All’s Well That Ends Well!

Nibbles

This past week was super-hectic wrapping up the latest Creative Mischief Kits and getting ready for our annual Halloween party. But we made it through and everything turned out great! Well, almost everything…

First, let’s have a look at last week’s menu:

On The Plate for the week of October 19th

Monday: Turkey, Brie, and Cranberry Grilled Cheese with Butternut Squash Soup
The sandwich inspiration came from HeatherCristo.com and the soup was already in the freezer from a batch Todd made a month or so ago. Together, it was like Thanksgiving came early and it was perfect on a chilly evening.

Tuesday: Bacon & Egg Risotto
A Brit + Co find, I admit that I get up on my culinary high horse when it comes to a risotto recipe that doesn’t follow the risotto method. I just don’t think the time “saved” by tossing everything together and letting it steam is worth the quality lost by doing it the “right” way. Stirring a pot of risotto as you gradually add the water isn’t hard, it’s only 20 minutes. If you want quick, buy a box of Rice-a-Roni. If you want risotto, make risotto. So I didn’t follow their directions (no one is surprised by now, I’m sure) but we still had a very tasty meal and it reheated great for lunch later in the week. In addition to doing it the “long” way, I chopped the bacon before cooking and left it in for the entire time rather than playing hokey-pokey bacon. I also didn’t see the need to use a separate pan for the eggs. Once the last bit of liquid was incorporated into the rice I added the eggs to the top of the rissoto and covered it just long enough for the eggs to “poach.”

Wednesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Based on the Black Bean Tortilla Soup from MinimalistBaker, I added chicken and substituted a large can of hominy for the black beans (beans are still something I cannot tolerate very well, and hominy is my go-to substitute for soups). I also sliced up some gluten-free tortillas and added them like thin dumpling noodles.

Thursday: Pork Chops, Glazed Carrots, and Colcannon
My Colcannon ended up a little looser than intended–I must not have drained all the liquid out from the potatoes and kale. But even though it was just this side of Colcannon-soup, it was still absolutely delicious. And the next time I feel like making potato soup, bacon and kale might just be the things I add!

And here’s where the “normal” menu ends. I have an unofficial rule that I don’t cook the night before a big holiday dinner, party, or other food-intense day. One, because I’m usually prepping for the next day that evening, and two, because it cuts down on extra leftovers in an already-packed fridge. Instead, we went to down to Andy’s to pick up wings and then I got to work wrapping bacon around artichokes and making the pinwheels for the party. Saturday’s dinner was preempted by the party menu, and Sunday was given over to leftovers.

The table we set for our guests this year.

The table we set for our guests this year.

I’d been prepping one item from the menu a night all that week–it’s the only way I can get everything done without taking a day off work! Things like the brownies, the black bean dip, and even the spinach puffs can all be held for several days without a loss of quality, so I was able to check those off pretty quickly and slide into Saturday morning right on track!

The pumpkin bread is another recipe that can last, well-wrapped, for a couple of days on the counter. It also freezes beautifully (am I the only one who thinks of Steel Magnolias when they use that phrase?). We had one leftover from last year’s party so I put in the chest freezer, thinking I’d pull it out for Thanksgiving. I actually pulled it out last week and was noshing on it for breakfast all week.

Pumpkin Bread
from Celtic Folklore Cooking (affiliate link)

1 large can pumpkin
1 cup melted butter
3/4 cup water
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 1/2 cups flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins

Mix together pumpkin, melted butter, water, and eggs. Blend in baking soda, flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, walnuts, and raisins. Place batter in a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until top is golden brown.

A few things. It doesn’t say what large equals, but I took it to mean the 29oz can that would make 2 pies. We also don’t do walnuts in this house (Todd’s not a fan), and raisins are High-FODMAP, so I substitute 2 cups of dried cranberries (yes, dried fruits in general are higher in FODMAPs than their fresh selves, this is my compromise), and I use a gluten-free flour blend that already has xanthum gum included and it works well as a 1:1 sub in this recipe (the Krusteaz brand, which we get at Sam’s Club). Finally, the recipe claims this makes one loaf and I’d really like to see the size of their loaf pan! It makes enough for two normal loaf pans.

