Falling...

Once again, I had the best intentions of adding my small voice to the world o' blogs. I was all set to talk about the bounty of our summer CSA boxes:

Then I thought about the fall harvest:

And now I'm in the midst of Thanksgiving cooking and Christmas plans!

Mulling what to do next...

Helicopters don't fly... they just beat the air into submission

For some reason, this blog has morphed into one about cooking, mostly. Yet part of my life, my job, my day-to-day is also parenting. In making a home for my family, being a Mom is probably my first and last concern every day. That said, this Slate article has been making the rounds on Facebook and elsewhere. It links back to both a 1979 checklist of first grade readiness and another blog post on Free-Range Kids. As the parent of a first-grader, these posts really made me think.

Can your child meet 10 out of the 12 criteria for 1979 readiness? We were doing great

4. Can he draw and color and stay within the lines of the design being colored?

until

8. Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend's home?

And thus the rounds on the internet...

No. My child cannot "travel alone in the neighborhood" and never has. And no one would expect it of either of us. But it did make me think that maybe, in being there all the time for our kids, we're all a little too "there."

I firmly believe that raising a child means helping him or her grow into a responsible adult who can go out into world with the self-knowledge, confidence, and basic skills to make good choices and function well. "Socialization" has been my watch-word since our first trip to the playground. And this list showed me that the standards used to be a lot lower. (Come on - first graders are reading chapter books and drawing with perspective now!) Yet some of those important, basic, SOCIAL skills were mastered much earlier.

So I am reminded that, sometimes, being there means taking a big step back and letting go. Not that I'm going to be the only mom the in neighborhood who doesn't walk her child to and from the bus stop (a school no-no)...but I'll think about it.

Summer Kuchen

Once again, an abundance of summer fruits called to me and inspired to me to just do something already with them. This time, I had plums, peaches and still more blueberries. Since I have not mastered savory fruit dishes, my mind turned to baking... even with the record-setting 100+ degree heat we’d been suffering.

The cake itself is somewhat closer to a Tortenboden – a tart crust – than an American yellow or pound cake. It’s a bit dry and crusty, relying on the sweet juiciness of the fruit to make it all work. However, calling it cake seems so much more accessible and summery than a torte. You can bake this in a regular cake pan and plunk the fruit right on top of the batter without any need for fancy tart pans and glazes or neatly arranged fruit pieces.

The original version of the recipe called for peaches, but any combination of your favorite summer fruit will do. I tweaked it a bit to soften and sweeten my fruit ahead of baking and to up the nuttiness of the cake. My cake may have been a bit drier than the original recipe, but it worked well. And leftovers became even more moist as the cake absorbed the fruit juices. At the same time, the almond flavor was more pronounced a day later, tasting a little like marzipan. If you don’t have almonds in the pantry, it is fine to use 1 cup of all purpose flour.

Served with a lightly sweetened, loose whipped cream, this is absolutely perfect and harkens back to all kinds of childhood memories of summertime and the endless wait for the grown-ups to decide it was time for Kaffee und Kuchen.

Summer Kuchen
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking’s “Fresh Fruit Kuchen”

You will need:
• A 9” round cake pan and butter to grease it.
• ¾ cup AP flour + ¼ cup ground almonds
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt (1/4 tsp if using kosher salt)
• 1 tsp + a dash of cinnamon
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup + 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp almond extract
• 2 to 2 ½ cups fruit (peeled and sliced if necessary)

Move one oven rack to lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Liberally grease a 9 inch round cake pan.

Combine fruits in a bowl with 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Let macerate while oven heats and butter softens.

Whisk together in one bowl the flour mixture, baking powder, dash of cinnamon, and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time and then add vanilla and almond extract.

Stir flour mixture into butter/egg mixture until just combined. This will yield a very thick batter. Spread evenly into bottom of prepared cake pan. Top with an even layer of the fruit. Some cake may remain uncovered, which is fine.

Bake about 40 to 45 minutes until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake only comes out clean. Cool before serving.

Suburban Commando

Every now and again, I go a little crazy and get into what I've termed "suburban commando mode."

Being a Suburban Commando requires one to complete series of tactical maneuvers and some serious supply chain management in order to meet all the items/errands on a checklist within a limited kid-free window while simultaneously planning and cooking meals, doing laundry, and handling other household matters, maintaining the role of primary caregiver for said child, and sustaining minimal contact with work.

It can make you tired.

