Lawrence.com

This Weight Watchers thing is turning out to be a snap. I'm not kidding, people. I've lost 12 pounds and I'm eating, I'm satisfied, and even my husband hasn't suffered too badly for my "lifestyle change."

One of my staple dinner items on my new menu is stir-fry. Asian food is ideal diet food, if you go easy on the rice. There's rarely any cheese or dairy of any kind involved. The meat portions are controlled. It's chock full of vegetables, very little fat, and, bonus: lots and lots of FLAVOR.

I've made several stir-fry dishes since this journey began, but my favorite was a simple chicken and vegetable mix I whipped up one weekend for lunch. We'd been downtown for a walk and I'd smelled all manner of lovely downtown restaurants, and determined not to blow my point values for the day (I like to save them on the weekends for wine and/or dinner parties), I determined to go home and make my own "restaurant lunch."

As usual, I started with some chicken tenders. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If I am going to cook white meat, I like the tenders over the big breasts. They seem to get less dry, and they thaw quickly so you can go from freezer to table in a reasonable amount of time.

I was serving two but wanted leftovers, so I cut up about six tenders into bite-sized pieces and set them aside. Note: I like to leave meat a tiny bit frozen when I start because it is so much easier to cut it up than when it's completely thawed.

Then I made up my sauce:

1/2 cup soy sauce (I like to use the lowered sodium kind)
1/8 teaspoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
juice of one lime
juice of one clementine
1 teaspoon wasabi paste
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup water
1 healthy squeeze of sriracha
2 teaspoons dried ginger
3 cloves minced garlic

I whisked all that together and added the chicken to it.

In the meantime I heated a bit of canola oil over medium high heat in a large skillet, and threw a bag of frozen Asian vegetables (a mix of snow peas, onions, water chestnuts, and peppers), a crown of broccoli (about a cup), and a half a cup of hulled edamame in to "fry" for just a minute. Cook on one side, then the other. This mix is excellent because you don't have to chop anything (unless you want to remove the stems from your broccoli florets). It's all just "toss and go" and you have a lot of vegetable bang for your buck. I like to add the edamame to my dishes to up the protein content, as well.

And then I quickly added the chicken and sauce, and lowered the heat to medium.

This cooks quickly. Wait for the sauce to thicken and reduce — about eight minutes — and the chicken should be done at the same time.

I garnished with green onions, cilantro, and chopped peanuts. Crunch is important for people who are dieting — because we watch our carbs, we don't get chips or crackers very often, so it's important to introduce crunchy elements to dishes where possible.

Serve over rice — and if you are counting your points or calories, keep your rice to about 1/4 of a cup or less. The whole dish, then, will cost you about seven Weight Watchers Points Plus. If you like brown rice, use it to lower your points even more. For me, it's not worth it — but to each his own.

stir fry bowl by meganstuke

This is a great meal because you can eat a LOT of the chicken and vegetables for very few points, so you get full without ruining the rest of the day for eating.

yummy stir fry by meganstuke

People, I've lost twelve pounds in two weeks. If I can do it, and still eat, drink, and be merry, so can you!

If you follow The Flying Fork on Facebook (and if you don't, why the heck not?), you know that I have flown the coop. I have given in, acquiesced, bitten the proverbial bullet. I have joined Weight Watchers. Not that anyone cares, except, well, my recipes 'round these parts might change a bit. I'm not going raw vegan or anything. I'm just trying to tone down my usual cooking a bit, and work on the ole portion control part of the show. I tell you this because I hope you'll keep me honest. Dieting is not my forte. Oh, I know, I know, Weight Watchers isn't a diet. It's a lifestyle change. Well, lifestyle changes are also not really my bag. But, here goes nothin'. Or, rather, hopefully, here goes some fat.

After I took the $40 plunge and signed up to join a Weight Watcher's group at work, I ran right out to the grocery store to get my new food. The first two meals were a little demoralizing. After all, I'm the cook, right? My food almost always comes out tasting maddeningly good.

The first thing I tried was a chicken stir-fry with brown rice. The chicken, vegetables, and sauce were miraculously delicious, considering how low in points they were. But that rice? NO THANK YOU. I cooked it in some lite coconut milk and lime juice, hoping to glean some extra flavor from it, and I cooked, and I cooked, and I cooked some more and the stuff would not get done. So after an hour, I pulled it from the stove and just ate it. Later, I was informed that that is just how brown rice is. Kind of has a "tooth" to it, and seems underdone. Uh, no. NEXT. I would rather just have a bowl of chicken, veggies and sauce than face that brown rice again.

The next meal I attempted was spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs, made with lean meat and browned in a skillet, were delicious. The sauce was my usual red sauce with a bit less olive oil, and it was good too. But, once again, I ruined it with the starch. Whole grain pasta? Again, a resounding NO THANK YOU. Slimy, texturally weird, and just all around wrong. In the future, if I require a pasta meal, I will just plan my points accordingly and eat the good stuff. If the "fake" stuff or replacement food item ruins the dish? That just doesn't work for me.

