COOK THE BOOK: BEST STIR-FRIED CHICKEN & FRIED RICE WITH KALE AND GREEN ONIONS

I’m working my way through a cookbook again! Recently I checked out “My Father’s Daughter” from the library, and I have been having fun trying many recipes through the past few weeks. I have a weird can’t-stand-her/am-fascinated-by-her-ridiculousness thing going for Gwyneth Paltrow, but I have to admit, her recipes generally rock. I have been saving the longer ones for the weekends, and making less time-consuming ones as weeknight meals.

This one came together pretty quickly one night last week. The rice is the only aspect that takes time, because it is brown rice, but next time I make it, I’ll cook that the day before, since day old rice fries more nicely anyway. I really liked both the chicken and the ‘green rice’, though I think I used about 2/3 as much brown sugar as her recipe calls for. Both recipes are available online, too, so if you’re interested HERE they are. :)

LEFTOVERS ROCK

I like the Thanksgiving meal just fine. I mean, it’s delicious, of course. But, leftovers are where it’s at for me. I have plans for smoked turkey jambalaya, cottage pie, stuffing, ham & collards strata, and I can’t decide if I’m making split pea soup or red lentil & ham soup with the bone.

Today, though, I awoke fully given over to a head cold that has been brewing since Monday. So, this was brunch, with some icy OJ.

If I’d been feeling more up to it, I’d have done mashed potato pancakes, but this’ll do.

THIS WEEK ON A STOVE NEAR ME

It really feels like autumn now, though the temperatures have been swinging a little pendulum-style. I really need to remember things like sunshine in the morning does not always mean warm, and sometimes coats are a good idea. Yesterday I was fighting a shivery chin as I crossed the street to my building and pushed the revolving door, even though I had a turtleneck sweater on. Yes, coats are useful.

So, soup was on my mind as I planned this week's menu over the weekend. Plus: tacos, always tacos or chili (or, in this week's case, both!).

I made the Hungarian Ham & Bean soup this weekend, and it's worth the time. It makes a huge amount, and is also yummy. I have found there to be a plethora of smoked pork product choices available here, and decided to make it a little easier by buying some "ham pieces for flavoring" which were -- you guessed it! -- irregularly sliced pieces of ham, probably from making more uniform slices. I subbed that for the ham hock, though I'm sure that would be more authentic and even yummier. However, I'm happy with it as it was and would reuse the ham pieces.

Aside from the recipes above, the old standby ones like tacos, chicken with red beans and rice (leftover chicken to go in chili), and spaghetti with meatballs round out the week. Lame, but comforting. :)

THIS WEEK ON A STOVE NEAR ME

This week's menu is a couple of stand-bys, a couple of new dishes, and a planned night of food brought in, as I won't be home until late Friday. It's the first of the month, and a busy one at work. But hey, at least I'll be in jeans, though I may be only an hour late and I could also be as many as three hours late. So, that night, yeah, I'm telling everyone to pick up some dinner and -- hopefully! -- save some for me. (Maybe a beer, too?)






I made the chicken-potpie pasta tonight and we really liked it. The recipe, to which I added about half a teaspoon of thyme and some mushrooms, made a large amount, and we all had seconds. I claimed the leftovers for my lunch tomorrow (and maybe the next day, too, since I doubt I'll be wolfing down the ~4 cups that were leftover in one sitting. (Woof.) I make the Marcella Hazan sauce to go with sausages and peppers, and then the leftover sauce will be in chili I'm making another night--no recipe for that; it's one of those things you just, ya know... make! Chili or spaghetti sauce is my traditional Halloween dinner, which is easy to make to have either before or after candy-begging time is over. Paul will probably pick up fried chicken, which is Carter's favorite for Friday, and I've been asked to make "breakfast for dinner" for Wednesday night dinner, which is also Carter's EIGHTH birthday! (He wants me to make "a ton" of sausage for him--breakfast sausage, one of his favorites.

Hope it's a great week on your stove!

THIS WEEK ON A STOVE NEAR ME

It's been kind of gray--okay, it's been super gray here. Rainy. Bleh. So, I've been wanting soup... and tacos are a given. (almost always tacos, mmm.)

