Sunday Evening Blues

This blog is primarily about cooking with children, but sometimes it's about cooking for children.  Like tonight.

Sunday evenings can be hard.  We've all been there.  You've had a good weekend, but somehow there are still a bunch of things you didn't get to, and there it is: Monday.  Lurking just around the corner with that pushy look in his eyes that says "I've got a whole list of things here you have to get done, let's go, let's go, let's GO!". 

No matter how much you love your job, I think it's pretty common to wish for "just one more day" to finish catching up or to keep relaxing. 

We're not the only ones who feel that way.  Having children nudges those memories back out of the dusty corners.  When one of the kids says sadly "I don't like Sunday night!"  I remember feeling the same way.  Excited to see my friends, but not so excited about a long week of ... school.

This evening, I figured I'd stave off the mood and make some cookies.  The kids were playing and I let them be.  It was satisfying to put together the recipe for cherry-oatmeal cookies from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.  We'd made them a few weeks ago and they were great. 

If your library doesn't have this book, ask one of those friendly people at the front desk who is in charge of doing the ordering for your library, ask to speak with them, and ask them if they would "please, pretty please" consider getting it for their collection.  It's a great book, with luscious photos and, even better, good recipes! 

So I mixed the recipe up and shared the beaters.

That helped with our Sunday blues.

What I'd forgotten was that the batter was supposed to chill in the fridge for 6 hours before baking.  That did not help. 

So I made a batch of warm-dough-cookies, slid them into the oven and put the rest of the dough in to cool while the first round baked.  Now, I knew better.  I knew that batter was made with soft butter and that those cookies were going to spread.  And they did.  And you know what?  They tasted great.  Most of them had to be peeled apart and cut into something resembling a cookie, but they were yummy just the same.  The second batch, which had been chilling for about 20 minutes, didn't spread nearly as much.   They were actually round! 

I don't recommend forgetting to chill this dough, but it was interesting to see what a difference a little cool air did make. 

It was also a little bit of a confidence check.  You know how sometimes you read a recipe and you think "really?  6 hours?  you've got to be kidding me - no way does this dough actually need 6 hours to chill!"  Well, they probably didn't want to wait 6 hours either.  It's probably there for a reason.  Next time I'll try to plan ahead and let them chill, because they were better that way - more cookie like, less cruchy.

But the other thing I learned tonight was, sometimes it's not the perfect cookie that matters, it's just doing something nice to make the end of the weekend a little special.  They won't remember the spread-out cookies.  They'll just remember that sometimes you made them cookies.

Happy Sunday Night.

 

Crepes and Souffle

My birthday this year was a combination of the old and the new: crepes and desesert soufflé.  When I was 15 years old, my host mother in Nantes would make crepes for dinner and dessert on a routine basis.  She had the traditional cast-iron crepe pan and would turn out these large, flat, beautiful platter-like disks folded over grated gruyere cheese, ham and mushrooms.  For dessert, another crepe with sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice was heavenly.  They were traditionally accompanied by little bowls of hard cider and just delightful.  This was one of those simple but satisfying dinners in the middle of the week. 

So, that's what we did for my mid-week birthday.

Crepes:

Salads made by the kids (sliced endives and sliced radishes - the long, skinny kind):

And the grand finale: Souffle!

I have never had a dessert souffle before.  I didn't have time this week to work a cake and icing into the schedule (and I'm not willing to pull the 10-pm cake shift for my own birthday!) so the souffle seemed like the right answer - no advance preparation and it cooked while the kids did homework and dishes were done. 

First dessert souffle.  Only one question: Why did I wait so long?

I relied on the master for this first foray into dessert souffles, and carefully followed the instructions in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but it wasn't much different from the cheese souffle we make for dinner - but wow did it rise! 

The base was flour, butter, sugar and milk (instead of just flour, butter and milk in the cheese souffle)

Yolks go into the flour base with some vanilla, the whites are beaten into stiff peaks and folded into the mix,

Then into the oven to wait.....no jumping....

We were pretty sure the souffle wouldn't hold up the candles, so we improvised with a jar of rice.

