Recipes for the Joy of Life by Robert S. Swiatek - HTML preview

1 tsp thyme

½ cup cooked rice

fresh ground pepper

1 large onion, minced

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 potato, washed and cubed

Place carcass into large pot with bay leaf and cover with water. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove carcass and let cool. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Remove turkey from bones and add back to pot with any other cold turkey from bird. Simmer for 15 minutes more.

Serve.

I was at an arts and crafts festival in the summer of 2009, when an individual asked if the recipes in The Read My Lips Cookbook had any preservatives in them. He mentioned food allergies and I didn’t think too much about it and said,

“definitely not.” Sometime after I contemplated his question, wondering what cookbook would have 198

any preservatives as ingredients. I certainly wouldn’t want or recommend that book.

This cookbook has a few recipes that have been around for years, some with name brand labels, despite the preponderance of salt and other unhealthy additives, not to mention chemicals in those commercial products. This recipe I picked up by viewing a PBS program on vegetarian cooking, which I’m not that crazy about. You can find many recipes here and on my web site without meat – or perhaps only some chicken bouillon. This rice pasta pilaf gets much of its flavor from browning the vermicelli – or thin spaghetti, if you prefer – as well as the addition of the bouillon before adding the water. It might be familiar to you as Rice-a-roni, without all the sodium. I use no-sodium bouillon, but the regular kind is fine, too.

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rice pasta pilaf

serves 6

½ cup vermicelli, broken into ½ inch lengths 2 tbsp olive oil

½ cup basmati rice

1 tbsp low sodium chicken bouillon 2 cups water

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley or 2 tbsp dried Brown vermicelli in oil over low heat in large skillet. Add rice and cook until it becomes almost clear. Add bouillon and cook for five minutes, stirring. Add water and parsley, bring to boil, lower heat and simmer until all water is absorbed. Serve.

menu for day fifty-nine

vegetables with dip

wilted kale

rice pasta pilaf

oatmeal bread

turkey soup

coffee

steamed vegetables

fruit cake

poulet sauté champignons

Oriental nectarine coleslaw

tossed salad with raspberry dressing 200

~~~ day sixty ~~~

Roughly speaking, this is the menu I created for a dinner at my home on March 24, 2007. As you can see, it’s nearly vegetarian. I didn’t make the shrimp that night, but I offer it here anyway. If I didn’t bring out butter for the bread or milk for the coffee, it would have been vegan. I bought the pie from the supermarket and baked it in the morning of the event. To make the onions and peppers, follow the baloney and onions recipe for day 7 and omit the baloney. That sounds like what Congress should do while in session.

This pineapple rice pilaf will accompany seafood as well. You can use 3 strings of saffron or 1/4 teaspoon of the powder, or omit it if it’s not in your kitchen.

pineapple rice

serves 8

1 small onion, minced 8 oz crushed pineapple 2 tbsp olive oil

3 cups chicken broth

1 ½ cups rice

1 bay leaf

saffron

Sauté onion in oil in large skillet over medium heat until soft. Add rice and cook for 2 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil.

Lower heat and simmer until all broth is absorbed. Serve.

You don’t need meat to create a delicious, healthy soup and you can make it a day ahead.

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curried broccoli soup

serves 8

1 ½ lb broccoli

¼ tsp thyme

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup rice

2 tbsp olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 large onion, sliced

¼ cup milk

1 tbsp curry powder

croutons

6 cups chicken stock

Separate broccoli into flowerets and slice stalks.

Select 8 small flowerets of broccoli, cook for 3

minutes, drain and set aside. Sauté garlic in oil in saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add onion, curry powder and cook until onions are soft. Place onions and garlic along with the stock, remaining broccoli, thyme, rice and bay leaf into Dutch oven or soup pot and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is soft. Cool mixture and then blend in batches.

Refrigerate overnight. On day of dinner, add milk and reheat. Place one reserved floweret in each bowl, pour soup over and add croutons.

Enjoy!

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orange baked beans serves 8

1 lb pinto beans

8 oz tomato sauce

water

3 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 apple, sliced

1 onion, chopped

3 tbsp prepared mustard

½ cup hickory barbecue sauce

1 orange, peeled and cubed

½ green pepper, chopped

Soak beans overnight. Drain and rinse thoroughly.

Place soaked beans into large Dutch oven and add water to just cover. Bring to boil, lower heat and cook for ½ hour. Pour off most of water and pour beans into crockpot. Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for 12 hours. Serve.

menu for day sixty

Creole shrimp

onions and peppers

curried broccoli soup orange baked beans Russian brown bread Chinese cabbage pineapple rice

blueberry pie

tangy applesauce

coffee

tossed salad with sesame dressing 203

~~~ day sixty-one ~~~

On August 4, 2007, I had guests over for dinner and prepared the items that you see below –

for the most part. I didn’t make dessert, as Reg and Lynn brought it. The soup I made that day wasn’t what you’ll find listed below, as I came up with the Moroccan soup over a year after the day of this dinner.

