Confessions of a Culinary Mom

Henry's dental work expands my soup repertoire

2011-10-08T08:17:00.000-04:00

Poor Henry. Last week he had to get an expander installed in his mouth, a coiled wire that pushes out on his upper palate to create more room for his crowded teeth. He's been miserable and unable to chew anything because his teeth ache so much. We've tried puréeing solid food for him, but that's just wrong. To provide Henry with some options, Mike got some Carnation Instant Breakfast (rebranded for the new millennium as "Carnation Breakfast Essentials") for him and I've been creating soup recipes.

Vegan Cream of Spinach Soup. Want to know what
Cream of Carrot Soup looks like? Same thing, but orange.

Of course, the challenge is to make a soup that is as nutritionally balanced as possible while also being liquid enough for Henry to eat. So I've been creating some vegan soups for him that he enjoys eating that have a full compliment of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and all that good stuff.

But not every recipe is a winnah. I showed him the black beans I'd bought for a recipe and he ruefully informed me that he doesn't like bean soup. Neither does he like refried beans. OK, then, short of getting some kind of bulk-up powder from GNC, how am I gonna include protein in his diet?

My secret ingredient has been silken tofu. It blends beautifully into the soup, creating a "cream of" style of soup without the cream, which would add fat and calcium but not much else. Silken tofu absorbs the flavors of the other ingredients and blends into a smooth liquid, rendering it virtually undetectable.

So far, I've developed two soups for him, and he likes them both. Here are the recipes:

Vegan Cream of Carrot Soup
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 t freshly grated ginger
3 stalks celery, sliced
5 carrots, roughly chopped
1T vegetable oil
2T Braggs Liquid Aminos
2 quarts water
1 block silken tofu

In a soup pot, sauté the onion, garlic, ginger, celery, and carrots in the oil over medium heat until things have browned a bit. Pour in the water, turn the heat to low, and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Use an immersion blender to purée everything in the pot. Add the silken tofu and purée until blended in.

Vegan Cream of Spinach Soup
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 T vegetable oil

The box has pictures of vegetables on it and I
picked it up in the soup aisle. Therefore, it
must be vegetable soup stock, right?

2 quarts water and powdered vegetable stock/bouillon* OR 2 quarts veg stock
1 large bunch spinach
1 block silken tofu

In a soup pot, sauté the onion and garlic in the oil over medium heat. Once the onions are soft, add the water and powdered vegetable stock or the premixed vegetable stock. Turn the heat up to high and boil briefly until the spinach is limp. Remove pot from heat, then purée with an immersion blender. Add the silken tofu and purée once more until the soup is smooth.

If you don't have an immersion blender, add meaning to your life by purchasing one immediately. In the meantime, you can purée the soup in batches in a conventional blender.

*I got my powdered vegetable stock from H-Mart, an Asian grocery store. Unfortunately for me, the label was printed in Japanese, so I didn't know how many packets went to a quart of water. I winged it, and the results were fine. Bouillon generally is very high in sodium, so you probably won't need to season the soup too much.

Henry Cooks Beef Stew

2011-07-26T18:50:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since my last Culinary Mom post. In the interim, I have served dinners that were colossal failures, such as the made-from-scratch ravioli with fresh garden sauce prepared during a heat wave that raised the temperature of the kitchen to about 85° and which everybody hated. Except me, of course. I have also served up some winners, such as the tried and true Taco Night, American Chop Suey, and the ever-popular Ordering Out for Pizza. And earlier this month Henry laid his thumb open by not using the claw grip on some scallions he was chopping (luckily, a butterfly bandage we had on hand closed it up and we avoided a trip to the emergency room).

But today is Henry's birthday, and he wanted to make beef stew because he had made it last week at Cub Scout camp and thought it was delicious. Always one to seize the opportunity to get the kiddos involved in the kitchen, I agreed heartily. Mike found some no-sodium beef bouillon at the store, which was miraculous since bouillon usually has about a million times one's recommended daily allowance of sodium. And of course we needed beef, so I splurged and picked up some sirloin that went for about $6.50/pound. Since Mike really hates celery, we omitted that.

Henry and I got cooking, and I started by sautéeing the onions I had chopped the night before but hadn't been able to use because the power went out just as I was about to put them into the pan (which led up to Sandwich Night). Then I supervised him as he cubed the beef and was about to add it to the onions when he said that he'd meant ground beef. Oh well, at least now I'd know exactly what was going into our hamburger this time. We ground the beef using my trusty 114-year-old meat grinder, which both boys love to operate.

Jack cut up the potatoes and a carrot. At first I had him using a serrated plastic knife so that he wouldn't hurt himself, but he was having a tough time getting through the vegetables. So today he graduated to a sharp knife, a small paring knife with a three-inch blade. At least Jack remembered to use the claw grip!

We added the rest of the ingredients and a half-hour later the stew was done! It was a little bland for my taste, but Henry woofed it up like crazy. Jack didn't like it much, so Henry had his first experience of people not liking his cooking. But that didn't bother him at all. Maybe I should take a page from his book.

Camp Split Rock Beef Stew

1 onion, chopped

1 T vegetable oil

1 lb. ground beef (or ground filet mignon if you're feeling wealthy)

2 potatoes, cubed

2 carrots, cubed

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 packet no-sodium beef boullion
1 t. Italian seasoning

1 3/4 c. water

Black pepper, to taste

In a stew pot on medium heat, sauté the onion in the oil until it is translucent. Add the beef and cook until there are no pink bits left. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and let the stew simmer for a half hour or until the vegetables are soft.

Vegetarian Dinner Fails to Win Fans

2011-04-03T11:18:00.001-04:00

My cousin and her family are vegetarians, so when her family came overfor dinner I had a complete, meatless Mexican menu planned. I had read one of the cookbooks by Jennifer McCann, author of the Vegan Lunch Box blog, that had a recipe for black bean tamales. So I hinged my hopes on making them for dinner, unaware of the obstacles that lay ahead. Chief of which being that corn husks are in very short supply in Central Massachusetts.

Since hope springs eternal, I started by calling the supermarket down the road from where I live. The grocery manager was incredulous that such a product exists, then he looked up and down the International aisle looking for them, with no luck. And when I asked him for masa

harina, the superfine corn flour that's used to make the tamale dough, he told me that they sell cornmeal but that was it.

I asked a friend if she knew where to buy corn husks, and she suggested buying some fresh corn and using the husks to wrap the tamales. This was an excellent suggestion, but I didn't feel like eating dry, out-of-season corn just to get the husks.

A Web search didn't reveal any bodegas in Worcester, so I drove to Fitchburg because I knew of one there. When I arrived, I found that it had gone out of business. Then it was on to the

Fitchburg Market Basket -- my last, best hope -- and struck out. They did have frozen tamales, however, which I bought. I also picked up the fixings for enchiladas and a box mix for little cheese breads.

I worked on dinner for about 90 minutes. Here are the stats:

Dinner was such a huge failure that Mike made quesadillas with customized queso for the kids: Olivia's had no cheese, only refried beans; Eli's had a microscopic layer of cheese; Henry's had a good amount of cheese; and Jack's also had turkey.

Oh, and I forgot to serve the tamales. Not that it would have mattered, I imagine.

So if you're ever entertaining some vegetarian adults, here's how you can wow them with dinner:

Vegetarian Enchiladas:

1 T. vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 c. vegetable broth

1 packet Goya Sazón

1 t. Goya Adobo

1 c. Textured vegetable protein (TVP)

1 26 oz. can crushed tomatillos

12 corn tortillas

1 c. grated cheese (leave out for the vegan option)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the onions and garlic over medium heat until soft. Add the potatoes, tomatoes, broth, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cover the pan. Cook until the potatoes are done but not mushy (I left it about 10 minutes; check often.) Take the pan off the heat, then stir in the TVP, cover the pan, and set aside until the TVP has absorbed most of the liquid.

Pour about 3/4 c. of tomatillos into the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish. Microwave the tortillas for 30 seconds to soften them up. Fill each tortilla with some of the TVP mixture, roll it up, and place it seam side down in the baking dish. When done, pour the rest of the tomatillos over the enchiladas. Top with the grated cheese, if using.

Cover the pan with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the oven up to broil, and leave in the oven until the cheese is browned, about five minutes more.

If you're trying to please two vegetarian kids and two omnivores, I suggest Frosted Flakes.

The Easier It Is to Prepare, the Less the Kids Like It

2011-03-02T07:35:00.001-05:00

Jack really, really, really likes shrimp. So when I found a recipe on Cooks.com for 10-Minute Shrimp I was over the moon. Because nothing says "weeknight dinner" like "10-minute" in the title. And I figured that I was covered by substituting cannellini beans for the shrimp to satisfy on-again/off-again vegetarian Henry.

Alas. The beans failed to tempt Henry's taste buds.

The shrimp, however, was a monster hit and, as ever, I loved them both. So here are the recipes:

10-Minute Shrimp Scampi (adapted from Cooks.com)

1 lb. frozen shrimp

2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

3 T unsalted butter

1 fresh lemon

Place shrimp and garlic in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high until the shrimp are hot, 3-5 minutes. Drain the liquid, then add the butter and parsley and cook on high for 1 minute or until the butter has melted. Remove from microwave and squeeze lemon juice over the shrimp to taste. Serve over spaghetti with lots of grated cheese.

Mmmm, bwah, don't that look good?

10-Minute Cannellini Scampi

1 14-oz. can cannellini, drained and rinsed

2 t vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

3 T unsalted butter

1 fresh lemon

Place cannellini, oil, and garlic in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high until the beans are hot, 2-3 minutes. Drain any liquid, then add the butter and parsley and cook on high for 1 minute or until the butter has melted. Remove from microwave and squeeze lemon juice over the beans to taste. Serve over spaghetti with lots of grated cheese.

Oh boy, when do we eat?

Can You Fall Off a Log? Then You Can Make Granita!

2011-02-07T21:11:00.000-05:00

I first saw a recipe for granita in Cooks Illustrated a number of years ago. I blew it off, thinking that it being a Cooks Illustrated recipe it would take a long time to make. (No offense, Cooks Illustrated, but the Mom version of me just doesn't have the hours to devote to cooking as much as the Pre-Kid version of me.) Then, when I was looking for a way to use up a pot of coffee that hadn't been drunk, I came across a recipe for Coffee Granita from Alton Brown. Basically, the recipe called for freezing sweetened coffee. It was cinchy and delicious! But it wasn't something I wanted to feed the kiddos just before bedtime, since I tend to brew me a pretty strong cup o' joe.

