Al Dente Potatoes

I love to watch cooking shows like Chopped, Top Chef, and Top Chef Masters. Something that happens entirely too often, though, is that the chefs will try to cook rice, pasta, or potatoes in too short a period of time. What gets served to the judges ends up being raw. I have to laugh when I hear the contestant say something like, “Well, I like my potatoes ‘al dente’” or “It’s toothsome!”.

Yesterday, Patrick started some stew meat cooking in the crock pot. I didn’t get around to putting the potatoes in until around 3pm. When cooking potatoes in the crock pot, they take more than the typical 30 minutes or so to cook. In fact, we didn’t end up having our stew until around 8pm, and those potatoes were still rather “al dente”!! (Although, when I reheated my stew today in the microwave, the extra 30 seconds seemed to get them to just about the right level of doneness.)

Lesson learned. Put the potatoes in the crock pot around noon. Or eat raw potatoes. Or “al dente”. Whatever word makes you happy.

7 Quick Takes Friday – 9/10/10

 

1. It’s 3:30 and Rosie Girl is done with all her schoolwork for the week!  Either she’s getting more efficient or I’m not giving her enough work.  She assures me that it’s the former!

2. Wild Man measured volume with different containers this morning which gave him the idea for a video.  Apparently, we’re going to be treated to some “mad scientist” video later tonight.

3. We ran out of black ink for the printer yesterday.  Our last printer used to start giving us “replace ink” messages a good month or so before we actually had to replace the ink.  And, we could print until it was obvious that the ink was gone – i.e. the words were gray instead of black.  Our current printer is not at all usable until we replace the ink.  The frustrating thing is that I thought for sure that I had bought extra ink a few months ago.  Oh well.

4. Next week is the big week – when piano, dance, and youth groups start back and when Wild Man gets signed up for martial arts.  Our schedule is definitely going to be more busy!

5. We’ve all started using Wii Fit again on a regular basis.  The kids are both using it for their Physical Activity (PE) and PWM and I are back to using it more regularly.  Well, PWM is.  I’m trying to do a little bit of Wii Fit whenever I don’t have a rip-roaring migraine.  In any case, it’s a lot of fun, partly because the rest of the family makes sure to sit and watch the person’s progress – or lack thereof!

6. PWM made faux beignets for breakfast this morning.  He used refrigerated biscuit dough cut into little pieces and deep fried them and coated them in powdered sugar.  Yummy!!

7. Wild Man’s turn to cook dinner tonight – spaghetti!  He still needs a little help, mostly to tell him which spices to use.  Otherwise, he does a great job making the sauce and the pasta!

Check out Jennifer’s blog to see what others are saying!

Menu Plan Monday – 9/6/2010

 

I didn’t get around to planning menus last week and I really felt it later in the week!  I’ve got a migraine right now, but I know that getting the planning done now will help with how our week goes later.  Here’s what I’m planning for this week.

1. Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread – Wild Man’s cooking night

2. Cheese soup with salad and bread – Rosie Girl’s cooking night

3. Roast beef, rice and gravy, spaghetti squash

4. Chicken Divan

5. Chicken Divan 2

6. Sandwiches

7. Leftovers

Not terribly exciting, but it will help me plan a grocery list!!

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are up to!

Vegetarian Dinner

You may recall that I’m not a big lover of veggies.  Getting veggies from the CSA every week has been “stretching” me!!  I’ve eaten beets, kohlrabi, zucchini, and yellow squash.  OK, I do eat yellow squash pretty often, but the others were new for me.  And I like meat!  But, I branched out today.

Tonight’s dinner was completely vegetarian, although it did include eggs and cheese.  I made Spinach Pie with CSA onions and spinach from the grocery store and Spaghetti Squash Pancakes with the spaghetti squash from the CSA.  And, of course, much of the cheese was made locally (although I can’t vouch for the gruyere).

I’m trying out various things for the Spinach Pie to make it less bland.  This time, I made a homemade butter pie crust and added the lattices to the top which really helped make it more “fancy”.  I used about 3/4 the amount of spinach that I normally use and then added more Cheddar cheese as well as adding a fair amount (1/2 – 3/4 cup) of Gruyere.  The flavor was definitely more robust, but I think it still needs more of the stronger cheeses.

