Good enough for Facebook

Apparently my hubby thought dinner last night was good enough for a facebook shout out. Not sure if it was really that awesome or he just had not had a home cooked meal for weeks. (The fault of his crazy work schedule, not my lack of dinner prep:)


We had homemade black bean burgers and homemade potato chips with spicy ranch dip for the burgers, chips or both. I will link to the recipies because I can't seem to paste them in.

Spicy Ranch
Black Bean Burgers
Homemade potato chips

PS The hubby made quite a face when I told them that the dinner menu was black bean burgers, so by the end it must have made quite an impression.

Help

If you are reading I need help. Not major my-life-is-threatened help, but food help.

We are usually participating in a supper club with our Sunday School class, so at least 4 times per year I have to come up with an appetizer to bring to dinner. This should be easy but no. Here is why...

-Most of the recipies I come up with are best served hot, or at least warm. We are always driving about 30 minutes to supper club and I am never quite sure how well things will keep thier heat.
-I am not above a good cheese tray, but sometimes feel like its a little of a cop out.
-I rarely know what is for dinner so I want to bring something fairly general that I know will work for the meal.
-Crackers and Dips are begining to bore me.
-I never know if I should do something really specific (stuffed mushrooms ect.) for some reason all of those types of appatizers seem to work best as part of a appetizer spread.

So if you are reading help. What is your go to app for situations like this? Am I over thinking this? Are crakers and dips not really that bad:)

Menu Monday

In an attempt to hold myself accountable for my 2010 plan #2 (see the sidebar), I thought I would share our meal plans for the week.

Slow Cooker Green Pepper Chicken with Brown Rice and Salad.

Spicy Shrimp with Rice Noodles

Baked Ziti and Salad

Mustard Chicken Salad and wild rice

This is not quite 5 or 7 days of meals, but depending on our night schedule I plan to throw in a winter vegetable stew or frozen pizza from the freezer. I have everything I need for the meals for the week and shouldn't need to make any mid-week trips to the store.

Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary and Garlic

An easy weeknight meal or something for guests.

Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary* and Garlic
1 pkg Pork Tenderloin (these usually have two in a pack)
Olive Oil
4-6 Fresh Sprigs of Rosemary
4-6 garlic cloves, diced.
Salt and Pepper

Slice each tenderloin longways, but do not cut all the way through the meat. Drizzle olive oil and salt and pepper in the incision for each tenderloin. Stuff garlic and rosemary* into each incision. Place meat with the incision facing down into an oven safe pan. Drizzle olive oil and salt and pepper over meat to taste. Bake at 350^ for 30 minutes or until "pork" reading on meat thermometer.

1pkgs (2 tenderloins) easily serves 6

*This originally also called for fresh sage, but since I always have rosemary in the garden and most of the other ingredients in the house, I tend to forget I need to buy sage.

Dinner for 2, 4, 6, 8....

This was a foody weekend for me. Two different groups of dinner guests and a trip to the winter farmer's market (which by the way is one of me 2010 goals). So for your eating pleasure I thought I would share two pretty easy winter menu's when you have to cook for more than 1 or 2.

Menu #1: Ina Garten's 40 Clove Garlic Chicken (remember I am obsessed); Couscous; Fresh Green Beans

Why it works: There is a bit of prep work with the chicken, but once it is all in the pot you can enjoy your company. The beans and couscous take about 5 minutes each on the stove, right before everyone is ready to sit down. I made this on a frigid evening and its was warm and hardy. It satisfied my need for something a little fancy but didn't offend the "meat and potatoes" crowd I was cooking for.