Now, all granita is is frozen liquid, agitated once in a while so that it doesn't freeze as solid as a brick. It's fat free, vegan, and appealing. It's as easy to make as boiling water, and the kids can't get enough of it.

Need I say more?

Super-Easy Granita

Ingredient: Your kids' favorite juice

In a 9x13 baking dish, pour enough juice so that it comes up to a depth of about 1/2". Put the dish in the freezer and wait a couple of hours. Take the dish out of the freezer and break up the ice with a fork. Put it back in the freezer, wait about another hour, take it out, and scrape the crystals again. Keep doing this until the juice becomes granulated and kind of fluffy. Tell the kids it's ready, then get out of the way!

Note: Tonight, Henry and I wondered what you would serve V8 granita with. He suggested carrots.

Unacceptable Chicken Patties

2011-02-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

Henry has taken the specialization of his dislike for chicken to a new level. He tells me that he only likes Japanese chicken (whatever that is...he keeps referring to a long-forgotten dinner we once had) and the chicken patties they serve up in the school cafeteria. So I thought I'd create some chicken patties of my own that would win his heart and mind.

I had some leftover cooked chicken breasts, so I put them in the Cuisinart along with an egg, a little flour, and some salt. I puréed the crap out of it until it formed a little homogenous ball in the bowl. Then I formed these into little patties about two inches across, which I breaded and fried to a beautiful golden brown.

As experimental dishes go, I had a decent hit rate: 75% favorable, with Mike, Jack, and me declaring them "yum." Henry, on the other hand, didn't think they were anything like the school chicken patties and gave 'em the thumbs down.

I'm still very happy with this recipe, because using wholesome ingredients I was able to approximate something that resembled an institutional chicken patty, but without the laundry list of unpronounceable chemicals and weird fillers that are usually added. I created a healthful dish that pretty much any kid would enjoy. Any kid but Henry, that is.

But I'll soldier on, as I always do. The other day I resubscribed to Everyday Food. The boys won't know what hit them when I start laying the new recipes on them!

Close-to-Institutional Chicken Patties

1 1/2 c. cooked chicken

2 eggs

1/2 t salt

1 T flour plus 3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. breadcrumbs

1/4-1/2 c. vegetable oil

In a food processor, purée the chicken, one of the eggs, salt, and 1 T. flour until the mixture forms a ball. Form the mixture into patties about two inches across. Beat the second egg in a small bowl, then put the remaining flour and the breadcrumbs into two separate bowls. Bread each patty by first coating it in flour, then dipping it in the egg then the breadcrumbs. Heat the oil in a skillet (it should come up to a depth of about 1/4"), then fry the patties until they are golden brown on both sides.

Toasted Kale? What Th'...

2011-01-05T20:32:00.000-05:00

Today I noticed a recipe in All You magazine for toasted kale. "It tastes just like potato chips!" gushed the author. So since I just happened to have a bunch of kale lying around, I decided to take her up on her dare. Jack helped me to tear the kale into smaller pieces, but he let me coat it with olive oil so that he could keep his hands clean. Then he sprinkled the kale with salt, and we roasted it until it was dry.

Man, oh man, was it ever GOOD! I couldn't stop eating the stuff! It didn't really taste like potato chips, but the crunchy little beggars were very good and loads better for me than potato chips.

Jack, being the game guy that he is, tried one and immediately rejected it. Henry, however, really dug them! At least at first he did, then he gave the rest to me because he told me it had lost its flavor.

Just to let you know, I found this Web site that tells you how many nutrients are in a cup of boiled kale with salt (not quite the same, but close). How does 354% of the USRDA of Vitamin A sound? How about 89% of your Vitamin C? And just one gram of fat? Well, admittedly there's more in kale chips since they're roasted in olive oil. But that stuff's pretty good for you, too! Full nutrition data for one cup of boiled, drained kale with salt

Compare this to an 8-ounce bag of potato chips. Surprisingly high in Vitamin C, these little slices of Heaven pack 131% of the USRDA of fat into each bag, plus loads of other stuff your body could do without. Full nutrition data for potato chips

All in all, this recipe was a great find! I could picture myself eating a whole head of kale cooked this way. And with Henry kind of liking it, well that's a bonus.

Toasted Kale

by Lindsay Benjamin, All You editor

Fresh kale

1T olive oil*

Salt

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Tear the fluffy part off of the "stem" of each leaf of kale into potato-chip sized pieces and put them on the cookie sheet. Pour on the oil, toss to coat, then sprinkle with salt. Roast at 375° for 12 minutes or until dry. Drain on paper towels then serve.

Note: Ms. Benjamin originally called for 2T oil, which made the kale a little too greasy for my taste. Try it both ways to see which way you like best.

Another Failed Casserole

2010-12-08T20:07:00.001-05:00

What's with my kids? They must be the only kids in the whole United States of America who don't like casserole. I guess it's too many flavors packed into a single bite. I don't know. All I'm sure of is no matter what kind it is, the kids eat it only reluctantly and with the promises of desserts ahead. Oh well.

I thought it was dynamite. Mike hasn't tried it yet, but I'm confident he'll like it.

I got the recipe from About.com Cooking for Kids, and I of course tweaked it a little. Best of luck to you. To those about to make a casserole, I salute you.

Mexican Rice Casserole

(adapted from About.com Cooking for Kids)

1 c. rice

1 1/2 c. chicken broth

1 14-oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1 t. cumin

1 t. coriander

1 packet Goya Sazón

1 t. Goya Adobo

1/2 c. chopped onion

1/2 c. chopped red bell pepper

1/2 c. chopped carrots

1 c. pre-cooked, shredded pork

1/2 c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

Preheat the oven to 375°. Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Spray a covered casserole dish with cooking spray. Combine everything but the broth and the cheese in a bowl, then dump it into the casserole dish. Pour the chicken on top, cover with the lid, and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover the casserole, sprinkle with cheese, and put back into the oven for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts. Serve with hot sauce on the side.

Note: This came out of the oven pretty soupy, but the rice absorbed the extra liquid after a while.

Fail.

2010-11-23T19:09:00.000-05:00

Hope Springs Eternal Crockpot Chicken hit 75% on the Foley Fail meter. The good flavor of the dish saved it from a 100% Fail, but its other attributes dragged it down:

Flavor: Great! High fives all around.
Consistency of Sauce: Decent, after I added a roux and boiled it in a pot on the stove. I fixed the recipe to include this step.
Consistency of Chicken: Awful! It suffered the Crockpot Paradox: it came out dry and fall-aparty after cooking in sauce for too long.
Remedy: Save the sauce to put on noodles or rice. Reimagine the chicken into something edible.

So tomorrow's project is to transform the chicken into chicken nuggets using a food processor, eggs, and maybe some mayo to add some moisture. I'll let you know how this little caper unfolds.

Hope Springs Eternal

2010-11-23T10:43:00.001-05:00

Today I decided to dust off the ol' crockpot and play dinner roulette. This is how the game is played: I put good, decent ingredients into the crockpot, stir them up, put on the lid, and wait six hours. At dinnertime, I lift the lid off of the crockpot. An enjoyable meal that doesn't cause too much grousing = I live to cook another day. On the other hand, if I am the only cheerleader of the meal and nobody wants anything to do with it = well, you know.

I've played and lost many times before. Here's a photograph of Hoppin' John from All You magazine:

Boy, howdy, doesn't that look good?

And here's a photo of how it turned out at Chez Foley:

Sweet Mother of Mercy, where did I go wrong?

I swear, I followed the recipe word for word. But even I couldn't muscle this mush down.

This weekend my family and I went to McKinnon's Market in Somerville, Massachusetts, which is one of those butcher shops where they're practically giving it away. A chicken-leg-quarters-for-59¢-a-pound kind of place. We loaded up on chicken breasts, so today I found a dead-simple recipe at Cooks.com for crockpot chicken. I've added a few tweaks; we'll see how it goes. Here's the recipe, just in case it turns out well:

Hope Springs Eternal Crockpot Chicken
1 can Cream of Onion Soup
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. white wine
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. paprika
2 carrots, sliced (I used a crinkle cutter. Marketing!)
1 small onion, diced
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 T. flour

Mix everything but the chicken together in the crockpot. Add the chicken and moosh it around until the chicken is covered in the sauce. Put the lid on the crockpot and cook on low for four hours or until done.

Remove the chicken from the sauce, then pour the sauce into a pot. Mix the flour with enough water to give it the consistency of heavy cream. Bring the sauce to a boil, then stir in the flour and water mixture, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat when the sauce has thickened.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Peeled Zucchini...Your Secret Ally

2010-08-07T08:29:00.001-04:00

Who doesn't like zucchini? Well, it turns out the answer to that question is "Everyone in my house except me." I don't understand these people. It's green, it gets squishy when steamed, it's bland...oh, now I get it. But it got me thinking: with these qualities going for it, zucchini could be my secret ingredient in a lot of dishes, lending its nutritional value without standing up in the middle of the dish yelling "I am zucchini! Hear me roar!" Except for one thing, that telltale green skin.

You know where this is going, right?

Yep, peeled and grated, zucchini fades into the surrounding ingredients and takes a back seat to stronger flavors. And I know for a fact that it's undetectable because I've included it in a number of dishes lately and my supertaster husband, Mike, hasn't noticed it at all. I know that he reads this blog, so I'm only going to reveal the recipe for one of the zucchini hiders. Mike, I love you, man, but sometimes it's better that you don't know. I'm doing this for your own good. Really. Did I mention that I love you?

Try it for yourself, and you'll see that it works. But for goodness sake, get rid of those incriminating peels and zucchini ends before somebody sees them!

Garden Sauce for Pasta
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
4 tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 bell peppers, seeded and diced (use red bell peppers for maximum invisibility)
1 c. zucchini, peeled and grated
1 T fresh herbs, minced (parsley, oregano, basil...whatever's handy)
Salt and pepper to taste

Put everything except for the herbs in a pot, cover, and cook over medium heat until all the vegetables have softened, stirring occasionally. Using an immersion blender, purée the vegetables until smooth. If the sauce seems too thick, add water to thin it out. Add the herbs, salt and pepper. If the kiddos don't like leafy green things, you can add the herbs before you purée the sauce.

