The reason I wanted to include the iHerb review in this week’s series of posts is that this week (October 3-9) was when I finally got to use some of the goodies I’d bought in our dinners.
First up were these konaberry and kelp noodles that just looked and sounded interesting enough to give a whirl. Of course, I didn’t exactly know what would be the best recipe to use them in so a quick search led me to Coconut Soup with Kelp Noodles & Shrimp. Oh, man, this was good. The kelp noodles were nice in that they didin’t overpower anything (raw they remind me a lot of seaweed salad, no surprise there, but in hot foods they fade into the background in a good way) but added a nice texture to this very yummy soup.
The next night I made a somewhat deconstructed spinach artichoke dip pasta using the spinach spaghetti from Tinkyada, a white sauce, chopped artichokes, and parmesan cheese. I even saved some of the artichoke hearts to sizzle in a small pan to put on top. Now, unfortunately, I didn’t write down everything I did, so I’ll have to try and recreate it later, but it was a tasty experiemnt. The chicken I breaded much like I would the Oven “Fried” Chicken Nuggets in my cookbook, using crushed corn flakes for crunch and whatever seasonings sounded good.
Some nights, simple is the name of the game. A staple option in our house are grilled pork chops (on the George Foreman, in this case), baked sweet potatoes, and a vegetable of some sort (I had okra & tomatoes in the pantry from that time I stocked up on canned goods for the storm, so figured I’d use them). Sage is always good with pork, along with salt, pepper, and garlic. No muss, no fuss, no recipes.
Thursday night was one of those nights where I just couldn’t be bothered to do anything in the kitchen, so we ended up going to IHOP for supper. I have to say, that BLT I had really hit the spot and made me think I need to do sandwich suppers more often.
Friday night was like a taste of Thanksgiving a month or so early. The Chicken Caruso recipe from the previous menu had called for a pineapple-cranberry relish (I’m really not sure how that would have gone) but I completely forgot about it. Instead, since I had the ingredients, I decided to roast some turkey cutlets, top with the relish, and serve with some yellow rice and green beans.
On Saturday I had to go in to my old job for a bit and then run some other errands on town (didn’t want to “waste” that quarter tank of gas and, oh, twist my arm to go shopping) so by the time I got home I wanted something simple and quick. Thank goodness we still have a few freezer meals left and I could quickly defrost and cook up this Taco Soup. Topped with a bit of cheese, some sour cream, and some avocado salsa Verde it was just perfect.
Finally, the meal I’d really been looking forward to: Sunday night’s Beef Ramen Noodle Soup.
This is not the cup of noodles you rehydrate and microwave. The homemade broth, the fresh vegetables, the thinly sliced grilled steak, and the gluten free ramen noodles I ordered from iHerb just made me incredibly happy. Sure, it had a few more moving parts than a lot of dinners, but it was absolutely worth it.
It’s been a while since I shared a menu on the blog, but it wasn’t because I wasn’t cooking, my hands were just busy with other things. It’s been so long, in fact, that I have enough menus to share to cover an entire week’s worth of posts and give you a month’s worth of menu ideas! And with the holidays and their related shenanigans about to kick into high gear, I figured these ideas might help you jazz up your usual weekday fare.
Rewinding way on back to September 19th, we were in the final week of the Retro Recipes throw-back. Monday sounded like a perfect time for some Mexican Midnight Fondue, with a side of refried sweet potatoes, guacamole salad, corn bread and tortillas for dipping, and a bit of a flan for dessert. Thankfully it didn’t take until midnight to make it, though it was a bit more time-intensive than I would normally done on a Monday, but it was also damned tasty and worth the effort!
Tuesday turned out to be a leftovers night (what is it about Tuesday’s sapping someone’s will to cook?) but Wednesday saw us back on track with some Waikiki Meatballs over rice, served with steamed green beans. Polynesian sweet and sour, this one is worth having again. The sauce was the best version of a sweet and sour sauce I’ve had in a while, certainly the best homemade version to date.
Next up was Chicken Caruso and it was… interesting. The best way I can describe it is a slightly grown-up version of mac and cheese with a few veggies tossed in and a shot of sherry in the sauce. Not bad, but not my favorite, either. The BLT salad, on the other hand, was quite tasty. I’ll keep it in the rotation as it’ll easily work year-round.
