Tucci Love

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We met a lovely woman named Janelle in Fire Island this summer who invited us to lunch at her house. As we sat on the deck eating grilled chicken and drinking wine, she told me about her favorite whole fish recipe. "You'll remember this," she said. "It's from Stanley Tucci." Last week I ordered two whole branzinos from Fresh Direct (they were on sale and seemed summery) and then remembered the recipe. I googled Stanley Tucci Fish and sure enough found it. I've grilled a whole fish before but never tried the roasting thing. It's super easy and yummy, and if you're okay with occasional bones, a beautiful presentation and meal. 

Stanley Tucci's Whole Roasted Branzino

1 (1 ½ pound) whole branzino, cleaned, gutted, and scales removed
Fine sea salt
6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 lemons, thinly sliced, plus additional for serving
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for serving
20 cherry tomatoes
¾ cup dry white wine

Preheat oven to 500˚F. Season both sides and the cavity of fish with salt. Arrange the 3 cloves garlic, lemon slices, rosemary, thyme, and parsley inside cavity.

In a large roasting pan, add olive oil. Transfer fish to pan. Toss in cherry tomatoes and remaining garlic in pan. Add ½ cup wine. Place pan in oven and cook, turning once and adding remaining wine, until skin becomes crispy, about 10 minutes. (To test for doneness, insert a metal skewer into the middle of fish for 5 seconds. Remove the skewer and if warm, then fish is cooked).

Transfer fish to serving plate. Arrange roasted tomatoes and lemon slices alongside fish, and drizzle with pan juices. Serve immediately.

which came first?

Lately the kids have been interested in where their food comes from, but in the most basic sense, like: bacon is from an animal? How does that work?

They are fascinated by their friends and relatives who are vegetarians, and justifiably so. Why does Sadie not eat animals but we do? For awhile Nate was going around calling himself a “carnivore, like a lion.” Which isn’t so far from the truth since it’s not like he regularly eats vegetation or grains or fruit. But then the idea of why lions don’t eat pasta came up and we had to examine the tricky definition of carnivore: does it mean one ONLY eats meat or that one eats meat at all?

Lions and little boys are different, it seems. 

And then there are vegans (even 6 year old vegans, at least in Williamsburg). Vegetarian is one thing but no eggs? We literarily would not survive a week without eggs. We eat eggs for breakfast (fried, over easy, sunny side up); for lunch (scrambled) and dinner (cheesy squares). Usually not in the same day. And last night for Meatless Monday, I made the following super easy and yummy frittata that I will be forcing on the kids again in the near future.

Dinner Frittata

1 bag frozen broccoli
1 cup shredded cheese (or feta or goat cheese crumbled)
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tbsp olive oil
salt/pepper

Defrost broccoli and drain.  Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Then place in an oiled or buttered baking dish. Cover with cheese
Whisk eggs and milk, salt/pepper and pour over the broccoli/cheese.
Bake 350 for 20 minutes or until firm.

 

 

the everyday and the dutch baby

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Most weekends we make pancakes which are our everyday pancakes. I use a healthy-ish dry mix and we add eggs, milk and oil. The kids know the "recipe" by heart and love to help and the pancakes, which I make on our griddle, are pretty good. 

But this was a different kind of weekend. We had three birthday parties lined up, plus dinner with friends and a date night. And of course at birthday party number 1 on Saturday morning, a lovely pool party on a rooftop in Brooklyn, Mack slammed his face into a wooden planter while running from a water gun fight. 

We spent the next few hours in Urgent Care waiting for a doctor to look at his swollen bleeding eye. It turns out he is fine, just beat up, but anyone who knows Mack will probably feel more compassion for the doctor in this scenario. The very nice doctor in training who had never met Mack and didn't realize what he was in for or that the last time this boy had a medical procedure, the hospital security guards were called in to help hold him down. Not kidding.