Le Pièce de Résistance

2010-07-30T09:09:00.000-04:00

There's nothing like a buffet-style dinner to bring out the creativity in the kids! Recently here in the Northeast US we had a heat wave, so naturally I didn't want to heat up the kitchen by cooking. So I thought a savory salad would do the trick. I put a dry rub on a piece of steak, then cooked it up on the grill. The kids and I went out to the garden to pick some fresh lettuce. A couple of sliced peppers, cheese cubes, tomatz, and a drained can of beans later, dinner was done.

Henry surprised the heck out of me by piling on the veggies, then drizzling the ranch dressing around the rim of the plate like a sous at Babbo.

He wanted to make a video of his masterpiece, so I let him. Here it is:

Looking to Video Games for Inspiration

2010-07-19T21:46:00.001-04:00

This spring, I became one of those parents who downloads a boatload of little-kid apps for the iPhone to keep the rug rats happy during long waits. One of the apps I bought is Cooking Mama, a fun little game where the idea is to succesfully to prepare a variety of meals. The player performs kitchen tasks -- stuff like chopping vegetables by dragging his finger across the screen and sautéeing things in a pan by shaking the phone around -- in order to complete the recipe. The kids and I all love this game, so one day I decided to prepare one of the Cooking Mama recipes, Hamburgers Cooked in Tomato Sauce.

At first, my idea was to involve Jack and Henry in the food prep so that they would see how the various things they did in the video game translated into real life. But when it came time to cook they had better things to do, so I prepared the recipe myself.

And boy, did it turn out great! The burgers were mild enough to be very accessible to both boys while having enough flavor for me. Henry and Jack really scarfed them up, giving the big thumbs up when I asked them how they liked it. I can't wait to try some of the other recipes that Cooking Mama taught us!

Cooking Mama Hamburgers in Tomato Sauce

1 onion, chopped

1 T vegetable oil

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 c. breadcrumbs

1 egg

1/2 c. milk

salt and pepper

1 14 oz. can tomato purée

Sauté the onion until it is soft, not brown (or Cooking Mama will get fire eyes and you will FAIL). Put the onion in a large bowl, then add everything except for the tomato purée. Knead this mixture with your hands until it is completely blended, then form patties. Sauté these on both sides in a large skillet, doing this in two batches if necessary, until the patties are almost cooked through. Drain any accumulated grease from the pan, then pour in the tomato purée and cook, covered, for about five minutes. Serve the patties with the sauce from the pan.

Mom Hates Something, Too

2010-06-10T12:07:00.000-04:00

Ever since I'd heard about it on Iron Chef (the original Japanese version, thank you--there is no other kind), I had wanted to try natto, which is fermented soybeans. Apparently, it's all the rage in Japan and has been for centuries.

Last week I was on a business trip to Denver, so I decided to have some sushi. There was a natto roll on the menu, and I ordered it. The sushi chef asked me hesitantly if I was sure that's what I wanted. "Yes!" I confirmed.

Long story short, it sucked.

First, the smell was very off-putting. Sometimes when things are fermented better things result from the process. Think beer, wine, and cheese. But fermented soybeans just aren't an improvement on the original.

Then there was the texture, or "mouthfeel" for all you foodies. The natto made everything except the outer nori wrap slimy. It was a real exercise to keep on chewing.

I was able to eat five out of the six rolls. I figured by that point I had proven to myself and to those in my immediate vicinity that I was a brave soul, someone who walks the "just try it" talk. It was hard, but I dood it.

I will never. Ever. Ask my family to eat natto. Sorry, Iron Chef and any Japanese people who may be reading this blog. I'm sure I've offended at least one person who grew up savoring the rich, unique flavor of natto. Well, if it makes you feel any better, go ahead and rag on something I adore eating. Here are a few to get you started: oysters, deviled eggs, stuffed cabbage, and lychees.

Modified Shepherd's Pie a Complete FLOP

2010-05-21T09:39:00.000-04:00

Since Jack has declared mashed potatoes unfit for human consumption, I decided to try a modified Shepherd's Pie using white rice as the topping instead of mashed potatoes. I used a great product from the King Arthur Flour Company, Vermont Cheese Powder, which I mixed in with the rice, thinking that it would make it tastier. Well, for me it did, while the kids thought it was extra-disgusting.

As ever, I thought the dish turned out spectacularly, while the boys thought it was worse than field rations. They only finished their meals after I threatened to cut off their ice cream supply for the night.

For what it's worth, here's the recipe:

Laura's Failed Shepherd's Pie

1 lb. ground beef

1 chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 c. cooked corn (I used fresh; you may use canned or frozen)

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 1/2 c. cooked white rice

1/4 c. Vermont Cheese Powder

1/2 c. shredded mozzarella

In a large skillet, sauté the beef, onion, and garlic until the meat is no longer pink and the onion is soft. Drain off any accumulated fat, then mix in the corn and soup. Put this mixture into a casserole. Combine the rice with the cheese powder, then put this on top of the meat mixture. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the top, then broil until the cheese melts and browns a bit. Serve to the undying adulation of your grateful family. Or not.

Jack and Henry's Redeeming Qualities

2010-04-12T17:07:00.001-04:00

I spend a lot of time ragging on my kids on this blog, when in fact they are pretty good eaters. As Krusty the Clown once said, "I kid because I love." Why, just last night Jack volunteered to try a little broiled cod after he saw Henry's friend eat some. "Not bad," he said just before frantically reaching for the milk to wash it down. "I was tricking you," he explained. But at least he ate it! And I didn't even have to ask!

And last week at the grocery store he asked me to buy some kumquats. Now, when I was a little girl, my gourmet fancy-pants uncle gave me a taste of candied kumquats. Which, to his horror, I spit right back into the jar. So I didn't have high expectations for these regular, unsweetened ones. The label on the package instructed us to squish the little beggars between our fingers to get the juices going and make the flesh nice and pulpy. On the count of three, we both took a bite. "One...two...three...HOLYMOTHEROFGODTHESESTILLTASTEAWFUL!!!" Into the trash they all went.

Another thing my kids eat that other kids don't is seaweed. They love the dried seaweed (nori) used to make sushi. And they especially love the Korean kind because it's roasted and salted and it tastes great. The whole family can't get enough of it. But the kids at Henry's school were giving him the business because they thought he was weird for eating seaweed. I asked him to ask his buddies if they liked yogurt, chewing gum, and salad dressing. After the big setup, he was to tell them that all of these things contain...seaweed! Ha! Eat that, nay-saying gradeschoolers!

So, yeah, I complain a lot even though I have much to be thankful for. But let's face it, would anybody be interested in reading about how every single thing I cooked was a smash hit? Nah, disagreement creates drama, which is interesting.

"Mom, I HATE This April Fool's Joke."

2010-04-07T09:06:00.000-04:00

I can't believe this.

This April Fool's Day, I thought I'd surprise the kids by serving cupcakes for supper! Ha ha, they're really meatloaf cakes with mashed potato frosting! Big laughs. Well...not really.

Henry thought they were a riot, and gamely posed for his picture before wolfing his "cupcake" down.

Oh, Mother, you're a real card!

Jack, on the other hand, was not amused. He thought he was going to get actual cupcakes and that, coupled with his newfound aversion to mashed potatoes, put the nail in the coffin of this joke.

Mom! I thought you meant real cupcakes!

Incidentally, cupcake-sized meatloaf cooks a lot faster than one huge meatloaf and automatically creates individual portions, so I'll probably use this method of cooking it in the future. The instructions called for foil muffin cups, but I didn't have any so I just baked the meatloaves in the muffin pan and placed them into paper muffin cups after they were cooked. These splayed out and didn't really sell the gag. Plus, cleanup was a real drag.

Jack's Wild Imagination

2010-03-31T21:00:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday, Mike's Irish mom prepared a corned beef dinner for everyone. Much to everyone's surprise, Jack was woofing it down like there was no tomorrow! So, since tonight was Leftover Night, I figured that Corned Beef Part Deux would be nuthin' but net. But once again, I learned that I should never assume...

Jack: What's for dinner?
Me: Dad, Henry, and I are having mac and cheese, which you didn't like. But you get to have the corned beef!
Jack: I don't like corned beef.
Me: What are you talking about? On Sunday you were woofing it down like there's no tomorrow.
Jack: My imagination told me to like it. But I punched my imagination and now it went away and now I don't like it.
Me: You control your imagination. Why don't you imagine that you like corned beef?
Jack: No.

Unfortunately for him, my imagination told me to serve him the corned beef anyway. He managed to eat it all, with the help of the King's Condiment, ketchup.

iCarly provides inspiration for tonight's mega-hit dinner

2010-03-11T21:14:00.000-05:00

My son Henry likes to watch iCarly on occasion, and I have to admit I like it too. One of the characters invented Spaghetti Tacos, which Henry thought would make a great dinner for the Foley family. My first thought was to enclose the spaghetti in a tortilla and wrap it up like a burrito. But I quickly realized that it was hard taco shell or nothing at all, since both boys have told me in the past that they hate flour tortillas.

So we had Spaghetti Tacos, with veggie sticks on the side to give the meal at least a slight nutritional value. As you can see from the pictures, it was thumbs up all the way!

Spaghetti. Tacos. So. Good!

Don't bother me, can't you see I'm eating?

I'm not going to provide a recipe for this post. If you can't put two and two together on this one, I really can't help you!

Ham Chokettes, or "Favorite Food + Favorite Food ≠ New Favorite Food"

2010-01-08T16:21:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, one of my favorite meals was Chicken Croquettes. My mom used to cook them in a deep-fryer that had belonged to her father, and they were little slices of heaven. Of course, in these modern, fat-free times I hesitate to deep fry anything. Yet somehow, I can get behind "shallow frying" things in a pan that has about a 1/4" of oil in it. Basically it's the same thing, but it takes a little longer because the morsels aren't being cooked on all sides at once as they do when they're suspended in oil. Hey, I sleep at night.

