There is No Fire Here....I'm Just Cooking Something

The members of my family will be the first to tell you that I haven't spent alot of time in the kitchen in my recent past as a full-time employee.  It's not that I don't LIKE to cook, it's just that I've had a horrendous schedule and getting in the house at 8:00 at night doesn't lend itself to much besides a bowl of cereal or twizzlers and Nilla wafers.

Now that I'm retired, and into organic gardening, raising chickens and healthy food, I've made time to come back into my element when it comes to cooking up a good meal.



Dried pasta

 I come from a long line of very very good cooks.  My grandmother bought only staples at the store.  She made everything from scratch, including pasta.  I can remember Saturday nights where all the kitchen chairs in her house would be draped with cheese cloth over which she had noodles hanging to dry for Sunday's pasta feast.  Every Sunday, ALL of the members of the very large family we had at the time, would be REQUIRED to appear for pasta.  It didn't matter when they came in terms of time of day, but they had to come.  And, whatever the pasta du jour, it was served pleasantly by my grandmother and grandfather--who was responsible for the sauce--in heaping bowls with large meatballs as an accompaniment.

As kids we often helped make the pasta.  I don't really know how much we helped, but let's just say we did.  We'd get our own little rolls of dough and a dull cutting knife and we'd be able to cut our own pasta designs.  They would ultimately become part of the precisely cut noodles hanging to dry.

Years later, my grandmother would give me, written in her own handwriting, her recipes for various dishes, including meat pie, homemade pasta and other Polish and Italian delicacies.  The problem was that I was never sure what a "handful of flour" was as a measurement, or what "stir until you think it looks good" meant.  I still have most of the recipes stored away in my recipe holder in my kitchen.



Vanilla Bean ice cream with fresh picked cherry sauce.

 This past Sunday was Father's Day and we had a little get together at our house with our kids and their kids, and it reminded me so much of the required pasta Sunday's.  It also reminded me that I CAN INDEED cook, as everyone went away happy.  My menu was simple:  steaks on the grill, accompanied by quinoa-wildrice-fresh tomato salad, dilled redskinned potato salad, buttered corn on-the-cob with paprika, salt and pepper seasoning, and a very easy broccoli-mushroom-green onion and cheddar quiche (made with our farm fresh eggs from our lovely hens--thank you ladies!).  For dessert we had vanilla bean ice cream with a cherry sauce that I made by picking the cherries from our own tree (which is ABUNDANT this year).



Broccoli, mushroom, onion and cheddar quiche.

 I always know when I've hit a home run when our one son, who is an award-winning Chef says things like:  "this is really good,"  "I would have never thought to put these together," and "can I have the recipe for this."

But it wasn't always so.  There were very dark dark cooking years, where I had no idea how long or even how to cook a piece of meat.  One time I tried to make liver and onions.  I think you could have used that piece of liver as a frisbee and it would have outlasted any made on the market today.

There were plenty of burned pot bottoms long before "teflon" was an ingredient in pots, but I had been known to even burn through teflon.  I felt like a failure.  I shied away from making food or contributing food to various occasions.  I'd cop out and buy store bought instead, or pay someone to make it for me.  Then I realized a few things.  I had forgotten my heritage and all the fine foods I had tasted growing up as a child.  My Italian, Polish and German background brought with it an array of possibilities when it came to spicing and cooking up a good meal.  I had just been trying too hard and not allowing myself to channel my grandmother and grandfather.

So I threw all the measuring materials aside and began to cook based on sight, feel and taste (which is basically what my grandmother's recipes were telling me to do).  AND, I bought and looked for only fresh ingredients.  My grandparents raised their own chickens and ducks.  They had a grape arbor, and their own vegetable garden.  My grandfather caught all of our fish in a stream.  He hunted rabbits, squirrel and deer, as well as doves, and incorporated them into dishes long before it became fashionable or cost an arm and a leg in a fine dining establishment.  If I wanted to repeat the process, I needed to go back to the roots of cooking...finding good, basic ingredients. 

The key:  buy items that themselves are only ONE ingredient, which means, of course, NO PROCESSED FOODS.  A potato is a potato.  A piece of sockeye salmon is a piece of sockeye salmon.  Rice-A-Roni has umpteen ingredients on the side of the box, one of which just happens to be RICE.  ONE INGREDIENT.  Then add what I needed that was also fresh to make it taste good.



A Chef Rudy creation: blueberry pork chops with
rice and braised vegetables.

 My son caught the calling long before I ever noticed.  I guess I never really asked why our television was always on the FOOD channel.  He was drawn to the food industry like a moth to a light bulb, learning all he could (while still in high school and his early years trying out college) from top chefs, some of which graduated from Le Cordon Bleu and the Culinary Institute of America.  He worked his way up in one kitchen, then another, from kitchen helper to sous chef to executive chef.  It's from him that I have learned the art of "sauces, simple and spice."

1. A good sauce can make the dish, but use it only if it fits.
2. Keep the idea simple and neat in both creation and presentation.


Chef Rudy's maple mashed potatoes.


3. Use the proper spices well to bring out the full flavor.

It's a long way from family calling the fire department because there is smoke coming out of the microwave!

We now buy our pork from a local farmer.  When he butchers the pigs, we buy 1/4 which lasts us quite a long time.  It lends itself to some of the best tasting bacon you will ever eat.  We grow our own "salad" garden in the summers, and I try to buy up root vegetables just before the fall to store for use later on.  I was so into beets last year that my son actually asked if I would please stop making everything with beets.  Sometimes I get carried away.  But I found a good deal on them at the end of the season from another local farmer, and, well, I LOVE BEETS!

Because no one should ever write about food without leaving readers with a recipe, here's my version of the easy quiche I've been talking about, along with a photo of how I like to serve it...very simply with sliced tomatoes on a bed of your favorite leaf lettuce.

Easy Broccoli Quiche (I add green onions, mushrooms and cheddar cheese, but you can add anything you like.  Sometimes I put in some cooked and crumbled bacon.)

1 bunch fresh broccoli (cut heads only into small pieces)
sliced mushrooms (as many as you like...I use 1/2 of the mushroom container)
green onions (scallions)...I cut up about 3 and include all of the green stalk
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
salt/pepper

Saute above ingredients in saucepan until broccoli turns bright green and begins to soften.  Add a pinch of salt and a sprinkle of pepper or to taste.  Set aside.

4 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups milk (use whole or 2%, nothing less)
pinch of salt, sprinkle of pepper
1 Tbsp unsalted butter melted

Beat together above ingredients with a wire whisk until well blended.

Use one 9" pie dish.  I like to use a china dish that is heat resistant.  I feel the consistency is better and the crust comes out evenly baked, as opposed to burning on a metal pie pan.

I use Pillsbury roll out pie dough.  It's easy and saves time.

Carefully place one Pillsbury roll out pie dough into china pie dish, pressing bottom into dish and sides along edge of dish.  Spoon the broccoli mixture from your saucepan directly into the pie dough base, being sure to evenly disburse the ingredients.  Use your favorite cheese, either shredding it or buying it already shredded.  I like a rich cheddar.  If I'm in a hurry I will buy it shredded, but normally I will buy it and shred it ahead of time and keep it in a ziploc bag in the fridge.  Sprinkle two hand fulls of cheese over the broccoli mixture you just placed in the pie shell.  Now pour the egg mixture carefully over everything.

Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Let stand for at least 10 minutes once removed from oven and before slicing.  I actually like to serve my quiche at room temperature.  It absorbs all the flavors and tastes much better to me than it does steaming hot.

Enjoy!

Aarrooooooo!