Menu Plan Monday - Week 4

I know I should be menu planning, I know I should be menu planning.  If I keep saying it over and over again, I’m going to get to it, right?  The last few weeks have worked unbelievably well.  I know we’ve saved money on our grocery shopping and we’ve been eating more wholesome and delicious food.  This is not to say that my family has exactly followed the plan that I set forth at the beginning of the week.  Life has crept in and mixed things up a bit causing a couple of meals to get dropped.  But we had 5 of 7 meals planned last week.  As always, fresh ingredient dinners get preference over pantry ones that way they can be shelved for another week.  Alright  I think I’ve motivated myself now!  So here’s what I’ve come up with for this week:

Monday - Girls scout meeting - Left-overs - Sweet Potato Risotto from Friday night.

Tuesday - Stuffed Shells with green salad.  I’m sure you all figured out I made sauce on Sunday from hubby’s guest post!

Wednesday - Crab Cakes (Frozen from Trader Joe’s.  YAY!  They are finally open in my area!) More salad or something green.

Thursday - Orange Chicken, Broccoli, brown rice

Friday - Pizza night 

Saturday - dinner out, nephew’s birthday!

Sunday - Pasta Fagiole (since it got bumped last week!)

What’s on your menu??  Make sure to visit OrgJunkie for great menu planning ideas!  Remember to tell her how much you liked the new button!

Lessons from the Family Kitchen - Guest Post!

Hi all - I'm incredibly excited to be able to host my first guest post today!  My dear husband, Ed, wrote this earlier this evening.  He maintains a personal blog - which is only open to family members, but had the idea of letting me cross-post today's musings to Unstructured Bliss.  Of course, I jumped at the chance! I hope you enjoy reading his writing as much as I do!

Nearly twenty years ago, my cousin, Sigrid, had the wonderful idea of creating a family cookbook.  She solicited recipes and anecdotes from everyone on my mom’s side of the family and compiled them into a wonderful book that I still use more often than any of the more than 50 commercial cookbooks in our kitchen.

My own lovely wife has started the process of writing a similar cookbook using recipes from her family.  Hopefully at some point not too far away, we’ll be able to actually devote some real time and effort to it so that we can have matching cookbooks on our shelves.  With so many still young and time-demanding kids on her side of the family, the task of going through recipes and writing down snippets of stories about family gatherings inevitably gets put on the back burner (to keep with our kitchen motif!), but we’ll keep plugging away!

The family cookbook idea has risen to our attention again because of an observation Christine made while fixing her delicious spaghetti sauce this afternoon.  She typically includes 3 links each of hot and sweet Italian sausage, and she did something different today in preparing the sausage that she realized was a big improvement.  But before we get to what that change was, let’s go back to our general theme of lessons from the family kitchen.

Family lore has it that my mom always began the process of cooking a pot roast by cutting off one end of the pot roast before she browned it.  At one point in my parents’ young married life, my dad asked, “Why do you cut the end off the pot roast?”  To which mom answered, “Because that’s what my grandmother always did.”

Turns out that, when mom asked Grandma Straub why she cut off the end of the pot roast, the answer was not some ancient cooking wisdom that one might have expected from a woman who was born at the close of the 19th Century and lived until almost the 21st.  No, the answer was as common-sensical as that same woman who spent her life on a farm raising chickens and selling eggs.  She cut off the end of the pot roast so that it would fit in the pan, which wasn’t big enough to hold the intact roast.

So sometimes, you watch someone do something in the kitchen, and you figure, “Well, that’s how you do it.”  Hardly an earth shattering concept, certainly, but there are probably many things we do that are the result of observational learning, and we simply follow what looks like a good example.

In Christine’s case in cooking sausage for spaghetti sauce, this meant following her parents’ practice of cutting up the links of raw sausage into smaller pieces so that they are then sized appropriately when the sauce is served in individual portions.

But cutting up raw Italian sausage links is a messy, ungainly process that leaves the kitchen area, the relevant knife, and usually the chef’s hands all a mess of raw sausage detritus.