It was a happy birthday.

Chicken and Avacado Salad

The wonderful thing about living with seasons is that even though the summer is ending and the tomatos won't be nearly as good for months now, there are stews, briskets and other things to look forward to.  So here's a last hurrah, an easy summer dinner, and a great excuse to grill a few more chicken breasts.

Chicken and Avacado Salad

The only essentials here are the chicken breast and the avacado.  Our grocery store marks the ripe avacados with a sticker, but if you may need to plan just far enough ahead to buy an avacado. 

If you're going to grill some chicken anyway, buy a few extra pieces and some avacado.  A dayr two later, take out that grilled chicken breast, slice it over a salad (you don't even need to heat it!) and slice the avacado.  Add whatever salad mixings you have on hand (celery, carrots, pine nuts, rasins or dried cranberries or cherries, sunflower seeds, hardboiled egg, cucumbers etc.) and dress with a basic vinagrette. 

Voila - the easiest summer dinner ever.

Tip: to prepare the avacado, slice around it lengthwise and twist the two halves apart.  Take your big knive and wack the blade into the pit - not too hard, not too soft.  It'll stick.  Twist the knife gently and the pit will pop out, stuck to the blade.  Pull the pit off -use a towel to grab it - they're slippery!  With the avacado halves sill in the skin, make slices with the tip of your knife but don't cut through the skin.  Then take a big spoon and scoop out the slices.  Pretty.  Easy.  Neat.  Squirt a little lemon juice or vinegar over the avacado to keep it from turning brown.

Salmon and Lentils

Beans. They're the red-headed step-child of my pantry.  I should do more with them, take them out, show them the world.  Instead, they sit there in my pantry.  I tried dressing them up, putting them in glass jars and that made them look better, but there they sit, undisturbed, like some display at a restaurant never meant to be eaten.

Beans - I promised myself -I'm going to learn how to cook with you more.

That was before we discovered lentils.

Lentils are family friendly.  No lengthy soaking, no transferring between pots of water and soaking over night.  They're the perfect gateway bean!

They require a little soaking, but 15 minutes is just the right amount of time to chop and saute some veggies (cover a cup of lentils with boiling water - I microwave it then pour the lentils)

Lentils are great with the classic italian combination of leeks (onions, if you don't have leeks), carrots and celery.  Soften them in a medium-hot saute pan with some olive oil - about 8 minutes.

Add the lentils and cover with chicken broth (about 2 cups), add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme and some salt and pepper.  Simmer until the lentils are soft, about 25 minutes.

This is great for kids - lots of chopping, a little stirring.  We served ours with some grilled salmon,  but it's also wonderful next to chicken.  If you have some leftover rice from another meal, mix it in with any leftover lentils for an easy lunch the next day.

Lentils - next thing you know we'll be cooking with beans!

A New Favorite Cookie: Palmiers

One of my goals for this fall was to find some easy recipes for snacks and desserts so we'd have a more consistent supply of homemade lunchbox items and after-school snacks.  Of course, the challenge is finding things that aren't too time-consuming, rely primarily on ingredients we're likely to have around, and can be pulled together between dinner, homework and storytime. 

No small goal!

I came across a recipe for Palmiers in my Barefoot in Paris cookbook and realized they require three basic ingredients: puff pastry, sugar and salt.  Although I don't normally keep puff pastry in the freezer, it was an easy addition to the milk-run.

We made them after dinner and the kid-chef handled the measuring and assembly herself.  One caution - these cookies get really hot when they're cooking.  Flipping them is an adult-chef task, for sure!

The cookbook version came out very sugary and almost hard - they lost some of the flaky qualities I remember from having these as a kid.  That crumbly, airy feel of crunching through cookie and sugarwas one of the best parts of a palmier, so we'll be cutting the sugar in half on the next round.  I also found that one sheet of dough was plenty for a week's supply.

Here's our version:

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed in the refrigerator overnight.
1/2 cup sugar mixed with a dash of salt.

