Saturday Shout-Out: Water Wheel Crackers

As the bringer of hot dinner in my house, I obviously enjoy cooking and baking. But sometimes, I just don't want to do it.

Like when my two boys are completely over scheduled. We actually had a week with each of these activities: drama club, math club, school newspaper, baseball and basketball practices, basketball games for each kid, a math competition and a birthday party. Next week we add a second baseball practice for each boy (Ack!)

Phew. Needless to say, I get a little bit exhausted some nights. Enter the cheese-and-cracker-dinner. We do this pretty often, and sometimes add carrots, cucumbers and humus to the menu. But what really ramps up these quick and easy dinners are the lovely Water Wheel wafers and cheese twists.

The Australian makers of wafers and cheese twists asked me to test out their line of crackers and I have to say: We. Are. Addicted.

The airy and crisp wafers are mild in flavor and very thin, so that you can actually taste whatever you pair them with. The cheese twists (parmesan or cheddar) are a sour dough base with bits of cheese baked in, which is a nice spin on traditional orange cheddar twists. They are delicious with prosciutto wrapped around them or broken up and sprinkled on top of soup.

I also really like the corn wafers with a bowl of Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (above.)

Confession: I hid the crackers away so that my kids would not devour them, but once the crazy in our lives jumped into overdrive, they became a lifesaver, especially during rushed dinners like this one:

I paired Tuscan Style Water Wheel wafers and parmesan twists with a New Year's Eve antipasto platter. All the crackers were gone by midnight!

I took a tray of Original Wafers, cheese and mini salami to a neighborhood gathering and the plate was empty long before the party ended.

And I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing these crisps during our Super Bowl party, too.

Sam, my youngest, likes to fill a plate with any flavor wafer (Sesame & Poppy Seed anyone?) and eat them for a snack. He can finish a box by himself in two days. Luckily we have a Fresh Market in town, so I'm able to restock pretty easily. You can also order the wafers and twists online at Amazon.com or igourmet.com.

If you decide to give Water Wheel wafers or cheese twists a try, let us know how you like them – and how you use them!

Easy Beef Stroganoff

As I mentioned last week, I try to limit my visits to the grocery store to once a week. I inevitably make an extra trip on Friday afternoon for drinkable yogurt, cheddar bunnies and ice cream because emergencies happen, amiright?

A weekly shopping trip requires meal planning, and I totally shop the grocery store circular to determine my weekly menu. Not only is it thrifty, but it also reins in my creative juices. If I could pick any old thing to make, there would simply be too many choices. I mean, we live in the age of Pinterest, people.

Maybe it's just my friendly Fred Meyer, but sirloin steak is always on sale. And beef is expensive, man! So sirloin steak it is. This quick and easy Beef Stroganoff was a total winner and a great way to use the sale-priced sirloin steak. If you have a different cut of steak on sale at your market, give it a whirl and let me know how it goes!

How do you plan your meals every week? Do you stick to the circular?

Let's get cooking!
Erin

P.S. This post has me thinking about grocery stores. To our readers in western New York, Milwaukee, and the South—I can't tell you all how I miss Wegmans, Sendiks, and Publix, respectively. Please think of me next time you go grocery shopping. That is all.

Easy Beef Stroganoff
Gently adapted from MyRecipes.com

1 pound sirloin steak
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper
1 cup beef consomme or beef broth, divided
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sour cream
Cooked egg noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes, for serving
Chopped parsley, for garnish

Cut steak in half lengthwise, then slice into 1/4" thick strips. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high. Add steak and cook until browned on both sides, about 4-5 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside. Reduce heat to medium and add butter to skillet. Once it's melted, stir in onion, mushrooms, and paprika. Cook until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Combine 1/4 cup beef consomme and flour in a small bowl and whisk together until smooth. Add to skillet. Stir in remaining 3/4 cup beef consomme and 1/2 cup water, scraping the bottom of the pan with a spoon to incorporate browned bits into the sauce. Return steak and any accumulated juices to the skillet. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, until sauce has thickened. Turn off the heat and stir in sour cream. (Stirring in sour cream off the heat helps prevent it from curdling.)

Serve over egg noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes. Garnish with parsley.

Pressure Cooker Potato Soup

I'm trying to perfect my mom's soupy potatoes -- that's what she calls this dish. It's a work in progress and a goal I don't think I will ever quite achieve. Some things just taste better when someone else prepares them for you. Like Mom's soup and tuna salad. Like my husband's vodka gimlet.

