my failsafe meal

Pickle recently found Chris’s very old copy of Of Mice and Men and has been carrying it around because it has a bunny on it (his latest obsession). It’s really quite cute: he’ll sit in one of our living-room chairs and open the book and peruse the words on the pages for a little while and then close the book, point at it and say, “Bunny.”

How does this relates to cooking or getting him to eat his dinner, you ask? It doesn’t really, but it does remind me of the verse that the title is derived from: “the best laid plans of mice and men,” which Steinbeck snagged from a Robert Burn’s poem (I digress).

Day to day; week to week, we all have good intentions — plans set out in our mind of things to accomplish, meals to make, laundry to fold, bills to pay, but sometimes those things don’t go off as planned, which is why everyone should have a solid back-up plan — especially when it comes to weeknight dinners.

From one of my menus a few weeks ago (week of 3 January to be exact), we were to have lentil salad with curry spices and yogurt. Well, that day we got slammed with a foot of snow and once I got home from work, I realized that I did not have the lentils for the salad and was not going to venture out again just for some French lentils. As Pickle would say, “uh-oh.”

Enter my go-to, failsafe, always-have-the-ingredients dinner: Turkish Poached Eggs with Yogurt and Spicy Sage Butter. The recipe is from a 1995 issue of Bon Appétit and whoever was the genius who thought to make it and print it in the magazine, thank you! The recipe is simple: poached eggs, Greek yogurt with some minced garlic and salt in it, a few crispy sage leaves and a very sexy-looking paprika-and-chile-infused butter to drizzle on top. I serve it with some multi-grain flatbread and dinner is served.

It’s perfect for dinner alone; for all three of us; for a first-course of a Middle Eastern-themed dinner party. Pickle loves it – I make sure his eggs are poached until the yolks are firm. He says, “Mmmm,” when he eats it and that makes me smile, which then makes me very happy that my plans were waylaid …and and isn’t that what makes life great?

Happy eating, -s.

this week's menu

So, I’m doing the two-for-one special again this week. I don’t know why I haven’t been doing this more, since it saves me a huge amount of time on the weeknights while still providing us with some delicious and satisfying meals.

Chris’s dad was in town this weekend and we had that classic Italian-American duo of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night. I made a large batch of meatballs and baked them like I always do, but reserved a portion of them for dinner later in the week. While I was at it, I roasted some split chicken breast (just a coating of olive oil, kosher salt and pepper) for tortilla soup and later chicken tikka masala. All of this was done with relative ease on a Sunday afternoon.

We’re in the process of closing on our house, moving into a condo temporarily while we figure out our job situations over the next six to nine months, etc., so if my posts are a little sporadic, a little wine-soaked or just a little silly, I apologize in advance; come March 1, I should be back to “normal.”

With that caveat, here’s what we’re eating this week (I haven't done this in a while; sorry!):

Menu: Week of 24 January 2010
Sunday: Spaghetti and meatballs with a salad of mixed greens and garlic-oil infused bread
Monday: Tortilla soup with chicken, avocado and queso fresco
Tuesday: Koftë (aka the leftover meatballs) with hummus, hothouse cucumbers and lemony Greek yogurt with multi-grain pita.
Wednesday: Chicken tikka masala with basmati rice
Thursday: Turkish-style braised green beans with yogurt and whole-wheat flatbread
Friday: locro de papas (Andean potato stew) served with avocado and queso fresco.

make-ahead meals status report, part two

Last Tuesday night was carry-out night, which gave me time to prep my squash and mushrooms for Wednesday and Thursday's dinners: squash and mushroom tacos and gingery squash soup, respectively.

This combo of dishes was a little less time-consuming to execute than Dinners 1 and 2, but equally satisfying. We may make this a regular duo in our weekly repertoire.

I had two medium-sized butternut squash, one that I peeled and cubed into 2-inch pieces and the other I just halved and removed the seeds. For the cubed squash, I mixed up a spice-infused olive oil to provide a boost of flavor. I roasted everything at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Then I added cleaned mushrooms to the cubed squash and roasted it for another 15 minutes. Everything came out caramelized and yielding to the touch. I let everything cool and then stored it in the fridge for the next night.

The tacos were great; the spice oil, smoky from the cumin, Spanish paprika and ancho chile powder, was a perfect counterpoint to the inherent sweetness of the squash. To serve, I heated a little olive oil and butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat to reheat and recrisp the edges a little. I served the filling with warm corn tortillas, local goat’s cheese and crunchy scallions, which added a burst of freshness. Each taco was topped with a tuff of micro greens.

We had leftovers from both meals, allowing Pickle to eat cold mushrooms (I know, weird) and squash as supplements to his other meals and for all of us to have a lovely and warming soup lunch after spending a very cold Sunday afternoon outside looking for bunnies (Pickle’s latest fixation!).

