Menu for One

Alton Brown's Purple Smoothie (part of this complete breakfast!)

 Last week, the food blogging scene was abuzz with the success of the first annual food blogging camp  at Club Med Ixtapa.  Attendees benefitted from small workshops with food writers, food stylists, photographers, and chefs, including Michael Ruhlman, Matt Armendariz, and David Lebovitz.  While I did not go (err...as you can see by the quality of the lead photo to this post - I need to do a better job rinsing that glass!), I wished that I had, envying their chance to slowly sip tropical drinks adorned with little umbrellas while listening to the soft lapping of ocean waves on the beach.  Sigh.

Alas, lately I have been spending my days in a window-less room reviewing documents to be shared in a class action lawsuit, so I have to get my kicks where I can.  I cannot bring the beach to me, but I can put a fruity drink in my hand.  I swapped the little umbrella for an awesome curly straw (courtesy of my friends Tim and Ben, who decided that when it came time for me to celebrate passing the bar exam, regular drinks and regular straws just would not do.  Thanks, guys.) and left out the hard stuff (to keep this drink weekday morning-friendly), although you could certainly add whatever you like. 

Taking a page out of Eugenia Bone's book, I have portioned this smoothie recipe into single servings so this fruity concoction can be enjoyed on a moment's notice (especially early in the day when I might be less inclined to mix and measure, as easy as it may be).  It should be noted that this recipe, as much as any smoothie is a recipe, comes courtesy of Alton Brown, although I have adapted slightly. 

Into freezer-safe containers, combine 2 ounces (by weight) each of frozen strawberries, blueberries, and peaches.  Mango might be a nice substitute, but for the sake of convenience, I might shy away from the seedier fruits, such as raspberries and blackberries.  Next, add 2 ounces (by weight) of banana (roughly half of a banana) broken into bite-sized pieces (your blender will thank you).  Then add 2 ounces (by weight) of any purple fruit juice.  Try acai juice, which comes from the fruit of a species of palm tree (every time it's mentioned, all I can hear is Will Ferrell from Zoolander saying "It's so hot right now."), trendy pomegranate juice, or the old-reliable grape juice (which is what I used because it's waaaay cheaper than the other two). 

Seal and save in the freezer until you're in need of a 10 minute tropical getaway.  I let a bag partially defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then blend it (slowly at first to help grind up the big chunks of fruit, then at a higher speed for 30-60 seconds), adding milk (or soy milk for protein, but milk is cheaper, and I'm all about cheap right now) until the smoothie reaches my desired consistency.

Speaking of cheap...this smoothie is cheap!

CHEAP EATS: Making your own freezer-ready smoothie mix will save you money right off the bat - it's cheaper than the frozen bags of smoothie mixes you can buy at the store, and certainly much less expensive (and arguably better for you) than anything you could buy at a national smoothie chain.  I recommend buying pre-frozen fruit (with the exception of bananas) over buying fresh fruit and freezing it yourself.  Frozen fruit is already picked at its peak and frozen immediately, so sometimes the quality can be even better than berries you might find in your produce section, say, in the dead of winter.

But get this!  The first time I made this, I went to my local Publix to pick up bags of frozen fruit at $3.99 a pop.  But while I was strolling up and down the isles of Whole Foods (isn't that just so relaxing?), I discovered that their frozen fruit was - wait for it - nearly $2.00 cheaper per bag!  Who saw that coming?  I did not.  All in all, this drink is about $1.60 per serving!  So get yourself some fruit and pull out your blender!  You need a $1.60 vacation!

French Onion Soup

 

It has been freezing here, in a technical sense.  Yes, yes, I know it's probably been colder wherever you happen to be sitting, but for Atlanta, it has been unseasonably cold.  That's why I was thankful to have this french onion soup ready for me in my freezer.  

