Pork Roasted Tenderloin with Appled Sauce, Appled Wild Rice, and Greens

Here's another reason that I bought the most recent cookbook, The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great, from Pamela Anderson. The original recipe (before I adapted it) appeared in Food & Wine Magazine. I also made another of her featured recipes in that issue, the Brown Sugar Custards.

When I think of this dish, I think of an an episode of the Brady Bunch when Peter was talking to Alice about dinner and he imitated her in a Humphrey Bogart voice saying "Pork chops and apple sauce." Do you remember that episode? Well, Alice had the flavor combination down! Pork and apples go very well together.

I was very pleased with the dish. The flavors were spectacular! I will absolutely make it again and perhaps serve it to friends. I intensified the flavors of the sauce, adding extra apple and then straining it at the end and leaving the wonderful fruity flavors in the sauce that went over the tender, perfectly seasoned and cooked pork tenderloin. I placed the tenderloin on top of a bed of seasoned Swiss chard with red pepper flakes and onion. All of that lay on top of a bed of wild rice that I boiled in part water, part apple juice, ever more adding apple to the dish. It was good stuff!



Pork Roasted Tenderloin with Appled Sauce, Appled Wild Rice, and Greens
Adapted from Food & Wine's printing of a Pam Anderson recipe

For the pork:

One 1 1/4 pound pork tenderloin
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup naturally sweetened apple juice or apple cider
1/2 cup apple sauce - no sugar added
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 single-serving package of golden raisins
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Also, heat up a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Coat the pork tenderloin in oil and season with salt and pepper. Brown it on all sides in the pan. Then place it in the oven for approximately 18 minutes, turning once. The pork will be done when an instant-read thermometer registers 140 degrees when poked into the center of the thickest part of the tenderloin. Place the pork on a cutting board and let it rest.

Add the juice/cider, broth, apple sauce, soy sauce, raisins and ginger to the pan. Cook it down until the liquid is reduced by half. Pour the mixture through a strainer and into a bowl or gravy boat.


For the greens:
one bunch Swiss chard
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Heat the pan on medium-high. Add the olive oil. Saute the onions. Then, begin to add the Swiss chard. There will probably be too much of it to add all at once, so add maybe half. It will wilt and shrink quickly as you toss it around with a pair of tongs. Then add more, or the rest of the chard, salt and red pepper flakes. Continue to toss with a pair of tongs until the chard is wilted. Remove from the pan and set aside.


For the rice:
I used the Lundberg Wild Blend of rice, replacing half of the liquid on the package directions with apple juice. Once it was cooked, I tossed in small amount of toasted pecans.


To Plate:
Begin with the rice. Top with a layer of the greens. Slice the pork tenderloin in thin medallions. Place on top of the greens. Pour the sauce over it. Enjoy!

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Quick Pattypan Squash ♥ Recipe

Today's vegetable recipe: Slices of pattypan squash simmered in water with a little butter, tossed with lemon juice and fresh basil. Low carb. Weight Watchers 0 points.

Boiled zucchini. (Or in this case, zucchini's cousin, another summer squash called pattypan.) It just sounds bad, doesn't it? And truth is, this is not a recipe that will knock your socks off, not like stuffed zucchini boats, say. It's good, of course, just not a recipe any of us are going to moan over. But it's so quick, so easy, so perfect for the lovely little pattypan squashes (you know, the ones that look like spaceships from Planet Plant) so abundant at the farmers markets right now -- that's more than ample compensation, at least in my book.

I made the pattypan ahead of time to serve at room temperature, but they're so quick and easy, make them at the last minute to serve hot.

