cooking

Learning to Cook in High Heels

The past couple of months have certainly been a test of Mommy endurance. Obviously, I am now working, which is still a trip. Youngest started school, which was traumatic for both of us, and promptly caught every germ he had missed in his life with a stay-at-home mom. We’ve been through swine flu and four separate stomach viruses in less than two months, all while I try to settle into the new job and not look like a yahoo. (And of course what better time to catch swine flu than the week before my first big business trip?)

However, I can finally say that I am getting life under control and adjusting to the new routine of a working mom. The transition has taken a time and patience, and copious amounts of red wine.

In the meantime, I am getting a crash course in how to make dinner in less than 45 minutes. Hoooolllyy cow, if that is a bit harder than I expected. I have been guinea-pigging my poor family to death with new recipes in an effort to streamline my weeknights. This endeavor has definitely been hit and miss, but I am committed to home cooked meals, job or no job. We have had some success, like the following recipe I got from (where else?) southernliving.com. It is yummy, but I recommend serving it over rice…not enough sauce for noodles in my opinion.

Balsamic Garlic-and-Herb Chicken Thighs

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings: 0
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chiles
  • 1 envelope Lipton Savory Herb & Garlic seasoning mix
  • sliced green onions for garnish

Method
 

  1. Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour mixture.
  2. Brown half of chicken in 1 tablespoon hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 4 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from skillet. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken and oil, reserving drippings in skillet
  3. Add wine and vinegar to skillet, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of skillet; cook 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and green chiles and garlic-and-herb sauce mix until combined. Return chicken to skillet. Cover and cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes or until chicken is tender. Serve over ice and garnish with green onions.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

I won’t bore you with the stories of dinner failures…you have probably heard my family revolt at the dinner table from your house.

Silencing My Inner-Jew

I was born a picky eater, to a woman whose cooking is revered locally. Those years of homesick cure-all cooking in Los Angeles made my mother the best cook I know. Don’t take my word for it. She’s since had a restaurant and a catering business, and regularly receives marriage proposals from strange men, including my stepdad’s friends. Yep, her food is that good. Just ask my back-side.

Despite her culinary flair, my mom got stuck with me, the world’s pickiest eater. While I eventually grew out of my pickiness, I remember many a night during my childhood when my mother warned me that one day, I would have a child just like me. And then I would apologize to her for my picky-eater theatrics. “You just wait…” she would hiss at me. Little did I know my mom has some crazy voodoo going on, and her warning became a prophetic curse. I got stuck with TWO picky eaters, and my mom gets to laugh her behind off regularly as I beg, threaten and finally force feed my children something other than chicken tenders.

While I did grow out of most of my picky-eating tendencies, my aversion to all things pork seemed permanent. I’ve been told that I should have been Jewish, instead of a Louisiana Catholic, because of my constant refusal to eat anything that once oinked. Me and the “other white meat” were the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s as far as I was concerned. When I worked as a counselor at a Jewish summer camp up in Yankee-land, the directors worried that a Louisiana girl would struggle with keeping kosher. I assured them that it would be no problem for me. I almost starved to death that summer anyway, because I guess I did not understand the full concept of kosher, and only Matzo ball soup stood between me and emaciation. (Ok, maybe that is as slight exaggeration, but I did get off the plane that fall begging my mama to feed me quick)

My husband eventually coaxed me into a relationship with bacon by making bacon –cheese fries. However, I still avoided cooking any kind of pork if I could help it.

That is, until I finally found a pork chop recipe that silenced my pork-hating ways. It came from Taste of Home magazine many moons ago, and I guarantee it will make any husband happy…unless his taste buds are disabled…then you’re on your own.

Pork Chops in Mustard Cream Sauce

Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 0
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 4 bone-in pork loin chops
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
Sauce
  • 1/4 cup half-and-half
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 tsp flour
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Method
 

  1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine 1/4 cup flour, salt and pepper. Add pork chops, one at a time, and shake to coat.
  2. In a large skillet, brown chops in oil over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. Remove and set aside. In the same skillet, sauté mushrooms and garlic for 3 minutes. Add broth and rosemary; bring to a boil. reduce heat; to low; return pork to pan
  3. Cover and simmer for 1 hour or until meat is very tender. Remove pork and keep warm. In a small bowl, combine the half-and-half, sour cream, mustard and remaining flour until smooth. Pour into skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve over pork chops.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

_____________

While me and pork are still getting to know each other, my husband is simply happy to have some meat diversity in our menu, and my kids actually eat this without half the histrionics of other meals.

Oink, Oink.

The Cookie Peace Treaty—aka Forced Disarmament and Some Granny-Style Distractions

As the temperature crept past 100 yesterday, I knew we were in trouble. I tried to get the heathens outside with me to weed the garden, but after fifteen minutes, even I was whimpering in defeat. 100 degrees with 90% humidity drove us back inside, and I think we all had tempers that were noticeably shorter.

