tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54706750952525297632024-03-12T20:11:48.551-05:00DinnertimeFrom 5 to 8 p.m. in the suburban Great PlainsJodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.comBlogger359125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-8364729892061205452020-05-02T12:46:00.001-05:002020-05-02T12:46:25.692-05:00What I've Been Making for Dinner: March & April 2020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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I am trying to keep everyone's spirits up. We have dinner together every night. </div>
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Sometimes dinner is the only real daily interaction with the teenagers. I don't blame them for keeping to themselves. Their lives have been upended so completely, much more than mine. The holding pattern is fine for me, settled into comfortable middle age. The holding pattern is not fine for them. </div>
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More than anything, I hope for timely restoration of the aspects of their world that let them imagine and build their own futures. They need outside so they can do the essential labor of becoming adults. They need--not want, <i>need</i>--to go places and do things. They need their friends. They need structure. They need to interact with role models other than their parents. My college student needs to be at college. Time, for them, is of the essence.</div>
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Online-only school is bullshit. Online-only life is bullshit. This--*gestures broadly*--is bullshit.</div>
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So. I've been trying to make our favorite comfort foods as much possible. Roast chickens for Passover. Pasta trio sampler for Easter supper (Lidia's is closed). S<a href="https://food52.com/recipes/82614-momofuku-bo-ssam-recipe" target="_blank">low-cooked pulled pork</a>. Rigatoni with vodka sauce. <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017085-dijon-and-cognac-beef-stew" target="_blank">This mustardy beef stew</a>, only with beer instead of cognac, because come on. A lot of cheeseburgers. Chicken parm. Things I have not been making: Anything that's an experiment, and anything with fish. Now is just not the time.<br />
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Can food hold us together? So far, so good, but it has been only six weeks of virus jail. I don't really want to speculate about what might be coming. Hopefully only an upswing. Hopefully, hopefully.<br />
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Tonight, beef bulgogi and jasmine rice.<br />
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Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-13344227731746826002020-04-30T10:15:00.000-05:002020-04-30T10:15:21.140-05:00What I Made for Dinner: April 29, 2020Shredded roast duck.<br />
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Another deep cut from the freezer. Sometime within the past eight years, I experimented a couple of times with duck confited in olive oil, following <a href="https://ruhlman.com/2010/09/27/how-to-make-duck-confit-fall-is-here-time-to-preserve-duck/" target="_blank">this method</a>. (It's excellent, but kind of a project and impractical for a big family.) Having done it once or twice, I started collecting ducks when I saw them on sale. So we have a couple in the freezer and, you know, now's the time.<br />
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I used the <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019118-shredded-roast-duck" target="_blank">NYT recipe here</a>. What would I do without the NYT Cooking app? Much, much worse, that's for sure.<br />
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Anyway, it's ridiculously simple: Make sure all items are removed from your duck's cavity. (There are a surprising number of items in there.) Dry off your duck. Salt and pepper it. Put it on a rack in the largest roasting pan you have. Roast it at 325° for two hours; then use a sharp knife to prick the skin all over, and roast it for two more hours. Raise the oven temperature to 400° and give it another 15-20 minutes to crisp the skin. Pull of the skin in shards and shred the meat with two forks.<br />
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I served it with rice, romaine lettuce leaves, salted cucumber sticks, and Korean barbecue sauce. It would have been just as good over pasta with some roasted cherry tomatoes. It would make for some amazing street tacos with, I don't know, probably cotija cheese. Whatever, we're in virus jail and there are no rules except for one: Maintain Virus Jail.<br />
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Speaking of virus jail, it's looking like we might have a hard time procuring meat in the months to come. There are lots of amazing meatless dishes; it's more about getting the kids to buy into eating more meals built entirely from vegetables. I am thinking about it and writing down ideas for us. Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-77352290717947802942020-04-29T15:11:00.002-05:002020-04-29T15:11:50.279-05:00Quarantime DinnersWe found two steaks. They were in the back of our freezer, ancient and irreparably frostbitten, of uncertain provenance (but probably Costco). In the Before Times, we would have thrown them the hell away. Now, they become empanadas.<br />
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You know two old steaks make like twenty-five new empanadas? Magic. Pandemic magic. Some things stretch, others contract.<br />
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Dice up whatever meat you have and saute it with some diced onion, potatoes, spices. A little liquid to make a sauce--chicken broth if you have it, or beer. The New York Times has a <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014844-beef-empanadas" target="_blank">recipe </a>for beef empanadas you can follow if you want one. Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-74436157550857621442012-11-05T20:24:00.000-06:002012-11-05T20:24:03.051-06:00What I Made for Dinner: November 5, 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Russian feast.<br />
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Last week, a friend mentioned the delights he found at a local <a href="http://europeandelightskc.com/" target="_blank">Russian grocery</a>. Coincidentally, our synagogue recently hosted a little program about Eastern European shtetl culture in the 18th century. I was inspired. A visit to the shop, and I am hooked.<br />
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What's here? </div>
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Jewish rye and black bread, which the shop gets from a bakery in Brooklyn that labels its stuff all in Russian.<br />
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Pickled tomatoes and sweet onions (made by me).<br />
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Assorted smoked fish. Here we have trout, salmon, sturgeon, and butterfish. The shop has all these whole smoked and dried mackerel and pike, but I was too intimidated to buy a whole fish. Next time.<br />