Saturday morning started nice and early: 7:30 am. I needed to get downstairs and start the pork in the slow cooker and put the potatoes in the oven, then clean all the floors in the house before it got too late. That way I could get all the messy work out of the way and get a shower before having to run an errand (to delivery a local Creative Mischief Kit order and pick up ice for the party). All was going swimmingly–I was crossing items off the to-do list, I even had enough time to add a small tray of grapes, vegetables, and cheese and a batch of my seeded chicken salad to the menu. I was calm, relaxed, and in the groove.

Then I went to put on my costume.

Vanellope and Ralph, Halloween 2015

Vanellope and Ralph, Halloween 2015–a little blurry, but appropriate by the time this photo was taken 😉

Notice anything missing? The tights that I was so careful to do “right” were very wrong. Despite stretching them while they were being painted to prevent shrinking and buying a size larger than I’d usually wear, when I went to put them on (after having to fight it off the cardboard inserts in the first place) they just wouldn’t fit.

And that’s when the doorbell rang.

Thank goodness Todd was already dressed and could go down to answer the door!

Despite the bumpy start, the party was a lot of fun. Our guests ate, drank, and made merry. We gave a house tour to those who hadn’t been there before and this time I got to include a few ghost stories, as well. (I’ll be sharing what I know about the Dollhouse’s spectral residents in Friday’s post.) After that I was mainly occupied giving readings until the last guests left around 1am. Last year I decided to offer readings (Tarot) to any guest who was curious and a few people took me up on it. This year? They were asking when I was going to start and forming a line! I ended up doing 10 readings this year. It’s a great way to get some quality one-on-one time with my guests, but it does take away from the mixing and mingling.

Sunday was spent recharging from the late night. Thankfully, clean-up from a party like this is pretty simple–just a matter of putting away perishables (which we did before going to bed) and washing up the platters and bowls (which we did after sleeping in/napping half of Sunday away). The decorations get to stay up for another week and, hey, the house is mostly clean and uncluttered!

Happy Hallo-Week!

On the Plate October 5-11 + 5 Meal Planning Tips

Nibbles

We interrupt the Halloween merriment to get a handle on menu planning. After all, how can you get decorations up and costumes made if you’re floundering with the “what’s for dinner” question every night?!

A varied menu makes the week go by!

A varied menu makes the week go by!

Monday: Herbed chicken breast, savory mashed sweet potatoes, green beans
So, the sweet potatoes were supposed to the Garlic-Herb Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Parmesan from Cooking Classy. Instead, I was scrambling to finish the outdoor decorating before I lost the light (hah! didn’t exactly happen that way, but it got done), so I didn’t start dinner until almost 8pm. Not wanting to wait on roasting the sweet potatoes, I popped them into the microwave on the magical “potato” setting (seriously, best thing about our new microwave) and whipped them up with the herbs and Parmesan that the original recipe called for. Just as tasty in half the time.

Tuesday: Dinner out @ Northside Pies in Tallahassee, FL
I’ll do a proper write-up of Northside Pies one of these days, but our monthly meet-up there with friends was fun as always. Even though their menu doesn’t mention it, they do carry a gluten-free pizza crust in the 10″ size, though their salads aren’t bad at all if you’d rather not. I opted for the Figure 4, this week, and a Black Julep (copycat recipe to come on that one, it was so good!) cocktail. Since the fresh garlic was very large and in charge, along with the figs (both High-FODMAP ingredients), I only ate half while there and was fine. (It was only after I scarfed the other half after getting home that there were issues. Oh, well, it was worth it!)

Figure 4 on gluten-free crust and a Black Julep at Northside Pies

Figure 4 on gluten-free crust and a Black Julep at Northside Pies

Wednesday: Bang Bang Shrimp, coconut rice, and garlic spinach
If you have ever been to Bonefish Grill and tasted their signature shrimp dish, yes, this is virtually the same thing and so worth the effort, even the deep frying, on a weekday night. I used the copycat recipe from Fake Ginger and substituted gf flour and breadcrumbs where applicable. Point one: No recipe ever seems to allow enough breading material–I had to triple it, in the end, to do a pound of medium shrimp (enough for four servings). Point two: though it seems odd to do a back-and-forth breading like this, it actually worked really well, so I’m glad I harnessed my natural inclination to switch to a more traditional 3-step breading.

