Cool Cucumber Soup

It has been HOT, broiling at around 100 degrees for the past three days, and humid to boot, I wanted to use the oven and stove as very very little as possible to avoid heating up the house.

On a camping trip at Indiana Dunes with a friend we looked through some Real Simple magazines and saw a Cool Cucumber Soup. Perfect! simple, cold, filling, and cucumbers are in season! The recipe below is a variation on that recipe we found and it is certainly very good! Simple flavors make this soup perfect for an icy meal on a hot day. We combined it with a Basil and Parmesan bread for a perfectly good quick and easy summer dinner.

Cool Cucumber Soup

Ingredients

3 med. to lg. Cucumbers, roughly chopped

1 c. Yogurt

1/3 c. combination of fresh Mint, Parsley, and Basil leaves, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1 tsp Salt

A pinch of Cayenne pepper

Process

-          Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor until totally smooth

-          Refrigerate until very cold, then serve! 

      Makes enough for 3 good sized servings

Notes

Sour Cream or Cottage Cheese can be substituted for the Yogurt if you want a slightly thicker consistency

I recommend serving with some sort of bread (we used African Basil and Parmesan Bread)

Veggie (Vegetarian, even Vegan if wanted) Stuffed Tortillas

These are yummy. End of story, ok not quite end of story, they are also easy to make and filling and very good representational of a 'typical' Mexican dish, at least in my house.

Again, courtesy of some friends of ours in Wisconsin, this has become a regular feature at our dinner table. The recipe here is for the whole shebang, but we often just make the filling and let people design their own burritos/tortillas/whatever. Since it keeps fairly well and my family is fond of Mexican food for dinner and lunch, we also usually make a lot and don’t worry if it is not all eaten on the first night. It is even good the next day either in a tortilla or even just by itself and cold in my opinion.

Lastly, I promise, though this recipe seems long and convoluted, it is a very simple easy thing to make.

Ingredients

It tastes better than it looks

Step 1
a little Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic minced
1 lg. Onion chopped
1 Green Pepper chopped
1 med./lg. Zucchini sliced or chunked
1/2 cup vegetable broth

Step 2
2 cups Corn
2 cups Black Beans drained

Step 3
1 1/2 Tbsp Cumin
6 Tbsp Salsa
Salt and Pepper to taste
a little Cilantro (either dried or freshly chopped)

*Step 4 (Tortillas)
a little Olive Oil
several Tortillas (can be flour, whole wheat, corn, it is up to your preference)
Chedder Cheese shredded

*This is not an essential step, if wanted one could just serve the filling with rice (see Cilantro Lime Rice recipe), or by itself, over chips, on a plain tortilla...you get the picture

Process

Filling

Sautee together all ingredients from Step 1  in a little bit of olive oil for a few minutes.

Add ingredients from Step 2. If you desire, drain the Black Beans first so that their extra liquid is not added,  if the mix looks a bit dry, add a bit of the bean water or a little more vegetable broth. DO NOT use dried Black Beans. Cook until Zucchini begins to look slightly translucent

Once mixture is cooked enough (Zucchini is soft, not crunchy at all) add ingredients from Step 3 and continue to simmer, stirring enough to keep the beans from fusing to the bottom of the pan, until there is no excess liquid remaining.

Tortillas

Fry Tortilla in a pan with a little olive oil (to keep it from sticking) until slightly crispy brown.

Add a little shredded Cheese to melt onto the Tortilla.

Remove Tortilla from pan and add 1/4-1/2 cup of the filling and some extra Cheese.

Fold tortilla over, use a toothpick to keep it folded in half if needbe.

Repeat until desired number of Tortillas are made. To keep them warm while you make each one, put on a cookie sheet in an oven on low heat.

Serve with Sour Cream, Salsa, Chips, Guacamole or whatever suits your fancy!!!

I served with leftover Chicken from a barbeque, but it is totally optional. Obviously to serve with Chicken means NOT vegetarian

*Alternatively, if you do not want to use Tortillas you can serve this with Cilantro Lime Rice, or over chips, or just plain.

Summer Dayz and Deep Dish Pizza

Apologies that is has been so long since my last post! I have been enjoying my relaxing summer and have had absolutely no motivation to update. I will try to be better about this now that I have sort of settled into the new rhythm of life here in Obie-town's (sticky, humid, rainy, hot) summer.

