Just throw it in there and cross your fingers.

So you bought a whole head/bag of shredded cabbage for the cup needed for Posole and don't know what to do with the rest, huh?

I figured I better improvise or it would be yet another half used bag of vegetable, rotting in my crisper. So I threw it in a cucumber salad and hoped for the best. And it worked—it got raves from the hubby and I thought it was fantastic. We had it with steak, but it would be good with some sort of Asiany chicken or fish, too. Something fairly simple-this has a lot of flavor.

Cucumber Peanut Salad
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground chile paste like Sambal Oelek (or to taste)
Medium squirt fish sauce (or 1/4 tsp salt)
1 large cucumber
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, finely chopped (I used the food processor)
Decent handful chopped cilantro, including the stems
3 green onions, just the light green/white parts, sliced
About a cup of shredded cabbage
1 green onion (the green part), thinly sliced (to top)

Combine vinegar and sugar (and salt, if you're using it) in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until all is dissolved. Turn off heat, add chile and fish sauce, and set aside to cool.

Peel cucumber and halve longways. Use a spoon to drag down the middle, removing the seeds. Slice into fairly thin slices and place in small bowl. Pour dressing over cucumber, and toss gently to coat. Put cabbage into a medium/big bowl, and top with cucumbers and sauce from the small bowl. Add peanuts, cilantro and green onion, and toss just before serving. Top with remaining green onion.

Slow cooker Posole. Because I am lazy now.

It's finally cold. Ok, it's not cold. 60s during the day, 30s at night. But that's cold enough for little freezing baby hands, and not just the kind I'm used to in the middle of the night. And def cold enough for soup.

E and I were at the store at 8am because that is now my life, and chicken thighs were on sale...so I thought I'd take advantage of the cold day ahead of me and try and make some crock pot posole happen.

Having all day meant I could have done it the long way. Or I could just throw everything in a pot and sit on the floor with my home-on-a-weekend-for-an-awesome-change hubby, coaxing the kid to try and walk to us all afternoon. I chose the latter.

Not as good as the slave away in the kitchen method, but damn good for doing next to nothing. And I bought prechopped onion and garlic and pre shredded cabbage, so I really did next to nothing. Don't judge. I'm working two jobs from home, chasing a kid from 6am til 6pm, and attempting to read a book this week. If I can get my act together I may even watch one of the 3 weeks worth of Dexter I have TiVoed.

Ok, that was a complete exaggeration. I'm obviously totally caught up on Dexter. It's called priorities.

Slow Cooker Posole
4 boneless chicken thighs
1 tbsp garlic, minced
One small onion, chopped
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
3/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
One can chopped green chilis (hot)
6 cups chicken stock
1 29oz can hominy, drained
Bay leaf
Salt, to taste
Shredded cabbage
Lemon slices
Chopped cilantro
Chopped green or white onion
Tortillas
*I also threw in a couple slices of cooked bacon, but that was mostly because they were hanging out on my counter after breakfast and I didn't want to toss them. Or keep eating them.

Combine chicken through bay leaf in large crock pot and set for 6 hours (or whatever you have time for). When done, use a fork to pull meat apart into pieces, taste and add salt as needed.

Serve with cabbage, lemon, cilantro, onion, and tortillas. And hot sauce, if you add Tapatio to everything (guilty). And and if you don't have a brand of store bought tortillas, you prefer, I really like The Tortilla Factory. They look and taste handmade.

Boo-ze?

As promised, a bevy (ahem) of beverages to celebrate my favorite season.

I got a handful of submissions for this, and my trusty co-judge (We'll call her "Teach") and I chose four to try. We got super technical with our judging; more so, obviously, as the night went on. By the time we were inventing shots, our point system was long out the window and we were just thumbs upping and thumbs downing. We had a blast decorating our drinks, by the way. But don't let the pretty black sugar fool you. Some of these were awful.

So I'm just going to share our thoughts. Starting with, hands down, the best drink of the night.

Submitted/created by Jessica & Matt. Nice work, guys!

Shut Up & Drink (AKA Captain Mom) 

2 parts apple vodka

1 part butterscotch schnapps

1 part 1/2 & 1/2

squirt of caramel

Shake with ice and serve in a martini glass. Garnish with whipped cream and caramel.

