Food Control and Family Patterns and Pasta

My little brother Geordie has moved in with us.  I love my little brother and am totally delighted that he is here, especially the way his presence exposes the family patterns so quickly and easily.

It was around 3:30pm and Eric had come home from the grocery store with the fixings for a smoked white fish dip and the ingredients for roasted tomato sausage pasta.  I was excited to make a nice meal for the 3 of us.

Geordie emerged from the office and announced he was hungry and was going to go out and get something.  I mistakenly suggested he wait cuz I was going to make dinner.  I jumped up and prepped the whitefish dip.  When it was gone within 2 minutes, I realized that maybe I had underestimated (or worse, not even acknowledged) his hunger.  And that the appropriate response would have been, "Great, see you later."

But I was attached to our having dinner together, and so I navigated incorrectly, not receiving the fresh information.  And as most of us do when we are hungry and not being allowed to do what we want to do, he got angry.  (A mild soft angry with a slight agitated and accusing raised voice).  And I felt like my mother with my father.  One wanting the freedom to satisfy his needs and the other trying to satisfy hers, corrupted with the illusion that her plan was superior.

And so he left to get food, and I laughed and saw what had happened.  And when the invitation came in to go to a housewarming party from 6 to 7, I accepted cuz now I was off the hook for dinner.  Geordie returned with beer and peanuts still under the assumption that I was cooking dinner.  Hahaha.  Trick or treat has been the theme for me with my SELF this week and she keeps winning.

1. Preheat Oven to 400 degrees

2. Slice open the collection of tomatoes you have from Steve and the Sunday Farmers market.  (Tonight we had romas, heirloom, vine ripe and cherry).  Lay out on a baking sheet.  Smear with olive oil, crack some pepper and put in oven.  Set timer for 30 minutes.

3. In a heavy enameled cast iron pot, add some olive oil.  When hot, cook up turkey sausage.  Tonight Eric came home with spicy and mild.

4. Meanwhile, mince up 1 or 2 carrots and 2 stalks celery and 2 shallots.  When meat is done, remove with a slotted spoon.  add more oil if necessary and add carrots, celery and shallots.

5. Mince up some rosemary and add to herbs along with some dried thyme and other desired herbs or spices.  Eventually add about a cup of wine and allow to simmer and evaporate.  By this time the tomatoes are done.  I poured the entire tray of tomatoes with juices in.  If I had paused, i might have drained them a bit, cuz the sauce seems more watery than i would have liked.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer.  (Even though the sauce did not need any more liquid, I added a little beef broth to enhance the flavor.)

6. Meanwhile, start a large pot of salted water to boil.   Cook pasta, drain and serve with sauce.

7. Delight in the revealing of that which is no longer serving you.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Late Summer Tomatoes Rule!

Tonight, we oven roasted a selection of local heirlooms and vine ripes from Steve's Farm.  

Mashed them up.  Added some basil from B.D.'s Farm, minced raw red onion from Steve's Farm, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Maybe the best tomato sauce ever.

Added some browned turkey sausage and served with Strangled Priest Pasta topped with some fresh mozzarella.

Makeshift Pesto Sausage Pasta

Eric only received half the text and came home with turkey sausage, strangled priest pasta and sun dried tomatoes...not really enough to create a sauce.

So, pulled out everything we had in the fridge (today i was grateful for the CSA) and decided to make pesto kind of thing:

Bring Water to a Boil and pasta accordingly.

In a Cuisinart, mix

- fresh garlic from Steve's Farm

- Salt

- Slivered Almonds

- Fresh Basil from Steve's Farm

- a Canned Chipotle

- Meyer Lemon Juice

- Olive Oil

To create a Pesto.

In the pan, 

- Brown the Sausage and Remove from pan and place in big bowl.

- Add leftover roasted tomatoes from earlier in the week, add the few fresh ones you have along with sliced up marinated sun dried tomatoes and heat through.  Add to bowl with sausage.

1/4 Slice half of a small red onion up for fresh pepperyness.  Add to bowl.

When pasta is done, drain and add to bowl.  Add pesto, salt and pepper and toss to coat pasta. 

Grate Preseason on top.

For a spontaneous random creation, it didn't turn out that bad.  Lots of flavor and good mix of light and savory flavors.  And eric, who just came home from a 12 hour drive was happy.

Grilled Cheese Take 2

A while ago I published instructions for my first foods. The things I first learned how to make. One of them was a grilled cheese sandwich for my dad. Today I updated it with my beuaitul Southern California life vegetables.

