Foodmomiac

Cooking Therapy

My afternoon was spent at the dermatologist's office. Apparently, the eczema that is taking over my face has been exacerbated by my stress. What I need to do, it seems, is lessen my stress. She said, and I quote, "Maybe you could try yoga. Or breathing."

Breathing.

Yes, I'm sure that will fix everything. I just need to breathe. Right.

After going back to work, picking up my friend's son from school and picking up Max and Dylan from the sitters, I was finally on my way home. No one should be surprised to read that I caught a TRAIN on the way home and was forced to backtrack and go the long way. By the time we got home, and I fed Max (who was hysterical due to the fact that he didn't have enough breastmilk today), I was a tad cranky. But, I was determined to make Emeril's Pot Roast Bolognese with our leftover Pot Roast. So, after the babe was fed, I put some water on to boil, gave Dylan a bowl of cottage cheese to tide her over and started prepping.

It was excellent!!! Here's a pic:

Dylan and I both loved it, and we had a ton left over. I packed up a giant tupperware for Stephanie and Clayton (our babysitter and her fiance) and still had enough leftover for my lunch tomorrow and a second tupperware for my sister-in-law. I love being frugal, and this was a very tasty way to use up leftover Pot Roast.

The best part of the meal, though, was the fact that I felt so much better by the time it was completed. The chopping, the sauteeing, the mixing, and the hanging out with Dylan was completely cathartic. Much better than breathing....

(P.S. Do you all like seeing photos of my completed meals? Would you like to see prep photos as well? Please comment!)

mmmm.... calzone!

The calzone were fabulous. The recipe was courtesy of FoodMan on eGullet, but I did make a couple of changes. I eliminated the spinach, because I wanted Dylan to eat them. Also, I don't have any semolina, so I cooked them on parchment paper to prevent sticking, and I sprinkled them with sesame seeds, to add that texture, and also to bring in a big of extra flavor. I will always do the sesame seed thing in the future.

I invited a friend to join us for dinner on Friday, and have decided that I will save the Chicken with Prunes and Olives for that night - I'll need to freeze the chicken until then! She is relatively hard to cook for, as she doesn't like veal or lamb and won't eat beef unless it's cooked well done. She'll eat fish, but I'm allergic, and I'm not going to prepare another braised beef dish so soon after the pot roast. Oh, and she hates celery! So, braised chicken it is! Dylan is very excited to help, as olives are her favorite food.

I didn't update last night because it was a rough day emotionally, and I didn't feel like talking about it. My body is falling apart - milk supply for the baby is low, and my eczema is absolutely horrible, including on my eye, which is a really bad place to have eczema. My friend Jenn told me that I need to cry and yell in order to move forward. It's hard to fall apart when you need to take care of two little ones. Dylan was really upset Sunday when Michael left after dinner. How can I help her move forward if I'm falling apart myself? I need to do something, though, because even though I act like everything is OK, my body knows that it isn't, and my health is suffering.

Let's try this again.

I think this week's cookbook is going to be much more satisfying. This week, we are cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens. I first heard about this book from Ari Weinzweig, one of the two founding partners of Zingerman's, and the author of Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating. I then read about it extensively on eGullet, and decided that it was something I simply must have.

Today was my first foray into cooking from the book. I started with the Yankee Pot Roast Redux, a very simple, and very classic Pot Roast. It was a hit. Michael was in town, visiting us, and his mom joined us as well. Michael's mom was especially enamored of it, which says a lot, because she is not the most adventurous eater, and my creations have been known to overwhelm her taste buds. We ate it with vegetables that were braised in the pot (carrots, turnips, parsnips and yukon gold potatoes) and a giant salad made with romaine, mini cucumbers, orange pepper and lemon dressing.

Leftovers from this dish will be featured one night this week, probably in a ragu over pasta, as Dylan never got her requested spaghetti and meatballs last week. We will also make another recipe from this book, Chicken with Olives and Prunes, though I am not sure what night - it will take at least an hour to prepare, so I need to be sure I'll have time. I'm also toying with the idea of cooking it in the Crock-Pot. We'll see...

I'm excited about this cookbook.

I had a big cooking day today. In addition to the Pot Roast, I prepared some Sausage/Ricotta Calzones. Those will need to sit overnight in the fridge. We will likely have them tomorrow night for dinner.

Boston Market and some random musings

It's snowing, snowing, snowing. We are supposed to get six inches by morning.

I was in a super crabby mood when I left work today. All I could think about was the fact that I don't have anyone to shovel the snow in my driveway, and I don't have anyone to help me drag our giant trash cans to the curb. It pisses me off that I live in a big house that is so unwieldy for one person to manage. It pisses me off that I have a hard time doing these things by myself.

So, I decided to be lazy, and I picked up Boston Market. It was gross. And now, of course, I'm pissed off that I crapped out on making dinner.

Kid Gourmet: Beanies & Weenies

As I mentioned last night, the calzone idea was scrapped due to lack of energy for dough preparation. I was so impressed with Dylan's salad prep last night that I decided to let her prepare a meal for me. She chose Beanies & Weenies! 

Dylie cut four Best's Kosher hot dogs into chunks using her new favorite tool, the grapefruit knife. She then dumped them into a pot into which I had emptied a can of Bush's vegetarian baked beans. While Dylie was working on her knife skills, I tore up and washed a romaine heart and made my friend Yaelle's lemon dressing (lemon, mayo, olive oil, dijon and mashed capers). I combined the romaine with the leftover salad from last night and added the lemon dressing. It was a GREAT salad.

