No Mimosa, No Problem

Tonight was breakfast for dinner.  Nothing special, just pancakes from Joy of Cooking, bacon and sausage.  Sided up with orange juice for the girls.  Kassidy has been asking to have pancakes all week, and I kept putting it off and putting it off.  So last night I told her fine we'll do breakfast for dinner and do it right, for tonight. While there were no Mickey Mouse pancakes this evening, I did toss in some dark chocolate chips.

I chose today as Day 1 in potty training for Karsyn.  So.  Today was a long day.  I'm glad I chose breakfast for dinner.  Nothing better than comfort food, and something easy, while not quick, was certainly in order.  But as 6:00 rolled around, I needed more than just comfort food.  With a fresh bottle of orange juice in the fridge and breakfast being put on the table, a cocktail was indeed being called for.  Yet, the breakfast standard mimosa could not be made as my stock of champagne was fresh out.  It's one that honestly I don't keep stocked.

So, what to do?  Open the cabinet and see what I can find of course!  And voila, have fun, I did indeed.  This turned out to not only be a great substitute for Mimosas, but dare I say better??

Ingredients:
Orange Juice
Triple Sec
Coconut Vodka
Blue Curacao
Ice

• Place 3 or 4 ice cubes in the bottom of your drink shaker.
• 2.5 shot classes of the coconut vodka
• 1.5 shots of triple sec
• pour orange juice to fill the shaker
• Shake vigorously
• pour drink into martini glass
• pour about .5 shot glass of the blue curacao into the glass and watch it settle

Enjoy!

Mama's Mochachino

Believe it or not, when ChocoVine is used as a mixer ingredient, it's pretty good!

Just pour together to your taste and add milk. Optional, add vodka, oh yes.

Ribs Revisited

This past weekend, was a 3 day weekend.  And lucky me, my youngest daughter woke up sick on Saturday morning.  We spent the day at my in-laws where she filled several diapers and I got thrown up on, as did my car on the ride home that night.  Sunday was a good day, Monday was not (for many reasons but personal and public).  While at the grocery store on Saturday, while I got a small chance to escape, I saw ribs on sale.  I get pork ribs perhaps once, maybe twice a year.  They're not always affordable , and they're time consuming to make.  But so worth it.  But I did not purchase said ribs on Saturday. No, I let them go, and went about the sick weekend yearning for that ooey goodness of BBQ sauce slathered on mouth watering pork.  Fast forward to Tuesday where I ended up at home from work since daughter was still sick and I was determined to finally purchase this delectable delight.  Hopefully, still on sale.  And they were.

Due to the aforementioned terrible sick weekend, and the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, it was important that I restore some mental normalcy, if not in the household, than at least my own brain.  And this meant putting on a spread.  Which, in my mind from the weekend, was ribs, asparagus and to appease my 5 year old, french fries.  I'm a semi-homemade mom, so the french fries this time did come out of a bag, but the ribs, oh no, I played.

I like to give my ribs a dry rub massage with their 300 for 3 bake.
And, as you know, I don't measure.  Simply shake/pour on in your desired amount.


Here are the ingredients for today's version of ribs.

• Salt/Pepper
• Garlic Salt
• Onion Powder
• Cumin
• Coriander
• Chili Powder

Sprinkle it all on at your desired taste and just rub it right in.  Get dirty, and love the meat.

 Place the ribs into a roasting pan.  I like to put a rack on the bottom, we are steaming them in the roast pan more than we are boiling them.

This gives the juice the ability to drain to the bottom and the ribs keep their spices attached.

Cover the roasting pan and place into the oven at 300 degrees for 3 hours.




Once your 3 hour timer goes off.  Take them out of the oven, keep the lid on and just let them sit inside the roasting pan on your counter.  Meanwhile, get your grill nice and hot, as hot as you can.  I kept mine about 400 degrees for this yesterday.

Slather your ribs with your favorite BBQ sauce and place them meat side down on the grill.  Cover the lid, turn your burners down to low, we are now aiming for a nice 300 degree grill.
Leave them be for about 10 minutes.
Open the lid, turn them over.  Let 'em sit for 10 more.  Apply more BBQ sauce as necessary and as wet as you like them. Repeat process until they are at the desired texture for you.  I left them on here for a total of 30 minutes, long enough to start cooking my sides and get the table set.

 

 When they're done, slice them up for your desired serving size, 1 to 2 ribs per slice.
As I said, I served these up with Asparagus and french fries.  They were oh so yummy.  Wet paper towel required.

A little bit of Sunshine!

2 parts coconut vodka
1 part triple sec
2 parts pineapple juice

Into a shaker over 3 ice cubes.
Shake, pour, enjoy!

