Laura's Baked Yams with Apples and Raisins

Baked yams with apples and raisins

Butter a baking dish that has a lid, cut up peeled garnet yams in 3/4 inch cubes, add cut up unpeeled apples, raisins, and add optional honey, cinnamon or whatever spices desired. Cover and bake at 350 till done, 35-45 minutes. All natural easy and tasty! Experiment with it, I made this up.

Kathy's Quesadilla/Taco All-in-One Meal

If you want to know what I eat most of the time that I'm home alone, here it is:

Kathy's Quesadilla/Taco All-in-One Meal:

The cast-iron griddle is essential for this, plus a microwave oven. Get the best corn tortillas you have available. Here in Austin we can buy fresh ones made from scratch by hand from Central Market.

Position three tortillas on a hot griddle so they overlap a little in the center, with little or no oil. It helps if the griddle is well-tempered. Roast on each side on high heat. I like them crispy but not burned. Place on a large dining plate.
Meanwhile, open a can of refried beans (black beans are my favorite) and get out your preshredded cheese (lots of options nowadays--try Asiago, Mexican cheese varieties). Spread first beans, then cheese on the tortillas and put in the microwave for about 30 sec. or until the cheese is melted.
Chop some prewashed lettuce, a scallion, a tomato, a ripe avocado if you have it, open a can of sliced or chopped olives, and dollop these on top. Finish off with salsa or hot sauce of your choice. Best eaten with the hands, although messy.
Variations: Try sauteed mushrooms or sauteed zucchini instead of refried beans. Use baby spinach leaves lightly sauteed in place of lettuce. Make your own beans or take a can of whole beans, drain, and sautee with chopped onion, garlic, cumin, and chili powder. Put fresh cilantro on top. The possibilities are endless. Those of you who eat meat can figure out a way to work that in too.

Eric's Coq au Vin

3.5 - 4 lbs. chicken

1.5 tbsp olive oil

.5 lb. onion

1 tbsp butter

.5 lb. mushroom

2 tbsp flour

3 cups dry red wine

1 cup of chicken broth

bouquet garni

salt

pepper

This is an easy way to make the classic dish. Get boneless skinless chicken thighs and cut each piece into 3 pieces. The original version calls for pearl onions, but I simply chopped Vidalia onion into cube-sized sections and let it fall apart on its own as I cooked. I substituted portobella mushrooms since they release a dye that improves the color of the dish somewhat. I added a dash of herbs d' Provence to the mushrooms. In a covered frying pan, stir fry the chicken in olive oil. When I did this it made its own broth, so additional broth was omitted. In yet another frying pan saute the mushrooms in butter. Don't finish cooking either chicken or mushrooms. In a small stock pot, saute the onions until slightly browned, then add the flour and roast slightly. Add wine to the onions, red if you are following the portobella route, white maybe if you choose a different mushroom. Boil the wine for about a minute then combine all ingredients. Normally Coq au Vin cooks until a half or two halves of chicken are done (45 minutes more) but in this case having stir-fried the boneless skinless chicken already, just cook until the chicken bits are done and quit, maybe 5 more minutes. Potatoes and carrots can be added are added in the original dish, but I didn't.

Coq au Vin

I'm actually going to make this dish tonight but I wanted to see if the pic taken from the cookbook works well enough here, and it seems to. Coq au Vin is an unsightly dish, the color I find unappetizing. I think they altered the perception of it by using green colored service. I have made it by the book several times but tonight I am going to experiment a bit.

One further note if you are going to send me pics, I will edit them using iPhoto because the Blogger server makes the images less colorful.

Yvonne's Fish Florentine

Fish Florentine Very quick and easy

2T butter or olive oil

2T flour

1 t chicken buoillon

dash of white pepper or/and nutmeg or bit of sauteed onion or garlic in the butter

1 cup of milk

2 T parmesan cheese

1 10 ounce package frozewn spinach thawed and drained or equivalent fresh steamed to reduce volume

1 pound fish fillets

Prepare sauce of first five items. Place spinach in oven proof pan. layer fish over that and pour hot sauce over fish . Sprinkle with another one or two T parmesan. This is the basic recipe and I often make small variations. Lemon juice sprinkled over spinach may be added or swiss cheese or wine to the sauce etc, Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve with rice. - Mom

Christa's Linguini with Clam Sauce

While your pasta water is set to boil, finely chop Italian flat-leaf parsley to make about 1/2 cup (packed) of fresh parsley. 5-6 clove of garlic, peeled and sliced. Originally the recipe called for butter and olive oil, but we have omitted that. Remove the clam juice from 3 cans of chopped clams and heat in a frying pan, adding the parsley and season with black pepper. Bring it to a boil and add the garlic and clams until the mixture reheats, then remove from fire. Don't overcook the clams - just leave them in long enough to come up to temperature, them remove from heat.

Eric's Artisan Loaf

This is the king of artisan loaves. About 4 time the size of a normal loaf of bread. It could be called a boule or panella, this is 100% whole wheat. The flour is called "white whole wheat' and I get it a Trader Joe's; it's some of the best bread flour I have had in a long time.

E's Pizza with Onion, Shallot, and Garlic Sauce

That's right: saute until glazed chopped onions, shallots, and garlic in olive oil. Make more than you think you'll need as this sauce doesn't spread unless rather thick. In this case it looks like shiitakes have been added. After I was done I realized it needed the olives but I forgot them. VEGETARIAN!!!

Eric's Mushroom Sauce

Make a white sauce with butter and flour and fat free half and half. Remember to roast the flour in the butter until it develops a nutty aroma. In another sauce pan, melt a pat of butter in olive oil, then saute finely chopped shallots or Vidalia onions until glazed, then deglaze with white wine, then add the sliced mushrooms. Combine with the white sauce. Nice over linguini perhaps.

this one is self-explanatory

Yvonne's Oatmeal

It's good for the heart, as it lowers cholesterol. Here's Mom's version:

Hi, The first easiest recipe that came to mind is what I eat almost every morning for breakfast. Oatmeal. Good for regularity and lowering cholesterol. The ratio of oatmeal to water is one part oatmeal to two parts water. I measure 1/3 cup quick oatmeal and 2/3 cup water into a bowl for microwave. Salt optional. Add about ten or twelve raisins. Microwave one minute. Stir. Mocrowave about additional thirty seconds watching it so it won't boil over. Eat with fat free milk and maple syrup on it. Yum and satisfying. More Later, Mom

Personally I have found that using unsweetened soy milk to cook the oats in is workable. I use a handful of raisins because I don't use any other sweetener. I add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, and a pinch of garam masala and a pinch of ground Jamaican allspice as well. Cinnamon lowers cholesterol as well.