Chicken and Dumplings

I don't know if there's any possible way to make dumpling photogenic, but man they taste good. This recipe by Melody Rhodes, and supplied by Google, has been foolproof so far. My only modification has been to half it to make it fit our miniature family better.

Ingredients 1 cup white flour

• 1 cup white flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 2 tbsp softened butter
  
• 1/2 cup milk
  

1. Bring 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of chicken soup to a simmer.
2. Mix the dry ingredients.
3. Mix the butter in with a fork.
4. Add the milk, but don't stir any more than necessary.
5. Drop spoonfuls of dough into the simmering chicken soup.
6. Cover for 10 minutes.
7. NO PEEKING!

Options: Double the recipe of course if you're feeding more than three people, and you might check out the variations on the original recipe for sweet dumplings or raisin dumplings.

Chorrizo and Apples Foilpack

Sheer coincidence and a random stop at the Walmart in Midland brought this breakfast together. J and I had the same idea; as I was laying the first apple slices in she called "Add some apples!"

Ingredients

• 1 package of chorrizo
  
• 4 to 6 apples
  

1. Slice the apples into eighths and layer on the foil.
2. Place the chorrizo over the apples.
3. Wrap the bundle in three layers of foil.
4. Cook over hot coals, 15 minutes per side.

Fairytale Pumpkin Soup

One day we threw some seeds out the kitchen window, and overnight (it seems) we had a pumpkin patch. It makes for a lovely view while washing dishes, and in a pinch fed us and two friends. Jami used the leftovers to make this soupy Thai dessert:

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 water
• 1/4 of a pumpkin, peeled and cubed
• a pinch of salt
• brown sugar (or palm sugar if you can find it) to taste

1. Heat the coconut milk & water in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Add the pumpkin, salt & sugar.
3. Cook until the pumpkin is tender. Serves 4.

24 Hour Ginger Beer

Jami makes this ginger beer recipe every once in a while. It is quite good, though shown somewhat inconsistent appreciation by those outside our intimate circle of two. Last night we introduced it to some dear friends who actually liked it, so I'm posting this for their sake. I believe she got the recipe from Martha Stewart, but I won't swear to it. All I know is that it's not our creation.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs fresh ginger root
• 2 quarts boiling water
• sugar to taste
• soda water (optional)

1. Peel and grate the ginger. Grating can be done in a food processor or with a coarse cheese grater.
2. Place the grated ginger in a non reactive bowl (that means glass or ceramic), and pour the boiling water over it.
3. Loosely cover the bowl with foil for twenty-four hours. You want air to get in, but nothing to drop out of the sky into your drink.
4. After twenty-four hours strain out the grated ginger and compost it.

5. Refrigerate then sweeten to taste. Cut the ginger beer with soda water if you need to. I usually need to.

Best, Creamiest Papier Mâché Paste ever

I've made many, many batches of papier mâché in the past year, and most recipes are lacking in a number of ways, they're lumpy after a night in the fridge, and never quite recover, or they start out lumpy, or they turn stinky way to soon. I've finally settled on a recipe of my own invention that is lumpless, mold resistant, is just as good the third day out of the fridge as it was straight off the stove, and always creamy. The real key here is the rice flour, so don't imagine you can leave it out and still expect the best, creamiest papier mâché paste ever.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 tbsp rice flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup cool water

1. Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Mix in the cool water with a fork or whisk, adding the water a little at a time to keep it as smooth as possible.
3. Stir the flour mixture into the boiling water.
4. Allow it to boil for two or three minutes.

Options: After a night in the fridge just stir it up with a fork.

Pizza Dough

It's been a while since we've been able to make pizza, but the other weekend we spent all of Saturday at the home of our friends AZ and D, and pizza was the result. I had fun shopping for toppings with the girls (D's daughter, her niece, and their live-in school buddy). The ham, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, mozzarella, and Parmesan pizza above is their creation (Thai kids actually like vegetables). The adults had anchovies and pepperoni.

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 2 tsp yeast
• 2 tsp sugar, or honey, or molasses (optional)
  
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil, or lard
• 5-7 cups high protein flour
• a handful of cornmeal
  

Equipment

• a big bowl
• a damp cloth
• someplace warm
• a baking stone (or a baking sheet, if you're lame;)
  

