Moving on . . .
Posted: May 13, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »While The Eatin’ Wheaton was catchy . . . I’m moving on. Check out the new place: Not For Lunch and my first post about what prompted the move. See you there!
Better to outsource this one
Posted: March 1, 2011 Filed under: Recipes, Thoughts from the kitchen | Tags: entree Leave a comment »Meatballs. Meatballs. Meatballs. I had this romantic vision of the kids helping me and my husband make meatballs on a recent rainy Saturday. Once prep time came around, however, the wee people’s services were nowhere to be found. I am sure that’s a whole another entry about why they didn’t want to help. So much for that vision. As a result, my husband and I set out to make them; the two of us prepping and rolling, and me working the sauce and browning the meatballs.
Several hours later, I now truly appreciate why good meatballs are so expensive when you go to a restaurant. I have always scoffed at the cost on menus. “How much for some balls of ground meat, noodles, and sauce?” Now I understand it. They take forever to make/roll/brown/simmer or bake. The ingredients were frankly pretty expensive when you add all the meats and good canned tomatoes I bought. Oh, and they dirty just about every dish in the kitchen. And did I mention the kids despised them?
My husband summed it up well . . . the tremendous effort put into them did not equate to a tremendous meatball. A much better effort/satisfaction ratio occurs with a bag of frozen turkey meatballs from Trader Joe’s. True, very true.
What went wrong? Some post-mortem analysis:
Recipe choice: I used a highly rated Epicurious recipe–Spaghetti and Meatballs from Gourmet, January 2009 . These meatballs were browned and then finished cooking in the sauce. This may have contributed to the soft, “mushy” texture my kids found offensive. I did end up baking a few meatballs that I couldn’t fit into the pan of sauce, which definitely resulted in a firmer meatball. They have been frozen to be consumed by the few brave souls at a later date. Maybe they’ll be better? I know I have made beef/pork/veal meatballs before and also been underwhelmed. Turkey meatballs I have had better luck at, so maybe if I get any more “romantic meatball visions” I will stick to turkey meatballs.
Operator error: Am I meatball challenged? Perhaps. Admittedly, I struggled like crazy trying to brown them evenly without them disintegrating in the pan. Any tips on that would be appreciated.
And finally a note to myself: Life is too short to be irritated by recipes that I cook for my family. Lesson learned: Leave the meatballs to the professionals or the freezer section. Stick to meat sauce or a good ragu. One of my favorites is actually the meat sauce I use in a favorite lasagna: Three-Cheese Lasagna with Italian Sausage. It usually makes more than I need for the lasagna and always tastes fantastic with noodles. I’ve even just made the sauce without using it in lasagna. Way easier for me and most importantly, much more satisfying for all involved from beginning to that last drop of sauce in the bowl.
A healthier muffin?
Posted: January 17, 2011 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: baking, kid-approved! Leave a comment »I do love a good muffin. Probably too much, hence my quest for a good recipe that incorporates whole wheat. After a bit of searching, I decided I’d need to make a hybrid of several recipes and ideas. Things I was mulling over . . .
- The basic muffin recipe: I was intrigued by a New York Times article about the quest for the perfect whole wheat muffin and have made that recipe several times. I agree that whole wheat pastry flour is great and helps the muffins seem not so heavy, and adding the fruit puree does keep it moist.
- The sweetener: I like it when the muffins aren’t too sweet and I was really taken with the sweetness in my muffin recipe for Rhubarb Cardamom muffins from a previous post that uses maple sugar for the sweetener.
- The fat: Hearing more and more about the healthy aspects of coconut oil, I’ve been itching to try it as a substitute for butter in a muffin recipe. I bought a container today (ouch–that’s expensive! ~$18 for a Crisco size jar at my natural food co-op!) Doing some research about using coconut oils, I found a recommendation on the great website 101 Cookbooks that you should reduce the butter amount called for in the recipe by 25%, which is a good to know going forward in my world of coconut oil cooking.
The result: I tinkered with that NYT muffin recipe just a bit to find a perfect combination of flavor and healthy muffin components, or at least healthier! I think I’ve found a good base with which to work! I think they had the perfect amount of sweetness, especially with the slightly sour raspberries. In the interest of full-disclosure, these aren’t super light and fluffy, but more dense, but not deadly dense, if you know what I mean. If you’re looking for that muffin, consider trying a flour mix of half whole wheat, half all-purpose, or skip your quest all together.
