Hilary

Om, nom, nom

Taco Thursdays is pretty constant in our house, so much so that I usually have the basics on hand to just prep veggies in the morning and brown the meat in the afternoon.  Last week, however, I had nothing to pull a magic meal together except one whiskered old onion.  So, I headed to the store, where I inevitably threw in more stuff than was on my list, including some Tostitos.  Mmmmm. . .I have  re-discovered Tostitos.  How they have escaped my shopping cart for so long is beyond me. I suppose that when I  notice Morgan consistently crumbling up tortilla chips into her Chipotle soft taco, it might be worth it to bring tortilla chips into our Taco Thursdays.

So, at the store, I threw in the taco stuff: tomatoes, onions, black beans, lettuce, guacamole and avocado. Oh, and the mozzerella cheese; I know, but my girls like the mild mozz with their tacos. Call it Mexitalian fusion.

One of my favorite taco fixin’s is some salsa fresca. I could eat that all day long and have been known to run my fingers around the edge of the plate to get the last few remnants of cilantro, lime juice and onion.  In a pinch, however, I’ve also dumped some mild Pace picante sauce into a bowl and thrown in some chopped up avocado, a squirt of lime juice and a pinch of salt.  *le sigh* or should it be *el sigh*? Either way, delicious.

Today, I was feeling very ambitious, so after I dropped of the kids, I hit the gym, and then I came home and just attacked the house. Full on cleaning like I was expecting company.  My countertops glisten, my faucets fingerprint-free, and there’s a touch of Febreeze in the air.  And I realize, I’m starving.  It’s not quite lunch time, but I’m ready to belly up to the trough, if you know what I mean.  I fling open the pantry and am sorely disappointed to find it less than well stocked.  Who keeps eating the food?! I push around a box of microwave popcorn from 1996, a jar of Spanish olives, and can of Stovetop until my hands alights upon the distinctive blue of the Tostitos bag. Whoop! Whoop!  Do you know what this means?


1.  Yes, I hid the chips from my family.
2. Snack time, baby!

To the fridge! Where waiting inside is half of an avocado and a jar of Pace. Sometimes, the planets do align and all is right with the world.

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IN: ON: November 3, 2011 TAGS: , BY: Hilary
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recipes

Recipe Friday

Three words for you.
Bacon.
Chocolate.
Scones.

And I die!  Gah!  How lucky am I that one of my blog readers thought enough of me and my love of all things bacon that she sent me this recipe? Talk about giving thanks!

I have had bacon on the brain lately, too. I just heard this comic, Jim Gaffigan, do this bit about bacon that had me weak. According to him, bacon is a super food. “How do we make food taste better?” he asks his audience. “We wrap it in bacon! If it weren’t for bacon, we wouldn’t even know what a water chestnut is!”. Too true, Mr. Gaffigan, too true.

I have to admit, I wasn’t always a fan of the scone. In my experience, scones have been hard, dry, and something that necessitated a cup of Earl Gray tea in order to wash it down your throat.  Then, several years ago, at a baby shower for a friend of mine, I tried Bacon Cheddar Scones. Now, as you know, me and the cheese have an on again-off again relationship. It’s mostly off, but I will deign to eat a few varieties. Okay, I really only eat mozzerella, but I’m trying. I mean, baked brie with kahlua and pecans is still baked brie, right? Anyway, these Bacon Cheddar Scones were ridiculously good.  I had a mug full of baby shower punch nearby, I figured I’d be alright if the first bite was a cheese overload. They weren’t too cheesy. It was almost as if someone had just waved a hunk of sharp cheddar over the batter before baking them.  As far as texture went, they were crumbly, but a hard crumble, like one of those Stella D’Oro breakfast cookies. You know what I mean.  These things:

Actually, now that I think about it, the Bacon Cheddar Scone was kind of like this.  A little bit sweet, a little dry, and a little crumbly.  All with some bacon-y goodness thrown in.  One of my girlfriends and I practically set up camp around the plate, happily munching while other guests “oohed” and “aahhed” over the mom-to-be’s gifts.  When it was time to go, another friend said “Let’s grab a bottle of water on the way out for the ride home,” to which my BCS addicted pal, “No! No, I can’t take a drink. I just want to have this flavor in my mouth a little while longer.”
Seriously. They were that good.
Since then, while I’ve thought longingly on those scones, I haven’t made them.  I did make the Maple Bacon Scones a few weeks ago, courtesy of the Fresh Market, but the strongest flavor profile was the butter and the maple from the mix.  Evidently, the only bacon used in that recipe was the one they photographed to go on the front of the box. 
Bacon and chocolate I already know make a good pair, as evidenced from the bars of Vosges Bacon Dark Chocolate bars that manage to make it into my grocery cart every few weeks.  Funny how that happens.  
Anyway, I have a feeling that the Bacon Chocolate Scones will be making a debut in my kitchen in the near future.  And if you see me walking around looking parched or dehydrated, it’s because, “I just want to have this flavor in my mouth a little while longer. . .”

