Under Pressure

My pressure cooker is definitely the most underused appliance in my kitchen.  So when I was browsing cookbooks recently at the library, a cookbook specializing in pressure cooker recipes caught my eye.  We chose three recipes for the menu this week:

Pot Roast with Potatoes

By and far the best recipe of the three, but definitely took the most time to prepare.  It was a good choice for a  Sunday night dinner, and had lots of great flavor.



Enchilada-Glazed Chicken Tacos

This made a tasty, saucy shredded chicken, which we served with flour tortillas, rice and beans and for the grown-ups, sliced avocado.  (Though the kids can try this whenever they like!)
However tasty it was, though, my taco completely fell apart.  Leftovers were taco "bowls" with all the fixings.


Pork Chops with Buttery Apples served over Shaved Brussels Sprouts

This was definitely the worst recipe of the three.  Overdone pork, apples turned to mushy sauce, and watery shaved Brussels sprouts.  Brian and I each ate a bit and it did little more than "fill the belly."  All leftovers were promptly discarded and we tried to forget the sadness of this recipe.


So....thoughts on pressure cookers.

1.  The "browning" feature?  It doesn't really brown, at least not as well as on the stovetop.

2.  I didn't find any of these recipes to be a huge timesaver.  The pot roast recipe took about three hours.  Which, I guess, is a timesaver compared to how long it takes to make a pot roast and potatoes in the oven.

That being said, I'd still try some different recipes with the pressure cooker.  It is great for "set it and forget it" until it's time to depressurize.  Think we'll stick to weekends, though.

Improv Night

So, what does one do when they put Salisbury Steak on the menu?  Get a recipe?

Brian don't need no stinkin' recipe.

Voila!  Salisbury steak, improvised.

It was delicious.  Brian and I thought so, anyway.  Sean gave it a try and ended up eating four bites.

Will, on the other hand, was ok with the flavor until he found the greenery.  (Parsley, and maybe a little spinach.)  Then he pronounced it "a combination of a murdered cow and a vegetable garden."

In other news.....laughter will egg your ten-year-old on.  It's important to keep a stern face in these matters.  Or, at least try.

Playing Catch-Up

Well.

Life has a way of running away with you sometimes, especially around the holidays.  So normally I would have written a post about each of these things individually.  Instead, here's a group post.  These are all things that we've eaten in the last couple of weeks that I thought were noteworthy...

 Spinach frittata.  Something that I had never had before, and it was awesome.  I'm not sure what the difference is between this and crustless quiche, if there is a difference at all.  Leftovers were delicious for a couple of mornings after we had this for dinner.  

 This is called "Cowboy Caviar."  I made it from a recipe online for the resident holiday party last week.  The recipe calls for corn, black beans, black-eyed peas, cilantro, green onion, tomato and avocado.  They didn't have black-eyed peas at the grocery store so I subbed pinto beans.  This was great with tostitos scoops.

We were going to have friends over for a football game one Sunday but they had to cancel last minute.  So we ate the food anyway (of course!)  Mushroom swiss burgers were incredible, and this warm potato salad was simply divine.  It's a stretch calling it a "salad" instead of roast potatoes but you know what?  The name doesn't matter, it was so good.

One and Only

I've never been a fan of ground turkey.

There, I said it.  It's just not as tasty as ground beef.  Sure, it's better for your health but turkey meatloaf is icky, and don't even get me started on turkey meatballs.  Turkey meatballs with tomato sauce are just plain said.

However, with that being said, I was pleasantly surprised last week with I found this recipe on Pinterest for Thai Turkey Burgers with Broccoli Slaw.  With the right veggies and herbs, these were fantastic.  Garlic, ginger, cilantro....all good stuff.  It made 6 or 7 patties and I had the rest of them as the week went on, over a little rice or quinoa with a smear of hoisin  sauce on top.  I'd certainly make them again.  The slaw, well, it was so-so.  I appreciated the flavors but after the first serving it got a bit mushy in the fridge so I threw it out.

So there you go, Ground turkey, for turning me into a believer.