So, I'm learning. I'm getting tips and tricks from friends and the internet and strangers and it's all coming together. I don't have to use weird ingredients or abandon my favorite foods. I just have to take it down a notch, scrap a lot of the butter, embrace canola oil and watch my portions.

In that vein, I give you a more successful recent dinner. I had planned to make very traditional (however lighter) chicken enchiladas, but my tortillas kept falling apart because I didn't fry them first, so I ended up adapting it to an enchilada "casserole" which, by the way, I recommend. So much easier to throw together on a weeknight than rolling up individual tubes of meat and cheese.

I started by cooking some chicken. I had a bag of frozen chicken tenders, about half full, so I pulled it out and thawed them. I cooked them all, even though I only needed about five tenders (equivalent of maybe two large boneless, skinless, chicken breasts) because I figured I could use that cooked chicken for another meal later.

I just sprayed a cookie sheet with Pam, gave the chicken strips a light dusting of salt and cracked black pepper, and baked them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. When I pulled them from the oven, I used a fork and a knife to "shred" them into small pieces.

Then I started on chili gravy. If you have read The Flying Fork for long, you might remember my amazing chili gravy from a previous post. I wanted to use this basic recipe but lighten it up a bit. So, I poured about a tablespoon and a half of canola oil into a large skillet over medium heat, and added 1/3 cup of flour. I whisked that together to make a paste, and then I turned up the heat to medium high and started adding chicken broth (Kitchen Basics fat-free is the best). I added about half a box and whisked to remove lumps, and then added a bit more. This mixture should come to a boil and thicken rather quickly. Keep adding broth until you get the desired consistency. It shouldn't be runny, but it also shouldn't be tacky. Think of gravy. This really is, after all, a gravy. Then I added a half teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder, 3 tablespoons chili powder, and 1 tablespoon of cumin, and continued to whisk. Delicious! And very low in fat and calories!

Next I made my filling mixture. Into a mixing bowl went the chicken, 2 tablespoons of chili gravy, half a small can of diced green chilis, a handful of fresh cilantro leaves, and 1/4 cup of diced onions.

I used a small casserole dish for this - I think it's a 2-quart size. I sprayed the bottom of the pan with Pam (I love Pam), dipped two corn tortillas in the chili gravy, and laid them in. I tore a third one in half, dipped it, and filled in the gaps on the bottom of the pan.

Then I used half of the chicken mixture — just sprinkled it over the tortillas, and then sprinkled 1/3 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese over that. And, repeat. Top with one more layer of tortillas and a little more cheese, if you so desire.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until warm through. I garnished it with some green onion and cilantro and a tiny dob of light sour cream.

Enchilada Casserole

Yields: 6 portions Weight Watchers Points Plus: 9

1.5 cups diced chicken, white meat
9 corn tortillas
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cups flour
1/2 box (about 2 cups) fat-free chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoons diced green chilis
1/4 cup diced onions
fresh cilantro
1/2 cup (or less) shredded low fat cheddar For garnish: fresh cilantro, green onions, lite or fat free sour cream (all optional)

enchilada casserole by meganstuke

I cut the casserole into six pieces. I made the cuts smaller on one end (portion control for me) so there would be bigger pieces on the other end (for my husband, who doesn't need to diet). By my calculations, my sixth of this casserole (granted it was a small sixth) was about nine points. And that's generous — I would rather over estimate the points than underestimate. Because then I'll just stay fat, and be confused.

I ate this with a handful of baked tortilla chips and some salsa (zero points!) I had made fresh that day. I also had a big salad with salsa for dressing (a completely point free dish!), so the entire meal was somewhere around 12 or 13 points. Again, estimate high.

9 points! by meganstuke

I got to feel like I ate Mexican food, which is probably my favorite and usually the first to be nixed from a dieter's repertoire. And I got full. What more could I want?

I'm definitely getting the hang of this.

Having friends over for dinner on weeknights can be a trick. We like to do it, for a lot of reasons, not least of which is the obvious: our friends are fun. But we also like for our kid to get to see other kids during the week, and we like an excuse to put together a decent meal that doesn’t consist of melting cheese in tortillas or melting cheese between pieces of bread or picking up the leftovers on your kid’s plate and calling them “dinner.”

One of my favorite ways to pull together a good dinner for friends in the short space between work and dinner time (which, when you have kids, happens earlier and earlier, seeing as they go to bed at 7:30 p.m.) is to make breakfast for dinner. Everything cooks fast, and most of the necessary ingredients are always lingering in my pantry and refrigerator. Also, most everything is kid friendly.

Recently, I told my friend Lindsey that her family’s presence was required for a Monday night meal, and then I immediately thought, “Crap, I didn’t make it to the store this weekend. What the heck will I feed them?” And immediately, after a quick mental review of the contents of our kitchen, I decided on “brinner.” But because I didn’t feel like making made-to-order omelets for seven, and because Mr. Meat and Potatoes is not a fan of breakfast casseroles, I had to think a little harder about what, exactly, that meant.