Here’s my recipe for the tacos … the soup is again from Ethan Becker’s revision of his grandmother and mother’s famous tome, The Joy of Cooking.

Winter Squash and Mushroom Tacos

Serves two adults, one hungry bambino, with some leftovers

Ingredients
2 medium winter squash — butternut, Hubbard or kobucha are my favorites — one peeled, deseeded and cubed into 2-inch pieces; the other just halved and deseeded
16 oz. button or crimini mushrooms, cleaned and large stems trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
½ teaspoon ancho chile powder
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
3 scallions, cleaned and sliced thinly on the bias
A large handful of micro or baby greens
6-8 corn tortillas
3-4 oz. goat cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and place the halved squash, cut side down, on half the baking sheet.

In a large bowl combine the olive oil, cumin, paprika, chile powder and salt; stir to combine. Toss in the cubed squash and coat evenly with spice oil. Spread out on the other side of the baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, fold the mushrooms in with the cubed squash and roast 15 minutes longer. Remove from oven to cool slightly. If not using right away, store in the fridge over night. Reserve the halved squash for making the soup.

To reheat: heat a large sauté pan over medium-high and add ½ teaspoon each of olive oil and butter. When hot, add the squash and mushrooms in one layer and cook for 2-3 minutes, until golden and crisp along the edges. Use a spatula to turn the filling and cook the other side in the same manner. Serve warm with toppings.

Happy eating, -s.

my grandma: a gourmand ahead of her time

My paternal grandmother, Gertrude, passed away on Wednesday. She was just a few weeks shy of turning 97. Ever active, she walked miles a day on country roads in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan into her 70s and 80s; she and my grandfather, Frank, were regular cross-country skiers well into their golden years. She was a gifted pianist and organist and was a talented painter, as well. She loved beautiful clothes and pretty things, but was also immensely practical.

How I remember her most vividly is by her cooking. Her lunches were legendary and all was made from scratch and most of it came directly from my Grandpa Frank’s garden. Beef stew studded with carrots and new potatoes, roasted ham with homemade rolls, the best baked beans on the planet made with their own tomatoes, sautéed Swiss chard with a pat of butter, and to end the meal perfectly, cookies! Her ginger snaps were my favorite. Also sublime were her hamburgers, sautéed in her well-used cast-iron skillet — in butter of course — and her sloppy Joes. Her Christmas cookies, especially her famous peanut bars, were fought over and sought after by friends and family alike.

She and my grandpa were doing the whole local, sustainable-eating thing way before it was fashionable. They ate off their land, harvesting and preserving as much as possible so they could eat well, even in the dead of winter. And my grandpa’s garden was amazing — I remember rows and rows of Swiss chard, Hubbard squash, tomatoes for slicing and canning, corn, potatoes, green beans, concord grapes, rhubarb, peas, lettuce … a sight to behold and nary a weed to be found!

One whole wall of my grandparent’s basement was lined with shelves that held a menagerie of canned vegetables and fruit preserved from the garden (and glass bottles of Coke and 7Up, which were super-cool when we were kids!). Her canned tomatoes and dill pickles were divine and everything was done meticulously and with much thought and care.

Her lasting legacy and her greatest influence for me was this: good food is not a luxury; simple, fresh ingredients, cooked and seasoned well, have no rival. And if you’re going to do something, do it right, cut no corners and, in the end, the results will always be worth the effort.

Thanks Grandma. I love you. Give Grandpa a kiss for me.
-s.

status report

Well, our first two meals went well. If you are looking for a simple, hands-free recipe for roasted chicken (minus the crispy skin) then the French chicken in a pot recipe is great. The meat remained moist and cooked evenly and the jus it created was a knock-out. The sauce for the enchiladas was super simple and shredding the chicken only took 5 minutes post-dinner.

Last night’s meal was a little overly ambitious for post-work cookery, made more so by the fact that Pickle and I got home before Chris and I had to assemble the casserole and get the rice going alone, with “help” from my little guy. I will definitely make both recipes in tandem again, but I will not make the rice with the enchiladas next time. The rice was really good and I love that it has spinach in it for the hidden veg-factor, but it was just too much to do in a short amount of time. A simple steamed vegetable with lime zest and butter or a salad will work better next time. The rice will get star treatment on the weekend.

On the list for this evening: carry out from our favorite Lao restaurant and prepping for both the roasted winter squash and mushroom tacos and the gingery squash soup.

Happy eating, -s.

make-ahead meals

my boys with banana stickers on their noses

In response to my 2010 goals posting, my friend Katie of Art Wall Online shared with me her food-related goal for the year:

I have one food goal, which is to plan and prepare a nice dinner from a recipe once per week with enough for leftovers. Ryan has the same goal so we should be set 4/7 days. Baby steps.

