thyme for tomato soup

by aliceknisleymatthias

Soup’s on. The calendar says the spring season is three weeks away. Yet, winter is dumping some last-minute snow on us in the next few days. And it has been cold and windy. Maybe it was the chill in the air. The guys wanted tomato soup and “special cream.” It is a cold-weather favorite for them.

The soup starts with a base of sweating onions in some olive oil and butter. Once those are translucent, in go some cloves of garlic, and a dash of Kosher salt. From there, we add some celery and carrots. The inner leaves of the celery give some good flavor. Then we toss in some baby carrots to the mix. As the celery and carrots begin to soften, we sprinkle some onion powder and garlic powder to echo the flavors of the onion and garlic.

 Then, we drizzle some good organic honey to help with the caramelization of the vegetables as they release their natural sugars. We have made many versions of this tomato soup. The addition of the honey is a background flavor that we enjoy with the tomato flavor.

Find the best crushed tomatoes you can. We like to use San Marzano since they are naturally a little sweeter and less acidic. A soup like this can only be helped by using a homemade chicken stock. You can also substitute the chicken stock with a vegetable stock. The vegetarians in your crowd will enjoy just as much flavor.

We have played with different herbs in the tomato soup recipe. The guys like their always reliable fresh thyme. After the ingredients have simmered for about 30 minutes we drop some sprigs of thyme in as the soup cools. Once cooled, we puree the mixture in the blender.

When the soup is mixed, we add a splash of whole milk. The guys like a creamy tomato soup. The soup gets the creamy consistency from another ingredient. Their “special cream.” With the soup ready to serve, I place a big dollop of sour cream in the bottom of their soup bowls.

The warm tomato soup is ladled over the cream. The guys lift their spoons and head straight into the bowls. They swirl the sour cream around to make a creamy tomato creation. I called it “special cream” when I first served this soup. Would you try something called “sour” cream for the first time when you were a kid?

happy valentine’s day and hamburger hearts

by aliceknisleymatthias

“Are we going out for dinner tonight?” the guys asked. No way. Valentine’s Day is a time for some extra love for my boys. But, not at inflated prices. The same dinner, and the same flowers, are half the price the next day. 

We experimented with hamburger hearts for a Valentine’s dinner last year and they loved it. The hamburgers are fairly easy to make. Shape the burger as you normally would. Then, using a bench scraper, to make an even line, cut out a v-shape at the bottom of the burger. Remove the cut parts of the burger. We make an indent in the top of the burger. Add the extra bits to the top and now it is in the shape of a heart.

My guys love aioli with their fries. Sometimes we go the full Belgian-fry-route and have the fries in a newspaper cone. Our night also includes watching the Valentine’s Day Charlie Brown special. They wore red shirts to school for the day, so we planned on getting some red in the dinner menu. Go with some ketchup. Equal parts ketchup and mayonnaise.

After last year’s experiment with our hamburger hearts on the grill, I decided to use the oven this time. Super simple. The burgers cooked on a sheet pan and the fries on another.

The guys like their aioli with some fresh herbs. We use either chives or thyme. We have used so much of the chives, with the most recent egg delivery, the plants need a chance to come back a bit. So, last night we decided to go with the thyme.

A good aioli starts with a good mayonnaise. We changed the brand of mayonnaise we use after reading about it last summer in The New York Times. One of my favorite food writers, Melissa Clark, wrote about how she had done a taste test for mayonnaise for a magazine. http://www.melissaclark.net/ Clark found she preferred Kraft. I decided to try it with my family. It turns out our local store didn’t carry Kraft mayonnaise. A few months ago it suddenly appeared next to the other brand that had previously been the only one available.

 

I noticed a difference. The Kraft did not taste as sweet and had a more egg-y quality to it. After a few trips back and forth to the school lunchroom, with their lunch boxes of sandwiches, the guys noticed a difference in taste too. Now, in our house, we “heart” Kraft mayonnaise.

the incredible, edible egg from a few blocks away

by aliceknisleymatthias

Sunny-side up. Does anything sound happier for breakfast? My guys know, if there is something like a big test in class that day, it calls for a really good breakfast. They usually order eggs and bacon. They are convinced this is the breakfast that helps ace a test.

We are lucky our friends have chickens. I think at last count they numbered thirty-something. There is nothing like fresh eggs from a chicken several blocks away. I make it a point to buy organic eggs from a New York State farm where the chickens are grain-fed and free of cages. But, when we get eggs from our friends’ chickens it is a treat. 

