New recipes I tried in the 1st week of the new year

The start of a new year, like a poem, has both heft and a lightness of being. It carries the weight of our hopes and expectations for an entire year, 365 days. New year's day, Jan. 1, flies on the wings of optimism and starts the week off with a heady sense of freedom -- it's a new beginning, a chance to get things right, be your best you.

Here's a poem and few recipes I tried, enjoyed and shared in the first week of 2017:

"Burning the Old Year" by Naomi Shihab Nye 

So much of any year is flammable, 

lists of vegetables, partial poems, 

orange swirling flame of days 

so little is a stone. 

 Read the rest of the poem at the Poetry Foundation. 

 Laaaaaaa

Farmers Market Casserole Step-by-Step Recipe

Our local Farmers Market is bursting with the bounty of summer produce. Red, sun ripened tomatoes, purple eggplants, summer squash, onions and leeks, a variety of herbs -- all laid out in tempting display.

I like to cook with seasonal ingredients because not only do you get the best quality and best flavor, but it's also cheaper. 

Unfortunately, I can't limit myself to a few items when faced with such a selection and end up returning home with a bulging bag. And there's the garden produce to consider...and I have to figure out ways to use all of it up and keep the family from complaining.

So I was really excited to discover a recipe in the Weight Watchers Family Meals cookbook that made good use of all kinds of vegetables I'd picked up at the Farmers Market and from my garden.

It's a layered dish, but still pretty easy to make and full of flavor and summertime goodness.

Farmer Market Casserole with Tomato, Eggplant and Zucchini

Right now all the ingredients are in season, which makes this the perfect summer recipe.

Makes 4 servings and is vegetarian and gluten free.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 small eggplant (about 3/4 pound), unpeeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano (or you can substitute about 2 or 3 tablespoons of fresh leaves), divided

3-4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoons salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, divided

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup chopped fresh sweet basil

3/4 pound medium to small tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 large zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch slices (should be about equivalent to tomatoes)

1/4 cup grated Asiago or Parmesan cheese 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit. Spray a shallow 8-cup casserole dish or 9-inch deep pie plate with olive oil nonstick spray.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add eggplant, onions, half the oregano, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper; cook, stirring, until eggplant is very tender and browned in spots, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat if eggplants brown too quickly. Transfer to prepared dish or pie plate.

 3. Mix parsley, basil, remaining oregano, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over eggplant mixture.

Even though the herbs are not the title of the recipe, they are key to adding flavor to the dish! 

4. Arrange tomato and zucchini slices on top of the herb-covered eggplant in alternating rows, overlapping slices.

Don't they look pretty? Mmm, nothing beats the flavor of garden tomatoes.

5. Bake until vegetables are tender and browned along the edges, about 25 to 30 minutes.

6. Sprinkle evenly with cheese and place under broiler for about 2 minutes. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Note: Next time I might use goat cheese or Feta crumbles, both of which are locally produced by El Camino de Las Capbras. If you try it out let me know what you think!

The Comfort of Pie & Words When Missing Dad

The upcoming Father's Day is going to be my first one without my father and it's hitting me pretty hard. I stayed up until about 2:30 a.m. sifting through photographs. Just me and my memories in a sleeping house. And lots of tears. I did find a photograph of the two of us that I wanted to share:

Happier days...of course, at a restaurant. He loved eating out and taking the whole family --not just the immediate, but as much of the extended he could gather together -- on his culinary adventures.

Another thing I discovered suddenly early this morning...I thought I had a handle on my grief. It's been exactly five months and four days since his death. I thought I had dealt with it. Well, I haven't.

"Grief was like a deep-dish pie whose filling takes longer to cook: it cannot be rushed." ~ Making Piece: A memoir of love, loss & pie by Beth Howard.

Since I'm finding it difficult to write about my dad today, I'll share about this book I'm reading, or re-reading. Yes, it was sent to me by the publisher Harlequin (their non-fiction department) for a review in the newspaper, but it explains grief through the language of pie and it touched something deep inside me. I understand life through words and food...and this has both.

