Foodmomiac

Baba Rice (a weeknight lifesaver)

This is my dear friend Lisa. Our husbands have known each other since Kindergarten (!!) and when we lived in Toledo, Lisa was a constant in my life. I remember calling Lisa and Todd just a couple of days after they brought their oldest son home from the hospital to tell them that we, too were going to have a baby! Now Ty is almost 11, and Dylan is 10, and I feel like an elderly woman, but that's a story for another day.

Lisa is the friend who introduced me to Bunco (which I greatly miss - why don't people play Bunco in Chicago??), and the person who brought over food after Dylie and Max were born. And the one dish that was ALWAYS included with this delivery was Baba Rice. Baba was Todd's grandma, and she was from Bulgaria. I love Baba Rice, but I could never make it properly no matter how many times Lisa walked me through it over the phone.

This has always been a source of frustration for me, so when we visited Todd and Lisa Thanksgiving weekend, I watched her make it and took very detailed notes. I am happy to report that I have now made Baba Rice twice and was successful both times. Woot!

And now I am sharing with you. Enjoy.

Baba Rice
2-1/2 cups Uncle Ben's rice (the brand is important here, so don't try to get all fancy. You need the original Uncle Ben's converted rice)
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
5 cups chicken broth
freshly ground black pepper
1 Tb. dill
1 Tb Spike seasoning or summer savory (Chubritza is the Bulgarian word for this)
1 tsp chicken bouillion paste (I use that Better than Bouillion stuff from the supermarket)
1/4 cup canola oil 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put the rice in a 9x13 Pyrex dish. Add the celery, onion, broth and spices. Break the bouillion paste up into smaller pieces and distribute throughout the dish. Pour in the oil and mix everything well. Cover the pan with foil and place into the oven for an hour. Remove from the oven and mix up a bit with a fork. Enjoy!

FoodKIDiac: Guest post by Dylan - Baked Acorn Squash

My favorite dish lately has been baked Acorn Squash it is SO delicious! It is fun and easy to make! I was able to make it all by myself, actually. Today we had it with chicken and a nice little salad! It is such a great comfort food and it adds a little sweetness to your dinner! I guarantee that you will LOVE this dish! Acorn squash is probably the best fall dish you can ask for! Today my Dad built a fire in the fireplace so it was really nice and cozy in our house.

I could eat acorn squash forever! You HAVE to try this dish!

Here is the link to the recipe I used:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/classic_baked_acorn_squash/

 

 

The Monday Night Dinner that Garnered a Standing Ovation (Lamb Meatballs and Mujadara)

The title of this post is no exaggeration. Shortly after declaring it, "the best meal you have cooked in five years," Michael told the kids they should give me a round of applause. And then Dylan stood up on the bench in the kitchen to turn that round of applause into a full out standing o. This is NOT the norm in my household, but damn, it was definitely satisfying.

Dinner was an old favorite that I hadn't made for years (mujadarah) along with a new dish that I tried for the very first time (lamb meatballs). The lamb recipe has a gajillion steps, so I am just going to link to it rather than adapt it and repost here. Click here for amazing lamb meatballs.

I will, however, share with you the recipe for Mujadara. This recipe comes from David Rosengarten, a chef who was a very big deal on the Food Network back in 1996 when I worked there. (He also wore a ridiculous amount of makeup when recording his shows, so when he'd swing by the cubicles to talk to the "little folk," we always ended up laughing over his oompa loompa face as soon as he left.) 

Mujadara

1 cup green or brown lentils
1 quart cold water
3 large white onions, sliced into thin half moons
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup basmati or jasmine rice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice

Bring the lentils to a boil in the cold water and then turn the heat down to simmer. Let them cook for about 25 minutes or until they are just about tender. Reserve 1.5 cups of cooking liquid (you likely won't be able to reserve this much, but you can just make up the difference with fresh water), and drain the lentils.

While the lentils are cooking, cook the onions in olive oil until they get nice and soft (the original recipe calls for five minutes, but this took me at least 10). Pull out 1.5 cups of the onions and set them aside. Cook the rest of the onions until they are caramelized and verging on crispy (again, they say five minutes, but it was more like 10 or 15). Drain these on a paper towel and set them aside.

