theKitchenHelp

After a long hiatus (and I could give more than a few excuses), I am getting back to the weekly meal planning. The problem is STRESS. It is stressful to pick-up the young Master of the house, get dinner ready, clean-up the kitchen, do story/playtime without a little planning. Sure, it's easy to go to the pizza place or Crisp and Juicy (my California friends should think el pollo loco) but eating out is a very expensive habit. And, if you're going to eat out, go someplace that makes a meal you can't easily make better at home. Besides cooking is fun and a healthier option for the family with a little planning. This week we're planning on the following: Curried Salmon, Kidney Bean Curry with Rice (but not the Brown Jasmine rice that Jen doesn't like) Greens/Spinach pasta with Mushrooms and Peas (See Pasta p.222- Paglia e Fieno) Curried Lentil Soup (See Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking...) Grilled Pork Chops, Sweet Potato Mash and Greens Homemade Ricotta (See S...

Right before Thanksgiving and Christmas is probably not the best time to start a remodel on your kitchen, but we did. We'd been saving money for what seems like forever. Jen had been considering various design options again for what seemed like forever. We joined Angie's list to find a contractor but ended up going with a contractor who has been working our neighborhood for the last few years. ( I have to check with him before posting his company name. ) Our kitchen was cold, didn't have enough  storage, didn't flow very well, and was ugly! We wanted to update the look, fix some of the obvious design flaws (dead space in the corner, a misplaced dishwasher), and make the space more usable. Before Remodel After Remodel (though still incomplete) The cabinets, short 30 inchers topped with a soffit, were circa 1980. The particle board shelves were warped and broken on some, and  the laminate was pealing in places. Not in obvious places perhaps, but when you know wh...

Key Lime Pie To market, to market to buy... how does the nursery rhyme go? I think of this rhyme often when I head to Wegman's for my weekly shopping trip. Almost always I shop with a list to stay within our grocery budget. This week as I walked through the fruit and vegetable stacks, I saw packages of key limes. I can't remember ever eating key lime pie and I had never made a key lime pie, but there they were right in front of me!  An opportunity waiting to be zested, juiced, and made into something (hopefully) delicious! Upon arriving home, I looked up several recipes ( epicurious and Gourmet ). Some topped with meringue, some with whipped cream.. but they didn't ring true with what I imagined key lime pie to be. So, I checked with my neighbors who spent their vacations on tropical islands and talked of key lime pie with knowing appreciation. They indicated that meringue or any other type of topping had no place on a key lime pie. I decided on the almond graham...

Spent brewing grains Earlier this week I dusted off my brewing equipment. Brewing beer is a great hobby but it is not an easy hobby while looking after an infant/toddler . Before the little guy showed up, I brewed everything from dry malt extract kits to my own recipes using specialty grains with unprocessed hops. (Processed hops look like the food for the rabbit in your 3rd grade class.) Brewing like most cooking activities produces organic waste. I have to admit that most of the organic waste either goes to our compost pile or to my worms. (Yes, I really have worms in two medium size bins on the patio. It's incredible what they do with kitchen scraps.) Anyway, with beer the hops go to the compost pile but the spent brewing grains get put in freezer and made into bread. I needed a recipe to use my grains in so I pulled out my favorite bread book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day . This is a great book for making the making of great tasting bread easy! Recipes that make y...

Hurricane Irene had an interesting effect on DC area. People were rushing for last minute shopping, at one of the local  Target 's there were no D size batteries, and my weekly early morning shopping trip found the cashiers struggling to keep up with the unexpected rush.  I tracked the storm on and off as it approached and decided that a few hours housebound would be most productive in the kitchen. As long as there was electricity the only thing to do is make a batch of home brew. Brewing Pot Home brewing is a science and art project which creates beer for personal consumption. The nice thing is that with the right ingredients you can make a darn good beer... the not nice thing is you have to wait! Wait for the water to boil, wait while the wort (wort is jargon for unfermented hop, malted barley water) boils, wait while the wort cools, wait while the wort goes through 2 or 3 fermentation stages. The average amount of time is about a four to five weeks from star...

Few things are as satisfying as those that require us to slow down and take our time! Think back to your first kiss…that first glance, the waiting and wondering, more eye contact before you begin talking, casually at first… then talking endlessly in every free moment. Next perhaps you’re holding hands and talking more. Eventually a moment arrives in quiet embrace and just before your lips touch, you catch your breath! (Savor this moment!) Then BOOM! Fireworks explode as time stands still and you wish the moment would never end.  Slowing cooking pork can be like the build up to your first kiss; only the dinner and lunchtime sandwiches really last longer. I prefer a picnic shoulder over a Boston butt cut. Yeah, both are technically shoulder meat. The store-bought Boston butt (in this area) is over-trimmed leaving too little fat. Consequently, the absence of fat doesn’t allow the meat to maintain the sweet, moistness that should be in every bite of a pulled pork sandwich. Another w...

The challenges for the week a mild considering this week's delivery.  But I'll have to see how I can make it interesting. Squash - Crookneck and paddy pan Beta greens (a mix of swiss chard and beet greens) Tomatoes Red bell peppers Fennel Green beans Onions Garlic Tarragon