Valentine's Day at Home

Brian and I aren't big on going out to dinner on V Day.  It was an experience from ten years ago that ruined it....reservations at a well-known Italian restaurant in the city.  Only to have to wait over an hour after our reservation at a crowded bar that was packed tight like sardines.  From then on most of our Valentine's Day dinners have been at home.  I say "most" because one of our best was a hockey game and subs at D'Angelos.  I'm being serious, it was fun and I can't remember what year it was.

So scenes from this year's dinner.  First, let me tell you that the kids had chicken nuggets and mac n cheese in front of the TV.  Anything to keep them happy so we could enjoy our meal and each other's company.

First, bruschetta on pizza crust.  Fresh, garlicky and delightful.  

Then, the main course.  NY strip steak with red wine sauce,  snow crab legs, baked potato and asparagus with parmesan.

And an hour or two later while watching TV, homemade molten chocolate cake with a little vanilla ice cream.

With dinner like that, why go out??  Happy Valentine's Day!

The Art of French Cooking

Brian's birthday was in September and I got him a cookbook that he's wanted for some time:  Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."  As neither of us have any experience in EATING french cuisine, much less cooking it, it's a new culinary adventure.

He's made two dishes so far....Daube de Boeuf and Pork Sylvie.  Both meals took the better part of a Sunday but were out of the park. The Daube de Boeuf was kind of like a beef stew, only baked in the oven.  We had it with a Parmesan Risotto that was to DIE FOR.  Brian told the kids that it was "steak and cheesy rice."  Will remarked that he'd never had steak like it and Brian just told him that it was a "wet method" of cooking.   He didn't eat it all but certainly didn't complain.

The Pork Sylvie came at a time where I was needing comfort food in a big way, after my kidney surgery.  It was this perfect pork roast, stuffed with swiss cheese.  Normally I'm not a big Swiss cheese fan but this was divine.  Lots of leftovers, which of course made me quite happy.

I think I could get used to eating French food.  Not every day of course, but as often as Brian can cook it.

Mixed Reviews

Two meals from last week:  cheesy ravioli bake and meatloaf "cakes."  I thought that they were pretty kid-friendly.  I was apparently wrong.

The first one, cheesy ravioli bake, seemed like a slam-dunk.  Both kids adore cheese ravioli, especially Will.  I figured this was cheese ravioli with a little bit of veggies and some cheese on top, for the win.  Brian and I loved it!  The kids?  Notsomuch.  Will picked at the ravioli and Sean cried that it looked "terrible."  Later on Sean told me that he likes ravioli, but next time don't make it with the "leaves" and tomatoes if I want him to eat it.  Leaves are baby spinach, by the way.

Then on Tuesday or Thursday (all my nights run together after a while) Brian made a "meatloaf cake" recipe that I had found on Pinterest.  Now, I am not a big meatloaf person.  I have never had a meatloaf at home that I've really liked.  A bread pan with a "loaf of meat" with a big fat slick on top just isn't delicious.  Not so with these.  They were perfectly cooked and didn't resemble martian food, very flavorful.  And the slick of fat?  Nowhere to be seen.  We served it with egg noodles and canned green beans.  (aka STILL the only vegetable these two will eat without a fight)  The meatloaf was a big old No Go.  I threw in the towel and acquiesced to their request for peanut butter and jelly.

All this meant that there was more leftovers for us.  Later on in the week Brian made loaded mashed potatoes to go with the meatloaf cakes when we ran out of noodles.  We had a lot of potatoes in the house, and these were awesome.  Obviously, we will continue to soldier on, to get these boys to eat new things.

If you're interested in the meatloaf "cakes" recipe:  here it is.  We omitted the sriracha to make it more "kid friendly."  Hahahahahahaha!  :)

Summer Salads

In our house, we eat well.  In fact, I think a lot of the time that the food that Brian makes is better than most restaurant food that we get to have.  I'm not being braggy...ok maybe a little.  But in terms of cooking, I've always said that he is exceptional whereas my cooking is good for everyday.

Speaking of restaurant food...there is one food that I've always found better at a restaurant than at home.  Salads.  

