Author: More Time at the Table

Slow Cooker Sweet Potato-Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage

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After Thanksgiving, and just before the Christmas cookie baking and bingeing, it might be time for a big, thick, healthy slow-cooker soup.  If you practice the great tradition of Advent, maybe you’re cleaning your physical as well as your spiritual house in preparation for greeting God. Whatever the case, this meal is great for dinner and then to take for filling lunches and will keep you from hitting the candy machine or the chip bag about 3pm. Probably.

below:  daughter Emily baking apple pie for our Thanksgiving

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Having just spent a week at the beach, it was hard for me to come back to reality. (Too much pie, of course. Is that possible?) But it was time to find something to cook for dinner and I took the easy way out:  slow-cooker. Continue reading →

Rosemary Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Mash, Garlicky Spinach, and Mushroom Sauce — Dinner with French Wine, Please

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On a night when the world reeled from the Paris attacks — and from the unending hate and carnage we seem to constantly face (Do we humans desire to end our world?) — I had planned some sort of a pork chop dinner.  That said, you’ll imagine I had a couple of great big, thick babies unthawed (1 1/2 -2-inches thick) and a few vegetables basking on the counter waiting to see what I’d do with them. I kept one eye on the tv and another on the sauté pans. I began without a perfectly clear idea, but it quickly came into focus:  tender, rosemary for remembrance-scented pork snuggled up to garlicky spinach and cozy mashed sweet potatoes, to which I added a regular Idaho potato.  A lusty French-style white wine-mushroom sauce tied the whole thing together. Why not? Love was the key, the answer here.  Wasn’t it?

Quote of the Day: Love

THE LOVE FOR equals is a human thing—of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.

The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing—the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.


The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing—to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.


And then there is the love for the enemy—love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.

-Originally published in The Magnificent Defeat by Frederick Buechner

And I can’t help but think of the hundred of thousands of Syrians already killed in this horrific time.  No one has changed their Facebook page to mourn them.  Last count was 250,000, I thought–but as I researched it that number might be just a little too high.  Here’s what I found.

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Salmon on Eggplant Sauté with Olives and Peppadews

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My cooking brain is sometimes most creative when first given a few desperate (or not so desperate) things with which to work.  For example, it’s cool to see there are almost-spotted sweet potatoes on the counter, bell peppers in the fridge shrinking, and come up with dinner.  I like a conservative approach to cooking and often think of the old, “Waste not, want not” adage.  I’m not perfect at using every tidbit, but I work on it. I hate throwing things away.  

Last week I had some olives and peppadews leftover from a birthday antipasti tray and had just bought a bag of frozen, wild salmon fillets — two pounds for $22.00. A real bargain. You know how I love salmon.

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Eggplant, red bell peppers (and a few other things) languished–leftover from making a veggie lasagna. I needed dinner in a half hour. I stuck the individually-sealed salmon fillets in a pot of water to thaw and made the nearly-instant couscous.  Next, a quick sauté of the eggplant with peppers and onions while grilling the asparagus.   4 minutes in the grill pan for the salmon and I think it was done just about exactly in the time I had allotted.  Try this, making the components in the order that suits you:

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Butternut Squash-Wild Rice Soup

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above: soup without half and half

If you’re a soup cookbook writer, you probably love soup. I love soup. I’m seldom happier than when I’m heating up a kettle while chopping a big pile of vegetables.  Perhaps I’m happier at the table with a hot bowl and a cold class of wine or driving home knowing there’s a big pot of soup in the fridge making me feel rich. I don’t know.  

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Bacon and Green Onion Tuna Steaks on Cannellini Bean Hash

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For years, my good friend Sue Hall has made a favorite dish of white beans topped with grilled tuna… It might have been enhanced by some earthy fragrant rosemary or a few onions, depending on the day.  Healthy, luscious, I remember this plate of goodness as one of the perfect al fresco summer meals.

When I bought some cryovac-packed tuna steaks at my local grocery (frozen fish=good idea in Colorado/great value), I thought of Sue and wondered how many times I’d seen her make this tuna meal albeit with fresh tuna.  While I’m not at the beach where Sue loves to cook, I’m happy to be home cooking in my own kitchen…

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after two weeks of restaurant and cruise food. Even Italian, Greek, Turkish, or Croatian restaurant and cruise food!

(Below– from our trip: Yummy Izmir, Turkey breakfast with honey and orange marmalade where I put a big piece of what I thought was cheese on my bread and found out it was a half-inch thick, 4″x2″ piece of butter-see bottom of photo!)

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Here’s my spin on this happy fish meal.  I filled it out with a root vegetable hash mixed with time-saving canned cannellini beans, placed it on a frame of asparagus for greenery, and topped the tuna with barely steamed scallions along with the bonus: a huge thick piece of crispy bacon. Thanks, Sue! (From top left, clockwise:  Sue, Lani, Kim, and I at our last beach trip.) Continue reading →

Chicken Basil Riff and the Venice to Istanbul Trip

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Just coming home from a two-week vacation is work enough (back in the saddle again), but coming home to find a #deadbodysmell fridge-freezer before you’ve even unloaded the doggies is just plain nasty.  I had already needed to buy a washer and dryer on the way home as my dryer had died right before our flight to Venice and the washer was on its last legs.  I was looking forward to a fast delivery to take care of the two weeks of suitcase clothing.  Don’t want vacation tails? (sic) Scroll down past the photos for recipe.

