Fan Favorite Oldie But Goodie

The photos don't do this dish justice...at all. Trust me when I say that this recipe will become one of your favorites, just like it's a favorite of others stopping by this blog.

I first posted about this casserole in the spring of 2009. A lot of life has happened since then, but the recipe has been a continually searched one over the years. I first made it even longer ago than 2009, maybe even before my kids were born. It's from a delightful and unusual cookbook called the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. Unusual because the recipes were written by hand and the illustrations were done by hand...no photographs, no type to speak of, just warm and welcoming recipes with lots of them vegetarian, many of them celebrating cultures other than U.S.A. cultures, and ones that became favorites, like this one. Delightful because you will likely keep finding another recipe you want to try as you make your way through the book. It was first published in 1977. If you don't find it at Powell's Books (a Portland, Oregon bookstore that has a lot of used books of all kinds), then check Amazon or your local library, used book store, etc. It's a great cookbook to have on your shelf.

This recipe, Spinach-Rice Casserole, has brown rice with it's nutty flavor, spinach, cheddar cheese, eggs and milk, and some seasonings. Don't skip the sunflower seeds on top...they not only taste great and add texture, but their fragrance mingles with the other ingredients to make your kitchen smell cozy and welcoming. Perhaps the best part is that you will likely have leftovers...and they are even better than the first night. I just returned from four days in Phoenix, visiting family, and Sweetie ate leftover Spinach-Rice Casserole the first two nights I was gone. I think he would have eaten it the next two nights, but it was all gone.

Cook the brown rice first because brown rice takes a little longer than white rice. While it's cooking you chop the onion and mince the garlic and grate the cheese. I use frozen spinach that is already chopped...it just needs thawing and then squeezing the thawed spinach to get out the excess liquid. Eggs get whisked, milk added, and parsley chopped. Then you sauté the onion and garlic, add almost all of the rest of the ingredients and stir them together, add the rice and combine everything so that it can be turned out into a buttered casserole dish. After a sprinkle of both sunflower seeds and paprika, the casserole gets covered, baked, uncovered, baked some more, than cooled just enough that it doesn't burn your mouth. Feast on a soft and gloriously flavored casserole with a bit of crunch from the sunflowers. You'll be glad you took the time to bake this dish. So will friends and/or family because this make a good sized casserole (about 9 x 13-inches) that can feed quite a few lucky folks.

Spinach-Rice Casserole, based on a recipe from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977

2 cloves minced garlic
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt (More, to taste)
3 tablespoons butter (I used 2 tablespoons olive oil)
2 lbs. raw, chopped spinach or, as I did, use 1 package frozen, chopped spinach, thawed
4 cups cooked brown rice
4 beaten eggs 
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons tamari (optional)
a few dashes each - nutmeg, cayenne
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
paprika

Saute' onions and garlic with the salt in butter (or oil). When onions are soft, add spinach. Cook 2 minutes. (Alternately, thaw and drain a 10 oz box frozen chopped spinach. Add to onion mixture, but don't cook any further.)
Combine the onion mixture with the brown rice, eggs, milk, cheese, parsley, tamari, nutmeg, cayenne. Spread into buttered casserole and sprinkle sunflower seeds and then paprika on top.
Bake, covered, 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes.

Serves 4 - 6

Garlic and Butter and Lemon and Shrimp

Shrimp Scampi is a dish I first had when I was just out of college. It used to be the kind of menu item that white tablecloth restaurants of the time almost always had on the menu. I really loved eating it but thought that it would be difficult to make well and then I moved and had little income, so shrimp, which tends to be expensive where I live, was not on my menu. Eventually I just forgot about it.