This dinner may seem to be complicated, but it really won’t take much elapsed time and is well worth the small effort. You can even warm any vegetable you prepare a day ahead as well as the egg noodles – which I put in a stainless steel bowl – on the day of the dinner. All this means is that while your guests are sitting in the living room, you won’t have to be in the kitchen, but can join them.

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pork paprika

serves 6

6 loin pork chops

1 cup white wine

1 clove garlic, minced

8 oz tomato sauce

1 tbsp caraway seeds

¼ sugar

2 tbsp paprika

½ cup water

fresh ground pepper

1 tbsp cornstarch

Place chops in casserole dish and sprinkle garlic on top, followed by caraway, paprika and pepper.

Pour wine on top and put casserole in refrigerator and let marinate for 3 hours. Remove dish and place pork onto platter. Stir tomato sauce and sugar into marinade mixture, put chops back into casserole dish and pour mixture over pork. Bake in preheated 300° oven for 1 hour, cool and put in refrigerator overnight. Next day, place dish into preheated 350° oven for ½ hour. Remove chops to meat platter and pour liquid into small saucepan and bring to boil. Mix cornstarch with water and add to wine / sauce mixture, stirring. Cook for 2

minutes. Replace pork in casserole and pour gravy over and bake for 20 minutes more.

Remove and serve.

You can grow cilantro in your garden – I’ve grown it in my spare bedroom. It’s an annual that acts like a perennial. Once planted, it grows to maturity and you can use both the leaves as well as the seeds in cooking. In addition, as the seeds fall to the ground, this will enable more plants to sprout the next year and in the years that follow. You 205

shouldn’t have to plant it again. This soup features that fine herb.

Moroccan soup

serves 8

1 cup lentils

2 cups chicken broth

1 large onion, chopped 15 oz can pea beans 1 cup chopped parsley 2 tbsp flour 1 bunch cilantro, chopped 2 tbsp lime juice fresh ground ginger

1 tbsp tomato paste

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup thin spaghetti

2 tbsp olive oil

fresh ground pepper

15 oz can chopped tomatoes

In small saucepan, cover lentils with water and cook for 2 minutes. In Dutch oven, sauté the onion, parsley, half the cilantro, ginger and cinnamon in oil over low heat for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth, beans, lentils and 4 cups water and bring to boil.

Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes or until lentils are tender. In small bowl, whisk flour in 1

cup of water, stir in remaining cilantro, lime juice, tomato paste and add to soup with spaghetti and pepper. Simmer until pasta is soft, about 5 minutes.

Serve.

menu for day sixty-one

mustard caraway wings egg noodles Moroccan soup

Austrian cabbage

pork chops paprika

peanut butter cake

oatmeal bread

coffee

marinated vegetables

tossed salad

206

~~~ day sixty-two ~~~

The Authors Guild of Western New York met at my home on Saturday, January 12, 2008. We had a discussion of future events as well as how to get out the word on our books and then settled down to dinner. I cooked a few things, and the menu for that event is included here. Of the people in the Guild at that time, four of the writers departed the group since that dinner – not all made it to the event. I’m happy to report that we have new blood as three writers have joined the Guild in 2009, and I’m continuing in the recruiting effort.

Oriental mayonnaise dip

cup of mayonnaise

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

fresh ground ginger

Combine all ingredients. Blend until thoroughly mixed. Serve with vegetables.

For this recipe, you can use any flavor pudding you desire.

pistachio tarts

1 package instant pistachio pudding milk 1 cup whipped topping

individual serving graham pie shells Prepare pudding as directed. Blend in whipped topping. Refrigerate for one hour. Pour into individual serving graham pie shells. Chill for 4

hours. Serve.

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menu for day sixty-two

vegetable tray with Oriental mayonnaise dip onion rolls

Chinese cabbage

sausage lentil soup

pistachio tarts

garlic shrimp pasta

tossed salad with various dressings 208

~~~ day sixty-three ~~~

I added the menu suggestion feature to my web site quite a while ago, but it was a long time since I changed it in the summer of 2009 from the old to this one, which is from Thursday, August 13, 2009. The beet recipe was suggested by a woman I met somewhere over the summer of that same year at some arts and crafts festival. My recipe may not be the way she fixes it, but it’s close, easy and delicious. If you’re not one who likes beets, you may change your mind after trying this recipe.

