Menu Monday

Just a few more weeks until our CSA begins. When that happens, we'll pick up our box of veggies on Monday nights and we'll have a run down of what the box contains on Tuesday. I'm going to try to keep Meal Plan day on Mondays. I do a lot of our cooking for the week on the weekends, and I do all of the grocery shopping then.


This week at Big Mama's House...

Sunday           Winter Borscht and Roast Beef, Onion and Brie Panini (Recipe to Follow)
Monday          Mac and Cheese with Prosciutto (Valentine Tradition)
Tuesday          Tender Pork Chops , Potatoes and Onions with Spring Greens
Wednesday    Chicken Marsala (Recipe to Follow) and Celery Root Mashed Potatoes
Thursday        Smart Spaghetti and Meat Sauce, Caesar Salad and Garlic Bread
Friday            Eat OUT!
Saturday        Pasta with Shrimp and Salad with Honey-Balsamic Vinegrette (Recipe to Follow)

Soup-er Sunday -- Winter Borscht

The Little Mouths are Russian, and having traveled there 4 times, I am a great lover of all things Russian.  More so than the Little Mouths, actually. 

On my first trip to Russia I packed literally a suitcase full of food.  Granola bars, fruit by the foot, hand-i-snacks and peanut butter crackers...you get the picture.  I was terrified I'd starve to death, which was so silly (they don't call me Big Mama, for nothing.)  But when I got there, I realized I LOVED the food, for the most part.  I never really warmed up to cabbage, but the pork cutlets coated in cheese with fried potatoes...the breads, the yogurts, cheeses and OMG, the ice cream.  With dark chocolate shavings.  They must have such happy cows in Russia to produce that creamy, rich...YUM.

Anyway, the one thing I never, ever tried was Borscht.  Last night I was flipping through an old New York Times Cookbook  (my copy is from 1961 and was my mother's) and came across a recipe.  I mostly stuck with the ingredients, but changed up the method a bit in an effort to add richness to the soup and ,truth be told, cover up the taste of the cabbage.

It's kind of an all day, tedious affair.  I started working on it at 10 AM and I think it was done around 4PM.  There's a lot of chopping and peeling, but I often enjoy that.  It's basic and chopping and dicing slow down my internal tick-tock that by the end of the week has sped up to near lighting speed.   

This soup, almost a stew, is a good way to use up all those winter veggies as you can sub in turnips, parsnip or even celery root.  Here's what I used.

Winter Borscht

1-1.5 pounds beef (I used oxtail)
1 cup white wine
1.5 quarts water
2 onions (one quartered and one shredded)
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 cups shredded roasted beets
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup shredded rutabaga
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 small head of cabbage, shredded
3 bay leaves
2 pounds of potatoes

Salt and Pepper

Sour cream and fresh chopped dill for garnish

I do love any recipe that allows me to use my favorite enameled cast iron pot from Calphalon.  The last time I was at the Chef's Outlet, there were still some to be had at a fraction of the price of their Le Creuset counter part. 

I heated up the pot on top of the stove, added a little olive oil and browned the oxtail.  I added two carrots and an onion, salt and pepper and put the lid on and simmered for about 2 hours.  I was busy making mac-n-cheese for the freezer and lost track of time.  It probably could have cooked for less time.

In the meantime, I washed and roasted 6 small beets, with the skin on, with salt and olive oil at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until tender.  I let them cool then shredded them in my food processor along with the seeded tomatoes, cabbage, remaining carrots, onion and ratbag. 

I removed the beef and set aside and strained the beef stock.  Discard the carrots and onions. Bring the beef stock back to a boil and add in all the veggies and any collected juice from the beets as they roasted.  Whisk a cup of broth with the tomato paste and add back into the simmering pan with the beef and bay leaves.

Simmer for an hour or two until all of the veggies are tender.  Remove the bay leaves. I removed the meat and scredded it and ran my "blender on a stick" around the pan a few times to puree the soup a bit. Little mouths always prefer a soup to be smooth, if possible. 

