Open-Faced Tomato Sandwich on Griddled Sourdough Bread

The high point of my summer is finally here: my tomatoes are starting to come in in earnest. And you know how I CAN'T STOP eating them???

Alright, everybody, follow me:

• Get yourself a slice of good, hearty bread. I like using Pigs Can Fly Sourdough.
• Place 2 Tblsp. of good butter in a small skillet and melt over medium heat until it just starts to bubble and sizzle.
• Place the slice of bread in the pool of melted butter, kind-of mopping up the butter as you do so. Move the bread to the center of the skillet and just let it sit for about 3-4 minutes.
• Flip the bread over, mopping up any browned butter still in the skillet, and let it sit for another 2-3 minutes.
• Remove your griddled bread from the pan and place it on a plate. 
• Slice a thick slice (or two) of beefsteak tomato and lay it on the toast.
• Sprinkle the tomato with a bit of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• EAT. 

Right???? OMG.

And you are welcome.

Grain-free, Sugar-free Banana Blueberry Muffins

I just went to make these muffins this morning and almost fell over when I realized I had never blogged about them! Gee-zoo! Sorry about that! 

Those of you who don't have any food allergies or food restrictions will probably shy away from this recipe, I know. But there are a lot of you out there who have gone more than just gluten-free. You can't or won't eat a number of things besides gluten: grain of any kind, sugar, legumes, dairy. And finding good recipes that aren't just a complete mockery of the phrase "baked good" can be really hard.

While Chef Reiton and I are not diehard "primal" eaters (we won't force you to eat like us when you come over for dinner or ask us over), we do our best to limit grain and legumes as much as possible in our diets. We've both just felt so much better cutting them out, and so we take the "healthy-ish" route, for us, and leave grains for a treat when we really want pizza or pasta. That all being said, I came up with this recipe for blueberry muffins a couple years ago when I was really figuring out how to be happy in the kitchen while cutting out all my baking (which I still miss, but I've found cooking in general just makes me happy). 

These are about as close to a real muffin as I could get while still keeping it grain- and sugar-free. A lot of the primal and paleo muffin (or baked anything) recipes I've tried turn out really eggy and squishy. While these are moist and still have egg, they have a lot less egg than some, and they hold up better than the rest. They have that crumb you are looking for in a muffin, you know? They are a lot less sweet, too, being sweetened only by the banana, coconut flour and blueberries. Give them a try and let me know what you think. 

If you want to change it up, swap out the blueberries for 1/4 cup of chopped pecans, or, if you don't care so much about a bit of sugar, swap in some bittersweet chocolate chips...

Tools Needed: muffin tin, muffin liners (parchment are best, but you may have to order them), spatula, small scoop, cooling rack

Wet ingredients:

2 large, extremely ripe (black) bananas (the fermentation actually increases the flavor)
6 Tblsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c. whole milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tblsp. plain whole yogurt

Dry ingredients:

1/2 c. almond flour
1/4 c. potato starch, unmodified
1/4 c. coconut flour
1/4 c. tapioca flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 c. wild frozen blueberries (smaller) OR 1/2 c. dried wild blueberries (I love Trader Joe's, but these will add some sugar)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line 10 muffin tins with liners.
2. Blend all the wet ingredients well in a mixer (or by hand), slowly drizzling in the melted butter so that it doesn't harden up in the cold ingredients. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. Be sure to break up lumps and blend the flours well. 
4. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl, then turn it back on for a few seconds to mix in those last bits of flour. Scrape down the paddle and bowl, then add the wild blueberries. Fold in by hand with a spatula until evenly dispersed in the batter. 
5. Scoop heaping spoonfuls of batter into the liners with a small ice cream scoop. Pat the batter down with the spatula to level it out some. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and dry. 
6. Immediately remove the muffins from the tin (I use a small fork to wedge them out without burning my fingers) and cool them completely on a wire rack.

Don't forget you can click below to print the recipe! Happy baking!

How to Make Homemade Croutons

I will be the first to declare you a big, fat liar if you say this has never happened to you: you buy (or bake!) a delicious loaf of Italian/French/rye/whatever bread to top off your yummy homemade dinner—only to be left with a hunk of quickly staling bread the next day...

If you are like me, the thought of throwing it away makes you partially wither inside. Bread, considering it is basically flour and water, is SO HARD to throw away. Those memories of last night's dinner, when it was warm and soft...

And now? Huh. You could make French toast, but it's the middle of the week, and who has time for that except on weekends? You could freeze it, but frozen bread always gets weird.

Soooooo.... What do you do?