Thursday: Pepperoni Pizza Pasta and a green salad
Based on A Night Owl’s One Pot Pizza Rigatoni, this seemed like a quick and easy option, even if mine was more of a two-pot, slightly more involved version. First, I don’t trust gluten free pastas in a toss it all together and cook situation–there’s just way too high a chance for error. Second, I was going for a more budget-friendly meal so used the ground beef we already had in the freezer and a quick sauce made in the pan (rather than purchasing a $9 jar of Rao’s Sensitive Formula Marinara). I also didn’t put it under the broiler to finish, just put the lid on after combining the sauce and pasta and topping it with the mozzarella and reserved (turkey) pepperoni. Still excellent!

Friday: Fish Taco Nachos
Nacho night! I’s been thinking of doing fish tacos at some point, but the fiddliness of it all just made me not want to, but fish taco nachos–why not?! I seasoned some rice flour with cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne, salt, and black pepper and dredged the tuna steaks in it before searing in garlic olive oil, crumbling the tuna steaks once they’d cooled enough to handle. Then I built the pan of nachos with my sweet potato refried bean substitute, shredded fiesta cheese blend, and green onions; topping with shredded cabbage and an avocado crema once they were out of the oven. We like to just take the whole pan to the coffee table and munch while catching up with our shows on Hulu.

Saturday: Waffles, Eggs & Bacon
I kept putting off trying the whipped egg white waffles I’ve seen in several places, but that’s also what the Pamela’s mix called for so I gave it a shot. Dude… such amazing gluten-free waffles we’ve never made or tasted elsewhere. The egg whites were so worth it! I don’t see us going back to the old way any time soon!

Sunday: Pot Roast, Potatoes and Carrots
One-pot slow-cooker perfection for a Sunday supper. And, no, I don’t fool with the canned soup or dry soup mixes, I just add salt, pepper, garlic oil, Worcestershire sauce and a little parsley and it’s good to go. We have a few pieces of the roast leftover after making up the lunches and I’d be lying if I said debris fries weren’t a distinct possibility.

# # #

Two weeks ago, when I posted my last On the Plate, several readers remarked about needing to meal plan more often or otherwise not being able to make the time to do it. So here’s my process for putting together a week’s menu, in the hopes that it’ll help those of you still on the fence or wondering where to start.

  1. Inspiration sources. I “save for later” anything I find possibly interesting while going through my blog feeds in Feedly. This way, when I sit down to menu plan, I can click on the sidebar link and scroll through easily. If something sounds good, I decide what day it’ll be best on and plug it into my Google Drive document. Pinterest is another good inspiration source, naturally, so if I know I’ve pinned something over the last couple of weeks, I go check there to refresh my memory. And, then, there’s always grabbing a cookbook off the shelf at random and thumbing through until something catches my eye (or going straight to the post-it notes if I’ve already flagged things in the book). Checking your store’s sale paper online is also a good way to dream up dinner ideas.
  2. Inventory. “Shopping” the pantry and freezer to see what we have on hand not only reduces the chances of over-buying but also tells me if something needs to be used up before it goes bad. We stock up on meats every couple of months at Sam’s club, so looking to see what we have left usually grants a certain amount of direction.
  3. Routine. We don’t tend to follow a prescribed schedule on what to eat on what days, but if that helps you, use it! Meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, etc. can make things a lot easier and it helps set expectations among the family. Our routine is more along the lines of knowing that we’ll cycle through the main proteins of any given week (pork chops, chicken breasts or thighs, beef, fish or shrimp) plus a breakfast for dinner night and maybe a meatless meal. So if I’m planning and I have a few spots to fill, I run through the list and see what’s “missing.”
  4. Favorites. We don’t eat the same thing each week, but we do have certain favorites that we fall back on to fill menu gaps. For me, it’s most often Sushi bowls, for Todd it’s Jambalaya or a Shrimp and Orzo dish we both loved from our Menu Mailer days.
  5. Balance. Don’t plan multiple ingredient or technique-heavy items in the same meal. Just don’t do that to yourself! Take, for instance, Bang Bang Shrimp. That requires a sauce, breading, and deep frying. No way was I going to, say, make handmade spring rolls on top of that! Instead, I made coconut rice (1 can of coconut milk, 1 can of water, 1 1/2 cups white rice) in the rice cooker and put some frozen spinach in a pot on the stove with some water and garlic oil to simmer until done. Keep in mind what preparation each item needs, and swap out something if you’ve got two heavy hitters in one meal.

