Monday, 10/4/2010

Our family has a cold:(  Our noses are running, we have headaches, and we are generally under the weather.  I tried to feed Katie some organic kids Elmo soup for dinner.  She took one bite and spit it out.  I stirred it with my finger and wished I hadn't licked my finger afterward.  It's no wonder she spit it out--it was gross. 

My back up plan was to have breakfast for dinner.  Since we just had nice sausage and egg breakfast sandwiches yesterday morning, I decided to go with pancakes and bacon tonight.  I made two batches using different mixes: Bisquick and Snoqualmie Falls.  I first made the Bisquick batch because it is less expensive, and I thought it would be easier than Snoqualmie.  Yes, Bisquick it is less expensive, but it takes milk and eggs.  You only need to add water to the  Snoqualmie mix.  Anyway, I made the Bisquick batch and decided I don't like how it tastes anymore.  I much prefer the Snoqualmie mix, and I know Ben does too.  So, I finished using the Bisquick mix and will save those for Katie.  Then I made a batch for Ben and I out of the good stuff. Is it horrible of me to feed my daughter the cheaper, not as tasty pancakes?  I decided no.  In the end, she will just appreciate it more when she gets a good one.  Right?  :)

Sunday, 10/3/2010

There is a great butcher shop at Pike Place Market called Don and Joe's Meats.  The guys that work there are super friendly and give helpful suggestions about which cuts to purchase for a recipe.  Yesterday, Katie and I met Ben downtown for his lunch break.  We walked up to the market for some chowder and stopped at the butcher shop on our way back to the car.  We purchased one of their "All-Season Special" bags of meat.  For $42, we got:

• 1 lb. Bacon
• 1 lb. Bulk pork sausage
• 3 lb. Ground beef
• 2 lb. Whole chicken legs
• 2 lb. Prime top sirloin steak
• 1 1/2 lb. Pork chops
• 3 1/2 lb. Cut-up Fryers

It is already packaged, labeled, and frozen.  All I had to do was take it home and put it in the freezer.  Done:)  I did keep out the prime top sirloin steak for dinner tonight.  I let it defrost in the fridge overnight, and then Ben took it out this afternoon to get to room temperature.  He seasoned the steaks with salt, pepper, and olive oil.  They were grilled on Direct High heat for about 8 minutes.  Ben said there were some flare ups on the meat and that he thought his piece was overcooked.  I really liked the charred bits and thought my piece was great!  

We made a salad with mixed greens, glazed walnuts, and Bartlett pears tossed in poppy seed dressing.  Katie ate a good amount of cheese and pears for her dinner. 

Saturday, 10/2/2010

The best part about ordering a large pizza is having enough pizza left over for another meal!  We ate dinner in shifts tonight.  Katie started with an order of watermelon.  After declaring that she was "all done", I took a turn at the table and ate my pizza.  Katie then asked for "pasta".  Pleased that she wanted to eat something substantial, I obliged her and made some.  Ben came home from work and sat down to eat his pizza while Katie played with her pasta.  (Yes, Ben had to work today.)  She may have eaten one piece of macaroni.  She preferred to stab her fork violently into her bowl over and over again, instead of eating.  Oh well.  At least Ben and I got pizza:)

Friday, 10/1/2010

My plan for this afternoon involved going to Southcenter Mall to return a pair of shoes and to the grocery store to get something for dinner.  Promptly after getting Katie situated in her stroller in the mall parking lot, she puked.  And I mean, puked.  I believe she got rid of everything she had eaten for the past five hours.  Wow, what a mess.  I just don't understand why she always has to puke on things with straps that can't be removed or washed well--strollers, car seats, high chairs.  UGH...poor baby (and poor mommy):(  After two minutes, I had her cleaned up and in fresh clothes.  I started to put her in her car seat and she FREAKED out-- stiff body, immediate tears, sobbing "no, no, no."  I didn't think she would get sick again, so I carried her into the mall and then we walked together, hand in hand, to return her shoes.  