Preheat oven to 450*
Spread half the sugar-salt mixture over your baking surface

Unfold the dough on the sugar, spread the remaining sugar on the dough and roll the dough out to a 1/8 inch thick sheet.
Fold the left and right edges of the dough in toward the center of the sheet, then fold the edges in again to meet in the middle.  Fold the right side over the left side so you have a log of dough.

Cut 1/3 inch slices off the folded dough and transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
leave about 1 inch between cookies, since the slices will expand.  Use multiple cookie sheets if necessary.

Tip: If you don't use a lot of parchment paper, this is the time to get some!  Without it, the pans will be a mess - with it, you can flip the cookies with ease, then slide the entire sheet of paper off the baking sheet onto the cooling racks when they're done. Whatever you do, don't be tempted to use waxed paper instead of parchment - it is not the same.  Trust me on this one.

Let the cookies bake for about 6 minutes, until they're golden brown.  Flip them with a wide metal spatula and return them to the oven.  Cook them another 3 minutes.  They cook really quickly, so keep an eye on them at the very end.  You want them to be browned, but not dark. 

They will be very hot when you flip them and when you take them out - make sure the testers don't get too eager or they'll have burnt tongues.

My daughter gave these a thumbs up as her new favorite cookie.

I love that they were a snap to make, and the cleanup was next to nothing.  They'd make a great last-minute "oh dear I forgot I needed to bring something tomorrow....." dessert.

Pasta and Peas

Here's a quick and easy side dish: pasta and peas.

Cook the pasta according to the box in salted water with olive oil.  I used Orecchiette because I like the way the "little ears" scoop up some sauce and peas, but any small shape should work.

Add the frozen peas to the pasta water for the last 6-8 minutes of cooking time.  Quickly drain the peas & pasta in a colander and put them back into the saucepan - it's okay if a little cooking water clings to the pasta, that helps make the pasta sauce.  If you're not making the pesto version, save about 3/4 cup of the cooking water by scooping it out with a measuring cup before you drain it.

For the pesto version, I added about 3 TB of pesto, straight from the freezer, to the saucepan and stirred.  I didn't even have to turn the heat back on.  You can also add pesto from a jar - it's usually sold next to the pastas and sauces in small jars.  If you don't have pesto handy, add about 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and then drizzle the cooking water back in until you have a lightly coated dish.  It won't be saucy, just moist enough to be tasty.  Salt to taste.

Chicken Noodle Soup

The weather suddenly got a little cooler here, and it feels like almost-fall.  We had one of those difficult-to-schedule-dinner evenings last night.  Our family class was at 7:00 p.m., leaving a window beteween 5:30 and 6:30 to cook, digest and change for class.  Soup seemed like a good choice.  Not too heavy, and easy to make.

Roast chicken and chicken noodle soup is one of our standard two-day menus, and it worked out well this week.

We roasted the chicken on Wednesday night, when we didn't have any place to go, and all the homework, reading, chores were done by the time the chicken was done.  After I pulled the leftover meat off the bones, I tossed the bones in a pot, covered with water, and let it simmer until I went to bed.

  

On Thursday, making the soup was a snap.  Here's all the cooking it required:

Remember that little bag of frozen onions?  There they are - pre-chopped and thrown in the pot.  We peeled and chopped some carrots and celery, tossed them with some olive oil for a few minutes while water boiled for noodles.

Good kid-chef tasks:  peeling carrots, washing and chopping celery, cutting the chicken pieces up with kitchen scissors and stirring.

I added the broth and the left-over chicken, and by the time the noodles boiled, the soup was warm. 

Mix and serve.

If I'm lucky, there's a little bit left over for my lunch the next day:

Granola

I don't know about you, but I've never been able to skip breakfast.  I need that cup of coffee and something to get me through the morning.  Lately, we've been making homemade granola, trying to find one that's not too sweet, not too toasty, but just right.

There are lots of recipes for homemade granola around, ranging from simple to chocolate-coconut-fruity-explosions.  I prefer to start with a basic, not-too-sweet recipe then add some rasins, dates or nuts, depending on what the general mood and pantry contain.

