GARLIC BROTH WITH ZUCCHINI, RICE, AND LIME
2 Tbs. olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 Tbs. ancho chile powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
6 c. chicken and/or vegetable broth
2 medium zucchini or yellow crookneck squash, cut into bite-size pieces
6 Tbs. long-grain white rice
leaves picked from a few sprigs of fresh oregano
lime wedges

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or two, until just softened. Add chile powder and cumin and stir for a minute more, then add the stock, zucchini, rice, and oregano. Simmer until rice is fully cooked and zucchini is soft, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Serve with a squeeze of lime juice.

Poink! Poink!

That's the sound of success when you're canning something; each "Poink!" means a jar has sealed up correctly. It sounds a little like a note on a child's xylophone. It's music to my ears.

For the last few autumns, I have gathered windfalls from the old pear tree that stands outside the pantry window and converted them into pear-citrus marmalade. Today was the day. The recipe can be found in the March 14, 2004 post of this blog.

Canning is kind of a pain in the ass, but there are good and valid reasons to do it--even if it does mean everything in the kitchen will be sticky for a while.

FIDEO
(made by the s.o.--credit where it's due)

2 Tbs. vegetable oil
3/4 c. vermicelli noodles, broken into 1-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1/2 large tomato, chopped
1 1/2 c. hot chicken broth
1 Tbs. chopped cilantro

Heat the oil in a deep skillet and saute the vermicelli until it's golden-brown. Stir in the garlic, onion, and tomato. Saute for half a minute. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Add cilantro. Simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed. Do not cover. Let stand a few minutes before serving.

A little snack I made for lunch today...super easy and really tasty, especially with the peanut dip (which would make a nice dipping sauce for vegetables, too).

THAI FISH CAKES
12 oz. pollack fillets, without skin
1 Tbs. Vietnamese fish sauce
1 tsp. red curry paste
1 Tbs. fresh lime juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1-inch piece lemongrass, minced
1 egg white
peanut oil for pan-frying
lettuce leaves for serving

Combine pollack, fish sauce, curry paste, lime juice, garlic, lemongrass, and egg white in a food processor and pulse until it becomes a fairly smooth paste. Divide the mixture into eight balls, squeezing out excess moisture. Flatten into round patties. Pan-fry the patties for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve on lettuce leaves with peanut dip.

PEANUT DIP
3 Tbs. peanut butter
4 Tbs. coconut milk
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1 Tbs. fresh lime juice
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
red pepper flakes to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Heat for 30 seconds in microwave if you prefer it warm.

SIMPLE TOMATO SALAD
2 medium ripe, juicy tomatoes, cut in 1-inch chunks
1 ball fresh (not low-moisture) mozzarella cheese, cut in 1-inch chunks
big handful of fresh basil leaves
good olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine tomatoes, cheese, and basil on a serving plate. Drizzle lightly with oil and somewhat more liberally with vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and add several grinds of pepper.

CINNAMON ROLLS
This isn't really a recipe so much as another method for using up great yeast dough.

When he made those homemade bread rolls the other day, the s.o. refrigerated half the dough. Last night I took it out, brought it to room temp, and let it rise for a while. I stretched it out into a rectangle on a large nonstick cookie sheet, coated it liberally in brown sugar and cinnamon, and rolled it up into a log. Then I cut the log into slices and let the resulting rolls rise for another half hour. I baked them for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Cinnamon rolls need a glaze, so I combined powdered sugar (a cup or two) with a tablespoon or two of milk and whisked it, tweaking the amounts, until it was the right consistency.

These are really good, especially with fresh hot coffee, and I imagine you could use different bread doughs if you wanted to customize them. Imagine making them with challah dough!

Did you know that if you make really nice homemade bread rolls--yeasty ones with just a touch of egg--and split them in two and fill them sparingly with Nutella, it makes a perfect little Lazy Person's Pain au Chocolat?

The s.o. made the rolls, not me. He is a genius at yeast bread.

This week the local Ingles grocery had fresh, never frozen, free-range, drug-free, vegetarian-fed chickens. As if that weren't astounding enough, it also had them on sale for 99 cents a pound. I bought a four-and-a-half-pounder and made the following. It's loosely adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. It turned out really delicious and I think at least half the credit goes to the chicken itself--I've never seen a chicken stay so juicy when it's roasted uncovered.

By the way, the jalapeño and cayenne peppers were late holdouts from our otherwise defunct garden. Now if anyone can tell me what to do with exactly two pods of okra, we'll be in business!

