March 6th, 2011

We are due at Julie’s house for dinner at 5 pm.  But until then, exciting things are happening around the house.  Well, exciting to me. 

Our microwave caught on fire in late January and it’s been a process to get a new one, but I was one determined girl.  I was on a first name basis with 3 people in different departments at LG.  In all honesty, the customer service at LG was fantastic, but there were many steps to getting a new microwave.  Backdating our warranty, approving the backdating, approving a replacement free of charge, pictures of the burnt microwave, images of our receipt, a visit from LG repairman to determine the unit officially dead, taking the serial number and ID sticker off and mailing it to LG, official decree from LG we were bestowed a new unit, and last but not least confirmation of said unit traveling via Fed Ex to our home.

So for a couple of weeks after we had to remove the microwave, I got to look at this fun hole above our stove.  I actually probably missed the light under the microwave more than the actual function of the microwave. 

Thankfully I’m a happily married woman, otherwise, I might have kissed this man when he brought me this.

Hola horno microondas!

I did happily kiss the man that put in the microwave this morning!

And that’s not all the hubby did.  My dad bought me 2 new grow lights to start our seeds indoors this spring.  My parents illegally smuggled brought back some seeds packets from their trip to Italy and Germany and I spent some time (and money) on heirloom seed company websites in January.   I had some special seeds and my dad wanted confirmation their newborn/toddler phase would be a productive one. 

Trent assembled the grow lights and then I quickly got to work planting and labeling.

I can’t wait to see how all this turns out!  So we have a microwave again and I got to play with dirt, both great things.  At Julie and Ben’s house we had delicious tortellini with pesto and my mind fast forwarded to the day I hopefully get to harvest the illegal special Italian basil in the garden for freshly made pesto to go with my unlawful Italian tomatoes.  Fingers and toes crossed!

March 4th, 2011

Trent LOVES buffalo chicken wings.  Actually, he loves boneless buffalo chicken wings strips.  I have to admit, I love them too.  Spicy saucy breaded chicken dipped in cold blue cheese dressing, heaven!  I was on the treadmill at the Y last week trying to think about anything but running. I started thinking about meal planning and making something Trent would like (he puts up with alot of Jenny serving what Jenny likes) and my mind went to Buffalo Chicken wings and trying to make a healthy twist on it.  I’ve done various meals doing this, buffalo chicken sandwiches, Rachel Ray’s Buffalo Chicken Chili, buffalo chicken salads, etc.  The buffalo wing sauce you buy at the grocery store is fat free, so as long as you curb the blue cheese and don’t fry the chicken, it’s fairly easy to lighten up. Then it came to me, Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf. 

Whenever you order wings, they come with carrot and celery sticks.  So I sautéed them with onions and garlic.

Half of the meatloaf mixture on the baking sheet, sprinkle blue cheese crumbles and top with the other half of meat.

I put wing sauce in the meat mixture and then mix honey and more wing sauce to glaze the meatloaf.  I can’t look at this picture without thinking about Charlie Sheen’s favorite “drink.”  Gross.

I had no idea if this concoction would work or be disastrous.  It worked.  I did something I never do.  I wrote out the recipe.  Here you go:

Buffalo Chicken Bleu Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf
1 pound ground chicken breast
1 onion, finely chopped
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 teaspoon olive oil
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce, divided
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup honey
Cooking spray
salt
pepper
Prebake oven at 375 degrees. Preheat skillet on medium high heat, add olive oil, then add the onion, celery, and carrots, cook for 5-8 minutes until translucent.  Add garlic and cook 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat and cool.  In a medium bowl add ground chicken, 3/4 cup of wing sauce, egg, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.  When veggies are slightly cooled, add to bowl and combine without overworking the meat mixture.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and add half of the meat mixture in a loaf shape.  Then add the blue cheese on top of the meat and cover it with other half of the meat.  Make sure to seal all sides of meat to encase the blue cheese inside.  Mix together the other half of wing sauce and honey and brush all over the meatloaf.  Place in preheated oven for 1 hour.  Let cool slightly before slicing. 

March 2nd, 2011

A couple years ago Rachel Ray was talking about how when she was little her favorite pasta dish was Pasta With Trees.  I tried it a year or so ago and now make it almost once a month. 

Here are the recipe’s selling points:

1. It can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta

2. It’s meat free

3. The whole family will eat it and Sydney will actually tolerate broccoli on her plate (and some makes it in her belly)

4. No need for a side dish or salad.

5. Costs under $10 to make for a family of 4 and there is leftovers for lunch the next day

Also I have FINALLY found a great low fat ricotta cheese, it’s delicious!  The texture and taste are almost as good as fresh whole milk ricotta.  I’ve been through so many brands and am ready to commit to my Frigo for all future ricotta needs.  Ricotta monogamy for me!

