Waste not

Apple, pear or peach peels. Cherry pits. Lemon rinds. Orange rinds. Chard stems.

You should not be throwing any of these away. Any time you use a lemon, orange or lime, zest it before you discard the rind. Leave the zest out for a couple of days on a paper towel, or zap it for a minute (literally, just one minute) in the microwave to dry it, and save it in an old spice jar. This will be the best zest you ever use short of fresh, and essentially free.

All vegetable discards, with the possible exception of potato peels, should be thrown in a ziplock and frozen for a quick stock.

Fruit peels can be turned into simple syrups--a couple of cups of peels, a couple of cups of water and some sugar and lemon juice makes enough syrup for a drink or two.

Here's another stick-to-your ribs Dark Days meal for a gloomy cold day, using this principal!

Potato-leek soup, with a twist
1 large or several small leeks
2 very large russets
3-4 white carrots
2 small parsnips
1 small turnip
2 T butter
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon white peppercorns
Apple stock

Now, then, you've frozen those apple peels from all that apple sauce and pie, right? Right? Good. Because it makes a wonderful stock for soups--sweet and heavy, and able to give vegetarian soups the closest thing to an umami flavor you can get without adding soy sauce.  To make stock, put a quart or more of the peels into a quart of water and boil down to three cups (about 10-20 minutes). Drain and set aside.

Peel and roughly cut, into bite sized pieces, the root vegetables and boil until very soft.  Drain. Slice the leeks and saute in a couple tablespoons of a high-heat oil like grapeseed or olive. Add butter and the drained roots to the pan and stir over medium heat until the butter is melted. Grind the seasoning and stir it in.  Add the stock and simmer a couple hours (or less, if you're impatient). This is not a smooth soup, don't blend it please, you'll want to taste all those lovely chunks.

If you must, fry up some bacon and add it. Cool the soup with a little half-and-half (don't add it directly to the pot; if you reheat this soup with dairy in it, it will curdle).  I served this with homemade cheesy biscuits.

Opting out

Six reasons to opt out of national food system:

1. Industrial foods are lower in nutritional value.
2. Buying from local, entrepreneurial farmers and sellers improves the local economy. Know your farmer!
3. The US does not require that genetically modified foods be labeled as such.
4. A pregnant teen that I know told me that she "doesn't eat vegetables."
5. HFCS. 'nuff said.
6. You'll never find this in a box:

Mashed summer roots
Per every 2 diners:
One large potato
3-5 radishes
1 medium parsnip
1 pat butter
1/4 cup (or so) milk, half-half, or cream
white pepper and sea salt to taste

Peel, roughly cube, and boil all until soft (you can easily slip a knife in). To cube vegetables, just cut them up along each axis-- length, width, height. Mash into a lumpy mass with a potato masher or fork, then add the butter and milk/cream. Continue to mash with the masher/fork or whip with a hand mixer on low. I don't mind lumps in my mashed potatoes, but some people like them really smooth.

Serve with meat loaf, or pan fried pork, fish or portobello mushroom.

Missing ingredients

One of the best lessons you learn from cooking a lot is utter loss of fear. Run out of a key ingredient? Too lazy to run to the market (or worse--don't realize it until you're too deep into the prep). Open the cupboard, see what's there, and substitute substitute substitute.

The other thing about cooking a lot, and about cooking SLOW (Seasonal Local Organic Whole) is that there always is something in the cupboard to substitute, and that you tend to have what might be considered unusual ingredients in a more package-oriented kitchen. I have flour made from three different grains. I know how to grind oats, and I've ground rice into powder/flour in a pinch (it makes a great addition to bulk up soup).

We don't consume much meat around here-- a pound or two a week between the two of us, and very very little of that beef, but somehow I count the days until it gets cold enough for meatloaf. And here was this wonderful chilly rainy autumn day. Meatloaf weather.

I know-- what? Cold enough for meatloaf? You never knew it was a seasonal dish, did you.

But somehow, I think of meatloaf as a wintertime meal. I almost never make it in the summer. I'd say it's because it takes a long time to bake and the kitchen gets hot, except that I've happily done canning and baking in the middle of the hottest late summer days.

