Photo-worthy Meals Re-cap (Jan-June 2010)

There is no way I'll ever be able to catch up on the meals we've already cooked this spring/winter blog-wise, so I'll just complete this entry, going heavy on photos of random meals we've photographed, linking to all the recipes I can find online, and then start documenting our new discoveries more closely when I'm back home again for the summer and cooking, sometime mid-August.  

One of our biggest challenges is remembering what we're capable of cooking and what ideas are out there that we already know, so we don't have to spend hours "meal planning" (aka: flipping through previously flagged pages of our ten billion Everyday Food magazines / scouring cookbooks and recipe websites, deciding nothing.looks. good.because.I'm.just.too.hungry.and.need.food.now....and eventually making to-buy lists for recipes we won't want to deal with later in the week and will ultimately skip, favoring a dinner invite from a friend over cooking so-planned meals).  Hopefully, this little cornucopia of photos and links will help us visualize what we've eaten and provide reference in the future.

I've included *s by our favorite meals that are now tried-and-true and bear lots of repetition in the future... and have possibly seen repetition in our kitchen so far (though they are all repeatable, unless otherwise stated).

Top row: (l-r)  *Burritos with Squash & Goat Cheese (a staple in our household);  French Dip crockpot Sandwiches; Whole Foods veggie skewers, quinoa/sweet potato cakes (store-bought but yum, yum, yum!), and *homemade spinach-cranberry-tomato-mushroom-candied walnut salad with Trader Joes' Champagne Pear Vinagrette dressing

2nd row: (l-r), *repeated quinoa salad & tilapia dinner with asparagus; Cooking Day with Mitra results (Mitra's lentil soup, vegetarian chili, and *sweet potato / chard / tofu scramble); and Valentine's Day sushi dinner (baja shrimp rolls, spicy tuna rolls, ebi, sake and tuna nigiri).

3rd row: (l-r) homemade pizza using Trader Joe's basil & herb pizza crust, mozzarella cheese, onions, tomatoes and pepperoni (sometimes we add portobello mushrooms instead); cheese fondue with bread & apples; ham and cheese panini & salad  (thanks for the panini press, Rob!)

4th row:  (l-r) *Mussels in a White Wine Sauce  with lemon pasta from Pike Place Market (from NYtimes 101 meals, #5); *Couscous Salad with Black Beans, Mushrooms & Corn along with shrimp skewers marinated with lemon-garlic bottled marinade; Emeril's Chicken-Patty Pitas with corn-on-the-cob  (will be even more delicious if we cook the meat a little longer).

5th row of not-particularly-repeatables:  (l-r)  Julia's tandori yogurt chicken (I think I need to re-check with her on the spicing) with our now-standard house salad; salmon burger from TJ's with salad (repeatable if we buy proper buns); and tomato-covered chicken with roasted veggies (veggies = good; chicken = meh).

Also, in the interest of meal documentation catch-up... other recipes / meals we liked and cooked (pretty much exclusively from our Martha Stewart Every Day Food Maganizes) include:

Roast Beef with Oven-Baked Veggies
*Israeli Couscous, Mushroom & Cranberry Salad (step 3)
*Ham-and-Sage Stuffed Chicken  (Derek's favorite, go-to meal to cook)
Broiled Eggplant Slices (#20)
Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes  (good to freeze extra portions of)
Spinach Salad with Salmon
Dutch Baby Pancakes (mmm, mmm, mmm... great weekend breakfast treat! Just make sure not to touch the pan... even after your spouse tells you not to touch the pan because they just burned themselves by touching it...)
Parmesan-Carrot Risotto (not our absolute favorite, but decent enough)
Easiest Indian Stew (not my favorite b/c of canned chickpeas, but Derek likes it)
*Kielbasa & Kidney Beans (easy, yummy one-pot meal)
Slow-Cooker Moroccan-Style Chicken & Potato Stew (easy crock-pot meal)
Grilled sausages from Whole Foods with sweet potato fries and/or a side salad
Vegetable Lasagna (using the Barilla pre-cooked lasagna noodles and substituting veggies for the meat included on the recipe on the box)
Derek's Peanut-Sauce Veggie Stir-Fry
Deviled Eggs (not a dinner, but I <3 this recipe and just want to include it while I'm listing all of this)



/ end random glimpse into our at-home eating recipes for the first half of 2010

Now... friends: your turn to share your favorite (easy, weeknight meal) recipes with us!   We've tried the recipe exchange thing and none of you participated, so now it's time for you to just downright type them out and email / comment on this post or search for it on the internet and send us the link.   We'll need more come fall!

