Stay Tuned

Hello friends...I haven't posted in quite a while because I failed to follow very good advice from a work colleague: Eat oysters, don't walk on them. Of course, she offered this advice about 24 hours too late.

In other words, I sliced the hell out of my feet while pulling my oldest son out of the marsh, and have just been hobbling around pitifully ever since.

Also, I am pondering starting a new blog that goes beyond food. I keep trying to get my friend Leigh to actually do it, as she is 400 times more creative, energetic, and purposeful than I am. I guarantee you if she did it it would be one of those blogs that immediately generates all kind of buzz and attention, and you would all waste way too much work time reading it and hitting that refresh button. Then I could just be a contributor a couple times each week. Isn't this a genius idea? (Yes. Yes it is.)

Bottom line is, it's about time to shut this one down. My attention to it has been sporadic, and I just don't have that much more to say about food - I've covered all our favorites! But as soon as I get Leigh on board, or as soon as she forces me kicking and screaming to do my own, I'll be back here with directions on how to find me.

Best! Savannah

Ramblin' Man

Friends, I am on the road again for work (I am beginning to fatigue, but with any luck, this is my last trip for the rest of the summer, with the exception of the occassional day trip here and there). Check back in a week!

Sometimes, You Just Need a Quickie

I posted a chicken sausage meatball recipe a few weeks ago (a few months ago?), and I've now made it so many times I have really perfected it. I've changed some things, and it's even easier and more delicious now.

Two tips - get good chicken sausage that has been well ground. I got a great chicken sausage from Fresh Market this past week that had fabulous flavor, but was only coarsely ground, so it was less meatball, more meatchunk. Not exactly what I was going for.

Here it is, new and improved:
1 pound chicken sausage, casings removed
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine all ingredients with your fingers until well blended. Shape into meatballs (I generally get about 16 meatballs). Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, drop into pasta sauce and simmer for another 15 minutes. So easy and so good!!!

No Ma'am

OMG. I am so full as I type this that it's almost painful to even think about food, much less write about it. (Or maybe it's painful because I'm lying on the couch with a laptop sitting on my overly stuffed stomach. Who knows.)

We just returned from dinner at our friends the T.'s. They, like us, are in the thick of the Survival Years with little boys. Let me tell you, dear readers, there's nothing like eating dinner with another family in the same stage as us. No one blinks when a boy gets teary over - horrors! - a speck of onion in a hamburger (my child), or crawls under the table and licks the floor (happily, their child).
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I was hoping to have a fabulous new side dish to blog tonight. We ate lunch at Panera Bread the other day and I had a salad with "roasted edamame" in it. Hello, delicious. It was so good I thought, I can do this at home! And blog about it! And people will say, you know that Savannah girl, she really knows her stuff.

Well. You see where this is going, right? I don't know what the folks at Panera are doing with their edamame. But I can tell you what they are not doing. They are not tossing it with olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and roasting it at 425 for 25 minutes. And I suggest you not do it either.

Summer Lovin'

We are in full-force summer here, and I LOVE it. I can get a bit cranky in the winter time and whine about living in a place that has nothing to do when it's 45 degrees outside, but this is the time of year when I remember why I love Savannah so much. Saturday we took the boat downtown to have brunch at one of our favorite the riverfront restaurants, Huey's. (Is there any better combination in this world than a Bloody Mary and Crab Cake Eggs Benedict? No there is not.) Sunday we took the boat to the beach for a few hours of picnic and play. And tonight it was warm enough to go swimming at 6pm and eat dinner at the pool. Heaven.
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Alas, with all of these fabulous summer activities comes the summer vegetables. Yes, zucchini and squash, I'm looking at you. In fact, I've been looking at you all week, wondering what happened to the delightful spring lettuces, spinach, and strawberries. Did you really have to crowd those out so early? Feeling a bit pushy, no?
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One of my very favorite meals to make for my oh-so-busy-little-family is baked pasta. It's ridiculously easy - just take your favorite frozen stuffed pasta (ravioli, tortellini), toss it in a baking dish with some pasta sauce, and bake covered at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Take out of the oven, uncover, sprinkle with provolone or mozzarella, and bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes until the cheese is nicely melted. This is a great dish to put on 'delay start' for your oven, and walk in to have it waiting for you.

(Yes, there is a point to all of this, I promise.)

Soooo, with all that squash and zucchini sitting around, I was struck with inspiration. I made a fresh pasta sauce to use with baked pasta the next time we have it, and it couldn't be easier. Dice your squash (I had 4 yellow summer squash) and zucchini (I had 3 of these). Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large dutch oven, saute some onion. Add the squash and zucchini, and cook over medium heat until tender. Add 28 ounce can of good diced tomatoes, a 6 ounce can of tomato paste, some diced garlic (I did 2 cloves), some Italian seasoning and a little salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring often, until the squash and zucchini are cooked all the way through, or until it occurs to you that you have better things to do. Turn off the heat, and using an immersion blender, blend until it's about the consistency of a store-bought can of pasta sauce. Taste for seasoning, adjust salt and pepper if you need to.

Delicious!! I froze mine in several batches of about 4 cups each to use the next time I make a baked pasta. Sorry no picture - I've been bad about snapping them lately. Happy eating.

Make-Believe

Well. I hope you all had delightful Cinco de Mayo celebrations. DH is working tonight, so I had planned to do something really simple, cheese quesadillas with sliced tomatoes. We got home later than usual tonight due to errand running, and for some insane reason I went on one of my you-boys-will-help-your-mother-and-be-cheerful-about-it kicks, so I made the kids bring in all the groceries while I took out the trash and recycling, checked the mail, dealt with the dog, and switched out the laundry.


