A Firm Foundation

If you all haven't picked up on it by now, I am clearly a fan of soup.  I just find it to be a perfect lunchtime option coupled with a side dish, or a crunchy/ salty snack.  They aren't too filling so you can function without the post lunch coma, and in most circumstances they are very healthy.

Because I make it a point to pack my lunch, I like to make dishes that can feed my stomach (and soul!) for several days.  Soups fit this bill nicely because they usually get better over time so as the week passes you get deeper flavors, and on a hectic Wednesday that is a welcomed development.

I like to think I am a decent cook with a somewhat advanced pallet. However, I think the next step in my culinary growth would be learning how to build upon a basic recipe and making it my own. At present I am a follower, someday I would like to lead the ingredients to create a dish based on my ideas of flavor combinations. You know those people who can just look in a refrigerator or a pantry and pull seemingly unrelated items and make a meal? People who taste their way to an end result rather than measuring.  I aspire to be that kind of cook.

Which is why Mark Bittman's article in the New York Times Magazine caught my eye. Profiling four soup types: Creamy, Brothy, Earthy and Hearty, it gives you a base for each type and teaches you two variations on each theme. The theory is, by the time you have made all twelve options you will never need a recipe again because you have learned how to riff of off one idea to feed another.

This is a perfect challenge for me seeing as I can never have enough soup on hand and I can grow as a cook in the process.

Since the thermometer still reads at a balmy 33 degrees  I decided to try my hand at the Hearty category, and since I still have so many potatoes I opted for the Minestrone (pictured above left).  It was every bit as simple as Bittman promised, and a great easy kitchen activity for a Wednesday evening.  I will admit that I haven't eaten it yet, as I want to give it time to deepen in flavor overnight, but I did manage to sneak a few samples tastes which were light and clean.

I am already looking forward to lunch tomorrow.

                                                                         Photo Source

Sunny Side Up: Vol 3

Well the pots are on the stove a simmerin', and things are in the oven a bakin' and bubblin', and due to the huge new number of food blogs I have been devourin' (see my growin' list to the right), I have many recipe ideas a brewin'!

Whew!

I'll have to admit that while I have enjoyed making a dish and having it sustain me for days on end, basically taking the guesswork out of "what should I eat" it does begin to weigh a bit on your spirit after you have eaten the same lunch/dinner/or both after more than a few days.  My wise mother suggests I make a bunch of dishes and freeze parts of them so I can add a little variety to my life.  She has a valid point (don't you hate it when she does that?) but I am just not quite there yet when it comes to my planning and organization. So until that day comes, monotony will be my guide.  Ima tellin' you though, this following dish was a fun one to chew on each passing day.

                                                           (©Quentin Bacon-Food and Wine Magazine)

Free Form Sausage and Three Cheese Lasagne: Followed pretty much by rote from Food and Wine Magazine (January 2010)

You can tell it's winter and our household is craving stick-to-your-ribs-and-warm-you-from-the-inside dishes.  First Chili and now this.  However it makes sense to crave hearty dishes this time of year.  Still,  even I surprised myself when I found myself turning back to page 60 and slightly drooling over a lasagne dish.  I couldn't tell you the last time I ate a lasagne, as I have never been a huge fan of the family style classic.  In the past I have found so many of them to be laden with ill-flavored meat, buried in tomato sauce, with rubbery cheese (usually a chalky textured ricotta) and heavy noodles.  All converging together to create a mass that doesn't impart any individual or distinct flavors, and promptly rests itself in the pit of your stomach and overstays it's welcome.  I'll say it here first: I haven't been the biggest supporter of lasagne. Until now.

Not only did this dish pique my interest because it seemed to fit my mission of finding dishes which are affordable and lasting, but the individual components of the dish intrigued me.  I am sucker for the term "three cheese"-kill me now, along with the fresh basil and the subtle sweetness of an Italian sausage. It was definitely a reason to jump back on the lasagne bandwagon.

