To Roast a Chicken

I was planning to sit down in my solitary quietude tonight and write a thoughtful piece about trust and tithing and evangelical poverty.  Ryan's in Boston overnight, and the children are asleep.  But that would be bound to end up a rambly mess tonight, so another cooking post it is. 

Today I washed almost all of the windows in my house.  Pulled the screens out and scrubbed the frames with Q-tips.  We've been overrun by gnats.  We get them every fall, thanks to the hackberry trees lining our street, and they nest in the little spaces around the window frame and in the screens.  They die when the frost comes for good.  But with temps in the upper 70s a few days before Halloween, this is the worst I've ever seen them.  I've been saying I wish I had the energy to do a for-real housecleaning this fall.  I've always thought fall is the best time for a thorough housecleaning.  After the mess of summer outdoor life, and before the holiday rush sets in.  Well, now I've begun, energy or not.  More like not, at least at the moment. 

But the windows do look nice.  I'm hoping after a good night's sleep the windows will inspire me to the next step in next-to-godliness. Bedroom, definitely.  At least put away the baskets of clean but not folded laundry and dust before Ryan comes home tomorrow.  I think I can do that.

Anthony had fun washing the storm doors for me.  And you know what?  They actually are much improved!

He's getting to be quite helpful.    He likes to do fingerpainting at his little table, and afterwards he cleans up with his own little sponge and scrub bucket (a beach pail unearthed from the Basement of Death).  He's very careful to get every little bit of paint off the white tabletop.  It's one of the Montessori-esque things we've been doing a lot more of lately.  But that's another topic for another day.  See why I couldn't tackle philosophical subject matter tonight?  I haven't even mentioned chicken yet!

 Anthony's taken my roasting pan for a lentil-pouring tray.

Yes, chicken.  Rosemary and Christine both commented that they weren't really sure how to roast a chicken.  My first thought was, "You know, now that I think about it, I'm not sure either!"  I think it's different every time, 'cause I like to walk on the wild side like that.  I'm not going to be like a silly cookbook I have that often says, "Cook until done."  If Ryan understood things like cooking he could break it down so much better, but here is my method as well as I can analyze it.

First, if you have the time, wash and season your bird a few hours before you plan to cook it.  Remove the giblets, rinse it inside and out with cold water, and pat dry.  Drying it makes the skin crispier.  I use paper towels, despite being a dirty conservative hippie.  If you use a regular kitchen towel, hang it up to dry before mixing it with other dirty laundry.  And then wash it with hot water and bleach.  I don't really have a designated place for bacteria-laden laundry besides the diaper pail.  That's gross and I should remedy that.  But anyway, back to chicken.

Your bird is rinsed and dried.  Now place it in a shallow roasting pan.  Any baking dish will do, really, if you haven't got an official roasting pan.  Now for flavoring.  First grease the skin.  I like to use olive oil usually, but melted butter is fabulous.  Choose some herbs, about three tablespoons worth is not too much.  Mix them in a small bowl with pepper and loads of salt.  Coarse sea salt is a must.  Rub this mixture all over the outside of the bird and you can do the inside too.  Any herb or blend you like will do.  Inside the cavity, you can put in onion wedges, celery, carrots, half of a lemon or orange, garlic cloves, or apple wedges in any combination you fancy.  Or don't put anything inside, but it makes the chicken smell lovely as it roasts.

Some favorite combinations:

• Herbes de Provence, lemon and rosemary sprigs inside
• The Simon & Garfunkel:  Parsley, sage, rosmary, and thyme
• Lots of garlic (stick slivers under the skin), rub with salt and red pepper flakes, drizzle the whole thing with honey and lemon juice.  More whole garlic cloves and lemon inside.

I don't usually find it necessary to truss the chicken.  As long as the stuff inside doesn't fall out, it's all good.  I usually make a smaller chicken; about 4 lbs is right for just us with a meal or two from the leftovers.

