EEKs!

Last night, I looked in the fridge and found.... almost nothing.  There was a little leftover pizza for the kids, some apple sauce, and a few suspicious-looking green beans in a take-out container.    You know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel when you're serving your kids leftovers of the leftover meals from earlier in the week.

Then, lo and behold, I found something odd.  What was this?  It looked like an overgrown bunch of green onions..... or celery gone horribly wrong.  What could it be?  I probably ought to know what vegetables were lurking in my crisper, but this one was a mystery.

I was too embarrassed to call my trusty blog buddies and attempt to describe the veggie over the phone.  After all, I had almost certainly bought the thing myself.... by mistake.  I tried to call my mother-in-law, my go-to source for my routine stupid-kitchen questions... but she was out.  I was stumped.

After an embarrassing amount of Googling, I found a picture that looked like my mystery vegetable.  I was so excited that I yelped its name aloud:  LEEKS!

Owen came running in and yelled "Eek! Eek! is it a bug, mommy?"

So, Owen and I made braised "eeks."   And they were GREAT, and really easy.

I'm not sure how kosher it is to post a link to another food blog, but here's the Smitten Kitchen recipe.

I didn't make the Devil Chicken - just the leeks.  I served them with a light salad and small goat cheese and red pepper quesadillas.  It looked great and impressed my husband... and Owen kept saying "Eeks are my favowits," which alone made it worthwhile.

A decent meatball sub

In my life I attempt many things in a given day. Three quarters of them are doomed to failure because the initial excitment wanes so quickly and I am loathe to follow through while I pursue newer, loftier goals.

Creating a magazine clipping recipe file of all the wonderful things I want to try making?

Started it. Have 75 recipes from 2 months of magazines 6 months ago. Have actually attempted to make 1 thing.

Organizing the kids craft materials by holiday along with the storybooks and other decorations for that holiday?

Yeah right. A very quick crash a burn.

Writing my blog entries when I say I will?

Ok, I didn't do that either. But here it is now, albeit a bit anticlimactic.

What may be a disappointment to you all are the shortcuts I had to take to get this sandwich on the plate since Madeline actually napped that day for quite a while and it was pretty late by the time I made it to the store. I did not make homemade meatballs. I did not even make homemade sauce. Whole Foods didn't have the right kind of bread and I wasn't willing to fight traffic to hit Central Market. Ina Garten talks about assembling food rather than cooking everything from scratch so you can enjoy the party too. Let's just say I was channeling my inner Ina. And now you all can recreate this dish at home in less effort that it takes to bathe your children.

Kirstin's Ridiculously Easy (aka Cheater) Meatball Subs
Meatballs - I used Foster Farms turkey meatballs from Costco (yum!) but substitute whatever you like. You will need about 4 1.5 inch meatballs per sandwich
Provolone Cheese - 1 slice per sandwich unless your husband grew up on a dairy farm and doesn't like cheese
Tomato sauce - I used Classico tomato and basil. I had most of a jar in the fridge and no time to let my own sauce simmer on the stove all day. use what you like.
Crusty bread - Contrary to the name of this sandwich, this is the key ingredient. Whole Foods had mini baguettes that I had to use. They were way too crusty. You want soft inner bread with a slight chewy crust on the outside. A good Jersey submarine roll would be perfect but you must go to New Jersey to get a decent one.
Onions - The thinest slices you can create. Cut as many as you like in a sandwich.
Olive oil

Turn on the broiler. Pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a heavy sauce pan with the oil and heat over med-high heat. Saute the onions until translucent. Put in the meatballs with the sauce. (Mine were frozen so I put everything in the pan together. If you want to make your own, brown them up on the pan first and then saute onions and add sauce). Heat everything thoroughly and let simmer for as long as you need to. (Like if you have to go take a "quick" break to sing songs to your 3 year old on the potty).
Split the rolls and fill with the meatball/sauce mixture. Top with a slice of provolone and put under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and just barely starting to brown.

Perhaps I will try to make a better, more from-scratch version of this. Probably I won't. I will just get better bread next time. I will be too busy attempting to make homemade marshmallows for that s'more pie from Smitten Kitchen I've been dying to try.

Soup, It's Good For You!