A Meatloaf Makeover

Today was a snow day.  Both my work and my husband's work were open, but with 2 hour delays.  Leaving the children unattended since day care and preschool were closed was not an option.  The coin was tossed and it was unanimously decided by the husband that I was to stay home.  There really was no coin.  Apparently he lives by Sheldon's rule of voting. (The Roommate Agreement, Controversial Clauses)  Anywho, I settled in for the day.  Got a solid 3 hours of work in before having to fly solo for the day, so one could say that I was "successfully working from home."  Hey, I got to drink a hot cup of coffee.  That's rare, even at work.

Sunday, the decision had been made to make meatloaf this week.  I had defrosted the meatloaf trio (pork, veal, beef) and it was just sitting cold, waiting to go.  Sunday ended up as New England Boiled dinner with family.  Monday, well Monday went the way of Kraft for the kids and Chinese for us.  Which meant, meatloaf HAD to be tonight.

Now, if you've ever had to work from home with a 5 year old and a 2 year old, you know that the day never goes as planned.  While you may not actually get dressed, you still get absolutely nothing done, due to the cost of dedication to connect and check e-mail.  My oldest is thankfully now at an age where I can somewhat trust that's she OK in her room doing her thing.  Of course, recent history has proven this statement wrong as we have found marker on floors, doors, walls and clothes, but hey, she's learned her lesson by now...... right?  God I hope.  The 2 year old however, it another ball game altogether.  Can't take my eyes off her for a minute!  So knowing the day was not going to be easy, I knew I wasn't going to want to deal with dinner at 5, let alone anything later like 6 or even 7.  And I couldn't go another night with not cooking.  We've had take out, or hot dogs, nuggets and whatnot far too much recently.  So meatloaf had to be cooked, today.

Light bulb!  Crock pot.  That wonderful invention of 8 hour slow cooking.  Toss everything in, set it, forget it, and love it later.  I personally grew up on crock pot food.  My mom made the BEST pot roast in the world.  No man (or woman for that matter) could out do her roast.  And even though I have the recipe, it still doesn't hold a flame to hers.  So, a quick google search produced that you can, indeed, actually cook a meatloaf in the crock pot.  How interesting.  It shall be done.

So.  Mixed up my meat.  Formed said loaf.  Dropped it into the bottom of the pot.  Turned it on.  Walked away. .  .  .  Wait.  What about sides?  I don't want to have to worry about that later.  Ugh.  Now what?  Well, it's a crock pot, throw stuff in!  Turned off the crock, pulled out the loaf.  Rummaged through my cabinets and fridge.  Produced a couple of carrots, a few yellow potatoes and a turnip (aka. rutabaga depending on what side of the Mississippi you live on)  Peeled, chopped big and put them in the bottom (after spraying with cooking spray).  Hrm.. now the loaf.  Going back into my cabinets, I produced the inside of a 2 piece meatloaf pan.  You know, the ones where the juices are supposed to run through but just down into the other pan?  Balanced that baby on top of the veggies inside the pan and still had room to put the lid on.  Voila.  Yeah, this'll work!  Turned the crock pot back on, set for 8 hours.

5:30 all was done.  House smelled good.  Meatloaf temp was right!  Veggies were done.
The verdict?  The 5 year old devoured it, no ketchup.  The 2 year old, yeah well she's 2, so between the ups and downs in her seat she eventually ate all of it.  Husband.. ate it!  Didn't love it, but certainly did not get the reaction I did with the apple-sauce pork.

As the creator... I have to say it wasn't terrible.  The veggies were great!  I had modified my recipe for the meatloaf (again) and left out a few things like the chopped mozzarella, so the loaf dried out a bit.  Changes for the next time I do this, and there WILL be a next time, would be to make sure i have the mozzarella in there, and I think I will be putting the loaf right into the pot, no extra pan so it can stew in it's own juices, and pile the veggies around them. 

Good experiment.  Fun to play and was for sure a time saver.

Not Your Average Chicken & Corn Chowder

Every once in a while I get in the mood for soup.  Which is great, because soup is so easy to make, and there are so many different ways to make the same soup, adjusting ingredients to your individual liking or taste at the time.  I don't think I've ever made the same soup twice.  The bad part is, I have yet to figure out how to make soup for 1, with a couple nights' leftovers.  When you make soup, you make for the masses.  One of these days I will have to master how to make soup for 5, and not 25.  See, I'm the only one in the household who will eat soup.  5 year old girls tend to be picky eaters at this phase, 2 year olds don't yet have the ability to manage it on a spoon, and well husbands... the one in my house just doesn't like soup.  And that's OK.  More for me!