Pop it back in the fridge until an hour before cooking time. Letting meat sit on the counter might seem odd, but I find it helps it cook more evenly to bring it to room temperature first.  Otherwise your skin will be burning before the thigh meat is done.  Preheat your oven to 450.

When you put the chicken in the oven, turn the heat down to 375.  If it's a bigger bird, say 7-8 lbs, wait 10 minutes before turning down the heat.  This higher heat to begin with seals the juices in and helps with that fabulous crispy skin.  I think basting is optional.  At least I usually get distracted and forget to do it, and it's still yummy in the end.  But it does make it look pretty.  Every 20 minutes or so is plenty. 

A 4 lb. bird takes about an hour and a half to cook, but start checking the temperature well before that.  Getting the meat thermometer in the right place in the thigh is the hardest part to learn, I think.  It's done when the thermometer reads 180.  I don't have a picture, but here's one from the USDA:

You have to get a feel for it really.  If you can feel the tip of the thermometer hit the bone you've put it in too far and will get a falsely high reading.  Another way to tell if it's done is to pierce the skin with a skewer (or the meat thermometer).  The juice that comes out should be clear, not bloody-looking.

Once it's done, carefully move the chicken to a carving board to rest for 15 minutes or so before carving.

Roasting a turkey is this exact same thing, just longer.  The turkey I made last year was the Herbe de Provence version.  You are now equipped to host Thanksgiving dinner! 

 

See? This is you! But you have better hair.

The Tastiest Bread Ever



This really was the best loaf I have yet made.  I'm writing it down as a recipe here, but really I was feeling experimental just added this and that until it looked right. I could never recreate it completely.  Hopefully this is close.

I did it in the food processor, so that's how it's written.  If you're more of a bread purist, you probably know better than I how to do it by hand. :-)  It would basically be the same recipe, but you add your dry ingredient mixture to the yeast and water instead of the other way around.

The cereal is my first attempt at making granola.  Honey and walnuts.  It really is as easy as it seems!  I used Leila's recipe as a starting point, but I don't like coconut so that was left out.  And I left out the dried fruit too, since I only had a meager handful of Craisins for all that cereal.  That can always be added in later.

And now for a goofy picture of my children:

The Best Bread Ever

In a one-cup Pyrex measuring cup, combine:

• 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar

Let rest until foamy, about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, put dough blade in food processor.  Add:

• 1/2 stick butter
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole spelt flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tsp salt

Process for 10 seconds to combine.  Add cold water to yeast mixture until foam just reaches the rim of the measuring cup, about 1 1/3 cup.

With food processor running on dough speed, slowly pour in the yeast mixture.  Keep processing until the dough all clumps together.  If it's too sticky, add more flour.  When dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl, process for 45 seconds to knead the dough.

Let rise, covered, for one hour.  Punch down and shape into a long loaf.  Let rise approximately 45 minutes longer.  Score the top of the loaf.  Bake at 350* for about 45 minutes.

7 Quick Takes: Nuptiality, Sexuality, and Pot Roast

--- 1 ---

My sister Elizabeth got married on Saturday! Definitely the biggest news around here. It was a simple, intimate wedding, exactly what Jason and Liz wanted. A lifetime of joy to you!

--- 2 ---

I adapted this recipe for the slow cooker yesterday.  And changed a bunch of stuff, so I think it counts as being original.

Trim a 2 1/2 lb. chuck roast of all visible fat.  Heat a tbsp of oil in a skillet, sear the meat on all sides.  Put meat aside.  Saute one chopped onion, 3 cloves minced garlic, and a package of sliced mushrooms in the pan.  Put the vegetables in a crock pot, put the meat on top.  Add a bay leaf, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper. Pour a can of beef broth over the whole thing.  Cook on low four hours.

Add 1/2 cup of pearl barley, cook on low another four hours.

Remove meat.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups of frozen peas, turn heat to high.  Peas will be ready in about five minutes.  Empty crock-pot into a colander set over a bowl to catch the gravy.  Yum.

--- 3 ---

Note to self:  Do not chop onions while wearing the baby.  She cries too!

