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Winter Cooking
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Why wait for holidays or special occasions to make a special dinner?
Just pick a Tuesday evening, clear your sewing project off the kitchen table, and call up a few friends.
These are some of my favorite things to eat--they're all easy to put together, too. The recipes are all pretty elastic. If you don't like onions, leave them out; try rice if you don't like barley, or don't have any handy; skip the bourbon if you don't drink. Everything bakes at 350º, so you can have it all going at once. (It does help to have another person interested in chopping.) Start the soup first and have some tea, then put in the vegetables and stuffing. When you're ready to eat, put the pie in the oven. Don't forget to make someone else do the dishes before they leave!
Ginger Tea
Peel a piece of ginger root about an inch square. Chop it up finely and simmer it in 3 cups of water for about 10 minutes, then strain it through a colander and pour into cups with honey to taste. Usually the chopped ginger is pungent enough to make a second batch later, too. This tea warms your whole body up.
Lovely Red Vegetable Soup
8 cups vegetable stock
1 cup raw barley
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 large can (28 oz.) Italian tomatoes, with liquid (or
4 - 5 Roma tomatoes, peeled plus 1 cup water), chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large or 4 - 5 small fresh beets, peeled and chopped
1 can corn, drained
2 zucchini or yellow squash, chopped
oregano, basil (fresh if possible) and black pepper to
taste
up to 8 cups of water (to add as the broth thickens)
Bring the stock to a boil in a large soup pot and add the barley. Reduce heat to a lively simmer and cover.
Let it cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, while you chop the vegetables. Sauté the onion in the olive oil until it's translucent. Add it to the soup, along with the carrots, tomatoes, garlic, and beets. Stir occasionally for the next 20 minutes. Then add the corn, zucchini, and herbs. Keep it simmering for 15 or 20 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until the barley is soft and the vegetables are done nicely. You may want to add more water, a cup at a time, as the soup thickens. This keeps beautifully and it's great the second day, although it will continue to thicken. Just keep adding a little water.
Roasted Vegetables - these should all be in nice big chunks about an inch square or so.
4 carrots
2 sweet potatoes
1 butternut squash, peeled and without seeds
1 red onion
whole garlic cloves
rosemary and black pepper
3 Tbsp. olive oil
Put all of the vegetables in a plastic Ziploc or grocery bag with the olive oil, pepper, and rosemary. Shake the bag to coat the vegetables evenly and place them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes or so, stirring them up every 10 minutes so they cook evenly.
My Favorite Stuffing
- twice a year is just not enough!
1 12-oz. package cornbread stuffing, or 5 cups
crumbled cornbread
4 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 onion, chopped
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup sausage (I use pretend sausage; there are several good vegetarian brands around)
sage and black pepper to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup melted butter
1 - 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water (enough to make
the cornbread mixture uniformly wet; how much depends
on if you like stuffing moist or crisp)
Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl, then pour into a 9 x 13" pan. Pour the butter and broth over it and stir it with a large spoon or spatula until all of the mixture is wet. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 30 minutes, and then bake uncovered for another 10 or until the top is crisp.
Chocolate Chip Bourbon Pecan Pie
3 eggs
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup pecans
half a package of chocolate chips (6 oz.)
a decent-sized shot of bourbon (the alcohol will cook away, leaving the flavor)
pie crust
Beat the eggs in a bowl, and then add the sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla. When that's mixed up, add the pecans and chocolate chips, and then the bourbon. Pour it into the pie crust and cover the crust edges with foil so they don't burn. Bake at 350º for 45-50 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.
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