Teach: Wow...this is like...drinking for apples instead of bobbing for apples. It's just like a caramel apple. It really makes me think of Halloween.
Pammy: I could only order one of these. It's really sweet, but the flavor is great.
Teach: It's like one of those caramel apple suckers!
Pammy: OMG, totally.

(At this point we started debating what the point system should be and if it should contain a category for "seasonality" or "halloweeness." And then we decided both were dumb and moved on to the next drink.) 

Submitted by Laura. Black sugar and a cinnamon stick and we were all fancy pants.

Pumpkin Pie Martini

(courtesy Manhattan's Haru Sushi, with slight substitutions and our garnish)

1.5 oz pear vodka

1 oz pumpkin puree

1/4 oz triple sec

 1/4 oz simple syrup

splash of bitters

dash of nutmeg 

dash of cinnamon

Combine and shake with ice. Serve in a sugar-rimmed martini glass with a cinnamon stick.

Teach: I could smell this all day...or night.
Pammy: It smells like a spa.
Teach: Yes. It's relaxing. (heh, Teach was already drunk)
Pammy: This is more my speed. Not as sweet.
Teach: Isn't it awesome? All the flavors...I want to keep smelling it! (Smells it for awhile) This one is seasonal. And festive.
Pammy: It's really rich. Also good for just one drink.
Teach. Yes. That is pumpkin pie.
 (five minutes later)
Pammy: The end gets kind of...chunky—
Teach: And that's no good.

Note: Do not make the following drinks. In fact, I'm not even going to post their recipes.

Chocolate Orange Martini

Pammy: This looks awe.some. We're ridiculous.  
(Take sips. We just make faces for awhile.)   
Pammy: So, this was supposed to be dark chocolate, not white chocolate.
Teach: I. love. dark chocolate.
Pammy: Me tooo. I really don't like white chocolate.
Teach: Noooo.
Pammy: We should have known better. We made it look the most festive—
Teach: but that does not make up for it being awful.


And down the sink it went. 

Pumpkin Spice Latte Martini
(Note: I tried making this work all weekend, until I literally was going to vomit if I saw the bottle of Kahlua one more time. I'm thinking Bailey's may have been a more obvious choice, but I didn't want to buy another bottle of booze.)

Teach: This looks like cozy in a cup!
Pammy: It looks awesome.
Teach: It's seriously just cute.
(takes sip.)
Pammy: I really wanted this to work. The mix is just...wrong. What is wrong with it?? Does it need actual coffee?
Teach: It's really bitter. Too much Kahlua?
Pammy: Yeah, it's definitely not sweet enough. It's so pretty though.

And down the sink it went. And at this point, we decided we should create our own drinks, so we made a Pumpkin Milk base (1 part pumpkin puree, 2 parts 1/2 and 1/2, 1 part simple syrup, a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg) and went from there. Here's the best.

Holidaze Shot
1 oz Pumpkin Milk
1 oz vodka*
Mix in shot glass.

*We may have tried this with regular, vanilla, pear, and apple vodkas. I like regular. She liked vanilla.

So anyway, cheers everybody. Hope you had great Halloweens. Hubby and I decided to stick a "baby's sleeping-ring the doorbell and perish" sign on the door (not actually what it said, but it should have. I always think of the good stuff too late, damnit) and left a bowl of starbursts on the front porch. Because we thought it was a nice thing to do for the first four kids who came to our door.

Hey, you snooze, you lose.

Boo!

Halloween Booze post is forthcoming, but in the meantime...

Halloween Cocktail Challenge

Oh, so many things to say. So many half finished blogs to post. So much going on in my head that this full time mom and part time employee and part time employer and full time stresscase has to just get down on paper. Keys. whatever.

So what gets me to actually log on and post something? Booze. Obvs.

I posted this challenge on Facebook last week, but here it is again:

Got a killer Halloween inspired cocktail you want to share? I want to hear them! Bonus points if you concocted it yourself, but if you got it from somewhere, that's cool, too. Just make sure and credit the source in your entry.

The three my panel of judges decide are the best will be posted for all y'all to sample yourselves.

Which reminds me. I need a panel of judges. Email me for deets if you want in, whether it's at my house or at your own...

