Cook the Story

Things have been tough lately.

No, not because The Hubs was away on THREE back-to-back week-long business trips.

No, not because Baby M is up all night stealing my sleep.

And no, not because my nearly-four-year-old has discovered how fun it is to test my patience.

So what’s so hard? Well, see, there’s this jar of preserved lemons on my counter.

Every time I walk through the kitchen my mouth waters as I imagine amazing things to do with them. But darnnit, they’re just not yet ready. All that drooling and dreaming is tough I tell yah. I’m obsessed and there’s nothing I can do but wait.

I guess since I’m just sitting around waiting anyhow, I can spend some time telling you my plans for these tangy tart bites of saltiness.

We all know that preserved lemons go well in Moroccan-inspired tagines (slow braised stew-type dishes).

I’ve also had a great success putting tiny bits of them in salads, especially if feta cheese is involved. The lemons and the feta both have that briny salt flavor but the lemons bring tang and the feta brings creaminess. So good. A bit of the lemon brine can even be used in a salad dressing but beware, it IS salty.

With my current jar I want to try some simple quick preparations where they’ll turn basic dishes into a works of art (or into weird lemony disasters. It could go either way. I’m just sayin’.).

I’m planning to experiment by putting bits of chopped up preserved lemon in places that usually feature other pickled elements (especially pickles/olives/capers) and also in dishes that work well with bright citrus flavors.

My Preserved Lemon Plans:

• Chopped preserved lemon with mayonnaise, salt, pepper and maybe some chopped capers as a tartar sauce for breaded fish.
• Yogurt with minced preserved lemon, cucumber, garlic, salt and pepper to use as a tzatziki for a chicken souvlaki pita dinner.
• Sour cream, preserved lemon, and cilantro: Tex-Mex will never be the same again.
• Oh wait! Back to Greek! Chopped preserved lemon mixed with ground lamb, loads of garlic and rosemary turned into patties for the BBQ. All they’ll need is a softly toasted bun, some crumbled feta and the pepper of a few arugula leaves to become pretty special burgers (this would also work as the base for Greek meatballs).
• A bagel, cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion and little slivers of preserved lemon. Actually, blending those ingredients together (minus the bagel) would be a fantastic smoked salmon dip for pita chips or a spread for canapés.
• Preserved lemon would be wonderful served as an accompaniment to my shrimp dish instead of or in addition to the capers.
• The juice from the pulp of the lemons would zing up a salad dressing. It would probably work squeezed into a sauce just before serving for a bit of tang and salt.
• Bulgur, parsley, red onion, olive oil, salt, pepper and preserved lemon. Revolutionary tabouleh.
• Asparagus, olive oil, salt and pepper in a hot oven until the veg is bright green. Toss with a few thin slices of preserved lemon and a couple of cloves of chopped garlic for a final two-ish minutes of roasting. This might work with broccoli or green beans as well.
• Finally, a classic gin martini with a nice slice of preserved lemon in place of the olive.

So what do you think? Will I actually get around to trying any of this stuff?

Never fear! The Hubs has another business trip soon. I guarantee that at least one of these ideas will be tested at the end of an endless days. Can you guess which one?

What are your ideas for preserved lemons? Have you ever tried anything a bit different with them and had success?

When I was a kid, shrimp were luxury items. We had them on special occasions like New Year’s Eve or when watching the Grey Cup. Since then, the price of shrimp has come down A LOT. They’re still not as cheap as chips (that reminds me, they taste super-darned good alongside chips!) but if paired with inexpensive items, like canned tomatoes below, they make for a reasonably priced quick and easy mid-week dinner. So much so that they’ve become a staple in my freezer; There’s always a bag of Medium-Sized Peeled and Deveined Shrimp chilling out next to the chicken breasts, waiting for when I’ve had a crazy day and want dinner ready lickety split.

This recipe certainly does the trick for mid-week: Quick, easy, tasty and adaptable to different preferences in the family and to the ingredients you have on hand.

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February already?

My baby girl is almost 3 months old. I can’t believe it. I also can’t believe that I survived my first month on a Monthly Meal Plan. Actually, it went pretty well.

