Mid-week Bake-a-thon

I have started attending a yoga class on Wednesday evenings, leaving MP to his own devices for dinner...well sort of, we all know I am too controlling for that, so this really means, pre-portioned leftovers and a note with re-heating instructions (as if he's never used the toaster oven!).
So, since yoga doesn't start until 6:45, I have a couple hours between work and class to spend doing cooking other than weeknight dinner preparations. This week, I had a couple of very ripe bananas on the counter, and so I'd decided I would make banana muffins, and I knew these were the ones. I have a bag of wheat germ I have used all of one time, and why not take a chance to get some healthy grains into an otherwise unhealthy breakfast? I only had 1/2 the bananas I needed, so I had to cut the recipe in half, which is a bummer, because they turned out awfully tasty (nutty & dense).

We were also fresh out of sweets, and I don't think a meal can be considered complete with out a little taste of something sweet at the end, not to mention I've had this crazy peanut butter craving of late, so here was the ticket. I added about 1/3 bag of mini chocolate chips, and they're heavenly!

How I Spent my Sunday

Sunday was really dreary and rainy and chilly - it seems to be the norm, at least more often than not this fall. I decided to spend my afternoon in the kitchen. I started off with my new favorite cookies. These puppies are so good, I will never make a single batch again. I have been heating one up each night with just a few bites of vanilla ice cream, and think life may never be the same again. If MP tries to eat more than his allotted half, then he better watch out! Bless his heart, heaven knows how he manages to live with my and my "only child" weird food/eating ways.

Next up...I needed to use up some cauliflower that was about to bite the dust, so I tried this recipe on another blog I have recently discovered (thanks, facebook!). It was pretty tasty, but next time, I think I won't have the caraway seeds - I know they typically go well with curry, but I think it's one of those flavors that I will go ahead and admit is not one of my favorites. That said, this turned out as a great side dish. In fact, I think I could just add some cubed lamb to it and have a fantastic and easy dinner on my hands.

Next up - wheat muffins. Again, a recipe that I think will become an old standby. I am really going to try to make my own yeast rolls in the next week or so, but these guys are so quick and easy - not to mention the MP loves them. I know they're not a cibatta roll full of white flour and preservatives, but at $3.50 per 6 of those - not to mention the poor health of the grocery store option - I am going to try to provide most of our own bread in-house so to speak.

Finally dinner! From the farmer's market, Pasta Italia, the best ever fresh pasta. By the time the market closes for winter, this pasta will be available year round at HyVee and Schucks. I am so glad, I had been starting to hoarde it in the freezer, worried I wouldn't be able to get it. The spaghetti was coupled with a simple tomato/meatball sauce. I just sauteed some garlic in oil, added 3 cans of fire roasted tomatoes, a little oregano, basil and thyme. I let that cook down for about 20 minutes while I made the meatballs with an egg, about a third of a cup of milk, a cup of whole wheat crusty breadcrumbs, fresh parsley and 1lb of ground beef. I formed about 20 meatballs, and then dropped them into the tomato sauce, covering them, and cooked that for about 10 minutes. The leftovers for lunch today weren't bad either...

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.

Dinner for Mom

My mom was in town from Nashville this past weekend. She treated the MP and I to a really good (but could have been better) dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday, it was my turn to treat...

Our menu was salad, turnip gratin (which came out tasting great, even though the turnips felt a little rubbery when I was chopping them), and scallops with a lemon dill cream sauce.

I have to say, the scallops came out fantastically. They were so buttery, and not overcooked at all...which has not always been the case for scallops served by yours truly. The key was taking them out of the pan a little bit before I thought I should. I dredged them in flour, and seared them in butter, then made the sauce in the pan drippings. I knew they would continue to cook a bit more after I pulled them out of the pan...though it was hard to trust that instinct.

The sauce was tasty and simple. When I pulled the scallops from the pan, I added 1c sav. blanc wine and let it cook down a bit. To that I added 2T chopped fresh dill, 1 T grated lemon peel and about 1T lemon juice. Then I added 3T of unsalted butter and about 1/4 cup of cream and whisked that mixture until it was heated through. The sauce was a nice, thick consistency. I warmed the plates - a great way to keep delicate foods like seafoods warm to the table - and plated the scallops, spooning some sauce on them to serve.

I had made our dessert earlier in the day. The chocolate pear upside down cake that I made for dessert was fantastic. The caramel, pear, and chocolate seemed an unlikely combination...but it turned out great. I could have cooked the cake for a little less than the 55 minutes or so that I did, but it did take longer than the 40-45 that the recipe calls for. The caramel took some time to make, and I was very worried about burning it, but all in all...I think this was worth the wait.