Things I miss about WI. 
-the Java House. There is good coffee here, but nothing really compares to the Java House coffee in downtown Cedarburg
-Friends of course. No explanation needed
-the Air! in WI there is usually a breeze and it is rarely humid. In Ohio there is rarely a breeze and it is often humid, I had remembered this about Ohio but had forgotten what it actually felt like. Thankfully so far we have had mostly tolerable days, but we have had to run the AC for one full day so far...
-the Tidiness, Wisconsin is less crowded than Ohio, and Ozaukee county, being the most wealthy county in WI, is tidier to look at than Loraine county.

However despite the understandable missing of these things I am loving being back in Ohio, it is a little bit odd, I am still not sure what to say when people ask where I am from, but being back here is not as wrenching as one could expect such a far move to be.

Happenings of the weeks

There is so much going on! it is the year of transitions. We are helping Sam pack up to move out and up to Madison where he will work for Epic for a year, live in his own apartment, in short be a real person in the real world. We are also packing up my Mom's parents to move from their house of over 20 years to a new condo-type house near a retirement community (Kendal at Oberlin). This process is a little easier than moving across country because we can pack a few boxes, drive them over to Kendal and then unpack them, but still, it is a huge transition and there is alot of planning and thought involved.

assembling shelves

installing a new sink

packin'

This is all in the midst of us still settling into our new place. Clara Margaret and I had fun one afternoon spraypainting some chairs for our kitchen (I suggested we do the garage door too, something we had done in a summer long ago...but CM nixed this plan). We got as much spraypaint on our hands and feet as on the chairs, since we were using these appendages to hold the stencils. Clara claims I was not as careful as she was, but we both had about equal amounts of paint stuck to our skin for a few days.



















Even with all the transitional stuff, my summer is dandy. I work about 12-15 hours a week at the local gym (perfect job, earning some pocket cash but very low time commitment, just what I was looking for for this summer). This leaves me time to run every day, workout, play with my dog, cook, bake, clean, spend time with my family, and READ! I have not really had time to pleasure read for a looooong time. I read a couple junk food books, and I plan to look in the library this coming week for some cant-put-it-down stuff as well as some more intellectual reading.

Pizza:

Ever since I can remember my family has always made homemade pizza. A staple of the weekends, mostly this is what we eat instead of ordered stuff, we have had it frequently enough, though I have never made one all on my own. Combining this with thinking of things Sam particularly likes, I wanted to try a deepdish recipe I saw from Foodwishes.

I think it turned out really well, I only have two modifications: I used more sauce than the recipe calls for, but really with pizzas (other than for the crust) one doesn't need a recipe, just put whatever amounts of whatever toppings/fillings you want, making sure it all fits of course! I also note that the crust around the edge particularly around the top (where one folds over the crust remnants) was too thick, I would say either that this folding up of the sides is not needed and you can cut out the extra dough altogether, or, that one should fold the sides around cheese for a stuffed crust, or serve the 'Za with extra sauce for dipping.

Anyway, there you have it! I think it is a delicious pizza, more like a pizza pie, really nothing special just a different way to cook the same stuff, but it was yummy!

Ingredients for crust:

4 1/2 cups flour (at least two of which are whole wheat)
2-3 tsp salt
at least 3 Tbsp herbs (I used alot of rosemary, some oregano and a little basil)
1 Tbsp yeast
2 cups very warm water (not hot hot but very warm)

1/4 cup olive oil

Process for crust:

Mix flour salt, herbs and yeast. Add warm water and mix, then add olive oil (don't worry it is supposed to be very sticky). Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours until doubled. Once the dough is doubled, punch it, and devide roughly half. This recipe makes two large pizzas (or one large and one deep dish). Flatten one half out into a regular round pizza, it is ready to go cover with toppings and bake at 425 F for 10-15 minutes.

Deep Dish Pizza:

The other half will be used for a deep dish. For deep dish, divide this half into two pieces, about 2/3 and 1/3. heavily flour and roll the larger piece until flat and round (thickness should be about 1/8-1/4 inch, LESS thick on the edges). Put this piece into greased springform pan with a little bit hanging over the edges (this will be folded in later to make the pie) then layer in (in this order) cheese, toppings, a little more cheese, a little sauce. Roll last 1/3 dough into circle and place on top, then fold in the edges from the bottom piece, enclosing the pie. on top put more sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. Poke holes with a fork to let steam release, otherwise you will have an exploding pizza pie! Bake at 350 F for 45 or so minutes. As soon as cool enough to handle, remove springpan and let cool for at least 15 minutes (this will set the pie making it easier to handle). Slice and enjoy!


Notes:

Again, I like more sauce and less cheese, also the crust was a little too thick around the edges around the top as you can see in the picture, to remedy this, roll the edges flatter when rolling it out (as in the instructions) and if that is not working, just don't use the excess that hangs off the edges of the springform, instead make the top piece go all the way to the edges.