I arrived upon the idea of breakfast pizza pretty quickly, but I knew I didn’t have time to make pizza dough and let it rise, yada yada, after work, so I called up 715, 715 Mass., and told them I’d be by after work for a few crusts — or, rather, four dough balls that could quickly become crust in my kitchen. So easy, so delicious.

breakfast pizza by meganstuke

I made four breakfast pizzas with varying ingredients. The beauty of this is it’s sort of a “kitchen sink” situation. I had a half a pack of bacon, a bunch of eggs, and a pound of breakfast sausage. I made two different sauces, one red (a very simple and basic combination of tomato sauce and herbs), and one white.

Breakfast Pizza White Sauce

1/2 brick of cream cheese (I always use Neufchatel)

1/2 cup of milk

1 teaspoon salt black pepper to taste

2 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon oregano

1 pat of butter

Melt it all together and stir until it’s smooth. Add more milk as necessary to get it to a smooth, spreadable consistency.

I cut about six strips of bacon into bite-sized pieces and cooked them, as well as the breakfast sausage, and set it all aside. You don’t have to get the bacon fully cooked — in fact it’s desirable to leave it a little underdone because it’s going to get really done in the process of cooking the pizzas.

Meanwhile, roll out your dough and prepare your pans for pizza. I like to sprinkle a little corn meal on my pizza pans before I put the crusts on them to prevent sticking.

I assembled the pizzas, all four a bit differently. Two had red sauce, two had white sauce. I topped them in various combinations with jalapeños, bacon, sausage, mozzarella and eggs. The trick to getting the eggs right is to cook the pizzas at a high heat — 425 degrees — for 12 or 13 minutes, and them pull them out. Then crack the eggs over. I did four eggs per pizza, close to the center; they’re slippery and they’ll try to run off. Cook again for four to five minutes, to your desired doneness. I like them to be runny, so the buttery yolks run all over each slice.

Top the finished pizzas with fresh basil leaves, green onions, cilantro, whatever makes you happy.

But we didn’t stop with just the pizzas. We wanted pancakes. For the kids! Right! We’re making pancakes for dinner because of the kids! But, we wanted to grow up the flapjacks a little, so we copied a favorite of Lindsey’s from a recent trip to Hawaii: coconut macadamia nut pancakes.

To do this, make your usual pancake batter but replace the liquid with coconut milk. Chop up some macadamia nuts and toss them on the pancakes when they’re half done — right before the flip. You can put real coconut in as well, but we didn’t think the kids would like that textural element. We topped them with some amazing coconut syrup Lindsey had brought back from the island. If you don’t jet off to the tropics regularly, you can order this amazing stuff online.

Here’s the recipe we used*:

Coconut-Macadamia Nut Pancakes

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups lite coconut milk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped, and divided to sprinkle onto cooking pancakes

*makes about a dozen good-sized pancakes

A bowl of fresh fruit, some leafy greens, some good juice, and the meal is complete, in well under an hour. Brinner! A great way to entertain friends, get kids to happily eat, and do it without killing your wallet or your back.

A while back I was doing “the big shop” at Walmart, toddler in tow, in preparation for a party we were hosting. It didn’t go so well. Johnny was cranky and wanted out of there. I had groceries, diapers, after-Christmas sale items and a kitchen sink in my basket. My cart overfloweth. (Yes, I bought a bunch of crap at Walmart. Shaddup.)

In the process of checking out, the checker dropped and broke a bottle of red wine vinegar. That smelled great. Some chaos ensued in the scramble to clean it up, finish checking out my gargantuan order, and find a way to shove it all back in the cart and save room for the child. So, I wasn’t paying really great attention to the details of my bags, as you can imagine.

When I got home I had a couple of items in my possession that I was sure weren’t mine. Don’t ask me whose they were or if I paid for them or someone else did, but it irritated me to no end. What was I going to do, for example, with a quart of fat-free plain yogurt? Plain yogurt? It’s not something I have a lot of use for. And fat-free? Blech.

Still, I wasn’t going to make the effort to dig the receipt out of the trash or take the stuff back to Walmart, so there it sat in my refrigerator, taunting me, laughing at me, making a mockery of my limited refrigerator space. I needed to find a use for it, if for no other reason than to get it out of my sight.

We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday night and I decided I should have a little dessert at the ready, on the off chance that someone might want a sweet at the end of the meal. We usually prefer to polish off our meals with an extra glass of wine and skip the dessert, but hey, I had the time and, well, I had some yogurt to use.

I looked around for dessert recipes that included plain yogurt and they all looked a little “meh,” until I found some people discussing the merits of a thing called yogurt cake. It looked like pound cake to me, but it didn’t require nine sticks of butter like most pound cakes do, so I figured I’d try my hand. You guys, it was amazing. Like, even my staunch hates-dessert-unless-it’s-brownies husband liked it and commented on its moistness.

