4.5 year old's wonderful compliment

I just got a phone call from a very dear friend. I was in the ministry this morning with her husband and 4 year old son. We did calls so there was a lot of time in the car playing "tend" games (pretend games).

Anyway he just asked his mom if she knew Auntie Kristen. Of course the response was positive. He then told his mom I was beautiful, didn't she think so.

Out of the mouths of babes!

Things My MS Has Taught Me

I think most of you know that I have MS. It's this insidious little auto immune disease that mostly makes me tired. It means I have to be careful not to get sick, but if I am exposed to a cold (or worse), I cant't take any of those lovely immune boosters (like vitamin C or echinacea) that the media, doctors, and well meaning friends are always encouraging me to take.

Well, it finally taught me something. For some time now I have prioritizing tasks--from shopping to cleaning to cooking to the ministry and my meeting preparation. The past few days required more work than I usually tackle in a whole week. But my time management skills (and my delegation skills :-) ) paid off in a big way.

Both on Wed and Thur I was keyed up and out of bed by 7:15. Despite the fact that wonderful hubby slept till 9:00 both days. By 8:00 on Thursday, everything was done. I called Mom because I didn't know what else to do. I verbally went through my check list and she helped me tick them all off. When Josh finally awoke from his slumber, I helped him tackle his chore list. I actually sat down with a plate of food, a cup of coffee, and talked to my friends. I didn't think the hostess could ever do such a thing.

Now I have to work on saying, "That sounds nice, but I don't think I can handle that right now." But that's a lesson I'll have to learn another day!

Thanks for listening...
Kristen

Bye-bye Bookstudy Brunch--A Success!

Whew! Its over. I need a nap but it seemed to go smoothly. Recipes were requested, french toast was gone before everyone even got to try it, and except for a few pieces of my Blueberry Buttermilk Bundt cake, everything I made was consumed. Okay, I do have a smaller strata left, but plan to serve that tomorrow.

And Josh did the bulk of the clean up!


Blueberry Bundt Cake on the Stand, Kolachkes in the square basket, and crossaints on the right.


The main spread...with a few holes for items (and people) who arrived late. I was pleased though, one friend dropped off her contribution and then dropped her dog off somewhere and took something to her mom--she did return to join the party. Another (who didn't come at all) sent her contribution with another friend.


That's all folks. Have a nice weekend!

Bookstudy Brunch in the works

This has to be a brief post because I am fried. I cooked from 10-2:30 and made sundry other prep until about 5:00 when I consumed my first of 2 Manhattans. Thank goodness for whiskey.

So I made three dishes I have never made before. So unlike me. I like to know that they are delish before I toss them to 2 or 3 friends let alone 20! All recipes are available at Epicurious.com. I'm too tired to link to them.

The first one I made was Vegetable Strata. Most labor intensive, I knocked it out first. It wanted me to use a 4.5 qt baking dish, which, of course, I didn't have. I used my 3.5 qt dish and an additional 8x8 Pyrex. Let's hope they turn out

Next I made Creme Brulee French Toast. Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy this one was. Again, I haven't tried it yet, so let's hope it turns out.

Lastly, I made a Blueberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake (It's possible I chose this strictly for its consonance). Biggest concern here is that I more than doubled the buttermilk. It did come together as a cake should and many of the reviewers added additional buttermilk as the batter was very thick. Even with the additional buttermilk, the batter still seemed thick. Maybe all will be okay.

So photos of the tables:


And yes, I did label the dishes--mine and those of others.

And as if this wasn't crazy enough, I have a talk tomorrow night (I wrote it on Saturday--woohoo for me!) and I'm having company on Friday night for dinner.

Here is a picture of my Sonny Dog in his favorite spot when the bed is unmade. I watched him try to find a spot that smelled like either one of us the other day. It was very funny.


Ciao, I'm beat. Have a good tomorrow!

K

Lovely Chicago Winter

Yesterday, around 1:00 pm
December 18, 2008


There was already some snow on the ground, but note the beautiful, blue sky.

Fast forward 18 hours or so...

Today about 8:30 am
December 19, 2008.



And it's still coming down. Woohoo!

Old news

As I was adding photos to the current post, I realized that I needed to share some photos from our trip to SC at the end of November. Can you guess who the star is? Here goes...


Allen and Papa

Paparazzi shot

Allen and Nana

and two of Allen and Momma


and here's one of the sunset we saw on the way home from Charleston.

It's been a week

I'm tired. I'm still fighting this stupid cold. And, to add insult to injury, I've got my period. Yay cramps!

Okay, I'm done whining.

Dinner and Potato Ricer

Dinner last night was good. I didn't do anything unusual or even new, but Josh said it was very good. In fact he said that the appetizer and the cocktail (a Blood and Sand) worked well to "appetize" him.

Blood and Sand
3/4 oz Scotch
3/4 oz Cherry Heering--difficult to find, but key to the drink
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
3/4 oz Orange Juice

It may not sound so good at first, but it is ohhh so good. We first tasted this at McCormick and Shmick's for our anniversary dinner. Peter odered it.

