Dutch Spice Cookies

The title of this post should tip you off: I still haven't been cooking much lately. That has as much to do with lingering iron-supplement nausea as it does with my insane end-of-semester busyness. I promise you we're eating more than just cookies around here, although if Charlotte had her way, it would be nothing but cookies morning, noon, and night. And so far this family recipe is her favorite cookie. She actually eats the entire thing instead of just nibbling a few bites and then leaving it somewhere for me to find later.

This is a family recipe, which I believe came from my grandma Terlouw (my mom's mom).

Dutch Spice Cookies (makes about four dozen)
1 cup butter, softened (two sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt (more if you're using unsalted butter)
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. each nutmeg, allspice, cloves
Additional sugar and cinnamon for coating

Blend the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go. Add vanilla and mix.

Now, here's where I break the baking rules a bit: I don't sift together my dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding to the wet ingredients. I just dump them in on top of the wet ingredients and mix them around a little bit. And my cookies always turn out okay. So, you can be a slacker like me, and your cookies will still be smaak lekker. (Is that right, dad? I'm forgetting the little Dutch I do know.)

Anyway, dump all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and blend away. If the mixture seems too wet, don't add more flour, just chill it in the fridge for an hour. Once the dough is firm enough to handle, roll into balls (about a tablespoon's worth) and roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes. I like to err on the side of underbaking these, because they're really tasty when they're soft. Remove from pan to cool. Eat, enjoy, repeat.

Beef Stew

Yeah, remember when I thought it would be a great idea to start this blog. Oops.

Don't worry...we've been eating! My nausea isn't quite as bad as it was a few weeks ago, so I'm even managing to eat in the mornings now. But our meals have been pretty uneventful and uninventive. Boring, if you will.

But I did have a success story this week! I made one of my staples, the old stand-by: Beef Stew. I have a basic slow-cooker recipe that I followed for years, but it requires a lot of prep work: browning the meat, then sauteeing the veggies, then making a sauce with broth and flour and herbs. Hey, Slow Cooker Cookbook: I use my slow cooker to CUT BACK on cooking time. Geez. Give me a break.

But it dawned on me that maybe I don't HAVE to listen to my cookbook. So I cut out a couple of the steps. I still browned the stew beef, and then added flour and broth to the pan to make a gravy. But all the veggies (this time I used mushrooms, celery, carrots and parsnips) I just chopped and dumped in the slow cooker, and then mixed the meat and the broth in.

I was fortunate enough to make this recipe on one of the coldest days we've had so far, so walking from the bus stop shivering into a house filled with the smell of delicious stew was an experience akin to attaining enlightment. Served with mashed potatoes, it was the perfect winter meal.

Results:
Me: Love. Parsnips were a nice addition. I ate the rest of the mashed potatoes straight out of the fridge later. Shame.
Jeff: Always a fan of my beef stew.
Charlotte: I was surprised at how much she liked it! She ate a pretty large portion, and wasn't selective about just picking out mushrooms, either. Hooray!

Verdict: Make it again!

Favorites

Sometime last week I began noticing that I was feeling nauseated in the mornings and afternoons. Normally I can't wait to eat breakfast in the morning, but I began just having tea and juice because the thought of food was just too gross. By lunchtime I would be so hungry that I'd eat just about anything, but I felt sick to my stomach after. I was afraid that my pregnancy-related nausea was returning. "Good thing I still have some Zofran left from my first trimester," I mused.

Then I started thinking about how long this had been going on. I could trace it back to the week before...when I had started taking iron supplements at the behest of my doctor. A quick google search revealed that for many people taking iron can indeed cause nausea. As I take my supplement before bed, the feeling for me is usually the worst in the mornings and abates by dinnertime, when I am typically starving and ready to make up for the day's lack of calories.

All this is to say that I haven't been doing much cooking lately. Most of the time I plan and start meals in the late morning, before I head to school, so they'll be ready when I come home in the late afternoon. Making dinner is the last thing I want to do in the mornings these days.

So this has led to some creative mealtime improvisation, as well as to my trying to have a few of Charlotte's favorites always on hand. For the time being, while my nausea is still bad enough to keep me from cooking regularly, I'll post on a few of C's favorite things.

