Joys of a Kitchen Garden

This beautiful parsley is from our garden. Some of it is from a store-bought parsley plant that's been growing here for a year and a half. Some of it is from parsley plants that grew from seeds that I sowed in the spring. All are raised organically.

Lots of food plants are totally impractical, given the amount of time and money they require compared to their yield. Don't even get me started on those blasted rats with fluffy tails (squirrels) that ate all of our spring/early summer tomatoes! Herbs are a wonderful exception to that. We had great luck this season planting seeds for cilantro, basil, and parsley. We also planted basil, parsley, rosemary, culantro, chive, and oregano plants. We've had a great yield from them. We're already planning what herb seeds to plant next year.

It's so rewarding to grow a "kitchen garden." Fresh, home-grown herbs are the perfect addition to your recipes and besides being healthier than chemically raised herbs, they're also so much tastier when harvested just before cooking. We use organic fertilizers and as little pesticide (also organic) as possible. Of course, when we harvest herbs to cook with, we have to soak them for a while to be sure there are no cute little inchworms clinging to the leaves.

In the case of the parsley, the only real "pest" it has is the Monarch butterfly caterpillar. They seem to like the curly parsley much more than the flat-leaf Italian parsley. One caterpillar will pretty much strip a curly parsley plant of its foliage; however, then it moves along and the plant typically regenerates. Sure, we could use poison to keep the caterpillars away or crush them when we find them, but isn't it worth sharing a little of our parsley to nourish the caterpillars that will become the amazingly beautiful Monarch butterflies soon?

Giblet Gravy

3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped shallots
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups homemade turkey broth (see http://kearbyskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/11/homemade-turkey-broth-for-holiday.html)
Shredded turkey neck meat and drumstick meat from preparing homemade turkey broth
Assorted giblets of your preference (hearts, livers, gizzards)*
2 cups milk
Lots of fresh ground black pepper


Melt butter in saucepan over medium to medium-high heat. Saute shallots until tender-soft. Add flour and whisk for 3-4 minutes over medium to medium-high heat. You want the flour to cook a bit so that your giblet gravy doesn't take like paste!

Slowly add the turkey broth, whisking constantly. Add plenty of fresh-ground black pepper. Simmer for a few minutes. Add giblets and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add milk and bring back to a simmer. Add shredded turkey neck and drumstick meat and simmer another 15 minutes.


* I was able to find large packages of chicken hearts, chicken livers, and chicken gizzards at my local Asian market, so that's what I used. You can also use the little packet of giblets from the turkey if you're cooking one. I use lots of giblets in my giblet gravy because I love, love, love them. If you or your family doesn't share my enthusiasm for organ meat, just use a small amount of giblets.

Homemade Turkey Broth for Holiday Cooking

Thanks to Kalyn and her Kalyn's Kitchen blog for giving me this idea http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/10/kalyns-kitchen-picks-penzeys-turkey.html . It's kind of a lightbulb moment that makes me wonder why I didn't think of this before. I always make some recipes for Thanksgiving and Christmas that require turkey broth, even if I don't cook a turkey myself. Instead of using canned turkey or chicken broth, why not make some fresh, flavorful, nutrient-packed homemade turkey broth?

First Step
1 package turkey necks, 1-2 lbs.
1 package turkey drumsticks, 1-2 lbs.
1.5 quarts veggie stock or water
4 ribs of celery
3 carrots
1 large onion
2 green bell peppers
2 large shallots
1 head of garlic
1 bunch of parsley


Second Step
1/4 cup Penzey's chicken soup base or turkey soup base (or a couple cubes of chicken bouillon)


Clean celery and trim ends. Cut each stalk into several pieces. Clean carrots and trim ends. Cut each carrot into several pieces. Remove root end and top end and skin from onion. Rough chop. Prepare bell peppers by removing stems and seeds. Rough chop. Remove root end and top end and skin from shallots. Rough chop. Separate the garlic into cloves. With a paring knife cut off the papers top of each clove. Remove garlic skins. Rinse parsley and rough chop.

I did my prepping late at night and I was tired, so I decided to finish the broth prep the following day. I put all my prepared veggies in a zip-top bag and popped it in the fridge to be ready for broth-making the next day.

Don't forget to save all your veggie trimmings in a gallon zip-top bag and pop it in the freezer to make veggie stock next time.

When ready to prepare your turkey broth, boil all First Step ingredients for several hours, until veggies are very soft and turkey parts are fall-off-the-bone tender. Let cool to a manageable temperature. Remove veggies and turkey parts to a plate with a slotted spoon. Pick out the turkey parts, remove all the meat from them, and put the turkey meat into a zip-top bag to save for giblet gravy.

Strain turkey broth through a fine sieve (using cheesecloth if desired) to remove solids. Add Second Step ingredient and simmer for half an hour. Cool and store in refrigerator or freezer.

