Stay at Home Mom

In the past (mostly in my early years of motherhood) I had people ask enquire when I told them what I do, "What do you DO all day?" I used to become a bit defensive, because of course I didn't have much to show for my days beyond playing with, reading to, feeding, entertaining, comforting, keeping clothes, children and the house clean, etc. My days were filled with baby and toddler things and I often felt trapped in the house. Now things are different as all three children are in school for at least a portion of most days. I should have more free time, or time to account for.

And yes, I have been able to accomplish some things. I just completed master's degree this week. I've learned to cook better. I interact with more people on a daily basis. I'm even part of two book groups. But some days simply disappear into the busyness of being a mom, even now.

Tomorrow is my oldest daughter's 8th birthday. When I asked her what she wanted for breakfast on her birthday, she answered with certainty: cinnamon rolls. OK, I said, I'll stop by IKEA and pick up a package (yes, we like their food). Oh no, she didn't want store bought cinnamon rolls, she wanted "Mommy cinnamon rolls." I have our years in Japan, where we couldn't buy good cinnamon rolls, to thank for this request.

I started baking this morning as the children were eating breakfast and gathering up their things for school. I heated the milk, set the yeast in luke warm water and stirred sugar and butter into the luke warm milk, before blowdrying Daughter's hair and then shooing everyone out the door. My hope was that the milk would cool off enough to be mixed into the yeast without killing it by the time I returned. Fortunately, it was, so I was able to make the rest of the dough before showering myself and dressing Youngest Son. After completing a few household chores, I punched down the dough before leaving the house at 10:30.

First we stopped by a toy store to purchase gifts for Oldest Sister from her younger siblings, but we were unsuccessful. We had to give up quickly though as we were on a schedule. We stopped by Dunkin Donuts to pick up a couple of dozen donuts for the classroom birthday celebration on our way to pick up lunch. We made another quick stop at a second toy store and we were in and out in less than 10 minutes with presents in our hands!

Then we went through the Burger King drive thru while the two little ones (3 and 5) could not get over their amazement at this wonderful thing that we could order, pay and pick up our food without ever leaving the car! It was so fast! And's it's called fast-food?! Amazing!!

We made it back to our town and the elementary school by 11:30 to pick up Daughter and 2 friends to take them home for lunch. This was followed by scarfing down chicken fingers and french fries ("Look - this finger has blood on it!" - french fry/ketchup) and sugar cookies before I took everyone back to school at 12:15. Oh- and I had to punch down the dough again - no time for anything more. I dropped off the donuts, and then Daughter2 to kindergarten and drove Son to preschool.

Back home, I rolled out the dough and cut the cinnamon rolls and did some emailing and file organizing on the computer while waiting for the rolls to rise. Baked the rolls, cleaned the kitchen, just got the rolls out of the oven, and then returned to preschool for the "holiday sing." I had barely enough time afterwards to dash back across town to pick up the girls from elementary school and then to have Daughter2 change for dance. We watched her for a while (it was open house day) but then had to take Daughter1 to the store for some Christmas shopping as this was the last opportunity to go while Sister was otherwise occupied. We picked up Sister from dance and quickly drove to the video store to choose a movie for the evening (I usually choose the movies myself from the library, but today was a special treat due to Birthday). That took a while, so we only had a few extra minutes to stop by home to turn on the Christmas lights and have Daughter1 change for dance and everyone ate a Clementine each (the one healthy food for today).

THEN, we all traipsed back to dance to watch Daughter1's class and finally arrived home at nearly 7. My cinnamon rolls were still sitting under wax paper on the counter. Did I mention that I was cranky at this point? It suddenly occured to me that all I had eaten since breakfast were some french fries and a chicken finger. Yuck!

Around 8pm I started making Daughter1's birthday cake, only to realize that I only had one egg left when I needed two. I called our neighbor, who was only too happy to lend me one, so that crisis was averted! Now (9:30) the kids are in bed, and the house smells deliciously like chocolate cake. I need to make the frosting, and I need to transfer a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, but then my day will be over and I will have to make a decision: should I read my book (Son of a Witch) or watch my Netflix moview (Garden State)? Decisions, decisions.