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IN: recipes ON: November 3, 2011 TAGS: , , , , BY: Hilary
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Monday’s Message

Oy! For the love of all things chocolate, please, please, please don’t let another day go by without committing this to memory. Share it with your friends! Tell your wife! Tell your kids! Three different words with three different meanings; learn the difference between the spelling and the usage.
Like everyone else, I have a few pet peeves, but none grate on my nerves more than grammatical errors. Grammar, for those of you who tucked all that up on the shelf next to your Algebra II/Trig and graphing calculators, is the rules that govern words, clauses and phrases in a given language. It also includes spelling and punctuation, the evil twins of Expository Writing.
 The fastest way to get your resume trashed, your email deleted or your proposal passed over? Grammatical errors.  It comes across as incompetent, thoughtless, and lackadaisical.  It says to me that while you took the time to spellcheck, you let Word clean up your sentences, too, instead of proofreading it yourself. 
I don’t know where this intolerance of improper grammar comes from! Honestly, I wasn’t rapped on the knuckles as a child for not knowing the difference between direct objects or proper use of et cetera versus exempli gratia (that’s a whole ‘nother post).   Misspelling of words that you should have mastered in third grade? That’s my nails on a chalkboard.  Using apostrophe’s like sprinkles on a cake? Ugh, kryptonite.  I just.can’t.stand.poor.grammar.
As my kids grow up, I continue to impart values and morals to them to help them be compassionate and respectful adults.  I will groom them to be upstanding individuals, forward thinkers, and well-rounded young ladies. 
But. . . . 
I will cut them out of the will in a New York minute if their grammar is atrocious! Learn proper grammar, if not for yourself, at least do it for Grandpa!
And yes, I did proof-read and spell-check this post. 
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IN: ON: October 31, 2011 TAGS: , BY: Hilary
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Guilty

I’ll admit it. . . .

I am well into the Halloween candy already.  I tried to wait until the last minute to pick up the treats, but I was out trying to multi-task and cross items off of my to-do list.  And the suggestions of buying candy I don’t like, wouldn’t deign to eat? Um, it’s doubtful such a thing exists.  Besides, I don’t want our house to be “that house”, the one that gives the crappy candy like Necco Wafers, Whoppers, or Flavored Tootsie Rools.  
Yeesh! I might as well give out pennies and raisins. 
Of course at the rate I’m going, that might be all that we’ve got left come Halloween night. Now there’s a spooky thought!
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IN: ON: October 29, 2011 TAGS: , , BY: Hilary
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recipes

Recipe Friday

White Bean and Ham Stew
I made this soup last week, actually, and just got around to saying goodbye to the last bowlful today.  Talk about some hearty peasant fare.  I had planned to serve the soup with some crusty French bread, but then decided to go full on homemade and make some beer-bread. You don’t need the Tastefully Simple mix to make it either.  All you need is a flour sifter, flour, salt, baking powder and beer. Sift, mix, stir and ta-da! Yummy bread that can stand alone or serve as a wingman as you fish the last few potatoes and carrots out of your ham and white bean stew.

So, the stew.  Two words: Ham Hocks. Or is that one word? Whatever. The recipe called for 3.5 lbs of hock of ham, which seemed like quite a bit. I mean, while my knowledge of cuts of pork is spotty at best, I did know that a ham hock is, technically, the butt. Not to be confused with pork butt, though. That’s a whole ‘nother animal. Anyway, in my head, close to 4 lbs. of pig butt was way more than I wanted to undertake. When I got to the meat department though, I was pleasantly surprised to see the ham hocks came in prepackaged portions, like little butt steaks.  It said right on the package “butt slices” *hee, hee*.

At home, I soaked my beans, picked out the cruddy looking ones (of which there were quite a few), and peeled the veggies.  I felt very “Strega Nona” as my pot bubbled, my knife flashed over root vegetables and my hocks did their job flavoring the broth.  My mom, who had been visiting with my dad, came in to survey my work mentioned that she was looking forward to trying out this soup.

“What’s this?” she asked, stirring up the bean covered hocks. “Is that pork?”