Monthly Meal-Planning So Far

I have to admit that we DID NOT follow the plan exactly. See how far off we went in the first week here. But I quickly came to realize that that’s not the point. The point was simply to be armed with a plan. That way, when things are going smoothly, it’s easy to make up a grocery list, to resist falling back on old standbys and to know that I’m getting some of my own recipe-testing in. And then, on days when everything goes to hell, well, I can make a quick omelet and console myself that there’s a better plan ready for tomorrow.

February’s Plan: The Highlights

February is a liberating month for cooks everywhere. February doesn’t require fall’s heart-warming stews and braises nor December’s festive (but heavy) lusciousness, January’s New-Year’s-resolution-infused lightness, Spring’s brightness nor July’s al-fresco-grill obsession. In fact, February doesn’t seem to have any rules, requirements or expectations at all.

(Except for Valentine’s Day where I’m suggesting a simple mid-week meal that is ideal for sharing while sipping on red wine: Cheese for Dinner à la Amateur Gourmet followed by some truly decadent Molten Chocolate Cakes by Nicole Reese, Fine Cooking Magazine. See pic at top of post).

I therefore decided to fill February with a bit of everything. There’s Asian (Sriracha Tofu Stir Fry from Cooking My Way Happy), Moroccan (Chicken, Olive and Preserved Lemon Tagine from Closet Cooking), Greek (Leftover braised lamb served with pitas, roasted veggies, feta and a quick homemade Tzatziki sauce from Astro) and even Costa Rican (Seasonal and Savory’s Gallo Pinto from last month was so good that it’s re-appearing this month). Read the rest of this entry »

I adore ogling recipes in the blogosphere but I rarely get to try them out. This month I’ve changed that by adding recipes from other food bloggers to my monthly meal plan. How exciting is that?

My most recent recipe from the blogs is Moderate Oven’s Maple-Braised Italian Sausages with Apples. It was super-easy to make and the result was full of balanced flavors (sweet maple, tart apples, rich fennel-filled sausages). How delicious is that?

The best thing about this recipe is that it involves several meal components so dinner comes together so simply. There’s meat (sausages), veg (cabbage), fruit (apples) and a jus sauce (from the sausage drippings and maple syrup). You brown the sausages and then briefly sauté cabbage and onions (I did this earlier in the day). Then it all goes into a pot with the apples and maple syrup. Pop it into the oven and it’s ready when the sausages are cooked through. How easy is that?

All that was needed to round out the meal was a bit of carb to soak up the juices. I went for creamy cheddar polenta but white rice or grainy bread would have done just as well. A few greens for color and dinner is ready! How ridiculously awesome is that?

Note: I used red cabbage instead of the green cabbage Dani specified in the recipe. Why? Because I love red cabbage. But the resulting jus was a pretty intense purple. Green cabbage might therefore be a better bet, just for appearances sake. Oh, and I should also mention that the inspiration for Dani’s recipe comes from The Grassfed Gourmet.

Imagine it: A bowlful of *real*, healthy, fiber-filled, nutrient packed, squidgy, warm and comforting oatmeal in just one minute (time required to add brown sugar, blueberries and a drizzle of milk not included).

What a discovery! This has truly revolutionized our mornings.

It’s so easy that I can even manage to get everyone’s porridge ready before the coffee’s brewed. And then I sit down with my hot mugga, my sweet bowlful, my hot hubs and my sweet kids to begin our day. Yes, it’s true: There really are days when it’s that perfect (or at least, there was that one time….) Read the rest of this entry »

I chose to add Seasonal and Savory’s Gallo Pinto to this month’s meal plan because it looked quick and easy and used simple ingredients. I don’t know what I was expecting but I was definitely surprised by the satisfying deliciousness that we sat down to on Friday night.

I followed the recipe nearly exactly, the only change being the substitution of 1 tbsp of the sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo for the chile paste

The simple and short list of ingredients yielded big flavor: Sweetness from the carrots, heat from the chipotle sauce, freshness from the cilantro and lime. And yet, all that flavor was balanced and softened by the silky smoosh of beans, the fluffy carbiness of rice and the comforting slurpiness of fried egg.

You may recall my worry that The Hubs would complain about the general lack of meat in our meals lately. Instead, he wolfed the Gallo Pinto back, declared it awesome and said he would happily feast on it again any day.

What I like best about this meal is how basic it is. Since it’s quick to make, uses ingredients that I tend to have on hand, and was adored by all, I know that I will make it again and again, most likely saving it for those crappy days when all other plans have gone to heck.