Gingerbread House

Last December I bought a gingerbread house kit at IKEA but then had no time or opportunity to make it. I dug it out of the back of the pantry last weekend and checked the expiration date, and lo and behold it was still "fresh" so we proceded to assemble it according to package directions.

The box told me to melt a cup of sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan, stirring constantly. I have little experience in candy making so needless to say, this made me a little nervous. I put the pan of sugar over medium heat and stirred and stirred and stirred. (Did I think sugar would burn instantaneously?!?!) Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (5 minutes perhaps) we started to smell cotton candy and the sugar began to melt and turn light brown. As soon as it liquified, I started the assembly process. I worked on a big plastic tray (also from IKEA) and used a spoon to spread the sugar-glue onto the sides and roof of the house.

All the while, the kids were telling me how LAST YEAR (when they made gingerbread houses at a friends' house) Friend's mother used frosting as glue and it didn't take as long and it wasn't so messy. They eventually conceded however, that the melted sugar method was more effective as it STUCK and did not easily slip. Part of the roof is still crooked because the glue dried so quickly!

I was worried about clean up - both the hardened sugar in the pan and on the spoon as well as the drippings and "sugar hair" that ended up on the stove-top and counter. I thought it would never come off, but soaking the pan and spoons in water overnight did wonders, and I was able to rinse them off and send them through the dishwasher!

The frosting directions on the package were also a little different from what I had seen before. It called for powdered sugar, an egg white and a little lemon. The egg-white part was new to me, but after a little internet research I've discovered that this is called Royal Icing and is used for such purposes as decorating houses and cookies. I piped the icinging onto the house using a makeshift bag made of folded up wax paper with a small hole cut in the corner, and the kids started attaching candy to house. Some of our candy choices were too heavy and started to slide, but the frosting hardened pretty quickly and became ROCK solid! Thank you egg whites!

The best part of the whole experience was the delicious smell that permeates our house: gingerbread! I didn't think that was possible without actually baking the gingerbread! The end result of the house looks like children made it, but that was the point - to give them ownership of it. The love it and ask to eat it every day! I had to return to IKEA to buy Anna's Pepper-kaker just so we could have some to eat!

Carbonara

This recipe is a favorite with our two youngest especially. I've done some tinkering to make the traditional recipe a little more friendly for those of us watching fat intake.

1 package turkey bacon
1 1/4 cup light cream
1 cup (or more) freshly grated parmesan
4 eggs
pepper
thin spaghetti noodles

Slice the turkey bacon into small peices and fry in a large pan until "crisp" in a little olive oil. Set aside on a paper towel to drain.

Boil a large pot of water. When boiling, remove lid and add 1 tbsp salt and spaghetti noodles. Cook pasta with lid off according to package directions until al dente.

While pasta is cooking, whisk together cream, eggs and pepper. Add grated parmesan and crisp bacon.

Drain pasta and immediately pour into pan used for turkey bacon. Turn on the heat to medium(low) and pour egg mixture over spaghetti. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce begins to thicken, careful not to cook eggs into "scrambled eggs." This should take anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes.

Serve with extra parmesan and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Slow Cooker Chicken Cordon Blue

I'll admit, I was sceptical when I saw the recipe in my new cookbook, Put a Lid On It . Not only was I sceptical, I was also a little confused as there were no pictures, diagrams or illustrations to guide me. And how could one tablespoon of liquid ever be enough to cook all that meat in?

Nevertheless, I gave it a try, and all of us were happy with the results. I think it is at its best right at four hours, but we had to keep it on the warm setting for a few hours before everyone had a chance to eat, so it was a little on the dry side. There was lots of tasty "sauce" to ladle over the chicken to reinject some moisture.

3 boneless chicken breasts
9 slices of ham (preferable about 10x20 cm)
9 slices swiss cheese
1 Tbsp white wine
cooking spray

Coat the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray. Pour white wine into the bottom of cooker.