My pint-size taste testers also gave them the thumbs up, which thrills me as I often struggle with snack ideas and these should do well coming from the freezer. Like most whole wheat muffins I’ve made, these are best still warm from the oven. We did enjoy a couple today while out and about at room temperature and thought they were pretty edible. If reheating–do it gently, preferably in the oven to avoid the tops from getting too “wet’.
I can see lots of ways to mix future renditions of this up with the fruit and/or spice combinations. I will also continue to do more experiments with coconut oil and will keep you posted on that!
My recipe — printable PDF
Whole Wheat Banana-Berry Muffins
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 T of coconut oil, melted and cooled
1 cup mashed/puree of fruit–today I used about 3/4 c. banana + 1/4 c. applesauce, put other ideas–pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup plain, low-fat yogurt (you could also use 1/2 c. buttermilk)
1 cup frozen berries, if desired (I used a mix of raspberries and blueberries)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter/grease muffin tins.
Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl–flour through salt. In a small bowl combine coconut oil, banana puree, syrup, egg and yogurt or buttermilk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just incorporated. Add berries if using. Scoop into muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until top are firm and golden brown. Makes 12 good sized muffins.
Tortilla Black Bean Casserole
Posted: June 11, 2010 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: entree, gluten-free, vegetarian Leave a comment »Ah, ha! A casserole the kids will eat! I found it! It’s vegetarian, pantry friendly, pretty quick to assemble and one I could even do using the Time Bake setting on my oven (which is a blessing during the busy sport season!). My youngest even asked for seconds . . . and my oldest even took the leftovers in her thermos for lunch. That never happens!
I found this recipe on the PCC Natural Markets website using the query “kid-friendly” and “vegetarian”: Tortilla Black Bean Casserole I made it as originally published, though next time I may add a second can of beans as those are big hit at our house. It suggests topping wedges of the casserole with lettuce, green onions, and olives. I expanded the offerings of condiments to include avocado, diced tomato, cilantro, and plain yogurt. Everybody loved to dress up their own portions. Adults may want to lay out the hot sauce, or add diced jalapeño to bump up the heat.
A pdf version of the recipe is here: Tortilla Black Bean Casserole
For the make-ahead, time bake version. I simmered the tomatoes and salsa on the stove, added the beans and let that cool. While that was cooling, I pulled together all of my toppings (except the avocado) onto a plate or in bowls, covered those and put them in the fridge. I assemble the casserole as directed, covered it with foil and set up the Time Bake. The first parent home from the game pulled it out and sprinkled the cheese on it. That sat while everyone walked in, cleaned up, sliced an avocado, and voilà–dinner was ready for us!
The Delights of Rhubarb
Posted: May 7, 2010 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: baking Leave a comment »Some of you may be familiar with my obsession with rhubarb. I get it in my CSA box whenever I get the chance. I buy it at the grocery store whenever I see it. And yes when we get around to getting our vegetable garden in, I will have rhubarb. I love, love, love rhubarb . . . in a pie, a crisp, a muffin, a compote. You name it, and I’d probably like it. One of my kids said, “Mom, I like rhubarb, too, but not as much as you.” I will admit, I am fanatical.
Things I am looking forward to trying this season . . .
- Roasted Rhubarb
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble with black pepper, pine nuts, and port wine (wow!)
- My friend A.C.’s Buttermilk Rhubarb Cake
I love blogger Molly Wizenberg’s (Orangette) summary of her adoration for rhubarb recipes:
“At this point in my life, if all goes well and life expectancy charts are accurate, I probably have about fifty springs left, which means fifty more rhubarb recipes to love. The fifty springs part is sort of depressing, but on the upside, it’s really quite a lot of rhubarb. I’m looking forward to it.”
I think I found my recipe to love of the season–Rhubarb-Strawberry Muffins with Cardamom Streusel. I wish you could have been in my kitchen while they were cooking. I had to try very hard to wait for them to cool, or I surely would have burned my mouth on them with my eagerness to try them.
