Cheddar, Bacon & Potato Frittata

It's hard to believe another week has flown by, and yet here we are, almost to the weekend again.  We had a tough time getting organized this week-we managed to get out the door to work and school okay, and home again in one piece, but meals were just a little catch as can.  Sunday night I turned the last of the roast beef and gravy into a kind of poutine (Hey, if you call leftovers something cool and top it with cheese & the kids eat it, everybody wins.  Monday night, Emily's usual cooking night, arrived and she had not made a recipe choice, so sweet & sour pork was the easy option.  Tuesday's blizzard like conditions, and again no decision about dinner meant frozen pizza. I suggested carrot lentil soup, which she really likes, but she wanted to make something new.  Ever the culinary explorer....she was scanning my cookbooks and magazines finding things like tamales (I wasn't going to start scouring for those ingredients!) and deconstructed stuffed peppers.  Neither of us like peppers I pointed out, to which she argued we could leave them out.....but stuffed peppers without peppers is just what exactly?  I encouraged her to go back to the Kraft magazines, those recipes are pretty accessible and easy to adapt to what we have on hand.  Within minutes she found this recipe which sounded like it would fit the bill nicely.
Wednesday morning while I was making breakfast I scrubbed a few potatoes and baked them in the microwave which eased one step, as they would be more than adequately cooled by evening.
Emily was busy at her other chores when I got home; the breakfast dishes were done and she was cleaning the bathroom.  Turns out she really wanted to go to the book fair at school.... Ah, the impetus of bribery.  I told her we could maybe go after supper, and before I had my boots off she was slicing those potatoes.
Rather than buy bacon bits I chopped up the last quarter package of bacon in the fridge and started frying it, adding in half an onion, since we didn't have the requisite green ones.  And then I was shooed out of the kitchen, assured she could do it on her own.
I was called back once; Emily was having a hard time slicing the potatoes thinly.  I pulled a better knife out of the drawer and made short work of them before being summarily dismissed again.
Until she dropped an egg.
I waved off her apologies and began pouring salt over the mess.  Emily told me I was just making a bigger mess.  "Just watch," I told her.  "This is really cool."  I let the salt and egg sit while she beat together half a dozen more eggs with milk and some Miracle Whip and assembled her frittata, topping the sliced potatoes with bacon, onions and shredded cheese and pouring the eggs over it all.
Once it was in the oven I picked up the dust pan and whisk broom and swept the whole mess in to the garbage.  She was awed.  It's a pretty cool trick....sometimes the stuff you seen on the internet is actually useful!.

The frittata took longer to cook than what the recipe suggested, but I find this pretty common when baking eggs.  I don't know why.  We gave it an extra 10 minutes, and in the end, hungry, I put it in the microwave for another 5.  Still it was very tasty, although I thought it needed seasoning.  Nonetheless once today's lunches were packed there was nothing left of it.

Cheddar, Bacon & Potato Frittata

1 lb new red potatoes, cooked, cooled & sliced             6 eggs

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar                                              1/4 cup milk

1/3 cup cooked, crumbled bacon                                    1/3 cup salad dressing (like Miracle Whip)

3 green onions, sliced                                                     1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Place potatoes in a greased 9" pie plate.  Top with cheese, bacon & onion.

Whisk eggs and milk until blended.  Add salad dressing and pepper; mix well.  Pour over potato mixture.

Bake 25-30 minutes, until centre is set.  Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into wedges to serve.

Chocolate Drop Sugar Cookies

I know, I know, no posts for a week, then two back to back.  What can I say?   Emily decided she needed to bake so she had lunch box treats for the coming week and since I rarely write about her baking I figured it was a fine idea.  In truth she was baking cookies, and making the occasional cake mix or banana muffins long before I had her making dinner on a weekly basis.  Learning how to make her favourite chocolate chip cookies was an easy first step.
She was looking for something new to try today so I suggested a couple of chocolate cookies in my little notebook where I write down recipes I have tried and decide are worth keeping.  She didn't like the sound of the Chocolate Crinkles because of the peppermint extract, although they are a lovely option for Christmas (note to self!).  I was a little surprised when she opted for these because of the corn flakes in the mix.  When I have made them in the past she has balked about eating them.  But I said nothing and let her start measuring and mixing.
She did need help with a few things; combing the cocoa with sugar & warm water to make a chocolate syrup to flavour the cookies, and with stirring in the corn flakes, as the batter is very thick.  She left out the nuts-she doesn't care for them, and they are verboten at school (which also precludes all our favourite peanut butter recipes)
We wound up with 3 1/2 to 4 dozen cookies, about 4cm in diameter (give or take, precision is certainly not her thing when it comes to spooning out cookie batter, but they do keep well.
They are chewy and chocolaty and should be a lunch time treat.