Everyone needs an emergency recipe like this in their back pocket.  It comes from a great cookbook I got for Christmas, Eugenia Bone's Well-Preserved.  She shows country folk and city folk alike how to can (aka put up or preserve) fruits, vegetables, or meats in small quantities, AND THEN shows you what to do with them when you open them up later, other than just eating them out of the jar.  The greatest part of the book is that, for a great many of the recipes, you don't need any special equipment.  This french onion soup is one of those beauties.  All you need is a large pot and some freezer bags/containers.

As with each of the recipes in the book, this recipe is made in two stages.  You start first by making Stewed Onions with Marjoram, to be divided into 2-pint portions and stored in your freezer.  Whenever you're craving something warm and seriously delicious, you just grab a pack out of your freezer and reheat it with some chicken stock.  Voila!

Over medium-low, heat 6 tablespoons in your largest pot (I learned this the hard way - you'll need plenty of room for the onions).  In the meantime, thinly slice 24 medium yellow onions.  If you have a food processor, this is a moment where your slicer disk can really shine.  It will save you a lot of time and tears.  Add the onions to the pot and let them hang out for 30 minutes or so, stirring every few minutes.  [If you're concerned after adding the onions that there won't be room for any other ingredients, don't worry - their volume will decrease significantly.]  Next, add two quarts of low-sodium beef stock and 3 tablespoons of dried marjoram.  I recommend low-sodium because it gives you a little more control over the saltiness of your food.  It's much easier to add a little bit more than to take any out.  Let this all hang out on the stove for an hour and fifteen minutes.  The onions will be soft and stewy.

When the mixture has cooled, I used tongs to transfer the onions to 6 freezer-safe plastic bags, then ladled in the broth.  End of STAGE ONE.

 

STAGE TWO: When you're ready to enjoy the soup, grab a bag from the freezer.  Defrosting it overnight would probably be best, but I just cut the bag open and reheated it over a low flame with a quart of chicken stock.  When I could see steam start to rise from the surface of the soup, I ladled it into two ramekins, topped it with some thick-sliced bread, and sprinkled it with shredded parmesan cheese.  After 5-10 minutes in a 400F oven, the bread had soaked up some of the soup and the cheese had formed a delicious golden-brown crust.  I'm happy to report that STAGE TWO took all of fifteen minutes to prepare, maybe less.  One portion from the freezer comfortably feeds two.  Enjoy!

 

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

There were times during college where money was tight, usually at the end of the semester.  And even though I had a meal plan at the school dining hall, by the end of the year, I couldn't bear the thought of eating another cafeteria meal.  

What to do?  I had a microwave, and sometimes had access to a hot plate and a two-quart pot.  I didn't have a car, and there wasn't a grocery store within walking distance, but there was a CVS nearby.  I created all sorts of odd meals with convenience items, notably a breakfast burrito made with scrambled eggs, packaged deli ham, cheese, and jarred salsa wrapped in a tortilla.  But the uniting characteristic of most of these drug store purchases (other than the fact they were cheap) was that they were ORANGE.  And although I still have a fondness for orange food, such as orange juice and goldfish, orange food always reminds me of those low-budget, make-shift dinners. 

That's why when I read Mark Bittman's recipe in the New York Times for a roasted sweet potato salad a few weeks ago, I decided to revisit orange food again to see if it could really be good eats.  The sweet, orange sweet potatoes are combined with black beans, crunchy red onion, bright red bell pepper, and flecked with green cilantro.  A light lime-jalepeno vinaigrette ties all the elements together.  As an added bonus, it's a warm salad, perfect on an autumn day like today.

Here's the recipe and a short Mark Bittman video showing how to make this absolutely delicious meal that doesn't require a lot of hands-on cooking time.  It can easily be cut in half for a menu for one, but honestly, I don't think you would mind making and eating the whole recipe over a couple of days.  It would make a great side dish next to spicy, roasted pork tenderloin or steak, but I can testify it's great on its own.  It's got a little zip to it from the lime and jalapeno, but if you'd like it a little spicier, I'd double the jalapeno or pick a smaller, spicier pepper.  [note: if you taste the vinaigrette before you add it to the sweet potatoes it will be very tart and spicy.  Don't be alarmed, it'll all mellow out].  Enjoy!

