Chicken Stew with Mashed Potato 'Dumplings'

Merry Christmas ! Happy New Year ! Got leftovers ? Me, too !

Zucchini Fritters

 

Fall lighting is here and dinners look pretty cozy when captured in that golden light of the evening kitchen lamps ! These fritters were made with the last of the garden zucchini - grated and mixed up with bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, some egg, some spices, and 'oven fried' to crispy bites. They were perfect dipped in creamy rich aioli !

They are ridiculously easy to make, folks ! The batter is moist enough that using a tablespoon to scoop and press along the inside of the batter bowl creates nice round fritters that pop easily onto a spritzed piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Then, simply spritz the tops with a bit of olive oil and pop them into a 400 degree F oven for 20 - 25 minutes, flipping them halfway through the oven time. 

Moussaka for Two

Moussaka ! Ground lamb, eggplant, onions, oregano, mint, tomato sauce, and a Bechamel sauce and cheese topping. Oh my ! This is a bit labor intensive during prep, but the payoff is oh, so good. It's prepared in three separate steps and then assembled and finished in the oven to a gooey, bubbling finish. Enjoy !

Mom's Banana Bread

It's humble. It's a modest housewife's sweet response to the ethos of Mom's Depression Era generation - 'waste not, want not'. It's one of the first baked quick breads that Mom showed me how to make. Granted, Mom came from the generation of bottled lemon juice and walnuts only at Thanksgiving time or for very special baking holidays. She came around in later years ... and now, her legacy lives on and continues to grow in her kids and grands, and great-grands.

Two Words

First Harvest

Honey Soy Chicken Thighs - Instant Pot !

We pulled out the Instant Pot this week to make an easy and really tasty fast chicken thigh recipe. Put some steamed rice and extra sauce on the side with a vegetable and the plate was a great dinner. The whole deal came together within 45 minutes.

Sour Dough Boule

Today's project was trying out the sour dough starter that I've been cultivating for a week.  Each morning over the past week, I've been mixing 1/3 c. of water, 1/3 c. flour blend (rye and all purpose white), and 1/3 c. of the slurry from the day before. That slurry has become increasingly bubbly with yeast and increasingly tangy smelling. Today, day seven, the slurry was super bubbly and thickened, so I used the cast off from my early morning replenishing of the starter mix to do a 'float test'. A teaspoonful of the starter dropped into a glass of water stayed formed and floated atop the water with no sinking whatsoever. Ah ha ! 

Vietnamese Pork Noodle Bowl

Quarantine cooking has brought home the real need to use everything up in your fridge before heading out to a market for new supplies. That being said, there is some good food being passed around the Internet these days and this is one of the noodle bowls that I saw recently.