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Sunday, April 30, 2023

Menu Plan: April 30 - May 6

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

We are still coping with leftovers. So, tonight's dinner is what was planned for last night. Some of the dishes planned for last week had to be shifted, so there are a few repeats this week, too. Eggs are plentiful right now, so we are eating a lot of them. We have been able to bless some other people with eggs, too, which is fantastic. If you live in the northern hemisphere, talk to the people you know with poultry, or find people who have poultry, because all the birds are laying right now.

It is a pretty busy week, with this upcoming weekend being extraordinarily busy, so we are navigating meals and activities and errands, many of which are conflicting or at the same time. Please pray for us.

Our "instant" orchard is well on its way, and it looks so pretty. It has been so encouraging to look out and see trees.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 2:49 PM 0 comments

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Recipe Round Up: Tomato Toast

Tomato Toast

This is more of a guideline than a recipe. It is a fantastic breakfast or lunch - filling and tasty. For our family, I use about three to four pints of cherry tomatoes, maybe half a large jar of kalamatas, drained, five or six cloves of garlic, a healthy amount of salt and pepper, a generous amount of olive oil, and a sprinkling of Aleppo pepper flakes. You can use any tomatoes you have, you can use green olives or Spanish olives, little Turkish pink olives, or oil cured Moroccan olives. If you don't have basil, use oregano, or mint, or whatever fresh herb you like. This is totally up to you.

chopped tomatoes
kalamata olives, drained and roughly chopped
garlic, minced
basil, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
Aleppo pepper flakes, optional
good olive oil
toast or toasted bagels

Stir all the ingredients together, except for the toast, and serve on hot toast. We also generally serve some fruit with this.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:38 AM 0 comments

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Menu Plan: April 23 - 29

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

We have too many leftovers! This is a great problem to have, but my planning is being a little thrown off by it. I had intended to make a Mexican style eggs Benedict with chorizo and avocado and chipotle hollandaise for Sunday breakfast. We had so many leftovers from the Paschal breads and the cakes we made this week, though, that we ate those instead. We are still in the Paschal season, and not quite feasting (though I understand that, at least in parts of the Antiochian diocese, and in Greece and parts of the Middle East, the 40 days after the Paschal feast are entirely fast free!), we are eating a lot more treats than normal. With only eight of us at home, we are actually finding it difficult to keep up with them. So, I think I need to space them out a bit. We actually still have a ton of the chocolate left from the Pascha basket (but don't tell the kids how much, they just know that there is more).

One of these years, I will make our Pasqua bread with pancetta, rather than bacon, but so far I cannot justify the cost of over two pounds of pancetta versus the bacon. This week, I plan to recreate a dish Nejat ordered when we were on the Oregon coast two summers ago. We have wanted to make it for a while, but I was waiting for Jerome to be able to eat it with us as it was supposed to be made. So, I grabbed some canned crab claw meat and fresh basil, and we have everything else to make a fantastic macaroni and cheese with crab, parmesan and basil. When Nejat ordered it, I honestly expected it to be pretty basic with a little crab hidden in it and a sprig of fresh basil on top. It was not. It was fantastic. The cheese sauce was made with a sharp cheddar and a little parmesan, the crab was hefty and generous, and the basil in the sauce and sprinkled on top was just right.

I have been planning our meals almost entirely from our freezers and pantry, and just picking up fresh produce and dairy as it is on sale and as we need it, and restocking on staples that we use. Most of our dinners are actually planned through the month of May and part of June. We will be butchering some turkeys as soon as there is enough room in the freezer. Also, we ordered new poults, and because of the cold, they sent them with a whole lot of extra chicks, so those chicks that are roosters will end up in the freezer, too. Sadly, our goslings almost all died in transit, and the company had all future hatchings ordered already, so we only have three of them. We are hoping for a breeding pair and an extra male, and will put the extra male in the freezer, and keep the breeding pair to get our own goslings as soon as they are able. We have a sitting muscovy, and we are hoping for more of them. They have finally started laying, so we re getting rich eggs that are making for fantastic cakes. The yolks will be going into some ice cream, too.