Several weeks ago, some time around Valentine's Day, my mother in law throws this really fun party for the adult women of the family.  Much laughter, as you can imagine.  This year, I was unable to attend, but was there to drop my girls off for the afternoon.  Her menu for the party that day included Corn Chowder.  She makes a great corn chowder.  After finishing two and a half bowls of it quickly before we had to leave, I was determined to get it on the menu at my house in the following weeks.  And wouldn't ya know... Sunday night, I made a roast chicken.  How convenient for me, now I can make my own stock.  Score! 

I like chicken in my corn chowder.  Growing up, my dad was a Boy Scout Executive leader, and there was this one troop that had a chicken and corn chowder meal every year.  Raising funds for some project or another.  Well, the gentleman who was in charge of making the chicken and corn chowder had the most amazing recipe.  I have never had another like it.  So I always think back to that, and eventually I will find my recipe falling into that memory.

So, last night was Chicken & Corn chowder.  I didn't even bother with a recipe, I figured I could get it close enough.  I had a general idea of what is supposed to go into it and what it supposed to taste like.  I must say, I was right on.

Chicken Stock

One leftover roast chicken.  Put it in a large pot, fill with water to just 1 inch over the height of the bird, and boil it for about 3 hours.  Not a high boil, but a medium simmer.  You shouldn't have to add too much extra flavoring to this, since your chicken should have already had flavor to it when you roasted it.  We're going to add flavor to this stock later anyhow when we make it soup.  Once the 3 hours are up, you'll want to drain the stock into a collander over another large stock pot or bowl to save for later.  Keeping the bones out, but retaining the stock.

SOUP Time!


Ingredients
4-6 cups chicken stock
Chicken, shredded or cut into small pieces (as much as you like)
4-6 carrots (chopped to 1/2 inch pieces or smaller)
4-6 celery stalks (chopped to 1/2 inch pieces or smaller)
1 medium vadallia onion (chopped to 1/2 inch pieces or smaller)
2 cans sweet corn
1 can creamed corn
1 dozen small (golf ball size) red potatos - can't find the golf ball size, then adjust accordingly - chop in to bite size pieces
1 pint Light Cream
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper


In the bottom of a stock pot, drizzle the olive oil and heat to med-high heat.  Add your carrots, celery and onion.  This is a classic mirepox, or the holy trinity, of soup. Some people use this in just making the stock only and then dispose of it.  In this case, I like a colorful soup.  If it's not fun to eat, then why eat it?  I decided to leave these in.

Add salt and pepper.  Saute over medium heat until they are soft and the onions become translucent.  Don't rush this part, the longer they sit and marry, the better the flavor.  If you get a touch of burning on the bottom, that is ok, it's not actual burning, it's "fond" which I've talked about in past posts.  You'll scrape this off once you add the stock.

Once the mirepox is soft and translucent, add the corn and creamed corn.  Give them a good stir and let saute for just a moment.  Then add your chicken stock.  So how much?  How thick do you like your chowder and how much soup are you making?  Start by adding 4 cups and go from there.  After you add just 4 cups of stock, add the whole pint of light cream.  Stir everything together.  If you need more stock, adjust accordingly as you add the potatoes and chicken.  Bring the heat to high to boil 1-2 minutes, watching not to burn the milk.  Turn back to low and simmer until potatoes are tender.

Remove from heat, let cool so you don't burn your tongue... enjoy!

Hazelnut Cream Martini

After a day of pushing the sweetest cupcake I have ever made, I felt the need to make a sweet drink to end the night.  I never go off recipes but just open my cabinet, take out random bottles that might go together and shake.  Here's what tonight came up with.  The Hazelnut Cream Martini.  I know that calling this a "martini" is sacrilegious in the martini community because this is really a "cocktail" served in a martini glass.  But at 6:15pm being home from a long day, who's splitting hairs?  So let's drink.




Ingredients:
Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka
Hazelnut Bailey's
Disaronno
Kahlua
Milk/Cream











How to put it together:
In a shaker, toss in 3 pieces of ice.
After that, slosh in some vodka.  If I had to wager a guess, 1 shot
Then, splash of Kahlua, probably 1/2 shot
As you can see in the picture, I used a nip of Baileys.. this is 5mL (or roughly 1.25 shot)
Disaronno, 1/2 shot
Milk, until you think you've got enough liquid to fill whatever glass you're pouring this into.
Shake vigorously. (did you remember to put the lid on the shaker? 'Cause if not, you now have a big mess)

Pour into your glass, I chose a martini glass.
Gulp..errr sip.. and enjoy!