Darwin and I think alike, so it turns out we were about to cross-post about food. However, he's writing interesting analysis, and I was just going to complain about how there was nothing to eat and what was in the pantry was boring, anyway. We're being frugal, and it's kind of dull, to tell the truth. Plus, what's inexpensive is not necessarily what's quick, and contra Darwin, I don't always get dinner started before he gets home, especially when I'm feeling under the weather.
Anyway, I'm completely uninspired by our bare pantry. Guys, what are you eating for dinner tonight? I don't care how lame it is -- we're all supportive here! And if there's a cookbook you recommend, lay it on me.
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29 comments:
hot dogs and root beer.
My wife is quite enamored with either Cooking for Fifty or Feeding Fifty lately. There aren't fifty of us, but we freeze leftovers and get several meals out of one cooking session.
McDonald's drive-thru. (I know, I know... but due to an appointment tonight we only have 30 minutes to eat and that's the quickest option since it doesn't involve unloading 4 kids out of the van and then loading them all up again.)
My favorite cookbook is Fix It and Forget It: 5 Ingredient Favorites. Tons of slow cooker recipes that are quick, easy, and delicious! I especially love the Ginger Ale Pot Roast, the Fruited Meatballs, and the Honey-Baked Chicken.
Toilet just overflowed--hubby ran to Home Depot for a toilet fix-it kit, and is pickin' up pizza on his way home :D
Chicken Enchiladas and Sweet Potatoes are almost done in the oven. Blaise, however, is eating wood chips and foam darts. Time to get off the computer.
So far a tuna sandwich. I guess that's a late brunch. Later, who knows?
Best cookbook is Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. Bought it in college and love it. Best Lasagna (for an Irish girl)!
Well dinner was going to be a roast chicken; but I didn't get it into the oven early enough because I looked at the clock after lunch and realized it was really late and I still had to get the boys down for their naps and Anthony wouldn't go down and....well, you know, the usual chaos. So I went on Facebook and begged for an idea of what to do with the pork tenderloin that Dom put in the fridge to defrost the other day. I rubbed it with pepper, salt and thyme, and roasted it with some onions sliced on top and some red wine in the bottom of the pan. We'll see how it turns out. On the side: cheesy mashed potatoes and some green beans from the freezer.
For an appetizer (i.e. the kids were begging for food while I was cooking) Sophie had some frozen green peas, as in still frozen. Ben had some broccoli from the freezer, and everyone munched on some crispy kale. I feel like super mom somehow with all that veggie eating. But then this is probably the first time they've had anything green this week.
Facebook is my current favorite cookbook. I find more and more often I'm making recipes from the internet these days. When I'm stumped for dinner ideas I'm more likely to search Google or crowd source to Facebook than browse a cookbook.
Soft shelled tacos with chicken, refried beans, salsa (lacking fresh veggies, but that's what I've got, so that's what we're having). Fast, easy, available. Lame, but it did inspire me to take a roast out of the freezer to crock pot for tomorrow.
Oh, and church cookbooks are the best!
A bunch of empenadas, or whatever they are called in Cuba. Pastelitos?
And a cuban sandwich. Dessert of flan.
We had enchiladas last night, and the kids didn't complain - you could use your leftover bean soup for filling, just add cheese and sauce... but my kids would probably rather eat at the Duffys.
Favorite cheap and fast dinner: pasta carbonara: mix raw eggs, crumbled cooked bacon (or pancetta if you are feeling flush), milk, garlic, and parmesan cheese and dump over cooked pasta, then stir on top of the warm stove until the eggs start to set.
Homemade mac and cheese, because I had a bunch of pasta left over from lunch, and coleslaw.
This is pretty pathetic since I just commented on how the Zummos like to eat good homemade food. Well tonight not so much. Stoffer's frozen lasagna. I did make some swiss chard with garlic and golden raisins to go with. Fav cookbooks: anything published by Cooks Illustrated, Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (great if you're on a budget, cooking lots of veggies and need inspiration), and Mario Batali (also some great veggie recipes, especially red cabbage with caraway seeds, yummy!).
We are also in a budget crunch as the breadwinner is between jobs so we are trying to eat what we already have in the pantry until the new paychecks start coming in.
So tonight we had generic boxed macaroni and cheese with refried beans topped with mozzarella cheese.
Pick up this book "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School" by Kathleen Flinn (Finn?). Anyway, the writing is ok, but she has some really good points about how to stock your pantry, how to make simple sauces and how to save money at the grocery store. My favorite chapter was a French chef's thoughts on what to keep in your refrigerator.
My favorite easy pantry dinner is risotto with peas. You can also throw in a lot of other stuff like bacon, ham or mushrooms. But everyone seems to like the peas with risotto.
I've found its always helpful to have heavy cream, frozen peas, sour cream, diced tomatoes, parmeson cheese, ham, bacon, rice and pasta on hand.
Ooh, I get to sound sorta fancy!
