Orange Mixer

Tomato Sauce Machine

2011-09-06T08:54:00.001-04:00

I have become a tomato sauce-making machine. A sauce-bot. A robo-Italian grandma. What else is there to do, faced with this?

Every time I see a fruit fly on one, my psyche jerks a bit. I am not to let even one go to waste.

So, in the freezer I now have enough sauce for 7 pounds of pasta.

It wasn't easy to find a sauce recipe suitable for using fresh tomatoes, and heirloom varieties at that. Every recipe out there either assumes I either have acreage of paste tomato plants all ripening at once, or that I just robbed an Italian grocer and desperately need to destroy the cans of San Marzano so I can plead innocent should someone open my pantry. Believe me, I'd love to enjoy each one of these lovelies raw, sliced, salted, piled on white bread with mayo and pepper, but there comes a time of necessary surrender.

At that crucial time when your counterful of summer tomatoes are so ripe that they simply won't last another day, when the fruit flies are poised to devour your precious jewels overnight, multiply in numbers to the hundreds of billions, organize into a buzzing human form, and kick you out of your own kitchen, sieze control of the situation. Make sauce.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

adapted from Cooks Illustrated

This sauce may need to simmer for as long as 90 minutes, especially if you have a lot of large, juicy varieties with lots of seeds and juice. If Lynne Rossetto Kasper, of the esteemed Splendid Table radio program, says not to seed, I will not seed. And truly, the sauce is fantastic. It changes with each batch, based on the mix of tomatoes used. Some batches are brick-red and deeply savory, others brighter, both in taste and in color. One batch, made almost entirely of green zebra tomatoes, turned out to be positively zingy and almost spicy. Its color, though, was seriously blah. Can't win it all.

Six tablespoons of oil looks like a lot in the pan. However, it really adds body and richness to this simple sauce.

8 cloves garlic

6 tablespoons olive oil

4 pounds ripe seasonal tomatoes, any variety large enough to peel and chop

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

Sugar, if necessary

Fill a saucepan large enough to hold your largest tomato 2/3 full with water and set it over high heat to boil. Peel and chop the garlic. Core the tomatoes, flip them over, and lightly slice an X in their bottoms. This will make peeling them a breeze.

When the water boils, add a few tomatoes to the pot, making sure they are covered with boiling water. Boil for 30 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon to a plate or cutting board. Repeat with each tomato.

Peel and discard the skin from each tomato, then roughly chop the flesh into 3/4" chunks. Reserve the seeds and any juice exuded.

Put the oil in a nonreactive, straight-sided, 10" skillet, add the chopped garlic, and place the pan on medium heat. Cook until the garlic is sizzling and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes with their juice, the salt, and bring to a rapid simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have collapsed and sauce is thick and chunky. Depending on the tomatoes, this can take anywhere from 30-90 minutes.

When the sauce has reached desired consistency, taste and adjust the seasonings, adding a pinch or two of sugar if the sauce tastes very acidic. Use immediately, or freeze for later use. If desired at time of use, add a bit of water from the cooking pasta to thin the sauce.

Makes about 4 cups, enough for 2 pounds of pasta.

Frozen sauce will keep for months; refrigerated sauce will last about 4 days.

(To freeze, cool the sauce completely and spoon into a quart-sized freezer bag. Seal, removing as much air as possible, and lay flat in the freezer until frozen solid. Thaw under running water, or remove the sauce from the bag and microwave or heat on the stovetop until hot.)

* * * * * * * *

Diego says:

If the sun's too hot, stick out your tongue and find a place in the shade.

We have arrived.

2011-06-13T11:21:00.003-04:00

It's about time.

Things are growing, lots of things.

Celebrate the longer days with wine and antipasti on the deck, board games, and by nodding off in the sunshine.

That's what I plan to do.

Time to learn something new

2011-04-18T09:48:00.009-04:00

I found a gray hair yesterday. Kevin said they are a sign of wisdom. I have no idea what I am wise about. So I thought I'd better get wise, right away.

Time to learn something new.

I baked some potatoes and took off their jackets.

Mashed them up nice and fine.