I made the chicken soup last night and added... KALE. (I put kale in half our meals. Hey, it's nutritious and in season!) The fried rice was never made last week so it's been pushed forward to this week. I made it once before, or as close a facsimile as I usually make, since I tend to think of recipes that are not pastry/baking as a general guideline, and the rice is yummy. I have a couple of salmon filet left from a large package of frozen salmon, which will be good for soup, and I may add some shredded cooked chicken to the bean/posole soup... The stroganoff is a favorite of Bunny's.

COMING THIS WEEK TO A STOVE NEAR ME

Along with some regulars (hello, tacos... I ♥ you), I have some pinned recipes in the works.





The Marcella Hazan sauce will be with sausages & peppers... it's the best sauce EVER. EVER!

COMING TO A STOVE NEAR ME THIS WEEK

I really do make the recipes I pin! These are the ones on for this week.

Cookin’ the Book: Pioneer Woman’s Pots De Creme

working my way through a new cookbook… this time it’s the second Pioneer Woman cookbook.

Bunny’s birthday was on Saturday, but her party was Sunday. She’d had me deliver tiny cherry pies to her class the day before, and cake was going to be at the party, so it was a perfect time to try out something a little different. I figured the oven could use a break (or maybe it was me that could use the break), so we went for this no bake dessert. The only time necessary is the few hours for it to set up in the fridge.
We liked the mocha flavor that the strong coffee gives to this recipe, but I felt it would have been better if it were more custardy… or more mousse-like. Prepared per the recipe’s instructions, it seemed a bit too loose in consistency.
Not that it kept us from gobbling it down. It is delicious, and easy.

PSST: If you want to try it out, the recipe is HERE.
I’m going to try a baked version sometime to see how I feel about the difference. Maybe this one by Martha. I also have some white chocolate nuts here, and that could be a fun variation, maybe with some pistachios.

Remember the McResolution?

A year ago I had a mini resolution to find or figure out a suitable homemade—and healthier—recipe for McNuggets.  Did you know there are about 40 ingredients in those suckers?

Anyway, a couple of months ago I finally hit upon a recipe that works really well.  The key, I think, is that you grind chicken with some seasonings, then portion it into little chicken meatballs that you flatten after lightly breading them.

They were delicious, and contained 7 ingredients the way I made them (no parsley flakes)!  The one comment from my taste testers was they are not as juicy as McD’s*.  A batch makes about 3 dozen nuggets, which were gobbled up, but they can be slightly undercooked and frozen/reheated in the oven if you’re planning ahead.  Freeze ‘em on a baking sheet in a single layer, then you can move them to a more space efficient bag or container, like how you’d freeze a bounty of fresh berries for later.

I tried one batch with a tempura-style batter instead of the breading to try to make them more exactly like McNuggets, but wouldn’t you know it, Carter preferred the other way!  :)  Everyone else, including a visiting playmate thought they were great with the tempura coating.  However, it was messier for me, and the oil I was frying them in seemed to get funky by the end of the batch, so I will stick with the light breading from now on.

So there you go.  Homemade McNuggets without the eyebrow-raising dubiousness.  Happy New Year!

*I solved the juiciness issue by adding one teaspoon canola oil to the meat mixture when grinding.

Cookin’ The Book: Pioneer Woman’s “Katie’s Roasted Corn Salad” and Sangria

Ages and ages ago, I bought The Pioneer Woman Cooks. For fun, I decided to cook every one of her recipes (in the book, not her site!), anrd I was on a roll for a while.  Then, I hit a place where I’d made a lot of the recipes and the rest were so starchy or, well, dessert (we don’t have that often), that I got stuck.
However, recently I did use two recipes from the book, and, though they are repeats, I realized I’d forgotten to write about them the first time ‘round.  I know, it’s hard to believe, but I do eat a lot of things that I don’t even take photos of!  Imagine!  Just like normal people… ;)

I made a half recipe of the Sangria, because the full recipe calls for 2 bottles each of red and white wine for starters and that seemed like an… ambitious quantity even though we did have friends over.  It’s refreshing and tasty, too—perfect for a warm afternoon.