Honestly, I think I could be so bold as to write "this is the best lasagne I have ever eaten." I know, quite a big statement from this little blog, but I stand behind it (and I think Jürgen would agree).  The fantastic thing about this dish is while it is filling, and certainly hearty, it's also quite light.  I ate it while on a break at work many times and never returned feeling weighed down and semi-comatose.  After all,  when you are dealing with persnickity Upper East Side housewives, you need all the energy you can get.  Also, this is the first lasagne I have had the pleasure of tasting where each individual flavor was able to shine through while complementing the others.  The use of the whole tomatoes created a fabulous caramelized oven roasted tomato flavor,  the sausage was sweet and crumbly, and the cheese rounded out the dish with the fontina being the real winner.  It brought an unexpected creaminess along with a pinch of tartness to keep your tastebuds excited.  All in all, it was good enough to make a lasagne convert out of me. Never say never my friends.

                                         (source: authors personal collection-I am no food stylist so please don't judge the dish based on this photo)

When you first take the dish out of the oven it needs to rest for ten minutes, however if you eat it the night of its going to seem a bit "soupy" but do not let that worry you. All this means is you have an incredibly delicious tomatoy juice to sop (or in my case slup) up after you are done.  Trust me on this one.

The entire recipe can be found here, but again here is a breakdown of the ingredients (with a few substitution suggestions) and the total cost:

1/2 lb of lasagna noodles (we got two boxes for $3.00)
3 Tbls of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, plus more for tossing (had)
1/2 lb of Sweet Italian Sausage* (bought a package of 6 links, totaling 1lb for $3.29)
1 cup water (had)
4 large garlic gloves, thinly sliced (had)
One 28-Ounce can of Whole tomatoes, chopped and juices reserved ($1.99-we used Hunts)
Salt and Pepper (had)
Freshly Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese (we always have a block on hand, but it usually runs between $7-$8 and lasts at least a month...make it a staple in your house, I'm telling ya!)
1/2 lb Fresh Mozzarella, cut into 8 pieces ($8.15)
6 Ounces Italian Fontina**, cut into 8 pieces ($4.99)
2 Tbls unsalted butter, softened (had)
1/4 cup thinly sliced basil leaves ($3.49 for a package)

*For those of you who don't eat pork or perhaps any meat products, you could easily substitute turkey/chicken/veggie sausage in it's place.
**If your grocer of choice doesn't carry fontina, Gruyere, Emmental or Gouda came up as similar alternatives. But do everything you can to find the fontina, it's worth it.

We made this dish on a Tuesday night and it fed us (primarily me) through Sunday.

Total Cost: $32.41 which breaks down to about $5.40 a day.

However-not only did we like this dish SO much, but we only used half of the sausage we purchased, so that Friday night (we had a bit of Lasagne overlap) we made an entire second helping of this yummy treat.  The only ingredients we needed to purchase for the second go-round were:

Another ball of mozzarella
A block of fontina
A can of tomatoes

Total: $15.13

With this second serving of lasagne I was able to feed myself for another full week (Jürg got a few digs in, and Neill got a taste as well).  This means a grand total of TWELVE days of lasagne bringing the daily total down to $3.96 a day!

Lately with all this talk of snow, I canot think of a more fitting dish for a snowed in evening.  We paired it with a viewing of the Disney-Pixar Classic Monsters Inc. on a Friday night, and I am not sure if it was the yummy-ness of the dish, or the sweetness of the movie, but I was definitely left in a puddle of tears by the end of the evening.  Fuzzy monsters and cheesy lasagne...they get me every time.

Sunny Side Up: Vol 2

Well hello there! Are you givin' me a little once over as you check out my new design? I figured it's a New Year and it's time for a fresher, crisper, cooler look.  It still need's a bit of tweaking, but I like where things are going. Do you like? What think we?

New templates aside, I also felt it was time to unveil some new ideas I have for this little blog of mine, so I present to you the first one:

Sunny Side Up: Flavorful, Healthy Meals to Sustain You, and Your Wallet Throughout the Week.