When someone in our family isn't feeling well, this is the soup we turn to. Since my oldest anklebiter is now recovering from a surprise diagnosis of scarlet fever, we had this last night. Next time, I promise to take pictures. The main reason I love this soup, is not only because it is really, really tasty- but you usually have most of the ingredients on hand. I usually free form this, so please take the measurements as a guide and make it your own! Also, one thing to remember is that the leftovers usually soak up a lot of the broth, so you need to add more when you're reheating.



Lollyblogger's Italian, Kind Of Almost Like a Wedding But Not Really, Soup

To start:
dice 2 carrots, 2 ribs of celery and 1 or 2 onions.
Saute them in large dutch oven with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt and 15 turns of your pepper grinder (1/2 t) on medium heat.

After about 5 minutes, toss in two bay leaves, and pour in 1/4 cup white wine. Turn your heat down to low.

While the wine reduces by half- make your meatballs.

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
sprinkle of fresh Italian parsley (if you have it)
1 t minced garlic
1 t kosher salt
30 turns of your pepper grinder (1 t)
1 beaten egg

Mish mash this all together with your hands (make sure you take off your wedding rings- blech) and form into Goldilocks meatballs (not too big, not too small).

Back to your dutch oven--- Add 1 can (14oz) chopped tomatoes, 1 can (14oz) beef stock and 2 cans (28oz) of chicken stock. Bring this to a boil. Once is starts bubbling nicely, add your meatballs, 1 can of cannellini beans (14oz) and simmer for 20 minutes. About ten minutes into cooking, add 1 cup of miniature pasta shells (I also sometimes use tiny ravioli).

Before serving, make sure you remove the 2 bay leaves. I like to shave some fresh parm on top and serve with crusty rolls.

Here's a shopping list of ingredients:
2 carrots
2 ribs of celery
2 onions
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup white wine
1 can (14oz) beef stock
2 cans (28oz) chicken stock
1 can (14oz) cannellini beans
1 can (14oz) crushed tomatoes
1 cup of mini pasta shells or ravioli
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
handful of chopped italian parsley
minced garlic

****one more thing! If you happen to have saved a rind of parmesan in your freezer (they are worth more than gold!) add it to your soup when you pour your stocks in. It seriously boosts the flavor!

I Should Be Named Lazy Susan

Hey folks- Lollyblogger here with a lame-o update.

While we all wait for that sandwich recipe (Kirsten, I can't believe you admitted publicly that you like to READ MAPS. If that isn't a sign that you and Dietz were meant to be together forever, then I don't know what is) I will confess my recent sin in the kitchen.

I haven't really been cooking.

5:30pm rolls around each and every day (funny how that happens) and lately, it's been striking fear in to my hear. Disorganized, unmotivated, chaotic fear. Because I don't know what I'm going to serve for dinner.

Does that ever happen to you? If so, I'm curious to hear what your go-to meal is. Mine used to be this modified version of Italian wedding soup, that if I ever get off my ever-increasing ass, I will write the recipe down, but now I've gotten even lazier.

Oh, Trader Joes- how I love thee. The frozen foods aisle has become my new mecca, and I use my canvas shopping bag as a prayer cloth as I kneel in the direction of the samples and count my blessings that I only live 4 minutes away.

They make this frozen tempura chicken, with the most delicious orange sauce. It only takes 15 minutes to heat in the oven, and I serve it over jasmine rice. As a veggie, I buy the (gasp!) already cooked edamame' and heat those suckers up and dust them with some kosher salt. If I'm feeling inspired, I'll pan fry/steam some vegetable gyoza and serve them as an appetizer.

No thinking, very little clean up, tastier than it deserves to be and it requires absolutely zero thinking on my part. Perfect for a weeknight meal.

Pretty Kitchen, Better Food

I feel that I must first introduce myself, to our new readers. My name is Adrienne. I am a full-time mom, part-time Interior Decorating business owner, self-proclaimed chef and a lover of all things beautiful and/or yummy.

Recently, I have not had much time to cook however. I have spent most of my time on my business. While the economy has been collapsing, my business has been booming. My contractor and I share this same fate. Luckily he has learned to carry my children around like a pro and keeps all of their hand drawn masterpieces on his refridgerator.