I returned to the kitchen not more than 7 minutes later to find the groceries strewn all over the kitchen floor, and the boys in the midst of it all, having ripped open a new bag of raisin bread and a container of cream cheese. The oldest had apparently just finished making his little brother a sandwich, because I walked in as he was licking the knife and plunging it back into the cream cheese to make his own.


You know, all those stupid parenting books that talk about the importance of children helping never really seem to address the actual effect of children helping.


So, in the end, the boys ate cream cheese sandwiches for dinner while pretending the knife was a sword, I ate a fried egg sandwich while pretending my decaf ice tea was a margarita, and everyone was happy. DH is going to be so jealous over missing all the fun.

Shrooms

I have a confession to make. I just threw away all of my kids' Easter candy. Jelly beans, chocolate eggs, lollipops, even - gasp! - the last chocolate bunny. I was getting sort of sick of seeing it on the counter, and they haven't asked for any in a week now. Naturally, that means they will wake up wanting some and there will be a Meltdown Heard Around The World when they reaffirm what a Mean Mommy I really am. Brace yourselves.
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I was all excited about making dinner tonight and blogging it, but (confession #2) it just didn't turn out that great. We were in Charleston last weekend for a wedding, and popped into our favorite butcher shop to pick up some of their amazing freshly made ravioli. I snagged the last of the mushroom ravioli and we had it tonight with a pea and prosciutto sauce. Meh. The combination was not that great. The mushrooms in the ravioli are so hearty and meaty that they really could have used a much more substantial sauce, and the prosciutto I picked up was not great quality - too much salt, too little flavor. All in all a bit of a disappointment. Well, now we know. (Did the fact that it wasn't that great stop me from eating every single last bite on my plate? No. Of course not.)
***
Happy Cinco de Mayo tomorrow! Share your recipes and meals!!

Eggs-tra

I opened the fridge this afternoon to take stock and start thinking about dinner tonight. Whereupon I discovered we had 4 dozen eggs in there, tucked away in the back. This confused me for a bit. I love eggs, and I can be a bit impulsive at the grocery store, but even I don't usually buy that many. Then I remembered - we spent Easter Sunday running around like maniacs trying to save front teeth instead of dying eggs in the backyard. Good times.

The upside was that the discovery inspired an incredibly easy but yummy dinner - ham biscuits, deviled eggs, and salad. Which, incidentally, goes perfectly with a G&T. Who knew.

Slow Down

With the possible exception of December, this month seems to be the busiest time of the year. The weather is delightfully hot, which means we are trying to cram in as much boating and swimming as we possibly can. The school year is coming to a close, so they are trying to cram in as many special events as possible (pajama day! beach day! talent show! field day!). Spring activities have not quite drawn to a close, so we are still running to various practices, lessons, and games. On top of all that, it's my busy travel season for work, and I am facing 3 trips this month.

I am determined, in the midst of all this, to slow down. I am not going to blink and discover it is already June; I am going to enjoy and savor these last few days of spring.

And the best way I know how to do that is to drink.

Or more specifically, sip.

My husband makes THE best Gin & tonics. And I promise you, there is nothing like holding a ice cold glass on a hot evening to make it seem like a lazy summer day...even if it is not.

Here's his recipe:
1 crystal double old fashioned (Yes, pull put your wedding crystal. Trust me, these taste so much better in one.)
1-2 ounces good Gin (Tanqueray or Blue Sapphire are my favorites) (Adjust the amount depending on how much you need to get done that evening...one ounce and I can still sort the mail, straighten up, respond to an email, and fold laundry. Two ounces and I might fall asleep while reading to the boys.)
1 lime
Good tonic water (diet, if you like, which I do - my hands down favorite is White Rock)

Fill the double old fashioned with ice. Pour in the Gin. Cut lime into fourths. Squeeze one fourth over the ice, drop into the glass. Squeeze a 2nd fourth of the lime into the glass as well (this second shot of fresh lime juice is the real secret, I think. Plus, I'm pretty sure this counts as one of your fruit servings for the day). Fill glass with tonic water. Close your eyes, imagine the summer beach breezes, and sip.

And Here's Another One

My little guy finally ate real food yesterday evening after more than 48 hours of not eating, to everyone's relief. (Particularly his. He kept walking around saying, "My tummy is so happy!" Except with all the trauma to his mouth, it came out "My nummy ish show happy!")

What did he eat, you might ask? Cheese rice.

Yes, cheese rice. I cannot tell you how many people I have said this to in response to their concerned questions, and they stare at me blankly. What is cheese rice? they ask.

Um.

It's rice.

With cheese on it.

A common delicacy in this Savannah household, and yet a mysterious and foreign dish to so many. So here's the recipe.

1) Cook some rice. I like good old-fashioned Uncle Ben's long grain white rice. I also slightly overcook it when serving it to my kids so it has a little bit softer texture.
2) Add shredded cheddar cheese.
3) Stir.
4) Eat.

Starch and cheese. Really, you can't go wrong.

Yes. An Actual Recipe.

Atlanta Mom, perhaps noticing that not a single blog post this month has actually contained a recipe, sent me this over the weekend to post. Y'all enjoy.
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Once the weather is warm, our recipe options dwindle to very few. We are always looking for more light, cool dishes as opposed to the hearty heavy ones that we enjoy during the colder months. This is a new one I've discovered (Editor's note: from Ina Garten! Yay Ina!), and I've made it twice in 2 weeks already. For 2 adults or a family of 4 where the 2 younger members won't eat much, halve the recipe--not only it is plenty, but there will be a small-tupperware's worth of leftovers for lunch the next day.

