Be Flexible!

"The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry," poet Robert Burns once said. I use a weekly menu so that I have fewer trips to the grocery store each week and I don't have to ask (and answer) the question, "What should we have for dinner tonight?" I also have the ingredients I need on hand. That being said, the weekly menu is a friend, not a taskmaster, so sometimes the best laid plans have to be adjusted for changes in schedule. This past week was one of those weeks.

Monday

The original plan called for a new recipe for pork tenderloin. Well, Monday we added a new weekly kid event to our calendar so my Monday afternoons go like this: violin lessons followed by ballet, followed by small group violin lesson which happens... right at the dinner hour! The small group doesn't last long so from now on I will try to make something quick afterward. This past week, however, we just came home and ate leftovers.

Tuesday

Tuesday is usually my grocery shopping day. The new ad comes out on Wednesday, so often on Tuesday afternoon you can get the prices from this week's and next week's ads because the grocery store has already changed the prices to be ready for Wednesday. This doesn't always work for produce and meat but often does for everything else. I try to go in the early afternoon, but sometimes it is later which can mess up my dinner plans if I don't plan ahead. Since I didn't cook Monday, I really wanted to cook Tuesday so I made sure I went to the grocery store in time. I made the menu I had originally planned for Monday: Island Pork Tenderloin, Barley Risotto, and Ginger Braised Red Cabbage. This menu was a big hit. All of the foods went really well together. Ginger braised red cabbage sounds a little sketchy but it turned out to be the recipe that brought the other foods together. The Barley Risotto was okay. I included it because I am trying to include different grains in our meals. Of course real risotto uses Arborio or other Italian rice, not barley. The barley was hearty, a little different and very healthy. The Pork tenderloin was enjoyed by all. I will make all of these recipes again.

Wednesday

I cook early on Wednesday and eat late because we have a small group that meets at our house on Wednesday nights. With the weather warming, I thought a hearty salad would be nice. I found Asian Chicken Noodle Salad on an app on my phone. You can find it here. Compliments were buzzing all around the dinner table Wednesday night. This salad was fabulous! It had a lot of crunch with toasted Ramen noodles, sunflower seeds, and pine nuts. The recipe calls for Asian cabbage rather than lettuce making it a substantial salad. The recipe said Bok Choy but one reviewer mentioned she used Napa Cabbage instead. The Napa looked better than the Bok Choy the day I shopped, so I went with the Napa. Good choice! The salad also has green onions, water chestnuts and snow peas. The recipe calls for cooked chicken breast. I bought plain boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale and marinated them in a spicy Asian marinade I found in a George Forman cookbook. I then cooked a couple on my gas grill early in the afternoon. The spicy chicken added to the intensity of the salad. The dressing was very good. I assembled the vegetables in my favorite salad bowl, put the toasted crunchies in a zippered plastic bag, and the dressing in a jar. I assembled the salad right before we ate so everything remained crispy. I served it with French bread.

Last week someone asked for my French bread recipe. It is incredibly easy. I have been reluctant to share it - people are so impressed with my bread - I have enjoyed people thinking I was such an amazing baker! However, I will share. I am going to post it on Food.com so you can have the nutrition information also. When I post it, I will let you know.

Thursday

Thursday was another wild day in our household. More violin, Chinese lessons, and a large group violin lesson so it was once again a leftover night, but wait - the craziness is about to begin! My son who is a senior asked if I could cook the dinner before his prom. This is Thursday - the prom is Saturday! I said, "Sure," and then set out to see what I could re purpose from the rest of my menu and what I would need to buy. That means an extra grocery trip on Friday, but it will be done! The mantra of the week is "Be flexible!"

Friday

I am currently in a half lotus position heading toward a full lotus - my flexibility is showing! Turns out the same senior son is a member of a band and that band is performing for another senior's senior project. There is not time to eat before he performs and then it is too late to start cooking after so we end up going out to a restaurant. The food was good. I did make it to the grocery store before the concert.

Saturday

The good news is I love to cook! The better news is that my husband has front of house experience and knows how to set a table. We make a great team - he readies the tables and I prepare the food. I started cleaning at 9:00 am and began cooking about noon. We had a lovely prom meal and the kids seemed to really enjoy it!

