Welcome to Margie's Musings
Welcome to my BLOG! I write about whatever I want, mostly food and random stories I'm trying to write. I hope you enjoy it. In loving kindness....
A quick dinner using only one pan. Just the kind of meal I like. We don't eat much meat or sausage, but my hubby loves both so every couple months I treat him to something like this. This recipe serves 2 so scale it up for more people. I serve it with rice. It would go nicely with pasta or just a couple slices of a hearty bread. Use mini peppers and you just have to slice them in half. Recipe is adapted from one in the New York Times.
Been awhile since I posted. Life in the Johnson household has been up and down, filled with health concerns for both me and my hubby. I've still been cooking, though, and have a backlog of recipes to post. May not get them all up til December. Darn as some will no longer be in season. This pie is good. My neighbor has a persimmon tree and she lives by the mailbox. She stands in wait with a bag full of persimmons. She is an older Asian woman with a gravelly voice. As I pass by while walking Annie, I say hello and she thrusts a bag of persimmons into my hands. I can't say no. So I take them home and we have them on our morning cereal, in salads and in this pie. I'm also toying with making jam. Later this week perhaps. Enjoy the pie!
As the weather cools and fall fruits become available, my jam making shifts from peaches and berries to figs, pears, apples, persimmons! Not sure why I am so into making jams. Its soothing, calming and helps me cope with life's challenges. Often you'll find me in the kitchen preparing fruit for jam while watching Perry Mason reruns. That show may have been responsible for my interest in becoming a lawyer. I know for sure it helped me get through law school evidence class. I'd watch and shriek at the TV - objection, objection! This jam recipe is adapted from one by Christine Ferber.
This is an adaptation of the famous Marian Burros Plum Torte. It is so delicious. I've made it twice already since plums are in season right now in California. We scarf it down in a couple days and lick our fingers and want more. It is super simple, although it did require me to get the hand mixer out so I could cream the sugar and butter. Give it a try, assuming you don't already have the recipe taped to your frig or bookmarked on your device. Feel free to use other fruit instead of plums or along with the plums. I used apricots and plums in one of them. Really tasty.
Got my inspiration for this pizza from Slivers in Berkeley. I really enjoy making pizza with non-traditional toppings. It gives me a creative outlet. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. This one worked! It has corn, peppers, onions, tomatoes and grapes. And lime. I hope you give it a try or perhaps it will help inspire you in a new pizza direction. This pizza is vegetarian. To make it vegan, use vegan cheese.
I've been making this for many years. It is pretty easy to make. Don't let the list of ingredients throw you. It is a one pot meal and you can take some short cuts. Always important for a person with a disability. Traditionally, I've served this with dal, brown basmati rice and raita. Over the years I've lost my energy for putting together such an elaborate meal and now use plain yogurt and add a drained can of garbanzo beans or lentils to the pot. This recipe is adapted from one in The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two.
Here's a little pasta dish I like to make frequently when eggplant is in season. I especially like the small eggplants - Italian or Asian ones. They don't require peeling or salting. They are tender and soak up whatever flavors you put with them. This recipe only has 4 main ingredients not counting the oil and seasonings. It comes together in a flash and is so delicious, you'll want to eat your eggplant this way all the time. Hubby, who claims to dislike eggplant, asked for another serving and said he did not miss the tomato sauce.
Here's a nice simple soup made with broth, spinach and lime. Dress it up with chopped egg, bits of chicken, beef or tofu, or other protein, avocado, and cheese to create a light lunch or dinner. You get the idea. Or eat it as a first course with tortillas or a crusty bread. The great thing about it is its ease to pull together. And its a great way to use up spinach that's been lingering in your refrigerator a bit too long or all that CSA produce.
It's been awhile since I added a post. There has been lots going on this summer. Mostly health issues with loved ones, graduations and resting up from the first two. Speaking of graduations, my sister and I went north on I5 to my granddaughter's high school graduation. On the way we saw signs for apricots. On the way back we got off the freeway went down a narrow paved road for a few miles, turned on a dirt/gravel road and followed it to a small fruit stand on an apricot orchard. Oh my. Were those apricots gorgeous. And they were so delicious. I had to get enough for jam as apricot jam is one of my all time favorites. As with many of my jam recipes this one is adapted from one by David Lebovitz.
It has been a while since I posted any recipes. I think spring fever caught me this year. Feeling lazy and wanting to be outside. I've been getting my CSA boxes every other week and have much produce to cook with. Here are four things I've done lately with some of the produce. Collards sauteed with ginger, beets and greens salad, rhubarb salsa and grilled potatoes. All are side dishes and go well with chicken, fish, veggie main and even beef. They come together quickly and leave me with plenty of time to lounge around outside in my garden nook reading a book while hubby operates the grill. Enjoy.
Enjoying my produce this week. It is the season for rosemary, leeks and potatoes. If you are like me, you love potato leek soup. I usually whip out my immersion blender and turn it into a creamy soup. But lately I've been leaving it chunky. And I like it! Here is how I made it and it was delicious. To make it vegan, leave out the butter and use vegetable broth.