Sprinkled them with flour and salt, and squished them into a dough.

I had to roll out 4 ropes. They kept trying to fall apart. I ended up having to use more flour,

just like the smart people said. Eventually I got it right.

I got excited.

And took lots of pictures of the pretty little guys.

Oops, I was supposed to roll them all out before I started cutting.

Now for the fun part.

Roll the fork, pressing the lines around their bellies.

Then flip them out from under the fork when you get to the end.

They each come out different.

You'll be so excited that you won't remember to take a picture till it's almost too late. Don't grab the camera at the last minute. It won't come out well at all.

Well, I guess I've still got more to learn.

Homemade Gnocchi

as learned from Cook's Illustrated

2 pounds potatoes, washed, pricked, and baked (400 degrees) till very soft (45 minutes)

1 1/4- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning the cooking water

Holding the hot potatoes with a towel, use a peeler and your fingers to rid them of their jackets. Place them in a large bowl. Mash them up until there are no more lumps (or rice them, if you are the lucky owner of a ricer) and let them cool until no longer hot (15 minutes).

Sprinkle 1 1/4 cups of flour and the salt over the warm potatoes and dive in with your clean hands, squishing and turning the mixture until it's doughlike. The experts say not to overwork the dough, but I'm pretty sure I did, to no ill effect.

Try to roll a quarter of the dough into a rope. If it crumbles apart instead of turning into a long snake, put it back in the bowl and add more flour gradually, up to 1/4 cup. Try again; when it rolls out without trouble, it's the right consistency. Roll the snake out to a 3/4" diameter. Repeat with the rest of the dough until you have 4 long ropes.

Score the ropes at 3/4" intervals, then cut at the scored intervals, using a sharp knife.

Using a fork with long tines (my salad forks weren't long enough), roll the gnocchi between the tines and your middle finger, applying just enough pressure to change the shape of the pillow. Follow the pictures above. This takes a few times before you are satisfied, but no matter the shape, they will taste good.

When you're finished, spread out all the gnocchi on a cookie sheet and refrigerate (or freeze, then transfer to a freezer bag) until ready to cook. They can touch, but don't stack them.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil on high heat. Salt it well, stir, and add some gnocchi (about a third of them at a time, so they have enough room). Boil until they float, about 1 1/2-2 minutes (3 minutes if frozen). Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and toss them with a sauce of your choice. We used melted butter, with some sauteed onion, peas, and proscuitto. Salt and pepper to taste. Grate over some cheese if you wish. We're currently into pecorino romano.

One-third of the sauced gnocchi served the both of us, with a vegetable (giant artichoke). So I guess it's safe to say that the entire recipe would serve oh, 4-6.

Public Announcement:

2011-02-27T18:56:00.002-05:00

We have just completed the

worst week ever!!

Leave behind power outages (48 hours +), snowstorms (7 inches), bouts of stomach flu, and plumbing nightmares (4 hardware store trips, stained dining room ceiling).

It has finished.

On to carnitas with guacamole, black beans, and Mexican beer(s).

Getting back in the game...

2011-02-06T20:45:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I think about the subliminal - maybe better described as 'sub-noticed' - influences on creativity, writing, cravings, etc. I saw this interesting video in college, and have thought of it often since.

Quite obviously, the title of my post coincides with the Big Game day throughout the United States... Superbowl Sunday.

This would not be interesting at all, except that today we have, for no particular reason other than not enjoying football or primetime tv, spent the majority of today in "anti-Superbowl" activities.

I'm sure the more astute and analytic among you can draw out all manner of insinuation, context, and meaning beyond the simple fact that I am re-engaging in the game (of blogging) on anti-game day, but I've been more distracted by the delicious anti-Superbowl snacks we've enjoyed together today. And also, by the buoyant and boisterous movie we just finished. (PS did you catch 'buoyant' and 'boat movie'? Dang.)

Today I ditched the (however loosely arranged) meal plan for the weekend, as well as my usually slow-food, seasonal, and from-scratch proclivities; answering instead to the call of chips-and-dip. We watched a movie, but a board game, or a widely-viewed televised game, if you're into that, would accompany these finger foods well.