I guess I did make a new appetizer thing. I call it Caprese Bruschetta. It's exactly what it sounds like--tomato, onion, mozzarella and basil all in a small dice. Mix and served with panettini. You could, of course, serve it with French or Italian bread, or if your really brave, crostini. (I nearly burned my kitchen down when I walked away from the oven for 90 seconds. One more thing Rachael Ray and I have in common.)

As for the rest of dinner, it was my stand-by flank steak* ("the best flank steak" Josh had ever tasted--pre-courting**), mashed potatoes (you should have seen me working my new potato ricer--a real She-Ra I was), and oven roasted broccoli (I added grated romano cheese and roasted garlic this time--yummy!).



This is my potato ricer. You load the "basket" portion of the contraption with cooked potato and the you squeeze the "plunger" portion to make the potatoes ooze out like a Play Doh hair salon toy.

Play Doh

Speaking of Play Doh, I watched my friend's 5 year old yesterday...check out what we made (by this I mean I, this poor little thing had no prior experience with Play Doh).












Okay, she did make most of the blue fish, I helped with the details. And she did decide what we would make.

Herb Garden

My herb garden seems to be doing well. My parsley even came in. Woohoo!

When I run my fingers over these teeny tiny herbs, the wonderful aroma fills the air. Especially the basil--three of the seven plants are basil. (And I have more, different varieties, for the next batch.) (These pictures will get more interesting as the plants continue to grow.)

Bookstudy Brunch Update

Things are coming together nicely. One of the "girls" offered to bring champagne flutes for the sparkling juice I bought. Evidently 3 friends got together and bought enough for the congregation. They just keep passing them around. I have pastries, sausages and juice coming in addition to last week's post. I also have the paper products.


Alright, I admit the photo doesn't do them justice. The napkins came from Joli, this awesome little gift and home shop in Beaufort SC, and the plates came from Target. The napkins have pink and white magnolia blooms on a gold ground, thus the plates are white with gold accents. Even though I forgot to bring the napkins with me to Target, I knew that it would be a perfect match.

Last Weekend

Well, we got together with our best friends and went to Josh's grocery store, aka Sam's Wines and Spirits. The boys went and filled their home bars, while the girls sat at the wine bar and enjoyed a glass of wine and solved the world's problems. Not really, we just sat and talked and enjoyed our wine and each other's company. We closed the store (it was Sunday, they close at 6), and went on to enjoy dinner at Wildfire. Maybe our favorite steakhouse. And, the special side dish was, are you ready for this, Brussel Sprouts! Yay me--good friends, good drink, good food, and BRUSSEL SPROUTS. I couldn't have been happier. Okay, I could have. I was beginning to feel the effects of this blasted cold. But you know, as I was recounting the evening here, for your benefit, I didn't remember the not feeling well. Just all the good things.

I think that's all for today. See ya next week!

Footnotes

*1/4c sugar
1/4c soy sauce
1/3c balsamic vinegar
as many shallots as you care mince (2 if they're large, 4 if they're small)

marinate for at least 4 hour and as long as 2 days

**I referred to Josh and as courting as opposed to dating to the CO and Josh called my old fashioned. JOSH called ME old fashioned. What's up with that?

Haven't Aged a Day

This is kinda freaky, really. I went to have a new passport photo taken. Josh and I are planning to do our "honeymoon" cruise again in 10/09 so a I need one with my married name. Check out my old photo with my new one:


Herbs

I've begun my second season of growing herbs in my AeroGarden. Very, very cool. Being that I don't live in a climate where I could even dream about tending an herb garden year round, this is great. A few more weeks and I'll be able to cook with fresh, home grown herbs.

I'm at the end of week 2 and all my herbs should have sprouted and should be "hatless." I took a picture at the end of week 1 and neglected to share it...so here you go.

I apologize for the "jaunty" angle at which the photograph is showing. I took it in the direction in which I wanted it to appear. Apparently blog spot assumes that all photos should be vertical. Additionally, while I took a "week 2" photo, I'm having difficulty getting the computer to give me access to any way I can feed the pictures from my computer/card to the computer. Hopefully by the time I need to share week 3 pics, this will all be sorted out. You would notice, if the week 2 photo were here, that my parsley plant isn't doing anything. I'll give it another week before I completely give up.

Date Night--Sort of

On to new and different things...

Date night on Wednesday, didn't turn out exactly as I had planned, but it was lovely nonetheless. Again, I have a photo which I'm unable to include. I'll describe instead. I set out cheese and crackers for our hors d'oevres. I made Manhattans. I had the fire going and I lit candles. (All of this made for a lovely photo. *#%@ computer!)