This blurriness is the roasted corn salad, which really has a lot more going for it than just corn.  I did veer away from the recipe just a little here, as I had heirloom summer squash fresh from the CSA share while the recipe calls for yellow squash.  To me, they’re practically the same thing.  The dressing is a glorious balsamic vinaigrette.  This was Paul’s favorite dish that evening.
Both recipes are book only, so I can’t share links, but trust me, they’re both worth making—and repeating, as the case may be.  I also made her Roasted Beef Tenderloin and Creamy Rosemary Potatoes (link to nearly identical recipe HERE) for that same meal, thus garnering two new checks in the book, and probably three pounds of mystery weight to lose that next week.  ;)  I just counted, and there are still 20 recipes left, about half of which are desserts.  Maybe I’ll finish this someday, after all!

Chocolaty, Salty, Pretzely…

…okay, that last one’s not a word.  It should be, okay?

I am a sucker for Matthew Mead’s seasonal magazines.  Saturday I was flipping through Autumn 2011, trying to decide what to make the next day when Paul asked me what I was looking at.  He assumed it was a Martha magazine, and when I told him about Matthew M. he wanted to look for a while.  Anyway, he developed an instant crush on a recipe and asked me to make it ASAP.  And an extra one to take to work to share.

His photos to go with the recipe for Chocolate Pretzel Tart are far superior to mine, especially since I didn’t remember to take a photo until I was boxing up the second tart for travel.  Fancy aluminum foil and all, it still looks good, and it tasted even better.

My word.  Pretzels in the crust?  Salt on top?  It is a very good thing I forced our guests to take home the 4 slices that remained Sunday, else I’d a been a nibbling on that until it was gone, gone, gone.  I drizzled some warm Fleur de Sel Caramel (Trader Joe’s in a jar) on top when serving it.

Looking at that photo, I kind of wish I had one more nibble, though.  ;)

Hello, Goodbye

I love the idea of the highly organized, theme meal. One day I hope I’ll be organized enough to do a back to school celebration for the kids, remember to plan for Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day… all those things that seem just out of my grasp so far.

However, I decided, as the first of October began to loom, that I wanted to celebrate... something or another. I love the summer, but I also love fall for different reasons. The light changes, but in a way I really like. Some of the more florid colors fade away, but others come right in to replace it. Typically it’s not rained enough—or at all—to make the hills turn green, but the leaves turn yellow and red in response to shorter days. I don’t love the darkest winter, but I love the turn of fall.

It seemed right to say goodbye to summer and hello to autumn as the world struggles to decide whether it’s time to change over once and for all.

Goodbye, Hello Menu

Cannellini and Kale Soup
Tomato Pie
Roasted Corn Salad
Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
Roasted Marinated Filet
Caramel Sundaes*

Sangria
Cider & Oktoberfest Beer

*these were going to be Caramel Apple Sundaes, but by dessert time I just didn’t feel like hollowing apples. They’d have been so cute, though, like the classic fall treat, but with ice cream. Oh well, maybe another day soon…

I was too me to remember to take photos of all the yummy food, but I did remember a few.

I know it sounds weird, but try the Tomato Pie. I adapted my recipe a little, making it single crust, using mozzarella and cheddar, and adding one egg yolk because I worried about it setting with the juicy tomatoes. It was so good I ate it for breakfast the past two mornings. Trust me, if you like tomatoes, this is something else!

We pulled out out little bounce house for hyper kids, and enjoyed an outside fire afterwards. Welcome, fall. I like you just fine.

Tuesday Snippets

~itty bits not worth their own posts, probably not worth mentioning at all, but all the same~

I like my rain boots and am glad to have ‘em, but I was getting tired of wearing them.  Very, very tired. (Very.)

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Did I mention the weather has been a bit zany this spring?  Yeah.  Hail.  It was not a big deal, but I had a hard time convincing Cole to hurry up and get in his carseat so Mama would be able to stop being pelted with ice nuggets.

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On a whim I bought some regular popping corn and made it old-school, on the stovetop.  My family is riddled with full-on popcorn junkies now.  For the past month it seems that a day rarely goes by when I am not shaking a pot (or 3!) of kernels in the afternoon.  In related news, butter consumption has also risen, since that is the only way to go.  Hoc-tuey to the faux butter on popcorn.  (I do like butter spray on corn though!)