Chocolate Drop Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, creamed                              1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar                                       2 1/2 cups flour

2 beaten eggs                                           1 teaspoon baking powder

6 tablespoons sugar                                 1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cocoa                                 2 cups corn flakes

6 tablespoons hot water                           1 cup chopped nuts*

Preheat oven to 350 F. Add first amount of sugar and eggs to creamed butter gradually.  Dissolve second amount of sugar and cocoa in hot water and add to the creamed mixture.  Stir in the vanilla.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, add to creamed mixture.  Blend well.  Stir in corn flakes and nuts.

Drop by heaping teaspoonsful onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 minutes.

*Emily was going to substitute white chocolate chips for the nuts, she thought the colour would be a nice contrast, but we were out.  She stirred in about 3/4 cup of regular chocolate chips instead.

Sweet Potato Brie Mac & Cheese

First off; my apologies for the late arrival of this post.  I'm still adjusting to the schedule and demands of my new job, and Peter was here this past week for several days and I would rather have tea & play cribbage with him in the evening than pursue the solitary pleasures of writing.  It was a crazy, busy week...I'm not complaining mind you.  After such extended idleness busy is a marvelous, if unsettling thing.
Emily has done very well getting herself off to school in the mornings, and in helping out with a few extra chores when she gets home.  I may have to consider a small raise in her allowance.  We'll see how long it lasts or if the novelty of independence wears off.  With Christmas and its inherent busy-ness looming her help will be even more critical....and I'll be honest, I'm thrilled to hand off a few chores.
Emily decided to cook Monday night again, so we picked up the necessary ingredients Sunday while we were grocery shopping.  While I was making Sunday supper I cooked a couple of extra sweet potatoes so the sweet potato puree was ready for Monday night; one less step, and one less pot to wash.  One of these days Emily will no longer use every possible utensil to make dinner, but until then whatever I can do to quietly ease the mess I will do.
Monday evening I set Emily to shredding a block of old cheddar cheese (the sharper flavour is important, so even if medium or mild cheddar is your go to, buy the old or sharp for this recipe) while I began cutting the rind off the Brie I had purchased and we waited for the water to boil to cook the pasta.  Once the water was boiling Emily measured in a generous portion of pasta. We like medium sized shells for this, the shell holds the sauce beautifully.
While the pasta cooked Emily measured pureed sweet potato and milk into a pan, blending them and bringing the mixture to a simmer.  When it began to simmer we reduced the heat to low and stirred in the shredded cheddar, brie and cream cheese until the cheeses were all melted.  She then stirred in a little nutmeg and some salt & pepper.  By this time the pasta was done and drained, and was added to the sauce and heated through.
While Emily was stirring all of this together I reheated some meatballs leftover from the previous weeks Sweet & Sour Meatballs (I had too many for the sauce) and sliced up some leftover chicken.  The dish really is a stand alone meal, but I thought a few add ons couldn't hurt.  I probably should have made a salad or steamed some broccoli too, but we never quite got that far.
In any case dinner was delicious.  The pasta was rich and creamy, and a little tangy.  I confess it is not an inexpensive dish, but is a wonderful indulgence, a grown up version of macaroni and cheese.

Sweet Potato Brie Mac & Cheese

8 oz uncooked macaroni or other pasta                     1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup sweet potato puree *                                         1/2 cup double cream Brie cheese, rind removed,  1 cup milk                                                                    cubed  

2 oz cream cheese (about a 1/4 cup)                          pinch ground nutmeg

salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to the package directions, drain

Meanwhile whisk together and heat sweet potato puree and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until just starting to simmer.

Reduce heat to low and stir in cheddar, Brie and cream cheese, stir until fully melted.  Stir in nutmeg, season with salt & pepper.

Stir in the drained pasta, mix thoroughly combined,  If the sauce seems a bit soupy at this stage remove the pan from the heat and let it stand a few minutes.  It will thicken as it cools.

Serve with extra nutmeg if desired. 

*To make the sweet potato puree bake or boil a large sweet potato until tender.  Once it is cool enough to handle, peel it and mash it with a fork.