A few days ago I was in an Oliver's market in Santa Rosa. They are a local chain of markets with the best of Whole Foods but at a slightly lower price point and far less pretentious. At their meat and seafood counter I discovered that they had large shrimp that had been frozen in bags of about 1 pound. I bought one and for some reason the idea of shrimp scampi popped into my head. Still thinking that it was a difficult recipe, I looked it up on Google and found that it's actually easy. There is prep work that needs to be done before you start cooking the shrimp because it goes together very quickly (except for cooking the pasta), but the recipe itself is simple. As with any recipe that seems simple, using quality ingredients is crucial. I started with some very nice shrimp. When thawed they smelled of the sea (but not 'fishy')which is a good indicator that they were handled well before being frozen. I made sure I had good linguine, a juicy and firm lemon or two, some excellent dry white wine, good olive oil, fresh parsley and a good, firm head of garlic. The last ingredient wasn't butter, which is the best thing to use, but an excellent non-dairy butter that I usually use only as a finishing ingredient. Since this dish depends on good butter, I really needed all four tablespoons to be as close to the best butter that I could find. Having a dairy allergy is no fun sometimes.

So, timing is important for shrimp scampi. Get the water boiling for the pasta. Gather all the ingredient together and prep the shrimp (I had to peel and devein them but it was OK to leave the tail on), zest and juice the lemon, mince the garlic, mince the parsley.

First you heat up a mixture of that good butter and quality olive oil. Then you saute' the garlic in that combination of oils. Once the garlic has cooked a few minutes, you add the wine and a pinch of red pepper flakes and cook that for a few minutes, then you salt and pepper the shrimp and add them to the wine mixture, making sure they are in a single layer. After a couple of minutes, you flip them over to cook the other side. After another couple of minutes you add the lemon zest, lemon juice and parsley and stir it all together. By that time your pasta is cooked and you drain it, then add it to the shrimp mixture and toss it all with some tongs until all the pasta is coated with the butter/olive oil/garlic/ lemon/wine/parsley mixture. Quickly you put the pasta on a plate or in a shallow bowl, top with the shrimp and it's ready to serve! I think it's between 8 and 10 minutes start to finish. No wonder it used to be a popular restaurant item. Done in no time and you can charge a lot for it.

So did it live up to my memories? Yes! In fact it was better. I didn't overcook the pasta. Most restaurants in my youth did. Ditto the shrimp. I used more garlic and it was fresher. I think I should have added a touch more salt, but otherwise it was perfect and perfectly delicious. Sweetie loves shrimp and I suspect he would like me to make this every night for a week. Do try it yourself if you can get good shrimp. The recipe is a combination of about four I found online, plus the lemon zest I added on my own. Lemon zest always ups the lemon flavor, so why not?

Shrimp Scampi
Serves 2-4

1/2 lb. linguine
1 lb. large raw shrimp, rinsed, peeled and deveined (OK to leave the tail on)
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons soft salted butter or non-dairy butter substitute
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped

Have all the ingredient gathered and prepared. The cooking takes about 10 minutes, start to finish.

Bring a very large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. While it's coming to a boil, prepare the shrimp and the garlic, lemon and parsley. 

Once the water is boiling, add 1 teaspoon salt and the linguine and stir to separate the pasta. Leave uncovered and boil until al dente, about 8 - 10 minutes. Have a colander ready to drain the pasta.

Wait until the pasta water returns to a boil, then begin the shrimp part of the dish.

In a large skillet, melt the butter and oil together over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and saute' about 3 minutes, stirring a few times. Don't let garlic burn.

Add the white wine and the red pepper flakes. cook another two minutes, stirring often. 

Salt and pepper the shrimp to taste. Add the shrimp and make sure it is in one layer in the pan. After two minutes when the cooked side is pink insteado f gray, use tongs to turn each shrimp over. Cook on the second side for another two minutes, just until it is pink. Do not overcook the shrimp.

Add the lemon juice, lemon zest and the parsley. Stir to combine all the ingredients. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust seasonings if needed.

Drain the pasta (check first to make sure it is cooked al dente), then add it to the pan with the shrimp mixture. Use the tongs to gently turn the pasta over until all strands are coated with the garlic sauce.

Serve at once on large plates or in shallow bowls, placing the shrimp on top of the pasta. If desired, garnish with a drizzle of olive oil. Pass good bread to sop up the extra sauce.

What Smells SO Good?

That's what Sweetie asked after he came in from cutting up the Christmas tree to put it into the green recycle bin. We finally took down the tree today and put all the decorations and ornaments and lights up in the attic until next year. Usually I would have done it on January 7th (the day after Epiphany), but we have been having terrible wind and rain since the weekend and it was nice having the lights and soft glow of the round ornaments during the rain. Of course we also had some blackouts with no power - 3 hours and then about 6 hours, plus a few brief ones, (less than a minute), so no comfort from the tree lights then. Still, we are on high ground, so no flooding here. We didn't lose too many tree limbs, although our old apple tree did fall over, which is very sad.

