Category Archives: I Cook, Too

Some of my favorite recipes.

Maria’s Almost-Famous Clean-Out-the-Cabinet Stuffing

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It was a good year.

Every year, when I make Thanksgiving dinner, I also make one of my favorite so-not-on-my-low-carb-diet dishes: stuffing (AKA, dressing). I like this dish so much that if you took away the turkey and all the other fixings and just gave me a dish of this, I’d be very happy. What’s more is that the way I make it, it includes food from all the food groups except dairy, so I can argue that it’s a meal in itself.

Because the recipe varies from year to year — depending, of course, on what ingredients are handy to toss into it — I never know how it’s going to turn out. Last year was probably one of my worst concoctions. But this year was one of my best.

If you’d like to try your hand at this, here’s my basic recipe, along with a list of what I tossed in this year.

Base Ingredients:

  • 1 pound sausage meat. I use breakfast sausage and I prefer Jimmy Dean sage sausage. I don’t buy the low-fat kind; it usually doesn’t generate enough fat to need draining.
  • 1 medium or large onion, chopped. I usually use a large one.
  • 2 stalks celery, trimmed and chopped. I generally don’t like celery, but it’s one of the “aromatic vegetables” I include.
  • 2 large carrots, chopped. Or chopped up baby carrots, which is what I use.
  • 1 apple, chopped. Any kind of apple will do.
  • Turkey or chicken broth. Use the amount you’d need to prepare the rice (if included, see below) plus the amount of stuffing included (see below).
  • Prepared stuffing mix bread cubes or crumbs. This year I used Pepperidge Farm that I bought last year and didn’t use. I don’t use Stove Top brand. If I use a stuffing mix that has a separate seasoning packet, I throw that packet away. Sometimes I use a small package of cornbread stuffing with a small package of “herb seasoned” stuffing. Never the same two years in a row.

This Year’s Toss-Ins:

  • Brown or wild rice. Or a rice blend. I usually find a package in the cabinet with less than 1/2 cup left in it and toss that in.
  • Chestnuts, cooked and chopped. Trader Joe’s sells them prepared and that sure does make life easier.
  • Almonds, chopped. I used blanched slivered almonds this year. Sometimes I use pecans or walnuts — whatever is leftover from baking earlier in the year.
  • Raisins. Another clean out the cabinet item; this year I found some golden raisins that were turning brown.

In the past, I’ve also included bacon, ham, turkey giblets (the stuff in the bag stuffed into the raw bird’s chest cavity that most people throw away), garlic, yams, parsnips, turnips (I sure do love my root vegetables), other nuts, oatmeal (not sure what I was thinking there), dried cranberries, dried cherries, sesame seeds, flax seed, etc. I can’t remember them all. The key is to go through the refrigerator and pantry and decide what might “work” in the mix. You can’t really get it “wrong” if it’s something you like — the big exception being something silly, like chocolate. (There’s a time and a place for chocolate and T-day stuffing is not the place.)

Cooking Instructions:

  1. Brown the sausage meat together with the onion and celery. Be sure to break apart the meat and stir it good. Unless there’s a lot (more than 1/4 cup?) of fat in the bottom of the pan, don’t drain it off; it’ll mix in and add flavor.
  2. Add the carrot and any other hard vegetable likely to need a little extra cooking. Simmer everything on low heat until the flavors are melded.
  3. All all other ingredients except the broth and stuffing mix. Stir it up well while simmering.
  4. Add the broth and bring the mixture up to a boil.
  5. If the mixture contains rice, cook until rice is mostly done.
  6. Add the stuffing mix and stir well to make sure all bread is moistened. Cover until ready to use/eat.

I don’t make the turkey — that’s my husband’s job. I make the stuffing. We don’t put the stuffing into the bird. The main reason for this is that we always make turkey soup the next day — indeed, my husband is prepping that now — and when the bird has been stuffed, boiling the carcass to make soup yields a cloudy broth that simply isn’t appetizing. Besides, the argument that cooking the stuffing inside the bird makes the stuffing more flavorful just doesn’t apply here. The stuffing is flavorful because of all the flavors cooked into it.

Yesterday’s stuffing came out very good. I had some for lunch and then had some with my turkey dinner later in the day. My guests seemed to enjoy it. Of course, because I put so much stuff into it, I have a ton of it leftover — not the best situation when I’m trying to cut carbs — but it freezes tolerably well and can always be pulled out later in the year to enjoy with another meal.

Do you make your stuffing like this? If so, why not share a few of your add-ins?

And if you make your next stuffing with my recipe as a rule of thumb, please do share your thoughts about the results.

A Dinner with Friends

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Salmon, local wine, and home-made cherry pie with friends.