Howard, a freelance journalist and a piebaker, writes about dealing with life after the death of her 43-year-old husband. He dies just hours before signing the divorce papers. There's guilt and love, forgiveness and passion in the pages. The author sums up her book perfectly in the introduction:

“You will find my story is a lot like pie, a strawberry-rhubarb pie. It’s bitter. It’s messy. It’s got some sweetness, too. Sometimes the ingredients get added in the wrong order, but it has substance, it will warm your insides, and even though it isn’t perfect, it still turns out okay in the end.”

Being a piebaker, Howard deals with her grief to a large extent by baking pies. Lots and lots of pies. She writes:

“With each push of the rolling pin and each pie that came browned and bubbling out of the oven, my soul was soothed and my heart mended a little more.”

I like pies, but I'm not a piebaker and bake pies only occasionally. So her route won't be my route. However, I have been a life-long reader and now, I'm a writer. Words have always sustained and supported me. So I seek refuge in words...in reading and sometimes in writing. Thankgoodness for books. Making Piece is ultimately about courage and survival and living with purpose. So thank you Ms. Howard for your sharing your story and letting me make sense of my grief through your words.

One day, I don't exactly know when, I hope I will be able to sit down and write about my dad and my family and my grief with grace and love. Make it coherent.

My dad loved all things sweet, and apple pie was definitely on the list. He was the captain of a passenger ship and at meal times, passengers were invited to sit at the Captain's Table. Very formal affair.  My father was also a storyteller and would love entertaining his guests with stories. One time he was so busy talking, he accidently grabbed the ketchup boat instead of the cream and spooned it all over his piece of apple pie. Mouths fell open and people stared. Instead of admitting his mistake, my dad just calmy ate his pie to the last crumb.... My mom and I still laugh about this story. So I'm sharing a recipe for apple pie from Making Piece, ketchup optional.

Beth Howard’s Apple Pie (from Making Piece)

Crust:

 (makes a double crust)

 2½ cups flour (but have at least 3 and ½ cups on hand, as you’ll need extra flour to roll dough and to thicken filling)

 ½ cup butter

 ½ cup vegetable shortening

 Dash of salt

Ice water (fill one cup, but use only enough to moisten dough)

 In a large bowl, work the butter and shortening into the flour with your hands until you see marble-size lumps form. Pour in ice water a little at a time, sort of “fluffing” the flour to mix in liquid. When the dough feels moist, do a “squeeze test” and if it holds together you’re done. Your dough should feel tacky, but not wet. (Do not overwork the dough! It takes very little time and you’ll be tempted to keep touching it, but don’t!) Divide the dough in 2 balls. Form each ball into a disk shape. Roll flat and thin to fit your pie dish. Sprinkle flour under and on top of your dough to keep it from sticking to your rolling surface. Trim excess dough around the edges with scissors so that it is about 1 inch wider than the dish edge.

Filling: (Beth originally learned this from Mary Spellman)

 7 large Granny Smith* apples (depending on size of apple and size of pie dish)

 3/4 cup sugar

 4 tablespoons flour

 Dash of salt

 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more, depending on how much you like)

 1 tablespoon butter (to put on top of apples before covering with top crust)

 1 beaten egg (to brush top crust before putting in oven)

(*It’s also okay to use a combination of apples, try Braeburn and Royal Gala. Do not use Fuji or Red Delicious—they lack tartness. Also note, the approximate rule of thumb is three pounds of fruit per pie.)

Lay the prepared bottom crust into the pie dish. Slice half of thepeeled apples directly into the pie, arranging and pressing them into the dish to remove extra space between slices. Cover with half of your other ingredients (sugar, fl our, cinnamon, salt), then slice the remaining apples and cover with second half of ingredients. Add dollop of butter. Cover with top crust and crimp edges, then brush with the beaten egg (this gives the pie a nice golden brown shine). Use a knife to poke vent holes in the top crust (get creative here with a unique pattern if you want). Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes or so, until juice bubbles. Poke with a knife to make sure apples have softened. Do not overbake or apples will turn mushy.

