Fresh Red Peppers Stuffed with Barley and Mushrooms

Things have been busy in my neck of the woods. On Sunday Sweetie and I decided to take some cars for test drives. We have been looking at cars in parking lots and as we drive around for about a year, knowing that our beloved Toyota 4Runner is getter older and might need to be replaced. Sweetie has also done lots and lots of research on recent car statistics and I even spent time reading about different ones in a magazine and Consumer Reports and online at Edwards (or is it Edmunds?) so that I had a small amount of knowledge for the search. The last time we actually did the test driving dance was about 22 years ago when we bought the Astro van that was put to good use for many years carrying kids to volleyball and soccer games, plus taking us all on trips and some of us on camping trips. That time I was suffering through a head cold and just wanted to buy something and go home.

This time I was excited about trying different cars, but we promised each other that we wouldn't buy anything on Sunday. Silly us, we always buy the same day. Turns out we did this time, too, and are now the happy owners of a Honda Ridgeline, which is a combination of a car and a truck. Sorry no photo yet, but I'll post one tomorrow. It has a car like ride but a truck back window and truck bed for hauling stuff. Will be selling the 4Runner soon, although it seems to be running just fine. I think the idea was to choose a car while we didn't have too so that we could choose what we wanted.

Yesterday was full of doctor's visits, all benign checkups really, and a nice lunch with a friend.

So, finally, today I can tell you about the great stuffed peppers we had for dinner last night. I had the leftover half for lunch today and it may have been even better. The following will serve as a recipe since the amounts can be varied to suit your own taste. The photo up top show the baked pepper and the photo below shows them stuffed, right before I added the cheddar cheese.

Our local farm stand had these lovely peppers for sale this week, plus some small zucchini squash. I cooked barley in veggie broth, adding diced celery, carrot and green onion. While it was cooking I sauteed chopped zucchini and mushrooms in a little olive oil, then added salt, pepper and dried thyme. The cooked barley was mixed with the cooked zucchini mixture, then it was all stuffed in the halved and de-seeded peppers. A sprinkle of chopped parsley and shredded cheddar cheese finished them off. I put them into a baking dish and a small baking dish and added more veggie broth to the bottom. After covering the dishes with heavy duty foil, I put them into a preheated 425 degree F oven and baked them for 20 minutes.

They were outstanding. The pepper was softened, but still kept its shape. The barley mixture was delicious and chewy in a good way. They were amazingly filling and the perfect dinner for a chilly evening.

Orange and Chocolate in a Cookie

The siren song of the garden has been drawing me out of doors, plus Sweetie and I celebrated a big anniversary this week (no, not the 50th! ...that one will require fireworks or something), plus clinic, so not much of interest has been going on in the kitchen lately. The exception is a bread I baked this week which will soon be revealed on the Bread Baker's Dog and the second exception are these cookies.

The other evening I made Orange Chicken with Mustard (which has been blogged about in its lemon and orange variations) and I grated way too much orange zest to use in that dish. I saved it because God punishes people who waste good things like fresh orange zest.

You probably think that I'm all organized and always know what I'm going to make or bake, good old Elle the competent one. Wrong! Some days I forget to brush my teeth. Others I forget to eat lunch. Sometimes I even put out butter to soften for baking but forget to bake anything...or don't know exactly what I want to bake.

These cookies were the result of such an experience. I knew I had butter, eggs and buttermilk. All were put out to soften/warm for baking but then the garden took over followed by extreme fatigue. Who knew that an urn full of potting soil and a rose bush could weigh so much? Same for bags of potting soil that needed moving.

I got my stairmaster workout by transfering the veggie flats from the sunspace to the deck for watering and sunbathing, which requires going up and down quite a few steps quite a few times. We won't even talk about the weeding, hauling pulled weeds to the compost area or green bin, more weeding, more hauling. The end result was no baking that day. Used the buttermilk the next day for the bread. Tried again with the re-chilled butter the following day. Then realized I didn't know what I wanted to make with it. See? I can be pretty disorganized.

