Betty's Rhubarb Crumble

Betty's Rhubarb Crumble

On Saturday we spent the morning downtown and visited our Farmers' Market. 

There we spotted some beautiful rhubarb and Brennan just had to have it.

I was all for it because I've never cooked with rhubarb and had always wanted to try.

The group we bought ours from had recipes to give away and we took one called

"Betty's Rhubarb Crumble".  Sounds great!

Oh, David.  How old is that Elvis Costello t-shirt you're wearing?  15 years?  20?

Rhubarb has got to be one of the strangest looking vegetables around.

So that begs the question.  Is it a vegetable?  Or a fruit?  I always hear of rhubarb being sweetened when cooking because it's so tart. 

Wikipedia tells me this:  Rhubarb is usually considered to be a vegetable; however, in the United States, a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the United States as a fruit, it was to be counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties.

Anyway...

I tasted it raw and it was tart, but not that bad.  I had no idea how to prepare it.  Turns out you just clean it well and trim off the ends.  No need to peel.

This dish was absolutely delicious, but I'll be honest with you - Betty doesn't mind sugar.  In fact, you wouldn't know there was a vegetable/fruit in this dish.  And that's after I cut back on the sugar and butter.

Here's what we did:

We cleaned and sliced up the rhubarb into chunks.

Our one stalk was 4 cups.

Then we mixed eggs, flour, sugar, and salt and tossed it with our rhubarb, then placed it in a baking dish.

Then we made a crumble topping by creaming brown sugar, flour, and butter and sprinkling it on top of the rhubarb mixture.

Betty's recipe says to bake it at 350* for 1 hour, but ours was ready at 45 minutes.

You can certainly see the rhubarb in there.

This dish was decadently good!

As I mentioned above, I cut out a lot of the sugar and half of the butter from the original recipe.

You may have to play around with the level of sweetness you like.

Our version was plenty sweet though - and nice, sweet introduction to rhubarb!

Next I'll be looking for a rhubarb strawberry dish!

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Enjoy!



Homemade Hummus

Homemade Hummus

Recipe from Sandy Thomas

I've shared a few of Sandy's recipes that I've slightly modified for my family's tastes.

Her recipes are so good, and easy to make, and are dishes that we all really like.

Sandy is a Holistic Health Coach and friend.  If you are local, you should consider her cooking classes that start up again in the Fall.  I had such a great time attending them this spring!

Find out more about Sandy's services at www.zenchoice.com

Our family really likes hummus.  David prefers it on bread, pitas, or these new lentil chips that I found at our local health food store.

While I like hummus on chips any time, I usually use it is as a dip with vegetables instead of ranch dressing.

I understand that hummus is originally from Egypt, but is very popular throughout the Middle East, and luckily now in the U.S.!

I usually have one of these packages on hand, but last year started making hummus when I realized how easy it was, and how I could make it without the additional preservatives.

I've followed a few different recipes for hummus that are essentially very similar.

But I liked Sandy's a lot when we made it in class, so this is the one that I'll probably stick with going forward.

This recipe makes about 3 cups of basic hummus.

You can divide the hummus like we did and make different varieties once you have your basic recipe made. 

The seasoning and flavoring possibilities are endless!

Fresh hummus can be kept in the refrigerator for about a week.

My helper made this dish for us.

He methodically got out all the necessary ingredients, placed them in the food processor, then pulsed it to the consistency we like - pretty smooth.  He scraped down the sides of the food processor once, but overall it took about 5 minutes from pantry to finished product.

We used 2 cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained, 3 cloves of garlic, juice from one lemon, olive oil, black pepper, Kosher salt, cumin, tahini, and water.

I buy tahini at Kroger.  It's much like peanut butter, but a little thinner and is made from sesame seeds.

The only modification I made from Sandy's original recipe was to add a little more olive oil and water to make it a little bit wetter, like the Sabra brand.

Once you have this basic hummus made, you can dig in, or you can make any number of different varieties.  Here are some of the varieties Sandy shared and that I've made in the past.

Cucumber Dill

David asked for the cucumber/dill variety the night we made this batch of hummus.

So I took 1 cup of the hummus and added about 1/3 c of chopped cucumber (skin on), and 1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill.  It was fantastic with vegetables!

Roasted Red Pepper

I've also made red pepper hummus in the past by adding in 1/4 c jarred roasted red peppers (well drained) into the food processor before serving.  This is fantastic on pita.

Pine Nut & Garlic

I made a pine nut and garlic version one night for a party by adding 3 additional cloves of garlic into the food processor, then topping with 3 Tbsp pine nuts before serving.  This was a big hit.

Cilantro Chimichurri

For a Mexican-themed get together I made a cilantro chimichurri recipe by using ingredients in classic chimichurri sauce (which I absolutely love).  I added cilantro, parsley, red pepper flakes, lime juice and zest, and just a splash of soy sauce and Balsamic vinegar to my basic hummus.

Sun Dried Tomato

One of my favorite varieties is the sun dried tomato version.  I just added 1/3 c of jarred sun dried tomatoes in oil to the food processor.  Great on crostini.

Olive Tapenade

I love, love, love olives and tapenade in general.  I made a tapenade hummus one time but it wasn't my favorite.  I added extra garlic and olive oil, lemon juice and zest, capers, and a splash of Balsamic.  Once I took the hummus out of the food processor, I mixed in coarsely chopped Kalamata olives.  I might need to play with this recipe again because it sounds delicious as I'm typing it!

