Nothing for Granted

 The stuff we take for granted when we are in good health never fails to astound me now. I am so conscious that it can all be taken away in a heartbeat.

I had around two years of debilitating health deterioration, to the point where I had to buy those eggy frozen pre-mades for breakfast as I couldn't stand long enough at the stove to make my favourite porridge and cook my egg. Also because of the chronic anemia, I could only eat tiny amounts or I would go briefly blind as my blood was so bad. Literally. Frightening. I really never thought any kind of health and mobility could be restored. I'm still not too steady on the old pins but I can stand and do stuff now, hang pictures, wash the dishes, haul in groceries. Cook.

But enough of all that, I've written much about it here in the fervent hope that others don't need to carry their health challenges alone as the mental and emotional toll of that can be enormous.

So tonight I baked a spinach quiche. All by my little old self. And it tasted so good. Very simple old recipe - bits of bacon or ham, (4 eggs, 1/4 cup of real cream or less - mix these thoroughly), carmelized onions, mushrooms, chopped if you have them, 1 cup of finely chopped spinach or kale. Pour into a smallish pastry pie shell Top with a good cheese, grated or small lumps. Serves 4. Salad or coleslaw on the side. Omit meat if vegetarian. 

Little Victories

As y'all know, I take nothing for granted. Even surmounting in tiny ways my physical challenges.

The pot above is a bit of an achievement for me. I was talking of my spicy African peanut soup to someone last week and I thought to myself: I must pick up the ingredients. Next thought was: I can't stand that long on my legs, the pain will kill me.

Then I thought, what odds, give it the old bash. You need to surmount some of these physical challenges of cooking great stuff from scratch.

I took all that cooking and baking stuff for granted. As we do. Inject some health issue and we can be brought to reality quite quickly.

I tackled the recipe, chopping, peeling, slicing, but slowly. Using multiple cutting boards and resting in between.

And Lard Thunderin', as we say out here, look at the pot! All done. And note: this is a completely vegan recipe.

Now some of you will want the recipe and nothing is formalized and basically doesn't need to be but here goes, just a list, be sure to simmer the veggies lightly in oil first to give that added oomph:

Large can of pumpkin
1 can of coconut milk
Goodly amount of chopped up spinach, stems removed
1 or 2 yams/sweet potatoes depending on size.
1 large purple onion chopped
1 smallish red pepper chopped
1/2 of jar of pure peanut butter
A couple of cloves of chopped garlic
A smattering of finely chopped ginger and chili peppers
2 heaping teaspoons of good quality curry powder or enough to personal taste.
Use up all your saved veggie broth or buy a large container of same or use veggie cubes.
Add water to taste
Peanuts to decorate serving bowl.
Stir well at 30 minute intervals, I use a timer to remind me.
Use immersible blender when cooked to smooth out onions and yams - but not too fine, palatable chunky is good.

That's it.

I usually simmer it for a few hours.

If you try it let me know or suggest your own modifications, improvements. Or pass on a treasured recipe of your own.

We're all in this together!

Breakfast

I'm basically a bore with breakfast.

But the following is a recipe I've used forever when I don't have time in the morning to make the oatmeal with seeds and nuts and homemade yogurt and berries on top and also cook my egg.

I make it ahead of time and it makes 4 breakfasts. I've eaten it cold or warmed up.

It sticks to the ribs really well.

1 cup uncooked grain - anything but wheat. Quinoa is delicious as is oatmeal.
2 cups berries or chopped mixed fruit of any kind.
1 cup skim milk or soya or yogurt or 1/2 cup ricotta or cottage cheese or almond milk.
6 medium eggs
1 tsp nutmeg and/or ginger to taste
1 long casserole dish greased well.

Beat eggs well with the milk or yogurt or ricotta.

Sprinkle grain on bottom of dish

Spread berries over top

Pour egg mixture over everything.

Bake at 375 for an hour or until firm. Cut into 4.

And yes, my change of habits and planning ahead with meals is going really well.