Salads just taste better at a restaurant.  The produce is fresher, the presentation, the variety of ingredients.  Until recently, salads at our house were just green salads with a little tomato and cucumber on top.  Maybe some celery or carrots, and almost always featured "bag-o-salad."  You know, the big bag of mixed lettuce that you buy at the grocery store and pray that it will still be good in two days.  (It usually isn't.)

I'm starting to change my mind about salads....a couple of weeks ago Brian and I made a Chinese chicken salad using romaine, rotisserie chicken, oriental noodles, toasted almonds, mandarin orange slices, etc.  It was delicious!  It was also huge--and would've made great leftovers if we hadn't dressed the whole thing.  It was a soggy mess the next day.  So I've learned a few things:  the secret to a great salad is in the dressing.  Homemade is best, and honestly, it's not difficult or really time-consuming.  Plus, you know what's going into it and can adjust it to your taste.

So Brian and I have resolved to a salad dinner once a week, and here was last night's:

Rib-eye steak over watercress, radish and a little blue cheese, with a wine vinegar dressing.  

It was quite good and surprisingly, filled us up.  Can't wait to see what the next salad turns up like!

Evolution of Taste

I've always said that I like most food, that there is a very short list of things that I won't eat.  A few of those things that have made the list:  chickpeas, olives, lima beans, mint, lamb, conch fish, venison, beer and cilantro.

As I grow older, things change.  For example, I may not like chickpeas whole, but if it's garlic or red pepper hummus, I dip chips and veggies like there's no tomorrow.  It turns out that I don't care for dried cilantro, but fresh is delicious in a homemade salsa.  And I even appreciate a cold beer on occasion.

I can stand the occasional black olive in a salad or on a pizza.  Not much else though, I adore Greek salads on Wednesday nights at knit night at the local Panera but I always pick out the olives.  (Because I never, ever remember that I can order the salad without them!)  Last month however, Brian made a chicken dish from "50 Shades of Chicken that featured garlic and kalamata olives.  I thought I'd hate it, but I didn't.  Turns out I like the FLAVOR of olives, but not whole and the having to pit them.  And if they're canned.....blech.  As a side note, the "50 Shades of Chicken" is a parody cookbook of the E.L. James "50 Shades of Grey" book series.  I don't believe that it was well-received, as Brian found it on the bargain bookshelf at Barnes and Noble when it first came out.  Which is a travesty....every recipe in there is a hit so far!

Even Brian has to admit that his tastes have changed.  The man that insists that he hates Mexican food suggested making enchiladas this past weekend.  Enchiladas!  I love Mexican food, so this sounded great to me!  A friend of ours used to make them but they were vegetarian, using refried beans as the protein source.  No wonder Brian didn't like them....but I thought they were OK.  Anyway....his enchiladas came out fantastically on Sunday night!  He took a recipe from ATK's "Simple Dishes" cookbook that called for ground turkey and subbed ground beef and mushrooms.  Not only were they delectable, they made scads of leftovers for this week.  It also turns out that, like lasagna, the leftovers taste even better!

"Sexy."

Yesterday was Hubby and I's 13th anniversary.  Lucky number 13!  Since we're going to the Cape this weekend to celebrate, it was a pretty low-key Monday.  With the exception of dinner, of course.  At least, that's what was on the social calendar of the evening.

Brian chose a Rachael Ray recipe online, for "Sexy Surf and Turf."  How can you not like a recipe with a name like that?  It called for sweet vermouth, so I stopped at the liquor store to buy some.  Not being much of a drinker, I didn't know that there was a difference between "sweet" and "dry" vermouth so I'm glad that the recipe was specific.  The steak had a rich sauce with shallots and vermouth, aptly called "Manhattan Sauce."  Let me tell you, it was to DIE FOR.  The three perfectly-cooked sea scallops on top were excellent as well.  I had also purchased a bottle of prosecco, which neither of us had ever tried.  It was very nice, sweeter than the usual champagne.  I guess I DO like champagne, when it's cold and fresh.  The little sip that you get at a wedding toast is usually flat and warm.