The Spaghetti Squash pancakes were mostly my own creation.  I cooked the spaghetti squash in the oven (after cutting it in half) in a small amount of water.  After it cooled down, I removed the seeds (much easier after it’s cooked, I learned tonight) and then pulled the “spaghetti” part of the squash out of the shell and put it in a bowl.  I added Parmesan cheese (not sure how much, but it should have been more!) and about 1/2 cup of flour, a generous amount of dried basil, and some salt.  It looked a little dry, so I added 2 eggs and then needed to add another 1/4 cup (or so) of flour.  I pan-fried them in a little olive oil.  Overall, I’m pretty happy with them.  Next time, they need more Parmesan cheese and more salt and, perhaps, more flour.  I’ll play around with it and see how it goes.

The family was very satisfied with it.  Of course, Rosie Girl and PWM liked it, but they were also willing to give me some helpful suggestions.  One of the kids’ friends was over and she seemed to enjoy the meal.  Wild Man, though, had leftover pizza.  I hope he’ll try the pancakes next time.  He’s already tried the Spinach Pie and I think it will take some work to convince him that it’s different enough from previous for him to try it again.  Ah, well, the boy eats cucumbers and carrots like they’re going out of style.  I won’t stress about it.

One thing that has been harder for us to eat is beets.  I did roast some the first time and then mixed the beet slices with some oil, vinegar, and spices, put the slices on French bread, sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese, and broiled it.  PWM was the only one who really liked it, although Rosie Girl and I ate some.  Wild Man did taste it, but didn’t really care for it.  I have discovered, though, that I can add some pureed beets to my brownie batter and then we can’t even taste it.  It’s kind of cheating, but at least we ate the beets – LOL!

So, what kind of vegetarian meals do you like?  Do you enjoy your time in the kitchen?  This was definitely not a quick and easy meal, but I was in a cooking mood and really enjoyed it!

Today, I . . . . (July 26, 2010)

Today was an incredibly productive day for me.  I . . .

• finished purging books and getting them ready to take to the half-price book store.
• (with help from the kids) moved books around so that we’re ready for the Core 200 books along with any other school books I need to buy in the next few weeks.
• decided which geography book to buy for Wild Man.
• organized the science boxes – which involved getting rid of stuff we never will use and consolidating other stuff.  We now have a general science box, a biology/dissection box, and a microscope supply box.
• finished organizing both closets in the schoolroom.
• vacuumed the schoolroom.
• filled the back of the van with tons of stuff to go to Goodwill (in addition to the books).
• moved the old crib/bassinet (was handmade for my dad in 1940) from the upstairs closet to the schoolroom.
• organized the linens that used to live in the old crib and gave them new homes as well as getting rid of lots of them.
• brought my entire yarn stash down to the schoolroom, put all the yarn in Ziploc bags (I’ve been getting paranoid about the possibility of bugs in my wool), and then put the bags into the antique crib.
• ate Rosie Girl’s yummy homemade Leek Soup (from her Williams-Sonoma Soup cookbook).
• dealt with Wild Man’s inability to manage the limits we’ve imposed on media.  Let’s just say that the parents are going to be more involved (and take possession of his computer for a while.)
• watered the tomatoes and cucumbers.
• visited with my mother-in-law while I was taking sheets to her house (and I still can’t find her pink flat sheet – even though I’ve gone through all the linens in the house!!)
• made a batch of brownies (with Wild Man’s help).
• finished Mom’s sweater, except for weaving in ends and blocking.  She’ll be up for a visit in a few weeks so I can give it to her.
• Took a nice hot shower and pulled the shower head off the pipe trying to make the massage part of it work!  I finally got it all figured out, but the ceiling got rather wet in the process.

Whew!!  I haven’t been this productive in ages.  I think I may sleep till noon tomorrow and do nothing but read books and knit socks!  So, night, night!!

The Birthday Cake Kerfuffle

First of all, I LOVE the word “kerfuffle”.  I use it as much as possible, so even though the event I am about to relate affected only myself in the long run, I am still going to call it a “kerfuffle”.  Because I can.

With all the crazy weather we’ve had around here and my poor track record with migraines in the last few weeks, I made a very simple plan for Wild Man’s birthday cake.  He is quite interested in the Blue Angels and is probably going to get to see them perform this summer on his trip across the US.  His only cake specification was that it be a chocolate cake with vanilla (NOT buttercream) icing and that it be a 2 layer round cake.

