Missing in Action

Hey, I've been missing everybody these past couple of weeks.  That's what being out of the kitchen will do to you.  Last Monday I had surgery and while I'm finally home from the hospital after a 5-day stay, I have a couple of weeks to recover before I can cook, do household chores and lift anything bigger than 5 pounds (that leaves out my cast-iron Dutch oven...)
With the help of some very wonderful friends and only one pizza delivery, my 16-year-old daughter has quite admirably managed in the kitchen for a whole week already.  She's quite a good cook, though she has some skills to refine.
I left her a detailed inventory of the meat in the freezer along with a "cookbook" of about 10 recipes that she could make from what was in there.  This "cookbook" came with directions for making the whole meal and having it all come out done at the same time.  I have discovered that there are two things I have neglected to include in this "cookbook":

1. Mise en place.
2. Defrost at breakfast what you want to eat for dinner.

She'll get there.  She is a bright and determined girl, and I have no doubt as to her ability.  Experience is the best teacher, and it's better that I'm out of the room and not hovering over her as she discovers how to get the meals on the table.

She even grilled!  (I don't do that.  And I fully intend to take advantage of her ability to do so!)

Meanwhile, I'm making a list of recipes I find that I want to try once I'm back in the kitchen.  (Cooking is the part of homemaking that I miss the most.)  

And coming up--as soon as I can get it done--a product review and giveaway of a cool cooking tool from OXO Good Grips!

Burrito Bowls: a Secret Recipe Club Reveal

I'm a big fan of the Burrito Bowls at Chipotle Mexican Grill, and in the past I've enjoyed making these at home.  But these bowls rely on fresh ingredients, and you can really only get good tomatoes in the summer and early fall.  The rest of the year, the pico de gallo falls short and I shy away from making this family favorite.

Thanks to the Secret Recipe Club, I've found a way to have my Burrito Bowls any time of year.  How did that happen?  My assignment for April was The Cookaholic Wife's blog.  What a great name--I instantly relate, since I'm a cookaholic myself.  There were plenty of tempting recipes from which to choose (I still want to try the Asian Chicken Noodle Soup) but I settled on the Red Bean, Rice and Meat Burritos.  They looked like a great alternative to the Burrito Bowl recipe I'd worked out last summer.  Here's how I made them:

Burrito Bowls
Printable Recipe

2 cups rice, cooked
1/2 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 TBL homemade taco seasoning
3 TBL water
1 small onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 can petite diced tomatoes, UNdrained
1 can pink beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp chipotle chili powder
olive oil for the pan
tortillas
Cheddar-Jack blend cheese
1 lime
sour cream

After you start the rice, season the browned ground beef with the taco seasoning and water and keep warm.  Warm a little olive oil in a skillet and add onions and peppers.  Cook 5 minutes, then add tomatoes, corn, beans, chili, cumin, garlic and chipotle chili.  Continue cooking until most of the liquid has cooked off and everything is hot.
Serve in bowls or warmed tortillas.  Top with a squeeze of lime juice and a dollop of sour cream (optional).

Things I changed:  In the original recipe, the rice, vegetables, and meat were all mingled before adding them to burritos.  I doubled the rice (we like rice) and cut the meat in half.  I kept the three separate (putting all the vegetables together) to make it easier for family members to customize their own burrito or bowl.  Because I didn't mix the vegetables with the meat, I seasoned them as well.  I only had a red pepper, but red and green would be great.  I used pink beans instead of red, because that's what I had in the pantry.  I'd like to make this again using red beans, and again using black beans--I think it would be amazing with black beans.  And I added a fresh lime on the side so we could flavor the rice with a little lime juice.

Survey SAYS!  This was delicious!  It was easy to customize the meal to personal tastes and to accommodate the vegetarian in our midst.  I ate a big bowlful and was ready for more.  It's a healthy, great-tasting, easy high-protein meal.  Everyone enjoyed it and will be happy to eat it again!  Next time, I'm going to top it off with some fresh cilantro.  Best of all, this was much easier to make (and clean up) than the Chipotle-clone recipe I'd been using.  Since I love the cooking part but not the cleaning part, that was a most welcome development.

This one's a keeper!  And I'll be back to visit Nichole's blog again very soon.

Macaroni Salad, Ranch Style

Here's a macaroni salad with a little extra twist.  It's great for lunch, all by itself!  The original recipe (source unknown) called for ranch salad dressing, but I was trying to go for something significantly lower in sodium so I adapted it as you see here.