Sorry that there’s no dessert. You can come up with something. Pick something up at the supermarket or bakery.

Steelhead looks a bit like salmon, but it’s really trout. Maybe they’re cousins.

steelhead with almonds

serves 4

4 steelhead trout filets

prepared mustard

¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted

¼ cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350°. Place filets in small baking pan and spread mustard over trout. Sprinkle almonds on top, followed by bread crumbs. Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove and serve.

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Cajun zucchini

serves 4

2 tbsp of olive oil

1 medium zucchini, sliced

1 tbsp Creole seasoning

Warm olive oil in heavy skillet over medium heat, add zucchini, cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Add Creole seasoning and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring. Serve.

If you’ve gotten this far, it means you’ve probably been avoiding fried foods. Many years ago, I made French fries from bacon grease and other types of animal fat that I collected. Then, they weren’t called “freedom fries.” The final product had great flavor, but wasn’t very healthy. Besides those potatoes, I also did a batch of donuts and may have been a big threat to the success of Dunkin’ Donuts. Yeah, right! You can still enjoy that potato delicacy but use canola oil.

There’s a better option than that. You can use curry seasoning, Creole seasoning, or any other spices to create this substitute to regular fries. I bake the cut up potatoes in the oven – they look just like fries and taste great, too. You might say that I have gained freedom from the grease and still have the security of comfort food.

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baked French fries serves 4

4 large potatoes

1 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp chili powder

Heat oven to 375°. Cut up potatoes into typical French fries, place in large oven dish or pan, and sprinkle with olive oil, paprika and chili powder.

Stir to blend and place in oven. After 15 minutes, stir once more. Bake for another 15 minutes and remove and enjoy.

In my 2005 book, for seeing eye dogs only, I mentioned that the government spent $100,000 to study why people don’t like beets. I added my two cents by saying, “The people probably aren’t cooking them.” You should enjoy this recipe.

beets and bacon

serves 4

4 large beets

3 tbsp vinegar

2 slices bacon

1 tbsp sugar

Wash beets and trim leaves and part of root. In large pan, cover beets with water and bring to boil. Lower heat and cook for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, fry bacon until crisp. Remove to paper towel and drain. Drain beets, cool, peel and mash, coarsely. Mix vinegar and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Blend in mashed beets along with the bacon and serve.

You may have figured that I wouldn’t mention Seinfeld in this book, but think again. I 211

experienced an episode in my kitchen that parallels the odor in Jerry’s car. Thank goodness, it wasn’t anything approaching what Jerry and Elaine had to sit through, but it was close.

Until recently, the best I could say about the vegetable, kohlrabi, was that I almost could spell it.

In 2008, there were a few of these beauties in the bag of vegetables I received from Porter Farms. I heard it had the taste of a cabbage core – doesn’t that sound delicious – and it appeared to me to be similar to potatoes in color and texture. I was told I had to peel it before cooking, but I decided I wanted the fiber from the peel. My choice was to make a soup in the crock pot with potatoes, kohlrabi, smoked Polish sausage and cabbage. I’m sure there were a few other ingredients, but they’re not significant to the story. After simmering for hours –

that really didn’t help – I tried the recipe and wasn’t that impressed. Not wanting to waste the stuff, I ate some of it and froze the rest, figuring I could blend a little here and there into other soup recipes.

That idea worked out well since there’s none of it left and the other recipes weren’t affected.

However, on using my crock pot on a few occasions, I noticed a funny taste in a black bean recipe as well as in some other dish. Eventually I realized that the unpeeled kohlrabi forever deposited lasting taste into the porcelain of the crock pot. From now on, I’m peeling that sucker.

As far as I can guess, kohlrabi is probably a distant cousin of the radish family, maybe once removed for obvious reasons. Turnips could be relatives as well. In 2009, my vegetable bag had a 212

few kohlrabi and I didn’t cook them. Instead, I peeled them and pretended they were radishes. If you don’t like radishes or turnips, you’ll have to pass them off to someone else, pretend they’re cabbage cores or cook them. As you might guess, they’ll be no kohlrabi recipe here.

menu for day sixty-three

Cajun zucchini

beets and bacon

steelhead with almonds corn on the cob tossed salad

baked French fries

This is the menu I created for a party at my home on December 29, 2006 – more or less. People liked the sour dough bread I made, but I wasn’t that enthusiastic, so it’s not included here. Instead you’ll find a recipe for zucchini bread, and a few other additions. For the party, if you make the jambalaya rather than the jambalaya pasta, you’ll have potatoes, rice and pasta, although there’s nothing wrong with two pasta dishes. The only items I had nothing to do with are the wine and dessert. Thanks go out to Julie for the cannolis; thanks to Mike for the Lambrusco and both for their help. Thanks to my sister Pat for the cookies.

