A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Mini Trial Run: Four Meals in the Freezer Recipes in Two Hours

 

  Like everyone else on the planet I have a job, and like a lot of other people on the planet, I work nights.  It makes for odd schedules in so many ways, and meals, according to me and everyone I know who works 12 hour overnights, can be a nightmare...or at least challenging.  I've spent hours on Pinterest searching for and planning a big cooking day where I stock lots of healthy meals in the freezer so that I don't dread cooking as much on my work and sleep days or make Gene do it.  I know, it's a pretty pedestrian fantasy but trying to avoid the non-nutrition of fast food and the expense of restaurant food by cooking clean home-made meals consistently (the key is consistently) can be a challenge. It ain't for wusses, that's for sure!

I did a mini trial run this afternoon on the whole pack the freezer in one afternoon concept and I have to say it was much easier than I thought it would be and very emotionally rewarding. it's great to know that I already have dinner for my work day tomorrow prepped and in the firdge and a half dozen easy options in the freezer for my sleep day on Tuesday.  This will be particularly good for when I work stretches of 12 hours on/12 hours off.  12 hours sounds like a lot of time until you try to do all those normal little things like sleep, bathe, spend time with the family, answer emails, watch a little of the boob tube, let alone trying to cook from scratch--and we don't even have kids!  My admiration is off the charts for the moms and dads who work 12 hour overnights and manage to keep the family and their sanity together and dressed in clean clothes and with full bellies.

I chose four coordinating recipes this afternoon (recipes/links/photos follow) mainly to make it easy on myself and because both ground beef and round steak were on sale at my market this week.

Beef Braciole (Stuffed Flank Steak)

 

 Flank steak can be a challenging piece of beef to work up well.  It's cheap and flavorful so it's worth the effort but it's best in low and slow cooking methods, except when flash grilling to a medium rare for fajitas.  My mother made Swiss steak often with it when I was growing up, simmering it for hours in an onion, celery, bell pepper tomato sauce and serving over rice or mashed potatoes. Talking about it now makes me crave it so that's definitely on the menu for next week!

Another favorite preparation is Beef Braciole, or stuffed, rolled flank steak. The traditional Italian stuffing is bread crumbs flavored with garlic, onion, and parsley, although stuffed with strips of sweet pepper, onions, and garlic, is another personal favorite.

The key to flank steak is in preparing the cut itself.  The extra time spent removing the prevalent silverskin and pounding that sucker out thin can make the difference between a really "Wow!" dish and a mediocre one.  Everything else is embellishment. Don't let the number of steps being intimidating if you've never made this dish before. Once you've done it once, the second and many times after will feel easy.

 

Banana Bread Brownies

 

I kept seeing a Banana Bread Brownies recipe on Pinterest and even pinned it myself. What a clever idea, I thought, especially for those of us who don't care for chocolate all that much or often.  Banana bread brownies...something about it just sounds right.

And it is.  So right.

Baked in a large jelly roll pan, the brownies make 35 pieces and come out to be little squares of OMG delciousness. 

I looked at the recipe I had pinned, one that had been adapted from another recipe, and looked at the original as well. Then I changed a bunch of stuff, not because anything was "wrong" with the original recipes, but because I've been trying to eat a little cleaner by add more whole grains to our diet, change out sour cream for Greek yogurt, use honey instead of refined sugar, etc., and I know from experience with banana bread that it's a great vehicle for whole grained flour.  Banana bread made with half whole wheat is actually tastier, in my opinion, than banana bread made with all all-purpose flour (and Gene can't tell the difference). 

These are truly not to be missed!

Glenna's Buttermilk Pound Cake

 What most people I know think of when you use the generic term "cake" is technically a butter cake, typically eggs and butter or oil beaten together and the dry ingredients then added, as opposed to a  chiffon cake, a lighter textured cake where the egg whites are whipped separately and folded into the batter.  Pound cake is butter or chiffon cake's sweet, voluptuous cousin, with rich, velvety crumb, created from not just eggs and butter but LOTS of eggs and butter!

Originally named "pound cake" for the simplicity of its ingredients: pound of butter, pound of sugar, pound of flour... it has long since been cut down to what we think of us "regular" cake size and customized in endless variations. This buttermilk and vanilla recipe is rich and. satisfying with straight-forward, simple ingredients that showcases what, to me, is almost a religiously divine combination: butter, flour, and sugar...and an oven. .

To fancy it up, add fresh strawberries or a drizzle of chocolate or caramel sauce. For me, I just cut a slice, pick it up, and don't bother dirtying a fork and plate.

