Goat Cheese Lasagna and Apple Pie

These crisp fall like days are calling for comfort food and autumnal dishes.  Now that Storkbite is staying up later and later, it’s hard to muster the energy to be creative and well fed.  I decided to “take the day off” yesterday and stay home to knit and make apple pie.  Storkbite’s Grandma came last month with a load of apples from the organic farm in Indiana and I still had apples in cold storage that needed to be processed.  Is it a Midwestern thing to melt cheddar cheese over a slice of warm apple pie?  If you haven’t tried it, you should do so.

Goat Cheese Lasagna

I was uncertain how this would turn out; however, I must say that I knocked it out of the park.  Not only was it easy and created in shifts, it was comforting on a chilly evening.

I used Barilla flat lasagna noodles.  Layered lasagna noodles with bechamel (1/4 cup butter melted with 1/4 cup flour, add 2 1/4 cups milk and bring to a boil, simmer until thickened), cooked ground turkey, sauteed yellow and red peppers and goat cheese.  There was no particular order to the layering, it was kind of a mess actually.  Once the dish was full, I added the remaining bechamel and some shredded parmesan cheese.  I baked it for about 20 minutes until golden brown at 375.  It was so warm, melted and delicious. I’m having left-overs for lunch now!

Apple Pie

Lattice top apple pie is a fall treat. This one got souped up with dried bing cherries, golden raisins and pecans.  Simply make a pie crust (look below if you actually want to do that!) and then add your mixture of cored quartered apples, raisins, cherries and nuts together with 2 tbs. of flour, 1 tsp of cinnamon and the juice of 1 lemon.  Turn it all together and fill your pie shell.  Weave a pretty lattice, paint it with butter, dust it with sugar and bake it for about an hour at 350 until golden brown.

Serve to husband / boyfriend / partner in the evening a la mode for unexpected results.

Pie Dough

This is the secret family recipe:

1. 2 cups flour
2. 2/3 c. frozen lard
3. Pinch of salt
4. 6 - 10 tbs of ice water

Combine flour and lard in a large bowl with forks or a pastry cutter until it forms pea size bits.  Add salt.  Add ice water a bit at a time and combine until it forms a ball.  This takes time and you must be careful not to over do it or it becomes tough.  Be gentle and go slow.  Lots of love makes a better pie crust.  Don’t even try to substitute butter or shortening.  It’s not the family recipe if you don’t use lard.

Duck and Italian Sausage

Storkbite’s Papa and I got into an argument one night when we were at the park entertaining Storkbite.  He just couldn’t wait for me to make lentils and churn out some quasi-Indian food.  He stomped his feet all the way home, past all the grocery stores and restaurants that we could have ducked into and gotten prepared food.  I was determined to EAT at home that night and not let all my vegetables go to waste.  I came up with a delicious sausage dish.  On a day that I was more prepared, Storkbite and I found our self hanging out at the butcher sample cured meats, so bought our self my favorite - duck breast!  That was a splurge and well worth the investment because I whacked it in half and saved the other breast in the freezer for another day.

Sausage over Zucchini and Pappardelle

In the case I had a container of my very own homemade basic sauce and nice pappardelle noodles which are big and fat.  I just started up my grill pan and layered on the zucchini and sausage.  Once the noodles were done I put it all together - the layer of defrosted sauce, grilled zucchini strips, and the grilled sausage.  Mozzarella chunks over the top that got nice and melted really topped it off with some delicious richness.  This was completed in as long as it took to boil water and make pasta which translates to as long as it took Papa to give Storkbite a bath.  Once she was all cleaned up she sat at the table and enjoyed heaping spoonfuls to Mama’s basic sauce.

Duck, Duck, Goose

Wow, duck is my favorite and it’s so easy!  You get the breast and slice the fat side so it lays flat when you are searing it and give it a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Simply put it in a really hot cast iron pan on the stove top. I like my Le Creuset red fryer.  Put it on the pan and leave it alone.  After it’s good and ready, flip it over.  Don’t over cook it because it’s good when it’s still bleeding.

On the side were some green beans almandine and buttered noodles.  Very simple and delicious - just saute your green beans with almonds, olive oil, salt and pepper.  With a nice glass of wine it was a great dinner.  Unfortunately I sent Papa out for the wine last minute and he brought back a very unsatisfactory bottle.  I guess I will have to remember to get totally prepared the next time.