Couscous with Teasted Pine Nuts
Serves 6 to 8

4 T. unsalted butter
2 cups chopped yellow onions
3 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 t. kosher salt (I always use less when cooking from Ina's recipes)
1/2 t. black pepper
2 cups couscous
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add the chopped onions and cook over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until tender but not browned. Add the chicken stock, salt, and pepper and bring to a full boil (I usu. have the stock hot in a separate small saucepan). Stir in the couscous, turn off the heat, cover, and allow to steam for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, stir in the pine nuts and parsley, and serve hot.

**She has a make-ahead note that says to cook onions and add the stock, salt, and pepper, then set aside. Before dinner, heat to boiling, add the couscous, and wait 10 minutes for a delicious side dish with no stress.**

The Whole Tooth

If I needed confirmation that none of you are really paying attention to what I am saying, I got it with the complete lack of ridiculing e-mails, pointing out the utter idiocy of a statement I made 2 blog posts ago: "Readers, I will return when the chaos departs. Hopefully in a day or two. Stay tuned." Um, hello? I have two little boys. The chaos never departs. It just fluctuates.

DH and I finally, finally recovered from our colds and had planned a delicious Easter dinner. (And by that I mean I had planned a delicious Easter dinner. DH plans dinner about as often as I fly to the moon.)

But alas, our little one had other plans. He took a spill at the pool, and I learned the following lessons. (1) Mouths bleed. A lot. (2) Teeth are surprisingly fragile. (3) Doctors, dentists, and orthodontists on-call over Easter weekend are all happy to just see you in their house if you call them 15 minutes before they're about to eat their own Easter dinner, and it turns out you live in the same neighborhood. A whole new twist on house calls.

But as usual, I digress. My entire point, I think, is this: perhaps I am not cut out to be a food blogger. Our dinners tonight were entirely built upon what our neighbors and friends brought us: pizza for DH and our oldest, yogurt smoothies and chicken broth for the little one, and Matzo ball soup for me (OMG is there any better comfort food in the world? No.) All the blogging advice I've read says "blog every day" to build readership, but Lordy knows. It just ain't happening around here.

Time to get ready for the tooth fairy.

Standoff

My refrigerator and I are in midst of a cold war at the moment (ha! pun totally intended!). It is full of fabulous items from our farm box delivery, like fresh carrots, peas, mushrooms, baby lettuces, cabbage, oranges, and little vidalia onions. I, on the other hand, am still full of snot. Which makes all vegetables, and most fruit, completely unappetizing. I don't know why it is that whenever I feel the slightest bit sick, vegetables lose all of their appeal. When I was pregnant with our youngest, just seeing a salad would make me vomit. Does this ever happen to Alice Waters???

So, we are continuing to eat things like pizza-that-gets-delivered-rather-than-grilled, and I feel guilty watching that cabbage slowly shrivel a bit more every day.

With any luck, we'll be back to our healthy ways next week. Have a great weekend.

Three for Three

We are, once again, mired in our family's Trifecta of Chaos: head colds for everyone, plus work travel for me, plus a weekend of working for DH. Why these things always hit at once is beyond my snot-stuffed brain to comprehend, but they have. Thus, for dinner this week we have had: cereal (Monday), scrambled eggs (Tuesday), and take out from our neighborhood clubhouse tonight. The only thing remarkable in all of this was when I looked up from my soggy chicken quesadilla tonight, I realized my children were naked. Totally naked. Odd, right? When I asked them why, they said it was naked-dinner-night.

Well, okay. In my exhausted, sudafed-plus-Clariten-plus-Aleve existence, I'm sure that makes sense on some level.

Readers, I will return when the chaos departs. Hopefully in a day or two. Stay tuned.

Whine, Whine, Wine

I can always tell when I go back and read my own posts which ones were written after a glass of wine. Yes, there is a spell check function on blogspot. No, I apparently cannot find it after a toddy.

In with the New

I posted a few weeks ago about our despised chandelier, which is now sitting forlornly on the side of the street, waiting to be picked up tomorrow. Our new one has been delivered and I am so thrilled with it - much simpler and classier. Any day now we'll have to start Dressing For Dinner.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez...

...and I'll be rolling right along with them, I ate so much this past weekend. Ugh! Can we please call a halt to the skinny jeans trend and skip straight to the I-ate-my-way-through-vacation-jeans trend?
***
It appears that it is nearly impossible to have a bad meal in New Orleans. I say *nearly* only because, hypothetically speaking, if one is so intent on getting to Saks Fifth Avenue that one passess all the cute bistros on a five mile road and doesn't discover one is starving until one is actually in Saks, one might be forced to eat at "Cafe Sbarro." Hypothetically speaking, of course.
***
I forgot my camera. I could just absolutely kick myself for this, because the architecure and details of New Orleans are truly a feast for the eyes.
***
Here are some food lessons learned in New Orleans:
1) Everything is better with butter and garlic.
2) A perfect meal just might be lamb meatballs served with an eggplant and tomato sauce, topped with fresh provolone and arugula.
3) Or it might be the world's most perfectly prepared scallops.
4) Or red wine and crawfish risotto.
5) Or crawfish crepes (OMG. So frickin' good).
6) Or just about anything there.
7) Except Sbarro.

Beignet, Done Dat

First, some background. Attorney Mom and I are having a reunion in New Orleans. Long time readers may remember that Attorney Mom was my partner in crime in Savannah for ages. Then she had the gall to up and leave me, returning home to Kansas City to raise her children closer to family. Gah. This has been a tragic event in my life. BUT, now we are in New Orleans pretty much eating our way through the French Quarter and beyond.
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The first order of business, naturellement, has been to discover the city's best beignets. We take this endeavor very seriously. After three well considered taste testings in approximately 13 hours, we have a winner. Cafe Beignet, on Royal (just in case you're in the neighborhood) is the clear winner. Cafe du Monde, surly waiter and all (note to future diners - asking for coffee to be decaf AND served with milk is one request too many), gets all the fanfare, but the beignets were average. However, here's the interesting discovery: after Attorney Mom's apparently too high maintenance request for milk, I was scared to ask for sugar for my coffee. Turns out powdered sugar shaken off a beignet does just fine.

