Foodmomiac

Successful New Dish: Lentil Potato Salad

On Saturday night, we decided to stay in and cook dinner. Dylan was at a sleepover, so it was just me and the two guys. We had some prime ribeye steaks from Costco, so we knew that would be the focus, but it was up to me to come up with a side dish. My first instinct was some sort of potato dish. Unfortunately, when I checked our potato supplies, I realized that we only had one pound of potatoes which wouldn't be enough. It was time to get creative.

When Michael and I went to Paris last month, I spent an hour in G. Detou, one of the world's most amazing grocery stores. One of the treats I came home with was a tin of French de Puy lentils: 

 

Lentil de Puy are a great treat if you've never tried them (and you don't need to buy them in Paris - they are available at many specialty grocery stores in the U.S. - I have even purchased them at Whole Foods). They keep their shape and texture when cooked. Typical lentils get soft and mushy, which is great when you are making a soup and stew, but not ideal when you want the lentils for a salad. 

So, back to my story. I had one pound of potatoes and I had the lovely tin of lentils. I decided to combine a couple of recipes from The New York Times Cookbook; a Mediterranean lentil salad and a French potato salad. French potato salads are served slightly warm or at room temperature and are made with olive oil instead of mayonnaise. They are much more suited to cold weather than the standard mayo-based varieties.

The salad was easy to prepare and delicious. I hope you love it as much as we did!

Lentil Potato Salad

1/2 cup de Puy lentils
1 pound new (red) potatoes, scrubbed and cut into a 1/4 inch dice
1 Tb onion, finely minced
Vinaigrette of your choice (I used this one) 
2 carrots, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
salt and pepper to taste 

Combine lentils with three cups of water in a pot. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 - 20 minutes (you want them tender but not mushy). Drain and set aside.

Cover potatoes with cold water in a pot and bring to a boil. Cook until tender. Drain and place in a large bowl. Toss with the minced onion and a few splashes of vinaigrette. Allow the vinaigrette to soak in a bit. Taste. If there is no flavor, add some more (the potatoes soak up quite a bit - by dressing them while they are warm, you insure great flavor). 

Add the carrots and celery and lentils. Toss with more vinaigrette and the salt and pepper, tasting as you go. This is a very flexible recipe - you will want to play around with it until it is seasoned to your tastes.

Enjoy!

Our Favorite Crockpot Meal: Red Beans with Smoked Turkey

We didn't have a good morning. It's day four of the Chicago teachers' strike, so the routine we were so happy to return to last week is shot. Additionally, Michael is oversees on a business trip, Dylan insisted that she had no pants available to wear, Max wouldn't eat breakfast, no one could tell me what they wanted for lunch, and I'm having one of those weeks where I'm just super stressed about having a start-up and all of the uncertainties that entails.

By 8:30am, all three of us were crying hysterically. Not my proudest moment.

I finally got the kids out to their "strike camp" and headed off to my annual dermatology appointment. Now, I pride myself on having crazy low blood pressure. It's so low that when I went in to get Lasik surgery eight years ago, I wasn't allowed to take a valium as it would have made me too loopy. So, anyway, there I am at the doctor, and they pulled out the blood pressure cuff. I was soon informed that my blood pressure was a bit high.

Yeah. A morning like we had can do that to a person.

Once I got back home, I decided I needed to so something to calm myself down a bit prior to jumping into my work day. I needed to do some chopping. That's when I pulled out the crockpot and the smoked turkey legs. I love this dish because it is hearty, and delicious and easy and makes the house smell fabulous. I also love that it uses (cheap) dried beans but doesn't require overnight soaking. I made things a bit more complicated this morning because I added vegetables. As I said, I needed some time with my chefs knife. The food is now happily cooking away and I'm quite sure my blood pressure is back to its freakishly low self.

Red Beans with Smoked Turkey Legs

One large or two smallish smoked turkey legs (the ones I used today were purchased at Whole Foods, but they often have these at our grocery store as well)
One bag red kidney beans, rinsed and picked through
Veggies, chopped (optional) - today I used one onion, three stalks of celery and a few peppers including one jalapeno

Put the turkey legs into your crockpot. Top with the beans and veggies. Cover everything with water and cook on low for 6-8 hours. About an hour before it's done, pull out the turkey legs, remove the meat from them and put them back into the crockpot. (Be careful with the bones -the legs have these really weird spindly needle bones throughout.)

Serve with rice.

Note: we also like to top ours with a healthy sprinkling of Tony Chachere's creole seasoning. 

 

Weekly Menu, June 10 - June 15

Second week in a row of meal planning! We did a great job last week, and actually made everything I had planned to make with the exception of pizza. Pizza night still happened, but we grabbed takeout instead of making it ourselves. 

So, I sat down once again and made a weekly menu. We didn't take a trip to the Farmer's Market this weekend, so the menu wasn't as challenging (I didn't have to search for a recipe for Lamb's Quarters). BUT! Our CSA (community supported agriculture) starts up again this weekend, and I can't wait. I literally let out a "woot!" when I got the email notificiation from them. 

Weekly Menu, June 3 - 9

Here is our menu for the week! We went to the Green City Farmers Market yesterday, and used the ingredients we got there to guide our plan.

The lambs quarters are essentially a weed, but were marketed as wild spinach. I am looking forward to cooking them!

What are you guys eating this week?

 

Weeknight Cooking - In Search of Inspiration!

