Quick and Easy

I forgot to take a picture last night - I have no idea what I was thinking.  I made spicy honey chicken thighs, potato wedges and salad.  The chicken was o-kay.. It wasn't very "honey" though and I had thought they would be stickier.  The honey sauce was just honey and some apple cider vinegar so maybe that took away from the stickiness.  For the potato wedges I pre-boiled them and let them sit until I needed them.  I drained them, tossed them in some olive oil and salt and pepper, with a sprinkling of the Italian herbs, then put them on a pan in the oven under the broiler for about 20 minutes. The chicken was just laid out in the spice mix which included cumin, paprika, nutmeg and salt and salt and pepper.  Broiled for about 10 minutes (thickness dependent); take them out and add the honey coating, turn, another 10 minutes and everything was done. I'd done the coleslaw the night before. 

Tonight I made an apple cobbler which took about an hour so probably not a weeknight dish.  I've screwed up two apple crumbles recently so I tried the cobbler. I wasn't overly impressed with the biscuit topping but I think the shortcake recipe I have, with a strawberry rhubarb filling would be to die for so I will try that next time.  This was not the quick and easy part.  Since I'm extremely challenged when it comes to time, I made this first and then started dinner.  I put the water on for broccoli at 6:00.  I had been thinking potatoes and pork chops but I was hoping to eat before 7:00.

I opted for the rice from my sausage and rice that we love so much; this is a really impressive dish because once you know how to make it, you can experiment - lucky rice dish number two.  The pork chops were a fast fry on the griddle.  I am so thankful for that thing.

Rice: 25 minutes
sauté chopped celery stalk and about half of a chopped red onion; add a chopped garlic clove when the other two are translucent. 
I added some kielbasa for the meat because we had a quarter of a ring left.  Chopped it up and threw it in there for a few minutes. 
Add a cup of uncooked rice (just finished the first two dollar bag of parboiled tonight) and allow it to soak up the moisture then slowly add two cups of chicken stock.  I guess this is like a rice-a-roni dish only fresh. 

Steamed broccoli

Pork chops: 15 minutes
salt and pepper and fry.  It only took 15 minutes because we could only cook four at a time. 

Dinner was on the table at 6:40.

And, yes, I only remembered to take the picture after my dinner was half eaten.  Sorry about that :-o

Squash Cookies Anyone?

The year I was pregnant with Miss. Me, I lived in Kansas City.  The Plaza was just over the bridge and there was a Williams Sonoma boutique store there.  I picked up a beautiful mini burlap sack of cookie mix and it was called "Pumpkin Spice Cookie Mix".  It smelled heavenly. 

This looks like the delicious cookie; this is not a
picture of the horrible cookie.

Later that day, I followed the directions which were printed on the handy little sack and made the most wonderful, tasty, melt-in-your-mouth cookies I have ever enjoyed.  I went and bought some more.  Then the season changed and I anxiously awaited the arrival of the next fall so that I might partake in their pumpkin-y spiced goodness once again.

To my dismay, the little burlap packages did not return.  I left Kansas City the following January and I have never enjoyed a pumpkin spiced cookie again.  Today, I tried to make pumpkin cookies from a recipe I found in a book.  They were bad... oh so bad... have you ever had the urge to eat a cookie made of squash?  No?  Well, let me tell you - it tastes as absolutely awful as you might think.  They are utterly and completely nasty.  Ew.

So I am on the hunt for a delicious pumpkin spice-flavoured cookie that I can make in my own home whenever I have the desire to eat them.  And yes, this is the first time in twelve years that I have thought of using the internet to search for a good pumpkin spice cookie recipe.  I have no idea how ridiculous that must make me sound.

Planning Considerations; Roast Beef Dinner

Last night we had roast beef, mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and Yorkshire puddings. Obviously NOT your typical Monday night meal but I had to use the roast because I had put it in the fridge to begin defrosting on Friday.  One thing I will say though - b.e.s.t. Monday night dinner ever.

My seven year old has begun to compliment my cooking. "Mom, everything on my plate, the beef, the potatoes and the carrots - it's the best ever." Do you know how many times he's complimented my food?  Only about three or four times; and only since I've started cooking with fresh stuff.

I am aware that people work and will not necessarily make a meal that takes an hour and forty-five minutes during the week.  As I'm making the switch from meals with processed/packaged items to fresh foods, I'm also keeping track of the time and energy each meal takes.  For me, it was a big reason why we didn't eat well before.  Obviously, unless you have a crock pot on timer, the two hour meal is not your ideal work day dinner.

