Scramble du Jour

After making Erik an exquisitely crafted omelet, I went to make myself one and thought I would try a new technique for making them, which involved vigorously moving the eggs around in the pan for the first 30 seconds before letting it "set up." Unfortunately, my spatula scraped all the butter off the bottom of my pan in this process and the eggs stuck in a way that made it impossible to flip out. Oh well, egg scramble it is! Really, is there anything more satisfying to eat on a weekend morning than eggs with various yummy additions hot out of the pan with some toast? This morning I had on hand some scallions, ham and cheese. It was delicious. I actually prefer just scrambling in the ingredients instead of making the omelet structure because 1) it's easier and takes less babying 2) you can make a bigger batch if you've got a crowd 3) I like eating my scrambled eggs ON my toast- no utensils required. I started this in college and it's just stuck. Of course I have always eaten my friend eggs on my toast, but with a fork and knife ;)
Now I just have to go back and figure out that new omelet technique- or not, and stick to my old one which yielded a beautiful dish for Erik (but I didn't get a picture of it before it was devoured).

Zucchini Casserole

I had some zucchini in the fridge that needed to get used and I remembered a recipe for a creamy, cheesy summer squash casserole and thought, why not do that with zucchini? Summer squash and zucchini walk a fine line with me. I do not like them when they get mushy at all. Summer squash I find harder to cook just right, as the extra seediness in the center often leads to a dish with nothing left but rinds and scattered seeds. One of my favorite ways to do these vegetables together is in an aluminum foil packet with butter and fresh herbs on the grill. The colors get vibrant, the fragrance is amazing and they stay true to their form (I cut them in rounds or half moons, depending on the size of each vegetable). But I digress.
The recipe I have came from Wondertime magazine and was in a segment about getting kids to eat veggies. I'm not sure how much nutritional value is left when you start adding butter, cheese and cream, but it's awful tasty! The recipe calls for coriander seeds as a flavoring, which I did not have, and don't really love that much anyway. Instead, I had some fresh parsley and fresh thyme in my fridge, so I used those instead. The rest of the recipe includes sauteed onions, cream, Monterey Jack cheese and salt and pepper. Top the dish off with bread crumbs before baking, uncovered. I should have put some melted butter into the bread crumbs to moisten and help them brown, but I was trying to "be good." It didn't look quite as nice without it.
To go with this I was inspired by a Barefoot Contessa episode in which Ina made Chicken Piccata. I didn't use her exact recipe, merely watched her do it, and then did a version of it with what I had on hand. I pounded boneless chicken breast and breaded it with the standard flour, egg, breadcrumbs routine (and salted it as well). After they would beautifully browned and cooked through in a pan with some olive oil, I transfered them to plates and used the same pan to make the sauce. I deglazed with white wine and a freshly squeezed lemon. Then I added some chopped parsley and thyme (figuring it would be fragrant and tie in nicely with my casserole) plus some salt and pepper and let is reduce by half before pouring onto the chicken.
It was a very flavorful meal and not hard to get onto the table as I made the casserole in advance and then just put it in the oven a half hour before serving time. The chicken took only 15-20 minutes total. A great weekday meal that really hit the spot!

"Cheater" Baked Beans

Beans are another food that I discovered post-childhood. I have to give my friend Liza some credit for this revelation by introducing me to her chili in our college apartment. I will delve into chili some other time, but soon after my bean-loving eyes were opened I also discovered baked beans.
Until I started making them on my own, my only experience with baked beans had been one of someone opening a can and heating the contents in the microwave. The brown soupy goo that resulted was never appealing enough for me to give it a second spoonful. Then I saw two TV chefs use canned baked beans, but create a much more appetizing dish with them and decided to try it myself. I call it "Cheater Baked Beans" because the actual preparing and cooking of the beans is done for you via the canning process. Someday I will experiment with starting from scratch- but the whole soaking beans overnight thing has always put me off.
I begin with Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans. I go with vegetarian because I like to add my own meat, and honestly the pork bits they put in the meat versions just give me the heebie-geebies. I have tried other brands of vegetarian variety, and so far I think Bush's is my favorite. I usually only need one of their 28 oz cans because that makes about 4-6 servings, since you generally don't eat a huge amount in one sitting. I dump the can into a small round casserole dish and add the following:
Bacon bits (real bacon bits, as in chop up some bacon and fry it in a pan, not some soy product in a can)
A chopped, sauteed until translucent onion (usually a sweet yellow onion, like Vidalia)
Dijon Mustard (a good squirt- that's a technical measurement for you)
Brown Sugar (a couple tablespoons maybe... I never measure)
A couple chopped green onions, plus some for the top
And then I usually add some molasses or maple syrup, or both
Stir that all around and add some more green onion on the top. Bake until bubbly- I usually leave it uncovered, unless I'm waiting for other dinner dishes to finish, then I'll cover it and leave it in the oven to stay warm.
The result is a sweet, tangy and a bit salty bowl of beans with texture from the bacon and onions that's isn't too soupy. Plus the can of beans is fat-free (before the bacon addition, of course).

