Keep in mind that this bread must be slathered in butter. Not butter substitute, but real, artery-clogging butter. Enjoy!

4 cups flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup seedless raisins (soak in hot water for a few minutes to soften, then drain)

1 Tbs. caraway seeds (optional)

1 1/3 cups buttermilk (more if it feels too dry, my measure is closer to 1 2/3 cups)

1/4 cup Crisco (I’ve experimented with other shortening but came back to this)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda into bowl.

Stir in raisins and caraway seeds, if using.

Add buttermilk and Crisco. Mix. Knead just enough to moisten dry ingredients. Shape into two mounds and place on a greased cookie sheet. Cut an X into the top of each loaf. Makes two loaves.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into wedges or slices to serve.

Hint: Do not try “adapting” this recipe to make it healthier or lighter. I have tried bread flour. I have tried whole wheat flour. Nothing comes close to the real deal.

Note: Yes, I realize the Irish Soda Bread diehards would scoff at this with its raisins and all. This is how we do it/did it in my house.

The post Irene’s Irish Soda Bread appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

The post Foodie Friday: A great way to use summer veggies appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

We serve this over Basmati rice with a side of steamed snow peas. It’s a favorite with everyone except the vegetarian, but even she has to admit that it smells delicious. Thanks to Dennis for discovering this one. He’s made it quite a few times, but I hadn’t had a chance to sample it until last week because for so long I wasn’t eating meat. Glad I finally got a chance to try it.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or chicken pieces, if you prefer)
• 1 cup hot salsa
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• Hot cooked rice
• 1/2 cup peanuts, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Placed chicken in slow cooker. Combine salsa, peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce and ginger, and pour over chicken.
2. Cover; cook on LOW 8 to 9 hours or on HIGH 3 to 4 hours.
3. Serve chicken and sauce over rice; sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro.

Serves six, according to the recipe. Which means in our world it serves about four, so we increase the whole thing by half.

The post Foodie Friday: Slow cooker Thai chicken appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Ingredients

1 Tbs plus 2 tsp EVOO

1 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 large onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs chili powder

4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground chipotle chili

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups water

2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed

1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes

4 tsp fresh lime juice

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato and onion; cook, stirring often, until the onion begins to soften (about four minutes). Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle and salt; stir constantly for 30 seconds. Add water and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the sweet potato is tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, and lime juice; increase heat to high and return to simmer until slightly reduced, about five minutes. (I lowered the heat at this point and left it on  a low simmer for a little bit longer so the flavors could marry.) Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Serves four.

Cook’s note: I didn’t have chipotle powder the day I made this. I just threw in a few dashes of hot sauce and it was fine. Also, I like to top this with a dollop of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt and a little diced avocado. Another option is to serve it over yellow rice, which is a favorite at our house. Click HERE for a yellow rice recipe by Mark Bittman. His calls for saffron threads. I didn’t have any, so I substituted turmeric (and made a few other personalizations) and it came out great.

The post Foodie Friday: Sweet potato black bean chili appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Ingredients

• 1 pound lentils, rinsed and picked over
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 large carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 bay leafs
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• 8 cups water (or vegetable broth, in which case you can drop bouillon cube)
• 1 vegetable boullion cube
• salt, to taste
• fresh ground pepper, to taste
• dash soy sauce
• splash of red wine (optional)
• 1 cup acini pepe pasta (or other small pasta — orzo, ditalini — or cooked rice)
• fresh baby spinach, a few handfuls (optional)

Preparation

1. Saute onions, garlic, celery, carrots in olive oil until soft.

2. Add lentils, water, bay leaves, thyme, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 15 minutes so lentils start to soften.

3. Add boullion, salt and pepper, soy sauce, and wine, if using.

4. Simmer for 90 minutes. Add uncooked small pasta (or cooked rice) eight minutes before serving. (If I want a slightly smoother soup, I will zap this with a handheld immersion blender for a few seconds before I add the pasta or rice. Be careful not to burn yourself!) If you’re using spinach, dump it into the soup at this point and allow it to wilt before serving.

