Cook Book and the Zoo

Today we spent the day at the zoo. we got there at 10:30, the earliest i think i've ever been, and the parking lot was still packed. but at least i didn't have to park at the city park a block away.

today for 'Back to School Book Week' we are sharing our favorite cook books. of course i have the old standby, the red and white checked Better Homes and Gardens cook book. i have several healthy low fat cook books like Eat Up, Slim Down, with some great fast dinner recipes, and Sugar Solutions, that has a favorite scone recipe, both are from the Rodale publishers.

but by far my favorite cook book is this little number that i picked up at costco for 5 bucks.


HEALTHY INDIAN COOKING! by Shehzad Husain and Manisha Kanani and the dishes are delicious! they have reduced the amount of fat normally used in these recipes with water, broth, or most often fat free yogurt. which makes the dishes nice and creamy. mmmm. mmmm.

with all of the spices used in these dishes you definitely don't lose any of the flavor. i love how every recipe has full colored photos of not only the finished product but also the various steps.



each step is numbered boldly and shows the cook (her hands really) effortlessly preparing these amazing dishes. i prepare a meal from this book at least once a week, often more, and i've already gone through the book and marked different recipes for their prep time so i know what i can whip together when i'm short on time. and there are plenty. sooooo good!

i am still perfecting my low-fat gluten free naan recipe. it is quite tasty but being lower in fat, not as puffy as the naan in the restaurants. and it's pretty easy when you use the bread machine to make the dough. maybe i'll have to get around to sharing sometime.

in the meantime, here are some pictures of our latest trip to the zoo.

sorry i haven't written in so long...here, i baked you a pie.

homemade punkin pie with a gluten-free crust

so i've been experimenting with flour blends. i've been baking wheat free/low gluten for a long time but not necessarily entirely gluten free. i'm trying to see if its practical or necessary for me to eliminate gluten all together. here is the flour mix i used for the crust. feel free to experiment yourself and tweak it as needed. : )

2 1/2 c oat flour (if you need completely gluten free be sure to get certified gluten free oats. oats are naturally gluten free but are often processed on the same machinery as wheat and can pick it up in the processing)
2 1/2 c brown rice flour
2 1/2 c sorghum flour
1 1/2 c buckwheat
1 c potato flour
1/2 c arrowroot starch
1 1/2 T xanthan gum

this makes about 10 1/2 c of flour mix so you'll have a bit for later.

pastry crust recipe:

1 1/4 c flour (high altitude add about 1/4c more)
1/4 t salt
2 t cinnamon
1/3 c butter or coconut oil
4-6 T cold water

stir together the flour and salt, cut in the fat (with a pastry blender, fork, or clean, dry hands) until the pieces are about the size of a pea. sprinkle 1 T of water over the mix and toss with a fork. repeat until moistened.

(I often find that with flours like oat or rice, they seem to like more moist as opposed to less so experiment with this to find what works for your flours and climate. you don't want to add so much water that the dough becomes sticky but you do want it to be able to form into a ball fairly easily. I think this time around i may have added too much butter as the dough was a bit crumbly-i tried to guess instead of measuring- while the crust was still fabulous it wouldn't hold together for me to transfer to the pie plate. i ended up piecing most of it together in the plate. was this from the butter or the flour blend? no matter. still tasty.)

this crust looks a little bit darker than you may be used to because of the buckwheat.

on a floured surface, roll the dough out from the center trying to make it circle-ish. place in pie plate either by wrapping it onto your pin or piecing it together : ) trim edges and flute.

punkin pie filling:

now i used homemade filling made from a pumpkin we had picked from our trip to the farm. making your own filling is slightly more time consuming but it sooo much more delicious than canned words can't describe it. it is totally worth it! to get your filling cut open your li'l punkins and scoop out the innards. (the seeds can be dried for planting next yr or baked with a spritz of olive oil and salt on a cookie sheet 'til golden for a healthy snack) bake your punkin halves or quarters at 350 until they are soft (probably close to an hour) cool a bit then scoop out all the smooshy goodness. this can be run through a processor to make it more pureed or used as is. i processed mine in an old fashioned hand processor then separated the batch into 1c baggies to freeze and use later.

2c (or 16oz) pumpkin
2/3 c turbinado or raw sugar
1 T cinnamon
1 t ginger
1 t nutmeg
1 t cardamom
1 whole egg
2 egg whites (save those yokes for your homemade lemon curd! I'll share that recipe soon :)
1 1/3 c coconut milk

combine pumpkin with sugar and spices, add eggs and milk and mix well. pour this mixture into your unbaked pie crust.

cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent burning. bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.

remove the foil and add any little decorations (like the hearts or leaves made with extra crust) and cook for about 25 minutes more. the pie is done if a knife inserted in the middle comes out fairly clean.

makes 8-12 servings, store leftovers in the fridge.

we had this fabulous pie for dinner the other night. yes, dinner. punkin pie and a cuppa tea. i was very popular around here that night. : )

let me know how yours turns out. did your crust give you any problems? did you change the blend? i loved how the coconut milk made the punkin so extra creamy and delicious, what do you think?


even after using the extra crust to make little hearts for the top i still had a bit of dough left over. i just hate wasting good crust so i cut out a few more hearts, spritzed them with oil and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. cooked for about 10 minutes or so they made great little "cookies". (very low in sugar compared to normal cookies but the kids loved them just the same)

What Have I Been Doing?