Here's a list of other #Letslunch posts honoring Dads:

Zestbakery's Grilled Rib-eyes with Uncle Andy's Chimichurri Sauce

Emma presents Dad's Ham and Rice

Eating My Words has On Dad & Onion: A Love Story

HapaMama has a great post on her dad and his taste for diversity

SpiceBoxTravels has Sesame-ginger chicken wings & a lesson in frugality

Mccchickie brings Hot Sugary Lipsmacking Doughnuts

WokStar has great pictures and Poached Salmon with Bokchoy

Pat's Father's Day Tribute is Egg Candy

#Letslunch is great virtual feast where food bloggers from around the world come together once a month to cook around a theme. If you want to join in the fun tweet at us with the hash tag #Letslunch and we'd love to have you join the party. :)

Tips to Cut Down Food Waste in Your Kitchen

I recently worked on an interesting story about food waste that occurs all around us --in restaurant kitchens, school kitchens and our own kitchens. Given the growing hunger in our communities (just visit soup kitchens, unemployment offices and food pantries for a first-hand account), the fact that Americans generate more than 34 million tons of food waste each year is sad. More than sad, it's a problem that needs to be fixed, controlled at least.

So I asked some of my sources to share tips that we could use to be more conscious consumers and be part of the solution. Here's what they shared:

Joann Knox, director of Child Nutrition with Abilene ISD, credits the district’s cafeteria managers and staff for a tight handle on the food waste issue. “Many of the things we do,” she said, “can be used at home.”

1. Keep up with your inventory. “We know what we have in our pantries, refrigerators and freezers,” Knox said. “We keep a running log or leftovers sheet. Whenever we put something in, we date and label it.”

2. Use food in a timely manner. The district also applies the “first in, first out” rule. “We place older items at the front so they are used up first,” Knox said.

3. Plan ahead. The district orders food about two weeks in advance and that involves planning, using menus and shopping lists.

4. Make sure your refrigerator and freezer are operating at the correct temperature. Freezers should be zero degrees or below, and refrigerators in the 38-35 degrees range, she recommended. “The wrong temperatures can cause food to mold and spoil,” she said.

5. Use seasonal menu items. “We miss out on a lot of food at their peak –like zucchinis and peaches—because of our school calendar,” she said. “So we try to serve a lot of fresh fruit when school opens.”

Martha Alice Spraberry works in the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Taylor County and they provide everything from recipes to food safety and management classes. Her tips are as follows:

1. Put up leftover in the refrigerator in a timely manner. Within 2 hours of taking a dish off the stove or out of the refrigerator, or one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or above.

2. Use up leftovers as soon as you can. If you don’t want to eat the same thing, add a few ingredients and turn them into something new. Spraberry loves to use leftovers in salads, soups, casseroles and quick stir-fries.

3. If you’re packing leftovers for lunch the next day, remember hot foods need to be kept hot (use a thermos) and cold foods need to stay cold (use ice packs). “If you’re packing bottled water for lunch, you might freeze it first and use it like an ice pack to keep your food cold,” she said.

Several Abilene moms shared their food strategies on the AbileneMoms Facebook Page.

1. Ashley G. stores all her leftover veggies in a freezer bag in the winter. “When I have enough, I use those to make vegetable soup,” she posted. “Even just a spoon full doesn't go to waste.”

2. Becky Z. plans ahead and uses leftovers to create other meals. “I make a full chicken almost every 10 days, eat that as a meal then portion out the rest of the chicken into two separate casseroles or pot pies,” she wrote. “I usually can make about 3 to 5 meals out of a 4lbs chicken.”

3. Marlene H. makes lasagna or casseroles and then freezes the leftovers to enjoy a couple of weeks later.

If you have a tip that hasn't been mentioned but helps you in your food strategy, please share in the comments!

Winner Announcement!

WooHoo! The winner of The Homesick Texan cookbook is Laurie (The Irishrenlady). I'll be e-mailing you!

And thank you everyone who visited the post and shared their stories of food and memories. Each one was special. Keep cooking, eating & making new memories!

Also, here's my article on Texas Foods that Lisa Fain is featured in.

Of Picnics & Expotitions

"Oh! Piglet," said Pooh excitedly, "we're going on a Expotition, all of us, with things to eat. To discover something." -- Winnie the Pooh

My son adores Winnie-The-Pooh. In fact, his constant companion is this soft, well-loved Pooh that's got his stuffing totally redistributed and flattened. We've tried to tempt him with newer, shinier versions. His answer is to clutch that old Pooh tighter. As it should be.