One of our goals this year is to get property fencing up properly, and then we can talk about sheep. If anyone has any piglets, we would love two or three to raise, because come fall, that will be a welcome addition to our freezer and table. I'd love a milking cow, but we are just not in a place to be committed to the twice daily milking, or even once a day milking, if we share with the calf, as we intend. Rich is hoping to get another couple hives going, too, after the sadness of losing two because of our cold temperatures and taking a break from it. We miss our own honey.

Spring finally looks like it might make an appearance here, too. Rich has been busy this week with the boys, digging holes for seven new fruit trees and getting some of them planted and watered. Aside from that fencing, we are trying to surround the property with fruit trees. If we can get enough planted, we might actually be able to raise the temperature around the property by a couple degrees, too, creating our own micro-micro-climate. The east border of the property doesn't get a lot of irrigation, so we are thinking of planting native trees, like Russian Olive, which can spread, but will be slowed at least by the minimal water. We have starts from our lilacs and forsythia that can be transplanted there, too, and all those would provide a pretty and fragrant surrounding for us.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:22 AM 0 comments

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Bonus Recipe Round Up: Thai Style Ginger Chicken with Eggplant

This is a recipe I found online some years ago, but it was a low fat recipe, and its technique wasn't optimal. Then, it went away - online, anyway. So, here is my interpretation of it. It is super quick to make, and if you have a food processor or good blender and manage your time well, you can start it and have a full meal ready within about half an hour. (Though, I will say that we cut up the chicken in advance, so it was in the fridge in pieces, ready for me to use). It's highly customizeable, but is really wonderful as it is. We double this recipe, but this will serve six to eight people as it is written, which makes it quite economical, as well.

1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed (save those stems to make stock!)
3 jalapeños (if you are concerned about heat, you can seed them and remove the membranes - you can see from my photo that we don't)
2 tablespoons Garlic Ginger Paste
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 small eggplant, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick crosswise
20 ounces unsweetened coconut milk (plus or minus, depending on your tastes)
3 tablespoons soy or tamari sauce
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 - 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken (I prefer thighs, but you can use breasts), cut in 1/2 inch thick chunks or strips
cooked jasmine rice to serve (cook while you prepare these ingredients)

Here is where your kitchen management comes into play. Rinse and drain your rice, until the water runs mostly clear. Refill the pot with cold water, salt and a little oil, and start it cooking while you prepare the ingredients for the chicken.

Heat a skillet over high heat. Pour in 3 tablespoons of the sunflower oil and the chicken pieces in the pan. Put the jalapeños, cilantro, ginger, garlic, 1 teaspoons of salt, and remaining tablespoon of sunflower oil in a food processor and whir it around occasionally until it is a wet paste, while the chicken is browning. Turn the chicken pieces over to brown on the other side and toss in the onion and eggplant to start them browning and softening, also. Give them a stir every now and then so they don't stick, and brown on all sides.

Pour in the puréed sauce to cook it a little bit, add the coconut milk (I rinse out the food processor with some coconut milk to get the last bits from that into the pan) and soy sauce, and the remaining teaspoon of salt. Reduce heat to low and let it simmer while the rice finishes cooking. Taste for salt and adjust if you think it is necessary, but we think this is plenty enough salt.

While both the chicken and rice are finishing up, start marinating some slices of cucumber with minced garlic, salt, roasted chile powder, black sesame oil, and a little bit of rice wine vinegar, and now you have an entire meal with the chicken and eggplant, the rice, and the cucumbers. We served oranges as a dessert.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 2:33 PM 0 comments

Friday, April 21, 2023

Craft On: Finished?

Yathrib is nearly finished. My goal is to have it, and Nabati (the fingerless mitts), ready to beta knit by the end of May. A dear friend is going to knit a couple samples for me, of a striped stole and a cabled shawlette, and then I hope to have those ready to beta knit by the end of June or beginning of July. The last part of this collection is a dolman type sweater that I am really working to have ready for beta in September or October. It's a lot, but I am excited about all of them.

