Toss Up: Cold Salads for Hot Eves

Too long gone, I see. Much has occurred in life, but not so much on the food front.

Here in Northern California we are suffering an unusual (for early May) heat wave. A few nights ago I barbecued: marinated tri-tip from Trader Joe's. Then I did a shrimp and avocado salad and a rice salad with left over rice. (I was going to make shrimp burritos but the kids said "We ALWAYS have burritos!" (not true) so I changed course.) Then tonight, a simple pasta salad with leftover beef and broccoli. I DO make a lot of pasta salad, perhaps because my older son claims it's his favorite food, although more often than not he will eat the pasta and leave the other parts in a pile on his plate for me to finish.

SHRIMP AND AVOCADO SALAD

1/2 lb cooked frozen shrimp, whole if small or chopped if large
2 small avocadoes, pitted and chopped
2 large chopped tomatoes or 1/2 cup drained canned diced tomatoes
juice from 1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper
chili powder, if desired

Toss all ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.

COLD RICE SALAD

2 cups cold rice
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
some kind of salad dresssing you like (Italian, Sesame Ginger, etc.)

Toss everything together with enough salad dressing to flavor.

PASTA SALAD: ENDLESS VARIATION #336 OR THEREABOUTS

12 ounces shaped pasta -- penne, tagliatele, rigatoni, etc.
leftover beef tri-tip from your Sunday barbecue (4-6 ounces), chopped into cubes
1 large stalk broccoli
4 medium tomatoes
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
2 tbsp. Trader Joe's Tomato Bruschetta
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1-2 tbsp. red wine

Boil water for the pasta and blanch broccoli for 2-3 minutes. Remove and chop into bite-sized florets. Cook the pasta.

Heat a large skillet. In 1 tsp olive oil, quickly toss the beef (1-2 minutes). Add the broccoli and mix. Remove from pan into your serving bowl. Return the pan to the heat and deglaze with the wine (oops, my restaurant background is showing through... deglaze just means to use a liquid to dislodge all those yummy stuck bits of stuff from the bottom of the pan). When bubbling, whisk in the mustard to blend. Add to the beef and broccoli mixture.

Drain pasta and add with remaining ingredients to the pasta bowl. Mix well. Garnish with more feta if desired and serve cold or at room temp.

Content Monster/Dinner Monster

It just occurred to me that blogging has that same desperate "gotta keep up with it" feel that cooking dinner for the family sometimes takes on. So maybe it wasn't such a good idea to start this... one more obligation! But I'm committed now. I'll try to keep up as best I can. Maybe I'll even do more than 2 or 3 entries for April!

Passed Over

(Okay, 17 entries since the beginning of the year... at this rate, it will take three or four years to get to 365 nights of dinner!)

No seder tonight, but I did make a couple of traditional Passover dishes: my own version of Charoset (because I could neither remember exactly what it was called or exactly what was in it, but mine came out good); some bitter greens (thank you, Trader Joe's); and parmesan-crusted chicken.

Close enough.

AUDREY'S CHAROSET

1/2 cup roasted almonds and cashews
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raisins
1 tbsp. honey
squirt of lemon juice

Pulse all ingredients in food processor until finely chopped but not a paste.

MIXED BITTER GREENS

1 bag Trader Joe's Mixed Southern Greens (mustard, turnip, and collard greens)
2 large green garlic stalks (got these at the farmer's market)
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup thin tomato sauce
2 tsp. sugar
pinch of dried marjoram and savory

Chop green garlic and sautee in olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Add water, tomato sauce, sugar, and herbs. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add greens. Cover and simmer 15 minutes more, stirring occasionally, then turn off heat and let sit for 30 minutes.