The beautifully dressed young people started arriving about 6:15 - 6:30. Some parents also appeared to photograph these incredibly handsome men and women. I made ham and cheese roll ups and citrus mint coolers to have when they arrived. I made the ham and cheese roll ups by placing deli ham and sliced swiss cheese and a little Dijon mustard on crescent roll dough. I then rolled the dough up jelly roll style and sliced. The little ham, cheese and dough rolls were placed on a cookie sheet and baked at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Quick, easy, teenager friendly appetizers and leftovers work well for breakfast!

The main course was baked shrimp in lemony garlic sauce. I wanted a shrimp recipe to go with Asiago cheese grits. I chose this one because I could cook all of the shrimp at one time in the oven. Made preparation easy. I also knew the flavor family I wanted. Of course, peeling six pounds of shrimp is a bit tiring, but I had good music playing so that helped pass the time. To accompany the shrimp and grits I made Caesar Salad. I cleaned and tore the lettuce early in the day and just added croutons, fresh grated Parmesan, and bottled salad dressing at the last minute. I usually make my own dressing but I decided purchased dressing was one shortcut I was willing to make. I also made some fresh rosemary garlic French bread. For dessert, I made brownies (recipe from a recipe shower over 24 years ago) topped with vanilla ice cream onto which I drizzled fudge sauce. My son gave me extra points for plating on that one. During dinner the kids had a choice of sweet tea, unsweet tea, or water. My husband was the very able waiter.

After the kids left for the dance, I put our young daughter to bed and my husband embarked on the dishes journey. We served 12 young men and women. We used my favorite china, real glasses and flatware (although we skipped my grandmother's silver since I only wash it by hand.) We had fun, but we did generate quite a few dishes. All the kids were delightful. Last minute or not, I am glad we had the opportunity to serve my son and his friends.

Sunday

Originally a big Sunday dinner was on the menu, but I borrowed the Asiago cheese grits from Sunday's menu for the prom dinner and had cooked all day Saturday. We had leftovers from Saturday night so ended up freezing the chuck roast for another Sunday.

Some weeks you just have to be flexible. Next week we will be out of town for our niece's wedding so it will be a very short menu week. I will be late posting again next week - either Monday or Tuesday.

Remember to be flexible and enjoy playing with your food!

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is springing up all over! I even had to turn on the air conditioning yesterday! With spring comes lighter fare on the menu. I like to cook seasonally when possible. It helps me to decide my menus by what is available and in season. I mentioned last week that I was looking at including at least one meatless meal each week which I did this week and will try to continue to do. When I eat less meat, I feel lighter.

Monday

My oldest child was still home from college for spring break so I made Linguine with clam sauce. I have two recipes for linguine with clam sauce. One my husband prefers with tomatoes, wine and broth in addition to clams and herbs. My oldest son prefers the simpler one, so that is what I made this time. The recipe is from one of my absolute favorite cookbooks - the 1989 Southern Living Annual Recipe Cookbook. This is an easy week night dish. I served it with a Caesar Salad using this easy dressing recipe. I completed the meal with my home made French bread (pictured.)

Linguine with Clam Sauce

1 (16 oz) package linguine

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c. olive oil

2 (6.5 oz) cans minced clams, drained very well

1/2 t. dried whole basil

1/2 t. dried whole oregano

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley

1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cook linguine according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Saute' garlic in oil in a medium skillet; add clams and next 4 ingredients. Cook over low heat, stirring often, 5 minutes. Add linguine to skillet; add parsley and toss gently. Top with Parmesan cheese. Yield 4-6 servings.

Tuesday

You may remember that last week I grilled chicken breasts and made extra for use this week. An easy family favorite is Chicken Enchiladas. I don't have a written recipe for this, a friend once told me an easy way to make enchiladas and I have made them that way every since. First, I chopped up the leftover grilled chicken. Then, I used a package of tortillas - enchiladas should be corn tortillas, but we prefer wheat and I used whole wheat at that. I chopped an onion and opened a package of shredded Mexican cheese (which just means it is a mixture of cheeses often used in Mexican dishes.) For many years I would not use pre-shredded cheese but now I appreciate the convenience. Why didn't I use this cheese? In order to keep the cheese from sticking together, manufacturers add cellulose to the shredded cheese. Cellulose is a plant material used commercially in wood and paper and I was a young purist, but as I grew older, I decided the addition was worth the convenience. The last ingredient in this easy dish is a can or two of red enchilada sauce.

