Adventures in Mama-Land

“It’s my own invention!” Here’s a quick easy medium-hearty soup to go along with a rice-based stir-fry – especially good for a cold evening when there wasn’t much in the house beyond rice and tinned tomatoes… I improvised this, writing down what I did along the way so you could enjoy it, too (cuz I knew ahead of time that it was destined to be just as fabulous as it turned out to be!). What’s in it: 1 tin tomatoes (the big kind of tin – 700-something ml?) 2 tins water or nice veggie broth 2 cubes frozen ginger 4 cloves garlic 3 tbsp ch soup mix (omit if using nice veggie broth) 1-2 cups of frozen corn kernels, depending on how much you like corn; I forget how much I tossed in 1 package extra-firm tofu, browned in wok 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (contains fish) black pepper to taste sriracha / hot sauce to taste, optional – OR red pepper flakes, optional 4 tbsp soy sauce (s/b a bit less?) 6 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar (I used lite = low sodium, just because we bought it by...

When I say easy, I mean easy; domestic goddess, I am not these days.  Not even up to my usual, slovenly, standards. But anyway – pumpkin.  I bought four biggish ones on November 1st for 99 cents each (up from 49 cents last year , and FREE the year before!), plus I found one BIG one this evening walking to my mother’s house (sitting at the curb, but it only had a couple of squirrel-bites out of it… and I figure the roasting takes care of any squirrelish germs; I hope I’m right!). So here’s what you do: Open the top of the pumpkin, scoop out the seeds.  I generally throw away the cap, but you could roast it, too.  SAVE THE SEEDS! Slice the pumpkin almost all the way down on one side, then the other, then pull it apart with your bare hands – this is my “Incredible Hulk” moment, where I feel huge and powerful and furious… for a second, until the, um, fruit in my hands snaps apart easily. Use a metal spoon and scrape the “gunk” off the inside walls of the pumpkin....

Don’t be disappointed… this is more of a state of mind than a recipe.  Okay, more of a technique , but that sounds all boring and pretentious. First, have some leftover pumpkin.  You can buy it tinned, but at this time of year, pumpkins are cheap and plentiful (not as cheap as they will be come November 1st!).  Roasting them is easy, so don’t bother boiling (that’s what I used to do – cut up & boil – why???).  Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, place face-down on a pan (I use tinfoil because they get messy).  Roast at whatever temperature your oven is at (300-350) until you can poke through the skin & flesh with a skewer.  Done! When cool (I just leave them in the oven overnight, where fruit flies can’t find them) purée in food processor. (while you’re waiting for them to cool, read this heartfelt entreaty about why you must buy a pasta maker ) Now for the noodles.  You won’t use the whole pumpkin for noodles, so maybe divide i...

In case you weren’t aware, “potchkedik” means “almost too much trouble to bother.”  Remember that ALMOST!  Lots of steps and annoying and nonsense… but sometimes, very worthwhile. But at this time of year, my thoughts wildly turn to pumpkin and so I was sucked in by these “ Crispy Pumpkin Purses ” from Jamie Geller’s site, Joy of Kosher, and decided to make them for erev Yom Kippur.  Of course, as I said in this post , that might not exactly be the best time to savour delicious and effortful food… as my mother said the other day, “we used to just eat a boiled chicken; chicken, and chicken soup.”  Luckily, we now have “extras” in the freezer, so we can enjoy them another time. These are basically rice-stuffed samosas, with a few nice touches.  The filling is a mix of puréed roasted pumpkin and pre-cooked risotto.  Risotto should be fairly “creamy” when cooked (though pareve).  Because I was making these pareve, I used the non-dairy option of substitu...