QUICK PATTYPAN SQUASH

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Serves 4

1 tablespoon butter
1 pound pattypan squash, about 4, trimmed but skins left on, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
Water to cover

Juice of a lemon
Fresh basil, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste

In a skillet, heat the butter on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the pattypan and just barely cover with water. Cover. Let cook about 5 minutes or until desired doneness is achieved. (My taste wanted some softness, but some tooth too.) Remove from water with tongs, drain well and gently toss with lemon juice, basil. Season and arrange in a serving plate. Serve hot or at room temperature.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per serving, assumes that only half the butter is absorbed into the zucchini: 25Cal; 1g Protein; 1g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 4g Carb; 1g Fiber; NetCarb3; 11mg Sodium; 1mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 0 points

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION
Bon Appetit June 1995

KITCHEN NOTES
The inspiring recipe called for chopped fresh parsley and a handful of capers.

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VEGETABLE RECIPES from the ARCHIVES
~ Shredded Zucchini with Thyme from Kitchen Parade ~
~ Stuffed Pattypan Squash, very cute! ~
~ Cream of Zucchini Soup, Julia Child's recipe ~

~ more summer squash recipes ~
~ more Weight Watchers recipes ~
~ more low-carb recipes ~

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Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2008

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My Anniversary Dinner at the Oyster Company in Dennisport

Joe and I spent a week on Cape Cod, during which we celebrated our our ninth anniversary. We got a great recommendation from the man we rented our cabin to go to The Oyster Company in Dennisport. Here we are, about to get into the car to go to dinner!

Our anniversary fell on a Thursday and we made a reservation for 6:00. We arrived and the restaurant was about half full. The hostess was going to bring us to one table, but I saw a two-seater right under a nice window and asked if we could sit there. That was great.

The atmosphere was fairly casual. Some people were Friday casual, and some were just plain casually dressed. I get the feeling that most of the people dining there had some money - and their children were extraordinarily well behaved. I noticed that right away. There were quite a few families with fairly young children, yet I didn't hear one scream or argument during our entire dinner. Amazing!

There were a number of special drinks on the menu, and I ordered one. It's not listed on their site because it was a new special. But in was something like a white chocolate espresso martini. It had some sort of Godiva liqueur, vodka, and espresso. Here it is:

The drink was true heaven! I've had other espresso-type martinis. Compared to them, this one had very little espresso, but it sure was good anyway. I had to stop myself from slurping it down in a minute - it tasted so good! I loved the little decanter they brought it in. It was full of ice, and there was more of the drink in it that didn't originally fit in the martini glass. It was probably close to two drinks by the time I finished.

I was feeling a little bold, and wanted to try oysters of some sort. After all, we were at The Oyster Company, and I've never had oysters! They had a lot of oysters, but I think most of them were raw. I figured that probably wasn't the way to go for me. So I got what I felt was a beginners' oyster dish - Caitlin's Oysters (broiled with a lime cilantro and shallot butter).

Turns out I like oysters plenty! Maybe next time I'll do something a little more adventurous. These oysters were the tops. And there just weren't enough of them! The butter sauce was so good I dipped bread in it when the oysters were gone. I wanted to just drink it up.

Joe got the chowder. It wasn't an exciting picture, so I left it out. But he enjoyed it. It wasn't too thick and it tasted great. I did taste it and I agree - it was good.

For dinner, Joe ordered the Lobster Fettuccini:

We are quite sure that the pasta was homemade. If they didn't make it there, then someone nearby did. It was fresh and perfectly cooked. The lobster chunks were plentiful and the cream sauce was delicious. We both agreed that it was nice that the pasta wasn't swimming in the sauce. The ratio of sauce to pasta was very pleasant. The green things you see are edamame.

I had one of the best meals ever. It definitely goes into the Meryl Top 10. It was the Pan-Seared Dayboat Scallops:


The scallops were placed on a celeriac puree and were surrounded in a lemon-herb emulsion. I'm pretty confident that there was some bacon fat used in searing the scallops - though it wasn't overly bacon-flavored. Just enough to make the scallops spectacular. On top are some sweet potato chips. I was so stuffed I had to give my last scallop to Joe, and that hurt. Nor could I finish my second martini.

