Meatloaf, meatloaf, I hate meatloaf, double beatloaf.....

The title of this post is a reference to the classic A Christmas Story, but I'm sure it is the reaction from children everywhere when Mom tells them they're having meatloaf for dinner. Not my kids! It's my number one family requested dinner as well as client request (for my clients that only eat organic products I make this with organic ground beef). I transform it into meatballs with the addition of chopped basil and 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Our favorite sides are mashed sweet potatoes or cubed roasted sweet potatoes and roasted cauliflower or broccoli (you can always serve it with mashed potatoes and ask your kids "Who's Mommys little piggy?"). This is also one of those recipes that gets better with age, so make a big batch and freeze, it will be even better reheated. Enjoy!

1 large onion, cut into big chunks

1 large carrot, cut into big chunks

1 large stalk celery, cut into big chunks

3 cloves garlic

Add all of the above to your food processor and pulse until everything is finely diced, not pureed. (By the way you just created a Sofrito, a base for many good recipes)! Cook over medium heat with 1 tsp olive oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Pour into large mixing bowl and cool a few minutes. Add

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 egg

2 large pinches Kosher salt

1 tsp dried or 2 tsp fresh thyme

Lots of fresh ground pepper

Mix all of the ingredients together, add

20 oz lean ground turkey

Mix with your hands until everything is incorporated well. Form into softball size balls, place on baking sheet. Brush with ketchup or fancy it up by mixing 2 tb apricot jam and 2 tb dijon mustard as a delicious glaze (good glaze for pork tenderloin or baked chicken breasts also). Bake at 400 approximately 25 minutes, until the top is nice and golden and the interior is at 165 degrees. Remove from oven and let rest about 10 minutes and serve!

Variations:

Italian style meatballs: Add fresh chopped basil, substitute the thyme for oregano and add about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Form into golf ball size balls and bake at 425 until golden brown or pan fry before making your sauce in the same pan. (For my tomato gravy I make the same Sofrito mentioned above, fry it with about 2 tb olive oil after I have removed my meatballs, cook until golden brown and add 2 tb ketchup, cook another few minutes then add 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, 2 large pinches of salt and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes. Add your meatballs back in and simmer about 15 minutes or as long as you wish!) Serve over whole wheat or regular cooked pasta.

Savory meatballs and gravy: Form the mixture into golf ball size balls and pan fry until golden brown, in about 2 tb olive oil. Remove and add 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped green or red bell pepper, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tsp thyme and cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of all-purpose flour, stir and cook about 1 minute. Add 2 cups low-sodium chicken or beef broth and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, along with a big pinch of Kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper. Stir and bring to a simmer, add meatballs and cook about 10 minutes. Serve the meatballs and gravy over whole wheat or regular wide egg noodles or mashed potatoes, or even rice. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pancakes - Feed your kids a good breakfast!

This is a pancake recipe I created for my kids. It is a healthy way to start your day, takes only a couple more minutes to prepare than a store-bought pancake mix, and are delicious and tender (from the yogurt, much as buttermilk pancakes get tender from the acid in buttermilk). I love them spread with a bit of natural peanut butter and drizzled with sugar free syrup. My son likes his with butter and honey and my daughter likes hers with strawberry pancake syrup or simply boiled down strawberries. You can also make them into strips for dunking, or as is our sleep-over tradition, into the kids' initials. Enjoy!

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (not Kosher salt since we're baking)
Whisk ingredients in a large bowl. In a large measuring cup add:
1 cup fat free milk
1 container (6-8 oz) fat free yogurt (any flavor, whatever you have)
1 egg
2 Tb canola oil
Whisk together, then add one ripe banana and mash to a puree with the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix until just incorporated (don't over mix, they will get tough). Dollop as you wish (standard size is 1/3 cup fulls), and cook on a griddle as you would any other pancake!

Profiterols, cream puffs, beignets, churros, pate a choux, gougeres, eclairs, croquembouches....

The other day my daughter was watching a commercial about the new movie, The Princess and the Frog. It mentioned something about Tia being a chef famous for her beignets. My daughter asked what a beignet was so I told her we would make some! We smelled them in New Orleans square in Disneyland and I new the basic recipe so we whipped some up then got creative and made a few more variations! Yum! These are so easy, transform into many different other recipes and should become a recipe you use anytime you want to entertain! The basic recipe is a pate a choux:

1 cup water

1 stick (8 tb) unsalted butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup all purpose flour

3 to 4 eggs

Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil, remove from heat. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating each egg completely, about one minute, before adding the next egg. If your dough is not pulling away from the sides of the pan in a nice, sticky dough by the time you have incorporated the third egg, add the fourth egg. Let cool a little bit before proceeding.