My current client project has me in the kitchen, again. And I would like to complain, but really I can't. I'm sure that my faux finisher that I've had in the kitchen painstakingly glazing these cabinets would beg to differ. You see, I care a lot about color in a kitchen. The right colors can bounce off of your food in a magical way.

In the first kitchen I ever designed in our former house, my favorite thing to cook in that kitchen was Sausage and Tri-Bell Peppers. The reason was simple --the light bounced off of the slate backsplash and the spanish moss colored cabinets and made all of the colors of the dish simply come alive. Cilantro and its vibrant color and refreshing smell also came alive in that kitchen in a simply magical way.

I've learned a few grains of knowledge along the way that I hope everyone can take to heart:

1. Cook in your kitchen if at all possible before you decide to change it. If you don't know what you are doing as far as colors and finishes, try to find a professional with love for the kitchen.
2. Pick colors that go well with food and your family. White cabinets, white floors and a wallpaper border inspire nothing but Hamburger Helper Dinners and white wine spritzers.
3. Test out any future colors. C2 paints are my absolute favorite. They sell poster board sized sheets of actual paint. You can tape as many as you can afford to your walls. Hold a lemon, a bunch of cilantro, whatever suits your fancy up to it and see if it "bounces." Get your children involved. Nothing like a 4 year-old standing on the top of your countertop holding a lemon up in the air saying, "this one, or this one?" to really let you know that you are totally centered and okay as a mother.
4. Turn to the mantra that "dark is not evil." It is good to have something, in your room that anchors it. If you are going to have white cabinets and a light granite countertop, pick a vibrant color for your wall. This works in many different facets. I have seen a light and bright modern kitchen with tiger wood cabinets with a gigantic chalkboard wall (one of my personal favorites).
5. Choose natural materials whenever possible. Think organic food meets organic kitchen. I personally think there is nothing better and more cost effective than rolling out your pastry dough on natural granite or marble. I have seen countless kitchens and bathrooms ruined by fake materials meant to look real, most of the time they look just like what they are.
6. Choose the best appliances that you can afford. Yes, I do fantasize about Viking appliances and Tyler Florence the way some women fantasize about George Clooney or McDreamy.
7. And finally, treat your kitchen with care. After you have spent a small fortune renovating it to your liking, please treat it with kindness. Do not, unless under extreme duress, use harsh chemicals on your brand new beautiful countertops. They will not only kill its beautiful finish, but they are also not good for you. I want my counterops as safe as a plate. There are tons of safe organic cleaners out there (Melaleuca Tough & Tender is my personal favorite since it works on kitchen countertops, upholstery and oriental rugs).

Happy cooking and renovating! And I hope to see you in the kitchen soon.

A Quest to Recapture Days Gone By

I have been dreaming all week of a meatball sandwich. Not just any meatball sandwich but one from the greatest sandwich place in Chicago called Costellos.

Dietz and I have been discussing our big summer trip. We are just nutty enough to willingly spend over 75 hours in the car with 2 kids under 6. We will drive from Houston to Madison, WI to Chicago to Pittsburgh to New Jersey to Boston and Cape Cod, back to Jersey and then home to Houston. It allows us to visit friends and family along the way. Its a great way to teach our kids some U.S. geography. Dietz and I get to read maps for hours everyday. (what? you don't like doing that?!) Deep down, however, we drive where the food is. We map our stops based on food. Do we go the direct way to Madison through St Louis or take a short detour through Kansas City and get some awesome bbq? No contest. We will take the bbq and an extra hour in the car anyday. That being said, we will be heading through Chicago on our way to Pittsburgh and we *must* hit Costellos for lunch.

Dietz and I used to live in Chicago. It is where we met (ok, the second time we met) and fell in love.

With each other. Not just with the sandwiches.

We used to spend lazy Sunday mornings, nursing a hangover, eating at Costellos and reading The Onion. It was an idyllic life and there were no adorable little hands smearing their peanut butter on me asking for another cup of milk because they just spilled theirs. Again. Maybe it is that responsibility-free time in my life that I am tasting, rather than the sandwich. Either way, I am making that sucker for dinner. Even if I have to clean up yet another glass of spilled milk while trying to scarf this puppy down, I will attempt to recreate this sandwich.