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Salami and liverwurst. The shop features a comprehensive selection--almost a gallery collection, really--of sausages, salamis, and dried and cured meats. It has a similar collection of pickles--kosher dills, mushrooms, tomatoes, all kinds of vegetables. It is truly impressive.<br />
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(I bought some full-sour dills imported from Poland, but I forgot to take pictures of them. The jar says "ZPOW" and that's about right.)<br />
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Of course, boiled eggs and sauteed cabbage. I was pleasantly surprised by the cabbage; I followed <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/sauteed-cabbage-recipe/index.html" target="_blank">this recipe</a>. <br />
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Shopping at this grocery was an adventure, largely because I couldn't read any of the labels and I was constantly at risk of buying pickled herring or, I don't know, Soviet-era canned spam hash. (There is a wall completely full of nothing but pickled herring and Soviet-era canned meats.) <br />
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I didn't take pictures of my favorite part, which is the candy aisle. There are these crazy candy boxes and bulk candies, all of them labeled exclusively in Russian. To know what you're getting, you have to guess by the pictures. So, really, good luck. My favorite was a tie: either the prune, filled with nougat and covered in chocolate, or the dark chocolates filled with vodka.<br />
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Yeah, chocolate-covered vodka is a thing that exists in the world, and my life is better for it. Dasvidaniya.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-80097414065968723492012-10-23T23:15:00.001-05:002012-10-23T23:15:50.348-05:00What I Made for Dinner: October 23, 2012Penne Alfredo with chicken, broccoli, and roasted garlic.<br />
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Most of this dinner was leftovers. (The very best kind of leftovers, covered in butter, cream, and cheese. Mmmm.)<br />
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On Sunday, something cool happened. <a href="http://roundtripamerica.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Round-Trip America</a> stopped at my house! My friend <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RoundTripAmerica" target="_blank">Jenna </a>has driven all over the country, from New Jersey to Alaska, and now she's on her way back and we got her for about a day and a half. That's pretty generous--she's a woman with places to go.<br />
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While she was here, we ate at the Free State Brewery (one of the eight <a href="http://www.kansassampler.org/8wonders/cuisineresults.php" target="_blank">wonders </a>of Kansas cuisine) and Oklahoma Joe's (inexcusably, not one of the eight wonders. For shame). But also, I wanted to cook for her, and just hang out around the big dining room table and chat without worrying about the kids getting bored or whatever. Here was Sunday's menu: <br />
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<li>Chickens roasted on a bed of garlic heads (the garlic gets soft when it roasts under the chicken, and the chicken gets infused with the garlic's aroma)</li>
<li>Oven-roasted potatoes and artichoke hearts </li>
<li>Sauteed broccolini</li>
<li>Sourdough toast, spread with the roasted garlic</li>
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Most of that stuff gets thrown together in a roasting pan and stuck in the oven for a couple of hours, so we were free to hang out and play catch with the dog (a particularly interesting version, invented by my nine-year-old son, involving rolling tennis balls up the slide), and chat, and eat brie and crackers.<br />
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That was a pretty good dinner. Sunday was a pretty good evening.<br />
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And then, leftovers! Jenna and Round-Trip America have rolled on to the next adventure. I had fifteen minutes to make dinner tonight. Chopped up the rest of the chicken and broccolini and tossed it with a nice penne Alfredo. Not half bad.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-56624283080455082972012-10-18T22:04:00.002-05:002012-10-18T22:04:41.062-05:00What I Made for Dinner: October 18, 2012Beef Stroganoff.<br />
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It's fall, the weather is changing, the daylight is fading, I'm slammed with grading papers, and I'm reading a Russian novel. What else to make besides beef Stroganoff (in the slow cooker, of course)?<br />
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Of all things, why read a Russian novel, and why now? One friend pointed out that it would be depressing even if I read it in the middle of summer, in Stockholm, with twenty-four hours of sunlight perking things up. True enough.<br />
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I'm reading Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It's a powerful reflection on illness and its oppressions. I needed to read it.<br />
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Back in March, I had a recurrence of the thyroid cancer I've had since 1998. This recurrence was my fourth; the bastard is never really gone. This time, though, in the course of treatment, a nerve in my neck was damaged and I lost my voice. <br />
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That was five months ago. The surgeon repaired the voice and at this point, the nerve seems to be healing. I could be lucky enough that there's no permanent harm done. The experience horrified me, though. I felt disabled. Even now, almost back to full volume, I imagine future recurrences and what else they might destroy. I don't know how to cope with any of that.<br />
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So I'm reading a Russian novel for some kind of clue about how to deal with suffering. (Go to the experts.)<br />
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And this is how we get to a Thursday when I wanted beef Stroganoff. (Which is so hilarious it its way: whatever else is going on, you gotta eat, right? Or at least, I do.) Challenges: I'd never made it before, plus I had to adapt it to the slow cooker, because I'm awash in papers and tests to grade. I researched some recipes, but the slow cooker ones sounded awful--all involved cream of mushroom soup and all essentially called for boiling the beef. Ew. So I looked at more traditional recipes and adapted them to the slow cooker. <br />
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Big success. BIG success. Delicious, warm, and comforting. Everyone liked it. It goes in the rotation for winter.<br />
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<b>Slow-Cooker Beef Stroganoff</b><br />
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1 T olive oil<br />
1 T butter <br />
1/2 cup flour<br />
kosher salt & black pepper to taste<br />
1 lb. beef chuck or other stew meat, cut into thin strips<br />
1 onion, sliced<br />
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced<br />
