I’ve been wanting to post, all of these silent weeks, and I haven’t been doing any blog-worthy cooking. There has been a lot on my mind that has made me want to keep things simple in the kitchen, and there have been plenty of nights when I’ve kept things so simple that I haven’t cooked at all. Along with the things on the mind came stress, and that made me do a few things that are at least note-worthy.

My mom had a heart attack when she was 53, and her mother also had heart disease at an early age. I eat pretty well most of the time, but I don’t exercise. I eliminated my biggest risk factor, cigarettes, ten years ago, and for all I knew, the only risk factor I shared with my Mom was genetic. So I had it checked out. (Thank the food industry for the fag habit, which I should have knocked for good decades ago, but I kept cheating.)

It’s pretty cool the things they can do these days with blood. I now know that I have Superheart. (My name for it, no one else’s.) What I do with it is up to me. I’m not totally in the clear – there is one weird risk factor I’ve got related to the size of my cholesterol particles, and I have to…wait for it…watch what eat and exercise. I think my doctor threw that in there because she couldn’t help herself, after she got done curtsying me for the awesomeness of my heart (I kid you not).

So, in honor of Superheart, may it beat another fifty years, here is a recipe guaranteed to get all of your cells jumping for joy when they get the burst of goodness you send their way. And may your children actually eat their greens, ‘cuz if they don’t eat these, they won’t eat any. They are super tasty, and just a little bit sweet.

Simple, Simple Greens
Serves 4

12 oz. Greens, cleaned, chopped and stemmed. You can use kale, chard, mustard, dandelion, escarole, etc.
½ onion, chopped (optional)
1 tbsp high-heat oil*
1 tbsp brown sugar or equivalent amount sweetener of your choice
¼ c brown rice or cider vinegar
1 cup water
Salt and pepper

Mix sweetener, vinegar and water in small bowl, taste to check for balance of sweet/sour and adjust if needed. Set aside.

Heat oil on high in wok until hot. Add onion, if using, and stir fry for one minute. Add as many greens as will fit in wok, stir fry until you can fit in the rest. Continue cooking on full heat, stirring from the bottom to the sides continually to cook everything evenly, for about 3 minutes. (Less if using more tender greens like new dandelion leaves.) Add enough vinegar mixture to allow greens to steam a bit, salt and pepper, and continue to cook on high, stirring frequently, until greens are still brightly colored and tender, adding more liquid if needed. Serve with tongs or slotted spoon to drain any excess liquid.

*When stir-frying, canola oil has a high smoke point, which allows high temperatures without burning the oil. Olive oil is not good for stir frying. You can buy canola oils with omega oils added – check the source of the omega oils to be sure they are vegetarian or not soy, if it matters to you.

I’m updating this post from the old blog – it didn’t have a photo before, and sort of got lost in the shuffle of the move, especially since it has never been included in a weekly plan. It’s a shame. Although I first made it to use up leftover mashed potatoes, which it is fantastic for, it is even better when made with plain boiled potatoes mashed up fresh for the occasion, which is what I did tonight. (I also finally refined the recipe so that they look as great as they taste.)

With the egg and cheese in this, there is plenty of protein. You can use whatever cheeses you have on hand and want to use up, same with vegetable and herbs. Like an omelet, these are good with a variety of mixtures of flavors. Served with salad it makes a great quick dinner.

If you are making it with leftovers, the potatoes can be a little wet. If they are, firm up the mixture with some flour. I use gluten, but you can use any kind of flour you like. Add a tablespoon at a time until it is not too gloppy.

3 cups leftover mashed potatoes
2 eggs
3/4 cup shredded cheese
3/4 cup cooked vegetables (I usually use sauteed onion & pepper)
2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley or scallions
S&P to taste
Oil for frying, if not using non-stick cookware

Heat large griddle or skillet to medium-high. Non-stick works best so the potatoes don’t absorb a lot of oil. Just coat the bottom of the surface with oil, you don’t have to deep-fry it if you aren’t using non-stick, but keep the heat on the low side.

Combine potatoes and eggs in large bowl, mix well. Mix in rest of ingredients. If mixture is too wet, especially if the mashed potatoes started out really wet, you can add extra cheese or you can use a little flour to bind it if really necessary. Using your hands, form garden burger-sized pancakes and gently place on griddle. .Cook until golden on each side and egg is cooked throughout.

I don’t make a very strong case for my Not Baking when I post a cookie or cupcake recipe, but I have my reasons. Again.

