Like Mother Like Daughters

We hardly ever sit down to a family dinner on Friday night. People tend to come and go at different times on the weekend, and they often want to eat and run, if you know what I mean…

But that doesn’t mean they don’t want something savory and delicious to eat while they are around, so I have learned to make dishes that can sit for awhile so folks can help themselves when they are ready.

Lest you judge me to be something of an overindulgent mother, let me assure you it is quite the opposite. Cooking and eating fresh food is a commitment worth making for yourself, and one that I hope my children will make for themselves when the time comes!

And the time is coming! Working Girl gets married this November! Her fiancé’s grandma is an awesome Texas lady who happens to enjoy making homemade treats as much as I do! She gifted Ellen with some of her wonderful pepper jelly over the holidays, and lucky for me it made its way into my pantry! (And into honey mustard gravy for pork chops and the soon-to-famous BBQ meatloaf from ScrambledHenFruit…)

Truth be told, I had to make these indoors on a grill pan… It’s just too darn cold to do it any other way… Luckily tender lettuces are showing up sporadically, and frozen corn makes the delicious topping possible even during a deep freeze!

Gather Up:
1 pound boneless chicken breasts
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
½ cup pepper jelly, or other hot jelly of your choosing
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Boston or Bibb lettuce leaves, washed and separated

For the Salsa Topping:
3 cups sweet corn, thawed
1 tablespoon canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 heirloom tomato, seeded and diced
1 small red onion, diced
¼ cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Extra glaze for drizzling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Toss the sweet corn in a bowl with the canola oil and the salt and pepper. Spread evenly on the baking sheet and roast until barely browned, 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, combine the jelly, soy sauce, lime juice and ginger in a small saucepan. Slowly heat, allowing the flavors to blend.

Preheat a grill pan to medium high heat. Slice the chicken into several pieces of even size and thickness and brush generously with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Place the chicken on the grill pan and cook until golden and cooked through. Brush with the jelly glaze during the last few minutes of cooking.

Remove the chicken to a cutting board and allow to rest, brushing again with glaze.

Move the roasted corn to a bowl and add the tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and lime juice and toss well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Shred or dice the chicken, tossing with a little additional glaze if desired.

Place chicken in lettuce leaves, top with corn salsa. Drizzle glaze to taste.

(And on the side: Seven Things about Us!)

Any apron-clad mom worth her salt can cook up a big savory pot of beef with gravy, right? I have to admit that sometimes my beef stews are a little thin and occasionally my pot pies are a little runny… I add the flour, I dredge the meat, I mix in the puree, and I know to reduce… Still, sometimes success, sometimes not so much…

As part of the organized chaos which is my recipe shelf I have a filing system. (Heaven help the fool who tries to mess with my mess…) I do this because over the course of a year I will not remember which recipes are awesome and which ones need tweaking, and come next winter (or this winter) I can happily go to the “file” for help with my menu.

The system is not very sophisticated. There is a section (OK, pile…) for each season. A recipe with a Check Plus is a hands-down winner, a recipe with a Check is a totally edible keeper, and for recipes below that there is no designation because I throw those out! (At the bottom of the pile are those recipes I have yet to try, but that is a can of worms for another day…)

My point is that this recipe is a Check Plus from last winter, so even though I don’t recall making it, I can jump in and make it again, confident (OK, hoping) it will turn out just as delicious as it did last time. It cooks in the oven which is a method that I love, and the gravy is indeed apparently foolproof because it turned out thick and mushroomy for the second time in a row. Double Check Plus!

And speaking of the Double Check Plus, Rachel over at The Avid Appetite was kind enough to tag us in her Stylish Blogger Award and ask us to share seven things about ourselves…how nice of her! You just never know when a little encouragement will make all the difference to someone, and this timely word of encouragement is much appreciated!!!