1/2 cup white wine <br />
1 can condensed French onion soup (note: if you don't want to use canned soup, substitute 8 oz. of beef broth and add more sliced onion.)<br />
1 T dijon mustard<br />
1/4 cup fresh dill<br />
1/2 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt (note: sour cream or creme fraiche is traditional, but the Greek yogurt was tasty, tangy, and lighter than the other two.)<br />
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Season the flour with salt and pepper to taste. Dredge the beef in the flour and shake off the excess.<br />
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In a skillet (preferably cast iron), melt the oil and butter over medium-high heat. Brown the beef until golden brown. Transfer the beef to the slow cooker. If the skillet seems dry, add a little more oil. Saute the onion and mushrooms together until the onion starts to become translucent, about 10 minutes or so. Transfer the vegetables to the slow cooker. Put the skillet back over the flame and add the wine. Bring to a boil, scraping up the drippings on the bottom of the skillet, until the wine is reduced by about half. Add to the slow cooker along with the soup, the dijon mustard, and 3 tablespoons of the dill. Turn on the slow cooker and let it do its thing.<br />
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Right before serving, stir in the yogurt and the rest of the dill. Stir until the yogurt is melted and evenly distributed. Serve over the buttered noodles of your choice (we used whole-wheat bowties).Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-50292860843126073152012-03-13T22:06:00.001-05:002012-03-13T22:06:11.544-05:00What I Made for Dinner: March 13, 2012Cajun-spiced tofu and grits with spinach and corn.<br />
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Listen to me: If I walk in the door after a long day at work, and you greet me by yelling at me and tattling on your brother, and the news of the day is how some of you were mean to the dog, you are getting tofu, grits, and spinach for dinner.<br />
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(I know I haven't posted for a long time. I have been struggling to write and to cook. We do go through phases in life, don't we.)Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-23071907401513697522011-12-12T23:10:00.000-06:002011-12-13T17:57:57.065-06:00What I Made for Dinner: December 12, 2011Clam chowder.<br />
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I was trying to copy some delicious clam chowder Alex had at <a href="http://www.swandolphinrestaurants.com/bluezoo/" target="_blank">Bluezoo </a>at the Dolphin resort at Disney World. We went to Orlando last week for a theme park extravaganza. Extravaganza! Hoo boy.<br />
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Theme parks, they are not my thing. I know many people adore them, and certainly there is much to adore. I can appreciate Disney's charms, but given my druthers I would never ever go there. I would go anywhere without insane crowds and price-gouging and rides that simulate near-death experiences. But where are my druthers, anyway? I haven't been able to find them since I had three kids.<br />
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So. Orlando.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With the family. Everything looks dark next to Cinderella's Castle. Everything in the whole world.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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There's an awful lot there; we saw the main Disney parks and the Universal park. Disney, of course, is gargantuan and thrilling, with marvels around every bend. It takes at least three days to do it justice; four days would be better. <br />
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Universal-Not-Disney-Islands-of-Whatever, as far as I'm concerned, is all about Harry Potter World.<br />
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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter beautifully realizes parts of the books and films. It's a must for Potter fans, and certain of us at Chez Dinnertime are Potter-obsessed. The Harry Potter World is good for a solid three to four hours of fun. Universal does offer much more than the Harry Potter part, mainly thrill rides and carnival games. The kids had fun there, but from what I could tell it's basically Worlds of Fun, on crack, with better character licensing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My niece and nephew were there too. Importantly, not one of those children is actually permitted to watch The Simpsons.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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The children were delighted to be in either park. Every part of those parks made them unhinged with joy. They goaded each other onto scary rides and congratulated each other on surviving. The big ones encouraged the little ones. The little ones gave the big ones an excuse to meet Goofy. Disney knows how to make sure kids are happy. They enjoyed several days of wild enthusiasm, and that right there was worth the trip.<br />
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Here are the main things to know about the Orlando parks, both the Disney and the Not-Disney:<br />
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</ul>
<ol>
<li>You should expect to just bring all your money and leave it there. All of it. Resistance is useless. You will want to buy your kid a hat and a shirt and a wand and a character set and a sword and a key chain and a glowstick and sunglasses and a jacket and a stuffed animal. In the moment, those purchases will seem necessary and prudent. Yes yes yes, we do not want to raise spoiled, entitled children, and as parents it is part of our sacred duty to set limits. I would submit that once you have set foot in one of these parks, that ship has sailed. Teach restraint and solid Puritan work ethic some other time. </li>
<li>You should be prepared to walk a half-marathon every day you're in a park. It would be only about five miles, but you must do a lot of zig-zagging to avoid people on mobility scooters, doing a solid fifteen miles an hour and heading right for you.</li>
