Warm Winter Salad

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Now that the holidays are coming to a close, and New Years is staring to wave at us with all its new beginnings and good resolutions. Why not indulge in something reminiscent of comfort food, but without the guilty pleasure price tag? This salad is just right for that. Sustaining enough to not leave you looking through the cookie jars in the break room, but nourishing and light at the same time. It’s a salad for those that don’t like salad. Like my one friend that doesn’t see why anyone would want to eat ‘crunchy water’. This would even work for her, a no greens salad!

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And of course, where would we be with our healthy living resolutions if it were not going to be convenient? So this one packs neatly into a jar, dressing and all. When ready, just shake, remove the lid and heat up ( I like mine warm), or enjoy cold!

imageper serving you will need:

Ingredients

  • 1 small sweet potato
  • 3 tbsp chick peas (cooked or canned)
  • 5 small mushrooms, quartered
  • 1/2 small zucchini, diced into cubes
  • 3-4 tsp roasted garlic dressing
  • 2 cup mason jar

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Directions

  1. Prick sweet potato with a fork, wrap with 2 paper  towels, drizzle some water on the paper towel for moisture and microwave until soft and cooked through. (Alternately use  some leftover roasted sweet potato, peeled) Once cool enough to handle, peel and cube and set aside to cool completely.
  2. Heat a teaspoon olive oil in a small skillet, add mushrooms to pan and quick sauté for 1 minute. Set aside to cool. Add zucchini to pan, and sauté for another minute, set aside to cool completely.
  3. Layer ingredients into a  2 cup mason jar in the following order:
  • creamy roasted garlic dressing
  • sweet potato
  • chick peas
  • zucchini
  • mushrooms
  • lid

You can assemble this salad completely and store in your fridge for up to 4 days!

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Copyright © 2012 Simple Healthy Homemade. All rights reserved

Roasted Garlic Dressing

Let’s face it, most of us like creamy dressings to go with our salads, at least every once in a  while. I have lately been hooked on lemongrass-mint white balsamic from Seasons and could eat salad with just that on it. Yep, nothing else, no oil, just that. It’s especially good on baby spinach with pomegranate seeds. But I digress, back to the subject: creamy dressings. The problem with salad dressing and especially the creamy kind is the caloric impact they tend to have. So you decided to have a ‘light’ lunch, a salad, but guess what, that commercial dressing you just poured on made it have more calories and in some cases more fat than a burger. So what to do? Your ticket is flavor, the more flavor your dressing has, the smaller the amount you need, plus making it at home allows you to control exactly what goes in it. For days like today, when it’s snowing and sleeting, when a cold meals just isn’t the answer you need something hearty that can stand up to a warm winter salad. Greek yogurt provides the creamy texture and garlic and Parmesan the flavor. Slow roasting the garlic makes it surprisingly mellow, totally taking any bite out of the taste. This one will keep in the fridge for about a week (it might keep longer, but it never lasts that long in my house), the only thing is the olive oil gets solid in the fridge, so let the dressing come to room temp before using, or heat like in the recipe above.

Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients

  • 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp grated Parmesan
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 pinch white pepper
  • 3-4 tbsp Greek yogurt
  • (optional) Pancetta crumbles

Directions

  1. Gently heat oil in a small skillet or shallow pan over low (yes, trust me) add the sliced garlic in one layer. Slow roast until starting to turn golden and beginning to caramelize, about 20 minutes, turning pieces over about half way through. Set aside to cool.
  2. In a mini food processor, combine roasted garlic and olive oil from the skillet, salt, pepper and cheese and pulse to blend, then add the Greek yogurt and vinegar and run the machine until well blended and thick.
  3. If desired, stir crumbled roasted Pancetta pieces into the finished dressing (you can cook them in the same skillet you just used for the garlic, no need to add any oil)

Copyright © 2012 Simple Healthy Homemade. All rights reserved

Sweet Potato and Tarragon Gnocchi

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It’s been cold and rainy again and all I want to eat is soup, stew and gnocchi. So here another New World take on classic potato dumplings. They involve a little sticky work, but are so worth making. The tarragon really takes this former ‘poor people’s food’ from everyday to special occasion.They also freeze great, so make more than you need, freeze right on the sheet then store in zip top bags and cook from there when you’re ready. That way you could A) store them for a busy week night or B) make them ahead as a holiday side dish to serve with your Christmas dinner.

imageThe dough is a bit sticky, so make sure you flour the work surface well

imageready for the freezer!

