beans + breadsticks

I remembered to soak the beans last night. Yay! When I have a pot of soaking beans on the stove it's so easy for me to remember to start dinner at a decent time. Not that I did it, but I did remember. Execution has always been my weak suit, while I've always been unusually gifted in Procrastination.

Tonight we had what Laurel's Kitchen calls Beans Bourguignon. I know a dish exists called Beef Bourguignon, ( I am somewhat steeped in Julia Child right now if you remember) but I've never had it. Thus I have no idea if Beans Bourguignon shares the title based on flavor or if Laurel just thought it was fun to say. Either way, the beans were delicious. The recipe, if you could call it that, was one of those short little paragraphs explaining what is possible with these certain ingredients but doesn't give you any amounts or anything. I kinda sorta made it up. Because of this, I understand what they mean when they say the movie was inspired by the book. It means you read their words, causing a little light to go on in your head and so you did your very own thing that has almost nothing to do with the original except maybe the main characters' names.

I took 1/2 pound of lima beans and 1/2 pound of kidney beans and  simmered the kadookie out of those babies. When it was time to think about eating I made a little butter/flour/bean broth gravy and returned it to the bean pot with an onion, a couple potatoes and a couple carrots. Throw in a pinch of basil, sage and garlic powder along with some salt and we were golden. I made some breadsticks to sop of the deliciousness and it was goo-oo-ood. This might have been my most successful pot of beans thus far. They were that tasty. My bean-hater child whined and all of them made me puree their servings, but it was all eaten. And in the end, that's all I care about.

Beans Bourguignon recipe

potato soup + bread

I forgot to soak the beans and I'm out of wheat gluten. Those two ingredients are muy importante for two meals that I couldn't make tonight. I had to go off menu. And since I just finished reading Julie & Julia (which I don't recommend), and I'm currently reading Julia Child's biography Appetite for Life and listening to Julia Child's My Life in France autobiography book on tape, I thought it might be fitting to cook something from Julia's Kitchen Wisdom that I checked out from the library. (Can you tell that I tend to get passionate and go overboard at times?)


Dinner: Variation on the first recipe in the book, Leek and Potato Soup. I didn't have leeks so I made it with onion. I also added 1/4 c heavy cream to the pureed soup. The cream turned it from something okay into a soup of richness and flavor. It was so delicious. So much so that I completely forgot I'm only eating one helping nowadays and I had seconds.

I made a batch of focaccia from my pizza dough, sprinkled it with kosher salt and brushed on olive oil. So good. So, so good.

Leek and Potato Soup recipe

pad thai

I've broken Isa's trust. I mean, how evil am I, when I take a vegan cookbook, no less, and add chicken to one of the recipes? The cookbook is Vegan with a Vengeance. I'm wondering if she has spies and if I should be worried. The title itself is a bit intimidating.

It's not my fault, though. Really. I had all intentions of using tofu, just like she says, but then I remembered that I made tofu scrambles for breakfast one morning and there went my last pound. All I had left for my Brooklyn Pad Thai was chicken. Sorry, Isa.

This recipe was good though. It calls for tamarind paste or lime juice. Amazingly enough, I had no limes but tamarind paste was sitting demurely in my fridge door. I had used it previously and it's one of those things, like miso, that never goes bad. A couple months ago I didn't even know it existed and now it's in my arsenal. The world is a strange, strange place.

Brooklyn Pad Thai, by her own confession, isn't authentic, but it is super quick and tasty. And did I mention it's super easy? Once you get everything chopped up and ready to go (which doesn't take that long I assure you) it's all "boil the noodles" and "stirfry for 30 seconds this and 30 seconds that".

Yummy yummerson. I mean, I won't lie, real pad thai beats this hands down, but if you're hankerin' for the flavor and you just can't get to the restaurant...yummy mcyumyum.

Brooklyn Pad Thai recipe

greek pie + greek yogurt + salad

In response to several almost lost books from the library, my kids are only allowed five books checked out at one time. Interestingly enough, my 5- and 7-year olds banded together and checked out all cookbooks, half from the kids section and half from the adult. Tonight's dinner was chosen by my 5-year old son from one of his books, The Cooking of Greece by Matthew Locricchio.