Once you have the pate a choux cooled down and into a piping bag (or simply a plastic food storage bag with the corner cut off), here is how to transform it into all of these different recipes:

Beignets: Pipe small dollops about the size of a ping pong ball into oil warmed in a sauce pan over med-high heat. Fry until golden brown, remove to a paper bag lined sheet pan and toss into powdered sugar (we also made some with cinnamon). In many restaurants you can be served beignets in a brown lunch bag with the powdered sugar, you get to shake it up yourself! We also gilded the lily by drizzling part of our recipe with some strawberry pancake syrup.

Churros: Using a piping tip that creates lines, pipe lines of dough into oil warmed over med-high heat. Fry until golden brown, remove to a paper bag lined sheet pan then toss with cinnamon-sugar. For real "wow" factor, for your next get together pipe the dough into a big coil (larger open pan, such as a chicken fryer, pan on med heat this time since it will be a larger amount of dough all at once) and serve it on a big round serving platter. Everyone can break off a piece and enjoy! For real authenticity serve with Mexican hot chocolate for dunking!

Cream puffs, croquembouches, eclairs: Pipe golf-ball size dollops (3 inch long strips) on a sheet pan, bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 350 and bake another 20 minutes. For cream puffs and eclairs simply fill with sweetened whipped cream (or pastry cream), top with chocolate ganache. For croquembouches, an amazing centerpiece of cream puffs created into a Christmas--tree form, simply make your cream puffs, then start creating your tree by using homemade caramel (2-1/2 cups sugar, 2/3 cup water, boiled until golden brown-no stirring) as the glue. Dust with powdered sugar or wrap in strands of caramel, creating a cage.

Gougeres: These are the savory pate a choux, traditionally made with Gruyere cheese. You can substitute other cheeses, such as sharp cheddar, parmesan, add chopped herbs, etc. Simply add 1 cup of the cheese after all of the eggs are incorporated. Bake as cream puffs and serve as a simple appetizer or pipe the dough into 4 inch coils, with one more coil added to the outside to make a shell, and fill with a creamy seafood sauce or the same filling you would make for chicken pot-pie.

Pretend you are sitting in a cafe in France and enjoy!

Cooking with Da Brewski!

I know Octoberfest has passed, but I have been researching cooking with beer and I'm going to get on it! Don't limit yourself to cooking with just wine, beer offers the same flavor-enhancing, tenderizing qualities. There is of course the beer-batter which is a delicious coating for anything fried, but use beer in place of water for many other things such as in chili, braising meat (thinking short ribs, beef shank and sausages), even in soups (my brother made a Jamie Oliver recipe for Guiness Pie once, it was delicious!). Beer is great for adding that nice bitter, tangy note that many dishes need to bring the flavor "up". There are so many kinds of beers I have never heard of (lambics, saisons) and many are brewed with the same care as a private reserve wine, I can't wait to start learning (drinking) more! Beer pairing is also gaining popularity in many fine dining restaurants as it can be even more food-friendly than wine. Here are a few recipes using beer, use them all together for a beer-fest if you want, Cheers!

Beer Batter Bread

2-1/2 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp onion powder

3/4 tsp Italian seasoning

1 can or bottle (12 oz) beer

1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375. Grease or spray with pan-spray a 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a bowl mix all of the ingredients, except the beer and the butter. Once mixed well add the can of beer and mix just until all dry ingredients are mixed in. Pour into loaf pan and pour the butter over the top. Bake 45-55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Beer-Cheese Soup

2 Tb butter

1 large stalk celery, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dijon mustard

2 large pinches Kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper

-Cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes, add

3 cans chicken broth, low sodium

-Bring to a boil, simmer 15 minutes and puree in blender or use an immersion blender.

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup flour

-Toss cheese with flour in a bowl, slowly add to simmering soup while whisking. Once incorporated add

-1 can or bottle (12 oz) beer

Simmer and serve

Thick & Hearty Chili (great for scooping up with the beer bread!)

2 Tb canola or olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

5 cloves garlic, diced

1 lb ground beef, turkey or diced chuck roast

2 large pinches Kosher salt

3 Tb good quality chili powder

2 Tb ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

2 Tb ketchup

-Over medium-high heat add all ingredients and cook until well-browned and starting to stick to the bottom of the pan. Then add

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 can or bottle (12 oz) beer

-Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and simmer until all of the liquid is almost evaporated, except for about 1/2 cup. Add

28 oz can crushed tomatoes or tomato puree

1 drained and rinsed can kidney beans

1 drained and rinsed can black beans

Bring to a simmer, lower heat and let simmer about 15 minutes. Can sit on low all day and just gets better!

