Celebration Popcorn #1- Herb, Garlic, and Parmesan Popcorn

I have a new friend, L. And she is amazing.

I once tried to explain to a few of my students how friendships will change over the course of their lives. I told them that there are two kinds of friendships - those that are thrust upon you and those that you choose for yourself. The former happens as early as grammar school and carries through high school. It's hard not to form bonds with people you spend every day with, in and out of classes and activities and clubs. You're often joined together by common interests - simple ones, but common nonetheless. These friendships carry you through break ups and new hairstyles, acid washed jean disasters and front row seats to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.  (At least in my own experience).

The latter is something far different. The relationships you form in adulthood are far more selective. Like those when you are younger, they often begin with a single premise - "We are moms," or "our children attend school together," or "We love wine," or, in those most blessed of circumstances, all three of the aforementioned. However, the test does not end there. In adulthood, we are quick to then divide those two groups into friends and acquaintances. The acquaintances are lovely in their own right. They provide smiles and small talk after Mass. They allow us guaranteed company at a school function. But the friends we hold onto as tightly as we can and hold on for dear life.

Almost ten years ago, I met V. I had met all kinds of new moms as I ventured into that unknown world of parenting. Most became dear acquaintances. V? I held on to her for dear life, and I still won't let go. I can count only a few woman on that same list. And now? I've got one more.

I've only known L for a little less than a year, but I feel like I've known her for much longer. I know that much of what unites us is a common bond of motherhood, but we share a special type of motherhood - extra worries, extra doctors, extra fears of the great unknown in our girls' future. She may never know just how comforting it is for me - on those nights when I tuck my A into bed and wonder where her life will take her, how she'll cope with those challenges that inevitably lie ahead - to know I'm not alone in those worries. She doesn't just sympathize. She can empathize even more deeply. And that carries over me such a sense of peace and relief.

Today, we raced together at our church picnic. Or she raced in the same race I did. But as I turned the corner at a mile and a half, pushing chunky C along with me in the jogging stroller, she was headed to the finish line. And not because she's never had kids (she has four), or because she is younger (she's actually only the teensiest bit older than I am), but because she is strong and brave.

So tonight, I celebrate her first place victory with a rockin' new popcorn recipe. And M and I will watch the finale of one of our favorite shows, Endeavor, and munch on this special treat in her honor. And then, I'll stop making popcorn and vegging out in front of the TV at night if I have any hope to even finish a race with her in the same ten-minute time frame.To my dear friend, L - congrats!

You need:

1/4 c. vegetable oil (I use sunflower)
2/3 c. popcorn kernels
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed


On low heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic clove and Italian seasoning.  Turn off the heat and leave to infuse. In a large pot, add the vegetable oil on low heat. Add three kernels. Close the lid. Once all three kernels pop, take the pan off of the heat. Remove the three popped kernels and add the 2/3 c. kernels. Count to 30. Put the pan back on the heat and pop until you hear no more popping, shaking the kernels around a bit to prevent sticking or burning.

Put the popcorn in a large paper bag. Remove the garlic from the butter. Add the salt, butter, and Parmesan cheese and shake like crazy. Pour into bowls, devour, and promise to run more often the next day. 

Summer Greens Pie with Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Farmers must love Swiss chard. Every single week I get an enormous bunch of Swiss chard, sometimes varying only by the color of the stems. Most of my recipes that use Swiss chard are hearty winter stews and soups, I've frozen most of what I've gotten for use later this year.

Last week, while I was enjoying a glass of wine and browsing through cookbooks on the front porch, I came across a fun spinach pie recipe in Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes. I had most of the ingredients on hand already, and I knew I could alter his recipe for spinach and crazy British foodie speak with my Swiss chard and wee bitty American lady foodie tricks. I also got a cucumber and a delightful bag of tomatoes this week, so I tweaked the accompanying salad recipe as well. Very good. Very good indeed.

