An Open Letter to Green Onions

 
Dear Green Onion,
  Nothing annoys me in my kitchen more than wasting food. This feeling has been passed down from my grandmother who thought nothing of cutting the mold off of cheese and serving it to my friends visiting after school (one time she mentioned this fact after we ate the cheese sandwiches, oh yes, she really did). I may not be able to smell, but you and I don't really get along too well. It's pretty obvious when you start to knock on death's door. Your green ends go yellow, your white tips turn brown and you start to emit liquids that I didn't know you had. You turn ugly fast, Green Onion.
  I've talked about some of the usual suspects that meet their demise in my fridge. But Green Onion you really take the cake (oh, if only I could put you into cake!). You pretend to be fancy by using a pseudonym like Scallion, but we all know who you really are. I resent the way you come packaged in bunches of ten like we could always use an extra one of you. I don't want more than five or six at at time, yet you put yourself out there like we want more of you. Don't even get me started on how Trader Joe's manages to put in nearly 15 green onions into one package. There was a time when I would scour books trying to plan a week's worth of meals around one measly package of green onions and it never worked. I'd start with a spinach feta quiche (six green onions gone!), then I'd do a stir fry (three green onions gone!) and then I'd lose steam and watch the remaining green onions wither away into a liquidy green mess.
  But not anymore, Green Onion. You will not break me. You will no longer be left at the bottom of my veggie drawer waiting for a turn in the compost bin, I'll leave that to the marscapone cheese and sour cream. I managed to find three recipes which used every green onion in the bunch this week and you will not be wasted for once.

Can you believe I just wrote three paragraphs about green onions? It's a slow week, people.

Sunday: Orzo Cucumber salad (three green onions)

Monday: Black Bean Tostadas with corn relish (two green onions)

Tuesday: Pollo ala Cacciatore (six green onions)


Signed,
Afraid No More

Dinners for May 6-12, 2012

I am going to start keeping our Saturday 'TBD' because by the end of the week, both my mind and the veggie drawer are empty. Something comes together but it all depends on weather, spontaneous plans and our mood. 

Sunday: Grilled chicken with orzo cucumber salad

Monday: Black bean tostadas with corn relish (I love this relish because it gets better with time so I make it the night before)

Tuesday: Pollo ala Cacciatore

Wednesday: Dinner out with family - my birthday!

Thursday: Pork chard hash (I subbed in pork tenderloin)

Friday: TBD

Saturday: TBD

Smelling Famous

I saw a quick strawberry sauce recipe in a magazine recently, but I couldn't find the article when I needed it this past weekend. We had a surplus of strawberries from the farmers market with a limited shelf life and I recalled the basic principle behind the recipe: Clean, simmer, add some maple syrup and cornstarch. This may be the year of winging recipes for me.

Since breakfast around here is only "fancy" on the weekends, it felt pretty special to make waffles AND cook a sauce on the stovetop. However, as I cooked the sauce on the stove my son walked by and commented, "Wow, that sauce smells famous." With that kind of ringing endorsement, this sauce is worth the extra pot to clean.

Quick and Easy Strawberry Sauce

2 cups washed and hulled strawberries
2 Tbls. maple syrup (adjust depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)
1/2 Tbls. corn starch

In a pot combine strawberries and maple syrup and turn on the heat to medium-high. As it starts to bubble, add cornstarch and mash the strawberries with a fork to break them down a bit (I like it chunky). Let it simmer for about 3 minutes or till thickened. Transfer to a bowl and let it cool.

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of sauce. In addition to our weekend waffles, I used it as a topping on Greek yogurt and also just ate it by the spoonful. It lasted less than six hours in this house, but maybe you can make it last longer in your home.

Rainbow Carnival Cupcakes

I may not be the mom who picks up and drops off their kid every day at school.

I may not be the mom who is the first to reply back on email about bringing in a classroom drink or treat.

I may not be the mom who chaperones every field trip.

I may not be the mom who remembers to coordinate an outfit for Twin Day at school.