Blackberry Limeade (porch swing not included)

I am frequently asked how I came to live in Georgia and whether I have grown accustomed to living in the South.  Truth be told, it wasn't much of an adjustment moving to the land of collard greens and fried chicken.  The South is often characterized by its people (warm and friendly...Atlanta drivers might want to take a refresher course), its weather (sunny and hot hot hot), and its food (good home cookin', usually a little on the heavy side, but nevertheless a key ingredient of the hospitality for which Southerners are known).

Aside from the weather, my small hometown in New Hampshire was not much different.  It, too, was filled with very friendly people, who were just as soon to smile when you pass them on the sidewalk.  

I once chatted with a professor at a small college in New England who was writing an article on what he termed "small town civility."  Although friendliness or good manners, or whatever you want to call it, can exist anywhere, the dynamics of living in a small town forces residents to exhibit more neighborly behavior than people living in larger, more urban environments.  For example, here in Atlanta, I can go to the same grocery store a dozen times and never run into anyone I know.  The anonymity that comes from living in an urban environment gives city folk the freedom to act however they like in public because they probably won't see the people in any particular place again.  But the professor theorized that in a small town, you have to be civil with everyone who crosses your path.  You can't chew someone out for cutting you off in traffic or ignore them at the post office because she's your banker or he's the only plumber in town.  You're probably going to need their help at one point or another.

But I digress.  I venture that, no matter whether you're a city girl or country boy, you can appreciate a porch swing or an adirondack chair and a tall glass filled with something cool and refreshing.  If you've been meaning to dust the pollen off your adirondack chair, or want to take a 10 minute mental vacation to pretend you have a house with a porch and a swing, I suggest you whip up some of this:

BLACKBERRY LIMEADE: AMETHYST ELIXER
Adapted from a recipe by Martha Hall Foose, found in Screen Doors and Sweet Tea

4 cups fresh blackberries, or unsweetened frozen blackberries, thawed
1 cup sugar
The peal from half of a lime
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (roughly 8 limes)
2 cups of club soda, or tonic water

Place the berries in a food processor and pulse until the berries have emitted their dark juice.  Be careful not to pulverize the seeds, for they are not invited to be in the drink, and it's easier to keep them out when they're somewhat whole.  Using the back of a plastic spoon, press the juice and what remains of the berries through a fine mesh sieve to separate the juice from the seeds.  Mix the blackberry juice with the lime juice.

Next, in a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and lime zest.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes to form a simple syrup.  Remove the peel, and allow the syrup to cool to room temperature.  Slowly add 3/4 of the syrup to the blackberry/lime juice and taste, and then add the remainder of the mixture to your taste.  Keep in mind that the mixture will be diluted by the club soda.

Fill a tall glass with ice.  Fill 1/3 of the way with the blackberry limeade and the rest of the way with club soda or tonic water (some gin might also be a great addition to the party).  Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

10 Minutes to Deliciousness: Angel Food Cake with Strawberries

Check out what I just made!

Ok, so this recipe is so easy, it's not really a recipe.  It's also not really a menu for one, per se, unless you want it to be...  Nevertheless, I thought you might like it.  It's a perfect way to enjoy summertime fruits.

10 Minutes to Deliciousness in three easy parts:

Step 1: Buy angel food cake and cut in half horizontally, quickly making a two-layer cake.

Step 2: Slice Strawberries, or fruit of your choice (if you play your cards right, using raspberries or blueberries, for example, there's no slicing required, so skip Step 2 and advance to Step 3).  You can also add chopped nuts, or crushed cookies, if you like.

Step 3: In cold, metal bowl (I put mine in the freezer for 10 minutes beforehand), whip 1 pint of heavy whipping cream with a small splash of powdered sugar + flavor addition of your choice.  I used almond extract this time.  When my mom made this cake for my birthday last weekend, she added a dollop of mascarpone cheese (yum!) and a splash of kirsch (double yum!).  When soft peaks form, frost the cake, and stick fruit to it all over.  

TIME!  Was that less than 10 minutes?  Amazing!  Sweet victory is yours!  Enjoy!