Oh, and don't forget the cold beer.

(anti-)Game Day Taco Dip

adapted from everyone's mom's recipe

4 oz light sour cream

2 tablespoons taco seasoning (I use Penzey's - feel free to use an envelope - but only about half)

1/2 of a 14.5 oz can refried black beans (preferably vegetarian)

finely shredded cheddar cheese (lowfat if desired)

finely shredded lettuce

canned sliced black olives, rinsed and drained

2 vine-ripe tomatoes, chopped and drained of excess liquid

juice of a couple lime wedges

Mix the sour cream with the taco seasoning in a small bowl. In an 8" square dish (glass is prettiest) spread the beans, then the spiced sour cream, and sprinkle with a light dusting of cheese. Top with some lettuce, then the olives, tomatoes, and sprinkle the lime juice on top. I find the sour cream layer needs a little time for the flavorings to meld, but hey, this is not fancy food. Serve with some tortilla chips.

Serves 2-4

(Not-storebought-)Buffalo Chicken Ranch Dip

adapted from allrecipes.com

5-6 ounces cooked chicken, in bite-sized chunks

1/3 cup Franks Red Hot Sauce

4 ounces whipped lite cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup bottled lite ranch dressing

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (lowfat if desired)

Preheat the oven to 375. In a small saucepan combine the chicken and hot sauce over medium heat. Toss and smoosh in the chicken with a spoon to break it up into scoopable shreds. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the cream cheese with the ranch dressing until evenly combined. When the meat is hot, remove from the heat and stir in the cream cheese-ranch mixture and the cheddar cheese. When evenly mixed, taste the mixture for spicy-ranch balance - it should still have a pleasant, lingering kick, but too spicy a dip will require a Maalox nightcap! Add more hot sauce or ranch dressing as desired.

Turn the mixture into a small baking dish, cover with a lid or with foil, and bake for 20-30 minutes, until bubbly and hot. Serve with celery sticks, red bell pepper strips, and tortilla chips.

Serves 2-4

Summer Begins!!

2010-05-29T18:46:00.005-04:00

I am on our deck, dog barking, neighbors screeching, as I write this.

I am not in Ohio.

Summer has sprung!

May I recommend:

Cava with Strawberries

a recipe.

1 strawberry, green-ness ripped off, quartered

1 wine glass

Cava or Prosecco. Or Champagne. Nothing expensive.

Place the strawberry, with great decorum and grace, into the awaiting wine glass. Do this while wearing lipstick and high heels, or while imagining yourself with lipstick and heels. You are so sophisticated and smart!

Pour the bubbly atop the berry, into the glass, and wonder at the bubbly-foaminess of it.

Carry the glass, in your heels, to a warm and summery, preferably breezy, location. One of great comfort (no, not your bedroom - let's think private garden of serenity and zen), one that intensifies that feeling of elegance and peace. If there is no other location than your deck, with maple twirls and leftover-from-winter-debris, Drink Anyway. Soon, you will arrive at that garden. Soon, especially if you have more than one glass, you will find yourself. Elegant. Sophisticated. Red lipstick/Jimmy Choo heels.

Yesss.

Lets talk about those eggs...

2010-05-10T08:08:00.007-04:00

Well, here we are, the next day, and I'm still thinking about those eggs. Or, shall I say, those eggs.

Voted "the best thing at brunch" (tied with the french toast, but we weren't shocked by that), these eggs are a knockout - and a quick one, at that. They are versatile, all ready at once, can be largely prepped ahead, and make your fridge's leftovers into an elegant dish-for-one.

We created/tested this recipe the night before, based on recipes floating in my head, my MacGourmet database, and my browser window, and adjusted to cook at the temperature my oven would be at. (For a lovely picture, and one inspiring recipe, click here.)

That means we happily ate these eggs for dinner Saturday night, for brunch Sunday, and, I must admit, I might have one for a little breakfast-alone this morning.

Though we used savory chorizo, tart-sweet piquillo peppers, unctuous arugula and stretchy Gouda (went overboard with the adjectives - it was just too fun) - please substitute your own best-adjectived ingredients to achieve whatever purpose you feel inclined toward, whether it's dressing to impress, or simply cleaning out the fridge.