                                                              

Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken

Winter arrived yesterday with a decided vigor.  Sunday the sun was shining and the temperature a balmy 16, yesterday we woke to wet and sloppy snow, although the temperature did hover above zero for most of the day.  Yuck.  I wish I could afford to winter someplace warm.  I think Australia would be nice, since our winter is their summer & I could live in perpetual summer time.  Ah, if only.
Emily returned home from her dad's Sunday evening, brimming with stories, and eager to cook Monday night.  I told her about a recipe I had tripped over on line over the weekend, and she thought it sounded really good.  I found it and she decided it would be a fine dinner.  Monday morning she decided she wanted mashed potatoes and gravy as a side, which sounded fine to me, and a plan was laid.  I headed out for work and she was off to school.
I stopped on my way home for chicken breasts and potatoes, and then for a nice bottle of wine.
I laid the chicken between pieces of cling wrap and showed Emily how to use the meat mallet to flatten the pieces out into lovely flat fillets, which she then dredged in flour, salt and paprika an browned quickly in a frying pan.  Once the chicken was browned she placed it on a baking pan and I showed her how to deglaze the pan with lemon juice, scraping up all the tasty little brown bits and reducing the volume of the juice, which we then poured over the chicken.  Once the juice was drizzled liberally over the chicken she sprinkled the breasts with lemon zest and brown sugar.  The pan then went into the oven to bake for 20 minutes.
In the meantime I had talked her into mashed potatoes with the skins on, not wanting to take the time to peel several smallish potatoes.  Instead we scrubbed and quartered then and put them on to boil.  Once they were tender Emily was all too eager to dive in with the potato masher.  I added butter, milk, salt & pepper and helped her mash them well, although with the skins you cannot get them as smooth and fluffy as you do peeling them.  But the skins are full of nutrients, they look very rustic, and they taste great.  And you don't spend 20 minutes or more peeling them.
Emily made a packet of onion gravy and decided not to prepare the broccoli that was in the fridge.  We were out of frozen mixed vegetables so she opened a can she found in the cupboard, one rescued from the trailer when we cleared out all the canned goods before freeze up.

Dinner was very good, although Emily thought the chicken was perhaps too lemony.  I like lemon flavour a lot, but I think a little less juice might have been better.  And perhaps a little more sugar to balance the sour lemon.  It was certainly quick and easy to make, although it looked and tasted like there was a lot more effort involved.  It was also relatively light, with only a brief dredging of flour and only a few minutes in olive oil to brown it.

Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken

2 tablespoons olive oil                            

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin

juice of 2 large lemons (3-4 tablespoons)

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. 

Combine the flour, salt & paprika in a shallow pan, coat the chicken with this mixture.  Drop each chicken breast in the hot oil and brown on both sides.  Remove to a baking dish.

Pour the lemon juice into the pan and stir to deglaze.  Pour the lemon juice over the chicken breasts.  

Sprinkle with lemon zest and brown sugar.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until cooked through.

One Pot Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

The sky is looming grey this afternoon as I write this post.  It seems as though November arrived bringing much more autumnal weather with it.  The weatherman and the calendar both say snow is in the offing, but I remain in denial even though the air smells like snow.  I would like to hold off the descent into winter a little longer.
We had taken a brief hiatus from Emily's cooking days, I had taken a temp job with Elections Canada that had me working until 6 most evenings, so we needed meals that were quick and easy, or could be assembled in advance and take advantage of the oven timer.  With the election well behind us now, and Halloween done we can return to some semblance of normalcy again until Christmas's unerring and wonderful chaos makes its presence known.
Emily decided Sunday that she would cook Monday night again, accepting easily my suggestion of this recipe which I happened across while looking for inspirations last week.  I have made it before and it is easy and perfect for a chilly fall evening.
After school Monday Emily invited a friend over, and the two of them decided to make dinner together.  It was amusing to listen to Emily set her friend to various prep tasks, acting very sure of herself.  Talk about the blind leading the blind!  Still with a little assistance they were quickly underway.  I think they used about a third as much garlic as they should have, and Emily forgot to add the white wine (apple juice) to the pot.  We were short of linguine and substituted fettuccine noodles instead, so it took a little longer to cook.  When all was said and done there was pumpkin puree spattered all over the stove top, but dinner was a hit.  Emily's friend took some of the leftovers home with her for lunch too, along with a copy of the recipe.  I think they both had fun, and at the end of the day that's what matters.  

I neglected to take a picture in the midst of the chaos in my beleaguered kitchen, you'll have to take my word the dish is a rich,creamy concoction, a wonderful orange colour.  A green salad would have completed the meal perfectly, but the dish was hearty and filling on its own.  Who said pumpkin was only for pie?