PARMESAN-CRUSTED CHICKEN

1 lb. white meat chicken tenders
1 egg
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup non-fat yogurt (or use 1/2 cup whole milk yogurt)
1-1/2 cups substantial but finely ground breadcrumbs (I make my own from stale whole wheat crusts cut off before making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids)
1/2 cup commercially ground parmesan cheese
pepper, turmeric, other spices if desired

Mix egg, milk, and yogurt. Mix in chicken. Mix breadcrumbs, parmesan, and spices in a shallow baking dish or on a large dinner plate. Transfer one piece of chicken at a time to the crumbs. (I use a "clean hand" and a "dirty hand" so the crumbs don't get stuck to my hand -- that is, one hand I use to retrieve the pieces, the other to cover a piece with crumbs and pat it firmly until it's well coated.) Transfer chicken pieces to a greased baking sheet. Spray with cooking oil spray. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes, then turn over and bake 5 minutes more until outsides are lightly browned and chicken is cooked but still juicy.

Early Spring Grill

A run of nice weather here led me to fire up the grill for no particular reason on a random Thursday evening. Older son spent the day home with some virus that has been going around, so it was particularly nice to get outside in the mild spring air and look up at the just-budding trees as I waited for the burgers to cook. I could almost believe summer would come again someday, although I feel foolish even thinking such things in a climate in which, truth be told, one could grill on any old January day.

Served this with grilled eggplant, sliced avocado, lettuce leaves, and, being who I am, assorted condiments.

TURKEY "PIZZA" BURGERS

1.5 lbs. lean ground turkey
3-4 slices of day-old bread (I used sourdough), crusts removed, chopped
1 large onion, pulsed in the food processor
1/3 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp. tomato sauce
1 tsp. each dried basil and oregano

Mix all ingredients. Form into patties. Spray with oil to keep from sticking. Heat grill to medium-high. Grill until cooked through and nicely charred on the outside, about 15 minutes altogether for fat burgers.

Chicken Twice as Nice

One of the easiest things to make is a roast chicken. Throw a sliced onion and a few lemon slices and garlic cloves, plus a handful of fresh herbs, in the cavity. Pat the outside dry. Put it on a rack in a roasting pan and let 'er rip. I'm constantly experimenting with time and temp. This week I tried 500 degrees for 15 minutes, then 275 for about 1-1/2 hours, and raised it to 375 for the last hour when I wasn't sure dinner would be done on time. It was perfect. (This was about a 3-1/2 lb bird.) And don't forget the resting time (for the bird, not you, though that's nice too). I add a few minutes to the process and make a nice pan gravy: Scrape the drippings into a saucepan, add about a cup of water, then thicken with cornstach (you have to put the cornstach in liquid before you add it or it will lump up; use about 1 tsp. per cup of water).

It was one of those nights when nobody was much interested in eating. A lucky thing, as it turned out, since all I was serving was the chicken and some steamed broc (a staple around here). Lucky, too, because I took all the leftover meat off the bones and used it two nights later.

CHICKEN STIR-FRY QUICKLY PLEASE

Chopped meat leftover from 1 roast chicken
2 cups sugar snap peas (with edible hulls) or other stir-fry worthy vegetable(s)
Pan gravy leftover from roast chicken
1/4 cup soy sauce (I think)
1/8 cup rice vinegar (I think)
1/4 cup brown sugar (I think)
Some water or chicken broth
1 tsp. cornstarch

Stir fry veggies in a little oil until tender-crisp (I love that term!) and maybe a little charred in places. Lower the heat to medium. Mix remaining ingredients and stir into veggies to coat. Cook 1-2 minutes to thicken. Add chicken and heat through. Serve over rice.

Simple Sauce in Hope of Simpler Times

Yes, I am still here. Just overwhelmed with work and life. If I have to choose between actually cooking and blogging about cooking, I will choose actually cooking, although some of my efforts in the last weeks have been mighty canned. Still, I try to do something interesting no matter what. Tonight's delight:

DOCTOR OF SPAGHETTI SAUCE WITH MEATBALL AND SAUSAGE

2 16-oz. cans of S&W organic tomato sauce (or equivalent)
2 16-oz. can of garbonzo beans
1 large onion
clove of garlic
dash of sugar
dash of red wine
pepper
dried basil and/or other herbs

Puree one can of garbonzos and one can of tomato sauce in blender until smooth. Mince onion and garlic. Sautee in olive oil until translucent and just starting to brown. Add puree and remaining ingredients. Simmer 1/2 hour to 45 minutes until flavors blend. Serve over spaghetti or other pasta with grated parmesan and a meatball and sausage on the side (which you have retrieved as the sole representatives of their meat classes from the depths of the freezer).