Tips and Tricks and Helpful Hints

Here are two handy hints for the price of one. Don't say I never gave you anything :)

First off, before you go and buy expensive equipment and gadgets at those great gourmet cooking stores, check out your local ethnic markets. For instance, you can buy a muddler for muddling the limes and lemons for your favorite alcoholic beverage at a gourmet store for a premium price; however, you can go to your local Asian market, where you can find many different-sized pestles for many different-sized mortars. The pestles work perfectly as muddlers and cost a fraction of what you'd pay for a muddler at your gourmet store. It's amazing what you can find at a well-stocked ethnic market. These wonderful stores are a treasure trove for interesting cooking implements at a bargain-basement price.

Second tip, one of a cook's best friends is the waterproof bandage. I'm sure you never cut yourself cooking, but I on the other hand have had some major finger gashes. Regular bandages get really water-logged and then start sliding off your fingers ... yuck, not cool for a cook. Be sure to keep a supply of waterproof bandages in your kitchen drawer. They'll protect your ouchies and stay put, much more protective of your boo-boo and much more hygienic for cooking.

My Simple Comfort Soup

My precious hubby often prepares a soup that is his comfort food. It's what he cooks when he needs to relax or de-stress after a challenging day. It's a quick and easy soup with a few simple ingredients. It's not to my taste because I'm not crazy about some of the ingredients and because he likes it XXX spicy. I do love the aroma when he's cooking his soup, but I'm just too whimpy to eat it :)

I've discovered a comfort food soup of my own. I like to make a simple miso soup loaded with fresh ingredients. It's light but tasty and I think it's probably pretty healthy.

Boil 2 or 3 cups water. Add 2 to 4 tablespoons dashi miso paste (available at Asian supermarkets), depending on your taste. I like my soup pretty strongly flavored; however, I have to caution you that miso contains a lot of sodium.

Forgot to take the pic before I opened the dashi miso, but here's what you're looking for when shopping at your local Asian market:

Boil for a few seconds and then quickly add to that broth small portions of your selections of any of the following:

Diced tofu (medium or firm)
Mung bean sprouts
Chopped snowpeas
Sliced green onions or chives
Sliced mushrooms, whatever kind you like
Shredded cabbage
Sliced Thai bird chilis
Shredded carrot

Dried seaweed (available at Asian supermarkets), soaked and rinsed several times to remove the salt

Chopped water chestnuts
Quick-cooking Asian noodles such as rice noodles or bean thread noodles (available at Asian supermarkets)
Chopped cilantro
Chopped basil

Boil for just a few seconds until all ingredients are heated through, then immediately pour into a serving bowl, preferably a pretty Asian soup bowl which can be purchased affordably at your local Asian supermarket. Using a spoon (or an eyedropper if you're Food Network superstar material) sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of chili sesame oil over the surface of the soup for color and flavor. When serving the soup, use an Asian soup spoon and chopsticks if you have them. This recipe makes just 1 generous serving, so increase the amounts if you need to comfort more hungry diners than just yourself!

I'm sure there are plenty of ingredients that would be wonderful in this Japanese-style soup that I haven't thought of, so as with all of my recipes, feel free to customize, and please post comments if you have ideas to improve the recipe.

Miso is a fascinating ingredient. I've been reading about it on this website, which you might find informative: http://www.justhungry.com/handbook/just-hungry-reference-handbooks/japanese-miso-primer

E-Z P-Z Homemade Mac and Chee-Z With a Bonus

This is simple to make and tastes a lot like the greatness that is Kraft Mac and Cheese in the blue box. While the blue box stuff is one of my guilty pleasures, we really prefer to prepare and serve food that's homemade and contains no additives or preservatives or any other stuff with names we can't pronounce.

This recipe is picky-eater-tested-and-approved. My two sweet stepdaughters are probably the pickiest eaters I've ever known and they both give this recipe a thumbs-up.

This recipe has a great bonus, too. It makes 1 cup more cheese sauce than you need for the mac and cheese. The cheese sauce can be used to make another great sauce for veggies or eggs. That recipe follows the mac and cheese recipe. If you don't want to make the second sauce, you can prepare 3 cups of elbow macaroni instead of 2 and use all the cheese sauce on the macaroni.

If you want to make a jazzed-up version of the mac and cheese, cook the elbow macaroni noodles slightly al dente, mix in the cheese sauce, put in an oven-safe casserole dish, top with buttery bread crumbs, and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the bread crumbs are golden brown.


E-Z P-Z Homemade Mac and Chee-Z

2 cups elbow macaroni noodles
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 to 2 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
Pinch of cayenne (optional)
4 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

In a 4 to 6 quart stockpot bring 3 quarts of water with 3 or 4 healthy pinches of salt to a boil.