Unfortunately, the more bored my children got, the more inclined they were to pick on each other for sheer entertainment. Pretty soon, all-out war erupted, and one bloody nose and some severe punishments later, I knew I needed some methods of distraction…or rather a Plan JJ, since I had already exhausted Plans A through II.

When my mom was my age, our family moved to Los Angeles as a result of my stepdad’s job. This big move was quite the adventure, but it also took my small town Louisiana mother far away from her friends and family, and plopped her into a strange and frightening world. Her driving skills were the first major casualty of the move, as she realized that the freeway was actually an insane asylum moving at 70 miles an hour. To this day, my mom still drives like Andretti, even though we are back in Louisiana… it really is frightening. The second, and more lasting effect of the move was that my mom was often lonely and homesick, and treated this condition in the best way a Southern Lady knows…she cooked, she baked and then she cooked some more. My mom used cooking as the ultimate distraction and Band-Aid for her homesickness. It’s amazing that we did not turn into Weebles, but we did have a gaggle of neighborhood kids who turned up conspicuously around dinner time. My mom rocked, especially when she was a little obsessive around the kitchen.

I am nothing, if not my mother’s daughter. When WWIII erupted yesterday, my first instinct was to drag the heathens into the kitchen and turn on the oven. Cookies are a great distraction for the kids, because they take a while, and the recipes have enough steps to divide up between the two kids, thus keeping them distracted for an hour of blessed peace. Yesterday, we made Cowboy cookies. The original recipe calls for pecans, but I had to leave those out to avoid a picky-eater freak-out.

The boys were distracted from their driving need to annoy each other to death.

Want some peace of your own?

Here it is:

Cowboy Cookies

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings: 0
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 cups oats
  • 1 12-ounce package chocolate or white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans optional

Method
 

  1. Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla, beating until fluffy.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Gradually add this to the butter mixture, mixing well after each addition. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and pecans.
  3. Drop dough onto a baking sheet in large tablespoon size amounts (use parchment paper if you are smart…easy clean-up). Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, or until cookies are pretty-pretty.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Serve them up and enjoy the blissful silence, at least until the ceasefire ends and they are back to their shenanigans.

Hotter than Hades, and How Not To Be a Classless Floozy

It’s freaking hot around here. Miserably hot. Fry an egg on the sidewalk hot.

Me and heat are not the best of pals. Heat itself is one thing. I spent many a year in southern California, so I can do heat.

But in Louisiana, the heat is married to the blasted humidity, and that makes some summer days unbearably oppressive. When Dante was writing his Divine Comedy, I think Louisiana was probably the fifth circle of hell.

When the heat is particularly bad, I do whatever I can to avoid turning on my oven or stove, because doing so is like throwing gasoline onto a bonfire. My air conditioner begins to whimper when it is trying to battle both inside and outside heat, and I refuse to abuse my air conditioner. My sanity rests on the good terms of our relationship, and a pissed-off air conditioner is more frightening than the Exorcist.

In my quest to avoid heating appliances on hot days, I try to come up with meals that are the perfect antidote to the 100 degree assault going on outside my door. These meals usually involve some kind of cold sandwich or salad. I admit that my husband is not too thrilled with these meals, because he really wants hot, manly food at the end of a long work day. However, Husband also respects the air conditioner, and the fact that heat turns me into a rabid hyena, so he usually accepts these meals with good grace…or at least without too much grumbling.

Chicken salad is always a good hot-weather meal, and I usually make it just like Granny: chopped cooked chicken, some diced celery, Hellmann’s mayo and some salt and pepper. (Granny swears that Hellmann’s mayo is the only mayo a southern lady may use. If you go for the cheap stuff, then you are obviously a classless floozy. And dear Lord, don’t ever mention the words Miracle Whip in her presence. The military learned the concept of Shock and Awe from Granny.)

While Granny’s chicken salad is usually my standard, I sometimes like to shake things up a bit. I found another recipe in Southern Living, and I like this chicken salad recipe for a couple of reasons. First, it contains honey, and that gives me a good excuse to incorporate some local honey into our diets, as I hear it may help with our allergies. Second, this recipe is kind of girly, and living in a house full of males, I have to take my girl moments when I can get them.

Despite the pretty picture from Southern Living, I serve this recipe on wheat hoagie rolls. Otherwise it would be too girly, and civil disobedience would ensue.

Honey-Chicken Salad

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Servings: 0
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 4 cups chopped cooked chicken
  • 3 celery ribs, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
  • 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans toasted
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper

Method
 

  1. Combine first 4 ingredients.
  2. Whisk together mayonnaise and next 3 ingredients. Add to chicken mixture, stirring gently until combined. Garnish with additional pecans, if desired. Chill until serving.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Germ Warfare and Italian Food

School is out my friends, which of course means my kids are sick. Don’t ask me how they managed to catch a cold exactly 2 seconds after school was over, but they did. Between them coughing all night, and acting like yahoos all day, this week hasn’t exactly been the best start to summer vacation. I am pretty tired, more than a little loopy, and I am out of kids’ cough medicine. And did I mention that I woke up today with their cold? Yippy bleeping skippy.