Ingredients

  • 2 medium sweet potatoes
  • 1 egg
  • about 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 sprigs French Tarragon, leaves only, chopped

imageThey will look like little pillows 🙂

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 375, poke sweet potato with a fork and roast on a cookie sheet until soft  hen pricked with a knife, about 25 to 35 minutes, depending on the size of the sweet potato.
  2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats, set aside.
  3. Set sweet potato aside until cool enough to handle, then peel and squish through a potato ricer into a bowl, let cool 10 more minutes (you want it to be cool to the point where the egg does not cook when you add it).
  4. Stir in the salt, tarragon leaves and the egg, then gently incorporate the flour.
  5. Set dough aside for 15 minutes to allow the flour to absorb some of the moisture.
  6. Then flour your work surface well, and cut off a portion of dough the size of a baseball. Gently roll into a rope, about 1 1/2″ diameter, keeping your hands floured.
  7. Using a knife, cut 1″ sections of dough from the rope and place on a  prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all dough has been used up.
  8. For eating right away:  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook about 8-10 gnocchi at a time until they swim to the surface, skim out using a wire mesh strainer, drain and serve.
  9. For use later: Freeze on baking sheets until gnocchi are firm, then transfer to zip top bags and store in the freezer until ready to use. Then bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook 5-6 gnocchi at a time, cooking less gnocchi at a time and making sure the water stays boiling, since the frozen dumplings will bring the water temperature down drastically and if the water isn’t hot enough, you risk having them fall apart.

Ideas for serving them:

  • with freshly grated Romano cheese and a drizzle of olive oil,
  • top with your favorite sauce,
  • bake in the oven topped with a little Parmesan cheese until slightly browned (highly recommend)
  • serve alongside roast chicken or game and don’t forget the side of cranberry or lingonberry jam!

imageCopyright © 2012 Simple Healthy Homemade. All rights reserved

Cheesy Cornbread Muffins (gluten free)

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We all know those people that won’t touch anything that says healthy in any of it’s conjugations, and since these days gluten free is in the news a lot, that get’s lumped into that same ‘healthy’ category and they won’t touch it. In their minds for some reason, healthy equals not tasty. But let’s face it, just because you have to adjust your diet, or want to change the way you eat, you do not have to go without and you certainly don’t have to deprive your self. You’re not going to last in your new healthy lifestyle, if you constantly feel that you are forced to live on dungeon food of moldy bread and water. But I digress, we were talking gluten free, which for some can be a healthy choice  for others it is a must (due to various digestion and auto-immune response issues).

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When people first transition from a SAD (Standard American Diet, funny how that works out) to a gluten free life, it can be confusing and disheartening. And let’s take kids for example, they often refuse things that taste different from what they are used to or have a different texture. And frankly some of those gluten free products out there taste just a little better than saw dust, and probably just as good for you. Not that I would know what saw dust tastes like, but I imagine it to be pretty close to that. But trust me you can live a full and healthy life without gluten, without having to go buy the saw dust bread that the grocery store carries or for that matter even set foot into that section of the store.

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Yes, you may have to eat different things, but you certainly have a whole host of choices out there, especially if you are a bit more open minded about what you put in your mouth. For one, there are numerous other cuisines out there that do not rely as heavily on wheat and wheat products as the western diet does. In many Asian countries you could eat all day without running into gluten, many Mexican dishes are gluten free. Many dinners you make at home are already gluten free. And, as I always repeat, make it yourself and you control what goes in it. Some unexpected items have wheat derived gluten ingredients, some salad dressings for example, so read the labels or make it yourself. And if you make corn bread or corn muffins, you get to decide what flour and how much butter you will put in. Gluten free baking can be a bit tricky at first since gluten is what makes the bread have the characteristic holes, well to be exact the gluten forms a sort of ‘web’ that traps the gas and creates the holes. So gluten free flours just don’t do that. And the texture often suffers accordingly, which brings me back to the picky eaters… Well you’re in luck, you can now have corn bread to have with your chili! The texture when they come out of the oven is so light and airy I almost called them corn souffle muffins. Trust me, no one will be able to tell they are gluten free!

