Posole Verde - Ancient Comfort Food

Days are getting colder, and I kind of love that, because it means more baking and casseroles and soups and stews and...well, let's just say that I love warming up in my kitchen.

Lately, I've been on an intense flavor kick.  A little bit is not enough.  Spices, herbs, acidity...I'm craving it all.  And that doesn't always translate for the younger members of the household, but lately they've been troopers about trying new dishes and flavors that they might not be used to.

A couple of weeks ago, inspired by some tomatillos that my friend Amy of Amy's Organic's gave us when we picked up our apple CSA haul, I decided to pull out a dish that I had made a long time ago.  One that was all right, but needed tweaking, and I had just never gotten back to it. Posole Verde.  

CSA - Summer Week 3 and Summer Veg Empanadas with Kohrabi, Kale, and Summer Squash

Week 3 of the summer CSA was a huge haul:

Kohlrabi, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, potatoes, onions, lettuce, basil, and kale.  Leaning towards the green side this week, but I had some immediate thoughts as to what would be made in the kitchen.

Brownies That Can't Be Beet...Or Can They?

Chocolate!

Do I have your attention?

Good.  I mean, it's hard (practically impossible!) to smell food over the web, but if you could, you'd be rushing to my kitchen right now for these brownies.  And I'd probably let you nosh down about 3 of them before I told you what was in them.

Sticky Chicken

I confess, I'm pretty lucky when it comes to feeding times at my house.  My kids are pretty open to trying new things (with the obvious exception of Mr. Picky), and they generally enjoy my cooking.  But it's not often that a new recipe gets a reaction like it did tonight.  My girls were practically fighting each other for more chicken...it was the Hunger Games From Scratch style!

Am I glad they enjoyed a good healthy dinner?  Absolutely.  But I'm even more thrilled because it happens to be a super-easy dinner to make.  Just takes a little planning ahead, and a little under an hour in the oven, and boom: dinner.  I've had this recipe for Sticky Bourbon Chicken with Rice on my Pinterest for a couple of weeks, and I was really looking forward to trying it.  I changed it up a little, cutting back on the soy sauce and upping the ginger, but it's a keeper for sure!

Speck 'o the Green - Lemon Zucchini Muffins

So, I can't let St. Patrick's Day pass without throwing a "green" recipe your way.  But I also have a little sickie at home today who woke me up at 4 this morning, so I'll make this short and sweet.  (Get it?  Sweet?  Because we're making muffins!  Which are sweet!  Ha ha ha.)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease or paper your muffin tin.  I like these as mini muffins, but regular muffin size will work as well.

As with almost all muffins, you want to mix your dry ingredients together, your wet ingredients together, and then combine the two with minimal stirring.  So, here we go.

Breadveggies: Gingered Carrot Zucchini Bread

If you've ever planted a zucchini plant, you're probably familiar with how overwhelming they can be once they start producing.  There's even a "Leave a Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch" day.  I try to shred and freeze as much as I can to keep up with it, and that means that I have a frozen stash of zucchini on hand for most of the rest of the year until the next garden zucchini-fest comes around.

I'm always on the lookout for ways to use that zucchini, and this Gingered Carrot Zucchini bread recipe is one of my go-to's for several reasons.  One: it is delicious.  Two: it is easy.  Three: the recipe makes 2 loaves at once, so I can either give one away or freeze it for later.  Four: it's a nice way to show kids that vegetables aren't scary.  I mean, this bread has not one, but TWO vegetables in it, and it's fantastic!

Cinnamix and Cinnaminis - Reinventing "Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle"

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I'm not big on processed food.  But you also probably realize that I take everything in a balance.  Sometimes, there are the rare processed foods that I use because either there are no good natural substitutes for and I can't live without them, or there are better options but they are amazingly time-consuming and high-effort.

Then, sometimes, that food gets discontinued, and my hand is forced.

What this all about?  Cinnamon rolls.  You see, Pampered Chef had this wonderful little "spice mix" called Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle.  And on the label of this spice mix was a recipe for Easy Cinnamon Rolls.  And that recipe delivered what it promised in its name.  They were easy, they were cinnamony, and they were great for a breakfast treat.  I'd whip some up maybe a couple of times a month, easy enough to do on school mornings, and they were always a big hit.

