SISTER WISDOM : build a better life

...that IS the question.
This week the answer is YES.
I think my family likes it when I cook...

Our menu for the week

Sunday: (as in, yesterday) Joe made us a huge pot of garlicky, warm smoked sausage and potato soup and french bread.
Monday: green salad with baked lemon chicken (it was going to be grilled, but it's raining, so never mind), garlic-butter breadsticks.
Tuesday: cheesy, ultimate comfort food: homemade mac'n'cheese {recipe below} with ham, on the side we'll have stir-fried cabbage and fresh fruit.
Wednesday: we'll have smoothies for dinner (kids will get leftovers), then snacks with our home Bible study group. I'll do a tray of olives, prosciutto, cheese, and crackers and either the oatmeal cookies or these oh-my-goodness chocolate butterfinger cookies from Rach's Blog Bite. Oh my goodness. Chocolate + butterfinger + cookies.
Thursday:So I'm indebted to Rach again for another great recipe: the tortellini salad that sounds amazing. Yum. I'll do some dill-marinated cucumbers on the side.
Friday:Fajitas with green peppers and onions, pineapple salsa and chips, and some fresh guac if avocados aren't outrageously expensive. Mmmm.
Saturday:either homemade pizza or grilled brats, potato salad, and red beans.
Sunday:a big pot of chicken and dumplings sound just right. Salad, a tray of fruit and cheese, and maybe some apple pie for dessert, unless I can talk Joe into making some of his amazing chocolate mousse. I think I'm gaining weight just thinking about this meal.

Let's talk about homemade mac'n'cheese. Actually, let's talk about any luxuriously comforting creamy baked pasta dish. It all comes down to the sauce, my friends. The homemade, creamy, and, yes, easy to make sauce.

Basic White Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
In a large saucepan or saute pan, melt the butter until it is all liquid; immediately sprinkle the flour on and start whisking until the flour and melted butter are mixed together in a lumpy, doughy looking thing. Yum. Looks promising, doesn't it? Don't panic. Turn the heat down to very low, or pull it off heat for a moment, and get out
4 cups of milk
Pour in about a cup of the milk, more or less, and whisk away until the lumpy-doughy butter/flour mix has made a saucy mixture with the milk. Keep whisking to get the lumps out. Keep the pan over low heat so the milk won't scald. Now pour in another 1 or 2 cups of milk, whisk, and then let it bubble until it starts to thicken. Now pour in the rest of the milk, whisk, and keep it over low heat. Give it a stir every now and then. You want to let it just cook on very low heat so it thickens. This would be a good time to season the sauce, so pull out
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Stir the salt and pepper into the sauce. Now, if you want to, you can add more seasoning. For example, I might add
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried chervil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
if I want a creamy sauce with some good herby flavor and a little zesty kick. Something a little lighter, good for Spring, to pour over pasta with peas, mushrooms, and Parmesan shavings. But today I'm making mac'n'cheese, so light and springy is not exactly what I'm going for. Instead, I'm going to add
1 tablespoon (okay, I'll probably add 2) minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Now, once the seasonings are added, you just want to let the sauce simmer a bit so all the flavors meld together and the sauce bubbles away and gets thicker. You'll want to taste it and add more salt and pepper as needed. (If it's a bit too salty, don't worry; you'll be pouring it over pasta, so you want it to have a good, intense flavor. If it's much too salty, add another cup of milk.)
That's it for white sauce. Since I'm turning this into mac'n'cheese, though, we need to add.... cheese. Glorious cheese.

to make the mac'n'cheese

I generally just use whatever I have in the refrigerator. This week I have cheddar and monterey jack, so I'll grate enough to make about 2 cups of cheese total and then dump that into the sauce, stirring so the cheese doesn't stick on the bottom. Once the cheese is melted, the sauce is finished. Now, set the sauce aside and continue on:
Cook 1 pound of pasta (shells, macaroni, mostaccioli, whatever you like) according to package directions. Drain and pour into a 13x9 baking dish or a 3 quart casserole dish or whatever else you have handy that is oven-safe and will hold 1 pound of pasta plus sauce.
Fry up 1 pound of bacon or a couple of big slices of ham, or saute 1 pound of chicken breast, or cook 1 pound of ground beef, or any combination you like, or just leave out the meat altogether. It's superfluous, as far as I'm concerned, because I'm really just interested in the cheesy pasta, but my husband really likes his homemade mac'n'cheese with chicken and bacon.
Once the meat is cooked, drain it if needed to get off the excess grease, then let it cool enough to handle. Chop it up into bite-sized pieces, then dump it in with the pasta.
Get your sauce and pour it over the cooked pasta.
Now you have options. You can cook it right away, or you can cover and refrigerate it until just before dinner time. Whenever you're ready to cook, uncover the pasta and stick it in a 350-degree (F) oven. Cook it for 20 minutes, then sprinkle about 1 cup of grated cheese on top (any kind) and let it melt.
Serve. Eat. Don't count calories for this one.

