Savory Tomato Pie

I finally figured out what to do with those hard as rock, pinkish looking tomatoes that are available in Northeastern grocery stores from November to May. Savory tomato pie. There are a lot of recipes for sweet tomato pie, which tastes a little like apple pie. But the savory pie is a nice, winter comfort meal if you like crusted entrees. We do.

Prepare a bottom pie crust by brushing on an egg.

Slice 4 nice-sized tomatoes and season them with garlic salt, lemon zest and pepper. I use one of the Penzey's spices called Ruth Ann's Muskego Ave. Chicken and Fish Seasoning, which has those ingredients in it. Once seasoned, dredge the tomatoes in flour and set them aside.

Thinly slice a medium onion, and sautee it for 5 minutes in oil. Once it looks tender, add a teaspoon of basalmic vinegar, mix it in, and then spread the onions into the pie shell. Pour a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in the skillet, heat and then lightly saute the tomatoes, one layer at a time, just long enough to cook the flour a little. As each pan of tomatoes is done, put them in the pie, until you have 3 or 4 layers.

Sprinkle cheese on top, and add the top pie crust. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes until the crust is brown. Now.. this is the way I made it the first time but it was a little calorie dense from all that crust. I think it would be good with just the bottom crust, or maybe just into an oiled casserole with no crust. Make it a meatless meal because the tomatoes have a certain amount of oil absorption. A side salad would be best because the temptation to have more than one slice is huge!

This dish is so tasty, it may not even need the cheese. Recipes call for mozzarella and cheddar, but a little parmesan would probably suffice.

Enjoy!!

The Worst Meal Ever

If there was a show called, "The Worst Thing I Ever Ate," the soup I made today would have been in it. I was walking by the meat section and thinking about making a pot of soup for lunches this week, when I came across some smoked turkey wings. They were right beside the smoked ham hocks....which I SHOULD have bought.... but I was thinking that I could save a few fat points if the wing thing turned out. I carmelized the onions, carrots and celery, and added in the teeniest potato and 2 cloves of garlic. Then I put in the wings, chicken stock and dollop of basalmic vinegar and the dried peas, and let it go. YUK it was disgusting!! Sometimes a good idea goes horribly wrong.

Heard round our house yesterday. Paul: Hmmm...cornish game hens and a side of carrots. If you put in some noodles, this would have been a "deconstructed chicken soup." Robin: Ok, maybe we're watching too much food network.

Today I decided to turn over a new leaf so to speak... and save my egg shells and coffee grounds for the compost. Only problem was, I came to a sliding stop half way out because the whole compost bin is buried under about 3 feet of snow. Apparently, Paul ran out of room to put it. Next time.

We had baked porkchops for dinner, a good choice when you're busy because even the thickest ones only have to bake for 35 minutes after you get a good sear. But the star of the meal was the Swiss chard salad. I don't think we eat enough greens in this country because we don't know how to use them. Like spinach, chard requires a light sautee, and also like spinach, they are water-soluble so require just a touch of olive oil to bring out their great color and taste. The saute included a little bell pepper and small amount of onion, and then refrigeration until we were ready to use it. I added a chopped avocado and some raw red pepper and just a touch of basalmic. It was really good.

Dark greens like chard and spinach have phytonutrients (besides vitamins K, C, E and B) that ease the bodily inflammation that causes diseases such as diabetes. Greens are a natural way to fight osteoarthritis, and the beta carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin that greens contain keeps our eyes healthy as we age. So... if you have a good greens recipe please share it with us! Oh...and if you have a decent recipe for pea soup...that DOESN'T CALL FOR SMOKED TURKEY WINGS...please share that too. Happy eating!!

French Onion Soup!

We had brutally cold weather this week so I had to reach into the cupboards for some comfort food ingredients. Actually I had just been to Appleby's the night before and had my "dining out go-to food", small caesar salad and a crock of French Onion Soup. The soup wasn't too bad...I've had worse... but mine is much better. So here is how I made it. Anyone following a weight watcher's plan should love this soup, I doubt it has 5 points per serving.

Quick Soup for Two

4 large onions, sliced
Tablespoon of oil to carmelize the onions
2 large chicken bouillon cubes, or 5 cups chicken stock and skip the water item
5 cups of water
2 cans beef consomme
1/4th cup of red wine
2 slices of whole grain bread that is trimmed but a little larger than your crock.
Mozzarella cheese for the top of the bread

Just carmelize the onions in oil in a pan that is big enough to hold the other contents. After the onions are tan, add the bouillon and water. Let this simmer for about a half hour to reduce down. Add the consomme and wine, keep simmering while you trim the bread. Get your crocks ready, and trim the bread slightly larger than the top of the crocks. Fill the crocks with hot soup and lay the bread on top, making a slight depression in the middle. Put a couple of tablespoons or a slice of mozzarella on the bread and broil in the oven for a minute to melt the cheese and toast the bread. Be careful not to burn it. I love my small counter top oven for this task.