I found inspiration in my CSA box–the rhubarb and the pint of strawberries and I had my mind set on making muffins this go around. I had a rhubarb muffin recipe, but not one with strawberries. Searching the web I did find one that caught my eye as it used part whole-wheat pastry flour (trying to bake more with whole-wheat) and maple syrup instead of sugar. I thought the stick of butter, while surely delicious, was a bit much, and tried my luck with substituting 1/2 of that with applesauce. The original also called for buttermilk, but I substituted plain low-fat yogurt for that. Taking inspiration from my “just” rhubarb recipe, I added a bit of cardamom, which in my opinion is one of the most delightful of all spices to smell. I also pulled the cardamom streusel topping from that recipe to round out my heavily adapted rhubarb-strawberry recipe. I loved this subtly sweet, tangy muffins. The streusel, delicious. These truly are best right out of the oven, but could be kept for a few days. Try reheating them in the oven, if you have time, otherwise the microwave for about 20 seconds for one.
My final recipe:
Strawberry – Rhubarb Muffins with Cardamom Streusel (printable pdf)
Makes about 12 muffins
For the streusel:
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
For the muffins:
1.5 cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp cardamom
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup maple syrup
½ stick melted butter
¼ cup applesauce
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt (or ½ cup buttermilk)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp grated orange rind (optional)
1 cup chopped rhubarb
1 cup sliced strawberries
Combine ingredients for steusel topping. Use fingers to make it into a coarse meal and set aside. Mix dry in a large bowl. Mix wet separately. Add wet to dry. Stir in berries and rhubarb. Spoon into greased muffin pan. Top with rounded teaspoon of streusel topping. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Devour, especially if warm.
Note:
If you aren’t looking to lower the fat . . . replace ½ stick + applesauce with one stick of melted butter.
My inspiration recipes:
Rhubarb Muffins with Cardamom Streusel
Strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins (seeing the beautiful food/cooking photos on this site make it worth a visit)
Whoa! She ate the soup!
Posted: April 19, 2010 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: kid-approved!, soup Leave a comment »I rejoice! My youngest daughter ate a soup that I made, and eagerly! Usually “soup night” at our house entails her pushing her spoon around in her bowl and moaning about the contents. This is problematic as I love to cook soups, but hate the torture of dinner time on all but a few of my recipes.
I had a been craving a black bean soup, but knew that many in my recipe collections were too spicy for my finicky kids. I went searching and found one through All Recipes that had minimal spices (cumin), black beans, a bunch of sauteed veggies, and ham. Here’s the link to the recipe: Fast and Delicious Black Bean Soup.
I was wary as I really like my bean soups well pureed and this one for the most part was pretty chunky with the sauteed vegetables and had 1/2 the beans left intact; the other half of the beans are pureed alone before adding back to the pot. I took comfort in the really high ratings and good user reviews so I thought I’d give it a try. Once all the chopping of veggies and ham is done it was pretty quick to pull together. Since I am not a fan of green peppers, I did substitute a red pepper which seemed fine. The 20 minute simmer time called for on the stove actually took place in the crock pot over several hours on “warm” and/or “low”as we had baseball and softball games to attend before dinner. End result–it was delicious, as everyone who had it that night agreed . . . and she liked it!! I am sure it helps that she was able to garnish it with things like cheese, sour cream, and a fresh lime wedge. Food is always more fun when you get to decorate it yourself! Those looking to spice it up could use some hot sauce, but really it had a nice flavor to it on its own.
Another plus for me: Trader Joe’s-friendly ingredients–aside from the cumin, I think all other ingredients (even the veggies for sauteeing) are available there. I used the Neiman’s ham steak found by the lunch meat, TJs low-sodium chicken broth, plus finely grated Mexican cheese blend and non-fat Greek yogurt for the garnishing. I rounded out the meal with a salad and skillet corn bread (TJ’s brand mix, of course).
We’ll be enjoying leftovers tonight since I made a double batch and it’s another game night at our house! We’ll see if she still likes it . . .
