Inventing Recipes - Never a Planned Exercise

Five years ago, almost exactly, I invented a recipe out of necessity to use up thawed meat and ingredients I had on hand.  Since I was not raised in the kitchen, stepping away from recipes and just making things on the fly isn't something that has come naturally to me.  I can make some things without them now, but mostly I've memorized the ingredients and techniques and use standard ingredients - stir-frys, curries, gumbo, etc.

Tonight, however, was Wednesday, which means that Oz was working late.  I had planned to make shepherd's pie, but when 5 o'clock rolled around, I had absolutely no inclination to make mashed potatoes, brown the meat, put it all together, and wait.  The kids were puttering around, and so I asked them if they wanted shepherd's pie or if they'd rather just have tomato soup and grilled cheese.  They were fine with the latter.

But then… after I'd dumped the soup into a pot and was rummaging through the fridge for the cheese for sandwiches, I ran across a small container of leftover taco beef that I'd nearly forgotten about.  And I got an idea. And thus Sarah's Tomato Taco Soup was born.  The kids loved it.  And they wanted me to share the recipe with you so that the deliciousness can be passed on to others.  If you try it, let me know!  And enjoy!

I'm sort of a food snob, so this was the tomato soup I used.  You use what works for you.
Pacific Foods have no idea who I am or that I buy their product.

A few notes before you begin reading the recipe:  When I make taco meat, I sauté the ground beef and onions together, then add seasoning.  I make up my own taco seasoning using chili powder, cumin, salt and a little bit of pepper.  Very simple.  I used Velveeta in my recipe tonight since I was using up the last of it for the grilled cheese, but just about any sort of real cheese would probably work as well or better - cheddar, Mexican blend, whatever.

Sarah's Tomato Taco Soup

1 box or can tomato soup (not condensed is probably preferable)

1 c. cooked, seasoned taco meat/onions

2-3 oz. shredded cheese

1/2 c. corn salsa

Extra taco seasoning (chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper), to taste

Tortilla chips for dipping

Begin by heating the soup, then add the other ingredients.  Stir until the cheese melts.  Season to taste.  Serve hot.

More Baking Therapy! (Recipe Included)

Breakfast is one of those meals that I don't fix.  Well, I do fix it, but not at the normal breakfast time of day.  I'm not sure who decided breakfast should be in the morning, anyway, because I'm fully on board with the idea of eating breakfast foods 24/7.

I digress already.  This is going to be one of those posts where I do that, I think.  

My kids eat breakfast daily.  They wake up starving, especially M1, and there are enough studies out there that point to all the good things that breakfast does that I hope their breakfast habit lasts throughout their lifetimes.  But if I want them to eat breakfast, I have to make sure we have it around... right?

I used to buy a lot of breakfasts - Pop-Tarts, boxes of cereal, frozen French toast sticks (OK, those still happen sometimes), granola bars.  But these days I try to make most of the kids' breakfasts, particularly because M1's breakfast consumption has risen in proportion to his height.  I was making regular waffles, but he was eating 2-3 at a time, and a batch of waffles was only lasting a few days.  I felt like I was spending all my time trying to keep up with the eating and making massive quantities of food for no good reason.

The saving grace actually came from my grandmother.  When she moved into her retirement home last fall, she gave some of her foodstuffs to my mom, sister, and me.  The thing that's relevant to this post?  I got the buckwheat flour, and with that, I got her handwritten buckwheat pancake recipe.

That recipe makes for the heartiest pancakes/waffles I have ever tasted in my life.  Seriously.  Look how thick this batter is!

Viscosity - this has it.

Remember this photo.  You'll need to reference it later.  I'm pretty sure my grandmother developed this recipe to feed hungry husbands and farmhands who were heading out to or coming in from the fields.  At least, that's what I like to think.

The waffle maker is older than my kids... don't judge ;)

Did I mention there's no sugar in these except for honey?  And they're delicious?  And they're so hearty that my son can eat ONE and be stuffed till lunch?  M2 can cut one in half and be full.  *angels sing*

If you pin this, let me know!  I love finding my stuff on Pinterest!

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Hearty Buckwheat Pancakes (or waffles!)

1 1/2 c. buckwheat flour
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 T. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
--
2 T. honey
4 large eggs
1/4 c. oil
Milk, buttermilk, or combination (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 c.)

Sift together dry ingredients.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Mix only enough to combine them.  The batter should be thick and somewhat lumpy.  Coat a griddle with cooking spray and preheat over medium heat.  Use 1/4 c. batter for each pancake.  Flip cake when brown and keep warm in a 200-degree oven.  Serve with blueberries and maple syrup.

