Pea-Tuna Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 2
Ingredients:
-1 (14.5 – ounce) can peas, drained
-1 (5 – ounce) can tuna packed in water, drained
-1 (15 – ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
-1/4 cup vinegar and oil dressing
Steps:
1-Mix peas, tuna, cannellini beans, and dressing together.
Serve alone or over croutons, cooked cold rice, or cooked cold elbow pasta.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Cheesy Pot Scrambled Eggs Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 1
Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-1 (10-ounce) can Ro-Tel Tomatoes and Green Chilies with Juice
-2 to 3 eggs, beaten
-3/4 cup shredded Colby or Cheddar cheese
Steps:
1-Heat olive oil in a sauté pan.
2-Mix Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chilies with the beaten eggs.
3-Pour the egg mixture in the hot oil. Stir for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how moist you would like your eggs.
4-Sprinkle the shredded cheese on the eggs and stir for 2 to 3 minutes.
Ro-Tel tomatoes are very spicy. If you like spicy foods, this dish goes well with strong coffee or a Bloody Mary.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Scrambled Eggs with Feta Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 1
Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-1 zucchini cut in half moon slices
-1 green pepper cut in squares
-2 eggs beaten
-1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
-1/2 tablespoon oregano
Steps:
1-Heat olive oil and place zucchini and peppers in the hot oil.
2-Sauté vegetables for 5 minutes while stirring.
3-Stir beaten eggs into the vegetables for 5 minutes.
4-Add feta and oregano. Stir for 1 minute and serve.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Zucchini and Pepper Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 1
Ingredients:
-2 zucchini
-1 red pepper
-3 tablespoons vinegar and oil dressing
-3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
Steps:
1-Cut ends off the zucchini. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Cut in half lengthwise again. Slice and place in a large bowl.
2-Lay pepper flat on stem side after removing stem. Cut down the sides and remove seeds. Cut pepper into slices and then into squares. Place peppers on top of zucchini.
3-Place cheese on top of the zucchini and peppers. Drizzle with dressing and lightly toss. Serve with toast, if desired.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Steamed Brussels Sprouts Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 2
Ingredients:
3 cups raw, whole Brussels sprouts
4 tablespoons vinegar and oil dressing
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese (optional)
Steps:
1-Place a collapsible steamer in a pot. Fill the pot with water up to the bottom of the steamer. Turn burner on and cover pot to heat water while preparing the Brussels sprouts.
2-Place a Brussels sprout on its side and cut it in half lengthwise. Do this with all the Brussels sprouts.
3-Place Brussels sprouts halves in the open steamer. Cover pot and steam the Brussels sprouts for 15 minutes.
4-After 15 minutes, place the Brussels sprouts in a bowl and drizzle 4 tablespoons of vinegar and oil dressing over them. Toss and serve. Add Parmesan cheese, if desired.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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
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