With the busy lives we all lead, it's tough to get a home-cooked meal on the table — at a reasonable hour — without wanting to pull your hair out or have a lie-down. As I wrote before, prepping on the weekend is the way to go. Casseroles and roasts scream “leftovers,” and are great things to tackle over the weekend.

I am so enamoured with Katie's idea of making one dinner that has enough leftovers for the next night — be it in its original form or morphed into another dish — that I am going to try my hand at it and share my results with you.

Here's what I am going to make:

Dinner One (Sunday): French chicken in a pot, served with crème fraîche mashed potatoes and mixed greens vinaigrette
On sunday, I'll make the sauce for the enchiladas and post-dinner, I'll shred the leftover meat, too.

Dinner Two (Monday): Layered chicken enchiladas with arroz verde

Preheat the oven, assemble the casserole and pop it in the oven; then start on the rice. Both should be done within a few minutes of each other.

Dinner Three (Wednesday): Roasted winter squash and mushroom tacos (my own recipe) with goat cheese and scallions, served with mixed greens

On your "day off," (a.k.a. carry-out night) roast the squash and mushrooms, so they're ready to go for the next day.

Dinner Four (Thursday): Joy of Cooking's winter squash soup with warm, crusty bread
Use the reserved roasted squash to make this quick, velvety and warming soup. Great topped with pepitas.

Happy eating, -s.

community supported agriculture

I just received an email from our CSA farm, Driftless Organics, about this coming season. I know, I know, it's been below zero for days, there is snow on the ground — how can I be thinking about summer? But, it will be here before you know it and it's fun to imagine it being warm and sunny again.

Last year was our first year with Driftless and it was a great experience. The produce was beautiful, the newsletters were informative, the recipes were great and I loved being able to pick it up at my favorite breakfast and lunch spot, Mermaid Cafe. We did the every-other-week share so that I could go to the Dane County Farmers' Market on the off weeks. It worked well, and while sometimes you had to be creative in order to eat everything (like the enormous head of cabbage!), the produce lasts so much longer in the fridge because its super fresh since a truck didn't have to drive from California or Mexico to bring it here.

I would highly recommend doing a CSA this year for several reasons:
1. You know where your food is coming from — and the people who grew it, harvested it and packed your box.
2. It will be the freshest, most vitamin-rich produce you can get.
3. It's like getting a present every week or two — there are always a few (good) surprises in your box.
4. It will inspire you to try new foodstuff, experiment with new recipes and eat less meat, all of which is good for your health and the planet's.

If you live in the Madison area, check out there are some great resources to locate a farm:
1. REAP Food Group: an excellent resource for eating locally, seasonally and responsibly; check out their annual Farm Fresh Atlas for a comprehensive list of area farmers and producers.
2. MACSAC: an organization that supports and promotes CSAs in Southern Wisconsin. They have a great list of CSAs from which to choose.

To search nationally: Check out the Robyn Van En Center which provides information on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs located both nationally and internationally. Here's a link to their CSA database.

Happy eating ... locally, -s.

2010 goals

I don't make new year's resolutions, but by looking at the increased members at my gym, it appears many people do. Inspired by my sister Holley and her annual list of goals, I am setting a few goals of my own. My little family and I have a lot on our plates this new year, so most of my time will be spent looking for a new job, a new house and possibly a new city in which to live ... all TBD at this point ... but the few things I want to accomplish for me, for fun, for a new experience I can easily squeeze in, right? Eek!

So, here it is ... in writing, so I can be held accountable:

1. get two pieces of writing published.
2. eat as locally and seasonally as possible and talk to and ask more questions of my favorite farmers at the market.
3. make the following foods: red and green curry pastes, yogurt, duck confit, pork steamed buns a la Momofuku (I love them so), sausage, beef tongue, grilled octopus and my grandmother's famous Lithuanian dumplings.
4. Chinese food: my new frontier.
5. go on a short trip with my husband ... sans Pickle (that's a biggie).

What are your goals for this new year and new decade?

Oh, and here's our menu for the week ...

Menu: week of 3 January 2010

Sunday: Provencal-style short ribs with mashed potatoes

Monday: grass-fed beef empanadas with sultanas, peas and egg served with an apple-celery slaw with toasted almonds in a sherry-maple vinaigrette

Tuesday: short rib tacos with avocado, red chile salsa and homemade refried black beans

Wednesday: sauteed lacinato kale with fresh ricotta bruschetta

Thursday: lentil salad with curry spices and yogurt from my new Field of Greens cookbook from Holley (thanks!).

Friday: Caesar salad with poached eggs from Michel Roux's lovely cookbook, Eggs.

Happy eating, -s.