After Christmas we had an abundance of leftover mashed potatoes and ham. (Note to self: From now on always buy spiral-sliced ham.) So I thought that since the kids both like mashed potatoes and I could kind of sell the ham to Henry (Jack loves ham, so no problem there), what could possibly go wrong with combining the two into croquettes?

Plenty.

"Mooooommm, what is this?"

"Mom, what kind of meat is this?"

"I don't like these!"

Of course, Mike and I both chowed down like there's no tomorrow. They came out just fine, but the boys' underdeveloped palates couldn't make the intellectual leap into novel flavor combinations. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Ham Croquettes

2 c. leftover mashed potatoes

1 c. diced ham

1 egg

1/2 c. leftover gravy (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 more egg*, beaten

1 c. breadcrumbs

Oil for cooking

Combine the first five ingredients until well blended. Form mixture into smallish patties. Dip each patty in the beaten egg, then in the breadcrumbs to coat, putting them on a plate as you go. Refrigerate the patties for at least an hour. Do not omit this step! If you do, the patties will fall apart in the hot oil, guaranteed. Been there, done that.

In a deep skillet, heat 1/4" oil until just about smoking. Cook the patties a couple at a time, turning once when they have browned. Drain on paper towels and serve with whatever sauce will keep your little rug rats happy.

* Don't you hate it when a recipe calls for a certain measure of stuff, then halfway through the recipe you find that you were supposed to have used only some of it in an earlier part of the recipe, saving the rest for a later step? Me too! That's why I've put eggs on the list twice. You're welcome!

What They Don't Know Won't Hurt 'Em

2010-01-01T14:25:00.000-05:00

Henry's on this "I'm not hungry" kick when I ask him what he wants for breakfast, to which I always reply, "You have to eat breakfast, that's what gives you energy for all the stuff you're going to do today," blah blah blah, static static static. Anyway, sometimes I can get him to drink a fruit smoothie at these times, which satisfies my desire for him to have something nutritious to start the day.

So the other morning, I blended some frozen raspberries, frozen peaches, strawberry yogurt, and some water to thin it out. After it was done I had a taste. Swa...swa...SWEET! I couldn't serve him that in good conscience. How could I bring this beverage back from the brink of disaster? Easy...silken tofu.

This bland food is much softer than regular tofu. It's great for sauces, dips, and spreads because it takes on the flavors of whatever it's combined with. So, I figured, why not smoothies? As it turned out, it worked perfectly. Not only did it cut the sweetness of the smoothie, it was virtually undetectable and added protein. Both Henry and Jack guzzled it down. Score one for mom!

Fruit Smoothies with Silken Tofu

1/2 c. frozen raspberries

1/2 c. frozen peaches (about 5 slices)

1/2 c. strawberry yogurt

1/2 c. water

6 oz. silken tofu

Blend. Serve. Give yourself a high five.

An Aptly Named Dish

2009-12-29T19:17:00.000-05:00

We hosted Christmas dinner over at my house this year so now we have lots and lots of leftovers! Let me say for the record that this was the first time I've ever bought a spiral-sliced ham, and it was AWESOME! Serving it was as easy as falling off a log, and I've been throwing ham into just about everything we've eaten since. But Mike grows weary of the ham, so tonight I decided to use some of the leftover turkey in a dish I like to euphemistically call "Stuff on a Shingle."

Now, I know what you're thinking: "That's not what it's called!" Well, before you tweet about what a know-nothing idiot I am, remember that I'm selling this stuff to a four-year-old and a seven-year-old. What you call it is your own business. I call it Stuff on a Shingle.

It's your basic recipe: white sauce, turkey, some frozen peas, a little salt and pepper and that's it. I purposely made it bland. I had made a loaf of whole wheat bread in the bread machine earlier today, so I toasted up some slices and poured that lovely concoction on top. Brilliant! Add a salad and you have a meal...

...that nobody liked. Jack actually stabbed himself when his fork skidded off the hard crust of the toast!

Come on, it's not like it was battery acid or anything. Take a look:

Mmmm, I've never seen anything so tasty looking!

Another triumph!

I'm having it on a baked potato tomorrow for dinner while the kids eat hamburgers.

Stuff on a Shingle

2 T butter

3 T flour

2 c. milk

Salt and Pepper

2 c. chopped meat (turkey, ham, beef, pork, etc.)

1 c. frozen peas

In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and mix it in until it forms a roux, a sort of paste. Cook this for about a minute, then add the milk a little at a time, whisking after each addition to avoid lumps. After all the milk has been added, continue cooking and stirring until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper, then add the meat and peas. As the peas thaw the temperature of the sauce will reduce so that you don't burn the roof of your mouth with your first bite.

Serve on toast or a baked potato. Bask in the praise of another magnificent meal.

I've Met The Only Kid Who Hates American Chop Suey

2009-12-29T18:33:00.000-05:00

Last night a bunch of little kids ate over at my house. Naturally, I decided to serve the slam-dunk meal for kids: American Chop Suey. Word on the street was that two of the kids hated onions, so Mike, who was acting as the evening's prep cook, puréed the crap out of them until they were undetectable in the final product. Yay, Mike! When it was served, four of the five kids lay into it like starving jackals.

But there was this one kid--let's call him Max--who absolutely hated it. He literally spat his first bite back into the bowl right there at the table! There were extenuating circumstances--his mom had just left him in his aunt's care for a few days--so we decided to coddle him just a little bit. I did something I'm not proud of but that I will lay odds that every mother has done at least once in her lifetime: I rinsed it off.

Now, this is not the first time I've ever rinsed off food to placate a kid who just can't stomach all those darn flavors. This summer I sprayed the seasonings off of a perfectly good macaroni salad. Here's the photographic proof:

Before: Macaroni Salad. Yum yum!

After: "I can't believe I'm doing this."

So, I rinse off the American Chop Suey, right? Then I set it before Max, who stares at it uncomprehendingly. I asked him, "Would you like some ketchup?" He answered yes, so out came the King's Condiment, which he proceeded to load into the bowl. Well, if you rinse tomato soup concentrate from the American Chop Suey then add ketchup, you've basically replicated the recipe. Which Max discovered with the first bite.

His aunt's no dummy, so she asked him, "Max, how old are you?"

"Seven," answered Max.

"Then take seven big-boy bites." Ooo, snap!

Max took seven of the lamest bites that could have been characterized as "big boy," then was mercifully excused from the table.

Guess you can't please all of the people all of the time.

Obtaining Buy-In

2009-12-04T17:44:00.000-05:00

My idea to create dinner table harmony worked like a voodoo charm! Here's what went down.

On Sunday, I called a family meeting to discuss all of the stress that's been visiting our dinner table lately. I told everybody how depressing it was to try night after night to feed them a wide variety of nutritious dinners only to have them gag and retch at the very thought of putting it into their mouths. I equated what I create (dinner) to things that the boys create (artwork, LEGO sculptures, etc.), and asked them how they would feel if I didn't even want to look at their drawing/LEGO/whatever because I'm sure I didn't like it even though I'd never seen it before I just knew that I'd hate it. I think it sunk in a little bit when I explained it like that.

After working on the emotions, I gave everybody an assignment. I spread out the cooking magazines and kid cookbooks all over the dining room table. Then I told everyone to pick three dinners they like to eat. The only restriction was that it couldn't be pizza or macaroni and cheese. Since all of the publications feature full-color photos of the food it allowed everyone, even pre-reader Jack, the opportunity to have his say.

I gotta tell you, it worked. Not only did we come up with a comprehensive list of non-gagworthy dinners, that night Henry himself helped cook the lasagna he'd found in one of his cookbooks! But it couldn't be a Foley dinner without a twist ending: Jack declared at the table that he hates lasagna. Of course you do, Jack, that's why four hours ago you said how much you love it.

Here's what we came up with and our success rate so far:

I'm going to convene this family meeting once a month from now on. The results speak for themselves!

I'm Tired...Tired of Playing the Game

2009-11-29T07:35:00.000-05:00

Oh, man, the family wore me out this month.

Last night, Jack literally cried when faced with the prospect of eating my wretched Chicken and Turkey Pot Pie. Henry muscled through half of it, since now he's at the age when he can see that a) it upsets me when people don't like my cooking and b) he'll get dessert if he puts in a "good, honest try" as they used to say around my own dinner table as a child. Even Mike chimed in. "What is this I'm tasting? You didn't put tarragon in here, did you? (I know he hates tarragon.) Did you put celery in this? (I know he hates celery; see "Cream of Yuck Soup.")" Well, since I made two and froze the other one, I have an emergency covered dish to give to some ailing family that lacks taste buds. Or I can give it to my mom. She'd eat it. She'd love it.

Two weeks ago I poached some chicken breast, then made a creamy chicken and rice casserole topped with panko. Errrrrrgh! (That's the sound of the "wrong answer" buzzer on a game show.)

Later that week, to use up the chicken I made Chicken Pasta Alfredo using Trader Joe's Alfredo sauce, frozen veg, and little wheel-shaped pasta. Errrrrrgh!

I think I've got it figured out. My family's enjoyment of dinner is in direct inverse proportion to the effort I put into it. All three of these dinners took just minutes to make. And seconds to criticize. Coincidence? I don't think so.

However, the month wasn't a total wash, foodwise. Last Saturday, I shopped at a fabulous supermarket new to the area, H-Mart. It's laid out like a Western supermarket, with a huge building, wide aisles, and it's clean (No offense, C-Mart in Chinatown, but your bathroom would gag a maggot.). It sells food from all over the world, with a focus on Korea. There's a whole kimchee section (!), and you can buy pre-marinated meat that you just grill up and you've got Korean barbecue. I was in foodie heaven! But guess whose kids don't like Korean barbecue? Oh well, at least they liked all the shumai, edamame, and seasoned seaweed I got. I guess things aren't as bad as they seem.

Well, today I'm going to call a family meeting. I have a scheme to get everybody on board with the meal planning. Check back to find out how it went...

Samosas? More like Sa-GROSS-As.

2009-10-22T19:46:00.000-04:00

The other day I found what I thought would be a new and improved way to serve ground beef...samosas! If you don't know what these are, basically it's a pastry stuffed with savory filling, either meat or vegetarian. But I knew that traditional samosas had a snowball's chance in h-e-double-hockey-sticks around here, so I thought I'd get crafty. Why not just season half of the mixture with spicy curry powder for me, and keep the other half plain for the boys? What's not to like?