After the crying, screaming, thrashing, begging and whirling insults, we finally got a drop into his eye. Six lollypops later, we were on our way home with a prescription for more drops (god help us) when Mack realized he wasn't returning to the lovely rooftop birthday party (since it was long over) and that he would not in fact be eating cake. You can imagine the rest. 

Anyway, this was no weekend for everyday healthy pancakes so we made this recipe from 1966 that blew us all away: creamy and buttery, custard-like with crispy edges. All it needs is a little powdered sugar on top. 

DUTCH BABY

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Pinch of nutmeg
4 tablespoons (one half stick) of unsalted butter
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the flour, milk, eggs, and nutmeg in a bowl. Beat lightly. 
Melt the butter on the stove in a cast iron skillet with a heatproof handle. When it is very hot, (be careful not to burn!) pour in the batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the pancake is golden brown.
Sprinkle with the sugar.

a cheesy meatless monday

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The kids were fools and declined to even try this creamy deliciousness which I made last night. It's pretty close to Alfredo and fun that you can keep scraping strands out of the "bowl" after it's all over.

Also this coincided with the kids eating scrambled eggs so we had a Yellow Dinner party and invited the following guests:

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium-sized spaghetti squash
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon cream cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus 2 Tablespoons extra for topping
salt/pepper

DIRECTIONS:

There are several ways to get the spaghetti out of the squash but the easiest is the microwave. You can put the whole squash in for 5-10 minutes until soft and then cut, or cut first then microwave for 5-10 minutes until soft. Either way let it cool a bit before you use a fork to shred out the strands and put them in a bowl. Keep the empty shells.

The sauce: melt butter and flour in a small pot over medium-low heat while whisking until you have a pasty brown mess, then add the milk and keep whisking. You’ll feel it get thicker. Once hot, add cream cheese. Take off the heat, add parmesan, salt and pepper to taste.

Mix sauce into spaghetti squash then scoop back into the empty shells. Add more cheese on top and broil for 3-5 minutes until warm and slightly brown on top. 

fancy pants

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I cook almost every night. I cook so often that my husband and kids are beginning to resent it. Every night, mom? Every night we have to put our tushy fully on the chair and use a fork and wipe with a napkin and eat a vegetable? Really?!

But didn't we do this every night while we were growing up? Why does it seem like such a chore with these guys? 

Anyway, recently even I was bored with cooking the same sorta stuff every night. But restaurants and babysitters are expensive and often not even worth it so we decided to create a restaurant experience at home. Last year, my friend Beverly gave me Ottolenghi's NOPI cookbook, which is all recipes that are more complicated than his usual ones. As he says in the intro

"The recipes here were created from a different frame of mind; that is, in an environment where a team of professional cooks labors for a few hours in preparation for a short pinnacle. It is the complete opposite of the way we cook and eat at home."

It's not the cookbook you turn to on a Wednesday night at 6 but rather a project that consumes the whole weekend, in a good way. 

When Bev gave me the book she said that I had to cook at least one thing from the book in return. So we invited her, Adrian and Remi to our house and with two days advance notice I started planning, prepping and cooking a Nopi meal. 

After weeks of spaghetti with butter, this was a hell of a lot of work. I couldn't believe how much time and energy went into just prepping the watercress puree that was to be hidden in the risotto. But not having done this kind of cooking for some time, I also loved every minute of it. 20 hours of work later we had an exquisite meal, the kind of meal you can't easily forget all while our kids watched a movie on the laptop in another room and music was playing in our darkening apartment. Not only was it a fun and delicious night, it's a good way for me to broaden my repertoire. I am taking reservations for Chez Shana.

Now my bragging rights (which really I owe to Ottolenghi's genius):

 

I used a side dish as a starter: Whole roasted celery root- that ugly knobby brown sphere that you usually avoid at the farmer's market but tastes really good with lots of cream and butter. This time I roasted the whole thing-skin and all-with a little olive oil and salt for about 3 hours. Then I peeled some of the skin off and cut it up and served it with lemon and a yogurt dip. It's not for everyone and it's not attractive but this group ate it up. 

