A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Gene's Christmas Eve All Favorites Thank You Dinner

2012 has been a long year at our house. While we've had our share of blessings in many ways, my health was not one of them.  After a year or more of not feeling well, constant fatigue, and intermittent chest pain, palpitations, high blood pressure, and vomitting, we found out this fall after numerous trips to several doctors, an ER visit with overnight observation, and a full cardiac work up that all of that chest stuff was caused by, drumroll please, gall bladder dysfunction.

Say what?  Yup, you read that right. All that false path heart fear was really just my silly ole gall bladder acting up. I never had abdominal pain at all! Crazy, I know.

So an operation, pneumonia, and several weeks off work to recupe my stamina, I'm back in the groove and can remember who that energetic fun Glenna used to be and is again!

As a small thank you to my wonderful hubby, Gene, who waited on me hand and foot, took over all of the house chores, and did everything to take care of me while I was depressed, shaky, and pukey all the time, I didn't volunteer to work Christmas Eve like I often do, but instead stayed home for a cozy Christmas Eve dinner of all of his favorite foods as a small token of thanks for his help, his sense of humor, and his patience helping me through this awful year health-wise. Thank you, Honey!

Gene's Christmas Eve Thank You Dinner Menu

Oven Fried Chicken

Mashed Potatoes

Corn

Creamed Spinach (Okay, that one's my favorite)

Dinner Rolls

Nannie's From Scratch Banana Pudding

(chicken and creamed spinach recipes follow, banana pudding tomorrow!)

Book & Cook: Murder in the Rue Dumas & French Bistro Croque Monsieur

 

Gene's Croque Monsieur and Arugula Salald from The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.

Murder in the Rue Dumas by M. L. (Mary Lou) Longworth

There are some books that start off with a character so over the top that you immediately either love or hate him or her.  Refreshingly, this is not one of those books.  Second in the series, I enjoyed this softer, quieter, more gentle book and its hero, Judge (Detective) Antoine Verlaque.  Please don't read that as insult to the author.  I'm being honest here in that even though I am a fan of fast-pased high profile thrillers and mysteries, I'm also a fan of quieter books as well.  Let me explain.

At first, Detective Verlaque reads a bit cool and removed, definitely not a hot-headed maverick of a detective but throughout the book bits and pieces of his background come out, his love of food and cigars, his loyalty to his opera-loving partner Bruno Paulik, and well as, his depth of emotion for his girlfriend, Marine Bonnet.  And that's not even mentioning his dogged persistence, intuitiveness, and compassion in solving the mystery of who murdered Dr. Moutte, director of the theology department at the University d'Aix. (Aix-en-Provencer in southern France) where Marine's mother is also a professor.

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For foodies and "mental travelers who have no need for luggage" (Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen) the book inspires smile after smile with descriptions of food and towns so unlike my small midwestern American city that I feel that I'm vicariously traveling.  Even the sound of the beef and chicken roasts with potatoes and carrots that Antoine and Marine make, that we eat often for Sunday dinners here at home, seem exotic in the setting of southern France.  One of my favorite of the book's meals was the Croque Monsieur Antoine treats his friend and crime-solving partner, Bruno, to in a small family-owned restaurant while they're out tracking down leads in the case.

I first wrote about Croque Monsieur after seeing the movie "it's Complicated".  The "Crispy Mister", fried ham and cheese sandwiches or what we would call grilled ham and cheese,  first appeared on Paris menus around 1910 and has variations as plentiful as there are chefs:  plain, with mornay sauce, with a fried egg or fresh tomato slices on top, etc.  My favorite version is with thick cut ham slices and mornay sauce, which I've included a recipe for here..

To cut to the chase, did I like the book and its characters?  So  much I've already ordered its predecessor, Death at the Chateau Bremont, and am eager for the summer 2013 release of the next in the series, Death in the Vines.

             

Copycat Benihana Fried Rice

 Just like a kid, I love having dinner at Japanese steakhouses like Benihana but sometimes I want the rice and/or veggies without the 1 1/2 hour program and all that food in the different courses.  When I have the desire but not the patience, I make my own at home.  Chicken Fried Rice is a great one-pot meal in the style of Jambalaya or other stove-top one-potters.

Easier and faster than it looks, just think about how quickly those Japanese chefs whip up the fried rice before moving on to the steak/chicken/shrimp entree.  And the leftovers are great for lunch the next day or my work lunchbox.

 

Good & Good For You: Quinoa "Mac & Cheese"

 Saw this recipe repinned on Pinterest several times so decided to make it to go along with the other Pinterest recipe I tried, the Easy Garlic Chicken.  Both were very good and will be made again!

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is an ancient grain most often associated with the Incan Indians of Peru.  It is the only grain that contains all the essential amino acids of meat, making it a complete protein.  Just as wheat, barley, oats, and rye all have their own unique taste, so does quinoa, of course. I admit I'm still in the process of learning to love it. I'm in the "I really really like you but I'd like tokeep seeing other grains" stage of dating with it.  The more I cook with it, the more recipes I gather like this, that are very good, the closer I get to saying the big "I love you" and putting it in a special place in the front of the pantry of my heart.  

Does this taste EXACTLY like macaroni and cheese? No, because it's quinoa instead of pasta, but it is very good and very healthy. It would also be very tasty with half quinoa, half brown rice.

