Taco Pasta

Our plan for tonight was to have tacos. Soft tacos, but tacos none the less. Turkey tacos, actually, since ground turkey was on good sale this weekend.

But I didn't make it to Produce Junction yesterday, so I have no lettuce or tomatoes. And what is a taco without lettuce or tomatoes? It just isn't right.

So I gave little miss a choice - taco pasta or taco lasagna. She chose taco pasta, which actually takes a little less time, so she and I played a rousing match of Candyland and then got to work.

Ground turkey doesn't brown and crumble quiet the same way as ground beef does, but, especially when all of the spices are added, it doesn't really make that much of a difference. If I'd had tomatoes, I would have diced some and added them in to the pan at this point, but, well, I guess I already covered that... so all that was left to do was boil some pasta (whole wheat egg noodles) and prepare all the fun accouterments to go along with this dish, including grating some cheddar, cutting an avocado, and setting out sour cream and salsa.

The thing was, I had been planning on soft tacos. Which means tortillas. And I still wanted to use them. So I did. I cut them into strips, sprayed a foil lined baking sheet, and decided to try to make my own taco-chip-strips. I wasn't sure exactly how to go about this, and didn't feel like spending the time to look it up, so I seriously winged it. I set the oven to 400* and, well, waited. I checked them after about seven minutes, flipped them and shook the pan around a bit... put them back in... checked them a few minutes later... and guess what? It worked! Some puffed a little bit, some got a little darker than others, but they were really good, and I will definitely do this again!

All in all, dinner came out really well. Little miss thought that the meat was a little too spicy, which was a little surprising considering that she has had it before, and also that she likes other spicy foods, but that's okay. She is a real trooper and tasted it, so I can't complain.

And, in case you were wondering, she is a little ham and it is becoming a little difficult to take clean food shots with her around... she somehow figured out exactly when to pop her cute little face right into the frame... at just the moment when the camera has focused on the food... Goofy girl.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm Irish by marriage, and, well, everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day, so slainte!

We have been celebrating St. Patrick's Day all week here, and will continue to do so at least through tomorrow... From crafts (including a cute leprechaun puppet made out of a paper bag!) to food, we are doing it up.

And of course, what could be more perfect to bake today than a traditional Irish Soda Bread. We use my husband's grandfather's recipe, and I look forward to it all year. Not that you can't have Irish Soda Bread the other 11 months of the year, but I think it tastes better with the St. Paddy's spirit around...

Little miss loves making Irish Soda Bread because she can pretty much do it herself - there are only a few ingredients, no eggs, and you get to knead it with your hands, so that makes for a great pre-schooler recipe.

The only liquid in this bread is buttermilk, and this is the one time of year that I am guaranteed to have actual buttermilk in the house, rather than depending on my usual substitution. Little miss did all of the mixing, most of the measuring and all of the pouring, too. And she was totally in the spirit, too, between the shamrock on her shirt and the one on her cheek... and yes, I had a matching one. A fun time was had by all.

Anyway, her favorite part was kneading the dough. And getting to pick what dried fruit to include. Today she chose craisins. The hardest part for me is making sure the craisins (or raisins) are incorporated evenly through the dough. I always soak them in orange juice before kneading them in so that they don't burn in the oven. The time I forgot to do that, the ones on the outside of the bread were... less than tasty, shall we say. So I try to remember now.

Anyway, this comes together super quick, and then after 40 minutes in the oven, you have a beautiful loaf of this:









Yum.

Truth be told, this was neither the first nor the last loaf of this that I made this week. I made a loaf yesterday, for which little miss chose raisins (which was why she chose craisins today), which we had with our day-early traditionaly St. Patrick's day dinner of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. I always add carrots, too, because I like them, and because little miss doesn't like cabbage, but loves carrots. Easy thing to do.

And as for it not being the last? Tomorrow I am going into preschool again with little miss and making another loaf with her class. So the spirit of the Irish will continue on for at least one more day, and the leftovers will be enjoyed for at least that long.

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Couscous

I love to have a little variety in my side dishes. For the most part, in our house, dinner is a meat, a veggie and a starchy side. The regular players in the side-dish role are rice, potatoes and pasta, prepared in any number of ways. But tonight I wasn't in the mood for any of those. I was roasting a chicken and wanted something else... something different.

Enter couscous. Not quite pasta, it makes a great side for almost any meat.

Couscous is prepared similarly to rice - it is added to hot water, the pot is covered, the couscous absorbs the liquid and, well, there you have it.

But I don't do it quite that way. I mean, I do, but I like my couscous a little more complex, with a little more flavor.

Step one? Veggies. Usually I use onion and carrot. Sometimes I add celery. Today I used leek, because I happened to have it. The veggies are chopped pretty small, since the grains of couscous are pretty small. I like a pretty uniform dish. So the veggies are chopped as finely as I can manage by hand. They are then sauteed in a pot until the onions are translucent and the carrots are a bit tender. Considering that this was only the second time I had ever used leeks, I wasn't sure what I was looking for the leeks to do during the sautee process, but that's okay.