The first time my son called me "Mom" was when I baked him a Pooh cake for his second birthday. Actually, what he called me was: "Mommy Cake Maker." Made me feel like the best mom on earth that day. :)

We, as a family, are partial to picnics and explorations Pooh-Style. As long as the weather is favorable, we're ready for an impromptu picnic. The only must-have at a picnic: Fun.

So this Mother's Day, why not go on a family picnic? My column in this week's Standard-Times shares 10 Tips for a Successful Picnic.

An early Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who happen to read this!

The Cowboy & I Cook for Valentine's

The Cowboy and I have a special tradition: we celebrate Valentine's by throwing a party at our local soup kitchen.

Love and food are basic human needs. So what better way to celebrate our love than working together on a project to bring love and food, served with joy and verve, to more than a hundred of our homeless and working poor.

The plus side is we avoid the stiff competion for reservations and long waits at crowded restaurants.

Yes, we do fall into a bone-tired heap at the end of it all...but it's usually in the hot tub with glasses of wine or bottles of beer and each other. A pretty happy ending, by all accounts.

And, best of all, our love grows stronger, deeper, having worked side by side at the soup kitchen and being surrounded by love all day.

You can read about all the great plans for the 2011 Peace Ambassadors' Valentine's Lunch (our sixth) in this article.

To see pictures and stories from last year, click the San Angelo Standard-Times' link.

If you're able to help out in any way, we'd love to have you join us!
Happy Valentine's Y'all!

Guest blogging at Fiction Groupies

Sorry, the holidays are playing mayhem with my schedule so this is probably my last post for 2010. However, I'm not leaving you high & dry. As a favor to my twitterpal, the wonderful Roni Loren, I'm guest blogging at her Fiction Groupie about How to Cook Up A Chacter. Go check it out.

Wishing you happy holidays and a wonderful 2011!

Holiday Side: Festive Green Beans with a taste of Bengal, a touch of curry

Panch Phoron, is a spice blend, close to my heart.

The sizzle and sputter of the spices in hot oil, the savory-sweet scent released into the air, transports me back to my childhood home in Bangladesh. The name translates to “five spices” in the Bengali language and consists of equal measures of fenugreek (methi), nigella seed (kalo jeera), cumin (jeera), black mustard (shorsha), and fennel (mouri). It is almost exclusively found in the kitchen of cooks with roots in the Bengali culture, usually from Bangladesh, Assam, West Bengal and Orissa. The seeds are left whole so the flavors change from bite to bite, yet all five work together like fingers on a hand.

So for my first Let’s Lunch post, I decided to reach for this old favorite and create a holiday side bursting with color and taste.

My mother uses panch phoron to transform simple dishes of vegetable, lentils or fish to swoon-worthy delicacies. Just a whiff of the earthy fragrance makes my mouth water. So I paired this with green beans, butternut squash and red bell peppers.

The first step is to cook the spice blend in hot oil for a minute or two. The heat should make the spices pop and liberate their essential oils and aroma. This is a process known as “phoron” or “baghar” in Bengali.

The first veggie added in the squash, because it would take the longest to cook. I also tossed in a bit of turmeric, cayenne, and ground cumin – ingredients traditionally found in curries of the Indian-subcontinent. My mother would shake her head here, but hey, I’m a girl who likes to add her own twist.

Part way through the cooking, I add the tomatoes.  I also keep some water at hand and add splashes here and there to prevent sticking.  All these kitchen tips and tricks were learned at my mom’s side. Thanks mom!

When the squash is half-cooked, add in green beans and garlic. Save the bell peppers for the last five minutes. The vegetables should be just done, still bright with color.

Not your traditional green bean casserole, but an exotic alternative. My DH, the Cowboy, has already declared it a winner and requested it for our Christmas Eve dinner.  Maybe it’ll become a new tradition, perfect for our East-West household.

This post has been brought to you thanks to the Lets Lunch bunch, a group of food enthusiasts from all over, who come together to share recipes, stories, friendship and virtual lunch in cyberspace. To give full credit, actually this entire blog came into existence because I wanted to join in the fun and this group was the kick-in-the-rear I needed (I know, waaay late to the party…but here). So thanks #Letslunch pals, this one’s for you.

