Turkey: Not just for Thanksgiving

My husband works for a company that gives its employees a free turkey every Christmas. Now that the turkey has been in the freezer for a good couple of months, it's time to do something with it. Again, being it there were a couple of birthdays within the past week, I invited the birthday people over for a "Thanksgiving in February" birthday dinner.

With the leftover turkey I made turkey soup, turkey enchiladas, turkey salad, and turkey potato pie. And to think that only cats have 9 lives! The soup is for after school snacks, the turkey salad for lunches, the enchiladas are frozen for another night's dinner, and the turkey potato pie was eaten the next night for dinner.

The point is to cook one big meal, and tweak the rest for dinners later on. Just adding a few spices, etc., to something transforms it and gives it another life so you don't hear whining about eating left overs.

Taco Friday

Everybody loves tacos in our house. It's a meal that has broad appeal and also happens to be cheap and easy. We tend to have tacos on Friday nights because, well, I'm not exactly sure why... it just evolved and now everybody looks forward to them on Friday nights. Usually a couple of stray neighborhood kids wander in around dinner time because they know our Friday night ritual.

You need not follow a recipe for tacos. Being creative is half of the fun. Here's how we make ours, but feel free to add or delete whatever you want! There are no rules. Experiment with different spices such as cumin, chili powder, etc., to create your own special taco spice blend to season the meat with. I have a set of plastic bowls that I put the taco fillings in and let everybody come on up and build their own. Here's what I put out in my bowls:

• cooked meat (browned hamburger, or shredded cooked chicken)
• shredded cheese (cheddar)
• chopped black olives
• shredded lettuce
• chopped green onions
• chopped tomato
• sour cream
  
• guacamole (living in California avocados are pretty available)
• corn tortillias (I fry mine in about 1/2 inch of oil -- I find the store bought pre-shaped shells are brittle breaking apart when you bite into them and tasteless. You can use flour tortillias if you like if you don't want to fry them.)
• taco sauce/salsa
• refried beans

Blow the chow whistle and let the troops fill their plates.

Pizza Night

After coming home from three days away in Southern California I have to admit to ordering pizza. No, I don't cook every single night of the year. The point is that this is the exception rather than the rule. Fast food and pizza were never meant to be staples of our diets. Don't beat yourself up if you order pizza or use the drive through once in a while.

Be kind to yourself and allow nights here and there that free you of your cooking responsibilities. Cooking for your family does not mean you need to be balled and chained to the kitchen.

Japanese Rice

To my lone reader of my cooking blog: Japanese rice is a stickier and starchier than American rice. The name brand I use for Japanese rice is Botan. Does this help?

The Gift of Cooking

Are you ever dumbfounded as to what to buy a friend or relative for his/her birthday, anniversary, etc? How about the gift of a dinner at your home? You will be amazed at how people respond to a meal prepared by you in your home.

Your home need not be fancy or the dinner gourmet. In fact, people prefer a 'home' to a 'museum' any day. Your guests will just appreciate the notion of not having to deal with dinner and look forward to somebody else doing the meal selection and the cooking. Unfortunately, we have all been poisoned with the notion that when we entertain we need to have our home spotless, the finest china set, and the family linens gracing the heirloom silverware. Add to that kind of stress attempting to cook a gourmet meal and you have yourself a nervous breakdown in the making.

Let go of the urge to be 'perfect.'

Invite a a friend over for his/her birthday for dinner (and family if that applies to the situation). Keep the menu SIMPLE. Your friend will be so appreciative that you actually took the time to make dinner for him/her. Remember, this need not be a five-star, gourmet affair. Who cares if you're making tuna hotdish as an entree and your living room has not been dusted or vacuumed?

The memories, laughter, and conversation that take place over dinner supersedes everything else. If you wait until the 'perfect' time to entertain your friends/family in your home, you'll be waiting a long, long time.

Six Ingredients or Less

That's my mantra when selecting recipes for dinner. In fact, I bought a cookbook with that title about 17 years ago, and it's one that I would save in a fire. It's been lovingly used, complete with food stains and paper discoloration, but it's been a savior many a night when time was critical and ingredients on hand few. The internet is full of tasty meal ideas with few ingredients, so nose around and explore. Here's a chicken recipe that's easy -- the trick is to allow yourself enough cooking time. If you know you're going to have a full day I often put this together in the morning, place it in the oven, and set my oven timer to start the cooking process before I get home.