Macaroni Salad, Ranch Style

Get this recipe and nutrition facts at Cook and Count!

Linked up at Try a New Recipe Tuesday! Check out all the other great recipe links there.

Come join The Salad Social at TidyMom sponsored by The International Olive Council’s Add Some Life!

This Space Available

How big is your kitchen?  Mine is 10 x 10, which, for the record, is not large enough to hold appliances and seat a family of 5 for dinner.

There are more appliances in my possession than there is space to store them in this tiny room.  Current inventory of the kitchen includes (besides the stove, refrigerator and dishwasher):

• coffeemaker
• toaster oven
• toaster
• stand mixer
• bread machine
• slow cooker
• immersion blender
• rice cooker
• 4-quart Nesco roaster

The dining room houses some of the overflow:  3 larger Nesco roasters (6, 12 and 18 quarts), one of which doubles as a breadbox.

And hanging out down in the basement are my infrequently-used but not inessential other items:

• blender
• food processor
• round Crock-Pot
• electric skillet
• combination slow-cooker/small electric griddle
• waffle iron
• coffee urn
• tomato mill

What I really need is a walk-in equipment room, preferably on the same level as the kitchen.  I'll put that on my wish list for my next house, if we ever move again.  But I'd probably need a whole moving truck just for the cookbooks and small appliances.

Secret Recipe Club: Taco Pizza

It's the March Madness Edition of the Secret Recipe Club!  In this group, each member is secretly assigned the recipe blog of another member.  The recipe is then prepared and taste-tested, photographed for cyber-posterity and posted.  It's fun to try new recipes, and I'm lucky to have a family that's generally good-natured about such experiments.

Of course, if I left the choosing to the kids, they'd pick cookies every time.  While cookies are fun, I like finding new main-dish recipes too.  So even though my assigned blog for March is really heavy on cookies, I focused on the non-dessert offerings at Sweetie Pettiti.  But that doesn't mean I didn't find a "fun" recipe!

Susie worked hard to duplicate her childhood favorite, Happy Joe's Taco Pizza.  She had to find a recipe that lived up to her high nostalgic expectations.  I had no such expectations, since I never ate at Happy Joe's.  The idea of Taco Pizza was appealing, though--and I figured my family would love it.  And salad on a pizza sounded fun, different, and even (imagine that) good for you!

Changes I made:

Instead of one huge pizza, I made individual ones.  This allowed each family member to customize their Taco Pizza.  If your kids like to help in the kitchen, this is an ideal recipe.  Once the ingredients are all assembled, kids can spread their favorite toppings on their pizza, then the grownups can bake it until done.

I also added sauteed onions as a topping.  (YUM!)

I had no tomatoes in the house, so I skipped those.  This is not the time of year for tomatoes.  In the summer, though, I'd have to add them!

I made my own pizza dough based on the recipe at Once a Month Mom rather than using premade dough.

Finally, I made a meatless pizza for my daughter, at her request.

Survey Says:

This is a yummy dish!  It would be a fun meal to have while you're watching a little March Madness--just be sure to have plenty of napkins handy, because (as Susie pointed out in the original recipe) the toppings fall all over the place.  It was easy to customize to individual tastes.  My daughter had a meatless pizza.  My husband ate his salad separately and spread sour cream on top.  It's also frugal:  I used up some pizza sauce and refried beans that were already in the refrigerator, so it's a good way to reinvent some leftovers.  I found that it was easier to "fold" this pizza like a huge taco and eat it that way rather than slicing and lifting little pieces of it.

Here's how to make this at home:

Taco Pizza

Makes 8 individual pizzas

1 batch pizza dough, divided in 8 portions, rolled and par-baked for 5 minutes at 425

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained

1/2 onion, finely chopped and cooked until onions are soft

2 TBL taco seasoning

1/4 cup water

1 can refried beans

1/4 cup taco sauce

1/4 cup pizza sauce

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 1/2 cups cheddar-jack cheese, shredded

Lettuce, shredded

Tortilla chips, broken into small pieces 

Additional taco sauce, optional

Sour cream, optional

Season cooked ground beef with taco seasoning.  Add water and simmer until water cooks off.  Meanwhile, mix refried beans, taco sauce and pizza sauce.  (I found that heating the beans in the microwave for about a minute made them easier to mix up with the other ingredients).  Spread bean mixture on your par-baked pizza crusts.  