5. Serve with bread and salad.

The post Foodie Friday: Ladling out lentil to start soup season appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

This recipe is from Bobby Flay’s Boy Gets Grill cookbook. Serve it with fresh corn-on-the-cob for a perfect summer dinner.

Sauce ingredients:

8 tomatillos, husked and rinsed

2 jalapeño chiles

1/2 cup mild vegetable oil, such as canola, plus extra for brushing

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 Tablespoons honey

4 ripe Hass avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 small red onion, finely diced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Preparation: 

1. Heat your grill to high.
2. Brush tomatillos and chiles with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the tomatillos and chiles, turning, until blackened on all sides. Remove from grill (leave the grill on if you’ll be cooking the fish right away) and coarsely chop the tomatillos. Stem, seed, and chop the chiles.
3. Combine the tomatillos, chiles, lime juice, and honey in a blender and blend until smooth. With the motor running, gradually pour in the 1/2 cup oil and blend until emulsified. Transfer to a bowl and fold in the avocados, onion, and cilantro. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (The sauce can be made two hours in advance, covered and kept refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

For the tuna: 

4 (8-ounce) tuna fillets or steaks, 1 to 1 1/2-inches thick

Mild vegetable oil, such as canola

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation:

1. Heat your grill to high.
2. Brust the fish on both sides with oil and season with salt and pepper. Put the fish on the grill with the top side down (in other words, the side that will face up when you serve, so it should be the best-looking side). Grill the fish until crusty and browned on the bottom, about three minutes. Turn the fish over and grill until medium-rare, about two to three minutes longer.
3. Remove fish from grill and spoon sauce over each piece. Serve immediately.

The post Foodie Friday: Tuna with avocado-tomatillo sauce appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

When I went to Rome almost three years, I wandered from restaurant to restaurant, desperately asking (in my pathetic version of Italian): “Fiori di zucca fritta?” Fried zucchini blossoms? And the answer was a resounding: “No, not in season.” Argh.

At that point, I had never had fried zucchini blossoms and had never made fried zucchini blossoms, but my grandmother always talked about making them back in the day. So this had been my quest: to find them, to make them, to eat them.

Then I spied a bushel of blossoms at the Delmar Farmer’s Market one Saturday morning, although I was completely put off by the price – $1 a blossom – and knew my grandmother would be totally outraged if I paid that price. So I walked on by and then I walked back, and looked longingly. My friend Dorothy finally said, “Just buy them!” So I asked if I could get a deal if I bought a bunch. I ended up with 18 blossoms for $8, which is not bad at all. That’s them in the photo above. Aren’t they pretty?

Now to figure out what to do with the delicate blossoms. So I looked through a Rome book Dennis bought me for Christmas and found a recipe I could adapt, which means I was planning to leave out the anchovies. I don’t care how much flavor they have. Blech.

I washed the blossoms and patted them dry. Then I took goat cheese and switched up the plain recipe by adding some chopped fresh basil, some chopped scallions, a scoop of cream cheese and a splash of half and half and mashed it all together. I carefully stuffed a little of the cheese mixture into each flower, wrapping the petals around it. Next I dipped the stuffed blossoms in a flour batter made with flour, water, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of white vinegar. Finally, they went into the frying pan, where I cooked them in oil for about five minutes. All that was left to do was to put them on a warm platter, sprinkle with coarse salt, and devour.

The result: Squisito! I fully expected to get at least four of the blossoms, but my girls liked them so much I got only two. I’m making another round tonight and may try tweaking the goat cheese filling by blending in some garlic or other flavoring. We’ll see.

I reported all this to my grandmother with pride. When she made them, she didn’t stuff them, just battered and fried them up. I may try that another day, if I happen upon a bushel of blossoms for a good price before the season is over.

The post Foodie Friday: Zucchini blossoms, stuffed, battered and fried. Yum. appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Ingredients

2 cups farro (or barley, but we like farro)

2 tablespoons EVOO

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups cherry tomatoes (In a pinch I have also used small regular tomatoes quartered. Worked fine.)

12 ounces baby spinach, washed well

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Cook farro in salted boiling water until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat EVOO in larges skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until onions begin to soften, about five minutes. Add garlic and cherry tomatoes and saute just until tomato skins start to burst, about three minutes.