Which leads us to last weekend, when Christine made a wonderful sausage soup from a recipe from my mom.  Having made that last week, Christine realized as she was about to start making spaghetti sauce that rather than cut up the sausage as the first step, she could do what was called for in the sausage soup recipe - cook the links FIRST, and then cut them up into little medallions!

Voila!  We had perfect little sausage medallions in our spaghetti sauce this evening, to go with the always delicious meatballs, which also were produced with a new cooking twist that may serve as a lesson for the next generation of our family.

Someday our children may be fixing meatballs for sauce and they will be asked, why are you putting the egg, bread crumbs, and parmesan cheese into that plastic bag?  Well, it just may be because today Christine had the bright idea of not getting her hands completely coated in raw ground beef to squeeze and mix meatball ingredients, but instead used the freezer bag the thawed meat was already in to serve as a “mixing bag” in which she kneaded all the ingredients and then made the meatballs.

Fall Decorating

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year.  I love the crisp, clear sunny days, watching the kids on the soccer field and visiting the local orchard for apples.  I especially love decorating for the fall season here are some photos of our efforts this morning.

New Front Door

We are making small but meaningful strides on the front of the house. If you have missed my previous post on the water damage we uncovered click here. Don’t get me wrong - my front yard still looks like an archaeological dig site but things are definitely improving! The water damage has been repaired and new stucco/cement has been applied to the front of the house. I’ve been advised by my contractor that I can’t paint the stucco for 28 days until it fully cures. Anyone ever heard of that rule? Four weeks seems a little excessive.

The wood rot behind the porch was so extensive that it was seeping up into the front door causing that to need to be replaced as well (and the door was almost 20 years old - so it was time). I didn’t really have time to shop for my “dream door” since it was kind of an emergency situation to get one on order right away. So we picked out a very standard door that was similar to what we were taking out, and our contractor finished installing the new one today. (I’m doing a little dance now, can you tell?) It’s so much more solid that the previous one - I have no doubt that we will have some energy savings with it. AND here’s the best part: this door qualifies for a tax credit as part of the stimulus package. So hopefully we will get a little money back next year on the unexpected purchase! If you are replacing windows and door this year or next, make sure that you check out the energystar.gov webpage to see if your project qualifies too!

Next up is the front porch and walkway - then I will focus on painting the door. I’m thinking a dark forest green....

Menu Plan Monday - Week 3

Again, menu planning made a world of difference for us last week. We made 5 out of 6 dinners, the only one that was a bust was the Clam Sauce on Friday night due to the fact that I forgot I had a dinner meeting. Fortunately, my fantabulous sister was on hand and invited my husband and children to her house for dinner and a little after dinner Rock Band extravaganza. I can’t wait to see the pictures of my 8- and 5-year olds rocking out to music written well before they were born! As one of my wonderful readers pointed out - clam sauce is one of my pantry staples, so back on the shelf it goes until next time. Below are this week’s offerings and as always for more menu planning ideas, please visit OrgJunkie. She’s the best!

Monday - Grilled Chicken Teriyaki, Green beans, French bread

Tuesday - Sweet Potato Risotto, side salad

Wednesday - Taco night!

Thursday - Grilled Mango Chicken Sausage over salad

Friday - Pasta night -Homemade Tomato Sauce and Meatballs over Spaghetti, garlic bread

Saturday - Braised Short Ribs in slow cooker, Polenta

Sunday - Souper Sunday - Pasta Fagiole

Souper Sunday - Italian Sausage Soup

It’s Sunday night and my Giants are playing the Cowboys at their new stadium. After a wild first half, I thought I’d run downstairs to quickly get my Sunday post up for you all! ;) Then I’m going to head back up and catch the rest of the game.

Tonight’s soup comes via my wonderful mother-in-law, Marianne - Italian Sausage Soup. The recipe has been sitting in my recipe box a while but we hadn’t made it yet. When I put it on this week’s menu plan, I thought I was giving my dear husband, Ed, a little taste of home, but he tells me this evening that the soup he remembers didn’t have the tomato base that this one had. Nonetheless, while unfamiliar, the soup was an overwhelming success, prompting Ed to comment that we could do away with a different soup each week and just make this one every Sunday! I really liked it but with all the sausage, its really a guy-pleasing concoction. Sorry honey, but we are going to cycle through soups this year!

