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.

Fallafel Dinner and new Lemon Custard

So last night,as planned Fallafel and fancy rice for dinner. Cliced cukes with Rosemary for a salad. Lemon pudding was an afterthought.
The first thing I always do when cooking is put the water for rice or pasta to boil. That's what takes the longest time.

Frangrant Rice for 4

put 2 cups of water to boil. add 1/4 tsp salt
when boiling , add 1 cup rice, 2 TBSP chopped dried apricots or white raisins to pot , lower heat to simmer, cover and start timer.
at 10 minutes, add handful of snow peas into pot, 2 chopped scallions, chopped lemon peel
heat 2 more minutes, turn off heat but leave covered. Rice is done in 2 additional minutes,.

Fallafel for 4

• soak 1 lb dried chick peas in water overnight ( done last night)
• process plumped peas with 1 bunch of parley (or spinach or mint) in food processor
• place wet mix in bowl, add 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of bread crumbs
• add enough bread crumb ( or flour) to be able to shape 2 " patties
• Fry in 1/4 inch of oil turning when medium brown.

Lemon Pudding

Okay this turned out to be a weird recipe, but it works.

• Pour one can of sweetened condensed milk into a bowl
• Add the juice of 2 lemons, about 1/3 of a cup. Mix the 2 well

This mix will get firmer and firmer as you stir it. It's very lemony and very sweet at the same time. I saw this recipe as a pie filling in the 1970's Joy of Cooking and tried just the filling part. It's very very very rich. If serving as a pudding, I'd serve 1/4 of a cup with some whipped cream, maybe a bit of cream cheese or chopped mango on top. I'm going to play with this recipe since it was so easy. I wonder if it works with orange juice or does it need more acid that that?

Prepping tonight: Fallafel and Lemon Rice

Fallafel is ground chic pea and herb balls that are fried. I need to put the chick peas in water to swell.
Fragrant rice just needs lemon, scallions and some apricot jam to make a tasty mix. Salad will be cucumbers with vinegar and rosemary. An easy prep tonight.

Tonight's Chicken Casserole and Egg custard.

Dinner went off without a hitch, which is good since we were hungry! Dinner was in 20 minutes. Chicken casserole in the oven at 350, some raw carrots for the veg and a quick stove top custard for dessert.
Okay, dessert was not part of the plan but... it's really nasty outside and custard is so homey.

Egg Stovetop Custard
in top part of a double boiler mix over boiling water

• 2 cups of milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar
• pinch salt
• tsp of vanilla or other flavoring

Whisk constantly for about 6 to 10 minutes until the custard thickens. DO NOT let this get really hot, 'cause then the egg bits poach and you have a wet sandy texture to the custard.

You can also put these in custard cups, place these in baking pan filled 1/2 way up the cup sides with water and bake for a while in a 300 degree oven . I don't usually do that. My favorite quick custard is a cornstarch one made in the microwave. Each microwave oven is different so you have to record the times the first time you make it to get the recipe perfect.

Microwave Blancmange

The trick to this recipe is to make a cornstarch paste with NO lumps in it before adding all the milk

• whisk together in a microwave safe bowl 1/3 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of sugar.
• measure 2 cups milk and 1 tsp vanilla or orange flavor.
• add very little of the milk, maybe a Tsp to the starch and mix very well. Get rid of the lumps
• Keep adding milk very slowly-and mixing until you are sure there are no lumps left at all then whisk in the rest of the milk

Microwave at full power for 2 minutes, then check the pudding. If the mix is not yet hot, microwave at 1 minute intervals until pudding starts to set on one side of the bowl.. Record the time it took. Whisk pudding and return to microwave at 30 second intervals. The pudding is done when it is thick and no raw cornstarch flavor remains. Record this time too.

Pour into pretty cups and refrigerate until firm. It tops well with fresh fruit or with chocolate syrup drizzles.

Notes

When you make the pudding again, set the timer for the time it took to start setting. When the buzzer sounds, whisk the pudding, return to microwave for second time interval.

In my first microwave, the times were 3 minutes, stir and reset for 1.30 minutes. In my new one, it takes 5 and 3 minutes. Go figure.

I like it best with orange flavoring. My nephew prefered this as a warm drink rather than letting the pudding cool in the fridge.

Tomorrow's Chicken Casserole Done

I boned the cooked chicken, and since I was there... I cooked rice in some of the stock, and cleaned up the kitchen. While the rice was cooking I made a simple white sauce:

• 1TBSP Butter whisked with 1TBSP flour on a medium hot pan
• add about 1 cup hot stock a little at a time whisking constantly
• herbs and spices and salt to taste

I mixed the slightly undercooked rice with the chicken, about 3/4 cup of chopped tomatoes and the white sauce in a greased casserole dish, then covered everything with crushed saltines.