In that same saucepan, add the cooked lentils, the reserved liquid, the softened onions (not the caramelized ones), the rice, salt and allspice. Cook this over low heat, covered, until the rice is tender, which should happen in about 20 minutes. Serve topped with caramelized onions. Sit back while your family applauds your efforts.

Quick, Cheap, Yummy Dinner: Tostadas

This is less a recipe than a method, but everyone loved it, so I had to share. Over the weekend, we watched the Rick Bayless show, Mexico, One Plate at a Time. Cooking shows are one of the few things we all enjoy watching, and this was a great one to watch together because it also was about travel and culture, and the kids were tickled that Bayless lives in Chicago.

Tostadas are so easy to make. We are lucky to live in a city with a big Mexican population. It means that fresh tostada shells are available in the supermarket. If they aren't available near you, you can make your own by frying corn tortillas until crispy.

I heated some oil in a pan and added mashed garlic and some chopped green pepper. Once fragrant, I added 2 cans of black beans and mashed it all up a bit with a potato masher. That got pushed to a back burner and left on low.

The next piece is protein. You can use shredded leftover chicken or steak, or you can do what we did tonight and just cook up some chorizo.

Take a tostada, spread it with the beans, top with the meat, and then garnish! Our garnish was sliced avocado, shredded cheese and some lettuce that was tossed with sour cream and hot sauce.

What have you all been eating this week?

Buddy's Meatballs

So... my daughter is obsessed with Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss, the baking show on TLC. Lest you think I'm overstating things, she actually thinks that New Jersey is the greatest state in the country because it is home to Hoboken, and Hoboken is home to Buddy.

Now, I also enjoy the show, but not to her level of obsession (she even follows Buddy on Twitter, reading his tweets with the same enthusiasm as those from her beloved Justin Bieber). Anyway, we were both pretty psyched when we learned that Buddy had a new show, Kitchen Boss. And last night we tried his meatballs. They were AMAZING. Super easy, super delicious. The recipe is here.

We didn't do the full on Sunday gravy thing that he does. I just sauteed them and then put them in a pan with a jar of crushed tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, some water, and a finely minced onion that I sauteed in the meatball grease. This is a new family favorite for sure.

 

Back to School Week - Sandwich Shapes

First of all, for all of my Jewish readers, Happy New Year! I love, love, love Rosh Hashanah. It's so perfect that the Jewish New Year is at back to school time. It's a great time for new beginnings and starting fresh. For dinner tonight, we incorporated honey (for a sweet new year) in our chicken, with a yummy honey spiced grilled chicken recipe that was in the New York Times Magazine this past Sunday. I also made a savory noodle kugel (recipe here) and sauteed some of my CSA baby zucchini with roma tomatoes and parsley from my garden. It was a great dinner! Vivi, our au pair, provided dessert with some traditional Brazilian sweets (Brigadeiro) that she made with the kids after school.

OK, so I promised a fun lunch idea/recipe each day this week. Today I want to just talk a little bit about the sandwich shapes that I showed on the CBS2 morning show yesterday. I have frequently seen suggestions from people to cut sandwiches into fun shapes for school lunches. That said, it always seemed impractical. I hate the thought of wasting a lot of sandwich, and the typical bread size/shape doesn't allow for more than one cookie cutter shape.

As I was brainstorming ideas for the morning show, though, a light bulb went off for me. If I used a rolling pin to flatten out the bread before making the sandwich, I'd create more surface area and be able to make more than one shape with my cookie cutters. Voila! By rolling my bread, I was able to use TWO large cookie cutters, and had very little waste. The waste I DID have was quickly consumed by Max for a little snack, so I felt very frugal.

Do any of you get super creative with kids' lunches? If so, do you always get creative? I find that I usually end up losing my steam after a few weeks.

