stuff your salad in a tomato

Tomatoes are huge and inexpensive right now, and I've been looking for ways to mix up my habitual lunch salad with toppings like tuna and a bunch of different types of beans, but when I picked up a Runner's World magazine while I was at the airport this weekend, I was inspired by a bunch of their great recipes. Who knew they'd have recipes? Guess I shouldn't be that surprised, but I was quite impressed.... 

Among other healthy, fresh, balanced and light recipes was one for a stuffed tomato. I found a bunch of varieties on stuffed tomatoes when I went to Runner's World's site to look for the recipes ones I'd seen in the magazine and now plan to chop up my salads and try a few of these variations among others on their site. Maybe they will come up with a cheap {and non-clutter causing}Nook version of the mag so I don't drown us in magazines saved merely for their recipes. Image belongs to foodstuff, who also has a great looking recipe.

Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin + Veggies

 My husband is the master of last minute dinner decisions. My freezer and I have become fast friends. I use my cast iron skillet to cook a variety of frozen vegetables often. For our anniversary, I did a one skillet pork tenderloin and vegetables. Marinating for a long time, searing well on all sides and removing when it was @ 145 degrees made for a great, tender piece of meat with a yummy, shreadable, well seared outside. Plus, can't beat that one pot clean up business. Especially when it's a cast iron skillet, I literally rinse it and wipe it clean.

ONE Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Veggies

INGREDIENTS

1 medium sized pork tenderloin {I'm sorry, I truly have no clue how many pounds ours was...}

a thick Asian dressing or marinade of choice. I used Cookwell & Company Asian Ginger Vinaigrette.
3 cups frozen vegetables such as brussels sprouts, broccoli florets, or green beans
2 tablespoons olive oil {learned that extra virgin is not ideal for skillet cooking because it burns at a lower temperature. find just olive oil for skillet cooking. HEB makes some that’s labelled for sautéing.}
Cracked pepper
Coarse kosher salt
balsamic vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Trim ends off of tenderloin so it is uniform thickness. Cut in half. Marinate in the fridge overnight, well coated. Remove from fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking and pat dry.
 

Thaw vegetables by running warm water over them in a colander or allowing them to sit about 5 minutes in warm water. Cut the brussels sprouts in half. 

Preaheat oven to 425 degrees. Film an ovenproof skillet with oil and sear the tenderloin over medium high heat to brown all sides, about 5 minutes in all.

At the same time meat is browning, add vegetables and generously sprinkle with pepper and salt. Lower heat if things get splattery. Stir to coat and allow to sit undisturbed as meat browns, only stirring once or twice. Sprinkle balsamic vinegar over the vegetables and toss to coat.

Place skillet in the oven and roast 15-20 minutes until internal temp is 145 degrees. Tent skillet with foil and let rest about 5 minutes. Use more of your marinade as a glaze or make a pan sauce by deglazing the skillet with chicken broth, wine or something like orange juice.

Here's the basic recipe I use to cook vegetables @ the last minute.

Just Freezer Skillet Veggies

INGREDIENTS
3 cups frozen vegetables such as brussels sprouts, broccoli florets, or green beans
2 tablespoons olive oil {learned that extra virgin is not ideal for skillet cooking because it burns at a lower temperature. find just olive oil for skillet cooking. HEB makes some that’s labelled for sautéing.}
Cracked pepper
Coarse kosher salt
balsamic vinegar

DIRECTIONS
Thaw vegetables by running warm water over them in a colander or allowing them to sit about 5 minutes in warm water. Cut the brussels sprouts in half. Heat oil in metal or cast iron skillet on medium high. Add vegetables and generously sprinkle with pepper and salt. Lower heat if things get splattery. Stir to coat and allow to sit undisturbed about 2-3 minutes. Stir again and leave alone for a few more minutes. Once they are looking cooked, sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, stir to coat and cook about 2 -3 minutes more, stirring infrequently to allow maximum, flavorful browning.

Remove from heat. Cool. Plate. Sprinkle with a bit more salt and pepper.

sliders

After a long and undoubtedly reader-mourned hiatus, I return to you with a versatile, well loved dish in our house.

The base of these sliders is Sister Shubert's rolls. Discovering that my husband loved these was further affirmation of my theory that I'd married the male version of my best friend, but that's beside the point. All that matters is T. loves the rolls and thus has loved whatever I'm able to fit in them. I've made steak sliders with leftover sliced steak meat, I've made turkey burger sliders with leftover turkey meat {and a really cute 2 inch biscuit cutter} and I've made fajita sliders. You could use black bean veggie burger patties, chicken breast sliders {cue that cute biscuit cutter} or even thickly sliced roast beef or turkey deli meat. The possibilities are endless, but the steak is is the one I make the most often. The pictures are of the turkey burger sliders.

