Foodmomiac

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!

Recipe Index

This is a work-in-progress, but I'm attempting to re-index all of my posted recipes so that you can more easily find what you are looking for. Let me know what you think.

By Preparation Method

Casseroles
Crockpot
Make Ahead
Pantry Cooking

By Ingredient

Apples
Beans
Beef
Cheese
Chicken
Corn
Eggplant
Eggs
Ham
Lamb
Pasta
Pork
Rice

By Course

Dessert
Hors D'Oeuvres
Main Dish
Side Dish

By Type

Comfort Food  
Soup
Vegan
Vegetarian
Weeknight Meal

Foodmomiac's Meatloaf

A friend of ours had surgery last week, so a bunch of us got together to make them some dinners. My friend Joni did an awesome job of insuring that the family was covered for dinner by a different person each night, and our night was Sunday.

I volunteered to make meatloaf, mashed potatoes (I did the cheesy kind) and a veggie (just some simple sauteed zucchini with minced onion and dill). I figured comfort food is always welcomed. It was really very easy to pull everything together, and I made two of everything, so we had our dinner ready to go as well.

I don't know why we don't eat meatloaf more often. It's easy. It freezes GREAT. The kids love it. I have some twists to my meatloaf, as you see below. Typically, I use white bread as the binding agent, but Michael asked me to use oatmeal yesterday instead, and I have to say I LOVED it. I'll never use white bread again.

Foodmomiac's Meatloaf

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
2 Tb. ketchup
1 Tb. yellow mustard
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 Tb. dehydrated minced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tb. prepared horseradish

Combine everything together in a large bowl using your hands (This is the most important part. I honestly believe that it is impossible to make good meatloaf using a spoon.)

Place in a 9 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.

Vegan Curry

  Steamy Vegetable Curry 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

When I was a junior in college, I was a miserable person. I spent the first semester in Paris, which sounds very romantic, but in reality, it was pathetic. Instead of exploring the city, I sat in my depressing ground-level apartment, smoking endless cigarettes and pining for my boyfriend back home (with whom I broke up a day after I returned home).

Second semester, I was back at school, but still in a funk. I moved off campus, tried to teach myself guitar, and spent a lot of time sitting in my tapestry-heavy room, just brooding and listening to the Grateful Dead.

It's probably a good thing that I stayed in that room so much. The house I moved into was disgusting. (Seriously, ask my dad. He still has nightmares about the compost heap we had stewing IN OUR KITCHEN.) At the time, though, I thought it was amazing. I lived with a bunch of vegan hippies, and despite the filth that surrounded us, we managed to make some amazing meals.

My veganism lasted just a couple of months, but I still make this recipe. Back then it was part of our weekly menu. These days, I make it less often, but you've gotta love a recipe that uses up leftover veggies, is loved by kids (Dylan helped herself to a second bowl when I served it Monday night), and is super healthy.

Vegan Curry
Olive oil
1 apple
1 onion
2 Tb. curry powder (at least)
3 small potatoes, diced
3 carrots, diced (you can also just cut some baby carrots in half, if that's all you have)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup frozen peas
1 can chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup raisins
2 Tb. apricot jam (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil. Saute the onions and apples in the oil until the onions are translucent and the apples start to soften up a bit. Add the curry powder and combine well. Quickly add the potatoes and carrots, stirring the entire time. You don't want the curry powder to burn, but you do want to release all of the fragrance. Add the vegetable broth, chickpeas and raisins. At this point, you'll want to taste your concoction. The potatoes will still be firm, but you will get a sense of the seasonings you need to add. If it is too bland, add more curry. I added the apricot jam the other night, because I wanted it to be sweeter. You can also add salt and pepper at this point. Once it is seasoned properly, turn the heat to low and cover. You'll probably need to cook it for another 30 minutes, but this will vary based on the type of potato you used and how small you diced it. The dish is done when the apples have melted into the sauce and the potatoes are no longer raw.

This dish is GREAT over basmati rice, but I didn't plan ahead the other night, so we had it with Garlic Naan from Trader Joe's. (The Naan is NOT vegan - it is made with yogurt.)

Roasted Vegetable Risotto (with a story)

  Roasted Vegetable Risotto 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Jen was my roommate in college for both our sophomore and our senior years. Actually, (and this is probably one of the reasons we still keep in touch), we never had to share a room. Our sophomore year, we had the very best dorm room at Vassar. It was called the Rockefeller suite, and legend had it that it was built for the Rockefeller girls. I'm not sure if that's true, but the room ROCKED. There were two bedrooms, a full bath (seriously!) and built-in bookcases. We were living the life.