I went ahead and made the cake Friday night.  I also frosted it with vanilla icing from a can that Wild Man had picked at the grocery store.  Things were going well.  Next, I went to Wild Man’s Paper Airplane A Day Calendar which he thought was cool, but doesn’t actually use.  I found the pattern and instruction pages for the F/A-18 Hornet in blue, just like the planes used by the Blue Angels.  Plans were in motion.  I prayed fervently for no migraine and went to bed.

All looked to be going well Saturday morning.  I had a mild headache that seemed to be under control with my meds.  The party attendees arrived on time.  PWM loaded up Wild Man, Rosie Girl, and the three other boys into the van to go to Chuck E. Cheese for a few hours of pizza and games, leaving me at home to finish up the cake decoration and gift wrapping.  My confidence level was high.

I had a few minutes of panic when I couldn’t find the pattern and instruction pages, but I eventually located them.  The next task was to copy the pattern so that I could make several planes or have a back-up if I made a mistake.  I went to our new copier/scanner/printer and realized I might be in trouble – too many buttons and I had never used any of them.  I followed my nose, though, and put the paper in the autofeed tray, pushed the color copy button, and, lo and behold, a color copy was made.

This may have been my downfall.  I think the copy machine success made me cocky.  After I successfully made three (three!!) copies of the pattern, I sat down at the table and went to folding.  Thirty minutes later, all I had was a pile of paper on the table.  Pardon my arrogance, but I have two bachelor’s degrees and a doctorate degree and I could not fold a blasted paper airplane!!  How could this be?!  I gave it one last try, but finally decided that my 12 years of higher education were for naught because that paper airplane was just not happening!

After some Facebook venting (and thank you FB friends for not immediately chiding me for my silliness), I went to Plan B which involved a foam toy airplane of my son’s on top of the cake with decorations around it.  Mind you, the foam plane appears to be an F-14, which is also a Navy plane, but it is clearly not an F/A-18, nor is it blue.  Nonetheless, I made some blue icing, did some very basic decorations (because I was now running out of time), threw the gifts in some gift bags, and had the kitchen clean before the birthday boy made it back from Chuck E. Cheese.

All’s well that ends well, even with a paper airplane kerfuffle!!  And now, I’m going to get some well-deserved rest!!

(And this cake had sure better not show up on Cake Wrecks!!)

7 Quick Takes Friday – April 30, 2010

1. My baby boy turns 12 years old tomorrow!!  I can’t even believe it!!!  I’ve baked and frosted his cake, but the decorating will wait till tomorrow when he and his friends are at Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and games and I am at home NOT getting a headache from all the noise and craziness!

2. I’ve started a lot of seeds indoors already and the cucumbers are coming up far more quickly than I expected.  I am trying to wait until Monday to put them in their final containers.  Two are going to be grown upside down in old ice cream buckets while another will be grown in the “official” Topsy Turvy bag.  We’re trying to see if using the bag actually makes a difference in outcome.

3. Rosie Girl and PWM are having a Zelda video game competition.  They are playing Twilight Princess on Wii and the one to beat Ganon in the shortest period of game play time wins.  Since the Wii keeps track of the time the player has played, it’s an easy and fun way for them to play against each other.

4. It’s raining pretty hard right now and the thunder and lightening have passed, so the kids (age 11 and 14, remember) are out playing in the rain.  What silly children!

5. The Next Food Network Star starts in June!!  It’s one of my favorite food competition shows.  It’s more family friendly than Top Chef (which I won’t let Wild Man watch because of the language) and lets you follow the competitors (unlike Chopped which only has them on for one show).  Check out the promo video!

 

6. Speaking of cooking and competition shows, it was a pretty cool coincidence that this week on Chef Vs. City (Atlanta) the chefs had to make oriental noodles using traditional Chinese technique and also on The Amazing Race, in Shanghai, the competitors had to make oriental noodles using the same technique.  Wild Man and I thought it was pretty neat to see both shows in the same week!

7. Wild Man’s socks are coming along quite nicely – I just started the heel flap.  Unfortunately, these  socks have more mistakes than any I have made.  Whenever I made a mistake, though, Wild Man told me not to worry about it and not to rip out my work – I think he’s afraid I’ll never finish them!  In my defense, though, Wild Man picked a pattern with very tricky cables!

