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!

The New Kid on the Block

I apologize in advance if you now have a NKOTB ballad stuck in your head.  I couldn't resist.  You may or may not find it interesting to know that I was never a New Kids fan.  Yes, though I was a product of the 80s and early 90s music era, I did not "hang tough".  The only NKOTB swag that I owned was a pair of slippers that my Memere and I bought when she took me shopping as my birthday present one year.  I am pretty sure that my lack of interest in them had something to do with the fact that I was too busy listening to the Pointer Sisters and Michael Jackson albums.  Now do you have "Jump for my Love" or "Man in the Mirror" in your head instead?  How about now?

Back to being the new kid on the block.  I started a new job this week.  After having been with my previous company for just over 6 years, I landed a new gig with a biotech company here in Boulder.  The first day I was excited at the prospect of a fresh start but had that nervous "first day of school" feeling.  I think it is a good thing - as my late father-in-law used to say: "If you're green, you're growing, if you're not, you rot".  My goal in life is to always be some shade of green; staleness does not sit well with me.

Where does this all tie into a weekly meal plan you ask?  It is so easy to fall into a pattern of making the same few dishes over, and over.  Before you know it, you are burnt out on your usual rotation and you would rather scrape gum off the driveway than have to eat the same old dinner for the 5th (or maybe 10th) time in a month.  Writing this blog has really helped me to expand our repertoire of meals.  Of course we have our favorites that we go back to when we are looking for something delicious and reliable, but putting a new dish on the table for dinner can be oddly satisfying (well, not so odd if you are anything like me).  Not every new dish will fall into the "keeper" category but you never know until you try.

I made these recipes a little while back, just before I made the decision to halt new endeavors until after my recipes were fully converted to the new site.  They were all "never-evers" and luckily, we hit it out of the park with all of them.

Black Bean, Corn and Zucchini Enchiladas was our vegetarian dish.  These were so yummy.  I find the wheat tortillas to be great for enchiladas because they are really soft.  Throw in some black beans, veggies, a delicious red sauce, and of course...some cheese, and you have yourself a healthy and satisfying dinner option.  Note that the enchilada sauce takes about 30 minutes to cook - I made it the day before so that all we had to do was put everything together and bake it when we got home from work.

We are not fortunate enough to have In-N-Out Burger here in Colorado, however, I had my first In-N-Out experience this past summer when we took a family trip to Lake Tahoe.  Flick ALWAYS stops to get a burger on his way up to the mountains so I felt like I really needed to see what all the hoopla was about.  YUM.  These Out-N-In California Burgers are a healthy, home-made alternative and were quite tasty.  I would have liked to be in the test kitchen when they were devising the recipe for these little guys.

Chicken and Herb White Pizza was a nice, light take on our semi-weekly pizza foray.  The fresh herbs really stand out and you don't end up missing the marinara one bit.

Tilapia tostadas were a take on a chicken tostada recipe that we have.  We try really hard to have fish at least one day a week.  It is all too easy to fall into the fish filet + rice + veggie meal plan.  There are plenty of ways to eat fish so don't be afraid to experiment.  I like the texture that the tostadas add to the fish/tomato/guacamole since they all tend to be on the softer side. 

Finally we have Fresh Tomato, Sausage, and Pecorino Pasta.  Doesn't it just look divine?  It is such a basic recipe that really plays to all of the comfort food qualities.  The pasta brings in the carbohydrates, cheese needs no further introduction, sausage and tomatoes belong together, and some fresh basil..."I'm so excited".

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

Changing of the seasons

After what feels like 5 years of oppressive heat, it is finally "cooling down" a bit in Boulder.  Yesterday I wore a SWEATSHIRT while eating dinner outside and had to close the windows a bit at night...big doings!  I couldn't be happier about it.  Understand that we are still hitting the 90s on a regular basis, but with these cooler nights, I know sweet relief is just around the corner.  In honor of this realization, I bought a down jacket on Steep and Cheap (love it when Patagonia pops up on there) and  started looking at skis for this season.  That's right, mama's gettin' some new fat skis this year, look out.  Of course, this pretty much guarantees a repeat of last years snow (or lack-there-of) for Colorado (sorry everyone), but I am due.