Our friend and neighbor Phil also asked, "What smells so good?" when he came by this afternoon to borrow a few gallon jugs of well water. Our neighbors are on a different power line and had been out of power for about 14 hours by then and needed a little extra. Fortunately, I usually fill up about a dozen during December for times like these. We have our well water treated with a salt, so for tea and coffee I use bottled spring water because it has more acid than the treated water, so it's better tasting, for tea especially. I just fill those as they empty and label them with the date and "Well".

So what did smell so good? The Country Bean, Ham and Cabbage Soup that took most of the day to make. This is one of those recipes that are good to do when you're going to be hanging out at home much of the day. We did get a walk in with Pi between storms,

and saw how flooded the Laguna de Santa Rosa was on High School Rd. in Sebastopol. Many roads in the Santa Rosa area have flooded and there have been mudslides and evacuations from low lying areas. We have had over 11 inches of rain since Sunday. A good time for soup since there is more rain today and will be a little more tomorrow. Taking care of the Christmas tree was also a 'between the storms' thing since we finally had a day where there was a break between storms.

You actually start this soup recipe the night before. You rinse dry white beans and put them to soak with water covering them. (Actually put at least an inch of water over them. They soak it all up during the night). The next day there are draining, rinsing and simmering sessions. The longest is for an hour and a half. Most of the rest are for 15 minutes or a half hour. It does take a little time to chop the veggies and to make the herb bouquet. Towards the end of the process you have to take a few minutes to fish out the herb bouquet to discard and to cut the ham into bite sized chunks, as well as to slice up the cabbage. The recipe calls for a roux of cooked flour and butter to thicken the soup, but mine simmered so long that it didn't need any thickening.

Give this a try. The recipe is from my Mom, but I don't know where she got it from...I just make it and enjoy it. It is hearty, tasty, stick-to-your-ribs good, and pretty healthy, too. It makes lots, so there are leftovers which are even more delicious than the original meal. Just be prepared for that question: What Smells SO Good?

Country Bean Ham and Cabbage Soup

2 1/3 cup dry pea beans (Great Northern, white beans)
1 3-lb cooked picnic ham, bone in
1 celery stalk, sliced
2 carrots, quartered and sliced
5 sprigs parsley + 2 bay leaves tied together
2 medium onion, sliced, plus 1 onion stuck with
3 whole cloves
4 garlic cloves, mashed
½ teaspoon EACH dried thyme & ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 can tomatoes
1 small head green cabbage, sliced in 1/4” slices

Cover beans with cold water by at least an inch and let stand overnight. 

Drain, rinse, return to pot and cover with fresh water and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and soak for 1 hour. 

Drain & rinse & return beans to the pot. Add ham. Add enough water to cover the beans. Bring to a low simmer and simmer 15 minutes. 

Add the vegetables, herbs, onions and seasonings to pot. Cover and simmer 1 ½  hours. 

Add the tomatoes and simmer ½  hour. If tomatoes stay whole, chop them up with a spoon. 

Remove herb bouquet and whole onion. 

Add the cabbage, stir, and simmer ½ hour. 

Remove any ham bones and discard. Cut up any ham chunks into bite sized pieces and return to the pot.

Make a roux of 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour, cooked in a small pan until light brown. Add it to soup. Simmer 15 minutes. 

Taste and season with more salt and/or pepper as needed. Serve hot.

Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme and Bacon!

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."    - George Eliot

A few years ago I read about a challenge that sounded a bit overwhelming. Bloggers were going to do a post to their blog each day for the whole month of November. The idea was to encourage more writing and maybe even to spark an interest in writing as a way of life. At the time I knew it was impossible for me to do a post every day, especially in November. This year I decided that I just might be able to do it, so I began on November 1.

As you may have noticed if you have read my posts, I think of this primarily as a food blog, so it is only right that most of the posts should be about food. Even better if they contain a recipe. A photo or two is part of the look and feel of this blog, so I rarely do a post without at least one photo. Looking back over the month I feel like I've done pretty well, A third of the posts didn't have a recipe, but some of those were about food and all had a photo or illustration.