April Food Day

Some very clever bloggers, far more clever than I, have designated April 1st as "April Food Day," a day to help fight hunger in our communities. If you have not made a contribution to your local food bank in a while, either of food, money, or time, today would be a good day to do it.
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My iPad automatically corrects "blogger" into "booger." I find this funnier than I should. Having little boys is clearly rubbing off on me.

Pesto Presto

It's Wednesday night as I type this (I think it is, anyway. Being in Atlanta for two days totally threw off my internal day tracking, and I spent the better part of a conference call yesterday insisting to a colleague it was Monday. Which, in fact, it was not.).

Wait, where was I going with this?

Oh yes. It is Wednesday night. Which means we are all starting to look forward to Friday night pizza. I posted a few weeks ago a reminder that spinach, so gorgeous right now, makes a great substitute for basil in your favorite pesto recipe. And let me tell you, it absolutely, positively rocks on pizza. Dare I say even better than a basil pesto? A basil pesto is wonderfully sweet, while a spinach one has just a bit of edge to it. It is perfect, just perfect on your pizza dough. Top it with fresh mozzarella and then either some prosciutto or some shredded rotisserie chicken. If you want to go meatless, try some sauteed mushrooms. Heaven.

Just in case you don't have your favorite pesto recipe handy, here's how I do it:

1) Fill your food processor with spinach leaves.

2) Add 2 cloves of garlic that you've sort of loosely chopped (the food processor will do the real chopping, you just want to be able to scatter them sort of evenly).

3) Pulse until finely chopped.

4) Open, add a cup of grated Parmesan cheese and generous pinch of freshly ground pepper. Some folks add a pinch of salt, but I think the cheese makes it salty enough.

5) With the food processor going, add about 1/4 cup of good olive oil - the kind that is so yummy you like to dip your bread in it. This is not the place to use the regular stuff that you cook with every day, get something really fabulous. Check the consistency and add a bit more olive oil as needed.

6) You are ready to spread it on your pizza crust - enjoy!

A Watershed Moment

Every once in a while I travel to our Atlanta office and work there for a day or two. Folks inevitably ask why I've come to town, and I generally murmur something about a "client meeting" or "practice group conference." But the truth is this: I have to get my Watershed fix. Watershed has been one of my all time favorite restaurants for several years now, particularly for lunch. Every single thing is delicious, the service is fabulous, and the location (minutes from Midtown) cannot be beat. We were there on Monday for a working lunch, and let me tell you friends, I worked that shrimp and crab burger. Mmmmm. If you, dear reader, are in Atlanta or need an excuse to be, this is your place. Here is where you can find them.

Travelin' Fool

I'm on the road for work the next 2 days; check back here Wednesday!

How Sweet It Is

The Tar Heels are playing in the Sweet Sixteen tonight, and we are having company for dinner. It's Friday, which means our usual Friday night grilled pizza is what's on the menu, but I've been wracking my brain all day trying to think of how to make a blue and white pizza. Are there any natural blue foods out there? (Blueberries, which are suspiciously close to Duke blue, do not count. It must be Carolina Blue).

If not, would it be really, really disgusting to add food coloring to the pizza dough?

Probably.

I guess we'll have to settle for making this out of pepperoni:

Go Heels!!

Tweak Tweak

I have not blogged the past 2 nights because I've been catching up on some very important things. Like my Tivo'd episodes of Selling New York that I missed while we were out of town. OMG, I am completely addicted to that show. DH and I honeymooned in New York many years ago, and in my fantasy world, one of these days we buy a little place up there and get there about once a month. (Uh-huh. Right after I get my book deal and ocean front beach house).
***
The past few times I've made my homemade mac and cheese, it hasn't come out all that great. The sauce was a little gritty and tasted almost dry. It occurred to me later that I was using the pre-shredded packaged cheese, which I don't normally use. I switched back to the block cheese that I grate myself, and it came out perfectly again. So if you've done the same thing, and your results haven't been fabulous, try going back to block cheese and put a little elbow grease into grating it yourself. Another tip: because I use a combination of mozzarella and cheddar cheese for my sauce, I often use my food processor to grate entire blocks of both at one time. This is far more cheese than you need for one batch of mac and cheese, but the grated cheese freezes beautifully and is all ready for you the next time you need it.
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For those who need it, here's the sort-of-recipe:

Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add one cup milk, and whisk constantly until it starts to thicken. If it gets too thick, add more milk slowly, up to one additional cup (I find how thick my white sauce gets depends on whether I am using skim, 1%, or 2% milk. It's an inexact science, but you'll get the hang of it.) Once you have a nice thick-but-not-too-thick white sauce going, turn off the heat and whisk in 1 cup each of cheddar and mozzarella cheese (disclosure: I vary these amounts all the time, because I just throw the cheese in by the handful until it gets as cheesy as I want it) (wow, it's harder than you would think to write down recipes for food preparation that just floats around in your head).
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This is THE best whisk for making the cheese sauce. The flat bottom lets you get all the nice floury bits at the bottom of your pan and helps ensure your sauce isn't lumpy. If you don't have one, get one! You will use it all the time.

