Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are not health food. However, they are incredibly easy to make, and always get rave reviews.

When Tracie came up for Thanksgiving, she told me she had never eaten scalloped potatoes that were not from a box.

You can imagine the horror on my face at the thought of boxed scalloped potatoes. That's not food. That's chemicals and processing.

So I was happy to introduce her to the real thing. Which she loved.

I was almost embarrassed to tell her how easy it was to make.

So if you're planning to serve scalloped potatoes to your family, serve the real thing, made with real potatoes and hormone-free dairy products. And serve a bunch of greens on the side to counteract the whipping cream and cheese. Everyone will love you for it.

A note on the cheese: At Thanksgiving I used a mixture of aged gruyere, smoked cheddar and jack because that's what I had in the fridge. Plain swiss or cheddar are good too, and sometimes a little blue cheese in the mix is nice.

Scalloped Potatoes
6 baking potatoes
butter for greasing dish
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups grated cheese

Preheat oven to 375°.

Peel and thinly slice potatoes and layer them in a greased 1 1/2 quart cassserole or gratin dish.

Stir together milk, cream and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Carefully pour over potatoes.

Sprinkle cheese evenly on top.

Place the dish on a baking sheet in case it bubbles over. Bake 1 hour 30 minutes until potatoes are tender and top is nicely browned. (Cover with foil part way through if necessary to keep the potatoes from getting too brown.)

Serves 6-8

Post-Thanksgiving Shopping

Thanksgiving dinner produces great leftovers, so we went to the Hollywood Farmers Market Sunday morning expecting only to buy some greens and fruit.

It started well at the Finley Farms stand with malabar spinach and snap peas. But they also had parsnips and Canadian-sized rutabagas - how could I resist? I spent years being deprived of parsnips and rutabagas because I couldn't find them organically-grown. So now I'm like an addict - snatching up organic ones whenever I see them in order to get my fix. We'll eat them mashed, sautéed, roasted, cooked in soup and baked in spice cake - and then I'll prowl the market in search of more.

Flora Bella had black radishes and smaller rutabagas, so I bought them too.

And Tutti Frutti had red peppers and poblanos - perfect for roasting and freezing.

Yes, our fridge is now tightly packed, but the roots will store well if we don't manage to eat them all this week. And with the evenings drawing in, dinners of root vegetables are just the thing to nourish body and soul.

Here's what we came home with:

1 bag malabar spinach
1 bunch red russian kale
1 bunch purple mustard greens
1 small bag snap peas
2 red peppers
8 poblanos
2 onions
3 sweet potatoes
9 small potatoes
1 celeriac
1 giant rutabaga
1 bunch small rutabagas
2 bunches parsnips
2 bunches black radish
2 bulbs fennel
4 apples
6 oz blueberries
4 pomegranates
6 grapefruit
6 small jars of St. Benoit yogurt
1 lb Oaxaca coffee from Cafecito Organico

Thanksgiving Recap

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

Ours was peaceful and full of food (two Thanksgiving dinners, remember?), with a little gardening thrown in for good measure.

These are a few things I learned along the way:

• St. André cheese with strawberries - excellent!
• Mashed potatoes and creamed corn are a match made in heaven, even when the creamed corn is a little salty.
• Fresh herbs make white beans delectable.
• Scalloped potatoes are the easiest way to get rave reviews.
• It's hard to screw up white bread rolls.
• The pressure cooker is great for root vegetables.
• Pink Lady apples make excellent applesauce.
• Pie takes practice - once a year is not cutting it (see last year's Thanksgiving recap).

Thanksgiving Dinner

Our Thanksgiving is a little complicated this year.

Our niece Tracie will be serving dinners at an Orange County mission, so we've invited her to have Thanksgiving with us on Friday.

Being a Canadian, I thought that left my Thursday free. I planned to dig in the garden while listening to NPR. Lynne Rosetto-Kasper's Turkey Confidential is my favorite cooking show of the year.

But I was wrong.

The Thursday Thanksgiving dinner tradition is too strong to ignore, so Larry and I will have a special dinner that day too.

Three people, two Thanksgiving dinners -- it seems a little extreme to me, but isn't that what this holiday is all about?