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Ingredients

  • 6 oz Neufchatel Cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese) softened
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 3/4 cups milk
  • 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup potato flour ( or use your gluten free flour mix of choice)
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour ( or gluten free flour mix)
  • 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup grated Mexican cheese mix or cheddar
  • 1 or 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp salt

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Directions

  1. Pre heat oven to 375ºF and prepare muffin tins (line with paper or grease well)
  2. Stir the softened cream cheese until smooth, then add the sour cream, milk, egg and sugar and stir to combine.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients, cornmeal through baking soda, add the salt then add everything to the bowl with the cream cheese mixture. Stir until blended, adding a little more milk if dough is too thick.
  4. Last mix in the cheese.
  5. Fill your muffin cups (makes about 12 standard size) and bake in the pre heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and tester comes out clean.
  6. Have them with campfire chili , snowstorm venison chili or as snacks anytime

imageOh and  Remember this? I finished it! Finished and ready for gifting! On to new shores…

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Thai Beef Salad to go

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Last Tuesday it snowed and today it’s 65F! Crazy weather for a 4th of December. If I were back home, I’d be making ‘Grättimännli’ tomorrow, so they are ready for December 6th, and it was a firm plan, but how could I follow through when it is SUMMER outside? So instead I am going to mix things up and post a take along salad recipe. Most folks don’t eat badly because they want to, but because they fail to plan. With this series of recipes I am hoping to help you battle the lunchtime rush and have some healthy options on hand. I was going to start with a winter salad, something that can be warmed up, since I am not a huge salad eater in the winter, but seeing that it is summer today…

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You need a two or four cup glass mason jar per serving. The jars seal well, are BPA free, re-usable forever and stack the salad items so the dressing stays away from the more delicate items until you’re ready to eat. For this one I suggest extra greens, beyond what fits the 2 cup jar. So either pack them in a little bag or go for the bigger jar (added weight). Take a fork along, shake it up and eat right out of the jar (bigger jar only), or bring a bowl and you have a fantastic lunch everyone will be eyeing.

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Ingredients

Dressing (makes enough for 3 servings)

  • 1 tbsp garlic (about 1 clove), minced
  • 1 tbsp ginger, finely grated
  • 1 tsp dark sweet soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil (this is the oriental kind, it’s dark)
  • 1 tsp sambal oelek
  • 3 tbsp fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
  • 2-3 tbsp Thai fish sauce ( I prefer tiparos brand)
  • This will make enough for 2-3 servings

Per Jar you will need:

  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced grilled steak
  • 1/2 medium tomato, cut into wedges
  • 2 tbsp julienned carrot
  • 2 packed cups of greens (spring mix, romaine or anything hardy works well)
  • some sliced chillies and crushed peanuts as topping (optional)

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Directions

Make Dressing: Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and stir until well combined. Store any leftover dressing in the fridge and use within a week.

Then make the jars:

  1. Into each jar layer the ingredients in the following order: the steak, then pour 4-5 tsp of dressing over top, follow with tomato wedges, carrot, and greens.
  2. Top with some chilies if you like to spice up your life and crushed peanuts if desired. Close the lid and store in the fridge until ready to go!

Note: The dressing makes enough for 2-3 servings, so why not make dinner, and a jar for tomorrow? Or have a side salad with dinner and make 2 jars for y’all to take to work.

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Chickpea and Rosemary Soup with Pasta

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We woke up to the quiet of the first snow. It started snowing sometime during the night and by this morning white was blanketing the fields and trees and keeping the birdies busy coming to the feeders all day. Since there was much laundry and computer work to be done today, soup always is favorite. What am I saying, soup always is a favorite anyway and the past couple of weeks, Tuesday has turned into a soup day, and we get to benefit from the big spoils for the rest of the week. Doesn’t it make any meal more special if you start with a small bowl of soup?

Oh well, here I go again with my justifying soup eating. Frankly, soup is one of the easiest things to make. Period. You can make soup even if you think you have nothing in the house. Last week I made a creamy cauliflower soup, all it used was a half a head of cauliflower, some onion, broth and half a red pepper that needed to be used, for a little splash of color. Any vegetable hibernating in your fridge can be used, leftovers can be added. And if you have beans in the freezer and some stock, you’re set, really.

