Spinach Pie

My life's goal is to make spinach pies as good as Jeanette's Bakery on Branch Ave in Providence. If you go, be sure to plan to get there early because they sell out every day by noon!

A Little Taste of ltaly Spinach Pie

1/4 cup olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons for the dough
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 bunches spinach, steamed, or 3 boxes frozen whole leaf spinach, defrosted, squeezed of any excess water
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoon golden raisins, soaked in water to cover (optional)
2 tablespoon pine nuts (optional)
1 recipe Pizza Dough

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until golden, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach, salt and pepper to taste, raisins and pine nuts, if desired, and toss until the spinach is thoroughly coated and flavorful. Transfer the spinach mixture to a colander and let drain.

To make 2 large pies, divide the pizza dough into two equal rounds. Roll out one round into a 14-inch circle. Spread 1 tablespoon of the oil over the dough and place half the spinach mixture onto half of the rolled out dough. Fold the dough over the mixture to form a half moon, and seal the edges with the tines of a fork. Repeat with the remaining ball of dough. To make 8 small pies, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, rolling them each into a 4- to 5-inch circle and dividing the spinach mixture equally among them. Fold and seal as directed above.

Transfer the pies to an oiled rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the crust is lightly golden. Remove from the oven, cut into slices, and serve.

Makes 2 large pies or 8 small pies

Pizza Dough
4 cups all purpose unbleached flour, plus additional flour for kneading
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 package rapid rise yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Oil the inside of a large bowl and set aside. Combine the flour and salt in another large bowl and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup of the warm water, the yeast, and the sugar and let the mixture stand for 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast blooms and bubbles appear. Gradually add the yeast mixture to the flour, mixing with your hands to combine. Gradually add the remaining water and finally the oil, mixing until the dough is soft and sticky. You may need a little more water to make the dough soft and elastic.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, working in more flour as needed. Or use an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in the oiled bowl. Turn it to coat with the oil, cover it with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and let it rise for about an hour, until it is one and a half times its original size. Punch down the dough and let it rest for about 1 hour.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin to the size and shape to fill your pizza pan. Let it rise in the pan approximately 20 minutes before adding toppings and cooking.

Makes enough dough for two 16-inch pies, or one 12 x 18 inch Sicilian pie.

http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/ethnic-recipes/italian/italy-spinach-pie.htm

Mashed Potato Bender

I've been on a mashed potato bender ever since I discovered my microwave has a self cooking potato sensor. I rinse about six Maine or Idaho potatoes and place them on a plate and walk back upstairs into my office, after I've hit the potato button. After about a few minutes I smell the potatoes cooking. When I come back I put them in a glass bowl and mash them with my 1930's potato masher which looks like a monster movie robot ray gun. I add milk and butter or olive oil salt and freshly ground pepper and voila. I keep their jackets on. I eat this potato mash with fried eggs for breakfast or by itself for lunch or supper.

John Thorne

When I dropped out of college in 1961, I ended up in a tenement apartment on the Lower East Side, with the bathtub next to the kitchen sink. But this was still a time when cooking seemed relatively obvious, and when it wasn't, you looked at the directions on the package. My problems came about when I bought food that was not part of the family repertoire, chicken gizzards, for example. I had no idea what to expect from them, so I had no idea as to whether I had cooked them properly. It reminds me of the time my mother encountered an avocado but confused it with an artichoke. Close, in a way, no? Still, the results were not a success. I ate a lot of scrambled eggs at first, then branched out to cooking hamburger and chopped onion, then stirring in frozen peas. And on and on. Anyone for more kasha and chicken gizzards?
-John Thorne

John Thorne

Perfection is as false an economy in cooking as it is in love, since, with carrots or potatoes as with lovers, the perfectly beautiful are all the same; the imperfect, different in their beauty, every one.
-John Thorne, Simple Cooking

O-Kinomi-Yaki

Japanese pancakes made with vegetables (and meat), can be served as midnight meal with warm reults. Americans put butter on everything; Japanese prefer soy sauce, but syrup no.
(For about 5 people)

1/2 cabbage: Chinese, green or red
1 large carrot
1/2 onion: yellow or purple
3 celery stalks
(1/2 c meat or fish pieces, if desired, or whatever you have around)
2 c (or more) flour: whole wheat and unbleached white
1 egg, beaten
2 T brown sugar
1 t salt
1 tall can evaporated milk
Enough water to make batter

Chop, shred, dice or thinly slice vegetables and meat. Mix together remaining ingredients to form batter. Fold vegetables into batter and grill. May be eaten cold on the beach.

