Dental Dilemma

Well folks, it’s been fun and games around here these past few weeks. To say I’ve been having a few problems with my teeth would be putting it mildly. Although it’s not so much the teeth that are the problem as the gums. Apparently, when you get to my age it’s not tooth decay you need to worry about, but rotting gums.

It’s my own fault, since moving to the US I’ve been very erratic about dental visits, back in England, I used to go religiously every six months. But here it’s just so bloody expensive, even when you have insurance. Hell, you need to re-mortgage the house just to get your teeth cleaned. Mind you, sad to say, I hear things have gone much the same way in England. What’s the National health Service coming to, I wonder?

Anyway, when I began experiencing some discomfort in an area of my gums, I thought, uh oh this feels expensive. But I did go and get it checked out – even though I did have to wait five weeks for an appointment. They took a whole bunch of x-rays, and scared me to death by telling me I definitely had something going on back there, but they didn’t know what. Of course, in my mind it had to be cancer of the jaw, at the very least. They also said I had lost quite a bit of bone around my teeth, so they were referring me to a periodontist. Needless to say, the nearest one was 50 miles away in Joplin, Missouri. (Sigh!)

To cut a long story short, it turns out my bite was out of line and needed correcting, and I had gum disease which was causing the bone loss. This resulted in spending four (yes, 4 hours!) in the chair on Tuesday, having my teeth sandblasted, sorry, deep cleaned and ground back into place. By the time I staggered from the office, my jaw felt like I had gone ten rounds with Mohammed Ali.

But it gets worse, she put all this packing around my gums, and put me on a liquid diet for a week, and soft foods for a week after that. "What about my blog?" I wailed, "my readers don’t want to look at a can of Ensure." It was to no avail, so I told Mick to get extra wine in, and resigned myself to my predicament. ;-)

Fortunately for me I have lots of tomato and basil soup in the freezer, thanks to Cheryl’s lovely recipe, and you can find more yummies here http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/ It’s also a good thing that it’s winter, and I can still make soups, and pop them in the blender.

But if any of you have any recipes that require zero chewing for this week, and little chewing for next week, I’d be much obliged if you’d pass them along.

I’ll be back later with something I prepared earlier, in those halcyon P.D. – Pre-dentist days.

Cheers.

Cheese Board and Onion Tart

This was another recipe from good old Auntie Beeb. It’s supposed to be a way to use up left over cheeses from the festive season, but I ask you, who ever has any left over cheese? I know we don’t. And while we’re on the subject of cheese, I must tell you about some delicious English cheese I got from Sam’s Club, in Joplin, Missouri. It was Wensleydale cheese, layered with Stilton, and what a fantastic combination it was. I have to say, this was the best cheese I’ve tasted since the last time I went back to England.

Anyway, on with the recipe. I have dispensed with the pastry making instructions, because as you all know, pastry and me don’t get along, but by all means make your own if you’re that way inclined.

I also made a few other changes, I thought two eggs was a bit on the stingey side, so I used four. I also chucked in a few chives for good measure. The recipe also called for the pastry to be cooked before adding the eggs, but whenever I make quiche I just bung everything in the pie, and stick it in the oven, so that’s what I did here. The oven temp also seemed a bit low at 320F, so I upped it to 375F, the edges of the crust did get a bit well done, but what the hell, it still tasted great. Hubby said he’d let me make this again. He’s just too kind. :-)

Cheese Board and Onion Tart


Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury dough pie crust
2 onions, sliced into rings
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
3 ounces each, Stilton, Brie, Sharp Cheddar
Black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon chives, chopped

Directions:

• Roll out crust and place in a pie dish, trim any excess pastry from edges.
• Pre-heat oven to 375F
• Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, add onions and cook until golden, approx. 10 minutes.
• In a large bowl beat eggs and cream, season with black pepper, and stir in the chives.
• Chop the soft cheeses into small pieces, and shred the cheddar.
• Scatter the cheeses in the pastry case, top with the onions, and pour in the egg mix. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes until set and golden brown.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Szechuan Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Another big freeze has hit the mid-west. The freezing rain began yesterday afternoon, continued into the night, and started again this afternoon. As of now, it is not as bad as last winter’s ice storm when we lost several trees, and other trees suffered a lot of damage. Today’s high was 21°F (-6°C), with a forecasted low of 13°F (-11°C). There is also snow forecast for tonight, which on top of all this ice will be treacherous.

We Brits are often accused of being obsessed with the weather, and it’s true, but that’s because the weather in Britain is awful most of the time. Oklahomans are equally obsessed with the weather, but that’s because we seem to suffer such extremes of it. Baking hot and humid in the summer, and perishingly cold in winter, with tornadoes an ever present threat in spring and fall.

