The Pig and I

I wouldn't normally label something as complex as a Yule log as "kid food," but this was done by request, and with the kid. The Pig has been really, really into the Great British Baking Show , and consequently found out there's a food version of the Yule log. In celebration of Yule this year, she asked if we could make one together. Since I sometimes don't think things through, and other times think I can do anything, I said yes. Not only did I say yes, I promised we'd do it on Yule itself. Dumb, dumb, dumb. But also smart, because wow she learned a lot about herself, the world, interpersonal dynamics, history, modernity, tenacity, and the import of keeping one's word. She also found out that I was right that reading legitimately is the most powerful skill one can develop. I learned that I can, in fact, draw something decent if I have no choice, and also that it turns out I can pipe chocolate attractively. I generally reserve the doing of fine detail de...

This is kind of a weird thing to say, but I usually can't stand mac'n'cheese. Occasionally I'll like a baked one, if it's lacking bechamel, but otherwise I'm a firm pass on this dish. My kid, however, really seems to like it. For a while, the Pig had gotten really into boxed MNC, and away from homemade of any type. One day, she really wanted MNC, and I was like, "I'm hungry too. If you let me make it homemade, I'll make it." She agreed, so I grabbed a bag of spätzle (b/c lazy) and made kasnocken for her. Since then, she's refused the box stuff. The other day, I didn't really feel like making that, when she asked for MNC, so I made this instead. The principle is basically the same, though. This takes about 20 minutes to make, which makes it perfect for a fast lunch. We split it, and she was happy because, she told me, it's fairly similar to the boxed without being quite the same. Hope you enjoy! 1 8-ounce package pasta (I use...

I realized the other day that it's been a very long time since my last post. My life has changed in a lot of ways, one of which is that I've returned to foraging. Since my interests currently lie primarily in foraged foods and ales, my focus will be on that for the foreseeable future. One favorite foraged food for us is black nightshade . Although commonly perceived as poisonous, this is a food plant if you're treating it properly. The leaves can be cooked and eaten (young ones raw as well), but the primary value to my 5 year old, Piggy, is the berries. Filled with seeds and sugary sweet, they're a lovely treat. I recently dug up some S. americanum plants and transplanted to our container garden, but most of the berries I cooked today came from a plant nearly as tall as me that I noticed while foraging for dock seeds. That bush was huge . And also weighed down with ripe fruits, so I took a lot of fruit. I left about 1/4 of the fruit for the birds, focusing only on fr...

Granola is always awesome, but it's very expensive to buy at the store. Making it at home is inexpensive and just takes a few minutes of active prep time, plus 80 minutes in the oven. For the blueberries, I buy fresh blueberries in massive quantities when they're in season and deeply discounted, then dry them. Typically I do this until I've got about a gallon dried total. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can either oven or sun dry them (If you've opted for sun drying, freeze them for 72 hours after they're finished to kill any possible insect eggs that may have been laid anyway and then store in the pantry). If you want some clumps, squeeze the mixture well once you've put it in the half sheet pan. Otherwise, it will be more like loose cereal. 4 cups rolled oats 1/4 cup each: wheat germ, wheat bran, flax seeds 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 cup sliced almonds 1 cup dried blueberries 1/2 cup each: vegetable oil, maple syrup  1/4 cup honey Preheat ove...

I got some buckwheat a while back, intending to make it with beets. Then I forgot all about it until today when I discovered some beets in the house that needed to be used. This was substantially more delicious than I expected it to be, and we all ate it up with gusto. Hope you enjoy! Buckwheat: 1/2 cup buckwheat groats 2-2 1/2 cups water 1 teaspoon salt pat of butter (optional) Put water, salt and butter (if using) in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir in the buckwheat and boil for 10 minutes, stirring every so often. Strain out remaining water and serve. Serves 2. Veggies: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 beets, peeled and diced 2 carrots, peeled and diced 1 onion, diced 1 cup celery, sliced 1 small jicama root, peeled and diced 1/2 red bell pepper, diced 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half 1 teaspoon each: garlic powder, salt Heat oil in a skillet over medium, then add beets, carrots, onion, celery, jicama, garlic powder, and salt. F...

