Foodmomiac

Our Favorite Crockpot Meal: Red Beans with Smoked Turkey

We didn't have a good morning. It's day four of the Chicago teachers' strike, so the routine we were so happy to return to last week is shot. Additionally, Michael is oversees on a business trip, Dylan insisted that she had no pants available to wear, Max wouldn't eat breakfast, no one could tell me what they wanted for lunch, and I'm having one of those weeks where I'm just super stressed about having a start-up and all of the uncertainties that entails.

By 8:30am, all three of us were crying hysterically. Not my proudest moment.

I finally got the kids out to their "strike camp" and headed off to my annual dermatology appointment. Now, I pride myself on having crazy low blood pressure. It's so low that when I went in to get Lasik surgery eight years ago, I wasn't allowed to take a valium as it would have made me too loopy. So, anyway, there I am at the doctor, and they pulled out the blood pressure cuff. I was soon informed that my blood pressure was a bit high.

Yeah. A morning like we had can do that to a person.

Once I got back home, I decided I needed to so something to calm myself down a bit prior to jumping into my work day. I needed to do some chopping. That's when I pulled out the crockpot and the smoked turkey legs. I love this dish because it is hearty, and delicious and easy and makes the house smell fabulous. I also love that it uses (cheap) dried beans but doesn't require overnight soaking. I made things a bit more complicated this morning because I added vegetables. As I said, I needed some time with my chefs knife. The food is now happily cooking away and I'm quite sure my blood pressure is back to its freakishly low self.

Red Beans with Smoked Turkey Legs

One large or two smallish smoked turkey legs (the ones I used today were purchased at Whole Foods, but they often have these at our grocery store as well)
One bag red kidney beans, rinsed and picked through
Veggies, chopped (optional) - today I used one onion, three stalks of celery and a few peppers including one jalapeno

Put the turkey legs into your crockpot. Top with the beans and veggies. Cover everything with water and cook on low for 6-8 hours. About an hour before it's done, pull out the turkey legs, remove the meat from them and put them back into the crockpot. (Be careful with the bones -the legs have these really weird spindly needle bones throughout.)

Serve with rice.

Note: we also like to top ours with a healthy sprinkling of Tony Chachere's creole seasoning. 

 

Baba Rice (a weeknight lifesaver)

This is my dear friend Lisa. Our husbands have known each other since Kindergarten (!!) and when we lived in Toledo, Lisa was a constant in my life. I remember calling Lisa and Todd just a couple of days after they brought their oldest son home from the hospital to tell them that we, too were going to have a baby! Now Ty is almost 11, and Dylan is 10, and I feel like an elderly woman, but that's a story for another day.

Lisa is the friend who introduced me to Bunco (which I greatly miss - why don't people play Bunco in Chicago??), and the person who brought over food after Dylie and Max were born. And the one dish that was ALWAYS included with this delivery was Baba Rice. Baba was Todd's grandma, and she was from Bulgaria. I love Baba Rice, but I could never make it properly no matter how many times Lisa walked me through it over the phone.

This has always been a source of frustration for me, so when we visited Todd and Lisa Thanksgiving weekend, I watched her make it and took very detailed notes. I am happy to report that I have now made Baba Rice twice and was successful both times. Woot!

And now I am sharing with you. Enjoy.

Baba Rice
2-1/2 cups Uncle Ben's rice (the brand is important here, so don't try to get all fancy. You need the original Uncle Ben's converted rice)
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
5 cups chicken broth
freshly ground black pepper
1 Tb. dill
1 Tb Spike seasoning or summer savory (Chubritza is the Bulgarian word for this)
1 tsp chicken bouillion paste (I use that Better than Bouillion stuff from the supermarket)
1/4 cup canola oil 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put the rice in a 9x13 Pyrex dish. Add the celery, onion, broth and spices. Break the bouillion paste up into smaller pieces and distribute throughout the dish. Pour in the oil and mix everything well. Cover the pan with foil and place into the oven for an hour. Remove from the oven and mix up a bit with a fork. Enjoy!

The Monday Night Dinner that Garnered a Standing Ovation (Lamb Meatballs and Mujadara)

The title of this post is no exaggeration. Shortly after declaring it, "the best meal you have cooked in five years," Michael told the kids they should give me a round of applause. And then Dylan stood up on the bench in the kitchen to turn that round of applause into a full out standing o. This is NOT the norm in my household, but damn, it was definitely satisfying.