Today’s simple soup was not based on leftovers but pantry staples. And there are a few options and changes that are easy to implement. It uses one can of diced or stewed tomatoes, which you then blend smooth in your blender, but you could also use your own tomatoes, or leftover spaghetti sauce. In fact I have made this with half a jar of Vodka sauce before, and it was fantastic (cut down on the cream/ half&half) And even though you are adding about a cup of cream or half and half, at 8 servings, you are talking about 1 to 2 tablespoons of cream per serving. Less than most put in their coffee, so go spoil yourself and use real cream, like I did. And since you are adding Parmigiano to the soup, you could also use up the cream you skimmed off your raw milk and then didn’t do anything with, and now it has been a week and it is starting to separate. Yes, stick it in here, it will be just fine 🙂

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Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 2 carrots, cut into rounds
  • 2 stalks (risps?) celery, diced
  • 6 cups water or broth (make sure to reduce salt if using broth)
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
  • about 2 cups of jumbo pasta shells*
  • 1 pack  of chick peas (or 14 oz can, drained and rinsed)
  • 1 pack cannellini beans or 7 oz/ half can
  • 1 1/2 to 2 cups pureed tomatoes (1 can diced, pureed in your blender)
  • 1 scant cup cream (or half&half)
  • 2 tsp flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Parmigiano Reggiano and rosemary sprigs for serving

* Feel free to use any pasta you like, I prefer the big shells as they seem to ‘catch’ the chick peas just so…

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Directions

  1. Heat olive oil in your favorite stock pot, add the garlic and cook for one minute before adding the onions and the vegetables. Turn heat to medium and cook until softened and some pieces on the bottom begin to brown. Add the rosemary and the salt, then add the water or broth, and bring to a boil.
  2. In the meantime, blend the tomatoes until smooth. Then add to the stock pot.
  3. Once the soup is boiling, add the frozen beans (or the drained and rinsed beans from the can), return to boiling the reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the flavors have blended nicely.
  4. In a glass or bowl, mix the flour into the cream. Set aside.
  5. Turn the temperature up and add the pasta. Cook  8 minutes until al dente or according to package instructions. Two minutes before pasta time is up, add the cream, stir and finish cooking.
  6. Season with freshly ground black pepper and serve with shavings of Parmigiano and some additional rosemary on top.

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Sweet Potato Knöpfli (Spätzle)

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So what if you would add sweet potato to color and nutrify (like my new word?) the standard Spätzle? Besides being pretty and orange you would also have added nutrition, right? Although once you tired them, you’re not going to care about any of that, they are good freshly out of the water or like shown here, reheated in a skillet to add some crunch the next day. As I was re creating these (when I first made them and promised to have them up on the blog soon, I apparently was so exited that I forgot wholly and totally to write down the recipe 🙁 Soooo, I got to re-create them, and doing so I was wondering if it is a tad strange that this German-speaking lady does not have any recipe’s for the original version up on the blog yet? Something so quintessential as Knöpfli! You may know the little dumplings as Spätzle, but where I am from they are Knöpfli, little buttons 🙂 After reminiscing about this, maybe I will put how to go about making the originals on my list of things to do…

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Ingredients

  • I medium sweet potato
  • 1 egg
  •  1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cups flour
  • pinch of salt

Directions

  1. Bake the sweet potato in a 375º oven until cooked  and soft throughout when tested with the tip of a knife. Let cool slightly then cut it open and scrape the flesh into a bowl. Mash it with a fork and set aside to cool some more. (Do NOT microwave the sweet potato, baking will help remove some of the moisture making the result much drier, if your dough is too soft, it won’t stick together when boiling)
  2. Mix in the water, egg and salt and stir well to combine. Then add the flour, stirring gently starting with 1/2 cup. The resulting dough should be thick and only move slowly when you tilt the bowl. If necessary add the additional 1/4 cup of flour (This depends on the size of the sweet potato for one, but also on how humid or dry your kitchen is). Set aside for half an hour to let the dough rest.
  3. Set a pot of water to a boil. Get out a small wooden cutting board and rinse it off with cold water. Scoop about 1 cup of the dough (it should be thick and blob like, not runny) onto the board, holding it slightly tilted over the boiling water, and using the back of a flat knife, ‘cut’ slivers of it and slide off the board into the water. The Knöpfli should be roughly 1/4″ wide by 2″ to 3″ long.* Leave them in the boiling water until they swim to the surface. Skim them out using a wire mesh strainer or slotted spoon. Set aside to drain. Repeat process with remaining dough.
  4. Serve hot right away or heat some butter in a skillet and cook them until browned. (My favorite way)

*This is the old fashioned way of making them, you can also buy a special tool that allows you to make them much quicker and push the dough through what looks like a coarse grater.

