A to Z Blog Challenge

Hungarian Hodge Podge Helper

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 6 Comments

Perhaps it’s fitting that a hodgepodge of H words has had my little imagination hog-tied for today’s H entry in the blog challenge.

I’m sure that by now it’s quite apparent I’m only a faux foodie, so it won’t come as a shock if I confess that Hamburger Helper was the first idea that lassoed me.  Aside from the appealing alliteration (yes, it’s a sickness with me) I don’t shy away from the place it’s had in the life of my family.  I know; I know…even as I type this, a zillion healthy food bloggers are ready to unleash their hounds upon me.  I appreciate that.  I also appreciate the convenient and budget-friendly solution that the product provides.   If you’ve never been in one of those situations, I’m happy for you.  Many people are, however, as I was reminded a few months back when I helped put together food boxes for Kitchen on the Street, a faith-based, non-profit organization that is fighting hunger in my state and others.  Just as I’m thankful that my family can afford to eat a little healthier these days, I’m thankful for the hope that these groups are providing – Hamburger Helper and all.

If my Hamburger Helper days represent days of tight budgets and hectic schedules, the Hungarian restaurant, Novak’s in Albany, Oregon represents a hopeful adventurous time of discovering new places and new foods and the people who lovingly labor over them.  This was one of the gems my husband discovered when a job relocation took us to the Pacific Northwest.   The schnitzel, pearl noodles, and red cabbage (and everything else I ever ate from their menu) are heavenly, but this place is great for two other hot H words – hospitality and history.  If you never make it to Novak’s, I hope you have something comparable closeby.  Everybody needs a hearty helping of hospitality and history every now and then.

Glorious GORP!

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 2 Comments

I have been Going, Going, Going all this G-lovin’ day, so now at 8:59 p.m. PST I’m finally Getting around to the G word that I’ve been anticipating ever since I signed up for this Challenge.  Ah…the memories…the Rocky Mountain high induced by the memory of life on the trail with friends who mock your hairy legs.  It was there, over 30 years ago, amid the grand and glorious Rockies that I was first introduced to the concocted grub that would sustain and energize me and a handful of other friends and leaders from my church youth group over the course of a 5-day backpacking trip across the Continental Divide. Yes, hikers, I’m talking about good ol’ GORP.

Wikipedia reports that gorp might stand for “good old raisins and peanuts,” “granola, oats, raisins and peanuts,” or “gobs of raw protein.”  You get the idea: a snack mix that usually contains things like nuts, raisins, seeds, dried fruit and toasted oats.  Variations are endless: dried cranberries, chocolate covered raisins, other dried fruits (such as apricots), cereals such as Rice or Corn Chex and Cheerios, chocolate chips or butterscotch morsels, or M & M’s.

Alas, no gorp for me today, so I’m draGGinG myself to bed…

Friendship (without the bread) is…festive!

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 2 Comments

Am I the only female who fears fouling a friendship by foregoing Friendship Bread?  (By the way, welcome to “F Day” of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.)

Am I the only one who gets palpably flustered when I see a friend approaching with  a Ziploc bag of yeasty goo?  I’m not faulting the friend; it’s me.  I’m terrible at saying, “No.”  When I see that fragrant bag of starter, I see Failure with a capital F.  I know I will fail the friend and the floppy bag of bread waiting to be born.

My friend, Ruth, never approached me with a Ziploc bag, but she did graciously give me a recipe or two.  Conveniently, one of them starts with an F – Festive Tossed Salad.  Actually, she emailed it to me on December 9, 2004.  I’ve since re-typed it to share with other friends, but I’ve kept the original one I printed off.  Ruth and I now live 1,000 miles apart, but every time I pull that faded, stained, messy old thing from my recipe box, I have a chance to think of the lovely friend and talented cook that gave it to me.  I think I’d even let her approach me with a Ziploc bag.

Festive Tossed Salad

Dressing:

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 tbsp finely chopped red onion

1 tbsp lemon juice

2-3 tsp poppy seeds

1 tsp prepared mustard

1/2 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender, food processor or salad dressing shaker and blend thoroughly.  Refrigerate until needed.

