It's All Greek-ish to Me

     The horrible truth is that I hadn't even finished washing all of the dishes from yesterday's Yucatán barbecue when my daughter and I began preparing tonight's dinner. I realized that a big part of my dirty dish issue is that I don't ask for help. To remedy that, I asked my 13-year-old son to hand wash some of the remaining dirty dishes while my daughter and I started cooking.
     Earlier in the day, I showed my 10-year-old daughter several barbecue dinner ideas but she chose the first entree I showed her and never wavered: Peach-Mustard Pork Chops from the June issue of Food Network Magazine (this is definitely turning out to be a Food Network weekend).

As I scanned through some possible salad recipe, I decided that a Greek Salad (in this case, one from Ina Garten that I found on www.foodnetwork.com) would pair nicely with the pork chops.

Even though the pork recipe wasn't Greek, I decided to stick with the Greek theme for the rest of the meal and settled on grilled pita triangles served with tzatziki for dipping as our side/bread dish.
     Just as my daughter and I were about to head out and run an errand at 3:00pm, I (thankfully!) decided that I'd better look over my recipes more closely. Phew! Disaster averted. The pork chops needed to marinate in a spice rub for at least four hours before grilling. We quickly threw together a mixture of light brown sugar, paprika, coriander, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. My daughter then, per the recipe, pricked the pork chops several times, on both sides, with a knife. She really enjoyed this particular task!

Instead of laying the bone-in pork chops in a baking dish with the rub, I chose to put them in one of my favorite gallon Ziploc freezer bags along with the rub.

Not only does this save me from cleaning yet another dish, it also frees up much-needed room in my fridge and works really well. It is very easy to press the rub into both sides of each pork chop in this fashion.
     Fast forward four hours later: We took the meat out of the fridge 30 minutes before they were to be grilled. As my daughter prepared the ingredients for the Greek Salad, I began making the peach-mustard sauce for the pork. I was amazed by her slicing and dicing skills.

My daughter chopped up a cucumber, a red bell pepper, and a yellow bell pepper. She sliced an onion and cut an entire pint of grape tomatoes into halves. She added a 1/2 pound of feta cheese to the vegetables and then got to work on the vinaigrette.

For the vinaigrette, my daughter only needed some help mincing the garlic. By herself, she poured in the oregano, dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. I was impressed!
     The peach-mustard sauce, to be used in basting the pork chops as well as a sauce to be served with them when they were finished grilling, was fairly simple: I put apple cider vinegar, peach preserves, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard powder in a saucepan. I then added several cloves of "smashed" garlic. I smashed the garlic with the side of my kitchen knife - something I've seen done on TV (!) - but I'm sure if that was the correct thing to do for this recipe.

The recipe did not mention straining out the garlic before using the sauce but it didn't make sense to serve giant blobs of smashed garlic up to my family, either. And if they were in the basting sauce, the blobs would just fall through the grate. In the end, I threw them out (compost!) before using the sauce.
     The crowning touch on the entree were the grilled peaches. I simply cut them in half and pitted them and my daughter brushed them with some vegetable oil.
     My husband began his part in this meal by quickly grilling the pita bread triangles. When they were finished, we enjoyed dipping the warm bread in a pre-made tzatziki sauce purchased from and made by our local gourmet grocery store as the meat was being cooked.

My husband then began grilling the pork chops. This was a bit of a process as it involved grilling the meat for short periods of time before flipping it, basting it with the sauce, closing the grill lid, opening the grill lid, flipping the meat, basting it some more, and so forth. Once the meat was finished, my husband set it on a platter to rest for five minutes while he grilled the peaches on both sides. My daughter and I tossed the salad (note: of course, as a Greek salad, it should have had black olives. However, the only person in my family who likes olives is my husband so we left them out) and she brought it to our outside dining table.

My husband brought over the platter of pork chops and the peaches. I brought out two bowls of peach-mustard sauce: one with red pepper flakes added for my husband to use.

     The warm pita bread was too delicious so my kids front-loaded on a lot of it and didn't leave a lot of room left for the rest of the meal. All of us loved the pork chops, although my son did not use the sauce on his. My daughter had trouble cutting the pork around the bone so I had to help her (something I had not had to do in quite some time!). My son, as usual, did not eat the salad but my husband thought it was amazing.

The meal was served on blue plates and platters to go with my Greek-ish theme. The incredible, warm evening completed the feeling of being on a Greek-ish island.

