Chicken Enchiladas and Homemade Tomatillo Sauce

In my CSA delivery this week were a bunch of tomatillos.   Now, having grown up in NJ I didn't have a lot of exposures to tomatillos.  In fact, I don't think I ever saw one until I moved to California.  Since I've lived here, I've come to love them and the salsa verde for which they are generally the main ingredient.  So when I got this bunch of beautiful tomatillos, I decided to make some tomatillo sauce and use it for chicken enchiladas.  Since I was rushing to get out the door this evening for a meeting, I didn't get a chance to take a picture before we dug in.   But here is a lovely picture of a couple of tomatillos for your viewing pleasure!  

Tomatillo Sauce

6 tomatillos, husked and cleaned

3 chopped scallions, whites only

1 can of diced chiles or 2-3 fresh green chiles

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Juice of 1/2 lime

Salt

Chicken Enchiladas

makes about 6 enchiladas

2-3 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced

2 cups of shredded Jack cheese

6 tortillas (I use flour, but you can use corn too)

-- Preheat oven to 350°

-- Quarter tomatillos and place in medium saucepan with scallions, chiles and garlic

-- Let tomatillos boil, then simmer until tomatillos are soft, about 20 minutes

-- Meanwhile, heat 1 tbs of canola oil in saute pan over high heat.  Add onion when oil is almost smoking

-- Cook onions until soft

-- Add chicken and cook until just past pink

-- Remove tomatillos from heat, put in blender or food processor with cilantro and lime.  Blend and add salt to taste

-- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a saute pan large enough to allow a tortilla to lay flat.  When oil is hot, add one tortilla to pan just long enough to soften (make sure to flip it to get both sides exposed to pan).  Remove tortilla, set aside in plate, and continue with remaining tortillas.   You may need to add more oil.

-- Spread a thin layer of tomatillo sauce over the bottom of a baking dish

-- Ladle 1-2 tablespoons of chicken into tortilla (depending on the size of your tortilla), add cheese, and fold and roll into enchilada.   Place seam-side down in baking dish

-- Continue with remaining tortillas until dish is filled with a single layer of enchiladas

-- Cover tops of enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, sprinkle with remaining cheese (about 1 cup)

-- Bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until cheese is just starting to brown

-- Serve immediately and enjoy!  

I've also learned that tomatillos are pretty easily frozen.  All you have to do is remove the husks, clean and dry them, and then pop them into a freezer bag.   When you're ready to use them, just remove as many as you like, and thaw.  

Bananas for Banana Bread

We always have bananas in the house.  With two little kids, bananas are a staple item.  Normally we finish them all before they get overripe.  But on occasion that doesn't happen; and when it does those bananas find new life as the main ingredient in banana bread.  And, if I don't have enough bananas, I can make up for it by adding apple sauce.  

I know that almost everyone has a recipe that they use for banana bread.  I am no exception.  I've cobbled this one together from a few different sources.   There is nothing new or outrageous about it.  It's just a solid, easy, go-to recipe that results in a yummy banana bread!  

Banana Bread

approx 12 servings

2 cups whole wheat flour (you can use all-purpose flour instead, if desired)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar, plus 1/8 cup

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 mashed, overripe bananas (about 2 1/4 cups)

-- Preheat oven to 350°

-- Lightly grease 9x5 inch loaf pan

-- In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, and nutmeg

-- In a separate bowl, cream together butter and 3/4 cup of brown sugar

-- Stir in bananas, eggs and vanilla until blended well

-- Add banana mixture to flour mixture and blend until incorporated

-- Pour batter into greased pan and smooth out top

-- In a small bowl or cup, combine remaining teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/8 cup of brown sugar; sprinkle over top of batter (this will form a crust when cooked)

-- Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  

-- Let cool for about 15 minutes, then turn loaf out onto a wire rack

-- Serve warm or cold

Egg-cellent!

I don't know where it came from, but over the last month I've been craving egg salad. Well, truth be told, I am actually craving the triumvirate of mayo-based salads: egg salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad. I ate these things as a kid, but I really haven't had any of these in years and years and years, and certainly have never made any of them. So I figured it was some kind of cosmic sign when I picked up the 2008 version of Cook's Illustrated American Classics issue which included, you guessed it, recipes for egg salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad. Egg salad it was!

The beauty of these kinds of salads is that you can really get as creative as you want to be. I stuck with the classic mayo as a binder, but you really could substitute a variety of other ingredients such as sour cream, yogurt, or even cottage cheese. I deviated from tradition by skipping the celery (anything crunchy is suspect with my four-year-old), using baby leeks instead of red onion, and adding capers. The result? Yum! Even better is that it takes no time to make. I did the entire thing in 20 minutes (that includes hardboiling the eggs). If the kids like it, I am going to add this to my repertoire of foods for them. Of course if they don't like it, there will be more for me! I win either way.