My little guy came up to me, opened the book to pages 23 and then 51 and asked, "Can we make this, Mom. Pleeeeeeeease?" He was showing me Greek-style Yogurt (Yaourti) and Chicken and Feta Cheese Pie (Kotopita me Feta). How can I resist such an interesting menu as that?

First off, let me say that anything wrapped up in buttery layers of phyllo dough is almost never anything but delicious. This was no different. Chicken, green onions, celery, feta and a smattering of a bunch of spices, especially dill, are a perfect mixture to hide inside flaky baked layers of buttery deliciousness. I've recently been limiting myself to one plateful of food, no seconds. Not my best move to make this meal after that resolution.

The yogurt was really a yogurt cheese, to be honest. You take full-fat plain yogurt (Brown Cow Cream Top is amazing!) and wrap it in cheesecloth, place it in a sieve and leave her in the fridge. The next day you've got yourself something similar to cream cheese or marscapone. The whey apparently carries most of the tangy flavor because once it all drained out this stuff was super mild. ("Mom! It tastes like butter!") I thought it would be best mixed with a bunch of fresh herbs and spread on crackers. The little guy would have none of it. He wanted us to eat it plain, as a side dish. Being a wiser-than-I-used-to-be mom, I didn't fight this one. Why argue when they are willing to eat everything I made?

Of course the salad was my addition, I'm still mom, ya know, and taste-wise, salad went perfectly.

Chicken and Feta Cheese Pie Recipe

pizza

Tonight was another pizza experiment. Happily, it was a successful one. After making one cheese (yawn) and one pineapple/olive to keep the kiddos happy, I got to make mine. I stared into the fridge, both doors letting all sorts of coldness spill onto my feet, trying to figure out what new flavor I could make. My eyes first fell on the little bag of leftover steamed broccoli from the other night. Next what was I to behold but a beautiful avocado, just the perfect mixture of soft and firm, waiting in the fridge for whatever I might dream up. Baby girl got one half for her dinner, but I saved the other for me.

Verdict: Broccoli, Black olive and Avocado (put on after it comes out of the oven) is a rather delicious combination. As you can see, I forgot about the avocado when I took the above picture. (I was really hungry and just wanted to get the shot out of the way.) Luckily, I noticed my mistake before I ate. Mmmm...happy tummy.

PS - You must sprinkle garlic salt on the avocado ever so lightly. It brings that crave-worthy fruit/vegetable to new heights.

Pizza dough recipe

nachos

Nachos. Not very imaginative but I learned something this go round. Don't use thin chips. Our favorite tortilla chips are Tia Rosa Megathins. Delicious with guacamole and salsa. They are crisp and light and, well, maybe a little too crisp and light for nachos. They got soggy rather quickly and the toppings were too much for these light weights.

I made this nacho cheese sauce to use up the two slices of american cheese that have been haunting my cheese drawer for months now. (Yes, I mean months. It doesn't matter. That stuff doesn't even have to be refrigerated. I'm still not convinced it's food, but it does add a mean smoothness to nacho cheese.) I doubled the recipe and needed 14 slices. Since twelve slices were absent, cheddar filled the gap. I also added a can of diced green chilis. Upon reflection, I'm not sure what I did according to the recipe besides get the amounts for the white sauce...

In case you want to know, the topppings tonight were:

• tofu crumbles with chili pepper, cumin and oregano
• kidney beans
• olives
• taco sauce
• sour cream
• nacho cheese sauce

Decent but not fantabulous and definitely lacking in green.

tofu + broccoli + pasta

I'm trying something new today. I've found how to embed files in my blog so I'm going to add the recipes at the end. I've never been a huge fan of reading a blog post and having to scroll down three pages of instructions to make sure there is nothing more at the end of the post. On the other hand, I love to get recipes from others' blogs.  I think this will be a happy medium. We'll see.

I was really pleased with dinner tonight. For one, it was rather pretty color- and texture-wise. Most importantly, though, it tasted rather good. Two simple sides: steamed broccoli drizzled with a little melted butter and seasoned simply with salt and pepper and buttered farfalle with garlic and parsley. For the protein I tried the Italian Marinated Tofu from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Moskowitz. It wasn't mind-staggeringly delicious (for one, I overcooked it a bit) but it was satisfying and we ate the whole pound, no whining.