Quick directions for Chicken Enchiladas

Open the can of enchilada sauce. Pour some of the sauce in the bottom of a 8 X 11.5 pan. Pour some more of the sauce on a plate. Dip a tortilla in the sauce on one side. On the side with sauce add some chopped onion, chopped chicken and cheese. Roll up and place in pan. Continue until your pan is full of enchiladas. Pour some more sauce on top of the enchiladas and top with more shredded cheese. Cover pan with foil, bake in a 350 degree oven for 25- 30 minutes.

I served the enchiladas with black beans (canned) to which I added some minced garlic and cumin. A green salad completed the meal.

Wednesday

I think I mentioned before that we have a small group at our house on Wednesday nights so I usually make something early. The March 2011 Southern Living Magazine had a recipe for Slow-cooker Red Beans and Rice which I made - with some variations. The recipe calls for 1/2 pound andouille chicken sausage. I had another chicken sausage in the freezer so I used that instead and used a whole pound. I also added a leftover ham bone from my freezer at the beginning for extra flavor. It is a convenient recipe because you put the dried beans in the crock pot still dried and they reconstitute as they cook. To complete this meal I added a salad and more of the French bread.

Thursday

In our local grocery store ad, I noticed Mahi Mahi on sale, so I searched for a recipe. I found one called Sweetly Succulent Mahi Mahi on the SparkRecipes app on my IPhone. (You can see the recipe here.) The irony is that the grocery store did not have any Mahi Mahi so I ended up making it with grouper. It was still very good. I steamed some asparagus and made a lemon butter to go with it. Simply melt some butter and add lemon juice and cayenne pepper. I made some Asian black rice to go with the fish since it had a lot of fresh ginger in it which gave the fish an Asian feel. I added some sesame oil and garlic to the rice. A nice light, spring meal.

Friday

I love to cook at home, but an occasional night out is always a treat. We are members of a country club and we have to spend a minimum amount on food each quarter. Friday was pasta night so we decided to eat at the club.

I do want to tell you about a lunch I have enjoyed this week. I found it on the same SparksRecipes app on my phone. It is called Greek Hummus Wrap. It is a vegetarian wrap and is very tasty and filling. It calls for onions which I left off, but I added sliced Kalamata olives. I also used plain feta cheese rather than the reduced fat feta with added herbs.

Saturday

Saturday night was my meatless night for the week. I made a fresh vegetable lasagna. I found it in the February 2011 Southern Living magazine. It was a big hit with my family. The recipe made quite a large pan of lasagna so it will be nice for leftovers throughout the week. I made the sauce included with the recipe and added extra carrots and celery to it as well as some fennel. The recipe calls for a little sugar but I left that out. It was great without it. The recipe made about twice as much sauce as needed for the lasagna recipe. I put the extra sauce in the freezer for a future meal. The meal was rounded out by salad and French bread.

Saturday is often a big cooking day for me and this Saturday was just that. I made the sauce and the lasagna, another batch of homemade yogurt, more French bread - this time with rosemary and garlic and the first batch of homemade granola for the year. We love granola and yogurt with fresh berries during the spring and summer.

Sunday

We ended our week and spring break eating the Sunday buffet at the Country Club. I ended up having a long discussion with the chef about bread - they had some great homemade sourdough bread. He was kind enough to give me some starter and I have some whole wheat sourdough bread working as I write. It is definitely an experiment. I couldn't find exactly the recipe I wanted so I adapted another one and it was very dry so I have been adding more liquid as I go along. The first rise is nearly over. I am planning on it being our lunch bread for the week so I hope it turns out!

I'll be back next week. Enjoy your week. Play with your food!

Old Favorites

I do not plan a theme for my menus each week, but often a theme emerges. Since I sit down and plan in one evening, I guess that makes sense that the menus would follow a trend. The theme this week was old favorites: recipes that I have been making for years (and years.) These are those tried and true stand byes that fill our mouths with flavor and our hearts with love.

(For Monday nights menu, see last week's blog.)