With cooler weather comes a whole new arsenal of recipes for me to work into the dinner rotation: Chili, beef stew, pot pie, roasts, and dishes involving winter squashes and apples (pies and cobblers anyone?).  Don't get me wrong, I love the rush of inexpensive, fresh produce that fills the supermarket shelves in the summer, but by the time September rolls around, I am ready to change gears.  This is what I love about the seasons.

Seriously, what is better than this?

Once I am through moving my recipes to the new site, get ready for some of our favorite comfort foods and fall dishes to start making an appearance.  Anyone have some good Halloween costume ideas?

 
 Enjoy the meals this week!

Curry Spiced Noodles (apparently I have some work to do with my photos)

Filets and Spinach with Balsamic Vinaigrette

 Heavenly Honey Chicken

Italian Meatball Sliders













Fall Veggie Curry over Cashew Coconut Rice

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.

Lake Eats

I've said it before and I'll say it again - we love food.  The reason it is so painless for me to spend time putting together a meal is because the end product is so satisfying.  Even when just Flick and I are dining together, dinner is no short ordeal.  We easily spend 45 minutes eating, talking, drinking - and that is on nights when we have a full agenda for the post dinner hours.

With company in town - plan for at least an hour and a half at the dinner table.  Love it.  We just went out and bought a bunch of tiki torches and citronella oil to ward of the mosquitoes and prolong the dinner-time chat out on our back deck in Boulder.  It is the same way at the lake.  When we saddle up for dinner we are going well beyond sunset into the hours of the night when I would normally be getting ready for bed.  How great is that? 

Instead of the normal 5 meals - here are two meal "events" that you can count on to provide you with a great medium for conversation at your next backyard get together.

The first meal is a bit of a one-pot-wonder: the Shrimp Boil.  My brother and sister-in-law have lived south of the Mason Dixon (which, when I Googled it, is not quite as far south as I had imagined, but regardless...) for long enough to be bringing a little southern flare to our gatherings.  They put on a delightful shrimp boil which was delicious and fun to eat (NOTE: if you are taking turns doing dishes, call dibs on this night...trust me).  The shrimp boil involves shrimp, corn, onions, potatoes, sausage, Old Bay Seasoning and a giant newspaper covered table.  Intrigued?  Give this a go - if you have easy going guests who are not afraid to dig in family-style, this will surely be a hit!

Getting ready to chow down!

The second meal was a bit more traditional (in the way it was served) but just as memorable.  We had a feast of steaks, salmon, broccoli slaw, baked potatoes, bread dipped in flavored oil, and strawberry torte for dessert.  Mmmmm.  

The steaks were grilled with a little olive oil, seasoned salt, and crushed black pepper.  We had sauteed mushrooms (slice mushrooms, heat skillet over medium heat and add some butter.  Add mushrooms and saute until softened) as a nice compliment to the perfectly grilled steaks.

The salmon was cooked on a cedar plank - soak the plank for an hour, rub the fish with a mixture of 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper and 1 tablespoon brown sugar.  Lay the fish on the plank and put the plank on the preheated grill (medium heat) for 15 or so minutes or until it reaches 130 degrees.  Serve with this horseradish sauce from Wegmans if possible! 

 

These recipes will be as great individually as they are all together - mix and match, borrow a marinade or cooking technique for a different cut of meat, and by all means, allow yourself some strawberry torte for dessert!

Broccoli slaw?  Yes please!

Strawberry Torte

Just throw some cheese on it...

Ellie had her 9 month wellness visit this week.  I know, 9 months already!  She is no small fry either - 75th percentile for both height and weight.  Love it - nothing better than her cute little belly and strong "skiers" legs (no pressure Ellie, I swear).  As we were reviewing her milestones, Dr. B asked how she was doing on solids - "Is she eating all of her vegetables?".  I replied with an enthusiastic "Oh yes, she loves everything she has tried so far - especially if you put a little cheese in it".  Back it up - really Michelle?  Ellie will eat her vegetables as long as they are laced with delicious, creamy, clog-your-arteries, cheese?  I am reminded of a commercial for Flick's favorite salad dressing that has always driven me nuts:

I wonder why the kids in "Hidden Valley" can't get enough of their vegetables (and yes, I do enjoy Ranch dressing)?  Needless to say, Ellie's mashed potatoes and peas did NOT have cheese on them at lunch that day.  She ate them, but gave me the stink eye the whole time.

