In the KitchenwithBella

by | Posted: 09/16/08 at 07:33 PM

This is the latest in my attempts to find healthy muffins that will serve as breakfast for Dom and snacks for Bella. It’s my own mishmash of several recipes I found online.

“Bella, let’s go make muffins,“ I announced this morning. 

“One teaspoon of baking soda. One teaspoon of baking powder. One teaspoon of cinnamon,“ she declared.

Though I wouldn’t necessarily follow her measurements (everything is one teaspoon) Bella did help me in developing the recipe. She dumped cupsful and spoonsful of ingredients into the bowl and stirred everything vigorously and then made sure I greased every well in the muffin pan. She also insisted that I use vegetable oil rather than the butter that one recipe suggested. Rather than face meltdown, I acceded to her demands.

I’m still stumped as to what to do with the extra pumpkin in the can. I do wish I could find a recipe that calls for a whole can. I’m just not brave enough to experiment and figure out the proper proportions.

by | Posted: 09/15/08 at 05:07 PM

This is an adaptation of this recipe

I used tomatoes, purslane, fingerling potatoes and cilantro from Saturday’s foray to the farmer’s market. Since this was a last-minute dinner decision, I had to use canned tomatillos and dried thyme. Even with these substitutions, this was still one of the best soups I’ve ever made. I served it with toasted slices of my homemade honey whole wheat bread.

by | Posted: 09/1/08 at 08:04 PM

Following our plan to try something new from the farmer’s market each week, this week we bought a bunch of purslane, which is evidently something of a nutrition powerhouse, containing more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable and many other vitamins and minerals. And it is quite tasty too. I compiled a purslane potato salad by loosely combining several different recipes I found on the web. It was a huge hit and kept in the refrigerator for two days.

Other additions I might add if I make this again: cucumber, scallions.

by | Posted: 08/19/08 at 06:52 PM

Originally this recipe called for pears. I never have pears on hand so I’ve always substituted an apple instead. These are a great treat and pretty healthy. Bella loves them and so does Dom.

I sometimes substitute whole wheat flour for half of the all-purpose flour and add 1/4 cup of ground flax seeds to make them a little healthier still.

by | Posted: 08/17/08 at 07:05 PM

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in the Fonda San Miguel cookbook. I love the briny flavor of this sauce—from the olives, capers and pickled jalapenos. It perfectly complements a sweet, firm fish.

I use tilapia for this dish, though the original recipe called for red snapper. (You can also use shrimp sauteed in olive oil.) I often buy the individually wrapped frozen tilapia fillets and keep them in the freezer. The quality is indistinguishable from fresh fillets and they last much longer, of course.) I omit the garlic and I often substitute canned diced tomatoes for fresh. I also reduce the amount of capers. Generally I only make two fillets of fish rather than the 6 the recipe calls for. I reduce the sauce a little bit but we always have extra sauce to eat over the rice, which is very yummy.

This dish is a quick dinner to throw together and, if you use canned tomatoes rather than fresh, you can keep all the ingredients on hand for some time which makes it a great backup dish for when another plan falls through or I’m too tired for something more complicated. 

by | Posted: 07/20/08 at 06:21 PM

Lettuce, tomato, cucumber: same salad different day. I know I should eat salads more often; but I get so tired of them. Every once in a while I get excited by a new combination of ingredients, eat it for a while and then get bored again. And I always forget that trying new combinations reinvigorates the whole salad experience.

So I’ve been on a salad strike for a while. But yesterday’s trip to the farmer’s market fetched home a handful of new ingredients that had me spending the day fantasizing about getting back home for a yummy salad.

I started with good leafy lettuce, added some nice crisp cucumbers and ripe red tomatoes as usual for my base. But then I also added:

1. Really good goat cheese. I love, love, love the goat cheese made by Ann & Eric Starbard of Crystal Brook Farm. (She’s also the nicest vendor at the Marblehead Farmer’s Market, always remembers us and oohs over the girls.) It’s very creamy and doesn’t have that strong gamy flavor. A little of the jalapeno and cilantro goat cheese sprinkled on a salad gives it a real zing. 

2. Fresh crisp radishes. I’ve never really eaten radishes. To me they were just colorful accessories that Peter Rabbit steals from Mr. McGregor. But thinly sliced they add a nice spicy crunch.