One of her favorite meals also happens to be one of mine, and fortunately is almost ridiculously easy. It's two things: a Distinctively Dole salad and a Bertolli pasta meal. I have to admit to feeling a little guilty about serving two packaged things at one dinner, but I fall victim to convenience. Plus, Charlotte can't get enough of either. Is it weird to have a two-year-old LOVE salad?

Butternut Squash-Carrot Bisque with Oatmeal Walnut Soda Bread

This meal was essentially convenience food--the bisque was a package of chopped veggies and herbs from Hy-Vee that you throw in the slow cooker with chicken broth, then puree and add milk. I added some leftover roasted carrots to make it squash-carrot bisque. And I wanted bread to go with the soup, but didn't have time to run to the store, and didn't have the time to make a yeast bread, so I made this recipe. I didn't have cake flour, so I just used another half-cup of regular flour. I think it turned out fine. I'd use this bread recipe again as a go-to quick bread.

Results:
Me: I've had better squash bisques, but for convenience, this was pretty easy.
Jeff: Liked it, got excited about the bread ("This is like the bread I'd get at the shop in Ireland!")
Charlotte: Proclaimed the soup "mmm...yummy!" but only ate two bites. Ate about the same amount of bread, too.

Verdict: A mixed bag.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole (with a side of humble pie)

I've been really bad about posting here, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll try to post a few new meals here over the weekend to do so. My apologies! If you've been losing sleep wondering what the Tigs are eating, or if we're eating at all, worry not. I'm seven months pregnant, remember? No chance I'm not eating.

So, sometime last week I made Spaghetti Squash Casserole. I got the recipe from a cookbook I've had for years, but it's pretty similar to this one, with the addition of a can of diced tomatoes. It's a very easy recipe, made even easier by the fact that I didn't saute the veggies, just chopped them and mixed them in with the squash. Cheater! I didn't feel like washing another pan, okay? It turned out fine, although the onions were a little crunchier than they would have been had I precooked them.

Results:
Me: Yum. Great especially with the multi-grain baguette I served it with.
Jeff: He's a fan, too.
Charlotte: Ate the mushrooms, panned the rest. I quote: "I don't LIKE spaghetti squash. I think it is yucky."

Verdict:
A mixed bag.

Pumpkin Polenta with Chicken Sausages--with guests!

This is a Rachel Ray recipe from a cookbook I got in a family Christmas exchange. It's lucky I got this cookbook that way, because I never would have purchased it myself due to my vague dislike of R. Ray. I find her a bit abrasive. Even the way her recipes are written is annoying. But I have found some really good, quick recipes in here that I've turned to again and again.

The recipe isn't on her website, but it's pretty simple. You make quick-cooking polenta using chicken stock and milk as the liquids, and then add a can of pumpkin puree and a half-cup of asiago cheese when the polenta thickens up. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. The sausages are the packeged, pre-cooked flavored chicken sausages you can get in the meat section. I made a variety: sweet apple maple, italian with peppers, and sundried tomato basil.

I also served this with a basic romaine salad and some leftover garlic bread.

Results:
Me: I know I like this recipe. Pumpkin in anything=good. I'd make it again.
Jeff: Ditto. Loves the sausages especially.
Charlotte: Not a fan of anything like polenta or mashed potatoes, so she skipped that part. Loved the sausage, and as always is a big fan of salad.
AND THE GUESTS:
Mom Deur: I won a battle getting her to try polenta. She was reluctant, and reserved in her praise, but managed to choke it down. :)
Dad Deur: Liked the Italian-style sausages the best. I don't think he ate much polenta.

Verdict:
Make it again for the Tigs, but probably not for the Deur family.

Pot Roast!

This week, something just felt "off." I was wiping my countertops and felt I just wasn't getting them clean enough, so I used my clorox bleach pen to whiten around the sink area and tidy up a couple of coffee stained spots. I folded and refolded my daughter's tiny underpants so they would all "face the same way." I used a lint roller to remove fuzzies from the back of the couch.

