Dinner at home

So I read just about every article I find about food and dinners and whatnot. So a few days ago I found an article about making dinner for family:

Dinner at home

After reading this article I weep a little bit. I know I don't have children yet so I really don't know what it's like. But after reading this article it sounds like this woman is seriously over thinking dinner; it doesn't have to be that hard.

My solution for her is as follows:

Salad course: Romain lettuce with a lemony vinaigrette you made yesterday or over the weekend. (or buy one, no shame here people, save yourself the aggrivation of lemon seeds in your salad and worry about getting everything ready in one night)

Savory smelling dinner ready when you get home: Use a crock pot! or use a a pressure cooker. Either way you get a great tasting meal either ready when you get home or ready in a short amount of time.

Cut down cooking times by using some pre-made things, don't feel guilty about it, be glad you live in a country and at a time where you have the option. The pre cut vegetables are a great option if you don't have the time to chop them yourself. Prep work is what takes up most of the time anyway. Use boxed stock and stewing meat (it's the off cuts anyway). While this might take some prep the night before you can do that while they're in bed. You're still up. And crock pot meals are awesome because they can be either kept warm or really easily re-heated. Then your husband could have a nice hot healthy meal too.

Also, you have children who can be left without supervision. Why are they not helping you cook, and therefore learning to cook with you? If children learn to cook early they can work more independently later on and have dinner ready for you when you get home. It's also a great time to talk to them about whatever's going on. While you may not know if you're daughter is crying from cutting the onion or that Johnny was mean on the playground I'm sure you'll figure it out if you actually talk to her instead of dreaming about your lemony vinaigrette or the fruit tart you didn't have time to make.

The other option here is to cut back on a few of the kids activities. It sounds to me like there may be a few too many different things vying for the family time when it could be better spent at home savoring the short period of time you have together before the kids go off to work or college, then start their own families.

Listen, I know it's hard to cook every night, or even most nights. Even if I didn't work and didn't have other responsibilities (taking care of children/keeping house) it would  be a lot of effort to make sure there was a perfect "Mrs. Cleaver" dinner on the table every night. It's a lot of effort to think up menus of different things you actually know how to cook and even more daunting when you try to make new things.

The most important thing is to try and to do it with love. If you throw food on the table, no matter how nutritious or delicious it is your frustration will come through to your children. They will associate dinner time with rushing and frustration. This is the time to relax and unwind and enjoy the family you have around you.

Until next time my friends: Make what you love, eat with who you love and life will be full.

French Cooking

I promised a few months ago when we got married that I would use everything our friends and family gave us for the wedding. I'm doing my best to live up to that and I finally cracked open my Julia Child's "The Art of French Cooking" and pulled a recipe, not really at random.

I have a brand new cast iron pot (thanks Mom and Dad!) so I definitely needed to break it in. Since I had some time I figured why not take my cooking up a notch.  Coc au Vin- roughly translated Rooster in Wine. Gosh those French people are creative with their food names. Basically it's chicken cooked in a bottle of wine and some brandy (of course they call for Cognac, expensive French brandy).

While I won't give you the whole recipe here I'll give you the run down, this is more about the experience of working from one of the great masters of the culinary world.

I've decided French cooking has three main ingredients; butter, booze, and fire.

Julia was not afraid of fat or salt so this isn't something you want to try if you have a heart condition. But if you don't dig in, it's delicious. It was like nibbling on a tiny bit of heaven.

Basically you start with bacon and end with butter. Cook the bacon, brown the chicken in the bacon fat, then cover and cook the chicken for 10 minutes. THEN (can you tell this is my favorite part?) you add the cognac and set the whole thing on fire! It burns a bright blue. My husband turned the lights off so we could see when the flames burned out.
Now add the wine (a "full bodied red" like a Chianti or a Beaujolais) chicken stock, tomato paste, garlic thyme and bay leaf. Allow that to cook for about 1/2 hour. While that cooks you saute mushrooms in butter and oil, and saute two onions in butter and oil until they start to brown a little bit, then you add beef stock and cook in the oven for 40 minutes (they turn out amazing). This is actually where I deviated from Julia a little bit. I discovered that my husband does not like pearl onions (luckily before I bought any). I decided to go with a sweet onion instead. The difference is that you never get a full bite of onion which I find can be distracting from the overall meaty deliciousness of the meal.
Finally when the chicken is cooked and the onions and mushrooms are ready remove the chicken from the pot and put it aside. Allow the sauce to come to a boil and reduce until it is approximately 1/2 the original liquid. Create a roux with flour and butter. Mix that into the sauce until it's smooth. Allow it to simmer a minute or two more. The sauce should be thick enough to coat a spoon. Now everything is ready, add the chicken back to the pot, also add the mushrooms and onions. Mix and allow the sauce to cover everything.

Now eat!

It really was one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten. The sauce was velvety smooth and the seasonings were right on. There is no improving Coc Au Vin for me. I'm going to continue to make this meal for my friends and family that come over (wink wink come visit).

What I really took away from this particular preparation is that chicken does not have to be boring, or the star of the meal. The true winner were the onions. They were a sweet, bright tickle in the middle of a very savory and hearty and heart warming meal.

I loved it. My husband gave it the "husband stamp of approval". He actually said "two spoons up".

Julia Child is my hero.