Category: Chef Lane

Chef Lane

Sad Chef Lane

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Last night’s dinner was an exercise in failure that went something like this: Thor ate Life cereal, I ate Raisin Bran, B ate the last of the Chinese leftovers.

So the White Puree is extremely pungent. The cauliflower is almost overwhelming, and when I opened its ziplock baggie, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. I mixed it into my mashed potatoes, where it hid nicely, but it smelled so strongly of cauliflower, I knew it wasn’t going to work. It tasted fine. I added a little ranch dressing and then it tasted nice enough that I felt okay serving it.

Thor went full on LOLcat Do Not Want. “It smells green!” He cried. “I know there is something green in there!” I promised him up one side and down the other that there was nothing green, but he wouldn’t budge. He did agree to eat three bites, which is more than I expected, but he insisted those potatoes were full of “green” and he does not eat “green”.

I thought I would save the potatoes to make potato pancakes, but B threw them away before I could. I think he was acting preemptively.

I made cube steaks for the entree, but the cuts of beef I picked up were tough and stringy, and when B made a show of chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing, gulping a bite down whole (googly eyes and all), I just gave it up. Cereal is fine.

So what I have learned to this point: The sneaky chef mixed purees aren’t working for my family. I guess I will try the Seinfeld purees, which are simply purees of a single veg at a time, and see how that goes. I ground up some squash last night, but I’m almost afraid to try anything else.

P.S. Thor did not eat his cheeseburgers for lunch. He told me he ate on them until he found “green” inside, then he threw them away. Because, “Mama, you know I don’t eat green.”

Chef Lane

But Mama, It’s Green!

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I made my Sneaky Sliders tonight. Because I had pre-made the Green Puree, prep time was next to nothing. I just had to mix my ground beef with the other ingredients, and cook the patties. What I learned:

Lesson, the first: The puree must be entirely smooth, or else your son will bite into his Sneaky Slider and howl with horror and outrage at the sight of the green pea shell, visible within his tiny burger patty.

Lesson, the second: Add more ketchup than the recipe requires, and less Green Puree, or else your husband will wrinkle his nose at you and say he tastes vegetables.

Lesson, the third: You can’t please everyone, and if you do say so yourself, those were mighty tasty little burgers!

So I failed at fully camouflaging the vegetables, but Thor did eat two burgers (the second one under duress, as he found the peas), and B went back for seconds, eating six, so I didn’t fail entirely. If I had, B would have pulled out the leftover Chinese from yesterday, or made a ham sandwich. I had four patties left over, so two of them are going to school with Thor tomorrow for lunch (we’ll see if he remembers there are peas in them after recess and he’s good and hungry), and I’ll eat the other two for breakfast.

Chef Lane

Sneaky Chef Lane

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I have been concerned about my family’s eating habits for a while now, but have felt powerless to effect any change because of some very rigid ideas about what is disgusting and inedible. I’ve done my best with fish and chicken, and done everything but stand on my head to get vegetables in their mouths, but I feel like I have fallen well short of the mark. Strangely, since we’ve moved, along with sleeping better, feeling more secure, feeling like I am getting a handle on daily domestic routines, and feeling empowered to manage my kitchen, I am suddenly optimistic about getting these men to eat things that are good for them.

Today, I bought a couple of cookbooks that had been suggested to me a while back. Emily had told me about The Sneaky Chef, by Missy Chase Lapine, and I had heard about Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious when the Sneaky Chef sued the Master of Jerry Seinfeld’s Domain over similarities between their cooking camouflage. I figured I should have both. I mean, if there’s a food fight on, I want to see why!

I also bought Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens. I love my tiny space, and don’t think it is crappy at all, though B might beg to differ. I thought I might give something interesting a try once or twice a month. As far as I know, Jennifer Schaertl isn’t being sued by anyone, and she is a fellow Dallasite, so I am game to try out her recipes.

Tonight, I spent about an hour making four of the purees from the Sneaky Chef book. I liked her purees better than Seinfeld’s, but I like Seinfeld’s recipes more. I’ll be mixing and matching from both of their suggestions, and we’ll see what my family likes. Of course I won’t be posting the recipes–copyright laws and all that–but I will let you know which ones I cook, and how they go over.

All of the purees I made tasted nice to me. There’s a sweet potato/carrot one (orange puree), a broccoli/sweet pea/baby spinach one (green puree), a zucchini/cauliflower one (white puree), and a Great Northern Bean one (white bean puree). I wouldn’t want to eat them by the spoonful, but I think they will add great flavor to cooking. I’m looking forward to trying them out.

I made Thor’s lunch already, and I used half a tablespoon of white bean puree on his usual ham and cheese sandwich. We’ll see if he a) notices, b) rejects it. Tomorrow night we’re having Sneaky Sliders, and I’ll be getting vegetables into B that he wouldn’t normally eat if he was paid to do it.

Chef Lane, guest article, Women Worth Knowing

Tarts

the outside lane

Used by permission, copyright Julie Anne Rhodes.
You will remember the remarkable and charming Julie Anne Rhodes from her Women Worth Knowing profile, or from her blog Jewels from the Roving Stove, or from her photos on the social pages. However, you should remember her–because she is remarkable and charming.

She asked for restaurant spies to share about hidden gems in their eating adventures, and I passed along this bijou about Lavendou, a lovely French bistro in Dallas.
Check out her blog. She shares wonderful recipes, information on preparation and kitchen tips, and dishes up just as much wit as wisdom. I have her on my blogroll. You should, too!

Chef Lane

Chef Lane: Say Cheese! And Bacon.

the outside lane

I have this Alton Brown recipe for baked macaroni and cheese in the oven right now. This went over very well the last few times I made it.

In the past, I have added storebought, pre-cooked, real bacon bits to spice up the dish. Today, while I was boiling macaroni and making the sauce, I was also frying bacon over a medium heat. My bacon finished up just after the macaroni, so I strained out my pasta and set my cooked bacon aside. I poured the bacon grease into the bottom of my casserole dish and bounced some pasta into it, stirred it up good and thought, “There is still flavor in that skillet.” So, I poured my pasta into the casserole through the skillet. I poured the pasta into the skillet and bounced it around to coat it, then poured that into the casserole.

By the time all the pasta was in there, it was shiny with bacon grease. If that doesn’t sound good to you, you’ve never been to Georgia. (Now I’m missing Home.)

Then, I broke up my bacon into confetti sized pieces and stirred that into the pasta before folding in the sauce and cheese as the recipe directs. Remember that I’m only cooking with a few pieces of ware, so I am having to be a little creative with my timing and my use. I had my pasta cooking in my casserole, had my bacon frying in my skillet, and my sauce going in my only saucepan, so I had to do my transfers differently than the recipe calls for doing.

I’m excited for this to come out of the oven.