Crazy Mid May

It's been crazy here for the last 2 weeks- 2 birthdays, Mother's day and non stop rain for 2 weeks. And putting up a new ceiling in the kitchen.It's been a zoo.
So back on track again with the meal planning. I'll restart formally on Monday but for tonight, Black Beans and Rice for dinner.
It's pretty much my standby meal right now since it's a cupboard supper- I can make it from ingredients in the cupboard and freezer, though I always seem to have some fresh vegys around.
I'm consciously trying to include 1 or 2 vegetarian meals per week- I vegan and one cheese or egg based to combat both rising prices, and global warming.

I'm testing canned chicken later tonight since I just found this at Target. I have used tuna forever but it's the first time I have seen the chicken. If I can make a decent salad or filled tortilla, I will add this to my cupboard suppers.

The Lime Pudding as Lime Curd or Crepe Filling

Last night's dessert of Lime Pudding was a quick dish, but very intense and somewhat filling. This morning I made crepes for breakfast as usual. Daughter spread a bit of the lime and banana dessert on her crepes and wow! was that good. It was pretty good on toast too. I think the intensity of flavors is too much on its own-rather like trying to eat jam straight from the jar.

I will continue to use this condensed milk, citrus and banana mix as an instant breakfast topping and crepe filling rather than as pudding. It is soooo good that way.

Quick Crepes or pancakes

• Whisk 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk
• Add 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp baking powder and whisk in.
• (For sweeter crepes, add 1 to 2 TBP sugar, 1 tsp vanilla or a bit of cinnamon)
• (For savory crepes add 1 tsp favorite herbs.)
• Heat small frying pan on medium, run bottom of pan with butter , spoon in 1/4 cup max of batter and swirl pan until you get the thinest pancake passible. Pour out any extra back into batter bowl
• Cook for 20 seconds or until tan on bottom, then turn crepe and brown on other side for 15 seconds.
• put cooked crepes on a plate- but if you are making a lot, cahnnel your inner short-order cook:
• Flip 1st crepe on plate, butter pan, pour next crepe in pan, put filling in 1st crepe and roll up like a cigar, turn over 2nd crepe in frying pan, flip 2nd crepe on plate, butter pan, etc You'll be moving between filling the just done crepe and making a new one. This recipe makes about 10 7 " crepes and you can finish in about 6 minutes.

Stop- have a cup of coffe and a crepe and enjoy the morning!

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce for tomorrow Lime Pudding Tonight

We enjoyed the roast pork tonight with potatoes and salad. So now for tomorrow's prep. I'm making the tomato meat sauce. I make a simple one, but you can add more peppers, some mushrooms, more onions, zucchini, yellow squash. The vegys disappear into the sauce.
Root vegys like potatoes and members of the cauliflower family don't really go well in this dish. I do add diced carrots since it's a sneaky way to get them into the family.

Red Meat Sauce

• In largish pot, put in 2 TBP olive oil and heat to medium. Add 2 mashed garlic cloves, 1 minced carrot, 1/2 thinly sliced pepper, and up to 1 minced onion. Cook gently( do not brown the garlic as it will taste terrible. ) until beginning to turn color.



• Add 1 lb ground beef and cover with 1 can tomato puree. Add enough water to cover meat.



• Simmer gently , partially covered for 30 minutes until meat and vegys are cooked through



• Set any portion aside that you are planning to freeze now, BEFORE adding the herbs. Freezing changes the concentration and flavor of herbs.



• Add herbs like oregano, rosemary, bay or thyme . If the sauce is too acid, add small amounts of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon at a time or add lemon peel or cumin- I have no idea why the lemon peel or cumin works but it does take that sharp taste away.

Tomorrow I will cook the spaghetti squash in the microwave. If you have never had one, it's a strange vegetable. The inside is filled with long , delicious edible strings that look like spaghetti. It's a nice change from the wheat kind.

Lime Pudding

Limes were cheaper than lemons at the Weis market this week.

