Menu Planning

Every week I sit down with my favorite cookbooks and plan out the weekly meals for our family. I've tried to streamline this process by saving my weekly lists and then compiling a month of meals and then repeating those meals for several months to create a sort of seasonal repetition. But ultimately I keep returning to the weekly creation process.

One time my sister even gave me months and months of meals listed out and I still wasn't able to simply bring her meals into our lives wholesale. Somehow I have to make it my own and it has to fit my palate at the time, the season, what I already have in the refrigerator, pantry and freezer.

What's funny about it is that my lists aren't that dramatically different from week to week. What's also funny is that I insist on trying things on a regular basis that I know my kids won't want to eat. I have a theory that if I keep pushing these things at them that eventually they will like everything.

Right now, the kids essentially don't want anything that is complex or too mixed up like soup or chile. They gravitate toward purer, simpler foods like peas (on one side of the plate) and grilled cheese (on the other). To get a square meal, I often throw frozen peas or corn on their plates if we are having a vegetable that they won't eat (like salad).

This week my list went like this (minus a couple that we didn't have because we went out of town):

Bean and Potato Tacos with Brocoli (I had a new tortilla maker and made flour tortillas from scratch with very disappointing results--I need some more practice).

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Braising Greens

Chicken Chile (Saved out some chicken for the kids to eat plain with veges)

Spaghetti with Clam Sauce

Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese

And the winners with the kids were: Spaghetti with Clam Sauce and Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese.

Recipes to follow.

30-Mile Pot Pie

Before I go into why I love the following recipe, let me tell you why I am a follower of this blog. First off, I LOVE food. It is no coincidence that my husband is trained in culinary arts and has worked as a chef, caterer, baker for many years (ahh yes, the most delicious appetizers you can imagine, and chocolate chip cookies and cheesecakes to die for- and worth every single calorie!!) So you can imagine, I am usually not jumping up to prepare meals. However, about once a week now, I whip up something that is fairly easy (I hate having to have too many things going on at once to make a recipe work) and typically yields leftovers - I mean, c'mon, since I don't love to cook, I better have more than one night's worth of food for my efforts!! So for the most part, when I share a recipe, it will likely give you enough food for a large family, or leftovers.

Now that brings me to this recipe for pot-pie. As a kid I remember dreading the frozen Swanson Pot Pie my Mom would cook and then flop over egg noodles. Many years later, when my husband requested a comfort food meal, I searched Food Network.com for some ideas and found Chef Jerry Chollet's recipe (of The Painted Giraffe Restaurant, St. Louis, MO). I feel that everytime I make this it gets better and better, probably because of our recent switch to eating as much organic as we can afford. I used organic chix stock and all organic veggies- but other than that the rest was conventional, including the not healthy at all store bought pie crust. Also, rather than having to cook the chicken, I purchased the rotisserie chix from our grocery store. Final result was delicious, and it made 4 whole pies!! They freeze very nicely and make for a great quick meal during the week. Enjoy! Oh yeah, I substitute peas for the mushrooms and then add more salt and pepper to taste.

Ingredients:
6 1/2 cups chix stock (I use low sodium)
6 (6-oz) boneless skinless chix breasts, diced
1 stick butter
2 1/2 c diced onions
2 1/4 c diced carrots
1 3/4 cups diced celery
1/2 lb medium mushrooms, qrtd
1 c all-purpose flour
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper, or 1/2 tsp bl pepper
3/4 c heavy whipping cream, warmed
Store bought puff pastry or pie dough
2 egg whites

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375.
In a medium saucepan, bring stock to simmer. Add chix and poach until just cooked through. Remove chix and set aside. Save stock for later use.

In 10-qt saucepot, melt butter over medium heat then add onions, carrots, and celery and saute for a couple of mins. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until onions are about transparent, being careful not to brown. Add flour and gently mix well. Cook this mixture over low heat for 6-8 mins, stirring occasionally and gently so as not to break up the veggies. Scrape the bottom of the pan often w/ a wooden spoon so that the roux doesn't burn. Increase heat and add chix stock in 3 additions, whisking well after each so that no lumps appear and return to brief simmer each time. (IF, LIKE ME, YOU MESS THIS UP AND ADD IT ALL AT ONCE, just get rid of the lumps and then let it reduce for a little while so it thickens).

