A Quick Gripe

I promise I will write a real post soon, but for now, I just have to bitch & moan.

I MISS SPINACH!

I AM SICK OF NOT BEING ABLE TO FIND UNPASTEURIZED APPLE CIDER!

I WANT SOME REAL FRENCH CAMEMBERT!

SAHM Cooking on a Rainy Night

In the midst of hard rain & cranky kids bursting into tears in the middle of doing homework, it is so nice to have a cozy dish to serve for dinner! I'm also, frankly, glad that J is the bad guy & I am the good guy in Boot's eyes tonight. I served chicken & dumpling casserole (which my oldest probably would have loved if the word "casserole" hadn't been mentioned), lima beans and applesauce. I should have made applesauce from scratch ( I love it all warm & honeyed), but was lazy & got Musselman's homestyle instead. For dessert, I've got some chocolate bread pudding in the oven. It should be ready just in time for CSI. Both these recipes are from stay-at-home mom friends of mine.

Chicken & Dumpling Casserole

1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
2 minced cloves garlic
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. flour
1 scant tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 cans chicken broth (or about 4 cups of the real thing)
10 oz. frozen peas
4 c. cubed, cooked chicken

Dumplings:
2 c. Bisquick
2 tsp. basil
2/3 c. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sauté onion, celery & garlic in butter until tender. Add flour, seasonings and broth. Bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Reduce heat. Add peas & cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add chicken & pour into greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Mix Bisquick and basil. Add milk & stir with fork just until thoroughly moistened. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls on top of chicken mixture. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

2 c. cubes of day-old French bread
1 c. chocolate chips
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/3 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 qt. casserole. Put bread in it. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Mix rest together. Beat well. Pour over bread. Put casserole in baking pan filled with 1" hot water. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serve warm.

Am I Blue?

Why, no, I am not! Although the skies are stolidly grey today, with an autumnal chill in the air, I am actually quite snug and happy. I had a bowl of fabulous soup, with saltine crackers, for lunch. I rarely go to the trouble of cooking something just for me for lunch. But, I wanted to try this soup & knew J & the boys would not be thrilled with having blue cheese in their soup or wafting through the air as I stirred the pot. So, while they are enjoying sack lunches, I have cooked just for myself.

Bleu Potato Soup

7 red potatoes, peeled & diced
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 diced onion
1 minced clove garlic
32 oz. chicken or veggie stock
8 oz. blue cheese, crumbled (my mom used 4 ounces & said it was fine that way)
Salt & pepper

Boil potatoes in water to cover until fork-tender. Heat oil in skillet. Sauté onion & garlic until golden. Add potatoes & sauté a couple minutes. Put in pot with stock & cheese. Bring to boil. Cover & simmer 10 minutes. Purée in batches in blender. Heat through, bringing to a simmer. Season with salt & pepper. Serves 4.

Starchy, Starchy

Last night, after poking around the bookstore, my Beloved finally got her desire to have dinner at Buca di Beppo. She's been talking about it since we moved up here, but we hadn't made it there yet. Under serious protest from grumpola Pie, we dragged the kids there instead of feeding them at home. Pie remained grumpy through the meal, but Boot really liked it there. The fun, kitschy atmosphere appealed to him. In fact, he asked tonight if we can go there again soon. Last night, when J said something about getting it to go sometime, he said, "No, no, the whole fun of it is eating here." The food was fine, but not spectacular. I expected, based on our previous Buca di Beppo experience, nothing more than what we got: Italian the way people's white bread moms used to make it in the 1970s when I was a kid. Boot loved his cheese pizza, which he shared with Pie. Pie ordered lasagna & we all nibbed some, since he had enough for 48 people. J & I had the penne cardinale, which has chicken, cream sauce, artichokes and crushed red pepper for some bite. We had garlic bread with cheese for our appetizer and chocolate Vesuvio for dessert. I found the cake-brownie thing in the dessert to be incredibly dry and the caramel sauce to be sadly sparse, but Pie devoured it. Tonight, there was plenty left for us each to have big portions again for our dinner. The boys shared the remains of the lasagna & we had the penne, with a nice Caesar salad & some Italian bread with olive oil dipping sauce.

September Soup Supper

Tonight, I made a dinner that prompted my 11-year-old to ask, "Are we having any meat with this???" Nope. Sorry, buddy. It was a warming dinner for an early Fall night. I served this soup with a loaf of Italian bread.

Curried Broccoli Potato Soup

2 cans chicken broth (I like the reduced-sodium kind)
2 c. milk
8 small new potatoes, quartered
2 carrots, sliced
1-2 tsp. curry powder (I lean toward 2)
Salt & pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. cumin
2 c. broccoli florets
2 c. shredded cheddar

Mix broth & milk. Heat through. Add everything but broccoli & cheese. Bring to a boil. Cover & simmer 10 minutes. Pour into blender & purée. Return to pan. Add cheese, stirring to incorporate, allowing cheese to melt & then adding broccoli. Cover & simmer 10 minutes. Serves 4.

Revisiting Old Favorites

While the restaurants in Cleveland are quite good, we miss some of our usual haunts in Dayton. This past week, I had the opportunity to dine at two of them. On Thursday, I had a little spare time & planned to go have pad Thai or Massaman curry at Ban Thai in Beavercreek. Their food is wonderful & they are really friendly. Sadly, when I reached the parking lot, it was completely full! I figured that there probably wouldn't be any tables, so I drove on into Kettering for lunch at Ajanta India, my favorite Indian restaurant. Their parking lot was also full, but I finally found a spot. After I got parked, I happened to notice that the license plate of the car in front of me was Evvi's mom's. Evvi & I have enjoyed many Ajanta lunches together & I ate there with them when Garnet was one week old. We spent much of that meal just staring at her darling little face as she slept. I went in & surely enough, Evvi was there, having borrowed the car for a lunch with her friend Laura. I have met Laura before & really know her best as Queen Elizabeth, who she has played at the Renaissance Faire. I had some wonderful chicken tikka masala & an even better time listening to Evvi talk about spinning & Laura about her toddler & watching Garnet daintily tip ice out of my glass with a spoon. She is cuter than ever before, just a lovely girl at 2 years old.

On Saturday, we got to have dinner at Los Mariachis in Xenia, one of my favorite Mexican places. Boot just loves it there & has had his birthday dinner there more than once. He invariably orders chicken quesadillas, while Pie usually gets a cheeseburger. A travesty! Oh, well, we went there so often for a while that he got burned out on soft tacos. We took my grands out for dinner. My grandmama had a tamale, my granddad chose an enchilada & burrito combo, my Beloved had enchiladas with a beef tip sauce on top of them. I always have a hard time choosing there because they have so much that is good. This time, I got the chile verde, pork chunks with a delicious green sauce. This is served with rice & beans. I always think I'm going to have room for flan or sopaipillas, but that rarely happens.

Swiss Steak

Swiss steak is rather old-fashioned, but I really like it. I made some in the crock pot the other Sunday & served it with mashed potatoes & lima beans.

Crockpot Swiss Steak

3 tbsp. flour
4 lean cube steaks, tenderized
1 can tomato soup
14 oz. stewed tomatoes
Dash or two of Worcestershire sauce
Couple shakes parsley flakes
A grinding of pepper
A smidge of salt
A fistful of baby carrots, halved
1/2 c. chopped onion

Dredge the steaks in flour & put in greased crockpot (I like to use cooking spray). Mix everything else together & pour over steaks. Cook on low 6-8 hours.