First Trimester: Completed!

So, turns out that during my Thanksgiving planning days I was newly pregnant. And in what is a not-all-that-surprising turn of events I now cannot bear to think about the foods I'd cooked/eaten during those early weeks.

Last pregnancy I'd been eating a lot of salads during early pregnancy and then suddenly couldn't stomach them for 36 weeks;  this pregnancy the thought of pizza makes me gag (must've been eating them in Oct/Nov!) as does thinking of most of the items I'd made for Thanksgiving.  Hence the non-update on this blog.

But I'm now in the 2nd trimester and starting to think about food again. Not all foods (I'm still not ready to review my November dishes) but I'm hoping to start cooking from my books again.

Stay tuned! (I know you're all so excited! ;-)  ).

Thanksgiving Planning

We'll be joining a larger, extended family table for this year's holiday. And it means I'm asking myself:  what to bring?

I haven't yet found specific menu items that my husband and daughter and I can call "our" traditional Thanksgiving meal, so I'm not sure what we must have next week. But here are some of my initial considerations (all are in the running for being my contribution to this year's celebration):


Appetizers

From Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan!
Cannellini Bean Yam Hummus  (Click HERE for my previous recipe review)

From Betty Crocker's Dinner in a Dish
Party Sandwich Loaf
(cream cheese frosted loaf of white bread, with three savory fillings)


Sides

From Anna Thomas' The Vegetarian Epicure
Holiday Vegetable Salad   (Click HERE for recipe on Google Books)
Per Anna, this is the "greatest of all composed salads."
(mushrooms, potatoes, apples, dill pickles, eggs, peas, carrots, pickled onions, chopped onion, vinegar, homemade mayonnaise, garnishes)


From SusanV's Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog
The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole (Click HERE for recipe)


From Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink & Be Vegan
Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Per Dreena, "You'll never buy another store-bought cranberry sauce after you've tasted this one."
(fresh cranberries, maple syrup, sea salt, vinegar)


Desserts

From Betty Crocker's Hostess Cookbook
Baked Alaska Pumpkin Pie
"[P]ostpone this spectacular dessert until evening. Such a pumpkin pie deserves its own show...and a hungry audience!"
(Butter Brickle ice cream in a pie crust, covered with brown sugar meringue)

From Simply Vegetarian!
Orange-Pumpkin Pudding
(cooked & mashed pumpkin, eggs, honey, spices, topped with whipped cream)

&
Upside-Down Plum Cake
(whole wheat cake, sweetened with honey, topped with plums and elderberry jam)


And what are you planning for Thanksgiving?

Baked Turnip Surprise

I picked-up an amazing cookbook at a garage sale early this fall:

The "Best-of-All" Cook Book

compiled and edited by Florence Brobeck

published 1960

At first it seemed like a boring, cheater cookbook. Ms. Brobeck has simply gathered recipes from never-before-heard-from, totally random cookbooks that had themselves been complied by someone. I mean, recipes from Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book by the Foods Editors of Better Homes and Gardens? Or the cookbook Who Says We Can't Cook! by Members of the Women's National Press Club? Or how about The A.B.C. of Spice Cookery and How To Use Spices, both by the American Spice Trade Association? I mean... really. How good could this cookbook actually be?

The answer:  Amazingly, wonderfully good.

I've rarely enjoyed reading a cookbook as much as I enjoyed reading The "Best-of-All" (and I've read a lot of cookbooks. What I lack in the desire to cook I totally make up for in lazy couch sitting and the paging through recipes).

The variety of dishes is vast (which is as you'd expect it, since Brobeck has sampled recipes from over one hundred different cookbooks) and thus incredibly interesting. And even the recipes promoting the original compilers' product (Fun with Coffee from the Pan-American Coffee Bureau, anyone?) first just made me giggle because I was reminded of Anne of Green Gables' romantic short story (about baking power, wasn't it?) and secondly it ended-up striking me as crazy-obvious that of course the group that promotes an ingredient is going to know a lot about said ingredient and it follows that one might want to listen to the experts when they share their ideas.

So, what exciting recipe did I try from the super-exciting cookbook? Baked Turnips! Of course.

But by this time (a long-winded post, I know. Get on with it, woman!) you're wondering what the surprise is, right?

Well, I was slicing up turnips yesterday for the recipe when, as it would turn out, it dawned on me that my "turnips" were actually beets.

Wouldn't you say these are turnips? 

Now, I cannot totally confirm this. I've looked through the CSA website and I've Googled turnips and beets and also tried rutabagas and even double-checked daikon radishes, but I have yet to see a picture of the root vegetables that I found myself cooking last night. (BTW, have you ever researched the different types of beets, turnips and rutabagas? Millions of different kinds. Or at least ten. I've lived such a sheltered life.) In the end, I must admit I have no idea what I actually brought home from the CSA.

