September 25th, 2009

Trent and I had plans to go to Julie and Ben's house for a dinner party with promising fun entertainment that was yet revealed. We had a babysitter coming at 7 pm. About a minute before we were ready to walk out the door, Sydney put a light dimmer from our light switch in her mouth. When I went to fetch it out, it wasn't there. Enter slight panic mode. Sydney seemed absolutely fine, so it wasn't obstructing her breething. After a call to our dr's exchange, we headed to the ER. Minutes after getting admitted, our babysitter called. She found the light dimmer on the floor in our playroom. We sheepishly explained to the ER nurse we didn't need their services. So dimmer switch Sydney had a little adventure and loved her hospital bracelet. We dropped Sydney back off at our house where Lauren and our babysitter were reading books and headed to Julie and Ben's...arriving a little over an hour late. The entertainment was a Top Chef Competition. The first round already went, their challenge being pizza. Three teams of 2 people. Upon arrival, Trent and I were greeted with a plate of 3 delicious pizza slices and a glass of wine. Trent and I were a team and up next against Margaret and Kevin. Our challenge was burgers and we had 30 minutes and quite a pantry of ingredients. Trent and I made buffalo mozzerella stuffed burgers with herbs open face on top of a toasted garlic bun with quickly sauteed tomato sauce on top. It was a fantastic time and the evening went way too quick. We decided to save Sydney's hospital bracelet for her baby book and are hoping Julie and Ben make their party an annual event, which we will show up on time dimmer switch drama free.

September 24th, 2009

Last night was the big finale of the week. Trent finished his trial and I got to go shopping at the consignment sale in the afternoon. My parents were watching the girls while I was shopping and I wasn't sure if they would stay for dinner or not. So after lunch I made a big pot of french onion soup, a favorite of mine. It's something I almost always will order at a restaurant if they have it. I also had a stale loaf of french bread in the freezer, so cut it up and roasted it for croutons. My parents ended up going home since I was back by 4:30. When Trent got home, I made a quick salad and put the soup, croutons, and grated gruyere cheese in little bowls into the oven to melt the cheese. I wasn't in the mood for the "you have to at least try it" game with the girls, so I served them leftover pasta, which they ate quickly because they wanted to get back to playing with their "new" toys I bought at the sale.

September 23rd, 2009

So continuing with the theme this week "Trial & Consignment Sale," Trent had to work late for his trial and I volunteered to help Markham deliver her consignment items in our minivan that evening at 7. Lauren's been asking for me to make spaghetti and meatballs for awhile, so I made a big pot of that. It was easy because I have frozen tomato sauces in the freezer from the abundance of tomatoes in my parents garden this year. All I had to do was make the meatballs and throw them in the sauce. I also had 2 small eggplants on their last leg, so I roasted them, pureed them, and put them in the sauce (shh! don't tell the kids!) for extra veggie-ness in a tricky way. The girls and I had dinner, then went to Markham's. It worked out great because we had a little adventure after dinner and I got to hang out with adults, something I always welcome. Although I didn't expect to get the kids out of the car and their shirts were both covered with tomato sauce...and there might have been a little in Sydney's hair too. I was that mom with the stain laden kids with no shoes on running around the consignment sale.

September 22nd, 2009

So this is the week of Trent's trial and Jenny's consignment sale. Two big things (and yes, I know Trent's trial is way more on the important side of things) in one week. But the week started on Tuesday thanks to Disney, I'm happy about that. I had my volunteer shift at the consignment sale from 5-9 pm. Trent couldn't get home until after 6:30, so Markham graciously watched the girls at her house until Trent could pick them up. This would be a night of the whole family eating different things at different times. So I made myself a tuna salad sandwich before my shift. I also made a mushroom, garlic, and pea pasta for Trent so he had something when he got home. At Markham's the girls made quesadillas and ice cream sundaes. Pretty much I think the girls made out like bandits if it were a contest.

September 21st, 2009

We arrived home from our 3 days/nights in Disney World around 3:00 pm. So much unloading, unpacking and laundry was done. Then Lauren & I went to Schnucks to do a little grocery shopping to get us through the week and pick up an easy dinner. After 3 days of eating out in Disney restaurants, I was in the mood for a big salad, but I was feeling lazy about prepping a bunch of veggies, so Schnucks salad bar! Then I got a spinach and goat cheese pizza (oddly Sydney's favorite, she's a cute little weirdo) and a cheese pizza so there would be leftovers for Trent's lunch the next day. I loved our vacation in Disney, but there's always something soothing about being home after a vacation, eating at our own table, and knowing that night you get to sleep in your own bed.

