So much culinary potential

I cannot tell a lie. Life has been crazy and some of our dinners have been out of the box. Literally. Not that this never happens but lately it is the norm and that is no bueno. But I have had a couple of culinary adventures lately so I will recap the highlights.

St. Patty's Day...
I once made traditional Irish stew and quickly learned I do not like the taste of lamb. Too gamey for my tastes. So from that point forward I either made a beef stew with Irish soda bread or looked for other traditional Irish favorites. Then I put my spin on things because that's how I roll...as someone without an ounce of Irish blood in her. ;) This year I used cuts of stew beef slow cooked in onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup served over mashed potatoes. On the side we had cabbage steamed with bacon because bacon makes everything better. When I say "we" I mean I devoured it, Matt tolerated it, and William had peas (at least they were green right?). For dessert I made a boxed brownie mix with a little Bailey's mixed in. At least something was Irish!

Tonight...
Picture hurricane force winds competing with the last 70+ degree day for a while. I HAD to grill. Every time I went to the grill I could almost feel the wind pushing me back saying, "Fool, take this food inside." But I was determined. And the most awesome part of the meal was that William chose half of it. We stopped at the grocery store tonight and as sides he chose salad and corn on the cob. Really, how do you argue when a child chooses veggies? You don't! So we had steaks, corn on the cob (out of season but not bad), a really pretty salad, and Matt had some grilled baby potatoes. William and I weren't in a potato place tonight. I am hoping and praying spring comes for good soon because it gives me so much more energy and inspiration for cooking.

I have a couple of learning opportunties that I am determined to conquer in the near future. I bought some baby eggplant tonight and want to see how that differs from, um, grown up, eggplant and I want to master tuna. Something about cooking a tuna steak freaks me out. I am not a rare fish afficianato unless it's in sushi but I really want to try grilling tuna. So if you have any tips or recipes let me know.

I am a published recipe author

Sure it's for my son's weekly newsletter at school but still...

A while back the principal sent a plea to parents because Market Day sales were not going well. I proposed an idea where I would periodically submit a recipe to the school newsletter sharing how I use Market Day recipes. Well, periodically turned into a weekly gig so I have been scrambling to come up with recipes each week. I'm having fun but I have to submit my piece by Tuesday evening. Sometimes 10:00 p.m. Tuesday comes and I have an "oh shoot!" moment. But I haven't missed a "deadline" yet. I'm anxious to see if my recipes boost March sales at all.

I debuted with beef stew. Simple yet something almost everyone loves. I followed the next week with garlic crusted pork tenderloin and baby baked potatoes with a roasted red pepper sauce. Last week was Mediterranean inspired chicken piard. This week I think I will go a little more kid friendly and try ravioli "lasagna".

I'll keep you posted on the sales.

Themed Meals

When I became a mother I never dreamed I would be cooking monkeys, claws, and even dinosaur eggs. Oh wait, does that sound odd? Welcome to the world of themed meals. When we have a special event, William has come to expect a themed dinner. Sure, one may expect to make themed Halloween or Christmas treats. In fact, there are entire cookbooks dedicated to such things. But for the every day? It gets a little more challenging.

One of my past efforts include monkey pizzas after a day of playing hookie at the zoo.

Another evening involved a dinosaur meal to wrap up dinosaur week at his day care. We dined on dino claws, spines, legs, and tortillas with lava dip as well as dinosaur eggs.

So the latest effort? We discovered we have a free preview of a movie channel over the next year and one of the movies showing is Planet 51. William didn't think he would be interested so I did what any good mother would do - I bribed him. I told him we could have a fun night with an outer space meal if he would watch the movie. And guess what? He loved the movie and the food too.

But to get to that point, I put on my thinking cap and tried to think about what I had around the house that I needed to use. I somehow fell into a surplus of tortillas so my mind went to UFOs. I cut rounds out of the tortillas, spread a dollop of refried beans in between, and topped with a second tortilla, cheese, black olives, and cherry tomato halves to try an make them look like UFOs. Then I remembered that in my set of cookie cutters I had a mini star in my Christmas set and a mini moon in my Halloween set so I cut stars and moons from potato slices. These were simply roasted with a smidge of salt and Mrs. Dash onion and herb. Love that stuff! And what would any outer space meal be without a few meteorites (or meateorites if you will)? I combined some ground chicken, celery salt, and buffalo sauce to make meatballs then drizzled it with more buffalo sauce for molten meteorites.

