Veggie Heavy Scrambled Eggs

Service for One

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
2 fresh eggs
2 fresh carrots, grated.
1 leaf fresh kale, julienned
2 leaves fresh sage, julienned
¼ fresh bell pepper, grated or julienned
1 tsp roasted garlic powder
1 tsp roasted onion powder
¼ tsp (or to taste) pepper powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp oat bran
¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese (or substitute with goat cheese)

Directions:

Fried veggies, just before adding eggs & cheese.

Heat (cast iron) frying pan. Stir veggies, seasonings and bran in a bowl to mix evenly.
Add oil and veggies to the hot pan. Fry until much of the moisture is gone. Crack eggs into vegetables, and add parmesan. Break yolks and stir briefly.

A side of toast, and a cup of coffee make this complete.

Who knew that carrots were good in eggs. But they’re pretty yummy!

Butternut Squash Fettuccine Alfredo

Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients:

- 3 cups diced butternut squash (about half a squash)

- 1 cup of vegetable stock.

- Butter (4 Tbsp.)

- One small onion (1 cup diced)

- Rosemary (1 Tbsp.)

- Sage (1 Tbsp.)

- Low-fat Milk (4 cups)

- Parmesan (1 cup, plus more for topping)

- Brown Sugar (2 Tbsp.)

- Nutmeg (1/4 tsp)

- Salt and pepper (to taste)

- Water (2 cups)

- Fettuccine noodles (1 16oz box)

Directions:

Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter. Add 1 cup of diced onion, 1 Tbsp. of Rosemary and 1 Tbsp. of Sage. Cook for 3 minutes on medium heat until onions soften. Then cook on medium-high heat until the butter begins to brown (be careful not to burn it). Add in 3 cups of diced butternut squash and 1 cup of vegetable stock, stir, then cover and cook for 15 minutes (until butternut squash is softened).

Uncover and mash with a potato masher until you’ve squished all the squash. Add 2 cups of milk and stir. Then, add 1 cup of Parmesan and stir. Add 2 Tbsp. of brown sugar, 1/4 tsp. of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste and stir until well blended.

You can either cook your pasta beforehand in the pot and set it aside, or cook it in the sauce! Break fettuccine noodles in half and place in the sauce. Carefully cover the noodles with sauce. Then, pour in 2 more cups of milk and 2 cups of water and stir. (Add more water, if needed, to smooth out the sauce.) Stir the pasta continuously (to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot) and cook for 15-20 minutes (or until pasta has reached desired texture)

From  http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-butternut-squash-fettucine-alfredo-238127

Brown Sludge

Brown Sludge is for topping freshly toasted homemade bread.

Ingredients:
1 banana, ripe or over-ripe.
⅓ cup natural peanut butter.
⅓ cup honey.
2 TBSP butter.

Put them together in a small blender cup, and blend them until smooth. Then make some toast and enjoy!

Manly Man Bread

Ingredients:

1½ tsp yeast

1 cup white flour.

1 cup whole wheat flour.

2 TBSP gluten

1 TBSP buttermilk powder

¼ cup milk powder

¼ cup oatmeal, steel cut

3 TBSP butter, warm

¼ cup flax seed meal

¾ cup granola

¼ pound savory sausage, fried.

2 TBSP honey

8 ounces oatmeal stout beer, warm (drink the rest)

1 large egg (brown, to go with the beer)

¼ cup grated cheddar cheese

⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese

Combine the first set of ingredients in the bread machine. When they’re well combined, add the stout and egg. Five minutes before the end of the second mixing, add the cheese.

Observation:  This is really quite heavy, which is to be expected with these ingredients. As a result, it didn't get all the way done all the way to the center. Next time:

• a little more yeast 
• add some dark rye flour
• cook it in two smaller loaves. 
• cheese in chunks, not shreds, 
• more sausage. Maybe some bacon.
• Add the meat very late, also.
• More seeds (especially flax seed).

Polenta & Sausage

Ingredients: 
per serving:

3 slices polenta, cut into ⅜” cubes.

1 sausage or bratwurst, cut into ⅜” cubes.

    (Substitute cubes of firm, marinated tempeh or tofu for vegetarian)

1 large San Marzano (or medium Roma) cut into ⅜” cubes.

⅓ cup broccoli cut into ⅜” cubes.

⅓ cup kale cut into pieces.

¼ cup bell pepper cut into ⅜” cubes.

⅓ cup Parmesan cheese

½ tsp garlic powder

Salt & pepper to taste.

1 TBSP olive oil for frying

Heat oil, and cook polenta and sausage, until sausage is done. Season with garlic powder, salt & pepper.

Reduce heat and add vegetables. Cook until they’re only beginning to get soft: two or three minutes. Stir well.

Transfer to plate / plates. Top with Parmesan cheese & broil 6 – 8 minutes, or until cheese starts to brown.

Warn guests that the plates are real hot!

Review: This is quite good. Consider other cheeses (cheddars? goat cheese for cow-dairy free), other meat (pork? chicken?). I'll bet this would make interesting nachos. 

