Snow Day in Seattle (and Cream of Broccoli Soup)

It's a snow day in Seattle. 
For those of you that live in other parts of the world you need to understand that when there is a snow day in Seattle (meaning more than 1 inch of snow) everything shuts down, businesses close, schools close, government offices close. Only people that think they know how to drive in snow, are out and about - the rest of us stay home, drink warm beverages, eat yummy food (because we've been to the store and stocked up) and watch funny videos on YouTube of people who think they know how to drive in the Seattle snow. 

Once the people that think they can drive in snow have been here for a few snow days they will learn their lesson and hunker down like the rest of us.


There's not a lot of good video out there this year because we had so much warning before the "big storm" hit but here is a link to the "little" storm that surprised us last Sunday.  This took place a couple of blocks from my church.


Seattle Drivers in two inches of snow! (Thanks jadambrinson)


Because it's a snow day I thought I'd share this year's snow day soup.  Cream of Broccoli.  This is NOT fat free, or vegan, but it is the best broccoli soup I've ever had...I think it is because of the two secret ingredients, American cheese and white pepper.  I think this soup should be called Pepper Broccoli Soup...but that's just me.


Trust me...this one will warm you to your toes!


By the way, we got about 6 inches of snow at my house...and we are snowed in. I love Seattle!


Cream of Broccoli Soup


4 to 5 cups of broccoli cubed, include the stemms but peel them first
1 medium onion
6 cups of veggie broth or water
2-3 cloves garlic
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
12 ounces (1 package) American cheese
1/3 cup butter (optional)
2 teaspoons white pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or sea salt) use less if you use veggie broth
1/4 cup flour


1. Cook the broccoli, onion, and garlic in 2 cups of broth or water  until soft
2. Puree in blender
3. Return to soup pot and add remaining water or broth and bring back up to heat
4. Stir in cheese until melted.
5. Stir in cream, milk and pepper
6. Put the flour in a small bowl and add 1/2 cup of the broth.  Stir until smooth. Add to soup.
7. Continue heating soup and stirring occassionally until thick like cream and hot.  Add salt to taste.
8. EAT


This goes great with Bickleton Dinner Rolls!

Italian Lentil Soup

I just discovered a new product that adds the rich flavor of umami when you need a spike of flavor.

I like this a lot because, as you know, Udon, my youngest daughter, hates mushrooms which are one of the food items which we add to food for the umami flavor.

The other day I used a big squirt of this with a can of tomatoes, Italian parsley, pepper, parmesan cheese, and pepper mixed into cooked bowtie pasta for a lovely light pasta dish. I love buying this tomato paste too…now we don’t waste tomato paste in the cans!

Today, because it is snowing in Seattle, and I have a cold, I decide I wanted a soup. The recipe I wanted to use called for mushrooms – which I didn’t have, so I substituted the umami paste…and a few other things and this is what I ended up with.  In less than an hour I had a really tasty, warm, healthy soup.  My starting point was a Loran Sass recipe…Oh I love Lorna Sass!

Lorna Sass says about her recipe that “after overnight refrigeration, the soup will thicken considerably and can be transformed into a spread.  Puree with mustard to taste and add additional herbs or vinegar as needed.  You can stretch the amount by blending in a few tablespoons of soft tofu.”    

I’m not sure if we will have any leftovers to try this spread…I’ll let you know if we do.

If you don’t have the umami paste substitute ¼ pound sliced mushrooms.

Italian Lentil Soup

2 cups lentils, rinsed and picked over

1 large onion, diced

2-3 minced garlic cloves

2 ribs celery, diced

2 large carrots, diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 big squirt umami paste or ¼ pound mushrooms

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried thyme

¾ tsp dried oregano

Red pepper flakes to taste

3 Tbl tomato paste

1-2 Tbl balsamic vinegar

½ cup dry white wine

6 cups water or vegetable broth

Sea salt and pepper to taste

¾ cup diced parsley

Cook the onion, carrot, celery, and mushrooms (if using) with the herbs, bay leaves, red pepper flakes until onions are softened and just beginning to change color, add the tomato paste and stir for a few seconds to start to brown.  Add the wine and cook until wine evaporates.  Add the lentils, umami paste (if not using mushrooms) and water or vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered for 30-40 minutes until lentils are tender.