PINEAPPLE CHICKEN
4 1/2-lb. chicken, whole
powdered ginger, salt, and freshly ground black pepper
a handful each of fresh parsley and fennel leaves, chopped coarsely
2 green bell peppers, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 very ripe (red) jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
1 fresh cayenne pepper, snipped into tiny pieces
a large onion, chopped into chunks
20-oz. can chunk pineapple, drained except for a couple Tbs. of juice
2 Tbs. olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Season chicken generously inside and out with ginger, salt, and pepper. Stuff parsley and fennel leaves into cavity.
Place chicken in large baking dish and surround it with peppers, onions, and pineapple chunks. Drizzle the pineapple juice and olive oil over everything.
Bake uncovered for 1 hour 45 minutes, until juices run clear and thigh tests 180 degrees F.

This rocks.

POTATO, CABBAGE, AND CHORIZO SOUP
2 Tbs. olive oil
4 large potatoes, cubed
2 onions, quartered
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 1/2 c. chicken and/or vegetable stock
2 c. shredded cabbage
1/2 c. cooked, sliced chorizo sausage, with cooking juices
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
paprika at the table

Heat the olive oil in a stockpot and add the potatoes, onions, and garlic. Saute gently for five minutes, stirring constantly. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
In two batches, whirl the soup in a food processor for one minute each. Return to the stockpot.
Add cabbage and chorizo. Cook until the cabbage is soft. Season to taste.
Ladle into bowls and sprinkle lightly with paprika.

A simple, delicious vegetable plate in the wake of this week's heavy food

(1) Coarsely chop 1/2 a cabbage and drop it into salted boiling water. Cook lightly--the texture should be "al dente." Drain and toss with butter, salt, and freshly ground pepper.

(2) Chop a Hubbard squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and place the halves face-down on a jelly roll pan that's been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees F until soft and slightly caramelized. Scoop the squash out of the halves and into a bowl, then stir in butter, brown sugar, salt, and a dash of real Ceylon cinnamon to taste. Leave it fairly unadorned because it's good on its own.

(3) Empty a can of Great Northern beans into a saucepan and stir in fresh thyme, freshly ground black pepper, a dash each of onion and garlic powders, and half a large tomato, chopped fine. Cook over a medium flame until tomato is soft and flavors are blended.

Cracking the code

This week I finally figured out how to make good gravy. Also, I managed to make biscuits that were layery and fluffy, just like they're supposed to be, without even using White Lily flour (the southern standard for fluffy biscuits). I have never been able to make consistent biscuits in the past, and I've copped out time and again by making drop biscuits. No more!

I also made stuffing from scratch for the first time. In the past I've relied on storebought, which is great and everything, but it's nice to know what's in your food.

Yes, there was a turkey. The s.o. was in charge of that. I have no idea what he did.

BREAD STUFFING
1/2 loaf sliced white bread
1/3 loaf sliced whole-wheat bread
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
4 stalks celery, chopped small
1/2 large onion, chopped small
a large handful fresh sage leaves, minced
several sprigs each fresh marjoram and thyme, de-stemmed and minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. minced cooked turkey neck, hearts, and liver (go easy on the liver)
3/4 c. seasoned broth from cooking the turkey innards
about 2 Tbs. turkey drippings

In a 300-degree oven, dry out the bread slices until they're brittle. With kitchen shears, cut them into strips and then small cubes. (If you like, you can pulse some of them in the food processor for a more crumbly stuffing.) Place the cubes in a shallowish 2-quart oven dish.
In a large skillet, melt the butter, then saute the celery, onion, and fresh herbs until soft, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Pour this mixture over the bread cubes and stir well. Cool.
Stir in the cooled turkey parts and broth. Toss well, drizzle with a couple tablespoons of drippings, and bake for about half an hour, until crispy on top but moist underneath.

TURKEY GRAVY
Pour the fatty juices from the turkey roasting pan into a large skillet. Whisk in enough flour to make a roux and cook, still whisking, for a few minutes. Whisk in enough milk to make it the consistency you like, then season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Leftover gravy will set up into a gel in the fridge, so if you want to serve it the next day (say, with biscuits), revive it by stirring in a little bit of butter-flour roux and however much canned chicken broth seems appropriate (half a can or so). Cook for a few minutes over a medium flame, whisking occasionally, until it bubbles.

BAKING POWDER BISCUITS
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbs. Crisco shortening
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 c. milk

Preheat oven to just below 450 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, use the pastry blender to whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the Crisco and butter until the mixture is the texture of coarse meal. Pour in the milk and stir with a fork until the mixture is just barely cohesive.
With a floured hand, scoop the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead exactly twice, no more, then pat into a 3/4-inch circle. Use a very sharp cutter to cut out the biscuits (I ended up using a heart-shaped cookie cutter because it was all I had, and as a result my biscuits are too adorable to look at). Take the scraps and pat them out again, working the dough as little as possible, then cut out the last biscuit or two. Place the biscuits on a nonstick cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes or until puffy and golden-brown on top.

Now excuse me while I schedule my triple-bypass...