Either Way You're Only Getting Half a Pan

I learned a hard lesson......you don't leave cast iron items in the oven while baking.

For one thing, they make it so that the oven takes forever to heat up.  I left a skillet and a grill pan on the bottom shelf when I was making banana "snack cake" and later on in the week I made magic bars for the karate picnic.  Yes, I made this mistake twice.

The edges were the only cooked pieces on the banana cake, I was able to salvage this much and throw the rest away.  The boys loved it, though.  Will asked for a taste, and then took the piece from me with a big smile and a "Mine!"  :)  It's going to be the first recipe I write into The Notebook in a while.

 Good Cake.

Bad Cake.

The magic bars edges were destroyed.  Not only because of the cast iron roommates hogging space in the oven, but because I thought that the first step of melting butter in the pan would be enough to grease it.  Yeah.....not so much for the sides.  This is how much I had to throw out, and I despise throwing out food.

So....lessons learned and shared from me, so you don't have to learn them for yourself.

Keeping it Simple

Guess what?  We sold our house.  Well, I shouldn't jinx it like that.  We received an offer on our house, and we accepted.  It took eight weeks to get it ready to sell.  It took TWO DAYS on the market to get an offer!

We've found a new house, two towns away.  Let me tell you, it's got a GORGEOUS kitchen!  Very big, lots of cabinets, and newer appliances with a lot more bells and whistles than my current ones.  Not to say that mine are crap, but I'm very excited about an ice maker.  

So meals have tended to be on the simpler side lately, as we have mortgage paperwork to hunt down at night or packing.  Oh lord, the packing.  We packed up about half of our stuff before the house went on the market and put it in storage but still have some more to go.  I haven't started on the kitchen and that is going to take some serious time and boxes.

Anyway, dinner tonight is an old Campbell's favorite:  chicken divan.  It was delicious!  The notebook has been a saver lately, with old favorites.

Company's Coming

...or maybe that should be company came, but whatever.

I had a few of my knitting group friends over for dinner the other night.  Brian offered to cook us dinner instead of ordering out, and I gladly took him up on it.  He asked a friend at work, "What do you cook four women?"  His friend replied "I'm sure they'll appreciate whatever you make, because they didn't have to cook it!"

Roasted cranberry chicken, lemon and thyme quinoa, sauteed green beans.  Damn!  Brian even did the "Iron Chef" description of what he did as we started to eat, but I'm not sure anyone but me heard him.  We were already busily scarfing down the deliciousness.  Lots of leftovers too.  Oh, and I haven't been a big believer in quinoa in the past, but this recipe from America's Test Kitchen has made me a raving fan.  Into the notebook it goes!

The next day, we roasted a turkey.  One of my tenants asked if I'd like to have a frozen turkey that she wasn't going to use so of course I said yes.  We had my brother and SIL over, and it was a fun night.  lots of leftovers from that too, despite sending them home with some.

  And then last night, my next door neighbor brought over a baked ziti casserole as a thank you for helping clear her driveway last week during Snowpocalpyse '13.  Had that for dinner the past two nights, and there's STILL three helpings left for lunch(es).  Talk about a very good weekend!

A Notebook Week

Every Saturday, one of us writes the menu for the week.  I usually like to concentrate on one cookbook or other source for that week's meals.  Or, depending on how many nights one of us is going to be out that week, we stick to a short list of (kind of boring) quick and easy foods.  

I guess I can name this the "Best of" week, since Brian focused on our notebook as a cookbook.  If you don't remember or are new here, any recipe that's SO fabulous that we must make it again, it goes in a notebook.  This week's favorites:

Mexican Chicken and Rice

Lemon Pepper Swordfish Packets

Parmesan Breaded Pork Chops with Pasta

Marinated Steak Tips

Bon Voyage Chicken Pasta.

It's already been a very good week, with the Mexican Chicken and Rice last night.  And tonight's the swordfish.  Oh yeah!!