Favorite Foodie Apps for my iPhone
Posted: April 8, 2010 Filed under: Thoughts from the kitchen | Tags: tools 1 Comment »I LOVE my iPhone. I say that if not daily, then at least weekly. Cruddy AT&T coverage/service issues aside, I love it’s usefulness. Finally, I have my contacts/calendar/phone all connected, which is a life saver as some days it seems I am never home. I love so many of the apps and wonder how I survived without them. Okay, a bit overly dramatic, but I think you do sense my allegiance to my phone.
Many of my favorite apps are actually some relating to food, cooking, and dining out so I thought I’d share them with you along with review–both the pros and cons.
Epicurious–love the interface for searches, and like the full website you can create shopping lists which is great. Recipes come from the Conde Nast publications like Bon Appetit and Gourmet. I rely heavily on the user ratings and reviews. You can also favorite items to a short list so that you don’t have to search for them later. Within a recipe, when you turn the phone on its side, the orientation changes and you can quickly tab or slide between ingredients and preparation directions. I found a cover for my phone that came with a little stand to hold your phone horizontally, which is perfect for viewing recipes with this app. This orientation feature is also available using their regular website through the phone browser. My one complaint is that it doesn’t sync with your online recipe box at Epicurious.com. Hoping that maybe they’ll offer a premium version that would sync the full-site with the app version. My dream world–an iPad in the kitchen so I can have the recipes in a larger screen format. Cost: Free
AllRecipes Dinner Spinner–I’m just now exploring this app. Like Epicurious, it’s a collection of recipes, but this time user submitted. Users can also rate and review the recipes as well. It has a spinner mode with three components–dish type, ingredients, “ready in”. You can lock any of those components so that you could get suggestions for “main dish”, “chicken”, “ready in 45 minutes or less”. Or you could lock “chicken” and “slow cooker” and see what options you might have. You can also identify favorites. There is a premium version available that allows you to sync to the recipe box you have at the AllRecipe.com website and create lists, but for now I’ll continue to explore the free version. Cost: free
Shopper–Great for keeping multiple lists to different stores. Items are grouped in general by “aisle” which makes for pretty organized shopping. It allows you to check off items as you put them into your basket, just as you would cross off items on a paper list. You can create templates of lists for regularly needed items, which can be helpful for that Costco run, since I seem to get the same stuff at Costco every time. It has a well populated list of items that you select from to add to list, but it also allows you to add new items. I like how you can add notes to an item for more info, or even adding quantity or size requirements. The interface to allow you to customize the aisles to the different stores (Target is set up different from say, your regular grocery) isn’t always intuitive to me, so I haven’t really tried to modify. You can also email lists, which is handy when I need to hand off a list to my husband. Cost: $0.99
Seafood Watch–Fish scares me. I have a hard time getting myself to cook with it out of health concerns (mercury or other toxin ridden fish) or sustainability concerns (over fishing). This app is helpful when I do find myself at the fish counter wondering what is okay to eat. It helps you identify what is Best Choice, Good Alternative, or something to Avoid. Each fish has a little info guide about the fish details out any concerns or issues. Pretty educational. It is broken down into the Seafood guide which lists by name and the Sushi guide which uses the common sushi name for the fish. Cost: Free
Urbanspoon–A restaurant review guide that has both reviews by media critics and patrons. We find this really useful when we are traveling and don’t know the restaurants as well. Let’s you search by location/neighborhood, cuisine and price point. Contact info, map, reviews are all pretty easy to access. Cost: Free
I am sure I will continue to acquire more food/cooking apps as time goes on, but for now, there’s my shortlist of handy ones!
Casserole Phobia
Posted: April 6, 2010 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: cooking, entree, family Leave a comment »My kids simply revolt when I say we are having a casserole for dinner. The protests just bring this busy mama to her knees. I need to have a couple of go-to casserole recipes that can be quickly made, assembled ahead of time for busy game/practice nights. The one consistently acceptable casserole is a big vat of homemade macaroni and cheese. Mind you, it can have no toppings, vegetables, or meat integrated into it. I am continually trying to find the root source of my children’s fear. Is it the melding of flavors? Is it the co-mingling of food items that would normally be isolated from each other on a large dinner plate if I served the components separately? Is it really that bad? I myself am not always a fan “can of this” and a “can of this” casseroles and I suspect that maybe they feel the same way. With some research, I thought this new casserole recipe I found from the PCC Natural Markets website might appeal to everyone–sauteed veggies, cheese, raviolis. Wrong! Last night’s dinner induced gagging by one child and stern cries of “I am not eating dinner,” from the other one.
