Where's the Beef? Right Here!

I read an article in the paper last week that had a quote from An Expert In These Things saying there's really no such thing as multi-tasking - people think they can multi-task, but they really don't. Instead, they just move inefficiently from one activity to another.

Um, what?

Clearly the Expert In These Things has never observed a Parent In Action. Today I made an amazing beef stew, and it took me about an hour and a half from start to finish to pull it all together. In that same 90 minutes, in 3-5 minute chunks while meat was browning or veggies were cooking, I also emptied the dishwasher, folded some laundry, organized an arts and crafts box, put away 5 bags of various household items from Target, and put two boys down for naps. But no, no multi-tasking here...

The beef stew was a variation on Ina Garten's. So delicious! (No surprise there, we love almost all of her recipes, no matter how vaguely I follow them). This is the first time I've made it, and it's now a winter staple for us. Here's the recipe, with my notes and variations.

Parker's Beef Stew
2 1/2 pounds good quality chuck beef, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 (750-ml bottle) good red wine (Note: Of course you want to use a wine that's good enough to drink, but not one so pricey you can't stand to pour it into the stew instead of your glass. I found Ravenswood Zinfandel at our grocery store for $8.49 this week (!), and it was the perfect wine to use in this.)
3 whole garlic cloves, smashed
3 bay leaves
2 cups all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Good olive oil
2 yellow onions, diced
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut diagonally in 1 1/2-inch chunks
1 pound small potatoes, halved or quartered (Note: I used baby Yukon gold potatoes and didn't peel them. The skin is so thin and tender on these they just need a scrubbing and they're all set for you.)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
14 1/2-ounce can beef broth (Note: I used Kitchen Basics beef stock rather than canned broth, and I used the entire box, which was 32 ounces.)
1 large (or 2 small) branch fresh rosemary (I don't have any fresh rosemary left from my herbs, so I used 1 teaspoon dried rosemary.)
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas

Planning ahead alert! Place the beef in a bowl with red wine, garlic, and bay leaves. Place in the refrigerator and marinate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine the flour, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 tablespoon pepper. Lift the beef out of the marinade with a slotted spoon and discard the bay leaves and garlic, saving the marinade. In batches, dredge the cubes of beef in the flour mixture and then shake off the excess.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan and brown half the beef over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, turning to brown evenly. Place the browned beef in a large oven-proof Dutch oven and continue to brown the remaining beef, adding oil as necessary. (If the beef is very lean, you'll need more oil.) Place all the beef in the Dutch oven.

Heat another 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the saute pan and add the onions. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, cook 1 more minute. Add carrots and potatoes. Cook for 5 more minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Place all the vegetables in the Dutch oven over the beef. Add 2 1/2 cups of the reserved marinade to the empty saute and cook over high heat to deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up all the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add the beef stock, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper (Note: Holy Spicy, Batman! Next time, I would leave out the additional salt, since the stock and Worcestershire sauce make it savory enough, and would use just slightly less than one teaspoon of pepper. The stew I made tonight with the original amounts had some serious kick to it).

Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables in the Dutch oven and bring to a simmer over medium heat on top of the stove. Cover the pot and place it in the oven to bake it for about 2 hours, until the meat and vegetables are all tender, stirring once during cooking. If the stew is boiling rather than simmering, lower the heat to 250 or 275 degrees F. Before serving, stir in the frozen peas, season to taste, and serve hot.
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The original recipe says "serves 6," but that is surely only true if you're serving 6 linebackers. With salad and bread, this would easily serve 8-10. Happy eating!

Dress It Up

I try very hard to keep the amount of processed foods we eat to a minimum. But one area where I completely fall down on this is salad dressing. I've written before that I find myself totally unmotivated in the salad-making department to begin with, but then to add making the dressing on top of it...well, it just doesn't happen.


Until now. I may have found my Salad Salvation. This is a dressing that is so fresh, simple, and delicious that it might even motivate me to make more salads just so I can use it. My mom made this the other night for a salad of chopped iceberg lettuce, 3 ounces Romano cheese, and sliced grape tomatoes. It was perfect.

Ready?

Mix together 1 cup olive oil and the juice from one large lemon. Add salt to taste (start with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and go from there).

Seriously, that's it. So insanely simple, even I might do it.