1. Sprinkle the yeast and your sweetener of choice into the warm water. For a longer rise time (and a richer flavored crust) use only 1 tsp of yeast.
2. Let the yeast proof. If it's in good shape it should start to foam a bit after seven to ten minutes.
3. Add the salt.
4. Add your fat of choice. If using lard you might want to soften it a bit.
5. Mix in one cup of flour. Don't worry about lumps.
6. Begin mixing in the rest of the flour, use your hands once it begins to get stiff. The 5-7 cups is exactly approximate. Just make sure the dough is good and stiff before you start kneading.
7. Transfer your dough to a clean working surface, dusted with flour.
8. Knead for about 10 minutes, adding more flour if the dough gets sticky. If you have kids around this is a great time to let them get their hands dirty.
9. Put the dough in a clean, oiled bowl, with plenty of head room. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth, and leave the dough in a warm place until it has doubled in size. Depending on how much yeast you used this should take 45 minute to 1 hr and 1/2.
10. Preheat your oven to 400˚ F or 205˚ C. If you're using a stone you should throw it in there.
10. Punch the dough down and knead it again for a minute or two. If I'm making pizza for just two people I usually cut it the dough in half at this point and freeze one of the halves.
11. Roll or throw the dough into your desired shape.
12. Sprinkle cornmeal onto your baking surface, and slide your dough on. I usually coat it with some olive oil at this point.
13. I hope you have toppings ready.
14. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the crust begins to brown.

Options: All by itself this dough makes great focaccia.

Easy Chocolate Pudding

I don't know where Jami found this pudding recipe, but it's easy and fast, and I like it just fine.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp corn starch
• a pinch of salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Whisk in the milk.
3. Stir over very low heat until the pudding begins to thicken.
4. Add the vanilla extract.

Options: Try adding a little cinnamon.

Food, Ethics & the Environment

Princeton University has the audio from a conference, held last November, concerning ethical food on its podcast feed. Since they're Princeton, they were able to coax a number of the big names into speaking on the panel. The first session features Peter Singer, professor of Bioethics at Princeton, and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating, and Gary Nabhan, speak in session two. They discuss healthy eating and local/regional foods. In session three Becky Goldburg, Gidon Eshel, and Paul Shapiro talk about collapsing fisheries, climate change, and animal welfare. Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilema, and Bob Langert, McDonald's Vice President for Corporate Social Responsibility, talk in session four, while session five is dedicated to a panel from the Princeton community and the discussion of their own strivings for ethical food practices. All in all it is an excellent introduction to issues regarding the ethics of our food system, and a number of the speakers give good suggestions for individual action on those fronts.

Shortbread

When I was a kid my mom had some sort of party (Tupperware?) at the house. We kids had to stay in our room, but our dad sneaked back bars of shortbread for us. No shortbread has ever tasted as good as those clandestine cookies, but that doesn't keep me from trying every once in a while. I usually use the basic Scotch Shortbread recipe from The Joy of Cooking, so here it is with some variations garnered from Chocolate and Zucchini.

Ingredients

• 1 cup/227 grams salted butter, somewhat softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups flour, or substitute 1/4 cup with cornmeal or rice flour
  
• pinch of salt (if needed)
• insides of a vanilla bean, or zest from a Meyer lemon (optional)
  

Equipment

• mixing bowl
• whisk
  
• big spoon
  
• 9x9 baking pan or near equivalent
• fork

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F/160˚C.
2. Cream the sugar and butter with the whisk or a fork.
3. Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients. Unless it's hot the dough should be somewhat crumbly and stiff. If not add a little extra flour.
4. Press the dough into the pan and prick it with the fork every half inch or so.
5. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden.
6. Cut into bars or wedges immediately upon removing from the oven. Cool completely before removing from the pan.

Options: Chocolate chips or nuts, pecans especially, are nice with short bread. You can mix them into the dough, or press them into the dough after you prick it with a fork. That's my preference. You can also sprinkle crystal or turbinado sugar over the top before baking. These make a great breakfast with hot chocolate or tea, if you plan on having a sluggish morning.

More options (added 27 April 2008): I'm experimenting with lavender sugar, which I intend to add to this recipe if it works out. However, a pinch of lavender added to the butter and sugar while they're mixing mixing makes for a lightly lavender flavored shortbread, which is just delicious.

Healthier (!?) Powdered Sugar

We try to avoid refined sugars so that when we do use sugar we can at least pretend it's not doing us any harm. Powdered sugar was the major stumbling block, but no longer.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unrefined sugar (evaporated cane juice, demerara, turbinado)
• 1 tsp cornstarch (this reduces clumping)
  

Equipment

• blender or food processor with a spice attachment, or coffee mill

1. Pulse.
2. And pulse.
3. And pulse, and pulse, and pulse.
4. As the sugar becomes a powder its cohesion increases, and it will begin to climb the sides. If it starts to hit the top of the spice attachment, that's probably good enough. In the picture above it's almost to that point.

Options: I wonder if you could do this with sucanat? Or granulated maple sugar? That would be weird.