<li>With very few exceptions, you should not eat any meals inside the park. Snacks, sure, who can help it? Ice cream, just delightful. Candy, especially, is first-rate. Harry Potter World has a Honeydukes that just about lives up to its legend. But life is simply too short to eat an entire meal there. (Notably, the Disney parks have a couple of high-quality places to eat. The restaurants in the World Showcase part of Epcot, while pricey, offer delicious food. And we had an excellent lunch at the Tusker House buffet at the Animal Kingdom park.)</li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nIyLgRU4QxE/TufjJTrJC0I/AAAAAAAAAbU/W1_iUWU0t34/s1600/095.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nIyLgRU4QxE/TufjJTrJC0I/AAAAAAAAAbU/W1_iUWU0t34/s320/095.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You and thirteen of your closest friends can meet Mickey Mouse at the Tusker House and then write a rhyme about it.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For meals, the hotel restaurants are the name of the game. We had excellent meals--really, really good food--at every resort restaurant we tried. We ate at Waves (at the Contemporary Resort); 'Ohana (at the Polynesian); Il Mulino and Kimono (at the Swan); and Bluezoo (at the Dolphin), where Alex got that clam chowder. It came in a bowl bigger than his head. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pj0RfHjXa3Y/Tufj3cHYWUI/AAAAAAAAAbc/7F4rtID2lRI/s1600/154.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pj0RfHjXa3Y/Tufj3cHYWUI/AAAAAAAAAbc/7F4rtID2lRI/s320/154.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We took small children out for fine dining, including upscale sushi, and it worked out fine. The restaurants at the Disney resorts have nice kids' menus and may offer half-portions of regular food.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Anyhow, we made it back in one piece. And when I went grocery shopping, what hey, Costco had clams! So I thought I'd <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cookingunderfire/recipes/clamchowder.html" target="_blank">try it</a>. It was pretty good for a first attempt, but it was no Bluezoo.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-64683011332462767152011-11-22T19:12:00.001-06:002011-11-22T19:54:10.000-06:00What I Made for Dinner: November 22, 2011Baked rigatoni.<br />
<br />
This baked rigatoni wasn't for our dinner; it was for some friends whose young son is gravely ill. I made the same thing a couple of weeks ago for different friends under similar circumstances.<br />
<br />
Bringing food. Huh. It's a nice tradition; I do it a lot. It seems completely inadequate right now.<br />
<br />
As a lawyer, I'm trained to figure out a way to solve problems. I am an extremely pushy, anal-retentive, overfunctioning lawyer-mom. I am not good with situations where there is nothing to do but hope for the best. Right now, there is nothing much else to do. That is unacceptable to me. <br />
<br />
So what else is there? Well, at least my friends could have a nice meal. Maybe it would make them feel a little better, and maybe they'd be a little more well-nourished, and maybe that would give them just a little more strength to cope with the unimaginable.<br />
<br />
Baked Rigatoni (serves about 6)<br />
<br />
32-ounce can crushed tomatoes<br />
4 Tbsp olive oil<br />
one bunch each fresh basil and oregano<br />
kosher salt and black pepper, to taste<br />
1 pound rigatoni<br />
1 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage (optional; for veggie rigatoni, omit the sausage)<br />
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese<br />
1 cup grated parmesan cheese or Italian 5-cheese blend<br />
1 sweet onion, diced<br />
1 cup carrots, diced<br />
1 sweet bell pepper, diced (optional)<br />
2 cloves garlic, minced (more or less to taste)<br />
2 Tablespoons flour<br />
3/4 cup milk (low-fat works fine)<br />
<br />
Note: This recipe can be frozen before baking. When baking, preheat oven to 375.<br />
<br />
1. Make the sauce. In a pot, combine the crushed tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the salt and pepper, and the fresh herbs. Cover and simmer while you prepare the rest of the dish.<br />
<br />
2. Meanwhile, boil water for the pasta. Cook the rigatoni until just short of al dente, about six minutes. Drain and set aside.<br />
<br />
3. While the pasta is boiling, heat the remaining olive oil in a large, deep pan. If using sausage, brown it until it's cooked through, remove from the skillet and set aside. In the same pan over medium-high heat, saute the onion, carrots, garlic, and bell pepper (if using) until the vegetables are very soft. <br />
<br />
4. When the vegetables are very soft, sprinkle the flour over them in the pan. Saute, stirring constantly, until the flour is light brown and begins to smell a little nutty. Add the milk and boil, stirring, until it is very thick.<br />
<br />
5. Remove the tomato sauce from the heat; remove the herbs and discard. Add the tomato sauce to the vegetable mixture in the pan. Add two cups of the shredded mozzarella and stir until combined. <br />
<br />
6. Assemble the final dish: In a large bowl, combine the cooked rigatoni, sausage (if using), remaining mozzarella, and tomato mixture. Stir gently until evenly combined. Transfer to a 9-by-13 baking dish and sprinkle with the grated parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil, then remove foil and bake for about 15 minutes more, until the cheese has started to brown.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-27013012479919554222011-11-18T09:59:00.001-06:002011-11-18T10:05:51.239-06:00What I Made for Dinner: November 17, 2011Chicken pot pie.<br />
<br />
Used the leftovers from Monday night. Delicious, comforting, and hearty. Alex says pot pie is his favorite dinner; I wish he had told me that before. I'll have to make it more often.<br />
<br />
My mom and dad joined us for dinner and insisted on talking about Thanksgiving. We will host it, as usual, but my enthusiasm is just missing this year and I've been denying the need to plan the meal. I need some inspiration. <br />
<br />
So: If anyone is reading, what's your favorite Thanksgiving recipe? What's your least favorite? What do you consider the most unusual food to make it onto your Thanksgiving table?Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-11785433322623719452011-11-14T20:31:00.001-06:002011-11-14T20:58:36.100-06:00What I Made for Dinner: November 14, 2011Chicken with forty cloves of garlic.<br />
<br />
This was so great. (It's just roast chicken on a bed of garlic cloves, really not complicated.) But would my three children eat it? Oh ho ho ho noooo. No they would not.<br />
<br />
Josh is getting big. He is a <strike>Tween</strike> <strike>Pre-Teen</strike> whatever, he's eleven. He does not want to hang around the boring stupid house on a Monday night and eat boring stupid roast chicken. He got a better offer; he went to the school skating party to hang out with his friends and eat pizza. <br />
<br />
Eli looked at the chicken and looked at me and raised his left eyebrow and took a drag on his cigarette and said, "You must be joking." I mean, no he didn't, because he is four. But he clearly would have if he were a thirty-seven-year-old British guy. So we gave him a hot dog and apples.<br />
<br />
(I know you're not supposed to fix special meals for children who are difficult eaters. Be steadfast! Be resolute! I know. But the child's pants won't stay up. All his bones show. Resolute is easier said than done.)<br />
<br />
Alex probably would have eaten the chicken, but he knew one brother was getting pizza and the other brother had a hot dog and, you know, forget it.<br />
<br />
Well, it was delicious, anyway. The recipe is <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-with-40-Cloves-of-Garlic-105502">here</a>, and worth a try.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-85495541519456171402011-10-21T13:12:00.001-05:002011-10-21T14:16:36.016-05:00What I've Been Doing: September 26, 2011-NowI've been cooking, but not writing. There's no excuse. Some highlights, with more to come soon:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I made <a href="http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/8013/2001/08/12/Ginger-Duck/recipe.html">Amanda Hesser's ginger duck</a> and a couple of honey challahs for Rosh Hashana. We had a big meal with lots of lovely, interesting people and skipped religious services entirely. It was great.</li>
