Perfect Punch

I'm not much of a punch drinker. I detest red punch or "fruit" punch, which never tasted fruity to me at all! I generally like to drink water, although you can occasionally tempt me with a rootbeer (shh) or strawberry lemonade. Sometimes, though, when you're having a party, you need something a little snazzier than water.

I learned this recipe from my in-laws years ago and it really has become "the" punch when punch is called for. It is sweet but light, not heavy on a hot day. To tell you the truth, I am mostly blogging about this today so that we all know where to find the recipe the next time we need it, as I always seem to be ransacking my cookbook cupboard for it when it comes up.

The basic punch is lemony, but I have added pureed berries before for both presentation and taste. I have also floated lemon wedges and blueberries because they look so delicate and tempting. Take a look at the recipe and then leave me a comment and let me know what your variation would be. I love new ideas.

Perfect Lemon Punch

• 2 tsp. citric acid
• 2 tsp. pure lemon extract
• 2 1/2 cups sugar (I often use less to keep it on the tart side)
• 1 gallon water
• ice

You can get the citric acid and lemon extract at a baking supply. I've only ever made it in much larger batches than this and it is simple to multiply the ingredients-- just taste it and add the sugar gradually if you don't want it over sweet.

So tell me, what would your garnish be to this punch?

From Russia, With Love

Fourteen years ago this month I returned from spending the better part of 18 months in Yekaterinburg and Ufa, Russia as a missionary for my church.

Two Siberian winters.
One hotter-than-I-expected summer.
Four phone calls home.
One 24-hour train ride across the snowy Siberian landscape. (From Novosibirsk to Yekaterinburg.)
Nine companions.
Hundreds of Books of Mormon given away.
One girl-turned-woman, changed forever by her experiences there.
Hundreds of new friends made, many who entered the waters of baptism.
Thousands of prayers uttered.
One language learned well enough to speak, teach, understand, dream, think, and still make mistakes. A language to fall in love with.
Layers upon layers of clothing, hats, scarves, tights, long underwear, and fur-lined boots.
One future husband met (although I had no idea at the time.)
And countless bowls of borscht.

One day maybe I'll post about how I cried the first time I went to the grocery store after coming home. Or how I spoke to the German flight attendant (who spoke flawless English) in Russian. Or about h0w very strange it felt to be alone after having a 24/7 companion for over a year and a half. It's not easy to come home from a mission. I was so comfortable being Sister Johnson that I wasn't completely sure I wanted to go back to being Michal.

This is not a 30 minute meal, but it is worth the labor of love to have a bowl of great borscht once in a while. Today was one of those days: the weather was cool and overcast, I had nowhere we needed to be, and I had fresh cabbage and beets in my fridge from my organic produce delivery this week, plus some leftover dill from pickles we made a week or two ago. It had to be borscht.

Babushka's Borscht
Makes 8-10 generous servings

• 8 c. beef broth
• 2 lbs. chuck (diced) or stew meat
• ¼ c. flour
• 2 T. olive oil
• 3 large beets
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 onion, diced finely
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated
• ½ head cabbage, shredded (about 3-4 cups)
• 3 T. unsalted butter
• 2 T. flour
• 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes OR 2 cups fresh tomatoes peeled and diced
• ¼ c. lemon juice (or juice of one lemon)
• 2 T. fresh dill, chopped
• 2 T. fresh parsley, minced finely
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Sour cream and chopped fresh dill, to serve

Trim ends off beets and scrub gently under cold running water. Place in saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside. When cool, peel and coarsely grate beets and set aside.

Dredge the beef in ¼ cup flour and brown in 2 T. olive oil in large saucepan. Add broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat to a high simmer and add garlic, potatoes, and ½ c. onions. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add celery and carrots and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes. Add beets and reduce heat to low simmer.