Menu #2: Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary and Garlic; Paula Deen's sweet potato fries; roasted asparagus with ciabatta and honey cinnamon butter

Why it works: The pork tenderloin is easy prep with moderate cooking time and once its in the oven you can pretty much ignore it. I have made it for years and its never dry. Interestingly enough I find that most guests really enjoy the pork, but don't tend make it much in their homes so its something a little different. Paula's sweet potato fries were an excellent and simple savory use of the locally grown sweet potatoes that I got at our winter market and the roasted asparagus can't really be any easier. I was dying to try Darcy's honey cinnamon butter and it seemed like it would fit well with the meal-I was right. I made the honey cinnamon butter earlier in the day and everything else pretty much hung out in the oven as we were enjoying our wine an appetizers.

Tonight I am sticking with the winter vegetables and planning butternut squash soup (the squash is also from the winter market) and sweet potato biscuits. I think the left over honey cinnamon butter will reappear as well.

*Disclaimer: None of the pictures are actually of my meals, sorry.

I want to be ...

Ina Garten when I grow up.

With the lack of new TV on this week I found reruns of Barefoot Contessa to DVR and have been watching them nonstop. I would love to visit (or live in) her NYC apartment.

Image from Bandelle.com

The "barn" in the Hamptons isn't bad either.

Image from House Beautiful

Her style and food always seems like such relaxed elegance.

And I'm back

I apparently took a little month+ long hiatus from the computer, but I am hopefully back to regularly scheduled programing in 2010. Is it really January 5th already?

After the Christmas decorations are put away (tonight's goal), the house always feels primed for an update--paint, organization or just switching things around to accommodate the house and home related stash that was received on the 25th. I have a few in-progress projects that are first on the list, but then who knows.

I hope to spend even more time in the kitchen using Christmas gifts.

This:

And this:

Not to mention consider a mini-update (paint, curtains, uncluttered counter tops) for said kitchen. Stay tuned.

Thanksgiving Tradition-Pink Salad

It's Thanksgiving recipes and traditions today on Kelly's Korner "Show us your Life." I can't really believe that is actually November, but since the calendar doesn't lie and Turkey Day is only 3 weeks away here is my recipe and tradition.

Having this recipe at Thanksgiving Dinner is the tradition. Pink Salad is a congealed fruit salad recipe, that is just as good for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving as it is for the actual meal. Did I mention the final result is Pepto-Bismol pink:)

And though these types of recipes (congealed salads) usually remind me of my southern roots, this one came from my Italian grandmother.

Pink Salad

8 oz of Whipping Cream
2 20 oz cans of Crushed Pineapple
2 8 oz blocks of Cream Cheese at room temperature
2 jars of Maraschino Cherries chopped
1 cup of Sugar
2 packages of Knox Unflavored Gelatin

Heat pineapple and sugar in a sauce pan until sugar is dissolved. Keep warm. Mix cream cheese and cherries together in mixer and set aside. In a small bowl, dissolve gelatin packages with 2 tablespoons of hot water and 2 tablespoons of the hot pineapple/sugar mixture. Mix well then add gelatin to pineapple/sugar mixture. Remove pineapple/sugar/gelatin from heat then add it to the cherries and cream cheese. Mix with mixer then add whipping cream. Pour into serving dish and congeal in refrigerator.

Kitchen Essentials

I have what I consider a well-stocked kitchen. I can also say after a few moves and purging, most of what is left in my drawers and cabinets I used on a regular basis. What works for me may sit in your drawer with only one use, but here are the pros (and cons) of what I consider my kitchen essentials.

-Hand Chopper-I have one from Oxo Good Grips. It's a little loud, but I use my chopper at least once a week to dice onions and veggies in about 1/2 the time it would take with a knife.

-Hand/Submersion blender-It may just seem like one extra appliance, but it really is invaluable for quick soups. Remembers Soups On this fall.

Handheld Cheese Grater-Processed Parmesan cheese is OK, but there is nothing like the real stuff freshly grated. Shredded cheese maybe easy, but simply buying blocks of cheese and grating it when you need it is good for the budget.

Stock pot-I cook all of our pasta and soups in this pot. It's also out at least once per week.

