I hope you’ll still visit me at A Fire Pole in the Dining Room to keep up on the non-culinary craziness going on in my life. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a picture of Mojo (and promise more if you frequent the new blog).

Thanks. And goodnight.

I’m going to preemptively apologize if posts are a little spotty here. This kind of chaos isn’t the best time to play around in the kitchen… which will be packed up in a few short weeks. The slow cooker is going to be my best friend as we march toward moving day. I’m taking suggestions for any recipe that I can pop in there for 8ish hours.

Speedy, healthy meals are definitely my jam right now. This leek focaccia is a breeze thanks to Trader Joe’s pre-made pizza dough. I cut the dough in half when we get home and freeze it until I’m ready for some leek topped bread.

Leek focaccia

2 small leeks
2 tsp olive oil plus more for brushing
1/2 a package of Trader Joe’s wheat pizza dough
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1/3 tsp sea salt
Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the green part of the leeks, slice the white part in half and wash thoroughly. Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Slice the leeks into thin strips and saute until tender. Meanwhile, cover a baking sheet in parchment paper. Stretch the dough into a large rectangle and place on the parchment paper. Brush with olive oil and then top with the sauteed leeks. Sprinkle with rosemary, thyme and salt. Bake for10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Top with grated Parmesan cheese, slice and serve immediately.

This new vendor clearly doesn’t realize the affinity that I (and surely many others) had for that perfect tomato basil combo, because they have yet to offer tomato soup AT ALL. Now, I’m open to change and I’m sampling some of the new offerings:
Minestrone: Blah
Southwestern Chicken: Yum!
Coconut curry with chicken: Meh

Nothing compares or fills me up like the tomato. I’ve stooped so low as to order from the “hot food” line. I was lured in by the roasted cauliflower and a friend’s assurance that the catfish was awesome. It was all ok, but the $8 price tag left me wanting soup. Do you know much soup I can get for $8? (2 servings plus change, but who’s counting?)

I’ve emailed the cafeteria managers begging asking for the return of daily tomato soup, but I’m not holding my breath. It may be time to consider homemade varieties that I can make in batches and freeze. As we wind down winter, this beef and barley is at the top of my list. It landed on the menu when Hubster revealed beef and barley to be one of his favorite soups. Why I’m just now discovering this after 7 plus years of marriage is beyond me. But I’m glad I did. I know there’s a lot of renditions of b&b soup, but this one hit a lot of great notes. The leeks basically melt into the broth. The mushrooms add just a touch of extra earthiness. And I’m on such a whole grain kick right now that barley can basically do no wrong.

My soup suggestion was sent to the cafeteria chef (an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one) so we’ll see if tomato soup starts making an appearance. In the meantime, I’m taking suggestions for easy soup that I can let simmer on a Sunday and then eat all week long. 

Beef and barley soup
Modified from Cooking Light

2 medium leeks
2 small carrots
4 oz button or baby portabella mushrooms
2 garlic cloves
Cooking spray
1 lb beef stew meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tsp canola oil
2 ½ cups low sodium beef stock
1 ½ c water
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
½ cup uncooked pearl barley

Chop leeks and carrots. Quarter the mushrooms, and mince the garlic. Heat a medium pot over high heat. Coat the pot with cooking spray. Cook the beef for 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove the beef from the pot.

Add the oil to the pot and increase the lower the heat to medium-high. Saute the leek, carrot, mushrooms and garlic for 4 minutes. Return the beef to the pan. Add the stock, water and seasoning; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hour. Add the barley; cook for 30 minutes or until beef and barley are tender. Discard bay leaves and serve.

Note: This recipe is enough for 3 hearty portions. Next time I’m doubling it and whipping out the big pot.

Yes, it still has a pole. Actually, it has a lot of awesome features and about a million holes that need patched. We figured that some people coming to us for pictures or recipes might be bored with firehouse DIY, so we started a new blog: A Fire Pole in the Dining Room. Hop over there to see more pictures and follow along as we work to make this space our own.

I just can’t fall in love with waffles. Too much surface area with all those cracks and crevices. It’s hard to get a good butter to syrup to cake ratio. They’re easier to make, which should give them a couple of points in my book, but do you know what takes all of those points away and then some? Cleaning the waffle iron. Seriously, how are you supposed to clean that thing? Too many cracks and crevices. I (literally) have a dirty secret. I rarely clean mine. Now you know. Now you’ll probably never come to my house for waffles. Someone, please tell me that my cast iron approach of a wipe down and bit of oil from time to time is enough.

I’m not here to solve any pancake/waffle debates. Today I’m here with an awesome, super simple syrup. Do you have a banana and some brown sugar? Good. You’re most of the way done with this recipe. Just slice up the naner, heat up your liquids and toss them together. The banana is distinct, almost heightened by the sweetness. It’s the perfect topping, no matter your vessel of choice.

So who’s with me on the dirty waffle iron train? Wait… that came out wrong…

Caramel banana syrup
From Bon Appetit

1 large banana
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Peel the banana and cut 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Melt butter in a small pot over medium heat. Add sugar and water. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Boil until mixture thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Stir in vanilla extract and sliced bananas. Remove syrup from heat.  Prepare your favorite pancakes and top with this syrup.