In large frying pan, melt butter over medium high heat and sauté remaining onions until soft and translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Add flour and stir constantly until lightly browned. Add tomatoes, lemon juice, dill, and parsley, and stir well. If too thick, add a few tablespoons of water. Cook for 10 minutes, then add to the broth, mixing well. Salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for 15 additional minutes, stirring frequently. Serve hot. Garnish individual servings with a generous dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of minced dill.

Serve with dark Russian rye bread, or with the cabbage peiroshki that I made. But that's another recipe for another post.

Oh, Russia, how I miss you!

January Menu

Don't you just love January? I do. It offers a clean start, a fresh look at my life. I love the holidays, but I really love clearing away all the decorations, which by January 1st just look like clutter, and brushing away the cobwebs of neglected habits and duties in my life. I love the feeling that this can be the year that I accomplish something I have always wanted to do.

My goals each new year generally include weight loss. As someone who loves making and eating good food, I also struggle to maintain a healthy weight. This year, my outlook is a little different. Although I hope to lose weight, my goal this year is to focus more on being healthy and to develop a healthier relationship with food, especially sweets. I want to help my family eat more vegetables and whole grains and less sugar and meat. I want us all to move our bodies more, to make them stronger, leaner, and more powerful. I want to take better care of this gift that God has given me, rather than resent my imperfect body.

With that in mind, I planned a menu yesterday for the first week or two of the year. Creating menus before I do my grocery shopping is one of those habits that I used to have before the holidays--one that needed to be dusted off before it was completely shelved.:) When I mentioned on facebook that I was headed out for the ingredients for my new, healthy menu, I had several requests that I share.

So, in planning my family's meals, I tried to keep in mind our family's goals of increasing whole grain and vegetables while reducing sugar and meat. I'll also count my cal0ries and avoid overeating (most days) on thedailyplate.com. Your family's goals for eating may be different; if your goal is high protein or gluten-free or as low fat as possible, this may not be the menu for you. But if you just need a menu to help you kick start cooking meals for your family again, check out mine.

Instead of assigning these meals to a specific day, I planned seven complete meals, which I plan to serve over the next 10 days before we head out of town for my brother's wedding. Some days we'll just eat leftovers or throw together a salad. Each morning, I'll choose the meal that meets my needs in terms of time commitment for that day.

• Meal #1: Potato Leek Soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and fresh fruit (Recipe comes from one of my Weight Watcher's cookbooks, but I found a blogger who had posted it here.)
• Meal #2: Southwest Brown Rice & Black Bean Burgers (from Prudence Pennywise), served with fresh pineapple, guacamole, sweet potato baked fries, and cibatta rolls
• Meal #3: Garlic Chive Fettucine w/ Sauteed Chickpeas & Parmesan (also Prudence Pennywise). I'll use whole wheat pasta and serve this with crusty, whole grain bread and a small salad. I've made this recipe before and it is DIVINE.
• Meal #4: Bean & Barley Soup (Cooking Light) with crusty, whole grain bread.
• Meal #5: Citrus Glazed Chicken Thighs (Cooking Light), served with brown rice, mandarin oranges, and roasted green beans.
• Meal #6: Butternut Squash Lasagne (Prudence Pennywise, what would I do without you?), green salad, sauteed zucchini, and crusty bread. (Do you see how much we love crusty bread? I will either make my own or pick up a whole grain loaf at Costco or Trader Joe's that day.)
• Meal #7: Midwestern Corn Chowder (see my recipe below) with fresh whole wheat bread.

Midwestern Corn Chowder

• 3 cups diced potatoes
• 1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 T. to 4 T. butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 2 cups whole milk, fat free half-and-half, or half and half
• 2-3 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (the sharper the better)
• 1 can creamed corn
• salt and fresh ground pepper
• fresh cilantro for serving
  

Place the broth in a large saucepan or stock pot. Simmer the vegetables in the chicken broth, with the pan covered, until tender, about 30 minutes. Mix the roux over medium heat in separate medium saucepan, combining butter and flour, then whisking in milk until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, until bubbly and thickening, then add to the broth and vegetables. Add the creamed corn, then salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish each bowl with 1/4 cup shredded cheese, 1 T bacon, and 1-2 T fresh cilantro.

