Ypsi Cooks

Betsy wrote, “I was wondering, what are your suggestions for using frozen rhubarb? I think frozen has some drawbacks (a bit tougher, etc), but we have a ton from this late summer.“
Click “read more” for response.My initial answer: save it for me! I LOVE rhubarb. I seem to be in good company: Nigella Lawson has several rhubarb recipes in each of her cookbooks. I have made her Rhubarb Polenta Cake (How to be a Domestic Goddess) with frozen rhubarb, and while it is not the same as using fresh, it is still pretty spectacular. Really, I have baked more with frozen rhubarb than I have with fresh. It's best not to let it thaw all the way (and if you do, be careful not to stir it too much), and don't use it in recipes where a particular constancy is important (i.e. scones). The freezing helps break down those pesky, tough cell walls, so it can actually help with the consistency of late summer stalks. Frozen rhubarb is good as long as you aren't too attached to it being pretty, and it definitely won't be pink!

As for what to do with it? Try stewing 4 c. rhubarb tossed with a blend of about 1/2 c. sugar (1/3 c. honey) and 1 T. corn starch and a fair shake of cinnamon*** in the oven on 350 or so for 30-45 min (the perfect thing to do if you're also baking dinner), or on the stovetop on a med-low setting. This is delicious with a scoop of ice cream or some granola and yogurt. You could even do an oatmeal-crumb topping. For more of a custard add an egg or 2 to the above recipe and replace the corn starch with double the amount of flour. Whatever you make, do try adding a pinch of cardamom: it is SO divine with rhubarb. A little vanilla wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks for the question; I'm going to have to dig through my freezer and see if I have any rhubarb left and conjure up something reat.. But really, Betsy, do save some for me. Pleeeease!

*** Cinnamon has an amazing ability to combat tartness, thereby reducing the amount of sweetener needed. Great to keep in mind when dealing with rhubarb or cranberries.

Food

No, this is not about what to do with too many holiday cookies. These cookies are made with leftovers. Yes, cookies made from leftovers. Friday night I finally remembered to plan ahead and put together the batter for yeast waffles. Saturday morning I realized we didn't have any syrup, and I didn't feel like making any, so I opened a can of crushed pineapple. We didn't use all the pineapple on our waffles, so I started to think of how to use the rest. Yes, it's delicious in smoothies, but 'tis the season to bake cookies so I pulled out a great Fannie Farmer recipe for Pineapple Cookies. Alas, I only had 1/2 cup of pineapple, not the requisite 1 cup. Bummer. Or not. There has been a jar of cooked cranberries (the beginning of cranberry sauce) in our fridge for quite some time and I needed to do something with them. So I filled out the rest of the cup with the cranberries and a little honey, altered the spices in the cookie (inspired by Dorie Greenspan) and came up with quite a delicious concoction. As the Fannie Farmer says, these cookies are “thick, soft, cakelike.”
Cranberry Cookies (approx. 40)

1 stick room temp butter
1 c loosely packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract (or an additional 1/2 t of vanilla)
1 c cranberry relish
2 c flour
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t powdered ginger
1/2 t chinese five spice
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 c pecans or walnuts, chopped
If you really want a cranberry cookie try adding 1/2 c dried cranberries.

Preheat oven to 350, grease cookie sheets. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Cream butter and sugar. Scrape down and add egg and extracts, beat until light and fluffy. Add dry mixture to the cranberry mixture. Stir in nuts and optional dried cranberries (or maybe some chopped crystalized ginger?). Drop by spoonfuls into prepared cookie sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake about 12 min until matte. Transfer to racks to cool.

Even better, ones made in crock-pots (slow cookers) that are ready to eat when you walk in from work. I made this lentil-vegetable soup for the family the other night, and liked it enough to bring it into the work “Holiday Potluck.”
6 c water
1/2 c red lentils
1/2 c bulgar wheat
4 carrots, 1/4-1/2 inch slice
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp (smoked) paprika
*1/4 tsp cayenne pepper *I just shook it in, so I'm only guessing on the amount
*1/2 tsp cumin
*1/2-1 tsp salt
2 tsp Better Than Bullion (or enough bullion to make 2 cups, or replace 2 cups of water w/stock).