There's just something about meatloaf that says "short day meal" to me--maybe my mother only made meatloaf in the autumn or something.

So I'm pulling out ingredients and jeez, I have no bread crumbs. I never run out of breadcrumbs, because I always dry out my loaf ends and crumble them up. But somehow--no bread crumbs. Hmmm. How about oats?

Autumn meatloaf
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground lamb or pork
2 small onions, diced very fine
1/2 large appled, peeled and diced very fine
1/2 c steel-cut oats
1 tablespoon honey
optional-1 large egg

Seasoning:
1 T crushed dried orange zest
1-2 teaspoons black pepper (I used an orange-seasoned pepper I found at the spice shop)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
You can figure out your own seasonings, but don't use traditional meatloaf seasonings like oregano, which will overwhelm the apple flavor.

Preheat oven to 375F/190C

Soak the oats for 20 minutes in about 1 cup of boiling water. Drain thoroughly, then mix everything together (yes, with your hands--leave the water running so you can easily rinse them). Because the oats are so moist you don't really need the egg, but it's traditional in meatloaf and won't hurt. I didn't use one, mostly because I just forgot and it was fine. Press into a loaf or meatloaf pan (I just discovered these) and bake at 375/190 for an hour and 15 minutes.

This one of the moistest, tenderest meatloafs (meatloaves? that doesn't sound right) I've ever made, and my meatloaf is legendary.

Serve with apple mashed root vegetables: roughly cut the other half of the apple, plus 3 medium russet potatos, a medium parsnip, and a medium turnip. Boil until all are very soft (the parsnip will take a while), add a tablespoon of butter, a little milk, and a dollop of honey and mash until smooth.

A word about orange (and other citrus) zest-- always zest your oranges and lemons before you eat/use them. It makes them easier to peel, and you'll always have zest.  You can dry it on the counter (it'll take a day or two), or zap it on a paper towel for a few minutes. Store it in a jar with your spices.

Michaelmas

If you were a medieval farm laborer, you'd be getting paid today, for the last 3 month's work, as September 29th is a traditional Quarter Day, known in the Anglican calendar as the feast of St. Michael, or Michaelmas (pronounced "mikkelmuss" because, well, England). Fans of Thomas Hardy may remember Tess Durbeyville selling her services at a Quarter Day fair, and the drunken Michael Henchard auctioning off his family in an act that would come back to haunt him, decades later (hmmm, modern politicians would probably do well to re-read The Mayor of Casterbridge).

The Quarter Days--Lady Day (spring equinox), Midsummer Day (June solstice), Michaelmas (roughly the autumn equinox), and Christmas (winter solstice) and Cross-quarter days (Imbolc on February 2, May Day, Lammas (August 1), and Samhain (Halloween)--mark the ancient agrarian calendar.

Following these days puts you in rhythm with the earth and the ancestors, and reminds us that Hallmark and Macy's did not invent holidays, nor in fact did any modern religion. The holidays--holy days--are given to us by the universe, to mark the changing of the seasons and the passage of the earth around the sun. By focusing on the seasonal and celestial origin of these events, it becomes easier to resist the consumer culture that is consuming us, and to focus on the creative, the productive, and the holy.

It's traditional to make a goose on Michaelmas, although I'm making beef stew, since that's what I have in the house (and you see how out of rhythm I am? Why didn't I get a goose?) Other Michaelmas foods are carrots and other roots, and oat cakes.

The soup below is not very traditional, except inasmuch as it's made with a current harvest.

Cucumber Soup with corn and new potatoes
4-5 large cucumbers
1 large onion
1 T chopped fresh parsley
1 cup fingerling or new potatoes
niblets from 1-2 ears corn
2 T butter

1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional; for thickening. This recipe is from my MIL, who puts cornstarch in everything)
1 quart stock (chicken or vegetable; make sure it's a "white" stock or the soup will be ugly!)
>1 cup milk
2 cups half-half
2 yolks eggs
pepper and salt to taste

If any of the potatoes are larger than bite sized, cut them up, then boil them to al dente (not completely done!) and set aside.

