Husbands

I love my husband but...

Classic opening right, there is a reason I do the cooking. My husband can read a recipe, but he can't interpret it. So anyways, my kids love this salad my eldest came up with. It is grape tomatoes, a can of stick 'em on your fingers black olives, and a bag of croutons. It's actually quite good. When they make it, it is just the three together. When I make it, I split the tomatoes, salt them, add a little tasting olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar, then the olives and I let it rest a bit. I put on the croutons right before servings and more often than not I throw in a handful of arugula. The other night my son requested the salad, we had everything but croutons. I sent my husband to the store for croutons. This is what he came back with. I kid you not, he thought the word dressing was referring to salad dressing. God love him.

so yes, we had mashed potatoes, stuffing, mushroom gravy, and un-roast
for dinner the next night

Easter eggs

Even though we have hard boiled eggs galore, my kids still wanted egg toasts for breakfast on Easter. Usually we just plop a fried egg on toast, but since it was a holiday I made eggs in the hole. For these I like to mix it up a little with our cookie cutters. I have a bunny cutter, but it was too big, so I settled on hearts. I also decided a mash up was in order and I made a little florentine to go with it.

cut the shapes in the bread

mix a little butter, spinach, mayo, salt, and pepper

drop eggs in holes, no that isn't a double yolk, note the yolkless one for my eldest

toast the cutouts

cook spinach till it just wilts and turn off heat it will finish in the pan

plate the egg toasts

top with spinach and cutouts and serve

Enjoy!

We heart tomatoes

My oldest and I are tomato fanatics. We love them, we love anything made with them. To me a good summer tomato tastes and smells like sunshine. So when we rolled down to the local farmers market which has just started for the season and found that the tomato stand where I buy my canning tomatoes was actually open—well we paid too much for some yummy greenhouse tomatoes. I gave my boys the choice, tomato gratin or tomato soup. They chose soup. It is a good soup.

Now unfortunately I did not take a picture of the tomatoes before I skinned them. I meant to. See I was going to make the soup on Sunday, but that Saturday night I was making pasta. As my water was boiling I spied the tomatoes and; as I try to do as much as I can, I saw a way to conserve water. I popped the tomatoes quickly into the boiling water before my pasta, then did a homer simpson doh! I forgot to take a picture. So yes you can skin and peel the tomatoes the night or even two nights before and they will keep just fine in the fridge till you are ready to make soup.

tomatoes, onions, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper

thinly slice the onions and garlic

saute until soft and then add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and cook a minute more

then add tomatoes, a bit of cumin and sugar, and some lemon juice

cook over medium heat breaking up the tomatoes with your spoon

add about 2 cups of veggie stock, note I also make this ahead and freeze for later

once tomatoes are broken down a bit, turn off the heat and add a cup of 'milk' like product
I recommend cream, but I use coconut milk for my husband

allow soup to cool and then blend in the pot

salt to taste and bring back up to heat before serving

enjoy!

With this soup I also pulled out some frozen bread dough that I made a while ago. I always make a double batch and freeze one for later.

thawed and ready to rise

punched down after 3 hours

folded like a letter, like julia taught me

then shaped how I want for the final rise

off to the cooker

I also made a quick salad to complete the 'it may have snowed yesterday, but we can pretend it is almost summer' meal.

arugula, fennel, olives, croutons, and green onions with a oil/vinegar/mustard vinaigrette

What am I doing here?

I thought I would just state for the record why I started this blog. No I don't want my own cooking show or a small cult following of rabid vegetarians. I started this blog because I have three very young kids and I am extremely morbid. What if something happens to me tomorrow? Who is going to make their favorite tomato soup? Salt and pepper grilled cheese sandwiches? Who will teach them how to make all the yummy things they love? I will. 