While this has been going on every since I gave birth oh-so-long-ago, it's gotten more frenetic since I returned to work. The Suburban Commando is doing all the housewifery in half the time!

Today was pretty easy: water garden before family woke and needed shower, start working, start laundry, get kid to camp (with sunscreen applied, lunch, snack & water bottle in tow), tank up car and go to ATM, drive home, move laundry to dryer, "finish" work, shower, start more laundry, drive to post office, craft and grocery stores, come home to continue laundry, plan dinner menu for week, and eat lunch. Still on tap: pick up kid, go to dentist, finish laundry, maybe go swimming, dinner, bath time, and then get everyone to sleep.

Yeah, today is my "day off" when I don't go into the office.

Berry Good Times Today

Ah, it's still blueberry season! The grocer is practically giving them away, and that has led to blueberry crisps, pies, muffins, cereal toppings, and plain ol' handfuls while passing through the kitchen. Good times.

I never did make that Father's Day berry pie (although the butter was yummy), but I think taking the time to think it through makes up for the lack.

My pie-making is much improved from last summer, and we had a truly lovely blueberry pie last weekend.

See?

This morning, it was some quickly made muffins eaten al fresco. Did you know it takes less than an hour to go from opening a cookbook to eating fresh blueberry muffins? Alas, the butter on hand was store-bought. Can't ever seem to make all the cooking projects happen all at once!

Summer Dinner Party: S'more Pie

An abundance of marshmallows, left over from winter's hot chocolate, made me search for a way to use them. I came across this on the Epicurious website.

Adapted from… Chocolate S'more Pie

Gourmet, November 2006
Yield: Makes 6-8 servings

For crust
1 graham cracker crumb crust, baked and cooled completely or purchased, pre-made

For chocolate cream filling
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 70% cacao; not unsweetened), finely chopped OR 7 oz of bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, at room temperature for 30 minutes and the broken into a small container and slightly beaten

For marshmallow topping
3-4 handfuls of mini marshmallows

Directions:
1) Make chocolate cream filling:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
Put chocolate in a large bowl.
Bring cream just to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan. (It will bubble a bit on the sides, but not in the middle.) Then pour hot cream over chocolate.
Let stand 1 minute, then gently whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Gently whisk in egg and a pinch of salt until combined and pour into graham cracker crumb crust.

2) Bake until filling is softly set and trembles slightly in center when gently shaken, about 20 to 25 minutes.

3) Remove from oven and top with marshmallows.

4) Cool pie to room temperature on a rack (filling will firm as it cools), about 1 hour, and then refrigerate.

5) Brown topping before serving:
Preheat broiler.
Transfer pie to a baking sheet. Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat, rotating pie as necessary, until marshmallow topping is golden brown, about 3 minutes.
Cool pie on a rack 10 minutes.

Summer Dinner Party: Flank Steak Recipe

This is our go-to summer grilled recipe. It's Emeril's Grilled Marinated Flank Steaks and it's fabulous. The meat is marinaded earlier in the day, the steak cooks up quickly, and dinner is ready for guests with little active cooking time. And it's so much nicer than burgers and dogs. We serve with homemade coleslaw or a medley of grilled vegetables.

Tips from my husband, the grill master in our home:

Rob makes his own version of Emeril’s Essence. Essence is available in most stores OR you can buy any kind of Creole seasoning mix. We also prefer Sherry to red wine, but have used both successfully. We marinate for at least 4 hours, flipping the meat every couple hours, and then remove from the fridge an hour or so before cooking. Grill about 8 minutes on each side for medium-rare and do NOT cut into it for another 5 minutes after it comes off the grill. Oh, and we’ve never bothered to reserve the sauce and boil it, etc. like it says below.

Grilled Marinated Flank Steaks
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2000

Ingredients
1 (2 to 3 pound) flank steak
1/2 cup dry Sherry or red wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning, recipe available via the link above
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Place the flank steak in a large, plastic resealable bag. In a 2-cup measuring cup combine the remaining ingredients. Pour the marinade mixture into the bag with the steak, seal and marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours and up to 12 hours in advance.

Preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Remove the steak from the marinade. Pour the marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer the marinade for 10 minutes. Remove saucepan from the heat and keep warm. Place the steak on the grill and cook to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for rare. Transfer the steak to plate and let stand for 5 minutes before carving. Cut the steak across the grain into thin diagonal slices, and serve with the marinade sauce.