We looked at the dessert menu. I mentioned that were I to get dessert I would either go for the creme brulee or the flourless chocolate torte. Joe got the cheesecake for dessert - damn him! I should have gotten a picture, but I forgot! Joe says it was very good. He would have liked more of the fruit sauce which was very lightly drizzled over it and onto the plate in thin ribbons. The cheesecake was not the typical consistency of cheesecakes I've had in Massachusetts. It had a lot of cheese in it and the top browned some when it baked. I particularly like this kind of cheesecake and I sampled some of his. It had a thick graham cracker crust.

In the end, I have nothing but wonderful things to say about The Oyster Company. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

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Zucchini Fritters ♥ Recipe

Today's vegetable recipe: A classic zucchini fritter. Grated zucchini with a lemony egg binder. Low carb. Weight Watchers 2 points.

"Waste not, want not." Welcome to "zucchini week" here on A Veggie Venture, an attempt to keep up with baseball-sized summer squash that appear overnight on my kitchen counter. Without real effort, their next stop would be compost, especially because the big and dense zucchini can't be used with just any recipe. In addition, after being obsessed with baking all summer long, all of a sudden, turning on the oven is dead last on a long list of cooking ideas.

This is the first time I've made fritters, per se. At least with vegetables, a fritter implies a grated vegetable, bound together into a thin pancake, then fried til crisp in a skillet, though some times baked too. This is comfort food country-style, cheap eats, supper on a budget. They're substantial enough to make an entire meal or could be paired with grilled meat.

ZUCCHINI FRITTERS

Hands-on time: maybe 30 minutes
Time to table: maybe 45 minutes
Makes 8 good-sized fritters

1 pound zucchini, peeled if skins are tough, halved, seeds scooped out (for large zucchini only), grated

2 eggs
Zest of a lemon
1 small onion, chopped fine (about 1/4 cup)
Fresh basil, chopped fine
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Pepper to taste

Olive oil
1 dried chili pepper

Line a colander with a paper towel, add the grated zucchini; top with another paper towel and press lightly. Let drain for about 30 minutes.

Whisk together eggs, zest, onion, basil, flour, salt and pepper. Gently fold in zucchini.

Heat a heavy skillet such as cast iron on MEDIUM HIGH. Add oil and chili pepper, let warm though. (The oil is hot enough when it sizzles when you flick water off your fingertips into the oil.) Drop heaping spoons of the fritter batter into the skillet, flatten a bit with the back of a skillet, smooth the edges if needed. Let cook until brown and crispy, turn over and repeat.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per fritter (assumes using 4 tablespoons of oil to cook the fritters): 115Cal; 3g Protein; 8g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 8g Carb; 1g Fiber; 7NetCarb; 168mg Sodium; 52mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 2 points

KITCHEN NOTES
The large garden-huge zucchini I used cast off virtually no liquid during the draining stage so next time, I might gauge whether or not the draining step is required. Smaller zucchini, however, likely would require draining.
I cooked half the mixture one evening, the remainder the next with no ill effect.
No dried chili peppers on hand? Skip entirely or mince a small hot pepper for the fritter batter.
If needed, warm an oven to 300F to keep these warm for serving.

ZUCCHINI RECIPES from the ARCHIVES
~ Shredded Zucchini with Thyme, a low-calorie fritter wannabe ~
~ Feta-Stuffed Zucchini ~
~ Zucchini Pumpkin Bread ~

~ more zucchini recipes ~

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.

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Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2008

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Homemade Blueberry Vinaigrette ♥ Recipe

Today's salad dressing recipe: A simple vinaigrette made with fresh blueberries. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point.

How easy is this? Just a big handful of blueberries plus the usual suspects for a vinaigrette, olive oil, garlic and vinegar. It tasted so fruity fresh - chalk another successful entry in the continuing quest to never buy salad dressing again.

Plus, the mix of blueberries and blue cheese and blue peaches -- oh wait, that would be just peaches, perfectly ripe -- was magnificent.