Tomorrow, I will post the recipe. Right now I need to get my butt to the store for some provolone cheese and crusty rolls.

Zen and the art of cooking

I reached a new milestone yesterday in the kitchen.

As the gals on this blog know, I'm an anxious chef.  A year ago, cooking was a stress-filled event for me, fraught with spills, cursing, and frantic calls to my mother-in-law.  It was absolutely the LAST thing I would ever have done to kick back and relieve stress. 

But yesterday... that's just what I did:  found my inner peace through cooking a great meal.

I have had a really cruddy week.  I'll spare you the details, but it involved kids and needles, ERs and noxious bacteria.  Good times.

So yesterday, with the kids finally parked in front of Kung Fu Panda, I found myself with a big fillet of beef and a lot of anxiety.  I put the two together and made a kickin' Beef Bourguignon from the Barefoot Contessa:

There were a few hiccups and modifications along the way:

- I had no pearl onions, so I diced a medium yellow onion.    This was fine, but in retrospect I would have left them a little larger - say, slivers of onion rather than diced.  They were lost in the sauce, whereas the pearl onions would have stood out a bit more, at least visually.

- The only carrots on hand were "baby" carrots in a bag.  These were handy and easy, but... like the onions, they looked unappealing in the sauce.  They ended up mushy and flavorless.

- I overcooked about half of the fillets, having (gulp) never actually cooked a fillet before.  On the one hand, this dish was a good one for some ruined meat, as the rich sauce sort of atoned for the mistake.  On the other hand, it was really expensive meat, and the portion I cooked correctly was a LOT better.

- Kung Fu Panda ended abruptly, so I over-reduced the sauce right at the end and had to add a little more stock to fix that problem.

My conclusions:

- use heartier vegetables that won't get lost in the sauce

- baby carrots are never a good plan

- when you're stressed, look for a recipe that involves both bacon and wine  

- Beef Bourguingnon is really hard to spell

The food was good and the sauce was delicious (see bacon/wine note above), but the meal was a smashing success mostly for reasons other than the actual food.  Standing there slicing, stirring, even cleaning up the mess... was cathartic.  It was an "a-ha" moment, like the first time that I was in shape enough to enjoy running.  I finally get why people love doing this.

occasional and mediocre

Friends, this is the first post I wrote for this blog-in-gestation.  However, I was so new to blogging that... um... I didn't actually hit "post."  Just realized that it never went up, so for what it's worth, here it is:

I am a reluctant chef.  I lived in New York for nearly a decade, and during that entire time I cooked exactly one meal in my apartment, a fiery attempt at impressing a guy who never got over the smoke alarm and the hunky firefighters who showed up.  I did not own plates, just a handy pasta/cereal bowl and 45 coffee mugs.  It seemed easier and even cheaper to order in... every single night.   

Fast forward another decade, and I moved to Houston.  By this time, I had acquired plates, along with a husband and two kids.  I cooked at times.... because I had to.  Occasional and mediocre were the themes.  

I was the luckiest gal in Texas, because I stumbled into a great group of women right off the bat.  They all attended a "cooking club."  This was a giant red flag... (would they be any fun? Did they ever each Celeste Pizzas?  Did they drink?), but I decided that they seemed worth it.  And lo, they DID drink.  Plenty. 

With the help of the friends (and possibly also the alcohol), I eased my way into my underused kitchen.  With a lot of support - and a few more firefighter visits - I managed to cook some things.... and enjoy it.  No one is more shocked than I am (except for my husband).

Amuse Bouche

Once upon a time, in the land of humidity and oil wells, a blog was born. This blog, in its infancy, is to share the love of cooking throughout the land, and to also reconnect four friends that have bonded over countless glasses of Mommy-Time-Out wine and have now scattered throughout the (three) corners of the country. Please DO try what you read here at home, and don't hold us accountable to your scale. Some of these chicks use a lot of butter, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Just trying this out

I am trying to figure out how to create a blog that multiple people can author. The premise of this blog will be to keep 4 good friends in touch as their doctor husbands move them away from Houston for "real" jobs. There will be posts about food. There will be posts about our kids and the trials and tribulations of raising them. Some posts will be humorous. Others will be downright bitchfests. Anything goes until we get our groove on and find the right direction for this thing.