Check out Conversion Diary to see what others are saying on 7 Quick Takes Friday!!

Random Stuff – April 26, 2010

The writing experts say that when you can’t think of something to write to just start writing something.  That’s what I’m doing.  Writing random stuff that’s going though my head.

I’ve had wicked terrible migraines yesterday and today, but they both responded to medications.  Just in case you were wondering.

The cucumbers that were supposed to take 6-10 days to germinate came up in 4.  It looks like I’ll be moving them to bigger pots this week.  I either need to get another little plastic dome system or these cuke plants have to be able to handle chilly evenings outside because they can’t go in an open pot indoors or they’ll become a digging spot for the kitty cats.

We had a toilet overflowing emergency Thursday night while PWM was taking Rosie Girl to dance.  Why is it that I can handle obstetrical emergencies with some amount of grace and decorum, but an overflowing toilet just flummoxes me.  I know now, though, how to turn off the water to the toilet – although, in this case, I didn’t really need to.  Everything is all fixed now thanks to PWM my handyman hubby.

Why is it that I have such a hard time with getting the white clothes folded?  I don’t mind washing or drying the clothes, but getting the white clothes (towels, underwear, socks, etc.) folded and put away is my housekeeping nemesis.  And having a migraine is a great excuse for putting it off!!

I made fish cakes with remoulade sauce and spinach with alfalfa sprout salad for dinner on Saturday night.  Yummy!!  The fish cakes (made with tilapia) could have used a lot more seasoning, but a decent remoulade sauce covers over a multitude of sins.

 

I guess those writing experts were correct, after all.  I sat down with nothing to say and yet I’ve written a mildly interesting (I hope) blog post.

I do have some more profound thoughts bouncing around in my head and I’ll get those written one of these days!

Lagniappe – 3/22/2010

• I woke up this morning without a migraine.  This is the second day in a row – Yippee!  Unfortunately, I decided that I would satisfy my springtime furniture moving need by moving a coffee table which required lots of sweeping and other cleaning and straightening in the living room which has made my head hurt – although it’s not a full-blown migraine.
• There is much angst among my friends and family about the health care bill.  I’m not thrilled about it, but I am trying to keep it in perspective.  God is still in his heaven – this didn’t shock or surprise Him – and He’s not worried.  So, I’m going to continue to place my trust in God, not in the US government.
• I got a new pressure cooker last week, so I’m going to break it in tonight and make a chicken and rice dish.
• Wild Man was gone from home the entire day yesterday, so I’ve had a pretty quiet day for him today.  Well, except for making him fold his laundry.  But, it must be done – and I have no desire or intention of doing it!
• Rosie Girl sold magazine subscriptions to raise money for her Choir trip, so I now have a subscription to Creative Knitting magazine.  I’m almost done knitting a sweater from a pattern in their last issue.  It’s using a silk/bamboo yarn that is just amazing to work with.  Pictures will be forthcoming!!
• I’ve got The Screwtape Letters on audiobook from the library website and it is, yet again, bringing me new insights into prayer and the Christian life.  Lewis was truly one of the best Christian writers of the last century.
• It’s springtime and the cats are definitely ready for it.  They are all three shedding like crazy.  I’m trying to remember to have someone brush them every day.
• We’ve discovered that one of the reasons our garden didn’t do as well as we would have liked last year was that our backyard doesn’t get as much sun as it should have.  We are seriously considering taking out or making smaller the front flowerbed and putting in two or three square foot garden beds in the front yard.  Of course, that will take up the entire front yard, but we don’t really use it for much anyway.

So, that’s it – lots of random thoughts swirling around my head.  But, I’m off to work on my knitting and then cook some dinner.  What’s up with you?

Baked Garlic and Onion Cream Soup

 

It’s Fall – time for soup!!  On Sunday, I made two kinds of soup, along with some foccacia and a chocolate sheet cake.  Yep, I have a happy family!!  So, here’s a recipe to warm you up this Fall.