Finally decided that I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. That may have had something to do with a few bloggers like Lynn of Cookie Baker Lynn, Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and the sweet blogger at Sinful Southern Sweets who have been making variants of chocolate chip cookies recently. It may have been because the idea of cc cookies with orange somehow sounded so appealing knowing that I had leftover orange zest waiting.

Whatever the reason, that's where the softened butter went, along with sugars, an egg, flours (including barley flour!) and both baking soda and apple cider vinegar. I used all the rest of the orange zest, which was more than a tablespoon, but a tablespoon would be sufficent to get that orange grove flavor and fragrance that goes so well with dark chocolate. I added chopped walnuts because I love 'em in cookies.

We have a picnic coming up at the end of the week. These cookies will be great picinic food...if there are any left! They are full flavored, crispy but with a soft middle, full of chocolate chips and the chocoalte is well balanced with the orange. Yummy!

Orange - Chocolate Chip Cookies
based on a recipe from King Arthur Flour website Makes about 33 cookies

¼ cup (1/2 stick, 2 oz.) unsalted butter
½ cup vegetable oil
(Note: I used 1 ¾ sticks of butter instead …it was softened, twice)
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange zest
3//4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole barley flour (If no barley flour available, substitute unbleached all-purpose flour)
1 cup whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat flour (I used ½ cup whole wheat and ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour)
2 2/3 cups (16 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment or a silicon baking mat) two baking sheets.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugars, vanilla, orange zest, and salt until smooth.

Beat in the egg to combine. Beat in the cider vinegar. Beat in the baking soda and baking powder and as soon as they are beaten in add the barley flour and whole wheat flour, combine thoroughly, then add the chocolate chips. It looks like too many chips, but don’t worry. If using walnuts, add at the same time as the chocolate chips.

Drop the dough, by tablespoonfuls, onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15 – 17 minutes, until the cookies are an even golden brown, without any hint of softness in the center. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Joy of Cooking

Joy of Cooking...No, not the cookbook, although it's a good cookbook. Really, the thing that became very obvious to me this week is how much joy I derive from cooking.

If I had a full-time washing-up person I would probably do nothing but cook. Dishwasher machines don't count...you still have to get the stuff into them and if you are making a number of dishes you will invariably need the measuring cup or pot that is still dirty...so you wash it right away and get it dirty again..in the best possible way.

So I do my own washing as I go along (as much as possible) and that limits...a bit...how many things I try to make in one day.

We had buckets of rain on Wednesday, so I stayed in and so had time to make a number of fun things. One of the best, surprisingly to me because I rarely think of a side dish as a candidate for the "best", was a barley and butternut squash layered casserole with gremolata.

I had roasted both halves of a nice butternut squash and only needed one half for another recipe I was making (to be seen here later if all goes well), so I went online and found the basis for this dish on the Eating Well blog. The URL is here. Their version is a pilaf with cubes of squash mixed in and cooked in liquid with the barley.

I went with layers since my squash was already cooked. The flavors of the barley and squash go well together and the gremolata adds a needed spark of lemon, parsley and garlic to liven things up.

This is a simple dish but delicious, healthy, full of fiber and vitamins, pretty to look at and full of flavor. What's not to like? Sweetie liked it enough to have seconds instead of meat...boy was my meat and potatoes man surprised by that! I took more of it to work for a dinner and everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot. Since butternut squash is a winter squash, those of us in the northern hemisphere can enjoy this now while eating a seasonal, inexpensive food.

Tip: Butternut squash has a hard skin sometimes. If you have trouble cutting your squash in half to roast it, pierce it a couple of times with a knife, then microwave for 2 minutes on high. Once you have cut it in half, you can remove the seeds with a melon baller or soup spoon, oil lightly and place cut side down on a baking sheet (or skip the oil and use a silicon baking mat as I did)

Roast at 450 degrees F until tender. Peel when cooled, slice thinly and it is ready for this recipe.

Second tip: Barley is an agricultural product. Be sure to thoroughly rinse the barley before cooking and check for and remove small pebbles.