Now my husband can cook, he just isn't passionate about it, so it is good, but rarely fantastic. I, however, live first for my kids and second to cook. I love cooking. I blame my dad, he made everything from scratch, every sauce, every marinade, every meatball, every pie and crust. He was an awesome cook. He taught me that if you don't make your own you go down to the italian deli and buy fresh pasta. If you want to eat good food you find the tamale stand, the hole in the wall bbq pit, the diner with the best burger. He had a nose for finding the best food without trying, I thank my lucky stars every day that I inherited that from him. Ask my husband I know how to pick them, and pick them blind. My dad's parents were also great cooks, but they always made fun food for us grandkids - tacos, potato pancakes, homemade spaghetti, trips to baskin robbins, you know what grandparents are supposed to do. My mom can also cook, she just rarely did while I was growing up. I ate lots of chef-boyardee, tv dinners, and soup. I can remember some good food, but I never remember her cooking. I started to teach myself how to cook the basics in junior high school. Her mom taught me how to make desserts - cookies, cakes, pastries. She had lots of bridge parties and I had lots of little yummies.

That is it in a nutshell. For me cooking = love. I love my kids and with or without me they will learn how to cook with love.

Lemon meringue pie

Take one recipe from my great-grandmother, one foolproof pie crust recipe thanks to cooks illustrated and two moments of distraction, and voila - a very tasty, yet not quite perfect lemon meringue pie. 

When you look at the pictures you will notice that I have no pictures of cooking the custard, nor of whipping the meringue. As luck would have it the last of three eggs I was separating broke the yolk when it cracked, and that tiniest little bit of yolk landed in the whites. As my custard is needing stirring so it doesn't clump, I am frantically trying get the yolk out of the whites, but I know once it is there, my stiff peaks are doomed. So yes my meringue is a little flat, but it still tasted like marshmallows and no I did not have time to grab the camera during all of it and I was too ashamed to take a picture of the firm but not fluffy meringue.

And then there is the pie crust. Now my husband actually made the dough as I was bathing the kids (hence no pictures either), but please someone tell me the secret. I have yet to pre-bake a pie crust without it falling on itself. My unbaked crust turn out fantastic as long as I am using a recipe that doesn't call for pre-baked. I prick, I poke, I use weights, I use beans, I use parchment, I even used a huge bowl of water that came right up to the edge of the crust and still it fell in. 

Lastly, the beautiful shade of dark brown on the meringue. As I am standing in front of the oven talking to my husband I burnt the top of the pie. No, not like my sister's black cookie recipe where you leave the kitchen and forget you have something in the oven, I am standing there at the oven door, mitten on my hand telling my husband something and sniff, sniff, umm yeah smoke. It still tastes yummy, but it doesn't look as beautiful.

- Note for this recipe I substituted coconut milk for regular milk without any issues.

the recipes

the nicely chilled dough

mise en place

my sad eggs

note the small peaks

and the lovely shade of brown

And now I know why all the recipes made two pies

Papas con rajas

My husband can't eat any dairy and we are vegetarian, so one my favorite things to make for him when I want to cook mexican is papas con rajas a.k.a. potatoes with peppers. This is yummy enough to keep him happy while the rest of us eat cheesy goodness. It can be used as  filling for enchiladas, quesadillas, arepas, and much more. You simply boil some small potatoes with the skins on. Peel while still warm. Add some olive oil, salt, and pepper and mash slightly. Then skin some roasted peppers, chop fine, and stir into potatoes. The mixture is best when just mixed, you aren't going for mashed potatoes, you need to leave it a little toothsome. It keeps for about a week in the refrigerator. Any leftovers are sure to get made into a midnight quesadilla at some point.

- Note we buy a half bushel of roasted hot peppers at the end of summer every year and freeze them in small ziplock bags for use throughout the dry season. I just keep a bag in the fridge at all times and clean them and chop them as needed. They really taste yummy in everything but dessert.

For this meal I also sauteed a zucchini in a little oil with salt and pepper, and I chopped up a handful of spinach. Now I can make seven different types of enchiladas. Not just the papas con rajas and the cheese enchiladas I sneak spinach into for my kids, but also cheese and papas, cheese and zucchini, zucchini and spinach, zucchini and papas, and spinach and papas. I don't recommend just spinach or just zucchini. 

Potatoes, peppers, oil, salt, pepper

peel potatoes while hot

add salt, pepper, oil, and mash slightly

add chopped peppers

mix until just combined

time to assemble

fill tortillas

make sure to mix and match

I add a little on top to keep track

cover with small amount of sauce and bake

serve with more sauce, sour cream, and onions and cilantro

Enjoy!