(missed the first volume, which didn't have this clever title at the time? you can read it here)

It goes without saying that in times of financial challenge or strain one of the easiest ways to cut back on your daily spending, and perhaps even a few calories in the process, is to cook at home.  I know it is so tempting in this day in age when you can order food from an app on your iPhone, while you are sitting at your desk at work, or from the Chinese takeout place around the corner, to avoid the kitchen at all costs. Or to try to save a little bit of time by stocking up on a bunch of frozen, perservative packed, pre-cooked meals from the freezer section.  I used to be guilty of all of the above.  However those little choices add up throughout the week and at the end of the month can leave you with a heavy feeling in your stomach when you open up your bank statement. Cooking at home can not only be a lot of fun (particularly when you drink wine in the process, I encourage this), but a great way to keep track of what you are actually consuming.  When you order out you have no idea what was added to your food by way of salt, fat, or where the food came from.  When you make your meals with you own hands you are the one driving the ship and you have the control. It's very liberating, I assure you. Let's be real, it's way cheaper to be healthy than to be sick...I'm just sayin'.

However, I totally understand the not so pretty side of cooking at home: the clean up. And let's not forget coming home from work at 10:30pm and not having any energy to whip up a whole new meal. I totally get it, and that's why I am here to help!  In this new blog-series I will share with you some recipes tested and tasted from my very own kitchen, which are not only affordable to make but will feed you for days on end.  I will calculate how much the recipe cost to make, and how much mileage you get out of your investment each day.  So without further adieu, here we go!

                                            (photo source: colombedujour.com)

Chili With Corn Muffins: Adapted from the website Colombe du Jour.

I realize there are a bagillion chili recipes floating out there in the ether, so why this one? I picked it because Colombe is a co-worker of mine, and a super lovely lady.  She has a passion for creating healthy, accesible food, and she informed me that this recipe, unlike many of it counterparts, didn't call for any crazy, hard to find peppers to create heat.  Every ingredient on this list can easily be found at your local grocery of choice, which earns double points in my book.

You can read the full recipe here, but below is the list of ingredients, how much we paid for each, and any adaptations we made in the process.

Vegetarian Chili (ours was not Vegetarian...more on that in a moment)

Serves about 15

3 tablespoons olive oil (we already had this on hand)

1 large onion, (1 ½ cups) chopped (cost $1.29)

3 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced (cost for a bag $1.69)

2 bell peppers, seeded, chopped (cost $1.47)

1 head of garlic, peeled and minced (already had this on hand)

1-teaspoon sea salt (had)

1/4-teaspoon chili powder (had) 

2 teaspoons ground cumin (had)

2 teaspoons ground coriander (had)

3/4-teaspoon ground cinnamon (had) 

1-½ teaspoons dried oregano (had) 

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes (cost $1.99)

1 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed, drained (cost 0.99 cents)

1 15-ounce cans kidney beans, rinsed, drained (cost 0.99 cents)

1 15-ounce can pinto beans, rinsed, drained (cost 0.99 cents) 

3 cups water

¼ cup limejuice, juice of 2 limes (we bought a small container of lime juice cost $1.29)

For garnish:

Grated Cheese (we used Sargento Authentic Mexican blend which cost $3.49)

Pickled Jalapenos (we didn't use these)

1 bunch cilantro, cleaned and chopped (we didn't use these)


We also had about 2lbs of ground beef on hand, which had been sitting patiently in the freezer, so we decided to throw it in. The meat ran us about $7.50, which is totally optional.  However, due to the addition of meat we did decide to DOUBLE the amounts of spice required for the recipe, and in the end we still added a little bit more seasoning, because we are totally wild and crazy! I would encourage you to do the same if you add any sort of meat.

A word on the spices: Jürgen and I have acquired a fairly nicely stocked spice cabinet, so no extra money needed to be spent for the seasoning portion of the recipe.  None of these spices are super fancy, and I imagine most folks who have any kind of spice collection would have some, if not all of these. However, if you don't, you will have to spend a little bit more to make this dish, but it's a worthy investment. Spices last a long time, so you get a whole lotta bang for your buck.

Also, I wish I could say I made some corn muffins from scratch, but I don't want to lie, we bought two boxes of my childhood favorite Jiffy Corn Bread mix.  Really how can you go wrong? It's two for $1.00 takes no time to make and yields the most delicious results every time.  It's warm, cripsy on the bottom, sweet with a hint of corn flavor.  Yes I realize this makes me a tad hypocritical in terms of my "knowing what exactly is in your food" soapbox, but I was raised on this stuff and simply cannot give it up.  However, I can tell you in full confidence that should you choose to make Colombe's corn muffins I have no doubt you will be pleased.

