Today while I was standing there using my freezer as the most expensive air conditioning system known while I tried to move the synapses in my brain closer to each other to figure out a dinner plan, I decided to make a roulade for dinner. It's easy, fast, tasty, and makes use of several left-over items in the fridge. And then it dawned on me - we all have some sort of casserole in our cooking repertoire. Mine just happens to be a roulade. It's my go-to dish when I'm at a loss for what to make for dinner.
Tonight's roulade made use of several items - marinara sauce I made on Friday, butternut squash from a puff-wrapped cod last night, fresh carrots (shredded), rice (still had to cook it), and cheese. While this new dish may not be of new ingredients, it's a new interpretation of existing parts.
Tonight's roulade
- 1 Chicken breast - pounded thin (1/4")
- 1 Carrot, shredded
- 1/2c cooked butternut squash (diced)
- 3T butter
- Cheese (I used cheddar this time)
- 1/2c Rice
- 1c Marinara sauce
1. Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Prep a baking platter (just foil on a baking tray was all I used tonight).
2. Butterfly and pound chicken breast thin, and season both sides with salt and pepper
3. Layer onto the pounded chicken breast shredded carrot, butternut squash, cheese, and rice (in that order). The butter, I dotted amidst the butternut squash. The rice, I laid just in the middle of the roulade roll.
4. Roll from end to end, taking care not to squish everything out as you push the roll along. Use toothpicks to hold roll together if necessary.
5. Transfer roulade to the baking platter. Pour on marinara sauce evenly over roulade.
6. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven immediately after baking, and let rest outside of oven for 5 minutes.
7. Slice and serve.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Duh
Why didn't I think of this idea earlier? I was about to throw out some slices of lemon I had used for a lemon infusion earlier yesterday, and decided to try something. It worked:
1. Lemon - slice or wedge to sizes to fit into your water bottle.
2. If slices - curl on itself into a roll so it could fit into the mouth of your water bottle. Shove curled-up slices into an ice cube tray to hold them in their shape. If using wedges, lay out wedges side by side on a single cookie sheet.
3. Freeze. Then, when they're frozen solid, throw them into your water bottle for cold lemon-infused water on the go. What slices or wedges you don't use, bag them and freeze them for later use.
This may be just too obvious to some, but this idea finally dawned on me when I decided to throw some frozen strawberries into Baby1's water bottle earlier today for her outing to the playground. In Mid-Atlantic heat.
1. Lemon - slice or wedge to sizes to fit into your water bottle.
2. If slices - curl on itself into a roll so it could fit into the mouth of your water bottle. Shove curled-up slices into an ice cube tray to hold them in their shape. If using wedges, lay out wedges side by side on a single cookie sheet.
3. Freeze. Then, when they're frozen solid, throw them into your water bottle for cold lemon-infused water on the go. What slices or wedges you don't use, bag them and freeze them for later use.
This may be just too obvious to some, but this idea finally dawned on me when I decided to throw some frozen strawberries into Baby1's water bottle earlier today for her outing to the playground. In Mid-Atlantic heat.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Reflection on priorities
As my maternity leave comes to a close, I look back with bittersweetness at the past couple of months. I've gotten a chance to hang out more with Baby1, and learn a little more about her as she absorbs information around her faster than a sponge around water. I also got the opportunity to learn about the new human in my life. When I've been able to think for a moment, I realize some subtle and not so subtle friction in childrearing.
Just thinking about the times when I have reached the end of my patience, especially with Baby1, I've made one discovery that I hope will help inform how I approach Baby1 in the future. When I've hit the wall with her, it has been an issue of misaligned priorities. Those times when safety is an issue, there is absolutely no question: I admonish her and make her realize that running across the street or not stopping her Carl Lewis sprint when I tell her to do so is completely out of the question. Other times, however - have they simply because I've lost touch with my childhood and am failing to see the world through her eyes?