Dinner was an old favorite that I hadn't made for years (mujadarah) along with a new dish that I tried for the very first time (lamb meatballs). The lamb recipe has a gajillion steps, so I am just going to link to it rather than adapt it and repost here. Click here for amazing lamb meatballs.

I will, however, share with you the recipe for Mujadara. This recipe comes from David Rosengarten, a chef who was a very big deal on the Food Network back in 1996 when I worked there. (He also wore a ridiculous amount of makeup when recording his shows, so when he'd swing by the cubicles to talk to the "little folk," we always ended up laughing over his oompa loompa face as soon as he left.) 

Mujadara

1 cup green or brown lentils
1 quart cold water
3 large white onions, sliced into thin half moons
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup basmati or jasmine rice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice

Bring the lentils to a boil in the cold water and then turn the heat down to simmer. Let them cook for about 25 minutes or until they are just about tender. Reserve 1.5 cups of cooking liquid (you likely won't be able to reserve this much, but you can just make up the difference with fresh water), and drain the lentils.

While the lentils are cooking, cook the onions in olive oil until they get nice and soft (the original recipe calls for five minutes, but this took me at least 10). Pull out 1.5 cups of the onions and set them aside. Cook the rest of the onions until they are caramelized and verging on crispy (again, they say five minutes, but it was more like 10 or 15). Drain these on a paper towel and set them aside.

In that same saucepan, add the cooked lentils, the reserved liquid, the softened onions (not the caramelized ones), the rice, salt and allspice. Cook this over low heat, covered, until the rice is tender, which should happen in about 20 minutes. Serve topped with caramelized onions. Sit back while your family applauds your efforts.

The Foodmomiac Summer Salad Dressing

I adapted this recipe from one that was shared in the Harvest Moon Farms CSA newsletter. They send me the newsletter every week, and for every item that is going to be in my CSA box, they provide a recipe. This one seemed too simple to be a stand-out, but I am in love. It is the perfect light vinaigrette for a hot summer day.

The agave syrup was my addition, as the originally recipe called for sugar. If you don't have agave syrup (available at health food stores like Whole Foods), feel free to go back to sugar or try maple syrup.

Simple Vinaigrette

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tb plus 2 tsp. sherry wine vinegar (you can also use red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar)
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. agave syrup
2 tsp. sea salt

Combine all of the above ingredients in a salad cruet or a jar with a lid, and shake very well to combine. Store in your refrigerator for up to a month. Remove about 30 minutes before use to give the oil enough time to warm up (the dressing will separate in the fridge since it is homemade and doesn't have any stabilizers). 

Themed Dinners - Hawaiian Dinner Night

It's super easy to get in a rut with weeknight dinners, and I've often been tempted to institute themed dinners as a way to get past that. There are some themes that are easy and obvious (taco night, spaghetti night, breakfast for dinner night), but I would love to be more creative.

One of the themes I've wanted to try is Hawaiian Dinner night. We went to Hawaii with the kids in April, and I think that a Hawaiian Dinner would be an amazing way to relive the memories.

We could do Hawaiian plate lunches for dinner. I'm thinking... chicken teriyaki (this one looks amazing), sushi rice and macaroni salad. Or maybe we could even go nuts and have Loco Moco (hamburger patties and rice topped with gravy and a fried egg). For dessert, I'm thinking Chocolate Haupia Pie (this one?). 

Do you guys have any creative themed dinner ideas? 

Quick, Cheap, Yummy Dinner: Tostadas

This is less a recipe than a method, but everyone loved it, so I had to share. Over the weekend, we watched the Rick Bayless show, Mexico, One Plate at a Time. Cooking shows are one of the few things we all enjoy watching, and this was a great one to watch together because it also was about travel and culture, and the kids were tickled that Bayless lives in Chicago.

Tostadas are so easy to make. We are lucky to live in a city with a big Mexican population. It means that fresh tostada shells are available in the supermarket. If they aren't available near you, you can make your own by frying corn tortillas until crispy.

I heated some oil in a pan and added mashed garlic and some chopped green pepper. Once fragrant, I added 2 cans of black beans and mashed it all up a bit with a potato masher. That got pushed to a back burner and left on low.

The next piece is protein. You can use shredded leftover chicken or steak, or you can do what we did tonight and just cook up some chorizo.

Take a tostada, spread it with the beans, top with the meat, and then garnish! Our garnish was sliced avocado, shredded cheese and some lettuce that was tossed with sour cream and hot sauce.

What have you all been eating this week?