Was it really that ghastly, you ask? Chris and I thought it was actually good and I loved that it was pretty quick to assemble–the mushrooms were delicious! The downside, the kids didn’t like it, but the upside, I know what I’m having for lunch all week. Sigh.
The recipe: Ravioli Lasagna with Baby Spinach and Portabello Mushrooms. Don’t skimp on the spinach–it really does cook down. I suspect you could probably use a couple of boxes of defrosted spinach to be more economical. Another plus for me–all the ingredients were available at Trader Joe’s, which conveniently was the only store I had time to get to yesterday. Four cheese ravioli, Italian blend shredded cheese and TJ’s No Salt-added Marinara, their pre-sliced portabellos which I cut in half and then lengthwise again to make them thin, plus about 2 1/2 bags of spinach.
Are there really some kid-friendly casseroles out there that will appeal to my kids? If so, I need to keep looking and am actively soliciting recommendations! The hunt continues . . .
Meatless Mondays and finding some yummy calzones
Posted: February 23, 2010 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: entree, kid-approved!, vegetarian Leave a comment »In the last few years, I’ve been reading more about the state of our food system and it’s impact on the health of the planet and our own health. Besides talking up the works and messages of Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilema and In Defense of Food, among others) and Paul Roberts (End of Food author), I’m trying to make better, or at least more thoughtful choices for my family as a consumer and head chef. One thing I’m consciously trying to do is to eat less meat. I’m slowly embracing Michael Pollan’s recommendation to go for Meatless Mondays. With two kids in the house and one awfully picky, it certainly forces me to get creative on the menu. Pasta is such an obvious go-to for meatless, but that gets a bit tired.
I queried my old stand-by, the search engine at Epicurious for something non-pasta, vegetarian, and kid-friendly and saw the recipe for a calzone come up. Clicking on one, it caught my eye because a reviewer said even her four-year old who usually wouldn’t eat anything green gobbled these up. Hmm . . . sounded familiar. I tried it, keeping my fingers crossed. Not feeling like a salad, I served the calzones with some cucumber slices with tomatoes and a drizzling of balsamic and olive oil, and some orange slices. It was a huge hit, even from the picky five-year old.
Spinach/Arugula and Ricotta Calzone
Some thoughts for future preparations of Spinach/Arugula and Ricotta Calzones:
If I have time, I make my own dough as I found a recipe I really like and it even freezes well. (Pizza Dough Recipe) Store bought would certainly be terrific and especially convenient.
I used part-skim mozarella, but whole-milk ricotta. Might try part-skim ricotta next time, just to see how it turns out.
I substituted spinach for the arugula as the store was out of it. Either would be great I think.
I followed other reviewers suggestions and added 1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper which wasn’t even noticed by the kids.
The cheese filling mixture could even be made ahead of time, for quick assembly of the calzones on a busy night while the oven is preheating.
I arranged the assembled calzones on a pizza stone for baking and liked how they browned and crisped up.
Tortellini and Spinach Toss
Posted: February 23, 2010 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: entree, kid-approved!, quick Leave a comment »Quick. Kid-friendly. Pantry-friendly. My definition of a great, busy week-night meal.
I love this recipe for Tortellini and Spinach Toss that I found several years ago via Cooking Light. While the pasta is cooking I can pull just about all the other components together and dinner can be on the table in something under 20 minutes. I also love that I tend to have the tomatoes and beans ready and waiting in the pantry, and the pasta in the freezer. A bonus for Trader Joe’s fans is that most of the items can be found at TJs! To make this version vegetarian, I would think that switching the broth from chicken to vegetable or even some white wine would work great.
For my version posted here, I’ve adapted it by doubling the spinach and adding some white beans to up the protein a bit. I found making only half what the recipe originally called for yielded plenty for my family of 4 (two adults, and two kids). Some people reviewing it found the sauce too watery, but I didn’t experience it. Perhaps it is a function of the brand of tomatoes, maybe? If the tomato mixture is too watery, I’d just let it simmer down for a while before I mixed in the pasta. My adaptation is here: Tortellini and Spinach Toss