Italian Sausage Soup

1 1/2 lbs Italian sausage (about 6 links - 3 hot, 3 mild)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 c celery

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes

2 c. chicken broth

1 can of Northern or canellini beans

2 c. shredded cabbage

1/4 t dried basil

1/4 dried thyme

1/4 dried oregano

1 bay leaf

Precook the sausage and slice. Add onion to pot and saute until begins to soften (3 min). Add celery, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, beans, cabbage and spices. Simmer 25 min. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Preparation notes - I wound up calling my MIL during the preparation. She said I didn’t need to drain and wash the beans before adding them. If you would prefer to do that, I would recommend adding a little more broth to the soup. I also made it easy on myself tonight and used pre-shredded cabbage with carrots in it. I also probably doubled the amount of spices added in and used fresh thyme from the garden, which smelled phenomenal! We served it with italian bread and a little parmesan cheese sprinkled over top.

Buon Appetito!

Current Project - Koigu Snowflake scarf

I’ve been working on crocheting this gorgeous snowflake scarf for almost a year now. Its been slow-going, not because the pattern is overly difficult but because I seem to be working on it in fits and starts - for example, it hasn’t been touched in about 3 weeks. When I first fell in love with the finished product in one of my favorite yarn shops (Pins and Needles), I had aspirations of wearing mine with my favorite fall denim jacket. I need to get back to this soon though - while today is supposed to be 70 °F, tonight the temperature is falling into the 40s! Fall is definitely upon us!

The yarn is a stunning Koigu (the photo doesn’t do it justice!)and here is the free pattern that was shared with me. No reference to designer was given. I’m using two skeins of Koigu for mine and am making it longer than indicated on the pattern - the length is currently 27 motifs. I’m joining and filling in as I go, so I don't run out of yarn at the end. I'm almost done! I think I only have enough yarn for 1-2 more rows!!

Koigu Snowflake Scarf

Using Koigu and a C crochet ch4, join w sl st to form ring.

Rnd1: Ch4 (counts as 1 dc and 1 ch), work (1 dc, 1 ch) 11 times into the ring; sl st to 3rd st of ch4.

Rnd2: Ch 3, dc 2 tog in the same sp (counts as dc 3 tog), (ch3, dc 3 tog into the next sp) 11 times, ch 3, sl st to top of first cluster. Cut yarn leaving 2” tail, insert tail through last loop on hook and pull to tighten.

To connect motifs pick up through opening on the 2nd ch st of the 3 between the dc sets. Pick up on oth sides of the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th set of 3 dc.

Crochet and connect 3 motifs wide by 21 motifs long.

After assembly, go back and crochet just Rnd 1 in holes between motifs, picking up the 4 corners of the existing motifs after the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th dc.

Monarch Butterfly Halloween Costume

I wish I knew that I would be a blogger when I made these butterfly wings for J two years ago - I would have taken pictures through the process! Still they were fairly easy to make and can be accomplished by anyone with minimal sewing skills (like mine). Here’s how I did it!

1. I took one of the many pair of fairy wings we had lying around the house and made a rough sketch of the outline on a piece of news sheet, adding about 2-3 inches all around. This pattern was then used to make two pairs of wings from black microfiber fabric.

2. Next, J and I looked on the web to print out pictures of butterfly wings to use as a visual as we made cut outs for the wings. Again we made a pattern out of newsprint and then cut 4 identical shapes out of orange, yellow and white felt. These were pinned to the wings such that one wing was the mirror image of the other. I used a zig-zag stitch to attach them to the microfiber. Now I have to be honest - these were not the neatest appliques. But you know what, it doesn’t matter! It looked great anyway and no one was looking that closely as J floated from house to house.

3. Right sides of the wings were pinned together and the two pieces were stitched around the perimeter leaving a generous opening in the middle. Using the opening, I inserted two unfolded wire hangers, bent into a #3 shape, to each side to give the wings some sturdiness. I also included a piece of cardboard across the middle, to prevent sagging. Then each side of the wings were filled with polyfill to plump them up, and the opening was stitched closed.