Mini food processor-I got two Cuisinart Minis as wedding presents. I find that they are a great size for making quick dips or salad dressings and having two has actually been really helpful.

Steamer-I have really only used the steamer for rice, but with the timer setting on the model that I have its so nice to add water, set the timer and forget about it until dinner is ready.

And one for the wish list: A Kitchenaid Mixer. I have a stand up mixer, but there is just something about a Kitchenaid that makes me drool. I'll take red please:)

I found it on another blog-October

October was all about the kitchen for me. Maybe it was the change of seasons, but I was motivated to cook and try new recipes.

1-Spicy Pretzels from All Things G & D-I can't wait to try these, they sound like perfect football food.

2-Kitchen Eye-Candy from Pure Style Home-With all of the cooking I am wanting to do between now and holidays, its hard not to think about a dream kitchen. I love the eating/work space and natural light in this one.

3-It's kind of like cooking. I was so excited to see this list recipes for natural homemade cleaners featured on Young House Love. Now I just have to wait for my store-bought chemicals to run out.

4-This recipe for Ravioli with Apples and Walnuts on Big City Cooking. It screams fall to me.

5-I'm not one for breaking out the Christmas tunes before Halloween is even over, but this Snickerdoodle Experiment from The Way the Cookie Crumbles has got me thinking about holiday baking.

Bon appetit!

Word of the Day: Mirepoix

Funny how things work out like this. Yesterday I posted about pre-chopping onions, carrots and celery for soup and today I read about Mirepoix for sale in our Trader Joe's flyer.

Mirepoix is a combination of celery, carrot and onion. The "holy trinity", which is apparently the essential ingredient in dozens traditional French dishes (and all of my soup recipies).

If time is really and issue and you live near a TJ's it sounds like you can buy you mirepoix chopped, mixed and ready to go. I will probably stick to creating mine at home, but at least I know what I am doing.

Soups On

For the last few years I have tried to add a soup or stew to our dinner menu at least once per week. Despite the chopping and blending there is something about soups that to me screams "easy dinner." I guess it's the fewer dishes that a full on meal and often frozen leftovers.

Just in case the "comfort factor" of a homemade soup is not enough, I have started to do a few things to make soups even easier.

1-Chop then freeze. Most of my soup (and some non-soup) recipes call for a veggie base of carrots, celery, onion or garlic (or all of the above). I keep onion and garlic on hand and don't mind a little dicing to start, but because we don't really snack on celery or carrots. I buy a fresh bag of each, roughly chop them up when I have an few extra minutes, the freeze the veggies. When you need one or both for soups the work is done.

2-Have the right tools, a hand held chopper and a hand blender are a must for soups. The chopper helps with cutting veggies (for soup or anything else, I must use mine 3 times per week). For pureed soups, the hand blender eliminates the process of cooling, batch blending and reheating soups. Everything stays in the pot and your soup can stay warm while blending it down, just watch for splatter.

3-Double the recipe and then be ready to freeze it. Once you have eaten dinner parcel leftovers into plastic or glass containers and freeze. I have had good luck with most (even cream based) soups in the freezer. After a few recipes and freezing left overs you will have a freezer stocked for future lunches and dinners for the winter, so canned soup no more.

While we are talking soup I will share a the best tomato bisque recipe I have found (we had it last night).

Tomato Bisque from the Food Network

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon minced bacon (about 1/2 ounce)
1 Spanish onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
1 (28-ounce) can whole, peeled tomatoes (with liquid), roughly chopped
3 parsley sprigs
3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream
1 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat the butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, until crisp and most of the fat has rendered, about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. Lower the heat to medium, add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant, about 8 minutes.

Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Pour in the broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Tie the parsley sprigs, thyme, and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine and add to the pot. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool**.

When the soup base is cool, remove and discard the herb bundle. Working in batches, transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Using a sieve over a large bowl, strain the tomato puree. Return the puree to the pot and reheat over medium heat.
Whisk the heavy cream and salt into the soup and season with pepper to taste. Divide among warm soup bowls and serve immediately.

