Finally Getting Back to Things

It's been so long since I posted that I'm ashamed to tell you I can't even remember everything I cooked a few weeks ago.  So let me give you what I remember.

The Meal Plan of October 2 was basically a bust.  Let's start with the sausage, onions and peppers.  I have made this meal 1,000 times before (hello, I'm Italian).  I've made it on an outdoor grill, my stove-top grill, and in the oven.  Basically I grab some mild and sweet sausages (not hot because the little man eats all the same things we do... even though he would probably like the hot ones), at least 2 onions, and at least 2 different types of bell peppers (in this case I did green and red).  Since I started dinner prep late, I threw the peppers and onions on my stove top grill to get them going and then found online that I could put my sausages in the oven at 200 for 20 minutes to cook them and just throw them on my grill at the end to make them crispy.  I read this in a few different places so it seemed legit.

It wasn't.

My sausages weren't cooked at all when I finally went to serve dinner.  So, I grilled them for 10 more minutes and finally cut them up and threw them in the microwave.  This meant they just tasted really weird and we didn't eat until 6:20, which also meant the little man was super hungry which equals super cranky, which also means that since I was cooking my hubby was watching the super hungry and cranky little mean which equals a super hungry and cranky big man.  Let me tell you... dinner was fun.

It's going to be some time before I can make sausage, peppers, and onions again,

And then I tried the Chicken Stuffing Bake on Monday night...as planned.  Before I go any further I need to confess a weird thing I do... for some reason if a recipe calls for cream of [insert item here.... chicken, mushroom, etc] I'm immediately intrigued.  I don't really know why since I can't remember my mom ever cooking with these soups so it isn't like it evokes some childhood memory, but I want to try that recipe.  I always think the recipes will be easy, flavorful, and will bring me back to a 1950s nostalgia that I am way too young to (yes... "too" young... comments?)  know anything about.  And here is the thing - so far, in the last 16 years when I've really been cooking my own evening meals consistently, that has never happened.  Not even once that I can think of.

Here's the truth... when I make a meal that calls for cream of "something" often that meal tastes like the glue from first grade - that big vat of white glue.  Or, it tastes like next to nothing.  And this recipe was no different.  After silently eating for a few minutes Brian asked, "What's the glue-like stuff?"  My answer, "It's the stuffing."  Let me tell you, that was not a good omen for this meal.  And it only got worse.

I would love to find a quick cooking and prepping one dish meal that tastes decent but I haven't yet.  And, if I ever do, I'm pretty sure it won't contain any cream of anythings.

So, since I had hit it out of the park on Sunday and Monday night (that was dripping with sarcasm by the way) I completely freaked and ditched the other 2 recipes I was planning on making.  Instead I made pasta with jarred sauce one night (bigger raves than Sunday or Monday) and I made baked barbecue chicken (just bake the chicken with barbecue sauce and brush some more on throughout the cooking process) with roasted brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes from some almost-bad potatoes.  No one complained... phew. 

Then we went away and Brian got to eat my mom's cooking for 5 days.  He ate every last bite.  Kind of made me a little jealous that he loved it so much so I felt I had to do something big to recover.  And I called in the aid of The Pioneer Woman.

I made Chipotle Steak Salad and we are still dreaming about the dressing (this was a Brian dish for sure) and I made the Beef with Snow Peas.  Brian ate the beef, the brown rice (yes, I said "brown" rice) AND the snow peas.  He went back for seconds on the entire thing... another Brian dish.  I also made the Baked Chicken Parm that I talked about in an earlier post and that is quickly becoming a staple in my kitchen.  With the chicken I also had some oven baked zucchini and apparently I'm the only person in the house who likes zucchini.

One night last week I also made the Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes.  Here's the deal... these potatoes are so good I can't even remember what I paired them with... I just remember these potatoes.  They were divine.  And they were soo good that I put the leftovers in my fridge and Sunday morning I fried them up in a scant amount of olive oil and served them with eggs.  Just writing this makes me wish I had some still in the fridge - they were that good.  Make them now (and it doesn't even matter that I had to use 2 dishes to make them... it was well worth it).  And if you make them be forewarned that Brian might show up at your back door asking for some.

I'll let you know what I'm cooking this week soon.  I'm assuming that at some point I'll catch up... but don't hold your breath.

 

Meal Plan Week of October 2

I have a plan y'all... and since we are going away this week I didn't have to plan for a whole week so that made it a lot easier.  Here is what we will be eating (fingers crossed) this week:

Sunday: Grilled sausage, onions, and peppers
Monday: Chicken stuffing bake with peas and carrots
Tuesday: Bacon and broccoli penne
Wednesday: Spiced honey lemon chicken and brussel sprouts

Wish us luck with this plan!

I Finally Cooked

Completely unplanned, I was able to get two real meals out (well almost real) that I had to cook.  Let me share.

Last night I found some pork chops in my freezer (pretty thin, bone-in, loin chops) and decided it was their time to shine.  The only person I could turn to for some yummy pork chops was the Pioneer Woman (y'all, if you don't know about the Pioneer Woman then take some time to go through her blog... I started following her a couple of years ago and now she has some cookbooks, a recipe site and a show on the Food Network) so I made her Pan-Fried Pork Chops.  I know, they were fried... can anything fried be bad?  Well, the answer is yes (when something is so fried that you a- can't taste the food, and b- can't touch your fingers afterwards for fear of starting an oil slick) but not with these pork chops.