I realize, for the 100th time, that I am a person who can't be spontaneous with food.

Reflections on African Soup

For those interested, here's the recipe. Roughly. It changes according to my mood and I've adapted it to the most reasonable combinations of ingredients. In season.

An immersible blender helps as it does in most soups. So if you're a serious soup maker go find yourself one. Easy on line shopping. I bought one for Daughter for her birthday. As no kitchen should really be without.

A good stock is essential too. I keep a big glass jar in the freezer part of my fridge and always save my vegetable water, fish stock, et al in it.

List

Stock - any amount top up with regular water if you have to and a veggie or oxo cube. Enough for 4-8 cups of liquid.
Pumpkin - 2 cups I use canned being in the frozen north
Root vegetables, turnip, carrot, yam, sweet potato, parsnip, whathaveyou - about 8 cups after chopping. I love to add chopped kale or turnip greens in season too.
Garlic: chopped fine
1 huge onion, chopped
2 tablespoons of curry - reduce if you don't like it too hot.
Salt, pepper
1 can of coconut milk - I use the powdered kind and add another cup of water.
1/2 cup peanut butter.

Method

Fry the onion and garlic in a little light oil to transparency. Then add the spice, saute for a minute or 2 to mix nicely.
Add the stock and veggies all at once. Then add the pumpkin and everything else. Stir really well.
I usually simmer this for a couple of hours.
Then I use the immersible blender to smooth it all together, leaving a few veggies floating around unsmoothed.
I serve in big bowls with crusty bread or my Irish soda bread or as a meal over rice or with salad. I decorate the top of the bowls with a couple of peanuts, a dash of toasted coconut and a swirl of unsweetened whipped cream if I have them on hand.

Check to make sure the consistency pleases you before blending. I like it thick.

Everyone loves this soup. It evolved from a retreat I was on many, many years ago. And it was an Irish chef who showed me the ingredients which were not as varied as mine.

For instance he used canned milk rather than the coconut and stuck to sweet potatoes and pumpkin only.

I much prefer my version. As do my guests who lap it up.

It freezes beautifully. I often get 10-12 servings for future use.

So there ya go.

You're welcome.

30 Days - Day 9

The man in front is 95 YO next birthday.

I'm boring myself. These slices of life aren't too interesting are they?

Today. Well, today I made a huge stockpot of soup. I start off with my batches of stock from the freezer, every time I cook veggies or fish or meat, I save the water and freeze it. So the soup? I've been making this "recipe" for yonks, it's a pumpkin based effort with aforesaid stock. I fry up lots of onions and garlic first in a good oil, I then add my own pungent spices, coat masses of any on-hand veggies (I counted 11 different ones today) in this, golden them all up and add the pumpkin, the veg stock and about 16 cups of water and sprinkle about 1/4 cup of coconut flour on top. Adds a lovely smooth sweetness to it. After mixing everything thoroughly I simmer it all for 2-3 hours.

Then I take the immersible blender and have at it for a couple of minutes until it's smooth. This freezes beautifully in small containers. Yield today: 16 servings. Daughter dropped off all her fridge contents here before going to Ontario for a few weeks so soup was the solution to these masses of veggies.

But the big question remains: what do I do with the 3 dozen of her eggs. I already have 2 dozen of my own.

This afternoon I went to a party, see picture above. And enjoyed myself. Great live music and I entertained myself with taking pictures and smiling a lot. The gregarious loner emerged briefly from her cave.

And tonight the fire is beautifully warm as there is a distinct chill in the air.

And in the idle hands department: I started another afghan for a special person.

The world on my table

Olive oil, carrying riches from far away Italy. A little puddle.

Now simmering gold at the bottom of the silver pot.

The spices thrown in: turmeric, garam masala, coriander from India releasing a bouquet so rich, just enough to close the eyes and breathe the fragrant air.

Onions, local, ginger from China, garlic, local, all shredded, kissing the spices briefly before tumbling playfully around with them.