Tomorrow when I come home, all I have to do is pop this in a 350 oven until warmed through, boil some water , then drop in some sliced carrots, and as soon as the carrots are soft, drop in a handful of snow peas. Dinner is done!

A few notes

I love leeks! The green made a nice ingredient in a stock. The all white part just dissolves in soup , so you can get a really nice leek and potato cream soup.

All this can be done with canned chicken stock- I just usually make my own since - well, I have the chicken bones right there anyway.

I was going to make the casserole with potatoes instead of rice, but well, I didn't feel like peeling potatoes again today. I'd made Spanish potato omelets for lunch.

Snow peas are hellishly expensive, but we like them. Usually in a casserole like this I use frozen mixed bagged vegys. They are good, nutritious and reasonably priced. The only drawback sometimes is that the combo of carrots, corn , peas and green beans I like can sometimes be a little sweet.

Finally, I don't mention how I spice things up. I tend to like herbs more than fiery spices , but any of these recipes can take the addition of hot spices and more herbs. In this case I used a lot of Rosemary for example, since that's what I have on hand. It goes well with chicken.

Small glitch but back on track. Pork Chops today; Chicken casserole tomorrow.

So I did what I set out to make last Friday: we had a cold collation, I made a rhubarb cobbler for dessert, and I prepped the potatoes for Saturday's pork chop and potato dinner. What I forgot was that the family was going out to dinner Saturday to celebrate a wedding.

Great time had by all, and several of us tried fried pickles( not I as I loathe pickles) and pronouced them wonderful.

So back on track today.

Took the kids to the movies at 3:30 so dinner had to be on asap when we returned. As the potatoes were peeled and in the pot, it was quick work to cut up some apples as a side dish, as well as make a salad. Dinner in 35 minutes. After dinner , on to prepping tomorrow's meal.
As I type now, my chicken stock is boiling merrily away.
I cut up a whole chicken, saved the breasts for chicken nuggets later in the week. I put the rest of the bird, including the 2 legs , in a pot with leek tops and some carrots.
So now I'm reducing the stock while letting the chicken cool in the fridge.

Begining tonight!

Off to work again with a 1 1/2 hour commute and people to feed when I return home. And though it's nice to be able to afford fancier ingredients, well, I don't have the time to shop for those special items.
So here's the plan: find a way to cook for us that gets a meal on the table in 20 minutes, consists only of things available at the supermarket, takes advantage of seasonal fruits oh, and is relatively cheap!
Organization to the rescue. If a large restaurant can manage to feed hundreds of starving guests each night, without knowing exactly what each customer wants, then I should be able to imitate their success for my small family. After all, my customers have to eat what I put on the table!

So here's the first go at organizing the meals. I wrote out a quick cooking meal list for the week
We're having

• Chicken and potato casserole with assorted vegy


• Macaroni and cheese with ham and peas


• Pork chops with apples and potatoes


• Cold collation( a picnic to the rest of you :-)


• Falaffel with rice and salad


• Spaghetti with meatballs and salad


• Chicken nuggets with rice

It's pretty balanced- there's pork, chicken, beef, cheese and chickpeas for protein; potatoes, pasta and rice for carbohydrates; one tomato based dish, several salads and the unmentioned vegys in the mix. I know the casserole takes longer than 20 minutes, BUT, it can be made ahead.

I picked up the chicken, deli roast beef and ham, pork chops, rice, rhubarb, eggplant, squash, strawberries, mango, lemons, cukes, carrots, bread, cheese sticks, flour, potatoes, pasta and a can of black beans for about $45. I have milk, eggs and butter on hand( I stockpile butter on sale and I have laying hens) as well as tomato sauce, chickpeas, frozen mixed vegys, and hamburger.

Since I just finished the grocery shopping, here's the first trial effort.

Tonight , since it's almost 80 degree and my daughter is off to a play tonight, we're having a picnic supper of Deli roast beef, good bread, cucumbers with rosemary salad, and a quick -ish rhubarb cobbler for dessert. The cobbler cooks while we eat and will be done by the end of supper.
Recipe for Rhubarb Cobbler

1. Wash, trim and dice 1/2 lb of rhubarb and strawberries
2. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar, 1Tbsp of flour . Let sit for up to overnight
3. Preheat oven to 450F
4. Butter or use Pam in an 8" ovenproof dish or pan
5. Place fruit in dish
6. In new bowl mix 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tablespoon of sugar and some grated orange rind if you have it
7. Cut up 4 TBSP ( 1/2 a stick ) of butter into really small pieces and drop into flour mix. Work it with your fingers until you get a sort of mealy texture.
8. Add 3/4 cups of milk and mix quickly. This will look pretty icky.
9. Drop this rather stiff batter on top of the fruit
10. Bake for 25 minutes. you can put some melted butter over the batter to keep the crust soft, but I usually forget.

When we return tonight, I have to prep the chicken and potatoes for tomorrow's dinner.