Top with mozzarella cheese, then with seasoned taco meat.

Add onions, then cheddar-jack.  Bake at 450 for 8 to 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown on the edges.

Allow pizza to sit a few minutes before you try to slice or eat it.  Then top with salad and chips.

Grab a napkin or three, and dig in!

Don't miss the other recipes in today's Secret Recipe Club big reveal.  I always find a whole bunch that I want to taste-test!

Dinner Tonight

Because it feels like spring, we're cooking chicken on the grill!  Here's the whole lineup:

Appetizer:  Pepperoni Bread (one with pepperoni, one with sauteed onions, peppers, cheese and sauce)

Best Barbecued Chicken

Orzo with Garlic and Onions

Sauteed Asparagus

Honey Butter Dinner Rolls

and cupcakes for dessert!

Blue and Gold Dinner 2012

Last night our Cub Scout pack hosted its annual Blue and Gold Dinner.  Officially we were feeding 108 guests, and that number was climbing as late as noon yesterday--but I'm pretty sure some extra Boy Scouts showed up.  It wasn't a problem; they were most welcome and we had plenty of ziti and meatballs to go around.  People must have been on a health kick this year, though, because we completely ran out of salad before the last 15 people got through the line.  (What can I say--I make a mean salad.  Open bag of salad, dump in a bowl, add sliced cucumbers and grape tomatoes.  It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.)

I made 225 meatballs this year, with just under 14 pounds of meat.  22 were left, so I'm happy with that; it means my estimate was right on the money.

Here's the staging area before I started making the sauce.  I just love our parish kitchen:  12 stove burners on 2 industrial stoves, a HUGE stainless-steel prep table, triple sink, 2 smaller sinks, and an equipment room that is nearly as big as my entire home kitchen.

Spaghetti sauce for 225:  use 3 18-quart roaster ovens and split ingredients among them.
1 111-oz can of tomato paste
9 28-oz cans tomato puree
9 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes
1/3 to 1/2 can of water for each can of anything
seasoning:  3 bay leaves
3 handfuls parsley flakes
3 handfuls basil
3 handfuls oregano
3 handfuls garlic powder

3 smaller handfuls onion powder
drizzle of olive oil
6 tsp sugar
6 tsp salt
3 tsp crushed red pepper

I wasn't speeding along, and everything got done in plenty of time.  I set up to make the sauce at 1:30 and the roasters were all cooking by 2:30 (there were 19 cans to open...)

And here's what I call the Roaster Parade.  I placed each one on a huge baking tray.  This way the heat didn't melt the plastic tablecloth, and we had a place to set the serving spoons down.

There's nothing like a roaster oven to get a job like this done.  You can set them at 350 to get them good and hot when you first fill them, then turn the temperature down to 200 or so and let the sauce simmer all afternoon.  They cooked the sauce right there at the serving table, so there was no moving hot pots of sauce around.  There was also no mess of spaghetti-sauce spatters all over the stove (so much less to clean up later!)

When it was time to serve dinner, we just opened one roaster at a time and served meatballs and sauce until it was empty; then we moved on to the next one.  Each roaster held 75 meatballs but I have fit up to 100 in roasters that size.

We cooked 18 pounds of pasta (and had 4 more boxes at the ready) but only needed 16.  2 pounds of pasta went into each of the big pots shown here.  We cooked 3 pots at a time.  Each 2 pounds of cooked pasta went into a shallow steam-table dish.  After drizzling it with olive oil and stirring to coat the pasta (so it wouldn't stick together) we covered the dish with foil and placed in a warm oven until it was time to serve the food.

I started that a little earlier yesterday and probably shouldn't have.  1 hour and 15 minutes before serving is plenty.  The first pan or 2 of pasta that was cooked got a little mushy from sitting around so long.  Also, it's important to remember to serve the pasta in the same order that it's cooked so that it doesn't sit around too long!

If I were a little taller (OK, a lot taller) I could have used this pot. It holds 58 quarts, according to the etching on the inside.  But I'm too short to see over the rim.

Behind the stove they have the most fabulous thing ever:  a special hose with hot and cold water taps so you can fill the pots right there at the stove!  I love this.  The hose stretches far enough that I could roll up a cart with the coffeepots and 5-gallon drink jugs and fill them as well (did that before we turned on the stove to cook the pasta).