Blogger's notes:  I love the blueberry bit.  Cracks me up.  If I'm just using milk, I only need 1 1/2 to 2 c. total; if I use some buttermilk, I have to add a bit more to get the right consistency.  Also, these will soak up syrup like nobody's business!  I get ~14 waffles out of this, but your mileage may vary depending on the size of your waffle maker and the thickness of your batter.

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Enjoy!

Homemade History - Week 2

Last week we discussed prehistory; this week we moved forward a little bit.  Enjoy!

Week 2 Topics:  Nomads; The First Farmers

Monday: Reading and notes.  This week's reading suggestions were from Story of the World (chapter 1 - M2 particularly enjoyed this, as it was new to her), Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (pp. 14-19), and Usborne World History (pp. 84-108).

Tuesday:  M1 had a little more reading that he wanted to finish, so he did that, and then the kids and I discussed topics for the mini-reports they're going to do.  M1 is going to write a short (perhaps four- or five-paragraph) report; M2 is only required to write one paragraph.  They got to pick their topic - anything ancient history was fair game.  M1 selected the Olmecs, and M2 wanted to learn about Egyptian clothes, jewelry, and home decor.  We'll work on these projects a little each week for the next few weeks and finish them up in week 8.  In week 10 they'll pick a new topic.  We'll wind up doing four 'reports' total by the end of the year.

Wednesday:  Video day!  We started with History Pockets and went over topics that civilizations share (specialization of labor, religion, arts/entertainment, a system of government, etc.) and what the basic needs of a human are (food, water, shelter, and possibly clothing... M1 also made sure we knew air was essential).  Then we watched a few videos.  We started with Making Stone Age Weapons and Irrigation in Egypt before visiting National Geographic and watching a video about some ancient springs in Texas.  I really wanted the kids to watch a PBS video about an atlatl, but I couldn't get it to work and haven't heard back from them yet about whether this issue is going to be resolved or not (maybe a little more pestering couldn't hurt?), so we bounced over to Youtube and watched an atlatl video there instead.  Finally, we wound up watching a few more videos on Youtube by searching for "ancient homes."  I think M2 might use at one of them as a reference in her report.

Thursday:  Again, we used History Pockets.  The kids wrote down definitions for the words civilization, ancient, and history and outlined the basic human needs that we covered on Wednesday.  Then M1 answered the question, "Why were ancient cities usually built near large bodies of water?"  His first answer about drinking water didn't hold water when I reminded him that many of them were beside an ocean, so he actually had to think about the rest of his answer, which was the point.  Score one for Mama on critical thinking.

Friday:  Project day!  I don't have any photos of M2 this time, because she elected to play the Iron Age Life game from the BBC For Kids history site.  She liked it so well that she actually played it twice.

M1 asked if he could make his own pottery.  I had purchased some terra-cotta air-drying clay, and he requested to use that to make his pottery more 'authentic.'  (For the record, he does know that clay normally gets fired in a kiln.  Nobody that's related to my dad - or me, if I'm honest - could grow up not knowing that.)

He made a lovely little pot and a lid to match.  He's very excited about his creation and is eager for it to finish drying.

Then, then we all went to the kitchen...

Steel-cut oats

 ... for a little lesson on grains.

Flax cereal and wheat grown from birdseed
that fell in our garden area this spring

First we went through the pantry and found as many different grains as possible and discussed where in the world each grain originated.

Cornmeal and buckwheat flour

The kids were surprised how many different grains... and legumes... and regions of the world... we had represented in our kitchen alone.

Clockwise from top left: white rice, roasted and seasoned chickpeas, navy beans,
popcorn,  couscous, quinoa, barley; Center: red lentils

After we demonstrated our grain-fed diversity, we cooked a few of the grains - particularly the couscous and quinoa I'd picked up especially for the project - and tasted them.  For fun, I also cooked up the barley and the popcorn, and I'd already roasted and seasoned the chickpeas the previous evening.  The kids liked everything, but our Western palates craved more flavor.  I wound up adding a touch of kosher salt to everything except the chickpeas.

Next week:  Aborigines and Pacific Islanders

Kitchen Therapy

This has been a long, exhausting week.  M1 still has his head firmly lodged in either electronics or his posterior, Oz feels like a life-sucking parasite has taken residence inside his head, and two of the cats decided within the last 10 minutes that they needed to demonstrate their hairball-hacking skills.

All of this means that I either resort to drinking or find solace elsewhere.

This is not to say that there isn't an open bottle of wine in my fridge.  There is.  Ohhhh, there is.  But I also bought two bags of flour and sought refuge in my kitchen... baking.