As a little break from design work, I started a cowl designed by Linette Grayum. Her designs are always so cleverly made and the construction on every one I have made is interesting and suited for the project perfectly. This pattern will be available in about a week, and then you can knit it, too. Her sample was knit with a hand dyed yarn, and I'm using a semi-solid. It would be gorgeous in a tonal, as well. Super quick and easy to follow pattern, and great for a single skein of worsted in a fun colorway. As you can see, I am using the leftovers from Rih to knit it, and it will be good to have a coordinating, but not exactly matching cowl to go with my hood.

I'm also nearly finished with The Diary of a Country Priest and still reading The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew with the kids. I finished The Women in Black (among a spate of brain candy mysteries - see my sidebar), which I enjoyed. A couple of the books I read, though, were a little disappointing. The Other Americans started well, and there was pleny in it that I enjoyed, but seemed to cram in all sorts of immorality and politically correct nonsense that didn't even really fit with the story. It was like the author was checking some list of items that needed to be included. The Arabic Quilt had a lot of potential, and could have been wonderful. Instead, it had the characters preaching at the reader. When authors (television shows, movies, plays, books, any of them) do this, it shows that either they are unable to craft a story that will convey their message or they don't trust their audience to get the message so they have to hammer it at them explicitly. I really wanted to love this book, so it was sad that the author manhandled it so much. It is unfortunate that a non-Arab author wrote a better story in the same category, Mirror, by Jeannie Baker. It isn't the same story, but conveys the message _The Arabic Quilt_ did without insulting the reader.


Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:18 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Menu Plan: Paschal Season (Last Day of the Paschal Octave)

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

It is the end of the Paschal octave, but not the end of the Paschal season. We have another 32 days until the Feast of the Ascension and ten days after that is Pentecost, the second highest feast of the Church Year! We have a lot of celebrating to do.

In light of that, Rich asked me to extend some of the foods I had planned for last week into this week and later in the season. A couple days into Bright Week, we all started to get either a cold or a stomach bug, and our appetites were much lower than normal (even considering we had been observing the Lenten fast), and so a lot of our Paschal feast was packaged up for the freezer to pull out when we need a quick and easy meal another time, and much of what I had planned for breakfasts did not get made. Rich said that we should simply extend our Paschal break one more week or start a more easy going school week so we could kind of make up for that. This isn't a fast free week, so we are working around the weekly fasting and abstinent schedule, but it allows us to enjoy some more things we wouldn't have otherwise had time for this week.

Sadly, because of how unwell people were, and exhausted (as most of us were no longer actually sick with anything by then), we had to miss the Orthodox Paschal celebration last night. We are bringing some of the foods I planned to make to our church dinner tonight, and will bring some of the breads with us to break the fast after liturgy with our Orthodox brethren on Saturday.

I posted the recipes from last week and this week yesterday. Some of them, like the sloppy Giuseppes and the "Italian" cream cake are not authentic anything. Honestly, I do not know how it got the name Italian cream cake, because there is nothing in it that brings to mind either Italian ingredients, recipes, dishes, or techniques.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:03 AM 0 comments

Saturday, April 15, 2023

Recipe Round Up: Scotchicanese Eggs, Nutella Fudge Brownies, Prosciutto and Gruyère Scones, Sloppy Giuseppes, Creamy Buttermilk Cake with Coconut and Pecans

Scotchicanese Eggs

So this name requires an explanation. We started by making Scotch eggs in bulk, baked on a sheet pan, to make our lives simpler. Then, we used Mexican chorizo for the sausage, thus Scotchican. Eventually, we used panko in place of plain bread crumbs, bringing us to Scotchicanese, from the Japanese ingredient. Regardless of the silly name, it is delicious. The recipe is more of a guideline than an actual strict recipe. You can adjust as you wish. I will list the ingredients needed for a dozen eggs below, and you can extrapolate up or divide down as you need. This is a recipe that you really need to have a mise en place set up for to make it go quickly and to minimize the mess.

12 eggs, boiled as softly as you possibly can and still handle them and peeled (we steamed ours from cold for exactly 15 minutes from turning on the stove to taking them off the burner and submerging in cold water to chill and peel)
about 2 pounds bulk chorizo, mixed in a bowl
about 6 ounces panko, in a flat pan

Preheat oven to 375˚F.