Here's last year's shopping and equipment list.  This year I used the quantities of pasta and sauce listed above, 1 gallon of Boost, 1 can decaf coffee (11 oz), 1 1/2 cans regular coffee (11 oz), 3 quarts half and half, enough iced-tea mix to make 4 gallons (16 quarts), 10 bags of salad (and they're less than a pound now, which is probably where I went wrong), 3 cucumbers, 3 boxes grape tomatoes, 4 pints salad dressing, 4 regular-size bags croutons.  I got 4 flavors of dressing:  Ranch, Italian, Caesar and Catalina.  All had a little left; only the Catalina had more than 1/4 of a bottle left.

I cannot say enough good about 3 of the Boy Scouts.  They're Middle Sister's friends and I've known these guys for years.  Yesterday they showed me that they are growing up into wonderful young men.  Before dinner, they sought me out to ask how they could help.  They agreed that they'd help with scrubbing the pots after dinner.  Those guys showed up as soon as the Scout ceremony was over and got right to work.  All I had to do was put the clean items where they belonged.  They wiped down the sink and the work table after the dishes were done, without being reminded.  They left that kitchen much cleaner than I found it when I walked in yesterday afternoon (I had to scrub the 3 pasta pots before I could use them.)  All the while, they chatted with one of their leaders about ideas for their Eagle Scout projects and other personal ambitions they have.  They were friendly, respectful, amazingly helpful and kind.  I made sure to praise them, in front of them, to more than one Scout leader.  Because of their hard work, the Cub Scout parents had the chance to enjoy family time with their children and social time with other Scout families after dinner.

This morning, my shoulders and upper back are really feeling it from all that lifting, but it was a good day and a good dinner and I was proud to be able to do this for our Cub Scouts.

Rustic Lemon-Onion Chicken with Spinach

When I heard about this recipe over the weekend, I knew it was something that my whole family would like.  After all, it's not TOO different from our favorite Chicken Piccata--except for the seasonings, the onions and the bed of spinach.  I love spinach and so does my daughter.  And it's so good for you!

I had no fresh thyme, and I used a different method for cooking the spinach than the original Food Network recipe for this dish.  Also, I cut the chicken into small pieces (as we do with the Chicken Piccata) so that even more of the chicken is coated in the delicious sauce.  This recipe served four, but there was easily enough sauce for twice the amount of servings (I'll probably cut the sauce in half next time).

Visit Cook and Count to get the recipe and nutrition facts for this dish!

Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is something I've been wanting to try for a while.  I used my favorite chocolate-chip cookie recipe and the "stuffing" technique used in the Oreo-stuffed cookies, but put in caramels instead.

Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened (Do not melt or heat the butter)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I've been known to add up to 2 tsp)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 package chocolate chips, whatever kind you like best (I like mini chips in these, but any kind works)
caramels, unwrapped

Cream butter, sugars, vanilla and egg with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add dry ingredients, excluding chips.  Stir in chips by hand or use the mixer on very low speed.

Refrigerate your cookie dough for at least an hour before starting.

Use a teaspoon to remove balls of dough. Flatten on a sheet of waxed paper.

Place a caramel on half the flattened disks of dough.

Place another disk on top of the disk with the caramel, then carefully mold the dough around the cookie so no caramel is showing.

Place on baking sheet (I like to line my baking sheets with a silicone liner).  Bake about 1 minute longer than you usually would for chocolate-chip cookies.  Your mileage may vary, but this timing worked for me.  For this recipe, I baked the cookies at 375 for 9 minutes.

Two great tastes that taste great together!  Just add a tall glass of ice-cold milk.

Fiesta Chicken Tacos: Secret Recipe Club

I was afraid I wouldn't have time to find and prepare a new-to-me recipe from a new-to-me blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club. You see, I've been wearing an extra hat these days. In addition to being the Head Chef and Chief Multitasker for my family, with responsibilities including laundry, homemaking, chauffeuring, homework-related nagging and making sure the kids (and their friends) don't play ball in the house, I have also become a Stage Mother.

My younger son, age 9, has been performing in a not-local-enough production of Pippin. Since he's 9, I'm with him at each and every rehearsal and performance, and there have been a lot of rehearsals. It's all worth it, I keep telling myself, as I look at my filthy kitchen floor and wipe my bleary eyes (late-night rehearsals don't sit too well with this early bird.)