With so many books (and just seen how very many there are!) out there written about an litany of institutionalized agendas for raising our children, are we adults just as lost about how to raise children as we are simply not in touch with the real child we once were? Just about all the books read of trying to understand the children through our eyes, but how many are written about trying to understand us through their eyes? We push our children, to adhere to our conditions, to conform to our adult world. We shape them to personify our hopes and our dreams where we've failed. We make them into puppets of our world, miniaturized caricatures of our idols. We force on them a structure that would, in scale, rival a single-handed maneuvering of the Middle East-Israeli conflict.
And just when we think they couldn't possibly perfect themselves enough to our standards, we complain that they're growing up way too fast. Seemingly, we say this more and more with each generation. Could it be that, notwithstanding extreme external factors (inordinate amount of TV, violence in the home, health issues, etc.), we're creating self-fulfilling prophecies? We could blame parents working too much and not spending enough time with the kids; overcommercialism everywhere we turn; too much exposure of kids to sex, drugs, and rock and roll too early in life; any of a litany of pop culture surrounding us today. But could it be as simple as that adults have just lost touch with the real child they once were - and that if we were to reexamine life through the eyes of our earliest childhood, that we would once again be able to be more attuned to their needs and thoughts? That if we actually bent who we were, not to what some book tells us to do, but to something that we knew at one point in our life, that we would be able to also align ourselves and better understand our children?
I don't know... but for the time being, I'm using this strategy to better understand Baby1. We'll have to see over time whether or not my idea bears weight. In the mean time, my kitchen as still be churning out food, though at times not as creative as I would like. I'm still using what I have in our freezer and fridge. Of most recent note, I baked up a pheasant that's been in our freezer for a while - S/P all over and in the cavity, tucked butter under the skin, and stuffed it with half a lemon and an onion. Roasting in the same pan as the mire poix were celery, onions, and carrots.
I baked the pheasant, and then used the roasting juices to make my port wine and blackberry sauce. Very simply - port wine, S/P, blackberries, roasting juices. Brought the mixture to a simmer, and turned the heat to low to reduce by about a half. The pheasant was, surprisingly, not terribly gamey, and the sauce paired perfectly. However, the pheasant was still somewhat dry. I'll have to continue testing the baking temperatures and times to get just the right balance for juicy meat and done-ness.
Just thinking about the times when I have reached the end of my patience, especially with Baby1, I've made one discovery that I hope will help inform how I approach Baby1 in the future. When I've hit the wall with her, it has been an issue of misaligned priorities. Those times when safety is an issue, there is absolutely no question: I admonish her and make her realize that running across the street or not stopping her Carl Lewis sprint when I tell her to do so is completely out of the question. Other times, however - have they simply because I've lost touch with my childhood and am failing to see the world through her eyes?
With so many books (and just seen how very many there are!) out there written about an litany of institutionalized agendas for raising our children, are we adults just as lost about how to raise children as we are simply not in touch with the real child we once were? Just about all the books read of trying to understand the children through our eyes, but how many are written about trying to understand us through their eyes? We push our children, to adhere to our conditions, to conform to our adult world. We shape them to personify our hopes and our dreams where we've failed. We make them into puppets of our world, miniaturized caricatures of our idols. We force on them a structure that would, in scale, rival a single-handed maneuvering of the Middle East-Israeli conflict.
And just when we think they couldn't possibly perfect themselves enough to our standards, we complain that they're growing up way too fast. Seemingly, we say this more and more with each generation. Could it be that, notwithstanding extreme external factors (inordinate amount of TV, violence in the home, health issues, etc.), we're creating self-fulfilling prophecies? We could blame parents working too much and not spending enough time with the kids; overcommercialism everywhere we turn; too much exposure of kids to sex, drugs, and rock and roll too early in life; any of a litany of pop culture surrounding us today. But could it be as simple as that adults have just lost touch with the real child they once were - and that if we were to reexamine life through the eyes of our earliest childhood, that we would once again be able to be more attuned to their needs and thoughts? That if we actually bent who we were, not to what some book tells us to do, but to something that we knew at one point in our life, that we would be able to also align ourselves and better understand our children?