     Dirty Dish Count: Three measuring spoons, three measuring cups, one large mixing bowl, one saucepan, one garlic peeling tube-thingy, one garlic mincer, two cutting boards, one kitchen knife, two small bowls, one whisk, one bread knife, one spoon, one small plate, one platter, and one basting brush.
     Although I have not loved having so many dishes to clean these past two nights, I have really enjoyed our grilled food as well as eating it outside in our backyard. I need to work on incorporating more grilled dishes into our weekday meals as well. Wish me luck!

A Yucatán Barbecue Feast

      I have resorted to several of my quick and easy standby meals during the past couple of weeks as our family has been extra busy. The weeks leading up to the end of the school year are always hectic.  Finally, we have a weekend with nothing scheduled...and a three-day weekend at that. Tonight, I asked my 13-year-old son to choose a dinner, preferably something we could grill. I therefore suggested that we look at Bobby Flay's recipes on the Food Network website. My son chose Yucatán Chicken Skewers, Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime and Cilantro, and Avocado Salad with Tomatoes, Lime and (Toasted) Cumin Vinaigrette.

     My son has been taking a cooking class in middle school this year (called "Foods") so he wanted to help prepare the meal. We went to a nearby grocery store to purchase our supplies and found almost everything except for ancho chile powder and cumin seeds.
     We began by soaking the skewers and making the marinade. I taught my son how to put pressure on and roll the limes before squeezing them to get out the most juice.

We then added some fresh orange juice, minced garlic and  canola oil. I poured the marinade over 3/4 of the pieces of chicken thighs before I added some chipotle chile powder (in place of the ancho chile powder that I couldn't find) for my husband's portion. (I didn't skewer the chicken until after it had marinated since the skewers needed additional time to soak.)

     Next, we put three sweet potatoes in a tall stockpot to boil.  Our grocery store only had gigantic sweet potatoes, with the exception of one. This created a problem as they cooked: while the outsides of the two large potatoes cooked until they were soft, the inner cores were still rather hard. I couldn't keep cooking them, however, as the outsides would have fallen apart.

As the sweet potatoes cooked, we mixed kosher salt, a little bit of cayenne pepper, and lime zest. My son didn't realize that the outer portion of citrus fruits is sometimes used in cooking - it was fun to give him some cooking instruction as we made our meal.

Once the potatoes cooled, I sliced them into wedges, brushed them with canola oil, and sprinkled kosher salt and pepper on them.
     Lastly, we began working on our salad. We first made the dressing, a whisked mixture of lime juice, olive oil, canola oil, chopped cilantro, rice wine vinegar, honey, and cumin (the recipe called for toasted cumin seeds here but I couldn't find any so I just used some ground cumin).

I then coarsely chopped up avocados and tomatoes, added sliced red onion, fresh chopped cilantro, and arugula.
     My husband fired up the grill and we put the now-skewered chicken thighs on it as well as the sweet potato wedges, plus some whole scallions (green onions) that my son had brushed with olive oil. The chicken recipe called for raw chopped scallions to be served on the chicken when it was done but I thought it would be nicer to grill some instead, Mexican-style.
     Once the sweet potatoes cooked, I sprinkled them with the salt/cayenne/lime zest mixture. I was actually supposed to sprinkle some fresh cilantro on them as well but totally forgot - oops! I tossed the dressing with the salad while my son set the outdoor table. My husband carried over the chicken skewers and we dug into our delicious meal. My son did not eat the salad, as he will never eat salad, but we all thoroughly enjoyed the dishes that we ate. I particularly liked the grilled sweet potatoes as I had never had anything like them before tonight.

     Dirty Dish Count: I kind of lost track since there were so many! I know I used: One large stockpot, two cutting boards, two small bowls, one basting brush, one whisk, three measuring spoons, three measuring cups, one fork, one spoon, one zester, one garlic peeling tube, one garlic mincer, two pairs of tongs, one salad tossing set (fork and spoon), two casserole dishes, 24 skewers, one rectangular tupperware (without lid), three kitchen knives, two serving platters, one serving bowl, barbecue thermometer, and one pair of barbecue tongs. (The photo below shows about 1/3 of the dirty dishes!)

     It was so much fun to cook with my son. And I really enjoyed trying out some Bobby Flay recipes - something I have always intended to do. Next time, I'll have my daughter choose the menu and help me prepare it. Wish me luck!

I Hit the Replay Button...Again

     Today was one of those days when you feel like you were busy all day long but have nothing to show for it. I wanted to cook dinner but I felt too busy to prepare a complicated, time-consuming meal. Tonight, I went with an already tried and true dinner but, since I first prepared it during my break from blogging, it is new to you.

     This Sunday night dinner was Sautéed Tilapia with Citrus-Soy Marinade from my Keepers cookbook. I think this is the easiest fish dish I have ever prepared and that simplicity must work in its favor because it is my family's new favorite.