Combine above ingredients in crock pot. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 7-8 hours.
Add below items and cook for 15 min, or until heated through.
1/2 c cooked white beans (or increase lentils by 1/4 c and water by 1/2 c)
1 c frozen spinach
1/2 c chopped parsley
Finish w/lemon juice or soy sauce, if desired. (Also, the acid in the lemon juice will stop the lentils from further cooking, so that's helpful if keeping the crock pot on.)
Enjoy!

This is the one holiday that it is about a meal, but somehow the entire long weekend became an endless meal only interrupted by sleep. We started on Thanksgiving with a waffle brunch, and then a lackluster turkey dinner at Leon's. Friday evening we had a nice traditional dinner. My mother did the usual fare, but some things were new. Bridgit made a pecan pie with apples and cut the sugar in half. The apples gave it sweetness without the gooey sugar layer that pecan pie usually has. My mother also did a sweet potato mash covered with sugar and nuts.

We had people over for breakfast on Saturday and we had some amazing food. We pretty much made it our Thanksgiving meal. Bridgit made a Cranberry Spice Bundt which was amazing. The most amazing thing to me was that she actually almost followed the recipe. The only thing she changed was some whole wheat flour in place half the regular flour. She also made a pumpkin fondue thing that was spectacular. The only problem was that one of the pumpkins tipped over in the oven and poured goo out and made a bunch of smoke. Holly made quiche florentine which had more stuff and less eggs then most quiche.

Then to wrap it all up we used the turkey carcass to make a turkey soup and had it for dinner tonight.

Now I need another long weekend to sleep off all the food.

Oh, and Amelia is now eating real food. Real food means rice cereal and sweet potatoes.

From Amelia Rose

Bridgit brought home some a few days ago and we cooked a buttercup last night. I forgot how much I love squash. Properly prepared it is a wonderful comfort food. I usually prefer squash in the smashed form, but in cubes it is good as well.

Everyone loves butternut, but I think it is a little overrated. Buttercup is lesser known, but has wonderful nutty and smoky notes that make it great for blending into butternut.

And don't forget pumpkin! Pumpkin pie often gets a bad rap, but is one of my favorites.

So Bridgit has mentioned to me a few times that she want's a blog dedicated to food. I like food, so I am indulging her.

I think that we are going to basically blog about the food we eat and the food we want to eat. Maybe even some food we don't want to eat.

About a week ago I received what felt like a flood of herbs. My mom hooked me up with some tarragon (the one thing I wanted to add to the garden this year, plus she gave us an almond bush: good job, mom), our new boarder brought garlic chives from his former garden, and Tom brought home a rosemary plant. I haven't been happy with the layout of the herb and shrub area of our veggie garden, so I took the opportunity to move some stuff while adding the new items. I also cut back the lemon thyme. The bush was huge, probably 1

One of my friends had an intense day, so the kids and I decided to make her some cookies. We love to make cookies, with all the measuring and dumping and mixing, it's childhood heaven. I've been working on a low fat, low sugar recipe for a while. Cooks Illustrated created light recipe where you use all butter (no applesauce or other funny stuff), but you melt it, and somehow that means you only have to use half as much.

Well, it's a great recipe, but it has 1 cup of sugar, which is the main ingredient we try to avoid in this house, so I've been slowly reducing it. A half cup provides enough sweetness, but since sugar is important for moisture and cohesion, I have been tinkering with the recipe in other ways to compensate. I perused online for a trailmix cookie recipe and found one that included 1/2 tsp of baking soda dissolved in 1 tbsp of hot water. Wondering if that might do the trick, the kiddos and I set to work on a batch of cookies.

But wait. I forgot. We ran out of cinnamon a few days ago. Grrrrrr. What's an oatmeal cookie without a little cinnamon? Plus, cinnamon speaks to your tastebuds as if it's sweetness, thereby allowing you to reduce the sugar content without totally sacrificing flavor. What's a girl to do without cinnamon? Dorie Greenspan published the recipe for this amazing Spiced Cranberry Bunt cake in the November 2008 issue of Bon Appetit where she introduced me to Chinese 5 Spice*, and aromatic combination of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and other spices. Since then, I've used it here and there to add ore interesting flavor than cinnamon alone.

Using 5 spice, I knew I had to be choose my nuts and fruits wisely. Thinking about the fruit, nuts and seeds I had, I thought a bit of a Turkish/Middle East inspired cookie with apricots and pistachios might work out well. Of course you could always replace the 5 spice with cinnamon and have a quite traditional (only healthier) oatmeal.

