Please join me for appetizers

I'm going to participate in a theme that I see in lots of blogs lately--apologizing for leaving you high and dry, and falling away from posting regularly. I think it's the hazard of real people with real jobs, also trying to honor the need to stay in touch with the world and share in this forum. It's not that I haven't cooked--it's just that I haven't been willing to add the stress to my life which ensues when I spend an extsra hour a day blogging about it. So, sorry. There. I've said it. Wanna see some food now?

We had our annual family picnic last weekend. I like to do several appetizers for my guests to nibble on before the main meal. Since this is an appetizer kind of time-of-year, I thought you might be interested in some of the hits.

The biggest hit? Same as it always is--good old-fashioned chip and onion dip (yes, the kind from the package of onion soup mix). It seems like even the most sophisticated palates keep going back to that bowl. Crazy, huh? Forgive me, but I'm not posting the recipe. It's a family secret, you know.

I also made a change-up of an old familiar recipe--Chex mix--from the December/January issue of Cook's Country magazine. This one, called Fisherman's Friend Party Mix, packed a not-so-subtle wallop of heat from Frank's Red Hot Sauce and Old Bay Seasoning. It was good, but we like spicy. The magazine also had a couple of other versions--BBQ Party Mix and Asian Firecracker Party Mix--but I haven't tried those.

One of my favorites were Cheddar Cheese Rounds, from the same magazine. These also had a back burn which cut through the richness of ground pecans, extra sharp cheddar cheese, and creamy sweet butter. They are flakey and crumbly. One hint, though: Label them. Everyone thought they were some kind of weird cookie, and didn't try them without prompting. Live and learn.

Normally, I cringe at the thought of Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip. Too often, it's a gloppy, greasy, mayonnaise-tasting mess. Same magazine again--great recipe. The rich artichokes and spinach nicely balance a Parmesan cream sauce. Diagonally sliced mini-baguettes made the perfect dipper.

There was definitely a hot and spicy theme going on with the Honey-Chipotle Glazed Pecans as another appetizer offering. These go together in a snap. First, they take a bath in honey warmed with ground chipotle powder and cinnamon. They bake for about 10 minutes before showering in a mixture of sugar and salt. After a litlte drying time, they are ready to eat.

I'll come back later with some of the vegetarian/vegan foods we've been eating, as well as the results of our upcoming four-generation baking day. In the meantime, I hope you are able to live in the joy of the holiday spirit and focus on what matters. A blessed holiday to all of you.

Family Picnic

For those in the know--and you know who you are--it's time for the annual family Christmas picnic! You also know when--and where. (And you KNOW I'm not posting those details online.) What you might not know is what everyone is bringing. If you want to share your plans to avoid duplicates, just post a message to this post. Everyone can read them, and then everyone will know everyone else's business. And if you have a question--this is a good place to ask, too (at least if you're like me and you'd rather communicate electronically than pick up a phone). We look forward to seeing you all soon!

So, after 40 years of sleep...

...Rip Van Winkle awakens. At least that's what it feels like. The weeks since my last post have remained extremely busy, as well as full of change in our house--at least where food is concerned. On August 13, we just decided to quit eating meat.

I suppose, really, that it wasn't just that simple. We had been weighing the idea for a couple of years, and would look at each other sometimes, with that knowing nod, and say, "You know, within a couple of years, I think we'll be vegetarian." It just seemed too foreign and overwhelming to manage that kind of a change in the midst of our crazy schedules and long work days. But something clicked on that Monday--the first day of school. It just seemed like the time.

So we did it. Just that simple. Simple...but as complex as it could possibly be. I'm still floundering around with what to cook and how to manage it all. For instance, I know that I have three nights (at least) that I will be at work from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. I also spent this weekend sick, sick, sick with a respiratory infection that came on in a matter of hours and left me so weak and unable to breathe that I had to leave work and drive myself to urgent care (where I waited for three hours, sort of belying the "urgent" part of the care, but I digress). So here I am, two days later, having lost my weekend. I made it to Trader Joe's today and stocked up on some vegetarian frozen foods, but that really isn't my idea of culinary nirvana!