Fried Chicken and Polenta

Some nights are healthier than others at Storkbite’s house.  Papa has been working hard lately, so I decided to reward him with the best fried chicken I could make.  Because he loves it so much he even got involved in the production process so everybody won.  Polenta night means that our coffers are empty, I’m out of ideas and there isn’t any time for preparation.  Here is what we came up with.

Fried Chicken and Biscuits

Even though fried food is totally unhealthy, I did my best to select free-range anti-biotic free bird for the project.  It all got washed, dried, dredged in flour, then in buttermilk, then in panko bread crumbs souped up with Old Bay and salt.  Into the hot hot hot oil the little birds went.  We ended up with best fried chicken I’ve ever made.

The biscuit recipe came from the Joy of Cooking with two amendments: instead of shortening I use LARD (you know it, manteca, ummmm), and instead of milk I used buttermilk.   Lard is one of those guilty pleasures, it really does make a pie crust and a biscuit more crumbly, and if you don’t eat it every day you might live until your 65.  I’m willing to take the risk and I’m going to feed it to my baby too.   You will be pleased to know that the thought crossed our mind to fry the chicken in lard, but we did exercise some self-restraint.  I served roasted potato chips on the side.

Polenta, Chard and Yellow Tomatoes

Sometimes I run out of ideas and processing all the vegetables the CSA is bringing on becomes and arduous task.  In this case I baked up some polenta rounds and sauteed chard and yellow tomatoes in olive oil and garlic.  Once the vegetables were tender enough to consume, I layered it on top of the polenta rounds.  With a little cubed fresh mozzarella and a dusting of parmesan cheese it turned out to be an excellent and quick dinner and lunch the day after.  For not having a plan it turned out to be a very rewarding and visually appealing treat.

Copious Amonts of Zucchini

It’s a bumper crop for zucchini this year - at least from our CSA.   I’m almost running out of ideas on how to process it.  Storkbite is consuming her fair share, it was her first “real” food after all.  I’m not sick of it yet, but it’s getting real hard to be creative.  There has been an overload of eggplant as well.  I’m doing better with it than last year, the last one is going into a baba ganouge today.  I don’t think we will see the end of it though now tomatos are abundant.  My new breakfast is toast, grilled tomato and a friend egg.  Here are a few highlights from the past few days:

Eggplant Rollatini

This was a really easy dish that was prepped over the course of a few days.  One thing I’m learning is take time to prep when you can get it. Storkbite doesn’t allow me time to actually enjoy what I’m doing in the kitchen now that she slithers.  On the day I got seven eggplants, I sliced them all the long way and grilled them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.  When they cooled, I neatly piled them into a plastic container and stashed them in the refrigerator.  A few days later (not sure how many) I pulled out my eggplant and made the rollatini.

Simply use a small container of ricotta cheese, mix in an egg, salt, pepper and chopped parsly. Combine it in a mixing bowl and set aside.  Add a ladle full of some sauce (in this case my very own Basic Sauce) to the bottom of your olive oiled baking dish and begin to roll your eggplant.  It doesn’t have to be pretty and sometimes it’s easier to put two eggplant peices together laid flat.  Add a dollop of cheese and roll.  Once you have all your rollatini in the dish, cover it them with sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.  This was a Papa pleaser - he loves cheesy baked goodness and it’s a great way to use up your eggplants.

Salmon Loaf

I have no idea what to call this except “Salmon Loaf” which sounds horrible because it was so delicious!  I realized that I had nice grilled salmon left over from the onigiri which was just sitting in the refrigerator calling my name.  Storkbite’s Papa was so taken with this that he wants it worked into our regular menu.  It was very easy so that is fine with me.  The filling consists of chopped grilled salmon, chopped scallions, chives, black sesame seeds and a dash of sesame oil to combine it.  Then I wrapped the filling in sheets of puffed pastry dough available in the freezer section of any super market.  Once it was nicely rolled up I put slits on the top to let the steam out, brushed them with a little oil and sprinkled with black sesame seeds.  I baked these at 425 (as indicated on the dough package) for 30 minutes until golden brown and puffy.  I served by slicing these through the pre-sliced slits which helps to keep the pretty puff pastry in tact.  With a simple salad these were a huge hit, and made great room-temp leftovers for lunch.