Check out some of the other Lets Lunch holiday sides:

The Kitchen Trials' Parker House Rolls

Free Range Cookies' Green Bean Casserole 

Cooking in the Fruit Bowl's Kimchi Risotto Bake

The Cowgirl Chef's Mushroom-Leek Quinoa Salad

If you'd like to join Let's Lunch, go to Twitter and post a message with the hashtag #Letslunch

Recipe: Festive Green Beans with a taste of Bengal, a touch of curry

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons panch phoron (you can buy the mix in Indian grocery stores, online, or make your own)

½ a medium onion, sliced lengthwise

1 teaspoon ginger, peeled and slivered

2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced (I kept them on the small side to cook faster)

½ teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon cayenne powder (or more if you like heat)

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

¾ teaspoon salt

2 to 3 Roma tomatoes, diced (juice and all)

12-ounces green beans, washed and trimmed

3 to 4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced (I actually pound mine into an almost-paste)

1 red bell pepper, cleaned and diced into 1-inch pieces

Directions

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat

Add the panch phoron and cook for a minute or two. When it becomes fragrant, add in onion and ginger, cook until onion is soft and translucent.

Add in the butternut squash and the curry spices (turmeric to salt), stir and cook for about a minute or two (this cuts the raw flavor of the spices), add the tomatoes and cook some more. If your spices start sticking to the bottom of the pan, add splashes of water as needed (just enough to keep cooking and prevent burning).

When the butternut is half-done, add the green beans and garlic. Stir gently and cook for three minutes.

Add the bell pepper and cook another five minutes, or until the veggies are just done.

Enjoy!

The Princess and the Cowboy: How it all began.

OK, so I'm not a real princess, but my cowboy farmer makes me feel like one. Many people are surprised that an adventurous woman from Bangladesh and a quiet man-of-the-earth from West Texas can meet, fall in love and make a life together. Hey, love happens.

Welcome to Hot Curries & Cold Beer, where I share my kitchen experiments and life adventures, where I bring my two worlds together to create a whole new world full of color and sizzle, scents and flavors.

My West Texas adventure began with college graduation. I thought I was on my way to NYC, but then I started adding up the costs. Reality check. So instead, I decided to adventure in cheaper, but still exciting places. I sent resumes all over, from Alaska to West Texas. The latter won my heart (to be honest I'm a cold wimp) and I came to the land of the cowboys. The plan: work and save for two years, have fun, then head to New York.

Somehow two years turned into four. While I was enjoying my newspaper job, my feet were kicking up dust, ready to travel. Greece was calling my name (Greek food + Greek Men = one helluva siren call). My one regret: I hadn't learned how to two-step before I left Texas. I might have lamented about this over beers, because a friend from the paper soon invited me to hang out with her that weekend. She'd find someone to teach me how to two-step.

I walked into the bar and there he was: tall, blond and blue-eyed. There were others too, but somehow we kept finding each other. And we talked about food, and we talked about books (that's one of my other weaknesses/passions/obsession). He held me close and taught me the Texas Two-Step. After several dance classes -- dates -- he finally said, "You know, if I wasn't holding you so close, you'd probably learn easier." Well, he waltzed all thoughts of Greece out of my head.

That happened in 2000. We have had much fun introducing each other to our very different lives, experiences and worlds. I took him to Bangladesh (and for once my family found me instantly in the airport crowds. I was next to the towering white guy in the cowboy hat), he took me to his family's sausage-making. My mother cooked him up a bunch of greens, which he referred to as weeds,but ate and managed to compliment her. His mother fed me saurkraut and I actually smiled.

For the wedding, he wore a Western Tux and I wore a traditional red and gold Lehenga. After the first dance, he changed into a silk kurta set, and I wore jeans, boots and a cowboy hat. We exchanged garlands, followed by a traditional kiss. So our life has been a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a fusion.

No where is this fusion better expressed than in the kitchen. We both love cooking together and coming up with new recipes. I'm the experimental, go-with-my-gut kind of cook. He's the meticulous type, measuring and taking notes, just in case he likes it enough and wants it again.

Now that you know who we are and sort of what to expect, I hope you'll be joining us again to see what the cowboy and I are cooking up next.