• Open 1 can sweetened evaporated Milk into a bowl



• Add the juice of 2 limes with a bit of grated rind to the milk and stir. The mixture will thicken almost immediately.



• Layer banana slices and this pudding into 4 fancy stemmed glasses for a pretty and fast dessert.

The Quiche of Death

Okay all plans break down. Between daughter's AP exams, a trip to MVA and getting ready for a craft show, I've been swamped. Which is why I anted to have all these meals planned out already! Sigh, sigh,long west of Ireland sigh.
Back to the drawing board!
I did go shopping yesterday , spending about $75 for 1 IL 96% fat free ground beef, 1/2 lb Ementhaler cheese, 12 oz Landis brand frozen sliced beef tips, a 1/2 lb top round steak, a Spaghetti squash, a yellow squash, cucumbers, 2 packs of baby tomatoes, 3 lbs oranges, bruised bananas,2 apples,2 lemons and 3 limes, gallon of milk, a small container of cream, parsley, frozen spinach, filo dough, chicken livers, a pepper, and carrots, a can of black beans and a can of chick peas., 2 frozen pie crusts.
A review of last weeks dinners yielded the following: a little too much chicken, a little to much rice, not enough dessert. Yeah right!
As usual, I don't need to buy butter or eggs, and I have some romaine lettuce and herbs already in the garden. I still have a lot of tomato sauce in the pantry and meat in the freezer. I'm rotating through some more of the meat this week. Oh, I also have 4 cups of chicken stock from last week.
So for this week the plans are for

• 2 quiches: one plan cheese with the Ementhaler and and one with frozen spinach. One goes in the freezer for emergency dinner. Serve a salad with this.
• Roast Pork with potatoes and apples - Roast pork from freezer.
• Spanokopita- I have feta on hand as well as cream cheese and rice. Use the Filo dough
• Spaghetti squash with tomato meat sauce- tomato sauce on hand.
• Black Beans and Rice with tomatoes and Yellow squash - It was popular last week!
• Beef Pilaf with the 1/2 steak pepper, carrots, any leftover squash, lots of tomatoes, and small onions from the garden.
• Pork chops with lemon- I cu the chops off the pork roast before cooking it.

I'm working later tonight so I'm cooking now. I have the roast pork in the oven, since it is hot today and we like it cold as well. So I have today's dinner and tomorrows already done!

Quiche of Death

A very quickly made quiche that always turns out. Think about what you want to add to it- bacon, ham, spinach, tomatoes, crab. ALL these additional ingredients MUST be pre cooked so they are rather dry- if not, the juices running out spoil the texture of the quiche. Prep time 20 minutes- cooking 30 to 40 minutes. DO NOT use celery- it turns out awful.

• Pre cook 1/2 bacon or 1/2 pound crab meat or tomatoes or ham or fried onions or leftovers.
• Preheat oven to 400
• stab 2 frozen pie shells all over with a fork and bake in the oven for 7 minutes.
• While waiting, break 3 eggs into a bowl, add 2 cups of milk and whisk. You can substitute cream or cream cheese for some of the milk but the basic formula is 3 eggs to 2 cups of liquid. Add salt sparingly as the cheese is salty, but nutmeg and pepper are always good.
• In another bowl grate 1/2 to 1 lb cheese:Swiss and Ementhaler are traditional but cheddar. provolone and jack work fine- they are just kind of mild for this.
• Open the oven and slide out the rack with the pie shells. Add 1/2 the special ingredients in the bottom of each pie. Add 1/2 the cheese on top of the vegys, then pour the egg mix on top and slide rack back into oven.
• Lower the heat to 350 and bake about 25 minutes. Check if crust is browning too much, if so lower heat or add a foil strip to crust. Poke in center of pie and if knife comes out clean, the pie is done.