I added water and cornstarch to the tofu marinade (Isa's suggestion) and turned it into a sauce. It was okay but one of the flavors wasn't quite right and I couldn't figure out what it was. I added additional water to dilute it a touch more and then some sugar wondering if that was it, but it wasn't. I hate it when I can't at least figure out what the problem is.  There's another variation for Asian tofu that I think we'll try next. Maybe with some stir-fried veggies and rice...mmmm...


Italian Marinated Tofu recipe

red robins' den of caloric overboard-ness

No kids tonight = Out to dinner with friends.

We went to Red Robin. I was going to order my standby, the Royal Red Robin Burger, (I'm a sucker for that fried egg) but saw the Burnin' Love Burger. Oh my, that's the ticket. Jalapeno bun, fried jalapenos, pepper-jack, chipotle mayo...I think you get the idea. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hot. I had a glass of iced tea and I didn't even finish it until after I had finished my burger and was working on my fries. Either their love aint' burnin', or I'm Asbestos-Mouth Girl. (I'm hoping it's the former. Who wants that title?)

sandwiches and smoothies

I think you should know that I'm having a hard time writing this. I'm sure it's because I'm listening to this. It's rather difficult for me to be sitting still with this sort of beat going on. This song has a special place in my heart. It was the number one song the week I was born. Bring on the groove, Walter.

On to dinner...
I pan-fried some chicken breasts and threw them into my food processor with some mayo, mustard and my special ingredient: mango-peach preserves. Throw that onto homemade wheat bread with some cheddar and green leaf lettuce. I only wish I had the foresight to sprout some alfalfa a few days earlier. Oh well.

We also had smoothies. The kids made themselves one with mangoes and strawberries and such but drank it all between them. I then made one with goji berry juice, blueberries, plain yogurt and threw in a handful of almonds. Just enough to fill my glass perfectly with antioxidant POWER!

Simple meal, simple pleasures.

rice casserole, chips and bean dip

I happen to love cheesy, rice-y casseroles. Tonight we had Southwestern Rice Casserole from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook and it was scrum-dilly-umptious. (did I really just write that?) You can't go wrong with brown rice, half a pound of monterey jack, smoked citrus salsa and cilantro. Nope, far from it. Coupled that with a quick and easy bean dip (refried beans and salsa), tortilla chips and I was a happy camper. Especially since I can add cilantro. (My hubby is gone and he is an anti-cilantro advocate.) Kids weren't as thrilled, but what can I say? They're kids.

yesterday redux

We had leftovers.  A few moans from the peanut gallery but what can you do?

asian smorgasbord

All the recipes for dinner tonight came from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook.

 On the plate at 12 o'clock we have Vegetable Lo Mein, which sounds Chinese but it's made with soba noodles. Go figure. Veggies include purple cabbage, snow peas and mushrooms. Verdict? Bland.

Stir-fried Broccoli is at the five o'clock position. It had a simple sesame oil and soy sauce sauce that was rather good. My oldest daughter said she loved it.

And the most stretching-to-be-considered-Asian dish tonight is found at 8 o'clock: Asian Succotash. What?! Succotash? It's essentially corn, edamame and butter all heated up together. Since when is corn and butter ever considered Asian? Whatever it was, it will probably be served again. Corn and edamame go good together, by flavor and visually.

All-in-all the meal was good and the kids liked it. My problem is that each recipe said, "Serve Immediately" and the author, Nava Atlas, recommended all three of these dishes to be in one meal. How can I finish three dishes simultaneously so that they can all be served immediately? Answer: I couldn't.

Oh well.

PS - that picture sucks.

dear Lord, thank you that mommy wanted meat today.

I'm sitting here looking at this photo and realizing how much those green beans look like a pile of seaweed. Folks, that's amateur food styling at its best. So sorry.

Onwards...I roasted pork loin, topped it with a peach-mango glaze and accompanied it with steamed-then-panfried greenbeans, corn and yukon gold mashed potatoes. Defnitely one of those iconic American, Sunday dinners.