Peel, seed and dice the largest cucumbers, leaving one for garnish. Dice onions and saute in butter with the parsley in the soup pot about 5 minutes (the cukes will turn a bright light green). Add water or stock, simmer 20 minutes. Mix cornstarch with milk, stir into the soup and bring it to a bare simmer, allowing to simmer for 10 minutes. Don't bring it to a full boil. Puree with an immersible mixer (or in a blender if you don't have a mixer; if you use a blender, let it cool a little before decanting it).

Lightly beat the half-half and egg yolks, pour a little boiling soup on to them, stirring at same time, then return it to the hot soup, stirring constantly; it must not boil again or it will curdle.

Add the potatoes and corn and heat; remember don't let it boil! Season to taste with white pepper and salt.

J is for Just make it up

My community garden is putting together a cook book. I've got a cooking blog, so I think I'm kind of expected to contribute, but the thing is, the contribution form wants to know things like "prep time" and "cooking time" and "number of servings" and, um, ah, "measurements."

As you can see from the recipe below, measurements is a somewhat amorphous concept around here. And serving size? Um, how much can I eat without looking like a total pig? Does that count as a serving size?

It's J, so I suppose I should have made jam. Oh well.

Heirloom potato salad with carmelized onions and hot peppers
4-5 good handfuls of multi-colored fingerling potatoes (have to go to a farmers' market for these, you're not going to find them at the Safeway)
1-2 cups of thinly sliced onions
1-2 large jalapeno (ha- J!) or hot banana peppers, also thinly sliced

oil & vinegar dressing, about 3 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon ginger, if to taste (in the dressing)

Cut the larger potatoes into bite size pieces, place in a large saucepan filled with water and cook until just done. Immediately drain and refill the pot with cold water (even add some ice cubes) and put the potatoes back in.

Carmelize the onions and peppers in 2 tablespoons of butter, sauteeing on very low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the potatoes and mix all ingredients together in a decorative bowl (for pretty).

Wealth

Several years ago, a friend who's into feng shui pointed out to me that the "wealth" bagua in the southeast corner of my garden was a big mess, and might be affecting our family's chi in that area. So we got serious and reconfigured the whole area, putting in a round patio (round is a good symbol for money), planting a lot of gold and yellow plants (same reason), and keeping it groomed. Lo and behold, we had several good years in the income/career success department.

Well, once again, it's gotten neglected, and frankly, the income thing isn't doing so well, so one of my tasks this year is to get this area back under control. I've put in a lot of sturdy perennials, and will fill the messy dumping area with some white sunflowers, (white is the color for metal in feng shui, a good augur for the money bagua). We've also got a cheminee in this area, which is probably not such a good thing in the wealth area (you don't want to burn your wealth), so I'll have to think about what to do with the cheminee.

What works about feng shui is not magic, or directing the chi, or whatever it is that it's supposed to do. It's that it makes you observe things. I always stop "seeing" that part of the garden, and some of that probably translates into parts of my life that I don't "see."

So this year I'll try to make my wealth bagua beautiful and cared for. After all, to be beautiful and cared for is what we all want.

Pork hash
2 pork chops
3 medium russet potatoes
3 small yellow onions
4 T butter
1 T honey
fresh herbs and dried spices- your call. I used basil and coriander
salt and pepper to taste

Bone the chops and dice the meat and rind. Slice the onions, dice the potatoes. I like to salt the potatoes now. Saute the onions in 2 T of butter over medium heat, when they are very limp and starting to carmelize add the pork and pork fat, stirring frequently. When the fat is fully cooked/rendered add the potatoes and the rest of the butter. Saute until potatoes start to brown, maybe 5-8 minutes, then add the honey and incorporate it thoroughly. Add the herbs and spices, and saute another 10 minutes, then turn the heat way down (I used the intermittent setting), cover and let it simmer about 15 minutes.

Wow.

Empy nest

The nest was really empty over the weekend. Husband on a tour to New York, son on his world tour (I think they're in Texas today) and daughter on her way to Florida for spring break, (no, not like that, she has grown-up friends who live there, and she's going to do some figure skating training at the local rink).