Soothie Smoothie

Erik had a gum graft this morning (his last for a while, wohoo!). To prepare for these minor oral surgeries I do two things: first, I make a gallon of sweetened iced tea and second, I stock up on frozen fruit and yogurt for smoothies. Why the tea? Tea helps to stop bleeding- in fact his periodontist even suggested he could just wet some tea bags and use it like a poultice on his gums, but iced tea is a lot yummier, and the cold is helpful for swelling. Magical stuff. The smoothies are so he doesn't starve.
Erik and I have long enjoyed a good smoothie- even without surgical necessity. I have two smoothie books within my cookbook collection. Erik used to joke about how we should open a smoothie stand some day. We are very critical of smoothies we get from malls or restaurants. First of all, I have to make two different categories of smoothies here. There are yogurt-based (or if you're really naughty, ice cream based) smoothies which are rich and creamy, sometimes have things like protein powder in them and honestly, are a meal replacer. Then there are what I now call "fruity freezes" because it was on the menu somewhere and it is a good description for the kind which don't have any dairy, but are really just crushed ice and fruit. Generally, I am a fan of the former. Although on a hot day "fruity freezes" have their place, for certain. But if you put "smoothie" on your menu and give me "fruity freeze" I am not going to be very happy.
Today I made a decadent smoothie with coconut milk, banana yogurt, frozen mango chunks, a bit of skim milk and a bit of Dole Pineapple Orange Banana juice. Woah. I gave Erik the first taste and he was slow to respond, which made me think I'd erred, and then he said "this is one of the best smoothies you've ever made." Of course I had to partake with words like that, and it is, indeed, darn good!

Baby Bok Choy: Where have you been all my life?

As wonderful a cook as my Papa is, his culinary world is mainly comprised of ingredients of an American Fare nature. My mother, being of Irish family decent, is very much a "meat and potatoes" kind of girl and her taste was usually what drove most of our dinners growing up. Of course that didn't mean we went without some classic French techniques and the occasional Swedish influence (of my father's family), but let's just say bok choy was not a vegetable I grew up with.
Of course vegetables come in trends, like anything else, and where might one have gone for bok choy other than an Asian specialty market a few years ago. With the advent of TV stations like Food Network and the internet, chefs are challenged to keep home cooks coming back for more, which can mean new ingredients. Suddenly vegetables the average American had never heard of can be found at your "local mega mart" (to quote Alton Brown's phrase of choice) because consumers are demanding what they saw on Rachel Ray last week.
How did I become a fan of bok choy? Well, there is a charming farm store in Acton that I recently discovered and now frequent for my produce. They always have amazing looking fruits and vegetables that inspire me to cook. A few weeks ago I passed by their display of bok choy, which included three or four different kinds if memory serves. I couldn't help but buy some of the baby bok choy because it looked so delicious.
When I got home I had absolutely no idea how you prepare this vegetable. I headed to the internet for inspiration. I found a recipe for braised bok choy for which I had all the ingredients, and tried it out. Erik's response was "what is this?" at first, but was surprised at how much he liked it. I enjoyed it too. It was beautiful on the plate, a nice clean flavor and very pleasing texture. So, I decided to buy it again this week. This time I tried a slightly different recipe from Tyler Florence. It involves making a pan sauce for the bok choy after you've cooked it. There are some ingredients that might not be staples in your pantry (like sesame oil and oyster sauce) but I happen to have purchased some Asian additions not long ago and had everything on hand. The sauce was quite flavorful with fresh ginger, lemon juice and oyster sauce. You can search for baby bok choy on the Food Network website to find it if you're interested.

Pork Chops and Apple Sauce

Do you smell what Barak is cookin'? Sorry, couldn't resist.

Tonight for dinner I made some really tender, juicy pork chops with homemade apple sauce. For sides I made baked sweet potato and a green salad.
I seasoned the pork chops with salt, Herbs de Provence and garlic powder, then cooked them in some olive oil in my All-Clad pan (love it!). They browned up beautifully and the seasoning was excellent. For the apple sauce, I just chopped 3 apples (two Macs and one Fuji) and put them in a small sauce pan to cook with some brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice until the apples are soft. I use a potato masher to finish it off, leaving a very chunky texture. The sweet from the apple sauce mixed with the savory chops is a great combination- no wonder it's a classic. Maybe not the prettiest dish ever... kind of a celebration of brown on the plate, but very tasty.