We made this dish on a Tuesday night, and it fed us through to the following Friday. That's a grand total of 11 DAYS worth of Chili goodness!  Yes, I will admit towards the end of the eleven days I did start to get a little tired of chili, but it retained it's flavor swimmingly and honestly it was nice not having to think about what to pack for lunch.  The cornbread didn't last as long, as I am not one to let a cornbread muffin pass me by, plus 11 day old cornbread doesn't sound good to me, but that's just my opinion.

 Here's how things break down in terms of cost:

If we made this dish without the meat the dish would have cost us $15.29 to make, and breaks down to $1.40 a day for 11 days.

With the meat it cost us $22.79 to make, breaking down to $2.07 a day for 11 days.

Incredible! That's a complete meal for less than $3.00 a day.  Imagine all the things you can do with the money you will be saving.  I might suggest throwing in a few extra bucks for a nice, but cheap, bottle of an Argentinean Malbec, I think it would pair wonderfully with the chili.  But you know about  my affinity for inexpensive South American wines already....

So there you have it my friends, a perfect recipe for a cold winter's night, and many days and nights thereafter.  If you make it please report back! I would love to hear how it turns out for you!

Also, do you have any recipes you would like for me to try? If so please email me at blairbrobertson at gmail dot com!

A savory delight that satiates the stomach and saves you dough.

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about ways Jürgen and I plan to save on food costs.  Primarily by cooking at home and keeping certain low cost staples around the kitchen, to prevent late evening runs to the corner Chinese spot.

Missed that post? You can read it here.

We recently made a dish that is one of my all time, coming of the winter season, favs', and I felt it on fitting to share it with you all.  'The season to be sharing.  And eating.

Autumn Vegetable Cobbler with Biscuit Topping:

                                          (photo by Elinor Carucci)

For the filling:
1/2 butternut squash (but you can use a whole one if you want!)
2 parsnips peeled and cut into a medium dice
3 Tablespoons Olive oil
Your favorite salt blend
1 cup broccoli florets blanched
 
Preheat oven 400
 
Peel squash and cut the top portion off w/out the seeds.  Save the remainder for another day.  Cut into a med dice and toss with the parsnips, olive oil and salt.  Place on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and roast until tender about 25-30min.  Put that aside with broccoli.
 
For the filling:
3 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
1 Onion med dice
1 Bulb fennel med dice
2 Garlic cloves minced
4 Tablespoons flour
4 Cups veg. stock
1 Tablespoons thyme rough chopped
1/4 cup parsley rough chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 cup gouda cheese grated
 
Preheat oven to 400.  Heat a heavy soup pot over med and add butter.  Saute onion and fennel about 5 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and flour and cook an additional minute.  Add veg stock whisking until it boils.  Add herbs and season w/ S & P.   Fold in roasted veg., broccoli and grated cheese.  Pour filling into pie dish.  Top with the biscuits and bake on a parchment lined sheet tray. 

For The Biscuits:

2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
1 1/3 cups (or more) chilled buttermilk (I just use heavy cream) 

Stir first 4 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually add 1 1/3 cups buttermilk, tossing with fork until dough is evenly moistened and adding more buttermilk by tablespoonfuls if dry.
Drop biscuit dough atop hot filling by heaping tablespoonfuls; sprinkle with pepper. Bake uncovered until tester inserted into center of biscuits comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. 

*Recipe Source: The Chopping Block Cooking School (Chicago IL), and Bon Appétit.*


I have made this recipe many times and every time it warms my stomach and soul with its biscut-y, winter veggie goodness.  It's seasonal, very healthy and it can feed you for days on end. In fact I just finished a plate of it before I sat down to write this little blog! The great thing about the dish is you can easily add any kind of root vegetable to give it your own twist, and the biscuit possibilities are endless.  Add some cheddar cheese to the mix, maybe even some prosciutto for you meat lovers, mmmmm hmmmm  I love me a good biscuit.  

We look forward to more cooking exploits in the days to come.  I, for one, have my eye on this chili recipe.

I can't tell you how satisfying it is to know you are saving money without sacrificing flavor.  That's something to be Thankful for!