March 1st, 2011

Cooking Light's Spicy Tortilla Soup with Shrimp and Avocado is the perfect way to celebrate MARCH!!!!  Get here already spring!  I am officially DONE with being cold, wearing a coat, and being stuck inside.  Love that it is finally March and the spring bulbs are peaking out, so so ready!

February 27th, 2011

For a couple of years in the 80’s my Grandma Coco, who was an incredible cook, was having culinary issues with jello.  Yep, I’m officially outting her battle.  She couldn’t get her jello to jell….ever.  It was actually quite comical, but I couldn’t have told her that, she had the anger for her non-jelling jello.  She came out of her slump eventually, but I still think the soupy jello era spooked her a bit.  Why talk about this now?  Well I am having a bit of a slump lately myself.  I have officially pushed the envelope too far and need to regroup.  My pasta sauce is getting bland.  There, I said it.  I have messed around with my go to recipe too much, cutting back on the meat, adding too many veggies, skipping tomato paste, not buying fresh herbs in the winter, and trying to go light on the salt.  My last 3 pasta sauces have been watery and bland.  And tonight was no exception.  It was the night of the Oscars and I wanted to make a Bolognese type pasta sauce…..and added too many veggies, not enough meat, no tomato paste, and resulted in no flavor.   The buck stops here.  My next sauce it going to be a good one or I’ll have to remove my italian tattoo on my back and that costs more money than extra meat and herbs at the grocery store, so that would be dumb.

On the topic of dumb…..tornado sirens are dumb.  They go off too soon, turn off too quickly, then start up again, and again, and again.  Tornado sirens were not told the tale of The Boy who cried Wolf as a child.  That said, when they went off at 11:30 pm and we double checked the news, we took the kids to the basement.  While we were in the basement, our power went out.

Because our tree fell on our power lines. 

Something that is a bigger bummer than bland tomato sauce is no power in February…..or any month for that matter. 

February 25th, 2011

For most everything, I am a fan of “the works.”  When I order a pizza, the more toppings, the better.  My favorite pizza is veggie pizza and it’s not because I don’t like meat on my pizza, but if you order veggie, you get the most toppings for the best price.  If I get a hot dog, burger, order of nachos, bowl of chili, the more condiments on it, the better.  Onions? Yes. Ketchup? Yes. Cheese? Yes. Relish? Yes. Mustard? Yes. Salsa? Yes. Lettuce? Yes. Tomato? Yes. Jalapenos? Yes. Which brings me to one of my favorite condiments that is too rarely offered.  Sauerkraut!  I love me some sauerkraut and thankfully so does Trent (don’t tell him it’s made from cabbage because apparently he doesn’t like cabbage, which I learned the hard way in September…).  I was trying to assess our deep freezer situation and figuring out meals when I found a package of bratwurst.  My brain immediately went to sauerkraut.

That is Trent’s plate, he’s a big mustard guy.  Mine is too embarrassing to display.  Basically it looks like that, minus bread and add mounds of bbq sauce and relish.  A big hot mess on top of a bratwurst, aka the works!

After dinner we took the girls to see Lindbergh High School’s production of Wizard of Oz.  I was shocked at how good it was!  A great family night of culture and condiments.

February 24th, 2011

I’m a huge cooking magazine and book junkie.  I especially like pictures of the food.  I want to know what I’m aiming for.  When using a recipe from a magazine or book where there is a picture I find myself usually bummed what’s on my plate doesn’t look as pretty.  Exhibit A:

Cooking Light’s Asian Glazed Chicken Thighs.

Jenny’s version.  Definitely not as pretty.  But I would recommend the recipe, it was yummy, just not as pretty.

February 23rd, 2011

When I plan dinners I find I like to go old school and do a protein, carb, and veggie.  I mix it up with different combinations and sometime don’t do a protein and sometimes skip the carb.  But I normally like 2-3 things on the plate and always a vegetable or salad.  Keeping that formula in mind, I have to admit something.  I absolutely LOVE breaded fish and chicken.  Absolutely love it.  I blame both of my grandmas, they both loved to bread and fry things and the result was always delicious. There are 3 downsides to this. 

#1 Not the healthiest thing and I don’t like buying new, bigger clothes.

#2 It’s time consuming and causes the kitchen to be a mess setting up a flour, egg, and breadcrumb assembly line.

#3 It makes the house smell like a greasy pit for 36 hours.