While you're waiting for the water to boil, start preparing the cheese sauce. In a heavy-bottomed medium-sized saucepan over medium to medium-high heat, melt the 4 tablespoons butter. Slowly whisk in the 4 tablespoons flour. Mix well and continue whisking for 2 or 3 minutes. Slowly incorporate milk, either pouring and whisking at the same time or pouring a small amount of milk in, then whisking until blended and repeating until enough milk is added to make a velvety, medium-thick cream gravy. Add the salt, pepper, mustard powder, ground turmeric, and nutmeg and/or cayenne if you wish. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add cheddar cheese 1 handful at a time, stirring to mix it into the sauce. As each addition melts into the sauce, add the next handful until you have added all the cheese to the sauce.

When the water comes to a boil, add the macaroni and cook according to package directions, tasting an elbow or two every few minutes to test for doneness. When macaroni is done, either fully cooked to serve immediately or al dente to bake, drain it in a colander, then transfer into a serving bowl.

Reserve 1 cup of cheese sauce. Pour the remaining cheese sauce over macaroni and mix well, folding gently so that noodles remain intact.


Bonus Cheese Sauce for Veggies and Eggs

1 cup macaroni cheese sauce
1 cup mayonnaise
juice of 1 lemon
2 to 3 tablespoons dijon mustard
freshly ground black pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and serve warm over steamed or roasted veggies such as broccoli or cauliflower, or over eggs.

Birthday Cupcakes

This weekend we're having our family lunch celebration for my younger stepdaughter Ashley's birthday. We're a little late celebrating, as her birthday was October 16th, but we've been waiting for a weekend when the whole family is available. My amazing mother-in-law, Cuqui, is taking care of all the Disney princesses decorations for the party, and TLOML and I are taking care of the food, including birthday cupcakes.

I grew up cooking and baking. Years ago, when my son (now 17) was young, I did a lot of baking cupcakes for birthdays, cakes for Boy Scout competitions, and cookies to take to school for every imaginable holiday. You should see my collection of cookie cutters and Wilton frosting tips!

But truth be told, I don't really like to bake. I don't hate it, I'm just not inspired by it. I much prefer the kind of cooking that I find more creative and less rigid, like making spice rubs for meat or thinking up new salad ideas. I love opening up my magic bag of tricks, you know, that big Rubbermaid container with dozens of herbs and spices, and making up a witch's brew (it is Halloween time after all) with a bit of this and a dab of that.

There's a program on Food Network about cooking with only 5 ingredients. I just can't comprehend that. Why would anyone want to limit the number of ingredients in their cooking? Where's the fun in that? I'm sure my sweet hubby is secretly hoping that program will become my favorite show :)

Anyway, besides the fact that I don't really enjoy baking and neither does my hubby, neither of us even likes sweets very much. Now, don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean that I'm a whispy little gal, but the 40 or so pounds that I need to lose are owing to my love of salty, crunchy foods and my love of wine. Thank God I don't like desserts; if I ate that stuff, I'd be big as a barn!

So as I'm shopping for ingredients to bake birthday cupcakes for my sweet Ashley, which to me has always meant a box mix and whatever gets added to it, my darling husband calls me and is horrified to learn that I'm planning to make cupcakes out of a box. I know he's kinda kidding, but I guess he has a point since we try to make everything from scratch. That way at least we always know exactly what we're eating.

In the grips of my guilt-trip, I used the Epicurious app on my iPhone to look for a homemade cupcake recipe. Don't even get me started about my love of the iPhone and the greatness of the apps and how iPhone is one of the greatest inventions of our time, but if you have an iPhone, well, first of all, you get it, and second of all, I highly recommend the Epicurious app for rescuing you from prepared food embarrassment. I found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes and bought the couple of ingredients I needed to prepare them.

Recipe from http://www.epicurious.com/

CHOCOLATE CHIP ZUCCHINI CUPCAKES

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 pound zucchini, coarsely grated (1 cup)
1 (6-ounces) package semisweet chocolate chips

Equipment
A muffin pan with 12 (1/2-cup) cups with paper liners

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat together sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Divide among lined muffin cups and bake until tops spring back when lightly pressed, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then turn out to cool completely.

I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting, using a star tip and a disposable pastry bag. Of course I forgot to take pics of the finished product!

Recipe from www.myrecipes.com/recipes

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Prep: 10 min. If you love lots of frosting, double the recipe.
This recipe goes with Basic Layer Cake, Vanilla Cupcakes (and Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes)
Yield: Makes about 2 1/4 cups

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
5 to 7 Tbsp. milk

Preparation:
1. Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
2. Whisk together powdered sugar and cocoa.

3. Gradually add powdered sugar mixture alternately with 3 Tbsp. milk, 1 Tbsp. at a time, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Beat in up to 4 Tbsp. additional milk for desired consistency.

Southern Living, MARCH 2009