<li>I used the leftovers to make a fake duck pho. I winged it. Ha! (<a href="http://www.thedailymeal.com/duck-pho">This</a> is a recipe for a real duck pho, but who has all those ingredients on hand? Not me.)</li>
<li>Leftover challah really does make superior French toast or pain perdu or bread pudding or whatnot. </li>
<li>We went out for Yom Kippur break-fast, and I didn't fast anyway. I am having some Problems With Religion at the moment. I don't want to talk (or write) about it because it makes me sad.</li>
<li>When your herb garden continues to go berserker, you keep eating things with herbs. Fresh tomato sauce with basil and oregano; herbed potato and cheese frittata with dill and/or thyme; cauliflower risotto with fried sage leaves. </li>
<li>My brother-in-law sent a selection of fine California cheeses and my mom made a beautiful chicken parmigiana meal for my birthday. My sister <a href="http://amyeats.blogspot.com/#%21/2011/10/birthday-dinner.html">wrote about it</a>. I am getting so old, but yes, it does beat the alternative.</li>
<li>Eli has added scrambled eggs to his ridiculously short list of acceptable foodstuffs. All may not be lost with him, dietarily, but I'm trying hard not to get my hopes up.</li>
</ul>
So that's it for now. Will search for inspiration in the days ahead.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-33178029687819252032011-09-26T21:59:00.000-05:002011-09-26T21:59:13.708-05:00What I Made for Dinner: September 26, 2011Pasta with roasted tomato sauce and leftover pork chops; lettuce and tomato salad with vinaigrette.<br />
<br />
On Sunday, the New York Times ran a terrific <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/is-junk-food-really-cheaper.html?scp=3&sq=mark%20bittman&st=cse">piece </a>by Mark Bittman destroying the notion that fast food is cheaper than home cooking. It's funny, because just last week I was having a conversation with my mom about how food insecurity seems to intersect with a loss of ordinary cooking skills. If you don't know how to cook, then you can't stretch your food dollar. We discussed this while I made stock from the carcasses of two chickens she had roasted for us.<br />
<br />
Now, we are not food-insecure at chez Dinnertime. We can afford all the groceries we want, and we have many choices of pleasant and clean markets at which to buy them, and for these privileges I am grateful all the time. I am thankful when I shop and again when I cook, which is almost every night. <br />
<br />
Still, I am frugal. I have written <a href="http://dinnersbyjodi.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-make-dinner-december-9-2009.html">before</a> about how much my inner-Depression-era-housewife hates waste. In fact, <a href="http://dinnersbyjodi.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-i-made-for-dinner-january-20-2009.html">one of my first posts</a> was about making soup from asparagus stems. I plan our meals weekly so we don't buy too much. I have studied and admire <a href="http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm">Hillbilly Housewife's $45 emergency menu</a>, though thankfully I've never had to try it. Importantly, I use leftovers.<br />
<br />
One thing the New York Times article omitted is that when you cook at home, you sometimes get leftovers for another meal, reducing your food costs even more. Leftovers plus an open mind and a little skill can yield stocks, soups, tacos, pot pies, pasta dishes, quesadillas, pizza toppings, delightful
sandwiches, and on and on as needed. But to use leftovers, the cook has to be creative, flexible, and not a snob. Food Network and foodie culture generally don't promote these characteristics, unfortunately. They are essential to the home cook. <br />
<br />
Tonight's meal had three cheapo elements: pork chops left over from Thursday, roasted tomato sauce made from scratch, and homemade vinaigrette. We had only two boneless chops left over, but when sliced thin and tossed with the pasta, they made a perfectly hearty meal for four of us; we could have served a fifth person if he ever ate anything besides chocolate milk and air. <br />
<br />
The recipe for the pork chops is <a href="http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/panko-parmesan-parsley-pork-chops/">here</a> (and they were delicious). Here's the recipe for the <b>roasted tomato sauce</b>:<br />
<br />
Six to eight Roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise<br />
One Tbsp. olive oil<br />
One Tbsp. brown sugar<br />
kosher salt to taste<br />
1/2 cup red wine <br />
<br />
One Tbsp. minced garlic<br />
One Tbsp. capers<br />
Two Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley, or about two tsp. dried<br />
Two Tbsp. chopped fresh basil, or about two tsp. dried<br />
*Note: The last five ingredients are optional; the roasted tomatoes will make a tasty sauce without them, or with only some of them, or with different amounts to taste. See, creative, flexible, not a snob: essential. <br />
<br />Preheat oven to 400. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and place tomatoes, cut side up, on the baking sheet. Sprinkle evenly with the oil, brown sugar, and salt. Roast 30-45 minutes until tomatoes have begun to render their juices and blacken in spots. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. *At this point, if you aren't making sauce right away, the tomatoes and pan drippings can be transferred to a plastic container and frozen for future use.*<br />
<br />
Transfer the tomatoes and their pan drippings to a blender or food processor and puree. Put the puree into a medium saucepan with the wine, garlic, capers, parsley, and basil. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve tossed with pasta (penne is good) and leftover pork chops, sliced thin. If necessary, thin the sauce with a little of the pasta cooking water before serving.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-67480549793776307412011-09-14T20:04:00.003-05:002011-09-14T20:04:52.216-05:00What I Made for Dinner: September 14, 2011Crock pot pulled pork with carrots and potatoes.<br />
<br />
This is not the first dinner I have made in weeks, really. I promise. I have made many wholesome and well-balanced meals since school began and the Fall Insane Activities Schedule kicked in. <br />
<br />
This one was nice because it only took about fifteen minutes to set up in the crock pot, and we get a twofer. There are enough meat leftovers for another meal, probably pork quesadillas, later on. I also appreciate the rebellion, no matter how petty, of getting home from Wednesday night Hebrew school and feeding everyone a nice hearty roast pork meal.<br />
<br />
<b>Crock pot pulled pork</b> (serves 6)<br />
<br />
2.5 pound pork shoulder (butt) roast<br />
4 medium potatoes, cut into 2-inch wedges<br />
8 ounces baby-cut carrots<br />
one sweet onion, sliced thin<br />
one Tbsp. minced garlic<br />
1/2 cup red wine<br />
one cup chicken broth<br />