 

Then we had a pepper-crusted beef tenderloin (which marinated in hand crushed black pepper and fresh herbs for 24 hours) and was topped by a very thinly sliced (mandolin in use) fennel salad with pecorino and truffle. I served it alongside the pearl barley risotto (mixed with a smooth green watercress puree) and topped with a thinly shaved (again) asparagus and pecorino salad. 

 

the spiralizer

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Okay I know this is has been trending for some time and I've nobly resisted the marketing and culinary media pressures but I finally gave in and just bought the damn thing: The Spiralizer Tri-Blade Vegetable Spiral Slicer. The one everyone says is the best including Cooks Illustrated so if you're gonna do it, this is the one. Not terribly expensive ($30) and actually super easy to use and clean (I wish someone were sponsoring this but they're not.)

I watched a short video of how to use it (you can make curly fries!) then experimented on three zucchinis. It looks really cool but how does it taste? If you cook it properly, it's actually really tasty and not so far from the real thing. I think it's best not to think you are replacing spaghetti but inventing a new dish altogether. And with that in mind, I have to say I kind of loved this one way more than I thought I would. The "noodles" held up to the sauce and it was creamy but not mushy--really satisfying for a healthy dish. I didn't force it on the children yet but I"m already thinking about ways to trick Nate into eating it. (Green spaghetti for St Patrick's Day?) I think I could also peel the veggies and the result would look more like pasta. Hmmm....

Zucchini "Alfredo"

3 zucchinis
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp sour cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated

Spiralize the zucchinis. Sprinkle with salt and sautee in hot oiled pan for 5 minutes. In the meantime, microwave other ingredients in medium bowl for 30 seconds. Add "noodles" to bowl and stir. Add extra cheese. 

egg+bacon+toast=muffin

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File this under mommy was really impressed with herself, and as usual when mommy is impressed with herself, kids give the following review: “Um, kinda good but I don’t really want to eat it.” Same thing happened when I made these DIY Muffins.

Which is outrageous because there is nothing bad about eggs, bacon and toast in a muffin tin. Seriously, these “muffins” are delicious and if you don’t let on how excited you are there’s a good chance your kids will be into them. Right? isn’t that how it works?

Anyway, without further ado here is a very easy and impressive breakfast treat:

  1. Preheat oven to 400
  2. With biscuit cutters or a glass, have the kids cut circles out of soft bread. (I kept the holed out sliced for egg in a hole – another fun egg dish which the kids actually like.)
  3. Butter a muffin tin and kids smush bread circles into the bottoms.
  4. Microwave 4 slices of bacon on a plate for 1 minute then shape the slimy bacon slice (meaty part on top) around the edges of the muffin. (Kids were grossed out by this part so I did it.)
  5. Then crack an egg into each tin. (Or into a bowl first so you can remove any shell. You could also beat the eggs with a little milk and cheese and pour that in.)
  6. Bake for about 20 minutes (Start checking at 15 minutes. Whites will be a little jiggly but bacon should be firm.)
  7. Cool and eat or slice in half and share. Or eat them all yourself and tell everyone how talented and creative you are.

family dinner, take 7

There is a new event in our house: Family dinner without mandatory tears, hostility and long lasting disappointment! Yee haw! 

Don't get me wrong. There are still those evenings when Nate refuses to eat at all then begs for cheese from his bed. Mack still usually gobbles half his plate in one bite and most nights both boys have half their tush on the chair and the other half ready to sprint across the room. Shirts are often used as napkins, so often in fact that Michael made up a song about it to enforce memory learning. ("Don't use your shirt...use a napkin") Mack still whines about a lot (too much cheese, not enough cheese) and Nate will still only eat carrots but at least no one is sobbing. 