Here are the menus I have planned:

Thursday:
Pork something in the slow cooker (Larry's cooking and eating this)
Acorn squash with White Beans and Herbs
Brussels sprouts
Mashed potatoes
Creamed corn

Friday:
Tracie always arrives hungry, so I'll set out appetizers of salted almonds, St. André cheese, strawberries and sparkling wine
Honey-baked ham
Orange-bourbon baked beans
Scalloped potatoes
Pressure-cooked root vegetables
Mustard greens
Applesauce
Rolls
Apple-pear-cranberry pie with whipped cream and butterscotch sauce for dessert (not that we'll have room, but it will be good for breakfast on Saturday)

I hope you have a delicious and happy Thanksgiving!

Autumn Stew

If you're uncertain what to serve the vegetarians at Thanksgiving dinner, consider this lovely wild rice and squash dish that is both autumnal and protein-rich. Everyone will eat it as a side, and the vegetarians will thank you for a satisfying meal.

The vegetables can be prepped ahead, and the stew stirred together on the stove while the turkey rests.

We ate it for dinner Monday night. I pre-cooked the beans and wild rice, and diced the squash. It all sat on the counter until 30 minutes before dinner, when I stirred it together for an easy and excellent meal.

The stew is really good with parmesan shavings on it, but don't do that unless you know there are no vegans at your table (vegans don't eat eggs or dairy products). Instead, serve the parmesan on the side so people can help themselves.

Autumn Stew
1/3 cup dry lima or cannellini beans (or 1 can, drained)
3/4 cup wild rice
1/2 oz dried mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz mushrooms, halved or quartered
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp fresh thyme (or 1 1/2 tsp dried)
3 cups vegetable broth
1 lb butternut squash
1 tsp salt
4 large chard leaves
parmesan

Cook the beans in plenty of boiling water until tender. This will take 2-3 hours depending on the freshness of the beans. Make sure they're cooked all the way through before you drain them.

Cook the wild rice in plenty of salted boiling water until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and stringy flesh. Peel off the skin, and dice the squash in 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces.

Cover the dried mushrooms with 1 cup boiling water and let steep 10 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the soaking liquid, make sure they have no grit on them, and chop them coarsely. Strain any grit from the soaking liquid and keep it separate.

Warm olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté onion, mushrooms, pepper and thyme, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minutes until lightly browned.

Add the broth, cooked wild rice, cooked beans, squash and 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, until the squash is tender when pierced with a thin knife, 12-15 minutes.

Add mushrooms and their soaking liquid.

Rinse the chard leaves and chop them, including their stems. Add to the pot, cover, and let cook until stems are tender, about 10 minutes. Season to taste.

Serve with parmesan shavings.

Serves 6 as a main course, more as a side dish.

Peeling Pomegranates

I really like the sweet-tart crunch of pomegranate seeds. I sprinkle them on our breakfast fruit, add them to salads, and use them as a garnish on anything that needs a little color.

The whole pomegranates last a couple of weeks in the fridge. The seeds will last a few days in a covered container.

Organic pomegranates are easy to find at this time of year. I was even given some from a friend's tree. Here is how I prepared them:


The challenge of a pomegranate is the red juice that sprays from the seeds with the slightest provocation. I've found the key to containing it is to do all the prep work under water. It doesn't alter the taste of the seeds, and it keeps my hands and clothes clean.

I first score the skin of the pomegranate with a paring knife, dividing it into quadrants.




Then I pull at the white pith, dividing the pomegranate into large pieces. The jewel-like seeds nestle in clusters and are easily pried free.




It takes a little patience, but with practice you'll be able to do this in under 5 minutes.



The small pieces of pith float on the surface. I skim them off with a small strainer, then drain the water off the seeds.



The result: a bowl of crunchy juicy seeds that will add flavor and color to any dish. Even better, they're full of heart-healthy, cholesterol-lowering, cancer-fighting nutrients. Enjoy them often during their short season.

Stir-fried Spaghetti Squash

Usually I serve spaghetti squash with a chunky tomato sauce - playing on its spaghetti-like appearance.

However, the squash does not have the taste or texture of pasta, as Larry points out to me regularly. Thinking about it, I realized it's more like Asian cellophane noodles, with a bit of a crunch to it. So the other day I stir-fried it with ginger, garlic and sesame. It was a revelation - who knew that spaghetti squash was the perfect foil for a stir-fry?

I even enjoyed the leftovers cold as a salad the next day.

