Average Jane

Category: Food & Drink

  • Average Jane Plans Ahead

    IMGP1753Christmas Eve is less than three weeks away, but I already have a solid menu plan in place for dinner despite the fact that I haven't even bothered to put up the tree yet (that's planned for this weekend).

    Last year I went the non-traditional route and made enchiladas and Mexican rice. This year I asked my husband what he thought we should have and he hardly hesitated at all before he said, "Why don't you make that good fried chicken?"

    At first I wasn't convinced, but then I started thinking about the whole meal and it actually sounded like it would be fun. I'll make a variety of dipping sauces for the chicken strips, roast some potatoes, make biscuits and coleslaw, and we can have pineapple upside down cake for dessert. 

    It's not going to be healthy, but it should be delicious. I even purchased a fryer so I wouldn't have to get one of my pans all sticky with oil.

    Christmas Eve is generally a pretty small affair at my house, but as with Thanksgiving, I'm throwing it open to anyone in my area who doesn't have plans. 

    After that, we can all start working on those New Year's resolutions to eat more vegetables and get some walks in.

  • Average Jane and the Sand Hill Plums

    Cooking down Sand Hill plums for jelly and jamWhile I was at BlogPaws, a group of my friends traveled to Western Kansas and waded through thorny thickets to harvest Sand Hill plums. You may recall my jelly-making experience with last year's crop; this year the idea was to include the whole gang in more stages of the process.

    This past Sunday was jelly and jam making day. If you click through to last year's photos, you can see that the plums are usually tiny—about the size of cherries. For some reason (global climate change?), they grew monstrously huge this year and they were unusually abundant.

    The pickers brought back five 5-gallon buckets of them, which yielded more than 100 jars of jam and jelly and five half-gallon bottles of plum wine.

    I arrived at my friend Christy's house a little after 9:00 a.m. Cagey had spent the night there, so they had a good head start on sterilizing jelly jars and making delicious salads for lunch.

    There were five of us there dividing up the labor throughout the day. The shifts from task to task were mostly unspoken: we would move from cooking down plums on the stove to boiling water to sterilizing the wine bottles to draining juice to mashing pulp to measuring sugar to mixing and cooking jelly to filling jars to sealing the jars in a water bath. Whatever needed doing, someone was there to step up and get it done in between shooing small children out of the danger zone and stopping for snacks and drinks.

    Field of jars

    I couldn't stay all afternoon because I had a three o'clock meeting, but we had four batches of jelly and jam finished before I left. I took a few jars home and was sad that I didn't manage to leave with any plum/jalapeño jelly, but I'll get some later. Each of us will have plenty to last us throughout the year, even if we give some away.

    I'm really enjoying this annual tradition and I hope I can make it out to pick plums next year. Not that I won't enjoy the results of the harvest either way.

    Sand Hill plum jam

  • Average Jane Bakes Bread

    This morning it occurred to me to pull out my bread machine and use it to bake a loaf of bread. I got on Pinterest and found this recipe for garlic cheese bread, which seemed workable once I read the comments. Here it is with my slight modifications:

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    Garlic Herb Cheese Bread

    • 1 1/3 cups water
    • 1 Tbsp. melted butter
    • 2 Tbsp. cream cheese
    • 1/2 tsp. salt
    • 1 Tbsp. sugar
    • 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning (I used bouquet garni)
    • 1 tsp. dried basil
    • 2 tsp. Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic (or equivalent)
    • 4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
    • 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
    • 3 cups of any kind of shredded cheese*

    Put all ingredients in the bread machine in their suggested order, turn it on and go away (or stick around and watch for a while until you get bored). Enjoy the smells of garlic, yeast and cheese permeating your house for the next several hours. Once the loaf has baked and cooled, cut it into large chunks and serve with soup or just by itself.

    *I used about a cup of shredded cheddar, 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan and a cup of grated aged gouda. I recommend using at least one strongly-flavored cheese.

    Garlic herb cheese bread for the bread machineI am not exaggerating when I say I have one of the oldest bread machines you can have. I bought it at a garage sale for $5 about a decade ago and although it’s laughably retro and huge, it still makes excellent bread.

    The machine generally stays in the pantry, but I really should get it out more often because it’s lovely to be able to put ingredients in, walk away, and come back to fresh bread in the afternoon.

