Now what?

The week after Thanksgiving is a tough one when it comes to cooking, especially when you are hosting...and all of your guests are staying with you.  When guests are around just for the meal, it is easy to send them off with Tupperware containers full of tasty leftovers.  When your guests are staying with you, well, you end the night with a pretty full refrigerator!  Fortunately, no one was shy about whipping up turkey sandwiches, having mini-Thanksgiving dinners for lunch, and slowly working through 4 pies.  That meant that there was no taking a break from cooking the week after Thanksgiving this year.  Fortunately, my Mom was here to help.  She took care of the first half of the week and then it was up to me to cover Flick, Ellie, and myself after my family headed back east.

This refrigerator is just the right age for our kitchen...

Here are some recipes that yield such great results that you won't mind spending a little time in the kitchen for them.  We'll start with Grilled Chicken Florentine Pasta.  As is standard with spinach dishes, I added more than the recipe called for since it cooks down so much, and I like spinach.  Ellie also enjoyed this meal, and actually had it for leftovers tonight!

My mom made a few polenta dishes for us growing up, and this was a great one.  Flick is not wild about polenta but he didn't seem to have any problems having more than one helping of this meal.  Polenta Pepper Torte is flavorful and satisfying - a good comfort food dish without absurd amounts of cheese or cream.  Not that there is anything wrong with cheese...

Remember when I said that I had a love-hate relationship with our slow cooker?  Well, here is a recipe that I love in my slow cooker.  Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork.  The beauty of this recipe, it is simple to put together.  You won't have to wake up extra early in the morning to get it going, and it cooks for 8-10 hours so it will be happily simmering along while you go about your day.  This was one of the recipes my mom made so she did all the prep while I did some shredding...and plenty of eating.  She added some BBQ sauce to the final product to give it a little more flavor, but it was juicy and delicious and made for a great lunch at work this week.

Another recipe from my mom was Halibut with Mango Salsa.  This isn't your typical Mango Salsa; it plays to some different senses with a full teaspoon of cinnamon.  Delicious!  We really liked this recipe, and actually, Ellie did too!  She didn't eat much salsa but the fish was right up her alley.

Finally, this Minestrone recipe is a good meal for a cold wintery day.  It makes a pretty good amount of food and again, is baby friendly (once we drained out the broth and made sure it was not too hot).  With any luck, next week we'll have some Minestrone weather, enjoy the meals!

Flakey - and I'm not talking about a crust

Well, I completely flaked on blogging last week.  That's right, I didn't give it a thought until Sunday night.  By that point, I figured with the 100+ recipes we have accumulated over the months, one week wouldn't be missed, right?  We have a lot of family staying with us through Christmas so it is easy to lose track of to-do's when you are hanging out together in the evenings.  Not a bad thing in my opinion, this is a hobby after all...unless someone wants to pay me for it :)

We are working up towards our big Thanksgiving Day feast next week.  I have the menu planned, turkey ordered, and we will do all the shopping this weekend.  I am pretty excited for it - Thanksgiving happens to be one of my favorite holidays.  I think it has something to do with the fact that the Christmas season "officially" starts once the leftovers from Thanksgiving are packed up.  I am definitely looking forward to reporting back on our Thanksgiving festivities - mashed potatoes, apple pie, and remembering how fortunate we are to have such an incredible life.  Does it get much better than that? 

In the poultry department, one of the recipes my mom brought out with her last time they came to visit was Baked Chicken Po Boy Sandwiches.  Mmmmmm...these were yummy.  Breaded chicken on bread - sign me up.  These were really good and are definitely kid friendly...a little much for Ellie but she only has 8 teeth so that could have something to do with it.

Another recipe my mom brought out was Wedding Soup.  We used to have this recipe when I was growing up; it is really great on cold, wintery days and makes enough that you can have some leftovers to freeze and take out next time the snow starts to fly.