Carrots, local, holding the summer sun pressed tightly along their lengths. Cut in chunks and sent into the playground, now wearing coats of all that has gone before them.

Then the stock, lovingly made with the bones of forgotten roasts a month - maybe two - ago. 5 cups.

Simmering on the wood stove for, it doesn't matter. An hour, two.

Withdrawn then, nose hovering above, catching all these blended magnificences, unique yet now together.

Then the coconut milk. From the Caribbean. Folded in. Softly whisked.

Pureed into a red bowl.

Gently bottled up. Labelled. Dated.

Sunshine from around the world.

Asleep now.

To awaken in the short days of winter.

My Dumple Pan

Doesn't that sound delish? Dumple Pan. My very own word. I don't often get to use it - maybe twice baked potatoes, mini-Irish pies, those wee hors d'oeuvres with shrimp encased in a light pasty that you're sorry you started to make but now that you have and the shrimp are defrosted and omigawd there are so many, kill me now.

But today?

Thanks to the interwebz, I've collected and sent out more recipes through blogging than I ever have F2F. It is a great distraction from the angst of the world. Well, make that the end of days as we know them. We all need something to entice us and since drinking and falling down or eating till I explode are no longer options, well, recipes do the trick.

So one of my good blogging buddies - My Journal to Mindfulness - shared her recipe for cornbread. I could never master cornbread. Maybe it was the buttermilk or the bacon drippings I lacked, or proportions of everything or who knows. But today?

Today I hauled down my dumple pan and right up there is the result.

Splendid doesn't cover it by even a quarter.

Magnifique.

Here's to you, Ernestine!

Recipes from The Outport Woman

Easy peasy - allow about 20 minutes from stem to stern, 15 minutes when you know what you're doing without the recipe.

Serves 4.

I eat this at least once a week, sometimes twice. It freezes incredibly well.

Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas with Lemon

2 teaspoons oil or ghee
1 small yellow onion
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon grated ginger, from a 3-inch piece
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 large lemon, zested and juiced (about 2 tablespoons juice)
1 dried hot red pepper or dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
1 heaping tbls of dulse or other seaweed, finely chopped, if desired.
15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
1 pound baby spinach
14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Toast a handful of coconut in the oven.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Heat the oil or ghee in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is beginning to brown. Add the garlic, ginger, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest, chopped dulse and red pepper, if using. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Add the chickpeas and cook over high heat for a few minutes or until the chickpeas are beginning to turn golden and they are coated with the onion and garlic mixture.

3. Toss in the spinach, one handful at a time. This will take about 5 minutes; stir in a handful or two and wait for it to wilt down and make room in the pot before adding the next handful.

4. When all the spinach has been stirred in, pour in the coconut milk and stir in the salt, ground ginger, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer then turn down the heat and cook for 10 minutes or until the chickpeas are warm through. Taste and add more salt and lemon juice, if necessary. Sprinkle toasted coconut on top.

This can be a fairly thick soup or use as stew served over sliced baked yams (da best) or rice or rice noodles or basmati rice or....

NOTE: In withdrawal emergencies, you can sub a couple of cans of spinach as all these ingredients can be kept in your cupboard, omit lemon and use bottled lemon juice.

Chili Con Carne Recipe

Picture taken today up the road from here.

A few of you asked me for my world famous chili recipe. This one serves 4 (and rather well!). I often double the recipe and freeze in single servings as it freezes beautifully and the flavour gets even more intense.

Ingredients:

2 cups lean minced beef
1 cup dried kidney beans
or 2 cups if canned.
1 onion, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped.
2 large carrots, sliced very thin
1 large can crushed tomatoes.
2 tbls chili powder - cut back on this if you don't want it too kicky.
1 tsp of smoked paprika - this makes all the difference.
1 dash of Maggi Seasoning

Soak beans overnight if dried and rinse well before using.

Brown meat along with onion in large pot. Throw in everything else. Stir well. Cover and simmer for as long as you can. 5 hours is good.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top or some shredded sharp cheddar, with nachoes or brown soda bread or mashed potatoes.

