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Monthly Archives: April 2010
A recipe: Black Bean Cabbage Salad with Avocado Cream Dressing
After spending almost a week in Portland, I’ve got so much to tell you and so many pictures to share, but I promised a recipe for Black Bean Cabbage Slaw, so I’ll save my news for later.
It’s a healthful salad with plenty of flavor and crunch. I used green cabbage and red cabbage and added a couple of things I had in my refrigerator — a red pepper and an onion. If I’d had a carrot or two, I probably would have grated them up and tossed them right in to the bowl. A salad is very clean-out-the-vegetable-drawer-friendly. (I was cleaning out my refrigerator as I was getting ready to head out of town.) And since I wanted to add a non-meat source of protein, I opened a can of black beans from my pantry.
Sure, you could use a bag of prepared cole slaw mix from the produce department of the grocery store. It would make this salad a little more convenient to prepare, but it would probably cost a little more. If I used the packaged mix, I wouldn’t have red and green cabbage left in the refrigerator to snack on. Or chop it up and saute it in a little butter and olive oil unti it’s crisp-tender and then douse it with lots of ground black pepper.
If you’ve made the Cabbage Salad with Avocado Cream to have with the Salmon Tacos I shared in my column this week and you have some salad leftover, you can just add some black beans and any other salad ingredients you have in your refrigerator.
Black Bean Cabbage Salad with Avocado Cream Dressing
- 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
- 2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
- 1 sweet red bell pepper, seeded, sliced
- 1 sweet onion, peeled, sliced thin
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled, chopped
- 2 avocados, halved, peeled and pitted
- 1 small jalapeno, stem and seeds removed, chopped
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Juice from 1 lemon, about 3 tablespoons
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sour cream
Toss cabbage, red bell pepper slices, onion slices and black beans together in large bowl.
Make Avocado Cream Dressing by placing garlic, avocados, jalapeno, cilantro, lemon juice and salt in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and stir in sour cream until mixture is creamy and smooth.
Spoon some of the Avocado Cream Dressing into the bowl of vegetables and beans, tossing and adding more Dressing until all cabbage is lightly coated. Chill for an hour or two before serving. Refrigerate any remaining Dressing. It’s great as a dip for tortilla chips or fresh vegetables and makes a tasty spread for sandwiches or wraps.
A recipe for Mother Nature’s Elixir
I’ve been sick since I arrived in Portland on Monday. Head splitting, eyes watering, nose itching, coughing, coughing, tight chest, sore everywhere. Not the best condition to be in when attending a conference you’ve been looking forward to for months. If I was home, I’d definitely be in bed.
I was so happy to see representatives of Cuisinart whirling up blender pitchers full of Mother Nature’s Elixir yesterday morning at breakfast. It’s packed with lots of vitamins and antioxidants from fruits and vegetables. They were happy to share their recipe. I gulped down four of those little cups of elixir. What a healthful start to my day — after a tall blast of Stumptown Coffee, of course.
And, speaking of recipes, I attended a session yesterday afternoon with this title: The Death of Recipes?
While I’ve been thinking more people are getting back into their kitchen to create their own meals, research shows Americans eat less than 50% of their meals at home. With recipes everywhere, millions just a google search or a click away, people still don’t know how to cook or just aren’t bothering to cook. Many who do cook at home are a bit like technicians, tied to recipes and unable to improvise or create something original. A number of books are being published advocating a freer style of cooking — essentially without recipes.
A panel of experts/authors who are changing the way we think about recipes and the way we cook, including Michael Ruhlman, author of "Ratio," Karen Page and her husband Andrew Dornenberg, authors of "The Flavor Bible," and Amy Sherman of CookingWithAmy.com had an interesting conversation.
Some points shared by the panel that struck me:
- On the average, people are spending 27 minutes a day on food preparation.
- Less than 5% of Americans prepare dinner from a recipe. (This could mean the remaining 95% are using mixes, frozen foods, processed foods, fast foods or tossing ingredients together to put their own creation on the table.)
- Life is better when we cook ourselves. We’re healthier, happier, more relaxed (you know, those comforting smells of food cooking) enjoy more family time.
- If you have down the basic techniques of cooking, have a decent understanding of which flavors go together, you can creat a meal without a recipe. (And this takes time, practice and experimentation.)
