Spinach Souffle

Our household is comprised of a not-uncommon mix of eaters: one die-hard carnivore (whose freezer was filled with big-game meats harvested by his family when I first met him), one pescetarian (and former calorie counter), and one fairly open-minded not-quite-three-year-old.  We all inhale Spinach Souffle happily.

My childhood was studded with weekly fights with my brother over the last serving of souffle, always baked in a round, white casserole dish.  We would gobble it up, trying to be the first to go back for seconds.

I asked my mom for the recipe (which she got from her friend Linda Daly, whose name I only know because of its frequency on the casserole recipes in my mom's collection.  Someday I must meet this Queen of the Casserole) when I got my first apartment in college and started collecting my own recipes.  Meem also got me my own Corningware French White 2 1/2 quart dish that Christmas, and I've been perfecting my souffle technique in it ever since.

In addition to its tastiness, it's truly a one-dish meal.  Even my usual propensity to veg-up our dinners is squelched by the full 10 ounces of spinach and entire can of diced tomatoes.  Once it goes into the oven, I can turn my attention to something else, as dinner is done.  However, it does take a good long time to cook, one hour in the oven, so planning ahead is crucial - you can't wait till the children (or husband) are whining and tugging on your pants legs to get this one started.


Spinach Souffle

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained (if you really love tomatoes you could even do a 28 oz can)
1 10 oz package frozen organic spinach, thawed, drained and well wrung out
3 beaten eggs
1 pint low-fat cottage cheese
3 T flour
1/4 c buttermilk (I never have this and always substitute an equal amount plain fat free yogurt with a splash of milk)
5 oz cubed sharp cheddar cheese (Tillamook Medium Cheddar is crucial for this recipe)
salt and pepper
1/8 c bread or cracker crumbs
butter


Oven to 350.  Drain tomatoes and layer in the bottom of your souffle dish.  I have often wondered if this would taste the same from a different shape of dish but I am unwilling to experiment.

Thaw spinach in the microwave, then press into the bottom of the colander you just used for the tomatoes.  Wrap spinach up in about 8 paper towels and squeeze out all the water you can.  Get it really well wrung out.  If it's got too much water left in it, your souffle will be watery and that's nasty.  Set aside to cool.

Beat eggs in a medium bowl.  Add cottage cheese and flour, combine with a fork.  Add buttermilk or yogurt/milk mixture, salt and pepper, and cubed cheese and gently combine.  Fold in cooled spinach.

Pour into souffle dish.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs, and dot with butter.

Slide it on into the oven for one hour and clean up the kitchen with a glass of wine while you wait.  Bathe the kids!  Organize your sock drawer!  Do your taxes!

You can broil the top for a minute or two to get it extra browned and crunchy at the end.

Let it sit for a few minutes, then serve in all its one-dish simplicity.

She calls this "foofooflay" and usually reminds me that she doesn't like spinach before chowing down with gusto.

Thumbs up!


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Weekly Menu 2.12.12 and May Thai

Here's what's been cooking at our house this week.

Monday - bratwurst for Casey and Natalie, Field Roast apple and sage sausages for me, oven fries, carrots, peas, and corn

Tuesday - dinner date

Wednesday - leftovers from dinner date

Thursday - macaroni & cheese, Harvard beets, broccoli and carrots

Friday - Taco Time

Saturday - homemade pizza, tomato and avocado salad

Sunday - broiled steelhead, cranberry walnut quinoa, glazed carrots, rolls


Some weeks I don't get the entire week's meals planned out ahead of time, and roll with things as the week goes on.  That happened this week, when I was blindsided by an urgent craving for Taco Time on Friday evening, so chilaquile is getting pushed ahead to next week.

Valentine's Day meant a delicious dinner out at May Thai.  After my friends Alli and Brookeli (who have both spent some time in Thailand) told me to seek it out, I was thrilled to see green papaya salad (Som Tum) on their menu.  Too bad I had to share it with Casey!  As I was eating it, I was already planning my return trip to obtain more one day soon - sweet, salty, sour, crunchy and satisfying.

Next Friday's dinner better watch out: it could very well be replaced at the last minute by May Thai Som Tum takeout if papaya salad sounds good!


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Weekly Menu 1.29.12 (a little late)

I always want to know what everyone else is cooking to get ideas for my own menus, so I thought I'd start posting our weekly menu every Sunday.  Yes, I'm really late on that this week, but in the future I will be posting it on Sunday.

Or maybe Monday.

Early-in-the-week-ish, how about that?