HOMEMADE BLUEBERRY VINAIGRETTE

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Makes 1/2 cup

1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon onion
2 tablespoons good vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 - 4 tablespoons good olive oil

In a blender, whiz the berries, garlic, onion, vinegar and sugar until berries are liquified. Drizzle the olive oil through the top while the blender is running until the desired consistency and mouth feel are achieved. Serve drizzled over lettuce greens with fresh blueberries, peach slices and blue cheese crumbles.

KITCHEN NOTES
The inspiring recipe suggests straining the seeds out but I didn't find that necessary.
After resting a few minutes, the dressing becomes quite viscous, almost jelly-like. I started with just two tablespoons of olive oil but in order to pour, was forced to add more oil than was needed for (my) taste. To limit calories and fat grams, next time I'll use fruit juice rather than more oil.
For aesthetics, I'd also recommend drizzling the dressing over top (or better yet, drizzled from a squeeze bottle) since tossing the greens in the dressing creates a muddy look.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Made with 2/3/4 Tablespoons Olive Oil, Per Tablespoon: 39/55/70Cal; 0g Protein; 3/5/7g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 2g Carb; 0g Fiber; 0mg Sodium; 0mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 1/1/2 points

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION
Adapted from Maritime Flavours: Blueberries by Elaine Elliot and Virginia Lee

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FAVORITE HOMEMADE SALAD DRESSING RECIPES
~ Buttermilk Garlic Salad Dressing ~
~ Thousand Island Dressing ~
~ Easy Salsa Dressing ~

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.

Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2008

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Battle of The Cape Seafood Shacks

Greetings From Cape Cod!

I've been ending my summer vacation this year with Joe and the boys (our two Boston Terriers) in lovely Dennisport, MA on Cape Cod. We New Englanders refer to it as "The Cape." Joe and I've eaten out a couple of times at two similar restaurants, so I decided to do a "Battle of ..." post.

When on The Cape, eating at a fried seafood joint is an absolute must! I seldom indulge in the joy of a fried seafood meal, but this is the time to go all-out. And I am counting it as okay since we are getting tons of exercise kayaking, taking long walks and going on long bike rides.

Here we were on our ride on the Cape Cod Rail Trail:

So the day arrived for my fried clam indulgence and after much research, I had decided to let loose on a place called the Original Seafood Restaurant located between the two, also on route 28. But we walked in and I ordered the clam platter (clams with bellies) but they foolishly ran out! Hey, when you are supposed to specialize in a food, you shouldn't be running out! So they get a thumbs-down in my book!

So I now present to you the Battle of the Seafood Shacks. The two restaurants, the Weatherdeck and Kream N' Kone, both located on route 28 and are within a couple of miles of each other.

The Weatherdeck
168 Route 28
West Harwich, MA 02671
(508) 432-8240

When doing my restaurant research on the clam shacks in the area, I didn't see anything written about this place anywhere. I had no intention on going there. But those bastards at the Original Seafood Restaurant were out of whole belly clams and Kreme 'n Kone was a mob scene - we couldn't even get a parking spot. So we went to the first other place that we saw, the Weatherdeck. I was keeping my fingers crossed.

Well, the food was great!

I got the belly clam platter for $22 (the average rate around here) and my husband got the fried scallops for about $9.00. Both were totally delicious.

The Clam Platter:



I really enjoyed the coating on the clams. The clams were on the smaller side, and were sweet and tasty. In all the clams I ate (and there were a lot of them), there was only one with a bit of sand in it, and that's pretty good!

The Scallop Platter (there actually are a lot of scallops under there!):



The coating on the scallops was good, not out of this world. But the scallops were perfectly cooked. They were tender and sweet. And they were pretty large in size (not huge).

The onion rings were awesome. I wanted more clams and less fries, so I completely passed on the fries, but Joe said they were good! He also had a clam chowder. He said he liked the flavor very much, but the consistency was too thick.