Tuesday
Our younger son finished his high school senior project this night. We celebrated with dinner out at a local restaurant.

Wednesday
My husband was out of town so my younger two children and I ate spaghetti using the last batch of frozen home made spaghetti sauce. I have loved that sauce and that recipe, but for my next batch, I am going to try something different. That just seems to be how I am!

Thursday

This is really an OLD favorite. My family loves Chop Suey. Looking at Wikipedia, chop suey can mean lots of different things to different people. This chop suey recipe was from my grandmother - my dad's mom. My mother gave me a copy of the typed copy she had when I married. The original recipe called for veal - which I don't cook, and "chop suey sauce" which I have interpreted as soy sauce. The only vegetables in it are celery and onions and it isn't really a stir fry as it simmers for a while, but it is a comforting dish. My children love it as much as I do. I served it with brown rice and an Asian seasoned frozen vegetable medley. The vegetables had baby corn in the mix and my five year old tried it the same way Tom Hanks did in the movie, "Big." She tried to eat it like regular corn on the cob.

Friday
Friday's menu consisted of another meal from my childhood. As I have mentioned before, Friday is my day to cook easy. My older son was home from college, so I was looking for easy and tasty. (I'm always looking for tasty.) I made the Sloppy Joe recipe my mom made while I was growing up. It is unbelievable how easy it is. Brown ground beef (I used ground sirloin) and drain. Add chopped onion and green pepper and cook until soft. Then add a can or two of tomato soup and a half a can or so of water. Stir and simmer until it is the consistency you like. Serve on a hamburger bun. Very easy and very tasty! In our family you can choose open face (meat on both sides of the bun and eat with a fork) or closed face (eat like a messy hamburger.) I had planned to make sweet potato fries to go with our Sloppy Joes but the kids said they would prefer regular white potato fries. Since this was Friday, I used some frozen fries I had in the freezer. I baked them because I don't even know how to fry. I don't deep fry anything. To finish the meal I had Easy Cole Slaw. I took a bag of pre-shredded cole slaw mix and added Marzetti slaw dressing - another item I picked up from watching my mom. For many years I worked at making my own slaw dressing but the Marzetti dressing is the one my family and I prefer and it is easy - just open and pour.

Saturday
During the day Saturday, I made another batch of bagels. I substituted orange juice for the water and added a little grated orange rind. To this batch I also added 1 Tablespoon of ground cardamon and 1/2 cup of dried cranberries. These turned out to be some of my best bagels yet. This is also a flavor you won't find in the grocery store.

For dinner Saturday night, I grilled some boneless skinless chicken breasts. I marinated them for a few hours in a mixture of lemon juice, fresh rosemary, minced garlic, a little olive oil and a little white wine vinegar. I made the whole package of chicken breasts because I will be able to use the leftover breasts this week. I don't know yet if it will some type of salad or chicken enchiladas or something entirely different. Grilled chicken is a great recipe starter.
With the chicken we had baked potato. Because I didn't make the sweet potato fries, everyone had a choice of white potato or sweet potato. I used to make my baked potatoes in the microwave, but my family told me they prefer the old fashioned slow bake method and, I admit, the texture of the potatoes is better. I was already using the oven for the bagels so I didn't mind heating it up! I completed the meal with a tossed salad. I have quit making separate salad dressing for the most part and make dressing the way my mother-in-law always has - just dump a little of this and a little of that. We ate a little earlier than usual so we could go out for a family movie. The price of movies is incredible but eating at home first saved us both money and calories.

Sunday
Our Sunday dinner continued my theme of old favorites. I cooked Brisket Carbonnade from the Better Homes and Gardens Red and White checkered cookbook. This is one of my favorite roasts. (This recipe is similar, but not identical.) It smells divine when you walk in the house from church. You cook the beef brisket in beer and other seasonings with lots of sliced onion. I don't usually make gravy but the gravy from this roast is exceptional so I made gravy today. (So much for saving calories!) Mashed potatoes accompanies this roast beautifully. (More gravy!) I steamed frozen green beans and made a hot lemon tarragon sauce to go over the beans. This recipe comes from the 1991 Southern Living Yearbook cookbook. We rounded out the meal with fresh pineapple and corn muffins I had made a couple of weeks ago and froze. For dessert we had "berry jello mousse." Last week I mentioned that I was going to experiment with my home made yogurt. I whipped it into jello and made a new dessert. There is a recipe for something similar on the side of the jello box, but it uses Cool Whip. I used the fresh yogurt. My family was reluctant to try it, but once they did, everyone really liked it - except for the five year old and she was the one I was trying it for originally. We added fresh strawberries and mini chocolate chips to the top and enjoyed every bite!