--- 4 ---

Speaking of baby wearing, I've been wearing Katie Rose pretty much All. The. Time.  With Anthony, I would wear him because I'd read about how beneficial being close to Mother is for babies.  This time it's because I need two hands free when Anthony's around, I don't like moving the baby from one landing zone to another constantly, she doesn't take kindly to being left in the swing or bouncer for more than a few minutes anyway, and I need to protect her from her big brother's affections!  So purely practical, not at all idealistic.  I've read that first borns tend to be idealists, while second borns are pragmatists.  I believe it!

--- 5 ---

I'm back to doing French lessons with Rosetta Stone.  I took a hiatus when baby time came, but I actually remembered all of the vocabulary!  Hurray!  Now I'm on to some more about families.  The phrases for hugging and kissing in France are quite difficult to me.  If I go to France I'll just have to maintain my personal space.  I like that the words for "wife" and "woman" are the same.   It is in the nature of the woman to be a wife.  Every vocation is nuptial: We can be married to a man or else be brides of Christ. "Her desire will be for her husband."

--- 6 ---

In the same vein, my friend Kate shared a crazy thought with me this week:  Ballroom dancing is really Theology of the Body in a nutshell.  It's actually quite brilliant.  I keep coming up with more ways it fits.  Here are a few:  You can only dance with one person.  It needs to be male-female pairings to really work.  The man has to lead.  If both try to lead, they fight each other, and if neither leads, nothing happens.  If the woman leads, it doesn't really work so well because the woman's role is to be receptive.  She is the one being spun around, dipped, etc. in most dance moves.  They could technically make it work, but it would require much more effort in communication than if they did it the traditional way (e.g. The man only has to turn his hand a certain way for her to spin around.).  It's easy to come up with them.  Share yours in the comments, if you're feeling inspired.

--- 7 ---

Kudos to the Boy Scouts for holding fast to their policy of excluding gays from being members or leaders.  And boo to Mitt Romney for trying to appeal to both sides on matter.  Romney's been an all-around disappointment, so this is really no surprise.  Fence sitter since 1994.  At least he's consistent.  Bah.  Anyway, I wanted to talk about the Boy Scouts.  The Supreme Court upheld their right to exclude whomever they wish as they are a private organization, but the pressure has naturally been turned way up of late.  I hope they stay strong.  They're absolutely right to keep gays out.  The great thing, or one of the great things, about the Boy Scouts is that they are unapologetically masculine.  That is a rare, rare thing nowadays.  Even the military is more and more feminized!  Boys need to experience manliness, to test their mettle against nature together with other boys.  Adding a gay kid to the group would completely change the group dynamics, no matter how much sensitivity training occured beforehand.  This shouldn't need to be explained, but it would just be plain awkward to have to share a tent with someone who might be sexually attracted to you.  Boy Scouts ought to be a safe place to test and develop one's manhood.  Adding homosexuals to the mix would automatically hinder that process by making it self-conscious.  It wouldn't be fair to the majority of the boys, and most likely the gay child would have a hard time of it, too.  They would sense that their presence is a problem, even if everyone were outwardly very accepting.  And homosexual leaders are just a bad, bad, bad idea.  Let's not repeat the clergy abuse scandals that arouse from admitting gays to the priesthood.  If people object to this policy, they can start their own organization rather than bully the Boy Scouts into changing it.  The American Heritage Girls were founded as an alternative to the ever more liberal Girl Scouts, and they are thriving.



For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes!

--- 1 ---

My parents and younger sister were here visiting all last week.  It was super super hot, so we did a lot of indoor things and splashed in the big fountain at Sawyer Point.  But we didn't take many pictures.  Or at least Teresa hasn't e-mailed them to me yet. By far the most exciting event of their stay happened on the Fourth of July.  A power line burst and was shooting sparks all over the sidewalk directly in front of our house.  Our guardian angels were taking care of us, and our neighbor's bushes, which miraculously did not go up in flames in the heat and dry weather.  But that wasn't the most exciting part.  The exciting part was that there were fire trucks, police cars, and power company trucks all RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE!!!  Then the line burst again and they all came back!