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You’re looking at a stymied squirrel.  This booger has been poaching seeds from the bird feeder for the past few weeks.  I don’t really mind him taking the odd seed now and then, but he has gotten damn picky and taken to tossing pawfuls of the smaller millet seeds for the song birds as he cherry picks for sunflower seeds.  So, last time I filled the feeder I moved it over to a new hook out of reach of branches or the screens.  He no likey.  I have to admit to a smug feeling of, “Take that, you rodent!  My superior human brain has foiled you!  Hahahaaha!”  Mr. Squirrelly Man (my daughter’s moniker for him) tried from every angle, including hanging upside down from the gutter, but had to settle for some nut from a tree nearby.

The birdbrains show no appreciation, but are pretty to look at.

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The other evening Bunny performed a complex hair transplant on Cookie Monster here.  She named it the “Bunsley Hair Clinic.”  After the procedure Cookie declared, “Me ready to rock out with me cookie out, thanks, Bunsley!”  Sadly, by the next morning, his luxurious locks had fallen off.  Bunsley Hair Clinic has no comment at this time.

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Recently Cole sat all by himself—nearly motionless, except when the clippers got close to him—for the first time getting his hair cut.

He’s getting to be such a big boy, and is starting to look forward to preschool next fall.  Cole says he’s not ready yet for me to go away and leave him there, but he will be “when brother Carter goes to big school.”  For now, he says, “I’ll stay with you Mom, okay?”  No problemo, Buddy.

Picante!

Though the weather is not agreeing with me yet, I’ve been in the mood to move on seasonally with the cooking.  It’s not time to grill out yet, but that looms.  There’s a reason Cinco de Mayo is such a big deal here.  Okay, two reasons.  The reason I look forward to May 5 is it’s a perfect first BBQ kind of holiday here.  (It’s a nice excuse to whip up some Sangria, too, don’t get me wrong!)

Anyhoo, I’ve been wanting braised wintery sides less and summery dishes more… crunchy, fresh tasting stuff.

One of my favorite barely any work at all dinners is Crock Carnitas.  I love a meal you slam in the crockpot in the morning and, to keep the lazy vibe going, I decided to make a  no-cooking side last time.  I love Carolina bbq with creamy slaw, so I thought I’d take that idea and change it a little. (Note: perhaps it’s my crock pot, but I find the above recipe comes out a little soupy.  It’s easy to ‘fix’ that, though – I take off the lid and let ‘er rip, cooking down on high while I prepare the sides and toppings.)

This was super simple, and great with the carnitas.  I took a bag of broccoli slaw mix, added a couple of cups of sliced snap peas, some lime juice, cilantro, and perhaps 1/2 c jarred salsa verde and mixed well, then added a little plain yogurt to cool it down a little bit.  I find I like slaw to sit a little while—just 15-30 mins—to loosen up, so I made this first, then prepped a few toppings for the carnitas wraps.  This is a great ‘serve yourself’ meal for the older kid and adults, making for even less work in a ‘be lazy’ dinner.

Yum.

Pssst!

I like to make a lot of things from scratch, cake included.  However, there are times when a box mix just needs to be relied upon for sanity, like the times when you have three kids and they all want to help with the cake.  Which would be most times lately.

If you are lucky enough to have one near you, run, don’t walk—okay, you know what?--drive, sensibly, but get thee to Trader Joe’s and feel free to buy their cake mix.  It is AWESOME.  No weird chemicals, no bad stuff: it truly has only what you’d use if you did pull out the measuring cups and spoons.  If I didn’t love Trader Joe’s so much, I might try to pass it off as my own, but instead I fully cop to using this.  They only stock a chocolate and yellow mix, and chocolate and white frosting mixes (never tried the white though), so it’s not like I’ll never make a cake from scratch, but these are some bona fide go to pantry items, if you ask me.