Bon appetit!

A Mango Tale (No, Virginia, the Fruit Kind)

I was given a bag of mangoes the other day. Yes, here on the edge of the Atlantic in an outport in Newfoundland’s sort-of-Southern-Shore, I was handed this ginormous bag of frozen mangoes by this puzzled and frightened-seeming local who held it out to me like it was a dirty nappy.

“You’ll know what to do with this,” he said as he handed it to me and raced off into the sunset at the speed of a bullet before I could say anything.

Well, of course. I’m a CFA*, used to alien mainland fruits and vegetables. Not to mention meats.

But it’s far from mango groves I was born.

So what the hell do you do with the “You’ll know what to do with this?”

Go on the interwebz, of course and find a recipe. Lots of mango recipes as it turns out, but the one that would most apply to this situation would be mango muffins.

Now, I’m one of those who can never let well enough alone.

Give me a recipe for anything and I will immediately add to it, subtract from it, substitute stuff in it.

So I have to meddle, don’t I. I have to add pecans, and nutmeg, and take away the limejuice and add vanilla and yer better quality oil. And by gum the damn thing is very thick, you could paste the lino to the floor with it as my old Granny was fond of saying (she was a pretty awful cook, sorry to burst another myth about Irish grannies and I haven’t even mentioned the brandy yet, have I?).

And today, you could hear the Mango Muffin Mix (sounds like a tropical dance, doesn’t it?) thud into the muffin pan from the spoon that strained under the weight of it.

And there was too much of it for the muffin tins. But I sorted some into ramekin dishes and loaded everything into the oven. And crossed my fingers and toes.

And guess what? OMG what gorgeous, incredible, scrumptious, tasty things these are….

Anyone know of a mango dealer in Newfoundland?

*Come From Away

POSTED LATER:
Here's the Recipe:
Mango Muffins


Original Recipe Yield 18 servings

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour adapt for 12: 1& 1/4 cups
1 cup sugar or honey 4 oz
2 teaspoons baking soda total of 1&1/2 powder & soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon go for ginger or nutmeg 1&1/4 tsp
1/2 teaspoon salt sprinkle
a splash of vanilla
3 eggs, lightly beaten 2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil ½ cup oil
1 tablespoon lime juice ¾ tblp – or omit
2 cups diced ripe mango 1 & ¼ cups
1 medium ripe banana, mashed I use more mango
1/2 cup raisins 3 oz
1/2 cup chopped walnuts 3 oz walnuts or pecans
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. In another bowl, combine the eggs, oil and lime juice; add to the dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in the mango, banana, raisins and nuts.
Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Wisewebwoman Woodstove Soup.

(My photo is one of the last jugs of the wild flowers of Newfoundland, taken in late September to remind us that yes, Virginia, there's going to be a Spring)

By popular request: here is the recipe.

Note: this can be a totally vegan/vegetarian soup if chicken stock is substituted with a good vegetable stock.

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken stock – or vegetarian stock
4 cups pumpkin (fresh or canned), seeds reserved and roasted for topping soup or saving.
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 medium onions finely chopped and sautéed in a bit of sesame oil until golden.
1 cup julienned carrot
1 cup julienned turnip
1 cup julienned parsnip
2 cups julienned potato
3 large celery stalks finely chopped
1 or 2 large Portobello mushroom finely chopped.
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika spice (this is the really, really secret ingredient – it has to be the smoked, OK?)

(Note: julienning is running all veggies through the julienne-slice disc on a food processor or cutting the veggies in sticks about half the size of a normal French fry.)

Throw everything in large cast-iron stockpot or slow cooker crockpot mixing it up real good, stirring when you think of it, and slow cooking/simmering for a minimum of 4 hours or until the aroma drives you mental with desire.

I get about 12 very decent servings out of this. It's a complete meal with Irish soda bread and cheese on the side.

If a thinner soup is desired, just add water.

This freezes beautifully in meal size portions.