1. Turn on broiler.
2. Slice Ciabatta bread to desired thickness.
3. Put toast on cookie sheet and toast one side under broiler.
4. Thinly slice the raw hard goat cheese they carry at Rainbow Bridge and put on non-toasted bread side. Put under broiler to melt.
5. Meanwhile, in the nooks and crannies of toasting time, halve or quarter your favorite delicious cherry tomatoes. (Lately I am using the big orange ones from Farmer and the Cook). Toss tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some shredded lemon basil and salt. (Some chopped shallots might have been good too).
6. When cheese is at desired meltiness, remove toasts to a plate and spoon tomato mixture on top. Grind some fresh pepper on and serve with knife and fork.

A Variation on a Theme: Pasta with Tomotoes and Other Stuff

Eric says I have been dialing this dish in since the winter. Using canned tomatoes and chard and sausage and some other unusual things like adobo sauce from the chitpole pepper can and sun dried tomatoes, the first version of this dish made Eric say, "Wow, this dish would make Uncle Cuccio so mad. Because he would love it and it would be like nothing he ever tasted before."

The ingredients keep changing with the seasons. Here is the version that we made tonight:


1. Start a pot of water boiling
2. Start Heat under your favorite meat searing pan. (Tonight I used non-stick cuz I am going out of town tomorrow and did not feel like having a lot to clean up).
3. Remove casing from Hot Italian Turkey Sausage (or other sausage of choice) and pull into bits and add to hot pan. Brown and when done, turn off heat and leave in pan.
4. Meanwhile, finely mince or press 2 cloves of garlic. Mash with some salt and throw in large bowl with some olive oil.
5. Half a small red onion and slice half moon shapes out of one side. Add to bowl.
6. Core and chop 4 large Delicious Big Beef or Heirloom Tomatoes.
7. Thinly slice about 7 marinated sun dried tomatoes and add to bowl.
8. Drain and add about 1/2 a jar of pitted Kalamata olives.
9. Pull Lemon Basil Leaves off the stems and add to bowl.
10. Stir and pour some more olive oil in, along with some Balsamic Vinegar and lots of Ground Pepper. Allow to sit while sausage finishes cooking and water begins to bowl.

Tonight, Eric and I were working and he asked me to delay dinner an hour, I turned water off and once sausage seemed done, turned it off to, but the tomato mixture was allowed to marinate. This seemed to work out.

11. Once sausage is done, turn off heat and let it rest till needed.
12. Once water is boiling, throw in pasta. I have been a huge egg pasta fan lately and tonight we used the fettucini width egg pasta noodles.
13. When pasta is done, drain. Add Sausage and lots of salt to tomato mixture. Mix with pasta and serve with chopped fresh mozzarella on top.

Volunteer Heirloom Bruschetta

Beautiful Ripe Small Heirlooms from Steve's Farm
Red Onion from Farmer and the Cook
Fresh Garlic from B.D.
Arugula from Steve's Farm
Lemon Basil from BD
Balsamic Vinegar from Kim from Argentina
Olive Oil
Fresh Mozzarella from Rainbow

Olivia combined the above ingredients in the perfect combination and sliced the mozzarella, arranging it around the bowl of tomatoes.
I sliced the bread into 1/2 inch thick slices. Toasted one side, then lightly under toasted the other. Removed from oven, rubbed a cut slice of garlic on the slices, poured some olive oil on them and toasted them a little more.
Instead of putting the tomato mixture on the bread, Olivia served the bowl of tomatoes with the bread on the side.

In Anticipation of Summer Cold Pasta

This pasta is best in the late summer when the tomatoes and cucumbers are unbelievable. But we swung by Farmer and the Cook tonight after a long hike and the produce, as always looked great, so we decided to give it a try.

Start a pot of water boiling for the pasta.
Start preparing below. Once water boils, add some salt and the pasta.
(Tonight we used Bionaturae's Organic Fusili)

As you prepare below, add to a wide deep bowl.

1. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and mash with some good salt
2. Thinly quarter 1/2 a red onion
3. Chop about a pound of the best tomato's you can find.
4. Thinly slice and then mince between 5 and 8 marinated sun dried tomatoes.
5. Add too much good quality olive oil and stir the mixture.
6. Peal and half and slice 2 cucumbers into half moon shapes.
7. Finely grate zest of 2 lemons into bowl. Then slice and squeeze the juice, being aware of keeping the seeds from getting into the bowl.
   