Per person:

Sausage And Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

Directions:

Remove top & bottom of squash (for a flat base to sit on)

Halve the squash. Remove seed in each half. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt & fresh pepper.

Bake: 40 minutes @ 400°

 

Saute the filling in a frying pan: 
 
½ cup Tempeh: Cut into small pieces (<¼” cubes, or small strips). Cook in a frying pan with ½ cup vegetable or chicken broth. Simmer until water has evaporated. Remove from pan & set aside.

Add to the frying pan:

1 TBSP olive oil.

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped,

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp fresh, chopped rosemary

3+ cloves garlic, chopped

Add ½ pound tempeh (or use ground sausage). Continue cooking until tempeh is mixed in, or until sausage is browned.

 

Add 1 apple, chopped/cubed.

Add ½ cup bread crumbs.  

      (Use cornbread or other crumbs for gluten free)

Add ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese. 

      (Or use alternative/goat cheese for dairy-free meal)

Continue cooking until Parmesan is melted.

Fill each halved squash with the filling.

Sprinkle more Parmesan on top.

Bake for 20 more minutes at 400°.

Garnish with a little more Parmesan & a small sprig of fresh rosemary.

*Tempeh: cut into small pieces 

Sweet & Spicy Squash & Tempeh

INGREDIENTS

1 clove elephant garlic, cubed (alternate: a head of garlic cloves, peeled & halved)

1 medium apple, peeled, cored & cubed

One 2-pound, peeled butternut squash, washed, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1-inch cubes

½ pound tempeh, cubed

1 small sweet potato, cubed

½ medium yellow onion, cubed

One 13.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk

¼ cup light brown sugar

1TBSP fresh ginger, peeled & minced

⅓ tsp hot pepper powder

1 TBSP roasted garlic powder

½ tsp garam masala

1 tsp vegetable bouillon

½ cup water

PREPARATION

Heat water and bouillon in a small frying pan, to boiling. Add tempeh cube. Cook for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally, turn once or twice. Drain, reserving the liquid.  

In a large roasting bowl, stir together the coconut milk, brown sugar and all spices. Add reserved vegetable broth. Add the squash and turn to coat thoroughly.

Preheat the barbecue. Heat a medium-large cast iron frying pan on barbecue. Add coated vegetables to hot pan and cover the pan with foil or a lid, and bake on the barbecue for about 30 minutes, until the squash is beginning to get tender.

Remove foil or lid, and allow the mix to thicken for 10 minutes.

Serve over rice.
 

Results? Really good!

Pumpkin Soup, Baked in the Pumpkin

Ingredients for two people.

Note: give yourself a lot of time. This took me two hours.

1 small size pumpkin (2 or 2½ pounds), rinsed.

2 tsp vegetable oil

½ TBSP butter

1 clove garlic, smashed & minced

¼ cup yellow onion, chopped

½ - ¾ cup apple, peeled, cored, & cubed

½ tsp chicken or vegetable bouillon paste

½ cup or so milk or milk alternative (soy, etc.)

2 oz fresh feta or goat cheese, crumbled

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Pre-heat the barbecue to medium heat.

Prep the pumpkin as if you were carving a jack-o-lantern: make a lid & clean out the seeds. Oil the outside of the pumpkin. Set it in an oiled snug, oven-safe bowl or soufflé dish.

Fill the pumpkin: Add butter, garlic, onion, apple, bouillon paste and milk. Do not fill completely; leave at least half an inch clearance in the top of the pumpkin.

Turn off the barbecue burners on one side, and place a veggie tray on that side. Set the pumpkin on that veggie tray on the un-heated side of the barbecue. (I’m told that you can use a 375º oven instead.) Bake the pumpkin until it’s done. That was about an hour in the barbecue.

Remove the lid, add the goat cheese & thyme, and cook another 30 minutes.

Pour the soupy contents into a blender or food processor. Scrape most of the pumpkin meat off of the inside of the pumpkin and add to the food processor. Pulse until the soup is creamy, but still has textured chunks.

Serve in soup bowls. Garnish with a few more thyme leaves, roasted pumpkin seeds, or a drizzle of crème fraîche. Serve with toast or crackers.

As an alternate, and if your pumpkin is still holding form well:

Leave the soup in the pumpkin, and scrape some of the pumpkin meat into the soup with a spoon, then blend with an immersion blender. Serve in the pumpkin.

Conclusion: We loved this. Very good.

Note: this goes well with a bright pilsner. 

 

Country Style Spare Ribs

2-3 pounds country-style pork ribs. (Half a pound per person.)

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup cider vinegar

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup good red wine

¼ cup stone ground mustard

¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1½ TBSP (roasted) garlic powder

1 tsp (roasted) onion powder.

1 TBSP rhubarb powder (dried, ground)

1 TBSP roasted bell pepper powder

¼ tsp red pepper powder

1½ TBSP low salt soy sauce

1 tsp Tabasco sauce

1 tsp Tabasco smoked chipotle sauce

Combine all sauce ingredients in a food processor and blend until very smooth. Pour over the ribs, making sure all ribs are covered on all sides with sauce. Marinate at room temperature for an hour, or in the refrigerator overnight.