I'm imagining spicy salsa, green onions, and leftover potatoes or beans; pesto, portabello and parmesan; garlicky broccoli rabe and fresh mozzarella... the list could go on and on.

Without further ado:

Spanish Shirred Eggs with Chorizo, Roasted Peppers, Arugula, and Gouda

1 tablespoon crumbled Spanish chorizo

1 small roasted red or piquillo pepper, from a jar or roasted at home, chopped into small pieces

a small handful of baby arugula, about 15-20 leaves, tough stems removed, coarsely chopped

about an ounce of Gouda. My sliver was sliver-dollar sized. Use less, or more, if you like.

1 egg

1 & 1/2 teaspoons half-and-half or cream

chives, to sprinkle on top, if desired

butter or cooking spray

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees (F). Choose an oven-safe ramekin, teacup, or mug, as well as a round cake pan, a loaf pan, or a small roaster pan - any ovensafe, flat-bottomed pan is fine, as long as you can set the ramekin inside of it without it touching the sides of the larger pan. This larger pan will hold water while baking. Grease the ramekin lightly with butter or cooking spray

In the ramekin, scatter the chorizo chunks and top with the roasted red pepper.

Rinse the arugula and place (still slightly wet) in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover with saran-wrap and punch 1 hole in the wrap. Microwave on high for 1 minute, till bright green. Remove to a strainer or paper towels and press or squeeze to remove excess liquid. When cool enough to handle, break up the arugula-ball into smaller, softer pieces with your fingers, and scatter them on top of the red pepper in the ramekin. Tap down any peaks to create a somewhat flat surface. Sprinkle with a tiny pinch of salt.

Place the cheese on top of the arugula, then crack the egg over the cheese. Tip or shake the ramekin lightly to encourage the white to spread over the bed of arugula as much as it likes. Top with the cream, sprinkle with chives if using, and salt and pepper to your taste. Set the ramekin in the cake or loaf pan.

In the microwave, heat about 2 cups of water in microwave-safe Pyrex or alike, about 2 minutes on high, or till almost boiling.

Place the cake or loaf pan, with the ramekin inside, on the middle rack of the oven. Carefully pour the hot water into the cake pan, until the bottom 1/3 to 1/2 of the ramekin is underwater. Close the oven door and bake for 12-16 minutes, until the white is puffed and just set, and the yolk still jiggly. Remove the hot ramekin to a plate, run a butter knife around the edge to loosen it from the sides, and serve hot, with toast for dipping.

Serves 1. As you can imagine, quantities can be easily scaled up for serving a crowd. If making ahead, stop before cracking the egg and refrigerate the ramekins, covered, till ready to bake.

Mom's Day Brunch

2010-05-09T15:17:00.006-04:00

I guess I could've taken a picture of the spread, but I didn't, so here's what was left when I remembered.

Why go out for something that can so easily be made at home? And made the way I like... my bacon thick but crisp, my eggs with the yolks still liquid, my potatoes with a salty, savory little crunch on the outside, fluffy inside...

...and if I want to eat on 'Hand-Painted China ... Made in Japan' --

-- well, I can.

...hopefully it's okay with the Moms.

Brunch for 4

Mothers' Day

May 9, 2010

Mimosas/Bellinis

Spanish Shirred Eggs with Chorizo, Roasted Peppers, Arugula, and Gouda

Bourbon-Pecan Baked French Toast

Diner-Style Home Fries

Thick-Cut Bacon

Fresh Fruit with Lemoncello

Coffee and Tea

To the holiday!

2009-11-30T10:44:00.004-05:00

Here we are, status post Thanksgiving 2009.

Nurses are used to celebrating holidays on days that are not the holiday. I'm lucky enough now to have the holidays off, but sometimes we still don't exactly celebrate on that day. Oh, sure, we'll go to a family members' house and have dinner and drink wine and see people we only see on holidays, but that might not feel exactly like a celebration to us.

So, for the last 3 or 4 years now, our house celebrates the holiday on a different day in the long weekend, and this year it was yesterday.

