Sunday, October 24, 2010

Savory finger sandwiches for a party

From the rescued computer files come these fairly easy sandwiches that I made one time for a combined baby shower (men and women, which is my favorite kind) where a group of us were co-hosting and we wanted to strike a slightly formal note because there were a lot of older family members there. I was in charge of non-dessert foods and brought a bunch of stuff to serve with and vases to hold flowers.

Me personally, my heart always falls when I survey a buffet table laden with grapes and bits of cheese; I wanted to make sure there was meat! These were my solutions. They went over pretty well.

Fancy party sandwiches


Pimento cheese sandwiches -- pimento cheese
Roast beef/cranberry sandwiches -- 1/2 pkg cream cheese, 2 Tbsp prepared horseradish, 1c cranberry sauce, 3/4 lb roast beef, 6 slices provolone
Sundried tomato sandwiches -- 1 pkg cream cheese (8oz), 10 herb-seasoned sundried tomato halves, 1 container spreadable cheese with pepper (5.2oz), 1/3 cup packed fresh basil leaves -- makes enough for 5 big sandwiches = 20 little sandwiches


Need to make 5 of each kind of sandwich and cut into
quarters. (20 slices white, 10 wheat)

30 ppl x 2 sandwiches = 60

------------------------------------------------
Shopping list:

White and wheat bread

5 slices provolone
5.2 oz spreadable cheese w/pepper
jalapeno pimient��o spread
2 pkgs cream cheese

jar horseradish (at least 2 tbsp)
1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
10 herb-oil sundried tomato halves

3/4 lb deli roast beef

1.3 cup fresh basil leaves
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Saturday night:
--Mix 2 Tbsp horseradish and 4 oz. cream cheese
--Mix 8 oz. cream cheese, tomato halves, pepper cheese, basil leaves.
--Load up car with baby shower stuff


Day of: Start making sandwiches at 11. Set out the two cream cheese mixes.

Spread & cut 5 pimiento sandwiches on white
Spread & cut 5 tomato sandwiches on white
5 wheat slices: spread with horseradish mix, then cranberry, roast beef, provolone
(1 hour)

Lemon chess pie

So good and so easy -- this is one of my fallbacks for taking a dish to a potluck. I'm recovering old computer files and found it!

Lemon Chess Pie
From Southern Living
1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish frozen pastry shell
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened (don’t cook the eggs with it!)
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornmeal
Garnishes: lemon slice and zest
Bake pastry shell at 425° for 7 minutes or until light golden brown. Reduce oven temperature to 350°.

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; add eggs and remaining ingredients, beating just until blended. Pour mixture into pastry shell; place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350° for 45 to 50 minutes or until pie is firm, shielding edges with aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning, if needed. Cool completely on a wire rack. Garnish, if desired.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Stuff that freezes surprisingly well

Extra eggs (not in the shell; crack 'em, separate 'em and put 'em in ice cube trays)
Bread
Not just berries but also pre-made smoothies!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My notes on freezing smoothies and grain salad

My nutritionist friend cautions that if store-bought smoothies don't have vitamins A and C, or if they do contain sugar or corn syrup, they're worthless.

But as I have now tried several that I quite liked, despite the lack of any sugar and also despite the presence of dubious-sounding health additives, I might possibly take the next step and try making some at home. Though the convenience of ones made for you is unbeatable, the $3.50-$5 price tag will prevent me from making a habit of them.

To increase the convenience of homemade smoothies, bloggers have some quite helpful suggestions, starting with making larger batches and freezing them; these inexpensive freezer jars (basically cups with lids, but made to withstand freezing) are a particularly smashing idea.

So far my favorites -- and some of the healthiest smoothies -- are the ones made of just frozen berries and ice, so I'll start there. I read that frozen acai puree is available at grocery stores, so I'll look that up; it appears possible to sneak in things like flaxseed meal and who knows, perhaps wheat germ. Many other additives appear to be total hooey, as this website refreshingly specifies. (Ginger, though, might be worth adding strictly for its taste.) Acai might not be hooey, according to some actual experiments by reputable folks (Texas A&M, naturally. Whoop!) The Mayo Clinic seems to think flaxseed oil and protein powder are OK.

The simplest way to start appears to be simply chucking a few cups of frozen fruit and perhaps a little crushed ice into the blender. Ways to add smoothness/bulk include frozen bananas, juice, low- or nonfat yogurt, skim milk and a tablespoon of honey, but I'll start simple first. I already know to be wary of added sugar in the frozen fruits; and I know to hull the strawberries (basically, get rid of the green planty bits and any tough or woody innards) before pulping them. Also, I remember from a long-ago recipe that sometimes cardamom makes an unexpectedly nice spice for strawberries.

The very basic idea:

Simple Fruit Smoothie (3 servings)
1 cup each milk, crushed ice, frozen raspberries, frozen strawberries
Or: 1 cup ice, 1 cup milk, then 1/2 cup each of black-, blue-, rasp- and straw-berries.
Optional tablespoon of sugar
Puree all ingredients except ice; then add ice and continue to puree until smooth.

Here's a distinctly different one:

Raspberry Limeade Smoothie (2 servings)
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
6 Tbsp frozen limeade concentrate
1 cup ice cubes


Some people, alternately, have tried adding a little lemonade mix powder, which might be nice too, especially with blueberries or strawberries.

Even though good frozen fruit is not cheap, I expect the overall cost will be less weighty than the $5 for a 16-ounce drink charged at the smoothie bars. But of course, those are made for you,which is grand.