I kind of combined several recipes according to what ingredients I had on hand and what appealed to my taste preferences. I had a lot of clementines that were on their last legs and I really wanted to use them up, so I went with those instead of the lemons most of the yogurt cake recipes called for, and wow, that was a good choice. I also had a few strawberries in the refrigerator that were about to be past their prime, so I decided to make a little strawberry syrup topping. I figured if it failed all I was out was some yogurt I didn’t buy (that is how I choose to remember it) anyway, and some clementines that were about to die in the bowl. It was a low-risk project.

Clementine Yogurt Cake with Macerated Strawberry Syrup

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup plain non-fat yogurt

3/4 cup + 1/3 cup sugar, divided

3 eggs

3 teaspoons orange or clementine zest

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup freshly squeezed clementine or orange juice

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the syrup:

3/4 cup sugar

6 large strawberries

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon lemon juice or clementine juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl and the eggs, sugar, zest, vanilla and yogurt in another. Whisk the wet ingredients together and then slowly add the flour mixture in, stirring constantly. Then fold in the vegetable oil and pour the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. It’s okay to underbake this a little, by the way. Meanwhile, cook the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and the 1/3 cup of clementine juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Cut the strawberries into small pieces and stir them in with the water, sugar and lemon juice, Bring to a rolling boil and stir occasionally for five minutes, then turn the heat down to medium low and let the mixture continue to cook and reduce until it becomes syrupy, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Then use a potato masher to smash the strawberries into smaller pieces, if necessary.

When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and let it stand for a few minutes. Then pour the sugar/citrus mixture over it. When it’s cooled, turn it upside down onto a platter. Full disclosure: my cake poofed up and wasn’t flat, and also got rather dark on top, so I used a serrated knife to cut it down so it would lay flat on the platter and to remove the dark crust.

Then mix up your confectioner’s sugar glaze and pour it over. Serve in slices and pour the strawberry syrup over the top.

yogurt cake by meganstuke

It’s a pretty cake and easy to do. You could use whatever fruit or citrus you have laying around or pour chocolate or whipped cream on top. And even though most of us at dinner were not dessert-y types, that cake is miraculously almost gone, so you tell me.

My friend Sara Jane is nuts. Really, she's certifiable. Yesterday we attended her daughter's third birthday party, held at her home for a few friends and relatives. Sara Jane smartly assigned a sister-in-law the task of herding the cats, er, playing some games with the little ones, so that she herself could focus solely on the food. THE FOOD. THE COPIOUS, DIZZYING, AMAZING amounts of food. She had cheesy potatoes, mac and cheese, brats, sausages, hot dogs, two kinds of cheese dip, every hot dog topping imaginable, various drinks, and, of course, chocolate cake and ice cream. And all of that sound pretty reasonable until you are starting to leave and you notice there are four more pans of macaroni and cheese and potatoes in her double ovens, and there are still more hot dogs and sausages cooking on the grill. For Sara Jane, it's about volume.

Everyone loves to eat at Sara Jane's house. But that goes without saying.

So when Sara Jane told me what she was having, I suggested I bring some fruit and/or vegetables. But you know, kids don't eat vegetables. At least, most of the ones I know don't eat them. I know, I know. We need to try harder. YOUR kid eats broccoli every meal and BEGS you for more green beans. Nonetheless, this was a party, and SJ decided that at this party, the food would be stuff kids like. Hence, the cheesy cornucopia.

So, fruit. I was bringing fruit. And I knew that SJ would have scads of other food, so volume wasn't a priority for me. What I wanted was fruit that kids might really eat, that would contribute to the theme of "stuff they really like." I thought about fruit kabobs with yogurt dip but that seemed messy. But the kabob seemed like a good idea - you know, food that comes on a sharp object for poking the kid next to you with - always a good plan.

So I decided to try my hand at a fruit bouquet. Couldn't be easier, and the kids did seem to think it was pretty neat. This is something you can do with whatever fruit your kids like. I picked pineapple (because I love it), strawberries, grapes, clementines, and cantaloupe based on my knowledge of the kids I knew would be in attendance. Plus, pretty colors.

I had a short cylinder vase left over from my wedding, so in the bottom I put about four clementines and two limes (for color) in the bottom of the vase.

Next, I thought about how my skewers should look. I wanted some "flowers," so I cleaned a half a cantaloupe and cut it in half again and laid the piece face-down on a cutting board, and I used two sizes of flower cookie cutters to slice out some shapes.

I had purchased already cleaned pineapple which was cored, so I couldn't thread a skewer through the middle of those, so I made them into letter "O's" and threaded the skewers up through them. Then I just added grapes and strawberries to make everything festive. After I poked all the skewers into the clementines in the bottom of the vase, I added in a few more on the top that would be easily retrievable if people wanted to eat them.

Truly, I didn't really have a plan, but it turned out great.

Ta-da! by meganstuke

This is one of those things you think you have to buy from an expensive retailer, because surely it is very hard to do. But it's not true. Granted, mine might not have looked quite as professional as the ones you see in magazines or tv, but hey, the three-year-olds thought it was pretty nifty. It only took me a few minutes to put together (especially since I cheated and bought already cleaned pineapple) and it traveled well because of the wide base of the vase I chose.

