This about sums up how I feel about leaving for BlogHer tomorrow–or really, the whole summer:
Like maybe I bit off more than I can chew.
{ 5 comments }
food
Regular readers will know that I am not by any stretch of the imagination a cook. I get by because I like to eat and I also have to feed my children. But I was pleased with how this little experiment turned out.
We had two spaghetti squash left over from our farm share. They have been sitting on the kitchen counter for weeks and weeks. As I was looking through the old CSA newsletters for a different recipe, I came across one for the squash. I adapted it based on the ingredients I had on hand.
Lasagna-Style Spaghetti Squash
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Cut squash in half lengthwise (this required a cleaver and pretty much all the strength in my upper body) and remove the seeds. You can reserve them for roasting if you are an overachiever. Spritz a baking sheet with a little oil and place squash halves on the sheet, cut side down.
2. Bake for about 35 minutes or until you can pierce the skin easily with a knife. The smaller of the two squash I had was done by this time, but the big one required another 10 minutes or so. Don’t turn off the oven.
3. Meanwhile, the recipe instructed, make your own tomato sauce with onion, garlic, stewed tomatoes, basil, a bouillon cube, and salt and pepper. I preferred to take a jar of marinara out of the pantry.
4. After the squash is cooked and cools down a bit, scrape the strands out into a bowl. Notice that the squash seems to have multiplied in volume about four-fold.
5. Put the now empty squash shells in a baking dish. Layer: tomato sauce, squash strands, [the recipe called for olives, no thank you], and shredded mozzarella cheese. I had some leftover spinach/ricotta mixture from some calzones we made earlier, so I put that in there between the squash and the mozzarella.
6. Keep going until you fill up the shells. Sprinkle on some parmesan if you have it. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese melts on top.
I still have tons of cooked squash left, but I can reheat it with tomato sauce and more of the ricotta to approximate the above. Or I could take a smallish baking dish and redo the layers and bake like a regular lasagna. I can even throw in some of the leftover quinoa that’s also on hand. Whoa, somebody stop me from the leftover reusing!
{ 3 comments }
…is playing the Telephone game with two mostly deaf 90-year-olds. Seven people, four generations and every one of us crying with laughter.
…is breaking out the pumpkin pie two days before Thanksgiving, because why not?
…is going to an old school Italian joint for pizza and porketta sandwiches that will probably appear one day on Man vs. Food.
…is being home again safe and sound with the weekend ahead of us.
{ 2 comments }
I tease that Mayberry is a small town, and it is, especially if you’ve come here from New York City and you are used to being able to go to Whole Foods or a really good Indian restaurant any old time you want. But it’s still basically a suburban environment. We have sidewalks and fences and two grocery stores. We do have some neighbors who keep chickens, but after their rooster caused a flap (har har), the city passed an ordinance prohibiting roosters (although hens are still allowed).
Another neighbor has a large garden, and we’ve dabbled in pumpkins and a raspberry bush. Mostly, we buy our food at the store. But this year, we’ve tried harder to buy local. Our freezer holds 1/8 of a side of beef from a farm about 15 miles away. And we finally joined a CSA. The smart folks at what we like to call “our” farm arranged to deliver produce shares to Jeff’s workplace, and we signed up immediately.
This weekend, our farmers held an open house, so we packed up the kids and drove to the farm. Photo is filched from their website, because I was too busy enjoying the visit to take any pictures (also I might have forgotten the camera). We got to meet the friendly, welcoming couple who run the farm, their three kids, their two dogs, their cat, and a bunch of their chicks and chickens. We saw their beehives and their greenhouse and the garage converted into a packing area for their boxes, complete with long wooden slide for empty boxes traveling to the assembly line. We saw their pond and their tire swing and some of the 20 acres of fields. In these fields, they grow dozens of crops for themselves and their members, and they do everything by hand with no pesticides or synthetic fertilizer. (They have some paid and work-share staff.)
We squished in the mud (there was a lot of mud) and tasted tomatoes and green beans right off the vine. It was idyllic while at the same time an important reminder of how much work goes into an enterprise like this.
We think it made an impression on the kids. When we got home, Opie created a new Mii avatar and named it after the farmers’ son. I guess that’s what happens when you take a small-town boy out of the town and into the country.
{ 11 comments }
I haaaaaate cooking dinner. I also hate feeding my children too much take-out (or consuming it myself, or for that matter, paying for it). So I have found ways to cheat. Herewith, my favorite ways to slap together a meal that’s reasonably healthy. If you are a real cook (Maggie) you might want to look away. These all happen to be vegetarian, too.
- Pasta with jarred sauce and frozen vegetables. To boost the health quotient I get the pasta that has protein and omega-3s in it, or the kind with some vegetables cooked in. I buy sauce that doesn’t contain corn syrup. I throw frozen vegetables into the pasta water. Fifty percent of my children pick them out, but I continue to try. I give each child an individual portion of parmesan cheese (not from the green can) to control intake.
- Amy‘s frozen spinach pizza. If I make pizza myself (which is another one of my fake dinners–with storebought shells) my vegetable-averse child will not eat it. But Amy’s, with spinach no less, she will gobble right down.
- Breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, fruit smoothies–with lots of diner participation on that last item. For my own portion of eggs I chop in some broccoli if I have it around.
- Tofu and noodles. Cubed tofu, whatever leftover vegetables are available, and Thai Kitchen noodles with sauce. I used to have to set aside a sauce-free bowl of noodles for you-know-who, but we’ve managed to move beyond that now.
- Egg rolls (frozen) and edamame. Little miss “no thank you” loves edamame. She would eat an entire bag if I let her. She also can’t really tell the difference between vegetable egg rolls and chicken ones.