This post is linked up with OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday.

I'm linked up with OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday. You should be,too.

Sometimes, when it comes to food, the simplest is the best.

Let's talk about soup.

I love soup. Soup is my friend, except in summer when I'm in a state of perpetual sweatiness. Then the only soup I'm into is gazpacho, ice-cold, but during the other three blessed seasons of the year, me and soup, we're tight. We're buds. We're close.

I could happily eat soup every night, but I don't because 1) sometimes I'm lazy and I like just throwing chicken breasts in the baking dish and voila! dinner; and 2) my husband likes soup, but not quite as much as I do, so I try to be nice and make stuff besides soup too; and 3) a 3 1/2 year old and a 2 year old eating soup every night is too hard on my kitchen, and the cleanliness thereof. I don't like wiping soup off the floor every evening. (Did you catch that "sometimes I'm lazy" bit, above? That comes into play again here.) Read the rest of this entry »

It's 5'o'clock....

Meat in your freezer is great, except when you forget to thaw it out soon enough to cook it for dinner. Great, frozen meatloaf. Mmmm. Kids love that one.

Keep This In Your Freezer

Here are a few items (plus a few ideas on how to use them) to keep in your freezer that will thaw quickly enough (in a morning, left out, or in ten minutes or so in the microwave) that you can still come up with something appetizing, even when you forgot to plan ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

So here's the thing: I love fresh food, new cuisine, ethnic dishes, getting creative, organic and gourmet and simple and healthy and fresh, fresh, fresh.

Except at the holidays. Please do not bother me with your prosciutto-wrapped figs. Please do not wave your organic hummus under my nose. I will hurl on your hummus, and then I will hurl you and your hurled-upon hummus out the window.

The holidays are special. The holidays are all about going home, even if you can't. Cooking up the food you loved and grew up with is a way of going home. That's important to me, especially since I lost my Mom.
[Insert link here to post about Mom]

My veritable plethora of holiday recipes includes nothing trendy and probably nothing healthy. This is my version of going-home food, and, well, I'm from the South. But you know what I've noticed? Comfort food speaks in many accents. I've served up dishes of my personal favorites from the deep South genre, and I've watched as they were consumed eagerly by folks who wouldn't know a purple hull from a butter bean.

Christmas is a great time for comfort food.

Appetizers

• Why-Not-A-Cheeseball (right here in River City...uh...SisterWisdom)
• Bisquick Sausage Balls (Southern Cuisine at Suite101)
• Bacon-Cream Cheese Roll Ups (Gourmet Appetizer Recipes)
• Spinach Dip (Sister Wisdom)
• Deviled Eggs (Hey That Tastes Good - beautiful photos. I didn't know deviled eggs could look that good.)
• Cocktail Smokies (A whole thread at Southern Living Community forum. That's how important they are.)

Main Course

• Cornbread Dressing (Paula Deen, who else could do Southern Cornbread Dressing?)
• Green Bean Casserole (
• Sweet Potato Casserole (Southern Food at About.com)
• Brined and Roasted Turkey (Instructables - cool site)
• Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze (Betty Crocker)
• Yeast Rolls (Dine and Dish)

Dessert

• Holiday Fruit Cookies (aka Candied Fruit Cookies at Taste of Home)
• Swedish Wedding Cookies (Apparently the Swedes stole them from the Mexicans, or vice versa; Cooking Mexican Recipes)
• Homemade Mounds Bars (Instructables again)
• Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies (SisterWisdom)
• Pecan Pie (Karo Syrup)
• Caramel Apple Pie (There's no real recipe for what my sister makes; basically, an amazing apple pie plus caramel sauce under the apples. Or on top of the apples. Or both? Mmmm)
• Popcorn Cake (first make the perfect popcorn with Dine and Dish, then make the cake with Emeril. All the cousins used to fight over this...)

Image courtesy of museinthecity.

First things first: today is my birthday. I am celebrating by 1) having another cup of coffee, 2) playing around instead of getting work done before the kids wake up, 3) spending time with my sister-in-law and niece today!, and 4) packing to go on VACATION to see my family! I cannot wait!

