Of course I can make that...

The other day Ryan opened up my laptop and got a glimpse of my favorite food blog which at the time had a recipe for pulled chicken sandwiches front and center. So he proceeded to subtly hint that I should give that recipe a spin for the next two weeks until I finally decided to make it for him.  Now, being a little obsessive, I not only made the pulled chicken but I also made homemade BBQ sauce, homemade coleslaw, homemade buns, and homemade fries to go with it.  Ryan loved it!

Jenny Rosenstrach's Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
Serves 6 at least

• 1 cup barbecue sauce 
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo
• 6 to 8 boneless chicken breasts or a mix of white and dark meat (approximately 2 pounds)
• Potato rolls or hamburger buns
• Cole slaw or pickled vegetables

1. In a large heavy pot, combine barbecue sauce, cider vinegar, onion, garlic, bay leaf and chipotle. Add chicken and enough water to cover (about 2 cups), stirring a few times.

2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred. Bring the sauce to a boil until it thickens and reduces, another 10 minutes. Stir in chicken.

3. Serve on rolls with cole slaw or pickled vegetables.

Mark Haugh’s BBQ sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup ketchup

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper

• ½ tablespoon onion powder

• ½ tablespoon garlic powder

• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• ½ teaspoon Cayenne

Directions: In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil, 

reduce heat to simmer. Cook uncovered, stirring frequently, for 1 hour 15 

minutes.

Simple Cole Slaw

Ingredients

• 1/2 head green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 carrots (shredded)
• 1 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Dash of cayenne pepper

Directions: In a large, non-reactive bowl, combine the cabbage, onion and carrot, season with the salt and pepper and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour before proceeding.

Meanwhile, combine the vinegar, sugar, mustard and cayenne pepper in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir the vinegar periodically to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from the heat. Remove the cabbage from the refrigerator and pour the vinegar over the top of the cabbage. Add the oil and toss well to thoroughly combine.

Cover with plastic wrap and return the cabbage to the refrigerator. Allow slaw to sit for 2 or 3 hours before serving, stirring occasionally. Serve with barbecue

Jessi Kemp’s Homemade Buns

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 package (1 tsp.) yeast
• 1/2 cup salted butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs (one egg white separated for brushing)
• 1/2 Rye Flour (or other whole grain flour)
• 3 cups Bread Flour (This is an approximation) 
• Sesame seeds for topping

Directions: Mix warm water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for ten minutes.  

Stir in melted butter, eggs (except for one egg white) and brown sugar.

Slowly add the rye flour and then the bread flour.

Kneed dough. Add more flour if necessary. Don’t add too much. It’s better to let sticky dough rise and add more flour when you are ready to shape it.

Let rise well covered for a couple of hours. (You can even leave it over night in the fridge.)

Separate dough into 12 balls place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Let rise for at least an hour. 

Bake at 375 for twenty minutes. Should be nice and golden-brown.

The Mother-In-Law of All Chocolate Cake

It was my mother-in-laws birthday this past week and since they were coming to visit us I figured the good daughter-in-law thing to do would be to bake her a nice birthday cake. I asked Ryan what kind of cake his mom liked and he didn’t know because his mom does the baking in the family and had never baked a birthday cake for herself. April (my-sister-in-law) was a little more helpful and suggested that her mom would enjoy anything chocolate. That was all the suggestion this chocoholic needed. 

I searched the web for “the best chocolate cake.” I came up with several variations on the same recipe all adapted from Hershies Chocolate cake recipe. I decided that the most reliable of these would probably be from the blog “My Baking Addiction.”  Anyone addicted to baking would probably be trustworthy in the chocolate cake department. I followed the recipe mostly (just substituted coconut oil for vegetable oil). Then I pondered my frosting options. Both a chocolate ganache and chocolate butter cream frostings were recommended as fitting accompaniments to my cake. And since I couldn’t choose between them I just said “yes” and “yes.” I decided on a chocolate ganache filling and a chocolate buttercream frosting smothering the outside. Since the cake called for a cup of coffee on the inside, I added a touch of instant coffee to the frosting too. 

Everything came together like a symphony of chocolate. It was too rich for almost everyone but me and Ry. But. So. Good.

Little House in The Big Danish City

Saturday’s weather looked rather bleak. So, faced with the terror of two active kiddos stuck inside a small apartment all long day, Ryan and I packed the girls up and headed out to the library. There in the small section of English children’s books I found a copy of Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

All sorts of memories flooded back. Laura getting her first doll, making candy in the snow, making maple syrup, churning butter, making straw hats.  

We all cuddled up as Ryan read aloud and Ella LOVED it. We read 100 pages the first day and she was still asking for more. Now, she isn’t Ella anymore; she is Laura. Livi is baby Carrie. I’m Ma. Ryan is Pa. Maple syrup and honey are suddenly VERY exciting. Her imagination is pretty amazing. 