I totally plagiarized PW's picture for this shot

It started with the tortillas a few days ago.  Now, the recipe that I used (see either link) suggests using just plain white flour, but this fairly green girl likes things a bit healthier.  Yeah, OK, so substituting half whole-wheat flour really doesn't offset the lard by much, but it makes me feel better.  And that's the whole point of this exercise, anyway.

Then yesterday I made egg noodles.  I don't have any pictures of them because A) they were instantly cooked and devoured as part of the chicken cacciatore we had for dinner last night, and B) they weren't all that good.  They were a bit tough and chewy.  It's been a long time since I've made egg noodles, and I wasn't impressed with the recipe I used.  I need to poke around Pinterest for a while and find myself a new recipe to try.

Today, I got back in the kitchen again:

Burger buns the size of Oz's hand 

Hoagie buns... they're so, so soft...

These are actually the same recipe.  I have absolutely no idea if they'll be any good, but they look and smell amazing.  I've had to shoo cats away from them several times.  They're incredibly easy to make, too.  If you read the comments, it suggests only making 8 buns out of the recipe and letting them rise for 30 minutes instead of the recipe's recommended 10.  If you make 8 buns, though, and you're in a nice, warm, humid, southern-USA-in-summer-like environment, watch out!  They'll be huge.  Eight is a perfect number for hoagies, but I'd go for the full dozen burger buns.  Or let them rise for less time.  Unless, of course, you like burger buns roughly the size of your giant spouse's hand.  That's a bit much for me.

Is this all the baking I'm going to do this week, you ask?  Oh, no.  No, no, no.  I already have plans to make homemade ravioli this weekend.

Baking therapy.  It's the only way to preserve sanity, I tell ya.

That and Pinterest.  And wine.  Together, they're a lethal combo for my waistline.  I hope the scales survive.

P.S.  Share a link to your Pinterest!  I always love finding and stalking following new people!

The Feast

Before the end of our school year, the kids and I discussed what we wanted to do over our summer break.  M1 mentioned that he really wanted to get out his Italian cookbook and make some of the recipes.  When he was poking through it, I noticed a recipe for a rosemary leg of lamb.

"Hey," I told him, "we've already got a leg of lamb in the freezer if you want to use that."

Of course, he did.  And the menu snowballed from there.  Soon it became known in our house as M1's Feast.

After much deliberation (and several grocery store runs), the feast finally happened.  I won't say that he made everything without any help, because I did step in when he asked or clearly needed me to, but he planned and made the vast majority of the meal by himself.  I'm pretty proud of him!

Click the photo for a larger and easier-to-read image

M2's contribution was to type up and print menus for everyone to have at their place during the meal; she couldn't resist adding a few personal touches after printing, though.  

This is what my boy looked like just before we ate.  Beatific.

You can see how beautifully he arranged all the salads.  He firmly believes in food presentation.  If you look closely at the bowl of tapenade on the table, he'd like that.  He arranged the pita chips around it, too.

The piece de resistance was the leg of lamb and potatoes.  It had finished cooking while we ate our appetizer and salads, and it looked amazing by the time it got to the table.  I did carve it; the idea of doing that was a little too intimidating for our young chef.

Still, he's proud of himself.

Finally, he brought in dessert.  And bowls.

Don't be fooled.  Underneath all that chocolate is a homemade tiramisu.  He and I even whipped everything by hand, and he grated the chocolate himself.  (No, we didn't make the ladyfingers.  I do draw the line somewhere.)

Congratulations on your first feast, my boy.  Very, very well done.

Little Moments of Pride

 I absolutely love it when the children surprise me with little things that they do or want to do or are capable of doing.

M2, for example, surprised the heck out of me this week.  We've been discussing the spring violin solo competition with her teacher, and she'd been leaning toward doing a short song that she already knows quite well.  It wouldn't take long to work up, and - like I said - it's short.  She always gets very, very nervous during solo competitions, and so she tends to choose short, easier songs so that she has a little less pressure looming overhead.  

So imagine my shock this week when she changed her mind and insisted that she wants to play the song she's just finished learning.  It's long, first of all, with several repeats as well as a 'DC al fine' to polish it off.  Secondly, she's just finished learning it.  There are only six weeks till the regional competition, and if she does well there, she'll go to state later in the spring with the same piece.  Six weeks sounds like a long time to work up a piece until you realize that at the same time, she's working on two other pieces for the teacher's spring recital AND has selected another piece to learn and play for her solo at the recital (which, unlike the competition piece, doesn't have to be memorized).  And sometime in there, the teacher's likely to have her start refreshing several other pieces for the spring recital as well.  