I hope these tips helped you get a handle on weekly meal planning. If you’re still feeling a bit overwhelmed at the process but want more organization to your dinners, there are services out there to help! Three we’ve used in the past (yes, even a former chef doesn’t always want to think about what to make every night) are Menu Mailer ($21/quarter and up), eMeals ($39/quarter), and Paleo Plan ($9.99/month). Menu Mailer and eMeals also offer shopping lists as part of the weekly planning service, I don’t think Paleo Plan does, but it’s been a while since I’ve used any of them.

On The Plate: 9/7-9/13

Nibbles

I feel like I should include a warning to not read any further on an empty stomach…

A heaping helping of dinner inspiration!

Monday: Cheese-Stuffed Cheeseburgers, Grilled Zucchini, and Potato Wedges
It was Labor Day and while we didn’t have any other plans, grilling out seemed like a really good idea. To increase the chances of the inner cheese staying in place, I used the colby-jack cheese snacks you buy for lunches (though cheese cubes could work too) cut in thirds, one stick per burger, with the lightly-seasoned meat wrapped around it. Then, because there’s no such thing as too much cheese, I topped them with a slice of provolone.

To cut down on kitchen mess, I sliced and tossed the zucchini in oil and herbs then transferred them to a plate. In the same bowl I tossed the steamed potato wedges with more oil and different spices before transferring to a baking sheet and popping in the oven. Then, I used that same bowl to mix the ground beef with egg, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire* sauce. Any remaining seasonings from the previous dishes can only improve the burgers!

Tuesday: Leftover Night!
We ended up with several extra lunches since a couple of Todd’s dinner selections from the previous week made more than 4 servings. By the time I got home on Tuesday night with a headache and video editing that was going to take all evening, leftovers seemed like a fabulous idea.

Wednesday: Sweet Potato-Bacon Mac & Cheese with a Green Salad
Inspired by a recipe on Spoon University, I followed the spirit but not the specifics. Turns out? Sweet potato makes a fabulous substitute for the enriched white sauce I usually use on homemade mac & cheese! I microwaved a large sweet potato then blended it with about a cup of pasta water and a splash of milk. Meanwhile, I sauteed the bacon with green onions and a red bell pepper, then added the sweet potato puree to the pan along with some shredded Gouda (which I had on hand, unlike nutritional yeast). It was still a little thick, so I added in more of the reserved pasta water along with the quinoa rotelle pasta and then let the mix rest on low while I put together the salads.

Thursday: Caprese Chicken with Bacon, Green Beans
Another find from Spoon University, only this time I actually followed the recipe! It’s hard to go wrong with a caprese combo, and wrapping it in bacon just makes it more of a sure-fire win.

Friday: Seafood & Sausage Paella, Glazed Carrots
Quickest paella ever! I used a yellow rice blend purchased as is, along with the frozen seafood mix we’d picked up from Sam’s Club and a pound of spicy sausage. Toss it in the rice cooker and go on with your life. To speed up the carrots, I first steamed a bag of baby carrots in the microwave, then combined half a stick of butter with half a cup or so of brown sugar on the stove, added the carrots and continued to cook, covered, until the paella was ready.

Saturday: Blueberry Pancakes and Eggs
I tried out a new-to-me brand, Pamela’s Pancake and Baking Mix, and I’m really impressed! This was the first batch of gluten-free pancakes that wasn’t thick as biscuit batter to start, and they cooked up super fast and light. Thank goodness I added some frozen blueberries and vanilla extract, though, or they’d have been pretty bland. Next time I’ll add a bit of sugar and maybe some cinnamon for flavor. Todd likes his eggs over-medium, so I continue to try to flip them without breaking the yolks. I find this easier in an omelet pan, but I was using the griddle and, well, three outta four ain’t so bad, right?