Crazy Is As Crazy Does

Has it really been almost a week since I last posted? Where does the time go? (Around here, I think it gets sucked into the black hole called Children That Don't Nap, Work Projects That Are More Complicated Than Anticipated, and Dirty Laundry That Clones Itself)
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We've just finished the third week of January (which means it is time for you people to get your Christmas decorations packed away. Yes Dear Neighbors, I am talking to you. If I can do it, anyone can, but particularly people whose children no longer live at home).

Our paper reports that this is the week most people give up on their resolutions. I've been doing well with my resolution to eat and serve more vegetables, but we're hitting serious test time. I have 4 trips in the next 4 weeks, and will be lucky to just keep my head above water, let along think, plan, and execute well-balanced and nutritious meals. This first week is a warm up, so here's my plan:

Sunday: Prepare lasagna, put in refrigerator for later in the week. Make Sunday dinner of roasted chicken over vegetables (fresh delivery from Cha Bella, if you're in Savannah you really need to be taking advantage of this...). Leftover chicken saved for later.
Monday: 5pm teleconference AND family dinner with my parents. Solution? Take-out sushi over at my parents' house. (BTW, who plans a 5pm mandatory teleconference? People without little children, that's who. Thank goodness for mute buttons.)
Tuesday: Salad and lasagna (score! it's already made!)
Wednesday: DH working this evening. Kiddos and I will have chicken and black bean quesadillas with the leftover chicken. (Oops. Just realized that doesn't include a vegetable, and a grocery store trip is not in the cards between now and then. I'll add apples for all of us and call it Good Enough)
Thursday: All day client meeting out of town for me; if everything goes absolutely perfectly, my flight will land (with me on it) at 5:30pm. Leftover lasagna for dinner, and Thursday is vegetable delivery day, so we'll have whatever comes with it. If there's no lasagna left, always a possibility if I eat the rest of it for lunch, we'll just do omlettes and vegetables.
Friday: Homemade pizza with more fresh vegetables from whatever is delivered on Thursday, LARGE glass of wine.

Have a good week!

Zoology

Well, would you look at that. I can upload pictures. Who knew?!?!

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Where do you find your recipe inspirations? (Other than this blog, of course!)

My inspiration this weekend came from the zoo. Yes, the zoo. It was a gorgeous weekend, sunny and in the high 60's (now that's what I'm talking about), so we took the boys to the zoo for the day on Sunday. So much fun, but one of the highlights was the excellent Mexican rice and beans we had for lunch there. I could not get it out of my mind. So today I tried to recreate it by combining some different recipes, and came pretty darn close. This is not a particularly fast recipe, but it's low maintenance and takes care of itself while you get the rest of dinner served (sort of like my children on a good day).

Black Beans and Rice

1 14oz can Goya black beans, drained and rinsed

1 3/4 cup long grain white rice

1 sweet onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon ground cumin

32 ounce box Kitchen Basics chicken stock

In a large dutch oven, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and green pepper; cook until tender. Add garlic and cook 2 more minutes, stirring often. Add the tomato paste, black beans, oregano, and cumin. Cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring gently. Add the chicken stock and rice. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to very low, and cook until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is fully cooked.

I served this with baked flounder and sliced avocado. Tomorrow I'll use the left overs to make burritos with a rotisserie chicken.

Happy eating!

Dining with Sol

I'll be the first to admit it: Savannah is a Small Town. There are things I consider a basic necessity that are only accessible here on-line or via 2 hours on I-95 here (like Costco, decent swimsuits options for a mother of two children, and all things Pottery Barn). But one thing we do have on par with any city I've ever been to is restaurants. Especially if you like seafood - I really don't think Savannah can be beat.

We ate at Sol for the first time Saturday night (1611 Habersham Street), and I can't figure out why we haven't been there before. It's Mexican food meets Coastal Georgia, and the marriage of the two is perfect. Everything we had was outstanding, and the service couldn't have been better. We shared the crab and wild Georgia shrimp ceviche, eggplant tostadas, fish tacos, and pan seared striped sea bass. Fabulous. My only regret - we were trying to make a movie and didn't have time to stay for dessert. I feel certain the movie wasn't worth it...
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In keeping with the Mexican theme, here's a recipe I absolutely love for chicken enchiladas. This is my mom's recipe and one of my most requested meals from her. I've been known to drop off empty pans at her house in the hopes they'll reappear in my freezer with this in it. This is my favorite kind of dish for crazy weeknights, because it can be made the day before and baked the next day.