I am teaching my older boy to make an egg sunny side-up. This is the method we use. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/03/perfect-sunny-side-up-eggs/ He is practicing being able to recognize when the oil has a shimmer to it in the pan. And he is getting better at cracking an egg on the counter. The fresh eggs have a thinner shell and there is a certain feel to cracking the egg. The yolk of a fresh egg is an entirely different color. It is a bright, golden circle.

The first time I made potato salad with fresh eggs it completely changed the color of the dish. The entire bowl of potato salad took on a sunflower-petal-colored hue. They also make the perfect deviled egg. There are just a few ingredients in a deviled egg. The taste of the yolks are highlighted with some good mayonnaise, a dash of mustard, and a dusting of paprika.

The technique for the sunny side-up egg is coming together for my older guy. When the oil has been heated, he cracks the egg into the pan and rotates the pan slightly. This increases the surface area of the egg white. Carefully, he spoons the oil over the white part of the egg until it is no longer translucent. Then, the oil is pooled over the yolk. He is starting to understand the point where the yolk will stay runny. Or, you can keep going for a firm yolk.

Their taste runs toward an egg with a sprinkle of Kosher salt and some fresh herbs. The little guy gets the scissors and snips some herbs. They have decided they like their eggs with some regular chives. Sometimes, they go for the onion chives. They also like some sprigs of thyme.

A glass of organic apple juice, a sunny side-up egg and smoked bacon, makes the perfect breakfast for test day. The breakfast of champions.

baby, it’s cold outside!

by aliceknisleymatthias

The temperature took a tumble this week!  We also had the first snow of the season. It was a great reason to whip up a hot cocoa mix that pleases my guys.

I saw this original recipe from Debbie Koenig, when she wrote a guest blog post for Monica Bhide’s blog, http://debbiekoenig.com/2012/12/05/guest-post-monica-bhides-a-life-of-spice/, A Life of Spice. You can find Koenig’s blog, Parents Need to Eat Too, here: http://debbiekoenig.com/.

It’s Koenig’s warm-as-a-blanket hot cocoa recipe. She gives us a cocoa mix with a little something extra. We’re not talking about the addition of some soul-soothing booze added to your hot cocoa. You can certainly add something from the top shelf. Or the bottom shelf. Nobody’s looking.

This hot cocoa mix has a base of nonfat dry milk powder, cocoa powder, and sweet treats. Koenig calls for some good bits of chocolate to be pulsed in the dry ingredients in a food processor. (Ours is on the blink.) The chocolate pieces, when mixed with warm milk, melt into a rich cocoa in your mug. It’s the perfect hot beverage, as the hats and gloves dry, on the radiator. Flushed cheeks will smile.

The guys and I played with different kinds of chocolate. We shaved them into pieces and added them to the mix. We tried light chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and a mix of both. We tried chocolate chips. The guys decided the regular size chips didn’t melt enough by the time they were ready to down their hot chocolate. The chips were still bouncing around in their mugs, like little rafts of chocolate, left behind. Good to crunch. But, not a smooth, hot cocoa.

They finally decided the perfect addition, to their taste, was milk chocolate, mini-chocolate-chips. The chips added to the luscious texture of the cocoa. Best of all, they quickly melted into the rest of the divine cup of the warm, chocolate goodness. Perfect!

Now, for Koenig’s addition for an added kick. Again, not what you may think. A sprinkle of ancho chile powder. The dried ancho chile, in powder form, lends a spicy, raisin note to the flavor of the cocoa. The undercurrent of the dark chile powder brings out the cocoa bean flavor in the hot cocoa. I make a base hot cocoa mix, and add the ancho chile powder, at request, for anyone who wants the added kick in their cocoa. Adult or kid cocoa drinker. It’s reason enough to put down the Sunday paper, or comics, and help make a snowman.

book of mormon potatoes

by aliceknisleymatthias

What do a Tony-award-winning musical and dinner have in common? Potatoes. The oven that shorted out on me at the beginning of the cold weather season has been replaced. I asked my guys what should be the first thing we make in the new oven. “Something good,” my little guy said. His brother indulged me with a more direct answer. “Funeral potatoes!”