The urge to add cheese to everything is something that we are very aware of in the Flickinger household.  Many so-so recipes have been miraculously "saved" by shreds of mozzarella or a few shakes of parmesan.  Even meals that taste great sometimes get the "What kind of cheese do we put on this?" question.  Did I mention that we both have high cholesterol?  These days I am really trying to draw out the flavors in recipes that need a little something, rather than just ensuring everything tastes like the cheese of our choice.  The 3 meals for this week that include cheese are supposed to - so if you feel the need, add a little more, but remember that cheese is only 1 of the ingredients.

Since we are fresh on the topic, lets start with the Pizza Margherita.  This was a good one - we used a fresh dough ball from the grocery store and pre-baked it a bit before adding the toppings.  The balsamic finale is the perfect touch and really took this pizza to the next level.

We fired up the grill and broke out the skewers for some Chicken Kabobs on one of our 90 degree days.  You really cannot go wrong with kabobs - there are a plethora of combinations of meats, fruits, veggies, and fish that you can make work.  For this concoction, a little fresh pineapple is great on the skewer with the onions and peppers.    

When it came to fish this week, I went to the grocery store without a specific fish recipe in mind.  I bought what was on sale (Cod) and came home to find a recipe.  Since we have a pretty robust collection of "staple" ingredients, I figured we would be able to come up with something.  We ended up with "Fillets and Spinach with Balsamic Vinaigrette" from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.  I should probably use this and the Betty Crocker cookbook more frequently; we always get good results with their recipes.

Turkey Meatball Ruben Subs is a whole new way to use ground turkey in a meal.  I felt as though the meatballs in the original recipe were on the dry side (there were no breadcrumbs, eggs, or milk in them).  One of the reasons I sometimes shy away from turkey burgers/meatballs, is that they tend to be on the drier side, given the lower amounts of fat in the meat.  A dry meatball is not a happy meatball.  There is no reason they cannot be just as good as their beef counterparts, so I tweaked this recipe and they came out a whole lot better - they even stood up well to the microwave when re-heating for leftovers!

We'll round out with Parmesan Polenta with Spicy Sausage.  Make only as much polenta as you will eat in the one sitting; it is much better when made fresh and only takes 5 or so minutes to whip up a batch for the leftover sausage sauce.  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!

Hot Pockets

The weather was a little cooler the week that we made these recipes so it was not too bad to have the oven going in the house at night (these recipes queued up the week before we left on our trip).  Our kitchen gets HOT in the summer.  Between the inefficient light fixture that is like a heating lamp over the sink and the non-venting oven...we keep it toasty in that 1970's kitchen.  When we moved in last year it was a warmer than average summer and I was pregnant.  Normally my thermostat runs on the cooler side, however, last year I was a hot mess from the time we started cooking until I went to bed at night (with the windows open and ceiling fan on).  I never drink ice water but our ice trays couldn't keep up with Dozer and I.  Fortunately we had a lot of help with the meals right after we moved in thanks to our amazing families and the time they spent settling us into our new home.  After that we used the grill as much as possible and ate outside every night - meal planning was a little less formal at that point!

Speaking of hot, our first meal, Savory Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers, flash me back to those microwaveable Hot Pockets we used to enjoy growing up.  My sisters and I really didn't have any problem with chowing down on Hot Pockets (though I always burned my mouth on them...). 

These are pretty straightforward to make and there is no need to get hung up on the shape of the turnover.  Our turnovers never come out looking like turnovers so just shoot for getting the dough sealed up - circle, square, half-moon - they all taste the same and you won't be disappointed!

One recipe that we are enjoying for the second summer in a row is Grilled Zucchini Caprese Sandwiches.   All the cooking is done on the grill and it takes very little time to pull together these veggie filled sandwiches.  I recommend getting some good bread for these as it adds a lot to the meal.

This week we welcomed back Mac n' Cheese alongside a Baked Cod Filet.  For a quick grammatical interlude - as I was typing this entry I went back and forth between "Filet" and "Fillet" before resorting to my old friend, Google, to ensure that I was not misrepresenting the spirit of the meal.  I came across a blog that indicated the terms can be used interchangeably (both mean "a boneless cut of meat") and that Americans and Canadians are the most inconsistent in their usage.  I also happened upon this article published in the Boston Globe regarding the AP's guidance on food related words.  I found it to be pretty amusing and if I ever go pro with my food writing I am going to have some serious studying to do - in the meantime, stash a few of these nuances away for trivia night!