Don’t get me wrong, I will still bread things.  To combat #1 and #3 I normally will bread chicken or fish and put on a baking sheet in the oven and spray with cooking spray.  It does the trick.  But I think I found a trick to combat #2.  I had a bunch of tilapia filets and was in the mood to bread them, but not in the mood for counter mess and egg and breadcrumb caked hands.  I laid the fish all out on a cutting board, slathered them with mustard, then sprinkled whole wheat panko bread crumbs.  The breadcrumbs stuck to the fish.  I then transferred to my baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and did the same thing on the other side and baked in the oven.  The only mess was the cutting board.  Loved it and they tasted great with slathered Dijon mustard as the base.

Out of the oven.  Of course keeping with my meal formula, there’s the carb and veggies!

Wheatberries with herbs, craisins, white raisins, and pistachios.

Arugula salad with roasted zucchini and edamame.

Dinner!

February 21st, 2011 (7 Ingredient Challenge)

It was President’s day and my Mom, Dad, Julie, Ben, Bryan, Noni, Ryan, Kevin, and Grandpa Coco were due to arrive for my February 7 Ingredient Challenge.  The ingredients I had to use were:

1. pork

2. pomegranate

3. onions

4. mint

5. black beluga lentils (which I could not find and substituted regular ol’ common lentils, Shannon gave me her blessing)

6. sharp cheddar cheese

7. ginger

So I started with this 9 pound bone in pork shoulder roast that I marinated in the slow cooker with pomegranate juice and chicken stock.  I was worried about this one because I started it at 9 am and everything I read was I needed at least 10 hours on low and that was for smaller cuts without a bone.  So I put the slow cooker on high and hoped for the best.  I am breaking every rule with trying something completely new for a night of company.

Whew (with me wiping my forehead in dramatic relief gesture), it was looking like this around 3 pm falling off the bone.  Perfect for shredding.

Shredded it, drained off some juice, added bbq sauce, mustard, and more pomegranate juice and let reduce for the afternoon.  Done.

The condiment tray for the sandwiches.  I also caramelized some onions too for the sandwiches, but I forgot to take a picture of that.  Just picture a little glass bowl of caramelized onions….that’s what it looked like.

So….pork, pomegranate, cheese, onions down.

I’ve really been into roasted garlic lately.  I put 3-4 whole bulbs with the tips cut off in the oven in a foil pack for 30-45 minutes (depending on temp, I normally do it when I already have oven on for something else).  I then squeeze the bulbs into a food processor with herbs and lemon juice to make a vinaigrette and save the rest of the garlic heads I don’t use in the refrigerator for future uses.  I used that technique and put in a ton of mint.

 

I then mixed the vinaigrette with cooked lentils, cannellini beans, and garnished with bacon. 

So…..lentils and mint done.

For the ginger I was going to make a salad dressing and serve it with, you guessed it, a salad.  But Grandpa Coco doesn’t eat salad and I wanted to serve him some sort of vegetables.  So I baked carrots and green beans in the oven covered with a mixture of ginger, tons of garlic, butter, salt, pepper, and chicken stock.

So….ginger done.

Grandpa Coco is always sent home with a doggie bag, here is leftover pulled pork and veggies for his lunch tomorrow. 

The kids had fun playing and I didn’t subject them to adult menu, they feasted on applesauce, buns, cheese, grapes, and strawberries.  I think Bryan might have had some pulled pork, little trooper kid!

Ben’s self portrait of eating pulled pork sandwich.

Waiting for dessert, which was Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread Budding.  No 7 ingredients in there, I wanted to use all the ingredients for dinner and thought the kids would get a kick out of their favorite sandwich made into a dessert, and maybe some adults too.

Here are some of the remarks from the night:

Julie said:

As an eater of the 7 ingredient challenge, I was very satisfied with the combination of it all! The lentils were the yummiest to me (perfectly cooked and bacon never hurts!). Also the PB and J bread pudding was sensational. I am not a bread pudding fan usually but it was not too soggy (I hate soggy bread pudding) and cooked perfectly so that the top had a little crust to it!

Note to Julie: you hate soggy bread pudding???  I don’t believe you because I’ve seen you eat the soggiest bowls of cereal of my life growing up!  Isn’t soggy cereal the same as soggy bread pudding?

Ryan said:

All was super yummy. (although I didn't eat any onions). The pork was tender and tangy. The lentils were flawless. I love bread pudding but peanut butter concerns me. however, I had a second helping of this magic PB&J bread pudding.

Another fun night of a random meal for family and friends!  It’s very much like Forrest Gump’s take on chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get!  Until next time!