Wholly Guacamole

I bought a guacamole making kit from Trader Joe's the other day because I thought it was cute and reasonably priced. It contained two avocados, a jalapeno pepper, a small onion, a clove of garlic, a lime, and two plum tomatoes. I meant to use it this weekend when family was visiting but the avocados took a long time to ripen and weren't ready yet. I have learned the hard way that cutting into an unripe avocado for guacamole is not a tasty idea. So I made the guacamole for Keagan's playgroup this morning instead. I used a trick from Alton Brown with the jalapeno and "roasted" it using a collapsing veggie steamer basket on my stove. Then I rinsed it under cold water, peeled the charred skin off, and seeded it. The remaining pepper is more fruity than spicy. For assembly- I leave the avocado in pretty good sized chunks, but some gets smashed in the process as well. I seeded the tomatoes and chopped them, diced the onion, diced the jalapeno and minced the garlic. Then with a squeeze of the lime and some salt, it was done. I brought along some tortilla chips and pita chips for dipping. It was delicious! The picture isn't super elegant, since I have it packed in tupperware for transport, but oh well. I thought the "aftermath" shot was pretty funny, sort of a reverse mise en place :)

Blueberry Crisp

Blueberries were on sale at this week and I couldn't resist. They were very sweet and delicious. Erik and I had planned on watching the football championship games after Keagan went to bed, so I decided on a sweet treat to go with it! Pie required a crust, which I was just not up for, so I decided on blueberry crisp. Some sugar, flour, spices, oats and butter made up the topping. To finish it off, a little vanilla ice cream and whipped cream (yes, from a can, I didn't make it myself for such a small occasion).

The result: It was slightly watery when we scooped into it- so hard to gage how much flour you will actually need with fresh produce. It did gel up a bit when it fully cooled, but we wanted it warm in the bowl with the cold ice cream. The flavor was fantastic. The berries were really good and the cinnamon and nutmeg I added gave it just the right amount of spice. Quite winter treat!

Baked Mac N Cheese

On Wednesday this week I went to a "Mom's Night Out" where the hostess bought a bunch of food and we all cooked together and brought home meals. One of the things we made was a Macaroni and Cheese that we prepped up until the baking portion. I don't usually make baked Mac and Cheese- to be honest, I generally prefer stove-top methods (but I don't just mean using a box). Erik, however, enjoys the bread crumb crust of a baked version, so I indulged him on this one.
The version I brought home was simply the noodles and cheese sauce, so I decided to add some things that would really elevate it to full meal. The first was bacon. I chopped up some slices and cooked them in a pan until nice and crispy bacon bits remained. The second was frozen peas. I would have preferred spinach, but I knew peas would go over better with the boys in the house, and I wanted at least something green in dinner. The third was some diced grape tomatoes, because they add a nice contrasting color and because I had a handful left in a package that really needed to be used.
The result: I am pleased. Erik loved it. Keagan wouldn't eat it (he didn't recognize it as "cheesy noodles" with my additions, and therefore wouldn't try it, he had cantelope and bread and butter for dinner) The crumb topping browned up nicely and was crispy. I am not a huge fan of the all-cheddar mac and cheese because it tends to split into it's oil and cheese solids, making an oily mess. This one held together pretty well, just a little bit of oil separation, for which I was grateful. I enjoyed my additions- the added textures were very helpful because the macaroni became a bit too soft for my taste in the baking process. Plus bacon and cheese... how can you go wrong?
What to change: This wasn't my recipe to begin with, so I don't even know exactly what went into it. For techniques, I would leave the macaroni more al dente, almost par-cooked so that they still have some texture after the baking step. I would also vary the cheeses a bit to compensate for cheddar's separation issues.

Pizza

I was inspired to make pizza by my friends Liza and Joe after seeing a picture of their pizza creation the other day. I bought whole wheat dough (dealing with yeast still intimidates me) from Trader Joe's. It stretched out very easily, and although I was going to go round, a rectangular shape seemed to emerge, so I went with it. We have a pizza stone in the bottom of our oven, but my last attempts at getting a pizza on and off said stone, failed miserably, in the form of misshapen pizza with toppings that fell off. This past failure made me chicken out on trying it again this time. I will eventually figure out how to do it (I even had a pizza peel) but since I'd never used this dough before, I thought one adventure at a time. I put the formed pizza crust on a cookie sheet instead.

I prepared my toppings- some things I happen to have that sounded good. I love onions on pizza, so that was a given. I had some fresh mozzarella and basil leftover from the night before (I make a yummy cross between bruscetta and a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad- that will have to be posted next time I make it) and definitely wanted to use that. My meat/cheese drawer had some ham in it, so I grabbed that knowing Erik's penchant for meat on his pizza. Of course I got some red sauce too, I had some tomato and basil Barilla pasta sauce that seemed like it would work, and some good old shredded mozzarella as well. The assembled pizza looked fabulous- you can probably guess which corner was for the 2 1/2 year old ;) With the oven up to 450, I popped my creation in.

The result: The toppings were well done (a bit too much, see the close up of the sad fresh mozzarella) and the crust was too floppy on the bottom, especially in the middle, but the sides were fine. The flavor was great with the toppings and sauce that I chose.

What to change: I realized after the fact that the cookie sheet I chose has ridges on the bottom and was supposed to be a "hard to burn cookies" kind of a cookie sheet. Whoops. That doesn't make for a nice browned, crispy crust. Works great on cookies though! I guess I will have to figure out how to get pizza in and out of the oven via my peel and pizza stone. Next time, I will try. Maybe with two smaller pizzas instead of one big one it would be easier to shimmy onto the stone.