Senior year, we shared a townhouse with three other roommates, and did a ton of cooking. Towards the end of the year, we decided to invite one of our professors over for dinner with his wife. I can no longer recall what inspired us to do this, but I remember working so hard on a risotto dish. I'll need to pull out that recipe sometime, but it wasn't a true risotto (I'll explain what that is in a minute). It was basically rice, veggies and LOTS of cheese. It was really good, though. So good, in fact, that a couple of months ago, Jen emailed me asking for the recipe and for tips on how to make risotto!

As is often the case with me, I don't use a recipe. But, trust me, this is easy. I made this last night with Max literally hanging from my back pocket. (I don't recommend that, by the way. TOTALLY annoying.)

Risotto alla Danielle

Stock
Onion, chopped finely
Arborio Rice
White wine or dry vermouth
Stuff (roasted vegetables, cooked chicken, sauteed mushrooms, whatever you want)
Parmigiano Reggiano

Pull out two pots (one bigger one, one smaller one). In the small one, heat up some stock (chicken or vegetable), and keep at a low simmer (I used almost an entire 32 oz. box). Heat the large one over medium heat, and add some olive oil. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Put in the rice. For a family of four, a cup of raw rice is sufficient. Saute the rice for a minute or two. Add a splash or two of the wine (I used dry vermouth since I didn't have a bottle of white open), and cook until it evaporates. Then, using a ladle, add a 1/2 cup or so of stock and stir it into the rice. Continue stirring until the rice absorbs the liquid. Once it's absorbed, add some more. You want to continue doing this until the rice is cooked. Arborio rice will still be kind of al dente when it's done. It will have a nice chew to it. When the rice is NEARLY done, you can add your "stuff." I added some roasted cauliflower and asparagus (roasted with olive oil at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes). You can add sauteed mushrooms, or cooked chicken, or whatever, really. A good idea is to Google "risotto" and find some ideas. The above formula will work for whatever risotto you make.

When the risotto is done, top with grated Parm and serve!

Two successful weeknight recipes

  Chicken Curry with Butternut Squash and Chickpeas 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

We've had some good successes lately, so I wanted to share.

First up is the dish you see here to the right. It is a riff off of a recipe posted by the lovely Chris Jordan. I'm not going to post my version here. I'll just tell you what I changed and why. One of the reasons I liked this recipe was because it lends itself to improvisation. OK, so the first obvious change is that I used butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes. This was simply a matter of using what I had. The squash I had, though, was ENORMOUS, so I only used half of it. I also substituted boneless chicken thighs for the breasts. I prefer the moistness and richer flavor of chicken thighs, but your mileage may vary, so do what you want. My dad, for example, refuses to even touch dark meat, so if you're like him, don't do what I did. Other changes included upping the curry powder a touch (I think I used 4 teaspoons) and adding a can of drained chickpeas for the last 30 minutes of cooking. Both of my kids like chickpeas and they go GREAT with curry, so I figured it was a good way to sneak an extra vegetable into this meal. Finally, I already had some leftover rice and didn't to make a whole new pot. BUT, I did want the coconut flavor, so I heated the old rice up in a pot with 1/2 a can of coconut milk. It worked out very well.

Another great recipe was this Lemon Linguine that was posted on Serious Eats. It is actually a Giada recipe. Again, I made some changes. I used thin spaghetti instead of linguine and I left out the basil because I didn't have any (and my kids don't like it). This recipe was so easy that a six-year-old could make it. Actually, one did! Dylan squeezed and zested the lemons and measured out the oil and cheese. This is a terrific meal to make on a hot day (not that it was hot - it's still ridiculously cold here). But, it would be good for summer, because the sauce isn't cooked. The only  item you need to cook is the pasta itself.

The World's Most Expensive Chicken (with a recipe for Hungarian Dumplings)

  Homemade Chicken Soup - Max's Bowl 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

I think I mentioned that after I finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I did my food shopping online. I got my staples from Peapod, and then ordered my meat and produce from Fresh Picks, a local service that gets food from (mostly) local farmers, and delivers it once a week. One of the items I ordered was a whole chicken, cut up. It was about 5 pounds, and the total cost was $20.

For those accustomed to buying their chickens at Costco or the supermarket, this price is outrageous. But, when you consider that this chicken was organic, and was raised at a family farm, allowed to roam free all day, it becomes worth it. Also, if you compare it to eating out, it's way cheaper. This $20 chicken fed three adults and two children on Wednesday (we made a version of Chris' recipe). And then it make a delicious soup for two adults and two children last night. AND, I have a really big container of the soup left over. See?? A bargain.

