Cooking with Kathleen

My bananas are about to walk off the counter.  I love yellow bananas with lots of freckles.  They are sweet, soft and the perfect comfort food for me, but my husband and 2 two kids won’t touch them like that.  They prefer their bananas practically all green - yuck!  So I buy a  bunch of bananas (green) and put them on the counter.  They eat them, but occasionally some are left over and within 2-3 days the bananas are ripe for me, but way over ripe for them.  I leave them on the counter hoping some one will be hungry enough to eat them in any state…that’s when they take a quick turn for the worse…brown, then black..oh dear!  So today I had a sweet tooth, but just couldn’t bring myself to eat something totally unhealthy, so I decided to make a Banana Chocolate Chip Snack Cake with these lovely, rich colored bananas left on my counter; cake sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, but still healthy enough to feel good about eating a piece, or two, or three…  Sorry, no photos.  The cake was so good, it was consumed before I was able to pull the camera out!  Make sure you cool cake completely before slicing into so the chocolate doesn’t ooze out everywhere, also the flavor will be much better.

Banana Chip Snack Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour (can substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour with 1 cup white)

3/4 cup white sugar

3 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups mashed bananas

2 eggs

1cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup skim milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.      Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Grease 9×13 inch pan.

2.      In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

3.      In a separate bowl, combine bananas, egg, melted butter, milk and vanilla.

4.      Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until blended. Be careful not to over mix.

5.      Stir in chocolate chips.

6.      Pour half batter into 9×13 inch pan; sprinkle with chocolate chips; spread remaining batter over top. Bake 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.  Cool completely before slicing.

Well, my daughter has been bugging me for over 2 weeks to make this sandwich that she loves.  It is so easy to put together and keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 days once assembled.  I typically bring it to my booksignings since it is easily transportable and is very sturdy.  I love the flexibility of the sandwich too.  I can bake, microwave, grill, warm in a skillet or campfire, or eat it cold.  My daughter doesn’t seem to care how I prepare it…she just loves it.

Tonight is a perfect night for this sandwich.  I have been gone all day with meetings and errands and p iles of laundry will be started this evening.  Husband has an extended business meeting this evening, son is busy with his gadgets and gizmo’s in the basement and my daughter has an emergency Color Guard sectional at 7pm.  The sandwich will satisfy everyone’s busy schedule and my daughter will finally stop bugging me to make it.

So without much further ado - here is the Italian Country Sandwich…one of the most popular recipes in my cookbook - Good-to-Go!

Italian Country Sandwich

2 (8″-inch) pre-cooked pizzashells, such as Boboli, which come 2 per package

4 ounces seasoned cream cheese (vegetable cream cheese works well) (1/2 of an 8 ounce container)

3-4 thin slices tomato

3-4 thin slices green pepper

3-4 thin slices pastrami

3-4 thin slices salami

2 thin slices red onion

4 slices provolone cheese (smoked, if available)

Lay the pizza shells on a work surface.  Spread 1 pizza shell with cream cheese.  Top with even layers of tomato, green pepper, pastrami, salami, and red onion,  and end with provolone.  Top with the remaining pizza shell.  See chart below for cooking options.  Cut the hot sandwich into wedges and serve.

Cook Method             Time                                       Preparation

Microwave                  1 minute, 30 seconds              on paper plate covered with plastic wrap

Oven                           25 minutes at 350⁰F                wrapped in foil set on baking sheet

Grill                             20 minutes med/hot coals       wrapped in heavy-duty foil

Skillet                          8-10 minutes per side              wrapped in heavy-duty foil

Campfire                     8 minutes per side                   wrapped in heavy-duty foil

btw: this sandwich is great for football tailgates!

It was the first day of school yesterday for my daughter, but many returned today as well.  I am trying to find myself this week.  Yes, I lost myself this past year.  Working on a Big Trip with our High School Band for over 2 years (can’t say tirelessly because it was very tiring), saw the release of my second book - The Good-to-Go cookbook - that was fun, and getting our son through his senior year of high school.  Yes, I am trying to find myself.  What am I really like, what do I like to do in my free time - what free time - I have free time?  What kind of book do I want to write next?  etc…

This past weekend was spent mourning the death of a fellow friend and high school student of my kids, today we buried him - not a good time to find “me” so tomorrow I will start and tonight I am Good-to-Go for dinner since my husband is picking up pizza on the way home for dinner.

