Pasta Caprese

Looks like I never put this one up, probably because it's really easy and I kind of assume everyone knows how to make it. But it's great to do while tomatoes are in season so I'm putting it up anyway. Here goes:

5 large tomatoes,small dice (except I usually use 1-2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes--makes it sweeter)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (go ahead and break out the good stuff--adds to the flavor)
1 tsp or so balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (mandolin works pretty well--you can cheat with jarred garlic, makes the dish more mellow)
salt and black pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper (or chipotle powder for funsies)
1 lb penne or farfalle pasta
1/2 lb mozzarella, cut into small cubes
15 or so fresh basil leaves, torn or shredded (yes, you have to go fresh here)

1. In a large bowl (large enough for your finished dish) whisk together olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Add garlic and tomatoes (if you use cherry tomatoes, cut them all in half) and toss together.
2. Let that all marinate while you boil your pasta and cut your cheese and basil.
3. Drain pasta, add it to tomato mixture, and stir in the basil and cheese. The heat from the pasta will melt the cheese slightly. Check for salt and pepper and serve warm.

Not edible but kitchen-related

Hello! It has been about a thousand years since I have posted and we have had the some recipe for clam chowder up for at least a month so someone seriously needed to post something :) This post is not about edibles but rather about kitchen things that have some pretty awesome applications outside of the kitchen.

Over the last few years I have become increasingly fascinated with home-remedies for things with specific emphasis on non-toxic and cheap fixes. Having been a graduate student up until a couple of short weeks ago, the cheap factor has been really important to me. Through a lot of putzing around on the internet, experimentation, and more focused research I have found a few things that have just totally blown my mind so I thought I'd share.

Baking Soda:
1. So I am pretty sure everyone has heard a million different things about baking soda but there are a couple of  more obscure ones I want to personally attest to. I recently tried a tip about using baking soda to wash hair. Sounds really weird but it actually works. I don't know if anyone else has this problem but I occasionally get an itchy scalp. This is not a malady that is common enough to merit dandruff shampoo or anything like that but I have tried of a few different things to fix it. It is largely related to living without air conditioning (both at middle school and at home) and therefore having a constant (albeit low) level of sweat...ew. So I did some research about scalp exfoliants and they all sounded scary. I had visions of hair falling out in chunks after the follicle was scratched to pieces by sharp little pieces of sugar or walnut but then I read about some lady using baking soda. It sounded significantly less scary so I gave it a try and lo and behold! No mas itchy scalp. In fact, my scalp was immediately as clean as it would be if I were bald. Basically you just wet your hair, slap some baking soda on it, rub it in, work it around, and then rinse. Shampoo and condition as usual and enjoy a happy scalp! :)
2. Shoes. I work on my feet as a teacher and my dress shoes don't always involve socks. Shoes without socks inevitably smell. Solution? Chuck some baking soda in there and leave it in overnight. Shake it out in the morning and don't worry about the remaining power because it makes your feetsies not smell either. Go forth and enjoy dryer feet to boot :)
3. Brushing teeth. Duh. I recently started dipping my toothbrush and toothpaste in baking soda when I brush and my mouth is now quite happy. Good times. Happy gums.
4. Facial exfoliant. Yup. Baking soda actually works as a mild but effective facial exfoliant that actually also has some antibacterial properties. It makes your skin nicely soft too. You can use it anywhere else as well actually. It's kinda a miracle substance like that.

Vinegar:
1. Hair again. So this is much less obscure than the baking soda thing but is still pretty cool. Recently there have been cider vinegar shampoos and things coming out on the market and they are capitalizing on an extremely old remedy: the cider vinegar rinse. Cider vinegar, when properly diluted, gently strips away product buildup and other crap from your hair and also cleanses and sterilizes the scalp. Evidently one of the main causes of dandruff and general scalp itchiness is a buildup of yeast on the scalp. This happens especially when the hair isn't washed every day (long hair actually shouldn't be), during hot weather, and in humidity...so basically if you are me :) Combine two tablespoons cider vinegar with one cup of cold water and pour it over your hair at the end of your shower. Don't rinse it out. When your hair dries the smell will be completely gone. I have been doing this for over two weeks now and my hair is happy. The scalp benefits are really what I do it for though, it helps to prevent grossness. The thoughts behind using cider vinegar instead of white vinegar have something to do with its acidity. Some people laud using organic unfiltered cider vinegar because it has the "mother of vinegar" in it which has all kinds of happy bacteria in it. I am not so concerned with that.

So there you go. Weird home remedy personal hygiene tips from the littlest sib.
END

Clam Chowder

A slow cooker clam chowder recipe, slightly modified from this one, and annotated. 

Ingredients:
4 slices bacon
2 medium white onions
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup flour
3 6.5 ounce cans chopped clams
2.5 cups white wine for cooking
3 medium-large white potatoes
2 teaspoons instant chicken bouillon
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
3 cups half and half
1 cup cream

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks (half inch to one inch cubes).  Set aside.

2. Chop onions.  Cut bacon into 1/2 inch pieces.  Mince the garlic or squeeze it through a garlic press.  Open the cans of clams, drain clam juice into a measuring cup, set clams aside (refrigerate).

3. In a wok or large skillet fry the bacon until it greases the pan.  Add onion, sautee until onion is soft.  Add garlic, sautee until the garlic smells nice.