A lazy summer dinner party

Entertaining is not my thing. Cooking and cleaning, yes, but providing a warm and welcoming home to people not actually living in said home? Not so much. Slightly obsessive people with control issues (however self-aware) really have no business trying to play host.

Once every blue moon, my husband and I either choose to invite friends over for a meal or are sort of talked into throwing a party. Last week, we did the former and it was wonderful. Here's what I learned about throwing a successful summer dinner party:

1) Invite people you like and who don't need to be impressed.
2) Make most of the meal ahead of time.
3) Have the kids eat outside while the adults are inside.
4) Go barefoot.
5) Have another glass of wine, sit down to enjoy your meal, and talk to your friends.
6) Check on the kids now and again, but let them figure out what to do. Ours invented elaborate outdoor games and then chased fire flies.

Phoning it in...

School's out, summer's begun and - for the first time - childcare is a necessity, not a luxury. Momma's got to work. Happily, with some juggling, Momma's also been able to swing some time working at home to accommodate this first week of half-day camp that someone HAD to attend. (Momma might also be a sucker, that that's another post.)

So I'm finding myself phoning into conference calls, looking at the Crackberry more than usual, and bending over backwards to be present in my professional life. The thing is, the housewifery doesn't take the summer off either. Oh no! Simultaneous to working from home, there are swim lessons and housework and the demands of a whiny joy of spending time with a child free from school. And we're somehow on the hook for hosting summertime parties too.

My original thought with this blog was to mull how home-work and paid-work (private versus public sphere if you will) overlap in my own life, and to make sense of it for myself. Of course, what I've concluded so far is that they collide more than overlap. If anything, there's a constant (mental) battle between the two and all I can do is find some joy in whichever "work" occupies my present. Living in the moment, if you will, but living in the moment with about 5 brain cells devoted to the next moment.

It's all very tiring and, despite having some pride in my home and my family, and a genuine like (if not love) of cooking, June has been mostly about phoning it in as a housewife too. I confess, I just about gave up for a few weeks. Little-to-no cooking, minimal cleaning, and working just enough to ensure that each family member had enough clean clothes to make it to school or work. Thus passed most of June.

And, we also threw a small party where our guests did not seem to notice that it was a truly lazy summer gathering. More later on how to host a lazy summer dinner party...

Random tip: removing eggshells from broken eggs

While I would love to do that one-handed egg-cracking trick, my cooking style is a touch messier. And my sometime assistant, age 6, is not much neater about it. Thus we eagerly tried this trick, first seen by us on a Jamie Oliver (sigh...) show.

To remove a broken piece of eggshell from your cracked eggs, fish it out with another piece of eggshell. They will find each other and it's so much easier than going in there with slippery fingers.

Blueberries and Butter

Blueberry season! With our local grocer selling blueberries as a buy one pint/ get 2 pints free, and a husband with a yearning for pie, I sense another weekend baking project. It IS Father's Day tomorrow and a girl's gotta practice her pie crust.

Meanwhile, I started Saturday by baking 2 sourdough loaves and making some butter. Will have to write a bit more on the latter, as it evoked some food memories and prompted quite the inspirational riff about what to do with almost a pound of the stuff.

Knowing which side one’s bread is buttered on

About a year or so ago, I was lucky enough to attend a "carb heavy" Girls' Night Out that included a lesson in bread making. Wine, cheese, fresh bread, girlfriends... it was great. And I came home with my still-unnamed new pet, sourdough starter. And I baked a couple loaves, as seen here. (Yes, I really, really did it -- totally from scratch!)

Then the summer heat kicked in, and the idea of turning on an oven sounded horrific. Life went on. Yet, periodically, I would stumble across my yeasty, gassy little friend in the fridge and give it a feed. My daughter has now asked for homemade bread, our recent record-setting heatwave seems to have ended, and I think this is the weekend.

Perhaps I'll go all out and make Alex Guarnaschelli's homemade butter to spread on top.

Strawberry Cake via Smitten Kitchen

Yum...I tried Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Summer Cake a couple weeks ago and it was all that Deb promised. And more.

Once I sliced it up and added a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream, I was transported back to childhood. The flavors caught me off-guard and almost brought me to tears, reminding me of the Erdbeertorte mit Sahne that played such a huge role in childhood summer visits to Oma. The only thing different was the presentation.

traditional Erdbeertorte mit Sahne

Make this NOW before berry season is gone!

