As we often do, Miles and Tobin and I stopped by Hy-Vee after we picked Miles up from school.  Miles is always ready for lunch when he finishes at 11:30, and he’s crazy about the orange chicken at their Chinese station.  I usually go for the salad bar.  Tobin snacks off both our plates.

After we got our food and sat down, Miles and I dug in, and I gave Tobin some rice.  He ate a good amount of that, as well as sharing some of Miles’s milk and his own water (of course; he loves water).

A while later, Tobin started frantically making the more sign in his own consistent but unorthodox ASL.   In his world, that sign doesn’t imply that he wants more of what he already has.  It often just means he wants something.   I offered him more rice:  no.  I offered him some vegetables from my salad:  no.  I offered him milk and water and everything else I could find that seemed reasonable:  no.  He kept signing for more.

Finally, after everybody was feeling pretty frustrated, he puckered up his lips and made a kissing noise.  Then he brought his hand to his mouth and did his approximation of blowing me a kiss.

A kiss.  He wanted a kiss.

I leaned down, brushed the rice of his face, and kissed him about thirty times.  He seemed satisfied after that.

I’ve cooked every day this week, but it’s all been repeats:  BLTs, beef and asparagus stir-fry, and chicken salad.

A lot of people love fall, and I recognize their point.  It’s kind of pleasant when the leaves are crunchy and you can wear sweatshirts and jeans and live la vida loca or whatever.  Still, I am a spring and summer person.  Fall’s charms are false ones.  They’re just the gentle touch of horrid winter yet to come.  Spring gets me excited; fall gets me nervous.

All this is to say that even though fall is a suspicious time, I’m still looking forward a teeny bit to fall and winter cooking.  I would eat dry-brined roast chicken once a week year-round if it didn’t heat up the kitchen so much.  I like crock-pot soups with fresh cornbread and spaghetti and meatballs made with the previous summer’s frozen sauce.  Fall and winter cooking is the consolation prize for the suffering of dark and cold.

This is an America’s Test Kitchen recipe.  I love those guys.  This is the second time I’ve made it.  It’s not too labor-intensive, especially if you skip the frying-the-tostadas part (but they’re good, so I did it).  One thing I did differently was to cook the pork all day in the crockpot.  That significantly reduces the active cooking time.

Ingredients

Tinga

• 2 pounds boneless pork butt, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch pieces (see note)
• 2 medium onions, 1 quartered and 1 chopped fine
• 5 medium garlic cloves, 3 peeled and smashed and 2 minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme (I used a generous shake of dried because the store never has thyme and it failed in my garden this year)
•  kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 of a 14.5-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon ground chipotle powder (I ordered it from Penzey‘s)
• 2 bay leaves

Tostadas

• 3/4cup vegetable oil
• 12(6-inch) corn tortillas (see note)
•   Table salt

Garnishes

•   Queso fresco or feta cheese
•   Fresh cilantro leaves
•   Sour cream
•   Diced avocado
•   Lime wedges

Instructions

• 1. FOR THE TINGA: Place pork, quartered onion, smashed garlic cloves, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 6 cups water in a slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours or so.  When ready to move on, remove pork and discard remaining slow cooker contents except one cup of cooking liquid.  Set reserved cooking liquid aside.  Trim visible fat from pork and shred it into smallish pieces.
• 2. Heat olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add shredded pork, chopped onion, and oregano; cook, stirring often, until pork is well browned and crisp, 7 to 10 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• 3. Stir in tomato sauce, chipotle powder, reserved pork cooking liquid, and bay leaves; simmer until almost all liquid has evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves and season with salt to taste.
• 4. TO FRY TOSTADAS: Heat vegetable oil in 8-inch heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat to 350 degrees. Using fork, poke center of each tortilla 3 or 4 times (to prevent puffing and allow for even cooking). Fry 1 at a time, holding metal potato masher in upright position on top of tortilla to keep it submerged, until crisp and lightly browned, 45 to 60 seconds (no flipping is necessary). Drain on paper towel-lined plate and season with salt to taste. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
• 5. TO SERVE: Spoon small amount of shredded pork onto center of each tostada and serve, passing garnishes separately.