Out With The Old

One of my very favorite things about our house is our dining room. It is, in my mind, the perfect place to eat. It's next to the kitchen, which makes it convenient for serving the food, but is an entirely separate room, which means you are not looking at dirty dishes throughout your meal. It is big enough to accommodate some nice substantial pieces of furniture, but not so big that we feel like we're eating in the Bat Cave. And, with perhaps more luck than deliberate design, we've furnished and decorated it in a way that seems to strike just the right balance between dressy and everyday-usable. It's like the perfect sundress - easy to dress up with pearls and a great clutch, easy to dress down with flip flops and a beach bag.

It does, however, have one major flaw:

I despise this chandelier. The prissy shades, the weird leaves, the Gothic-like finish on it. You, dear readers, are not really seeing it in all its glory, when it was covered in a bunch of crystals. Ugh. Not to mention it is centered right in the middle of the room, but the builder failed to think about the fact that once you have a sideboard in the room, the dining table is actually off-center by several feet. Whenever we have a dinner party we have to seat our shortest guest under it to minimize the chances of a serious head injury.

Happily, it is on its way out. I am determined that by the end of this month we'll have a fresh look that no longer poses a threat to any one under 5 feet tall. Stay tuned.

Tastes Like Chicken

We are home safe and sound...how does a week of vacation fly by so fast?

***

A few more Charleston notes before we turn back to regular business of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you are looking for the best fried shrimp in the Low Country (and let's be clear, I know fried shrimp), you MUST eat at Joseph's, on Meeting Street. And the best people watching + fabulous food has got to be Sermet's, on King Street. Oh, such a happy tummy I had all last week.

***

Now, back to business. I have made a wonderful discovery in the Dinner-In-Less-Than-20-Minutes-Department. Our grocery store (Publix) sells pre-made and seasoned chicken burger patties (in the organic meat section). These are fabulous. All you have to do is grill them up and make a veggie to go with them. All of us love them. Keep an eye out for them, and pick them up if your grocery store has them.

They're Magically Delicious(?)

Oh, my boys are so funny. They came downstairs this morning, proudly wearing their green, and were SO EXCITED to see a box of Lucky Charms on the table. Cereal! With sugar! And marshmallows! What could be more fun for breakfast?!?! They dove in with a great deal of enthusiasm that lasted all of about 5 bites. After that I think they started to feel a little nauseated, but they kept up a valiant front. Finally, the oldest said to his younger brother, "I think our tummies are full, don't you?" Too cute.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Been There, Eaten That

We continue to eat our way through Charleston, visiting old favorites and not yet being dazzled by all the pretty new places to eat. Thankfully, this is Charleston, and things don't change too quickly around here.

It has been so long since we were here just for true vacation, and not a wedding, holiday, fund raiser, or other food-is-already-built-in-event, that in some cases it has been over five years since we have called on these old friends. Let me tell you, just between you and me, some of them are showing their age. It's always been my practice not to say anything negative about a restaurant on this blog. I try to keep the attention on the ones that are doing it right, and ignore the rest in the hopes they will just go away. So I'm not naming names...but really...haven't we learned that bread should be warm, and butter at least should not be ice cold? And that coffee ordered with dessert should be served with dessert, not 15 minutes later?
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Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and I have a special treat for my boys. When you are a Mean Mom like I am and force your children to have hot cooked breakfast every morning, like oatmeal, French toast, and peanut butter pancakes, it's pretty easy to make their day special with a little sugar. They'll be surprised tomorrow.

A Little Vacay

I always have such grand plans of cooking big elaborate meals whenever we are on vacation, figuring I'll have so much more time on my hands. I do things like bring my cooking magazines (3 of them, this trip), or my new cookbooks (only 1 this time), thinking I'll have all afternoon to flip through them, run to Whole Foods, and cook to my heart's content.

Whatever.

Our days are definitely more fun, but no less busy (or exhausting!). After a day packed of tennis lessons, pool, beach, and playgrounds, the last thing I want to do is cook. Not to mention DH (who, let's be honest, is the one really in the trenches when it comes to pool and beach play) has no intention of spending his vacation evenings doing the dishes.

So, in 2 short days, we have already managed to hit many of our Charleston favorites:

1) The world's best BBQ, according to DH, and the cheeseburgers are amazing (I should know. I make it my personal mission to find amazing cheeseburgers.)

2) Our absolute favorite butcher shop, with fabulous meat and prepared foods (I stock a whole cooler with chicken parmesan, ravioli, and meatballs to take home with us).

and

3) Our favorite place for seafood.

If you are ever visiting Charleston (or the surrounding area) and have the chance to hit any of these places, don't pass them up.

Delay, Delay, Delay, Part II

For the third time in a row, our departure on vacation has been delayed. In August we got pushed back on the way to Bermuda by a tropical storm. Last month we had to wait for the stomach virus to run its course before heading to Orlando. And now our spring break trip to Charleston ran up against a case of flu in our youngest. We are doomed!!

Nonetheless, we are here now, coffeemaker and all. (And what a total and complete treat to have my coffee maker with me, instead of having to make the usual trek across the street to get bitter and lukewarm $2.00 coffee)

More food posts from me tomorrow, for now I'm off for a second cup of happiness.