- If you are afraid to cook, prepare one thing you like many times until you get really good at it. You’ll gradually become more comfortable in the kitchen and you’ll be proud of that delicious dish. And you’ll gain the confidence to move on to other dishes.
Here are a couple of non-recipes I happened to hear about from two different people throughout the day:
Grilled Steak as shared by author Karen Page
Coat a steak all over with miso paste. Put the steak in a plastic bag and seal it up tight. Put it in the refrigerator overnight. At meal time, wipe the miso paste off of the steak. Throw the steak on a hot grill.
Pasta Dinner as shared by author Mollie Katzen
Toss together a mixture of half cooked pasta and half chickpeas. Garnish with walnuts.
Mollie’s recipe is one you can add your own creative touches for more flavor and flair. Maybe drizzle with quality olive oil, add some seasonings you like with pasta, a bit of cheese, maybe.
Are you one who could live in a world without recipes? Personally, I love recipes. I have some that are full of family tradition and memories. And I have some that simply inspire me. I know that I could never make my favorite cake without the recipe. At the same time, though, I’m not afraid to create dishes of my own.
Here’s a recipe for the breakfast drink Cuisinart treated me to at breakfast yesterday. But, you could make 
something similar without a recipe. Use your favorite fruit juice, whatever fruit you have in your kitchen and a handful of greens and fresh herbs.
Mother Nature’s Elixir as shared by Cuisinart
- 1 1/2 cups apple juice
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 3 kiwis, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup 1-inch cubes fresh mango (from about 1/2 of the whole fruit)
- 1 1/2 cups frozen mango pieces
- 2 bananas, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- 2 generous handfuls fresh baby spinach
Put the juices, kiwis, both fresh and frozen mango and bananas into the pitcher of the blender. Process until blended. Add parsley and spinach and blend until mixture is smooth and bright green. Makes about six (8-ounce) servings.
More edamame (and some rhubarb, too)
Today was the first day of sessions at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been here long enough to check out a few great places to eat. But first, I just had to tell you about our lunch today that was sponsored by Le Creuset. Beautiful salads and soups, with consideration for all of those who are vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free. It was the most healthful meal I can remember in the last four years that I’ve attended the conference. I took a picture of my favorite salad. Yes, it was an Asian-inspired edamame salad with flavors of ginger and sesame complementing the edamame, carrots, red pepper, bamboo shoots. I had a little bit of some herbed taboulleh and a bowl of white bean soup. What a great lunch. I think you could toss steamed shelled edamame with the same ingredients as this salad holds and toss it with your favorite stir-fry sauce to make a similar salad.
Do you wonder why the whole pod edamame aren’t used in this kind of salad? Edamame pods are fuzzy and very fibrous. No matter how much you chew the furry tough pod, it just won’t work. You won’t be able to chew it up. Edamame pods are nothing like tender sugar snap pea pods.
Oh, lucky me — rhubarb is in season in Portland and many of the restaurants are serving freshly made rhubarb jam atop beef, rhubarb sauce with pork and rhubarb desserts that would make you salivate. I broke down and had a rhubarb dessert at Clyde Common, an energy-filled restaurant in Portland. Layers of thinly sliced sponge cake, white chocolate cream and fresh rhubarb sauce topped with vanilla bean ice cream, sprinkled with their own toffee pecan bits. All I can say is, YUM! And, I can’t wait for the rhubarb in my garden to be ready to harvest.
Have a happy Earth Day!
Eat Hearty with Wild Rice Salad at an Earth Day Eve potluck
Thursday is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. I’ll be celebrating in Portland, Oregon where I’ll be attending the annual conference for members of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
If I was going to be at home, though, I’d be inviting friends over for an Earth Day Eve potluck, asking my guests to bring a dish to share made with local/and or organic ingredients. We’d all gather around the TV to watch the Oscar-nominated documentary "Food, Inc." PBS will be airing the film on Wednesday evening as part of its P.O.V. (Point of View) series. Where I live, in northern Minnesota, Lakeland Public Television will air the film at 8:00. Check your local PBS listings for details in your viewing area.