One Pot Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

8 oz. linguine pasta                                 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 cups vegetable broth                             1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 cup pumpkin puree*                             1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dry white wine**                       1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil                            4 oz fresh goat cheese (chevre)***
1 cup finely chopped onion                    1 small bunch parsley, chopped 
3-4 large cloves garlic, minced

Add all the ingredients except the goat cheese & parsley to a large, heavy pot
Place the pot over high heat and bring to a rolling boil.  As soon as it comes to a boil set a timer for 9 minutes.  Stir and toss pasta as it cooks, frequently at first and then constantly as it begins to thicken. After 9 minutes the pasta should be done & the sauce thickened slightly.  If not continue cooking until the pasta is done.  Remove from heat.
Crumble the goat cheese into the pasta, stir gently until melted and combined. Let stand 5 minutes.  The sauce will thicken more as it sits.  Stir and taste, add more salt & pepper if needed, garnish with parsley.

*A can of pumpkin puree is 398 ml, but I use the whole can.  What are you going to do with less than half a can of pumpkin?

**Apple or orange juice is an adequate substitute for white wine. A splash of lemon juice will help replicate the acidity if you do not have wine to cook with, or prefer to drink the wine yourself

***Sour cream can be substituted for the goat cheese (about a 1/2 cup) 

Tex-Mex Shrimp and Noodles

It's hard to believe my little girl is 11 today.  She has grown up so much in the last year, and yet remains my little girl.  Her forays in the kitchen over the past year or so have seen not only her skills increase but her tastes change and mature, along with her willingness to try new things.  She decided to contribute to our family dinners of late, making a lovely carrot & broccoli bake for Thanksgiving dinner.  I think it is wonderful (if admittedly a little vain) she wants to take her place preparing the family feasts.  There are at a minimum 15 of us at table now, so every hand is a helpful one.
Our Thanksgiving feast is also an opportunity to celebrate my mini chef's birthday, and she was feted with an abundance of gifts and a red velvet cake covered with pink cream cheese frosting and coloured candies.
Thoroughly glutted on turkey (and counting the days to our Christmas one) and knowing one of her favourite people was coming for a visit this week, Emily decided to make this shrimp and pasta dish for supper.  Initially, going through cook books Tuesday night she suggested calzones, but I redirected her.  Calzones, while delicious, are a considerable amount of work for a school night.  She likes Mexican fare, and pasta, so this recipe appealed to her sensibilities, since she was dead set on Italian (for the pasta, I'm sure).
While she ran an errand or two with Peter, pleased I think to have him all to herself for a little while, I peeled the shrimp I had thawed, chopped an onion and assembled the rest of her ingredients in an effort to speed the process since they did not return home until almost 6.
Emily heated some oil in a large pan and added shrimp, and quickly pointed out I had missed a few tails.  She then stirred in chili powder & salt.  Once the shrimp were mostly cooked we spooned them into another bowl and replaced them in the pan with more oil and the dry pasta.  I helped her toast it then remove it to another bowl as well.  Next she sauteed the onion before adding a can of diced tomatoes, water and the noodles.  Once this came to a boil she covered it and let it simmer until the liquid was absorbed and the pasta was tender.  She stirred in the shrimp and heated everything through and dinner was ready.  She asked if I had cilantro as a garnish, which I did not, so I ducked out to the garden to clip a little parsley instead.
As usual dinner was very good, and went into a thermos for lunch today.  We made a few alterations, omitting the green pepper, which none of us like particularly and using preseasoned canned tomatoes (cracked black pepper & olive oil, although the roasted red pepper version would have been very good too, perhaps making up for the lack of green peppers)

Tex-Mex Shrimp & Noodles

1/4 cup vegetable oil (divided)                                           1 onion, thinly sliced

1 650 gram package shrimp, peeled & deveined               1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons chili powder                                                    1-540 ml can diced tomatoes

salt                                                                                      12 ounces broken angel hair pasta

sour cream, pickled jalapenos & chopped fresh cilantro for topping

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a Dutch oven or wide pot over medium high heat, add the shrimp, chili powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are just cooked through, about 3 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl.

Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil to the pan with the pasta.  Cook, stirring, until golden, about 3 minutes, transfer to a separate bowl.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the onion, bell pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt & 1-2 tablespoons water to the pot.  Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender, about 3 minutes.

Increase the heat to medium high, stir in 2 cups of water, the tomatoes, toasted noodles and another 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Bring to a simmer, stirring to break up any clumps.  Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally until the noodles are tender and most of the water has been absorbed, 10-12 minutes.  Stir in the shrimp.

