French Tian Vegetable Casserole Recipe by Ruth Paget

French Tian Casserole Recipe by Ruth Paget 

I first read about southern France’s vegetable tian casseroles in Mireille Johnston’s cookbook Cuisine of the Sun. Her recipes focused on nutrition without too many calories in cuisine minceur, diet cuisine, dishes. The recipes were delicious, but not high calorie. 

When I was a Navy wife in Norfolk (Virginia), I wanted to make tians that could replace cheeseburger meals and make use of the inexpensive zucchini and Italian yellow squash I could find at the supermarket. I added cooked rice to my tians and eggs along with inexpensive Swiss cheese instead of pricy Parmesan. 

I also read in Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook World Vegetarian that seeds and grains mixed together provide enough amino acids to form a complete protein. I reasoned that the seeds in zucchini and yellow squash mixed with rice grains would give my casserole an extra protein boost. 

My recipe for a vegetable tian casserole follows, which can be used for many soft vegetables: 

Zucchini and Italian Yellow Squash Tian Recipe: 

Serves 4 

Ingredients: 

-2 cups cooked rice 

-2 eggs 

-2 medium zucchini, grated with skins left on 

-2 medium Italian yellow squash, grated with skins left on 

-1 cup grated Swiss cheese or Parmesan cheese 

-2 tablespoons olive oil 

-Non-stick baking spray for an 8-inch or 9-inch round baking dish 

-3 tablespoons Italian seasoning or Herbes de Provence 

Steps: 

1-Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (15 minutes). 

2-Mix cooked rice with eggs, grated vegetables, grated cheese, and olive oil. 

3-Spray baking dish with non-stick spray. Pour rice-vegetable mixture into the baking dish. 

4-Top with Italian seasoning or Herbes de Provence. 

5-Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. A toothpick or cake tester inserted in the tian should come out clean to show that the tian is done. 

Serve with a fruit salad. 

You can also use vegetables like the following in this recipe: cooked spinach, cooked Swiss chard, mushrooms, peas, tomatoes, eggplant, or green beans. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Russian Food in Detroit by Ruth Paget

Eating Russian Food in Detroit by Ruth Paget 

Whenever my mother and I went shopping at Detroit’s Renaissance Center on the riverfront, we would first go to lunch at Olga’s Kitchen located in the RenCen. 

We took the tourist trolley, which stopped right outside our apartment building on Washington Boulevard. (The current monorail system was just being built.) The trolley was warm in icy weather and protected us from potential falls. The trolley turned left onto Jefferson Avenue at the end of Washington Boulevard and brought us to the entrance of the five-towered Renaissance Center designed by architect John Portman. 

From the warm trolley, my mom and I would go to Olga’s Kitchen for Russian-American food. Olga’s was famous for their thick and large blini pancakes wrapped around Detroit fillings like Greek gyros and Arab schwarma. 

My mother and I ordered gyros blinis, which came with garlicky yogurt sauce, pickled slices of white and red onion, and tomatoes. A toothpick held this delicious combo together. The blini came with a side salad, French fries, and a drink. Olga’s Kitchen provided a tonic lunch before setting out for an afternoon of shopping. 

Our first stop was Winkelman’s Clothing Store. My mother was going to inspect the discounted designer clothing I had been making payments on as layaway purchases. She would make the final the final payment, if the deal were a good one. If not, she would get money back and apply it to other layaway deals. She would also look through the store merchandise for designer deals herself, too. 

From Winkelman’s we would go to the RenCen’s crystal boutique. We both liked Waterford relish trays and Baccarat ship’s decanters. The salesman gave us a corporate gift brochure when she found out my mother worked at the Free Press. (Mom had asked about discounts on large order purchases to see if she could lower the price of the items on sale.) 

Our last stop on our RenCen shopping trips would be the Godiva Chocolate Boutique. My mom would buy a pound of chocolate and made sure we got some samples to taste before making our purchase. 

We took the trolley home with our purchases. I felt like a junior boyar, an elite Russian merchant who dealt with mink coats and caviar and who dined on Beef Stroganoff, with our bags of nice purchases.

For more information on authentic Russian food, readers might like the book entitled Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets’ A Gift to Young Housewives translated by Joyce Toomre (published by Indiana University Press). 