One of the tools that helped make family dinner doable (aside from the boys maturing) was to institute theme nights. Taco Tuesdays (from The Lego Movie) was an instant hit with the boys and I've tried to keep it a standard instead of using the opportunity to try new things. Every Tuesday, I make Really Basic Chicken Tacos for Nate and he eats one. For us, I'll add sour cream, avocados, slaw, veggies, and maybe even my favorite fish tacos-- but I make sure Nate has what he recognizes and expects and that seems to work for him. 

On other nights, I'll try to have a Nate-friendly option. For example, I made this fabulous make-ahead Chicken Parmesan for us and guests but also reserved a few small pieces of chicken to make nuggets for him. If he refuses what's being served, apples and cheese are available but nothing else. Also he doesn't have to try a new vegetable but he has to eat three mini carrots. I may still be accommodating his pickiness but at least we're not fighting about it which means meals are more pleasant and there is more room for potential trying of new things. 

REALLY BASIC CHICKEN TACOS

Slice 3 chicken breasts into 1/2 inch by 2 inch strips and marinate in 1 lime's juice, 1 tsp onion salt and 1 tbsp olive oil. Heat a pan over medium heat, coat with canola oil and saute chicken until cooked through. 

Serve with heated flour tortillas and grated cheddar cheese... and in Nate's case, three mini carrots. 

meatless mondays

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One of my first cookbooks was the Moosewood Cookbook. I was in high school and a sudden vegetarian and someone, maybe my mom, bought me Mollie Katzen's book. It was a revelation at the time--one of the first collections of only meatless meals. 

I have since lost that book and I am no longer a vegetarian but lately we have been trying to abstain from meat one day a week. Meatless Mondays is part of our attempt to structure weekday dinners (ie Taco Tuesday). At first Nate protested this rule. Then he found out that pasta is not a meat. Now he's cool with it. But it does remain a challenge to come up with new and filling veggie dinners. I think Michael is secretly hoping I get stumped and he can just eat cheese.

While googling what to make with the bag of green lentils that I bought on a whim at a health food store, I came across one of Katzen's humble recipes from the Moosewood Cookbook. It seemed odd that such a relic was even online. But the simple lentil chili was a perfect starting point, and with a few flavor additions, turned out a hearty, meat-like chili that satisfied us omnivores and even became lunch for the next few days. The trick is lots of creative seasoning and a heavy dose of toppings. Mack even turned the toppings into a meal in itself and Nate, of course, had pasta. 

Moosewood Lentil Chili (modified)

2 cups dried lentils–any kind
3 to 4 cups water
One 8 oz can tomatoes
1 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cups chopped onion
2 to 3 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons tomato paste
4 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 can kidney beans
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp Yeast flakes
Fresh black pepper and crushed red pepper

Optional Toppings:
yogurt or sour cream
feta
grated cheddar
minced fresh parsley and/or cilantro

1.   Soak lentils in water to cover by an inch for 2-3 hours. Drain. (optional)

2. Place lentils and water in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, partially cover, and lower the heat to a simmer for about 30 minutes.

2.   Add tomatoes, cumin, paprika, thyme, garlic, and onions. Stir, mostly cover again, and let it cook for another 30 minutes or so. Check the water level as it cooks, and add water as needed, to prevent dryness. Stir from the bottom every several minutes during the cooking.

3.   Add salt and tomato paste. Stir and continue to simmer about 10 minutes.

4.   Stir in the vinegar, beans, hot sauce, yeast, black pepper, and crushed red pepper, adjusting the seasonings to taste. Serve hot, with some or all of the optional toppings.

good bars

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My kids have become addicted to Fiber One chocolate bars. Because they taste amazing, duh, and they do provide fiber but also a lot of corn syrup and other stuff that I'd like to think I can save them from, at least until they’re teenagers when they will probably live on corn syrup... and McDonald's chicken nuggets.

