September 2008 – Page 2 – Feed Your Kids

Holding down the fort…

Well, our Ike-related family issues are in the process of being settled. Still a pretty chaotic situation, but much of the responsibility/work/decision-making is in the hands of other folks now, so we’re pretty much off the hook for the time being. It’s been crazy and I can’t really talk about it in detail here, but … Continue reading “Holding down the fort…”

I did have houseguests for a while and have been doing a fair amount of cooking. Some of the things that I made, I remembered to take photos for:
Giada de Laurentiis’ Italian Doughnuts
(made from pizza dough – one small, 2 oz ball of dough made 10 small doughnuts and 10 “holes”, which I rolled in powdered sugar)

The Best Quiche, this recipe from “Skip To My Lou” really DOES live up to its name! It makes 2 quiches and freezes very nicely.

(I added a little bit of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, ’cause we like it.)

Negroni Cocktail. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of lighting up the orange peel, but I’m willing to keep working on it. This is a sweeter, tangier drink, that still has enough resemblance to a classic martini to keep me interested. Would be great as an aperitif.

Cooking Light’s Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze (baked in my mini loaf pan)
This was delicious and a HUGE hit, especially with Girl.

I also made Cooking Light’s Spiced Chicken Thighs with Yogurt Sauce, but had to throw it out when a family member, who will remain unnamed, but might possibly be celebrating a birthday today, accidentally knocked a glass out of the cabinet over the grill and broken glass fell all over the cooking chicken.

They smelled DELICIOUS as they were cooking, so I’m going to try the recipe again for today’s lunch (and will NOT be trying to unload the dishwasher and put away glasses as the chicken is cooking!)

Some of the things that I made, I did NOT remember to take photos for, but the recipes were GREAT and I will likely be making them again soon:
Cheese Muffins from The Pioneer Woman Cooks (which is a GREAT blog, if you’re not already familiar with it) and Fig

and Black Bean Chowder, also from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Both of these recipes were delicious and a BIG hit with our guests. I didn’t realize beforehand, however, exactly how much cheese was in both items, so, next time, I probably won’t make them together, but will make popovers or biscuits with the chowder and will serve the cheese biscuits with something else that’s not so cheesy, like tortilla soup or Portugese soup or corn chowder or even plain old barbecued chicken.

I also managed to pull off a pretty spectacular birthday party. This one was a lot of fun to plan and will definitely go down in the record books. Considering that I have some pretty over the top things to compare it to, this one definitely holds it’s own.

Unfortunately, for safety and security reasons, I can’t show ALL of you the party photos, but if you send me an email (see that little “contact” link up at the top of the page? the one under my photo?) and I am able to confirm that I know you, I’ll send you a flickr invite and will allow you permission to see them. Staci and Trish – by the time this is posted, you should already have been “invited” by flickr. Let me know what you think.

This party finally did inspire me, as my friend Eileen has been advising, to throw away all of my “pot” style food/icing colors. I had planned to just replace them individually, as I used up each color, but they are just so messy and unhygienic. I have now completely converted to the Americolor brand squeeze bottle icing colors. MUCH better and you don’t have to keep dipping a toothpick in (a new one each time!) to add more color. Just squeeze in the right # of gel drops until you get the color that you want.

Buh-bye! Into the trash with you!

I do hope to be back on track very soon. The kids are pretty much settled back into the school routine at this point. I have one birthday party down and one to go. The Ike aftermath has settled down a bit. It’s too early to start planning for Christmas. My only other major event on the horizon is an upcoming Columbus Day weekend girls’ trip to New York. I am looking forward to that getaway like you wouldn’t believe. I am going to eat at Adour, Le Bernardin, Craft and maybe David Burke & Donatella for brunch, if there’s enough time. We’ll be seeing a couple of shows and I am super excited about attending the “Waiter Rant” book reading and I am also absolutely, positively, making a stop at Kalustyan’s. Much, much more on the trip later.

