Fall Cleaning

I've been a busy gal of late. Whereas most people clean house in the spring, fall is when I like to clean things out. I suppose it is a genetic imprint from my Swiss-German-Mennonite forbearers that when the calendar begins to head towards winter and the seasons turn toward fall that makes me want to batten down the hatches and ensure that the larder is well-stocked and organized. At least that's what I tell myself.

I've reclaimed most of the surfaces in the living room and the bed in the spare room, along with the floor. Cobwebs have been knocked down, mail and general clutter have been sorted and sifted, and, if not completely straightened out, then at least brought to a manageable level. Among the tasks I usually tackle this time of year is sifting through the accumulated cooking magazines. I take the time to go through each one, cutting out recipes that pique my interest and curiosity. I do subject them to stringent standards. They have to include ingredients that I'm likely to have one hand or make use of should I acquire them. For me that means they cannot include things like dried powdered milk or Bisquick. I just don't use those things often enough to buy even the smallest package available to test out an unknown recipe. The recipes also have to be on the page in a way that lends itself to easy clipping. I don't care how good it looks, if it spans two pages or requires that part of the recipe get clipped to the other part, fuggedabout it. I can say this because I do not lack for recipes in my files. I have my collected recipe cards and clippings sorted by course into four index card holders that are kept in one plastic container. I can afford to adopt a rather cavalier attitude about new ones. Recipes also have to be relatively simple to make. I am not one to fuss with delicate sugar spirals and 112 steps. Lengthy ingredient lists and long cooking times don't put me off in the least, but I am not, I repeat NOT, going to construct any kind of napoleon, be it a dessert or a stack of roasted vegetables. I am not a fussy prep kinda girl, and I lack the patience of pastry chefs. Haute cuisine is not my cuppa tea. As a general rule, I like the rustic and homey foods of most cuisines. The stuff of the nursery and the kitchen table, and the things that remind people of Mom and Grandma, no matter where Mom and Grandma hail from.

I've tried several of the recipes that I've clipped. I've discovered that I don't really like parsnips. They remind me of a cross between a carrot and turnip that hasn't gone particularly well. At least now I know. Among the recipes I've tried and kept are :Stuffed Cabbage Soup (done in the crockpot, no less!), Rutabagas with Dill Dressing and a recipe for peanut butter cookies that makes a small batch. These are all recipes that I'll make again.

I love stuffed cabbage and make a darn fine version if I do say so myself, but stuffed cabbage cannot be made for less than the entire Russian Army. I mean, in for a penny, in for a pound if you're making traditional cabbage rolls, say I. And sometimes, I DO like to make them and then divy them up with family, friends and co-workers. It's one of those things I learned to make by guess and by golly, as it were. I suppose I could work out the recipe, but I've come to enjoy making them by mixing up the meat and rice with a pinch of this and a dash of that. The Stuffed Cabbage Soup makes plenty, to be sure, but it's easy and I can freeze what I don't eat or still share it. Since I really LIKE soup, though, I don't seem to have quite the same amount of it as when I make cabbage rolls, though. And it is awfully close to the taste of stuffed cabbage without the work. You just brown a pound of ground round or ground sirloin, drain it well and then stir in a couple tablespoons of paprika (you may use sweet paprika or a mixture of sweet and hot paprikas). Put it into your biggest crockpot (a 5 qt. would probably be best, as my 3 qt. "big" crockpot was full to the brim!) with a package of regular coleslaw mix, a very large finely diced onion, half a small head of cabbage that has been coarsely chopped, one 14.5 oz. can of regular stewed tomatoes, one 14.5 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes, a 15 oz. can of tomato sauce, 1/2-3/4 cup regular long grain rice, uncooked, and 2 14.5 oz cans of beef broth. Add a little salt & pepper and some chopped garlic if you are so inclined. Stir to combine and set the crockpot to low for 6-8 hrs. The rice will mostly dissolve, so don't worry if it does. This makes a lot of soup, but you can freeze it for later and share it as you wish. And, as always, feel free to adjust any of the ingredients to suit your tastes.

One of my favorite vegetables is the rutabaga, also known as a "swede" in some parts of the world. I'd never tasted a rutabaga until about 5 years ago when I had Thanksgiving with my friend Lisa and her mom. Mashed rutabagas were one of their family standards for the Thanksgiving table, and I fell in love with the darn things. Enough to be curious about other recipes for them. One of my magazines had a recipe for Rutabagas with Dill Dressing. The idea was to roast slices of rutabaga with olive oil, salt and pepper and then dress them with a mixture of honey, white wine vinegar and dill weed. I love roasted vegetables, and I knew that roasting a rutabaga would bring out the natural sweetness. It sounded like a good idea, but I can't leave well enough alone. I decided to cube the rutabaga and toss in some carrots, since I had them in the refrigerator. I let the veggies roast in a 375 degree oven until they were tender and had begun to caramelize. I used a very large rutabaga (about 2 lbs., is my guess) and 4 large carrots and tossed them with a good glug of olive oil, plenty of freshly ground black pepper and a nice pinch of kosher salt. For the dressing, I decided to mix approximately equal parts of honey and white balsamic vinegar (for strength, I put it somewhere between rice vingear and cider vinegar, with a bit more sweetness than cider vinegar, but not as sweet as regular dark balsamic vinegar) with about 1/2 tsp. of dried dill weed. You pour the dressing on while the vegetables are still warm and toss them gently. Add a little more salt and pepper if you wish. This is great either warm or at room temperature. I can forsee adding little pearl onions to the mix, too, and I think the dressing would be great with roasted beets, too.

The peanut butter cookie recipe is one that I like because it makes a great tasting cookie and because it doesn't yield 4 dozen cookies. It makes about 2 dozen, depending on how big you roll the balls of cookie dough. This is perfect for the likes of me. Most scaled down cookie recipes require far too much futzing with ingredient measurements to make it worth my while, but this one was simple. Just cream 1/3 c. peanut butter (I used Smucker's Natural Creamy), 1/3 c. shortening, 1/3 c. sugar and 1/3 c. packed brown sugar until fluffy. Add one egg and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Combine 1 c. flour, 3/4 tsp. baking soda and a pinch of salt and then fold the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes, then roll the dough into golf ball sized balls. Roll the dough balls in sugar and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, at least 1 inch apart. Use a fork to flatten the balls and make the classic peanut butter cookie cross-hatch markings. Bake them in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes, depending on how hot your 375 degree oven runs. When they are light golden brown, remove to a cooling rack.

Those are my most recent cooking adventures. With fall upon us, and in spite of temperatures still heading towards 80 in the middle of the day, there are sure to be other recipes for the season.