Trim the excess fat off the chicken breasts. Lay eat piece between two pieces of parchment paper and gently pound with a meat mallet until about 1/4 inch thick. Lightly sprinkle each piece with salt and pepper. Cut each breast into three strips.

Take a slice of ham and lay it down on your work surface so that the short edge of the rectangle is at the "bottom" Place a slice of cheese on top of the ham, and a piece of chicken on top of the cheese. Roll up tightly and fasten with a toothpick. Place in the cooker. Continue until you have nine rolls. Rolls may be place on top of each other if you run out of space.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours, until chicken is cooked through. Leave lid on to preserve moisture.

These are "inside out" but I think the ham on the outside keeps the chicken from becoming too dry (at least that's my guess). We had it with rice, green beans and salad.

Nutrition Labels

This article on the front page of the paper caught my eye this morning. It tells of a grocery store chain that

"developed a system called Guiding Stars that rated the nutritional value of nearly all the food and drinks at its stores from zero to three stars. Of the 27,000 products that were plugged into Hannaford’s formula, 77 percent received no stars, including many, if not most, of the processed foods that advertise themselves as good for you. These included V8 vegetable juice (too much sodium), Campbell’s Healthy Request Tomato soup (ditto), most Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice frozen dinners (ditto) and nearly all yogurt with fruit (too much sugar). Whole milk? Too much fat — no stars. Predictably, most fruits and vegetables did earn three stars, as did things like salmon and Post Grape-Nuts cereal."

I would appreciate having that kind of system in place at my grocery store. I don't always look at all the different factors on the labels, until I'm home and start thinking about it. I noticed yesterday, after doing our weekly shopping that the beef broth has 99% fat free prominently displayed on the box. In smaller, much harder to read print underneath that, it says, "See side panel for sodium content." Hmm... what does that tell me? High sodium content maybe?

As I've written about here before, I've been giving some thought to transfats and sodium content in food, and even before reading today's NYT I was reaching the conclusion that home-made-from-scratch really is best, both taste-wise and nutritionally. It seems to be a dying skill though as many recipes call for a can of this and a package of that, and most of my acquaintances don't even cook that way on a daily basis, opting for prepared meals (or at least semi-prepared) instead.

I do believe that most things can be made from scratch with just a little added planning and preparation, but then I've been cooking mostly from scratch for years out of necessity while living in Japan. The quesion is, where does one draw the line? I'm not about to spend half a day making chicken or beef broth to freeze, especially when I don't have a deep freezer to put it in. I'm going to have to give this some more thought and pay more attention to the labels before I reach a conclusion on convenience vs health vs taste vs time management.

All I know now is that I can not trust the front packaging of most products - I must read labels and make informed decisions!

Blue Cheese Potatoes

Sometimes I find, or see, something in the fridge that I realize must be used TODAY or it will have to be tossed. Blue cheese is one of those things I can't stand to waste, so earlier today I tried to find some way to incorporate blue cheese into our grilled salmon dinner. I came across a recipe at Epicurious for a quick blue cheese gratin. Of course I made a couple of changes, and here's how I made it:

Preheat oven to 425. Peel 8 meduim potatoes and slice thinly (I used my nifty 100 yen store slicer). Mix with 1 cup light cream, 1 clove minced garlic and 1/2 tsp salt, and some pepper. Pour mixture into oven (broiler) safe pan and cover with foil. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cover potatoes with crumbled blue cheese. Return (uncovered) to oven and broil for 5 minutes, or until cheese melts.

As you can maybe see from the photo, I only did "half" with blue cheese. I covered the other half with cheddar to make it slightly more palatable for my children (who don't really like potatoes anyway, but that's another topic altogether). The result was absolutely delicious. The cream thickened nicely, and didn't stick to the pan. The garlic was tasty, but strong, so that could be omitted I think (if you're worried about your friends complaining the next day). It was a quick, easy, and very tasty addition to our weeknight rotation.

Artichoke Pasta

This slow cooker recipe was inspired by the back of the artichoke can with help from Put a Lid On It. Next time I might use frozen artichoke instead of canned.

Cook 1 finely diced onion and 1-2 cloves garlic (crushed and minced) over medium heat until golden and tender.

