pegkerr | Entries tagged with food

because no one else in my family will eat it: Leek Blue Cheese soup. Really delicious.

Edited to add:

rufinia asked for the recipe, so here it is:

Leek and Blue Cheese Soup

Serves 6

3 large leeks
50g/ 2oz / 1/4 cup of butter
30ml / 2 TB oil
115g / 4oz Irish blue cheese, coarsely grated
15g / 1/2 oz / 2 TB plain all-purpose flour
15ml / 1 TB wholegrain Irish mustard, or to taste
1.5 litres / 2 1/2 pints / 6 1/4 cups chicken stock
ground black pepper
50g / 2 oz / 1/2 cup grated cheese and chopped chives or scallions, to garnish

1) Slice the leeks thinly. Heat the butter and oil together in a large heavy pan and gently cook the leeks in it, covered for 10-15 minutes, or until just softened but not brown.

2) Add the cheese to the pan, stirring over a low heat until it is melted. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, then add pepper and mustard to taste.

3) Gradually add the stock, stirring constantly and blending it in well, bring the soup to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer very gently for about fifteen minutes. Check the seasoning.

4) Serve garnished with the extra cheese and chopped chives or scallions.

(I also threw in some extra chopped ham I had hanging around in the refrigerator. Really good.)

It's been awhile since I've posted one of these, hasn't it?

Laptop Lunch August 15, 2012

Aside from the boring ham sandwich, I have a mixture of grapes and cherries, and then beet hummus, which will be spread on the cucumber rounds and then dotted with Quark, which is a soft cheese (in the small container).

Remember how frustrated I was when I was doing P90X and all that work wasn't making my weight budge in the least?

Remember when I mentioned I was going off sugar?

The results have been wonderful! I've lost six or seven pounds in just a month without even TRYING.

(Uh, I know I gotta start exercising again. But *groan* I've become fond of sleeping in.)

I am trying to drastically cut the amount of sugar I am eating. It's an interesting challenge. I hope that it will both help with weight loss and also help my general health, including continuing to keep depression at bay. I'm not telling myself that I'm cutting out sugar permanently. It seems to work better if I just say, for now, I'll choose this instead of that; I can eat it in the future. I've had one brownie in three weeks, which is quite a bit less than usual. I have a huge weakness for Starbucks brownies, and I was eating them three times a week or so. I've made that black bean bars recipe several times, which helps, too.

One of my other new tricks is that instead of eating a bowl of ice cream after dinner, which was getting to be a very regular bad habit, I'm instead eating frozen fruit. I made some watermelon sorbet the other night, but I've also resorted to frozen strawberries and blueberries. I should get some grapes and freeze those, too. And my new crack? Frozen mango chunks. OMG so good! I've told Rob that they are now mandatory to keep in the freezer.

Sure enough, I've quite significantly cut the amount of sugar I've been eating. I'm noticed that already my tastes are changing, so that now that when I do eat sugar, what I used to like now seems too sweet. A good sign.

Are any of the rest of you trying to cut sugar? What are some of your techniques that help you outsmart the cravings?

Fiona went over to a friend's and made an number of different batches, all with different flavors, of this: Ice cream made without an ice cream maker, and she brought home a selection for us to try. Really pretty good.

I tried this, and it was really surprisingly good: Vegan Fudge, made with no sugar, butter or milk. The secret? Black beans.

Naturally, no one else in my family will eat it. All the more for me, bwahahaha.

Today was a colorful, mostly vegetarian day, aside from 2 oz. of ground beef on the hoagie at lunch. Lots of stuff here that my family won't eat.

Breakfast (not pictured): barley cooked in the slow cooker, topped with vanilla yogurt and raspberries.

Lunch:

Homemade hoagie, topped with ground beef with sauteed vegetables mixed with tomato paste, red cabbage/orange slaw, and very yummy homemade beet hummus.

Dinner:

Polenta with sheep's milk cheese folded in, topped with braised kale and mushrooms and tomato, sauteed in balsamic vinaigrette.

I was pretty tired last night after we got back from my sister Betsy's house for Christmas Eve dinner (apparently, I haven't entirely recovered from this week's medical procedure, and the girls had been up late the previous night, too, so we ended the evening super early). We did have one tragedy as we were setting up for the Christmas breakfast this morning. Since I was so tired, I asked Fiona to set the table with our Christmas dishes. Unfortunately, the box which held her mug that she's had since she was a baby was put, inexplicably, in the cupboard upside down. It was a collectible Winnie the Pooh mug, with a Pooh figurine inside which endearingly poked his head out once the milk inside was drunk up. Poor Pooh crashed onto the kitchen counter, and the pieces flew everywhere.
Fiona was heartbroken and many tears were shed. It's funny how such a simple thing can assume such a vast importance. My heart ached for her, too. And how ironic that her child mug should be broken on the first year she has come back for Christmas from college. I looked on ebay and didn't see one like it. We will do some searching around to see if we can find something else that would be appropriate for her new adult status.

( Here's poor Pooh: we decided to put him on the table to show he wasn't forgotten: )

( Stockings were a big hit )

( Then we had our Christmas breakfast )

Once the kitchen was cleaned up, we opened presents.