Since we will be leaving Tuesday, my menu plan consists of, well, not much:

• Monday: eat whatever is left in the fridge so it won't get icky while we're gone. Mmm. Since I didn't cook much over the weekend (I got in vacation mode a little too soon) it will probably be a slim meal. Oh well. We'll make up for it while we're down in MS.

Since I don't have a great menu plan, I will put up some recipe links of food I want to make soon. Maybe this will help inspire me when vacation is over and it's time to come home and start cooking again. Or maybe I'll cook some while I'm at my Dad's house. They have a nice big kitchen...

Recipes... and be sure to visit OrgJunkie for more menus, links, and recipes!

• Homemade Granola Bars (my recipe, good, and I need to make some again. Should make some to take with us for snacks on the road but that's probably not going to happen...).
• Thai Chicken Salad with Peanuts and Lime - sounds delicious. Love this site, too.
• Honey Wheat Bread... because I need to quit making all-white bread but I don't love completely whole wheat bread. This recipe sounds like a good compromise for me.
• Hummus and Tomato-Avocado-Mozzarella Salad and Hashbrown Quiche and Oatmeal Applesauce Muffins (with suggested tweaks, maybe add dried cranberries too?). Love this site; wonderful recipes and I love how she has a pic of each plus a little "Results" section at the bottom to summarize the recipe and how good it was or what needs changing. A new favorite on my Bookmarks list.
• Smoked Beef Ribs. Um, yes. Oh, yes. Goodness, yes. I am drooling. I love barbecued anything (okay, almost anything). I'm thinking I should institute a weekly "Joe-cooks-on-the-grill" night and I'm thinking this should be our first recipe.
• Jamaican Chicken. Yum. Yum. Yum.
• Snack Basket. Not exactly a recipe, I know, but this is a great idea for Moms. I think I will set one of these up when we get home next week.

Image courtesy of Pink Sherbet Photography.

Over the weekend, Joe and I decided that the "taking family walks in the evening" plan wasn't working. Okay, actually, it was more like this:
Annie: "I'm melting! I'm melting! It's soo o ooo o ooo hot! I can't walk in this heat. I will die. I will surely die. and If I don't die, then I will kill you for making me come out in this horrible horrible weather."
Joe: "Um...okay...would you like to join the gym, maybe, inste-"
Annie: "YES! Air conditioning! YES! Gym! YES! I like! Oh, sorry, hon, were you saying something else?"

This morning I got up and went to the gym and worked out in the beautifully air-conditioned space. It's one of those 24/7, let yourself in deals. I was the only one there at 4:45am (weird, don't more people just love getting to the gym at 4:45 am? No?) and so it was like I had my own private air-conditioned gym. I still couldn't change the channels on the televisions, though...

Another lady got there while I was mid-way through my graceful cardio huffing-puffing-nearly-keeling-over-20-excruciating-minutes-on-the-elliptical-death-machine portion of my work-out. I didn't mind sharing my gym space by that time. I was just glad someone else was there to pour a little water on my face in case I fainted and fell off when the demon machine upped the resistance again.  Beauty is just so painful sometimes.

So, in unrelated news, here's my menu for the week.

• Monday: fish curry, brown rice, strawberries & pineapple. I'm a little nervous about this because our neighbors are coming over for dinner and Shema (the Mr.) is from Sri Lanka. He's Hindu, so he doesn't eat meat, which is no problem since we like fish anway. But 1) I've never made curry with fish before and 2) I'm cooking curry for a man who knows what REAL curry should be like and makes it and consumes it regularly. I have a strong suspicion that my Americanized version of curry is nothing like Shema's authentic curry... oh well. It's the thought, right...?
• Tuesday: Stuffed pitas + clean out veggies in fridge: corn on the cob, green beans, and salad. I'm not sure what I'll stuff the pitas with yet: maybe this or maybe something more substantial, though with ground beef or turkey instead of lamb. Don't have much lamb sitting in my freezer these days... weird.
• Wednesday: Joe's day off! Big brunch mid-morning (sausage or bacon, pancakes, eggs) then veggie stirfry and noodles for dinner.
• Thursday: Pasta carbonara...some kind of side...
• Friday: Broiled tilapia, oven fries, marinated carrots.
• Saturday: Zugu & meatballs (and pasta to eat it on, of course).
• Sunday: We're either doing fellowship lunch at church or birthday dinner at the in-laws; I'll grate some cheese to make quesadillas for supper in case we're home by then and hungry again.

Visit the host of Menu Plan Monday!