Baked Garlic and Onion Cream Soup

  (Source:  Appleton Post-Crescent Newspaper  By Darryl Kilsdonk)

Ingredients

• 6 large onions, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 2 heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 5 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves (I used ground thyme with good results)
• 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley for garnish

Directions

• Preheat over to 350 degrees.
• Place the onions and garlic in a shallow roasting pan.  Add 3 cups of the chicken stock.  Sprinkle with the thyme, pepper, and salt.  Dot with butter.
• Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir once or twice while it is baking.
• Remove the pan from the oven and use a blender or food processor to puree the onions and garlic with the liquid in batches, until smooth.
• With the motor on, gradually add the remaining 2 cups stock and the cream.  Pour the soup into a large saucepan.
• Adjust the seasonings and slowly heat through.  Do not allow the soup to boil.
• Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.
• Serves 6-8

My modifications

• I don’t have a roasting pan, so I use 2 9x13 glass baking pans and divide the onions and garlic between them.
• I have found that baking the onions for longer than the 1 1/2 hours makes them softer, but also sweeter.  Experiment to see which consistency and flavor you prefer.
• My blender won’t hold all of this soup, so I puree (actually liquefy or grind!) the contents of one baking pan then empty it into the saucepan, then do the contents of the other baking pan and empty it into the saucepan.  I then add the remaining stock (broth) and cream to the saucepan and stir.  I make my soup really smooth, so there’s nothing lost by not having it all in the blender at once.
• I didn’t have enough cream on Sunday, so I used 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of Half and Half with good results.
• This stores well in the fridge for several days.
• I love it with fresh bread – particularly French bread or foccacia.
• This is also a great soup to keep your insides moving, if you know what I mean!!

Here are the other recipes I used Sunday night:

• Pioneer Woman Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe from Serious Eats
• Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe from Big Mama. 
• Focaccia recipe from Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for More Food.

Happy Cooking!!

Check out what others are saying on Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic!!

7 Quick Takes Friday – September 25, 2009

1. When I got my hair cut a few weeks ago, Mr. Math Tutor and I joked that maybe my headaches would improve with less weight to carry around.  On Monday, when I was having my 4th day straight with migraine, Wild Man (who was adamantly opposed to the hair cut) said, “Maybe the hair cut is making the migraines worse.”  It was the first time in four days that I laughed.

2. Our poor garden just hasn’t been doing well.  Do you think it could be that we hardly ever watered it during the 21 days without rain a few weeks ago?  We’ll need to be more disciplined about it next year!

3. I got a silicone muffin pan and have decided that it is my absolute favorite kitchen utensil.  Muffins are so easy to make, but I rarely made them because cleaning the muffin pans was so difficult, but the silicone pan makes it incredibly easy!!  I just put it in the dishwasher and it came out looking brand new.

4. I went on a kitchen cleaning spree the other day.  We had tons of soap scum build-up in the dishwasher, so I ran an empty dishwasher cycle with a couple of cups of vinegar which worked like a charm.  The main event, though, was that I cleaned my wooden cabinets above the stove which were sticky and gross with a layer of grease (that was probably about 10 years old).  It took lots of Pledge and some elbow grease, but they are beautifully clean!!

5. My kids both drink coffee – not every day, but they enjoy it.  Mr. Math Tutor really likes his morning coffee, but not me.  I’m a Coke Zero gal.  But, the other day, Rosie Girl made me a cup of strong coffee with chocolate, cream and sugar in it.  I think it was about as effective as the migraine meds on that headache and I actually enjoyed it!

6. Sharing an office with Wild Man has its ups and downs.  Now that he’s a “real” percussion player, he is always drumming on something.  He’ll be sitting at his desk working on a workbook, but he is always drumming with his fingers or pencil.

7. One of Rosie Girl’s favorite things to do now is to back the car or van down the driveway.  She’s only 14, so that’s as much as she’s allowed to do as far as driving goes, but it thrills her to no end!!

Check out Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes Friday posts!!

Potato-Sausage Pie

I made some seriously yummy Potato-Sausage Pie last night so I decided to share the recipe.

The basis of the recipe is this Bacon-Potato Torte from Melissa D’Arabian of Food Network.  Here are the modifications that I made:

1. I used 1 pound of Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage that I cooked and drained well instead of the bacon.

2. Because of the amount of sausage I used, I didn’t need quite three potatoes.

3. I didn’t have fresh thyme, so I used dried and ground thyme.

4. I used half and half instead of cream.  It doesn’t really make it healthy, but it does give it a little less fat.

Here’s the final product – well, after we had served it!!