Courtney's Egg Salad
makes about 2 cups

6 hard boiled eggs, cooled, peeled and diced
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of diced baby leeks (you could use scallions instead)
2 1/2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons of capers, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

-- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl
-- Serve on bread or alone

Now to tackle tuna salad...

Product Love: Meyer Lemon-Infused Olive Oil

I am a sucker for "specialty" items. Sigona's, our farmers' market here in Redwood City has recently installed an olive oil bar where you can sample all kinds of specialty olive oils. On a whim (and without trying it), I decided to buy a bottle of their EVOO (apologies to Rachael Ray) with meyer lemon infused. Oh my! It makes everything taste yummier. I looove anything lemony, so okay, the deck was stacked in my favor. But really, it adds just a slightly different dimension to everything.

Last week as a side dish with dinner, I had some orzo that I wanted to use up. So, I just mixed it with some pitted kalamata olives, some pitted green olives (I forget which variety -- it was something I picked up a the olive bar), some halved grape tomatoes, and drizzled it all with the meyer lemon olive oil.* What a fabulous little dish -- the little lemon kick turned it from just tasty to something that I want to remember to make again. Tonight, I used it with the arugula pesto I made.

The only problem is that it comes in a little bottle. I am going to have to stock up if I want to continue using it all the time.

*Note: I have made this dish again since I posted this, and I've added a finely diced large shallot to the ingredients. The shallot makes the flavor just a little more savory.

Clean Out the Fridge, Add Eggs, and Call it Frittata

Yesterday morning I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Wednesdays are busy with S's late afternoon swim class, so I knew it had to be quick and easy to make. I was too lazy this week to plan ahead, so when I came across a recipe for a frittata I knew I had my solution.

In addition to its speedy prep, the beauty of the frittata is that you can toss in just about anything in your refrigerator that you need to get rid of. So I went to the fridge and pulled out Italian sausage, blue potatoes, a leek, 1/2 a yellow onion, and some cheddar cheese. Oh, and of course eggs. 10 of them.

It came out really tasty. And pretty too. With the yellow from the eggs, the blue potatoes, the light green leeks, and the red from the sausage, it was definitely colorful. And my husband, to whom I've been married 8 years, and for whom I've made countless meals informed me last night that he loooves frittata. How is it that I am just learning this now? In fact, he claimed that his middle name is "frittata" (I thought it was James).

Anyway, you can make your own frittata with just about anything sitting in your fridge. Here's the recipe for mine.

Multi-colored Frittata
serves 4

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
2 hot Italian sausage links, casings removed and sliced into disks
1 leek, chopped (white and light green parts)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
3 blue potatoes, skin removed, diced
Pepper and Kosher salt to taste
10 eggs, beaten
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

-- Preheat oven to 400
-- In a large ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat
-- Saute leeks and onions until soft, about five minutes
-- Add potatoes, sausage, salt and pepper. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes
-- Add eggs to skillet, and mix around to distribute evenly
-- Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of eggs
-- Bake in oven until eggs are puffed, edges start to brown, and eggs come clean on knife, about 15 minutes
-- Cut into wedges and serve

Sauteed Carrots with Mint and Shallots

Like most local newspapers, each week ours (The San Jose Mercury News) publishes a food and wine section. If I am not too bleary-eyed that morning to read the paper (it takes me a while for all my juices to get flowing in the morning), I like to scan the recipes. They generally include ideas for in-season produce or menus for approaching holidays. This week The Merc highlighted the Passover meal, and some of the dietary requirements and procedural rules of the seder. One of the recipes caught my eye: sauteed carrots with mint and shallots. Carrots are among the few vegetables that everyone in my family will eat willingly without me having to beg, wheedle or bribe. And, I've been looking for ways to cook them that don't involve brown sugar, syrup, or molasses. So, I tried it last night. The family's universal response: yum!


I followed the recipe as published by The Merc almost to a tee. The one addition I made was to toss a little fleur de sel on the carrots at the very end. I love the way this salt brightens up the flavors of vegetables and added a nice counterpoint to the sweet of the mint and the carrots.

Sauteed Carrots with Mint and Shallots
courtesy of The San Jose Mercury News, April 16, 2008
from Ronnie Fein's Hip Kosher, Da Capo Lifelong Books
serves 4

8 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices on the diagonal
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large shallots, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh mint
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

-- In medium saucepan, bring several inches of lightly salted water to simmer
-- Add the carrots, return to simmer and cook until carrots are tender but firm, about 5 minutes
-- Drain carrots under cold water and set aside
-- Place olive oil in large skillet over medium heat
-- Add shallots and saute 1 to 2 minutes, or until slightly softened
-- Add garlic and saute briefly
-- Add carrots, mint, salt and pepper. Saute about 2 minutes, or until carrots are hot and slightly crispy on surface.