Friday night we went out to the local Chinese buffet and Saturday brought forth an Autumn Soup–very simple with carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, celery and a rich beef broth. The leftover cornbread from Monday made a good match for the soup and saved some time–always a good thing as the week gets longer and my patience gets shorter. I’d gone into the old office earlier that day and spent the afternoon and evening working on design team projects.Simple and hearty was meant for days like this.
We ended the week with a rich lamb curry over basmati rice and served with a light fruit salad. There was nothing overwhelmingly remarkable about this curry, but each time we have lamb its always a bit of a treat, so what surrounds it doesn’t have to be amazing, just good. The coolness of the chilled fruit is a nice counterpoint to rich, heady sauce.
After this week I was itching to go a bit more modern and try out some new-to-me products I’d ordered from iHerb.com (more on that tomorrow). So stay tuned for more menus as the week goes on!
Continuing our impromptu quest through old cookbooks, this (past) week I started with some recipes/menus from
Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus
Specially Prepared for the General Electric Refrigerator
by
Miss Alice Bradley
Principal of Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery,
Cooking Editor of Woman’s Home Companion,
Author of: Cooking for Profit, Candy Cook Book, For Luncheon and Supper Guests
that sold for a whopping $2 back in 1927 (I found it in a friend’s used bookstore 8 or so years ago). The recipes in this book are, Â you guessed it, mostly of things that require refrigeration or freezing, but there are also a whole slew of menus that Miss Bradley just expects you to already have a reference for or have in another cookbook in your home. Not like you could just Google it back in ’27, though I can’t tell you how glad I am that we have that capability as I was really curious what in the world an “English Monkey with Crackers” (one of her After-Theater Lunches) might be. Turns out it’s the same thing as Welsh Rarebit, which she lists on a Family Supper Menu a few pages prior, so maybe Miss Bradley was just trying to keep things interesting.
Frozen Lobster Salad with Garlic Cheese Biscuits
At any rate, Monday I made her Frozen Lobster Salad and paired it with Garlic Cheese Rolls. Far from the usual seafood salad we’d make with just mayo and veggies, this one used a bit of white sauce, gelatin, and whipped heavy cream in, in addition to mayonnaise. While it seems like an awful lot to do just for a seafood salad, and it’s only seasoned with salt and nutmeg, it was very tasty and, thanks to the gelatin, held up exceptionally well for leftovers. I’d probably add some diced celery or bell pepper to this to add some color and crunch, if I made it again.
The biscuits were just the basic recipe from the box of gluten-free Bisquick (Bisquick was invented in 1930, apparently, so it’s not a complete anachronism to pair with the 1927 salad) with some garlic oil and a healthy dose of shredded Cheddar added.
Hamburg Steak, Mashed Potatoes, and Creamed Cabbage
On Tuesday I used one of her dinner menus and just, as homemakers of her day would have, used the recipes or knowledge I had on hand. The Hamburg Steak was simply seasoned ground beef (salt, pepper, garlic oil, paprika, Worcestershire sauce) formed into rectangular patties and cooked on the stove. I made a gravy with beef base, a little red wine, and a cornstarch slurry after the first sides browned. The mashed potatoes were fairly basic mashed potatoes with butter and milk, and the creamed cabbage was boiled cabbage combined with a white sauce.
Now, Todd and I are cabbage fans, but most of the year we eat it as coleslaw unless it’s New Year’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day, you know? We were both pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed the creamed cabbage, to the point that I could have eaten just that and been perfectly content for the night. It’s worth noting that, in making the very simple white sauce, I did add some chicken soup base for flavor, and I think that helped a lot. Creamed cabbage could well end up on our table again, though, thanks to this culinary trip through history.
Chocolate Cake for Dinner, because we’re grown-ups
We already talked about Wednesday night, the night we had cake for dinner, and I still do not regret that decision one little bit. It was smart of me to put it mid-week, when the urge to cook is often weaker anyway, and it also helped that we were “ahead” on lunches so that we weren’t needing to get take out for lunch the next day, that sort of thing.
Pork and Veggies, with extra Veggies, over Rice
Thursday we returned to the present with one of our freezer meals: Pork and Veggies over rice. Instead of crocking it, I just put it on the stove to simmer while the rice cooked and that was plenty of time on the stove. While it’s not technically a stir fry, it’s similar enough that I thought some Yum-Yum sauce might go well on it (and I was right).
On Friday we took advantage of some gift cards we had and went to Longhorn for dinner and have delicious calamari in a sweet chili sauce along with our steaks and potatoes.