I'm sure most of you know Helen Jane? If not, click her name and go meet her. I'll wait.

Then go read her brilliant meal planning advice here.

 

Helen Jane is one of those people who just brings smiles wherever she goes. She is truly lovely. And she lives in St. Helena, in Napa Valley. I love her lifestyle. I was hanging out on her blog earlier and decided that I really would love to get back into meal planning.

To that end, what are some of your favorite weeknight ideas for springtime/summer? I'm feeling tired of all of our usual stuff. Share below!

FINALLY! Mexico Part 2 (The story of awkward mom)

I truly hope this story is actually weird to anyone other than myself. I feel like I've waited so long to share it that it doesn't even matter anymore, but oh well, here goes...

Before we left for Mexico, I told Dylan that she absolutely had to find a friend on day one of the trip. When Dylan doesn't have a friend on vacations, she is a total pain in the ass. When she does have a friend? A total delight. (translation: she lets me sit on my ass reading without demanding that I entertain her).

To her credit, she totally followed my direction. Within 15 minutes of our first day at the pool, she had introduced herself to a girl her age, and voila - instant BFF for the week. Dylan and Lauren did everything together. They wore matching black sun hats, they went swimming, they drank a gajillion Miami Vices (non-alcoholic strawberry daquiri mixed with pina colada) and they chilled out in the hot tub. They also did what all tween girly girls do - they giggled a LOT.

So, one afternoon, Lauren headed into town, and Dylan was forced to hang out with us on the chaise lounges (see above photo). Shortly after she settled down, one of the other vacationing moms at the hotel came over to her and asked if she had been in the hot tub earlier. At this point, Michael and I had our radar up, as it's kind of disconcerting for another adult to address your child in your presence without even acknowleding said child's parents. Dylan responded that she had indeed been in the hot tub earlier. The mom then proceeded to lecture Dylie for being mean to her kids! Apparently, her kids had told her that two girls in black hats were making fun of them in the hot tub, saying that they were ugly, etc. etc.

Now, I know my kid. Had my SON told me she was mean? I would have totally believed it. But would Dylan ever be hurtful to someone who wasn't a family member? NEVER. That's just not her. She is one of the most empathetic people I have ever met (adults included), and is super sensitive to bullying of all kinds. 

Michael told the mom as such (I was sitting in stunned silence with my mouth hanging open), explaining that our kid would never behave that way, and telling her that it must be some sort of misunderstanding. The mom responding by turning to Dylan (again, not to us), and saying, "Well, if you did do it, you know that it's wrong to do that right?" and then she left. The three of us were totally shocked and kind of weirded out by the entire interaction.

Flash forward to 10 minutes later. The same mom approaches us again. And once again, she goes straight to Dylan. This time, it's with an apology. Apparently, her kids MADE THE WHOLE THING UP. My guess is that they were intimidated by two cute girls giggling in the hot tub and assumed that the girls were giggling about them. The mom also apologized to us. It was super, super awkward.

For the rest of the week, I did my best to avoid the mom. I was on vacation. Awkward encounters had no place on my vacation.

Well, then we show up at the airport. And guess who is at our gate? Awkward mom. 

Dylan was horrified, and asked me if I thought the family lived near us in Chicago. I told her they could easily be flying to Chicago to transfer somewhere else. And then in one of my snottiest moments ever (and I apologize in advance to those this offends), I said, "and even if they do live in Chicago, I am QUITE SURE they live in the suburbs." (I know, I know).

Later that day, we land at O'Hare, and I have to run to the customs bathroom so that Dylan can continue her food poisoning vomit fest (it was fun!). Guess who walks into the bathroom? Awkward mom. It was getting to be ridiculous.

A week or two after our vacation, I took Dylan to our local skating rink for the dress rehearsal of the ice show. The rink is the only indoor public rink in the city and is located about a mile and a half from our house. I get her skates on and put her on the ice, and I get ready to leave the rink. And who do you suppose I see? FRICKIN' AWKWARD MOM IS AT OUR RINK.

Now, to her credit, she called me over, apologized again for everything, and told me that it was one of the more horrifying moments of her life. We ended up chatting for about 10 minutes (she was actually kind of nice), and things ended on an OK note. Turns out, her kids go to the school just north of ours (NOT in the suburbs), and we know a ton of people in common. 

And that is the final saga in our Mexico trip. Weird, right?

Mexico Part 1.5: I'm Still Peeved

Did any of you see the article about Fishers Island in the New York Times travel section on Sunday? It's here, if you missed it. To summarize, a mom took her 18-year-old daughter to spring break in Florida, splurging on a very upscale hotel. There were multiple issues at the hotel, and I couldn't help but be reminded of our own spring break debacle. The line that really resonated was this one,

One of the problems with staying at an exorbitantly priced resort is that the rates raise the bar so high that any slight or sign of neglect feels like betrayal; flaws that might be overlooked at a more modestly priced hotel are hard to forgive when a single night can cost more than the airfare.

That is exactly how I felt at the CasaMagna in Puerto Vallarta. Granted, it wasn't anywhere near as expensive as the hotel this woman stayed at, but since it was a five star joint, we had certain expectations. 

I also found myself relating to the writer's desire to share her experiences with other guests:

I wanted to buttonhole another guest to see if I was overreacting.

Michael and I spent the entire week saying, "Are we overreacting? Are we crazy?"

 

We do have one more story to tell about our Mexican adventure, and this one is a doozy, I promise!