Sunday: Marmalade Chicken Thighs, Arepas, and Not-Exactly-Creamed Spinach
A marmalade that’s more tart than sweet is best for these chicken thighs, which otherwise only need olive oil, salt and pepper. I’d made a frozen a huge batch of marmalade ages ago and may have overdone it with the natural pectin because it is thick, thick, thick. So I cooked it down with some champagne jelly (a batch that I made pre-wedding that never gelled, so it’s more like champagne sauce) and it was just perfect. In lieu of that, I’d suggest a splash of white wine or brandy and a little water. Arepas are like little cornmeal pancakes or fritters with a bit of cheese, and my not-exactly-creamed spinach is close to the steakhouse staple but skips the heavy white sauce. Just a little butter, garlic oil, and cheese added to cooked spinach.

What’s on your menu this week?

What’s For Dinner: 8/24-8/30

Nibbles

Last time I posted my menu plans I had a lot of links and no pictures. This time I decided to post after I’d finished the weeks meals because then I’d have pictures available to go with. We’d also just made a run to Sam’s Club for our bi-monthly* freezer stock-up, so I was planning around what we’d picked up rather than shopping for the specific menu. It reminds me of when I’d go to the Farmers’ Market, first, then figure out what I was going to make and what else I needed. I’m not sure if we have a regular Farmers’ Market up here (though there’s no shortage of farms!), but maybe joining a CSA will provide that same impetus?

d840ecba53eef7f

Monday: Caribbean Mahi Sliders with Pineapple Salsa and Sweet Potato Fries.
The fish burgers and fries were purchased, we had the rolls in the freezer left over from a previous week so I split the burgers to fit. The salsa I did make myself, though. I wasn’t following a particular recipe, but it was similar to the Low-FODMAP Pineapple Salsa I’ve posted about in the past.

Tuesday: Pork Chops, Yellow Rice, and Pesto Green Beans
The pork loin chops were seasoned simply (salt, pepper, paprika and some sage) and cooked in olive oil, the yellow rice was a mix we picked up at Sam’s that cooked beautifully in the rice cooker (creates less heat in there than on the stove), and the beans were inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s Green Beans with Almond Pesto. And when I say inspired by, I mean I skimmed the ingredient list and went my own way of convenience with frozen green beans and cubes of frozen basil, steamed in my microwave steamer, then topped with garlic olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

Wednesday: Gazpacho and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
I more-or-less followed Alton Brown’s Gazpacho recipe, which is to say I subbed several things but the spirit was still there. We had 2 lbs of cherry tomatoes to use so I used half those and half canned diced tomatoes and didn’t need any extra tomato sauce. We went with Muenster in the grilled cheese, with just a little Dijon mustard on one slice. Quick and easy mid-week meal.

Thursday we went out for fried seafood (not pictured) at George and Louie’s.

Friday: [Grilled] Chicken Ceasar Pasta Salad from Gimme Some Oven
No surprise, by now, that I didn’t exactly follow her directions, right? I grilled the chicken breast and the romaine lettuce (it’s so good that way) and tossed some eggplant that Mom brought me from her garden on the grill and into the pasta as well. I did make her yogurt-based dressing, and it was okay, but I would have preferred something with more body. We also served the pasta salad warm as gluten-free pasta doesn’t always do so well cold. At least not without a lot more dressing than this recipe called for.

Saturday: Bacon-Artichoke Scramble with Hash Browns
When I was making out the menu I had a craving for our party staple: bacon-wrapped artichoke hearts. It was a short leap from there to a breakfast for dinner experiment that turned out very tasty. The artichoke hearts did turn the eggs slightly green, but they tasted delicious. The hash browns are cooked with a bunch of green onion tops and more of those cherry tomatoes.

Sunday: Stuffed Meatloaf and Roasted Potatoes
This meatloaf is actually from my own cookbook and is half beef, half pork, and rolled up with layers of spinach and mozzarella cheese inside. The potatoes are diced large with the skin still on, seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, sage, red pepper, and sage, tossed with olive oil, and roasted right next to the meatloaf. A very meat-and-potatoes meal but good for Sunday supper, which always feels like a good time to roast something–even in the summer.