The timing of our departure from the mall worked well with picking Ben up from work.  Since I had not made it to the grocery store (I blame the puking), we decided to order pizza for dinner.  Ah, the wonderful aroma and taste of Garlic Jim's Hercules pizza.  It is a meat-lovers dream:)  We got free hot wings with our pizza order too.  They were ok.  I prefer wings to be crispy, and they were not.  We ate them anyway.  I was trying to keep Katie away from things that might upset her stomach.  But, when she wanted to dip her pizza crust into Ben's blue cheese dressing, we let her.  The verdict?  She liked it and wanted more!  Way to bounce back kiddo:) 

Thursday, 9/30/2010

I planned to make meatloaf for dinner tonight.  Unfortunately, I didn't look at the recipe close enough to see that I needed one and a half pounds of hamburger.  I only had one pound.  So, Katie and I did a mad dash to the grocery store to get more hamburger at the last minute.  We got the ground beef and then decided to make hamburgers instead.  The meatloaf would have taken an hour to prepare and bake.  I knew we would be too hungry to wait for another hour, plus the five minutes to drive home.  

It was a good decision to go with the burgers.  They were fantastic!!!  We grilled them with a little butter in the center of each patty.  YUM!  Topped with cheddar cheese and crispy bacon, these burgers were probably our best yet.  I seasoned the ground beef with A-1 steak sauce, Lawry's seasoning salt, black pepper, and a touch of cayenne pepper.  We used sandwich thins for buns and had raspberry, banana, and grape fruit salads on the side.  Katie loved the raspberries and grapes.  She said she wanted "burger", but in the end, it seemed like she just wanted ketchup.  Incidentally, she likes grapes dipped in ketchup. 

Wednesday, 9/29/2010

Tonight we dined on left over pork chops.  I thought we were going to have enough for three meals, but we chopped some up for Katie and will only have enough for two and a half meals.  No, she didn't eat any of the pork we gave her, but she touched it enough that we won't be saving it for later. 

I made a green salad to go with the pork chops.  It included mixed greens, strawberries, and glazed walnuts tossed in poppy seed dressing.  Ben liked it enough to have a second, small helping.  Katie enjoyed her strawberries too. 

Tuesday, 9/28/2010

My friend Lyle came over for dinner tonight.  We enjoyed chicken piccata, roasted garlic couscous, and grilled asparagus. I prepare all of the ingredients for dinner throughout the afternoon, while Katie allowed it:)  At 5:30pm, the only thing I had left to do was slice the chicken, pound it into cutlets, and dredge them in flour.  I was a little worried dinner would be really late when Ben said he was stuck in bad traffic downtown.  Thankfully, he got home before Lyle arrived, and we were able to tag-team with the chicken prep and Katie entertaining. 

I have fond memories of the first time we had this chicken dish.  My parents had to wait over a month to visit Katie when she was born, due to the extremely snowy winter in Spokane.  When they finally arrived, this was one of the meals I planned to make for them.  As you can imagine, Katie needed to eat at the exact time I was supposed to make dinner.  So, I turned the recipe over to my parents and let them fix it instead.  It was a delicious meal that I will always remember.  It was fun to relive it tonight.  Here's the recipe.

CHICKEN PICCATA
from Cuisine At Home magazine

Makes 2 servings
Total time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half and pounded into cutlets.
Salt and black pepper
All-purpose flour
Nonstick spray
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. drained capers
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Fresh lemon slices
Chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
1.  Season cutlets with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.  Coat a saute pan with nonstick spray, add oil, and heat over medium-high.
2.  Saute cutlets 2-3 minutes on one side.  Flip cutlets over and saute the other side, covered, 1-2 minutes.  Transfer cutlets to a warmed platter; pour off fat from the pan.
3.  Deglaze pan with wine and add minced garlic.  Cook until garlic is slightly brown and liquid is nearly evaporated, about 2 minutes.
4.  Add broth, lemon juice, and capers.  Return cutlets to plan and cook on each side for 1 minutes.  Transfer cutlets to warm plates.
5.  Finish sauce with butter and lemons.  Once butter melts, pour sauce over cutlets. 
6.  Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and serve immediately.

Notes:  This makes enough for 3 people if you are serving with a couple side dishes.  Also, I've never garnished with parsley and it still looks and tastes great. 

For dessert, we had large lemon cupcakes with buttercream frosting.  I have Duncan Hines and Pillsbury to thank for the cake mix and frosting:)  This afternoon, I thought Katie would enjoy watching me frost the cupcakes.  I sat her on the edge of the counter, stood in front of her to keep her from falling off, and then showed her how to do it.  She seemed to enjoy watching; so, I asked her to get the next cupcake for me to frost.  She picked it up and promptly buried her little teeth in it.  "Cake" she said confidently!  I guess she wanted to make sure she claimed one for later:)