I saw the documentary shortly after it was released when it was shown at The Fargo Theatre. It changed the way I shop for food. It changed the way I eat.
The film shows what happens on factory farms, explores the environmental impact of feedlots and examines the effect that government subsidies have had on our food systems, partucularly related to corn.
Watching the documentary may inspire you to rethink your stand on meat consumption. A few years ago I shared a recipe for a meatless wild rice salad. For months after that recipe was printed, readers were telling me how they had made it for potlucks, graduation open house parties, picnincs on the pontoon and weekend brunches. And, three years later, I’m still hearing those same kinds of things from readers who clipped the recipe from the newspaper and are still enjoying it.
I’m sharing it with all of you who didn’t get it that first time around. It’s so perfect for an Earth Day Eve potluck and movie night.
Pass up processed foods and prepare a meal from scratch. Where I live, in northern Minnesota, locally harvested wild rice and honey are abundant and ground buffalo is fresh from a local ranch. These ingredients can be enhanced with organic foods purchased from the grocery store.
Knowing where food comes from and how it is grown or raised allows consumers to choose safe foods. Combining these foods with organic foods from the grocery store can safeguard you and your family’s health as well as protect the health of our earth and our environment.
Full of nutty wild rice and beans, Hearty Wild Rice Salad can be served at room temperature, making it the perfect dish to take to potluck dinners and picnics under the sun. Once the wild rice is cooked, the salad quickly comes together with very little chopping involved. Seasoned with ground cumin and curry powder, this salad whispers a hint of Morocco.
POV shares some tips to help you host a fun and educational Food, Inc. potluck as well as some discussion questions to visit about after watching the documentary. Click here to go right to that information.
Hearty Wild Rice Salad
- 1½ cups uncooked wild rice, rinsed and drained
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzos), rinsed and drained
- 1 (15-ounce) can small red beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
- ½ cup sliced green onions
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Fill a large saucepan with 4½ cups of water. Add rice and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice is tender, yet still a bit chewy. Drain any excess liquid. Rinse rice under cold water and drain well. Transfer to large mixing bowl.
Add chickpeas, beans, water chestnuts, green onions and dried cranberries to rice and toss to combine.
To make the dressing, whisk together the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, cumin, curry powder, paprika, cayenne pepper and minced garlic. Gradually add the olive oil and whisk until blended.
Gradually pour dressing over rice mixture. Gently toss and continue to add dressing until all ingredients are lightly coated. If you have some dressing leftover, store it in the refrigerator in a jar.
Season salad with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature. The salad can be made ahead of serving time and refrigerated. Allow to come to room temperature and toss before serving. Makes 6 large main dish servings.
Tip from the cook
Meat lovers can add locally produced ground bison meat.
In the pod or not, edamame is hot
The buttery green beans look like baby lima beans, don’t they? But they’re not. They’re soy beans — edamame (pronounced eh-duh-MAH-may) — harvested at an immature stage in their development. The word edamame literally means "beans on branches," as they grow in clusters on bushy branches.
If you are not familiar with these protein-packed beans, you’re not alone. I first heard of them several years ago from my son who was in college at the time. During his Senior year he took a gourmet foods class. He called to tell me they’d made edamame to eat as a snack. He liked it a lot and said I had to try some. He was in Fort Worth, Texas. I was in Bemidji, Minnesota. I was sure there would not be edamame in the grocery stores I shopped at.
My next trip to the store, I did find edamame in the freezer case. I bought a bag of the shelled beans. As my son had instructed, I boiled them for a few mintues, drained them and sprinkled them with coarse salt. I wasn’t impressed.
During the years since that first introduction to edamame, my son occasionally referred to the edamame he’d make for a quick, healthful snack. I couldn’t understand the appeal. Until I ordered edamame at a restaurant. A few weeks ago when I was in Minneapolis, I stopped at Chino Latino. It was my first visit to this hopping Minneapolis restaurant near Hennepin and Lake. Wok-Fried Spicy Edamame was one of the menu selections. I had to try it.