Plenty, as it turned out. Jack actually spit it back into his napkin, twice! And Henry muscled through it just to make me happy. And I thought I really had something! Oh well, at least it didn't end in tears.

Outta the park, Mom!

Best meal ever, Mom!

I mean, come on! Just look at 'em! I even folded them up differently so that I wouldn't mix up the spicy ones with the plain ones.

Mmmmm...samosas!

Well, I thought they rocked, and if Mike'd been here he'd've said the same thing.

Samosas

1 small onion, diced

1 potato, peeled and diced

1 T oil

1 c. frozen peas

1 lb. ground meat (optional)

1/4 c. ketchup

1 T curry powder (optional)

1 package prepared pie crust (should contain two crusts, rolled up)

Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and the potatoes and sauté until the potatoes are nearly done. If you want to speed up the process, add about 1/2 c. water and cover the pan with a lid. Add the ground meat and peas and cook until the meat is no longer pink. Remove the pan from the heat, add the ketchup, and mix well. If you want spicy samosas, add the curry powder now.

Unroll the pie crusts and cut them into quarters. Moisten the edges of each quarter, and fill with the stuff you just cooked. Fold the crusts over and pinch them to seal or use a fork to crimp the edges. Put the samosas on an ungreased baking sheet and cook at 450° for about 18 minutes or until the crusts have browned. Let them cool for a few minutes, then serve and wait for the compliments to start rolling in.

Roast Turkey the Lazy Way

2009-10-13T15:50:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid I remember my mother reorganizing the refrigerator every year a couple of days before Thanksgiving to make enough room for the huge honking turkey that had to thaw out before it could be cooked. Heck, I've gone to great lengths myself to thaw out a turkey...even setting it in a cooler full of warm water (which is now discouraged due to the increased intelligence of bacteria these days). Oh yeah, I've done the whole Silver Palate turkey roasting routine. Been there, done that.

Well, these days my time is much more precious than it used to be. I don't have time to oversee the days-long thawing process. Who needs it? Not me, since I learned that it's possible to roast a turkey from stone cold frozen.

How? Easy! All you have to do is unwrap the frozen bird and plop it breast side up into a roasting pan with a cover (or a shallow roasting pan covered with aluminum foil). You cook the turkey at a lower temperature (325°) and 1.5 times longer than you normally would. At about the second hour, the bird heats up enough for you to remove the goody bag, which is usually stuffed where the neck once was.

About an hour before it's done, take the pan out of the oven and remove most of the juice (there will be a lot!) with a turkey baster. There's your gravy base. Then coat the bird with a light misting of cooking spray, hit it with a little salt and pepper, and put it back in the over uncovered so that the skin gets nice and brown.

Sure, you can't cook the turkey with the stuffing inside using this method, but who cares? Just do a stovetop or oven-baked stuffing in a casserole and you're good to go.

So here are the approximate cooking times for frozen turkeys. Poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165°, taken with a thermometer stuck in the thickest part of the thigh. Set the oven to 325°.

Cooking Frozen Turkeys
8 to 12 pounds	4¼ to 4½ hours
12 to 14 pounds	4½ to 5½ hours
14 to 18 pounds	5½ to 6¼ hours
18 to 20 pounds	6¼ to 6¾ hours
20 to 24 pounds	6¾ to 7½ hours

PS This works great for frozen chicken, too!

Market Basket Saves the Day

2009-10-04T09:53:00.001-04:00

Here in New England, there is but one choice for the frugal grocery shopper: Market Basket. Their products are consistently less expensive than those of other area supermarkets. This enables me to justify the 25-minute drive to the closest one a couple of towns away and not to shop at the Stop and Shop just five minutes from my house.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I bought a store-brand frozen Shepherd's Pie from Market Basket. It was kind of pricey--$7.00--which I didn't notice until I was at the checkout line. But my fears of having overpaid for a frozen dinner were banished last Friday as I basked in the glory of another home-run meal for the kiddos.

At first Jack didn't like it, since "Shepherd's Pie" doesn't exactly resonate with a three-year-old, but after Mike christened it "Potato Pie" Jack couldn't eat it fast enough. Plus, Henry's friend Justin was over and he loved it, too!

So for a measly $7.00 (everything's relative), not only did I serve a popular, mildly nutritious meal, but I realized how easy it would be to make a bunch up on my own, freeze them, then reheat them for a quick weeknight meal.

Of course, the Market Basket Shepherd's Pie was kind of bland so that it would have broader appeal. But it wouldn't be difficult to tailor the recipe for any family's tastes, for example by:

Using a vegetable mixture instead of corn
Making it "Mexican Pie" by using chili or Miracle Mexican Filling for the meat layer
Adding a can of condensed tomato soup to the meat mixture
Covering the top with Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Cheese Mashed Potatoes, etc.

Shepherd's Pie

1 lb ground meat (beef, pork, chicken)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can yellow corn, drained

2 c. mashed potatoes

Sauté the meat, onion, and garlic in a skillet until the meat is cooked through and the onions are soft. Drain off any fat, then put this mixture into an aluminum pie pan. Pour the corn over the meat mixture and smooth it out. Finally, cover the pie with a layer of mashed potatoes, flattening it out across the top of the pan.

At this point you can either bake it at 400° until the potatoes are browned and serve it today, OR you can cover it tightly in plastic wrap and freeze the pie for later. To heat, bake it at 400° for 45-55 minutes until heated through.

EVERYTHING'S Better on a Stick. And With Pizza.

2009-09-24T14:14:00.000-04:00

Usually when I cook something that's a total flop with the kids, I'll create a "make-up" dinner the next night. So the day after I made a fabulous Indian dinner from scratch for my husband and me that left the kids gagging, I made Pizza Bites and veggies on a stick. Humungous hit!

The Pizza Bites recipe came from one of Henry's cookbooks, so it was easy to make and really, really tasty. You just use premade pie crusts for the pizza dough and fill it with a mixture of pizza sauce, grated cheese, and either meat or veggies. You can make them as wholesome or as bad-for-you as you like! We went halfsies: meat (the half-moon shaped ones) and broccoli (the rectangular ones). Guess which Pizza Bites were more popular.

Veggies on a stick is my way of serving salad without lettuce. Sure, I could have put the chopped veggies in a dish, but where's the fun in that? Just make shish-kabobs out of them and serve with salad dressing on the side. Boom, you're done.

EVERYTHING is Better in Color

2009-09-12T18:16:00.000-04:00

The other night I had to attend a networking meeting for my business, so I left the preparation of the kids' dinner in the hands of my husband, Mike. I'd set him up with what I'd hoped was a home run: chicken breasts, rice pilaf, and kids' choice veg. Well, Mike took these ingredients and ran with them in a totally novel direction. And the kids ate every bite.

You see, Mike subscribes to the school of camouflage. If the food is basically good, he elevates it to a new level to the kids by dumping a crapload of food coloring into it, thereby forestalling any complaints about the food itself. He's done it in the past with oatmeal and yogurt with great results. Sometimes the kids even get to choose the colors!

You've never eaten grilled chicken, rice pilaf, and corn until it's in Technicolor. Witness the following:

He's smilin', ain't he?

This'll get the chicks!

We prefer the McCormick Neon colors for more vivid results. And here's a bonus use for food coloring: they can be used to color the bathwater, and they don't even stain the tub!

Third Helpings?!? YESSSSS!

2009-09-05T09:52:00.000-04:00

The other night was Roast Chicken Night, a no-brainer slam-dunk of a meal that I fall back on again and again despite Henry's assertion that he hates chicken. One of the side dishes was Rice and Beans and both kids went back for seconds. Henry even went for thirds. I couldn't believe it. Not only did I sneak in a vegan recipe, but they went for it like a wolf pack on a roast.

Rice and Beans

1 onion, diced

1 T vegetable oil

1 packet Goya Sazón

1 t Goya Adobo

1 can red beans, rinsed and drained

1 c white rice

2 c water

In a deep pot, heat the oil, then add the onions and cook until they're translucent. Add the Sazón, Adobo (both of these are Latin all-purpose seasonings found in the International aisle of the supermarket--think "Señora Dash"), and rice. Stir and cook for about a minute, then add the beans and water. Crank up the heat until the water boils, then reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and leave it alone for 20-25 minutes. When the rice is cooked, mix everything up and serve.

Dinner Psychology 101

2009-09-03T09:08:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite uses for leftover roasts is hash. But when I tried to get the kids to eat it they just turned their noses up at it. Maybe they didn't like the sound of it: Haaaaaasssssshhhhh. The word itself conjures up images of a mixed up mess, a naughty body noise, a melange of leftovers and nameless flavors forced upon little kids that defies description because it's different every time it's made.

So what's a marketer to do? Put a new spin on it of course.

"Hey, kids, tonight we're having Roast Beef Scramble!"

"Yaaaaaayyyyyy!"

Originally it was going to be Ham Scramble, but I'd mislabled some meat in the freezer so roast beef it was. Good thing, too, because Henry reaffirmed his hatred of all things ham after nibbling on a bit of it as a before-dinner snack.

In addition to my hash coup, I also got them on board with the green beans using a tip I learned from the new Gastrokid cook book. Instead of just roasting the beans myself, which is waaay different from my usual steaming method and which results in icky (to a kid) brown spots on the beans, I enlisted their help in drying the beans off thoroughly to avoid steaming the beans rather than roasting them. They took turns pouring olive oil on the beans, then Henry swirled them around in the roasting pan to coat them. After Jack administered a quick sprinkling of salt, I popped them in the oven. When Jack balked at eating the beans later at dinner, I reminded him of how much he helped and that he should at least give them a try. He declared them "great."

So, two negatives turned into a positive at one meal. Plus they ate everything up. Score one for Mom!

Roast Beef Scramble
1 onion, diced
6 small red potatoes, diced
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 t garlic powder
2 c cooked roast beef, diced

Heat the oil in a large skillet. When the oil is hot, add the onion and potatoes. Cover the pan so that the potatoes steam. Every once in a while stir everything up, but not too often because you want to build up the brown cooked spots on the potatoes and onions.