( Delia got a big kick out of the fun socks Fiona found for her )

( Fiona snuggled some more with her Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles lounging pants )

A highlight for me was a mysterious package which had been left on the porch earlier this week, signed 'Santa's Elves'. ( I was absolutely delighted with the contents, as you can see here )

But for me the most amazing gift of all, perhaps the best Christmas gift I've received EVAH came in two parts. When I opened the first part, I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes for about ten minutes.

( It was a promotional poster for the cookbook I always said I'd write someday, Cooking for Ingrates )

I thought that nothing could delight me more than that poster. Yet my family did better than that. As if that wasn't special enough, they gave me the actual BOOK! Delia, that clever little creative person, had dreamed this fantastic idea up and designed the book herself more than a month ago.

( Here's a video of me opening the best Christmas I've ever received in my entire life )

Here's the front cover of the book:

and here's the back:

Such a happy Christmas (aside from the lamentable Pooh cup incident). I hope yours was as marvelous as ours.

(Everyone in my household aside from me is asleep now. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and the opportunity to catch up on your sleep)

are sitting on my counter and talking to me. The coconut macaroons and the Russian teacakes.

And I can't eat them.

I'm having a medical test done on Wednesday, that special icky one you get when you pass the magical age of fifty. Which means that I've been eating a low fiber diet for the past three days (nothing fibrous, i.e., no nuts or coconut). Tomorrow I go to all liquids.

*sigh*

Current Mood: hungry

We gathered at my sister Cindy's house this past Saturday for the annual cookie baking fun:

Cookie Baking December 17, 2011

( More pictures under the cut )

These are only some of the treats we made.

Some, but not all, of the cookie crew.

I started getting back on Sparkpeople.com two weeks ago, and already I'm seeing results. I'm tracking food and starting to exercise again, and already I've lost five pounds.

I've been making a real effort to eat more vegetables, and more vegetarian meals. In fact, I think I last ate meat four or more days ago, can't quite remember.

Today's lunch was so pretty, I took a picture. Open faced broiled veggie sandwiches. I took two pieces of bread, spread them with dijon mustard, and topped with shredded carrots and beets, purple cauliflower and slices of red bell pepper. I sprinkled muenster cheese on top, broiled it to melt the cheese, and then spread some hummus on top of that. Yummy and virtuous.

(You do realize that no one else in my family would touch something like this.)

"Would you like to take some of the carrot ginger soup I made last night for lunch today?"

Delia shook her head vigorously no.

I sighed. "Won't you at least try it?"

She ducked her head down like a turtle and said so earnestly that I had to laugh. "I respect it."

"But I don't like ginger."

I spent a little over three hours making the following soup from scratch (the recipe was provided by my local co-op Seward Co-op):

Ingredients
2 lbs. carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
6 TB Olive oil
6 cups vegetable broth, preferably homemade (I cheated and used vegetable bullion cubes)
1 cup cream
Salt, to taste (I ended up not adding any because the broth was already rather salty)
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp group cumin
pinch cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
To garnish: 1/4 cup creme fraiche, handful chopped cilantro, 2 TB. toasted caraway seeds

Method
Preheat oven to 350º F. Combine the carrots, garlic and ginger in a shallow roasting pan. Drizzle with 4 TB olive oil. Pour 2 cups of broth in the pan, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake until the vegetables are very tender, approximately 2 hours.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a large soup pot and add the sliced onions. Cook until the onions are translucent, and then add the coriander and cumin. Cook over low heat for about 6 minutes and allow spices to bloom. Add the roasted vegetables with broth to the onion and spice mixture along with the remaining 4 cups of broth. Season to taste with salt and cayenne pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.

Allow soup to cool, then puree until smooth, in batches in a blender or with a hand blender. Return the soup to the pot, adjust the seasonings if necessary, and add the cream. Serve each portion dolloped with a teaspoon of creme fraiche, sprinkled with cilantro and toasted caraway seeds.

Rob's verdict, when offered a taste: "Interesting. It's not gagworthy.

Yep. They don't deserve me.

Keith Ellison is one of the thirteen Democratic members of Congress who is taking the Food Stamp Challenge, i.e., eating on a budget of about $4.50 a day to show solidarity with food stamp recipients who receive $32.59 a week. The personal thrift is part of a challenge organized by Fighting Poverty With Faith.

Food stamps have been a target of Republican-led budget cuts. House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) proposed transfering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, into a block grant program administered by the states.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) recently told ABC's "Top Line" that the food stamp program was "out of control" and being abused by "multimillion-dollar lottery winners." (After a Michigan man drew attention for still receiving food stamps despite winning the lottery, state lawmakers began asking recipients about their financial assets.)

The number of people relying on food stamps has risen as a consequence of the recession. Over 40 million individuals and 19 million households used the program in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The participants are:

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH)
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Rep. Donna Christensen (D-Virgin Islands)
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL)
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)
Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA)
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA)
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)

Representative Joe Courtney has been blogging and tweeting about the experience.