My Brunswick Stew is staring at me…
Finally, on Saturday, I decided to go back to the River Road Recipes cookbook, because I hadn’t made anything from the poultry chapter, and I made Brunswick Stew.
I’ve never actually been a fan of Brunswick Stew, but Todd likes it and I thought it might be better if I made it to determine why I didn’t like it or, hopefully, that I’d like it better if it was homemade. After 2 hours and a bit it was done and I was so hot and tired from doing laundry that a thick chicken stew didn’t seem all that appealing, but I ended up enjoying it and Todd had two helpings (so I must have done something right!).
Sunday was going to be breakfast for dinner, but we both had been grazing throughout the afternoon and just didn’t feel like an official meal. Since we had leftovers in the fridge we declared it a fend for yourself night, so there’s nothing really to show.
I now have a decision to make, and that’s where to go for next week’s menu. Do I a) grab the reproduction of a Civil War-era cookbook I picked up at the St Augustine Fort a few years back or do I b) raid the 1973ish Betty Crocker recipe card collection sitting on my shelf. I mean, both are potential gold mines–what would you be more interested in seeing, hmm?
Tassies are basically tarts, but they are so much better than just mini pecan pies.
Last weekend I was in the mood to bake just for fun, and I decided to make some Tea Time Tassies from the Junior League cookbook that has long been a family staple: River Road Recipes. There are three volumes of RRR these days [I take that back, there are now four!]Â and the first two are what I grew up browsing through. When I moved out of the house after high school, Mom gifted me a set of I and II of my own.
The funny thing is, though, that while I wouldn’t feel at home without them, I almost never cook from them. Holidays are usually the only time I consistently grab them because holidays are the only time we cook “home food” like what is in these books. The first volume is from the 50s, the second from the 70s, and like a lot of fundraiser cookbooks, they have their fair share of questionable includes. But throw-backs are fun, and not just for Thursdays, so I thought, since I had it out anyway, why not cook from this book all week?
Mexican Chef Salad
Monday started off with a Mexican Chef Salad that really did remind me of some of the food I grew up eating. I also found it highly amusing that Doritos were a legit part of my shopping list for this week.
River Road Recipes II, page 48
Now, I opted for hominy as my bean substitute and used my own homemade taco seasoning mix. While the recipe brought me back to my childhood with its fairly simple flavors, I cannot for one minute deny the tastiness of the meal. I wouldn’t necessarily serve it for company, but I will remember how well Thousand Island dressing pairs with taco meat the next time I crave a taco salad.
Sushi Rice Bow + Teriyaki Chicken
Tuesday’s dinner didn’t come from RRR but it almost could have. I’d been craving a Sushi Rice Bowl and decided to marinate some chicken tenderloins in teriyaki sauce and call it a day. This batch of seasoned sushi rice featured steamed carrots, sweet potatoes, eggplant, and cucumber, plus avocado, sesame seeds, and strips of nori. Still one of my favorite go-to meals and very versatile for clearing out leftover veggies in the crisper.
Wednesday was an off night thanks to Mr. Duncan of the puppy puberty Duncans. He was being particularly insufferable so I opted to pick up Jimmy John’s for supper and call it a night.
Pork Chops and Turnips + Swiss Green Beans
No need to adjust your color settings, this meal really is that brown. You know, sometimes Todd and I will have a night where cook up a bunch of appetizers and have that for dinner. These nights are referred to as brown-food nights since most things are breaded, fried, or naturally tan in color.
River Road Recipes II, page 118
River Road Recipes II, page 70
Thursday was an unintentional brown-food night between the turnips (tinted from the Worcestershire Sauce) and the Swiss cheese and corn flakes-topped green beans. Despite the bland color, the turnips were a very good pairing for the pork chops, and something we’ll like do again in the fall. The green beans were interesting but probably will not appear on our table in the future.
Carbonnade de Boeuf
A variation on a traditional beef stew, Friday’s Carbonnade de Boeuf was surprisingly tasty and filling.
River Road Recipes II, page 103
I opted to leave the bacon in the pot and not play hokey-pokey with the beef and the dish certainly did not suffer. Since we also do not own a dutch oven (the hows and whys of which were discussed at length over the meal, in fact, and we both agree we would get good use out of one, I just haven’t been able to ever pull the trigger on the Le Cruset I’ve been lusting over for years) I let this simmer on the stove for maybe an hour. I also added a spare red bell pepper we had in the fridge and bought fresh parsley for this dish–I think the parsley and the quality of the beer used have a lot of bearing on how tasty the final dish is.