  • Average Jane and the Cookies

    This was my day yesterday:

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    I baked Cardamom Cinnamon Snickerdoodles. They were amazing. Just ask my niece, who must have eaten ten of them.

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    At my husband's request, I made M&M cookies using the Better Homes & Garden's chocolate chip cookie dough recipe (except that I used a cup of butter instead of half butter and half shortening).

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    Then my friends came over and brought cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. We kept having to rearrange them on the table so they'd all fit.

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    Here's what it looked like when even more arrived.

    We hung out all afternoon, drank hot cider and coffee and wine, eventually watched Bad(der) Santa, and took turns being nuzzled by the dog and various cats.

    While we were watching the movie, Toby sneaked a gingerbread cookie from the table, even though I thought I'd secured them out of his reach. I took it away and fed him his dinner. The next time he came into the TV room, he had another gingerbread cookie in his mouth. My guests persuaded me that he should be allowed to keep it. I don't like to reward that kind of behavior, but I acquiesced.

    I ended the day with two fairly large containers of cookies. I consider it a win when everyone leaves and I have no cookies left at all, but it didn't work out that way this year because people filtered out at different times.

    With all of the grocery shopping, house cleaning, errands and baking, I ended up not actually having any meals all day. My husband and I made a late evening Chipotle run so I would have something in my system besides sugar.

    Later this week I'm planning on making some gingerbread Daleks with the cookie cutters that Keith sent me last year. I'll be sure to post photos.

    What are your cookie plans for the season?

  • Average Jane Plans A Feast

    Jebediah's gotten into the Miller Lite againOn today's agenda is a big grocery shopping trip to get all of the ingredients I need to make Thanksgiving dinner. I've already gone through the sales circulars and figured out which stores have the best deals. Better still, my company gave each partner a $25 gift card to the store where I'll be buying the turkey and most of the produce, so that will definitely help.

    I'm planning on making most of the classics from my Thanksgiving recipe booklet: roast turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and fresh cranberry sauce. By popular demand, I'll also be purchasing a small can of cranberry sauce for those who choose nostalgia over flavor.

    My aunt is bringing a corn casserole and a pumpkin pie. I'll be making a pumpkin cake roll. Rather than make dinner rolls from scratch, I think I'm going to buy some Hawaiian rolls instead. They taste almost exactly the same and it'll save me three hours of prep time. Also, bread is not exactly a big focus when you have a meal like this.

    As an appetizer for any early birds, I'm baking a small wheel of brie with brown sugar and pecans on top and serving it with water crackers. If I'm feeling really ambitious, I might make Pomegranate Salsa.

    I don't know exactly how many attendees I'll have at this point, but I'm still keeping the invitation open for anyone in the area who'd like to join us. There will be plenty of food no matter how many guests we have.

    When I see all of the angst-ridden articles about people's fears of preparing Thanksgiving dinner, it always puzzles me a bit. It's really a pretty straightforward meal, albeit one with lots of components. As long as your oven and stove burners are all operational, you should be fine.

    My biggest problem is finding somewhere for everyone to sit. I assume we'll have a minimum of seven diners, so I'm hoping I can get by with the big, plastic utility table I generally use for folding laundry. I'll have to bring it up from the basement, clean off the cobwebs and cover it with some kind of tablecloth. Seating will be a mishmash of folding chairs and wooden chairs from a cheap old dining set that also resides in the basement these days.

    So that's my plan. What are you doing for Thanksgiving this year?

  • Average Jane Is Ready for Holiday Entertaining

    Remember back in April when I was trying to figure out what kind of wine opener to get? That problem was neatly solved when I got an email from Red Envelope after I stopped by their booth at the BlogHer conference. They offered to send me a free product from their Christmas Gifts selection and I choose the Hootch Owl™ corkscrew.

    HootchowlIt arrived yesterday and it's a really nice, solid piece of barware. I selected it in part because I love a good pun as much as the next person, and it turns out to be based on a classic design from the 1930s—which makes sense considering that you don't hear the word "hooch" much these days. 

    This is the kind of device that you'd expect to provide a lifetime of use. I'm happy to have graduated from the cheap, breakable corkscrews to something that is likely to last into the 2030s and beyond.

    I opened a bottle of pinot grigio to test it out and it easily removed the synthetic cork. It's big and sturdy enough to stand on the counter and I like that both wings can be used to remove bottle caps.

    So here's where you come in. Red Envelope is providing a $50 merchandise credit to one lucky reader.