When the potatoes are soft, sprinkle the garlic powder over everything, add the beef, and mix well. Keep the pan on the stove until the meat is heated through. Serve with the king's condiment, ketchup.

Roasted Green Beans
1-2 lbs. green beans
olive oil
salt
fresh lime or lemon wedges

Preheat the oven to 400°. Trim, wash, and thoroughly dry the green beans. Dump them into a shallow roasting pan or cookie sheet large enough to hold the beans in one layer. Pour enough olive oil over the beans to cover them and include a little extra to keep the beans from sticking to the pan. With your hands, turn the beans over and over until they're coated with oil, then spread them out in a single layer. Sprinkle salt over the beans, then roast for about 18 minutes, checking on them periodically and shaking the pan. They're done when they've started to become slightly brownish. Serve with lemon or lime wedges on the side so that everyone can control how much juice they get. It'd be a pity to ruin all that preparation with somebody complaining about the taste of the lemon/lime juice. Pick your battles.

Salami Sushi

2009-08-31T15:28:00.001-04:00

Wow, has it been a year already? Well, I just got back from the Creative Freelancers Conference in San Diego where we all agreed that we need to set aside time for fun, "just-for-me" projects. Since cooking remains one of my great passions, I felt it was high time to start posting again. Plus, I met a graphic designer from Miami at the conference who just happened to have read this blog in the past!

Anyway, I knocked one out of the park today with Salami Sushi. For Henry's sushi (above, left) I used a piece of deli cheese and two slices of salami, and for Jack's (above, right) I used salami and a piece of bread that I'd cut the crusts from and flattened with a rolling pin. Both rolls had julienned cucumber at the center. Since Jack specifically asked for toothpicks I used them in his rolls.

As you can see in these unstaged, from-the-heart poses, Henry and Jack enjoyed their lunches. It was the Clean Plate Club for the both of them!

Henry says "yum" to salami sushi!

So does Jack!

Deceptively Delicious...With Mixed Results

2008-09-08T15:11:00.000-04:00

So by now you've no doubt heard about Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. In this cookbook, Ms. Seinfeld describes how to incorporate various vegetable purées into your everyday cooking, thereby giving your family their necessary daily allowance of seventeen servings of vegetables, or whatever it is these days.

Anyway, the other night I decided to try puréeing two carrots and sneaking them into our usual Sloppy Joe recipe. Guess what? Everyone scarfed it down like there's no tomorrow! I felt like a super genius.

Buoyed by my success, I decided to try slipping some puréed butternut squash into the Kraft Mac and Cheese Jack and Henry can't seem to get enough of. It's the same color, right? I tasted it before dishing it out to them, and it seemed fine to me. But the kids weren't fooled. Henry complained of the weird texture of the cheese, and Jack called it quits after two bites.

Tonight I used the rest of the butternut squash in my standard meatloaf recipe. I'll let you know how that goes...

"Hamburger Sticks" a Hit

2008-06-04T09:57:00.000-04:00

After a while, I just get tired of preparing macaroni and cheese, pizza, and spaghetti for my little ankle-biters. So last night I decided to try a recipe for Thai meat skewers out of a Marks and Spencer cookbook (they're the authority on all things Thai, don't you know). The recipe included little green things, garlic, and chili paste--yuck-o. I figured I'd better have a backup plan, so I served plain rice and edamame on the side.

Rather than call them "Thai meat skewers" (ho-hum) I called them "Hamburger Sticks" (wow!). I'd cooked them using metal skewers, which I removed before serving. But for the boy's plates I reinserted bamboo skewers so that they boys could pick them up and eat them without forks.

After one bite, Henry said, "I like this!" and went to town on it, finishing every scrap of food on his plate. And Jack ate as well as I'd expected from a two-year-old. I was flabbergasted.

So the lesson here is never to give up!

Thai Meat Skewers (from a Marks and Spencer cookbook, Thai, with some adaptations)
1 lb. ground pork
3 scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 T cilantro, chopped
1 t freshly grated ginger
1 t Thai curry paste
1 egg

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend into a paste. Divide the mixture into six parts. Form each part into a sausage shape, mush a skewer into it, then pat the mixture around it to enclose the skewer. Refrigerate the skewers for at least an hour, then grill on a medium hot barbie or grill pan until done, about 8-10 minutes. Serve with sweet chili sauce for dipping (or ketchup if you want to swallow your pride in exchange for your kids' membership into the Clean Plate Club).

Oh, My TVP-15!

2008-05-02T06:33:00.000-04:00

In my ongoing effort to include at least one vegetarian dinner a week in the menu rotation, I decided to prepare a sure-fire classic, Taco Dip with Miracle Mexican Filling, with TVP instead of ground meat. I had heard about TVP, textured vegetable protein, for years as being a decent substitute for meat since it has a similar chewy texture. At our local Ocean State Job Lot, they sell Bob's Red Mill products at a good discount, so I was able to pick up several bags of TVP on the cheap.

Miracle Mexican filling is an all-purpose Mexican flavored stew that can be served in many ways: straight up, wrapped in a burrito or taco, or scooped up with chips. Make a bunch of it and freeze some for later.

I didn't say anything when I served the meal. My husband Mike pronounced it "delish" and went back for second helpings. They boys kind of pushed it from one side of their bowls to the other, but they're in a "we hate everything" phase right now, so it was to be expected. When I spilled the beans about dinner to Mike, he told me he'd suspected it wasn't meat, but that it was really, really good!

I'm looking forward to incorporating TVP into another meal soon. Maybe the next time the boys will give it a try. Or not.

Taco Dip with Miracle Mexican Filling
Chips:
Flour tortillas
Cooking spray

Cut the tortillas into wedges and put them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Spray them with cooking spray and toast them for about six minutes in an oven set on "broil," turning the chips over midway through cooking. Keep a close eye on the chips so they don't burn.

MMF:
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, chopped
1T vegetable oil (omit if using ground meat)
1 lb. ground meat, or 2 c. chopped cooked meat, or 2 c. TVP
1T ground cumin
1T ground coriander
2t Adobo seasoning
1 can beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chopped tomatoes, with juice
1 can tomato sauce
1 c. water or broth (if using TVP)
1 c. frozen or canned sweet corn

Toppings:
Chopped lettuce
Grated cheese
Sour cream
Chopped tomatoes
Chopped avocado or guacamole
Salsa
Hot sauce

In a large skillet, sauté the onion, garlic, pepper in oil. If you're using ground meat, sauté that as well and omit the oil. When the vegetables are soft and the meat (if using) is cooked, add the spices and cook for one minute more. Add all remaining ingredients. If you're using TVP and the mixture seems dry, add some more water. Cook this for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

To serve Taco Dip, give each diner a bowl filled with MMF. Pass around the chips and toppings.

April Fool!

2008-04-02T15:01:00.000-04:00

Last week I did a little research on funny food gags I could pull for April Fool's Day. Well, they all looked pretty complicated and time consuming to prepare, so I fell back on an oldie but goodie that my mom had done to us kids when we were little. She changed our milk into pudding by adding rennet and sugar. It still looked like milk, though. I remember that for some reason I decided to sample my milk with a spoon that night, and my mom jumped at me yelling, "NO!" I was pretty taken aback until I realized that I had almost ruined her joke.

Since rennet is pretty gross when you think about it (it is derived from the stomach lining of cows — yum!), I decided to thicken the milk with cornstarch. Here you see the "milk" just after I poured it into the cups. Note the clever addition of straws to further disguise it!

I served the "milk" with great flourish, expecting everyone to gasp with amazement at my joke preparation and the irony of solid milk. Instead, I got a wry chuckle from my husband and no yuks at all from the kids. Henry did manage to drink it up through the straw, though.

Here's the recipe for the pudding. If you want to make it chocolate milk, add 1/4 c. cocoa powder. I don't think it would be as convincing, though.

Vanilla Pudding
1/2 c. white sugar
3 1/2 T. cornstarch
2 1/2 c. milk
2 t. vanilla

Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a microwave-safe bowl. Add enough of the milk to make a paste and stir until all the lumps are gone. Add the remaining milk.

Place the bowl in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on HIGH. Take the bowl out of the microwave and mix the contents. Continue to cook on HIGH in one-minute intervals, stirring after each heating, until the mixture becomes thick and glossy (about 3-4 minutes).

Stir the vanilla into the mixture, then pour it into cups. Put these in the fridge to set.

An Oldie but Goodie

2008-03-27T13:58:00.000-04:00

Two nights ago I made a delicious egg fried rice with shrimp in coconut sauce. Well...at least it was delicious to my husband and me. My older son, Henry, soldiered through it but admitted he only ate it without complaining so that he could eat dessert. My younger son, Jack, literally swatted his plate across the table like it was some loathsome bug.

Usually after a night like that, I'll serve a dinner that everyone's liked in the past. My no-fail, slam-dunk dinner of this kind is Grandma Pitney's American Chop Suey.

Grandma Pitney was my friend's mother-in-law. This woman had seven kids, so she had to get loads of food on the table that everyone would eat. Every time I make her recipe the whole family shovels it in like there's no tomorrow.

So here it is, your comfort food of the day!

Grandma Pitney's American Chop Suey
1.5-2 lbs. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
16 oz. short pasta, such as rotini, elbow macaroni, or penne rigate
1-2 14 oz. cans condensed tomato soup
Grated parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta according to package directions. In a very large skillet, cook the beef and onion until the beef is cooked through and the onion is soft. Drain any accumulated fat, then add the cooked pasta. Add tomato soup concentrate until desired consistency is reached. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

A Family Dinner for Easter

2008-03-24T06:41:00.000-04:00

This Easter, I decided to prepare a traditional family meal for my mother, stepfather, husband, and kids. But I didn't go for the roast ham or leg of lamb. This year we had a traditional Korean family meal, bi bim bap.

Basically you serve a bowl of rice with a variety of toppings, with a big ol' fried egg on top. The diners then plop a dollop of chili paste into the bowl then vigorously mix the contents, yielding a big ricey mess. It's great!

I only ever prepare this dish on the weekends, because although it takes minutes to eat it takes hours to prepare due to the many toppings one must prepare. But since I love to cook and since we have an open floor plan in my home so that people can relax on the sofa while I do it, I didn't mind in the least.

