Flo's Famous Baby Back Ribs

Well, no, they're not really famous. But that sounds like the way it would read on the menu at Flo's Diner.

Roast 3-4 lbs. baby back ribs in a shallow pan at 400 degrees F (how do you get a degree sign on this website?) for 15 minutes, then turn and roast 15 minutes more. Drain and discard the fat. (I have always done this with the ribs still "on the rack," but next time I think I will cut them apart first.)

While the ribs are roasting, prepare the sauce.
Combine in a small saucepan (preferably nonstick):
1/2 cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T cider vinegar
dash Tabasco
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp liquid smoke

Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer while the ribs roast. (Note: this does not make a lot of sauce, so if you want extra sauce for dipping, double the recipe.)

Place ribs in a slow cooker with the sauce; turn to coat. Cook 6-8 hours on low, or half that on high if you're pressed for time. Meanwhile, wash the baking pan and sauce pot; you'll need them later.

Remove ribs to the baking pan. Pour the sauce and juices into a fat separator, then pour off the "good part" into the same saucepan you used before to cook the sauce (or another, if you have a lot of them - I don't care). Reduce the sauce over med-high heat until it is as thick as it was before. Brush it on the ribs and roast again (at 400 degrees) until they are nicely glazed, turning and brushing with sauce again (10-15 minutes total).

These are good. Even my son eats them.

Gumbo, by gum!

This blog is supposed to be for cooking successes, but I'll include the gumbo anyway. Not that it was bad, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped and I had to eat almost the whole pot over the course of this past week. My husband liked it but had only one bowl. :-(

I basically followed Emeril Lagasse's recipe for Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo, roux and all (available at http://www.foodnetwork.com/), but I used boneless chicken thighs and modified the proceedings accordingly (cut up and browned chicken, added it back later and cooked for 30-45 minutes). I also used okra instead of file powder, and added it with the chicken. I only had three cans of chicken broth, so I cut back most ingredients by about one third. However, I used full amounts of the veggies. Also, I used kielbasa to please my husband who hates spicy foods. It would be much better with andouille.

If I make gumbo again, it won't be authentic. In other words, no way am I making a roux again. Not that it's difficult, but the result is just way too greasy. I took off a ton of fat, but it was still far too rich for my taste. Too rich, because it's poor people's food. Flour and fat are cheap calories. But I sure don't need the calories and I would like my soup lighter.

For the last bowl of leftovers, I cooked myself some extra okra. A little butter (1 tsp) in a nonstick pan. Throw in a couple of handfuls of whole fresh baby okra and squeeze a little lemon on top. Saute on med-high heat until lightly browned. Sprinkle lightly with salt and enjoy.

I have some better things to add, but it's bedtime.

So sue me.

I didn't cook anything today. Daughter and I went out for a big Indian lunch in midafternoon, after her rehearsal; it was too late for what I had planned and I was too stuffed anyway. Husband bought a pizza.

Tomorrow I have to cook vichyssoise (I'll explain another time), and then will be busy all afternoon and evening. The okra won't be fresh by the time I get to it, but it will just have to do.

Using up summer vegetables

We have a membership at a local organic farm - an individual membership, which is supposed to feed one veggie-loving person, plus allow a bit to "put by" for the winter. It's quite a bounty, and can be more than this veggie-loving person can handle, especially when I can't always cook according to my inclinations.

Not only do we get a lot of vegetables, but the choice and amount are pretty random. I love the challenge of turning a random selection of ingredients into good eats, but, because of the vegetables, I'm usually the only one who likes the results.

Last night I cooked up a quick chicken and summer vegetable melange, nothing special, but it used up what I needed to use up and it tasted good.

Saute some cut-up boneless chicken in olive oil (I had about 3/4 lb). Remove from pan when just done, leaving the oil. Cut up an onion, two cloves garlic, an eggplant, a zucchini, and a green pepper, and saute in the same pan, seasoning with salt, pepper, and oregano.  Add tomatoes, fresh or canned (I used the grape tomatoes I had laboriously peeled and stewed last week), and a little prepared tomato sauce, if you like (if not, some tomato paste, sauteed with the veggies, would be good, along with some extra seasoning). Cook until as done as you like, then add the chicken back in and warm it.

Daughter and I ate this with rice last night, and it would be good mixed with pasta. Tonight, I piled it on baguette sections (chicken only for daughter, a mix for husband, and veggies only for me), topped it with roasted red pepper from a jar and some fresh mozzarella that needed using (the theme of the week), stuck them under the broiler (on low) until the cheese was melted, and we had Italian heros.