    To enter, please like them on Facebook and leave me a comment saying which of their home bar gifts or personalized pub glasses you would choose for yourself or as a gift for someone else this year. (If you win, you can order whatever you like, so don't overthink it.) Deadline for entries: Sunday, November 20, 2011 at midnight Central standard time. Make sure you provide your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. Winner will be selected by random drawing.

    Good luck!

    ***GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*** A BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!

  • Average Jane Entertains

    EnchiladasYesterday I hosted about a dozen friends for dinner. I made a double (and then some) batch of these enchiladas, which are absolutely delicious:

    Beef Enchiladas

    1 1/2 lb. ground beef
    1/4 cup diced green pepper
    1/4 cup diced onion
    1/3 cup taco sauce
    1/2 tsp. black pepper
    1/4 tsp. garlic powder
    1 can refried beans
    1 sm. can chopped black olives
    3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
    1 10-oz. can mild enchilada sauce
    1 10-oz. can hot enchilada sauce
    1 package corn tortillas

    Brown the hamburger and add green pepper, onion, pepper and garlic powder. Stir in the refried beans, olives and taco sauce and simmer lightly. Remove from heat.

    Combine the enchilada sauces in a medium saucepan and warm on the stove. Dip each tortilla in the sauce, spoon in beef mixture, sprinkle with some cheese and roll. Place in a 13" x 9" pan. Repeat until pan is full (single layer). Pour the remaining sauce over all and top with lots of grated cheese. Bake at 350°F until sauce bubbles and cheese melts. Let sit about 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with sour cream and sliced green onions, if desired.

    Note: I find that this recipe usually makes several more enchiladas than will fit in the pan. A double recipe with one extra pound of ground beef and an extra can of enchilada sauce will make two 13" x 9" pans and a 9" square pan. Another reason I like to double the batch is because the fresh corn tortillas at my grocery store come in packs of 36 and I don't like to waste any. The enchiladas are really rich, so one or two per person is plenty.

    I also made a double batch of the Mexican Rice II recipe from Allrecipes.com, which my husband says is a lot like the rice his grandmother used to make. I like to add some frozen corn before I bring it to a boil. Yesterday I also added some chopped red bell pepper and a couple of small sliced jalapeños.

    One of my friends brought over a spicy batch of fideo, so we all ate very well. Best of all, the cleanup was pretty minimal and by the time most of my guests arrived, I was finished washing the pots and pans. The dishwasher took care of the plates and utensils afterward and I only had to hand wash the crystal wine glasses.

    Now I need to decide what to make on Saturday for game night. I'm thinking chili. Or maybe we should just eat the last of the enchiladas. I have plenty left!

    Photo credit: Clay Hackett

  • Average Jane Is Old Enough To Make Jelly

    "Now, Ann had not forgotten when her birthday came, for that meant a party and feasting and dancing, but she had quite forgotten how many years the birthdays marked. In a land where people live always, this is not considered a cause for regret, so we may justly say that Queen Ann of Oogaboo was old enough to make jelly—and let it go at that."

    — L. Frank Baum, Tik-Tok of Oz

    I've been old enough to make jelly for some time. When I was growing up, I recall helping my mom make strawberry and peach jam on numerous occasions, and one year I took the initiative and made cherry preserves when we had an unusually vigorous crop from our cherry tree.

    Until yesterday, the only canning I'd done as an adult was a batch of strawberry jam a couple of years ago when I belonged to a CSA. Still, the process has remained pretty much the same over time, so I was eager to help out when my friend, Christy, invited a group of us over to make jelly and jam out of wild Sand Hill plums.

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    They look a lot like cherries, don't they?

    Four of us got together yesterday and began cooking down fruit for the first double batch of jelly around 11:00 a.m. Christy had all the necessary tools and supplies:

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    That 25-pound bag of sugar was empty by the end of the day.

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    We started out by making as much jelly as we could from the juice of almost 10 gallons of plums, and then strained the pulp from the remaining cooked fruit for a couple of batches of jam.

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    You may recognize Cagey there on the left. Our non-blogging friend, LuAnn, is on the right.

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    For the second batch of jam we added some regular plums from the grocery store because we were coming up short on pulp. Whereas the earlier jam had been almost pumpkin-colored, this batch was a brilliant ruby red.

