Posts Tagged ‘Cooking’

By Mama M, Staff Writer, My Little Life (@5crookedhalos)

For the longest time, I resisted it, denied it, refused to believe it. But, this my friends is a Mommy Must Have.

A 7 quart, enameled cast iron dutch oven. This one happens to be Food Network brand (but my, oh my do I have my sights set on a Le Creuset now! If only I didn’t have all those college funds to save up for).

Sigh…it is simply fabulous!

For the seven mouths that I feed on a daily basis, this dutch oven has become a mainstay of mine. Large enough to hold massive amounts of food (they do make them smaller as well) and I have never once “ruined” something that I cooked in this.

Heavy, yes. Necessity? Yes, yes, YES!!! (Sorry, I just had to throw in a little “When Harry Met Sally”.)

Believe it or not, this piece of non non-stick cookware cleans up beautifully, browns meats gorgeously and leaves behind tasty yummy bits of browned goodness with which you will make the most delicious sauces, stews, roasts and soups you’ve ever tasted.

For real: this thing makes me feel like a 5 star cook.

Go. Now. Get yourself one of these. Do not be like me; do not resist. Do not deny. Just DO.

You can thank me later.

Do you use Dutch Ovens to cook with? Tell us about it in the forum!

By Julia, Staff Writer, It’s Not Like a Cat (@notlikeacat)

Our fridge is bursting with organic produce from our farm share and I had finally planned ahead enough to thaw some chicken. I was excited to make dinner and amid the usual baby-tending and toddler-wrangling was imagining what I was going to throw together with all the wonderful food. Our mother’s helper* was due over soon to play with the toddler while I cooked.

Hah.

I obviously forgot to take into account the sheer unplannability of my life these days. It’s wonderful I gave some thought to dinner, but the fussy baby had something else in mind. Nonstop fussing. Didn’t quite want to nurse, didn’t quite want to burp, didn’t quite want to be put down or worn.

Grrrr.

I took the chicken out of the fridge, put it back, took it out, put it back. The baby was determined not to let me cook. The clock edged toward the toddler’s dinnertime. Hot dogs. That was all we had for him to eat. Hot dogs. The fussy baby would not even let me scramble an egg, I was sure, let alone slap together a PBJ. But I could, with one hand, heat a pot of water and drop in a (nitrate-free, organic, all-natural turkey) hot dog. And some frozen broccoli. Fantastic. Why did I even bother having a farm share and buying regular groceries? We could all just live on hot dogs and broccoli! So easy!

That plus some baby carrots, some ketchup (hey, Reagan said it’s a vegetable, right?) and some milk made up the toddler’s dinner. It could have been worse.

Sure, I didn’t get to cook him some wonderful meal from scratch. Sure, it’s nice that I forget I’m no longer able to cook most of the time now that I have a three-month-old who barely naps plus a toddler. Sure, we end up eating more of the farm share in muddy desperate stews as a means to use up the stuff before it rots instead of enjoying the vegetables individually prepared in interesting ways.

But at least we’re still eating. And most days that’s good enough for me.

* Mom-tip of the day: If your neighbor has a preteen/tween/young teen daughter—especially one who has younger siblings—ask to hire this child as a mother’s helper. Cheap, reliable help to occupy your toddler or entertain your baby while you cook or do laundry or write? It’s totally worth it (especially at, say, $4 an hour). Plus, you’re training your future babysitter.

By Honey B, Contributor, “The Honey B“ (@thehoneyb)

I’m always completely intimidated by people who love to cook.

Our Mommyhood confession: I am not a cook. I hate cooking. And I have had more than my fair share of cooking disasters, a long list that may or may not include something I’ve cooked that made the dog sick.

I have never liked cooking, and consider people who do to be slightly bizarre. But as it is necessary for the survival of the members of my household, and I cannot possibly be the only one out there that hates cooking… here are some things I have learned:

Line every pan with aluminum foil. Nothing is worse than a total kitchen disaster so bad that you have to chip away at the bottom of the pan with a butter knife. I hate cooking almost as much as I hate doing dishes, but the combination is just miserable. Save yourself the suffering and line your pans.

In a pinch, never underestimate the power of sliding a frozen lasagna into your own pan. It will cook perfectly and you will be thought to be an amazing cook. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and serving McDonald’s chicken nuggets because you forgot company was coming is just uncomfortable.

Always have a back-up location to discard the evidence. I fed a particular batch of over-cayenne-peppered deviled eggs to the neighbor’s dog. Marmot would have seen the evidence in the garbage and bonus- if I have to suffer listening to the dog bark incessantly when he’s outside, I might as well smile in the knowledge that he’s outside because his gas is so putrid.

And finally, my last piece of advice…straight from the lips of my mother Queen B.