My hubby just asked what the winner gets. Um, drunk. Duh.

I've got three strong (heh) contenders already. Whatcha got?

It should not be this hard.

I have a handful of foods that I just can't master handle even begin to not utterly fuck up. And they're basic, too. Bacon, for example. Either completely burned or completely uncooked. I can't flip fried eggs to save my life. (Actually, breakfast foods in general tend to get the best of me).

Lasagna is another. It should be simple—sauce, pasta, filling, cheese, sauce, repeat, repeat, repeat. But for whatever reason, I can't deal with it. It's either too wet and falls apart, or I don't put enough sauce and it's dry and blech. I just...I can't do it, I don't know.

Anyway, that was just a tangent. What I intended to start with was that my little food processor has had quite the workout today.

I'm making all of E's food, so I figured I'd try and get a head start on the next week...so with the help of the processor and some new ice cube trays, I'm now stocked up on peas, carrots, green beans, and sweet potatoes. (We're also very slowly moving through banana and avocado. Peas we love, sweet potatoes we love. Feet kicking, baby-bird mouth wide open, spoon grabbing L-O-V-E...avocado, on the other hand, gets a clamped lip. Will. Not. Eat. Cracks me up.)

But I also came across a recipe on Pinterest for a Veggie Pesto Lasagna that looked delish, so the first step was making some pesto. A little birdie (the internet) told me that the best pesto is a bit coarser than the store bought mush you generally find (and I usually make), but instead of chopping by hand (please), I just added a bit lot less olive oil and pulsed a bunch of times until it was nice and coarse.

Pesto
It's not real scientific here:
A handful of pinenuts
A whole bunch of basil (maybe 2 cups? more?)
4 cloves of garlic, roughly sliced
About 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Sea Salt (a good pinch)
Olive oil (2 tbsp or so)

Combine all in food processor. Use accordingly.

Accordingly, in this case, is about 1/3 of a cup, so I have a ton left. I'll figure something out. But holy hell, my lasagna finally turned out. Even though I had to use cottage cheese instead of ricotta (don't ask why I was doing my cheese shopping at Target)...it totally worked.

Veggie Pesto Lasagna
12 no-cook lasagna noodles
1 jar marinara (I used a tomato basil)
2 cups cottage cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 cup pesto
Thyme (about a tsp)
Oregano (about a tsp)
Sea salt
Fresh mozzarella, torn into small pieces
Olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup shredded zucchini
Chili flakes to taste (I used a 1/2 tsp or so)

1 package baby spinach

Preheat oven to 375.

Saute garlic, onion and zucchini until soft. Add chili flakes, and gradually add spinach until wilted. Remove from heat.

In large bowl, combine cottage (or ricotta) with the parmesan, pesto, thyme, oregano, and salt.

Coat baking dish (I used a 9x13) lightly with cooking spray. Pour enough sauce to very thinly cover the bottom (1/2 cup or so). Arrange 4 noodles to cover (break off the corners if you need them to fit better). Spread half of the cheese mixture across the noodles (make sure and cover them all to make sure they cook well), then half the spinach mixture across the cheese. Arrange half of the mozzarella across. Top with 4 more noodles, and pour half of the remaining sauce. Repeat with remaining cheese, spinach, and mozzarella. Top with remaining 4 noodles and the rest of the sauce.

Bake for about 40 minutes, covered lightly with foil.

6-10 servings, depending on how you cut it.

The six(!) month check-in

So Mister Man has been around for six months. Dude, that's half a year. I think this seems like a long time, but as hubby says, "Once he's been out of the womb longer than he was in there...then it's impressive."

So whatever. Some people just aren't impressed by much. I know Angelina Jolie famously called her babies "blobs," which I can understand if not agree with, but it's definitely been a change. E's gone from a creepily itty bitty newborn to a baby...and a baby that wants to be a child, at that. He turned 5 months and was pulling himself to standing. He cut two teeth. And since then, he's learned to sit himself up. OH, and he's CRAWLING.

So, yeah, I'm screwed. Here's what I've learned lately.

Sometimes you just have to invent alone time. I've sat in grocery store parking lots in a roasting hot car eating ice cream sandwiches, just so I don't have to go home. See also: trips through drive thrus for sodas after appointments, shaving legs in the shower when they don't need to be shaved, and pretending not to hear the baby talking to himself in the crib after a nap. If he's happy, I'm happily not entertaining him.