Random tip: a clean cheese grater

To avoid a mess, spray your cheese greater with some cooking spray (like Pam) before you start grating. When you're done, rinse and pop in the dishwasher. Comes clean every time.

More food contestants!

Not that more than maybe 3 people read this, but...

In addition to voting for Mary Beth Albright on the Next Food Network Star since she is, after all, a fellow Throat*, my actual friend Jennifer Beckman is in the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

You can vote for Jen's Toasted Coconut-Brownie Bonbons too. Just click "vote."


*I suggest being really careful about Googling "throat." This one is specific to Johns Hopkins!

Food Porn

I have a small addiction. To cooking shows. Around here, when little pitchers are out of earshot, we call it food porn, thinking ourselves so very clever. Turns out that those guys from South Park caught on back in 2010 with their Crème Fraiche episode.


It's hilarious, and you'll never deglaze the same way again.

Now we're on to Next Food Network Star for the summer. Imagine my surprise to find someone from college on my screen. I remember Mary Beth as quiet with a wickedly funny sense of humor. It'll be interesting to see how she does.

Pot Roast Recipe, Cliff Notes Version

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Gravy
Adapted from “Cook’s Country” Magazine

• 1 large boneless beef chuck roast (5-6 pounds)
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic, 1-2 cloves, sliced
• 4 teaspoons oil… Vegetable is preferred, but olive works.
• 3 or 4 medium yellow onions, chopped or sliced
• 1 large celery rib, chopped
• 4 medium carrots, chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth… You can also just use water.
• 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• Fresh parsley to garnish

1. At least an hour before cooking, slice small divots all over the roast and place slivers of garlic in these small cavities. Liberally season the roast with salt and pepper. You want a healthy teaspoon per side of salt, which is more than you’d ever think you’d need. Place in the fridge until ready to move on to the next step.

2. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the seasoned roast on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes total cooking time. Transfer roast to slow cooker.

3. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to skillet, along with onions. Sprinkle with some salt and gently cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden and almost translucent. This can easily take 10 to 15 minutes; lower your heat if they start to turn brown. Transfer onions to the slow cooker.

4. Add celery, carrots (or whatever root vegetables you like) and garlic to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker.

5. Increase heat to high. Add red wine to empty skillet, scraping up any browned bits with wooden spoon, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and broth (or water), and bring to a boil. Stir in pepper flakes, bay leaves and thyme. Transfer to slow cooker. If the liquid does not come up to the top edge of the roast, add a little more water.

6. Set slow cooker to high, cover, and cook until tender, 6 to 7 hours. Or, better yet, cook on low for 9 to 10 hours. You can check the temperature with a meat thermometer about 2 hours before the roast is supposed to be done to prevent overcooking. It will be well done at 160 degrees F.

7. Transfer roast to carving board; loosely tent with foil to keep warm. Discard bay leaves. Allow liquid in pot to settle, about 5 minutes, then use wide spoon to skim fat off surface.

8. To be really fancy about making gravy (and we did not do this in Santa Fe), puree liquids and solids in batches in blender or food processor. Or, use an immersion blender. Stir in some fresh parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in a gravy boat and wow your friends.

9. Cut roast into 1/2-inch-thick slices, ladle on some sauce, and serve over the starch of your choosing: buttered egg noodles, boiled potatoes, or mashed potatoes.

Katherine's Pot Roast, Part Two

Earlier this year, my little Sunshine and I had the chance to fly out to Santa Fe and spend a long weekend with Katherine and her family. To thank them for having us, and to make carnivore Mr. Katherine happy, I cooked them up a pot roast and some boiled red potatoes.

Below is, more or less, what I did and how to do this yourself… with some editorial for those that don’t cook much. Since the essence of the recipe is browning some meat and braising it with some vegetables and seasoning, there’s a lot of room for variation. You can vary the type and amounts of the vegetables and the seasonings. For me, what’s key, is having some red wine and tomato in the sauce to round it out and make good gravy.

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Gravy
Adapted from “Cook’s Country” Magazine

• 1 large boneless beef chuck roast (5-6 pounds)… This should be at least 2 inches high; smaller cuts seem not to cook as well.

• Salt and pepper… You have kosher salt and a pepper grinder, right?

• Garlic, 1-2 cloves, sliced… I made do with jarred, minced garlic and that worked well

• 4 teaspoons oil… Vegetable is preferred, but olive works.