-Edward Espe Brown, The Tassajara Bread Book

Manure Time

Shovel your own cow manure for free at Wright's Dairy Farm on 200 Woonsocket Hill road in North Smithfield Rhode Island. And while you're there visit the cows and calfs. Bring your own shovel and be prepared to get messy and stinky. Scoop from the mountains of manure into cardbard boxes and haul it away in a pick up truck bed. Beware the boxes are very heavy when filled. Try to let the manure season and dry out in the sun so the acidity won't burn your seedlings and plants. I love to roto-till my vegetable garden using a hoe and a pitch fork. It's really satisfying work when you are feeling energetic or angry.

Crock Pots

Crock pots are great for distractible people. And this time of year I am always running a bit too fast for myself. I try not to have kitchen disasters! My office is upstairs from my kitchen which luckily is close enough to smell when things are burning and hear when things are boiling over. I have a very simple thin black Teflon crock pot made by Presto and I use it all the time for popping popcorn. I think it cost about 12 dollars and I've had it for 15 years. My popcorn recipe is perfected: heat 1/4 cup of corn oil at 400 degrees and add 6 kernels. When they pop add 1 measured cup of popcorn. Halfway through the popping session I take off the lid to let steam escape or use a lid that has a steam vent.. My dog loves to sit under the popcorn pot and catch the strays. This morning I made slow cooked wheatena in our crock pot and I made vegetarian chili over the weekend using wheat berries in place of meat.

Marion Cunningham

When I cook for myself and I'm not feeling so well, I make spaghetti. With only a bit of garlic and some good olive oil. In Italy it's called aglio-olio, which is the batchelor's pasta because it's so easy to throw together.
-Marion Cunningham

Coleslaw

I love cabbage and last night when I made coleslaw I put in too much raw onion!! (always a hazard with me) So I warmed the whole salad in the microwave for just enough time to take the shock out of the onion. Then I added freshly made chic peas and refrigerated it but it was good warm too. A new variation.

coleslaw recipe:

cabbage chopped
carrots chopped or grated (I never peel mine!)
onion chopped
raisins
home-cooked chic peas (optional)
I make a dressing made of mayonnaise, milk (optional), red-wine vinegar, mustard (optional), salt, pepper, and sugar.

Carrot Raisin Wheat Berry Salad

Soak 2 cups of wheat berries and then boil until tender. Then add salt to taste. When cool toss like a salad using a dressing made of olive oil and wine vinegar. Add chopped carrots. Then, chop a large onion and microwave it for a few minutes until translucent. Then add it to the wheat berry mixture. Add a cup of raisins. Enjoy. Make your own variations! Try these ingredients; fresh tomatoes, celery, parsley, fresh mint leaves, chopped garlic, toasted walnuts, raw sunflower seeds, cooked chic peas, few drops of toasted sesame oil.

Apple, Banana, Pumpkin, or Carrot Bundt Cake

I am crazy about cast iron and 17 years ago I bought a cast iron Bundt pan made by Lodge. It is well seasoned now and I love it because it is like making a gigantic muffin but it's even better than a muffin because the cake stays moist longer.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease the pan.

2 eggs,
3/4 cup oil, (I use corn oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla (or more)
1 cup of sugar (or less if the applesauce is sweetened)
2 cups of applesauce (or 2 cups of mashed bananas or 2 cups of canned pumpkin or pound of cooked carrots.)
3 cups of whole wheat flour (or 2 cups ww flour and 1.5 cups rolled oats)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, or raw sunflower seeds
sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of any of these ground spices; cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, allspice

Mix eggs sugar oil and vanilla until creamy. Stir in dry ingredients pour into hot preheated greased pan. You can also bake in large or small loaf pans or even muffin tins. For the bundt cake bake for one hour or until broom straw comes out clean.

Lamb Bone and Lentil Soup

We had a bag of frozen bones in the freezer our butcher gave us at Christmas time. In a huge pot I boiled a pound of lentils, with the lamb bones. I added four large carrots, a handful of raisins, a huge chopped onion, four small chopped potatoes unpeeled, two heads of fresh kale, chopped, a few peeled cloves of garlic, and spices; cloves, cardamom, coriander, paprika, chili flakes, fennel seeds, salt, pepper. Simmer for a few hours.

