Time Travel

I feel like I have travelled back in time to 1959 - or at least taken a few pages from my mother's battered copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook from the same era. This week's dinners have been those old comfort food recipes.


On Monday, I had the day off from work, so I took the extra time to boil a whole chicken. When the meat was falling off the bone, I shredded it and used half to make some homemade chicken and dumplings. They were pretty fantastic. The dumplings came out beautifully. Though - it seems I could have used more room in my pan (even though this one is pretty big). Next time, I will make sure I don't reduce the sauce as much either - there's not really enough broth to dumpling ratio here...




I used the other half of the chicken to put together a Chicken Tetrazzini, which is sitting in the freezer now, waiting patiently until next week to be cooked. I used fresh penne pasta from the farmers market in the casserole, and think it's going to be pretty great.

I am trying to use up some of the meat that I have had frozen for awhile, so I used half of a beef chuck roast in Beef Stroganoff. If you ask me, there is nothing like a recipe that calls for over one stick of butter. I am thinking we're going to be in desperate need of some healthy meals next week.

Tonight, the MP is on his own in the kitchen while I head off to an evening yoga class. Luckily, (or maybe he doesn't think so...) there are lots of leftovers.

Freezer Burn

Well, whenever I cook soup-ish foods I try to freeze half for eating later on. I hope to sometime get more comfortable with freezing other types of food. I do love being able to just pop something out of the freezer and have a meal basically ready to go.

It's been a cold, rainy week in CoMo, and I have had a few more extracurricular activities than normal, so I haven't been making dinners. MP had weekend leftovers for lunch and dinner yesterday. Today he learned that mini-deep dish pizzas don't reheat too well in the microwave...

Tonight, I had a yoga class after work, so this morning I tossed some frozen chili in the fridge to thaw and made this great cornbread recipe:

Cheddar-Buttermilk Corn Bread Bon Appétit December 2002


Yield: Makes one 8x8-inch bread


1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (packed) coarsely grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly


Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan. Whisk first 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Mix in cheese. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter in another medium bowl to blend. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated; do not overmix. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until bread is golden on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 22 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool completely in pan on rack. Cover with foil and store at room temperature.)

Notes:
1. This is a great recipe, it only takes about 15 minutes to throw together, barely more time than finding that old box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix in the pantry and tearing into it...
2. I add some frozen corn kernals and a diced jalapeno pepper or two to the batter
3. It takes about 30 minutes to cook in my oven

We had the chili, cornbread, and tossed salad with leftover pumpkin/pecan pie for dessert.