My favorite recipes

Angela Johnson Anderson is a Colfax girl, Colfax High School class of 2002, who is back in Whitman County. After graduating from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in health information administration in 2006, she attended physical therapy school at Eastern Washington University, graduating in 2009. She and Jake married while she was at EWU, and their goal was to live on the Palouse.

While at EWU, Angela began her job search, finding her best offer with Gritman Hospital in Moscow, thanks to their “Grow Your Own” program. They paid tuition for her last year in physical therapy school, and she agreed to work there for two years. With maternity leaves and now working thirty hours weekly, it’s taken three years. She enjoys working at Gritman, and she is on supplemental staff for Whitman Hospital and Medical Center. So, if you are in Whitman Hospital on a weekend and need PT services, you may see Angela.

Jake, whose family is in Moscow, works in Pullman where they live.

Thursday is library day in Colfax, so Angela brings the children to storytime with the help of her mom Robyn, her grandmother Lynne Bruya or grandfather Jim Bruya, or perhaps all three of them.

Angela and Jake were thrilled to be expecting twins, but her pregnancy was high-risk from the start. She spent fifty days at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in the antepartum department, where expectant moms receive care. Friends and family visiting were precious to her, as she didn’t have wheelchair privileges except for a few short hours one time. Jake or family or friends could stay overnight, and that was wonderful, she says.

In the meantime, Jake was working at Chipman and Taylor Chevrolet and working on the home improvement project they had begun months earlier, making room for two babies.

Connor and Jocelyn arrived at thirty-two weeks and one day gestation time and were whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. There were 17 doctors and nurses with Angela and Jake when the twins were born.

Angela asked for a wheelchair to go see them, but her legs were still numb. So they rolled her up to the NICU in her bed. In the month the twins were in the hospital, she admits that she didn’t see another new mother make her first visit in a bed. After being discharged from the hospital, Angela stayed with her grandfather, Lloyd Johnson, in Spokane so she could visit the babies daily.

When Connor and Jocelyn were discharged from the hospital, the family moved to Robyn and Mark Johnson’s home in Colfax, because their home project was not yet complete. If they needed help, Mark and Robyn helped, and if they were managing on their own, they did. The grandparents loved this time, and soon the Anderson house was complete.

Seventeen months after Connor and Jocelyn were born, Marcus was born, at thirty-seven weeks, after a much less complicated pregnancy. Three children in seventeen months motivated their parents to be efficient.

Now their days revolve around work and children. Angela arrives at work at seven in the morning, leaving at 2:30 or a little later. She does yoga in the morning before work, and after work she takes the children in a triplet stroller for a walk or jog, usually to the park. Marcus has decided that he needs to keep up with the older two, so Mom assists him climbing up the slide and other “big kid” tasks. They recently took a Pullman city bus ride, and the children loved it. Angela is training for her first half-marathon, too.

Angela sees a full range of physical therapy patients, including sports injury rehabilitation, outpatient orthopedic, and some elderly patients recovering from strokes, falls, and surgery. She notes that the elderly patients, who endured the Great Depression and World War II, are some of the physically toughest. Using quite a bit of manual therapy to relieve pain and tightness, Angela also teaches and supervises exercises and plans home therapy activities for her patients. She likes to see a variety of patients, so she doesn’t spend all day working with, say, knee surgery patients.

Swimming is a twice-weekly activity for Jocelyn and Connor, and Marcus thinks once a week just isn’t enough; he wants to be in the pool with his siblings. The twins know the alphabet and are learning sounds, while Marcus can say a few letter names. Connor, remarked Angela, is a sponge, while Jocelyn tries to mother her brothers. They all get along most of the time. However, at about eighteen months, Connor and Jocelyn tried to put each other in “time out” when they disagreed.

Connor and Jocelyn turned three in December, and Marcus is eighteen months old. Jake and Angela had their first vacation without children when they joined twelve college friends in the Napa Valley for several days. The flights were opportunities for Angela to catch up on reading physical therapy articles, but they really relaxed while they were there. They stayed together at a bed and breakfast, enjoyed dinner in celebrity chef restaurants (Jake found the portions to be tiny), and wine tasting during the day.

Their favorite winery was Miner’s, where wine ages in barrels in a cave dug into the hillside. An owner of Oracle and his nephew started the winery and spared no expense. The winery is solar-powered with the excess electricity sold back to the grid. Miner’s has the latest fantastic winemaking equipment, and they process grapes for a number of neighboring wineries. However, they use more old-fashioned methods for their own wines.

The Leaping Frog Winery is an interesting innovation—a Napa Valley dryland vineyard, in contrast to all of the other irrigated vineyards. Some of the Napa Valley wineries are estate wineries, others buy all their grapes from other vineyards, and some grow their own plus buy some additional grapes. After college, the Anderson’s had visited the Woodinville wineries, but this was a definite step up. The fourteen friends plan more short trips in the future. The next family trip will be the children’s first flight to visit Uncle Bruce and Aunt Kathy Johnson in Columbus, Ohio, and they are already looking forward to it.

