Breakfast for Dinner

My little friend L. loves breakfast for dinner. I'm right there with her. Many of our special nights out or at home include this treat. Here we made a breakfast pizza. First we used store bought pizza dough (I know, I know easy to make, but this is about having fun). We rolled out the dough, put some cream cheese down, then added soft cooked eggs with cooked bacon on the top. A little Parmesan cheese on top and voila. L, in true small child fashion ate the pizza part by part, but loved the bacon the best. Next time I would make two smaller pizzas. And making a special treat that your older sister doesn't get to have.....priceless.

Cold Weather Meals

This winter has been hard on the North East (not as bad as Washington DC area). In fact the snowmageddon was supposed to arrive last week, so in true panic fashion, schools closed or let out early, my work declared a snow emergency, and my neighbor wanted to park in my garage if I wasn't using it. I was slated to work at the R. house (car shuttle to the repair shop, meetings and after school activities) so I decided that a meal that would be cooking all day was in order. Here it is...and the house smelled great all day.

The braised short ribs, I used a recipe from Foodnetwork.

Roasted Beets
Two batches beets with greens
Peel, and cut up beets (I like to use disposable gloves to keep the Dexter effect down)
Place beets in roasting pan with a little olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme.
Cook at 375 for 30 minutes. When after you take them out of the oven, mix in 1 tablespoon orange juice and 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar.

Sauted Greens
Wash and trim beet greens. Cut the stems in to small dice, shred the leafy greens into medium size pieces.
saute three cloves of garlic in olive oil until the oil is flavored with the garlic. Add the steams and saute until soft. Add 1 cup chicken broth and then add the leafy greens. Saute 2-3 minutes until they are soft. You can add some lemon zest if you like.

Roasted Vegetables
This is from an favorite recipe from the Moosewood Brunch Cookbook
1 lb small potatoes (I use 1/2 yukon gold and 1/2 red)
3 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
1 red onion
fresh rosemary
fresh marjoram
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Cut up all veggies, place in large baking dish with other ingredients. Cook at 375 covered with foil for 30 minutes, then uncover and increase temperature to 400 for 15-20 minutes. Turn once or twice to brown all edges. I also make this sweet potatoes (Japanese are my favorite).

Oh and we had less than 2 inches of snow, but the tummy was happy!

Super Cute Present

My sister made me this coffee cup cozy for Valentine's Day. It is felted and she added some Starbucks money to fill the cup with, that will wear the cozy. So cute!

No Bake Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

My family is now one bigger, my nephew CV arrived January 2010 and boy is he a cutie. I was able to go and stay with my sister and brother-in=law. These cookies are a favorite of the new dad, created by his Mom (or so I was told). I made both the regular and peanut butter version. I even had some with football strings piped for the superbowl (those didn't make it to the photo shoot). Here is the recipe:

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter

Combine sugar, cocoa, butter and milk in a saucepan. On medium heat, bring to a boil for one full minute.

Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter (optional), vanilla and oatmeal.

Drop by spoonful onto wax paper. Let cool for at least 30 minutes.

Note: if you are making this with kids, the batter is very warm, be careful you can transfer to bowl from the pot and use spoons.

Soup--Barley Vegetable Chowder

Now that is has gotten cold, I love to make soups. I have a few standards that I can make almost with my eyes closed. I'm always on the look out for new ones. Here is one of my favorite soups that I've made recently:

Barley-Vegetable Chowder (from Monday-to-Friday Cookbookby Michele Urvater):

6 cups Chicken Broth
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 medium boiling potato
1 medium size turnip
1 celrey rib
2 to 3 carrots
6 scallions
1 bunch escarole or romaine lettuce
1 can (16 to 19 oz) white cannelloni beans
Grated Parmesan cheese (who ever say this is optional?)

Combine broth and barley in soup pot, bring to a simmer over medium heat. Then peal and cut the other veggies into 3/4 inch dice and add to pot as you go. Bring the liquid back up to a boil, reduce heat, cover, simmer for 30 minutes. Thinly slice scallions including 4 inches of the green tops. Rinse and rough chop the escarole or romaine. Add the white beans with their liquids to the soup, season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the romaine and scallions and simmer until wilted about 2 minutes. Serve hot with grated Parmesan on the side. This soup does not keep well, the barley soaks up all the liquids.

Soups on!

Happy Chanukkah

Growing up in NYC, we celebrated many a festival of lights with our friends. This years I had my own small celebration with some help from Trader Joe's. I had their frozen potato latkes. Of course they are much better from scratch, but after working 10 hours, who has time. I served them with applesauce and plain yogurt, but to be honest sour cream is better. They were good, I even made them for the R. family and my little friend L. said, "Do these have onion in them?" "Why?" I asked, "I can just taste it, it is really good." Oh a young foodie.

Cold Cures

So, you might have been wondering where I have been, well, here is a clue:


Chicken soup, the cure for the cold. I keep a small amount of chicken soup in the freezer without the noodles, then cook the noodles in it when needed. This is just chicken stock, leftover chicken, carrots, salt and a box of tissues on the side. If I'm really sick I just have the stock in a coffee cup. I'm over my cold and on to the holiday cheer!