• 3 or 4 medium yellow onions, chopped or sliced

• 1 large celery rib, chopped … Traditional, but optional if no one likes celery

• 4 medium carrots, chopped… I usually add more carrots, and am tempted to mix in some parsnips as well. Try to chop the root vegetables to more or less the same size, bite-sized for an adult.

• 6 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 cup red wine

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree

• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth… You can also just use water.

• 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)

• 3 bay leaves… You can use less if your host’s spice cabinet yields just one.

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• Fresh parsley to garnish…which I never, ever seem to have on hand.


1. At least an hour before cooking, slice small divots all over the roast and place slivers of garlic in these small cavities. Liberally season the roast with salt and pepper. You want a healthy teaspoon per side of salt, which is more than you’d ever think you’d need. Place in the fridge until ready to move on to the next step.

[This helps flavor the meat on the inside. I’ve done this up to 12 hours ahead of time. If you feel like it, rub some dried thyme into the meat too. Then again, if you don’t feel like doing much, skip this step. Just be sure to salt and pepper the roast prior to step 2.]

2. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the seasoned roast on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes total cooking time. Transfer roast to slow cooker.

[This is one area where a sturdy pair of spring-loaded tongs is an essential kitchen tool. And, really, with the amount of Food Network chefs selling kitchen lines to Target and such, you should have a Dutch oven by now or at least a good pot with a thick bottom. Should you wish to skip using a slow cooker, this meal can be done in a Dutch oven – lid on – in your oven at about 300 degrees F for at least 3 hours.]

3. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to skillet, along with onions. Sprinkle with some salt and gently cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden and almost translucent. This can easily take 10 to 15 minutes; lower your heat if they start to turn brown. Transfer onions to the slow cooker.

[Again, the lazy can skip step 3 and just cook the onions along with everything else in step 4. However, caramelized onions really add an extra yumminess to the sauce and, for my friends, I did take this step.]

4. Add celery, carrots (or whatever root vegetables you like) and garlic to the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker.

5. Increase heat to high. Add red wine to empty skillet, scraping up any browned bits with wooden spoon, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and broth (or water), and bring to a boil. Stir in pepper flakes, bay leaves and thyme. Transfer to slow cooker. If the liquid does not come up to the top edge of the roast, add a little more water.

6. Set slow cooker to high, cover, and cook until tender, 6 to 7 hours. Or, better yet, cook on low for 9 to 10 hours. You can check the temperature with a meat thermometer about 2 hours before the roast is supposed to be done to prevent overcooking. It will be well done at 160 degrees F.

7. Transfer roast to carving board; loosely tent with foil to keep warm. Discard bay leaves. Allow liquid in pot to settle, about 5 minutes, then use wide spoon to skim fat off surface.

8. To be really fancy about making gravy (and we did not do this in Santa Fe), puree liquids and solids in batches in blender or food processor. Or, use an immersion blender. Stir in some fresh parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in a gravy boat and wow your friends.

9. Cut roast into 1/2-inch-thick slices, ladle on some sauce, and serve over the starch of your choosing: buttered egg noodles, boiled potatoes, or mashed potatoes.

Finally, Katherine's Pot Roast Recipe

April Fool!

Katherine's Pot Roast, Part One

Last month, my little Sunshine and I had the chance to fly out to Santa Fe and spend a long weekend with Katherine and her family. To thank them for having us, and to make carnivore Mr. Katherine happy, I cooked them up a pot roast. In fact, it burbled away in a Crock Pot while we went on a short hike up in the nearby mountains, seen here.

By way of a back-story, Katherine is a vegetarian and the Mr. is not. I promised to give them a recipe and then realized that writing one is harder than I had imagined. For one, pot roast is the one thing I can cook without even glancing at a recipe. Two, preparing a recipe for someone who rarely cooks – and never eats – meat might mean a little more expository writing than my tired brain could handle. Three, culling sources for a good recipe from which to start revealed an infinite variety out there.

One month later, and I’m working on it. I’ve figured out that what I do approaches an Italian pot roast or stracotto. Unlike the recipes online, I don’t use mushrooms. Also, due to my own biases, anything with too many prepackaged ingredients was right out.

For Katherine… this is the essence of what’s done and I promise I’ll break it out into an actual recipe very, very soon:

Season and brown a large hunk of cheap, tough red meat.
Cook down some vegetables in the same pot.
Combine meat and veggies in a slow cooker with enough liquid to cover.
Cook 7-10 hours.
Serve with the starch of your choosing.