Take small pieces of the aerated chorizo and pat into flat pieces that can be shaped around the boiled egg. Wrap the egg with sausage so none of the egg white is exposed. Roll the sausage wrapped egg in the panko to coat. Place on a jelly roll pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes, until sausage is cooked and the panko is lightly browned.

Nutella Fudge Brownies

This recipe originally came from the now out of print Fine Cooking. I grieve their demise, because it (and Cuisine) was one of the only cooking magazines out there that hadn't sold out to fake and fast food or the glamour associated with travel magazines that put the food second. There were no perfume inserts in the magazine, no non-food related ads, and they focused on technique, giving recipes as a way to learn and hone that technique. They taught people how to cook, not simply how to make a recipe. I treasure my collection and now that the magazine's articles and recipes are no longer available online, those magazines are among the things I would try to get out in a fire (after family, records, photos, and so on). In any case, like my lasagna and chocolate cheesecake recipes, this originated with them and I have adapted it for our palates and convenience. We usually double this recipe now. The flour in this recipe is simply a binder, and can easily be replaced with almond flour, or an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.

1 cup Nutella
2 eggs
2/3 cup pastry flour
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease 24 mini-muffin tin very well. Set aside.

Whisk nutella and eggs well until smooth. Whisk in flour.

Scoop into muffin tin and sprinkle evenly with almonds.

Bake until pick comes out with wet, gooey crumbs, about 10 - 11 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Prosciutto and Gruyère Scones

These are a splurge, but I look for both proscuitto and Gruyére at the Grocery Outlet and put them in the freezer so I can use them in dishes like this. They do bake better if you take the time to chill them, but if I am making them for breakfast, rather than a brunch, I often skip that part. These are quite good, and I generally double the recipe.

2 1/2 cups pastry flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup grated gruyère
1/2 cup chopped prosciutto
1/4 cup grated parmesan plus more for sprinkling before baking
1/4 cup chopped scallions

You can make this by hand, with a pastry cutter or a couple knives, in a large bowl, but I like to use my food processor to speed the process a bit. Pulse together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until well mixed. Add butter into the flour mixture, and pulse until you have course crumbs with some larger pieces throughout the mixture.

Add eggs and buttermilk to the flour mixture and pulse until just moist.

Add in the gruyère, prosciutto, parmesan and green onion and pulse a few more times to combine. The dough will be sticky.

On a lightly floured surface, turn the sticky dough out and knead lightly until all the cheese, prosciutto and green onion are incorporated into the dough. Roll the dough about 3/4 inch thick. Cut out 3 inch squares, then cut diagonally to make triangles. You should have about 10 scones. Place the scones on an ungreased jelly roll pan, if you are very concerned, you may line it with parchment, but I've never had them stick.

Place the scones in the freezer for 30 minutes and preheat the oven to 400˚F.

Once the scones are chilled, sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. Serve warm (or room temperature, later).

Sloppy Giuseppes

This is a simple and tasty recipe and is vastly superior to any sloppy Joes. I tried making sloppy Joes for Rich, because I was trying to cook for his American heritage, but I just hate them, and it turns out that he does, too. So, when I heard about doing this, I thought it was a perfect alternative, and it really is. Browned Italian sausage (you can substitute ground beef, but season it with oregano, thyme, basil, garlic, and red pepper flakes), marinara sauce, and provolone cheese all over ciabatta rolls. It's delicious.

2 pounds bulk Italian sausage (or removed from the casings), spicy or mild (we like the spicy)
1 medium onion, peeled and finely diced
3 sweet peppers, seeded and finely diced (or equivalent amount from frozen)
8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 quart marinara sauce (either homemade or jarred)
8 ciabatta rolls, split
about 1/2 - 3/4 pound provolone or mozzarella, thinly sliced (we prefer the provolone)

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add sausage to brown, breaking up with a wooden spoon or stiff spatula. You may need to add some olive (or other) oil if there isn't enough fat in the sausage. Add chopped onions to the meat before it is completely browned and cook to soften with the meat. When the meat is browned, add the peppers, to heat and soften. Then add the garlic and cook for 30 - 60 seconds.

Pour in the marinara sauce, swirling the container with a little water to get the last of the sauce out of the pot or jar. Stir to combine meat, vegetables and the sauce, and reduce heat to low. Heat sauce through. Taste for seasoning, and add salt if necessary.