Make homemade croutons, baby! It takes five minutes to prep while the oven is warming, and in 45 minutes you can have toasty, crispity, delicious croutons for FREE. Who wants croutons out of a box when you can have these???

I know, right???

And they are ridiculously easy to make. Here's how I do it, BUT (everyone say it with me) you can do it however the hell you want. It's not going to make a life-changing difference. Swears.

Ingredients:

• hunk or slices of bread of any sort
• olive oil
• kosher salt
• dried herbs, fresh ground black pepper, spices (optional)

Tools You Will Need:

• a large-ish bowl, a large cookie sheet, a serrated (the one with teeth) knife, a cutting board, a metal spatula

Steps to Make:

1.  Preheat your oven to 275° F.

2.  As your oven is heating up, cut your bread into slices. I do mine about an inch thick. If you like smaller croutons, slice thinner. Then take each piece, lay it flat, and slice lengthwise and then across so that you now have bread cubes. Try to make them all relatively the same size.

3.  Dump the bread cubes in the bowl. Pour several really good glugs of olive oil into the bowl over the bread cubes. Sprinkle on the kosher salt and any additional flavors you want to add, then get in there with your hands and toss, toss, toss! You really want to make sure that all the cubes are really well-coated.

(NOTE: The amount of oil used is going to depend on the amount of bread cubes you have and how much you personally want to coat your cubes. I like to really coat mine well. I find the flavor to be better if the cubes have a good soaking of oil. You may feel differently. Try it out and see what you think. No matter what you do, they are going to taste great.)

4.  Pour the cubes out onto the baking sheet, and spread them out into an even layer with some space between them. Pop them in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes (for smaller croutons, set it for 10). When the timer goes off, give them a toss with the metal spatula to flip them over. Shake them back into an even layer, then toast them for another 20 minutes. Larger croutons are probably going to be done at this point. If you are doing smaller croutons in 10-minute intervals, you are probably going to want to do three (3) 10-minute intervals. Just test them with a good ol' bite-test to see if they are as crispy as you desire.

Let them cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack, then seal them up in a Ziploc bag with the air squeezed out. They will remain nice and crunchy for quite awhile...

Hope you enjoy them! Store-bought ones don't even compare...

A Kitchen Flashback—and Some Thoughts

Last week here in Boston, it was pretty crappy. Weather-wise, that is.

When it came to the Reiton household, however, we were great! My parents were here! Woohoo! It's always so fun to have my mom and my dad here: they appreciate everything, they love to eat, and my dad grew up here, so it's like he is coming home. It's just awesome.

What was like coming home for me, this week, was cooking with my mom.  Actually, I specifically mean baking with my mom.

Until this weekend, dear readers, this was a sight I had not seen in 25 years:

The only difference 25 years ago was that my mom's bowl was much bigger because she was most likely making a double batch. And maybe she wasn't so vein-y 25 years ago. That's about it. What I do remember being exactly the same: she was always on the floor with the bowl between her knees. Her sleeves were rolled up. And she was madly kneading dough for the week's bread.

That bread dough is something that I have dreamt about for years.  I've tried to make it, but it just doesn't come out the same as Mom's.  I think she has done it for so long, she's just got that thing where she just knows when it is right. Which only comes with practice. And failures. And lots of French toast and croutons.

But you know what? That's what makes cooking worth it. Things never come out perfectly the first time. 

And you know what? Who the hell cares??? It's food for YOU. You aren't cooking in the Queen's kitchen, for God's sake. And if it all really comes out crappy, it still fills your belly AND is a cooking lesson, to boot.  So if you just can't get your fill because it's just too God-damn-AWFUL, go eat a bowl of cereal, for crying out loud! Quit complaining! There are people who will have eaten nothing for a week in this world, so get over it. Seriously. 

Those whiny words: "I can't..." ??? 

Pffffft.

If you keep practicing, one day it will come out great. No doubt about it. Pay attention and keep trying.

And that's my cooking lesson for you for today. Straight from my mom. Who has no idea that she's influenced this sailor-mouthed, gin-and-tonic-influenced blog post about trying and failing in the kitchen.

And learning. Always, always learning.

Teenager Gone Primal!: Favorite Food Ideas for Primal Teenagers

It is once again a world of white here in ol' Wisconsin.  I'm gratefully sitting here in my velour thrift store chair with my coffee and my cozy throw, catching whiffs of deliciousness (I hope) escaping from the kitchen.  I've got a new concoction baking in the oven: a Primal blueberry breakfast bread, and I've got my fingers crossed.  I've been doing a lot of playing around with breakfast breads the past few weeks, ever since Michael declared that he is making the Primal leap, too (Paleo but with dairy—just not much).  Not bad for a 17-year-old, right? A New Year's resolution, of sorts.

