My husband and I just traveled over one thousand miles in a U-Haul truck with two kids, two dogs and a parrot. We took three days to make the journey from Hanska to Las Vegas. At one point, somewhere in the middle of Utah, I had both dogs in my lap and my forehead pressed up against the window, looking out at the scenery. I was just taking it all in: the red earth and sculptured mountains contrasted by the bluest of skies and the occasional wispy white cloud was breathtaking.

We have made this trip several times, but the scenery never ceases to amaze me. It’s incredible the difference in landscape between the plains of Nebraska, the rocky mountains in Colorado and the bright red mountains in Utah. Claud was concerned and asked if I was okay.

I must have looked miserable, crammed in my seat smothered in dogs. I smiled and reassured him that all was well. I was looking forward to this new adventure and seeing what life is like in Las Vegas for the summer. Who summers in Vegas and winters in Minnesota? Well, I guess we do. Yes, I think we are a bit crazy. The food we ate along the way was surprisingly delicious. We found a restaurant in North Platte, Neb. which served the best sashimi Ahi tuna. Daphne and I were in heaven. We both love sushi and were surprised to find it in Nebraska. In a small town in Utah, called Green River, we ate some tasty grilled salmon. I also enjoyed one of the largest chef’s salads I have ever seen. I couldn’t finish it, but it was delicious.

Once we arrived at our home for the summer, I had to decide what we should have for dinner. I decided to make us all some comfort food after that long journey. We needed something which would fill our tummies and make us happy at the same time. I wanted to fix something that everyone would be happy with. I didn’t want any moaning from anyone. Macaroni and cheese casserole popped into my mind.

My kids love macaroni and cheese. They will make it themselves if it is in the box. They know how to add the milk and butter to the powdery cheese. I don’t even think they measure any more. I have grown out of liking this kind of macaroni and cheese, from the box. Although, I do love most cheeses, I am not a big fan of powdered cheese.

I discovered on this trip that I am also over the cheese in a can, we call it squeezy cheese, which I have loved since I was a child and always buy on road trips. It just didn’t have the same satisfaction that I remember. I think I am over it. Back to the macaroni and cheese, I did discover a delicious frozen version of macaroni and cheese which is so creamy and rich. You can find it at Trader Joe’s.

However, my favorite, and luckily the kids love it too, is macaroni and cheese casserole made from scratch. I make it creamy and delicious like the Trader Joe’s version but also add vegetables and bread crumbs to make it more grown up and nutritious. This is a good way to sneak in some vegetables into the meal and the kids won’t even notice because it is so cheesy and delicious.

This might be a bit heavy for a summer time meal; however, if you use skim milk and low fat cheese, you won’t be adding too many extra calories. I also make it with whole wheat macaroni noodles. I whipped this up on our first night in Vegas and everyone loved it.

Macaroni & Cheese Casserole

3 cups dry macaroni pasta

3 cups dry macaroni pasta (cook according to package directions)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

2 carrots, sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced

1/2 C. butter

1/2 C. flour

1 C. milk

2 C. shredded cheese (your choice)

2 slices bread, toasted

2 Tbsp. parmesan cheese

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Cook the macaroni according to package directions. Set aside. Saute the vegetables in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Set aside. Melt butter and add flour over medium heat. Add milk until creamy. Add the cheese and melt the cheese. Pour the vegetables into the cheese mixture. Pour the cooked macaroni into an oven safe casserole dish. Pour the cheese mixture on top. Spread the bread crumbs on top of this. Place in an oven at 350 degrees for ½ hour. Enjoy.

It is that time of year again, the very special time when I thank Scott Broste for introducing me to the morel mushroom.

A few years ago, Scott took my husband out morel hunting. At that time, I had never tasted a morel mushroom; but, I soon discovered that they are a delicacy of spring. Claud and Scott took off to who knows where and they were gone for a few hours. People rarely share their morel hunting ground with other people because it is like a magic breeding ground filled with treasures. Everyone can’t know about it or there would be none left. So, it was very special for Claud to be taken to one of these magnificent places.

If you go morel hunting and you are a novice, be sure to take someone with you who knows what a morel looks like. Apparently, there are similar looking mushrooms called false morels which are poisonous. Luckily, Claud had an expert with him to teach him the ropes.

Morels pop up in the early spring when the ground is warming up. After a night of rain is usually an ideal day to go hunting. They need warm, damp ground to grow in. They prefer the shade of poplar, elm, ash, maple and fruit trees. They also thrive in mossy areas and near dead tree stumps. I still don’t know exactly where Claud and Scott ventured that day but the hunt was a success.

Scott and Claud returned dirty from the hunt and Claud had a tick on his ankle. More importantly, they came home with a couple of bags of fresh morel mushrooms. These morels were all different sizes and the tops had a honey comb shape to them. Scott showed us how to lay them out on a screen to dry for a couple of days. I was intrigued. I wondered how they would taste.