A lot of people live by the slow cooker.  I have a lukewarm feeling towards ours.  I get why people love them; you come home to a warm dinner with no post-work prep time.  Where I get hung up on slow cooker meals is when they don't work out.  We have very few crock pot meals that I have worked into our regular rotation.  We tried Curried Lentil Tomato Soup, and even after 8 hours of simmering in the crockpot, I came home to undercooked veggies and firm lentils.  Bleh.  I was pretty disappointed to say the least.  My mom prepped a much more delectable Baby Back Rib recipe in the crockpot for us.  Pair it with some Mac n' Cheese and some peas and you have yourself a very American comfort food dinner.

One of the nights that Flick's mom was out we had Butternut Squash and Mushroom Tarts with Gruyere cheese.  Oh man.  This sounds like it would take hours upon hours to put together, but we were able to make it in the 40 minute window after work one Friday night.  I highly recommend giving this a try - there are a lot of little steps involved but read through it a few times, formulate a plan, and get to it.

Finally, for a taste of some southern cooking (there is okra in it!) we made Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.  This was a solid, tasty meal that will definitely be a part of our regular rotation.  We are not huge okra fans but in this one-dish meal it adds a nice flavor.

I hope everyone has a scrumptious Thanksgiving with family and friends, we'll run through the festivities next week!  

Streamlining

I believe I have previously alluded to the book I am currently reading: The Joy of Less: A minimalist living guide.  The whole idea of the minimalist lifestyle is to live with less "stuff" which ultimately gives you more time and space to enjoy doing the things you love.  It is an idea that I have started to employ around our house (not to the extremes mentioned in the book; the only piece of furniture in the author's bedroom is a futon mattress on the floor...slightly excessive, er, minimalist).  At home, I am really trying to keep clutter to a minimum and get rid of the things that we don't really need.  There are so many ways to streamline our lives.

I have had this recipe for Swedish Meatballs cut out since we lived in Boston.  When I first started gathering recipes, I was putting every recipe that sounded good into a sticky back photo book.  Needless to say, I was filling up these books pretty quickly and still rotating through the same old recipes.  Flick suggested that I start actually making the recipes before putting them in the book so that I have a comprehensive collection of recipes that have already been vetted.  He's so smart...and that was much more efficient.  With this blog, I have found that I am able to further condense my recipe collection into my online recipe book.  No more piles of paper needed, we just keep everything organized in a nice, searchable format online.  Along the same lines, the whole goal of this blog is to share recipes that taste great but that don't require a lot of pomp and circumstance to pull together.  In theory, I am pulling together a list of minimalist dinner recipes - guess I was destined to start tracking in this direction!

A quick way to put together an after work chicken dish is with Chicken Chilaquiles.  This recipe uses rotisserie chicken to cut down on prep time and carries just a tiny bit of spice.  Don't fear the heat - we are not big spicy food fans in our family so if we can take it you know it has to be pretty mild.

Another recipe that we have had since Boston, but that I have actually been cooking for years, is Smothered Pork Chops with Thyme.  This is a good fall recipe served up with mashed potatoes and some veggies.  To make the pork chop baby friendly, we threw it in the food processor with some of the sauce and Ellie loved it.

 



Two recipes that we have previously featured but that have been out of the loop for awhile are Tuna Noodle Casserole (big hit with Ellie) and Monterey Jack, Corn, and Roasted Red Pepper Risotto.  That's right, we made a risotto after work and had it ready to go at 6pm for dinner with Ellie.  Nothing is impossible with a little bit of planning and the drive to get it done.

Upgrades

Flick and I made our first real "grown-up" furniture purchase this week.  Over the years we have managed to acquire almost a house full of furniture in hand-me-downs, craigslist purchases, and thankfully, in gifts from family/friends.  Although our kitchen table and chairs currently fall into our good furniture category, we made the call to replace them over the weekend when we realized that we were going to require a table which could comfortably seat more than four.  As you may have noticed, having home cooked meals and eating together is extremely important to us.  This year we will be hosting both Thanksgiving and Christmas and we are going to require seating for a whole troop of people.  With that being said, it was time to upgrade.

