Foodmomiac

Dutch Babies (a.k.a. lazy man's pancake)

I am definitely more of a savory person for weekend breakfast (omelets, hash browns, BACON!), but sometimes something sweet is in order. This is especially the case when berries have finally come into season.

Thanks to the fabulous Holland Farmers Market, I know have giant bags of berries in my fridge, and I knew that I'd have to utilize some of them for this morning's breakfast. Standard blueberry pancakes were definitely an option, but I'm lazy. And the thought of standing over the griddle, cleaning the griddle, etc. etc. was just too much to contemplate today. But a dutch baby? That's easy! The batter comes together in moments, and it cooks in the oven, yielding very little miss and a beautiful puffy pancake for your efforts.

This can be made with no fruit at all (sprinkle the finished pancake with lemon juice and powdered sugar) or with any fruit you like, including berries, bananas, or thinly sliced apples.

Blueberry Dutch Baby

1/4 cup butter (unsalted is preferable)
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if your butter is salted)
big handful of blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the butter in a glass pyrex pie plate and put in the oven. Allow the butter to melt. While the butter is melting, whisk together the milk, eggs, flour, sugar and salt. When the butter has melted, remove the pie plate from the oven. Pour in the batter and then sprinkle it with a healthy handful of berries. Place back into the oven and cook for 25 minutes.

The pancake will be very puffy and beautiful. It will collapse slightly as it cools, so if you want a photo, take one quickly!

Foodmomiac's Macaroni Salad

I have never been a huge fan of macaroni salad. It's usually gloppy and overly sweet, and just... blah. But, there's something really appealing about a macaroni salad. I love elbow macaroni, and I love mayo-based salads, so I always knew that I could probably rescue this dish.

After doing some online research and some in-kitchen tinkering, I think we have a winner. This is based off of a recipe I found on All Recipes, but the additions and changes make it my own. Enjoy! (Note: this makes 10 VERY generous servings, so make sure you have plenty of guests, or are ready to eat macaroni salad every day for a week.)

Foodmomiac's Macaroni Salad

1 box elbow macaroni
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 sweet white onion, cut into 3-4 big chunks
2 stalks celery, cut into 3-4 big chunks
2 carrots, cut into 3-4 big chunks (you can use a handful of baby carrots if that's all you have on hand)
3 hard boiled eggs, diced
2 dill pickles, diced

Cook macaroni for eight minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.

Mix together the mayo, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

In a food processor, mince the onion, celery and carrots. (You can also just dice these finely on your own, but the food processor does a great job and is super fast.)

Add the veggies to the sauce in the bowl, along with the macaroni, eggs and pickles. Mix to combine, cover, and refrigerate for at least two hours (overnight is fine, and probably preferable!)

Hangin' Around (with some Sweet and Sour Cabbage)

It's Sunday evening, and we are still at our cottage. The plan was to leave after dinner, but we just couldn't do it. We had to prolong the fantasy of a stress-free life just a TEENY bit longer.

It was a great weekend at the cottage. Michael's dad, sister and her boyfriend came up, and we loved showing them around. We did the Holland Farmers' Market (where we scored country pork ribs, rhubarb, radishes and a giant jug of Michigan maple syrup), Chicken Scratch Farm, Saugatuck downtown and the beach. The weather wasn't warm enough for any sunbathing, but we skipped rocks and explored a bit.

Megen and Nick left in the early afternoon, but, as I said, we just couldn't do it. Michael's dad is still off work from his car accident, so he was able to stick around as well. The kids are in bed, and we're just sitting around and watching TV.