However, I did get to try out a new recipe from Southern Living, which Husband loved. And you should really try it too…Because it was yummy, easier than it looks, and I definitely racked up some Mom points for cranking this out on a weeknight with two sick kids.

cannelloni-sl-366560-l

Chicken Cannelloni with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

This is a family favorite in our house.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings: 0
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 8-ounce package cannelloni or manicotti shells
  • 4 cups finely chopped cooked chicken
  • 2 8-ounce containers chive-and-onion cream cheese
  • 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
  • 3/4 tsp. garlic salt
  • 1 tsp. seasoned salt
Sauce
  • 2 7-ounce jars roasted red peppers drained
  • 1 16-ounce jar Alfredo sauce
  • 3 ounces shredded parmesan cheese

Method
 

  1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.
  2. Stir together chicken and next 6 ingredients.
  3. Cut pasta shells lengthwise through the other side. Spoon about 1/2 cup chicken mixture into each shell, gently pressing cut sides together. Place, cut sides down, in 2 lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dishes.
  4. To make Roasted Red Pepper sauce, combine Alfredo sauce, roasted red peppers and Parmesan cheese in a food processor. Pulse until smooth.
  5. Pour Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce evenly over shells. Bake, covered, at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Garnish, if desired
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Even the kids ate it. Wonder of wonders….

Fake It Till Ya Make It–Dinner Rescue

Living deep in the heart of BFE (and if you don’t know what that means, google it), I cannot just run to the grocery store on a whim.  Every time I need to go anywhere, I can bank on at least on a 30 minute drive…one way. It’s my lot in life, the bane of my existence and a constant source of road rage on two-lane highways from hell.  Add in this oh-so-fun event back in November:

057

and I find driving around town stressful to say the least, but that’s a story for another day.

When I do shop for groceries, I have to plan meals in two week blocks, so I can minimize extra trips to the store. We only have one car, so even if I was willing to burn an hour’s worth of gas and drive time, I hardly ever have the actual car to do so. If you really want to make Bayou Husband snarly, ask him to stop at the store on the way home…it’s a riot.

This shopping plan has worked thus far, but I’ve also learned to expect the I unexpected. For those two week blocks, I may have planned  gorgeous, delightful homemade meals from scratch, but inevitably, I’ll have one day that blows even the best laid plans out of the water. It may be a child with a fever, or an exploding hot water heater, or even those fun times when our po-dunk town randomly shuts off the neighborhood’s water with no warning…oh good times. Every mom has those days when we just can’t seem to get things to stay on track, but we still have a family depending on us for dinner.

These days are why I always plan “the back-up meal.” This is a meal you can get on the table in less than 30 minutes, and unlike some food network chef, it will not dirty up every dang dish in your kitchen (why call it 30 minute meals, when it is 30 minutes of cooking but 1 hour of clean up?). The back-up meal is one that you plan for, you buy for, and you save it for that day when all hell breaks loose. You’ll know that day when it comes…it will be right about the time Mom goes to DEF-CON 2, and you are in danger of launching the missiles.

But most importantly, the back-up meal has to be something that the family will actually eat. I could probably toss together a quick soup and sandwich, but after Bayou Husband quit laughing, he would hand me the phone and tell me to call for pizza (well, not really, but he would give me that pitiful look like he is going to starve to death). And let’s not even talk about what the kids would do, it makes me queasy just to think about it because it would start with something like this:

noah-hand

No, the back-up meal is only a good plan if it means you still get Mom-Credit for cooking dinner.

The following dish, One Pot Pasta, is definitely a good back-up meal. Only one pot to wash? Who wouldn’t like that? I sure do. I’ve been known to throw out dishes I don’t want to wash. Once, when Bayou Husband and I lived in a tiny apartment, I forgot about some Thanksgiving leftovers hiding in the back of the fridge….for a month and a half. Needless to say, that went into the garbage, tupperware and all.

So, a meal that takes less than 30 minutes and only one pot? That is an essential in any Mom’s bag of tricks.  Pick up the stuff for this dish next time you hit the store, and wait for that inner-voice to tell you it’s time for a back-up plan. Pick up some wine while you are at it, so you can also enjoy a restorative cocktail while you whip up a home-cooked meal, even in the center of chaos.

one-pot-pasta

One Pot Pasta

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings: 0
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 8-ounce package sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 26-ounce jars tomato-basil pasta sauce
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tbsp dried Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1 20-ounce package refrigerated four-cheese ravioli
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Method
 

  1. Cook ground beef in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink; drain. Wipe Dutch oven clean.
  2. Sauté onion and mushrooms in hot oil over medium-high heat 8 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in beef, pasta sauce, 1 cup water, and next 3 ingredients.
  3. Bring sauce to a boil; add ravioli. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes or until pasta is done. Stir in cheese. Serve immediately.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you do have that kind of day, just keep a nice back-up plan handy so that you can fake your domestic mastery. There’s always time to be Supermom for real tomorrow.