Note: This was the perfect amount for 2, but it’s easily scalable to feed more.

How have you been? I’ve been busy. So busy that I keep falling back to tried and true recipes (like making simmered meat sauce once a month). Things are easing up a bit and I’m cooking more. Some good, some bad, some epics fails… like last night when I bobbled a vessel of hot crab rangoon dip and it exploded all over the kitchen, into the hot oven and… yeah, some got in my hair. Do you want to know the best part about exploding crab rangoon dip all over your kitchen and stove? Cleaning it up. Ah! There’s nothing I love more than a random cleaning job. In related news, I never want to smell crab rangoon dip again.  

There have been some wins in my kitchen too. This Shan Style Simmered Cabbage and Beef was a surprising one. I pulled it out of Cooking Light based on the assertion that it was one of THE tastiest dishes the staff sampled in 2011. But every time I went to make this I got worried. Really worried. It only called for 1/4 pound of beef and had such a simple ingredient list, I was all but sure that we’d hate it despite the high praise and wondered what kind of hunger pains I was experiencing when I decided to rip this one out of the magazine.

It turns out that this dish is actually quite tasty. The cabbage and peanuts offer enough body to make up for the low protein count (although I’ll probably up it to 1/3 of a pound the next time). The flavor profile is unusual, which kept our forks going back for more bites. It’s a warm, salty dish that is great for a cold, winter night.

As a bonus, the cooking time is a bit more than my 30 minute weekday dinner target, but the last 20 minutes it basically cooks itself. So there’s plenty of time to do exciting things, like unload the dishwasher… or scrub the floors (not that I really need to do that anymore).
 

Shan style simmered cabbage and beef
From Cooking Light

1 small head of cabbage
2 medium plum tomatoes
2 Tbsp peanut or corn oil
2 large shallots
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp ground red pepper
¼ lb lean ground beef
1/3 cup coarsely chopped unsalted peanuts

Shred the cabbage to get about 4 cups and slice tomatoes into thin wedges. Slice the shallots vertically into thin strips. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the oil to the pan, swirling to coat. Add shallots, salt, turmeric, and red pepper; cook for 3 minutes or until shallots are tender, stirring frequently. Add beef; cook for 2 minutes or until the beef begins to brown. Add cabbage and tomato; toss well to combine. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook for 10 minutes or until cabbage wilts. Stir in peanuts; cover and cook 10 minutes or until cabbage is tender.

The longer I go with this blog the more I realize that times like this are going to happen. There are going to be moments or days where I question why I do this and think about stopping. It feels somewhat like a natural cycle.

Also, the longer I go, the more I realize that my ability to blog through these types slumps is directly dependent on what else is going on in my life. Most likely, if I’m not here is because I’m everywhere else.

And over the past few weeks, when blogging has been slow I was doing things like:
Watching my brother get married
Enjoying the holidays with the family
Going out with friends for a night and pretending like we’re back in college
Turning a year older
Celebrating Hubster’s birthday
And making meals like this, which are really just a combination of seriously good bites. (And, yes, that’s our coffee table. Snack meals are made for coffee table dining.)

And this slump has been particularly hard because it’s compounded by the fact that I do have a LOT of things I want to share. If we’ve bumped into each other at the store or you sit near me at work you already know everything that’s going on. In fact you’re probably tired of hearing about it.

The news just isn’t ready for the interwebs. But soon it will be. And I’m starting to cook new meals again. And I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be back in full force again. Soon.

There’s never a perfect opening for something like a cleanse, but it seemed we had chosen the worst time. Besides the obvious “We might want a drink to relax” occasions, like working a 2 day bridal show or heading to Indy for a meeting with a bunch of sales people, we had some unforeseen challenges. Most notable was Hubster getting stranded on the highway when our not-that-old Jeep decided to just stop working. One tow, a week and a half, and a few hundred dollars later, the Jeep is back in working order.

So the cleanse is on pause, but I’m still making a conscious effort to pack our meals with more whole grains and less cheese. That doesn’t mean I want to eat grilled chicken and steamed veggies every night. In fact, I don’t really want to eat that at all… unless you cover it in some sort of delicious, low fat sauce. Like, perhaps, this jalepano chimichurri. Bunches of cilantro and parsley are blended together with jalepanos and a touch of lime juice to create a verdant, peppery (but not hot) topping. It’s perfect when paired with lean grilled beef. (Chicken would totally work too.) This is my kind of New Year’s Resolution food!

Grilled steak with jalepano chimichurri
From Rachel Ray

¾ lb 1-inch-thick flank or flatiron steak, at room temperature
Steak seasoning
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 jalapeños
1 small shallot
1 garlic clove
½ cup cilantro, loosely packed
½ cup flat leaf parsley, loosely packed
½ tsp dried oregano
½ of a lime
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Season the steak with the steak seasoning and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. Grill the meat, turning once, for 8 to 10 minutes or until desired doneness. Remove from the heat and let rest, then thinly slice on an angle against the grain.