Spinach Frittata

As I see it, there are two avenues of success, if you will, in this cooking for one business: improvisation and/or careful planning.  I gave improvisation a shot in my last soup post.  As we all know, practice makes perfect, so here I go again.  Breakfast.  I figured if I got some proportions down (appealing to the side of me that loves to plan), it would facilitate my efforts in improvisation.  So, Kathryn-the-Planner pulled out a whole bunch of cookbooks to gather as many different frittata recipes as she could find, in hopes that she could determine the egg to filler ratio.  Well, low and behold, Mark Bittman already did the work for me: 1-2 cups of filling for every 4-5 eggs (See How to Make Everything).  

In a small, oven-safe omelet pan cook most of the way through (or reheat, if you're working with leftovers) the frittata fillings.  Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, salt and pepper, and a handful of grated cheese.  Lower the heat to medium-low and add the egg mixture.  Let it hang out until the bottom starts to firm up, then transfer the omelet pan to a 350F oven to finish cooking in there (roughly 10 minutes, but check frequently).

In this version, I think I added spinach, onions, and parmesan cheese.  Since the onions take a little longer to cook than spinach, I started cooking them first. When they were nearly soft, I added some frozen spinach I had defrosted and squeezed dry.  As Bittman instructed, I added the egg/cheese mixture, let it set up a little bit in the pan and then transferred to the oven.  Here's where I went wrong: I let it cook too long in the oven.  Still edible, but not a masterpiece.  So be careful!  Check often! 

As you can see, I ate it with fruit and a glass of milk.  Looking at it now, if only I had added a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice in the photo, you would hear a voiceover at the end of this post saying, "Part of this complete breakfast," just like they did during the commercial breaks of Saturday morning cartoons.

Hoagies with Drunken Sausages and Peppers

Three cheers for the beginning of grilling season!  And baseball season!  Truth be told, I don't really follow the Braves, or any team for that matter, but I do enjoy going to a couple games every season.  I get wrapped up in the excitement.  Aside from the game itself, I love hearing the organ (or its electronic equivalent :( ), doing the wave, watching the post-game fireworks, and of course, enjoying a hot dog and a beer!

I haven't made it to a game yet this season, but I did decide to bring ballpark food to my neck of the woods, in the form of drunken sausage with delicious (and mighty attractive, I might add) multi-colored peppers.  The fact that this recipe is cheap and easy to make made the meal taste that much better.

This recipe is taken from Dave Lieberman's Young and Hungry, a great cookbook full of low-budget meals that don't look or taste low-budget.

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Start out by setting a non-stick, oven-safe pan over medium-high heat.  Brown a pound of italian sausage (5-6 links) for approximately 10 minutes, turning every few minutes so that the sausage browns on all sides.  (The sausage will curl a little bit in this process making it difficult to brown on all sides...don't freak out, it's not a big deal).  During this process, poke the sausages a few times with fork to let some of the juices out.  When the ten minutes are up, use tongs to move the sausages to a plate.

Thinly slice three peppers (any color combo you want) and three cloves of minced garlic and add them to the pan.  Let them hang out in there for about 8 minutes or until just begin to wilt, stirring occasionally.  Return the sausage to the pan, nestling the links among the garlic and peppers.

Here comes the fun part!  Open a can of beer.  Any beer, your choice (I've been using light-colored beer).  Taking the pan off heat, add about 1/2 cup, and return the pan to the heat source.  When the beer starts to bubble, transfer the pan to the oven.  Wait 25-30 minutes and dinner is served!  I place a link in a hoagie roll (a little sturdier than a standard hotdog bun, although those will work, too), load on some peppers, and spoon on a little of that beer juice (beer jus?).

Now, for those of us cooking for one, here is what I recommend that you do next.  Pull out your aluminum foil.  I slice up the sausage links into rounds and lay then on a 12 x 12 (ish) square of foil (1-2 links per square).  Add some of the peppers and beer jus, and wrap up, crimping up the sides to ensure a good seal.  Label and place in the freezer.  Then, next time you need a quick dinner, grab a packet from your freezer and heat at 400F for 10-15 minutes.  I don't own a toaster oven, but I think using one would be a great choice here.

