Enjoy Life: Getting Supper to the Table

 

None of the following is a NEW idea. It is actually how I used to do things….and for some reason just stopped. One day I realized that I USE to be organized and my house was almost always clean. I had enjoyed cooking. AND I always seemed to have time for OTHER stuff: crafts, reading, HOMESCHOOLING my kids. Why were things so HARD now? With an empty nest???? (though BoyWonder is home from college on holiday break….and boy does the overflowing laundry hamper prove it!) The answer: I had allowed myself to overcomplicate life. Back to basics! Time to enjoy life again….including while doing everyday tasks. Especially when doing everyday tasks!!!!

Here is how to ENJOY getting a meal prepared or at least not hate it so bad!

1) Plan your menu! Cooking on-the-fly is NOT enjoyable. It is stressful. Here is the menu for the meal I cooked on this night: [More planning in step 3]

• Pork Chops with caramelized onions and thyme
• Risotto
• Roasted Broccoli
• Caesar Salad

2) Try to start with an empty dishwasher, if you have one. If you are like me, sans dishwasher, run a sink half full of hot, soapy water. You are going to clean as you go! *I start with 1/2 a sink of water so that I can add more hot water, as needed.

3) Read your recipe(s).

• Make sure you actually have the ingredients that you need!
• Make sure you understand the recipe.
• Estimate how long it will take to prepare the meal, including prep work (more on this later). Add a few minutes to this time. Especially if you are working with a new recipe! Plan the order in which you need to cook so that everything is ready at approximately the same time.

*the night I cooked this meal, I had forgotten that I had used all the shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano the night before…..therefore, I did NOT plan enough time for shredding the cheese AND cleaning the food processor….and dinner was late! Learn from my mistake.

• Read your recipe again!!! Especially if it is a new one or if it has been a while since you used it.

*If you are looking for a good Italian cookbook for beginners, I recommend Lidia’s Family Table.

4) Mise en Place (Put in Place)

• In other words: Get ready to cook! Okay….you are not about to cook yet. There is still some prep work that you need to do!
• You’ve read your recipes and re-read your recipes and it is time to start preparing your meal! Now get out the proper pans for the job.

• Do you need to preheat the oven? If so, turn it on now. It takes a lot longer than you think for most ovens to reach the needed temperature.
• Start prepping your ingredients. Prepare ALL of your ingredients before you even think about turning on a heating element on the stovetop!

 

    *I needed small diced onions for the risotto and thin slices for the pork chops. Plus I chopped some extra for keeping in the fridge for salads. Think ahead. While the cutting board is out, what can you prep for future meals and snacks? and only have to clean ONE mess.

    *Work outside the home or have lots of activities that limit your time to prepare/cook a meal each night? Take time early in your week, perhaps on a Sunday afternoon, to prepare most of your ingredients for the week. Wash, dice, and slice and store in the fridge. Do not be afraid to buy your veggies already ready already!

• Measure your ingredients and place them near your stove. This photo is still missing a few ingredients. The wine was still on the counter behind me. And raw pork chops? Not a very appealing photo….so I spared you. Just know that everything was within reach before I started heating my pans.

• The Broccoli/Cauliflower ready-to-cook bags were on sale. So no prep on my part other than placing on a baking sheet and drizzling with olive oil. (A little salt and grated Parm.-Regg. were added before serving).

5) Clean. Yes, I know that you want to just cook the food already. Clean anyway. You will thank yourself later!

 

• These are the dishes that I washed before/as I cooked. Most were from meal prep. A few were from Man’s lunch box. The rest had magically appeared throughout the day. The only things that you should need to wash while you are cooking are the dishes that your prepared ingredients were in. SO…
• As you have a moment while cooking wash one or two things, being careful to not forget your cooking food. Once you are done cooking, the only things that will need cleaning are the pans you used! Talk about enjoying cooking more!

6) NOW it is really time to start cooking following your plan.

