"The Green Tomato Cookbook" - Tortilla Casserole and Green Tomato Spice Bread

Date I made these recipes – August 27, 2017 – Celebrating summer and the "arrival" of green tomatoes!

The Green Tomato Cookbook by Paula Simmons

Published by Pacific Search

© 1975

Purchased at Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, NYC

Recipes:  Tortilla Casserole – p. 50 and Green Tomato Spice Bread – p. 11

My friend Dennis mentioned in a Facebook post the other day that he picked some green tomatoes from his garden.

My ears perked up like a dog:  "Green tomatoes?  Did you say 'green tomatoes'?"

People, I've had this cookbook – The Green Tomato Cookbook – since 2011[1] and up until now, it's been languishing on my shelf until such a time as I could score some green tomatoes.

You may think "Well, that's easy, just go to a grocery store or farmer's market," but those folks sell red tomatoes.  Red. Red sell like hotcakes because they are ripe.  People like ripe.

Yet all tomatoes start out green and when Dennis mentioned that he had "green" tomatoes, I realized that in the future, I needed to connect with amateur gardeners.  Now I know plenty of people who garden and grow vegetables, but if they offer produce,  they are always trying to push things I don't need like zucchini or armfuls of rhubarb.  Not once has anybody ever mentioned they had green tomatoes until Dennis and then the light bulb went off and I found my "Holy Grail."

You might ask "Why didn't you just grow some yourself," but remember folks, my life motto is "Nature is NOT your friend."  When my husband and I moved into this house almost 20 years ago, I planted tomatoes and a few other things because it felt like the new home owner thing to do, and I grew lovely tomatoes which I then had to pick.

Well now, I went outside to pick my fruit (tomatoes) and vegetables and got eaten alive by mosquitoes.  And I'm the type of person who gets welts from bug bites (it's a histamine problem) and so that was my first and last attempt at gardening.  This is why grocery stores and farmer's markets exist.  But as I said above, farmer's markets in these parts don't offer unripe tomatoes and so I have to depend upon the "kindness of strangers" to be my supplier.  To be clear, Dennis is not a stranger but I just had to quote that line from A Streetcar Named Desire.

Anywho, I messaged Dennis and asked if I could have some and he brought some over and I had so many that I made two recipes instead of my usual one per cookbook.  I actually had enough for a third recipe but there is such a thing as overkill.

Now, I can't read minds but I'm pretty sure most of you probably inserted the word "fried" in front of "green tomatoes," but that was about the last thing I wanted to make, not only because it was expected but because I'm not a huge fan of these things.  I mean, they're okay, but don't float my boat; frankly, I think this is more of a southern obsession.  Besides, given that I had an entire cookbook with green tomato recipes at my disposal, why not do some exploring?

So I explored and I debated about branching out and making some pickles or relishes, something I had not done before, but frankly, I didn't/don't want to deal with sanitizing all the jars and making sure everything is sealed properly.  I suspect though, that this cookbook's previous owner really loved the Pickles and Relishes chapter as almost every recipe page was splattered with ingredients:  "End-of-the-garden Pickles," p. 69; "Green Tomato Chili Sauce," p. 70, and, "Martha's Vineyard Old-Time Mincemeat." I love particularly the note at the end of the mincemeat recipe – "Prize recipe of Gertrude Turner's mother."  I have no idea who that is, but hooray for her!

Other Table of Contents categories were:  Growing and Cooking Hints; Breads and Wine; Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Desserts; Casseroles; Pickles and Relishes; Vegetables and Side Dishes.

I'm sorry, let's go back a minute:  ]Green Tomato] Wine?????  Pass.

Out of all the other non-pickle or relish recipes, the Tortilla Casserole and the Green Tomato Spice Bread seemed to be the best and easiest ones to make.  Neither one showcased the green tomato (something you would be expected to do on Chopped) but they were fine. 

I have to note though, that the Tortilla Casserole's filling could easily be used for Sloppy Joe's or even Chili, with or without beans.  I thought it was tasty and happily, not too spicy.

As to the spice bread, it was not at all "spicy" which was good, but the flavors didn't quite come up to those I would expect from a spiced loaf bread, and that was disappointing.  I also hoped for the bread to be a bit more moist (sort of like a zucchini bread) but that didn't happen.  Part of the problem might be that I halved the recipe thereby cutting the oil from ½ cup to ¼ cup, and the eggs from two to one.  It's hard to get a moist cake when you're shy on ingredients, not that a full recipe would have fared much better. 

Now as a side note, on my recent visit to Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks in NYC last month, I found a Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook by Fannie Flagg (who knew?). I pondered and pondered whether or not to purchase Fannie's cookbook, and decided to pass this time around.  This would make sense to you if you saw the huge stack of books I actually purchased – 18 total!  Besides, I already had today's cookbook on my shelf and so first things first.