Angela is getting more involved with cooking as the children get older. She is busy collecting recipes and trying them. New recipes are placed in an accordion folder, and those that she and Jake judge as eight points on a ten-point scale move into a binder to be kept and used again. An organized cook, Angela notes changes and substitutions on her recipes as she makes them. Learning shortcuts has made cooking easier.

The Anderson children eat whatever she cooks, and sometimes they skip a food, but eat the other foods at dinner. Making a peanut butter sandwich is not an option—they can have more veggies. After they eat some of the protein dish and vegetables, they can have bread or rolls to go with the rest of their dinner.

A learning tower borrowed from Aunt Debbie Johnson allows the kids to stand at the counter and help Mom cook. Designed for one child, Connor, Jocelyn and Marcus are able to stack themselves on it. Angela measures and the children count, help with stirring and so on. Angela cooks dinner and Jake cleans up, and he really has a system. Angela said that he is a great dad. If he hasn’t seen the kids much, they switch jobs, and she cleans up while he gives baths.

Recipes:

“Green Soup” (Green Minestrone)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

4 large cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium zucchini, diced

1 bay leaf

1 can white cannellini beans

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can black beans

Salt and pepper, to taste

8 cups low-sodium chicken broth or stock

1 package tortellini

1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

10 ounces fresh spinach, coarsely chopped (or any other dark greens)

1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano

4 slices pancetta, prosciutto, or bacon, fried and chopped (optional)

12 to 16 leaves fresh basil (optional)

Heat a soup pot over medium high heat. Add onions, celery, garlic, zucchini and bay to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and sauté vegetables 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add white beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, and chicken broth/stock to the pot. Cover soup and bring to a boil. Add pasta and green beans to the soup and cook 8 minutes, or until pasta is just tender.

Stir in spinach to wilt, 1 minute. Stir in grated cheese and ladle soup into bowls. Garnish soup with bacon, shredded basil, and shredded cheese.

Pumpkin Risotto with Seared Scallops

pumpkin risotto:

1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pinch ground clove

1/4 cup hot chicken or vegetable broth

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, divided

4 to 5 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 cups Arborio rice

2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese, softened

1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced

salt and pepper to taste

seared scallops:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (plus more, if needed)

18 large scallops, cleaned

salt and pepper to taste

confetti candied pancetta:

1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

4 ounces pancetta, micro diced

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

Risotto: Stir together the first six ingredients into a small pot and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove mixture from heat, add 1/4 cup broth, blend, season with salt and pepper. While continuing to blend (until smooth), add 1/4 cup of butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Pour pureed mixture into a bowl and set aside until ready to use.

Pour the chicken broth into a medium pot and warm over low heat.

Place a large pan over medium heat and melt the remaining butter and olive oil.

Add the onion and garlic and sauté for about 3 minutes.

Add the rice and sauté for 3-5 minutes or until each grain of rice is coated in oil and there is a white dot in the center of each grain.

Begin adding the warm broth to the rice, one ladle full at a time, stirring frequently.

Each time the liquid evaporates, add another ladle of broth and continue to stir.

Continue to add broth and stir until the rice is al dente, 20-25 minutes.

Stir in the pumpkin puree until completely combined.

Stir in the mascarpone and parmesan until smooth.

Fold in the thyme and season with salt and pepper.

Scallops: Heat the oil in a heavy bottom skillet, over medium-high heat. Season scallops with salt and pepper and sear, in batches, for 3-4 minutes on each side.

Candied confetti pancetta: Heat the oil in a heavy bottom skillet, over medium high heat, cook pancetta until crispy. Drain all but 2 teaspoons of grease from the pan and return to the stove, over medium heat. Sprinkle brown sugar over the pancetta and stir until the sugar melts and has coated the pancetta. Spread the candied confetti-pancetta onto a sheet pan lined with parchment and allow to cool and slightly harden.

Assemble: Fill bowls with risotto and top each with three scallops; finish each bowl with a sprinkle of pancetta. Serve immediately.

Superfood Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Salad:

1/2 cup dry quinoa, rinsed, cooked according to package directions & cooled

1/3 cup red onion, chopped

1 orange, peeled and segments chopped

1 avocado, chopped

1 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup pomegranate arils (about 1 pomegranate worth)

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/3 cup cilantro, chopped

salt and pepper

shrimp, cooked (optional)

Lemon Vinaigrette:

2 lemons, juiced (need 1/4 cup juice

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

dash of sweetener (agave nectar or white sugar)

salt & pepper

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients of salad in large bowl. Prepare lemon vinaigrette in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Pour over salad and stir. Serve as is, or top with shrimp for a main dish.

Aunt Lil’s Banana Bread

5 eggs

1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 heaping tsp baking soda

1 heaping tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups oil

2 to 3 cups banana

2 packages instant pudding (vanilla or coconut)

Spoon into greased loaf pans. This will make 2 large lloaves or 4-5 small loaves. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until tooth pick comes out clean.