It's been a good month, although a few friends have had major health problems. I'm glad that the month finishes off with Thanksgiving and post-Thanksgiving thoughts since turkey is one of my favorite foods. Today I cooked a turkey for our family since last Thursday we were treated to our neighbor's heirloom variety home grown turkey for the holiday meal. Mine is a frozen bird from a chain grocery store, so it should be interesting to see the difference.

Soon fall will turn into winter and my favorite season will hibernate until next year. Of course the run-up to Christmas will keep me busy and it means lots of baking, so I have a smile on my face as I type this and think of what great posts there will be in December.

I spoke with my Mom yesterday and she has already gotten an early Christmas gift from me. I created a book of our kitchen remodel project for her and had it published by Blurb, so it has a nice hard cover and lovely paper to really show off the photos I took as we went along and the finished kitchen, too. So glad that she and the family enjoyed learning about how the project went as they read through the book over the weekend while they were visiting her.

I hope dear reader that you have enjoyed the November posts and are getting in touch with your inner elf as we jump into the winter holiday season!

But before we leave November I want to share with you the stuffing I made today. I'm glad I made the stuffing because the frozen bird was not as fully flavored as the turkey raised right across the street that we enjoyed on Thursday. This time I took my Mom's classic recipe and added corn bread, mushrooms, bourbon and bacon. It makes a wonderful stuffing with a hint of Southern style. If I hadn't used up almost all of my pecans for the pies I would have put some pecans in, too. When you make this, and your really should, you can add pecans and think of me.

Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme and Bacon! Stuffing 

4 slices bacon, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 medium onion, minced
4 oz. mushrooms, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoons poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 quarts soft stale bread cubes and cornbread
1 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons bourbon
½ cup parsley, chopped


In a heavy pot or skillet cook the bacon over high heat until almost crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Saute’ the onions, mushrooms, and celery in the bacon drippings (grease) on medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and stir well. Continue cooking over medium heat another two minutes. Add the poultry seasoning, dried thyme, dried rosemary, salt and pepper and stir well to combine.

Pile the parsley on top of the bread cubes and cornbread in a very large bowl or pot. Pour sauteed mixture over the parsley. Combine sauteed mixture and the reserved bacon with the bread cubes (I always substitute some cornbread for some of the bread cubes).

In a large bowl or measuring cup combine the chicken broth and bourbon. Moisten the bread crumb mixture with chicken broth mixture. You may also add chopped apples, dried fruit, chopped toasted pecans, or oysters.

Use stuffing to stuff bird. Place inside bird lightly...don't pack tight.Stuffing expands a bit during cooking.  Extra may be baked in 425 degree F. oven ‘til brown (after turkey is out of oven).

Enough for a 10-14 lb. turkey.

Gremolata and Blood Oranges

My mind usually turns to baking and making sweets. Guess it's both because I have a sweet tooth and because I'm endlessly fascinated with the process of baking...turning butter and sugar and flour and more into delicious treats.

But sometimes I get a notion of something I'd like to cook that isn't sweet. That happened the other day as I was driving home from work. I'd recently read a recipe that used gremolata as a finisher to the dish and I thought that it would be interesting to take the chicken thighs that I knew were in the fridge at home and cook them in the manner of osso bucco, but with red wine instead of white, and then finish them off when I served them with a nice sprinkle of gremolata.

O.K. first off, gremolata is a combination of minced parsley (I use Italian parsley for the good strong flavor of it) and minced fresh garlic and freshly grated lemon zest. When combined the flavor is zesty and refreshing and a nice counterpoint to a slow cooked entree which usually has mellow flavors. This whole post is dedicated to Natasha because she has been waiting patiently for the recipes.

Now that I'd daydreamed an entree, I turned to what should go with it. A roasted beet salad on field greens with some small chunks of a good blue cheese seemed like it would go well with the chicken dish. Here is a dish of roasted, peeled beets and some blood orange halves.