 

That was such a random commercial.  Back to the kitchen table - since we are working with a pretty tight space (currently) we wanted a table that wouldn't be in the way of our day-to-day activities but that could be the center of attention come mealtime.  We found one that is the same size as our current table - but that has 2 leaves (leafs?) that extend it out to seat EIGHT.  Yes, eight...and since Ellie is in a high chair that means eight adults.  Needless to say, we jumped on that one - and some unexpected chairs (you'll have to wait in suspense - they are far from traditional), and there you have it - a kitchen table where we can gather with family and friends for years to come.  We are so excited for it to get here...and given that we are excited over a furniture purchase, we are officially adult-like.

It will be a little while before we are eating meals on our new table, but in the meantime we have some great dinners lined up for this week. 

Open Faced Blackened Catfish Sandwiches are yet another way to break out of the mold when it comes to cooking fish at home.  You get the simplicity of pan cooking a filet of fish, without serving it alongside a pile of rice and a vegetable.  We cut this up with a knife and fork and really enjoy the cool coleslaw with the mild kick to the fish...and it is on bread, so you can't go wrong there!

Not long ago, Flick and I would take a vegetarian meal and add chicken or beef to it in order to make it fit our dinner expectations.  Over the years, our definition of a meal has changed and we are now taking the meat out of a dish in order to work in a few more veggies (and save some money).  Butternut Squash Tagine, served over pistachio couscous, originally had chicken in it, but we upped the squash content and took out the chicken and I don't miss it one bit!

Chicken and White BBQ Potatoes were in one of the more recent issues of Cooking Light that came to our door.  I love potatoes and I was intrigued by this recipe - fortunately, it worked out well and using rotisserie chicken makes it a snap to pull together.  The relish kind of turned Ellie off from this dish but she happily ate some potatoes and shredded chicken.

Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Onions was a big time winner.  What a perfect fall dish.  The apples and pearl onions are perfect together and paired with pork chops and some rice - you have yourself a meal that is fit to serve guests but that you can pull together in 30 minutes or so after work.  Definitely give this one a try!

We served Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs with Quinoa Salad and Peaches on a Friday night when Mark and Tara were out visiting.  We needed a meal that you could both prepare in a flash after work, and increase the number of servings without prolonging the cooking time.  I am presently a little obsessed with Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wah...I think).  Now that I know how to say it, just try and stop me from ordering it everywhere I go.  It is a versatile "mother of all" grains (coined by the Inca).  Seriously, this little number (not even a true grain, as it may be), is a powerhouse of nutrition - high in calcium, protein, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron.  It is also a good source of fiber.  I am on the lookout for some more recipes involving Quinoa so get ready for it - we'll Boulderize you yet. 

Gimme a break

Flick is on break from school right now.  After each quarter, he gets about 3 weeks off before the next round of classes ensue.  This period of down time is really great on a number of levels.  First of all, I love that he has the freedom to spend his nights doing what he wants (for the most part, dishes probably wouldn't fall into that category), second - I like to pretend that I am also on break (well, actually I guess I am) and can therefore slow my roll from Mach 3 down to the speed of sound.  

In my mind, 'our' breaks are my chance to get caught up on all of the things that have been put to the back burner while Flick is in class and studying every night.  I like to disillusion myself into thinking that I am going to weed the entire front lawn, iron all 54 shirts in the ironing pile, clean things that have been gathering dust, hang some photos on the walls, and have dinner ready at a reasonable hour (all on the first day).   The problem with this line of thinking is that it makes my 'break' anything but a chance to reset and gear up for the next quarter.  So, this time around I am testing out this whole, enjoy-a-break-for-what-it-is thing.  It's hard!  As someone who relishes in getting things done, going to bed without feeling as though I have made a major dent in my to-do list stresses me out.  Something I clearly need to work on because that list is not going anywhere.  

Along these same lines, I think it is important to take a break from cooking every now and again.  I know that I lay the whole 'home cooked meal' thing on pretty thick but we like going out to eat or ordering a pizza just as much as the next busy family.  For me, it is so much more enjoyable when it is a treat rather than the norm.  Flick and I had an AMAZING dinner last night out on the town in Boulder (thank you SO much to the VR crew for all your love and support and especially to Charles for babysitting Ellie!).  We went all out and felt great about it because it is something that we really never do.  It is important to take care of yourself, whether it be a random day off from work or a much needed date night with your partner.  Burnout and staleness can happen in any aspect of your life and it is up to you to be self-aware enough to know when it is coming.  Spice it up to keep it fresh.