This is one of those things you can do if you want to look like you slaved a long time and you want a lot of wow-factor but you don't have a lot of time to spend chopping, dicing, baking, mixing, stirring, and cleaning up. It's a quick and simple thing, and it's especially good for kids and parties. Plus, healthy and delicious. WINNING!

New Year's Eve at my house was not full of fancy finger foods and little sandwiches with the crusts cut off. No, the way we do things is a little less high brow. As I began to imagine a party at my house for New Year's eve, I thought we might have three or four couples over, make it kid friendly, and play a little Left, Right, Center. But, as these things do, it grew. To forty-odd people. Out the window went my plans for prime rib and elegant side dishes. I needed to feed the masses. The drinking masses.

I settled on chili, baked potatoes, hot dogs, and homemade cinnamon rolls. Thisis stuff that can be made for relatively low cost. There's something for everyone. Kids and adults alike can find something on that menu to enjoy, and it is filling for stomachs that might contain too much champagne.

My friend Sara Jane directed me in the making of a double batch of The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, which were divinely perfect. She also brought me two giant packs of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogsfrom Restaurant Depot. People, that is like 80 hot dogs! Heaven.

I baked about 25 potatoes, and made two kinds of chili: double beef with hamburger and steak (just use a big, inexpensive top round steak), and I thought I should have something on hand for the vegetarians who might be in attendance, so I made a pot of soy chorizo chili. I found the soy chorizo at the store recently and bought a couple of tubes because, well, I was fascinated. There are certain things I like to make with soy crumbles (even better than I when I make them with real meat) so this little product intrigued me.

It was delicious. I have chosen to eat several bowls of its leftovers, even though the beefy stuff was also sitting right there, asking to be polished off. Also, it couldn't be easier. It makes a lot and can be thrown together in no time, making it an ideal party food.

Chipotle Soy Chorizo Chili

4 cans of chili-ready diced tomates
1 can black beans
1 can red kidney beans
2 cans chili beans - whatever heat works for you
1 can white beans
1 can corn
2 tubes soy chorizo
1 green pepper
1/2 C diced onion
2 diced jalapenos
3 T sugar
4 T chili powder
2 T chipotle seasoning
2 T cumin
4 cloves minced garlic

Throw it all in the pot. Stir, and simmer for a couple of hours over low heat. Done!

I think we've started ourselves a little chili dog New Year's eve tradition. I like it - I like it a lot. I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's Eve. We're off to a great start on 2012. Happy eating!

soy chorizo chili by meganstuke

Well, it's over. How's your back? Mine is tired, and it hurts. But dang if our tree hasn't already found its way a trash can outside, and all but a few straggling remnants of Christmas have been stowed in the garage,

This year, I simplified things, and still I was tired after it was all said and done. For example, I did the lion's share of my shopping online, and Internet, blessed be thy name. Also, I found a way to knock out a large portion of the people on my list with the same gift which makes life infinitely simpler than it used to be when I had a list a mile long of wine and earrings and pens and various and sundry items specifically picked out for each teacher, friend, co-worker, and loved one.

Instead, I decided to really give a gift from the heart. Most of the people on my list, this year, received things I made in my kitchen. I'm not crafty, so cooking is really all I have to offer in the "handmade" arena. And I didn't want to show up with the usual tin full of cookies and candies since let's face it, everyone is up to here with the sweets by the end of Christmas. I wanted something a little different, but that still said "Hey, The Flying Fork loves you."

I'll be honest - the thing was not a total success, but I learned a few things along the way. Like, I planned to give everyone homemade fettucini noodles that i had nested and dried, and I was just sure that when I put them in the bags and stowed them in the pantry the were dry as a bone, but when I pulled them out in order to assemble my gift boxes, they were a moldy mess. #pastafail

fresh fettucini by meganstuke

See how beautiful they were before I ruined them? Oh well, it was a learning experience, and all that.

But the rest of my goods were beautiful and lovely, and this is what a nice girl I am: I'm going to tell you how I did it, so next year, if you so desire, you can do the same.

Each box included a jar or two of what we like to call "Sunday Gravy" and the recipe is found here. I did this meatless, so that either people could use it in vegetarian cooking or add their favorite kind of meat. I canned it so it can be used whenever the recipient pleases. I just let the sauce simmer for several hours, stirring regularly, and then I ladeled it into quart-sized jars and processed them for 45 minutes.

I was lucky enough to be able to tag along to Restaurant Depot in Kansas City to get most of my groceries, but if that is not an option (and why would it be) just go to Costco or Checkers and buy your materials in bulk.

I also made garlic confit. This is so simple it's ridiculous, and I hope the people I gave it to don't read this so they can go on thinking I slaved over the stuff. For a "regular" batch, here are the measurements. I more than quadrupled it.

