Today's Boston Globe has an amusing article about the candidates in the Food section (that's right, in the Food section). Basically, it tries to define the candidates in terms of their favorite foods, what they like to prepare, and what they order at restaurants; a take on "you are what you eat."

It got me thinking, how would that define me? In college, my roommate Tammy used to like to ask, "If you were on a desert island and could have only one food with you, what would it be?" I used to choose bagels. Now, it's not that bagels are my favorite food, but I'd say they are one of my favorite breakfasts. My choice of bagels is more about choice. Bagels would be the perfect combination of savory and sweet that I'd think I'd need if it were to be the only food I'd get to eat for the rest of my life.

In terms of my favorite food, I like almost anything, in fact, it's easier to point out what I don't like, and all I can think of right now is scallops and deep-fried seafood. And of course, every rule has an exception, I made Hoison-Grilled Scallops for a client, and loved them! And I like fish & chips (it's about ratio, I think, I'm not a lots-of-batter-to-a-tiny-clam-or-oyster person). I'm much more a favorite-food-of-the-moment person, and right now I'm savoring the last days of summer, so I'll be grilling some fish (whatever looks good at the fish market, maybe even Hoison Scallops) and making a grilled-vegetable salad. Don't know what that says about me ...

What are your favorites? What would you take to a desert island?

What can you do in 45 minutes?

Football season has started, at least practices, that is. This is the first year that my youngest son is playing, so I have two to worry about now. The first week was great, they both practiced from 5:00 to 6:45. An hour and a half is a lot of time to get stuff done in. However, my younger son’s coach must have had a problem with that time slot, because he moved practice an hour later, my evening goes a little something like this:

5:15 Drop off elder son
6:00 Drop off younger son
6:45 Pick up elder son
7:45 Pick up younger son

And did I mention that this is not really the start time, they have to be there 15 minutes early? Why don’t they just say practice is at 5? It must be a football coach thing.

Anyway, younger son does have a friend in the neighborhood who we carpool with most days, but they each have a day off during the week, and so far it’s not the same day.

Which brings me to the question, What can you get done in 45 minutes? OK, you have to drive home from and then back to the field, so it’s more like What can you get done in 35 minutes? Here’s what I’ve come up with, and the list is by no means exhaustive. What can you get done in 35 minutes? Please add your comments.

• Tonight I’m putting together tacos for dinner: Scrambling the frozen hamburg, chopping the lettuce and tomatoes. I can even make Refried black beans (the recipe’s really easy, see my entry on May 17, 2008, “The quickest dinner”, just substitute black beans for the pinto beans).


• You can make Artichoke salsa. This was a forgotten recipe, and I made a batch for a bridal shower I did this summer, and it was a huge hit, and reminded me that I like to keep these ingredients on hand for quick entertaining. The recipe is below.
  
• My friend, Lynne and I often use the time to catch up, and perhaps have a cocktail and appetizer, since we have to wait until after practice to have dinner.
  
• You can take a walk (between the last drop-off and the first pick-up).
  
• You can make a grocery list.
  
• You can do your grocery shopping.
  
• You can read the newspaper, or a book — now that’s decadent.
  
• Read to my daughter ... even better!
  
• I’m not a napper (you might as well let me sleep through the night if I fall asleep in the afternoon, I just wake up badly), but I bet there are people out there who would use the 35 minutes to catch a little shut-eye.
  
• Not as fun, but productive: You can dust or vacuum or clean a bathroom. It feels good to get something accomplished.
  
• You can call your mother, sister, or a friend and catch up.
  
• What else have you got?
  

Artichoke salsa

16 oz marinated artichoke heart, drained, chopped
3 Roma tomatoes,chopped
2 T red onions,chopped
¼ c Kalamata olive, chopped
1 T garlic, chopped
2 T fresh basil, chopped
pita bread, cut into "chips", toasted

In a medium bowl, mix together the artichoke hearts, tomatoes, onion, olives, garlic, salt, and pepper. Serve chilled, or at room temperature, with pita chips.

Back by request

I made a fabulous chocolate cake for my son, Jude’s 10th birthday. One of his friends commented, “This isn’t cake, this is fudge.” It truly is dense, chocolaty, and delicious, but also truly is cake. It’s from-scratch, but truly not much more effort than a boxed cake mix. Even the non-chocolate-eaters among my friends and family are requesting this recipe (or that I make this recipe). Especially Jude’s friend, Henry, has been asking me to give the recipe to his mother, so here it is: It’s from a book called Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes. The recipes aren’t revolting, per se, but they often have revolting connotations from Roald Dahl’s books: Stink Bugs’ Eggs, Mosquitoes’ Toes and Wampfish Roes Most Delicately Fried, Crispy Wasp Stings on a Piece of Buttered Toast, and Fresh Mudburgers, for example. Bruce Bogtrotter’s Cake (from Matilda) got off easy, I think.