Rice-a-Whati? Homemade Rice Pilaf

I know I've told you about how I grew up eating things out of boxes and cans before, so I won't bore you with it again.  But one hyphenated word: Rice-a-Roni.  You get it.

I love rice, in general.  So does my family.  If we are out to a nice dinner and I have the option of rice pilaf as a side, you can pretty much bet that that's the direction I'll go.  And honestly, in those cases, it can go either way: a delicious, fluffy, flavorful rice medley or an overdone, colorful but bland scoop of blah on my plate.  And, sometimes, I'm pretty sure that it just came out of a box.

Rice pilaf is a great way to change up your grain side for a nice dinner, and it's amazingly easy to throw together, even without the box.  Seriously, the first time I tried making it, I wanted to punch myself for not doing it on my own sooner.  Plus, making it yourself, you'll know what's in it and save yourself from a lot of sodium.  Also, it's yummy stuff.  Basic, but yummy.

Cornmeal Waffles

My family is big on breakfast.  For little Mr. Picky, it's probably the only meal all day that I can be sure he will eat really well, so I try to make it a good one.  Pancakes and waffles are always a hit.

Waffles used to intimidate me.  Like, a lot.  But some recipes, like Cooking Light's Bacon Maple Waffles would be so irresistible that I would overcome that hesitation.  Then I found Mollie Katzen's recipe for Amazing Overnight Waffles, and waffles became a regular occurrence.  It creates the most perfect waffles: tangy, crisp, delicious.  But the fact is that I don't always have my act together enough to remember or think to prep batter the night before.

Enter a Better Homes and Gardens breakfast magazine, and their recipe for Cornmeal Buttermilk Waffles.  Quick, easy, made of things that I usually have on hand (except the buttermilk...we'll get to that!), and just different enough to be interesting.

Here's what you do:  Get your waffle maker prepped.  For me, that means spraying it down with coconut oil and plugging it in to heat.  You want it to be nice and hot when those first waffles go in, so it doesn't turn into a sticky mess.  I have a 4-square Belgian Krups that we've had since we got married.  It's got dings and smudges and it has a wonky leg that I have to keep re-supergluing, and there are probably fancier machines on the market, but with some things, I'm just a "stick to what works" kind of gal.

Paprika and Pierogi: Hungarian Chicken Stew

Baby, it's cold outside.  Really, really cold.  Which makes it stew weather.

Stews are great.  They are warm and filling, like a cozy blanket for your insides.  I love curling up with a bowl of savory goodness and watching the snow fall from the comfort of my warm kitchen.

This chicken stew is one of the favorites around my house, as far as stews go.  Probably because of the pierogi.  I mean, you can't go wrong with a good pierogi.  They're potatoes wrapped in pasta...I could practically live in them and die of carb happiness.  I'm not going to lie to you here, homemade pierogi are amazing.  I used to work as a teacher in an area in the city that had a large concentration of Polish immigrants, and I have tasted some fantastic pierogi.  Thank goodness for cultures that like to feed the people who teach their children!  However, also from personal experience, making homemade pierogi is not the easiest process.  And, as much as I like spending all day in the kitchen, I also like meals that you can get on the table in a decent amount of time on busy days.  Fortunately, there are a lot of good natural brands of pierogi in the freezers of grocery stores these days.  Not quite as good as homemade, but still pretty darn delicious.  Peter and Pat's pierogi are the ones I've been using lately, after discovering them at a Sam's Club exhibit thing.  For this recipe, I would go with either onion or cheddar pierogi.

Okay, I got a bit ahead of myself there.  Let's get to the stew.

Fried Zucchini Blossoms

I think I've mentioned before that my kids have been stalking the garden for their favorites, and one of the things that they have been searching for are the beautiful yellow flowers of my zucchini plants.  Some kids might see these and pick them off and present them to their beloved mother as a token of their love and affection.  Not mine.  Mine want to eat them.  And that love and affection part?  I know it's there, but let me tell you, all bets are out the window when it comes to limited treats like these...let the Hunger Games begin!