This photo is after a solid hour of truck watching.  We couldn't tear Anthony away.

Aunt Teresa.  Anthony calls her "Essa."  Now so do I.



--- 2 ---

I took Anthony to see even MORE TRUCKS this week.  A nearby township hosted "Touch a Truck."  Kids can climb onto garbage trucks, construction vehicles, a city bus, a Medivac helicopter, a fire truck, etc.  There were probably about 20 vehicles.  And 200 charged up preschool boys.

--- 3 ---

2 1/2 months old!

--- 4 ---

I've noticed that I'm in much better shape now than I ever was before children, even though I used to conscientiously work out then and never now.  I'll spare you the photographic evidence, but certain areas of flab I thought were just facts of life are gone!  It could have something to do with the daily walks/trots around the neignborhood wearing the baby and either chasing Anthony or pulling him in the wagon.  Or bringing the dirty laundry down two flights, a clean load up two flights, back down one then right back up again because I forgot something, then back down, then up again because the baby's awake.  Or scrubbing the dried-up jelly off the chairs.  I could do a whole post about how motherhood IS exercise.

--- 5 ---

Eight cucumbers today! And lots lots more coming very soon.  I need to learn how to make pickles, and fast.

--- 6 ---

We had a great summer menu last night:  Grilled porkchops and peaches, corn on the cob, cole slaw, and watermelon salad.  The watermelon salad is a recipe from my mother-in-law.  All it is is watermelon chunks, a handful of chopped parsley, feta cheese, toasted pine nuts, and a splash of lemon juice.  Fabulous.  Tonight will be chilled cucumber soup.

--- 7 ---

Here's another quote from Abandonment to Divine Providence.  This one hit me hard yesterday:

"Faith is the mother of sweetness, confidence, and joy.  It cannot help feeling tenderness and compassion for its enemies by whose means it is so immeasurably enriched.  The greater the harshness and severity of the creature, the greater by the operation of God, is the advantage to the soul.  While the human instrument strives to do harm, the divine Workman in whose hands it is, makes use of its very malice to remove from the soul all that might be prejudicial to it."

Jean-Pierre De Caussade is a genius.  The first line is a good litmus test to see if I am really trusting in God:  Where am I on the "sweetness, confidence, and joy" scale?



For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday

Yesterday was doubly special for us.  It was Easter Sunday and Anthony's 2nd birthday!  We had a little party with his godparents and their eight children.  It was a gorgeous Easter Day.  I had another special treat that day:  Going to Easter Mass all by myself!  I do think it's important to go to Mass as a family, but Anthony was awake pretty much all night as his two year molars decided to come in exactly on schedule.  He was just too tired to be expected to behave himself, and Ryan had gone to the vigil the night before.  I must admit it was quite nice to listen to the entire homily, to pray through the consecration without any need to keep an exuberant, "Jezzzzzzus!  There!" somewhat subdued, and to know that none of the screaming in the back of the church was being caused by my child.

See?  Completely zonked out.  This was taken at about 11 a.m.  Naptime's not usually til 2 or 3.  But it worked out well because he was able to have fun at his little party.  Once again, I didn't take very good pictures, so for the family here's what I have:

Helping to make his birthday cake.

Head dishwasher.

He was very excited about his truck cake!

Two of Anthony's god-siblings, Paul and Josephine. 

And lastly, for Easter, I always make this braided loaf.  Recipe here.  It's surprisingly easy to do the braiding because the fatty dough is nice and stretchy.

More Project Progress and Enchiladas

I'm writing this post... in our new office closet!  Hurray!  We're moving along in our home improvement goals.  Here's the before and after:

More gigantic holes to fix.

New outlet installed next to the desk, and all patched up and painted pretty!  Ryan found the desk next to a dumpster on our block and repaired the bottom shelf.  It's perfect! As we move into sorting out the bedroom proper we will figure out some clever way to put the big blank walls in here to good use.