For my meal:

• Everything had approximately the same cooking time. First, I put my chicken broth in a pan to heat. Then I started preheating my risotto pan and my pan for the pork chops. (Stainless steel pans need to be preheated BEFORE adding your cooking oil/food to prevent excessive sticking….)
• Once my pans were heated I added oil to my pans. Then into the oven went the broccoli/cauliflower.
• My oil was warm…so chopped onion into the risotto pan and a quick stir. Pork Chops into their pan.
• Then I continued with my plan, including washing dishes as needed.
• Voila! My food was ready. And since I cooked with a plan and thoughtfully, it was a much more joyful experience!!!

*Everyone who wants a salad fixes their own from prepared ingredients. Everyone gets a custom made salad, without additional work for me! I let them know when the food is close to ready, so they can make their salad as I finish cooking.

7) Use serving dishes for easier clean-up.

• I know you are wondering how dirtying up MORE dishes could possibly lead to easier cleanup.

• Because you can let those cooking pans soak while you eat. Which leads to easier cleaning after your meal!

* This particular night, I only used one serving dish: a large round platter for the pork chops. I also used a small glass storage bowl for the caramelized onions since I knew that there would be some left and all I would have to do was pop on the lid and place in the fridge! The risotto was served straight from the pan and the leftovers were also stored in it….The leftovers were served the next day for lunch. Then that pan soaked while I did other household tasks.

 

Make a plan. Follow your plan. Enjoy life more!!!

Until next time,

Sammi

Back to Basics…..

or How to spend a rainy morning.

Monday night I sat down and made a tentative menu plan for the week. Tentative because I have a teenage son that likes to throw monkey wrenches into our dinner plans by showing up when he said he wouldn’t be home for dinner….or, alternately, NOT showing up when he said he would. Granted the latter is the better scenario. Either way, menu planning has been a wee bit frustrating lately.

Anyhow…since I knew that Tuesday was suppose to be rainy and on the cool-side, I decided to make life easy for myself and planned for soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. What could be easier to adjust regardless of BoyWonder’s comings and goings?

Tuesday morning rolled around and everything was going great. I packed Man’s lunch. Then I decided to be a darling wife and fix both Man and BoyWonder breakfast sandwiches for the road….neither one of them likes to eat first thing in the morning.

Then that bacon smelled really good. Dangerous stuff that bacon. I gave in and cooked myself some bacon and eggs…and what is bacon and eggs without a side of buttered toast? Like I said…dangerous stuff that bacon. When it was all said and done, there were but a few lonely slices of bread left from a freshly opened loaf. MMM…how did that happen? I mean we are the family that rarely finishes a loaf in an entire week and in one morning……

Ugh? What to do about dinner now? Then reality hit me….

This was my view from the side porch Tuesday morning:

Another angle:

And if there is any doubt of what kind of morning, here:

Yes….our rain was even earlier than expected. So what better way to spend my morning—since I obviously wasn’t going to be doing my normal sitting on the porch routine—than to bake some bread. Yes, my original menu plan was going to be saved. It wasn’t going to be the super easy plan I had originally envisioned, but….that is life.

And I had another great idea! I would do a Basic Bread Baking Tutorial. No frills or thrills. Just back to basics. Sometimes in this fancy, gourmet Pinterest world, we (*I*) forget about the beauty of the basic, simple things in life.

That plan worked great until about half-way through the bread-making process and the phone rang….and I….mmm…..well….forgot to take any more pictures….Especially the ones where I shape the loaves. Oh well….here are a few pictures and a couple of tips…and the recipe. I guess that is the most important thing, the recipe! Just want the recipe and none of my witty commentary and misc. tips? Really? Okay…skip to the bottom. It’s okay….I’m not looking.

Add 2 1/4 cups of milk and 3 tablespoons of butter to a sauce pan. Heat on med-lo to med until the butter melts, stirring occasionally.

While that is doing its thing, grab the mixing bowl of you stand mixer. Add 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 pkgs of yeast, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of salt.