This week is Todd’s week to cook and I am happy to turn the range over to whatever he comes up with. What’s for dinner at your house?

*It frustrates me to no end that bi-monthly can either mean twice a month or every 2 months. Silly English. I mean every 2 months, for those who were wondering.

The Case of Insufficient Breading

Nibbles

And other recipe pet peeves because, hey, why not?

So I posted our menu for last week including the recipe links where available and, first, I’d like to pat myself on the back for not bailing on any of them. Wohoo!

But it didn’t start out all that great when the first recipe, the Orange Chicken, had me mixing up a second batch of both breading components in the middle of prep (and even then that wasn’t quite enough to get all the chicken coated, but by that point I was ready to move on!).

Now, this is not the first time I’ve come across this issue with recipes and I think I know why it pops up so often:

  1. Excess breading ingredients are pure waste: due to food safety issues you cannot use the flour, cornmeal, or breadcrumbs that you just dipped your raw meat or fish into for anything else. The excess has to be tossed.
  2. Nutritional data trumps practicality: a simple nutritional analysis of a recipe is the sum of its parts and does not take into consideration the excess flour and milk that may get tossed in the bin instead the pan. And it’s too much work for most recipe writers to backtrack and manually adjust the nutritional data based on what is reasonably consumed.

So, while it might be possible to coat 2 pounds of chicken breasts (or thighs, in my case) with 3/4 cup of flour and cornstarch combined, but once you chop up the meat the surface area increases exponentially and you wind up, like I did, grabbing more of both the wet and dry items while juggling a hot wok.

In comparison to the Mongolian Beef later in the week which required dredging the beef in cornstarch, while the components were similar in weight and volume, the fact that you were only tossing the beef around with the starch in a bag means that it’s going to spread farther. When you’re doing a 2 or 3-step breading, you lose a certain amount of each component as it reacts with the former, either sinking to the bottom of the bowl for the wet steps or clumping (usually around your fingers) for the dry.

I doubt recipe writers are going to change, so all I can caution you to do is mix up more breading materials than the recipe calls for. Yes, it’s a bit wasteful, but flour and such is usually pretty cheap, so it’s not the end of the world. Plus, breaded items are more of a treat sort of meal, not an everyday occurrence, right?

Also, for the love of flavor, season each component in your breading steps! Don’t overdo it on the salt or anything, a couple of pinches is usually enough, but by all means season the flour mixes: the one closest to the meat will help flavor the meat, the ones on the outer layer will be what hits your tongue first. Do you want to just taste blah flour? I didn’t think so.

Amusingly enough, the Orange Chicken was an exception to my hokey-pokey chicken peeve. (Which I’ve complained about several times.) In this case it really does make sense to cooking the chicken in batches and set them aside because you certainly wouldn’t want the sediment that collects in the bottom of the wok from the frying to mix in with your sauce. Of course, the reason why this exception works is that the process is fairly fast on all steps: quickly fry the batches of chicken, dump out the frying oil and any residue/sediment (and not down the sink–I don’t have to tell y’all why, right?), cook the sauce ingredients and add the chicken back in. Once the chicken is in the sauce you can, if need be, lower the temp to keep things warm while the rice or what have you finishes up.

Other recipe pet peeves?

Oh, things like missing ingredients or missing directions are easy to get peeved at. While I always caution everyone (including myself) to read the entire recipe before starting prep, I’ve been known to skim through the directions only to see it calls for adding extra water or whatnot along the line that I have to scramble for instead of having it pre-measured and ready to go. Worse is when there’s an ingredient listed and they never tell you what to do with it!

In theory, if the mystery item is between other things that are all added together you can be pretty sure that Item X goes in, then, too. Of course, if the recipe write hits another of my hot-buttons and does NOT list ingredients in the order they are used, well, then, you’ll just have to wing it! Some folks take the tack of listing ingredients largest to smallest by weight or volume. Nope, folks, that’s great for food packaging but not so good for recipes!

Of course, as a cookbook author, I’ve done some of these myself (mostly by accident: no matter how many times you proofread something there will still be errors) but I try to avoid them as much as possible. I also try not to get too peeved when others do it, which is why I don’t rant about it all that often. But some days…

Do you have any recipe pet peeves of your own?