Tomorrow I plan to make gumbo from the okra I picked!

Food doldrums

Nothing happening here (except that my keyboard is dying and today doesn't want to type Ps or Ys). I've made a few things that were good, but nothing unusual, and nothing that pleased the masses. Daughter says why don't you put that Indian butter chicken on your blog, but I says, says I, that was from a jar of sauce (Patak's butter chicken sauce, very good indeed with eggplant, zucchini, and onion added to the chicken). We're due for a farm trip today; perhaps that will inspire me. More likely, it will frustrate me, as I am the only real veggie-eater around here, and it's hard to use the bounty in such a way that others will partake of it, especially hard if I'm trying to please myself as well.

Glop

My husband loves glop. This is the term we use for a main dish containing pasta or rice along with other ingredients in a sauce, often creamy. Tuna-noodle casserole, for instance, is a classic form of glop.

Tonight I threw together a Greek-inspired glop with lamb and macaroni. Here's how it went. I sauteed some onion, garlic, and green pepper in a little olive oil, then added ground lamb (about 3/4 lb.) and cooked until done, seasoning with salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and cinnamon.  I would like to have drained off grease at this point, but there really wasn't enough to drain. Maybe I could have drained it all on paper towels, but was too lazy.

Anyway, I added 4 tomatoes that I had peeled and cut in chunks, and continued cooking while the macaroni boiled (1/2 lb. elbows). I reduced the heat, stirred in the macaroni, then about a cup of reduced-fat sour cream and a handful of minced parsley. A little more seasoning and it was good to go. Daughter said it should go on my blog (she likes me having a blog), so here it is.

I like having a blog, too, even if no one ever reads it!

Finally, a soup my husband likes

That's not fair; I'm sure he has enjoyed many of my soups. But I love soup and soup-making above all other foods and forms of cookery, and don't indulge as often as I would like because no one else in my family is a soup-lover.

I made a fish chowder this evening, adapted from a recipe in New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant. Of course, my son wouldn't try it, but my daughter liked "the broth," and my husband raved about it.

This would be good with a lot of different veggie combinations, and if I didn't happen to have the parsley and dill, it would have been fine without.

Fish and Vegetable Chowder

Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Saute 1 diced onion  and 1 minced garlic clove until onion is turning translucent. Stir in 2 diced celery stalks and 2 cubed potatoes; cook about 5 minutes. Stir in 1 medium zucchini and half a green pepper, both diced. Add 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth or 1 can broth plus a cup of water (even better would be fish stock, but I didn't have any); a bay leaf; and 1/2 tsp dried marjoram or thyme.  Simmer 15-20 minutes, until veggies are tender.

Taste for salt and pepper and add some to taste (I put in about 1/3 tsp salt and a few grinds of pepper at this stage; I had used broth + water). Add 1 or 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and cut in chunks. Stir in 1 lb. cod (or other firm white fish), cut in bite-size pieces, and cook gently until the fish is done, about 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Stir in 1 cup half-and-half, and cook on low heat about 5 more minutes. Add more salt and pepper if needed, then stir in some chopped fresh dill and/or parsley. It's done!

Of course, the reason this was a big hit was the butter and cream. I've often made fish soup by this basic technique, but this combination of vegetables was new, and, although I sometimes will add some milk, I almost never use cream. Try it your own way: with olive oil, more tomatoes, and Italian, Middle Eastern, or even Indian seasonings (leave out the cream), or as a winter chowder with leeks, carrots and/or parsnips, and potatoes (my usual combination).

Dessert was Apple Cake Cockaigne from The Joy of Cooking, made with apricots and peaches. It's similar to my Great-Aunt Ruth's peach cake recipe in some respects. I'll have to try out Aunt Ruth's recipe again soon and perhaps post it here for the perusal and pleasure of anyone who happens to find his or her way here.

Birthday cake!

My husband's birthday was yesterday, and my daughter says I should blog the chocolate cake recipe I used. I don't feel like typing the whole thing, and I didn't change anything and don't know whether copyright laws allow me to reproduce the recipe anyway (in case anyone reads this someday...), so let me just tell you that it was Shirley Temple Cake from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book.

An Aryan breakfast

Well, Swedish, actually.  It's just that the little blond boy on the Kalles Kaviar package always makes me think that he's overjoyed at just having joined the Hitler Youth.

I've seen those mysterious tubes at IKEA for years, and finally bought one a few months ago (apparently the stuff keeps more-or-less forever in the fridge). I'm a smoked fish lover, so was willing to give "creamed smoked codfish roe" a try. It's a pinkish creamy substance that comes out of the tube in a pretty pattern if you're skilled at it, which I am not. Not only is it as salty as expected, it is also fairly sweet.