     In a large Ziploc bag (I love the large, freezer-size Ziploc bags - love them!) I poured in some soy sauce, orange juice and honey.

I then put the tilapia filets in the bag and let them marinate for about 20 minutes.

The tilapia filets were really nice and firm and fresh today so I knew they would turn out well.

They were also large so I fried them up, in a little bit of heated olive oil, two at a time. One thing that is always a little weird with this dish is that the marinade chars up on the fish during cooking. I have tried patting the filets dry after I remove them from the marinade and before I put them in the frying pan but it made no difference. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to really effect the taste.

I'm also not a fan of the oil-splatter-mess that is left behind when one fries anything. Oh well.

Once I finished cooking both batches, I poured the rest of the marinade into the frying pan and reduced it. I poured the reduction over the cooked filets and served them, along with sides of green beans and rice (brown for me, white for the kids), to my family.

My picky son likes this. My very health conscious husband likes this (minus the rice, of course!). My daughter and I like the dish because we pretty much like everything.

     Dirty Dish Count: One gallon freezer Ziploc bag, one measuring cup, one measuring spoon, one frying pan, and one spatula.

     And that's all. This blog is about as simple as this dish....which was perfect on a busy-but-not-particuarly-productive Sunday! Next time, I will once more try something that is actually new to me. Wish me luck!

Spring Fever-Induced Indecision

     Yesterday and today, the temperature reached 85 degrees. The first warm days of the year always seem exceptionally hot. I suppose it is a matter of relativity. In any event, it felt like a sweltering day today and the heat left me feeling indecisive and slightly cross. I finally determined that I would cook something for dinner tonight, instead of taking the kids out to eat or getting takeout, and began searching through my shelves of cookbooks for something new to try. I considered, and rejected, a stir fry, steak, panko-crusted chicken strips, and pork loin. I then turned to my stacks of cooking magazines and chose, and then subsequently rejected, recipes for grilled pizza, oven fried fish with potato salad, and a vegetable frittata. I moved on to the internet for inspiration and decided against crispy cod with broccoli and parmesan butter, gnocchi, and bacon and egg ramen. I was nearing the time that I had to pick my daughter up from school so I grabbed a Williams-Sonoma cookbook I had been meaning to use (not just read) called Family Meals: Creating Traditions in the Kitchen and brought it in the car with me. This cookbook is absolutely beautiful. It is full of gorgeous, inspiring photos, step by step instructions (with photos), and recipes that the whole family can make together. The paper used in the book is unique and I loved handling the pages.

When my daughter got in the car, I handed the cookbook to her and asked her to find something that looked good to her as I could not decide what to make for dinner. Within minutes, she narrowed down her choices to Oven-Fried Chicken Fingers with Mashed Potatoes and Peas, and Ham and Leek Quiche. I pushed for the quiche as I felt like it was too hot for baked chicken and mashed potatoes and she agreed.

     My daughter and I then stopped off at the grocery store to buy the necessary ingredients. I ended up buying a pre-made pie crust, that came as a rolled up circle of dough, made by Pillsbury. While I knew it would be a far tastier dish if I made the crust from scratch, I simply did not have the energy or time to do so.
     The recipe calls for the pie crust to be partially pre-baked. I put the dough in my pie pan, put a layer of foil on top of the dough, put pie weights on top of the foil, and then put it in the oven to bake. In the meantime, I read that the next step in the recipe was to melt one tablespoon of butter in a frying pan (side note: I had exactly one tablespoon of butter left in a wrapper since I had used the other seven in another recipe - I love when that happens!). Just as the butter began melting, I realized that I had, once again, failed to read my recipe all the way through before I began cooking. I quickly turned off the heat and started to read. It was a good thing that I did because, once the butter melted, I was supposed to add three cups of thinly sliced leeks to it. It is taking me a very long time to break my bad habit of not pre-reading my recipes but I am learning! Slicing the leeks actually took a fair amount of time as they require extra cleaning to get all of the grit and dirt off of them and three cups is a lot of sliced leeks. When I turned the stove back on and finished melting the butter, I added the leeks and thought that there seemed to be an awful lot of leeks. I hoped I had measured them correctly...

Once again, I was surprised by the addition of nutmeg in my recipe. It was just a pinch of nutmeg but it was unexpected.

I then layered my ingredients in the now partially-baked pie crust and topped the whole thing off with grated Gruyere cheese. 