What are your favorite meals in January? Share!!!

Brownie Love

I adore brownies. Cakey, fudgy, chewy, crackly-topped, the edges, the middle, with icing, powdered sugar, or plain . . . what's not to love about a good brownie?

My favorite recipe for brownies changes every six months or so. Probably because I like all kinds. My newest favorite recipe is from Alton Brown, star of Good Eats. If you've never watched his Food Network show, you really should. We love how he uses scientific principles to explain cooking and baking, and he has many unconventional (yet brilliant) ways of doing things.

I discovered this recipe late one night when I remembered that I needed treats for Ian's soccer team the next day. My go-to brownie recipe for the past year has been Prudence Pennywise's (and it remains fabulous) but I didn't have enough baking chocolate on hand to make the ginormous pan needed--so I went to the internet in search of a good cocoa brownie recipe. These whipped up quickly, consisted of ingredients that I had on hand without planning ahead, and turned out to be so yummy I wondered if they were too good for five year old soccer players!:) Needless to say, even though I discovered this recipe just over a week ago, I've already made it twice.

You need these brownies, too. They don't take much longer to whip up than a box and are soooo much yummier--I promise.

This makes an 8x8 pan, about 16 small or 9 large brownies. Double it for a 9x13 pan or triple if you're using a jelly roll pan. These are rich and chocolatey enough to stand alone without icing.

If my camera wasn't on the fritz, I'd have an enticing picture here. Sigh.

Cocoa Brownies from Alton Brown's Good Eats

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Butter and flour your pan and preheat the oven to 300 degrees (F).Use an electric mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment to beat the eggs until they are fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars and mix. Add remaining ingredients and mix to combine.

Pour into your prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes (you may need to adjust this depending on pan size-- but check it after 45 minutes.) When they are finished, a toothpick will come out clean.

Eat them as soon as they don't burn your tongue, or hold off till they cool. I sent some to my brother and he said they were delicious five days later--but they don't last that long at my house.

Summer Fun

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, a sign that we are deep into summer. Since I became a mom, I have discovered that my summer job is to keep my kids busy with worthwhile things. Summers in the Sacramento area are too hot to force the kids out into the backyard indefinitely (a favorite trick of mine in the spring and fall), especially if your backyard resembles a dirt pit with weeds, so we end up spending mornings at the park and swimming lessons, taking a break mid-day for naps, and then spending the afternoons trying to keep cool at the pool or the library. In spite of the SPF 50 I slather on them religiously, my boys are all turning a lovely shade of brown--something I have never been in my life! They love swimming and so we spend a great deal of time bumming around other people's pools. Luckily Jared's parents live nearby and have a pool, but somedays we visit other Friends With Pools (aka F.W.P.s) This picture is at Mom and Dad's with our friends Natalie, Ethan, and Sidney.
I absolutely adore all the produce available in the summer, especially in this area, and I don't think that a meal goes by without a big bowl of fruit on the table. The strawberry stand near our house is irresistible to me if I have any cash when I drive by, and the Farmer's Market makes my mouth water. Here are a few recipes that I've tried lately that take advantage of the abundance. And after all, how could we enjoy any season without great food?
Over the weekend I wanted to make an icey treat but am trying to be a godd ess (darn the filter on this computer--it is requiring that I intentionally typo to get around it! If only I could remember the password to turn it off!) of weight loss, so I hunted down a couple of great sorbet recipes. You don't have to have an ice cream mixer for these, even though that's easier. You can just try the method where you put them in the freezer and stir occasionally, which is what we had to do when the ice cream maker shorted out!

Watermelon Sorbet

• 1/4 c. water
• 1/3 c. corn syrup
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 c. pureed watermelon pulp (use the blender)
• 1 T. lemon juice

Stir the water, corn syrup, and sugar together in a saucepan over medium high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer five minutes. Remove from heat and chill 30 minutes. Add syrup mixture to watermelon and lemon juice. Mix well and chill for two hours (the colder the mixture, the faster it will freeze). Freeze in an ice cream maker or put in a shallow pan in your freezer and stir it every half hour until it gets to the right consistency.