September 18th, 2009

Lauren is princess obsessed. She's into the dress up, movies, books, coloring books, stickers, paper dolls...you name the princessy thing, you've captured her attention gangbuster. What in the world does this have to do with dinner? Last night we had dinner at Disney World. Trent and the girls have never been and I haven't been since I was 12, so we planned a trip when we found out about the free dining plan incentive which made a possibly too expensive trip affordable. We made reservations each night at a different restaurants to take full advantage of our free dinners. The first night we picked "Olivia's Cafe" because it was in our resort, Old Key West, so we could get back to our room after the full morning of traveling and full afternoon/evening at Magic Kingdom. The meal was by far my favorite out of the whole trip. First of all, the staff fussed over the girls, which made them happy, which made me happy (and my glass of wine made me happy too). Lauren won "artist of the day" when the server saw Lauren's picture she colored of Belle and hung it in their art frame at the entrance. Before you tease me, yes, I realize the minute we leave, they take Lauren's picture down and replace it to make another 4 year old happy, but it was still a fun moment. Also the girls were giddy about their mickey mouse shaped plates and fancy smoothie drinks. I was excited to order whatever I wanted on the menu knowing it was included in our meal plan. I ordered the fennel encrusted grouper with sauteed spinach and a tomato risotto. It was so good I was actually busted sweeping my finger across the plate to get the last of the sauce when the server came to take it away. I know that's a big no no in dining etiquette, but hopefully it was interpreted as a compliment to the chef.

September 17th, 2009

On Wednesday night Michelle, aka evening wife, told me she was going to treat the family to dinner on Thursday. I love my evening wife! It was great, when Michelle got home from work we chatted and entertained the kids. I looked through menus, gave her our local choices, and we decided upon Chinese. We have a fantastic Chinese delivery by our house and it's delicious with the added bonus of being cheapy cheapy. So 30 minutes later our hot chinese food was delivered, 5 minutes later Trent walked in the door quite happy, and 15 minutes later we were all at the table eating. Sydney kept pointing to her crab rangoon saying "Mommy, good!" I concur.

September 16th, 2009

I'm not a huge breakfast food person in the morning....but I do love breakfast food for dinner. Alas, Trent doesn't. So I become tricky Jenny. Instead of an omelette, I make a ham and asparagus "frittata." Instead of pan hash browns, I make "roasted potatoes with herbs and garlic." Instead of biscuits....well I just make biscuits. Added bonus last night was Michelle came to town for work and is staying with us for a couple nights. I love it, it's like having a wife for the evening during that chaotic time of kids bouncing off the walls and trying to get dinner together...I mean breakfast.

September 15th, 2009

If I had to come up with my own lyrics to "These are a Few of My Favorite Things", Maria and I would not have much overlap. Cream colored ponies and bright copper kettles are nice and all, but this lady would pick a little more realistically. In the first verse I would definitely mention lady dinners out. I adore them. I love to enter my non-mommy attire side of the closet, get dinner ready for Trent and the girls, and enter the world of adults with my friends. Last night 6 of us went to McCormick and Schmick's. It was perfect evening weather, so we ate outside, another one of my favorite things. I had a fantastic glass of chardonnay, a cup of seafood and roasted corn chowder, and smoked salmon served with crostinis, onions, capers, tomatoes, and herbed creme fraiche (my favorite brunch selection). It was delicious and while the nice chef prepared our food, I got to catch up with friends, definitely another one of my favorite things. Who needs wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings when you've got a table outside surrounded by friends.

September 14th, 2009

Yesterday was one of those days and it was Monday, my least favorite day of the week. Lauren was sick and had to miss her first swim practice, so I wanted to make an extra fun dinner for her. One of her favorite foods is stuffed artichokes. So I made those in the afternoon since you have to steam them on the stove for a couple hours. I make them like my mom does, stuff them with herb and garlic breadcrumbs with parmesan cheese. I made chicken gyros as a main course (diced roasted chicken, tzatziki sauce, kalamata olives, spinach, and feta cheese on flatbread). The girls liked the flatbread, but that was about it, I wasn't surprised. Then for dessert I tried a new recipe...smore bars. Graham cracker crust, chocolate middle, a layer of melted down marshmellow, with crushed graham crackers and chocolate chips on top. Holy moly were they good. Too bad I quit allowing myself to eat dessert for breakfast in my college years.