What I should be doing is finding some friends and getting some girl-time with them, but what I'll actually do is hole up in my cocoon here. If I'm ever really single and retired I'm going to have to get a dog or it's doubtful I'd ever go out at all.

And in case you haven't noticed: this week Palm Sunday | Passover | Earth Day | Easter. Dye some eggs.

Root vegetable soup
1 celery root
4 medium potatoes
1 large parsnip
1 head of garlic
1 small yellow onion
1 T butter

2 cups vegetable stock

Garnish:
chopped fresh basil and chives
half-and-half

Peel and cut all vegetables into small pieces and boil until they are very very soft. Drain and return to pot. Add butter and mash. Add the hot stock (I used some chard stems I had frozen to make the stock-- 1 quart of stems, 1 quart of water, 1 T mixed white & green peppercorns) and blend using an immersible blender (or place into a blender or food processor, but really, invest in the immersible kind, they're great). Blend until very smooth. Thin with a little milk or more stock.

Add fresh chopped herbs and serve with crackers or biscuits.

The Chicago Flower and Garden Show

To sum it up-- fantastic speakers, terrible exhibits, same old marketplace.

But still totally worth going, because I get to see all the people that I talk to on line all year, all the gardeners who have made such a difference in my life.

In general, the show was poorly lit, unimaginative and focused on hardscaping rather than plants. There were very few plants that even a casual gardener wouldn't recognize, and those weren't identified (in fact almost no plants were identified). The theme of "sports" was not well conceived, and for the most part poorly executed. (There was a pond that looked like an ice rink; really really want that.)

I managed to make it to four seminars, although I missed three that I was hoping to attend as well (stupid job). Got a great lecture about using the web as a resource from Mike Nowak, another on sustainable garden design and a presentation by Chicago Gateway Green about converting highway spaces, and responsible, workable corporate sponsorships, and I finally got to hear Lamanda Joy's wonderful talk on Chicago and the World War II Victory Garden movement.

Sadly, there was no edible garden at the show. Again. Okay, there was one, but it wasn't using the plants as edibles, but rather as ornamentals. Why is the garden show so averse to edible gardening? I don't get it. The landscape awards were all for professionally designed and installed mega-gardens in rich peoples' houses. At the very least, there should be a display featuring Mayor Daley's Landscape Awards.

Ah well. Kvetch kvetch kvetch. I rescued a lost child and I did score some wonderful dried fruits from Lehman's Orchard, with which I made these scones, and some wasabi peas, which I used in the following potato salad.

Wasabi potato salad
10 red potatoes
2 russet potatoes, peeled
1 large carrot, shaved and chopped fine
1 hard boiled egg
1/2 red onion, sliced very thin
1/2 cup dried wasabi peas, crushed

1/4 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon wasabi (less or more, depending on your heat tolerance)
1 teaspoon finely chopped basil

Cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces and boil until just done. Set aside to cool (do not put boiling hot potatoes into the mayo). Using a vegetable peeler, shave the carrot down, then finely chop the shavings. Cut up the egg, and mix everything together, no finesse needed.

I had this with crab cakes. Make your own mayo.

Master Gardener class, week one: Botany

Reading the Botany section in the Master Gardener book made my head hurt, but the class turned out to be quite entertaining, largely due to presenter Greg Stack, a very engaging speaker. As suspected, I know a lot about how and why things work, but not what they are called, making it difficult to talk about, or to follow conversations. Here's my notes from the first session, and a recipe for the last of the root vegetables that you harvested last fall!

Greg brought the class in a lot with tongue-in-cheek quick definitions like this one:

Botany in a nutshell is how to identify and use a plant, plus how and why it grows, without ever actually growing anything. Horticulture is growing perishables for food and fun using intensive cultivation. Agriculture is growing commodity crops for storage.

One of many new words-of-the-day was autotrope, meaning something that makes its own food (i.e. plants), completely destroying the premise of whether plants or Zombies will get us first, which is quite annoying to those of us waiting for the plant apocalypse, when they finally assert their supremacy, turn the tables and eat us instead.

So plants--
* make their own food
* release more O2 than they use
* have rigid cell walls for support (as opposed to exo- or endo-skeleton)
* are immobile (anchored to their support medium)
* slow to respond to environment
* continue to grow at maturity, unlike us, although several of us looked at our waists and disputed this one.

