Best Blue Cheese Dressing

Danny's favorite salad is iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing.  That's it.  I like it tossed with toasted pecans, and ideally some crunchy bacon bits.  This dressing is also great as a dip.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 ounces blue cheese
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mash blue cheese and buttermilk together with a fork until mixture resembles large-curd cottage cheese. Stir in sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and garlic powder until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Footnotes

• If you don't have buttermilk, you can add lemon juice to milk for an easy substitution.
• Whole milk may be used in place of buttermilk for a milder flavor.
• Dressing may be refrigerated in an air-tight container for up to two weeks. 

Slow Cooker Chickpea and Red Lentil Stew

One of the yummiest dishes I've ever made... and so easy!

Slow Cooker Chickpea and Red Lentil Stew
adapted from this Whole Foods recipe

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil*
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 teaspoons garam masala
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry
1/2 teaspoon coriander
dash of cinnamon (plus 1 cinnamon stick, optional)
dash of cayenne
2 cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas)*, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup dried red lentils
1 14-ounce can tomato puree
1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1-2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup pitted black olives, sliced (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Serve with:
sour cream
basmati rice

Method: 
Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions. Add garlic, garam masala and other spices, and cook until peppers begin to soften. Combine everything except the yogurt in the slow cooker and cook on low 8 to 10 hours. Serve with basmati rice and sour cream on the side.

Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken

Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken (Shredded Stew) with Basmati Rice

(adapted from The Gourmet Slow Cooker)

1.5 T vegetable or olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

4-6 large clove garlic chopped coarsely or minced

1-2 T minced garlic (fresh or jarred)

1 14-oz can crushed tomatoes

1 cinnamon stick plus some ground cinnamon

12 cardamom seeds (or some ground cardamom)

Salt & pepper

1 cup water or chicken stock

1.25 lbs chicken breast (organic, boneless, skinless) or whatever other type of chicken

1 cup of dried apricots cut in fourths

½ - 1 pinch of saffron threads

In large sauté pan, heat oil then onions and garlic on medium-high heat until softened and starting to brown.  Add the ginger and stir for 3-5 minutes more.  Then add ground cinnamon and cardamom seeds or powder, tomatoes, and salt and stir for 5 more minutes.

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and pour the onion mixture over the top.  Also add the cinnamon stick (even if you already put some ground cinnamon in the mix) and cardamom seeds, plus the water/broth, saffron, and chopped apricots.  Cover and cook on low for 3-8 hours, until the chicken is tender.  At 3-4 hours, the chicken will be firm and hold its shape.  At 6-8 hours, the meat will be falling off the bone.  If you cook it on low the full 8 hours, you can take a flat wooden spoon/spatula and just shred it in the slow cooker.  Add salt and pepper to taste and adjust herbs.

Yummy with basmati rice (cooked on stovetop per directions, plus add salt, butter, and frozen peas).  Comfort food!

Letty's Matzoh Ball Soup

My mother-in-law Letty is an incredible cook - all instinct, full flavor, wide variety, and 100% yum!  I try not to be jealous and instead choose to feel grateful that I married into such a delicious family.  Plus, maybe I can learn something from her in the kitchen!

This afternoon I made a batch of her matzoh ball soup.  Baby Max and I shared a bowl, his first, and he loved the carrots and the matzoh balls.  He's in a phase where he insists on feeding himself, so it was a little messy.  But it's pure comfort food to me and hopefully to him, too.

Of course, it's best if you make your own chicken broth.  But I just used two quarts of boxed organic chicken broth from Costco and a little water.
 