Though we are making steady progress, as my patient husband constantly reminds his impatient wife who always wants to have everything done two weeks ago, there is no way we're getting all this stuff done by Easter.  (That is, Anthony's "big boy" room.) It's okay though.  I always kind of figured on that, knowing that everything always takes longer than anticipated, especially since we're learning as we go, and we're very talented procrastinators by nature.  The new baby will be in our room for a couple of months at least anyway, so it was never imperative.  I would like to get all the painting and things requiring the use of power tools done before baby, and I think that's still very attainable.  But probably not all the sewing and prettying up type of things.  Those can be added whenever, really.  Anthony's not going to care if his bulletin board matches his curtains.  Or if he even has curtains.  I shall stop being stupid and not stress.

I don't have energy to spend worrying about what we haven't done right now anyway.  I'm too sleep deprived.  Crazy pregnancy dreams and stupid leg cramps and occasionally Anthony keep waking me up.

Oh!  Lest I get sidetracked into a complaining fest, I forgot to show you our "home theater":

Yep, it's just the computer.  With my feet in front of them.  We can wheel the desk to the end of the bed and watch movies now.  Much more convenient for when I inevitably fall asleep!

Finally, I made these enchiladas for the first time on Tuesday, and they were so good that Ryan requested leftovers on Wednesday night instead of waiting a bit.  They were super easy too. 

Chicken Enchiladas (from Taste of Home)

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2-1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon dried coriander
• 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies, divided
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 8 flour tortillas (8 inches), warmed
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

• Melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in coriander and half of the chilies. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, Monterey Jack cheese and remaining chilies.
• Spoon 1/3 cup chicken mixture onto each tortilla; roll up. Place seam side down in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Pour sauce over enchiladas. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.
• Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 15-18 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted. Yield: 4 servings.

I think this would be a great recipe to turn to for a quick meal-delivery, which I've been needing fairly often lately.  It's a casserole for easy transportation, but NOT LASAGNA.  It's also not spicy at all; we topped it with hot salsa to taste and it was delicious.  It's also a good way to use up leftover roast chicken and stock.  Ryan's not a big soup lover, so I often find myself with a freezer full of stock that I can't use as fast as I make it. All in all, a keeper!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Green and Orange Soup

It's naptime!  It's naptime!  We haven't had naptime for several days around here.  So I'm celebrating by posting a recipe!  Yeah, I'm weird I know. 

This is a great frugal and healthy meal, especially for all you pregnant ladies out there.  I'm trying to follow the Brewer diet during my pregnancy.  It's the diet recommended in Bradley classes.  It's simple.  Lots of protein, lots of veggies, lots of eggs, lots of dairy.  Really just lots of everything good for you.  But like most Americans I have trouble in the veggie department, especially getting enough leafy green ones and orange ones.  And enough whole grains and protein for Dr. Brewer's satisfaction.  I'm starting to wonder if Dr. Brewer is really my Ukranian grandmother.  I can never eat enough to please her, either.

So to get more veggies, start by roasting a chicken for Sunday supper.  Let's get a good look at that chicken butt:

Yep, that thing's trussed with a paper clip.  And I took a picture and published it I'm so proud of my ingenuity.  Again, I'm weird.  Or else desparate for frugality street cred.  Housewives can be like that sometimes.

Now make a big pot of stock from the carcass.  I like to put it in the crock pot overnight with some onion ends, leafy tops of celery stalks, carrot ends, and half a lemon.  The crock pot method is not Le Cordon Bleu approved, but I'm not making clarified stock for aspics just regular home cooking.  I read on some blog somewhere (sorry I can't credit) to keep two bags in the freezer for stock making ingredients, one for vegetable matter and one for meat bones.  I've been doing that, and it has made a difference in my cooking.  Homemade stock is much better.  And since it's essentially made from garbage, it counts as being free!  So I'm not as stingy with stock in cooking as I used to be.  I've also realized that whole chickens are much more economical than buying just parts, as is buying a bone-in roast of whatever other meat than buying boneless.  One chicken carcass will yield me about a gallon of stock.  I freeze it flat in gallon-size freezer bags, a quart in each bag.  If there's extra it goes in smaller bags with a cup in each. It thaws much faster this way and you can fit a lot more in your freezer.