Add bay leaf, salt, pepper, and cook over low heat for about 10 mins more. Add poached chix and warm heavy cream, and stir well. Spoon equal portions into the pie plates. Top with your favorite pie dough. Brush egg white over top. Bake til golden brown. (The mixture also is yummy over egg noodles- just like my Mom used to do!!)

Making Bread

So I wanted to kick off this blog by writing about bread. A few years ago, New York Time's food writer Mark Bittman popularized Jim Lahey's no-knead bread. I caught wind of it over a year ago and have been perfecting the technique for my family since then. It's an incredibly easy way to make crusty flavorful bread that requires almost zero effort. My kids love to have it as cinnamon toast the morning after it is made. That with some frozen blueberries picked over the summer and a hard boiled eggs, makes for a great start to the day.

I modified Bittman's original recipe by making it in a loaf pan. In the loaf pan, I had inconsistent rising and overflow problems and so experimented for awhile to correct this. The technique I use today was achieved after I met Steve who blogs at Between Courses. He recommended using a starter to get a more consistent rise. That worked.

I have yet to make a good whole wheat loaf. Steve recommended using wheat germ instead of wheat flour to maintain a good rise, but I haven't been totally satisfied with the results. If anyone has other ideas or success stories, share the wealth!

Still, every week I turn out at least a couple of fabulous loafs. Whenever I have any old leftover bread I make it into fresh breadcrumbs and use it on a casserole or in a crust. I also make fresh garlicky croutons for salad. But more on that later.

Here is my technique for the EASIEST AND TASTIEST BREAD EVER:

4 cups all purpose white flour
4 t salt
1/2 t yeast
Starter (optional)
water

Mix together flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add a cup of starter if using (I'll explain the starter in a minute). Then stir in a cup and a half of water plus a little more or however much it takes to get to a cookie-dough like consistency--moist shaggy and stiff--using a wooden spoon.

Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for about 8-12 hours (I usually go with 11 hours).

I generally either make the dough at 7 a.m. or 8 p.m. so I can finish it either in the morning or the evening. Starting the bread in the morning lends itself to a 9-5 schedule.

Next, butter a loaf pan and butter the plastic wrap on one side. Put a couple handfuls of flour on the dough and scoop it out using your hands and pushing the air out of it. Then quickly and with not too much pressure press it into the loaf pan. It will take up about 3/4 of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit till it just reaches the top of the pan--don't let it get any higher. This may take a half hour to two hours.

When it is close to the edge, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. When it is just level with the top, carefully remove the plastic wrap and gently put the pan in the oven for 25 minutes. Then put foil over the top to keep it from getting too dark and bake an additional 25 minutes.

Remove from oven, take out of the pan and cool on its side. Don't slice for at least a half hour.

Now for the starter. I use Bittman's technique and it is very easy.

STARTER

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 t instant yeast (that comes in the packets)
1 1/2 cups warm water (not too hot)

Mix the ingredients together in a medium bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit on the counter for three days, stirring every 8 to 12 hours.

Stir well and then use a cup of your starter in your bread or put it in the refrigerator. Whenever you use a cup of the starter, add another cup of flour and enough water to the remaining starter to get the consistency of pancake batter (if it's off, just add more flour or water) and let the starter sit out for 6-12 hours. Small bubbles will form. Then cover it and stick it back in the fridge till the next time you want to make bread. You will want to use it every few weeks so it won't go bad. If you aren't making bread, just give a cup to a friend or dump a cup down the sink, feed and grow the starter as explained above, and put it back in the refrigerator.

This whole process is essentially growing wild yeast and then feeding it occasionally to keep it alive--not an exact science and something that doesn't require exact timing or measurement. When you put it in the refrigerator you slow the process way down. When you take it out, the process speeds up. If it goes bad, it will turn pink and should be tossed. Otherwise it has a tangy smell with sort of a greyish hue to the liquid that turns to a creamy color when stirred.

You can also use this starter in any other yeasted breads you are making or to make sourdough pancakes, etc. It seems that store-bought dry yeast isn't totally consistent, so having the starter on-hand ensures a consistent rise and alleviates frustration.

And that's it. Very simple and easy to maintain.