Sauteed Fennel with Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Garlic

This is not a pretty side dish. It's kind of brown and green and not terribly appealing. But do not be put off by it's looks. This is a very simple and incredibly tasty vegetable side dish. I have been eyeing making this Fennel with Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Garlic since I started peeking through my all time favorite cookbook. Yes. I'm talking about Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop. It's just such a complete cookbook, chock full information and recipes for pretty much every vegetable I can get. Like tonight's vegetable was close race between some beets, some baby zucchini, and the fennel that I've been meaning to cook for a while.

I'm glad I chose the fennel. It's not as pretty as the sweet potatoes that I made using a sweet and spicy spice blend sent to me by the lovely Amanda at Mrs. W's Kitchen. Seriously, go check her out because she has all kinds of healthy great recipes that keep in mind Diabetic and gluten free lifestyles. The fennel, ugly as it may be was subtly licorice flavored and the sweetness of the raisins and the crunch of the pine nuts set it off perfectly.

Sauteed Fennel with Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Garlic

From Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop

2 medium fennel bulbs

3 Tbsp olive oil

4 medium garlic cloves minced

2 Tbsp golden raisins

2 Tbsp pine nuts

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Trim the stems and fronds from the fennel. Discard the stems; mince enough of the fronds to yield 1 tablespoon. Trim a thick slice from the base of the bulb and remove any tough or blemished outer layers. Cut the bulb in half through the base and use a small, sharp knife to remove the triangular piece of the core from each half. With each fennel piece flat side down and your knife parallel to the work surface, slice crosswise to yield several 1/2 inch thick slices. Cut the slices lengthwise to yield long strips about 1/2 inch thick.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the fennel strips and toss to coat them with oil. Cook, stirring often, over medium heat until the fennel has softened considerably but still offers some resistance, about 15 minutes.

Add the garlic, raisins, and pine nuts and cook, stirring often, until the garlic is golden, about 1 minute. Season generously with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the minced fennel fronds and serve immediately.

Ma'aloobi

Maybe I was craving some food to remind me of home, or maybe I had an eggplant in the fridge and some ground lamb frozen from last time I was in Michigan, I'm not telling. But when I looked in my A Taste of Lebanon cookbook I found the perfect recipe, Ma'aloobi. It's packed full of vegetables and potatoes and then has a wonderful filling of ground lamb and toasted pine nuts. And it's fun to say too! I did tweak the recipe some to make it a little healthier. I promised the Brain that I wouldn't make any dinner that had over 500 calories per serving. I figured this recipe on 4 servings, but really it could have served 6.

What resulted was a warm and delicious meal to cheer Marissa and Tony on Dancing with the Stars. And the leftovers were a great lunch today. Especially because it's darn cold outside and we might get snow. grrr.

I really wish the fighting in the Middle East would stop because I would love someday to visit. I love the warming spices and the beautiful dishes. Perhaps I'm fortunate that I grew up in the Detroit area and was exposed to a lot of Middle Eastern culture. I think it's a terrific and old culture and it really saddens me that on one end it seems no one can get along and that we seem to be messing up the other end.

Ma'aloobi

adapted from A Taste of Lebanon

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/2 pound ground lamb

1 medium onion (half finely chopped)

1 tsp salt (divided)

1/2 tsp pepper (divided)

1 large eggplant

2 large potatoes

2 large tomatoes

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 cup water

Toast pine nuts in skillet until nuts are golden brown. Add meat and chopped onion. Saute until meat changes color. Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Set aside.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Peel eggplant and potatoes. Cut both into 1/2 inch thick slices. Cut tomatoes 1/4 inch thick. Slice remaining onion 1/4 inch thick. Divide the vegetables into 2 groups.

Layer the first group by alternating the four vegetables in a casserole dish. Sprinkle the meat filling evenly over the vegetables. Layer the remaining vegetables over the filling. Add the remaining salt and pepper, and cinnamon. Mix the tomato paste and water together in a small bowl and pour on top. Cover with lid and bake for 1 hour or until the vegetables are tender.