When Alton Brown makes his onion soup, he adds cider to it to give it a sweeter taste, but we have more savory palates and I don't need the carbs from the cider. This soup can also be baked, we usually just do it on top of the stove.

This week my sister sent me some jalapeno spices in a little baggie. We put it on porkchops and practically licked the plates after dinner. I just put some garlic on porkchops and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours, then dipped them in egg, and rolled them in jalapeno spice and panko. I sprayed the oven pan with Pam and roasted them for an hour. When I asked her where she got them, she said the Old Mesilla Valley Chili Co. so here's their website.  http://www.oldmesillachile.net/recipes.htm

Happy Cooking everyone!!

What's Happening at Our House

It has been quite a week around our house as we get ready to celebrate the holidays. Actually, our traditions have increased over the years to the point where we can barely keep up with them! This year we dug out the giant Bethlehem lighted tree, drug it up the stairs and set it up. Would you believe the middle portion lights didn't work? But, being an enterprising young....scratch that...middle-aged man, Paul quickly added some of his own and now you can't tell. One crisis averted. We were gonna scratch the Christmas Eve party this year...which btw, is a lot of work. We thought we'd just get together and go out somewhere. But people protested..."but it's so much fun"... so the party is back on.

I love my family! This year, they provided the high point of the week....and the lowest. Let's start with the lowest. My sister calls me and says "A separate package is arriving for Paul. Tell him he can open that one whenever he likes." So today when the doorbell rang... and the guy handed me a package for Paul, I laid it on his chair. When he got home from mass I announced that he could open the box on the chair. We opened it together with little quirky and fun smiles on our faces.... and it revealed....... Alton Brown's Good Eats III..... and Paul said "Oh shit." It was one of my presents he'd ordered. Of course he won't let me look at it, says it's getting wrapped for Christmas. I'm excited, I will have the whole set.

The high part of the week was an email from my niece Erin, with a recipe for a dish I like to order at El Pinto in Albuquerque (when I'm not having the giant taco salad). So thanks Erin, we love having it!

Also, if you haven't met my friend Joan Radell (who adds so much to this blog), try friending her on Facebook because she makes the most incredible Etsy bags you ever saw! Who knows, you may need an extra (quality) gift!

Green Chile Chicken Stew & Green Chile Sauce

By Jim and John Thomas of El Pinto restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico

INGREDIENTS

Green Chile Chicken Stew Ingredients

• 1/2 pound chicken tender or chicken breast meat cut into 1/4-inch pieces

• 2 cups chicken stock

• 1 cup medium sized red potatoes cut into 1/2-inch cubes

• 1 cup Green Chile Sauce (see recipe below or substitute El Pinto Green Chile Sauce)

• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

• 3/4 cup whole kernel corn (fresh or frozen)

• 2 Tablespoon all purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons granulated garlic

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Green Chile Sauce Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

• 1 pound fresh roasted, peeled and chopped green chile

• 1 16 ounces can diced tomatoes

• 1 large white or yellow onion sliced

• 1 clove minced garlic

• Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

Green Chile Chicken Stew Steal This Recipe® step-by-step Instructions: 1. Heat vegetable oil in a pot.
2. Add flour and make into a roux for the stew base.
3. Wisk in chicken stock so no lumps form.
4. Add chicken, potatoes, garlic and green chile sauce.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Simmer for 40-45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked.
7. Add corn and bring back to a boil.
8. Season to taste and serve with warm flour tortillas.

Green Chile Sauce Steal This Recipe® step-by-step Instructions:1. Heat oil in a large pan.
2. Add onions and cook until caramelized, about 10 minutes.
3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, approximately 1-2 minutes.
4. Add green chile and a can of diced tomatoes with juice.
5. Season to taste.
6. Bring to a bubble and then simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavors blend together.
7. Use as a base for enchiladas, green chile stews or to put over cooked meats.

Lean mean Thanksgiving

We were late cooking our Thanksgiving Day meal because we were out of town on the real holiday enjoying social times with my nephew and his family. But today, we outdid ourselves on our own Holiday meal. We made it lean and mean, although let's be honest, there is a substantial amount of butter in the dressing. It *is* a holiday, you know. But this is what we had.