The dishwasher is on its second load post-dinner, bones and water are simmering for stock, a pie was left out on the counter all night, wine glasses and dessert plates were scattered throughout the house, and those are the remnants of a holiday.

(Oh, and it was only just the two of us.)

Wait! Forgot the most important, telling symptom of post-Thanksgiving-holiday...

... the fridge is absolutely stuffed with Tupperware. We have turkey, stuffing, gravy galore. Cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls. Christmas ales, leftover bread dough, half-used sticks of butter, the ends of sour cream containers and the remaining pie dough... every Monday morning should be so lucky.

The run-down, in order of prep, not consumption:

1. Whole wheat garlic and herb rolls.

2. 3-2-1 pie dough for oatmeal pecan pie.

3. Cranberry Sauce a la Cook's Illustrated - less sugar, some salt.

4. Salted roast turkey with herbs - salted for 18 long, flavor-building hours.

5. Cheater sausage stuffing - layered stuffing mix, donated too-wet, too-veggie leftover stuffing, and 1/3 lb browned sausage.

6. Yams with Knob Creek bourbon, maple syrup, and maple-d streusel, based on this recipe, adapted to include an ounce of bourbon with the maple-y syrup, and streusel (brown sugar subbed for maple sugar, drizzled with a tablespoon or so of maple syrup, grated yams doubled) in this halved recipe. This was the only dish that was only a partial success: I didn't check them for doneness at the first stage of cooking, and (wrongly) assumed that they wouldn't be crunchy in the middles.

7. Mashed Yukon Golds, made lighter as per Cook's Illustrated, with 2% milk and reduced-fat sour cream instead of cream/butter. Oh, and "mashed" with a pastry blender, as I don't own a masher/ricer/food mill.

8. Purchased Heinen's turkey gravy.

(9. Turkey stock is currently in the oven, my new favorite method.)

Oh, almost forgot:

Cheers to Goose Island Christmas Ale, and Hob Nob Pinot Noir, and Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Delicious accompaniments, and almost certainly the combined reason for that pie being left out all night.

Favorite line of the evening: "What do you like best, Kev?" "I .... I don't know. Everything is better (at our Thanksgiving)." (Kevin then proceeds to demonstrate the 'perfect bite' - turkey, stuffing, mash, gravy.)

Favorite tune of the evening: Joe Bonamassa's The Ballad of John Henry. This is one rockin' tune.

Favorite task of the evening: Picking the turkey off the bone with a glass of wine, one mutt demonstrating his good behavior - to copious reward.

We are so lucky. And, I guess you could imply, thankful.

Lets just lay it all out right here.

2009-10-12T09:09:00.002-04:00

(... the rules for this operation.)

This blog is titled after an orange mixer, one of my most favorite things. Favorite because it is pretty to look at, works when I want it to, and when I choose to use it, the finished product is delicious. It doesn't whine for me to use it when I have nothing to make. It doesn't make me feel guilty when it gets a little dusty. And it doesn't email me reminders to operate it daily/weekly/ever.

Rule #1: This blog will be pretty to look at. It will not give me headaches because it isn't right. The posts will be delicious, but when I have nothing to work with I will not feel guilty. There will be no promised updating, no repetitive features - this will be fun.

* * * *

In my head, I want my house to be decorated in the most soothing, most simplistic color scheme I can think of: wood, white, green, and red. No doodads. No clashing. No clutter.

On the other hand, I wouldn't give up my orange mixer for even that. It doesn't match. It is shiny where everything else is matte. It's ostentatious, the one thing on my (cluttered) countertop that is always noticed and commented on. It is not serene, or simple, or even completely clean (flour spatters). So:

Rule #2: This blog will not be perfect. This is not storytime where there is always a moral and everything is wrapped up with a bow. I may contradict myself, and appearances are allowed to lie. I will not agonize over the perfect wording, creating a cute-little-funny-story-intro, or taking a flawless photograph. I can have a wood-white-green-red house with an orange mixer inside.

So here we go. Have a look at the window into my world. And I should have a look out that window as I clean up those dishes....