He reached the number one I-don't-understand section for me which is the difference between monocots and dicots. I'd heard these terms, which essentially seems to be grass and everything else (so why not just call it that. This is why I'm not a botanist).

Botanists like to group things. They like to group the same things in different ways. There are the Linnaean taxonomic groupings, which they are now conveniently changing on us, just to make sure us laypeople remember that we are not smart enough to be scientists. There are also groupings by habitat (tropical, subtropical, temperate, desert, alpine, prairie) by growing condition (wet, dry, temperature tolerance), by life cycle (annual- and sub groups summer annual and winter annuals, biennial, perennial), by superficial characteristics and by microscopic characteristics.

Kill me now. It's only 10:30.

Of course, you need to know these things because things within groups share not just observable characteristics but it can also give you clues as to problems, care, and use.

I was alternately impressed and annoyed at people who knew what Solidagos are (what Solidago is?), and who seem to know Latin, so they can immediately translate taxonomic names. I guess it would be childish to roll my eyes.

A radicle is an immature root, there's a word for immature stem as well but my brain hurts. Okay plumule. And actually, I've heard the term radicle used a lot, so it's good that I now actually know what it's called as opposed to having to pretend I know, since everyone knows I'm an experienced gardener.

Once he got past the naming and on to how all the structures actually work, I found it more interesting. I feel like I'm looking at my houseplants with a whole new level of understanding, and a whole lot less terror. I keep looking at all the little bumps and holes on twigs and thinking "that has a name. Weird (wish I could remember what it is)." I also like that I now know the term for what I've been calling "corn feet." And that every silk on a corn ear is attached to a kernel. No pollen, no kernel, that's why you get holes on an ear.

Anyway, here's what I've got left in the larder from my last harvest. Enjoy!

Beyond mashed potatoes
Per every 2 diners:
One medium to large potato
3-5 radishes
1 each: small to medium parsnip, rutabaga, turnip
Optional: 1/4 cup celeriac or celery root
1 pat butter
1/4 cup (or so) milk, half-half, or cream
white pepper and sea salt to taste

Peel, roughly cube, and boil all until soft (you can easily slip a knife in). To cube vegetables, just cut them up along each axis-- length, width, height. Mash into a lumpy mass with a potato masher or fork, then add the butter and milk/cream. Continue to mash with the masher/fork or whip with a hand mixer on low. I don't mind lumps in my mashed potatoes, but some people like them really smooth.

Serve with meat loaf, or pan fried pork, fish or portobello mushroom.

Eight things I'd hate to give up

I want to save the planet. I really do. And I'm trying. I've gotten pretty good about finding local sources, or at least local merchants, for everything from groceries to motor oil. And I reduce-reuse-recyle like nobody's business. I make my own baking powder for pity's sake. But there are some things I just don't want to give up. Here's a partial list.

Disposable toilet paper
Did you know that there are websites that propose that you get reusable toilet paper? (Also menstrual pads). I mean, I used cloth diapers for my kids, but even I have my limits. I want it to be soft, too. It's a dissolute American thing, I guess.

Tootsie rolls
Forget fair trade. I love me some rubber chocolate. And those little fake colored ones that pretend to be fruit flavored? Yeah, those.

Oranges. Avocados. Lemons.
All those tropical fruits. I live in Illinois, but this is one of those times when I thing "global economy, baby!"

Sugar
And not the kind made from beets. Real live cane sugar. Hey--I'm close to the Mississippi (okay, couple hundred miles. That's close, right?) And cane sugar grows right at the other end! Just a quick zip up the Big River.

Door to door transportation
Using a non-human power source. Biking is great. I believe in it! Healthy, planet-saving, and easy. So why do I always find myself driving two miles in the car? Terrible. I should be shot.

Saran wrap
Does a product come any more unsustainable? Or more useful?

Rubber flip flops
Except they aren't rubber anymore, which would biodegrade. They're 100% petroleum byproduct. The rattan ones give me blisters.

Apricot Potato Salad
Fortunately, I don't have to give this up, because I made it myself using fresh, local, whole, organic ingredients.

