I'd Rather Cook

I'm not a foodie, and I'm not into fine dining. I'm just someone who loves the challenge of cooking.
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  • Category: Garden

    • Cream of Asparagus Soup and the Accidental Harvest

      Posted at 12:12 pm by Anne Freestone
      May 31st
      Jump to Recipe

      Every spring, I harvest a nice crop of asparagus. What’s especially nice about it is that it’s asparagus that I never planted or cultivated. It has taken root in a couple of retaining wall planting beds on the west side of my house, the product of seed-spreading birds.

      This spring, starting my second year of early retirement, I have finally had time to really clean up those garden beds that had been neglected over the years when I was busy working, raising a son, and in the last couple of years, earning a pilot’s license. (My ultimate bucket-list item).

      But this year was the year to get all my gardens back on line. I figured I would simple uproot the crowns from my flower beds, and transplant them into the vegetable garden. Simple, right?

      Turns out, it wasn’t that simple. Those asparagus crowns were HUGE and as tough as cement. After chipping out one small piece and transplanting that, I figured it was way too much work, gave up and simply mulched over them. They still continue to come up, so I snap off asparagus spears from between my narcissus and daylillies. I figure I’ll let a few go to fern to keep the crowns going, and just live with the non traditional location of my accidental asparagus bed.

      My accidental asparagus harvest.

      A little about asparagus. Again, this was one of the vegetables I never liked until I had it prepared properly. My mother, like most women in the 1970s, always overcooked asparagus. Thus, it was limp, olive green and slimy – and for years I though I hated it. Whatever you do with asparagus, you must only cook it until it is just tender and still a fairly bright green. This only takes about 5 minutes, and sometimes less. For this soup, I would err on the side of slightly undercooking the pieces, knowing that there will be more cooking as the soup comes together.

      This soup is a great and different way of using asparagus aside from the usual steaming, roasting, etc. It makes a great brunch or lunch dish.

      Print Recipe

      Cream of Asparagus Soup

      Prep Time5 mins
      Cook Time15 mins
      Total Time20 mins
      Servings: 6
      Author: Anne Freestone

      Ingredients

      • 1 lb asparagus
      • 3&1/2 cups chicken broth, divided
      • 3 tbsp butter
      • 3 tbsp flour
      • 1/4 cup milk
      • 1/4 cup heavy cream
      • 1/2 tsp salt
      • 1/8 tsp black pepper

      Instructions

      • Trim off tough ends of asparagus and cut into 1 inch pieces. Bring about 1 to 1&1/2 cups of broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add asparagus pieces and cook until just tender – they should still be fairly light green – about 5 minutes. (Tip – start with stem pieces for a minute or two before adding tips to keep from overcooking tips. Also, if asparagus is of varying diameters, start with thickest first, adding thinnest after a minute or two).
      • Remove about 1 cup of asparagus pieces and set aside. (Tip – start with the tip pieces as they make a nicer presentation at the end). Place remaining asparagus pieces with broth in a blender or food processor; blend until smooth.
      • Melt butter in a large saucepan. Whisk in flour until smooth; cook 1 minute while still whisking. Gradually whisk in remaining broth, cook until slightly thickened. Stir in asparagus puree, milk and cream, salt and pepper. Finally, add reserved asparaugs pieces and cook until heated through.
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      Posted in Brunch, Garden, Lunch, Soup | Tagged anne freestone, asparagus, brunch, cream of asparagus, lunch, soup
    • Cinnamon Rolls, Gardening and Other Therapies Amid Coronavirus Chaos

      Posted at 11:50 am by Anne Freestone
      Apr 9th
      Jump to Recipe

      You might have noticed that my blog is very light on baked items. That’s because I’m primarily a cook, not a baker, and don’t have a huge sweet tooth. However, I do make a few exceptions. Yeast breads and rolls are one of them.

      Amid the distruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s felt like a good time for making some of the comfort items I rarely make. Because this is a cooking blog, I’ll present the recipe in this post, but what I’d really like to do is to share some thoughts about change (and consistency) in this very strange time.

      It’s been quite a different month than what I anticipated. At this time, my husband and I should be timing track meets for Saugatuck Public Schools, as we have done for many years. But schools are closed and sports are cancelled. Our son, Sam, should be going off every day to his physical therapy clinical at a Grand Rapids rehabilitation hospital. But clinicals have been suspended due to the virus, and his doctoral class is has been dealing with the uncertainty of how this will be handled and how it will affect graduation. So instead, he is stuck at home with us – all day, every day – working on his doctoral case studies, but otherwise with nothing to do due to the stay at home order.