September 13, 2009

I almost forgot what I did for dinner last night after watching Kanye West's random interuption at the VMA awards last night, really Kanye?! So anyway, next week is a big children's consignment sale and I have gathered many clothes, baby gear, and toys for it. Yesterday afternoon I started "tagging" all the clothes, which means entering the item, description, and price into the computer system to pring out tags. I started around 3:00 and was about 75% done by 5:45. I had a gameplan for dinner, but was on a roll and wanted to get 'er done. So I asked Trent if ordering a pizza sounded good (who am I kidding, the man could bathe in pizza). 20 minutes later Papa John took care of us. I made a quick salad and we were eating by 6:30 with all my consignment items tagged and a glass of wine by my side. Afterwards I played soccer outside with the girls (and by that I mean I make sure no balls or kids enter street area). Now I just have to print out all the tags and attach, which I'm off to do now while watching the fiesty ladies of The View give their opinions about Kanye, can't wait!

September 10th, 2009

Growing up my mom made soup or stews from scratch for dinner about 60% of the time. She would make a big batch and freeze leftovers for lunches and future dinners. Most of my 20's I wasn't a huge soup person because I think I was overly soup saturated. But they have made a comeback in my 30's gangbuster. Last night was split pea soup night, which happens about twice a month. It's one of my favorites because not only do I love it, so does the whole family. I have no idea why Lauren won't eat a hot dog or hamburger, but loves split pea soup. I always make it with gorgonzola crostinis too (butter and jelly on the bread for the kids). A meal where I can just make one thing and everyone is happy is scare, yet sacred.

September 9th, 2009 (09-09-09)

There was a butternut squash on the windowsill and no one in the family likes butternut squash. I'm constantly trying to figure out a way to eat it, because it seems so fallishly festive to do so. So I made up a recipe in my head that sounded good. I roasted the squash in the oven, then pureed it. I then sauteed some sage, onion, and garlic (lots!) and added the puree, salt, pepper. I thinned it out with some milk and added parmesan cheese, then combined the sauce with a pound of rigatoni. I also made a simple salad with butter lettuce, red cabbage, swiss cheese, and broccoli slaw. I thought the pasta was pretty good, but the girls only ate a couple bites after much coaxing and Trent wasn't doing cartwheels over it. Looks like I'll be bringing the leftovers to my parents tomorrow. Butternut Squash: 8, Jenny: 0. I did however see a fun recipe for tex mex butternut squash bisque this morning that looked interesting....

September 8th, 2009

I open the frig deli drawer and find some leftover bacon and pepperoni, my mind says pizza and a salad. Pizza is one of my favorite ways to get rid of random amounts of leftover meat, cheese, and veggies. I always have frozen pizza sauce in our freezer (whever I make too much tomato sauce, I just save it in little containers for future pizzas) and I have my favorite pizza dough recipe memorized, so as long as I have flour in the pantry, it'll come together easily. When Trent walked in the door last night, he did a pizza dance. He loves pizza, I think it might be his "if he was stranded on an island" choice. I was hoping it might be one of those meals that the whole family ate without chocolate chip bribery or coaxing "no thank you bites." Those meals are far and few between, but I'm always optimistic. Unfortunately, Lauren wasn't as impressed with her plate because she wasn't sure about the pepperoni factor...I didn't even try to hide veggies this time! Off to the pantry for the chocolate chips...

September 7th, 2009

I love entertaining. It's a win win situation because it makes me happy to have people over for dinner and my goal is to make them happy too (but there have been times.....). Last night was Labor Day and Trent and I had my family over for dinner (Julie, Ben, Bryan, Gen, my parents, Grandpa Coco, and Maryann). Since it's a grilling kinda jolly holiday, I decided to grill bacon burgers from Oberle Meats in St Gen (my dad ordered them from a recent trip there). They are hamburger patties with the bacon ground up in them (and what isn't better when you add bacon...and melt cheddar cheese on top). I also grilled onions and peppers with balsamic vinegar and foil packs of petite diced red and yukon potatoes. For the sides I served the potatoes as a warm salad by tossing them with chives, parsley, diced bacon (again, added goodness), and a balsamic vinagrette. I also made a salad with edamame, cannellini beans, baby spinach, and a lemon vinagrette. For dessert I made a coconut bundt cake with a pineapple glaze. The recipe is from the Neelys on the Food Network. Ever since Lauren stopped taking a nap, we watch one or two shows on the Food Network in the afternoon, she loves it and then goes to her kitchen set and pretends she's Giada or Ina making something. Yesterday it was "cake soup with basil and syrup." Not too sure our guests would be leaving happy with that one.