Morel Mushrooms

A few days later, the sun was shining and we decided to grill some pork chops on the barbeque. Claud said he would make a sauce out of the mushrooms to go over the pork chops. I thought that sounded like a fantastic idea. I poured the dried mushrooms into a bowl of water to reconstitute while Claud covered the pork chops with an herb rub and turned on the grill.

We made the sauce out of red wine, onions, garlic, cream and morel mushrooms. This sauce made the pork chops taste so delicious. The flavor of the morel mushroom helped to create a magical sauce. Morels have a distinctive earthy, nutty, steak like flavor, similar to a portabella (but more flavorful). The taste is smoky and intense which is perfect for making a sauce. I felt like I could eat a whole bowl of the sauce on its own. I knew I had discovered a new favorite food. Thank you, Scott.

Since that day, Claud has discovered a couple of morel hunting spots of his own. Last week he took our son, Jack, out with him. They were amazed to discover that the mushroom growing grounds were covered with wild blue bells. The photos were magnificent. We had seen blue bells growing in the forest in England where Claud grew up. We never before saw them growing like this here in the states. I was so happy Jack was able to experience this with his father. They came home with memories, photographs, and yes, a bag of mushrooms as well. Jack even carried back a tick with him… eewww.

We fired up the grill and threw on a few pork chops to make what has now become our traditional morel mushroom dish…herb rubbed pork chops with a creamy morel sauce. As usual, it tasted divine.

Herb rubbed pork chops

with a creamy morel sauce

Serves: 4

Time: 30 minutes

4 pork chops

2 Tbsp. dried rosemary

1 Tbsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1/4 C. plus 1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 C. dry red wine

1/4 C. cream

1 C. morel mushrooms, reconstituted

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the rosemary, thyme, onion powder, salt, pepper and 1/4 C. olive oil in a small bowl. Spread all over the pork chops. Place on a hot grill. Cook to your liking, depending on the thickness of the chops.

In a saut pan, heat the remaining Tbsp. olive oil. Saut the onion for ten minutes. Add the garlic for another minute. Add the red wine and cream. Pour in the morel mushrooms with a bit of the water used to reconstitute (1/2 cup). Let this simmer for about ten minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Take the chops off of the grill and pour the sauce over them. Serve with a salad or vegetable. Enjoy.

After last week’s experience with the kids in Mankato making one-dish meals, I went home and came up with one of my own. I like the idea of cooking a meal in one pot and having only one pot to clean. Although, I have to admit that I love to clean dishes. I don’t know when this started; but, I enjoy it. I think it would be difficult to love cooking as much as I do and not also appreciate the cleaning part. It is something about the finished project and a feeling of accomplishment after we are all full and everything is clean and put away. It’s satisfying.

I am calling this dish a Mediterranean Hot Pot. I cannot take all of the credit for it as the inspiration came from a recipe in my cookbook, “Vegetarian: tasty recipes for every day” edited by Helen Aitken. Also, Daphne, my daughter, helped me decide what vegetables we should add. She wouldn’t let me include eggplant, which I would have put in this dish. She isn’t fond of eggplant. I knew only she and I would eat this in my house, so I went with her ideas and added extra red bell pepper instead. She loves sweet red peppers. I wanted the dish to be heart healthy, so I kept a Mediterranean influence in mind when choosing these ingredients.

The Mayo Clinic website suggests that a heart healthy/Mediterranean diet includes, but is not limited to, these components:

Meals eaten with family and friends

A generous amount of vegetables

Consuming olive oil

Using herbs and spices instead of salt

Drinking red wine

So, I poured myself a glass of red wine and poured a glass of orange juice into a martini glass for Daphne and we began creating this dish.

Lately, I have been limiting all of the white carbohydrates from my diet, like potatoes, white flour pasta, and white rice. Instead, I have been using brown rice and absolutely loving it. Brown rice takes a few minutes longer to cook, but I find the flavor to be superior. It’s richer and fuller whereas white rice has no flavor at all. Whole brown rice is rice in its original form with the bran intact. White rice is brown rice that has gone through at least one of several processes, including polishing, parboiling and/or pre-cooking.

When the rice comes in from the field, the hull is removed and the result is whole brown rice. In this unprocessed state, whole brown rice offers a natural concentration of vitamins and minerals, including potassium, riboflavin, niacin and thiamin, and it still has its bran, which is a natural fiber.

Brown rice is also better for the environment because it requires less processing. The less processing of a food, the less energy required. There’s also the issue of the synthetic vitamins added back into the white rice. These are produced in laboratories and factories from a variety of chemicals; and these sorts of processes are well known for their negative impact on the environment. Therefore, brown rice is not only better for your health and tastes better, it is also good for the planet. So, I have made the switch. I’m also eating the whole wheat pasta which I have surprisingly grown to love.