It was the atmosphere that could use improving. While there are a lot of windows, and a high ceiling with ceiling fans, it was hot. Granted, it was a really hot day, but some air conditioning would have been appropriate. Also, it doesn't look enticing from the outside. It needs updating. On the inside it could also use some updating of decor as well. The booths remind me of fast food joints from 1983. The benches were the hard orange particle-board ones and the table was a wood-grain laminate on particle board. Joe recalls the tables being sticky.

Here's pics from the outside:




When you order your food, you get a ticket with a number, and they call you when it's ready. That was fine when the place wasn't too busy, but it would have been annoying if they were busy and constantly calling out numbers.

But the food was good and plentiful. We had a lot of leftovers and I couldn't even finish my clams even though I never even ate a french fry. If you're hungry and you're there and don't want to deal with a crowd, it's a good restaurant and I recommend it.

Oh, and I think they may have sold beer. I could swear I saw a Budweiser sign.


Kream 'N Kone
Rte 28
West Dennis, MA 02670
(508) 394-0808
http://www.kreamnkone.com/

The first time I went to Kreme n' Kone it was so crowded we couldn't get a parking space and figured that if one opened up, it would take forever to get a table and our food, so we turned around and left. Their sign says they were voted best on the cape, so they are pretty popular.

But today, it was just before noon, and the mobs hadn't arrived yet. So we went for it. We were trying to spend less money, so I didn't get the clam belly plate like I did at the Weatherdeck, but the price was comparable, at $21.75. Instead, I got the fried scallops ($12.99) and my husband got the fried haddock ($10.99). He also got a clam chowder.



The atmosphere was nice. The seats were comfortable and the decor was light and airy. there was an outside dining - not a patio, but the end of the parking lot, really. The location is good - just along the river, so if you sit on that side of the restaurant you can watch the kayakers and paddle-boaters. It was much cooler out on the day we visited the Kreme N' Kone (as opposed to the really hot day when we were at the Weatherdeck). There was no noticeable air conditioning. But on this day, they didn't need it. There was great ventilation coming from the breeze through the open windows.





One downer was the ladies room. It only had 3 stalls, and one of them was out of order. This is a family restaurant, so half of the adult women in the bathroom have a child with them. Seriously, I was in line while the restaurant was almost empty. There were two stalls, each with a mother and child in them, and two single women in front of me in line. In 15 minutes, the lunch rush probably was going to begin, so the facilities were not sufficient! It can be so hard to be a woman who needs to do her business.

Prices were similar to the Weatherdeck. But there was a noticeable difference in ordering in that they give you a number sign and they bring the food to you, which is nice.

The onion rings were great and were exactly like those of the Weatherdeck. The fries were good. My husband said they were just slightly better than those of the Weatherdeck. The chowder was good in flavor, but a little thick, just as that of the Weatherdeck. Perhaps they were made by the same people.



The coating on scallops was crispier than it had been at the Weatherdeck, but the scallops were slightly overcooked. They had tried to not cover up the scallops with fries. I'm guessing it's because the scallops get soggy under the fries. There were a couple under there and it was noticeable. In all, I'm giving the upper edge to the scallops at the Weatherdeck.

Here's the haddock platter:


The haddock was delicious. I think it was the same coating that was on the scallops. I'd get it again without a doubt.

Here's the scallop platter:

And the winner is?

Honestly, this is a tough one to answer. If I look at our experience, I'd have to give the win to the Kreme N' Kone. But on a different day, it might not be an easy choice. Here's the breakdown:(btw - I don't know why you have to scroll down to see this table. Blogger is fighting me and I can't fix it!)

	Weatherdeck	Kreme N' Kone
Atmosphere (looks)	Needs Improvement	Nice
Onion Rings	Delicious	Delicious
French Fries	Very Good	Great
Fried Scallops	Great	Very Good
Clam Chowder	Good	Good
Ease of Parking and Speed of Food Arrival	Great	Depends
Service	OK	Good
Facilities	Good	Insufficient

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Old Liz's Old-Fashioned Cucumber & Tomato Salad Recipe ♥

Big chunks of cucumber with tomato and onion in a simple balsamic vinegar dressing. Low carb. Weight Watchers 0 points.