Special Announcement: I am running the Chicago Marathon on 10/10/10 in support of Healthy Schools Campaign. I am on the board of this amazing not-for-profit, and have pledged to raise $1,000. Please help me meet my goal - even $5 helps! To donate, visit my fundraising page.

Easy and Impressive Broiled Chicken

Last week, I got home relatively late from work, but decided that I still needed to make a home cooked meal. We had a ton of groceries in the fridge, and I think everyone is getting sick of delivered food in this household. One of the food items in my fridge was a whole chicken, cut up, so I pulled out Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" and started searching for the easiest option.

Broiled chicken it was! I preheated the broiler, brushed a large casserole dish (you can use a broiling pan) with olive oil and placed the chicken in it in one layer. I then mixed together about 1/2 cup of dijon mustard (I used a combination of coarse grain and regular) and a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. The chicken was salted and peppered and placed under the broiler for a minute or two, until it started to sizzle a bit. I then brushed the chicken with some of the mustard mixture and put it BACK under the broiler. In a couple of minutes, I pulled it out, flipped it, basted it again with the mustard and put it back. I repeated this process (broil, pull out, flip, baste) about 3-4 times until the chicken reached a temperature of about 165 degrees and was nice and crispy. Served with leftover cheesy potatoes and a salad, this was a simple and elegant meal that everyone enjoyed and that took just minutes to prepare. Awesome!

Uber Healthy Soup That Your Kids Might Very Well Eat: Nutty Vanilla Sweet Potato and Kale Soup

I've known Kath from Kath Eats for many months now (we frequently hire her to write articles on our clients' sites), but for some reason I've never tried one of her recipes until now.

What was I thinking?? We are always trying to be more healthy, and she uses the most fabulous ingredients. Consider this a lesson learned. Go make this soup!

Some changes I made (because I'm allergic to following recipes exactly):

- I peeled the sweet potatoes
- I used curry powder instead of Garam Masala
- I think I used too many sweet potatoes (I didn't pull out my scale), so I thinned the soup with two cups of chicken broth (veggie broth would have been fine too)
- I think raisins are evil, so I didn't use any, and I didn't use any shredded coconut either (not quite so evil, but I'm not a fan)

Dylan declared this the best soup she ever had. Max liked everything about this except the kale, but I think he was confused, because he actually DOES like kale, but I think he thought I said it was "cow." And, quite frankly, he also likes cow, so the whole thing was bizarre.

Michael loved this soup with every fiber of his being. And, no, I am not exaggerating. He thanked me for it about three times.

Thanks Kath!

A New Recipe: Vegetarian Greek Lasagna

On Sunday morning, I drove to the Logan Square Farmers Market, and I bought three giant bags of gorgeous produce. Anything that looked great made its way into my tote bags. One of the farmers actually told me that I needed a sherpa. It was awesome.

When I got home, our Internet was down, so I had to get old school and look through my cookbooks for some recipes. I found some dinner ideas, picked up the rest of the ingredients at Trader Joe's, and was all set for the week ahead.

On Monday we had vegetarian congee made in the crockpot. Congee is a Chinese rice porridge. When made with chicken stock, it is amazing. Comforting, rich, delicious. Sadly, I used vegetarian stock instead. We are trying to avoid meat during the week, but next time I make congee, I think we'll make an exception and use the poultry stock. Congee made with veggie stock was vile.

Yesterday, the plain was to make a butternut squash and kale risotto. But, then I remembered that we had the kids' open school night and then a haircut appointment. We had frozen pizza (and I'll make the risotto tomorrow - the recipe looks really promising!).

Tonight, Greek Lasagna was on the menu. However, Michael developed a nasty flu/virus, so I had to cover for him in a three hour client meeting off-site. What to do? What to do? I decided to delegate. I left the recipe and the ingredients out on the counter and asked our new nanny Sammy to prepare the lasagna with the kids. It was delicious. Michael ventured out of his sick bed to eat three pieces, Max ate up with gusto, and I enjoyed it as well. The only naysayer was Dylie. She has just never liked lasagna of any variety, and this was no exception. (She prepared a Trader Joe's Green Curry for herself in the microwave).