I am not suggesting that we all go out and convert to only olive oil and brown rice. I will be the first to admit that I love butter as I have mentioned in this column several times. I will still be cooking dishes with butter and cream and potatoes. In fact, just last week, the kids and I made salmon with a hollandaise sauce, which defeats the entire purpose of eating heart healthy salmon. I was shocked to discover that to make the sauce for the three of us, we needed eight egg yolks and two sticks of butter. I made it anyway and it was so delicious. I smiled with every bite. There may have even been a few moans of satisfaction throughout the meal. Sometimes the benefit you get from being so joyful with each bite, like the joy butter brings to me, is just as good as eating healthy. Happiness too is good for the heart. I just want to make that kind of cooking the exception and not the rule.

These changes are helping me to stick with my goal of being in the best shape ever by the Fourth of July. I did include cheese in this recipe; but it is low fat. Cheese has been my downfall in trying to eat healthy and I never used to buy the low fat cheese. I believed that low fat meant low flavor. I was wrong; low fat cheese is really good. I am so happy about this. If you are interested in trying to add some low fat, high fiber, nutritious meals to your diet, give this one a shot. It is delicious.

Mediterranean Hot Pot

Serves: 6

Time: one hour

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 large sweet red peppers

1 yellow squash, sliced

1 can sliced button mushrooms

1 can artichoke hearts

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can tomato sauce

3 cups vegetable or chicken stock

2 cups brown rice

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup fresh cilantro

1 cup skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Heat the olive oil in a stock pot. Add the onions and cook for ten minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic, celery, peppers and yellow squash and saut for ten minutes more. Add the artichoke hearts, garbanzo beans, tomato sauce, and stock. Add the brown rice and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Make sure rice is tender and add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with mozzarella cheese and fresh cilantro.

Rachel Sear, a great friend of mine, finished a project last Friday for a class she took at MSU while earning her Masters in Experiential Education. Experiential education focuses on experiences to connect learners to content.

For example, if students were to learn about bridges, they might visit many bridges to study them. It’s not necessarily hands on, where the students would actually build the bridges.

Here, Rachel took a group of junior high students from River Bend Academy in Mankato and taught them about cooking. She called this project “Top Chef Mankato.” This is “project based learning” and a form of experiential education. This was no ordinary cooking class.

Rachel wanted these children to learn all aspects of what ends up on the table. She taught them where the food comes from and about sustainable agriculture, the nutritional value of the food and how this affects the body, and how to budget and feed a family with little money.

Therefore, math, science, environmentalism and health were related to real life experiences and the students learned how to take these skills and put them to use in the real world. Rachel showed the students documentaries on sustainable agriculture. They visited a local food coop. They cooked together some low-fat nutritious meals.

On the last week, the students who had divided into three groups were to present the entire school with a dish which could feed a family of four. It had to include a protein, two vegetables, and at least one Minnesota-grown ingredient. Furthermore, each dish had to be moderately low in fat and cost less than $15 to prepare. Each group met and even beat these requirements and presented the school with three delicious meals.

I was there, last Friday, when these three groups cooked their dishes and served them to the students and teachers at River Bend Academy. I was immediately impressed with the enthusiasm and even passion each group exhibited while cooking and telling me about their dish.

Each dish was something they were already familiar with; but, with Rachel’s help, more vegetables were added and substitutions like lower fat proteins were instituted. Jeremiah Hartman cooked an amazing country goulash which his mother makes at home and this was the most nutritious and lowest calorie dish of the bunch.

Each student knew the answers to the questions Rachel would throw at them like why they used organically grown vegetables or why locally grown produce is important. Madison Taber even brought some asparagus from her own garden and added it to her American lasagna.

I loved the creativity from the group who made Mexican lasagna using corn tortillas rather than lasagna noodles. In the end, all of the dishes were incredible and tasted delicious.

They were judged by the students in the school; but, the results were so close that it was almost a three-way tie. The two lasagnas were a tie with the goulash only trailing by a couple of votes. I would have had a difficult time choosing only one of these.

Congratulations to each of the amazing students I had the pleasure to meet. I had the best time getting to know all of you and eating the amazing food you presented. If this is an example of how Rachel Sear plans to educate students, they are in for a real treat. I wonder if these students realized how much they learned while having such a good time.

Rachel and her students

The student’s recipes:  

American Lasagna by Madison Taber and Michael Weimern

You need:

-Italian seasoning

-pepper

4 C. cottage cheese

1 1/2 lb. ground beef or ground turkey

-26-30 oz. spaghetti sauce

4 oz. pepperoni

10 strips lasagna noodles

1-2 C. mozzarella cheese

9×13″ greased pan

First, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Second, brown meat. Mix mozzarella cheese and cottage cheese in separate container. Drain the met. Put pepper, Italian seasoning, and the can of spaghetti sauce in the pan with the meat and heat it up. Lay five lasagna noodles on bottom of pan. Put half meat on top of noodles. Put half cheese mix on that. Lay five more lasagna noodles on top. Put second half of meat mix. Put second half of cheese mix on this. Put tin foil over this and place in oven to bake for one hour.