Remembering 9/11: Take a Gander

Before I sign off, I did want to share this heartwarming September 11th story of community and cooperation with you. I recently came across it, myself, and it bears sharing on this Day of Remembrance. Gander, Newfoundland airport on September 11th

Gander, Newfoundland airport on September 11th

Press “Pause”

I’m going to be taking a little break for a week or two, guys… We are making preparations for having some extended family “Ike” evacuees around for a while and are also planning a truly gargantuan (that’s even bigger than “Over the Top“) “glow in the dark” birthday party for Girl. Today, we will be … Continue reading “Press “Pause””

I’m going to be taking a little break for a week or two, guys…

We are making preparations for having some extended family “Ike” evacuees around for a while and are also planning a truly gargantuan (that’s even bigger than “Over the Top“) “glow in the dark” birthday party for Girl. Today, we will be trimming trees and putting all of our outdoor furniture and plants into the garage, making sure that we have enough food to feed lots of guests and setting up lots of inflatable mattresses. I’ll be back as soon as Ike passes through, probably with LOTS to talk about.

Batten down the hatches!

Spinach Souffle-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Crummy photo, but this was really good! This recipe is from the South Beach Diet cookbook. Hubby and I have fallen “off the wagon” slightly and are clambering back on, once again. This recipe was actually pretty good. Hubby and I loved it and Girl liked it, but Boy wasn’t convinced. He ate it, but … Continue reading “Spinach Souffle-Stuffed Chicken Breasts”

Crummy photo, but this was really good!

This recipe is from the South Beach Diet cookbook. Hubby and I have fallen “off the wagon” slightly and are clambering back on, once again. This recipe was actually pretty good. Hubby and I loved it and Girl liked it, but Boy wasn’t convinced. He ate it, but I could tell it wasn’t his favorite.

This recipe was pretty easy to cook, but the assembly was a little bit of a challenge. I pounded the chicken as thinly as I could get it without it falling apart, but it was still hard to wrap the chicken all the way around the frozen souffle slices. Worth the effort, though. Stick to only 2 Tbsp worth of oil when you fry it. I used a little bit more than what was called for, and then had too much when I went to make the sauce and my sauce didn’t really bind correctly. It was still tasty, though, and I am probably being too critical.

This will definitely be a do-over. It was good enough that I’ll want to make it again and I think I’ll be able to execute it a little better next time.

Korean-inspired dinner

Inspired by my friend, Trish! Cooking Light published an “Every Night Korean” menu in their August 2008 issue that I decided that I had to try as soon as I saw it. I made this Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak (*see note below) and this Watermelon-Ginger Punch (read the note in the link about lycopene…I didn’t know … Continue reading “Korean-inspired dinner”

Inspired by my friend, Trish!

Cooking Light published an “Every Night Korean” menu in their August 2008 issue that I decided that I had to try as soon as I saw it.

I made this Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak (*see note below) and this Watermelon-Ginger Punch (read the note in the link about lycopene…I didn’t know about that and found it interesting…lycopene is good for “boy parts”, you know…) and planned to make Kimchi-Style Cabbage to go with it. I looked through the ingredients and made sure that I either had them in the pantry or put them on my grocery list. I dutifully bought flank steak, Napa cabbage, daikon radish and got ready to cook last night. That’s when I read through the recipes, in full, and discovered a line in the Kimchi recipe that said, “Cover and refrigerate one week.”. DRAT! I thought it was kimchi STYLE cabbage, not regular old “pickle it forever” kimchi. I wasn’t trying to make the real thing! I decided to go ahead and make the steak and the punch and just made some edamame and rice to go with it. I’ll give the kimchi a try another time…

I was kind of bummed (we all really like cabbage and all of us except Boy like anything that’s pickled), but the kids probably wouldn’t have eaten it, anyway…

The steak was really good, but had a definite spicy “kick” to it. Boy loved it, but it was a little too hot for Girl. The punch was really good, but we all agreed that we would use less ginger (or maybe even leave the ginger out) if we make it again. I love ginger, so I really liked it, but the rest of the fam thought it was a little strong. This sounds crazy, too, but I might put a little pinch of salt in it next time. I really like salt on my watermelon.

* Cooking Light doesn’t have the steak recipe online, but it’s simple:
rub the steak with a little toasted sesame oil and then rub it with a blend of brown sugar, salt, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, freshly ground black pepper and ground ginger and then grill it. 1/4 tsp of all of the spices except salt (use 1/2 tsp). 2 tsp each of the brown sugar and oil.

Blueberry Lemon (Almond) Muffins

I don’t remember how I originally stumbled across this website and this recipe, but I printed it out a million years ago and have had it filed in my “try soon” recipe folder. (Yes, I’m a hoarder, but I’m obsessively organized and can usually put my hands on the EXACT piece of paper that I’m … Continue reading “Blueberry Lemon (Almond) Muffins”

I don’t remember how I originally stumbled across this website and this recipe, but I printed it out a million years ago and have had it filed in my “try soon” recipe folder. (Yes, I’m a hoarder, but I’m obsessively organized and can usually put my hands on the EXACT piece of paper that I’m looking for in a minute flat…it’s a disorder, I know, but I usually use it to my advantage…) I happened to have all of the necessary ingredients on hand this morning, so decided to give these a try.