There is an easy recipe for making blini pancakes topped with smoked salmon, sour cream, and caviar in the book Hors d’oeuvres and Appetizers (Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library) by Chuck Williams and the Scotto Sisters. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France 

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Detroit Bean Salad $ Hack Recipe by Ruth Paget

Detroit Bean Salad $ Hack Recipe by Ruth Paget 

This bean salad with cheese cubes and sliced celery is something I made on “snow days” when Detroit (Michigan) Public Schools would be closed due to inclement weather that threatened power lines and clogged city streets. This Detroit blizzard bean salad does not require cooking, and is an inexpensive, vegetarian dish. You can easily leave out what you do not like as well. 

Serves 6 to 8 

Ingredients: 

1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can navy beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed 

1 cup cubed cheddar or Swiss cheese 

4 stalks celery, rinsed and sliced in ½-inch slices 

1 cup French dressing or Italian dressing 

Steps: 

1-Place all ingredients in a large salad bowl and mix. 

2-Chill until serving 

Other blizzard weather tips: 

-serve the above salad on torn iceberg lettuce 

-place canisters of peanuts, cashew, and other nuts on counter tops while you can see them in case of power outage. 

-make tea in several pots and add bottled lemon juice. The tea that gets cold can be easily made into iced tea. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Venetian Food in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget

Venetian Food in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget 

I ate my first Venetian meals in Detroit (Michigan) at Syros Restaurant, which was located behind my apartment building on Griswold Street.  The island of Syros is Greek, but at one time it was part of the Republic of Venice, which explains the restaurant’s Venetian dinner specials. 

My neighborhood’s Catholics, the priests from Saint Aloysius Church, the rabbis from the downtown synagogue, and fashion district workers all ate one or two meals at Syros thanks to reasonable prices on liver and fish dinners. 

I used my allowance on fegato alla veneziana (liver with caramelized onions) and baked fish made with lemon, olive oil, garlic, halved cherry tomatoes, and chopped parsley. Both dishes came with a side of peas and rice (risi e bisi). Detroit’s large Eastern Market kept produce from warmer climates available all winter long. 

Those two dinner items came with a cup of soup or a salad. The soups were chicken noodle or meatless minestrone. I liked the minestrone for the pinto beans, which tasted good with grated Parmesan. I never ate dessert, but they always had custardy rice pudding with vanilla and cinnamon available. I drank iced tea with my meal in summer and coffee with cream in the winter. 

These dinners are nice weekday meals. They are inexpensive and easy to make at home, if you learn how to handle the ingredients. Liver is rich in iron. There is a good recipe for it with grapes, sour cherries, and polenta, if you do not want onions, in Venetian Republic: Recipes from Veneto, Adriatic Croatia, and the Greek Islands by Nico Zoccali. 

For more information about the history and culture of Venice, readers might be interested in the book Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization by anthropologist Meredith F. Small. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Wisconsin $ Food Hacks by Ruth Paget

Wisconsin $ Food Hacks by Ruth Paget

Short post for big nutrition on a budget:

Oatmeal - lots of protein bang for your buck and fiber

Cranberries - full of vitamin C.

Cook fresh berries with sugar and add them to oatmeal muffins.

Maple syrup - sweetens up buckwheat pancakes

Buckwheat is a good source of iron.  Buckwheat pancakes have a sour taste, but maple syrup makes it less pronounced.

Food for thought for today.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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English Writing Skills Book List by Ruth Paget

English Writing Skills Book List by Ruth Paget 

I have used books like the following to prepare for college entrance exams and to write media releases over the years: 

For writing organization: 

 -Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide to Middle School by Ruth Culham 

-Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Students by Prestwick House 

-Cracking the AP English Language and Composition Exam by the Staff of Princeton Review 

For Vocabulary Building: 

-The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists by Jacqueline E. Kress and Edward B. Fry 

-Gruber’s SAT Word Master by Gary R. Gruber 

-1100 Words You Need to Know by Murray Bromberg and Melvin Gordon 

-Word Smart: 823 Words You Need to Know by Adam Robinson 

-Word Smart II by Adam Robinson 

-Word Smart: Genius Edition by Michael Freedman 

For Grammar and Punctuation: 

-English Grammar for Dummies by Geraldine Woods 

-English Grammar Workbook for Dummies by Geraldine Woods 

-Complete English Punctuation Rules by Farlex International 

Reward for Learning the Basics: 

-A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver 

-The Making of a Poem: The Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland 

When I was the Youth Services Library for the Monterey County Free Libraries (California), I purchased books like these for the Youth Services Nonfiction Collection. This collection is updated yearly so there are probably even more books like these now to keep tomorrow’s writers busy. 

Happy Writing! 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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