Barbecue on medium grille; spoon extra sauce onto ribs on the grille (but make sure that the sauce all gets cooked before serving).

Cook ribs until they’re no longer pink, but are still moist inside. Serve with grilled corn on the cob, grilled jojo’s, grilled bell peppers and maybe a nice amber ale.

Share with good friends.

Guy Spice (Spiced Pepper Mix for Grinder)

Ingredients:

• rainbow peppercorns
• white peppercorns
• whole allspice
• whole cardamom seeds
• whole anise seeds
• whole celery seed
• whole caraway seeds
• dried basil
• dried garlic chunks
• dried pizza peppers

Comment: the mix is more than two thirds peppercorns: maybe half a cup rainbow, a couple TBSP of white, and between half a TBSP and one and a half TBSP of the other spices. I bought them bulk; the lady at the checkout counter looked at me funny.

I used a rainbow peppercorn mix, and added additional white peppercorns, because I like the mild white pepper better than black pepper. I would have added more green or rose peppercorns if I could.

The allspice was hardest to find, and perhaps the most rewarding. I chose mostly tiny whole allspice berries, and cut the larger ones in half. Cardamom, caraway and anise fairly important in the mix. The basil, garlic, celery and pizza peppers don’t do a lot to add to the mixture of what I was trying to accomplish.

I like it. I think this is going to be my primary “generic pepper seasoning” for a while.

Load the whole mix in a pepper grinder, and away you go! 

Dark German-American Beer Bread:

Today's goal was to make a bread that had the substantial feel and flavor of a good dark German bread. I recently made a "kit" German beer bread, and I tried to identify the ingredients and translate them to American ingredients and American measurements.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon yeast.
2 cups light rye flour.
1 cup whole wheat flour.
1 cup white flour.
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast.
1 quarter cup flax seed meal.
1 quarter cup nonfat dry milk.

1 tablespoon brown sugar.
1 tablespoon buttermilk powder.
1 tablespoon wheat germ.
2 tablespoons gluten powder.

1 tablespoon olive oil.

1 egg.
1 12-ounce bottle stout beer. (I used Obsidian Stout.)

Instructions: I mixed all the powdered ingredients in the bread machine, and add all the liquids. Consider adding a little bit more liquid (another egg? A quarter cup more beer, or perhaps milk or water).

The dough was very thick, heavy and cold because I used cold beer. Do not use cold beer. Use beer that's at least room temperature, preferably body temperature. 

I let the bread machine mix it, rest it, and mix it a second time. I pulled it out of the machine, shaped it into two small loaves, sliced a cross in the top of each, and put them in a warm oven.

It took an hour to rise, then, with the bread still in it, I pre-heated the oven to 350º. After 30 or so minutes or so of constant checking, I boosted the temperature to 400º and left it there for another eight or ten minutes.

Results: Excellent: very dark, very flavorful bread. The most “German” beer I’ve made yet. Completely unsuitable for peanut butter sandwiches, it might be excellent with roast beef with sharp cheddar cheese, or fried eggs with garlic and Parmesan, or Havarti and grilled onions. It would be excellent alongside a bowl of hearty beef stew or chili.

Potential improvements:

·         Mix the dough in the KitchenAid, not the bread machine. (Good plan: much better.)

·         Do not cut crosses in the top of the loaf.  (Also good plan; makes it taller.)

·         Consider making a single, long (not round) loaf. (detail: all my cast iron is round!)

·         Consider a modest amount of grains. (Excellent idea!)

·         Consider a sourdough version of this.  (Need to try this.)

·         When flouring the dough to shape it, use dark flour. White flour looks dorky on the crust. (This makes it prettier.)

_________________

Second try:

1 tablespoon yeast added to 1 bottle warmed Obsidian stout to start in the Kitchen Aid.  

2 cups light rye flour 

1 cup spelt flour. 

Half cup whole wheat flour. 

Half cup white flour. 

1 tablespoon flax seed.  

2 tablespoons millet. 

2 eggs.

Same last seven ingredients of powdered goods; same oil. 

Result: Lighter,  both in weight and flavor. Cruncher. Very good. My Expert Bread Tester said, "The flavor of the second loaf was much more interesting, beginning with the flavors of the grains, and after moment the Stout making itself known wonderfully without overpowering the taste of the other ingredients as it did in the first loaf."

Comment: I really like baking bread in cast iron. Even a frying pan is a good breadpan!

_________________

Third try:

Same as second,  with these changes: 

* no millet,  slightly more flaxseed. 

* no sugar,  honey or other sweetener. 

* half teaspoon chicken. bouillon, for salt. (I can't believe I forgot salt the first 2 times!)

Result: probably the best yet: better texture, slightly better flavor. My Expert Bread Tester said he considered this one the best of the three.

I was concerned that having no sugar would make it hard for the bread to raise. I warmed the cast iron pan and greased it before putting the dough in it, and I let it raise in a slightly warmed oven (as in the second attempt), and it rose well: ready to bake in 25 minutes. (I took the dough out of the oven to preheat the oven to 400 this time: baked for 25 minutes: just perfect the first try!)