{Steak sliders}

INGREDIENTS

Sister Shubert's Parker House Rolls

sliced steak or other meat of choice

spicy mustard

pesto

provolone cheese

baby spinach leaves

sliced Roma tomatoes

oven or toaster oven with a broiler

pepper

DIRECTIONS

Yield note: {I think there are about 16 rolls in each package. When I make these just for T, I break the frozen biscuit 'disk' in half and only use half at a time. One package should feed two for a main course comfortably and be great for appetizers for 4}

Cook frozen rolls according to package directions. Then turn broiler on. 

Time spend under the broiler will only melt the cheese not warm the meat sufficiently, so if you're using leftover or chilled meat, warm meat separately @ this point.

Half each roll and generously spread pesto on one side and spicy mustard {to your level of spiciness preference} on the other. I put pesto on the top and mustard on the bottom because I like the idea of the meat touching the spicy mustard...

Cover each bottom half with as much meat as you please and top with cheese. Place open faced halves on a cookie sheet under the broiler until the cheese melts. Remove. Sprinkle pepper on melted cheese. Top cheese with a few baby spinach leaves and a slice of Roma tomato {and whatever else you've got going on in the fridge that you think sounds good}

Smash top {pesto covered} half on. I served my turkey "burgers" with roasted new potato "fries."

Happy sliding!

chai tea latte concentrate

'tis the season for spicy warm drinks like pumpkin spice and chai tea lattes. i got a chai tea latte today from central market and it was glorious. however, since i can't be shelling out the big bucks each afternoon, morning, evening... that i get a craving, i pulled out this recipe i'd been saving for at home, on-demand, chai tea lattes.

Chai Latte Concentrate
from foodie with family

Ingredients:

• 12 Chai tea bags
• 4 cups cold, fresh water
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Place the tea bags, cold water and milk in a medium saucepan over high heat.  Bring to a boil.  When you reach the boil, drop the heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and squeeze the tea bags to extract as much flavor and liquid as possible.  Discard tea bags and transfer the Chai Latte Concentrate to a heat-safe container, like a glass Ball jar. Allow to cool to room temperature, put a tight fitting lid on the container and store in the refrigerator for up to 12 days.

To prepare a Chai Latte: (it's really flexible, adjust to your taste)

Ingredients:

• 1/3- 1/2 cup of milk (use whole milk or even half and half to make a creamy, rich one)
• 1/2- 2/3 cup of Chai Latte Concentrate
• 1-3 teaspoons, to taste, of sweetener.  Foodie recommends agave nectar. I used Splenda and skim milk but may try adding real sugar with the milk and warming it together stovetop then topping with whipped cream and some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. I also found decaffeinated chai tea bags, which was a plus!

yum!

{cobbler version deux: strawberry}

Well forgive that stinky image quality. I tried this cobbler with thawed (and then drained) frozen strawberries. So good. and that means I can keep extra crispy topping around and make this with whatever fruit I have frozen or fresh! That is, as long as I have the right ice cream to go on top.

a place for everything...

...and everything in its place!

i baked today! but the jury is still out on the results so say tuned. for now, two household ideas that have been keeping me sane. the first needs a story...

{ door sixteen }

when my great aunt gave me a cookbook of her favorite recipes, some of them old family ones, she not only gave me the treasure of her time, her sweet and patient instruction, and her recipes but she, i think inadvertently, taught me a really useful cooking tip.

{ door sixteen }

it was because they threw away food in a trash can in the garage, that she would keep a plastic grocery sack on the counter while she cooked. as we chopped, peeled, wiped up and the like, we threw everything away in that sack right there on the counter, we could move quicker and keep things cleaner throughout the meal prep. at the end, we'd tie it up and take it to the garage.

{ that kitchen }

in truth, my first household sanity tip, with that practical example, is rooted in my perfectionist psychosis which causes me to crumble at large and seemingly daunting {read: unable to be done perfectly} tasks and often results in me never even embarking upon jobs i perceive to be daunting {read: cinnamon rolls}. so, to keep the final cleaning task small and therefore less overwhelming and craze-inducing.  

{1} clean as you go.

{ una mosca en la luna }

haven't you enjoyed these shots of beautiful shelves and clean kitchens, where everything is stacked and sorted neatly in nice little containers?

{ki}

my second sanity epiphany involved cellphone chargers. the cell phones always ended up getting charged the bar in the kitchen closest to our bedroom door, cords then littering the floor or the kitchen counter. pencils, pens, notepads and eyedrops always ended up out of the study, out of the bathroom and on the couch. loose change always ended up on the tv cabinet. my bobby pins, rings and earrings ended up on the counter rather than in the drawer.