I realized as we read how much this simple story colored my own childhood. The love of  the wild places, the joy in working together in the kitchen and garden, and the cozy safeness of family are all things our family growing up shared with the Ingalls family. As we explore the outdoors together or I include Ella in the daily chores and welcome her into the kitchen with me or Ryan plays Bear and dances with the girls, I’m happy to know that we can continue that special way of being as a family.

Ps. When asked about the book Ella said, “It’s about Laura and Mary. They pretend Pa is a wild Dog. Roaaaar.” Proceeds to bite me.

All the Pretty Tortillas

In the two months we’ve been here in Denmark I’ve managed to perfect my big pot of beans and homemade flour tortilla making skills. Not the culinary turn you would expect when in the land of pickled everything and amazing rye bread, but Denmark is EXPENSIVE. And, when food budgets get tight you have to get a little creative. A little inspiration was provided by Ryan’s reading list. Ryan has been on a Cormac McCarthy kick lately. While most of McCarthy’s novels are a little on the dark and violent side for my taste, Ryan claimed the McCarthy got “a bit soft” when he wrote All The Pretty Horses which allowed me to indulge in one of my favorite guilty pleasures: monopolizing other people’s library books. 

All The Pretty Horses was fantastic. The prose is poetic. The characters are the kind of people you wish you could meet. And all throughout the book are wonderful descriptions of food. I became obsessed with the never-ending supply of beans and tortillas enjoyed my the main characters and they journeyed across the border and into Mexico.

So inspired, I dove into the task of making huge pots of pinto beans on a weekly basis. This proved to be both very cost effective and successful in rounding out my little bean-loving Ella’s diet. Then came the homemade tortillas. I used butter instead of lard or Crisco, since my Israeli conditioning makes me cringe at lard and my small knowledge of nutrition has forced me to ban Crisco from our diets completely. I found the tortilla dough-making process to be very similar to biscuits and pie dough. I worked the fat into the flour/salt/baking powder mixture and then added some warm water to turn it into dough. I let the dough rest, form it into balls, roll them out into admittedly misshapen tortillas, and then sort of toast them in a hot skillet (letting the first side cook until it bubbles in the most magnificent way).

The big pile of tortillas disappears quickly filled with beans, sautéed onions and bell peppers (What isn’t improved by deliciously caramelized onions?), avocado, and sharp white cheddar cheese. The last couple of tortillas we hold in reserve to be buttered and honeyed for dessert. Not a bad way to stick to a budget. 

Ps. I would have included pictures... but hot tortillas disappear too quickly.

Awesome Asian Salad

I made this salad for dinner. It was SOOOOOOO good.

Curried Millet, Shiitake, and Corn Salad (gluten free)

This was my first time cooking with either millet or shiitake mushrooms. I rather randomly purchased a bag of millet last time I went to my local health food store. Looking for a way to use it I came across the following recipe at epicurious.com. I made it tonight for dinner paired with some stove-top-steamed sweet potatoes (my oven is broken) and it was fantastic. I doubled the final ingredients (curry powder, rice vinegar, and soy sauce) since a reviewer had recommended it and I think it was just the right amount of flavor. I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers as a cold salad.

Update: I forgot to mention that I used 2.5 cups of water instead of 2 following the instructions on the bag.

Curried Millet, Shiitake, And Corn 

Salad Restey 

Gourmet | January 1996 

by Mark Restey: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

Millet is a small round golden grain that has a high vitamin and mineral content. Although millet is 

unfamiliar to most people in this country, it is a staple throughout Africa, India, and Asia. 

Yield: Serves 4 to 6 

4 tablespoons vegetables oil 

1 cup millet* 

2 cups water 

1/2 onion, chopped fine 

1/4 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps chopped fine (about 1 1/2 cups) 

2 cups fresh corn (cut from about 4 ears), or frozen, thawed 

1/2 teaspoon curry powder 

1 tablespoon soy sauce 

1 tablespoon seasoned rice-wine vinegar 

1/3 cup fresh parsley leaves, washed well, spun dry, and chopped fine 

*available at natural foods stores 

In a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderately high heat and cook millet, stirring frequently, about 3 

minutes, or until it makes popping sounds and begins to turn golden. Remove skillet from heat. 

In a small saucepan bring water to a boil and stir in millet. Cook millet, covered, over low heat 20 minutes, or 

until water is absorbed. Transfer millet to a large bowl and fluff with a fork. 

In cleaned skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté onion, 

stirring, until softened. Add shiitake and cook, stirring, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add corn and cook, 

stirring, until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Still in curry powder, soy sauce, vinegar, remaining 2 

tablespoons oil, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste and add to millet.

Juicing...

I never thought of it as anything other than a health craze. But, this changed my mind. I'm going to have to experiment...