So here goes:

1. UrMom is addicted to “white on white” wedding cake… Seriously addicted.
2. UrMom cannot sit through an entire movie. Sitting still is too hard.
3. UrMom has never lived in the same house for more than five years. Hoping Austin sticks!
4. College Girl loves Ireland, er, loves a boy in Ireland. We are preparing for transatlantic travel.
5. College Girl and her roommates make vanilla and chocolate cake balls once a week. They now love food blogs.
6. Working Girl has officially lost her wedding-obsessed mind. Case in point: last week she purchased four pom-pom makers. All spare time has become craft time.
7. Working Girl is known for two things in her office (besides her genius consulting skills): water consumption and a chocolate addiction.

Thanks so much Rachel for thinking of us! We never imagined starting a blog would be so much fun and would help us get to know so many awesome fellow bloggers (although we did hope it would!) Now that you know us a little better, let’s get back to considering some beefy goodness…

Gather Up:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
4 cups diced onion
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
3 pounds lean beef chuck, trimmed and cut in 2 inch pieces
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 pounds cremini mushrooms cut in large pieces
1 cup organic beef stock
1 pound chanterelle mushrooms cut in large pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat oil and butter in a large heavy Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring, until the onions are soft and beginning to brown.

Stir in tomato paste, paprika and thyme.

Season beef with salt and plenty of pepper. Add the beef and cremini mushrooms to the pot and stir to combine. Add the stock and cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid.

Transfer the pot to the oven and bake until the beef is very tender, 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Stir in chanterelle mushrooms and continue baking 15 more minutes. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes. Serve.

From: EatingWell.com

All my turkey dreams have come true. For the first time we brined the bird, and the method delivered everything it promised – crispy skin, juicy meat, sublime seasoning… The rest of the menu I kept the same – mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread dressing, roasted carrots, turnips and beets, cranberry streusel and apple pie!

Today I am craving something easy, something comforting, something healthy and something that still feeds LOTS of people. So I’m feeding them manicotti! In this yummy dish no one ever misses the meat, and using uncooked shells makes assembly fast and uncomplicated. Thank heavens!

So we will have our Black Friday fun. Some of us left the house at 4:30 AM to go shopping. Some of us will sleep all day. Some of us will goad others of us to start the holiday lights. I personally will work on indoor decorations, nibble on leftovers, “guard” the remaining pie and greet them all with dinner when the time comes. And today it will not be fancy, but it will be delicious!

Gather Up:
2 cups shredded white cheese, mix of mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, or your choice
1 ¼ cups fat-free cottage cheese
4 cups chopped spinach, or 1 10-oz. package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 ½ teaspoons oregano
Small pinch nutmeg
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 8-ounce package manicotti shells
1 26-ounce jar organic pasta sauce
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine 1 ½ cups of the cheese, the cottage cheese, the spinach, parmesan cheese, oregano, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

Using a small spoon, fill each uncooked manicotti shell.

Pour half of the pasta sauce into the baking dish. Arrange the shells in a single layer.

Top with the remaining sauce.

Pour 1 cup water into the dish. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup cheese over the top.

Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 50 minutes until shells are tender. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe from Cooking Light magazine, a long time ago…
“Fall Leaves” from DGMiller777

I wanted to make this on Sunday afternoon… It’s the perfect time for the amount of chopping and primping and attention a big pot demands… I can take my time, nibble a few snacks… (Possibly find some helpers…)

But I was blindsided by hungry college-age meat-eaters who happened to spot several big steaks in my freezer! (These are the same offspring who have new perspective on the phrase, “there is never anything to eat around here”, because at their houses there really isn’t!) Did I capitulate? Of course I did!

So I soaked my beans and prepared for battle on a weekday! This dish is a thick and warming stew, made with lots of greens, lots of beans and lots of vegetables. It is thickened with chunks of crusty bread and is EVEN BETTER the next day, hence the name “ribollita,” meaning “reboiled.”

