Author: lara

I cleaned out my pantry this weekend. This was a VERY long overdue task. I threw out anything that I thought was too old and reorganized what was left. In the process, I discovered that I had duplicates of LOTS of stuff. Apparently, I’ve been buying canned tuna and hiding it in the back of the pantry without remembering it. I like having a can or two around (I’ll post my Tuna Melt recipe sometime soon – it’s actually quite yummy), but I had 7 cans in there! I poked around on epicurious, trying to find a good way to use up the surplus. This recipe looked like a really good possibility. It looked quick, healthy, simple and fairly kid-friendly. A couple of the reviewers recommended adding a bit of sun-dried tomato and/or green peas. That sounded good to me, so I added both. I used whole-wheat penne pasta. The tuna that I use (and had so many cans of) is water-packed white albacore (not the oil-packed that the recipe suggested). I actually liked this quite a bit, but it wasn’t a big hit with Boy and Girl. I think there was a bit too much lemon in it for them, so if I make it again, I might leave out the lemon juice and zest and just add a bit of vinegar, instead. I didn’t add the cheese, etiher, and that may have made the kids enjoy it more. Not an absolute home run, but definitely not bad. It was VERY easy to throw together and that’s never a bad thing. Thing would be a good dish to take to a potluck or on a picnic.

A cold-weather classic, especially since we’ve all been sick (bronchitis, allergies, sinus infection – 3 out of the 4 of us are on antibiotics right now). This was canned soup (I was in a hurry – Hubby was leaving for the airport – and did I mention that we’ve all been sick?). I’ll post my own soup recipe later, though it’s never the same thing twice – it’s variable depending upon what I have on hand at the time…..

OK, I’ve already revealed way too much about my TV-viewing habits, but……I also have to confess my love of HBO’s “The Sopranos”. I am counting down the days until the new season starts (April!). So, when I saw The Sopranos Family Cookbook, I had to get it. It’s actually (considering that all of the recipes were “written” by imaginary characters) a pretty good cookbook. I had a viewing party for the premiere show a couple of seasons ago and used quite a few of the recipes. I recommend the ones, in particular, for Biscotti Regina (Almond-Sesame cookies) and Arancini (rice balls).

And then, of course, there’s Carmela Soprano’s Baked Ziti. Mmmmm……
I’m too lazy (and afraid of copyright attorneys) to type the whole recipe in for you, but you basically make a batch of Uncle Junior’s Sunday Gravy with meatballs (recipe is in the book, but also available on HBO’s website here), boil a pound of ziti, pour a little sauce over the pasta, put it in a casserole dish, add a little ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan, then a little more sauce and parmesan, then bake it for about an hour.

I added a tiny bit of sugar, cayenne pepper, oregano, balsamic vinegar and sauteed onion and garlic to the original sauce recipe. For the meats, I used mild Italian sausage, beef stew meat (I just can’t make myself do veal) and 2 (1/2 lb. each) country style pork ribs. I also added one more large can of diced tomatoes, because I wanted to have a little more sauce left over to make another dish, and because I wanted it to be just a TINY bit chunky. I pureed the whole tomatoes in the blender before I added them.

It’s so delicious, it’s a dish you can’t refuse…..capisce?

Uncooked meatballs.

Browned meatballs (they finish cooking in the sauce).

This is a recipe from about.com (I did a search for a Crock Pot pork rib recipe). The recipe can be found here. I had some extra pork ribs (they came in a 3.5 pound package and I only needed one pound for the recipe I’m making tomorrow), so I decided to try this recipe tonight. I added about 1/4 cup of diced, purple onion that had been sauteed in olive oil, instead of the green onions, because I didn’t have any green onions on hand. I also used fresh grated orange peel, instead of the dried, because I DID have that on hand. I used about 1 Tbsp. freshly grated peel, and the the flavor was just perfect, just enough tangy orange flavor to balance the smoky sweetness of the hoisin sauce.

I knew today was going to be hectic, so I threw these in the Crock Pot this morning and only had to throw together a couple of quick sides when I got home. I roasted some cauliflower in the oven (recipe here), threw some rice in the cooker (Lundberg’s Black Japonica blend), some frozen edamame in the microwave and some turnips on the stove (boiled in chicken stock until soft and then mashed like potatoes – one of the kids’ favorites) and we had a veritable Asian-inspired buffet!

This entire meal was a hit with all four of us. The pork was delicious – even borderline vegetarian Girl said so! We’ll have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Boy REALLY loved this dinner. He’s never met a meat he didn’t like, and he LOVES edamame.

Bravo’s Top Chef is my favorite show. EVER. It’s embarassing to admit, but I actually squeal with delight and clap my hands together when this shows comes on. Like one of those little monkey toys that bares its lips and bangs cymbals together. Really.