Salad:

6 cups torn Romaine or red leaf lettuce

4 cups spinach

1 cup crumbled Feta cheese

1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

1 medium pear or apple, cored and cubed

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chopped cashews

2 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

In a salad bowl, combine the lettuce and other salad ingredients.  Drizzle with desired amount of dressing.  Serves 8-10.

E pluribus unum for a crowd

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 13 Comments

(Day 5 of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge)
“E pluribus unum”

“Out of many, one”

A motto of America – the concept of a casserole

Think about it.  You take a set of diverse ingredients and combine them into one dish where they harmonize and enhance one another.  I mean no disrespect to America’s noble motto, although I do acknowledge that even the loosest association with that mystery glop they served in my college cafeteria might leave a bad taste in one’s mouth.  Conversely, such an association might bring a measure of dignity to the common casserole. ..

Husband:  “Sweetheart, what are we serving the Chesterfields for dinner Saturday?”

Wife: “But, of course, Darling!  That fabulous new e pluribus unum dish!

Husband:  “The one that goes so delightfully with a Malbec?”

Wife:  “Exactly!”

Husband:  “Magnificent!”

If this catches on, which I’m sure it won’t, I recommend using the acronym EPUC for “E pluribus unum – culinary.”  (I added the C so no one would get it confused with Emergency Power Units or the European Peace University.)

Here’s my EPUC recipe.  No mystery, no glop – just healthy diverse ingredients uniting to bring joy to your taste buds.

Enchilada EPUC

(This makes one 13×9 pan and an 8×8 pan.  Even if you’re not serving a crowd, you’ll want the extra for leftovers.)

4 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 lb. sweet Italian turkey sausage

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 can sliced stewed tomatoes

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 tsp black pepper

16 medium flour tortillas

8 oz. shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or more, depending on your diet!)

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray baking pans with cooking spray.  Heat the oil in a large skillet.  Saute the sausage, bell pepper, and scallions, stirring to crumble sausage.  Cook until the sausage is browned and the vegetables are just tender.  Stir in the chili powder and cumin.  Add the tomatoes, beans and pepper.  Reduce heat and simmer 4-5 minutes.

To assemble the enchiladas, spoon the turkey mixture (about 1/4 cup) onto each of the tortillas.  Roll up and place in the pans.   Top with the cheese.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cheese is lightly browned.

Day 4: Giving the “deviled” its due

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 13 Comments

So far my recipes for the A to Z blog challenge have included the oft-villainized cream cheese, breading, and bourbon.  If we’re going to continue down this highway to diet hell, why not throw in a good dose of deviling?

My Secrets from the Southern Living Test Kitchens book defines deviled this way: “A term that refers to highly seasoned food such as deviled eggs or deviled crab.  (Can I just insert my own salivating ‘Yum!’ here?)  The hot, spicy flavor might come from red pepper, mustard, hot sauce, chili powder, black pepper, or horseradish.”

The book goes on to provide a recipe which includes Dijon mustard and instant potato flakes.  It says the flakes make for a “full-bodied filling.”  Feel free to turn your eggs into voluptuous temptations, but for now I think I’ll stick to the boring basic-bodied variety.

In my opinion, one of the secrets to a heavenly deviled egg is starting off by mashing the yolks with a fork to a fine, crumbly consistency.  Lumpy deviled eggs are just dastardly.  Then I add a little salt, a little sweet pickle juice, Miracle Whip (NOT mayo) and plenty of mustard.  I cream this mixture with a hand mixer and then pipe it into the egg whites.  I prefer paprika for a garnish, but if you want to go Southern Living style, use fresh dill springs instead.

Isn’t deviling divine?

Day 3: CHOCOLATE…or carrots?

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 13 Comments

“BIG C

little c

What begins with C?”

– Dr. Seuss’s ABC

In this case, Dr. Seuss and I don’t come to the same conclusion.  He was perhaps a little more creative with his camel on the ceiling, but my first thought was CHOCOLATE.  I have, however, already had my climactic moment with chocolate this week thanks to an NPR article.   It seems almost cavalier to encroach again upon its crave-worthy blessedness.   Instead I will bloviate on carrots.