Stir in balsamic vinegar a little bit at a time until the taste of the soup is brighter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the parsley to the soup or use as a garnish. (I added it)

Cheryl

Blueberry Muffins

In my house there is only one morning person- my 5 year old. She’s up at 7:30 everyday, and bless her heart, she rarely wakes me up that early. She gets up, gets dressed and gets herself breakfast. Since I’ve only had a few hours of sleep by the time she’s getting up, I try to have healthful food easily accessible for her. Fruit is always good, and she’d eat apples until she turned into one if I let her, but they aren’t very filling. And because I don’t let her use the toaster or microwave (for obvious reasons) I had to come up with something else. Muffins. She likes them frozen, so having a bag of them in the freezer solves our little dilemma. The only remaining problem was which muffins to use. Most store bought muffins have ingredients I can’t pronounce, Costco’s are huge and have way too much sugar, and most recipes I tried also relied heavily on sugar for flavor. I finally pulled out one of my favorite bread books, Paul Hollywood’s 100 Great Breads and tried his blueberry muffins. The original recipe is rich, with lots of egg and butter, but not too sweet. Most importantly, it’s a forgiving recipe and easy to play around with and lighten. I’ve made it a little differently each time depending on what I have around the house. Here it is:

Blueberry Muffins (makes 16)

2 ¼ sticks butter, softened
scant 1 cup superfine sugar (regular granulated also works just fine but takes longer to cream)
4 medium eggs
1 ⅓ cups white bread flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
16 muffin liners
2 punnets blueberries
confectioner’s sugar, for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cream the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, then add the eggs and mix for an additional 5 minutes. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix into a smooth paste.

Line your muffin tray with the paper liners and drop a spoonful of the mixture into each case. Gently press the blueberries into the center of each muffin.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until a muffin springs back when pressed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then dust lightly with confectioner’s sugar.

Variations: Substitute 1 cup applesauce for a cup of the butter, adding the applesauce after the eggs have just been incorporated. Add ½- ¾ cup ground flax seed or bran with the flour. substitute whole wheat flour for up to ½ the bread flour (the higher ratio of wheat flour to bread flour you use the denser your muffins become.) Chopped nuts, or spices such as cinnamon (depending on what fruit you use). And of course, you can use just about any fruit you’d like- one of my favorite combinations is adding a chopped apple, some chopped walnuts, and mixing in a little cinnamon. My little early bird loves these!

Kate

The Power of Food



Cover of book by Susan Schwartzenberg

Since starting this blog with my daughter, I’ve become more aware of food. Not the taste of food or the smell of food but the role food has in relationships and the power it can have as a catalyst of change.

I was looking at a book the other day.  It’s called “Becoming Citizens; Family Life and the Politics of Disability”, by Susan Schwartzenberg. The author of this book was commissioned to tell the stories of four women who, in the 1970’s, fought for the educational rights of their children. These children, according the State and other professionals, were severely disabled and could not be educated (code words for we don’t want them).

The mothers refused to believe what they were told. Refused to believe what the authorities said about their children. They believed what every mother believes. “My child is just as important as your child.  My child has a right to an education just like other children.  

So these four mothers and two law students from the University of Washington set out to change things.  How did they do it?  With food!  Yes, with food.  They invited their congressmen to a lunch of homemade food – home cooking! Not cafeteria food, not food from a hoity-toity restaurant, but home cooking; food from their own kitchens.  

The mothers knew a simple truth. A cook gives more than food to the guest. One cannot accept a home cooked meal and reject the cook. Acceptance of the meal requires relationship, calls for dialogue and breeds understanding. That’s why family meals are so important, they help us see our interconnectedness with each other and the world.






Signing of HB 90 (Washington State's Educatio for all Bill) left to right
Janet Taggart, Katie Dolan, Cecile Lindquist, Governor Daniel Evans, Evelyn Chapman, George Breck, and William Dussault (insert)  from the Book Becoming Citizens, page 73



The Congressmen took notice and listened.  And the mothers accomplished the unimaginable. They, with the two law students, wrote the law that put Washington State on the map as the first state in the country to provide a free education for every child between the ages of 3 and 21. Eventually this law was the basis for Federal Law 94-142 that guarantees all children in the United States, regardless of disability, the right to a free education.

