My Break Up With Pioneer Woman

I was on Pioneer Woman trying to figure what I could make for dinner. I saw a recipe for Pasta Primavera but I didn’t have the ingredients. Like this special olive oil and sea salt butter, in fact it was a paid post that she put up to sell this special butter (nothing wrong with that, just saying)

Hah. I thought. I don’t need any special butter to cook this. I don’t need cream and half and half, I know how to make a great light creamy sauce that uses evaporated milk and olive oil. HAH.

I thought what if I take apart the recipe and think about the actual ideas and techniques?

It occurred to me how often I will just follow the steps in a recipe and yes, that produces good food but it doesn’t produce real learning.  It doesn’t turn me into the kind of cook that can just open the refrigerator and cook, on my own, without paying homage to the latest online who-ever. I’m ready for independence, baby.

Lesson One: Get everything out and chop everything ahead of time.

I used what veggies I had: carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, squash, zucchini.

Lesson Two: Create variations in texture and adjust accordingly.

I noticed she put the carrots in first to cook on their own, then pulled them out and sautéed the rest of the veggies. So the carrots were crunchy and the others were softened but not mush.  This made the end dish nice because you had differences in texture.

Lesson Three: Season as you go.

She had the magic butter, I didn’t.  So with each step I added a little butter, a little olive oil and a little salt. And I tasted it to be sure it wasn’t getting too salty (because there is broth later) but on pasta you need the non-pasta part to have some saltiness or it gets bland when put it all together.  I noticed she didn’t add pepper until the end after the cream was in, I don’t know why but I followed suit.

Lesson Three: Building a sauce: Aromatics, Liquids, Reduce…Cream.

If you go through and pay attention the Pioneer Woman site does teach how to put together a lot of different sauces but they pretty much follow this basic pattern.

Add aromatics to the fats. I used onion and garlic.

Add liquids and deglaze the pan. I used broth and wine.

Reduce to half.

Lesson Four: Balancing the flavor profile

In putting together a dish, even one that is simple like this there needs to be sweet, salty, and acid, there  needs to be variations in texture.  Notice how she covers each element : veggies & wine = sweet, meat and broth = salty, wine & basil = acidic.

If the overall profile elements are all met, the dish will probably turn out great, even without the exact ingredients.

I didn’t have basil. (My basil seedlings are still tiny) I thought about what to use, I wanted it to be green, lemony and something that could be chiffoned. I had Brussels sprouts, light, crunchy, lemony – perfect substitute.

I didn’t have ham, but I knew the point wasn’t “ham”, it was Salty Meat. I subbed pepperonis cut into small pieces, bacon would have been good too.

Lesson 5: Learning From Mistakes

My only misstep (Wail! and it was all going so well!!!)  is that in the last 1 minute of making it, my sauce “broke”.   Ugg. I like to cried.  I’m going to out and research *why* my sauce broke.  I think you need the heavy fats from cream or half and half because they will hold up to the heat.   I also think that I am still learning how to use my cast iron skillet, which gets hotter and hotter as you go.  Maybe it was too hot when I added the milky cheesy elements.  I have used evaporated milk before with no problems so I suspect it was the 2% milk which got too hot.  It tasted incredible though and once it was dumped over pasta you couldn’t tell at all.

This was overall one of the most satisfying half hours I have spent in the kitchen and the pasta dish was so good, I will definitely make this one again.  This doesn’t mean I won’t still be cruising Pioneer Woman or Machismo, for ideas, but I do feel like I’m sort of ready to break free from following each recipe like it’s the law.

Take lies and what is false far from me. Do not let me be poor or rich. Feed me with the food that I need. Proverbs 30:8

Four and seven-eighths...

“Empathy takes time, and efficiency is for things, not people” – Steven Covey.

Anabel is four, soon to be five. To be perfectly honest, the normal behavior at this age in child development pushes my buttons. Children this age are very unpredictable. A unique and ever changing blend of curiosity, “I can do it”, “Let me help” and sweetness punctuated with intense fury, drama, and a calculated inability to follow simple instructions “my legs will not work”, “I can’t reach my toothbrush”, “YOU do it!”, “Carry me!”

As an organizer and a planner, I’m a little type A (okay more than a little) and not knowing if it’s going to take ten minutes or thirty to get her up and dressed is a little nerve wracking. Will she happily don her Tom’s this morning or shriek in horror that she ABSOLUTELY hates those shoes and WHY did I buy them and then dissolve into tears? (nevermind that she picked them out, nevermind that she liked them yesterday and the day before that, past preferences are not predictors of future behaviors at this age!)