I don't know... but for the time being, I'm using this strategy to better understand Baby1. We'll have to see over time whether or not my idea bears weight. In the mean time, my kitchen as still be churning out food, though at times not as creative as I would like. I'm still using what I have in our freezer and fridge. Of most recent note, I baked up a pheasant that's been in our freezer for a while - S/P all over and in the cavity, tucked butter under the skin, and stuffed it with half a lemon and an onion. Roasting in the same pan as the mire poix were celery, onions, and carrots.
I baked the pheasant, and then used the roasting juices to make my port wine and blackberry sauce. Very simply - port wine, S/P, blackberries, roasting juices. Brought the mixture to a simmer, and turned the heat to low to reduce by about a half. The pheasant was, surprisingly, not terribly gamey, and the sauce paired perfectly. However, the pheasant was still somewhat dry. I'll have to continue testing the baking temperatures and times to get just the right balance for juicy meat and done-ness.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
I'll take breathing room for $150, please
Post successful baguette endeavor, Hubby and I headed out for a dinner solo last night at our local Siroc restaurant, downtown DC. Probably our best sampling of Italian food in DC, this restaurant was the site of our last dinner prior to Baby2 joining us. And, apropos, it is the place of our first dinner solo post-Baby2. We had a fantastic time.
What worries me, though, is the fact that the restaurant, while fantastic, doesn't seem to be packed any time that we're there. We ended up closing the restaurant again, the service was top-notch, the food was fantastic. These are the kinds of things I worry about - we find a good place, serving good food, and then next thing I know the place is closed because people are too used to having some washed-up version of real food. Our total bill wasn't cheap - $150 - but it was so worth it.
So this morning, I baked my savory scones that I had prepped yesterday, post baguette. Great success - filled with bacon, garlic cheddar, scallions. Chilling the scones overnight in the fridge definitely did the trick, as the scones were so flaky and soft, they practically melted in my mouth. I've posted the recipe before, so I won't post it again. I am so making more this afternoon.
What worries me, though, is the fact that the restaurant, while fantastic, doesn't seem to be packed any time that we're there. We ended up closing the restaurant again, the service was top-notch, the food was fantastic. These are the kinds of things I worry about - we find a good place, serving good food, and then next thing I know the place is closed because people are too used to having some washed-up version of real food. Our total bill wasn't cheap - $150 - but it was so worth it.
So this morning, I baked my savory scones that I had prepped yesterday, post baguette. Great success - filled with bacon, garlic cheddar, scallions. Chilling the scones overnight in the fridge definitely did the trick, as the scones were so flaky and soft, they practically melted in my mouth. I've posted the recipe before, so I won't post it again. I am so making more this afternoon.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Cartoons with the usual cast of personalities
Baby1 has just embarked on a brand new journey: the joy (or lack thereof) of television. With Baby2 taking some of our time, and at times just needing a bit of quiet from simultaneous screaming from both kids, Hubby and I have decided that yes, we'll try a bit of television therapy with Baby1, just so that we could get, oh, 5 minutes of peace or attempts at establishing peace in this house. In comes Noggin.
We've been watching the Backyardigans and Ni-Hao Kai-lan. Backyardigans because she picked up Uniqua one day at a Target, and instantly recognized her again on the show when one of her cousins had a DVD of of the Backyardigans at Papa's house. Ni-Hao Kai-lan because, well, it would be good for her to learn Chinese at some point, even if it is through a TV show. Both shows, she has actually paid some steady attention to them, which is a relief for us whenever we're hitting a point of decibel limit in the house. But the characters...
Backyardigans. Whose great idea was it to have the white hippo be high-ranked character in each of the episodes? Who made her queen? And Uniqua has a decidedly African-American voice - so why is she singled out as being so unique? And never mind the "mystery" episode, when the moose, also of an African American voice, was the butler and Uniqua was the "strange out-of-towner" character. As for the penguin and the kangaroo - well, they're almost the only two not-extraordinary characters on the show.