Yes, we really DID eat a dish called Yummy Balls

I can always count on Stefania (aka City Mama) for great recipes. She has many of the same foodie values that I do, and our families seem to have similar tastes. We love comfort food, ethnic food, things with a ton of flavor and richness. Stefania is now pregnant with her third child, and I have to say that I am LOVING the cravings that this little dude has been imposing on her and her family. I am all for using the very finest ingredients, but sometimes it's nice to go mega comfort and eat a little bit of processed food. Just the other night, we made Stefania's nachos, complete with Tostito brand Queso poured over the top (they were a HUGE hit). And last night, we made Yummy Balls. I kept giggling as I prepared them, because I couldn't get the old SNL "Schweddy Balls" skit out of my head.

I think that might have been part of the charm. I'll let you grab the recipe from Stefania, but I did make one change. We didn't have any tomato soup on hand, so I used a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken. I also decided to take this recipe fully 70s, and I used dehydrated minced onion and garlic powder instead of their fresh counterparts. The results were ridiculously delicious. I served "the balls" alongside some leftover mashed potatoes and halved zucchinis that were stuffed with herbed feta and heated in the oven.

Pickle Soup (aka Cold Cucumber Soup with a McClure kick)

Last summer, our friend, babysitter, colleague, food blogger and all around great person Jessi came to visit us at our rented Michigan cottage with her boyfriend Jason (Dylan's guitar teacher, and an absolutely amazing musician). After sharing a pitcher (or two) of Oberon at one of the local bars, we convinced them to come back to the house for an impromptu dinner. We made a lot of great food that night, but the most momentous part of the evening came when I pulled out the jar of spicy McClure pickles.

Jessi was smitten, and when she made Cold Cucumber Soup later in the summer, she had a brilliant stroke of genius. SHE ADDED PICKLE JUICE. It was at that moment that a sweet summer soup became a sultry and spicy summer sensation.

Here is the recipe as I make it, just slightly adapted.

Pickle Soup

One seedless English cucumber, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks (if you only have a cucumber with seeds, just remove them)
Small handful of fresh dill
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 can low fat cream of chicken soup (trust us)
1/2 cup McClure's spicy pickle juice
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine everything in a blender. Chill for at least an hour. Enjoy!

The Grill is Back!

Like much of the country, we have some lovely spring weather this week. Sadly, the forecast for Sunday (the first real full day of spring, I might add) calls for snow, but we are trying to soak in the sun and cool breezes while we can.

My original plan for tonight was to make the corned beef that I set to corn over the weekend. But, on a day when the temperatures reached nearly 70 degrees for the first time this year, that seemed like a crappy dinner choice. So... the corned beef got made, but we'll eat it this weekend instead. Tonight? Tonight we had ribs.

Ribs on the grill. Cooked low and slow. Basted with barbecue sauce. And I served my macaroni salad alongside. Warm weather perfection.

Dinner Reality

As I mentioned a week or two ago, we instituted a new budget at the beginning of the year. My love affair with mint.com has not abated, and I am very pleased to report that we are still being really good. This is a total shock. This is absolutely unheard of in our household. Typically, our budgets last about a week.

One of the areas (not surprisingly) where we realized we were spending/wasting the most money was for food. Grocery shopping, takeout, and restaurants. Not to mention lunch at the office. It was kind of scary. However; in the past, I think our budgets have failed because we have gone the total opposite direction and created budgets that were totally unrealistic. "We'll cut our restaurant spending in half!" "We'll eat beans and rice every night for dinner!" It's just silly. So, we made a budget we could live with, and it is working.

That said, it's not always a total walk in the park. Last night, I had no desire to make dinner, Michael was working late, and we didn't have anything pre-made in the fridge. So, we kept it real, and ate a full-on Trader Joe's meal: chicken tenders, canned corn (theirs is the BEST) and garlic fries. Everyone ate it. Everyone was happy. And we didn't order delivery.

Our other meals this past week:

Sunday: Homemade pizza using Trader Joe's pizza dough (I was going to make Pastitsio, but I was sick, so Michael simplified)

Monday: Macaroni and cheese, peas, and kielbasa (I was at a work dinner, so Michael did his part to keep it real - the kids LOVED THIS DINNER)

Tuesday: This recipe, which took 10 minutes to prepare and was well-received by all. (Again, not what I had originally planned, but because I was sick Sunday, my usual pre-prepping did not happen)

Wednesday: Vegetarian stir fry (made with bok choy and broccoli), topped with peanuts and served over sushi rice

Thursday: The above fanciness

Tonight: Family dinner out at Sun Wah.