Bad days at work inspire cooking.....

Continuing with the same bad week above, by Wednesday I was tired cranky and in no mood for anything.   I had networking drinks with an infamous Pixie that is the inspiration behind this string of blogs, and vented a little about my day, but by the time our meeting was over, my blackberry was overrunith with more things to make me MAD.   I end up texting a colleague, saying I was going home to either walk my legs off, or drink myself into a stupor.   He acually managed to talk me into shopping and cooking lunch for he and my other colleagues....   Selfish and manipulative, absolutely.  (He'll never read this anyway - but I would tell him to his face)  However, it wasn't bad advice.  I did put my running shoes on, and walk myself to the grocery store, and came home and cooked lunch for 12.   I made my sausage bean dish that I have previuosly blogged about, and it was a hit.  I made a melted ice cream cake as well, but I admit cheated with canned frosting. It was easy,yummy, and remains one of my favorite cakes.

I did the same thing again one day last week, and made a pasta dish I have invented for my colleagues again.   I roast zucchini, yellow squash, and cherry tomatoes on a roasting pan coated with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Meanwhile, I sautee fresh spinach in garlic and oil.  When it is all done, I toss the whole thing with Orichette and season more with salt, pepper and parmesan. 

The concept is a good one, I get an audience to cook for and feed myself about 3 meals out of it as well.

How food affects my life even when I don't cook...

Well, Spud went off to sleepaway camp 2 weeks ago, and my first night without him home, I had to go to a networking event that brought me home about 10PM.  It was mt first day back from vacation and I had a bad day at work.  The network event served food, but not much, and if you didn't storm the table, you were out of luck.  I was raised to always wait until everyone had food and not be the first to serve yourself,  so needless to say I was out of luck.  On my way home, sadness set in that no one knew where I was or cared, - classic self pity.  When I got home I decided to make a lean cusine - my favorite one, if one can actually have a favorite diet frozen food, the chicken Marsala.  I poured myself half a glass of wine and walked upstairs to sit in sanctuary of my terrace.  As I got to the top of my steps, the lean cuisine was balanced on my wine glass and at the top of the stairs slid off, upside down on the floor.  That was all I could handle, and it ensued to a hysterical meltown of epic proportions....  It wasn't funny at all at he time, but it will be a story I will tell for years to come.   And given the power of facebook and the cell phone, a very good friend checked on me and made sure i was still breathing, and for that I will always be grateful for those that care the most. 

The story continues in less tragedy the following night, as I worked late yet again...  Here I pride myself on being into really great food and a great cook, but I have to admit, between being a mom that will indulge an 11 year old once in a while, and that I have my own secrets of poor taste-  on occasion I keep Chef Boy-r-dee in the house ( for Spud :) - but I admit it is a yearly guilty pleasure of my own.  Not to mention - its easy, thoughtless, and cooks in the microwave in 2 minutes.   So at least I got to eat that night, - and it went pretty well with a cheap Merlot...  I chalk it up to the things that just work in real life...

Artichokes! - An accomplishment!

I am very proud of myself.  I watched an online video of how to prepare an artichoke and cooked them last night.   I sliced them and snipped them like they said and drizzed olive oil and sea salt on them, wrapped them in aluminum foil and baked them at 425 for an hour!   The were cooked perfectly and delicious just like that.   I was very excited how they turned out.  Tonight when I got home, I pulled them apart and used the hearts in a dish of Chicken and artichoke hearts.  The chicken was cooked with onions, roasted red peppers, white wine and chicken broth.  Then it was served over orzo that was mixed with olive oil and the artichokes.   It was delicious!   The only thing was that the recipe called for fresh dill and I used Rosemary instead.   I should have just have left out the herbs altogether and thrown on some parmesan. Spud picked out this recipe from Everyday with Rachel Ray a couple of weeks ago, but he hated it and wouldn't finish it.   I myself thought it was wonderful and can't wait to eat the rest fo lunch tomorrow.  I will have to let the discerning pallates at work give it a taste and tell me what they think.   Tomorrow is baseball night, so it will be dinner out. Spud has been in Culinary Club in school this half year ( are you surprised?) and he is planning to cook for me.   Stay tuned!!!   I am also hoping to hook up with my friend Adrienne again, and maybe put together another amazing meal! 