(No Republicans have signed up. Gee, I wonder why?)

Ladies and gentlemen, take a moment to place your hands over your hearts, please. I have done it. The impossible dream, the goal I've pursued tirelessly for years, despite scorn, derision, humiliating failures and countless setbacks.

I have actually found a way to serve kale that my family liked. Delia tried a chip and said in a tone of vast surprise, "That tastes GOOD!" She even took the leftovers for lunch today.

My child. Took kale to school for lunch.

It must be a sign of the apocalpse.

These are amazingly easy and guilt free. Highly recommended.

(Tip: I've seen other recipes that have suggested adding a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar along with the oil. May try that next).

It hit the 90s today in Minneapolis, which meant I reached for one of my very favorite hot weather meals, which I got years ago out of the cookbook 365 Low Calorie Recipes. This takes fifteen minutes to make, is light and delicious and perfectly easy on those days it's too hot to cook:

Thai Beef Salad - serves 4

10 oz. cooked flank steak or deli roast beef, trimmed of excess fat (I use deli roast beef usually)
2 TB fresh lime juice
1 TB soy sauce
1 TB water
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed hot pepper flakes
3 scallions, sliced (omitted for my picky family)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced (ditto)
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded (about 4 cups) (I hate iceberg and use romaine instead)
1/4 cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped

Cut beef into thin strips and place in a medium bowl. Add lime juice, soy sauce, water, ginger, garlic, and hot pepper. Toss to mix. Add scallions, cucumber and red pepper. Toss again. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.

Arrange lettuce in a salad bowl. Pour beef, vegetables, and any liquid in bowl over lettuce. Sprinkle peanuts on top. Toss at table just before serving.

(Recipe notes 221 calories per serving).

Tell me what's your very favorite it's-so-easy-and-delicious-when-it's-too-hot-too-cook recipe. Thanks!

Wine for Normal People:

"A podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it." Elizabeth Schneider is a Certified Specialist of Wine and Sommelier, but also a normal person making wine easy and accessible. Rick Breslin is Founder of Hello Vino, a free app providing wine recommendations on your mobile device.

Subscribe through iTunes. On Twitter at @NormalWine and on Facebook here. See also Elizabeth Schneider's blog here. (Find out about Hello Vino here. Hello Vino is on Twitter at @hellovino)

Tolkien Professor:

My name is Corey Olsen. I am a tenured English professor at Washington College and a PhD in medieval literature, and I have been a student of Tolkien's works for as long as I can remember.

On this website (and through my podcast feed on iTunes), I will be posting many different kinds of material, mostly in the form of digital audio files. The heart of my work on this site is my extended, in-depth lecture series on Tolkien's major works, but I have also provided several methods through which we can enter into a more interactive conversation. All of my recorded material is completely free; I hope you have as much fun listening to them as I have making them! I have become increasingly frustrated with the separation between academics and general readers, and I am determined to come out of the cloister and spend my own career sharing my scholarly work with the public. I founded this website because I wanted to connect with other people who are eager to be included in a thoughtful literary conversation about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since I launched this site in July 2009, listeners have downloaded more than 1,200,000 of my lectures.

He's also on Twitter at @tolkienprof and on Facebook here.

I ate cold cereal for years, but the price has gotten to be more than I can stomach. Lately, I've been having barley for breakfast, made in the slow cooker. I simply throw 2 1/4 cups of water and 1/2 cup of barley in, set it for low, and it's ready the next morning. It makes enough breakfast for two days. I scoop out half and put it in a tupperware container and store it in the refrigerator.

The first day is the sweet day: the barley is the consistency of porridge, and I top it with any combination of cinnamon, craisins, chopped apples, brown sugar, walnuts, bananas, maple syrup.

The second day is the savory day. Once refrigerated, the barley sets to a consistency like polenta. I simply slice it up, pan fry it in a nonstick pan sprayed with a little cooking spray, and top it with thin slices of melted brie cheese.

Cross-posted to

ofmornings

A holiday which I just coincidentally discovered today when looking up Burns' biography on Wikipedia (I was catching listening to the Irish and Celtic Music podcast which included a Rabbie Burns song.) Anyway, here's a nice collection of recipes to help you celebrate.

Last Saturday we gathered at my sister Cindy's for a fun old-fashioned cookie swap.

Cookie Baking: December 8, 2010
From left to right: Fiona, me, Delia, my older sister Betsy, Mom, my younger sister Cindy

( More pictures: It was a lot of fun! )

I love this one of the girls:

( Some of the finished product )

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Peg Kerr's Journal

The Holy Tree Grows Within the Heart

Tonight's dinner for ME

Tomorrow's lunch

Wow...

Trying to get off sugar

How to make ice cream without an ice cream maker

I tried this...

Meals today

Christmas morning

Those cookies...

Annual Cookie Baking

Lunch today

Conversation with Delia this morning.

Roasted Carrot Ginger Soup

Yet another reason I like my Congressman

Kale chips

Favorite hot weather meal

A couple of podcasts that I'm enjoying

Winter breakfasts

It's Burns Night!

Cookie baking

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