12088334_1039242892806072_1112814192825993745_nI accused Dave of creating the wafting, unhappy-nose and brain smell-GOD, GOD, IT WAS TRAGIC; he denied it vehemently.  I looked at the dogs, who looked back at me; they had nada.  (Above:  at super Double D Ranch for camp.) As I opened the car door, I realized it was the garage that smelled and just knew an animal -ARGH- had entered and died.  We looked around and found no raccoon, bear, cat, etc. (We really do have bears in garages here.) Dave went to the 2001 double-door fridge/freezer we removed from the kitchen during the remodel–obviously none too soon–and not being able to stop himself from opening it, discovered a sickening mess that had been going on for a while. Quite a while.

In the house was a note from the woman who cleans our house and stays over occasionally when we travel.  “House is great; can’t figure out the smell in garage.”

IMG_1621Just when I was feeling oh-so-sigh-Venicy.  We did surely, surely have a glorious time with six friends taking the long route on a ship that, beginning in Venice with a side-trip to Florence, had to nearly blow through Brindisi, Italy; Katakolon, Greece (Olympia); Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey; and Dubrovnik, Croatia to make it back to Venice in a week. Just for info:  we went on MSC Cruises (ship=Magnifica), an Italian line, and they showed us a gorgeous time. Beautiful ship (a little big at 3,000 passengers for this Holland America girl), good food, polite staff, lack of constant corny announcements, and a dependable please-read-your-daily-program-we-aren’t-your-babysitters approach to cruising. Continue reading →

Butternut and Other Winter Squash Roundup

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The blog and I are on vacation for most of October–Dave and puppies, too.  I’ve collected my favorite butternut (and other) squash recipes for you to peruse while we’re getting out of Dodge.  Just click on the title under each picture for a link to the blog post and recipe.  Start your fall cooking NOW!

 Butternut Squash Frittata with Parmesan Cheese above photo–no link, but here’s the…

Recipe:

Sauté  2 chopped small tomatoes, 1/2 cup cooked chopped butternut squash, and 1 cup spinach over medium flame in an 8-inch skillet with 2 teaspoons olive oil until tender. Add three egg whites evenly on top of the vegetables, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook until egg whites are set to your liking.  Flip pan over onto plate, top frittata with Parmesan and eat while hot.  Serves 1.   Cook the yolks for the dogs!
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Two tips about butternut  or other winter squash:

  1. You can often buy it peeled and cut in containers in the produce section.
  2. Using a whole winter squash? It’s much easier to peel if you microwave it for 5 minutes before peeling it. (Do poke several holes in it and place in a microwave-safe dish before microwaving.)  Click here for a basic article on peeling and cutting winter squash.

Enjoy!

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Colorado Lamb-Barley Stew with Butternut Squash and Tarragon Mushrooms

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And while the New Zealanders, Australians, Brits, Scots, and Irish would strenuously object, Colorado has close to the best lamb in the world.  It’s rare to find any in the store in Colorado itself–horrible pun, but there it is; I use it often.  We once had some Colorado lamb in a swank restaurant in London paired with high-priced French wine. (The quintessential pairing for lamb is Bordeaux.)  But I’m an American and I adore lamb with Oregon Pinot Noir.  The lack of Colorado lamb in Colorado groceries is a common complaint of mine. I apologize to those of you who’ve heard it before.

Want to buy American lamb?  Check HERE.

If you’re like me and you can’t find any Colorado lamb without ordering it online (and that’s something you can do in the states), choose any lamb shoulder or boned leg of lamb for the meat in this stew. You can find a good-looking, decently-priced boneless leg of lamb at Costco; cut it up, use some and freeze the rest for another day. Alternately, California or other American lamb is often found in the regular grocery chains.  Any will work and you don’t need too terribly much. Lamb is rich and that’s a complimentary way of saying it’s fatty and fattening.  Let’s call it a treat.  And who wants stew made with lean meat? What would THAT taste like? We’re talking stew here. Continue reading →

Squash-Parsnip Soup with Tarragon Sour Cream or Parmesan and Toasted Almonds

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My friend Mary Pat’s September birthday is always a reason for celebration. I often cook her a birthday dinner and find it a happy excuse to make a fallish meal after a long, long summer.  (Is it fall YET? The garden’s dying, but it’s still in the 80’s. We sat out last night on the deck at 8 o’clock with a drink watching the blood moon.)

below: my front walk milkweed grown for the monarch butterflies

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Here’s the menu that included her favorite dessert (after Cherries Jubilee, Baked Alaska, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie):

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I like six people for dinner, eight at the most, so that I can truly pay attention to and hear each person. Otherwise, it’s a party–cacophony– and I approach it very differently.  I also like to cook a lot of recipes that only serve eight.

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