Country Goulash by Jeremiah Hartman and Alex Simmons

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 can (28 oz) stewed tomatoes

1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

2 C. fresh or frozen corn

1 medium green pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

3 C. cooked elbow macaroni

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomatoes, soup, corn, green pepper, onion and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat’ cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in macaroni and heat through. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Mexican Lasagna by Jaren Allen & Dalton Nelson

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground turkey

1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp red pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 (16 oz) can tomatoes, chopped

12 corn tortillas

2 C. non-fat shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 C. non-fat egg substitute

2 C. shredded lettuce

1/2 C. chopped tomatoes

3 green onions, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown turkey’ rinse in colander under hot water and drain. Add cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, red pepper, salt, pepper and tomatoes. Heat through. Spray 9×13 inch pan with non stick spray. Cover bottom and sides of pan with half tortillas. Pour meat mixture over tortillas. Place another layer of tortillas over meat mixture and set aside. Combine cottage cheese, 1 C. cheddar cheese and egg. Pour over tortillas. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle rows of cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and green onions diagonally across center of casserole.

Makes 8 servings.

Easy to make and so delicious

When you were young, do you remember there being a mother who always wanted to feed you when you walked through her front door? Was there a mother whose first question as you entered was, “are you hungry?” or “have you eaten?” Well, I am pretty sure I have become that mom. I don’t know what it is but when someone comes over, young or old, I feel the need to feed them. I don’t even really think about it. It has become a natural instinct. Sometimes I don’t ask any questions and just start whipping up some chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, or just a bowl of olives or almonds. I feel like there should be food offered. It makes me happy to feed people.

When it comes to dinner, I really want to make sure everyone who sits around my table has something to eat that they will enjoy. I absolutely love to cook but I think I love pleasing the appetites of my friends and family more. It’s not so much that I want to hear that what I cooked was fantastic. I want my family and guests to be satisfied, full and happy. 

Sometimes I am presented with a variety of tastes that need to be addressed. I have a daughter who is a pescatarian, friends who are vegetarians and flexitarians, my husband likes every meal to include meat, and my son really only likes cheese burgers…and pop tarts. I have a sister who is a vegan and doesn’t eat eggs, milk or cheese. I can’t even imagine living like that. I pretty much like everything, except pop tarts. It can be challenging to satisfy all of these varieties of tastes in one meal; but, I am usually up for it.

Last night, our friend Rachel was over for dinner and she is a vegetarian. We were talking about what we would make for dinner. She enjoys cooking too. We always have so much fun cooking together. Somehow our conversation led to Hare Krishnas and how they eat a vegetarian diet. I remembered that I have a Hare Krishna cook book called, “The Higher Taste: a guide to gourmet vegetarian cooking and a karma-free diet.”  We both thought it would be fun to make a dish for dinner from this book. As we drove to New Ulm to pick up my kids from school, Rachel read aloud some of the recipes. They had recipes for stuffed tomatoes, stuffed eggplant, spring rolls, vegetable quiche, and minestrone soup (to name a few). We finally decided on stuffed peppers.

I had never had vegetarian stuffed peppers and thought this was an interesting idea. I wondered if Claud would like it and I knew Jack wouldn’t come near it. There was one ingredient I didn’t have. It was a plant called hing. Well, I didn’t know it was a plant until I looked it up. We learned that onions and garlic could be a substitute for hing. Rachel and I didn’t understand why they didn’t just put onions and garlic in the recipe, so we looked further into it. You may know that onions and garlic are botanical members of the alliaceous family (alliums) – along with leeks, chives and shallots. According to Ayurveda, India’s classic medical science, foods are grouped into three categories:  sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. These are foods in the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Onions and garlic, and the other alliaceous plants are classified as rajasic and tamasic, which means that they increase passion and ignorance. Apparently, Hare Krishnas do not eat onions and garlic because they are in the mode of passion and cannot be offered to the Lord Krishna. Again, I was amazed by how much I learn from cooking.

Personally, I couldn’t live without onions and garlic. So, we added them to the dish. We also changed a few other things to make the recipe our own. We used brown rice in place of white. We added almonds instead of pine nuts and baked the peppers instead of frying them.

The finished dish turned out delicious. The brown rice with vegetables and cheese combined with fennel seed was so flavorful that Claud didn’t even miss the meat. Jack ate a ham sandwich. Daphne and I had a nice piece of seared salmon with the stuffed pepper. I also included a small simple salad. In the end, everyone was full and satisfied and I was pleased. You could make this same recipe and add some ground beef or ground turkey if you don’t have any vegetarians eating with you and it can be a meal in itself. However you wish to prepare it, I am sure you will enjoy it.