September 6th, 2009

Around 2:00 pm we arrived back in Saint Louis from our fun Kansas City trip. At 4:30 I realized I have to figure out dinner for tonight, especially while Sydney was still taking her nap and I had a child free hip to chop. I decided on a grill meal since it's labor day weekend and the weather was nice, so the kids could play outside while I was cooking. I'm all about letting them burn off energy, especially after 8 hours in the car this weekend. Trent just recently started liking fish, so I take advantage of that when I can, because I absolutely love it and it defrosts in our kitchen sink in 10 minutes. I grilled tilapia fillets (salt, pepper, lemon juice) and corn (salt, peppper, and aluminum foil, which Lauren helped shuck...hee hee, that's a funny word). I also put together a spinach salad (hard boiled egg, bacon, and baby spinach with a sweet dressing ), it's a retro favorite of mine. My parents dropped off a cantaloupe and watermelon from my Uncle Dan's farm, so I cut up the cantaloupe too for the girls (not reminding them they don't like cantaloupe...and they ate it, small victory for Jenny, I'm hoping it'll work for the watermelon too). I put the tilapia on sesame seed buns with my go to sauce (equal parts mayo, horseradish, and dijon mixed up). The corn, buns, and eggs were from our CSA that I split with my sister www.fairshares.org. I love meals where I use up our CSA produce because it goes bad quickly and it's so fresh and yummy I don't want it to go to waste. Wasting food is a huge pet peeve of mine, I'm the daughter of a daughter of a daughter of a depression survivoring farmer and it gets less with each generation, but I'm still annoyingly adamant. My husband's a keeper for dealing with that.

September 5th, 2009

So the family was in Kansas City last night for Caleb's 5th birthday. Caleb is a fantastic nephew who is into all things boy and has a kind and energetic nature about him. Michelle made dinner at Kirk and Sally's house because her and Jon were getting hardwood floors put into their whole main level and (surprise surprise), the original time span quoted to them was incorrect. But Michelle took things in stride (way better than I could) and turned out a great celebration. She had planned on leftovers from the lunch birthday celebration held at a playground pavillion, but re-directed when there weren't as many leftovers as she thought (which is always a good sign at the end of a party). So Jon did his 4th grocery trip in 3 days and within 2 hours they had dinner set out buffet style for 9 adults and 4 kids. I ate chicken baked in a mixture of mayo, parmesan cheese, and oregano as a main course, it was quite good, I totally plan to re-create that in some way. For my sides I had a mixed green salad with caesar dressing (at Trent's family functions the salad is put out without being tossed and you get a choice of about 4 dressings set out, I normally pick Caesar because Kirk and Sally have this brand that I really like, but couldn't keep in our house without going up a dress size). I also had baked bread with butter and baked beans with bacon, onions, and ground meat in them (a leftover from the lunch birthday party). For dessert I had Sally's homemade cherry pie heated with french vanilla ice cream. Yep, I was a full, but happy lady. Did I mention there was Chardonnay? But with me, that's a given.

My name is Jenny and I get hungry around 6 pm...

Hello there. For a couple years now I thought about keeping a food journal. No, not the kind that counts calories, food exchanges, or carbs...an actual food journal recording what I did for dinner that night. I have no idea why I thought it's something I need to document, I just thought it would be fun to look back on years from now just to see what food phase I was into at the time. I do the same thing with photographs to document fashion choices, hair styles, people, and places, why not food. I love it just as much if not more (dare I say) than my newest shopping spree finds. Every week I write out next week's menu on a big post it and attach it to our frig to keep me and my grocery trips organized. One day instead of throwing away last week's menu list I decided to keep it there. I now have about 3 months of menus in a little clip that I look through all the time to remember any fun meals I want to recreate for the current week. Well from that came this idea, why not do a simple blog so 40 year old Jenny can look at 34 year old Jenny's menu and figure out exactly where her mind was at the time. Was I cooking seasonal? Healthy? Comfort food? Trendy food? Budget friendly food? Eco-friendly food? and from that I could also remember fun date nights at restaurants with my husband, Trent, fun family nights out with my daughters, vacation meals, or lady nights. Now I know I just commited myself to do this for 6 years and who knows if that is true. I can start something and love it or be wishy washy about it, I never know. But I just wanted to do something for me I think I might enjoy....something simple...something I hope will make me happy.