Also, Oklahoma seems to grind to a halt in snow or icy conditions, as they don't bother gritting/salting or plowing the road. Well, not round here they don't. And to make matters worse, the power seems to go out at the drop of a hat, though that hasn’t happened yet. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I’ll type faster, just in case. So what’s the recipe for today, Jan?
Hubby’s company gave him a box of steaks as part of his Christmas bonus, and to be honest, neither of us are huge fans of steak. Most of them will be chopped up and included in other recipes, such as this one.

Breaking News - In the time it's taken me to type this, it's begun snowing, very heavily. Brrr.

Szechuan Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry


Ingredients:

2 steaks, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped, divided
1 broccoli crown, cut into florets
1 onion, sliced
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 beefsteak tomato, cut into wedges
½ cup Szechuan sauce
¼ cup water

Directions:

• In a wok or large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over a medium-high heat. Add steak and half of the garlic, and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Remove beef and garlic from the pan, and keep warm.
• In same wok/skillet, heat remaining oil over a medium heat. Add onion and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add garlic, stir-fry 1 minute. Add broccoli, 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Cover pan with foil and cook for two minutes.
• Add Szechuan sauce, ¼ of a cup of water, tomato wedges stir-fry for 2 minutes. Return beef to pan and stir-fry for a further minute.

Serve over Basmati rice.

London Particular

Once again, apologies for not posting in eons, I will get my act together one of these days. :-)
Last week I was interviewed by Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/ So, on the off chance that any of you might want to know more about the reluctant cook, you will find the interview on my other blog here: http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com/

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of posts about all the high-tech kitchen gadgetry other food bloggers have received at Christmas, and thought I would share my latest gadget...


...no batteries or electricity required, this baby is powered solely by elbow grease.

Anyway, without further ado, on with the recipe. You’ve probably gathered by now that we had ham at New Year – don’t worry it’s not still hanging around. I made this a couple of weeks ago, but am only now getting round to posting it, damned shirker that I am. In Victorian London, this soup was known as London Particular as its name derives from the thick fogs, known as pea-soupers, that were around at the time..

Pea and Ham Soup




Ingredients:

1 ham bone with a decent amount of meat still on it
1 large onion chopped, divided
4 cups of chicken broth/stock
3 cups water
Cracked black pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
1 lb. dried split peas, rinsed and drained
3 carrots, sliced
A handful of chopped parsley

Directions:

• Place first four ingredients in a large saucepan or soup kettle (use half of the onion), and bring to boil. Add bay leaves and season with pepper, reduce heat, and simmer covered for 1 hour.
• Remove ham bone from pot, allow to cool, and shred meat from it. Retain all stock in pan.
• Re-heat stock to boiling, add split peas and remaining onion to the pan. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
• Add carrots, parsley, and return ham meat to pan. Adjust seasoning if required, and simmer, covered, for a further 30 minutes.

Serve immediately with warm crusty bread.

Roasted Roots

I’m busy , busy again, this time getting my contest entries ready for the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual writing contest. It’s been really difficult to get myself kick-started after a long lay off due to the cat bite, and then Christmas and New Year getting in the way. It’s an up-hill struggle, but I am now editing and revising some old material, and trying to write a new short story. Wish me luck.

Today’s recipe is another one from good old Auntie Beeb at www.bbcgoodfood.com I am really into their recipes at the moment, and receive a weekly newsletter from them. I did change it up a little bit, but not too much.

This recipe was in their Christmas edition, and the roots are supposed to be cooked in goose fat. I didn’t have a goose, so I just used vegetable oil, and they turned out great. The best thing about this recipe is all your veggies cook in the same pan, and you know how much I like easy. I served these alongside some leftover ham from New year’s Day.

I always love roast potatoes, but I really loved the roasted parsnips. Parsnips have been a sadly neglected vegetable at my table, but no more, they also add an excellent flavor to soups and stews. The recipe also called for celeriac root which I didn’t have, so I substituted rutabaga. I would have used some homegrown kholrabi, but we’d eaten it all. Note to Mick, we need to grow more of them next year.

Roasted Roots

Ingredients:

4 medium sized russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks.
1 small, or ½ a large rutabaga, peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 large carrots, scraped clean, and chopped into large chunks
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 375°F
• Put all veggies into a large pan of cold water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium high and boil gently for about 5 minutes, or until veggies just begin to soften slightly.
• Drain into a colander, and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
• Sprinkle veggies with flour and black pepper and toss well to coat.
• Heat vegetable oil in a roasting pan. Add veggies to pan and toss to coat with oil.
  Roast until crisp golden brown, approx. 45 minutes, turning them half way through cooking.
  