If you’ve been following this blog or my Twitter or Facebook accounts, you know that I’m in Washington State on the last of several cherry drying contracts. I’m not the only helicopter pilot doing this work. At the peak of the season, there were probably about 20 of us working in central Washington state for a handful of service providers. My company, Flying M Air, is probably the smallest of those service providers; this year I was able to add a second pilot for about half my season.

My friend, Jim, has been doing this work for about fifteen years. He starts the season in the Mattawa area and ends it in the Chelan area. He usually starts before me and finishes before me.

This year, I met Lisa, who was new to this work. She worked for the same service provider as Jim, starting down in Kennewick, moving up to Brewster for a while, and then ending the season in Malaga.

Unfortunately, I only met Lisa last week, on Thursday. I say “unfortunately,” because we really hit it off. She came up to my RV for dinner that evening and accompanied me to the Beaumont Cellars Dinner on the Crushpad event the following evening. We went wine tasting and had dinner together again on Sunday. By then, I felt as if I’d known her a long time.

The End is Here

On Friday, my contract in Wenatchee Heights was extended two weeks. It made sense; they’d barely started picking the 86 acres I was responsible for. Since this particular client picks by color, it would take at least two weeks to finish picking. Lisa was told she’d be needed until Wednesday. Jim, the last pilot left in Chelan, was waiting to get cut loose any day.

Moonset over Squilchuck

My view at dawn.

Weather moved in Sunday night. Asleep in my RV at the edge of a cliff over looking Squilchuck Valley, I was awakened by the wind at 3:30 AM. I looked out the window and realized I couldn’t see any stars. I fired up the Intellicast app on my iPad and was shocked to see the green blob indicating rain mostly to the south of my position. I dozed fitfully for an hour, expecting to hear rain on my roof at any moment. It may have been drizzling when I finally fell back to sleep.

At 7 AM, I woke to the sound of voices, trucks, and construction noise. The mostly blue sky was full of puffy clouds. Down in the lower part of the orchard, the pickers were already at work. There was no rain in the forecast at all.

Jim called at about 10 AM. I knew instinctively what he would say and beat him to the punchline: “You’re calling to tell me they cut you loose.”

“You’re a mind-reader,” he said. “Today’s my last day.”

We chatted for a while and then I remembered that Lisa had an opportunity to do a trip with a friend and would probably be open to letting Jim take over her contract for the next two days. He was also open to that, so I hung up and called Lisa. I told her what we were thinking.

“That’s great,” she said, “but today’s my last day, too. They’ll be done picking in about an hour.”

It was then that I realized that both of them would be gone by the next day.

Errands, Favors, and a Cherry Pie

The end of a cherry drying contract comes with logistical challenges.

Lisa’s challenge was easy. All she had to do was pack up, move out of her motel room, and drive the company pickup truck back to Spokane. Her employers would be sending some pilots in time-building mode out to Malaga to pick up the helicopter. She needed to send them the GPS coordinates for where the helicopter was parked so they could find it. She was toying with the idea of leaving that afternoon so she could spend some time with her family before her trip.

Jim’s challenge was a bit more…well, challenging. His helicopter was four hours from its 100-hour inspection, which needed to be done by his mechanic in Seattle. Flying to Seattle was usually a challenge in itself — the weather in the Cascade Mountains was typically miserable with low ceilings, making it a difficult, if not dangerous, flight. A weather window was required, but you never knew when that would be. After dropping his helicopter off in Seattle, he’d have to come back to Wenatchee to fetch his truck and drive it home to Coeur d’Alene. Of course, both his helicopter and truck were in Chelan, about 40 miles farther up the Columbia River. He needed to move his truck to Wenatchee to stage it there for his return from Seattle by airline. Then he needed to get back to Chelan so he could fly out with his helicopter the next day. He suggested a farewell dinner that evening and I promised to drive him back to Chelan.

I had a bunch of errands to run in Wenatchee and I got around to starting them that afternoon. While I was out and about, Lisa called. She’d decided not to leave that day; she’d leave first thing in the morning instead. What she really wanted to do was make a cherry pie. We’d already planned to do that before she left, but that was before she was cut loose early. I had an oven in my RV, so it made sense to do it at my place.

We decided to do it that afternoon. And instead of Jim and me going out to dinner in a restaurant, I’d pick up a piece of salmon and salad fixings and make dinner for all three of us. I was finishing up my errands and heading back to my RV when Jim called and I told him our revised plan. He was on board.

Lisa showed up around 5 PM. Since Jim was still a half hour out, we each took a bowl and headed into the orchard. Five minutes later, we had enough cherries for a pie — and then some.

Back in the RV, I gave the cherries my usual three-soaking bath in cold water to clean them thoroughly. Then Lisa went to work with my junky cherry pitter. It didn’t surprise me much when it broke when she was only half finished. She pitted the rest by hand. By the time Jim showed up, her hands were stained with cherry juice, making her look like a mass murderer.

