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).
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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?

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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.

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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.