3. Fresh basil. A couple of leaves thinly sliced and sprinkled in a salad give it a fresh bright taste.

Tonight I also added leftover steak tips that Dom grilled for last night’s dinner. We only had a few ounces of meat left; but thinly sliced they are quite enough on top of a big salad.

Recently I’ve also discovered roasted pumpkin seeds.

Top it off with a homemade vinaigrette using a spice mix from Penzey’s—just add oil and vinegar and shake. (Though it’s also good with a bit of lime and orange juice for a citrus variation.)

Yes, summer salads are back. This time I’m going to try to remember to keep trying new ingredients and combinations so I don’t get bored.

by Domenico Bettinelli | Posted: 07/19/08 at 06:38 PM

Tonight’s menu had grilled steak tips on it. I love steak tips, but Melanie is not as a big of a fan. She likes her steak to have just stopped mooing, and steak tips tend to get a bit more well-done. Plus she doesn’t like the char.

So the marinade I had chosen for the tips was southwestern and a prime ingredient as chili powder. Unfortunately, when I went to the cupboard both our “in-use” jar and reserve stash were depleted. (Somebody forgot to put it on the spice shopping list.) What to do? Why, make our own of course!

I went online and looked at a bunch of recipes. Some were basically ground chili peppers and cumin and lacking in complexity, while others had everything from cinnamon to turmeric. However, I think what I eventually put together was just right and not too time-consuming to make.

by | Posted: 07/14/08 at 08:35 PM

Not too long ago Danielle Bean wrote about serving her children egg custard for breakfast and in the comments to that post someone added a recipe for rice custard. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but somehow it planted a seed of an idea that gradually grew bigger and bigger.

We frequently have leftover rice. Dom likes to make fried rice with it, but sometimes he just doesn’t get around to it and the rice goes bad. In fact I threw away three containers of it last week, such a shameful waste. But as I looked at various recipes, many of them called for shocking amounts of milk and eggs. With Bella’s new-found love of milk, we’ve been tearing through milk rather more rapidly than before so I was loathe to use four whole cups to make up a dessert I might or might not even enjoy. And many of them started with uncooked rice or used a scant half cup—hardly a way to use up our leftovers. I had to hunt a bit to find exactly what I wanted: a recipe that would maximize the rice and minimize the milk and eggs. I finally found just the thing in my trusty Joy of Cooking. (Although I cooked my rice pudding in one large casserole rather than the individual ramekins or custard cups the recipe called for, it came out just fine.)

So today I whipped up a batch of delicious rice pudding. The only snag: Bella wouldn’t even try a bite. Oh well, more for me! And Dom too, I suppose.

by | Posted: 07/14/08 at 07:17 PM

After I’d graduated from college but before moving to Massachusetts—when I was still living in Irving, Texas—some dear friends of mine, recently married with very little money, bought this cookbook, Mediterranean Hot and essentially taught themselves to cook from its pages. Night after night they’d create their own entertainment by cooking and eating and cooking and eating. And frequently they’d invite some of us over to share in their culinary discoveries and their joy. The food was so good I just had to buy the cookbook and make it for myself.

I’ve spent many a hot Texas summer night sipping wine and eating spicy food and watching the sun set from my friends’ deck as we talked and laughed and philosophized. Perhaps that’s why I tend to pull out this cook book when it gets hot, to me this food says summer. But most of the dishes would also be perfect for bringing that elusive taste of summer to a frosty evening and warming your bones on cold winter nights.

This chicken tagine is one of my favorite dishes. I present it here in a slightly modified form.

by | Posted: 07/12/08 at 04:34 PM

Inspired by Mrs. Darwin’s blogging her recipe for “Pizza Chez Darwin,“ I bought mozzarella cheese a couple of weeks ago and it then sat in the drawer waiting for me to be inspired to actually make the pizza. Then on Thursday afternoon I dusted off our pizza peel and baking stone (which I think we’ve only used once since we were married) and set to work. I ran into a few snags along the way, but mostly it was a good time. And I made some really good tasting pizza. Thanks, Mrs. D!!!

I opted to use our standing mixer rather than get my hands dirty kneading the dough. What actually happened was the dough never came together and I ended up turning it out and kneading it by hand anyway. I’m not sure if I measured wrong or if it was just that humid, but the dough was a sticky mess and I had to add a lot more flour before it got to a reasonable consistency. (I’m glad Dom was here to help me with the flour adding, because it was a very messy process.) But after that it rose beautifully and the final product had a great consistency and wonderful taste.