A Perfect Dish for Delivery: Turkey and White Bean Chili

A common thing in mom communities is to bring dinner for families with new babies. So, when someone has a new baby, one friend makes a list of dates and circulates it among all the other friends. Each person signs up for a date and delivers dinner for the family. It's a really helpful thing for the new mom -- when my youngest was born, I had so many meals from my friends and the other moms at my daughter's preschool that didn't have to cook for more than a month! And if you're the one delivering the meal, you want it to be tasty, you want to appeal to all the members of the family (which generally includes toddlers or preschoolers who can be notoriously picky), and let's face it: you want it to be easy. Well, I've found one such recipe: Turkey and White Bean Chili.

I've made this a few times for other moms, and will probably be making it again this week for a meal that I am delivering on Friday. One of the great things about this recipe is that it's really quick and easy to make. It also lends itself to doubling quite well. What I have been doing is making a double batch the night before I need to deliver it. I use one half of it for my family on the night that I make it. Then, I use the other half for delivery the next day. And since chili actually tastes better the longer it sits, delivering it the next day means that my friend's family gets an even tastier version. I save it in the refrigerator in the Dutch oven in which I cooked it (with the lid on) so that the next day I can just pop it on the stove and warm it up before I deliver it. That way, I can bring it to my friend nice and warm and ready to eat.

I can't remember where I found the original recipe. But over time I've made a bunch of my own alterations to it, so by now it has really become my own. I don't have any pictures right now, but perhaps when I make it tomorrow night, I'll take some and add them to this post.*

Courtney's Turkey and White Bean Chili
makes 5-6 servings
1 red onion chopped
1/3 cup chopped pasilla pepper
1 clove minced garlic
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 14oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 14oz can chicken broth
1 tablespoon of cilantro paste or 1/2 cup chopped, fresh cilantro

-- Heat large saucepan over medium heat
-- Add the first 4 ingredients (through turkey) and cook for about 6 minutes or until the turkey is done, stirring frequently to crumble
-- Stir in chili powder and the next 8 ingredients (through broth)
-- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer at least 10 minutes
-- Stir in cilantro

And a few notes...
-- I generally serve this with shredded jack cheese, sour cream, nacho chips, and lime wedges. Not only do these things add to the flavor, but it also makes it more fun and enticing for little kids.

-- I tend to use pasilla peppers because they're not too hot. But, you can substitute any green pepper. In fact, if you are cooking for anyone who doesn't love spicy food, you can use just a small portion of the pepper in the chili, and keep the remainder aside for folks to add on their own. This is how I do it when I am delivering it.

-- I also use cilantro paste instead of fresh cilantro only because I don't use fresh cilantro often enough to warrant buying an entire bunch. Inevitably, I use what I need for a recipe, and then end up wasting the rest of it. So, I always keep a tube of cilantro paste in the refrigerator so that I have some on hand when I need it. But you can use the fresh stuff, if you like.

This dish is perfect on its own as a meal, but you can also add a salad to make sure you get your green veggies. Enjoy!

*I made it tonight and remembered to take a picture as it simmered on the stove. (4/3/08)

Short Ribs with Tagliatelle

I was wandering through Target the other day when Giada de Laurentiis' latest cookbook, Everyday Pasta caught my eye. Since I am always looking for new ways to make pasta -- a staple in our home -- I picked it up. In it, I came across a recipe for short ribs with tagliatelle that I had found on the Food Network website a couple of months ago. I made it then for a big family dinner that included my in-laws, who are not only Italian immigrants, but formerly butchers. So, if a meat and pasta dish passes their muster, I feel pretty good about it. And, it did. They really liked it then, so I decided to make it again the other night for just the four of us. The recipe actually calls for a topping of bittersweet chocolate shavings, but I skipped it just to avoid having my three year old ask me for more. The dish takes a while: more than three hours to prepare. But, most of it is allowing the short ribs to braise. So once you prepare the ribs, the only thing left to do is make the pasta.

The recipe calls for pancetta which is an Italian form of bacon. It doesn't come in strips like American bacon, but in rounds like some Canadian bacons. I've actually also seen it come pre-cut. If you can't find pancetta in your market, you can substitute Canadian bacon.

I would also suggest having your butcher cut the short ribs in half for you. It'll make it easier for you to fit them into your pot or Dutch oven and be able to manipulate them so that you can be sure to brown all six sides. That's right six -- don't forget the ends.

