links for 2008-07-05

• Chemical Warfare in Your Kitchen? The Bachelor Guy
  Great list of the chemicals in common household cleaners -- and some alternatives.
  (tags: chemicals cleaners)

Brie with pecan sauce

My sister's friend Tiffany gave her this recipe, and we tried it tonight for the first time. A new favorite.

There's no real cooking involved, so don't be intimidated.

We had a hard time not eating it all.

Brie with pecan sauce
1 small wheel of brie [or camembert, which I bought by accident and was also great]
1 small package crescent rolls [in the dairy case]
1 jar pecans in syrup [with the ice cream toppings]

Unroll the crescent rolls on a cookie sheet. Place them together in a squarish fashion and press the seams together. Put the cheese in the middle and fold the corners of the rolls together on top of the cheese. Bake according to the roll directions.

Remove and pour the pecan sauce over the cheese. Serve with crackers. It's ridiculous how good that is.

Declaring the blog holiday over

This is one of my favorites

I hadn't meant to take such a long blog vacation here after the wedding, but things have just been busy around here lately. We got our pictures tonight from the photographer....see more here.

I'll be back shortly with some fun food posts. We have still been eating in the interim.

links for 2008-07-03

• The Minimalist - 101 Picnic Dishes to Make in 20 Minutes | NYTimes.com
  Picnic foods need not be boring. With a little shopping, a little effort, and 20 minutes or less for assembly, you can easily vary the menu a bit.
  (tags: food picnic)

links for 2008-06-25

• Pitcher’s Singular Slam Buries Mets | New York Times
  In manager Jerry Manuel’s first home game the dreadful Mariners cruised past the Mets, 5-2. The Mariners win featured a grand slam by Felix Hernandex, a pitcher who hadn't homered since Little League. I can't help but laugh.
  (tags: baseball)

Squash cornbread recipe

There are about a million recipes for zucchini bread out there, so I figured there might be one for squash cornbread. I found a few, but all called for cornbread mix. Despite my using self-rising cornmeal, "mix" is anathema to me. So I rejected them out of hand.

I made one up, and I was so pleased with it. Hope you enjoy!

Squash Cornbread
3 c. white, self-rising cornmeal
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. thyme
2 eggs
Enough milk -- I think I used around 1 1/2 c. total
4 T. oil or melted butter
1 lb. yellow squash, grated [About 2 cups]
1 medium onion, grated
1 c. cream-style corn

Mix dry ingredients. Beat eggs lightly and mix with milk and oil/butter. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add more milk if necessary. Batter shouldn't be runny, but should pour easily. Blend in vegetables.

Spray a 13x9 baking pan and pour in batter. Bake for 30 min. or til done [golden brown on top, toothpick comes out clean] at 400 degrees.

links for 2008-06-21

• Smoking, Drinking, Writing, Womanizing, Smoking, Drinking... - Mad Men | NYTimes.com
  I have GOT to go read this article. I love, love, love Mad Men.
  (tags: madmen TV)

I'm creating a menu schedule

That's redundant, isn't it?? I have been playing around with this idea for months. It's certainly not original. The ladies over at Home Ec 101 are religious about their menus, posting a new menu each week.

I've tried in the past to make a menu a week in advance. I use my Franklin Planner for a lot of planning like that, and it's always bothered me that their menu and shopping pages start with Monday. Never mind that I reset all my electronic calendars to begin on Monday. It's a personal issue -- I usually have time to sit down and plan a menu on Saturdays. So I either use the days in the wrong order, or I waste a whole page with nothing but Sunday's menus.

It's a bad problem, I know.

But what I really want to work on is not having an exact menu written out for every day, but instead, at creating a schedule for the week's dinners. Like:
Monday: Sandwiches
Tuesday: Breakfast
Wednesday: Pasta
Thursday: Salad
Friday: Grill

You get the picture -- I'm looking for categories of food, so that it will be easier for me to think of quick dinners to make. I don't need categories for the weekends. I either have more time to cook, more time to think, or both.  Frankly, for me, the thinking time is more than half the battle. I can make a quick dinner. I can make probably 25 or 30 quick dinners, maybe more. But to sit around and think up which one to make? And that I have the ingredients for on hand?? That's not happening. Thus, I'm hoping to reduce my food thinking time during the week.

There's this, too: As of now, I've spent about 2 years of my life as a vegetarian. But that means I have 23 years' experience cooking dinner as an omnivore. And just 2 as a vegetarian. I'm still a newbie when it comes to the day-in, day-out planning and eating. I'm still spending an awful lot of time thinking, OK, what protein have I had today? What about the 9yo [she's also a veggie]? And what about the 2yo [he's not, but hey, he's a growing boy]. I'm a huge carb fan, and I could easily eat more than my daily recommended calories in white bread and butter. So I have to pay attention to that. As mentioned here before, the 9yo eats like 20 foods, so I watch her diet closely, too.

But I really am working to expand my cooking repertoire, entering my 3rd year of no meat. Because our society --and my training as a cook -- is so meat-oriented, I find myself often looking a vegetarian meal and thinking something's missing. The deal is this: You can't just remove the chicken and still have a meal. It's not like you have to do an even swap for some tofu, either. You have to say, if I'm not building a meal around a meat, what am I building it around? What anchors this dinner? What complements that? What would be a nice side dish? And does all that feel like a complete plate?

So with all that thinking, I'm hoping it will help to have a schedule to work from.