I also need to work on my pizza tossing skills. Most of my pizzas were only roundish and the final one just kept tearing and I finally gave up and let it be a lump. It was the only one to stick to the peel, go figure.

I didn’t get super creative in the area of toppings. I made three cheese pizzas, two pizzas with sliced pickled jalapeno peppers, and one pizza with some of the super-yummy, locally-made jalapeno pepper goat cheese we picked up at the farmer’s market on Saturday. Dom and Bella were perfectly happy with the offerings, though.

As promised, the ground flax seed yielded a crust with a nice nutty flavor. The semolina flour did its job in preventing sticking except for that fatal last pizza; but by that time I was just hot and tired and that probably had much to do with it.

I don’t think I’ll be doing this very often at least not in our current conditions. In the summer the kitchen really does heat up and it tends to be the warmest room in the house anyway, being too far away from any of the window ACs to really get cooled. But Bella was quite fascinated by the process and had fun playing with—and eating—a little ball of the dough.

More photos after the jump…

by | Posted: 07/10/08 at 07:30 PM

Everyone’s feeling the pinch these days, trying to stretch their money a little further as gas and food prices climb. I’ve been trying to only go to the store once a week and to plan meals and to use up all the leftovers because I hate, hate, hate it when I have to throw away food that has gone bad in the fridge. Last night’s dinner and today’s lunch were both creative and tasty ways to stretch the leftover dribs and drabs into two more meals. And we didn’t sacrifice taste, either.

I’ve written before about how one of our favorite practices is to grill or roast a whole chicken and then use the leftover meat for enchiladas. One batch of enchiladas is usually good for a dinner and a couple of lunches. This week, for example, we had enchiladas on Sunday and then Dom and I both had them for lunch on Monday. On Wednesday night I was beat and didn’t feel like cooking. I looked at the leftovers and they didn’t look like much. There were the three enchiladas, a small container (about half a cup) of taco meat, a small container of refried beans and a pile of tortillas. Not enough taco meat or enchiladas to make a complete meal of either one, but combined and creatively supplements, it was enough for a feast. We each had some enchiladas and then we rounded out the meal with burritos. Dom was dubious when I told him of my plan, but the half cup of taco meat yielded two burritos each when combined with a spoonful of refried beans, some cheese, salsa, tomatoes, avocados and the shredded remains that I salvaged from an ancient head of romaine.

And then today Dom worked from home so I had to scavenge lunch for both of us too. So out came the pitiful remains of the beans, avocado, tomato and cheese. I spread the remaining quarter bag of tortilla chips on a baking sheet, sprinkled on the cheese and beans and a bunch of pickled jalapenos and stuck it in the oven. Once the cheese was melted, I added the tomatoes and avocado. The best nachos I’ve ever had!

Trying to stick to a grocery budget definitely makes me more creative. I have to admit it was much harder when I was pregnant and always short on energy. Now that I’m getting regular sleep it just seems like a fun challenge.

by | Posted: 07/2/08 at 01:22 PM

The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

I’m not doing too bad. I frequently eat about seven of the foods on this list, though it’s been a long while since I made chard.

I always have a bag of frozen wild blueberries on hand. My favorite breakfast is oatmeal (cooked with milk instead of water to add extra protein and calcium) with blueberries and sometimes a sprinkling of almonds.

We haven’t had beets since last summer, but my favorite way to prepare them is in a dip with goat cheese and chives.

We actually eat turmeric quite often because turmeric is a primary spice in Indian cuisine and we eat lots of Indian food. And my Indian cookbooks give me three different yummy ways to prepare cabbage. The nice thing about cabbage is that it doesn’t need to be used right away. I can buy a head and let it sit for about a week while I use up the more fragile greens first. Or I can cook half a head and then use the other half a few days later in a different recipe.

The Best Way to Cook Vegetables

“There is a misperception that raw foods are always going to be better,” says Steven K. Clinton, a nutrition researcher and professor of internal medicine in the medical oncology division at Ohio State University. “For fruits and vegetables, a lot of times a little bit of cooking and a little bit of processing actually can be helpful.”