Approximate nutritional information per serving (4 servings): 432.4 calories, 19.8g fat, 50.3g carbohydrates, 9.6g fiber, 17.2g protein, 3.7g sugar, 767.9mg sodium, 41.2mg cholesterol

Multigrain Bread

Have you ever looked at the ingredient list for your standard loaf of bread? If you buy the $4 loaves of bread like Aunt Millie's light five grain that actually have whole grains and fiber it's not horrible. Although I'm curious what "DATEM" is and what exactly "resistant corn starch" is resistant to. If you have a husband like the Brain who is so sweet and actually goes out and buys a loaf of bread when you ask him to, but then doesn't really look at the label but goes for what's cheapest, then you may want to have a stiff drink before you look at the ingredients. He came back with wheat bread (just like I asked). But there was less than 1 gram of fiber per slice. And there were wild and bizarre things in this bread. Things like raisin juice. How exactly do you juice a raisin? And soy fiber which is mighty common in bread actually and makes me think of things like the stalk of the soybean plant. And then there's high fructose corn syrup and the chemicals I can't pronounce.

This has been a long time coming, because I'm a bread junkie and because I'm really trying to get back to eating more natural foods, well less chemicals anyway. We don't have a bakery in our county, or I think the next county up, that makes anything close to artisanal bread and bolstered by the success of the Julia Child French Bread, I've decided to make my own bread. I have to admit though, I sort of cheated on this one. I have a bread machine, which I love. And I have The All-New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook, which I also love. Mostly what I like to do is make the dough in the bread machine and then transfer it to a loaf pan and bake it in the oven. It has something to do with being OCD I'm sure, but the idea of bread in those funny bread machine loaves freaks me out. Seriously. It's creepy. The bread machine is a great convenience though. I know that I can throw all the ingredients in it and then find something else to do for 2 hours. Like try to walk around the block. And I can come back and have perfectly made dough. Yummy dough when I use recipes from this book though.

So expect more bread in the future. Don't get excited, I'm not turning into Breadchick Mary, who is awesome and has tons of bread on her site. But on occasion I'll be sharing a loaf or two. I may even get daring and make the sourdough starter Mary posted about. And yeah, they won't all be bread machine recipes. But I promise not to use any resistant corn starch, or soy fiber. Or raisin juice.

And if you're curious, I have decided that the whole scariness of the hard plastic water bottles and chemicals leaching into my water has sufficiently scared me into recycling my beloved Life is Good water bottle and splurging on this beautiful aluminum SIGG bottle. I know, I know, aluminum and Alzheimer's. But this Swiss beauty has a "ground breaking interior liner" that is "100% effective against leaching". Even the paint on the outside of the bottle has been tested. And, though the mouth is much smaller on this bottle, it's surprisingly comfortable to drink from. Hooray!

Multigrain Bread

adapted from the All-New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook

makes 2 loaves (16 servings)

1 1/4 cup water

1 egg

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

4 Tbsp honey

1/3 cup flax seeds

3 Tbsp yellow cornmeal

3 Tbsp rolled oats

3 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 Tbsp rye flour

1 package (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast

All ingredients should be at room temperature. Liquid ingredients should be approximately 80 degrees F. Add ingredients in the order specified in your bread machine owner's manual.

Select dough option.

Remove loaf from bread machine after it's second rise. Pat the dough into a rectangle and cut into 2 pieces. Fold the top third of the dough down onto the rectangle. Fold the bottom third up onto remaining dough. Flip the dough so the seam side is on your lightly floured work surface. Tuck the ends of the rectangle under so it will fit in a standard loaf pan. Repeat with the other rectangle. (I only made one loaf and as you can see it's a little on the ridiculously huge side of life.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover the loaves and set in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes. Place the loaves in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. The loaves should be golden brown and have a hollow thumpy sound when tapped on the bottom. Place the loaves on a rack to cool.

Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 154 calories, 5g protein, 27g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 3g fat, 21mg cholesterol, 29mg potassium, 274 mg sodium.

Cheesecake on a Stick!

It's Daring Baker Challenge time again! This month it was Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor. Now I happen to love cheesecake, but the Brain and a significant portion of his family are lactose intolerant so I knew that I needed to find a place to give these babies away or I would really become Jaba the Butt. As it so happens, last Wednesday I was cleared by the physical therapist to be able to drive up to Michigan to go to the opera. My best friend T. and I have season tickets and La Rondine by Puccini was playing and it hasn't been performed in 37 years. It was I think my favorite opera so far and the people at the Michigan Opera Theater were really great about moving my balcony seat to a box seat and letting us have a primo parking space. They were really terrific about the challenges I faced on crutches.

Conveniently my friend T's son, my godson, is turning 2 on Tuesday (yes, this is an old photo) and he had a big birthday party yesterday. So I merely transported these babies up to her (and about 10 to my family) and minimized the risk of me eating the entire batch of cheesecake pops by myself. And trust me it was a real danger. They were delicious! And my track record for sampling as I was making them was pretty sad.

The batter went together super easy. Although I sort of shuddered at the 5 8oz packages of cream cheese, I figured that there's no butter in it and if you only eat one pop it wouldn't be so bad for you. That's one pop. Not 4 pops that you run out of chocolate coating for. I licked the beater so I knew the cheesecake was going to be good, the batter is good. And for the first time I actually put the cheesecake in the water bath. My cheesecake baked in about 55 minutes and was nice and solid.

The recipe says to scoop the cheesecake into 2oz balls. So I got out my little scooper. I'm sure it has a fancy name, its a little ice cream scoop that I use for portioning out cookie dough or frosting. Anyhow, I was scooping away and eating the scraps of cheesecake, which turned out about as yummy as I imagined, when I decided to stick one of the little buggers on a scale. It was 3/8 oz. Crap. They looked good though. Just a nice bite. But I am a direction follower so I got out the big ice cream scooper that I use for portioning out cupcakes. And I scooped one and weighed it. It was 1 1/4 oz and they looked pretty big. I started thinking that 2 oz was about the size of a softball and the cheesecake was far to rich for that.

So once I had all my little 3/8 oz balls rolled and scooped out and my tummy was seriously hurting from eating too much cheesecake ("What did you have for dinner?" "cheesecake"). And I somehow managed to rearrange my freezer to be able to have all these cute little balls on sticks fit, I froze them. I should mention here that lollipop sticks can be found at Walmart. I just happened to conveniently have some bright orange candy melts in my pantry. Don't laugh, my sister Super G discovered she had a can of Jamaican sardines in her cupboard this week. It happens. So I melted those up and coated my little cheesecake lollipops. And it was a kitchen of orange. I have an orange Kitchenaid and orange plastic mixing bowls and my favorite spatula is orange. And somehow these candy melts were the exact color of orange. Which thrilled me. I am easily thrilled. Even when my stomach is hurting from eating far too much cheesecake.

I did have a little trouble getting them to stay on the stick when they were thawed out so I did have to keep sticking them in the freezer. My sister M when she tried hers at home fell of the stick too. I think they'd be almost as fun just without the stick. As like tiny little bon bons. This was definitely a challenge for me. I'm not sure if it was just complicated for me to scoop them out and roll them into a ball and then dip them in chocolate or if I was just at the point in the day where standing becomes uncomfortable and I'm pretty much done. I don't think I'd make this again for a weekend dessert or a casual birthday party, but probably if I was going to a bridal shower or baby shower I would. They're a lot of work, but they're really impressive.