A citrus dressing would be seasonal and add some fruitiness, too. Around here it's the season for both blood oranges and Meyer lemons so I picked up some of each at the farm stand I pass on my way home. The next day I bought the organic beets and the blue cheese, plus some tricolor potato gnocchi that looked good. Everything else was already in the fridge or pantry. I started the chicken about 1 pm and once it was simmering I joined Sweetie down the hill where he was putting new boards on the farmhouse deck. By the time we had all the boards attached...and I did learn how to use the impact driver by the time I'd done all the fasteners in the middle of the deck!...the chicken was done and the beets I'd roasted earlier were cool enough to peel.

Blood orange juice is a lovely light fuchsia color so the dressing is pink even without any beet juices.

Both the chicken recipe and the vinaigrette recipe are ones where I've pulled bits and pieces from a number of recipes I found online. The vinaigrette in particular was a work in progress as I made it...less olive oil than I had originally planned, blood orange zest added...something none of the recipes I looked at had included which is odd when you consider how much flavor the zest has...less honey, too.

That evening we truly had a feast. The chicken was so tender it fell off the bone. The sauce created by the wine, chicken, herbs, and vegetables was great over the gnocchi, and the gremolata did the job of brightening up the dish. The salad was an excellent combination of flavors. I later wished that I'd added some toasted nuts...maybe hazelnuts or walnuts...but there was none left once we enjoyed it.

I cut the beets in wedges and marinated them for about 15 minutes in the blood orange dressing but if you are short of time you could slice them quickly and pour a little of the vinaigrette over them after you lay them over the dressed greens.

Slow-cooked Chicken Thighs with Gremolata

4 chicken thighs...I used bone-in thighs but boneless work well, too.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1/3 cup chopped carrots
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried rosemary or 1 stalk fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 can diced tomatoes in juice
about 1 cup red wine
salt and pepper

Gremolata

1 clove garlic, finely chopped,
Zest of one lemon (I used a regular lemon, not a Meyer lemon)
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
Mix the three ingredients together until well combined.

Rinse and dry the chicken thighs. Heat a skillet or Dutch oven over high heat and add the olive oil. Brown the chicken thighs, turning once after about 5 minutes. Once browned remove to a plate and set aside.

If you have used chicken with skin you may have to pour off some of the fat from the pan. 1-2 tablespoons is all that is needed to sauté the vegetables.

Sauté the onions, celery and carrots for about 5 minutes, until onions are translucent. Spread the vegetables out on the bottom of the pan. Top with the browned chicken thighs.

Add the herbs to the pan, putting some on top of each piece of chicken. Pour the tomatoes and juice over everything in the pan. Add the red wine until the thighs are at least 2/3 covered. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Chicken will be very tender.

Serve over gnocchi, rice, noodles or mashed potatoes, spooning some of the juices over. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with Gremolata and serve hot.

For the Roasted Beet Salad with Blue Cheese and Blood Orange Vinaigrette I tossed field greens with some of the blood orange vinaigrette, put them on a salad plate, topped with the marinated roasted beets, sprinkled on about 1 teaspoon of crumbled blue cheese and served the salads. Toasted nuts would make a nice addition.

Roasted Beets

4-5 small to medium beets, well scrubbed to remove dirt

Cut the root end off the beets and the leaves if your beets come that way. No need to peel the beets now. Lay the beets on a sheet of aluminum foil. Bring two sided together and fold over a couple of times to seal. Bring the ends up and over the packet. Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 1/2 hour, or until beets are tender when pierced with a sharp knife tip.

Let the beets cool. Slip the peels off and cut into wedges or slices. Any leftovers should be kept refrigerated.

Blood Orange Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used raspberry infused)
1/3 cup blood orange juice
zest from 1 blood orange
1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients into a jar with a screw top lid, put the top on tightly and shake until ingredients are fully mixed and mixture thickens slightly. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. Serve at once. Can be stored in the refrigerator for a week.

More Black Beans

So you get a phone call from a friend who is looking for a dish for a luncheon and it has to be something that a non-cook can make. It would be nice if it is also vegan and not too expensive. Even better would be something that doesn’t need to be re-heated or even refrigerated. Oh, yes, can it also be delicious?