Motivation???!!!

    Well I guess my life is getting back on track - I have moved an starting to get a handle on life as a single parent,  and getting through the grief.   My passion to cook does not sit right with being a single parent.  Spud is a great eater thank goodness, but he my worst critic.   I miss having someone to cook for who is my biggest fan.  
     Over the weekend, I had some reasons to cook.  I was scheduled to bring food to church, and it was a holiday weekend, so I thought - picnic food!   What is relatively easy and inexpensive to make for a crowd?- Potato Salad!    I invented my own recipe.  I boiled up some red skin potatoes withthe skins on.   When they were done and cool I mixed in Fat free plain yogurt and just enough sour cream to add the flavor.   Then for seasoning, I stirred in a package of Dilly Dip mix that I buy every year at my local Hoboken Art and Music Festival from my friends at Country Herbs.  Country Herbs makes some great dip mixes.  I keep a bunch of packages in my freezer and it keeeps forever and can be used many different creative ways. It was a perfect way to season my Potato Salad - and so easy!
     I brought it to church, shared with my in-laws and fed my office today.
     I was supposed to make Fried Chicken to have with it on Sunday, but my mother-in-law made such a fabulous late lunch ( Shrimp and snow crablegs, and ribs and sliders and salad - and lets not forget the Carvel Ice Cream cake! :- YUM)  that it made so sense to come home and cook.   So since the chicken spent 2 days bathing in butermilk and onions, I had to make it yesterday.   There was enough for a crowd and again it fed my office today.  It is Claritha's Fried Chicken from Gourmet - page 368.  This is one of the first things I ever cooked from my bible - and it was what sold me on the book!   The secret is definitely in the buttermilk and onion.  It is such a simple recipe.
     So after making a pasta dish I am embarrassed to admit I cooked,  tonight I watched a video and learned how to prep an artichoke and now I have it baking at 425 for an hour.   I plan to use it tomorow in a dish.   I'll keep you updated on how it turns out.   Many thanks to my sister-in-law who just helped me realize that at least someone was reading this and kick me back to blogging.   I really enjoy it and need to find the time to spend on it..  I'll write tomorrow to follow up on the artichokes.

2 meals in 2 days!

I guess I am on a roll. I have cooked 2 days in a row!  Last weekend I took the Spud on a shopping eating Saturday night date.  We went to the Japanese grocery store not too far from our house called Mitsua.   I needed to stock up on my asian basics like sesame oil, rice wine, oyster sauce, hoison sauce, ginger, etc.   We also managed to buy udon noodles, sesame noodles, and fresh ramen noodles.  Spud loves asian food more than anything.  There are not many 11 year olds that would eat eel sushi, salmon eggs and seaweed salad over mac and cheese any day of the week, so I try to encourage this in every way I can.  Our highlight of the evening was the dessert.  First we had grilled Mochi Balls with sweet Miso sauce, and then Spud had green tea mochi filled with red bean filling, like a sweet japanese empanada. 

So tonight I made use of my purchases.  I made Chinese pan-freid noodles with chicken.   I pan fried the fresh ramen noodles, and stir fried chicken marinated in a sauce made from soy, rice wine, sesame oil, salt, pepper, sugar .  I cooked it in fresh minced ginger and garlic, and then added a sauce of similar ingredients and green beans and scallions.  Should have added water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, but I don't like them.   I love my Chinese cook book Chinese Kitchen by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.  We ate it with our new chopsticks.  We bought a pack of 100 disposable wood chopsticks last week too.  The meal was a huge hit for Spud and now he has lunch tomorrow.

It's a busy week, so probably not much cooking going on, but stay tuned for next week when I have another guest chef cooking with me, and another special meal in the works.