So that was the "sexy" part of the evening.  The rest of the anniversary was decidedly un-sexy.  Pre-dinner, the sauce smoked a bit and set off the smoke detector.  In this house, if one goes off they all go off, and that really startled the kids.  Every window and door had to be opened, and a fan put on "exhaust" in the living room window.  Sean cried while Will hung out on the front stoop to get away from the noise.  Did I also mention the rain and potential thunderstorms?  After that was over, we sat down for a nice dinner.  The kids enjoyed their plain steak and rice.  No sooner were we all on our last bite, the power went out.  Apparently, it doesn't take much for that to happen around here!  With no TV, I read the boys stories from Will's school bag, and we all snuggled up on the couch and loveseat in the living room, by candlelight.  We got the boys situated in sleeping bags on their bedroom floor.  Many thanks to Papa, for getting them light sabers at a yard sale.  They make for great "glow sticks" in a power outage!

Lemon and Garlic Week!

This week's theme is lemon and garlic.  Apparently.  This was purely accidental, but it's definitely two well-loved ingredients in this house.  Brian wrote the menu and it's chock full of delicious recipes...but clearly he was craving lemon and garlic when he wrote it!

Monday night:  grilled chicken with lemon and garlic, rice and frozen peas.  Chicken recipe courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens.

This was a whole chicken that he cut up and grilled.  On a weeknight.  :)  The intensity of the marinade was incredibly flavorful.  I couldn't wait for the leftovers the next day!  And yes...frozen peas.  My mother will be happy to hear that she was right...frozen does taste way better than canned.  Not to my child self, but as an adult frozen are the way to go.

Tuesday:  rib eye steaks with grilled garlic.  Accompanied by baked potatoes and grilled Caesar Salad.  Steak recipe courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens.

First of all, there's no such thing as too much garlic.  That's the way it is in our house, anyway!  Roasted (or in this case grilled) garlic, smushed on a piece of bread is delightful.  The same garlic smushed on steak is to DIE FOR.  And the steak was cooked perfectly, medium to medium-well.  Just how I like it best.  :)

The first time I ever had a "grilled" Caesar salad I wasn't sure I'd like it.  But the smokiness of the grill, combined with the saltiness of the shaved parmesan and the tang of the caesar dressing....it's something special, I tell ya!

 The last meal in the theme of the week:  Lemon Tilapia packets with corn and zucchini.  Recipe courtesy of Hubby's Mom, who emailed it to him.  Served over quinoa, which we almost forgot to make.

Couple of things:

-Fish store didn't have tilapia, so we substituted cod.  By the by, I loved having a small local fish store in our old neighborhood, and now we have one near here, too!
-Recipe called for corn on the cob cut into rings with the kernels intact.  There really wasn't any fresh corn in the stores, so Brian substituted the chinese-style canned mini corn ears that you see in stir-frys.  I don't think it translated well.  If we were to make this again, it would be when corn on the cob is available.
-Fish can overcook quickly.  It was still edible, but it could've been better.  This was a tough dinner because of the distractions.
-I have to say....quinoa isn't something I pictured myself eating.  But the more I have of it, the more I like it!

So there you have it:  Lemon and Garlic week is over.  Pretty soon it'll be time for fall suppers and crockpot stuff!

Shredded Beef Tacos

A new Pinterest recipe!   Chillier nights mean autumn is coming, and that always gets me thinking about the crockpot.  Some people like to use theirs in the summer but it's just not my thing. I've seen a lot of recipes for cooking meat in the crockpot for tacos but never tried one.   The set-and-forget was really great this weekend, too.  I'm pretty sure that this cooking at home was the only reason we didn't get dinner out on Saturday after going shopping at the mall.   This one did not disappoint!

Plus....lots of leftovers for a busy Monday at work!  Win, Win!

A Woman of my Word

I said last week that we'd make meatballs, and I keep my word.  Last night:  meatballs.  :)  I originally wanted to make these on Sunday but we as a family (read:  Crafty Mama)  tend(s) to overcram Sundays.  So last night after dinner, it was meatball city!

