I posted 40 meal plans this year, which means I was on top of dinner more than 75% of the time. That’s a lot of planning for dinner! The number also surprised me, because — at least during this fall — I felt I’d let meal planning get away from me. It’s helpful for me to look back and realize I did do a good job, overall.
I spent more time on other Chick in the Kitchen outlets this year than ever before. You can follow me on Twitter, Like me on Facebook, and follow my boards on Pinterest as well. I hope you will. I often post items in those three places that won’t necessarily make it onto my blog, and I love interacting with my readers on Facebook, especially.
As in the past two years (2009 and 2010), I took a look at my site statistics to get a feel for what you were reading. This year, the majority of my traffic came from the U.S. and Canada, with the UK, Australia, and Germany rounding out the Top 5. A little more than half of my traffic comes from search results, and almost 30% comes from referrals (someone linking to the site).
In fact, I’m making the Gigantes to bring to our friends’ house on New Year’s Eve — it will help offset the enormous quantity of pigs in blankets we’ll eat.
With that, I wish you a happy and healthy 2012! Thank you for reading and sharing with me.
J. and I took the boys camping for two nights in Fahnestock State Park a few weeks ago. He and I had both occasionally gone camping in the past, but we’d never done it with the kids, and they were really eager to go. We’d planned for our inaugural camping trip to last just one night, but this campsite required a two-night reservation and we figured we might as well try it. It was a blast. I turned off my phone as soon as we arrived, and kept it off through the weekend. It was incredibly relaxing to be in the moment with my family, only worrying about why the fish weren’t biting and whether we’d run out of marshmallows.
We needed two breakfasts, two dinners, and a lunch. We were able to drive our car right to our campsite, so we didn’t need to pack light and could bring an insulated cooler. For dinner the first night, we had skirt steak and potatoes. J. had trimmed and marinated the steak ahead of time, then vacuum-sealed it in two packages for travel. (We wound up not needing the second package on that first night, so we grilled the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. Steak for breakfast? Yes!) I very rarely cook potatoes at home, but I got it into my head that I wanted to bake a few over the coals of our campfire. I’d seen a video on Campfire Baked Potatoes, where you slip slices of onion into slits in the potato before baking. I drizzled the Yukon Golds with olive oil and sprinkled on a little salt, then wrapped them well in aluminum foil. They were incredible, and we will definitely make them a camping staple. Dessert? S’mores, of course. Over the course of the weekend A. developed a marshmallow rule: you could roast 1 after breakfast, 1 after lunch, and 2 after dinner. We thought marshmallows after breakfast seemed totally reasonable while camping, so we obliged.
Our second dinner didn’t work out as well. My boys don’t eat hot dogs (actually, since we went on this trip A. has tried and now likes them) but we wanted to do something fun with campfire cooking. I thought about bringing dough and making pizzas over the fire, but chickened out before we left and thought Boboli pizza crusts would have a lower fail rate. The trouble was, we couldn’t get the heat right. The crusts burned before the cheese could melt, and the boys really didn’t eat theirs. With a little practice and the use of our cast iron pan, I was able to get mine cooked a little more evenly, but it was not an experiment worth repeating. Still, no one went hungry — it just meant we got to dessert more quickly.
Our breakfasts were simple. We used a Coleman single-burner propane stove to boil water for coffee (Starbucks VIA packets) and hot chocolate. On the first morning, we attempted to make pancakes on the stove as well, but they did not work out — we couldn’t keep them from sticking to the cast iron pan. No worries, we had leftover steak and challah rolls from the night before. On the second morning we stuck with cereal and protein bars. We kept our one lunch simple: bagels, hummus, and a big bag of cut-up vegetables. We’d also brought fruit and some granola bars, and popped popcorn in a pot on our stove.
Although it was a little tricky finding food all four of us would enjoy that would also travel well, I think we were successful. I’m on the lookout for more campfire recipes, though. I started a board on Pinterest about camping food and I plan to bookmark recipes I think we’d enjoy as I find them. Have a good campfire meal to share? Please let me know!
As of 8/4/11 this problem has been resolved to my satisfaction. I believe GE made a good faith effort to keep my business. Please read the comments to get the full story. — Dara
If you follow me on Twitter or like me on Facebook, you know that my GE Profile PDCF1NBX refrigerator broke this weekend. The photo above shows the current temperature of both my refrigerator and freezer — 65° F. This appliance is just shy of four years old, and still under warranty. Although we called in the problem before 9 AM on Saturday morning, the earliest repair date GE would give us was Tuesday afternoon. That’s basically four full days without a refrigerator or freezer, assuming the service guy actually shows up during that window and is able to fix the problem. I’m not holding my breath.
I complained about my problem on Twitter, hoping to get the attention of GE there, and it worked — kind of. @GE_Appliances tweeted me back, asking me to send an email about my problem to their special “eresponse” account, and they’d try to get me an earlier repair time. I contacted them immediately at that address, but no one responded. Hey GE, lip service does not fix my refrigerator. It was clearly a case of wanting to appease a public consumer complaint, and not a real attempt to solve the issue at hand.
It hasn’t been a great summer for many people near and dear to my heart. Illness, injury, death in the family. Lots of people around me are dealing with much bigger issues than a broken fridge. But one way I have been trying to help my friends is by cooking for them, and on Saturday I was scheduled to bring dinner to a family of twelve that had just lost a loved one. Thankfully I’d done all my baking and grilling Friday night, and with J.’s help getting bags of ice I was able to safely cook and cool the rest of the meal Saturday morning. Just like you, there are times I don’t want to cook. But there are times I really need to cook, too. It’s how I show people I care, and that I’m thinking about them. I hold out hope that a home-cooked meal comforts and steadies in a time of crisis. Without a refrigerator, this way of showing how I feel is not an option.
Tonight, I went to the grocery store to buy another two bags of ice. I needed a way to keep a couple of containers of the yogurt G. takes for lunch, and the cheese A. eats on his sandwiches safe for tomorrow. I’ve got a cooler filled with ice on the counter in my kitchen, acting as my fridge for the night. It’ll keep my kids’ favorites fresh for another day, and I’ll do the same thing again tomorrow night. It’s an inconvenience. It’s not the end of the world. But the fridge that came with our house lasted for 20 years without a problem before it finally gave up the ghost. I am skeptical about the lifespan of a major appliance that completely stops working after less than four years of service.
So pretty, no? I served this plate to myself, and allowed the kids to serve themselves at the table. In all, they had a choice of whole wheat rolls, lettuce and tomato, sweet potato fries (frozen, made by Alexia Foods), ketchup, and broccoli “trees.” You must know the punchline by now: What did they eat? The rolls. Ba dum bum.
G. did try a fry, but didn’t care for it. We had a snow day today, and truthfully both boys were pretty hyped up and not in the frame of mind to try something new. I am sure they would like this whole meal if they’d only try it, though! As it was, A. was excused from the table before he had even finished the roll. (Yes, it was that kind of day.)
The turkey burgers were really good — I combined the ground turkey with a little panko, yellow mustard, and garlic powder and pan-fried them in a bit of olive oil. The burgers stayed soft (I sometimes have a problem with ground turkey cooking up into a hard lump) and the mustard (a tip I got from Merrie) adds both moisture and seasoning.
This meal comes together so quickly, but still feels healthy and well-rounded. I’m sure someone else’s kids would love it.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
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Cheesy Kale Crisps: We rarely eat kale now that our farm share is over, and I want to fix that. I've wanted to try using nutritional yeast, and this recipe looks like a tasty way to do it.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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