First off, this cookie is called the Compost Cookie. Already, I’m intrigued. Add potato chips and I’m getting out the stand mixer. Next, this cookie is the brainchild of the mad genius who also invented something called Crack Pie, another dessert so good it has people lining up outside the Momofuku Milk Bar in New York’s East Village. Take a look at their menu – it says shipping is available. Holy cow.

BUT….I have good news for you. Next weekend, on Sunday, May 23rd only, you do not have to fly to New York or pay an arm and a leg for overnight shipping. If you live in the Seattle area, you can buy cookies made by me from this recipe. While I’m waiting for the little dough balls to set in the fridge, let me tell you how much fun you can have eating awesome cookies.

Whistle Pig is a fundraiser in support of a Sudbury model democratic school in Bothell, WA, just north of Seattle. I am an enthusiastic supporter of this model of education in particular, but also of wider and more freely available options in education for young people and their families. My family made the decision to relocate to the Seattle area in part because The Clearwater School was here.

The annual festival is very fun, and is especially fun for children. There will be many musicians playing lots of different kinds of music, a talented hula hoop troupe (seriously), a really excellent food concession, and of course a bake sale. The school is located on North Creek, with a nice beach for wading and playing. So be there this Sunday, between one and six p.m. Maybe you’ll snag a cookie before all of the little hedonists get them.

You can read more about the school on its web site and blog (where I occasionally post, but not so much this year).

The complete recipe, which is in the restaurant’s cook book, comes to us via the Regis and Kelly Show’s web site. It’s made the rounds. And my test batch is pretty darned good, but the next batch will not have tortilla chips in it – they were a little too crunchy. All in all, though, pretty fantastic. Not like anything else. The teenager was coming up with all sorts of suggestions for things to put in the next ones. I took the test batch to school and the Brain Trust there helped me figure out how to refine the next batch.

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There is a story in my husband’s family of the year he gave his mother a deep fryer. For Mother’s Day. (He was young, but apparently not young enough to be forgiven.) This is a stellar illustration of why you don’t give your mother or wife a kitchen appliance as a gift, unless she asks for it.

I think he redeemed himself this year (in my eyes), by giving me a Breville Panini Press. I have wanted one of these things for a few years – the cheap ones are not worth having, and the decent ones are too expensive to up and buy for yourself, at least for me.

Our first day of having it in the house being Mother’s Day, we just had plain ole’ Grilled Cheese, since he was making them for me. I don’t know how many got made that day, with the teenager going to town on the thing, but it was a happy day. Grilled cheese sandwiches always hit the spot, but done on this grill they can be done without the butter in the skillet, and they are much quicker and crunchier than our old classic favorite.

(The Grilled Cheese craze continued today – the guys made 6. I think they want to fry eggs on it tomorrow.)

Once it was my turn, things got a little fancier. We only had a few meals at home as a family this week, but I made me some Panini, and I did not manage to get one photo! As it happened, the nights I made these we were all hungry, and the combination of hunger and toasty bread and gooey melty cheese made delayed gratification impossible for a weakling such as myself. So I’m using a stock photo for now.

I made a few different sandwiches – our two favorites are below. The grilled mushroom and mozzarella focaccia ended up tasting a lot like a Philly cheesesteak, without the steak and all of the grease. It wasn’t a really quick thing to make, since I needed to prep all of the veggies first, but it was still pretty fast. The brie and apple sandwich was really fast – nothin’ to it – and two out of three preferred it. My son said it was like fondue without all of the dipping.

Philly Portobello Mushroom Panini
Serves 3 – 4
2 portobello mushroom caps, grilled
1 red pepper, roasted
1/2 large sweet onion, sliced and grilled
6 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
8 fresh basil leaves
1 slab (approx. 8×10″) focaccia or other favorite Italian bread

Slice bread lengthwise into two pieces, making a top and bottom. Leaving bread in one large loaf, place mushroom caps on bread – cut to fit them, if necessary. Layer on strips of roasted peppers, grilled onion rings, slices of cheese, and, finally, basil leaves. Don’t let a lot of excess cheese get to the edge of the bread – it is going to ooze out of the sides of the bread as it melts.

Following the instructions of your panini press, place sandwich in heated press and grill until cheese is completely melted and bread is toasted on both sides. Slice sandwich into individual servings and serve immediately.

Brie, Apple and Watercress Panini
6 oz. Brie cheese, sliced
1 medium – large tart apple, cored and thinly sliced
Dijon mustard
Small bunch watercress leaves
Approx. 8″ loaf French bread (batard, or softer crust and thicker loaf than baguette, is preferred)

Slice bread lengthwise into two pieces, making a top and bottom. Leaving bread in one large loaf, spread desired amount of mustard on bottom ot the bread. Place slices of cheese, then apples, and pile on the watercress leaves. Don’t let a lot of excess cheese get to the edge of the bread – it is going to ooze out of the sides of the bread as it melts. (A little bit of browned cheese sticking out of the edge of your sandwich tastes pretty good!)