I actually found this recipe because I was trying to decide if I was going to fry the chops in vegetable or canola oil.  My gut said canola oil and so did this recipe so I used it as a guide (most other recipes called for vegetable oil but that turned my stomach... not sure why).  To add to the "down-home-ness" of fried pork chops I also made mac and cheese and frozen peas (which, if you have been watching The Chew you would know that even Mario Batali says frozen peas are good to use - he also likes frozen corn).

So, how did it go over?  Well... when Brian came home and I put his plate in front of him (very 1950s of me... then I fixed him a drink and fetched him the paper - oh wait, now I'm confusing 1950s and a dog) he said, "Now THIS is a meal."  He then sat down and ate everything on his plate, what was left in the kitchen, and what morsels Evan left on his plate.  Evan was mostly drawn to the mac and cheese (what a surprise) but he did eat the pork chops and peas as well. 

Let's review:

Recipe: Pan-Fried Pork Chops
Rating: Brian (I know... it's been a while but sometimes the simplest things are the most satisfying)
Future Recommendations: So, the recipe, as you can see if you read through it, talks about liberally salting the pork chops before you coat them.  Now, I am a firm believer in salt and use only sea salt for cooking (cause it's in the house, I would also use kosher salt if it had it) but I think I went overboard.  For me it was salted WAY too liberally.  Brian said he didn't have any problem with it but I'm sticking with my taste buds on this one and I plan on having a lighter hand next time.


Then, tonight, I cooked again (I know, shocker of all shocks).  Often on Friday nights I make soup and sandwiches (ummm... because it's easy and I'm tired).  The last few times I've done this I've made Trader Joe's Creamy Tomato soup (I can't say enough good things about this soup) and a simple grilled cheese I make on my panini maker.  Tonight I had Trader Joe's butternut squash soup in my pantry and I decided to step it up a notch with the panini because I found some chicken in my freezer and another Pioneer Woman recipe Chicken Bacon Ranch Panini.

Clearly I don't need to tell you much about the soup except that it is definitely a second to the tomato soup and that I found out, when Brian came home, that he doesn't like butternut squash soup (he then convinced me to make him some chicken noodle... then I fixed him a drink and got him the paper).  But we have to talk about the sandwich because, as usual, I changed some things.

I made the chicken as recommended in the recipe (but I have to tell you that slicing it in half was way more trouble to me than pounding it... I'm an old dog and I don't learn new tricks so well) and I made the bacon chewy, but I didn't have any ranch dressing or spicy mustard so I just slathered the bread with some sweet honey mustard.  And normally, when I make paninis, I don't put anything on the outside of the bread but since this was a treat I decided to spray it with some butter Pam.  Then they went on the panini maker* for 3 minutes. 

Brian felt the sandwich was worth the trouble.  Evan took everything out of the inside and ate it (I also gave him some extra chicken and he drank his soup out of a cup) and while I wasn't enamored (probably because I'm the one who had to go to all the trouble to make it) I do think there are some things I want to do to the sandwich that will make me want to make it again.

Recipe: Chicken Bacon Ranch Panini
Rating: Brian (I'm begrudgingly giving this a Brian... he loved it but I still haven't made up my mind)
Future Recommendations: First off, the recipe specifically calls for "chewy bacon".  Turns out I don't like chewy bacon and I find it hard to bite through.  Next time I would definitely make it crispy.  I also think that the ranch dressing is a must have.  I also want to add some red onion for a bite of flavor.  After I do all of that I'll re-rate the panini for you all.

*If you don't have a panini maker (and why don't you, I use this thing at least 2x a week and it's affordable) you can always use a grill pan and use something heavy to weigh down the sandwich like a brick or skillet (what, no grill pan either... you're killing me), or the flat side of a griddle (got mine at a restaurant supply store but you can get them anywhere) or just a skillet... I know you have a skillet.

The Yellow Meal

Yup... still no meal plan.  Today just got very hectic with a cranky little baby and a rambunctious 2-year old.  I have a few ideas though... I'll have to share them with you as they pan out. However, all this chaos also meant I didn't get to go to the grocery store.  So, when 4:30 rolled around I started rooting through my freezer and people, the pickings were slim.  So I made what I refer to as a "yellow meal."  You know the blue plate special?  Yeah, this is nothing like that.

First off, let me please assert that I am well aware of the fact that people eat with their eyes.  I am also aware of the fact that as an overall color "yellow" is not the preferred choice for meals.  And I am even aware of the fact that as a rule of thumb a yellow food does not contain a lot of nutritional value.  On a positive, apparently children like yellow food.

But, let me make this even more appetizing... the color was actually somewhere between yellow and brown. 

So what did we eat?  We had fish sticks (Trader Joe's of course... and supposedly lower in fat):

(not my picture so don't ask me what is in the background), fries, and corn... you know, the kind of dinner that makes you feel like a really good mother.  Or, at least makes Evan think I'm a really good mother.

I won't spend too much time on this meal (Fish sticks were good, fries awesome - also Trader Joe's, and the corn was sweet... you know, like corn) but I wanted to let you know how bad it has gotten over here.  I swear I'll cook again soon... very soon.