Delay, Delay, Delay

Today is D-Day for the freezers. With the exception of a few special occasion items (a loaf of pound cake, homemade chicken stock, a small beef tenderloin) and high-turnover basics (frozen pizza dough and sauce, small containers of the spinach pesto I made just a few days ago, frozen fruit for smoothies, frozen biscuits) anything we have not managed to eat in the past 2 weeks is getting pitched tonight (I'm looking at you, green beans, lima beans, and unidentifiable-something-red-in-a-large-ziplock-bag). On one hand, it really is painful to throw away perfectly good food (though query if it's really 'perfectly good' if we don't eat it even when we're trying to clean out the freezer). On the other hand, forcing myself to go through this exercise twice each year does help me be more mindful of what goes in the freezer in the first place.
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Frozen biscuits are definitely a freezer staple. Like all good Southerners, we love ham biscuits for breakfast. I find it tough to make these during the week, however, because between the time it takes to preheat the oven and then to bake the biscuits, I start to run late. Most mornings I have 15-20 glorious minutes to myself in the kitchen before hungry little boys arrive Demanding Breakfast Now, and in that time I need to have coffee, empty the dishwasher, make breakfast, and pack a lunch. For three mornings in a row I tried to remember to come out and preheat the oven before getting dressed, so it would be ready and waiting for me to pop the biscuits in, but really - who can manage even a small change in routine at 6:00am? Finally it occurred to me. If I use the "delay start" function to get the oven preheated, I can set it the night before. Voila. I now have time to do ham biscuits in the morning, much to every one's delight. That's what we had for breakfast this morning. I served the boys and asked them to wait just a second so I could run and get my camera to take a picture for the blog. When I returned less than 90 seconds later, this was all that was left:

Fat Day

I reminded the boys last week that Fat Tuesday was coming up and that we would be having pancakes for dinner. My oldest promptly reported to his kindergarten class, "On Fat Day, Mommy makes pancakes."

Awesome. It's like the game of Operator, 6 year old style.

I did indeed make pancakes for dinner tonight, and wondered why I don't do it more often. I suppose part of it is because we eat pancakes often enough for breakfast, and part of it is because I've yet to find a wine that goes well with them (hmmm...mimosas with dinner, anyone??).

You just cannot beat this recipe for buttermilk pancakes from the Joy of Cooking. I've posted it before, but here it is again.

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients, until just combined. Cook on griddle until bubble form and a couple of them pop. Flip, cook a minute or two more, and enjoy!

Popeye

No picture today and a short post...but we are getting the most wonderful spinach in our farm box delivery these day and just wanted to remind everyone that spinach is a great substitute for basil in your favorite pesto recipe.

Treasure Box

We had a a dreary Sunday morning here, with a bit of rain that dashed our morning playground plans. That wasn't so bad while the boys and I were watching (for them) and re-watching (for me) the UNC/Duke game on Tivo, but once the game was over and we had all done our Victory Dance (again), I was concerned they were going to get antsy. These are boys who like to be On The Go, and generally puttering around the house on a weekend morning is not their cup of tea. But, in a stroke of luck for me (since DH was working this weekend and I was solo parenting), they were both content to stay in and entertain themselves around the house. While they engaged in their new favorite game of Worm,* I continued with my own seemingly endless game of Cleaning Out Freezers And Closets.


Lo and behold, a little treasure, tucked among the green beans, lima beans, and okra. Frozen cookie dough, apparently leftover from making Christmas cookies. What could be more perfect for a rainy Sunday morning? When the game of Worm ended in tears, I distracted everyone with the promise of Shamrock cookies. And I swear, really, truly, that as soon as these came out of the oven, the sun started to poke through the clouds and make a rainbow.
The recipe is my Mother-in-law's, and we are all addicted to it come Christmas time, but it also makes wonderful cookies any time of the year.



Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
4 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. lemon extract


Directions
Beat sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and lemon extract. Refrigerate overnight. Roll and cut out. Bake at 350 for approximately 10-12 minutes. Dough freezes beautifully.


*The game of Worm is played by the two of them getting in their sleeping bags, and then chasing each other by rolling around on the floor. If they get close enough they wrestle (Fighting Worms) while still in their sleeping bags. Inevitably the game ends with someone bumping his head, though once or twice they've just worn themselves completely out and drifted off right there on the floor.

The Object of My Affection

My husband gave me this Breville coffee maker for Christmas one year, and I have an irrationally strong attachment to it. As in, I love it. I actually feel fondness and affection for an appliance in my kitchen.

It's just perfect. It's fast, the coffee is scalding hot, and since I'm the only coffee drinker in the house, the one cup feature is wonderful. But here's my dilemma. We are traveling in a few weeks for the boys' spring break, and I'm not sure I can do without it for a full 9 mornings. I shudder at the thought. A quick weekend away, sure, I can survive, and then our reunion is all the sweeter for having missed each other. But 9 mornings without my morning love?? I'm really not sure I can do it. (A quick shout out to my sister-in-law, who, knowing my coffee addiction, actually has a similar coffee maker tucked away in a closet that gets trotted out during our visits. Bless her.) So, I think it's going to have to come with us. I didn't save the original box, which means I'll be running out to the UPS store to buy a box and bubble wrap. My husband thinks this plan is the Pinnacle Of Crazy. I say he has only himself to blame.

Say It With A Smile

The Tar Heels won a really big game last night, with a finish so close and nerve-wracking I had to cover my eyes in an effort to trick the team into thinking I wasn't watching, so no pressure, but please oh please pull this one out. Thankfully, they did. Whew.

My six year old had to go to bed at halftime, and I knew the first thing he would ask this morning was Who Won? So I had his breakfast ready and waiting for him, to let him know:

Peanut butter on toast with a chocolate chip smile and grapefruit. Happy boy, happy mommy, happy Tar Heels.

And to Dook for this upcoming Saturday: Bring. It. On.