Following the instructions of your panini press, place sandwich in heated press and grill until cheese is completely melted and bread is toasted on both sides. Slice sandwich into individual servings and serve immediately.

I need a serious break from cheese now, but if you don’t have one of these gizmos, maybe you should put it on your wish list. Easy, family-pleasing meals ahead.

Oh, when, you may be asking yourself, is she going to get off the Japan thing? Well, I don’t know. There are some basic dishes that I love and really want to nail down, and then maybe I will be satisfied for awhile.

Our love of Japanese culture in general has a 150 year history in western society.

Kiyonaga Bathhouse - a typical subject for 19th century woodblock prints.

Japan was a county and culture closed to the west until an English man named James Bruce, the 8th Earl of Elgin (successor of the 7th Earl, of the Elgin Marbles debacle) forced a treaty to open its port to trading with England in 1853. Within a decade, western Europe was agog with Japonica.

Toulouse Lautrec's Reine de Joie Poster, influenced by Japanese woodblock prints.

Artists, philosophers, food lovers, film makers, architects, and poets have been reaping the bounty ever since. The importance of the Japanese woodblock print on graphic style, painting and design can’t be overstated. The essential nature of the print – simple, elegant, linear, and flat – pulled the rug out from under people like Toulouse Lautrec and have influenced artists ever since.

Vincent van Gogh, The Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige), 1887 photo by Michele Ahin, Creative Commons generic licence.

There. How’s that for a crash art history course?

When sushi took the US by storm in the 1980′s, miso soup came with it. That’s the de facto meal – you get your miso soup, iceberg lettuce salad with a ginger sesame dressing, maybe a tiny hijiki (seaweed) salad, and as much sushi as you dare (or can afford to) eat. The soup is a simple and charming enough affair, and really easy to prepare at home – just a few vermicelli noodles and small cubes of soft tofu in a bowl of hot water with white miso paste. In a swanky place, maybe some seaweed, either nori strips or wakame. Turning that into the star attraction isn’t at all complicated, but it helps to know a few things.

(It’s a little hard to concentrate with that Van Gogh painting up there. It is crazy beautiful.)

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When I was looking for the recipe for the soup base for Udon noodles, I ran into one recipe after the next calling for “dashi”, which has always seemed to be so vague as to almost mean “sauce”. After finally looking it up, I see that this is partly true.

It didn’t used to be this way. Classic dashi was a simple stock made with dried kelp, sardines, and tuna. A later addition is dried shitaki mushrooms. There are many pre-made dashi preparations available, either dried or as a concenerated liquid, but the ingredients are easy to keep on hand and dashi is so simple to make that it is silly to buy it.

To make the simplest vegetarian dashi, you only need the kelp, or kombu. Use a 12″ piece and put it in about 2 cups of water, covered, and put it in the fridge overnight. You can cut the kombu with kitchen shears if it is too long. If you want a stronger broth, add a few dried shitaki mushroom caps to the water.

Remove the seaweed and mushrooms, if using. Reserve the mushrooms for use in cooking later that day or the next. You can keep the dashi in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about five days, or freeze it.

There is a reason why I am going on about the dashi. It is the basis of so many Japanese recipes, just as stock is basic in western cooking. And I’m posting a miso soup recipe that I made tonight that starts with dashi, as real miso soup should. So get ready.

Someone asked me recently how I could make all of the new recipes on top of cooking for my family using the weekly plans. The sad truth is, I don’t. My whole idea of menu planning in advance hasn’t really panned out; it takes a lot of trial-and-error to put together a new week, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for coasting for a week.

That doesn’t mean I fly by the seat of my pants every night. In January I discovered Evernote, and after I learned to adapt it to my needs, it has been a really handy tool for looking up recipes I’ve saved or jotted down while I’m at the store. While this doesn’t solve the problem of having to stop at the store frequently, it does solve the problem of standing the in middle of the produce section, wondering what to make. Again.

Once I’ve captured various notes (photos of things I’m working on, online recipes, photos or scans of handwritten recipes, typed shopping lists, etc.) I can sync the online or desktop version to my phone and presto! everything is in my hand when I want it. I use an iPhone, but they support multiple platforms.

