July 21-27, 2012

S 21 - Garlic Lime Tilapia, Baked Potatoes, Broccoli and Peach Rhubarb Cobbler
U 22 - Zesty Crockpot Chicken, Couscous, Green Beans
M 23 - Veggies and Penne, Experimental Bread yet to be chosen
T 24 - Fried Rice with Ham, Miso Soup
W 25 - Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Rolls
R 26 - BBQ Ham, Savory Polenta, Green Peas
F 27 - Mojo Chicken, Black Beans, Rice, and Yellow Sauce

Annalise helped me make the Peach Rhubarb Cobbler. We used Alton Brown's recipe from I'm Just Here for More Food. The rhubarb was left over from Natalie's birthday ice cream. It was really good - I think the rhubarb made it a little extra tangy.

There's nothing quite like taking a picture with kids to make you look old.  I wear my glasses all the time these days.  My contacts were bothering my eyes, plus it just seemed like it would make more sense to not have to buy contacts all the time.  I don't like wearing glasses though - fingerprints...constantly!!!...on them, plus they fog up when I open the oven or the dishwasher or if I go outside and it's really humid.  Anyway, Rob said they didn't look right in the picture, so I took them off and I think I look funny without them. I'm not used to seeing myself clearly without them on.

So I haven't posted a meal plan in a while.  I have not been feeling really confident in my meal planning, plus there are 15,000 other blogs that do it 15,000 times better than I do.  Not that the competition is really why I do it.  Regardless, one that does is strikingly well is Eat at Home.  I think I found it because I was looking for something homeschool related and the family homeschools.  The mom runs the website and it seems most of her kids have already graduated.  Maybe someday I will be able to pull of something so well organized!  Little kids...wow - they are truly a joy to your heart, and a handicap to your sanity at the same time.

Another online resource that I can recommend is the recipe finder of the USDA's nutrition website.  It's really a compilation of different food program recipes from around the country.  It is not fancy looking, but you can search for recipes by cost or by ingredient.  I have found lots and lots of recipes there that are economical and nutritious.  I want to point out that they seem to pad the nutrition facts by leaving salt out of nearly ever single recipe.  Since we eat very little processed food, I don't concern myself much with leaving salt out of recipes.

In bread, I have gotten to a place where I am happy with my rolls, sweet bread, french bread, and biscuits.  I want to branch out and try some new stuff.  Maybe Challah bread...I also found a recipe for Artesian bread that does not require kneading.  I really want to try that out!

And another economical discovery...if you like Miso soup, it is just too easy to make "from scratch".  And by from scratch, I really mean in bulk, because I can't make the ingredients in their useable state.  We had been buying (on occasion) at the Asian market a pack of 8 soups for about $5.  For $15, we got a package of miso paste (500g - everything else on the packaging is in Japanese), a box of Boniato soup stock (aka Dashi), and a bag of dehydrated seaweed.  Other than that you just need water, but you can add tofu or scallions or whatever you like.  You can vary the amounts based on your preferences, but say a tablespoon or so of the miso paste, a half teaspoon of the Dashi and a pinch of the seaweed (it gets a lot bigger) and 8oz or so boiling water.  Voila.  The Dashi is what gives it it's flavor.  It is really fish stock - yup powdered tuna.  We are working through the paste pretty briskly, but the Dashi is going to last a long time. 

That's Sweet: Dulce de Leche Cookies

We had a fundraiser dessert this week and I was charged with making the desserts. Rob wanted them to be fancy, "like from a restaurant menu...molten chocolate something or other...." I thought that was a little impractical, since everything had to be prepared in advance and moved to another location. So I made Bekah's Strawberry Poke Cake, Oreo Chocolate Cheesecake (somehow eaten without a picture), and Dulce de Leche cookies, which I will detail here.  My idea was to go in three different directions flavor wise and texture wise.  It would have been nice for one of them to be hot too, but no one complained

(Bekah's) Strawberry Poke Cake - poked full of pureed strawberries, yes indeed.  One lady ate some and told me I should go into dessert catering. 

The cheesecake was round and chocolate with an Oreo cookie crust and 14 Oreo cookies around the sides - it also had a sour cream topping on it that pooled in the center even though it was supposed to be spread evenly over the top. But...it still looked pretty nice.  I learned a neat trick while I was baking it.  The middle just seemed to be refusing to set and the outside was definitely done and I found a tip online to just turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in it while it cooled off.  It worked!  The cheesecake was perfectly done!

Princess Sonia Lee stand guard over the tempting Dulce de Leche Cookies.

My neighbor Laura gave me the "recipe" for making these cookies.  It's so easy...well I was busy and needed to get to some other things, so I had the kids make them.

Step one:  open a package of Vanilla Wafers - it is not necessary for them to be any particular brand of wafers.

Step two:  Spread a small amount of dulce de leche on one wafer and top it with a 2nd wafer.

Do they sell dulce de leche in other parts of the US?  My store had 4 different brands.

Step Three:  Toss the little sandwich in powdered sugar.  Voila.

I've made these three times since Laura told me about them.  This time I didn't have powdered sugar on hand, so we put some regular sugar in the food processor with a little corn starch.  I think it worked much better than regular powdered sugar.

How to: Make a Cuban Sandwich

(I shredded a piece of roast pork and cooked it a little longer with some Mojo marinade.)

(No panini press?  George Forman with added muscle.)

Ah! Beinvenidos a Miami!

These were soooooo good and I am sooooo bad at making fried catfish, it's hard to believe it grew up closer to Havana, Arkansas than Havana, Cuba.

How to: Make your own individually frozen chicken quarters

I buy chicken in 10lb bags.  If it is important to you to eat only white meat, free range chickens, or all certified organic foods, this post may not be useful to you.  If you would really like to trim your food budget significantly, it will.  So as said, I buy chicken in 10lb bags.  They are all dark quarters and usually that means 10 portions.  Sometimes there will be a lone thigh or leg in there to get the weight right.  I usually make 4 meals out of the meat in the bag - 2 meals where I serve the meat on the bone and 2 where I cook the meat, pick off the meat and put it in a casserole.  Publix sells the 10lb bags for $7.90 and Wal-mart for $5.90.  There are places around here where you can buy 20lbs for less per pound, but that usually means the pieces are frozen in one solid block.  As I am not throwing a huge party, this is not useful for me!

To store the chicken, I used to spend an hour packing the chicken in meal portions, but now I do it an easier way.  I create my own bag of individually frozen chicken quarters.  Here is how it works:

Step 1:  Lay out quarters on a sheet pan.  It's ok if they touch a little.  Once they are frozen you can break them apart.

Freeze the pan of chicken uncovered overnight.

The next day pop them off the pan and if necessary break them apart and store in a big plastic bag.  This is not for long term storage - I use these all in about 2 weeks.

When I thaw the meat, I skin it and can trim off extra fat if I want too.  Also, these pieces are roughly processed.  The backbone is not removed.  Sometimes there are unappetizing bits of organ still attached (I guess some people like organ meat, when I was a kid I liked the livers and the gizzards, but that just sounds icky to me now!).  All this can be trimmed off too, but it takes some practice to get the back off without damaging the meat.