When you dice up the veggies and the tomato paste in the food processor, it should come out looking like a chunky salsa.

After three hours, the braised ribs will be really tender and will pretty much fall off the bone when you take them out of the sauce.

Tagliatelle isn't always available, but really any wide pasta will do. I wanted to use fresh pasta and the closest I could find to tagliatelle was fettuccine. But you can use a dry pasta, too.


Short Ribs with Tagliatelle
Courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis, Everyday Pasta
(makes 4-6 servings)

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces chopped pancetta (about 1/2 cup)
2 1/2 pounds short ribs
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 (14-ounce) can tomatoes (whole or diced)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups beef broth
3/4 cup red wine
1 pound fresh or dried tagliatelle
4 to 6 teaspoons shaved bittersweet chocolate

-- Place the olive oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium heat.
-- Cook the pancetta until golden and crisp, about 4 minutes.
-- Meanwhile, season the short ribs with salt and pepper, and dredge in the flour.
-- Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta from the pan and set aside.
-- Add the short ribs to the pan and brown on all sides, about 7 minutes total.

-- Meanwhile, combine the onion, carrot, parsley and garlic in a food processor and blend until finely minced.
-- Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and pulse.

-- Once the short ribs are browned, carefully add the mixture from the food processor to the pot.
-- Return the pancetta to the pot and stir.
-- Add the rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, beef broth, and wine.
-- Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. -- Remove the lid and simmer for another hour and a half, stirring occasionally.
-- Remove the meat and bones from the pot. Discard the bones.
-- Shred the meat and return it to the pot.
-- Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste.

-- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
-- Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes for dried pasta and 2 to 3 minutes for fresh.
-- Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
-- Add the pasta to the pot and stir to combine.
-- Add the reserved pasta liquid 1/4 cup at a time, if needed, to moisten the pasta.
-- Transfer to serving bowls, top each bowl with 1 teaspoon of chocolate shavings. Serve immediately.

Easy Pizza

Okay, I guess I am going to have to change the intro to my blog. It turns out that I've actually acquired a pizza stone. It was an item up for auction at the annual fundraiser at my daughter's preschool and I was feeling warm and fuzzy after a cocktail or two, so I bid on a lot of things that I might not have otherwise... But, I digress.

So anyway, this pizza stone has been sitting here for months waiting for me to get the courage time to make my own dough. Well, as I was strolling through Trader Joe's last week, a bag of refrigerated pizza dough caught my eye. I had never seen it there before, but I figured I would give it a try.

I took it home, let it rest for 20 minutes, then rolled it out and topped it with kalamata olives (a favorite with my kids) and freshly grated mozzarella. I made my own pizza sauce with a mixture of fresh and canned stewed tomatoes. I put the stone in the oven, and 10 minutes later we had a yummy pizza with a perfect crust -- my husband didn't even know that I hadn't made the dough myself.

Green Pasta and Sauce with Vodka

The other day at the market, I was looking for something a little different, and decided to buy spinach egg tagliatelle. I figured that green pasta would be intriguing enough to keep my girls interested. Then, I just needed to find a sauce that would work with it. When I came across a tomato vodka sauce, I knew it would be a good fit.

I found the original recipe on the Food Network (courtesy of Emeril Lagasse), and then made my own small alterations. Here is the recipe as I cooked it.

Vodka and Sausage Sauce
(makes enough for roughly 4 servings of pasta)

2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 links of mild Italian sausage, removed from the casing and crumbled
1/2 cup chopped yellow onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
Small pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove minced garlic
2 cups crushed tomatoes
5 ounces vodka (about 10 tablespoons)
4 ounces heavy cream (about 8 tablespoons)
I teaspoon of basil paste
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish (optional)

-- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
-- Add the sausage and cook, stirring, until browned and all pink has disappeared, 3 to 4 minutes.
-- Add the onions, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until the onions are soft and golden, about 5 minutes.
-- Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
-- Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, until thick, about 2 minutes.
-- Add the vodka and cook until the sauce reduced by half, 3 to 4 minutes.
-- Stir in the cream and cook until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes.
-- Stir in the basil and remove from the heat.
-- Toss the sauce with the pasta to coat evenly and transfer to a pasta bowl for serving.
-- Top with cheese to taste.

I have a few additional thoughts on this recipe. First, because it's a cream-based sauce, it think the fact that I used egg-based noodles rather than the standard boxed egg-less pasta was important. The pasta was lighter which made it a better companion to a rich sauce. Second, while the sausage added a nice flavor, I think my veggie and Kosher friends could just as easily eliminate the meat from the recipe. Lastly, I used basil paste since I've found it's a good way to always have basil on hand. But, if you have fresh basil handy, you should substitute that instead. Emeril's original recipe called for 1 to 2 tablespoons of chiffonade basil, but I would use a little more since my recipe increased most of the ingredients.