Jim helped me put a filled propane tank back into its cabinet on my RV and hook it up. The strap that holds it in place bent and he was determined to fix it — which he did. If I wanted to be mean, I would have shown him the strap on the other tank which had similarly broken but had not been fixed. But instead, we went inside and kept Lisa company while she worked on the pie.

We also drank wine. Both Lisa and I had bottles that we’d opened recently but had never finished. We polished them off, one after the other over the course of the evening. I even opened another bottle to keep the wine flowing.

The Salmon Recipe

When the pie was safely in the oven, I got to work on dinner. That’s when Jim gave me a recipe that another one of the pilots had shared over the summer. Oddly, I happened to have all the ingredients. I reproduce it here because it was so excellent:

Ingredients:

  • Salmon filet
  • Mayonnaise
  • Onions, sliced thinly
  • Bacon, cut into pieces

Instructions:

  1. Place the salmon on a piece of aluminum foil.
  2. Spread mayonnaise on the fleshy side of the salmon.
  3. Sprinkle the onions and bacon pieces over the mayonnaise.
  4. Fold up the foil to make a packet.
  5. Place the packet on a preheated grill set to medium heat. If possible, cover the grill to keep the heat in.
  6. Cook until the salmon is done.

The Summer’s Best Dinner

I’d bought a beautiful 1-3/4 pound Coho salmon filet. It was too large to fit on my portable grill in one piece, so I cut it into three portions and made three packets. I absolutely lucked out with the timing. The fish was fully cooked, but still moist. The onions and bacon were cooked to perfection.

I served it with a salad of mixed greens, cucumber slices, vine-ripened tomato, bacon bits, goat cheese, and bottled balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

At one point, Jim said it was the best dinner he’d had all summer. I thought about it and had to agree.

It was the conversation that made it perfect. We talked about flying and about the surreal situation of a cherry drying contract. They seemed to think I had the best setup, living in my mobile mansion on a cliffside with a view, with 86 acres of cherries just steps away. I agreed that it would be tough to go home in September.

Jim was happy that his contracts had gone long enough to cover his annual insurance bill and the cost of his upcoming maintenance. He added up the hours he’d flown during the ten or so weeks he’d been in the area. It wasn’t a lot — cherry drying is not a time-building job — but it was more than usual.

Lisa said it was the best summer she’d ever had and that she’d do it again if she could. Her future holds bigger and better things, though: she’s starting officer school with the Coast Guard in January. She was already looking forward to the trip she’d be starting on Wednesday with a friend.

After dinner, Lisa sliced up the pie, which had been cooling on the stovetop. I produced some Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream from my freezer. The cherries were big and plump and tender — not the mush you usually find in a cherry pie. It was a perfect finish to a great dinner.

The Party’s Over — and So Is the Summer

The party broke up after 10 PM. Lisa left to drive back to her motel for one last night. Jim and I climbed into my truck and started the long drive to Chelan. We talked politics on the way. We don’t agree on all points, but we’re both too stubborn to give in to the other. We’re also too smart — and too close as friends — to let our disagreement hurt our friendship.

I dropped him off at the house he’s renting. In the morning, his boss would pick him up and drive him to the orchard where his helicopter is parked. Then, weather permitting, he’d make the one-hour flight to Seattle. I’d pick him up at Wenatchee Airport at 5:12 PM and bring him back to his truck. The plan set, I started on my way back.

I got back to my RV just after midnight. The moon was up by then, casting a gray-blue light over the valley spread out before my RV. I listened to the crickets and looked out over that valley for a while. I had 12 days left in my contract and there was a slight chance that it would be extended again.

Yet with my friends gone, I felt as if my summer was over, too.

Cherry Martini

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You know it was coming.

Cherry MartiniAnother cherry recipe…this one for after hours.

Ingredients:

  • 6 ripe, juicy cherries, pitted and quartered.
  • 4 ounces vodka. I prefer Ketel One but settled for Absolut this time.
  • 4-6 ice cubes.

Instructions:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a shaker.
  2. Shake vigorously until fully chilled. The mixture should turn pink.
  3. Strain into martini glass.
  4. If desired, spoon cherries into glass.

This is quite tasty without being sickly sweet.

Cherry Vodka

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Yet another way to use up cherries.

On Friday, when I was just getting down to the last 5 pounds of yellow (but amazingly delicious) Rainier cherries in my fridge, another client dropped off 18 pounds of what I think were sweethearts — a type of red cherry. I could barely fit them in my fridge and was very happy to give about 1/3 of them to my neighbor (the one who let me park my helicopter on his driveway).

That left me with at least 15 pounds of cherries.

I like cherries even more than the next person and, unlike lots of people, don’t have digestive problems when I eat “too many.” In fact, until I got this big box, I didn’t know how many were “too many.” Now I do.