Image Credit: jynmeyer on stock.xchng. Yeah, I'm not quite ready to put up a picture of myself, post-workout. Maybe someday...

Be sure to visit MPM's host site, OrgJunkie.com.

This week's dishes of deliciousness:

(or so we hope)... Complete with desserts this week! My husband will be so happy. Cookbook Give Away info below...

Monday: Avgolemono (Greek Lemon Soup), Homemade Buttery Crescent Rolls, Chocolate Cake.

Tuesday: Fried Rice, Spring Rolls (from the freezer, not homemade!), Stirfried Cabbage, Homemade Chocolate Pudding.

Wednesday: Cheesy Hamburger Casserole (I will sub a cream sauce + cheese for the canned soup), Steamed Broccoli, Rice Pudding.

Thursday: Thai Coconut Soup (a very modified version), Carrot Raisin Salad, whatever leftover desserts are around....

Friday: Pasta al Forno, Corn Chowder, and Salad. Maybe a Chocolate Angel Food Cake. I know that's kind of two main dishes, but I like to make extra on Friday so if I don't have time to cook on the weekend, we still have something to eat.

Saturday: Homemade Pizza. Or Hamburgers and Twice-Baked Potatoes. Eh. Hard to say.

Sunday: Crockpot Barbecue Pork on Sandwich Rolls, Baked Beans.

This lovely cookbook is on the table as the main dish in this week's give away! To enter, either leave a comment on this post with your favorite simple recipe (or a link to it)

OR

go to the main give away post and leave a comment with a tip on how you keep it simple in the kitchen....

OR

Do both! And get entered into the drawing twice! (How nice am I... I know, I know...)

So get to it!

Contest ends at 10 p.m. central time on Friday night, March 6, 2009. Winner will be announced over the weekend (and contacted via email, carrier pigeon, and pygmy). Cookbook will be mailed Monday. Next Give Away will begin.... mmmm... soon thereafter.

*All tips & recipes may end up being compiled in some sort of future publication. I take your comment as your permission to use your tip/recipe. Leave your web/blog address in your comment if you'd like credit when I do so.

I think, technically, this is a pie because cobblers generally are made with lumps of a biscuit-like dough dropped into the fruit filling, and this is decidedly not that method. However, every year on my birthday when my Mom made me a blackberry cobbler because it is my very favorite dessert of all time, she used pie crust and a berry filling similar to this. And she called it cobbler. Technicalities aside, I'm calling it cobbler too.  This is my own version of our family "cobbler." By the by, you could use another berry - raspberry or strawberry - or a mixture, or any other fruit really - peaches, apples, etc. But really, can anything beat fresh summer-sweet blackberries? I think not.

You will need:

Method:

Gently wash and pick over the fresh blackberries. Put into a tightly sealable container with the sugar. (Use only as much sugar as needed to get the berries sweet enough.) Stir gently. Stick in refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. The berries will release lots of juice and you will want to eat them all just like that. But resist the urge and continue on.

Preheat the oven to 350. Get your double pie crust and roll it out into one large roughly circular shape. Grease the bottom of your pie plate. Loop the pie crust over your rolling pin and transfer it to the pie plate. The edges will overlap. This is good. Do not trim them. Poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust. Now get those berries that you haven't eaten yet.

Dump the berries right in the middle of the pie crust. Yum. Yes, juice will probably run out between the crust and the pie plate. This is okay, because you greased your pie plate, remember? (I use butter to grease mine.) Your cobbler should look something like this now:

Now dice the 4 T. of butter and sprinkle over the top of the blackberries, then sprinkle with the 2 T. of flour.

Gently fold the excess pie crust up and over the mound of scrumptious looking blackberries. This is not a perfectionist pie so take it easy. Just flip them up and over. They may or may not cover the entire pie. Make sure there are some little vents for steam to escape. Poke a couple of holes if needed.

Now slide your pie plate onto a cookie sheet (just in case the juices run over) and then into your preheated oven. Cook for about 20 minutes until the crust is lightly browned on top. Remove from oven and try not to drool. Scoop in large helpings into bowls and top with ice cream or whipped cream (the real stuff, please, not the nasty Cool Whip junk - blackberries deserve the best). Serve immediately to your friends and family if you're feeling generous. Or just eat it all yourself!

I made this for the group of skater kids who come hang out with us every Monday night. I wasn't sure how it would go over; beans are not usually very popular. But they all loved it and scraped the bowl clean. My husband, who usually only likes beans if they are pureed so he doesn't taste them, liked it too.