This recipe originates from rural Missouri and a 1940s farm wife widowed young with four children, the youngest only 18 months old.

It's plain. It's thrifty. It's filling. I suspect Old Liz might tsk-tsk me to task for even calling it a recipe. My mind hears her harumph, "It's just cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden. Don't make a fuss." So no more imagining a woman whose spirit I can know only through the legacy of her children -- and her cucumber salad. Maybe she wouldn't mind just a small fuss.

This is a good salad for those baseball-bat sized cucumbers from the garden. It needs a good rest before supper (30 minutes, say) but is even better the next day.

UPDATE: When visiting Karina from Karina's Kitchen near Santa Fe, just look what she made, her very own gluten-free version of Old Liz's Cucumber Salad.

OLD LIZ's OLD-FASHIONED CUCUMBER & TOMATO SALAD RECIPE

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 45 minutes
Serves 8

1 extra large cucumber
2 small pickling cucumbers
1 small tomato, chopped
1 small onion, sliced thin in half rings
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (I used white balsamic vinegar so the cucumber wouldn't stain dark)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Peel and seed the large cucumber, then cut into chunks. Slice off the stem and blossom ends of the pickling cucumbers; in ribbons, peel off about half the skin (leaving some skin on adds crunch and some color) and then slice cross-wise to form rounds. Combine with remaining ingredients. Let rest for about 30 minutes or overnight.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Serving : 45Cal; 8g Protein; 2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 6g Carb; 1g Fiber; 5NetCarb ; 5mg Sodium; 0mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 0 points

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OLD-TIME CUCUMBER RECIPES from the ARCHIVES
~ Nana's Cucumbers with Sour Cream, my own grandmother's cucumber salad ~
~ Cucumbers in Vinegar, Danielle's Ima's cucumber salad ~
~ more cucumber recipes ~

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PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.

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Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2008

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Bolognese-Style Pasta Sauce

A few weeks ago I began watching Secrets of a Restaurant Chef on the network I love to hate, the Food Network. The restaurant chef is Anne Burrell, who is an accomplished chef in New York, and Sous Chef to Mario Batali on Iron Chef America. I like her show a great deal and I like learning from watching her and listening to her secrets.

This past week I decided to make a Neopolitan Meatballs recipe from Eating Well, and I decided to change the sauce recipe and combine it with the Spaghetti Bolognese recipe that I saw Anne prepare on her show. But for some reason, the Food Network is only posting recipes from one of her shows so far. I think they've aired about five episodes. So I relied on my memory of Anne, preparing that marvelous-looking sauce. Aside from her advice on seasoning foods and some of the ingredients she used, I remember Anne talking about the Bolognese sauce as one that goes to the brink of destruction (from over-cooking) and then bringing it back from the edge to make a wonderful sauce with complex, deep flavors.

I think I did this sauce justice! It is seasoned more than it would have been and the flavor is amazing! I will definitely make my version of this sauce again. Maybe with the meatballs, but maybe not!

Bolognese-Style Pasta Sauce

Adapted from Eating Well Magazine
(with the help of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef)

yield: 8 servings

Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups onion, chopped
1 cup zucchini, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 (28 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Procedure
Heat-up a dutch oven on a medium-high flame. Add the olive oil and heat it up for a minute. Don't let it heat to the point of smoking. Add the onions. Stir occasionally for 2 minutes. Add the zucchini and and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sauté the vegetables for about five minutes, stirring occasionally so they are soft and cooked, just beginning to brown. Add the garlic. Cook, stirring, for one more minute.

Add the tomatoes (don't drain them), white wine, water, bay leaf, the rest of the salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, and basil. Cook it for about an hour, stirring occasionally and checking to see the level of liquid. Each time that I saw the level of liquid get very low, I'd add about 1/2 cup water, stir, and continue cooking for one hour. I added water 3 times during the cooking period. If it were to have needed more, I would have used it.