I love making a soup this way, even though afterward I have to fish out all the inedible parts, and skim the excess fat after the soup has cooled in the fridge. I usually have a least one bowl right out of the pot before doing all this.

Enjoy with bread, or on rice or wheat berries.

Noodles In A Puddle

This is warm cozy lunch on a rainy day. Break a half pound of whole wheat angel hair noodles in half and put in a small pot with a few teaspoons of olive oil. Add 3-4 cups of water to cover and set to boil. Meanwhile chop one huge onion and add it to the water and noodles. Add half a cup of fresh spinach leaves, or grated carrots if you have them. Toss in a few leftover cooked wheat berries if you have them. Simmer for five minutes. Enjoy with soy sauce and red chili flakes sprinkled on top.

Nithya Praveen's Pancakes

You can also make this recipe with cooked wheat berries in place of fruit.

Making pancakes always makes me happy, they are so simple to make and so lovely to taste.
-Nithya Praveen

whole wheat flour – 1 ½ cup
baking powder – 1 tsp
salt – a pinch- (to taste)
sugar – 2 tsp
egg – 1
milk – ½ cup
blueberries/strawberries, ½ cup (apples, bananas, corn, wheat berries) - (only strawberries to be chopped)
water – as required
cooking spray/canola oil – for cooking.

Whisk egg and sugar together. Mix all the dry ingredients together.Add the wet ingredients to this and mix well. Add water, just enough to get a thin batter. Heat a pan, spray with cooking spray (you may use oil too), pour ¼ cup of the batter on the pan and cook on both sides just like Dosas. Serve hot along with any syrup (maple syrup or any fruit syrup will do good).
-Nithya Praveen

Boiled Wheat Berries

Boiled and salted wheat berries have a boingy texture that is fun to eat! Enjoy a bowl of them salted and buttered as a hot breakfast cereal or use like rice sprinkled with salt and pepper accompanying your favorite vegetables.

Tea

If you are cold, tea will warm you; If you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you.

-William Gladstone 1865 Victorian British Prime Minister


My experience...convinced me that tea was better than brandy, and during the last six months in Africa I took no brandy, even when sick taking tea instead.

-Theodore Roosevelt Letter, 1912

Black and Blue Tea

We've been missing our peach-flavored herb tea, a favorite for many years. We would add it to our morning black tea. Celestial Seasonings changed the peach tea formula a year ago, adding too much citrus (orange peel) for us to make our beloved milk and honey black tea beverage. Today I found a sample of Celestial Seasonings blueberry-flavored tea in the cupboard, so I made a big pot of Red Rose tea using one bag of the blueberry tea to add fruitiness. It was delicious with milk and honey.

Cold Slow-Rising Sourdough

Sometimes my schedule is busy, and I need to keep my bread dough from getting ahead of me! I have a room that in the winter stays between 50 and 55 degrees. If I keep my dough there, it still rises, but very slowly, which can be the right thing sometimes.

On Saturday I mixed a batch of bread dough (whole wheat sourdough) at 2PM and set it aside, covered, in the cold room. By 1 PM Sunday (23 hours later) the dough had risen to the top of the bowl, but I had to leave again, so I punched it down and left it. By 11 PM (10 hours later) I was back, and the dough had risen to the top of the bowl again, but it was time for me to go to sleep, so I greased the loaf pans, cut and shaped the dough, place it in the pans, covered the pans with a towel, and left them in the cold room. By the next morning (Monday) the bread had risen beautifully once again. I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, slashed the tops of the loaves, and finally baked the breads at ten AM (11 hours after having formed the loaves). They baked for 35 minutes.

Oatmeal Raisin Crumble

6 cups rolled oats, 1/4 cup corn oil, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup or so of raisins, 1 cup of milk to moisten, vanilla, salt, and sugar to taste. Melt 1/4 cup of the sugar in the oil. Then toss all ingredients in a big bowl like a salad and adjust the salt-sugar-vanilla balance to suit your taste. Add a bit more liquid (I actually used a bit of tea from the morning's teapot!) if the ingredients seem dry. Pour the mixture into an oblong greased pyrex dish and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 35 minutes, or until it starts to brown at the corners. It will be crumbly on top but it holds together.