  

Ham, Leek and Potato Pie

I had a lovely New Year, I hope you did too. And, for once, I didn’t have a raging all day hangover, so cooking dinner was a breeze. I made roast ham, nothing very interesting or novel about that, even if it was delish and paired perfectly with my garden vegetable bake, which you can find here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/09/green-garden-veg-pie.html

The ham leftovers, however, proved to be much more interesting, especially this Ham, Leek and Potato Pie, which I came across here:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8812/ham-leek-and-potato-pie

I only made one or two slight adjustments to the recipe, and I’ve translated from metric/centigrade for my American friends.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but hubby has a penchant for pies, and this one was definitely love at first bite. I’m pretty sure it will be making a return appearance to our dinner table in the not too distant future. Trust me, you’re gonna love this one, it’s sublime.

Ham, Leek, and Potato Pie




Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 leeks, finely sliced
2 large potatoes, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup ham stock/broth, or use chicken
Black pepper, to taste
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons ground mustard
2 cups cooked ham, diced
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten or milk to glaze

Directions:

• Melt butter in a large skillet over a medium/low heat, add onion and leeks and sauté for 5 minutes. Add potatoes, cover pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• Add flour to skillet, and gradually add stock, season with pepper, and stir constantly until slightly thickened.
• Remove pan from heat and stir in cream, mustard, and ham. Allow mix to cool for 10-15 minutes before spooning into a baking dish. While mixture cools, heat oven to 400°F.
• Roll out pastry, brush edges of dish with beaten egg or milk. Slap the pastry on the dish, press down edges, trim any excess. Brush pastry with beaten egg or milk, and cut 2 slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
• Bung pie in oven for approx. 30 minutes until crust has risen and is golden brown.

Serve with seasonal veggies. We had buttered, peppered cabbage, it was absolutely scrummy.

Yorkshire Pudding

A Very Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has had a fabulous Christmas. Ours was quiet, but lovely, apart from a tornado warning (What the hell? This is December!) at 7am on Saturday morning. Our weather has been all over the place this past couple of weeks. Last week, Sunday – Tuesday, we had night time lows of 0°F and highs in the low 20’s. On Christmas Day we had a high of 62°F, and on Boxing Day 72°F.

(For more info on Boxing Day, check out my other blog: http://grandlakeink.blogspot.com )

Saturday a cold front moves in bringing storms and wild winds, but fortunately, the tornado passed us by. Then the past few days, temps have been back in the mid 60’s. Weird weather! Anyway, here endeth the weather report for NE Oklahoma.

Today’s recipe is Yorkshire Pudding. Don’t be misled by the title, this is not a dessert it's a batter pudding, like a pancake batter, but baked in the oven, and served with roasted meats and gravy. In England, Yorkshire Pudding is traditionally served with roast beef, but it makes a great accompaniment to any roast meat. I made these to have with our turkey on Christmas Day, and they are totally yumptious. Hubby is a Yorkshireman, and even he admits that for a Lancashire lass I make a mean Yorkshire Pud.

Yorkshire puds are also great served cold. I use them to make sandwiches, which hubby calls "pudding pots," with any leftover meat and stuffing. Or they can be served as a sweet with jam, preserves, or lemon curd.

If you’re interested, here is a little history of the dish.

Hannah Glasse is credited with creating the first Yorkshire pudding in 1745, and the original recipe appears in her book The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy. Back then, meat was cooked on a spit over an open fire and a tray was placed under the meat to catch the drippings. Hannah Glasse hit on the idea of adding a pancake batter to the drippings and Yorkshire pudding was born.

Yorkshire pudding became very popular among the working classes who served it with gravy as an appetizer ― in reality a filler ― because meat was very expensive.

Yorkshire puddings traversed the Atlantic to the USA with the early pioneers and settlers. In this country they became known as Portland Popovers, individual muffin-sized puddings, and so named because the batter swells over the sides of the pan during cooking. The original Yorkshire pudding, however, was cooked in a large, shallow-sided baking dish and then cut into slices for serving.

Today, in England, you are more likely to find individual, muffin-sized Yorkshire puddings ― more akin to their American counterpart, popovers ― than their larger ancestor.

Yorkshire Puddings

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour.
1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
12 teaspoons vegetable oil.

Note: Most Yorkshire pudding recipes require half these ingredients, but I like my Yorkshire puddings to really "popover" during cooking.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Put flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Crack the eggs into the well and pour in half the milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.
• Pour in remaining milk and beat with a fork, or whisk, until bubbles form on the surface. Place batter in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
• In a 12 case non-stick muffin pan add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to each case, and place in the oven until the oil is smoking hot.
• Meanwhile, remove batter from refrigerator and whisk again until bubbles form.
• When oil is hot, quickly add batter to muffin cases, and return pan to the oven.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Do not open oven door during cooking as this will cause the puddings to go flat.