I didn't know what to do with it other than put it on crackers, but an online search told me that a common Scandinavian breakfast is to spread a little butter on crispbread, then top with Kalles Kaviar, sliced hard-boiled egg, and fresh dill.  I've been doing this intermittently for months, usually forgoing the butter, and never having the dill. It's still pretty good.

Today I used a bit of butter, and finally had some fresh dill available. Dee-lush, as my daughter would say. But then I like pretty much all Scandinavian food I've had the chance to try, even lutefisk.

Greek salad, etc.

What with daughter's piano lesson, there was no time to cook what I had planned, but I threw together a yummy Greek salad (minus the lettuce): a couple of big tomatoes, a cucumber, a piece of sweet onion, some Kalamata olives, and most of a block of feta cheese, dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, fresh mint, salt and pepper. No one ate it but me! (There were leftovers for husband, fish sticks for son, and daughter was full after the corn on the cob we had first.)

Good tomato trick: after you cut up a tomato for a salad, salt it lightly and let it sit a few minutes. Then drain off the juice that has accumulated (some may want to drink it, though I've never tried this myself). Not only does the tomato give off less juice in the salad, but the flavor is intensified.

Yesterday's Meals

OK, since this is what got me started:

Yesterday's lunch was leftover jambalaya. I'll try to reconstruct the recipe.

Jambalaya (adapted from AllRecipes.com)

Heat a little oil in large heavy pot (Dutch oven type). Slice smoked andouille sausage (12 oz package) into rounds and saute until browned. Remove from pan. Cut two boneless chicken breast halves into 1-inch pieces, sprinkle with Cajun seasoning if you have it, salt and pepper if you don't, add a little more oil to the pan and saute the chicken until lightly browned. Remove from pan.

In same pan, saute a large onion, a green pepper, 2 large celery stalks, all diced, and 3 large cloves garlic, minced. When veggies are tender, add a can of diced tomatoes (14 oz?),  1 tsp salt, several shakes Tabasco, and a good shake of Worcestershire sauce. Stir in chicken and sausage and cook 5-10 minutes.

Stir in 1 1/4 cups rice, a can of low-sodium chicken broth, and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, until rice is done, about 1/2 hour.


I also cooked some okra that I had just picked at Honey Brook Organic Farm. I blanched it for a couple of minutes, then sauteed it in a little butter with lemon juice. Perfect with the jambalaya.

Yesterday's dinner was zucchini soup with rosemary and penne with grape tomatoes and picked-by-me-at-the-farm green beans.

Zucchini-Rosemary Soup (adapted from Epicurious)

Melt 2 Tbsp butter with 1 Tbsp olive oil in large saucepan. Add 1 large onion, diced, and saute until translucent.  Stir in 2 large garlic cloves, sliced, and 2 tsp minced fresh rosemary. Add 3 cans low-sodium chicken broth (I only had two and made up the difference with water) and a peeled and diced russet potato. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add 3 med or 2 large zucchini, diced. Simmer until veggies are tender, 15-20 minutes. Puree with immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with crunchy fried onions. Note: these are very cheap at IKEA!

Penne with Grape Tomatoes and Green Beans

Boil and salt water for pasta. Cook 1 lb penne al dente. Meanwhile, in large pan, saute 2 large, thinly-sliced garlic cloves in 2 Tbsp olive oil. When garlic starts to turn golden, add 3-4 cups grape tomatoes, sliced in half, along with 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes and 3 basil leaves, chiffonaded (sliced into shreds). Saute until juicy, then add about 1/2 lb green beans, cut into segments as long as penne, and salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking until pasta is done.

Before draining pasta, reserve 1 cup of the cooking water. Add drained pasta to the saute pan along with the cooking water. Toss together until well-mixed with a couple more shredded basil leaves.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan, or Parmigiano-Reggiano if you have it.

Inspiration!

Yesterday, my 10-year-old daughter was unashamedly detailing her complete obsession with food. She's always been this way; in preschool, when they asked the children to name their favorite thing for an "all about me" project, while the other kids named toys and the like, my daughter said "food."

I've always been the same way, constantly looking forward to my next meal, but I've never been able to own up to it the way she does.  But yesterday, my meals were a little bit out of the ordinary and very delicious, and I posted them on Facebook.  Then I realized that I have always wanted to chronicle my more successful concoctions - I usually end up forgetting them - and realized that I could use a blog for that purpose.

Anyone who wants to chime in with suggestions and recipes is welcome!