Meanwhile, seed and chop jalepanos. Chop shallot and garlic. Add the olive oil, jalepano, shallot, garlic, cilantro, parsley, oregano and vinegar to a mini food processor. Juice the lime and add that to the bowl. Pulse in a sauce, scraping the sides as necessary. Season with salt and pepper.

Thinly slice the steak and divide among two plates. Top with the chimichurri.

Serve with Tex Mex Couscous Pilaf

*Ok, I didn’t almost cry. One does not cry when one is wearing a suit jacket and trying to impress one’s boss. But you get the idea.

I drive home tomorrow and am already looking forward to the bliss of cruising down the freeway completely alone for 4 hours. That is simple. The perfect way to reset and get ready for a weekend. Simplicity may be the name of the game this weekend.
 

This side dish would be welcome in my simplistic weekend. Toss a few odds and ends into a pot of couscous, wait 5 minutes, done. The pictures are actually from an attempt to make this dish with quinoa. I’m trying to eat more whole grains and I figured this was an easy change. It was still fairly easy, but the flavors were totally muddled because I failed to scale the quinoa appropriately. For simplicty’s sake, just stick to the couscous.

Speaking of the weekend, I have a party to attend and must bring an appetizer. It would really simplify my life if you, dear readers, would send me suggestions for simple, flavorful apps.

What’s that? The “simple” horse is dead…. yeah, I thought so.

Tex-mex Couscous Pilaf
From Cooking Light

1 large shallot
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup uncooked couscous
1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes with chiles
3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
½ cup frozen corn
½ of a lime
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro

Finely chop the shallot. Heat a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add shallots; sauté 2 minutes or until tender. Stir in couscous; sauté 1 minute. Add tomatoes, broth, and corn; bring to a boil. Cover, remove from heat, and let stand 5 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the cilantro. Fluff with a fork. Stir in lime juice and cilantro.

Of course, I’ve learned a few things along the way:

• Layer cakes take a long time, even if they are “simple.”
• Drinking before assembling and icing a cake is a recipe for ugly.
• Producing a layer cake is inherently messy.
• The likelihood that I’ll want to pipe on icing or try a new decorating technique when the cake is finally done is low… very low.

Without further adieu, here’s how I ranked the cakes (from favorite to meh). I judged them based on memory, reviewing my initial blog posts, quality of finished product and how much the finished product met my expectations. It was, clearly, very scientific.

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate (Oct)
Cookie Dough Layer Cake (Mar)
Carrot Layer Cake (Feb)
Strawberry Cream Layer Cake (May)
Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting (Jul)
Snickerdoodle(Apr)
Cookies and Cream Cake (Dec)
Key Lime Cake (Aug)
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake (Nov)
Double Caramel Turtle Layer Cake (Jan)
Banana Cake with Butterscotch Filling and Cream Cheese Icing (Sept)

So let’s get down to the details with a few superlatives:

Best in Show
Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate (Oct)
Simple, chocolate and winning every day of the week. This cake stole my heart and ran away with it. If you’re going to try one cake from my blog and want it to come out perfect, make this.

Best icing
Snickerdoodle (Apr)
Hubster still raves about this cake, but it was really the icing that saved it from a lower overall rank. The buttercream was so perfectly spiced that you would swear you were eating a melted snickerdoodle.

Healthiest
Double Caramel Turtle Layer Cake (Jan)
This recipe made it very clear that “healthy” and “layer cake” don’t mix. Dry cakes and an underwhelming amount of icing are just sad. Thankfully I learned this lesson early in the year and fully embraced butter for the rest of the cakes

Best concept that didn’t quite work
Strawberry Cream Layer Cake (May)
I really wanted this to be great, but my icing making skills were not up to par. The result was a gritty, sweet concoction that didn’t have any body. Happily, when combined with the cake and jam, this still produced one of my favorite bites.

Least likely to attend the party
June’s missing cake
My oven was out of commission for the entire month of June, leaving me one cake shy of my goal. Do I care? Nah.

Apparent crowd favorite based on immediate feedback/My least favorite
Banana Cake with Butterscotch Filling and Cream Cheese Icing (Sept)
The banana cake got rave reviews at work but I probably ate fewer than 4 bites. I still maintain that it was way too sweet and the butterscotch was gritty, but maybe you shouldn’t take my word for it.

Crowd favorite by votes
I took an impromptu poll of a few coworkers who have sampled multiple cakes. Cookies and Cream Cake (Dec) tied Cookie Dough Layer Cake (Mar) for the most #1 votes, but the Cookies and Cream ended up in the top 3 the most. What does this prove? 1. I probably shouldn’t poll anyone about cake immediately after they sample one of the contenders. 2. You probably can’t go wrong with any cake that’s derived from a cookie.

So the year in cakes is done and I have all of… well a few hours to decide next year’s challenge. Wish me luck! In return, I’ll wish you a safe, happy and cake filled 2013.