To complicate things even more, about a week into this dietary change, we decided that we should probably be vegan. Good-bye eggs, cheese, and milk. See ya sour cream and cream cheese. We are now having a courtship with some alternative products--soy sour cream and yogurt, almond milk, and rice cheese (it really isn't as bad as it sounds--I promise). We've also found that tofu doesn't have to be hideous. As soon as I have a little more down time, I will post some recipes that we've found that we actually like, among them a homemade chorizo substitute which went down nicely with some skillet roasted potatoes spiced up with chile powder and chipotle. At this point, we are probably a vegan minus. I just don't have the mental energy to peruse every label of every item to be sure it doesn't have milk protein or an egg buried in it somewhere.

I hope that this new journey won't leave you alienated from the blog. I hope to find and share recipes that "real" people who previously had total tofu aversions and a deep mistrust of anything vegan can make and enjoy with accessible, reasonable ingredients.

I can tell you that so far, we've slashed our grocery bill by 70%, I've lost 12 pounds and the Husband has lost about 7, we have very little grocery waste, and the strong upswing in our fiber and nutrient uptake HAS to be making us healthier. So stay with me...I'll try to make the ride with your while.

Technical difficulties

Technically, I don't have time to post (or cook, either), as I have been working 15 hour days for the past two weeks. So...sorry, but it is what it is. I have made one new recipe, and have been falling back on some others. We are working on becoming vegetarians--we've talked about it, but decided to take the leap and just do it. May I just say that it might be better to undertake something like that when one has time to think (or sleep)? So, I'll check back in a few days from now, hopefully with something to share. TTFN.

The problem with "quick" cooking

30 minute meals? Hah! Quick fix meals? Hrmph. Quicker, maybe. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's almost impossible to make a Rachael Ray meal in half an hour, even if you DID prep all the veggies when you came home from the market. Robin Miller has lots of good ideas for getting meals on the table quicker, but for the most part, it still takes more time than many of us have--especially if you're making more than a single dish. I don't know about you, but I want something on the plate besides steak or chicken. It's not that each dish, individually, couldn't be put together quickly, but you can only stir so many pots at one time, no?

What I am taking from Robin Miller, though, is some new thinking about putting things aside for later. Instead of leaving extra portions for "hope-overs" (as in, "I hope somebody eats that before it grows green fuzzy stuff,") I'm taking leftovers from the plate to the freezer. Today, I cooked brown rice pilaf and coconut rice, and put four 2-cup portioms of each in the freezer.

I did do something today that is certainly not the norm--I cooked lunch and dinner. Usually, it's every man for himself for all but one meal. However, I hadn't gotten to the Chicken Enchiladas with Refried Beans and Jack Cheese from Quick Fix Meals. This is the meal I've been planning to cook since Thursday. (Don't worry; it's been hours since we ate, and no signs of food poisoning yet.) Instead of using raw strips of chicken and sauteeing them as the recipe calls for, I diced two precooked chicken breasts (the leftover Unbelievable Chicken), mixed them with sauteed onions, garlic, and green chiles, then mixed in some refried beans, enchilada sauce, and cilantro. The mixture was folded into whole wheat tortillas, topped with a bit more sauce and some cheese, and popped into the toaster oven for only about 15 minutes to bake. I'll be honest--I didn't love these. However, they work. They're honest, straightforward food that is healthy and, truly, quick. The Husband asked for me to make two more for his lunch tomorrow, and I put enough filling in the freezer to make probably four more.

This brings me to an interesting point about Miller's recipes. I don't think she has any true concept of yield. I didn't have to make the recipe to know that an onion, 1 1/4 pounds of chicken, and an entire can of beans was too much filling for four 8-inch tortillas. I don't know where she comes up with some her numbers. I saw this again when I made the Red Potatoes with Capers, Tomatoes, and Onions for tonight's dinner. She called for 6 small red potatoes to make 4 servings. Um....not where I live. So, if you use her book, use her time estimates and yields as rough estimates, at best.
These potatoes were very good, and could become my favorites. To reach that culinary height, though, I need to make some changes and apply my own skills and knowledge when a recipe leaves out something I know to be important. When making a potato salad (which this is, no matter what the recipe is called), I usually cook the potatoes whole to keep them from absorbing too much cooking water and diluting the dressing. Likewise, I usually toss them back in the pot for a couple of minutes after draining, to be absolutely sure they are dried out adequately. Then, while they are still hot, I add the dressing. In this case, the piquant dressing was watered down significantly from the potatoes' residual moisture. My fault. I know better. Outside of that, though, I loved this. Capers really appeal to me for reasons I don't quite understand. In this case, they beautifully offset the ripe plum tomatoes, sweet red onion, and the classic red wine vinegar and olive oil. We ate this at room temperature, which was fine, but I think it would have really been a standout served warm, as well. It would have even benefitted from a bit of crisped pancetta or crumbled bacon.