No more cereal for dinner

(Picture of Rachel Ray in her undies with dinner.... most men's dream wife!)

Since becoming a single mother life has certainly changed. One of the biggest changes is what we eat for dinner! Cereal was on the menu a couple of times a week, the other nights were frozen meals, fast food or dinner at Grandma and Grandpas. The change was brought on by sheer exhaustion from raising two kids on my own, as well as less time for stocking the refrigerator with healthy foods selected specifically for the weeks menu. But mainly I think it was kind of "bucking the norm". I no longer had anyone to complain about not having a complete meal, the kids were thrilled to have cereal for dinner, they thought I was the coolest mom! I no longer had anyone to be the "perfect wife" for. I COULD not cook dinner, COULD leave the dishes in the sink overnight every once in a while, COULD budget my money the way I wanted, COULD wear ratty sweats all day on my day off.

I'm over it.

I have decided that I will from now on I am going to take care of the "new" us the way I did for the "old" us. I enjoy cooking (that's why I became a personal chef!), waking up to a sink full of dishes actually annoys me also, I am a little stingy and can loosen the belt a little bit when it comes to the budget, but I won't give up the sweats every once in a while!

I hope to be married again someday, to be the "perfect wife" for a wonderful man, but I'm not going to wait for that to happen to give the best to my kids, and myself. So no more cereal for dinner, in a pinch it will be Pho! (About that in the next post...)

Pho, my new favorite meal

My kids and I were feeling awful, stuffy, cold and we were wanting a bowl of comfort, something warm and healthy. We wanted chicken noodle soup, but I was not up to chopping and my aching body was not up to standing at the stove. We talked about going to the store and purchasing canned soup, I am not a fan and the ingredients don't make me want to eat what is lurking behind the aluminum can professing to be "natural". We thought about the warm soup available in the deli at most large supermarkets but again I didn't want flour-thickened imitation chicken broth with over cooked noodles and a couple of pieces of carrot and chicken thrown in to make it appear to be something good for you. We wanted something truly homemade and healthy to make us feel better. Passing by one of the many Pho houses I remembered my sister asking me 3 years ago if I had tried Pho (pronounced Fuh) and I had no idea what she was talking about. I knew it was a Vietnamese restaurant, but that was about it. I decided to go in and take a look at the menu, it looked like just what we were wanting. I asked the waiter if the food was made with fresh ingredients, no boxes or mixes and he said yes so we decided to order a Pho Ga, chicken, my kids didn't want to try any of the more exotic soups made with tripe, fatty beef flank or tendon. I later found out that traditional pho is made with beef. When the soup came the kids were so excited, they get to assemble their own food! The delicious broth came with a plate of thinly sliced chicken breast, cooked rice noodles, sliced scallion, onion and jalapenos, cilantro and Thai basil leaves, bean sprouts, lime wedges and a bit of what smelled like hoisin sauce. You add what you want and mix it in, eat the noodles and vegetables with chopsticks and the soup you can pick up the bowl to slurp (what most of the patrons in the restaurant did) or eat it with an Oriental soup spoon. The flavors were so delicious, fresh and clean, my kids and I slurped and made yummy sounds ("mmmm, so good") until the bottom of the huge bowl revealed itself. We were absolutely stuffed, but not in the way you get stuffed from eating a big piece of meat and potatoes, we felt satisfied, not sick. We instantly felt better, soothed by the warm broth and our sinuses cleared by the slight heat of the chili's. My daughter requested that I figure out how to make it so she could have it all the time, that this was her new favorite restaurant food, it trumped the Mongolian grill restaurants, her old favorite. I thought about how in America herbs are used as mainly a garnish, but here we added about 1/2 cup of fresh herbs as an actual ingredient to each bowl, and how incredibly healthy fresh herbs are. After all they are a dark leafy green, right? I also thought about my sister and how I wish I had asked her what she loved about Pho (she was murdered last year, may she rest in peace), but I will never know. I imagined her sitting with her kids at their favorite Pho restaurant in Portland, just as I was sitting at one with mine. I researched Pho a little bit online and discovered that first of all Americans pronounce it wrong (we say Fo), and just like any other regional dish, it is a little bit different everywhere you go. Some add cloves to the broth, star anise, or even cinnamon sticks. Traditionally the broth is made "with the lot", meaning everything from the butchering of the cow is used, at most Pho restaurants in America you have to ask for this special broth. I am so happy we discovered this "new" noodle soup (new to us anyway). Just about every ethnic group has their own noodle soup like the Italians have their minestrone, the Chinese have their wonton, Japanese their Udon, and just about every grandmother has their chicken noodle soup, my little newly postmodern family has a new favorite: Pho.