This recipe calls for Penzey’s Baking Spice, which I thought would be easy to concoct on my own. I mean, why bother with buying some blend of cinnamon, mace, cardamom and anise, when I already have those things in my spice cabinet? I can figure out how much to mix in, right? The problem was, as I soon discovered, that I only had anise seeds in my spice cabinet, not ground anise, which I thought would be better for sprinkling into baked goods. Undaunted, I just figured I’d get some the next time I went to the store. I tried my regular grocery store. No luck (it’s a smallish store, in the suburbs and not terribly specialized, so I wasn’t shocked). So, I decided to try the health food store and the local gourmet foods store. Still no luck. OK, I was starting to think that was really weird. They finally opened a new gigantic foods store in my neighborhood (for my East Coast buddies, the new store is VERY much like a Wegman’s: you can buy your upscale olives, imported cheeses…they have an in-store sushi bar, even….but you can also buy Tide and 7-Up, unlike at the health food or gourmet store) and so I decided to try there. Still no luck.

Well, when we passed through Houston recently, one of the places that I wanted to go was to the Penzey’s Spices store. They have great prices on bulk spices and they have some delicious-sounding proprietary spice blends (about 4 different kinds of curry powders alone) that I was nervous about buying from the catalog (I wanted to be able to smell, etc.). Well, wouldn’t you know it…they had ground anise, so I ended up getting some there. I should have just ordered the Baking Spice from them in the first place.

10 packets (one packet was plenty for all of the muffins) for about 50 cents…

I found the vanilla sugar recently on a field trip to the Hong Kong Supermarket, which is odd because the sugar is from Germany. I think it’s made with artificial vanilla flavoring, but it’s still good. If you want to make your own, just chop a vanilla bean into 1/2 inch segments and place it in a sealed, plastic container with 2 cups of coarse sugar and let it sit for a few weeks, giving it a shake to blend every couple of days, or whenever you think about it.

These muffins were absolutely delicious. The polenta gave them a delicious crunch; the buttermilk made them very rich and moist and the batter was thick enough that the blueberries didn’t all sink to the bottom of the muffins (I hate that).

If you’re not as ~~afflicted with OCD~~ single-minded and determined as I am, feel free to substitute Chai Spice blend or Cinnamon Spice blend or just a couple of shakes of cinnamon to this recipe, instead.

Or just leave it out altogether.

That wouldn’t bother me at all.

Really. Not a bit.

Well………maybe just a little bit.

Well, how ’bout if you don’t use the Baking Spice, you just don’t tell me about it, OK?

Spice-rubbed Pork Tenderloin and Fresh Lemon Rice

Mmmmm… Yet another pair of great Cooking Light recipes… Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Mustard BBQ Sauce and Fresh Lemon Rice. These were both delicious and a big hit with everyone. If there’s anything that makes your kitchen smell better than bacon and onions cooking together, I don’t know what it is… …unless, maybe it’s Spice-Rubbed … Continue reading “Spice-rubbed Pork Tenderloin and Fresh Lemon Rice”

Mmmmm…

Yet another pair of great Cooking Light recipes…
Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Mustard BBQ Sauce
and Fresh Lemon Rice.

These were both delicious and a big hit with everyone.

If there’s anything that makes your kitchen smell better than bacon and onions cooking together, I don’t know what it is…

…unless, maybe it’s Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin. This was really delicious and VERY easy.

Blueberry Streusel Bars with Lemon-Cream Filling

These are SOOOOOO good! My photo isn’t as good as the one on Fine Cooking’s website, but Fine Cooking doesn’t like to share their recipes, so that’s really just a tease. I did, however, find that someone else has posted the recipe to Cooking Light’s online discussion forum. It can be found here, but, shhh….don’t … Continue reading “Blueberry Streusel Bars with Lemon-Cream Filling”

These are SOOOOOO good! My photo isn’t as good as the one on Fine Cooking’s website, but Fine Cooking doesn’t like to share their recipes, so that’s really just a tease. I did, however, find that someone else has posted the recipe to Cooking Light’s online discussion forum. It can be found here, but, shhh….don’t tell. I don’t want that anonymous poster to get in trouble with Fine Cooking’s lawyers.

