Prediction Realized

Last night I predicted that with Big J gone little j and I would be eating a lot of pasta. So true. Tonight we had spaghetti with red sauce, mixed fruit, and golden carrots. Can't get much easier than that.

Mary Poppins? Not quite.

little j has been all about vegetables lately. She told me the other day that she wants to eat a lot more vegetables so she can grow taller. She's grown about a quarter of an inch in the last month, so I don't know if she needs more vegetables than she already gets in order to grow, but more never hurts. So tonight after swimming lessons she helped me cook dinner: mac and cheese, carrots, and green beans. She actually did almost everything with the mac and cheese, so I did other things in the kitchen and took care of the vegetables. Then we ate dinner while watching Mary Poppins -- a total treat that only occurs with mom. Big J is out of town for the next 9 days, so it is all girls for dinner. I predict lots of pasta!

Another Birthday Dinner -- This Time Not Ours

After last night's dinner a night away from the stove was welcome. We had two birthday parties, one for our friends' son who was turning 1 and one for another friends' daughter who will be 3. Not only did we not have to make dinner, we didn't have to worry about lunch. Both were very good: Italian lunch and Mexican "taco bar" for dinner. Plus cake twice in one day. Who can complain about that?

Birthday Dinner

Big J asked for beef enchiladas for his birthday dinner. It's been a long time since I've made beef enchiladas, so I decided to see what sort of recipes were out there. Okay -- None! I was looking for an authentic Mexican recipe. Apparently there are really no authentic beef enchilada recipes because Mexicans don't make enchiladas in the same way North Americans have decided they should be made. So, I decided that I would have to come up with my own recipe.

I ended up making shredded beef enchiladas with chile Colorado sauce. Not bad. Of course as will all Mexican meals it ended up taking more time than I anticipated. But it was worth it. For the beef I took two pounds of boneless beef chuck and cut it into two inch square pieces. I placed that in a put with one sliced onion, 4 cloves of garlic and some salt then covered it with water. I simmered it for a little over 2 hours then shredded it. It was moist and flavorful.

For the chile Colorado I destemmed and seeded dried ancho chiles and dried guajillo chiles and then toasted them briefly, put them in a bowl and coved them with boiling water for 15 minutes. In a blender I put an onion, a couple garlic cloves, oregano, salt, cumin, the soaked peppers and three cups of the soaking liquid, blended it all together then poured it through a seive to remove any bits of pepper skin. I rendered a piece of bacon in a cast iron skillet and then poured in the sauce. After cooking it for about 30 minutes I added a little sugar and vinegar.

I mixed the meat and some of the sauce, dipped tortillas in the sauce and rolled up the enchiladas then poured the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas and baked them for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

With the enchiladas I served shrimp ceviche cocktail as a starter, and a romaine salad along side the enchiladas.

Big J asked for chocolate mouse for dessert, but he agreed to chocolate souffles. I have to say that souffles get a bad rap, but they are actually pretty easy with a little patience. They turned out great with little j announcing that it was "the best dessert ever!"

To drink I found a bottle of Bogle old vine zin and for pre-dinner cocktails I made blackberry lime margaritas (yum!).

Big J said it was a perfect birthday dinner.

Homemade Pizza

little j wanted to make pizza tonight and I was headed to the store, so it was a good meal. Unfortunately I didn't find pizza dough at the store, so I got a loaf of ciabatta which makes excellent pizza foundations. Then I put out the toppings: sauce, mozzarella, cheddar, goat cheese, blue cheese, sauteed asparagus and green apple slices. We all made our own pizzas and ate them up with some of springs first fruits: strawberries, blueberries and grapes. Easy to make, easy to clean up!

Quick Stir Fry

So I told Big J that I was going to make chicken stir fry for dinner, but I didn't go to the store and we didn't have many vegetables, so I found a recipe for sweet and sour chicken stir fry with pineapple (check) and red onion (check). Easy and delicious. I served it with rice and steamed broccoli.

The Js Have Crepes

There is this little creperie in town that little j loves. We go there sometimes after pizza and get dessert crepes. I was out of town for dinner tonight, so the Js went swimming and then when Big J asked if they could go somewhere else besides Applebee's, little j suggested crepes. Big J had the chicken, Brie, and apple crepe, little j had a "fresh" crepe (i.e. plain) and followed that with a cinnamon and sugar crepe for dessert. Sounds good, I'm sorry I missed out! Mostly because I got stuck with a slice of airport pizza.

Celebration Night!