Any kind of potatoes you've got, one-two potatoes per serving. I used russets today, because that's what I had.
1 small apricot for each potato, or 1 large one for each 2-3, pitted and diced
2 serano peppers per each 3-4 servings, diced very fine
sea salt to taste



Dressing (Adjust for size of salad. This makes enough for 2-3 servings):
Whisk together:
1/3 cup mild oil, such as canola (nut or olive oil overwhelms the apricot)
>1/4 cup wine vinegar
> 1/4 cup honey
ground white pepper to taste

Dice and boil the potatoes until soft but not falling apart. Drain and cool. Add the remaining ingredients and salt to taste.

This will keep for weeks, except for the so-yummy-you'll-gobble-it-right-up part.

What would you hate to give up to save the planet?

Getting mom to make the normal stuff

When I was growing up, the mother of my best friend had a reputation for being a marvelous cook. There was even a rumor that she had a college degree in cooking. This was back in the 60s when women with college degrees were not all that thick on the ground. I assume the degree was home economics or nutrition or something like that, but to our 7 and 8 year old minds, this translated directly as "food." And we were ready to believe it because of the exotic things she made-- easter cake shaped like a lamb and covered with coconut; red velvet cake shaped like a heart.

Of course two houses over my mother was making home made pastitio and baklava, but this was boring, and my friends thought it was weird. I wanted to have Sunday dinner with the Roberts. Pot Roast! Grilled streaks! Even a toffee pull, once. I remember once telling my mother that Mrs. Roberts was a better cook, because she had been to college. I cringe now. So sorry mom, I was just a stupid kid.

But Mrs. Roberts was not immune to the cruelty of children. There was a MacDonald's-like hamburger stand we all went to, called Scottie's (believe it or not, this was pretty much pre-MacDonald's. That's how old I am. Sigh.) Scottie's had greasy, squished, delicious hamburgers, and I remember overhearing Mrs. Roberts telling my mother how her kids had demanded hamburgers like Scottie's. Not the homemade meatloaf in a bun extravaganzas that she was famous for, but flat, plain, skinny, greasy hamburgers.

So she made them. Now that was a hamburger.

Chicken nuggets and homemade potato chips
Boned, skinned chicken, cut into strips
1 egg, lightly beaten

About 3 cups of canola or other light oil

Crust:
Cornmeal, flour, bread crumbs, in 1:1:3 ratio
Salt, pepper, parsley to taste
Dried rosemary or other herbs

Fill a 2 quart saucepan with corn or canola oil, to about 1 1/2 inches from the top, heat to 400F/200C.

Coat the chicken strips with egg, then roll them in the bread crumb mixture until the entire surface is completely coated. Drop the pieces into the hot oil about 5 at a time, boil for 3-5 minutes depending on how thick they are, until golden, or just starting to turn a bread-crust color.

Do not leave the pot for a single second. As you cook these, moisture will escape from the coating into the oil, which can cause the oil to foam. Very dangerous. If the oil foams, remove it IMMEDIATELY from the heat and start again with new oil.

To drain use a Chinese skimmer or similar utensil, let as much oil drip off as possible, then lay on a newspaper to drain.

For the chips, slice a couple russets paper thin, coat both sides with a fairly heavy coating of salt (to draw off moisture). Lay them in a single layer on a several sheets of paper towels, put another paper towel layer (again, several sheets thick) over them, and weight with something flat and heavy like a cutting board. This is to draw off as much moisture as possible, again so that the oil doesn't foam.

When you're done with the chicken, use the same oil to deep fry the potatoes. You'll know they're done, because they'll look just like potato chips. Again, don't turn away for a second. To drain them, use the skimmer to remove them from the pot, then put them in a brown paper bag and shake the rest of the oil off.

Is it Spring yet?

Springtime in Chicago is not really winter, but it's not really spring either. Everything gets green and the flowers come up, but the nighttime temps still drop into the low 40s, especially here by the lake. So a good sturdy soup is in order, hence this totally made-up recipe for some real stick-to-your-ribs goodness.