When farro is cooked, drain and stir into tomato mixture along with the spinach. Stir to combine. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for about one minute, or until spinach is wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Serves five really hungry Pousts as a side dish, or eight normal people.

The post Foodie Friday: Warm farro salad is a hit at our house appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Here’s what I did last night:

1 pound pasta, any type. Sometimes we’re in the mood for linguini, sometimes penne, sometimes rotelle. All very different experiences.

2 orange bell peppers, sliced

1 container of organic baby spinach

1 large container of sliced baby bella mushrooms

1 can diced tomatoes, since the real deal is not yet in season

Garlic, lots, thinly sliced

Walnuts pieces, lightly toasted

2 TBSP EVOO

Salt and pepper to taste

Any type of Italian herbs — oregano, basil, a nice mixture. Whatever you prefer. Maybe even some herbs de Provence.

Some reserved pasta water

Grated romano cheese, for serving

Preparation:

Put the pasta water on, with a generous dose of salt. Meanwhile, heat EVOO in large saute pan. Toss in garlic and then, 30 seconds later, mushrooms (and any Italian type seasonings, if using). When the mushrooms have cooked down a bit, add peppers and tomatoes. When pasta water boils, toss pasta into pot. (Well, you don’t have to “toss,” but that makes it more fun.) Add spinach to saute pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

When pasta is al dente, drain and add to veggie mixture. If mixture looks too dry, add a little pasta water to loosen it up. Serve it up, and pass the cheese. We had this last night with a big salad of mixed greens topped with an EVOO and balsamic dressing.

The beauty of this dish is that you can change it up in oh, so many ways, especially as things come into season as we get later into spring and then into summer. Use zucchini instead of peppers, Vidalia onion instead of garlic, escarole instead of spinach, or snap peas, or all of it at once if you really want to go crazy. Substitute toasted pine nuts for the walnuts. Add fresh parsley or fresh basil at the end. Experiment. It’s almost impossible to screw this up. Oh, and mangia!

The post Foodie Friday: Primavera season has arrived appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Start with a good broth, if you can. I prefer to make my own veggie broth from a big bag of vegetable scraps I keep in my freezer for just such occasions. I store carrot peels, onion and garlic skins, celery tops and bottoms, potato peels, anything that’s not going to give the soup a strong or “off” taste (skip pepper scraps, eggplant scraps, tomato scraps, things like that). But, if you don’t have the time or supplies on hand for a fresh broth, just purchase veggie broth, or go with water and increase the veggies you’re including in the soup.

Ingredients 

6 to 8 cups good vegetable broth

2 or 3 tablespoons of EVOO

1 onion, diced

3 carrots, cut in half moons

3 celery stalks, with frilly leaves on top, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large potato, peeled and cubed

1 red pepper, diced

2 handfuls of string beans, fresh or frozen

1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 15 oz can of dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 small handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Soy sauce

Red wine

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups small but “meaty” pasta — ditalini, small shells, small farfalle,

Romano cheese, for the table

Preparation

Saute onion, celery, carrot, peppers, and garlic in EVOO in a large soup pot for a few minutes until softened. Add warm or room temperature vegetable broth to the veggies. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Add potatoes, green beans, and red beans, then add a few shakes of soy sauce (about 1 or 2 tablespoons) and a dash of red wine (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup, depending on taste). Let simmer for 40 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper to taste. About 8 minutes before you’re ready to serve, add the pasta and cook until just al dente. Add the parsley and stir.

Serve with a sprinkling of Romano cheese, a slice of crusty bread, and a side salad, and you’ve got an awesome dinner. This pot will serve a family of five with lots left over for lunch the next day. And the next.

Don’t forget that you can change up this soup depending on what you have on hand — add kale or spinach in the final stages, use chick peas instead of kidney beans, or give it a southwestern flare by adding fire-roasted tomatoes or fire-roasted corn and black beans instead of kidney beans and regular tomatoes. Top that version with crushed tortilla chips. Yum, I might have to make one more pot after all! The possibilities are endless.

The post Foodie Friday: Last Chance Vegetable Soup appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.