I added a teaspoon of vanilla to the original cake recipe, and I reduced the icing from 8 ounces of chocolate and cream to 6 ounces, I just found that the original recipe made just too much icing, and I ended up eating the last ¼ to ½ cup of icing by the spoon after I iced the cake, so if you want that little extra chocolate treat while you’re baking, by all means. I also find it’s easiest to do this in a springform pan. Enjoy!

Bruce Bogtrotter’s cake

8 oz good-quality semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate
12 T butter, softened
1 c plus 2 T sugar
1 t vanilla
¼ c flour
6 eggs, separated, yolks lightly beaten
6 oz good-quality semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate
6 oz heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350°. Line 8½" round springform cake pan with parchment paper, and butter the paper and the sides of the pan. Using a Pyrex bowl and a saucepan as a double-boiler so that you can be sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl, melt 8 oz chocolate over simmering water. When chocolate is melted, add butter, and stir until melted. Transfer chocolate to a large bowl and add sugar, flour, and lightly beaten egg yolks.

Meanwhile, whisk egg whites until stiff. Gently fold half of whites into chocolate mixture, blending thoroughly, then fold in remaining whites until completely incorporated. Pour batter into the cake pan and bake for 35 minutes. There will be a thin crust on top of the cake, and if tested with a toothpick, the inside will appear undercooked (don’t worry, the cake will firm up as it cools). Remove cake from oven, and let cool in the pan on a wire rack.

While cake is baking and cooling, make the icing. Again using the Pyrex bowl and saucepan as a double-boiler, melt 6 oz chocolate with cream, stirring occasionally until chocolate is fully melted and blended with the cream. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

When the cake is cool enough to handle, remove it carefully from the springform pan. The cake is prone to sinking slightly in the middle, so flip it upside down before icing, if necessary. Carefully spread the chocolate icing all over the cake with a spatula.

By request

It’s a great compliment when someone requests one of your recipes, but, if you’ve been to three cookouts this month, and been asked for your signature dish every time, you and your family have probably had enough of it. Each summer I like to add a new favorite to my classics so we don’t get bored.

These next couple of days, I’ll post recipes I’ve been asked for recently. If there’s one you’d like me to post, just let me know.

My Classic Potato Salad has a lot of ingredients (my friend Lynne would be very disappointed in me, the list of ingredients should never be longer than the list of directions), but it’s easy—dice, shake, and toss. The Warm Potato and Green Bean Salad (Lynne requests this one all the time!) has several selling points: It’s served warm (great for last-minute plans), it includes a vegetable (almost every gathering these days includes someone avoiding carbs, they can just pick out the potatoes), and it has no mayonnaise (no spoiling in the hot sun).

Classic Potato Salad

1 bag small red potatoes, boiled and diced
1 t onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
2 pickles, chopped
1½ T oil
1 T vinegar
1 T pickle juice
½ c Miracle Whip salad dressing
salt and pepper, to taste
1/8 c Dijon mustard
½ c sour cream
dill and parsley to taste (fresh, if you have it)
basil or tarragon to taste (fresh, if you have it)

Place potatoes, onion, celery, eggs, and pickles into large bowl. Shake condiments in a jar for dressing. Pour over potatoes. Toss salad—shaking in a covered plastic bowl works best. Chill. Top with fresh herbs before serving.

Warm Potato and Green Bean Salad
from The North End Italian Cookbook

2 pounds fresh green beans, tips removed, snapped in half
1 pound new potatoes, unpeeled
2/3 cup olive oil
6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
6 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons oregano, dried
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 pinches red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste

Steam green beans 8-10 minutes, until tender. Drain and place on serving platter. Boil potatoes until just tender. Drain, do not rinse, let cool, then cube, leaving skin on. Add to green beans. Using a large spoon, gently toss beans and potatoes with remaining ingredients. Serve salad at warm or at room temperature.

Eating from our plenty, part II

I’m bound and determined to make it through the week—and possibly the long weekend—without hitting the grocery store. I’m just plain tired of it.

So, I’m cleaning out the pantry and the freezer again. I had some Cajun Sausage Stew in the freezer, and I decided to make rice to go with it. Thinking about the New Orleans roots of the stew, I remembered a dish from my Desperation Dinners! Cookbook (which had been a gift from my book group when I was expecting my third son—the meals are all ready in 30 minutes or less, gotta love that!). Taken from Blue Runners and Rice, which is red beans and rice (“Blue Runners” is a brand of canned beans for the family in which the recipe originated); these are spectacular! The original recipe includes one pound of turkey kielbasa for a main dish—add a salad and you have a meal; to make them a side dish, as below, I omit the kielbasa.

