This week is going to be casual. I'm in the bedroom right now and don't have access to cookbooks. This isn't a very exciting menu. I'm trying to take this week "off" somewhat from cooking as I've been in cooking overdrive for the last few weeks getting ready for that party. Also the DH will be out of town most of the week so there should be more leftovers in theory.
Sunday: leftover tamales and black bean quinoa salad and cookies
Monday: Stir-fry night - maybe this.
Tuesday: broccoli pasta
Wednesday: something with meat.
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Salmon and sesame soba noodles
Saturday: TBD
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Food menu review
I made my usual mistake last week which was going to the store without my food menu or shopping list. Overall last week went pretty smoothly. I stuck to the plan. Monday night was plain old roasted chicken because I was too tired from making tamales all weekend to quarter the chicken and marinate it for the Thai-roasted chicken recipe, so we had plain old roasted chicken instead. Thursday night, which was undecided, ended up being sausages from Whole Foods as I was in Santa Fe that day getting my hair cut for the first time in 10 months. (woo hoo!).
The party on Saturday was a success, and everyone dug the tamales and crack pie. There was even some food left over -- just the right amount.
The party on Saturday was a success, and everyone dug the tamales and crack pie. There was even some food left over -- just the right amount.
Today I planted some mache and spinach out in the front yard. The spinach I tried to start inside never sprouted -- I think it was too hot for it. The indoor sprouts are doing great. I have Blue kale, Swiss chard, Rapini broccoli (Broccolini), Sylvetta arugula, and bok choy all growing inside under some fluorescent lights. I also started some Red Russian kale and chives the other day as well but they haven't sprouted yet. I need to start getting the young plants outside somehow. Hardening off is often a pain, and especially right now becasue the hoophouse still isn't getting enough sun to put them in there. Also I have to work on the hoophouse to keep the dogs out or else I'll just get frustrated when Twist digs up my new seedlings.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Menu Feb 19-25
So I spent a ton of money on groceries last week. This week I hope the only thing I have to buy is produce, milk, and eggs.
Sunday: going out to friends for dinner.
Monday: either Thai-style roasted chicken if I am not too lazy and cut up the chicken and marinate it, or just plain old roast chicken.
Tuesday: Black pepper tempeh with cauliflower (there maybe some leftover chicken as well)
Wednesday: Stuffed chicken breasts - maybe I'll experiment with the stuffing some this week. Usually has butternut squash, walnuts and golden raisins.
Thursday: ??
Friday: Salmon
Saturday: Party! Tamales, Clementine Jicama salad, black beans & rice, salsa & chips, and crack pie & some other pies and cookies for dessert.
Sunday: going out to friends for dinner.
Monday: either Thai-style roasted chicken if I am not too lazy and cut up the chicken and marinate it, or just plain old roast chicken.
Tuesday: Black pepper tempeh with cauliflower (there maybe some leftover chicken as well)
Wednesday: Stuffed chicken breasts - maybe I'll experiment with the stuffing some this week. Usually has butternut squash, walnuts and golden raisins.
Thursday: ??
Friday: Salmon
Saturday: Party! Tamales, Clementine Jicama salad, black beans & rice, salsa & chips, and crack pie & some other pies and cookies for dessert.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Last week's menu recap
I stuck fairly well to the menu plan last week. For stir-fry night I riffed on the Black Pepper Tempeh recipe. I used chicken instead of tempeh, and I added a few tablespoons of Chu Chee curry paste. Instead of cauliflower I put in red cabbage, carrot, and broccoli. It was quite pretty with the red cabbage and carrot. The broccoli didn't go as well visually speaking but it tasted good.
On pork shoulder day I ended up making carnitas, using the Diana Kennedy recipe that they posted over at Food52. I screwed it up a bit but it was still pretty good. (You are supposed to simmer in water uncovered and I had it covered up in the crockpot for hours). So we had carnitas tacos that night.