Next the couscous is added to the pot and stirred around to be coated with the oil in the pan and mixed in with the veggies. At this point, it is time to add the liquid. The first time I made this, I used water. Then I realized that if I used broth, my finished result would have that much more flavor, so that is was I have used ever since. I use a 2-to-1 ratio of liquid to couscous, just like rice. I have read so many different recipes calling for different ratios, different cook times... it is sometimes hard to figure out what the "right" way is. I just figured out what worked for me and that is what I do. Anyway, broth in, pot covered, heat lowered to low... and 20 minutes later, I had a delicious, fluffy side dish.

Every time I make this, little miss tells me that she doesn't like it and won't eat it. At which point I remind her that she actually likes it a lot and eats it up really well. Then she proceeds to take a bite, look at me and say something along the lines of "Yummy! I like couscous!" and then eat it all up. So it gets the thumbs up all around.

Oh, and for the veggie tonight I made asparagus, which little miss loves. I love that. Aside from asparagus being yummy and healthy, I also kind of think it looks like it could be dragon tails. Or the tail of some silly monster or something. Don't it? Maybe that's just me.

Anyway, dinner tonight was delicious.

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March Daring Cooks Challenge - Risotto

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

I know I have said this about most of the challenges, but it is true each and every time, so here I go again. I was so excited when I saw what this month's challenge was. Risotto has been on my to-try list for a long time. To the point that there has been a box of arborio rice sitting in the pantry just begging me to have the courage to just go for it.

Even more exciting, and possibly more surprising, was that this risotto was to be made using home-made chicken stock, something I have never actually made before. Sure I have made chicken soup, but I have always used store-bought broth - have never made my own. For some reason, I am always most scared by the recipes that are, in all reality, simplest.

So this challenge was perfect - knock two things off of my cooking wish list, AND, well, it's the perfect comfort food for the snowy, cold month that we had!

Chicken stock is a really interesting venture. In order to add extra flavor and texture to the broth, it is best to not only use chicken, but also chicken bones. So I roasted a chicken for dinner the night before I wanted to make this, and saved all of the bones in a zip-top bag in the fridge. Which was actually just a funny thing to do, really - save a bag of bones... But the next morning, little miss helped me chop vegetables (she is really persistent with her toy-knife and can usually get a few good cuts in!), and added them to the pot with the bones, a whole chicken, and a variety of spices. A little boiling and a whole lot of simmering, and the house smelled so homey and delicious. Once the chicken is cooked through, it can be removed, shredded and used for just about anything. After the fact, I learned that the bones can be returned to the pot to continue simmering with the stock. I will definitely do that next time. Not that it detracted from the finished product not to do so this time, but I can only imagine that the flavor and texture will be even more full and rich next time by giving the bones that extra time.

The "hardest" part of making the stock, for me anyway, was straining it. And the only reason it was hard is due to the size of the strainer that I have:









Fits perfectly on the soup container from the Chinese food place (I knew I saved those for a reason!), but, man, it took a while to strain all that soup! Little miss was happy to eat all of the carrots out of the bowl of veggies that were strained out, too. I had been worried, once taking the chicken out of the pot, that I wasn't going to yield that much stock out of this venture, but I was happily mistaken, and wound up with four quarts - plenty not only for risotto, but for a delicious chicken soup, as well.

Stock completed, it was time to get started on the risotto. Yes, I did this all on the same day.

Risotto is actually very straightforward, but requires a bit of attention and a lot of stirring. Risotto is also very versatile, and can be prepared in many different ways, flavored with many different foods, and served an a variety of ways. I had decided to make a mushroom-asparagus risotto, but was a bit thrown off when gathering my ingredients by the fact that... I had no asparagus?? I knew I asked for it at Produce Junction, but between the bags I was juggling and the fact that little miss kept wanting to run off to see the flowers, there was some kind of mishap, and I wound up with no asparagus. Which I didn't notice until the moment I needed it. Uh oh.

After a few minutes staring at the variety of fruits and veggies in the house, I quickly rebounded and chose a totally different flavor combination. Red onion and golden delicious apple. Which, when I put them on the table, looked like two thirds of a smiley face. So I quick grabbed a leek to complete the face. Because I am silly like that. But hey, there is nothing wrong with a little silliness, or with happy risotto.

Anyway, the risotto came together really easily, considering how scared I had been to try it. I had my pot of lightly simmering stock on one burner and my working-pot of risotto on the burner right next to it. As the rice absorbed the liquid, I simply added more and continued stirring. It is amazing how much liquid those little rice grains can hold. I know this picture isn't that great, but the colors were really pretty, between the faint pink of the red onions and the yellow of the apples. The finished dish was creamy and delicious, with a bit more texture than our regular rice. I enjoyed it quite a bit. My husband thought it was good, and, well, little miss prefers regular rice, but ate it pretty well.

I learned so much from my other daring cooks on this challenge, and there were several more things that I had been hoping to try as a second round of this challenge, including fried risotto balls (called arancini) (of which I was going to make a baked version) and a sweet dessert risotto. Unfortunately, I kept eating my leftovers, leaving not enough to try the arancini, and did not wind up having time to make the sweet risotto before today's posting date. Which doesn't mean that I won't be trying these things, merely that I didn't have time to do them prior to the posting date of this challenge. So when you see me post those, you'll know that they were inspired by this challenge.

