Sneaky cooking works like a charm

I’ve seen those cookbooks that advise moms to trick their kids into eating their vegetables. All sorts of subterfuge is suggested to camouflage the undesirables as cutesy shapes or mask them under heavy sauces.  I never went for that plan. If the kids don’t recognize the veggies on their plate when they’re young, why on earth would they ever choose to eat them when they’re older?

Howls of despair for roasted cauliflower, or maybe it was the advanced algebra test?

Funny how you can change your tune when those sweet little kids get bigger and noisier and you’re asking them to clean their plates on Meatless Monday and Whole Grain Wednesday. Last week started out particularly rough when I joined pan-grilled salmon with a most amazing recipe clipped from the Wall Street Journal: Andrew Carmellini’s Roasted Cauliflower with Yogurt and Mint. “BUT MOM … YOGURT DOESN’T GO WITH CAULIFLOWER!!!” Son #1, stressed from a pending algebra test, found it too much to handle. My explanation that the combo would be  commonly found in Indian cuisine fell on deaf ears.

On Tasty Tuesday I braced for another eruption — the guys don’t like eggplant, but it’s one of my favorite vegetables.  The old sauce trick worked. Red curry chicken with eggplant and basil was just the right recovery from our trauma on Meatless Monday. (My recipe was clipped from an old Pioneer Organics newsletter, but this one is similar.)

Eggplant's a winner in red curry with chicken

Emboldened by my success with eggplant, I pushed ahead to Whole Grain Wednesday. I hid quinoa in a version of beef picadillo, a dish we’ve often enjoyed  with rice. This time the family didn’t miss a bite, though a widely touted whole grain was a key ingredient in the meal. I’ve found a new hero in Lorna Sass. Her cookbook, Whole Grains Every Day Every Way, demystifies the world of whole grains. And as with her pressure cooker recipes, Lorna’s ideas for cooking with whole grains are tasty and fairly easy to pull off on a weeknight.

Thermal Thursday featured a quick kale and sausage soup in the pressure cooker. Well, isn’t everything quick in the pressure cooker? By Friday I had energy leftover to assemble a “date night dinner” with my husband.  The boys were busy while we indulged in rosemary-rubbed lamb chops and red potatoes thanks to a great recipe from an All-Clad pan-grill cookbook. Fresh steamed brussel sprouts made a colorful side but the real winner? A bottle of  fine red wine tucked away for safe keeping five or so years ago. I wondered if we should save it longer for a special occasion. “I think we should celebrate getting through the week without any major disasters,” my husband noted.  That’s good enough for me!

Date night dinner on Fun Friday - lamb chops, red potatoes grilled with rosemary

Color matters

 

Cauliflower, pre-roasted - still not too colorful

 

You know how it is when a song gets stuck in your head and you can’t shake it? And it’s usually a tune you never liked to begin with? This week’s tune was a reflection of our menus. A Whiter Shade of Pale. Argh. While autumn colors are nearing their peak on the outside, our plates were looking fairly anemic.

It’s not that the meals weren’t tasty.  Gnocchi with roasted cauliflower and celeriac salad with apples and walnuts made a perfectly fine duo for Meatless Monday.  But time ran short on Tuesday.  We ended up with a quick fix of Zatarain’s Dirty Rice with beef and baked cabbage with wine and thyme.  Tasty but, again, not too colorful.  I avoided the kitchen altogether on Wednesday for a business dinner and on Thursday for a night out with friends. As Friday rolled around, my husband pondered if I might cook (having tired of frozen lasagna and deli chicken).

“But I’ve run out of white food ideas,” I explained.  We settled for pizza, a popular option for “Fun Friday.” As I plan next week’s meals, I’m thinking in technicolor!

Mac ‘n mess, thanks to Madonna

A scapegoat comes in handy when dinner flops. Tonight I had a couple – Madonna and a conniving character named Sue Sylvester.

Glee's homage to Madonna = dinner disaster

I had decided to catch up on “Glee” while making dinner. The whole episode was devoted to Madonna songs – much to this material girl’s delight – and the highlight was a highly-styled black and white video of the evil Sue doing “Vogue.” It was a  major distraction that turned my effort at homemade macaroni and cheese with ham into a curdled mess.  “Is this soup?” Son #1 asked innocently.

I confess, I should have read the directions more carefully.  A reviewer mentioned stirring the cream sauce constantly to avoid curdles. It’s hard to do that and keep a beat. And I was reading the recipe on my iPhone — my first effort to use the Epicurious app. Another excuse. Waah! Diligent and focused cooks could give the recipe a spin.  I, however, will return to Annie’s boxes next time.