The only hard part is not eating it all like a piggy.  I finally had to own up to the fact that my tasty, tasty birthday cake was going to sing its siren song to me every night until I ate the whole thing, so I plopped it into the trash last night.  :)

Drink Your Spinach

Being cooped up with Bun on a multi-day sick out, I have been catching up on my sneaky purees.  Purple puree is simply about half a bag of frozen spinach, half a bag of frozen blueberries, and the juice of half a lemon simmered on the stove for a while, then blasted to a fine puree either with a wand blender or small food processor.  What you get is a deep purple thick puree that hides well in brown foods.  My favorite way to get spinach down Carter’s gullet is in a Spinach Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Banana Smoothie.

It’s so easy to make, and it’s really yummy, plus I can load it up with goodness.  LOAD it up.  The cool part is the other kids like it, too.

1 c plain yogurt
1 really ripe banana
1/4 c purple puree
2-3 T peanut butter (couple large spoonfuls, I really don’t measure this stuff)
1 scoop Trader Joe’s vanilla soy protein powder
couple good squirts chocolate sauce  or some cocoa powder and sugar
a few glugs of milk

Put it all in the blender and puree.  Add as many ice cubes as it takes to make it seem right.  Taste and make sure it’s sweet enough… if not, add a little honey.

I find with time, I can up the purple puree amounts to make it more ‘good’ and less treat.  Leftovers work great in popsicle molds.

 

But I almost never have leftovers.  Carter chugged three small glasses this morning.  He likes chocolate a little bit.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Oh so good, quick, easy…

If you’re needing a last minute gift, this really is a thoughtful one—and it’s only a more or less hands-off hour of work.  Add a label and some fabric for the top… et voila.

I have made THIS RECIPE twice now, first with canola oil then with coconut oil—go with the coconut.  It ends up being subtle, but adds a certain something.  It’s awesome over yogurt.  Try it!

Cookin’ the Book: Pioneer Woman’s Potato-Leek Pizza

Wednesday was the big “day before Thanksgiving crazy day” here.  There was a lot of hunting, gathering, and prepping to be done for the big gut bust, so naturally I decided to make pizza for lunch, and try out another recipe towards my goal of making everything in The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I’m attempting to cook every one of her recipes (in the book, not her site!) and making slow, but steady progress.  I might be finished before I send a child to college.  We’ll see. :)
One of the main reasons I hadn’t tried her pizza before is that I have made pizza dough enough times to feel perfectly happy never, ever making it again.  However, we do like to make homemade-ish pizza with the fresh dough from Trader Joe’s and I decided I was going to give myself a ‘day before Thanksgiving' freebie’ and scrawl a checkmark on that page for trying out the unusual topping combination.
I ended up making three pizzas that day for lunch:  plain cheese (for Carter), mushroom (for Bunny), and potato-leek.  I think, to my tastes, I’d like some sort of sauce or something between the potatoes and crust (her recipe calls for simply drizzling a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt).  However, it was a pretty tasty combination and she’s certainly onto something good with the leeks and bacon on pizza with some goat cheese.  I just felt the potatoes seemed unattached to the crust when I bit into it… maybe a white sauce would do it for me.
Potato-leek pizza is a cookbook only recipe, so I can’t link to it.  :(  However, she describes her pizza dough HERE.  Plus, the eggplant-tomato pizza in the recipe sounds pretty dang good.  :) Mangia.

Well, so much for THAT idea.

We all have our gross comfort food that we love in spite of multiple dubious qualities.  For me it’s hominy and eggs all scrambled together—such an obscure combination that I had some to the conclusion it was something my mother made up one day when she really needed to go shopping and just told me it was a real food.  A couple of years ago, after my semiannual-ish whipping up of a full pan on a ‘forage night’, I decided to Google “hominy and eggs” and whaddaya know.  It’s a real thing.  At any rate, I love it.  Nobody else I know does.  More for me, I say!

Bunny loves Ramen noodles.  I try to avert my eyes from the nutritional content as I make it for her as an after school snack a couple of times a month.  Some days ya just gotta have your thing, even if it has 5 months worth of sodium in a serving.

I thought I would try to make them at least an eensy bit more healthy by going for schmancy Cup “O” Noodles, which has a token sprinkle of veggies mixed in it.  Figuring it would be a small enough amount that she’d just eat it and that it’d be a pain to remove the veggies that she’d just eat it, I served a bowl the other day.

Not so much.  Girlfriend made her point.