So, two food posts in a row. A little exercise in compare-n-contrast. What do you eat when you can’t be bothered to cook for real?
Also, on that glass of water: Remove pitcher of cold, filtered water from refrigerator. Pour into clean, ice-free pint glass. Enjoy.
{ 8 comments }
Once in awhile my husband gets a hankering to make beignets. He orders the mix directly from Cafe du Monde. He especially likes to mark the beginning and the end of the Tour de France with a batch (France, Acadia, same diff).
Apparently Jo is a fan. When she learned about haiku at school, she composed the following entry:
Breakfast is yummye
I like benyets and orange juis
They are super good
And I think that is just as good a way as any to close out the week. Bon appetit!
{ 8 comments }
Something I even ranted about on my blog: Hosting a sales party.
[cowers in shame]
Apparently I have been living in suburbia too long because I finally succumbed. In my defense … I got suckered into this by going to a party at Jo’s teacher’s house. How you gonna say no to an invitation from your child’s teacher, for an event held just a few weeks before the end of the school year? And then, at that party, how you gonna be the fifth person in a row to pass on hosting your own party?
I know. You’re going to grow a spine, that’s how.
Maybe next time.
So tomorrow night it’s my turn to be the shill. I was frankly embarrassed to send out the invitations and I mostly limited them to other mothers from the kindergarten class. But now that the party’s almost here, I’m secretly excited. I love to have people over and I don’t get to do it enough. It helps that it’s MY event and therefore my husband will not be helping with the preparations (although he will be on kid duty). Every other time we have a party or even just invite another family over for a kids-included meal, he gets so panicky about how everything will look and taste and possibly be ready in time. He makes entertaining far more stressful than it needs to be.
When I’m running the show solo–like with this party, or when I host book club–I go for super easy and I do not worry for one second “what anyone will think” like he does. These are my friends and if I keep the wine flowing, they will not care that all the food I am serving is storebought. (When our book club read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I served rice crackers, edamame, and miscellaneous frozen dumplings and egg rolls–and everyone is still raving, especially the woman who’d never had edamame before that night. There is nothing easier than throwing a bag of soybeans into a pot of boiling water!)
So tomorrow, it’s wine, cheese, wine, crackers, wine, cookies, wine, and cheesecake, with a few corny games and catalogs on the side. It won’t be that awful. I promise.
Photo by Swamibu.
{ 19 comments }
Since I went ahead and confessed that I am a lousy cook, I thought now would be a good time to post a recipe. Right?
I am going to a Soup Swap on Monday. It’s like a cookie exchange, but for soup. Here’s what I’m going to bring (there is a contest for best soup name … if you can think of a better one, I am all ears). I’m making 40 cups of it tonight (8 cups x 5 recipient swappers).
I Think I Can-nellini Bean Soup
Makes: A lot. At least 8 servings depending on who’s eating. Probably about 35 servings if you are serving it to a small child.
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 16-oz cans cannellini (white) beans
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 head escarole (or kale I think would also work), chopped
4-5 cups chicken broth (sub veggie broth to make this vegan)
S&P
Shaved parmesan cheese for garnish
1. Heat the olive oil in a big soup pot or dutch oven. Throw in the garlic and saute for a couple of minutes.
2. Dump in everything else.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Simmer for 20-25 minutes (or whatever. Until you are ready to eat it).
5. Top with shaved parmesan and serve.
See? If you can open a can and boil water you can make this.
My only problem is that my husband doesn’t really like soup (weirdo). So I am going to have 40 cups of incoming soup to eat all by myself. Guess what I’ll be eating for lunch for the next 40 days!
(When I was a poor editorial assistant, I always brown-bagged except on Fridays. Then I’d treat myself to lunch out. If I was feeling really flush I’d go to the Soup Nazi. I think it cost about $7 a serving [this was way back before the Seinfeld show even aired] but it came with bread, fruit, and a piece of chocolate and damn, this soup was so. good. It was entirely worth the anxiety and abuse and the very very long line.)
{ 11 comments }
Happy discoveries this weekend:
- Ginger Beef with Kale from the 1/08 issue of Martha Stewart Living (not online yet, apparently). Easy and tasty, if slightly too spicy for the kids.
- Halloween with Morris and Boris. Jo brought this home from the school library and apparently it is the funniest thing Opie has ever seen. He busts a gut every time we read it.
- Kodakgallery.com will print your holiday cards and then you can pick them up at a local store. Saved my procrastinating butt.
- “Mommy! Look! The snow is sparkling!“
And, to boot: I am guest-posting today at the calm before the stork. Click over to find out whether or not I was calm in my pre-stork days.
{ 2 comments }
Crisp apple-scented roast turkey with cider-Calvados gravy
I’ve had it twice this month (actually, six or seven times, if you count the leftovers) and it is SO. GOOD.
(Why twice? Because two weeks before Thanksgiving, my husband, apparently weakened by the presence of so much fowl in the supermarket, decided he needed to roast a turkey. So he did. It was excellent. Yes, he rocks in many ways … but that also meant that there was an entire weekend in there where I had to be on 100% kid detail because he was up to his elbows in poultry. It was worth it though.)
Don’t skip the gravy, either. It’s the best part.
And here is Jo’s summary of the trip, entitled “Jo New York Book.”
A Turkey Dinner on Thanksgiving.
And a Tea Party.
And a Dinosaur Museum.
And spin on the Whee Chair.
And P.J.’s Secret Hideout Place With Toys.
And make a Paper Penguin.
Hope you all had a terrifically tryptophanic weekend.
{ 7 comments }
