Romance with vegetables

I guess I am proof that you can grow up healthy eating unhealthy. I was a very picky eater as a child and grew up eating jelly sandwiches on wonderbread. I hated peanut butter. I would only eat tuna salad on potato chips as a kind of dip. The closest I got to vegetables was canned corn and I ate a banana, apple or orange about once quarterly. My parents were accepting and unpushy about food, and I slowly began the journey into the wonders of vegetables, fruits and healthy eating all on my own.
When I was 11 or 12, a younger couple moved onto our street. We were the post war baby boomers with rather old parents, so it was new to experience a young couple who soon had a baby. We were a whole flock of girls at just the age when we thought babies were the most wonderful experience on earth. Our own mothers were too old to have more babies, but now we had a baby to play with. Her mother enjoyed having us around, and we quickly became a stable team of babysitters sometimes babysitting in pairs, sometimes alone. Her mother would leave us a chef boyardé pizza mix that we could make and party with after the baby was asleep. But part of the experience of being in this family was watching the mother in the kitchen. She had a way of preparing food so that everything looked delicious. When she started cooking vegetables for her toddler, I found myself drooling over carrots and broccoli. So that’s when my romance with vegetables began.
SALAD
One of the best ways to eat vegetables is in a salad which also goes with almost every meal. Or add tuna, or leftover meat and have a whole lunch.
The key to a good salad is the salad dressing.
Here’s my recipe:
8 T. olive oil
2 T. balsamico vinegar
2 t. french mustard
salt and pepper
I also use salad dressing, instead of butter on steamed vegetables.
SAUTEED VEGETABLES
I usually fry in a good olive oil.
Onion and garlic are almost musts. Plus whatever you like- the seasons vegetables: carrots, broccoli, squash, beets. Add some turmeric or curry to spice them up.
Or add an egg and make an omelet.
Note about Loosing weight
I really believe that healthy oils are essential for nutrition, plus they help you feel full and satisfied from a meal. I believe eating lots of vegetables are the key to loosing weight, but you don’t have to skimp on the salad dressing or be afraid of sautéing them. The key to loosing weight is feeling satisfied with each meal, at the same time you choose to eat the right foods- only healthy carbs and not too many of them. I once lost 16 kilos doing this.
Right now I am unfortunately in a eating for consolation phase and eating lots of unhealthy carbs, but I know how to loose weight again when I am mentally ready.

Baking with oil

My mother believed that the best tasting pie crust was made with butter. There is no question that butter gives a rich good taste to baked goods but I have been baking with oil for years and really don't miss butter.
I guess there are two schools- one that desserts are unhealthy anyways, so why not let them be what they are and use the best, richest ingredients possible. And the other, that like me, tries to transform desserts into something almost healthy. That is maybe, because I love desserts and eat them too often. Maybe four times a year (at Xmas and birthdays) I make a pie crust with margarine instead of oil (plant margarine) and a cake with the full amount of sugar and white flour (but still oil). And they do taste really good. But so does my healthier baking where I use a minimum amount of sugar, oil and whole wheat flour. Actually my son prefers the healthy version.
The secret of baking a pie crust with oil is rolling the dough out between two pieces of baking paper. Then it is easy to transfer the crust into the pie dish.
NORWEGIAN APPLE PIE
Actually the Norwegian lady who gave me this recipe thought it was American but its not like any American apple pie I know. She used margarine. I use oil.
Mix:
½ cup oil
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
Add 1 3/4 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
2 t. baking powder
Divide dough unevenly in two. Roll the biggest half between baking paper and put in pie plate. Fill with tart peeled and sliced apples. Sprinkle with sugar mixed with cinnamon and a little nutmeg. Use a little flour if you think the apples will be very juicy. Roll the top between baking paper. I remove one piece of paper and slice thru the top before placing on the pie to give a lattice look.
Bake at 350 degrees F or 190 C about 40 -50 minutes
BROWNIES WITH OIL
Mix:
½ cup oil
½ - 1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
½ t. baking powder
optional ½ c. chopped walnuts
2/3 cup flour (I use whole wheat)
Bake in greased little pan 350 F or 190 C for 25 - 30 min.
cut while warm and remove from pan while warm.