Top each serving with sour cream, pickled jalapenos and cilantro

Emily's Chicken Surprise

Thanksgiving will be upon us in a few short days, and in exactly one week the star of this blog, Emily of "Cooking with Emily" will be 11.  She is growing up far too quickly, but I am very proud of the young woman she is becoming.  There is not much more a parent can hope for at the end of it all but that you get to see your children grew up to be good people.  I can honestly say this, for me, is true of all my children.  I guess somehow I did some things right.
It has been a pretty quiet week.  Monday I made baked Parmesan chicken so we would have leftover chicken for Emily to make some version of her favourite chicken pot pie (which is a bit of a misnomer, since there is not a scrap of pastry involved but is a casserole I make with leftover chicken) In any case this week's version became a further take off on my casserole with nod to her other favourite, shepherd's pie.
She diced the leftover chicken, putting it in a casserole dish with the leftover carrots, to which I added frozen peas and frozen corn.  While she sauteed an onion (which she tried to do with out adding any butter or oil!) she made packet of chicken gravy as I had not made gravy the previous night.  Incidentally cream of chicken or mushroom soup would work here too.
Once the onion was tender she stirred that into the chicken and vegetables, then poured the gravy over everything.  We had mashed potatoes left over too, so Emily spooned them over the casserole, but then topped the potatoes with a prepared package of stuffing mix.  She baked the casserole for about 20 minutes, but it probably could have gone 30 or 45, as the potatoes took a long time to heat through, and were not completely hot on my plate.
In any case dinner was a success, and there were no complaints when it reappeared for supper last night, making a final run as a school lunch today.

Potage Parmentier

We are in the midst of the final week of September...and again I find myself wondering where the month went.  It seems like only yesterday we were preparing for back to school.  Now, suddenly the stores are overflowing with Christmas merchandise (yes, I know it started appearing in the shadow of the furor of back to school, in August) and talk here has been about a certain girl's birthday and of Halloween. Call me whatever the Halloween equivalent of Scrooge is but I am seriously considering going into hiding that night this year.  We don't get many, if any, trick-or-treaters here anyway, and I think Emily is getting a little old now for candy-begging.  Besides she only eats the chocolate, and I don't need the temptation for my sweet-tooth.  But I digress, and here I am fussing about the end of October even as I lament the passing of September.
It seems life has found it's rhythm again, Emily has settled into the routine of school, enjoying more privileges and responsibilities.  Tuesday morning I asked again (as a follow up to the disregarded query from Monday) if she was cooking dinner.  Over breakfast she perused one of the cookbooks I had left on the counter earlier and decided that potato leek soup sounded good, as well as marinated onion rings.  I pointed out (hoping to dissuade her from deep frying) the onion ring recipe she had selected was not for the deep fried treats she loves, but raw, marinated rings of onion.  Then I skimmed the soup recipe before pointing her to another cookbook with a similar recipe I have made several times before, so I know it is good, and quite simple to make. (And it has a "fancier" name, which I figured would appeal to her too).
When Emily returned home from school she asked if I had been to the store yet.  I had.  Several minutes later she walked into the living room holding a leek in her hands, asking if it was a leek (I guess she's never seen one before!) They were large, and individually wrapped in cellophane.  I told her it was a leek & she dropped it like she was holding a snake.  I laughed and told her it was just a vegetable, like an onion.  I don't know what she thought it was, or what she though leeks looked like, but she picked it up again with relief and went back to whatever she had been doing.
While she started slicing the onion for the soup I trimmed the leeks and showed her how to clean them properly (slit them lengthwise to about 1" from the root, turn a quarter turn & repeat, then rinse) before she sliced them.
The leeks and onions were put in a large pot with a little butter over low heat, covered and cooked for about 15 minutes.  In the meantime Emily peeled some potatoes and diced them (the recipe says to slice them, but since the whole thing is pureed at the end it didn't really matter). The potatoes were added to the leeks with chicken stock, thyme and parsley. This was brought to a boil, then let simmer for 40 minutes.
Emily decided that she needed to make biscuits as well, so I pointed her to my well worn recipe, and instructed to follow the notes on cutting it in half.  Her technique needs a little work, but she's getting the hang of it.  I gave her my smallest biscuit cutter and showed her how to cut and reshape her dough.
Once the biscuits were in the oven Emily got to play with my immersion blender and puree her soup.  I told her to be sure not to lift it out of the pot until the blades stopped turning, and she only forgot once, so there wasn't much spatter.

The soup was rich, hearty and delicious.  I had forgotten how much I like this recipe.  I told Emily I always enjoyed stirring  a little grated cheese into my bowl, so we did that as well.  She was pleased with the results as well.  In fact she was indulging in spoonsful of soup while I gave the immersion blender a few extra whirls, where the single spoonful to taste it should have been to correct the seasoning, if necessary.