**If you use a hand blender, just remove the herb bundle and blend in the pot. I don't mind a little texture so I don't even strain the soup. Just add the cream, salt and pepper and serve.

Simple, Spicy

Here is a quick recipie share for anyone who likes shellfish, spice and a simple recipie.

The noodles have a great combo of spice and freshness with the basil or onion topping. As a one pan dish it's easy prep and clean up. Add a glass of wine and I feel like I am eating dinner in a chic urban Asian eatery instead of my suburban kitchen.

Shrimp and Rice Noodles with Lime and Spicy Kick

16 oz rice noodles

12-16 raw shrimp, peeled

3 tbsp. olive oil

3 cloves garlic

4 tbsp. soy sauce

3 tbsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (more or less depending on you desire for heat)

2-4 cups chicken broth

red pepper flakes to taste

fresh lime wedges, basil or green onions as garnish and topping.

Prepare noodles according to package directions and shell shrimp. Mix olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, lime juice, sugar and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Cook shrimp in a wok or large frying pan until pink with 2 tbsp. of the prepared sauce. Add small amounts of chicken broth to the shrimp to keep some liquid in the wok. Add cooked noodles and remaining prepared sauce; mix with shrimp and heat through. Just before removing from heat add red pepper flakes to taste and chicken broth to achieve desired soupy-ness. Serve with lime wedge or a spritz of lime juice, topped with chopped fresh basil or green onions .

Meal Delivery for New Parents

Not being a parent (new or otherwise) I can't imagine what it is like the first few weeks home with a new baby. I can imagine that menu planning and cooking are probably not high on the list.

We attend a young couples Sunday School class at our church and with 2 or 3 couples expecting at any given time, the class provides a phenomenal meal ministry. For 12-16 weeks after new babies are born, members of our class provide meals to the family 2 times per week.

We do have one person that coordinates the project, but the coordination is pretty minimal now that we are using Foodtidings.com. The site makes it easy to coordinate and schedule meals from a small or large group and no one person has to take responsibility for the calendar. The site even sends out a reminder and lets others in the group know what meals are being made for the family to avoid the same meal being delivered over and over again.

Next week I am dropping off meals for 2 different families. My go to meal is homemade lasagna and a salad. When I have signed up for meals:

1)I usually deliver the dish in a throw away pan with a lid. Easy for saving leftovers and clean up and no dish to return (I know, I know-it's not very green).

2)I take the dish ready to go either straight into the oven or back into the fridge or freezer. While dropping off a hot, ready-to-eat meal is really nice, this way the family can eat on their own evening schedule or save the meal for a later day if their plans have changed or they are still eating left overs.


3)To make things a little easier on me I try to sign up for several families with in a few days of each other and choose meals that I can make in a batch. Most of the time I make extra for our dinner as well.

Four lasagnas almost ready to go; we also had baked ziti for dinner with the sauce that was left.

Meal delivery schedules don't just have to be for new parents. You can also coordinate a group to provide meals after a hospital stay, health issue or death in the family. Maybe even a meal share with a group of neighbors to make family dinners a little easier to get on the table.

Fried Green Tomatoes

My kitchen is not exactly the Whistle Stop Cafe, but I do have a crop of almost ripe/green tomatoes begging me to enjoy them. Last night we did for dinner. Don't get me wrong I can't wait until I have red, ripe and juicy ones but no reason not to enjoy a different type of tomato while we wait.

Fried green tomatoes (FGT) were a last minute addition to dinner and I had what I needed already in the pantry. Olive oil, milk, egg, flour, breadcrumbs and/or cornmeal (I used both) was all it took. Plus the tomato. I used a full grown plump, but not net ripe German Johnson. I really like this tomato variety of for FGT.