Dinner was terrific. I bought some Korean meat rub at the Saugatuck Spice Merchant, and we rubbed it on the pork ribs from the market. We are very much asparagus'd out, so we grabbed a head of red cabbage at the little farm market down the road, and I made some old fashioned sweet and sour cabbage. The recipe is from the Betty Crocker cookbook, which came with the cottage. It's not the type of cookbook I'd normally buy, but I'm loving the recipes. They are simple and comforting - just perfect for a weekend hangin' around in the country.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage

1 head red cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
4 strips bacon, diced
1 red onion, sliced
1/4 cup brown or Turbinado sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons white vinegar
freshly ground black pepper

Boil one inch of water in a 10-inch skillet. Add the cabbage, and cook, uncovered for an additional 15 minutes. Drain, and set aside. Place the bacon in the skillet and cook it on medium for about 3-4 minutes. Add the onion and cook an additional 4 minutes, until the onion is soft and the bacon is crisp. Remove from the grease with a slotted spoon, and place it on a paper towel or brown paper bag covered plate to drain. If your bacon is super greasy, remove some of the grease (you want to leave about 1 tablespoon). Add the sugar and the flour, and stir to combine. Add the water and vinegar, stirring well to scrape up all of the bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add the cabbage back into the skillet, stir well to combine and season with some freshly ground pepper. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Some Updates and Some Corned Beef

Wow, sorry to leave you all hanging.

• Short Ribs - As I suspected, the 1.5 hours of cooking that Bittman suggested were NOT enough for the short ribs. They were still tough. However, we ate them two days later after an additional 3-4 hours of cooking, and they were tender enough to eat with a spoon. The recipe is posted on this blog. A few notes: I used soy sauce, not fish sauce. Though my fish allergy is lessened GREATLY thanks to Yaelle (acumomma), I am still afraid to cook with fish. Also, do NOT ignore the instruction to drain off most of the fat. I did ignore that, and they were greasy (duh).
• On Sunday morning, I left for NY to attend a big event for my client, Quaker. I was able to sneak a quick brunch with my dad, step-mom and aunt, but then I headed up to Times Square to prepare for Monday morning's activities. After preparation, I again sneaked in some fun. Abby, one of my favorite people and an old friend from Vassar, met me at my hotel for dinner and a sleepover. I think she probably regretted the sleepover decision when my alarm went off at 5:45 am, but it was so good to see her! We even got to pose with the Quaker Man together!



• Following the Times Square event, I rode up to the Food Bank for New York City in the Bronx with Isabel from Alpha Mom, Anna from Mommy Poppins, Joanna from My Mom Shops, Emily from The Motherhood, Brian from Looky, Daddy! and Magda from Ask Moxie. We spent just over an hour sorting food and packing it for food pantries around the city. In that small period of time, we packed over 1,100 pounds of food which translates to 888 meals. I will for sure be doing this again in the future, and would encourage others to do the same. It's really simple to coordinate a food bank volunteer "party." Call your local food bank and ask them about group volunteer opportunities. Consider what a difference you can make if even one time per year you volunteer instead of going to book club or bunco. We are doing more blogger food bank volunteer efforts throughout the country on behalf of Quaker, so if you'd like to get involved, please email me. I can't promise that we'll have one in your city, but if we do, you are certainly welcome to join us.
• Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I started my corned beef yesterday. This will be the third time I do this. Using a recipe from Cooks Illustrated, I buy a plain brisket and then "corn" it for five to seven days in my refrigerator. At the end of that time period, I end up with the same corned beef you can buy at the store. The difference is that I made it myself, it doesn't contain salt peter, so it's not reddish in color, and it tastes AMAZING. Seriously, when you taste this corned beef, you'll have an a ha moment. Kind of like, "Wow, so THIS is what corned beef tastes like!??!" It's not too late for you to join me.
• • Go to a meat market (or Costco like I did), and buy a beef brisket that is between four and six pounds. It will look like this:

  

  • You'll also need kosher salt, black peppercorns, paprika, dried thyme, allspice and bay leaves. When you get home, trim the beef of all excess fat. Then, combine 1/2 cup of kosher salt, 1 Tb. cracked black peppercorns, 2-1/4 tsp. ground allspice, 1 Tb. dried thyme, 1.5 tsp. paprika and two crumbled bay leaves. Mix this together and set it aside. Stab the meat with a sharp fork 30 times on each side. Rub on the spice mix, put the meat in a large plastic ziploc bag and remove as much air as possible. It will look like this:

  

  • Then, you need to weight it down and put it in your refrigerator. Two years ago, I weighted it down like this:

  

  • This year, I have it weighted down with my heaviest cookbooks. You can even use bricks. Just make sure that there is significant weight on top of the meat.
  • The next few days are very easy. Flip the meat once a day. On March 17th, we'll finish this baby up, but if you are joining me, please be sure to email or comment, so I can link to all the finished products.