Do you have a meal or recipe that saves you on crappy days? Do tell!

Head over to Seasonal and Savory for the Gallo and Pinto recipe. Tell Angela that Chris sent yah!

As promised, here’s the January Meal Plan:

January Meal Plan

(It’s an excel file. My hope is that you can print it as is or use it as a template for your own meal plan. Note: there are links below the calendar to the recipes that are used in the plan.)

We’re five days into The Plan already and I thought I should be honest and tell you just how far off track we’ve gone.

Day 1:

Leftover Crisp and Unctuous Pork Belly on sandwiches with loads of red onion, spinach and mushroom salad. Check! Yeah, we managed to stick to plan the first day. But then, who wouldn’t when it involves pork belly?

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I don’t have much time to explain. Actually, that’s kind of the point: I don’t have much time for anything these days.

Ah, the fond memories of the hubs and I sitting over bacon and eggs, a pile of cookbooks and a grocery list at The Only Café making our weekly meal plan and grocery list. We’d challenge each other to cook and taste new things while also making sure our week was well-rounded and had enough grains and fish, not too much meat and fat, yada yada yada.

Ha! These days I usually find myself at the grocery store without a list trying desperately to plan meals based on fuzzy memories of what’s in the fridge (memories = fuzzy, hopefully items in fridge ≠ fuzzy).

Some people can probably take this in stride. But it makes me nuts! I pull into that parking lot nearly every day, there to pick up yet another item that I’ve somehow forgotten. And grocery store visits, which were once calming enjoyable experiences, are now mad dashes through the aisles with a cranky toddler filling half my cart (and trying to eat half its contents) and a babe strapped to my chest.

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O.K., so Christmas is nearly here. I have somehow managed to get all of our Christmas shopping done (yes, all online. Yes, all on Cyber Monday. Yes, I saved some money. Yes, I therefore spent more). I even managed to get it done in time for the two “Pretend Christmases” that we’ve already celebrated this year, one with my in-laws visiting from the UK and one with my brother and his family visiting from Canada.

With all these Christmases, you can bet that there has some good food floating around. My mom made a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve for us out in Cocoa Beach (where they’re snow-birding) while my brother was in town, followed by a savory crown roast for “Christmas Day”. Did I mention Carrot Cake Trifle?

My in-laws and I worked some true magic in the kitchen when we whipped up this elegant make-ahead Christmas dinner by Molly Stephens from Fine Cooking Magazine. We did make it all ahead and we were then free to relax together before the meal. Or rather, we would have been free to relax together before the meal if I wasn’t off nursing M while my in-laws entertained J and my hubs kept his eye on everything warming in the oven. We were however able to relax together during the meal without a lot of getting up and down between or during courses. My fave parts of the dinner: the red wine sauce drizzled over the gratin potatoes (note: we used cauliflower instead of rutabaga in the potato dish) and the Gingerbread-Brandy Trifle which was somehow satisfyingly dense while also being soft and light. It wasn’t too sweet either, probably because the crystallized ginger in the mix cut through everything with a hot zing. So good.  (Honest truth: I was caught standing in front of the open fridge with a spoonful of trifle in my mouth THREE times on the day after our meal.)

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Our darling daughter M was born on November 5th, 7 lbs 7 ounces, 20.25 inches long. She has her dad’s even temperament, her brother’s sweet pudgy cheeks and her mom’s ridiculously long feet. Oh, and let’s not forget the inheritance of her mom’s insatiable appetite!

We’re all healthy and happy and enjoying getting to know each other as we settle into our new home.

My blogging hiatus will continue for awhile yet. I do have a couple of guest posts ready to go but will wait until I’m ready to post more regularly. These guest posts form the beginning of a longer series that I’m planning called Different Families, Different Dinners. If you’d like to participate in this series by sharing a favourite family meal, a tip for getting your family’s meal onto the table or a story about that arsenic hour known as dinner time, let me know. We’ll set it up so you can share your experiences with others here on Cook the Story.

In other news, one of my posts has been syndicated on BlogHer. If you’re looking for something Thanksgiving-related to read or if you need a great stuffing recipe for this weekend, head over to BlogHer to check out Poultry Cavity Conflict: Causes and Solutions.

And now, back to hiatusing (a.k.a. laundry, diapering, breastfeeding and unpacking).

Hugs!

Chris