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas

1 10oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed (A note about spinach brands: I love frozen spinach, and use it in a lot of recipes. I usually buy Green Giant or Bird's Eye brand, but when I made this recipe last week I bought Publix brand spinach. Mistake. For whatever reason, the Publix spinach wasn't sufficiently chopped, and ended up being far too clumpy in the enchiladas. Lesson: go with a good brand for something like this.)
1 16oz jar medium salsa with cilantro (Mom and I have actually decided medium salsa with cilantro makes this a bit too spicy for us, though DH and my dad don't seem to notice. I go with mild salsa now - love Newman's own brand)
1 10oz cans mild enchilada sauce
1 8oz package cream cheese
10 7-8 inch flour tortillas
1 8oz package shredded Mexican cheese

Drain spinach, set aside. Stir together 1/4 cup salsa and enchilada sauce, set aside. Microwave cream cheese for about a minute, until very soft. Add spinach, chicken, and remaining salsa, and stir until blended. Spoon a heaping 1/3 cupful of chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas and place seam side down in a lightly greased baking dish (did you see that part about "lightly greased"? The Voice of Experience is here to tell you not to skip that step) . Pour enchilada sauce mixture evenly over top of rolled tortillas, sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, let stand 5 minutes. Delish!

Iron Chef, Savannah Style

Is it wrong that I'm in love with an appliance? My husband recently gave me a new coffeemaker, and I find myself disturbingly attached to it. I think I look forward to seeing it in the morning more than I do my children.
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In keeping with our (my) New Year's resolution, I've signed up to get weekly deliveries of vegetables from local farmers. But here's the twist - you don't know what you're getting until they arrive. We got our first delivery today, and got green beans, spinach, acorn squash, watercress, citrus fruit, carrots, and a loaf of fresh baked bread. Awesome. The bread is always included and the vegetables vary depending on what's ready to be picked. Deliveries are on Thursdays, so from here on out, Thursday will be our Iron Chef night - I'll have our meat ready, and then we'll eat with it whatever veggies come, along with the bread. Tonight I had pizzas ready to go, and then topped them with the spinach and a few other things I already had in the fridge. Savannah readers: if you're interested, e-mail Carmen Jackson at farmbox@cha-bella.com. It's $25/week and requires a 6 week minimum. Delivery is free. Just based on this week, I highly recommend it.

Thawing Out

Okay, how's everyone doing with their New Year's resolutions? We are trucking along here, and doing surprisingly well with upping our vegetable intake.

Here's what has worked:
--Setting out raw vegetables (sugar snap peas, baby carrots, sliced green pepper, cherry tomatoes) with ranch dressing for boys (including DH) to munch on while I cook dinner. This has the added benefit that it seems to draw DH to the kitchen where I'm able to put him to useful work setting the table, pouring drinks, etc.
--Serving two vegetables every night. I've noticed that my boys seem to like a variety of things on their plates, so I've been making it a point to make at least two things be a vegetable.
--Adding more vegetables to things we already eat. Easy example: tossing more vegetables onto our weekly homemade pizza.
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Savannah is finally thawing out after 2 weeks of temperatures in the 20's. I wasn't sure I was going to survive. For those of you still below freezing, here's a wonderful, though very imprecise recipe for roasted vegetable soup. It's one of our favorites, and everyone, even my 2 year old, inhales it. The basic instructions are this: take 2 half sheet pans. Fill each with a single layer of diced vegetables, any combination you have on hand of cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, and butternut squash (basically, use up all your odds and ends of veggies - a great recipe to make at the end of the week). Toss the vegetables with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with salt, and a little less liberally with pepper. Roast the vegetables at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Once they are nicely cooked (browned and tender all the way through), dump them in a large soup pot, and add 2 cups of chicken stock. Blend with your handheld blender until you reach the desired consistency, adding more chicken stock as needed. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper as needed. Heat through and serve hot. Freezes brilliantly.
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I read a quote by a food critic this week that made me think she's been spying on our dinners: "Meals with small children do not end; they disintegrate." Truer words were never spoken. Can someone please explain WHY, when there are 2 children, and 2 candles to blow out, they have to fight over who blows out the one on the right?