Moroccan Tempeh (and the start of some detoxing)

Detox Day One: Salad, Tempeh, Couscous
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

What a day, huh? I'm overjoyed that Obama is our new president, and as my dad said to me yesterday, overjoyed that I can once again feel pride in my country.

I'm also overjoyed that these parties that I worked so hard to organize (along with my tireless team - they ROCK) are over (and went amazingly well).

It's a good day.

It is also the start of me and Michael being a bit healthier. For at least one month (maybe three - we are debating), we are going to be really strict about our bodies. No alcohol, no junk food, more exercise. I'd love to do a REAL detox diet (no meat, no dairy, no sugar, no gluten), but I know my limits.

To start our detox off right, we ate our favorite vegetarian dinner; Moroccan Tempeh and couscous. I am shocked that I have never blogged this recipe, but after multiple google searches of my blog, I'm just not seeing it. And you guys need to have this recipe. It is so good. It's from some chef who was a guest star on the Food Network back when I worked there years ago. Over the years I've made some adaptations, and it is so, so good. Even the kids love it.

Moroccan Tempeh

1 pound tempeh (any variety, this is probably two packages)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut tempeh into bite-sized pieces and steam for seven minutes. While it's steaming, whisk together the rest of the ingredients. When the tempeh is steamed, place it in one layer in a baking dish (lining the dish with tin foil will GREATLY improve your clean-up). Pour the liquid over the tempeh. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the liquid is at least halfway evaporated and the tempeh has a nice crust on it. Serve over couscous.

Winging it (Chorizo Kale Pasta)

Chorizo Kale Pasta
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

We were away all last weekend in Toledo, which was a lot of fun, but we didn't get home until late Sunday night. This translates to no groceries in the house. I DID get our au pair a Trader Joe's gift card, so that she could pick things up for the house while we're at work, but that seems to have translated from English to German into, "Hey, go buy as much mochi as you can find! Hurry! Fill the freezer with mochi!!" So... lots of Japanese ice cream. But, in terms of other food? Not so much. I take full blame for this. Sending an 18-year-old to the grocery store with no list is just not smart. So, anyway... we don't have much food.

Luckily, we did have some fun ingredients left over from last week's trip to the Farmer's Market, including kale and lamb chorizo. I decided to create a pasta dish. I minced one small onion and sauteed it in a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil. Then, I sliced up two links of the chorizo and added those, cooking them until they were nice and brown. I then added a couple of tablespoons of flour to create a roux. I poured in a box of chicken broth, added the cleaned and chopped kale, and covered the pan until the kale was steamed to perfection and the sauce was slightly thickened. (I stirred occasionally to help things along). While I made the sauce, I cooked the pasta. Once it was done, I drained it, added it to the sauce, and tossed the whole concoction with a handful of grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Yum - it was really good!

P.S. How is everyone doing with the shred? I've missed a few days, but I'm up to Level 3. Was not a huge fan of Level 2.

A Winning (Vegetarian) Recipe - Vegetable Curry!

Warning: this is a long story kept long.

On Saturday, Michael and I used our au pair for some morning babysitting (instead of the usual evening babysitting) so that we could buy me a new car. This was awesome in terms of the vehicle (Saturn Vue Hybrid), but sucky in terms of date night. In an effort to keep our Saturday night somewhat exciting, we decided to take the kids out for Korean BBQ. We have tried a few different Korean BBQ places since moving to Chicago, and they were fine. Just... fine. None of them held a candle to our favorite NY place; Kang Suh. Until now. I did a little bit of online research and came up with San Soo Gap San. It was amazing. We left reeking of charcoal smoke and raw garlic. Both kids were totally happy with their food, as were the adults. Four stars from me. A picture:

Anyway,it was great, but VERY meat heavy. We ate enough red meat to last a month. So, when it came to Sunday night dinner, we were meated out. I searched around online a bit and came up with this recipe for Vegetable Curry. I made changes OF COURSE, which are all incorporated below, but it was excellent. Everyone loved it, which is a rarity. And it was incredibly healthy. One more benefit is that it is a great use of autumn vegetables.