{johanna}

so i put a basket right inside our bedroom door, nearest that odd bar outlet, that now houses all the chargers to our random electronic devices, cameras, cellphones, ipods etc. it also now holds the little little devices and their little accessories as well.

a little tin bucket went on a shelf near the couch for all those random tools needed for some reason near the couch: pens, eye drops {law school}, notecards and even now outgoing mail.

a change catch-all went on the tv unit and it also holds our restaurant gift cards so they're out in the open, not easily forgotten and easily snatchable.

a fleet of little shallow bowls for the earrings and rings.

{26oliveetsy via we heart it }

{2} sometimes its "place" needs to be wherever it ends up. so find a cute basket, bucket or bowl.

now, even though bobby pins allegedly live in the drawer, in reality they are ubiquitous when i want to clean and elusive when i need one. so perhaps epiphany two and a half:

bobby pins will haunt us.

{taco mania}

just acquired a puppy? too crunched for time and slammed at work to conjure up new and exciting dinners much less update your food blog? biding your time for summer?

sorry, i can't relate.

check out taco mania  for pretty pictures and easy ways to zest up many meats. perfect for fast summer dinners. just be sure you get yourself some epic tortillas and life is good.

{the proper care and feeding of polos}

I realized as I folded laundry this evening that I have a useful domestic tidbit worth sharing. It starts with a confession.

I was tortured as child. Granted, in her defense, my mom was a working teacher throughout my middle school and high school years and couldn't be bothered with the likes of our soddy laundry piles that showed up at their leisure with complete disregard for their sheer volume and soddiness. She had better things to do with her evenings at home after a full day of teaching Trigonometry to sassy high schoolers. Like eat bon bons and soak her feet in peppermint oil.

So she made us do our own laundry. Egad. I know. And it is within these roots that my domestic trivia begins. I still have some explaining however, so stick with me. We wore uniforms and I was a vain yet lazy high schooler. Who wanted to avoid ironing at all costs. So let's talk collars. In my vanity, I liked (ahem, like?) the look of a straight-standing, well curved collar. No flat collars and no creased collar curves. (Now, oxford collars are another matter, but laziness and thus the non-iron uniform brand were involved.) So in my lazy vanity, I discovered how a nicely standing, well-curved polo collar can be achieved with a little preliminary work and no ironing.
Please note: "The Prep." When a polo comes out of the dryer and is still warm, shake it out and promptly hang it. Button all buttons, and pop the collar. Hang in closet with the rest of its preppy friends.

Let's take a closer look at this red one here. What has happened? This is unfortunate.Now granted, this is a golf polo in which the sun and sweat and non-ironing facilitated an irrevocable crease. But if you have a husband who is outside often, or who does not differentiate between his athletic and non-athletic collared shirts, or who likes to wear sporty polos for their shininess at other occasions, or if you have a small, or large, boy whose clothes are often subject to sun and sweat and lack of collar ironing THIS could be your fate.

SO shake them out, get preppy with them and they will last long, stay lovely and you will be able to avoid the iron.

Thanks for your time.

::peppermint mocha with starbucks via::

an at home use for starbuck's instant coffee using microbrewed beans. omit coffee for peppermint hot chocolate and substitute peppermint extract for vanilla extract for simple hot chocolate.

{peppermint mocha}
INGREDIENTS
8oz milk
1 packet starbucks via instant coffee
1 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar or other sweetener
1/4 tablespoon peppermint extract
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
DIRECTIONS
{stovetop}
in very small pot, heat milk slowly, stirring often, over low heat. when just warm add all ingredients and stir continuously with a wooden spoon until dissolved. pour into mug.
{microwave}
heat mug filled with milk until just warm, about a minute. stir in all ingredients and mix well. heat about 45 seconds more, stirring briskly once in between and again at the end.

top with whipped cream or marshmallows!

cheater pancakes

A similar sentiment to crumblies I feel for these, being, at heart, fundamentally opposed to baked good mixes. Baked good mixes truly epitomize the "what is it worth to you?" question because real, homemade, from scratch baked goods are so cheap and so yummy to make yourself. However, said homemade baked goods require energy for me to not only actually bake but clean up after as well.

I mean, besides when the clean up fairies sweep in.

So this mix is really useful for when I let the clean up fairies go on vacation.

It's also really useful for when I'm interested purchasing a boxed Make-Your-Husband's-Week mix for about $6 at Central Market. But I imagine if I put Bisquick in this tub when we're done with it he may never know...