Tonight is the Season 2 Finale. It’s come down to Ilan vs. Marcel. I think they’re both talented, but, for some reason, Marcel has been cast as the “villain” this season. Is he arrogant? Yes. Is he annoying? Yes. But, can the boy cook? Hell, yeah! So, part of me wants to see Marcel win just because he’s the “underdog”. Some crazy woman actually attacked this poor guy on the street with a bottle and he had to get a ton of stitches. Because she thought he was a jerk on a TV show. How crazy is that??? This poor guy was woken out of a sound sleep to a huge, muscular colleague chef attacking him and trying to shave his head. Marcel, in my opinion, has gotten a raw deal.

Marcel’s recipes, however, are hard to duplicate because he uses lots of lecithin and xanthan gum and odd emulsifiers and foam-making supplies, so……tonight I’m trying one of Ilan’s recipes as a tribute to the final episode of Season 2. Ilan is charming, talented and does a better job of motivating his co-workers. My prediction is that he will win tonight. This recipe (from Episode 11) got RAVE reviews from the judges. I had to adapt it quite a bit, because my family doesn’t do clams, but the final result was VERY VERY good. You can find the recipe here (my adaptations are below).

The Romanesco cauliflower is also from my in-law’s farm. It is an heirloom Italian variety and its spirals follow the Fibonacci sequence. Imagine that: a fractal veggie! It also happens to be quite yummy. My photography skills leave a little something to be desired, but it really is quite “otherworldy” looking.

Adaptations:

I used two pre-grilled (seasoned with salt and pepper) chicken breasts, sliced into bite-sized pieces, instead of the clams.

I used more cauliflower than the recipe called for (maybe an additional 3/4 cup). Even at that, it could have used a little more, since we were using this as our main course, and not starter, which is how Ilan used it. I made 4 oval baking dishes of the fideos and still had enough left over to make two more separate bowls, but I removed the cauliflower from those, because there wasn’t enough to go around. I’ll add veggies to those leftovers later for tomorrow’s lunch.

I used some chicken stock (maybe 2 cups), in addition to the white wine, to cook the fideos in before they were broiled.

Ilan’s recipe was not really clear (at least not to me) about what to do with the garlic. It never said to take the garlic cloves out of the dish, but it didn’t say, either, that they should be chopped or minced. I’m sure for CIA-grad Ilan, this sort of thing is intuitive, but I wasn’t sure, so I just used 5 cloves of garlic, instead of the 8 or 10 that was called for. I ran them through a garlic press and left them in the dish.

I forgot to add the parsley, which is a shame, because I have fresh Italian parsley growing outside, but it’s cold here and the kids are sick, so it just slipped my mind. The dish was great, but would have been better with just a tiny bit of parsley.

Oven-toasted Fideos (I probably over-toasted them just a bit, but they still tasted great.

Saffron Cream Sauce with the Romanesco Cauliflower Florets

This wonderful recipe (and the brussels sprout leaves) comes from my mother-in-law. She creates and prints out recipes for her farm customers, who sometimes need some creative encouragement to induce them to purchase some of the “exotic” produce that she offers at the organic farm that she and her hubby, Larry own and farm.

All four of us liked these. I knew that we had a heavy dinner coming, so these fit the bill perfectly – a great, light lunch. I would be tempted to put some of the leftovers into Boy and Girl’s lunch tomorrow, but I’m afraid their schoolmates would think that they are too “weird”. Conformity is a big thing at their age. It makes it really hard to inspire your kids to eat well at school when their buddies are eating Doritos and individual serving-sized bags of Kraft marshmallows. Can you honestly believe that they even MAKE such a thing? I just don’t get it – why not just pack your kid a baggie filled with sugar?

It’s a long story, but I initially browned too much beef and didn’t make enough rice, so I had to make more and consequently ended up with more filling than I needed. I had some red bell peppers and decided to stuff the remaining filling in them. Into the freezer with them, to have another day……….

Stuffed Brussel Sprout Leaves

1 lb. of ground beef
about 1 and 1/2 cups frozen baby green peas
about 1/3 cup chopped white onion
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
pinch of salt and pepper to taste
4 cups uncooked rice
(I used a whole package of Lundberg’s Jubilee brown rice blend)
enough beef stock to cook rice in

1 bunch brussel sprout leaves (about 12)

Set a large (stockpot) pot of water on to boil.

Cook rice in beef stock, adding frozen peas and and about 1/2 cup more beef stock (than is required to cook the rice) during the last few minutes of cooking time.

In a large saute pan, brown the garlic, onion and ground beef together. Drain.

Gently place brussels sprout leaves in pot of boiling water and simmer about 4 minutes. Remove with tongs or a spider strainer and set aside.

Mix cooked rice/peas together with beef mixture and add all remaining ingredients (herbs).

Place about 1/4 cup of filling mixture in each leaf and roll up, gently but tightly. Place on a serving platter and dig in. Depending upon your mood, these can be finger food or “fork food”. We used forks today.