Anyhow, in this rendition of soupy potatoes, I use the pressure cooker, so I get to enjoy my soup right away. I also added pancetta for a little more flavor. It hit the spot. My husband and our two daughters enjoyed it with the girls asking for it in the next day's lunch -- and that's quite the achievement, let me tell you.

XOXO,
Amy

PS: This isn't the first of Mom's soups I've done in the pressure cooker. Check out my Midwestern Vegetable-Beef Soup.

Pressure Cooker Potato Soup

4 ounces pancetta
2 medium to large onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme (or oregano)
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
5 pounds potatoes (russet, Yukon gold, red), peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes
8 cups vegetable or chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Sautee pancetta, onion, thyme and parsley inside pressure cooker for a couple minutes, until fragrant. Deglaze inside of pressure cooker with some of the broth, scraping pan of crunchy bits of onion and pancetta. Add potatoes and remaining broth. Cook under high pressure for six minutes and do a quick release when time is up.

Note: You could cut the ingredients in half. I like to make a lot so we can eat soup for days and share with our neighbors.

Yellow & French Lentils with Wilted Greens

Now that we're deep into the cold, gray winter months out here in Illinois, I've been trying to make meals that use what's in my pantry, as I did last week with pumpkin and pasta.

This week, lentils are on the menu. I have several bags – French, yellow and red. I thought of Amy's Soul-Soothing Red Lentil Stew. So pretty, hearty and healthy, lentils could be just the ticket for a cozy dinner.

My original meal plans for the week included sautéing some sausage with a bag of greens. Why not add some lentils into the mix, right? I looked around at various online lentil recipes to give me some ideas – and Yellow & French Lentils with Wilted Greens was born. I served this with a side of cajun sausage links to please my boys. If you have any leftovers, the lentils taste great cold, too.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Yellow & French Lentils with Wilted Greens
Inspired by this recipe from The Kitchn.

1/2 cup French (green) lentils
1/2 cup yellow lentils
2 cups chicken broth or chicken stock
4 slices of bacon, chopped
1/2 large onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried, rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
1 13 ounce bag mixed greens (kale, spinach, collard, etc.)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 bunch green onions, chopped

Put lentils and chicken broth into a small pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer and cook lentils for about 25 minutes, or until softened. Once cooked, remove from heat and set aside. Do not drain.

In a large pan or Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium-high heat until just crisp. Drain fat out of the pan, leaving about 1 tablespoon of grease. Add onions, garlic, rosemary, sage and ground pepper. Cook, stirring often, until onions are softened.

Lower heat to medium. Add lentils and any remaining stock into the bacon and onion mixture in the Dutch oven. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Add greens to Dutch oven and cover for 2 minutes. Remove cover and stir, incorporating greens into lentils. Continue to cook and stir until all greens are wilted. Remove from heat, partially cover and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, mustard and balsamic vinegar to make a dressing.

Serve lentils and greens warm, topped with dressing and sliced green onions.

Crustless Quiche with Ham and Smokey Cheddar

Lately I've been trying to limit my trips to the grocery store to once a week. While I love my precious angels, I don't love schlepping them both to the store. So I shop when the husband can watch the kids on Sunday afternoon. I try to use fresh meat and produce at the beginning of the week, and by Friday I'm looking to clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry.

I always have eggs on hand and I had popped some leftover ham in the freezer a few weeks back. Crustless quiche seemed like the perfect end-of-the-week plan. I whisked everything together and popped it into the oven to bake. It was ridiculously easy, so I was dubious that it would be good. But it was. Tasty + easy? You guys know that's how I roll.

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Crustless Quiche with Ham and Smokey Cheddar
Serves: 4-6

8 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper
1 cup diced ham
1 cup shredded smoked cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" pie plate and set aside.

Whisk together eggs, milk, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in ham and cheese. Pour mixture into prepared pie plate, making sure ham and cheese are evenly distributed. Bake for about 30 minutes, until filling is set and doesn't jiggle. Rest 5-10 minutes before serving.

Pasta with Sausage, Sage & Pumpkin

A bit before Thanksgiving, I vaguely remember hearing some news stories about a pumpkin shortage.

I live near a Libby's pumpkin packing plant and short of storming the castle, I stocked up at my local grocery store. I had visions of baking gorgeous loaves of pumpkin bread for everyone on my holiday list. Now that we've had our fill of pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, my pantry still is full of canned pumpkin (10 cans, to be exact)  – and I'm looking for new ways to use it.