I do not know what theme will emerge next week. It is spring break, so easy will probably be the overriding theme. I need to include a meatless meal each week. This afternoon I am going to make some Mocha Chip Gelato. It is a surprise for my husband. I'll let you know how it turns out. We love BlueBell Mocha Almond Fudge Ice cream but it is a seasonal flavor and we can no longer find it so I am going to try to create something similar. We shall see!!

Have a great week and have fun in the kitchen!

An Unusual Week

"Take Chances, Make Mistakes," are the words often used by Ms. Frizzle of the Magic Schoolbus. This mantra can be applied to cooking and menu planning as well. So many times I hear my friends say that they eat the same things over and over, but dear friends, the world is your oyster when it comes to new recipes. I love the internet for finding new recipes as well as new (and old) cookbooks, but don't be afraid to experiment on your own!

This week was unusual because I cooked only a few things. I was out of town to attend my 30th high school reunion. The menu will be short but I did have some fun experimenting in the kitchen.

Monday
Kids have a crazy schedule so we ate out at a local deli.

Tuesday
I have been wanting to make chicken pot pie, but I had so many recipes - where do I begin? I went back to a recipe called Easy and Quick Chicken Pie given to me at a bridal recipe shower over 24 years ago.

Easy and Quick Chicken Pie

• 1 chicken, cooked and boned
• 1 3/4 to 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 stick softened butter
• 1 cup self rising flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Place chicken in a 9 X 13 inch dish. Pour broth over chicken. Spread celery soup on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix softened butter, flour and milk together and pour over previous ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until crust is brown. Serves 6.

Okay, that is the basic recipe, but I decided to channel my inner Ms. Frizzle. First, I already had a whole chicken. The obvious way to cook it would be to boil the chicken and make broth as well. Recently the food editor of our paper had a recipe for Chicken pot pie and mentioned using a rotisserie chicken from the deli section of the grocery store. I decided to roast my chicken with lots of herbs for added flavor and then use canned broth. I am not sure it added that much flavor but I could roast it that morning to use in the afternoon. I also appreciated the canned broth because they do a better job skimming the fat than I do.

Then I sauteed some mushrooms, celery, onions and carrots to add with the chicken. I also threw in some frozen green peas. I wanted to add some white wine but didn't have any available so I used mainly chicken broth but added a little mushroom broth as well.

I used a 10 inch round baking dish which did make for a pretty presentation. My son exclaimed, "Wow Mom, this is great!" at the dinner table. To be honest, it was okay. The point is a recipe is a starting point - a guideline. You can trust yourself to experiment a little.

I made a salad and my home made French bread to round out the meal.

Wednesday

We were getting ready to leave town so I had what I call Smorgasbord. Just a fancy way to say, "Leftovers."

Thursday - Sunday

We were out of town at my reunion. We visited many restaurants.

Monday

I normally would include this next Sunday, but I wanted to leave you with more than one day of meals.

Shrimp Scampi Linguine This is from the March edition of Prevention Magazine
Salad
French Bread (I had put some in the freezer before we left town.)

Once again, I didn't have any white wine so I substituted red. It gave a nice flavor, but changed the color of the dish to pink. (Yes, I mixed seafood and red wine!)

Odds and Ends

Earlier in the week I made some banana bread to continue on my quest not to buy breakfast breads. I have some dough for whole wheat English muffins in the bread machine as I type. I made some more homemade yogurt today and am going to experiment with that this week. We like it fairly thin because it goes over cereal and fruit so well, but my 5 year year old likes it thicker so I will strain some and then I am going to work with flavors. I bought some strawberry spread to try. I will also try powdered sugar and vanilla. I am thinking about mixing some with jello and see what I get. We shall see.

Enjoy your week. Look to your inner Ms. Frizzle and have fun in the kitchen!