Letty’s Matzoh Ball Soup

• Boil a whole, fresh chicken covered in water for 1 and a half hours. You don’t need to worry too much about how much broth you make because you can supplement it with water or canned broth later on in the process.
• Take chicken out of the pot and cool the broth in the fridge overnight and skim the fat off the top in the morning.
• Make one packet of matzoh ball mix at a time in separate small bowls (with eggs and corn or safflower oil) according to the directions on the box. Do not add salt! I would recommend making 2 packets (8 matzoh balls) for one big batch of broth.
• Cool each bowl in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
• Meanwhile boil the broth, adding additional water and canned chicken broth if needed.
• Make 4 matzoh balls out of each packet with wet hands (so that the meal doesn’t stick to you) and add to the pot of boiling water.
• The TRICK is not to let the matzoh balls get crowded as they pop up! Otherwise, the matzoh balls won’t be able to expand to the proper consistency. Cover the pot while it’s boiling and put it on medium or medium low.
• KEY: Cook for at least a half hour (usually longer). Test if they’re ready by taking one out and cutting it in half. It should fall apart when you barely touch it with a butter knife.
• Add sliced carrots and sliced green onions a few minutes before serving. Add salt and pepper to taste. I like my Matzoh Ball Soup extremely salty. Try it that way and think of me!
• Refrigerate leftovers and enjoy!

Butternut Squash and Pear Soup

I make this soup every Thanksgiving in honor of a young woman named Emily who first made it for our extended family in 2005.  Sadly, she passed away in the Spring of 2006, so I always think of her when I cook a big double batch for our holiday feast. I didn't know her well, but I remember her cooking the soup for everyone with a smile on her face.

This year, I used one fewer pear (and cream instead of half & half) and received even more compliments than ever before.  Oh, and I added a few cloves of garlic, too. (My changes are reflected below.)

The key to the rich, savory flavor is the caramelization of the onions and pears.  It's yummy any time of year, so don't wait until next November to try it out, if you like this sort of thing.

Best of all, this soup gets a thumbs-up from both my picky-ish (when it comes to veggies and soups, anyway) husband and the babies!

Butternut Squash and Pear Soup
Based on a recipe from The New Vegetarian Epicure
Serves 6-8

1 pound butternut squash (about 10 oz. trimmed and seeded)
1 large yam (about 10 oz.)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups water
1 stick cinnamon
3/4 t salt
2 T butter
2 medium onions, sliced
3-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 large Anjou or Bartlett pears
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup half and half (or cream)
white pepper to taste
garnish: chopped chives

1. Peel, seed, and dice the squash. Peel and dice the yam. Put them both in a pot with the vegetable broth, water, cinnamon stick, and salt, and simmer until tender, about 40 minutes. Discard the cinnamon stick. 
2. Melt the butter and gently cook the onions and garlic in it, stirring occasionally, until it begins to caramelize. Peel, core, and thinly slice the pears, and add them to the onions. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the wine, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. 
3. Add the pear mixture to the soup and puree everthing in a blender in batches. [Or use an immersion blender.] Add the cream and some white pepper, and a bit more salt only if needed. Heat the soup again just to a simmer, but do not boil. Serve plain or garnished with chopped chives (or sprigs of cilantro would work, too).

My Intentions Here

So... I'm re-starting this blog in order to organize and share my favorite recipes with friends and family.  Actually, if nobody ever visits but me, that'd still be fine because I mainly just want to be organized in an easily-accessible and permanent way.  I'll be re-posting most of the recipes from the old ZenFoodism.com, adding new favorites, and creating a master index.  Some photos will be recycled, some will be new, and some posts may be photo-free.

Zen Again

Once upon a time, when most people hadn't heard of the word "blog," I created a little space for my recipes, restaurant musings, and cooking ideas at ZenFoodism.com.  In fact, it was at just the time food blogs were becoming ubiquitous and legitimate.  I met some cool, smart food bloggers and grew to have a small following of regular visitors.

Friends and family still sometimes ask me if I post to Zen Foodism.  For many reasons, I haven't... in almost 2 years.  I've been busy with a barfy pregnancy, writing a book, and new-mama mania.

But now I'd like to resurrect my little foodie project in an effort to organize and share my recipes for myself and for any friends who are interested in recipe ideas.  I'm not the top cook around, by any means.  But I relish reading and culling recipes.  And I've even found a tiny bit of my pre-baby sanity again... maybe just enough to try a new technique once in a while.

Bottom line is: I need to cook for my husband and son.  It's kinda my main job now.  But I refuse to turn to pizza and chicken nuggets (especially dinosaur-shaped).  The baby (now 13 months old) will eat what we eat, and we need to eat better.  At the same time, I hate doing dishes.  So I need to be smart and efficient with my shopping and prep and messes.

I will get my act together to try my best for my little family.  But I refuse to go crazy.  It will be zen!