Starting next week we will be back to working in the new recipes.  I am FINALLY at the end of my conversion over to the new site (woohooo).  There are a few loose ends (mostly in the dessert category) to tie up but the major players are all prettied up and ready to go.  Thanks for hanging in there through the whole process...

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Thai Chicken with Sugar Snap Peas

Tuna Noodle Casserole (camera shy :) )


Turkey Meatball Reuben Subs

Vegetable Burritos with Cheese

Sameness

I don't know if it is a human nature thing or if it is just me, but I go through "kicks" where I will read/eat/listen to/watch/wear something that I like, and then proceed to re-create the experience for some undetermined amount of time.  Does this sound familiar at all?  Reading is where it started.

I really love to read.  When I was younger, I spent a fair amount of my spare time with a pile of books by my side.  My mom would schlep us out to the library during the summer and I would come home with what seemed to be no fewer than 17 books...all of which were Nancy Drew novels.

I would breeze through one book every day or so until they were done and we would start the process over.  Imagine my disappointment when I exhausted the Canterbury Library's collection.  I then moved on to the American Girl stories.  When I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian, I read all of James Herriot's books.  As I got older I devoured Mary Higgins Clark, then Ken Follett, Marian Keyes, and Bill Bryson.  Of course there were one-off books in between that I thoroughly enjoyed, but to this day, I am always looking for an author who either writes a series or has a few books under their belt so that if I like one, I can keep moving through their novels until my appetite for their work is quenched (or I run out of material).

I have to be very mindful of my tendency for "sameness" when I am cooking.  Fortunately, Flick helps me stay on track, otherwise our menus would be surprisingly homogeneous.  Last winter I was on a real risotto kick.  We were trying to eat less meat and risottos happen to be a very satisfying way to incorporate a meatless meal into your week.  After 3 or so weeks in a row of 2+ risottos per week, I was thanked for the delicious meals that were being lovingly prepared every night...and gently reminded that maybe there was more than one way to make a meatless meal :).  If it weren't for Flick, I would need to buy grain bags full of Arborio rice.

That isn't good for anyone (except the farmers I suppose).  So you will have to forgive me if I turn out a few menus here and there that seem to have a common theme...I am probably just on some sort of kick and it will soon pass.  Off to research how I can get my hands on some of those old Nancy Drew books...enjoy the meals!    

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Monterey Jack, Corn, and Roasted Red Pepper Risotto

Pecan Crusted Tilapia

Parmesan Polenta and Spicy Sausage

Parmesan Sage Crusted Pork Chops

Intentions

In my pre-baby days I was involved in a number of athletic endeavors.  I played on an indoor and outdoor soccer team, did yoga, rode my bike multiple times a week with Flick, ran, swam, skied, hiked, and occasionally even rock climbed.  Many of those activities had to take a back seat while I was sporting a very protuberant midsection.  In the months following Ellie's birth, it was easy to say "well, I am not doing (insert activity here) right now because I just had a baby".  In my opinion, this is extremely legit.  You birthed another human...you deserve some time off from having to do anything but take care of that little person.  I am reaching the limit of my "just had a baby" response.  I think it is different for everyone, but for my own personal baby experience, I feel like it is time to get back into some of those old habits that I miss so dearly.

Last camping trip before Ellie!

As a step in this direction, I pulled myself out of bed at 5:20 two mornings this week to go to a yoga class...a real yoga class.  Not my beloved prenatal classes where we talked about how we were feeling, swapped stories, and spent an hour and a half limbering up (might I recommend, Yo Mama Yoga to any pregnant Boulderites out there?  LOVE this place).  This was a legs and arms shaking, sweat dripping, Ujai breathing, mind centering yoga class (well, it was for me at least...thank you Radiance Power Yoga!).  It was difficult and really great all at the same time.  For the first time in about a year, I set an intention for myself to focus on during the class - being gentle and understanding of the new post-baby "me".  It is too easy to set high expectations and be disappointed or frustrated when we don't meet them.  When you are just starting out, or getting back into something after a long hiatus, give yourself a break!