Dice the potatoes, cook separately and add to the Borscht just before serving otherwise they will be mushy

Garnish with a bit of sour cream and fresh dill if you have some.  We didn't.  The dill at the supermarket looked all limp and yellow, so I threw in a bit of freeze dried that I had in the cabinet. 

Then I removed the meat and bones and strained the broth. 

While the soup was simmering away in the pot, I had hoped we wouldn't really like it all that much.  It WAS a lot a work.  But it was really good and got thumbs up from Big Mama and Little Mouths.

Food Find Friday -- Naan

A few weeks ago, while parusing the aisles of my local GFS (Gordon's Food Service) I came accross these flatbread looking things.  I had homemade pizza on our Menu Plan that week so I threw them in the cart to try.  I must be one of the last remaining people in the world that never had naan, but there you go.  Now I have and boy of boy are they YUMMY!  (And only 4 Weight Watcher points if you're in to that)

The Bread Basket -- Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

I took inspiration for these rolls from the instruction booklet of my bread machine, of all places.  I wanted a flaky roll to use for dinner last week and sliders, the next day.  This is what I came up with, and while I'm not getting much better at shaping the rolls, I had 13 instead of 12 and had to squeeze one in, they really were good.

Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

1/2 cup warm milk (70 to 80 degrees F.)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/8 cup sugar

1 egg

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups bread flour

1 1/8 teaspoons active dry yeast

In bread machine pan, put all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer and select dough setting.

When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 12 (or 13) portions. Roll dough into balls and place in a greased 9X( or round pan.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes.  When the rolls have risen to twice their size, bake at 350 degrees for 13-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Rockin' Recipe -- Chicken Enchiladas

Like I said yesterday, due to our excursion last week to the farmer's market, I had a lot of produce to use up this week that was slightly past its prime.  There's no need to throw away produce that isn't as fresh as it was. Yes, the nutrients start waning the moment it's picked, but there are plenty left to give soups, stews and sauces and extra punch. Leave a comment with your favorite way to save a veggie??


I remember watching a Barefoot Contessa show where Ina said to roast winter tomatoes that didn't have as much flavor, to concentrate the flavor and make them eatable.  Oven roasted tomatoes are REALLY shrivelly, so the ones I had that were slightly wrinkled did just fine.  I also had some onions that were beginning to sprout and some garlic that was a little less than plump.  We haven't had anything Mexican in a few weeks and while I was rooting through the freezer I came across two lonely chicken breasts that seemed to fit the bill for this recipe. 


Julie's Roasted Chicken Enchiladas

5 Roma tomatoes

6 garlic cloves

2 small onions

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

Salt and pepper

2 chicken breasts

6 flour or corn tortillas

2 cups shredded cheese (I used Mexican Chihuahua Cheese)

I cored the tomatoes and got rid of the seeds, peeled the onions and threw away the green sprout in the center and peeled the garlic.  I covered a sheet pan with foil, sprayed the pan and veggies with olive oil and added salt and pepper.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the garlic since it burns faster than tomatoes and onions, so I left some on the tray and wrapped some in foil with some oil and guess what.  They both burned!  I added some crushed garlic later...I also threw two left over raw chicken breasts in the oven at the same time to cook through.

Make sure you cover your baking sheet with foil, otherwise it will look like this when it's done!

Roast at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the onions are soft and the tomatoes are soft and starting to brown.  Empty all into the blender with the wine and spices and give it a whirl. 

Shred chicken and add it, with 1/3 of the sauce into a saute pan and simmer over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes.  Allow to cool completely and mix with 2/3 of the cheese.  I ended up with about 3 cups of the filling.  I wrapped a half cup into each tortilla and lined up in a 9 X 13 baking dish.  Top with the remaining sauce and cheese.  Refrigerate, freeze or bake immediately at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, until browned and bubbly!  Thumbs up from Big Mama and the Little Mouths both cleaned their plates.