Tortilla Casserole – Serves 6

1 pound lean ground beef

1 T. vegetable oil

½ cup chopped onions

2 tablespoons flour

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

3 large green tomatoes, chopped

1 ripe tomato, chopped

2 crushed garlic cloves

½ cup green chili salsa (optional) (see Ann's Note below)

1 T. chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon or more salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

½ teaspoon sugar

1 cup water

12 homemade or purchased tortillas (recipe below)

¾ pound (about 3 cups) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

¾ cup chopped onion

Brown beef in oil; drain off excess fat.  Add ½ cup onion and sauté until limp.  Stir in flour; blend in tomato sauce.  Add both ripe and green tomatoes, garlic, chili salsa (if desired), and seasonings.  Stir in the water.  Simmer sauce slowly until thickened.

Fry tortillas lightly in oil.  Spoon 1 tablespoon cheese, 1 tablespoon onion, and 2 tablespoons of meat sauce onto each tortilla.  Fold over and arrange filled tortillas in large shallow baking pan, side by side.  Spoon remaining meat sauce over them; sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake at 350° for 25 to 35 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.

Easy Home-Made Tortillas – makes 12

1 ¼ cups flour

¾ cups yellow cornmeal

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup boiling water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients together.  Boil up oil in water; add dry ingredients and mix well.  Divide dough into 12 balls.  Roll each into a thin disk on floured pastry cloth or between wax paper.

In lightly oiled skillet, brown tortillas on each side.  These can be made ahead and reheated in oiled skillet to soften them when ready to use.  Recipe can be doubled.

Ann's Note:  Green Chili Salsa is an optional ingredient for the recipe above, but the cookbook does not contain a recipe for it.  It does include a recipe for a Green Tomato Taco Sauce but the yield on that is mega (8 quarts green tomatoes) when all you need is ½ cup.  So if I were you, if you want to add this ingredient to the casserole, I'd go shopping and find something that most closely approximates green chili salsa or make up your own version.

Green Tomato Spice Bread – Makes 2 loaves

2 ½ cups unsifted flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon molasses

3 tablespoons honey

½ cup oil

1 cup ground and undrained green tomatoes

2 whole eggs

1 teaspoons vanilla

½ cup chopped walnuts

Mix dry ingredients.  Add rest of ingredients; beat well. Spoon into 2 greased and floured medium loaf pans.  Let batter rest 10 minutes.  Smooth the top of the loaves, then make an indentation along the center from end to end.  Bake at 350° for 45 to 50 minutes, or until they test done.

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[1] Timing is everything:  I bought this book in July 2011, just a few days after we held a memorial mass for my late father who passed away in March of that year.  Since dad was from New Jersey, and since it was difficult for older relatives to travel, we brought the "show" to them and held a memorial mass for him in New Jersey.  Thereafter, as is usual and customary, we went into the city (NYC) for a few days to see more friends and family and to shop.  This cookbook was purchased at Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, NYC, with "daddy money" i.e. money that he left to me after he died.  Since he knew about my cookbook collection I am sure he would have approved, if not been highly amused.  He also grew a huge garden every year so this cookbook is especially fitting.

"Delia Smith''s Summer Collection" - Roasted Vegetable Cous-Cous Salad with Harissa-style Dressing - Farewell, Summer!

Date I made this recipe:  September 25, 2016 – in honor of the passing of summer and the start of fall (Thursday, September 22, 2016)

Delia Smith's Summer Collection – 140 recipes for summer by Delia Smith

Published by BBC Books

ISBN: 0-563-36476-9; © 1993

Purchased at Barnes and Noble (Used Books), Roseville, MN

Recipe:  Roasted Vegetable Cous-cous Salad with Harissa-style Dressing – p. 108

Well this is hilarious:  I've cooked from two of Delia Smith's Books – Winter Collection and now Summer Collection as a nod toward seasonal beginnings and endings.

I used Delia Smith's Winter Collection cookbook in 2015 to celebrate the beginning of spring, a season I am not especially fond of but it's better than fall or winter.  Since winter officially ended on March 20^th that year, I thought I'd sneak in one more winter recipe before calling it a day.  I am humored by the fact that it snowed in Minneapolis on March 22^nd that year showing us once again that Mother Nature has her own timetable.  (PS—I made a "Black Bean Chili with Avocado Salsa" from that cookbook and wrote the blog on March 24, 2016.  Hopefully, I posted it shortly thereafter as I sometimes fall behind:  www.collecdtiblecooking.blogpsot.com – Label:  Delia Smith)

Apparently, I was thinking on the same lines this year as I made a dish from Delia Smith's Summer Collection a few days after summer officially ended (September 22, 2016) and autumn began.

I do not like autumn, or "fall," or whatever you want to call it.  I do not like it at all.  And I am already sick and tired of pumpkin "everything."  And when the leaves start to turn, so does my mood as I experience – annually – what I call my Fall Funk.

But summer, dear, sweet, warm summer, is my favorite season and if I could bottle up all the hot summer days for use later, I would.  I would also be very rich. 