So some of us make New Years resolutions…I am make a New “school year” resolution.

Today is the first day back to school and our daughter is starting her senior year.  It has been quite a busy summer…actually summer did not really exist for us with our son graduating from High School, getting him ready for college, college visits for our daughter, band camp, color guard practices the entire summer, cross country training, 2 big house projects and let’s not forget the ’slightly’ cool summer weather we had here in Michigan.  So I am determined to start a new ‘year’ on my blog and it starts today and the first question is: what exactly am I making for dinner tonight?

Well, I found some left over corn-the-cob, steamed green beans in the fridge and some cherry tomatoes from the garden on the window sill.  I cut the corn off the cob, tossed it with green beans and the tomatoes and placed in a large bowl.  I cooked a pound of elbow pasta and added it to the bowl, made a quick vinegarette with 3 parts olive oil to 1 part red wine vinegar, a bit of salt, pepper, and herbs and whisked before tossing with vegies and pasta and left on the counter to “relax” for a few hours and let everyone in the bowl get to know each other.

Then I went to the grocery store and found some split chicken breast on sale.  When I came home I threw them in a 315 degree oven , with a generous sprinkling of sage, rosemary and thyme, a bit of salt and pepper and baked them covered for about 2 hours while I sat down to do some work.  Once done, I chilled the chicken and will leave a note on the table for the family to help themselves to salad and chicken for dinner.

So far, I am Good-to-Go with feeding my family.  Until tomorrow - Kathleen

I went to the movies with my daughter tonight and saw “Julie and Julia”.  Of course anyone reading this cooking blog should know what this movie is about.  It was fabulous.  Of course, I think I was the only one in the entire theatre that cried at the end!  My daughter and I were supposed to cook our way through the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking this summer…but, unfortunately we just never got around to it.  Driving home after the movie, we decided to give it another try, but instead of working through the book this summer (what is left of it) we are going to cook on Sunday’s.  I will keep you posted of our progress.  In the mean time try to get to the theatre and see this movie.  It give you warm and fuzzy happyiness…and it makes you hungry too!  Bon Appetit!

My daughter’s Color Guard team is attending a Performing Arts Dance Camp this week.  She came home last night at 10 pm exhausted and returned to the camp this morning ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ at 8 am!  I am taking a quick break from work this afternoon to make her some muffins she can bring to camp tomorrow for a treat.

I have 2 bananas on the counter…way too ripe to eat, but perfect enough for baking (very soft to touch and yellow with many brown spots) and 2 over-ripe bananas in the bottom of my freezer (these bananas were virtually brown when placed in freezer the other week).  I also found some blueberries in the fridge and about a cup of 2% milk.  Perfect ingredients for blueberry banana muffins!  I am (believe it or not) too lazy to search and find my muffin file and since I am already at the kitchen table working on my laptop – I decide to just search the internet for blueberry banana muffin recipes.  Well – low and behold there must be over 20,000+ recipes online!  How do I choose?  Well, I scroll through the first few recipes until I find one that has the ingredients I have on hand and not complicated or time consuming.

I follow the recipe exactly; preheat the oven, mix the wet and dry ingredients together and add the blueberries last.  Now, because I have a baking background I quickly realize something is missing from the batter.  I check the recipe on-line again and verify all the ingredients, not missing anything…then I taste the batter…yuck – no sugar specified in the recipe!  How could I miss this important ingredient?   More importantly, how many other people have accessed this recipe and made the same mistake as me – especially the novice baker?  Not wanting to waste the batter I have in front of me, I add some sugar (taking an educated guess on quantity), place in prepared muffin tins, pop them in the oven and hope the muffins will be, at least, palatable for the dog.

The cooking time is noted to be 15 minutes.  Fifteen minutes later the muffins are only partially cooked (Note: Oven is calibrated for correct temperature).  I adjust the cooking time and bake for 10 more minutes + 3 more minutes…+ 2 more minutes.  The final product is not quite what I expect, but considering the fact I have 2 teenagers with ravaging appetites…most of these muffins will be consumed by humans in our house, but not with a bit of coaxing from me.