So here are the final products:

So what's the lesson here? Some of us dream of having our own show on Food Network or even earning the title of chef. But most of us are every day cooks and when you have kids you learn to be creative. Sometimes you have to so they will eat but the most important reason is because your kids become grown ups in the blink of an eye. Matt tells me I love people through food. This is one way I love my son. We share experiences and the enjoyment of those experiences is reflected in our food. So enjoy your kids and have fun with your food.

I love when I knock it out of the park

At the beginning of my day I had no clue what I was making for dinner. I had purchased some cleaned, sliced mushrooms earlier this week and knew I needed to use them for something. You see, I didn't have a plan for them when I bought them but they were on sale and you don't pass by mushrooms on sale right? So I started thinking of what kinds of meat I had in the freezer. I hadn't even gotten anything out to thaw before leaving for work this morning. My quickest options were chicken breasts and a pork tenderloin. I don't know how many of you have schools/churches that participate in Market Day but our school does and, so far, I have ordered monthly. My favorite item is the pork tenderloin. Compared to what I find in the grocery store, it is cheaper yet more tender and flavorful.

So I thought - mushrooms and pork loin...I can make that work. But what to serve with it? We've had a lot of rice lately so I didn't want that. And I didn't have the right ingredients to make a pasta that would make sense to that left me with potatoes. Potatoes are my nemesis. Unless they are drowning in fat, I can't figure out how to make them taste good. Baked? Boring! What to do? What to do? Oh, and did I mention the boy child is not a fan of most potato dishes? Alas, I remembered I had fresh chives in the refrigerator so I opted for mashed potatoes with chives. Sounded flavorful enough considering we weren't having gravy. But what about my lonely pork loin? What happened to that guy?

He got a good kosher salt and pepper massage then a hot sear in a little oil to get a good crust on the outside. It only took about 2 minutes per side until we had a nice golden brown crust. I then placed said loin in a baking dish and spied a bottle of white wine in my rack. I had forgotten about my pale friend. I am not a big white wine drinker but I usually keep a bottle around for cooking and drinking with lighter meals. So my friend Clos du Bois chardonnay and a splash of chicken broth gave my loin a nice little sauna to steam in. I then tossed in a good amount of the mushrooms and popped it in the oven. Now, let me tell you, the best investment I ever made was a meat thermometer that I can insert in the meat and leave there while it cooks. 160 degrees F is medium for pork. Yes, it is safe to eat pork when it is cooked to medium. Overcooking pork is bad bad bad. Now repeat that 15 times. So I set my thermometer for 155 and let it come up to temp out of the oven. Meat will continue to cook out of the oven and the internal temp will raise 5-10 degrees. Handy thing to know as I reiterate overcooked pork (or any other meat) is bad bad bad.

While the meat rested, I mashed my potatoes with a smidge of margarine, milk and chives. Then I began reducing the sauce for the pork. Since I added wine and broth to the baking pan I had a good deal left over. I put that with the mushrooms in a skillet and let it go on pretty high heat. While it was reducing I heard William call from the other room, "Sure smells good in there!" When all was said and done, each of us had a generous pile of potatoes, some corn, and perfectly cooked slices of pork tenderloin on our plate with a reduced white wine and mushroom sauce (finished with a bit of butter). William is the exception. He won't touch a mushroom. I wouldn't either at his age so I don't argue. I just wanted him to eat a decent amount of food. If it's not pasta or pizza I usually hear a lot of protest and plan to sit at the dinner table for an hour cajoling him to eat.

Well, folks, I had filled his plate to let the food cool and by the time I had plated Matt's and my dinners I looked over and he had devoured his mashed potatoes and most of his corn was gone. As I was sitting down he shoved 5...yes 5 bites of meat into his mouth and was chewing for all it was worth. I had barely touched my food and he was asking for seconds. I commented that perhaps I need to make this dinner again sometime and both of the "men" in the family gave me a full mouthed "Mmm hmm!" YES!