But then look! Crazy insides!

It's so confusing.

Maybe this meal should be call Baked Turnip Confusion.

Well, no matter what name you slap on it, the dish was delightful. May I introduce:

Baked Turnips? Beets? Rutabagas? 

Anonymous Root Vegetable 

(with White & Purple & Green Outsides 
and Red & White Insides)

originally from 

The Gentle Art of Cookery 

by Mrs. C. F. Leyel and Miss Olga Hartley

6 small white turnips [or whatever]

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese [I used Swiss*]

Ground nutmeg

Salt & pepper

Cayenne

1 cup milk or thin white sauce

3 Tbls bread crumbs

1 Tbls butter

Start oven at moderate (350 degrees F). Butter 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Scrub turnips [or whatever], rinse, drain, and pare. Slice thinly into greased dish in alternate layers with cheese; season each layer of turnips [or whatever] lightly with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Add little cayenne to top layer, pour milk or white sauce over contents of dish, sprinkle top with crumbs, dot with butter. Bake in moderate oven 35 minutes, or until turnips [or whatever] are done. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

*As a rule, I hate Swiss cheese. But yesterday my fridge was full of it (weird story) and figured I'd like it better cooked in a dish, flavors mingling, than by itself on crackers where it's nasty dry bitter taste is overpowering and chokes out your will to live. And I was right! Baked with whatever-they-were, the Swiss cheese tasted great. 

Squash Soup (two variations)

After receiving a windfall of veggies today I knew it was time to get cookin'! I decided to focus on the butternut squash, and I picked up my copy of Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World; paging through, this recipe caught my eye. Though its name calls for pumpkin, the ingredient list allows for butternut squash as well.

Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

from Olive Trees and Honey by Gil Marks

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 leeks (white & light green parts only) or 2 onions, chopped

8 cups vegetable stock or water

2 to 3 lbs pumpkin, butternut squash, or other winter squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes (5-6 cups)

3 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 cup dried yellow split peas

2 carrots, cut into chunks (optional)

1 to 4 Tbls packed brown sugar

2 cinnamon sticks or 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground tumeric or saffron thread

1/8 tsp ground allspice or freshly grated nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp salt

ground black pepper to taste

parsley or cilantro or toasted pumpkin seeds or sauteed mushrooms

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and saute until soft, about 5 mins. Add the stock, pumpkin, chickpeas, optional carrots, sugar, spices, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the pumpkin is very soft, about 50 mins. Discard the cinnamon sticks.

2. To serve, garnish with parsley or pumpkin seeds, or top each bowl with a little mount of sauteed mushrooms.


Variation: 

Fiery Pumpkin Soup

Make the recipe above but omit the cinnamon, ginger and allspice. Add, with the onion, 1 minced clove garlic and 1 minced small hot green chili or Scotch bonnet chili, or add about 1 tsp cayenne and 1/2 tsp ground cumin with the pumpkin.

I had one Georgia Flame pepper and wanted to make the spicy option, but because my toddler doesn't always enjoy spicy foods I decided to make the basic recipe as well. I divided the onions, squash, carrots, lentils and liquid between two pots and added the sweet spices to one pot, garlic and the diced pepper to the other.

Extremely Delish! Would be a great dinner for company this autumn. Serve with green salad and hearty bread with butter.

Yogurt Nan

Ever buy one of those giant tubs of plain yogurt and then realize it's weeks later and you must use it up immediately or toss it out? That exact situation was the inspiration for my searching for and deciding upon this recipe.

A success! My toddler, especially, enjoys these breads, and using the freezer and the oven methods I've been able to bake fresh bread for her even on weekday (work) mornings. What a treat, to have hot steamy fresh bread available each morning. Totally worth taking the time for the preparation on a weekday night or weekend morning.

Yogurt Nan

from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe

1/4 cup wrist-temperature water

1 1/4 tsp yeast (1/2 a package)

pinch of sugar

1 cup plain yogurt

1 Tbs olive oil or unsalted butter, melted (plus extra for brushing the breads)

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups plus 2 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour (plus more for handling dough)

cornmeal (opt)

coarse salt (opt)

Place the water in a med-size bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and sugar, and let it stand for 5 mins. Add yogurt, olive oil or melted butter, and salt and whisk until smooth.

Add one cup of the flour, whisking until it is incorporated. Switch to a wooden spoon, and mix in the remaining flour. Lightly flour your hands and knead the dough, still in the bowl, for a minute or two, or until the dough is smooth (it will be quite soft).

Gently lift the dough, spray/spread the bowl underneath it with oil and then put the dough back down. Lightly spray its top surface with oil as well. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towl and leave it in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.