For this meal, the toppings included marinated steak; spinach with sesame seeds, rice vinegar, and sesame oil; sautéed mushrooms deglazed with red vinegar; and a cucumber and red pepper salad.

My husband's mother, when told about my plans, declared it "sh*t food." We all declared it "delicious."

Bi bam bap before mixing

Bi bim bap after mixing. Bon appetit!

I made onigiri (Japanese stuffed rice balls) out of the leftovers since Jack had slept through the main event. As you can see, he was delighted with the results:

Ahhhh! This food is the Devil! Take it awaaaaayyyy!

Success!!!

2008-03-04T06:37:00.000-05:00

Oh, happy day! Last night on the way home from after-school care, Henry asked what was for supper. "Rice and beans," I told him. "Yay!" he replied.

Are you kidding me!?! "Yay!" All right!

Lately I'd been throwing lots of air balls. Last week I made a corn chowder using Better than Boullion vegetable stock base that was so bad that I threw the entire batch away after I'd muscled down a bowl to prove "how good it was." It wasn't. And two nights ago I made a concoction that can only charitably be described as "loaf." I learned that there is such a thing as stretching a pound of meat too far.

My new favorite cookbook is Cheap. Fast. Good! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Moss. It is a textbook-thick tome detailing all kinds of money-saving, nutritious meals. Oh, did I mention the recipes come together really quickly? Granted, the Loaf recipe came from this book, but it redeemed itself in spades with its rice and beans recipe. I added a couple of Latin American flavorings I had around the house and came up with a keeper. Henry could not shovel it in fast enough. In fact, he had his mouth right next to the plate and was literally shoving the food into it with his spoon.

Jack, on the other hand, is on a one-molecule-only dinner kick and couldn't be troubled to eat anything. Too bad, more for us!

Riding on that success, I tried serving Henry some banana custard I'd made with some bananas that had been on the way out. No deal. Oh well, ya can't win 'em all!

So I guess there is hope after all for getting the kids to eat healthful vegetarian meals. Don't give up!

Rice and Beans
(adapted from Cheap. Fast. Good! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Moss)

1 c. rice
1 onion, chopped
1 T. vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 c. cooked black beans (or one can, drained and rinsed)
1 c. cooked red beans (or one can, drained and rinsed)
1 can chopped tomatoes, with liquid
1 c. frozen corn kernels
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cumin
1 t. ground coriander
1 packet Sazón Goya
1/2 c. Recaito Goya
Grated cheese and salsa for serving

Cook the rice in a steamer or in a pot on the stove with 2 c. water. While rice is cooking, heat a deep skillet over medium high. Add the oil, then the onion. When the onion is softened, add all the other ingredients. Continue cooking until the corn is heated through and the edge is taken off the garlic. Serve the bean mixture over rice in bowls.

Meet your new best friends!

What a Two-Year-Old Has Taught Me About Food

2008-02-01T16:40:00.000-05:00

My son Jack is a font of information. Just when I think I know everything there is to know about something, he brings some new twist to the subject. Take food, for example. I have learned the following by observing Jack at the dinner table:

Sugar snap peas are meant to be shelled, the peas thrown on the floor, and the shells discarded in various piles around one's dinner plate.
Food is better when served with a dip. It can be conventional, such as salad dressing served with cut-up vegetables, or esoteric, such as toast dipped into breakfast cereal. It helps if you accompany your meal by saying "Dip, dip, dip" while dipping the food.
Keep your mother hopping by devouring a particular food one evening, then declaring it "Nucky! Nucky! Nucky!" with a smile the next.
Enjoy your food more by eating with your hands. Utensils are for uptight squares.

Cream of Yuck Soup, Part Two

2008-01-09T16:33:00.000-05:00

Why, oh why, do I never learn from past experiences? I know my husband Mike doesn't like celery. I know that he has the supertaster-like ability to detect even a single molecule of celery in anything I cook. So why did I add celery leaves to my black bean soup? Because Mario Batali told me to.

Last year I read Heat, Bill Buford's memoir of working at Babbo, one of Mario Batali's restaurants. He describes Mario railing against the kitchen staff when they discard the leafy trimmings from the celery. He'd bellow something like "These make excellent stock!" as he plucked them from the garbage and threw them back onto the cutting boards. So I figured if celery leaves were good enough for Mario Batali, they'd be good enough for the Foley family.

You know how if you you chop celery up and add it to a stock it'll impart a subtle celery flavor? Well, the leaves lend an intense celery flavor. Even though I removed the leaves before I puréed the soup, it was like being smacked across the mouth with a bunch of celery. The soup just reeked of celery.

Mike didn't even get the spoon to his mouth. "Did you put celery in this?" he asked. "Ummm," I mumbled, wondering if I could get away with telling him some white lie about aromatics. Then the steam drifted from the top of my bowl and found its way into my nostrils. "A little," I confessed. That was the first time I ever saw Mike shove a bowl across the table. "I can't eat this."

As ever, I enjoyed my own cooking and drank every drop of that soup. Now all I have to do is eat two more quarts of it.

The Old Switcheroo—Volcano Roast Beef

2008-01-03T15:49:00.000-05:00

OK, since Volcano Chicken was such a megahit, I figured the concept could be expanded to different types of leftover meats. Thus was Volcano Roast Beef born.

All I did was to cut some leftover roast beef up into pieces about 1/4" wide and 1" long, bump up the leftover gravy with a can of chicken stock (since we ate most of the gravy with our roast beef dinner), and add about a cup of frozen peas. Dump that over some baking-powder biscuits in a lavalike manner and Voila!

If you don't know how to make gravy from a roast, here's a primer. Remember, you must make the gravy right after the roast comes out of the oven. You can't wait until you're about to make this recipe!

Gravy from a Roast
Juices at bottom of roasting pan
2T butter
2T flour
1 1/2 c. chicken or turkey stock (homemade or canned)
Salt and pepper

After the meat has been roasted, remove it to a grooved cutting board and cover it with aluminum foil to rest. Pour the pan juice into a fat separator or skim excess fat off the top of the liquid with a spoon.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, then let it get a little brown. Not too much or it'll burn. Add the flour and cook this roux for a minute or two to get rid of the raw-flour flavor.

Add the juices to the pan, mixing steadily to avoid lumps. Then add the chicken or turkey stock and stir to blend. Keep stirring every once in a while until the gravy thickens.

Pour any accumulated liquids from the cutting board into the gravy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Kids are Full of Surprises

2007-12-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

I'm a member of my town's chapter of the MOMS Club and we just had our kiddie Christmas (oops, I mean "holiday") party. I brought finger sandwiches to munch on, mainly because I didn't want to have to feed Jack a big lunch when we came home; I wanted him to eat at the party.

I made two plates of sandwiches. I figured I couldn't go wrong with PBJ, but I also wanted to have an adult-friendly choice. So I made turkey salad sandwiches, using a chicken salad recipe I learned about 17 years ago from a really cool jeweler in Jamaica Plain, a Boston neighborhood. Since the recipe incorporates ginger and scallions I figured the little ankle-biters would avoid them like the plague.

Guess what? Everybody gobbled up the turkey sandwiches (geddit?) and I had half a platter of PBJs to take home. So my advice to anybody preparing a meal for a kid—make what you'd like to eat. If you set the bar high then people will strive to meet it.

At least that's how it worked out this time.

JP Chicken (or Turkey) Salad
2 c. cooked chicken or turkey, diced
2 scallions, chopped
1" piece of fresh ginger*, peeled and grated
3/4 c. mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Ta-da!

*The fresh ginger adds an indefinable *yum* to this dish; don't substitute powdered ginger.

It Was a Passing Fancy...

2007-12-18T16:19:00.000-05:00

On Thursday and Friday Henry, my five-year-old, had big bowls of homemade granola. This morning, after I had gotten up super-early to make some more granola, he ate a couple of bites before confessing that he didn't like granola because of the nuts.

Last night he informed me that he didn't like asparagus anymore. Later, he asked for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, after telling me on numerous occasions that he didn't like those anymore, either.

And today I gave Jack, my two-year-old, some steamed carrot sticks and chicken bits for lunch. After consuming all of the chicken, he shoved the plate across the table, leaving the carrots untouched. He used to love carrots!

What is it about the immature palate that causes these sea changes? I wish I knew before I made my shopping list, because it would make mealtime a heck of a lot less frustrating. I liked it much better when they were both learning how to eat. I could lay a steaming bowl of tripe before them and they would have chowed down gratefully. Well...maybe not tripe. But they were willing to try a bigger variety of foods.

Oh well. I guess I'll just keep on trying. Who knows? Maybe one day they'll surprise me by asking for zucchini fritters or moussaka.

Yeah, right.

Bringing My Marketing Experience to Bear on Dinner

2007-12-10T07:07:00.000-05:00

Following a series of disappointing setbacks at the dinner table, I decided to approach the dinner-rejection problem from a different tack. I realized that there wasn't any excitement, any sizzle at the dinnertime. "Lunchables" aren't called "Highly Processed Food Conveniently Packaged in a Single Serving" for a very good reason: "Lunchables" is catchier--it's cool, it's hip, it's, as Henry puts it, sick. What I needed to do was to disguise the nutritious meals I've been flogging as a fun mealtime experience. Taking a cue from marketing, I transformed "blah" into "Bravo!" in a single stroke.

Everyone knows what chicken pot pie is. But do you know what "Volcano Chicken" is? It's chicken pot pie served in a puff pastry shell. And it was a shovel-it-in unqualified hit at my house the other night. Why Volcano Chicken? Because when it spills out over the sides of the puff pastry shell it resembles an erupting volcano. Well, not really, but the kiddos bought it hook, line, and sinker.

The following recipe is highly adaptable depending on your kids' tastes. Frozen vegetables are perfect for this recipe, since they thaw/cook at the same time. Badda-bing!

Volcano Chicken (or Turkey)
1 package of puff pastry shells
3 T unsalted butter
2 T flour
4 c. chicken or turkey broth
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 T soy sauce
2 c. chopped cooked chicken or turkey
1 c. frozen peas

Optional Add-ins:
Mushrooms, sliced and sautéed until all liquid has been released
Diced carrots, steamed
Diced potatoes, boiled (or frozen hash browns)
Chopped onion, sautéed until golden
Chopped parsley

Cook the puff pastry shells according to package directions. While they're in the oven, prepare the "lava."

