Bird's Nest Bites

A Cook & Garden, Together In The Pacific Northwest

Winter Vegetable Soup

Oh my…. I’m not sure where to begin all this today.  Just when we think our world can’t get any more upside down, the unimaginable happens. These days I’m feeling like I’ve been mentally punched out and am laying in the middle of the boxing ring with coo coo birds flying above my head.   How are you holding up?  Hang in there if you can.  Please ask for help if you need it.  And keep your eyes peeled for those close to you who are in trouble.  That’s a tall order, and let’s remember to take care of ourselves too.  Long walks outside with plenty of fresh air help, and that’s how we start most days.  I will admit to a major freak out moment or two in the last week, and that gets me moving to the kitchen for some comfort food, and a hearty vegetable soup seems just right.  If I can’t heal the world, I’m surely going to try to do what I can for those I care about.  Every little bit helps, right?  With that in mind….

Here is one of my all-time favorite winter vegetable soups, and one to picture yourself eating while sitting in front of a roaring fire, while outside, Mother Nature is throwing everything she has at us.  It’s chock full of flavor with a big variety of vegetables, a ton of dried herbs for more flavor, and some beans for color, deep flavor, and protein. This guy doesn’t require much tending once all the ingredients are prepped and is happy just to bubble along on its own until ready.  Another plus is that you can pretty much make this recipe just the way you want to.  This recipe makes a soup that is so thick you can probably stand a fork up in it, because that’s what I like.  If you like a more brothy soup, just add more liquid. Would you like some different vegetables? – go for it.  If you want to add some additional protein like sausage or whatever, go on ahead.  Maybe you want to change up the herbs – also entirely up to you.  The goal here is to make vegetable soup this exactly how YOU want it to be.  This recipe makes a lot, but never fear – if you don’t eat it all up, it freezes beautifully for the next stormy day.

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Grandma’s Yeasted Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

Thanksgiving is going to be weird this year – very weird.  Rather than getting together with family and friends, we have been asked by those who are trying to protect us from harm to stay home for the good of ourselves and those we love.  So OK then…how do we make the best of that situation, and retain a little of the happiness the holidays bring?  I’ve decided to take the bull by the horns and pretend we are actually doing what we usually do, which is to go to my brother Gary’s house for a family feast.  My sister-in-law Ivory is from South Carolina, and her food is always full of southern charm and delicious.  I will REALLY miss the macaroni and cheese she always makes, and her banana pudding is so good it almost makes a person weep.  Ivory always has a huge turkey in the oven, and often Gary will put a smaller bird on his outdoor rotisserie.  This is in addition to the other various hunks of meat he prepares out there, and well as the best grilled/smoked vegetables I’ve ever had.  I will try not to dwell on what we are missing, but focus on what we usually contribute.  This usually entails Dick grilling a ton of asparagus with just the right amount of smoky char.  I make Apple Crisp and have been adding a Salted Caramel Sauce on the side.  But the dish I bring that’s most popular are these Yeasted Dinner Rolls.  I plan on making batches of them this year to share with family and friends.  This will probably just involve running up to their front door, ringing the doorbell, and leaving a dozen or so of these dinner rolls with a jar of Strawberry Jam, but at least it’s a connection to what this holiday is all about – being thankful and sharing with others.

These dinner rolls are my attempt at coming close to the delicious rolls my grandma Liz used to make.  As a young aspiring baker, I’d watch her assemble dozens of at a time, tossing an armload of dough around like it weighed nothing, and tearing off perfectly shaped rolls that she would let rise by her wood stove.  She never measured anything, mixing and baking by feel alone – and they were perfect.  I have fond memories of eating as many as I possibly could every Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve – or as many as I could get my hands on.  Grandma had seven children and hordes of grandchildren, and when everybody got together it was like a small city which means you had to move fast before my seemingly huge uncles with even larger appetites beat me in line.