She'll also take the music theory test for the first time this year.  Her teacher's been handing out worksheets each week, and M2 has taken to them quite nicely.

She's good, my girl, and I'm really proud of her for putting herself out there like this.  I can only hope that she doesn't start freaking out sometime between now and then.

M1 is making me proud, too.  Last night, he made eclairs.  Strawberry eclairs.  I had to teach him how to use a piping bag, but other than that, he did it all himself and cleaned up the kitchen afterward.  I love that part the most, I think, and the eclairs themselves were absolutely delicious.  He wants to try to make blueberry or raspberry eclairs sometime soon.  I'm not about to argue with him.

Then yesterday we got a nasty piece of news.  At one of his swim meets recently, he did very well at breaststroke, which is his favorite stroke.  He won his heat by quite a long shot and had great hopes of winning an overall ribbon.  However, when I got the results and started looking for his name, I discovered that he'd been disqualified.

I was angry at first, but I took a deep breath and texted the coach, who gave me a quick, if somewhat vague, explanation and promised to talk to me about it in person.  Which meant I had to tell M1 what had happened.  I told him over lunch today, and while he teared up initially, he seemed to get past it quickly.  I promised him that the coach would talk to him about it, and he asked if he still got to keep his heat ribbon.  I said yes.  (I didn't know for sure at the time, but they were going to get that back over my dead body.  I didn't have to worry, but still...).  Anyway, we went to practice, and the coach did indeed talk to M1 and me about the problem and helped M1 learn what to do so it wouldn't happen again.  Overall, the coach acknowledged that it's not a normal situation and several kids were dinged for penalties that aren't supposed to exist in our beginner league... but... M1 wasn't upset.  I was set to go all Mama Lion on the judges and league leaders and see if I could get things fixed, but M1 showed me that there was no need.  He's really okay with things. He understands that it isn't fair and that sometimes we have to fight for injustice, but he also knows that there's another meet coming up in a couple of months and he can try again then.  And he let it go.

I'm really stinking proud of my kiddos for pushing their emotional, experiential, and mental limits.  They're acting really grown up this week.

Remind me about this next time I gripe.  Thanks :)

Halloween! (Post 2 of 2)

Today was the Big Day.  Halloween.  One of the traditions that I started recently (as in, last year) was making an actual Halloween meal.  Last year I did a cutesy thing where I made faces with food.  This year, I went a little more disgusting.

Moldy green beans with pond scum

 I made these by making green beans the same way I always do.  I started by pan-frying up some bacon, then throwing the green beans into the bacon grease, adding a little water, and simmering everything until the green beans are done.  Then I crumble the bacon and add it back in.  Not exactly health food, but it works.

The difference today is that I added black food dye when I added the water.  For the record, bacon takes food dye really, really well... and really quickly, too!  And in the end, the green beans were pretty gross-looking.

For the main dish I sliced hot dogs into really thin strips.  Simmer the strips (again, I added some red dye to enhance the color) until they curl up.  Drain, and add ketchup or barbecue sauce for 'blood.'

If you do it right, you can convince your kids that the hot dogs are actually worms or intestines.  My kids were extremely skeptical about that dish, and usually M1 sees right through these sorts of food pranks.

After we ate, it was time for dressing up.

This year I had Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter.

M2 loved being Alice.  She also learned that long skirts making climbing stairs hazardous.  Don't worry, she's okay.  Ignore the red all over her face.  She's still recovering from having poison ivy all over her face, and she keeps rubbing her cheeks and licking her lips, so some spots are chapped.  *sigh*

Together, the kids were irresistible.

They do love one another.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

A Rainy Saturday

Now that it's gotten cold, it's kind of fun to look back at the weather even a few weeks ago and see how much of a difference, oh, 20 or 25 degrees can make.

Rain also makes a difference.  A few weeks back we had a warm, rainy Saturday.  It was one of those lazy days where we *could* have gone places, but it was rainy and nobody really wanted to get out in it and walk around, so we stayed home.

I turned on some jazz music through Pandora...

... and the kids painted their sculptures that they'd made.

Oz took a short nap on the floor in front of the couch...

... and after he got done painting, M1 climbed up on the other couch and imitated him quite successfully.

M2 and I had more energy than the boys.  After she finished painting, she grabbed an umbrella and went puddle-ducking in the back yard.  The bottoms of her pants were soaked, but she had a blast.

Mama stayed in the house and did the weekend cooking.  Applesauce was the first order of business...

... and while that was cooking down, I made some cream of mushroom soup to use in a casserole later in the week.  I was surprised to learn how easy it was to make cream of X soups; Pinterest is my friend!