For the past 25 years my family has lived with the son of one of these women. Unfortunately, by the time the law passed he was too old to take advantage of the free education his mother fought for but, millions of other children have attended school because these four mothers had a mission and used good ole’ home cookin’ as one of the tools to accomplish their goal.

I hope that as I continue to learn about food and relationships that I will see that each meal I eat has been given to me as a gift – even if I am the cook.  For, even if I eat alone, I can never eat a meal in isolation - because each bite I take is really a statement about how I choose to live my live on this earth with you.

Blessings and health in 2012

Cheryl

Bickleton Dinner Rolls

Bickleton Dinner Rolls made by my friend Xiangyu

The recipe for these dinner rolls (which also make awesome cinnamon rolls and orange rolls) was given to me at one of my wedding showers (I had asked everyone to bring a favorite family recipe).  This recipe came from one of my husbands aunts who live in a small wheat farming town called Bickleton, in Eastern Washington.  My husbands family settled in this area when before Washington was a state. How cool is that?

I've been making these rolls since the early days of my marriage. Recently one of my co-workers asked me how to make bread. I wanted to give this recipe to her but I had lost the directions. Since we couldn't get together for a baking session to teach her how to make these I reworked the recipe for a novice and as a result I learned how to make these better than before.

All I can say about these rolls is that they melt in your mouth. And if I don't make them for a major holiday dinner it is the only thing I hear about from the family.

Bickleton Dinner Rolls

3 1/2 - 4 cups flour

1 scant tablespoon yeast (1 package)

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoons salt.

1. In mixing bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

2. Scald the milk (heat until it is just under a simmer) add the butter to melt

3. When milk has cooled to slightly warmer than room temp add to the yeast and water in the mixing bowl

4. Beat  the egg in a separate bowl and add to the mixing bowl

5. Add the sugar and salt and with the paddle attachment on your mixer, thoroughly combine all above ingredients.

6. Slowly add 2 cups of flour to the wet ingredients and  mix to combine.

7. Switch to dough hook.  

8. For the 3rd cup of flour add to dough mixture 1/4 cup at a time and knead with dough hook for about 4 minutes after each addition.

9. Continue this process until the dough is starting to hold together and is elastic to the touch.  It should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl in strings, cleaning the bowl as the hook and dough move around the bowl.

10. With 1/4 of the remaining flour, sprinkle a surface (counter) on which you can finish kneading the bread by had to the proper consistency (you need to do this by had because it is hard to tell when it is in the mixing bowl).

11. Knead the dough, mixing in the flour on the counter and adding 1/4 more flour at a time the dough is no longer sticky, but still elastic to the touch...you don't want this dough to be firm. Form the dough into a ball by pulling it around and tucking it under.

12.Using cooking oil or butter/margarine, grease a bowl that is large enough to allow the dough to double in size.

13.Put the dough top side down in the greased bowl so that the top of the dough is "greased".  Turn the dough over so the that greased part of the dough is now on top.  Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft free location (a good place is in the oven with the oven light turned on).

14. Allow to rise until double in size (depending on the temperature - might take 2 hours - but if it is warm may be less)

15. Make a fist and punch dough down 1x.  quickly make the dough into a ball (by pulling in and tucking it under itself) and let the dough rest on the counter for about 10 minutes to make it easier to work with.

16. After the dough has had a chance to rest you are now ready to form into dinner rolls or cinnamon rolls.  

17. Ways to shape rolls.

        a. Roll dough circle (or 2 circles if you want smaller rolls).  Cut each circle like a pizza into wedges.  Roll each wedge from wide end to narrow end into and make a crescent  shape. Place on a cookie sheet, spaced far enough apart to allow the dough to rise (again double).

        b. roll dough into a rectangle about 1/2 thick.  Using a biscuit cutter or a glass, cut the dough into circles.  The circles.  Fold each circle in 1/2 and lightly pinch in the middle of the rounded side to hold the dough together. Place on a cookie sheet, spaced far enough apart to allow the dough to rise (again double)

        c. Use a muffin pan.  Fill each "muffin" with 3 round balls of equal size that fill about 1/2 the depth of the muffin.

        d. any other shape of you choice...you get the idea

18.  Which ever you chose to do in step 17.- once the rolls are shaped cover them with a clean towel and allow to rise until they once again have doubled.  This rising won't take as long as the first time...should be no more than 1 hour.

19. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees (Though I often only bake these at 375 so I don't have to watch them so closely).  Bake rolls until a  very light brown on top and no longer "doughy" inside.  The amount of time will depend on the size of the rolls.  (15  - 30 minutes, depending on the size of the rolls and the temp. of the oven)

(note,  if you are making cinnamon or rolls orange rolls decrease the oven temperature to 350 so the sugar doesn't burn)

20.  Remove from oven and eat when they are cool enough to handle.  The are best eaten within 24 hours but I've had them up to 3 days.

21 (optional).  Some people brush the hot rolls, just removed from the oven, with a bit of milk...but I never bother. 

More cookies

So I didn’t just make English Toffee Bars this year- I pulled out a couple of other recipes from your recipe box. When I wrote them down years ago I didn’t put any information about who they’re from and I have no idea where you got them, but they were delicious and I can’t believe I’d never made them until now! Here they are:

Lemon Drop Cookies (Deliciously lemony without being overpowering. Best when teaspoon sized- smaller is better with these.)

The is is a recipe from my mom and was one of the first cookies I made.  I never made them small like yours and I agree they are better! I usually make them larger so that they have softer texture but the crispy-crunchy of the smaller ones that you made really make the lemon flavor pop.

I remember one Christmas mom asked me to bake some cookies. Just one batch of whatever I wanted.  Hours later she returned home and I was still making cookies.  At first she was upset with me because she thought I had done my usual procrastination and just begun baking.  In reality I had been baking the entire time she was gone. I remember that I made these cookies and another sugar cookie called “Angel Cookies”.  I don’t know where angel cookies came from either but I suspect they come from the Depression as the only fat that is used is shortening.  They are yummy too, but best on the first day.

Lemon Drop Cookies
1 cup shortening
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp lemon extract
4 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Cream shortening, butter, and sugar. Add eggs and extract. In another bowl combine flour, soda and cream of tartar. Add to the butter mixture. Roll into balls and dip into sugar. Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes.

Oatmeal Scotchies (Indulgently delicious- best as big cookies).

I agree! These are yummy and were a standard when I was growing up and it as always a toss up which I liked better, these or chocolate chip (though now I find them a bit sweet).   As far as I remember, Mom found this recipe on the back of the butterscotch chip bag.  I’ve bought butterscotch chips 3 times in the past couple of months meaning to make these cookies but the inhabitants of this house keep finding and eating them before I can make the cookies.

Oatmeal Scotchies
1 cup softened butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp orange extract
1 tsp water
2 cups unsifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups quick oats, uncooked
1 (12 oz) pkg butterscotch chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, extract and water. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Add oats and butterscotch chips. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes

Cookies!

Now that the holidays are behind us, and my poor little oven has cooled down, I have a chance to sit and write up all the cookie recipes I made this year. First and foremost, I baked my first cookie ever. (As in, this is the cookie that got me started all those years ago and not the alternative “Hey, I’m almost 27 years old. Maybe I should try this whole cookie-baking thing.”) The cookie? English Toffee Bars. So simple, a seven-year-old could make them the night before they’re supposed to bring something in for their class and may have forgotten to tell mom and dad. Oops. (Sorry about that!) But with a little dressing up they’re pretty enough to give as gifts or throw together for a last minute New Year's Party- and no one ever guesses how easy they are.

English Toffee Bars

Preheat oven to 300 F
Cream together: 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar.
Add (one at a time): 1 egg yolk (reserve white)
     : 1 tsp vanilla
     : 2 cups sifted flour
Spread this onto a large cookie sheet as evenly as possible (well-buttered hands or plastic baggie “gloves” work well for this).

Beat egg white and spread over dough, sprinkle with ½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

Alternately, skip the egg white and nuts and bake plain. Right before the cookies are done baking, sprinkle a bag of chocolate or butterscotch chips (or both) over the top and put back in the oven until the chips melt. (They’ll hold their shape; look for them to turn shiny.) Take them out of the oven and using a butter knife or spatula, spread the melted chips over the surface. Let cool, and cut into squares.

Happy New Year!