Mini Burgers

One of my favorite things is a mini burger. It satisfies my itch for a burger and doesn’t weigh me down after eating 1 lb. of beef.  I like to buy mini dinner rolls at the bakery and make them at home.  In this case I used ground turkey, doctered it up with an egg, salt, pepper, chopped scallions and diced green peppers which I combined in a mixing bowl.  I grilled zucchini chips for toppings and cut up tomatos.  Once I formed my mini burgers into balls, I grilled them on my trusty grill pan.

These got assembled on a toasted bun with olive oil mayo, grilled zuccs, cheddar cheese and fresh tomatos.  They knocked my socks off and were probably on the healthier side of things too.

Watermelon and Chowder

The CSA vegetables this summer are getting really darn fresh.  We have gotten the best watermelon - way better than the kind you get down at the Key Food.  Storkbite’s Papa doesn’t like his watermelon with anything on it, so I made this salad for my lady friends.   The summer chowder is one of those basic soups that has everything but the kitchen sink - an old summer standby.

Watermelon Salad with Feta

The key to this dish is to cut the watermelon as nicely as possible.  I sprinkled crumbled feta, basil and olives over it then drizzled on balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  A sprinkle of salt and pepper and that’s it.  The sweeter and juicier the watermelon - the better.  It’s a classic summer treat.

Summer Chowder

This starts with a box of chicken or vegetable stock (I like Imagine brand), the equivalent in water, then a bunch of chopped vegetables.  In this case I sauteed onion, celery, zucchini in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  When the onions were glassy I added carrots and corn cut off the cob.  I added the stock and water, more salt and pepper, and just let it simmer away until the vegetables were tender.  Maybe about 20 - 30 minutes.  Once I was ready to serve, I added heavy cream until the soup turned pale yellow and fresh cut basil.

We ate this hot and cold for days and days.  It’s always nice to have soup in the refrigerator for lunches, especially now with Storkbite when mama’s lunch can be a daunting prospect.

Onigiri

I wanted to introduce Storkbite to rice so I thought it would be interesting to make onigiri and see what happend.  Well… we had rice all over the apartment, in Storkbite’s ears, on the wall, and in between her toes.  It was delicious for Papa and me to eat these delicious onigiri and it’s not our usual fare.

Onigiri

I watched at least three YouTube videos before trying this at home.  I hardly ever try something new, but this was a real hit and a great snack food.  First I grilled salmon in sesame oil, cut nori into strips and cut up avocado for my rice ball filling. Then I steamed sushi rice according to the directions on the bag.  Once it was slightly cooled I started forming my rice balls. The trick is to have a bowl of salt water to cool your hands and to prevent the rice from sticking to your hands when forming the balls.

Form the balls like a snowball. Then make a depression in the center with your thumb, fill it with a piece of avocado and chunk of salmon.  Cover the filling with more rice and continue packing the snowball.  Roll the ball in nori and sprinkle with seasame seeds.  It takes time, but is repetitive and easy.  This is an ideal after school snack!

Once complete you can give it to a baby — if you want rice in ears, on walls, on tables, chairs, floors, moms, dads, etc, etc.

Cinnamon Roll French Toast

Yes, you heard that right!  We French toast anything here at Storkbite’s house.  I’ve French toasted a nut ring, various danishes, cinnamon rolls of all sorts and regular old challah bread.  Storkbite’s Uncle Jimmy is a French toast feind so we got a little experimental when he used to live around the corner (we miss you!).

Cinnamon Roll French Toast with Blueberries

For this I used four stale cinnamon rolls from the market, frozen blueberries, real maple syrup and pecans.  The rest is just plain old French toast supplies from the pantry:

4 stale cinnamon rolls, cut in half

Dip the cut side in a mixture of: 1 egg, a splash of milk, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dash of real vanilla extract.

Put the cut and now gooey egg drenched side of the roll down on your hot grill pan which has been prepped with a little butter or oil.

Cook them until the egg side is nice and golden brown.

Put your rolls on a fancy plate, add fresh or defrosted blueberries, toasted pecans, and powder sugar. Make sure you have REAL maple syrup to finish it off.  These little toasts are seriously impressive and delicious.

Are you sure you don’t want to move back to NYC, Uncle Jimmy?!?