I was happy to find this 3-ingredient recipe for Fiesta Salsa Shredded Chicken at my assigned blog, The Yummy Life. When I've got more time, there are a lot more recipes I want to try at this blog, like the Everyday Vinaigrette, Tortilla Cups, and Dulce De Leche Brownie Bites (oh, who am I kidding--I wanted to try almost every recipe on this blog!) But I didn't have a lot of time, so I stuck with this simple--and simply delicious--slow-cooker taco filling recipe.

This reviewer gives the recipe's performance 5 stars!  It's definitely Stage-Mother-Approved, taking only 5 minutes to assemble and about the same amount of time to shred the chicken before serving.  Since it's a slow-cooker recipe, it's perfect for Matinee days.  And it would make a can't-miss Cast Party hit, since my slow cooker has a "warm" setting that would keep this chicken nice and hot until the performance is over and everyone's ready to eat.

Here's how to make it! The full recipe is at Cook and Count.


Don't miss this and all of Monica's other appetizing recipes at The Yummy Life!

Super Simple Side Dish: Broccoli Rabe with Lemon

I've been on a dark-green vegetable kick lately.  And while my kids would gladly eat steamed broccoli several times a week, I like a little something different every now and then.  I love Brussels sprouts, and they're easier to make than you think!

When I saw a recipe for Garlicky Broccoli Rabe in Melissa Clark's cookbook Cook This Now, I decided to try a vegetable I'd never eaten before.  It's delicious!  I chose a different way of seasoning it, substituting crushed red pepper flakes with lemon zest.  This side dish is really simple and super-nutritious.

Broccoli Rabe with Lemon
serves 4

1 large bunch broccoli rabe, washed and drained
2 TBL extra-virgin olive oil
1 TBL minced garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
zest of one lemon

Trim the tough stems from the washed broccoli rabe.  Heat oil over medium heat and add garlic.  Cook about a minute, then add the broccoli rabe and toss well.  Cook another minute.  Stir in 2 TBL water and cover the pan.  Cook 3 to 4 minutes or until tender.  Top with lemon zest and serve.

Sweet Scones

This is an adaptation of Granma's Irish Biscuits.  The technique is the same, but I've made these a little sweeter with spice and richer due to the use of cream instead of milk.

SWEET SCONES


2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 stick (1/4 lb. or 1/2 cup) butter or margarine, at room temperature (not melted)
raisins, to taste (about 1/2 cup is good)
1/2 cup half-and-half or light cream*
1 tsp coffee cup spice mix

Mix all ingredients. Batter shouldn't stick to fingers (add more flour if necessary).
Drop about 1/2-cup size balls onto floured cookie sheet, or pat into a rectangle on a floured surface, then cut into triangles. Makes about 8 round biscuits or a baker's dozen triangles, depending on how large you cut them.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 350.

*The quantity of cream is variable. Granma never used a measuring cup. If you accidentally put in too much liquid, just add a little more flour. This is a "go by the feel of it" kind of recipe.

Chicken Lo Mein

It's not that I can never leave a recipe alone.  Well, I usually can't.  But this time I changed up a recipe because I didn't have the fresh ingredients in the house to make it the way it was originally written.  I found this recipe for Jamie's Chicken Chow Mein at Barbara's, and since I'm a big fan of lo mein, I wanted to give this one a try.  The sauce is different from the lo mein I usually make.  This had a much lighter flavor, with a little more kick from the spice.

Chicken Lo Mein
serves 4

Get the whole recipe with nutrition facts at Cook and Count!

Roll With It

There were going to be breadsticks tonight along with our Italian Veal Stew.  That was the plan, anyway, until I woke up this morning and discovered that while I was sleeping, some demolition had taken place in the powder room.  A pipe in the bathroom above that one had leaked, and the ceiling started to cave in late last night.  My husband and older son removed the damaged section of the ceiling and I called a plumber this morning to take care of the pipe.

I found this note on the bathroom door at 5:45 this morning.

And then...yeah...

So the bread didn't happen because by the time the plumber finished it was 1:30 and I had a huge mess to clean up.  At that point, bread wasn't even on my radar screen.

Except for the hole in the ceiling, the bathroom is now spotless.

It's all good until the plumber's bill gets here.

