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When Produce Lies

I don’t need them for another few days, so it didn’t matter that every avocado in the huge display was rock-hard. I was amused by their proclamation, though: “Buy me, I’m ripe! I promise!”

3 Comments August 7, 2008

Cake Wrecks

I just stumbled across the Cake Wrecks blog, which has the tagline “When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.” Oh, it’s too much — I can’t help but laugh out loud. My favorites are all the random quotation marks found in the Creative Grammar section.

2 Comments July 28, 2008

Broccoli & Greens Over Bow Ties

Tonight’s easy, simple dinner: saute broccoli (in small pieces), 2 cloves minced fresh garlic (milder than regular, dried garlic), and a little salt and pepper in olive oil. Add rough-chopped braising greens on top. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the pan and cook over medium heat until the greens are wilted and broccoli is tender. Serve greens over bow tie pasta with leftover hamburgers on the side.

1 Comment July 7, 2008

Menu Plan Monday, 7/7 – 7/13

This past week went smoothly cooking-wise, which always makes me feel calm and super-organized. Earlier in the week I used my crock pot to cook two leg/thigh pieces of chicken — I just layered a sliced onion and some carrots in the bottom of the crock pot, set the chicken on top, and sprinkled it with Spike seasoning. It cooked on high for about 3.5 hours while we were at the pool, and dinner was ready to go when we got home. I need to make lots more use of my crock pot this summer.

My favorite meal was our veggie-packed scrambled eggs. Unfortunately, my mom’s Chicken Castillo recipe didn’t translate well to the crock pot — I need to work on reducing the liquid. I have found, though, that I much prefer chicken breasts cooked on high for a shorter time in the crock pot (3-4 hours), rather than having them cooking on low all day. They are less mealy that way (always desirable in chicken, right?).

This week I’m hoping to get a chance to try baking Coconut Oatmeal Cookies. I have a lot of coconut left over from the Cabbage, Red Pepper, & Zucchini Palya (Dry Curry).

Monday: Leftover hamburgers (frozen), sauteed greens & broccoli over pasta

Tuesday: Cabbage Beef Casserole (I’ll make it with ground turkey and freeze half the recipe), noodles, raw veggies

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Boys out to pizza with Grandma and GG; I’m out to dinner with PW!

Friday: Tandoori Tofu Kebabs (can’t wait to try this!), farm share greens, brown rice

Saturday: Take out

Sunday: J.’s awesome beef ribs, farm share veggies, sweet potatoes

For more menu planning ideas, check out Laura at Organizing Junkie.

7 Comments July 6, 2008

How Many Veggies Can You Fit in a Single Meal?

This was Monday night’s dinner, finally! It included leftover salad from our weekend barbecue (lettuce mix, raw zucchini, shredded carrots, and grape tomatoes). Sharon inspired me to bother to grate the carrots; she was doing so when I stopped by the other day and it looked so pretty. I wouldn’t risk bloodied knuckles on a regular basis, but it was nice to do for company.

Then I caramelized a whole onion, diced, in a bit of olive oil. A whole bunch of broccoli rabe, also diced, went into the pan once the onions were soft. I covered the skillet and let the broccoli rabe wilt down for about 5 minutes, then added a chopped tomato and a bit of salt. I whisked four eggs together, poured them into the pan, and stirred the whole thing together until the eggs set. I served it all with some challah rolls I picked up from the store, and then watermelon for dessert.

This was an easy, rustic meal that was perfect after an afternoon at the pool. All in all, there were seven different vegetables in this meal, if you include the two different types of tomatoes. Very healthy, great for using up farm share vegetables, and delicious: a perfect summer dinner in my book.

5 Comments July 2, 2008

Sauteed Greens with Yellow Squash & Scallions

We get a “braising mix” from our farm share which is an assortment of greens such as tatsoi, mustard, and escarole. I’m actually not sure of the exact mix we’re getting, but I’ve emailed Roxbury Farm to find out. In the past I’ve just chopped the greens into meatballs and stuffed peppers.

Tonight I heated olive oil in a large skillet and added a large, minced scallion. I chopped two small yellow squash into bite-sized pieces and added those to the pan as well. While they started to cook, I washed and spun dry the braising mix (about 10 loosely-packed cups), then added it on top of the squash and covered the skillet. It cooked for about 5 minutes, which was enough time for the squash to caramelize and the greens to soften. I did not add salt but I would definitely recommend that you do.

My mom and I ate it unsalted — she loved it and had seconds; I ate it because I knew it was good for me. I really don’t love the greens prepared this way, they are a little too sharp for my taste. Some kosher salt sprinkled on top might have helped. In fact, J. ate them this way later on and thought they were tasty. I’ll probably try cooking the braising mix in some sort of saute again, but I can’t say I’ll look forward to eating it!

1 Comment June 25, 2008

Mrs. Jones’ Macaroni & Cheese

Mrs. Jones was one of my cousins’ nursery school teachers, and although I really think of this as my aunt’s recipe — she passed it on to me — I have preserved the original name because I like the history of it!