When we stayed at a friend's parent's house in Houston, Taylor was introduced to this Stonewall Kitchen Pancake & Waffle Mix. My understanding of Mr. Reeve's love affair with this brand is that he orders essentially their entire line of fruit preserves spreads and this pancake mix by the case load. The secret that he passed on to Taylor is to add a bit of sugar to the mix. When I made this for Taylor he reminded me about seventeen times, from the time we stood in line at Central Market and saw the light from heaven shining on this mix in the fourth isle to the minute I poured the batter on the griddle, that the secret was to add a bit of sugar.

make-tay's-week pancakes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Stonewall Kitchen Pancake & Waffle Mix
1 tablespoon sugar
DIRECTIONS
Follow directions on package. Add sugar. Don't forget the sugar. Continue to follow directions on package. Read clean up fairies' postcard sent from their vacation.

utilizing your freezer

Check out this post from Whole Food's blog on how to utilize your freezer! Great for both weeknight meals and cooking in small portions. Clicking on a picture in the post will take you to its recipe. HEB sells bags of frozen shrimp that are perfect for portioned grabbing.

cooking in small portions

This attractive picture is that of a de-meated rotisserie chicken. An entire cooked chicken for $6.99 at HEB or $4.99 at Costco. Each baggie has about a cup of meat and will be frozen in a larger, dated ziploc bag.So I can grab an individual baggie from the freezer and make a fresh pasta or summer salad for one or both of us. Easily adding tasty, sometimes even flavored chicken without cooking enough meat for a family of 5.

ode to the crumblies

Dear Crumblies,

Today I have an ode
I want to send your way.
Because with just water, oil and eggs
Tay thinks you’re gourmet!

Your little mini can of berries
is really pretty cute.
That fact that you’re dubbed “crumblies”
is pretty much a hoot.

When milk is never stocked
impulse baking is a chore
but the streusel topping muffin box?
Paradigm of patient.
Forever it will store!

See, I buy the milk to make “real” muffins,
but it just goes bad;
and so I have to chunk it,
and that just makes me mad.

And if I buy blueberries
we’d have a pricey slew.
Babe. eat. these. berries.
I don’t care if you turn blue!!

So, crumblies in the red box, to you I say hooray!
Because with you it’s more than simple to brighten Taylor’s day!
The End.

mawwige

Today is our first wedding anniversary. We had brunch at Green Pastures where we were married a year ago. A venerable brunch spread they have there on Sundays! Whew! In the spirit of the day, I'd like to take some time to pay homage to a few things that have made this year great.

Besides being married to Taylor, of course.

I don't know where this simple device has been all my life, but I'm glad I had wedding credit enough to purchase one. Each morning henceforth, my coffee has been smooth and strong and not burned....

#1 The Bodum French Press

I finally recovered from an intense liberal arts high school education and an honors English college degree program that effectively squelched all desire from my spirit to read for pleasure...and I picked up a book to read on our honeymoon. Little did I know that Wicked would be the first of 26 books I would end up reading during our first year of marriage. Seven of those were that of the highly acclaimed Harry Potter series. Yes, I succumbed to the mass trend. It was worth it. It is good literature, take it from me, the over saturated in English Literature. There's a complex plot, complex characters, loyalty, bravery, honor....woven throughout all seven tomes. They're better than the movies too, as all books are.

#2 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

When one has to be a housewife and do housewiferly duties, something that makes one smile despite said duties is always a welcome treat. Whenever I decide it's time to dust, which admittedly is never often enough, this little thing never fails to make me chuckle....

#3 The Quick Dusting Mitten
(he he he)

The fact that I had been previously so diametrically opposed to this type of thing in my idealistic new wife state is important to note. I thought, well if Taylor wants cookies after dinner, I can make them. No need to spend money on that type of thing. However, my incapacity to control myself in presence of cookie dough combined with Taylor's odd notion that cookies would be "gone bad" after 36 hours, did not bode well for my wasteline, or for our trashcan, whichever won the fight over the dozens of cookies that one batch produced.

Not only do they come in a happy little package and make you feel charitable for buying prepackaged cookie embryos, but they have been the savior of my girlish figure, of my time of relaxation after a day of work and "dinner" concoctions and of Taylor's sweet tooth. He can make himself two or three warm and gooey "homemade" cookies without me having to get up off the couch or set one foot in the kitchen.

I mean... um... I can make him homemade cookies without him having to get up off the couch or set one foot in the kitchen ....

#4 Immaculate Baking Company's Better Bakes.
Triple Chocolate and Vanilla Sugar
site here

Thanks for reading about my endeavors this year!

pizza dough (with yeast!)

