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Food Friday: Pesto

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Today we are in Italy. This is super easy and very delish. It makes a lot so could feed 4-6 depending on if you have teenagers in the house.

Artichoke Tomato Pesto

1/2 cup dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained

10 oz jar artichoke hearts, drained

1.5 cup romaine lettuce

1/3 cup parmesan

2 Tablespoons pine nuts

2 cloves garlic

2-3 leaves fresh basil

1/2 cup olive oil

I had this genius idea to try this in the blender. I do NOT recommend it. Use a food processor.

Puree artichoke hearts, dried tomatoes, lettuce leaves, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts and garlic until smooth.

Slowly pour olive oil into mixture while motor is running. Blend until smooth.

It doesn’t look too pretty but it smells wonderful!

Serve over Pasta.

Enjoy!

Mothers’ Congress Cook Book 1922

I inherited a cookbook from my grandmother. The cover is gone so I don’t know what it looked like but the date is 1922. The Preface states:

“Organized into a working body, the Mother’s Congress of Mount Ayr, presents Mothers who are studying and working for the betterment of Child Welfare.

In its interests financially, this little book is published and sent out by them.”

Followed by:

“We may live without poetry, music and art.

We may live without conscience and live without heart;

We may live without friends, we may live without books;

But civilized man cannot live without cooks. —- Merideth.”

It starts out with 12 points on how to set a table. Numbers 11 and 12:

11. Place carving set in front of host, or put carving knife and gravy ladle at his right, and fork at his left.

12. Place coffee cups and coffee pot at right of hostess.

The recipes don’t mention oven temperature other than “moderate oven” or “quick oven” and many of them don’t mention how long anything should cook. Here are a few samples.

Norwegian Stew. – Brown in a large kettle 1 c. lard and butter mixed, 25-cent round steak cut in small pieces, flour thoroughly and stir into the browned lard, continue stirring until meat is brown. Then add 1 c. flour stirring constantly, set on back of stove and add 2 qts. Boiling water, salt and pepper and let simmer 2 hrs, ½ hr. before serving add enough potatoes of medium size for the meal, stir occasionally as it will stick to kettle. — J.A.W.

Molasses Cake. 1 cup molasses, ½ c. sugar, ½ c. butter or lard, ½ tsp each cloves, ginger, cinnamon; 1 tsp. soda in 1 c. boiling water, 2 eggs, well beaten; last, flour to stiffen. –Mrs. Holman.

And my grandmother’s contribution:

Green Tomato Relish. – 5 lbs. green tomatoes, 6 large onions, 3 c. brown sugar, 3 c. red peppers, 3 green peppers, 1 tbsp. each of powdered cloves, all spice, celery seed, dry mustard, ½ c. salt, 8 c. vinegar. Peel and slice tomatoes and onions very thin. Remove seeds from peppers and chop very fine. To these add the other ingredients and cook over a moderate fire ½ hr., stirring frequently. Cover with paraffin. – Mrs. Liggett.

Household hints:

Rub the feet every night and morning with bay rum and witch hazel, equal parts, for frost bits.

Turpentine and lard rubbed on throat and chest will often relieve pain from cold.

To carry a mattress without breaking your fingernails (also back) use a broom underneath as a saddle and see how much easier it is.

Use a tbsp. of kerosene to wash windows. It not only cuts the dirt but is distrastful to flies

I’m not sure what “distrastful” is. Maybe a typo. But you get the idea.

The book ends with a poem.

Receipt for a Happy Day

Take a little dash of cold water,

A little leaven of prayer,

A little bit of sunshine gold,

Dissolved in the morning air.

Add to your meal some merriment,

Add thought for kith and kin,

And the, as a prime ingredient

A plenty of work thrown in.

Flavor it all with essence of love,

And a dash of play.

Let the dear old book and a glance above,

Complete the well spent day.

–Mrs. Smith

Whatever your recipe is, I hope you have a happy day!!

Food Friday: Zucchini

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Potato pancakes were a family favorite in Russia when I lived there. Russians love their potatoes. They eat them cold in salads, boiled with meat, and fried. I made up this recipe to make it a little more interesting. This can be an entire meal or a side dish.

