cooking, jello, and reading

Last night’s spectacular supper ended up to be red beans and rice with sauteed sage chicken.  Turned out to be not too bad - no complaints from the youngens.

Our future chef, Boy #2, cooked with his first recipe from the Cookie book we picked up on Sunday.  It was a tea cookie recipe, which I will post later.  They turned out great, and he is very proud.

Meanwhile, Boy #1 made lime jello in a Lego mold.

In the evening, we read The Westing Game together, and then after bedtime, the husband and I worked on his taxes.

Contemplating dinner

If I was a really good cook (or housekeeper perhaps), I would have my meals neatly planned out, ingredients already shopped for (bargains had), food pre-prepared the night before… but I’m a spontaneous (lazy? procrastinating?) cook instead.

So, while the hubby is away at work and the boys are on their way home from the Field Museum, I am considering what to make for dinner.

First, I was thinking I would make more lasagna, since I have leftover pasta from that, and maybe spice it up a bit by making chicken lasagna.    Then I ran across this Greek alternative, Pastitsio:

Pastitsio is a layered baked dish. There are variations throughout the regions of Greece but typically the bottom layer is bucatini or other tubular pasta with cheese and egg as a binder; the second layer is ground meat (beef, veal or lamb) with tomato and cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice; the third is another layer of pasta; and the top layer varies from an egg-based custard to a flour-based Béchamel or a Béchamel with cheese known as Mornay sauce in France. Grated cheese is often sprinkled on top and a dusting of cinnamon and/or nutmeg makes the dish classically Greek.

But, I’m thinking I’m might be too busy for something so elaborate, and I may be missing a few ingredients.  So I will have to think of something spectacular yet simple (read: quick).

I found a link for Superfast Chicken Suppers at CookingLight, considered grilling outside, thought about kabobs, contemplated chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese… and when it came down to it, decided to be really lazy, and just cook some chicken up on the grill and have it with some pasta or rice and some pre-made sauce.  Just to get it done.  Perhaps I will be more creative another day.

The weekend

Yes, we finally found Peanut, our lost kitty.  Specifically, Boy #2 found it.

Saturday night we had over the ‘rents (as my husband lovingly refers to his parents), my brother, and a friend for lasagna.  The ‘rents brought Clue (and caramel apple pie!), which we quite enjoyed.  I was greeted with a game of it Sunday morning as well.

The lasagna, I must say, was quite good.  The only problem with it was that it didn’t stick together terribly well but I think that is because I didn’t let it cool long enough before serving.  It was a standard lasagna - noodles + sauce + ricotta / shredded cheese+ ground beef, except that I alternated using alfredo sauce and marinana sauce, and used several different cheeses.  Mmmmm.

Sunday, we stopped by Barnes and Noble.  Boy #2 was an angel, sitting in the kids section reading Calvin and Hobbes while I wandered for something inspiring to read and Dad read comic books and sci-fi.  We settled on a sci-fi short story collection and a country living type book, and Boy # 2 got another Calvin and Hobbes book (surely he must have ALL of them by now!) and a Cookie cook book (he is an aspiring chef).

Update on pain:  seems to have subsided completely, aside from some residual soreness.  I’m going to give it a week and then see the doc about switching to Zyban.  Meanwhile, I am still a smoker.

Update on the “new regime”:  seems to be working pretty well.  We are all more productive and spending more time with each other, and the boys are behaving better.

Sunday

Pholph’s Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 18. What is your score? Get it here.

We’re making pancakes and bacon this morning.  The soup from last night was quite good… I will be adding some of this morning’s bacon to it for good measure.  The bread turned out OK, but didn’t rise quite as well as I wanted it to.

Crock Pot Potato Soup

As I was cleaning, it occurred to me that I could throw some stuff into the crock pot and not have to worry about dinner later.

So, I googled up this recipe and started it going in the crock pot.

Of course, you need bread to dip in the soup, so I’m going to attempt to make a French baguette. It makes me miss my bread machine (which broke) but it’ll be good to know how to make it completely from scratch.

Lechon Asado de Dexter, Part II

I came home to a savory scented house yesterday afternoon, after having put the pork roast in the crock pot on low in the morning.  It cooked for about 11 hours and smelled divine.

