Magic Chalkboard of Postiness.

Here's what we had this week:

Except you have to start at the bottom. With the roasted chicken. I love roasting chicken. Especially fancy-schmancy happy chickens from Kathy at Open Range Products in Pecatonica. Kathy is wonderful and her farm is wonderful and the meat is super yummy. She happily hosts groups and is great with kids (being a retired teacher and all). To roast the chicken I shove a lemon and some garlic up its hooha, slather a little butter on it, salt and pepper, roast at 425 for about an hour, or until your meat thermometer, that hopefully your 18 month old hasn't dropped on its face shattering the glass, points to "poultry." Cause chicken is poultry. When I'm motivated I cut up some root veggies to go under the chicken in the pan - this time I did carrots, turnips, parsnips and onions. Then I had some left-over white wine in the fridge that had been there a few weeks, so I poured that in the bottom of the pan too. YUM.

The next day I threw the carcass in a pot with a bunch of water and let it simmer for - awhile. Several hours maybe? Then I used three cups of the resulting broth for this chicken, butternut squash and quinoa stew that I got from.....Pinterest, of course. I have to admit I was skeptical. Despite being related to a woman who dates a Canadian, the title "Cookin' Canuck" does not inspire trust in me. At least not for fine cuisine. I would trust a Canadian with just about anything else. Call me racist, but "Canada" and "Yum" don't really go together for me. Anyway. I was wrong. The Canuck's stew was de-voon. I used pheasant instead of the chicken thighs because: a) it's the end of the pay period, we're broke, and it's what we had in the freezer and b) it's almost Thanksgiving - also known as "the time when we go to Dad's and he won't let us leave without a cooler of game birds because his wife won't eat them," so I figured I'd better use the game birds I had from the last cooler.

I don't know what to tell you about the quinoa burgers. Except - make them. They tasted like falafel....but more interesting. I served them with edamame and the "fry" sauce of mayo and ketchup. Even the four year old deigned to eat them. And yes, it's from Pinterest.

Tuesday I cooked for my family and for a friend's, as she is out of town with a sick father. I jumped at the chance to make pork. I lurve pork. Hubs doesn't eat it. So I made pork chops and stuffing for most of us, and subbed in a chicken breast for the bleeding heart liberal who doesn't know good meat when it hits him in the face. It was just browned chops, over Stove Top (with a few apples and mushrooms to make it interesting), smothered in mushroom soup and baked for 45 minutes. But I did serve it with this broccoli (Pinterest. Again.)....I heart this broccoli and will eat it like potato chips. I don't even get all fancy with the cheese and nuts. Just keepin' it real, yo.

And Thursday's potato bites. Also - Pinterest. Duh. Served with asparagus.

Good, basic, not healthy. The cooking times are long....I put them back in to "crisp up" planning on 30 minutes, but they were done at 15 when I opened the oven to put the cheese on and put the asparagus (tossed in olive oil) in. I was so sure the kids would love them, but no dice. There were "crunchy parts" according to the Queen. I know I should be anti-Baco-Bits. But I'm not. I love those fake little soy buggers.

So there you go! Five totally worth making dinners! And I'm out of squash, so you don't need to worry about anymore squash recipes. You're welcome.

Last week.....

So I have a new obsession. A big, huge, problem of an obsession. It's Pinterest (it's addictive, I don't encourage starting, as you won't be able to stop. But if you want a new drug, lemme know - I'll send you an invite). I love pinning things. Now there are pins that seem to indicate that people don't actually do the things that they pin. And I can see how that would happen. It would be so easy to pin and pin and pin and pin.....and then it's time to go to bed. But I got inspired and last week I did this:

I am unreasonably excited about my new backsplash. I used three coats of magnetic paint and two coats of chalkboard paint. Now my weekly menu is right there, instead of on several post-its which may or may not be in one or three locations around the kitchen. Or maybe my purse. And so when it's 4:00 on Tuesdayand I can't remember what I was going to cook....it's right there!!!! White Chili!! I know it's silly, but it really helps and has cut back on my urge to go to Subway. 