Once your butter has melted, grab an instant read thermometer and check the temp of the mixture.

I like to let my mixture cool down to about 105 degrees F. If you add liquid that is too hot to the yeast, you will kill it. I read that up to 120 degrees is okay. Not wanting to be a yeast murderer, I decided to wait on my normal 105. What to do while I wait?

Oh yes, our new-to-us home doesn’t have a dishwasher (or any room to add one!). So I decided to fill a sink with some soapy water to “clean as you go”.  You know that rule, right?

Obviously this picture was taken a little later AFTER I had poured the milk/butter mixture into the mixing bowl.

Which brings me to….. Once the milk/butter mixture has cooled enough, pour it into the bowl with the dry ingredients you added earlier.

Yep….just pour it right on top. Then take the bowl and attach it to your stand mixer. Then attach your dough hook. Mix on a medium speed for a couple of minutes. Yes, I know that Kitchen-aid says to use speed 2, but I’m a rebel AND the mixture is still quite loose. All you are doing at this point is combining a few dry ingredients and the wet ingredients. Just do not use a speed so high that you have milk and/or flour flying all over your kitchen.

Turn OFF your mixer and add 2 3/4 cups of flour to the bowl. NOW turn the mixer on to 2 (as recommended by Kitchen-aid) or whatever speed your stand mixer’s manufacturer recommends….because we are about to get serious. Okay…the mixer is about to get serious….for about 4-6 minutes or until the dough clings to the hook and pulls away from the bowl. If it hasn’t done this at the end of the time…add a little bit more flour…say 1/4 cup.

So have you noticed that blur on the last few photos yet? Apparently, I got just a wee bit too close to the milk/butter mixture when I was taking the temp. picture. Yeah…I was a bit slow in realizing what caused that aggravating blur. So, NO, your vision hasn’t gone wonky. I am not sure that the same can be said of mine.

After your 4-6 minutes of kneading time is up—as long as the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl—turn off the machine, set a timer for 15 minutes and WALK AWAY! Your dough looks a little sticky still? DO NOT ADD FLOUR…just walk away. Seriously, it will be okay.

I should pause to say that right after I took the picture above, my phone rang. And that is why you have no photo of my sticky dough for reference. Sorry. What can I say? I am very easily distracted. And did I mention that on the other end of the line was my BFF from my hometown….and we talked for 2+ hours? I hope that is enough of an explanation for why there are NO MORE photos until the finished loaves were sitting on a cooling rack!

After your timer goes off, go feel your dough. If it is slightly sticky—as in the dough releases easily from you finger when you pull it from the dough—then time to put it into a greased bowl for rising. If there is actually dough stuck to your finger, add your remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time, kneading for a couple of minutes after each addition until the dough is just slightly sticky and place in a greased bowl….make sure to turn once so the top of the dough is greased. Otherwise, you will have a hot mess after it has risen and you try to uncover it. Not that I’ve ever had that experience.

Cover your dough (I use a damp flour sack towel) and put in a warm place to rise until doubled….about 1 hour, depending on the temp. in your kitchen. Since my kitchen is usually on the cool side, I put my dough into a slightly warm oven to rise. (turn your oven on WARM for about 2 minutes, turn off and put you dough in and shut the door….if you don’t have a WARM setting…just heat on about 200 degrees F for a minute)

Once your dough has doubled in size, punch it down and divide it in half. Form each piece into a loaf. You can do this by just gently shaping it with your hands into a loaf shape. This is simple and usually effective. HOWEVER, unless I am in an extreme hurry (or feeling lazy), I prefer to roll each portion into a rectangle (about 9 x 14 inches), removing air bubbles. Then taking a short end and rolling the dough into a tight loaf. Pinch together the seam and ends…tucking the ends under toward the seam side. Then place with the seam side down into a greased bread pan. Shaping the bread in this way eliminates most of the air bubbles that would otherwise become holes in your baked loaves!

