Deli Never Had It So Good

The lunchmeat sandwich - homemade fast food.  I have lunchmeat sandwiches filed in my brain under "cheap, easy, fast, not junk."  This isn't really the case, though.  Unless you're talking about the cheapest, most byproduct-and-chemical-laden products available, lunchmeat and cheese aren't cheap.  When you're talking about 6 kids making sandwiches or needing sandwiches made for them, it's neither fast nor easy.  And as for "not junk,"  well, that's only the case if you buy the REALLY good stuff, which STARTS at $9 /lb or so!  Needless to say, this is a meal that needs re-filed in my brain....

That said, I still like a good sandwich every once in a while.  If I take the time for prepping sandwich fillings, the older kids are fairly self-sufficient with making their own and things come together easily for the younger ones.  I can slice veggies early in the day if I need to save time at dinner.  As long as I'm not delusional about throwing it all on the table, eating, and getting out the door in 20 minutes, it's actually a decent option for our busier evenings, and leftovers are a nice bonus for lunch the next day.  Also, since all the veggies are included, I really don't have to think about side dishes if I don't want to, and that makes it a quicker meal, too.

So here's the deli spread for our house:

Whole-grain bread
Avocado spread (recipe follows)
Sliced portobello mushrooms, grilled
Provolone cheese slices
Sliced red onion, green peppers, and tomatoes
Leaf lettuce or spinach
Mayo and mustard (if anyone asks for them)

Avocado Spread
2 avocados, cubed and mashed
1 tsp. dried cilantro 
1 tsp. red pepper flake (opt., more or less to taste)
sea salt and black pepper to taste
**Use in place of mayo on sandwiches

Game Night Goodies

My kiddies are getting older, and (inevitably, I suppose) they've gotten involved in sports.  Weeknight games are the bane of my meal-planning existence.  I've been lucky enough to stumble across some great recipes that save us from bologna sandwiches or drive-thru atrocities.  This is one I found on MomAdvice.com  Amy's recipe is made with ground chuck, but I've been using black beans.  The boys love it, and I can make it early and keep it in the crock pot if I need to.  It's great with pretzels and finger veggies!

Sloppy Joes
6 c. (or 4 cans) cooked black beans**
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 c. ketchup
2 tsp. mustard
2 tbsp. brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste


Cook green pepper and onion in 1 tbsp. oil until soft.  Add all other ingredients, stir well, and let simmer until heated through and sauce is homogeneous...about 30 minutes.  Serve on buns, bread, in pita pockets, or with corn chips.  **If using ground chuck, brown 2lbs., drain, then add veggies and cook until soft.  Proceed as directed.

Condensed? Whatever.

Tomato soup and grilled cheese.  I wasn't even Catholic growing up, and that was a meal that we ate a couple of times a month.  My husband's family had it as often, especially on meatless Fridays.  Tomato soup was a portable lunch option in college.  And it wasn't until after I was married that I found out that there was a way to get tomato soup that was NOT in a gelatinous, salty blob from a red and white can.  I also discovered that grilled cheese was better when the recipe didn't call for store-bought white bread and individually-wrapped processed cheese slices, or worse, Velveeta.  Eeew.  Despite the knowledge that tomato soup had indeed existed before commercially canned soup, I was never quite brave enough to try it any other way.  Until now...

This recipe came from Allrecipes.com.  I couldn't get over it...it was simple, painless, and THEY ALL ATE IT!  Condensed soup?  Not again.  Ever.  This was just WAY too good!  Paired up with some fancy grilled cheese, I'd serve it to company.  Really!

Tomato Soup
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1 tsp. sugar
18 leaves fresh basil, chopped (I just bought a 2/3 oz. package from the grocery)
1 c. whipping cream
1/2 c. butter


Bring tomatoes and chicken broth to a boil in a large pot.  Boil 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to low, stir in basil and sugar, and let simmer 2 minutes more.  Add cream and butter.  DON'T LET IT BOIL FROM HERE ON!  Cook  just until butter is melted.  Serve, garnished with shredded parmesan cheese.


Fancy Grilled Cheese
You can make a grilled cheese, right?  Then have fun!  
Rye, whole wheat, sourdough, white, multigrain bread...
Meunster, swiss, farmer's cheese, butter cheese, pepper jack...
Caramelized onions, pickles, sliced green peppers, tomato...


I hereby lay claim to mmmm...mmmm...GOOD!

Soup du Jour

I love soup, especially when the weather's cool and/or icky.  Unloading most of the meat in our diets has made me revisit some tried-and-true favorites.  I don't use meat very often, but I do still use stock and broth, especially organic chicken broth.  So here's the Twinkle Twinkle Soup recipe, as enjoyed by all this week!  It was great at dinner, but was much better for lunch the next day, after the flavors had had time to get happy together. We had it with cranberry bran muffins, but the recipe needs some tweaking, so stay tuned!