And hence my desire to make it on a Sunday afternoon and send quarts of it out the door with my children… It smells absolutely wonderful, and approaches pure heaven sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and given a swirl of olive oil!

Gather Up:
½ pound dried cannellini beans
Kosher salt
¼ cup olive oil, plus extra for serving
¼ pound smoked bacon, chopped
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
4 cups coarsely chopped savoy cabbage
4 cups coarsely chopped kale
1 teaspoon dried basil
6 cups organic low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
4 cups sourdough bread cubes, crust removed
½ cup grated Parmesan, for serving

In a large bowl, cover the beans with cold water by 1 inch and cover. Soak overnight in the refrigerator. Drain the beans and place them in a large saucepan with 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and continue to simmer for about 15 more minutes until the beans are tender. Set them aside to cool in their liquid.

Over medium heat, heat the oil in a large stockpot. Add the bacon and onions and cook 7-10 minutes until the onions are translucent.

Add the carrots, celery, garlic, 1 tablespoon of salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper. Cook 7-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Add the tomatoes and their puree, the cabbage, the kale and the basil. Cook, stirring occasionally another 7-10 minutes.

Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid. In a food processor puree half of the beans with some of their liquid. Add to the pot, along with the remaining whole beans.

Pour the bean liquid into a large measuring cup and add enough broth to make 8 cups. Add to the soup and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Add the bread. Simmer 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve immediately in bowls sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and drizzled with olive oil.

Cool and refrigerate. Serve reheated, or “ribollita” the next day!

We are a family that loves our salad. But I never served it year round because the greens familiar to me tended to look a little sad when the warm weather season ended… You know, romaine lettuce, leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, those were my comfort zone.

Until I moved to Austin and started picking up veggies grown at a local farm once a week… And found myself looking online at “WhatsThatVeggie.com” to identify potential dinner items…

It was kinda embarrassing given my age and the number of years I have been cooking dinner and all that. I have to admit that at first some items never made it to the dinner table at all – I just couldn’t find a way to deal with them. (Not that I didn’t try…)

Winter greens, or bitter greens, were definitely in that category. Have you ever mixed up a creamy buttermilk ranch dressing and then poured it over winter greens? It will curl your hair it is so bad! My family calmly informed me that they would not be eating salad that tasted like raw grassy weeds no matter how much dressing I poured over it!

But my conscience wouldn’t let me ignore the happy healthy greens that kept showing up each week. At first I tried to trade them out for other items, but some weeks there was nothing to trade and some weeks I was too embarrassed to trade them out in front of other veggie lovers cooing in delight over the fantastic fresh greens!

Then one day it hit me. Maybe I needed a dressing that could stand up to (and disguise, which I am not above…) my new-found salad greens. I had a long growing season ahead of me, and no romaine in sight…

Fortunately my internet searching produced the Ultimate Vinaigrette, and winter greens became my friend! They are yummy with radishes and carrots, pears and apples, and here roasted butternut squash and pecans!

Who knew? I am happy to tell you this vinaigrette is delicious, this salad is delicious and the roasted butternut squash and toasted pecans are to die for.  And I discovered I am able to learn something new. Thank heavens for that!

Gather Up:
½ cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
3 cups peeled chopped butternut squash (from about a 2-lb. squash)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
8 sliced radishes
1 small thinly sliced shallot
6 cups winter salad greens (I used arugula and curly endive)

For the Vinaigrette:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon honey
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss the squash with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on a heavy baking sheet and roast until the squash is browned on the bottom, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

Put the sliced shallots in a small bowl, cover with hot water, and let soak for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Combine the dressing ingredients by whisking vigorously or by using an immersion blender.

Combine greens and shallots. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Toss lightly with dressing and transfer to serving platter. Add pecans, squash and radishes to bowl and toss very lightly with more dressing. Add to greens on serving dish. Serve extra dressing on the side.

Ultimate Vinaigrette adapted from a recipe by Tyler Florence.
Salad from Fine Cooking.