Pasta Carbonara

Alfredo Sauce plus bacon

What's for Lunch - Quick Bean Soup

What do you like for lunch? I like quick, easy and delightful.

Onions, peppers, garlic, and carrot to begin

All good food begins with a bright vegetable mix. Back in the old days when I was primarily a meat eater, I looked down on the humble vegetable because they lacked taste! After awhile I realized that I was flavoring my meats with garlic, onion, rosemary, oregano, chili peppers - you get the picture. I add to tons of flavor to make the meat palatable.

After a bit I started using cured meats to flavor my vegetables. What a turn around.

I always wash the slime off of canned beans

The heart of a quick lunch is convenience, so I used canned tomatoes and beans. Without these canned products this meal can no longer be prepared for a quick lunch. It becomes a long overnight process, so don't despise me for the cans.

Hunt's Fire Roasted Tomatoes added to the vegetables

After the addition of the beans and green onions

The final product with cilantro and cheddar cheese on top

Adam's Quick Bean Soup

serves 4

1 TBS olive oil

1/4 of a small onion, diced

1/4 of a bell pepper, diced

1/2 of a carrot, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 can of light red kidney beans

1 can of fire roasted tomatoes

4 green onions

1/4 cup of cilantro

1 ounce cheddar cheese

1. Saute onions, peppers, garlic, and carrot over medium heat in olive oil until onions are translucent.

2. Add tomatoes and beans and heat over medium until everything is bubbling hot.

3. Garnish with green onions, cilantro, and cheese. I like a squeeze of lime too.

Nutritional Information

Fruit Crumble - Cooking on the Fly

It has been so cold around here lately that I wanted something warm and yummy to combat the winter depression that pounds me in February, so I wanted the taste of Spring. This is a thrown together recipe based on an understanding of baking fruit pies. It is not meant to be elegant, just a good, solid dessert on a cold day.

This is a quick dessert so I want to keep it simple, no rolled crusts and no complicated method. I wanted a start to finish recipe of about 35 minutes with would mostly be baking time. So I decided that the ingredients would be fruit, flour, spices, lemon juice, sugar, and my granola.

Personally, I like frozen fruit for baking because fresh fruit was picked so long before it was ripe for shipping that it never has any taste. Frozen fruit, on the other hand, is picked much closer to ripe and flash frozen resulting in fruit that has flavor.

On a personal rant, I miss the old days of fruit having seasons. I used to be able to get ripe, juicy, tasty plums a couple of weeks a year and I loved them. I could eat them by the bucket, especially since I hadn't had them in a year. I ate and ate them and by the time the season was over I was tired of plums. Now I can get, but don't, hard, tasteless purple lumps of sour unpleasantness. I hate them. The good plums are now turned into prunes because they are too delicate to ship across the hemispheres.

Fruit, lemon juice, flour, spices, and sugar all mixed together

Since this is a quick fruit dessert that would not have a long oven bake to soften the fruit and release those luxurious juices, I thought I would microwave the fruit to help this process. I measured the fruit using the Pyrex ramekins that this dessert would be baked and served in and put it into a microwave to soften (sorry no pictures). I started out with six minutes (3 servings of fruit) but ultimately added 2 more minutes to get to the texture that I wanted.

When the fruit came out of the microwave I added sugar to sweeten it, flour to thicken the juices during the baking, spices to enhance the flavor and cooking smell, and lemon juice to brighten the sweetness. I mixed all of that with a spatula and put it into the ramekins for baking.

The fruit mixture topped with granola

Once the fruit was in the ramekins and ready for baking I added a bit of granola to the top and popped it into the oven for 25 minutes. The granola was cooked. The fruit was cooked. I only needed enough time to let the flour begin to thicken the juices. Remember I wanted a fast dessert not a production.

Baked and topped with whipped cream

The final product was as good as I had hoped. It met all of the requirements and exceeded expectations. It has the added advantage that I can be made up as individual servings so there is no temptation to sneak the leftovers.

Adam's Quick Fruit Crumble

3/4 cup of your favorite mix of frozen fruit

1 TBS flour

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 cup of granola

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place rack in middle position.

2. Microwave the fruit until fork tender and the juices are released. For a single serving I would start at 3 minutes. I found 3 servings needed about 8 minutes in my microwave. Times will vary.

3. Mix sugar and flour together in a separate bowl before adding to fruit mixture. Mix well but be careful not to break the cooked fruit into a mush.

4. Add granola to the top and bake until juices bubble up around the edges, about 25 minutes.

The nutrition facts do not include the whipped cream

Cook for Enjoyment. Eat for Health.

Bananas and Thai Chili Sauce

So I was watching this video on how Sweet Thai Chili Sauce is made and I obviously made the leap to a quick banana snack because I was in need of a nosh to combat the cold.