Add 1/2 cup white wine and reduce for a few minutes.

Coat inside of slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Pour onion mixture in and add:

2 cans quartered artichoke hearts, drained
2 cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 can whole tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
(feel free to be generous with the herbs)

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

While cooking pasta (I used egg noodles this time) on the stovetop, add 1/2 cup light cream to slow cooker.

Serve artichoke sauce over pasta, and top with freshly grated parmesan.

(It was also suggested that it could be topped with feta and olives, and we might try that next time)

Taco Seasoning

Recently I scoured my cupboards, pantry and fridge looking for transfats. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that we had nothing in the house (or so I thought) that contains transfats - although I admit I was surprised that there were none in the Doritos.

Today, when I took down the box of taco shells for a quick Friday night dinner, I was astonished to see that there are 2.5 grams of transfat per serving of hard taco shells. Here I thought I was serving a somewhat healthy meal when making tacos as opposed to ordering pizza.

Sodium is another issue. I usually try to be careful not to use too many prepared items in order to keep the sodium content down. Hard taco shells 135 gr. of sodium which is high, but then when I looked at the seasoning mix package, I felt defeated: 560 mg, or 23% of the recommended daily intake. So, if a person were to eat 4 hard tacos, they would ingest 795 mg of sodium!

OK, I'll admit, I don't really know that much about nutrition, but I figure that anything I can make from scratch is probably healthier than something mass produced that has the shelf life of at least 2 years. I did a search for recipes for taco seasoning, and after a little experimentation and borrowing from 3-4 different recipes, here's what I came up with:

1 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed/minced
Saute in olive oil until tender.

Add 1 lb ground beef

While beef is cooking, combine the following ingredients in a small bowl:

1 tsp salt
1 tsp corn starch
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp oregano
dash of cayenne pepper

Add to meat mixture with water to reach the desired consistency. (I had an open bottle of water next to me on the counter which I poured in little by little and I forgot to measure how much I used.)

The result was good. I think that ground oregano would be better than dried, and I'm certain that the freshness of the spices have a great effect on the final taste (some of my spices are fresher than others - it's time for new chili powder). When the kids ate it, I asked what they thought and they all thought is was the same as usual. I don't know what the sodium content was, and we still ate the hard shell tacos (complete with transfats) but I felt a sense of satisfaction at having eleminated another pre-packaged item from my repetoire. From now on, it's taco seasoning made from scratch for us!

When Dad's away...

we eat "Boats."

Here's what I do:

Hollow out 1 loaf of Italian Bread

Make soupy (not quite done) scrambled eggs with pieces of chopped ham

Scoop eggs into hollowed out bread

Top with grated cheese, sliced tomatoes and then grated parmesan

Broil for 5 minutes or until cheese melts and eggs are completely set.

Eat with a side of salad (and the leftover soft parts of bread if you're a kid).

adapted from Rachel Ray's 365

Slow Cooking

First of all, let me reassure you that we have not been eating Sliced Steak Salad for the past 8 months straight! My apologies for neglecting this blog.

Recently I purchased this slow cooker because it was on sale at Target and, because late afternoon has become my busiest time of day. Now that both girls are in school until 3:20, and have playdates and activities after school with homework to complete after that, I have little time to prepare a tasty evening meal. I have never tried cooking in a slow cooker before, and to be honest, I've not had a very good impression when I've eaten slow cooked meals cooked by others, but I decided that it was worth a try.

Now I'm on the lookout for good recipes, and I'm trying out ones I've found (online, from the book I ordered and friends' recommendations) and trying to develop the confidence to tweak recipes according to our tastes and needs. It's strange to feel so bound to the written recipe when I usually deviate so much...

So far I've tried stew, taco soup, pork chops with rice, Hawaiian pork, and artichoke pasta sauce. I'm not sure if any of the recipes I've used are keepers.

I welcome all comments, suggestions and recipes! Please help if you can!