Also, sorry about the lack of pictures. Imagine an oatmeal cookie, not totally flat, not a puffy little cake cookie, but a nice normal one. Now imagine it a few shades darker because of the spice and molasses. There's your picture.

*I bought my 5 spice in bulk where I could get just a spoonful for a few cents, just in case I didn't like it. I've been back for more. Twice.

Read more for the recipe.
Turkish Spice Trail Mix Cookies (makes about 30 and are probably healthier than most granola bars)

2/3 c. white whole wheat (or unbleached all purpose) flour
1 1/3 c. oats (preferably old fashioned)
1/4-1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled (in a big enough bowl or pan to mix the following 7 ingredients)
1/2 c. sugar (or 1/2 c. dark brown sugar and omit the molasses, but I'm “frugal”)
1 egg, room temp
1 T. blackstrap molasses
2 T applesauce (or just do 6 tbsp melted butter)
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder (or cinnamon)
1/4 tsp powdered ginger (my ginger loving friend might have liked 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp hot water
1 1/2 cups “stuff”
We did chopped apricots, golden raisins, toasted almonds, pecans, pistachios and sunflower seeds.
The variations are endless: sesame seeds, dried cherries, coconut, chocolate chips, or the classic raisins and walnuts)
2 tbsp chopped candied ginger, optional

Preheat the oven to 325*. If using raw nuts and seeds, place them on a baking sheet in the oven to toast for 15 min or until fragrant. Remove and allow to cool. The oven does not have to be preheated for this.

In the mean time, in a small bowl, pour hot water over the dried fruit

I've been snacking on this tasty little trio for almost a year now, quietly wrapping the sweet little apricot around that crunchy little almond and popping it in my mouth with a little slice of some nice white cheddar. The combination of flavors and textures always transports me somewhere. Where, I don't know, but somewhere other than my desk at work. It's not really Spain (that would be manchego, quince and almonds), and it seems like Turkey would be perhaps pistachio & figs, but in any case, I've been enjoying this combination since my 9 month old was kicking around asking for more food every moment. I didn't really share it with anyone because, admittedly, I didn't really think others would like the combination. But I was having a little snack the other day, and Eli LOVES almonds and apricots, so I pulled an apricot in half and wrapped it around an almond for him (oh how kids love hidden foods). He thought that was awesome. Tom came in to see what caused the elation, and I made him one, plus the slice of cheddar. Well Tom liked that so much Eli had to have one, and so it continued until I had to cut them off for fear of “spoiling their appetites.”
While I think there are several cheeses & nuts that work, stick to UN-SULFURED and unsweetened fruits. Start with apricots. It is so fun to pull one in half and wrap it around the nut, and the taste and texture are really unlike any other, but I could be convince to venture into the figs mentioned above thinly sliced), or perhaps cherries or dates. Maybe pine nuts could work in this fruit-cheese-nut combo. I feel that waxy, coherent quality in almonds, pistachios and pine nuts is important. Brazil nuts fit the qualifications, but that lack the one bite factor that I find endearing about these. Maybe that's because it was such a secret affair for so long…

It seems ridiculous to eat a cold breakfast on a Saturday morning when there are so many delicious breakfast options. Pancakes with blueberries, banana slices, chunks of peach, or whatever deliciousness is hanging around. Eggs with veggies and cheese, homemade granola with homemade yogurt, fruit and a little maple syrup. The breakfast options are endless. Today Elijah declared it a muffin day. So I looked in our Whole Family Recipes cookbook and found “Oatmeal Raisin Muffins.” Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, but the end result still needs some tweaking. Here is what I will try next time:

3/4 c. rolled oats*
1 c. white whole wheat flour (Available at most grocery stores, we use King Arthur brand)
1/4 c. rice, oat, bean, potato, etc. flour
2 TBSP nutritional yeast
2 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 TBSP cinnamon

1 c. milk*
2 eggs
1/3 c. honey
1″ of fresh, peeled ginger, grated
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c. raisins plumped in boiling water
1/2 c. slice almonds

Preheat the oven to 370 and grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Mix the dry ingredients (not a bad idea to sift the flour and leaveners) and make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, blend the wet ingredients. Pour the wed ingredients into the well and stir until just moistened. Add the almonds and raisins. divide the batter into the muffin cups. Bake until toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs, about 17 min.
*Ideally, soak the oats in the fridge milk overnight