Sadly, as Josh came up the stairs I was lighting the candles instead of handing him his drink. Maybe that's where things went wrong. He'd had a rough day, he wasn't in a cheesy kinda place (don't say it, I will--he's ALWAYS in a cheesy kinda place...I know, I know) although he ate enough cheese and crackers that he asked me to wait until 6:00 to even begin cooking dinner.

Which leads me to dinner. Chicken Parm from BOB. Very good. But I didn't make pasta. Josh says chicken parm should have pasta. Strike 2 for Kristen. I used the fettuccine that I had earlier with meatballs that I made.

Meatballs

That leads me to my next topic. I made meatballs for dinner on Tuesday (CO--no BS at home, okay to make "smelly" food). These were good meatballs. I'll share the recipe (this is a Giada recipe):

• 1 small (6-ounce) onion, grated
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus 1/4 cup
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus 1/4 cup
• 1/3 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
• 8 ounces ground beef
• 8 ounces ground veal
• 2 ounces smoked mozzarella cheese, cut into 16 (1/2-inch) cubes
• 1 pound bucatini or other long pasta

For the meatballs: Position an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the onion, 1/2 cup parsley, 2/3 cup Parmesan, bread crumbs, egg, ketchup, garlic, red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add the beef and veal. Using your hands, combine all ingredients gently but thoroughly. Shape the meat mixture into 16 (1 1/2-inch-diameter) meatballs and place on the prepared baking sheet. Make a hole in the center of each meatball and place a cube of mozzarella inside. Reform the meatball so that the mozzarella is completely covered with the meat mixture. Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes until cooked through.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and place in a large serving bowl. Add the meatballs and sauce. Toss gently and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and Parmesan.

Okay, changes I had to make: no veal, no parsley, I diced my onion instead of grating it, and regular mozzarella. Still very, very yummy. Giada also had a recipe for a tomato sauce with the meatballs, but I used my own to which I added some pancetta.

Roasted Veggies

One more cooking topic...Pretty much any vegetable can be roasted following the directions which I posted previously. Green beans with tomatoes are oh so yummy. Asparagus is great, too. And cauliflower takes on a "beefy" taste according to Josh.

Oh, and roast for 25-30 mins.

Bleach

Completely different topic here. I have a girlfriend who swears by bleach. She buys bottles and bottles of the stuff and uses it to clean everything! Well, I'm a convert. I used bleach to clean my entire bathroom earlier this week, and it has never been cleaner. I even scrubbed the floor (on my hands and knees--boy did I feel that for several days) and wiped down the baseboards. I'm on to do my hall bath as soon as I finish here (that may explain the great length of this entry, huh?)

Best Compliment Ever

Given by the best mom ever. I told my mom this morning that I wanted to be Ina Garten (of Barefoot Contessa fame). She told me she thought I was already there. I'm certain I'm years away, but boy did it make me feel good.

Given by the best Bible student ever. My li'l sister Bible student, said from the stage, the day she was baptized, that I was her "inspiration." My goodness!

If I'm not careful, my head will swell.

I guess that's all that's fit to print.

Toodles!

Bookstudy Brunch

Okay friends, I need your help. We decided that rather than the old fashioned "treat night" after the last book study, we were going to have a brunch commemorating the end of an era. After all, we all (or almost all) have Thursday of that week off.

So, following the advice of Fred (my personal grill guru), I assigned certain things to my friends. As a result, I have a ham coming. Fresh fruit is also in the works, as is a ham and cheese quiche, banana bread/muffins, perogis (I didn't actually assign that one, but my Polish friend wanted to make that her contribution--Josh is psyched).

As for my contributions--I have spent the last 45 mins scouring Epicurious. I really want to be able to do all the messy cooking on Wednesday so Josh can clean my kitchen and I can sleep well knowing that all I have to do on Thursday is put things in the oven and make coffee. So here is what I came up with--"Creme Brulee French Toast", "Vegetable and Cheese Strata", and "Blueberry-Buttermilk Bundt Cake." Of course, I'll have coffee.

I have 2 or maybe three friends left to talk to, and figure I could ask them to bring juices (I intend to have sparkling juices). Anything else that you think I need to have? Mom suggested bacon or sausage, but I don't want to have a house that smells of bacon, nor can I use my oven that way as it will have french toast and strata in it. One of my friends left to cooridinate a contribution might be able to bring sausages. What to you all think?

If you have a "to die for" coffee cake type thing recipe, please share. Same for the strata.

All right. I have to run. Bathroom to clean and other domestic chores to conquer.


This is just a random photo of my Sonny-dog.

By special request

This is for Aunt Kate, although the rest of you can enjoy it too. She requested that I share my oven roasted broccoli recipe with her. So here goes...

First things first, it's not really MY recipe. This is how my mom has been making it for some time now, so I want to give credit where credit is due. I did, however, make this all summer long in an aluminum foil pouch on my grill.

preheat oven to 425 (I just made this, following a different recipe, that called for a 475 degree oven. I didn't like the results as well as the way my mom makes it.)