On Friday I deviated from the plan because I made a lot of tamales that day. So we had tamales for dinner. And last night we just made up some tacos out of leftover tamale filling and also had a few more tamales as I made them last night as well.
The hit new recipe of the week was from Super Natural Every Day again. The Kale Salad is fantastic. You basically roast some kale & flaked coconut in the oven and mix with farro (or rice or any grain) and some of the dressing that you tossed the kale with before cooking it. I am not a big dried coconut person but this was excellent. Our dinner guests scraped the bowl clean.
On pork shoulder day I ended up making carnitas, using the Diana Kennedy recipe that they posted over at Food52. I screwed it up a bit but it was still pretty good. (You are supposed to simmer in water uncovered and I had it covered up in the crockpot for hours). So we had carnitas tacos that night.
On Friday I deviated from the plan because I made a lot of tamales that day. So we had tamales for dinner. And last night we just made up some tacos out of leftover tamale filling and also had a few more tamales as I made them last night as well.
The hit new recipe of the week was from Super Natural Every Day again. The Kale Salad is fantastic. You basically roast some kale & flaked coconut in the oven and mix with farro (or rice or any grain) and some of the dressing that you tossed the kale with before cooking it. I am not a big dried coconut person but this was excellent. Our dinner guests scraped the bowl clean.
Crack Pie
I bought a few cookbooks recently, all of which were featured in Food52's The Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks. Two of the cookbooks I bought focus on natural whole foods, and the other, Momofuku Milk Bar is kind of the opposite. It's a dessert cookbook and revels in butter, sugar, cream and weird ingredients like glucose, milk powder and corn powder.
The most famous offering at the Milk Bar is Crack Pie. It is so famous they even trademarked the name. In fact, the little trademark signs in the book start to get a little irritating, like a shirt tag that is itchy or something.
I decided I would make crack pie for the big party next weekend. By the way, Crack pie is basically old-fashioned chess pie with a few tweaks. I've been wanting to make it in the Joy of Cooking for a while now but never have.
It's been taking me freaking forever to make the pie. The first step is to make a giant oatmeal cookie that you then crumble up to make a oat cookie crumb crust. I did this over a week ago, but then used some of the crumbles to make a peach pie. Not tto bad. Then I made a double batch of the cookie. But when it came time to crumble it up in the food processor I was bad. I turned it on and walked a way and promptly was distracted by the baby. Next thing you know I have oat cookie butter. I baked up some of that into cookies which were kind of good. They were like a shortbread.
Finally I made the cookie again, and made it into crumbs. I made the filling a few nights ago. It takes 8 egg yolks among other things. Crack pie also uses corn powder, which you make by buying freeze-dried corn (Just Corn) and blitzing it into a fine powder. I also have been using this corn powder in my vegetarian tamales as well for added flavor. I never bought Just Corn before but it is really good. I actually found myself snacking on the corn kernels and they are incredibly sweet. You can get it on Amazon or Whole Foods. (The Just Tomatoes website charges an arm and a leg for shipping FYI -- why don't they offer USPS priority mail?).
Anyway--today was the day I baked the crack pie(s). Each recipe makes 2 pies, FYI. Everything is fussy about this recipe as far as I can tell. You bake the pies for 15 minutes at 350, then you open the oven and lower the temp to 325. You are supposed to keep the oven door open till the temperature is lowered. I just kept it open till I heard the oven click on again, which I took to mean it had cooled off. Also, you don't really want to keep an oven open when you have a baby walking around the house.
My crack pies took forever to cook. I think it has to do with the altitude, but also I started with refrigerated filling -- if I make it again I will let it warm up to room temperature first. I started getting worried that the liquid would evaporate off so at one point I covered them loosely with foil. My high altitude baking cookbook has this horror story about pecan pie boiling over in the oven at 10,000 feet because there is too much sugar and not enough liquid. But I am only at 7300 feet but still, I was getting a little worried. As a final step, you take the not fully cooked pies out of the oven, cool, then freeze for 3 hours. Finally I just took them out after having them in the oven for probably two to three times as long as the recipe stated.