Zucchini – Potato- Feta Pancakes

1 large zuccini (or two small to medium) Grated

3 medium potatoes (any kind you happen to have around) Grated

1 small red onion (I cut a big one in half) Grated

3/4 cup Feta cheese – You can use either soft or crumbled

2 Eggs

4 Tbsp flour

Salt and Pepper

Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt

You can grate everything by hand but it is much quicker and easier if you have a food processor. Takes about a minute.

Mix in the eggs, flour, cheese, salt and pepper

Salt would depend on how salty the Feta is, I would taste it first. I use about 7 turns of black pepper.

Put some oil in a non-stick pan and get it good an hot. Then put a generous spoonful in the pan and flatten it out. It will take a while to cook. Probably about 5 minutes on each side. Then I put them in a glass place in the oven at 350 degrees F to keep them warm and let them cook a bit more.

Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt.

Enjoy! За здоровье! (Za zdarov’e!)

Glacier Park, Montanta

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My mother recalls our train trip to Glacier Park:

We recently rode the train—the Empire Builder—from Minneapolis to Glacier Park in Montana for a week with our daughter and grandson—in coach, no less! Now, many people our age would take a sleeper or roomette, but I guess we just wanted to prove we could still “rough it” and save money! We weren’t the only ones of our age group, many passengers in coach were also “older”.

We got on the train about l0:30 pm, were given seats and pillows, instructions about bathrooms (downstairs!), dining car (2 cars ahead), lounge and snack bar (l car back), dining hours, and anything else pertinent to our next 24 hours aboard. All these instructions were given by a charming car attendant—a woman in her late 40’s probably, very professional and efficient, all the while being very friendly and helpful.

The train rolled quietly out of Minneapolis at 11:30 pm, almost on schedule, full of sleepy people.

The seats were roomy—much more so than on an airplane–, but it still was a challenge to find the right angle for head, body and feet. We took a small travel blanket and pillow, and I had an extra sweater with my winter jacket, Bill his warm jacket, so we managed to keep warm in the air-conditioning. One woman sitting near us a stuffed shoulder-pillow and an old fashioned tied-comforter, yet!—she looked totally cozy. The man across the aisle was over 6 feet tall and seemed to exactly fit into his seat with comfort for he softly snored the whole night through. During the night we made several trips down the stairs to the bathrooms hoping to alleviate blood clots and keep our muscles mobile, more or less. With the pleasant rumbling of the wheels on the tracks and the often blowing of the whistle, we soon dropped off for a fair night’s sleep.

The sights began with an early dawn over North Dakota—the never-ending sky of a million hues of pink, and the flat, treeless land with wheat, barley, mustard and flax fields intermixed with range country and rolling hills as we entered Montana. The dining car announced that it was open for breakfast, so we made our way there, enjoying both a good hot breakfast and the passing countryside.

The whole train was smoke-free, so at some stops it was announced that time would be long enough for stretching one’s legs and taking a smoke, if desired. We stopped at only a few places in Montana—Havre, Shelby, Cutback—and then we were seeing the wall of mountains tipped with snow. By this time it was evening and the train was a couple of hours late getting into East Glacier, but it still was daylight and the view of the beautiful, nearly l00 year old, Glacier Park Inn, a short walk from the station, with the background of these gorgeous mountains just at dusk was miraculous.

Traveling by train again after many years was a great experience for all of us and a great way to see the countryside and we survived!

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Food Friday: Dahl Soup

When I was little I lived in Burma and had an Indian nanny. She was a Catholic and her name was Mary. She spoiled me. One of my favorite foods was dahl soup. I could eat it every day. When the rest of the family was eating something I didn’t like, she make me dahl soup. I have no idea what her recipe was but here is mine.

Dahl Soup

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, diced

Put a tablespoon of oil into a pot and add onion and garlic

Cut up half a potato, skinned and add to the pot (or you can use a carrot)

Once the onion is soft add

4 cups broth

1.5 cups dahl (lentils)

Add 1 tsp diced fresh ginger

2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin

Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes

Allow to cool a bit and pour soup into a blender or use a hand blender until smooth

Return to the pot and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste

If it is too thick, add some water

Add some chicken if you like

Enjoy!