Brown rice and chicken with veggies from the slow cooker; tried adapting the WinCo recipe for baked brown rice to the slowcooker. We'll see.
Taco Bell, I'm afraid.
Since it turned out OK:
1 part dry brown rice to 2 parts broth in the bottom of a big crock pot (I prefer beef)
Layer of chicken (thighs, in this case-- loose or tight packed, depending on crockpot and amount you're aiming for)
Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours, so the chicken looks cooked.
Layer of veggies. If they're canned, include the liquid; if not and the rice looks anything but soggy, add a splash of water.
Cook another hour or until veggies are soft.
If there's any leftovers, add a little water to get the crunchy bits off the side, let set overnight in the fridge, then add cream of mushroom soup mix and use it as the basis for tomorrow's dinner.
Chunks of chicken breast in Trader Joe's red Thai curry sauce, with broccoli, over jasmine rice.
I have a cookbook for you. Not so much a recipe book, but a whole theory of Mediterranean cooking. No, a whole universe unto itself. One of my favorite books, and I think you would love it: Honey from a Weed by the English food writer Patience Gray.
I made sauce today like this: soaked chickpeas overnight. Woke up at 5 AM and put them in the crockpot with bay leaves and a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Later, when they were cooked, I puréed them with some chicken broth and returned them to the crockpot. On the stove I sautéed about a half-cup of bacon in olive oil (I keep bacon in the freezer and chop off what I need laterally) along with an onion and four chopped garlic cloves, briefly. I added a can of crushed tomatoes, heated the mixture, and added it to the chickpea purée in the crockpot with salt, red pepper and about 20 chopped leaves of fresh basil. I cooked it for a few hours and seved it with penne and a salad and red wine. It was good, cheap, and nutritious.
Pentimento, That sounds really good. I think I need to look up that cookbook.
Tonight -- a can of black beans, heated up with some shredded cheese and minced Indian chili peppers in some tortillas. Just a little concoction for myself.
But last night my wife made some delicious tomato-and-basil bruschetta; and this past weekend she made homemade hand-rolled gnocchi:
http://www.katecooksthebooks.com/other-favorite-books-and-magazines/cooks-illustrated-magazine/potato-gnocchi
Okay, here's what we ended up eating. It was okay, though we had dinner at 7pm. On the other hand, that was right when Darwin was walking in the door, so the timing was good.
If you need quick/easy/cheap ideas for another time: knock together a quick pancake batter (1 egg, 1 cup of yogurt thinned out with water or milk, 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 cup of flour, 1/2 t. each salt and baking soda). While the pancakes are cooking, heat up a can of refried beans and chop a tomato. Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream and lime wedges if you're feeling fancy. I was going to make beef stew but my plans ganged agley and this was the result.
We call them soft tostadas and everybody eats them without grumbling.
Melanie, the chickpea sauce isn't from that cookbook, but yes, you should read Honey from a Weed. It's not really a cookbook, though -- more a theory-plus-memoir. The writer lived in Spain, Greece, and southern Italy with her husband, a marble sculptor, and talks about what is eaten and cooked in those places. It's wonderful.
I don't like cooking from online recipes. It just bothers me. I have old-school cookbooks. One of the most useful to me has been the Silver Spoon cookbook, a translation of what is sort of the Italian version of The Joy of Cooking. It's great, and I highly recommend it to everyone
The leftover sauce, by the way, is in the crockpot again right now as the liquid base (mixed with a little leftover red wine and some stock I made, also in the crockpot, from vegetable refuse like onion and garlic skins, the ends of broccoli rabe, etc. and the liquid from cooking the chickpeas) for a beef stew.
Well I'm late to the party. Last night we had romaine lettuce with cucumber and carrots and cut up Kentucky Fried Chicken leftovers that my parents had brought over the weekend. We also had a homemade dressing with local honey and mustard. It was good until we realized that we didn't have near as much left over salad as we thought. So out came the chips and salsa.
Pentimento, I love you. Honey from a Weed is one of my favourite food books. My all-time favourite food writer is John Thorne, especially Outlaw Cook, his second book, which is where I heard of Patience Grey. In one of his books he writes that when his wife reads recipes she sees a careful instruction manual, and when he does he sees a dish screaming, 'make me! Make me!' So his actual cooking very little resembles his starting place.
That is exactly me.
For recipes with variation I really like Nigel Slater. I like writers who are thoughtful and play with food.
I don't know what they're having at home tonight, but if I get discharged tomorrow morning I'm making cheese enchiladas and salad for dinner, while Mr. Lissar visits the girls in hospital
Pentimento, that sounds like a book I definitely need to read. I got The Silver Spoon about four years ago and have only made maybe a handful of dishes from it. I don't know why but the recipes never call to me when I'm flipping through it.
Lissla, I vacillate between seeing recipes as a careful instruction manual and "make me!" dishes that vaguely resemble the recipe as written. It depends on my mood, how familiar I am with the type of cuisine or the kind of recipe.
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