Tortilla Emergency!

As dinner took shape, I visualized... some leftover cooked chicken, defrosted and chopped. A few Santa Sweets tomatoes, chopped. Shredded lettuce. Beans (okay, kidney beans because I for some reason have a bunch of them and no pinto beans or black beans). Grated Monterey Jack. Guacamole. Salsa. Voila: tacos.

Disappointment #1: The taco shells I was sure I had purchased were nowhere to be found (they vanished along with the fine-mesh strainer I was SURE I had purchased once from Ikea, but then never saw again after leaving the store, and the sundry other items I THINK about buying but then change my mind about, which, the mind being the funny thing that it is, become imprinted as having been bought).

Disappointment #2: The enormous bags of flour tortillas I usually have somewhere in the freezer had been depleted and not replenished. The only tortilla-like item to be found was some ancient ones of the corn variety, which the kids don't like, and which separated into layers when I tried to heat them. Yuck, as the kids would say.

So, with 20 minutes until dinner was to be served (in a hurry, as husband needed to rush off to a meeting), I did what any self-respecting suburban cook would do: I made flour tortillas from scratch. It's easy. Really.

EMERGENCY TORTILLAS

1-1/2 cups of flour
1-2 tbsp. oil (vegetable, corn, or olive)
water
salt

Mix flour and salt. Add oil and enough water to make a firm but pliable dough. Knead gently until it holds together, about 2 minutes. Cut dough into 6-8 pieces. Form each piece into a ball and flatten. Roll on a floured surface with a rolling pin until very thin. Fry on medium heat in an oiled cast-iron skillet until bubbles begin to appear and bottom is lightly browned. Turn and fry about 30 seconds more, until second side is browned. Remove and cover with a towel until ready to serve.

In Sickness and in Health

Thankfully, I have not succumbed to the miserable flu making the rounds (yes, I got a flu shot). My neighbor, however, was not so lucky. It also happens that she and I were co-chairing a major event at school which occurred over the weekend. She came down with the flu the week before. Selfishly, I made her some special soup to help her recover in time for the big event. I don't know whether the soup did the trick (she was able to attend the event after spending five days in bed), but she said it went down well when nothing much else would.

GINGER LEMON GRASS CHICKEN MISO FLU SOUP

1 large knob of ginger, peeled and finely sliced
1 stalk of lemongrass, cleaned and sliced on the bias into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 tbsp. white miso paste
1 quart chicken broth (homemade or boxed -- use low sodium if you use boxed)

OPTIONAL
slivered carrots or other vegetables
diced cooked chicken
cubed tofu
rice noodles

Saute onion in olive or vegetable oil until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, and lemon grass and cook another 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Whisk a little of the chicken broth with the miso paste to thin. Add, along with remaining chicken brith, to the pot with the onion etc. Simmer on low for 1/2 hour until flavors blend. Just before serving, add optional ingredients and heat through.

Baking for the Cause

... and the cause is using up leftovers in the refrigerator: namely, sweet potatoes and oatmeal. Somehow, I always seem to have these leftover in tandem. Used to be, when the kids were babies, I'd cook both to spoon-feed them. Now -- who knows why I happen to have them both lurking around together.

Anyway, since I have been living on a steady diet of defrosted leftovers, I decided to take a few minutes and bake this evening.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins

1 cup pureed sweet potato or yam, thinned with a little water
1 cup cooked oatmeal
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup olive oil
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat eggs until frothy. Add sugar and continue beating until pale and creamy. Beat in honey, olive oil, sweet potato, and oatmeal. Mix together dry ingredients. Add in thirds, beating until just incorporated after each addition.

Grease and flour two 9 x 5 loaf pans, or one loaf pan and six muffin cups, or 16 muffin cups. Divide the batter among the pans. Bake muffins for about 15 minutes and loaves for about 45-50 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans. Cool completely before wrapping.

Quick! Chili!