 

My thoughts about the final product:

1. The crust was amazing!!  I have made pie crusts before, but they weren’t any better than what I could buy at the store, so I tend to go for convenience.  From now on, though, I’ll be making pie crusts with this recipe and technique.  This crust was buttery and flaky and delicious.

2. Using sausage meant that the flavor of the thyme and Gruyere was really masked.  I think I will probably leave out the cheese next time or use a less expensive cheese.  I love the flavor of the sausage, though.

3. This recipe is definitely NOT heart-healthy.  That being said, it is a pretty heavy dish, so it should be served with something light, such as fresh veggies, so it can be part of a reasonable meal.

Enjoy!!

Updates

Hey, guess what?  I have a blog!!  No, I have not completely forgotten about it!  So, here’s what’s up in my life.

1. I’m seeing a chiropractor for my headaches.  Unfortunately, the adjustments last week ended up giving me migraines – part of why I wasn’t blogging!!  Today’s adjustment seems to have been a little bit easier on the head and neck.

2. The first week of school was great all the way around.  Both kids are getting into the groove of doing their schoolwork.

3. Rosie Girl is going to try out for Show Choir and for Madrigals.  Wild Man is going to try out for a community theater production.  Yes, we’ll be busy!

4. The kids and I are helping out at the Senior Nutrition Center on Wednesdays at lunchtime.  We help pack the Meals on Wheels lunches as well as serve the lunches to the clients who come to the center.  They have a keyboard so Rosie Girl can play her piano pieces and they have games so Wild Man can play cards and checkers with the clients.  We’ve enjoyed it and the clients seem to be happy about our coming to help.

5. Dance starts this week – Tap for Rosie Girl and Theater Dance for Wild Man.

6. Rosie Girl is in the High School group at church – EEK!  And Wild Man is in the Junior High group – EEK! EEK!  I am seriously not old enough for this!!

7. I made some yummy Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup a few weeks ago, but the tortillas disintegrated, so I’m trying again this week with white corn tortillas.  I’ve also gotten a hankering to make a meat pie after watching some old Top Chef episodes – lol!!

8. I have many thoughts rambling around in my head, but I’ll wait until I can put them into some semblance of order until I post.  Here’s a little foretaste –

What kind of paranoia do conservatives have that we can’t let the elected President of our nation talk to schoolkids for 18 minutes?  Obama is talking about having a “trigger” to a mandatory public option – that’s the same as a public option, just a few years down the road!  I love doing fixed hour prayer, but I wish I was more disciplined about it.  Have you ever eaten “ramps”? – I’ve heard about them on two cooking shows recently and now I want to try them!   Why am I having to run the air conditioner in September in Wisconsin?  I found a great new sock pattern! 

Does that whet your appetite for more of my crazy thoughts?  Well, stay tuned.  First up, though, is a book review.  That’s coming later tonight!

Menu Plan Monday – August 10, 2009

I’m back to planning meals for the week again.  During the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to make some food to put into the freezer so we’ll have some yummy meals during the school year, even when I have headaches.

Our family has also started having our main meal at lunchtime instead of supper.  This has been working well because Mr. Math Tutor works online until lunch and then generally has his face-to-face clients after school is out.  It was hard for us last year to have dinner all together, so we decided to try having lunch together.  We’ve been doing it for about a week and really enjoying it.  I kind of feel like my main task for the day (cooking the main meal) is done nice and early so the rest of the day is free (for exciting stuff like laundry – so maybe it’s not really so free!).

Here’s what I have planned for this week:

1. Hoisin Chicken with green beans and sweet corn (from the garden)

2. Spaghetti

3. Spinach pie (and I’ll probably make an extra one to put in the freezer)

4. Garlic Roast Chicken with Vegetables

5. Leftovers

6. Leftovers

7. Lunch at Rock the City

Check out what others are planning at Menu Plan Monday!

7 Quick Takes Friday – August 7, 2009

1. My headaches come in waves.  Right now, things are going pretty well and I’ve been pretty productive and without a rip-roaring headache for several days.  About three weeks ago, though, I had about two weeks of being able to do very little around the house because of the headaches.  Because of this, I‘ve been making lots of meals for the freezer so that we have something to eat besides frozen pizza when I get into a really bad headache stretch.