This summer was not especially hot or humid, nor was it a miserable summer – in fact, it was okay.  Actually, let's call it "satisfactory," shall we?  It was generally sunny so that was good, with temperatures that pleased most of the residents of this state but not necessarily me as the warmer, the better.  If I had a dime for every person who said "Oh, I love this weather.  It's 75 degrees, not too hot, and there's a breeze," I'd be as rich as if I bottled up sunshine.

Look, summer in Minnesota is short. Sure, it runs you classic three months, but those three  months go by in a flash and then the minute Labor Day is upon us, we head into what I consider "chilly" temperatures – 60's and 70's.  I'm greedy.  I want "plenty of  sunshine coming my way, Zip-ah-de-doo-dah, zip-a-de-ay." (From the song, Zip-ah-de-doo-dah, featured in the 1964 Disney movie, Song of the South.)  But plenty of sunshine has been replaced by plenty of rain as we are now being treated to rain deluges on almost a daily basis.  I am tired of being under a raincloud all day long.

And so I am pretending that summer has not ended and so decided to make a summer dish from Delia's cookbook.  But hilariously – or maybe cosmically – today's recipe includes roasted vegetables, something I associate with fall.  I guess I'm straddling both worlds with this one.

Many of Delia's recipes though, contain roasted "something" and I came very close to making her "Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagna" (she spells it "lasagne"—what is with the Brits and their pronunciation and spelling?) but came screeching to a halt when I realized the sauce was a white sauce instead of tomato sauce. 

As a general rule my people (my Sicilian family) do not "do" white sauce. Do not.  And so I didn't.

Other recipes that got bounced were a "Strawberry Granita" that is best reserved for hot summer days when a cooling refreshment is needed, nor did I make any of the ice cream recipes even though they sounded delicious.

I might have made one of her main dishes had they not included curry paste and chilies, (Yes, I am a wuss when it comes to heat) or fish which I generally do not like but I know others who do, so please feel free to roam about the cabin of this cookbook.  And if you want to stay loyal and true to the book's titled "Summer Collection" and want to wait until next summer to do so, who am I to tell you no?

But if you are like me and are hanging on to summer with all fingernails, then give this book and this recipe a whirl.  It sounds more complicated than it is and you will need to roast the vegetables, the recipe for which is included on page 110 of the book with the lasagna recipe, but which I will break down for you.  After the vegetables are done, the next steps are really easy.

A word though, about the salad dressing:  if you don't tone it down like I did, it will be super hot.  Scorching, in fact.  This dressing is used in North African cooking and is made with chili peppers, paprika and olive oil.  This recipe uses a few other ingredients but then I tweaked them some more.  One can never be too careful.

I also decided to add some protein and poach a chicken breast and it was a delicious addition although you don't have to follow suit if you don't want to. 

So that's it for summer and I am counting the days already until we meet again.  Although summer does not start until June, I'm hoping we see signs of spring/summer (our spring here is incredibly brief) around May 1^st.  And so with high hopes, I have marked off my calendar and will have you know that as of today, September 26, we have 217 days to go until May 1.  Works for me.

Roasted Vegetable Cous-Cous Salad with Harissa-style Dressing  - serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a starter

For the roasted vegetables (full recipe)

1 lb cherry tomatoes, skinned (Ann's Note:  I peeled one tomato before calling it a day.  Too much work, folks, too much work!)

1 small aubergine (eggplant) (Ann's Note:  I substituted a very small Japanese eggplant for this recipe and it worked great.)

2 medium courgettes (zucchini) (Ann's Note:  the author is British thus the "aubergine" and "courgettes.")

1 small red pepper, de-seeded and cut into 1-inch squares

1 small bulb fennel, cut into 1-inch squares

1 large onion, sliced and cut into 1-inch squares

2 fat cloves garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

For the Cous-cous

10 oz medium cous-cous (Ann's Note:  I used "regular" cous-cous.  I hope that was okay.)

18 fl oz vegetable stock (Ann's Note:  I don't keep vegetable stock on hand but did have chicken broth so I used that instead.)

4 oz firm goat's cheese

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the salad

1 large bag of mixed salad leaves.  Ann's Note:  the author suggests a salad mix of lettuce, coriander leaves, flat-leaf parsley and rocket.  I used mix greens that had none of the above—and lived to tell about it!)

For the Dressing 

4 fl oz extra virgin olive oil

1 rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 heaped tablespoons tomato puree (Ann's Note:  I put a few of the roasted tomatoes in a Cuisinart – ta da!)

1 tablespoon lime juice (approximately 2 limes)

To garnish

1 tablespoon black onion seeds

Ann's Note:  I made half of the salad dressing recipe but even then, ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper was too much.  To offset the heat, I added some brown sugar.  I also cut down on the cumin and then added lemon juice which I had on hand, rather than the lime juice which I did not.

Okay, so to pull this thing together, first roast your vegetables.  The author set her oven to 425, I made mine 400.  The only difference was that I had to cook them a little longer at the slightly lower temperature.  I also kept an eye on things as the last thing I wanted was for my half-batch of vegetables to become charcoal briquettes!  My total cooking time was about 60 minutes.  Let the vegetables cool a bit before making the salad.