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Cups

I love emails that start like this:  "Darling, I found this recipe and I'd like to try in this weekend.  What do you think?"  Nick Jr sometimes sends out emails with kid-friendly recipes and he'd just signed up for their email updates.  (I get them too, and my copy was in my inbox right before his forward)

Hubby forwarded me an email with six brunch items and told me to pick one.  I chose Bacon, Egg and Cheese Cups and he put them together on Saturday morning for breakfast.  Three favorite breakfast-y things, all put together into a treat you can eat out of your hand!  The end result was a satisfying little muffin-like pastry that tasted like a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit.  What's not to like there???  This recipe is definitely worthy to be put in the Notebook!

Summer's Last Hurrah

Labor Day has come and gone, which means summer has unofficially ended.  The temps have even started to drop at night, making for excellent sleeping weather.  :)  I've always said that September and October are the best months of the year.  :)

We spent the first part of the holiday weekend visiting family, and Monday was just the four of us hanging out at home.  We planned on a simple menu for dinner:  barbecued chicken, pasta salad and fresh corn on the cob.

Brian bought a whole chicken and cut it up to individual pieces.  And I have to admit, it really is fresher that way.  And it creates plenty of leftovers.

Now, imagine the chagrin when I realize that (GAH) we're out of barbecue sauce!  You always notice these kinds of things when the cook is elbow-deep in raw chicken and there's no quick options.   So I flew by the seat of my pants.  What sounds good....I know!  Citrus and Basil Marinade.  I threw it together in my blender, all ingredients in the kitchen and on-hand.  The end result was tangy deliciousness....very taste-of-summer.  Crisis averted!



Crafty Mama's Citrus-Basil Marinade

I call this a marinade, but really, the chicken pieces only soaked in it for about fifteen minutes.  Believe me, it was plenty of time. 

In a blender, toss in:

1 cup orange juice
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/3 cup orange marmalade
6 fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp lemon juice
a little ground black pepper

Set blender to "chop" for about 20 seconds, then "mix" for 20 more.  Place chicken pieces in a big plastic bag, then pour in the marinade.  Seal bag, squeezing out excess air.   Refrigerate for desired resting time/optimal flavor. 

Enjoy!

Chicken and Garlic "Stew"

We have a saying in our house, there is no such thing as too much garlic!  I once wanted to try a restaurant in San Francisco called The Stinking Rose.  They have their own saying..."We Flavor Our Garlic with Food."  We would've made it there too, if it hadn't been for the rotten parking in downtown San Francisco.  Ah well...there's always next time!

I chose this recipe this week from Mark Bittman's "Everything" Cookbook.  I love this book!  Most every recipe in it is very simple to make and really makes whatever the main ingredient shine.  This one was no exception.  Plus, you have to love a meal that you basically stick in a pot and forget about for about an hour.  Ding!  Dinner's done. 

When I first read the recipe though, I incorrectly assumed it was going to be a stew.  Really, it was more of a method of cooking, since there was only half a cup of liquid in the entire thing.  Brian said that it was more like braising, and since he knows about such things from watching countless hours of Food Network I am going to assume he's correct.  The recipe also called for serving it with crusty bread.  Uhm...I realized around 4pm that we didn't have any bread.  So instead we made biscuits.  Bisquick to the rescue!  No biscuit cutter, so Brian improvised using a Christmas ornament cookie cutter.  (Trust Mr. Christmas to add Christmas cheer whenever possible...regardless of the calendar!)

The end result was so fantastic, we didn't even flip through magazines, just ate in almost silence.  This is one for the notebook!

Christmas Eats

Christmas is a magical time.....and that's true for food too.  :)

Christmas Eve was a little low key, with a simple pasta supper.  But we had our tradtional late Christmas Breakfast...a dutch baby!  A dutch baby is essentially an oven pancake, topped with jam, powdered sugar, maply syrup or whatever you like.  I had received a gift of different butters from a friend of mine, so we went with Peach Butter.  Delicious.  :)

Then there were appetizers.....spicy shrimp cocktail and cheese and crackers.  Always good choices. 

Then dinner....oh dinner.  I didn't do too much of the dinner prep this year, Brian really outshone himself in the kitchen!  I prepared the buttered stuffed apples, and he did the rest.  Oh.....and our company helped too.....my cousin and my dad peeled potatoes, my mom put stuff together and so did my aunt.  My mom made a homemade vegetable soup as a starter.  I really like starting Christmas dinner with soup, it just makes it that much more special.  The roast beef came out perfect, with a slightly pink center.  All of the sides were fantastic.  And they all cleaned up after dinner so Preggo Ginny didn't have to do anything except continue to sip her coffee and chat with Auntie Kim!