I got the recipe for the pork loin from ATK's Family Cookbook and when all was said and done, I wasn't impressed. They said to brush the glaze on in the last 15-minutes but I think it needed to go on repeatedly the last thirty. It just didn't develop that lovely, sweet crust it should have. The glaze was delicious though. It was a tweaked version of the spicy-orange glaze in the same cookbook. I didn't have time this go-round, but I'll definitely brine the sucker next time. Pork loin needs that extra moisture.

Sometimes you just want a big ol' dinner with a slab of meat. And when I do, my family is so happy. Poor forced into mostly-vegetarianism family.

sardines? really?!

When we were staying with my husband in Oklahoma City a few months ago (to be honest, I can't remember when it was, but it was definitely within the last 12 months) our whole family would go to sleep in the hotel room to the 8pm to 11pm Food Network evening shows. One of our favorites was/is Alton Brown's Good Eats.

From that show we discovered Sherried Sardine Toast. It intrigued us enough that my hubsters encouraged me to make it. (This is a HUGE deal for him. He hates fish. Hates it. Well, all except halibut, but who doesn't love halibut? I haven't found anyone who doesn't.)

The result? I made it and it was surprisingly tasty. The recipe makes four huge open-faced vehicles of deliciousness. The marriage of crispy toast, creamy avocado and the pungent marinated sardines is really something else. That and it is very filling. (Extra taste points because I baked homemade bread.)

My only tweak to this recipe is that I sprinkled kosher salt on the smashed avocado and again on the sardine mixture. The recipe says to garnish with lemon wedges. You must obey and squeeze the lemon on it. It makes a world of difference. It brings this scrumptious dish to a higher plane of delectability. Also, Alton stresses that you buy the BRISLING sardines that are packaged in two layers. They are supposed to be superb. I'm not a sardine connoisseur but I trust Alton.

PS - My kids...not so much on the loving of this. They had cereal I think. Well, all except my 1-year old. That girl loved the sardines.

my hubby's home

To my husband, a clean house is a peaceful house. He came home from his business trip this evening so we cleaned all day to give him a peaceful landing zone. This meant that we did not eat dinner until after picking him up from the airport. 8:30pm = Sonic. What can I say? Grilled chicken sandwich with a sprite. Easy on the ice please.

curried pasta + raita + tortillas

Curried Pasta with Cauliflower and Chickpeas.
Tomatoes and Cucumbers in Yogurt.
Tortillas. (Well, it was supposed to be chapatis, but I got lazy.)

Doesn't that sound divine? The raita-like salad was quite good, and the tortillas were tortillas, but the curried pasta was so blah. I had such high hopes. There was so much there: peas, carrots, tomatoes, raisins, chickpeas, cauliflower. And it just didn't deliver. I think the spices could have been doubled.

It's good enough to finish the leftovers, but I'm not sure I want to make it again. I might give it one more chance. Maybe.

(Oh! This came from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook.)

Edit: The next day I added mayonnaise with another helping of those spices and it turned it into a rather tasty curried pasta salad. Just wanted you to know that it wasn't a total loss.

chili + cornbread + chocolate cake

Tonight, out of the three choices available, the kids picked Quick Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili for dinner. This is not because of their great affinity for chili, but because of their unquenchable love of cornbread crumbled in a glass of milk for breakfast the next morning. They are bread fiends and I love that I can easily get them to eat their helpings of anything when another slice/piece of bread is offered upon completion. Back to the chili:

This recipe came from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook and it was tasty. The sweet potato was supposed to be in chunks but the kids asked that I puree it before adding it. I did and it added this thickness and depth to the flavor that was quite delightful. "Puree" has been penciled in on the recipe now.

We have a cake auction coming up in a couple weeks and my daughter wants to make her contribution to it so very badly. I've told her that we can not make the cake two weeks early for obvious reasons so she asked if she could just make a quick cake for dinner. I agreed and so she whipped up the Easy Chocolate Cake from American's Test Kitchen's Family cookbook.

It's so fun when the kids are in the kitchen with me. I made the chili, my son made the cornbread and my daughter made the cake. *heavy sigh* I love it.

off to friends

tostadas with friends. i like it.
tostadas with friends at their house. i love it.

outdoor eatin's

The weather is perfect right now. Mosquitos haven't emerged, humidity hasn't hit and it's an ideal 75-80 degrees until sunset or so. That coupled with the fact that I've had a fire burning in my back yard for the last three days, trying to get rid of as much of three large pine trees we fell earlier this year as I possibly can without my husband's help (He's traveling again.) makes for some great wienie roasting times.