I stole a slice out of one of the pies and it's pretty good. Super sweet. Would go great with some strong black coffee. If you have a sweet tooth you will probably like this one...Here is the recipe at Bon Appetit.
The most famous offering at the Milk Bar is Crack Pie. It is so famous they even trademarked the name. In fact, the little trademark signs in the book start to get a little irritating, like a shirt tag that is itchy or something.
I decided I would make crack pie for the big party next weekend. By the way, Crack pie is basically old-fashioned chess pie with a few tweaks. I've been wanting to make it in the Joy of Cooking for a while now but never have.
It's been taking me freaking forever to make the pie. The first step is to make a giant oatmeal cookie that you then crumble up to make a oat cookie crumb crust. I did this over a week ago, but then used some of the crumbles to make a peach pie. Not tto bad. Then I made a double batch of the cookie. But when it came time to crumble it up in the food processor I was bad. I turned it on and walked a way and promptly was distracted by the baby. Next thing you know I have oat cookie butter. I baked up some of that into cookies which were kind of good. They were like a shortbread.
Finally I made the cookie again, and made it into crumbs. I made the filling a few nights ago. It takes 8 egg yolks among other things. Crack pie also uses corn powder, which you make by buying freeze-dried corn (Just Corn) and blitzing it into a fine powder. I also have been using this corn powder in my vegetarian tamales as well for added flavor. I never bought Just Corn before but it is really good. I actually found myself snacking on the corn kernels and they are incredibly sweet. You can get it on Amazon or Whole Foods. (The Just Tomatoes website charges an arm and a leg for shipping FYI -- why don't they offer USPS priority mail?).
Anyway--today was the day I baked the crack pie(s). Each recipe makes 2 pies, FYI. Everything is fussy about this recipe as far as I can tell. You bake the pies for 15 minutes at 350, then you open the oven and lower the temp to 325. You are supposed to keep the oven door open till the temperature is lowered. I just kept it open till I heard the oven click on again, which I took to mean it had cooled off. Also, you don't really want to keep an oven open when you have a baby walking around the house.
My crack pies took forever to cook. I think it has to do with the altitude, but also I started with refrigerated filling -- if I make it again I will let it warm up to room temperature first. I started getting worried that the liquid would evaporate off so at one point I covered them loosely with foil. My high altitude baking cookbook has this horror story about pecan pie boiling over in the oven at 10,000 feet because there is too much sugar and not enough liquid. But I am only at 7300 feet but still, I was getting a little worried. As a final step, you take the not fully cooked pies out of the oven, cool, then freeze for 3 hours. Finally I just took them out after having them in the oven for probably two to three times as long as the recipe stated.
I stole a slice out of one of the pies and it's pretty good. Super sweet. Would go great with some strong black coffee. If you have a sweet tooth you will probably like this one...Here is the recipe at Bon Appetit.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Black Pepper Tempeh
I'm not sure I have ever cooked tempeh before. Black Pepper Tempeh from Super Natural Every Day was really good and I will be making it again. Tempeh and finely chopped cauliflower is cooked in a sauce of ginger, shallots, lots of garlic, soy sauce, cane sugar, and red and black pepper. If one wanted to make a version of this with chicken instead of tempeh I'm sure it would also be great.
I asked over at the Food52 Hotline for what to serve alongside this recipe. People over there suggested something crunchy, so I made the Ramen coleslaw recipe from Feeding the Whole Family. The purple cabbage I used in that added a nice splash of color to the otherwise all-brown meal (we had brown rice as well). Crisp-tender broccoli with sesame oil would also have gone well with the meal.
The recipe has been posted on a few other blogs, so I'll just link to one of them here in case you want to try it out: Black Pepper Tempeh. The cookbook author, Heidi Swanson, has a culinary blog over at 101 Cookbooks as well with a bunch of other recipes.