Potage Parmentier

2 tablespoons butter or margarine                 6 cups chicken stock (warm)

2 sliced leeks                                                  1/2 teaspoon thyme

1 Spanish onion, sliced                                 2 bay leaves (optional)

1 1/2 pounds (4 large) potatoes,                     2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

peeled & sliced                                              salt & pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add the leeks and onion, cover.  Cook for 15 minutes over low heat; stir occasionally.  Add the potatoes, chicken stock and herbs (the original recipe also calls for 1/2 tsp chervil, but I never have it, so I omitted it & used parsley here instead.  I also never seem to have bay leaves, so I leave those out too.) Season with salt & pepper.

Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to medium heat and simmer 40 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.  

Correct the seasoning (remove the bay leaves too) and puree the soup with a food mill or immersion blender.  If the soup seems too thick stir in a bit more chicken stock.  Garnish with fresh cream, chopped fresh parsley and/or grated cheese.

Easy Skillet Ravioli

It's hard to believe September is almost gone.  Mornings and evenings have a distinctly fall like feeling in the air, although most afternoons are still balmy.  Emily has taken to coming home from school and trading her jeans or leggings for shorts, or her shirt for a tank top.  Because I need more laundry to do. Ah well, soon enough fall will give way to winter; all I can do is hope it is much later, and that our autumn weather persists.
Emily decided she wanted to cook Tuesday night and not Monday, so Monday after supper I asked her what she wanted to make.  Her immediate response was "Chicken Pot Pie", a favourite of hers, but it takes some time to make and is something I usually do with leftover chicken, of which we have none.  She was disappointed, but found her "Dump Dinners" cookbook and quickly opted for ravioli.  The girl does love her pasta.  It was an easy enough recipe, so I agreed to buy frozen ravioli.
"Not the canned stuff!" she protested....she has never, thankfully, had an appetite for canned pasta dishes of any sort, apart from a long past affection for pasta shapes in tomato sauce.

Frozen ravioli was unavailable, but I did find fresh, and purchased spinach and cheese ravioli, as well as a jar of pasta sauce.  I re-read the recipe when I got home, and before Emily started to cook a couple of hours later, advised her to drain the water off the ravioli when it was done cooking, even thought the recipe did not specify that particular step.
She shooed me out of the kitchen, protesting even when I wanted to pass through to get a sweater from my bedroom.  She boiled the pasta and drained it according to my suggestion before stirring in the jarred pasta sauce. While the ravioli were cooking Emily came in and said she wanted to add some meat to the dish.  I told her it was a little late, since nothing was thawed, and explained the sauce I bought had sausage in it.  This, thankfully, satisfied her.  I do believe adding precooked meatballs might be a nice addition though, if a heartier meal was in order. There was a small argument because I had not purchased cream, which I was able to forestall by urging her to read further; the recipe stated "heavy cream, half & half, evaporated milk, milk or non-dairy creamer".  She stirred in some milk, added a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, and, I discovered after liberally added ground pepper to my plate, a healthy dose of fresh ground pepper.

Dinner was very good, as usual, and the leftovers became both breakfast and lunch for Emily on Wednesday.  I'm already looking forward to what she chooses to set her hand to next week.

Easy Skillet Ravioli

1 package fresh or frozen cheese ravioli (680g, approximately.  We used 500g of Olivieri Spinach and Cheese ravioli)

2 1/2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 jar (650 ml) chunky pasta sauce (we used Classico Italian Sausage, Peppers & Onions)

1/4 cup milk

In a large skillet bring ravioli, water and salt to a boil, over high heat.  Boil about 5 minutes, stirring gently to separate ravioli.  Drain

Stir in pasta sauce.  Cook, covered, over medium heat, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in milk, heat through.  Garnish, if desired, with Parmesan cheese.

Surprise!