Oh, they were spicy all right. And they were served still in the pod. The server must have read the expression on my face when she placed the heaping edamame platter on the table in front of me. Acting as if she had to explain to all her customers about the eating part of edamame, she kindly told me how to do this. Slide the fuzzy pod that looks like a large sugar snap pea into your mouth and use your teeth to hold the beans as you pull the pod out between your lips, catching the slightly crunchy beans in your mouth. It worked. The edamame were hot and spicy and so delicious. I felt as if I was eating popcorn, quickly placing one pod after another through my lips, pulling them out, depositing the nutty beans into my mouth, leaving a big pile of empty pods behind. They were not only tasty, they were fun to eat. No wonder edamame is quickly becoming popular in restaurants and bars and home kitchens. It’s a hot and healthful food choice these days.
I realize now why my son likes them so much. He used the edamame in the pods. I was buying the wrong kind when I picked them from the freezer case at the store.
I made some spicy edamame a few days after I got home from my trip to the Twin Cities. I’m hooked on this healthful snack filled with vitamins and minerals. Edamame is a good source of protein and fiber, too.
After doing some research, I discovered the shelled edamame is often cooked and tossed into salads, pasta, soups and stews.
Spaghetti with Green Sauce and Edamame is a meatless main dish. In the time it takes to cook a box of spaghetti, you can make the sauce and cook the edamame. It’s a quick, healthful meal.
So, now I know — shelled edamame for soups, salads, pasta, stews, dips and whole pod edamame for appetizers and snacks. And, don’t eat the pods.
I’ve got it down. I can cook them. I know how to eat them. And I’ve got edamame in the freezer.
If you’d like to read about the hot and spicy edamame appetizer I made, go to my column this week. Click here.
Spaghetti with Green Sauce and Edamame
- 3 chubby cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 bunch of parsley, leaves only
- 1 handful of fresh chives
- Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 heaping cup frozen shelled edamame
- 1 (14.5-ounce) box spaghetti, uncooked
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- Black pepper to taste
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Stir in edamame and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, according to package directions. Drain edamame and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
Cook spaghetti in a large pot of boiling water, just to al dente, or firm to the bite. Scoop some of the cooking water into a glass measuring cup, saving about 1 cup of the water. Drain cooked spaghetti and leave in colander while making Green Sauce.
Place garlic in a blender or food processor. Run machine to chop garlic. Add parsley, chives and lemon juice and process. If ingredients are sticking to the sides of the blender, pour in a tablespoon or two of the saved hot cooking water from the spaghetti pot. Run the blender until all of the ingredients are minced and mixed together. With the blender running, drizzle in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
Place cooked spaghetti and edamame in a pasta bowl. Add green sauce and toss all together until pasta is coated with sauce. Add a little more pasta water for more moisture, if needed. Sprinkle all with grated Parmesan and freshly ground black pepper. Serve immediately.
Earth Day
Earth Day is a great time to cook with ingredients that come from the land in northern Minnesota. Pass up processed foods and prepare a meal from scratch. Locally harvested wild rice and honey are abundant and ground buffalo is fresh from a local ranch. These ingredients can be enhanced with organic foods purchased from the grocery store.
Knowing where food comes from and how it is grown or raised allows consumers to choose safe foods. Combining these foods with organic foods from the grocery store can safeguard you and your family’s health as well as protect the health of our earth and our environment.
Full of nutty wild rice and beans, Hearty Wild Rice Salad can be served at room temperature, making it the perfect dish to take to Spring potluck dinners and picnics under the sun. Once the wild rice is cooked, the salad quickly comes together with very little chopping involved. Seasoned with ground cumin and curry powder, this salad whispers a hint of Morocco.
Hearty Wild Rice Salad
1½ cups uncooked wild rice, rinsed and drained
1½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
¼ teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzos), rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can small red beans, rinsed and drained
1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
½ cup sliced green onions
¼ cup dried cranberries
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Fill a large saucepan with 4½ cups of water. Add rice and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice is tender, yet still a bit chewy. Drain any excess liquid. Rinse rice under cold water and drain well. Transfer to large mixing bowl.
Add chickpeas, beans, water chestnuts, green onions and dried cranberries to rice and toss to combine.
To make the dressing, whisk together the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, cumin, curry powder, paprika, cayenne pepper and minced garlic. Gradually add the olive oil and whisk until blended.
Gradually pour dressing over rice mixture. Gently toss and continue to add dressing until all ingredients are lightly coated. If you have some dressing leftover, store it in the refrigerator in a jar.