I used red pepper and asparagus, but you could use whatever vegetables you prefer. Snow peas, spring onions, pea shoots, green beans - all would be good. And whatever you choose, this is a filling yet low-calorie dish. Perfect as we head into the holiday season.

(Spaghetti squash is an oval, yellow winter squash. Choose one that is firm and heavy.)

Stir-fried Spaghetti Squash
1 spaghetti squash (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 lbs)
2 tsp sesame seeds
3/4 lb asparagus
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp minced gingerroot
1 cup thinly sliced red pepper
2 tbsp roasted sesame oil

Preheat oven to 350°F. Rinse the squash and place it in the oven. Let it bake 45 minutes or so until it feels tender when you squeeze it.

Let the squash cool a little, then cut it in half lengthwise and discard the seeds and slimy pulp. The firmer part of the squash will separate into spaghetti-like strands. Scrape them with a fork into a large bowl and set aside.

Toast the sesame seeds in a heavy pan on the stove until fragrant, about one minute.

Cut asparagus into bite-sized pieces and steam until tender-crisp, about 3 minutes.

Stir-fry olive oil, ginger and garlic in a large hot skillet until sizzling, under a minute. Add asparagus, squash strands and red pepper. Stir gently, lightly tossing the squash, until it's hot, about 5 minutes. Toss with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour into a serving bowl and drizzle with the roasted sesame oil and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Serves 6

Egg Salad Sandwich

For too long, eggs have had a bad rap. People wrongly believed they were too high in fat and dietary cholesterol to be part of a healthy diet.

Fortunately people are now realizing that eggs are a healthy food.

Of course, it depends on the eggs you eat. We eat eggs from chickens that live in an apple orchard: eating bugs, scratching in the dirt, nibbling on weeds, eating a little grain to supplement their diet. I bet these are really healthy eggs. Most so-called free-range or organic eggs are from chickens whose diet is mainly soy and corn. Not as natural, but at least they're not eating ground-up chicken feathers like factory-farmed chickens do.

Anyway, no matter what kind of egg you can find, eat the whole thing. The yolks are the richest source of choline known. Choline is essential for brain health, and for brain and memory development in the fetus (attention pregnant and nursing moms).

Eggs are also anti-inflammatory, and they have compounds that break homocysteine down so they're good for the heart too.

To set the cholesterol myth to rest, a recent study in northern Mexico found that eating eggs can actually improve cholesterol levels, even when combined with a high intake of fatty foods like hydrogenated oils.

This egg salad sandwich is not traditional - it includes fresh herbs and mushrooms - but it is scrumptious. I served it on homemade white bread because it's nice to have squishy bread to hold the sandwich together. But feel free to use nutritious whole grain bread instead.

I adapted the recipe from Season to Taste, an accomplished book on herbs and spices in American cooking that Jeannette Ferrary and Louise Fiszer wrote in 1988. I've dipped into it regularly over the years, and always learn something new and get a good recipe. (Rosemary garlic bread - mmm!)

Egg Salad Sandwich
1 tbsp butter
1 spring onion, chopped
1/4 lb mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp fresh marjoram leaves, chopped (or 1/4 tsp dried)
2 eggs, hardboiled and shelled
2 tbsp mayonnaise
red onion rings
baby spinach or butter lettuce
4 slices bread

Sauté onion and mushrooms in butter in a small skillet for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice and stir in marjoram. Allow to cool slightly.

Chop eggs coarsely. Combine with mushrooms and mayonnaise. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spread the egg mixture on two slices of bread. Top with red onion rings and spinach leaves. Top with other two slices of bread.

Makes 2 sandwiches.

Eggplant with Peanut Sauce

Our eggplants have been challenged this year -- possums kept digging the plants up and looking underneath for grubs. You can only replant an eggplant so many times before it gives up.

But the Japanese eggplant is finally producing, so I picked a couple for dinner the other day. I grilled them and served them with peanut sauce because I wanted Larry to really enjoy our home-grown produce. Eggplant is not his favorite food, but I'm pretty sure peanut butter is in his top ten.

There are as many variations of peanut sauce as there are people. The basics are a little salt and a little sour added to the peanut butter. Some people add sweet too, but you've probably already discerned my anti-sugar bias.

I've previously posted a peanut sauce with yogurt and orange juice, which is really good.

The one I served the other night was flavored with soy sauce and lime juice, which nicely complemented the grilled eggplant.