Red beans and rice

2 t olive oil
1 c onion, chopped
1 c celery, chopped
¾ c red or green bell pepper, chopped
2 t garlic, minced
½ t thyme, dried
½ t basil, dried
½ t oregano, dried
½ t black pepper
½ t salt
½ t Tabasco (more or less to taste, optional)
2 bay leaves
1 14½-oz can fat-free chicken broth
1 15½-oz can red kidney beans (I prefer Progresso dark red kidney beans)
1¾ c instant (5-minute) rice
½ c okra, fresh, chopped or frozen, not thawed, chopped
½ c water, if needed

Heat oil over medium heat in a 12-inch skillet that has a lid. As you chop them, add the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic to the skillet. Cook vegetables until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in thyme, basil, oregano, black pepper, Tabasco, and bay leaves.

Raise heat to high, add broth, cover skillet, and bring to a boil. (If using kielbasa, cut it into ¼– to ½-inch thick slices and set aside.) Drain and rinse the beans.

Once broth boils, add beans, okra, and rice (and kielbasa, if using). Reduce heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and cook until rice is tender, 5 to 10 minutes. If the broth is absorbed before the rice is tender, add additional ½ cup of water. Serve hot.

Don't labor on Labor Day

My sister, Bridget, is having my parents and aunts to dinner over the holiday weekend, and she wanted the food to be ready so that she could visit, and not spend the day in the kitchen. She wanted to make use of the seasonal vegetables (she usually has some great garden offerings, either her own or from friends), and grilling.

I told her that lately my do-ahead meal has been fajitas. You can do the chicken and steak and leave them slightly rare, and keep them warm in the oven on low or in the crockpot on warm until you're ready to eat. They don't have to be hot, hot, when you serve them, just warm, then you can make all the fixin’s: salsa, guacamole, cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream, flour tortillas, tomatoes, lettuce, jalapeños, ...

If you aren’t in the mood for Mexican, you can do a nice salad and top it with the steak and/or chicken. You could do some other nice seasonal treats to go along with the salad, almost like a salad bar (nice tomatoes, cucumbers, marinated zucchini), and some corn on the cob on the side.

These are also great meals for those crazy back-to-school nights when we don’t know if we’re coming or going.

What do you think? What do you serve when you don’t want to miss all the fun while you work in the kitchen?

It's that easy?!

I don’t make everything from scratch, despite that my husband teases me that I’m like Martha Stewart. I do make some things from scratch: Last week I made taco seasoning mix, to me it just seems wasteful to buy another spice when I have all the necessary ingredients in my pantry already. I also made marshmallows, a la Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, I thought the kids would get a kick out of them, but they weren’t as excited as I thought they’d be. I may make them again, to go with my homemade cocoa mix around the holidays (cute hostess and client gifts), but I won’t make them for my family until my daughter Grace is old enough, but still young enough (I may have missed the boat with the boys, they’re too old) to enjoy them.

I’ve always been intimidated by jams and jellies and canning, but canning seems like such a great idea when you make a large batch of something that you only eat in small bits. So, last week I made blueberry jam and canned (jarred, actually) it. I could not believe how easy it was!

I used a recipe from Martha Stewart's Kids magazine (May/June 2004) which had been kicking around the house.

Basic Blueberry Jam

4 c blueberries
3½ c sugar

Preheat oven to 250°. Put a plate in the freezer. With a potato masher or spoon, crush 1 cup of blueberries in a medium heavy-bottom nonreactive saucepan.

Add remaining 3 cups blueberries and ½ cup water; bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to break up berries, until berries are soft, about 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, spread sugar on a rimmed baking sheet. Heat in oven until warm, about 5 minutes.

Slowly stir sugar into saucepan; return mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook at a slow boil until thickened, 45 minutes to 1 hour. To test for doneness, drop a small amount of jam onto the chilled plate; it should wrinkle when pressed with your finger. Refrigerate jam in an airtight container up to 2 weeks, or can in sealed, sterilized jars up to 6 months.

To can the jam, pour warm jam into warm jars (you can boil the jars or run them through the dishwasher). Wipe the rims of the jars with a dishtowel or paper towel. Place lids on jars and hand-tighten them. Place filled jars on the rack of a pressure cooker. Process according to the pressure cooker's directions (for mine, I fill the pressure cooker with enough water to cover the jars, bring the cooker to full pressure for 10 minutes, and then let cool until pressure is released). If you don’t have a pressure cooker, there are several sites that can help you get started canning, try www.canningusa.com, Canning 101, homecanning.com and Home canning at about.com. Let the jars rest for 24 hours, and remove the rings to be sure the lids are still in place (nudge them gently with your finger to make sure they don’t move). If they do move, you can re-process them. If they don't move, you’re good to go, label your jam, and store it in a cool, dry place.

It really is easy! Give it a try. Next up, I’ll be doing my New York-style hot dog onions and that killer barbecue sauce.