They both love the dish from one of my Cook’s Country magazines. It is a staple of Mormon menus. If you have never heard of  funeral potatoes, (I had never heard of it until my magazine landed in the mailbox), you can read more about it here in The New York Times Dining section.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/dining/a-new-generation-redefines-mormon-cuisine.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1358705024-/hXUQnkYTZ94TeMSopuyMQ 

The food writers at America’s Test Kitchen reworked this dish made with a can of cream-of-something soup. They swapped out the heavy, creamed soup for a combination of chicken broth and half and half. I start with a mix of butter and flour. I alternate between the chicken broth and whole milk. I save the half and half for the end. 

.  

Thyme is also added.  The original recipe called for sour cream. I reduced the sour cream until I realized we like it better without it.  A splash of half and half at the end.

This is where my young kitchen helpers come in handy. They are more alert than mom is and can catch mistakes. Like the fact that I bought french vanilla flavored half and half by mistake. My older guy noticed it as we were about to add it to our sauce. Nice save.

This potato dish uses frozen hash browns. We like Ore Ida. Do you know where the name Ore Ida comes from? The name represents the states where the potatoes are harvested. Oregon and Idaho.

 Everything is poured in a baking dish. More thyme. Chunks of Vermont Cheddar. I can only hand over small amounts of cheese at a time to the guys. They eat half the cheese and add half to the funeral potatoes before it gets to the oven.

 

My guys love the hash browns baked in a creamy sauce. The chunks of cheese  melt into the potatoes with a hint of thyme. Their favorite part is the crunchy topping. Eating it and making it. This is where the tang of sour cream flavor is added. Sour cream and onion potato chips crumbled by some six and ten-year-old expert hands.

 

The Guys’ Funeral Potatoes

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup chicken broth, room temperature

1 cup whole milk, room temperature 

1/2 cup haf and half, room temperature

6-8 sprigs fresh thyme

8 cups frozen hash browns

1 cup of shredded Vermont Cheddar cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup sour cream and onion potato chips (not ridged)

Instructions

  • 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and flour to make a roux, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in broth, then some milk. Add thyme. Keep slowly adding broth and milk. Simmer, stirring mixture, until  thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add half and half.
  • Add hash brown and stir to coat. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Off heat, add in Vermont Cheddar and mix well.
  • Pour into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish and top with crumbled sour cream and onion potato chips. Bake until the topping starts to brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes and serve.

almond joy

by aliceknisleymatthias

I’m hooked. My new favorite ingredient is almond flour. A little spin around the internet turned up recipes using almond flour. There are suggestions for using it in low-carb recipes. And gluten-free recipes. I found recipes for everything from cookies, to using almond flour as a coating, for cutlets of meat.

Some recipes call for substituting some of the flour in a recipe for almond flour. The flavor of what you are making would certainly benefit from the nutty flavor. But, the sticker shock is a factor for sure. It’s not the same price as white flour. At all.

Thanks to J.M. Hirsch’s wonderful blog, http://www.lunchboxblues.com/, he shares his adventures in food with his eight-year-old son. His target audience is pretty much the same as mine. I do have to say, aside from a few phases here and there, my guys are not picky eaters. Hirsch writes about his idea to coat broccoli spears with the almond flour. He says it was well received by his son. This is no small claim. Hirsch shares his son has always considered broccoli  to be “a dirty word.” 

Broccoli spears get coated with egg whites. Hirsch suggests that this recipe is a good excuse to buy the carton of egg whites. They are mixed until frothy. The broccoli are coated in the egg whites. Then, they are dredged in the almond flour, that is flavored to taste. We added some kosher salt, smoked paprika, and onion and garlic powders. Place broccoli on a wire rack set on a rimmed baking sheet. Allow the broccoli to roast in the oven at 400 F. The broccoli are done in about 15 minutes, when they are lightly browned.

The roasting softens the broccoli spears. The almond flour bakes to a crunchy coating. They have the consistency of something that came out of a fryer. But, these are good for you. And highly addictive. 

The broccoli spears, with the nutty-flavored coating, was a hit with my guys. We couldn’t stop eating these tempura-like treats. And really, as J.M. Hirsch puts it, this recipe is “stupidly simple” to make.

“Did he really say that?” my guys wanted to know when they asked where I got the recipe.