See why photos would have been so very useful. If you own a Kitchenaid mixer, this method is illustrated in your owner’s manual/recipe booklet.

Cover your loaves, and allow to rise until doubled. I find that this 2nd rise usually only takes about 30 minutes. If you let it rise too much, you will have excessive air bubbles in your top crust.

Bake your loaves in preheated 375 degree F. oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for an additional 20- 30 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of a loaf is 190 degrees F. I cover my loaves with aluminum foil during the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent the tops from getting too brown. Remove bread from pans and allow to cool on a cooling rack for at least 20 minutes….Yes, I know!!! But waiting allows to the bread to finish cooking completely and makes for a much prettier slice.

The finished product:

Did I say no frills or thrills? How about one little frill.

I decided to turn one loaf into a cinnamon swirl loaf. When it was rolled out into a rectangle, I spread butter onto it, sprinkled it with a generous amount of coconut sugar and cinnamon, and then rolled it into a loaf—another reason for shaping your loaf by rolling it out!

 

Basic White Bread

Makes 2 loaves

• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 3 tablespoons butter ( or coconut oil or shortening)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 pkgs. active dry yeast (or equivalent instant yeast)
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or honey)
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Heat milk and butter in a saucepan until butter melts. Allow to cool to 105 degrees F. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add 3 cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt and milk/butter mixture. Place bowl on stand mixer and attach dough hook. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stop mixer and add 2 3/4 cups of flour to bowl. Knead dough on speed 2 of a Kitchen-aid mixer for 4 to 6 minutes. At this point the dough should be clinging to the hook and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If it is not, add additional flour 1/4 cup and knead an additional 2 minutes. Allow to rest for 15 minutes. Touch the dough with your finger. If it springs back when you remove your finger, it is ready to rise. If dough is stuck on your finger, add additional flour 1/4 cup at a time, kneading a minute or two after each addition; being careful to NOT add more flour than the total amount above. Place dough in a greased (oiled) bowl, turning the dough to cover in oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a warm place to rise until doubled (about 1 hour). Uncover dough and punch down. Shape into 2 loaves and place into well-greased loaf pans. Cover and allow to rise until doubled (about 30-45 minutes). Bake in preheated 375 degrees F. oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 20-30 minutes. Cover the loaves with aluminum foil if they start to get too brown on top. Remove loaves from pans and cool on a rack for 20 minutes.

Until next time,

Sammi

The Best Fudgy Brownies

How is it that I did NOT share this recipe with you before? Shame on me! These are the best fudgy brownies.

Getting Organized—Cooking

Happy New Year!

The last page of 2012 is complete. Like many, I reflected on the year that was and have set goals for the new year. We have a fresh page in a new book to begin writing our story. I love clean slates!!

Some of my goals for 2013:

• Simplify.
• Be aware of the moments….to live fully aware of the NOW.
• Create more.
• Be still and feel the presence of God more!
• Take the time to learn something new.

and then there are those goals of better health:

• Move more.
• Stop letting little things stress me out!
• Eat the best quality food available….more quality, less quantity.
• Let go of the guilt of enjoying good food.

I was having trouble coming up with my 2013 theme statement---until now! More quality, less quantity. That pretty much sums it all up!!

Moving on….

January 1st started out well. Really well. Time rowing on the machine. A good breakfast—homemade yogurt and blueberries! Time in the Word. A little journaling. Time with my sketchbook. And time doing some food prep to SIMPLIFY my meals for the rest of the week.

I took some time going through some magazines (Cooking Light, Eating Well and Food & Wine), a few of my favorite cookbooks, and a few cooking websites. I then made a quick meal plan for the week. The trick was to find recipes with similar ingredient lists that still offered variety. Here are this week’s meals:

• Quick Pasta Bolognese
• Buffalo Chicken Salad
• Cobb Salad
• Salmon with Faux-tatoes and Sautéed Green Beans
• Chile Rellenos Casserole

There are some common ingredients for several of these recipes. So yesterday afternoon, I went into my clean kitchen (that felt good!) and got busy.