To see some other creative risotto dishes, check out some of the other Daring Cooks.
Thank you, Eleanor and Jess, for a really great, really tasty, really comforting food challenge. I will definitely be trying more varieties, and really appreciated the opportunity to try something new!

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The best popcorn in the world...

...is made by my husband.

I cannot duplicate it, though I have tried. I don't know what his secret is.

He pops it in a big pot, then has his own special blend of spices that he mixes in.
We had family movie night tonight, and he made a batch for us.

Yum.

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Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Remember that double batch of meatballs I made this week? Tonight's dinner was the reason for making so much extra.

Usually we have meatballs with some kind of Italian-style meal - with some kind of pasta, or as meatball parmesan hoagies... whatever it is, the meal usually includes red sauce of some sort.

Except when we have sweet and sour meatballs.

This is one recipe that most people react to with pretty funny looks. Because these are the two main ingredients:









Chili sauce and grape jelly. Such an odd combination, I know!

As an aside - do you know how hard it is to find either of these ingredients, much less both, without high fructose corn syrup?? Crazy. But I did. *phew*

Anyway, these are super easy to make, and are really tasty. There is a ton of leeway with this recipe, too, which is part of what is so fun about it - everyone can add their own twist, or adjust the recipe based on what is in the pantry on any given day. The way I have been making them the last couple of times has worked for us, so that is what I did tonight. All you have to do is combine your ingredients in a pot, heat over medium until the ingredients start to come together and simmer, add your meatballs, then simmer for as long as you want - either just until the meatballs are heated through, if you are in a hurry, or for a couple of hours, if you want to infuse the meatballs with more of the sweet and sour flavor. The extra time also helps the sauce thicken a little.

In addition to the chili sauce and grape jelly, also add a splash of lemon juice. And if you don't have chili sauce, use cocktail sauce. And if you don't have cocktail sauce, use ketchup. I kid you not. Play with flavors and combinations until you come up with what works for you. I add a dash of teriyaki sauce into ours. Gives it some extra kick. As I said - lots of leeway in this one. And use any meatballs you want - make your own, use frozen - whatever works. Technically, you don't even have to cook the meatballs first, they can actually cook right in the sauce. I just feel that that adds more fat into the sauce than I'd like, so I cook mine first. But do what works for you.

I serve these over rice, though I think they would go really well over egg noodles, also. Rice is just what we have always done. Funny how that happens. I don't make these all that often, but little miss gobbles them up when I do, and it is a great change of pace from meatballs with red sauce.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs (basic recipe)

(Family recipe)

1 jar chili sauce

1 jar grape jam

Juice of one lemon

meatballs, however you like to prepare them (you can use frozen or make your own - whatever works for you!)

In a large pot, combine chili sauce, jam and lemon. Heat this mixture over medium heat until it starts to come together. Add meatballs to the sauce and simmer at least 30 minutes, until meatballs are heated thorough.

You can actually cook the meatballs right in the sauce - I prefer to cook them first, so the sauce doesn't get extra greasy.

You can substitute ketchup or cocktail sauce for the chili sauce. You can also use another flavor of jam, if you are adventurous. Once I added a splash or two of teriyaki sauce. It's very adaptable, and it's been delicious no matter what I've tried. Be creative!

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Carrot Muffins

I was looking for some inspiration for something to bake today, so little miss and I did a little bit of foodgawking this morning, and I told her to pick what looked good for us to make. She chose a photo of delicious looking carrot cake bars. Yum. Unfortunately, most of the family has given up dessert for Lent (as I may have mentioned before), so I was worried that a cake might not be the best choice. Not to be deterred, I used her choice as inspiration for what we did choose to make - carrot muffins! See? They're muffins. Totally different from cake. They can be eaten for breakfast. And they count as a veggie serving (just agree with me on that one...). Totally not dessert. Aren't I thoughtful?

Instead of just making the recipe that we found into cupcakes and calling them muffins, I decided to look for an actual muffin recipe, though one that keeps the spirit of, well, carrot cake. I settled on this one, from the joy of baking website. That is the website that provided the delicious bread pudding muffin recipe, so I was pretty sure that it would be a good choice.

We made this in stages today, since it has been nice and warm outside, so we've been wanting to play outside quite a bit. So first we picked the recipe, then we went outside and collected pine cones. Then we came in and measured and mixed the dry ingredients. Then we had a little bit of downtime with our favorite PBS dinosaurs on Dinosaur Train. Then I shredded up five carrots (aren't they pretty?) and two apples, added in the wet ingredients, and got these guys into the oven. Then we played some go-fish.

Then the house started smelling really good. Between the cinnamon and the coconut, I was very much looking forward to tasting these. So was little miss. Anway, after about 24 minutes, the timer beeped. And out came these:









Yum.

Well, not yet. I mean, they are yummy this way, but we weren't quite done.

How can you make them better? Cream cheese frosting. I mean, what is carrot cake without cream cheese frosting? I mean... muffins...

These were really tasty, and will be breakfasts and snacks for the next couple of days.

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