Potato-Leek soup with Feta cheese

1 medium leek for each 2 servings
1 medium-sized potato for each serving
vegetable or chicken stock
parsley
feta cheese


Cut the greens off the leeks and skin the potatoes. (Place the peeled potatoes in cold water to keep them from going brown) Boil these with some sea salt and peppercorns in 2-3 cups of water to make stock.

Cut up and boil the potatoes until soft. Dice and saute the leeks in 2 tablespoons of butter, until golden, add the stock. Drain the potatoes and add to the leeks and stock. Cream this using an immersible blender; thin with more stock or with half-and-half. Add fresh or dried parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Ladel into bowls and garnish with crumbled feta cheese.

A nice side salad completes this. Nora makes one with garbanzos, grape tomatoes, sliced cucumber and a sesame-balsamic dressing.

Not for the squeamish

If you like mudpies you’ll love meatloaf, because there is no avoiding sticking your hands into that meat concoction to thoroughly mix it. You really really need to remember to wash your hands before making this dish, because you’re going to be in it up to your elbows. I also always leave warm water running before I start mixing so that I don’t have to handle the faucet with my icky meaty hands.

This is the meatloaf that my mother always made and one of a handful of dishes for which I never saw a recipe. I have no idea how I learned to make it; just watched her so many times that it sunk in. It’s another major family favorite.

1 1/2 to 1 ratio chopped beef and chopped pork (or lamb if you’re feeling fancy and rich)
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (please make your own, it’s super easy; see below)
2 teaspoons fresh or dried oregano
1T fresh or dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste
ketchup

Coat an 8” or 9” loaf pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350F/175C.

Dump all ingredients together in a mixing bowl and mush them around with your hands until really thoroughly mixed. Form into a loaf and press into the pan, artistically apply ketchup (you heard me, ketchup, this ain’t the Cordon Bleu). Bake 1 hour (longer for a larger meatloaf). Check it at around 40 minutes; if there is a lot of fat, pour it off and return it to the oven. When done it should be brown all the way through; no red at all. If it’s not quite done you can slice it and top it off in the microwave, or serve just the ends, which are probably done, and finish off the rest in the oven.

You can also turn this mix into meatballs— about 1 1/2 to 2 inch round balls pan fried in oil and then sautéed in a can of whole tomatoes for typical Italo-American ones. For Greek style, make them more egg shaped, lay a tomato slice over each one (canned peeled tomatoes are fine, or fresh) and bake them at 350F/175C for about 30 minutes, turning once.

Serve this with potatoes:

Homemade potato chips
Slice potatoes paper thin; blot thoroughly (you want to remove as much moisture as you can so that the oil doesn’t foam up) and deep fry in very hot oil til deep golden brown. The oil should be at least 2” below the top of the saucepan but still deep enough to thoroughly submerge a good sized handful of potato slices. I drop the slices in just 1-2 at a time until there are 10-15 slices at once. This keeps them from sticking to each other. You’ll need a slotted spoon or wok “spider” to scoop out the finished potatoes. Shake the oil off in a brown paper bag or drain on a pad of newspaper. Do NOT leave the cooktop unattended while cooking these.

Once the oil has cooled return it to an empty container; you can probably use it again within a couple of days, or seal it tightly and discard it with your regular garbage.

or

Mashed potatoes
Peel and boil til thoroughly soft, 1 medium Russet potato per diner (America’s Test Kitchen says start with cold water; the potato will finish with a better texture.) Drain off the water (leave the cooked potatoes in the saucepan). Add 2-3 pats of butter, salt and pepper to taste, an egg, and enough milk to get a creamy texture, then whip with a hand held mixer. You must mix the egg in immediately so it doesn’t cook to solid in the hot potatoes. The egg gives it a nice color. Don’t overmix or the potatoes will have a sticky texture; basically stop when they are just smooth.

For extra interest add to the boil a couple of cloves of garlic and a small diced onion (make sure they are very very soft before mixing), and/or a mix of root vegetables like celery root, parsnips, or rutabagas.


Homemade breadcrumbs
Instead of throwing away the heels of the bread, or palming them off on your partner, toast them in a warm oven (about 250D) until thoroughly dry, then crumb them in a food processor or heavy-duty blender.