It's Almost Time...

We're hosting our first ever Thanksgiving this year, and friends I think I'm ready... I think. We'll have my family + several dear friends for a total of 11 with the kiddos. I've planned the menu, made the shopping list, ordered the turkey, washed the wine glasses, and yes, even "practiced" the table setting (above) -- sad I know... it's my way, it can't be helped.

I love the Thanksgiving meal in ways words can't even describe. In fact, I might go as far as to say it's my favorite meal. I took this pretty far as a child, when I requested "thanksgiving" for my birthday, which happens to fall a mere week and a half after turkey day. My mother is a good, good woman (or I was a bad, bad kid ;-)


My plan this year is to keep things pretty straightforward. My guests are bringing all the appetizers and desserts (although I am planning one simple appetizer of brie stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and baked...incredibly simple and ridiculously tasty) so we're focused on the core meal. Bryan's on turkey, and my mother, sister and I will turn out the stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberries. But to mix things up a bit, I'm going to start with the Alice Waters carrot soup and serve the celery, pecorino "salad" as a side.

I love the ritual of being in the kitchen, cooking together, with the parade on the background. Audrey and I have been talking about it for weeks and I'm so excited to share the experience with her...although she did inform me a few nights ago (while eating chicken for dinner I might add) that she wouldn't be eating the turkey, as it's just too, too sad. I didn't point out the feelings of the chicken she was currently consuming as I'm not ready yet to deal with a full-blown vegetarian.

So, what traditions do you have for the big meal? Do you cook anything special or unusual or just stick to the basics?

Oh The Breakthroughs...

During the past couple of months, I've eased up a bit on my attempts (i.e. begging, bribing, etc...) to get Audrey to try new things. The string of failures was getting to me, and I was starting to tire of what felt a bit like dinner-time drama. Meals should be fun, right?

So I laid off. I still put new things on her plate, but if she turned her nose up, I didn't sweat it. Things felt mellower at mealtime, but I was starting to worry about stunted palettes and carb overload (I'm a worrier...it's my way.)

But as with most things in life, the less I cared, cajoled or stressed the more willing she was to do what I wanted her to do ;-) , and I'm happy to report that this weekend we had a string of major food breakthroughs.

Friday evening we stopped by our local Central Market to pick up some wine for dinner with lovely cousin Erin and boyfriend Ben, and Audrey, starving (this could have contributed to her food adventurousness too I suppose), happily popped a grape tomato that I offered up from our cart into her mouth... and the child hates tomatoes. She then proceeded to eat the entire container and asked me to buy another one for tomorrow. Success.

Then a few aisles over a lady was offering samples of tofu and veggie friend rice, which Audrey happily lapped up as well. What was happening here? I was beginning to think my child's body had been temporarily taken over by the spirit of some gastronome.

It was odd.

Fast forward to dinner, and she looks up from her plate to tell boyfriend Ben that his mashed potatoes are "delicious". Now I realize mashed potatoes aren't exactly a stretch, but these had the peels mixed in, plus a nice dose of sour cream and rosemary. All things that would typically make said potatoes a deal breaker for my daughter, but not on this magical night.

Progress friends...progress.

Online Cooking Group – Week Eight (Sort of)

Oh what a cooking group slacker I’ve been...late with recipes, missing weeks altogether and then phoning it in with something like pancakes (geesh, pancakes, oooh how adventurous, how exotic, how risky…)

I don’t blame you at all if you’ve been secretly cursing me behind my back.

And this friends, for you is week eight. Eight. That means, we’ll we’re done. Or at least you are, as technically, due to the pesky swine flu, this is only my 7th recipe, so I’ll post one more time next week.

I’m so happy we did this (my slacker tendencies aside)… I loved seeing what you guys cooked each week and how your families responded to the meals. I now have a little folder of new things to make and a slew of new blogging friends to check in on as we collectively attempt to expand our kiddos palettes, so thank you for that!

And in keeping with highlighting some of my favorite cooking club recipes, be sure to check out Ali’s insalata caprese, Antonia’s frittata, Dora’s artichoke stuffed chicken breasts (I can’t wait to make this!), Keely’s tortilla soup and Tara’s pork chops.

Ok onto the recipe. Looking back over what I’ve made during our little adventure, I’m clearly obsessed with all things involving a pie crust…I regaled you with tales of quiche and apple pie, so why not go for a triple and pull out a pot pie.

Buoyed by my success when I'm not a slave to the recipe, I called my mom who walked me through her quick and easy pot pie. I tweaked it a bit with things I thought the girlies would like and dove it.

Overall it was a success, (in fact I made two, froze one and we’re having it again tonight) despite the fact that Audrey insisted on picking out all the veggies, only eating the chicken, pie crust and "sauce"… But looking back I have to say it was actually a surprise success, given my kids' disdain for all their foods touching. A pot pie is the very definition of a food mash-up, it was a total risk…see I’m trying to redeem myself for those pancakes.

So without further ado, the pot pie recipe. Thanks for hanging in there with me friends. I’ll be back next week with my last cooking club recipe.


Quick Chicken Pot Pie

• 2 organic frozen pie crusts (I like the whole food brand a lot)
• 1 rotisserie chicken
• 1 can of organic cream of chicken soup (I like Health Valley)
• 1/2 cup organic chicken broth
• 1 cup of shredded Monterrey jack cheese
• 1 bag frozen organic peas, carrots and corn
• 5 small new potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Dice the new potatoes and put them in a pot to boil until just al dente, drain and set aside.

In a large skillet heat the olive oil and sauté the frozen veggies until almost cooked, add the diced new potatoes and continue cooking until lightly browned. Add salt and pepper to taste and move to a large bowl when down cooking.