And Ni-Hao Kai-lan. Hubby came to the realization yesterday morning that the tiger has ADD, the koala has low self-esteem issues (as well as an unhealthy obsession with pandas - do I detect a "I wish I were" kind of self-value view by the koala?), the monkey is just too small to have personality, the grandfather has to be senile to be hanging out with this motley crew, and Kai-lan is on some sort of prescription medication (we presume for delusional schizophrenia - damn, her pupils are seriously dilated). And how much her high-pitched voice carries her cheerleader personality...
Let's just say I miss the days of Bugs and Tom/Jerry, when cartoons were a little less complex, characters a little more straight-forward, and situations a little more clear-cut. This cast of characters... if they're a reflection of the characters we have in every-day life, of the broad spectrum of personalities we see each day, we're in trouble.
At the least, amidst this entry of new personalities into our house and daily life, and amidst my loss of hearing via the kids, I'm taking on a new recipe for a baguette, care of DK's Bread bible. Simple, clear-cut, and I split the recipe in two by overnighting the rising period in the fridge. I finally got the sponge step looking more like the way it should, and I read something in a book that made too much sense to me - don't use a metallic bowl for making bread, as it will impart an off-flavor to the yeast and to the bread.
Baguette
1 2/3 c lukewarm water
2 1/2 t yeast
500g flour
1 1/2t salt
- Sprinkle the yeast in 1 1/4 c of the water in a non-metallic bowl (try glass or ceramic), and let sit for 5 minutes. Mix to dissolve.
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in the middle. Pour in the yeast mixture.
- Stir just enough of the flour into the yeast mixture with a wooden spoon to yield a sticky paste (sponge). Cover with a dishcloth and let rest for 20 minutes, or until sponge has doubled in volume.
- Stir the rest of the flour into the sponge, mixing the remainder of the water only if necessary, one Tablespoon at a time. Don't mix in too much water! (this is where my process screwed up, and I had to mix in more flour to dry the mix... we'll have to see how it comes out)
- Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until elastic and smooth, about 10 minutes.
- Form dough into a smooth ball, and place in a non-metallic bowl. Cover with dishcloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1.5 hours. This is where I did the overnight refrigerator rising method: place dough in a non-metallic bowl, and brush the surface with olive oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in the fridge overnight (min. 8 hours).
- Remove cover, punch down, cover bowl with dish towel and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Repeat punch-down and rise. (Both rises I executed with a dish towel. I did not use the plastic wrap cover for either rise, as there was considerable condensation on the plastic wrap this morning.)
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Flour your baking surface (I'm using a baking stone).
- Divide dough into two parts, and shape accordingly (3-fold letter shape, followed by half-fold, then elongate). Transfer dough onto baking surface, and cover with dish cloth to let proof, about 50 minutes.
- Give the top of shaped loaves 4 slashes. Finish the surface with either an egg wash or a salt-water wash (I'm going to give it a salt-water wash to see how it comes out).
- Bake 20-25 minutes, steaming of oven is optional.
As I write this, I'm waiting for the loaf to go through its second rise. We'll see how it comes out. But, the overall recipe is very simple indeed, and the DK Bread bible is really wonderful in illustrating the exact look and methods involved in baking bread. I've tried other recipes, often more complicated and not as clearly explained... so we shall see...
>>UPDATE AS OF 5:30PM
Success! The baguette, even with an overnight rise, came out great. Crust was great, though a little thicker than I like (I like the crisp thin crust, but this tasted authentic), and inside was generally uniform with some larger (1/2") air bubbles here and there. Flavor was right on - it was my using metal bowls in the past that lent the bread the weird flavors. I am so using this recipe again.
We've been watching the Backyardigans and Ni-Hao Kai-lan. Backyardigans because she picked up Uniqua one day at a Target, and instantly recognized her again on the show when one of her cousins had a DVD of of the Backyardigans at Papa's house. Ni-Hao Kai-lan because, well, it would be good for her to learn Chinese at some point, even if it is through a TV show. Both shows, she has actually paid some steady attention to them, which is a relief for us whenever we're hitting a point of decibel limit in the house. But the characters...