While the sauce is warming, toast the rolls. Place bottom half of each roll on a jelly roll pan, mound the meat and sauce mixture generously over each roll. Cover with slices of cheese. Put under the broiler to melt the cheese. Top with the top half of the roll and serve.

Creamy Buttermilk Cake with Coconut and Pecans

This recipe was initially passed on to me with the name Classic Italian Cream Cake. It is not classic, it certainly isn't Italian, and there is no cream in it. So, I'm giving it a descriptive name. It may not be Italian, but it is delicious. And it is a simple butter cake that really doesn't require fancy technique or pans. You can make it in a 9" X 13" pan and frost the top and it will be delightful and well received.

2 cups pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
5 large eggs, separated
1 cup buttermilk, well shaken
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
cream cheese frosting
chopped pecans and flaked coconut to decorate, optional

Preheat oven to 325˚F. Grease three 8-inch cake pans or a 9" X 13" pan well and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together pastry flour, baking soda and salt, and set aside (conversely, do this while your stand mixer is creaming the butter and sugar).

Either in a stand mixer, or in a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down sides frequently. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Beginning and ending with dry ingredients, mix into egg mixture, alternating with buttermilk. When fully incorporated, add vanilla, pecans and coconut and mix to combine.

Whip egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Fold into cake batter. Divide into three greased cake pans or into the single rectangular pan.

Bake in upper two thirds of oven for about 30 - 40 minutes for round pans, 55 - 60 minutes for rectangular pan. Test for doneness. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely. If you are using the 9" X 13" pan, you may leave it in the pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting (make while cake is baking):

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
3 cups confectioner's sugar

Whip cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat in to combine. Add confectioner's sugar, little by little to incorporate.

When cake is completely cool, fill and frost tops and sides. If you are super fancy, you can press some more chopped pecans and coconut onto the sides. If you are using the rectangular pan, frost only the top.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 1:13 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 09, 2023

Menu Plan: Bright Week

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Traditionally, the eight days of the Paschal Octave have absolutely no fasting in them. Glory to God, Jerome has no significant foods to avoid anymore. It is pretty easy to pass over bananas and lima beans. So, all our family gets to feast completely this year. That is such a blessing to all of us. Christ is risen, no matter what we can eat or not eat, though, and that is the most important thing. Since we are a week off from the East this year, our Saturday will be at an Orthodox vigil and we will celebrate with our brethren from that lung of the faith.

Blessed Feast and a Holy of Holiest weeks to our Eastern brethren!

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:12 AM 0 comments

Sunday, April 02, 2023

Menu Plan: Holy Week

The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

This week is the penultimate week of the year. We are walking the Via Dolorosa with Christ. We live each of those days with Him. Meals this week are lighter and simpler, and follow the strictest fasting rules. Traditionally, a full fast begins on the evening of Maundy (Mandatum - from the new mandate/commandment Jesus gives, as He established the priesthood, the sacraments of the Eucharist and confession), and goes through the end of the Vigil on Saturday, as we await Jesus by the tomb. The events of this week are what give shape to every other week of our year. We have the priesthood, the Eucharist, confession, because of this week. We fast on Wednesdays and Fridays because of Judas' selling Jesus on Wednesday and Christ's crucifixion on Friday. We celebrate a little Paschal feast every Sunday. This week is the most important week in the year.

This year, just about everyone has kept the Lenten fast completely. If I may be permitted, I am proud of their dedication to their own spiritual growth, and to allowing themselves to be disciplined so they can learn to discipline themselves. They have embraced the fast, and have also been willing to break it for the sake of others, without any problem, and are trying to keep the Triduum fast as best they can. Mariam is planning on starting after breakfast on Good Friday, and Nejat plans on only eating one meal on Friday and Saturday until after the vigil. Speaking of that vigil, I am so pleased that our little Sunday church group will again be able to have a retired priest come to serve that highest liturgy of the year. It is the Feast of Feasts, and the high point of our year.

May you have a blessed Holy Week! If you are Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, or Coptic, we pray for a continued Holy Lent!

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on a Saturday.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 6:50 AM 0 comments

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