I like to have potatoes during the week but rarely did because they took so long.  I'm ashamed to say that I have used the box of dried mashed or scalloped potatoes in the past. $1.89 for a box of dried potatoes for one meal vs. $3.99 for a five pound bag of potatoes that last for two weeks or so - seriously.. why??  Convenience.  However, one package won't feed my family of six; we would need two and it will only cover one meal so there's a huge savings to me for learning something new.

My mother-in-law makes the best fried potatoes; melt in your mouth amazing.  I had tried, but couldn't make them the same way and then I found out she was using leftovers.  When she was boiling potatoes, she just made more than she needed.  On another day she would take them out of the fridge, cut them into smaller pieces and fry them in a little butter or oil.  They're already cooked through and take only a few minutes in the frying pan.  Equally convenient without the monetary (and probably health) cost of eating powdered or creepy looking dried potato chip things.  And, of course, I do this now.

Roast Beef: 3 lbs
I put salt, pepper and some garlic powder on the meat and sear all sides before putting it in the oven - it keeps the meat from drying out while you don't pay any attention to it...
I left it in the oven longer than I needed to - almost two hours at 350 C but it was melt away tender.

Mashed Potato:
I add butter, a little milk, sour cream, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of dry Italian herbs blend

Yorkshires:
My mother would be unimpressed but I use a package.  She can make them from scratch but I've never had any luck with the recipe she gave me - EVER.  I keep telling her there's got to be something wrong with it but she denies it.  Yet hers work every time and mine don't.  Seriously.  It is not just me... I don't think.

Feeling Lucky...

I'm not sure how the rest of you do dinners, but I'm discovering that my plans mean little more than good intentions in my household.  I had a wonderful dinner planned for Friday night, which I executed, but I had defrosted more steaks than I ended up needing due to an impromptu sleepover invitation for THREE of my four children.  So I left five medallions in the marinade, knowing I'd have to cook them soon.

On Saturday, Geoff had to meet someone at the airport so he asked if we wanted to come into the city as well.  We ended up doing that and had dinner there.  So tonight, I had to cook the steaks and the roast (that I took out on Friday - for yesterday) will have to be cooked tomorrow.

Anyhow.  So I had a second chance at the cooking time on steaks and I am super proud to say that I nailed it!! Perfect medium rare on ALL five of them!  I also took some liberties with this rice and it was delicious even though I accidentally added white wine vinegar when I meant to add only white wine.  It still worked!  I also tried a béarnaise sauce - from scratch - and it was heavenly.  The marinade recipe is posted on Friday Sept. 13.

Rice:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, diced
Sautee in pan
1 cup of parboiled or other non-instant rice; add this to the pan and let it soak up all moisture; then add
approximately 3 Tbsp of white wine vinegar
6 Tbsp (or a healthy pour) of white wine
Allow the rice to soak this up; then slowly add
2 cups chicken stock - add just enough for the rice to soak up the moisture before adding more - it will take all of it
When the rice is finished and removed from the heat, add your extras: I folded in about 5 chopped green onions but you could use those, tomatoes, celery and/or peppers for some fresh flavours

Béarnaise sauce:
This came from Epicurious.com; Bon Appetite 2000 (since it's free, I'm sure I can reprint it)
Have 1 cup of melted butter on hand.
Bring 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar, 2 Tbsp water and 1/4 Tsp each of salt and pepper to a boil; remove from heat, and add 1 Tbsp of cold water. 
Whisk in three egg yolks, do not return to heat just yet as you do not want to cook the yolks.  Keep whisking and begin to drizzle butter into the mix.
I kept the saucepan near the burners that were on and did not return the pan to direct heat.  Keep whisking and drizzling until all of the butter has been mixed in - slowly and stop adding if it's not mixing; whisk more and then once it's mixed in resume butter drizzling.
Once this is complete, add lemon juice and salt to taste.  Fabulous.

I blanche the asparagus quickly; I like mine with a little crunch and it only takes a bare couple of minutes. 