Grandma did not have a recipe as you may have guessed, so I spent years trying to get as close as I could to what she did so effortlessly.  I finally got to where I think she might be proud, and I owe it all to Julia Child because this is pretty much her recipe. If you have a bread machine laying around, haul it out and use the dough cycle for this recipe – that’s how I handle it. These dinner rolls can be made grandma’s way, with just your two hands and a sturdy wooden spoon. There isn’t much better on the planet than biting into one of these babies.  Slathered with butter, of course.  Recipe adapted from ‘Baking with Julia’.

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Champagne Poached Pears with Salted Caramel Sauce

Hello friends!! I’m feeling like we need to celebrate due to the fact that we’ve survived 2020 thus far.  We are slightly the worse for wear, but stronger of spirit and proud that we still look forward to tomorrow, even when some days it turns out there doesn’t seem to be much to high five ourselves about.  These are good times to look up at the sky, take a big breath of fresh air and kick a few fall leaves.  We can still be amazed at the beautiful colors of autumn, count our blessings, and reach out to those who have fewer blessings to count.  Let’s let our loved ones know we care, and they still hold a special place in our hearts even though we aren’t frantically texting or emailing them every five seconds.  I’ve been thinking of how to reach out to my loved ones, and it should be no surprise that I do this through food when at all possible.  In that vein, I came up with the easy and actually fun recipe that would be a cinch to pack and share.  If you can’t be with those you usually spend holidays with, a basket of champagne poached pears with salted caramel sauce and cinnamon puff pastry can be left on a doorstep with this recipe for instructions on how to put the whole works together.  It will guarantee a joyous toast in your honor at any table.

Here’s an added bonus: this is actually three separate recipes in one.  You can poach pears all by themselves and be happy as a clam. They are delicious on salads or, what the heck, drizzle them with melted chocolate! You can make caramel sauce to use on any number of things, from ice cream to apple pie, and puff pastry squares brushed with butter and dusted with cinnamon sugar is a happy accompaniment to any fruit or ice cream related dishes you can imagine.  But put them all together in one spot and they sing the Halleluiah Chorus.  The salted caramel sauce is spiked with just a hint of brandy and slides down those pears poached in sweetened champagne or any other favorite liquid, landing on a pillow of puff pastry that is crisp on the outside and flaky on the inside. See what I’m talking about???  Swooning and eyes rolling to the back of your head are to be expected….

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Chewy Toasted Coconut Cookies

 

Before we get on to this week’s recipe, I’d just like check in with you for a minute.  How are you doing? This has been a wild couple of weeks, and when we think we’ve seen and experienced everything the world can throw at us, we get another punch right to the side of the head.  These last weeks have brought the most devastating forest fires in our country’s history, tremendous political unrest, and the continuation of the virus that keeps on coming.  How are you handling it all?  I hope you can hold on to some hope and a glimmer of optimism in these dark times.  Let’s show them whose boss – when we get knocked down let’s dust ourselves off and get back up (it is not beyond me to also make an obscene gesture to make my point in all this).  Do what you need to do to keep your head above water.  And if you’re struggling, a very wise person recently told me “Don’t think you are in this alone. You can always ask for help”.  Wise words, and very important to remember when we’re scraping the bottom of whatever barrel we find ourselves in.  During challenging times, it helps to go to my happy place and that is, of course, the kitchen.  Seems like a good time for coconut cookies…

Every few months, I make several varieties of cookies and stash them in the freezer for snacks, mood elevation, and for sharing with friends.  I also make lunch for my mom, Neeners, every day, and she insists on a cookie for dessert or I will have hell to pay.  Over the years, many cookie varieties have come and gone from the selections, but the other day I had a yearning for coconut cookies.  These Chewy Toasted Coconut Cookies were the result. No bells and whistles – no nuts, no chocolate, no dried fruit, no oatmeal…just coconut.  Then the dilemma arose as to whether it should be a chewy or crispy cookie.  Since we are heading into fall, the desire for something a little more substantial was at the top of the list, so chewy won the toss.  Coconut had to be the star, so to get as much flavor out of it as possible, I toasted the coconut in the oven to develop even more flavor.  And we are not being skimpy here – there are a good two cups of coconut in these guys.  How about baking yourself a batch, sitting back, taking a deep breath, and remembering all that is good in this world of ours.