I may not be the mom who collects money from everyone to buy a teacher appreciation gift.

But I am the mom who spent her Friday night up to her armpits in food coloring and frosting so her son could bring rainbow cupcakes to the annual school festival.

Behold the Rainbow Carnival Cupcake with enough food dye in the frosting to put a leprechaun into a coma. Frosting recipe can be found here.

Dinners for April 29 - May 5, 2012

Sunday:  Game of Thrones potluck with friends (I brought cheese tortellini tossed with peas, butter and parm for the kids and a side of sautéed carrots and sugar snap peas in a honey glaze)

Monday: Grilled sausages with Panzanella salad (half this recipe)

Tuesday:  Turkey burgers and sweet potato fries

Wednesday: Pesto Pasta

Thursday: Roasted salmon with yogurt mustard dill sauce and green beans

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: TBD - It's a busy day with soccer games and tennis matches

A Kid-Free Afternoon

 
This past weekend my husband and I realized we had commitments on opposite ends of the Bay and a handyman to let in to the house at the same time. I stayed home to let the handyman in and my husband took the kids for an afternoon with the grandparents in the wine country.Which left me with four glorious hours alone in the house.


I don't know about you, but when I am alone in the house the first thing I want to do is bake in the kitchen ALONE.  Don't get me wrong, I love sharing the time in the kitchen with my kids, but it takes a lot of work and patience and it isn't always *that much* fun. Only recently did I stop having heart palpitations when my kids wanted to help in the kitchen. The combination of mess + danger + disregard of measurements made me want to pull my hair out. 

The handyman was downstairs fixing a window that was broken by our strong-armed six year old and I immediately turned the oven on. I knew what I wanted to make: A chocolate, brownie-like cookie with walnuts. I went through my usual recipes but nothing was looking like what I wanted. A quick Google search yielded exactly what I had been looking for: A fluffy, chocolate-y, walnut studded cookie created by Love From the Oven. I quickly assembled the ingredients and got to work. These cookies come together quickly and sweet lord, the batter should be illegal, it's SO good. I could barely keep my hands out of the bowl and I made short order of the ones that made it out of the oven.

No kids = no sharing required!

After I cleaned up the kitchen I got to work on an overdue sewing project. My remaining two hours of freedom were spent making this beauty

Decades of Style "Protect and Serve" Apron #5005

                                                                    With this fabric

Robert Kaufman's "Effervescense"

I still have a little more to go on the apron (photos to come eventually), but it felt good to recharge my batteries doing things that I love, even if my kids weren't around.

Necessity is the Mother of Substitution

"Sawry!!"

Remember the scene in the 'Great Muppet Caper' when Fozzie is going over his checklist as the gang prepares to catch the thieves who were plotting to steal the Baseball Diamond? The conversation went like this:

Fozzie: Frisbee?

Spencer: It's lost

Fozzie: Wax lips?

Floyd: Man I just had 'em

Fozzie: Yo-yo?

Janice: Fer sure

Fozzie: Peanut butter?

Floyd: Animal ate it.

Animal: Saw-ry!

This was the scene in my kitchen this evening as I started to make Soba noodles with Peanut Sauce for dinner. I *thought* we had peanut butter but my husband apparently put the jar back in the fridge with about two tablespoons left inside. I considered throwing a Monster-like tantrum, but necessity is the mother of substitution, so I scanned the fridge and pulled out a long forgotten jar of almond butter. Invoking my best Tim "This Concerns Me" Gunn, I made it work.

I used to be the kind of person where if I didn't have exactly what was called for in the recipe, I would abandon ship immediately. If the recipe called for red peppercorns, I scoured every spice store on the Internet looking for them. If a recipe called for dried porcini mushrooms, I was calling every Consentino's in the tri-state area - it seriously never occurred to me to use fresh porcini mushrooms. I just didn't know how to wing it. 

But I've upped my game in the past few years and can say that an empty jar of peanut butter wasn't going to slow me down. I just made do with what I had and it turned out pretty good. The sauce was a little thinner than I wanted, so next time I won't add so much water.