The only other thing I wish I had a picture of was our apple ebelskivers that we made on Sunday morning. They tasted great and were so pretty on the platter with sifted sugar and cinnamon on them. They were served with whipped cream with a bit of salt and 1/4c maple syrup added. The flavors blended so unexpectedly to me.

We had a great weekend - and a warm and cozy kitchen!

Always good to have a plan...

My mom is coming to visit from Nashville this weekend, and I am planning to have her take the MP and I out to dinner on Saturday night (don't think she knows this yet!). But the rest of the weekend should include lots of cooking.

I got this as a wedding gift, and know my mom thinks she wants one too. So, we'll definitely be making Ebelskivers at least once this weekend. I am thinking we'll try apple-filled ones for fall...plus I get overly enthusiastic at the farmers market most weeks, and so I am still trying to use up stuff from last week, since I am headed back tomorrow!

On Sunday, we'll definitely spend some time in the kitchen. My dad isn't a big seafood fan, so I think we'll make scallops, which my mom loves. I would usually serve with vegetable risotto, but I think I want to try some more fall veggies, so I am going to make Turnip Gratin. For dessert, we'll have this tasty looking Upside Down Pear Chocolate Cake.

After she heads back on Monday, I am going to try my hand at one of my all time favorite comfort foods, which I have never attempted making...Chicken & Dumplings. At a meat & three, if chicken & dumplings is on the menu, I may as well not bother looking at it, because my decision is made. I am pretty excited to see how these turn out. It seems to be a pretty time intensive process with cooking a whole chicken, shredding it, making the broth, and the dumplings.

Tuesday, we'll have Beef Stroganoff (again...raiding the freezer of meat I've had for a bit) and I am going to also make the MP's very favorite cookies. I use the recipe as a base and add about any combination of mixings you can think of (dried cherries or cranberries, nuts, white or milk chocolate chips, etc). A batch never lasts more than two days, unless I hide some of them!

Wednesday, I have yoga class in the evening, so it'll be leftovers for the MP.

I can't think of what to have Thursday, so I think I will hold off on the hope that we have leftovers still by then - or else see if there's something at the market tomorrow that strikes me. Usually, as I am walking around I remember something I haven't had in awhile that sounds good (maybe some pork loin or chops...).

Guess I am going to head off to the gym for a little pre-emptive workout considering I am going to consume more than my fair share of heavy creams, cheeses, pastas, desserts over the next few days.

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.

Pumpkin Overload?

...never!!!


But, I did need to use up the leftover pumpkin puree from making the pie on Sunday, so this morning I decided to whip up some muffins. I kind of combined two recipes - one I found included dried cranberries, walnuts, and chopped apples, but seemed like the muffins would turn out dry (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/2851), so I decided to use the one below, and rather than 3/4 c dates, and 3/4 c walnuts, I would just use 1/2 c each of chopped & peeled apples, dried cranberries, and walnuts. I doubled this recipe in order to use the rest of my puree, and I'll freeze 12 of the muffins for later.


Pumpkin Walnut Muffins
Gourmet November 1997
Yield: Makes 12 muffins


1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole-wheat flour or all-purpose flour *
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped pitted dates (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (about 3 ounces)

*I used whole wheat flour


Preheat oven to 400° F. and grease twelve 1/2-cup muffin cups. Melt butter and cool slightly. In a bowl whisk together butter, pumpkin, buttermilk, eggs, molasses, and vanilla. Into a large bowl sift together flours, baking powder, spices, salt, and baking soda and whisk in brown sugar. Make a well in center of flour mixture and add pumpkin mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in dates and divide batter among cups. Sprinkle walnuts evenly over batter in each cup and bake muffins in middle of oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until puffed and a tester comes out clean. Cool muffins in cups 5 minutes and turn out onto a rack. Serve muffins warm or at room temperature.


Once they're cooked and taste tested - I'll update on how they turned out...



UPDATE:
1. Next time I will mix the brown sugar into the wet ingredients rather than the dry. I feel like it would have been better incorporated.
2. Doubling the recipe still only used 1 large apple
3. The batter seemed too dense and thick, but the muffins turned out really well
4. 20 minutes was too long, 18 was more like it
5. Doubling the recipe made 29 muffins
I am trying to resist eating more than the one I had to try them out...so I guess that means it's a success. I know MP will like them.