2 C fresh garlic cloves, peeled
3 C olive oil
3 springs rosemary
1 T red pepper flakes
1 tsp kosher salt

Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan (or, if you are doing a large amount, a stock pot) and simmer over low heat for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. That's it. I mean, it could be it. I canned mine (a boiling water bath for about 25 minutes) because I fear botulism, but if you think you (or your gift recipient) would be able to use it up in a week or two, it can be kept in the refrigerator without being canned.

(Pro-tip: for this, I bought the giant container of already peeled whole garlic cloves. Give yourself a break. Peeling all that garlic is for suckers.)

Garlic confit is AMAZING STUFF. You can mash it with its oil to make a great spread for bread. I like to tuck a few cloves inside a grilled cheese sandwich. Use it in pasta sauces (I put some in a white wine cream sauce recently to jaw-dropping results). The choices are limitless. I think I'll go have some now.

Lastly, I infused some olive oil. Again, here are the measurements for an amount of infused oil a reasonable person would make. I made about ten times this amount.

6 C olive oil
3 large sprigs fresh rosemary
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
10 large basil leaves
3 large sprigs of fresh oregano
a pinch of salt

Again, just simmer this over low heat for about half an hour, and then strain. Ladel or funnel the oil into a receptacle. I just used mason jars, but it would be fancier to put it in olive oil pourers with cork stoppers.

Each gift box had a jar of sauce (or two), a jar of garlic, and a jar of oil. I labeled each one and I enclosed a sheet of paper with storage instructions and suggestions for use for each item.

I hope everyone liked them. It was a fun day of cooking to prepare these gifts, and less expensive than the traditional "I'll just get a $25 gift card to Big Box Store X" route, not to mention more personal.

I think the people on my Christmas gift list can rest assured they'll be getting similar gifts, if not exact replicas of them, for many years into the future. I really do love Christmas traditions, much as I bah and humbug around, and a day of cooking to prepare my annual pasta gifts seems like a great tradition to instigate.

the wares, waiting for gift boxing by meganstuke

Here's hoping everyone had a safe and happy holiday. And here's to the upcoming new year. May it be full of happy hearts and stomachs for all of us.

‘Tis the season, right? The season, that is, for running around like a crazy person, for feeling inadequate in every way, for getting sick and never getting well because you’re too busy pretending you’re not sick so you can keep running around like a crazy person.

Oh wait, maybe that’s just me.

The slew of holiday parties is upon us, and I love each one more than the last, and I want to go to everything and I always want to have the perfect dish to take with me. It’s bordering on compulsive. My husband keeps asking me why I don’t just buy a shrimp ring and be done with it, and I do think he might be onto something. Because a person can drive herself crazy (and into the poor house) trying to come up with cute, inventive, delicious dishes to take to every party.

And then, of course, there’s New Year’s Eve, and that’s when you really want to get fancy, what with the cocktail parties and the champagne and the sparkly shirts and all. I’m hosting a gathering at my house this year for New Year’s Eve, and I’m determined to have delicious morsels, but I am also determined to A.) not break the bank or B.) not break my back doing it.

To that end, I offer you these two simple treats that are perfect for New Year’s Eve, or any festive occasion, really. I love both of these because they’re relatively inexpensive to do, an can be put together in short order, but they look appealing — even a little fancy. Also, they transport well, so you can schlep them to your cocktail party without any fuss.

On New Year’s Eve (or at any good cocktail party, really) it is important that people have some “real” sustenance. If the champagne is flowing, you need to offer people some items that will fill their bellies with solid food. This little morsel, then, is ideal.

Roasted Red Potato Bites

1 bag red potatoes (about 20 to 25 small potatoes)
1 cup sour cream
cooking spray
kosher salt
5 strips bacon
1 tablespoon dill

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Begin by cutting your potatoes in half. A few of mine were extra big so I quartered them. You are going for “bite-sized” here — something people can just pop into their mouths, no forks required.

I sprayed a cookie sheet thoroughly with butter-flavored cooking spray, and arranged my potatoes cut-side down on it. Then I covered them again, thoroughly, with cooking spray.

Next, I sprinkled them liberally with kosher salt, and popped them in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, I put a cup of sour cream into a Ziploc baggie and cut the corner off, a la pastry bag for piping. (Very fancy.)

I also started the bacon cooking. I just used kitchen shears to cut it into small pieces and then popped in the pan to fry. Cook it thoroughly, just shy of burning. You want it super-crispy.

Once your bacon is cooked to a crisp, put it in a baggie and give it a few good whacks with the back of a wooden spoon so it will bust into small sprinkle-sized pieces.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, let them cool for just a minute, and then you’re ready for toppings. I just piped a small dollop of sour cream on each one, sprinkled a few bacon bits, and the dusted everything with the dill. But you could top with whatever you have around. A little smoked salmon would be pinky-up fancy, or a bit of shredded cheese, or maybe some green onion or chive.

I promise, there won’t be any of these left at the end of the party and people will be grateful for the stick-to-your-ribs aspect of the potatoes.

roasted red by meganstuke

My other new favorite party treat is a little “caprese on a stick.” This also could not be simpler to make and can be assembled in advance of the party.