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Parmesan Zucchini Planks with Herbed Ranch Dip

Here is my tale of the long and winding road to these Parmesan Zucchini Planks with Herbed Ranch Dip:  Zucchini and I had a rough start in the garden this year.  All the seeds I planted decided to be stubborn and not sprout.  So, I waited…and waited…then replanted on top of what I’d already planted.  Again, I waited…and waited….and either replanted a third time or planted zucchini starts on top of the seeds that had refused to sprout.  I’m sure you can figure out what happened next – yes, the seeds then decided to come up among the starts and before I knew it, we were buried alive in very active triple-planted zucchini.  That eventually brought on feelings of desperation due to the fact that zucchini was growing faster than we could even give it away.

The challenge then, was to come up with a quick and easy zucchini recipe that we would actually look forward to eating.  One evening, when putting supper together and staring blankly at the mountain of zucchini harvested that day, I decided rather than sneaking them out to our compost pile I’d give them one more chance.  These Parmesan Zucchini Planks are the result, and they have become a regular part of our summer suppers. Simple is always better, and this is about as simple as it gets.  Zucchini are halved and quartered, then covered with your favorite herb blend and sprinkled with parmesan.  Then popped into the oven to roast for a few minutes and served with a creamy Ranch dip.  It works as either an Appetizer or a side dish, and I’m hoping this herby, cheesy, slightly crisp zucchini plank with creamy Ranch dip will be a regular addition to your menu also.

This is a recipe that is truly your own to do with as you please.  I’ve just told you what I did, but feel free to use different cheeses, herb blends, and roasting times.  After all, it’s still summer and quick and easy remains the name of the game.

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Peach & Nectarine Crisp

 

Hello everybody!!  It’s been so long since I’ve been able to talk with you. I’ve missed you!!   This past summer has been crazy for our family, and it just hasn’t been possible to fit enough hours into our days to do all we’d like. I’m hoping you are happy, heathy, and doing the things that you love.  This is not always easy because of our various lives and the challenges they bring, but we’ll do our best, won’t we?  Among other things, last week my husband Dick, brother Gary, and I tackled our annual peach canning adventure.  This involved nearly five hours in the car, fetching and bringing home the coveted Zee Lady peaches. Then the frantic search for jar lids, which I now know are in very short supply everywhere.  It took ten trips to various stores before we found enough.  Suffice it to say, that resulted in sweating bullets. When all was said and done, we had 73 quarts of these beauties, and it was definitely worth all the bullet sweating that went on.  Because we have been surrounded by peaches, I wanted to share one of my favorite ways to savor them.  This Peach and Nectarine Crisp in one of my favorites – but truth be told, if you just double the peaches and leave the nectarines out altogether, you’ll still be a very happy camper. I posted this recipe for the first time a couple of years ago, before my mom Neeners had her stroke.  She still is as hilarious as ever, and when I reread this post, it reminded me how much her true spirit still shines through, even through life’s hardships.  It’s a good reminder and inspiration to me every day. Hope you enjoy!!

Have you ever heard the term ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’?  Well, my mother, Neeners, very cleverly created a situation where it was necessary to invent something to take care of the flat of peaches she could not resist buying.  “My God, those things were beautiful…so I had to buy the whole flat and now I want you to take some – NOT ALL – and do something creative”.    So…there I was with a few big, and yes beautiful peaches, but not enough for her favorite peach crisp.  What to do? So being the non-genius that I am, I looked around the kitchen.  There, staring me right in the face, was a bowl of nectarines that I just had to have. (I guess the nut doesn’t fall too far from the tree). The result is this Peach & Nectarine Crisp. Sweet, but not too sweet, with just a hint of tartness from the nectarines, plus just the faintest whisper of cinnamon.