Always, always be sure the baby is done pooping before removing a diaper. That is all.

Sleep training is awful. Let's be honest here: we started letting the poor kid cry. We read a book, we rock and sing two songs, and into the crib he goes. At bedtime, there's also a bath and pjs beforehand. Sometimes he sighs, turns on his side and falls asleep holding his stuffed monkey. Most of the time, he screams for 5 minutes, I go in and pop the pacifier back in, and then he goes to sleep. And then some days there's just screaming. And screaming. And screaming. At this exact moment, it sounds like there's a mountain lion in his crib, tearing him apart limb from limb. He's standing in the crib, clutching the railing, pitifully wanting to do anything other than sleep.

Seriously, child.

The nicest part, other than regular naps and a set bedtime (holy crap, we get to have dinner together again at 7:30!) is that I'm no longer rocking him completely to sleep, singing butchering the same damn two songs over and over and over. Now, I only have to listen to myself four times a day—before it was closer to 12 to 16 times. Each song. Per day. That's the same refrain 36 or more times. each. day.

That said, I used to love Love Song by the Cure/311/Adele. These days, not so much. I'm still not sick of Lullaby by the Dixie Chicks, though. That's some good baby-cuddling stuff.

I'm bored with breast feeding. I mean, the kid's gotta eat, so there's no way around it (and my god, pumping is so much worse), but it's been six months, and it's boring. I don't know why people consider it bonding time. If he was just going to eat, that'd be one thing. When he's wide awake and super hungry, we can typically knock out a meal in 10 minutes. But the rest of the time, I sit there, playing Words with Friends (username: phubs) or Where's My Water? or reading the news and waiting while he either a) eats lazily, b) half eats/half sleeps, or c) half eats/half squirms around, biting my nipple with his sharp little choppers, pulling my hair and kicking me in the shoulder/throat. That one's obviously my favorite.

Oh, and I've discovered the only way to feel more like a cow is to hand express. (This isn't nearly as sexy as it sounds, dudes. I'm sorry to have to burst your fantasy here.) It's awful, but it's faster than pumping.

And there's the eating. Speaking of, love is making (and tasting) mashed sweet potatoes using freshly squeezed breast milk. E has been ready to eat solids for the past two months (according to me) but the doc wanted me to wait until 6 months. Something about him thriving on my milk or something, I don't know. (Also, go me.) The first two days were TBD...but he'd moved up to two servings (two tablespoons, which is more than it sounds) by the 4th day. Little piggy.

He eats everything. I feel like "My kid ate my homework" doesn't fly the way "my dog ate my homework" does. (Does it?? I have no idea. I liked homework. Yes, I was that kid.) But for real. He eats my homework. My bills. My shoes. My computer. Anything that can go in his mouth does.

I love that he's this size. He's big enough to fit nicely in my arms, all curled up and sweet, but big enough to not be at risk of being broken. Not that I'm planning to drop him, but this kid can wiggle. Case in point: Diaper changes.

So, yeah, he's a handful. But he's incredibly sweet and silly and keeps Hubby and me laughing. He makes the weirdest noises we've ever heard, especially when he's tired. We generally know sleep is imminent when he starts telling us a story. It's like he knows he's about to fall asleep and needs to tell us everything he's been thinking about all day before he forgets. It's awesome.

He's also having teething symptoms again (that or he really is trying to eat his own hand), so we may have more chompers to report next month.

'Til then...

Is it still gourmet if it's easy?

When hubby asked what I was making and I told him Prosciutto Spinach Salad, his response was "ooh, gourmet."

Which got me thinking...exactly what makes a meal gourmet? Is there, like, a gourmet qualifier?

Here is how the MacMillan Dictionary defines gourmet:
Gourmet food: of a very high quality.
Gourmet cook: someone who can make very good food. 

Well. Glad we got that straightened out. Thank you, MacMillan dictionary, for that riveting and completely non-subjective definition. Sooooo. I guess the moral here is that this salad is awesome (yet super easy) and you should make it, because people will think you're gourmet and shit.