The recipe is below, but let me first remind you that I'm posting every day for a month to raise money for Healthy Schools Campaign. Thank you so much to Lauren, Mir and Mamacita for their generous donations. We are off to a great start! If you'd like to help the cause, please click here and choose your donation amount. Every little bit helps.

Greek Lasagna (adapted from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics)

Tomato Sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons dried marjoram (we omitted this, you could subtitute oregano if you like)
5 cups undrained canned whole tomatoes (we used 5 cups of Michael's dads homemade tomato puree)
1/3 cup chopped kalamata olives (we used less, because we didn't have that much around)
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (we used 1.5 tablespoons of dried)

1 large eggplant, cut into 3/4 inch rounds
olive oil for brushing
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups cottage cheese
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds (we omitted this)
3 cups grated feta cheese (we used slightly less because we didn't have enough)
12 uncooked lasagna noodles

In a medium pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions. Saute for about five minutes. Add the garlic and majorum and cook for another few minutes. Add the tomatoes, cover the pot and bring it all to a simmer. Turn the heat down to medium low and add the olives, salt, pepper and dill (you can wait until the end to add the dill if you want maximum flavor).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. While the sauce continues to cook, lightly oil a baking sheet and cover it with the eggplant slices. Brush each slice with olive oil and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the eggplant from the oven and then turn it down to 350 degrees.

While the eggplant cooks and the sauce simmers, mix together the eggs, cottage cheese, fennel and 1 cup of the feta. Set this aside.

Lightly oil a large Pyrex baking dish (or other lasagna pan). Spread on two cups of the tomato sauce. Top this with one layer of noodles and then another cup of sauce. Layer on all of the eggplant, one cup of feta, another layer of noodles and another cup of sauce. Add the cottage cheese mixture, another layer of noodles, the remaining sauce and the last of the feta.

Cover with foil and bake for 45-50 minutes. Remove from the oven, take off the foil, and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Serve with some crusty bread and/or a green salad.

Great Mexican Comfort Food: Baked Fideo

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I worked at the Food Network back in my early twenties. It was the early days of the network. Back when all of the hosts were trained chefs, the staff numbered about fifty, and all of the sets rotated on one tiny sound stage. It was a fun, fun job, and I got to meet some amazing people.

Two of my favorite hosts were the Two Hot Tamales. They were wonderful women, full of smiles and laughter, and the joy they got from their food and their friendship was infectious. Whenever I had the pleasure of being around these women, I was thrilled. It didn't hurt that all of their food was amazing. From the moistest tamales you've ever tasted to amazing homemade salsa, I loved all of it.

One of my favorite dishes in their repertoire was Baked Fideo. It's a cheap and easy meal that manages to taste both comforting and exotic, and when Michael and I were a poor young couple scraping by in New York, it was one of our regular dishes. For some reason, though, I hadn't made it in years. Tonight, though, I suddenly remembered this long lost dish, and quickly cooked up an amazing meal.

My version is slightly different from the one that Mary Sue and Susan made (they use fresh tomatoes and dried chipotles), but the spirit of it is the same. It's smokey and a bit spicy, and all together delicious.

Baked Fideo

1 32 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped into eights
6 garlic cloves, cut in half
2 chipotles in adobo plus a teaspoon or two of the sauce (found in the Mexican aisle - these come in a small can - there are a few in the can, but you only want two)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
8 ounces angel hair pasta (I like buying the nests - they are easier to break up)
1-1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
3/4 cup grated anejo cheese (this is hard to find - I usually substitute Parmigiano Reggiano)
sliced avocado and sour cream to garnish

Prehat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a blender, combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic, chipotles and water.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Break up the pasta into pieces and add it to the oil, stirring frequently. When the pasta is browned (again, stir a LOT so it doesn't burn), add the tomato sauce from the blender and the vegetable stock. Bring the entire mixture to a simmer, and then pour it into a 13x9 inch baking dish.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 12 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Turn the heat up to 400 degrees and bake the dish for an additional 10 minutes. Serve with sliced avocado and sour cream as garnish. Enjoy!