1 (or 2 or 3 or 12...you chose the quantity, adjust the other ingredients accordingly) broccoli crown
1 clove of garlic, chopped or minced
salt
pepper
2 T olive oil

Depending on your mood, taste and other parts of the meal you could add lemons, lemon zest, hot pepper flakes, chopped tomato--if you think it sounds good, go for it.

Happy Cooking!
Kissy H.

Bob

"Who is Bob?" you're asking. "What about Bob?" you'd like to know. Well, I can show you who Bob is not...

Not Bob, but my wonderful husband Josh.


Also not Bob, but my "hot momma," sexy cowgirl sister Allegra.

Definitely not Bob. This is Allen. In Nana's sunglasses. At Sticky Fingers BBQ in Charleston where he fed himself most of his mac n cheese.

So who, or what is Bob? Bob is Rachel Ray's newest cook book. She calls it her Big Orange Book or BOB for short. Well, I like Bob. A lot. I haven't finished reading it yet (yes, you can read a cook book) and I've only prepared one meal from it (sorta...it had Kissy written all over it), but it's good. A big thank you to Allegra for cluing Mom into my desire for the book and thanks Mom for listening and obtaining it. It's very good.

So the one meal I've made thus far is Sausage and Mushroom Ragu and Rigatoni. Very tasty. Made it for Wednesday's date night. No photos, sorry. The recipe called for 1.5 lbs of hot or sweet Italian sausage. My attitude is why choose just one. So I headed back to my meat counter with the intention of getting 3/4 lb of each. But noooo. Dominick's has started to carry additional flavors of sausage. Like onion and bell pepper. And garlic and cheese. So I came home with all the varieties. Mmmm. Did it make a tasty Ragu. If you can still call it that, as I used some of the gravy that I made earlier in the day instead of the sauce outlined in the recipe.

I'm not gonna post Bob's recipe as it involves more typing than I care to do now and since I know that 1/2 of my loyal readers already has the book. I will share my gravy recipe though (for my future needs and yours as well). This the best one so far:

3 big cans crushed tomatoes
2 cans diced fire roasted tomatoes with garlic
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 biggish can tomato paste
1c good red wine
4 bay leaves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp dried oregano

I think it was the combo of the fire roasted tomatoes, the allspice and the good red wine that mad the difference. Although it's also the first time I used stewed tomatoes which yielded a chunkier sauce, which we like. Go figure. It was good!

Tonight's dinner plans involve a garlic marinated beef tenderloin (no preparation on my part, just open the package and cook), roasted broccoli and cauliflower with lemon and garlic (Dec issue of everyday FOOD) and a version of Rachael Ray's oven roasted fries that's not included in BOB and will by further modified by me.

I have other things to share, but that will be for another post.

TTFN,
Kissy

Holiday in SC

For those of you who don't know, I'm off to SC tomorrow for a week of puppy sitting, and shopkeeping, and dog training, and hanging out with Grandmom, and cooking, and mostly loving on my Allen Boy. Maybe I'll be able to check in over the next week, but if not I'm sure I will have lots share next month.

In the mean time, I need to get some stuffed shells in the oven for Josh. They've been in the freezer in preparation for my trip, and now I will finish them so it will be just like his has leftovers. I'm also going to move a container of the Irish Beef and Stout Stew that I made a few days ago from the freezer to the fridge. Again, leftovers. I dragged him to the grocery store with me yesterday to make sure that he had all that he needed (especially for his lunches). He didn't exactly kick and scream, but he did pout a little bit. ("Do I have ice cream?")

I'm really just procrastinating about packing, and I have to put an end to it now.

Ciao,
KMS

no recipes, just kitchen type tips

Well sadly the picture I took of my favorite kitchen tip, disappeared. I don't know where it went. I'm using a new camera, but I'm pretty sure I didn't intentionally delete it. And it was a pretty cool picture, too. It involved fruit flies, those pesky little stowaways on the tasty fruit you bring home. They were dead, too. That leads me to my first tip:

• to lure them to their death (I want to believe that it is a painless and quiet death), add several drops of dish washing liquid to a glass of cider vinegar. I did this last weekend because I thought I had a couple flying around. Turned out it was 8!

Nobody likes to wash dishes. No matter how much we like to cook, the cleanup is the pits. If you live in household where the division of labor is "you cook, I'll clean up," you are very fortunate. In my house if goes more along the lines "you cook, I'll eat." I don't mean to be harshing my Joshy, he does do the dinner dishes (into the dishwasher) and he makes me wonderful cocktails. Except on date night when I make the cocktails, cook the dinner (including appetizers and dessert), and clean it all up. I've gotta rethink this whole date night concept. Anyway this leads me to my second tip:

• apply a good hand cream or lotion to your hands and then don a pair of rubber gloves. The result is mini spa treatment for your hands. The gloves allow you to use hotter water, which leads to cleaner dishes, and the heat and the lotion leads to softer hands. No dishpan hands for me.