After this, perhaps I'll try cooking up some four-grain salad and freezing that for healthy snacks -- most short-grained rices are supposed to freeze well (stop cooking just a bit early; portion them into cups or plastic bags while still a bit warm, to retain moisture; and store in freezer -- then microwave up to three minutes to reheat/finish cooking). Wheatberries and almond slivers are supposed to freeze excellently, and dried cranberries have been frozen, at least, even if nobody's bragging about the results; so everything but the basmati should do OK.

Here's my shortened version of that recipe. Note that 5c chicken broth = a 32-oz carton plus 1c.


Four-Grain Salad

Pot 1:
1c wheatberries + 3c salted water -- cook 45min
Pot 2: 1c long rice + 1c wild rice + 5c chicken broth -- 40 min
Pot 3: 1c basmati + 1.5c water + 1 pat butter -- 25min

Meanwhile, make dressing: 0.25c olive oil, 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 2 Tbsp dark sesame oil. Optional - a little lemon zest.

Combine: cooked grains + dressing + 0.75c dried cranberries + 0.75c slivered almonds

Freeze: Portion into containers and seal while still slightly warm to keep moisture. Let cool; store in freezer up to 1 month.

I'll come back to this entry and record results and prices once I give it a try.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Flan from a can!

Fast and easy flan that beat the caramelized bottom off the full-difficulty traditional flan in a taste test? Sign me up. Here's my friend Josefina's flan recipe:

1/2 cup raw sugar
4 eggs
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1-3 tsp. Mexican vanilla

Heat oven to 350. Boil sugar in a nonstick pan till it just starts to turn brown. Pour sugar & swish to coat bottom of ramekins (or a bread pan, or a glass baking dish - pie pan maybe?).

Combine eggs, both milks and vanilla in blender. Pour into baking dish/ramekins. Place them in a larger pan filled with enough water to go halfway up the side of the baking dish.

Bake 1 hour or till center isn't wiggly and a knife comes out clean. Run knife around edge, put plate over dish and invert to flip the flan out.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

NO cooking, fruit and veg plan

Shopping plan:
Day 1: buy 6 yogurts, 1 bag blueberries, 6 bananas, 3 salads, 1 tub
cranberry-grain salad. Est = $20
Day 4: buy 6 fruity drinks, 6 bananas, 3 salads, 1 tub cranberry-
grain salad. Est = $25


In an attempt to set a new low bar, even for the Lazy Chef, in sheer
laziness, I am attempting this week to survive entirely off products
purchased at Central Market with no home preparation AT ALL.

The "Central Market" part of this means that it is not entirely cost-
conscious, but we will work out the kinks as we go. For right now,
Central Market wins because it has a marvelous salad bar and assorted
fruity drinks and prepared foods.... pretty convenient, if not cheap.

First purchase is four containers of yogurt and one bag of frozen
organic wild blueberries, total cost $7.37, which means each
breakfast costs $1.84. There is a little prep involved here, really
-- at home, you have to open the bag of blueberries and put them into
separate containers.

Second purchase is three salads, total $4.19, or $1.40 each. The
reason this works is that Central Market allows you to completely
make your own salad -- and they have cranberries and bacon bits. I
can eat almost anything with cranberries and bacon bits. Their lemon-
oregano salad dressing is mighty tasty, and they provide little
containers for the dressing -- which means in less than ten minutes
at the store, you can assemble completely packaged salads. My
downfall, apparently, is having to unbundle the spinach and make the
salads at home, and I always wind up with waste items -- extra
croutons, or spinach that wilted before I used it, whatever. This is
so simple and easy that it's a world-beater.

Three days seems to be about the longest the salads can go in the
fridge without starting to look a little suspect. So I'd have to go
by Central Market every three days if I did this for real.

Four bananas ran me 89 cents, so 22 cents each.

The killer was really the fruity drinks. I got four fruit-puree-no-
additives smoothie type drinks, which cost the earth -- $2.50 and
$2.60 apiece. However, they taste pretty good, and they purport to
supply 2 or 3 of your day's fruit servings.

And a tub of Central Market's marvelous 9-grain salad was $4.49, or
$1.50 for each of three generous and tasty portions.

So say for example that each day I ate.....

Vanilla yogurt with blueberries, $1.84
Banana, 22 cents
Purchased lunch, $7
Salad, $1.40
Banana, 22 cents
Grain salad snack, $1.50
Fruit smoothie, $2.50

My total food expenditure for the day is $14.68. (That's not counting
the $3 in Dr Peppers I will probably buy.)

This is a lot, but essentially I am grazing all day rather than
having three meals. If I ate three meals and each meal cost $5, it
wouldn't sound quite as bad. It's still paying a pretty steep
premium for the convenience, notably those fruity drinks.

However: My prep time at home is nearly nil... my fruit and veggie
intake skyrockets... I think this might be worth a try for a while.

So to break that back down: I'll need to make two visits to Central
Market each week. The yogurt/berries keep pretty well, and so do the
fruit drinks, but the bananas, salads and grain-salad need to be
fresh every couple days.

So if I go to the market twice a week...

Day 1: buy 6 bananas, 3 salads, 6 yogurts, 1 pack blueberries, 1 tub
cranberry-grain salad. Estimated cost: 1.3+4.2+5.4+4+4.5= $19.40
Day 4: buy 6 bananas, 3 salads, 6 fruity drinks, 1 tub cranberry-
grain salad. Estimated cost: 1.3+4.2+15+4.5= $25

This works until I get sick of eating the same things, at least! I
think I'll give it a try.


Addendum: My nutritionist friend weighs in on expensive fruit drinks:

The more expensive juices are usually less processed, so probably retain slightly more vitamins than other juices, but I am guessing it is not a huge difference. Things to look for are 100% of Vitamin C&A. I would also limit any with added sugars, even ones that sound healthy like evaporated cane juice, or just think of those as equivalents to soda.