What a Crock

I keep trying to write this post, and am totally distracted by my three year old "reading" to himself in bed. So I apologize ahead of time if it is completely incoherent...I just can't help but stop and listen to his sweet little voice.
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A week or two ago, we got a ton of gorgeous broccoli in our farm box delivery. We had it that night on baked potatoes with melted cheese, and then I put the rest of it, a huge bag, in one of the kitchen drawers. I had grand plans of finding a recipe for broccoli casserole using fresh broccoli, and posting it here. Want to know what really, really smells? Broccoli that was shoved to the back of a refrigerator drawer and completely forgotten about. Gah.
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I am a total sucker for all kitchen tools. I could never, ever be one of those minimalists who manages to cook all of Thanksgiving dinner with one knife, a cast iron pan, and a microwave. But I'm also ruthless when it comes to cleaning out drawers and closets. It doesn't take much for me to bring something home, but kitchen tools have to really pull their weight for me to keep them. I am on the verge of getting rid of my crock pot. I so rarely use it, and it takes up such prime real estate in the kitchen cabinets. It keeps getting a reprieve from all the magazines that come in swearing to have the "slow cooker recipe to change your life," though none of them ever sound like something I really want to make. If any readers really do have the crock pot recipe that changes your life, please share. The pot is on borrowed time.

On Top Of Spaghetti

The freezer and closet clean out continues. It is a perpetual failure of mine that I seem compelled to buy entirely random items at the grocery store and pop them in the freezer. Why do I do this? Why? Can't I just make a plan and stick to it? Apparently not. The latest discovery, way at the back and buried under a pound cake loaf and that damn shrimp etoufee that keeps mocking me, was a package of mild chicken sausage (1 pound). So tonight I made meatballs out of them, and served them up with homemade marina sauce and pasta. Yum, yum.

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Meatballs, like meatloaf, are one of those things you don't really need a recipe for, but tonight I actually took notes while I was making them so I could blog about them if they turned out good. As luck would have it, these were actually really, really good. Here's what to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove casings from sausage, put in large mixing bowl. Add a generous pinch of kosher salt, several strong turns on the pepper mill, 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (grind up 3 pieces of white bread, crusts removed), 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (if I had sage I would have added it since it goes so beautifully with chicken), 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, and 1 beaten egg. Mix well, shape into balls. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 40 minutes. Here's what they'll look like - good luck not eating one right away.

While the meatballs are baking, saute 1 onion in 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium heat. Add 2 minced garlic cloves, cook an additional minute or so. Add 28 ounce can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, a good pinch of kosher salt, a little fresh ground pepper, and a couple strong shakes of Italien seasoning. Stir well and simmer while the meatballs finish cooking. When the meatballs come out of the oven add them to the sauce, and cook an additional 5 minutes. Serve over pasta and dive in. So delicious and easy...perhaps chicken sausage isn't such a bad buy after all.

Party Like It's 1875

Let me begin this post by noting that DH and I can be a bit finicky when it comes to restaurants. Really, we're spoiled by living so many years in Charleston, Chapel Hill, and Savannah - the trifecta of excellent Southern cuisine. The problem with being so spoiled is that it has made our standards high. We have those favorite few, and it's hard to be patient when others don't live up. All of that to say, it takes a lot to become my New Favorite Place.
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With that said, let me introduce you to my new favorite restaurant in Savannah - Circa 1875. If you are visiting or live here, this is a must try. How have we lived here almost 4 years and missed it all this time? We had dinner there for the first time this weekend, and it was nearly perfect in every way.

First: making reservations. We called Saturday afternoon for last minute reservations, and got a message that they would open at 5pm, with instructions to leave our information for a return call, which we did. Promptly at 5:01, the hostess returned our call and worked us in at our first choice time. (You would have to live in Savannah to know what a stunning display of customer service this is, but let's just say they don't call it Slo-vannah for nothing.)

Second: the ambiance. Could. Not. Be. More. Charming. When you call for your reservations (seriously, do it now), be sure to ask if they have a table available in the wine cellar. It's fabulous. Exposed brick, racks of wine, tiny enough to feel intimate, but not claustrophobic.

Third: the food. Did I mention it's a French restaurant? And perfect? Seriously - every single thing we had was amazing. Hot bread, crusty on the outside and tender inside; herb butter served at just the right temperature (is there anything more annoying than ice cold butter that's impossible to actually spread on your bread?); garlicky escargot; super fresh chicken pate served with grainy mustard and pickled vegetables; mussels swimming in a butter and wine broth; wild boar chops with sweet potatoes...everything we ordered hit all the right notes. My stomach is growling as I type at the memory of it all. For all that, plus wine and a shared dessert, our bill was just under $100 before tip. Call the babysitter, and put it on the list.
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It can be hard to draft a post and watch the Tar Heels play, but Gary Williams has helpfully called 2 timeouts in the first 10 minutes of the game. I think he's taking a page from Pete Gillen's playbook.

This is How to Make Oatmeal...Right

The New York Times food writer Mark Bittman had an article yesterday on everything McDonald's is doing wrong with its new oatmeal menu item. Now, I love oatmeal. Love it. I eat it almost every single morning. But I never, ever order it for breakfast in a restaurant, no matter where I am. I've yet to see a restaurant oatmeal offering that was anything more than sticky, gummy, flavorless gruel with a side of brown sugar and fruit to disguise the flavor. Gah.

Since I am not a sweets person, I make my oatmeal savory - cooked with a bit of salt and topped with an egg over-easy. I like the oats to still be chewy and retain their shape, not cooked down so much they vaguely resemble the paper mache we used to make the creatures on high school homecoming floats.

THIS is how to make a good bowl of oatmeal (serves 1, increase proportions as needed):

Bring 3/4 cups water to a boil, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt (or slightly less, depending on your preference. You need enough salt to bring out the nutty, oaty flavor of the oats. Too little and the oats just taste like cardboard. Too much and all you'll taste is salt.). As soon as the water is boiling, add 3/4 cups of old-fashioned oats (not quick-cooking oats). Turn the heat down to low, and simmer oats until all the water is absorbed, which will only be about 5-7 minutes. Stir once or twice to be sure the oats are cooking evenly and not sticking. While the oats are cooking, gently fry an egg over-easy. Once all the water is absorbed by the oats, top with the egg and enjoy. So delicious!