Unfortunately we have no roasting sticks. I know we have four somewhere but I don't know where they went. And, yes, we have a bunch of branches but I know you don't want to use just any wood you find, right? I was reduced to using one of those flat fish-grilling baskets. It worked decently enough for the hot dogs.

We first heated up the hot dogs (Hebrew National, of course. Yum!) and then we wrapped bread dough around them and put them back into the grill basket. (Yes, my pizza dough to the rescue again.) It made for some interesting-shaped bread, but in the taste department: top scores.

I also fixed a macaroni salad (with olives, garbanzos, celery and sharp white cheddar cheese) as a side. And cake balls for dessert. What are cake balls? Take a frosted cake, smash it into a brown goo and then shape the goo into small truffle-sized balls. After a half hour or so in the freezer, dip the afore-mentioned balls into melted chocolate. Eat the goodness. Smile.

pizza and friends

We had friends over tonight. The mom suggested pizza. I agreed, heartily. We made six and a half pizzas. Her son's diet is gluten- and dairy-free. The half-pizza was his, made on Sami's Millet & Flax Pizza Crust, and was pretty decent. Especially when considering how other gluten-free pizza crusts taste.

Pizzas tonight were:

1. cheese (2)
2. pineapple (2)
3. carmelized onion, garlic and fried potato slices (again, I know, but it was sooooo good)
4. carmelized onion, red pepper, pineapple and olive

Two adults and nine children had very happy tummies.

miso soup and then some

"Mom, that's not soup, there's too much stuff in it."

This has to be one of my favorite meals. I've recently realized how much I enjoy meals that have an assortment of garnishes that can be piled on. Tonight our soup topping choices were browned tofu, bean sprouts, lightly steamed broccoli, carrot and cabbage, rice, hard-boiled egg and green onions. I had it all, of course, and it was perfect. Light yet filling. (Well, filling when you had two full bowls worth.)

I used the Kombu Dashi (broth) recipe from Low-Fat Moosewood and it was sub-par. I usually use their Shiitake Dashi but I didn't realize I was out of those delicious dried fungi. After a bit of messing, I got it to taste decent enough.

Two kids were ecstatic that we were having miso soup and two were, ummm, well let's say 'less enthusiastic'.

pancake night

Tonight: pumpkin-pecan pancakes with vanilla-almond syrup. I'm feeling rather the opposite of verbose.

fireside

We went to our friends' house tonight. Roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over a bonfire, accompanied with tortilla chips. Culinarily not impressive, but friends and fire and food? I am emotionally satiated.

PS - Click the picture to see a bigger version. This small one misses most of the floating ember details.

personal pizza night

I let the kids each make their own pizza tonight. What does that spell? N-O W-H-I-N-I-N-G! Yay!

My pie had sauteed onions and sliced garlic with fresh oregano-sprinkled, paper-thin potato slices and parmesan shavings. It was so terribly delicious. So very good.





The kids topped theirs as follows:

Olives, Pineapple and Red Peppers

Cheese and Italian Seasoning

Pineapple

Pineapple

grandma fotta's goulash

One of the world's easiest meals:

1. 1 lb ground meat (in this case, turkey), browned
2. 1 lb elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
3. enough ketchup until it tastes good.

My excuses:

1. I didn't start making dinner until 7:30pm.
2. I had to use up the pound of ground turkey my parents left.
3. It just sounded good.

This meal isn't as bad as it could have been since I used organic, non-high fructose corn syrup ketchup, right?

Sometimes I spruce this up using whole-wheat elbows and adding sauteed onion, bell pepper and garlic to the meat and throwing in some corn at the end. Pair that with a salad and it's pretty decent nutrition-wise. Of course I didn't do any of that tonight.

But I could have.

hummus and pita, how i love you

We had hummus with pita for dinner, add grape tomatoes, feta, carrot sticks, olives and leftover salad.

This was by far my most successful pita-making session to date. I had well over 75% puffed pitas. Only a few stayed flat or only partway puffed. Very rewarding for me. And what did I use for my pita? My pizza dough! I freakin' love that bread recipe.