Now, my mom had this on again/off again relationship with pork.  The idea that they are bottom feeders, and kind of filthy sometimes saps her appetite for bacon, ribs, and pork chops.  A few months ago, she was watching this show (probably on A&E while she waited for Hoarders to come on) and she learned that pigs, in their quest for satiety, will each just about anything.  Including snakes.

Here’s how my mom feels about snakes:

And I don’t know why Tom Arnold was in that clip. I don’t remember that!
So, knowing the those wrigglers are the amuse bouche for pigs really put her on the no-pork list.  Couple that with the examination of the ham hock package (“Does that say, ‘butt slices’?), it looked like she was going to be having PB&J with the kids.  
My dad, Craig, and myself, however put the pork behind us (haha!) and hungrily lapped up the soup.  I will say that the hocks were on the salty side, so I now know what “country cured” means.  I’d probably make this again, but instead of chopping up the pork and lacing it into the stew, I’m going to take it out after it’s flavored everything and then pull a rotisserie chicken and drop that in the pot instead. A tweak here, a tweak there. . . it’ll be great. No but(ts) about it. 
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 
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IN: recipes ON: October 28, 2011 TAGS: , , , , BY: Hilary
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Monday’s Message

I’ve been wanting to get the heck out of Dodge lately.  I don’t know what that’s all about, but I’d like to visit a place I’ve never been.  Venice, Italy.  Lisbon, Portugal.  Montreal, Quebec.  San Francisco, California. Somewhere, anywhere. I’m ready to pack my bags, get on a plane, and disembark in a place where my Fodor’s is my traveling companion.

Where would you go? 

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IN: ON: October 24, 2011 TAGS: BY: Hilary
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recipes

Recipe Friday

(source)

Penne with Tomatoes, Capers and Olives

Mmmm, pasta, pasta, pasta! Talk about comfort food. A few weeks ago, I went to an event where they had a made to order pasta station as part of the food choices available.  It was incredible, if not slightly overwhelming. Between the fresh produce, the cured meats, the cheeses (which I declined to eat, but could still appreciate), how could you not just keep coming back for combo after combo until you blind someone when the button on your pants pops off at a terminal velocity?
The chef had a few pre-prepared options for those who couldn’t decide where to start (e.g. newbies such as myself).  In one chafing dish, there was pappardelle (big, wide noodles) with chicken, mushrooms and alfredo.  In another dish, there was farfalle (bow tie) pasta that had been sauteed with mild Italian sausage, mushrooms, sliced Kalamata olives, capers and marinara.   Ding! Ding! Ding!  Winner in chafing dish two.
Of course, in a public setting, you don’t want to belly up to the trough.  You have to comport yourself in a manner befitting the situation and the guests. So, I took a dollop of pasta, a little slice of bread and proceeded to hooverize the whole thing after the first delicious bite.  
It was hot, tangy, salty, and totally satisfying.  And all I could think was, “Why haven’t I made this myself?”  I love all of those things: capers, sausage, olives, mushrooms– well, not mushrooms.  Overall, this recipe had things that I readily keep on hand at home.  Since I couldn’t really tie it on at this event, I told myself that I’d try my hand at this recipe when I had a chance. 
Fast forward two weeks and I’m pouring over the recipe book for an easy, yet tasty dinner to serve to some guests.  Then I remember! Pasta with a few of my favorite things.  Now, I’m no a culinary genius when it comes to determining how much of something a recipe needs.  Sure, I know a quarter cup from a quarter teaspoon, but I couldn’t tell you how many quarters of whatever you’re going to need to make something taste worthwhile.  So, off to Google to plug in ingredients and hope for some solid hits. 
Success!  There were lots of suggestions, however the recipe from Lulu’s Recipes was the closest to what I was looking for.  I subbed out the mushrooms, and opted to leave out the sausage in favor of some lightly fried chicken breasts. We had a pseudo-chicken parmigiana going on.  And knowing my children the way that I do, I set aside some of the pasta before I tossed it with the sauce since I knew that Morgan and Coever were going to give me some static (e.g. “Um, I like noodles that are plain with butter, thank you, very much.”).
Buttered noodles included, the dish was a success.  Everyone had seconds and I’m pretty sure an attempt was made for thirds.  It was even better the next day, once the flavors had time to marry, as my dad likes to say. 
I’m feeling pretty confident in my recipe choices as of late, so I’m going to up the ante for next week.  White Bean and Ham Stew, courtesy of Food and Wine Magazine.  Stay tuned!
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IN: recipes ON: October 21, 2011 TAGS: , , , , BY: Hilary
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