I still had some steaks in the freezer from a large Costco package. They seemed to be just right for the Pan Seared Steaks with Garlic-Rosemary Glaze which I topped with Sauteed Wild Mushrooms. Both of these were quite good, although I don't usually pan-sear steaks. I will do it more often now, though, as it allowed me to make a pan sauce of vermouth, onion, garlic, and rosemary which cooked down to a flavorful, silky coating on the meat. The mushrooms weren't really that different from what I do without a recipe, but we love sauteed mushrooms on meat. The key, I think, is too cook the mushrooms by themselves until the moisture has cooked out and a brown crust begins to develop. Then, and only then, do you add wetter vegetables like onions, along with the recipe's salt. The recipe doesn't necessarily follow this order, but in this case, I honored my knowledge and did it right!

Attention, passengers. Tonight's menu has been delayed.

The flight is grounded until tomorrow. Maybe Saturday. When I get home 30 minutes before I need to go to bed to get my minimum RDA of sleep, I just can't handle the food. I'll try really hard for tomorrow, though.

Yes, as a matter of fact. I AM an optimist.

First, let's break the tension. I know it's wearing you down. Bread. That's it. The mystery kebab ingredient. And let me say that I don't want to disparage the fine recipe developers and editors at Bon Appetit Magazine. I'm sure they do a fine job. It had to be user error, really. How else to explain that I trashed the leftovers of this Sausage, Sourdough, and Bell Pepper Spiedini.

I had several reservations about this dish, but the whole bread-on-a-skewer-with-meat-and-veggies thing intrigued me. Let me break it down.

Neither the Husband nor myself like sausage. Can you tell from the picture (and the title of the recipe) what the meat is? That's right. Sausage. It was a bell pepper and onion chicken sausage I foolishly picked up at Trader Joe's, thinking we might like it. And if we did...whoa, baby. Fast meal. But we didn't. Just like we've never liked sausage. Of any kind. Anywhere.

Second, the Husband doesn't like mustard. This recipe calls for a mustard-heavy dressing that is both brushed on the kebabs and drizzled over the salad. Perhaps the Grey Poupon-ish dull yellow color won't give it away, and he won't notice the mustard. R-i-g-h-t. First thing out of his mouth--"Is that mustard?" It was doomed before he took a bite.

Third, I really couldn't see it taking 12 minutes for bread to toast over a medium-high grill. I also couldn't see bell peppers and onions cooking before the bread turned to charcoal. Just for the record...I was right. Good tasting charcoal, though. Really.

Fourth, and last, we got a new grill this summer which we have totally not figured out. We do know that it cost a lot of money. We also know that the infrared burner scares the holy crap out of both of us. It incinerates things in seconds. So we don't use it. Therefore, things are either not really grilled to that crackly crispy crunch that screams grilled, or they are burned. No happy medium, apparently.

So, is this worth making? Maybe. First, you have to like sausage. Second, you have to like mustard. Third, I would put the bread on separate skewers and cook them for just a few minutes toward the end. Last, you need to know how to work your grill.

I will say that the part that intrigued me most--the dressing-brushed bread cubes--really were good, even with the burned edges. I can totally see doing that as a side dish for something else. But squished all together on a single skewer? Never again in this lifetime, baby.

Tomorrow, I have plans for the leftover grilled chicken. I'm totally mangling another Robin Miller recipe. We'll see how it turns out. (Note to Ms. Miller: Look up enchiladas in the dictionary. You SO do not know what they really are.)