She likes to see how much power she can yield among the grown-ups – one way she does this is with her cereal. Sometimes she wants milk, sometimes she doesn’t. Sometimes she wants to say she doesn’t want milk, get halfway through and then asks for milk. Sometimes Cheerios are the most delightful food known to pre-schooldom, other times they are the devil’s scourge. It’s an exploration of her influence on the world around her. If you couldn’t even reach light switches; things like cereal and shoes matter. The logical part of my brain “gets” this – the impatient I have four thousand other things to get done this morning part of my brain is standing there with my hands clenched slowly breathing and counting to ten. Jacob asked me one day “When you get real quiet and breath like that, you’re praying right Mom?” Right.


Because more than anything else I think she is watching me for cues on how to act when you don’t get your way. And a lot of times, with her especially, I’m NOT getting my way. And she’s watching, and so it’s a circle, a game of emotional chicken, only I’m the grown up and don’t get to be the one that breaks down. Mostly.

I’m an introvert; that means that although I function and am happy around people, I also need a certain amount of private down time; I crave a little bit of time each day when I’m not on and can relax and get quiet. By around 9 PM, I’m desperate “like a deer panteth for running water” sprinting toward the sanctity of the garden tub and a good book. About this same time, Anabel is tired, she’s clingy, she’s been brave and exploratory and away from home all day and she wants and needs … ME. There is always a push/pull between us at bedtime; she has a seemingly never ending gauntlet of snack, potty, drink, back rub, two books, and three songs. We finally get to lights out and then it starts… “I’m scared of the dark!” “I don’t want to sleep by myself!” “Please stay with me!” and I usually do, but I’m also usually sort of mentally checked out, I’m next to her, patting her wiggly back, or stroking her strawberry smelling hair but inside I’m thinking about the bathtub, the candles, a book, maybe a bowl of ice cream… for any Mom that has ever sat in the dark and silently willed your child to sleep, I know you know what I mean.

Last night, I tried something different. I wrenched myself back mentally and emotionally and gave her what she always asks for, I stayed with her – only I gave her all of me. I snuggled in and when she said “I’m scared of the dark”. I said “Why? Tell me what you are afraid of.” And she did. She lay there and poured her heart out to me... it turned out to be some pretty heavy stuff - Alligators, zombies, werewolves, and hurricanes. I didn’t interrupt, I didn’t dismiss her, I didn’t rush her, I just listened and asked questions. When she ran out of steam we talked about the windows and doors, the alarm system, the dog, her Daddy and God. We talked about feeling safe and what to do when you don’t. Then she snuggled down and I left the room without the usual pleading and crying. It was too late for a long bath, but I felt pretty good anyway.

This morning was a thirty minute getting dressed day. She hated Tom’s, again. And Cheerios. And for an added twist, whole wheat toast. When I went to snuggle her and tell her goodbye she was still upset about the cereal and she turned her head and said “Just go Mom” so I settled for a kiss on the top of her head. It still smells like strawberries.

Rosemary Bread

• 1 C water
• 3 T olive oil (plus more for shaping the dough)
• 1 1/2 t sugar
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 t Italian seasoning
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 1 T chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 t dried)
• 2 1/2 C bread flour
• 1 1/2 t active dry yeast

Bread Maker/mixer/food processor: Put into machine in the order shown above, mix on dough setting.  I don’t bake it in the bread maker though because I prefer it in a round loaf.

Non-bread maker: mix yeast and slightly warm water and sugar, let sit about ten minutes, it sort of gets foamy, then add other ingredients & knead for ten minutes.

This dough is easiest to shape if my hands are rubbed in olive oil. So I pour oil into the bottom of a bowl, then use my hands to oil the sides, then with oily hands I shape the dough into a nice smooth ball and put it in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and rise 1 hour.

Punch. Knead, re-shape turning in the bowl to recoat with oil (upper surface should be slightly oily). place on flat baking tray, cover and let rise 1 hour. Pre-heat oven this entire hour so that it’s really stable and hot. I usually set the tray on top of the stove while the oven is warming.

Sprinkle with parmesan and sea salt and black pepper. Bake 20 minutes at 375 and then 10 minutes at 425 – it will sound hollow when you knock it. Cool on wire rack before slicing (if you can wait that long…)

Notes: Keep the salt away from the yeast, including re-using the measuring spoon. I recommend King Arthur Brand Bread flour, it makes a noticeable difference for pizza, buns and breads like this versus all purpose flour. If it’s a really humid day then add a T of flour at a time until it firms up a bit.  This recipe doesn’t “double” right, it’s better to just make it twice in a row if you want two loaves while you have everything out.

Pesto

Today I stayed home and rested and made pesto and rosemary bread.

One neat thing about making pesto is that it takes about the same amount of time to make as it does to boil water and cook pasta. Hey, I take what wonder I can get in life.

Use as good of parmesan as you can. I buy these big blocks of Italian 2 year aged from Sam’s.  When I use pesto I am usually skipping meat, so to spend money on good cheese works out budget wise or at least that’s what I tell myself.

You have to grate it first. Trust me, the chopper blade – even on a good processor, cannot handle aged parmesan – it is hard as can be and will nick your blade (ask me how I know this).  So grate it first with the grater blade, even though you will also turn around and switch blades and chop it.

Then turn the processor on and add 2-3 cloves of garlic.

Here’s the part where it gets interesting.

Instead of just adding several cups of basil, I add blanched asparagus. About half a bunch. (To blanch: wash it, chop it and microwave in water for 5 minutes, drain, use the other half for couscous or whatever the next day)

And I add a handful of basil and a handful of spinach too. And then walnuts. (You can use pine nuts – but they are expensive. I’ve been thinking about trying with pecans)

Taste it. It will need salt, you will be tempted to add more cheese, while parmesan is nice and salty, don’t waste your fancy cheese to make it saltier – just add some salt and some pepper. When it tastes right, then run the machine and pour in some olive oil.  I keep my pesto pretty concentrated and then just add more olive oil when I’m using it, or some of the pasta cooking water if I’m feeling like cutting down on fat.  I see recipes with like cups and cups of olive oil – I probably use 1/4 cup or so.  So this is very very rich and thick.

I’m not giving exact ratios here – because  I sort of eye ball it and I’m not convinced it matters that much. If I had to I would say 1/2 C parmesan, 1/2 cup walnuts, 2 C veggies + Basil and 1/4 C olive oil. Something like that.

Things to do with pesto:

• mix 1/4 C over 1/2 lb of pasta.
• Use it as a layer in lasagna.
• Use it instead of sauce on pizza.
• Tell you kids it is dip and let them eat it with chips.
• Freeze it into little blocks and give it to your friend  Kimberly when she has a baby as an easy meal.
• Put it on rosemary bread

Sowing Bountifully

I’ll admit, I missed planting season this year.  Somehow March and April (and May) came and went and I didn’t get my little herb garden planted.  Last weekend I finally planted some seeds we had.  Some of the seeds were old, some were new, and I’ve never planted seeds before – so only heaven knows what will come of it. 

I found the very act of planting, preparing the little pots and special soil, labeling each container very calming and grounding and peaceful.  My inner Perfect Mom Wannabe thought I probably should have called the kids out to help and used it as a time of instructional wisdom and bonding. Or not. It was sunny and quiet and very good for my soul to sit in the sun in the grass.

Each day I’ve enjoyed going out and checking on my little babies – talking to them and wondering what, if anything, is taking place down under the soil.

These are little degradable pots, when the seedlings are big enough the entire thing will be planted.  I found them in the dollar bins at Target.

For reference sake – this is the organic seed starting mix I used.

 

I filled the pots with soil, then I watered the soil and then placed 3-4 seeds into each pot. Once everything was planted I set them on a tray and covered it with saran wrap for a few days. Each day I gently watered the seeds.

Day 1 (June 2)

What I planted:

Basil

Chives

Dill (if you like dill pickles, these are the seeds you see in the pickle brine)

Cilantro

Also toad flax, which I did later and forgot to take a picture of, it’s a flower.

Day Seven (June 9th)

The basil has sprouted!

Here is an view of all the pots (Day 7, June 9)

All 6 basil are sprouted.

Day 8 – The Toad Flax has sprouted! It’s is so amazing because there was no sign of anything on Saturday but then today Sunday, there it was! The mystery of it makes me happy!

It’s so tiny – a little green baby tendril right in the middle of the pot.

For no reason than that I love it & it’s beautiful – a close up of our Texas sage, one of my favorite Texas plants.

And the rosemary which has gone wild and smells incredible, reminds me that I need to make rosemary bread soon!

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6