Back to the food: the crumb on the fish is made from Ritz crackers (or Zips if you are like us and buying generic) and lends a nice buttery flavor to the fish.  I cannot wait until Ellie can have Mac n' Cheese so we have a good reason to keep a few (more) boxes on hand.

The summer squashes are starting to pop up in the grocery store at "in season" prices, so we made Baked Ziti with Summer Vegetables.  For the pasta connoisseurs out there, you will notice that those are penne in the picture - any short pasta will do for this recipe (we always seem to have 1/2 boxes of pasta hanging around).  Dishes like this don't need a specific shape so cook up whatever short pasta you are looking to get rid of. 

Finally, Chicken with Lemon Leek Linguine.  I was skeptical at first about leeks and linguine coming together.  It seemed too stringy to work, but the flavors are great and we both really enjoy the mild onion-y taste of the leeks with the pasta and chicken - it is a great summer-time meal.  Keep it cool out there and if you are hanging out with a pregnant woman this summer, by all means, bring her a glass of ice water!


 

Well worth the wait

These days, the week prior to leaving on a trip is somewhere between circus and total chaos in our house.  Hence - the blog post just did not happen last week.  With a baby in tow it takes a minimum of 3 days to prepare for a vacation and when you throw in that baby being sick, work, school, mani/pedi (we were in a wedding - gotta have nice nails!)...time just really gets away from you!  Congrats to Mark and Tara on their beautiful wedding weekend and I hope that they are both relaxing on a peaceful beach in Hawaii....ahhhh.

When can we go?

I assure you that these meals were worth waiting for and you won't be disappointed if any end up on your table this week!

Let's start off with Italian Meatball Sliders.  We really loved these - this was a new recipe to us and it made enough for lunches during the week.  I couldn't find slider buns at the store so we just used smaller hamburger buns and they turned out just fine (we made the patties a little bigger as well).

Our meatless meal was Vegetable and Rice Burritos with Cheese.  These were nice and hearty for a veggie only burrito and we both agreed that this was a "keeper".  I was very careful not to over-stuff mine (for the sake of taking a picture) but Flick got a little aggressive with the fillings on his:

I'm way to full...

His required a fork and knife - mine came out well but doesn't stand out much against our burrito-wrap colored plates...a better photographer would have anticipated this and had an array of beautiful bright colored plates to display these tasty morsels on...we are a one-type-of-plate family:

Camouflaged

Antipasto Style Penne made for some delicious leftovers at lunch one day during the week.  I have made this both with the prosciutto crisped up and with it plain.  Both are fine but I definitely prefer it to be broiled a bit.  It is less stringy...I am a person who loves my bacon just to the edible side of "burnt to a crisp".  Limp bacon doesn't do it for me and I think prosciutto falls into that same category.

We tried Coconut Curried Pork, Snow Pea, and Mango Stir Fry this week.  This was a big hit with both of us - it is becoming apparent that we both really love curry dishes with a coconut milk base.  Mangoes are in season now so it is the perfect time to try this meal (so get after it!).  We have had this recipe in our book for ages and for whatever reason,  I have always passed over it.  I am so glad it is part of the rotation because it made for a delicious meal!  We served this over a sticky, long grain rice (I made a big batch and we used the leftovers in the aforementioned burritos later in the week).

Onto our fish meal: Cornmeal Crusted Catfish.  I never really had catfish until living out in Colorado but have come to include it as a regular player in our fish dinner category.  We design this meal to fully embrace the southern-style preparation for this fish (served with baked beans, slaw, and corn on the cob).  On a night with more time, we have cornbread too and it is just divine.  If you are a little unsure of catfish - use another mild, white fish (orange roughy would work really well too).

Hopefully you find these meals to be well worth the week delay in posting them!  It was great to catch up with everyone at the wedding and thanks to all who are following the blog.  I loved hearing from you about it and it means a lot to me to know that you are enjoying the posts.  Can't wait to see you all again soon!  Enjoy!