Season salad with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature. The salad can be made ahead of serving time and refrigerated. Allow to come to room temperature and toss before serving. Makes 6 large main dish servings.
Tips from the cook
Meat lovers can add chopped cooked ham, chicken or turkey to the salad.
Asparagus for breakfast? Why not?
"I never thought I’d be eating asparagus, much less for breakfast."
That was my husband on Saturday morning as he dangled a small chunk of roasted asparagus from his fork. He was just finishing up his breakfast of poached egg atop roasted asparagus spears with an Italian-seasoned ground almond crumble.
Just after he headed to the golf course, I started cleaning up the kitchen and discovered one asparagus spear still on his otherwise empty plate. I guess expecting him to eat up six asparagus spears was pushing my luck a bit too far.
I love asparagus. Steamed, roasted or grilled, just hand it over. Althought I strongly support the Buy Local movement, I just can’t stop myself from buying some of the first asparagus that appears in the grocery stores in the spring. Green and bright, my first asparagus each April truly is a rite of spring. Around here, asparagus is often harvested for the first time in June. That would seem a rite of summer.
I bought some asparagus last week when I was making Medley of Rice with Roasted Red Pepper and Asparagus. That recipe is in my column this week. I bought another bunch to make something I saw on a restaurant menu. It was listed as a brunch item — asparagus with poached egg and ground almonds. It wasn’t brunch time when I was reading the menu, but I made note of it in the small moleskine notebook that I carry in my purse.
This is my take on that dish that I was not able to try at the restaurant. Once again, I’ve roasted the asparagus. I can’t say that I’ve ever had a knack for making a perfectly poached egg. I cheat with silicone poachpods or my Nordic Ware egg poacher insert. But it seemed only proper that when I was making a restaurant-style poached egg dish, I had to go with the real thing.
I pulled out my 9-inch copper-bottomed pan with its lid. I filled it almost to the top with water, then poured in at least a tablespoon of vinegar. Once the water was boiling, I turned it down to a simmer, cracked each egg into a custard cup and slid the egg into the simmering water. I did two eggs. With a spoon, I moved the whites up close to the yolks. The covered eggs simmered gently for 4 minutes. They were done just the way I like them. If you prefer a runny yolk, simmer for just 2 or 3 minutes. Gently scoop the eggs out of the water and place on paper towels to drain. This will prevent a puddle of water on your plate. Perfect poached eggs.
If you’re not counting fat grams and calories, there’s a way to make this poached egg dish even more delectable. Serve it like eggs benedict on a buttered toasted English muffin topped with a slice of smoky ham or Canadian bacon, then the asparagus, poached egg and some homemade Hollandaise sauce. Top it all with a sprinkle of Toasted Almond Crumble. Eggs Benedict is my favorite out-for-breakfast pick. But, I’m trying to be more mindful of fat grams these days. And, I must say, this egg and asparagus are delcious served on their own.
When my husband and I finished our breakfast, I thought how nice it would have been to scatter some freshly grated Parmesan over the egg along with the Toasted Almond Crumble.
Asparagus for breakfast? Why not? Add a perfectly poached egg with toasted almond crumble and you will have a perfectly wonderful breakfast on a sunny morning in spring.
Roasted Asparagus with a Perfectly Poached Egg and Ground Almond Crumble
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds asparagus spears, washed, tough ends removed
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 tablespoons butter
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds, ground
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend
- Splash of fresh lemon juice, about a teaspoon
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss prepared asparagus spears with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Arrange asparagus spears in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet with sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in preheated oven for 10 to 14 minutes, until spears are fork tender. Remove from oven and set pan aside.
While asparagus is in the oven, make Toasted Almond Crumble by heating 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a small skillet. Add garlic, almonds, 1/4 teaspoon salt and Italian seasoning. Stir over medium heat until almonds are toasted. This will take just 2 or 3 minutes. Immediately transfer almond mixture to a small bowl. Add lemon juice and blend. Set aside.
Pull out a 9- or 10-inch pan with a lid. Add water to about 1/2-inch from top of pan. Add vinegar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Break each egg into a custard cup, and slide into the water. When all the eggs are in the pan, use a spoon to scoop the whites close to the yolks, cover and set timer for 2 to 4 minutes, depending on how you want the yolk to be cooked.
