• Extra virgin olive oil (sorry, didn’t measure it, but not much)
• ~3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into spears
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted w/ garlic), partially drained
• 1 medium yellow onion, stemmed, peeled, & cut into strips
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled & smashed
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• ~1 teaspoon turmeric
• ~1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Heat oil on medium high in a heavy, large stockpot (I used our awesome French oven)
2. Lightly brown chicken with rosemary, turmeric, and cumin
3. Add onion & garlic and saute until onion is soft & translucent
4. Stir in remaining ingredients
5. Bring to a boil
6. Reduce heat to low, cover, simmer until potatoes are soft

I served it with roti/chapati, though I used the ready-to-make version from Costco (“Rotiland,” from Full Circle, the same company that makes the great “Tortillaland” make-them-yourself tortillas they also sell at Costco).

Sorry I didn’t get a photo—too busy eating!

[Inspired by a similar slow-cooker recipe at YumSugar.com]

Evan’s Pressure-Cooker Dhal (Indian Lentil Curry Soup)

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil [edit: I've started using 1 TBSP extra-virgin coconut oil instead, if for no other reason than the amazing smell it wafts through the kitchen]
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, smashed & finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 or 3 tsp Patak’s Mild Curry Paste (or go spicier, or use whatever kind you can find or make your own)
• 1 can (14-15 oz.) Thai light coconut milk
• 1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
• 32 oz. vegetable or chicken stock (buy a box at the store, or, make your own—it’s easy!)
• 1 1/3 cups red lentils, rinsed & picked over
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamom pods
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 lime, cut in half

Equipment:

• Pressure cooker (ours is 6 quarts—if yours isn’t or you don’t have one, just use a regular old large pot and it’ll just take a little longer)
• Food processor or blender
• Large mixing bowl or other large container that can take the heat

Start Cookin’:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, until it can run around the bottom of the pot like water.
2. Add the diced veggies and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 2-3 minutes
3. Add the curry paste and stir around until the veggies are coated
4. Pour in the coconut milk and veggie stock
5. Add the diced tomatoes
6. Stir in the lentils
7. Add in the cinnamon stick & cardamom pods (just leave ‘em floating on top)
8. Close lid on pressure cooker, bring up to pressure, reduce heat, cook for 8 minutes while regulator doohickey gently rocks.
9. Carefully transfer pressure cooker to sink (look out for escaping steam when you set it down) and run cold water over the top to force the pressure down and unlock the lid.
10. Fish out the cardamom pods (these can be hard to find) and the cinnamon stick.
11. Puree most of the soup mixture in your food processor or blender, only filling vessel up 1/2 way or less at a time to avoid steam causing a soup geyser.
12. Transfer blended soup to bowl, mix in the bit you left out of the blender.
13. Add salt and pepper to taste, and squeeze in fresh lime juice.
14. Eat up!

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just cook uncovered in a large stock pot for about 20 minutes. Recipe inspired by "Garlicky Lentil Soup" and "Spiced Lentil Soup" in The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Soup, Barnes & Noble Books, 2002 (ISBN: 0-7607-3096-2).

"Daddy? Please can you make me some mackincheese, please? With just cheese."

"Instead of what?"

"Instead of mackin."

What would you do?

A quick search of our cupboard and the food shelves downstairs revealed that we’re out of the Annie’s organic Mac ‘n’ Cheese, and while we do have an old stash of the regular blue box stuff, I don’t really like serving that to Zoey. I decided to just make up my own, using some rotini noodles I found in the cupboard. They received Zoey’s okay, likely because they happen to come in a blue box.

Evan’s Mackincheese, Hold the Mackin, Add Cheese
1. Bring 8 cups of water and a pinch of kosher salt to a boil in a medium sauce pan.
2. Stir in 2 cups of rotini noodles, return to a boil. Boil for 9 minutes.
3. Drain noodles.
4. Add 1 TBS of butter to the hot pan, return noodles to pan, and stir over low heat.
5. Stir in 1/4 cup milk (I used soy milk since that’s what we have).
6. Stir in 1/2 cup of shredded medium cheddar cheese.
7. Grate some hard cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano, pecorino romano, or, what we had, Cougar Gold (really a white cheddar with a harder consistency like the two previous cheeses—Rona got it as a gift from one of her students) into the pot, stirring. I grated about a 1-inch cube.
8. Stir in garlic powder to taste and about a 1/4 tsp turmeric to yellow it up a bit.