Make a roux by melting the butter in a saucepan, then adding the flour. Cook the roux for a couple of minutes to eliminate the taste of raw flour, then add the broth (slowly at first so you don't end up with lumps). When the gravy thickens, season it with salt, pepper, and soy sauce (go easy on the soy sauce--you're going for umami, a savory flavor, not salty).

Add the chicken or turkey, frozen peas, and any other add-ins you think your kids will eat. After the meat and vegetables are heated through, spoon it into the puff pastry shells.

This meal is good with rice and a steamed vegetable. Chow down!

Cream of Yuck Soup

2007-11-25T14:39:00.000-05:00

I should know better than to serve vegan dishes to my family and expect them to like it. But, ever the optimist, I'll keep trying until I find something they like.

Today I made a vegan vegetable soup, starting with the basic aromatics (celery, carrots, and onions). My husband came over and asked, "Is there any meat in this?" and I said, "No, ha-ha!" Then he saw all the celery and said that he wouldn't eat it. I told him that he'd eaten lots of dishes I'd cooked using celery and he'd never even known it. He retorted that he was just being polite. Touché.

After the aromatics were cooked, I added other vegetables and a broth that came from boiling some lentils a while back. After it was done, I puréed it with an immersion blender.

To counter the whole vegan thing I made toasted ham sandwiches on a focaccia I had made two days earlier. Something for everyone, right?

Wrong. While Mike, my husband, ate his sandwich, the boys, Henry and Jack, both hardly touched their food.

Once again, I thought my cooking was dynamite. I'll keep trying to bring my family around.

Cream of Yuck Soup
2 T olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 c. broth (I used water left over after boiling some lentils)
1 can cannellini, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes and liquid
1 tomato can water
1 T. dried basil
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. When it is hot, add the celery, carrot, onion, and garlic. After the onions become translucent, add the bell pepper. Let that cook for a couple of minutes until the pepper softens. Then add the broth, cannellini, tomatoes and liquid, water, basil, salt, and pepper. Turn off the heat when it comes to a boil, then use an immersion blender to purée the soup. If you don't have an immersion blender, then you can purée it in batches in a regular blender. Serve with a smile and let those compliments roll in!

Cornflakes for Dinner

2007-11-23T06:26:00.000-05:00

Every so often I throw in a vegetarian recipe just to mix up the menu at our house. I'm not a vegetarian, but a friend of mine and my cousin are, so I like to have a few good veggie recipes on hand in case they come to visit. Besides, I think it's more healthful not to eat meat all the time.

In Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home there was a recipe for Broiled Tofu that sounded innocuous enough. All I had to do was to press the extra water out of a block of firm tofu, brush it with a marinade of soy sauce, canola oil, sesame oil, and a dash of Tabasco, then broil it until done. The recipe stated that these are "delicious and satisfying, and might instantly become a family favorite." Since the boys both like tofu, I figured it would be OK. I served it with Asian Cabbage Slaw, which used a vinaigrette of oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce rather than the traditional mayonnaise-based dressing.

But I did have my doubts about the meal, so I made sure to prepare it on a night when my husband was going out after work with some friends.

As meal flops go in the Foley house, this was classic. Both boys literally shoved their plates across the table, Jack bellowing "NO!" and Henry starting to tear up. Usually at this point I would stick to my guns and tell them both that this was supper, I'm not a short-order cook, blah, blah, blah. That night, however, I just told them they could have corn flakes instead, which they did.

I, on the other hand, thought it was great!

From now on I'm going to stick with the more traditional definition of "burger" when I'm serving something in a bun. At least for a while, anyway...

Early Cooking Memories

2007-11-05T15:59:00.000-05:00

First Attempt at Soup
I remember one of my first made-up recipes was for soup. I filled a small saucepan with water, added coarsely chopped celery and carrots, dumped in a bunch of dried herbs from the spice rack, and heated it up. I think I cooked it long enough for the vegetables to soften, but I'm not sure. All I know is that my mom put on her game face after tasting it and proclaimed it "Great!" That's what moms are for.

Vegetable Pie
I decided to create a savory vegetable pie one day. I made a pie crust and loaded the pan with sliced zucchini, onions, tomatoes, and herbs. I added a top crust and baked it until the vegetables were tender. It came out great, but pretty soggy. My mom still raves about it to this day.

Trailer Duck à l'Orange
Around 1981 or so we moved to a house under construction about 200 yards away from the house where I grew up. It wasn't easy, since the only finished part of the house was the cellar and the floor above, which served as our roof. It was kind of like camping, except it was real life and at times it was pretty dismal. Like the time it rained all night and when I woke up the next morning and swung my legs out of bed I landed up to my ankles in water.

To provide heat and hot water we used an old woodburning cook stove. After a bunch of red dust had been blown out of the water pipes (I guess it must have been sediment from the water that it had heated for its former owners) it proved to be a wonderful stove that also yielded boiling-hot water at the opening of a valve and heated the whole place. You could bake cookies in about a minute and a decent-sized turkey took only an hour and a half. Eggs would fry in 30 seconds. But of course the stove's main drawback was that it took a long time to heat up.

We got ahold of an old camping trailer, a really tiny one, which we parked right outside the cellar door. It had a gas stove, which we used when we wanted to eat quickly and didn't want to wait for the wood stove to get up to cooking temperature. Apart from the gas stove the trailer was pretty gross, so we never slept in it used it for any other purpose than to shelter the stove.

One day I was getting pretty fed up with cellar-hole living and wanted to elevate myself and my family to a higher way of life. So I found a recipe for Duck à l'Orange in Joy of Cooking and cooked it up right there in the trailer. As I recall, it came out perfectly.

I'm sure that duck wasn't authentically French and that it probably wouldn't have earned high marks from a food critic. But for me it was a slice of Heaven.

How the Mighty Have Fallen, a Culinary Tale

2007-11-02T14:09:00.000-04:00

I have always loved good cooking and good food. When I was in high school, I dreamed about becoming a great chef. Of course, this was in the days before the Food Network and rock star chefs like Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, and Rachel Ray. So my guidance counselor steered me away from this career path, deeming it a dead end. Instead, I became a graphic designer.

There are many similarities between a chef and a designer. Both take a range of ingredients and combine them in novel ways to create something new. Both are very creative. Good chefs can create their own mini-empires in the kitchen, commanding a staff who works with speed and precision to create masterpieces. A good designer can become a creative director and command a staff who...well, we designers aren't known for speed and precision. Still, we do create masterpieces.

Although I never became the professional chef I wanted to be, I still enjoy cooking very much. There's nothing I like more than spending an entire day preparing a feast for friends and family. In fact, there is a couch next to my kitchen where early arrivals may sit and converse with me while I work out the final details of the meal. And there was a time a couple of years ago when I seriously considered becoming a personal chef, traveling to people's homes and preparing meals for them to be reheated later. (It's a good gig, but the setup costs are daunting.)

I now have two children, and I'm sure you see where this is headed. When Jack and Henry were both young, just starting out on solid foods and before they could refuse it verbally, they'd eat just about anything. The only limitation I put on my cooking was no spicy ingredients--chili powder, jalapeños, raw onions, and the like. And they ate up my cooking like there was no tomorrow. But that was long ago. Now Jack and Henry have become really good at letting me know if the meal is a slam-dunk or a flop. Jack, the two-year-old, sticks with the classic "shoving the dish across the table" move to indicate his dislike of the meal, while five-year-old Henry prefers sampling a couple of molecules then declaring "I tried it but I didn't like it."

I haven't given up entirely on exposing my family to a wide range of cuisines. In fact, Homemade Sushi Night is still pretty popular, with everyone pitching in. However on work nights I don't start cooking until about 6:00. So time-consuming, complicated food prep is out of the question. But I don't just want to heat a frozen dinner or make mac 'n' cheese out of a box. Instead, I have developed a list of weeknight recipes that have all the characteristics of a successful meal:

It comes together quickly
It tastes good to children and grown-ups
It has at least a little nutritional value
I'm not embarrassed to admit I've served it to my family

Here are two of my more popular meals. These recipes have become my dependable allies, and I usually will bring them out after a string of flops to keep everyone happy.

WACKY MAC® with Meatballs
WACKY MAC is a colorful pasta that comes in four shapes – wheels, shells, spirals and tubes. I don't know if it's any better than other kinds of pasta, but it has the coolest name!

Meatballs:
1/2 c. breadcrumbs, or 2 slices of bread
1 lb. ground turkey, chicken, pork, or beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 egg
1 t. Italian herbs or Herbes du Provence

Ideally, you should use a food processor for this recipe. If you don't, the texture of the meatballs won't be as uniform.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

If you're using bread slices rather than breadcrumbs, put these into the food processor first and pulverize them. Otherwise, put everything into the food processor at once and blend for a minute or two until it is really well mixed.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and coat it with cooking spray. Form small meatballs (about 1" in diameter) and arrange them on the cookie sheet. Bake for twenty minutes.

I usually use half the recipe for that night's meal and freeze the other half for later.

WACKY MAC
Cook one bag of WACKY MAC or other pasta according to directions and drain.

Sauce:
1 jar spaghetti sauce

Heat sauce in saucepan. Add meatballs. Dump on top of WACKY MAC. Ta-da! You are a culinary genius.

If you're feeling guilty because that was too easy and you'll be damned if your family is going to eat bottled pasta sauce and blah, blah, blah, you can add more nutrition by mixing in one or more of the following:

2 puréed carrots (cook the sauce for a while so they'll soften up and not reveal themselves)
1 small zucchini, finely grated (if they ask, tell 'em it's parsley)
chopped fresh tomatoes
chopped steamed broccoli
minced mushrooms, sautéed until all liquid is released before adding sauce

Chicken Chunks
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (enough to feed everybody)
White, creamy salad dressing, such as ranch or Caesar
Panko (a type of Japanese breadcrumbs, available in the international aisle)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and coat it with cooking spray.

Cut the chicken into chunks and put them into a bowl. Add enough salad dressing to coat the chicken and mix everything up until the dressing covers all the chunks. Put the panko in a separate bowl then add the chicken chunks, tossing to coat.

Put the chicken on the cookie sheet, being careful to space them out. Bake for about 20 minutes. Serve with dressing on the side as a dip.