I cannot TELL you how good these are. They are AMAZING. Check out some of the reviews!
If you decide to make these, here’s a hint: 3 cups of blueberries is about 2 dry pint-sized containers. If you follow the recipe precisely, you’ll have about 1/3 cup of blueberries leftover (I tossed them in the freezer to use in smoothies), but next time, I’ll just throw the remaining ones in.

Sauteed (almost caramelized) Zucchini with accidental brown-butter sauce

Wow! This was YUMMY! This recipe is a little labor-intensive for a simple veggie side dish, but the outcome is worth the effort, I promise. When Boy and Girl tasted this, they actually said “Wow”, and they don’t even normally like zucchini. The squash takes on a nice, salty-sweet caramelized flavor, almost like roasted potates. … Continue reading “Sauteed (almost caramelized) Zucchini with accidental brown-butter sauce”

Wow! This was YUMMY!

This recipe is a little labor-intensive for a simple veggie side dish, but the outcome is worth the effort, I promise. When Boy and Girl tasted this, they actually said “Wow”, and they don’t even normally like zucchini. The squash takes on a nice, salty-sweet caramelized flavor, almost like roasted potates.

It all started because I was bringing dinner last night to a sweet friend (who is undergoing chemotherapy) and her family. I made a marinated, grilled London Broil (*see note below) and some pesto rice and planned to steam some broccoli to go with it. Once at the store, however, I noticed that the broccoli did NOT look good (it’s not really broccoli season, after all), so I decided to switch gears and go with zucchini, instead (it looked really pretty AND it was on sale). I was worried, though, that the zucchini would turn to flavorless mush if cooked and reheated, so I decided to cut the slices thickly and give them a good browning to give them some flavor and texture.

Here’s how:

1) Cut each zucchini in half lengthwise. Slice each piece crosswise into thick (about 1/2 inch thick or a little more) semi-circles.

2) Heat 1 Tbsp. butter over medium-high heat in a large, wide skillet until melted and slightly foamy.

3) Add some zucchini slices (about one zucchini’s worth) to the pan, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. This is important; if there are too many in the pan, they will steam, rather than brown.

4) Sprinkle the topside of the slices with a little bit of Baby Bam.

5) Keep a close eye on the slices and turn them over with a pair of tongs as soon as they are nicely browned on the bottom.

6) Allow the slices to brown on the bottom side and remove them from the pan when they’re nicely browned on both sides, but still firm. If the slices are getting too soft, then your pan isn’t hot enough. If the butter is smoking or burning, your pan is too hot (the butter should turn a nice, nutty golden brown).

7) Add more butter to the pan, if necessary. Repeat with remaining slices, working in small batches until all your squash is done.

* I also sent Gorgonzola mayonnaise (1/2 cup mayo, 3 Tbsp crumbled Gorgonzola, 1 tsp fresh lemon thyme leaves, blended well) to with the leftover beef to make sandwiches the next day. This particular family happens to also love my peppermint brownies (scroll down), so I sent some of those and some Blueberry Streusel Bars with Lemon-Cream Filling (which were AMAZING – see the next post for more info), as well.

Soy-Marinated Grilled Chicken Thighs

I found this recipe in Cooking Light and gave it a try a couple of days ago. This was a BIG hit with all of us, especially Hubby, who thinks that we should ALWAYS have chicken thighs instead of breasts. I tend to prefer breasts, because they’re aren’t as “chewy” and fatty, but I have to admit that thighs are more tender and have MUCH more flavor. They are faster and easier to cook than breasts, because it’s easier to tell when they’re done in the middle. They are cheaper, too. I buy them in a large package (organic) from Costco and there are 12 in a package, so you can make this recipe and then have 4 left over for another night (maybe rubbed with pesto and then grilled?). This recipe made enough to feed all of us for dinner once, 3 of us for dinner another night and still have some left over for 2 of us to have lunch on another day (some of the leftovers got frozen for future use another day).

This recipe was VERY good and very, very easy. To go with it, I cooked some udon noodles and then tossed them with a little toasted sesame seed oil, lightly sauteed minced garlic and fresh ginger and sliced green onions and then sprinkled a bit of black sesame seed on top of each portion. I also sauteed some zucchini slices (see the next post for instructions – it was FABULOUS).

We will DEFINITELY be making this again.