I get frustrated when a recipe calls for 1/4 c or 1/2 c of fresh juice. How does one know when they have juiced enough lemons or limes or whatnot? Tip 3:

• use a permanent marker to mark the correct levels on a juicer. I prefer this glass jar with a juicer lid for 2 reasons--I can put my back into juicing the fruit and I can use a good ol' fashioned measuring cup full of water to mark the desired amount.

You can see that I have marks at the 1/4 c level and the 1/2 c level.

I'm to my next tip. I like to use plastic cutting boards. Mostly because they go in the dishwasher and I'm sure that they will get thoroughly clean that way. I don't, however, have super countertops--they're just run of the mill formica. Thus my boards tend to slide around. So, are you ready for this, tip 4:

• I use jar opening grippy thing under my cutting boards. I used to use grippy shelf paper, but the jar things I keep in the drawer above the cabinet with the cutting boards an under the counter top closest to the garbage disposal. (My counter nearest my stove which would allow me to "chop and drop" isn't large enough for a "garbage bowel. I didn't get to design my own kitchen.)

This isn't to say that I don't cut myself. This time it was with my very sharp chefs knife. The good news is that, although I was mincing the mint for that tomato and ricotta spread (see previous post) for a break night treat after book study, I was able to find the fingernail and fish it out.

Okay, this is my final tip. It allows you to remove brownies/bars/or other dense baked desserts for easier cutting and....are you ready for this...you don't have to wash the pan!

• line your baking pan with aluminum foil! You can just lift the entire dessert, in one peice, cleanly out of the pan, and then cut onto a cutting board.

The dessert in the picture is a pan of key lime squares. You'll have to wait for the recipe, because this a "tip only" post. And I'll be making them next week for my family in SC and I can blog about it then. Along with mac and cheese. MMMM. I wonder what I have for lunch?

The fire alarm works....

I know it's not an exciting picture, but I don't have any of pictures of food for this blog, so I'll give you what I've got. The story will come later

Since it's been more than week since my last post, I guess I should begin with dinner at Lovell's. Or maybe I should start with breakfast on our anniversary. I made French Toast...from scratch. Not very creative. I was going to use nutmeg, but when I opened the jar there were buggies in it! Yech! (We've had this ongoing problem with mealy flies (that's not their official name, just my own personal pet name for them), usually they are in baked thing--chips, bread, cereal. I never thought to check my spices. Again, yech!) I used cinnamon instead. And lots of butter. Josh said they were yummy. Even though I FORGOT THE BACON. Jiminy--I'd forget my own head if it weren't attached to my neck.

Dinner was nice, too. I had the filet trio--one was an Oscar-type prep with crab and asparagus; one was a mushroom fricassee, and I can't remember the third one. Josh also had beef, but I can't remember which cut. Maybe a rib eye? He started with crab bisque and I had an heirloom tomato salad. Yummy! For dessert we shared a type of Strawberry Shortcake but it wasn't shortcake it was puff pastry. A great modification to a classic dessert.

And I wore red shoes! That made me feel so sassy and a little sexy. Josh confirmed that, and Eileen (who bought the outfit) and Amelia who was with me for both selection of the outfit and then the shoes said I looked like a "Sexy Librarian." I kinda like that.

I didn't have the red purse then. That was purchased yesterday ($14.99 at TJMaxx). So now I have my own Ruby Slippers!

Okay, on to meals that I've prepared in the past week. I made Shepherd's Pie on Monday. Recipe from Everyday Food. The biggest thrill for me was that I got to use my new 5 qt Dutch oven from my momma. It was pretty good, in fact we're still eating it. Last of it tonight before meeting (Spanish has their CO--thus the schedule change). While the directions called for a Dutch oven, they didn't reflect that choice of cookware. The idea with the Dutch oven is to heat it before you add any food and only as high as med. heat (so the LeCrueset leaflet that was included directed). As a result, my beginning mirepoix (onion, carrot and celery) remained crispy (a good thing in our opinions) and the meat was pink (also good). The final mixture, however, was on the juicy side.

And then there was the mashed potato topping. I don't know what paste Martha's Everyday Food staff was eating that they directed the use of baking potatoes for the mashed. It just didn't work. They were semi-mashed semi-scalloped. It was a big potato-y mess as far as I'm concerned. They were mixed with grated cheddar and that was a hit. Like I said, it was pretty good and we will finish it tonight. I will make it again but I will use different potatoes. When I get it right, I'll share the recipe.

Well this is the part of my story that "tested" our smoke alarm. I mentioned that the meat and veggie mixture was on the soupy side. Then I put the Cheddar mashed on top. Well, it got all bubbly and good smelling in the oven as the juices spilled over the side. Until it got smokey and we nearly died from smoke inhalation. But the smoke alarm saved us. Josh disarmed it while I removed the meal from the oven and frantically opened windows.