When the dough has risen, lightly flour your fist, punch down the dough, and turn it out onto a clean, floured work surface. The dough will be very soft and slightly wet. Use a knife or kitchen scissors to cut the dough into 8 equal pieces, then briefly shape each piece into a ball with your hands. Let the balls rest for 5 mins.

Generously flour a rolling pin and the work surface, and without kneading or handling the "rested" balls, roll each one into a very thin circle 7 to 8 inches in diameter. The breads are now ready to cook [or freeze].

To Freeze: line a plate with plastic wrap and place a rolled-out, unbaked flatbread on top. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on top of the bread. Continue layering plastic wrap and rolled-out flatbreads. Seal the whole thing including plate in a large ziplock and place in freezer for about 45 mins. Remove the plate and plastic wrap and place the separately frozen breads back into the bag. Will keep for a month in the freezer. You can bake them as needed, one or more at a time, straight from the freezer. (They are so thin the fact that they are frozen does not increase their cooking time.)

Cooking with the Oven Method (there's also a griddle method, which I do not record here): Preheat the oven to 450F. Oil a baking tray or sprinkle lightly with cornmeal or flour. Lay the breads flat on the tray and bake for about 5 mins. Turn them over and bake for 5 minutes more or until golden brown in spots but still supple.

Brush the tops with olive oil or melted butter and sprinkle with course salt, if desired. Serve hot or warm.

Beet Casserole

If you were just thinking: I wonder what other delightful beet dishes Well-Cookbooked has tried lately? than this post is sure to please! (And even if you weren't thinking that, I think this is a recipe you can still enjoy.)

Technically I didn't so much cook this recipe as I did pick it out of a book and tell my husband to make it. But I did the cookbook perusal and the shopping for ingredients, so I'm including it and counting it toward my 5-recipes-from-each-book goal.

Russian Beet Casserole

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Steam until soft: 

3 1/2 peeled and chopped beets (about 6 med sized)

1 3/4 chopped onion

Mix with:

2 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar

Scant 1 cup plain yogurt

1/8 tsp each salt & pepper

Bake 10 mins. The cheese seems to disappear if overcooked.

Serve over rice, noodles or toast.

My favorite beet recipe so far! I was surprised, actually, because while I'd picked the recipe because it'd use up a good portion of beets, I wasn't really expecting to like it. But I did--it was scrumptious! The beets were al dente (though cooked enough to be sweet, since raw beets can be bitter) and the onion was a savoury touch, but then the sharp cheddar was, well, cheesy and the yogurt was slightly sour... All together it was complex and delicious. I would definitely make this recipe again.

Having this dish turn out so well makes me look forward to trying out other recipes from the cookbook. This came from Simply Vegetarian! [yes, complete with exclamation point]. My copy is the revised edition from 1989 with Nancy Mair and Susan Rinzler.

Russian Salad

I was able to try out a new cookbook today:

Susan R. Friedland's Shabbat Shalom: Recipes and Menus for the Sabbath.

I actually bought this cookbook for my father last spring. And I suppose I still mean to send it to him, though I seem to have forgotten to pack it up and ship it to him prior to either Father's Day or his birthday. (Am I really that cookbook obsessed that I can't let one out of my grasp? Not even one purchased as a gift for someone? Hmmm...) Well, it'll make it out to him eventually. And in the meantime, I can make a recipe or two and let him know how they turn out. It'll be all part of his gift. I'm helping him decide which recipes are good.

Today I was dealing with a serious beet overstock situation. I was making a triple batch of borscht and needed a side dish. Happily, this salad was a snappy side for my soup and used-up even more beets.

Russian Salad

1 lb beets

2 lbs potatoes

1 cup cubed carrot

1 cup shelled peas, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp dry mustard

2 tsp white-wine vinegar

2 Tbls olive oil

1 cup minced scallion

2 medium cucumbers,  seeded and cubed

2 hard-boiled eggs

2 Tbls capers [I omitted these. Didn't have any.]

1/4 cup minced dill

My short-hand version of her directions:

First cook the beets (steam them in a covered dish in the oven until tender--about 50-90 mins). And you boil the potatoes until tender. Both beets & potatoes should then be cooled and then eventually skinned and cut into same-sized pieces.

Boil the carrot in salted water for 15 mins and add the peas for the last 15 seconds. Drain.

Mix the mayo, mustard, vinegar, olive oil, and scallion together to make the dressing.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish with the hard-boiled eggs and capers [if you have them] and dill.

Purple food is the best!

Very tasty. I'm not usually one to single the praises of cold potato anything, but adding the cucumber, peas, and beets to the potatoes gave this salad a sophistication far beyond anything its plain potato salad cousin can muster. I do believe I'll make this again.