 The perfect crisp is in the eye of the beholder.  Some absolutely must have oatmeal in their crisps, while others insist on nuts.  I prefer neither, but go after that rich, buttery and slightly crispy crust with fruit juices oozing through around the edges. Nirvana.  If you prefer oats in your version, go ahead and replace half of the flour with them.  All of you nut fans out there – add a cup chopped nuts to the topping mixture. What the heck?  Do both if you like.  After all, this is now your recipe….

 I ended up splitting the recipe, so Neeners could have half and we could have the rest.  I awaited her call…” Hello, this is your mother speaking.  I am looking at a big bowl of your Crisp, but I am not eating it yet.  I put a generous scoop of ice cream on top and am waiting until it melts to perfection on the top before I dive in.  I will give you my review tomorrow. Goodbye”.  I await her review, but in the meantime, keep reading to check out the recipe for yourself…

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Lemon Refrigerator Cookies

 

Hello everyone!  I’m hoping your days have been happy ones, and that you are finding joy in the beauty of summer.  Dick and I are busy with our garden, and it’s been a nice break from the daily influx of disquieting information that seems to be coming from everywhere.  We share my mom’s (otherwise known as Neeners) large garden with her.  This means the garden is at her house, we do all the work and she does all the bossing around.  Neeners is nearly 90, has severely limited eyesight as well as recovering from a stroke she suffered last winter, but she is making the best of a challenging situation.  Today Neeners announced that she was going to try and find the last remaining sugar snap peas on the vines.  The next thing I heard was “Where are my clippers?  There are some dead vines here that need to be addressed”.  And so it began.  If Neeners has a pair of clippers in her hands, it’s best just to stand back.  “I love destruction!!!”  What??  I look up from my watering a few rows over, only to discover that she has cut down an entire 20-foot row of peas in less than 15 minutes, including the plastic mesh that was supporting the vines. “This was so much fun! Now I’ll go see if I can find some weeds to pull!”  Neeners never seems to have trouble finding joy, and she’s an inspiration to all she knows.  And if you happen to be searching for some lemon refrigerator cookie inspiration….

Here we have a summer cookie – with subtle lemon flavor and a crackly lemon sugar topping.  Mix it up one day, toss it in the refrigerator or freezer, and bake them when the mood strikes.  This lemon refrigerator cookie is not a crispy or dainty version but is chewy enough to let you know you’ve got a real cookie on your hands.  And here’s a thought – fill two cookies with your favorite ice cream for an ice cream sandwich treat.  A nice reward for a summer day well spent.

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Strawberry Crisp with Shortbread Oat Crust

Hello friends!  How’s that social distancing going?  I’m hearing a term called ‘quarantine fatigue’ which means people are getting really tired of being at home and are venturing out when maybe that’s not the best strategy.  It’s hard to keep in touch with those we care about just through texting, phone conversations, or Zoom, and I’m sure that’s a contributing factor.  Missing that physical proximity with our friends is a big deal, and really hampers those conversations that have to be in person.  I’m experiencing that with a couple of friends right now, and maybe you are too.  I can’t do anything to make their situation better, so I’m feeling pretty useless at the moment.  I know our friendships will survive and there will be better days ahead, so in the meantime let’s just do the best we can, reach out as best we can, and practice understanding and compassion for those we can’t hug in person at this moment.  And in the ‘Let’s be good to ourselves’ segment of the Blog today, how about we talk about strawberry crisp for a minute or two?