Sliced Steak Salad

3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 tsp dried italian seasoning
1 lb sirloin sliced thinly
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 small onion, sliced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp red-wine vinegar

Slice steak into thin strips, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute garlic in olive oil until golden and soft, then remove. Add herbs and then meat. Quickly stir fry meat 1-2 minutes and remove. Saute onion in remaining oil and add vinegars and salt and pepper for 2-3 minutes.

Place baby spinach or spring mix on plate and arrange meat on top of salad. Top with onions and dressing and serve immediately.

Bow Ties with Sausage in Cream Sauce

1 lb sweet sausage
1 lg. onion, finely chopped
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms
2 cloves crushed garlic
2/3 cup white wine
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup light cream

Remove sausage from casing and cut into bite size pieces. Fry and remove from pan. Add extra olive oil if needed and saute onions and mushrooms until soft; add garlic. Add white wine and reduce. Return sausage and add tomatoes. Simmer 10-15 minutes. Add cream, salt and pepper and cook another 3 minutes. Serve over bow ties with grated parmesan cheese.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

In a small saucepan melt 1/4 butter along with 1 clove crushed garlic. Simmer until garlic is soft and golden. Set aside and remove and discard garlic.

Mix together in a bowl:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Then add:

1/2 cup grated cheese
melted butter
2/3 cup milk

Gently stir until dough ball is formed. Drop by big spoonfuls into springform pan, sides barely touching. Bake at 450 F for 8-10 minutes.

Saturday Morning

 

Squash Bread?

I'm always at a loss as to how to use up leftover acorn squash. The kids don't really eat it in any form, and we don't really care for it reheated . . . This time I thought I'd be a bit more proactive and try something new. We've all heard of zucchini bread, so why not squash?

This is what I came up with, and it actually turned out quite tasty!

Banana Squash Bread

mix:
2-3 mashed bananas
1/2 - 1 cup mashed cooked squash
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs

add:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. 

A Weekday Favorite

Pork chops smothered with onions and mushrooms is something we can all five agree on. Karsten yells, "Mushrooms!!!" with glee although the girls just push them aside. We all appreciate the tender pork and on the side I served rice, salad and baked acorn squash. Saxon and Karsten always request "shurikake" or furikake as the rest of us call it whenever we have rice. 

Risotto with Shrimp

We do, at times, eat food that is not junk food. It's good to have some stand by recipes that are relatively quick and simple and can be added to. Recently we needed one of those as we had been out all day and I didn't have a whole lot of groceries in the house. Fortunately standing in the kitchen stirring risotto is relaxing to me, especially when I have someone with me to talk to and to grate the cheese for me.

Sautee in olive oil until soft:
1-2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped

Add 1 cup arborio rice and cook until nearly translucent (2-3 minutes). Pour 3/4 cup white wine over and cook until it's almost completely evaporated. Add 1/2 cup of chicken stock at a time, (always stir constantly with each addition) and cook until thick and pasty and add another 1/2 cup, repeating until rice is al dente (30 minutes or so, needing almost a whole quart of stock). Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in 2/3 cup grated parmisan cheese. For this particular variation, I added a pound of cooked shrimp at the end. Serve with a green salad and enjoy! 

Junk Food

Who doesn't love junk food? I'll admit, I enjoy it a little too much perhaps, so I'm always looking for ways to make it tasty and more healthy at home. I think both goals were accomplished with these hamburgers the other night!














Swiss Cheeseburgers with Sauteed Mushrooms

Sautee 1-2 onions (depending on size and personal taste) along with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic in some olive oil until tender. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add onions and garlic to ground beef, along with one egg, 2 tbsp flour, salt, pepper, and 1 tpsp Worcestershire sauce. Mix well together and form into patties. Cook on grill pan or grill (or skillet). Add swiss cheese towards end of cooking.

While grilling burgers, sautee sliced mushrooms of your choice in some olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on a whole grain Kaiser roll with baby spinach, sliced tomatoes and topped with mushrooms. On the side: oven fries, baby carrots and sliced cucumbers. Now everyone's happy! 

Mmmm . . . oven baked fries! 

Adventures in Baking

I've been doing some baking, but I realize that this is an area that needs to see vast improvement. It's fun though, and especially so now that I don't have to do my kneading by hand.  