First I got out the cutting board, my chef’s knife and a few food storage bowls. I gathered my ingredients, put on my apron, and…

 

chopped several onions.

Next up…

a few carrots and some celery….oops! forgot to take pictures of the celery, but you know what that looks like! ;-)

Once I was finished chopping the veggies and putting them in their individual storage bowls, I moved on to…

cubing several boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Which I divided.

One portion was lightly seasoned and browned in coconut oil. Once those were finished, I put them into a storage bowl and into the fridge.The remaining chicken was lightly floured and seasoned. Then into the same pan.

Yes, I know they look the same. But trust me—the second picture shows chicken that has been lightly floured….Although honestly, I could have probably skipped the flour for this recipe.

Once these were almost done, I added some buffalo wing sauce to the pan and coated all the chicken pieces and cooked for another minute or two, until the chicken was cooked through.

Then onto the serving dish…

Let me backup a moment….I almost forgot. While I was cooking the chicken, I also had this on the stove….

Bolognese Sauce….kind of following the recipe linked above. It is truly a rare day that you find me following a recipe exactly as written. In this case I used some tomatoes from the freezer (from past summer’s garden) and ground venison. I also skipped the nutmeg…which was really just my forgetfulness.

I washed several heads of Romaine lettuce and gave it some spins in the salad spinner….we eats lots of salads around here. So there is almost always washed lettuce in the fridge.

Now I have the chicken, the sauce, plus the remaining chopped veggies in the fridge for quick meals for the next few days….including those Buffalo Chicken bites that were placed on that serving dish that were SUPPOSED to be last nights dinner. Today I will boil some eggs for that cobb salad plus a few extras. When we have the Pasta Bolognese, I will have to cook some pasta. And obviously, I’ll have to cook on “salmon night”---but that is a quick and very easy meal! But most of my cooking for the week---and the major cleanup--- is done!

Note: The Chile Rellenos Casserole will wait until next week. I no longer need that meal and the Buffalo chicken is in the fridge….

Because…just as I finished taking the photo of the Buffalo chicken. The phone rang. It was my husband’s cell phone. I thought he was in his workshop and was just being lazy. It turned out that he had walked across the street to thank our neighbor for moving the mountains of snow that were blocking our view when trying to pull out of our drive.

  It has snowed a few more times since I took this picture…and the pile had become a small mountain!

Anyway, he tells me to grab a glass of wine and walk over. I did a quick check to make sure the stove was off and covered the chicken and put everything in the fridge. (Good thing!) So I grab the rest of the bottle of wine that I had opened for the Bolognese….put on my boots, coat and gloves and headed across the street for “a few minutes”. Long story short….after a few minutes of visiting with the neighbors and some of their family members, we got up to say our goodbyes since it was obvious that they were about to sit down to dinner. (I love that their extended family members that live nearby still gather quite often to eat a family dinner!!!)They were having no part of our leaving!!! Before I knew what hit me, I was sitting down to baked ham, green beans, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, and dinner rolls (made by a local Amish lady!!). So much for that “diet”. But that is not all…nope! For the finale, a beautiful strawberry shortcake w/ whipped cream was placed in front of me.  ♪♫Heaven. I’m in heaven…♫♪

Thus started a beautiful new year!