Food Friday – Leftover Enchiladas

Ok, I know what you are thinking. Mexican again? Well, no, not really. Although the original concept is Mexican, this recipe is about as American as you can get. At a stretch it could be Tex-Mex. It is homemade fast food. Quick and easy. It is a great way to use turkey leftovers but you can use chicken if you are all out of turkey.

Leftover Turkey Enchiladas

1.5 cups shredded or chopped cooked turkey

1 cup picante sauce

1 (3-oz) packet cream cheese, cubed

1/2 cup sliced green onions

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp oregano

1.5 cups shredded cheese (monterey jack and/or cheddar)

8 flour tortillas

Lightly grease a 7×12 inch baking dish. Combine turkey, 1/4 cup picante sauce, cream cheese, green onion, cumin and oregano in skillet. Place over low heat until cheese is melted, stirring occasionally. Add another 1/2 cup shredded cheese to melt.

Spoon 1/3 cup turkey mixture down the center of each tortilla, roll up and place seam-side down in the baking dish. Spoon remaining 3/4 cup picante sauce evenly over the top of the enchiladas, cover with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes or until hot.

Gallbladder? I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Gallbladder!

It all started about midnight Monday. I couldn’t sleep. The pain started on the right and moved around and then settled in the upper right abdominal. I decided to take some aspirin. Bad idea. That was when the vomiting started.

About 2 pm on Tuesday I decided to do some serious Internet investigating. You have probably gathered by now that doctors are a last resort. I really don’t like to go to the doctor. So I was reading about kidney stones, gastritis, and then I came across gallbladders. That was when it got interesting. It sounded like it could be very bad if not treated.

Okay, so I called the nurse. She said I should probably see the doctor. The doctor was fully booked so they sent me to urgent care. At this point I was in a lot of pain. The kind where you can’t sit still because it is too much to handle. I had stopped vomiting because I already ejected everything possible and then some.

I did not eat anything from Monday evening on. I stopped liquids Tuesday afternoon.

5:30 pm Tuesday – Urgent care gave me morphine and an anti nausea drug and had me start drinking barium for the CT scan. The morphine knocked me out. I was all spacey but not feeling any pain. I managed to keep down the barium and survived my CT scan. This took 4 hours.

The verdict – I had one gallstone and some “sludge” in there with it. Apparently this was not good. The gallbladder had to come out. At midnight I was on my way to the hospital.

2 am – Tucked into my hospital bed with a saline drip and an antibiotic drip hooked up. More morphine. My mouth felt like the Sahara desert. I could not muster a drop of saliva.

There were no operating rooms available the next day but they were hoping to squeeze me in someplace. I slept the whole day…between morphine doses. Unfortunately the morphine gave me a horrible headache. Or maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten in two days. Anyway, more pain. I was miserable.

At 8 pm on Wednesday the call came for the operating room. My anesthesiologist liked my nail polish. Not sure how it happened but somehow they slipped me something and four hours later I was returned to my hospital bed, gallbladder- free.

My gallbladder was in really bad shape. They said it must have been deteriorating for quite some time and I was a really tough person to put up with it so long. I started thinking about it. I had been having aches and pains for a long time. I thought it was just part of getting old or maybe I needed a new bed. I was thinking I might mention it to the doctor next time I went because it never seemed to get any better. But it was tolerable.

The major revelation was I felt so much better after that darn thing came out I couldn’t believe it. I mean right away. I felt good.

I have to put in a plug for all the caretakers involved from the surgeon to the cleaning lady. I had amazing, attentive, involved care. I could go on about all the great people I met. Truly wonderful people. I hear lots of comments and complaints about The American Healthcare System. I know it has its problems. But wait till you get sick! You might change your mind.

Of course I have good insurance and don’t know yet what my cost will be but for now I am basking in the afterglow!

A few interesting facts I learned about gallbladders:

It is a small thing right under the liver
It stores bile produced by the liver
After eating, the gallbladder squeezes bile into the small intestine where it helps digest fat
Once removed, your body needs to figure out other ways to digest the fat
Usually it can, but the diet needs to be low fat at least until it figures it out

Isn’t science interesting?

Food Friday: Budin Azteca

Today we land in Mexico. One of my favorite food places. This is a layered casserole that is really worth the effort. Vegetarians can leave the chicken out. For a variation, use pork instead of chicken.