I also found some yummy things on Pinterest. Twice Baked Squash from good ol' Marth. Ah. Mazing. I made it as-is, but I think you could switch out the sour cream with some yogurt if you felt like it. And because it's squash time at the Farmer's Market, or rather it was last week....I was going to try this lasagna I found on Pinterest. And now I can't remember why I didn't. It still looks delish. But instead I made a Butternut Squash Lasagna that my Beautiful Roommate Ness (ok, she hasn't been my roommate for....um, wow. Eleven years. Damn. I'm old.....)sent me awhile ago. It was scrumptious. Not that the kids ate it. But still. And then, more Pinterest: chili mac and cheese. The four year old almost died with loving this. I've never seen her eat so much meat. Hubs and I were less enthused, but the next day he put some chili sauce in it and it was actually much better. 

Enjoy!

Tomatoes and Corn

I started writing this post pretending that what we had for dinner was really good. I'm not sure why I did that. It should have been yummy. But it was icky. Don't run away!!! It should have been yummy. So try it anyway.

Here is the fascinating story of how I decided to make Buttermilk and Corn Popovers, and tomatoes and cheese for dinner:

I love, love, LOVE August at the Farmers Market. Tomatoes and corn. Two years ago I made this pie from Smitten Kitchen. It was friggin' amazing, even though I used a frozen crust which was soggy. In my typical fashion, for some ridiculous reason I decided to make this one from Epicurious despite the proven genius of the SK recipe. Belatedly, I realized it had no corn. So I thought I'd do this one. But, um, I didn't leave enough time for the crust and I wanted to use the buttermilk I'd purchased. With that in mind, I went back to Smitten Kitchen and searched "tomato and corn pie." The way those crazy little interwebs spiders work, they brought back this recipe for Corn, Buttermilk and Chive Popovers....which has nothing to do with tomatoes. But it got me salivating.

As luck would have it I got some yummy, yummy smoked brick cheese from a new-to-me dairy in northern IL that would go great on the fresh tomatoes. I tasted it at the market, asked for a small package, toted it home….and it’s not smoked brick. It’s smoked swiss. Which didn’t taste good with the fresh tomatoes.

And I’m coming to the realization that I can’t bake. I suck at baking. My popovers didn’t pop:

They are sad. Very, very sad. They’re kind of muffiny. Eh.

But this is all my fault. So I still think you should make the popovers. And I still would like some fresh tomatoes with brick cheese. Just sayin’. 

Summer Time

I didn't want it to be hot again. I really didn't. I wanted it to be fall. The child started school. There are a few leaves on the ground even. So why the hell is it 90 degrees? Answer me, Al Gore, WHY???????

However, since it's hot I found this Ceviche Verde. You're welcome.

You don't have to turn on the oven in the original recipe. But if you Morganize (yeah, you can make a lot of "morga...." combos. Guess which immature one they called me in high school, despite being the anti-slut)  it, then you quickly boil some shrimp instead of using the fish, because then you can use the plain shrimp to pacify the picky 4 year-old.

And if you further Morganize it, you add an extra avocado, because you love avocado. And then you eat it with Garden of Eatin' Multi-Grain Everything Tortilla Chips. And drink it with See No Pinot boxed Pinot Gris. And then your family sings your praises, treats you to a spa day, and cleans the bathrooms for you. Or not....more likely they just say, "Yum," which sometimes is just as good.

No. That's a lie. It's nice, but it's not as good as all that other stuff.

Graduation Party Beans

My baby's graduating!!! Sad face. Well....she's not really my baby. Technically she belongs to the neighbors. And she graduated a while ago. But there's a party! And she chose a theme. This hurts me to say....I am trying to be very culturally aware when I say this. To recognize that I am a child of the 80's and she's a child of the 00's. But I'm not sure I can forgive her sweet little 18 year-old heart. She chose......Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.   Gah. I can barely type it. Sigh. I guess there's no accounting for taste. But anyway, the sacrilegious theme did allow me to make Red Beans and Rice to go with the Cuban pulled pork her actual parents made.

Overall, it was a hit - unless they were all just being nice to me! I thought it was good, not great. But everyone else seems to disagree, and who am I to go against the crowd? I skipped the bacon to make it veggie, the flavor of the bacon really would have made the dish I think. I upped the beans by a quarter and I still think it could have been more beany. The smoked paprika is key, and I might even go as far as to double it next time.