Matt cleaned up every last scrap of meat and potatoes, William has his fill of seconds, and I took great pride in making my family happy by throwing together a meal that I had no plans for earlier in the day.

Dreaming

Ultimate dream #1- to publish a successful cookbook. Dream #2 - to cook along side Bobby Flay on Grill It! with Bobby Flay. My ultimate Food Network crush is Tyler Florance but I feel like I get Bobby's culinary perspective more. He does what I dream of...cook with spice. I love spice. Oh, how I love it. But my body betrays me and I am allergic to hot peppers. Alas! I do rebel from time to time and throw caution to the wind. I cook with peppers. I eat them followed by Benedryl.

But, holy cow, what would I give to have an Iron Chef give me the time of day???? I am so torn. Beef seems like the ultimate grilled food yet I think pork tenderloin could be my coup de grace. But it really is all just a dream. I can't plate, I would probably giggle if Matt tried to record me, and I'm not sure I have the confidence. I can't imagine anyone thinking I'm worthy of being on national television with a Food Network icon so I will sit back, watch, dream, and make my family culinarily happy. As my friends know me to say - le sigh. Let's hope spring comes soon and my best friend uncovers herself soon so I can make my family happy and get the small bit Mmmmm I dream of.

I couldn't decide what to make

So this morning I did a reconnaissance and found a beef roast, a pork loin, and chicken breasts in the freezer. I was stumped. Mainly because I'm low on sides and I want to keep things like roast for weekday crockpot meals. Mind you, I just read a book that makes me appreciate food all the more so I'm determined to make the best of what I've got. But, really, is there a shortage in today's world? No. I also found some andouille and my mind was made up. For dinner tonight we are saying to heck with calories and I'm making chicken breasts stuffed with diced ham (also found in the fridge) smothered in andouille gravy with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli. If my family is displeased they can go to be hungry. Savages. ;)

Wishing you a tasty New Year!

We are homebodies on New Year's. It's not worth the hassle of crowds when we can eat and drink merrily at home. Plus December means William's birthday, Christmas, and our anniversary so we are usually pooped by December 31st.

Normally I am very seafood heavy on New Year's Eve but I am taking a different approach this year. I found this recipe weeks ago and have been dying to try it. However, I am not a fan of orange on my food so instead of the paprika sauce I am going to season the meat with smoked paprika and am creating a balsamic reduction in place of the sauce. I've been told goat cheese and balsamic is a perfect marriage. In addition, I am making my annual blue cheese and walnut stuffed mushrooms. Before you say "I don't like blue cheese (or walnuts)" you need to know my husband is not a fan of either but he devours these. They are simple and delicious. And because I'm feeling generous here is the recipe:

1 lb. medium-sized fresh whole mushrooms (about 40)
1 (8-oz.) container soft cream cheese with chives and onions
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves
Chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Brush mushrooms or wipe clean with damp cloth. Remove stems from mushrooms; discard stems or reserve for another use.
2. Place mushroom caps, stem side up, in ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan. In medium bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except parsley; mix well. Spoon about 1 teaspoon mixture into each mushroom cap.
3. Bake at 350°F. for 15 to 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with parsley.

This recipe is easily halved or even quartered.

So those are the stars of the show but I also found some really pretty shrimp while shopping so I am serving shrimp cocktail (in martini glasses for a fun flair) along with a smoked salmon, cream cheese, and chive puree on endive leaves. These will keep us munching into the long evening. To wet my pallet I chose a prosecco which is tasty so far. ;)

We are planning dine after William goes to bed so we can have a nice relaxing meal. As for William, he has already had his "party" plate of Baby Bel cheese, baby dill pickles, bagel crisps, and a cookie. He also wanted to try sushi so I bought him a California roll but when push comes to shove he seems to be losing interest. Lunch for me tomorrow perhaps? Health is clearly not our focus tonight.

Tomorrow I am embracing a southern tradition and serving black eyed peas. I plan to make a soup of the black eyed peas and ham. I will probably also pull out the bread machine and make some homemade bread on the side as well.

Have a safe, fun, and tasty new year!