It was a super easy and quickly made sauce that I'll definitely make again. The whole family really enjoyed it. And the best part of the recipe? As long as the vodka was open, I made myself a little cocktail as I cooked! Now that's yummy.

Risotto Rules

Once again, I've lagged on keeping up with my blog. It's not because I haven't found any good recipes, but simply because I haven't found much time to sit down and blog about them. But, this week I made a risotto and received rave reviews from the entire family -- even my hard-to-please three-year old. Newly inspired, here I am blogging about it.

I can't believe it, but it seems that I haven't yet blogged about risotto. Risotto is one of my favorite dishes to make (and eat). It's versatile, easy, relatively quick (can be completed in less than an hour), and can be used as a one-dish meal. I love finding new recipes and experimenting with various ingredients.

Recently I came across a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for Dirty Risotto and modified it in these ways:
-- I didn't have any pancetta in the house, but had some bacon that I needed to use. So, I substituted about three strips of bacon for the pancetta.
-- Her recipe calls for one link of spicy Italian sausage. I chose to use the sweet Italian sausage instead since my girls and husband can't handle the hot sausage. Personally, I would love it to be spicy, spicy, spicy, but I had to keep it low-key for them. I also added a second link since I wanted it to be meatier.
-- Giada includes red bell pepper in the recipe, but I omitted it.
-- Instead of button mushrooms, I used the cremini mushrooms that I already had in the house
-- I had a Maui onion, so I used that. It's a sweet onion, and it worked really nicely with the bacon and the sausage.
-- Mario Batali adds butter to his risotto once it's done. I've taken to doing that as well. It just adds a little more creaminess.
-- I also always add more wine than risotto recipes call for. I probably used about double (1 1/2 cups).
-- I omitted the parsley as my daughter regards anything green in her food with suspicion.

You can check out the original recipe as Giada wrote it on the The Food Network website. Here is my version.

Courtney's Dirty Risotto
(makes 4-6 servings)
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter
3 strips bacon, chopped
2 links sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 Maui onion (or other sweet onion), finely chopped
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups Arborio or medium-grain white rice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, and more to taste

-- In a medium saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer. Cover the broth and keep warm over low heat.
-- In a large heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the bacon and sausage and saute until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
-- Add the onion and mushrooms and saute until tender, scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, about 8 minutes.
-- Season with salt
-- Add the rice, and stir to coat, allowing it to "toast" slightly -- about 1 minute
-- Add the wine, and simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated, about 1 minute.
-- Add a ladle of broth and stir until almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes
-- Continue cooking the rice, adding the broth one ladle at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to absorb before adding the next, until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 25 minutes total.
-- Remove from heat, and mix in remaining butter. Stir in Parmesan.
-- Serve immediately with additional Parmesan to taste.

Try it out. Once you get the hang of risotto, I promise you'll be experimenting with all different variations of it.

Deception Rules!

As mom to a three year old, I am very practiced in the art of deception -- especially when it comes to hiding veggies in her favorite foods (see my previous post about the ham and bean soup). But, I am always looking for additional recipes to add to my repertoire. So, imagine my glee when I learned about Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook entitled, Deceptively Delicious, Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. It's an entire cookbook devoted to hiding pureed fruits and veggies in kids' standard foods: cauliflower in mac-n-cheese, spinach in mini-pizzas, carrots and spinach in brownies! I've already tried a couple of the recipes to great success with rave reviews from both adults and kids. I highly recommend it to other moms who are sick of cajoling, bribing, and trying to reason with their little ones each night.

Soup Surprise

As a mom to a three year old who won't touch a green vegetable without some elaborate bribery involved, I am always looking for ways to sneak additional nutrients into the dishes I know she'll eat. Given that today was an unseasonably cool and overcast day in the Bay Area, I decided to make soup. I let my daughter choose from a couple of recipes, and she chose the Southern Ham and Bean soup. Great choice, as she loves both beans and "hammie". It also posed the perfect opportunity for me to covertly add some pureed kale to the recipe. Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Anyway, I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Fast & Fresh Recipe Card Collection. The recipe calls for 2 cups of green beans to be added to the soup at the end, but I just substituted about 1/4 cup of kale juice instead. Kale juice? Yes. Okay, the full story is that I make my own baby food by steaming veggies, pureeing them, putting the puree in ice cube trays, and then defrosting a couple of cubes at a time as needed. Well, when you puree kale, you end up with a lot of little green specks in green kale juice. I strained out the kale bits and was left with the liquid -- the bits were used for baby food, and the juice went into the soup. Kale can have a tendency to smell a little like freshly mown grass, and I was a little afraid that this would have a undesirable effect on the flavor of the soup. But fortunately, the other flavors from the ham, the beans, and the brown sugar were so rich, that you couldn't even taste the kale. I think you could probably use other greens too, if you wanted. I might try Swiss chard next time.