Just so you know, I have no ulterior motives here. As I’ve mentioned in another post or two, I am not an organized person and need all of the help I can get.  Visit the site and see if “Clip to Evernote” doesn’t become a regular part of your vocabulary. And just to prove my purity of motive, I should add that Microsoft has a product that they are now promoting called OneNote that does many of the same things, although you can’t store files on the web (yet – I’m sure it’s coming.) My husband has been enthusing about OneNote for over a year; he has it set up so that it automates the things he does most often and he never has to save things. But without the online storage, it is not the thing for me.

Can I go off, just a little bit, on onions these days? People have become unreasonable about sweet onions, to the point where my local Safeway often does not carry yellow Spanish onions, the unsung hero of the pantry. (I’ve griped about my Safeway before – when we first moved here, we called it the “vacation Safeway”, until we went back to the real vacation Safeway in Tahoe and I practically started crying when I saw how much better stocked it was than my home store.) Those hard little onions that are the beginning of so many dishes aren’t interchangeable with Vidalias, or Walla Wallas, or any of the other high-sugar varieties, and I’m tired of going to grab an onion from the pantry only to find that in the space of a week it has gone to mush. Just because Walla Walla is on the other side of the Cascades doesn’t mean that we are blind to all other onions, Safeway people!

There. I feel a little better. Back to our regularly scheduled post.

I can’t believe I haven’t put this easy and delicious pasta recipe on the blog yet. I’ve been making it for years. There are two ingredients in this dish (besides onions) that I would like to talk about a little here. Dry vermouth is an excellent staple to have in the pantry; it is infused with herbs which gives it a nice, complex flavor, and unlike white wine it does not spoil. The other ingredient, Chevre cheese, deserves and may some day get a post of its own.

Chevre is made from goat’s milk, which is easier to digest than cow’s milk. There are many reasons why this is true, all having to do with how easily it breaks down in our systems. It has as much lactose as cow’s milk, but we do different things with it. And just because you have trouble with dairy does not mean you are lactose intolerant – the protein in milk, casein, can cause us grief. Look for Feta, Brie, and other popular cheeses made of goat’s milk and see if you notice a difference in you they make you feel.

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This week is low in fat and calories, and gives options for family members who do not want to restrict calories. If you want to lose a little weight for the summer, or are trying to lower your cholesterol, there are a few options noted. You can check the packages, but a whole grain English muffin is usually lower in calories and higher in fiber than a hamburger bun. On Day 5, have the salad with the Marinated Tofu Cubes instead of the Crispy Fried Tofu Cubes, and a small amount of the barley will fill you the rest of the way up and be healthier than a piece of bread. On the day when you serve the Vegetable Sauté, have a bowl of cashews, almonds or sunflower seeds on the table for family members to add to their meal if they want some extra calories.

About making the Mentsuyu, or soup base for the Udon Noodles:  We’ll be using this again in the summer for cold Soba, and one batch will keep for a long time. There is a reason why I looked for this recipe for ten years, and why it is one of the most popular posts on the blog. People search for this recipe every day. It is really good, and well worth making if you can get to a store with a decent Asian specialty department to get the mirin. If you already have mirin, I’d try using it if I couldn’t get hon mirin; it would have to be worth a shot.

Spring

Week 1

Day 1
Pasta Verde
Calories 388
Fat 9.9
Fiber 10.2

Day 2 – Vegan with egg substitute in burgers
Bean Burgers
Calories 137
Fat 2.6
Fiber 6.1
Baked Sweet Potato “Fries”
Calories 81
Fat 1.2
Fiber 2
Steamed Green Beans
Whole grain Hamburger Bun or English muffin
Condiments

Day 3 – Vegan
Fresh Vegetable Sauté

Day 4 – Vegan
Spring Udon Soup

Day 5 – Vegan
Barley with Asparagus and Peas

Crispy Fried Tofu Cubes
Or
Salad with Marinated Tofu Cubes
For shopping list, download document here or see….
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The process of making these is pretty much identical to regular Baked Potato Fries, but they come out a little less crisp. The advantage of these, and the reason why they are being substituted for regular potato “un-fries” in the Spring lighten-up week, is that they have fewer calories but are higher in complex carbs, vitamin A, fiber and antioxidents. And believe it or not, there are differences, starting with nutritionally, between sweet potatoes and yams. Get sweet potatoes.

Unlike yams, which are regular in shape, sweet potatoes are kind of gnarled and have funky ends that will need to be trimmed off. In many photos of these fries, they look straight and all professional. Because of the irregularity of the vegetable, this creates an awful lot of waste. I am OK with fries that look imperfect – they did not cook as evenly, but that was fine with us. The rest of the peels and trimmings I threw into a pot and steamed for the dogs. (Contrary to popular belief, dogs love vegetables and fruit, and benefit from them. I add them to their regular food when I can.)

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