My plan to make these cubanos as authentic as possible ran into a snag when I realized too late that (duh!) I need a whole lot more time to make the Pan Cubano (Cuban bread) from scratch.  Curses!   So, I had to run out and find some bread that would do the trick instead.  I stopped by the local Mexican grocer (no Cuban specialty shops here in the ‘burbs) and found nothing.  I stopped by the Great Harvest bread store and found that they did not have sandwich sized breads.  Last stop was Dominick’s, where I reluctantly picked up some French bread, sandwich sized.

The hardest part was done.  Bread + mustard + pickle + swiss cheese + ham + pork roast = cubano.  I buttered the tops and bottoms of the bread and grilled them on the stove, squishing them down with a second pan.

The results?

• We were surprised that the pork, while very good, was not more flavorful, with all the garlic that was in there and the amount of time it was soaking in it.
• We are pretty sure the bread would have made the difference.  I suspect the French bread was just too thick.
• Boy #2 ate half his sandwich before deciding that swiss cheese left a funny taste in his mouth.
• Boy #1 was not hungry.  He gets this way sometimes when I am cooking something he hasn’t had before.
• Overall, the sandwiches were good, better than any old sandwich we would have thrown together, but didn’t seem like they were worth the effort.
• One more try with the proper bread might do the trick.

In a couple weeks, I will try to eat a real cubano while I am down in Florida, for comparison.

Lechon Asado de Dexter, Part I

After reading (and watching) the Dexter series, I’ve decided to try making Cuban sandwiches. Dexter makes them sound sooo good. Ironic how much love he has for these sandwiches, compared to his utter lack of emotion for humans. I can relate.

“…there are times when only a medianoche will do.”

I want it to be authentic enough that when I visit Florida in a few weeks for a conference, I can stop at a Cuban restaurant and have one, and know that mine was just as good. So, I am trying to stick by what seems to be the traditional, from scratch ingredients.

According to my research, the Cuban sandwich, also known as a cubano, mixto sandwich, or Cuban pressed sandwich, should contain the following ingredients, and be served on Cuban bread:

• ham
• roasted pork
• swiss cheese
• pickles
• mustard

The cubano I am going for is not actually the same as Dexter’s medianoche, however, which is a variation served on softer bread made from a sweet yellow egg dough.

The ingredients sound easy enough, but remember I want this to be authentic. A sandwich with those ingredients does not a Cuban sandwich make. So, let’s make this Cuban roast pork, slow-roasted, also known as Lechon Asado.

I picked up a pork shoulder roast, and marinated it in a mojo marinade.

Ingredients

• 20 cloves garlic - mashed and minced
• 2 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups sour orange juice
• 1 cup minced onion
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1.5 cups Spanish olive oil

I want to be authentic, but I am also lazy. So, instead of hunting down sour orange juice, I used the alternate of two parts OJ to one part lemon juice to one part lime juice. Also, once home and preparing, I found that I was completely out of oregano, so I used fresh cilantro instead. Lazy, I know, but it seemed authentic-ish. I don’t think you have to use Spanish olive oil, but I happened to find some, so I used it.

Directions:

• Crush garlic!
• Mix well: garlic with oregano (or cilantro), minced onion, and sour orange (or mixture).
• Heat oil in small sauce pan.
• Add the mixture to the oil and mix. This smells great!
• Pierce pork as many times as you can with a sharp knife or fork.
• Pour garlic mixture over pork, saving some for roasting.
• Cover and let sit in fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight.

Mine is currently sitting in the fridge, soaking up the marinade, and will be put in to slow roast in the crock pot tomorrow for 10-11 hours. Tomorrow, I’ll make the Pan Cubano (Cuban bread) from scratch and complete the sandwiches!

Related Links:

• My Big Fat Cuban Family, which has a great post on what they eat for Christmas, among other things. I really want to try Creme de Vie (Cuban Egg Nog) soon, too!
• Scott’s Dexter Night, a Flickr photo group of a party thrown in Dexter’s honor, including cubanos
• Dexter Filming Locations, an in-depth, detailed look at everywhere Dexter was filmed
• DIY Cubanos, a photo-filled article from the Off The Broiler blog

See the continuation at Lechon Asado de Dexter, Part II