Getting lots of broccoli this time of year. Here is a very nice salad to use some of it up. I like this recipe because it involves chopping, you know how I enjoy chopping. Besides that the taste is very good, the cranberries add a nice tart explosion in my mouth and the apple helps sweeten things up. The nuts add some protein and mellow out the flavors. It comes together quickly and I've kept it in the Frig for a couple days with no problem. Inspiration comes from Full Belly Farm recipes.
After I discovered baked eggs, I started preparing them more often and with different bases. Here is a version using kale and Mexican spices. I put a bit of lime in it because I like citrus with kale. Leave it out if you don't have it or try lemon instead. For the kale, I place the washed and trimmed leaves in a bowl and microwave for about 1 to 2 minutes. I squeeze out the liquid and then chop the kale roughly. Any I don't use in the recipe I set aside for another use, such as topping on soup or an addition to salad or a bowl. I hope you enjoy this version of baked eggs.
Full Belly provided new potatoes, green garlic and cabbage. I wanted something quick and since it has been so cold and rainy - a nice warming soup. This soup fit the bill and turned out to be really easy to make. I do enjoy chopping, if you don't, feel free to substitute that wonderful pre-sliced cabbage from the grocery. The parmesan really adds lots of flavor, so don't skimp on it. I like greens and potatoes with lemon, so a squeeze of lemon right before serving really helped the soup taste fresh and vibrant. I hope you'll try it.
I started getting Full Belly again. They agreed on a trial basis to delivery to my house. So wonderful. If you have it available where you live--getting veggies delivered from an organic farm is so amazing. It gives me a chance to eat seasonally and use my creative cooking skills. This past week it was plenty of greens, including kale. This recipe is a really nice way to use preserved lemon and kale. Plus it is a one pan meal. I love those. The chicken, lemon and almonds really balance out the robust flavor of kale. This is a recipe I definitely want to incorporate into my monthly rotation. Recipe adapted from one by Donna Hay.
We love pasta! If I make pasta, hubby will eat it all. I have a number of pasta recipes, some I've shared on this blog already. Here are two more that I love. The first one is so simple, yet supremely delicious. It will change your life; honest. The second is a less caloric version of a tomato cream sauce. Feel free to amp up the richness by using heavy cream or sour cream. I tend to use what I have on hand. Note also that neither recipe uses spices. Before you start dumping in the basil and other Italian spices and heaven forbid--meat, give them a try as is. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how flavorful these tomato sauces are. Enjoy.
Still working on using up my citrus. Today's recipe is for Meyer Lemon Marmalade. I'm not a fan of marmalade, but this one is surprisingly light and sunshiny tasting. I used Meyer lemons, but you could use any sweet lemon in the recipe. It may work OK with regular lemons as long as you increase the sugar a bit. I've not tried that. This recipe is pretty easy; you know I prefer simpler recipes. The only tricky part is pouring the lemons into the strainer. This is why I made a very small batch, so the amount I had to lift and pour was less. I used a strainer set over a pan in the sink so as to not get hot water on me. Worked good. I made two batches of the jam. Craig really liked it. I've included a variation for cardamon lemon marmalade below too. I adapted a recipe by David Lebovitz.
I got an Instant Pot for Christmas. Mostly to see what all the hype is about and whether it would make my life as a person with a disability easier. I got a 3 quart version since it is just me and Craig. It was easy to use, buttons made sense and I did not fear for my life, except the first time I did a quick release of the steam. Cleaning it is not much worse than cleaning my rice cooker. Although my rice cooker's inner pot is easier to clean. All the recipes in the world seem to be for 6 quart versions, so math was involved. Using it was was easier for some recipes, especially beans. They cooked fast and came out creamy and fabulous. But other recipes, like steel cut oats - not really, took about the same amount of time as my rice cooker and the cleanup seemed harder and the taste was not any better.
Here is a recipe for leftover ham. I admit it, for Christmas I made a ham. Unfortunately, there were just the two of us to eat it - resulting in lots of leftover ham. I froze a fair amount for later in the year as I'll not make another ham until next Christmas, if then. It was fortunate I planned to make this since, Alex, our Russian exchange student returned to spend New Years with us. He is definitely a meat eater, so this worked for his taste. The soup is adaptable and takes to leftover vegetables. Experiment with different herbs too. Adapted from a Food Network Kitchen recipe.
As the weather cools and fall fruits become available, my jam making shifts from peaches and berries to figs, pears, apples, persimmons! Not sure why I am so into making jams. Its soothing, calming and helps me cope with life's challenges. Often you'll find me in the kitchen preparing fruit for jam while watching Perry Mason reruns. That show may have been responsible for my interest in becoming a lawyer. I know for sure it helped me get through law school evidence class. I'd watch and shriek at the TV - objection, objection! This jam recipe is adapted from one by Christine Ferber.