Japanese eggplants are the slender kind. If you have the heftier Italian kind, slice it crosswise in 1/2" rounds.

We ate baked sweet potato fries and Indian cabbage with the eggplant, making an unusual but enjoyable meal.


Grilled Eggplant with Peanut Sauce
2 slender Japanese eggplants
olive oil
1 tsp roasted sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced
dash red pepper flakes
2 heaping tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp tamari soy sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1-2 tbsp water

Cut the caps off the eggplants and discard. Slice the eggplants in half lengthwise, and smear a little olive oil on the cut sides. Grill in a cast iron grill pan on the stove (or directly on the barbecue grill) until soft.

In a small pan, heat the sesame oil, garlic and red pepper flakes for about a minute. With a fork or a whisk, stir in the peanut butter, soy sauce and lime juice. Add enough water to make a thickish sauce. Keep warm until the eggplants are cooked.

Put a dollop of sauce on each eggplant half and serve.

Serves 2

Sunday Morning Shopping

It was a cold wet morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market. We warmed our hands with a cup of coffee from Cafecito Organico and my shopping list disintegrated in the rain.

This is what we came home with:

1 bunch turnips
1 bunch parsnips
1 bunch rutabagas
7 potatoes
1 ginger root
1 large bunch broccoli
1 cabbage
1 bag malabar spinach
1 red sails lettuce
1 bunch purple mustard greens
1 bunch asparagus
1 leek
4 mushrooms
9 grapefruit
2 persimmons
2 pineapple guavas
2 plums
3 apples
6-oz box blueberries
12-oz bag shelled pistachios
4 small jars of St. Benoit yogurt: 2 meyer lemon, 1 plum, 1 honey
4 oz feta

Vegetable Sides Day Seven

Last night was cabbage and potato night.

To spice it up a little, I added Spanish paprika to the cabbage and rutabagas to the potatoes. They complimented the freezer bean stew nicely.

You can find the potatoes and rutabagas recipe in my post on bashed neeps. It is the lightest, most delicious mashed potatoes you'll ever taste. And no cream or milk. Just a little butter added to the mashed roots.

The cabbage was a simple sauté with sherry and smoked paprika for flavor. Good flavors for a cool fall evening.

Sautéed Cabbage Paprika
1 1/2 lbs cabbage (1 small), sliced thin
1/2 red onion, sliced thin
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sherry
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika

Warm the butter and sherry in a skillet over medium-high heat, along with 1/3 cup water. Add cabbage, onion, salt and pepper. Stir and cover. Let cook 10 minutes on medium heat until the cabbage is tender. Stir in paprika to taste.

Serves 4

Rutabagas from Flora Bella Farm

Vegetable Sides Day Six

Last night we had corn on the cob, probably the last of the season. It was great while it lasted.

I also cooked broccoli and cauliflower the way I did on Sunday.

It's important to eat cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower etc.) at least once a week because they support healthy estrogen pathways (meaning fewer hormonal cancers) and they are the best food out there for the colon.

I chopped the broccoli stems a little smaller, and cooked them with the cauliflower for a couple of minutes before adding the broccoli florets. I find cauliflower florets take longer to cook than broccoli florets.

I served them all plain, with salt and pepper and butter on the side. Click here to read my post on the health benefits of butter.

As a side note, I tried turning the potato gratin leftovers into mashed potatoes. Not really successful. The crusty parts of the gratin wouldn't mash, so it was lumpy. Next time I need to mess with leftover gratin, I will turn it into potato soup. That would have been excellent.

Vegetable Sides Day Five

Last night we had Italian beans in tomato sauce for dinner.

(I pulled them from the freezer after I got home from work, and then I headed into the garden to enjoy the waning daylight.)

When I came in from digging and pruning and feeding, I quickly made two Italian-style vegetable dishes to go with the beans. The first was chard and yellow peppers sautéed with onions, garlic and chile peppers. The second was zucchini with red onion, garlic and chile peppers.

(Health benefits: zucchini is full of anti-oxidants, cholesterol-lowerers, cancer-preventatives, and prostate helpers. Chard is good for blood pressure and blood sugar.)

Add the dried red chile peppers to your taste, or omit them completely. They add a warmth and zest to the meal, but are not essential.

The flavors of each dish are similar, but the textures are different enough that they are a pleasant contrast.

