Better than Bertolli

Here is your dilemma: You have no oven and two adults with adult tastes to feed. All you have is an electric skillet, toaster and microwave at hand. Kids can be satisfied by pretty simple fare. While adults can too, sometimes adults want something different. Something with complexity. When we first disconnected the oven, we were unsure what exactly our capabilities would be. A lack of confidence led me to the frozen entree section of the local supermarket. There are some interesting temptations there nowadays: pasta with mature ingredients such as roasted vegetables and asparagus;  sophisticated twists on old standbys like garlic mashed potatoes and pre-seasoned green beans; throw-in-the-pan-and-simmer entrees with ingredient-intensive codenames:  Bolognese, for instance, and Pomodoro.

Though some of these dishes meet or exceed my expectations (which, for frozen versions of grown-up food, are generally pretty low), the nutrition information is generally dismaying, especially when it comes to sugar and salt. When a food on its own lacks distinctive flavors it its own, makers of processed foods add these two agents to stand in place of what ought to be just good flavor. When we faced our oven-less challenges, it was tempting to just call it a day and give in to the sodium pushers since anything involving more than one pot gets complicated quickly when there is only one. But we persevered; we love natural flavors (who doesn't?) and now have a bounty of tomatoes and fresh herbs to utilize. Now that we have logged many hours pushing our electric skillet to the max, we have a pretty bulletproof method for preparing one pot meals with a minimum of fuss and maximum flavor enjoyment. Take, for instance, last night's dinner, store-bought "fresh" fettuccini (pretty good stuff, really) tossed with shrimp, fresh tomatoes, herbs and cream.

Abbey is fully responsible for this inspiration, and it is fabulous. We boiled the shrimp for a few minutes in the pot, dumped it out and drained it, then got to peeling it while the pasta cooked in the pan. (next time we are going to try both together for the sake of water economy and to increase the shrimpy goodness.) The pasta was drained and put back in a dry pan with a mix of garden-fresh plum and grape tomatoes, halved, and 3/4 cup of heavy cream. as the tomatoes softened, the cream thickened. Then we tossed in some frozen peas. But the real genius of this dish was Abbey's simple mix of tarragon and shredded basil, both from the garden. The mix of the spicy basil and anise-y tarragon was a totally new sensation to me, and I plan to mix those together in something again,very soon. in the end we added a small amount of salt and cracked pepper and some shaved parmagiano. It was much more interesting than any one-pot frozen pasta dish, and much healthier, since we controlled the sodium content. It's a win-win.

What to do with Butternut Squash- take 1

I planted a couple of butternut squash plants in the backyard this year. As the summer has generally been on the wet side, plantlife has been flourishing, the squash plants being no exception. They are marvels of botanical engineering. Long shoots travel what seems like multiple feet in a day. upwind from the plants, on a small hill above them, is a plot of tomatoes. The squash fought their way uphill, and I have been fighting tooth and nail to keep them out of the tomatoes all summer. Prodigious, in foliage as well as fruit, yielding four very satisfying squash with several more near maturity.

Well, what do you do with butternut squash, especially when you are oven-challenged? In terms of flavor, a butternut is both savory and sweet. I've always marveled that, along with the pumpkin, carrot and sweet potato, there are four beta-kerotene rich vegetables that seem equally suited for both ends of the sweet-savory spectrum. This time, we've made soup. Abbey slow-cooked a cubed squash with vegetable broth and a liberal dose of chili-garlic sauce, a condiment found in most asian markets. She didn't go in an Asian direction with it, however. After the mixture was nearly cooked, she finished the job in the ever-wondrous electric skillet, adding fresh garlic, and rosemary and thyme from the herb garden, cooking on medium until the squash was fully tender. At that point she mashed it until smooth, then added a splash of olive oil in the bowl. The resulting mix of fresh herbs and the heat of the chili and garlic was intoxicatingly spicy and deeply satisfying.

Pancakes

Oh magic electric skillet, is there anything you can't do?

Pancakes are a great opportunity to get some healthy grains down your kids' gullets. Most normal pancake recipes call for white flour; I substitute whole grain oat flour 1:1. Of all the whole grain flours I have tried, it's the most palatable substitute for white flour. Granted, one kid did comment "these taste like oatmeal" before devouring his pile. Otherwise, no one has really noticed.

I find oat flour works best with a buttermilk-based batter. I also would like to dispel some myths that are propagated via some recipes, and to draw attention to a flub of my own of which Abbey had to break me, finally. Firstly, when you make a buttermilk pancake batter, it's not good to wait until the last possible minute to combine the wet and dry ingredients until the last minute. The alkaline baking soda combines with the acid buttermilk to form pockets of air, giving it a light, fluffy texture.

But it is possible to overwork, and the worst thing of all is to mix ingredients lightly, then discover pockets of unblended dry ingredients, then try to smooth it out with whisk or fork- that takes all of your hard earned air bubbles right out. Thanks for helping me discover this, Abbey, and I'm not going to make this mistake again!

So, the pancakes were actually pretty easy to make in this plain steel skillet. A little butter helps them brown and keep from sticking. While Abbey made the pancakes, I took the breakfast sausage links to the gas grill. I fired it up, sprayed the top half of a standard broiler pan (one comes with every oven, practically) with olive oil and let it get up to temp, then let the sausages rest in the slits. every minute or so I turned them five-ish degrees. Abbey doesn't like breakfast sausage much, and she said this was the best she's ever eaten. Even with the applicances back in place I may have to make sausage on the grill a weekend ritual.

What do you do with leftover pancakes? This is my current idea- break into similar pieces and layer in a desert dish with warm strawberry jam and whipped cream!

In Praise of Electric Skillets

Thanks to Lowe's inept flooring department, we are heading into week four of our kitchen reflooring saga. We selected our tile (Armstrong Excelon) and placed our order. Assured it would arrive in the middle of the following week, we spent the better part of three days ripping the existing layers of flooring out of our kitchen- four layers of linoleum. The eldest layer was rather handsome, a mid-century pattern with stars and gold flecks. The three most recent, including what was in evidence when we moved in, were ugly as sin.

The week came and went, and we were informed there would be a delay. Fine. When it did come in, we took the two boxes home and only found when they were opened that they ordered the wrong color. So, I hauled it back in and reordered. That is where things stand, four weeks later.

All of the kitchen appliances were moved into the dining room. As we have an electric oven with a 220 plug, it's out of commission. We're making due with a crock pot, toaster, microwave and a vintage electric skillet. The skillet has performed admirably; we've used it practically every day this month, and for the most amazing things: boiling corn and pasta, poaching eggs, frying falafel, browning roasts, popping popcorn(!), and perhaps its most successful and most appropriate use, serving as a hotpot for Sukiyaki.

This morning, I've fried a rasher of bacon, and near the end, fried eggs sunny side up in the grease. Not exactly health food, but incredibly satisfying! Even if I did break some of the yolks.