Large bunch of fresh thyme sprigs, or about two Tbsp. dried<br />
kosher salt and black pepper, to taste<br />
<br />
Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Season the pork roast with the salt and pepper, then brown the roast on all sides. Meanwhile, put the potatoes, carrots, and half of the chicken broth into the crock pot. When the pork roast is deep golden brown on all sides, remove it from the pan and into the crock pot on top of the vegetables. <br />
<br />
Keeping the pan over medium-high heat, add the garlic and toast for about a minute, just until fragrant. To the hot pan, add the wine and the rest of the chicken broth; bring to a boil, scraping up any drippings stuck to the bottom. Boil for about five minutes, then pour into the crock pot. top with the thyme.<br />
<br />
Cook at the crock pot's lowest setting for 8-10 hours. Before serving, remove the roast from the pot and shred the meat. Serve the meat with the gravy from the pot or with barbecue sauce.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-25670236553782517022011-08-31T20:43:00.000-05:002011-10-29T08:31:32.143-05:00What Happened to Josh at Camp: July 2011Edited October 29, 2011 to add a brief update: A couple of weeks ago, in mid-October, we learned about three other kids from our congregation who came back from GUCI extremely sick due to neglect by the infirmary staff. They were all at camp at the same time as Josh, under the care of the same camp nurse, and their stories are similar. Last week, we finally got a letter from the camp director. He says he's willing to come meet with us to discuss what happened. Hey, it's cool, it only took three months for him to respond.<br />
<br />
It seems to me that what happened to Josh was likely part of a much larger problem at GUCI. I hope the director is willing to investigate fully and figure out how to make sure that kids are safe and well-cared-for at his camp in the future. They sure weren't last summer. <br />
<br />
************** <br />
This post is not about dinnertime. This post is about why I wouldn't send my children, or anyone else's children, or my now-deceased dog back to Goldman Union Camp in Zionsville, Indiana.<br />
_______________________________________________<br />
<br />
When a kid goes to camp, he expects to have a
great time with his buddies away from his annoying and embarrassing
family. That is really about it. And how hard is it for camp to
fulfill every ten-to-fourteen-year-old's dream of shedding the Mom who
insists on humming show tunes in the grocery store? That's the easiest
thing in the world. <br />
<br />
For the kid's parents, the
expectations are higher. Camp courts the people who write the checks:
"Camp's most important goal is insuring the safety and wellbeing [sic]
of every camper." . . . building identity . . . self-esteem . . .
Yadda yadda yadda. Camp's <a href="http://guci.urjcamps.org/parents/">marketing materials</a>
promise your child a transformative experience in a secure
environment. That mission--well, that's a pretty big undertaking. And
if something goes wrong, at the very least, the absolute bottom, you
would expect that the camp administration would work hard to make it
right.<br />
<br />
But oh when push comes to shove, as we discovered
through unfortunate and alarming experience, the promises in the
marketing materials mean not a thing. The camp director--a rabbi who,
frankly, should know better-- and the administrative personnel he
supervises will refuse to accept any ownership or responsibility
if something should happen to go wrong. They won't be there for the kid
or his family. They will be too busy covering their own asses.<br />
__________________________________________________<br />
<br />
Josh got sick at camp. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we heard from the infirmary staff that Josh was throwing up. We figured he had gotten some kind of stomach bug that he was having trouble shaking off because of various camp factors--heat, bad food, constant activity, little sleep.<br />
<br />
But when we picked him up, it was obvious to us--and Josh's pediatrician later confirmed--that the puking had another cause. Josh was in the middle of a massive asthma attack, coughing so hard he was retching.<br />
<br />
The camp nurse had lost his rescue inhaler. The infirmary had no record of ever giving him his rescue inhaler. It might have stopped the asthma crisis, maybe not. We'll never know. He never even had a chance to find out. He got sick at camp, and the camp staff let him stay sick and get sicker.<br />
<br />
When we got him home, he was a mess. He needed antibiotics and nine days of Prednisone. Nine days! <i>Our ten-year-old had 'roid rage</i>. He also needed a thirty-minute nebulizer treatment every four hours, which meant he had to spend about two and a half hours of every day for two weeks sitting in a chair with a mask on his face. He wasn't allowed to go outside or exert himself or even talk loud, because that set off coughing fits.<br />
<br />
We called and talked to the nurse and the assistant camp director, both of whom claimed we never sent Josh's rescue inhaler to camp. Then they found it, and claimed they never gave it to him because he never asked for it. Nice.<br />
<br />
We wrote to the camp director with our concerns about what happened. In reply, we got a glib letter back not from the camp director, but from his boss. The letter claimed that whatever happened to Josh, it wasn't Goldman Union Camp's fault, and anyway maybe nothing at all happened to Josh.<br />
<br />
The camp director has never spoken to us about this situation. He left me a voice mail about how <i>he</i> had been sick. Again, nice.<br />
<br />
No one apologized to Josh. No one from camp ever said, "you know, this summer obviously did not go as it was supposed to for Josh, and for that we're sorry." No one acknowledged that they fell short of the promises in the camp brochure. No one even called to see how he was feeling.<br />
_________________________________________________<br />
<br />
(You'd think, maybe the camp nurse would call? Out of professional curiosity? Nope.) _________________________________________________<br />
<br />
<br />
It has taken me a month to be able to write about this. It has been a difficult time. At first, Josh was terribly ill and we had to tend to him. Mostly, though, it has been tough to sort through my feelings (anger, disappointment, sorrow, more anger, grief, loss, betrayal, oh there's anger again, hey!) enough to tell the story coherently.<br />
<br />
Possibly the worst part of all of this? Josh wants to go back to camp because of his great friends. And we cannot, as responsible parents, ever send him back to that camp. We might consider other camps, though. We are looking and thinking about it and hoping that what we encountered at GUCI is the rarest possible exception, and not the rule.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-25826346550950233852011-08-25T21:35:00.000-05:002011-08-25T21:35:11.047-05:00What I Made for Dinner: August 25, 2011Potato and asparagus frittata.<br />
<br />
Chuck and I thought this was delicious. I mean really, really good for a weeknight dinner. Josh and Alex didn't want to eat it. Too much green, not enough pepper, at one point someone complained that the toast was too cold, who knows? Who cares?<br />