Chard with Yellow Peppers
1 bunch chard
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic
sprinkle red chiles
1/2 yellow pepper, slivered

Chop the brown bits off the chard stems and discard any wilted leaves. Wash well. Then slice the stems from the leaves and chop the stems in 1/2" pieces. Chop the leaves in 1" ribbons.

Warm the olive oil in a deep pan. Add the onion and sauté until softened. Add the garlic, chiles, yellow pepper and chard stems, sprinkle with salt, and stir another two minutes or so until the stems are tender. Stir in the leaves with the water from washing them still clinging to the leaves, and sprinkle with salt. Stir, then cover the pot and let cook five minutes. Stir again, cover and cook until tender.


Spicy Zucchini
2 zucchini
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 clove garlic, minced
sprinkle red chiles

Top and tail the zucchini, and slice in 1/4 inch rounds. Warm the olive oil. Add the onion and cook a couple of minutes until softened. Add the garlic and chiles and cook one minute. Stir in the zucchini, sprinkle with salt, cover and cook 5 minutes. Stir again. Cover and cook until tender, another 4-5 minutes.

Vegetable Sides Day Four

Last night Larry and I went to our favorite bistro for dinner.

I had a side salad, and Larry's dish came with four steamed carrot spears and two brussels sprouts.

The upside of eating out: I don't have to cook.

The downside of eating out: Not enough vegetables.

Vegetable Sides Day Three

Tonight as sides we had a creamy potato-celeriac gratin and some spicy mustard greens to balance the richness.

Celeriac is a brown lumpy hairy root from a kind of celery that looks like the regular kind, but the stalks are more fibrous and better suited to the stock pot than the lunch box. I bought it at Finley Farms with the stalks attached. You will most likely find it without the stems at the grocery store. It tastes similar to celery, but earthier.

Don't bother trying to scrub it. Just pare off all the hairy and brown parts, down to the white part within. I sliced it thinly and put a layer of it in the center of a potato gratin. It was delicious. If you have a potato gratin recipe you like, I recommend you do the same thing. The celeriac has a similar texture to the potato, and adds a savory flavor. I would share my recipe with you, but I added too much liquid so it was too saucy. We had to spoon the potatoes and celeriac out of the sauce. They tasted good, so I'll mash the leftovers into a creamy dish later in the week.

Celeriac is a good source of the soluble fiber that helps lower cholesterol. Mustard greens are high in antioxidants and are powerful anti-inflammatories.

I wanted the mustard greens to hold their zip so I cooked them quickly with garlic and chiles. I cut out the stems, washed the leaves, and cut them in 1" ribbons. I put a scant tablespoon of olive oil in a warm pan, and when it rippled I added a cup of chopped onion. When it had softened, I stirred in a chopped clove of garlic and a sprinkling of crushed chiles. After a minute or so I added the mustard greens and a splash of water, stirred well, and covered the pot. I stirred after 5 minutes, and kept cooking, covered, until slightly browned, less than 10 minutes total.

With two interesting side dishes like this, the main dish becomes the side note.

Vegetable Sides Day Two

Tonight we had chili for dinner, so I thought root vegetables and snap peas would complete the meal nicely.

Snap peas are quick to prepare. Unlike shelling peas, you eat the whole thing. The only prep is to top and tail them with a paring knife, and pull off the string down one side. Then I rinse them and cook them quickly (about 5 minutes depending on the size) in a covered pot with an inch of boiling water in the bottom. I eat my snap peas plain so I can enjoy the sweetness and the slight crunch, but I put butter and salt and pepper on the table in case Larry wants seasoning.

I had beautiful baby beets and turnips in the fridge. We had eaten the greens last week, so just the roots remained. The four beets were about 2" in diameter. I scrubbed them well, cut off the top and tail, and pared off any rough parts of skin. I could have peeled them, but I think the fiber in the skin is good for us. I then cut each beet into eighths.

The 10 turnips were quite tiny. I prepped them like the beets, cutting them into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces.

I tossed the beets and turnips separately in about a 1/2 tsp olive oil - enough to coat them - and sprinkled on some salt and pepper. I put them in a covered casserole and baked them at 400°F for 20 minutes, until they were tender when I poked them with a slender knife. Add extra salt and pepper to taste.

They were great side dishes to the chili, and I have a small container of leftovers that I will eat for lunch tomorrow. I love vegetables.