When I was teaching at Salem State I had one student who told me that she and her boyfriend were raw foodists. They try to eat no cooked food. According to those who practice raw foodism, it’s supposed to be a healthier way to live. But those raw foodists are not always maximizing the nutrients they get from their food.

Because nutrient content and taste can vary so widely depending on the cooking method and how a vegetable is prepared, the main lesson is to eat a variety of vegetables prepared in a variety of ways.

And did you know this? You’re much better off with a full-fat salad dressing and slices of avocado than with a fat free version. And it tastes better too.

What accompanies the vegetables can also be important. Studies at Ohio State measured blood levels of subjects who ate servings of salsa and salads. When the salsa or salad was served with fat-rich avocados or full-fat salad dressing, the diners absorbed as much as 4 times more lycopene, 7 times more lutein and 18 times the beta carotene than those who had their vegetables plain or with low-fat dressing.

I think many people get so paranoid about their fat intake that they forget that we do need fats to be healthy, especially mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. I had a roommate who loved avocados but avoided them “because they are so fatty”. Really, she’d have been better off adding them to a big leafy salad. Approximately 63% of the fat in avocados is monounsaturated, 20% is polyunsaturated and 17% is saturated. Avocados also have no cholesterol.

But even small doses of saturated fats can still be ok if they get you to eat more vegetables that you’d otherwise skip. My mom had the right idea when we were growing up: bring on the broccoli with hollandaise sauce! Broccoli was the one food we’d be sure to fight over, never any leftovers at our house as long as she served it with our favorite condiment. And hey if a little butter and sugar is what it takes to get those sweet potatoes down or a little glazing on carrots, isn’t it worth it? It’s still healthier than ice cream or cake.

by | Posted: 06/23/08 at 03:59 PM

Mmm… broccoli, sausage, mushrooms and pasta in a rich creamy sauce!

I absolutely love this easy pasta dish which cooks all in one pot—less dishes to do! I make it about once a week and Dom never complains.

Originally from Cook’s Country magazine, though presented here with a few of my own revisions. The original recipe doesn’t have mushrooms, but I thought they were a good addition. I also doubled the amount of pasta. The original recipe only called for 8 oz. but I accidentally put in the whole box and found it came out fine and that way it goes a little further.

I use a big, deep skillet with a lid. You could probably also make it in a dutch oven.

by | Posted: 06/22/08 at 04:41 PM

Taboule is a great summer treat, cool and refreshing. I used to make it from a box before I realized how easy it is to do from scratch. Also more economical as the box always made more than I could eat and thus eventually had to be thrown out.

I was all geared up to make this on Saturday when I realized I’d forgotten to buy parsley. There was none to be had at the farmer’s market, so I substituted cilantro. It worked surprisingly well. I think I may actually prefer the cilantro with its slightly sweeter, less bitter taste. I also added cucumbers for extra crunch.

by Domenico Bettinelli | Posted: 02/9/08 at 12:20 PM

Fridays in Lent usually mean fish, and this first Friday of Lent was no different. Melanie had picked up a nice piece of salmon that she was going to rub with her chili-spice rub and then broil. She also planned a salad and sweet potato, but I was hankering for something a little more. I was feeling hungry and thought another side would be needed. We’d had rice several times this week, so I thought, why not pasta?

Since it’s pretty cold out, we thought a nice, earthy mushroom and tomato sauce pasta would be tasty and warming and filling. I started by perusing some recipes in “The Silver Spoon” and then jumped off from there.

Porcinis are wonderful mushrooms with a hearty flavor and a deep scent reminiscent of a dark oak forest. Unfortunately, they are difficult to find fresh in the US and very expensive when you do find them. And still somewhat expensive per pound when you buy them dried, at $2.99 for 3/4 ounce. Happily a little goes a long way, as far as flavor goes, but for substance, the addition of some regular button mushrooms soaked in the porcinis’ rehydrating liquid does the trick.

This isn’t a tomato-heavy sauce, but a couple of cups go a long way, and since tomatoes’ best flavors are alcohol soluble, the red wine punches things up.

The result is a deep, hearty flavorful completely vegetarian dish that’s filling and gives a measure of comfort on a cold, Lenten Friday evening.

Note: Because of Melanie’s garlic intolerance, there is none in the dish, but a clove or two sliced up and sauteed with the onions would be a nice addition. Also, if you have access to chanterelles or morels or other more exotic mushrooms, by all means use them instead of the buttons or criminis.