      Three weeks ago, Sam was planning on earning money bartending after May graduation until he took his licensing exam in July, and got a job in physical therapy. Now there is worry about when the Saugatuck restaurant he has worked at every break for five years will be able to open for dining in, and how business will be when they do. And, there is concern about how the PT job market will be until elective surgeries are allowed again.

      A year ago, I was congratulating myself on retiring early and we were enjoying unprecidented growth in our retirement accounts. Instead, we’ve watched that growth melt away in a week and scrambled to move money to more conservative and safe funds.

      With nothing else to really do except worry, buy groceries once a week, watch Coronavirus briefings, work out and take walks, it’s no wonder I have been drawn to baking. And gardening.

      I’ve always been a gardener, as I like to grow a lot of my own vegetables and flowers. But I’ve never been able to put the time into it that I should. Until now. And I find it’s been greatly theraputic, not only in getting my mind off current uncertainties, but in showing me that there still are a lot of things that are certain.

      Like the coming of spring.

      As I busily clear dead growth and pull weeds in my flower beds, I become aware of the birds. The house finches are building a nest, as usual, behind the DirectTV satellite dish. A pair of bluebirds ducks in and out of one of our bluebird boxes. The tree swallows swoop and twitter as they start building a nest in another of the boxes. The phoebe sits on the hot tub cover on the deck, pumping her tail and “fee-beeing” in between building her mud and grass nest under the tractor port. A robin is busy on a nest in the rafters not far from the phoebe. And the barn swallows should be back soon to add to the avian neighborhood under the tractor port.

      I take a break and take the dog into our woods for a walk. I notice the folded umbrellas of the mayapples sprouting through the dead leaves on the ground, and see the first spring beauties beginning to bloom. The bloodroots have buds, and should be open in a week or so, along with the Dutchman’s breeches and trout lilies. I hear the spring peepers chorusing from the swampy area at the back of the woods.

      Spring Beauty

      I channel my eight year old tomboy self and roll over logs, looking for salamaders. I find one (a red-backed) laying belly up, cold and unmoving. I pick it up, and very quickly the warmth of my hand brings the little creature out of its torpor, crawling suprisingly quickly through my fingers with its riduculously stubby legs.

      I place the salamander carefully back under the log and take a look around. Nature’s on schedule, I realize. Spring hasn’t been cancelled. The larger forces of nature are consistent, and can be counted on. And I find that very comforting.

      Print Recipe

      Cinnamon Rolls

      Prep Time2 hrs
      Cook Time20 mins
      Total Time2 hrs 20 mins
      Servings: 10
      Author: Anne Freestone

      Equipment

      • Stand Mixer with dough hook and flat beater.

      Ingredients

      Dough

      • 1/2 cup milk
      • 1/4 cup sugar
      • 1/2 tsp salt
      • 1/4 cup butter
      • 1 pkg active dry yeast (rapid rise preferred)
      • 1/4 cup warm water (105°-115°F)
      • 2 eggs, at room temperature
      • 2 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour

      Filling

      • 1/2 cup brown sugar
      • 1/2 cup sugar
      • 1/4 cup butter
      • 1/8 cup all purpose flour
      • 1 tbsp cinnamon
      • 1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

      Glaze

      • 1/4 cup heavy cream
      • 1 tbsp brown sugar
      • 3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar
      • 1/2 tsp vanilla

      Instructions

      Prepare Dough

      • Combine milk, sugar, salt and butter in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm.
      • Meanwhile, dissolve yeast in the warm water in a warm bowl. Add lukewarm milk mixture, eggs and 2 1/2 cups flour. Mix for 2 minutes at low (speed 2) in a standmixer with dough hook.
      • Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, continuing on speed 2 until dough clings to the hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. (You may not need the full amount of flour). Continuing kneading with dough hook on speed 2 about 2 minutes longer. (Dough will be somewhat sticky).
      • Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes to one hour.

      Make Filling

      • While dough is rising, place brown sugar, sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon and nuts (if using) in a bowl. Mix with stand mixer at speed 2 with flat beat for one minute, or until mixture resembles pebbles.