Well, I'm trying to get more items on my little Etsy shop. I have several finished pieces already, several almost finished as well. And of course plans for things that I really need to schedule if I am to actually get them done. I posted 2 new pieces today and have photos of several more that are just waiting to be posted as well.

I haven't yet started my #mailart postcard project but I was able to get better paper. I wasn't happy with the thickness of the paper found at normal craft stores so Gabe made a trip to Xpedex especially for me. I have some ideas for the pieces and not a lot of time so I had better get started.

And of course I've been cooking. With zucchini. I'm thinking I may need to make categories in my blog so they are easier to navigate. Art and recipes and mom stuff. Maybe?

Today's recipe was borrowed from a friend. Marilyn writes for the Denver Examiner and recently interviewed me on my fabulous frugalness. (Really she wrote some questions and I gave her like 8 pages of answers.) I hope to expand on the things I left out in the interview soon.

The recipe was for Mock Apple Pie. I altered it a bit, that's what I do. It called for a double crust but I only had 1 so we made a crumble top for it instead. Here is the original recipe:

4-5cups zucchini, peeled and thinly sliced (like apples) -FB
1 c sugar
1/4 c flour
1 can (2c) applesauce -FB
1-2 T cinnamon
2 pie crusts
mix ingredients and pour into bottom crust, add top crust and make slits, cook for 1 hour at 400F.

Now here are the changes I made and will make in the future:
We had 1 crust so we made a crumble top. Mix 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup oats, 1/3 c brown sugar, and 1/4 c oil til crumbly and sprinkle on top of the pie filling after its in the bottom crust. Bake as normal.


This pie was pretty good, but not totally appleish. Part of the problem, I think, was that Gabe used the apple corer so the zucchini was in big eatable sized slices instead of thin appley pie slices. The bits that were quite small did have the apple pie taste that they were supposed to so I think that was just us not doing it right. The big chunks were not bad, but we could tell that they were not apple pie. Slicing nice and thin is probably an important step in tricking the kids into thinking its apples. I also may add just a bit more sugar to the filling as it was not as sweet as pie. (But we had it for a lunch so less sugar is not a bad thing.) I think I may also add 1 apple next time so that the appley pieness is more appley. And I will probably stick with the crumble top. Its less healthy, but I think its more tasty.

Give it a try, tell me what you think.

Meliss

P.S. Here's a little sneak peek of new items I will post soon...

necklace detail

bracelet detail

a one of a kind ATC with tiny 1" painting by me, sent to customer as a free gift

Zucchini part 2

I have a whole revamping of my etsy store planned. I finally got Gabe to show me how to take pictures with the computer so I can do it myself. My plan is to reassess, relist, and restart with a few new things and a better grounding.

I joined Mark Venema of @art_news on twitter in his 2nd #mailart challenge and I am newly inspired (partly by the deadline) to make more time to create. The #mailart challenge is pretty cool. As far as I understand it, we the artists commit to creating and sending at least 30 postcard/art pieces to the other artists in our group and of course we will receive art postcards from others in return. How cool is that?

Not that I'm not doing any creating. But most of it has been in the kitchen lately. I don't necessarily "love" cooking or baking, but I love the innumerable varieties of yummity goodness that can be made with just a few simple ingredients. And I enjoy sharing so many of them with you. Here are a few things I've played with recently...

Easy Chicken "Pie"-with Zucchini

Combine cooked chicken with a variety of cooked veggies (including zucchini) and 1 can of cream chicken soup and cooked rice. This warms up easily on the stove and is fast when you really don't want to cook.

Zucchini Banana Bread and Zucchini Chocolate Chip Scones

Pinto Bean Soup with Tomatoes and Zucchini

This soup is so easy, just soak and boil beans until soft, then add enough broth or water (or both) to cover about 1/2 inch above the beans. Add 1 can of diced tomatoes and chopped zucchini and simmer until tender. Add chili powder, cumin, and salt to taste. So simple and delicious with a bit of crusty bread on the side.

Adventures with Zucchini...part 1

I'm having an issue with zucchini. Just a small one, and I'm sure I'm not alone, it is the season. The bothersome bit is that it's not even my fault. I am not the greatest gardener and still have much to learn, but I learned years ago that very little zucchini plants are needed to produce many zucchinis. I planted just the right amount for my family of 6, but apparently my friend planted too much for hers because I somehow ended up with a ton from her garden, disguised as a paper grocery bag and stuffed under my chair. So now, despite my own precautions, I have too much zucchini.