For the soup, I was craving Hungarian dumplings (virtually the same thing as German Spaetzle), which are really easy to make, especially if you have a Spaetzle Maker. I put the leftover chicken in a big pot with carrots, celery and onion. Then, I covered everything with fresh water and let it cook for a few hours. I removed and discarded the onion. I pulled the chicken off the bone and chopped it up, adding it back into the stock. I also chopped up the carrots and celery and added those back as well. This soup went into the fridge to hang out until we were ready to eat.

About 45 minutes before dinner time, I put the soup pot back on the stove. In the meantime, I prepared the dumpling batter. The recipe came from The Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors. It's super easy. Combine 2-1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. baking powder. In another container, combine 2 eggs beaten, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water and 2 Tb. oil (you can also use lard for a more authentic Hungarian flavor). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. This will produce a very sticky batter. Let it hang out on the counter while you wait for your soup to get nice and hot. When the soup is ready to be dumpling'd, put the batter into your spaetzle maker, and let the dumplings fall in. They will quickly rise to the surface, at which point your soup is ready to eat. If you don't have a spaetzle maker, you can put the batter in a large ziploc bag and cut a 1/4 inch size hole in one corner. Then, squeeze out small pieces into your soup.

You can also cook spaetzle in salted, boiling water. Once done, transfer them to a colander. If you cook them this way, you also have the option to follow the boiling with some pan frying in butter. Yum.

Chicken and Rice Casserole - A Not So Surprising Hit!

  Chicken and Rice Casserole 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Late yesterday at work, I realized that I had no plans for dinner, didn't want to take the kids out, and couldn't bear the thought of another home-cooked meal snubbed by my children.

After thinking things over, I decided to stick with a tried and true kids' favorite, the casserole. Now, I know this might be surprising to those of you who consider me a food snob, but sometimes we all crave comfort food, and sometimes we all need a dish that is easy to prep and leaves very few dishes in its wake.

The other day on eGullet, someone linked to the top 100 recipes piece on the Food Network site. Number six was this casserole, and something about it hit home for me. It just seemed like it would be so comforting and easy. It totally was, and both kids ate it. (Cue applause.)

I made a bunch of changes, so feel free to do so yourself. I used frozen Trader Joe's french green beans (broken up) instead of canned. I added frozen peas. I omitted the water chestnuts and pimentos. I used a touch less mayo. I used dehydrated minced onion instead of a fresh one sauteed. I used organic cream of celery soup. Oh, and I used Jasmine rice instead of a wild rice blend. To add to the ease of preparation, the rice I used was the precooked kind from the Trader Joe's freezer section - it cooked in 3 minutes. For the chicken, I didn't have any cooked chicken on hand, so based on a past recommendation from City Mama herself, I used the ultra premium canned chicken from Trader Joe's. And, it was perfectly good.

Prepping for the New Year with Black-Eyed Peas, Ham Hocks, and some Resolutions

I've done a lot of thinking about my food life over the past week or two, and I have come to the realization (which I've alluded to), that I have recently descended into a bit of a food funk. In the spirit of the New Year, I hereby resolve to do the following things to get myself out of this funk:
- Get into a weekday food prep routine - the exact routine will be revealed over time, but it will include make-ahead meals, slow cooker meals and more militant menu planning
- Read more about food. I've been uninspired lately, but I'm relatively certain that I can change this by reading my cookbooks, food magazines, and checking into eGullet on a daily basis.
- Remember the basics. There are some meals that I can always make well, and these help to decrease the general funk. These include Chicken Parmesan, Greek Salad and Black-Eyed Peas and Ham Hocks.

The Black-Eyed Peas are a New Year's Day tradition in our house, handed down from Michael's grandfather, who grew up in the South. The version we make comes from The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American. It is amazing, and this year will be especially good, because we got our ham hocks from the Paulina Meat Market.

This recipe serves six:

Black-Eyed Peas and Ham Hocks

2 pounds smoked ham hocks, cut into 2-inch slices (we just use the hocks as is, but feel free to have your butcher slice them)
1/2 pound black-eyed peas, soaked for 4 hours and drained
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

black pepper to taste (you probably won't need salt due to the ham hocks)

Put the hocks in a large pot and barely cover them with fresh water. Cover the pot, bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 2 hours. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for another two hours (this is more than twice as long as the original recipe, but we like the meat to fall off the bone - feel free to cook it for less time)

We eat this over white rice. It's amazing.