Twinkle Twinkle, Little Soup!
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 large carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored, and diced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
2 quarts chicken broth or stock
1/2 c. frozen peas
1/2 c. frozen corn
1 c. stars pasta
Heat olive oil over medium heat in large stock pot.  Add in carrots, onions, apple, and celery.  Cook for a few minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften and get fragrant.  Add bay leaves and poultry seasoning, then add chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer 20 minutes or so, until veggies are just tender.  Return to boil, and add pasta.  Cook for 5-6 minutes (or whatever time pasta directions call for), then add frozen veggies.  Stir to combine, return to boil, then turn off heat.  After about 5 minutes, frozen veggies should have thawed and be heated through, and soup should be cool enough to serve.  Enjoy!

Variations on a Theme of Saturday

We had roast beef hot-shots with green beans Saturday evening, by request.   Today I found myself with a fairly decent amount of roast beef and gravy left over, and some mashed potatoes.  There was enough for a meal...for some other, smaller family.  So here's the leftovers meal, resurrected with some fresh dinner rolls.   I used some frozen veggies and some fresh, but use what you've got.  That's why they're called leftovers!

Rerun Stoup
2-3 carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 c. mushrooms, chopped
2 bay leaves
Place these in crock pot with a little water...just enough to cover.  
Add leftover gravy, meat, mashed potatoes, etc.
Stir to combine.  Add enough liquid (water, broth, stock) to bring to desired thickness.  Turn on low and ignore until about an hour before dinnertime.  Add 1/2 c. each frozen peas and corn, stir, and continue to ignore.  Serve.


Sneaky Dinner Rolls (makes 2 dozen)
In bowl of electric mixer, combine:
2 pkgs. yeast (5 tsp)
1/2 c. warm water  (110-115 deg.)
1 tsp sugar
Let stand 5-10 min. until foamy.
**If using instant yeast, skip this step.  Just put the yeast with the flour and add the water with other liquids
Add to yeast mixture:
3 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. sugar
1-1/4 c. warm milk (110-115 deg.)
1/2 c. melted butter
2 eggs
Mix well, with dough hook, until fully combined and smooth.
Then add gradually:
2-3 c. all-purpose flour (just until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl)
1/3 c. flax seeds
When dough is fairly smooth, remove hook and cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Let rise until double - 30-60 min., depending on temperature and how happy the yeast are.  With silicone spatula, scrape dough out onto a floured board or countertop.  Knead a few seconds to form a soft ball.  Divide dough in half.  Form 12 even rolls from each half and place in 2 9x13 pans, 1 13x18 cake pan, or 24 muffin cups.  Bake at 350 for 15-20 min, until golden brown.

Sweet (and Spicy) Scents of Fall

Have I mentioned that I love fall cooking?   Today's celebration is apple butter!  There's a batch bubbling in my crock pot now, just waiting to be spread thickly on some soft home-made bread.  My house smells so good!

Apple Butter
10-12 medium(ish) apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 c. sucanat

Combine all ingredients in crock pot.  Cook on low 8-12 hours, (depending on apple variety and desired texture), stirring occasionally.  Whisk smooth.

**This recipe is simple and infinitely adaptable.  You can use different varieties of apples - firmer ones (like Granny Smith or Honeycrisp) take longer, and you'll have chunkier apple butter.  Softer varieties (like Gala or McIntosh) cook more quickly and make smoother apple butter.  You can mix and match them with whatever you have.  You can adjust the sweetness, use all white sugar, all brown, or a combination.  You can use more or less spice.  You can cook it in a slow cooker and ignore it, or on the stove top and keep an eye on it.  It's entirely up to you...bon apetit!

Dairy Discoveries

I remember the day I thought my Grandma (the cook) was losing her mind.  She bought a yogurt maker.  After her first batch, she put it on a shelf and never used it again.  Why?  Because "milk just isn't what it's supposed to be."  Boy, was I confused.  I remained confused about that day until recently, when a friend introduced me to the culinary wonder that is raw milk.  If you don't know, raw milk is milk that is "sraight from the cow" - unpasteurized, unhomogenized, totally un-messed-with.  Lovely stuff.  So I did what any self-respecting farm wife would have done a century ago:  I made butter.  I also made yogurt, and have used the milk in two of my favorite bread recipes with stellar results.  Son-of-a-gun, Grandma wasn't losing it after all.  Milk really wasn't what it had been when she was growing up on the farm...what it was "supposed to be."  What a great discovery!

I'm very fortunate to have some wonderful friends who generously share their knowledge of traditional kitchen practices.  We also have German Baptist and Amish communities nearby, and many of those families are also using the same techniques and recipes they have used for generations, and they are happy to share them to keep the traditions of "real" food alive and growing.

So, about that butter...

I siphoned the cream off the top of the milk with a turkey baster, put it in a jar, and let it sit out on the counter overnight (12 hours or so.)  The next day, I poured it into the bowl of the Kitchen Aid mixer, put on the whisk attachment, and let 'er rip.  I found out that milk flies.  So I made a makeshift tent out of aluminum foil and put it over the top of the mixer and the bowl.  Much better.  About half-an-hour later, I had whipped butter in my  bowl!  I strained the butter through a fine sieve to separate the buttermilk, then chilled it.  It made its debut on the dinner table with baked potatoes the next day to enthusiastic praise.  I think that counts as a success story!