Stuffed Peppers

Serves: 4

Time: 45 minutes

4 red peppers

2 C. cooked brown rice

2 Tbsp. olive oil

½ yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 ½ tsp. fennel seed

½ tsp. black pepper

1 C. zucchini, chopped

½ C. black olives, chopped

1/3 C. almonds, chopped

1 tsp. salt

1 C. ricotta cheese

½ C. parmesan cheese

Cook the brown rice and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the tops off of the peppers and wash out the seeds. Steam the peppers for about ten minutes. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or sauce pan. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for ten minutes. Add fennel seed and pepper and heat for five minutes. Add the zucchini, and black olives. Cook for another five minutes. Add the almonds, salt and ricotta cheese. Pour in the rice and mix everything together for one minute more. Stuff this mixture into the peppers and top with the parmesan cheese. Place in the oven for twenty minutes.

I decided a couple of years ago that I was going to begin making all of my cakes from scratch. For many years before I made this change, making cakes was so simple. I just chose the flavor and looked on the back to see if I would need vegetable oil or not. Then, I chose a frosting flavor and grabbed that tub. These cakes were fool proof and always tasted and looked great. Well, a couple of years and many birthday cakes later, I am rethinking my decision. For example, at my mom’s birthday, I made a red velvet cake that looked more like a pink furry cake. It kept falling apart into the frosting. It did taste good; but, I was going for looks and taste. It turns out, I am a terrible baker. It seems the only thing I can bake is a cinnamon roll and I am not sure why those keep coming out so good. I always follow the directions as they are written, but my cakes are never right.

My cake...not so pretty

Two weeks ago, I asked Claud what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday party. He said, “Yellow cake with chocolate butter frosting.” So, I found a recipe and got to work. I get excited about baking, always believing that this time it will turn out great. The cake part wasn’t so bad, although it was a bit on the dense side and not so much fluffy, like I had hoped. The frosting is where I really went wrong. The recipe was vague on just how much milk to add and I think I put in too much. It was a gooey mess. Once the cake cooled, I spread it on anyway, hoping the taste would outweigh the looks; unfortunately, it did not.

At the beginning of Claud’s birthday party, while my cake hid silently in the refrigerator, my sister, Jessica, walks in the door holding the most beautiful chocolate cake ever.  

Jessica's cake...gorgeous

My cake can’t sit next to that cake.  So, I poured myself a glass of wine and tended to the food for the party and forgot all about it for a while. However, after dinner, I had to readdress the situation. Should my cake even make an appearance? Should I accidentally drop it? No, “don’t be silly,” I thought. I would just bring it out with the stunning cake and hope it gets some attention. We sang and began cutting. Listening to the comments from our guests, Jessica’s cake not only looked beautiful, but also tasted heavenly. Yes, heavenly, divine, scrumptious, fantastic, were words floating around. I looked and my cake had barely been touched. People were feeling sorry for it and taking a small sliver to go with the large slice of the perfect cake.

In the end, hers was devoured (someone may have even licked the platter because nothing was left), and half of mine remained and then went out with the trash. So, last weekend, I decided that Jessica should make the cake for another birthday party I hosted at my house. Some people are bakers and some people aren’t and I fall into the latter category. I needed to just get over it and let the experts do their thing. I called Jess and asked her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come; but, she would send me the recipe. “Oh right, that’s a great idea”, I thought. But, I have a lot of courage and confidence and by golly I was going to give this cake thing another shot. Maybe I had been picking the wrong recipes. Maybe it’s the recipe and not the cook?

Nope, turns out it’s the cook. I took the cake out of the oven and it collapsed. But, I didn’t lose hope. I thought, well, that’s the bottom when I flip it over. I may be able to save this little guy. When I flipped it over, half of it stuck to the bottom of the pan. No problem, I scraped that puppy out and plopped it into the hole from whence it came. It was bumpy. But, with the glaze, it should still look pretty, right? Not. I poured on the glaze and the cake looked like something even Charlie Brown or the cakes own mother couldn’t love. In the end, I did serve the cake. A birthday has to have a cake. I have to say, it did still taste good. I hope you have better luck. Here is Jessica’s recipe and I am certain I was the failure and not the recipe. Good luck.

Chocolate Torte:

1 C. dark 80% cocoa

1 C. shopped semi-sweet chocolate

¾ C. butter

1/3 C. cocoa powder

5 eggs

¾ C. sugar

1 Tbsp. flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and set aside. In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over the lowest heat. Mix in the cocoa powder set aside for a few minutes to cool. While the chocolate is cooling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and flour until they are completely combined and foamy. Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate until the color is uniform and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30- 45 minutes, until a toothpick pulls out moist crumbs when inserted near the center of the torte. Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife along the edges of the torte and loosen the sides of the pan. Cool for 5 minutes and remove the sides of the pan. Place the cake on a serving platter and cool completely before serving.

 Glaze:

4 ½ oz. dark chocolate

3/4 C. cream

3/4 C. sugar

4 Tbsp. butter

3/4 tsp. vanilla

Heat sugar and cream in a sauce pan until sugar has dissolved. Then, pour over chocolate let it sit and melt for about 5 minutes. Then, stir. Mix in butter and vanilla let cool about 10 minutes. Pour over cake.