Another One Pot Meal

Rice and beans are a classic combination, and both take some time to cook. I love to find ways to cook them at the same time. Here's one way: rinse and then soak two cups (1 pound) of dried kidney beans in water overnight. Put the soaked beans and water in a crock pot with a dollop of olive oil. The beans will stay starchy if cooked with salt, so leave the salt out for now. Simmer until beans begin to be tender (about an hour). Now you can add rice and whatever else you'd like - improvise! I added a cup of uncooked brown rice, two cans of diced tomatoes, dried oregano, chopped fresh garlic, three crumbled dried mushrooms, chopped sun dried tomatoes in oil, and a bag of frozen corn. Simmer until the rice becomes tender (about an hour). Keep the temperature low and keep an eye on it so it won't overflow or burn. A delicious one pot meal. This dish is excellent with Cholula Mexican hot sauce and sharp cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.

One Pot Supper

Soak dried chic peas overnight, and then simmer covered in water and with a tablespoon of olive oil for about 2 hours (or pressure cook for 20 minutes) Don't add salt until beans are tender. Then add can of diced tomatoes, fresh chopped garlic, dried Chinese mushrooms cut into chunks with scissors, chopped celery, 1/2 pound whole wheat angel hair pasta broken into 2 inch bits. Add enough water to cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add more olive oil and basil and oregano as desired.

Wicked Lazy

I love corn and I love greens. The past week I made this fast lazy supper twice; once with collard greens and once with kale.

Throw the contents of a large bag of frozen corn into a dutch oven. Chop a bunch of fresh kale or collard greens into small bits and add it to the pot. Then add 3 cups of cold water, 1/4 cup olive oil and about the same amount of soy sauce. Cover the pot with the tight fitting lid and turn up the heat. Set the timer for ten minutes and when the bell rings check on the food. Add a few more minutes if the greens are not thoroughly cooked. You will have a fabulously easy and delicious supper.

Under Ripe Banana

Zap a peeled under-ripe banana in the microwave for a minute. This will cook it. Slice it and enjoy with a 1/2 teaspoon of honey drizzled on top. Delicious. Especially for the impatient banana lovers.

No Fuss

I find that with cooking and baking the no-fuss methods are the ones I repeatedly return to. And that is the point, right? How to make home-cooking a regular part of one's life. Some folks like a recipe with a million steps and they love the craft of it. Those folks enjoy approaching most cooking and baking as if they were sewing a blouse or designing a house. But I like to assemble ingredients that essentially cook themselves; marinades, soups, stews, bread.

Bread

Recently I taught a bread-baking class in a friend's kitchen. I didn't realize that I had never posted my bread recipe, so here it is.

I use my own leavening. It was originally a San Francisco sourdough starter, but after ten years it has become Woonsocket Rhode Island sourdough starter! Sourdough is flavorful and also a natural preservative. At first I used Fleischmann's yeast with my blob of sourdough because I was too afraid to rely on the sourdough. When the price of yeast skyrocketed to eight dollars a jar, I took the plunge and now I only use my sourdough as leavening! I'm convinced that keeping the starter culture alive and healthy is what keeps me baking.

If you are going to use commercial yeast I recommend using Fleischmann's brand yeast. (Not the quick rise! Not the bread machine yeast, and not Red Star brand yeast!) In my experience dough made with any other yeast doesn't spring back for the multiple risings which are crucial to the flexibility in my baking schedule. Yeast needs to be fresh, so make sure the expiration date is not past.

I use medium-grind whole-wheat flour which I buy in 50 pound bags from JAR Baker's Supply in Lincoln RI. The 50 pound bag is about 12 dollars!

Here's the basic recipe:

6 cups flour
3 cups wrist-temperature water
one tablespoon of kosher salt (less for fine grain salt)
one teaspoon of yeast (or a blob of sourdough starter)

Mix all the ingredients and set the dough aside to rise until doubled in bulk. You don't even need to proof the yeast or knead the dough, just gather the dough into a ball, place it in a bowl or container, and let it sit, covered. Time does the work of kneading and developing flavor! This rising takes 8-20 hours depending on whether you use sourdough starter or yeast, and depending on how cold or warm your rising spot is. Have faith!

Punch the risen dough down and shape the dough into two loaves or boules, then let it rise again on pans under a cloth. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. When the loaves have risen significantly, slash the tops (so the dough has room to expand in the oven), place them in the oven, and bake for 35 minutes. To check for doneness, tap the bottom of the loaf. It should sound hollow.

Note: If you want to add molasses to the dough, lower the baking temperature to 400 degrees and be prepared to increase the baking time ten minutes.