Then, it dawned on me. I just wasn't feeling domestic enough! So, for the first time ever, I made a pot roast. I felt quite housewifely asking the butcher dude at Hy-Vee for "a pot roast, about three pounds please." Then I felt vaguely repulsed when he handed me what seemed like a giant slab of meat wrapped in brown paper. What can I say...I went through a brief vegetarian phase and sometimes enormous cuts of animal are still weird.

But that repulsion quickly went away, because, people, I have a message for you: pot roast is delicious. In fact, I think I may need to take a break from writing this to go downstairs and have a bit of the leftovers (turns out three pounds is a very generous cut for two adults and a toddler, fyi).

I'd link to my pot roast recipe but I sort of cobbled it together from a couple different sources, as I am wont to do. It basically started off as one recipe, from my mom's low-carb slow-cooker cookbook, and then took on attributes of my own crockpot recipe, and then I just started throwing things in the slow cooker. Here's a brief version: dump almost all of a bottle of beer (we had a can of Foster's in the fridge, so I used that) into the bottom of the slowcooker. Add a beef bouillon cube, a package of dry onion soup mix, a slosh of steak sauce, and some black pepper. Stir. Meanwhile, brown the pot roast on all sides in a pan. Don't get all nuts or anything...just make the outside not pink. Then pick the giant slab of meat up (not with your hands or anything--perhaps some tongs) and put it in the slowcooker on top of the beer mixture. Then flip it over so both sides get the sauce. Also, before you turn the heat off under your pan you browned the roast in, throw the remaining couple of ounces of beer in there. Slosh it around and dump that on top of the roast. I believe the french call this "deglacing" or something.

According to both of my recipes, this is it. Turn the slowcooker on high for five hours. But I wanted veggies in there, too, so I chucked in a quartered onion, some roughly chopped (two-inch lengths) celery, baby carrots (as is) and mushrooms (halved). I just randomly threw those things in, tossed on the lid, and then turned on the slowcooker. Then I left for school.

When I got home five hours later, I walked in on Jeff and Charlotte hunkered over the slowcooker like lions over a wildebeest, surreptitiously sneaking bits of mushroom (Charlotte) and meat (Jeff, of course). "Busted!" Jeff said sheepishly. I shooed them out of the kitchen and made mashed potatoes. Then we all feasted.

Results:
Me: Yep, it was good. Next time, I'll get a smaller roast and throw in more mushrooms.
Jeff: I think he felt like a real man after eating this meal.
Charlotte: Also felt like a real man. And boy does this kid love mushrooms. She also ate a few of the carrots and some meat, but declared "mashed potatoes are yucky." Beg pardon? Are you my child?

Verdict: Make it again!

Coconut, Shrimp, and Corn Chowder

I've made this soup (excuse me, chowder) before, but when Charlotte was too young to participate in eating it. I stumbled across my recipe when we moved in, and thought I'd try it again. The recipe comes from Real Simple; in general I like their recipes because they require few ingredients and few steps. Uncomplicated, just like me. Heh.

I made one slight change to the recipe. I had some fresh ginger on hand threatening to go bad, so I chopped off a couple of big chunks (silver dollar sized) and threw them in while the soup was simmering. I fished them out before serving. I think it gave the soup a nice fresh flavor. I didn't puree half the batch before adding the shrimp, but I think I would do that the next time. I might also consider adding a tiny pinch of curry paste to add zip.

Results:

Me: Yum. I love anything with coconut milk and shrimp.
Jeff: Ditto on the coconut milk. Thumbs up.
Charlotte: She ate all her shrimp and asked for more. "Where'd the shrimp go? I need more shrimp!" She also is a huge fan of corn. Her bowl was full of potatoes and a little broth when she was done. The pureeing might help her eat more of the actual soup.

Verdict: Make it again!

What are we eating?

This tangential blog will serve two purposes: 1. To remind me of the things I've cooked that have been "successful," and 2. To answer the question, "So, what's Charlotte eating these days?" I'll try to post once or twice a week, depending on how frequently I make new things (or cook at all, as opposed to throwing a box of mac & cheese on the stove...shhhh, don't tell).