To make your cous-cous, boil the stock (microwaves are great for this) and pour over the cous-cous.  Add some salt and pepper, stir with a fork, and then let it sit for about 5 minutes or so until all the stock is absorbed and the cous-cous softened.

Next, cut your firm coat cheese into sugar-cube-sized pieces and then make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Ann's Note:  the author's method of assembling is as follows:  cous-cous, followed by cheese and roasted vegetables, salad leaves on top, then drizzle the dressing and then sprinkle some onion seeds on top.  My method was to place the salad leaves at the bottom, then cous-cous, then vegetables and cheese cubes and then dressing.  Go with whatever makes you happy!

Olympic Food Part 2 - "'Round the World Cooking Library, Latin American Cooking" - Brazilian Chicken Soup

Date I made this recipe:  August 17, 2016 – the Olympics, continued

'Round the World Cooking Library – Latin American Cooking – Recipe contributions by Susan Bensusan

Published by 'Round the World Books Inc.

© 1973

Purchased at Barnes and Noble Used Books – Roseville, MN

Recipe: Chicken Soup (Canja) – p. 21

So the Olympics continue (we are now up to track and field) and the race (pun intended) was on to find a Brazilian cookbook.  I could have sworn I had one but it turns out that all I have are a few Latin American cookbooks that include Brazil.  Well, some is better than none, right?

Recently, a cousin asked me what places I have traveled to (I have traveled a lot) and South America/Latin America and Brazil still remain on the "to do" list.  But I have been to Portugal, and Portuguese sailors were the ones who settled in Brazil so that counts, right?  (I'll discuss Portugal in my next post.) 

Since I am a singer and a musician, I had several "Brazilian" song ear-worms running through my brain during this time.  First was the song I mentioned in my previous blog, "I Go To Rio," but this next one is probably the granddaddy of them all – "Brazil" -composed in 1939 by Brazilian Ary Barroso, and made famous by several people including Frank Sinatra, Xavier Cugat and Antonio Carlos Jobim, whose other hit, "Girl from Ipanema," remains extremely popular world-wide.  I don't think anybody would care if I did a little samba (dancing) while in my kitchen, would they?  No.  Final answer.

Because of that Portuguese influence, Brazilian food differs slightly from the rest of South America but this recipe for Chicken Soup is not one that goes too far off course from what we in North America know.  This soup though, uses onions, leeks, and chives and I cannot say I've ever seen chives used in a chicken soup recipe before but I liked it and all the flavors blended well together.

Actually locating the soup recipe in this cookbook though, was no easy feat. Recipes are first listed by name in alphabetical order in English and so you'll see "Almond pudding (Mexico);" "Almond sauce (Mexico);" "Avocado dip (Mexico)" and so on.  The list repeats in Spanish and then recipes are broken out by type of dish and so, for example, soups are listed as follows:  "Avocado soup (Mexico);" "Barley Soup" (Columbia); "Bean Soup (Mexico);" "Black Bean Soup (Venezuela)" and so on.  And so finding all the Brazilian dishes for further consideration took a minute or two but the search was rather fun.

Happily for you then, the list contains quite a few Brazilian entrees, salads (lots of salad), soups, sauces (can I just say I was surprised to see a recipe for Brazilian "curry sauce?"),

tortillas/pancakes, and so on, so if soup doesn't do it for you, something else might.

Brazil's most famous dish – feijoada, i.e. " black bean stew" – was also included but I passed on making it as the first ingredient up was "smoked beef tongue."  Yeah...no.  I probably could have left it out but then I would have also needed carne seca (dried beef), and two pounds linguiça, a Brazilian/Portuguese sausage.  I could have substituted chorizo for the linguiça but decided to scrub the entire thing.  (But then I found out that a St. Paul butcher shop called – appropriately – Meat Shop – is going to start offering linguiça this coming week – hooray!) (Still not making feijoada though.)

By the way, the weather cooled off and became rainy when I made this soup and so thanks to Mother Nature for cooperating on that front.

Let me also add that this cookbook is part of a series – 'Round the World Cooking – which I have been slowly but surely collecting.  Right now, I have five of the 16 cookbooks in this grouping.  A collector's job never ends.

As to the recipe, please note the following:

1)     I erred on the side of under-salting rather than over-salting the soup but even so, I thought this dish was a little bland.  Not a lot, just a little.  You can fix that easily with your own salt and pepper shakers.

2)     My rice came close to being too mushy.  It didn't matter in the least when eating it, but I just wanted to put that out there.  The recipe says "20 minutes" but that is too long.  Check as you go.

3)     By the time this dish was done, there was hardly any broth and so there went the "soup" portion of our program.  No worries—just add water when you reheat the leftovers.

4)     The carrots I used were purchased that day and they added a sweetness that I loved to this dish.