Anyway, this story starts with a sale at CVS. Pitted dates were half off so I grabbed a bag vaguely recalling some recipe for energy-date bars.  

I have a hard time bookmarking recipes—we have two computers at home and I always forget which one I bookmarked and where and in what file folder...I sound like I’m 82. So I just googled a recipe for snack bars for kids with dates and found this one and just made it immediately without much further research because I knew if I didn’t pull out the Cuisinart that moment I would never ever do it ever again.  (#failedbaker)

The bars turned out ok—a little dense and oily but tasty. I was pretty sure my kids wouldn't like them so I called them “chocolate peanut bars." (My chocolate peanut butter balls were a minor success.) As it turns out both kids tasted them and said the same thing: "good" in that way they say "good" when I ask them how school was. 

But then I thought: I get the concept: dried fruit and nuts and/or seeds blended, panned and chilled. Of course, theKithchn figured this out in 2012 but since I'd already trashed the kitchen, I decided to improvise another one.

It was also a good opportunity to use all the stuff I bought when I thought I might be a healthy baker (#failedbaker): flax meal, soynut butter, cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, molasses. Blend! The texture was right on but it had sort of a bitter taste and I wound up throwing them out. 

I think the moral is:  stick with kid friendly ingredients. And, when baking, recipes. The "chocolate peanut bars" are still in the fridge and from time to time I offer them as snacks or special treats but no one seems particularly thrilled to take me up on it. They are not nearly as yummy as Fiber One bars. 

fast food

Maple Delivery, photo from Forbes.com

Food delivery. I think we will look back at the 2015 year as the year it all changed. Blue apron, munchery, plated. caviar, maple, trivet, and so many more starting every week now. People want good food, not takeout crap, delivered to their home and office in attractive, biodegradable packaging. They want an easy website ordering system, reliable and friendly delivery and they want a different healthy, yummy choice every day or week. They want organic, local and whole. They want to feel good about what they are eating even though it wasn't homemade. 

As someone who enjoys cooking for myself and family, I was skeptical. We are not a takeout family. But then I agreed to write about Trivet for Brooklyn Based and I was super impressed. Read my review here. Then I got a free trial for Blue Apron-free food, can't pass it up. And I was also surprisingly impressed. Then Michael started ordering from Maple for lunch and he was beyond impressed. In fact, it's all he ever eats for lunch now. Then he started bringing home Maple deliveries for dinner and now it's all we talk about. 

I'm kind of fascinated by this New York phenomenon and eager to see where it goes next or if it implodes with too many competitors. Will people stop cooking? Will they start cooking? Is it really cooking? I am really giving this a lot of thought....which is why I have not recently blogged about my own cooking. Or something like that. 

 

snacks et al

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Despite the fact that I attended grad school, "snack" is recently one of my most used words because 1. I have kids who don't like meals and 2. because whenever we entertain, it's too cramped and chaotic for dinner so I like to serve just wine and snacks, or hors d'oeuvres as the fancy French call them. 

I have some theories about pre-dinner snacks. They should be relatively simple with recognizable ingredients. Complex gourmet canapés initially impress but don't really ease that meet-and-greet-time awkwardness—especially when the pilot goes out in your mother-in-law's semi-broken 1920s oven and you only realize it 1.5 hours into turkey roasting time.

Anyway, I have been called the "dip queen" by several friends and family members for good reason. And I have a few tricks up my sleeve that once I reveal will ruin me forever but I'm gonna do it - you're welcome. 

  • Easy Dip: mix sour cream with any spice mix (ala onion soup mix but preferably some kind of salt/herb mix). You can also add in mayo or yogurt for a creamier dip. Other fun stuff to make it seem sophisticated: lemon juice or zest, sherry vinegar, pesto, fresh herbs, chunky salt, chopped up smoked salmon, avocado, blue cheese, etc. Serve with crudite.
     
  • Ricotta: drizzle with olive oil and good salt. serve with pita chips.
     