So, thank you Mr. Hirsch. My guys are fans of your broccoli and almond flour recipe. And they are still laughing that a food editor used the phrase “stupidly simple.”

mommy’s turn

by aliceknisleymatthias

There was an incident some weeks ago with some bacon grease and the coils in the oven. It was one of those school nights when I was trying to do homework and make a nice dinner at the same time. It seemed the very moment I realized the bacon slices were not in the right pan is when the grease began to drip down the oven. Zap! The oven lit up inside and shorted out.  

The holiday vacation started with my son’s fever. We were able to break the fever in time for Santa’s arrival. Christmas morning. The boys woke up way too early of course.  

For the holiday dinner, I planned to use my range for side dishes and my outdoor grill to make some steaks. I made my buttermilk mashed potatoes in the morning. The green beans were trimmed and blanched. They would get warmed in a pan before dinner with the chopped hazelnuts. I was feeling a bit tired. I took some vitamin c and had an extra cup of tea.

The steaks marinated in my always reliable mixture of soy sauce and Worcesteshire. Salt and pepper.  The dinner table was set with my gold-rimmed holiday dishes. Time to grab a jacket, slip out the back door, and grill some steaks.

 

It was an overcast day which made the orange flames in the grill look even brighter. I placed the steaks on an angle. They sizzled as they hit the grates. It was so quiet and still outside as I cooked with my Mike’s Hard Lemonade. I don’t even use a watch anymore. I can sense when it seems like about 4 minutes has passed. Time to angle the meat in the opposite direction for about the same amount of time. Then, the other side.

There is a certain give to the meat I can feel when it is done to my taste. Medium rare. The most important part of cooking a steak on the grill is the amount of time it is allowed to rest when the cooking time is done. A good fifteen to twenty minutes wait, or all the flavor will just run out when it is sliced.

The steak was served with some warm caramelized onions on top. The onions reduced in their own natural sugars, with some unsalted butter, and a few sprigs of thyme.

Late Christmas night I woke up with a fever. I spent the rest of the vacation on the couch. My holiday break? Nurse, chef, sick mommy.

you say potato

by aliceknisleymatthias

 “The star is crooked,” said my little guy. With all the holiday wonder I was trying to create, this is what he focused on? The star on the tree, slightly leaning to the left? School was out and we were getting the house finished for the holiday. I turned to one of my reliable potato dishes. It is straightforward and always satisfying. This potato dish was featured in an America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country Cookbook, released in September, 2011. 

The cookbook called for a recipe that was a part of a tradition, for your family, and an essay about it. I wrote about how my older boy began to be interested in gardening and cooking. He had seen me snipping herbs in the garden to take into the kitchen. One day he asked, “How do you know what herb tastes good with food?”

This dish uses Idaho potatoes cut into slices. Vidalia onions are sliced as well. In a pan, with some olive oil and butter, onions are slowly caramelized. There is a  sweetness to the Vidalia onion. Combined, with the method of caramelizing, these onions add a depth of flavor to this potato gratin.

I played with several cheeses for this dish – finally settling on Gruyère. The sharpness of the nutty, Gruyère cheese is a perfect foil to the caramelized onions. And then, the bechamel sauce. Is there anything that doesn’t taste good with a bechamel? The potatoes in this dish are  parboiled, as they will finish in the casserole.

The result makes for a gratin, with moist potato slices, layered with a creamy, cheesy mixture. Caramelized onions add a layer of a slight crunch in almost every other bite. The Gruyère and bechamel, are a smooth combination of cheesy flavor, wrapped around the potatoes.  The fresh herbs lend a punctuation of vibrancy. The potato gratin can be a simple dinner with a tossed salad. It can also stand as a side on a holiday table. 

If I am making this in the fall, I may add a bit of thyme and sage, for an earthy flavor. For a Christmas dinner, like this past week, I opted for a generous helping of thyme. Some thyme baked in the casserole dish. Some reserved for garnish. In the spring, for an Easter dinner, I may do a hint of thyme, and a whole lot of fresh chives. The chives are one of the first herbs to return in spring. Adapt the dish to your occasion and season.   

Check out the link, and the recipe, in the December 25, 2011, New York Daily News. See below, to read about my contribution to the America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/cook-country-rounds-treasured-recipes-meatballs-casseroles-grandmothers-kitchens-article-1.995351?print

saturday night fever

by aliceknisleymatthias

Our record of staying well was broken this week. Last Friday afternoon, my son’s first grade class was a little crazy before the holiday break.  They were bouncing off the walls from eating candy and singing songs. Now, they were ready for the weekend. And of course, Santa and his reindeer. Except my first grader woke up with a fever on Saturday.