You need:

for the pie

5 eggs
8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 lemon, zested
1 tbsp. butter
1 large bunch of Swiss chard, washed, stems removed and discarded, and chopped roughly
12 sheets of phyllo dough, thawed
1 tbsp. grated nutmeg
olive oil
salt and pepper
parchment paper
oven safe frying pan

for the salad

1 large cucumber, seeded and cut into 1 in. chunks
2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1 in. chunks
10-12 Kalamata olives, pitted and cut in half
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In an oven safe frying pan, melt the butter with a wee drizzle of olive oil. Add the Swiss chard and saute until the chard is dense and wilted. This should take about 5-10 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on it, stirring it around a bit so it doesn't burn. In the meantime, crack the eggs into a medium bowl. Whisk and then add the cheeses, oregano, lemon, and nutmeg. When the chard is done, remove it from the heat and let it cool.

Tear off a large rectangle of parchment paper and lay it down on your work surface. Drizzle it with a little olive oil and smear it about. Then, crinkle it up into a ball and then flatten it back out on the work surface. Atop the parchment paper, arrange four pieces of phyllo dough, overlapping, to make a large rectangle just slightly smaller than the parchment. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat with another layer of phyllo, drizzle and sprinkle. Do this one more time until you have three layers of phyllo.

Remove the cooled chard from the pan and add to the egg mixture. Lift the parchment and place your parchment/phyllo creation into the same oven safe pan, pushing down into the pan carefully so that you do not tear the phyllo. Fill with the chard and egg mixture. Fold the phyllo over the top in whatever wonky pattern needed to cover the top. Drizzle the top with a little more olive oil to make it slightly glossy and crispy when baked.  Turn the stove back on medium heat and cook it for about 3 three minutes to firm up the bottom. Then, place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss all of the salad ingredients together and let them sit and make friends while the pie cooks.

Pesto (Without Nuts!)

I love my shares. They can be costly, but they are worth every penny. We participate in five shares, four of which are weekly. Each Thursday, we pick up a large bag of fruit and vegetables from a variety of local farms, a dozen or so eggs from a local hatchery, and milk, yogurt, and cheese from a dairy nearby. Every other month, we get a box of meats from a number of different butchers and slaughterhouses in the area, specializing in minimally processed and good for you local meats.

July and August keep me busy. The bags are stuffed with produce, and the selection of greens can sometimes feel overwhelming. To keep on top of my game, and ensure that nothing goes to waste, I head to the library every other week to check out new recipe books, searching for creative and time-saving recipes for these ingredients. I also try to keep up to date on blogs and recipe sites that update their posts with what's in season in our region of the country.

The basil almost stumped me. Last week, I picked up what quite possibly could be called the largest bunch of basil picked on one stem in the history of mankind. It was enormous. Immediately, my brain said, "get out of food processor, woman, and make some pesto!" Pesto freezes well in small portions, and it can be added to soups, pastas, and other recipes all year long.

Except pesto uses nuts. NUTS!

Could I make the pesto without the nuts? Could I simply disregard the nuts, not have to replace them with anything, and have a tasty pesto?

YES.

You need:

1 large bunch of basil, washed well and leaves torn from the stems
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 lemon, squeezed of its juice


Add everything to your food processor, pulse until smooth, and enjoy. If your large bunch of basil is like mine was, triple this recipe. I froze mine into 1/4 c. portions. 

The Best Baked Beans Ever

I cannot take any credit for this recipe, other than I made it and it was amazing. AMAZING. I actually made these baked beans twice - once for a hall full of hungry firefighters, and once for family and friends. Both gave me a thumbs up.

Here are my suggestions to make these the most amazing:

* Use a plain canned pork and beans/vegetarian beans selection. Don't get too fancy with "grillin' beans" or flavored beans. There's no guarantee how those flavors will mesh with the additional ingredients.