So now, if you're still with me, the actual recipe:

Green and Orange Soup

In a soup pot, combine:

• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup barley

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer covered for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare your vegetables:

• peel and dice one small butternut squash
• slice 8 carrots
• chop one onion
• derib and chop one head kale

Add the vegetables to the pot and simmer for another 30 minutes, or until vegetables and barley are tender.  Stir in:

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken

Heat through, season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.  It makes a lot of soup, but it freezes great. 



Easy No-Measuring Watermelon Sorbet

Happy Fourth of July! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday. Ryan is going away, again, in two days, so I've been trying to make a special effort in the kitchen this week. I don't know if any of you other wives do that, but when he goes away I like to leave him with a good taste in his mouth, so to speak! It must be confessed, however, that some of the cooking got totally forgotten when Bubs got sick this weekend. Baby fevers are never fun, but he's had a seizure from fever before so we really have to be aggressive in keeping the fever down. He still is sick today, but seemed happier and more active than yesterday. Antibiotic seems to be working, but doctor visit tomorrow for sure. As an aside, we have the best doctor ever for answering pages promptly on Sunday afternoons and helping us avoid trips to the ER.

But before all that excitement, I did manage to make this dinner on Friday for the feast of the Sacred Heart:
Grilled steak and various sauteed summer veggies with basil. Yum. And for dessert, the very fancy-tasting watermelon sorbet I'm going to teach you to make! No recipe, just needed to use up this huge watermelon that I was inspired to buy at market this week. Why I bought an entire watermelon for a household of three I will never know, but it had to be used and necessity is indeed the mother of invention! I served it in our crystal wineglasses from our wedding, with vanilla pizzelles (I'm sure I've spelled that incorrectly.) leftover from the massive amount of cookies we brought home from Katie's wedding, and garnished with mint, but I did not take a picture of it in all it's fancy glory, alas.

So on to the tutorial! First chop up half of a watermelon, or however much you want to use. Half a watermelon will yield about 3 quarts of sorbet! I still have the other half in the fridge. I haven't got a big enough mixing bowl for this much watermelon, but a stockpot works.



Then add a big handful of mint, and about 1/2 cup of honey, and the juice from 1 lemon.


We have a ridiculous amount of mint. See? Ridiculous.



Blend it all together.



Then pour it into a 13x9 pan. It just makes it!

Cover and freeze overnight. I really ought to do something about the organization of this freezer.


Before serving, run some hot water over the back of the pan to release the sorbet in one big block.

Chop it with a knife into manageable pieces, and run it through the food processor until it's smooth. The longer you run it, the creamier the texture.

It's really good; you should try it! It would probably work with just about any fruit, but you might need to add some water to get the right consistency. I'd love to hear about it if you do try this!

How I Menu Plan

A little while ago, Christine suggested I do a post on how I menu plan. I actually have a pretty elaborate system, but it evolved gradually over the two years of our marriage and it still is evolving. I will walk you through this week's menu plan and you will see the method behind my menu madness!

1. Go to kroger.com and look at the weekly ad. Write down anything that is a good deal that we like to eat. Meat and produce deals are the starting point of the menu plan. This week chicken breasts were 99 cents a pound, ground turkey and turkey tenderloins were BOGO. There were other deals but they weren't that great. I find it hard to buy as much beef anymore, because it really has gotten expensive. For produce, strawberries, green beans, watermelon, spinach, and sweet corn are on sale for a good price. We tend not to buy a lot of packaged foods, and my pantry is pretty well stocked, so the only other things I wrote are cottage cheese and Nutri-Grain bars, both for Anthony.