Scavenging and scrounging. That's what happens when there's nobody to cook for! Husband and kids are away, leaving me rattling around and eating leftovers.

Looking back, I did a couple of dinners this week that surprised me with their willingness to be eaten. One was turkey chili redux (cooked and frozen), turned into filling for burritos, served alongside Trader Joe's corn muffins (made from mix). As well as I can recall, the chili recipe appears below.

QUICK TURKEY CHILI

1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 medium onion
2 cans diced tomatoes in juice
3 tbsp. ketchup
1 cup frozen corn
1 can pinto or black beans
seasonings (chili powder, pepper)
Assorted other vegetables (diced green pepper, shredded carrots) - optional

Saute the onion in a little olive oil. Add other vegetables, if desired. Add turkey and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. Drain excess liquid. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 1/2 hour. Serve inside tortillas or in bowls with grated cheese on top.

Twice Stuffed

There is simply no way around it. When I cook, I spend the hours between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the kitchen. Between the preparation, the cooking, the eating, and the cleaning up, that's just how much time it takes. Do I mind? Mostly not. Sometimes grandly.

Well, I got off easy last night -- older son at a sleepover, husband off at karate, younger son wanting to go to his favorite Chinese restaurant for his favorite foods: chicken chow mein and sweet and sour pork. Luckily, both come as part of the Special Dinner (available for one, two, three, or four), including battered shrimp and pork fried rice for $5.25. A better deal is not to be had. For another $5.50, I got an order of Chinese greens and mushrooms, and we both were happy.

I have attemped chicken chow mein at home, but am told it is not as good as the stuff we get out. My husband assures me it's because I would never cook with as much oil or cornstarch, and he's probably right.

As if to assuage the sins of the children -- doughnuts for breakfast at the sleepover, buckets of popcorn at an afternoon movie (hearsay -- I wasn't there) -- or else to punish them, I decided to make twice-baked stuffed potatoes for dinner with the remaining four enormous Idaho baking potatoes from a 10 lb. bag. Older son refused completely, then stuck his fork in and made mush of it, and finally ate the crispy top and a few cucumber slices. Younger son asked for the crispy tops right away and ate one with lots of ketchup. Husband and I happily consumed one large potato each, and felt twice baked and stuffed ourselves.

Oh, and thinking ahead, I began marinating some boneless loin pork chops in marinade left from the skirt steak of a few weeks ago.

TWICE-BAKED STUFFED POTATOES

4 large baking potatoes (such as Russet or Idaho)
1/2 cup sharp grated cheese (such as cheddar or parmesan)
1 cup cooked broccoli florets
1 large red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped ham (optional)
milk
additional cheese to sprinkle on top

Bake potatoes at 350 until about 7/8 done (they should be still firm, but mashable). Remove from oven and slice tops off. Scoop insides into mixing bowl. If still too firm, microwave until soft. Add milk and mash until smooth. Stir in grated cheese, broccoli, pepper, ham, and season with salt and pepper if desired. Spoon mashed mixture into potato shells. Sprinkle additional cheese on top. Brush cut off tops with olive oil. Place potatoes and tops on baking sheet and return to oven until heated through, about 20 minutes. Broil for 2-3 minutes to brown at the end.

Morningstar Mash-Up

I never tried Morningstar Farms burgers before but they caught my eye today at -- where else? -- Trader Joe's. I thought the kids would dig the Tomato & Basil Pizza Burgers -- and I was right, sort of. Sort of because before dinner each had consumed a large quantity of honey wheat pretzels, a tangerine, and a blueberry pancake, along with (for my older child) almost an entire can of baby corn. So they weren't all that hungry by the time dinner rolled around.

As an accompaniment, the Condiment Queen found a use for leftover mashed potatoes other than caulking the tub.

POTATO PARMESAN PATTIES

1 cup leftover mashed potatoes
2 hard-boiled eggs
2 tbsp. whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
2 tbsp. grated parmesan (fresh or in the can)
salt & pepper to taste

Mash eggs into a paste. Mix well with remaining ingredients. Depending on how "loose" your potatoes were, the mixture may be loose. Add flour until it's firm enough to form into six small, fat patties. Dip the patties in flour to coat.

Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Fry patties about 5-7 minutes on each side until heated through and nicely browned. Serve with your choice of condiments.

Back to the Grind

Ah, back to reality: rising at 6:20, showering, trying to figure out what to put in the kids' lunches while listening to NPR, drinking tea, and watching the sunrise redden the eastern sky. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so damn relentless.

I didn't go to the grocery store full-on. Had 15 minutes between picking the kids up so I stopped at a Brazilian/international food market that used to be a Japanese supermarket. It seems to be true that small markets sometimes have better and cheaper produce than supermarkets. I got two really nice looking white onions, two avocadoes, a head (is that what it's called?) of broccoli, a can of baby corn, and a small package of tapioca flour (not sure why) for $6.75.

I didn't use any of it tonight, though. I was already cooking while out, in the slow cooker! A great invention. Before I left to bring (loudly protesting) older son to his piano lesson, I made some General Tsao's Drumsticks, to be served with rice and frozen green beans (again!).

By the way, for all you convenience food freaks out there, did you know you can freeze cooked rice? Well, you can. I thought you might be able to do it after trying those frozen rice-and-whatever dinners, and I was right. I also trick my family into eating brown rice by mixing it half and half with white. See the magic behind the mystery below.

GENERAL TSAO'S CROCKPOT DRUMSTICKS

8 chicken drumsticks
2 large carrots, sliced
2 scallions, sliced
1/4 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of General Tsao's stir-fry sauce (available at Trader Joe's) or other marinade-y type sauce

Place carrots, scallions, orange juice, and 1/4 cup of stir-fry sauce in slow-cooker pot. Turn on to high. If feeling ambitious, brown drumsticks in a little olive oil. Arrange on top of carrots and cover with remaining stir-fry sauce. Cook on high for about 2 hours or low for 3 hours. Right before serving, remove drumsticks and vegetables to warm plate and thicken sauce with 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.

MIXED RICE TO EAT NOW OR FREEZE FOR LATER

1-1/2 cups of jasmine rice
1-1/2 cups of short-grain brown rice
4 cups of water
salt to taste

Rinse brown rice in cold water and drain well. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add brown rice, turn heat to low, and cook, covered, for 30 - 35 minutes. While brown rice is cooking, rinse jasmine rice in cold water 4-5 times. Drain well. Remove cover and test brown rice; it should be still a bit firm, and there should be a little water still unabsorbed.

Add remaining cup of water and jasmine rice. Return to boil, cover, then lower heat and cook for 10-12 minutes more. Turn off heat and let sit for 3-5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

TIPS: To prevent rice from getting soggy but to keep warm if you're not serving immediately, cover the pot with a clean, dry dish towel and then put the lid back. The towel will absorb the steam instead of having it condense back down into the pot.

To prepare the rice to freeze, cool completely (uncovered) then put into portion-sized containers. Reheat in microwave for a few minutes from frozen.

Cabin Fever

Just returned from 3 days at a "cabin" near Lake Tahoe. Well, they call it a cabin, but it has central heating, wireless Internet, full kitchen, 4 bedrooms, and TV with cable.

I skiied for the first time in 20 years. My kids skiied for the first time ever. It all came back to me, and my older son liked it a lot. Now I will have to get a third career to pay for skiing.

The nicest part was sharing the cabin with our good friends of many years. Sharing meant that the mom and I shared cooking responsibilities. (What is wrong with this picture? Can nobody else cook? Well, my husband has long since been elbowed out of the kitchen by my overcontrolling nature and hers, who does cook, actually skis, while she does not, so cooking fell to the females.) We planned ahead so we didn't have to make too many trips to the grocery store. Night one was very simple. Put the spaghetti in the water. Dump two jars of sauce into a pan. Add chicken apple sausage. Steam broccoli. Voila -- dinner is served. And a good thing, too. After a five hour drive, we were all ready to eat.

Apres ski, the next day, we were treated to my friend's delicious spinach lasagna. Sorry I don't have the recipe, but maybe she'll post.