Harvest time!

Pumpkins, squash, kale, apples, the thought of these things makes me want to bake a pie and burn a cinnamon scented candle, start a fire and wear a cozy sweater. My tomatoes have rotted thanks to the kiss of frost (I can't say that I'm too upset about this, now my guilt from not picking every last tomato on my 12 plants isn't looming over me - note to self - plant fewer tomato plants next year!) so I can clean up the garden, compost all that has rotten and start to enjoy the autumn bounty. I really love butternut squash soup, that is what I am craving right now. It is very simple too, I dice up a large onion and a few cloves of garlic, sweat them in some olive oil in a big soup pot. Peel, seed and dice a large butternut squash (my garden only produced one beautiful squash, not sure what happened there, but I will treasure it :), add it to the pot with a couple of big pinches of kosher salt. Add about 4 cups of good chicken broth and a few sprigs of any herbs you want (thyme is good), bring to a boil and simmer until the squash is tender. Remove the thyme and buzz the soup with an immersion blender, add about a cup of cream if you wish (also good without it) and there you go! If the flavor is a bit flat I would add a spritz of lemon juice. You can fancy it up and add a dollop of creme fraiche and swirl it with a spoon and top it with homemade croutons, great for company.
The next dinner I'm craving is a thick pork chop, stuffed with apple stuffing, served with roasted maple glazed squash. Dessert would definitely be a thick apple pie a la mode, maybe with maple ice cream to echo the flavors from dinner.
Kale is extremely healthy but not something everyone likes. It is a bit bitter and on it's own may be the vegetable on the plate everyone shoves to the side. One way I like to prepare it is in a Portuguese style soup. Start with some spicy sausage, to make this healthy I simply use lowfat turkey kielbasa. Add to the oiled soup pot with a large diced onion, large diced carrot, a couple of cloves of garlic, a couple of large pinches of kosher salt and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Sweat these ingredients for a few minutes then add a large peeled diced potato and about 4 cups of good chicken broth. Bring to a boil and add about 4 cups of diced kale, stuff it into the soup pot (it will cook down) and simmer, stirring often, for about 1/2 hour. Really simple, warming and comforting.
The carrots, lettuces and leeks are doing well, they will be great in a couple of months, made sweeter by the cold weather to come. I can't wait to have a fresh salad from the garden in the middle of winter!

Nigella Lawson

I want to be Nigella Lawson.
She is sort of everything I'm not: brunette, beautifully voluptuous and happy about it (I'm not voluptuous when I'm chubby, I'm just chubby and not in the right spots, and I am definitely not happy about it).
If you don't know who Nigella Lawson is, she is a cookbook author and has a show on Food Network called "Nigella Feasts". I would not say that she is the best chef by any means, her knife skills seem very poor and sometimes the recipes aren't very enticing. What I love about her is how she loves food. She talks about it as if it is a lover, she waxes poetic about the simplest of ingredients and makes you want it too. Her English accent is gorgeous and she can make the word liver sound great. I love the way she dresses also, the way that her tiny jacket is pinned to her shirt right under her breasts to accentuate her curves. She is unapologetic about eating the most fattening foods there are. I love that! She made croissant pudding for her dinner on one show and after licking the spoon from making a chocolate cake said "You know you would". Yes, I would love to but I'm always on a damn diet! The best part of her show is at the end, when she goes to the refrigerator in her nightgown and takes out some sort of leftover and devours it. I want to be her friend, I want us to cook for each other and enjoy butter and cream and cheese and sausage and not feel bad about it. Sometimes on her show she goes to her "store cupboard" (pantry) and I'm overwhelmed with jealousy. She has beautiful jars and cans of food that she says she purchases while she is traveling. I imagine I have that stuffed store cupboard, and I go to it on a weekend morning, as I'm planning the menu for the party I'm going to give for my friends that night, I grab the jar of spices I picked up on a trip to Spain and the evening meal just comes to me, I'm inspired to create an amazing meal for all to enjoy.
I look forward to her show each week. I record it and watch it on a lazy morning (which means sometimes I don't get to it for a couple of weeks) with a cup of coffee as I sit down to prepare my grocery list and meals for the week. As I'm including several servings of vegetables and whole grains in each day's menu, I live vicariously through Nigella, as she goes to the refrigerator and grabs a chicken leg, squeezes on a spicy brown mustard and devours it without removing the skin. Then she grabs a pint of chocolate ice cream from the freezer and heads off to bed. Oh, I want to be Nigella Lawson.