This dish is low fat and full of vegetables. While the chicken poaches, you have plenty of time to steam vegetables and make a delicious sauce. Poaching chicken is so easy because you don’t have to worry about turning it or even thinking about it while it cooks. You just stick it in the water and do other things. The entire dish takes about 30 minutes to make. It looks beautiful and tastes even better. Please watch the video at the end of this post of me making this dish.

Poached stuffed chicken breast with a creamy Dijon sauce

Poached stuffed chicken breasts on a bed of zucchini with a creamy Dijon sauce

Serves:  4

Time: 30 minutes

Poached stuffed chicken breasts:

4 chicken breasts

2 C. spinach

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 C. mozzarella cheese

4 Tbsp. Philadelphia cream cheese

4 Tbsp bread crumbs

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Butterfly cut each breast. Cut through the breast, but not all the way through, so they lay flat. Place plastic wrap on top and bottom of each breast and pound flat with a wooden spoon. Set aside.

In a food processor, combine spinach, garlic, mozzarella cheese, cream cheese and bread crumbs and blend well.

Place chicken on a new piece of plastic wrap about 2 feet each. Divide the stuffing into each breast and roll up in the plastic wrap. They should look like fat sausages. Tie the ends of the plastic together. Place in the boiling water to poach for 20 minutes. Take out of water, remove plastic wrap and place on top of the bed of zucchini.

Steamed zucchini:

2 zucchini

Slice the zucchini and place on a wire steamer, in a pot with one inch of water. Cover and steam for 15 minutes. Take out of steamer and place on each plate as a bed for the chicken to sit on.

Creamy Dijon Sauce:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic, chopped

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1 Tbsp. rosemary

3 C. chicken broth

3 Tsp Dijon mustard

6 Tbsp. cream cheese

While zucchini and chicken are cooking, heat olive oil in a skillet. Sauté the onion and garlic until the onion becomes translucent. Add the salt, pepper and rosemary. Let this brown with the onion and garlic (about 3 minutes). Deglaze with the chicken broth. Add the Dijon and cream cheese. Simmer for about ten minutes. It will be ready when the chicken is finished. Pour the sauce over the chicken and zucchini.

Another weekend and another birthday party at the Monro’s. This frugal phase I have been forced into has brought many blessings. We have instituted a family game night at our house and have been watching tons of movies because we don’t have sattelite right now. We decided that the satellite bill was an expense we could afford to toss for the moment. I have found that movies and games are so much more interesting and fun. The kids might fight me on this, but I think we don’t need satellite television anymore. With the new warm weather and the need to get out of the house, but not much money to go anywhere, we have been taking long walks to the park with our kids and friends. I love these walks and have taken some amazing pictures of the scenery. I am still impressed with the landscape around southern Minnesota. It is beautiful in every season. Also, instead of taking people out to dinner to celebrate their birthdays, we have been celebrating right here at home. I can’t think of anything more fun than throwing a dinner party.

This weekend we celebrated Kathy Grothem’s and Lanna Raatz’ birthdays. I decided to make an appetizer to get things started. Inspired by spring, I decided to go with artichokes as my main ingredient. Artichokes are a perennial thistle originating in the Mediterranean. My family loves to eat them steamed and then dip the leaves in butter and garlic. The “meat” at the bottom of the leaves and the hearts are so good in melted garlic butter. However, for this recipe I, once again, integrated Philadelphia cream cheese so I can add it to my videos for that contest. Claud said I am getting obsessed with the competition. I don’t think so, but I am going through a lot of cream cheese. I bet Philadelphia is having a huge month for sales. I have been buying the reduced fat so I don’t balloon up. I haven’t forgotten about my quest to be in the best shape ever before the fourth of July or my obsession (I’ll admit to this one) with cheese. Please visit my blog to watch me making this dish at www.simplyfoodify.com.

The appetizer I made for Lanna and Kathy’s special evening is artichoke and spinach dip served in an artichoke bowl and surrounded by cut vegetables to dip into the creamy mixture. Most artichoke and spinach dip recipes I have seen use chips or bread as the dipping “tools”, but I tried to make this version low fat. I used carrots, celery and broccoli to serve with it. Also, I created this version to be served chilled which allows the ease of preparing it in advance.