Then there were lots of unwrapping gifts, followed by dessert.  Chocolate was the main theme, with Kim's brownies and homemade chocolate truffles, my aunt's trifle and a white chocolate and cranberry cheesecake that Mom brought.  By the end of the night if you were hungry it was your own fault.

I'm happy to say that I survived Christmas with gestational diabetes.  I did not feel at all deprived of treats, and my blood sugar numbers, though slightly high, weren't bad at all.  However, now my day of debauchery is over and it's time to start behaving again. 

Now for food-themed Christmas gifts:  I got a new 11 inch frying pan to replace the one that's losing it's nonstick coating.  Brian received Alton Brown's "Good Eats:  Reminiscing the First Six Seasons" book.  It turns out that the jacket cover opens up to a huge movie poster of Alton.....and he wants to frame it and hang it in our kitchen!  We shall see.....Brian also surprised me with a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook called "9x13: The Pan that Can!"  Every single recipe in the book is made in a 9x13 pan, from breakfast to roasts to casseroles and cakes.  That's a pretty neat concept.  I've always liked casseroles but don't have a lot of recipes for them.  So I know what we'll be putting on the menu over the next couple of weeks.  Plus, it wouldn't hurt to have some casseroles for when the baby arrives!

It was a very Merry Christmas in our house, not to mention delicious.  Hope yours was Merry and Delicious, too!

Lazy Weekend Banana Cake

Since I find myself with a weekend with no set plans (unheard of!!) I decided I would do what I felt like doing.  I was flipping through my recipe notebook and found a recipe for Banana Chocolate Brunch Cake.  I believe it's a Cooking Light recipe, though I could not tell you from which issue.  (It was years ago, I'm sure.)  I discovered four bananas on their way out, so it seems like a good time to use them up, no?  (We never can get through a whole bunch of bananas!)  I did modify the recipe a little bit this time, instead of regular brown sugar I decided to give Brown Sugar Baking Blends from Splenda a whirl.  I also used semi-sweet chocolate chips in the recipe.  Enjoy!


Chocolate Banana Brunch Cake


2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 c. mashed banana (3 large bananas)
1/4 c. milk
1 lg egg
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped/divided OR 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips


1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Stir with wire whisk.
3.  Combine banana, milk and egg until well-blended.  Add banana mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.  Fold in chocolate.  Bake @ 350 for 35 minutes.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Christmas Dinner....

Christmas Dinner....what a treat!

Holiday Tortellini Soup
Roast Beef
Seafood "Cake Bake"
Stuffed Golden Apples
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with Shallots
Butternut Squash
Roasted Carrots with Rosemary and Garlic
Hot Rolls and Butter.


My mom made the soup, it was out of Taste of Home this month. It was tomato, spinach and cheese tortellini, topped with fresh grated Parmesan. The roast beef was a bit underdone, but delicious just the same. Seafood "Cake Bake" is the silly name that Brian came up with when he put two recipes together, one for Seafood Gratin and the other for Crabcakes. Despite the name, it was absolutely delicous. And the veggies this year....roasted carrots with fresh rosemary and garlic! I roasted them the day before and Brian warmed them up in the oven. They were soooo good! And the green beans were just boiled for 4-5 minutes and then sauteed with a little olive oil and chopped shallot. Mmmmm....who knew simplicity could taste so good! The best part was that there were plenty of leftovers to send home with people and still have dinner tonight!!

Dessert was provided by our guests. Mom brought lots of Christmas cookies and a peach kuchen. Brian and Kim brought brownies that my brother had made, as well as more cookies. My aunt and cousin brought a Trader Joe's Chocolate Cheesecake sampler and a chocolate Yule Log. I haven't had any of those yet, but you can't go wrong with chocolate cheesecake!!!

This dinner is definitely worthy of "The Notebook." I keep a notebook of recipes that we've tried and really, really liked. (And yes, I write down the source so there's no plagiarizing.)

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!