I have many, many recipes that I thought I might like to try, but at the moment I have taken it upon myself to put (sneak) zucchini into everything I possible can. You may recall the Zucchini Cinnamon Chocolate Cupcakes (with Strawberry Chocolate Frosting) from my last post. Today I had 3 zucchini experiences. First I baked fresh Zucchini Chocolate Chip Scones for my brunch. Delicious. Then I had a bunch of bananas that were crying to be bread. Zucchini Banana Bread. Also good.

Zucchini Banana Bread & Zucchini Scones

Then the finale. Dinner was Spicy Peaches and Chicken (with zucchini), also a Food Bank friendly recipe. And here it is for you:
(Now, of course I would much prefer to use fresh peaches and fresh hormone-free chicken for this recipe, and if I had made it 2 years ago I probably would have, so feel free to do so if you are able. Also, when I originally made this recipe, I used apricots instead of peaches, which I prefer, but both are tasty. I will mark those items commonly received from the Food Bank with FB.)



Spicy Chicken with Peaches and Zucchini

1can peaches or apricots, drained & diced -FB
1 or 1 1/2cups zucchini, diced or shredded -FB or sneaky friend's garden
1 or 1 1/2c orange juice -FB or WIC
2-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1-2T apple cider vinegar
2T sugar, brown preferred
1/2-2teas red pepper, I thought 1/2t was kinda lite, but 2 may be much for some
12 ounces of cooked skinless chicken, cubed. -FB 2 (6oz) cans cooked chicken
rice, cooked -FB

Combine all but chicken & rice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10mins. Add chicken and simmer, making sure chicken gets cooked through, about 10 minutes. Serve chicken in sauce over cooked rice. Quinoa or couscous would be lovely too.

I tested this recipe on my children. The first couple times I made it I used apricots and no zucchini. Daughter #2 insists that she doesn't like zucchini, or indeed most anything green, yet she has devoured the last 5 things I've managed to sneak zucchini into with no complaints. It was she who said that she enjoyed this dish for it's mild sweetness. So, there you go.

Let Me Make it Up to You...

I have neglected my blog for a month!? Wow.
I have had a 'busy' month, and by busy, I mean stuff happened and I didn't blog it.

Gabe's mom and stepdad just came for a visit. It's always stressful but usually turns out just fine. (Yes, this visit turned out just fine.) We went to a free day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science followed by dinner at Cinzetti's, a big Italian buffet restaurant where kids eat free on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Gabe being eaten by a dinosaur. He doesn't seem too bothered by it.

The next day turned out to be their 30th anniversary. If it was us, Gabe and I would have thrown ourselves a big party (We had a formal tea party for #10) but instead we went to see Night at the Museum2 at the $3 theater and ate over salted popcorn.

Daughter #1 has been working up the strength to get to the top, this was her first time. You go!

On Wednesday we hung around until the girls had their wall climbing class, then on Thursday we went to an awesome park along the Big Thompson river. The river had flooded in '76 wiping out an electrical power plant (and a bunch of other stuff, I don't know, I was only 2) and the park was built around the remains. It was the highlight of everyone's week, free and beautiful.

Bits of the power plant are still there. We also saw bits and broken concrete along the river.

The girls hunting for cool river rocks.

And now the moment you've been waiting for... a delightful recipe from one of my baking experiments. If you follow me on twitter you may recall my recent (homemade) Cinnamon Zucchini Chocolate Cupcakes with (homemade) Strawberry Chocolate Frosting.

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Well, that's not the recipe I'm giving you. Sorry. Maybe next time. But I am giving something almost as fabulous. Pinto Bean Pie. Oh Yes.

You may recall from previous posts that my family receives help from our local food bank. Things are still tight and work is still slow and I have so many pinto beans its insane. I've been collecting and creating and altering various recipes and plan to compile them one day. I know our family is not the only one having hard times financially and I thought I would share a bit of how we are making due.

This pie is pretty amazing, even my daughter who hate beans loved it. You can't even tell its beans. It is very like a pecan pie with out the pecans. (Although I suppose you could add some if you like.) It has the rich sweetness of the filling in a pecan pie and just enough almonds to give it the nutty crunch it deserves. Give it a try, you'll love it. Especially if you have an over abundance of pinto beans.

For this pie I used a premade pie crust I had, but feel free to make a yummy fresh one.

Pinto Bean Pie

2/3 cup plain sugar
2/3c brown sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3c butter
1 cup pinto beans, cooked and mashed
1/3-1/2c almonds
1 pie crust

preheat oven to 350degrees F (175 degrees C)
cream butter, sugars, and eggs. add beans and nuts, mix well. pour mixture into uncooked pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. The lovely crust on the top is the pie itself.

So simple. So tasty. Let me know how you liked it.

Meliss