Since I’ve been working at my old job on Saturdays, I feel like I only get single-day weekends lately. This is to make up for all those 3-day weekends in May and June in the cosmic order of things, but still. Anticipating this, I’d planned a no-cook night for Saturday and we ended up at the local Chinese buffet.
Chicken Jerusalem + Baked Pepper-Cheese Squash
We finished out the week with what just might be my favorite recipe so far. Chicken with artichoke hearts is something we done in several permutations over the years and was just as good in this iteration.
River Road Recipes II, page 152
River Road Recipes II, page 75
It’s the squash that was absolutely amazing and I’m already planning to have it on the holiday table for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I did not boil the squash, that just sounded like a recipe for mush to me, and I think it was a good call. I also used the green part of a leek instead of onion rings and seasoned gluten-free breadcrumbs. I was concerned, at first, that it didn’t call for any salt and I was expecting it to be bland. Apparently the bacon and pepper-jack cheese were enough, though, because there was no lack of flavor nor was the pepper overpowering. Definitely a keeper recipe!
I’m very tempted to do this again for my next cooking week, and then I remembered this old set of recipe cards I have, the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library from 1971. There’s a good chance those recipe cards will be appearing here in the future and the chances of a jello mold being required are rapidly rising!
You might think that making macaroni salad gluten-free or Low-FODMAP is as simple as swapping out the wheat noodles for one of the many readily available rice, corn, or quinoa-based options out there? Alas, it’s not quite that simple, since the non-wheat pastas tend to be very “thirsty” and slurp up all the moisture from the delectable dressing while it sits in the fridge. Sure, it’s okay right after you make it, but give it a single night and you have some dry distant cousin of pasta salad.
In the past I’ve opted to add more dressing to the leftovers or warm up the pasta salad in the microwave (sprinkle a little water on it, like you would rice or any other noodles). It’s okay, but it’s not the same as tucking into leftover macaroni salad the day after the cookout. No where close.
So this past Memorial Day I decided to try something different, thinking back to my days at the plantation and making tea sandwiches.
When you make a tea sandwich, it’s customary to spread a bit of butter on the “inside” of the slices of bread. This prevents the bread from becoming soggy as it sits on the tea tray (or in the fridge if you’re making them in advance). So I figured that, instead of the scant amount of oil I might toss the cooked pasta with to prevent it from sticking, I’d add a generous pour or three of olive oil to the pasta in the collander and let it get good and slick before combining it with the rest of the ingredients. Maybe, just maybe, that coating of oil would act as just enough of a barrier to keep the macaroni salad dressing from disappearing?
I’m happy to report that it worked like a charm! And not just for a single day, but for an entire week! (I made a lot of salad. I always seem to over-prepare for holiday meals, even when it’s just the two of us.)
You can see how the cookout came together on this week’s View from the Countertop video:
As for the recipe… I threw a lot of things together, namely several partial bags of different pastas in the pantry, but below is my best guess for proportions and procedure.
I could have just eaten the pasta salad and been perfectly happy…
Gluten Free Macaroni Salad
About 16 servings
16 oz gluten-free pasta
2-3 bell peppers, diced*
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1-2 cups frozen green peas*
Olive oil
1/2 bunch green onions, greens sliced
3 celery ribs, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
4 hard boiled eggs, diced (optional)
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
2 Tbsp horseradish-mustard
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
1-2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, sprinkle in salt and add pasta, followed by peppers, carrots, and green peas. Cook until pasta is al dente (usually around 10 minutes). Drain pasta and vegetables and rinse with cold water to halt the cooking process and cool them down. Toss with a generous amount of olive oil, enough to evenly coat everything, and allow the excess to drain.
In a large bowl, combine the dressing ingredients (mayo through salt and pepper) and mix until smooth. Adjust the seasoning to taste by adding more mustard and vinegar if you like a more tangy dressing or a bit more sugar if you prefer it just on the sweet side.
Add the pasta mixture and the rest of the vegetables (and the chopped eggs, if you’re using them) to the dressing and stir to combine. Check once again that the seasoning is correct before serving, chilled.
Keeps for one week, in the fridge, if it lasts that long.