And so I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about how to make his teenage belly happy while helping him stay focused as his friends munch Doritos and drink Mountain Dew at every hang-out he attends.  Poor kid.  I mean, come on... We ALL love Doritos.  Saying 'no' to an open bag is NOT easy.  And being a teenage boy on top of it? Dude.  The kid's seriously developing some will power made of steel.

One of the bonuses of all three of us being Primal (and I'm the weakest link, admittedly) is that Michael has decided to be the creator of the weekly dinner menu.  This means that I get to sit here and write all of you instead of spending an hour or two figuring out what to eat for the week.  I just have to create the shopping list and shop.  Woohoo!

SO.  If you want to see a few things Michael asks for for dinner and such, here we go:

Some Buffalo chicken wraps:

shepherd's pie:

pizza:

nachos,

and lots of guac!

And, yes, all of those DELISH dishes are made with no grains, legumes, or corn whatsoever.  We're not talking gluten-free here.  We are taking free of grains of any kind.

Not only are we all feeling way better than we were after Christmas, but everyone is looking much trimmer around here, too.  Like Chef Reiton at the Milwaukee Art Museum a few weeks ago.

So.  Back to my blueberry breakfast bread.  It's out of the oven and cooled.  Want to see?

And now for the taste test....

Hmmm...it's good.  It needs a little something.  Maybe a bit more salt or vanilla.  A spice or two? We'll have to see.  When I've got it nailed down, I'll post the recipe.  And if anyone wants the recipes for any of the other dishes, let me know.  I'll try to recall exactly what I did!

And now I am off to the grocery store for the weekly shop, off to load my cart with veggies and meat for my cavemen, off to create a healthy and therefore happy home!

Give us a shout if you've got a primal teenager at home! Let us all know what you do to keep them happy!

UPDATE: Check out the final recipe for grain-free, sugar-free banana blueberry muffins in this post!

Lessons on Using Bones for Stock

Last weekend we had my good friend/former student, Anna (now of Anna Rosie Bakes fame!) and her wonderful significant other, CDR, come up for the day and just hang and eat and drink.  We had a fantastic time, even though our dog was running around in a make-shift diaper the entire time.

After snacking on bacon-wrapped dates and poufy gougères

and imbibing several glasses of Campari-laced cocktails, we settled down for dinner.  The main event of our main course was a frenched pork loin roast, "the crown roast of pork" my butcher's assistant declared.  We used a delicious recipe from—you guessed it, BA.  It is a cider-brined pork roast in which you brine the pork for hours, dry rub it for a few more, then roast it with veggies to browned perfection.  (If you want to make a great mistake, try brining it with unfiltered cider vinegar by accident.  I think I liked it even better!)

But this post is not to be about the roast.  It is about the bones that we saved from the roast after we devoured it that night and the next day.  Bones that called to me yesterday morning through the gray drizzle on the windows and the wet leaves plastered to the driveway.  It was a day to hole up and do some winter kitchen prep: stock.

I've always been scared in the past to make soup and stock, but my food reading over the past year has really pounded into my head that when it comes to the history of peasant foods, like soups and such--there really wasn't a recipe.  It was whatever you had on hand thrown into a pot and (usually) cooked low and slow for a long time to yield whatever tasty treat your random items were going to give you that particular time.  The poor couldn't be picky, and so every time the results were different.

I decided that I was going to be okay with that and not let my anal side be bothered by the fact that I wasn't going to be able to exactly replicate this stock if I really liked it.  So I did what the peasants did.  My stockpot was soon loaded with the rib rack, old carrots, old celery, a couple halved onions, some sage and thyme that were on their last legs, a couple cloves of garlic, and a lot of salt and pepper.  I filled the pot up with water, set it on the stove over low heat, draped the lid almost on the whole way, then let it all go for hours.

Sigh. It's just delightful to me that this:

can turn into this:

Oh, what yummy soups these are, just waiting to be made this winter....  And all for the five minutes of prep time that it took to rinse my ingredients and throw them in the pot and the other 10 that it took to strain and jar the stock.

Good grief! I've got to do this more often!

A Christmas Breakfast Menu

Chef Reiton, Michael, and I got to share Christmas (Eve) breakfast together this year, and this is what we had:

- Spanish Tortilla Omelette from Joy of Cooking -- so yummy and so easy with fried sliced potatoes and onions tossed with scrambled eggs that are cooked for a few minutes in the pan then finished in the broiler
- segmented oranges and ruby red grapefruit with blackberries
- Sour Cream Coffeecake with Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
- fried sausage links and patties

I think the best part was just being together, but eating a special breakfast together certainly contributed to a wonderful morning!