Rice really does lighten a meal.  Being that it's still fairly warm out, I was happy to have a "lighter" meal.  The fresh green onion makes it look like a lighter meal too.  I'm experimenting with sauces but we usually just have the asparagus with a little salt and butter if you're not into the added sauce.  It was a little stressful because it's an unforgiving recipe but it turned out just fine. This meal was ready in about 45 minutes :)

PS. Looking at this photo, I think it looks like I portion control my meals - I don't mean to but I'll certainly bring it up if my weight changes.  Actually I don't own a scale, so probably not.  Happy Eating!!

Back To Cooking

We had to have leftovers again last night because we still had lasagna and then some chicken and broccoli.  Tonight I made marinated steak, roasted cauliflower and bruschetta toasts.  It wasn't a difficult meal at all.  The marinade can be done overnight so it would be ready to go the next day.  The cauliflower took the longest of actual cooking time at just under one hour.  Preparation was greatest for the bruschetta but even that was pretty simple. 

Marinade:
1/3 cup soya sauce
1/4 cup molasses
6 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup of olive oil
4 Tbsp bourbon or whiskey
I like a flank steak with this marinade but tonight we used regular eye of rounds; minimum of four hours needed or overnight marinating; can be grilled, sautéed or broiled.

Roasted Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, cut off florets
half an onion (white or yellow) cut into 1/8 sections
four garlic cloves, peeled
3 Tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper
Italian seasoning blend spices
parmesan cheese for garnish
Bake at 375 C for 45 minutes, add parmesan and return to oven for ten minutes. 

Bruschetta
2 tomatoes, seeds removed and diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, finely diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
Feta or goat cheese, crumbled
1 day old loaf French Bread
Slice the bread thin enough to toast either in the toaster or oven; spread tomato mixture on top of toasted slices and add crumbled cheese; warm in oven for about three minutes or eat chilled.  Great with sprinkled balsamic vinegar also.

This was not a heavy meal but it was filling. We loved the roasted cauliflower and bruschetta but are thinking it would be nice to have a butter sauce with the cauliflower so I may try that next time.  I messed up on the steaks though - first run was rare and then I asked my man (because why shouldn't he know?) how much longer to get to medium rare and he suggested three minutes each side.  I had already sautéed them for three minutes to get to rare.  I listened to him and we ended up with well done.  So now I know.  Three minutes to rare, six minutes to well; about four, four and a half minutes to medium rare.  Size dependent of course.

We're having sticky ribs tomorrow night and possibly pizza as well because there's at least one extra kid coming for a sleepover.  We shall see :)

Another Shocker: I Think I Need A Different Cook Book

I don't normally cook two meals.  I think that most people who are cooking for children do so with the children in mind.  What will they not eat?  With the exception of shrimp, I cook what I want and expect everyone to try it.  I had planned for chicken tonight but Geoff wasn't going to be home so I switched the menu for something that isn't really his favourite: Fettucini Alfredo with Chicken and Broccoli and I had planned to do my own as well, Fettucini with Shrimp in a Tomato Cream Sauce. 

Kid sized portions

Sure, I have time to do this because I'm not working outside of the home. It only took a little over an hour anyway, but sometimes I think that's too much on a week night.  Maybe because I don't usually start dinner until at least 5. Maybe.  Being that Geoff wasn't going to be home for dinner, we could have eaten at 5 and that would have been preferable.

Three of the kids had the chicken and broccoli and two of us had the shrimp.  It would have only taken about a half hour or so to make just one sauce too. I used to do the chicken and broccoli when I was working because it was quick, healthy, and the kids all ate it.  Same tonight.  Since I'm trying to use less prepackaged items, I made the Alfredo from scratch and I was extremely unimpressed with it.  Like the white sauce, I had to add more than the recipe called for to get flavour.  Maybe I should stop using that book for my white sauces because I've not been overly impressed with the sauces.  

When I made it before I used to buy the packaged chicken breast (pre-cooked) from WalMart and I used an Alfredo sauce package.  It took longer for the noodles to cook than anything else and it tasted pretty good.  That meal was about $8.  Tonight I used a small portion of uncooked chicken and made everything else from scratch.  Total cost tonight was about $11 because I had shrimp too.  Again, not overly expensive and I still have chicken, shrimp, cream and cheese left over to use with something else.

Lasagna with Cheese Sauce

This may be normal for lasagna but I'm not thrilled about the time it takes to make this thing.  3 hours to get it in the oven but I did identify an issue in the way the recipe was given and corrected it here.