I set the timer for 40 minutes and then went out to my side yard to try and plant as many seedling as I could in my planter boxes before the timer went off. I managed to put in several varieties of tomatoes, including Roma, yellow pear, and San Marzano, some basil, Blue Lake pole green beans, and three colors of bell peppers before I had to go back inside and check on the quiche. The quiche needed a little more browning so put it directly under the broiler for a few more minutes. Once I took the quiche out it was supposed to rest for 20 minutes before I served it. That gave me time to put in a zucchini plant, a cucumber seedling, and some lettuces. The cooking and gardening both served to relax me and put me in a much better mood.

My mood was further improved when I served the quiche to my kids and myself and all three of us deemed it delicious. (I waited until later to let my son know that the quiche was chock full of leeks. He agreed that knowing that in advance may have clouded his judgment!) The only criticism, and all three of us had it, was that the pie crust could have been better. I will definitely make this dish again but next time I will make the pie crust myself.

Dirty Dish Count: One frying pan, a spatula, a cutting board, a knife, three measuring cups, one measuring spoon, one plate, one cheese grater, one mixing bowl, a whisk, a pie pan, and a lot of pie weights.

     The next time that I am feeling indecisive about what to make for dinner, I will ask my family to choose a recipe. Wish me luck!

When Will I Ever Learn...?

     I absolutely adore Ina Garten. I love her recipes, her style of teaching on her cooking show, and how she seems both fabulous and approachable. I would be happy to just blog about making recipes from her cookbooks as I know I'd enjoy the food! Tonight, as it is a weeknight, I thought it appropriate to try out Ina's "Weekend Bolognese" recipe from her cookbook Barefoot Contessa: How Easy is That?

     My daughter asked to help me cook tonight and I was happy to include her. However, instead of teaching her the wisdom of reading through the entire recipe before doing anything, I had her read the steps to me as we went. Sigh. I seem to have a serious mental block when it comes to previewing my recipes. I think, in part, the problem arises because I am usually rushing to cook my meals in between picking kids up from lessons, sending out PTA emails, cleaning the dishes from the night before when I realize I need them for tonight, and so forth. Tonight, I didn't even re-read the ingredient list. I read it a few days ago and, at that time, I had a small amount of heavy cream in my fridge, leftover from when I made strawberry frosting. Yesterday, however, I made chocolate frosting (I don't usually make so much frosting but I have been baking birthday cupcakes for foster kids) and used up the remaining heavy cream. Fast forward to tonight, when my bolognese was simmering, and I realized that I didn't have any heavy cream left. Thankfully, my sweet Mom came to my rescue and delivered a 1/4 cup of whole milk to me so I didn't have to leave my food cooking on the stove (the whole milk was preferable to no dairy added at all and didn't seem to affect the recipe in any event).

     The entire dish was prepared in a similar, frantic manner. The ground beef was cooking when I realized that I should have peeled and minced my garlic in advance and taken out the oregano. I did skip the red pepper flakes step since I knew my kids would not like them. Immediately after I added the garlic and oregano, breathing a sigh of relief that I managed to include those ingredients in time, I remembered that the recipe also called for some red wine. I grabbed the first bottle I could get my hands on and opened it in record time. I was glad that wine was part of my recipe since, at this point, I needed a glass after all of my crazed cooking.

     The pasta in tonight's dish was orecchiette pasta ("little ears"). I have always had a thing for orecchiette. I guess I like how well it holds sauce. That is also it's downfall, however, since it is always harder to properly drain orecchiette than other pastas - they are like little bowls that hold all of the water.
     The recipe calls for a large can of crushed tomatoes and Ina recommends that those tomatoes be San Marzano. I have to agree with her as I have always enjoyed their flavor. I also purchased San Marzano tomato paste. The paste was "double concentrated" but I used the amount stated in the recipe (2 Tablespoons) anyway, hoping that it didn't matter.
     This is a pretty straightforward bolognese recipe but I was surprised by one ingredient in Ina's version: nutmeg. I love nutmeg but I never knew it to be included in bolognese. On the other hand, I don't think I've ever cooked bolognese...I've just consumed a lot of it.

     One of the highlights of this dish for me, oddly enough, is that it asked for a "large serving bowl". I got to break out one of my favorite serving pieces which is something that usually only happens when we have company over for a meal.

     The kids and I loved the pasta and they both agreed this was their favorite of my Cookbook Addict recipes so far. My husband was working late tonight (again, poor guy!) so this was the perfect night to have some pasta since he is not a fan of it. The dish was also a perfect comfort-food-dish for a chilly spring evening.

Dirty Dish Count: A saucepan, a colander, a frying pan, a spatula, four measuring spoons, two measuring cups, the daisy shaped silicone cover that prevents boil-over, a serving fork, a serving spoon, and one large serving bowl.
     Now, if only I could remember to pre-read my recipe! Wish me luck!