So, not a fancy meal, but Dylie was thrilled to be involved, and we enjoyed the time together. And hey, for a four-year-old, Beanies & Weenies is haute cuisine.

Tomorrow night's client dinner for work isn't happening, so I'm thinking pizza night.

Well, the salad was tasty...

Tonight was Beef Stroganoff night. I once again turned to the Southern Living Do-Ahead cookbook. Dylan and I were less than thrilled. I guess I'll start from the beginning. Once again, we got home at 5:30. (I laughed this morning when I read last night's post. I am still not used to my full-time working schedule. Getting home at 5:30 used to be a once in a while occurrence. Now, it's typical.)

Anyway, the recipe called for using a 1.5 pound sirloin steak cut on the diagonal into 1/4 inch strips. I need to research this a bit, because it ended up chewy. I'm not a fan of sirloin, typically, but I followed the recipe anyway, figuring I'd give it a shot. I will certainly try to figure out a better cut or cooking method, because the sauce was very tasty and easy to make. Lots of cream cheese, wine and sour cream didn't make for a healthy sauce, but it was creamy and decadent. I also was pleased with the flavor added by the tablespoon of lemon zest that was included. With a tender cut of beef (tenderloin perhaps?), this could be a real winner. We served it over buttered noodles.

The highlight of the meal was the salad. Dylan made it! I usually have her cut softer vegetables with a plastic knife, but tonight we tried a grapefruit knife. It worked wonderfully. It is serrated, so it was easy for her to cut through the vegetables, but it wasn't sharp enough to injure her. She cut up half of a cucumber, half a red pepper and a chunk of feta. We tossed it with some homemade Greek dressing - delicious!

Tomorrow night was supposed to be calzones, but I'm too tired to make them up tonight, and they need to rest overnight in the fridge. We won't be home from Dylie's dance class until almost six, so I need to figure something out. I'm thinking of bumping up the beanies and weenies. You can't get much easier than that. Gourmet it's not, but it's better than Wendy's.

Pork Redux

Dylan has Kids Yoga on Mondays, so we don't get home until almost 5:30. I was glad that I had dinner already planned! As soon as we got home, I threw some water on to boil and pulled out some vermicelli. While the water came up to a boil, I chopped up some broccoli and cauliflower and threw it into my wok with some canola oil.

After I added the pasta to the water, I put leftover peas, leftover sliced pork and some sesame oil into the wok with the other veggies. I made a vinegary sesame dressing and put it aside. Once the pasta was cooked, I placed it in my large pasta bowl and tossed it with the dressing. I threw a healthy chug of Marinade Bay Korean Sesame (amazing stuff!) into the wok. Once the pork and veggies were heated through, I added those to the pasta and mixed to combine. It was tasty, but not too attractive (thus no photo).

It was a low stress, low cost night of cooking, with everything done and cleaned up just an hour after we arrived home.

On another note, Michael is here tonight because a friend of his is in town. Dylan seemed really happy to have him around! I can almost pretend that he's still living here - we are getting along well. Of course, it's pretty easy to get along well without all of the pressure of actually living together. 

Tomorrow night is beef stroganoff. I'll need to remember to eat lightly for lunch.

Here we go...

I just finished up my first week as a single mom. It wasn't terribly organized, but I did start off with the flu, so I probably deserve some slack. This week is the start of something new, though. The prospect of being alone all winter in this big, old house with a four-year-old and an infant is not one that I relish. It's the way things are, though, and I think I have a way to get through it.

I'm going to pre-plan our dinners. Dylan, my four-year-old daughter is going to be involved with the plan each week. She will also help me with the shopping list and the cooking. This week, she suggested mac and cheese and beanies and weenies. She'll have mac and cheese for lunch tomorrow, and the beanies and weenies are making an appearance on Friday. I hope that as the weeks progress, and she gets a better sense of the system, she'll be able to contribute more to the weekly plans. It will be interesting to see how her contributions evolve.

I realize that some people might find it strange that I plan on getting through the break-up of my marriage and the challenges of single motherhood via food. I hope that this blog will help to explain my motivation. I need a focus. I need to keep busy. I need to cook a lot and I need to write.

This week we will be taking our meal cues from the Southern Living Do-Ahead Cookbook. I discovered this cookbook on eGullet, and so far it seems pretty cool! The menu for the week is as follows:

Sunday: Pork Loin Roast in the Crockpot, Peas, Mashed Potatoes, Apple and Celeriac

Monday: Pork Asian Noodles with Peas, Broccoli and Cauliflower (made with the leftover pork and peas)

Tuesday: Creamy Beef Stroganoff over Egg Noodles

Wednesday: Homemade Calzones

Thursday: I have a work dinner - Dylan and the sitter will choose from among the leftovers

Friday: Beanies and Weenies for Dylan, leftovers for me

The pork dishes and the beef are all from the Southern Living Do-Ahead Cookbook. The pork dishes are from a chapter called Double Duty. Essentially, a large meat dish is prepared one night with the intention of using leftovers for a second, different dish. At the supermarket this morning, giant pork loins were on sale for $1.77/lb. I got a seven pound roast, rubbed it with a mixture of garlic, cumin, salt, oregano and olive oil, and put it in the crockpot with some orange juice. It cooked on high for four hours while we went out to a birthday party. Leftovers were split into six baggies. Five went into the freezer for future dinners. One is in the fridge, awaiting transformation into tomorrow night's stir fry.