Warm 4 plates in the oven while eggs are cooking. The oven should still be warm from the roasting asparagus.
Carefully transfer poached eggs to a paper towel to drain. Arrange 6 asparagus spears on each of 4 plates. Top with an egg. Sprinkle with Toasted Almond Crumble. Serve immediately (with whole grain toast that’s been cut with a heart-shaped cookie cutter to really make your diners smile). Makes 4 servings.
Tip from the cook
When you’re shopping for Italian seasoning, look for a blend that does not include salt. This allows you to control the amount of salt used in your dish. I buy a blend that my Italian friend, Carmela, mixes and sells. Carmela’s Condimento is fragrant with dried basil, garlic, parsley, oregano and crushed red pepper. I’ll bet she’d send you a bag. Go to her blog and you can contact her: Carmels’s Cucina.
It’s a ham wrap to root
It’s a wrap. It’s what I’ve been eating this week.
I know there’s a meal in my refrigerator when I have some whole wheat tortillas, some vegetables and maybe something leftover from another meal. If there’s still a little ham remaining in your refrigerator from your Easter dinner, this wrap is for you. If you don’t have ham, this wrap is for you.
There’s a few things that you can’t do without in this rolled-up sandwich: the cream cheese spread, peanuts and roasted red peppers. The rest of the filling ingredients, mainly vegetables and some cheese, are completely your choice. If you don’t have ham, use any leftover pork or chicken or just buy some meat from the deli case at the store. The other thing I won’t compromise or skimp on is the whole wheat tortilla. A few years ago I discovered Garden of Eatin’ organic whole wheat tortillas in the freezer case at my local food co-op. They’re the only ones I’ve used since that time. They’re soft and don’t crack when you roll them up. I like the flavor and I like that they are made with certified organically grown whole wheat. Well, I guess I should say they’re the only tortillas I use other than the soft, fluffy and delicious homemade flour tortillas from Jimenez Tortilla Factory in Moorhead. I love using those during grilling season when we make fajitas. When you stop into the Tortilla Factory you can browse through a few aisles of Mexican groceries, too.
If you pack a lunch to take to work, if you want a quick weekend lunch or if you’re planning a picnic, these Wraps are perfect. They can be made ahead and wrapped individually in waxed paper.
My husband and I have been eating these wraps all week and we’re still not tired of them. I did find myself rooting in the garden yesterday, though. Hmmmm — too many ham wraps?
Ham Wrap with Spicy Cream Cheese Spread
- 4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup unsweetened apricot jam
- 1 1/2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- onion powder, to taste
- cocktail peanuts or dry roasted peanuts
- fresh greens, rinsed
- ham, cut into matchsticks
- roasted red pepper, sliced or chopped
- smoked gouda, sliced, or your favorite cheese (I’ve been using made-in-Minnesota Eichten’s Smoked Gouda)
- whole wheat tortillas
In a mixing bowl, blend softened cream cheese with jam, horseradish, dry mustard and a sprinkle of onion powder. Taste and adjust amount of ingredients to your liking.
For each wrap, slather a layer of cream cheese spread on tortilla. Sprinkle with peanuts. Layer fresh greens, ham, cheese and roasted peppers over the peanuts. Roll the tortilla. Wrap and store in refrigerator for up to one day or eat it immediately.
Mimi’s (Bragday) Monday: Lamb Cake Tradition
There are many theme days for food bloggers. Most are tied to alliteration. There are Meatless Mondays, Wordless Wednesdays and Farmer Fridays. Those are just the ones that pop right into my mind. But, what is a grandmother to do when there is no weekday that begins with the letter “B” so that she can have a Bragday? You know — something like Bragday Bonday? Or Bragging Briday? In this case, the only thing to do is make my own brag day. From now on, if ever I need to brag, it will take place on Mimi’s (Bragday) Monday.
You see, the only thing I ever brag about is my four grandchildren. They call me Mimi. So, on Mimi’s (Bragday) Monday, I will be hooting and hollering and whooping and whooting about my four very intelligent, beautiful grandchildren. Only when I can relate it to food. It won’t happen every Monday. My granchildren live a few hours away from me. I don’t see them every week.