Meat sauce: Takes about two hours
2 diced carrots
1 diced celery stalk
1 diced yellow onion
1 package of pancetta (it's like a cross between bacon and ham)
2lbs ground beef
1/2 cup of red wine
2tbsp of tomato paste
Either: two medium tomatoes, diced; or one 540mL can of tomatoes, drained.
1 cup of beef stock
1 cup of vegetable stock

Melt butter in the pan; add first four ingredients (you should hear the vegetables sizzle as you don't want them to boil) and sauté these for about 15 minutes. Add the ground beef, breaking it down as you cook it through.  Add the red wine and ensure you don't leave anything stuck to the bottom of the pan. Once you've stirred it through for a minute or two, add the tomato paste and tomatoes; then add the beef stock and vegetable stock (if you have real stock that would be ideal but packaged works for no waste, also the re-sealable containers from Campbell's). 

Once you've added all of your ingredients, it's supposed to simmer, covered, for around an hour and a half.   You should do the noodles now.

Interesting idea from this one and I was peeved that it didn't tell me to do this while the meat was cooking.  Add 3-5 noodles to boiling water; then get very cold water in another large dish.  Once the noodles are al dente (not mush) remove them from the pot straight into the cold water.  This apparently keeps them from becoming mush in the oven.  This process takes about 30 minutes or so.  After the noodles are completely cooled, take them out of the cool water and place them on a non-linty kitchen towel to drain excess water.  They don't dry out, but excessive touching can make them sticky.

White Cheese Sauce - about 12 minutes if you only have to do it once...
Butter
Flour
Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese
Ricotta
*salt and pepper or whatever else you feel to taste

With about a half hour left, grease your lasagna dish and get ready for the white sauce.  You need two pots for this and the warming of the milk takes longer than making the roux.  Put three cups of whole milk in one pot and warm it.  Don't bring it to a boil; it's finished when there are little bubbles on the side - about 8-10 minutes. With only a few minutes remaining (or you can wait until it's done) melt about 6 tablespoons of butter in the other pot and then add about 6 tablespoons of flour.  You'll make something that looks like a crumbly dough; add more flour if yours doesn't look like this. 

The milk is slowly added to the roux as you whisk it.  You should have something that is a bit thicker than cake mix.  I found out tonight that my milk hadn't been warm enough (or I didn't make enough roux) and it was totally runny.  I made more roux and put the milk on again and it was perfect.  Taste this and see if you like it.  Maybe I think it's bland and it's quite tasty (but it's not supposed to be).  I add shredded parmegiano-reggiano cheese and also a couple tablespoons of ricotta.  If your meat sauce is as salty as mine (with no salt added) you probably don't need to add anything else to this but here's the time to make that decision.

Layering: noodles, white sauce, meat (and I sprinkle some mozzarella on top of this also) repeat; ending with noodles, white sauce and mozza on the top.  In a 9x13 pan, I had three layers of meat sauce, so four layers of noodles.  It's supposed to hold together better if you use less meat at a time.  Place in oven at 375 for 45 minutes in a glass baking dish and probably a half hour at 350 in a tin one.

Geoff doesn't like the white sauce (bland or cheesy). I forgot.  Everyone else liked it and I'm calling it a success since the kids asked to take it for lunch tomorrow.

I'm Not Doing This Because I'm Good

As I walked into my smoky kitchen to remove my lasagna from the oven, it occurred to me that I'm not sure if I've adequately described the reason I decided to write this blog.  As the title suggests, it's not because I'm good at it.  I can follow directions just fine, and my palette is definitely evolving.  The problem I have is a complete lack of basic skills training in the kitchen.  I'm not sure if I am alone in this but the transition from cooking with crap to cooking good food is not going to be a seamless one.   

Sure I've had a good four weeks - this is actually the first thing I've mucked up.  And it wasn't even really a horrible muck up - just a rookie mistake.  The recipe directions were for 45 minutes at 375 degrees in a glass dish.  As soon as I got into the kitchen, I knew; I had switched it for a tin and therefore should have reduced either the cooking time or temperature... maybe both - I have not consulted with anyone on this. Bonus - it still tasted quite good, I just lost the bottom layer of noodles. So, not a massive disaster and I did use a recipe that I've tweaked on my own so I am posting it next.

The purpose of detailing this is more for the proof of what I'm cooking for dinner with my inexpensive groceries.  Yesterday's trip ran me $188 (and about $27 went to non-menu items).  That's supposed to get us through two weeks of dinners.  If I can get through 13 dinners at an average cost of 12 dollars each, I'm totally onto something here - that's $2 per person. 