Yeast makes me nervous. It's this freaky alive substance that eats and grows. Kneading makes me nervous too. Releasing the gluten...gummy...silky...stringy...chewy. I feel that these are severely subjective adjectives. Don't underdo it and don't overdo it. Then there arises (heh) the issue of all these whilly nilly bread making peoples that just whip this stuff out without overmixing or overgrowing or "killing" things. Its just that this exact chemistry with specific water temperatures, hungry fungi and strange consistency specifications makes me nervous...
We are baking! This is chemistry, people! I need times! Specific times! Measurements! Specific measurements! I'm a rule follower! I can't handle whilly nilly!
The reason there is often a specified water temperature in bread making recipes is to proof the dough to ensure it's not dead. My heroine over at Smitten Kitchen skips this step for her pizza dough and saves me the uncertainty of water temperature measuring. We'll just assume my yeast is still alive and kickin...

Pizza with Homemade Dough
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
1 1/2 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast*
1/2 cup warm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
*If using instant yeast, use a tiny bit less
Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water, honey and olive oil, stirring mixture. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball.
SmittenKitchen recommends: "If you are finding this step difficult, one of the best tricks I picked up from my bread-making class is to simply pause. Leave the dough in a lightly-floured spot, put the empty bowl upside-down on top of it and come back in 2 to 5 minutes, at which point you will find the dough a lot more lovable."
Knead it for just a minute or two. {update: this maybe what s.k. said but I found it needs to be kneaded for about 5 minutes. Or more. Knead until a piece of it stretches in your hand without breaking. Lightly oil the same rinsed mixing bowl with shortening, butter or cooking spray. Dump in the dough, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap {update: a cotton dishtowel} and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size. It's ready when two fingers pressed firmly leave an indentation and the dough does not bounce back into shape.

Dump it back on the floured counter and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.
Sprinkle a pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to its top temperature. Roll out the pizza, toss on whatever topping and seasonings you like.

Bake it for about 10 minutes until "it’s lightly blistered and impossible to resist."
Then clean your kitchen.


{notes}
I used instant yeast instead of dry active yeast. It made me nervous.

After the intensive google research I conducted to figure out the difference, I gathered that I was supposed to do a tiny bit less instant yeast. Something about 80%. Though the consensus among many random "authorities" on various bread loving message boards was that it "didn't matter." Those whilly nilly bread peoples!

All that I was really able to determine was that the instant yeast would make the dough rise faster. Naturally, the name is a give away. Thanks for nothing, whilly nilly bread people. Once I began making the dough, I read the package of instant yeast. The conversions were in grams and I didn't feel like troubling to convert grams to teaspoons. So I did a scant 3/4 t. instant yeast. My confusion began when the package said to double the water. Now that's a lot more water and a significant deviation from my original recipe. And that made me feel scared. And whilly nilly. I think I ended up adding about an additional 1/4 cup of water. It seemed "silky" and didn't break when I took a chuck and spread it out in my hands (windowpane test?). Smitten's one to two hours timeframe also was a little too whilly nilly for my taste and was merely fuel to the fire of my confusion about this whole instant yeast fiasco being faster.

I let it rise in my pantry for about an hour and 15 minutes.
I cooked it at 500 degrees.

It was good. Success!

pesto whole wheat penne pasta

This is a vestige of my college days. I could eat this for every meal. Once tay and I discovered HEB's premarinated fajita chicken meat, it made an excellent addition to this dish. That fajita meat is great for us because we can grill it on our little indoor grill and then I can put the meat in a variety of dishes throughout the week to make it fit our 2 person portion size. Typically I can make this pasta, we have leftovers for the next day and we still have half the fajita meat for another dish. The fajita meat doesn't have a Mexican-y taste. It has a lot of flavor and is really tender. It has gone great with everything that I've put it in, and Taylor likes it, so, anything with it in it, he will eat.
Here goes.

Pesto Penne Pasta with Chicken
INGREDIENTS
1-2 c. diced HEB premarinated, grilled, fajita chicken meat
8 oz. Whole Wheat Penne pasta
1/3 c. pesto
1/2 c. grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
2 T. olive oil
DIRECTIONS
Cook pasta according to package directions (this is half the standard size box). Drain and return to pot. Add chicken. Pour in olive oil and pesto, mix well. Add cheese, mix well. The more pesto the better. I buy those little containers made by HEB. Without the chicken, it would be good sided for grilled chicken breasts. If I served it as a side, I'd probably add some little diced roma tomotes.

I don't think Tay is a huge fan of this but I really like it and he eats it because of his fajita chicken meat. I think I served this with some chopped cantelope and honeydew. Yum yum!