The final night we wanted Chinese takeout but the nearest restaurant was 14 miles away, so we opted to cook in again -- burritos. Again, no recipe required.

I did make scones from a fairly decent mix received by my husband as a holiday gift. It was for cranberryorange scones from Cook-in-the-Kitchen. The amazing thing was: just add water!

Tomorrow, a decision: take time away from work/kids to visit the grocery store, or raid the freezer and fridge for a true Condiment Queen meal? Probably the latter...

Tired gourmet

Maybe I should just drop this whole cooking thing. See, I learned to cook as a kid not from my parents but in opposition to them, in rebellion against meat and potatoes. At my best friend's house were copies of Gourmet magazine, with photographs of tantalizingly exotic dishes accompanying the instructions for how to become that kind of person (the kind of person who would read Gourmet). My best friend's mother had a wok; we had a microwave and a Corning cooktop. What am I setting the kids up for?

Tonight, dinner alone with the kids again. Husband at peace rally. Wish I could have gone, taken the kids, but obligations interfered. Dinner needed to be served. It has been beastly cold here (well, cold for Northern California) and I was in the mood for soup. Earlier in the day I threw together a quick split pea and ham soup.

Kids got homemade chicken tenders (made some months ago and frozen), and the ubiquitous Caesar salad, with homemade dressing (not as popular as the lowfat bottled Italian). And some chips and guacamole, using up a tired avocado.

Tired. That's what I am. And on the cusp of a ski trip -- first ever for the kids, and I haven't been on skis in 20 years.

QUICK SPLIT PEA AND HAM SOUP

4 cups cold water
1 cup dried split peas
1 large carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 large clove of garlic
1/2 cup cubed ham

Put everything in a pot, bring to a simmer for 2 hours, then remove ham and puree the rest. Return ham to the soup and heat through.

"Too lemony, too gingery"

I finally got around to making the tod mun (spicy fish cakes) in the cookbook I got from the library: "Street Food" by Clare Ferguson. Used some frozen salmon and frozen sole. The recipe called for lemograss and kaffir lime leaves; I left out the lemongrass and subbed lime zest. Didn't measure very precisely. Used lots of ginger, then cilantro, shallot, scallions, sugar, soy sauce. Pulsed everything in the food processor for a couple minutes. It was very watery, so after I made the cakes I squeezed some of the excess out. Still, didn't see how they'd brown -- but miraculously, they did. Served with mashed potatoes and (drum roll) frozen green beans.

Predictably, the kids didn't really like them. "Too lemony." And my husband thought they had too much ginger. But I enjoyed them very much.

Tomorrow night, something simple and kid-friendly.

Remembrance of stir-frys past

The rescue cake was good, if a bit dry. The vanilla option (cupcakes) consumed by none of the kids, was actually better.

Again, massive pizza consumption during the day prevented dinner from being a centerpiece for the kids, and hubby had an upset tummy. So I reheated a frozen dish from several months ago: a pork and tofu stir-fry with snap peas and vermicelli. Not half bad, especially with a little Trader Joe's red curry sauce atop. The kids had leftover pasta from last night (they still don't know the secret ingredient) and

(okay, between that word and this, I went onto Google and created and published a blog -- wow, this is so incredibly easy, no wonder everybody is doing it!!)

a big Caesar salad. Son #1 said: "If I could only ever have five foods, this is what I'd choose: pizza, Caesar salad, this pasta…" and that was as far as he got. His brother suggested water, but he said drinks didn't count.

So now I'm committed.

PORK AND TOFU STIR-FRY WITH VERMICELLI

1/2 lb. pork tenderloin, cut in strips
package of tofu
red peppers, cut in strips
one onion, thinly sliced
frozen sugar snap peas
some kind of sauce (bottled stir-fry, or use soy sauce and a little sugar, or teriyaki)*

If ambitious, drain and dry tofu, then cube and fry on all sides, then remove from pan. If lazy, just cube it. Stir fry the pork until cooked through and remove from pan. Stir fry onions until beginning to soften, then add peppers and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes. Add snap peas and return tofu and pork to pan. Stir in sauce to taste and turn off heat.