 

That meant time to kick into gear and make some chicken stock. Chicken stock is the base for what my boys call “Noodle Soup.” “Noodle Soup” has the power to cure almost anything. The time they spend with me, in the kitchen, involves watching me do things like peel onions. They ask if they can take turns smashing the garlic bulbs, to release the bulbs, from the skins.

I remember the first time my older guy wanted to know how I made the chicken stock when he got sick. His eyes were glassy as he sat on a chair in the kitchen. It floored him when he watched me toss the carrots in the pot without peeling them. “Mommy, you didn’t scrape the carrots.” Same thing with an onion, halved, but with the skins still on. And the garlic too. We want the flavors of every part of the root vegetables.

So, Saturday meant chicken stock for the first time this season. I try to use the center pieces of celery stalks, with the leaves, for more flavor. A cooked rotisserie chicken is placed in the pot with the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. I cover this with cold water, and drop in some peppercorns, and some sprigs of fresh oregano. Some kosher salt and stock is ready in a few hours. The aromatics and the rotisserie chicken turn the water into a rich, chicken-flavored stock, with the oregano in the background.  

The ingredients create a light-colored stock. It is warm and soothing for whatever ails you. In a second pot, I cook the noodles. Years ago, we decided on the fine egg noodles. My older guy complained when I used a thicker noodle. He said they didn’t stay on the spoon. Even worse, when the noodles landed back in the bowl, they caused the broth to splash him in the face. Not fun, when you are already miserable. 

When we were at the Christmas tree farm, someone commented on my younger son. She said he looks like the boy in a commercial. The one when a snowman eats a bowl of chicken noodle soup and melts into a young boy. Their “Noodle Soup” makes them feel that good.

oh, christmas cookie

by aliceknisleymatthias

The tree is up — so my boys want their Christmas cookies. We cut the tree down at a Christmas tree farm. You can take a hay ride while they secure the tree to the top of the car.

I have a recipe for sugar cookies I use every year. It is a combination of butter, sugar, vanilla, flour and eggs. The difference between using vanilla extract and real vanilla beans is noticeable. In a simple recipe, where there are a handful of ingredients, the beans add a pure vanilla flavor.

The vanilla beans I buy come in glass tubes with cork stoppers. The first time I found them in a store, my older son was a toddler. I was getting ready for a baking session when he wandered into the kitchen. “What are those sticks in the glass tube?” I removed the stopper and let him breathe in the scent of vanilla.  “Wow, those sticks smell like cookies.”

There was a time when I didn’t know how to keep cookies from sticking to the tray when baking. A layer of parchment paper will do the trick. Or a Silpat liner. One batch of botched cookies teaches you that lesson fast. It was a Christmas baking session one year when I learned mine. The first chisel at the baked cookies, with a spatula, told me they were not a success. The cookies left behind rows, of the bottom layer of cookies, on the tray. I scraped and the cookies crumbled into pieces. Tasty pieces. Disaster batch of cookies became a new dessert.

I filled cocktail glasses with a layer of strawberries and blueberries. The Christmas cookie pieces got scattered over the fruit. Then, I mixed one of my favorite last-minute toppings. Sour cream, agave nectar, and honey make a fast, tangy and sweet sauce. A few leaves of mint on top and the cocktail glasses were done.

The result tasted like a shortcake in a glass. The crunchiness of the cookie “crumbles” mixed with the berries and the sweetened sour cream mixture. “Tonight guys, we are having Christmas Cookie Crumble Shortcake.” They grabbed their spoons and dug into their desserts.

When fixing a recipe, that didn’t go as planned, give it a fun name. Turn it into something else. Laugh. Pulling out a cocktail glass during the holidays can fix things in an instant — for the dessert crowd too.

 

                                                                 Holiday Sugar Cookies

Makes about 4 dozen

 

1 cup softened butter

1 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1 vanilla bean split and scraped from pod

4 cups all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Red and green colored sugars

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Cream butter and sugar together until the mixture is smooth. Add eggs and vanilla.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add wet ingredients to dry and combine.

Form dough into a disk and cover with plastic wrap. Chill overnight.

Roll out dough, on a surface dusted with flour, to a thickness of about ¼ inch.

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes

Place one inch apart, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake for about 6 to eight minutes

Decorate with colored sugar