Big J and I went out tonight to celebrate my dissertation defense. little j went out with our neighbor Ms. J after a celebratory drink (non-alcoholic, of course). We went to C & O, one of the best restaurants in C'Ville. And once again we were not disappointed. We shared two starters: grilled mushroom salad and pan fried sweetbreads with truffled celery root puree. Both extremely good. Then we shared an entree: beef tenderloin Wellington with seared fois gras and black current marsala reduction with chustnut-Yukon gold puree. Holy cow it was good. We ended the meal with the classic creme brulee, my favorite dessert. I couldn't ask for a better dinner.

I just can't get it right

Earlier in the week I made slow-roasted carnitas tacos and purposely made sure we had enough pork left over to have Cuban sandwiches later in the week. Well, tonight was the night. The last time I made Cuban sandwiches they fell apart. This time, they didn't fall apart, but they just weren't as delicious as I anticipated. Are my expectations too high? I don't really think so. Of course we had a little bread issue. Big J got these small rolls at the store that weren't at all appropriate, so I resorted to using hot dog buns. These aren't your typical hot dog buns, rather they are more "homemade," if that makes sense. Perhaps if I used Cuban bread? I don't know. In any case, this is one meal I'm not giving up on.

A Strange Dinner

little j was sick today. We're not quite sure what happened, but she threw up this afternoon and was generally feeling yucky. Of course since we had to deal with that Big J and I didn't feel much like eating. But around 7 p.m. little j said she was hungry so Big J fixed her noodles and he and I talked about what we wanted. I had planned to make Cuban sandwiches, but Big J said he really wanted the flank steak that I got out of the freezer a couple days ago.

So we put some olive oil, salt and pepper on the steak and grilled it for three minutes each side. Big J warmed up some corn (for me) and flour (for him) tortillas, and I served up the sliced flank steak with the tomatillo salsa (another use!), crema, and romaine lettuce with cider vinegar and olive oil. Totally simple, really quick and very good.

And as a side note, the flank steak was from Polyface Farm. Delicious. One of the best steaks we've had.

Quesadillas All Around

Quesadillas are a staple for little j, but not so much with Big J and I. Tonight I think I might have found a recipe that will be in the regular rotation: Potato, Greens and Goat Cheese Quesadillas. The basic recipe was good, but after making it once I would do a couple tweaks here and there.

For one thing, I don't think the potatoes were quite done enough even though I cut them, in many cases, smaller than suggested and cooked them longer. I think I would actually roast them instead of steam them in the oven.

Second, I actually used Emmentaler because I forgot to ask Big J to get pepper jack at the store. I'd like to try it with the pepper jack, although I have no complaints about the cheese combo tonight.

Finally, I think I would change up the spices a bit. It calls for chili powder and I think next time I will use smoked paprika with a pinch of cayenne for heat.

All in all, it was a good dinner. little j had a plain quesadilla with tomato soup. Big J and I rounded out our meal with a simple salad of butter lettuce with oil, vinegar and Parmesan.

Oh...one note: Kudos to me for inadvertently planning a week of meals that utilized ingredients from other meals -- tonight I used the tomatilla salsa I made for the slow-roasted carnitas tacos. I'd like to claim it is because I am thrifty and on the ball...but it was a coincidence, albeit a good one.

mmmmm........Da Vinci's Ear

Tonight we had what Big J titled Da Vinci's ear pasta, that is, we had Orrechiette Carbonara. Yummy! The recipe is so simple, but with amazing flavor. It is simply bacon, leeks, Parmesan, eggs and parsley mixed with the orrechiette. I served it with our first asparagus of the spring. It was a flavorful and easy meal. We opened a bottle of Cline Zinfandel to go along with the pasta. Our dinner guest, Ms. A, topped of the meal with homemade brownies. Big J was out of town so it was just us three girls. Pasta, fresh asparagus, good wine and delicious brownies. What more could three girls ask for?

No Dinner

I had a meeting from 5:30 to 7, so I dropped of little j at a friend's house. She had dinner there. After we got home and I put her to bed I had some black beans with cheddar and a little crema. How boring is that?

The Crockpot: A Working Mom's Best Friend

We had slow roasted carnitas tacos tonight. I just found the recipe in latest issue of Bon Appetite. It incredibly good. However, after reading the recipe this morning I had some second thoughts with how it would turn out. Good instinct. For one thing the recipe called for cutting the pork into 1 1/2 inch pieces and adding no liquid to the crockpot. That seemed a little strange. So after consulting my regular slow-cooker recipe book, I decided to keep the pork shoulder whole and add about 1 cup of broth. Good call.