Using the artichoke as a bowl is a really easy way to make the platter look beautiful. If you make the artichoke bowl, the whole thing takes an hour to make (you can put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it). If you choose not to make the artichoke bowl, it takes about ten minutes to prepare and will taste just as great. You could also substitute the fresh spinach with frozen; although, fresh is best and only adds about ten minutes to the process. I used the reduced fat garden vegetable Philadelphia cream cheese. I had already tested the recipe out on my cooking class and they seemed to like it. Hopefully, you will too. It really is tasty and an affordable way to make a delicious and beautiful appetizer for your family and friends. You can have your guests nibble on this while you grill your meal. After all, it is grilling season again.

artichoke and spinach dip

Artichoke and Spinach dip

Serves: 6

Time: one hour

1 large artichoke

4 Tbsp butter

1 bunch of fresh spinach

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 8oz. container of Philadelphia reduced fat garden vegetable cream cheese

1 14oz. can artichoke hearts

1 14 oz. jar roasted red peppers

½ C. reduced fat sour cream

½ C. parmesan cheese

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp pepper

¼ tsp. red pepper flakes

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into 3 inch sticks

5 celery stalks, chopped into 3 inch sticks

6 broccoli florets, cut into bit sized pieces

Cut off the step of the artichoke so it sits flat. Then, cut off the top of the artichoke to make the top flat too. This will look better as a bowl. Fill a pot with 1 inch of water and place a metal steamer in the pot. Place the artichoke in the steamer and turn the heat on medium high. Cover with a lid and allow to steam for 40 minutes. The artichoke is ready when a leaf pulls out easily.

Cut the stems off of the spinach and wash the leaves very well. Spinach leaves tend to be gritty. In a skillet, melt the butter and sauté the sliced garlic for five minutes. Add the spinach and allow to wilt in the butter for five minutes.

In a food processor, combine the garden vegetable cream cheese, artichoke hearts, and spinach. Pulse for four or five times. Then, add sour cream, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Pulse four or five times more.

Chop up your vegetables and arrange on a platter, leaving a space in the middle for the artichoke bowl. Now, your artichoke should be finished. Let it cool for a couple of minutes so you can work with it without burning your hands. Start pulling out the inside leaves, leaving the outer leaves to form a bowl. Once you get down to the “hair” of the artichoke gently remove with a spoon (see my video). You will be left with the outer leaves and the bottom heart of the artichoke. Spoon in the dip and place in the middle of your vegetables. You will have left over dip to refill as needed. Enjoy.

This week my focus has been on the “Paula Deen/Real Women of Philladelphia” cream cheese cooking contest. Each week, for eight weeks, there will be a different dish to make. Last week, the dish was a side dish. This week, the dish is an appetizer. Contestants are to come up with an original recipe to submit. Then, they must make a YouTube video of themselves creating the dish. If you are interested in becoming involved in this competition, go to www.realwomenofphiladelphia.com for the contest rules and guidelines.

Come on ladies; let’s show the world that we can cook in the Midwest too. Sorry, men, you are not invited to be in the contest. Isn’t that odd? But, we ladies need to represent New Ulm (and Hanska in my case), especially since we have a Kraft plant right here. I know some amazing cooks out there who would be perfect for this (hmm… hmm…Rose or Bobbi?). It is so much fun. I just set up my little Flip video camera on top of a bunch of books and pretend I am a cooking star. You can see the video I submitted below. I hope you keep me in your thoughts as I would love to win the $25,000 contest prize and a chance to fly to Georgia and appear on Paula Deen’s show. I am going to come up with an original recipe idea and video for each week of the contest to increase my chances. I know it is a long shot; but, just dreaming about winning is fun in itself. My first entry was Philly Daughanoise Potatoes.

Philly Dauphinoise potatoes

Dauphanoise, or gratin dauphinois, potatoes are one of my all time favorite side dishes. In fact, Claud made them as the side dish for our wedding reception. We had to make them in my mom’s neighbor’s oven and drive the finished dish over to the reception when they finished cooking. Unfortunately, some of the creamy garlic liquid spilled in the back of our car. Our car stunk for a year after that day. We just could not get the smell out. It was worth it because everyone loved the potatoes. It was a stinky way to remember our fun wedding night, every day, especially when it was hot outside. We were happy to get rid of that car.  

The recipe originally comes from the Dauphaine region in France where this dish is a specialty. Traditionally, Dauphanoise potatoes are a very simple dish in which you thinly slice potatoes and onions. Then, you layer these with heavy cream, cheese and butter and season each layer with salt and pepper and bouillon. This is how I usually make them. However, I wanted to come up with a twist on the traditional and to make it low fat for the contest. So, I chose the reduced fat chive and onion flavored Philadelphia cream cheese to replace heavy cream and butter, and I added roasted red peppers to make it colorful.

The result was great. I made them first for Claud’s birthday party last weekend and the casserole dish was empty by the end of the night. To me, that is a successful recipe. So, I went ahead and curled my hair (Paula says hair is very important in the contest) and threw on some high heels and cooked it in front of the camera. Although you can’t see the high heels, it made me feel more glamorous.  I haven’t a clue what I will do with my hair next week. I really have only one style. I should start Googling hair dos right away. Whatever the result, win or lose, I really believe this recipe turned out delicious and being involved in the competition is a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it.