Making a weekly menu is something I always wanted to do, but never actually did until I stopped working outside the home, and also created a place to post the menu.  Many people who come to Ellie Bluebell's House ask where I got our wall calendar/menu board.  The answer is, of course, Etsy, from a wonderful shop called Simple Shapes.

Here it is for the week of 1.29.12 through 2.4.12.

Just in case you can't read it (better camera work will be included in all future posts, I promise)...

Mon - crab cakes, sweet potato tots, salad
Tues - miso mushroom noodle bowls, edamame fried rice
Weds - roasted vegetable lasagne, citrus avocado spinach salad
Thurs - leftovers
Fri - spinach souffle, breadsticks
Sat - pizza, salad
Sun - steelhead, crusty puffs (yukon gold potatoes), broccoli

Post coming soon about Spinach Souffle!


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5th Annual Trunk Show

This year was really the best trunk show we have had so far!  The Ellie Bluebell Designs Holiday Trunk Show is my way of gathering a group of awesome artists, and creating a great place for friends and family to shop local, small businesses... while having adult beverages and snacks.

It was awesome, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Ellie Bluebell herself reigned over the party, at the same time doing an excellent job of Swiffering up each and every crumb of cookie that fell to the ground.

We were joined by my loyal artist friends Carolyn Buss Jewelry, Gabriel's Aunt, the Julie Ann Collection and Valentina Vitols.  New to the party this year were Modern Little Ones (finally, baby stuff at the Trunk Show!) and Crowandiris.

And most importantly, here's all the food I baked!

Chocolate chunk cookies, Cranberry Thumbprints (from Nov 2010 Sunset), Lavender Shortbread, Parmesan Rosemary Shortbread, smoked salmon spread with creme fraiche (caught and smoked by Casey), and homemade Chex Mix.  Also served, but not made by me, were Cranberry Bliss Bars (by my aunt, from the Jr League's Celebrate the Rain cookbook).  I had an assist on the cookies from the cookie fairy, Tiffany... God bless her.

We drank Garnet Mimosas made with Ellie Blue's Lavender Sugar.  We drank a lot of them.

My card collection is getting revamped - out with the slow sellers and in with the crowd pleasers.  New this year: the Bathing Beauties!  These cards feature sassified 1930's pin up ladies with parasols and lots of bling.  They are named after some of the founders of my sorority, Pi Beta Phi (Fanny, Libby, Clara, Ada, Inez, Rosa, Margaret, and Nancy).  By the way they're selling, they'll be sticking around a while.

Meet Fanny and Inez.

The Ellie Bluebell Smells' line is also evolving.  The Lavender Shortbread I made exclusively for last year's Trunk Show were so wildly popular that I made more this year (a lot more) and also added Parmesan Rosemary Shortbread, made with my Ballard-grown rosemary.

Ellie Bluebell fans have spoken, and they love cookies.  I hope to have these available in my Etsy store very soon.

They also love adult beverages, because they report that the savory shortbread are great with rose, hard cider, Alaskan Amber, and sparkling wine - blanc de blancs in particular.

We ate, we drank, we shopped!  And on top of all that, we collected three great big bags of food for the Ballard Food Bank.  Thank you so much to the friends and family who came and helped make it a festive success.

Happy Meatball everyone!

Hippies Are Smarter Than They Look

Having gone to college in Eugene, Oregon, I have a healthy appreciation for hippies.  They add color, levity and usually music to any outdoor gathering, and outdoor is really key when one is dealing with hippies since they are such great water conservators, unselfishly forgoing showers.

My parents, swept along by the trends of the times, were a little bit hippy themselves when I was a small child.  There was wheat germ in the fridge, home farming and canning manuals on the bookshelves, we shopped at the first PCC in Kirkland, and we went to a lot of outdoor events.  However, I would like it to be known that all of us were very clean and I must say we smelled great.

I remember stumbling upon my mom's copy of Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe when I was in high school.  One of my teachers (Mr. Bryan Reinhardt) had been talking a lot about food choices and how they affect our planet and even the corporate structure of America.  I was intrigued, and surprised when my mom said I could have this amazing book.

I still have it, and its message about getting off the top of the food chain is still an important one, if not more important as our planet becomes more populated by the minute.

The reason I dug it out was when I started wondering if the food I'm feeding Natalie is good enough.  Is she getting enough protein?  Carbs?  Minerals?  And I had no more glimpsed the cover than I remembered complete proteins, the vegetarian's BFF.  Rice and beans it is!

I poured myself a glass of carrot juice, dressed Natalie in some tie dye (hand me down from friends in Eugene), and decided it was just going to be a hippy kind of day at Ellie Bluebell's House.