Now for a less exciting dinner. I watched a lot of cooking shows over the weekend. When it time came to cook on Wednesday, I garbled up two chicken recipes into one. One of the shows featured lemon chicken, chicken picatta if you will, and the other was a bone in, oven baked preparation that was breaded in fresh bread crumbs, S&P and herbs de Provence with a little olive oil thrown in. I made the fresh bread crumb mixture, plus the zest of 2 lemons and then breaded boneless, skinless chicken breasts which I proceeded to saute in olive oil in pan. I used lemon juice and white wine to deglaze the pan and thickened the sauce with a little corn starch. Of course, I tried to make the sauce while the chicken was still in the pan because after 20 minutes they weren't cooked through yet. Take it from me that that doesn't really work. Despite all the angst, I loved the way this lemon chicken tasted. I will definitely repeat the breading, but bake it in the oven with some quartered lemons around it. This was accompanied by broccoli and cheesy Rice-a-Roni. There was lemon peel in the water with the broccoli. When I asked Josh about dinner while we were in bed that night, his response was that it was very good, especially the "cheesy rice." He's such a cheese ball.

Now for Date Night, which for the novelty of having a date night on a Thursday, was last night. I started with Manhattans (no surprise there--it is our signature drink). But just for kicks, I made a mini batch. Eileen got us some antique glassware for our anniversary--6 cocktail glasses and 6 wine glasses. They're Cambridge Glass from the 1940s. Cocktails and servings of wine were wee 70 years ago.

The stacked glasses to the rear are the cocktail glasses. Eileen thought that they would make good cordial glasses. So I greeted Josh at the top of the stairs with mini-Manhattan. He smiled. Then he made sure that there was a standard size cocktail waiting in the wings. There was.

In my mind the true star of last night's date night was my hors d'oevre. I just saw Giada DeLaurntis do this on Wednesday. I think she called it Mediterranean Crostini. I just call it yummy.

Giada's Version Kristen's Version
whole milk ricotta part skim ricotta
tomatoes, seeded and chopped heirloom tomatoes, seeded and chopped
fresh mint, chopped fresh mint, chopped
salt and pepper salt and pepper

Giada did a true crostini. She squeezed lemon juice over it then brushed it with olive oil and a little bit of dried oregano. I toasted a couple slices of this yummy farmhouse bread and cut them into triangles. Then I rubbed the cut end of some garlic over them and brushed them with olive oil and oregano. Delish! Josh, like a true foody, identified them as toast points as he dipped them into the ricotta/tomato dip.

The rest of the meal was refrigerator tortellini and salad. I didn't even have dessert because when I preheated the oven for brownies I was quickly reminded by the billowing smoke that I had neglected to run the oven on the clean cycle the night before. I think Josh scrounged out some ice cream and a lemon ice.

So that's it for me and cooking this week. Josh and I are going to an all day MS seminar tomorrow and then we have reservations at Morton's for dinner.

That's it for now. Ciao!

Date Night...for Real

Tomorrow is our fourth anniversary. Thus we have dinner reservations at Lovell's of Lake Forest. Kind of a special place for us. First date-date and this will be the second anniversary we've spent with the kind folks at Lovell's. (We spent one anniversary at Tom Moore's Tavern in Bermuda.) There was one year when the acclaimed astronaut Jim Lovell himself checked in with us to see if our meal was satisfactory. Plus, there was a year when they had both a single malt and a port flight. This Saxe family couldn't have been happier.

Josh is taking tomorrow off. Woohoo! With a busy theocratic schedule we never (except on vacations) have a whole day at home to ourselves. We have nothing planned. Except that I will be making breakfast. Usually Josh wants eggs/potatoes of some sort/bacon. Sometimes he wants pancakes....and bacon. Last week he put in his order for french toast. Oh yeah, and bacon.

Now, since we've been married the only french toast I've made was oven french toast that "marinated" in the egg mixture overnight. It was for a brunch at Eileen's house. It was to serve many people. Not 2.

Since I have memories of Mom making French toast when I was a little kid (younger than 9), I called her. Eggs, Milk (cream if I've got it, I don't), vanilla, and orange zest. Great. Mmmm-mmm. But being me, I checked the Internet, too. That helped with quantities of eggs and milk. I also got other, basic recipe suggestions. Like ground cinnamon. Or nutmeg. And being stuck on Mom's orange zest suggestion, I wonder about adding a splash of Cointreau. I'll let you know exactly what I do.

Josh's grandfather used to squeeze fresh orange juice for his daughters. So after we got engaged, Eileen pointed out the kind of juicer her dad used to use. Now I have one, too. I will squeezing fresh juice for my boy in the morning. And because we are officially in autumn, I have taken to adding pumpkin pie spices to my coffee. Very tasty. Similar in taste to Starbucks pumpkin spice coffee, but rather than being $4 a pop, you can buy a whole jar of the spice mix for $4 and make pots and pots of coffee. Really,that's my hot morning beverage of choice. Josh will likely prefer to have Lemon Lift or Constant Comment. Both teas. No problem. I have a tea kettle and the teas.