In Need of Professional Help

So, the three hour bobbin-winding adventure led me to believe I needed some professional help.  (Hold your jokes, Dad...)  I headed to Jo-Ann Fabrics for their Sewing 101 class and had many ohhhhhhh moments throughout the three hour class.  The instructor was a sweet, middle-aged woman with two first names who makes her own clothes and seemed like she belonged on a country homestead somewhere.  She was great and very patient! :)  We stitched together a small nine-block, so I even got my first taste of quilting.  After I got over my initial bewilderment of how things are actually sewn together (I am definitely not a spatial learner), it all came together... albeit a little wonkily.

My next class was at this cute little boutique store nearby called Stitches.  My mission: sew pajama pants from a pattern.   The instructor was a young, hip, professional costumer for a theater group and he was on.top.of.us. making sure we did everything exactly -- which was a good thing, since he assured us, as "home sewers," we would take many shortcuts in the future, so we mind as well learn properly.  It made me even more nervous for a bit, but in the end I was appreciative of his guidance.  I ran out of time to purchase fabric and a pattern, so I picked them up just before class started, which meant I didn't get to pre-wash the fabric.  Oops... lesson learned!  But the instructor assured me it would be fine, especially since "the patterns you'll be able to sew at first, and... most patterns... are equivalent to shopping at Wal-mart for clothing."  Aka: big and bulky.  It ended up being true, although his attitude towards "home sewers" amused me.

The class was two nights long and I worked hard, asking questions and having to re-do things as I went along.  I was definitely glad to have guidance... and am not sure I can successfully do this again with a new pair yet (although I'm sure I could fumble my way through it).  But, I did come to a much better understanding of how pants are put together... something that truly baffled me when having to think about before.  (Have I mentioned I'm not a spatially aware person yet?).  I had to finish the pants at home... didn't quite get to the hemming part in class... and was a little disappointed by that, but it ended up being okay in the end.  Sewing properly takes patience... a good lesson for me. (Typically, I want things done NOW... in case you didn't know that about me.) (My husband will be shaking his head up and down vigorously as he reads that I'm sure.  In fact, I'm fairly certain he is getting a certain level of enjoyment out of watching me have to be exacting, neat, and careful). 

I wish I took more photos of the process!  I did rush right out to the Pacific Fabrics Outlet store with Derek in tow to pick out a fabric for his very own pajama pants, but I have yet to tackle that project.  The pants, which were an extra small size on the pattern, were big from the waist to the crotch, so I have to fold them over at the top several times, but the legs fit well.  I hope when I'm more competent and confident enough to tackle these again, I'll be able to adjust more as I go and make them fit properly.... and tackle a drawstring waist instead of an elastic one, because seriously, those are just so much cuter.  (He said we weren't ready for that yet).   Despite their slight bagginess, they're comfy (and softened up as well as thankfully shrunk a bit when I washed them) and I've been wearing them regularly.... especially since my previous pj pants split in the back and my attempts at using the machine to fix them (again... death to hand sewing!) were nowhere close to successful. :)

Here's the final product.  Yay!  Something actually wearable!  I felt so accomplished!

I wore them twice to two pajama days at school as per my kids' request.  Their faces when I showed them were super cute and heartwarming -- they were in shock and awe that I actually made that!  So, basically, I'll just keep showing my sewing projects to ten year-olds and impress them instead of actual sewers and I'll feel great about myself.  Sounds like a plan!

Tilapia and Quinoa with feta & cucumber salad

This was the first (and only) post I wrote for a failed attempt at a food blog back in April....

Delicious (and healthy!) dinner tonight from this month's Everyday Food. The heading says "Protein will keep you full longer, and this recipe has two lean sources of it." We really like quinoa and, as it turns out, also enjoy tilapia. We bought fresh tilapia from Pike Place Market and were glad we did! The meal was quick and easy to cook - only a few ingredients and truly a 30 minute recipe (unlike some of the other ones we try that end up being much longer). We didn't have dill or lemon and Derek didn't find the cayenne pepper, so it could be a bit more flavorful next time, but we enjoyed the simple tastes nonetheless. This is definitely a repeatable weeknight dinner.


Martha Stuart, Everyday Food, April 2010, page 69.

Ingredients:

• 1 c quinoa
• coarse salt & ground pepper
• 2.5 tsp EVOO
• 1 lb boneless, skinless tilapia fillets, divided into 8 pieces
• 3/4 tsp paprika
• 1 c English cucumber (6 oz), diced small
• 1/2 c roughly chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 c fetal (1.5 oz), crumbled
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1. In a small saucepan, bring quinoa, 2c water, and 1 tsp salt to a boil over high. Reduce to a medium simmer and cook until water evaporates, about 15 minutes. Transfer quinoa to a medium bowl and let cool 5 minutes.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1.5 tsp oil over medium-high. Pat fish dry and season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with paprika. Cook fillets until opaque throughout, about 4 minutes, flipping halfway through. Stir cucumber, dill, feta, 1 tsp oil, and lemon juice into quinoa. Season with salt and pepper. Divide quinoa among four plates and top with fish.