals with hand-me-down recipes were the norm, rather than ready-to-eat foods, such as take-out. So far, so good.

However, AP and iVillage found that "the modern dinner comes with a heaping helping of distracting bells and whistles," such as phones ringing and cell phone texting as well as TVs and stereos blaring. More than a quarter of families reported that television was on constantly during dinner. OK, rewind to my childhood....we had one TV, on purpose. It was in the family room, downstairs from the kitchen. We knew of families that had TVs in bedrooms and kitchens – oh, the horror of it. We didn't watch TV during meals, except for very rare special treats when we got to break out the TV trays for a special airing of the Wizard of Oz, Sound of Music or the like (no cable TV, TiVo, nor video/DVD players yet).

The survey indicated half of households are pestered by phone calls during dinner. And five percent of families said texting or e-mailing on a cell phone is always going on over dinner. Back in the day....no caller IDs, no cordless telephones, no answering machines, no cell phones. It didn't matter that you didn't know who was calling and that they couldn't leave a message. No one was going to answer the phone during dinner. If the caller had something to say, he/she could call back. And by the way, he/she should know better than to call during the dinner hour. As an aside, our one corded telephone was in the kitchen, which meant there was no such thing as a private conversation, which I think Mom felt was a matter of personal safety for us when we were teens. Who knew what might happen if we girls could actually talk to a boyfriend in private? That's a far cry from our current household, in which everyone has a smartphone.

My mother is a home economist who attended finishing school before moving on to the university to obtain bachelor's and master's degrees. So we may have had more than our fair share of emphasis on table etiquette. We each had our seats we returned to every evening around the big rectangular butcher block table. We weren't always perfect, but a few basic table manners were instilled along the way:

Always say please when asking for something - May (not can) I please have the potatoes?
Pass the food counter-clockwise from left to right, and for goodness sake, no "boarding-house reach" across the table. The left-to-right rotation makes sense for right-handed diners, who tend to hold the serving dish with the left hand and scoop with the right.
If you're in-between the asker and passers, don't snag. Ask permission first - Do you mind if I take a bit first?
If someone asks for salt or pepper, pass them both together so the shakers don't get separated on the table.
When the host or hostess picks up the fork you may start eating. If at a banquet or restaurant, wait until everyone at your table is served, unless an empty-plated person insists. If you're an empty-plated person, give permission for the rest of the table to begin eating.
Keep your elbows off the table. Evidently, two reasons exist for this somewhat arcane rule: 1) you might crowd your adjacent diners, and 2) you increase the chance of the table cloth and dishes going askew.
Don't talk with your mouth full. Chew with your mouth closed.

Can you hear your mother's voice?

Back to the survey. Nearly 40 percent reported having the radio or stereo going, at least occasionally. Being an audiophile, I don't have a bone to pick with that trend, provided the sound is tasteful background music, rather than talk radio or a sporting event. I grew up in a musical family. Each of us learned to play at least one musical instrument, and most of us performed on stage in high school, either in theater, choirs or in instrumental ensembles. It seemed we were always singing at home. In fact, we developed a routine of spontaneously breaking into song at the slightest suggestion, even at times that might be considered inappropriate by the elders. So Mom and Dad had to instill one more rule: No singing at the dinner table. I have to admit that one did not stick. And I have, literally, sung for my supper on more than one occasion. Nowadays in our home, singing at the table is A-OK, but...texting is not. On the other hand, if you want to play your iPhone ocarina application at dinner, I might consider that suitable.