Sammi

Mmm Mmm Good

So I’m trying to back up some files and delete some junk from my computer. Because she just ain’t acting right. Anyway, I came across some photos of my chicken and dumplings. Apparently--at some point-- I had decided to share my recipe with you….then didn’t! I found a post promising recipes, but NO recipe. Yes. I’m that blogger. Sorry. I’ll try to do better. So with no further ado:

Southern-Style Chicken and Dumplings

· 3 ½ to 4 lbs of bone-in chicken (your choice: whole, thighs, breasts, drumsticks…just use your favorite)
· 2 quarts water
· 1-2 stalks of celery
· 1 onion, quartered
· 1 ½ teaspoons salt
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· ¾ teaspoon salt
· 1/3 cup of shortening (I use Spectrum non-hydrogenated)
Place your chicken in a large pot (remember to remove the giblets if using a whole chicken). Add the celery, onion, and 1 ½ tsp. salt. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a slow simmer and cover. Let it cook for an hour or so…until the bird is falling-off-the-bone tender. Remove the chicken from the broth. Strain the broth to remove the veggies and the bones that have probably removed themselves from the chicken. Discard the bones and veggies; return broth to pot. Measure and set aside 2/3 cup of broth. You will need that to make the dumplings!
Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, “pick” the meat from the bones. Yep, just take your hands and pull the meat off. Place the meat into the pot with the broth. Discard the rest of the bones.
Now it is time to make those dumplings! Combine the flour, baking powder, and ¾ teaspoon salt. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender. (No pastry blender? Get yourself to the nearest….just kidding. Use a fork.) The mixture should be crumbly. Now here’s THE trick to perfect dumplings: (I can’t believe I’m sharing the secret that allows me to turn up my nose at most people’s dumplings…Yes, it is that important to a southern chick!) Check the temp. of your reserved broth. It needs to be VERY warm to HOT. Put in cool broth and your dumplings will not be melt-in-your-mouth delicious! You have been fairly warned. So add the hot broth to the flour mixture and blend until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over-blend. Now turn your dough out onto a LIGHTLY floured surface. Knead lightly for about 30-40 seconds. Now roll out your dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut your dough into 1 x 2 inch strips. I use my pizza cutter. This isn’t rocket science so don’t worry if your strips aren’t perfect. See…

Bring your pot of broth and chicken back to a boil. Now as quickly as you can, drop the dumplings into the broth ONE AT A TIME. Cover your pot, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Yield: 4 servings (feel free to double…they are even better reheated!)
Enjoy,
Sammi

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped (I pulse them in the food processor)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp. fresh orange zest
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 egg, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add shortening and blend. (you can cut it in with a pastry blender or a fork, BUT I just used my mixer until the shortening was blended in…)
Add juice, orange zest, and egg.

Mix until dry and wet ingredients are just blended. Stir in the cranberries.

(Can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of the batter while it was still in the bowl!) Spoon into papered or greased muffin tin.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer your pan to a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from pan and place on cooling rack. If you have the patience you can let them cool for a few minutes. But personally, I like to break one open and spread some butter on it immediately!

YUMMY! I made the mistake of NOT doubling the recipe and they didn’t last one day. I had two for breakfast…then that afternoon I had one with my tea. The other 9? Boy Wonder ate them all before lunch!!! He’s a hard working farm boy….so I let him get away with it!
Enjoy!!!

A Beautiful and Tasty Day

It is a beautiful day here in the upstate of New York. The trees are frosted and gleaming at times when the sun can break the barrier of gray. Though the sun is fighting hard, the clouds seem to be winning. Tiny flakes of snow are slowly falling from the sky, falling so slowly that I am sure that they began falling sometime last week. Yes, it is beautiful.
 
It is also COLD….a nesting kind of day. So I made these:

SOMEWHERE in my vast collection of recipes, is my original recipe for these little jewels. Alas…I could not find it this morning. So I went online to search for it. I thought that would be quicker than searching through my files, notebooks, etc. I didn’t find the exact recipe, but with a few adjustments* this one turned out just fine.
*I used buttermilk instead of skim milk. I used BUTTER instead of margarine (don’t allow margarine in my house!). I used freshly ground nutmeg (it makes a HUGE difference). I also made a glaze from powdered sugar, cream, and a drop of vanilla extract (sorry…no exact measurements) for a few of them.
Yummy, yummy, good! And the same satisfaction as fresh donuts without all the work!!!
Have a wonderful and blessed day!!!