Honey Oatmeal Bread

I really need to buy some loaf pans. This was two loaves of bread in a pyrex dish, somewhat crusty, but still good. We're all enjoying it. I'll post recipes when I've developed more confidence.

The cinnamon rolls could have baked a little longer, but were delicious!

Fairytale Lunch

Once upon a time, (I don't even remember when), I made simple quesadillas for lunch. Just two tortillas and some grated cheese, heated on a skillet until the cheese melts, and then cut into triangles. Somehow this really struck a chord with my children, who promptly mislabeled it as "pita" and "pitas" have been their lunch menu of choice ever since. Some days they might be talked into eating a bagel or a peanut butter sandwich, but for the two younger ones anyway, tortillas with cheese are IT. We may supplement with a yogurt, or some fruit or cut up veggies, but that's about the only variation. And they lived happily ever after . . . as did Mom as life is simple and the ingredients and clean up are minimal.

Macaroni and Cheese

Why is it, I wonder, that the two newspapers I have been reading recently have both prominently featured macaroni and cheese in the past week? Granted, there is a new book that was published in November 2005 by Marlena Spieler called Macaroni and Cheese (book promotion anyone?). The book received a mention in the NYT article, but not in the Bergen County Record . Hmm. Interesting also that these two newspapers are printed and distributed within like 25 miles of each other . . . just sayin’ (and no, I didn’t see the Record article until AFTER I had allowed my subscription to lapse).

All that to say, I chose to try the variation mentioned at chocolateandzucchini.com earlier this week instead. I was too lazy to drive 10 minutes to Whole Foods to look for Comte, so I used Gruyere (which they had at Kilroy’s Wonder Market on my way to preschool pickup). I omitted the baby spinach and nutmeg for the kids, and they absolutely loved it, as did I with the added extras!


Tips for cooking pasta (and why was I in my 30s before I learned these?)
1. Fill a large pot with water no more than 3/4 full.
2. Bring the water to a boil with the lid on the pan.
3. When the water reaches a rolling boil, add the desired amount of pasta to the water, along with some salt.
4. Stir the pasta with a wooden spoon to keep it from sticking together.
5. Set the timer to the minimum amount of time written on the box.
6. Do NOT put the lid back on the pan.
7. Give the pasta a good stir every couple of minutes.
8. When the timer goes off, drain the pasta into a large colander in your empty sink. (Test the pasta if you're unsure about its doneness)
9. Shake the colander to get rid of most excess water, and return pasta to pan to continue as your recipe dictates or pour into a warm serving bowl.
10. Eat and enjoy - al dente!

Banana Muffins

Ideal for:
~ breakfasts
~ snacks
~ using up old bananas

Kids love them. They are easy to bake, and they freeze nicely. What more could you ask for?




2 bananas, mashed
1 large egg
3/4 cup sugar (or less)
1/2 cup canola oil

Mix all together until frothy. Add

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tps salt

Ladle into lined muffin tins and bake at 375 F for 25 minutes.

Simply Delicious!

The kids all asked for seconds tonight!

Extras for adults can include:
~salsa
~avocado
~peppers
~sour cream
~onions

Use your imagination and go wild! 

My taco dinner mantra: eat from the sides, not from the top, and hold it over your plate! Not that they always listen . . . 

Time Saving Tips

While tacos are not the most labor intensive of meals, a parent can always use a few shortcuts. I try to make about 2-3 times more taco meat than we need and then freeze the leftovers in single serving packs (enough for the five of us). I can simply thaw and then reheat the meat in a small saucepan.

I wash lettuce by filling the salad spinner with cold water (without the basket in it) and then soaking the lettuce for a few minutes to allow the excess dirt to swish off and sink to the bottom. I then drain the lettuce into the basket before spinning it. I place leftover lettuce in a resealable bag along with a paper towel (to absorb the moisture) in the fridge for easy salad preparation in days to come.