2. Look in the fridge and see if there's anything leftover that needs to be eaten. We'd cleaned out pretty well before our trip to Pittsburgh, so the only stragglers are a half of a ham steak, bacon, carrots, a few stalks of soon-to-be-limp celery, and some lunch meat that's still fine. Write these items down next to the deals.

3. Quickly check the pantry for things running low, and the shopping list notepad on the fridge.

4. Now for the actual menu planning part. I have a binder that I keep in the kitchen that's kind of my housekeeping Bible. The Binder could be an entire post of it's own, but one section is labeled Cooking. In here I have several pages each with a different heading: Freezer Inventory, Quick & Easy, Slow Cooker, Friday, Sunday, Ryan's Favorites, Potlucks, and Desserts. Each page has several Post-It notes, each with a past successful menu and in which of my cookbooks each recipe can be found written on it. Using my binder menus and cookbook collection, I create a menu plan using up all the leftovers and guided by the weekly specials and our schedule for the week. There's a pretty familiar pattern by now. Generally I incorporate one or two new recipes, one from the Ryan's Favorites page, one from the freezer inventory. This sounds complicated, but I'm so familiar with the contents of my binder by now that sometimes I don't even need to look in it to know what I want to make, and not everything happens every week. This week I'm adding to the freezer stash, but not subtracting from it. It's like figuring out a puzzle, but there aren't really any wrong answers.

This is this week's menu:

Monday: Tuscan Soup (throwing in ham and celery), Cheese Batter Bread, Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
Tuesday: Basil Turkey Burgers, corn on the cob, watermelon salad
Wednesday: Chicken and black bean burritos, chips and salsa
Thursday: Chicken/bacon/strawberry/spinach salad, rolls
Friday: Black bean soup (double for freezer), bread
Saturday: on the road
Sunday: Buca de Beppo for Elizabeth's graduation

Can you find the leftovers and weekly specials?

I don't plan breakfasts or lunches. Breakfast for Ryan is cereal and coffee most mornings and for me something more. Lunch is leftovers or a sandwich.

5. Go through the recipes and write down any ingredients I need to buy. Write down any other perishable staples we need (milk, fruit for lunches, eggs, etc.).

6. Organize the list by categories (produce, meat, etc.). So helpful when shopping with a curious baby!

7. Go shopping!

Coupons are conspicuously absent from this process. I used to clip them all the time and had them all organized and everything, but the amount I saved was so little for the time invested that I've pretty much given up on coupons for groceries. Anything you could use a coupon for I would almost never buy, or if I did the generic version was just as good and still cheaper even with double coupons. Or else I'd be tempted to buy something just because I had the coupon! Ryan tells me coupons are just a way they convince you to try a product in the hopes you'll become a loyal customer. I still go through the paper for them, but only clip ones for toiletries or the foodstuffs we actually buy. This week the only coupon I used was for the Nutri Grain bars. (Plus on sale! Bonus!)

There you have it, but I imagine everyone has their unique method. Having a plan saves me time by not having to scramble for an idea for dinner, and money from not wasting food and taking better advantage of sales. My way seems really long, especially all written out like this, but it really only takes me about half an hour without interruptions! Now, how do you menu plan?

Ash Wednesday

Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Be not like your fathers whom the former prophets warned: Turn from your evil ways and your wicked deeds.
-Zechariah 1:3b-4b





Thank God for this holy season of Lent. Today is a day to fast, to detach from our day to day lives, to reflect and pray, to examine our consciences, to begin the penances we have chosen. We turn away from the things of this world not because they are necessarily bad, but because we as human beings tend to get filled up with them and forget the spiritual. I know I need this annual re-conversion, especially this year. We detach from even the good so we can receive Him who is the source of all goodness.

In our house, I always make the same no-nonsense stew for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Prep work and cleanup are minimal, so even our one meal doesn't provide much distraction from the spirit of the day.


Lenten Stew

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 qt vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups brown lentils
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine above ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or until lentils are tender. Stir in:

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

Cover and cook on high 20-30 minutes or until stew is hot and blended. Serve with parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. Serves 6.