Prosciutto Spinach Salad
1 3oz pkg prosciutto
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
Spray oil
Fresh pepper
Asparagus, trimmed and cut in half or thirds
Baby spinach, one package
About 1/4 cup basil, thinly sliced
Juice from half a lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tap brown sugar
Parmesan cheese

On a lined cooking sheet, lay out prosciutto slices and sprinkle with tomato halves.

Coat lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle all well with fresh pepper. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. Let cool and break prosciutto into pieces.

Bring some water to a boil and drop in asparagus. Let cook about 5 minutes, drain, and rinse with cool water.

In a medium bowl, combine the dressing ingredients: basil, lemon, oil and sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolved. (or stick it all in a jar with a lid and shake it til dissolved, like I did.)

On large salad plates, spread out baby spinach and top with asparagus. Arrange prosciutto and tomato, and drizzle with dressing. Finish with a dusting (or more!) of parmesan. Voila.

I don't know why I didn't just make them meatballs.

Does anyone actually eat Bulgar Wheat? My phone keeps trying to change it to "vulgar" wheat, which I take as a sign that I do not, in fact, want to try it. Well, I'd try it, of course, but I'm not going to buy it. Anyway, this recipe called for it. But it also called for me to make my own plum sauce from scratch.

Heh. Cooking Light. Heh.

I had whole wheat couscous (which, really, is the same thing), and I had hoisin sauce and sweet chili sauce, so substitutions were readily made. Not the same as plum sauce, obviously, but they worked great-or you could always buy plum sauce. Or make it. That's all you.

Pork Patties with Slaw
2/3 cup boiling water
1/3 cup whole wheat couscous
1 package ground pork, 80% lean
Good squirt Sriracha
4 stalks green onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tbsp sherry
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
Cooking spray

Hoisin Sauce and/or sweet chili sauce, to serve

4 stalks green onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 cups shredded coleslaw mix (cabbage and carrots)
3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
Sriracha (to taste)
pinch ground pepper (white)
handful peanuts, chopped

In saucepan or bowl, combine water and couscous, cover and let stand 5 minutes. When all liquid is absorbed, fluff with a fork. In large bowl, combine couscous, pork, sriracha, green onion, cilantro, sherry, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. Divide into 10 to 12 small patties. Poke a hole in each one. (I don't know why, but the original recipe said to, and I did, and they were good, so why chance it?)

Heat pan over medium high, spray with cooking spray. Cook 5-6 patties for 5 minutes, then turn and cook an additional 5 minutes. Remove and repeat with remaining patties.

Combine remaining green onion, cilantro and cabbage in a large bowl. Whisk together vinegar, oil, sriracha and pepper, and pour over cabbage mix. Toss well and top with peanuts.

Serve slaw and patties together, and top with hoisin and/or sweet chili sauce.



 

Maybe it's just an acquired taste.

Tarragon is one of those herbs I just don't use much. I've tried dried, I've tried fresh, and it's always just too...sweet? (If you can get them, and they aren't ridiculously expensive, always spring for the fresh stuff. With the exception of something that's going to cook a long time, like chili or crock-pot recipes, fresh herbs almost always win out over dried.) It's really pungent, but I'm not sure how best to describe it. I kept trying, but I just hadn't found a tarragon-centric recipe that I've liked much.

Until now.

This tarragon and lemon chicken is. so. good. I originally was going to try just lemon and tarragon, but it was missing something for me. So I added some garlic and mustard, and then I actually found myself wanting more of the sweetness to come through, so I added some white wine, and bit more tarragon, and boom. Perfect.

Served it over mashed red potatoes (with margarine, salt, pepper and a bit of white wine) and a simple green salad, and we gobbled it right on up.

Tarragon Chicken
2  boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
Salt
White pepper
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
Zest of one lemon
Juice from half a lemon
About 2 tsp fresh chopped tarragon
1/4 cup white wine (i.e. Sauvignon blanc)
1 tbsp olive oil
Cooking spray

Sprinkle chicken with a bit of salt and pepper. Coat pan with cooking spray, and cook chicken over medium high heat for about 3 minutes. Pour over half the sauce, then turn chicken. Cook another two minutes, pour over remaining sauce, and cover. Cook another 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through (less if it's really thin, more if it's not).

Serve with the cooked juice ladled on top.