When someone takes the time to bake a treat – whether for the family or for a friend in need – the recipe should be legitimate.  The internet is very convenient and literally at our fingertips – , BUT there are tens of thousands of recipes out in “cyberspace” that have neither been tested or written correctly.  Good cookbooks and your mom’s recipe files – yes, the ones that are donning the shelves in your kitchen, are still the most comprehensive and complete library of “tested” recipes…recipes that are tried and true.  Take recommendations from family and friends for good cookbooks and recipes.  Make sure you write in your cookbooks, noting adjustments you would like to make or additions to the recipe.  Also, write the names of recipes from that particular book that are special on the inside cover of each cookbook you own.  This will act as a quick reference when finding that special pancake recipe you made 5 years ago on Christmas morning.

Here is a great recipe that is tried and true.  My mother would make this same recipe when I was growing up.  They are not too sweet so you can actually taste the banana, blueberry and nuts.

Banana-Blueberry-Nut Muffins

 1¼ cup mashed bananas (2-3 ripe bananas)

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup milk

1 egg slightly beaten

2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour*

½ cup packed brown sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans or almonds)

1 cup fresh blueberries (if frozen, toss with 1 tablespoon of dry ingredient mix before mixing in batter)

1. Preheat oven to 400⁰ degrees and line 18 muffin cups with paper baking cups.
2. Beat bananas, vegetable oil, milk and egg together.
3. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nuts.
4. Combine wet into dry and mix until ingredients are barely incorporated.  Fold in blueberries with 2 or 3 turns of the spoon.  Batter will be like a thick stew.  Spoon into muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20-22 minutes or until light golden brown.  Let cool in muffin tins for 10 minutes then remove from tins.  Eat warm or cool.  Freezes well.

Our teens had their wisdom teeth pulled on Friday.  Yes, 4^th of July dinner was quite an interesting array of “whipped-up” foods.  When you live with two teens who love to eat and one is a boy…you have to have food – and lots of it…available at all times!  Here’s the list of foods that we made to help ease the hunger.  I have included some notes that helped make the foods more appealing and tasty – even my husband and I ate some of it!

“Whipped” foods

Smoothies

Strawberries, peaches, blueberries, banana’s, low-fat vanilla yogurt, ice cubes.  This is all you need to create an array of fabulous drinks.  Add a touch of rum for the adult care-givers.

Applesauce

Chocolate pudding – has to be chocolate!

Milk shakes

My mom’s famous protein wisdom teeth protein shake includes vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, banana, peanut butter, 1 raw egg, and skim milk.

Jell-O – of course it has to be orange!

Chicken soup

Take a whole chicken and cook it up in a pot of water with 2-3 stalks of celery, 3 coarsely chopped onion, 2-3 large carrots, 5 pepper corns, 2 cloves and a handful of parsley, for about 2-3 hours; salt and pepper to taste.  Strain broth and peel chicken off the bone.  Combine broth, chicken meat and cooked carrots in a food processor until smooth.  Serve.

Mashed Potatoes

I add garlic, sweet potato, white potato, and carrots.  Cook until fork tender; strain.  Prepare as you would mashed potatoes – seasoning with salt and pepper.

Yogurt

Soft Foods

Scrambled eggs

Cottage Cheese

 Pasta

            Acini de Pepe – cooked until quite soft and toss with garlic sautéed in olive oil.  Add a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar – yumm!

Oatmeal

Cream of wheat

Egg salad

Hard boiled eggs

Mac and Cheese – Stouffer’s makes the best!

Today I sit in the lobby of a testing center waiting for my daughter to take her chemistry CLEP exam.  Perfect time to get some work done, but all I can think about is “what do I make for dinner?”  Of course, I know you must be thinking the same thing.  Aren’t we all?  I mean, there are the obvious answers like, order out pizza, grab some fast food, or the local Mexican restaurant always has great nacho’s…Oh nacho’s?  Yes, nacho’s!  What a great idea!  Why go out for nacho’s when I can make them, cheaper, better and a bit more healthy right from home?  So here is what I’ll pick up on the way home from the testing center to get dinner on the table tonight, and I know some of this stuff I already have in my pantry or freezer.

I sometimes make my own taco seasoning mix, but tonight I opt for the quick and easy and use the pre-packaged seasoning mix.