Maple Sauce Chicken

1 chicken cut up
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 ketchup
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Wash chicken and pat dry. Place onion slices in a buttered 9x13 baking dish. Arrange chicken on top, skin side up. Combine remaining ingredients; pour over top. Bake at 350* for 60-70 minutes or until nicely glazed, basting frequently with the sauce. Makes 4 servings.

If you don't have a rice cooker, I recommend getting one -- yes, it goes against my anti-clutter philosophy, but *some* gadgets are good to have.

Serve with rice (I recommend Japanese rice) and toss some frozen vegtables in the microwave and you have yourself a complete meal.

Organization is Key

I was watching a popular afternoon talk show earlier this week, and it featured this man who says that clutter actually makes you fat. He visited a family who struggles with organization and too much stuff. He went on to say that the kitchen is the most important room in the house. He went into the cupboards and drawers and literally threw everything OUT!

I guess my point is that LESS is MORE and he repeated my mantra that if things are not easily accessible to you in your kitchen, you're going to dread cooking. You do NOT need a lot of kitchen gadgets. Most of it is clutter. Think quality, not quantity. I'm not a big fan of kitchen gadgets. Plain ol' sharp knives work best. Plus, I find that kitchen gadgets are difficult to clean and store.

Microwavable Egg Breakfast Part II (Coffee Cup Breakfast)

Again, I've had a request from the lone reader of this blog for making 3-4 servings of the microwavable egg breakfast.

This microwavable egg breakfast is also known in some parts of the country as "coffee cup" breakfast. The reason being is that many people do not have a complete set of glass custard bowls sitting around and easily accessible for microwaving a single egg to cook up in a perfectly round circle to sit prettily on a toasted English muffin or a bagel. So, using a coffee cup instead of digging through the cupboards for the finer kitchen items is just a lot more practical.

To make this breakfast really easy, just grab 4 microwavable coffee cups out of the cupboard. Lightly spray them with cooking spray. Crack an egg in each cup and add 1 tablespoon of milk. Salt and pepper to taste and scramble with a fork. Place all four cups in the microwave for about 3 minutes. Voila! You now have breakfast for four. Slide your pretty, perfectly circular cooked egg onto a toasted muffin and you'll have breakfast faster than you could get at a drive-thru. I like to serve Coffee Cup breakfast with cut up fruit (I love fresh fruit with all breakfasts). If you're in a hurry and don't have time to cut up fruit, just serve with a banana.

To reiterate: Keep your kitchen simple. You do not need a lot of kitchen gadets. Clutter = chaos. Less is more.

No pots to clean! Just put the dirty coffee cups in the dishwasher.

Microwavable Egg Breakfast

I had a request from the one person who actually looks at this blog for a scrambled egg microwavable breakfast. This is a recipe that prepares a single serving egg McMuffin that can be prepared by young cooks (your kids can do this themselves).

Spray a microwaveable custard bowl, or other small, glass microwavable bowl with cooking spray;

Crack egg into sprayed bowl and add 1 tablespoon of milk. Salt and pepper to taste. Scramble egg with fork;

Microwave egg on high for about 75 seconds (one minute + 15 seconds);

While egg is cooking in the microwave, place an English muffin (or bagel) in the toaster;

Carefully slide egg onto toasted English muffin (or bagel).

If desired, sprinkle a little cheese on top of egg and microwave for a few seconds (to melt cheese).

That's it!

Breakfast

Everybody wants a hot breakfast to start the day. However, weekdays can leave us all frazzled and time-crunched. Here are a couple of breakfast tricks:

• Make a batch of pancake batter and keep it in the refrigerator. You can have hot and fresh pancakes faster than you can microwave a frozen, packaged, fat-filled convenience breakfast food item.

• Scramble some eggs along with sauteed left over vegtables on Sunday. Wrap them inside in a flour tortillia and sprinkle with some cheese and you'll have ready made breakfast burritos you can warm in the microwave for breakfast for the week.