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Here with herbs in the dough and below after pan frying the next day

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Mushroom Gruyère Tart

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This past weekend I was on a mission to not go out and buy more, but use up all the odds and ends that can accumulate in your kitchen and fridge over the week. In my case that involved some mushrooms that were begging to be eaten and the large chunk of cheese that I bought and had not made much of a dent into looked like a contender as well. Add an open container of cottage cheese and you’re talking! And pie crust is always easy and cheap to make, you can even make a large portion ahead and freeze it for later.

And in the tradition of a true leftover dish, this can be made without the mushrooms, add some leftover steamed broccoli for example, Cheddar or other semi hard cheese can be substituted for the Gruyère. Play with it, it’s really easy to make something yummy if it is served in a pie crust. The result heats up well for lunch in a toaster oven or even as a light dinner with a side salad of spinach and pomegranate seeds. Ever since I discovered how easy it is to get to the seeds, I have been in love with the juicy little red things, when the weather gets colder, I know they will show back up in the stores soon 🙂

Also I am super sorry for still not posting the Sweet Potato Spatzle I promised a little while ago. Turns out I was so exited making them, that I never wrote the recipe down 🙁 So I will have to recreate them before I can share it with all of you. Not like I mind eating them again so soon, lol.image

Ingredients

  • 1 single pie crust I (preferably whole wheat and homemade)
  • 8 oz brown button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 sweet onion, diced
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 oz Gruyère  cheese, grated
  • 1/2 cup cottage cheese (min 4% fat*)
  • 1 tbsp good quality balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt

*using lower fat contend can make the result dry

Directions

  1. Heat  a little oil in a skillet, cook the onions until they start to become translucent, then add the mushrooms and salt. Cook until both the mushrooms and onions are soft, then add the balsamic vinegar and cook for an additional minute. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
  2. In the meantime, heat the oven to 380ºF. Roll out pie crust and fill a pie or tart pan with the dough.
  3.  When the mushrooms are cooled down enough, add the eggs, grated cheese and cottage cheese (make sure you let the mixture cool down so the eggs don’t ‘cook’ when added) Stir well and fill into prepared crust. Smooth out the top.
  4. Bake in  the middle of the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until slightly browned and set in the center.

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Grilled Pizza

With it being unseasonably warm again this past weekend, (as a disclaimer, I haven’t actually checked the average temperature this time a year, but somehow got used to the more frosty temperatures) I wanted to take advantage of my grill at least one more time. And, if you haven’t tried it before, pizza from the grill is the best! So following is a short tutorial on how to get the perfect Pizza off of the grill; and go ahead, have all the toppings you want!

This makes 2 pizzas, and serves four average sized appetites, however I have one time eaten a whole pizza in one sitting, not just a half, after a weekend out hiking and such. So I’d say depending on your level of activity.

    Ingredients, puffy pizza before flipping over, and toppings on ready to close the lid and let the magic happen!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 to 3/4 lb pizza dough (homemade or store bought)
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cups pizza sauce (store bought)
  • 1/4 lb to 1/2 lb Mozzarella cheese
  • Flour, to roll dough out on
  • Semolina or cornmeal, for dusting
  • Assorted toppings of choice, some suggestions:
  • Olives
  • Sliced ham
  • Red peppers
  • hot pepper flakes or sliced hot peppers
  • Salami, sliced
  • additional cheese (like Fontina, or blue cheese)
  • Capers! (I love capers 🙂 )
  • Oregano and basil
  • Anchovies
  • Pineapple