It all started with "Everything Cakes"

Or did it? Maybe it started with eating. I am told that my first word was not "mama" or "dada" but "more". And that was about food. Maybe a prerequisite for cooking is enjoying eating.

Back to "Everything Cakes". I grew up in Garrett Park, Maryland in the 1950’s. I was lucky, there were lots of girls to play with and lots of friendly, active, liberal adults. Rock Creek Park was in my backyard and my friends and I grew up exploring and playing in the woods and creek. We also played long intense doll games that lasted for days.

Quite early on we were allowed to play in the kitchen- first cake mixes, but also baking real cakes. I don’t remember who’s idea it was to try to make an "Everything Cake". The idea was to bake a cake without a recipe- just use all the good delicious ingredients we could think of. My mom let us try as many times as we wanted. We chose delicious ingredients, the batter tasted good and the finished cake was horrible. This happened again and again even when we tried to use pretty much the same ingredients as in a recipe. My mom stayed out of the kitchen and did not come with either comments or advice. In the 1950’s there was a real childrens world of play which adults stayed out of. We never really figured it out. Why didn’t our cakes taste good?
Now, so many years later, I can tell you the secret of how to make the "Everything Cake" of your desire. It’s all in the chemistry. All you need is the secret formula- the right balance between the ingredients.

BASIC CAKE RECIPE
1 ¾ cup flour (I use exclusively whole wheat flour, sometimes use ½ cup ground nuts – such as walnuts or almonds for some of the flour –here is room for creativity.)
½ - 1 cup sugar (After I discovered the negative side of carbs I cut down to ½ cup sugar and still make delicious cakes. I use exclusively raw sugar)
1 teaspoon baking soda (if made with acid liquids such as orange juice or buttermilk)
otherwise 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup liquid (buttermilk, orange juice, pineapple juice etc)
1 egg (this cake can be made without eggs or with two eggs)
½ cup healthy neutral oil like sunflower oil or rapeseed oil
Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly. Add liquid ingredients and mix well without beating. Bake in a 9" round pan at 350 degrees F or 190 C. for about 30 minutes. Double recipe for two 9" round pans. Sometimes I make a whole large cake that fills the whole oven, and then I quadruple the recipe, but I never use more than 2½ t. baking soda.
ICING
Forget about butter and cooked icings –this is easy and good
2 tablespoons liquid (boiling water or orange juice or pineapple juice etc)
confectioners sugar to make the right consistency.
For chocolate icing, add 2 tablespoons unsweetened cacao powder
Add vanilla if you want, or for pumpkin and spice cakes, cinnamon.
Some of our favorite variations:
CHOCOLATE CAKE
Add ½ cup unsweetened cacao powder to the dry ingredients .
Use buttermilk as a liquid.
MARBLE CAKE
Add ¼ c. unsweetened cacao powder to half the dough and marble.
ORANGE CAKE
Use fresh squeezed orange juice as the liquid.
Add ground almonds to the dry ingredients.
PINEAPPLE RIGHT SIZE UP CAKE
Use 1 can of pinepple rings. Use the juice as the liquid in the cake place the rings on the top- close together and bake.
Use some juice in the icing and just ice the centers of the rings or around them. Sure put cherries in the centers of the rings before baking, instead of icing the centers afterwards.
CRANBERRY ORANGE NUT CAKE
Use orange juice as liquid. Use ground nuts of your choice. Add dried cranberries. Before you bake the cake, sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar. Do not ice.
RHUBARB CAKE
Chop fresh rhubarb stilks into small pieces and add these to the dough. Use buttermilk as liquid. Before you bake the cake, sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar. Do not ice.
APPLE CAKE
Peel and slice a couple of tart apples. Use buttermilk as liquid. Add vanilla to the dough. Before baking the cake, cover the top with the apple slices and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar with a little nutmeg added. Eventually, sprinkle with slivered almonds or add nuts to the dough. May need to bake a few minutes longer.
PEAR CAKE
Peel and slice fresh pears. Use buttermilk as liquid. Before baking the cake, cover the top with pear slices and sprinkle with sugar mixed with ginger and cinnamon. Eventually, also slivered almonds. May need to bake a few minutes longer.
More cakes later!