Backyardigans. Whose great idea was it to have the white hippo be high-ranked character in each of the episodes? Who made her queen? And Uniqua has a decidedly African-American voice - so why is she singled out as being so unique? And never mind the "mystery" episode, when the moose, also of an African American voice, was the butler and Uniqua was the "strange out-of-towner" character. As for the penguin and the kangaroo - well, they're almost the only two not-extraordinary characters on the show.
And Ni-Hao Kai-lan. Hubby came to the realization yesterday morning that the tiger has ADD, the koala has low self-esteem issues (as well as an unhealthy obsession with pandas - do I detect a "I wish I were" kind of self-value view by the koala?), the monkey is just too small to have personality, the grandfather has to be senile to be hanging out with this motley crew, and Kai-lan is on some sort of prescription medication (we presume for delusional schizophrenia - damn, her pupils are seriously dilated). And how much her high-pitched voice carries her cheerleader personality...
Let's just say I miss the days of Bugs and Tom/Jerry, when cartoons were a little less complex, characters a little more straight-forward, and situations a little more clear-cut. This cast of characters... if they're a reflection of the characters we have in every-day life, of the broad spectrum of personalities we see each day, we're in trouble.
At the least, amidst this entry of new personalities into our house and daily life, and amidst my loss of hearing via the kids, I'm taking on a new recipe for a baguette, care of DK's Bread bible. Simple, clear-cut, and I split the recipe in two by overnighting the rising period in the fridge. I finally got the sponge step looking more like the way it should, and I read something in a book that made too much sense to me - don't use a metallic bowl for making bread, as it will impart an off-flavor to the yeast and to the bread.
Baguette
1 2/3 c lukewarm water
2 1/2 t yeast
500g flour
1 1/2t salt
- Sprinkle the yeast in 1 1/4 c of the water in a non-metallic bowl (try glass or ceramic), and let sit for 5 minutes. Mix to dissolve.
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in the middle. Pour in the yeast mixture.
- Stir just enough of the flour into the yeast mixture with a wooden spoon to yield a sticky paste (sponge). Cover with a dishcloth and let rest for 20 minutes, or until sponge has doubled in volume.
- Stir the rest of the flour into the sponge, mixing the remainder of the water only if necessary, one Tablespoon at a time. Don't mix in too much water! (this is where my process screwed up, and I had to mix in more flour to dry the mix... we'll have to see how it comes out)
- Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until elastic and smooth, about 10 minutes.
- Form dough into a smooth ball, and place in a non-metallic bowl. Cover with dishcloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1.5 hours. This is where I did the overnight refrigerator rising method: place dough in a non-metallic bowl, and brush the surface with olive oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in the fridge overnight (min. 8 hours).
- Remove cover, punch down, cover bowl with dish towel and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Repeat punch-down and rise. (Both rises I executed with a dish towel. I did not use the plastic wrap cover for either rise, as there was considerable condensation on the plastic wrap this morning.)
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Flour your baking surface (I'm using a baking stone).
- Divide dough into two parts, and shape accordingly (3-fold letter shape, followed by half-fold, then elongate). Transfer dough onto baking surface, and cover with dish cloth to let proof, about 50 minutes.
- Give the top of shaped loaves 4 slashes. Finish the surface with either an egg wash or a salt-water wash (I'm going to give it a salt-water wash to see how it comes out).
- Bake 20-25 minutes, steaming of oven is optional.
As I write this, I'm waiting for the loaf to go through its second rise. We'll see how it comes out. But, the overall recipe is very simple indeed, and the DK Bread bible is really wonderful in illustrating the exact look and methods involved in baking bread. I've tried other recipes, often more complicated and not as clearly explained... so we shall see...
>>UPDATE AS OF 5:30PM
Success! The baguette, even with an overnight rise, came out great. Crust was great, though a little thicker than I like (I like the crisp thin crust, but this tasted authentic), and inside was generally uniform with some larger (1/2") air bubbles here and there. Flavor was right on - it was my using metal bowls in the past that lent the bread the weird flavors. I am so using this recipe again.
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