<br />
In the middle of dinner, I made them read a newspaper article about food insecurity among children in our county. I am becoming a crotchety old lady (or a depression-era housewife) for real.<br />
<br />
They stopped complaining but they still didn't eat it.<br />
<br />
<br />Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-58370204244417595622011-08-13T23:04:00.002-05:002011-08-13T23:05:01.037-05:00What I Made for Dinner: August 13, 2011Italian feast.<br />
<br />
The boy is back from camp, school starts on Monday. A little end-of-summer celebration with family seemed like a fun thing to do. Here's the menu:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Antipasto platter: assorted cheeses, olives, fried sage leaves, prosciutto, salami, dates.</li>
<li>Fettuccine alfredo.</li>
<li>Penne with olive oil, raw tomatoes, and torn basil leaves.</li>
<li>Grilled chicken spedini with garlic-lemon sauce.</li>
<li>Salad of mixed lettuces, sweet onion, and tomatoes with vinaigrette.</li>
</ul>
Bonus: It's finally cool enough to sit outside in the evening! It was a lovely time.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-131147535416229062011-08-08T22:44:00.003-05:002011-08-08T22:45:01.810-05:00What I Made for Dinner: August 8, 2011Hummus, pita, falafel, tabouli, and Greek salad.<br />
Why did I make this Mediterranean feast from scratch on a Monday? I can't honestly answer, I cannot. But there I was at 9 a.m., making <a href="http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekbreadspitas/r/pitabread.htm">dough for fresh pita bread</a>. Hmm.<br />
<br />
It could be that, simply, this week is not last week. Because last week was a very poor showing of a week indeed. Maybe someday I will have the words to describe last week, but not right now. So. Last week of summer vacation for the kiddos and for me. A break in the heat wave. Why not?<br />
<br />Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-91973693182548909532011-07-28T21:13:00.000-05:002011-07-28T21:13:10.667-05:00What I Made for Dinner: July 28, 2011Arugula salad with tomatoes and olive tapenade dressing.<br />
<br />
It's not as much fun to cook when my junior gourmand is away. <br />
<br />
Josh has been sick at camp, which I know because the camp doctor keeps calling me. So I know how many times he has thrown up. Josh, I mean, not the doctor, although I suppose the doctor might be throwing up too because honestly? I doubt he would tell me that. The doctor says Josh is kind of sick but not really and there's no reason for us to come get him early. So why call me, then? Perhaps the doctor owns some investments in Pfizer Inc., maker of the fine product Xanax<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
(I am positive that's not the case. I know the doctor, a delightful older gentleman from, judging by his accent, Kentucky, is just keeping me informed. He does not mean to freak me out. He is taking better care of Josh than Josh would get at home. Puking at our house does not earn a child a trip to the doctor. It earns the child a day in bed with some Sprite and no food for six hours.)<br />
<br />
So <i>anyway</i>, I've been making these simple little dinners because no one here really wants to eat much. BLTs, various salads, that kind of thing. But I am planning a little feast for our camper's triumphant and puke-free return.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-45001693738412209822011-07-18T20:05:00.003-05:002011-07-18T20:06:05.717-05:00What I Made for Dinner: July 18, 2011Crock pot jerk chicken with brown rice salad.<br />
<br />
Last summer, when I started moaning about how it was too hot to cook, several friends and my mom gave me suggestions for tasty, light dinners that didn't require a lot of stove time. One of the best suggestions was to use the crock pot, which generates little heat and requires almost no fussing or attention. <br />
<br />
I used a jarred Jamaican jerk sauce, diluted with a little orange juice, and didn't bother browning the boneless/skinless chicken breasts first--I just threw 'em in and turned on the crock pot. And then we went to the pool, where I floated with my toes dragging along the bottom like a hippo. When we got back, the delicious chicken was ready!<br />
<br />
I served it with this cold rice salad and chunks of mango.<br />
<br />
<b>Brown rice salad</b> (serves 8)<br />
<br />
One 14-ounce box instant brown rice<br />
One can black beans, rinsed and drained<br />
3 sweet bell peppers, preferably mixed colors, diced<br />
One jalapeno, seeds removed and diced<br />
One bunch fresh cilantro, chopped<br />
3 ears sweet corn, kernels removed<br />
3 scallions, white and green parts, minced<br />
<br />
Cook the rice according to package instructions; remove from the heat
and let cool. While the rice is cooling, prepare and combine the other
ingredients and make the dressing. When rice has fully cooled, add to the other ingredients and toss with dressing.<br />
<br />
For the dressing: <br />
1/2 cup olive oil<br />
1/4 cup lime juice<br />
2 tsp kosher salt<br />
black pepper to taste<br />
<br />
Combine all ingredients and whisk. Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-55128592358242175472011-07-16T18:46:00.003-05:002011-07-16T18:46:47.759-05:00What I Made for Dinner: July 16, 2011Sandwich wraps and apple slices.<br />
<br />
It's too hot to cook and we just got back from vacation. I think I performed admirably under the circumstances.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-73628340010698102052011-07-12T22:09:00.000-05:002011-07-12T22:09:13.293-05:00What I Made for Dinner: July 8-10, 2011Spaghetti sauce; homemade pizzas; prime rib and mashed potatoes.<br />
<br />
All of these dinners are Josh's favorites. He got to choose his last meals before going away.<br />
<br />
Last meals. For the love of Pete, we didn't send him to prison. He's spending a month at the delightful summer camp where I made some of the happiest memories of my childhood. We dropped him off today. The place looks astonishingly unchanged since the last time I saw it, which was 1987. 1987, holy Meatballs.<br />
<br />
(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DdkP6U4WjY">That was the year Fink beat The Stomach</a>.)<br />
<br />
Sending him to camp at every step of the way--the decision to do it, getting him ready for it, driving him there, leaving him there--has been, shall we say, fraught. I posted a long time ago about the expense, and how much it worried me--but some generous Jewish community grants helped with that, at least for this year. It's impossible to know if a kid is really emotionally ready to spend that long so far away from home. This kid has never spent the night at a friend's house and now he is three states away and he can't call home, even. But, we figured, some people need to just take the plunge. <br />
<br />
Shopping with him, then packing his clothes into footlocker and duffel, I flashed back to my own summers at camp where I was constantly anxious about having the right clothes, the right goddamned Swatch. My experience won't be his experience, I know that, but still. There are ghosts. Ghosts of a teenage girl's adolescence are the worst fucking kind.<br />