In this cole slaw, peaches or nectarines can be used in place of the mango. Because of the strange pit, I find it challenging to remove the fruit around it.

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almond cole slaw

serves 8

1 mango

5 cups shredded cabbage

1 tbsp sugar

1 cup mayonnaise

¼ cup white vinegar

1 onion, thinly sliced

½ cup toasted almonds

Peel mango and dice. Dissolve sugar in vinegar in small bowl. Add to mango and remaining ingredients, stir to blend and chill. Serve.

My first experience with tabbouleh came in the 1970s. For those unfamiliar with that offering, it’s made with cracked wheat, olive oil, lemon juice, chopped tomatoes and mint. As you may imagine, the dish is quite healthy, but it took me longer than I wanted to finish it. The following recipe should entice more people into partaking in a healthy Middle Eastern item.

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citrus bulghur salad serves 8

16 oz cracked wheat

½ tsp ground cumin

5 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp orange juice

1 cup sliced cashews

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp sugar

1 cup olive oil

3 tbsp parsley

2 oranges, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, minced

Soak the cracked wheat for 1 hour in enough water to cover it by 1 inch. Squeeze water from cracked wheat by handful and place into large bowl. Mix juices, mustard and olive oil until blended. Add remaining ingredients along with dressing to cracked wheat and stir. Serve.

This is a slight variation on the bean with bacon soup for day 10. I have frozen it and used for another dinner.

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onion bean soup

serves 8

1 ½ cups pea beans

3 large onions, chopped

2 quarts of water

½ tsp sugar

½ tsp rosemary

3 tbsp flour

¼ tsp dried sage

1 large potato, grated

½ tsp dried thyme

1 tsp Tabasco sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

fresh ground pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced 3 tbsp vinegar Soak beans overnight or cook beans with sufficient water for 2 minutes in Dutch oven and let stand for 1 hour. Drain, add 2 quarts of water and bring to boil and cook for 1 hour. Crush rosemary, sage and thyme in mortar and pestle. Add oil to frying pan and sauté garlic, onions, sugar and spices over medium heat until onions are brown. Be careful not to burn, but the darker they are, the better the flavor will be. Sugar helps to brown them. Add flour to pan, stirring for 2 minutes to make roux. Add onion mix to beans along with potato and bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Turn off heat, add Tabasco sauce, ground pepper and vinegar. Stir well. Serve with baked croutons.

Some people put corn in their salsa, but I prefer not to, even though I love fresh corn on the cob in the summer. I had a delicious black bean salsa at a political gathering before the election in 2006. I wish I had gotten the recipe. This will have to suffice.

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black bean salsa

½ cup chopped cilantro

1 small onion, finely chopped

15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained 4 oz can chopped green chilies 1 tsp ground cumin

In large bowl, mix all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate. Serve with tortilla chips.

I related the black bean caper on day 51

along with the mousse connection, but I experienced another event a few years later that’s related. In early 2005, I was on channel 17, a PBS

station in Buffalo for the program WNED COOKS:

Q is for Quick and Easy. I had seven minutes to make the chocolate mousse from this cookbook. I mentioned quick in the title of the program, but on preparing a batch the day before at home, it took me about fifteen minutes. Fortunately, Eileen Koteras was on the set, so I put her to work and we managed in the allotted time. The mousse was a huge hit as the people who tasted it raved and thought they were in heaven. People in Buffalo believe in an afterlife, with or without chocolate. Those in the studio were actually fighting over the dessert. Pasta dishes are good, and so are mushrooms stuffed with crab, all of which could be seen being produced in the studio for the show. However, that day mousse

was king!

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As far as healthy dishes go, this recipe is at the top. If people at your party don’t like lentils, tell them it’s a marinated bean dish.

marinated lentils

serves 8

½ lb lentils, picked over

½ cup olive oil

2 large onions, finely chopped ½ cup sugar

2 tbsp dry mustard

3/4 cup red wine vinegar

3 tbsp parsley leaves

fresh ground pepper

½ cup white wine

½ tsp Tabasco sauce

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

3 tbsp fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried Cook lentils in enough water to cover for 30

minutes. Drain. Add remaining ingredients, stir well and refrigerate overnight. Serve.

I try quite a few new recipes and as you probably know, even good cooks have their moments, and I’m not talking about those of senior citizens. Towards the end of September 2007, I had another huge zucchini from Porter Farms so I decide