September is rapidly drifting away, and while by and large our days have resumed something of a routine we have yet to nail down which night Emily is scheduled to cook.  This past Monday I went out for supper with some girlfriends, and Tuesday morning neglected to ask if Emily was interested in making dinner.  Foraging in the deep freeze I found a package of ground chicken and decided to make chicken tacos.  While at the grocery store collecting sour cream and lettuce I discovered imitation lobster was on sale and had a hankering for lobster bisque.  Fall is asserting itself and soup is always welcome on a cool evening.  That was my plan for Wednesday, leaving me enough leftovers to cover the remainder of the week.
I had plans to have coffee with a friend Wednesday afternoon, and I told Emily she could come home by herself after school after rehearsing the long standing rules.  Up until the past few weeks Emily, despite her pleading and assurances, has not been allowed to be home alone for longer than a short jaunt to the grocery store, so this was a big deal to her.  She called when she got home, as requested, and a reminded her of a couple of chores that needed doing.
I arrived home about an hour later, and as I walked into the house I could smell cooking food-an aroma that did not match the leftovers in the fridge which could have been chosen as an after school snack.  When I finally located my daughter in the kitchen she was in the process of preparing my coffee for the following day.  I asked what I was smelling, not quite having registered the culinary explosion that was my kitchen.  With a pleased smile she told me she had made dinner.  She had found another package of ground chicken in the freezer and thawed it out (apparently she couldn't find any beef, although the deep freeze is well stocked with packets of ground bison).  She then opened a pot on the stove and sadly stirred a creamy mass of something-it looked a little like watery Cream of Wheat, which she informed me was supposed to be mashed potatoes.  She had taken it upon herself to bike to the store and purchase a package of instant mashed potatoes, since we had none. (I keep them around for topping casseroles like shepherd's pie) She said she didn't know what had gone wrong, so I asked if she had followed the directions on the box.  As it turned out she had just put water in the pot, never considering there is a reason the directions specify 1 1/2 cups of water plus a half cup of milk.  I stirred in the second packet of potatoes, which thickened it up nicely, while explained again the importance of following directions.
While I did this she reheated the ground chicken she had browned with an onion and added peas to, before stirring in a can of mushroom soup.  I asked where her idea had come from, curious, since the only cookbooks out were my Company's Coming one, opened to the lobster bisque recipe, and a magazine insert dedicated to after school snacks, and this was neither.  "From my binder," she informed me.
She has a recipe binder in which, for a time, she was inscribing copies of her culinary experiments.  This was a version of the leftover turkey dish she made back in February ( http://viewfromhere68.blogspot.ca/2015/02/cooking-with-emily_17.html).  I didn't point out we had used pasta, not mashed potatoes, at this point I figured it was better to go with the flow.

Personally I would have spooned the meat and gravy over the potatoes, but Emily stirred the mashed potatoes into the chicken & mushroom soup mixture.  I'll confess it is not an appetizing appearing dish, but it did taste very good.

Although she had every reason to be pleased with her efforts, especially the reason behind them, to surprise me, she did receive a mild rebuke for using the stove when I wasn't home.  When she protested I told her it was not her ability I was concerned about, but her safety.  Kitchen fires and burns or cuts are easily incurred by them most skilled chefs and she is still lacking adequate knowledge to deal with any of those incidences.

Nonetheless, high praise is in order.  My coffee was a trifle weak this morning too.  Not too far off, but that's a lesson for another day.  Who was I to complain when a cup was in my hand moments after I finally staggered out of bed this morning?  She's a good kid, and generous to a fault, and I have no doubt she is fully aware of her upcoming birthday as well as her new more "grown up" privileges., which I suspect has something to do with this recent flurry of helpfulness.....not that I am complaining in any way.  Help in any form is appreciated!

Cooking with Emily: Sweet & Sour Pork

I have a confession to make....sometimes meals at our house are not complicated made from scratch recipes.  Sometimes we open a jar or thaw out one of my "in case of emergency" casseroles (an emergency, more often than not, is that I don't feel like cooking).
Monday is supposed to be Emily's night to cook.  However this week Emily decided she wanted to go to her friend's house after school.  She had intended to make Bison Meatball & Lentil Soup, but at quarter past five I still hadn't seen her, so I browned the ground bison I had thawed and made spaghetti sauce.  Tuesday I stopped at the grocery store for bread on my way home and decided pork chops looked good, and Emily again decided to spend the afternoon with her friends, although she did return home just before I lit the barbecue with a tearful and apologetic hug for "abandoning" me two nights in a row.  Wednesday she invited s friend home with her and I turned the leftover spaghetti sauce into baked penne.  Thursday was the church youth group kick off barbecue and I was freed from needing to make a decision about supper (leftovers were again on deck) Friday was definitely a leftover, because we need to clear out the refrigerator night, but I agreed to babysit for a friend and frozen pizza made an appearance on our menu.

And then it was Saturday.  Emily took it upon herself to clean the garage for me, and we finally made a trek to the bottle depot.  On the way home we stopped at the grocery store for a few odds and ends and to see if something sparked an inspiration for dinner.  Emily looked at the frozen meals, which I vetoed as overly expensive.  Then she suggested sweet and sour pork.  It sounded like a pretty good plan to me.  Bottled sauces were on sale so we picked up one as well as a small pork roast.  Dinner was planned.
While Emily cleaned her room I went out to tackle some much neglected yard work.  When it was done she asked if she could make dinner.  Even better.  I told her to cut the roast into small, bite-sized chunks and to brown it with a chopped onion, advising her to brown it half at a time.  Once the meat was all browned she poured over the bottle of sauce and let it simmer while she prepared some broccoli to steam and set a pot of water on to boil as she had opted for pasta instead of rice as a side.
She asked me for a simple sauce to make for the pasta, but I told her the sauce on the meat would be more than adequate.  She was a little disappointed I suspect, since her culinary muscles were not getting much of a workout.  Nonetheless dinner was very tasty, and we were done early enough to make it to a movie, her reward for helping with taking a summer's worth of bottles to the depot.