Thank you to all my blogging friends for allowing me to link to their posts.  Looky Here!  for links to their grat blogs!

Meal Plan Monday!

The goal of this week's meal plan is to use up produce and pantry items that are a little past their prime.  I roasted some less than plump tomatoes and onions that were starting to sprout to make the Chicken Enchiladas we're having this evening. Those same sprouting onions and some shiveled carrots joined some not-so-firm potatoes in a wonderful soup on Sunday.

There's no need to throw away produce that isn't as fresh as it was.  Yes, the nutrients start waning the moment it's picked, but there are plenty left to give soups, stews and sauces and extra punch.   Leave a comment with your favorite way to save a veggie!

Sunday           Sneaky Potato Soup
Monday         Chicken Enchaladas (Recipe to follow)
Tuesday         Chicken Noodle Casserole
Wednesday    Pork BBQ Sliders and Garlic Fries
Thursday        Roast Beef and Brie Panini (Recipe to Follow)
Friday            Eat OUT!
Saturday        Pasta with Shrimp

Soup-er Sunday Sneaky Potato Soup

Once again, our little cul-de-sac is swathed in snow.  The little mouths and I are in our jammies, well, jammies and apron for me, and snug as bugs. 

One of the best ways to keep our bodies resilient and get much needed veggies into the little mouth's diet is soup.  With two sick kids in two weeks, we need to beef up our immune systems.  I'd love to be able to stuff them full of super-foods, like kale and turnip greens, but if they would eat that stuff, they would be no need for my blog.  So while I have one child who's idea of a smorgasbord is the produce section, the other one wouldn't touch a tomato with a ten foot pole.  I have to be sneaky.  

This is a soup I invented one day with what was in my pantry with a little inspiration from Jessica Seinfeld.  You can hide just about anything in this soup.  I have included cauliflower, summer squash, butternut squash, carrots and parsnips.  It is especially good with anything that is a little orange in color.  My family, even the adults, swear there is cheese in this soup.  But except for the occasional garnish, there's not a drop. 

This is also a great way to use up leftover bacon (as if), sausage or ham.  Today I threw in a cup of diced leftover holiday ham from the freezer.  Thumbs up from Big Mama and both little mouths.  Yummy in the tummy on a cold winter's day.

Sneaky Potato Soup

1 cup grated onion
2 cups grated carrot
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
2 pounds potatoes (I used Yukon Gold)
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups milk

Cook onion and carrot in butter, salt and pepper.  Add herbs, spices and flour and stir until lightly browned.  Deglaze the pan with wine or chicken stock.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer or 45-60 minutes, until potatoes are creamy and falling apart.  Add ham etc. to taste.

The only difficult thing about this soup is finding a good pot to cook it in.  For most of my soups, I use my totally overpriced but beloved enamel covered cast iron dutch oven, similar to this:
 While it caramelizes the onion and carrots beautifully, this soup is half milk that needs to simmer for at least 45 minutes to cook the potatoes through.  I've tried adding the potatoes already boiled, but it definitely steals some of the flavor.  The last time I used this pot for the soup, I spent a day soaking and scrubbing the bottom of my pot and vowed, never again.

The next time I tried this stock pot that came with my set of Calphalon Cookware. 
It's non-stick surface made the cleanup a breeze, but the deep, rich flavor of the caramelized veggies was missing.  But better than the heart attack I had when I looked at the bottom of my Enameled Cast-Iron pot.

This time I used a new dutch oven I purchased recently at a chef's outlet I visited.  It's also Calphalon, but this is from their Unison line and promises "non-stick searing."  I was sceptical, but I gave it a go.  And guess what?  It worked beautifully.  This is the exact set I purchased, complete with free spoon and towel.   It gave the same flavor as my extremely expensive enameled pot, but the easy cleaning of the non-stick.  I LOVE IT!