Easy Peasy Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker for a Crowd

 When it comes to cooking for a crowd, the slow cooker or Crock-pot is my best friend and favorite kitchen appliance.  Nothing is easier to cook in as long as you plan ahead of time and have everything ready to go that morning.  Even better, many dishes can be made a day or two ahead of time so that when I'm entertaining I can finish up cooking the day of the party without spending all day long and all of my energy just cooking.  I've spent too many years being exhausted before company even got to my house to even enjoy them but years ago I figured out I could still cook nice home-made meals without making myself tired, cranky, and crazy.

This recipe for slow cooker pulled pork is great for a crowd of 12-16, depending on how hearty the appetites are, and it goes together in a snap, can be made ahead, and leaves one less thing to have to think about before company shows up. 

Easy Baked Custard with Caramel Sauce

 Baked Custard... one of my top comfort foods since I was a kid.  Baked custard is very similar to the caramel flan found in Mexican restaurants, although good caramel flan usually has a crunchy sugar coating on top rather than a caramel sauce topping.

This recipe is very quick and easy to put togetherr and makes for a great dessert warm or cold. 

Home-Made Buttermilk Herb (Ranch) Dressing

 I know that in some circles "ranch" dressing or dip is considered passe' but, to me, it ranks up there will all my favorite comfort foods like mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, chicken pot pie, and all the rest of the delicious, non-pretensious things that are so lovely and comforting to eat.  I do admit, though, that ranch dressing out a bottle from a grocer's shelf doesn't thrill me but making it home-made with fresh herbs is definitely the ticket! 

It's also much better for you.  Think about it.  Sure, it's a little more work to put the ingredients together but when you make it from scratch, including the mayo, you're talking about eating eggs, cold-pressed oil, buttermilk, dill, parsley, garlic, etc., all whole foods  not tons of chemicals and preservatives. That, and the fresh creamy herby taste make it worth every one of those 15 minute spent preparing it.

Baked Mostaccioli w/ All Day Slow Cooker/Crockpot Meat Sauce

 

 There's nothing like pasta, the ultimate comfort food, to feed a small army of company at the holidays.  It's tasty, it's easy, and it can usually be made ahead, all pluses in my book so that I can serve a delicious meal to my friends and family but also be able to relax on the day of and during the party instead of running myself ragged, cooking. 

Traditionally at New Year's Eve, I make a big lasagna, but this year I went to the same song, different verse, choosing to created a Baked Mostaccili dish instead. 

Several of my guests plus friends on Facebook asked for the recipe, so this is it:  Glenna's Baked Mostaccioli for a Crowd.  Even though the recipe easily serves 8-10, it can easily be cut in half for a family dinner or can be made as a whole and split into two separate baking dishes, freezing one for later. 

   

Celebrating with Baklava

 

 While the entire rest of the food blogosphere posts nice diet recipes for at least the first week of the new year, I'm going to go radical and tempt your tummy with step-by-step photos of how to make the sublime, baklava, my favorite densely rich, sweet, and decadent treat that's a pastry I can only describe to the unititiated as a cross between a bar cookie and candy.  Or as simply "the most yum in a bite I know of!" It's created from layers of paper thin pastry dough brushed with butter and filled with pistachios, walnuts, and almonds, along with warm spices and soaked in honeyed syrup.

Baklava can be traced back to the "cradle of civilization", Mesopotamia (the modern Iraq area), in the thousands B.C. but its most commonly associated with the Ottoman Turkish Empire of the 15th and 16th centuries whose capitol was Constantinople (modern day Instanbul, Turkey).  I'm pretty confident you can consider that a dessert must be good if it's been around for 5,000 years, don't you?

I'll admit that I assumed baklava would be difficult, or at least complicated. to make but the truth is delightfully that it really isn't. There a lot of steps, but most of them are all about the layering of pastry and filling.   For anyone experienced in working with phyllo dough I would consider this easy to make, and even for those who've never worked with phyllo before, I would still say it's only a low medium in difficulty.  The key to the recipe is in the steps and preparing the work space.  Some baklava makers create the pastry first and then make the syrup while baking so that it remains hot. I make the syrup first and set it aside while I make the pastry so that even though the syrup is close to room temp when poured as the final step, the baklava is so hot it quickly soaks in.  Having a little counter space is the only clincher to working with phyllo dough because it's easier to lay it out, then move it in towards you to butter and stack.  You'll see what I mean as you read through the recipe and see the photos.

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!)