After my trip down memory lane with DFASP, I turned to Super Baby Food to see if there were any baby-specific notes on this combo.  Only the gassiness beans can cause, so to avoid frightening diaper situations, I opted to use dried split green peas, which is technically a legume but slightly better in the gas department. AND they don't have to be soaked overnight (lentils also share this virtue).  So brown rice and peas it is!

Viva la bulk foods section!

I wasn't looking forward to cooking both these things up separately, in two pots, ugh.  I mean, I've got stuff to do!  And I hate washing pots.  Also I only have one that's big enough currently, so there's that.

And then.... I found a paragraph in SBF describing how to cook them together all at once.  Sweet!  Now we're talking.  Truly helpful info for a busy mama.  Here's how you do it.

One cup of dry split peas needs to cook with three cups of water.  A half cup of brown rice needs to cook with one cup of water.  Sooooo (and this took my tired brain a minute, I will confess) I put four cups of water on to boil, and readied a cup of split peas and a half cup of brown rice.

(I have had that Brita pitcher since freshman year of college!  And they say we live in a throwaway society)

I had no idea how much this was going to yield, and I hoped my pot was big enough.

In the fridge was some organic celery, red pepper, and a bit of onion, so I thought I'd chop those guys up to the mix, too.  About a half cup of celery, half cup of pepper, and a quarter cup of onion (again, we have to think of the little ones' tummies).

Once the water was boiling, I added the peas and rice.  Looking good so far.

Super Baby Food says to turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes.  It doesn't say covered or uncovered, so I went with covered because of the rice and so I could turn it way down and conserve energy (see?  I told you I'm part hippy).

This is what it looked like about 30 minutes later.  Time to add in our colorful veggies, an Ellie Bluebell Smells bay leaf, and keep cooking.

15 minutes later it was looking promising, and our prescribed cooking time from the recipe was up.  I took out the bay leaf, added about a 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning, and a tablespoon of Dr Bragg's Liquid Aminos.  These taste a little like soy sauce and are helpful if you aren't eating much meat.  We are getting seriously hippified now!

I cooked it about ten minutes longer, since I wanted it to get a little mushy.  Natalie likes mushy.

Mission accomplished!  I ate some for lunch along with her, and it was really tasty.  Definitely not much to look at, but neither are some hippies.

(This freezes great!  I used my silicone Beaba portion tray as well as filled up some empty baby food jars for the freezer.  An ice cube tray or silicone muffin pan work well, too)


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A Handmade First Birthday Party

A child's first birthday is sweet, momentous, and exciting... and also noteworthy because it's the last birthday party you will have full creative control over.  After the first birthday, you'll be filling requests for SpongeBob SquarePants themes, skating parties, and the ultra dreaded eight eight-year-olds sleepover.  So have your druthers with number one!

For me and my husband, that meant a party at home, lots of friends and family (mostly adults, by chance not design), no theme other than "birthday", and adult-tailored food and beverages (although I did put some Baby Mum Mums in a bowl for the under-two set).

I was very excited about making decorations for Natalie's first birthday, and I proceeded to Martha Stewart out, big time.  I love those penant-flag banners you've seen popping up at cute places, like the Paper Source, and decided I could make one myself, much longer than the kit would allow, and for less than they were charging.  My craft closet was already full of the supplies, after all.  

(Yes, I have a Craft Closet.  What??)

I also thought of making paper chains, like we used to do as kids to count down for Christmas.  Those things give you a lot of bang for your buck, time and materials-wise!  I got five designs of scrapbooking paper (two double sided and one single sided) and started cutting them into 2" x 6" strips with my awesome paper cutter, the Handy Guillotine (that is it's actual product name.  I would have bought it anyway but I delight in calling it the Handy Guillotine every time I use it.  Best $19 I have ever spent).

The Handy Guillotine, ready to slice and dice.  Please note the presence of my silent and constant partner, Starbucks VIA.

Then all you need is a stapler, and you're in paper-chain-making business.  I had my laptop handy so I could watch old episodes of Cougar Town online while making them.  If you're watching Cougar Town, I recommend having a glass of wine handy, as well.  Notice how this whole process is very handy?

Finished chains adorning the arch between dining and living room.

I really hated taking them down.  It took me over a week to put them in storage after the party.  Total cost of 16' of paper chains, $4 (for scrapbooking paper).

Now onto the festive penant-flag banners.

I made these using a stack of 6" x 6"printed scrapbooking papers which were already color coordinated, and which had been taking up precious real estate in the CC for too long.