No recipes...just flying by the seat of our pants.  A package of ground pork, a package of ground beef.  And I got really daring and didn't measure ingredients.  Sometimes it's best that way.  Some bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, two eggs, oregano, rosemary, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Brian rolled them and fried them in vegetable oil while I worked on feeding kids and doing dishes.  (We make a good team that way.)    He used his induction cooker to better control the temperature, which seems like it was a good idea.  Next time Brian wants to make them like his mom made them growing up:  added to sauce and simmering in a crockpot for several hours.  I've had Mom G's meatballs, they are pretty good!

All in all, I'd say the process only took about an hour, give or take.  I wish I had taken a photo of the meatball assembly line, but alas, I did not so you will have to imagine it.    Now there are several bags of (hopefully) good-quality meatballs in my freezer, and one bag to go with cheese tortellini and leftover marinara tonight.  Looking forward to it!

More March Meals

The last few weeks have been insane.  Getting a house ready to sell is way more work than I ever thought.

It's going well, though.   I've packed up a lot of things for storage, and we've painted, cleaned, fixed, installed, and lots of other action words and items.  Pretty soon though, I'll be packing up the cookbooks.  That's ok though, there's still the Internet.  :)

I haven't had time to write individual meal posts, so how about a summary.

One night last week we had Pork Lettuce Wraps, courtesy of this month's "Cooking Light."  Usually I make these with chicken, so this was a nice change.  The ground pork is mixed with garlic and ginger and sauteed, and the vegetables (peppers, cucumber, etc...I didn't have any carrot so I put some onion in there instead) were supposed to be raw.  I don't really like raw veggies on a wrap, so I opted to sautee lightly.  It called for a serrano pepper, but only half of a serrano pepper.  Right, anyway....I chopped up a whole one because they're small and I am just NOT going to put half a serrano pepper away in the crisper to rot slowly.  I ignored my desire to put sriracha sauce in the mix and I'm glad I did because OH BABY!  Those were spicier than expected.  Delicious though.  Brian wasn't crazy about them because of the intense flavors.  (Fresh garlic, ginger paste, serrano)  I served the leftovers over rice the next day and was thrilled with them.

We were replacing the carpet in the family room over to Pergo laminate flooring on St. Patrick's Day weekend.  I had anticipated that this would take both Saturday and Sunday, so there really wasn't a point to making a corned beef and cabbage dinner.  Which is really too bad, because I love corned beef and cabbage!  So I planned an Irish Beef Stew instead.  And thanks to the awesome skills of hubby, my brother and my dad, the floor was done in a day!  I am SO THANKFUL that we have family members that not only have the skills to do this kind of work, that they don't mind helping!  The stew was really good, with some Irish soda bread on the side.  (not made by either of us, but bought at Price Chopper.)

Lastly, and I feel this really deserves its own blog entry....steak over arugula with a parmesan butter.  This recipe was out of Epicurious (goodness what a great cookbook!) and it only called for 12 oz of ribeye steak.  I was skeptical, I really was.  But sliced up, and served with a balsamic brown sugar and shallot glaze and the aforementioned pamesan butter?  This was good enough to be restaurant food.  And I wasn't at all unhappy with the amount of steak.  So, so very good.  And a very easy recipe to boot, the only difficult part was making sure you didn't overcook the steak.

That's it for now, folks!

Sassy/Saucy

Monday Night, 5:40pm.  I'm starving. 

Brian's clearing the driveway a bit more after this past weekend's blizzard, so I decide that I am going to cook a fast, simple dinner.  Defrosted pork chops in the fridge, waiting to be dropped into a hot skillet.  To make it friendly to all household members and FAST, I add a box of Kraft Mac n Cheese and a can of green beans.  I just don't want the complaints tonight and when we all eat the same dinner, everyone wins.

Then my wheels start turning and I decide to improvise a sauce for the pork.  This is what I came up with, and it was delicious!  Note:  this isn't quite a recipe, as I don't have exact measurements of every ingredient, nor how long I cooked this.  It's very much make-it-up-as-you-go-along, or MIUAYGA :)

Honey-Mustard Sauce

1 cup yellow mustard

1/2 cup honey 

2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped fine

couple of shakes of dried rosemary and dried sage  (I really have no idea how much, but not a lot.) 