5)     The onion/leek/chive combo was interesting but man, those leeks made my kitchen smell all night and into the next day.  Oh well, if the recipe calls for them, the recipe calls for them!

"But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...."

"Coma bem!" ("Eat well")

Chicken Soup (Canja) – 4 to 6 servings

3 tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 (2 ½ pound) chicken, cut into serving pieces

6 cups water

1 sprig parsley

2 carrots, sliced

1 leek, sliced

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup rice

1 large tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped

Heat the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the onion until softened.  Add the chicken pieces and sauté until lightly browned on all sides.  Add the water, parsley, carrots, leek, chives, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover and simmer 35 to 40 minutes until the chicken is tender.  Strain the broth into a clean saucepan and skim off the fat.  Remove the skin and bones of the chicken and cut meat into 2-inch pieces.  Bring the broth to a boil.  Add the rice and stir once with a fork.  Lower the heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.  (Ann's Note:  at 20 minutes, my rice was nearly mush.  I say check back in 10 minutes and then work in 5-minute increments.)  Add the chicken meat and cook 5 minutes more.  Stir in the tomato and serve.

Olympic Food Part 1 - "The Kraft Official U.S. Training Table Cookbook (1992)" & "The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking" - summer salads

Date I made these recipes:  August 14, 2016

Kraft Official U.S. Olympic Training Table Cookbook (1992 Olympics) by Kraft Creative Kitchens

Published by Kraft General Foods

© 1992

Purchased at BCPA (Bloomington [MN] Crime Prevention Association) annual sale

Recipe:  Decathlon Macaroni Salad – p. 35

The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking  (New Edition) by Dimitri Haitalis

Publisher unknown (self-published?)

© 2000

Purchased at an estate sale

Recipe:  Country Greek Salad (Salta Horiatiki) – p. 48

"When my baby.  When my baby smiles at me I go to Rio.  De Janeiro.  My oh me oh..."

(from the song, I Go To Rio)

Folks, here are two words that always warm my heart: "Summer" and "Olympics. "   Even though our summer is running short on time, I do love warm weather and love sports so this is the best of both worlds.

Except that technically, it's winter in Brazil, this year's host country.  I think we need to redefine "winter" though because apparently, those poor souls are freezing to death down there right now in 86 degree temperatures.  Life is so cruel. 

And so with the onset of the Olympics, my mind turns once again to what food(s) to make to celebrate these "thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" moments (apologies to ABC's Wide World of Sports for stealing their line.)

But first, of course, let's talk about the sporting events.  I'll start!

Gymnastics:  In many ways, watching gymnastics is a little like watching a horror movie i.e. "I. can't. watch."  These men and women are just flying through the air ("with the greatest of ease...") and I fear for them every time they land back on planet earth. 

And the balance beam?  Well that's just insane.  In junior high, our PE teacher brought out a balance beam that was all of two inches (maybe) off the floor for us to try out and right then and there, I knew gymnastics was not for me as moving on that thing is harder then it looks.  That mini beam (the gymnastic equivalent of a Shetland pony) was as close as we all got to experiencing gymnastics and that is just fine by me.  No need for the parents to stock up on leotards or shore up my life insurance/disability policies.

But speaking of gymnastics, I'll have you know I did a mean dismount from my couch to the living room floor several times during our Olympic viewing.  Per my husband:  "Nailed it!"

Track and Field:  in 6^th grade, my school participated in track and field exercises and there went another event to scratch off my "To Do" list.

Look, I can run (barely) but I cannot run a decent Olympic time, nor a world record time, nor any time really.  And when you look at the times posted by the men and women in the track portion of our program, it's best that I stick to my regularly-scheduled laziness and leave it up to the Olympic professionals.  That said, I do excel in walking.

As to other Olympic track and events, oh please:  I would likely stab myself with my own javelin, break the pole in the pole vault, and cause serious injury to myself and others in the shot put.  I tried hurdles a couple of times and ended up wearing a hurdle like I would wear a cowl neck so that was the end of that.

Equestrian:  Although I've ridden smaller ponies and quarter horses in my day, I have never been on a full-size horse nor do I intend to (they scare me).  And so being on a horse and jumping over things like water hazards and poles and cement mixers (wait—I was mixing that up with monster truck rallies) and whatnot (it's like being on a golf course, only not), is out.  But my gosh, the sight of those beautiful horses clearing the hazards in the jumping event is outstanding. 

 I watched a lot of volleyball and basketball during the Olympics but again, these are not the sports for me.  I would no doubt sustain a permanent crick in my neck from volleyball and as to basketball, let's say  that while in gym class, I "traveled" more miles on the court than I probably did on any of my family road trips.  And I am really, really bad at shooting hoops.  Really.  And so, we must scratch those.

Which brings us to the one sport I do well and that has the smallest probability for injury: swimming. 

I may have mentioned before that I was on my high school swim team for the two short years it was in existence, but it's worth another looksee, is it not?  Besides, I'll only be talking about it every four years or so.

