Grains of truth

Having ultimate kids requires looking beyond typical frozen waffle and dry cereal with-or-without milk mornings.  It takes planning ahead, keeping quick oats on hand always, because making this Oatmeal Pancake Mix with only eggs and buttermilk is a sure fire way to keep bellies filled beyond mid-morning.  Of course, being on the fence with regards to making oatmeal itself, leaves me wondering if steel cut oats will be difficult to find at the local grocers, because 6 cups of water added to 2 cups of oats leaves only 1/4 cup each of maple syrup and brown sugar (plus 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp cinnamon) to mix into it, cooking for 7-8 hours on low.  I'm sure there are other overnight crockpot oatmeals on the web, other means to satisfy grain and fruit servings that will rival my morning breakfast burritos.  Oatmeal's goin' into the repertoire, that's all I know.

Flim flam

Errors in judgment are common when mastering new kitchen maneuvers.  For example, when making chicken pot pie, browning 1/4 cup of flour before whisking in that cup of milk, can result in burning if not stirred absolutely constantly.  I mean, medium-high is an awfully hot caliber of fire to be acting nonchalantly with even for a moment, when you've none to spare.  Same thing with toasting panko at 475 for 7-10 minutes.  Go ahead and be an idiot and ignore all signs of browning until the timer goes off at ten, what, fully-dependent on artificial time-keepers now, despite a fine-tuned sense of smelling?  It does make you feel grateful when another seven minutes worth of browning panko later, you read WELL-browned in the directions, salvaging two-inch mozzerella bites about to be dunked in Giada's creamy tomato anytime soon, so get on it.

Note to self

Preheat oven to 425 when you get home from the park.  Pop in your pre-thawed puff pastry dough, rolled into a 9 x 13 rectangle, layed upon a parchment paper lined, rimmed pan.  About 8 minutes, let cool.  You want it puffed and lightly browned.

Toast flour over med-high heat for 5 minutes.  You want it fragrant and lightly golden.  Let cool.

Two teaspoons canola over medium-high, soften and lightly brown onions and celery, 8-10 minutes.  Stir in 3-1/2 cups broth, a T of soy sauce, scraping up browned bits.  Add two pounds chopped chicken and carrots, bring to simmer.  Reduce to low, cover and cook 10-15 minutes.  Let cool, shred into bite-size.

Whisk a cup of milk into flour, whisk into pot.  Simmer and cook, whisking constantly for two minutes, until thickened.  Off heat, stir in chicken, 3/4 cup frozen peas, two teaspoons of God-given dried parsley, 2 tsp lemon juice (thank God I always have these).  Season to taste.

Bake w/ puff pastry on top, after slitting four steam vents along center...15 minutes, until pastry is deep golden, sauce is bubbling around the edges.  Cool slightly before serving.

Daytime drama

Could've killed the cashier girl, AGAIN charging me for cilantro when I really bought parsley.  Had to check the actual bag AGAIN making sure I was right that it was indeed parsley.  $1.58 a bunch is much different than under a buck seasoning (going in tonight's chicken pot pie under puff pastry). Not that I couldn't find a use for cilantro if I tried to, but to have accidentally bought it instead of parsley makes a difference.  It means it was MY fault, my thoughts were perhaps elsewhere, focusing not intently upon the leaf shape, imagining the future wrong, misleading myself intuitively toward a recipe, like blacked out.  Irony was, the bunch actually was cilantro.  I'd thought, perhaps she sees all these tortillas I'm buying, both corn and similarly small-sized flour, the two limes, Nicki's Salsa (bought at a nearby Hugo's).  Plus my jumbo shells, two packages I'll lighten up (simple comfort food, again!) and serve with meat sauce throughout the school year. But back to the cilantro, and having to get used to dried parsley.  I'll adapt my expectations, follow through with my rice crispie bars (two layers tall, always), plan ahead for no-bake Eclair cake (Hugo's had my French vanilla), and get on chopping my vegetables...three carrots to peel and halve lengthwise, to slice 1/4 inch thick, and a stick of celery to MINCE, an entire onion chopped fine.

Affairs of the heart

I was completely obsessed with corn tortillas last night and into this morning, but now I'm brooding over chicken potentials, such a journey.  Mixing a can of rinsed black beans with some diced onion and a teaspoon each of cumin and paprika, meets my every basic need.  Leaving behind Arizona and the cuisine we enjoyed there, makes warming a corn tortilla upon a vegetable oil sprayed skillet, filling it with beans and shredded pepper jack before folding it in half, frying each side for three minutes, fully aware now of all I'd been missing.  Like, instead of PB&J, or a toasted ham and cheese, we can have these now.  Of course, two pounds of raw chicken are beckoning me rather loudly, begging to be cut up, marinated, and Panko-crusted into baked nuggets.  On the other hand, chicken pot pie with puff pastry atop longs to be sautéed into being, in fact the entire method of roux-making, softening onions and celery, and simmering chicken and carrots in broth, well it's just the kind of digging in I'm up for.  So true.

Calzone-mania!

When you know the perfect calzone dough recipe, and have a never-fail cheesy filling, grilling your own Italian sausage and steaming bite-sized broccoli for three minutes in the microwave is only the beginning. Willing to throw caution to the wind, you'll happily sauté 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms in a tablespoon of olive oil for five minutes, adding two minced cloves of garlic and one-half teaspoon of oregano for another minute-long sauté, AND four cups of packed spinach leaves for another sixty seconds thereafter.  All this knowing full-well you're the only mushroom-lover in the family, a champion of spinach, doesn't really matter.  Experimenting with new flavors YOU love is the ideal way to run a kitchen, returning time-and-again to the tried-and-true basics that keep you moving forward, especially where perfect calzones are concerned.

Nothing better

This last week was a dream, I hardly could've planned it.  Determined to make oven-nachos w/homemade chips that have become a tradition, followed by lightened up calzones, oh-the-possibilities with 2 cups of bread flour mixed with 1 tsp rapid-rise, 1 tsp salt, 1 T olive oil and a 3/4 cup of warmed water, and at least an hour rise.  After assembling any medley you'd dream of, but especially the lowered-fat cheese sauce, freaky easy homemade specialty that can be served up in my house weekly.  Now on the agenda, after success with Grandma's raisin cookies and a ready batch of Freezer Peanut Butter cookies, is an attempt, different than a try at Crispy Chicken nuggets lightened up with vegetable oil spray and Panko.  Of course I'll have to pick up two small boxes of French vanilla pudding, cool whip, and a box of graham crackers for some unpredictable night's no bake (refrigerate overnight!) Eclair cake.  Oh man, yum!