I’ll start things off with the lamb cake that has been part or our family Easter for generations. My paternal grandmother made a thick pound cake batter that she baked in a cast iron lamb mold. I wish I knew more about the history of this particular mold, but my grandma died when I was in kindergarten. Where the mold came from didn’t matter much to me at that time. Since my dad’s only sibling already had her own lamb mold, my mom took over the care and use of my grandma’s very heavy lamb cake mold.
My mom made the cake a few days before each Easter Sunday. When she was working out of the home full-time, she would often use a pound cake mix from the store, keeping my grandma’s pound cake recipe safely tucked into her recipe collection. Once the lamb was baked and carefully removed from the mold, it would cool on a wire rack. As the lamb cooled, the cake became firmer and wasn’t quite so fragile.
Fluffy white frosting was slathered over the cake, with careful attention going to the ears, the face and the underside of the chin. Sometimes my mom needed to stick a piece of toothpick into the ears to hold them in place. Flaked coconut was pressed over the frosting to make the lamb look fluffy. Currants for the eyes. A piece of jelly bean for the nose. A bell tied around its neck. As a child, I loved turning coconut into grass by shaking the coconut in a jar with green food coloring. Coconut grass surrounded the base of the lamb cake as it sat on a platter. A few jelly bean “Easter eggs” were arranged on the grass. The little lamb cake sat in the center of our dining room table until, finally, we were able to eat it for dessert on Easter Sunday.
In May, it will be 16 years since my mom died. My dad died before that. I didn’t think there was any need to ask about the history of our family’s lamb cake and the mold used for baking. There would always be next Easter to take the time to learn more about the tradition we carried on from my dad’s Czechoslovakian side of the family.
This year, my nine-year-old granddaughter, Emily was the first to notice I forgot the jelly bean “Easter eggs.” The placing of the jelly beans was in her hands this year. Then, of course we had to take a picture. With my daughter-in-law as the assistant, we tried to get all four children to look at me at the same time. Whew, that’s a challenge. When it came time to eat the cake, Emily had first bid on the hind end — that’s the piece with the most frosting. Six-year-old Madison decided on the head. Half of it, anyway. We removed the toothpick from the lamb’s ear, first. Tanner was more interested in the cupcakes he had frosted and decorated. Claire isn’t much into sweets (whose grandchild is she???) The rest of us were in lamb cake heaven as we savored each bite of a thick once-a-year slice of lamb cake.
This year our Easter Lamb Cake took a long ride in the car to get to Easter dinner at the home of our son and daughter-in-law. I held my breath as we rode through each curve and turn and for each stop the car made. The cake made it, all in one piece.
The lamb cake tradition continues. That’s what holidays and baking are all about, aren’t they? Traditions. Family traditions.
I’m sharing my grandma’s recipe for the pound cake she used in the lamb mold. It’s not the one I use these days. But, this is the one that was baked in the mold for many years. You may also be interested in the Butter Rum Pound Cake recipe I shared on this blog a few years ago. Click here to go right to that post.
I’m finished bragging for today. Thanks for reading. I promise — only on Mondays. Not every Monday. Just some Mondays.
Grandma Erhart’s Pound Cake for Lamb Mold
- 1 pound sifted cake flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon mace
- 1 pound butter
- 1 pound sugar
- 1 pound eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift flour, salt and mace together and set aside. Cream butter thoroughly. Add sugar gradually and continue to cream until mixture is light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and almond extracts and blend. Add sifted dry ingredients gradually, beating until smooth after each addition.
To prepare mold, place it nose down on baking sheet. Grease well with soft shortening (not melted). Dust inside with flour. Repeat with other half of mold. Pour batter into nose side of mold so that it is mounded on top. Cover with other half of prepared mold and screw together. Place on cookie sheet and bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Turn mold over and bake for 15 minutes on other side. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes.
Remove cake from form. Let cool. Frost with your favorite butter frosting and sprinkle with coconut. Cherry for nose. Currants for eyes. Red ribbon and bell on neck.
If you have leftover pound cake batter, bake it in cupcake tins. Amount of baking time will depend on size.