So.  After Title IX was enacted, my school formed a bunch of women's sports teams of which swimming was one.  By the way, the purpose of Title IX was to guarantee an equal opportunity to participate in college sports.  But many schools, high school and college, decided to go whole hog and set up women's sports teams.  Not that they funded them, mind you, they just created them.  Like a lot of teams, we got next to zero money, zero uniforms and with my tennis team, carpooled to meets.  We've come a long way, baby, yet not far enough.

 Anyway, since our school was old, our pool was also old and non-regulation which made for interesting swim practices as we had to swim at least twice the laps to ensure we could swim the regulation length of other school's pools.  And since our pool had a shallow end, we could not practice flip turns and so got permission to do a modified turn during meets.  I actually learned how to do a flip turn in, of all places, a pool at a motel (not hotel) in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where my family and I stayed if we went down for the weekend.

For two years during my sophomore and junior years, we managed to cobble together a group of swimmers and somehow managed to do respectfully well against bigger schools (Class A or B to our "barely" C) and against bigger athletes.  But then the school decided to close the pool and so we became "the swim team that wasn't" and that ended that.  (Happily, women's sports is now thriving at my old alma mater.)

Since everybody and their mother on a swim team normally prefers the freestyle events, our coach had to divvy us up between the other swim strokes and so I was assigned the backstroke.  I didn't mind it and was actually not half bad at it, but I was always happy to be a part of the 4 x 100 freestyle relay, swum toward the end of our swim meets. 

And so fast forward to this Olympics when I found myself at the edge of my seat instead of the edge of the pool, cheering on American swimmers to the finish line.  Their winning times put mine to shame as they normally did in two or more laps what I did in one but let me remind you that was eons ago and "times" have actually changed!

Also, and this is not necessarily a bragging point, swimming in a green pool or a green dive tank may have been new to most Rio Olympians but not new to me.  Our pool was so old it often had filter problems causing (green) algae blooms, and no amount of complaining to our PE teachers got us out of the swimming portion of our PE class.  Ew.  Double ew.  But hey, I am still standing today, no worse for the wear (I think???)

And so to the recipes!  Since the weather has been on the warmish side, I decided to make up a few salads, one from the Kraft Official U.S. Olympic Training Table Cookbook, and the other, a Greek salad, from a Greek cookbook as a nod to the country that held the very first Olympics – Opa!

The Kraft cookbook (really, more of a booklet) is interesting because it was printed in 1992 when the summer and the winter Olympics were held in the same year and so it featured athletes and recipes from both winter and summer sports.  In 1994 though, the winter Olympics were held separately, starting the trend we now see of summer and winter games alternating every two years.  The last winter Olympics were held in 2014 and in 2018 will be held in Korea and then in China in 2022. (Wow—that number gave me pause!)  The next summer Olympics then, will be in 2020 in Tokyo.  So there you have it, and please mark your calendars accordingly.

Although the Kraft Olympic cookbook features summer and winter sports, it seems slightly skewed to summer sports (again—who doesn't love summer?).  Marathon runner, Joan Benoit, is featured on the cover, and track and field star, Valerie Brisco (now Valerie Brisco-Hooks) (200 and 400-meter run), is pictured inside as is U.S. diver, Ellen McGrath Owen. Featured winter sports athletes were  ice skating star, Kristi Yamaguchi, skier Bill Hudson, and speed skater, Bonnie Blair.  And recipes in this book were often given the name of one of the Olympic events, such as "Pole Vault Pepper Steak" or my featured recipe, "Decathlon Macaroni Salad."

This cookbook was fun.  A little outdated, of course, but fun.   And of course, all recipes are heavy on Kraft products usage:  Velveeta lives on! And they are also on the healthy side (Velveeta excepted) as you would expect but that's okay.  My sport – couch-sitting -  (the least-talked about Olympic sport ever) still requires me to keep an eye toward healthy meals as I get in shape for my every-four-years (two with the winter rotation) Olympic trials.  I do so hope I make the team next time – finger's crossed!

The recipes in the Greek cookbook were also medal-worthy even though I only selected one.  In hot contention for a while was "Macaroni with Leeks in the Oven" (p. 99) but that "in the oven" part disqualified it.  Just before I made these recipes, I returned from a very fun but very hot and humid family wedding in Galveston, Texas and I was in no mood to bake anything.  This, of course, left out a lot more recipes in this book but this Greek Salad was refreshing as all get out and paired well with the Decathlon Macaroni Salad.

So here you go, part 1 of 3 of my celebration of the Rio Olympics.

Decathlon Macaroni Salad – makes 8 servings

1 package (14 ounces) KRAFT Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

½ cup finely chopped celery

½ cup chopped green bell pepper

1/3 cup KRAFT Real Mayonnaise

¼ cup sliced green onions

2 tablespoons CLAUSSEN Fresh Pickle Relish, drained (Ann's Note:  the recipe doesn't say whether to use dill pickle relish or sweet pickle relish.  I used dill this time around.)