Quiche is another of those meals I can usually make with what’s around.  If I were awesome, I would make my own pie crust, but that kind of negates the point of an easy meal, no?

I buy 4-packs of frozen pie dough blobs.  I think they’re better than the frozen ones that come pre-pressed into the tins, but they’re way easier than making pie crust from scratch (I save that effort for special desserts).

Ingredients:

• 1 single-crust pie dough
• 1/2 onion
• other veggies (I used red bell pepper and zucchini)
• whatever herbs you like (I used oregano since it seemed to be going an Italian direction)
• cheese of your choice, 3 oz or so
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk, cream, half-and-half, or whatever you have, in whatever proportion seems right for the occasion

I also sometimes add bacon or prosciutto or whatever else I have around, but it’s good without meat too.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Roll out pie crust and fit into a 9-inch pie pan (not deep-dish).  Saute vegetables until tender; season with S&P and whatever herbs and spices you like.  Sprinkle veggies more or less evenly over crust.  Cover with cheese.  In a bowl, beat eggs, milk, and some S&P.   Pour over vegetables and cheese.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on how cooked you like your eggs.  Let sit for a few minutes before serving.  You may need to use a pie crust guard to prevent excessive browning around the edges.

I served this with fruit salad.  Green salad would be good too.

Crockpot meals rule.  Also, meals I can assemble with stuff we already have rule. This is a very flexible recipe, obviously.  I like to put potatoes in it, but we didn’t have any potatoes, so there you go.

Ingredients:

• Beef.  You know, a pound or so.  Something with some marbling.  I used some “Papa Meat” we had in the freezer, which is not as illegal as it sounds.
• Onions.  I used two today, chopped up.
• Garlic.  I think I used two big cloves.
• Tomatoes.  Use canned if you don’t have easy access to fresh.  I chopped up a few medium ones.
• Bay leaves.
• Other veggies.  I used half a bag of mixed frozen vegetables.
• Red wine.  I still have most of a box from that weird sangría I made last week or whenever that was.
• A handful of fresh herbs, minced.  Today I used sage, basil, and rosemary.
• S&P and hot sauce.

If anything is frozen, thaw it (in microwave is fine).  Put the beef, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and bay leaves into the crock pot.  Cover with water.  Put it on low and let it sit for half a day.

After half a day is over, remove the beef and trim any fat you can.  Return to pot and let it sit another approximately half day.  About an hour before serving, add thawed frozen vegetables, herbs, and S&P and hot sauce to taste.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

Also, exciting news:  I was cleaning out my pantry today and I found my big bag of bay leaves that I thought was gone forever.  I also found a bunch of spices in the bathtub the other day.

Miles stepped out of the bathroom.

M:  Is it a now?

A:  What?

M:  Is it a now?

A:  Now what?

M:  Is it a now?

A:  What are you talking about?

M:  I only flush now and then.  Is it a now?

A:  YES.  YES IT IS.

This is something I invented.  It’s pretty much a caprese salad on bread, grilled on the panini maker.  This time I put some prosciutto on there because I had it, but you can also use leftover chicken.

The salad was sliced garden tomatoes, roughly chopped basil, some of those cute little fresh mozzarella pearls, a little extra virgin olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar, S&P.  I put the prosciutto on a nice big slices of sourdough bread, topped with the salad, put another piece of bread on top, and grilled them up until they were crispy and the cheese was melted.

The best part was that I didn’t use all the salad in the sandwiches.  I meant to save it for lunch the next day, but what I actually did was eat it while cleaning up the dishes.

We were on a tight schedule last night, so I made a very swift dinner.  I seared one of those marinated pork tenderloins (garlic herb flavor, I think) in a cast-iron pan, then roasted it in a 400F oven until it was 160F inside.  On the side we had couscous with pine nuts, Miles’s all-time favorite, and asparagus that I quick-steamed in the microwave.

