IKEA - Where fun and fantasy meet

One of the major drags to living in the midwest is the lack of cool stores. Of the three stores I've grown to love via reading about them on other food blogs - Penzeys, Trader Joes, and IKEA - only one is within a days drive (the first).

Therefore, whenever we visit family near Chicago we always find an excuse to visit IKEA (and Trader Joes).

"IKEA?" You say, "but isn't that a furniture store?"

Right you are! But they also have some of the tastiest Swedish treats around. Annual trips to IKEA allow me to stock up on Lingonberry jam and those crispy flower-shaped Swedish cookies.

On the most recent visit I discovered packets of powder-mix to recreate their delicious meatball sauce. While I'm not much of a mix kind of girl, I was curious to see how close the taste was.

The verdict? Spot on! Unfortunately my attempts at meatball formation was not such a good recreation (i.e. the balls fell apart and turned into meat slop).

So, instead of a meatball/slop recipe here's my simple version of mashed potatoes. Easy for a weeknight dinner, and always delicious! And since the UN has declared 2008 the year of the potato, I think it's time to get out there and enjoy some spuds!

Garlic & Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

4 largish potatoes (I used red) washed and chopped
2 heads of garlic roughly chopped
2 sprigs of rosemary (just the leaves)
Salt & Pepper
1 TBS butter
about 1/2 cup potato water

Boil the potatoes until tender, and the drain and reserve some of the liquid (1/2 cup). Mix the remaining ingredients and smash the potatoes up against the side of the bowl while mixing, leave partly chunky. Add enough of the potato water to increase smoothness to desired level. Salt and pepper to taste.

Over Christmas my mother in law made mashed potatoes in the Kitchen Aid, they were super smooth. I'm too lazy to get out another machine, but if you feel up to it, Kitchen Aid potatoes are tops!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Marshmallows

I did it! I finally did it!

Every week I see all the cool kats posting their weekly Tuesdays With Dorie recipe together and I think, "I should do that". Well, now I am!

Being a young married college student, I haven't done too much baking yet. I can whip up a cupcake or limited selection of breads on my own, but marshmallows? Before this book I, didn't even realize they were even possible to make from scratch!

Turns out they're not too hard (although I did manage to burn the sugar syrup the first time), but yet very impressive (my favorite kind of dessert).

I ended up making half the batch plain, and half with cappuccino flavoring. Most likely all of them will be used for hot chocolate, as Oz still hasn't quite made up it's mind that it's spring and has decided to continue the showers of flurries.

Unfortunately, my research uncovered few articles extolling the health virtues of the common marshmallow (oddly enough). But I did find one article which showed that marshmallows could be a "viable option for saliva stimulation" used to "determine toddler cortisol concentrations". So, they're not all bad.

You can find this recipe at Judy's Gross Eats, and make sure to check out all the other fabulous marshmallows.

Clements AD, Parker CR Jr, Dixon WE Jr, Salley B.: Marshmallows used as saliva stimulant do not affect cortisol concentrations: finally a palatable alternative for toddler saliva collection. Dev Psychobiol. 2007 Nov;49(7):702-7.

Salmony Paddy's

Fish is something our diet is sadly lacking.

For awhile now, I've been toying with the idea of forcing myself to learn how to cook fish. It's not that I don't like fish (although I by no means love it), it's just that up till now the bulk of my fish-exposure has come in the form of fish sticks.

I know there's better forms of fish out there (I'll gobble up sushi grade ahi any day) but correctly cooking them has thus-far evaded me.

Why do I think we should be eating more fish?

Among it's many health benefits, salmon is high in omega-3 fatty acids, including: EPA and DHA.

Why should you care? The FDA does.

In 2004 the agency allowed the qualified health claim that Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

This may not seems like much. But coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in the US for both men and women. More than half a million Americans die each year from coronary artery disease. Scary statistics, scary enough to entice me to learn how to cook salmon.

The first meal with this salmon was a pan seared recipe which gave edible results. But the paddy rendition, using the leftover flaked salmon, was a winner. This is a great way to introduce fish into our weekly diet (although I imagine the fried patty's probably nix the beneficial aspects of the fatty acids-but I've got to start somewhere).

Salmony Paddy's

1 Cup cooked, and flaked salmon
1/4 cup crushed saltines
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/4 cup yogurt
Salt and pepper

Mix ingredients and form small rounds. Fry in batches in a bit of oil, don't crowd the pan.

Snow in April (aka WTF)

April showers bring May flowers.
April snow really blows.

Although, it does set the stage for great chowder-making weather.

Here, in Oz, few clams roam, but there is corn aplenty. Therefore a hearty corn chowder is perfect to sooth any frustrations resulting from ill-timed snow. This week everything has been blooming, and I was hoping to get in another hike or geocache this weekend. But with the sky looking gloomy and snow falling, I decided it would be prudent to make and eat lots of delicious food instead.

Yesterday we had chowder for lunch with crusty whole grain bread and plugra, Cucumber salad, and fruit salad.

Today we had the leftover chowder, with freshly baked sweet potato biscuits, salad, and grapefruit.


Corn Chowder (loosely adapted from the Joy of Cooking 75th edition)

5 strips of bacon
1 large onion, chopped
2 large red potatoes, peeled and diced
3 ribs of celery, diced
3 Cups milk
1 package frozen corn
1 generous handful of fresh dill, chopped
Salt and Pepper

Cook the bacon in a large pot, remove and drain. When cool, crumble and reserve.

Using the leftover bacon grease, fry the onion and potato for 7 minutes, until partial cooked. Add the celery and cook 3 minutes more.

De glaze the pan with some of the milk, then add the rest of the milk, the corn, the bacon, and half of the dill. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and leave for 10-15 minutes, returning every so often to stir things up. Salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, sprinkle with some of the remaining dill to make things look pretty (my picture has no fancy garnish because it was of the reheated leftover soup).

Drool Inducing...?

Cucumber salads will always and forever be associated in my mind with church potluck dinners. My first taste of culinary diversity came in the form of the beloved casserole.

Literally anything (eg: tuna, chicken, corn, green beans) can be mixed together with a can of cream of (fill in the blank) and smeared into a casserole dish to produce a perfect potluck feast. Topping it with french friend onion rings is a bonus.

While I no longer create many casserole masterpieces, I do still enjoy a good potluck style salad once in awhile. Potluck salads ascribe to the same notion of
1) mix multiple seemingly unrelated ingredients (apple, marshmallow, fruit tidbits, ramen noodles...) together
2) add sauce of choice (vinegar, mayonnaise, whipped cream)
3) spread into a bowl and act natural.

Potluck dinners are the only place where salad does not equal lettuce.

I have no problem with this.

My church supper salad of choice is the simple, yet satisfying:

Cucumber-Red Onion-Vinegar Salad
As the name implies, the ingredients are:

1 cucumber, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
3-4 TBS vinegar (I used rice vinegar since I was serving this with ginger/soy sauce baked salmon)
salt and pepper

Mix the above ingredients and allow to sit at room temperature for an hour (or all day in the fridge). Stir a few times, and enjoy!

Spring Comes To Oz

Sushi 2

A quick post to show off pictures of our recent sushi dinner. The ingredients used were: ahi, cucumber, avocado, cream cheese, and a spicy crab mix I whipped up. The rice didn't turn out too great, so I'll have to work on that some more, but overall everything was pretty easy, tasty, cheap (except for the ahi) and healthy (except for the cream cheese). That's my kind of meal!