      Assemble, Proof and Bake Rolls

      • When dough has doubled in bulk, turn dough out onto a floured board, and roll to a 10 x 15 inch rectangle. Spread filling evenly on dough.
      • Roll dough tightly from long side to form a 15 inch roll, pinching seams together. Cut into 10 1 1/2 inch slices.
      • Place 5 rolls each into two greased cake pans.
      • Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes to one hour.
      • Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

      Make Glaze

      • While rolls are baking, combine heavy cream and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Cool over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat.
      • Place cream mixture, 3/4 cup powdered sugar and vanilla in bowl. Mix with stand mixer with flat beater on medium speed (speed 4) until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add more powdered sugar if glaze seems too thin.

      Finish Rolls

      • Drizzle glaze on warm rolls.

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      Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Garden | Tagged anne freestone, cinnamon rolls, coronavirus, covid-19, gardening
    • What’s a Habanada? (Not Habanero, Habanada)

      Posted at 10:16 am by Anne Freestone
      Oct 7th

      2019 was not a good gardening season in West Michigan. First we had a very wet, cold spring – the cold weather reached deep into May. Then we had a hot, largely dry summer. This meant most of us had to plant our vegetable gardens twice, and water profusely. Then, at least at my house, just when I got things up and coddled along a bit in June, what seemed like the entire rabbit population of Allegan County decapitated most everything.

      Plans are already in motion for next year to move the main garden closer to the house, away from critter hiding brush (and within range of my .22), and also to put in an electric fence. But in the meantime, I am left with what few survivors I have.

      Those survivors were mainly the tomatoes, herbs and peppers that I grow in planters on my south facing deck. (Rabbits don’t usually climb steps).

      One of the new peppers I tried this year was a Habanada, just because the description in the catalogue intrigued me – a heatless habanero!

      Now let me state right here that I am not afraid of hot peppers. I love hot sauce, and firmly believe that there’s hardly anything it doesn’t improve. I grow serranos every year.

      But since habaneros are so insanely hot, one goes a really, really long way. I would probably only be able to find use for maybe a half dozen in total – so why grow a plant that would produce 30 or 40 plus? But habaneros have, in addition to their heat, a unique, fruity, almost melon like flavor – so I thought that a heatless version that let that flavor shine through would be interesting to try.

      I was not aware of the background of this pepper until I started looking for recipe ideas, but its back story is pretty interesting.

      The Habanada was created by a Cornell University plant breeder named Michael Mazourek, who created it as part of his doctoral research. He got the idea when he found a unique heatless pepper whose genetics were very different from the sweet peppers like bells. Its genetics were more like hot peppers, but it had somehow lost whatever made it spicy.

      This original pepper tasted kind of bad, so he cross-pollinated it with a habanero, and after a couple generations he was left with a pepper with the aromatic qualities of a habanero, but minus the heat. This was around 2007, but the Habanada has only been known beyond academia in the last few years.

      Today, access to Habanadas is pretty much limited to chefs – they are sold to restaurants through distributor Baldor Foods, who gets them from Ark Foods, which, last I checked, was the only commercial grower. So, if you want to try them, you can either hope to find them in a restaurant, or do like I did, and grow your own. Most of the major seed and plant catalogues have them available.

      So what’s it like? I can truly say that it really does taste fruity, pretty much melon like, as advertised. It’s really quite surprising – unlike any other pepper I’ve had. The flavor is intense enough to really be called aromatic.

      So what do you do with them? I’ve tried halving them, filling them with some burata cheese, topping with bacon crumbles and baking till the cheese melts. This seemed to complement the fruity flavor quite well. I would also imagine that given their melon flavor, they would pair well with prosciutto (think prosciutto and melon). I’ve also sauteed them in butter with shallots. I’ve also heard of some chefs doing Habanada sherbets and jellies. I will probably have another 20-30 or so of these to use yet, so I’ll continue to try to come up with ideas.

      Hopefully this unique little pepper will become better known and more widely available. In the meantime, if you have a chance to sample and/or grow some, do it!

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      Posted in Garden, Ingredients | Tagged anne freestone, habanada, habanada pepper
    • Recent Posts

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      • Creamy Onion Cheese Soup – Variation on a Classic
      • Lavender Lemonade – Herbal Twist on a Classic
      • Cream of Asparagus Soup and the Accidental Harvest
      • Cinnamon Rolls, Gardening and Other Therapies Amid Coronavirus Chaos
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