This goes for cooking as well.  If you are a take-out kind of family and want to turn the corner and get into the kitchen, start small.  Maybe 2 nights a week you do a home cooked meal.  It is much easier to stick with something when it is reasonable and attainable.  Think of how good it feels to accomplish something and to be able to move on to the next level.  If you start too big and have to scale back, it is still 100% fine but can be a little self defeating.  Give it some thought, set your intention, and get after it!  I hope you enjoy the meals this week:

Coconut Curried Pork, Snow Pea, and Mango Stir Fry

                                   Cornmeal Crusted Catfish

Enchilada Casserole













Curried Couscous with Broccoli and Feta









Grilled Veggie and Hummus Wraps (again, no photo...I didn't realize I was missing this many!)

Regaining control

Today at work we were talking about how easy it is for your house to get to that point where you feel as though you have lost all sense of control. Maybe it starts with a stray toy being left in the middle of the living room and before you know it there are Cheerios between your toes and your kids have named the dust bunnies in the corner. I swear this happens in a matter of 23 minutes. We desperately try to stay on top of everything, but every once and awhile, you need to re-baseline and take things by the reigns.

I was looking through the recipes section of the blog today and realized that we have quite the collection of recipes in our rotation. There must be at least 50 recipes posted, this gives us a lot of options when it comes to dinner planning. Since we do have so many recipes, I am going to take this opportunity to start recycling some recipes for a few weeks as a way to help me move my recipes to my new site.

I originally intended to slowly move my recipes over in addition to adding the new recipes for the week. Please refer to the above paragraph while I go retrieve the 3 day old Cheerios from Ellie's pincer grasp. Simply put, I don't have much more time than I am currently devoting to spend on the blog! Over the next few weeks I will finally regain control over my blog and will shift all my recipes to the Recipefy site. I am psyched and hope you enjoy the finished product!

The recipes I will call into play this week are:

Baked Ziti with Summer Vegetables

 

Baked Cod Filet

Cajun Red Beans and Rice

Cheddar Burgers with Red Onion Jam (aka: Michelle's Birthday burgers...we had them on my birthday again last Monday!), and finally,

Cheesy Potato Soup with Ham Sandwiches.

Back to life...

Beautiful morning on the lake

We are just getting back from what is becoming our annual 4th of July trip to Keuka Lake out in New York.  We were fortunate enough to spend an extra long weekend with the Flickinger side of the family; water skiing, watching dirt track races, celebrating 1st and 30th birthdays, and enjoying good food, wine, and company.  Needless to say, I did not spend any extended amounts of time in front of a computer and therefore, did not update the blog.  We are back on the home front and getting caught up on everything but sleep so here are the recipes for this week: 


We'll start right off with the vegetarian meal: Grilled Farmers Market Sandwiches.  The key to these hearty, veggie filled sandwiches is the bread.  We bought a loaf of par baked ciabatta bread and baked it just before assembling the sandwiches.  Perfection.  What is par baked bread you ask?  Par baking is the process by which you bake the bread until it is done on the inside and then remove it from the oven to cool before it forms the crust on the outside.  This process allows the structure of the bread to form (it looks baked) but suspends the baking process so that it may be completed at a later time.  We bought the loaf at the grocery store, popped it in the oven for about 15 minutes, and BOOM - fresh baked bread.  It is an ingenious process and the best way to have fresh bread for dinner!

Next we had Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Balsamic Reduction (with a side of grilled peaches and wild rice salad).  We used boneless pork loin chops instead of a pork tenderloin.  The sides were really good, even though we accidentally left the "wilds" out of the wild rice salad (they were in with the spice packet which we were instructed to omit in the cooking process).  You can actually buy just the "wilds" at the grocery store - it is basically just a container of long grain black rice.  Interesting - I didn't go for it but by all means!

