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.)
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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.