For me, this is the macaroni & cheese recipe to beat: it remains my favorite, and I compare any other mac & cheese I eat to it. However, I don’t make it often because the boys won’t eat it (they prefer to boxed stuff instead). Jodi was a willing diner last Monday, though, so I jumped at the chance to make it again. This time I cut the leftovers into several squares and froze them in individual portions. I was really pleased to see that this recipe defrosted nicely just by throwing it in the fridge overnight, and reheating it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

If you are looking for a creamy, saucy recipe, this is not it. Mrs. Jones’ version bakes up into a firm, casserole-type macaroni & cheese that is very easy to prepare. The dry mustard and cayenne give it just enough dimension to taste like so much more than pasta and cheese mixed together, without being spicy. I usually use whole wheat pasta, which works just as well as plain white.

Mrs. Jones’ Macaroni & Cheese
Recipe from my Aunt Barbara

1 lb. small pasta (shells or macaroni), cooked in salted water
2 Tbsp. butter
1 lb. reduced-fat cheddar cheese, finely grated
2 eggs
12 oz. evaporated skim milk
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dry mustard
pinch cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Put the hot, drained macaroni back in the pot you cooked it in, and mix in the butter until pasta is completely coated. Mix in the cheddar cheese and stir until cheese is well-distributed. Spoon mixture into a 9 x 13 baking dish and use the back of the spoon to lightly pack it into the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk remaining ingredients together and pour over the pasta and cheese. Bake 30-40 minutes, until set and crusty on top.

3 Comments June 25, 2008

Dr. Pepper Cake

Yes, it was as good as it looks! I wound up using Anna of Cookie Madness’ recipe for both the cake and frosting. My only change was that I used dark cocoa instead of regular, because that’s what I had in the house. That difference may have been just enough to totally obscure any Dr. Pepper flavor, but don’t worry:

My dad said this might have been the best chocolate cake he ever ate. J. thought it was delicious. GG mentioned several times how much she enjoyed it. And the boys, well, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you they gobbled it up. The cake itself has just the right density — substantial but not heavy-tasting, and a reserved sweetness that doesn’t overpower the chocolate flavor. A nice crumb that held together, and very moist without being sticky or cloying. The frosting, which is the first I’ve made without confectioner’s sugar, was luscious. Using melted Ghirardelli’s bittersweet chips in it give it an extra dimension — again not too sweet, and very smooth and decadent.

There were really rave reviews all around, and that’s a good thing because I am not joking when I tell you it took me hours to make! It is not a difficult recipe, and it is well-written, but there are a lot of interim steps in both the cake and frosting that just took me a lot of time, such as melting and then letting cool the chocolate chips (in each recipe). For a special occasion I didn’t mind the effort, but it was definitely a more involved recipe that I normally make — I am, after all, a huge fan of desserts where pretty much the instruction is “combine all ingredients in a large bowl.”

Want to see more pictures? (more…)

8 Comments June 15, 2008

Crumbs, 6/10/08

• Don’t these three Frozen Fruity Pops from body+soul magazine look awesome and so grown-up? There are recipes for honeydew-basil, pineapple-cinnamon, and mango-parsley versions. I’d go for the honeydew.

• My friend Vicki is thinking of working her way through an entire cookbook over the course of a year (a recent WSJ article talks about this trend: “Latest Web Bloggers Give Cooking The Books a Whole New Meaning”). I’d followed the Julie/Julia Project blog, and then read and enjoyed her subsequent book, so now I’m thinking: what book would I be willing to cook my way through? What cookbook would you choose?

• I got an e-mail last week that the Let’s Dish in Scarsdale is closing it’s doors. (See my previous post, “Make and Take” is Still Too Much Work.) To paraphrase their reason for closing, the people that came loved it, but not enough people came. I always feel badly when a business closes, even if it’s not one that I patronized.

6 Comments June 10, 2008

Menu Plan Monday, 6/9 – 6/15

June is flying by… all of a sudden school is ending, Father’s Day is upon us, and then my dear friend Jodi is coming for a visit! It feels like I will blink and summer will be over.

More cooking this week than last, which I am looking forward to. I hope to fit in a batch of muffins somewhere, as well, once the temperatures go back into the low 80s.

This week I nailed down the proportions on the Slow Cooker Beef, Barley & Veggie Stuffed Peppers, which is a nice dish for the summer since it won’t heat up the kitchen. You could increase the barley or vegetables and decrease the meat to make it lighter.

Then on Saturday we had a fun barbecue with friends, even though the temperatures soared into the 90s for the first time this season, and the kids were sweaty, dirty messes. J. grilled steaks and asparagus, and I made a room-temperature pasta salad out of yellow squash and broccoli rabe (from my CSA) sauteed with garlic and olive oil, chopped sundried tomatoes, and whole wheat chiocciole.

Monday: Out to dinner on a playdate

Tuesday: Baked Tofu with Soy & Sesame, brown rice, steamed broccoli

Wednesday: Flapjacks, hard-boiled eggs, blueberries & strawberries

Thursday: Crock pot meatballs (beef), spaghetti, CSA vegetables

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Take out or go out

Sunday: Father’s Day BBQ for lunch (shish kebobs with pineapple & peppers, Bob’s Cold Sesame Noodles, Dr. Pepper Cake); leftovers for dinner

For more menu planning ideas, check out Laura at Organizing Junkie.

8 Comments June 8, 2008