Friday Night's Dinner: Black Beans and Rice

I made another quick vegetarian dinner last night, since daughter was off to a friend's later that night. On Friday's I clean out the refrigerator, using whatever leftover vegys and cheese bits are left. This dish uses up all the non starchy vegys left.

Black Beans and Rice. I first learned of this dish under the probably pollitically incorrect name of Moros and Christianos when I lived in Spain. The black beans and white rice make a stark, moderne image on the serving plate. It's a very filling dish that can stand up to hot flavors and strong spices. Feel free to add more and different vegs to the bean mix. Add more hot peppers if you like them( I don't)
The basic recipe for 2 very large dinner servings or 4 side dish servings:

• Boil 2 cups water with lemon peel and 1/2 tsp salt
• in frying pan or largish pot, heat 1 TSP olive oil on medium and add 1 clove garlic, some spring onions, 1 tsp turmeric powder, red pepper flakes, 1/2 small diced zucchini, yellow squash or handful of spinach. You want a quick cooking veg here that will absorb the yellow color. Cover and cok until garlic is cooked.
• Add 1 cup rice to boiling water, lover heat and set timer for 13 minutes
• remove garlic turmeric mix to a small bowl, Set aside
• Into the frying pan, place one can rinsed black beans, and a cup of quick cooking vegs such as 1/2 of a small zucchini, yellow squash or spinach cut into large chunks, or 1 cup of cherry tomatoes,or 1 can of rinsed peeled tomatoes, or 1 cup of corn. Cover and lower heat to cook vegies and heat beans through.

Make a ring out of the rice on a serving plate. Spoon the black beans and veg in the middle or the ring. Top with the bright yellow turmeric and minced vegs.

Snazzier versions:

Sausage

Cook strong flavored chopped sausage or baked ham chunks in low heat. Add chopped red, green and yellow peppers. Add some hot peppers as well. Add the black beans to this mix. Add cherry tomatoes. Heat through and serve over rice with the turmeric sauce.

Thurdsday Night Dinner- Mac and Cheese

Well, really it was whole wheat spaghetti with a cheese sauce and peas and ham. Make the sauce while the spaghetti cooks, and voila, dinner in under 30 minutes.

• Put water on to boil for spaghetti, add salt
• Chop a few slices of ham, grate 2 TBS Locattelli Romano or 1/3 cup soft cheese like Swiss, Jack, cheddar for the sauce
• in sauce pan, melt 2 TBS butter on medium heat
• add 2TBS flour to melted butter and whisk until completely blended. Cook for 3 minutes stirring constantly until the mix thickens and flour no longer tastes raw
• add 1 cup milk a bit at a time whisking between adding to make a smooth paste, then a smooth thick sauce. Add enough milk to make a slightly thick sauce- the cheese will thicken it further.
• Water should be boiling so add the spaghetti, set timer for 10 minutes.
• Into sauce, whisk in 2 to 3TBS grated Locattelli brand Romano cheese. This brand usually melts in completely; other brands remain gritty. Salt to taste. Add other seasonings such as nutmeg, mustard, pepper, chili pepper seeds, oregano depending on the cheese used and your tastes.
• By this point the spaghetti is almost cooked. Add some snow peas to the water to heat through.
• Drain pasta and peas, mix into the sauce, add some chopped ham and serve to kudos.

Notes

I find milk and cheese sauces to be a bit heavy in flavor. A drop of hot sauce or mustand seems to cut the milkyness, but not everyone here agrees.

You can put this mix into an oven safe casserole dish, top with additional cheese and bake the next day. We never seem to have enough left over for that.

Pennsylvania style Dutch egg noodles cook even faster- 5 minutes tops.

chicken Nuggets and Rice tonight- Mac and Cheese tomorrow

For tonight's dinner-Cut up chicken breasts breaded and fried, with plain rice
Okay, I'm putting lemon peel, and butter in the rice and will garnish with fresh parsley.
For tomorrow, it's mac and cheese with ham bits and peas. It's not really a make ahead dish since my version takes only 15 minutes.