Butternut Squash and Barley Layers with Gremolata

Ingredients
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth, or vegetable broth
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1 cup pearl barley
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
¼ medium butternut squash, roasted, peeled and sliced in ¼ inch slices
1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add broth, water, and barley( and salt if using); bring to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the barley is tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 45 minutes.

Mix together parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside.

Butter a microwave safe casserole dish big enough to hold the barley and squash. Place half of the barley on the bottom and spread to make an even layer. Top with half the squash slices, placing close together but not overlapping. Sprinkle-spread half the parsley-lemon-garlic (gremolata) mixture over the squash slices Grind pepper over to taste.

Repeat to make next layer, using rest of barley, enough of the squash to cover but not overlap, the rest of the gremolata and season with pepper to taste. Chill casserole until ready to serve.

Just before serving, cover casserole and heat in the microwave for 5 minutes at half power. Test center to see if sufficiently warm to enjoy. If not, microwave another minute at a time at half power until hot. Serve at once.

Serves 6-8 as a side dish.

Oats Whole Wheat and Barley Rolls

If this posts gets a nursery rhyme stuck in your head, that’s OK if that motivates you to bake these rolls. Of course if you forget to add the oats, like I did, it is a more pedestrian Whole Wheat and Barley Rolls.

There is nothing like fresh, warm from the oven dinner rolls at a potluck, especially when you know that the hostess is providing slices of ham and roast turkey. It may not seem as seasonal as candy cane cookies or fudge, but pot lucks are so typical of entertaining during the busy holiday season…the work is shared and we get to make something wonderful to bring. I'm submitting this as an entry for Bread Baking Day # 15, hosted by Annarasa, with the theme of celebrations.

This recipe is based on one of Marion Cunningham’s from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book. In case you have not read this book, it is a wonderful compendium of basic baking recipes, plus riffs on those. I especially like the front and back endpapers which have measurement equivalents, a basic pie dough formula, how to make a piece of parchment into a piping bag, how to soften gelatin and other tips.

Twenty-four to thirty soft, crusty, warm, yeasty dinner rolls are hard to beat. I made mine as pull-apart pan rolls, leaving about 2/3 of them plain on top and adding seeds to the rest. I replaced some of the all-purpose flour with barley flour and whole wheat flour and used my whole wheat starter.

NOTE: To use regular yeast instead of starter, when I add the starter to the other ingredients, leave that out and sprinkle 1 package dry yeast on top of the ingredients, stir, and let stand to dissolve.

A bonus is that your house smells yeasty and wonderful for hours. These would also be great for Christmas dinner, with roast beef or turkey or goose.

Whole Wheat and Barley Rolls
1 ¼ cups milk, warmed
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or ¼ cup0 butter, softened (plus another 2 tablespoons if making pan rolls)
1 cup whole wheat starter – if using dry yeast, see Note above
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup barley flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/13 – 3 cups all-purpose flour

Stir the warm milk, sugar, salt, and butter together in large mixing bowl. Make sure that the liquid is no warmer than 115 degrees F dry yeast, ten degrees less for cake yeast and starter.

Stir in the starter, then beat in the barley flour, whole wheat flour and ½ cup all-purpose flour.

Switch to the dough hook if you are using one. Beat in the rest of the flour on low speed. Continue to knead with the mixer 5-6 minutes or turn out onto a flour surface and knead for 6 – 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

Put into a large, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap,a nd let rise until dougle in buld, Punch down and form into rolls.

Pan pull-apart rolls: Melt 2 – 3 tablespoons butter in a shallow dish in the microwave, making sure to cover the dish with waxed paper to keep spatters down.

Take the dough ball and divide it in half. Roll each half into a roughly 12 inch rope. Cut each rope into one inch pieces.

Roll each piece between the palms of your hands into a ball. Continue until all balls are made. Dip each ball in butter, coating all sides, then place in an 8 or 9 inch cake pan, leaving a little room between balls. If desired, sprinkle with seeds.

Cover loosely and let rise until double in bulk.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for about 15 minutes, or until the tops are a ddp golden brown. Remove from the oven, ease the rolls out of the pan and onto a rack to cool for a moment. Serve while warm with butter.