I sliced my tomato into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness, then salted and peppered each side of the slice.

While the salted slices were resting I prepared the ingredients for breading the FGT and heated olive oil in a skillet. Prepare milk, a beaten egg and dry ingredients in separate bowls. I used one plate for my flour, bread crumbs and corn meal.

It gets a little messy, but then I coated each salted tomato slice in milk, then flour, then egg, then corn meal/breadcrumbs. Once the olive oil was hot into the pan they went. Cook each side 4-5 min.Once I removed the FGT from the oil, I dropped them on a paper towel and lightly salt them again. Nothing left now but to enjoy the FGT with Idgie and Ruth.

So will I try FGT again? Absolutely they were not to difficult for a great something differnt for dinner. But for next time:

I used bread crumbs for two of my slices and corn meal for 2 of the FGT. I think next round I will use a mixture of both (maybe 80/20 cornmeal) as the final coating. I will also use a large enough pan to fry all of the slices at once. I could only fit two at a time and the oil got very messy. Maybe with a bit more planning I will have what I need for a great sauce for the FGT, something creamy, but with a little spicy kick.

Hot off the Grill

I will be honest, as much as I love to cook I usually leave the grilling up to Carolina Husband. But lately I have seen a lot what I think of as non-traditional grill recipes. Last night I gave grilled pizza a shot.

I came across the idea of cooking pizza on the grill a few weeks ago. I love brick oven pizza so I wanted to see how cooking on the grill compared.

The Final Product

Overall I was a big fan. The grilled pizza has a thin crust, so it will cook fast. The final flavor and texture of the cooked crust is one with a smoky crunch, but with just enough "chewy" in the cooked dough to keep anything from tasting overcooked or burnt.

The prep and grilling process is pretty simple and once the pizza hits the grill grates it cooks in a flash. Not only does it taste good, but it is also a quick alfresco dinner.

So how exactly do you grill pizza?

1-Start with a few balls of homemade pizza dough. I make several batches of dough, separate it into portions and freeze it for quick dinners so I had some on hand. If you don't want to make your own, see if your local pizza place will sell raw dough.

2-Roll the dough into personal sized rounds (about 1/8" thick). The smaller, "personal" sized pizzas will be easier to handle on the grill. You will need to use flour or cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking as the rounds get rolled out. I used flour last night, but I think light cornmeal would add a nice texture and flavor.

3-Heat the grill to medium high heat. Brush the top of each dough round with olive oil (I also added a bit of garlic) and place it olive oil side down on the hot grill.

My dough round (or in this case dough square) brushed with olive oil. Ready for the grill.

4-The crust will set quickly (about 3 minutes). It will be set when it slides easily off the grill. While the crust is setting/cooking (olive oil side down), brush more olive oil on topside of the dough round. After first side of the crust sets, flip the round with tongs or a spatula.

Grilling the bottom side of the dough. Brushing olive oil to get the top ready to grill.

5-Once the "done" side is facing back up, top the pizza with toppings of your choice while the bottom of the crust cooks on the grill. Last night I used a little tomato sauce, basil from our garden and fresh mozzarella.

Adding the toppings, you can see the nice grill marks at the bottom of the crust.

6-Once the toppings were added and both sides of the crust were cooked, I moved the pizza up to to top rack of the grill and closed the lid, just to keep the cheese melting.

Move the pizza to the top rack of the grill to keep the crust from burning, this way the toppings can continue to melt and warm.

That's about it. You should be able to grill several pizzas at once. Surprise your neighbors, invite them over for an backyard BBQ, open up a bottle or two of wine and instead of burgers and dogs, throw the dough on the grill.

If you give it a shot here are a few more tips.

-Get creative with your toppings, but have everything sliced and ready to go because the first side of the crust will cook very fast. Also the toppings should be minimal or the crust will burn long before the ingredients are warm or melted.

-Don't worry if the dough droops a little through the grill grate, it will firm up fast.