Zucchini blossoms are completely edible, and they have a flavor all their own.  Not really zucchini-like at all.  Light, with a crunch, and a little juicy.  Also, makes you feel cool because you're making the most out of the garden by using more parts of the plant.  I tend to think of fried zucchini blossoms as a very Italian dish, and some people like to stuff the blossoms before they fry them.  But you know me, I like quick, simple, and delicious, so here's my straightforward version:

Quick and Easy Dilly Beans

My middle child has many strengths, and many talents.  Somehow, over the last year, she has established herself as the dilly bean queen.  Her sour, garlicky, delicious specialty has quickly become legendary among our friends and family.  She's pretty proud of it, and she has been scoping out my garden waiting for the arrival of these:

And this:

The Best Things You Probably Aren't Eating Yet: Quince

Quince.  It's a great scrabble word.  Also handy for crosswords and alphabet games.  And, in addition to all of that, it's actually a pretty decent fruit as well!

Quince is not easy to find, but even if you do, you might simply pass it by.  It looks like a lumpy pear, or a weird yellow apple.  I happened to spot them in the "exotics" section of the produce area at our grocery store the other day, and I may have freaked a few other shoppers out with my yelp of excitement.  I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to do with them, but I knew that I had just come across a quince recipe a few days earlier, so I sniffed the quince, fell in love, and scooped up 4.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

I'm a big fan of muffins.  Besides being basically a slightly healthier version of a cupcake that somehow has gotten mass approval as an acceptable breakfast option, they are also fairly quick to throw together.  If I am on my game, I can have them ready to go in the oven by the time the oven preheats.

These blueberry oat muffins are a family favorite.  The juicy pops of sweet-tart blueberries and the chew of the oats is a great combination, and a tried and true breakfast combination, also delicious in breakfast cake.  These muffins are so moist and flavorful that you don't need to worry about buttering them up, which is good, because they have a tendency to crumble easily.

So here we go.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Melt 1/4 cup (one half stick) of butter.

While the butter's melting, grab a 2 cup measure and make 1 cup of sour milk by putting a tablespoon of white vinegar in the measure and then adding milk until you get to 1 cup.  This is a quick substitute for buttermilk, if you need it in a recipe and don't have it on hand.  Otherwise, sub in the same amount of yogurt or sour cream...they all are pretty interchangeable in baking recipes.  Creamy with a tiny bite of sour.

Add 1 cup rolled oats to the sour milk and mix it.  Let it sit while you move on.

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Go back to the milk/oat mixture.  Add one egg and the melted butter.  Make sure that either the butter is cooled or that you mix in the egg first and then slowly add in the butter...you don't want to scramble your egg.  Mix.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine until everything is just moistened.  Don't overmix muffins!  They'll turn into hockey pucks, which are NOT delicious.  

Take 1 cup of frozen blueberries and fold it in. 

Scoop into greased muffin cups (or paper lined tins).  I like to use a cookie dough scooper, like a small ice cream scoop, for quick muffin cup filling.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, your muffins will turn out resembling Grumpy Cat.

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

So, all of you had a little notebook of clipped and scribbled recipes when they were in high school, right?  I mean, I'm sure I can't be the only one.  There's got to be at least a couple other people out there...

Okay, I can face it.  I'm a cooking junkie, and have been for a while.  I would steam artichokes in my dorm room in college.  I would bake muffins to bring to high school for my friends and/or teachers.  And I would buy cooking magazines since before I could drive.  And some of the recipes that I have clipped or written out from back then are still in constant rotation at my house.  Which is a good thing.

Just fair warning, this week may be a little oatmeal-centric.  I have bananas getting too ripe, and that's perfect for a banana oatmeal snack cake.  Plus, there's a great blueberry oatmeal muffin recipe that we love here, and I might pull that one together to share.  But today, it's blueberry breakfast cake.  I'm not sure where the original recipe is from, but right now, it's in my old little recipe book with a note about it being from a Blueberry Festival in Indiana.

These Kids Are Picky P-P-P-Picky Picky Piiiiiiiiiiiicky

Run DMC anyone?  Or else I may have already lost you.  It's tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time...

You know what else can be tricky?  Getting your kids to eat.  I'd say getting your kids to eat healthy food, but sometimes it's just getting them to eat ANYTHING.  Human nature tells us that everyone is unique,and therefore, I can't give you a straightforward answer on how to get picky eaters to eat better.  So what I'm going to do instead is suggest a few strategies that I've found helpful, and hopefully one or more of them can work for you and your picky eater.