<br />
The drive to camp wasn't much fun. Everyone was on edge, the younger brothers finding inventive ways to harass everybody, Josh flying off the handle in predictable response, Chuck and I gritting and gritting and gritting our teeth (note: remember to make dental appointments) and only occasionally losing our shit, miraculously not at the same time.<br />
<br />
We dropped him off today. At first he panicked about being the youngest or the oldest or whatever, I wasn't listening too closely but I reminded him that even though he's going into fifth grade he's old enough to be a very young sixth grader so he fits with both groups and that seemed to defuse whatever thermonuclear device was about to go off in his mind. We went to his cabin and unpacked while he met the other boys. All his stuff fit on two shelves. We hung up his nicer shirts. I reminded him where we put his socks. He was quick to say good-bye, dismissive even, which is how I hoped he would be. He wanted nothing less than a hug from his mother.<br />
<br />
I have an inside source who told me he seems to be doing fine so far.<br />
<br />
After dinner, we took Alex and Eli out for ice cream, and I looked at my watch and realized it was probably evening snack time at camp. I hope he got ice cream for evening snack.<br />
<br />
And oh, sweet Lord, I hope he remembers where his pajamas are.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-86162282827892412572011-06-29T19:48:00.001-05:002011-06-29T22:49:59.170-05:00What I Made for Dinner: June 28, 2011Outdoor paella.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is a project I've been wanting to do for a long time. During my semester abroad in Spain, a <i>mapache</i>'s age ago, one of the best meals I had was a picnic where we made paella on an open fire. Now, of course, a million years later and in my suburban backyard, I am not allowed to have an open fire. But I do have the Weber </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K8OjfVPASOI/Tgu7GLoZjMI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/wrYJMemXBGk/s1600/002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K8OjfVPASOI/Tgu7GLoZjMI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/wrYJMemXBGk/s320/002.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>which is very nearly as good.<br />
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I have made paella on the stove top, but it is not as good as outdoor paella because there is no smoke and because the pan doesn't get hot enough to give the rice a burned crust on the bottom (the <i>socarrat, </i>a word I just know off the top of my head and was not required to Google). The Weber fixes both of those problems.<br />
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Here is how I did it. (Photos are by Josh! Didn't he do a nice job?)<br />
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Over extremely hot prepared coals, I heated olive oil in my <a href="http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-524678/Spanish-Paella-Pans">paella pan</a>, then added chicken breasts cut into two-inch pieces and some large-diced Spanish chorizo.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zHeXTbomI_A/Tgu7LhzjfwI/AAAAAAAAAaA/Wr4vp34fm6Q/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zHeXTbomI_A/Tgu7LhzjfwI/AAAAAAAAAaA/Wr4vp34fm6Q/s320/003.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>I browned the meat for a few minutes, then added a large sweet onion, minced. After the onion softened, I added garlic and a generous pinch of saffron that had been soaking in a little hot water, along with the water.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YCSu7kUY5dM/Tgu7QAs8mMI/AAAAAAAAAaE/rqwzbpVP5k8/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YCSu7kUY5dM/Tgu7QAs8mMI/AAAAAAAAAaE/rqwzbpVP5k8/s320/007.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Then tomatoes and bell peppers went in.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JVDViMtcJwQ/Tgu7T08YqrI/AAAAAAAAAaI/2kUTeqLzFdw/s1600/008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JVDViMtcJwQ/Tgu7T08YqrI/AAAAAAAAAaI/2kUTeqLzFdw/s320/008.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
All the while, I kept stirring. Cooking over the hot coals adds a bit of urgency to the operation. Things happen very fast. I was glad I thought ahead so that I had all my ingredients measured and ready to go before I started cooking, because there wouldn't have been time to run into the house.<br />
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After the tomatoes and peppers started to yield their juice a bit, in went the rice.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tgQ6Brm-XJE/Tgu7ffuQY_I/AAAAAAAAAaQ/mYABP4OQotQ/s1600/011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tgQ6Brm-XJE/Tgu7ffuQY_I/AAAAAAAAAaQ/mYABP4OQotQ/s320/011.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's a generous bunch of herbs going in with the rice: fresh parsley, sage, and oregano, chopped.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
I stirred everything to coat the rice, then added chicken broth, shook the pan a little to distribute things evenly, and then left it alone until the rice had absorbed the liquid. When the liquid was almost gone, so it looked like there was about three or five minutes left, I laid some shrimp on top. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kBUST-3oyqg/Tgu7skK2VRI/AAAAAAAAAaY/WRcc37gTvhs/s1600/014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kBUST-3oyqg/Tgu7skK2VRI/AAAAAAAAAaY/WRcc37gTvhs/s320/014.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Delicious!</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fu63OO782qY/Tgu6tCUGaqI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/wJAnhIDSJyA/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" id=":current_picnik_image" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QqU233CeH3o/TgvFfGjkT-I/AAAAAAAAAaw/f1LNkrAKhvo/s1600/14941408296_HWt5c.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here I am, <strike>trying not to burn</strike> stirring paella, ever so much older and fatter than I was in Spain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-85088990818067158392011-06-23T20:27:00.000-05:002011-06-23T20:27:14.891-05:00What I Made for Dinner: June 23, 2011Unbaked lasagna with asparagus and chives.<br />
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To my utter shock, the children actually ate this. It was, after all, delicious. Recipe is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/health/nutrition/22recipehealth.html">here.</a>Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470675095252529763.post-18316663590853203562011-06-21T21:27:00.000-05:002011-06-21T21:27:14.967-05:00What I Made for Dinner: June 21, 2011Crispy pan-fried rainbow trout.<br />
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I regrouped. My dad came over and fixed my literal hack job. The trout was delicious; I served it with savory matzo meal pancakes and a salad of savoy cabbage, almonds, and mandarin oranges.Jodihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17024849680427243311noreply@blogger.com0