  • Nuts: Mix pecans or mixed nuts with melted butter, brown sugar and fresh rosemary. Serve warm.
     
  • Pickled Vegetables: add cut up cauliflower, radishes or carrots to a brine of vinegar, sugar and salt. (Or any good pickling liquid recipe you can find.) Drain and serve in a pretty bowl.
     
  • Crostini: toast slices of baguette and smear with goat cheese or even cream cheese. Drizzle with olive oil or pesto and kosher salt. 

Any other ideas out there? Please let me know!!

 

my pop secret

When I was a kid we had one of those loud whirling plastic popcorn makers that was stored under the kitchen counter, way in the back, and only came out only on special occasions like Superbowl Sunday. Or when we went to a movie and my low-fat-loving mom would pop some plain corn (no butter) and divide it into plastic baggies which she could hide in her purse. We ate these after the lights went down, instead of the yummy buttery movie theater popcorn we could smell all around us. 

It didn't bother me much at the time which is probably why I chose to similarly abuse my own children. Although we do eat movie popcorn, I don't make the microwave stuff for movie nights at home. There's something about that yellow powdery grease that clings to the insides of the bag that reminds me of cancer.

When I decided to make my own, I had no previous experience (that old air-popper went out with the 80s) so I learned online that one can make popcorn in a pot with oil, which is possibly what every other family was doing. What they didn't mention was that the pot always got a little burned and oil splattered everywhere and it was messy enough to suggest we have pretzels instead. 

Then I learned the paper bag trick. Put 1/2 cup kernels in a regular school lunch paper bag. Fold the top down a couple of times until it will stay closed on its own and microwave it for 2-3 minutes or better use the microwave "popcorn" setting on the machine (how does it know??!!!) which seems to work perfectly every time. You will wind up with a bag of delicious if plain popcorn which you could hide in your purse, or you could drizzle in some melted butter or olive oil, a little salt and give the bag a shake.

Granted, it's doesn't smell quite as good as the store-bought microwave stuff but it's also not as lethal and there's easy cleanup. Plus you can invent your own toppings: flavored butters, different herbs and spices, parmesan cheese, soy sauce and a house favorite: bacon grease. Another trick: after seasoning with butter and salt, I sprinkle Bragg's yeast seasoning (see above) over the top which gives it a slightly richer taste—and that artificial yellow color which makes my kids happy. 

** Post note: Interesting article in Food52 about how movie theaters make popcorn taste and smell so good (hint: Flavocol) and if you can recreate it at home. 

my turkey secret

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I've made the Thanksgiving turkey on a few occasions but it wasn't until last year that I discovered that easier is actually better. I used Russ Parson's "Judy bird" recipe which calls for dry brining and the idea is that you cover the bird in salt and let it sit in the fridge for three days. Then you cook it. No fancy stuffing, tying, basting, turning. Just put it in the oven and come back in three hours to a delicious, handsome turkey. 

I wrote this post about it last year but thought I'd mention again because I'm gearing up to do the same recipe this year. Really, it's crazy easy. 

thriller tacos

It was a majorly shitty week so it seemed like a good time to deep-fry the crap out of something. I'd never deep fried anything before—so messy, so tricky, so unhealthy. But it's been on my mind for some time now and I had a piece of cod in the fridge which wasn't quite enough to feed all of us so I did a bit of research and came up with fish tacos. The final recipe combined an epicurious recipe and a recipe from a book on Mexican street food that I picked up somewhere. 

The frying part was pretty straight forward—flour/season the fish and add to very hot oil for a short time. It emerged looking so delicious that I was immediately fired up to throw more things into the bubbling caldron and turn them into gold. Vegetables? Soccer cleats? But I hadn't planned ahead and only had a few flour tortillas on hand so I cut them in triangles and threw them in. The "chips" tasted a bit like wontons but had that perfect crunch that you can really only get from a deep fry. 