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    The whole process took about six hours (not counting all of Christy's extensive prep work before we arrived). All told, we ended up with 48 half-pints and 9 full pints of jelly and jam.

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    It came out beautifully, don't you think?

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    Even if it was a rather messy process…

    A big thank you to Christy for a fun afternoon and especially for providing all the supplies and letting us take home some jelly and jam. I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to do some canning.

  • Average Jane vs. The Zucchini

    Okay, the whole zucchini thing is not as adversarial as it sounds. However, considering that I planted exactly two zucchini seeds, the level of vegetable production I'm experiencing is almost alarming.

    On June 23rd, I took a couple of photos of some adorable little zucchini plants that were just forming and still had yellow blossoms on their tips.

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    One rainstorm later and on July 1st I had a nice harvest of two good-sized squashes, two cucumbers and a handful of grape tomatoes.

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    Pay no attention to my filthy car upholstery. Look at the beautiful vegetables!

    Three days later I stopped by my garden to water and picked another moderately-sized zucchini, two more cucumbers and a few more grape tomatoes. I took one last look at my smaller zucchini plant and discovered THE BIGGEST ZUCCHINI EVER hiding in the leaves. I can't believe I hadn't spotted it earlier.

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    You could seriously mess someone up if you hit them with that beast of a squash. It had to have weighed more than two pounds.

    I got out my trusty Kitchen-Aid vegetable slicer attachment and shredded the monster zucchini. It produced six cups of vegetable matter.

    First I made two loaves of zucchini bread. My husband had been chanting, "Zucchini bread, zucchini bread…" like a mantra ever since I'd told him I planted zucchini, so obviously I had to start there.

    With the remaining three cups of shredded zucchini, I made a double batch of zucchini pancakes to accompany the grilled steaks we had for dinner last night. I followed the link in that blog post to Maangchi.com and made the dipping sauce she recommended to accompany the pancakes, using the largest of the jalapeño peppers I have growing outside my back door.

    We will definitely be having those again. The dipping sauce alone was so good that I want to dip all my food in it forever.

    Tonight I made a pretty pedestrian batch of spaghetti with sauce from a jar, but of course included a sliced zucchini because these things are not going to stop growing. I still have two more waiting to be used and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a new crop ready for picking before the end of the week.

    So do you have any recipes for zucchini that are interesting, delicious, unusual or otherwise worth passing along? I think I'm going to need them!

  • Average Jane Makes Lasagna

    Tomatosauce A couple of people have asked for my lasagna recipe and although it varies from batch to batch, I figured I'd go ahead and document yesterday's preparation because it includes all of the fundamentals and a nice, light sauce that works well in a dish that can otherwise be a little heavy.

    Lasagna

    • 1 package lasagna noodles
    • 16 oz. ricotta cheese
    • 1 egg
    • 1/2 cup fresh spinach leaves, finely chopped
    • Fresh herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, etc.), finely chopped
    • 4 cups grated or shredded mozzarella cheese
    • 1 lb. ground beef
    • 1 clove garlic, crushed
    • 2 – 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
    • 1/2 cup olive oil
    • 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
    • 1/3 cup finely chopped carrot
    • 1/3 cup finely chopped celery
    • 2 tsp. salt
    • 1/4 tsp. sugar
    1. To prepare sauce, saute onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent.
    2. Add carrot and celery and saute another minute.
    3. Add tomato, salt and sugar.
    4. Simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes.
    5. Brown ground beef with garlic.
    6. Mix cooked beef with sauce.
    7. Cook noodles according to package directions; drain, rinse and set aside.
    8. In a small bowl, mix ricotta with egg, spinach and herbs.
    9. Spread a layer of sauce mixture in the bottom of a 13" x 9" baking dish
    10. Alternate layers of noodles, sauce, ricotta mixture and mozzarella as desired, ending with mozzarella over a layer of sauce.
    11. Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for 45-60 minutes, uncovering for the last 15 minutes so the cheese can lightly brown.

    I have a mini Cuisinart that works great for the fine chopping. However, you can accomplish the same thing with a spring-loaded food chopper or a chef's knife.

    You'll notice that this recipe contains a lot of vegetables. However, only the tomato is in evidence by the time the dish has been baked, unless you count the tiny flecks of green in the ricotta layer. So if you have picky kids or other veggie-haters in your household, this is a good recipe for sneaking some veggies in.

    Photo credit: Annalisa Antonini