I made this for about 40ish people....to do that I sauteed the veggies in Crisco in my dutch oven, then added the spices and let it meld for a few minutes before adding a can of tomatoes and chopped chilis instead of tomato paste. Then I emptied half the veggie/spice mix into a pan, added all the beans, and popped it in the oven to heat through. Meanwhile I added the rice to the dutch oven, stirred to coat and added twice the water - I'm not sure why they have so little water in the recipe, but I've learned the hard way that it doesn't matter what the recipe says, you must use double the measure of rice. So because I used six cups of rice, I used twelve cups of water and it was perfect.  When the rice was cooked, I mixed it all together, took it to the neighbors, and drank mojitos. Many mojitos.

Michigan

We spent a week in Michigan with my extended family. Well, it wasn't really Michigan -- but Indiana is waaaay less glamorous sounding. Seriously. You might not realize this if you're not from the Midwest. But trust me. It's true. And we did go to Michigan. For ice cream. Twice. But on this trip I realized why the cooking gig didn't work out for the Cousin and me (it just kind of fizzled...no harm, no foul). But here is the reason, crystallized in one picture:

Aren't they beautiful?????? They are like little fairy berries. They make me want to go to Fairyland, eat some of these berries, and stay for an hour, but when I come back the world has been going on for 20 years. I should have used something for perspective, but that's a pint. So they're tiny! and sweet-looking! and dainty! and pressssshus!

So Cousin and I were at the Michigan Produce Mart in some town that starts with an "S" (I'm not being coy, I really don't remember where we were), when I saw these translucent, enticing little things. They were white currants. I asked, "Hey, have you ever had white currants? Let's get some and try them!" To which Cousin replied, "But what are they? What are you going to do with them? What's your plan?" I, of course, did not actually have a plan, and the berries are totally tart. And when I Epicurious-ed them (totally a verb, shush) at Cousin's prompting, there wasn't really anything. So they got, tossed - she was right. But still. I think that's what happened to my short-lived cooking for fun and  profit career. I'm a little hit and miss in my cooking, a little too distractable by the romantic stories I tell myself about fairy berries.

Anyway, on a related note: after a week of meals for 20 (everyone took a night; I made grilled glazed salmon , the cucumber-avocado soup, and cold green beans with feta and pecans), we were in the mood for something with a little more .... zing. So the menu this week started last night with Rachel Ray's Curry in a Hurry (chicken and sweet potatoes sauteed in jarred curry paste; add other vegetables - like onion and peppers; add 1 tbsp flour to thicken; add a couple cups of chx broth, a cup of cream, and 1/4 of jarred mango chutney), stuffed peppers tonight, buffalo taco salad tomorrow, and then shrimp fried rice.

Dinner for tonight

I made these Charred Corn Tacos from Smitten Kitchen for dinner last night. They were uber-yummy, even though I persist in calling it "scorched corn" for no apparent reason. And despite the fact that I forgot to add the chili powder and feta. But did add some red bell pepper when I added the "scorched" corn.

Do you know how many times you can type "scorched" before it looks weird? Twice. You can type it twice before you start doubting yourself and spell check it. And google it.

Anyway, despite all my omissions, they were delicious. So just imagine how awesome they'll be if you do it right? And even more awesome if you wait for a week or two until there's corn at the Farmers Market. (Hey, remember my Babysitters Club apostrophe angst? Well, I have similar Mother's Day angst. And, it turns out, Farmer's Market angst. So there you go, it's universal...but in the Farmers' Market case, the internets are unhelpful. All I'm sure of is that it is not Farmer's Market - because that would imply it was a market belonging to a single farmer, and that's not true. Hrmph.)

I love that in this recipe Deb (you know, I can call her Deb 'cause we're *totally* best buds. And by best buds I mean that  I read her blog fairly regularly. Well, it's in my reader and I look at the blog post titles when I have two seconds of my own to think about being creative, food-wise) suggests that you remove the toddler from the kitchen. It was helpful in convincing the husband to remove the children (coughandhimselfahem) from the kitchen and leave me in peace with my wine and loud music for their own safety. But she was right! Dang. I jumped a mile when that first kernel popped. The one year old would have screamed. Because he didn't have any wine to calm his nerves. Ahem.

/senseless ramble