I've already turned the alarm off for tomorrow. And we will walk the pooch before bed tonight. Hopefully, this will allow me to sleep in a little before making breakfast. I may decide to allow Josh to sleep in. Or maybe just go back to bed after walks the doggie. We'll see.

If any of breakfast seems photo worthy, I'll share pictures. But probably not until Saturday.

hugs to all,
LKH

Now if only I can find the vinegar....

So now the pantry's loaded and I have to think very hard to find my things. I'm thrilled with it, but it will take a little getting used to. At least I don't have to worry about my spices toppling over.

So tonight is a semi-date night. I'm grilling sirloins (Olive Oil, salt and pepper), broccoli (olive oil, salt, pepper and minced garlic) and trying to fix the leftover mashed potatoes from the last date night. I think I'll roast some garlic and more Parmesan, butter, sour cream. I will make a Caesar salad for Josh and maybe a spinach-grapefruit salad for myself. Cocktails are most likely to be Manhattans but maybe I'll make them perfect (equal parts sweet and dry vermouth).

Tomorrow I will be making store bought cheese ravioli and my own gravy (probably with an additional can of diced tomatoes added).

Friday (our actual anniversary) we will spending at Lovell's in Lake Forest. Josh is taking Friday off so we get to spend the day together.

Sunday, we have hospitality for Steve Lundeen. We will either be taking him out (probably to Mickey Finn's) or I will making shepherds pie on Saturday for consumption on Sunday. Or maybe I'll make it for our personal consumption on Saturday. If I make it this weekend, I will share.

None of this is very exciting. So I'll stop.

Catch ya later,
LKH

Happy Anniversay, Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary to

US!

So technically our anniversary isn't until Friday. But the festivities began a few weeks ago when Josh's presents (from me) started to come. There were three, if you count the new underwear. I also bought him a Cubs W flag, which he saved for the postseason, and thus has never been used. There's always next year! But the big present was a valet. Not a man, but one to hang his clothes on.


I'll try to get a photo of it loaded. He does really use it.

The next exciting thing that happened anniversary-wise is that Peter and Eileen took us to McCormick and Schmick's for dinner. Mm-mmm Good!


Did you see what it says? Below SEAFOOD RESTAURANT and the date? Isn't that so cool? And you know how some restaurants have those little curtained rooms right off the dining room? That's where we sat. It made me feel like a princess. And I ate Alaskan King crab legs.

They have wonderful classic cocktails. I mean really classic. Not a martini in the bunch. Cocktails hailing back to the 1850's. Josh was in hog heaven. Okay, we all enjoyed that! We had five very good cocktails. A Blood and Sand, a Pegu, an Old Fashioned, a Ward Eight and I can't remember the last one.

Dessert. I wish I'd had my camera. So the waiter clears the dinner dishes away. And then brings 3 creme brulees. Peter and Eileen ordered meals that came with them and they threw one in for Amelia. But our dessert was a slice of apple pie or tart with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and "Happy Anniversary" written beside in chocolate. With a candle which Josh wouldn't blow out with me.

So with all this good food and drink, Amelia got the hiccups on the way home. And then she shared them with me. I found this hysterical and laughed and laughed (a good way to burn some of the dinner calories) and kept telling her it was her turn after I hiccuped. Make of that what you will but I was not stumbling to slurring my speech.

And the last thing has little to do with my anniversary, but everything to do with the primary purpose of my blog...COOKING. My pantry is all over my kitchen. And not because of a infestation of mice to bugs, but because Randy Fiske is changing out my wire shelves for solid shelves. Yippy!


So you can see the contents of the pantry closet all over the kitchen and then Randy hard at work in the driveway. With all of this happening today and then needing to be reloaded and not having the counter space available for food prep, we will be having frozen pizza for dinner tonight. We did a pretty thorough cleaning out on the unload but I'll do more on the reload, too.

I'll post picture of the final pantry both pre- and post the reload.

That's it for now. Love you and miss you all.

Wild Mushroom-Barley Soup

Neither Josh nor I was feeling well on Saturday. We both went to bed sure that we were at the beginning of a cold. So I decided I would make mushroom barley soup on Sunday afternoon. (I began this post on Mon or Tues. It's Friday now. A lot of cooking has happened since then.) This was not a random selection...my latest Martha Stewart Everyday Foods had a recipe for this. Here it is:

1 T olive oil 1.25 lbs of white mushrooms trimmed and sliced 1 med red onion chopped. 2 garlic cloves, minced .5 tsp dried thyme coarse salt and ground pepper 4.5 c canned reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable stock 1 c quick cooking barley .25 c fresh parsley 1 T fresh lemon juice 1 chunk Parmesan cheese In a large saucepan, heat oil over med-high. Add mushrooms, onion, garlic and thyme; season with salt and pepper until veg. have softened--6-8 mins. Add broth and 2 c water to pan; bring to boil over high. Reduce heat to a simmer; and barley and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in parsley and lemon juice. Garnish with Parmesan.