*To make this lower in FODMAPs, avoid green bell peppers and limit or omit the green peas. The amount is definitely fine for maintenance-level, like I do, especially since the quantities per serving end up pretty small, but always use your best judgement and consider your own tolerance levels.Â
It did keep for a week–I ate the last of it on Sunday afternoon, though I will say one of the pastas I used (my bet is on the corn variety over the brown rice ones) started to get pretty stiff on Friday. (I took a small container with me to work each day as my breakfast, purely for research’s sake, of course.) But the dressing didn’t get soaked up or dry out, so my mission was definitely accomplished in a very tasty manner.
What did the rest of our menu look like?
This week’s menu!
Monday (Memorial Day): Grilled Sausages and Hot Dogs, Corn on the Cob, Macaroni Salad
It was all so goo, and we both over-prepared. Todd offered to pick up the sausages, etc. and he came home with 3 types of Johnsonville brats (Cheddar, Chili Cheese, and New Orleans/Andouille) along with a massive pack of all-beef franks. We grilled about half of them and put the rest in the freezer for another day. The only negative was that the beef hotdogs were really salty compared to everything else–maybe if I’d eaten mine on a bun it would have tempered it a bit, who knows?
Tuesday: Leftovers!
Monday’s mean was so good and so plentiful, and I was so tired by the time Todd got home from work, that we opted for a leftover night.
Wednesday: Hawaiian Chicken Thighs and Hawaiian Luau Rice
At some point last week we got to talking about the chicken legs from Todd’s birthday party and I decided to make them again. The marinade (from The Girl Who Ate Everything) is super-simple and then you just toss them on the grill until done. The rice was a recipe (from Bam’s Kitchen) I’d pinned while planning the party but opted not to make, and I’m kinda glad I didn’t. What with the ham and pineapple and coconut and macadamia nuts, you’d think this would be a fabulous side dish. Sadly, it was lackluster at best. It called for absolutely no salt (I guess the ham and chicken bullion were supposed to cover that base, but they fell far short) and needed a lot of doctoring. A couple days later I had some with one of the chicken thighs chopped up in it and added a dose of soy sauce to the bowl and that perked it right up. So be forewarned and try it with a little extra sauce.
Thursday: Roast Beef Wraps and Carrot Soup
A cooler take on the soup and sandwich dinner, both of these recipes came from The No-Cook, No-Bake Cookbook that I reviewed a couple years ago. The wraps were fairly straightforward (I might have added some cheese, if anything) but got a flavor boost from an Asian-inspired sauce while the cold carrot soup was a bit of a sweet and spicy surprise. Todd isn’t quite as much of a fan of the cold soups as I am, but with the temperature (and humidity) already soaring, I think there’s a good chance more of the no-cook recipes will be used this summer. I’m keeping it handy, at any rate.
Beef, chicken, and pork pan pizza with extra cheese. A worthy splurge, indeed!
Friday: Pizza
So sad that the day I’m home I cop out and we get pizza, right? I know, I know, but I was feeling kinda off all day, almost hungover even though it’d been several days since having any booze, and then the thunder started mid-afternoon and I realized the change in barometric pressure was wreaking havoc on my sinuses. Mystery solved! While we usually will opt for Domino’s, since they have a decent gluten-free crust and deliver, I really didn’t want it that night. I was craving the crispy, chewy, classic pan pizza from Pizza Hut so that’s what we got. Did I pay for it later? A little bit, but it was worth it.
Saturday: Zoodles with Meat Sauce and Goat Cheese
Friday was always meant to be a pizza night, I’d just been planning to make the zucchini-crust pizza that’s making the facebook rounds right now. Since I didn’t, though, I had these zucchini needing to be used, so zoodles it was. The goat cheese was also from that recipe, and if you haven’t melted a little goat cheese into your tomato sauce, please do. It’s so worth it and really amps up the flavor. I also made some quickie cheese toast using leftover hot dog buns.
Sunday: Cheese-Stuffed BBQ Meatloaf, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes
Classic Sunday dinner of meatloaf and potatoes, courtesy of the freezer. I really do love this meatloaf with its layer of cheese in the center and barbecue sauce on top. This recipe is from The Virtuous Wife, though I sub rolled oats for the bread crumbs and don’t bother with the plastic wrap layer–I just put the frozen packet in the loaf pan to defrost and open up the top of the foil before baking. If I’m careful enough, the loaf pan stays clean!
And that was our week!
In addition to the macaroni salad video I linked above, I also put up a simple video about the Low-FODMAP diet and why I make some of the choices that I do. You can find it here: Low-Food-Wha?! on YouTube