Italian with Old friends

  Many people collect many different things, and have a few collections myself.  I collect some coins, piggy banks, cd's, dvd's,  my favorite is my cookie jars, but my most treasured collection is my friends that I have been blessed to have through the years.   I have been very lucky to keep so many with me which is why it is a collection.  I am in touch with friends as far back as the 4th Grade in 1978. I even recently got a note from a friend who went through school with me from nursery school in 1973.  I am still close to my friend from the 5th Grade, and then my next oldest that I am close to is a group of 3 friends, We'll call them Bonzo, Yak and Adrienne.  Those are nicknames you will find referenced on our High School yearbook pages.  
  So 28 years later, Adrienne and I have both been through some pretty major life changes recently and we got together yesterday in the solidarity of friendship to cook.  We share the same passion and both find that we can lose ourselves in our kitchens and yesterday we got lost together.  Adrienne happens to be going to cooking school right now, so we pooled our cooking talents and made a fabulous meal.   I made my cheese ravioli  (from the Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken) for her and she made me the best sauce I ever had.   I had a lot of trouble with my usually perfect dough yesterday.  I think I must have miscounted my flour cups and used too much, and my dough was very dry and hard to work with.  Thankfully by the time it was cooked, it was still delicious.  The ricotta filling was creamy and Adrienne's fresh nutmeg was just the perfect touch.  Adrienne's sauce was just amazing.  She starts with a pork rib base for flavor and adds tomato puree, bouquet garni, and veal stock.  It makes for wonderful rich flavor that was a perfect accompaniment to the ravoli.  I made the Spinach Torta Alla Hoboken as a side dish, we added some good wine and we had a wonderful day and meal.   Along the way we munched on delicious crusty bread with Irish butter, black truffle butter, burrata ( very creamy mozzerella made from water buffalo milk and cream) , Proscesso sparkling wine, and chocolate.   Our boys had a great time together and liked our food, so a good day was had by all.
  

Birthday Celebration

My mother-in-law has a passion for tomatoes.   She is stick thin and likes food, but is lucky enough to be someone who is not the least bit food-focused.  She enjoys it and a a plesure to cook for, but planning meals is sometimes tricky.  She is not a big meat eater, and her husband, loves meat and is particular about trying new things.  That said, last night's meal to celebrate her birthday was focused on tomatoes.  I was buying dinner for spud the the local gourmet grocery on Friday and saw the most beautiful gourmet tomatoes you ever saw.  Green and Yellow and Orange.  When you cut up the green heirloom tomatoes they were the most beautiful swirl of green and red.   I thought what better thing to make someone who loves tomatoes than a tomato salad?  It was a simple dish, of these georgeous tomatoes with salt, pepper and olive oil. Delicious.
So that was my side dish.

I have blogged about my homemade pasta, but one of the other things I first learned from my mother early on was the art of homemade pizza.   It has taken years of work and gone though many iterations, but I finally found the solution.   A good crust recipe is the start but it's all in the pan.   Good crust recipes I have found are Wolfgang Puck and also the mystery writer Patricia Cornwell.  Particia Cornwell writes alot about food and cooking  around her otherwise somewhat greusome medical examiner mysteries.  She compliled everything she wrote about into a cookbook - Food to Die for - and has many nice recipes.  Pizza is one of her specialies.   So last night I used her crust recipe ( secret is in the honey) and then added olive oil,  prosciutto di parma, a blend of good mozzerella cheeses from my Lisa's deli, caramelized garlic onions and fresh plum tomato.  The Calphlon baking pan makes the crust perfect somehow.  And I found this out by accident when I left my pizza pan at a friends for a year, and needed a substitute pan.   The pizza gets crisp and holds its shape.

I started the meal with baked stuffed tomatoes.  Large beefsteak tomatoes, stuffed with breadcrumbs. olive oil parmesan and basil.  Baked until browned, they just melt in your mouth.

We finished the meal with chocolate pots ( so easy!) and ricotta creme. 
It felt great too cook again, and now I have to go to the task of finishing to clean.

More on my superbowl gathering tonight!