My neighbour is out of town!  Why does that make me so very, VERY happy???  Because she said we could help ourselves to her tomatoes. Here they are, with some of our own homegrown peppers, hot and mild, basil, and a homegrown bay leaf (garlic is Ontario-grown, but not my own): Forgive my ugly, scarred dutch oven.  It’s perfect for everything from candymaking to bread-baking, so it’s gone all the way to 550 degrees and back, pretty much unscathed except for its pristine beauty. Going… Going…   Gone… and into the blender with some creamy stuff! Meanwhile… eggs, salt, all-purpose flour (about 6 cups of flour and 4 eggs – no water)…     Equals… and eventually…    Mmmmm….!!! Aren’t simple suppers the awesomest ever???  True story:  I was tasting the sauce and mentioned to YM, “oh, wow… THIS is an awesome sauce.”  YM:  “you said awesomesauce !”  Yes, I did.  If ever a sauce was, this is.  Or...

Around here, the one thing we all agree on, food-wise, is potatoes.  And it occurs to me, as I type this, that we have had some form of potato every night this week:  potato soup on Sunday (after Tisha b’Av ), the same potato soup revisited as a curried carrot/fish stew on Monday, and mashed potatoes last night with our “girls’ night” STEAK binge (Ted & YM were off in Lakewood for a wedding). But it’s too late, because tonight is scalloped-potatoes night, and I thought I’d share some tips for getting this quick-easy and yummy-for-all-ages supper to the table quicker.  (Of course, in your home, scalloped potatoes might not be supper.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s okay – I’m serving it with farmers’ market corn on the cob, and that, in my opinion, is a meal.  Ted prefers to have a protein on the side of one of my all-starch suppers – like salmon or beanie burgers (try these ones – just smoosh them for burgers instead of balls).  Chacun a son gout.) ...

Tomatoes!  Planted yesterday – very, very, VERY late in the season, especially considering how warm it was in February and March.  I didn’t bother firing up the whole seed-starting rig, which is under a ton of clutter at the moment anyway.  This is the countertop grow-op, just a bulb at the right height over the downstairs kitchen counter, which happens to be clean and clear because of all of Ted’s Pesach organization down there. I had altogether too many varieties of tomato seed waiting to start, and I only wanted to do one tray (36 plants, under ideal conditions)… so I forced myself to start 4 each of 9 varieties.  I let YM pick a couple of his favourites (based on the names only), and chose a few of my favourites as well (based on either past experience or Googling to see how well-behaved each variety is, in terms of fruit size, plant growth habit, days to maturity and flavour).  All these seeds were free, either saved myself or gleaned from various seed ...

Well, not quite.  I could have made the pasta from scratch, for instance, but I didn’t.  I could have grown the spinach and tomatoes from  scratch, or at least, made my own sauce, but I didn’t.  Maybe this summer – it sounds like a great challenge. As it was, this was just plain BEAUTIFUL lasagna.  With homemade mozzarella – tasty, though not mind-blowing.  It grated pretty nicely, though it was softer and stickier than regular block mozzarella.  I froze it for a bit and it grated slightly better, though still on the mushy side.  One pound of cheese was the batch I made on Sunday , and another pound was fresh today.  I think we used about 1/4 of the new pound, leaving 3/4 of a pound still in the fridge.  Yummy!  And it’s getting easier and easier to get the cheese just right… patience seems to be the key.  Here’s a tutorial that is VERY explicit, step-by-step, and helpful with the handholding I need as a beginner! (I’m taggi...

High:  the peonies opened on Yom Tov!!!  Only three blooms right now, with a potential fourth bringing up the rear.  But there were NONE last year or the year before that, so I think they’re finally getting its bearings in the “new” spots…     High #2 (it’s June – you’ve got to allow me more than 1!): The second clematis opened – and it’s a different kind altogether!  Last week’s was Nelly Moser; this week it’s The President.  I bought these two as end-of-season bargains 3 years ago and they promptly “died.”  There was a little growth the following year, but only one flower .  Last year , I got TWO Nelly flowers but reported sadly, “not a sign of the President anywhere.”  So, again, PATIENCE did it… just waiting this thing out, waiting almost THREE YEARS for it to find its sealegs in my stunted sad shady garden.  And here it is: Well worth the wait, in my opinion. Finally, Garden High #3:  Strawberries are coming!...