8. Add a shy 2 tbl. of drained capers.
9. Add about 1/2 cup of pitted halved kalamata olives.
10. If I had had fresh herbs like Tarragon or Basil, I would have used them. But instead, I used some dried Mexican Oregano and Red Pepper flakes.
11. Open and remove pits of 3 avocados. Keep avocado in skin and Using Sharp knife, slice in two directions to get 1/4 inch pieces. Reserve and do not add to bowl.
    

Stir the above and add too much salt and ground pepper.

12. Once pasta is done, drain and run cool water over it, stirring to bring temperature down evenly.

13. Add pasta to mixture and stir. Use spoon to scoop out avocados and gently add to pasta mixture.

Red Potato and Heirloom Tomato Gratin, Thursday, April 19th

I have been trying to hit this for a while. I started making a version of it from Deborah Madison's Green's Cookbook when I first started cooking. I was drawn to it cuz she said that she had gotten it from a Cookbook by Picasso and it had all of Eric's favorite ingredients in it.

We stopped by FnC on our way home after a hike on Willis Canyon and got the goods. We also picked up 2 delicious cappuccinos at Coffee Connection. We only had a Credit Card and Taylor trusted us to come back the next day. We put Steve and Olivia down as references.

So I am writing this as I cook, cuz these the first step of browning the potatoes takes time.

Get your OVEN ready. Preheat to 400 degrees/BAKE.
You will need an Oven Proof Pyrex-like Dish and A High Sided, Flat Bottomed Wide Skillet.

The POTATOES
1. Slice Potatoes as Thin as you can without hurting yourself.(Thank you, Edna).
2. Heat too much Olive Oil in the high sided flat skillet.
3. Brown the Potato Slices. You will need to work in batches. As they are browning, sprinkle fresh chopped ROSEMARY, good quality SALT and fresh ground mixed PEPPERCORNS on them. I seem to brown one side more than the other, guessing that this allows it to be both crispy and soft. I think I could have made them more like potato chips as they soften in the oven. Once browned remove to a plate. (If you want a drier dish, drain the chips on a towel. I ususally use paper, but I would love to learn how to use cloth. Maybe cheese cloth could work.)


THE ONIONS
4. While the potatoes are frying, slice up a large RED ONION. I chose to slice it in rings, cuz I thought it would look the prettiest.
5. Once the potatoes are all browned up, start browning the all onions in the same pan.

THE GARLIC
6. While the Potatoes are Browning or while the Onions are softening, Mince the GARLIC.

THE TOMATOES
7. While the Potatoes are Browning or the Onions are browning, core and slice the heirloom tomatoes.

THE OLIVES
8. While the Onions are browning, chop the BLACK OLIVES to a consistency of "chunky". I had a combination of herb cured and kalamata.

Once onions are browned, add the garlic, olives, DRIED THYME, a hint of RED PEPPER FLAKES, more salt, more ground pepper. Saute another 2 minutes or so, or until you first smell the garlic.

THE OVEN DISH
9. Poor a little olive oil into your PYREX-LIKE dish. Tonight I used this pretty Blue Crueset Oven Dish I have.

10. Spread Onions over the Bottom.

11. Layer first layer of potatoes on top of the onions.

12. Layer the slices of heirloom tomato. I had a combination of dark red and orange and I spread them out to create some contrast.

13. Layer the top layer of potatoes on. (I saved the most attractive (to me) potatoes for the top layer.)

14. Put in Oven. Set for 20 minutes

15. During this time, make the SAUCE and prep the SALAD.

16. At 20 minutes, check. Turn the pan 180 degrees to even out oven heat's effect on the dish. And set for 10 to 15 more minutes.

17. When done, remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes or so to cool to a reasonable temperature. As a cook who tastes all the time, you build up a tolerance for heat. People that are not used to tasting HOT food, need more cooling time than you think.

18. THE SAUCE
By hand, mix mostly sour creme, some meyer lemon juice , a smidge of grain mustard and some dry (fresh would be better) dill together.


19. TO SERVE
Use a serrated spatula (I love my Cutco one) to cut the Gratin into a serving portion. Tonight's gratin did not hold and was loose and "Country Style" in the shallow bowl. I kind of like this aesthetic, but it you want a tighter hold, you will use less oil, maybe add a binder, like egg or milk, and allow to cool a little more.

20. Serve the Sauce on the side.