I did a helicopter winery tour on Saturday that brought me to Malaga Springs Winery in Malaga, WA. While I was there, I chatted with Al, the winemaker, and mentioned the cherries. I told him I was running out of things to do with them.

That’s when he suggested that I make cherry liquor. The directions are very easy:

Ingredients:

  • Fresh cherries, pitted and cut. I quartered them.
  • Sugar, to taste. This is optional. The cherries I had were so sweet — especially those darn Rainiers — that I didn’t use sugar.
  • Vodka. Although I suppose any vodka would do the trick, I don’t drink junk liquor so I used Absolut.

Instructions:

  1. Wash, pit, and cut the cherries.
  2. If you’re adding sugar, mix the sugar in with the cherries.
  3. Cherry LiquorPack a clean, dry canning jar with as many cherry pieces as you can. Because I had all those Rainiers that were starting to get a little old, I layered them in the middle of the jar (Al’s idea) which made each jar a little more interesting looking than if it had been packed with just red or yellow cherries.
  4. Slowly top off the jar with as much vodka as will fit in the jar. You might want to tap the jar on the countertop once or twice to release air bubbles and then top it off again.
  5. Seal the jar snugly.
  6. Store for at least six to eight months.

According to Al, using a canning process or refrigeration is not necessary. (If I suddenly stop blogging about six to eight months from now, throw out your cherries.)

I made six 1-pint jars, using wide-mouth canning jars so I could easily scoop out the cherries when they’re ready to eat. Al says the cherry/vodka mix is great on ice cream and that the cherry-infused vodka is good as a sweet drink. I’m thinking it’ll make a great cherry martini.

When I open the first jar early next year, I’ll be sure to blog about it and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, if you give this a try or have ideas for other ways it can be done, please share your ideas in the comments for this post.

Easy Cherry Turnovers

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It shouldn’t be this easy.

Cherries

These organic Rainier cherries aren’t quite red enough for sale, but they taste amazing. Shame to let them go to waste.

It’s cherry season in Central Washington State and for me, based here, time to come up with new recipes for the nearly limitless supplies of fresh-picked fruit. Last year, I made Easy Cherry Cobbler for One and Cherry Chutney. These Easy Cherry Turnovers are my first successful experiment this season.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups cherries, pitted and cut into halves or quarters. I (obviously) use fresh cherries; today I used Rainiers that had been left on the tree because they weren’t quite red enough for market. (This is the second year this grower has left behind his excellent organic cherries and allowed me to pick them. I filled two 2-1/2 gallon buckets, shared some with friends, and still have at least 10 pounds left.) Although you can use frozen cherries, if you’re going to do that, you may as well buy Sara Lee frozen turnovers and skip this recipe completely.
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
  • Puff PastryPie crust dough, phyllo dough, or puff pastry sheets. A purist would make pie crust from scratch. I’m living in an RV with limited kitchen facilities, so that’s not really an option for me. Besides, I make really crappy pie crust from scratch. Someone with slightly less ambition might use frozen phyllo dough to make a flaky base for the turnovers. I’m not that ambitious. Instead, I used frozen Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets.
  • 2 tablespoons milk. This is optional, to brush the tops of the turnovers.
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar. This is also optional, to sprinkle on top of the turnovers.

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Combine the cherries with cinnamon and stir well to coat. If the cherries aren’t sweet — mine were very sweet — you could add some sugar, but I’d recommend not doing that. Don’t we have enough added sugar in our diets?
  3. If necessary, roll dough to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into squares about 4 inches on each side. This is really easy with the Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets I used; I just defrosted them, unfolded them, and cut them into quarters. Result: 8 squares.
  4. Cherries in PastrySpoon about 1/4 cup cherries into the middle of a pastry square. Then fold diagonally and seal by pinching two open sides. It’s important to get a good seal if you want the cherries and their juices to stay inside the turnover. Repeat for remaining squares and cherries.
  5. If desired, brush with milk and sprinkle with brown sugar.
  6. On Pie PanPlace turnovers on a lightly greased cookie sheet. (Again, with my limited kitchen facilities, all I had was a pizza pan, which would not fit all eight, so I had to make them in batches.)
  7. Bake for about 45 minutes. Your time will vary. I have a tiny RV oven and the temperature might not be accurate. It’s important to start checking them after about 30 minutes. The tops should be browned when done but be careful not to bake them so long that the bottoms burn.
  8. Cool for at least 15 minutes before eating.

Cherry TurnoversYields: 8 turnovers.

I’m here by myself, so I really don’t need 8 turnovers. I’ll freeze the extras and pull them out for breakfasts over the next few weeks.

If you do give this recipe a try, please share your comments about it here. I’m also very interested in any variations you come up with. I bet it would work nicely with pears or apples if the fruit was cut up small enough to cook.