Thanks to the wonderful Deborah at Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms for picking a recipe that I probably wouldn't have picked myself. It was a good challenge. Also make sure to check out all the other talented Daring Bakers. And if you'd like the recipe, you can either buy the book, or check out Deborah's blog. And I'm headed back to the couch.

Where Have I Been?

I have overdone it yet again by making the Daring Baker Challenge and then driving up to Michigan to go see Puccini's La Rondine at the Michigan Opera Theater. The opera was beautiful and the employees of the Michigan Opera Theater were the most wonderful and accommodating people to me. (I had to go back on the crutches for a bit). So I had a great time, but now I'm dealing with a lot of swelling and haven't really been cooking. I will be posting tomorrow though so stay tuned!

So for now, I'm spending my time looking at my unplanted garden. We picked up our tomato and pepper plants (both jalapeno and bell) and some rosemary and basil plants, plus I have last year's parsley and sage. So I lay here on the couch surrounded by my soon to be garden and I'm waiting for the two weeks before we're sort of out of the frost danger zone. Come on planting season!

Braised Chicken Drumsticks

I don't believe I've mentioned recently how much I love this cookbook. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for 2 has a tremendous amount of really good slow cooker recipes just the right size for me and the Brain. That and we haven't had anything turn out bad yet. That's kind of an understatement. Everything we've made has been really really good. And there's not a can of cream of mushroom soup in sight. Actually the cookbook is very lactose intollerant friendly. A definite plus on our noses.

Today's recipe of Braised Chicken Drumsticks with Garbanzo Beans and Dried Fruit is yet another example of the excellent food in this cookbook. I followed Courtney's lead and went over to Spark Recipes and figured out the nutritional value. This super delicious and easy crock pot dish is very high in both Vitamin C and fiber. The sodium and fat content were a little high so I cut out 1 tablspoon of oil and used low sodium chicken broth. I was also surprised to find out that there were only 4g sugar. I think that makes it a good dish for diabetics, however Atkins type people might want to be aware of the 44g carbohydrates. I need those carbs though to power myself around the block again. I'm getting speedier and now I don't hurt until the last 3 houses. Whoo look at me go now.

Ooops. I got sidetracked there. Anyway, check out Sparks Recipes. It's a pretty interesting site and you can totally find out the nutrition content easily for your recipes.

Braised Chicken Drumstics with Garbanzo Beans and Dried Fruit

from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Slow Cooker Recipes for 2

1 medium yellow onion, sliced

1/2 medium yellow bell pepper, chopped

3/4 cup canned garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

3 Tbsp chopped cilantro

4 dried apricot halves, each cut into quarters

2 Tbsp golden raisins

1 cup chicken broth, low sodium

1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cumin

pinch of mace

pinch of ground ginger

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 chicken drumsticks

a few strips of orange zest

1 Tbsp cornstarch

Spray the inside of the crock with nonstick cooking spray. Place the onion, pepper, cilantro, apricots, and raisins in the slow cooker. Add 3/4 cup of the broth, the vinegar, paprika, cinnamon, cumin, mace, ginger, cayenne pepper, and salt.

Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat and add the chicken legs. Cook until the chicken is browned , about 5 minutes; add to the crock, laying the pieces side by side.Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours (or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours), until the chicken is cooked through.

Remove the chicken legs from the crock with a slotted spoon to a plate; cover with foil and keep warm.Increase the heat to HIGH. Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup chicken broth, the orange zest, and the cornstarch in a small bowl; stir into the vegetables and broth in the crock. Return the chicken to the crock, cover, and continue to cook for 15 minutes, until sauce is thickened. Serve hot. Serves 2.

Per Serving: 358.1 Calories, 10.7g Fat, (1.7g Saturated Fat), 57.0mg Cholesterol, 956.0mg Sodium, 680.1mg Potassium, 44.5 total Carbohydrate, 6.6g Fiber, 4.0g Sugar, 22.5g Protein.