A bag of whole-grain tortilla chips (Snyder’s® makes a great tasting whole-grain chip), some sharp cheddar cheese, cherry tomatoes, ground meat, low-sodium taco seasoning mix and a bunch of scallions.  I always use 1½ pounds of meat with the seasoning mix instead of the designated pound.  This helps stretch the meal a bit more and, to tell you the truth, tastes better.

Nacho’s home style

1 ½ pound ground chuck (substitute ground chicken or turkey)

1 bag of low-sodium taco seasoning mix

1 15-ounce bag whole-grain tortilla chips

½ pint cherry tomatoes cut in half

1 bunch scallions (white and tender green parts), thinly sliced

1 pound shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1.      Prepare ground chuck with seasoning mix as stated on package (being sure to use the 1½ pounds of meat).

2.      Place chips on large cookie sheet or oven proof platter, sprinkle with meat, tomatoes, scallions and top with cheese.  Place under broiler on low for approximately 3-4 minutes watching carefully not to burn the chips.  Enjoy!

Serve Nacho’s with salsa and a low-fat sour cream.  If you have time – make a side of guacamole.

Quick Tip: Use 3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts cut into thin strips in place of ground meat.  Brown in non-stick skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 8-10 minutes on medium high; stir occasionally before adding seasoning mix.

For Keeps:  Don’t throw out the leftovers!  The meat, tomatoes, scallions and cheese are great on a bed of greens the next day with a few chips crumbled on top.  Dress with some vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and you have one outstanding salad for lunch.

Hey Everyone!  Beyond busy with the High School graduation festivities of our son so I apologize for the delay writing in my blog.

We have Prom, Senior Volunteer Project Day, Senior Athletic Recognition night, Senior Convocation Banquet, Baccalaureate and Commencement all within this week…

Prom is done – check

5 more events to go!

Did I mention the dinner for 13 that I am serving before the Commencement Ceremony?

I have my box of tissue ready and waiting!

I will have some great recipes and stories to share within the week!

Sincerely, Kathleen

Loser cooks Valentine’s Dinner

Excerpt from my February 2009 Healthy Fit Article: … Looking for a bit of variety and shelter from the frigid cold this winter, I decide to branch out and explore other methods of quick and easy exercise rather than running.

While contemplating my options over lunch with a girlfriend, I discovered she plays racquetball to stay in shape. What a great idea - a perfect way to shake up my fitness routine this winter…by the time we finished lunch I was convinced I could whip her butt in a game and challenged her – looser cooks dinner… “What did I just do?” I thought, getting into my minivan after lunch, I haven’t stepped foot onto a court in over 25 years!

Here is the ‘loser cooks dinner’ menu. I combined creamy with savory and a side of crunch – perfect Valentines Menu for kids and adults alike. If you keep the servings sizes reasonable – Creamy Mac-and-Cheese is a fine accompaniment to any meat or fish dish.

Valentine’s Day Dinner:

Pan Fried Steak

Season both sides of sirloin steak simply and lightly with kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and garlic powder. Heat up a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat drizzled with olive oil. Set steak in pan without crowding. Drizzle tops of meat with olive oil. Fry steak for approximately 4 minutes per side turning steak over when browned on bottom – only flipping steak once. Remove from pan and let sit 1-2 minutes before serving. Drizzle with a bit more sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and olive oil just before serving.

Steamed Broccoli Spears

Try to steam the broccoli instead of boiling and remove from steamer while stalks are “crispytender” (my word for still having crunch but not tasting raw).

Very Creamy Mac-and-Cheese (see recipe below)

Very Creamy Mac-and-Cheese

serves 10

1 pound elbow pasta

1 12-ounce can low-fat evaporated milk

1 14-ounce can low-sodium chicken broth

3 Tbs. butter

1/3 cup flour

1 ½ Tbs. Dijon mustard

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

¼ tsp. black pepper

3/4 pound grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese

1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and spread on large baking sheet.

2. Microwave milk and broth in large bowl until hot. Melt butter in empty pasta pot; whisk in flour; cook while stirring for 3-4 minutes. Add hot liquid; whisk until thick and bubbly. Whisk in mustard, parmesan cheese and black pepper. Remove from heat and add cheddar cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.

3. Add pasta; stir until combined. Serve immediately.