After 9 hours the meat literally fell apart. I made a roasted tomatillo sauce to go with it and had avocado, crema, and a Romaine lettuce salad. Big J and little j chose flour tortilla, I went with corn.

The best thing? We have leftover pork for Cuban sandwiches in a couple days.

Monday Dad and Daughter Pizza

The Js had planned to have hot dogs tonight since I was not going to be home for dinner. But little j had hot dogs for lunch, so instead they went downtown and had pizza at Christian's. Big J had pepperoni and sausage (not his usual), little j had cheese (most definitely her usual).

I got home about 10:15 and had a turkey sandwich with our leftover turkey. Big J made it perfectly: whole wheat bread, mayo, salt and pepper. Simple.

Delicious Leftovers

Last night, as mentioned in the previous post, we had smoked turkey. Big J is quite the master of the barbecue and makes a mean smoked turkey breast. Of course we had plenty of leftovers.

I had planned to go to the grocery store today and had a delicious turkey lettuce wrap planned with the leftovers, mango, and a curry dressing all wrapped in bibb lettuce. Unfortunately my meeting went longer than planned and I didn't leave school until 5:40, so the major shopping was out and I resorted to the neighborhood store and bought tortillas, avocado, and scallions.

I shredded some cheese and melted it on the tortillas and put the turkey, chopped scallions, sliced avocado, curry mayonnaise, and lettuce on the table and let everyone make their own wraps. Not exactly what I had planned, but pretty good for throwing something together in about 10 minutes.

Catch Up!

Okay, the last week has been crazy what with turning in my dissertation and not really being home. I couldn't really expect Big J, who was essentially single parenting, to keep up with the blog. So here is a run down of the meals:

Thursday, March 6: Applebee's
Friday, March 7: French Onion soup, salad
Saturday, March 8: Grilled Tuna
Sunday, March 9: Hamburgers
Monday, March 10: Corn dogs
Tuesday, March 11: Our standby -- tuna & noodles
Wednesday, March 12: Out to dinner at Mono Loco
Thursday, March 13: Crazy dinner -- little j had pizza at a birthday party, Big J and I had leftovers from Mono Loco
Friday, March 14: Chicken pesto sausages with sautéed apples & onions
Saturday, March 15: Smoked turkey breast, corn pudding, peas

Whew! Glad that's out of the way. Now we can get back to our daily stuff.

Am I A Bad Mom?

I'm so tired. I was going to make mac and cheese for dinner tonight, but that's what little j had for lunch. So instead I ordered Dominos. I didn't make any vegetable and we ate it while watching Scooby Doo. I'm either the worst mother in the world or the coolest.

Another Between the Library Visits Dinner

After a full day at the library I was totally ready to come home, have a glass of wine and pass out. But no, I had to go back. Big J had some chicken out, so he pounded out the breasts, but some rice on, put some broccoli on, and I cooked the chicken in a little oil and butter. little j had hers with bbq sauce. And I went back to the library.

Quick and Cleaning Out the Fridge

This is funny -- I came home from the library knowing that I would be headed back to the library 90 minutes later. Big J had some lamb chops we needed to use up. Normally when cooking lamb I would have a plan, but he threw it at me so I rubbed some olive oil, salt and pepper on them while I heated up the grill. Then I sauteed some garlic and fresh sage in some olive oil and added a can of white beans. Tossed a salad with some apples, strawberry balsamic and oil and put everything on the table after cooking the chops 4 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other. I think dinner took me about 15 minutes total so I could get back to the dissertation.

Noodles ...again

It was just me and little j for dinner. I asked what she wanted. To great surprise she wanted noodles. So I made up another serving of noodle nest the same the that girl made earlier in the week. Little j had noodles with sauce, peas, milk and special wine ( juice). Me, I had noodles with sauce and a green salad with oil and balsamic vinegar.

It's Steak Night

I'm one of those women who loves her beef. And I don't mind admitting that I prefer it on the rare side. Yesterday I had a craving for beef, so while I was at the library I sent Big J and little j on Mission: Steak. Big J came home from The Organic Butcher with a lovely New York strip. He also had some new potatoes, salad, baguette and cheeses from Feast. So it was a great dinner with roasted potato wedges with garlic and rosemary; steamed broccoli; salad with red wine vinegar, olive oil, and Parmesan; and, of course, a perfectly grilled steak courtesy of yours truly. Absolutely what my overloaded brain was needing.