Ta-da.

I don’t cook Indian-style food very often.  It intimidates me.  Besides, when I go to the local Indian food buffet, I can try lots of different things without having to cook ten different dishes.  I saw this recipe in the Penzey’s catalog, though, and I realized I had almost all the ingredients.  I decided to give it a try with a few minor changes.

I served it with Jasmine rice.  I was looking in the pantry for my saffron, because I thought I’d make some saffron rice, and I found a jar or something called “Indian Saffron Rice Seasoning Blend” or something.  I used it.

The verdict:  It was really good.  Denny and I each had multiple helpings, and he’ll take leftovers to work tomorrow.  I made extra cashew paste (because how can a person really effectively blend a tablespoon of cashews and a tablespoon of water in a blender?  I went with 1/4 cup of each and froze the rest), so next time it’ll be easier.

Chicken Tikka Masala

• 2 Cups boneless/skinless chicken breast chunks (about 1 lb.)
  
• 1 TB. plain yogurt (I used sour cream because I had it)
  
• 11/2 TB. minced fresh ginger
  
• 11/2 TB. minced fresh garlic
  
• 1 TB. GARAM MASALA or SWEET CURRY POWDER (I used the latter)
  
• 1 TB. TANDOORI SEASONING
  
• 11/2 tsp. GROUND CUMIN
  
• 2 TB. lemon juice (juice of 1/2 lemon)
  
• 1 TB. vegetable oil
  
• 4 tomatoes, diced
  
• 1/2 tsp.  FRESHLY GROUND PEPPER
  
• 4 TB. cream
  
• 1/4 Cup water
  
• 1 TB. cashew nut paste (grind 1 TB. cashews with 1 tsp. water in a blender)
  
• 2 TB. butter
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  

In a medium bowl, combine the chicken, yogurt, GINGER, GARLIC, SWEET CURRY POWDER, TANDOORI SEASONING, CUMIN and lemon juice. Mix to combine. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy pan. Add the chicken and cook, stirring constantly, until the meat is white and almost cooked through, about 4-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and mix well. Add the PEPPER, cream, water and cashew nut paste. Reduce heat to low and cook until the chicken is tender, 5-7 minutes. Stir until the sauce thickens. Add the butter,  salt, and cayenne pepper, and mix well. Garnish with fresh cilantro if desired.

Prep. time: 15 minutes plus marinating time
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2-4

Going out to dinner is supposed to be the easy option, right?  No shopping, no cooking, no cleanup.  But sometimes when there are little kids involved, it’s actually harder than staying at home.  I can only deal with so many restaurants with kids’ menus, you know (certain places not withstanding)?

So, sometimes on the weekends I make a nice dinner, the goal of which is to have a restaurant-like experience (wine, at least two courses) but in the low-stress environment of my 0wn house.  That’s what we did tonight.

I picked up a couple of New York strips at ye olde Hy-Vee and marinated them in a simple paste made of garden garlic and rosemary, kosher salt, pepper, and olive oil.  Denny grilled them to a nice medium-rare, and we topped them with compound butter made with salted butter, parmigiano reggiano, paprika, and Sriracha.  On the side was baguette and some easy frozen vegetables.

We drank what I shall call ghetto sangría*.  I have an actual sangría recipe I love, but for tonight I just couldn’t see myself drinking much red wine.  Denny and I had a lovely date night at the classiest joint in Ames last weekend, and we got sangría from their bar that was unorthodox but good.  Tonight’s beverage was inspired by that.  It was lemonade, peach schnapps, a splash of amaretto, (here comes the ghetto part) one of Miles’s juice boxes, and some boxed red wine that claims Wine Enthusiast wasn’t embarrassed to discuss it.

Miles helped me make creme brulée, which is chilling right now in preparation for sugar toasting.

*I’m wearing an Obama t-shirt right now, plus I’ve had a couple of glasses of it already, so I feel like I can get away with saying that.

Tobin was doing something squirrelly.

A:  Tobin, I need you to behave.

M:  He thinks he’s being hayve.