Cut the rotisserie chicken into cubes and add to the bowl with the veggies, add grated cheese, cream of chicken soup and the chicken broth. Add any spices to taste and mix all ingredients well.

Put mixed ingredients into bottom pie crust, top with second pie crust, crimp edges together and make a one inch slit in the top crust.

Cook for one hour at 350, you can cover the top with foil if it gets brown too soon. Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

The Right Tools for the Job + The *Long* Overdue Cooking Club Recipe

Have you ever had one of those "how could I not have known about this fabulous thing" moments when you discovered something that made a particular task (i.e. cooking) so much more enjoyable that you may have even said out loud, "Oh my God, this (insert magical item here) changed my life."

Or maybe it was just me... and I can't believe I'm about to say this, but a griddle changed my life. Can you believe I just typed that?

I can't.

I've mentioned before that we're big pancake people+ grilled cheese sandwhiches and quesidillas are on regular rotation at our house. (Lest you think all we eat are carbs and cheese, and you're becoming worried for our health, rest assured, as we typically stuff the bread or tortillas with all sorts of yummy/healthy things like goat cheese, chicken, artichokes and tomatoes...) And up until now, I've been turning out these mealtime staples in a Caphalon non-stick fry pan that isn't, well... so non-stick anymore.

There were so many downsides to this situation, I won't bore you with all of them here, but let's just say (among other issues) we typically ate in shifts due to the fact that I could only cook two small pancakes at a time.

Enter the griddle.

A while back the kind folks at cookware.com* asked me if I'd like to try out one of the products from their site, and my pancake situation instantly sprung to mind. I suggested a griddle (this one to be exact), they sent it my way, and well, the rest is history.

*Now let me just pause to say that if I didn't like the griddle, I wouldn't have told you, because I'm nice like that... BUT, (and this is the important part) I wouldn't have said anything at all. In fact, I would have sent the griddle back, as I would have lost sleep due to feeling so flipping guilty for taking the product and not writing about it.

But that didn't happen. I love this griddle. I love it, love it, love it. I love it so much I want to marry it and have a million griddle babies with it.

Whew.

Ok, now onto the recipe (almost a full week late...I'm clearly a major Cooking Group slacker, and I'm sorry for that.) Inspired by the griddle, I started searching for new and exciting pancake recipes. I settled on this one and those pancakes were rather divine, if I do say so myself.

Buttermilk Pancakes (Adapted from Martha Stewart Living)
Notice how Martha just assumes you already have a griddle ;-)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle
  

Heat griddle to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons butter; whisk to combine. Batter should have small to medium lumps.

Heat oven to 175 degrees. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If water bounces and spatters off griddle, it is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush remaining 1/2 teaspoon of butter or reserved bacon fat onto griddle. Wipe off excess.

Using a 4-ounce ladle, about 1/2 cup, pour pancake batter, in pools 2 inches away from one other. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.

Repeat with remaining batter, keeping finished pancakes on a heatproof plate in oven. Serve warm.

Eating Out…With Kids

After too many sub-par meals at “kid friendly” restaurants, I:

A) came to a conclusion

and

B) made a vow

First up the conclusion… As harsh as it sounds, I’ve come to equate restaurants calling themselves “kid friendly” as typically some combo of a dumbed-down and often dirty atmosphere, broken crayons, sticky highchairs and offensive “kids” menus. The only consistent exceptions are a stable of Mexican food restaurants in Dallas that we frequent (specifically Mi Cocina and Gloria’s), which seem to have the combo of kid appropriateness and stellar food down pat.

Now for the vow… Until my conclusion is proven otherwise (really, why is this such an elusive concept??), we’ve vowed to only go out to eat if it’s a restaurant we really want to go to for the food (not because it’s “kid friendly”.) Otherwise we stay home.

Needless to say, we’ve been eating at home a lot.

We have had some surprising success at a few spots though. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not frequenting restaurants with multiple course menus or that serve a little amuse-bouche before the meal. We know our limits and try to stick to them.

We’ve had two great meals with the kiddos at Park, and Audrey and I had a great lunch recently at R+D Kitchen. Our formula is to go at a wickedly early hour (think senior citizen dinner hour in Florida.) Yep, we show up at restaurants at 5:00 pm… but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. We also come armed with our own bag of “special treats”, which is essentially a little stash of goodies like fresh crayons, new coloring books and a few small toys that don’t see the light of day unless we’re going out to a restaurant (the thrill of the new inevitably buys us at least a few minutes of mellow, content kiddos.) We’re also totally on board with the idea of aborting mission. If we sense the girlies melting down, we make it easy on everyone and ask for the check and everything gets wrapped up to go stat. Granted we’ve only had to do this once, but it’s in the arsenal if we need it.

So…spill it. How often do you go out to eat with your kiddos? Where do you take them? Do you have any strategies for a great meal out?

p.s. yes I know I still owe you my cooking group recipe for the week. It’s coming. I promise!

Sunday Dinner is My Favorite (Even When Scary Mustaches Are Involved)

I love the ritual of sitting down to a meal with family and friends on Sunday evening.

Lovely cousin Erin and I try to do it as many Sundays as humanly possible, and no matter if things get chaotic or if Audrey insists that I NEVER make chicken pot pie with vegetables again (just chicken! no vegetables!) or if Millie refuses the entire meal in favor of buttery pasta and lil' smokies (don't ask) and then plants herself on the bench behind the table or if boyfriend Ben shows up sporting a seriously scary 1970's mustache... Sunday dinner still rocks.

More on what we ate tomorrow.