So grab a beer and enjoy!

Spinach, Tomato, and White Bean Soup

Do you ever have those nights when you look through the kitchen and say to yourself, "there is NOTHING to  eat?"  I uttered those words earlier this week, seconds before I grabbed my phone to order takeout.  Then I stopped myself.  Am I not the same girl who blogged about the benefits of a well-stocked pantry?  The same girl who said maybe, just maybe, in order to make this cooking for one thing work, that I'd have to try taking the recipe-training wheels off and just try cooking without a script?

Seizing the spirit of adventure, I opened my kitchen cabinets.  I decided soup might be a good place to start.  I know I love soup, and maybe it's not everyone's favorite, but I figured that it would be easy to mess with proportions and to add a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  I grabbed everything I thought might be good in a soup and laid it on the counter.  I grouped these ingredients into categories:

BASE: water and/or chicken stock

VEGETABLES: frozen spinach, canned tomatoes, great northern beans, carrots, onions

FILLERS: barley, egg noodles, small pasta

FINISHERS: parmesan cheese rinds

Remembering that most recipes start by sweating some version of the mire poix (carrots, onions, and celery), I took what aromatics I had (about a two-handed scoopful of chopped carrots and onions) and let them cook slowly in a heavy-bottomed pot, seasoning them with salt and pepper.  When they started to get soft (and to smell really good), I added half of a can of great northern beans (drained), half of a 14oz can of chopped tomatoes (not drained), and half of a defrosted 10 oz package of frozen spinach that I had squeezed dry.  After giving everything a quick stir, I let these ingredients warm up a little bit.  

Remember when I made chicken stock?  It was at this point that I pulled out the bag of chicken stock I had frozen in the muffin tin molds, and added about four to the soup.  You could probably defrost them before adding them to the pot, but I just through them in frozen - I'm not sure it made much of a difference.  After they had melted, I added water to the pot until I liked the consistency, and voila!  Dinner was served!

[In the end, I decided not to add any fillers, such as pasta or barley...the choice is yours.  If you do add them, add them at the end, and just simmer the soup until the pasta is cooked through].

In this instance, I also added a couple of rinds of parmesan cheese I had stashed in my freezer last month.  I let them hang out in the soup from about the time I added the stock and the water until I was ready to serve.  "Waste Not Want Not" strikes again.

The verdict?  Not likely to be featured in next month's Gourmet, but it was a simple dinner that I'd make again.  But more than anything, this very small success gave me a little confidence boost to try cooking off-script again.  And if I can do it, believe me, you can do it, too.  Bon appetit!

OH.  And wondering what to do with the rest of the beans, tomatoes, and spinach?  I was, too.  So I mixed them  up, stored them in a tupperware container and stashed it in the freezer.  I can pull it out the next time I make soup, but I'm sure that I can add it to whatever I serve next with rice, pasta, or tomato sauce.  Imagination at work.

UPDATE: I've recently started listening to a wonderful public radio broadcast called The Splendid Table (www.splendidtable.org) hosted by Lynne Rossettto Kasper, who is just a wealth of information on all things food.  In a recent episode, she discussed the three methods of Basic Soup Improvisation (a summary is printed on her website).  I encourage you to take a look - it will help give you the confidence you need to cook without a script!

Chicken Stock

I think I've mentioned it before, but one of the kitchen ingredients I use the most is chicken stock.  Remember 10 years ago when all those Chicken Soup for the Soul books came out?  I never dreamed that beyond Chicken Soup for the Soul and A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul there would be Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul, Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul, or A Fifth Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul (no joke).  But these publishers were onto something.  Indeed, there is something powerful about chicken soup.

I studied music in college, among other things.  One of the most difficult assignments I ever had came from my music theory professor.  He gave each student a different Chopin mazurka (polish folk dance with lots of flourishes), and each was relatively unknown.  Our job was to see beyond the flourishes and reduce the piece down to its essence in three stages, until there was only one note remaining per phrase.  The intention was that we would come to appreciate the structure of Chopin's composition as we studied it and took it apart.  

