In a pickle? or jars of lovely quickles ...

I don't know why, but it wasn't until AFTER my daughter was born that I started really enjoying pickled foods.   With the weekly bounty of vegetables arriving from the CSA each week, plus my fondness for visiting farmers market in high summer, I've had plenty of fresh produce recently ... sometimes a bit too much.   So I started looking into pickling.   But as a full time working mom, spending 8 precious hours with my hot water canner was a no-go.    But then I started coming across the phrase "refrigerator pickle" and "quickle".   

As I read more recipes, many seemed to have a basic theme:  2 cups vinegar, 2 cups water, 1/4 cup kosher or pickling salt, brought to boil and poured over a jar of prepared veggies and spices (peppercorns, whole allspice, garlic cloves, cloves, hot peppers, etc).     We later discovered that any that don't have a distinct garlic bite needed more sugar, so I added a sugar syrup the next day to the beets and the tupperware container full of mixed veggies that didn't fit in the jars.    

Here's my results: 

Beets, with some freeze dried ginger, allspice, cloves, sugar, peppercorns in jar:

Greens beans, carrots with minced freeze dried garlic, peppercorns, allspice, mustard seeds, little sugar, onion:

cucumber slices with significant garlic, peppercorns, mustard seeds:

Pretty Easy Baked Chicken Wings

If you don't happen to be in an area experiencing chicken wing shortages this week, try this recipe on for size:

Start with 3-4 pounds of THAWED wings. This was a bag of all drumettes from my local Super Walmart. Yes, I do sometimes I go all out with gourmet food sources.

Add some garlic powder and hot sauce, and marinade overnight.

Then preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Put a few pats of butter in a large pan, and melt them in the oven:

Drain off the marinade.

In a one gallon ziplock bag, make a breading mixture of 2 cups Bisquick, paprika, fresh pepper, garlic salt, and onion salt. Then, add the drummettes about five at a time and SHAKE IT UP BABY!

Bake for about twenty minutes, then turn and bake for another fifteen-twenty:

If you like, toss the baked wings with buffallo sauce. But in all honesty, next time I would probably just increase the heat in the breading, instead DRIZZLE the wings with hot sauce. Either way, pretty tasty. Either way, pretty messy as well.

As is tradition, serve with celery, carrot sticks and blue cheese dressing.

Eagles Green: Kale, sausage and chickpea soup

Note: Due to a spammer, comments have been turned off for this post, and will be moderated from now on. Sorry!


A hearty winter soup, with lots of healthy leafy greens - and in keeping with our green theme here in Philadelphia!


Start by chopping and sauteeing two large onions, then cooking in a bit of bacon grease or olive oil until translucent:





Dump them into the crockpot.



Peel and chop a one pound carrot:









Oh - you don't have a giant carrot? Then just use a few smaller ones. Add them to the crockpot too.



Brown about two pounds of italian sausage, casings removed. (Hot or sweet? depends - do you like bites of spicy heat in your soup?)

Open and drain two cans of chick peas. Throw them in too. This is the ultra fancy Walmart store brand. We're high fallutin that way.

Wash and rip up a whole bunch of kale. (I would say 8-10 cups of raw leaves) I seasoned with just a touch of salt while cooking. Sautee briefly in a pan, in oil or bacon grease, before adding to crockpot.

To this add 8 -10 cups of liquid - either chicken broth, stock, vegetable broth or just water with concentrated chicken bullion. If you heat the liquid in the microwave first it will save a good bit of time before the soup simmers in the crockpot.

Cook for at least three hours to allow the kale to fully soften and all the flavors to merge. Serve with bread and butter, or popcorn, or crackers, or just a spoon!

Eagles Green: Pantry Raid Pea Soup

So after baking almost a thousand cookies, fighting a cold, attending Christmas parties, celebrating Christmas with services and family, enjoying trips to NYC and DC in between surprisingly busy work weeks, and trying to catch up on sleep ... I'm finally back!

In the spirit of the Philadelphia region right now, I offer green foods this week. This one fits the bill.


As I came back to my kitchen last week, wanting to make something frugal and at least somewhat healthy, this is what I scrounged up:



A few ham hocks from the freezer. Ham hocks are fairly inexpensive, and wonderful when you want that ham bone flavor in a soup, but don't happen to have a ham bone.



This LOVERLY looking bunch of vegetables. Note the green stuff growing out of the top of the onion. Onion are not dangerous when they have growths like this - just cut out the green parts on the top and on the inside. (on the other hand, I would never BUY one that looked like this ...)

So I chopped the onion, and carrot and celery and shallots and a bit of garlic, the split peas, and threw it in the crockpot along with the ham hocks and this:

a bit of flat champagne. Fill the rest of th way with water. Add salt and pepper, stir it all together, and then cook for about 8 hours on low. If necessary, add some more water and cook longer.

E - A - G -L - E - S!

"Orange" Soup

Preheat oven to about 375. Place in a roasting pan:

3 squash, cut in half with seeds removed (I used two butternet and 1 acorn squash), cloves from 1 head of garlic, peeled

Roast until the squash flesh is tender - test by stabbing with the tines of a fork. To avoid shreiks of burning flesh (YOUR burning flesh), allow to cool about an hour before peeling. Set aside cooked, peeled squash.

Chop 1 large onion or a handful of shallots. (onions will suffice if you didn't get shallots from a CSA share) Sautee in a large soup pot with a few tablespoons of butter. Add about 1/2 pound of shredded carrot, and a few stalks of chopped celery. If you did NOT add garlic to the roasting squash, add some minced garlic now.

Add chicken broth or stock - about 4 cans/8 cups. (tip: for a "hurry up" version of this soup, you could also add canned pumpkin - obviously the unsweetened variety - instead of roasting whole squash)

Grate 1 large piece of fresh ginger (2 or 3 inches square). Retain as much of the ginger juice for the soup as possible. Add the squash and ginger to the pot.

Cook for twenty minutes or so, and then blend with your immersion blender. (if you don't have an immersion blender you'll have to allow the mixture to cool enough so you can put it in a regular blender). Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

I always serve with a splash of cream or half and half.

Fried Apples and Carrots

5 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored and chunked
1/2 pound baby carrots (or 1/2 pound regular carrots, peeled and chunked)
3 Tablespoons butter
nutmeg
allspice
ginger
salt

Put the carrots in the microwave for about four minutes to speed up the whole process. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the apples, stirring frequently. Add the now softer carrots. sprinkle with salt (1/2 teaspoon?). Grate some fresh nutmeg over the mixture. Sprinkle on some ground allspice and ginger (1/2 teaspoon of each, perhaps). stir, taste, and add more salt if necessary. (Remember - raw produce has no salt to start, and food tastes funny without salt). You don't need to add any sugar - this doesn't end up being a sweet dish, but cooking the carrots and apples highlights their natural sweetness.

This was a WONDERFUL sidekick to grilled pork chops with bbq sauce!

I will post a picture once I find the little USB connector cable ... moving is such fun.