It's figs. It's ice cream. It's a fig milkshake! As figs are coming into season, the canning is going to get out of hand. But while this is going on and poor Ross has to keep a crazy toddler out of the kitchen so we don't have to visit the emergency room over sugar burns, I figured it's good to give them something yummy to snack on while I'm preserving away. Enter the milkshake. Hope you enjoy! 8-10 figs 1/2-3/4 cup vanilla ice cream splash of milk, if needed 1 teaspoon-ish lemon juice pinch of salt small splash of vanilla extract (optional) Put all the ingredients in the blender and blend, blend, blend. Serves 1 normal sized person or 3 small people.

I first learned of this practice in a fermenting group where someone was doing it with cranberries. This is delicious. Everyone should have these in their lives. I make mine exclusively with blueberries since that's the Piggy's current favorite fruit, but friends of mine make them with other berries with equal success. I think you pretty much could use any fruit and still have it be full of win. If you're going to feed this to kids (1+ years old, please!), don't let them see the container or you'll regret them knowing where these are. Hope you enjoy! 24 ounces blueberries honey Fill a clean, quart sized Mason jar (or other quart sized vessel not made of metal) with blueberries. Fill with honey until the berries are completely submerged (this takes a while because the honey has to worm its way around all the fruit). Place a non-metal weight on top of the berries (I like to use the tealight holders from Ikea. The small size works in a standard mouth jar and the l...

I hadn't had rhubarb since I was a kid, when we used to pick it where it grew wild. But I saw some beautiful looking stalks at the store and thought it might make a lovely dessert without the usual strawberries that accompany it. Hope you enjoy! 4 stalks rhubarb, sliced into 1" pieces 1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar 3 tablespoons butter 1/2-1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon each: vanilla extract, lemon juice Melt butter in 8-10" cast iron pan then add the other ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes. Top with crust, then sprinkle with turbinado sugar and bake at 425F for 30 minutes. Serves 4. Crust: 4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into bits 1 cup-ish flour 1 teaspoon salt 1-2 tablespoons vanilla sugar 5-ish tablespoons ice water Put butter, salt and sugar in a bowl and rub in the flour (I use my hands for this), a little at a time, until you have pea sized pebbles and "sand." Make a well in the middle of the butter mixture and add 4 tablespoons of water, qui...

So basically, I'd made a bunch of quinoa for the stuffed squash, since I wanted enough for that and then an equivalent amount for "something else." I had a lot of ideas on what that something else should be, but at the end of the day had to accept that I'm pretty lazy most of the time and so this "something" should be fast and easy. This is what I ended up deciding on and after a few revisions I'm pretty satisfied with it in this form. What I like the best about this is that it's nutritionally diverse in a single package, so you know you're getting good "growing food" served without having to mess with a bunch of stuff, and that has become really important to me since Ilana has effectively transitioned completely over to table food. Because it has both quinoa and eggs in it, it's very high in protein. Watermelon is the dessert of choice for this meal in our house. 3 cups cooked quinoa 1/2 cup each: chopped caramelized...

As you all know, I'm a pretty big fan of stuffed squash. They're relatively easy to make, despite there being a lot of steps, they're very healthful and they're effectively a "one pot" meal which means significantly fewer dishes to wash (this is important to me because dishes are the Death Star of my soul). They're also highly customizable and can be done with pretty much anything you have on hand at the house so long as you have a squash (of any type) to fill. I typically will select a high-protein grain for these because I nearly always make them either vegetarian or vegan, but meat could easily be added if that's your preference. I wanted to make one for Ilana since she'd never had it before, and since I'd found a large and beautiful acorn squash it seemed like a great opportunity. She ate this like it was going out of style, and to my surprise plowed through just under a quarter of the squash. Ross told me he thinks this probably belongs in...