Impromtu Party

Saturday nights are usually reserved for fun food, often finger food. It's hard to drum up the energy to put in a lot of effort though when I'm home alone with the kids for ten days straight while T is away on a business trip to Tokyo. This past weekend, however, I resolved to keep the standards high. I made sure we had all the fixings for chicken fingers and oven fries, a favorite with the kids.

We had newspapers spread out all over the living room floor with the furniture pushed back against the walls, and all three of the kids were painting when the doorbell rang late Saturday afternoon. It was our neighbor and her three kids + one tag along dropping by to say hello and to play for a while. Friend and I chatted for a while, and when I realized that the clock was inching it's way toward 5:30 (past time to start dinner) I invited them to stay and join us. Fortunately, the only packages of chicken I had found were huge, so I had bought plenty. Friend called her sister who was waiting for them at home who then came over with her toddler to join us. Suddenly I was fixing dinner for 3 adults and 5 children when I had thought we would be lonely on our own!

I'm not good with delegating in the kitchen, but Friend crushed the Ritz Crackers in a ziplock bag while I quickly sliced the potatoes, drizzled them with olive oil and slid them into the oven preheated to 400 F.

Then, while Friend and Sister supervised the kids playing in the basement and also set the table, I grated some parmesan into the crushed crackers and added 1 tsp paprika. I cut the chicken breasts into "fingers," coated them with olive oil and then the cracker crumb mixture. These also went into the oven about 40 minutes after the potatoes. I took the potatoes out and gave them a flip and a stir, then all the chicken and the potatoes went back into the oven. We sliced some cucumbers, opened a package of baby carrots for the kids and tossed together a salad of baby spinach, crumbled blue cheese and sundried tomatoes in olive oil for us adults. A simple, successful meal.

The only snag was that I had filled the dishwasher earlier in the afternoon, but forgotten to turn it on, so I didn't have enough clean, child-friendly plastic dishes or utensils on hand. Sister remedied the situation by washing some by hand, but again, I wish I had remembered to turn it on when the dishwasher was basically full when I started to clean up after everyone had gone home and the kids were in bed.

Happy girls! (Friend contributed some pilaf which we also enjoyed) 

Change in format

I've been thinking that perhaps it would be more interesting (mostly to me I think) to write about what I cook and why instead of/in addition to merely posting recipes. I like to cook, I love to read, and that translates to a relatively newfound interest in reading about cooking and food. I haven't always had many cookbooks and magazines to look through, but now that we're living back in the US I find that I suddenly have easier access, and thereby I'm reading more as well as finding more sources. I've subscribed to Bon Apetite and Gourmet, and I am now receiving other (sometimes annoying and unwanted) cooking related things in the mail.

I realize that I'm late to the game, but I have also recently begun reading more food blogs. Don't really know why and how I didn't find them before, but I've noticed that once you start reading one, there will be easy links and references to others, and it has a snowball effect. Fun!

I've also noticed that it becomes easier and easier to separate the good from the bad and the mediocre. Pictures and fonts help set the tone.

I know I'm rambling, but I'd like to try writing about what I make for my family, including why and how I make them. We'll see how it goes. I want to cook interesting, tasty food, but I have to take a lot of things into consideration. First of all, the three children who have to eat what I make. Their palates are fairly mature for their ages (2,4,and 7) but not usually with interesting vegetables. The dinners I make also need to be healthy, and low in fat. My husband does not usually arrive home in time to eat with us, so I have to plan for easy reheating or actually cooking his portion separately when he is ready to eat, some 2-4 hours after us.

Chicken Pot Pie

Bake 2 chicken breasts at 400 F for 20 minutes. (Brush with olive oil if skinless) May season with salt, pepper and herbs if desired.

Cut 2-3 carrots into small cubes. Blanch and then add 1 bunch broccoli and bring to a boil.

Saute:
1 diced onion
1 chopped red or yellow pepper
1/4 cup butter

Add 1/3-1/2 cup flour
salt/pepper

Stir until it becomes a bubbly paste.
Slowly stir in 1 pint chicken or vegetable stock. Stir in cubed chicken and blanched vegetables, including water. Stir and add 1/3 cup half and half, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Pour into casserole and top with cut biscuits.

Bake 20 minutes at 400 F.