Soup's On!

I suppose, if there is one redeeming factor about cold weather, it's the fact that I love soup. Love to make it, love to eat it, love to serve it to lots of oohhs and ahhs. Here's a souper easy (ha! I do crack myself up!) recipe. Serve with a green salad for dinner, and this is wonderful warmed up the next day for lunch. Mmmmm.

Pasta E Fagioli

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces pancetta, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 celery stalks, peeled and chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced (Confession - I use the jar of already minced garlic. Egads! Is that terrible? I rarely use the fresh stuff unless I'm making a homemade salad dressing or roasting it)
14 ounce can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed (be sure to avoid Merely Average beans) (just kidding)
14 ounce can diced tomatoes, juices and all
8 cups chicken stock (this is a great recipe to use your homemade stock, but if you don't have any, just use 2 boxes of Kitchen Basics stock)
1 cup small shell pasta (or your favorite shape - since we live by the water, we're partial to shells around here)
1 package (4 links) of sun-dried tomato & mozzarella sausage, sliced into bite sized pieces (That flavor is totally optional. This is the brand I usually grab at the grocery store, but use whatever pre-cooked sausage or kielbasa you like the best)

In a large dutch oven or soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned. Add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring often, until the veggies begin to soften. (Actually, I never test them to see if they're beginning to soften. I just cook them about 5-10 minutes, stirring them every few minutes, and then figure that's about right) Add beans, tomatoes, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about an hour. (If you are cooking a day ahead of time, this is the time to pop it in the fridge, and then finish it the day you're eating it). Add the pasta and simmer another 8-10 minutes. Toss in the sausage, and cook until heated through (another 3 or 4 minutes). Because the pasta will absorb a good bit of the stock, this comes out a thick, hearty stew. So yummy.

Stay warm everyone!

Gone with the Wind

Let me tell you, this cold weather is going to be the end of me. I am, as anyone who has the misfortune to come within 10 feet of me in the winter time knows, a Cold Weather Wimp. Or perhaps more accurately, a Cold Weather Wimp And Whiner. The cold is bad enough, but combined with the Arctic wind we've been having, it's about to do me in. If there is a sudden dearth of blog posts, it's because I froze to death.
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For those of you joining me in my Quest for More Vegetables, here's a great menu. Cozy and hearty enough for a cold day, but not too heavy like winter casseroles can sometimes be.

Ribs (Here's my usual recipe; for a fast weeknight meal in the spring or summer or fall when it's warm enough to grill outside, make these on a Sunday and eat them on Monday. If it's too cold outside to even light the damn grill, nothing wrong with grabbing some already roasted for you at Fresh Market!)
Cucumber and tomato salad (sliced cucumber and cherry tomatoes, tossed with your favorite vinaigrette and a little fresh dill)
Butternut squash soup (I pulled the last of it out of the freezer for tonight's dinner)

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A non-food related comment: if the Tar Heels don't PULL IT TOGETHER it is going to be a really long basketball season. Arg!

You've Come a Long Way, Baby

We have just returned from a fabulous beach weekend with our Tar Heel friends Katie and Chris, and their adorable munchkins who are the same age as our kiddos. Katie and I first became friends when our oldest kids were 5 months old and in the same daycare class. Now those boys are 5 years old, a fact I find simply amazing.

Our first night at the beach all 8 of us were seated around the dining table, and it was a sight to behold. No highchairs, no booster seats, no jars of baby food, no bottles. Just four beautiful children and their very happy parents. Is there anything better in life than sharing good food and wine with family and friends? I think not.
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I'm working on my menu planning and grocery list for this week, and focusing on my serve-more-veggies mantra. My plan this week is to try setting out a tray of nibbling-friendly vegetables (baby carrots, grape tomatoes, snow peas, and some ranch dressing) around 5pm, and see if the boys (hubby included) will pick at those instead of coming into the kitchen every five minutes to tell me how hungry they are and how they will surely die from starvation if I don't feed them that very minute.
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Finally, here's the question of the day, brought to you by my afore-mentioned 5 year old: Are pickles vegetables?