Caprese on a Stick

1 container of grape or cherry tomatoes (usually comes in pint container)
8 ounces fresh mozzarella
10 large basil leaves
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
toothpicks

Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a bowl. Cut the basil leaves into strips, about an inch wide. Chop the mozzarella into bite-size pieces.

You’re ready to assemble. First, put a piece of mozzarella on the toothpick, then fold a strip of basil in half and stab it on. Then place a tomato flat-side down on your work surface and stab the toothpick into it. You want to put it on this way rather than threading it on by hand because you want to be sure it will stand up straight and not be on the toothpick crooked.

Repeat until all the tomatoes and/or cheese pieces are gone.

Then make your dressing. Just combine all the ingredients and shake well. I spooned it over my little capreses so that the cheese could absorb some liquid, rather than just letting the tomatoes get it all from the bottom.

Caprese! by meganstuke

They’re very festive looking, and it only took me about 15 minutes to put them together. Makes a nice tray to pass around and let’s face it, people love any food on a stick.

Here’s to a festive holiday season and a great new year. Let’s all try hard to keep our heads and not sweat the small stuff. Save your energy for the important things, like ripping open presents and making snow angels.

You might want to take away my woman card for saying this, but I do not like alfredo sauce. I do not like it from a jar, or in a restaurant, or even made by my own hand. I don't know why — maybe it's too salty or too heavy or maybe I just got sick of it in high school when I thought it was fancy and ordered it at every possible opportunity.

I'm not saying I can't eat it. I can, and I will. It's just that I don't crave it, I don't seek it out, and I don't make it at home anymore. But I do like an occasional departure from Sunday Gravy, and am constantly looking for ways to make a cream sauce that doesn't feel like a heart attack on a plate or come across as one-dimensional and boring.

Recently, I made a trip to Restaurant Depot with a friend who is a member. This is not your average Costco, friends. Not just anyone with 50 bucks and a desire to sample frozen foods can get a membership. This place is reserved for restaurant owners, and it's full of amazing things that are not as commercial as Costco's items. But, people, it's awesome. Stuff is really inexpensive. The most impressive part of my haul that day was three clamshells of fresh herbs. And when I say clamshell, I'm talking about the oversized one like you get from the giant salad in at the grocery store salad bar. It was a ginormous amount of herbs. It was enough rosemary that, as one of my friends said, "I could make a bed with that stuff and roll around in it." These things were just over $6 apiece. I got the motherload of basil, oregano, and rosemary for under $20. It has been a really fun time coming up with ways to use all that beautiful herbage.

It's no secret that I am a fan of the chicken thigh. I find chicken breasts to be dry, tasteless, and almost useless except for fried chicken fingers. Thighs are inexpensive, tasty and versatile. The trifecta, in my kitchen.

So I knew I had herbs to use up, and I knew I was tired of Sunday gravy. What could I do with all of the chicken that was thawed in my refrigerator? But of course! Pasta — with a cream sauce. And what makes pasta fancier? Tortellini!

What I ended up churning out was a lovely weeknight dish, elegant enough for a dinner party. And, it only took about 30 minutes to make. But no one would know it, for it is so fancy and delicious.

First, I cut four boneless chicken thighs into smallish strips and gave them a liberal salt and peppering. Then I put them on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray and popped them in a 350-degree oven to cook. You could cook the chicken in a saute pan, but I think this is easier, and tastier. The roasting will help it retain juice and cook in flavor, and it's one less step for the cook to perform. This way, instead of pushing chicken around a skillet, you can focus directly on your sauce.

I began by making a thickening agent. Melt about 2 tablespoons of butter in a saute pan and add 2 heaping tablespoons of flour. Whisk it around until it's all combined, and then add a cup of chicken stock. Then you have to turn up your heat to medium high, and whisk madly until all the lumps are gone. This will get rather thick rather quickly, and then you can add another cup of chicken stock. Whisk like crazy again.

Next, I added a cup of Half and Half, but milk or even heavy cream would work, depending on what you have lingering in your refrigerator. Whisk again, let it get bubbly and start to thicken.

Here is where I add the first round of "flavor." A hearty pinch of kosher salt (maybe a teaspoon — don't over-salt), a few good cranks of cracked black pepper, and half a cup of white wine went into the pot. Then I added some garlic cloves. I happened to have some garlic that I cooked thoroughly during an oil-infusion process the weekend before, so mine were soft and delicious already, but whole fresh cloves will work too, as long as you cook your sauce long enough to soften them. Or, if you are averse to large hunks of garlic in your sauce, mince them up. Whatever works for you is fine. But I have to admit that the pre-cooked and preserved garlic was an unexpected and welcome addition to our dish.

Next, I added half a cup of crumbled goat cheese and a handful of sundried tomatoes. Mine had been packed in oil so I rinsed them thoroughly before I put them into the mix. I didn't want the additional oil in my sauce.

Now is a good time to set your pasta water to boiling. Frozen tortellini only takes about two minutes to cook, which is also a bonus in my book.