"Emergency" Dinner

Everyone needs to have at least one meal trick up their sleeve. Something tasty, reasonably healthy, and QUICK to assemble that's more complicated than pasta with jarred sauce and more ambitious than cereal. That said, we've certainly had our share of both in this house. Once in a while, however, when ordering pizza doesn't appeal and breakfast-for-dinner seems a little too much like a cop-out, we have Emergency Dinner.

For this, I keep a bag of frozen salmon fillets (thank you wholesale club!) in the freezer, a quick starch mix in the pantry, and then use either salad or frozen veggies to round it all out. Within 30 minutes or less, we have three items on the dinner plate.

For the salmon:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a baking sheet or pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Place salmon skin-side down and top with yummy things. We like a little S&P, some whole grain mustard and panko breadcrumbs.*

If you want, drizzle a little oil in the top so the breadcrumbs crisp up.
Plan on baking it for about 10-12 minutes if thawed, about 15 minutes if cooking from frozen. (Yes, you can do that.) For a flourish, broil on low the last 2 minutes to brown the topping.

For the sides:

Pre-flavored couscous comes together in about 10 minutes. Last time, we used a rice blend instead (pictured) that took about 20.
Microwave some vegetables. Toss with a little butter or oil and some seasonings while the fish cooks.

Enjoy!

What's your emergency stand-by?

*You can use Dijon mustard and regular breadcrumbs too. Also good is a little soy sauce and honey whisked together and drizzled on the fish. Very basic is S&P and some lemon juice (and maybe dill or another herb) sprinkled on top.

Easy Peasy

For dinner, I’m finding it a constant challenge to come up with something at least marginally nutritious for the family to eat and easy enough for me to make. Bonus points if I get leftovers too. Now and again, I hit on something really good that makes us all happy. This is my version of Parker’s Split Pea Soup found in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

We love Ina Garten; her flavor palette meshes well with that of our family. I find her recipes work as promised, though she uses more salt that I would. And the servings yield in the cookbooks can be a bit too much for my small family, so I tend to half everything. Here, I took an already simple soup recipe and made it easier on myself. I add in some meat for extra protein and, unlike Ina, dump all the split peas into the pot at once. This can easily go vegetarian, and the soup can take a couple more carrots or potatoes if you have them.

The soup does get very thick as it stands, so I find it necessary to add in some water when reheating to get it to a better consistency. Since I tend to throw this together whenever I have time to let something sit on the stove a bit, we usually have this reheated for dinner and then again as leftovers.

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

• 1 chopped yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots (3 to 4 carrots)
• 1 cup medium-diced red potatoes, unpeeled (3 small)
• Note: I’ve also used unpeeled Yukon Golds.
• 1 pound dried split green peas
• 8 cups chicken stock or water
• Note: I’ve used all stock or a combination of both, depending on what was on hand.
• Chopped, cooked ham or sausage (optional)
• Note: I buy vacuum-packed ham steaks and chop them up. These are already cooked and can be added in during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Directions

In a 4-quart stockpot [I use my 5-quart Dutch oven] on medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic with the olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper until the onions are translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the carrots, potatoes, split peas, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 90 minutes, or until all the peas are soft. Skim off the foam while cooking, if you can. Stir frequently to keep the solids from burning on the bottom. Or, lower the heat and lengthen the cooking time to off-set your not stirring quite so often.

Taste for salt and pepper. Serve hot. Pairs really well with crusty bread.

Food Biases

I like to cook and have a few biases I’ve noticed while doing it. Before I write about my pot-roast-for-Katherine and our favorite split pea soup, I thought I’d share my kitchen quibbles:

• Bacon really makes anything taste better.
• Ditto for pastry dough.
• Vegetables are awesome, but ham tends to make it into my vegetarian entrée recipes.
• I cannot fathom making savory foods without garlic, onions or both as part of the dish.
• Spicy foods aren’t my thing, but I like well-seasoned food.
• I tend to reject any recipe calling for a can of condensed soup as an ingredient.
• Actually, I’m not a fan of canned anything other than beans, tomatoes, and the occasional simmer sauce.
• While not completely opposed to convenience foods in cooking, I tend to think, “how can I make this myself?”

We've Been Experiencing Technical Difficulties

We've been experiencing technical difficulties… thank you for standing by!

A little laziness and a little problem with Blogger and Google meant a big problem adding anything to this site. Happily, it seems better now. Except for the laziness...