Serve over rice noodles or vermicelli.

*Sometime in the future I'll give the Condiment Queen recipe for sauces when you have none in the house.

Secret Ingredient

Just a quick note, like dinner: Lunch was late and mediocre, consumed at Subway after a movie downtown with the kids. We waited nearly a half hour to have our order taken -- the poor schmuck was alone behind the counter and there were eight people ahead of us. Then there were no small drink cups left so I would have had to order medium drinks, which I didn't want to do. Skipped the drinks altogether, skinflint that I am.

Dinner was simple, simple, simple. I defrosted an eggplant ratatoulle that I had frozen on Jan. 2 (guess that's what I made the day after New Year's!) and whipped it up in the blender with a little extra tomato sauce and red wine, then heated it through. Boiled up some squiggly pasta, some Italian brand I get at Costco, pretty good for dry pasta. To go with, a stir-fry of snap peas and Chinese broccoli with a little soy sauce. Younger son protested mightily when told what was on the menu ("I only like spaghetti!") but both ate several servings (they were not told the secret ingredient of the sauce, and both liked it though they normally won't touch eggplant).

Debacle of the day: baking a cake for older son's birthday tomorrow. Did my dry ingredient mis-en-place several days ago, but apparently all my mises weren't placed. Mixed it up this morning in between flipping pancakes (chocolate chip) for sons and friend sleeping over. Thought it was weird that the batter was so stiff. (It's the receipe for chocolate cake off the Hershey's cocoa package, the one that calls for boiling water at the end). Oh well, maybe I didn't remember how stiff it was before I put in the water… Went on with it. It seemed a little low-volume. Baked it. Seemed not to rise. Did I forget baking powder? Hmmm. Let it cool all afternoon while we were at the movies. Went to frost it at 3:30. Evened out one of the layers and tasted the scrap. BLECH!!!

Forgot the sugar.

Betty Crocker to the rescue.

SECRET INGREDIENT PASTA SAUCE

1/2 jar favorite tomato sauce
1/2 the leftover ratatouille from recipe below
Optional other vegetables

Blend in blender for a minute or two. Don't be alarmed at the orange color. Heat through and serve over pasta with grated cheese.


EGGPLANT RATATOUILLE

1 jar favorite tomato sauce
1 large eggplant, cubed
1 onion, diced (optional)
seasonings (basil, oregano, pepper)

Sautee eggplant in large saucepan with olive oil, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. Add onion if using. When eggplant begins to soften, add sauce and simmer about 45 minutes, until eggplant is very soft, stirring occasionally.

Burning Flesh

It's not lunchtime yet but I'm already thinking ahead: skirt steak. A few days ago something possessed me to buy one (Trader Joe's again). Now I face the dreaded use-or-freeze-by deadline (January 9). So we either eat it tonight or stick it in the freezer.

It would be good to grill it on the barbecue, but it's a bit cold for that. Still, if it takes only a few minutes a side, I could do it. The other thing I'm thinking is to do it on the griddle in the middle of the stove. Of course, that will stink up the house with the stench of frying meat, but who cares, really? I don't except I don't want it stinking my clothes and my hair. Well, we'll see. I Googled for recipes and came up with something from Epicurious.com -- marinated in balsamic vinegar and such.

… Right after lunch, I put the steak in to marinate. It's a small one, but just as well, since the kids just got invited spur-of-the-moment to a birthday party, so they'll be stuffed full of pizza and cake. It was a nice diversion, espicially for my oldest, still mourning the postponement of his party (yesterday being the worst day of his life, he told me more than once), and for me -- after more than 2 weeks with both kids at home. I'll be relieved to have the routine of school start again in a couple of days, even though it means a return to the inevitable grind of getting up early and making lunches. (Maybe I should write 365 Afternoons of Lunch?).

7:15 pm - Well, I did it -- broke out the barbecue in January. It was a great success, although, as predicted, the kids ate next to nothing. Ha. More for me. The long marinating, as indicated in the recipe, did tenderize the meat. I could have grilled it a couple minutes longer on each side; it was pretty red when it came out -- too red for Dave, I had to microwave his for a couple of minutes. But it was still tasty, nice and tangy, just chewy enough. I'd do it again.