Kristen's version
I just don't believe in cooking with white mushrooms when cremini, shitake and oyster mushrooms are available. I also chopped them in an effort to make them of a uniform size with the barley. I also don't believe in making soup (or boiling potatoes for mashing) with water. I always use stock or broth. This time I used a combo of beef and chicken stock. I couldn't find the quick cooking barley (of course, I've found it now) so I had to use the regular stuff. It certainly smelled very good for a long time. I use fresh thyme because my herb garden is lousy it. My last changes were just because I forgot. No parsley, no lemon juice, no Parmesan. Even with the omissions, it was darn tasty.

The rest of the weeks cooking was pretty ho-hum. Even tonight's date night meal. Quick run down of the menu:

Appetizer: bruschetta on panettini rounds (thank you, Leggy, for the reminder of the burschetta recipe)--I used heirloom tomatos, red onion, garlic, red wine vinegar and EVOO

Main Course: Flank steak marinated in EVOO, red wine vinegar, red onion, garlic, fresh basil and fresh oregano.

Sides: Brocolli with EVOO, garlic, red onion, and pancetta. Also mashed tators with mozzarella and parmesan. The potatoes were not as good as they sound like they should be. I didn't even like them well enough to want to play with them. I don't know...Giada DeLaurentis just loved them.

The high light though of my date night preparations had nothing to do with cooking. Mom sent me a check to use on some makeup brushes. I got them on Monday and I love them. I decided, however, that I needed one more eye shadow brush, so off I went to Ulta. I found the girl that helped me with my original selection and she helped me with this last brush. Then I asked her if she could show/tell me how to do a smokey eye. She explained how, basically, but then sent me over to a couple of the product reps who gave me a makeover. At Allegras's request I took a picture of myself. Here 'tis.



Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about tonight's dessert! I made milk shakes. Boy were they yummy!

Okay, that's it for tonight. Peter and Eileen are taking us out for our anniversary tomorrow. Catch you later.

"The cocktail was delightful...

I don't usually go for the French school of cocktails a lot but this was a revelation"

--Joshua Saxe, bartender extraordinaire


So I guess I made a good choice in the Chanticleer (french for rooster). It was quite tasty--1 oz gin, 1.5 oz dry vermouth, .5 oz Cointreau (or Triple Sec). Shake with ice and pour into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with an orange twist (or in my case a wedge of orange).

I took photos of last night's meal in it's various stages. I prepared it completely backwards...dessert to appetizer. I will, however, share the preparation notes and photos in the order in which we ate.

Appetizer:

This one totally came out of my own little head, and thus was far from perfect. I was going for something along the lines of an Italian quesadilla. I had this Italian style flat bread...it had some herbs mixed in with it. I spread a little olive oil over it...both sides. I topped it with provolone cheese, a sliced heirloom tomato, shredded mozzarella, grated parm and a drizzle of this bottled balsamic glaze that I recently found. (I highly recommend this product...I couple different outfits make it.) To serve it, I folded the flat bread in half and sliced into four slices and drizzled a little more of the balsamic glaze over it.


If you don't already know this, hot tomatoes get very juicy. This was tasty, but we mostly ate the tomato and cheese out of the flat bread. Next time, I think I will try heating it on the stove in a pan with oil. The bread just got soggy.

On to the main course

I have already posted this recipe, so now I will post the photo to the chicken as it was ready to go into the oven. See if you can spot my major mistake...


I did buy a whole chicken. I just didn't realize that it was already in pieces. (It was very clearly marked on the package.) The next photo will show all the good things I was supposed to stuff in the cavity but instead had to artfully tuck around the bird.

Doesn't that look so tasty? (The little dish in the upper right corner has my rings in ammonia in it. Did you know that ammonia is a good jewelry cleaner? My diamond is very sparkly these days.)

This next picture is of the basting liquid.

This was orange juice concentrate, lemon juice, olive oil, and fresh oregano.

I served the chicken with mushrooms cous cous (a nod to my Allen boy) and green beans.


And finally, dessert

I made an apple pie. I can't really share a recipe because I was flying by the seat of my pants. I really like Alton Brown's recipe. He uses 2 each of 4 different varieties of apples for a total of 8 apple per pie. I used granny smith, golden delicious, Jonathon, and McIntosh. I peeled them all. (I took a picture of all the skins in the sink because I thought they were pretty, but it seems weird to share my garbage in this fashion. If you are interested contact me privately.) Anyway, I've made Alton's pie before, but couldn't find his recipe. I got distracted by other pie recipes on the Internet, so I used what I could remember about Alton's technique along with ingredients from another recipe. This was not the prettiest nor the most interesting apple pie that I've made, but it was tasty.


Well that's all from last night's date night. This might be the first time we've had two date nights in one week. I watched a cooking show this afternoon where they made coq au vin and chocolate pot de creme. That may be in the works for next week. I also have many corners in my latest Everyday Food magazine turned down. Stay tuned.