I will admit I totally eyeballed cutting these, as I tend to do.  When you've got to repeat something 48 times, "measure twice, cut once" just isn't going to happen (unless of course you're talking about joists, studs, eye bolts or similar).  With paper birthday decorations, eyeball it.  I used an Exacto knife, a metal straight edge (this is what my drafting instruments are reduced to these days), and a cutting mat.  I borrowed the shape from Paper Source's kit, with a foldover tab on the top of the flag to wrap around the banner string.

Then I folded each flag's tab over my natural colored yarn and secured it with craft glue.  Total cost for 24' of penant flag banner, $2.50 for the yarn (since I had everything else already).  Definitely a savings over the PS kit, of which I'd have needed two.

I think the thing most people get excited about for first birthdays is the baby's first cake experience.  The guests, anyway.  They want to see smashing, grabbing, throwing, and sugar rushes.  As a mom, I was thinking, once she tastes frosting, my homemade sweet potatoes are history!  She's gonna get frosting in her hair/on the walls/in her ears/on the dog/inside the heat registers!

But what are you going to do - deny your child cake for 18 years?  It's one of those "feel the fear and do it anyway" things.  

Did I just say I was afraid of cake?

Well, I'm not.  I decided to make the Birthday Baby her very own, double layer, pink sparkly creation just to prove how unafraid I was!

It's yellow cake, from a mix, with white frosting, from a tub.  That's the actual name of the flavor: White.  A drop of red food coloring, and some sparkly pink sprinkles brought it up to Very First Birthday Cake status.

I baked the top layer in a giant size silicone muffin tin.  The bottom layer was baked in a 8" round cake pan, and trimmed (mmmm, cake trimmings...) by about an inch all the way around.  The cute little "1" candle is made by Tag, and I got it at Mrs. Cook's in U-Village.

So for the rest of the guests... cuppycakes!  

Coconut and Birthday Cake flavors.  I was a little scared to make only coconut cupcakes, since apparently some weirdos don't like coconut (I happen to love it, you remember the Skinny Coladas, right?) so luckily there was enough batter and frosting from Natalie's cake left to make a round of cuppycakes, too.

The coconut were a total hit, however.  I used a semi-homemade approach to these, and doctored up a white cake mix (again, how is "White" a flavor?) with coconut milk and some other things as recommended by this recipe on Allrecipes.com.  

Ever notice how even when you serve cupcakes that are made from mixes and tubs, if they are dressed up a bit with frosting, sprinkles, and coconut, (and made with love, of course) people still go ape you-know-what over them?  I love that.

Almost too pretty to eat, which Natalie acknowledged by daintily swiping at the frosting with her fingers.  Her dad finally fed her some bites of cake with a fork.  And she's still into sweet potatoes, just like before!

Total cost of Natalie's cake and 36 cupcakes, $16 (including fancy $4 sprinkles and $2 candle from Mrs Cook's).

It was a wonderful party, and Natalie had a fabulous time being a social butterfly with her guests!

Next year, I'm prepared to produce a Disney Princesses party if asked, but I'm hoping for more homemade cakes and free reign with the decorations.  Good luck with that, right?

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I Feel Pretty

Like the new design?  This was long overdue.  And I didn't even win that contest I posted about a few months ago, I did it myself!  The only thing better than winning free pretty is DIY pretty.

In the interest of feeling pretty, there's a blog I read and love I thought I'd tell you about, by a chick I love, who goes by the name of Carolyn.  Handcrafted Carolyn, that is.  Makeup, jewelry, sass, she does it all.  You will love.

Another thing that's got me feeling pretty lately are dresses and the weather which is finally allowing me to wear them!  My friend Laverne, whom you can stalk here, and I agree that one of the very best places to get pretty dresses is Puella.  

I am wearing this one right now.

You may have seen this brand at Anthropologie, which translates to big bucks, but we figured out how to get them on the cheap: 

A Puella Grab Bag.

I have never, EVER been able to resist a grab bag.  Puella's are amazing.  They are only offered a few times a year.  You choose your size and wait a good long while for it to arrive.  You don't have too many rights with these grab bags (no returns, Missy), but you should just keep your mouth shut and enjoy the spoils about to come to you.  Trust.  

The other dress treasure trove I have recently stumbled upon is REI.  Yes, you read that right: REI!  This summer their women's buyers really hooked us girly girls (and outdoorsy girls and casual girls and athletic girls etc) up with some awesome options.  

I got a black Patagonia Kamala and blue Patagonia Margo (seen above.  Hot!)  

(And I hope I don't need to tell you that the way to save money at REI is by being a member - 10% dividend checks once a year are a pretty awesome little windfall I always forget about till it arrives)

So cheers to summer, dresses, and feeling pretty!