Deemed highly palatable by our resident preschooler, despite the lack of dehydrated cheese food. And I found it quite tasty, to boot!

Speaking of the little guy, the other day just as I picked him up right next to Rona’s laptop, which didn’t have the cool waterproof cover on the keyboard, he yacked all over the upper left portion of the keys. As it happens, a significant subset of the tab, 1, 2, 3, q, w, e, a, and s keys tend to come up a lot in the everyday use of a computer. It’s sort of a bummer when they don’t work due to yackage. I called up Applecare, and was informed that fixing such a disaster would require sending in the computer, would run over $600, and isn’t covered by the warranty. He said I could take it in to a non-authorized Apple fixit place and they could likely set it right for a lot cheaper, but that would void the warranty and the extended warranty. Nice. Wisely, or luckily, I opted to instead take it in to the University Village Apple Store. The nice Genius chick at the Genius Bar listened to my explanation, said she could just replace the keyboard for $65, that they had one in stock, and that she would waive the $85 labor fee because I told the truth. (Apparently most people have "no idea" why their keyboard stops working, and then the repair techs find moldy Coke under the keys.) They fixed the laptop while we did a little shopping and Blue-C-Sushiing, and called to say it was done while we were still in the restaurant. So, the Yack Incident set us back only $71 after tax, rather than $670 or so, and it was fixed before we were done browsing the mall. Thank you Apple Store and Genius Chick!

Blue-C Sushi was quite good, and Zoey chowed down on salmon sushi after separating the fish from the rice and having me scrape off the invisible wasabi. We’re just coming off a Week With No TV for Zo, after she drew on the couch with crayons. The week was harder on me than it was on her, and she discovered Cranium Hullabaloo (which I was working on when Rona and I got married) and spent a lot of time playing it. On Saturday she woke up asking to watch TV, but played some Hullabaloo for a while once she got downstairs instead of asking for a show. We had Tivo record some classic holiday shows, like Frosty the Snowman, Frosty Returns, Jack Frost, and The Year Without Santa Claus, and Zoey watched those today. I loves me some Heat Miser!

Thanks (heh) to Rona’s new wheat / milk / egg-free food plan, we had to get creative with some of our dishes. Several things were doubled up, with traditional and alternate versions. It was all good.

Ala Alton Brown, we brined the turkey for about 5 hours before roasting. This made our 14 pound turkey roast in only 2 and a half hours, and it was incredibly juicy and flavorful. To learn more, check out the recipe, or search YouTube for "romancing the bird" (the name of the Good Eats episode in which this recipe originated). By far, the best turkey we’ve ever made.

We also made a gluten-free dressing (stuffing cooked outside of the bird) that was really good! We based it on this stuffing recipe from Gluten-Free Girl, but we left out the water chestnuts, bacon, and butter, and added in a pound of Fletcher’s Italian sausage. For bread we used most of a loaf of the house gluten-free bread from Flying Apron Bakery in Fremont. All of our chicken stock was frozen, so we just used one bouillon cube in 1/2 cup of water, and the dressing turned out great. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to reheat in the microwave as well as does traditional stuffing’s eggy buttery goodness, so get your fill when it’s fresh from the oven.)

Rona made mashed potatoes with almond milk and possibly Earth Balance Soy Garden spread (not sure if she put that in or not). To go with it, Rona and Jen made awesome gluten-free gravy with the turkey drippings and some sweet rice flour.

The food went on and on (haven’t even mentioned the walnut streusel-topped yams with apple rings, the bacon green beans, or our version of Blue Ribbon Cooking School’s roasted beet salad) with some dishes not even getting touched. Good friends, good food, good times. Thanks!

You can see all the Thanksgiving 2007 photos on Flickr.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 Japanese eggplants, washed and cut in 1/2 inch slices
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
Kosher salt, pinch
1 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Citrus soy sauce (or whatever kind you have on hand–you just need a bit)

Heat the oil in a wok or skillet on medium-high heat.
Add the eggplant, onion, garlic, and salt.
Stir-fry until onion turns translucent and eggplant starts to get soft.
Add the brown sugar and chicken stock and stir, cooking until liquid is mostly evaporated, about two minutes.
Finish off with a drizzle of soy sauce, stir it up, and serve.