Salt and pepper to taste.

chicken broth, to thin the sauce towards the end


I sauteed the garlic, then added the honey, mustard and spices to the saucepan.  After this got a bit bubbly, I added it to the pan drippings from the pork chops.  It got a bit thick, so I added chicken broth to thin it out a bit.  Two of the three pork chops were added back to the pan (the boys probably wouldn't eat this and barely are the last pork chop split between them) to coat.  Simple, yet divine.  And pretty fast on a Monday night, as dinner was on the table at quarter past six!  You have to love that.

My First Pot Roast

I can't believe I'd never made a pot roast before....we had it a lot when i lived at home with my folks.  Mom had a recipe where you added meat, veggies and the cooking liquid to a plastic bag and put it in the microwave.   Unconventional,  I know, but it was delicious.  She always served it with buttered noodles, peas and carrots.   Mmmmmmm childhood.  :)

This was a McCormick recipe, and a simple one at that.  Veggies, meat,  water and spice packet, then "set n forget" on low for eight hours!  I love dinners that kind of take care of themselves like magic.  The meat was fork-tender, and there's plenty of leftovers.  Add my mom's roasted beets plus biscuits on the side and you've got a pretty good way to end a weekend. 

Fall Preview

I read in the local paper yesterday that apple season in Massachusetts is running about ten days early, due to warmer weather this past Spring.  So I've already made sure to write on the calendar what day in September that we'll go apple picking.  I LOVE the family apple picking trip every year!  The boys love it too, Will's already asked when we are going.

With that said, last night's dinner was Pork Chops with an Apple Pan Sauce, accompanied by Sauteed Apples n' Onions.  I am continually amazed at how good apples and onions taste together, they complement each other nicely.  The pork was cooked perfectly, and there was white rice to sop up the pan sauce.  Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light.  Again, surprised that this was a "light" recipe!  No pictures....the food was gone in the blink of an eye.  Well, mine and Brian's anyway.  Neither kid likes sauteed apples, which I thought for sure would be a hit due to their natural sweetness.  Nope, one or two bites of pork and the rice from the big kid, and total refusal from the little kid.  UGH.  I'm over it.  

Cherry Pork

I had to work this past Saturday morning.  I honestly cannot remember the last time that happened, which is a good thing!  I attended the dedication ceremony for my new job, which went very well.  Afterwards there was a cookout at the church that sponsored the new building that I will be managing.  I didn't stay, and I'm glad for one reason:  if I'd filled up on hot dogs or hamburgers, I would've missed this beauty for lunch:

Pork Chops with Cherry Sauce

I love cherries, they're my second-favorite of summer fruit.  (Peaches first, watermelon third.)  I don't eat them often, because they're usually ridiculously expensive.  Also, it's another food that only gets eaten by me, so I end up wasting part of a bag of cherries.  This was the first time that either of us had attempted cooking with cherries, as cherries are not easy to pit.    Brian put this together from an online recipe, with ingredients like honey and tarragon.  He's not usually a fan of cherries, but proclaimed the sauce delicious!  I saved the leftover sauce to pour over a little vanilla ice cream.  That will be a great little sweet treat later on.  :)

Day Fifteen: I heart pork.

Dinner last night:  It was supposed to be pork and grilled peaches.  Only the peaches that we had weren't even close to ripe.  Instead, Brian made roast pork chops with honey mustard dipping sauce, brown rice and green beans.  It was so very good.

Tomorrow night dinner is going to be picnic-style with old friends.  Can't wait!

The Makings of Awesome

On the menu for tonight:  beef and eggplant casserole.  Picked not by me....but Brian.  I read the menu when he wrote it up and gave him a blank stare.  "Are you sure?  Eggplant?"

Glad he was up to it...I adore eggplant.  This casserole (from the trusty old "9x13, The Pan that CAN!" cookbook I received as a gift a few years ago.) was incredible.  So incredible in fact, that I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy devouring it.  It was a pasta meatsauce, with bits of fried eggplant.  What's not to love???

Lots of leftovers, and even hubby wants to take some for lunch tomorrow instead of his usual ham and cheese sandwich. This one is obviously a keeper.  (The recipe AND the man!)