4. Last, two elastic arm-bands were hand-stitched on and the wings were finished

We paired the wings with a black turtleneck and black leggings. The antennae were made from one of J’s headbands and some pipe cleaners. Viola! My butterfly! Doesn’t she look cute??? By the way, the cookie she’s holding are Martha’s famous dead finger sugar cookies. They were quite the hit with the class and very fun to make!

Menu Plan Monday - Week 2

Last week went so well that we are trying it again! We actually had almost all the meals with the exception of the Turkey Burgers (this was a back-up meal anyway). I'm a little late in posting this but we did enjoy the meat loaves before running out for Girl Scouts. Dividing the mixture into 5 mini-loaves cut the cooking time in half! Plus my dear husband was very excited to make left-over sandwiches to take with him to the office today! I hope everyone has a great week! Head on over to orgjunkie for more menu planning ideas!

Monday - Mini Meat Loaves, Green Beans, Whole wheat bread

Tuesday - Grilled Chicken Breasts, Broccoli

Wednesday - Eggplant, tomato and chickpea curry, brown rice

Thursday - Dinner out (nephew’s birthday)

Friday - Pasta night - Linguini with Clam Sauce (recipe below), garlic bread

Saturday - Grilled Flank Steak w/ lemon + coriander (from the RelishRelish site, membership required) salad

Sunday - Souper Sunday - Sausage Soup (recipe posted on Sunday)

Clam Sauce

1/4 c. olive oil

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. parsley flakes

1 T sweet basil

3 T Parmesan Cheese

1 can tomato paste

6 cloves of garlic

1-2 cans minced clams

Warm together olive oil and butter until melted and combined. Add garlic, parsley, basil, parmesan cheese, red and black pepper to taste bring to boil. Add clams with liquid and stir in tomato paste until well combined. Bring to boil. Serve over hot linguini.

Souper Sunday - Black Bean Soup

After a week of cooler weather, it finally warmed up again today. Not exactly the kind of weather you want for soup night, but Black Bean Soup fit the bill - its not too heavy and the jalepeno pepper and lime juice gives it a nice kick, float a little sour cream on top and you are all set! I got this recipe almost 10 years ago, right after Ed and I were married. We were looking for ways to use our immersion puree stick that we were given for a wedding present. The recipes source is unknown otherwise I would be sure to give credit here.

Black Bean Soup

1T olive oil

1 med. onion, coarsely chopped

1 med. celery stalk, coarsely chopped

1 med carrot, coarsely chopped

1 jalepeno, seed and membranes removed, coarsely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 t ground cumin

2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed.

1 can chicken broth

1/2 t. salt

2 T fresh lime juice

1/2 c. fresh cilantro

Heat oil. Cook onion, celery, carrot and jalepeno until tender. Add garlic and cumin, cook 1 min. Add beans, broth, salt and 2 c. water. Simmer 15 minutes. Puree with immersion stick (otherwise puree hot soup, in parts, food processor or blender). Finish by stirring in lime juice and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges and sour cream.

Enjoy!

Cleaning for the Cleaning woman

There are 4 of us in our family and none of us have that little neat-freak gene that my sister seems to have inherited from my maternal grandmother. I aspire to clear clutter (I really do!) but am continually fighting an uphill battle. As I said, it just does not come naturally to me nor to anyone else in my family. Both Ed and I work full-time, which makes the mornings about getting everyone up, dressed, fed and equipped with homework, lunches paperwork, briefcases, etc before heading off to school and work. The evenings are for activities (girl scouts & swimming), homework, dinner and hearing about each other’s days. On weekends, between soccer games and play dates, we get laundry, grocery shopping, bill paying, yard work and other errands done. There is not a lot of time left for a rigorous cleaning routine. So we made the decision a while ago, to hire a bi-weekly cleaning person and use that time we bought back to enjoy our family. It has created an interesting phenomenon - the bi-weekly cleaning for the cleaning person. Its not cleaning per say, as much as it is de-cluttering and putting away all the things that have been left out over the past two weeks. Tensions run high on these evenings and the followings mornings, prompting my husband to initiate the inevitable discussion about whether it is all worth it. My answer is always the same - we are keeping our cleaning person. These bi-weekly events are the barrier that keeps us from falling into total chaos and potential squalor. For all the stress it creates getting ready, it is worth it to come home that weekday evening to a spotless home where every carpet is vacuumed and every surface glistens. And once again I am optimistic that we can maintain this perfection for the next fortnight.