Two things:  first, that well-intentioned maxim our mothers taught us about eating carrots to improve our vision has been proven false.  One has only to check out my thick glasses to confirm this fact. (I ate my carrots!  Honest!)  Secondly, if my husband and I are any example, the way you approach carrots says a lot about your relationship.  In our case, opposites most certainly attract.

In my appetizer-less, meat and potato family, savory ruled supreme.  Take for example the often mistaken-for-a-vegetable grain (and fellow C-word), corn.  Rather than canning the corn we grew, my mother cut it from the cob, stirred in half and half and butter and baked it before freezing it.  I still remember the summer she got the recipe from a fellow ranch wife.  Copacetic!

In my husband’s family, all vegetables received a healthy baptism by sugar.  We have had to compromise, which to be honest, usually means that my husband has to doctor up his own veggies.  With one recipe; however, I have succumbed.  That it includes bourbon may help its case. I think I’ll make these for Easter to go along with the chocolate bunnies.   That ought to ensure a good sugar coma.

Bourbon Carrots

3 cups water

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp bourbon

1 1/2 lbs baby carrots

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

3 Tbsp brown sugar

Chopped parsley for garnish

Bring water to boil in a 3 quart pan.  Add carrots, granulated sugar and salt.  Return to a boil and cook 5 minutes or until carrots are tender.   In a large skillet, melt butter and brown sugar over medium-high heat.  Stir in drained carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, 2-3 minutes or until well-coated.  Add bourbon.  Cook and stir 3 more minutes.  Remove from heat and transfer to serving dish.  Garnish with parsley.

A to Z Blog Challenge: Day 2

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 5 Comments

Today is “B” day in the blog challenge.  I haven’t checked the stats, but it seems like B words ought to be one of the biggest occupants of the English dictionary.  It was tempting to choose blogging or books.  I even thought about transcribing the entire Berenstains’ B Book, as I spent a good portion of my life with a kid or two or three on my lap reading it till I was sure I was blue or brown or burgundy in the face…”Big brown bear, blue bull, beautiful baboon…”  But I’ve decided to stick with boiling up food-related themes.  Here I seek to bolster support for breading.

It seems like breading gets a bum rap these days, but I’ve learned from one of the country’s most credible weight loss programs that it can be used in healthy ways.  And lo and behold it’s actually quite quick and easy to make something taste “special.”  All you have to do is take 4-ounce cuts of turkey or chicken breast (sometimes I pound the chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness) or boneless pork tenderloin cutlets, season them with salt and pepper, brush both sides with a thin coating of reduced fat mayonnaise and press them into Italian-seasoned bread crumbs.  Place them on a lightly greased broiler pan and broil them 4 inches from the heat for 3-4 minutes on each side.

I will be completely befuddled if this method doesn’t boost your opinion of breading.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2012

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 10 Comments

Abyss.  Arizona.  Atheist.  Ambien.  (I could use some.)  Thanks to my friend, Laura, at Spotts in the Valley of the Sun, A-words are firing around in my head like comets.  She tipped me off about this blog challenge – perhaps just what I needed to re-activate my enthusiasm for blogging.

As the mother of an Annie who is in culinary school, I’ve settled upon the word appetizer, because regardless of what happens to be firing around upstairs, the ardors of my stomach usually win out.

Before I was married (nearly 27 years ago) I had hardly ever eaten appetizers.  Growing up as a ranch kid I was trained early to go straight for the potatoes and meat – corn-fed and fattened yards from my bedroom window.  But marrying the man who is still my husband and the gourmet of the family (at least until Annie graduates) introduced me to the art of appetizers and the friends who rocked them.  Like Susan Eden.  Here’s a recipe we begged her for after devouring them at a football bash.

Stuffed Mushrooms

12-14 large mushrooms

1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp sour cream

1 Tbsp finely minced onion

4 pieces crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dill weed

grated cheddar cheese

Clean mushrooms, remove stems and hollow out cavities.  Cream together cream cheese and all remaining ingredients EXCEPT cheddar cheese.  Spoon into mushroom caps and place on a greased baking sheet.   Top with grated cheese.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until cheese is lightly browned.

Bon appetit!