With any luck this week we should be back on track schedule-wise.  At least I hope so.  

Roasted Asparagus Risotto

Ah, September.  Back to school, back to normal, whatever it is that normal looks like.  September first is in many ways more the beginning of a new year than January first, at least for anyone going to school, I think.  As such I decided to separate my posts about Emily's forays into the kitchen into their own blog.  You can still read the earlier posts at viewfromhere68.blogspot.ca, and I hope you will continue to read it occasionally.  My intention is to post more regularly there as well, although with more focus on its original purpose.
After a crazy busy weekend, celebrating my mother's 70th birthday it was good to come home and just be for a day, preparing book bags and lunches and new outfits for the coming days.  Monday morning I asked Emily if she was planning to cook supper that night.  Her response was, "If you want me to..."
While that was not the question precisely she did pick up a magazine and find this recipe.  The child loves rice, so I'm not surprised she gravitated to it.  Risotto is time consuming, requiring a lot of patient stirring, but I agreed it was easy enough, and seemed like a light option after several days of big celebratory meals.  I added asparagus to our grocery list and moved forward with the day.

My sister came by later in the afternoon to give Emily a haircut before school started...those bangs were beginning to impede her vision as much as her nearsightedness.  Glasses don't fix hair in your eyes!  As Nancy was leaving Emily informed her she was making risotto for supper-with steak!  I had to advise her otherwise, there was no steak thawed out.  She told me there was steak in the freezer.  I agreed, but told her it was too late to be thawing meat for supper.

While Emily showered to rid herself of those little bits of hair that itch so after a haircut I cleaned and chopped the asparagus roasted it, as that particular step was not listed in the instructions.  Emily quickly shooed me out of the kitchen, insisting she could manage on her own.  She got the onion chopped, perhaps not as efficiently, and with the requisite tears.  She called me back seeking garlic, and I was surprised to discover we had none.  I told her she'd have to manage without.  She argued it was necessary; I couldn't really disagree, but there was not a clove in the house, so it was going to have to be a garlic-less meal.  I heated chicken stock for her in the microwave and left her alone again.
She browned the onion and added the rice to the oil, stirring to coat it with the oil before stirring in apple juice with a little lemon juice, an adequate substitute for white wine, another ingredient we were lacking (I prefer red, and rarely buy white). Once the "wine" was absorbed she began to add the warmed stock & water, a little at a time, adding more as each addition was absorbed by the rice.  Convincing her she had to stand there and stir the whole time was a challenge in itself, but she did it.  Just before she added the last amount of liquid Emily told me she wanted to add some kind of meat to her dish.  I suggested she see if we had a can of cocktail shrimp in the pantry, since the hunk of roast beef in the fridge would not have been a good addition.  There was no can, so I made a mad dash to the grocery store for some shrimp.  The things a sous chef has to do!

Once the liquid was fully absorbed Emily stirred in the roasted asparagus, Parmesan cheese, a little butter and about a cup of cooked shrimp that had been rapidly thawed under hot water.

Dinner was, as always very good, and just as tasty the following day at lunch.  Risotto sounds daunting to make but it is a surprisingly simple dish, only requiring patience.

Roasted Asparagus Risotto

900 milliletres chicken or vegetable broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 cups arborio rice (any white rice will work)

2/3 cup dry white wine*

1 bunch roasted asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces**

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon butter

Heat broth plus 1 1/2 cups water, set aside, keep warm.  Heat the oil in a large pot over medium low heat.  Add onions and cook until soft, but not browned.  Add garlic and cook for another minute.  Add rice and stir until coated with oil.  Add the wine and stir continuously until the wine has been absorbed by the rice.  Add 2 cups of the warm broth and cook, stirring, until liquid has been absorbed.  Repeat, adding broth in 1/2 cup increments until rice is soft with a slight firmness in the centre and liquid is absorbed. (About 20 minutes)

Remove from heat and stir in roasted asparagus, cheese and butter.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*you can replace the wine with apple or orange juice with a little vinegar or lemon to mimic the acidity of the dry wine.  In other recipes you can also substitute chicken stock, or for small amounts an equal amount of vinegar or lemon juice.

** to roast asparagus trim the tough ends and place spears on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper and roast at 400F for about 10 minutes (small spears will require less cooking time)