In the same way, if we take it apart a bowl of chicken soup, looking past the flourishes of egg noodles, carrots, celery - even the pieces of chicken, the soup's true healing powers lies (lays?  argh, I can never remember which!) in the chicken broth.  This is what brings us together today.

There are many out there who will tell you that if you can't use homemade stock, use shouldn't use stock at all.  I am not one of those people.  However, there is a BIG difference in quality, and once you make it for yourself, you will want to make it again and again.

Pros to making your own chicken stock: CHEAP-ola.  It's made from leftovers and scraps that might not be enough to eat on their own, a veritable illustration of the Waste Not Want Not philosophy (always a good idea, but especially so in times like these).  It makes your house smell good, and it can be used in almost everything.  Did I mention it's fool proof and requires no technique whatsoever?

Cons: it takes time - but that's ok, isn't it?  Plus, it's almost entirely inactive time on your part. So basically, there are no cons to making your own stock.

There are a million ways to make stock, and while some are better than others, I don't think there's really a wrong way.  Here's mine.

As you can see on this table, in addition to the items on the list, I have *stock bag* - a brilliant new tip I just picked up from Smitten Kitchen.  I just stash peelings and veggie stubs in a bag in the freezer and empty the whole bag into the stockpot whenever I made a new batch of chicken stock.

So here goes.  Step 1: dump all the ingredients into a large stockpot.  Cover with with cold water.  Step 2: Simmer for 3 hours.  (Modification: the directions above say bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.  I recommend just simmering to avoid cloudy - but nevertheless delicious - stock that results when it is boiled too long).  I make stock on the stovetop, but I have been toying with the idea of making it in the oven next time where a steady temperature is easier to maintain.

It'll look ugly for awhile, but don't mess with it for three (3) hours  Then drain the stock into a large container, and spoon off the layer of fat.  Alternatively, after draining, just wait for the liquid to cool, and the fat will turn into an easy to remove solid.  (sounds delightful, I know).

Either put it to use right away, or store it for another day.  It will keep about a week in the refrigerator, or several months in the freezer.  My mother pours her stock into muffin tins and ice cube trays, then puts the frozen cubes into a large ziplock bag in the freezer.  I highly recommend this method for those of us cooking for one!  Sometimes you need less than a quart of stock, and this muffin tin method allows for you to pull out just what you need, in pre-measured amounts.  Just thaw in the refrigerator or microwave and you're ready to go.  In my mom's case, she'll pull out a cube or two when she wants to thin out a sauce or gravy, deglaze a pan, or add flavor to cooking rice or greens.

What else can you do with homemade chicken stock?  Well that, my friends, is fodder for another post.  Coming soon...

Oven-baked French Fries (or Kathryn gets schooled)

A bounty of sweet potatoes sat in a basket in my kitchen last week.  In an effort to make good use of them, and to satisfy a late night craving, I decided to transform them into fries.  I chopped them up, tossed in a little olive oil, and hit them with a dash of salt and pepper.  I spread them out evenly on a baking sheet, and put them in a 425 degree oven for, oh, I don't know how many minutes.  Lots of them.  20 minutes: not ready.  25: soft on the inside, but not crispy.  Long story short, they never got to the crispy stage.

My roommate's verdict: they tasted like great roasted sweet potatoes, but they weren't fries.  She was right.  Later, she schooled me, and made sure it was fully documented so I could set the record straight here :)  (As you'll see below, she used regular potatoes, which I still contend played a large part in her success).

To have success with oven-baked fries, one key technique is cutting THIN fries (my first error).  

As you can see here, my roommate's fries are about a 1/4 inch wide.  She also brushed them with a lot of olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt (nice touch) and baked them at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.  

Et voila!  CRISPY fries.  Lesson learned.  They were just what I needed that night.  Unfortunately, they were not enough to console me when Syracuse lost to Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen.  Better luck next year.