That leaves room for fruit and yogurt.

Here's a basic recipe for granola.

In a bowl, mix:

2 cups old-fashioned (rolled) oats - don't use quick-cook oats

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup oat bran

1/4 cup honey (different flavored honey yields different tasting granola - clover is a good, mild choice)

3 TB canola oil

2 TB brown sugar

a splash of vanilla

a dash of cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

Line a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper

Toast at 325* for 8 minutes

Stir and add 1/4 cup sliced almonds (if using nuts)

Toast another 8 minutes, until golden brown.  If your oven runs hot, watch the granola and take it out when it looks done.  It shouldn't get dark brown.

Once the granola has cooled in the pan, put it in a container, stir in your raisins, other fruit and store, air-tight, for as long as it lasts!  (I'd guess about 7 days, but ours never made it that long!)

Filling a jelly-roll pan all the way to the edges is best.  It's okay if the pan looks overstuffed - too much exposure at the edges makes the granola brown faster, so take it out earlier if your pan isn't full.

I'm not usually a big fan of one-dish gadgets in the kitchen, but if you're going to make a lot of granola, you probably want a silicone mat for your jelly-roll pan.  We learned the hard way that scrubbing the pan is a royal pain.  Parchment paper is a big help, but lifting off a mat and funneling all the granola into a plastic tub was the easiest!

A Mystery and Resolution

The mystery: for the last couple of months I've been discovering holes in my T-shirts.  Little, teeny annoying holes right over the spot where my jeans button.  Loose T-shirts, fitted ones, new ones, old ones, inexpensive ones, ones I paid full price for - all of them!  It was driving me nuts.

I don't wear belts (usually), I don't always wear the same pair of jeans, and they were all in the same place on the shirts, so it seemed unlikely to be the washing machine, dresser, soap or some other general attack (and moths don't eat T-shirts, right?).

According to Google, the modern Sherlock's Watson,  it was most likely the edge of the kitchen counter snagging a thread or two when I leaned against the counter to do dishes or cook.  Indeed, my countertops are formica.

Solution?

The apron! 

Mac and Cheese, Please!

Sometimes, you really want Mac and Cheese, right?  This is a simple recipe, easy to make and leagues better than the stuff in a box.  Serve it with a salad and a steamed veggie side, and you've got a perfect grown-up twist on a classic comfort-food dinner.  After working hard all day Saturday, it saved our supper!

I find it easiest to make the sauce when all the ingredients are measured out before you start - perfect task for the little hands and little bowls.  One note: the sauce won't be yellow (unless you use cheddar!) and it won't have that smooth Velveeta-like-stabilizer-enhanced consistency, so don't promise a picky eater it'll be the same as the old standby! 

Homemade Mac and Cheese, Please:

Boil 1 lb elbow macaroni in salted water until it is cooked al dente.  Drain immediately.

2 cups whole milk, heated (this helps the white sauce come to a boil a little faster)
1 TB flour
3 TB butter
1/8 tsp nutmeg (fresh grated is best if you have nutmeg nuts and a small grater)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup grated cheese (Gruyere or another "swiss" cheese works best) - set aside 1/3 for the top.

Light Bechamel Sauce:  Measure out the ingredients.  Microwave the milk.  Stir the butter and flour together in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over low heat until it foams.  Add the milk all at once and whisk without stopping until it comes to a boil.  The sauce should not be too thick - thin it out with a little milk if necessary.  Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Remove the saucepan from the stove and stir in 2/3 of the grated cheese.
The sauce will have the consistency of warm potato soup or heavy cream.
In the bottom of a deep baking dish,  spread a thin layer of sauce, add all the pasta, pour the remaining sauce over the noodles and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the dish.  Dot with a little butter (1 TB) if desired.  It will appear thin, but as the dish cooks, the sauce will thicken and be absorbed by the noodles.

Brown under a broiler or a very hot over (550 degrees) about 15 minutes.

This dish is perfect for making ahead of time and reheating just before serving.  Another option is to make double the quantity and freeze some for later.  There won't be many leftovers!