Hummus is healthy, flexible, and delicious.

What's your favorite variety?

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بالهنا و الشفاء!
(Egyptian for Bon Appetit!)

Pineapple Casserole

Pineapple Casserole

Last month when our moms came up to visit, my mother-in-law gave us a new cookbook called Mississippi Hometown Cookbook. 

The boys and I read through it and drooled over the delicious sounding recipes.  Of course, a lot of the ingredients are not "figure friendly" (as is the case with most of my Southern cookbooks!), but it's fun to try out new recipes any time!

Brennan spotted a Pineapple Casserole recipe in the "vegetables and other side dishes" chapter and was intrigued why it would be considered a vegetable or side dish instead of a dessert.  I had to agree.  But I like pineapple casserole and hadn't had it in years so we made it last night.  And yes.  It truly is more of a dessert.

I've modified it quite a bit to make it a touch healthier less decadent  :)

I only took the "after" shots.  We had friends in and out and a lot of activity while I was cooking dinner and trying out this new dish.  I'm just glad I remembered these photos!

We drained a can of pineapple (you can use chopped or crushed), and reserved 2 Tbsp of the juice.

We sprayed our casserole dish with Pam and placed the pineapple in the dish.

Then we combined sugar, flour, and cheese and sprinkled it on top.

Finally we mixed the pineapple juice in with melted butter and crushed Ritz crackers (I used whole wheat), and sprinkled it on top.

Baked at 350* for 30 minutes, it was a delicious sweet treat after dinner.

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Enjoy!



Homemade Marinara

Sandy's Homemade Marinara

Pasta with a delicious sauce is such a great dinner, and requires little prep if I have sauce on hand.

The issue is that the boys (who avoid chunky tomatoes and peppers at all costs), don't really care for most of the jarred sauces out there.

I've strained jarred sauces, and I've blended jarred sauces in order to get rid of the chunkiness (I clearly love my children dearly).  It works OK, but I'd rather have a sauce that we all really like, that isn't full of sugar (which the jarred brands are), and is much more delicious.



This recipe comes from Sandy Thomas, Holistic Health Coach (www.zenchoice.com).   In the final healthy cooking class I took with Sandy last month, we made this sauce and enjoyed it with our lunch that day and it was delicious!  I knew I'd make it often.  Sandy recommends keeping one container of the sauce in the fridge and the rest in the freezer to pull out when needed.  If you are local and want more information about Sandy's services, please give me a call!

 

Brennan prepared this sauce mid-morning, and after errands that afternoon, rushed home to stir and taste test.  We seasoned and finished off the sauce that evening while I was making the pan roasted cherry tomatoes. 

 

My recipe is slightly modified from Sandy's original.  This is an easily customizable recipe to your family's tastes.  And because it cooks in the crock pot - it couldn't be easier!

 

We started by sauteing a diced onion in olive oil until tender and translucent (~5 minutes).  Then we added crushed garlic for another minute.

 

We transferred the sauteed vegetables, the cans of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, dried Italian seasonings, and fennel seeds to the crock pot.  Stirred, and set it to cook on low for 6 hours.

 

 

That evening we tasted it and Brennan thought it needed sweetness.  Per Sandy's recipe we added a tablespoon of honey.  Then we added about 2 tsp of Kosher salt, some fresh black pepper, and a little bit of garlic powder.  Because the sauce was a little took chunky for my family, Brennan used the "soup puree-er" to smooth it out. (see photo above)

 

 

 

We chopped about 1/4 c of fresh basil, and served the pasta over penne.

 

 

Then I divvied up the remaining sauce into 4 containers for the fridge and freezer.  It's so great to have a delicious sauce on hand!

 

Funny Story - the mason who will be repairing our chimney this summer stopped by mid-day.  He was at the front door and I could tell he was kind of distracted.  Finally he said - what are you cooking?  I told him marinara and offered to put some in a container for him to take home.  He shyly turned me down, but I could tell it was hard to do.  The house smelled wonderful all day!

 

Thank you, Sandy, for another delicious recipe!

 

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Buon Appetito!

Pan Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

London Reid's

Pan Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

I saw this recipe on the London Reid blog a couple of weeks ago and decided to try it out.

I was making a new marinara sauce for dinner last night, and thought this would be great as another topping for pasta.

I knew the boys wouldn't eat it, so I only made enough pan roasted tomatoes for David and me, and maybe some lunch leftovers - but no chance.  They were all gone.

I had all the ingredients on hand, and the dish was delicious, and so so simple!

I placed a mixture of cherry tomatoes that I had on hand in a skillet and drizzled them with olive oil.

I heated the tomatoes on medium for a couple of minutes.

Then I added minced garlic, Kosher salt, and some julienned fresh basil leaves.

Sorry for the blurry photos.  Perhaps too many things going on at once in the kitchen...

After about 12 minutes, the tomatoes were softened and starting to burst a little, so I knew the were ready.  I added a little extra basil and transferred them to a serving dish.

This looks like too much basil, but is there such a thing??

The tomatoes were really, really good on the penne!

And the smell of olive oil, garlic, and basil cooking in the kitchen was Heavenly!!

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Buon appetito!