Directions

  1. Heat your grill to high/hot. 
  2. In the meantime, prepare all the ingredients so you have them ready and they can quickly  be put on the pizza. Set aside
  3. Divide the pizza dough into two balls, place one on a generously floured surface and roll out until very thin (less than a 1/8″), don’t worry if it gets odd shaped. Set aside on a sheet or pizza peel dusted with semolina or corn meal. Resist the urge to fold dough in half, it can get sticky quickly, I tried it, I know…
  4. When the grill has reached at least 400 F (You can get a thermometer for your home grill, but I have successfully made this over open fire while camping, it just needs to be hot), rub the grates using your grill thongs and a balled up paper towel with a little oil on it.
  5. Now you’re ready to start the pizza: Slide the rolled out dough, one piece at a time from the peel onto the grill grates, then close the lid and grill until slightly browned on the bottom. (They may become big and puffy as the water evaporates inside the dough due to the high heat. Don’t worry about that, just poke them with your spatula before you flip them over.)
  6. Flip the pizza, and quickly spread the sauce onto the dough, from the center out until about 1/2″ from the edge. Spread with Mozzarella, then top with any of your favorite toppings. ( You want to do this quickly to not lose too much of the built up heat inside the grill) Close the lid and finish cooking the second side until bottom is browned and crisp and the cheese is hot, bubbly and melted all the way. On a gas grill it might be necessary to turn the heat down a bit at this time.
  7. Slide off the grill onto pizza peel, and serve.

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

Harvest time or how to winterize your pantry

All the leaves are already past full color or already gone and I am enjoying the last couple of warm days ( presumably) until spring. It’s Fall and with Winter fastly approaching, I am going a bit into storage mode here. I guess yet another thing leftover in our system from long ago. But doesn’t the cold weather make you want to gather things too, stash them and store them up for the colder times coming? Winter IS coming. I feel like the guys from that HBO Series ‘game of thrones’ (I don’t have a TV, I got hooked on the books), if you’re watching that, you know the Starks of Winterfell, with their “winter is coming”. Crazy story, in that world they live in,  the seasons can last a lifetime, but just imagine once the tide is turning and you are facing Winter, and you don’t know for how many years? Gosh, makes you depressed and want to hibernate just thinking of it! I sure am glad we got four seasons, neatly coming around once a year, or thereabouts. Lately one wonders sometime, no?

In the last couple of weeks I made a yummy soup with the last couple of tomatoes from the garden, you know the rock hard green ones I saved from the hard frost the other week, now they finally made it to yellow and red and usable 🙂
But here’s what really convinced me its fall and getting colder, my saffron crocuses are blooming. Some days five or six others four at a time. Each little flower grows only three stigmas, and you have to hand pick and then dry them.   It takes 110,000–170,000 flowers or two football fields to gross one kilogram. No wonder this is the most expensive spice in the world! The average retail price is $1,000 per pound, or US$2,200 per kilogram. But boy is it awesome when you have that saffron risotto made with your very own hometown saffron! I don’t pluck the whole flower like in the picture below, I like having them bloom out there between all the fallen leaves.

 Kashmiri woman harvesting saffron flowersPart of my little harvest: dried on the left, fresh on the right

Please be aware that the saffron crocus is NOT your common garden crocus which bloom in the spring, that one is poisonous…

Other than that I have been busy preserving things for the colder months. I got a dehydration. Yeah, I finally broke down and bought one. So now i can dry apple slices and more…
I made mummy dries cinnamon apple and dried pineapple. Great for hiking. Weights nothing and tastes great!

imagePineapple dehydration is extremely useful when the pineapple isn’t as ripe as it looked at the store!

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For the cinnamon apples, just slice thinly and sprinkle the apple slices with cinnamon before drying in the dehydrator in a single layer.

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And I had to replenish my beans, as I ran out of black beans sometime before making the Santa Fe Chicken Soup and had to improvise with dark red kidney beans. Which by the way worked just fine 🙂

And of course I have been taking advantage of all the fall bounty in produce. With the shift to colder weather our bodies need different foods than in the summer. Cut back on cold salads, and reach for something warm, whether it’s a simple homemade vegetable soup,  braised brussels sprouts or a creamy soup, you need something warming and sustaining. Orange is the color of the season and sweet potato & co. are calling my name!

I have been enjoying Pumpkin Crêpes,  Pumpkin Cream Cheese stuffed French Toast, Apricot Pumpkin Muffins,  Kabocha Chowder and these Sweet Potato Spätzle, recipe will be up in the next couple of days, so check back soon!

© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade