Quick and Dirty Cooking: 7 Meals for when the tough get going

I thought I would start passing along my quick and dirty cooking tidbits.  It's the sort of thing that sees you through when the baby has colic, the toddler is potty training, the preschooler is melting down and you thought you might break out in hysterical tears when you saw it was still 4 hours until bedtime.  They won't win awards or be quite as good as you could do but they will get you fed and sometimes that's all that matters...  

If I were a very good blogger, I would start in an organized fashion, first advising on meal planning, then freezer stocking, then doing yourself a favor (what Leila calls "save a step") and then the 7 meals but I am obviously the sort to Live On The Edge!  ;-)

All 7 meals rely on your pantry and freezer, contain ingredients that go on sale frequently and require little time or thought to throw together.

Stir Fry - dump 1-2 tbls oil/butter, 1-2 bags stir fry veggie mix, 1-2 cups cooked chicken and soy sauce to taste in skillet.  Cover until everything starts to thaw.  Throw 1-2 cups frozen rice into microwave safe bowl, add 1/4 cup water and microwave on high for 3 min.  Add to skillet and saute with another tablespoon of butter.  Perk up with a little lemon juice if you have it on hand.

Tortellini Soup- cook frozen or dried tortellini in ½ chicken broth ½ water according to package directions.  Add fresh or frozen veggies like spinach, peas, or carrots as desired as well as dried parsley flakes.   Alternatively: Sauté veggies and cooked tortellini in butter/olive oil mix.  Add slices of sausage if desired and make a quick pan sauce by adding a little chicken broth.  Top with paprika and dried parsley.  This looks impressive, tastes filling and is so very simple!

Fake-a-dillas- dump 1-2 tbls oil, 1-2 cups chicken (preferably shredded), 1-2 packages fajita veggie mix, 1 can rotell or salsa, ¼ c water.  Cover and let steam for about 10 minutes or until everything is thawed.  Saute an additional couple of minutes to allow excess liquid to cook off.  Serve with tortillas and shredded cheese.

Spaghetti and meatballs- Brown meatballs, dump on sauce, cook spaghetti and mix.

Kielbasa- dump 1-2 tbls oil, sliced kielbasa (or other sausage), frozen fajita mix, and frozen rice or diced frozen potatoes in skillet.  Cover until everything is thawed and sauté off excess water.  Season with paprika.

Pizza- I make my own crust.  The pizza yeast packets are especially handy for difficult nights but premade crusts will work as well.  Add sauce and cheese.  I top with peppers, caramelized onion (easy to make in slow cooker), deli meat ham, and mushrooms but no toppings or just ham are also good!

Pepped up pasta salad: I start with a premade boxed pasta salad- usually a ranch or herb type and add tuna and cannellini beans to add protein and add frozen corn and peas to the pasta in the last 3 minutes of cooking.  When I mix the seasoning packet, I add more mayo than called for or sometimes add sour cream instead if I have it on hand.

For those wanting a grocery list, make sure you have the following on hand.  It's helpful to stock up when there is a sale.  All of these keep well.  Note: I usually try to avoid processed ingredients but there is a time and a place for everything...  And, at some point, I'll write up how to make several of these convenience foods yourself- such as freezing beans you cooked yourself.

boneless, skinless chicken (bake in bulk in oven and cube, cook in slowcooker and shred, freeze in 1-2 cup portions)

chicken broth

tortellini/ravioli

dried pasta/spaghetti

boxed pasta salad

spaghetti sauce

pizza sauce or tomato paste

frozen fajita veggie mix

frozen peas

frozen corn

frozen stir fry veggies

frozen diced potatoes

diced seasoned tomatoes and/or salsa

tortillas

shredded cheddar

shredded mozzarella

meatballs (premade or make your own)

pizza bases or pizza yeast

sausage

cannellini beans

My Kitchen

My kitchen makes me happy and I think it's pretty.  I'm not sure a kitchen can help but be real.  Most of all, being back in my kitchen makes me content.  And so I am linking to...


One of the most common questions I get is what I missed the most when I was in Ireland.  I really missed my kitchen.  I thought I would share some of the bits and pieces that I most enjoy.

It's a country kitchen.  I didn't really set out with a great deal of enthusiasm for the style but over time, I've found that it works well both for the kitchen I was given (the house was built before I was born) and my personal style.  I've veered towards materials made of glass and metal and wood.  I try to choose items that are sustainable and re-usable.  I like things that are easy to clean and keep clean and that look reasonably nice, even when you don't get around to actually putting them away for a few days.  I needed storage materials that are mouse and ant proof.  I needed things that are durable and easy to find and not too fiddly.  I need to easily find what I'm looking for and take my favors when they are offered.

Over time, I've grown to learn that this is pretty much the way country housewives from quite a while ago apparently approached things and so, I have a country kitchen...

This is the counter to the right of my sink.  I like my dishes to not smell like anything when they are clean- not flowers, not lemon, not vague "fragrance."  I also don't like to pay for people to drive water around to me.  So, I want an unscented powdered dish detergent.  This is surprisingly difficult to find.  I've found 7th Generation Free and Clear to be the best option.  I needed to have it out of easy reach of small people and the box wasn't all the attractive.  So, I got a cracker jar and put it in there with a pretty scoop from the farmer's market.

I keep all my tea bags in the Dr Who cookie jar.  It seemed appropriate and I've heard that country housewives of the 1920s were big fans.

I had a mug tree and it was always getting unbalanced and tipping over.  The rack was actually intended to hold houseplants but I like it better for mugs.

Big Ben is from our visit to London and the tea pot is from a friend in Ireland.

I use canning jars for all sorts of things and keep the rings and lids in the berry boxes.  Those boxes are always so pretty and fairly sturdy, it only seems right to put them to use.

I accumulated rather a lot of vases.  It seemed like such a waste to only use them for flowers so, a while ago, I put them to work holding dishrags and utensils.  Cracker jars also hold my flour and sugar.  The little jar is cornmeal for sprinkling on the baking stone.  The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook is my go to cookbook.  It covers all the day to day cooking questions you might have in clear terms using supplies you probably already have and using techniques it will teach you if you don't already know them.  When Allen's international students ask me how to learn American cooking, I suggest they try looking through it.

Canning jars are a real workhorse in my kitchen.  I store most dry goods in them.  Cardboard boxes are no match for Virginia humidity and I have no patience with slippy, slidey, slithery plastic bags.  I also do a fair amount of shopping in the bulk bins and can bring my jars to the store to fill directly.  And, if you ever have a problem with any sort of critter, glass will keep them out far better than plastic or cardboard.  Canning jars will stack, have interchangeable lids, come in all sorts of sizes, and can be run through the dishwasher when empty.  A distracted mother can tell at a glance that a 5 pound bag of cornmeal was a lot more cornmeal than she realized but that popcorn is in short supply.  I also use canning jars a great deal in the freezer for everything from beans I've cooked ahead to applesauce and soup.  You just have to be careful to allow for expansion.

We use widemouth pint jars for adult cups and the 1/2 pints for children's cups.  They are extremely durable, withstanding all manner of toddler mishaps.  The 4 ounce jars are perfect for baby food, some baking needs such as baking powder, and make ideal paint cups holding plenty of water while also being very tip resistant.  The 4 ounce size is also useful for storing things like chopped onion or lime wedges that you always seem to have too many of to use all at once but don't want to throw away.  The handiest thing about the pint jars is how they have the ounces marked on the side- this makes cocktail time a breeze.  :-)

We mostly use cloth napkins.  I made cloth wipes mostly for diapering but made a few extra (color coded) for use in the kitchen.  Wipe making is one of those projects that it's just as easy to make 20 as 10 and doesn't require that much more in materials.  These are perfect for the heavy duty napkin needs of the young child.  I made one side flannel and the other either terry or chenille.  They are very absorbant, quite soft, and a managable size for the very small set to wipe up their own messes.  The only caveat is that since they are so thick and absorbant, it takes them a while to dry so you need to be mindful of possible mildewing if you get behind on the laundry.

We've started using the recipe and method offered by Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  It's a joint effort between Allen and me.  I'm pretty sure the fact that Allen is a morning person is proof positive that Jesus loves me.  I mix up a double batch of bread about once a week, form it to rise and rest in the refrigerator the night before and then Allen bakes it up in the morning.  If you want to know how to make it that nice shape, it's easy.  I line a basket with a tea towel or cloth napkin and sprinkle it with flour.  After I shape the loaf, I pop it in the basket.  The basket adds a little structure to the final rise and rest. Allen gently plops it out of the basket onto the baking stone in the morning.

 

I realize that there are several schools of thought on child-proofing.  My body has a very enthusiastic response to progesterone so I desperately needed to leave young children alone in the kitchen at a moments notice without having to worry about if they were dumping all the flour on their heads.  Most of our lower cabinets have child latches but we had some spinning corner cabinets that wouldn't work for.  I had my husband put in some eye hooks and used those really long twist ties that secure children's toys in packaging because a toy that will be hurled down 2 flights of stairs should obviously be well cushioned in transit to your home...

In other parts of our home, I just tied a ribbon through bookshelf door handles and we also installed hook and eye latches high up on sliding closet doors in the bathrooms.  This won't keep a really determined preschooler out but will discourage them and will also buy you some time to notice what's going on before all the toilet rolls have been unrolled or the family pictures have been scattered around the room.

Pretty, Funny, Happy, Real

Apparently, when we don't have house guests and no one is actively throwing up or variations thereof and we aren't gallivanting about the countryside, I have no idea what to do with myself other than write blogposts... Enjoy!  ;-)

Pretty

There is this wonderful thing at the grocery store where you can get a bunch of daffodils (or daffodiddles, ala Charlie) for about 1.25 Euros.  You buy them at that stage where they look like nothing quite so much as rather odd asparagus and then the magic happens.  The children have the most fun coming down every morning to see how they have changed.  We have all sorts of discussions about how some are different colors, the stamens, how they turned the paper yellow, how they have to drink the water and some speculation about what they might get up to while we're asleep.  I sort of want to try an experiment where we add some food coloring to the water to see what happens but I'm hesitant to mess with my "pretty."  Oh, woe, for my children lack a sacrificial mother!

Happy

Earlier this week we had spring.  I'm unclear if it will return or if we'll be back to late winter until we hit summer for 3 days sometime between June and August (finger's crossed that it will fall on a weekend!) In a clear indicator of my assimilation, as soon as I read the weather report calling for highs of 15-16 (around 60' F) and brisk-fresh breezes, I thought "I must get the sheets into the washer!"  And, of course, once we hit a balmy 13 (55' F), I chased the children outside to frolic and threw open the windows.  I'm thinking the transition to 90' F with 80% humidity which is the joy of a southern american summer will be a touch rocky...

Happily, there is perhaps no better place for a little boy than Ireland in (the proverbial) spring...  SO MANY PUDDLES!!!!

And, of course, we all had to examine the HUGE snail!  Luckily, it's hanging out in one of Mommy's flower pots so it should be around for a while.  And, to think I claimed I wasn't sacrificial!

Real

So, this little girl, who was once regularly mistaken for a boy because she wanted nothing more than to exclusively wear her brother's hand-me-downs has finally arrived at the princess stage.  We had sidestepped it, mostly by completely ignoring the existence of princesses.  This is slightly easier in the US.  Once you come to Europe, even if you leapfrog all of the Disney business you still have actual princesses wandering about at every historic landmark (as well as actual knights, kings, princes, queens, and castles which I now firmly understand are NOT the same as palaces).  While I don't see anything inherently wrong with wanting to pretend to be a princess (I certainly have my moments of wishing to be whisked away...) I did hope we could sidestep some of the more insipid elements.  So, I told her she had to be the princess of something and offered up the choice of literature or engineering.  She initially went with engineering for obvious reasons.  At bathtime that evening, Allen came upon her carefully counting.  When he asked her what she was doing she said "I'm figuring out how many rolls of toilet paper we would have if we cut them all in half."  You know, as you do...

But, I've been fairly certain that Megan will be our flashlight reader.  Her first word was "apple" but her  second was "book."  And, she is currently working her way through Little Bear with great determination even though it is a smidge too hard for her to the extent that I have to hound her about brushing her teeth, etc.  So, I asked her if she really wanted to be Princess of Engineering or if she perhaps would rather be Princess of Literature.  Once she found out that Literature is another word for books, she quickly changed her mind and has been periodically skipping about announcing "Princess of Books, Princess of Books, I'm the Princess of Books."  I think this is a princess phase I can get behind.

Pretty, Funny, Happy, Real

So, this time I can't find a way to neatly divide life into 4 categories so I'm squishing them all together.  :-)

This winter found me at a loose end.  The weather was best described as dark and dreary more often than not and I was quite homesick.  Creative activities tend to help me find my way out of aimlessness but the supplies for most of my old standbys were in the US and I didn't want to take up something new that required all manner of bits and bobs that I would then have to sort out when time came to leave.  So, I landed upon knitting.  Surely if there was only one hobby I should take up in Ireland, it was knitting!

Noah helps.  Without him I never would have remembered to get that yarn on my needle!

Allen performed some google magic and I went from weeping on the couch on a Friday to happily buying needles and yarn on Saturday.  Charlie's scarf came first and took me a good week to manage.  Things started moving much more quickly after we visited the Rock of Cashel.   There was a tapestry on display that had originally been in the chapel? cathedral?  At any rate, it contained intentional errors to emphasise that only God can create perfection.  I decided to embrace the philosophy and completed Megan and Noah's scarves in a matter of days.  I am now on Ravelry as afriendlyface.  I'm trying to decide between making a pillow cover or baby sweater next.

Happily, Ireland is on a definite upswing.  The sun is up around the time I am.  The rain is rain rather than sleet (at least most of the time).  The Celts consider spring to start on February 1 and I can see why.  Trees are blooming, daffodils are peeking up, crocuses dot the landscape.  I am really looking forward the glory of an Irish spring.

We're in the final stages of potty training with Noah.  At various intervals he now runs through the house yelling, "The poop poop is coming!  The poop poop is coming!"  It's like having your very own very small, very cute, and slightly demented Paul Revere.

When not channeling
Paul Revere

Finally, I went out with some of the other mothers from Megan's class for drinks at the pub.  In what is perhaps the capstone of my Irish experience... When Irish women get drunk, they start quoting Shakespeare.

Pretty, Funny, Happy, Real

So, this is a bit late as the Christmas posts were to go with the last link up.  But, we spent the first hunk of Christmas break in London and Disney World and Paris.  That was pretty, funny, happy and real but not so much everyday life.  :-)  Since we got home, we've been potty training which is very real but not so much pretty. However, it so happens I also never managed to put up any of our December things which were pretty everyday life-ish.  So...

We started December with neverending rounds of conjunctivitis and a smattering of coughs with the odd tummy bug.  The children considerately spread out the infections by about 5 days each and all spent at least a couple of days home with me.  The loss of those precious hours where you will secretly shop for and wrap Christmas gifts is always welcome- especially when it involves lots of extra laundry!  Happily, my children are ridiculously adorable.

Noah decided to take Duck and Sheep on a boat ride.

The boat needed some repairs

A whisk was the obvious tool of choice

We got a rather sad tree but the children still found it quite satisfactory.  I hadn't really thought through the implications of buying a tree in the middle of an urban setting.  Freshly cut Christmas trees are readily available and not too dear in rural Virginia- not so much in the middle of Dublin.

We then set to making some cinnamon ornaments!

Waiting for them to harden was TORTURE!

Everything is better with glitter!

We only broke 1 while hanging.
(We won't talk about what happened over the next week)

All 3 children were shepards in the Church Christmas play.  The tea towels never looked so good!  All 3 children also were in Christmas pageants for school but we didn't get any pictures.  Noah had the tummy bug on the day of his and while St Matt's Church has a very lovely sanctuary it was not designed for picture taking!  Imagine cherubic faces and off key but heartfelt caroling and you'll have the gist.  :-)

Santa hangs out in grottoes here.  The children visited him at his zoo location.  I guess it's sort of connects with the manger?

The mall had this absolutely wild Santa's grotto with a motorized "Santa" going up and down a rope.  The children watched him for AGES.

The month o'festivity wrapped up with a Christmas fair at the kid's school where they had a magician who also made balloon objects.  Bucking convention, Charlie and Noah got hats while Megan got a sword.

Thanksgiving Abroad

I'm going to link this up to pretty, happy, funny, real.  It isn't formatted quite right but does include quite a bit of real life.  :-)

Noah dips his
pie into the cream

Allen has been discussing hosting a Thanksgiving celebration in Dublin since we moved here.  I was less enthusiastic.  On the morning of, Allen stood in the middle of the kitchen and proclaimed "I think this is fantastic!"  I pointed out to him that his main contribution to the festivities up to then was picking up the turkey while I had made 6 pies, 2 dozen rolls, cranberry sauce, and several pounds of roasted vegetables.

Megan loved the rolls

Pumpkin is not a big crop here in general (turnips were the traditionally carved item) and canned pumpkin is both hard to find and quite expensive.  If I had been at the top of my game, I would have gotten a few pie pumpkins for the 2 weeks in October they were out and made a fresh puree but that was about the time we went to Scotland.  Thankfully, Jen, our American visitor over Thanksgiving, was happy to bring canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and cranberries with her.  I spoke to the butcher and he got a Turkey killed specially for me- the Irish tend to use turkey mostly for Christmas dinner so we were running a bit ahead of the crowd.

But, how was I going to manage to cook the turkey?  We have an upper and lower oven, both tiny.  Each are around 13 inches by 16 inches and a height of 1-2 feet.  I doubted they could even manage to fit a large chicken.  The upper oven's knob's marking had rubbed off so the one and only time we had attempted to use it, we came close to causing a small gas explosion.  The temperatures were a bit of guesswork to start with, using the gas mark system and the heating fluctuates wildly.  I have yet to have anything cook the same way twice.

Spatchcocked breast

Allen swooped in with a new knob a week or so before Thanksgiving and an Irish friend told me that you just needed to have the butcher spatchcock the turkey.  Spatchcocking is removing the backbone so that the bird lies flat.  It's about the same as butterflying.  Spatchcock is an Irish term derived from "dispatch cock" or preparing a cock for cooking.  I finally decided to cook the legs in the upper oven and the breast in the lower.  By the time the bird is flattened, you won't get a traditional Norman Rockwell bird, anyway.  On the plus side, this means the breast doesn't get dried out and the whole bird cooks much more quickly.

Megan's winter squash
allergy means we also have
an apple dessert

Since my ovens would be otherwise occupied, I cooked pies the day before.  There would be around 12 of us so I thought I would go ahead and make both cans worth of pumpkin pie- that was only 2 pies, after all.  Except, when you use Irish pie plates, it makes 6!  Our Irish guests were very suspicious of pumpkin pie although how a group of people who can face black pudding and fish 1st thing in the morning can be suspicious of ANY food is beyond me.  :-)  But, it was deemed good and they even left with a pie for home.  The cream helped.  I mixed several tablespoons of creme fresh in with the heavy cream and it gave it a delightful zing.

There was rather a lot of consumption of hard cider on my part, the sacrifice of 1 pair of kitchen sheers and a great deal of laughter by Jen and Allen but the turkey was dismembered, massaged, roasted, and declared quite good.


In the end, we wound up with a quite respectable feast of roasted veggies, potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing, and rolls as well as 6 pumpkin pies and 2 apple tartines.  An enjoyable time was had by all as well as a good night's sleep- nothing like some turkey just before bed!

Richard carving the turkey

Happy, Funny, Pretty and Real

Happy

We visited the Decorative Arts and History National Museum of Ireland last weekend.  The children enjoyed it more than I expected since it was mostly vast displays of objects.  Their favorite was the working inards of the large steeple clock.  The children watched the huge pendulum, weights and gears and immediately decided they we really must get a grandfather clock of our own.  The museum is housed in a refurbished barracks so they had a whole drill field to express their wild exuberance while I figured out lunch.

Funny

 Charlie lost his first tooth last week.  He got a note from Taffy MacToothy of the Council of Irish Tooth Fairies.  Taffy may not have thought through the fact that she now has to come up with something useful and interesting to do with 59 more teeth.

Pretty & Real

Dublin, early October

The Dublin fall just doesn't feel right when the Appalachians are your benchmark.  

Dublin, late October

Some of the trees are changing but then we also have some trees and gardens still looking positively August-ish.  

Dublin, late October

You know how some years the leaves turn that halfhearted yellow and some just go straight to brown or even fall while they are still green?  That seems to be the way of it every year, here, and I am assured that this is a lovely fall.  It's pretty.  But, it's nothing compared to the Blue Ridge.

It makes a mountain girl homesick (no, I never thought of myself as a mountain girl before but I will say that it seems strange to look around and not only not see brilliant trees but also not see foothills)  The jewels are scarce and the flames are dim.  It's nice to not have the specter of being snowed in for days looming but I do miss the beauty of the fall.  Ireland excels at verdant but lets it fade with a dirge rather than with an anthem.

http://www.blueridgeheritage.com/attractions-destinations/fall-foliage

I have my brother taking pictures of the view I miss to be posted soon (it's been foggy).  But for now, this will give you an idea.