2. We are trying a new schedule around here.  Since we are all here at lunchtime, but not necessarily suppertime, our big meal of the day is now lunch.  We’ve done it for two days now with real success and I think it will be even better during the school year.  I have to get used to getting up and starting dinner almost immediately, but I like having a clean kitchen most of the afternoon.  And having a big meal in the middle of the day is definitely healthier all the way around!

3. A local chiropractor has offered to give me a free evaluation and treatment of my headaches.  I’ve had chiropractic treatment before without much success so I haven’t pursued it again.  However, this chiropractor is a Christian and offered to give it another, more comprehensive try.  Unfortunately, since I’m on Medicare (because of disability), he’s not allowed to provide free care for me.  My plan doesn’t cover much chiropractic care, so I’m not sure that we’re in a place to try it right now.  That’s one of the most frustrating things to me about government-run healthcare – physicians are limited in doing even good things.  If someone can’t pay their Medicare or Medicaid co-pay, the provider can’t just waive the fee.  Yet one more reason to keep the government out of our lives.

4. I read somewhere recently that people spend only 22 minutes a day cooking, but 30-60 minutes per day watching cooking shows.  We spend a lot more time around here cooking because cooking from scratch is far less expensive than convenience foods.  But, Rosie Girl and I are also often inspired by cooking shows (especially Food Network) to try new things.  Sometimes we look up recipes, but other times we just go in the kitchen and play around and hope it turns out good.

5. We planted Morning Glories in the first part of June and they just started blooming the first of August.  I don’t know if they took so long because it’s been a cool summer or because we needed to water them more, but I’m glad they finally decided to take off!!

6. For lunch today, I used green beans and an onion from our garden.  The garden has definitely required some work and has been a mixed bag of success, but I’m glad we did it.  The green beans have been a huge success.  The onions are also doing well.  I think the squash and pumpkin will do well.  We have carrots, but they are pretty small!

7. Rosie Girl had golden curls when she was a baby, but her hair became straight by the time she was five years old.  In the last year or so, we’ve noticed that she has had some curls around her face.  She asked to go to the hair stylist last week to have her hair trimmed and figure out what to do about the curls.  It turns out that she has curly hair!!  The stylist layered her hair and, once the weight was taken off, all her hair curls.  All Rosie Girl does in the morning is wash and towel dry it. 

Check out Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes Friday posts!!

 

 

Potatoes Gratin

Our family LOVES to watch The Next Food Network Star and we were thrilled when Melissa won last week!!!  For the last challenge, Melissa and Jeffrey each had to do a short pilot episode.  Melissa did a chicken dish with a potato gratin.  Last night for dinner, I was making roast, but I had a couple of potatoes, so Rosie Girl and I decided to do a modification of Melissa’s potato gratin.

We sliced 2 large potatoes and grated about a cup of mild cheddar cheese.  We then layered the potatoes and cheese into the cups of a muffin tin which had already been sprayed with baking spray.  We topped each cup with a pat of butter and added a little milk.  It went in the oven for about 30 minutes.  (Melissa’s original recipe called for Swiss cheese instead of cheddar, and cream instead of milk and butter, but I loved the idea of using the muffin tin.)

The potatoes were delicious and perfectly cooked.  The only problem was that the muffin tin could have been sprayed a little more completely so it was an annoyance to wash.  This is definitely a “keeper” of a recipe – quick and easy to make and well-liked by the family.

Check out Blissfully Domestic and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for more great domestic ideas!!

 

Homemade Pizza – TMTT June 29, 2009

So, everybody has some version of homemade pizza.  What’s so special about mine?  Well, it’s mine!  Is that narcissistic or what?!  Anyway, we had homemade pizza the other night and it turned out really well, so I decided to share what we did.  You might like to try some of our ideas.

Ingredients:

• Pizza crust recipe – I adjust this to use bread machine yeast
• Olive oil
• Contadina pizza sauce
• “Fake Alfredo sauce” – it’s “Healthier Cream Sauce” with parmesan cheese added
• Assorted shredded cheeses
• Pepperoni (we usually also have spiced ground beef)
• Diced, sauted chicken
• Diced, sauted garlic (pieces as large or small as you like)
• Olives
• Pickles (for my daughter)
• Spinach (for me)
• Anything else you like

Technique

• One of the nice things about my kids now being 11 and 14 is that they are old enough for things like doing their own pizza crust.  Everyone took their ball of pizza dough and formed it into an eight inch diameter crust.
• My son and I put our pizzas on insulated pans because we don’t like crispy crusts but my daughter and hubby used regular pans.  In a perfect world, we’d have a pizza stone, or at least an unglazed patio stone (per Alton Brown), but we haven’t gotten around to getting one yet.
• Brush the crust with olive oil.
• Spread on sauce – I like white, everyone else likes red.
• Add veggies and meat.
• Add cheeses.
• Put on pan or pizza stone or patio stone and bake for about 10 minutes at 475-500 degrees or until cheeses are melted and crust is browned.
• Eat and enjoy!!!