Here's what it looked like after that first hour (water was a little low and I added 1/2 cup just after this picture was taken):



I don't like chunks of vegetables in my sauce, but I like the flavor. So I used an immersion blender. If you don't have an immersion blender, transfer the sauce to a regular blender. Be sure to temporarily remove the bay leaves first!

If you are going to add meat, such as the Neopolitan Meatballs that I made on this particular day, add it now and continue to cook. It took me about 1/2 hour to cook my meatball (I had to do it in batches). then I cooked the sauce for another hour after adding the meatballs. So the total cooking time of the sauce was 2 1/2 hours.

Here it is, with the Neopolitan Meatball recipe. That's good stuff!

By the way, this was definitely the best sauce I've made in my life!

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Neopolitan Meatballs with Bolognese-Style Sauce

As I write this, I am enjoying a small dish of meatballs with sauce - no pasta, no extra cheese. These meatballs are totally awesome. The texture is perfect and they are completely satisfying as I chew them, and afterward they leave me full and content. The sauce (Bolognese-Style Pasta Sauce) is equally fantastic, the best sauce I ever made. I will put these meatballs and sauce in my regular rotation!

This was the second time during the week that I made these meatballs. I had made them earlier this week, following the recipe, and I felt they were too delicate and the texture was off. Also, I had used the wrong kind of seasoning, so the flavor was off too. So I remade them, making adjustments, and creating perfection! I'm so proud of myself.

I'm going to make a huge batch before school starts back up (in just over a week) and portion it out into lunch-size servings and freeze them. I can see the future - in a hurry trying to get out of the house. No worries about lunch. I'll just grab a lunch-size container of them out of the freezer and I'll be good to go. Lunch will fill me up and I'll enjoy every bite. I'll meet my protein intake for the day, and I'll have some fiber too. Life will be good.

Neopolitan Meatballs with Bolognese-Style Sauce
Adapted from Eating Well Magazine

yield: 24 meatballs

Ingredients
1 pound 93% ground beef
1/3 cup bulgar wheat
2 cups bread (french - not a baguette), cut into cubes
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon oil (for cooking the meatballs)

Bolognese-Style Pasta Sauce

Procedure
Place the bulgar in a medium bowl. Add boiling water, covering the bulgar one inch above. Cover the bowl tightly and let sit for a half hour to absorb water. It won't absorb all the water, but that's okay!

Add water too the french bread and stir it around with your hands. I added enough so that the bread got wet in all parts, but I didn't add extra water. Once it's wet, put it into a sieve and press the extra water out of it so that no more water can be removed. Put the bread in a medium bowl.

Put the bulgar into the sieve and strain out all of the extra water. Add the bulgar to the bowl with the bread.

To that bowl, add the remaining ingredients (eggs, Parmesan, beef, cinnamon, salt, and pepper). Mix together with your hands - they are the best tools! Mix it completely so you can't see the different ingredients - just one big mass of mixture.

Form your meatballs. I got 24 meatballs. Here's what they looked like (compared to the size of a penny). They were between 1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter:

Heat up a nonstick pan. Add the tablespoon of oil. Place the meatballs in the pan. But be careful to leave about two inches of space between the meatballs. You'll need room for them as you roll them to cook them on all sides. I had to cook the meatballs in 3 different batches before adding them to the sauce.

When the meatballs are browned on each side, carefully place them into the sauce as it cooks. They will finish cooking in the sauce for an additional hour.

Now you've got perfection! Yum!

You could serve them plain, or with pasta. But I bet they would make a great meatball sandwich too.

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Jerusalem Salad ♥ Recipe

Today's salad recipe: A classic summer salad, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and romaine lettuce, all tossed in a lemon tahini dressing. Weight Watchers Friendly, WW 2 PointsPlus. Low Cal. Low Carb. Gluten Free. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

~recipe & photo updated & republished 2013~
~more recently updated recipes~

2008 Original: By the middle of August, there's simply no need to cook. We can if we want, but why? when we can just collect some vegetables, then wash, chop and devour.