Vegetable Curry

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 small onions, minced
2 tablespoons flour
1 can coconut milk
2/3 box of chicken broth (you can and probably should use vegetable broth - I just didn't have it on hand)
2 heaping tablespoons curry powder
4 small sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into smallish cubes
1 handful of baby carrots, cut into small discs (you can use regular, but we always have the babies because of school lunches)
1 small head of cauliflower, broken into smallish florets
1 can chickpeas, drained
plain yogurt (optional)

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil. Add onions. Saute for about three minutes, or until softened. Add flour and combine well. Add coconut milk, broth and curry powder. Stir well to combine. Add veggies, turn heat to low, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes. Serve over basmati rice with plain yogurt as a garnish. (If you are vegan, leave out the yogurt, for obvious reasons.)

Easiest Grill Dish Ever - Potato Packets

Potato packets
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

We make this dish all the time, and it is so easy. If you don't do it already, you must try it.

Slice a bunch of potatoes very thinly. Slice an onion thinly as well. Take a big sheet of foil and spray it with olive oil (or brush some on if you don't have an olive oil sprayer). On ONE HALF of the foil, layer on potatoes, onions, salt, pepper and more olive oil. You can get crazy here with variations. The potatoes pictured above are made with white truffle salt and a red onion. I've added green and red peppers, and also garlic on occasion. Whatever you want goes. As you create the packet, it will look like this:

When you are done layering, fold the foil in half and pinch it closed so that no air can get in. It should look like this:

Cook over indirect heat on the grill for up to an hour.

When you unwrap the packet, be VERY careful. The steam inside gets crazy hot, and I've burnt myself a few times. You might want to even poke a few holes in the packet before unwrapping to prevent this.

Me? Cooking? Whaddayaknow (Chicken Milanese and Pasta)

Chicken Milanese with Pasta
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

I know myself better than to promise anything, but today begins July's NaBloPoMo (posting every day in a month), and the topic is food. I gotta at least try, no?

Last night we had Chicken Milanese. I sliced chicken breasts very thinly, dredged them in egg and panko (seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder) and then pan fried them in extra virgin olive oil. Once they were cooked, I popped them into the oven on low to keep them warm. Then, Dylan stepped up to help.

We grabbed a few leaves of basil from the garden along with some cherry tomatoes. These were all thrown into a wooden bowl with some capers and some baby arugula. She chopped everything up and then I added a bit of olive oil. No vinegar was needed due to the capers. I also threw in a bit of shredded cheese (an Italian blend that was lurking in the fridge).

The kids ate the chicken breasts plain. The adults topped them with the arugula mix for a delicious Milanese.

On the side, we had gemelli tossed with raw, chopped cherry tomatoes, black pepper, olive oil and chunks of fresh mozzarella. Such a nice summer meal.

Spring Farmers' Market Chicken Salad

Because I haven't yet purchased those Green Bags that Stefania just raved about (I am shocked that these actually work, and excited to get them), I was faced with the task yesterday of finishing up every last item that Dylan and I bought at the Farmers' Market last week. The radishes went into our Greek Salad, and I made some tea with the mint, but we still had snow pea sprouts and chives. Dylan decided that her school lunch would be chicken salad, so I incorporated everything into that. She declared it delicious, and even twittered (yes, Dylan is now on Twitter - too cute) about it:

Here's what I did:

Spring Farmers' Market Chicken Salad

1/2 chicken, meat removed (we did a mix of white and dark, but most people prefer just white meat, in which case, do that - maybe 2 breasts)
6 chives, minced
1 oz. sprouts (we used snow pea shoots), chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped fine
mayonnaise to taste

Chop up chicken, add veggies, add mayo. Ta da!