Thank you to Monica Nelson for posting this to her web site!

Good & Good For You: Summer Porridge aka Yogurt Oats

 

When I first saw this recipe, called "summer porridge", "yogurt oats", or "overnight oatmeal", I honestly thought it sounded gross but so many people were enthusiastic on Pinterest and other places on the web that I knew I had to give it a chance. It's not like I'm not an adventurous eater anyway, and with these ingredients I knew that at the very least it would be very good for me. (I just needed to check it out to see if it was "good" in the concept of "good & good for you".)

Guess what? It's my favorite way to make oatmeal now.  Hot oatmeal in the winter is filling and somehow defines cold weather for me, but the summer? Not so much.  Now I have a summer oatmeal to enjoy and start off the day with a nice healthy meal that keeps me going.  And more than just breakfast, it's now included in my lunchbox almost every time I go to work as my go-to healthy mid-night snack that keeps me going until 0700.

This healthy habit plays off another of my new favorite healthy habits:  Sangria Water, where I fill a pitcher with filtered water and fruit of all kinds and let it soak overnight, giving me great fruit-tasting water to drink all day and then the fruit to put on my oatmeal for the next day. So the Sangria Water  I made yesterday, with peaches and blueberries, became the peaches and blueberries that topped my yogurt oats this morning for breakfast. It's a win-win, for sure.

 

Broiling the Perfect Steak in Five Easy Steps

Going out to dinner for a nice steak can be just the thing after a long day, but doing the same thing at home, only in t-shirt, shorts, and no shoes, can be just the ticket as well.  Steaks are one of those things that seemed intimidating to me years ago, but it only took a little practice to gain confidence quickly.

Lots of folks are very accomplished on the grill. To be honest, I'm not so much simply because with only me and Gene in our small family, it feels like way too much work to drag out the grill for two steaks.  The answer? Broiling.

 With four simple ingredients and five simple steps, the process is painless.

Purist Macaroni & Cheese: THREE ingredients

"Mom's Extra Sharp Mac and Cheese" (Click to be linked)

Ran across this recipe when I was searching for a new baked Mac & Cheese recipe to play with. I was intrigued by the lack of a huge list of ingredients or odd spices.  It's simple: macaroni, milk, and cheese. That is LITERALLY macaroni and cheese. I happened to have all three ingredients so I had it in the oven in the time it took to pre-heat the oven.

I admit I was tempted to add salt, pepper, butter, garlic, any number of little extras but I really wanted to see how it would come out just as written. GREAT!, would be the answer to that.  There is no need for salt because of the salt in the cheese, extra would have, in fact, made the dish too salty.  And as for other seasonings, they have their place but not in this particular version of purist Mac & Cheese. I was quite content with the recipe as is, savoring the dimensions of the lovely sharp cheddar on my pasta.

One note about the photos:  I impatiently took the pics (so I could chow down!) pretty quick out of the oven, but within 15 minutes the rest of the milk soaked into the pasta so that it was creamy without being runny.   

The funniest part, to me, is that when I gushed about this recipe to Auntie Miranda, she said "Um. Yeah. That's exactly how your Grandmother taught me to make Mac & Cheese, long before the boxes."   Proof that what once was old is new again! 

Click on the link above for the rest of the details of the recipe.

 

 

Good & Good For You: Roasted Sweet Potatoes

 

Did anyone else see Shaun T on Dr. Oz yesterday talking about how great sweet potatoes are for us nutritionally?  I've always loved them and love that they're potatoes but they're kind of not really. They're more of a regular vegetable in the sense of do you count it as a bread or as a veggie? Packed with vitamins and fiber, they're only "bad" for me if I load it up with butter and brown sugar. Luckily, there are other ways to prepare them.

There's not even a recipe per se, just roast them.  I peeled and diced them into a bowl, poured over a few tablespoons of olive oil, and a teaspoon or two of Cavender's greek seasoning (salt-free) and a dash of salt and pepper. Any seasoning/seasoning salt will do.  A tsp of dried rosemary, thyme, or basil, or all of the above,  Italian seasoning, or go the simple route and stick with just salt and pepper. Toss the potatoes around with a spatula until they're all evening covered with the oil and spices.  Spread out into one layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and pop into a 425 degree pre-heated oven and bake for 30-45 minutes or until browned, crispy, and tender in the middle.

That night, Gene and I also ate tortilla-crusted Tilapia froms Schwan's which is a new add to our list. Delicious, and only 250 calories per huge filet.

East, fast, and delicious--I like it!

 

 

Good & Good For You: Sweet Baked Acorn Squash with Apple Butter

The most simple recipe ever and Gene and I both loved it. That's saying a lot for Gene because he barely tolerates acorn squash...so when he says "Yeah, that'll work" I know I've hit on a great recipe! 

Scotch Eggs: It's What's for Breakfast

I first heard of and tasted Scotch Eggs at a Renaissance Festival near Kansas City with my cousin Ann. We both reacted "No way! This is so cool!"  And tasty too!  It's a great way to use up leftover hard-boiled eggs and a great presentation for company.  I also like, especially for company, that they can be prepped in advance and finished quickly for a charming presentation.