I'm taking Old English right now and really enjoying the class. To celebrate the language and culture of the West Saxons, I decided I should bring some Saxon foods to class (I decided this a month or so ago but am actually doing it tomorrow). I had a lot of research to do because I wanted it to be as authentic as possible. Originally I planned to do sloe berries or plums, but that didn't really pan out. And then I saw some crab apples at the store and I got pretty excited because that's way better than plums and an equally appropriate choice (more so if you consider the season). I made some farmer's cheese and some sweet butter, and saved the whey and buttermilk to also bring to class. And then I worked on getting down a good bread that seemed to fit the descriptions I'd read. Lastly, the fruit. Can't have this type of snack or meal without fruit, right? I made everything mostly without modern conveniences, which means I cooked this over a fire. Unless you'r...

I need to start this post by saying that the quantities are approximate. I mostly eye-balled this, with only a desire for delicious, thick, rich, almost pudding-like and slightly bitter hot chocolate in the Venetian style. This is what I got, and I'm really pleased. It's a very serious hot chocolate, with no whipped cream, marshmallows or frivolity. It's just good. It coats the tongue and burns slightly because I'm too impatient to let it cool enough. For me, it's what I need on a chilly evening. Especially with the risotto that doesn't seem to want to get done fast enough (always the problem with risotto I suppose). So, here y'all go - hope you enjoy! 1/2 cup cream 2 cups milk 1/8 cup vanilla sugar (or regular granulated) 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 - 1 1/2 cups grated chocolate or chocolate chips Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan and put on the stove over medium heat. Heat until it starts to simmer slightly. Whisk continuously until ...

I'd been craving waffles in the craziest of ways lately, but I didn't have an iron and I didn't really want to get one since I hate having "unitaskers" in my kitchen. Finally I decided that I could get an iron, but only if I made waffles at least twice a week. So that's been happening. As an added bonus, it turns out that Ilana really likes waffles (hard to believe she eats solid foods now) so once she's on three meals a day, waffles will be her weekday breakfast since it only takes seven minutes from the moment you start mixing the batter until the first waffle or two is out of the iron. This variety of waffles happened because she doesn't like white pumpkin (she does like yellow pumpkin) and so I have a bunch of white pumpkin puree that needs to be used up (she'll eat her pumpkin if it's in waffles, though). The chocolate chips were added since Ross has been munching on them by the handful recently. Hope you enjoy! 2 cups all-purpose flour ...

I wanted a lasagna today to go with the ricotta and mozarella I made, but I only had 4 lasagna sheets left and no time to make more. So instead of the usual method, I just made it in a bread pan and that worked well. This lasagna was far better than I anticipated it would be. Hope you enjoy! 4 lasagna sheets 1 14-ounce can each: tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon each: salt, rosemary, basil, marjoram, parsley (I used all dried; use 1 tablespoon each if fresh, except the salt) 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon celery salt 1 tablespoon each: dried onion, dried garlic 1/2 leek, sliced thinly 1 cup thinly sliced celery 2 tablespoons each: butter, lemon juice, vegetable oil 1 12-ounce package frozen spinach (thawed) salt to taste 1/2 pound each: ricotta, mozzarella Simmer the tomatoes, lemon, spices, dried onion and dried garlic for 30 minutes. In a separate pan, melt the butter into the oil over medium heat. Add leeks, celery and salt and cook down ...

I have a project coming up in the next week or so involving a lot of baking treats for people. Since there's going to be baguette involved, I thought I'd make a couple compound butters to go with it. This is one of them. It's perfect for spreading on bread, for baking into bread (for garlic bread), or apparently just for tasting with a spoon. Hope you enjoy! 2 tablespoons tarragon (I used Mexican) 2 tablespoons roasted garlic 4 tablespoons (half a stick) butter pinch salt Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor (I prefer the processor for this since it's easier to clean and also easier to get the butter out) until the herbs are well chopped but not homogenously blended with the butter. Makes about 5-6 tablespoons.