The keys to pita bread that puffs like a bread balloon are as follows: hot oven, well-shaped balls of dough, carefully rolled rounds that are thin with absolutely no wrinkles or folds. My goal is perfection. I'm getting closer but it will probably be one of those philosophical, not physically-possible quests the Japanese are always striving after.

I was so excited by my high puff percentage that I completely forgot to take pictures. If you want to see a close representation, check out this meal or this one.

birthday chowder + strawberry shortcake

My little baby turned one today and it was also Easter. Of course the little darlin' couldn't tell us what she wanted for her birthday dinner so I had to translate all her little garbles and points and zerberts. It was difficult but I finally understood. She wanted Grandma Smith's clam chowder, green salad and honey wheat bread. Coincidentally she picked exactly what I was in the mood for. Amazing.

I need to explain one thing. Grandma Smith's clam chowder is not for the faint of heart. This sucker's base is formed from butter, half & half, and clam juice. We had quite a few people eating so I had to triple the recipe. This meant that an entire pound of butter and three quarts of half &half were used in the making of this gastronomic delight. Insane. Grandma Smith, up in heaven, thank you. Thank you for this legacy.

Dessert: We got to go strawberry picking on Friday. I'm used to Oregon's "pick-your-own-because-it's-cheaper-than-the-store" berries. Apparently that's not how they roll here in Texas. Our berries were more expensive than the grocery store and we had to get them ourselves. I might be complaining but I still took my kids, roamed the fields and shelled out the money. I then followed America's Test Kitchen's instructions and made strawberry shortcake. They make biscuits out of ...drum roll...butter and half & half! Crazy, no? They were absolutely delicious and if it didn't cost me 1/6th of my weekly grocery budget I might be tempted to go get some more berries and do this again. Might be.

All in all, my baby loved it and we were all satiated well beyond comfortability.

muffins + eggs + mango

My husband and two oldest are driving back from Oregon. I came up with a pretty simple dinner for me and my littlest three. Cinnamon-raisin muffins, scrambled eggs and chopped mango. I had a little salad leftover from the potluck on Thursday. Simple, filling and yummy.

if it weren't for friends i wouldn't make it.

I got to grocery shop today. In the future I am going to make every attempt to avoid all grocery stores the entire week before any major holiday. It's just too much. Too much.

I got home around 4:30pm and after dumping the cold stuff in the fridge/freezer, I headed over to our friends' to pick up my kidlets. We were invited to stay. I was so relieved and the noodles with chicken and shrimp accompanied by miso soup was delicious. Their daughter made cake for dessert and since I was feeding pieces of mine to my baby girl, I had to have two pieces, right? One for each of us...sorta...in theory, anyway.

did i mention i'm a liar?

Okay. We're back. Three words describe our Oregon fix-up-the-house trip: illness, stressful, and uncomfortable. And since we left in such a whirl, I'm coming home to a messy house, completely empty fridge and a kitchen floor littered with Texas red wasp corpses. (And a few live ones. I have no idea how they got in. I am freaked out.) So any thoughts I had of "catching up" are merely wishful thinking at this point. Instead I will start from now. Deal? (I'm sorry to say that whether or not you agree is irrelevant, I'm a government of one on this blog. You may call me "Ms. Dictator, Ma'am".)

Dinner tonight: Our church had a Seder meal lead by a messianic rabbi in celebration of Passover. It was awesome. The Jewish culture is so rich. I really enjoyed it. The meal part was potluck and everyone was supposed to bring KFP (Kosher For Passover) dishes. I mowed our lawn today and it took much longer than I expected (3 weeks of spring growth, baby). I had time only to make a salad. It was tasty though. No pictures but I'm sure you can imagine: romaine, spinach, steamed asparagus, red pepper, and carrot. I also made the basic vinaigrette from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. It's a good one.

I went up for seconds because someone roasted red peppers and eggplant slices with some oil dressing and it was divine. As were the roasted potatoes, quinoa and tabbouli. I loved this potluck. Normally there are two vegetarian options at our potlucks. Mine that I bring and this other lady's. This time there were a lot, a lot of veggie dishes. Impressive for these meat-lovin' Texans. Not many people did seconds but that's what I'm all about. Skip the dessert and bring me more entree!