The next recipe is one that I morphed a little, mixing two recipes to achieve the end result. The original Cooking Light recipe called for (the alcohol keeps the sorbet from freezing too hard) but since we don't drink, I looked around for some other way to incorporate the strawberry/lime/orange flavors that I love.

Strawberry Margarita Sorbet

• 2 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 4 c. pureed strawberries
• 1/3 c. fresh orange juice
• 1/2 c. fresh lime juice
• 1 T. lemon juice
• zest of one orange and one lime

Use the same technique as the recipe above, making the simple syrup first with the water and sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and chill until quite cold, at least 2 hours. Freeze in an ice cream freezer.

These recipes were a beautiful red color, tasted so yummy, and had much fewer calories than the homemade strawberry ice cream I was craving.

My father in law, Richard, loves lemon meringue pie. I have made a few for him in the past, but this year I was on the hunt for a better recipe that I would enjoy more (I love the lemon curd, but find meringue to be rather dull.) I found this recipe on epicurious.com and have now made it both for his birthday and again for Father's Day. It is by far the best lemon meringue I've ever had. The coconut sweetens the meringue so well. Be forewarned: if you cut this into 8 pieces, each piece has a Weight Watchers point value of 19. So you'd better scrimp on calories some other place this week if you're going to make this pie (if you want to be a real godd ess of weight loss, keep looking for another recipe!) Lemon and Toasted Coconut Meringue Pie.
If you have a garden, (or if you cheat like me and just shop at the Farmer's Market) you absolutely must try this Cooking Light Garden Minestrone that I discovered a couple of summers ago. Paired with a crusty artisan bread it really is a great way to end the day.
And if you're just in the mood for a good Chinese Chicken Salad without paying for it in a restaurant, try this recipe. It's especially great if you grilled chicken earlier in the week and did some extra teriyaki chicken with this meal in mind.

Chinese Chicken Salad

• 1 head of lettuce (you pick the variety)
• 2-3 cooked teriyaki chicken , cubed
• 1/2 c. diced green onion
• 1/2 c. toasted sliced almonds
• 1/4 c. toasted sesame seeds
• 1/2 package wonton skins
• 1 can mandarin oranges
  
• Dressing:
• 2 T. sugar
• 1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
• 3 T. canola oil
• 1 t. sesame oil
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 1 t. kosher salt

Use your kitchen shears to cut the wonton skins into strips (you can probably do several at a time). Spray them liberally with cooking spray and bake in 350 oven until brown (watch them, they do this quickly.) Put lettuce, green onion, almonds, oranges, and chicken in large salad bowl. Mix dressing ingredients. Just before serving, shake up or blend dressing one last time. Pour over salad and toss. Add wonton crispies and sesame seeds and toss again. Serve immediately.
And one last recipe to share; my friend Sandy has been sharing zucchini out of her garden, which I adore grilled with kosher salt and olive oil--but you can only eat that at so many meals before you are ready for something else. So I scoured my Cooking Light cookbooks for a zucchini bread recipe that wasn't more like eating cake. This one is delish--it's only good for you if you don't eat the entire loaf, so watch out!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3 T. canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 t. baking soda
• 1 t. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 1/2 c. shredded zucchini (get your kids to do this part)
  
• 1/2 c. semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Place first three ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at low speed until well blended. Stir in applesauce.
Combine flour and next four ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, beating just until moist. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon batter into a loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 1 hour and apply the toothpick test-- it should be almost clean when inserted into the middle of the loaf. Cool completely. Enjoy!

Now go enjoy the day with your kids, whether you are cooking up some yummy foods, hanging out at the pool, or having a water balloon fight. Remember, "(wo)men are that they might have joy!" (2 Nephi 2:25)