In the meantime, I've got the rest of the dinner cooking and we'll just live without the bread.  (Still hungry?  Have some raw baby carrots.)  And when we're done eating, it'll be time to deliver a plate to Middle Sister, who's started work with the stage crew on her high school's spring musical production.

Yes, I deliver a plate of dinner to her at school.  She's been there since 7:50 this morning, gone through a full school day and a track practice, and then moved on to stage crew.  When she gets home, there's homework to do.

Besides, she asked me to.

It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.  I don't have to shell out $5 or more per day to keep her in fast food.  She's not eating fast food.  (That's reason enough right there.)  School is only a mile away, so a 15-minute round trip is worth the time and gas to give her a good meal.

And she asked.  Believe me when I tell you that I don't take that lightly.  That request says a few things to me:  she likes "home food" better than fast food, she doesn't want to waste money on junk food, and she still needs me.  She's 16.  She's not going to need me for too many things too much longer.

So for the next couple of months, I will, whenever possible, deliver Meals on Wheels to my daughter at school.  That's how I roll.

It's much more fun than cleaning up a destroyed bathroom.  I only wish I had some breadsticks to put with her dinner.

What's for Dinner? January 2012

My New Year's Cooking Resolution is to better incorporate fresh vegetables into our meals.  I have a new Pampered Chef steamer which I plan to use for broccoli, green beans and other vegetables.  Microwavable "steam fresh" veggies are great and I will be using those on crazy days, but I'd like us to eat more fresh food when we can.

January's meal-planning challenge around here is the theatre.  Little Brother's acting in a play that opens the last weekend of this month, so there's a full week of every-night rehearsals, plus Sunday-afternoon rehearsals, to work around.  In addition, there are Middle Sister's track meets, and one week left of feeding Big Brother well so that the dorm food is extra-yucky by comparison (hey, a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.)

I didn't plan meals for next weekend, which is our wedding anniversary and Big Brother's birthday.  Otherwise, this plan was based on the reality that is our schedule for this month.

Sunday 1:  Gumbo and biscuits (the gumbo was delicious but never thickened up...the next day I cooked it 2 more hours with some pearl barley and wound up with fantastic chicken-barley soup)

Monday 2:  Spaghetti, Olive-Garden breadsticks

Tuesday 3:  Homemade Chipotle with crockpot chipotle beef

Wednesday 4:  Beef paysanne with noodles

Thursday 5:  Rosemary-balsamic chicken

Friday 6:  sick day

Saturday 7:  Pizza at Grandma's

Sunday 8:  Cilantro-Lime chicken drumsticks, rice, green beans

Monday 9:  Italian veal stew with penne and breadsticks

Tuesday 10:  Enchiladas, hash-brown casserole

Wednesday 11:  Spaghetti (time to make a big new batch!)

Thursday 12:  Pho and vegetable dumplings (I have to search for a recipe for the Pho, and the dumplings are frozen)

Friday 13:  Happy Anniversary to us!  (We'd better not be eating at home!)  Takeout for the kids.

Saturday 14:  Big Brother's birthday is tomorrow but we'll probably celebrate as a family tonight.  He gets to pick what he wants.

Sunday 15:  dinner for 3, working around a late-afternoon rehearsal.  I think it might be a good night for French toast.

Monday 16:  Chicken piccata bites, rice

Tuesday 17:  Tacos

Wednesday 18:  Spaghetti

Thursday 19:  Asian chicken wraps

Friday 20:  Sweet & spicy tilapia

Saturday 21:  Hawaiian chicken

Sunday 22:  Tech rehearsal all afternoon/evening; it's Fend For Yourself day

Monday 23:  Chicken pot pie over biscuits

Tuesday 24:  Southwest chili mac with chicken, corn muffins

Wednesday 25:  Spaghetti

Thursday 26:  Spicy orange chicken, rice

Friday 27:  French bread pizza, salad

Saturday 28:  Copycat Alice Springs Chicken

Sunday 29:  Crockpot BBQ chicken (perfect for an after-matinee dinner!)

Monday 30:  Balsamic chicken with thyme

Tuesday 31:  Fajitas

Balsamic-Rosemary Chicken

This is a very simple way to serve boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  It's a snap to adapt this recipe to any amount of servings, and since it requires only about 30 minutes (including marinating) this is an easy weeknight recipe.  Even a beginner cook won't have a problem making this one.

I got this recipe from Barbara at Bless Us, O Lord; she adapted it from a Rachael Ray recipe.  It's delicious eaten "as is" or sliced and served (warm or cold) over a green salad.

