Sunday, February 3, 2008

More recipes, and of course - cooking marathon

Saturday I got a lot done. I went grocery shopping with Clark. I wasn't sure what to do, as we had four stores to go to, and we had to get perishables at three of them.

So I tossed our large cooler in the trunk of the car. At our first stop, I got frozen spinach, turkey parts, ground beef, and goat yogurt, so I put all of that in there. The second stop included frozen burritos, which were added to the pile. Third stop was Costco, where I picked up two gallons of skim milk for my darling husband. Those didn't fit, but since it was the last stop, it was no big deal.

We got home around noon, and it was time to start cooking. I hadn't made turkey soup before, so this is what I did.

TURKEY MUSHROOM SOUP (STAGE TWO)

3-4 pounds turkey parts (I used thighs and drummettes)
2 large onions
7-8 garlic cloves
1-2 pounds baby carrots
4 stalks celery
1 pound frozen spinach
8 oz white button mushrooms, chopped
1 tsp sage
2 tsp salt

In a large stock pot, put the turkey parts on the bottom. Add the onions (quartered), garlic cloves, carrots, and celery (cut into 2-3 inch pieces). Add water to cover and simmer for four hours.

Add the frozen spinach and mushrooms, adding more water to cover. Add sage and salt. Cook for one more hour. Cool and remove the meat from the bones before storing. Also don't forget to remove the onion and celery, as this is stage two.

This soup was really quite surprising to me. The turkey tasted good, and there was a lot of it, so since I usually bring my soup to work for lunch, I will probably be falling asleep in a tryptophan-induced stupor this week. The mushroom taste was pretty pronounced. I would like to try it as a cream-type soup, with pureed mushrooms. That would be really good I think.

Before I started the soup, I started a double batch of ketchup. It takes about two hours for the 12 cups of tomato juice plus 1 cup of vinegar to cook down to where I like it. I also put a large pan of pineapple in the oven for two hours, along with two whole (small) butternut squashes. This time I forgot to include the small amount of water I usually do with the pineapple, but it turned out just fine.

I started thinking about meatloaf. Usually I can't afford good quality ground beef, but I found some that was pretty good for $3 a pound, so I bought a bunch of it. I decided to try a stage 2 meatloaf.

SPINACH AND MUSHROOM MEATLOAF (STAGE TWO)

2 pounds ground beef
1 pound spinach
8 oz button mushrooms, chopped
1 cup dry red wine
1 large onion, quartered
5-6 garlic cloves
SCD ketchup

In a large saucepan, cook the spinach, mushrooms, garlic, onion, and red wine with 2 cups of water. Simmer until the liquid is completely gone. This will take a while -- probably about an hour. Some alcohol will remain in the dish, but not much -- about 25 percent at most (the equivalent of 1/4 cup of wine), and remember, this is spread out into two meatloaves. If you don't want to do this, try 1/2 cup Welch's grape juice instead. Tell me how it turns out. :)

Dump the mixture into a large mixing bowl and let it cool. Add the ground beef and mix together by hand until the vegetables are well incorporated. Separate the mixture and form into two loaves. Pour SCD ketchup on top to cover. Bake in a Pyrex dish at 400 degrees for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Makes two loaves.

I think the SCD ketchup is important to this recipe to keep the spinach from drying out on the outside. Clark loves this meatloaf, and I thought it was pretty good too.


In the meantime, I had pulled the pineapple, garlic, and squash out of the oven to cool. By the time I got the meatloaves into the oven, I was ready to put the pineapple away, and ready to start my butternut squash soup. I've been toying with this for a little while, so I'm OK with sharing this recipe with you, even if it's not perfect in my mind.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP (STAGE TWO)

3-4 pounds butternut squash
2 cups SCD legal applesauce
3-4 roasted garlic cloves (a paste)
1 cup water
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp coriander
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt

Bake the butternut squash in the oven until done. You can bake the squash whole if you like for about two hours at 400 degrees. Remove from oven, cut open if you haven't already, and let cool until you can handle it easily.

Put the cooked squash in your blender with the applesauce, water, garlic paste, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, and salt. Blend until well combined.

I tried it with ginger the time I made it before this time, but I didn't like it. I couldn't find my nutmeg so I will try that at some point too. Probably 1/2 teaspoon would be good.


So that was day one of the cooking marathon. Today I'm making yogurt, veggies, and egg bread so Clark has enough stuff for school this week.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello SCD girl, Your blogs are so encouraging. I started SCD in October and could relate to most of what you said. I finally made your recipe for Carrot pancakes after you said your son loved them. I LOVED them too. I use to cry over my flops in the kitchen but g oing to these sites for recipes has helped. I was heartbroken over a batch of mayo gone to gooo but now I used it as a marinade for chicken breast. I just add some spices and marinate for 6-7 hours. I feel like I get up in the morning and go to my job (the kitchen) as some days I don't step into another room in the house for the entire day. Happy marathon cooking to you. Tracy

Emily said...

Hey Susan,
I am missing your posts - haven't seen you pop up in a bit - I hope all is well!
EMily