I asked over at the Food52 Hotline for what to serve alongside this recipe. People over there suggested something crunchy, so I made the Ramen coleslaw recipe from Feeding the Whole Family. The purple cabbage I used in that added a nice splash of color to the otherwise all-brown meal (we had brown rice as well). Crisp-tender broccoli with sesame oil would also have gone well with the meal.
The recipe has been posted on a few other blogs, so I'll just link to one of them here in case you want to try it out: Black Pepper Tempeh. The cookbook author, Heidi Swanson, has a culinary blog over at 101 Cookbooks as well with a bunch of other recipes.
Dinner Menu, Feb 12 through 18th
This week I'm going to try a few new recipes from Super Natural Every Day.
Sunday: Black Pepper Tempeh (from Super Natural Every Day) with rice and Ramen-Cabbage Slaw
Monday: Stir-fry night (with chicken) with brown rice
Tuesday: Slow-cooked pork shoulder or stew (probably Georgian Pork Stew from Gourmet)
Wednesday: Wild-rice casserole (from Super Natural Every Day)
Thursday: Squash and cranberry stuffed chicken breasts (from Feeding the Whole Family) and Lemon and Garlic Quinoa Salad (also from FtWF)
Friday: Salmon and something else
Saturday: Thai-style roasted chicken (The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking) I may be making a ton of tamales that day. If I am not making a ton of tamales I'll have time to make dinner. If I make a ton then maybe we'll have tamales for dinner instead.
This week I'm going to try a few new recipes from Super Natural Every Day.
Sunday: Black Pepper Tempeh (from Super Natural Every Day) with rice and Ramen-Cabbage Slaw
Monday: Stir-fry night (with chicken) with brown rice
Tuesday: Slow-cooked pork shoulder or stew (probably Georgian Pork Stew from Gourmet)
Wednesday: Wild-rice casserole (from Super Natural Every Day)
Thursday: Squash and cranberry stuffed chicken breasts (from Feeding the Whole Family) and Lemon and Garlic Quinoa Salad (also from FtWF)
Friday: Salmon and something else
Saturday: Thai-style roasted chicken (The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking) I may be making a ton of tamales that day. If I am not making a ton of tamales I'll have time to make dinner. If I make a ton then maybe we'll have tamales for dinner instead.
At baby group I was talking to another mom about menu planning and she said she plans out a month at a time. That sounds like a challenge, but maybe I'll try it later this year. After I get the hang of things a bit more. Last weeks menu planning was rough. Hopefully this week goes better. Lessons from last week include: don't forget the grocery list, and, don't lose the weekly menu plan.
Another inspiration to me was in the intro to a new cookbook I picked up this week, Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson. I learned about this cookbook at Food52's Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks contest. A lot of good cookbooks were in the contest this year. I also ordered Nigel Slater's Tender and Momofuku Milk Bar.
Anyway, Heidi Swanson went over her shopping routine -- she shops about one time a week at a local farmer's market (benefit to living in CA, you can get a lot of produce year round). I suppose I could go shop at the SF farmer's market year round. Maybe I'll try to go next Saturday.
She shops about once a month at a natural foods store to stock up on beans and grains, and other specialty stores as needed. That would be cool if I could do that this summer -- just shop at the farmer's market. Sounds challenging. You really have to cook with what is in season that way. In the summer I do try to buy most of my produce at the farmer's market. I wouldn't mind trying to do a meal or two a week this winter/spring using only local ingredients. I'll have to get to the market and see what they have for me.
Another inspiration to me was in the intro to a new cookbook I picked up this week, Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson. I learned about this cookbook at Food52's Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks contest. A lot of good cookbooks were in the contest this year. I also ordered Nigel Slater's Tender and Momofuku Milk Bar.
Anyway, Heidi Swanson went over her shopping routine -- she shops about one time a week at a local farmer's market (benefit to living in CA, you can get a lot of produce year round). I suppose I could go shop at the SF farmer's market year round. Maybe I'll try to go next Saturday.