I also made another Pinterest recipe that was amazingly delicious.  These little rolls have half a frozen (well, thawed, but formerly frozen) meatball inside along with a small piece of string cheese.  The rolls themselves are canned buttermilk biscuits that I divided in half and wrapped around the meatball and cheese bits.  Bake and serve with marinara sauce.  YUM.  The bowl in the back is tortilla dough.

Even though it's only been chilly for a couple of days, it seems like summer is definitely over.  That's all right, though.  I'm quite ready for fall.  Bring on the apple cider!

Kitchen Wizard Wednesday - 10/17

The Wednesday cooking classes persist!  I had wondered if we would be doing them this week, since the public schools are out for fall break, but by 5 p.m., the kids were in the house.

M2 did her dish first.  I had her make a pasta salad.

While we waited on the water to boil for the pasta, she worked on the other add-ins.  I had purchased some cherry tomatoes to quarter and basil to julienne, and she also elected to slice and add some olives.

She overcame a big fear of boiling water to dump in the pasta all by herself, and after I drained it (a big pot of water + pasta is a little much for a girl to lift safely), she dumped it in the bowl and mixed it all together with some Italian dressing and balsamic vinegar.  Then we put it in the refrigerator to chill.

M1 made Parmesan-crusted fish tonight.  It was his first time to work with fish, and he did a great job!

We dried the fish and mixed up the milk/egg and breading mixture, and then he overcame his fear of gunky hands to cover the fish.

He was very serious about his fish.  He's very serious about most things.

I taught him how to flip fish and tell when they're done, and he did a great job.

Next week they've requested Cubans and some sort of steamed veggie.  M2 will be in charge of the sandwiches and M1 the veggie.  I may have M1 do some sort of dessert as well since steaming a vegetable doesn't teach him anything new.  We'll see.  All I know is that I'm so glad my kids are learning these skills!

Cooking Lessons, Week Two

OK, so I said last week that we were going to make runsas/bierocks this week for our cooking lesson.  However, life happened, and today was a really, truly, awfully horrific school day, and making dough was not on the agenda.  I did, however, go rip out the crap that was in my front garden.  It made for great stress relief so that I could come inside and help the kids make...

PIZZA.

Without biting anyone's head off.

First they helped me put some ingredients into the bread machine so that it could make the dough for me.  I'm all for ease of preparation.

Then I told M1 his job this week was to chop everything:

He started with onion, then moved to olives, both black and kalamata, then continued with bell pepper and finished up with chopping...

... the bacon that M2 cooked on the stove.  Her job this week was to saute everything to go on the dough once it was prepared (my job).  She was a little nervous about the bacon because of the spatter, but she did great.  We cooked some of the onion as well as some spinach in the bacon fat, and then I put some sausage in the pan.  We always have to make two pizzas at a time; my family would starve if I tried to feed them just one.

This week's pizzas were Greek (kalamata and black olives, onion, spinach, feta cheese, and bacon with olive oil as the sauce) and "American" (sausage, onion, bell pepper, olives, and mozzarella cheese with your basic tomato sauce).

The kids took their jobs very seriously.  In fact, they were so intent on what they were doing...

... that when I called them, they both looked up in complete surprise.  It's probably a good thing that I broke their concentration, though, because I wasn't the only one stalking them.

Tempest was being a hopeful cat.  M2 promptly hollered at her, and she disappeared.

In the end, I stretched out the dough, and M2 put together the Greek pizza. M1 assembled the sausage one.

Delicious dinner.

Cooking Lessons: Week One

Because the kids' friends aren't available to play on Wednesdays and we generally don't have anywhere to go other than the library, they asked for cooking lessons.

For their first lesson (mind you, my kids have plenty of experience with chopping, measuring, and mixing), I chose shepherd's pie.  There aren't a lot of ingredients, it goes together easily, and each kid can do one part.

I started with M2.  I peeled the potatoes, and she chopped them into pieces so we could mash them.  While her potatoes were boiling, I got M1 started.  His job was to chop up an onion and brown some beef. 

Breaking up beef uses fine motor skills, which he doesn't possess in abundance.  This was work for him, but he kept at it and did a great job.

M2 used her upper body strength to mash the potatoes into submission.

Once they had their respective parts done, I put them together in the casserole dish.  M1 helped me smooth out the potatoes on top, and M2 sprinkled on some cheese.  While it was baking, we prepared some (canned) green beans, and they set the table.

I'd have taken a picture of the leftovers except... there weren't any.

Next week, we're making runsas, known as bierocks in some parts of the country.  M2 gets to chop the cabbage and brown the beef, and M1 will make the dough.  They're already looking forward to it.