This week hasn’t been a stellar experience in the kitchen.  Last night I was crashing on a deadline so my husband wrestled together hot dogs and beans. God love him! Monday night’s highlight was round two on a yummy salad found on Epicurious:  Roasted Red Peppers and Cauliflower with Caper Vinaigrette.  However, the online recipe is missing the first couple of steps. A kind reviewer retrieved her print copy of Gourmet and provided the missing info, but it’s buried deep in the reviews. The recipe is worth the effort to patch together the steps so here are the missing details:

Preheat broiler. Quarter bell peppers lengthwise and discard stems, seeds, and ribs. Broil peppers, skin sides up, on a broiler pan about 2 incehse from heat until skins are blistered, 8 to 12 minutes. (Alternatively, roast whole peppers on their sides on racks of gas burners on high, turning with tongs, until skins are blackened, 5 to 8 minutes.) Transfer to a bowl and let stand, covered, 10 minutes. While peppers stand, preheat oven to 450 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. Peel peppers and cut each quarter lengthwise into 2 or 3 strips.  (see rest of recipe here)

The cauliflower was a nice side to pan-grilled Aidell’s Chicken Sausages with Roasted Garlic and Gruyere.  We added an iceberg salad with grapefruit, avocado, blue cheese and pecans plus baked potatoes. At least the week started off decently!

Spontaneity works in the meal plan

Gnocchi with Roasted Cauliflower

Sometimes dinner feels more like a plate of appetizers than the main event.  Other nights the whole meal comes together at the mercy of your neighbor’s pantry. This has been one of those weeks when the meal plan has shifted according to whims and whatever’s in the fridge,

Brilliant sunshine this afternoon beamed my head straight to summer.  Tonight would be the time to reawaken the grill.  I found a bottle of coconut-curry sauce in the pantry – the perfect foil for grilled chicken breasts.  Some sort of black bean salad with citrus flavors would make a nice side.  One of my old standbys — The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home — came through with a salad recipe.  I was half-way through the recipe when I realized I lacked two ingredients.  Never fear — my neighbor and I have an open line to each other’s refrigerators. Off I trotted next door for an orange and some scallions.  I scored a package of baby yams as well.  For her part, her Greek salad just wouldn’t have been the same unless I had coughed up a package of feta.

As for Monday, last week’s trip to Trader Joe’s inspired an appetizer-type dinner of gnocchi with cauliflower and sage along with roasted asparagus spears wrapped in prosciutto.  I could eat like this every night. Then our corned beef dinner reappeared. I added smashed rutabagas but I’m the only fan.  Plenty of leftovers on that one.

It’s only halfway through the week and already I don’t feel like cooking. What will Thursday and Friday bring?

Monday: Gnocchi with roasted cauliflower; prosciutto-wrapped roasted asparagus

Tuesday: St. Paddy’s dinner leftovers; smashed rutabagas with butter, honey and a sprinkle of cloves and ginger; pear and ginger cake.

Wednesday: Grilled coconut-curry chicken; black bean and rice salad*; spinach salad with peaches and balsamic vinaigrette.

*I used Moosewood’s original recipe with olive oil. This low-fat version substitutes Italian dressing. Bleh.

Breaking in the pressure cooker

Saving time AND energy seems like an awfully good idea.  I guess I lot of people think so. The pressure cooker my husband ordered as Christmas gift arrived just last week, two months on back order. It was worth the wait!

The Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker is a beauty. Fortunately, we decided to christen it with an artichoke. The lid wasn’t seated properly in the gasket so it turned out to be one very well done artichoke. Lesson learned, we moved on to Sunday night’s dinner of sausage and shrimp gumbo.  I don’t think we saved any time, due to lots of fumbling around with the recipe and settings. I figured out the “eight minutes on high pressure” was misleading since I didn’t notice the other 17 minutes of stovetop cooking. In any case the meal turned out just fine.

Tonight’s dinner went much more smoothly. The Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Pressure Cooking for Everyone. was touted by Kuhn Rikon as the best-tasting collection of recipes. So far, so good. Son #2 cleaned his plate of Cauliflower and Carrot Curry. I added toasted cashews for extra protein and used the remaining half can of coconut milk to flavor the basmati rice. A keeper!

Sunday: Sausage and shrimp gumbo over long-grain rice

Monday: Cauliflower and Carrot Curry topped with toasted cashews and cilantro, over basmati rice.