This is my pizza with white sauce, spinach, chicken, garlic, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese.

 

 

Wild Man’s pepperoni pizza.

 Rosie Girl’s pizza with olives, pepperoni, pickles, and lots of cheese.

 Mr. Math Tutor’s pizza with a little bit of everything covered with a lot of cheese!!

 

So, check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic for more great recipe and domestic ideas.  And, definitely leave any new pizza ideas here in the comments.  It makes me feel loved!!

Holiday Flexibility

I love holidays!  Celebrations are always fun.  The last few years, though, my migraines have interfered far more than I would have liked.  We have taken to becoming rather flexible with our holidays around here.

Rosie Girl’s birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated on Friday.  For one thing, she came home from camp on Friday, so coming home to a birthday celebration was a real surprise for her.  For another thing, I figured that I’d better go ahead and bake a cake while I felt well.  But, things didn’t go quite as planned.  Mr. Math Tutor drove up North to get Rosie Girl and Wild Man rode off to the baseball field to get on the bus for his game.  I started making the cake – a chocolate pound cake in a tube pan that would be filled with strawberries and surrounded with strawberries that had been dipped in white and milk chocolate.  All was going quite well until I checked on the cake about an hour into the baking process and realized that it wasn’t rising.  In fact, it had a big ole dip in the middle of it.  On racking my brain, I couldn’t actually remember putting in the baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  I knew they had been on the counter, but I wasn’t sure they made it into the batter.

Well, Rosie Girl was not going to see a perfectly made cake when she got home.  I let the cake finish baking, hoping that I was just mistaking what a normal pound cake should look like halfway through baking, but it was, indeed a total loss.  When Rosie Girl got home, she got to see a mass of chocolate wanna-be cake, lots of strawberries, and some birthday presents.  We let her open the presents, though, which were both video games and kept her plenty occupied (along with telling us all about camp) until I could make another cake and get it decorated.  And when it was done, it was positively decadent!!

Today is Father’s Day, but we’re not celebrating today.  For one thing, I have a migraine and have already taken a long nap.  We are also planning our celebration for tomorrow because LSU is playing the Texas Longhorns in the College World Series tomorrow night.  We’re going to have steak and watch baseball, so we’ll make that our Father’s Day celebration – with Mr. Math Tutor’s approval, of course!!

A little flexibility goes a long way in this house.

Menu Plan Monday – June 1, 2009

So we're back home and it’s time to get back in to the swing of things.  Of course, I’m pretty tired from driving to the Deep South and back as well as going to two funerals in the course of a week.  I’m not going to do a lot of cooking since I still have some casseroles in the freezer.  Here’s my plan:

1. Lasagna (from freezer) with broccoli and/or salad

2. Lasagna (leftovers) with broccoli and/or salad

3. Grilled chicken with corn on the cob and grilled asparagus

4. Chicken and dumplings

5. Chicken and dumplings

6. Chicken divan (from freezer)

7. Chicken divan (leftovers)

Not exciting, but doable.  Whole chickens are on sale this week so I’ll get one for the freezer and maybe cook it next week.

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are doing this week!

Menu Plan Monday – May 18, 2009

I’m really enjoying cooking for a week at a time.  I’m going to do my cooking on Wednesday this week.  We still have some chicken that Mr. Math Tutor is going to grill for lunch today since Friday’s migraine messed up our menu schedule last week.  Here’s what I’m planning:

1. BBQ chicken – I suspect we’ll be having this a lot now that the weather is warming up and we love it.  We’ll probably have raw veggies with it.

2. Lasagna with salad

3. Chicken broccoli stir-fry

4. Lasagna left-overs

5. Hamburgers on the grill

6. Leftovers

Check out I’m An Organizing Junkie to see what others are planning this week!