While the cheese melted and the tomatoes warmed, I occasionally stirred, and I pulled the chicken from the oven.

Into the boiling water went my bag of tortellini, and two minutes later I was ready to plate.

First, a large pile of tortellini went onto the center of a large plate. Then I dished the garlic/white wine/goat cheese/sundried tomato sauce over the top. Next, I sprinkled on some fresh basil I had cut in a chiffonade (about three large leaves per plate), and then I laid on several pieces of chicken on the top.

chicken tortellini by meganstuke

This dish is Christmasy, beautiful and elegant. When you say words like garlic confit, white wine and goat cheese, people start to marvel. Little do they have to know the goat cheese was $3 a log at Costco and the basil was almost free. They don't have to know the white wine came from a box or that the dish only took half an hour from start to finish. They don't have to know you buy your chicken thighs in bulk from Checker's or that your sundried tomatoes came off the salad bar as an afterthought. All your guests need to see is a beautiful plate full of red and green and flavor overflowing.

I am a person who is usually rather long on ideas and short on equipment. I am loathe to spend big bucks on specialty cooking equipment when I'm not sure I'll use it enough nor do I have room to have it sitting around.

So I called up my friend Jeff Frye, he who is better known in foodie circles as "Mr. Bacon" and asked him for some help. You see, we love barbeque, but we don't own a smoker, nor do we really feel ready to invest in one. I'm not looking to compete or to serve the masses any barbeque, but once in awhile Mr. Meat and Potatoes and I would like to have some ribs. GOOD ribs. I wanted to know if it is even legal to cook ribs anywhere other than a smoker, let alone possible.

Mr. Bacon assured me that I could cook awesome ribs sans smoker. In fact, he has a method he calls "smokeless ribs" he was willing to show me. Uh, yes, please. He is quick to note that this is not his "professional" recipe, which of course involves a smoker and a lot of secrets. This is just a process he discovered along the way that works well for the home cook and he was sure we'd like it - even without the benefit of hours on a big honking professional smoker.

Mr. Bacon suggests starting with a "St. Louis Spare" cut of ribs. This is a cut wherein the butcher has already removed all the undesirable stuff from the top of the ribs - stuff the good cook would remove anyway. He explains that this cut of ribs will get more tender than a baby back. The color should be good - very red and fresh. There is no membrane on the back of the St. Louis Spare - which allows for greater flavor influence in the meat.

st louis spare by meganstuke

To begin, coat the entire slab, front and back, with cooking spray. This will help seasonings stick to it. For this, he rubbed the entire thing with 2 Tablespoons of his favorite spice rub. He's not going to tell us exactly what it is. Home cooks can decide for themselves what exact rubs they prefer.

Mr. Bacon's secret spice rub by meganstuke

Then it's good to let the meat rest with the spices on it for just a few minutes to let the rub "take to" the meat.

Next, take the slab out to your regular old outdoor grill - either gas or charcoal, and sear it for about five minutes on each side over "medium" heat - about 400 degrees.

on the grill for a quick sear by meganstuke

after first sear by meganstuke

Then bring it back in the house and hit it with a "secondary rub". Mr. Bacon believes in building a flavor profile. Doing different things at different stages of cooking will result in deeper, richer flavor. No matter what you are cooking, he says, working on that constant building of flavor is always a good idea, rather than just throwing a bunch of ingredients in a pot and turning on the stove to cook.

after oven, ready for round two on the grill by meganstuke

The secondary rub consisted of 1 tablespoon of the original rub, 2 tablespoons of white sugar, and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. The sugars, he says, help to break down proteins, and this equals tenderness.

So he pressed all that into the meat, and then he said he was going to let the oven "do the heavy lifting" for about an hour per pound at 250 degrees. He wrapped it snugly in aluminum foil, and in it went.

After the oven part of the show, he brought the meat back out to the grill, where he mopped on his barbeque sauce of choice on each side, again letting the meat rest on the grill over medium heat for about five minutes per side. He also saved the cooking juices from the aluminum foil and mixed them in with the barbeque sauce he was mopping on. "No reason to waste all that good flavor," he explained.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/meganst... And then, voila, ready to eat. People, these ribs fell off the bone. They were juicy, packed with flavor, and delicious. I'm sure Mr. Bacon's signature sauce didn't hurt. Thankfully, he sent me home with some of the super-hot stuff for Mr. Meat and Potatoes, but I'll have to go to Hy-Vee and get myself some of the medium heat stuff, since I am a wuss and would rather not set myself up to spontaneously combust while eating.

sauce selection by meganstuke

all done - ready to cut by meganstuke

I am so happy to know that we can eat ribs now without having to leave the house. And because they don't take a lot of time on the grill (only about twenty minutes total) we can even do them in the chillier months without losing digits to frostbite.

Thanks so much to Mr. Bacon, who showed me this out of the goodness of his warm, tender, and juicy heart. Mr. Meat and Potatoes thanks him too; this saved him about two grand in smokers.