Spring Has Sprung

The groundhog was right - spring is coming early this year. Last year I felt cheated. We didn't really get warm, spring weather until mid-April, and then after just a few weeks of it we went straight to the summer heat. This year we're already in week 2 of temperatures in the 70's and everyone is practically giddy.
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The warm weather has me doing my semi-annual pantry and freezer clean out (along with the closets). It's that time of year when I seem to have to face my mistakes, both fashion and food. With the clothes, I am trying to be clear headed about the things that just sat in the closet for the past 5 months. If I didn't wear them this year, I know I won't wear them next, and yet it's still so hard to cut to the chase and put perfectly good sweaters and pants in the Goodwill pile. Sadly, the same seems to be true of the freezer. If I haven't reached for the shrimp etouffee leftovers in the past 3 months, I'm not going to be reaching for it in the next 3 months. And yet so hard to toss perfectly good, if not great, food! Ah, dilemmas.

Product Placement

Today's post may sound like a tacky product placement, but I promise it is not. I just believe in passing along a good food tip whenever I stumble across one.
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Once it appeared we had all survived the stomach virus this past weekend, we piled in the car for our annual trip to visit my sister-in-law and her gorgeous family (two girls the same ages as our boys, lucky us). Since I am on the receiving end of these visits myself once each year, I know how hard it is to feed the entire crowd. The adults tend to be a pretty easy going crowd so long as there's a bottle of Pinot Noir open (a shared love between my brother-in-law and myself), but the kids can be any combination of We Eat Anything And Everything And We Want More Now or We Eat Nothing Don't Even Ask Us To Try It or We Would Have Eaten It But My Brother/Sister/Cousin Looked At It First And Now It Is No Good, and everywhere in between. Combine that with iffy travel schedules (will they arrive in time for lunch? dinner? It's anybody's guess!), and you're talking a food planning nightmare.
My sister-in-law, however, has this particular dilemma solved. Here's what she had on hand:

A HoneyBaked ham. But this was not the ham we are used to getting, the one that lasts you a week and you go to the fridge thinking, finally, we're finished with that damn ham but you open the fridge and there it is, staring at you, with another 8 pounds of meat to go before you can justify tossing it. No, she got a mini-ham. Brilliant. It was just the right size for the 8 of us to have for dinner that night, on biscuits the next morning for breakfast, and then Poof! Gone before the party was no longer fun. I can only hope she's saying the same thing about us...

Road to Recovery

It was touch and go there for a while, but we are all on the road to recovery, thank goodness. Unfortunately, food still holds no appeal for me - I'm hungry but nothing sounds good. I'll write again when I can stomach the thought of food (pun totally intended!).

The Devil Came Down To Georgia

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I would give anything for a day in bed!"? Or, "What I wouldn't trade to have 3 pounds just magically disappear!".

Friends, I am here to tell you, those are deals with the devil. After catching the stomach flu our oldest brought home, I am lying in the bed desperately wishing for a return to normal life of work, laundry, carpool, basketball, soccer, and supper club. This just flat out sucks.
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There is nothing on this earth more refreshing after the kind of night I just had than an ice cold Gatorade. And I have one. Sitting next to me on the bedside table. Unfortunately, I cannot get it open. Either the top is particularly tricky today, or my arms are particularly weak, or both, but it's infuriating. Can I wait 4 more hours until my poor husband gets home? I just might have to. I don't think there's an app for that.
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Very first post done from my iPad!

Blue's Clues

It's funny what food can tell you about other people. I am always super nosy about the groceries in other people's carts at the grocery store, and try to picture what meals they have planned based on what they're loading onto the conveyor belt.

I bet you can figure out what kind of day I had yesterday just by the food I fed my oldest son. Ready? Here goes: Gatorade, cinnamon toast, applesauce, saltine crackers.

Ah, the fun never ends. Now I'm just hoping that's not what the rest of us will be eating this week...

Hearts to You

Atlanta Mom asked what I used to make my heart pancakes yesterday. I have these heart molds, which handily enough can be used for eggs as well as pancake batter. You can order them from Amazon.

Before you use them, spray them well with cooking spray. I am a total sucker for kitchen tools of all kinds, but these are particularly fun. I'm currently on the hunt for a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day - if any of you come across one, let me know! (I have learned the hard way - cookie cutters are no substitute for proper pancake molds, because there's no little cork-covered handle that allows you to pick them up in order to flip the pancake.)

I Think I Love You

Hello readers! (If any of you are left...it's been so long since I blogged that I actually forgot my password to sign on here. 2 cups of coffee later it came to me...perhaps I should write these things down.)

I thought it would be fun, since I do love food so much, to restart the blog on a day of love. I will admit a slight obsession with making sure my boys have a hot, healthy breakfast on school mornings. We do a lot of oatmeal, french toast, bagel sandwiches, but their current favorite breakfast is pancake sandwiches. I make a huge batch of silver dollar sized pancakes and freeze them. In the morning, they take just 45 seconds in the microwave, get a big smear of peanut butter, and voila, a hot breakfast in less than a minute.

This morning, in honor of Valentine's Day, I made heart-shaped pancakes with peanut butter. HUGE hit.

Here's the recipe I use to make a big batch of pancakes for freezing:

1) Whisk together:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

6 Tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2) In a separate bowl, whisk together:

3 cups milk (I use 2%)

6 Tablespoons melted butter

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour wet ingredients into dry and whisk together until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, or your pancakes will be dense little discs. Heat griddle, melt butter, and cook your pancakes. Enjoy!