She shops about once a month at a natural foods store to stock up on beans and grains, and other specialty stores as needed. That would be cool if I could do that this summer -- just shop at the farmer's market. Sounds challenging. You really have to cook with what is in season that way. In the summer I do try to buy most of my produce at the farmer's market. I wouldn't mind trying to do a meal or two a week this winter/spring using only local ingredients. I'll have to get to the market and see what they have for me.
Friday, February 10, 2012
This week in menu planning has not gone well. For starters I have gone to the grocery store just about every day. The problems started when I forgot to bring my shopping list with me to the store on Sunday. Then I misplaced my menu and couldn't remember what we were going to eat some days. The following is this week's menu as of Friday:
Sunday: burritos (kind of everyone for themselves really)
Monday: stir-fry
Tuesday: Chicken Etouffee (first time making this from Joy of Cooking and it turned out well -- just make sure to really brown the roux)
Wednesday: Rotisserie Chicken (this was unplanned)
Thursday: Asparagus Pesto with pasta and peach pie
Friday: Stuffed butternut squash
Saturday: Salmon with lemon garlic quinoa.
Sunday: burritos (kind of everyone for themselves really)
Monday: stir-fry
Tuesday: Chicken Etouffee (first time making this from Joy of Cooking and it turned out well -- just make sure to really brown the roux)
Wednesday: Rotisserie Chicken (this was unplanned)
Thursday: Asparagus Pesto with pasta and peach pie
Friday: Stuffed butternut squash
Saturday: Salmon with lemon garlic quinoa.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Follow up/notes on previous menu from end of January (week 3).
OK, so the recipes from Cooking Light slow cooker cookbook were a bust. The pork loin recipe would have been good if I had used a fattier cut, such as pork shoulder, instead. The lean meat dried out after cooking all day. Also, the recipe seemed too sweet, so I added in a sauteed onion which helped add a savory note. Next time I buy a pork loin I will go with my instincts and not overcook it. Butterflying the loin and stuffing with dried fruit would be a better way to go.
The cabbage rolls were not that good. I made extra filling that I froze, and I think I will find a use for (like adding smoked turkey and butternut squash and then stuffing the squash), but the tomato sauce that went on top wasn't very tasty. The leftovers were eaten out of a sense of duty.
Lets see. John had a stomach virus Thursday and the groundnut stew wasn't sounding very appealing. I made a slow cooker chicken drumstick in tomatillo chile sauce instead. That was good. I used Rick Bayless' salsa verde recipe and browned up the ddrumsticks then put it all in the crockpot for a few hours.
Friday I changed it up a little as well. We had salmon but I made Dilled Brown Rice and Kidney bean salad instead. There was some other side as well but I can't remember what it was now. Maybe baked sweet potato.
OK, so the recipes from Cooking Light slow cooker cookbook were a bust. The pork loin recipe would have been good if I had used a fattier cut, such as pork shoulder, instead. The lean meat dried out after cooking all day. Also, the recipe seemed too sweet, so I added in a sauteed onion which helped add a savory note. Next time I buy a pork loin I will go with my instincts and not overcook it. Butterflying the loin and stuffing with dried fruit would be a better way to go.
The cabbage rolls were not that good. I made extra filling that I froze, and I think I will find a use for (like adding smoked turkey and butternut squash and then stuffing the squash), but the tomato sauce that went on top wasn't very tasty. The leftovers were eaten out of a sense of duty.
Lets see. John had a stomach virus Thursday and the groundnut stew wasn't sounding very appealing. I made a slow cooker chicken drumstick in tomatillo chile sauce instead. That was good. I used Rick Bayless' salsa verde recipe and browned up the ddrumsticks then put it all in the crockpot for a few hours.
Friday I changed it up a little as well. We had salmon but I made Dilled Brown Rice and Kidney bean salad instead. There was some other side as well but I can't remember what it was now. Maybe baked sweet potato.
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