I went into the kitchen and began to bang around. Julia wanted to know what I was making, so I told her and tried to convince her to join in.

As I was slicing the banana I was convinced that it would be good. It is sweet and spicy with a little salty thrown in. How could it go wrong?

I really like this quick snack and will gladly eat it again.

The final snack was wonderful

Bananas and Sweet Thai Chili Sauce

serves 1

1 sliced banana

1 TBS of a sweet Thai chili sauce

Gently mix together and eat. 

Banana and Sweet Chili Sauce

Thin Crust Pizza - Margarita

Everybody loves pizza. Some love deep dish. Other dig thin and crispy. I like both at different times. The other night I wanted a thin crust white pizza.

You have been told that Pizza begins with the crust. I believed that, and So I have tried hundreds of variations. I have used flours with all different protein contents. I have used oil, not used oil. I have varied the moisture content from doughs that would pour to doughs that would barely roll out. Then I built a brick oven and learned that Pizza is about heat.

I had to move away from the house with the brick oven, but I had learned my lesson. I did an earlier post on deep dish pizza cooked in a iron skillet. Today will look at how to get the crisp in the thin pizza.

The AirBake pizza pan is perforated to let the dough get direct heat

Adam's Pan Thin Crust Pizza Crust

Makes 1 12 16 inch pan pizza

8 ounces of bread flour

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 tsp of yeast

5/8 tsp of salt

1. Whisk together dry ingredients.

2. Add water and knead until silky and smooth. About 5 minutes with my Kitchenaid Mixer on #2.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

4. Allow to double in size.

5. Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place oven rack in lowest position.

6. Roll and stretch the dough to cover a 16 inch pizza pan. I actually roll the dough to 18 inches so that I can roll the edge of the pizza.

This is the exact same recipe as my pan pizza. There is nothing fancy or difficult here. We are just going to change the way we get the heat into the pizza. In our pan pizza we used iron. In the thin crust we are going to use a tremendous amount of dry heat and limited toppings.

The ingredients of my pizza

For the topping on my white pizza I have chosen some family favorites, basil and grape tomatoes. These are going to be scattered over a 16 inch pizza. On a thin pizza it is critical to limit the amount of sauce and toppings for a couple of reasons. If you start out with too much sauce that is a lot of moisture that is just going to fight you in your attempt at crispness. In our white sauce the goal is to convey the taste of garlic, the mouth-feel of cream, and the saltiness of the Parmesan. That's it.

The same goes for the toppings. Go easy and think about pockets of flavor, the burst of a tomato, the sweetness of the fresh basil, the creamy cheese. You want those to be relatively distinct and separate, so that they can play together in your mouth. A thin-crust pizza is all about harmony while the pan pizza is more like the choir singing in a blended unison.

Quick White Sauce

Adam's Alfredo

1 head of garlic

3 tbs butter

3/4 cup of cream

1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

1. Melt butter in a pan on low heat.
2. Separate cloves, removes the skins and mince and add to butter. Cook, stirring occasionally until garlic softened. I keep my garlic from carmelizing, but that is a personal choice.
3. Add cream and stir occasionally until the cream is heated through. Set aside. The sauce will thicken a bit as it cools. If you want an extra creamy, thicker sauce add a tbs of butter and work it in. It is surprising how it works.

Thin Crust Pizza with Fluted Edge

The pizza has been rolled out for a bit. I like to get it rolled out before I make the sauce. It lets the yeast work on the dough just enough to fill it with little air bubble. I like the fluted edge because it is like attaching a breadstick to each piece of pizza.

Pizza Ready to Bake

The pizza is ready for the oven. Here you can see the distribution of the toppings. I have not tried to cover the pizza in cheese. There are gaps and empty spots. These are important for allowing the heat to go all through the pizza.

Finished Pizza

The cooked pizza. When I slipped it of the pan, it didn't sagged in a damp, wimpy, undercooked pizza sort of way. It stood up boldly. When I cut into it with my pizza knife, it snapped in a satisfying way that let me know that I had succeeded in my goals.

The bottom of the pizza

The bottom of the pizza looked better than this picture show. When held by the crust it stood out nicely with a graceful downward turn that spoke of its inner strength.

Some tips from experience.
1. This dough can be made and used in a hurry. You can use the dough when it begins to look puffy.
2. Conquer the urge to open the oven door and peek. That just let all of the heat out. On my oven the temperature drop has been as much as 75 degrees. If you must look. Clean the oven window.
3. Don't try to cook more than one thin crust pizza at a time. You WILL be disappointed. The one on top will have a disappointing bottom. The one on bottom will have a pale top. There just isn't enough heat in most ovens to go around.

Cook for Enjoyment. Eat for Health.