Pumpkin is especially good in savory dishes. It goes well with pork, and stands out in Pumpkin and Ricotta Pasta Bake and Pumpkin Black Bean Chili.

After staring at my pumpkin-filled pantry, hoping for a sign from the culinary Gods, I opened the freezer. A few packages of Italian sausage in there. A check of the fridge revealed a carton with a bit of remaining cream and a few bottles of white wine. Yay! So here we go.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Pasta with Sausage, Sage & Pumpkin

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian sausage (use ground or thinly sliced links, or you can remove the meat from the casings)
4 cloves or 4 teaspoons of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons (about 6 sprigs) sage leaves, cut into thin strips
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup heavy cream or half & half
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound penne pasta, cooked al dente
Shredded or shaved parmesan cheese
Additional sage leaves, sliced

*Note: if you want to leave out the wine, replace it with chicken stock.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage and brown. Remove sausage from skillet and let it drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Drain drippings from pan and return pan to heat.

Add 1 tablespoon oil, garlic and onion. Cook until onion is tender.  Add bay leaf, sage and wine to the skillet and cook until the wine is reduced by about half. Scrape up any browned bits in the pan while cooking. Add chicken stock and pumpkin and cook until bubbly.

Add sausage to the sauce, reduce the heat and add the cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Remove bay leaf.

Put pasta back into the pot you cooked it in and pour the pumpkin sauce on top. Gently stir to combine.

Place pasta and sauce into a large serving bowl. Generously stop with parmesan cheese and more sage leaves.

Coq Au Vin Style Oven Roasted Chicken Legs and Vegetables

On New Year's Eve Chez George, we like our final meal of the year to be festive and have a theme. We've done make-your-own pizzas, cheese fondue and Chinese food including homemade crab rangoon.

To ring in 2016, we had a French theme.

Our starter: Brie Cranberry Pizza.

Our main event was this spin on traditional coq au vin (a.k.a. chicken in  wine sauce). I have tried beaucoup recipes for coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon (beef burgundy), for that matter, and have never gotten them right. But I can never get these dishes to cook down into a stew; they always turn out too soupy. That's why I was intrigued by the recipe for brochettes au coq au vin (coq au vin on skewers) found in Rachel Khoo's cookbook, The Little Paris Kitchen. (BTW, this cookbook was among my picks in our 2015 Holiday Gift Guide.)

Coq au vin in shish kebab form. Genius!

Still, on a rainy NYE I didn't want the hubby to have to tend the grill, so I decided to adapt Khoo's recipe for the oven -- making what I call Coq Au Vin Style Oven Roasted Chicken Legs and Vegetables. Magnifique! Thumbs up -- not that they put down their forks -- from my husband, daughters and our neighbor who dropped by to eat with us.

XOXO,
Amy

Coq Au Vin Style Oven Roasted Chicken Legs and Vegetables
Inspired by The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel  Khoo

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 bunch of thyme
3 bay leaves
2 cups red wine
4 chicken leg quarters, bone in and skin on
Salt and pepper, to taste.

4 ounces of pancetta (cubes of smoked bacon)

1 1/2 pounds small new potatoes or petite white potatoes, peel on and cut in half
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut roughly into 2-inch pieces
6 ounces of button onions, peeled and cut in half
4 ounces of button mushrooms
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

First, make the marinade several hours or the night before you plan to serve this dish. Fry the garlic and onion in the butter until golden. Add four sprigs of thyme and bay leaves and cook for another minute and then add the wine. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Leave marinade to cool.

Season chicken legs with salt and pepper and place in large plastic container. Top chicken with pancetta and marinade and then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours and preferably longer or even overnight.

When you are ready to cook, remove chicken -- with some of the pancetta remaining on top -- from container and place in roasting pan. Roast in 425-degree oven for 20 minutes and then reduce heat to 375 degrees and cook or another 20-30 minutes or until juices run clear when chicken is cut at thickest part.

Meanwhile, place all of the vegetables -- except the mushrooms -- on a lightly sprayed baking pan. Sprinkle salt, pepper and olive oil over vegetables and top generously with sprigs of thyme. Place in oven with chicken and remove when done -- should be done around same time as the chicken.

About 20 minutes before serving dinner, place the marinade in a pot on the stove and bring to a boil, then add the mushrooms and simmer until the food in the oven is done.

When plating, spoon mushrooms and wine sauce over the chicken.