Cooking to Combat Cancer 2

Oh cancer. As I mentioned in my cornbread muffin post for A Taste of Yellow, I worry about cancer. It's a little unnerving to realize that I've hit the mid-thirty somethings and I've already predisposed myself to some cancers. Besides the smoking and the damage I worry that I've done to my lungs, I come from the pasty white people of the north. My mom says I'm allergic to the sun. I can burn through baby sunscreen. And I've already had one suspicious spot removed. Fortunately, it was nothing. But skin cancer does run in my family. On both sides. I like to think that maybe when my ancestors came over in 1640 and just kept marrying other Germanic type people that if they had known the risk factors they were setting me up for they might have tried to get to know an Italian, or a Greek or somebody with a little tiny bit of melanin. But they didn't.

SO dutifully, every time I go out in the sun I slather on some Neutrogena SPF 70 (with Helioplex) sunscreen. I wear a hat. I wear big sunglasses. At the beach I wear a swim shirt. And I wear a beach cover up. I look like one of those crazy old ladies that is completely covered up. But I haven't had a tan, or a massive burn in 3 years. 4 years ago is when I discovered that I burn through baby sunscreen on my first annual family vacation to Hilton Head Island. Bad burns happen, but I do try to prevent them.

But as careful as I am now, most skin damage is done before you're 18. Crap. I think I had one or two or three bad burns a year before I turned 18. My grandma had a cottage on Lake Huron and just for me she kept a massive jar of Noxema. Out of 19 grandchildren, I'm the one that burns bad. My cousins used to peel the flaking burnt skin off my back. My sister doesn't burn. She tans. It's highly annoying.

So what am I bringing this all up for? Because Chris at Mele Cotte is hosting a Cooking to Combat Cancer 2 event to raise awareness of cancer fighting foods. This Spicy Chicken and Greens is packed full of cancer fighting foods. There's the Mac Daddy of all leafy greens Kale. Kale has been shown to slow growths of cancers in laboratory animals. It helps reduce the risk of lung, stomach, colorectal, prostate and bladder cancers. Kale is also high in folate which helps combat breast cancer. Then there are scallions, which are from the garlic group. Scallions contain diallyl disulfide which protects against skin, colon and lung cancer. There's even some soy sauce. I don't know if soy sauce counts as a soy because it doesn't have the soy protein that my body just can't digest, but I purposely kept it in for soy's cancer fighting properties. Soy's isoflavins protect against cancers of the bladder, cervix, lung and stomach. And then if you serve this lovely (and unfortunately not terribly spicy) dish over brown rice as I did, you've just added the cancer fighting properties of whole grains, which when eaten as part of a balanced diet works to combat most types of cancer.

So there you go. Have some of this not very spicy Spicy Stir Fried Chicken and Greens with Peanuts and battle away your potential cancer risks! Also make sure to check back at Mele Cotte for the roundup!

Spicy Stir Fried Chicken and Greens with Peanuts
from Bon Appetit

2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce, divided
2 Tbsp dry Sherry, divided
3 tsp sesame oil, divided
2 tsp brown sugar, divided
1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch wide strips
2 Tbsp peanut oil, divided
4 green onions, white parts and green parts chopped separately
1 chopped serrano pepper, seeded
1 large bunch kale, thick stems removed, cut into 1 inch strips
1/4 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts

Whisk 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Sherry, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sugar in medium bowl. Add chicken and marinade 20 to 30 minutes.

Whisk remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Sherry, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sugar in small bowl and reserve.

Heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add white parts of onions and chiles; stir 30 seconds. Add chicken; stir-fry just until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer chicken mixture to bowl. Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to same skillet; heat over high heat. Add greens by large handfulls; stir just until beginning to wilt before adding more. Saute just until tender, 1 to 6 minutes. Return chicken to skillet. Add reserved soy sauce mixture. Stir until heated through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer to serving bowl; sprinkle with green parts of onions and peanuts.