I wasn’t really sure what to call this recipe, and it’s had a long and winding road to end up where it is today.  A year ago, I was trying to create a Strawberry Jam Bar cookie recipe – I needed to use of a bunch of excess strawberry jam from the previous year.  I took an existing recipe, doubled the jam, and sent it out to tasters, who proclaimed that it had ‘too much jam’ – oops.  They were right – it did have too much jam, which resulted in it tasting way too sweet.  Then a few weeks ago, my ‘pretend daughter’ Allie sent me a photo of a Strawberry Crumble she’d made.  It looked delicious, with a crumbly topping and plenty of fruit.  Allie is an excellent and adventurous cook, is kind, smart and wickedly funny. And if I had a real daughter, I’d hope she’d be just like Allie.  Back to the recipe… Wait a second…that’s it!!  Make a bar cookie with big chunks of fresh fruit in addition to the jam.  On the plus side, it’s got a ton of fruit flavor and is a lot less sweet, but on the other side, it’s no longer a cookie bar.  So, it’s kind of a cookie, kind of a crumble, but really neither.  So, I’m calling it a strawberry crisp.  It was either that or I’d have to call it ‘I Have No Idea What the Hell This Is’ which probably wouldn’t have worked very well on Pinterest.

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Salmon Tacos with Cumin Lime Crema

With all that’s been going on in the world, sometimes it’s hard to muster up enough energy or enthusiasm to get dinner on the table.  So many are suffering, frightened, and pretty angry as well.  It’s easy to say that we’re all in this together, but the reality is that some are a lot more in it than others, and we must do our best to support and protect them.  Let’s stand for what is right and good in this world – that’s a pretty easy thing to figure out.  We’ll take every opportunity to be a good citizen of this planet of ours and do all we can to set things straight and to take care of those who need tending to.  Let’s spend some time tending to ourselves as well, and on those nights where it’s just too big of a chore to get a masterpiece on the table, let’s open the refrigerator and see what hops out.  That’s how this recipe for Salmon Tacos with Red Cabbage and Cumin Lime Crema came to be in our household.  I was uninspired by a few pieces of leftover salmon, and was staring blankly into the refrigerator.  Hmmm, I spotted some red cabbage but could only think of salad which really didn’t help matters.  Dick said the word ‘taco’ and this is how we ended up, and it was a happy surprise.  This is one of those ‘make it your own’ recipes and will be all the better if you add your personal touches.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with!!

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Fresh Strawberry Jam

 

Hello everyone.  Things in this world just seem to be getting more and more out of our realm of explanation, don’t they?  One day we’re trying to wrap our heads around a renegade virus that is attempting to bring the whole world to her knees, and the next we’re trying to fathom another heartbreaking and dangerous threat to all of us – senseless violence and killing of our fellow human beings.  We will conquor both of these threats because together the vast majority of humans on this planet are strong of spirit, generous and kind.  We take care of others who are not well, and we protect and stand for those who need our help.  It’s hard work, I know, so let’s do what we can when we can, and in all of this remember to be kind to ourselves.  What brings you peace?  What brings you joy?  As an added bonus, how can you share that peace and joy with others?  We’ll all have a different answer to these questions, but it should be no big shock to anyone who reads this blog that cooking and baking bring me peace and joy, and it’s something I often share with those I care about.  If you’re in the mood for a little break from all that is happening around us, take a moment to enjoy the beginning of summer.  Maybe find a strawberry patch, and if it sounds like a good idea, whip up a batch or two of strawberry jam to share with others.  Here’s my favorite way of doing just that….

I cannot bring myself to tell you how many eons I have been making strawberry jam, but it wasn’t until the last few years that I figured out how to make jam in a way that its guaranteed to tasteslike fresh strawberries for the entire year. I’m talking about the cooked jam recipes, which I’ve always preferred over the less ‘set’ freezer jams. The secret? First of all, play a little fast and loose with the amount of fruit you use, and secondly – don’t use a canner if you are making cooked jam. Here’s the thing….canning jam does make it ‘shelf stable’, but after a few short months both the color and flavor start to deteriorate in a big way. Freezer jam always tastes like fresh berries, so I figured, “what the heck? Let’s make the best of both worlds”, and that’s what I did. It’s a whole lot less mess and effort, and a whole lot more flavor to boot. Come on along with me and check it out….

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