Budin Azteca (Aztec Casserole)

2 tablespoons oil

½ cup chopped onion (125g)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Heat up a pan with the oil and cook onion and garlic until transparent. Watch it so you don’t burn the garlic.

Add:

3 cups tomato puree (750g)

1.5 tsp salt

Cook until heated through

To another pan add:

1 tbsp butter

3 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels

2 small zucchini (courgettes) chopped

Cook a 2-3 minutes and add:

1/3 cup water

Cover and cook on low heat for 5-7 minutes until the zucchini is tender.

Prepare and cut into strips:

2 chiles poblanos (roasted, pealed, membranes removed)

If you don’t want to go through the roasting and peeling process, you could buy tinned whole green chiles and use them.

You will also need:

1 cup cooked shredded chicken

1 cup grated manchego, muenster, monterey jack or white cheddar cheese

1 cup (250ml) thick cream (crème fraiche)

corn tortillas – warmed

Assembly:

Oil a large baking dish.

Place a thin layer of vegetables on the bottom

Cover with warmed tortillas (5-6)

Add about half the tomato sauce to cover

Top that with half the remaining vegetables

Then half the chiles

Half cup cream

half the chicken

and half the cheese

Repeat the layers finishing with the cheese on top.

Bake in 375 degree F oven for 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted (might be a little longer)

Serve with avocado and salad.

Poppy Day

I went to a British grade school in Mexico City. We wore a uniform. It was a grey skirt, shorts or trousers for the boys, white sox, black shoes, a white shirt, a green tie (both girls and boys) and a green blazer with the crest of the school sewn on the upper left hand pocket. My brother used to get into trouble because his badge kept getting ripped and he would take it off. That crest had to be on there. I learned to tie my own tie at 7 years old. Some kids wore clip-ons but most of us tied our own.

In November my first year, kids started showing up with red paper poppies pinned to the lapel of their blazers. I had never heard of Poppy Day but I loved the color added to the otherwise mundane clothing. I bought one and wore it even though I didn’t understand why. I looked forward to it every year. That splash of red.

When I was working at the British Embassy in Moscow, I saw people wearing poppies on their lapels and it took me right back to school in Mexico. I had forgotten all about those red paper poppies.

Recently I have been watching the BBC to give me a more worldly perspective on the news. And lately they are wearing poppies. I have poppies on the brain.

It was the 11th month, 11th day, 11th hour when hostilities ended. It was the end of the First World War, the war to end all wars. Poppies bloomed all across the fields where the battles were fought and lives were lost. A sea of red.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Coronel John McCrae, 1919

Also known as Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veteran’s Day, it is honored around the world in different ways.

In the USA poppies are assembled by disabled and needy veterans in Veteran Hospitals. The poppies are given in exchange for contributions. The contributions provide financial assistance in maintaining these veterans’ rehabilitation and service facilities as well as the Verterans’ of Foreign War National Home for orphans and widows of the nation’s veterans. They aren’t as common here as they are in Britain but you can find them. Wear your poppy proudly!

Food Friday – Ginger

This time of year we, in the West, think of ginger in terms of Christmas and the Holiday season. Gingerbread houses, gingerbread men, ginger snaps and other delicious sweets. Ginger originally came from South Asia but is now used all over the world. It’s medicinal properties include easing: nausea, throat and nose congestions from colds, migraine and cramps, muscle and joint pain, and can even act as an aphrodisiac. In Burma they use it in a salad called gyin-thot, in Jamaica they make ginger beer.

Here is one of the many ways you can use ginger. I hope you like it!

Ginger Stir Fry

Mix together and set aside:

3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp vermouth
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp sugar

Prepare:

1 lb beef sirloin steak, cut into 1/8″ strips
2 tbsp oil
2 large garlic cloves, diced
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, diced
1 green pepper cut into strips (and/or red pepper)
1 cup broccoli cut into small pieces
salt and pepper
1/4 cup stock
sesame seeds

Add the beef to the soy sauce mixture and toss. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the beef, garlic, and ginger. Cook until meat is browned.

Add the vegetables and cook over high heat, stirring so they don’t burn. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the stock and cook another minute or two. Serve over rice with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Don’t forget to cook the rice!

Expat Alien

foreign in my own country