2 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

Dash salt

Prepare Dinner as directed on package.  Add remaining ingredients; mix lightly.  Refrigerate.

Ann's Note:  This dish was almost too crunchy for me!  I liked all the chopped ingredients but it was hard to pick up the other flavors like the mac and cheese.

Country Greek Salad – 5 to 6 servings

3-4 tomatoes

2 medium-sized cucumbers

1 onion, sliced (Ann's Note:  I used white onion that I had on hand)

150 grams (5 oz) black olives

2 medium-sized green peppers, finely chopped

2-3 tablespoons vinegar

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

200 grams (7 oz) Feta cheese

Salt

Oregano

Wash and slice the tomatoes in quarters and place them in a bowl.  Add the cucumber, sliced, the peppers and the black olives.  Dress the salad with the vinegar, the olive oil, salt and oregano.  Add the Feta cheese, cut into chunks and serve.

"The Athlete's Palate" (by Runners World magazine) and "Sweet Corn Spectacular" - Orange Cumin-Glazed Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Corn Chowder

Date I made these recipes:  August 3, 2014

The Athlete's Palate Cookbook – Renowned chefs, delicious dishes, and the art of fueling up while eating well by Yishane Lee and the Editors of Runner's World®; foreword by Mark Bittman

Published by:  Rodale

ISBN:  978-1-60529-578-7

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe:  Orange-Cumin Glazed Pork Tenderloin – p. 114

Sweet Corn Spectacular by Marie Porter

Published by:  Minnesota Historical Society Press

ISBN:  978-0-87351-892-5

Purchased at:  Half Priced Books Tent Sale

Recipe:  Roasted Corn Chowder – p. 66-67

So a couple of months back, my husband, a biking aficionado, got the bright idea that if riding a couple 200K bike rides was good, a 300K (185 miles) bike ride was better!

We are both here to tell you that this was not exactly a great idea.  In fact, it could have been disaster.  It wasn't, but we're both going to file that under "Don't do this again – ever" and leave it at that.

Because folks, here's the thing:  this 185 mile bike ride took 16 hours, 15 of which were in "the saddle" and maybe an hour or so was allotted to rest stops.  That's just cuckoo crazy!  Fifteen hours doing nothing but riding a bike – say what?  My butt hurts thinking about that.  The ride started at dawn-o-clock and he finished up around 11:30 p.m.  I was a tad nervous about him riding in the dark and so when he called me to say he was back at his car, I was relieved and so was he! 

Now, unlike Andy, I like to go for a walk rather than ride a bike but even then, I don't think I've ever logged 185 miles per year.  Not even half that.  So the effort is commendable to be sure.

So...what to feed an athlete about to do "battle" with his bike?  Well, for a wide variety of recipes, some geared for training, some geared for recovery, you should look to The Athlete's Palate Cookbook, published by Runner's World® magazine.  I earmarked several recipe selections to make for my crazy man and he decided that the pork with cumin glaze was the one he wanted.  I might have steered him in that direction by telling him that we already had leftover chipotles in adobo sauce but then again, he's a man who knows his own mind and his own palate so pork it was!   But you should know several other worthy recipes await.  

In addition to great-looking (and tasting) recipes, this book is filled with bios of all the renowned chefs, many of them athletes in their own right, who contributed to this book such as:  Mark Bittman; Patricia Wells; Cat Cora; Hubert Keller and Dan Barber.  Even local Minneapolis chef, Vincent Francoual, of Vincent A Restaurant, is featured – www.vincentarestaurant.com.  But don't discount the other chefs in the book, some of whom are well-known at the restaurants in which they work, while others are on their way up, as every one of them submitted great-looking and sounding dishes.

Ivy Stark, the young chef who created today's Orange-Cumin Glazed Pork Tenderloin, is executive chef at New York City's Dos Caminos restaurant, "which is known for its inventive Mexican cuisine." (from her bio – p. 6)  Had I known about Ivy, I would have likely dined at her recent on a very recent trip to NYC but alas, we "missed it by that much." (Get Smart) Given that we loved the flavor profile of this dish, I think we'd enjoy her restaurant cuisine as well.  (By the way, Dos Caminos is owned by the BR Guest Hospitality Group which also owns and runs Isabella's, Ocean Grill and Ruby Foo's in NYC, restaurants we've frequented and enjoyed in the past.)

Then there's the accompanying Roasted Corn Chowder from Sweet Corn Spectacular, a book published by our very own Minnesota Historical Society Press.  Again – what to choose, what to choose?  After much hemming and hawing, we went with the Roasted Corn Chowder and the sweetness and creaminess were perfect offsets to the bit of heat found in the tenderloin.