Also worth noting is that I spent a little more at the beginning while I was stocking my pantry.  Red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine, white wine etc.  It lasts though; if you only use it for cooking :)  I've made three dishes that required white wine (I had a glass the first night as well) and I still have enough for one more (could've been two) - again, that's only a couple of dollars added to the cost of that night's dish.

I've also found that I really need to schedule leftovers.  Sometimes there's very little left but some days, there's enough to feed at least one or two of us.  I was supposed to do lasagna yesterday actually but once I got home and unpacked I realized I had no space for leftover lasagna.  We needed to finish up what was in there so that's what we did.  I was also supposed to cook a roast last week but we had something else instead so I have that for this coming two weeks. Technically I'm now a day ahead on food and a day behind on my menu.  That just stretched out my food again.  No complaints here. 

Sweet and Sour Veggie Pizza

This was a complete success and I just happened to have all ingredients on hand since I've been specialty shopping and cooking.  I imagine this would be quite expensive if you had to run out and buy everything at once but I didn't. 

I did the math one day; we had pizza night every Friday and the average cost was $40.  That is upwards of $120 per month (depending how many Fridays you end up with).  I knew we needed to cut that out and we don't like those frozen ones.  We used to make them with the Kraft kits when I was growing up and they worked out okay so I went back to them.

This is the size of pizza half the dough makes. Kid's was same size.

This is what I spent; yield, 4 pizzas or two weeks worth of pizza Fridays in my house
(2)Pizza kit: $11.50
Mozzarella: under $7 (on sale)
Kalamata olives: under $5
Feta cheese: under $6
Tomato: under $1
Sweet and Sour Peppers
    Red pepper: $.80
    Red onion: $1.25
    Garlic clove: $.30
    Red Wine vinegar: $4
    Olive oil: $6
Italian Sub Meat: $5
Total: Under $48.  And the only things I bought specifically for the pizzas were the kits and sub meats.  Everything else is stuff I needed for other meals - the sweet and sour pepper mixture was actually leftovers from another meal so I'm guessing at the cost of those.  Kraft kits make excellent dough, spices included (I also mix some in with the dough before adding water), canned sauce (which I've never used all of and also use the spices in - it's quite tasty for a package) and a package of parmesan cheese (never used all of it either).  Biggest pay off? An average pizza night now costs around $9 so that's a savings of at least $80 a month. 

By the way, that pizza was incredible - and I also tried a stuffed crust on the kids' pizza - cut the cheese a little thick, then in half lengthwise and then folded the edges of their pizza over it - worked really well too!

This is What's to Come

I'm not a great cook but I'm actually trying now - since I'm at home and have four kids and a spouse who, though he will actually eat anything prefers good food.  This is not actually a new idea of mine, I've tried this before. Once, I used a recipe on the back of a Stove Top Stuffing box and I think it asked for Asiago cheese but I only had parmesan so I used that instead.  At one point I thought it smelled like dirty socks.  I opened the oven and took a much bigger whiff - yep, it totally smelled like dirty socks.  I honestly thought it couldn't possibly taste as bad as it smelled. 

I served it.  We only had three kids then.  Geoff ate it.  It was the worst thing I'd ever tasted. I didn't eat it, Ocean wouldn't eat it and neither would Ethan.  Aaron was about a year and a half old and he stared at Geoff with a look of complete fascination.  Geoff ate it - every bite.  He then got up and left the house.  I was thinking, gee, how nice. I was clearing plates and trying to think of what to throw together now.  Geoff returned with Dairy Queen and all was forgiven; but that was still weird. 

The point is, I've made some really bad food but I'm working on getting better.  I have mainly been working with Gordon Ramsay's cooking at home.  There is a problem with using this book and that of course is copyright law.  I cannot print the recipes.  I was trying to avoid this by getting another chef to put some recipes together but so far he has not given me anything so I'm working on my other connections.

The focus will be on weekly menu planning, fresh food and simplicity but yielding excellent results. I've done this for four weeks now and I'm pretty impressed so far - not only by the reduction of crap food in my pantry, but in the excellent food I've produced with fresh stuff.    Even more thrilling, we've been saving money - stupid amounts of money by eating fresh and menu planning.  I will put together some of that information in here as well.  This is the introduction - everything else will be listed by meal :) Enjoy!