Turkey with dressing. I found a multi-grain cranberry stuffing mix made by Mrs. Cubberley, more well known for her croutons. I added pecans, and some sauteed celery and onions, a cup of chicken stock, and butter. I also added a teaspoon of sage, although the mix had some in it, there's never enough. They should put that on my tombstone.....Theres Never Enough Sage, RIP Robin Odach.

We had big plump asparagus we found at Costco. I skinned the bottoms, sprayed it with pam and roasted it with a little parmesan sprinkles and sea salt. I did make gravy from the drippings, but I only used 2 T. of flour and a little water, so it was more like a sauce than the usual congealed mess all over the plate. That was the brunt of dinner.

I made Paul a sweet potato pie from Alton Brown's recipe. It was low fat. I steamed 3 sweet potatos that were chunked up, added 3/4 cup of brown sugar, pumpkin spices and a cup of yogurt. It looks very good and really doesn't contain any fat except for whatever is in the crust.

Since January 5th I've sustained a 3 pound weight loss per month. It may be the slowest diet on earth but it's a weight loss that will stay put because I've learned a new way to eat over the past year. By my scales at home I've lost 34 pounds, but my doctor only credits me with 32 because she won't give me credit for 2 pounds of clothing. Well.... she's a skinny little thing, what does she know?

So what was your favorite lean mean dish this Thanksgiving?

Cheap Beef

I was reading an article in Self magazine that was written by a nutritionist, who said that people who eat a serving of beef everyday lose weight faster than those who do not. Well, who knew? So I bought a chuck shoulder which cost about $6 and it was so lean that I was sure it probably wouldn't be good. I sprayed it with olive oil Pam and coated it with a little flour, salt and pepper. I browned it up in a tbsp. of olive oil, and added some carrots because carrots just seem to make broth very rich. I added some beef stock and garlic and let it bake for 3 hours at 325 degrees. I took it out and let it cool, then sliced it as thin as I could and put it away in the fridge for overnight. The next morning I scraped the oil from the top of the jus, and put the whole thing back in the oven for an hour.

We ate it on big Portuguese rolls with mustard and horseradish, like a beef on wick without the salt. It was absolutely fab. Tasty and tender. As Alton Brown would put it, cheap beef has lots of connective tissue that must be broken down with heat and time. There's not much meat that's tastier than chuck. My mom used to make chuck roasts with parsnips, onions, potatoes and carrots. She would put a can of stewed tomatoes over the whole thing and zip it into the oven for a couple of hours. That was the best roast, and the potatoes would absorb all the juice from the meat and tomatoes, so very tasty. To this day my sis and I cannot duplicate the tastiness of her roasts!

My mom wasn't a complicated cook... lets just say she had a strong line of British in her... but she did a couple of things really well. Besides chuck, she had a way with chicken and rice. I can't get that one down either. Whatever she used came out creamy and good. What is your signature dish that you want to pass down to your kid(s)?

Joan's Crockpot Chicken

Our friend Joan posted a recipe for crockpot chicken in comments, but it looks so wonderful I decided to elevate her recipe to the main blog so she'll be our guest chef. In her own words:

Chop up: a small eggplant, a small sweet onion, a medium zucchini, a large red bell pepper, a handful of baby carrots and smash a few cloves of garlic. Throw it into a big pan and sautee the veggies up in a little olive oil. When they just start to smell good, put them into the crockpot. In the hot pan, brown some chicken parts. (We prefer thighs, because the flavor holds up well to the veggies. I use a couple skin-on and the rest skinless. Pork cubes would work well here as well.) While they're browning, put a large can of peeled tomatoes into the crockpot. You can use romas, too, if you have them. Stir everything up well, put the chicken on top, set the pot on low and go on about your business. About an hour before eating, I like to add a big handful of very thin green beans and a drained can of black olives, and a tablespoon of capers. I also put in a tablespoon of fines herbes de provence (always at the end; the volatile oils of the herbs cook away if you put them in early) and adjust the salt. We love this. It's just as good meatless, by the way!

What I love about Joan's recipe is that it's like a Ratatouille. EZPOT = eggplant, zuchini, pepper, onion and tomatoes. I can almost smell this cooking along in a crock pot... which I will, tomorrow! Thanks Joan!

I've been eating chickpea salads this week. I mix a can of chickpeas with diced mushrooms, pepper, and a few sliced olives. I like to add a small can of shoepeg corn or some frozen peas. A drizzle of balsamic dressing and that's it. You can eat this on a baked potato, on a salad, or just eat it by itself.

I'm thinking about holiday stuffing/dressing. My favorite is pecan cranberry sage dressing. What does everyone put in their holiday turkey dressing?