Here is the recipe as published in America's Test Kitchen
Southern Ham and Bean Soup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped fine
2 celery ribs, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound ham steak, chopped fine
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 (16-ounce) cans white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups frozen chopped green beans
Makes 4-6 servings

-- Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat
-- Cook onion, celery, garlic, ham, sugar, thyme, and half of white beans, covered until vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes
-- Using potato masher, mash beans and vegetables to rough paste
-- Stir in remaining white beans and broth
-- Simmer, covered, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes
-- Add green beans and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes

I also got a nice sourdough baguette and threw a couple of chunks into my bowl to make it just a little bit heartier. Yum! It was a great soup and even my daughter loved it, kale and all. Score one for Mommy!

And I'm Back!

Okay, it's only taken eight months, but I am finally back. My new baby is now six months old, and I am just getting back into the kitchen again. Of course, I've been cooking in those six months, but she and I are finally on a schedule that will allow me a little more time for playing in the kitchen. And, as she gets older and can amuse herself or play with her big sister, it should get even better.

Anyway, the new dynamic in our household means that I am looking for recipes that take as little time to cook as possible. I've become a more devoted devotee of Rachael Ray, I've been using recipes from Real Simple magazine, and looking for dishes that I can prep during the kids' nap times and cook quickly once they're awake.

For example, this week I cooked an oven-poached halibut Provençal. I found the recipe in Cooking Light magazine, and it was super. Even my picky three year old liked it -- now that's an endorsement!

Oven-Poached Halibut Provençale
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chopped fennel bulb
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt, divided
4 cups diced tomato
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
6 (6-ounce) halibut fillets
1 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)
Makes 6 servings

-- Preheat oven to 450°
-- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat
-- Add garlic and sauté 30 seconds
-- Add fennel, onion, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; sauté 8 minutes or until lightly browned
-- Stir in diced tomato and cook 2 minutes
-- Remove from heat and stir in fresh basil and fresh parsley.

-- Spoon half of tomato mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish
-- Place fillets over tomato mixture
-- Pour wine into the dish and sprinkle fillets with 1/4 teaspoon salt
-- Spoon remaining tomato mixture over fillets
-- Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

-- Start the broiler
-- Combine the breadcrumbs, olives, herbes de Provence, 1 teaspoon oil, pepper, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl.
--Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over fillets
-- Broil 5 minutes or until lightly browned
-- Serve immediately. Garnish with parsley sprigs, if desired

I followed the recipe pretty much as Cooking Light published it. Next time, I might substitute matzo meal for breadcrumbs -- I find it to be a really good substitute if I don't have any breadcrumbs in the house. I normally have one or the other, and use them pretty much interchangeably. I also eliminated the parsley garnish as there was no way I could have gotten my daughter to eat it if she had seen it. I served it with red potatoes with butter and with asparagus drizzed with olive oil and salt. The whole meal was quick, yummy, and easy -- my kind of cooking these days!

Cooking On Hold

Well, I am officially on bedrest. That is really going to curtail my cooking endeavors for a while. The doctor is trying to get me to 36 weeks gestation, and I am at 30 now. So, for the foreseeable future, I am not going to be cooking. Hell, eating isn't even that exciting when you've been sitting on the couch for 16 hours a day (and in bed for the other 8 hours).

But as soon as I can get back on my feet, I hope to be cooking up a storm and blogging about it... at least until that baby arrives!

Christmas Cookies!

Well, I haven't been doing too much interesting in the kitchen lately. My obstetrician has been threatening bedrest, so I have been trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. But, tomorrow night I am getting together with some girlfriends for a cookie exchange. I decided to make Milk Chocolate Florentine cookies. It's certainly not an innovative recipe -- you can find dozens of them on the Web -- but, the little suckers sure are tasty! These are some of my favorite cookies and they're not hard to make. Here is the recipe -- there is no attribution. It came from my mom years ago.

Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies
-- 2/3 cup butter
-- 2 cups quick oats
-- 1 cup sugar
-- 2/3 cup all purpose flour
-- 1/4 cup light or dark corn syrup
-- 1/4 cup milk
-- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
-- 1/4 tsp. salt
-- 11.5 oz (1 and 3/4 cup) milk chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheets with foil. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and remove from heat when melted. Stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.