4. Reduce heat to medium or so and slowly stir in the flour.  Fry until everything is coated.

5. Pour in clam juice and wine.  Stir until everything is blended.

6. Pour all this into the slow cooker.  Add the potatoes, chicken bouillon, marjoram, celery seed, and pepper.  Stir.

7. Cook on low for 7 hours.

8. Add clams, half and half, and cream. 

9. Cook on high for another 30 minutes.

Most slow cooker clam chowder recipes I've seen call for cream of mushroom soup.  The Boston snob in me is shocked.  This tastes more like what we remember.  The wine especially adds a wonderful tang to the taste.  This went perfectly with oyster crackers (natch) and a crusty sourdough bread. 

Notes:  Of course fresh clams would probably taste better than canned;  in that case you'd want to buy bottled clam juice to use, and I unfortunately don't know how much because I forgot to notice how much juice was in 3 cans of clams.  Also, a fourth can of clams wouldn't go amiss.  As for the wine, the cooking wine we used had salt added;  if you're using a normal white wine (i.e., made for drinking) you'll want to add salt to the recipe to compensate.  Finally, next time we might try reducing the liquid to make the broth just a little thicker - but what to cut back on?  Clam juice?  Wine?  Half and half? 

Coconut gouda

Okay, okay, I'm not dead either. Just swamped with school. And unlike T, I haven't been cooking much lately. We've gotten to know our local takeout/delivery places even better in the last month or so than we did before - which is saying something.

But one good cheese recommendation deserves another. Especially since it doesn't look like we'll be able to get a hold of that Monocacy delicacy without heading East. But this one is widely distributed, it looks like: Kokos Coconut Cheese. It's actually a gouda, if you can wrap your head around that. Made in Holland and everything. If you're like me, you read that and went, huh?, but then immediately went, hmm...

It's awesome stuff. Has the heaviness, the thickness, the chewiness of a gouda, but instead of the creaminess coming from butter it comes from coconut. It's not an overpowering coconut taste, but it's unmistakeable, and it's perfectly balanced with the gouda-ness. Just a wonderfully weird but tasty cheese.

Dilled Veal Stew

Yeah, it's veal stew, but veal is expensive and mean so I used stewing pork instead. But either way it was really creamy and good and totally worth the effort.

First You Need:
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
1 Tbs paprika
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

mix all these together in a little bowl and set them aside.

Then You Need:
3 Tbs butter, divided
2 lbs stewing veal (by which I mean pork), cut into 1-inch cubes and patted dry
2 onions, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine (or more chicken broth)

Heat a big pan on medium and melt 2 Tbs butter. Cook the meat 3 or 4 minutes, then sprinkle your flour mixture over it. Stir it up and add to crockpot. Then use the pan to soften up the veggies for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring it to a boil, then add to crockpot.
Cook on high 4 or 5 hours or low for 8 to 10, until the meat is nice and tender.

Last You Need:
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill (or a generous sprinkling of dried)

Stir these in and serve. We ate it plain but I think it would be good with some rice or orzo to add some texture and starchy goodness. You could probably skip softening the veggies and just add them straight to the crockpot but I don't really know if you could do that with the meat-and-flour mixture. If anyone tries that let me know how it works.

After a long, long hiatus!

Hello! I am alive and still cooking :) Joanna knows this but my gmail stuff got all screwy and I lost access to the blog for a little while there. In addition to that I am crazy busy with school and tickling Veda as often as possible! This evening's discovery was too fantastic to procrastinate though so I am posting within 15 minutes of eating all of it....NEW CHEESE:

Cherry Glen Monocacy Chipotle Soft-Ripened Goat Milk Cheese

It's a local MD cheese made with "100% American Ingredients"

(Please see cheese above)

I love cheese. Cheese is a food group to me. It is a purpose for living. That being said, I have had a lot of cheese and really will eat almost any kind. I am pretty much an equal-opportunity cheese eater. This cheese however, is pretty darn remarkable for a few reasons. It's goat cheese and therefore has that familiar smokiness to it but in addition to that it has a nice chipotle heat that translates into a deeper smokiness. BUT there is a really surprising bleu quality to this cheese. Yes, it is stinky :) If you look at the picture you can see that there are two really distinct textures here: the familiar crumbliness of a goat cheese and the silky cream-texture of a brie. How awesome! The brie-like section has most of the stinkiness and has a nice oily-spreadable quality to it that yields to the creamy crumbly texture. Anyway, I am clearly waxing poetic on this cheese but it really is fan-freaking-tastic. Fellow Marylanders: go forth and eat. Westerners: find an analogue? Sigh... I don't know if you can.

German Pancakes

When I was young, one of my favorite breakfast items was something we called German pancakes. For the whole family, we used two glass pans full. In college, I mangled the recipe into something about equal parts eggs, milk, and flour, mixed in a blender until slightly thick. Then, after marrying a vegetarian and living for a few years without eggs in the house, I forgot about them.

A cookbook recently given to one of our children has a recipe for something it calls a Dutch baby pancake with buttery apples. I'm in charge of breakfast, and generally make some kind of pancakes or waffles every Saturday, so I decided one day that it sounded like fun. As the batter came together, I suddenly recognized what I was doing, and got very excited.

Sadly, the rest of my family fails to properly appreciate sautéed fruit, it's quite a bit of work, so I've left it out since that first time. Jams or jellies work just as well as a topping. I also enjoy honey or agave nectar.

• 1-2 Tbsp. butter
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Drop butter into a 13"×9" glass pan and place into oven. Preheat at 375°F.

In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, oil, and milk. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.

When the oven is hot, remove pan, swish the butter around to coat the bottom, and pour the batter in. Bake at 425°F for 10 minutes, then at 350°F for ≈8 more minutes, until golden brown and puffy.

Slice into 6-8 pieces. Serve hot.