And I don't stink like burning flesh.

Marinated skirt steak recipe from Epicurious.com.

The Beginning

Considering that I didn't get this idea until the 5th day of the new year, I'm not sure quite how it's going to work out. You wouldn't think that it would be so difficult to remember what I cooked a few days back, but in fact it is. I remember New Year's Eve, primarily because I didn't have to cook but was, as usual, treated to a sumptuous feast of ordered-in Chinese food in a tradition that had been going on for a long while before we joined the mother of one of our dear friends (and an assortment of about 40-odd relatives and friends). I particularly enjoy Chinese food when someone else orders it, because of my overwhelming tendency to always order the same several dishes and then to gaze longingly at a plate on some other table. Or is that merely the grass-is-greener phenomenon? Sometimes, as my husband can attest, I do order poorly, or else, in a fit of befuddlement (perhaps attributable to low blood sugar?), I order one thing while fully believing I have ordered something else.

But now I come to the first conundrum of this manuscript. If I fail to make an entry, will I simply skip that night and pick up on the next on (or the next that I remember), or will I attempt to reconstruct the evenings of meals I failed to chronicle? This seems like exactly the sort of conundrum that could completely prevent someone from moving forward, so I will brush it off for now. Besides, as I sat for a moment with hands poised over the keyboard a truly remarkable thought occurred to me, that I might even turn this into a blog, rather than a regular old-fashioned manuscript. Maybe the fun and hipness would make up for some of the befuddlement of my aging brain.

In any event, there was no ordering on January 1, although the kids would surely have voted for it.

So let's just move on to tonight's entrée. It was a dual preparation, something for the kids and husband, and leftovers for me -- not something I often do any more, but tonight it seemed just the thing as my poor older son, turning 9 in a few days, came down sick on the day of his birthday party sleepover. Instead of spending the day cavorting with friends at a local amusement arcade, then driving his parents batty during the sleepover portion of the party, he spent it moping around the house and mourning that it was the worst day of his life, a day that could only be fixed by receiving the right birthday presents, immediately. Well. You can imagine what I replied to that.

Of course, pizza was necessary to make him feel better. Our local Costco sells a not-half-bad and extremely inexpensive half-baked pizza. I always buy the "everything" version and then remove everything but the cheese from half of it, since the everything version is the same price as the cheese only and this way everybody gets something they like. I had a few pieces leftover in the freezer; they were the everything variety, but the kids don't beg when pizza is involved and they do have pretty adventuresome tastebuds. In case there wasn't enough, I whipped up a couple of tortilla pizzas on Trader Joe's whole wheat tortillas, spread with jarred marinara sauce and sprinkled with pre-shredded mozarella (TJ's again). And the green veggie to go with -- because I grew up in a house where there was always a green veggie, and because I do think about how to get more of them into my family -- was fresh string beans stir-fried in a little peanut and olive oil and finished with a splash of soy sauce (too much sodium? but it WAS the low-sodium kind, and it DID taste great) and left to steam for a few minutes.

Desert for the kids, who ALWAYS have to have dessert (where did they get that?!!!) was a creation of my older son's: marshmallows hollowed out, stuffed with several semi-sweet chocolate chips, and microwaved just long enough so the marshmallows puffed and the entire thing turned into a gooey, plate-encrusting mush that was as much fun to play with as it was to eat.

TORTILLA PIZZAS

2 whole wheat tortillas
Favorite tomato sauce
Shredded cheese (almost any kind will do - buy shredded or shred your own)

Spread sauce on tortillas. Top with cheese. Bake at 350 until bubbly, about 7 minutes.

STIR-FRIED BEANS

Green beans
Peanut or olive oil
Soy sauce

Cut beans into 1/2-inch lengths. Heat a little oil in pan until almost, but not quite, smoking, on medium-high heat. Add beans and stir constantly until they're bright green with a few burnt spots. Turn off heat, sprinkle with soy sauce, cover pan, and leave for 5-10 minutes.