Drop by level teaspoons, about 3 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets. Spread thinly with rubber spatula. Bake 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown (you'll need less time in a convention oven). Cool completely on baking sheets on wire racks. Peel foil from cookies.

Microwave morsels in medium, microwave-safe bowl on medium-high (70%) power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave at additional 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Spread thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen sandwich cookies.

Iron Chef Wannabe?

Last night Iron Chef America on Food Network ran a special show featuring Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay vs. Rachael Ray and Mario Batali. The special ingredient with which they all had to work was cranberries. One of the dishes on the Ray/Batali side featured a "drunken" pasta that made my mouth water just watching it. After the show I checked the Food Network site to see if they provided recipes from the Iron Chef dishes, but I couldn't find any. If they do provide them, they aren't easily found. Sooo, luckily I had saved the show on my DVR and rewatched it again this morning. I basically just kept playing the parts with the pasta dish until I figured out all the ingredients and how it was cooked.

I cooked it tonight and it was just as tasty as it looked on TV. My husband had THREE servings; he never eats that much! Two hours later he was still talking about it and telling me that it was the best pasta he ever had. So, if I missed any of Rachael's ingredients or techniques, it didn't seem to matter. Even my two-year-old liked it! I can't wait to make it again over the holidays when my family comes to visit.

Here's the recipe exactly as I made the dish tonight...
Drunken Pasta with Cranberry Ragout
1 tbs olive oil
1 hot Italian sausage
2 sweet Italian sausages
1 Onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 bottles of red wine
1 bunch of red chard, stems removed and leaves chopped
Pinch of nutmeg
1 lb of bucatini
1/2 cup of dried, sweetened cranberries
1-2 cups of cranberry juice
Butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmigiano cheese

-- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil
-- Remove sausages from casings, break up and add to skillet
-- Once sausage browns a little, add onions
-- When onions soften a little, add garlic
-- While sausage mixture browns, pour two bottles of wine in large pot and fill one empty wine bottle with water and add to wine in pot if more liquid is needed; add salt and bring to boil
-- When wine boils, add bucatini
-- Meanwhile, add chard and nutmeg to skillet
-- Add half of the cranberries; reserve remainder and add more if necessary
-- Add cranberry juice a 1/4 cup at a time to taste; you may not use all of the juice
-- Let the sausage ragout simmer to allow all the juices to blend
-- Add a ladleful of the wine from the pasta pot to the skillet; use more if necessary
-- Add a pat or two of butter to the skillet
-- Add salt and pepper to taste
-- Pour the sauce over the pasta when it's finished
-- Add parmigiano cheese to each plate

As you can see, my recipe isn't as precise as you would find in a cookbook, but it's a pretty good approximation. I always cook to taste and amend my amounts accordingly. The pasta will come out with a beautiful purpley-red color which looks great with the reds, purples, and greens of the sauce. And it doesn't take very long at all -- maybe 35 minutes from start to finish. It's definitely a keeper recipe.

By the way, Rachael Ray and Mario Batali won.

Chicken So Good You'll Cry

Okay, well maybe you won't cry because you're not an exhausted, hormonal, pregnant woman. And you're probably not mental. But, I am all of those. And when my husband told me this was the best chicken he's ever had, I started crying from joy. After he stared at me in open-mouthed amazement, and then stopped laughing, he said, "Maybe you're over-reacting just a little bit?" Okay, okay, that's probably true. But, it was nice to hear such a lovely compliment on my cooking, particularly something that wasn't straight from someone else's recipe.

I roasted a chicken two nights ago using a really simple recipe that is part my own and part from Mario Batali's Pollo al Diavolo recipe in his Molto Italiano cookbook; I even learned how to properly truss the bird by watching a video on foodnetwork.com (that's the beauty of having your laptop in the kitchen with you). One trick I learned from my mom is to stuff your poultry with lemons or oranges. The citric acids do a great job of keeping the bird tender and juicy. It came out really tasty and was even better as leftovers. I can see using this recipe for both family dining as well as entertaining.

Courtney's Lemon Mustard Chicken
1 4-5 lb chicken, rinsed and patted dry
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbs dijon mustard
1-2 lemons cut into wedges

-- Preheat oven to 400F.
-- Season chicken inside and out with salt and pepper.
-- Stuff cavity with lemon, making sure that you reserve one wedge to seal the opening
-- Truss the chicken, and stuff remaining wedge in neck opening
-- Brush entire chicken with 2 tbs of the olive oil
-- Place on rack in a roasting pan and roast until browned but only about half-cooked, about 40 minutes*
-- In a small bowl, combine black pepper, a pinch of salt, and mustard. Stir well.
-- Drizzle in remaining 1 tbs of olive oil, whisking until blended
-- Remove the browned chicken from the oven and brush entire bird with the mustard mixture
-- Return to oven and continue roasting until the juices run clear when a thigh is pricked, about 30 minutes*
-- Let rest for 10 minutes before carving
-- Drizzle with pan juices when serving

*I have a convection roaster, so my roasting times were shorter than those listed above. After I I added the mustard mixture, I only cooked it for another 20 minutes. You may need to adjust your cooking times accordingly.