Set the expectations low. When I met Marmot, the first meal I ever made him was bag salad with fat free ranch dressing and microwaved baked potatoes with fat free sour cream. To this day, he was says it was the most awful meal he’s ever pretended to enjoy. We’ve been married for 2 ½ years and he still thinks my cooking repertoire is limited to frozen pizza, spaghetti, and takeout. This is a good thing, because when I do something special like make a dessert, he is absolutely floored. Who says you can’t have mystery in a marriage?!

And because I’m always looking for ways to make cooking just a little bit less miserable…what is your best cooking tip for the non-cook?

By Mama M

What are your kitchen “must haves”?

Mama M. is a thirtysomething mother of 5, wife to Mr. Wonderful, and part-time labor and delivery nurse. While her family is her passion, she’s quite certain her “moonlighting” gig as an L&D nurse has got to be the best career there is! You can find her over at her blog, My Little Life.

By Toni

I was born in Memphis, Tennessee. For those of you not from the general vicinity, or at all familiar with Memphis other than Elvis and the Blues, let me clue you in what else Memphis is legendary for: Bar-B-Que.

Memphis is home to the World Championship Bar-B-Que Cookoff Competition on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River every May. I was raised in a family that competed every single year in this competition. For five days every May, my life revolved around the mighty god Pork. The smell of hickory chips in the smoker, the constant attending to the pork butt, hoping and praying that this year would be the year we would take home the Grand Prize. Those five days on the spent basking in the smell of charred pig skin were the things my fantasies began with.

Yes- being a carnivore is in my blood.

That is why everyone’s jaw hit the floor a year ago when I announced that my household would all become vegetarian. The next day. It was not a fun night in the Summers’ household that night, let me tell ya.

But, a year later, I am happy to tell you, we have all survived. In fact, I think it is safe to say we not only have survived, we all have adapted, adjusted, and actually much prefer the vegetarian lifestyle now. But it was not without it’s bumps as we figured out things along the way.

It is with a very red face, that I share with all of you my most embarrassing failure as a cook: My first attempt at making vegetarian meatloaf. I found a recipe on-line that looked promising one day, and thought I would surprise my darling husband by making it for dinner that night.

He came home, and the house smelled downright delicious! I was so excited because I just knew it was going to be amazing, as good as it smelled. The timer went off, and out it came. It looked wonderful! We sat down to eat. I eagerly sliced into it, anticipating a yummy vegetarian delight.

Only on the inside it was a solid white, tofu nightmare. Not exactly what I would call my idea of a “meat”loaf- if you know what I mean. It was baaaaaad. Needless to say, we ate out that night. I have since improved my “meat”loaf making skills, here is my very own recipe. My family is very thankful for this, I assure you.

However, meatloaf is not what I am here to share with all of you. I want to share my brand new, never been seen recipe that my husband is very happy to have been the guinea pig for many times the last few weeks while I worked the kinks in the recipe out. I know many people are scared when it comes to trying anything that has the label “vegetarian” attached to it, but almost everybody loves lasagna. I hope you’ll give this recipe a try and let me know if you do!

Mushroom, Spinach and Goat Cheese Lasagna

{Or, as my husband likes to call it: “Baaa-ad Ass Lasagna” . No, you can’t have him, he’s mine.}

Ingredients:
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 c. goat cheese
9 lasagna noodles a pound of fresh spinach, washed, drained, and chopped
1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
dash Nutmeg seasoning
2 eggs, lightly whisked
2 Portabella mushroom caps, or 1 c. Baby Bella mushrooms, cleaned and finely chopped
1 1/2 c. Romano cheese
16 oz. ricotta cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook the lasagna noodles. Drain, reserving one cup of the boiling water and set aside.

To make cheese sauce: Melt the butter over low heat in small pan. Add garlic powder and flour, whisking to incorporate. Stir in goat cheese and reserved water from lasagna noodles. Whisk until creamy and smooth. Remove from heat. Add in nutmeg, Italian seasoning, and eggs.

Spray 13 x 9 inch casserole dish with non-stick spray. Layer first white sauce, followed by three noodles. The next layer is the mushrooms and spinach. Top with ricotta and Romano cheeses. Add another layer of noodles, white sauce and continue layers up.

Cover, then bake for twenty-five minutes. Uncover and bake for another ten to fifteen minutes, or until bubbly and brown on top.

Enjoy!

Make sure to add your favorite recipes to this week’s Meal Planning Menu! Seven of them will be featured next week!

Toni is a full time stay-at- home mom, a wanna-be (but not too shabby) vegetarian cook, a sometimes not-so-bad photographer, and all around sweet heart. You can find her musings over at Hemp and High Heels.