Here's the recipe along with nutrition info at Cook and Count!

I'm adding a new label:  College.  My older son, a college student, plans to live in a campus apartment next year and has told me that he'll be using this blog as his main cooking resource.  This label will make it easy for him to find dishes he can make easily.  I'm just glad he doesn't plan to subsist totally on Ramen noodles and Lucky Charms.

Frugal Gumbo for the First of the Year

Soup recipes can be forgiving in more ways than one.  When it's 2:30 PM and you just find out now that your afternoon and evening plans are cancelled, soup is a go-to dinner idea.  And when you discover that some of the raw vegetables you had prepared for a holiday platter have accidentally gotten too close to the cold spot in the fridge and become frozen vegetables, you can still use them for soup.  I freeze the chicken carcass after we've had a roast chicken for dinner so I can make soup later.

I'm making up a gumbo recipe as I go along.  To borrow a line from Pippin, it has "a little of this, a little of that, a whole lot of that..."  So that I don't forget, I'm writing down the instructions as I go.  This will be chicken-only gumbo since my husband cannot eat shellfish or pork.  I know that's not authentic, but it's healthier for him this way.

Creamy Mac & Cheese

When is a mistake not a mistake?  When it turns out that you like the finished product better than it would have been otherwise.  That's what happened with tonight's mac-n-cheese.

I've got this recipe for homemade mac-n-cheese that my older kids really love.  It's easy, and pantry-friendly, and that's what I needed tonight.  And that's the recipe I thought I had turned to in my recipe binder that's in the kitchen.

But no...I'd mistakenly turned to another one.  I didn't realize it until the white sauce was well underway.

We liked this version even better!  So here we go:

Creamy Mac & Cheese

Print Recipe


3/4 pound small shell pasta, cooked al dente and drained
3 TBL butter
3 TBL flour
2 cups milk
pinch of nutmeg
freshly ground pepper (I used a pepper blend with cayenne and black pepper)
1 tsp kosher salt
2 cups finely-shredded cheese (Cheddar-Jack is good)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
panko for topping

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan.  Stir in flour until mixture is thick and golden.  Whisk in milk and seasonings slowly and continue to stir until mixture begins to thicken.  Stir in cheese.  After cheese melts, fold in the soup.  Mix in the pasta, then pour into an oiled 9X13 casserole dish.  Sprinkle panko over the top.  Bake 20 minutes at 375, uncovered.

Kitchen Wishin'

I'm one of those people who would be perfectly happy to get a whole bunch of kitchen stuff for Christmas.

Now, a vacuum cleaner would be another story, but I love to cook and bake, so cooking gifts are great for me.

I saw this awesome measuring cup/digital scale over at TidyMom. Great for those international recipes!

Here's a multipurpose cast-iron Dutch Oven with skillet cover!  How cool is that?  One pan (plus lid) does the work of two.

Since I actually managed NOT to kill my herb garden this year (and had a bumper crop of cilantro), this Microplane Herb Mill would help me make use of all the herbs I froze for use this winter.

And, yeah, 'cause I definitely have my "geek moments," the cookbook I'm wishing for this year is Cooking for Geeks.  It promises to satisfy my curiosity about what makes recipes work--and NOT work!

What's on YOUR kitchen wish list?

Honey Butter Dinner Rolls (Bread Machine)

I wasn't even planning to bake yesterday, let alone bake bread, let alone try a new recipe, but when I looked over the Secret Recipe Club reveal, I found these Honey Yeast Rolls over at The Pajama Chef.  Then I realized that if I got started right now, we could be enjoying those rolls with dinner.

Of course, I changed things up a bit.  First, I made the dough in the bread machine.  The other change I made had to do with Sarah's comment that the rolls were "dense" in texture.  She got 12 rolls out of a recipe that contains 4 cups of flour.  That didn't seem like much, and I wondered if adding some vital gluten to the dough would help things along.

I'm pretty sure the gluten was the key here; the dough was beautifully elastic and they baked up nice and airy. I wound up with 2 dozen small rolls, but dinner rolls ARE supposed to be small.  With the honey butter on top, they are deliciously sweet.

Here's the recipe as I made it:

Honey Butter Dinner Rolls at Cook and Count--with nutrition info!

A certain child who lives in this house has declared these the "best rolls ever!"