I didn’t actually get around to trying it, but Rona reports it was quite tasty.

All Dairy… Casein, Cheese, Milk, Whey, Yogurt, etc.
Eggs (whites and yolks)
Honey
Sugar (low reaction)
Coffee – low reaction (that’s okay – I don’t drink it much)
Blueberries (dang it! I LOVE Blueberries!)
Soy – low reaction
Sesame (bummer, I love tahini)
Almonds – low reaction
Zucchini – (that’s okay – I don’t like it much anyway)

Pretty wacky. The dairy I could feel. Everything else was a surprise (blueberries!?). So, I am already starting to not eat dairy and eggs. We will see how that goes.

Rona and had checkups too, and we both have high cholesterol. Rona’s blood pressure is perfect as always, but mine is above the hypertension line. If it’s above next time, too, then I officially have high blood pressure. Rona got some allergen testing results back, and so between those and the cholesterol, we’ll soon be dumping dairy, wheat, eggs, and some other stuff from our diet for a while at least to see if we can get things back out of the red zone.

"Soon" rather than "now" would be because this Friday we’re partaking in a cooking class at Blue Ribbon Cooking School for Nicole’s birthday. We’ll cook a gourmet meal under chefly supervision, and then the food will be served to us in the dining room. Sounds like a perfect last hurrah before our cleanse.

Zoey had preschool this morning, and then came with us to our long appointment at Dr. Tracy’s office. She had fun coming in and out of the room to go get more toys and visit with the other doctors and their patients and the front desk staff.

Moving back to Keegan, tonight we gave him his first food, butternut squash! He loved the eating process, but didn’t seem too keen on the squash itself. We just hope that introducing some solid food will enable him to sleep longer at night. Wish us luck!

And of course, we’ve posted First Food Photos to Flickr:

We’ll post a video soon, as well (with a Quicktime link for Grandpa Robert, too).

From World on a Plate:

Nestle Chocolatier Brownies

Quite possibly this is one of the best brownie recipes around. The brownie is rich, moist and chewy. Clearly many mothers did not bake in the style of the "moms" at Nestle! This final recipe shared here is a slight variation from the one on the package and from the product’s website, verybestbaking.com where there is a cookie recipe that I’ll be trying later this recipe with the 52% morsels.

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 tbsp water

10 oz. pkg of Nestle Chocolatier 62% bittersweet morsels

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup AP flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 325º F. Line 9-inch-square baking pan with foil; grease.

HEAT in a double boiler the package of morsels, sugar, butter and water over low heat, stirring constantly, until morsels and butter are melted. The consistency and color should look like vanilla pudding. Pour into medium bowl. The liquid should be warm but not steaming hot before proceeding to the next step. Stir in eggs, one at a time, until mixed in; add in vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda and salt; mix well.

POUR into prepared baking pan.

BAKE for 16 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool in pan on wire rack. Lift brownie from pan with foil to cutting board. Carefully remove foil. Cut.

See? What do y’all think? Her locks are growing in nicely. It seems there is noticably more and more hair every day.

Zoey has been really enjoying her bath time lately. She will crawl in the bathroom when it is nearly bathtime and stand up next to the tub. She likes to drop her bath toys in and watch them take a high dive into the deep empty tub. Then, the now classic turn around to see if either Evan or I were watching, then grin with that mischevious sparkle in her eye.

Let’s see what else is new at the Sass home… Ummm, we splurged and got a new Dyson vacuum cleaner. Wow, now that is SUPER cool! We were both a little amazed and speechless when after vacuuming with our old one and thought the floor was clean, then vacuuming with the Dyson and watching a ton of dirt and dog hair whisk right into the cyclone dust chamber. Yep.

We are also pretty much done with setting up Zoey’s new room! It is looking really cute. No pictures until we can empty out the bookshelves which takes a file cabinet which we will be getting on Friday at the Boeing Surplus store.

We are testing out our new super deluxe grill tonite. We are making Grilled Turkey Burgers. We made them before but just on the silly ol’ stove. Here is the recipe:

California-Style Turkey Burger

1 pound ground turkey
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup tomato ketchup
1 large egg
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Combine ground turkey, quick cooking oatmeal, ketchup, egg, finely chopped onions, garlic salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Form into patties.
Grill about 6 minutes on each side, or until done. Serve on hamburger buns.

It smells awesome!!!!!

[Zoey ate a whole patty!]