Front Porch Nightmare

The current crisis at home is with our front porch. It is beautiful Italian stone, and was somewhat newly installed by the previous owners when we bought our house six and a half years ago. But over the past several years, the stones on the porch have shifted around. Ed and I have consulted with many landscapers and masons over the past two years about how to best approach the situation. The collective opinion was that the steps were never put in properly in the first place. In particular, they were built over the existing concrete foundation and inadequate drainage was provided causing everything to move, and the sides to sink over time. Just yesterday, our selected contractor began to take apart the porch in order re-build it properly. However, what we found behind the steps was that much of the water from the wet weather was draining toward the house and the wood under the door is damp and decaying. Like with any home repair - we’ve uncovered a much bigger problem than we had anticipated. Now the steps can’t go back in until the wood is ripped out and replaced and the whole thing is re-stuccoed. Everyone is saying “one week” but somehow I think this may be the tip of the iceberg.....

Labor Day Letterboxing

Yesterday was one of those fly-by-night unplanned days - too cool for the last day of the pool, and we were just home in the morning, tackling laundry. So I convinced Ed and the kids to head on over with me to The Watershed to explore the letterboxes placed on one of the trails by one of the recent interns with the nature center. If you are new to letterboxing: essentially, people have hidden waterproof containers with rubber stamps and log books all over the country. They can be found in parks or just random locations. The clues to finding the boxes are posted on-line. Two good resources for information are letterboxing.org and atlasquest.com. You can search for boxes near your location and plan your own quests. My family has gone several (around 10-ish) letterboxing hunts in the past few years, both in NJ, near our home and in other states when we’ve travelled on vacation (its a great back-up activity for those downtimes). We have a basic idea of what to expect - but yesterday, while we found all three letterboxes (woop, woop!), was one of those days when our collective brains were not fully engaged before we left. Here are some of the rookie mistakes we made:

#1 - As we were getting to leave the house, Ed told the kids to put on their crocs. At least I paused -- asking if wouldn’t old sneakers be more appropriate? But since it hadn't rained in a week, we had a quick discussion that regular sneakers and crocs would be okay. This was big mistake #1 - remember we were headed to a WATERSHED?? Sadly, the bells did not go off for me before we left, and it wasn’t long into the hike before Jordan's legs and feet were completely covered in mud. She had mud squishing between her toes - yuck! Somehow my 5-yr old son, Ben, faired much better walking on the edge of the trail, but not Jordan - she trudged right on through the middle of the muck. On the upside - crocs and legs are easily washable, and no one fell and got covered from head-to-toe.

#2 - I did not pack bug spray as it was cool and not that humid. We wouldn’t be out there too long and the bugs shouldn’t be too bad, right? WRONG! Remember, WATERSHED! Insert here - “Breeding Ground for Mosquitoes.” Again not quite thinking things through before we left. The bugs actually didn’t bother us too much as long as we kept moving along the trail, but as we slowed to look for boxes or to stamp in our log books, we were completely eaten up. I have bites all over my arms and legs, including a lovely one, smack-dab in the middle of my forehead. We also saw some of the LARGEST horseflies I've ever seen in my life!! One of them kept dive bombing us at the last box! I don’t know if insect repellent would have even helped with that one!

Last mistake #3 - based on our previous experience on trails with letterboxes, we assumed that after finding the 3rd box we would be somewhat near the end of the trail which would put us back close to our car. At least, it’s always worked out that way in the past. After the third box on this quest, we continued to follow the trail deeper into the woods and along a stream for about another 20-30 minutes. At this point we were completely turned around so that we weren't quite sure how far we were from the starting point and our car AND we were about 2 hours into the hike. Eventually, we hit an area of bright orange stagnant water - there was no way around or across without trudging into the sludge. We could see the trail continuing on the other side, but we made the decision at that point to back track and head back the way we came. Maybe if we had a naturalist with us we could have found a short cut back along a different route, but the cards weren’t with us yesterday. Fortunately, since we weren’t trying to figure out clues and the terrain on the way back, we made really good time to the car.