Philly Dauphinoise Potatoes

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Serves: 6

6 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

16 oz. jar roasted red peppers, sliced

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

16 oz. Philidelphia reduced fat chive and onion cream cheese

In a casserole dish layer the bottom with potato slices. Heat the cream cheese in the microwave for 30 seconds to make it easy to spread. Spread a layer of cream cheese over the potatoes. Add a layer of onions, garlic, and peppers. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top. Then repeat this process until you have only a layer of potatoes left and top this with the potatoes. Pour the melted butter over the top layer to aid it in becoming a beautiful golden brown.   

Tomorrow marks the celebration of one of the best holidays. My favorite holidays are those which revolve around a meal I love to eat. St. Patrick’s Day falls into this category. I don’t really know much about Saint Patrick or why we wear green clothing so as to avoid being pinched or why we eat corned beef and cabbage or why we drink green beer; so, I Googled it.

Saint Patrick was a man who was born and named Maewyn Succat during the 4^th century in Great Brittan. When he was a teenager, he was kidnapped and forced to live as a slave in Ireland. He eventually escaped back to Great Brittan and studied for many years to become a priest. He chose Patrick as his Christian saint name. Thereafter, he returned to Ireland to spread Christianity throughout the country. He used a shamrock to teach the Irish about the holy trinity, hence the green. In celebration of this patron saint, St. Patrick’s Day is actually known as a day to feast. That’s my kind of day. In Ireland, it is a one day reprieve from lent where people (after morning church services) indulge in large feasts of Irish bacon and cabbage, drink loads of beer and dance without breaking the rules.

I am not really sure why the tradition, at least the tradition in my house, evolved into a day to eat corned beef and cabbage. Maybe corned beef and Irish bacon are similar; maybe they are the same thing? I might need to go back to Google. My mom religiously, no pun intended, makes corned beef and cabbage every year on St. Patrick’s Day. She never served it with green beer and I don’t think we could handle green wine. I don’t know why, but usually this is the only day of the year that I eat corned beef. Each year, I realize how much I really love it and wonder why I don’t make it more often. But then, the months roll by and I don’t think about corned beef again until March. So, come St. Patrick’s Day, I am really excited about making corned beef and cabbage.

This year, I wanted to think of something a little different from the ordinary recipe. Claud suggested bubble and squeak. Last summer, Claud taught me how to make bubble and squeak and I really loved it. It is mashed potatoes mixed in with sautéed cabbage, onions and garlic, covered in a layer of bread crumbs and fried into little patties. Dalen Odegard, a friend of Jack and Daphne’s, was here the day Claud taught me how to make bubble and squeak and he loved it. I was surprised by Dalen’s enthusiasm not just to taste them but for the enjoyment I witnessed while he ate them. I love it when kids like my food. He asked me to give him the recipe and I am pleased to say, eight months later, “here you go, Dalen.”

Of course, for St. Patrick’s Day, I place the bubble and squeak on top of a mustard sauce because I need to include corned beef. I know I made a Dijon sauce last week but it couldn’t be helped not to include mustard with corned beef. The corned beef is thinly sliced and layered on top of everything. The sauce soaks into the bottom of the bubble and squeak so the crunchy crust soaks up the flavor of mustard as you cut into the tower. The creamy potatoes and the tangy mustard liquid combine with the salty beef to make your mouth water in between each bite. Please watch the  video below of Claud and me making this meal.

corned beef with bubble and squeak and a dijon sauce

Corned beef with bubble and squeak and a mustard sauce

Corned Beef:

1.5 lb corned beef (with spice packet)

Place the beef in a dutch oven or stock pot. Pour in the spices. Pour in enough water to cover the beef. Bring this to a boil and then turn the heat down to low and let it simmer covered for fifty minutes per pound. Take it out and let it rest while you make the rest of the meal. Leave the broth simmering to reduce it for the sauce.  Once everything else is ready, slice the corned beef across the grain into thin pieces.

Bubble and Squeak:

¼ C. olive oil, divided

8 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes

1 stick butter

1 C. sour cream

1 C. milk

Salt and pepper to taste

1 green cabbage, sliced

1 large yellow onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1 C. broth left over from the corned beef

1 C. bread crumbs

Boil the cubes of potatoes until they are soft enough to mash. Drain the water. Add butter, sour cream and milk. Mash the potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a skillet. Sauté the onions until they become clear (about ten minutes). Add the garlic. Add the cabbage. Pour in one cup of the broth. Let this cook until the cabbage becomes soft. Mix the cabbage, onions and garlic into the mashed potatoes. Form the potato mixture into small patties (about 4 inches in diameter). Pour bread crumbs into a bowl. Cover the potatoes in bread crumbs. Heat the rest of the oil in a skillet on high. When the oil is just starting to smoke, turn the heat down to medium. Fry the bubble and squeak until it becomes crispy on both sides.

Mustard sauce:

The remaining broth

2 Tbsp. whole grain or Dijon mustard

The broth should have had a chance to reduce considerably. You should still have about three cups left. Add in the mustard and whisk well. That’s it. Ladle the sauce onto a plate. Place one bubble and squeak on the plate and top it with four pieces of corned beef.