But – true confession time – we sort of cheated.  And by "sort of," when we were shopping and I was reaching for fresh ears of corn,  Andy suggested that we eliminate all that potential mess with the corn silk and the husks and just buy frozen.  I'll admit that this surprised me as it was tantamount to culinary treason but he had a point.  Just so you know, short of having the real deal, frozen vegetables, vegetables that are picked fresh and frozen immediately to preserve flavor and vitamins, are recipe lifesavers and are way better for you than canned.  And so okay, we used it during the summer when the real deal was available—so sue us!  Absent the char marks from the grill, the oven-roasted frozen corn was just as delicious as the real deal and was far less trouble to prepare.

What I really liked about the recipe was that you pureed corn at several stages and I appreciated the texture of the dish as it was both smooth and chunky—just like peanut butter.  I also had some leftover peppers that I roasted then coarsely chopped and added to the chowder.   Delicioso! 

In conclusion, although you may not take on 185 mile bike ride (and please don't!), you don't have to miss out on delicious summertime food.  Enjoy.

 

Orange-Cumin Glazed Pork Tenderloin – makes 4 servings

Ann's Note:  You'll need to marinade the pork for at least an hour to overnight.

½ cup fresh orange juice

1-2 canned chipotles in adobo sauce

Peel from 1 orange (about 1 tablespoon) Ann's Note:  they say "peel" but think "grate" and you'll be better off!

1 tablespoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted

¼ teaspoon salt

2 pork tenderloins (1 ½ pounds each)

2 oranges, segmented (about 2 cups)

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

½ bunch cilantro, chopped (about ½ - ¾ cup)

Salt to taste

Additional Ann's Notes:  We purchased one tenderloin instead of two and so cut the ingredients in half.  To toast the cumin seeds, put them in a fry pan (no oil!) and let toast over low to medium heat until lightly browned.  You should know that they didn't really pulverize all that well in the blender.

Also, when I made the marinade, I used orange peel which I then chopped but it was still too big.  And the sauce wasn't really smooth after I pureed it; instead, it was more like a paste.  So when the time came to cook the tenderloin, I left the marinade "paste" on it and then made a second, and much smoother sauce, for serving, this time using grated orange peel.  The result was a fantastic flavor bomb!  But if you are shy about an overabundance of flavor, then combine all ingredients and puree as directed but then add a little water so as to make a saucier marinade sauce and you should be fine.

At least one hour ahead or overnight:  Combine the orange juice, chipotles, orange peel, cumin seeds, and salt in a blender.  Puree until smooth.

Place the pork tenderloins in a shallow dish and pour the orange mixture over them.  Cover with plastic wrap and marinate the tenderloins in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to overnight.

Take the tenderloins out of the marinade.  Reserve the marinade.

Put the reserved marinade in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sauce is reduced by half, about 10 to 12 minutes.  Keep it warm.

Place the meat in shallow baking dish.  Brush it with a little of the reserved marinade after 15 minutes.  Bake for a total of 20 to 25 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160F when tested in center of the meat.

Remove the meat from the oven and let it rest in a warm place for 10 minutes; this seals in the juices before serving.

Toss the orange segments, red onion, and cilantro in a small bowl with a little salt.

Cut the pork into ½"-thick slices before serving.  Place the slices on a warm serving platter and drizzle them with the hot, reduced marinade.  Surround the meat with the orange and red onion mixture.

(For those who are interested, here's the per serving information:  313 calories, 49 G protein, 15 G carbohydrates, 6 G fat.)

Roasted Corn Chowder – Serves 4
6-7 ears fresh sweet corn, husks removed (Ann's Note:  I used two, regular-size bags of frozen sweet corn and that may have been a bit too much as my chowder was really thick but it tasted great!)

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

4-5 red potatoes, cut into ½-inch chunks

1 ½ cups heavy cream, divided

Salt and pepper (Ann's Note:  I didn't use enough and as a result, the soup was almost overly sweet.  I adjust the seasonings when I reheat.)

Prepare grill.  Brush 3-4 corncobs with 2 tablespoons olive oil, and grill corn until as "done" as you like.  Set aside to cool.  (The author notes that she prefers some grill marks but not an overall char.)  Ann's Note:  If you use frozen corn, thaw it out first, then put on a baking sheet/baking pan and put in a 350 oven until it is roasted to your satisfaction.

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut kernels off remaining ears of corn.  Add kernels to a food processor or blender with 1 cup of the water.  Puree until very smooth, about 2 minutes.  In a medium pot over medium heat, cook celery and onion in remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, stirring occasionally, until veggies are translucent and tender.  Add corn puree, remaining cup of water, and potatoes.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes.

Carefully cut kernels off roasted cobs or corn.  Add kernels to a food processor or blender and puree with ½ cup heavy cream until somewhat smooth, about 30 seconds.  Add roasted corn puree and remaining heavy cream to the pot, and simmer until heated through.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Variations

• Add some chopped roasted red peppers along with the roasted corn puree.  (Ann's choice)
• Add some fresh basil and Parmesan cheese with the roasted corn puree.
• Add a couple of grilled jalapenos, finely chopped, with the roasted corn puree.
• Add about 2 cups shredded cheese along with the roasted corn puree.
• Top with crumbled bacon.