All in all though, we had a great time. The hunt was challenging but not ultra-difficult. We found all three boxes, and the kids were thrilled to discover a hitchhiker in one of the containers. Here is a link to the directions for this letterboxing experience in case you might want to brave it. If you’ve never letterboxed before, I highly recommend it for a family or group activity. My Brownie Troop Co-leader and I plan to take our troop on this hike in the next few weeks. Now that I’ve scouted out the location and confirmed that all three boxes are still intact - we are optimistic that we can avoid some of the unanticipated pitfalls that my family encountered this weekend. I know one thing for sure, I’ll definitely be packing the Cutter!

Off to Caladryl my spots......

My First Menu Plan Monday

I’m so excited to be posting my very first “Menu Plan Monday.” Big kudos to OrgJunkie for hosting this on her site! Cooking has somewhat taken a back seat for me this summer as my dear husband has taken a new job which requires him to work late most evenings. So between swim meets and summer evenings at the pool, I have been more focused on preparing “kid food” and have found myself merely grazing through the evenings. Now that school has started again, its the perfect time to begin menu planning. My focus is on nutritious meals where an extra portion or two could be packed for a lunch the following day.

Monday - Homemade Pizza (Wegman’s pre-made whole wheat pizza dough from the bakery makes this extra easy) pepperoni and vegetable toppings, everyone creates their own!

Tuesday - Curried Brown Rice Salad (I use a variation of the recipe posted here, but substitute chick peas for the tempeh)

Wednesday - Pasta night (pesto, peas & proscuitto)

Thursday - Zucchini Pie, side salad

Friday - Turkey Burgers with horseradish mayo, bacon, lettuce and tomato; sweet potato fries

Saturday - Date night ;) - the kiddies are MeMom’s dilemma!

Sunday - Souper Sunday! - Black Bean Soup with great bread (See next Sunday’s post for the recipe)

One benefit I noticed immediately is that this greatly simplified my grocery shopping and again capitalized on the local farmer’s market yield (zucchini). I added only a few supplemental items for kid lunches to the list - turkey breast, yogurt, cucumbers and baby carrots). I can’t wait to see how this week works out!

Souper Sunday - Gazpacho

I love September - the kids going back to school and the bright, sparkly, low-humidity days with clear blue skies. Its also the return of our Souper days, where one day a week, I make a big pot of soup which serves not only as a week-night meal but leftovers can be carried to work for lunch. If I’m lucky enough I’ll be able to freeze a couple of containers for a future use. But usually, my dear husband gobbles it up before I can squirrel it away for a later date!

It is one of the last weekends of summer and we are having super, but not quite “souper” weather. Nonetheless, I am anxious to start September off on the right foot. We have had a wonderfully mild summer in NJ and the tomatoes (those that haven’t suffered from the blight crisis), cucumbers and peppers are still going strong. The Main Street Farmer’s Market the past few week has been the perfect inspiration for this week’s soup - Gazpacho!

Its quite easy to make and a great way to clean out the produce drawer of the refrigerator. All you need is a couple of big bowls and a food processor. I used this recipe as a base and substituted 1/4 cup of red onion for the green onions because that is what I had on hand. I like to serve Gazpacho a la George (my Dad) - with a dollop of sour cream and balsamic vinegar reduction drizzled across the top (boil down balsamic vinegar until it gets syrupy and store in a squeeze bottle). Dad has also prepared this to great acclaim for family picnics and where he served “drinkable” portions in small clear plastic cups, like mini-Bloody Marys, each with a celery stalk stuck in.

All the cutting and chopping led to a light and refreshing soup, which Ed and I enjoyed alongside fruited tuna sandwiches. Of course, the kids while fascinated with the process, refused to even touch it. They did however snag some of the cut up vegetables (cucumbers and peppers) during the preparation. Therefore, I count it as a success!