The tacos were delicious and I highly recommend you give them a try. Despite the deep fry aspect, they are very healthy and well-balanced and even kid-friendly (sans hot sauce.) Even if frying is not an option, I would still make these with broiled or grilled fish. Just remember, everything is better fried, and in the movies.

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 3 tbsp chile powder
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 pound cod (or any white firm fish)
  • 1 lime
  • 1/2 head cabbage, sliced and chopped
  • 4 tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 3 tbsp mayo
  • 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 c plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup green salsa
  • 1/2 red onion sliced very thinly
  • warm tortillas
  • salt, pepper, hot sauce to taste
  1. Mix flour and next three ingredients in a bowl. Cut fish into 2-inch pieces and coat with flour mixture. Shake off extra.
  2. Heat enough canola (or vegetable or peanut) oil in a pot to reach three inches and attach a candy/fry thermometer. 
  3. Meanwhile, combine cabbage, mayo, yogurt, 1/2 lime's juice, 2 tbsp cilantro, red onion. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
  4. When temperature reaches 375F fry fish for about 2 minutes until light brown. Drain on paper towels then add to bowl, along with worcestershire, rest of lime's juice, salsa and cilantro. Mix, slightly breaking up fish pieces. 
  5. Place fix mixture on tortilla and top with slaw. Add hot sauce. 

a lazy bolognese

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This is a great dinner party recipe that can be served in a big messy pot on the table but gets rave reviews every time. It also makes the house smell like you've been cooking all day, which you sort of have but not like people think. Nothing about the directions is hard but it requires you being there, observing, adding, waiting, stirring. I find it quite mediative and rewarding. The basic strategy is add liquid and reduce. Vegetables, meat, wine, milk and tomatoes give all their concentrated goodness while their liquid evaporates away. In fact, even after you add all the ingredients, it helps to keep adding water—a strange cooking concept but wholly approved by Marcella Hazan-- which even further concentrates this meaty but nuanced sauce. It's so yummy that all you need is some spaghetti underneath it, and maybe a green salad and bread.

 

Lazy Bolognese

  • 1 onion
  • carrot large
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp canola oil
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1/2 pound pork sausage (removed from casing)
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 2 tsp tomato paste
  • 1.5 cups tomatoes peeled in juice

Put the kids in front of the TV. Roughly chop veggies then pulse in a food processor until fine. Melt butter and oil in large pot and cook vegetables (plus salt and pepper) over med-high heat for 10-15 minutes until water evaporates and they start to turn brown. Add meat and sausage, breaking up with wooden spoon. Add salt and pepper and cook for 10-15 minutes until browned. Add milk and stir occasionally until it evaporates. Add wine and do the same. Add tomato paste and tomatoes, breaking up tomatoes as you add them from the can. When the sauce returns to a boil, turn down and cook at "lazy simmer*" for 3 hours. But continue to monitor it and add water if it starts to dry out, which it will. 

* amazing phrase courtesy of Marcella Hazan
 

ribs without the rub

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Alright stop the slow cooker presses. I have found the perfect use for my slow cooker (and believe me, this was not easy.) One word: Ribs.

You always have to cook them low and long so why not cram them into the slow cooker, pour sauce on them and come back 8 hours later? Finally, the slow cooker that is supposed to make cooking easier and more delicious is living up to its rep.

I used Meat Hook BBQ sauce which is probably a lot less sweet than the store brands. I literally poured it on top of the rack. After about 7-8 hours, I removed the ribs and quickly broiled them (1-2 minutes) to get the outside crispy. Inside, they were falling off the bone.

The only difficult part of this is planning ahead: deciding what you are going to make for dinner while you are eating breakfast. Ok, maybe not so difficult. Especially if you're Jewish.

the great grape wars

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The GRAPE WARS, (whoever shows the bigger grape wins), brilliantly created by Michael this morning, led to both kids eating many many grapes. And so the wars will continue. (After I clean everyone's fingernails.)