This easy salad made for a great light supper. What makes it special is the dressing: nutty with the sesame seeds in the tahini and bright with lemon. The recipe made far more dressing than needed for the salad, a real benefit at it turns out. When the dressing was puréed with a can of chickpeas, voila, a terrific hummus, one of my favorites in a long while. I slathered this onto flatbread (you must-must check my recipe for Quick Crisp Flatbread, it's the summer's obsession!) and it was just perfect alongside.
Keep Reading ->>>

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Homemade Zucchini Relish Recipe ♥

Today's recipe: A thick relish with a bite of pepper made from 'huge' zucchini, onion, carrot and peppers.

Free food: think 'monster' zucchini and 'prolific' peppers. This time of year, free food makes its way into our kitchens where we become its steward, charged with 'no waste' and looking for recipes to use up large zucchini and piles of peppers. With this recipe for zucchini relish, I made good use of two extra-large zucchinis, each one weighing 2+ pounds and still only Size XL beside a four-pound Size XXXL.

The zucchini relish recipe is 'tried and true' -- it came from my friend Linda who got it from her friend Kathie who got it from her mother-in-law who got it from, well, you know. Grating and chopping takes a good hour, then the vegetables rest for three hours before getting cooked and processed in canning jars.

The relish is sweet, almost enough to be called a 'zucchini jam' but still, leans to the savory side. It's got some bite too, thanks to a good measure of black pepper which shouldn't be skipped. It's thick and good for spreading (as photographed, on bread atop feta cheese, say). The color is beautiful! The carrots and red peppers stay bright and colorful, the zucchini takes on the amber color of turmeric. Yes, I really like this stuff!

KATHIE'S NOTES "I had an 80-year old neighbor who put it on all her sandwiches (said it stimulated her appetite) and always wanted me to sell the relish. For Christmas, my siblings ask for relish, nothing else. I think the turmeric makes it special."

FUNNY PAGES My friend Stephanie from the St. Louis food blog Iron Stef has the funniest picture ever of one of those big honkin' zucchinis that emerge from gardens this time of year. Be sure to check out her Zucchini Baby.

HOMEMADE ZUCCHINI RELISH

Hands-on time: 60 minutes up front, an hour or so to can
Time to table: 6 hours
Makes 8 or so pints but can be canned in half pints if preferred

VEGETABLES
15 cups grated zucchini, from about 4 + pounds of fresh zucchini
1 pound carrots, grated
6 cups chopped onion, from about 5 onions
8 sweet peppers, a mix of red and green, chopped (I used 2 red, 6 green)
1/3 cup table salt (Linda's sister suggests using pickling salt)

Mix these together in a very large bowl. Let stand at least three hours. (This batch stood overnight.) Drain in a colander or wrap in cheesecloth so the excess liquid can be squeezed out.

LIQUID & SPICES
3 cups vinegar (cider is preferred because it's gentler and more fruity but I used plain white vinegar and it was fine)
6 cups sugar
3 teaspoon celery seed
1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1-1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
3 tablespoons cornstarch stirred into a little cold water to make a paste

Mix ingredients in a very large kettle, stir until sugar is dissolved. Add drained vegetables and bring to a boil. Let cook just a few minutes, until liquid is mostly gone. Transfer relish into sterilized jars and seal. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

KITCHEN NOTES
Large zucchini can be seedy and spongy in the centers -- cut this out before grating. If large pieces of skin get through the grater, pull these out, they'll likely be tough. The small slivers cook fine, however.
Grate the zucchini and carrots in the food processor. Onion and peppers get mushy in the food processor so should be chopped by hand.
Even though I've done a lot of canning, I always review my own practical home canning tips before getting started on a new batch. There's always something to forget, otherwise!

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RECIPES from the ARCHIVES
~ more recipes for canning & preserving vegetables ~
~ more zucchini recipes ~

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