If you get that kind of phone call I have just the thing for you. We served it to our scholarship group yesterday and it was a hit! We had a four person committee and three of them were non-cooks, but they did a great job with this salad. Parkay made a great chairwoman! We served it on lettuce leaves accompanied by a gorgeous big strawberry that had been fanned out, plus fresh blueberries and some bakery rolls. Delish!

Black beans and corn work together here to make a complete protein, plus they taste great together and look colorful, too. Add tomatoes, red pepper and Italian parsley (the flat leaf kind), plus some red onion and you have a very jazzy looking salad. A red wine and olive oil based dressing ties it all together and a hint of cayenne makes it sing. Since it uses frozen corn and canned beans and tomatoes, the only cooking is some chopping of peppers, onions and parsley.

Even if you are a proficient cook, this is a great meal to have in your repertoire, especially if you keep some of the ingredients on hand. You can pull it together at a moment’s notice when you have unexpected guests or are just too tired to do ‘real’ cooking. Just remember, the best reason to make this salad is that it tastes great!

Black Bean, Corn and Tomato Salad

1 (16 oz.) bag frozen corn, thawed
½ - 1 cup fresh tomatoes, diced, plus any juices that collect (you can remove the skin and seeds or not, as you prefer) OR 1 (14 to 15 oz ) can diced tomatoes and their juice
½ cup red pepper, cored and diced
½ medium red onion, diced
½ cup fresh parsley, finely minced – flat leaf gives a stronger flavor than curly leaf
1 14 to 15 oz ) can black beans, rinsed and drained
Dressing
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
(OR ½ cup red wine vinegar and NO balsamic vinegar)
½ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

Place thawed corn, tomatoes, diced pepper, red onion, parsley and beans into a bowl.

Shake the dressing ingredients together in a small jar with tightly fitting lid. Pour dressing over salad and stir to mix ingredients thoroughly.

Cover salad and chill for at least an hour and up to 12 hours until thoroughly chilled.

Serves 6-8.

Note: Sometimes you can find frozen corn that has red pepper bits already in it. If you do, you can skip dicing the fresh red pepper…just use the frozen corn with red peppers.

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.

Comfort Food

The rains showed up, so I'm happy. There is something cozy about sitting in a comfy chair with a good book and a cup of tea and listening to the rain and wind beating against the house. I did have to go out in it to go to work today, but it wasn't too stormy at the time. We had lots of rain last night, too and more wind.

When the weather is cold and rainy I turn to comfort foods. The baked garnet sweet potato I had last night seemed particularly good since it was wet out and dry inside. Another great comfort food is meat loaf. I start with my Mom's recipe which used ground beef and oatmeal, onions, parsley, herbs and spices and tomato juice with egg as a binder.

My updated version uses ground pork and turkey instead of ground beef. I also added leeks and mushrooms and flax seed, used some diced tomatoes instead of part of the tomato juice and added dried thyme because it goes so well with mushrooms. Sweetie was quite taken with this meat loaf and I liked that it seemed lighter and more tender, but still savory and comforting.

Served with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, it makes an old-fashioned meal with a twist.
One of the great things about meat loaf is that you mix all the ingredients together, then put it in a loaf pan to bake...and you can do other things while it bakes since it needs no further help from you.

Notes: I tend to mix the oatmeal, onions, leeks, mushrooms and the ground meat and poultry together with my hands in a large bowl, keeping the mixture light, not packed, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the egg, mix some more, then add the egg and mix until everything seems well distributed. I use a light touch when packing the loaf pan, too. If you prefer a heavier meat loaf, just pack the mixture in more firmly.

Take a look at the photo: you can see the parsley and mushrooms and flax seeds and tomatoes and onions...but now imagine how wonderful it smells! Guess you might have to make some for your own taste of comfort. This loaf makes great leftovers, too.

Pork and Turkey Meatloaf
based on Mom's recipe in Family Food, June 1994

1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground turkey
1 cup rolled oats, uncooked
1 medium leek, well cleaned and finely chopped
½ medium onion, chopped
¼ lb mushrooms, chopped
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon flax seed (optional)
½ cup tomato juice
½ cup diced tomatoes, chopped in fine dice
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten

Combine all ingredients (see notes above). Pack firmly into an ungreased loaf pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 1 hour to 1 hr 15 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Serves 8.