I realized today that I still had some of those wonderful candied peels Lisa sent me earlier this year, and I got really excited. See, I had decided to use some cantaloupe that I'd frozen in cupcakes today, to go with our leftovers meal of red beans and rice, and that fricassee. But when I discovered those hiding (from Ross, I'm guessing, since I can't imagine why else I'd have hidden it. Though it's possible I hid it from myself so I wouldn't plow through them all before I got to use them in recipes either) in the fridge, I realized that the perfect compliment to my cupcakes was not going to be lemon butter cream, but instead would be vanilla butter cream with PEELS IN THEM! I was supposed to make more butter cream anyway, since Ross likes to put it in his coffee (I know how weird that sounds, but it's oddly delicious) so all of this works out to be full of win for all the tummies in this house. Anyway, I can't see any reason why you couldn't do t...

I have some lemons and yogurt I need to use, and I also am growing some Thai basil. I have a tendency to sometimes neglect the proper pruning needs of my plants, so I've been trying to be better about that lately. This cake came of my desire to use these two ingredients, but also of my desire to have a dessert that would pair well with minestrone and brown bread for dinner. Hope you enjoy! Cake: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup plain yogurt 1 cup sugar 3 large eggs zest of a lemon 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/3 cup lemon juice 3 sprigs Thai basil Glaze: 1-2 cups confectioners’ sugar juice of a small lemon Combine the lemon juice, sugar and basil in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a minute or so and remove from the heat. Let cool. Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together eggs, zest, yogurt, strained basil syrup, vanilla and salt. Then whisk in baking powder, then flour. F...

I really like steel cut oatmeal. I do not like rolled oatmeal. It's a textual thing, I guess? Either way, despite the increasing heat here in Houston I've been on an oatmeal kick. This one is particularly fun because it has blueberries in it, and who doesn't like blueberries? Also, it takes only a few minutes to make, and then you just heat it in the morning with your sugars. Hope you enjoy! 1 cup steel cut oats 2 tablespoons butter 1-2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/4 cup dried blueberries (if you're wanting to use fresh or frozen, use more) 4 cups water 2 tablespoons agave 1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed) 1 teaspoon vanilla Melt butter in a 2-quart saucepan over high heat. Add oats and salt, and stir around, frying for about a minute. Add water and blueberries (but don't add these yet if you're using fresh or frozen) and bring to a boil. Let boil one minute, turn off the heat and put the lid on. Leave it on the stove until you come back in the morning (I ...

We went to a restaurant called Roost uh... a long time ago (before I was even pregnant, I think). They had this amazing fried cauliflower that had a barely memorable sauce and was sprinkled with bonito. Although the sauce on its own was pretty forgettable, the combination of these factors was mind-blowingly delicious. And I remembered it, meaning to get around to working out the sauce ingredients. Ultimately, however, I decided to just make up a new sauce and be done with it. Well, and I decided to roast the cauliflower (I actually forgot for a while there's was fried since was roasted was in my brain). Here it is. We ate this with sausage and kraut, but the cauliflower was more certainly the star of the dinner and we were VERY sad there wasn't more of that to eat. So this will definitely be repeated. If you want it to be vegetarian, leave out the bonito. But if you do that, find a salty substitute, because the bonito is, in all ways, the icing for this cake. Any leftover sauc...

I hate pot pies. Hate them. I really will never understand what makes people like them. But cottage and shepherd pies? LOVE. We wanted to up the amount of beans we eat, since it's an easy way to increase protein in the diet, and I made a huge batch of Appaloosa beans. Also, Ross really wanted to have a casserole, and since I think normally the only two casseroles I make are lasagna and tuna it seemed like a fun way to mix things up. So I thought I'd put a couple cans' worth in this, in place of some other kind of meat. I called it green not because it's environmentally friendly (although it is that), but because the avocado in the mashed potatoes makes it literally green. Which is kind of fun, unless you don't like that sort of thing in which case you can just wait until Saint Patrick's day to make this. Anyway, if you're wanting this with meat, just add that in (before the veggies) and take out (or not) the beans. Hope you enjoy! 2 big glugs olive oil 3 ...