Flick made my plate look fancy

Delicious summer meal

Taking advantage of the summer produce, we decided to make Snapper with Zucchini and Tomato served with parsley orzo.  What a fresh, summery meal.  The zucchini and tomato "salsa" was a hit with both Flick and I.  We easily polished it all off between the 2 of us so you may want to make a bit extra if you are serving 4 and are with a bunch of veggie lovers. 

Glazed Chicken and Szechuan Noodle Salad was another recipe which pared peanut butter and noodles.  Love this combo.  The salty sweetness of the peanut butter worked really well with the grilled glaze on the chicken.  We used whole wheat spaghetti instead of the Udon noodles.  This was my first experience with whole wheat pasta and I really enjoyed it!  The flavor was indistinguishable from the white pasta (the flavorful sauce probably helped there) and even Flick, the not-so-fond-of-wheat guy, enjoyed it!

After eating wheat pasta and veggie sandwiches, we wanted to work in a little red meat.  To that end, we made up some Basic Burgers.  Not every meal is a planned out recipe in our household (though this blog may make you think otherwise).  On summer nights it is nice to make up some burgers (ground beef, a little dried rosemary and some onion and garlic powder - form into patties and grill to perfection) and pair them with Mac 'n Cheese, a beer, and a seat on the back deck.  I hope you all had a great 4th of July - bon appetite!

Dinner, A-Team Style

You tell 'em Hannibal

I had to do a little extra planning for this week's meals.  Flick was gone with work for a few days so I needed to make sure that I chose meals that were either make-ahead friendly or quick to pull together.  It's all about the planning.  Some days work out better than others, but it always feels good to know that there is a nice meal just around the corner as I am scooting around the house after work trying to get everything done.

Perhaps one of the best summertime meals to fill this role is Penne with Corn, Roasted Poblanos, Avocado, and Tomato.  This recipe requires a lot of prep (read: make-ahead meal), however, it results in a pretty hefty amount of food.  We usually serve it as an entree (sometimes we add some grilled chicken to give it a little more umph), but it would make a fine side dish as well!  When roasting the peppers, make sure you give them time to really blacken up.  It makes the peeling process go much faster:

When it all comes together it is not only a tasty dish, but a pretty one too!

I had to run an audible on my fish dish this week.  I did not have all the ingredients for the recipe I was intending to make (despite sitting down with it to make my grocery list...these things happen), so I did a little experimenting.  The original recipe is Bombay Shrimp Curry with Coconut Rice; we have made this before and both really enjoyed it.  My ingredient snafu came with the rice so I made plain white rice and used the coconut milk in the curry itself.  I found the sauce to be a little too rich for my liking - the coconut milk was much better served as the cooking medium for the rice.  We will go that route for future editions so the recipe I am providing is the original "un-edited" version.

Moving on to the meat segment of the blog - we really worked the "other" white meat this week; pork chops and country ribs both graced our table for dinner.  The pork chop recipe is a very straightforward dry rub that you coat the chops with prior to grilling.  

We served them with rice pilaf and some of our sweet green peas.  Yum!  I was excited about the rib recipe because we do not have ribs very often, and we also do not use our slow cooker as much as we probably should.  It is really great to come home to a meal that is virtually ready to be eaten, however, there is always a little up front work to be done.  For me this means that I just need to do the "cooking" in the morning, rather than when I come home at night.  Despite the morning prep requirements, it is nice to be greeted at the front door not only by a giant Bernese Mountain Dog, but also by the mouth watering smell of BBQ ribs simmering in the crock pot. We had our ribs with some cornbread, slaw, and baked beans.  Our neighbors were having ribs on the same night so we brought over half of the cornbread for them to enjoy with their dinner.  It is nice to be able to share good food with friends and neighbors!

Last, but certainly not least, is another vegetarian dish: Vegetarian Stuffed Mushrooms.  These are flavored with Balsamic Vinegar - portobellos, tomatoes, cheese and balsamic - you really cannot get much better than that!  The recipe calls for Fontina cheese, which we do not often have on hand and can be expensive, so we sub in fresh Parmesan as a nice alternative.  Flick was home for dinner this night so he ended up pulling it together - the prep time is very reasonable and makes for a nice mid-week meal.