During this time of year, I love turning to squashes and root vegetables. There is something so "harvest-y" about them that really appeals to me. So I returned to Molto Italiano for its Root Vegetable Mash recipe -- it's essentially a veggie puree. Again, I added a few touches to make it my own. Mario calls for chives, but Whole Foods was out of them, so I skipped it. I also like this kind of dish with a sweetish taste, so I used more than the pinch of cinnamon that the recipe called for and added nutmeg. This is another one that tastes better as it sits making leftovers even yummier.


Root Vegetable Mash with Orange Zest
makes 4 servings
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2 inch-thick rounds
1 russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 medium turnip, cut into 1/-inch cubes
1 medium onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 medium parsnip, cut into 1/4-inch rounds
1 medium sweet potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Pinch of ground cinnamon
2 tbs of extra-virgin olive oil
Grated zest of one orange
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch chives, finely chopped

-- Combine the carrot, potato, turnip, onion, parsnip, and sweet potato in a 4-quart saucepan and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook untill all the vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes.
-- Drain the vegetables. At this point, Mario says to pass the them through a food mill. I don't own a food mill. I used my Cuisinart food processor instead.
-- Stir in the cinnamon, olive oil, and orange zest. This is where I added the nutmeg as well.
-- Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the chives and serve.

One of the things I like about trying out new recipes is that they often allow me to cook with foods different than those I typically use. The parsnip is a perfect example. I have eaten parsnips before, but somehow in my 35 years, I guess I have never seen one in its natural state. When I got to the produce section and went to find the parsnips, I found that Whole Foods hadn't labeled all of its veggies -- so there were about 10 different items that I knew could have been parsnips, but I was uncertain which one. Finally, I checked out the handy reference book they have there, and figured out that the parsnips look like white carrots. Am I the only one who didn't know that?!

I didn't cook last night -- I try not to cook on Friday nights as a rule. And tonight we're going to a friend's house for pizza with the kids. So, no cooking again until tomorrow night. I have no idea what I'll make.

Note: Mario Batali recipe references are courtesy of "Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home", by Mario Batali, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2005.

Can't Beet It

I love beets -- I love them in salads. But, I've never really tried too hard to make them at home. I always thought that they would be difficult. I couldn't have been more wrong. Yesterday I went to Chowhound and got some suggestions on how to roast them. It was so easy and the beets came out great. Here is what I did:

-- Scrub four baby beets, leaving the roots intact, and cutting the greens to about an inch from the top of the beets (this helps retain the beets color and liquid)
-- Don't peel the beets
-- Put them in a sheet of tin foil with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper
-- Wrap them up in the tin foil so that you have a neat little package
-- Roast at 375 for about 45 mins (depending on the number and size of beets you use)
-- Test doneness with a toothpick; it should come out of the beets easily, but make sure not to roast them until they're mushy
-- Remove from oven and let cool
-- Once cool, use a paper towel to rub off the skin. You won't believe how easy it will be to peel the beets this way

And here is what I did for the salad:
-- Slice the beets into strips
-- Create a viniagrette with olive oil and orange juice in a 1:1 ratio, add salt and pepper to taste
-- Add the beets to romaine lettuce and goat cheese (or any number of other ingredients to your choosing)
-- Toss the beet viniagrette into the salad and added a little more salt and pepper

I served it with a ribeye steak and some asparagus tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. Delicious!

Now, what to make for tonight's dinner...

Soup Only Gets Better

So, I made the escarole soup last night and it was tasty. But, I let it sit in the refrigerator and had it for dinner again tonight and it was even tastier. All of the flavors blended and mellowed overnight. My mother makes it with beef meatballs, but this is the first time I've had it with turkey meatballs. They worked out just great.

Of course, I was the only one on the house who loved it. My daughter has an excuse -- she's a toddler -- she's not supposed to like green veggies such as escarole. Although she was a fan of the broth, orzo, and the meatballs. But my husband who came home late and decided that he would rather have prepared dishes from Whole Foods than my homemade soup. I am trying not to be insulted... I think I am going to freeze the rest and pull it out once the weather gets colder. At least I know my mom will eat it when she comes to visit.

Now I need to figure out what to make for tomorrow night. I've got some asparagus that needs to be eaten as well as some baby beets. I wonder if I can find something that incorporates them both...