*If you can get cottage bacon, which is what I had to use the first time because it was in my bi-monthly meat share, get it. Use  it. Love it. Make it your new best friend.

* If you don't have time, use Sweet Baby Ray's original or Trader Joe's Carolina Gold BBQ sauce. I use the Carolina Gold. Amazing. (Have I used that word yet?)

* If you do have time, make your own. The Pioneer Woman also has an easy recipe for that:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/homemade-bbq-sauce-recipe.html

We are a baked bean lovin' family. A loves them the way she loves her American Girl dolls and fudgesicles. If you have to go to a pot luck this summer, offer to make these. People will love you forever. For reals.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

Mini Vanilla Scones

We are a family of habits. We love routines. They keep us organized and functioning happily. However, our favorite routines are those little things we do together as special treats during family time. One we look most forward to is Sunday morning. Throughout the summer, we treat ourselves to a late breakfast/brunch after Mass, trying out new restaurants each week, especially those with patios on perfect summer mornings. Throughout the winter months, however, when we hate to even step out the door into the wild snow, we usually treat that same time as a brief and sweet morning snack moment. We'll hit the drive-thru Starbucks right near our church, treating the kids to hot chocolates and petite vanilla scones.

Now do the math. We attend Mass 52 weeks a year. We have two kids. Each scone is just shy of a dollar each. And winter lasts, well, it feels like 10.5 months around here. That's a pretty big scone piggy bank.

Enter Pioneer Woman. Her scone dilemma is more geographic in nature, but she decided to tackle them herself to see if she could replicate them. And I tried them. AMAZING.

The truth is, they are more amazing than the ones from Starbucks. They are lighter and flakier and tastier than any I have tried before. And because I only made two very slight adjustments to the recipe, I can't take any original credit for it. Rather than post it here, I'm simply including the link to give her full credit.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/petite-vanilla-bean-scones/

That said, my adjustments were these:

1. I didn't use two vanilla beans in the scone nor one vanilla bean in the icing. I used one bean in total. I split it down the middle and then used one and a half "caviar bits" in the scone and the last bit into the icing. I did this because I'm being cheap. Vanilla beans are expensive. I do not have my own show on the Food Network to offset my vanilla bean habit, so I scraped the heck out of that one bean, adding 1/4 tsp. of vanilla extract into the scone mixture and then into the icing mixture as well to bring out the vanilla flavor in a much more economical fashion.

2. Here's something else I don't have in common with the Pioneer Woman. I'm a very small human being. I make jockeys feel tall. I must eat and enjoy in moderation, because those extra calories have no where to go. So I didn't coat both sides of the scone in icing but just lightly dunked the one side. And be VERY careful while dipping the scones so that you don't end up with loads of chunks of scone in your icing that your husband will eat right out of the bowl like a sugared-up madman.

Or so they tell me. :-)

Easy Chicken Souvlaki Salad

Summer heat came with a vengeance this year. We needed to find some easy summer meals that we could grill and prepare easily and enjoy outside with little kitchen fuss (we don't have air conditioning!) This recipe, adapted from a Barefoot Contessa recipe I found online, was a hit. We did grill the chicken outside, but it could easily be sauteed indoors as well.

You need:

for the marinade
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. olive oil

for the chicken
1 lb. chicken breasts, sliced into thin tenders
1 gallon plastic storage bag

for the salad
1 head lettuce (I used local red leaf lettuce from our vegetable share), washed and torn
1 cucumber, peeled and cubed
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 # feta cheese, cut into chunks
1 c. marinated, pitted Greek olives


Combine all marinade ingredients above and shake well (a Mason jar works very well here!) Pour 1/3 of the marinade over the chicken in the storage bag. Shake well to coat. Marinate for a couple of hours. Set the remaining marinade aside.

When it's time to eat, grill the chicken until cooked and moist. In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients. Dress with remaining marinade (reserved, and NOT from the chicken bag!!) Top with the chicken tenders.